Plate Tectonics Essay Essay

Assess the strength of the relationship between tectonic processes and major landforms on the earth’s surface. Tectonic processes have been responsible for the major landforms across the Earth’s surface. These processes are controlled by the convection currents rising from the Earth’s mantle. Firstly, one place where tectonic activity occurs is at oceanic to oceanic constructive plate boundaries. Here two plates diverge or move away from each other, pushed apart by huge convection currents In the earth’s mantle. These convection currents are initiated by heat energy produced from radioactive decay in the earth’s core. As the convection currents move the plates away from each other, there is a weaker zone in the crust and an increase in heat near the surface. The hotter, expanded crust forms a ridge. Magma rises up from the mantle in the gap. The lava cools, solidifies and forms a chain of volcanic mountains thousands of miles long down the middle of the ocean eg. Atlantic. There are transform faults at right angles to the ridge. The movement of these faults causes rift valleys to occur. Examples of these landforms created by constructive plate margins are the Mid Atlantic Ridge (MIR) , and the Great African rift valley (GARV). The MIR is the result of the North American plate and Eurasian plate diverging in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. Here, volcanic islands such as Iceland, the Canary islands and ascension island have been created by the rising magma from the mantle. The GARV is an example of where the crust has dropped down between parallel faults to form rift valleys. As the crust subducts into the mantle it melts causing igneous activity below, magma to rise and therefore volcanoes erupt on the surface as a result. Evidence of this volcanic activity is shown by Mount Kenya and Mount Kilimanjaro. The lava here has a low viscosity, it very hot (1200 C) and has a low silica content. An example of where landforms have been created at a different plate boundary, a destructive plate margin, is where two plates, the Nazca plate, an oceanic plate, and the South American plate, a continental plate, converge. Here, two plates meet and the denser oceanic lithosphere of the Nazca plate is forced down under the more buoyant continental lithosphere of  the South American plate, descending at an angle into the mantle in a process called subduction. This is marked on the ocean surface by the presence of the Peru-Chilie trench. The friction between the plates prevents the subducting oceanic plate from sliding smoothly. As it descends it drags against the overlying plate causing both fracture and deform. This results in frequent shallow focus earthquakes The subduction of the Nazca plate under southern Chile produced the largest earthquake ever recorded, with a magnitude of 9.5 in 1960. Volcanoes are also created here as one plate subducts and partially melts; the magma rises up through fissures and can reach the surface. The type of lava here is andesitic, very high in silica and not very hot resulting in a composite volcano being formed out of layers of ash and lava. The cascade mountain range is an example of where a destructive plate boundary has caused the Juan de Fuca plate to subduct under the North American plate. This resulted in 15 composite volcanoes being formed, one of them, Mount St. Helens. Similar to the peru-chile region, the Japanese islands are situated in a subduction zone. In the northwestern margin of the pacific oceans, the pacific plate and Philippine plate converge. On the pacific side, trenches run parallel to these islands. As one plate subducts beneath the other, it heats up and melted magmas rise towards the surface. These Japanese island arcs extend 3000km and magma produced under them form felsic plutonic rocks (granite), some of which erupts on the surface to make volcanoes. Large-scale formation of granites develops the crust of island arc. On the other hand, some tectonic activity doesn’t produce any landform. An example is at the San Andreas Fault. Although both plates are moving in a north westerly direction, the pacific plate Is moving faster than the north American plate (7cm/year faster), so the relative movement of the north American plate is to the south east. The pacific plate is being moved northwest due to the sea floor spreading from the pacific coast rise in the gulf of California. The North American plate is being pushed west and north due to sea floor spreading of the mid-Atlantic ridge. Movement is sporadic and jerky. Frictional forces lock the blocks of lithosphere together for years at a time. When frictional forces are overcome, the plates slip and  shallow focus earthquakes are generated. Similarly, landforms can be produced without the source of tectonic activity. The Hawaiian islands are not connected with any plate boundary. The volcanic area is caused by a localized hotspot beneath the pacific plate. A concentration of radioactive elements inside the mantle may cause such a hotspot to develop. From this, a plume of magma rises to eat into the plate above the hotspot. The hotspot is stationary so as the pacific plate moves over it, lines of basaltic shield volcanoes are created. These can be eroded to have flat tops called guyots. In Hawaii, the main island is closest to the hotspot and so it is the most volcanically active. However as the pacific plate moves north west at 10cm/year, a new island, Loihi will form as the submarine volcano builds up to sea level. Finally, collision plate boundries.. When continental and oceanic plates collide, the thinner and more dense oceanic plate is overridden by the thicker and less dense continental plate. The oceanic plate is forced don into the mantle by a process called subduction. As the oceanic plate descends it is forced into higher temperature environments. At 100 miles deep the subducting plate begins to melt. The partial melting produces magma chambers above the subducting oceanic plate. The magma ascends through the overlying materials, melting and fracturing its way up. If the magma rises to the surface without solidifying it will break through in the form of a volcanic eruption. The Himalayan mountains are an example of where the Indian continental plate has been put under extreme pressure as it collides with the Eurasian plate, forcing the edges of the pates upwards in to a series of folds, as one subducts beneath the other. In conclusion, the strength of the relationship between tectonic processes and major landforms on earth can be described as strong. There is a clear correlation between the events that occur at constructive, destructive and collision plate boundaries and the landforms produced consequently. Although there are situations where the two are not linked, ultimately the characteristics of the landform will have been influenced by some soft of tectonic movement. For example, the chains of Hawaiian hotspot islands are  in this shape due to the northward movement of the pacific plate.

