Many cultures use animals for ceremonial or celebratory purposes, and Essay

Many cultures use animals for ceremonial or celebratory purposes, and often this means the animals must be killed or eaten - Essay Example Firstly, the argument for the preservation of animal lives at the expense of humans is hypocritical stance. The development of humans alone jeopardizes animal and natural surroundings. According to several studies, the expansion of human industrial and domestic areas has led to the extinction of numerous species and endangered others (Taylor, 191-222). Therefore, based on the same argument, it would be illogical to deny humans a living area at the expense of animals and the same applies to neglecting old traditions to save animal lives. Human traditions are an essential part of society and key in the development of future generations. Traditions and rituals are a mode of linking each person to his or her past and ensuring that certain factors are preserved within the community. Therefore, the act of killing animals for rituals is a symbol of a broader meaning with a more substantial value than the life of the animal. It resembles a community, its history and is the basis upon which future generations are formed. Therefore, this shows the importance of human tradition and the necessity of the animal killings that are performed in the

Trade Marks Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Trade Marks - Case Study Example Section 3 of this Act requires a trademark to be distinctive. As such, section 1 of the Act stipulates that the trademark should render it possible to differentiate the goods or services of one undertaking from that of the others. An application for a mark that tends to mislead or deceive the public will not be registered. Moreover, under the provisions of section 5 of this Act, a trademark applied for registration is compared with protected trademarks in the UK. Some examples of protected trademarks are UK national marks, CTMs and international registrations that have specified the EU or the UK. In Philips Electronics NV v Remington Consumer Products, it was held by the court that a sign was anything that conveyed information. This definition clearly addresses signs involving words, designs, letters, and numerals, as all of these can be represented graphically without much difficulty. Apparently, this seems to create a difficulty with regard to odours and flavours (Lee, 1999). All t he same, this perceived obstacle to registering such marks did not prove to be difficult to overcome. A pyramid shape for chocolate mints, "pointymints", similar in some ways to a well – known brand of triangular chocolate â€Å"Toblerone.† In this problem a pyramidal shape for a mint chocolate had been applied for registration. This shape was already possessed by Toblerone, a well – known brand of chocolates. In order to register a trademark, it must have fulfilled three fundamental requirements.

Porosity Architecture in Public Spaces

Porosity Architecture in Public Spaces Introduction The connection between the built and the unbuilt / between the â€Å"indoor† and the â€Å"outdoor†/ between the mass and the void is a very sensitive and debatable topic. The experience of a space can be severely affected by the ways its edges are treated, i.e. by controlling how a person enters/exits the space. Transitional experience plays a vital role in overall feel and experience of spaces. Different types of spaces require different types of treatments on their edge conditions. A city needs to be imagined as a space occupied by diverse sets of people with diverse needs and aspirations. The quality of a city has to be judged by what it offers to its residents the right to live, move around and work with dignity and safety. Porosity is one of the many guiding factors in designing a space, specially public places, which are the key strategic spaces in providing the area/city its character. Not only does careful design of such spaces increase the aesthetic quality of the place, but also plays a major role in increasing the standards of functionality, safety, quality and many such factors under which a city can be categorised. Porosity, is one spatial quality that can definitely benefit the public spaces, specially in places like Delhi, where the individual is getting isolated from the community in his efforts to cope up with the pace of life that the city has to offer. Also, with the increasing gap between the two extreme income groups of the city, the spaces, which are meant to be ‘public’, cater only to a certain section of the society, neglecting those which fail to fulfil the ‘entrant requirements’ . Apart from giving spaces back to all the sections of the society, increasing porosity in community spaces can also act as a measure against increasing crime rates in the city, as it opens up the space to a larger section of the society. Topic: Porosity in public spaces Research Question: How can porosity in public spaces be increased to enhance their utility for the society in general ? Public Spaces Public spaces are an inevitable component of human settlements. Parks, plazas, roads, beaches, etc are typically considered public spaces. They are the common ground for people to interact with others, share knowledge or goods, or carry out their daily rituals, be it daily routine or occasional festivities. By definition, they are spaces that should be accessible to all the members of the society, irrespective of their economic strength. It was stated that: Regarding the criterion of access, public space is a place which is open to all. This means its resources, the activities that take place in it, and information about it are available to everybody. Concerning the criterion of agency, public space is a place controlled by public actors (i.e., agents or agencies that act on behalf of a community, city, commonwealth or state) and used by the public (i.e., the people in general). As for interest, public space is a place which serves the public interest (i.e., its benefits are controlled and received by all members of the society) (Akkar, Z 2005).   