Fairytales Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Fairytales - Essay Example An important theme of Cinderella is male superiority. All men discussed in the story are in dominating and controlling positions and accordingly, the women are shown in submissive positions to the men. There are two men performing main roles in the story i.e. Cinderella’s father and the king’s son. While Cinderella’s father is shown to be a rich man, her mother is said to be old and sick. Death of Cinderella’s mother is an important event in the story as it changes Cinderella’s life. It does not take Cinderella’s father long to get married to another woman, and there is no mention of memories or love of Cinderella’s mother in her father’s mind or heart in the story that follows. This is suggestive of the notion that it is very easy for a man to forget a woman and that a man never falls short of women ready to be his wife, irrespective of his age. While her father happens to be a rich man, this hardly helps Cinderella in any way. Her father does not intervene anywhere as Cinderella’s step-mother and step-sisters make her their servant. This is suggestive of the ignorance of men toward women even in the position of their children, thus again mentioning the superiority of men over women in a way. Finally, when the king organizes the festival, its main purpose is to provide the prince with an opportunity to have all the beautiful girls in the town right in front of him and select anyone he wants to marry among them as his future wife. Not just this, but also the element that all girls in the town are so eager to be there at the festival, knowing the purpose for which it has been arranged suggests that men are far advanced in terms of power and superiority in comparison to women. It is understood that any girl the prince would pick up would sure be his wife, there is no question of the girl’s readiness for this. Even Cinderella, the main character of the story with whom, children sympathize and wh om they love finds a way to attend the festival. All these elements imprint this fact in the minds of the children that men assume a strange and obvious sort of superiority over the women. Rapunzel Rapunzel is another fairytale that never fails to get admiration from the little readers. There are many elements in the story that spark interest for it in the children. Some of these elements include the long and beautiful hair of Rapunzel, the garden that accommodates all sorts of beautiful flowers, not to mention, the magical rampions in it, use of the long hair of Rapunzel as a rope, and most importantly, her pitiful life. For a fact, a common element between many fairytales is that the main character of girl in the story is always pretty but is in pitiful circumstances, waiting for a prince to come to her rescue. Rapunzel is no different in this sense. Marriage is an important theme of Rapunzel. All couples talked about in the story are married couples. When children read such stori es in their childhood, they are raised with the assumption that marriage is the only way two people can live together and procreate in the society. Such stories lay the foundation of the fundamental status of marriage as the building block of the society and the criticism toward cohabitation and same sex marriage observed in everyday life. The story starts with the depiction of a couple of man and woman that are husband and wife to each other and have a

The Social Contract Theory Essay Example for Free

The Social Contract Theory Essay The Social Contract Theory as propounded by Hobbes is based on the ratiocination that if left entirely free, human beings will act against their own self interest in the long term unless they are subjected to an authority figure which monitors their interests for peaceful co-existence on the whole. The scenario which constitutes freedom employs the concept of State of Nature while the provision that envisages an authority figure forms the basis of Social Contract. Under State of Nature, a mans own self interest when followed without consideration for others under the pretext of competition, survival and vainglory results in a sort of cataclysmic man against man scenario. In such a scenario, man starts giving reins to his baser instincts of survival without consideration for others. To avoid this, individuals need to cede their rights to a sovereign authority, in a Social Contract, that protects their interests without infringing on another’s interests. For this, it is imperative that the ruling authority be above petty prejudices and biases to bind each individual who would otherwise on their own be competitors and not always agree with their different notions of justice and fairness. The direction of actions of individuals to a peaceful co-existence requires a set of rules that forms the basis of morality which is meaningless under State of Nature, where personal interests without regard for others is the only rule at play. The covenant of Social Contract thus enforces a positive transformation of men from chaotic self serving entities to individuals enjoying order and peace in an organized society. Pleasing all being an impossible proposition, any misgivings against the authority in a Social Contract resulting due to abuse of power have to be borne as a price for peace over the chaos in State of Nature. It must be mentioned however that the individuals still retain the right to protest and demand explanations in case of excesses by the sovereign authority. References Hampton, Jean (1988). Hobbes and Social Contract Tradition. Cambridge University Press.

