The Metamorphosis Essays - Absurdist Fiction, Modernist Literature

The Metamorphosis THE METAMORPHOSIS I believe that the overall theme to the story of the Metamorphosis by Kafka concerns society's injusticies and moralities and how they have reduced to a despicable level. Throughout the story Kafka shows how society can be split into different sections, with Gregor representing the working and useful man at the time and his family representing all the other kinds of people throughout society. When a person is no longer needed as a provider, a son, a brother or any other member of society, should he no longer be considered a human being? I think Kafka cries change in the Metamorphosis. The story begins deceptively simply confirming a horrific event with a detached matter-of -factness. ? As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a giant insect.? The salesman who subjects himself to the relentless weakness of peddling wares to keep his family in the comfort to which they have grown accustomed suddenly finds himself transformed into an insect. He appears to accept the reality that he is no longer human with an unsettling calm, truly believing that he can still contribute to society, despite his ?differentness.' However, despite Gregor's willingness to accept his unjust fate, he soon discovers that his family is not quite as open-minded. Because Gregor was the sole source of financial support to his family, so his sudden change has monetary implications. His father must take a job as a doorman and when that doesn't work out, they are forced to take in boarders. These tenants treat the Samsa family as subservient, a fact that distresses Gregor: ?My, what a quiet life the family used to lead.? Gregor felt pride that he had managed to support his parents and sister Greta with such a life in a beautiful apartment. Instead of lamenting his own fate, he is thinking of how he has let his family down. Yet, they are too self-absorbed to consider Gregor's private torment. All that mattered to the family was that Gregor was able to provide. The purpose for his existence was to serve his family. After his secret change to an insect was discovered, they realized that he was no longer of any use to the family and he was unappreciated in every way. This is made clear in the beginning of the story when Gregor wouldn't let anyone in his room in fear that they would be horrified by his condition. He felt that everyone was angry and wanted him to get up for work, which he somehow felt that he might be able to accomplish. This is the ultimate example of the loyalty which Gregor exhibited all of his life. After his change into an insect, Gregor presented a problem for he had no function in the family. They locked him up, imprisoning him by not allowing him out of his room. Slowly, his possessions were removed, and for some time no one bothered to clean his room. Anything that was not needed for the moment was simply thrown into his room. To them he was only a bug and not their son and brother. They chose to ignore all his good and self-sacrificing acts before the change and did not show him the respect, which he deserved. It is apparent that there were certain things within the family that Gregor's change into a bug did not affect. Understanding Gregor was something that his parents failed to do. Relations between father and son had always been strained, as if all of Gregor's efforts were to receive some kind of paternal approval. His mother, after speaking to Gregor for the first time after his metamorphosis did not recognize any difference in his voice. This seems strange since he h imself was shocked as he heard his own voice answering hers. He knew that it was his own voice but that it had unmistakably changed drastically, suggesting that they didn't speak often. Therefore, both before and after the metamorphosis, they continued to misunderstand Gregor. They failed to realize that, even as a bug, Gregor was still there and that he could understand everything they had to say. Thus, both before and after the metamorphosis Gregor's

