Beethoven Essays - Age Of Enlightenment, Ludwig Van Beethoven

Beethoven Essays - Age Of Enlightenment, Ludwig Van Beethoven Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer who is considered to be one of the greatest musicians of all time. He was born in Bonn. Beethovens fathers harsh discipline and alcoholism made his childhood and adolescence difficult. After his mothers death, at the age of 18, he placed himself at the head of the family, taking responsibility for his two younger brothers, both of whom followed him when he later moved to Vienna, Austria. In Bonn, Beethovens most important composition teacher was German composer Christian Gottlob Neefe, with whom he studied during the 1780s. Neefe mostly used the music of German composer Johann Sebastian Bach in his instruction. He later encouraged his student to study with Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whom Beethoven met briefly in Vienna in 1787. In 1792 Beethoven made another journey to Vienna to study with Austrian composer Joseph Haydn, and he stayed there the rest of his life. Having begun his career as an outstanding improviser at the piano and composer of piano music. Beethoven went on to compose string quartets and other kinds of chamber music, songs, two masses, an opera, and nine symphonies. Perhaps the most famous work of classical music in existence is Beethovens Symphony No.9 in D minor op. 125. Like his opera Fidelio and many other works, the Ninth Symphony depicts an initial struggle with adversity and concludes with an uplifting vision of freedom and social harmony. Yet just as his success seemed assured, he was confronted with the loss of that sense which he depended on, his hearing. This impairment gradually put an end to his performing career. However, Beethovens achievements did not suffer from his hearing loss but instead gained in richness and power over the years. His artistic growth was reflected in a series of masterpieces, including the Symphony No.3, Fidelio, and the Symphony No.5. These works were from his second period, which is called his heroic style. Beethovens fame during his lifetime reached its peak in 1814. The enthusiastic response from the public to his music at this time was focused on showy works, such as Wellingtons Victory. During the last decade of his life Beethoven had almost completely lost his hearing, and he was increasingly socially isolated. Plagued at times by serious illness, Beethoven nevertheless maintained his sense of humor and he often amused himself with jokes and puns. He continued to work at a high level of creativity until he contracted pneumonia in December 1826. He died in Vienna in March 1827. Beethovens music is generally divided into three main creative periods. The first, or early. Period extends to about 1802, when the composer made reference to a new manner or new way in connection with his art. The second, or middle, period extends to about 1812, after the completion of his seventh and Eighth symphonies. The third, or late, period emerged gradually; Beethoven composed its pivotal work, the Hammerklavier Sonata.

Everything You Need to Know The Great Gatsby Era

Everything You Need to Know The Great Gatsby Era SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips The Great Gatsby takes place during a time that's now known as the Jazz Age or the Roaring 20s. Wondering what the world was like when Jay Gatsby struck it rich in bootlegging? Curious to see how much Daisy and Myrtle's struggle for more echoes the lives of real women? Interested in the other ways that The Great Gatsbyera matters to the plot of the novel? This article will guide you through the historical, economic, and social movements of the 1920's as they relate to events, themes, and characters in The Great Gatsby. Why DoesThe Great Gatsby EraMatter? Understanding what the world was like during the time the novel is sethelps you in all sorts of ways: Figuring out an author's assumptions. Writers are products of their time, so knowing what they would have assumed to be true makes reading their work richer. For instance, inThe Great Gatsby, it's taken for granted that the Jewish gangster Meyer Wolfshiem would need the WASP-y face of Jay Gatsby to make some of his deals, since Wolfshiem wouldn't have been allowed to join or participate important political and business networks. Getting a deeper grasp of character. To get a really good sense of why characters in the novel do what they do, it's useful to know the specific historical circumstances they are dealing with. For example, it's all well and good to assume that Daisy should leave the boorish Tom, but divorce would have been way more complicated for a woman in the 1920s than it is today. Developing a richer interpretation of symbols, motifs, and themes. Knowing the hot-button issues of the novel's day gives you a good second way to support arguments about the importance of a particular theme, or your reading of the meaning of a symbol. (Of course, the primary support for these arguments should come from the text itself!) Suppose you wanted to analyze the importance of cars in The Great Gatsby. It would help your argument to talk about the sudden skyrocketing prevalence of cars on the road in the 