Political Influence Essay Example for Free

Political Influence Essay A person is fed information throughout their life from various outside influences; this is how one forms values, views and opinions. From this, one is able to shape their political views based on what they believe or have been taught to believe. There are many factors that come into play when these views are formed, such as historical events. Others while apparent have a latent effect, such as gender, race, socio-economic status etc. The way a person is brought up has a fairly large impact on political socialization. Children come to know their parents value systems and beliefs. The children are brought up around these beliefs and these beliefs are instilled upon them in both unconscious and conscious ways. This is the beginning. As a person is introduced to more situations and experiences their views are molded further but the foundations are always there. Most Americans do not look thorough the inner workings of our government and the general idea of politics. Instead they look at what politics has to offer for them. It is far easier to just look at politics based on your opinions rather than through the policies and procedures. With the innovations of modern technology and the mass media, people dont have to look that hard for issues surrounding politics. All they have to do is turn on their T. V. or read the news on their favorite search engine web site. I think that this has had a negative effect on peoples political views. Instead of reading articles and forming opinions on their own, they are shown the sensationalized view of politics and a fairly biased/limited perspective. My own political views were formed the same way everyone elses were. My parents taught me about the differences between democrats and republicans, what the president does and even about the legislative branch. These teachings were mainly based around their own views but always with quite a bit of objectivity. I grew up in a fairly free household; my parents encouraged individuality and self-reliance. This gave me the ability to learn and think about things on my own, being able figure out how I felt about them. Another interesting thing about my upbringing is that I grew up without a computer, so when I wanted to know what was going on I had to watch the news on T. V. The school that I went to was fairly progressive and the teacher that I had for Social Studies taught us a lot about both our local and federal governments, all of which have helped me from my political views. I am a very open-minded person and this carries over heavily into how I view politics. I tend to focus on the single issues at hand and not on which party is proposing them. I feel strongly on many issues, to include abortion, education, foreign/domestic policy, welfare and most recently civil unions; however I try to understand both sides; not to agree but to understand. I do feel that I could be far more educated in politics, but I believe I am off to a good start.

Intolerance in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn :: essays papers

Intolerance in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The entire plot of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is rooted on intolerance between different social groups. Without prejudice and intolerance The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn would not have any of the antagonism or intercourse that makes the recital interesting. The prejudice and intolerance found in the book are the characteristics that make The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn a great American Classic. The author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is Samuel Langhorn, who is more commonly known by his pen name, Mark Twain. He was born in 1835 with the passing of Haley's comet, and died in 1910 with the passing of Haley's comet. Twain often used prejudice as a building block for the plots of his stories. Twain even said, "The very ink in which history is written is merely fluid prejudice." There are many other instances in which Twain uses prejudice as a foundation for the entertainment of his writings. Even in the opening paragraph of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Twain states, "Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot." There were many groups that Twain contrasted in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The interaction of these different social groups is what makes up the main plot of the novel. For the objective of discussion they have been broken down into five main sets of antithetic parties: people with high levels of melanin and people with low levels of melanin, rednecks and scholarly, children and adults, men and women, and finally, the Sheperdson's and the Grangerford's. Whites and African Americans are the main two groups contrasted in the novel. Throughout the novel Twain portrays Caucasians as a more educated group that is higher in society compared to the African Americans portrayed in the novel. The cardinal way that Twain portrays African Americans as obsequious is through the colloquy that he assigns them. Their dialogue is composed of nothing but broken English. One example in the novel is this excerpt from the conversation between Jim the fugitive slave, and Huckleberry about why Jim ran away, where Jim declares, "Well you see, it 'uz dis way. Ole missus-dat's Miss Watson-she pecks on me all de time, en treats me pooty rough, but she awluz said she woudn' sell me down to Orleans." Although this is the phonetic spelling of how some African Americans from the boondocks used to talk, Twain only applied the argot to Blacks

