Sunday, October 6, 2019
Journal Article Critique (Recognizing Heart Failure (ACEIs) )
Journal Critique (Recognizing Heart Failure (ACEIs) ) - Article Example Each stage has relevant information that can be relayed to the patient with the goal in mind of making the patient responsible for the maintenance of his own heart especially in the early stages. Also, the article emphasizes the value of sticking to a medication regimen, consuming a healthy food, as well as exercising as means of preventing heart failure. Heart failure is a disease that afflicts no less than half a million Americans each year according to the article. This makes the disease top the list of diseases that cause mortality. According to the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute heart failure is commonly caused by diabetes, coronary artery disease, hypertension , and diabetes. Nevertheless, the article argues that heart failure can be linked to any of these dysfunction: systolic or diastolic. The aforementioned causes cited by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute are usually diastolic dysfunction. On order to get a complete evaluation of patients suspected with heart failure, they undergo chest X-ray, an electrocardiogram( ECG) and Echo cardiogram. The initial workup for a patient with suspected heart failure includes lab tests, a chest X-ray, an electrocardiogram (ECG), and an echocardiogram. In addition to this, the Mayo Clinic website cited other tests that may prove helpful such as : stress test, coronary cat hetherization ( angiogram ), MRI or cardiac CT. Each test has a corresponding purpose that may reveal a symptom. For example, angiogram helps in determining the presence or even extent of coronary artery disease. The article extensively discussed the stages outlined in the AHA/ACC guidelines. The first stage which is known as Stage A, is a stage that aims to control the condition of the patient by suggesting interventions such as controlling hypertension. Controlling high blood pressure is crucial in preventing heart failure
Saturday, October 5, 2019
Human postural Sway Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words
Human postural Sway - Essay Example In this paper we present the observation where 10 healthy subjects of mean age 25 are examined to find out a relationship between postural sway during quite-stance and perturbation with and without muscle fatigue. We also observe the effect of vision on postural sway on both normal and fatigued conditions. Human control of upright body posture involves inputs from several senses (visual, vestibular, proprioceptive, somatosensory) and their central interactions. Multiple sensory systems of human body are involved in tandem for controlling quite standing. Studies show that there is an indirect and presumably cognitive relationship between visual effects on posture control and their intersensory interactions (BLMLEA. et al, 2006). During quite stance position, center of mass (COM) is stabilized over base of support by using low level muscular movements and body sways around the point of support like an inverted pendulum (Johansson R, Magnusson M, Akesson M. 1988). This led to the hypothesis of inverted pendulum. Any defect, alteration or malfunctioning of the sensory or motor components increases body sway and hence increases the muscle activity to maintain postural equilibrium (Dietz V. 1992). Minor perturbations occurring during normal stance can be counteracted by the regulation of ankle muscles (Schieppati M et al, 1994 and McClenaghan BA et al 1996). Muscle fatigue is a complex phenomenon that has been defined as a reduction in the force-generating capacity of muscles, regardless of the task performed (Bigland-Ritchie B, Woods JJ.1984). Though, how fatigues affect the postural control system is not clear there are several fatigue related mechanisms involved at different levels of the nervous system that could affect the regulation of these small forces. Muscle fatigue causes failure of transmission of neural signals and disables the muscles to respond to the neural currents (Bigland-Ritchie B, Woods JJ.1984). Muscle fatigue also alters the basic functioning of complete nervous system and causes failure of motoneurons excitement. Effects of a muscle fatigue on human postural sway can be studied by inducing momentary fatigue by physical exertion. Studies show a mild difference in effects of a fatigue on sway with and without vision (Lepers R. and Nardone A. et al). To examine the effects of a fatigue on human postural control, in this experiment muscle fatigue is induced in ankle
Friday, October 4, 2019
Democratic Origins and Revolutionary Writers, 1776-1820 Essay Example for Free
Democratic Origins and Revolutionary Writers, 1776-1820 Essay James Fenimore Cooper (Photo courtesy Library of Congress) The hard-fought American Revolution against Britain (1775-1783) was the first modern war of liberation against a colonial power. The triumph of American independence seemed to many at the time a divine sign that America and her people were destined for greatness. Military victory fanned nationalistic hopes for a great new literature. Yet with the exception of outstanding political writing, few works of note appeared during or soon after the Revolution. American books were harshly reviewed in England. Americans were painfully aware of their excessive dependence on English literary models. The search for a native literature became a national obsession. As one American magazine editor wrote, around 1816, Dependence is a state of degradation fraught with disgrace, and to be dependent on a foreign mind for what we can ourselves produce is to add to the crime of indolence the weakness of stupidity. Cultural revolutions, unlike military revolutions, cannot be successfully imposed but must grow from the soil of shared experience. Revolutions are expressions of the heart of the people; they grow gradually out of new sensibilities and wealth of experience. It would take 50 years of accumulated history for America to earn its cultural independence and to produce the first great generation of American writers: Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, and Emily Dickinson. Americas literary independence was slowed by a lingering identification with England, an excessive imitation of English or classical literary models, and difficult economic and political conditions that hampered publishing. Revolutionary writers, despite their genuine patriotism, were of necessity self-conscious, and they could never find roots in their American sensibilities. Colonial writers of the revolutionary generation had been born English, had grown to maturity as English citizens, and had cultivated English modes of thought and English fashions in dress and behavior. Their parents and grandparents were English (or European), as were all their friends. Added to this, American awareness of literary fashion still lagged behind the English, and this time lag intensified American imitation. Fifty years after their fame in England, English neoclassic writers such as Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, Oliver Goldsmith, and Samuel Johnson were still eagerly imitated in America. Moreover, the heady challenges of building a new nation attracted talented and educated people to politics, law, and diplomacy. These pursuits brought honor, glory, and financial security. Writing, on the other hand, did not pay. Early American writers, now separated from England, effectively had no modern publishers, no audience, and no adequate legal protection. Editorial assistance, distribution, and publicity were rudimentary. Until 1825, most American authors paid printers to publish their work. Obviously only the leisured and independently wealthy, like Washington Irving and the New York Knickerbocker group, or the group of Connecticut poets known as the Hartford Wits, could afford