Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Group Assignment Essay Example for Free

Group Assignment Essay A group is a collection of three or more people who interact and attempt to influence each other in order to accomplish a common purpose. The purpose of a group or team may range from preparing a new advertising campaign, to sharing information informally, to making important decisions, to fulfilling social needs, or just coming up with a solution to help a friend in need. Groups are a fundamental structure for accomplishing a wide variety of human tasks. I love working in groups because they give you a chance to work together with new personalities and new, refreshing ideas. The only time I dont like working in groups is when there are people who aren’t willing to put the effort they could and posses, into the work assigned. During our last two classes we were separated into groups of six and given different topics which we were supposed to come up with solutions for. For the most part my group worked very well together on the first topic. We had great communication, and everyone was able to share their opinion on the matter. I believe that our group showed all of the characteristics of a healthy group, and if I had to do future group work I would most definitely choose to work with that group again. We showed interdependence which is the relation between two or more people and how their relationship directly affects the other. First, we started off by explaining the topic to the group again, than we each took turns going around in the circle and explaining how we each felt about the subject. After each person was done, the group took turns asking that person about questions about their view of the subject trying to take in everybody else’s opinions as well as our own and taking them into consideration instead of just throwing out someone else’s idea. I believe we all held each other accountable as well; making sure that everyone was conforming to the group’s norms and working together towards the group goal. No one interrupted anyone else. We made sure that everyone had a chance to speak their mind without being criticized or looked down upon because of the way they were thinking. We took everyone else’s thoughts and put them together to come up with what we believed to be a good solution for the topic that we were given. I was in a group with Sonny and I believe that he took the leadership role within the group. He was the most vocal, and the person who got others to speak their minds. I also think that my role within the group was that of a supporter. I was encouraging different members of our group whether their ideas were accepted by the group, or dismissed. I have always been afraid or nervous of working in groups during class because I usually don’t know any of people in my group, but working in a group with unfamiliar people is better because none of those people have a bias opinion about you. You can speak your mind without having to hear somebody else criticize your opinions or thoughts. In conclusion, I believe working in groups is an easy and efficient way to come up with well thought out, plausible solutions for many different situations that you might not be able to come up with on your own or with just one other person. These past two days have given me a more broad understanding of groups, and how to participate in one.

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Essay on Shakespeares The Tempest - Prospero and Shakespeare :: free essay writer

The Tempest, Prospero and Shakespeare There can be no doubt that The Tempest contains numerous references to the theater, and while many of Shakespeare's plays make reference to the dramatic arts and their analogy to real life (e.g., "all the world's a stage"), it is in this, his last play, that the Bard most explicitly acknowledges that the audience is viewing a show. Thus, in the play's final scene (Act I, scene i., ll.148ff), Prospero tells his prospective son-in-law Ferdinand that the revels at hand are almost at an end, that the actors are about to retire, and that the "insubstantial pageant" of which he has been a part has reached its conclusion. It is, in fact, tempting to equate the character of Prospero with that of his creator, the playwright Shakespeare. When Prospero sheds his magician's robes in favor of his civilian attire as the Duke of Milan, with the benefit of hindsight that this is Shakespeare's last work and his crowning achievement, we are disposed to associate the learned sorcerer with the Bard of A von. How far we are to take this identification, however, is moot. Prospero of The Tempest, like Shakespeare in his late Romance period, is a mature man with a daughter (Shakespeare, in fact, had two daughters, his only son dying in childhood) at the height of his intellectual and creative powers. Prospero is a polymath, a scholar with a magic book from an entire library that so absorbed him that it was, "dukedom large enough" (I, ii. l.110). Prospero displays a tinge of regret for having neglected his worldly office as Duke of Milan in favor of the life of the mind. Similarly, as virtually all of Shakespeare's biographers have observed, the Elizabethan playwright's knowledge was exceedingly broad, leading many to speculate that he pursued a number of vocations before settling into a life in the theater, and we know from textual correspondences that Shakespeare was broadly read and that he continued to absorb knowledge from diverse publications until his death. We can also speculate that Shakespeare regretted remaining away from his home in Stratfor d, at least insofar as his career in London kept him away from his children. Lastly, following The Tempest, Shakespeare, like Prospero, retired to civilian life, there being a period of five or six years between his composition of that play and his untimely death at the age of fifty-two.

