Ironic Symbolism in The Lottery Essay Example

Ironic Symbolism in The Lottery Paper Throughout the story of The Lottery, symbolisms are apparent. Shirley Jackson sets the scene of the story as bright and magnificently beautiful in the beginning, but as the story continues that scene is destroyed and replaced by what some would consider quite disturbing. The Lottery takes the road less traveled in route to its disturbing nature. Symbolisms provided by Shirley Jackson provide her audience with the knowledge to make sense of the ironic chaos abound. Three symbolisms stand prevalent above all other in, The Lottery; the three-legged stool, the black box, and the lottery itself. The three-legged stool that is mentioned in Shirley’s story happens to display important symbolism for her story. The three legs of the stool seemingly represent the Holy Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirt). As a representation of life, forgiveness, and hope the stool (Holy Trinity) is used to support the black box when a random drawing was in process. The Stool’s employment of supporting the black box in The Lottery represents the manipulative involvement of people in religion to support collective violence. There also lies irony in the symbolism. It is ironic that the stool represents the Holy Trinity and yet it supports the black box which symbolizes death, evil, fear, and mystery. The placement of the stool as the centerpiece of the square room highlights the mystery of the box and also the symbolism of the three-legged stool. We will write a custom essay sample on Ironic Symbolism in The Lottery specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Ironic Symbolism in The Lottery specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Ironic Symbolism in The Lottery specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The black box that sets atop the three-legged stool has two major symbolic qualities being its shape (box) and its color (black). Black, the color of the box represents death, evil, fear, and mystery. The random drawing from the black box constructs fear and mystery in the people anticipating the drawing. Evil soon ensues to turn people who once had high morals into bigots. And the random drawing selection process is capped off by death whom presents itself through a thorough stoning of the â€Å"lu

Religious Pluralism Essay Example

Religious Pluralism Essay Example Religious Pluralism Essay Religious Pluralism Essay Essay Topic: Religion A major feature of religious geography is no single religion dominates the world. Authorities from many faiths have historically said theirs is the best way and only way but in reality new religions and new versions of older religions continue to spring up and then divide, subdivide, and provoke reform movements. Christianity claims the most members of any global religion, but Christianity is not a monolithic faith. There are thousands of forms of Christianity being professed. The migration, missionary activities and refugee movements, religions have shifted out of away from their country of origin. It is no longer easy to show a world map and say this country is assigned to a particular religion. In Russia there are not only Russian Orthodox Christians but also they have Muslims, Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, shamanists and members of new religions. In the United States there are now a sizeable amount of Russian Orthodox congregations. Buddhism arose in India but is now most pervasive in East Asia and popular in France, England, and the United States. Islam arose in what is now Saudi Arabia, but there are more Muslims in Indonesia than in any other country. There are also large Muslims populations in Central Asia and growing Muslim population in the United States. As religions spread geographically, one common response has been the attempt to deny the validity of other religions. In many countries there is tension between the religion that has been most closely linked with national history and identity and other religions that are practiced or have been introduced into the country. Protestant congregations are rushing to offer Bibles to the religious to citizens of formerly atheistic communist countries, with the idea of introducing Christianity to the people. Orthodox Christianity established in Russia more than thousand years ago managed to continue to exist despite communist rule, sometimes by collaboration with the oppressive authorities and sometimes by devotion in the midst of hardship, even though the Church structures were limited and controlled by the State. In some previously communist countries, old animosities between people of different ethnic backgrounds resurfaced with great violence once totalitarian regimes toppled. These intense ethnic and political struggles often put people of different faiths against each other, as in former Yugoslavia. Where the once was a seemingly peaceful society, horrifying atrocities arose among largely Orthodox Christian Serbs, Roman Catholic Croats and the Muslims living mainly in Bosnia and Hercegovina . The twentieth-century rush for materialism and secular values also fanned an increase in fundamentalism. Reactionaries do not want their values and life patterns to be spoiled by contemporary secular culture, which they thought to be crude and sacrilegious. They may try to withdraw socially from secular society even while surrounded by it. Or they may actively try to change the culture, using political power to shape social laws or lobbying for banning of textbooks that they feel do not include their religious point of view. Fundamentalism may be based on religious motive but it has been known to be politicized and turned into something of violent means. The devastating attacks by terrorists on United States targets in 2001 brought instant polarization along religious and ethnic lines. Hundreds of hate crimes were committed in the United States against Muslims and foreign immigrants who were mistaken for Muslims and were suddenly seen as outsiders as some Americans responded with fear and rage. Interfaith Movement Boundaries between religions are hardening in many areas, there has been a rapid acceleration of interfaith dialogue. Its the willingness of people of all religions to meet, explore their differences, and appreciate and find enrichment in each others ways to the divine. This has historically has been a difficult approach but many religions have made exclusive claims to being the best or only way. Religions are quite different in their external practices and culturally influenced behaviors. There are doctrine differences on basic issues, such as the cause of and remedy of evil and suffering in the world, or the question of whether the divine is singular, plural or nontheistic. Some religions claim to be superior which are difficult to reconcile with other religions claims. For instance the Quran acknowledges the validity of earlier prophets as messengers from God, refers to Prophet Muhammad as the Seal of the Prophets (Sura 33:40). This description has been interpreted to mean that prophecy was completed with the Prophet Muhammad. If