Ã‚   Of course, these definitions refer to an ideal public space, while the urban atmosphere is not entirely composed of rigidly public and private spaces; instead, it is an amalgamation of public and private spaces with different degrees of publicness. Accepting that the relation between public and private space is a continuum, it is possible to define public spaces as having various degrees of publicness. Regarding the dimensions of access, actor and interest, the extent of publicness will depend on three categories: the degree to which the public space and its resources, as well as the activities occurring in it and information about it, are available to all; the degree to which it is managed and controlled by public actors and used by the public; and the degree to which it serves the public interest. Life in public spaces, not only has a function in the society as a whole, but it is also a rich source of individual amusement, pleasure and play. One criticism of the prevailing socio-functional approach towards urban public space can be that the individuals perspective is often disregarded. To what extent do city dwellers like to meet other urbanites in public places? Hardly any planner, architect or urban administrator seems to be interested in that question. Planners and city councils are eager to speak about public spaces as meeting places. They find it an attractive idea to conceive of public spaces as a unifying element where all sectors of the urban population meet. With the help of that image they can present their cities as communities, despite all the contrasts and differences. Most social scientists dealing with urban public space also tend to regard processes that take place in the public realm as a contribution to the social organization, as a fulfilment of societal nee ds. This top-down-view, however, neglects the daily users perspective. Do city dwellers wish to get together with all their co-urbanites? Everybody who has ever been in a city knows the answer: no, certainly not with everyone. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that at least some individuals derive great pleasure from being in public. Whether a space will function well depends on a range of aspects that include scale, use, safety and comfort, density and links. In many cases it is the individuals experience of walking or dancing down a street, and the quality of environment, that is the most important element. Design then becomes about maximizing choice and trying to provide for different individuals goals. Mitchell, D (1995) adds another dimension to public space by putting forward the point that public spaces are also, and very importantly, spaces for representation. That is, public space is a place within which a political movement can stake out the space that allows it to be seen. In public space, political organizations can represent themselves to a larger population. By claiming space in public, by creating public spaces, social groups themselves become public. Only in public spaces can the homeless, for example, represent themselves as a legitimate part of the public† Public sphere is best imag- ined as the suite of institutions and activities that mediate the relations between society and the state (Howell 1993). Problems with public spaces Despite the resurgence of interest in public spaces, urban design and planning litera- ture has frequently hinted at the diminishing publicness of public spaces in modern cities. Some researchers have pointed out the threat of recent privatization policies, and claimed that public spaces, traditionally open to all segments of the population, are increasingly being developed and managed by private agencies to produce profit for the private sector and serve the interests of particular sections of the population (Punter, J 1990). Others have commented on the high degree of control now maintained over access and use of public spaces through surveillance cameras and other measures intended to improve their security (Reeve, A 1996). Still others have argued that contemporary public spaces increasingly serve a homogenous public and promote social filtering. These open-access public spaces are precious because they enable city residents to move about and engage in recreation and face-to-face communication. But, because an open-access space is one everyone can enter, public spaces are classic sites for tragedy, to invoke Garrett Hardins famous metaphor for a commons (H, Garrrett 1968, cited Ellickson, R 1996) A space that all can enter, however, is a space that each is tempted to abuse. Societies therefore impose rules-of-the-road for public spaces. While these rules are increasingly articulated in legal codes, most begin as informal norms of public etiquette (Taylor, R 1984, cited Ellickson, R 1996). Rules of proper street behaviour are not an impediment to freedom, but a foundation of it (Ellickson, R 1996) Oosterman, J (1992), in his journal Play and Entertainment in Urban Public Space: The Example of the Sidewalk Cafà ©, points out that since 1989, several cities and towns in the Netherlands have invested millions of guilders in the design and redesign of