How to change the world Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

How to change the world - Essay Example They therefore see the realization of national vision and goals of their respective nations. The individuals who have been discussed in â€Å"How to Change the World† are from countries such as brazil, United States, India, Hungary, Burkina Faso, and Bangladesh (Bornstein 28). These people have advanced systemic change and shifted perceptions and behavior patterns. They have innovated massive ideas for solving problems; and they are determined and yearn to spread the ideas throughout the society. One of the social entrepreneurs that have been profiled by Bornstein is Gloria de Souza, a 45-year-old elementary school teacher in Bombay (Bornstein 29). In 1981, she was inspired to transform education across India; this was stirred up by her observation of 20 years of rote learning, a thing she desired to change (Bornstein 34). Souza adapted her teaching ideas to India’s specific circumstances and founded an organization to build a team to spread her ideas. Her project got stipend from a social entrepreneur organization, named Ashoka. She managed to disseminate her Environmental Studies (EVS) approach to teaching. By the end of the 1980s, Souza’s success was very eminent; the Indian government had incorporated EVS into its curriculum, and it was reported that this approach had significantly increased student performance. The lessons I have learned from Souza’s case is that change requires an intrinsic motivation, coupled with action steps; Souza acts upon her observation by taking step to set up her own organization. There is also need to secure for some source of human resource and funds to institute a transformative project; Souza gets stipend from Ashoka-a social entrepreneur organization and builds a team to realize her goal. In addition, it is important to create a relevant project for easy adoption and integration; Souza adapts her teaching ideas to India’s specific issues, a thing that saw the incorporation

Saturation of Media is Causing Loss of Democratic Communication Essay

Saturation of Media is Causing Loss of Democratic Communication - Essay Example It is worth noting that free flow of information and fast transmissions are key advantages of media. The advances of media have been events of celebration in history but their increased use has reached a saturation point. The saturation is leading to a gradual loss of democratic communication. Society has embraced media without holding back. Media forms an integral part of human existence in the current world. Because of the increasing saturation, man is slowly losing the essence of democratic communication. Democratic communication is a two-way platform that allows individuals access to information and gives them the opportunity to raise debate and criticism of such information to qualify it as the absolute truth. Concerning social media, there are many social websites in society. These include facebook, twitter, MySpace, badoo, Skype, and netlog. Facebook and twitter have numerous subscribers in the American society. Most of the subscribers spent a lot of time on the websites but d ue to saturation level, they do little while online. Few subscribers create new information. On the contrary, people transmit the existing information. In addition, television, disk players, smart phones are all over in the society. People are in constant access with these forms of media such that they have forgotten the experience of life without any of them. Each time, there is a continuous flow of data and information from status updates, tweets, photos and videos from friends. The influence of media images, opinions, commentaries, critics, and observation has been blinding people from embracing the truth as it is in real life. There is so much available on data networks that influence the opinions and reasoning of people, that very few people can make unbiased analysis of events and happenings. People have allowed media to influence their daily relationships. The daily access to images over time has led to loss of the reality. Print media was the first to reach a saturation poin t and next came the era of the internet. Before the internet, came public broadcasting and television. Through all these, people access limitless information and images to a point whereby, they take what they see or hear as the truth. At the start of media, images were but representatives of the real objects. As saturation increases, people have allowed the media images to take the place of reality. Most of the people in society no longer take time to analyze things as they are in real life. They do not form opinions in communication without the influence of media and this hinders democratic communication. People have lost the autonomy in communication because they imitate what the media presents from the celebrities to movie characters. The media has multiple impacts on the political decisions of people. The public makes political decisions based on the media criticism and allegations. Very few people analyze the quality of leaders from real life reality. Therefore, the people rely on misleading compulsion from the media sources that do not reflect the reality on the ground. There is too much on any data source that one cannot discern what is true or false. Most of the forms of media do not allow a two-way form of communication. The people cannot effectively raise criticism on the data they receive. Nobody has the time to weigh out and criticizer the

Into the Wild Essay Example for Free