1920s, connecting them to increased danger, status symbol consumerism, and modern life. Historical context: the giant arm propping up the baby that is your argument. When DoesThe Great GatsbyTake Place? The Great Gatsby was published in 1925 and is set in 1922, near the beginning of the decade. (See our article on this novel's publication and reception history for more.) As such, theGreat Gatsby era is theperiod in 20th century U.S. history nicknamed both the â€Å"Roaring 20s† and the "Jazz Age." The first nickname points toAmerica's post-WWIeconomic prosperity and the country's greater influence abroad. The second nickname refers to this period'schanging social norms and daring artistic movements. Gatsbyis now seen as both a product of and a record of the 1920s. What does this mean? Let's explore. Before The Great Gatsby: WWI and Modernism Although many previous events eventually influenced the 1920s, there are two crucialpieces of background history that you have to know. World War I World War I dramatically affected the United States in the 1920s (and, of course, shaped much of the 20th century all over the world as well). On the one hand, it elevatedthe U.S. into a world super power and ushered in a decade-long economic boom.On the other hand, its horrific death toll and seeming meaninglessness forever dispelled the idea of war as noble and glorious. Abrief recap of what happened. After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir of Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1914, Austro-Hungary and its ally Germany declared waragainst Russia. Russian allies France and England were pulled in to defend Russia. The smaller European powers were forced into the war as well, based on whatever alliances they had made in the past.For the first three years, the U.S. remained neutral, instead profiteering from the war by selling supplies toboth sides of the conflict. But, in 1917, the U.S. was pulled into the fighting, fearing an alliance between Germany and Mexico. WWI was a war of trench warfare, chemical weapons, shrapnel artillery, and other gruesome technologies that had never been seen before. When you combine this level of mass destruction with the fact that most of the war was a territorial stalemate (no army advanced, no army withdrew - they were just locked in a horrible tie), it's easy to see how unaccountable the 40 million deaths the war caused were. The survivors of the war - both the veterans and those who came of age during the fighting - were called the Lost Generation. F. Scott Fitzgerald, though he didn't actually see any fighting during his time in the army, was a member of this generation. (See our brief biography of Fitzgerald to learn more.) You should know about WWI (and its aftermath) because: Both Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby have military backgrounds. Gatsby's early romance with Daisy is heightened by the initial idealism that he was about to go fight in a noble and glorious endeavor. Some of the rumors swirling around Gatsby point to how fresh the war was in everyone's mind (that he was a German spy during the war, or that he is related to Kaiser Wilhelm, who ruled Germany during the war). Modernism and the Lost Generation The war and its devastating after-effects, particularly in Europe, fed into the creation of a new artistic movement: modernism. Modernism was all about breaking with the past. In contrast to 19th century writing that tended to reinforce the status quo, modernism rejected old-fashioned ideas like heroism and moral certitude. Similarly, modernism writers experimented with form and style rather than sticking with traditional forms of prose and poetry. Inspired by the devastation of WWI, writers in The Lost Generationembraced a cynical view of human nature. Fitzgerald himself waspart of a circle of modernists who regularly met inParis (others included Hemingway, Ezra Pound, Sinclair Lewis, and the painters Picasso and Matisse). Fitzgerald wroteThe Great Gatsby while in Paris, surroundedby this group. You can connect modernism withthe novel's descriptions of East Egg and West Egg extravagance. Like his fellow modernists, Fitzgerald was deeply critical of the wealth and capitalist success ushered in by the post-war boom, considering the new obsession with money and status shallow. What trench warfare looked like. Imagine spending weeks in this hole in the ground. The Great Gatsby Era:The Roaring 20s At the time when the novel takes place, the U.S. was in the middle of a tremendous economic boom and a soaring stock market that seemed to be on a permanent upward swing. At the same time, many of the social restrictions of the early 20th century were being rejected, and progressive movements of all kinds were flourishing. Prohibition, Bootlegging,and the Speakeasy Socially progressive activists in both the Democratic and Republican parties united to pressure the government to ban alcohol, which was blamed for all kinds of other social ills like gambling and drug abuse. In 1920, the U.S. passed the 18th Amendment, outlawing the production and sale of alcohol. Of course, this did little to actually stem the desire for alcoholic beverages, so a vast underground criminal empire was born to supply this