American Literature Essay

When the English preacher and writer Sidney Smith asked in 1820, â€Å"In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book? † little did he suspect that less than two hundred years later the answer in literate quarters would be â€Å"just about everyone. † Indeed, just a few years after Smith posed his inflammatory question, the American writer Samuel Knapp would begin to assemble one of the first histories of American literature as part of a lecture series that he was giving. The course materials offered by American Passages continue in the tradition begun by Knapp in 1829. One goal of this Study Guide is to help you learn to be a literary historian: that is, to introduce you to American literature as it has evolved over time and to stimulate you to make connections between and among texts. Like a literary historian, when you make these connections you are telling a story: the story of how American literature came into being. This Overview outlines four paths (there are many others) by which you can narrate the story of American literature: one based on literary movements and historical change, one based on the American Passages Overview Questions, one based on Contexts, and one based on multiculturalism. TELLING THE STORY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE Literary Movements and Historical Change American Passages is organized around sixteen literary movements or â€Å"units. † A literary movement centers around a group of authors that share certain stylistic and thematic concerns. Each unit includes ten authors that are represented either in The Norton Anthology of American Literature or in the Online Archive. Two to four of these authors are discussed in the video, which calls attention to important historical and cultural influences on these authors, defines a genre that they share, and proposes some key thematic parallels. Tracking literary movements can help you see how American literature has changed and evolved over time. In general, people think about literary movements as reacting against earlier modes of writing and earlier movements. For T E L L I N G T H E S T O R Y O F A M E R I C A N L I T E R AT U R E 3 example, just as modernism (Units 10–13) is often seen as a response to realism and the Gilded Age (Unit 9), so Romanticism is seen as a response to the Enlightenment (Unit 4). Most of the units focus on one era (see the chart below), but they will often include relevant authors from other eras to help draw out the connections and differences. (Note: The movements in parentheses are not limited to authors/works from the era in question, but they do cover some material from it. ) Century Fifteenth– Seventeenth Eighteenth Era Renaissance American Passages Literary Movements. (1: Native Voices) 2: Exploring Borderlands 3: Utopian Promise (3: Utopian Promise) 4: Spirit of Nationalism (7: Slavery and Freedom) 4: Spirit of Nationalism 5: Masculine Heroes 6: Gothic Undercurrents 7: Slavery and Freedom (1: Native Voices) 6: Gothic Undercurrents 8: Regional Realism 9: Social Realism (1: Native Voices) 10: Rhythms in Poetry 11: Modernist Portraits 12: Migrant Struggle 13: Southern Renaissance 1: Native Voices 2: Exploring Borderlands 12: Migrant Struggle 14: Becoming Visible 15: Poetry of Liberation 16: Search for Identity Enlightenment Nineteenth Romanticist Nineteenth Realist Twentieth Modernist Twentieth Postmodernist Each unit contains a timeline of historical events along with the dates of key literary texts by the movement’s authors. These timelines are designed to help you make connections between and among the movements, eras, and authors covered in each unit. 4 W H AT I S A M E R I C A N L I T E R AT U R E ? Overview Questions The Overview Questions at the start of each unit are tailored from the five American Passages Overview Questions that follow. They are meant to help you focus your viewing and reading and participate in discussion afterward. 1. What is an American? How does literature create conceptions of the American experience and American identity? This two-part question should trigger discussion about issues such as, Who belongs to America? When and how does one become an American? How has the search for identity among American writers changed over time? It can also encourage discussion about the ways in which immigration, colonization, conquest, youth, race, class, and gender affect national identity. 2. What is American literature? What are the distinctive voices and styles in American literature? How do social and political issues influence the American canon? This multi-part question should instigate discussion about the aesthetics and reception of American literature. What is a masterpiece? When is something considered literature, and how is this category culturally and historically dependent? How has the canon of American literature changed and why? How have American writers used language to create art and meaning? What does literature do? This question can also raise the issue of American exceptionalism: Is American literature different from the literature of other nations? 3. How do place and time shape the authors’ works and our understanding of them? This question addresses America as a location and the many ways in which place impacts American literature’s form and content. It can provoke discussion about how regionalism, geography, immigration, the frontier, and borders impact American literature, as well as the role of the vernacular in indicating place. 4. What characteristics of a literary work have made it influential over time? This question can be used to spark discussion about the evolving impact of various pieces of American literature and about how American writers used language both to create art and respond to and call for change. What is the individual’s responsibility to uphold the community’s traditions, and when are individuals compelled to resist them? What is the relationship between the individual and the community? 5. How are American myths created, challenged, and re-imagined through this literature? This question returns to â€Å"What is an American? † But it poses the question at a cultural rather than individual level. What are the myths that make up American culture? What is the American Dream? What are American myths, dreams, and nightmares? How have these changed over time? T E L L I N G T H E S T O R Y O F A M E R I C A N L I T E R AT U R E 5 Contexts Another way that connections can be made across and between authors is through the five Contexts in each unit: three longer Core Contexts and two shorter Extended Contexts. The goal of the Contexts is both to help you read American literature in its cultural background and to teach you close-reading skills. Each Context consists of a brief narrative about an event, trend, or idea that had particular resonance for the writers in the unit as well as Americans of their era; questions that connect the Context to the authors in the unit; and a list of related texts and images in the Online Archive. Examples of Contexts include discussions of the concept of the Apocalypse (3: â€Å"Utopian Visions†), the sublime (4: â€Å"Spirit of Nationalism†), and baseball (14: â€Å"Becoming Visible†). The Contexts can be used in conjunction with an author or as stand-alone activities. The Slide Show Tool on the Web site is ideal for doing assignments that draw connections between archive items from a Context and a text you have read. And you can create your own contexts and activities using the Slide Show Tool: these materials can then be e-mailed, viewed online, projected, or printed out on overhead transparencies. Multiculturalism In the past twenty years, the field of American literature has undergone a radical transformation. Just as the mainstream public has begun to understand America as more diverse, so, too, have scholars moved to integrate more texts by women and ethnic minorities into the standard canon of literature taught and studied. These changes can be both exhilarating and disconcerting, as the breadth of American literature appears to be almost limitless. Each of the videos and units has been carefully balanced to pair canonical and noncanonical voices. You may find it helpful, however, to trace the development of American literature according to the rise of different ethnic and minority literatures. The following chart is designed to highlight which literatures are represented in the videos and the units. As the chart indicates, we have set different multicultural literatures in dialogue with one another. Literature African American literature Video Representation 7: Slavery and Freedom 8: Regional Realism 10: Rhythms in Poetry 13: Southern Renaissance 14: Becoming Visible 15: Poetry of Liberation Study Guide Representation 4: Spirit of Nationalism 5: Masculine Heroes 7: Slavery and Freedom 8: Regional Realism 9: Social Realism 10: Rhythms in Poetry 11: Modernist Portraits 13: Southern Renaissance 14: Becoming Visible 15: Poetry of Liberation 16: Search for Identity 6 W H AT I S A M E R I C A N L I T E R AT U R E ? Native American literature 1: Native Voices 5: Masculine Heroes 14: Becoming Visible 1: Native Voices 2: Exploring Borderlands 3: Utopian Promise 4: Spirit of Nationalism 5: Masculine Heroes 7: Slavery and Freedom 8: Regional Realism 14: Becoming Visible 15: Poetry of Liberation 16: Search for Identity 2: Exploring Borderlands 5: Masculine Heroes 10: Rhythms in Poetry 12: Migrant Struggle 15: Poetry of Liberation 16: Search for Identity 9: Social Realism 12: Migrant Struggle 16: Search for Identity 9: Social Realism 11: Modernist Portraits 14: Becoming Visible 15: Poetry of Liberation 16: Search for Identity 1: Native Voices 2: Exploring Borderlands 3: Utopian Promise 4: Spirit of Nationalism 5: Masculine Heroes 6: Gothic Undercurrents 7: Slavery and Freedom 8: Regional Realism 9: Social Realism 10: Rhythms in Poetry 11: Modernist Portraits 12: Migrant Struggle 13: Southern Renaissance 14: Becoming Visible 15: Poetry of Liberation 16: Search for Identity 2: Exploring Borderlands 5: Masculine Heroes 10: Rhythms in Poetry 11: Modernist Portraits 12: Migrant Struggle 13: Southern Renaissance 14: Becoming Visible 15: Poetry of Liberation 16: Search for Identity Latino literature 2: Exploring Borderlands 10: Rhythms in Poetry 12: Migrant Struggle 16: Search for Identity Asian American literature 12: Migrant Struggle 16: Search for Identity Jewish American 9: Social Realism literature 11: Modernist Portraits 14: Becoming Visible 15: Poetry of Liberation 16: Search for Identity Women’s literature 1: Native Voices 2: Exploring Borderlands 3: Utopian Promise 6: Gothic Undercurrents 7: Slavery and Freedom 8: Regional Realism 9: Social Realism 11: Modernist Portraits 12: Migrant Struggle 13: Southern Renaissance 15: Poetry of Liberation 16: Search for Identity Gay and lesbian literature 2: Exploring Borderlands 5: Masculine Heroes 10: Rhythms in Poetry 11: Modernist Portraits 15: Poetry of Liberation 16: Search for Identity T E L L I N G T H E S T O R Y O F A M E R I C A N L I T E R AT U R E 7 Literature cont’d Working-class literature Video Representation 2: Exploring Borderlands 4: Spirit of Nationalism 5: Masculine Heroes 7: Slavery and Freedom 9: Social Realism 12: Migrant Struggle 16: Search for Identity Study Guide Representation 2: Exploring Borderlands 4: Spirit of Nationalism 5: Masculine Heroes 7: Slavery and Freedom 9: Social Realism 10: Rhythms in Poetry 12: Migrant Struggle 14: Becoming Visible 15: Poetry of Liberation 16: Search for Identity LITERATURE IN ITS CULTURAL CONTEXT When you study American literature in its cultural context, you enter a multidisciplined and multi-voiced conversation where scholars and critics in different fields examine the same topic but ask very different questions about it. For example, how might a literary critic’s understanding of nineteenthcentury American culture compare to that of a historian of the same era? How can an art historian’s understanding of popular visual metaphors enrich our readings of literature? The materials presented in this section of the Study Guide aim to help you enter that conversation. Below are some suggestions on how to begin. Deep in the heart of the Vatican Museum is an exquisite marble statue from first- or second-century Rome. Over seven feet high, the statue depicts a scene from Virgil’s Aeneid in which Laocoon and his sons are punished for warning the Trojans about the Trojan horse. Their bodies are entwined with large, devouring serpents, and Laocoon’s face is turned upward in a dizzying portrait of anguish, his muscles rippling and bending beneath the snake’s strong coils. The emotion in the statue captured the heart and eye of critic Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, who used the work as the starting point for his seminal essay on the relationship between literature and art, â€Å"Laocoon: An Essay on the Limits of Painting and Poetry. † For Lessing, one of the most common errors that students of culture can make is to assume that all aspects of culture develop in tandem with one another. As Lessing points out, each art has its own strengths. For example, literature works well with notions of time and story, and thus is more flexible than visual art in terms of imaginative freedom, whereas painting is a visual medium that can reach greater beauty, although it is static. For Lessing, the mixing of these two modes (temporal and spatial) carries great risk along with rewards. As you study literature in conjunction with any of the fine arts, you may find it helpful to ask whether you agree with Lessing that literature is primarily a temporal art. Consider too the particular 8 W H AT I S A M E R I C A N L I T E R AT U R E ? strengths of the media discussed below. What do they offer that may not be available to writers? What modes do they use that complement our understanding of the literary arts? Fine Arts Albrecht Durer created some of the most disturbing drawings known to humans: they are rife with images of death, the end of the world, and dark creatures that inhabit hell. Images such as The Last Judgement (below) can be found in the Online Archive. In Knight, Death, and the Devil (1513), a devout Christian knight is taunted by the Devil and Death, who gleefully shakes a quickly depleting hourglass, mocking the soldier with the passing of time. Perhaps the tension and anxiety in Durer’s print resonated with the American poet Randall Jarrell in his struggle with mental illness. In â€Å"The Knight, Death, and the Devil,† Jarrell opens with a description of the scene: Cowhorn-crowned, shockheaded, cornshucked-bearded, Death is a scarecrow—his death’s-head a teetotum . . . Jarrell’s description is filled with adjectives in much the same way that the print is crowded with detail. The poem is an instance of what critics call ekphrasis: the verbal description of a work of visual art, usually of a painting, photograph, or sculpture but sometimes of an urn, tapestry, or quilt. Ekphrasis attempts to bridge the gap between the verbal and the visual arts. Artists and writers have always influenced one another: sometimes directly as in the case of Durer’s drawing and Jarrell’s poem, and other times indirectly. The Study Guide will help you navigate through these webs of influence. For example, Unit 5 will introduce you to the Hudson River [7995] Albrecht Durer, The Last School, the great American landscape painters Judgement (1510), courtesy of the of the nineteenth century. In the Context focusprint collection of Connecticut ing on these artists, you will learn of the interCollege, New London. connectedness of their visual motifs. In Unit 11, William Carlos Williams, whose poems â€Å"The Dance† and â€Å"Landscape with the Fall of Icarus† were inspired by two paintings by Breughel, will draw your attention to the use of ekphrasis. Williams’s work is a significant example of how multiple traditions in art can influence a writer: in addition to his interest in European art, Williams imitated Chinese landscapes and poetic forms. When you encounter works of fine art, such as paintings, photographs, or sculpture, in the Online Archive or the Study Guide, you may find two tools used by art