Junior College English Class Essay Essay

Poetry is basically the absolving of narrative from a subjective stance. The essence of good and meaningful poetry lies not just in the perfection of form, but also in the manner by which the theme is expressed at large. T. S. Eliot rejects the ambivalence commonly associated with poetry and speaks of it as being a transparent and meaningful medium of the poet’s subjectivity (Raine 122). But not all poems carry a strictly subjective expression in that numerous factors often belie the poet’s spontaneity and freedom of expression. The term ‘hegemony’ typically involves the phenomenon of getting institutionalized. In other words, it is the cultural hegemony of beliefs and conventionality that sometimes influences the society in a restricted way, causing it to pronounce misplaced ideologies the society thrusts upon its dwellers. This paper is going to focus on two modern poems for identifying the hegemonic elements in them. To analyze the rules of hegemony in works of literature, we have taken Dancing in Odessa by Ilya Kaminsky and A Song on the End of the World by Czeslaw Milosz. It is imperative that a certain amount of background researching is made into the aforementioned poems to swiftly bring out the hegemonic components in them, if any. Written by a Soviet emigrant to the United States of America, Dancing in Odessa tells a story of forlornness and despair. The poet Ilya Kaminsky looks back at the memories of a tormented childhood from the recesses of his powerful imagination, and documents them meticulously in the book. However, the poet’s authority or lack of it, over a foreign language like English does not take away the passionate rendering we enjoy in Dancing in Odessa. The creative force is articulated by repeating images and phrases – a poetic trend more common to the Victorian times. Such a method also highlights the ingenuity of art in terms of its realistic expressions and sometimes, tragic visions. The frequent imagery which haunts the poet is that of his previous dwelling place which he had to forsake in the beginning of the 1990s. Frequent references to the Russian city of Odessa in this lyrical masterpiece resonate with dark and somber moods typical of postmodern anguish. The narration is literally disrobed of excesses, thus allowing the readers to attain a position of first person viewers. The use of metaphors is sporadic and therefore, has an impressionistic sense of coherence. Now in relation to the thesis question, Dancing in Odessa can be interpreted as being a product of the cultural dominance of a changed society having a significant amount of hegemonic impact on the intellectual expressions of its time. Kaminsky family’s migration to the United States of America as political refugees left in the poet’s mind a profound sense of yearning for the city of Odessa and its myriad memories. The change of guards in terms of the social, political, administrative, religious and cultural controls had a radically shifting influence for the newly migrated segments in the US society. Almost a collage of imageries merges into each other in the poem to form a continuous loop of expressions suited to bring out the occasional allegories. It is apparent after reading the poem that the poet’s vision is shaped by the erstwhile social superstructure in Russia: â€Å"The German tanks on tractors,†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Kaminsky 12). Just as Kaminsky creates a crossbreed of forms and patterns in Dancing in Odessa, Czeslaw Milosz in A Song on the End of the World draws on from his personal experiences and pantheistic beliefs to paint a picture of universality. All the imageries used in this narrative provide a familiar yet ethereal representation of nature and its relationship with mankind. In this sense, this poem almost antecedes many of the earlier works of art, especially that of William Wordsworth. The richly meditative mood of the poem is captured perfectly by repeated lines that almost sound like a sacred hymn. As far as intellectual hegemony is concerned, it is the Christian convictions of the poet that urge him to muse over the outputs of life within a continuous cosmic framework. The fact that the constancy of nature is complemented by the routine course of our everyday lives goes to show how transcendence creates a sense of dilution. A strict adherence to the established rules of the society which we live in is unlikely to let us contemplate on an existence which is essentially evil and diabolic. So the poet advertently dismisses the evil influences working behind the impending end of the world by voicing his poignant Christian beliefs: â€Å"As long as the sun and the moon are above, As long as the bumblebee visits a rose As long as rosy infants are born No one believes it is happening now. † (Peakdesign, 2009) One of the striking aspects about Milosz’s craft is his ability to look beyond the petty problems of the temporal existence. This is evident in A Song on the End of the World which converges beyond the borderline of transient existence of being. The omnipotent Creator and His creations become unified as and when the end nears. This theological argument perfectly justifies the dichotomy between the songs of experience and that of innocence (Nathan and Quinn 22). Since both these two texts belong to contemporary times marked by lack of faith and tolerance in general and realism, it is quite obvious that they ought to accrue to certain social and intellectual rationales. So the thesis argument is met with in terms of finding plausible hegemonic correlatives in the works of Ilya Kaminsky and Czeslaw Milosz. What still remains to be seen, however, is the ensuing literature that is undoubtedly capable of producing more such heartrending documentations of life.

Allegory Essay - 704 Words

Allegory Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave is a short story specifically discussing the parallels between the shadows the prisoners sees on the wall of the cave, and the illusion, which passes off as truth in today\\s society. The Allegory of the Cave is about Socrates teaching his student, Glaucon, certain principles of life by telling him one of his allegories. The Allegory of the Cave can be interpreted in many ways; one way is to make a comparison between the story and the way of thinking by individuals in a closed society. Socrates states that the cave is a world many of us would like to see, but is not really how the world is. It is almost like the movie \\The Matrix\\, where Neo, the main character is to discover that the world†¦show more content†¦The sun will hurt their eyes, and so, will they keep thinking that the shadows are real. If they would be dragged upwards, they would be perplexed by the light, and would not know whether what they are seeing is reality or fiction. After being in the light for longer, they would become accustomed to it, and begin to see more than just shadows and vague visions, they would see everything brightly and clearly. They would now know the pleasure of knowledge, and pity their companions. If they now return to the den, they would see worse than the rest of the prisoners. They would be back in a world where the prison is realistic and the sun is harmful. What Socrates wants to explain with this allegory is that many people often close their eyes to reality. They would often believe everything that seems to be true, because they don\\t know any better. When they are able to learn new things, it\\s too late, because they have already been so used to their tradition, or culture. Change would be out of the question, because they are living perfectly with the habits they have now. The truth will hurt them, and because of that, they do not want to know about it. If someone would confront them with proof that there are more and better things to life than what they are used to, they would be shocked and loose their trust. They would not know what is true and untrue anymore. SomeShow MoreRelatedEssay on Allegory in Lord of the Flies1473 Words   |  6 PagesAllegory in Lord of the Flies In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, which is set during World War II, English school boys, escaping war in England, crash on a deserted tropical island. From the protected environment of boarding school, the boys are suddenly thrust into a situation where they must fend for themselves. In order to survive, the boys copy their country’s rule for a civilized life by electing a leader, Ralph. He promises order, discipline, and rules for the boys so that they formRead MoreThe Allegory of the Cave2024 Words   |  9 PagesIntroduction: An allegory is a kind of story in which writer intends a second meaning to be read beneath the surface story. 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Abrams defines an allegory as a â€Å"narrative, whether in prose or verse, in which the agents and actions, and sometimes the setting as well, are contrived by the author to make coherent sense on the ‘literal,’ or primary, level of signification, and at the same time to signify a second, correlated order of signification†Read More Deep Allegory in Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown Essay2351 Words   |  10 PagesDeep Allegory  in Young Goodman Brown  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚   Herman Melville in â€Å"Hawthorne and His Mosses† (The Literary World August 17, 24, 1850), comments on the deep allegory found within Nathaniel Hawthorne’s tale, â€Å"Young Goodman Brown.† Young Goodman Brown? You would of course suppose that it was a simple little tale, intended as a supplement to Goody Two Shoes. 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