The development of the American Empire Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The development of the American Empire - Essay Example As they sensed a power vacuum and a unique opportunity to influence the United States, the Union was specifically interested in stymieing these efforts and ensuring that the conflict remained as one between the states. More or less, these efforts were widely successful and they helped to encourage the further understanding the continent of North America, and the surrounding regions could be viewed as the sphere of influence upon which the United States alone had the license to meddle. However, understanding the way in which the American concept of empire developed cannot be appropriately effected without a cursory discussion of the doctrine of Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny was the intrinsic belief that the Almighty had provided the United States with dominion over all the land between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This belief had a profound impact with regards to the way in which colonization of these lands took place and the means through which the native populations were mi streated and relocated. Just as Manifest Destiny and an interpretation of American sovereignty came to be formed during and before the Civil War era, as well as afterward, the course upon which the United States would eventually engage was all but assured. One of the most obvious interventions within this sphere of influence took place during the Spanish American War; a time in which the United States sought to further weaken the Spanish Empire and take territories in the Pacific – as well as carve out further influence within the Caribbean.

Immunization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Immunization - Essay Example Religious conviction has been cited as one the reasons that parents can reject vaccination. Religion teaches that the human life is sacred, and it is wrong to inject toxic substances into the bloodstream of a healthy child. Apart from being toxic, the substance also has side-effect such as seizures, paralysis or even death. The CDC states that all vaccines have a risk of an anaphylaxis in about one per million children (â€Å"Vaccines ProCon.org,† 2015). Moreover, vaccines contain harmful ingredients like thimerosal, that is an organic mercury linked to autism. It is also important to note that mandatory vaccination infringes religious freedoms. Some of the ingredients that are included in the vaccines are considered immoral in the religious circles. Some of MMR, HepA and chicken pox vaccines are cultivated from two fetuses aborted in 1960s (â€Å"Vaccines ProCon.org,† 2015). Most religions are against abortion and hence vaccination using those vaccines directly or indirectly endorses abortion. On the other hand, rejecting vaccination on the basis of the religion poses a great danger to the society. Community immunity depends on a critical portion of the community being vaccinated (Herlihy & Hagood, 2012). Hence, in case of an outbreak, most members of the community will be protected and will not contract the disease. Vaccination also saves parents their time and money. It is less costly in terms of time and money to prevent a disease than to cure it. The side effects of vaccines are mostly rare, and hence, the risk of vaccinating is lower than the risk of rejecting immunization. Lastly, vaccines are capable of saving children lives. Vaccines have been found to be very effective in preventing diseases and rejecting vaccination result to exposing the child to an unnecessary danger. The CDC recommended immunization schedule for children between 0 to six years is as follows (â€Å"CDC - Vaccines - Child Immunization

Encountering Conflict Essay Example for Free

Encountering Conflict Essay When confronted with conflict, peoples moral centre can cause them to act in heroic ways. When we are exposed to war and devastation our reactions to this Thousands of Chinese students gathered in a peaceful protest for basic Democratic reform at Tiannaman Square 1984. Due to these actions they were senselessly and inhumanely killed in cold blood by the Chinese Military. The students were unarmed and in no way of a danger to anyone. This devastation shocked the world and erupted massive conflict. One thing that this devastation proved to the world that during times of conflict where ones moral compass is tested there true heroism is revealed. A small, unexceptional figure in pants and white shirt, looking tiny next to the hulking tanks, carrying what looks to be his shopping, positions himself before an approaching tank, with a line of 17 more tanks behind it. The tank swerves right, he moves in front again. The tank swerves left, he moved in front again. Then this anonymous bystander climbs up onto the vehicle of war and says something to its driver, Why are you here? My city is in chaos because of you. With a single act of defiance, a lone Chinese hero revived the worlds image of courage. He was the â€Å"unknown rebel† also know as the Tanks Man a man who was immensely courageous and a beacon of hope. The courage that it took to walk out against such massive machinery, knowing good and well that it could very well be your last day on this earth is inspiring. He took courage to a whole new level, becoming a world hero of sorts. This ordinary everyday man had stood up to one of largest of armies which was an undeniably, extraordinary act. Another man who stood up for what he believed in response to such brutal and callous acts was a man named Bradley