historians helpful: formal analysis and iconography. Formal L I T E R AT U R E I N I T S C U LT U R A L C O N T E X T 9 [3694] Thomas Cole, The Falls of Kaaterskill (1826), courtesy of the Warner Collection of the Gulf States Paper Corporation, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. analysis, like close readings of poems, seeks to describe the nature of the object without reference to the context in which it was created. A formal analysis addresses such questions as Where does the central interest in the work lie? How is the work composed and with what materials? How is lighting or shading used? What does the scene depict? What allusions (mythological, religious, artistic) are found in the work? Once you have described the work of art using formal analysis, you may want to extend your reading by calling attention to the cultural climate in which the work was produced. This is called an iconographic reading. Here the Context sections of the Study Guide will be useful. You may notice, for example, a number of nineteenth-century paintings of ships in the Online Archive. One of the Contexts for Unit 6 argues that these ships can be read as symbols for nineteenth-century America, where it was common to refer to the nation as a â€Å"ship of state. † The glowing light or wrecked hulls in the paintings reflect the artists’ alternating optimism and pessimism about where the young country was headed. Below are two possible readings of Thomas Cole’s painting The Falls of Kaaterskill that employ the tools of formal analysis and iconography. W R I T E R A : F O R M A L A N A L Y S I S In this painting by Hudson River School artist Thomas Cole, the falls that give the painting its name grab our attention. The shock of the white falls against the concentrated brightness of the rocks ensures that the waterfall will be the focus of the work. Even amidst this brightness, however, there is darkness and mystery in the painting, where the falls emerge out of a dark quarry and crash down onto broken tree limbs and staggered rocks. The descent is neither peaceful nor pastoral, unlike the presentation of nature in Cole’s other works, such as the Oxbow. The enormity of the falls compared to the lone human figure that perches above them also adds to the sense of power the falls embody. Barely recognizable as human because it is so minute, the figure still pushes forward as if to embrace the cascade of the water in a painting that explores the tension between the individual and the power of nature. W R I T E R B : I C O N O G R A P H Y I agree with Writer A that this painting is all about the power of nature, but I would argue that it is about a particular kind of power: one that nineteenthcentury thinkers called the â€Å"sublime. † Cole’s portrait of the falls is particularly indebted to the aesthetic ideas formulated by Edmund Burke in the eighteenth century. Burke was interested in categorizing aesthetic responses, and he distinguished the â€Å"sublime† from the â€Å"beautiful. † While the beautiful is calm and harmonious, the sublime is majestic, wild, and even savage. While viewers are soothed by the beautiful, they are overwhelmed, awestruck, and sometimes terrified by the sublime. Often associated with huge, overpowering natural 10 W H AT I S A M E R I C A N L I T E R AT U R E ? phenomena like mountains, waterfalls, or thunderstorms, the â€Å"delightful terror† inspired by sublime visions was supposed to both remind viewers of their own insignificance in the face of nature and divinity and inspire them with a sense of transcendence. Here the miniature figure is the object of our gaze even as he is obliterated by the grandeur of the water. During the nineteenth century, tourists often visited locales such as the Kaaterskill Falls in order to experience the â€Å"delightful terror† that they brought. This experience is also echoed in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay â€Å"Nature,† in which he writes of his desire to become a â€Å"transparent eyeball† that will be able to absorb the oversoul that surrounds him. The power that nature holds here is that of the divine: nature is one way we can experience higher realms. How do these readings differ? Which do you find more compelling and why? What uses can you see for formal analysis or iconographic readings? When might you choose one of these strategies over the other? History  As historian Ray Kierstead has pointed out, history is not just â€Å"one damn thing after another†: rather, history is a way of telling stories about time or, some might say, making an argument about time. The Greek historian Herodotus is often called the father of history in the western world, as he was one of the first historians to notice patterns in world events. Herodotus saw that the course of empires followed a cyclical pattern of rise and fall: as one empire reaches its peak and self-destructs out of hubris (excessive pride), a new empire or new nations will be born to take its place. Thomas Cole’s five-part series The Course of Empire (1833) mirrors this Herodotean notion of time as his scene moves from savage, to pastoral, to consummation, to devastation, to desolation. This vision of time has been tremendously influential in literature: whenever you read a work written in the pastoral mode (literature that looks back with nostalgia to an era of rural life, lost simplicity, and a time when nature and culture were one), ask yourself whether there is an implicit optimism or pessimism about what follows this lost rural ideal. For example, in Herman Melville’s South Sea novel Typee, we find the narrator in a Tahitian village. He seeks to determine if he has entered a pastoral or savage setting: is he surrounded by savages, or is he plunged in a pastoral bliss? Implicit in both is a suggestion that there are earlier forms of civilization than the United States that the narrator has left behind. Any structural analysis of a work of literature (an analysis that pays attention to how a work is ordered) would do well to consider what notions of history are embedded within. In addition to the structural significance of history, a dialogue between history and literature is crucial because much of the early literature of the United States can also be categorized as historical documents. It is helpful, therefore, to understand the genres of history. Like literature, history is comprised of different genres, or modes. Historian Elizabeth Boone defines the main traditional genres of history as res gestae, geographical, and annals. Res gestae, or â€Å"deeds done,† organizes history through a list of accomplishments. This was a popu- L I T E R AT U R E I N I T S C U LT U R A L C O N T E X T 11 lar form of history for the ancient Greeks and Romans; for example, the autobiography of Julius Caesar chronicles his deeds, narrated in the third person. When Hernan Cortes and other explorers wrote accounts of their travels (often in the form of letters to the emperor), Caesar’s autobiography served as their model. Geographical histories use travel through space to shape the narrative: Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative is an example of a geographical history in that it follows her through a sequence of twenty geographic â€Å"removes† into Indian country and back. Annals, by contrast, use time as the organizing principle. Information is catalogued by year or month. Diaries and journals are a good example of this genre. These three genres can also be found in the histories of the Aztecs and Mayans of Mesoamerica and in those of the native communities of the United States and Canada. For example, the migration legend, a popular indigenous form of history, is a geographical history, whereas trickster tales often tell the early history of the world through a series of deeds. Memoirists also mix genres; for example, the first section of William Bradford’s Of Plimouth Plantation is a geographical history, whereas the second half is annals. Today the most common historical genres are intellectual history (the history of ideas), political history (the story of leaders), and diplomatic history (the history of foreign relations). To these categories we might add the newer categories of â€Å"social history† (a history of everyday life) and â€Å"gender history† (which focuses on the construction of gender roles). Finally, history is a crucial tool for understanding literature because literature is written in—and arguably often reflects—a specific historical context. Readers of literary works can deepen their understanding by drawing on the tools of history, that is, the records people leave behind: political (or literary) documents, town records, census data, newspaper stories, captivity narratives, letters, journals, diaries, and the like. Even such objects as tools, graveyards, or trading goods can tell us important information about the nature of everyday life for a community, how it worshipped or what it thought of the relationship between life and death. 12 W H AT I S A M E R I C A N L I T E R AT U R E ? Material Culture [6332] Archibald Gunn and Richard Felton Outcault, New York Journal’s Colored Comic Supplement (1896), courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZC4-25531]. When you look at an object, it may call up associations from the past. For example, for the first-time viewer the clown figure in the image above may seem innocuous, yet at the end of the nineteenth century his popularity was so intense that it started a newspaper war fierce enough to spawn a whole new term for sensationalist, irresponsible journalism—â€Å"yellow journalism. † Objects such as this comic supplement constitute â€Å"material culture,† the objects of everyday life. In Material Culture Studies in America, Thomas Schlereth provides the following useful definition of material culture: Material culture can be considered to be the totality of artifacts in a culture, the vast universe of objects used by humankind to cope with the physical world, to facilitate social intercourse, to delight our fancy, and to create symbols of meaning. . . . Leland Ferguson argues that material culture includes all â€Å"the things that people leave behind . . . all of the things people make from the physical world—farm tools, ceramics, houses, furniture, toys, buttons, roads, cities. † (2) When we study material culture in conjunction with literature, we wed two notions of â€Å"culture† and explore how they relate. As critic John Storey notes, the first notion of culture is what is often called â€Å"high culture†Ã¢â‚¬â€the â€Å"general process of intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic factors†; and the second is â€Å"lived culture†Ã¢â‚¬â€the â€Å"particular way of life, whether of a people, a period or a group† (2). In a sense, material culture (as the objects of a lived culture) allows us to see how the prevailing intellectual ideas were played out in the daily lives of people in a particular era. Thus, as Schlereth explains, through studying material culture we can learn about the â€Å"belief systems—the values, ideas, attitudes, and assumptions—of a particular community or society, usually across time† (3). In reading objects as embedded with meaning, we follow Schlereth’s premise that â€Å"objects made or L I T E R AT U R E I N I T S C U LT U R A L C O N T E X T 13 modified by humans, consciously or unconsciously, directly or indirectly, reflect the belief patterns of individuals who made, commissioned, purchased, or used them, and, by extension, the belief patterns of the larger society of which they are a part† (3). The study of material culture, then, can help us better understand the cultures that produced and consumed the literature we read today. Thomas Schlereth suggests a number of useful models for studying material culture; his â€Å"Art History Paradigm† is particularly noteworthy in that it will help you approach works of â€Å"high art,† such as paintings and sculptures, as well. The â€Å"Art History Paradigm† argues that the interpretive objective of examining the artifact is to â€Å"depict the historical development and intrinsic merit† of it. If you are interested in writing an â€Å"Art History Paradigm† reading of material culture, you might look at an object and ask yourself the following questions, taken from Sylvan Barnet’s Short Guide to Writing about Art. These questions apply to any art object: First, we need to know information about the artifact so we can place it in a historical context. You might ask yourself: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. What is my first response to the work? When and where was the work made? Where would the work originally have been seen? What purpose did the work serve? In what condition has the work survived? (Barnet 21–22) In addition, if the artifact is a drawing, painting, or advertisement, you might want to ask yourself questions such as these: 1. What is the subject matter? What (if anything) is happening? 2. If the picture is a portrait, how do the furnishings and the background and the angle of the head or the posture of the head and body (as well as the facial expression) contribute to our sense of the subject’s character? 3. If the picture is a still life, does it suggest opulence or want? 4. In a landscape, what is the relation between human beings and nature? Are the figures at ease in nature, or are they dwarfed by it? Are they one with the horizon, or (because the viewpoint is low) do they stand out against the horizon and perhaps seem in touch with the heavens, or at least with open air? If there are woods, are these woods threatening, or are they an inviting place of refuge? If there is a clearing, is the clearing a vulnerable place or is it a place of refuge from ominous woods? Do the natural objects in the landscape somehow reflect the emotions of the figures? (Barnet 22–23; for more questions, see pp. 23–24) Material culture is a rich and varied resource that ranges from kitchen utensils, to advertisements, to farming tools, to clothing. Unpacking the significance of objects that appear in the stories and poems you read may help you better understand characters and their motives. 14 W H AT I S A M E R I C A N L I T E R AT U R E ? Architecture. Most of the time we read the hidden meanings of buildings without even thinking twice. Consider the buildings below: Above: [9089] Anonymous, Capitol Building at Washington, D. C. (1906), courtesy of Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress [LC-USZ62-121528]. Right: [6889] Anonymous, Facade of the Sam Wah’s Chinese Laundry (c. 1890 –1900), courtesy of the Denver Public Library. Even if we had never seen either of these buildings before, it would not take us long to determine which was a government building and which was a smalltown retail establishment. Our having seen thousands of buildings enables us to understand the purpose of a building from architectural clues. When first seeing a work of architecture, it is helpful to unpack cultural assumptions. You might ask: 1. What is the purpose of this building? Is it public or private? What activities take place within it? 2. What features of the building reflect this purpose? Which of these features are necessary and which are merely conventional? 3. What buildings or building styles does this building allude to? What values are inherent in that allusion? 4. What parts of this building are principally decorative rather than functional? What does the ornament or lack of it say about the status of the owners or the people who work there? 5. What buildings surround this building? How do they affect the way the building is entered? 6. What types of people live or work in this building? How do they interact within the space? What do these findings say about the relative social status of the occupants? How does the building design restrict or encourage that status? 7. How are people supposed to enter and move through the building? What clues does the building give as to how this movement should take place? L I T E R AT U R E I N I T S C U LT U R A L C O N T E X T 15 These questions imply two basic assumptions about architecture: (1) architecture reflects and helps establish social status and social relations; and (2) architecture