Free Essays on Imperialism Arguements

The White Man’s Burden and Confessions of Faith European imperialism emerged in the early eighteen hundreds and continued into the early nineteen hundreds. While Rome used imperialism as a means to acquire territory and land, Europeans not only wanted to obtain land, but also wanted to achieve power, politically and economically. The countries wanted the control of overseas bases to keep ships and troops supplied and ready whenever you needed. A large number of Europeans went overseas to try and help unfortunate people. European governments built a government structure and taught the people how to rule in a civilized fashion. Christianity was also spread in the process. Desire to increase in wealth, power, and land strived the idea of imperialism to emergence. The British Writer Rudyard Kipling termed Europe’s benefiting of the â€Å"backward† peoples of Africa and Asia in â€Å"The White Man’s Burden†. â€Å"Why should we not form a secret society with but one object the furtherance of the British Empire and the bringing of the whole uncivilized world under British rule...?† (Cecil Rhodes) The above quote is taken from the form of final testament, Confessions of Faith by Cecil Rhodes. Rhodes was one of the greatest of all the European empire builders. Cecil Rhodes expounds his views on racial supremacy, religion and imperialism in this piece of literature. Cecil Rhodes’ wants to create to secret society composed of people who want to expand their power overseas to gain more wealth and power economically and politically. He demands more territory under Anglo Saxon influence. He wants the idea of imperialism to be taught in universities and schools so it can be transferred to the next generation. Rhodes was the driving force behind British Imperialism in South Africa. Cecil Rhodes wishes Europe to seize every opportunity of acquiring more land, and power over the world. He proclaims that Anglo Saxon is the best human ... Free Essays on Imperialism Arguements Free Essays on Imperialism Arguements The White Man’s Burden and Confessions of Faith European imperialism emerged in the early eighteen hundreds and continued into the early nineteen hundreds. While Rome used imperialism as a means to acquire territory and land, Europeans not only wanted to obtain land, but also wanted to achieve power, politically and economically. The countries wanted the control of overseas bases to keep ships and troops supplied and ready whenever you needed. A large number of Europeans went overseas to try and help unfortunate people. European governments built a government structure and taught the people how to rule in a civilized fashion. Christianity was also spread in the process. Desire to increase in wealth, power, and land strived the idea of imperialism to emergence. The British Writer Rudyard Kipling termed Europe’s benefiting of the â€Å"backward† peoples of Africa and Asia in â€Å"The White Man’s Burden†. â€Å"Why should we not form a secret society with but one object the furtherance of the British Empire and the bringing of the whole uncivilized world under British rule...?† (Cecil Rhodes) The above quote is taken from the form of final testament, Confessions of Faith by Cecil Rhodes. Rhodes was one of the greatest of all the European empire builders. Cecil Rhodes expounds his views on racial supremacy, religion and imperialism in this piece of literature. Cecil Rhodes’ wants to create to secret society composed of people who want to expand their power overseas to gain more wealth and power economically and politically. He demands more territory under Anglo Saxon influence. He wants the idea of imperialism to be taught in universities and schools so it can be transferred to the next generation. Rhodes was the driving force behind British Imperialism in South Africa. Cecil Rhodes wishes Europe to seize every opportunity of acquiring more land, and power over the world. He proclaims that Anglo Saxon is the best human ...

Non - Naturalism in British Television Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Non - Naturalism in British Television - Essay Example The paper addresses contemporary television sequences and raises new questions about such issues in adaptation. The importance of the content lies in its attempt to place British television at the centre of late twentieth century British culture and to relate the criticism of television drama to a wider history of aesthetic debates and arguments. The study does not proposes a theory of everything or a new general theory of television, but enlightens with historical and critical analysis of one bit of television, a particular corner of the field of dramatic narrative which has a particular political, cultural and aesthetic efficacy of its own, at the same time, it shares the efficacy of the ‘television’ itself. According to Dennis Potter, a professional writer for television as well as a creative artist, most television ends up offering its viewers a means of orienting themselves towards the generally received notions of ‘reality’. The best naturalist of realist drama, of the Loach-Garnett-Allen school for instance, breaks out of this cosy habit by the vigour, clarity, originality and depth of perceptions of a more comprehensive reality. The best non-naturalist drama, in its very structures disorientates the viewer smack in the middle of the orientation process which television perpetually uses. It disrupts the patterns that are endemic to television, and upsets or exposes the narrative styles of so many of the other allegedly non-fiction programme. It shows â€Å"the frame in the picture when most television is busy showing the picture in the frame†. It is potentially the more valuable of the two approaches. Naturalism and realism have had a history of disagreement since nineteenth century. ‘Non-naturalism’, then is shorthand founded on shorthand. The critic or professional has ever referred to naturalism in television drama as a term of approval, something