he is believed to be the last prophet, no spiritual figures after he passed away in c. 632-including the Sikh Gurus and Bahaullah of the Bahais- could be considered prophets, though they might be viewed as teachers. Christians read in John 14:6 that Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, the life; no on comes to the Father but by me. Some Christian scholars believe that this is inappropriate to take this line out of its context and to interpret this to mean that they ways of Hindus and Buddhists are invalid. Relationships with other faiths were not the question being answered. Many people of broad vision have noted that this same principle exists in all other traditions. Every religion teaches importance of setting ones own selfish interest aside, loving others, harkening to the divine, and exercising control over the mind. Responses to Other Faiths There are several ways in which people of other faiths may relate to each other. Diana Eck, a Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies at Harvard Divinity School and the Chair of the World Council of Churches committee on interfaith dialogue, observes that there are three responses to contact between religions. One is Exclusivism: Ours is the only true way. Eck and others have noted that this point of view has some value, for deep personal commitment to ones faith is a foundation of religious life and also the first essential step in interfaith dialogue. Eck sees the second response to interfaith contact as inclusivism. This may take the form of trying to create a single world religion, such as Bahai. It may appear as the belief that our religion is spacious enough to encompass all the others, that it is supercedes before all previous religions, as Islam said it was the culmination of all monotheistic traditions. The inclusivists do not see other ways as a threat and they fell all diversity is included in a single world view-their own. The third way is Eck discerns pluralism: to hold ones own faith and at the same time ask people of other faiths about their path, about how they want to be understood. The way Eck explains this is that the only point from which true dialogue can take place. It is a place which cooperation, true relationship can happen. Uniformity and agreement are not the goal but the goal is to collaborate, to combine our differing strengths for the common good. To make pluralistic dialogue more effective people must have openness to the possibility of discovering sacred truth in other religions. Interfaith Initiatives People of all faiths have started coming together to put their hearts together. Ecumenical conferences involved pairs of related religions that were trying to agree to disagree, such as Judaism and Christianity. Now larger numbers of interfaith organizations and interfaith meetings draw people from all religions in a spirit of mutual appreciation. In 1986 The Pope John Paul II invited one hundred and sixty representatives of all religions to Assisi in honor of the humble St. Francis, to pray together for world peace. In 1990 a great assembly of spiritual leaders of all faiths with scientists and parliamentarians took place in what until a few years ago would have been the most unlikely place in the world for such a gathering-Moscow, capital of the previous atheist Soviet Union. The final speaker at that event was Mikhail Gorbachev, who called for a merging of scientific and spiritual values in the effort to save the planet. There has been meetings of special interfaith throughout 1993 that were held around the world to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the 1893 Parliament of the Worlds Religions in Chicago.

A Review Of Employee Management Systems Information Technology Essay

A Review Of Employee Management Systems Information Technology Essay Nowadays, Employee Management System is being adopted by many sectors in the real world whether it is small or large scale. But currently most of the fast food restaurant does not have this system implement to the website. Thus, the author decided to develop a web-based employee management system for fast food restaurant. The system will be built consists of human resource management function such as leave request, employee report and job application, this function will be integrated to this web-based system. The aim of this project is to design and develop a web based Employee Management System using PHP and MySQL. In this project, a web-based Employee Management System will be developed for Carl’s Fast Food restaurant to manage employee job information, working schedule, leave request, employee report on achievement, training and evaluations. In addition the system will also manage job application information that apply job online by visitor. In this web-based system basica lly it has 4 main users that are administrator, manager, employee and visitor. For employee, manager and administrator they can login to the system through online to perform their different task respectively that available for them, for visitor they can apply job. Where manager can do managerial work such as view/modify/create employee report, in addition it also can approve/deny/view leave request, accept/decline/view interview for job candidate, search for employee information and modify/view employee schedule. Manager can upload a doc file to the administrator, if there is any change about employee and manager information. In addition manager can search for specific employee information, view and print information. In employee, it can request leave and check for leave request whether their leave is approve or deny. Employee also can view working schedule that has been arrange by the manager and search for colleague to view their basic information. Administrator has just a small t ask such as create new user if there is any new employee, manager and administrator. In addition, it also can modify user information and delete user, and download doc file that uploaded by the manager to update the require information. And lastly the visitor can apply job online through the job application This web-based system is important where it can improve the way of managing and keep track of employee information such as leave request, employee performance report and others. Thus, this can determine the success level of the fast food restaurant. 1.1 Company Background Carl’s Fast Food Restaurant is one of the fast food restaurants in Malaysia, located at Cheras, Kuala Lumpur which founded in the year of 2008. This fast food restaurant is relatively similar to another fast food restaurant, which primarily sells french fries, fried chicken, hamburger and soft drinks. The restaurant has a traditional way and manual system of managing their employee information, hence the restaurant itself has the intention to improve the management of their employee. 1.2 Problem Statement One of the problems of the current Carl’s Fast Food restaurant is, they still using the manual way of managing the employee information and records, in term of keeping employee information such as employee leave request, employee report, and employee working schedule.