Discussion Questions on Change Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Discussion Questions on Change Management - Essay Example The planned change management approaches include the organization management approach, the change management approach, the contingency approach and the processual approach (Cummings & Worley, 2009). Organizational change management therefore depends on the type of type of approach or model that organization chooses to use. There has been intense debate concerning the use of organizational development and processual approaches. Processual approach to change management as advocated for in the journal views change as an ongoing process that should be done within a period. Processual approach gives top managers of organization the role of initiating and influencing change management processes in their respective settings. Organizational development as an approach to change management relies extensively on soft factors in order to achieve transformation. The problem with soft factors in change management is that they are unable directly influence various change management programs that ar e initiated in organizations. Although organization development approach advocates for the use of soft factors such as visionary leadership, culture, and motivation in organizational change management, they cannot successfully contribute to the implementation of transformation projects or changes in organizations. Unlike organizational development approaches, processual approaches rely on hard factors of change management. These factors can be directly and indirectly be measured by organizations, can be externally and internally communicated in organizations and they are capable of influencing change management in organizations in quick and efficient ways (Sirkin, Keenan, & Jackson, 2005). Role of Vision Vision is important in change management process as it focuses the change management process and effort towards one goal. Creation and developing change management vision is also significant as it identifies strategies and ways for the achievement of the desired organization changes . In most cases, the vision usually shows clearly how the achievement of the outlined changes will improve or benefit the organization. Vision can inspire, motivate, and engage people in organization towards the realization of change management goals (Dobbs & Walker, 2010). Vision is also significant to sustainability of organization changes since it directs people in organizations towards a shared vision by creating meaning and identity (Sirkin, Keenan, & Jackson, 2005). Effective Communication Communication enables messages to be generated, interpreted between people within the organization thus it links people, and create relationships. In processual approach, effective communication is crucial and should be an integral part of the whole process. Effective communication is required during change management process since it is the mode at which new behaviours and ideas can be imparted to employees (Sirkin, Keenan, & Jackson, 2005). During change management process in organizations , top management often communicate the vision with a view to influence and empower employees to work towards the achievement of the new vision through open communication strategy. Business leaders and top managers in organization usually use effective and continuous communication strategies to drive home the need for change in their organizations (Cushman & King, 2005). One-on-one conversations between to managers and other employees concerning the need for organizational change is an