to indulge their interest in writing. The exception, Benjamin Franklin, though from a poor family, was a printer by trade and could publish his own work. Charles Brockden Brown was more typical. The author of several interesting Gothic romances, Brown was the first American author to attempt to live from his writing. But his short life ended in poverty. The lack of an audience was another problem. The small cultivated audience in America wanted well-known European authors, partly out of the exaggerated respect with which former colonies regarded their previous rulers. This preference for English works was not entirely unreasonable, considering the inferiority of American output, but it worsened the situation by depriving American authors of an audience. Only journalism offered financial remuneration, but the mass audience wanted light, undemanding verse and short topical essays not long or experimental work. The absence of adequate copyright laws was perhaps the clearest cause of literary stagnation. American printers pirating English best-sellers understandably were unwilling to pay an American author for unknown material. The unauthorized reprinting of foreign books was originally seen as a service to the colonies as well as a source of profit for printers like Franklin, who reprinted works of the classics and great European books to educate the American public. Printers everywhere in America followed his lead. There are notorious examples of pirating. Matthew Carey, an important American publisher, paid a London agent a sort of literary spy to send copies of unbound pages, or even proofs, to him in fast ships that could sail to America in a month. Careys men would sail out to meet the incoming ships in the harbor and speed the pirated booksà into print using typesetters who divided the book into sections and worked in shifts around the clock. Such a pirated English book could be reprinted in a day and placed on the shelves for sale in American bookstores almost as fast as in England. Because imported authorized editions were more expensive and could not compete with pirated ones, the copyright situation damaged foreign authors such as Sir Walter Scott and Charles Dickens, along with American authors. But at least the foreign authors had already been paid by their original publishers and were already well known. Americans such as James Fenimore Cooper not only failed to receive adequate payment, but they had to suffer seeing their works pirated under their noses. Coopers first successful book, The Spy (1821), was pirated by four different printers within a month of its appearance. Ironically, the copyright law of 1790, which allowed pirating, was nationalistic in intent. Drafted by Noah Webster, the great lexicographer who later compiled an American dictionary, the law protected only the work of American authors; it was felt that English writers should look out for themselves. Bad as the law was, none of the early publishers were willing to have it changed because it proved profitable for them. Piracy starved the first generation of revolutionary American writers; not surprisingly, the generation after them produced even less work of merit. The high point of piracy, in 1815, corresponds with the low point of American writing. Nevertheless, the cheap and plentiful supply of pirated foreign books and classics in the first 50 years of the new country did educate Americans, including the first great writers, who began to make their appearance around 1825. THE AMERICAN ENLIGHTENMENT The 18th-century American Enlightenment was a movement marked by an emphasis on rationality rather than tradition, scientific inquiry instead of unquestioning religious dogma, and representative government in place of monarchy. Enlightenment thinkers and writers were devoted to the ideals of justice, liberty, and equality as the natural rights of man. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) Benjamin Franklin, whom the Scottish philosopher David Hume called Americas first great man of letters, embodied the Enlightenment ideal of humane rationality. Practical yet idealistic, hard-working and enormously successful, Franklin recorded his early life in his famous Autobiography. Writer, printer, publisher, scientist, philanthropist, and diplomat, he was the most famous and respected private figure of his time. He was the first great self-made man in America, a poor democrat born in an aristocratic age that his fine example helped to liberalize. Franklin was a second-generation immigrant. His Puritan father, a chandler (candle-maker), came to Boston, Massachusetts, from England in 1683. In many ways Franklins life illustrates the impact of the Enlightenment on a gifted individual. Self-educated but well-read in John Locke, Lord Shaftesbury, Joseph Addison, and other Enlightenment writers, Franklin learned from them to apply reason to his own life and to break with tradition in particular the old-fashioned Puritan tradition when it threatened to smother his ideals. While a youth, Franklin taught himself languages, read widely, and practiced writing for the public. When he moved from Boston to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Franklin already had the kind of education associated with the upper classes. He also had the Puritan capacity for hard, careful work, constant self-scrutiny, and the desire to better himself. These qualities steadily propelled him to wealth, respectability, and honor. Never selfish, Franklin tried to help other ordinary people become successful by sharing his insights and initiating a characteristically American genre the self-help book. Franklins Poor Richards Almanack, begun in 1732 and published for many years, made Franklin prosperous and well-known throughout the colonies. In this annual book of useful encouragement, advice, and factual information, amusing characters such as old Father Abraham and Poor Richard exhort the reader in pithy, memorable sayings. In The Way to Wealth, which originally appeared in the Almanack, Father Abraham, a plain clean old Man, with white Locks, quotes Poor Richard at length. A Word to the Wise is enough, he says. God helps them that help themselves. Early to Bed, and early to rise, makes a Man healthy, wealthy, and wise. Poor Richard is a psychologist (Industry pays Debts, while Despair encreaseth them), and he always counsels hard work (Diligence is the Mother of Good Luck). Do not be lazy, he advises, for One To-day is worth two tomorrow. Sometimes he creates anecdotes to illustrate his points: A little Neglect may breed great Mischief. For want of a Nail the Shoe was lost; for want of a Shoe the Horse was lost; and for want of a Horse the Rider was lost, being overtaken and slain by the Enemy, all for want of Care about a Horse-shoe Nail. Franklin was a genius at compressing a moral point: What maintains one Vice, would bring up two Children. A small leak will sink a great Ship. Fools make Feasts, and wise Men eat them. Franklins Autobiography is, in part, another self-help book. Written to advise his son, it covers only the early years. The most famous section describes his scientific scheme of self- improvement. Franklin lists 13 virtues: temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility. He elaborates on each with a maxim; for example, the temperance maxim is Eat not to Dullness. Drink not to Elevation. A pragmatic scientist, Franklin put the idea of perfectibility to the test, using himself as the experimental subject. To establish good habits, Franklin invented a reusable calendrical record book in which he worked on one virtue each week, recording each lapse with a black spot. His theory prefigures psychological behaviorism, while his systematic method of notation anticipates modern behavior modification. The project of self-improvement blends the Enlightenment belief in perfectibility with the Puritan habit of moral self-scrutiny. Franklin saw early that writing could best advance his ideas, and he therefore deliberately perfected his supple prose style, not as an end in itself but as a tool. Write with the learned. Pronounce with the vulgar, he advised. A scientist, he followed the Royal (scientific) Societys 1667 advice to use a close, naked, natural way of speaking; positive expressions, clear senses, a native easiness, bringing all things as near the mathematical plainness as they can. Despite his prosperity and fame, Franklin never lost his democratic sensibility, and he was an important figure at the 1787 convention at which the U. S. Constitution was drafted. In his later years, he was president of an antislavery association. One of his last efforts was to promote universal public education. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur (1735-1813) Another Enlightenment figure is Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, whose Letters from an American Farmer (1782) gave Europeans a glowing idea of opportunities for peace, wealth, and pride in America. Neither an American nor a farmer, but a French aristocrat who owned a plantation outside New York City before the Revolution, Crevecoeur enthusiastically praised the colonies for their industry, tolerance, and growing prosperity in 12 letters that depict America as an agrarian paradise a vision that would inspire Thomas Jefferson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and many other writers up to the present. Crevecoeur was the earliest European to develop a considered view of America and the new American character. The first to exploit the melting pot image of America, in a famous passage he asks: What then is the American, this new man? He is either a European, or the descendant of a European, hence that strange mixture of blood, which you will find in no other country. I could point out to you a family whose grandfather was an Englishman, whose wife was Dutch, whose son married a French woman, and whose present four sons have now four wives of different nations. Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labors and posterity will one day cause changes in the world. THE POLITICAL PAMPHLET: Thomas Paine (1737-1809) The passion of Revolutionary literature is found in pamphlets, the most popular form of political literature of the day. Over 2,000 pamphlets were published during the Revolution. The pamphlets thrilled patriots and threatened loyalists; they filled the role of drama, as they were often read aloud in public to excite audiences. American soldiers read them aloud in their camps; British Loyalists threw them into public bonfires. Thomas Paines pamphlet Common Sense sold over 100,000 copies in the first three months of its publication. It is still rousing today. The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind, Paine wrote, voicing the idea of American exceptionalism still strong in the United States that in some fundamental sense, since America is a democratic experiment and a country theoretically open to all immigrants, the fate of America foreshadows the fate of humanity at large. Political writings in a democracy had to be clear to appeal to the voters. And to have informed voters, universal education was promoted by many of the founding fathers. One indication of the vigorous, if simple, literary life was the proliferation of newspapers. More newspapers were read in America during the Revolution than anywhere else in the world. Immigration also mandated a simple style. Clarity was vital to a newcomer, for whom English might be a second language. Thomas Jeffersons original draft of the Declaration of Independence is clear and logical, but his committees modifications made it even simpler. The Federalist Papers, written in support of the Constitution, are also lucid, logical arguments, suitable for debate in a democratic nation. NEOCLASSISM: EPIC, MOCK EPIC, AND SATIRE Unfortunately, literary writing was not as simple and direct as political writing. When trying to write poetry, most educated authors stumbled into the pitfall of elegant neoclassicism. The epic, in particular, exercised a fatal attraction. American literary patriots felt sure that the great American Revolution naturally would find expression in the epic a long, dramatic narrative poem in elevated language, celebrating the feats of a legendary hero. Many writers tried but none succeeded. Timothy Dwight (1752-1817), one of the group of writers known as the Hartford Wits, is an example. Dwight, who eventually became the president of Yale University, based his epic, The Conquest of Canaan (1785), on the Biblical story of Joshuas struggle to enter the Promised Land. Dwight cast General Washington, commander of the American army and later the first president of the United States, as Joshua in his allegory and borrowed the couplet form that Alexander Pope used to translate Homer. Dwights epic was as boring as it was ambitious. English critics demolished it; even Dwights friends, such as John Trumbull (1750-1831), remained unenthusiastic. So much thunder and lightning raged in the melodramatic battle scenes that Trumbull proposed that the epic be provided with lightning rods. Not surprisingly, satirical poetry fared much better than serious verse. The mock epic genre encouraged American poets to use their natural voices and did not lure them into a bog of pretentious and predictable patriotic sentiments and faceless conventional poetic epithets out of the Greek poet Homer and the Roman poet Virgil by way of the English poets. In mock epics like John Trumbulls good-humored MFingal (1776-82), stylized emotions and conventional turns of phrase are ammunition for good satire, and the bombastic oratory of the revolution is itself ridiculed. Modeled on the British poet Samuel Butlers Hudibras, the mock epic derides a Tory, MFingal. It is often pithy, as when noting of condemned criminals facing hanging: No man eer felt the halter draw With good opinion of the law. MFingal went into over 30 editions, was reprinted for a half-century, and was appreciated in England as well as America. Satire appealed to Revolutionary audiences partly because it contained social comment and criticism, and political topics and social problems were the main subjects of the day. The first American comedy to be performed, The Contrast (produced 1787) by Royall Tyler (1757-1826), humorously contrasts Colonel Manly, an American officer, with Dimple, who imitates English fashions. Naturally, Dimple is made to look ridiculous. The play introduces the first Yankee character, Jonathan. Another satirical work, the novel Modern Chivalry, published by Hugh Henry Brackenridge in installments from 1792 to 1815, memorably lampoons the excesses of the age. Brackenridge (1748- 1816), a Scottish immigrant raised on the American frontier, based his huge, picaresque novel on Don Quixote; it describes the misadventures of Captain Farrago and his stupid, brutal, yet appealingly human, servant Teague ORegan. POET OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION: Philip Freneau (1752-1832). One poet, Philip Freneau, incorporated the new stirrings of European Romanticism and escaped the imitativeness and vague universality of the Hartford Wits. The key to both his success and his failure was his passionately democratic spirit combined with an inflexible temper. The Hartford Wits, all of them undoubted patriots, reflected the general cultural conservatism of the educated classes. Freneau set himself against this holdover of old Tory attitudes, complaining of the writings of an aristocratic, speculating faction at Hartford, in favor of monarchy and titular distinctions. Although Freneau received a fine education and was as well acquainted with the classics as any Hartford Wit, he embraced liberal and democratic causes. From a Huguenot (radical French Protestant) background, Freneau fought as a militiaman during