plazas, streets and parks. These designs are also meant to have a social impact. Many discussion sessions are held about the nature of social life in urban public space and its function in the greater urban society. This is the case in debates among policy-makers and planners as well as among social scientists and architects. Although the concepts used in these sessions do not always deserve a prize for clarity, some characteristics appear through the haze: urban public places should be accessible, or even democratic places. Other participants in the discussion about public space do not share this belief in the possibilities of changing urban society by changing its public spaces. Richard Sennett (1990, p.201) for example is rather pessimistic in his latest book The Conscience of the Eye. People no longer seem to be able to cope with the social and cultural differences of the modern city. They maintain their network of personal relations within physically and visibly segregated social worlds: sealed communities as he calls them. According to Sennett, urban public spaces cannot bridge the gap between those worlds, even though they are supposed to do so. Today one cannot open a book about public space design without coming across a picture of either the Piazza San Marco in Venice or the Campo in Siena: two beautifully designed plazas referring to the romantic ideal of free, accessible public space, where everybody meets anybody. Comparing their idealistic model of a real public space with the contemporary city makes authors like Habermas and Sennett rather pessimistic about contemporary urban culture. The citys urban territory is too privatized and inaccessible. This pessimism is not surprising. Over time, the scale of society grew, the mobility of the population increased and new means of communication developed and disseminated among the population. These and other conditions led to different claims on urban public spaces Solutions William H. Whyte argues that cities should exert no controls on undesirables, including beggars and aggressive eccentrics. In his words:The biggest single obstacle to the provision of better spaces is the undesirables problem. They are themselves not too much of a problem. It is the actions taken to combat them that is the problem. The people have the right freely to assemble together, to consult for the common good, to make known their opinions to their representatives and to petition for redress of grievances. In their study with the Jagori, Kalpana Viswanath and Surabhi Tandon Mehrotra concluded that Womens ability and right to access and use public spaces is dependent on the kinds of boundaries imposed upon them due to nature of the space and its usage. Thus having a mixed usage of space is more conducive to free and easy access. Very strict zoning leads to separation of spaces for living, commerce and leisure. This increases the likelihood of some spaces being closed to women and other vulnerable groups such as children. For example in Delhi, we ( Viswanath, K Mehrotra,S) found that vendors selling everyday items make a space safer, whether in the subway, residential areas or bus stops. The local bread and egg seller gave a sense of comfort to women who returned home at night. Similarly vendors provided light and a crowd around bus stops which tend to become increasingly empty and dark as it gets later. But this phenomenon of safety provided by the hawkers is not understood by all govt authorities. Anjaria, J (2006) tells the story of condition of street hawkers in Mumbai. They are frequently described by civic activists, municipal officials and journalists as a nuisance; and are seen to represent the chaos of the citys streets and the cause of the citys notorious congestion. On the other hand, to others they represent an undeserved claim of the poor on the citys public spaces. This despite the fact that even a cursory look at the citys streets and footpaths shows that parked, privately-owned cars are by far the citys greatest encroachers of public space, and the greatest obstruction to the movement of pedestrians. However. to the self-proclaimed defenders of public space, the civic activists and the NGOs bent on removing hawkers from the citys streets, these facts are irrelevant. Neighbourhood by neighbourhood, the citys footpaths must be reconfigured, disorderly footpaths must be made monofunctional. The crime of the hawker is to contradict this dream. And, thus they have become a public nuisance because, by working on the street, they are engaged in an activity that contradicts the supposed universal ideals of the modern public space. The question may be how do we bring the ethos of privatized space that we have become used to together with the return to more democratic values that many people aspire to for the Millennium? Kath Shonfield in her recent contribution to the Demos series on the Richness of Cities (Shonfield, 1998) focuses on public space and what she calls the new urbanity. She promotes the urban right to roam and suggests change to urban policy that would include urban rights to access, extending public access as a principle of new developments, and re visiting the idea of the arcade as an urban design model to be explored. (cited Jon, R 1999) In order to shape the design, size and form of public spaces in town centres, it is necessary to understand their roles and functions. Public spaces in town centres can be classified in two broad categories: links and nodes. Links are roads, pavements or pedestrianized areas which constitute routes allowing movement between land uses and attractions. Nodes are cross roads where a number