Into the Wild Essay Jon Krakauer, the author of Into the Wild, and Chris McCandless, the main character, share very similar stories and personalities. The best was in which these similarities are depicted is in chapters 14 and 15, when Krakauer inserts himself into the story. In these chapters Krakauer highlights a lot of parallels between himself and McCandless and through these highlights we can look at Krakauer as a credible biographer because he has a deeper understand for McCandless’s motivations. Krakauer and McCandless have very similar obstacles and backgrounds which is exemplified in chapter 14. Both men at one point in life sought isolation, and more specifically, sought isolation with nature. Both thought they had something to prove, may it be to themselves or those around them. â€Å"I was twenty-three, a year younger than Chris McCandless when he walked into that Alaska bush† (Krakauer, 135). They are both two young men going out into the wilderness trying to live on their own and accomplish their own desired feat. Krakauer believed that since they shared similar challenges and characteristics, that their emotions and thoughts may have been the same too. No one really knows what McCandless was thinking at the time but Krakauer believes that he felt some loneliness from time to time. Krakauer once believed that he could live without people and friends just like McCandless though, but Krakauer admits that every once in a while he felt lonely so he infers that McCandless must have felt this same loneliness during his time in the wilderness. Krakauer also wants to elicit the comparison of their relationships with their fathers. â€Å"My father was a volatile, extremely complicated person, possessed of a brash demeanor that masked deep insecurities† (147). Both have fathers that they did not quite get along with and had tough relationships with. This also adds more credibility to Krakauer as a biographer as he shares yet another thing in common with McCandless. The motives of both characters are another important connection that must be made; both characters shared resilience and were determined to succeed. Krakauer’s own account is now made even more crucial to the book as we now see that both characters shared similar motives and mindsets. After being denied once by Devil’s Thumb Krakauer is still determined to climb to the top. â€Å"In truth my escapade on the north face had rattled me, and I didn’t want to go up the Thumb again at all. But the thought of returning to Boulder in defeat wasn’t very appealing either† (146). This can be compared to McCandless’s strong belief in his ability to survive. McCandless’s journey had not been an easy one and he had not been very successful, yet he was still determined in his abilities and would not give in. The fact that Krakauer also shares a similar mindset as McCandless makes his verdict about McCandless’s life that much more credible. Krakauer’s most important claim is that McCandless did not commit suicide. Even though McCandless states in his final postcard to Westerberg that he may never make it out alive, he still strongly belives in his own abilities. McCandless was under the false notion that, if he was able to survive everything so far, then he could survive the rest of his journey.

How Important Is Language Variation Towards Language English Language Essay

How Important Is Language Variation Towards Language English Language Essay Since English is used globally as the international communication tool, the number of English users increased rapidly, Kachru (1992 cited in Andrews, A Tsui 2007) says. Even in the next few decades will witness an unprecedented rapid growth in the number of English users of English worldwide range from a rather conservative 700 to 800 millions to a more liberal estimate of two billion. Moreover, this fact evokes the number of English users from many different countries which draw impact to the various language styles, accents, dialects which is familiar with term of language variation . Furthermore, recently the majority of English users and English teachers are not native speakers of English, and they do not use the same linguistic forms (Henry, P 2009). Additionally she explains that understanding language variation is fundamental to understand the use of and teaching English in global context. Moreover, nowadays language variation becomes a main issue among linguists and sociolinguists because it has relationship with social communities. The use of the language is various according to social groups because they do not use the language in similar way, as the way language that is used to greet and compliment is distinctively expressed in a particular cultural group (Holmes, 2008 pp.3) This paper will deal with the question of How important does language variation toward language teaching? This issue will contribute some ideas for English teachers, especially for EFL contexts to generate awareness of English teachers to language variation in international communication. The consideration of this awareness will draw some ideas for teachers to design teaching materials appropriate with recent phenomena of the use and the users of language which are very various. Furthermore, the teaching aids are considered play important role to assist more understanding to the language variation itself. Besides, teachers will prepare the learners to be good English users with highly understanding to how to use language appropriately towards the diversity of language use and users to avoid miscommunication and maintain the politeness, and to support good career and study in the future. DISCUSSION Language can identify the person cultural background because the language and culture can not be in isolation (Sapir, E, 1920s cited in Hinkel, 1999). That is why, when someone speaks another language (English), the way he/she speaks will be influenced by the way he/she thinks in his first language. As claimed by Holmes (2008, pp.153) that the way you speak is usually a good indicator of your social background with many speech features that can be used as clues. Moreover, culture is the domain of humanity that includes all social aspects such as activities, group systems and human behaviours (Hinkel, 1999 pp.1). Therefore, sociolinguists investigate what the connections between language and society are. Specifically, Holmes (2008,) asked three main questions in sociolinguistics that focuses on the reasons why do people in different social context speak differently, the concerns to the language in social functions, and it is used in conveying social meaning (pp.1). It is obvious that the different background of the language users will give impact to the variety of language. Furthermore, in term of the use of language, Holmes (2008) states that people use a language to signal their membership of particular group and to construct different