demand. The production and distributionof alcohol became the province ofbootleggers - the original organized crime syndicates. Selling alcohol was accomplished in many ways, including throughâ€Å"speakeasies† - basically, underground social clubs. Since speakeasies were already side-stepping the law, they also became places where people of different races and genders could mix and mingle in a way they hadn’t previously while enjoying new music like jazz.This marked a shift both in how black culture was understood and appreciated by the rest of the country and in how women’s rights were progressing, as we’ll discuss in the next sections. If you understand the history of Prohibition, you'll make better sense of some plot and character details inThe Great Gatsby: Gatsby makes his fortune through bootlegging and other criminal activities. Gatsby's business partner Meyer Wolfshiem is a gangster who is affiliated with organized crime and is based on the real-life crime boss Arnold Rothstein, who was indeed responsible for fixing the World Series in 1919. Any time someone isdrinking alcohol in the novel, they are doing something illegal, and are clearly in the know about how to get this banned substance. Gatsby’s parties have a speakeasy feel in that people from different backgrounds and genders freely mix and mingle. One of the rumors about Gatsby is that he is involved in a bootlegging pipeline of alcohol from Canada - this is a reference to a real-life scandal about one of the places where illegal alcohol was coming from! Police emptying out confiscated barrels of beer into the sewer. Women’s Rights The 19th Amendment, passed in 1919, officially gave women the right to vote in the United States. Suffrage had been a huge goal of the women’s movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, so this victory caused women to continue to push boundaries and fight for more rights during the 1920s. The ramifications of this were political, economic, and social. Politically, the women's rights movement next took up the cause of the Equal Rights Amendment, which would guarantee equal legal rights for women. The amendment came close to eventually being ratifiedin the 1970s, but was defeated by conservatives. Economically, there was an increase in working women. This began during WWI as more women began to work to make up for the men fighting abroad, and as more professions opened up to them in the men's absence. Societally, divorce became more common. Nevertheless, it was still very much frowned on, and being a housewife and having fewer rights than man was still the norm in the 1920s. Another social development wasthe new â€Å"flapper† style. This term described women who would wear much less restricting clothing and go out drinking and dancing, which at the time was a huge violation of typical social norms. If you understand this combination of progress and traditionalism for women's roles, you'll find it on display in The GreatGatsby: Daisycontemplates leaving Tom but ultimately decides to stay. Jordan parties and doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to settle down. Myrtle flouts traditional rules by cheating on her husband but is killed by the end of the book, suggesting women are safest when they toe the line. Women's suffrage parade in New York City. Racial and Religious Minority History The post-war boom also had a positive effect on minorities in the U.S. One of the effects was thatJewish Americanswere atthe forefront of promoting such issues as workers rights, civil rights, woman's rights, and other progressive causes. Jews also served in the American military during World War I in very high numbers. At the same time, their prominence gave rise to an anti-Semitic backlash, and the revival of the KKK began with the lynching of a Jewish man in 1915. Another post-WWI developmentwas the Harlem Renaissance, acultural, social, and artistic flowering among African Americans that took place in Harlem, NY, during the 1920s. Artists from that time include W.E.B. DuBois, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Countee Cullen, Louis Armstrong, and Billie Holiday. You can see the effects of these historical development several places in the novel: jazz music is a fixture of Gatsby’s parties, and almost every song that Fitzgerald describes is a real life piece of music. Nick's love of Manhattan as a diverse melting pot is illustrated by the appearance in Chapter 4 of a car with wealthy black passengers and a white driver. Tom Buchanan's racist rant in Chapter 1 and his fears that the white race will be "overrun" by minorities is based on the backlash that African American advancement occasioned. The novel includes Nick's anti-Semitic description of a Jewish character - Meyer Wolfshiem. There are modern theoriesthatJay Gatsby is may be half blackand that Daisy may actually be Jewish. Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes Automobiles The 1920s saw huge increases in the production and use of automobiles. Almost 1 in 4 people now had a car! This happened because of advances in mass production due to the assembly line, and because of rising incomes due to the economic boom. Car ownership increased mobility between cities and outer suburban areas, which enabled the wealthy to work in one place but live in another. Cars also now created a totally new danger, particularly in combination with alcohol consumption. If you're aware of the newness and attraction of cars, you'll notice that inThe Great Gatsby: The wealthiest characters own cars and use them to commute between Manhattanand Long Island. Cars are clearly used to display wealth and status - even Tom, normally secure in his superiority, wants to brag to George Wilson aboutthesuper-fancy Rolls Royce heborrows from Gatsby. Cars are tools of recklessness, danger, and violence - there are several car accidents in the novel, the most notable of which is when Daisy runs Myrtle over and kills her in Chapter 7. Death machine, or no, you have to admit that's a pretty cool-looking car. The Bottom Line Understanding historical context helps you in all sorts of ways: Figuring out an author's assumptions. Getting a deeper grasp of character. Having a richer interpretation of symbols, motifs, and themes. The Great Gatsby was published in 1925 and is set in 1922, a time nicknamedboth the â€Å"Roaring 20s† and the "Jazz Age." There are two crucialpieces of background history that you have to know to understand the novel: World War I.Its horrific death toll and seeming meaninglessness forever dispelled the idea of war as noble and glorious.The survivors of the war - both the veterans and those who came of age during the fighting - were called the Lost Generation. Modernism and the Lost Generation.Modernism was all about breaking with the past, experimenting with form and style, andembracing a cynical view of human nature. The Great Gatsbyera was distinguised byan economic boom, the rejection of oldsocial restrictions, and progressive movements of all kinds: Prohibition, Bootlegging,and the Speakeasy.The U.S. bannedalcohol, ushering ina vast underground criminal empire, including speakeasies -underground social clubs. Women’s Rights.The 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote.Politically, the women's rights movement next took up the cause of the Equal Rights Amendment.Economically, there was an increase in working women.Societally, divorce became more common, and the "flapper" style was born. Racial and Religious Minority History.Jewish Americanswere atthe forefront of promoting progressive causes.Another post-WWI developmentwas the Harlem Renaissance, acultural, social, and artistic flowering among African Americans. Automobiles.Car ownership increased mobility between cities and outer suburban areas, andcreated a totally new danger, particularly in combination with alcohol consumption. What’s Next? Learn more about how The Great Gatsby was received when it first came out, and also read about the life ofits author, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Excited to dive in? Check out our articles onGatsby’s title, its opening pages and epigraph, and itsfirst chapter. Or, zoom out toa summary of The Great Gatsby, along with links to all ourgreat articles analyzing this novel! Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

INTERNATIONAL TRADE STRATEGY AND TECHNIQUES - FINAL CASE STUDY

INTERNATIONAL TRADE STRATEGY AND TECHNIQUES - FINAL - Case Study Example The new company concentrates on the manufacturing and marketing of polymers at 20,000 tons/year. The total investment for the ventures is 12 million Euros. The sections of financing are 4 million EUR by equity financing, Export credit obtained from COFACE up to 6 million EUR and other debt financing of about 2 million EUR. The favorable and the risk factors which would be faced by owing to its joint venture with Vietchem are elaborated in the report. Question 1 Vietnam Vietnam is a developing economy which is planned with a market well connected to the other parts of the world. The economy of Vietnam has shifted their concentration from centralized planned economy to socialist market economy that employs both indicative and directive planning. After the shift, the economy has rapidly grown. The Vietnamese population has been estimated to be 87 million. This estimation includes 3 million who lives in Hanoi and in Hochiminville; the estimated number has been 9 millions. About 11 millio n of the population are working in the industry or engaged in industry related works. The unemployment rate has been 2.3%. The GDP value amounts to $300 billion with a growth rate of 5.9%. The FDI inflows have amounted to $7.4 billion. The average tariff rate of trade has been 5.7% that includes some of the non-tariff barriers which had limited the gains of trade (The Heritage Foundation, â€Å"Vietnam†). Though there have been serious efforts from the FDI but it has been hindered by the government regulations by imposing various restrictions. With the evolving capital markets of Vietnam, the financial sector has also expanded (â€Å"China struggles with the way forward on reform†). Vietnamese Market Although the Vietnamese market has shown a rapid growth, it is still extremely price sensitive. Thus if the JV has to take place, Synthenia has to face this issue. Vietnamese market is a monopoly market with only a single producer of polymers i.e. Polyviet Company Limited. The company is based in Japan and sells 80% of its end products in the Vietnamese market. The company produces polymers and their main customers are the seekers of textile glues and formulators of buildings. Thus, the JV is looking for a reliable polymer supplier with a very good Research and Development department so that the products are adequately tested (â€Å"Investing in Vietnam – A risk worth taking?