Manning. A man who new his moral obligation was to show the world what the Government was hiding from them. Manning was an American soldier and as apart of his job he has witnessed such cruel and inhuman acts performed by the military that the world were unaware of. Manning new what was right, his response to this conflict was to present this information to the world. Manning fulfilled his legal duty which was to report war crimes. He complied with his legal duty to obey lawful orders but also his duty to disobey unlawful orders. An order not to reveal classified information that  contains evidence of war crimes would be an unlawful act. Manning had the legal duty to reveal the commission of war crime. Manning revealed to the world, the unjust detachment of Guantanamo Bay, he revealed the human cost of wars in Iraq through the â€Å"Collateral Murder† video which depicts U.S forces in a helicopter killing unarmed civilians. The video even showed men trying to rescue the wounded who then were shot down as well. Manning had sent this information to a website called Wiki Leaks; a website created by Julian Assange in order to reveal to the world the truth about our leaders and what they are not telling us. Manning has been held 19 months in military custody. Manning has been held in solitary confinement 23 hours a day. He is only allowed to walk one hour a day in shackles. When he sleeps he is not allowed to between 5AM and 8PM weekdays and 7AM and 8PM on weekends. If he tries to he was made to sit up or stand by guards. The goal was simple the Government want to make Manning an example to other potential whistleblowers and wanted to seek to, pressure Manning into an admission that wikileaks solicited material from him, making that organization and Julian Assange part of a criminal conspiracy. Manning was a hero. This ordinary man, a solider witnessed cruel and brutal acts that the Government were hiding and presented it rightfully to the world â€Å"I want people to see the truth†. For these extraordinary actions he has been humiliated and inhumanely tortured. When our moral center is tested, ordinary inadvertent individuals who act in miraculous and extraordinary ways are revealed. Manning was tested. His moral obligation and his legal duty was to present these war crimes to the world. Conflict can stir emotions, including emotions of hatred, fear and protection of ones self and loved ones at the expense of anyone or anything else. As a result, people may act in irrational ways causing them to abandon their moral values for something that is inhumane and amoral. In times of conflict often people are fighting for there ideologies. In these times people who can lose there touch with reality and who’s blind devotion to the belief causes them to act in ways they normally wouldn’t. However, people who don’t think of the morality of there actions and are blind to the suffering there actions cause, they perform the most extraordinary acts that are the most  dangerous. The ‘Quiet American‘ written by Graham Green explores how in times of conflict peoples moral obligation for what is wrong and right is truly tested. The character in the novel Alden Pyle is a man used to provide readers with an American who is strong commitment to democracy in Vietnam has caused him to have a false conception of the world. Pyle with the intentions of saving Vietnam from the grasp of Communism in the process killed many innocent civilians in the name of what he believed was right, democracy. Through the character Fowler, we can see through his reactions to the devastation to the human impact of the bombings that emphasizes the cruelness and naivety of Pyle. Fowler witnesses the Bombings at Place Garnier, in fowlers words â€Å"what I remembered was the torso in the square, the baby on its mothers lap. They had not been warned: they had not been sufficiently important†. The horrific scenes Fowler describes presents Pyle as inhuman. Fowlers reaction to the devastation emphasizes on Pyle’s reactions as callous and brutal. We see this when Pyle uses a dismissive tone, â€Å"they were just war casualties †, as he shows no remorse for those who he has killed. Pyle again dismisses the deaths in saying â€Å"we are looking after the relatives†. To Pyle the actions that have occurred are for the good of the majority, these deaths lost are necessary for everyone. Pyle is blinded by his ideology of democracy and he remains untouched by the human suffering around him. Its not necessarily the good extraordinary acts that people can respond to conflict with but we can make the wrong choices and we question our morals and beliefs. Times of turmoil can bring out the worst in people and they can make the wrong decisions. In Harper Lees novel, To Kill a Mocking Bird, Bob Ewell is fueled by his hatred for the African Americans and is only concerned about power. He uses his position as being above African Americans so that people believe him and his family are more than white trash. He does this by accusing Tom Robinson of raping his daughter. We see here how someone can respond negatively to conflict, this conflict being racism and lack of civil rights during the 1930‘s. Ewell during this conflict, doesnt look to his heart or conscience. He doesn’t care if an innocent man is executed, he is run by purely selfish motives. We see a different response in times of intense circumstances, how someone so evil and cruel can fakley accuse a man for his own benefits. A man who just as Pyle was, is oblivious to the suffering but in order to follow his beliefs  he must be immune to the suffering.

