History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 9

History - Essay Example When the continued governance of the Province of Canada under the terms of the 1840 Act of Union had become impracticable, a Great Coalition of parties was formed to reform the political system. The first Confederation was held at Charlottetown in 1864 followed by the second at Quebec City where the idea of a confederation was explained. Confederation of Canada was the process under which Canada was formed as a confederation on July 1, 1867, when Queen Victoria gave royal assent to the British North America Act on March 29, 1867 (Wikipedia). This Act united the Province of Canada with the colonies of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. While the BNA Act gave autonomy to Canada, foreign policy remained with the British. This was supposed to improve relations and make the economy stronger. Conscription in WWI worsened the French-British relations. In times of difficulty and dispute law gives a direction. In 1917, The Military Service Act placed restrictions on who could be called for mandatory military service (Alberta, 2002). Farmers were exempted, as their service was required to produce food. This was known as the conscription. The French did not want to go to the war but Canada was drawn into it being a part of the British Empire. Most French Canadian voted against the conscription but the conscription was evoked nevertheless. Later, when due to rising casualties during the war, people kept away from enrolment, the exemptions were removed. This upset the French in Canada and further strained the French-English relations. Front de Liberation du Quebec (FLQ) was founded in 1963 with a view to gain independence for Quebec even if terrorism had to be resorted to (Historica). The FLQ abducted the British Diplomat James Richard Cross and then the Provincial Minister Pierre Laporte on October 5 and 10 respectively. Negotiations between the FLQ and the Quebec government did not make

Literary Criticism Quotes and Explanation Essay Example for Free

Literary Criticism Quotes and Explanation Essay â€Å"Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead. † -Gene Fowler Fowler conveys that writing is a difficult, exacting task. The purpose of writing is to put our thoughts into words, and to make our words move our readers. Many writers are frustrated by their inability to put their thoughts onto paper. I have always had a difficult time writing. I find that I have good ideas, but that putting my thoughts into words is challenging. I find this problem in all kinds of writing, even projects I enjoyed like a short story we wrote in the 7th grade. I enjoy reading science fiction; it is the most interesting to me. I have always had a hard time picturing what I am reading in my head, but science fiction is easier to visualize. I dislike non-fiction the most because I find it uninteresting. â€Å"Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will melt the stars. † -G. Flaubert Flaubert’s message is that human speech is imperfect and inelegant. Many people strive to speak fluently but aspects of their speech like word choice and grammar are imprecise. One way to express yourself when words do not work is body language. For example, if somebody doesn’t understand that you are trying to be sarcastic you can use body language to convey your message. You can also express yourself through art, like paintings or music. Some people also try to express themselves through the way that they dress. One advantage to using these methods is that you do not have to say anything but people can simply interpret your message. This can also act as a disadvantage because they might interpret it the wrong way.

Good and Evil in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert

Good and Evil in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson Throughout the story of â€Å"The Strange Case Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde†, the author, Robert Louis Stevenson, presents his idea of the duality of man- where we all have a dark, wicked side within us, where evil is held in waiting to surface, but we hide it away, we pretend it does not exist, and we keep it tame. He presents this idea by using two protagonists, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, who are actually the same person. One of these characters symbolizes the normal side of a person represented by the respectable Dr Jekyll, who is a typical upper class Victorian, and the other, Mr Hyde, a deformed man, signifies the purest of evil. During the course of this essay I will comment on Stevenson’s presentation of good and evil, and how the two work together to create an outstanding story. The book â€Å"The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde† was published in 1886, in Victorian England. The horror story originated from a dream that Stevenson’s had about a split personality and the central suggestion that evil is potentially far stronger than good. When he awoke he immediately set about putting his thoughts into words and finished the first copy in just three days but was forced to burn it because of the disapproval from his wife. He wrote another version, again in just three days. The second copy was published and was an overnight success. The storyline is about a doctor, who stumbles upon a potion, which he finds can change him into an entirely different person physically. Mr Hyde opens the window for evil deeds, through which Dr Jekyll could commit crimes without ruining his good name. At fist Dr Jekyll can control his transforma... ...easily become out of control and then take over your body. Today there are constantly news stories, pictures and bill boards telling you what drugs can do and in Victorian times drugs use and abuse was increasing, especially the use of opium. Lastly, mentioned before was Mr Hyde being described as ape-like, this can show contemporary relevance because of how Charles Darwin brought up the theory of the â€Å"origin of man† in Victorian times. There was an outrage in the 19th century and not many would believe Charles Darwin’s idea, because most people were strict Christians and â€Å"Adam and Eve† was from where they originated. Today in the southern states of America strict Christians still feel very strongly about their faith and still put down this theory. For these few reasons the story Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is still very relevant in the modern world of today.