Occupational Segregation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Occupational Segregation - Essay Example As the paper outlines occupational segregation exists, then, when women and men are distributed across occupations so as to be out of proportion with their overall participation in the labour force. In the United Kingdom, most occupations are comprised of predominantly male or predominantly female workers and many are identified as men’s or women’s work. This essay covers different theories explaining facts and figures of occupational segregation as described by researchers, its measurement and existence, gender, occupations, its consequences and explanations have been covered. This study declares that levels of aggregation affect the index of segregation in two ways. First, occupational segregation increases with the decrease in the level of aggregation of the data. For instance, women hold 74.5 of all teaching positions in 1995 but 89.5 of all elementary school positions. Gender segregation increases still more when one considers job-level segregation within firms. Second, the variability of occupational categories between years or between organizations can cause misleading comparisons. Some English scholars cite more fundamental problems with the index of dissimilarity. Watts claims that it is faulty because it fails to replace those workers who move to other occupations, resulting in a distribution that does not resemble the previous occupational structure. To overcome this problem, Watts proposes the use of the Karmel-MacLachlan index, which factors in the replacement workers. Blackburn, Jarman, and Siltanen conclude that the index of dissimilarity is seriously flawed by the fluctuation in sex and occupational composition.

Business Continuity Planning Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Business Continuity Planning - Research Paper Example In 2007, Hewlett Packard conducted a study on the uptake of business continuity planning in some selected organizations. The results indicated that about â€Å"31% of small business† had no business continuity planning in place (Guy & Lownes-Jackson, 2011, p.55). This paper will explore how business can develop a business continuity plan to certify that they are prepared to face disruptive events that natural or manmade factors can trigger within the business environment. In this research paper, I will explore the steps that business can take to develop an efficient business continuity planning that will boost the preparedness to face disaster. In particular, the paper will delve on the steps that organizations must follow to arrive at a concrete and useful business continuity planning. First, the paper will explore first step called the initiation step where senior management of an organization meets and carry out a comprehensive review of the shortcomings in preparedness alo ng with evaluating available resources. Second, the paper will address the second stage—business impact analysis. The paper will reveal the value of business impact analysis and its execution. ... Lastly, the fifth section of the paper will detail how organizations carry out maintenance and testing of business continuity planning they have developed. Such a paper should provide significant insights on the process of business continuity planning and embed it as a core strategy that businesses can adopt to remain competitive in a world for myriads of factors can cause business to stop their operations. Business continuity planning Business operations are often at risk of disruption by threats from natural forces or human factors. For instance, terrorists attack on World Trade Centre and the Tsunami in Japan left many businesses with the lack of capacity to do any business operations (Adkins, Thornton & Blake, 2009). It is such threats that create a need for business continuity planning because this process allows business to resume their operations and sustain critical operations when an outage occurs (Wei. 2009). In order for an organization to have a business continuity plan i n place, it has to follow the five steps necessary in creating a Business continuity plan. a) Initiation the Plan This is often the first state of business continuity planning where the senior management of the organization meet, strategize, and evaluate the feasibility of the project. This meeting plays an integral role in allowing the managers to own the business continuity-planning project and dedicate various resources for its completion. In this meeting, the management will review the goals and objective of the project and align them with the business objectives of the organization (Rinehardt, 2010). In addition, the management must also identity