†). The favorable and unfavorable factors that Synthenia will probably run into while doing business in Vietnam are elaborated in the next section. Favorable factors for investment in Vietnam For establishing an investment plan in Vietnam the chemical giant group, Synthenia will have many advantages few of which are elaborated below. Synthenia has spread its existence in the Asian market. The Asian agents and the distributors have helped the company to develop their business in Asia. So with its expansion in Vietnam, it will provide a wider Asian market for the comp any. The country had a growth rate of 4.9% in 2009 which has increased to 5.9% in 2012 and has stabilized at that point. Thus

Politics Among nations Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Politics Among nations - Article Example Objective laws, similar to political laws, trace their descent back to the human race. Comparing Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill’s foreign policies the author highlights that while the former had a very clean set of moral intentions still his foreign policy did not prove to be substantially good for the world as a whole. For the latter, however, he said that Churchill was always narrow minded but still his foreign policy proved to be an example for the foreign policies that were to be made for generations to come. In order to distinguish between political and non political facts it is essential that the concept of interest be defined in terms of power. The author ascertains form this fact that the actions and thoughts of political leaders are governed by power. The political and cultural context in which a foreign policy is made is essential and cannot be over looked. The power that governs the political leaders is not the only thing that is required to construct the foreign policy. The cultural and moral values of a particular nation cannot be ascertained as the sole representatives of an entire universe’s moral and cultural values. Thus, it can be said that a single nation’s moral values hold separately from the entire universes’. A politically realistic approach to the autonomy of a political sphere would be asking of the following question: â€Å"Is this politically realistic approach effective on the power and realistic nature of the nation as a whole?† In my opinion this is a comprehensive theory that governs the human population as a whole. Anything that is not connected to the morals of human beings cannot be significantly true of them. thus it can very well be ascertained that the famousness of these six rules of political realism are highly justified and should

Cheating and Plagiarism - The Path to Self-destruction :: Argumentative Persuasive Essays

Plagiarism - The Path to Self-destruction Why do so many people use 123HelpMe.com simply to plagiarize other people's writing? Is it even possible that someone cannot write their own essay, or that someone cannot read a book of any length? If you plagiarize, aren't you sentencing yourself to failure? And if you cannot gather information, aren't you opening yourself to attacks from the System? I know many students who use sites such as 123HelpMe.com to "gather research" - steal other people's ideas and papers. Yet it still amazes me that people could be so naà ¯ve and lazy. Think about it: in high school, you are already expected to know whatever material you've been taught (hopefully). If you cannot get through high school without cheating, how well will you do in college? Professors check whether you have cheated, and you are required to write lengthy papers based on detailed research, which is not present on many Internet paper mills and notes sites. If you cannot read, write, and think on your own, you are doomed. Maybe not now, maybe not during your high school career, but eventually, you will flunk a class or get expelled for cheating. If your job requires you to write essays or gather information, and you "cheat" (gather information without citing it and getting permission) you will be sued and fired. During high school and college, you are more likely to hurt your grade than to get into serious trouble. (However, if your paper sounds too well written, or if a teacher finds that you stole information, you can still be expelled.) Let's face it: Cliffs Notes aren't the Holy Grail of research. If you read Cliffs Notes or Monarch Notes or 123HelpMe.com' essays, you are bound to miss important details. Any decent teacher will check whether you read a book, and to do so, he will ask you details and concepts from the work that you did not read. Cliffs Notes, shortchange you; there are few concepts and almost no details in those. Monarch Notes only have concepts. And most the free essays on 123HelpMe.com are filled typos and inaccuracies. Of course, one must pay a small fee to access the great and excellent essays on 123HelpMe.