Indentity Loss Essay -- essays research papers

In The Odyssey and The English Patient the main character, Odysseus and Almasy, suffer from a form of identity loss and try to regain it. They both regain their identity through the help of other people. Every person that stumbles across a piece of their past helps them regain a piece of their identity. Because he cannot remember Almasy must get help remembering his past from the people around him. One of his first memories came from the book â€Å"he brought with him through the fire- a copy of the Histories by Herodotus† (Ondaatje pg 16). Hana reads some of the notes that he had written in the book; she reads of the different winds â€Å"the ---, the secret wind of the desert, whose name was erased by a king after his son died within it. And the nafhat—a blast out of Arabia† (Ondaatje pg16-17). Before Hana had read this passage Almasy couldn’t tell her the name of the tribe that had helped him after his plane crashed. â€Å"The Bedouin were keeping me alive for a reason†(Ondaatje pg 18); Almasy was able to recall what had happened to him and who had helped him. Hana had stumbled on a passage that helped Almasy remember what had happened. Odysseus comes across a piece of his identity in a different way. He goes to the island of Kalypso and she promises him that she will make him a god. The challenge that she put on Odysseus was to go to the island of the dead. Once he was at the island of the dead Odysseus realized that he did was not dead and he wasn’t a god, this meant he was somewhere ...

Impact of Use of Color in Yellow Fish by Ambai

Ambai, or C. S. Lakshmi (1944) hailing from Tamil Nadu, India comes on the forefront of modern Indian writers who have made a huge mark in World Literature as a whole. Her works are characterized by her passionate espousal of the cause of women, humour lucid and profound style and the touch of realism. She is one of the most important Tamil writers today, who have been included in the recently published book ‘Picador’ book of Modern Indian Literature by Amit Choudhuri. Most of her stories are about relationships and they contain brilliant observations about contemporary life.Exploration of space, silence, coming to terms with one’s body or sexuality and the importance of communication are some of the requiring themes of her works. The story, Yellow Fish is one of her most passionately feminine works. The imagery used here by Ambai is excellent and encapsulating as the reader finds his/her own passion stirring as the story comes to the end. The used of colours is v ery symbolic in its irony. Through the use of colours, Ambai has tried to depict the objects characteristics, adding more material to the images, like a real life image anyone from her audience has experienced.The ash grey sea, unlike the ‘blue green open stretch of space’ does more to depict the set of mind her narrator possesses at that particular moment of time. The fact that images of the ash-grey sea and horrific colour images of the fisherwomen’s clothes were inserted, ought to give the reader a premonition, of kinds, about the dark turn, the narrative is about to take a little way ahead. With the unwanted, thrown away fish too, comes an upsurge of images with vivid colours, the colour yellow being associated with the pale rusting leaves, that fall, and are left to lie around in the most discarded state.The narrative begins with the vivid description of the scene of fishing boats returning of the sea. It is high summer and the sand is heated up. Images of s ea and water are predominant. There is a juxtaposition of images of faded blue and the ash grey sea. The bright colors of the fisherwomen’s clothes: demonic red, blinding indigo, profound green and assaulting blue, stand vibrant against the white boats and the bodies of the men, darkened by the saltwater, the black hands of the fishermen and the brown of the wood and the white bellied fish.Image of the fish being unloaded is also particularly staunch since the ‘good’ fish is splashed on the troughs, and the rest, that is the ‘bad’ ones are thrown away. The sea and the water are life-giving sources for so many life-forms, but suddenly, our attention is drawn away from the din of the fisher-folk to a little yellow fish thrown away on the sand of the shore. The line catches our attention because Ambai makes it stand out with her expertise of speech, as if almost drawing our attention towards ourselves. The first person narrative fixes the perspective an d point of view of the story.The detail of colour follows as the narrator observes the varying colour schemes in the events. The colour of the fish is yellow, is significantly pointed out to us as it is put into limelight as it is one of the ‘bad’ fish caught by mistake and was brought home. The narrator takes her time to stoop and watches fish shuddering and gasping for breath. It is this image that wrenches the memory of a similar incident of gasping for breath by Jalaja. â€Å"Like Jalaja’s mouth,† stands alone forcing us to think about the abrupt change from one sequence of events to another.We’re taken into the imagery used by Ambai to show us the occurrences on that particular day, rather than actually narrating. The first image is that of the narrator standing outside Jalaja’s room constantly watching her little daughter struggle to survive. The next image is that of the ashes being brought home, in a small urn and the narrator’ s insistence that the mouth of the urn be left open and the ashes to be immersed in the sea. Apparently unrelated are the thematically linked with the deep use of images and metaphors.In both cases we witness an astounding struggle to survive. Gender differences emerge in the difference in attitude of Anu and Arup – Arup who fails to understand why Anu wants the lid of the urn open, and the loud sobs, hint at the intense grief buried in the narrator’s heart. She is trying to help her child breathe as she couldn’t earlier. For Arup it’s just ashes, whereas for Anu, it’s her daughter inside, whom she wants to liberate. Jalaja, born of water, whom she wants to release into the water, the open sea.All the pent-up feelings of helplessness, frustration and grief, that she could do nothing to save her daughter, resurfaces when the narrator watches the yellow fish gasping for breath and thrashing hopelessly to go back to the sea. The arrogant leap of the f ish can be metaphorically interpreted as the endless possibilities if oppurtunities are provided. It also points towards the overriding theme of self- liberation present in all of Ambai’s written works. Anu has also taken a plunge towards freedom from bondage of ideologies from grief taking her towards realization.