Discuss Phosphorous Cycle Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Discuss Phosphorous Cycle - Essay Example Thus, the phosphates present in the plants through irrigation or through natural absorption of soil water, become part of the constituents of growing plants in the ecosystem. Plants, however, do not remain unused; they are consumed by herbivorous animals, as fodder and by man as herbs and vegetables. As a result, phosphorous, in the form of the phosphates originating in the weathering of rocks, enters into the bodily systems of herbivorous plants and animals, and unites in the process of transformation or metabolism to form other chemical compounds of phosphorous. The process does not end there, as both man and animal pass out waste matter in the form of urine and excreta (Joiner, 75). Man and animals pass these out into or onto soil, or into lavatories (from lavatories, these wastes ultimately arrive in the soil). Alongside these process is the decomposition of dead plant or of animal and human bodies, which releases already absorbed or digested phosphates ( Mariah, 95). Thus, conve rted phosphates enter the soil, and close the cycle there. The above description is basically the process of the phosphorous cycle. ... Sewage farm, for instance, is farm which is irrigated with "sewage irrigation" (i.e. irrigation by sewage liquid), while sewage grass is grass grown on land fertilised by sewage. Thus phosphate waste matter is used to nurture plants, which store them up for animal and man, and for the enriching of farm soils, from which plants take nourishment or off which they may be washed into rivers and streams. Also relevant in the phosphorous cycle is the aquatic system, which includes plants and their environmental streams and rivers. Phosphates (from fertilisers or weathering of rocks, for example) not used by aquatic plants find their way into streams and rivers, and settle at the floor these waters. When these waters are stirred up (perhaps by man or fish), part of these settled sedimentary phosphates may re-enter the phosphorous cycle, through spilling over onto soils.In summary, therefore, the phosphorous cycle involves the transformation of phosphates from some liquid form into some solid form - or vive-versa - through the internal chemical processes of the interaction of the ecosystem constituents. Beginning with assimilation of phosphates into soils through rock weathering, its ends with the assimilation of phosphates back into the soil through the decomposition and excretion of plant, man, and animal. However, while phosphates are advantageous and essential to life and agriculture, they do at times have their adverse effects. A typical instance is its negative effect on fresh water. Typical fresh water is neutral, i.e. it has a PH value of 7; it is colourless, tasteless and odourless; perfectly fit for drinking, for cooking and for washing. But when excessive phosphates are allowed to enter into a reservoir or pool of fresh water

Health care Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 5

Health care - Essay Example Therefore, they end up falling short of the selection criteria, thus diminishing the chances of getting a loan to finance the start-up venture. In this case, some entrepreneurs fail to acknowledge the relevant of the business plan in the process of starting up a business, hence resulting to difficulties of attaining financial backing for start-up. 2. The aim of the regulatory agencies in the health care industry is to ensure that patients are receiving quality health care services from various institutions. Therefore, they are mandated to check if health care institutions are compliant with the policies in the field of health care. In this case, they are not aimed at spoiling the organization; instead, they are focused on improving the reputations of health care institutions by eliminating the drawbacks that can result to failure. Moreover, if an institution is compliant with the policies and regulation, there is no need for being afraid of the regulatory agencies, since there is nothing to hide or generate

Everyday life2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Everyday life2 - Essay Example Our success in leading others to believe truly we possess various characteristics has an influence on our outcomes in life (Briggs & Hogan, 1986). Who our friends are, whom we marry whether we get ahead at work and many other outcomes depend, to a significant approach, on our ability to convince people that we are worthy of their love, their respect, trust and their friendship. Undoubtedly, the need to create a positive impression is one reason that many people spend millions of dollars a year on personal appearance products and cosmetics. The concern of self-presentation leads people to engaging in behaviors that intensify their appearance to others but concurrently endanger their physical well-being (e.g., excessive dieting, the excessive expenditure of family finances). This behavior denotes a class of motivations in human behavior and thus its seen as a key factor for consideration in the day to day life. Several factors can lead to this motive, one of the most significant occurs when the desired external awards depend on the evaluation of others. Job interviews and first dates are good examples where we are highly concerned with making a positive impression and try "put our best foot forward." The motivation to engage in self-presentation tends to increase when we focus on other peoples attention. Although there are deviations, people are generally more keen to the impressions they are imposing when they are interacting with informal acquaintances and business associates than when they are interacting with family members, close friends, and loved ones. These motivations are in part stable disposition of people, but they depend purely on situation factors to obtain them. However, self-motivation are activated by the evaluative presence of other in dividual and by other peoples knowledge of ones behavior. There are two types of self-presentational motivations (Baumeister, 1982). One of the motives is "pleasing the audience." This is where an