Pocahontas Term Paper Essay

In Camilla Townsend’s book, Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma, Townsend points out that there are many historical inaccuracies and myths that are associated with the story of Pocahontas. Using historical evidence to support the story of Pocahontas, Townsend attempted to create an accurate timeline bringing the past to the present. At the same time, the Disney film Pocahontas attempted to depict Algonquian culture accurately, however, according to history, much of the material presented in the film is full of misconceptions and is historically imprecise. In fact, Disney’s Pocahontas epitomizes John Smith and Pocahontas as heroes who prevented a war between the Algonquian Native American tribes and the colonists who were living in Jamestown. However, historical evidence proves that at the time John Smith came into contact with Powhatan, Pocahontas was only a young child around the age of ten and, thus had very little influence over her father. Additionally, the film dep icts John Smith as a leader who was looked up to by the other colonists, while historical records prove that he â€Å"had made many enemies by the time he had left Jamestown.†1 Disney inaccurately portrayed particular pieces of the Native American experience with the European colonists, specifically regarding Pocahontas, yet, it is important to consider the audience that this part of history was being presented to. One of the biggest historical inaccuracies presented in the Disney film Pocahontas is the love story between John Smith and Pocahontas. The film exhibited John Smith and Pocahontas as falling madly in love at first sight. This love is represented in the film through the â€Å"colors of the wind† which can often be seen circling Smith or Pocahontas. In the book, Townsend provides evidence of a relationship between the two that included only friendship, laughter, and education, but not love. A demonstration of this relationship would be when Pocahontas â€Å" participated in a class of mutual language instruction with John Smith.†2 In fact, it is from these lessons that Smith was able to write down the only full Powhatan sentences to ever be recorded. While there was no love between Smith and Pocahontas, historical evidence has shown that Smith thought about Pocahontas in sexual  ways. Actually, â€Å"council investigation openly acknowledged that he made lewd comments about her – or having even done things to her – in jokes, or in moments of sexual arousal.†3 The true love story in Pocahontas occurred between John Rolfe and Pocahontas at the Jamestown settlement a few years after Smith had made contact with the Algonquian tribe. Unfortunately, Rolfe was not even represented in the first Pocahontas film. Another historical inaccuracy that can be seen in the Disney film is the physical depiction of both John Smith and Pocahontas. The film portrays Smith as a young, tall, blonde-haired, blue-eyed colonist who is charming and interested in protecting the Native Americans after coming into contact with Pocahontas. In contrast, historical evidence mentions that he was interested in control, and his intent was to subjugate the Native Americans so that â€Å"they could be made to work for their conquerors.†4 Smith was particularly interested in power and control over the Native Americans to further the cause in the New World for the English, which â€Å"unfortunately had passed the English by for at least a century.†5 Interestingly, Smith is portrayed in the film as being a young adult, of similar age to Pocahontas; however, in reality he was a middle-aged man with a large beard, and much older than Pocahontas.6 Smith is not the only person who was represented inaccurately by Disney in the film. Pocahontas is portrayed in the film as being a tall, beautiful, young adult who is free-spirited and passionate about nature. The most serious inaccuracy regarding Pocahontas is undoubtedly the fact that she is represented as a young adult, most likely around the age of twenty. According to historical records, Pocahontas, at the time of Smith’s arrival to the New World, was only ten years old.7 Additionally, the film depicts Pocahontas as being shocked and in awe of the English, however, evidence shows that â€Å"at no point did Powhatan, Pocahontas, or any of their people look on the strangers with wide-mouthed awe or consider them gods.†8 In fact, it is because of her young age that Townsend believes that â€Å"Powhatan and his advisors were hardly under her influence† when it came to policy decisions. Thus, her representation as a young adult is historically inaccurate and was clearly put in place to support the imaginary love story betwee n her and John Smith and make this fairy tale seem more believable. In Disney’s Pocahontas, it is evident that Powhatan desires Pocahontas to marry a Native American. In fact, the film even depicts Powhatan selecting Kocoom,  one of his strongest warriors, to be Pocahontas’ future husband. However, Townsend shines light on the idea that Powhatan did not have a strong preference about who Pocahontas married because Pocahontas’ mother lacked â€Å"political significance.