Causes of the 2008 Global Economic Crisis

Causes of the 2008 Global Economic Crisis Essay Topic: Outline the major arguments put forward to explain the emergence of the 2008 crisis. Discuss in detail the two that seem most relevant together with the supporting evidence about their validity The world economy witnessed its most dangerous crisis in 2008 since the Great depression in the 1930’s. The contagion, which began in the United States when the housing prices finally turned assertively downward and spread quickly to the entire financial sector in the U.S and then to other financial markets abroad through financial and trade linkage . The financial crisis prompted in the early 2006 when the subprime mortgage began to show an increasing rate of mortgage defaults which later increased higher than normal rate in the late 2007, and on September 15,2008, one of the biggest investment banks in the world, failed, Lehman Brothers (2008financialcrisis, 2015). This essay would look at the major factors that explains the emergence of the 2008 crisis and also critically discuss in details the two most relevant arguments with supporting information and data that proofs its validity. Various arguments were proposed to explain the emergence of the crisis, which are; capitalist instability, financial deregulation and innovation, debt and crisis and rising inequality. The financial crisis shows inherent instability of capitalism; John Maynard Keynes believed that it was necessary to use monetary and fiscal policy to tame instability because he sensed that the market economy was unstable, this system became the pillar after the Great Depression and was a success this success later was carried to extreme and became overgrown and highly wasteful. Financial capitalist revolted against higher rates of inflation in the 1980s by forcing government to adopt restrictive policies, especially tight monetary policy (this is higher interest rates) and the result was less inflation and a return to higher unemployment, this shows that government policies have affected the combination of unemployment and inflation at specific times. Milton Friedman later came up with the neoclassic al theory that states that the market economy should be kept free from government intervention and regulation to enable more efficiency and stability. This thinking has been carried too far by the Bush Administration of 2001to2008, which has sought to do away with regulations and allows securitization of debts and everything else imaginable, these workings of market was spread globally. It is however fair to say that what led to the financial crisis can be a grand experiment of global scale aimed at the creation of the laissez-faire ideal comprehended by the neoclassical school (Katsuhito, 2008). The financial liberalization is also considered as one of the main causes of an increased frequency and intensity of financial crisis, these deregulations has a potential negative effect on the financial stability. Although the evidence towards these effects is inconclusive for several reasons, it increases bank risk-taking in both developing and developed countries through different channels in both groups of countries. In the developed countries, increased bank competition is the main channel of bank risk but in the developing country increases in bank risk associated with increased bank competition is not found. However, research also indicate a different effectiveness of capital regulation, official supervision, and financial transparency for limiting bank risk-taking across countries, this essay would later focus on the financial deregulation and innovation to explain the emergence of the crisis with theoretical background and hypotheses to discuss the potential effects of finan cial liberalization on bank risk-taking. Household indebtedness has a cause and a long-run macroeconomic implications, this has grown in most considerably developed countries over the past 25years, sustaining consumption growth and contributing to the fall in the household saving rate. The rapid household indebtedness manifested in the USA, housing bubble started to burst in 2006 and fell about 25 percent from the peak so far after prices stopped to increase in 2006 and decreased in 2007. This decline was obvious that homeowners could no longer refinance when their mortgage rates were reset, this caused delinquencies and avoidances of mortgages to increase rapidly, especially among subprime borrowers. The percentage of mortgages in foreclosure tripled in the first quarter of 2006 to the third quarter of 2008 from 1 percent to 3 percent or at least thirty days delinquent more than doubled , from 4.5 percent to 10 percent. The delinquency and foreclosure rates are higher than that of the Great Depression which was 6.85 in 198 4 and 2002, the American dream of owning your own home turned into an American nightmare for millions of families. By 2009, a