The Obvious is Absent in Mother Courage Essay -- Mother Courage Essays

The Obvious is Absent in Mother Courage    Brecht's intentions when writing Mother Courage were to communicate his beliefs and make people aware of two major issues facing society: war and capitalism. According to Brecht, people deserve the wars they get if they subscribe to a political system that is unfair and favors a specific sector of society, namely capitalism, in which it is up to the individual to secure his own means of survival. In other words, if the system is unjust in any way, war and conflict is inevitable. For this to be understood, it would be essential that the audience see the play for what it is, as opposed to becoming engaged in its story. This means that they would have to be alienated from the play, and made perpetually aware of it as a play and nothing more. To do this, Brecht jolted audiences out of their expectations and deliberately avoided theatrical techniques that would make appearances realistic. In this way, people were forced to confront the issues at hand and decipher the meanings behind what they were being shown. The "obvious" being referred to by Brecht is what is clearly seen, what one cannot miss. It does not require reflection and arouses no thought. By alienating the audience in this play, they see that nothing is happening at an obvious level, and can gain true understanding of the characters' reasons for behaving as they do, and of the background against which they exist. Brecht incorporated alienation techniques in the methods of staging used in performances of Mother Courage, firstly by keeping a very bright white light trained evenly upon the set throughout. This eliminated any opportunities for creating an atmosphere; any magical or romantic views of ... ...rinciples Brecht believed in: unless man has food and shelter, he does not have freedom. This tenet is what Brecht asserts in Mother Courage, and whose understanding can only be gained when audiences realise that the obvious is an irrelevance, that this play should be seen not as a tale but as a presenting of issues. By using the aspects of character, song, structure, style, inevitability, and staging, Brecht ensures that the audience remains alienated, and that their expectations are not met.    Works Cited and Consulted Brecht, Bertolt. "Mother Courage and Her Children." Worthen 727-751. Cook, Ellen Piel, ed. Women, Relationships, and Power. Virginia: American Counseling Association, 1993. Hwang, Henry David. "M. Butterfly." Worthen 1062-1084. Worthen, W.B. ed. The Harcourt Brace Anthology of Drama. 3rd ed. Toronto: Harcourt, 1993.

The Great Gatsby :: Essays Papers

The Great Gatsby In the story The Great Gatsby, many corrupted relationships are found. George & Myrtle, Myrtle & Tom, Tom & Daisy, Daisy & Gatsby, Gatsby & everyone are all perfect examples of misleading relationships seen in the novel. Fitzgerald may seem pessimistic in portraying every relationship as a fraud. I however, must agree that the time this novel was written, which was around the same time that the story took place in, was a very materialistic time. This is why I feel Fitzgerald could not have made these relationships seem any more realistic than he did. Friendship was seen a lot throughout the story. A good example to speak of would be Gatsby and all of his friends. Apparently Gatsby had many friends during his life, none of which decided to go to his funeral. While he was alive, throwing huge parties, Gatsby actually seemed to have friends. When he died, it seemed like he had never existed. The only friend who decided to go to Gatsby’s funeral was his neighbour, Nick. Marriages seemed quite transparent in this story. None of them were solid. Tom and Daisy would come across as a nice, happily married couple, you would never be able to tell that Tom had a mistress and Daisy was still in love with another man. Tom’s mistress, Myrtle, was married as well. She was married to George Wilson, Tom’s mechanic. Sure, it all seems a little bit unreal but if you think about it, do things like this not happen today. Why would it have been any different back then? Maybe it was more difficult to pull off having an affair but it still could have been done, and I’m sure it was. Affairs seemed to be what corrupted marriages, but affairs are still relationships. They seemed to be the healthiest relationships because they were built on the individuals’ desire for one another, not money or possessions. Tom and Myrtle were together regardless of the fact that they were both married. They loved eachother much like a married couple would only they weren’t married, at least not to eachother. The fact that these relationships were considered wrong didn’t make them bad, these were just people following their hearts.