aspects of their social identity; social status, gender, age, ethnicity and the kind of social networks people belong to turn out to be important dimension of identity in many communities. For example, in term of gender, women tend to reinforce their own subordinate status; they were colluding in reinforce their own subordination by the way they spoke in the interaction which is considered more polite than men (Lakoff, R cited in Holmes, 2008, p. 284). Additionally, she illustrates the example of the use tags questions. Although the use of tags questions is slightly different in number of men and women to use it, females purpose to use tags questions to make her sentences softer and to sound more polite. Besides, the way between females and males in giving complement is different. Men tend to use short expression such a s you look nice, in comparison females will use longer expression than males such as oh dear, look at you, you look so gorgeous, In term of age, in Indonesia, younger people will address to older people or to people who have higher position by addressing them with some term of words such as bapak (sir), and ibu (madam). It is different with western culture where younger people merely address the older people by their name. This issue reflect to the way they communicate when they are not in their contexts which draw some confusion which is the correct way to address older people in western country. Indonesian students in the beginning will feel uncomfortable to address their lecture by name; they will feel they are rude and on contrary for westerners, who come to Indonesia, they will bring their culture or their way to address older people by name then Indonesian will think they are rude. That is why, by having good understanding towards language variation, it will help language user s to have good communication from different countries. What is more, according to Chaer Agustina (1995 cited in Prasastie 2006), the term of language variation is based on two opinions existing: the first is language variation is language happens as the result of the variation in society and variation in language function. Further they explains that if the users of a language are homogeneous group in term of ethnic, social status or fields of job, the variation will not exist which means that the language itself become uniform. Additionally, the second opinion they mention that language variation already exist in order to fullfill its function as a mean of interaction in doing various community activities. The ways of teachers speak will be different to the ways of people who work in fish market. Teachers will speak better than fish seller because the image or their work place background determine to the ways they speak. Based on Holmes (2008) in general language variation is divided into regional variation which covers international varieties, intra-national or intra-continental variation, cross-continental variation, social variation which covers social accent, and social dialects which covers standard English, caste dialects, social class dialects (vocabulary, pronunciation, grammatical patterns). In order to make the idea of language variation clearer and why it is considered significant for language teaching, the writer provides one example of social dialects because the research of social dialects in many different countries has revealed a consistent relationship between social class and language pattern (Holmes 2008, p. 141). Moreover, she explains that in caste dialects case where the categorisation of people is based on the commonality of social and economy which generally reflects the use of social dialects (pp. 141). Holmes (2008) takes Indonesia as the sample where social divisions are clear cut. In addition, she writes about an Indonesian student who was trying to explain to her English friends about the complication of social dialects in Java and the ways in which Javanese speakers signal their social background. This student describes how almost every different word fit together in patterns or levels use which depend on who we are talking to. Further, Holmes (2008) presents some samples of words use in Java such as Padjenengan as you in English to point someone from higher class social status, and kowe as you to refer to someone for low class social status. Another sample which is similar to Java social dialects, in Aceh the use of different vocabulary also indicates the different social background of the speakers. The word ulon tuan (I) in English is considered from high social class and educated person compare to use the word ke which is considered rude and impolite and the speaker are ass umed from low social class and uneducated person. Despite of that, the variation of language does not only cover both the users and the use but also the contexts and the adressees of the language that affect the code variety (Holmes 2008, pp. 235). Consequently, some people are more aware of some factors like how they communicate to people who they often and will meet and what are the contexts of the communication whether it is formal or informal situation in order to maintain politeness or to show to what particular social class the speakers belong. Moreover, Fukada Asato (2004, pp. 1994-1995) emphasises the intention of how polite the speakers are in certain situations by using the verbal strategies. Additionally, Holmes (2008, pp.270) said that The rules for polite behaviour differs from one speech community to another and it is culturally determined which different speech communities emphasize different functions and express particular functions differently. For instance, the strategy of apology or request is different between China or Japan or Indonesia. In context of China, the Chinese speakers are not likely to use negative politeness in form of indirect request if face threatening act is not significant or the relationship between speaker and hearer are close. Lee, C.F.K (2004) stated the result of report through her paper about it. She said that : since politeness is basic and essential in communication in many cultures, people are inclined to use redressive actions, for instance, the negative politeness strategy of being indirect, to avoid the