Wind farme Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Wind farme - Assignment Example he farm, mean annual wind speed at elevation, turbine power curve, rated power capacity, investment required, operation and maintenance cost (O&M)/ year, durability and useful life. Covering the wind profile, total annual energy output per turbine, total energy output, capacity factor, uptime percentage, average annual cost, value of electricity, annual O&M cost, annual inflation rate Based on wind maps, the mean annual wind speed can be determined. In fertile areas, quite prominent for energy harvesting; 100 meter Mean Annual Wind Speed Map, 70 meter Mean Annual Wind ... Mean Annual Power Density Map; 30 meter Mean Annual Power Density Map. To illustrate, a basic analysis of the Buckeye Wind Farm, comprised of 54 wind turbines planned for Champaign County, Ohio. The wind maps provided by the Ohio Power Sitting Board indicate that the mean annual wind speed in the area of the wind farm is approximately 7.5 m/s. Based on this, the analysis indicates a non-existent ROI because the wind turbines do not produce enough reliable electricity to pay for the investment required within a reasonable amount of time. In short, the annual expectation of 439,852 MWh of electrical energy generated does not generate enough revenue at regular average rates to overcome the O&M costs and pay back the $380 million investment within an anticipated 20 year lifespan of the turbines. It can therefore be expected that government grants and subsidies will have to be used to offset the losses, and that the cost of electricity will have to be increased. The simple economic analysis does not account for the cost that will be incurred to maintain and operate a traditional back-up system for generating power when the wind is not blowing adequately, and for the added cost and inefficiency of cycling this back-up system on and off to balance the supply load against the variability of the wind generated power. The lowest wind conditions and the lowest power output will occur in the summer, when

Neighborhood Planning Annotated Bibliography Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Neighborhood Planning - Annotated Bibliography Example iii. The City of Surrey has an OCP defined by goals and policies, which lead to the city’s planning operations. Surrey’s OCP offers direction for Surrey’s physical organization, management of land, transportation priorities, community growth, use of farmland, and ecological awareness.3 iv. Fraser Basic Council developed an OCP for taking action against climate change and raising awareness about the phenomenon. Local authorities approved the development of the OCP as a form of bylaw under which activities assumed by Fraser Basic Council would be consistent with the OCP.4 v. The Ministry of Community, Sport, and Cultural Development under the Government of British Columbia undertook an OCP in 2014 that its cities and regional constituencies developed.5 This OCP is a long-term reflection of the community that determines locations, sums, types, and concentration of suburban developments required by the Local Government Act  section 875. vi. The City of North Vancouver first undertook an OCP in 1980, revised it in 1992, and continued it to date. The OCP aims to balance the social, ecological, and economic requirements of the community of North Vancouver.6 Gansmo, Helen Jà ¸sok. "Municipal planning of a sustainable neighborhood: action research and stakeholder dialogue."  Building Research & Information  40, no. 4 (July 2012): 493-503.  Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed January 23, 2015). Researcher Gansmo attempts to find the most appropriate way to foster the change to greener neighborhoods. Determining whether planners can start an improved dialogue to facilitate stakeholder participation in planning, construction, and residing in greener neighborhoods.7 The article describes and implements methodical procedures that find the core contributors to greener neighborhoods and implementing the dialogue approaches in the early stages of planning for the project. Aditya, Trias.

