Unmasking the Meaning Essay Example for Free

Unmasking the Meaning Essay In, â€Å"The Masque of the Red Death† by Edgar Allan Poe, Prince Prospero believes he has the ability to escape the inevitable plague through the use of his social and economic power. After encountering a â€Å"masked figure† of the Red Death, Prince Prospero falls into rage of the mysterious man who interrupts his masquerade. Because of his reckless and foolish acts, Prince Prospero and the guests of his masquerade fall into the hands of death. Poe creates a passage describing Prince Prospero’s palace, adding several descriptions of its color and order orientation. In this passage, Poe uses adjective clauses and simple compound sentences to develop a symbolism towards the objects in his allegory. In one of the lines of the, Poe writes ‘†The second chamber was purple in its ornaments and tapestries, and here the panes were purple†, describing the subjects itself and enhancing them with the addition of an adjective clause. Poe’s addition of the adjective clause â€Å"here the panes were purple† creates an in-depth meaning of the object. Poe moves on to emphasize the final room by obscuring description, stating that â€Å"The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls.† Poe clearly acknowledges these specific sentences compared to his others. He progresses, going as far to extend the sentences by adding several more adjectives to specify a hidden meaning. Furthermore, Poe shifts to draw more attention towards the seventh apartment, developing separate sentences to enhance the last sentence â€Å"The seventh apartment was† The adjective clauses are most likely Poe’s intention for readers to attract interest in the seventh apartment and for them to uncover its significance. Throughout the passage, Poe describes each apartment with merely simple compound sentences. But, as the passage moves on, Poe shifts from â€Å"That art the eastern extremity was hung, for example, in blue – and vividly blue were its windows† to â€Å"The fourth was furnished and lighted with orange – the fifth with white – the sixth with violet.† The first three simple compound sentences describing the six other apartments all incorporate youth (blue), intuition (purple), life (green), vitality of endurance (orange), purity (white), and spirituality (violet). Poe developed simple a compound sentences for, blue, purple, and green, but a simple sentence, â€Å"The fourth was furnished and lighted with orange – the fifth with white – the sixth with violet† for the other incorporated colors. This symbolizes Prince Prospero’s favor of youth, intuition, and life, but lacks vitality, purity, and spirituality. Subsequently, Poe differentiates Prince Prospero’s concluding color, black, by shifting again from compound sentences to a complex sentence. He writes, â€Å"The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls, falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of the same material and hue† to emphasize Prince Prospero’s interest in death. Prince Prospero’s actions such as attempting to his avoid his problems and death, is the most reasonable explanation to Poe’s reason of switching sentence structure. Switching sentence structure crafts a clear understanding in the meaning of the color and apartment. Therefore, Poe uses both adjective clauses and simple compound sentences to illuminate Prince Prospero. The symbolic colors and Poe’s syntax reveals his corrupt personality.

Race and Intelligence - Investigating the Low IQ of Racists :: Sociology Racism Prejudice Essays

Investigating the Low IQ of Racists       Studies going back over 50 years have repeatedly arrived at the same conclusion -- racists have lower IQs than non-racists. The average intelligence quotient (IQ) of all members of the human race is 100 on the Stanford-Binet scale. The average IQ of racists is up to 4 IQ points less than this (Montagu 1952 & 1988, Allport 1946, Frenkel-Brunswick and Sanford 1945). The reasons this is true are not entirely clear. Does racism attract the unintelligent or do the unintelligent default into racist mentalities? An exploration of this phenomenon can be most informative.    Since the average IQ of a racist is less than the average, racists have two-digit IQs, while normal people have three-digit IQs, on the average. This applies to Nazi skinheads, American Nazis, the oxymoronic Aryan supremacists, Christian Identity fanatics, anti-semites, non-denominational bigots, and other such social rejects. The statistical analysis is based on a standard deviation of 10, and is normalized for matching populations.    Many studies have explored the psychology of racism and the familial and social backgrounds of racists. Some interesting generalities can be extracted from these studies, including the fact that racists tend to be conservatives, conformists, Republicans, and hypochondriacs. The high incidence of conservatism, conformism, and Republicanism are all related phenomena. That is, one would expect a conformist to be a conservative, and a conservative to be a Republican, and a Republican to be a conformist, etc. But, why would they tend to be hypochondriacs? Perhaps they blame their body parts for imaginary illnesses in the same way they blame parts of society for imaginary social illnesses.    The arguments of racism have been demonstrated time and again to be illogical and irrational. For example, racists claim that so-called white people are "superior" to so-called black people. Ignoring for the moment the inability of science to draw a sharp line between those who are subjectively considered to be white and those who are subjectively considered to be black, lets consider the claims of superiority by racist supremacists.    As we look around us in America today we see a country full of diversity in which American blacks and other citizens of non-European descent excel in all the arts and sciences, in all aspects of business, in all political arenas, and in all athletics and other social activities. From our