face-threatening act or minimising the feeling of imposed on (Lee, C.F.K 2004 p.58). However, Brown and Levinson argue (1987 cited in Lee, C.F.K 2004, pp.58) that the use of redressive actions are different from one culture to another cultures because the consideration of relationship and social distance. For instance, in Japanese culture teachers are highly respected, hence while students or Japanese speakers are talking to teachers, they use of referent and addressee honorific forms to give rise to politeness that they acknowledge their addressee and this acknowledgement due to teachers place (Haugh, M. 2005, pp.63). Beside politeness issue that teachers must aware in their teaching due to the language variation is to teach students how to interact with other speakers appropriately to avoid miscommunication or misunderstanding that usually occurred in intercultural communication. Leigh, J (2004) states that we should not be surprised therefore, to see that the interaction of diverse parochial behaviours across cultural borders often leads to unintended misunderstanding even conflict. Furthermore, he explains that this misunderstanding may appear as the received meaning of the various exotic behaviours messages which are found offensive, even they were not meant to be so. In another words, the miscommunication can be happened because of the different interpretation of the words or expressions or question used to convey the meaning according to different speakers. For example, the question of did u have a good weekend? This question gets different responds from different speakers like Australian sp eakers will respond the question with short respond such as oh it was great, while French speakers will give long respond by telling the whole story about their weekend that includes who were the participants, what happened, where did they spend the weekend and many other information. This case obviously shows that some typical conversational routines in French and Australian English, and the miscommunication that may arise between two speakers from different cultural backgrounds (Beal, C 1992, pp.23). Moreover, based on the sample above, Beal (1992) explains the indication that even the trivial daily phrase may accelerate various understanding related to the expected responses. In addition, Leigh, J (2004) states It is no wonder, therefore, that language is a function of physical and social environment, and that there is great idiosyncratic in each of the numerous language around the world. In language teaching, teachers may not merely emphasise learners to acquire linguistics features or the how to use the language in communication without considering the important of culture from not only the language but also from the cultural background of the various English users all over the globe where English is as lingua franca for international communication. Moreover, Hinkel (1999) illustrates how teachers view of ourselves, our students, and relationship among cultures are represented not only through explicit instruction regarding cultural differences in rhetorical and aesthetic values for texts, but also implicitly in the course content, assignments, and class discussions which engage with the students. Furthermore, Hymes and Gumperz (1960s 1970s) made explicit connection between culture and language and treated interaction and speaking as culturally defined practices, which means the emphasizes the need of studying to the social context that will influence the interacti on of the language users. Therefore, based on the teachers awareness of language variation to the diversity of language use and users from different cultural background, teachers should notice to what they must do in their teaching in order to arise the students awareness to the issue above to maintain politeness, to avoid the misunderstanding or miscommunication, and to improve their academic of language in order to get better opportunity of study or occupation in future. Research has proven that students who have language variation awareness, a positive attitude towards learning of variation, and a clear understanding of the role of variation and identity, culture and communication (Allen, B. H 1973). Due to the facts, therefore the design of curriculum, teaching materials, aids, and techniques might be useful in preparing learners to encounter with English speaking community with the wide range of diversity. The development of teaching materials according to Hinkel (1999, p. 132) are from a variety of perpectives. It means that the development of teaching materials depend on what are the aims of teaching itself. Because in this paper the concentration is the language variation, teachers must think wisely what are the best material can be used to introduce the variation of language and to improve their ability to use the language in the diversity of language users. For example the use of movie as the materials and aids of teaching, in which students can analyse how the language used differently from different users. Moreover, movies (or other authentic media) will bring learners attention to the forms and sociolinguistic variables (Rose, K. 1999). Other possibility of teaching mat erial is using leaflets or tourism brochure, advertisement, magazine, newspaper, radio broadcasting, TV news from different countries. And, perhaps teachers can provide preintermediate EFL text book that aims at international target cultures such as text book written by Priesack Tomscha in 1993 titled One World, Secondary English that was commented by Cortazzi, M, Jin, L (1999, pp. 209) that this book is accompanied by cassettes featuring not only a range of native-speakers accents but also some from non-native speakers from around the world . Hence, students with the assistance of teacher can learn, analyse and compare how people from different countries use the language by also looking at the similarities and differences. Apart from that, there are some advantages for learners in purpose of learning and understanding more about the language variation which can make students understand of how to use the language in different situations; formal and informal, and know how to use the correct expression or to answer the