Plantation Mistress Essay

In the book, â€Å"Plantation Mistress† (Clinton, 1984) by author Catherine Clinton, it seems that Clinton desires to express her disapproval for the manner in which women were treated so harshly.   She talks about maids brought to our country during the year 1620 and in Clinton’s writing, it is extremely interesting how she gathered her information for this book from letters that were written so many years ago, and even from diaries, suggesting that women from that ancient time period weren’t treated as equals in the deep South and in this slave era and time in our history, the author relays to her readers that there is evidence that cruelty did take place toward women and practices such as using females as workhorses shouldn’t have been acceptable in any time period. Also, many of these women referred to as mistresses weren’t taken care of properly and didn’t even receive the necessary and basic essentials, such as proper toiletries or fo od. They were treated like second class citizens and weren’t considered as good as men.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   We gather a   new appreciation for maids as we read Clinton’s writing and feel regret for those who had to suffer because of neglect and misunderstanding. Clinton teaches us that all humans were created as equals and all women and the slaves from that same time period were regarded less than human.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It’s interesting to be able to read some of those old letters that were written so many years ago so that we have a greater appreciation for women who lived on these plantations in the deep South.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  REFERENCE PAGE Clinton, Catherine. (1984). Plantation Mistress. Pantheon.

Lord of the Flies and Psychology

William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, narrates the story of a group of English boys as they struggle to survive on an uncharted, uninhabited island. The boy’s airplane crashes into the island and kills any adults on board — leaving the boys to fend for themselves. Ralph and Piggy meet each other first and, upon Piggy’s counsel, Ralph decides to call a meeting of all the boys by blowing on a conch shell. The boys quickly begin to form a society in which they elect Ralph as their leader. A boy called Jack quietly disagrees and believes that he should lead the group. As times passes, Jack and his choir become hunters for the rest of the boys and they begin to enjoy the ways of a predator. As Jack grows more savage, he becomes unhappy with the way that Ralph leads the boys and decides that he will go to the other side of the island and start his own tribe. Boys slowly begin to leave Ralph to join Jack. The boys become so savage that they kill two boys and they plan to kill Ralph. Just as Jack has cornered Ralph, a naval officer appears and rescues them all. Golding depicts not only the struggle of the boys to survive, but also the psychological reasoning that leads the boys to abandon the civilized nature that they know. Through characterization and setting Golding creates in his novel, an ideal forum for validating psychological principles introduced by Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, and Carl Jung. Sigmund Freud was a psychologist who pioneered the thought that the mind contains three different levels, the id, the ego, and the superego. The id bases itself on the pleasure principle; it meets basic needs. The id wants a quick satiation of needs and has no consideration for the reality of a situation. The ego bases itself on the reality principle, it understands that other people have needs and desires and that impulsiveness or selfishness can cause harm in the future. The ego meets the needs of the id, while taking the reality of the situation into consideration. The Superego develops due to the moral and ethical restraints placed on a child by influential adults in their lives. One could compare the superego to the conscience, as it dictates belief of right and wrong. Golding acknowledges these different states of consciousness within his novel by using characters to represent each one. For instance, Jack represents the id. Jack never takes into consideration the best thing for the group or himself in the long run and he holds himself accountable to no set of rules or any code of ethics. â€Å"Bollocks to the rules! We're strong – we hunt! If there's a beast, we'll hunt it down! We'll close in and beat and beat and beat† (91). Jack addresses the issue of a beast believed to inhabit the island by filling his thirst for violence and neglecting to take into consideration that confronting a beast will most likely lead to danger. Jack’s reasoning involves selfish motives; he wants to get rid of the beast, he wants to kill, he does not care that he has potentially placed the others in a dangerous situation, nor does he realize the ludicrousness of the beast, Jack has neglected reality entirely. Piggy represents the ego. He constantly tries to reason with the other boys, when he and Ralph first meet, Piggy understands that the other boys also landed on the island and someone needs to find and help them. â€Å"We got to find the others. We got to do something† (14). Piggy also realizes that the boys will most likely stay on the island for a while before someone rescues them — if someone ever rescues them at all. Piggy understands the boys while staying in touch with reality and he knows that if he does not find the smaller boys and take care of them, they will die. Piggy comprehends the seriousness of their predicament and realizes what it will take to keep everyone in order and alive. Simon represents the superego because he adheres to the principles instilled in him by society and