Perceptions of Reality in the Matrix Essay Example for Free

Perceptions of Reality in the Matrix Essay The question of ‘reality’ has always intrigued people throughout the world. It has been perceived as tangible and exact but at the same time intensely vulnerable. The frailties of ‘reality’ have been exposed by the many differing ways in which it can be perceived. These differences of perception can be attributed to factors such as age, sex, nationality, religion, and political views, all of which alter the way we process what is presented to us as ‘facts’ by our senses. It has been reasoned, that every living person, or person that has ever lived must have a unique sense of reality, a point of perception so tailored to his or her own identity that it could never be shared exactly with anyone else. Having considered this idea, one may arrive at a primary solution that there was no such thing as a shared reality. Furthermore, the word ‘reality’ should only be used tentatively and only accurately in relation to a specific individual’s view of a subject. However, having arrived at this conclusion one may become aware that allowing individual realities is not a solution, it merely raises more questions. The brain is a complex organ relying on naturally produced endorphins and chemicals such as serotonin to maintain a state of perceptive normality, if this chemical balance is altered then the individuals perceptions of reality are also subject to change. How is the reality of the individual affected if they are suffering from depression? Is it the bleak or the hopeful that forms the reality for that individual? How are we to view the differences that occur in the mind when intoxicated through drugs or alcohol? These are complex factors that would need addressing in order to solve the question of ‘reality’. The release of the Wachowski Brothers’ film The Matrix is one of the reasons more and more people began to question what ‘reality’ really is. This science fiction film presents the idea that the world around us is an illusion. What we perceive to be reality is in fact a computer simulation called ‘The Matrix’, which is inputted directly into our brains making us believe that we are livingnormal lives when in fact our inert bodies are providing heat to power the machines which, after years of human service became intelligent enough to have taken over the world. In addition to the basic questioning of reality within the story line, The Matrix explores the importance of other areas concerned with perceptions of reality such as dreams and fate. Coming as it did at the very end of the 20th century, The Matrix deals with the ultra-modern and an apocalyptic view of the world. At a time when it was thought by many that the end of an era was approaching, with ‘The Millennium’, subconscious fears arose. While advances in technology have left us less to fear than ever before in terms of injury and disease, technology itself fills the void. In this case, The Matrix deals with the common fear of an over dependence on machines. At a time when the world at large was concerned about the effects of ‘The Millennium Bug’ machines turning on humans was, to some, a valid concern. While not concentrating on the likelihood of machines taking over, the growing part they play in constructing and maintaining our realities is important to consider. Where do we draw the line between what we perceive as ‘reality’ and a computer generated representation that may be more ‘real’ than the original? In answering this question one may refer to the work of Aldous Huxley, specifically The Doors of Perception, in order to provide a view into the significance of enhanced hallucinogenic realities. Building on the idea of chemically enhanced reality one can examine, using the writings of Jean Baudrillard, the extent to which artificially created reality, in terms of media presentation, has affected our perceptions of reality. One may also refer to Baudrillard’s work on simulacra to explore the significance of duplication and reproduction on commonly held ideas of reality. With this in mind the idea of ‘reality’ may be explored as being distilled into a Matrix of binary code and if so, what does that tell us about our supposedly organic realities? It is these questions, along with numerous others that one hopes to answer when studying the different perceptions of reality in the film The Matrix. Some may also examine in detail how the human mind has adapted to the outside world, how ‘reality’ has been constructed to provide an acceptable platform on which to live, how that reality may be maintained and ultimately the significance of how it may be undermined. The importance of a solid base on which to construct the events of everyday life is apparent throughout literature. The first lines of The Bible read: â€Å"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void†. To have this statement at the very beginning of The Bible illustrates the human need to organize the world into a recognizable reality where the unknown can be explained. In early times the creation of the world was, from a scientific point of view, a mystery. In order to create a base on which to build their realities, mankind devised explanations for the creation of the world. Much as God moulded the shapeless earth into its current form, mankind fashioned a belief system as important to life as the world itself. Two thousand years later, the issues of reality are still unresolved and new questions are being raised. In biblical times, man was unique in his ability to reason and communicate thoughts and ideas. He was God’s chosen subject and the reason the world and all its ‘realities’ had been created. In this day and age, machines and computers form such a large part of our lives that mankind’s uniqueness is called into question. Computers now perform complex calculations millions of times faster than the human brain and are able to take actions based on those calculations with reaction times far in advance of human physiological attributes. In addition to areas where machines have been made superior to human capabilities, the distinction between man and machine has become blurred: â€Å"What is real? How do you define real? If you’re talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain. † Here the connection is made between the world of man and the world of machines. We are as dependent on electronic information as the computers and machines that we have created. More significantly, if external stimuli can be coded into electrical impulses that our brains decipher, can higher thought processes and emotions be similarly synthesised? It is here where we realize the similarities between the physiology and technology that the name ‘The Matrix’, ascribed in the film. As it is shown in the film, the virtual reality computer programme which was fed to the humans is extremely significant. The root of the word ‘matrix’ is the Latin word for ‘mater’ meaning mother, pluralized to ‘matris’ signifying at the basest level, a number of wombs or animals kept specifically for the purpose of breeding. Further definitions are listed as: 1) A mould in which a thing is cast or shaped. 