of links meet in the form of public spaces such as market squares or plazas. There have been different models of gender conscious planning adopted by cities to respond to violence against women and womens fear of violence. The broken windows approach focuses on zero-tolerance to crime, closed circuit televisions (CCTV) and an exclusionary approach to creating safer spaces [Mitchell, D 2003]. This approach criminalises certain kinds of people and behaviour such as gay men. The safer communities model on the other hand, puts forth a vision of making public spaces safer through activities, land use, social mix and involving users in designing strategies and initiatives for safer public spaces. These are seen to be more conducive to building ownership rather than the top-down approach of the broken windows. The safer communities initiatives emphasise activity, land use and social mix (Whitzman, C 2006, cited Viswanath, K and Mehrotra, S 2007) Stavros Stavrides (2007) says: Instead of thinking of social identities as bounded regions one can consider them as interdependent and communicating areas. In an effort to describe urban space as a process rather than a series of physical entities, we can discover practices that oppose a dominant will to fix spatial meanings and uses. These practices mould space and create new spatial articulations since they tend to produce threshold spaces, those in-between areas that relate rather than separate. Urban porosity may be the result of such practices that perforate a secluding perimeter, providing us with an alternative model to the modern city of urban enclaves. A city of thresholds could thus represent the spatiality of a public culture of mutually aware, interdependent and involved identities. Walter Benjamin, in his essay entitled Naples, explored the idea of vitality and variety in the modern city. The porous rocks of Naples offered him an image for a city’s public life: â€Å"As porous as this stone is the architecture. Building and action interpenetrate in the courtyards, arcades and stairways† (Benjamin,W 1985). Porosity seems to describe, in this passage, the way in which urban space is performed in the process of being appropriated (Sennett 1995). It is not that action is contained in space. Rather, a rich network of practices transforms every available space into a potential theater of expressive acts of encounter. A â€Å"passion for improvisation† as Benjamin describes this public behavior, penetrates and articulates urban space, loosening socially programmed correspondences between function and place. Porosity is thus an essential characteristic of space in Naples because life in the city is full of acts that overflow into each other. Defyin g any clear demarcation, spaces are separated and simultaneously connected by porous boundaries, through which everyday life takes form in mutually dependant public performances. Thus, â€Å"just as the living room reappears on the street, with chairs, hearth and altar, so, only much more loudly, the street migrates into the living room† (Benjamin 1985). Porosity characterizes above all the relationship between private and public space, as well as the relationship between indoor and outdoor space. For Benjamin porosity is not limited to spatial experience. Urban life is not only located in spaces that communicate through passages (â€Å"pores†), but life is performed in a tempo that fails to completely separate acts or events. A temporal porosity is experienced while eating in the street, taking a nap in a shady corner, or drinking a quick espresso standing in a Neapolitan cafà ©. It is as if acts are both separated and connected through temporal passages that represe nt the precarious fleeting experience of occasion. Everyday occasions thus seem to shift and rearrange rhythms and itineraries of use (de Certeau 1984). only located in spaces that communicate through passages (â€Å"pores†), but life is performed in a tempo that fails to completely separate acts or events. A temporal porosity is experienced while eating in the street, taking a nap in a shady corner, or drinking a quick espresso. It is as if acts are both separated and connected through temporal passages that represent the precarious fleeting experience of occasion. Everyday occasions thus seem to shift and rearrange rhythms and itineraries of use (de Certeau 1984, cited Stavrides, S 2007) According to Starvides, Porosity may therefore be considered an experience of habitation, which articulates urban life while it also loosens the borders which are erected to preserve a strict spatial and temporal social order. Thresholds, thus play an important role in materialising the play of connection and sepration between spaces. A study of thresholds can help reveal the actual correspondence and interdependence between spatial identities. In post-colonial Asian cities like Hong Kong similar conditions of urban porosity exist. Hong Kongs urban environment is devoid of the cultural conditions that mark the traditional world cities of the West. There are no memorable public spaces, no refined residential fabric, and no exemplary monuments to religion, politics, art, knowledge or culture. â€Å"Urban life in Hong Kong is traditionally linear in form. The roles of parks, piazzas and gardens in Hong Kong take on functions that change with the time of the day. They are by nature multipurpose spaces, festival grounds, concert sites, and improvised sports arenas. While these open spaces are fully utilized in key times, they lack any identity and are usually barren and lifeless when not in use.† (Lu, L 2005)

The Day I Didnt Have an Abortion :: Personal Narrative Essays