The Stranger

The Stranger Chris Drusbosky 3/5/12 Professor Krauss In the story â€Å"The Stranger† by Albert Camus, the belief that the themes of loss and retrieval are at the core of Mersault’s mythology, and that they illumine the notion of exile to which he returns so often is widely discussed. I however do not believe that either one of those themes has anything to do with the Mersault and the exile to which he returns to so often, rather I believe that Mersault’s own attitude is the reason for the exile he experiences in the story. The first theme that is said to play a role in Mersault’s exile is the theme of loss.Though Mersault does lose his mother in the beginning of the story, it does not affect how he acts throughout the rest of the story and he continues on like nothing ever even happened. â€Å"Then there was the church and the villagers on the sidewalks, the red geraniums on the graves in the cemetery, Perez fainting, the blood red earth spilling over Ma man’s casket, the white flesh of the roots mixed in with it, more people, voices, the village, waiting in front of a cafe, the incessant drone of the motor, and my joy when the bus entered the nest of lights that was Algiers and I knew I was going to go to bed and sleep for twelve hours. The Stranger page 18. Normally when someone’s mother dies, you are filled with grief and sadness and you cannot help but to think about how much you miss her and love her. In this quote, Mersault shows no type of sad emotion whatsoever. He seems to be completely unmoved and unchanged emotionally by the death of his mother. Not only does he not show any emotion at his mother’s funeral, the very next day he meets with his mistress Marie Cardona and spends the day with her going swimming, seeing a movie, and spending the night at his house with her.Both of these examples clearly show that Mersault is unmoved by the death of his mother and it plays no role whatsoever in the exile th at he encounters throughout the story. The second theme that is said to play a significant role in Mersault’s exile is the theme of retrieval. If there is one thing in my eyes that Mersault never did throughout the course of this story, it would be that he never retrieved anything and that he always stayed the same throughout the story. Mersault seems to maintains the same attitude towards everything that happens in the story, the â€Å"I don’t care or believe in much† type attitude.One example that proves that Mersault possesses this attitude was after he was arrested for shooting the Arab 5 times. The magistrate asks him if he believes in God. â€Å"But he cut me off and urged me on one last time, drawing himself up to his full height and asked me if I believed in God. I said no. He sat down indignantly. He said it was impossible; all men believed in God, even those who have turned their backs on him. That was his belief, and if he were to ever doubt it, his life would be meaningless. † The Stranger page 69.This quote is a perfect example that even after he has murdered a man, Mersault still maintains that same attitude towards everything and he remains unchanged. You would think that especially after the fact that he murdered someone, he would have changed his attitude a little bit or that maybe he would have had some kind of revelation and he would realize that he has done something terribly wrong. However none of this occurs with Mersault and he continues to be himself and does not change anything about himself and that he retrieves nothing from his actions and that it plays no role in his exile.Though both of the themes of loss and retrieval may seem like they play a role in Mersault’s exile in the story, I do not believe they do. I believe that Mersault’s attitude is the cause of the exile he experiences. When one has a â€Å"I don’t care or believe in much†, you can easily be separated and apart f rom the world. Had Mersault cared more about certain things or had he shown more interest in them, I believe he would not have encountered any type of exile in the story.But when you constantly see phrases like: I don’t know, I don’t care, I don’t believe etc. you get the idea that the person saying those phrases is in some kind of exile from everyone else. Mersault is clearly responsible for his own exile in this story due to his attitude towards things. Loss and retrieval do not play a role in the exile that Mersault experiences and everything that he encounters and endures is because of his attitude and nothing to do with the thought of whether or not he lost something and retrieved something.If Mersault were to ask himself: Why are these things happening to me and why do I seem to be separated form everyone else? All he would have to do is look in the mirror and he would see the cause of everything that he has gone through. While Mersault is in prison, he ta lks about how he misses certain things of life on the outside of prison and how he feels separated. My response to Mersault would be: If you had a sense of caring or interest in things, maybe you wouldn’t be here in prison in the first place and maybe you also wouldn’t feel exiled and separated from everyone else.