The Life of Caroline Phelps :: essays research papers

Caroline Phelps provides an insightful look into the changing face of America including: The changing American economy, the prominence of the American Fur Company, and a shift in white and Indian relations. The years of Caroline Phelps’ life are some of the most significant years of our countries existence. There were many revolutionary modifications to our country and through this journal we can get a clear perspective of life in the mid 1800’s.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  We pick up with Caroline Phelps’ Life on March second, 1830. This is an important day in her life, as it is her wedding day. William Phelps, her husband is a rugged frontier fur trader. Caroline’s parents did not approve of William because of his jagged lifestyle. â€Å"He (her father) said William was wild and careless and I would have to live like a squaw if I married him.† Throughout the next few years we see some character traits of Caroline. She lives a very demanding lifestyle; her husband is hardly home and is gone for months at a time. Caroline also deals with many hardships with little complaint showing she will do what it takes to get by. â€Å"I was so sick I could hardly get along and an old Indian carried my child on his back. We went up a cliff that had cedar bushes to pull up by. The bushes gave way and I rolled down I don’t know how far and injured my nose. It bled all over my clothes. I was fatigued. I thought I would never get there. By this time, my dress was covered with blood and my face and hands besmeared all over.† This quote clearly demonstrates Caroline’s ability to persevere through almost anything. During her life Caroline had three kids, one of which is doubtful be her husbands. There is speculation that it may be an Indians’. Caroline learns to become trusted friends with the Indians, William’s business partners. The Indians do many things for the Phelps’ including; taking them places, guiding them to their destinations, and even helping move things from their houses. This can be seen in the following quote, â€Å"I then gathered a few things and got the Indians to take them to a little hill where Eliza was.† Caroline also plays a crucial part in the operation of her husbands fur trade business. She does all the behind the scenes work including keeping the store up, and the accounting.

Smartie Lab Research

Smartie Lab Analysis: The total area of my ecosystem was six feet, but the area we sampled was four feet. We had six types of each smartie: 4 green, 5 orange, 10 purple, 7 red, 5 white, and 14 yellow. In our sampled area we had 3 green, 0 orange, 5 purple, 2 red, 0 white, and 7 yellow. We had 4. 25 organisms per total area that was the density. Our relative density was 8. 88% green, 11. 11% orange, 22. 22% purple, 15. 55% red, 11. 11% white, and 3. 45% yellow. The frequency of each organism was 75% green, 0% orange, 50% purple, 25% red, 0% white, and 75% yellow.The relative frequency of each organism was 33% green, 0% orange, 22% purple, 11% red, 0% white, and 33% green. The coverage of each type of organism was 18. 83%. The importance value of each organism was 34. 24 for green, 9. 98 for orange, 30. 35 for purple, 19. 79 for red, 9. 98 for white, and 32. 43 for yellow. The rank of my organism’s importance from highest to lowest is: green, yellow, purple, red, then white and orange. My population estimate for part II is 11. 66 yellow smarties. My % error for population estimate is 16. 71%.We used a line transect for this lab, and I think most of these calculations could be more applied to plants, since they are stationary and do not move, like smarties, which do not move. This is more difficult to compare to animals since animals move, and may react to being captured and recaptured. Conclusion: The results of my simulation show that around 12 yellow smarties belong to my population of smarties. However, we actually had 14. The results were pretty close, and this demonstrates that the capture and recapture system is a pretty decent system in obtaining population estimates.However it is important to keep in mind that smarties are not stationary and cannot react to being captured in ways that animals and some plants can. The importance values between my transect and my actual data are pretty close, however in actuality yellow was the most important, not gr een. A quadrat would be more advantageous over a transect in situations where there are more types of organisms, or the organism can move. I think there can be issues with marking organisms after capture, since the organism may react to being capture and seriously make a difference on the population estimate, leading observers to obtaining incorrect data.Suggestions for further investigations: I would change this lab to including more exact numbers for smarties, so that percentages could come out more clean and would be easier to add and divide and such. I would also use multiple trials, with different bags of smarties, and with different transects to have more broad data. I would use different kinds of transects, as well as a quadrat to see what kinds of results those give me too. Finally, I would compare all the results from each kind of trial and average them out.