total of about 6 million mortgages are either in foreclosure or has already been foreclosed which is about 12 percent of all the mortgages in the United States, this means losses for lenders and it was estimated to be $1trillion or more. In addition to losses on mortgages, due to the weakness of the economy, there were also losses on other types of loans which was ranged up to another $1trillion, so total losses for the financial sector as a could be as high as $2trillion. It was also argued that rising inequality in the past three decades has led to political pressure for redistribution that eventually came in the form of subsidised housing finance and has been found in general to impede growth. Political pressure was applied so that low-income households who overall would not have qualified gotten enhanced access to mortgage finance. The subsequent lending boom made an enormous run-up in housing prices and empowered consumption to keep above stagnating incomes. The boom switched in 2007, prompting to the emergence of the 2008 crisis. Along the lines, this essay would further review evidence that suggest that unequal access to political impact produces unequal access to finance and eventually unequal opportunities, which can underpin any initial economic inequality. Inequality has blended much contention amongst economists due to its role in the economy, a critical number of economist have exhibited the implications created by rising economic inequality and its role in the current global financial crisis while different other economist reject this thought and also minimalizing the importance of inequality as a contributor by stating other factors that contributes to the crisis. Most developed countries have experienced a great increase in inequality in the last few decades, especially in the US where there has been a wide aggregation of wealth and capital amongst the top-earning bracket of society whilst the average workers have encountered a relatively small increment in real wages in connection to inflation and rising productivity. This has in turn increased household debts for low income earners in the economy due to the need of maintaining a comfortable living. Krugman (2013) believed and argued that these two phenomena are possibly related â€Å"Inequality is linked to both the economic crisis and the weakness of the recovery the followed†. Figure 1 shows the common trends in the share of total income amongst the high income earners in the US. The share of total income grew gradually from 1943 to 2008, although there has been a slight decline in shares over the period but the overall trend has been a significant increase. Going before the current financial crisis, the to 5 percent accomplished far more prominent increments than the next 5 percent, which income stagnated. Also, there is a sharp increment in the share of total income of the top 1 percent before the Great Depression and the current global financial crisis. In both cases, the share of total income reached roughly 24 percent within a year of the crisis that is 1928 and 2007 correspondingly. Following the financial crisis, both periods had a sharp decline in share. Wisman (2013) discovers that the rate of income increases for the first bottom 20 percentile was just 6.3 percent and 15.8 percent for the second bottom 20 percentile, Which is significantly lower than the top 1 percentile that witnessed a staggering increase of 228.3% and the to 20 percentile increased by 79.9%, wage stagnation is a clear evidence. Based on household debt, as a rate of GDP, there has also been a non-stop increase from third quarter of 2006 to third quarter of 2009 as seen in Figure 2. As the overall debt increases, whilst top 10 percent earners experience increasing earnings, this would inevitably result in an â€Å"ever-growing gap between the rich and the rest† (Krugman, 2013) However economist differs in their assessment of the inequality contribution towards the crisis, it was also argued how inequality affects access to finance. Another empirical study focuses on firms; firms reliably need to bribe officials to dodge regulatory harassment in developing countries (Berger and Udell, 1998). Access to financing can help overcome most barriers, as money is fungible. Recent evidence demonstrates the significance of access to finance for less established producers, Perotti and Volpin (2007) proofed that in a large study of entry rates across countries; better investor protection is indeed allied with larger average entry rates, and in addition with more firm density in sectors which depend all the more on external finance. This then shows that poor financial access is a major source of entry barriers. Their outcome indicates that poor investor protection is more probable in nations with poor political institutions and in countries with more economic inequality . Interestingly, they find that it is no longer significant once they present