the Revolutionary War. In 1780, he was captured and imprisoned in two British ships, where he almost died before his family managed to get him released. His poem The British Prison Ship is a bitter condemnation of the cruelties of the British, who wished to stain the world with gore. This piece and other revolutionary works, including Eutaw Springs, American Liberty, A Political Litany, A Midnight Consultation, and George the Thirds Soliloquy, brought him fame as the Poet of the American Revolution. Freneau edited a number of journals during his life, always mindful of the great cause of democracy. When Thomas Jefferson helped him establish the militant, anti-Federalist National Gazette in 1791, Freneau became the first powerful, crusading newspaper editor in America, and the literary predecessor of William Cullen Bryant, William Lloyd Garrison, and H.L. Mencken. As a poet and editor, Freneau adhered to his democratic ideals. His popular poems, published in newspapers for the average reader, regularly celebrated American subjects. The Virtue of Tobacco concerns the indigenous plant, a mainstay of the southern economy, while The Jug of Rum celebrates the alcoholic drink of the West Indies, a crucial commodity of early American trade and a major New World export. Common American characters lived in The Pilot of Hatteras, as well as in poems about quack doctors and bombastic evangelists. Freneau commanded a natural and colloquial style appropriate to a genuine democracy, but he could also rise to refined neoclassic lyricism in often-anthologized works such as The Wild Honeysuckle (1786), which evokes a sweet-smelling native shrub. Not until the American Renaissance that began in the 1820s would American poetry surpass the heights that Freneau had scaled 40 years earlier. Additional groundwork for later literary achievement was laid during the early years. Nationalism inspired publications in many fields, leading to a new appreciation of things American. Noah Webster (1758-1843) devised an American Dictionary, as well as an important reader and speller for the schools. His Spelling Book sold more than 100 million copies over the years. Updated Websters dictionaries are still standard today. The American Geography, by Jedidiah Morse, another landmark reference work, promoted knowledge of the vast and expanding American land itself. Some of the most interesting if nonliterary writings of the period are the journals of frontiersmen and explorers such as Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809) andà Zebulon Pike (1779-1813), who wrote accounts of expeditions across the Louisiana Territory, the vast portion of the North American continent that Thomas Jefferson purchased from Napoleon in 1803. WRITERS OF FICTION. The first important fiction writers widely recognized today, Charles Brockden Brown, Washington Irving, and James Fenimore Cooper, used American subjects, historical perspectives, themes of change, and nostalgic tones. They wrote in many prose genres, initiated new forms, and found new ways to make a living through literature. With them, American literature began to be read and appreciated in the United States and abroad. Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810) Already mentioned as the first professional American writer, Charles Brockden Brown was inspired by the English writers Mrs. Radcliffe and English William Godwin. (Radcliffe was known for her terrifying Gothic novels; a novelist and social reformer, Godwin was the father of Mary Shelley, who wrote Frankenstein and married English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. ) Driven by poverty, Brown hastily penned four haunting novels in two years: Wieland (1798), Arthur Mervyn (1799), Ormond (1799), and Edgar Huntley (1799). In them, he developed the genre of American Gothic. The Gothic novel was a popular genre of the day featuring exotic and wild settings, disturbing psychological depth, and much suspense. Trappings included ruined castles or abbeys, ghosts, mysterious secrets, threatening figures, and solitary maidens who survive by their wits and spiritual strength. At their best, such novels offer tremendous suspense and hints of magic, along with profound explorations of the human soul in extremity. Critics suggest that Browns Gothic sensibility expresses deep anxieties about the inadequate social institutions of the new nation. Brown used distinctively American settings. A man of ideas, he dramatized scientific theories, developed a personal theory of fiction, and championed high literary standards despite personal poverty. Though flawed, his works are darkly powerful. Increasingly, he is seen as the precursor of romantic writers like Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. He expresses subconscious fears that the outwardly optimistic Enlightenment period drove underground. Washington Irving (1789-1859). The youngest of 11 children born to a well-to-do New York merchant family, Washington Irving became a cultural and diplomatic ambassador to Europe, like Benjamin Franklin and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Despite his talent, he probably would not have become a full-time professional writer, given the lack of financial rewards, if a series of fortuitous incidents had not thrust writing as a profession upon him. Through friends, he was able to publish his Sketch Book (1819-1820) simultaneously in England and America, obtaining copyrights and payment in both countries. The Sketch Book of Geoffrye Crayon (Irvings pseudonym) contains his two best remembered stories, Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Sketch aptly describes Irvings delicate, elegant, yet seemingly casual style, and crayon suggests his ability as a colorist or creator of rich, nuanced tones and emotional effects. In the Sketch Book, Irving transforms the Catskill Mountains along the Hudson River north of New York City into a fabulous, magical region. American readers gratefully accepted Irvings imagined history of the Catskills, despite the fact (unknown to them) that he had adapted his stories from a German source. Irving gave America something it badly needed in the brash, materialistic early years: an imaginative way of relating to the new land. No writer was as successful as Irving at humanizing the land, endowing it with a name and a face and a set of legends. The story of Rip Van Winkle, who slept for 20 years, waking to find the colonies had become independent, eventually became folklore. It was adapted for the stage, went into the oral tradition, and was gradually accepted as authentic American legend by generations of Americans. Irving discovered and helped satisfy the raw new nations sense of history. His numerous works may be seen as his devoted attempts to build the new nations soul by recreating history and giving it living, breathing, imaginative life. For subjects, he chose the most dramatic aspects of American history: the discovery of the New World, the first president and national hero, and the westward exploration. His earliest work was a sparkling, satirical History of New York (1809) under the Dutch, ostensibly written by Diedrich Knickerbocker (hence the name of Irvings friends and New York writers of the day, the Knickerbocker School). James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) James Fenimore Cooper, like Irving, evoked a sense of the past and gave it a local habitation and a name. In Cooper, though, one finds the powerful myth of a golden age and the poignance of its loss. While Irving and other American writers before and after him scoured Europe in search of its legends, castles, and great themes, Cooper grasped the essential myth of America: that it was timeless, like the wilderness. American history was a trespass on the eternal; European history in America was a reenactment of the fall in the Garden of Eden. The cyclical realm of nature was glimpsed