2) An environment or substance in which a thing is developed, a womb. 3) In math it is a rectangular array of elements in rows and columns that is treated as a single element 4) In biology is it defined as the substance between cells or in which structures are embedded. 5) Computing a grid like array of interconnected circuit elements. It is interesting to note that the word can refer to both the organic nature of gestation and birth and also the electronic code used by a digital camera recording the process. Additionally, in its first definition, the word is used in relation to manufacture and duplication. The selection of the word ‘matrix’ for use in the film is therefore carefully chosen, and is accurate in describing the numerous functions that ‘The Matrix’ performs within the film aside from the main aspect of creating a living, ‘real’ world from electronic code. In suggesting a world that is entirely manufactured from a code, The Matrix questions that which we base our realities upon as well as the significance of the reality that is presented. The concept of one’s surroundings being constructed from computer code is difficult to grasp and according to the film, difficult to implement. According to Agent Smith, when the machines first enslaved humans, â€Å"The first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world, where none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost. Some believed we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world. But I believe that as a species, human beings define their reality through misery and suffering. The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from. † Interestingly, this aspect of ‘The Matrix’ echoes The Bible in terms of The Garden of Eden. Just as Adam and Eve could not live in paradise, it is suggested that the human brain constructs its reality based upon curiosity, hierarchy and suffering. The human mind is inquisitive and the reward for success is advancement among one’s peers, the punishment for failure is suffering. In addition, this concept is also a base for the manner in which Buddhism constructs reality, the Four Noble Truths: 1) That existence is suffering. 2) That all suffering is caused by ignorance of the nature of reality and the greed that is created by ignorance. 3) That suffering can be overcome by mentally rejecting ignorance and attachment. 4 That overcoming suffering is achieved by following the eightfold path to enlightenment. The Buddhist view is also present in The Matrix. For Neo, existence is suffering. He is uneasy yet does not know why. Morpheus later tells him: â€Å"You don’t know what it is but it’s there, like a splinter in your mind. † Neo later discovers the true reality, first of the existence of The Matrix, then of his own power to change it and adapt the rules of the code. In the end he rejects what he believed to be the real world, repeating his mantra, â€Å"There is no spoon† in order to reject the ‘real’ world, to step away from his senses and concentrate on the code, the life blood of The Matrix. With these truths learnt he is enlightened and becomes ‘The One’ as Morpheus had predicted. In the film The Matrix the path to enlightenment is through the code that constructs reality. We must ask ourselves how similar is The Matrix code-based framework to our own organic reality? This is an issue that is tackled in modernist writing. With the rise of the importance of industry, many writers discussed the concept of ‘the new’, how to decipher the modern world and man’s place within it. In Soft City by Jonathan Raban, he discusses problems of individuality that occur in ‘the city’. He acknowledges the significance of the codes that shape an individual’s reality: â€Å"People often have to live by reading the signs and surfaces of their environment and interpreting them in terms of private, near magical codes. † Here Raban acknowledges a subconscious method of constructing reality. It is the ‘sign and surface’ of the environment that is perceived, the sheer quantity of information prohibiting anything more than a cursory examination. This basic image of reality is then encoded and compared to those codes that exist within our memory. In The Matrix this idea is applied literally. Neo becomes aware that when he is inside The Matrix his perceptions are purely a computer code, as are the objects around him. Through the course of the film he learns that through ‘freeing his mind’ from the code that interprets reality, reality itself can be altered. This bending of reality takes to an extreme the allegory of changing one’s point of view and seeing the world in a different way, a message found in myriad works from A Christmas Carol to Macbeth but the quantification of perception has frequently been questioned. Just as the establishment of Greenwich Mean Time contributed to the co modification of time, the modern mind, according to Simmel, â€Å"The modern mind has become more and more a calculating one. The calculating exactness of practical life which has resulted from a money economy corresponds to the ideal of natural science, namely that of transforming the world into an arithmetical problem and of fixing every one of its parts in a mathematical formula. † In a reality constructed around the importance of time and money, every aspect of that reality possesses an economic value. This quantification can also be seen as a code that makes up reality that man may decipher in purely numerical terms. In addition to these created codes of ethics and values it is important to consider factual, scientific codes that construct our world. A significant thinker in this field was the German mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz who, in 1714 in his book The Monadology, discussed the existence of countless conscious centres of spiritual force or energy which he names ‘monads’. Each monad represents a singular microcosm that reflects the universe in varying degrees of perfection and developing independently of all other monads. These inter-related microcosms that construct reality are, according to Leibniz the result of a divine plan that despite its disparate form makes up a harmonious reality. It is a failing of mankind that we cannot easily perceive factors such as disease and death as part of a universal harmony. Leibniz concludes that if our aversion to these evils can be overcome then harmony with the universe can exist and a reality can occur where: â€Å"Every body responds to all that happens in the universe, so that he who saw all could read in each one what is happening everywhere, and even what has happened and what will happen. † Here we find a further interpretation of reality that relates to The Matrix in terms of a unified system, not unlike a computer program, where all factors are not only comprised of the same code, but are all inter-related in a perfect harmony. However, this