Comparison of Stalin and Hitler

Comparison of Stalin and Hitler Even though some people may argue this, its a common fact that Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler are one of the two worst villains in history. Stalin murdered millions of people and Hitler murdered millions of people. They both tortured innocent people. They both threatened violence towards the rest of the world. Hitler started the worst war in history. Stalin spread Communism to other countries. Hitler almost wiped out a human race. Stalin slaughtered his own people. Whos the most hideous person? Stalin was a more hideous person than Hitler. Hitler was born to an overprotective mother and an overbearing father. While his mother would shower him with affection, his father barely even acknowledged his existence. His love for Germany started when he was very young. His love for Germany awakened when he moved to Germany and started to play with German children. This love for Germany would never die (Ayer 16). His independence started when he was six when he walked to and from school and dealing with mischievous boys. It was around this time when Hitlers father was starting to come home drunk every day. He was abused daily by his father because Hitler refused to give in to his fathers demands. In school, he was a leader. One boy quoted We all liked him, at desk and at play. He had guts. He wasnt a hothead, he was a quiet fanatic (Ayer 19). At thirteen his father passed away suddenly and Hitler became the male head of the house. Hitler was very charismatic. His words go like an arrow to their target, he touches each private wo und on the raw, expressing [peoples] intermost [hopes], telling [them] what [they] most want to hear (Strasser 65). When at school he took a particular liking to Professor Leopold Potsch. Potsch was a follower of the Volkisch Movement. The movement was a group that believed that the German people were superior to everyone else especially the Jews (Ayer 21). Hitler saw the opera Rienzi and it changed his life forever. His friend, Kubizek, said: Now he aspired to something higher, something I could not yet fully understand. All this surprised me, because I believed that the [life] of an artist was for him the highest of all goals, the one most striving for. But now he was speaking of an [order] he would one day receive from the people, to lead them out of [slavery] to the heights of freedom. (Ayers 23) Hitler blamed his own poverty and humiliation on the Jews. It was during World War 1 when he finally did something with his life. He enlisted. War was brilliant to him. He was at home in the trenches. He received the greatest award Germany had to offer. When Germany lost he was completely devastated. It was at this time when he finally got into politics. Hitler became interested and joined the German Workers Party. Soon later he changed the name of the party to the NAZI Party. He silenced any high ranking official within the party that didnt agree with him. He blamed the Jews on all the bad problems in Germany. Hitler was eventually arrested. While he was in jail he wrote Mein Kampf. This would later be the Nazi Bible. Once out of jail he reformed the Nazi Party into something far greater than it ever was. In 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor. Soon later he became the sole dictator of Germany. This was only the beginning for Hitler. Stalins childhood was marked with hate. His father would beat him savagely for no reason. This made Stalin grim and heartless. His mother on the other hand spoiled him and always gave excuses for his bad behavior. This made Stalin think at a young age that everything he did was alright. When Stalin was in school he tried to dominate his classmates in everything they did. He studied his classmates weaknesses and acted upon their weaknesses to force the other children to accept his leadership. Stalin saw the illiterate tribes of the towering Caucasus Mountains as romantic heroes. They were fierce and stopped at nothing until they got what they want. When he was thirteen he was exposed to scientific thought for the first time. These books made Stalin believe that there was no god. At the age of sixteen, Stalin went to a seminary. While at the seminary he secretly joined a new revolutionary party. He smuggles illegal books into the seminary. It was in these books that Stalin first learne d what Communism is by Marx. He was so much against the idea of god he wasnt able to fake it anymore. His grades went from best to worst in the class and four months before graduation he was expelled. Even though he hated the seminary, it did leave its mark on him. It hardened for the life of a professional revolutionary. He also applied the religious fanaticism to Communism (Archer 19). The seminarys spy system was the inspiration for his own secret police. On May 1, 1901, Stalin led two thousand railway workers into a bloody clash against the Tsars forces. He fled being arrested. He began an outlaws life taking on false names and always slipping away from the police. Stalin looked up to and inspired Lenin for having to fill his life with great purpose (Archer 23). On April 5, 1902, he was finally arrested. He viewed this setback as a positive. He began recruiting prisoners into the Social Democratic Party. On January 21, 1905, Stalin announced that the revolution has begun. In 190 7, he wife died. This made Stalin even more sarcastic, cold, and vengeful than ever before (Archer 35). It wasnt until World War I that the revolution won and took over the government of Russia. In 1924 Lenin had died and there was a struggle on who should now rule Russia. After the dust has settled it was the Man of Steel, Joseph Stalin, which began his role of being one of the best rulers in Russias history. There are many people who Hitler hated and wanted to annihilate. Hitler wanted a pure Aryan race. This means he wanted only perfect people. The people must be tall, slender, physically fit, and free of any disability, deformity, abnormality, mental illness, and homosexuality. Above all people Hitler hated he hated the Jews the most. He firmly believed that the Jews were the inferior race. He blamed the Jews for Germanys defeat in World War I. He believed that Germany would have never lost the war if it wasnt for the Jews stabbing Germany in the back. In Europe at the time, Jews were known as Communists and to some people Germany was known as a Jewish Country. This was the last thing Hitler wanted his country called. Stalin hated everyone who was against him and Communism. He always feared for his position in power and for Communism. It didnt matter if they were political enemies or just civilians who didnt like communism, Stalin hated them all. Stalin did everything in his power to instill fear into his enemies. He wanted to make sure whoever was against him know that that was a grave and deadly mistake. In 1939, Hitler started the worst war in history. Hitler wanted to make a German Empire all throughout Europe and evidentially the world. World War II had over sixty nations involved in it. He wanted superiority over everyone in the world. Hitler wanted to wipe out an entire race. He put Jews in concentration camps. In concentration camps, Jews were tortured, gassed, used as sick experiments, shot, starved, and hung. He wasnt going to stop until he wiped every single Jew off the face of the world. To Hitler, the Jewish race was nothing but little, annoying animals. What Stalin did to his own people is sickening. Stalin was a huge fanatic of being patriotic for the motherland. He killed anyone he expected to be a traitor. During World War II, if a soldier took one step backwards to retreat then an officer would shoot them on the spot declaring they were traitors even though in reality they werent really traitors. After World War II, Stalin reopened some of the concentration camps and put German civilians in them. Stalin killed anyone that disagreed with him. He executed over forty thousand polish prisoners. If Stalin had a political enemy then the enemy would be taken to a labor and be never seen from again. Conditions in the labor camps have been said are worst then some of the concentration camps Hitler put the Jews in. Stalin wasnt only ruthless to foreign people he was ruthless towards his own people making them fear him so much they were forced to love him. Hitler killed six million people. Most of those people were Jews while some were other minorities. Stalin killed over forty thousand polish prisoners and also killed two hundred thousand Georgian civilians. In all Stalin murdered roughly twenty to forty-five million people. Hitler and Stalin were both extremely evil men who stopped at nothing to achieve what they wanted. They both grew up in hateful homes. They lied and killed to make their way to the top. They both killed millions of people. In all, Stalin was the most hideous one. Even Hitler did many bad things in his life, Stalin definitely out did him. Stalin hated more people, he killed millions and millions of more people then Hitler, and he was more ruthless than the Nazi leader. Stalin was the essence of the devil himself.