effective investor protection while the size of domestic capital markets subsidises to explain entry. Consequently individual access to finance is more dangerous for new entry than the general state of financial markets. Also, Firm data demonstrate that, in specifically affecting their growth, access to finance is top three barriers for growth, so it therefore affects smaller firms more compared to the larger counterparts. Estimations of the effects of absence of financing constraints propose that small, medium and large firms have grown slower by 10.7, 8.7 and 6.0 percent correspondingly in the period 1996–1999 (Beck et al., 2005a). This low growth suggests that absence of access to financing raises indirectly inequality. Financial deregulation and Innovation, the 2008 crisis has highlighted the limitations and hazards of financial innovation while dimming the light on its core benefits for an economy. The sole purpose is that complex financial instruments related with innovation were broadly used as vehicles in the credit expansion that prompted to the crisis (Sà ¡nchez, 2010). Mortgage securitizations during the housing bubble years did not diminish the information problem that neither are typical of credit transactions, nor edit it induce appropriate risk assessment. Moreover, innovation has had a critical and positive role in financial innovation, leading to the development of economic wellbeing. Hence provided that we reinforce sensible regulation to discourage excessive risk taking in the future, innovation can continue to benefit our societies (Sà ¡nchez, 2010). The most important conditions are those needed to abate possible causes of excessive leverage and risk taking. Notably, monetary policy should pursue its objectives and avoid any expansionary undue credit or assert price booms. Similarly, fiscal policy should make sustainability of financial institutions a priority without resorting to subsidies loan that may lead to risk taking. Regulation should focus on making financial system resilient to crises; there aim should be to align incentives toward responsible risk taking and moral hazard risks. It should be borne in mind that regulation is not a guarantee for protection. Rather, regulation should make customers and risk managers more demanding, as it does not eradicate the risk inherent in financial products. Regulatory and supervisory efforts should never crowd out the responsibility and due diligence of market participation. An analysis on monetary and fiscal policies in the US prior to the recent global crisis by Taylor (2009) focuses on Taylor Rule which examines the rate of growth and the level of interest rates. This rule explains that an increase in economic growth must be equalled by a subsequent increase in interest rates (Taylor, 1993). He stated that interest rate reduced in the 2001 recession, as it was expected to expected to rice back but then it became very low, which fuelled the housing boom and eventually resulted in a housing foreclosures. Interest rates stayed far too low as the US economy experienced economic growth (2009:166). The demand for houses would decline once the short-term interest rates increased back to its normal levels significantly, followed by a decrease in construction. Housing prices inflation declined. Delinquency and increases in foreclosures followed, which lead in â€Å"the meltdown in the subprime market and on all securities that were derivative from the subprim es† (Taylor, 2007:3). Essentially, government policies, rather than increases in inequality, were the source of the housing crisis and eventually the financial crisis. Cheap credit influx of capital from China into the United States was one reason, China’s capital surplus was the mirror image of the U.S. trade deficit, lots of dollars were sent to China in exchange for cheap good sold to the U.S consumers by the U.S corporations. The shift in which institutions hold mortgages, is a key reason that mortgages were made available so widely and with such little review of recipients. Financial Deregulation and Unchecked Financial â€Å"Innovation†. Initially, banks created mortgages and held them. In the current global crisis, banks and non-bank mortgage lenders created loans, but these loans was then sold to others. Investment banks sealed lots of mortgage loans into â€Å"Collateralized Debt Obligation† (CDOs) and then was sold to Wall Street, with an insurance of a steady stream of revenue from interest payments. These system was pretty much unregulated, no one took account of how sub-standard the loans were or more fundamentally, the certainty that huge numbers would go bad if and when the housing bubble popped, despite the fictional erudition of the investors involved (Weissman, 2011). In conclusion, the arguments presented in this essay explaining the emergence of the 2008 crisis which are capital instability, financial deregulation and innovation, debt and