civilization. After Jack has killed a pig for the first time, he and his clan approach while chanting, Piggy whimpers and â€Å"Simon hushed him quickly as though he had spoken too loudly in church† (69). Simon’s conscience keeps Piggy in line even when dealing with savage Jack. Towards the end of the novel, the other boys savagely murder Simon; when the boys kill Simon they also kill their conscience, they kill the rules and implications set upon them in order to keep society civilized and from this point until the boys get rescued their savage nature completely takes over and nothing holds them back any longer. Alfred Adler believed that personality difficulties are rooted in a feeling of inferiority. He also believed that people focus on maintaining control over their lives. Golding shows these ideas in his novel. Piggy, Ralph, and Jack all have issues with inferiority and control, in some way each of them feels inferior and each them strives for control. The other boys consider Piggy substandard to them because physically he is not their equal, Piggy realizes that the other boys perceive him this way and tries to make up for it with his intellect and emphasis on the rules, which leads into Piggy’s control issue he tries to use control to counter act the feeling of being out-classed. Jack always strives for superiority, from the very beginning Jack feels that he should be chief instead of Ralph. Jack crumbles underneath his need to become more superior than Ralph and decides to takes control of his situation and forms his own tribe. Jack tries to control his life by getting his way and convincing other boys to get his way as well. Ralph fears inferiority, leadership thrusts itself upon Ralph but he holds his position in very high regard. As Ralph loses support from his tribe, he loses his superiority and he begins to lose faith in himself and become more nervous. Ralph does not like the loss of control in his tribe or in his life, the signal fire and getting the boys to help him make shelters was so important to him for this reason. Adler studied various types of people and he came to the conclusion that there are the four main types of people: The ruling type that tries to control others, the getting type that tends to go along with others ideas, the avoiding type that tries to isolate themselves to avoid defeat, the socially useful type that values having control over their lives and strive to do good things for the sake of society. Jack represents the ruling type with his demand that the boys do as he says â€Å"‘go on’ the two savages looked at each other, raised their spears together and spoke in time. ‘The chief has spoken’ â€Å"(141). Jack thrives off of ruling and absolute power. Sam and Eric fit into the category of the getting type, they tend to go along with and do what others tell them to do. Whenever Ralph is their chief they listen to him and go along with what he says, and then when Jack captures them and takes them to his tribe they adhere to his code and do what he says. Sam and Eric follow — they do not contribute to creative thought but they willingly take part in its aftermath. Simon represents the avoiding type, he largely keeps to himself, and he goes and finds a secret place where he can sit alone in the quiet with his thoughts. Ralph represents the socially useful type, he likes to have control of the boys but, unlike Jack he wants them to do things for the betterment of the group. Adler’s ideas come to life in Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Psychologist Carl Jung believed that symbol creation was a key in understanding human nature. Symbols express something essentially unknown in the best way possible. The boys in Lord of the Flies create a symbol for their fear, at times the boys feel afraid and they cannot exactly express why. The boys create the symbol of the beast because they cannot touch or see their fear and so they imagine a beast that they could touch and see. Whenever Simon recognizes that the thing to fear lies within the boys he also creates a symbol, the Lord of the flies. Jung also believed that the introvert and the extrovert make up the main components of personality. The introvert, like Simon, tends to keep to themselves, and find more interest in ideas than in people. â€Å"Simon paused. He looked over his shoulder as jack had done at the close ways behind him and glanced quickly around to confirm that he was utterly alone† (56). The extrovert however, is outgoing and socially oriented. Both Jack and Piggy fit the description of extroverts because, they both freely express their ideas and long for others to hear and admire them. According to Jung a person that has a healthy personality can realize these opposite tendencies and can express each. Ralph most closely adheres to Jung’s theory about healthy personality. Ralph has a need for socialization but, he also knows when he needs time for reflection and thought, many times Ralph wishes that he had time to gather his thoughts before he had to go and present them in front of the rest of the tribe. When reading Lord of the Flies some readers may miss the latent meaning and only focus on the manifest. Readers who do not take in deeper psychological nature of the novel would attribute the boy’s different reaction to the island, to differences in personality and background instead of the boys taking on the image of the different levels of consciousness. This reader might think that they could not keep order simply because they are just young boys when their real motives were their subconscious need for superiority. The entire novel deals with the psychological principles set forth by Freud, Adler, and Jung; it could be considered a case study that verifies the very things that these psychologists believed.