The Day I Didn't Have an Abortion Have you ever stopped to ponder on the fragility of life? I had always taken life for granted and never gave much thought to how or when my life might end. Then, in June, I was awakened to the realization of just how unstable the balance of life and death can be. I was still a young bride. Jim and I had been married for four years but had been unsuccessful in getting a family started. It was not a matter of not trying. After having experienced two miscarriages and an episode of uterine cancer within those four years, my chances of ever becoming a mother seemed to be so remote as to seem impossible. My doctors had already told me that another pregnancy was "out of the question" and inserted a "loop" (a contraceptive device that is permanently placed in the opening of the uterus) just to make sure that his orders would be heeded. He wanted to prevent any "accidents". Six months passed and my monthly checkups were showing that there were no new growths and no complications. Meanwhile, I was busy getting back into the working world as a junior accountant for a farm equipment dealer in our small northern California town. I enjoyed the work and the association with my coworkers and our customers helped to keep my mind off my unfulfilled mothering instincts. I found myself mothering my coworkers; giving advice, lending a listening ear as well as making homemade breads, brownies and cookies for them. Soon it was time for my seventh month checkup. The doctor went through his routine probing, fluid checks and questioning. All appeared to be in order. However, a few days later, he called to ask that I come to his office. He wouldn't say why, just that we needed to have a little chat. As I placed the phone back in its cradle, I was trembling. This must mean that the cancer had returned. I felt that I had to pull myself together. If it was coming back, this soon, then my life was going to be very short. There were so many things that I had always wanted to see and/or do.

Wisdom: Virtue and People

My friend Lili is probably the only person who I could really turn to for advice and her wisdom and knowledge has always helped me through the rough times and the good times. I remember meeting Lili one day at school and asked if I could borrow a pencil from her during math class. When I returned it back she said I could have it but to try not to lose it since it is an obvious writing instrument to have. Well, after a few days I noticed she would sit alone during lunch time so I asked her if she wanted to join my friends and I for lunch, ever since we have been best of friends.According to my reading in my Positive Psychology books in Ch. 10 Table 10. 2 Classification of virtues and character strengths wisdom and knowledge is cognitive strengths that entail the acquisition and use of knowledge. The defining strengths describe her or what she possesses: creativity, curiosity, open-mindedness, love of learning, and perspective. She has always been creative since day one when I asked to borrow a pencil. During that time we were learning how to make a cube out of paper and Lili knew how to do the cube without even asking how to make it. She could make things to be productive.I could recall during a camp out with a bunch of girls how to make things out of sticks with leaves and such. It was amazing on how much she knew without really knowing how to do it in the beginning. Her open-mindedness was well respected in our little time of knowing each other. One of the attributes I think I develop most was learning to give good advice to those who come to me to talk about anything. She taught me how to give the best advice, but to give the advice I would give myself. Listening to people is a way to open your heart and let the people you love in. I think there are many reasons why she is wise.For example, the way she talks and gives advice to other people and also the attitude she has it's so passionate and loving. I don't know what it is about her that people go up to her and trust her with everything I find it amazing. Another example would be the past she has been through has made her smart about life and about people. Going through bad and good times and taught her a lesson about life and about everything. She didn't have a life like every child had, she had a difficult life that made her suffer a lot. So I look up to her because I know she knows what she is talking about and how she deals with life.Also she does not depend on any one with anything, she has always done things on her own. I think that the one attribute that I need to learn the most is listening to people before giving them my opinion because I have this habit that I usually make assumptions before hearing or knowing what the person is going through. This is the one that I need to gain so I can be there for people like my best friend has been there for people. Knowing what people have been through will help me be there for people and also help them out through the good and bad times .I am the type of person that I love being there for people even if I am struggling with my own problems because seeing how people deals with there problem helps me gain confidence about myself and solving other peoples problems as well. I can't say I'm good at giving advice but I know that I could at least give someone a good advice or even I could take some one's opinion to learn. So seeing my friend and the way she is there and how she helps me, the love she gives and how she gives company when I need someone makes me want to be that person as well. I know by this I will become a better person.