A Gathering Of Old Men

Ernest J. Gaines' novel, â€Å"A Gathering of Old Men† employs experimental narrative techniques in order to probe themes of racism and classicism, as well as to examine the nature of storytelling in humanity's past and also for humanity's future.By employing no less than fifteen separate narrators   in this novel, Gaines is able to penetrate deeply into the subjective experiences of a a number of men — together whom comprise a social microcosm of African American history and experience.Through the diverse range of voices at his disposal, Gaines probes a wide range of grievances and also exaltations among his characters and demonstrates the strength of communal unity. The diverse range of narrators used in the novel expresses the novel's theme of strength-through-diversity adn unity-through-intimacy.A careful reading of the novel reveals the deep motivations of its characters, each of which reveals the novel's theme of redemption and social renewal. Because of the â⠂¬Å"tribal† nature of the diversity of narrators, the reader is able to feel as though they are a direct participant in the action, as though reading the novel is an initiation rite of sorts.The novel's central intrigue: the murder of   Beau Baton, also forwards the initiation or ritualistic them: the novel is meant to show the growth (or initiation) not only of chronologically grown men into — long delayed – manhood, but to redefine standards of black masculinity altogether for the characters in the novel itself and also for the novel's readers.In the novel, the fifteen separate narrators are drawn out of their ordinary lives and into a civic, almost mythic role. Gaines signals that the unfolding of events is meant to have this mythic, ritualistic overtone when the old men gathering proclaim that things seem new again, that they feel good about what they are doing.Wallace sees the water of the river â€Å"as if it were still a mystery,† while   Mat ad mits that he is happy that they   â€Å"and all the rest are doing something different, for the first time† ( Gathering, 40).There is also the symbolic/ritualistic firing of guns, urged by Clatoo who tells the men â€Å"Let them down there hear you† ( Gathering, 48) and contrasted with the brutality of combined experience among the novel's protagonists, this symbolic gunfire demonstrates controlled violence and anger: emotions turned to ritualistic healing.There can be no doubt that these feelings of race-based anger contributed to the murder. When asked, Uncle Billy admits that he killed Beau out of a longing for revenge:What they did my boy†¦. The way they beat him. They beat him till they beat him   crazy and we had to send him to Jackson (the state mental facility). He don't even know me and his mama no more. We take him candy, we take him cake, he eat it like a hog eating corn†¦.The ritual-based and initiation based theme of the novel is meant to tra nsform the violence of the murder into a healing process,where each of the novel's narrators â€Å"confesses† their anger and need for revenge and then each learns something through the experience of participating after-the-fact in a murder that only a single man committed.Later, for example, Gable reveals his son is killed for the false accusation for rape on a   white woman and Coot talks about his war experiences.The man who could break horses, Yank, relishes his role without at first realizing it makes him subservient to whites. But there is also a shadow of environmental awareness tied to the ritual murder: that the renewal of black masculinity is directly tied to the renewal of nature.Johnny Paul explains the murder on behalf of the flowers: â€Å"That's why I kilt him, that's why†¦.To protect them little flowers. But they ain't here no more. And how come?† (Gathering, 92).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Gaines' intention is to tie subjective individual renewal with the renewal of both community and environment and he portrays the murder an consequent ruse in symbolically charged terms.Killing Beau might revive the river: â€Å"That river†¦. Where the people went all these years. Where they fished, where they washed they clothes, where they was baptized. St. Charles River. Done gived us food, done cleaned us clothes, done cleaned us soul. St. Charles River — no more, though. No more.They took it. † (Gathering, 107). Because the novel relies on complex themes, it is dangerous to assume that racial issues are any more dominant than issues of community preservation and environmental preservation.The key theme in the novel, as m,mentioned, is the reviving of masculinity: the renewal of masculine energy which is seen to extend beyond race and into the elements of the earth and nature themselves.Mathu's discovery of his community is the most starkly profoundly as portrayed in â€Å"A Gathering of Old Men.† When he says â₠¬Å"I been changed†¦.I been changed. Not by that white man's God. I don't believe in that white man's God. I been changed by y'all.Rooster, Clabber, Dirty Red, Coot — you changed this hardhearted old man.† (Gathering, 182 ); he as admitting that even his previous contempt and mistrust of white people has been challenged by his new-found notions of community.While it is relatively easy to spot the racial themes of â€Å"A Gathering of Old Men† the communal themes and the themes of renewal through nature may be a bit more difficult for the casual reader to understand.When the various themes of the novel are begun to be regarded as a whole, the picture which emerges is not a picture of â€Å"black† anger of African American bitterness or even of racism or classicism, but issues of humanism.The reclaiming of masculinity by the men in the novel can be regarded, symbolically, as the renewal of any person or any group which seeks to finally reaffirm its power after a period, perhaps even a protracted period, of suppression and duress.Rather than portray this accumulated anger and resentment as exploding in, say, a violent — if even localized — revolution, Gaines views the kind of fusion of bitterness, anger, and resentment, to a call to awareness of and an identification and re-claiming of communal ties and environmental awareness.Taken this way, the subjective stories presented by the various narrators of â€Å"A Gathering of Old Men† can be seen to transform into universal voices of awareness, and cathartic change.This transformation is heralded by community and the liberation of private anger and private experience as culturally accepted, in fat culturally imperative information.The novel's experimental narrative techniques weld the ancient oral tradition of tribal cultures with the scathingly sharp awareness of modern political and psychological realities.