is where human reality and the reality of The Matrix diverge. As Leibniz points out, the necessity of death is an uncomfortable consideration within human construction of reality, which leads us to be out of touch with the rest of the universe. But it is the nature of death that also provides a key to another area where codes determine our realities, the code of DNA. DNA is the code that influences more than any other the conditions of our reality. It determines everything about us from height to lifespan. We are in a purely organic manner, programmed on how we will live. Of all the factors that DNA contains, it is lifespan that offers one of the most interesting possibilities. While humans can have some idea of their DNA in terms of skin colour and IQ, an aspect of the code that remains closed to us is that of our own lifespan. This aspect is explored in The Matrix where The Agents are created knowing that their purpose is to live within what they know to be a false world, eliminating those who threaten it. It becomes for them restrictive, as Agent Smith confesses: â€Å"I hate this place, this zoo, this prison, this reality; whatever you want to call it†¦I must get out of here. I must get free†. In the light of the concept of increasing knowledge and power through the study of the codes that construct reality we are presented with a quandary. Does absolute knowledge of the codes provide a more fulfilling life? Humans held within The Matrix are unaware of their fate. The Agents, although possessing complete knowledge of the code and its capabilities, enabling supreme strength, agility and knowledge, are the only ones aware that they are imprisoned. In this falsely constructed reality, only those with power are aware of the misery of their condition. While The Agents have supreme power over The Matrix code for most of the film, the crew of The Nebuchadnezzar, existing in the ‘real’, non computer generated world also are aware of the lack of comfort offered by their existence. They are able to define their existence through knowledge of The Matrix but also through their memory of life within The Matrix before they were ‘freed’. It is this condition of possessing memory, which forms a significant part of how we perceive reality. In the film, Cypher, the Judas figure that attempts to betray his colleagues asks for his reward to be completely ignorant of reality. He remembers life within The Matrix where pleasure was possible, not, â€Å"being cold, eating the same God-damn goop everyday†. He makes a deal with The Agents that he will be re-inserted into The Matrix where he will remember nothing of his past life apart from generated memories implanted in his brain by the machines. He sacrifices his unpleasant memories for a fool’s paradise. From this we can conclude that constructing reality in the present must involve an examination of the past. This idea is found in Freud’s belief that an individual’s psychological mechanism could be explained in relation to the individual’s past, childhood experiences and repressions leading to certain types of behaviour in adult life. This may help to explain the construction of our realities as individuals, but in order to follow the Leibniz model of harmonious reality that encompasses us all it is necessary to examine the writings of Carl Jung. While Freud believed that behaviour was based on the individual, Jung maintained that all humans share a collective unconscious, inherited feelings, thoughts and more significantly, memories, shared by the whole of mankind. Jung believed that this collective unconscious is made up of universally held images known as ‘archetypes’. These images, he believed, relate to experiences such as facing death, finding a lover, confronting a foe and so on. He states that the evidence for these binding archetypes are the common issues found in myths, legends, religions and folklore from around the globe. The realities considered in Leibniz’s theory have a definite mathematical and scientific base. He himself is described by McLuhan in the following terms: â€Å"Leibniz, that mathematical spirit, saw in the mystic elegance of the binary system that counts only the zero and the one, the very image of creation. The unity of the supreme being, operating by binary function in nothingness, would have sufficed to bring out of it all the beings. † Comparing this with the theory of archetypes, we realise that the Jungian view of reality construction is based much more in the world of art and literature and how these may be used to communicate ideas of reality. Myths, along with proverbs and fables are the encryption of archetypes. They are touchstones of reality, which can be applied to a multitude of situations, communicating a shared perception of reality. It is this communication of realities that exposes the limitations of a reality code. While the individual may use all manner of codes to decipher his surroundings, it is the communication of his findings and inspirations that cause problems. Communication primarily takes the form of language, but in this form the thought must be converted into a code of language that must then be interpreted by the listener. As Huxley says: â€Å"Every individual is at once the beneficiary and the victim of the linguistic tradition†¦the beneficiary inasmuch as language gives access to the accumulated records of other people’s experience, the victim in so far as it confirms him in the belief that reduced awareness is the only awareness and as it bedevils his sense of reality, so that he is all too apt to take his concepts for data, his words for actual things. † Many philosophers had various ideas and beliefs on the question of â€Å"reality†, one of the many philosophers who contributed to this question, was Plato. Despite his view that art can never achieve the accuracy of the thought in the artist’s mind, Plato failed too see the inadequacies of language which led mankind to use art as a method of communicating the individual’s perception of reality. John Berger discusses the significance of art in the development of human communication in detail in Ways of Seeing. Berger explains how art became a unique form of presentation and initially was used only for religious and spiritual purposes and was inseparable from the place and purpose for which it was created. At this stage, art was as far away from the code of communication as possible. Of course individuals could observe, and impose upon it their own reality defining codes, but art stood alone communicating as accurately as possible the realities of its creator. Later art was taken into the houses of the wealthy, partly to enhance the self image of the owner and also to confirm the role of ownership, owning the image of a thing translating to actual ownership. It is here that art entered the world of the code. It was used by the wealthy as a sign of their wealth part of their self-defined code by which they judged themselves and were perceived by others. Modern reproduction and distribution techniques