Animal Farm: The Meaning of Equality Essay

In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, he examines the impact of communism and the post-war anxiety of World War II. Orwell uses allegories to thoroughly explain the pain and worry following the clash between countries. He uses farm animals and a farm to represent the major events and figures in the time of Stalinism and the Soviet Union. The animals want to â€Å"get rid of man† (Orwell 30), and man stands for capitalist society. Communism, or â€Å"Animalism† as the animals call it, starts out as a society of equals, but gradually mutates into a dictatorship. The leaders created a dystopian world where everything they had planned took a turn for the worse instead of the originally planned utopia. All of the animals (except for the pigs/leaders) ultimately lose all of the power they believed they had gained. Post-war anxiety plays a large role in the novel, Soviet Russia, and around the world. In the years following WWII, America was constantly in fear of Russia bombin g them and Russia was afraid that America was going to invade. In Animal Farm, the animals wake up every day with the anxiety of the humans coming back to retake the farm. The humans (both Mr. Jones and the owners of other farms), on the other hand, are afraid that their animals will follow suit and revolt against them. Russell Baker explains how Orwell experienced the war first hand and how he believed that the decent people of Western Europe were being tricked into thinking that Soviet reality was remarkable in his â€Å"Preface† of Animal Farm. Orwell called the book a fable, but it is also a â€Å"satire on human folly† (Russell vi) and has numerous lessons for human morality. Post-war anxiety was tremendous in both the ‘50s and the 60’s and George Orwell found this out when he went searching for a publisher. Stalinism and the Soviet Union were so popular that neither British nor English publishers wanted to hear any criticism of his ideas. It seemed like the West had readily put on blinders because of the defeat o f Hitler’s army. Everyone had a great deal of praise for the Soviet Union and its forces. Stalin and his political system significantly benefited from all of this. Orwell marched to the beat of his own drum and has an â€Å"insistence on being his own man† (Russell ix). The preface to Animal Farm helps the reader understand why Orwell developed such a candid critique of Stalinism. Although he was a socialist, Orwell believed that Stalin and his comrades perversely transformed the meaning of socialism and equality. Without reading the â€Å"Preface†, one would assume that this novel is simple and childish. George Orwell hid his disgust in the political terror and totalitarianism going on in Russia at the time behind the many farm animals in his novel. In addition to the â€Å"Preface† by Russell Baker, C.M. Woodhouse tells the reader that the novel was offered to the general population in the same month as the atomic bombs dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the â⠂¬Å"Introduction.† Woodhouse goes on to explain that this â€Å"fairy-story† (Woodhouse xix) has a moral, and teaches us lessons about life. It does not take place in our world, but in a world beyond. The fairy stories are set in a place without good and evil. Woodhouse believes that Orwell has brought back the words equality, democracy, and peace. All of these words have been deceitfully changed into â€Å"shibboleths of political warfare† (Woodhouse xxii). Woodhouse also explains that it is impossible for those that have read Animal Farm to not regularly think about the fact that some people are more equal than others. He goes on to say that George Orwell’s novel may not alter the course of history in a short amount of time. It could take decades more for his novel to contribute to the world. What we do know is that Orwell successfully predicted the future of Stalin, the Soviet Union, and his ideas. George Orwell’s legacy as a prophet will undoubtedly carry on for the rest of time. Post-war tension plays a large role in Animal Farm, and represents the tension that was present around the world in the ‘50s and ‘60s. The leaders of the farm instilled fear in the animals, as did the leaders of Soviet Russia to their citizens. In the novel, the animals constantly have the fear that the neighboring farms are going to attack them and vice versa. Their apprehension forces them to go along with Napoleon’s ideas because the ideas give them a false sense of security. Napoleon also develops an anxiety that involves his fear of counter-revolutionaries, or people that want to overthrow him and the farm’s new ideals. Both Napoleon and Stalin executed everyone who didn’t have the same â€Å"morals† as them. They both purged their countries of people that they considered as enemies. These mass executions set a miserable, melancholic tone amongst all of the citizens of both Animal Farm and Russia. Both revolutions morphed and the â€Å"children† of the revolution became everything they hated. The tension and anxiety came from fear of attack, mass murders designed by the leaders, and a society where everyone was supposed to be equal