†9 For this reason, any male child that Pocahontas was to bear would have not been placed in a seat of power, so it was not particularly necessary that she marry at all. As a result, she was given the choice of whom she wanted to marry. Interestingly, historical records indicate that Pocahontas â€Å"married a man named Kocoom, around the age of twelve or thirteen† and that â€Å"she must have liked him very much indeed.†10 So while the Disney film inaccurately portrayed Powhatan’s interest in Pocahontas’ love life, the film was able to successfully introduce Kocoom as a great warrior who had love for Pocahontas. Unfortunately, the film also inaccurately depicted a skirmish between Smith and Kocoom, which ultimately led to Kocoom’s death after being shot in the back. One thing historians are certain about is that Kocoom was the first husband of Pocahontas, however, â€Å"within a few years Kocoom seems to have disappeared.†11 The true story behind what exactly happened to Kocoom is up for debate, although many believe that he could have been killed in war, as he was a warrior for Powhatan. Another historical inaccuracy in Pocahontas is the portrayal of Powhatan as a person who practices monogamy. In fact, there are slight references in the film that Pocahontas’ mother had died, thus, making Powhatan a widow. While it is possible that Pocahontas’ mother died, historians know that Powhatan practiced polygamy regardless, due to the numerous amount of children he had. Through this sy stem, â€Å"whole clans of brothers and sisters had an obvious shared interest in remaining united and maintaining their family’s power.†12 In Townsend’s book, it is stated that in order to maintain rule over the tribes he conquered, Powhatan would â€Å"simply marry a woman of their royal family† because â€Å"a son conceived by her would grow up with loyalty to both his father and to his mother’s people.†13 To be ensured of this loyalty, the children were to be raised by Powhatan himself. The film also portrayed the inaccurate idea that Powhatan was interested in killing all of the colonists. In fact, what Powhatan really wanted was to gain metal tools as well as technology in the form of guns, knives, hatchets and pans; this is the reason why he made a deal John Smith.14 Townsend even included the fact that Powhatan was interested in  Ã¢â‚¬Å"establishing kinship ties as a means of ensuring his expanding control.†15 While Disney portrayed the story of Pocahontas inaccurately in many ways, some of the historical information was displayed in a correct manner. At the beginning of the film, the women of the tribe can be seen working in the fields. This, from the study of history, is accurate because we know that every member of the tribe worked in the village, even the royal family.16 Women could be seen dividing into groups in the morning; some would work the field, some would pick up firewood, and others would gather Tuckahoe to make flour.17 The film also depic ted the Native Americans’ telling of great stories that included the European conquests of parts of the New World. Being that Native American culture is passed down orally, historians can easily accept this idea that historical tales were told around campfires. Townsend explains that on an â€Å"ordinary evening, Pocahontas might have sat in the flickering light of torches and the central fire†¦listening to the older people tell stories.†18 While historians will never know exactly what Pocahontas was taught about her ancestry, it is safe to assume that there were many stories about the prior attempts of colonization that the â€Å"coat-wearers† had on their land. When analyzing the historical inaccuracies of the Disney film Pocahontas, it is important to keep in mind the audience that the film was created for. Disney undoubtedly created the film as a way to introduce the concept of Native Americans to children. In fact, one could argue that the primary audi ence that this film was intended for is between the ages of six and nine. As a result, Disney would not want to create a film that portrays all Europeans as power-hungry and eager to conquer the world in violent ways. After all, American children are more than likely living on land that belonged to the Native Americans at one time. It would not be favorable for Disney to illustrate the people around these children as a group who is interested in stealing from others. Disney hopes to teach kids about the importance of giving to others and keeping those you love close. Thus, this is why we see John Smith and Pocahontas as attractive role models who fall madly in love. Pocahontas was created to be a fairytale that portrayed the idea of ultimate love and happiness, not to show the utter destruction that the Native Americans and their land suffered from after contact with the Europeans. One could argue that Pocahontas was created to depict a peaceful transfer of lands from the Native Americans to  the