crisis and rising inequality, an also focused more on two arguments which are Financial Deregulation and Inequality in financial market. The financial crisis was avoidable, because this crisis was more or less due to human action and inaction, not by natural factors or computer models miscalculation. It obviously ignored warnings and failed to question the knowledge and manage developing risks within a system crucial to the well-being of the Citizens of the United States. References 2008financialcrisis.umwblogs.org,. Overview. N.p., 2015. Web. 21 Mar. 2015. B. Taylor, J. (2009). THE FINANCIAL CRISIS AND THE POLICY RESPONSES:AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF WHAT WENT WRONG. [online] Available at: http://www.nber.org/papers/w14631.pdf [Accessed 21 Mar. 2015]. Barba, A. and Pivetti, M. (2008). Rising household debt: Its causes and macroeconomic implicationsa long-period analysis. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 33(1), pp.113-137. Crotty, J. (2009). Structural causes of the global financial crisis: a critical assessment of the new financial architecture. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 33(4), pp.563-580. Caprio, G, Demirguc-Kunt, A and Kane E. J (2010) ‘The 2007 meltdown in structured securitisation’ The World Bank Research Observer, 25 (1): pp. 125-155 Moseley, F. (2012). The U.S. economic crisis. [online] Isreview.org. Available at: http://isreview.org/issue/64/us-economic-crisis [Accessed 21 Mar. 2015]. Katsuhito, Iwai. Global Financial Crisis Shows Inherent Instability Of Capitalism — The Tokyo Foundation. Tokyofoundation.org. N.p., 2008. Web. 22 Mar. 2015. Minsky, H. P. (1980) ’Capitalist financial processes and the instability of capitalism’ Journal of Economic Issues, 14 (2): 505-523 Krugman, P. 2013. Why Inequality Matters. [online] Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/16/opinion/krugman-why-inequality-matters.html [Accessed: 14 Mar 2014]. Phillips, M. (2013). Americans Are Now Taking On More Debt Than At Any Time Since 2008. [online] The Atlantic. Available at: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/11/americans-are-now-taking-on-more-debt-than-at-any-time-since-2008/281537/ [Accessed 24 Mar. 2015]. Wisman, J. D. 2013. Wage stagnation, rising inequality and the financial crisis of 2008. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 37 (4), pp. 921945. Weissman, R. (2011). Deregulation and the Financial Crisis. [online] The Huffington Post. Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-weissman/deregulation-and-the-fina_b_82639.html? [Accessed 24 Mar. 2015]. Sà ¡nchez, M. (2010). Financial Innovation and the Global Crisis. IJBM, 5(11). Appendix Figure 1 – Shares of Total Income Accuring to Each Group in The US (Kenworthy and Smeeding, 2013: 36) Figure 2 – Total US Household debt balance (Phillips, 2013)

Franz Schubert Composing The Erlkonig Poem English Literature Essay

Franz Schubert Composing The Erlkonig Poem English Literature Essay This essay will compare and contrast four Lieder by Schubert and Schumann. Firstly, I will be referring to Schuberts Erlkà ¶nig and Gretchen am Spinnrade. Secondly, I will be referring to Schumanns Dichterliebe Op.48 and Liederkreis Op.24. Franz Schubert (1797-1828) was an Austrian composer who, more than any other, was noted for his artistic skill in Lieder. He arrived into the music scene in 1814 with one of his first songs, Gretchen am Spinnrade which is a selection of text from Goethes Faust. Schubert produced many masterpieces throughout his short career, composing in nearly every genre, all which was characterized by strong, rich harmonies and having an endless gift for melody. Schubert initially started out as a vocalist where he sang at the chapel of The Imperial Court. Eventually he explored composition and became known as a young genius. After Schuberts voice broke in 1812, he was directed by his father to become a school teacher and follow in his footsteps, even though he was committed to his passion of composing. He worked miserably by day while composing profusely by night and at the age of 20, Schubert had written over 100 songs as well as various operatic, symphonic, and chamber music scores. Throughout the rest of his short life, Schubert produced a large quantity of operas, symphonies, piano sonatas, chamber music pieces, and masses. He is known first and foremost for composing hundreds of songs including his most popular works Gretchen am Spinnrade, and Erlkà ¶nig. He greatly affected Robert Schumann and Gustav Mahlers vocal writing. Erlkà ¶nig is a poem written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) in 1782. It is part of his singspiel Der Fischerin and is easily one of his most familiar works from the German song repertoire; it gave Schubert his most known dramatic ballad to date. Goethe was a German poet, dramatist and novelist. He was one of the most important literary and cultural figures