The American Basketball Association And The Contributions It Made To P

The American Basketball Association And The Contributions It Made To P The American Basketball Association and the Contributions it Made to Professional Basketball The American Basketball Association had a short and wild life, yet it made great contributions to professional basketball. It increased the level of talent, changed the way the game was played, and produced some of the greatest stars to ever play the game. It also caused an increase in player salaries and turned pro basketball into a financial institution. The ABA was a place for untapped talent to emerge. Many players proved themselves in the ABA while the National Basketball Association rejected them. This greatly increased the talent level throughout professional hoops. At the same time of the creation of the ABA, the NBA only had 120 players, which meant that many worthy players were not getting the chance to play (Sachare 178). With about 90 players in the ABA, they got their chance. The ABA started to draft college players to compete with the NBA. Because both leagues wanted the best players, the ABA made a rule which said that the draftee did not have to be a college graduate. The NBA had a rule which said that the draftee must have graduated from college. As a result, many college stars began to go straight into the ABA before graduating. One which did this was Moses Malone, he was the first player to come straight out of high school into professional sports (Pluto 435). This was a revolutionary event in the history of professional sports. Now days, most college stars go to the pros without graduating. The ABA had a style of its own. Newsweek once described them, "Sex, drugs, platform shoes, sideburns, slam dunks, midnight franchise shifts, million dollar deferred-payment player contracts, the three-point shot, Dr. J, Marvin (Bad News) Barnes, LaVerne (Jelly) Tart,and Pat Boone. Pro sports the way they oughta be!" (Pluto 465) They were the complete opposite of the NBA. The NBA was traditional and boring to watch. They played a much slower paced game than the ABA, who had an up tempo, fast paced game. The ABA made innovations such as the three-point shot, the tricolored ball, the defensive press, and most importantly, the fast break (Pluto 70). They were the pioneers which made today's game what it is. The defensive press and the fast break were attempts at creating an up tempo game, and they worked. They all helped to sell tickets which enabled the ABA to survive for the nine years that they did. The ABA and the NBA were always competing which brought about many new and exciting aspects to the game of basketball. The ABA created some of the greatest players ever. Players like Julius Erving and Moses Malone were the soul of the ABA. At its end in 1975, they introduced all of the great accomplishments and innovations into the NBA which made the combined league even greater. With the tradition of the NBA and the flair of the ABA, a new league was created which would become the greatest sports institution in the world. During the first combined season of the NBA, four of the top ten scorers and ten of the twenty-four all-stars were from the ABA. The first combined finals had five starters from the ABA (Sachare 186). The contribution which the ABA made to professional basketball was amazing. It gave it creativity along with history. The NBA may not have survived without the combination of the ABA. In essence, the ABA was the NBA's savior, and made huge contributions to the talent level and the history of the game. The ABA was a league which made great contributions to professional basketball by increasing the talent level, producing some great innovations like the three-point shot which is still used today, and producing some of the greatest players ever. The NBA of today was made from the ABA of old, and even though it had such a short life, it was one of the most important aspects in the history of professional basketball. Bibliography Brown, Kim (1996). The FIrst Dominant Big Man. HTTP: nba.com/nbaat50/mikan.html. Kirshenbaum, Jerry. "ABA Milestones". Sports Illustrated 17 May, 1993:15. Meely, Cliff. Personal Interveiw. 16 December, 1996. Pluto, Terry. Loose Balls. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster Inc., 1990. Sachare, Alex (Ed.). The Official NBA Basketball Encyclopedia. New York: Villiard Books, 1994.