question properly due to whom they are speaking. Moreover, by learning and understanding the language variation, students will build up their confidence to use the language due to different contexts and language users appropriately and comfortably. It also can avoid miscommunication because to have a good communication can not solely depend on lexis and syntax. Therefore, the learners at least have to master intersectional competence that is clearly explained by Celce-Murcia, et.al. (1995 cited by Hall 1995, in Hinkel 1999 pp.137). They elaborated four points of this competence. This competence involves such context-specific knowledge as (1) the goals of the interactive practice, the roles of the participants, and the topics and themes considered pertinent; (2) the optional linguistic action patterns along which the practice may unfold, their conventional meanings, and the expected participation structures; (3) the amount of flexibility one has in rearranging or changing the expected uses of practices linguistic resources when exercising these options and the likely consequences engendered by the various uses; and (4) the skill to mindfully and efficiently recognize situations where the patterns apply and to use them when participating in new experiences to help make sense of the unknown (pp.137). What is more, teachers may not ignore the importance of learning standard language for their students because according to Andrews. S, Tsui, M.B.A (2001, pp.1-3), recently the setting of standard as benchmark for accountability and quality is the main requirements for English education. Moreover, they explain that the increase of requirement of Standard English has increased, especially in economic sector. What is more, Holmes (2001) also mentions that the number of Standard forms in everyones speech increases in formal contexts like in schools or law courts, while vernacular forms increases in relaxed casual contexts such as play ground and the home. However the Standard English users are limited. Therefore, the linguist and the educationalist suggested that the curriculum should cover language awareness to enable the mastery of language standard variety in order to achieve the equality of educational opportunity (Hawkin, 1999 cited in Andrews, S, Tsui, M.B.A 2001, pp. 1-12). Furt hermore, Holmes (2001, p. 349) states the similar issue that Standard English has an enormous legacy of overt prestige and for well over a century it has been promoted as the only acceptable variety for use in all official domains, including education compare to vernacular dialects. The issue of Standard language the writer assumes is not as a hot issue in Indonesia, what is familiar for both teachers and students towards teaching English merely formal and informal English. Even many Indonesian have no idea about what dialects they use whether British or American, because the dictionary which is used mostly mixed between British and American dialects. The dictionary author is Hassan Sadeli. Although many other dictionaries such as Oxford or Cambridge are also available, however, many Indonesian use Hassan Sadeli dictionary because it is probably easier to use and understand. In addition, it also presents the vocabulary in two different ways; English translated into Indonesian and Indonesian translated into English. That is why when Indonesian students want to continue to study abroad, and they have some difficulties in joining IELTS or TOEFL tests due to the Standard language used in those tests that Indonesian students are not really familiar with. Additionally, attitude to language is one consideration that language planners must take into account when they select a suitable language development as an official or national language (Holmes, 2001, p. 343). Because if the language planners do not decide what language is formally used for certain contexts, official, education, and so on, hence it will draw some disadvantages for the language users who use vernacular dialects in their daily life without being told to also learn and master the Standard English which will offer more opportunities for future career or future study especially study abroad. So, it is not surprisingly, if it has also been found that attitudes to the way people speak affect employers decision about whom to hire (Holmes, 2008, p. 354). CONCLUSION Language teaching always brings some ideas to culture, it is not only culture of the language learn or taught (English) but as well as the culture of the users of language and the ways the users use the language which is widely range in diversity. That is why, the discussion of language variation which covers some aspects which includes language users social status background that shows how they use the language differently. The language variation is considered important in language teaching because its contribution of cultural values regards to the different ways of using the language functions or other aspects of language like vocabulary, pronunciation and so far so forth. So that students know how to adjust themselves while interacting in intercultural communication in order to maintain politeness and avoid miscommunication. The writer wish that in the future the language planner would decide which dialects as the standard language, whether it is British or American dialect, so teachers or educationalists would design the curriculum or books or teaching materials which can cover the differences of language (culture, users, and the use). Moreover, if the standard language has already decided both teachers and learners would perform better to achieve their aims in teaching and learning the language. In another words, it will give clearer goals of learning the language. Some teachers who are from non-English countries face some difficulties in teaching cultural and pragmatic paradigm of face-to-face interactions because students would find problem to have direct contact with members of different communities around them (Hinkel, 1999, p. 134). What is more, the other problematic remained is the lack of teachers awareness to language variation, it is assumed because the limitation of resources and research of language variation which is considered not popular in Indonesia.