have removed art from any preserve it once had. As Walter Benjamin, a Marxist philosopher-sociologist believed, when art is reproduced it loses its original ‘aura’ and enters a new role. It has become ubiquitous, part of the code and used with such regularity that we use it to define ourselves or present our ideas. It has been reduced to the level of the proverb in providing a template for our realities. We live our lives and form our realities based upon numerous codes. These may take the form of myths, religions and status symbols. Leibniz believed that the universe itself was an infinite code of interdependent microcosms and that that code, if completely comprehended could predict the future and know the past. The code can be liberating or restricting and how we perceive it goes a long way towards how we construct our realities. John Milton is right; â€Å"The mind can interpret the codes in many ways and form infinite conclusions. † The question is how accurate is the code that we receive? Everyday we are confronted with ‘the real’. In the film The Matrix the manner in which we construct our realities and the truths upon which we base the information that we are presented with is shown. The point that is raised in Morpheus saying â€Å"The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us, even now in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television†¦It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth† is that all that you take to be ‘real’ may not necessarily be so. Now, more than ever the amount of information that reaches us is so great that while not necessarily in a sinister sense, our lives are directly influenced by stimulating factors outside our control. The world of advertising for example, presents images, and projects thoughts. It convinces us that our lives would be richer if we purchased a certain item and while we know we are witnessing a sales pitch, we cannot help but be affected by it. Advertisements influence our decisions on what to eat and drink, where to go on holiday and how to live our lives. While it is true that we retain a choice over what we buy and where we go, but in order for that choice to be made it must have appeared within the initial stimulation. If a product is unknown it is unlikely to be bought. In Ways of Seeing, Berger suggests that advertising and publicity are processes of manufacturing glamour. Publicity creates an intangible element of desire, which is based on the human emotion of envy. The product is presented in a manner that promotes envy in the viewer, and by association will afford the purchaser the envy of others. It is in this way that glamour is sold. We are unconsciously informed of what it is we will envy in others and what it is about ourselves that others will envy. Berger concludes that this method succeeds because publicity does not speak to reality but to the fantasies of the individual. It could be reasoned that fantasies such as these enable mankind to maintain realities. This refers back to the idea in the film where the first ‘Matrix’ failed because everybody was created happy. Perhaps envy fulfils a vital role that presses us forward, that provides us with the will to live. But to look on envy as the only means of maintaining reality is rather simplistic. If we take this thought a step further and examine the message that is being projected rather than the emotions it creates it is possible to find a new method of maintaining reality. As John Jervis writes in Exploring the Modern: â€Å"The pleasure is in a vicarious sense of adventure, linked with a satisfaction gained through decoding, ‘reading’, the signs of the city. † He suggests we are to embrace the information we are presented with. To examine and appreciate its role in the reality in which we live; that ultimately pleasure lies in interpretation rather than direct experience, as Huxley put it: â€Å"The miracle, moment by moment, of naked existence. † But how, and to what extent, do ‘naked existence’ and the information we receive and analyse conform to reality? The evidence of reality that exists within our local environment we can interpret ourselves. In constructing our realities we create the codes in which realities communicate. Difficulties arise however, when in attempting to maintain our reality we are confronted with issues that we cannot directly perceive for ourselves. The most basic of images that we are unable to perceive directly is that of ourselves. â€Å"To see ourselves as others see us is a most salutary gift. Hardly less important is the capacity to see others as they see themselves. † It is here that we come across the importance of the mirror in maintaining reality. During the 1960s and 1970s Neo-Freudianism was a popular movement in France and with it the philosophies of Jacques Lacan became widely known. Among these was the ‘mirror-stage’. Lacan believed that: â€Å"The unified self posited by object relations theory is an illusion. The child begins as fragmented drives, precepts and attachments that eventually congeal into an imaginary identity at the ‘mirror stage’† It is at this stage, that the child perceives himself in the mirror and acknowledges himself as a single entity separate from his mother and surroundings. In a more abstract sense, this is the process that Neo himself goes through upon suspecting the existence of The Matrix. His suspicions and dissatisfaction with the world as it appears becomes apparent as he receives a reprimand from his employer, Mr Rheinheart: â€Å"You have a problem with authority, Mr Anderson. You believe that you are special, that somehow the rules do not apply to you. Obviously you are mistaken. This company is one of the top software companies in the world because every single employee understands that they are part of a whole. † As a function of The Matrix, Neo’s software company is attempting to restrict him. To place him in the ‘illusory’ world of object relations theory discussed by Lacan. At this point in the film, the office in which Neo is getting lectured by his boss is, at the same time, having its mirrored windows cleaned, perhaps echoing famous English poet, William Blake’s thought that: â€Å"If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. † This infinity described by Blake may be related to the infinite possibilities open to Neo if he rejects the restrictive world that contains him. Interestingly, the theme of mirrors as a symbol of release is common throughout the film. Indeed, Neo is released from The Matrix through a mirror, much like Alice going through the looking glass; a reference alluded to by Morpheus. Also, it seems that whenever Neo meets those who are entering The Matrix specifically to talk to him such as The Agents, Trinity and Morpheus, he is seen frequently as a mirror image, either in the rear view mirror of the motorcycle that Trinity is riding or in the mirrored sunglasses of Morpheus and The Agents. The mirror is used in this context as it presents an image of the world that appears accurate but is