Management accounting Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Management accounting - Assignment Example The report elaborates the cash budget, budgeted income statement and budgeted statement of financial position based on the available data that is estimated by Edith. Thus, it helps her to recognize the benefits and deficiency of her financial plan to start the new business. The capital budgeting techniques are applied to evaluate the financial position of the business. The sensitivity analysis is also executed for examining the effect of change in cost of sales and price on cash flow. The calculations are depicted in the excel sheet however, the tables are provided in the report to discuss about the financial viability of the business. The table above highlights the fact that the business will encounter highly fluctuating ending cash balance during the period from January to June 2015. The fluctuation is shown in the figure provided below. From the above figure it can be concluded that the business will encounter fluctuations in ending cash balance due to the variations in sales and expenditure of the business. Hence, it can be stated that the estimated sales value are not appropriate for the business. Edith needs to revise it for increasing the ending cash balance during the referred time period. A  budgeted income statement  consist all the items that are present in the income statements of a particular company (Baker and English, 2011; Balakrishnan, Sivaramakrishnan and Sprinkle, 2009). The only difference is that the income statements are prepared after considering the actual value of the business whereas the budgeted income statements is a projection of the income statement during budgeting periods in the future. A budgeted income statement is prepared for Edith’s business to highlight its profit or loss at the end of 2015. The budgeted income statement is prepared for one year staring from January 2015 to December 2015 (including both months). The table provided above evaluates the profit of Edith’s

Criminal Justice and Women Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Criminal Justice and Women - Essay Example For this case, the middle level age women are the most affected or targeted by rapist hence they should take extra caution on themselves. Many victims of rape do not report that they have sexually harassed since they will think that they will not be believed. They also tend to fear that they will be discriminated or feel rejected in the society due to the rape incident. There should be a well established hospital to cater for the rape victims whereby they will be free to discuss their problem. (Abbey et al, 1996) Sexual assault crime is a serious offence on a woman hence the offender should be punished accordingly to ensure that he will not repeat the act again in future. For this case, the legislator should ensure they pass a bill in parliament that would ensure that law would be enacted to protect sexually assaulted women. Sometimes the criminal justice is not fair when the sexual assault cases are being heard. They are not fair to the rape victim and they tend to even put her on a lot of shame when she might be asked to demonstrate what really happened during the rape incident. For this case, they should not harass the rape victim by asking them to demonstrate what really happened on the fateful day. The court should rely on the doctor's report that was written when the rape victim reported the case to a hospital. When it comes to sexual assault case, the primary goal is not to punish the

Irish Government's e-Government Initiative Essay

Irish Government's e-Government Initiative - Essay Example The evolution in communication and information technology has been effective in changing the way we communicate. There has been increasing call for democratic regime which is more open and accountable to the people. This has led to the change of view of governance as a leadership by the people and for the people in which the ruled have more say. With the need to be more open to the public and to be more accountable in deliver of service, many government in the world have been taking drastic measures which are aimed at making their service deliver structure better to the people. There has also bee a call for more accountability in governance. In this case the governments have been working to have a system through which the citizens can learn about what is happening in the government and also systematically seek their opinion on various issues that relates to governance. In this case e-government has become one of the most important tools that are being used by various governments in order to enhance accountability and ensure deliver of quality services. E-government in its simple definition can be termed as the use of information can communication technologies in order to improve the activities of the public sector organizations. This means that it is the application of the modern ICT tools in order to enhance governance and delivery of services to the public. It is the systematic arrangement of the public sector such that it is using the modern technology to deliver services to the people and to communication with the people. E-government is portrayed in there main domains. First there has to be improvement of the governance process. This mans that the process of e-administration has to be more efficient and has to be different as compared to the other methods of governance. Second there has to be connectivity of the citizens. This means that eCit izens and eService have to be integrated in the structure. Third there has to be a systematic building of external interactions. In this case there has to be inclusion of eSociety. These three domains mainly addresses the problem that the government may be too costly, too inefficient and ineffective and too self-serving and inconvenient for citizens and too insular in failure to include the larger societies. (Ntiro, 2000) e- Government in Ireland Irish government has been one of the governments in the world which have adapted polices of e-government in order to ensure that there is superior delivery of services. The government has been taking measures which are aimed at ensuring that the public service bodies come up with good e-government policies which are aimed at addressing the various needs of the publics. The Irish government has been awarding the public sector according to the way in which they have been able to implement e-government approaches in their departments. The government has been arming its department with ICT tools that are aimed at ensuring that there is efficient delivery of services to the people. The government agencies have been striving to ensure that they deliver quality services to the people. This has been in line with the revolution in the use of ICT tools by the population which has been considered as one of the simplest way to access to the government

Writer's choice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 28

Writer's choice - Essay Example On the other hand, if oil prices dropped and the stock prices were on the rise, then the IMF assumed an increment in oil supply. These two forces explained the plunge of oil prices (Zumbruni, Para 1-4). The results indicated that during the first phase the oil price drop was attributed by weak global demand. For instance, crude oil declined from$ 105 to around $ 82. However, in the second phase, the oil prices for the crude oil dropped further to $ 50 and IMF suggests that a decrease in the oil price was due to increased demand. The estimates reveal that supply outdid the demand during this phase (Zumbruni, Para 1-4). The explanation aligns with the class materials effectively as it explains the effect of reduced demand and increased supply on prices. Accordingly, a decrease exerts a downward pressure in the short-run. Apparently, increased supply allows a surplus of the commodity in the market, therefore, exerting a downward pressure on the price levels. These aspects are reflected in chapter four that focused on demand and supply within the oil markets. The above information may be illustrated as follows; Zumbruni, Josh. Supply of Demand? The IMFBreaks Down the Collapse of Oil Price. Wall Street Journal. Real Time Economics. April 14, 2015. Retrieved from

The Goal Book Report Essay Example for Free

The Goal Book Report Essay Actually Alex’s plant has not been profitable for some time and because of that Bill gives an ultimatum to Alex to turn the plant around in 3 months or else the plant will be closed unless there are visible improvements. Due to the limited amount of time given, Alex almost gives up on the plant until Alex remembers his conversation with Jonah, his college physics professor. They happened to come across each other in the airport during Alex’s business trip. During that time, Jonah asked him several question to analyze his company situation. This conversation then leads Jonah asking Alex, â€Å"What is the goal of your manufacturing company? † Although Jonah didn’t give the answer to Alex but eventually Alex get the answer after rethinking their conversation. Alex realizes that the goal of his company or in fact any business is to make money. After finding out the answer, Alex then decide to contact Jonah one more time to consult further about his company. After contacting Jonah, Alex gets three measurements that can determine the success of a business. The three measurements are throughput, or â€Å"the rate at which the system generates money through sales,† inventory, or â€Å"all the money that system has invested in purchasing things which it intends to sell,† and operational expense, or â€Å"all the money the system spends in order to turn inventory into throughput†. Using these measurements, Alex has a basis to determine if his decisions are helping the plant move towards the goal. The goal of the  plant is to make money, which is characterized by increasing throughput and decreasing inventory and operational expense. Alex decided to meet with Jonah in New York in order to fix their plant problem. But once again, Jonah leaves Alex with another question, what does the combination of dependent events and statistical fluctuations have to do with your plant? During the weekend, Alex went to a hiking trip with his son and got stuck as a ‘troop master’. During the hiking, Alex discovers Alex discovers the importance of dependent events in relation to statistical fluctuations. With this discovery, he also found out that the bottleneck’s speed of production is what determines the speed of the other dependents. Hence, inventory moves very slowly because of statistical fluctuations. Back to the plant, Alex with his team begins their search for their plant’s bottlenecks. Then they found one the machine (NCX-10) and the heat treatment as the source plant’s bottlenecks. Alex invites Jonah to visit his plant in order to solve their bottlenecks problem. Jonah define bottleneck as any resource whose capacity is equal to or less than the demand placed upon it and a non-bottleneck is any resource whose capacity is greater than the demand placed on it. With Jonah’s help, Alex and his team able to solve their bottlenecks problem such as perform the quality control testing before going into the bottleneck, do not produce parts for inventory produce only what is in demand, produce smaller batches to increase productivity for the whole process, etc. One thing that they also learn from Jonah is that an hour lost at a bottleneck is an hour lost to the whole system. So, it is important to keep the bottleneck to keep moving all the times. With these changes in Alex’s plant, they are able to increase their production during the second and third month. With the increase of production in their plant, Alex able to save his plant and he also promoted to Bill peach’s position. Regarding his personal life, Alex described as a dedicated and workaholic employee. His dedication to his work posed some family problems: losing time for his wife aside from her not being used to living at his hometown where there is a big difference from the city life his wife is used to. At one point, Julie, Alex’s wife leaves him because she’s tired of arguing and her attempt to save their marriage. However, while Alex tries to save his plant, Alex also does the same thing with his marriage. II. Things I liked about the book What I liked about the book is that the book very informative and it is really easy to read. I think this book will be one of effective way to learn about management. Because it is the most efficient way to understand the challenges involved in the manufacturing processes. Unlike many books that take complicated ideas and oversimplify them so the ideas lose their meaning, this book simplifies ideas in ways that enhance their meaning by making the ideas easier to see and employ. Another thing that I really like from this author is that he able to turn a relatively boring subject for some people to an exciting read. One more thing that I like is the way the author describe the characters in the story. I think many readers can relate to the characters in the book since what happen in the story is also happening in the real world. And the last one is I liked how the author include Alex personal life problem in the story. I think what the author trying to do is to inform his reader that there must be balance between personal life and work life. You have to balance your personal life and work life, because eventually they will flow in and out of each environment. III. Critique of the book I don’t think I have any critique for the book since the book really helps me in understanding how management really works. One thing that I might complain might be some typo errors in the book. IV. Real life example From the book, we can see that the concept that Jonah gave can be apply not only for business problem but also problems that we deal within our daily life. I think we can definitely see it from the book during the hiking trip. I think what we can do is asking ourselves with the question of â€Å"what is my goal in life, work, study and other things that we do? † As a student, I think I can apply some of the concept in my studying. When I took a subject, the first thing that I want to know is what is my goal in taking this subject? After knowing that, if ever I encounter some problem like a probability of failing the subjects, I have to identify the source of my problem. Knowing the source of my problem will make it easier for me to decide how or what can I do in order to fix my problem.