Southern Appalachian Cultures: Their Pursuit for Prosperity and the Env

Where there are various regions there are bound to be a variety of people with alternate cultures, beliefs, and ways of life. The cultures found with the Appalachia are unique in their own ways and represent a body of individuals who found their way to such an area. Land that is included within the Southern Appalachia can be best described by Horace Kephart as he does so in his book The Southern Highlander and His Homeland to include: â€Å"the four western counties of Maryland; the Blue Ridge Valley, and Allegheny Ridge counties of Virginia; all of West Virginia; eastern Tennessee; eastern Kentucky; western North Carolina; the four northwestern counties of South Carolina; northern Georgia; and northeastern Alabama.† (22-24) With so much area to be had there are a few prominent cultures and occurrences that need to be discussed. Native Indians, European settlers, Industrialists, and the present economy will be referred to in the process of identifying the cultures within Southern Appalachia. Cultures of the Southern Appalachia that will be discussed will display the lifestyles of many, religion of the areas focused on, and the values individuals held towards the environment. The Cherokee and Shawnee Indians were the more prominent groups found within the Southern Appalachian region. The Cherokee Indians were believed to have come to parts of southern Appalachia during prehistoric times. ("Cherokee Nation-Indian Territory.") They remained in areas such as southwest Virginia, the Carolinas, northern Alabama and Georgia, and the Cumberland Basin of Tennessee and Kentucky. (â€Å"Native American, the Cherokee†) The Cherokee Indians who had settled in Southern Appalachia were an Iroquoian-speaking people, they built their homes from ... ...the factories, loss of timber within the Appalachian forests, and the amount of CO2 releasing into the atmosphere constantly. Presently the damage we have caused to occur upon the environment in the Southern Appalachia is vast and incomprehensible. The greatest environmental challenge facing Southern Appalachia today is the loss of such prized and beautiful â€Å"native forests† of Southern Appalachia. (19) Although much of the timber within the forests has come back after being utilized as lumber, there are extreme consequences for taking away such an important aspect of Appalachian Nature and culture. What’s lost cannot be gained, but we can surely do what little we can to impact of culture and world on matters of the need for preservation of nature, so that the environment may prosper for many years to come. Can you make a sacrifice for your area, for your world?