not. It presents a reversed and possibly distorted view of the world. Significantly in terms of the film, it also presents another world, similar to, but very different from, our own. As children, according to Lacan, we learn to identify ourselves in terms of the mirror. Our self-image, that with which we maintain our reality is based upon what we see there and yet the information we are receiving is inaccurate. Our self-image is in fact a reverse copy of the truth and an example of the flawed perceptions with which we maintain our realities. As technology has evolved, so too have our methods of maintaining reality. Television has provided us with intimate knowledge of the world outside our local environment. With television not only comes the persuasiveness of the advertisements shown but also the impact of the news reports upon which we depend for maintaining our realities. Nowadays, live communication in both sound and image is possible across the globe. Our horizons have been expanded to the maximum possible extent and we rely upon television to maintain those realities that we have never experienced for ourselves and it is here that we run into complex problems concerning reality. We assume that the images we are watching are an intrinsic part of the information being presented. This is not always the case as Jean Baudrillard explains in his book The Gulf War Did Not Take Place. In this book Baudrillard discusses how the media representation of the Gulf War was in no way an accurate description of the reality. In his introduction to the book, George S. Patton, a United States Army officer most famous for his leadership commanding corps and armies as general in World War II, and for his controversial outspokenness and strong opinions, comments that the first and most basic way in which the media can corrupt reality is in the confusion of past and present. He claims this was achieved unilaterally during the War, the present being portrayed as the past with the whole war as a John Wayne film complete with action-movie language. We also saw the past being represented as the present, video footage of a sea bird, covered in oil from the Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989 where used to illustrate the ecological problems in the Gulf. The problems presented by an image of reality is summed up by Baudrillard: â€Å"The same illusion of progress occurred with the appearance of speech and then colour on screen: at each stage of this progress we moved further away from the imaginary intensity of the image. The closer we supposedly approach the real, or the truth, the further we draw away from them both, since neither one nor the other exists. The closer we approach the real time of the event, the more we fall into the illusion of the virtual. † Once war or any other event is converted from a directly perceived reality to information, it enters the realm of communication. It becomes open to interpretation. Our failing lies with the fact that our technology has succeeded in creating information so apparently accurate we mistake it for reality. In The Gulf War Did Not Take Place Baudrillard updates Benjamin’s theory on reproducibility negotiating the aura of experience. Much of Baudrillard’s writing has commented on ‘simulacra’, a scenario in which reality and a simulation have been combined and become unidentifiable from each other. This third order of reality is referred to as ‘Hyper reality’. Through the media, simulacra of the real have been created and we ourselves enter a hyper reality where the boundaries between what is real and what is a representation of the real become blurred. This is an area explored almost constantly in The Matrix. In the film, The Matrix is the ultimate hyper reality. Inside The Matrix, reality is coded into information so effectively that those to whom it is fed cannot even perceive the reality on which their world is based. Neo acts as a disciple of Baudrillard, attempting to separate the information from the real. In real life, this is harder than it seems. A condition of the hyper reality is that the two contributing realities are so interdependent that a manipulation in one of the realities causes a reaction in the other which will in turn manipulate the first. It is inside a hyper reality that Neo himself resides.

Comparing The Sisters, An Encounter, and Araby :: comparison compare contrast essays

The Sisters, An Encounter, Araby:   Themes, Symbolism, and Change  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The short stories collected in Dubliners are mostly predecessors and characterizations of James Joyce's later works. "The Sisters" is no different. It, along with "An Encounter" and "Araby," are drawn from Joyce's personal memories and sentiments. The young boy and the characteristics of these short stories are an indirect sampling of Joyce's next published work, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, a novel mostly written from his own memory. "The Sisters," by James Joyce, is a story that mingles unworldly associations with an aim to teach with realistic endeavor, revealing truths of life and death.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   This short story revolves around a young boy's struggle to affirm and rationalize the death and insanity of an important figure in his life. The narrator arrives home to find that Father James Flynn, a confidant and informal educator of his, has just passed away, which is no surprise, for he had been paralyzed from a stroke for some time. Mr. Cotter, a friend of the family, and his uncle have much to say about the poor old priest and the narrator's relationship with him. The narrator is angered by their belief that he's not able, at his young age, to make his own decisions as to his acquaintances and he should "run about and play with young lads of his own age ..." That night, images of death haunt him; he attempts make light of the tormenting face of the deceased priest by "smiling feebly" in hopes of negating his dreadful visions. The following evening, his family visits the house of the old priest and his two caretakers, two sisters, wh ere he lies in wake. There the narrator must try and rationalize his death and the mystery of his preceding insanity.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The title of "The Sisters" is in one instance a simple title, but it may also indicate a greater, more expressive intent. First, on a mundane level, the title "The Sisters" signifies the two sisters, Nannie and Eliza, who have taken care of the priest in his illness and have helped to arrange the formalities of his passing -- embalmment and documents of burial and insurance. The two sisters give sentiments of Father Flynn about the occurence in the months prior to his passing, helping to explain his stricken condition, always repeating, "Ah, poor James!" Secondly, on a more significant and symbolic level, the title may connotate the relationship of insanity to death of that of the close relationship between sisters.