Dynamics of Apartheid in South Africa

Dynamics of Apartheid in South Africa It is easy to forget that Apartheid only finished twenty six years ago in 1991 when the Abolition of Racially Based Land Measures Act was passed this subsequently led to the repealing of the laws enforcing racial segregation which included the Group Areas Act. Apartheid is the word given to racial segregation in South Africa; this was specifically a former policy of segregation and political and economic discrimination against non-European groups in the Republic of South Africa (Merriam-Webster, 2011). In this essay I will discuss both the political and economic discrimination that took place while also looking at the subtle but important undertones of religion that also affected Apartheid.ÂÂ   The essay will be split into three sections, with the first section discussing how the laws that were passed during the period of Apartheid were inextricably linked to an attempt to control the non-European in the society of the time in South Africa and to solidify the power of the politi cal in power at the time. The second part of this essay will look at how this control worked economically and if there was anything that the non-Europeans in South Africa could do in an attempt to bypass them. It will also consider whether the control it exercised truly did result in the continuation of power being in the hands of the whites or if it actually ended up accelerating the process that led to the era of Apartheid being overturned and Nelson Mandela being inaugurated into being the first voted in Black president of South Africa as part of the African National Congress. Finally the essay will consider the role that religion had in this era of Apartheid. Whether religion ended up helping the formation of segregation or whether it was unhelpful towards the movement. Religion is always portrayed as a beacon of uniting those from different races and ethnicities around the world. This essay will consider whether this was the case or whether Apartheid made religion lose sight of its purpose and morals and promoted the political philosophy of Apartheid. When considering the laws that came into being during the time of the National Party it is important to consider the history of legislation in South Africa. There were long-standing laws from the time of the British and Afrikaner administrations in South Africa. A good example of this would be the Glen Grey Act of 1894, (Smythe N C, 1995) this was the original legislation of land reclamation to the white population from the native population. The Glen Grey act also created a tax on labour that forced Xhosa men, an ethnic group that is mainly situated around the south and south eastern part of South Africa, into work on farms and other industry. It is important to consider the effect that these laws from colonial times had on the laws that came into effect during the time of Apartheid. With regards to Segregation, there were multiple laws that came into effect but none that had such a great impact as The Population Registration Act, 1950. This required that every person who was a citizen of South Africa be classified and registered into a racial class to divide the population up (Dugard, 2016). All inhabitants in South Africa at the time were divided into categories; these were Black, White and Coloured (mixed) later on in the period Indians were added to the category list, this was for those who originated from South Asia and India. This act was the foundation of everything that became Apartheid, it led to the forbidding for a white and a person of another race to marry and then a year later in 1950 it became a crime for any white person to have sexual intercourse with any person of another race (Robertson and Whitten, 1978). These laws were an attempt to divide the population and with which the administration that was leading the country would be able to demote w ho were not white into lesser positions in society and also to move them through land reclamation. This law was not repealed until June 17th 1991 by The South African Parliament. This was the first act of legislation with Apartheid being foreseen by the government and as mentioned earlier became the foundation of everything that apartheid became. This is a good example of a dynamic that occurred during the time of Apartheid in South Africa Another piece of legislation that came in was in 1953, this was The Reservation of Separate Amenities Act 1953, this was again an initiative with which to exercise more racial segregation in South Africa and solidify the idea of apartheid. This act legalised the segregation of public places vehicles and services. This left only roads that were excluded from this law and meant they became the only area where all races were together.ÂÂ   Within this law there were multiple sections that had minor details in which became incredibly important. One of these was Section 3a; this made it permissible to completely exclude someone from public places, vehicles or services based solely on their race. This preceded section 3b; this bylaw meant that the facilities for the two races did not have to be equal, or anywhere near the same quality. This meant that in reality the best facilities were reserved for whites and those that were outdated or inferior where given to the other races. This le d to total segregation between races and the creation of white-only jobs. This finally ended up with the cementing of the National Partys control over the economic and social systems in the country. This ended up leading to the National Partys plan for the Grand Apartheid a plan to emphasise the territorial separation and the continuation and enlargement of the police repression that had been occurring throughout the period of apartheid. This is an incredibly important part of Apartheid and the effects it had on the population in South Africa. Secondly, with regards to legislation in an attempt to exercise control in 1953 the Public Safety Act and the Criminal Law Amendment Act were passed, this led to the empowerment of the government to declare a state of emergency at which there would be increased penalties for those who were considered in contempt of the laws. These penalties included fines, imprisonment and even whippings; there are multiple stories of the government declaring a state of emergency in an attempt to crush any potential uprising that there may have been potential for. One good example of this would be in 1960, a large groups of people classified as black, from an area called Sharepeville refused to carry their identification papers which identified which race class they were part of and also where they were from. The government decided that this was grounds for the declaration of a state of emergency; this emergency lasted for one hundred and fifty six days and involved sixty nine people dying and one hu ndred and eighty seven people wounded. These people died because of the demonstrations against what was perceived to be unfair pass laws, it led to the South African Police opening fire against the demonstrators and killing all these people. This is another example of how the imposing of Apartheid by the government of the day let to terrible and unjust treatment of certain races in South Africa at the time; it also went a long way to suggesting that the white regime had no intention of changing the unjust laws of Apartheid. This again discusses a key dynamic of Apartheid in South Africa During Apartheid one of the ways that control was upheld by the government was through an extremely brutal and well ordered police force that was at the disposal at the government to quieten and extinguish and those who had become disenfranchised with the Apartheid regime. This was a non-white majority in the country that was growing increasingly restless with the regime and this ended up leading to the Sharepville massacre as mentioned above. When there was a State of Emergency ordered in the country the police would then be assisted by the military. The government of the time ordered multiple strategies to stifle any anti-apartheid activists and critics of the white minority government. Some of these tactics included counter-insurgency and intimidation. Over the period from 1960 to 1990 sixty seven people died in police custody or detention either from hanging or torture or what was put down to natural causes although there is strong evidence to suggest that this was in fact not th e actual cause of death in many cases. (Goldberg, n.d.) This is another dynamic of Apartheid and the impacts it had on South Africa Another way in which legislation led to forcible control by the minority white led government was through forcible relocation. This was a policy where over 86% of the country was granted to the white South African population. This meant that the other colour populations were forced to relocate from where they lived or even originally came from. Normally this would be relocation outside the city limits or if they were Black Africans they would be relocated to one of the ten Bantustans, these were communities that were set up specifically for to home major African ethnic groups. These were state-created communities usually put in the least desirable places where there was little to no natural resources industry or any kind of workable farmland. They also regularly had little to no public transport and were given little to no chance to build high quality communities. The government also passed laws saying that these were the only areas where Black political rights were recognised and ac cepted. Outside of these specific areas the Black Africans were unable to vote or even own land. This was regardless of whether their families had been there for or whether there were historical ancestors who had inhabited the area as well. This policy resulted in major relocation and devastating results for this demographic. From 1950 to 1986, there were more than 1.5 million Africans of colour that were forcibly removed from their homes and relocated from the urban centres or major mineral areas and also the most fertile land. These areas were given to the minority whites and the Black population was moved either to Bantustans or to newly formed townships that were springing up all over the country as people were looking for better environments for their families and relations. This is another example of a key dynamic of apartheid and how it had a dramatic effect. Finally, when looking at the dynamic of religion with regards to the time of Apartheid in South Africa there is a lot to consider. When looking at religion with a focus on Christianity it is important to consider that the church attempts to create an image of an all-inclusive and non-judgemental institution. However, the best example of the church and Apartheid would be to look at the Dutch Reformed Church. This is also a good example as during Apartheid Christianity was by far the most popular religion with over 85% of the total population. Apartheid became an incredibly difficult period for the church as it had to deal with segregation and whether there was a need to align itself with the rest of South Africa during the time and have split churches for congregations who were coloured and congregations for those who were white. This created huge tensions and then when the Dutch Reformed Church decided to actively promote racial divisions through endorsing Apartheid it was extremely controversial. The Dutch Reformed church became known as the official religion of the National Party during the Apartheid era. This was put down to Chruch leaders over the 1970s and 1980s, the assumption by church leaders that the congregation were in favour of Apartheid led to them being incredibly committed to Apartheid and even more so than much of their congregations. In the long run this commitment to the cause of Apartheid became increasingly damaging and led to the church becoming an impediment to political reform. This, however, is not to say that all clergy and leaders were for Apartheid, there were some very famous members of the church who openly spoke out against Apartheid. One of these was Reverend Beyers Naude who famously left his white only church and went to be part of a parish that was for all blacks, this created a huge stir within the church and was a huge show of support to the anti-Apartheid movement. This, however, was not the case throughout the church there are many examples of church leaders being anti-Apartheid. One good example of this is senior officials within the Roman Catholic Church in South Africa opposing apartheid. This was not without opposition though and it led to the creation of the South African Catholic Defence League that ended up condemning any type of political involvement by the church and it also ended up opposing many other of the demands from the Catholic Church. This shows that religion was again a key factor in the period of Apartheid and that it contributed both in a negative and positive way. The above then suggests that there were a multitude of dynamics that were in fact integral to the period of Apartheid in South Africa. The above shows that with these the white minority within South Africa at the time was able to exercise control through legislature that ended up confining those in society who were of different races to unfair treatment. This period of Apartheid has led to unimaginable suffering for those who were suppressed during the period of Apartheid and even when the period of Apartheid came to an end the damage done by this period was so severe that South Africa remains racially divided. Even though Apartheid ended over 20 years ago now the recovery from this systematic and brutal racial discrimination has been difficult and continues today. Apartheid means apartness in Afrikaans and this separation led to such irreparable damage that it has warranted the South African Government to create the National Development Plan (NDP) that has had to be aimed at elimina ting poverty and reducing inequality by 2030. One of the main aims of this is to reduce inequality between races in the country. This is because the entrenched racism that was created by Apartheid was not easy to eliminate immediately. I think that the above factors discussed, show why this was so difficult to eliminate. For one demographic to sit on the top if the pile while all others were treated so badly would always result in bitterness and a feeling of the need for revenge. So above shows what the key dynamics of Apartheid were and also the terrible results that that has continued to have on South Africa today. References Apartheid Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2011. Web. 16th May 2017.