Obesity The Problem Of Pediatric Obesity Essay - 2132 Words

Abstract One of the biggest growing health concerns in the world especially western nations is overweight kids exacerbating what is medically referred to as childhood obesity. In recent years, policy makers and medical professionals have expressed alarm about the burgeoning problem of pediatric obesity in the United States. Consequently, extensive clinical pathological research has continuously been conducted to give answers and amicable solutions to reducing cases of this syndrome. While most concur that the issue it is a serious health issue, consensus resolves around appropriate responses to the problem. This literature review delves into a single, highly favored approach to managing pediatric obesity: prescription medication. The paper compares and contrasts the efficacy and associated effects of the only two drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for prolonged management of childhood obesity; sibutramine and orlistat. This review of pharmacological interventions for ob esity management points out the drawbacks of medication and exposes a dire necessity for a comprehensive solution that umbrellas clinical, nutritional, behavioral, and political approaches to this complex problem. Can Medication Cure Obesity in Children? A Review of the Literature Obesity is by a measure of an individual’s Body Mass Index (BMI). We achieve this by dividing the person’s weight in kilograms, over their height and presented as a percentile. Children with BMI in theShow MoreRelatedPediatric Obesity : A Major Problem Around The World Essay1462 Words   |  6 PagesPart I. Pediatric obesity has become a major problem around the world. There are several factors that play a critical role in this epidemic. Some of these are obvious and others may be shocking to people. The key to tackling this outbreak and putting an end to it, is to first educate the public as to why it is occurring. 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