Monday, January 13, 2020

Guy De Maupassant’s The Jewelry Essay

According to critic W.E. Garrett Fisher, â€Å"(Maupassant’s) view of human nature was an utterly distorted one. On all hands he only saw the cruelty, the bestiality, above all, the ineffable stupidity of mankind. We hardly find one man or woman in his books who illustrates the nobler side of life.† (Piana, n. pag.)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Indeed, French writer Guy De Maupassant’s works were based on ordinary incidents from everyday life, which exposed the true nature of people. (n. pag.) The Jewelry was no exception – it was built on the premise that first impressions of people are almost always wrong, as they constantly change, with unexpected results.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Set in Paris, The Jewelry centered on Monsieur Lantin, a chief clerk in the Department of the Interior, and his wife, who was unnamed throughout the story. The initial impression that the reader can derive from Madame Lantin is that she is a perfect woman. De Maupassant described her as â€Å"a perfect type of the virtuous woman in whose hands every sensible young man dreams of one day intrusting his happiness.† (n. pag.) The reader can also conclude that Madame Lantin was the ideal wife and homemaker. According to De Maupassant, â€Å"She (Madame Lantin) ruled his home with an economy so adroit that they really seemed to live in luxury† and that â€Å"It would be impossible to conceive any attentions, tendernesses, playful caresses which she (Madame Lantin) did not lavish upon her husband†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Piana, n. pag.) De Maupassant implied through the latter that Madame Lantin was a faithful spouse who will never cheat on her husband. (Piana, n. pag.)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   However, The Jewels’ plot identified Madame Lantin as the antagonist by unmasking the hypocrisy of her character. After her demise, Monsieur Lantin wondered how did she manage to make ends meet with his paltry salary of 3,500 francs a year. Madame Lantin had very expensive vices – frequenting the theater and her large collection of fake jewelry. De Maupassant wrote, â€Å"His salary, which, in his wife’s hands, had amply sufficed for all household needs, now proved scarcely sufficient to supply his own few wants. And he asked in astonishment how she had managed always to furnish him with excellent wines and with delicate eating which he could not now afford at all with his scanty means.† (Piana, n. pag.)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It was also The Jewels’ plot that answered Monsieur Lantin’s question. Broke and hungry, he was forced to go to the jewelry store in an attempt to pawn Madam Lantin’s jewels – and came out of the shop with 196,000 francs. Therefore, this incident revealed that Madame Lantin’s jewels were genuine, in sharp contrast to her claim to her husband, â€Å"Now look at them – see how well the work is done. You would swear it was real jewelry!† (Piana, n. pag.) It also refuted Madame Lantin’s fidelity – she most likely had a paramour who provided her with money and jewelry. (Piana, n. pag.) After Monsieur Lantin told the jeweler that he had more jewels to sell to him (he managed to sell one of his wife’s necklaces for 18,000 francs), â€Å"one of the jewelry store’s clerks rushed out to laugh at his ease while another kept blowing his nose as hard as he could,† as if they were trying to suppress their laughter. (n. pag.) Chances are, they were mocking his ignorance about his wife’s adultery. The story ended six months later with Monsieur Lantin’s unhappy second marriage to a virtuous but ill-tempered woman. These circumstances allowed him to emerge as the protagonist – the loving husband who was cheated on by his late first wife and was trapped in a loveless second marriage.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Jewelry was able to defend its argument that looks can really be deceiving. Madame Lantin, whom everyone praised and admired, turned out to be a greedy woman who cuckolded her husband for material wealth. Meanwhile, Monsieur Lantin became as fortune-hungry as she was by enjoying the money he got from selling her ill-gotten jewelries. Money transformed him from an upright man who refused to sell a fake piece of jewelry to a man obsessed with profiting from his late wife’s jewels, regardless of the fact that she got these using illicit means. What added credibility to The Jewelry was that De Maupassant allowed the events in the story to naturally unfold and expose the characters’ hypocrisy in the process, drawing on the saying that there is no secret that will never be revealed. He also showed that anyone can be a hypocrite, hence his very generalized description of Madame Lantin and his refusal to give her a name.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Lastly, The Jewelry leaves the reader with an open-ended question: Which is better, gaining happiness from dishonesty, or experiencing misery as a result of honesty? Works Cited â€Å"Guy De Maupassant.† The Literature Network. 9 January 2008.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   . Baccellia, Autumn. â€Å"Short Story Analysis: The Jewelry, by Guy De Maupassant.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Helium. 9 January 2008.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   .    Piana, Courtney. â€Å"The Many Impressions of Mrs. Lantin.† 23 July 2002. 9 January 2008.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   .

Sunday, January 5, 2020

How Does The Emergent Norm Theory Work

Emergent norm theory is a theory used to explain collective behavior. Turner and Killian argue that the norms that ultimately govern a situation may not be initially apparent to the participants. Instead, norms emerge through a process of social interaction in which people look to others for cues and signs indicating various possibilities of what they might expect. Emergent norm theory explains that collective behavior has a long history of turning violent, such as in the cases of mobs and riots. However, collective  behavior also applies to  fads  that can cause some good. The ALS ice bucket challenge is an example of collective behavior that raised money towards medical research.   The Four Forms  of Behavior Researchers  think that emergent norm theory occurs in four forms. While sociologists  classify  the forms differently, the most common forms are  crowd, public, mass, and social movements.   Crowd While there is debate over most of the forms, crowds are the only form all sociologists agree on. It is believed that in effect, people revert to more animalistic tendencies, and it is speculated that crowds cause people to lose some rational thinking ability. Some psychologist thing crowds have three base emotions, fear, joy and anger. The latter is where violent outbursts  most commonly come from.   Public The difference between a crowd and the public is that the public has gathered on a single issue.  Once a decision is reached on the issue, the public usually disperses.   Mass The mass refers to the media created by groups to reach others. All mass media would fall under this category Social Movements A social movement is a movement to change some aspect of society. Because so much goes into the study of social movements they  are often considered  their own category of study.