but some were â€Å"more equal than others† (Orwell 133). The three pigs in the novel, Squealer, Snowball, and Napoleon, all represent tyrants from Soviet Russia. They each attempt and succeed at instilling fear in the other animals on the farm. Snowball is intellectual, passionate, and also considerably less devious than Napoleon. Although Snowball gains loyalty, trust, and respect from the other animals, he still creates a hidden sense of fear within the nation. His ideas and speeches are confusing to the animals, but they accept them without knowing what they mean exactly. On the other hand, the other pig creates fear directly. The other pig is Napoleon, and he uses his trained watchdogs, which are his military force, to consolidate power and frighten the other animals. Napoleon is a despot in every sense of the word. He even chases off his counterpart, Snowball, using his military. When Snowball and Napoleon disagree about building a windmill, Napoleon sets his dogs loose and has them â€Å"[dash] straight for Snowball† (Orwell 67). Snowball encounters a close brush with death, until he escapes. This situation greatly troubles the other animals, and Napoleon is basically letting them know not to cross him or else they will be sentenced to death. Squealer, although not as significant as the two leaders, is the epitome of those in power who use speech and language to twist facts and gain control of society and the government. Squealer spreads Napoleon’s propaganda and justifies everything Napoleon says by using false truths. Squealer became so persuasive that many of the animals â€Å"accepted his explanation† (Orwell 72) about why Napoleon was now for the windmill without asking any questions. Overall, Snowball, Squealer, and Napoleon are allegories for different leaders in Soviet Russia. They use techniques such as propaganda, military force, and persuasion to instill fear in the animals on the farm. There are parallels between Orwell’s Animal Farm and the ugly truth behind Soviet Russia. Stalin, a cruel and overbearing leader, used all three of these techniques to achieve his overall goal of controlling the country. There are extreme parallels between Animal Farm and the reality of Soviet Russia. In both Soviet Russia and on the farm, tension was great and the leaders instilled fear in their citizens. The article â€Å"Stalin’s Revolution† on flowofhistory.com explains these parallels in depth. Stalin, like Napoleon, launched a â€Å"campaign to build up† (flowofhistory.com) his communist union. Stalin gained the support of the country by saying that everything would get much better if he was the leader. This was also Napoleon’s tactic. Joseph Stalin was an extremely paranoid man, as was Napoleon, and thought that everyone was conspiring against him. Napoleon used a mass execution to â€Å"purge† the farm of the animals that he saw as traitors. Stalin also did this. In 1936 he persecuted and executed an extreme amount of the citizens that he considered threats to his administration. In both cases the inhabitants of the areas were put on trial, but the trials were nothing but a sham. They were forced to confess their alleged crimes, and then were sentenced to death. Although communism was supposed to create a society of equals, it instead made even more social divisions. Both Russia and the farm experienced the fact that some people are just more equal than others. All of these facts led to â€Å"rising political tensions† (flowofhistory.com) around the world. Although the tyrants of Russia, or in this case the animals of the farm, had not tried to devise a schemi ng plan to take down the citizens of their country, this is what they ultimately accomplished. Stalin and his followers seized the power away from the working class. Just as Stalin tried to turn Russia against capitalism, the leaders of the farm try to turn the animals against humans by telling them that the â€Å"only good human is a dead one† (Orwell 59). Although at first they stood for pure equality, they soon seemed to stand for the notion that some people are more equal than others. Orwell explains how detrimental Stalin and his cause were to Russia by using animals as an allegory and explaining the idea of communism in more simplistic terms. The leaders of Animal Farm fill the â€Å"worker† animals with fear just as Stalin and his comrades instilled fear into the working class of Russia. The animals were inspired by this idea of everyone being equal and this ultimately encouraged them to go along with the dictators’ ideas. At first, all of the animals supported the idea with their own free will but eventually only support it out of pure terror. Anxiety of the characters in Animal Farm closely matches up with the concern of everyone in the world post-WWII. Works Cited Baker, Russell. â€Å"Preface.† Animal Farm. By George Orwell. New York: Signet Classic, v-xii. Print. Orwell, George. Animal Farm. New York: Signet Classic, 1996. Print. â€Å"The Flow of History.† FC130B: The Communist Dictatorships of Lenin & Stalin (1920-39). Web. 04 Dec. 2012. . Woodhouse, C.M.. â€Å"Introduction† Animal Farm. By George Orwell. New York: Signet Classic,1996. xiii-xxiii. Print.