The Poplar Field Analysis

It has been said that â€Å"Cowper’s life was tormented by a set of symptoms, habits, and fears which his poetry in many places reflects†¦we consider that Cowper turned to poetry for reasons intimately connected with the torment of his life at times became for him. † (Feingold Para. ) William Cowper utilizes setting in his poem â€Å"The Poplar Field† to represent his reflections on the passage of time; we go on a journey with Cowper to visit the past, present, and future of the speaker and the journey is warped around different landmarks in speaker’s life and represented by the effects of aging, not only of the speaker, but on the poplar field as well. In lines 5-6, we walk with the speaker as he reminisces twelve years in the past, where he first had the opportunity to gather a glimpse of the poplar field.We are able to see the setting come to life, where the trees and the young speaker grew together on the bank. The past represents a time for the s peaker that was precious to him- his youth, a time of little responsibility where he lacked accountability for his actions. Cowper utilizes a dance between the past and present to show a reflection of the passage of time as one of the first significant underlying themes for the speaker. From this experience with his past, we are able to see his childhood and what the speaker is missing from the past to the present.The poplar field brings many memories of shade and comfort for the speaker but it is short-lived as we begin to see Cowper bring the speaker back to reality in lines 7-12, and the speaker begins to see the remains from the poplar trees that once shaded him from the blazing sun, now lying leafless and lifeless on the ground (line 7). We are now able to see as Cowper ties us to the reality of what the speaker is seeing in his present moment and the brutal setting that is laid before him.The speaker is brought back to a harsh reality where the blackbirds have fled to a new re treat (line 9) and because the trees are no longer there to shade them, the only part of the tree that remains is a stump for the speaker to sit on (line 12) as he stares into the dismay of the trees having been chopped down and lying in the grass (line 7). This setting represents maturing, going through mid-life, and the beginning of the aging process for the speaker.The trees having been cut down represents a cruel reality for the speaker, his childhood is now over and instead of having others to care for him, he now has to become the one taking care of others. The present day is barren of splendor, and just as the speaker is sitting at the top of the devastation of his once favorite field of trees, he sits on top of all of the devastation of what is known as his life: the poor decisions, the what-ifs, and all of the neglected opportunities in the past, present, and future that he will miss because of the immoral judgments he made in the past.This juxtaposition shows the speaker i s now in the dominant position, he can no longer enjoy the dominancy of the tree’s protection and shade (line 8), but he is now responsible for all of the mistakes he made in life, and this is where Cowper begins to fast forward us to the future in lines 13-20, where the speaker will soon face not only old age but also his own inevitable death. Cowper begins to show us that the speaker is aging and his life will soon be over, he will die, and just like the trees, his last and final setting will be in the ground.The speaker says, â€Å"My fugitive years are all hasting away† (line 13)†¦ he is no longer a young sprout, he is getting old, and his younger days of living freely are quickly disappearing. â€Å"Ere another such grove shall arise in its stead. †(Line 16) We can see the new trees will be planted to replace the old trees that he once loved, in a similar sense, new people will rise up and replace the speaker, and he is trying to figure out how he will leave his mark on the world after he is long gone.The speaker soon begins to realize that once he is dying and after his death, he will no longer be in control of his surroundings and he will be at mercy of the generation after him. Just as his last breath is taken out of the world, somewhere there will be someone else’s first breath being taken in, and the circle of life and death will continue. William Cowper exploited three major settings to represent the speaker’s reflections on the passage of time. We embarked on a voyage through the recollections of the speaker’s past, in to experiencing his present day pain and skipped on to his worries of the future.We see as Cowper takes us on each journey; the past with beautiful bold trees full of leaves and shade for a young juvenile who was full of life, to the present day where the trees are felled, cut down to a stump upon which an aging man rest upon and reminisces of the golden days, and finally we are able to fast forward to the future and see a impending field full of new poplar trees, and a new generation rising up to replace the old which have died out. We walk with Cowper step to step and explore what comes to be known as the circle of existence and extinction.Works Cited Cowper, William. â€Å"The Poplar Field. † Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Robert Zweig. 10th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2012. 722. Print. Feingold, Richard. â€Å"William Cowper: State, Society, and Countryside. †Ã‚  Nature and Society: Later Eighteenth-Century Uses of the Pastoral and Georgic. Rutgers University Press, 1978. 121-153. Rpt. in  Poetry Criticism. Ed. David M. Galens. Vol. 40. Detroit: Gale, 2002. Literature Resource Center. Web. 13 Nov. 2012.