The Amateur Scientist :: essays research papers

I was on my way to work, when I started to read this interesting story and I don't deny that I was a little sceptical in the beginning. But the more I read, the more I wanted to know about this man and his unique ways to define Science. I finished reading it in about 15 minutes, it literally sucked me in. This is an attempt to analyze and explain to the "audience," what my personal point of view is regarding this great genius, great mind, great scientist Richard Feynman. Defined by his colleagues as the "The brightest mind since Einstein," he explains how he used everyday tools to make scientific discoveries. How he describes his methods in a simple way makes science enjoyable and understandable, even to the average reader. I enjoyed reading the essay entitled "The Amateur Scientist," by Nobel prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman (1918-1988). I found it to be very interesting and felt that Mr. Feynman was very thoughtful. Rather than explain in technical detail about his work in physics, Feynman instead related interesting anecdotes throughout his life, as a college student and graduate student at Princeton University, that gave to the reader an understanding of his work as a scientist. The writing won my attention because his stories about his youth and his days at Princeton fascinated me. He was always exploring his environment to learn new things about science, especially how things worked. Feynman's thirst for clever things to do and clever ways to do ordinary things were remarkable. One of the best anecdotes that illustrate this point, was his experience at Princeton detailing ants' behavior. Feynman was constantly searching for the connection between hypothesis and truth, so one day at Princeton he started to observe the ants' that were coming out on his windowsill. The experiment with the ants is a reflection of this man's mind, always in search for an answer. In this anecdote Feynman explains how, with only a bit of sugar, and a couple of pieces of paper, he was able to find out many things about ants' behaviors. Feynman compares his study on the ants with the same kind of "experiment" he performed in Brazil, observing leaf-cutting ants. The author pointed out that, although the Brazilian ants seemed to be smarter, there are still some affinities with domestic ants. It is remarkable how Feynman discovered that ants have no sense of "geometry," the goal of his experiment was to determine whether or not ants have some kind of communication a nd if they have the ability to find their way back where the "food" was.

Explain how Golding establishes the main themes of The Spire through his portrayal of Jocelin in the first five chapters of The Spire

The bent and twisted hunchback Jocelin is the cornerstone for interpreting and bringing forth the multitude of interesting themes within the novel. Through Golding's experience of World War II, he established many scathing criticisms of humanity in his literature. In The Spire this is represented by the character of Jocelin, a Dean of a nameless cathedral obsessed with the vision of erecting a four-hundred foot spire. Jocelin is the penultimate antihero, the introduction of the story tells us how â€Å"He was laughing chin up, and shaking his head. God the father was exploding in his face. † It defies the expectations of what context a Dean would place God into, especially in humour, so very early on into this novel are these very slight and gentle implications of corruption, this is also exacerbated when the slight phallic pun of â€Å"Eighteen inches† is joked by Golding, and we get a sense of†¦ â€Å"expecting the reverse† in the chapters to come. Jocelin later lustfully examines Goody Pangall, what is interesting to note is to note is how Jocelin refers to her while looking at her, he mentions her only as â€Å"Pangall's wife† which is incredibly reminiscent of Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men where the female of the story is only referred to as â€Å"Curley's wife† and her actual name is not specified, names are quite symbolic in terms of how much value the other characters revere her, and over here in The Spire, Jocelin only seems to associate her as a nameless object, devoid of human definition. When you take away the name of the character, you disassociate that character from the main frame of other characters who actually do have names, and Jocelin plays up further on this, â€Å"She is entirely woman, he thought, loving her;† shows also his frame of mind early on, his definition of the characters is placed onto a spectrum, with women this is shown as either â€Å"Girl† or â€Å"Entirely woman†, this then can be taken further to show how Jocelin categorises people around him according to how much pleasure and pain they cause him. The presentation of Jocelin up to this point is a sexually repressed Dean, and we have the theme of obsession rising for the first time, however expressed in a Freudian shell that Jocelin's initial sexual innuendos of The Spire is in reality, behaviour stemming from his sexual repression of Goody Pangall. This is just one of many forms of Jocelin's twisted obsession, and that his obsessive thoughts is expressed in many facets of his metaphoric ideology and associations of events and people in the cathedral Golding portrays this shapeshifting obsessive compulsive behaviour in the actual narrative of the story as well, there is a constant shift of narrative within the novel, between Third person and First person, â€Å"Then he dared to think again, in the warmth at his back†¦.. It is my guardian angel,† the narrative is unstable, much rather like the mindset of Jocelin himself, and also implies that Jocelin may interpret and view himself in Third person while in his mind, since