only in the act of destroying it: The wilderness disappeared in front of American eyes, vanishing before the oncoming pioneers like a mirage. This is Coopers basic tragic vision of the ironic destruction of the wilderness, the new Eden that had attracted the colonists in the first place. Personal experience enabled Cooper to write vividly of the transformation of the wilderness and of other subjects such as the sea and the clash of peoples from different cultures. The son of a Quaker family, he grew up on his fathers remote estate at Otsego Lake (now Cooperstown) in central New York State. Although this area was relatively peaceful during Coopers boyhood, it had once been the scene of an Indian massacre. Young Fenimore Cooper grew up in an almost feudal environment. His father, Judge Cooper, was a landowner and leader. Cooper saw frontiersmen and Indians at Otsego Lake as a boy; in later life, bold white settlers intruded on his land. Natty Bumppo, Coopers renowned literary character, embodies his vision of the frontiersman as a gentleman, a Jeffersonian natural aristocrat. Early in 1823, in The Pioneers, Cooper had begun to discover Bumppo. Natty is the first famous frontiersman in American literature and the literary forerunner of countless cowboy and backwoods heroes. He is the idealized, upright individualist who is better than the society he protects. Poor and isolated, yet pure, he is a touchstone for ethical values and prefigures Herman Melvilles Billy Budd and Mark Twains Huck Finn. Based in part on the real life of American pioneer Daniel Boone who was a Quaker like Cooper Natty Bumppo, an outstanding woodsman like Boone, was a peaceful man adopted by an Indian tribe. Both Boone and the fictional Bumppo loved nature and freedom. They constantly kept moving west to escape the oncoming settlers they had guided into the wilderness, and they became legends in their own lifetimes. Natty is also chaste, high-minded, and deeply spiritual: He is the Christian knight of medieval romances transposed to the virgin forest and rocky soil of America. The unifying thread of the five novels collectively known as the Leather-Stocking Tales is the life of Natty Bumppo. Coopers finest achievement, they constitute a vast prose epic with the North American continent as setting, Indian tribes as characters, and great wars and westward migration as social background. The novels bring to life frontier America from 1740 to 1804. Coopers novels portray the successive waves of the frontier settlement: the original wilderness inhabited by Indians; the arrival of the first whites as scouts, soldiers, traders, and frontiersmen; the coming of the poor, rough settler families; and the final arrival of the middle class, bringing the first professionals the judge, the physician, and the banker. Each incoming wave displaced the earlier: Whites displaced the Indians, who retreated westward; the civilized middle classes who erected schools, churches, and jails displaced the lower-class individualistic frontier folk, who moved further west, in turn displacing the Indians who had preceded them. Cooper evokes the endless, inevitable wave of settlers, seeing not only the gains but the losses. Coopers novels reveal a deep tension between the lone individual and society, nature and culture, spirituality and organized religion. In Cooper, the natural world and the Indian are fundamentally good as is the highly civilized realm associated with his most cultured characters. Intermediate characters are often suspect, especially greedy, poor white settlers who are too uneducated or unrefined to appreciate nature or culture. Like Rudyard Kipling, E. M. Forster, Herman Melville, and other sensitive observers of widely varied cultures interacting with each other, Cooper was a cultural relativist. He understood that no culture had a monopoly on virtue or refinement. Cooper accepted the American condition while Irving did not. Irving addressed the American setting as a European might have by importing and adapting European legends, culture, and history. Cooper took the process a step farther. He created American settings and new, distinctively American characters and themes. He was the first to sound the recurring tragic note in American fiction. WOMEN AND MINORITIES Although the colonial period produced several women writers of note, the revolutionary era did not further the work of women and minorities, despite the many schools, magazines, newspapers, and literary clubs that were springing up. Colonial women such as Anne Bradstreet, Anne Hutchinson, Ann Cotton, and Sarah Kemble Knight exerted considerable social and literary influence in spite of primitive conditions and dangers; of the 18 women who came to America on the ship Mayflower in 1620, only four survived the first year. When every able-bodied person counted and conditions were fluid, innate talent could find expression. But as cultural institutions became formalized in the new republic, women and minorities gradually were excluded from them. Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753-1784) Given the hardships of life in early America, it is ironic that some of the best poetry of the period was written by an exceptional slave woman. The first African-American author of importance in the United States, Phillis Wheatley was born in Africa and brought to Boston, Massachusetts, when she was about seven, where she was purchased by the pious and wealthy tailor John Wheatley to be a companion for his wife. The Wheatleys recognized Philliss remarkable inte.
Thursday, October 3, 2019
Macroeconomic Policies during the Recession of 2008-2009
Macroeconomic Policies during the Recession of 2008-2009 Renyuan Feng An Assessment of Macroeconomic Policies during the Great Recession of 2008-2009 Brief Introduction From 2008-2009, US economy suffered the severe recession from the impact of the global financial crisis. From 1990s, United States has experienced the huge amount of the saving inflows from the other emerging markets (Bernanke, 2009). However, the financial institutions invest these savings with the poor way to develop the sub-prime mortgage and push the real estate price increasing. The sub-prime mortgage loans were provided to the people with poor credit score as the no income, no job and no asset groups. Meanwhile, these bad loans were securitized in the financial market and traded as the financial instruments to provide numerous profits for the financial institutions and Wall Street bankers (Thomas, Hennessey, Holtz-Eakin, 2011). The low interest rate and the increase of housing price had provided new opportunities for these foreign saving inflows. The burst of housing bubble has led the high proportion of defaults on subprime mortgage. With the fall of largest financial institu tion, the whole financial system suffered the damage. Later, this financial crisis has become contagious into the global scale and finally created one of the most serious financial chaoses in the beginning of the new century. During these months, US economy has experienced the severe negative influences as the real GDP fell at a 6% annual rate and the employment positions have been reduced in the large amount every month. The usage of confusing financial instruments as credit-default swaps and collateralized debt obligations in the financial market has been blamed as one of the significant reasons for the crisis (Weisberg, 2010). Meanwhile, the other main causes for this Great Recession could be included as the international global imbalances, the low interest rate for the monetary policy, the lack of regulation for the new financial instruments and conflicts of interest in the financial rating agencies (Bernanke, 2009). Fiscal Policies in Action To deal with this economic recession, US government has passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009. The act aims to develop more new employment and maintain