Errors and strategies in language acquisition

Errors and strategies in language acquisition Error Correction Why Correction is Necessary Correction is necessary. The argument that students just need to use the language and the rest will come by itself seems rather weak. Students come to us to teach them. If they want only conversation, they will probably inform us or, they might just go to a chat room on the Internet. Obviously students need to be corrected as part of the learning experience. However, students also need to be encouraged to use the language. It is true that correcting students while they are trying their best to use the language can often discourage them. The most satisfactory solution of all is make correction an activity. Correction can be used as a follow-up to any given class activity. However, correction sessions can be used as a valid activity in and of themselves. In other words, teachers can set up an activity during which each mistake (or a specific type of mistake) will be corrected. Students know that the activity is going to focus on correction, and accept that fact. However, these activit ies should be kept in balance with other, more free-form, activities which give students the opportunity to express themselves without having to worry about being corrected every other word. It is to S.P. Corder that Error Analysis owes its place as a scientific method in linguistics. As Rod Ellis cites (p. 48), it was not until the 1970s that EA became a recognized part of applied linguistics, a development that owed much to the work of Corder. Before Corder, linguists observed learners errors, divided them into categories, tried to see which ones were common and which were not, but not much attention was drawn to their role in second language acquisition. It was Corder who showed to whom information about errors would be helpful (teachers, researchers, and students) and how. There are many major concepts introduced by S. P. Corder in his article The significance of learners errors, among which we encounter the following: It is the learner who determines what the input is. The teacher can present a linguistic form, but this is not necessarily the input, but simply what is available to be learned. Keeping the above point in mind, learners needs should be considered when teachers/linguists plan their syllabuses. Before Corders work, syllabuses were based on theories and not so much on learners needs. Mager (1962) points out that the learners built-in syllabus is more efficient than the teachers syllabus. Corder adds that if such a built-in syllabus exists, then learners errors would confirm its existence and would be systematic. Corder introduced the distinction between systematic and non-systematic errors. Unsystematic errors occur in ones native language; Corder calls these mistakes and states that they are not significant to the process of language learning. He keeps the term errors for the systematic ones, which occur in a second language. Errors are significant in three ways: to the teacher: they show a students progress to the researcher: they show how a language is acquired, what strategies the learner uses. to the learner: he can learn from these errors. When a learner has made an error, the most efficient way to teach him the correct form is not by simply giving it to him, but by letting him discover it and test different hypotheses. (This is derived from Carrolls proposal (Carroll 1955, cited in Corder), who suggested that the learner should find the correct linguistic form by searching for it. Many errors are due to that the learner uses structures from his native language. Corder claims that possession of ones native language is facilitative. Errors in this case are not inhibitory, but rather evidence of ones learning strategies. The above insights played a significant role in linguistic research, and in particular in the approach linguists took towards errors. Here are some of the areas that were influenced by Corders work: STUDIES OF LEARNER ERRORS Corder introduced the distinction between errors (in competence) and mistakes (in performance). This distinction directed the attention of researchers of SLA to competence errors and provided for a more concentrated framework. Thus, in the 1970s researchers started examining learners competence errors and tried to explain them. We find studies such as Richardss A non-contrastive approach to error analysis (1971), where he identifies sources of competence errors; L1 transfer results in interference errors; incorrect (incomplete or over-generalized) application of language rules results in intralingual errors; construction of faulty hypotheses in L2 results in developmental errors. Not all researchers have agreed with the above distinction, such as Dulay and Burt (1974) who proposed the following three categories of errors: developmental, interference and unique. Stenson (1974) proposed another category, that of induced errors, which result from incorrect instruction of the language. As most research methods, error analysis has weaknesses (such as in methodology), but these do not diminish its importance in SLA research; this is why linguists such as Taylor (1986) reminded researchers of its importance and suggested ways to overcome these weaknesses. As mentioned previously, Corder noted to whom (or in which areas) the study of errors would be significant: to teachers, to researchers and to learners. In addition to studies concentrating on error categorization and analysis, various studies concentrated on these three different areas. In other words, research was conducted not only in order to understand errors per se, but also in order to use what is learned from error analysis and apply it to improve language competence. Such studies include Kroll and Schafers Error-Analysis and the Teaching of Composition, where the authors demonstrate how error analysis can be used to improve writing skills. They analyze possible sources of error in non-native-English writers, and attempt to provide a process approach to writing where the error analysis can help achieve better writing skills. These studies, among many others, show that thanks to Corders work, researchers recognized the importance of errors in SLA and started to examine them in order to achieve a better understanding of SLA processes, i.e. of how learners acquire an L2. STUDIES OF L1 INFLUENCE ON SLA Various researchers have concentrated on those errors which demonstrate the influence of ones native language to second language acquisition. Before Corders work, interference errors were regarded as inhibitory; it was Corder who pointed out that they can be facilitative and provide information about ones learning strategies (point 7, listed above). Claude Hagà ¨ge (1999) is a supporter of this concept and he mentions it in his book The child between two languages, dedicated to childrens language education. According to Hagà ¨ge, interference between L1 and L2 is observed in children as well as in adults. In adults it is more obvious and increases continuously, as a monolingual person gets older and the structures of his first language get stronger and impose themselves more and more on any other language the adult wishes to learn. In contrast, as regards children, interference features will not become permanent unless the child does not have sufficient exposure to L2. If there is sufficient exposure, then instead of reaching a point where they can no longer be corrected (as often happens with phonetics features), interference features can be easily eliminated. Hagà ¨ge stresses that there is no reason for worry if interference persists more than expected. The teacher should know that a child that is in the process of acquiring a second language will subconsciously invent structures influenced by knowledge he already possesses. These hypotheses he forms may constitute errors. These errors, though, are completely natural; we should not expect the child to acquire L2 structures immediately (p. 81). In addition to studies of L1 transfer in general, there have been numerous studies for specific language pairs. Thanh Ha Nguyen (1995) conducted a case study to demonstrate first language transfer in Vietnamese learners of English. He examined a particular language form, namely oral competence in English past tense making. He tried to determine the role of L1 transfer in the acquisition of this English linguistic feature as a function of age, time of exposure to English, and place and purpose of learning English. The influence of L1 on L2 was also examined by Lakkis and Malak (2000) who concentrated on the transfer of Arabic prepositional knowledge to English (by Arab students). Both positive and negative transfer were examined in order to help teachers identify problematic areas for Arab students and help them understand where transfer should be encouraged or avoided. In particular, they concluded that an instructor of English, whose native language is Arabic, can use the students L1 for structures that use equivalent prepositions in both languages. On the other hand, whenever there are verbs or expressions in the L1 and L2 that have different structures, that take prepositions, or that have no equivalent in one of the languages, instructors should point out these differences to their students. Not only was L1 influence examined according to language pair, but according to the type of speech produced (written vs. oral). Hagà ¨ge (p. 33) discusses the influence of L1 on accent; he notes that the ear acts like a filter, and after a critical age (which Hagà ¨ge claims is 11 years), it only accepts sounds that belong to ones native language. Hagà ¨ge discusses L1 transfer in order to convince readers that there is indeed a critical age for language acquisition, and in particular the acquisition of a native-like accent. He uses the example of the French language, which includes complex vowel sounds, to demonstrate that after a critical age, the acquisition of these sounds is not possible; thus, learners of a foreign language will only use the sounds existing in their native language when producing L2 sounds, which may often obstruct communication. STUDIES OF CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK Corder elaborated on Carrolls work to show that the most efficient way to teach a student the correct linguistic form is to let him test various hypotheses and eventually find the right form (point 6, listed above). In these steps, Hagà ¨ge points out the importance of self correction (p. 82-83). According to Hagà ¨ge, it is useful to always perform an error analysis based on written tests administered by the teacher, but without informing the student of the purpose of the test. On that basis, self-correction is preferable to correction by the teacher, especially if the latter is done in a severe or intimidating way. Self correction is even more efficient when it is done with the help of childrens classmates. According to teachers, the younger the children, the greater the cooperation among them and the less aggressive or intimidating the corrections. Hagà ¨ge dedicates a section in his book to the importance of treating errors in a positive way. In this section, titled The teache r as a good listener, he notes that it is useless, if not harmful, to treat errors as if they were diseases or pathological situations which must be eliminated, especially if this treatment becomes discouraging, as occurs when teachers lose their patience because of childrens numerous errors. This, of course, does not mean that corrections should be avoided; after all it is the teachers duty to teach the rules of the L2. But the correction of every error as soon as it occurs is not recommended. The justification that Hagà ¨ge offers is the following: the linguistic message that the child tries to produce is a sequence of elements which are interdependent; immediate corrections which interrupt this message tend to produce negative consequences, even to the less sensitive children; such consequences include anxiety, fear of making an error, the development of avoidance strategies, reduced motivation for participation in the classroom, lack of interest for learning, reduced will for s elf correction, and lack of trust towards the teacher. Esser (1984, cited in Hagà ¨ge) also made a similar point: repetitive and immediate corrections, he noted, may cause sensitive children to develop aggressive behavior towards their classmates or teacher. Thus, Hagà ¨ge concludes, correction must not be applied by the teacher unless errors obstruct communication. This is the main criterion for error correction (i.e. obstruction of communication) presented by Hagà ¨ge; however there have been studies which examined such criteria in greater detail, such as Freiermuths L2 Error Correction: Criteria and Techniques (1997). Freiermuth accepts Corders view (point 6) and proposes criteria for error correction in the classroom. These criteria are: exposure, seriousness, and students needs. In the case of exposure, Freiermuth claims that when a child creates language (for example, when he tries to express an idea by using a linguistic form he has not yet acquired), he will most likely make errors; correcting these errors will be ineffective because the learner is not aware of them. Thus, error correction would result in the acquisition of the correct form only if the learner has been previously exposed to that particular language form. As regards the seriousness criterion, Freiermuth claims that the teacher must determine the gravity of an error before deciding whether he should correct it or not. Here Freiermuth sets a criterion which agrees with that of Hagà ¨ges: the error, he states, must impede communication before it should be considered an error that necessitates correction. But what constitutes a serious error? Which errors are those which should not be corrected? As an examples of non-serious errors, Freiermuth mentions those errors which occur due to learners nervousness in the classroom, due to their stress or the pressure of having to produce accurately a linguistic form in the L2. These errors can occur even with familiar structures; in that case, they are not of serious nature and are similar to what Corder called mistakes. Here again we see Corders influence in error analysis, and in particular in the distinction between errors and mistakes. Freiermuth goes on to suggest a hierarchy of errors (accor ding to seriousness) to help teachers decide which errors should be corrected: Errors that significantly impair communication [are] at the top of the list, followed by errors that occur frequently, errors that reflect misunderstanding or incomplete acquisition of the current classroom focus, and errors that have a highly stigmatizing effect on the listeners. He also clarifies what can cause stigmatization: profound pronunciation errors, or errors of familiar forms. Another important criterion that must be considered by the teacher is individual students needs. The importance of this factor is mentioned in Corder, who in turn notes that this idea had been suggested previously by Carroll (1955, cited in Corder 1967) and Ferguson (1966, cited in Corder 1967). Each student is different and thus may react differently to error correction. We infer from Freiermuths claim that the teacher must perform two main tasks: first, assess some specific character traits of students, such as self-confidence and language acquisition capability. Freiermuth agrees with Walz (1982, cited in Freiermuth) that self-confident, capable students can profit from even minor corrections, while struggling students should receive correction only on major errors. This claim agrees with Esser and Hagà ¨ges claim that repetitive corrections are likely to decrease motivation; it is reasonable to accept that students who lack self-confidence will be stigmatized to a greater degree than confident students. The teachers second task, according to Freiermuth, is to listen to learners L2 utterances in order to determine where errors occur (i.e. which linguistic forms cause students difficulties), their frequency, and their gravity (according to the severity criteria mentioned above). Then the teacher can combine the outcome of these tasks and decide on correction techniques for individual students. A different approach to error correction was suggested by Porte (1993), who stressed the importance of self-correction. Porte refers to Corders distinction of errors and mistakes and points out that many students do not know the difference. It is important, Porte notes, that students know how to identify an error in order to avoid it in the future. She agrees with Corder that it is more efficient for learners to correct themselves than be corrected by the teacher, and goes on to suggest a four-step approach for self-correction. This approach consists of questions that the teacher provides to students. After writing an essay, students should read it four times, each time trying to answer the questions included in each of the four steps. Thus, in each re-reading task (each step) they concentrate on a different aspect of their essay. In brief, the first task asks them to highlight the verbs and check the tenses; in the second task students concentrate on prepositions; the third task req uires them to concentrate on nouns (spelling, agreement between subject and verb); finally in the fourth task students should try to correct potential personal mistakes. Porte also offers some clarification of what is meant by personal mistakes, in order to help the students identify them. The studies mentioned above are only a few examples that demonstrate how S. Pit Corders work influenced the area of error analysis in linguistics. The concepts that Corder introduced directed researchers attention to specific areas of error analysis; they helped linguists realize that although errors sometimes obstruct communication, they can often facilitate second language acquisition; also they played a significant role in training teachers and helping them identify and classify students errors, as well as helping them construct correction techniques. REFERENCES Corder, S. P. 1967. The significance of learners errors. International Review of Applied Linguistics 5: 161-9. Dulay, H., and Burt, M., Errors and strategies in child second language acquisition, TESOL Quarterly 8: 129-136, 1974. Ellis, R., The Study of Second Language Acquisition, Oxford University Press, 1994. Esser, U., Fremdsprachenpsychologische Betrachtungen zur Fehlerproblematic im Fremdsprachenunterricht, Deutsch als Fremdsprache, 4:151-159, 1984, (cited in Hagà ¨ge 1999). Freiermuth, M. R., L2 Error Correction: Criteria and Techniques, The Language Teacher Online 22.06, http://langue.hyper.chubu.ac.jp/jalt/pub/tlt/97/sep/freiermuth.html, 1997. Hagà ¨ge, C. Lenfant aux deux langues (The child between two languages), Greek translation, Polis editions, Athens 1999. (Original publication: Editions Odile Jacob, 1996). Kroll, Barry, and John C. Schafer. Error-Analysis and the Teaching of Composition, College Composition and Communication 29: 242-248, 1978 Lakkis, K. and Malak, M. A.. Understanding the Transfer of Prepositions. FORUM, Vol 38, No 3, July-September 2000. (Online edition: http://exchanges.state.gov/forum/vols/vol38/no3/p26.htm) Mager, R.F. Preparing Instructional Objectives, Fearon Publishers, Palo Alto, CA 1962. Nguyen, Thanh Ha. First Language Transfer and Vietnamese Learners Oral Competence in English Past Tense Marking: A Case Study., Master of Education (TESOL) Research Essay, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia1995. Porte, G. K., Mistakes, Errors, and Blank Checks, FORUM, Vol 31, No 2, p. 42, January-March 1993. (Online edition: http://exchanges.state.gov/forum/vols/vol31/no1/p42.htm) Richards, J., A non-contrastive approach to error analysis, English Language Teaching 25: 204-219, 1971. Stenson, N. Induced errors in Shumann and Stenson (eds.), 1974, cited in Ellis (p. 60). Taylor G., Errors and explanations, Applied Linguistics 7: 144-166, 1986.

Why People Nerf :: essays research papers

Why People Nerf Why do you nerf? The common response would be, â€Å"Because it’s fun.† Nerf is an exhilarating sport; there is something about running around shooting foam at people that is loads of fun. Problem solved, people do it because it is fun. There are a lot of different aspects that go into defining the fun in Nerf. Nerf is a war game, and thus has to be treated uniquely in defining the psychological rewards it gives so many people. Like real war, Nerf invokes a rush of adrenaline and a ‘battle mentality’ (which will be discussed later). Like a game, there is a sense of lightheartedness and a sport-like physical and mental aspect, in which injuries are not meant to occur. Nerf rewards humans on an almost uncountable number of levels. Many animals, and almost all mammals, play war games. Cubs, puppies, kittens and the like are known to wrestle, bite, chase and surprise. Through these examples, we see that even the most primitive subconscious aspects of the human psyche are satisfied in mock battle. On a more modern level, Nerf allows for participants to engage in combat without the physical aptitude required by the military, the consequences of death, or the moral significance of taking another life. In fact, I kill the same four people every weekend, and they kill me. The modification of Nerf guns satisfies the scientific urge to take apart, examine, and rebuild. Although most members of the nerfing community follow the modifications and innovations of a small percentage of this group, every person will go about modifying in a slightly different way. Even following mod instructions is a mental exercise. This lands us upon another of the important rewards of Nerf: the community. Belonging to a community is one of the most basic needs of humans. Because this community exists in a bundle of electrons it includes many people who wouldn’t normally consider themselves social; but get them to a Nerf war, and they are ‘just one of the guys’. After this general analysis of the rewards of nerfing, I would like to go into further detail in relation to two of the most prominent facets of Nerf. The Battle Mentality The battle mentality that Nerf causes in people is comprised of many different behaviors. Because Nerf is just a game, the behaviors mentioned should all be looked at through a filter of fun and sport.