the form of the narrative is shapeshifting from several perspectives to another, and also occasional parenthesis â€Å"and two men posed so centrally in the sundust with their crows (and what a quarry noise and echo as they lever up the slab and let it back),† to indicate more First person narrative but in a more personal and reflective manner, and its through this First person narrative that we can note the use of archaic language, † I do Thy work; and Thou hast sent Thy messenger to comfort me,† this shows us the biblical self highlighting of Jocelin to make himself seem more important than he really is. Almost, justifying his work of the spire by expelling all qualms. Another frequent theme that Golding has presented in The Spire is immaturity and the role of childhood in the motivations of character. â€Å"to think how the mind touches all things with law, yet decieves itself as easily as a child,† Childhood here represents stupidity, and its from the immaturity of our actions that cause us to do stupid things, Jocelin touches upon this when examining Goody Pangall, â€Å"She is entirely woman, he thought, loving her; and this is foolish, this childish curiosity shows it. † surprisingly this is the rare times where we see Jocelin refuting himself rather than justifying himself. Its also worth noting that this is not the first time that Golding has used children to carry his critique of humanity, in Lord of the Flies we are shown the adult behaviour's and faults reflected in children, Golding uses this as a metonym to describe that the entire faults of human behaviour are the attempts to recreate childhood and to be free from responsibility, that we give birth to the belief that anything is possible and everything is allowed. When the ground underneath the â€Å"Pit† starts moving, and later on in the book when the stone of the tower starts â€Å"singing†, Jocelin has brought the cathedral to such a position by allowing and justifying every absurd suggestion. Its this very childish frame of thought which sets his imagination loose and Jocelin believes he is comforted by â€Å"an angel sent from God† yet ironically this is only the burning sensation of his spine by tuberculosis, this is an important metaphor, since it conveys the theme of the corrupting tendency of arrogance, that Jocelin's own arrogance is the cause for his own physical deformation is a very powerful axiom that Golding relays, since Golding's seeming objectives behind his work are to tell the story of humanities own arrogance by glorifying the evil of his characters in his literature, incredibly similar to John Milton's Poem Paradise Lost where the evil of Satan is intensified by his devious and intelligent planning, is similarly reflected in Jocelin, where his evil is intensified by his metaphoric interpretations of events and arrogance, ironically arrogance was the sin of Satan himself, even more so that Jocelin is supposedly a religious Dean of a cathedral. The main characteristics of Jocelin so far are, a hungry curiosity for women and sex, Self glorification, Childish immaturity, farfetched imagination which creates a metaphorical perception, and arrogance. These are essentially ramifications of one main theme so far, the notion of Escapism. Through these acts and mindframes Jocelin creates an alternate world to ignore the current reality, the idea of escaping or rather creating, in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Victor creates the creature as a trophy almost to credit his own scientific intellectualism, and Jocelin's view of his seperate reality is still incomplete, and he feels he needs to create The Spire to serve as a metaphor for his seeming â€Å"closeness† to God, â€Å"I am about my father's business,† it almost seems that some part of Jocelin's twisted psyche is not fully dedicated to his dream, and this is perhaps the flaw in Escapism that Golding tries to present, more implied that if Jocelin represents the extreme borderline of human naivety, how can the rest of humanity practice Escapism when it clearly does not work for the rather vacuous Jocelin? In Jocelin's insensitivity to the truth, we find his sensitivity for lies. In the bigger picture we find Jocelin's hunger for power â€Å"I never guessed in my folly that there would be a new lesson and every level, and a new power† and that building a path or a tower to God, will imbue you with the power of God, and with his treatment of other characters, for instance Roger Mason, he tries to invite Roger Mason further into the messianic visions of the spire, â€Å"God revealed it to me, his unprofitable servant. † claiming these own visions as his own, and more relatively, attempting the to grasp the power of God in his own spindly hands. That is not the holiest prophecy; that is the most devious heresy. Its through Jocelin's arrogance does the issue or theme of pride arise, Its when we place ourselves above other people and see ourselves as higher, that we try to recreate our image into some sort of powerful deity or demigod which cannot be dominated, which Golding has shown to have a very ironic sense of humour by using Jocelin to represent religion; the very thing expected to fight pride, becomes the very thing to personify it. Perhaps its inevitable to become the thing you pretend to be. The ultimate Theme of this book is humanity, Golding's written account of the faults in humanity is found clearly in The Spire through Jocelin, its only through relating to Jocelin, and placing ourselves within his persona, can we really understand him deeply The biggest point however, is that when you explain behaviour and people by relating it to yourself, you can no longer hate them or fear them, you will always respect them neutrally, because you can always find the same desires in your own h eart.