current ones, to stimulate the economy and invest the economic growth and to improve the transparency of government spending. At the same time, the government would provide around $787 billion financial support for the tax cuts, funding for unemployment benefits and funding for grants and loans (Recovery.gov, 2009). The government requires the usages of Recovery funds need to be reported every year to maintain its transparency. The government would also provide financial support to the local school districts. All these actions would help the countryââ¬â¢s economy to leave the negative influence from financial crisis. However, the strategies which focuses on the government spending and taxes cut are still be discussed by the economic scholars because the effect of them are hard to be observed and examined(Wilson, 2012). Monetary Policies in Action One of the most significant monetary policies is that the Federal Reserve to support the economy is that usage of quantitative easing. It is the approach that the central bank uses its printing machines to make more notes to buy the assets (Reddy, 2010). This way could effectively decline the notesââ¬â¢ yield and the interest rates of the debt market. This strategy could help the homeowners to refinance their loans because the borrowing costs have been reduced. The investors also are guided into the share markets and bond markets by the market to increase the value of these securities (Reddy, 2010). It could help the US exporters because it weakens the US dollar. The whole process could push the asset prices and inflation expectations, reduce the exchange rate and real interest rates. From 2008 to 2010, the Federal Reserve has bought about $1.7 trillion of Treasury and asset-backed securities to push the economy away from the recession. The economists have predicted that this acti on could reduce 0.5% of the long term Treasury yields and also the rates in the private credit markets. It also helps the asset market, especially the real estate market to increase the prices. This activity could have the possibility to build up another round of the financial bubble because of the higher yields in riskier assets. The quantitative easing could effectively reduce the value of the US dollar and start the currency war. However, it increases the risks of pushing up the prices of commodities and increasing the inflations. The effects and risks of this policy are still the controversial topics. Have the Fiscal Policies Worked? The Fiscal Policy as ARRA actually helps the economy recovery for months. With the implementation of this act, the economy performance was significantly influenced. The real GDP showed the stable growth from the autumn of 2009. The private payroll employment also grew in about 2.2 million from 2010 to 2011(Council of Economic Advisers, 2011). Some measures have the fiscal stimulus has the effect on the increasing level of GDP from 2011. The strong growth of GDP has begun from the third quarter of 2009 and remained the good trend for the economy in the following months. The result is similar with other results from different analysts. Until 2011, the estimation from CEA showed the employment has been increased between 2.2 to 4.2 million (Council of Economic Advisers, 2011). In 2008 and 2009, the employment market has suffered the serious decline because of the impact from the recession. The fiscal policy of ARRA has raised the concerns of the Federal Government into the job market. Fr om the first quarter of 2011, the payroll employment has kept the steady increase in the following months. This result was the significant increase to help more people to work and increase their income. The Federal government has effectively cut its spending and tax in the amount of $697 billion which has followed the estimation of the act. The huge amount of the tax cuts would still continue in the next year plans. The individual tax cuts and the state fiscal relief which occupied the large proportion in the government spending have been paid more attention to deal with. The public investment spending on infrastructure and clean energy have been increased from only $7 billion in 2009 to $182 billion in 2011. It is because this act aims to develop the long-term strategies for the economy. The demands of improving infrastructure and clean energy could effectively increase the competitiveness for the countryââ¬â¢s future economic development. These results have been compared with t he other results from different models (Council of Economic Advisers, 2011). There were no significant differences among them. Additionally, the study from Moodyââ¬â¢s Analytics model also supported that the current fiscal policies have contributed a lot in to the increase of GDP, jobs and inflation (Blinder Zandi, 2010). After examining the results in different scenario, the study showed that the financial stimulus played an important role in the economic performance. Have the Monetary Policies Worked? The Monetary Policy actually failed to stimulate the economy. First of all, after many rounds of quantitative easing activities, the economy still remains weak. The national economy is in the low-growth environment with the poor GDP performance. The GDP in 2010 was just 2.9% which was the result with both contributions from fiscal policies and monetary policies. Meanwhile, the performance in employment market was also bad with the high unemployment rate of 9.2%. The financial support with more than $2.1 million in the job market actually worked nothing in theses months. All these bad performance have added more pressure to the Federal Reserve. Even though the value of US dollar has been decreased in the global market, the export market could not contribute sufficiently to support the economy. US government was also blamed to control its exchange rate in the global exchange market. On the other hand, the monetary policy has stimulated the creation of the new asset bubble. The impact f or the huge amount of notes in the financial system has shown in the economic performance. The inflation faced the huge challenge in the increasing prices of commodities. The SP has increased twice than last year at 8%. Residents have to face the increase in the commodity. However, the government believed this inflation was still in control and with few risks. The IPO has become the next bubble in the financial market which was the result of commodity boom and asset bubble (Groth Randazzo, 2011). This monetary policy has driven the US Federal Government into one wired situation with the mix of stagnant wages, high unemployment, high inflation and the asset bubble. The government believed that there were no threats from the inflation and asset bubbles. However, the capacity for the government to identify the potential risks and the effect of the current policy were still doubted by the economists. The government policy influenced the indicators for government to adjust its policies has become one of the paradox in the decision making process. All these results could show the failure of quantitative easing policy. Conclusion Currently, US Federal Government has implemented several fiscal and monetary policies to help the economy recover from the chaos of global financial crisis. With the combination of government spending cuts, tax cuts and quantitative easing, the US economy has shown increasing trend. With the comparison from different studies, the fiscal policies have successfully improved the performance of the economy. The government should continue the sustainability of economic development and maintain the concentration into the employment market. On the other hand, the monetary policy as quantitative easing did not show the significant effect on the economy. The increasing inflation and the potential new asset bubbles have brought more challenges to the Federal Government. In this aspect, the government must pay more attention into these two areas to avoid increasing likelihood for the other crisis. The government must adjust both monetary and fiscal policies to achieve the goal. References Bernanke, B, S. (2009). Four Questions about the Financial Crisis. Retrieved from http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/bernanke20090414a.html Blinder,A, S., Zandi, M. (2010). How the Great Recession Was Brought to an End. Retrieved from http://www.princeton.edu/blinder/End-of-Great-Recession.pdf Council of Economic Advisers. (2011). The Economic Impact of The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/cea_7th_arra_report.pdf Groth, J., Randazzo, A. (2011). The Failure of Quantitative Easing. Retrieved from http://reason.com/archives/2011/07/15/the-failure-of-quantitative-eaRecovery.gov. (2009). The Recovery Act. Retrieved from http://www.recovery.gov/About/Pages/The_Act.aspx Reddy, S. (2010). How It Works; When It Doesnââ¬â¢t Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704506404575592722702012904.html Thomas, B., Hennessey,K., Holtz-Eakin, D. (2011). What Caused the Financial Crisis? Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704698004576104500524998280.html Weisberg, J. (2010). What Caused the Economic Crisis. Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_big_idea/2010/01/what_caused_the_economic_crisis.html Wilson, D, J. (2012). Government Spending: An Economic Boost? Retrieved from http://www.frbsf.org/publications/economics/letter/2012/el2012-04.html
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Buddhism - Every Moment We Live is an Opportunity (for understanding) :: Buddhism
Every Moment We Live is an Opportunity (for understanding) Something that interests us all is ourselves - because we are the subject and main focus of our lives. No matter what you think of yourself, there is a natural interest because you have to live with yourself for a lifetime. The self view is therefore something that can give us a lot of misery if we see ourselves in the wrong way. Even under the best of circumstances, if we don't see ourselves in the right way we still end up creating suffering in our minds. The Buddha was trying to point out that the way to solve the problem isn't through trying to make everything right and pleasant on the external dimension, but to develop the right understanding, the right attitude towards ourselves, and to overall just do what we can. Living in the US at this time, we expect comfort and all kinds of privileges and material comforts. This makes life more pleasant in many ways, but when our every need is provided for and life is too comfortable, something in us just doesn't develop. Sometimes it is the struggle through hardship that develops and matures us as human beings. But when we give up or surrender to restriction and to restraint through wisdom, we find liberation. Life is the experience of restriction and restraint, being born in our own skin and having to live under the laws of nature. Mentally we can fly to the sky, but physically we are bound to limitations that get more and more restrictive the older we get. This isnââ¬â¢t seen as suffering by us because thatââ¬â¢s just the way things are. The sense of oneself is something that we are aware of when we are children; when weââ¬â¢re born there is no sense of a self as being anything. As we grow up we learn what we are supposed to be, if we are good or bad, if we are pretty or ugly, if we are smart or stupid. So we develop a sense of ourselves. Even when we get older, sometimes we still have very adolescent attitudes or childish emotional reactions to life that we have been unable to resolve except by suppressing or ignoring them. There is one way of talking about the self that makes it sound very doctrinal. It seemed to me that Buddhists can sometimes say that there is no self, as if it was a proclamation that they have to believe in; as if there were some higher being saying "THERE IS NO SELF BOYS AND
Edward James Hughes :: essays research papers fc
Edward James Hughes Edward James Hughes is one of the most outstanding living British poets. In 1984 he was awarded the title of the nation's Poet Laureate. He came into prominence in the late fifties and early sixties, having earned a reputation of a prolific, original and skilful poet, which he maintained to the present day. Ted Hughes was born in 1930 in Yorkshire into a family of a carpenter. After graduating from Grammar School he went up to Cambridge to study English, but later changed to Archaeology and Anthropology. At Cambridge he met Sylvia Plath, whom he married in 1956. His first collection of poems Hawk in the Rain was published in 1957. The same year he made his first records of reading of some Yeats's poems and one of his own for BBC Third Programme. Shortly afterwards, the couple went to live to America and stayed there until 1959. His next collection of poems Lupercal (1960) was followed by two books for children Meet My Folks (1961) and Earth Owl (1963). Selected Poems, with Thom Gunn (a poet whose work is frequently associated with Hughes's as marking a new turn in English verse), was published in 1962. Then Hughes stopped writing almost completely for nearly three years following Sylvia Plath's death in 1963 (the couple had separated earlier), but thereafter he published prolifically, often in collaboration with photographers and illustrators. The volumes of poetry that succeeded Selected Poems include Wodwo (1967), Crow (1970), Season Songs (1974), Gaudete (1977), Cave Birds (1978), Remains of Elmet (1979) and Moortown (1979). At first the recognition came from overseas, as his Hawk in the Rain (1957) was selected New York's Poetry Book Society's Autumn Choice and later the poet was awarded Nathaniel Hawthorn's Prize for Lupercal (1960). Soon he became well-known and admired in Britain. On 19 December 1984 Ted Hughes became Poet Laureate, in succession to the late John Betjeman. Hughes has written a great deal for the theatre, both for adults and for children. He has also published many essays on his favourite poets and edited selections from the work of Keith Douglas and Emily Dickinson (1968). Since 1965 he has been a co-editor of the magazine Modern Poetry in Translation in London. He is still an active critic and poet, his new poems appearing almost weekly (9:17) Judging from bibliography, Ted Hughes has received a lot of attention from scholars and literary critics both in the USA and Britain. However, most of these works are not available in Lithuania. Hence my overview of Hughes' criticism might not be full enough.
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Literary criticism â⬠feminism
From the very point of creation, God made no difference between man and woman ââ¬â both of them were humans, created in His own image, who had to reflect the beauty of heavens on the earth and share their love with the Creator and each other. Both Adam and Eve had to work in the Garden of Eden and take care of it.Disregarding the fact that Adam was created first, Eve was made as a helper, suitable for him, as a conscious and responsible personality. In the second chapter of the book of Genesis, we read that God gave all commands to Adam only, so he was responsible to retell them to Eve that she could fully understand the will of God and fulfill the commandments properly. She was made for Adam to help him, and apart from all other creatures, was called ââ¬Å"flesh of my flesh and bone of my bonesâ⬠(Gen. 2:23); therefore, they both belonged to each other and supplemented each other. Keeping their individuality, Adam and Eve, at the same time, formed a new unity, and this com munity was so self-valuable, that for its sake ââ¬Å"shall a man leave his father and his motherâ⬠(Gen. 2:24).On the other hand, we can see the Godââ¬â¢s order in the family: God ââ¬â man ââ¬â woman. As a leader in the family, Adam, at the same time, was subordinate to