Michelangelo Essays - Sistine Chapel, Painted Ceilings, Free Essays

Michelangelo Essays - Sistine Chapel, Painted Ceilings, Free Essays Michelangelo Michelangelo was pessimistic in his poetry and an optimist in his artwork. Michelangelos artwork consisted of paintings and sculptures that showed humanity in its natural state. Michelangelos poetry was pessimistic in his response to Strazzi even though he was complementing him. Michelangelos sculpture brought out his optimism. Michelangelo was optimistic in completing The Tomb of Pope Julius II and persevered through its many revisions trying to complete his vision. Sculpture was Michelangelos main goal and the love of his life. Since his art portrayed both optimism and pessimism, Michelangelo was in touch with his positive and negative sides, showing that he had a great and stable personality. Michelangelos artwork consisted of paintings and sculptures that showed humanity in its natural state. Michelangelo Buonarroti was called to Rome in 1505 by Pope Julius II to create for him a monumental tomb. We have no clear sense of what the tomb was to look like, since over the years it went through at least five conceptual revisions. The tomb was to have three levels; the bottom level was to have sculpted figures representing Victory and bond slaves. The second level was to have statues of Moses and Saint Paul as well as symbolic figures of the active and contemplative life- representative of the human striving for, and reception of, knowledge. The third level, it is assumed, was to have an effigy of the deceased pope. The tomb of Pope Julius II was never finished. What was finished of the tomb represents a twenty-year span of frustrating delays and revised schemes. Michelangelo had hardly begun work on the popes tomb when Julius commanded him to fresco the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel to complete the work done in the previous century under Sixtus IV. The overall organization consists of four large triangles at the corner; a series of eight triangular spaces on the outer border; an intermediate series of figures; and nine central panels, all bound together with architectural motifs and nude male figures. The corner triangles depict heroic action in the Old Testament, while the other eight triangles depict the biblical ancestors of Jesus Christ. Michelangelo conceived and executed this huge work as a single unit. Its overall meaning is a problem. The issue has engaged historians of art for generations without satisfactory resolution. The paintings that were done by Michelangelo had been painted with the brightest colors that just bloomed the whole ceiling as one entered to look. The ceiling had been completed just a little after the Pope had died. The Sistine Chapel is the best fresco ever done. Michelangelo embodied many characteristic qualities of the Renaissance. An individualistic, highly competitive genius (sometimes to the point of eccentricity). Michelangelo was not afraid to show humanity in its natural state - nakedness; even in front of the Pope and the other religious leaders. Michelangelo portrayed life as it is, even with its troubles. Michelangelo wanted to express his own artistic ideas. The most puzzling thing about Michelangelos ceiling design is the great number of seemingly irrelevant nude figures that he included in his gigantic fresco. Four youths frame most of the Genesis scenes. We know from historical records that various church officials objected to the many nudes, but Pope Julius gave Michelangelo artistic freedom, and eventually ruled the chapel off limits to anyone save himself, until the painting was completed. The many nude figures are referred to as Ignudi. They are naked humans, perhaps representing the naked truth. More likely, I think they represent Michelangelos concept of the human potential for perfection. Michelangelo himself said, Whoever strives for perfection is striving for something divine. In painting nude humans, he is suggesting the unfinished human; each of us is born nude with a mind and a body, in Neoplatonic thought, with the power to be our own shapers. Michelangelo has a very great personality for his time. In Rome, in 1536, Michelangelo was at work on the Last Judgment for the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel, which he finished in 1541. The largest fresco of the Renaissance, it depicts Judgment Day. Christ, with a clap of thunder, puts into motion the inevitable separation, with the saved ascending on the left side of the painting