Thomas Jefferson Essays -- essays research papers

Thomas Jefferson is remembered in history not only for the offices he held, but also for his belief in the natural rights of man as expressed in the Declaration of Independence and his faith in the people’s ability to govern themselves. Through his political career, Thomas Jefferson advocated democratic principles and adhered to his liberal ideology. However, as a president he found it difficult to maintain these policies in the noisy arena of politics. Consequently, circumstances forced him to reverse himself in some degree on these concepts. When he was voted into the presidency, Jefferson devoted a major section of his inaugural address to the "’the essential principles of our government, and consequently those which ought to shape it’s administration’" (Cunningham). Here he reiterated his basic political principles and the leading policies that he had professed as a candidate, which he now restated as the guiding pillars of his administration. He began by affirming "’equal and exact justice to all his men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political.’" Next, Jefferson proclaimed, "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none." He then went on to affirm his commitment to the rights of the states and the preservation of the central government. Continuing to intermingle general principles and specific policies, that new president declared that he favored reliance for defense on a "militia rather than an army, a small navy" (Cunningham) and prosperity through "economy, the payment of debts, and the encouragement of agriculture and commerce as its handmaid." He also emphasized basic rights such as freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and impartially selected juries. "These principles," Jefferson concluded, "form the brightest constellation, which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation†¦ They should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civic instruction, the touchstone by which we try the services of those we trust." Unfortunately for Jefferson, marinating this creed would not be easy during this period of history. Jefferson maintained his governing principles throughout the most part of his presidency.... ...elpless American ship was thereupon forced to surrender four of its men. One was a British deserter, but three were Americans. Many Americans wanted to go to war against Britain over this incident. However, Jefferson was determined to avoid war, feeling he could bring Britain to terms by applying economic pressure. In December 1807, the Congress passed the Embargo Act. American ships were forbidden to sail from American ports to any European port. Jefferson believed that England and France could not survive without American trade. However, he had greatly underestimated the effect of the embargo on the United States itself. All parts of the country were affected, especially the industrial and commercial North. In order to avoid war, Jefferson was forced to act against two of his principles by risking American commerce and terminating friendly relationships with other nations. Despite the unavoidable circumstances that caused his actions, Jefferson still proved to be one of the most valued presidents. His ideas, firmly established in the Declaration of Independence, are the foundation of modern society. Current politicians and citizens value many of his principles as well.