God, and both man and woman were subjected to the sovereign power of Almighty God. And only after their fall, the Lord God made a clear distinction between man and woman: ââ¬Å"thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over theeâ⬠(Gen.3:16b). This leading role of man is proven by the fact that Eve had fallen into temptation first, consequently breaking the Godââ¬â¢s order on the earth. Yet, man must take the main responsibility. But if the core predestination of man isââ¬Å"Literary Criticism ââ¬â Feminismâ⬠work, woman is predetermined to bare children, be a mother, which is bound to pain and sufferings. Being in subordination, which was based on love, the fall of man has shifted it to the dominance of man over woman. But one should remember that it was not a new covenant of God, but rather a direct result of the fall.Since considering first of all the interests of man, who was permitted to have several wives, in the marriage husband had more freedom, comparing to wife. For example, one of the Ten Commandments claims that ââ¬Å"thou shalt not covet thy neighbourââ¬â¢s wifeâ⬠(Ex. 20:17), for this kind of adultery was interpreted as criminal offence on the property of another man (wife is mentioned in this text between such things as house, ox, servant). Only in Deuteronomy the same text gives wife a separate place in the list of manââ¬â¢s belongings. The consequences for the adultery also differed depending on the social status of woman:death to man found with a married woman;trespass offering for maidservant;marriage or money penalty for a maid.ââ¬Å"Literary Criticism ââ¬â Feminismâ⬠Such strict regulations were called to p revent divorces; yet the adultery was widespread and was mostly noted in Proverbs. The offering of jealousy (offering of memorial) testified about the male privileges: man could demand this offering if he had the slightest, even groundless, suspicion as to his wifeââ¬â¢s behavior (water could either cause the curse or not). Men were not subjected to this test.Divorce was also a sole prerogative of man. According to Deuteronomy 24:1, he had the right to divorce with his wife, if ââ¬Å"he hath found some uncleanness in herâ⬠. This regulation assumes a number of interpretations: if in the beginning it was enabled only in cases of wifeââ¬â¢s bad behavior, then, in the course of time, the bill of divorcement was given to man if his wife caused the slightest displeasure.For her whole life, woman was dependant: first from father, later ââ¬â from husband, and, finally, ââ¬â from son, with the exception of widows, whose children were under age. This position primarily gua ranteed her the sense of security. Disregarding the savage customs (Lot, who was eager to give his two daughters to sodomites ââ¬â Gen. 19:8, Levite, who gave his concubine to the men of the city ââ¬â Judges 19:24-26) that were caused by the fall, women in Israel had deserving and full life, they were loved and respected by their men (1-Sam. 1:5,8) and children (Ps. 35:14) and were honored with public acknowledgement and praise (Proverbs 5:18, 12:4, 18:22; Eccl. 9:9).In Israel, woman held better position, comparing to other Orient nations. Women and maids of the Old Testament could freely and unconstrainedly take part in social affairs and amenities. Sara, though she called Abram as ââ¬Å"masterâ⬠, nevertheless, had persuaded him to take a concubine (Gen. 16:1-4). Rebecca had not veiled herself until she met Isaac (Gen. 24:64). Jacob greeted Rachel with a kiss before the shepherds (Gen. 29:11). Women participated in public celebrations, the songs of Miriam, Deborah, an d Hannah (Ex. 15:20, 21;ââ¬Å"Literary Criticism ââ¬â Feminismâ⬠Judges 5 chapter, 1-Samuel 2:1-10) prove the highly developed intellectual faculties. Israeli women of the Old Testament also held official positions, such as the prophetesses Miriam, Huldah and Noadiah, and Deborah, the prophetess, who judged Israel.As a wife, mother and mistress, women are depicted in the most attractable manner. Heathenism cannot show the portrait of the woman that is described in Proverbs, chapter 31. Israel was the first one, who was taught by God to look at motherââ¬â¢s heart, as the likeness of Godââ¬â¢s heart: ââ¬Å"can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget theeâ⬠(Is. 49:15). The Law of Israel had lifted woman from that humbled state she was in heathenism. Yet, along with respect and honor, Bible gives us plain call to beware of foolish (Prov. 14:1), brawling, angry (Prov. 2 1:9, 19) and fair women without discretion (Prov. 11:22).First of all, woman was called to carry out duties of mother and mistress of the house. In these issues, man totally relied on her. In the house, woman could work and make decisions independently; she could manage her servants, who could belong directly to her (Gen. 16:1, 6; 29:24, 1-Sam. 25:42). Her primary responsibility was to raise children, at that motherââ¬â¢s covenant was equal to fatherââ¬â¢s admonitions (Prov. 1:8, 6:20). Womenââ¬â¢s wisdom was highly valued and honored (Prov. 14:1, 31:26). Returning to Bethlehem, Naomi had the right to own the property of her husband (Ruth 4:3, 9), just as daughters had a part in fatherââ¬â¢s inheritance (Numb. 27:1-11), and Shunammite, the widow, was restored her house and field (2 Kings 8:1-6).à In contrast to men, women were not obliged to worship in the tabernacle regularly (Ex. 23:17), however, they brought the instructed sacrifices personally; they participated in celebrations and took portions of offerings. Women from priestsââ¬â¢ families could eat offerings of the holy things; women and girls were praising the Lord with their dances and songs (Ex.15:20. Moreover, God gives especial revelations to women: the Lord has revealed the future of her sons to Rebecca ââ¬â ââ¬Å"two nations are in thy womb â⬠¦ and the elder shall serve the youngerâ⬠(Gen. 25:22, 23); Manoahââ¬â¢s wife was the first to receive the news about a son ââ¬â ââ¬Å"and the angel of the Lord appeared unto the womanâ⬠(Judges 13:3); along with prophets, women were used by God to reveal His will to Israel, Miriam was the first mentioned prophetess, and ââ¬Å"Deborah, a prophetess, she judged Israelâ⬠(Judges 4:4).So, analyzing all the texts and the mentioned above, we see that there is no single opinion, regulation and voice in Bible verses, regarding to women. Yet, one text gives us clear explanation to this issue: ââ¬Å"In those days the re was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyesâ⬠(Judges 21: 25). From human side, we had seen the difference in male attitudes towards women: in some cases that were regarded as property, in others, as humans equal or with the same social rights. Sometimes, they were treated like a thing, but, in contrast, womenââ¬â¢s wisdom, beauty, love and meekness are considered as the greatest gifts from God to men.Anyway, in all these texts, it is obvious that ââ¬Å"My thoughts are not your thoughts, nether are your ways My ways, saith the Lordâ⬠(Is. 55:8). Due to the fall, thoughts and ways of men were perverted and devil is still making everything possible to make them wickeder; therefore, sinless relations between man and woman were totally changed, but God still looks at them the same way ââ¬â the way they should be. Angels, sent to women first, prophetess, chosen to tell the will of God, offerings, brought by women ââ¬â prove that God can use them, just like men, and sometimes, women were holding the same positions, even not taking into account that God is looking at Israel, as to His children, disregarding the gender, as the whole community of children of God. Therefore, the sole contrast between menââ¬â¢s and Godââ¬â¢s attitude towards women lies in the notion that the fall of man brought the difference in the world and humanââ¬â¢s perception of womanââ¬â¢s role in the society.Works Cited:Holy Bible, King James Version. Plume, 1974.
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