European colonists through mutual agreement, an example of how inaccuracies about the true occurrence still persist today. Disney attempted to develop a film that introduced the history of Native Americans and the New World to young children through a simplistic story with a happy ending. However, this could become dangerous if the children who view the film do not receive proper education about the subject and continuously base facts off the film. In general, making a fictitious representation of true events could pass as unobjectionable in order to make a story more interesting for film. In the case of Pocahontas, when a story works to make the group that was truly at fault look innocent, issues arise in terms of proper education and the reinforcement of unjust myths. The film, Pocahontas, was undoubtedly filled with many historical inaccuracies, which have caused confusion about the realistic story of Pocahontas, but it did provide truthful, basic background information about Native American lifestyle at the time of the European conquest. I agree with Townsend that Pocahontas deserves for her true story to be known. However, I believe that creating a Disney film was not the best way to accomplish this, nor was it the goal of the company. Introducing the true interactions and agreements made between the Algonquian Native Americans and the European conquerors was not possible to do through an animated Disney film due to the typical audience of the film and the simplistic, family-oriented themes that Disney incorporates. American History classes provided in American schools, particularly in areas that have a strong historical Native American presence, are doing a better job of teaching students about the truthful atrocities that the European settlers created for the Native Americans. It is clear, however, that pop-culture may not be at the same level of educating society. Works Cited Townsend, Camilla. Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma. New York: Hill and Wang, 2004. Pocahontas. Dir. Mike Gabriel. 1995. DVD.

Descartes Second Argument For The Existence Of God

First Midterm Paper: Descartes’ Second Argument for the Existence of God As with almost all of Descartes inquiries the roots of his second argument for the existence of God begin with his desire to build a foundation of knowledge that he can clearly and distinctly perceive. At the beginning of the third meditation Descartes once again recollects the things that he knows with certainty. The problem arises when he attempts to clearly and distinctly understand truths of arithmetic and geometry. Descartes has enough evidence to believe these things, but one major doubt is still present; the possibility of God being a deceiver. Descartes worry is that all the knowledge that he possesses through intuition could potentially be false if God merely chooses to deceive him. So in order to have a clear and distinct perception of arithmetic truths (and other such intuitive truths) Descartes delves into the question of God’s existence (and whether this God could be a deceiver or not) . After giving his first proof for the existence of God Descartes concludes by mentioning that this proof is not always self-evident. When he is absorbed in the world of sensory illusions it is not quite obvious to him that God’s existence can be derived from the idea of God. So to further cement God’s existence Descartes begins his second proof by posing the question of whether he could exist (a thinking thing that possesses the idea of an infinite and perfect god) if God itself did not exist. DescartesShow MoreRelatedThe Ontological Argument For The Existence Of God1509 Words   |  7 Pages Descartes’ ontological argument is an echo of the original ontological argument for the existence of God as proposed by St. Anselm in the 11th century. To illustrate the background of the ontological argument, Anselm’s argument works within a distinct framework of ontology that posits the existence of God as necessity by virtue of its definition. In other words, fo r the mind to conceive of an infinite, perfect God, ultimately implies that there must indeed be a perfect God that embodies existenceRead MoreDescartes Fourth Meditation On The Existence Of God1382 Words   |  6 PagesIn Descartes’ Fifth Meditation, he delivers an argument that has come to be known as the Ontological Argument. It is here that Descartes argues for the existence of God, through a priori reasoning. In order to understand both the strengths and weakness of this argument, I will first break it down into its main premises. From here, I will argue that despite the simplicity and use of reasoning in the argument, the weaknesses outweigh the strengths, and ultimately that the argument fails. To allow forRead MoreDescartes Meditations On First Philosophy1712 Words   |  7 PagesDescartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy (1641) contains six Meditations. In the first two of these Descartes addresses doubt and certainty. 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