Gregory The Great Essay

Gregory The Great Essay Gregory The Great Essay Gregory the Great (c.540–604), pope, apostle of the English, one of the most important popes and influential writers of the Middle Ages. Gregory was the son of a Roman senator and entered the service of the State as a young man. But in 573 he sold his enormous properties, founding six monasteries in Sicily and a seventh in Rome, and giving generously to the poor. The next year he entered his own monastery of St. Andrew's on the Celian Hill as a monk and was distinguished for his austere life, which both filled him with nostalgia in later years and caused some of the ill-health which he suffered so constantly. Pope Benedict I, however, called him out of the monastery to become one of the seven deacons of Rome, and his successor, Pelagius II, made him apocrisiarius (ambassador) in Byzantium. After six years of distinguished service Gregory returned to Rome to become abbot of St. Andrew's, seemingly convinced that the future of Christianity lay with monasticism rather than with t he declining Eastern Empire. But his own choice of monastic life was destined to be frustrated. He had hoped to lead some missionaries to bring the Gospel to the Anglo-Saxons- he had been specially impressed by some Anglo-Saxon slaves on sale in the Roman market- but he was elected pope during an outbreak of plague. Reluctantly he accepted and was confirmed by the emperor. He was at once faced with a state of crisis. Floods, famine, plague, a Lombard invasion, all called for urgent attention, while in

How to Make Homemade Gel Air Fresheners

How to Make Homemade Gel Air Fresheners You can buy gel air fresheners, but if you make your own, you can choose your own scent, color, and decorations. Its easy, fun and takes less than an hour to make! For holiday appeal, consider layering different colored gels or using seasonal fragrances (e.g., pine or cinnamon for Christmas). Ingredients 2 cups distilled wateressential oil/fragrance4 packages unflavored gelatinempty jarfood coloring (optional)mold inhibitor (optional) How to Make a Gel Air Freshener Heat 1 cup of distilled water to boiling.Stir in 4 packages of unflavored gelatin (e.g., Knox) until dissolved.Remove the mixture from heat and stir in the other 1 cup water.Add 10-20 drops of essential oil or other concentrated fragrance. If desired, add food coloring to tint your gel. You may also wish to add a mold inhibitor, such as 1-2 T salt OR a small amount of potassium sorbate OR a splash of vodka.Pour the gel into clean baby food jars or other small, decorative containers.The gel will set at room temperature, although you can place the air fresheners in the refrigerator for a quick set (and scented fridge).Decorate your jars as desired and enjoy! Useful Tips This project requires heat, so adult supervision is required.Feel free to scale the recipe up or down to make the amount of gel you need (e.g., 1 cup water to 2 pkg gelatin).If you wish, you can (carefully) dissolve gelatin in concentrated liquid potpourri (no other ingredients needed) to make your air fresheners. Use a ratio of 1 cup liquid to 2 packages gelatin.You can make multi-colored gels by pouring a new color over one which has already set up (like making a layered gelatin dessert).

Sociology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 20

Sociology - Essay Example When broken by age, data collected and compared shows increase for the 18-24 population, decrease for 45-64 group, with 25-44 and 65 or older groups showing no significant change. Regionally, people in the Midwest are more likely to participate in elections than people from other regions. At the same time, Midwest region also saw a decrease in voter numbers, together with the Northeast. The only increase in voters was recorded in the South, with West recording unchanged rates. The Bureau, also collected responses from voters that did not participate and voted and four main reasons for that were- schedule or people being too busy to go to polling places, ill, disabled or having family emergency, 13% believed that their vote would not make a difference and, finally, a similar percentage just did not like the candidates or campaign issues. For the purpose of this paper I have selected to interview my high school Social Studies teacher. She is a middle age, educated, white person with liberal views. I have known this person for years and always appreciated her opinion and input. We have met in her school office and spoke for hour and a half on December 5th. The interview took place in after-school hours, as she was kind to dedicate some of her free time for this conversation. The interview was very informal but at the same time very informative as she, often times, is an opinioned and critical about our system of democracy. The first question I posed to her was whether she was a registered voter and whether she votes on regular basis. The answer to this was a simple yes and yes. Next, I asked why does she vote and what voting means to her ? After this question, I got more detailed response. She said that she votes because voting is one of the privileges of our democracy. At the same time, she emphasized that voting is not just a right we, as citizens of the US, have, but it