of his age, impacting Germany like Shakespeare impacted us. He studied law in Leipzig and Strasbourg, but worked as a newspaper critic after returning to Frankfurt in 1771. He moved to Weimar and became a court official and a privy councillor. However, what sustained his reputation was his literary works, and his relationship with music. Erlkà ¶nig was composed between August and December 1815 and published in 1821 as Schuberts Opus 1. It tells the tale of a father and his son riding through the woods late at night. The boy is only able to see the evil Erl-king (Erlkà ¶nig), and not his father. The Erl-king calls out to the young child, playing with his mind. The boy cries out for his fathers help many of times, but as the father cannot see the Erl-king or his demons, he takes his sons behaviour as a one natural occurrence. When the boy is wounded, the father then realises that desperate measures are called for, he rides through the woods with all his strength and skill, but the boy dies in his arms before he reaches a safer place. Schubert, while working as a school teacher composed nearly 145 lieder and numerous instrumental works in the year of 1815. Erlkà ¶nig gained many stories during the nineteenth century; one being that some people believed it was composed in a matter of minutes. It took Schubert three times to revise his song, he mostly adjusted the piano accompaniment and inserted/deleted bars in the music to somewhat better the pacing. He played about with the dynamics, altering them greatly each time. The piano accompaniment, known to be physically tiring and very difficult keeps a continuous background of repeated, triplet octaves creating a horror theme. Schubert simplified the figuration in one of his revisions, asking for duplets instead of triplets. While the piano accompaniment continues the three characters and narrator sing their simple lines. Each character is given their own unique quality: the child is frenzied and emotional, the father dignified and confident, Erlkà ¶nig himself tranquil and attractive as he attempts to trick the child. The song is usually sung by one vocalist, but on occasion, four separate singers have performed it. The narrator sings in middle range and is kept in a minor key throughout, the father sings in low range and sings in both minor and major keys, the boy sings in a high range, also in a minor key, signifying the fright of the child and the Erl-kings vocal part is in the major key resulting in a contrast as the piano accompaniment is minor , his part is sung pianissimo and undulates up and down to the accompaniment, portraying a sneaky persuasiveness. The horse is implied through the piano accompaniment by the rapid triplets, which represent the horses galloping. As the drama unfolds, the boy becomes more and more terrified, this is shown as the character sings in a much higher register, the harsh dissonances occur as the child cries, Mein Vater, mein Vater! The music quickens towards the end, portraying an image of the father desperately trying to encourage his horse to go faster. It is only at the very end of the song that the piano accompaniment ceases and that the horse has come to a halt, as the narrator states in a bit of skilled recitative that the child was dead in his arms. The piano accompaniment then ends with a dramatic perfect cadence. Gretchen am Spinnrade was composed by Schubert on October 19, 1814. The poem is taken from Part 1 of Goethes enormous recasting of the Faust legend, which finds Gretchen sitting at her window waiting for her lover to return. She spins as she waits for him and Schubert translates the imagination of her foot rising and falling on the pedal, the wheel rotation, and the semi-quaver piano accompaniment showing the twisting of the thread. Schuberts composition seems to be a simple background for the poem, but doesnt just portray the spinning wheel; it also represents Gretchens restlessness. Schubert creates this tension by moving through different key changes, from D minor, then to E minor and finally to F minor. In addition, he alters the text so that the opening lines keep returning throughout the song, which pull the harmony back to the original key. The first stanza of the song reads My peace is gone, my heart is heavy, I shall never, never again find peace. This sets a sad atmosphere for the rest of the piece, and Schubert composed the accompaniment so that it would sound sad along with the text, beginning the song in D minor. At the climax of the song, the accompaniment stops with a fortissimo ascent when Gretchen thinks of her lovers kiss. She stops spinning completely, and its only after several faltering efforts that she is able to regain full composure and resume her spinning. Robert Schumann (1810- 856) was one of the great composers of the early romantic era. He was uncomfortable with writing symphonies and concertos, the larger musical forms, but still composed works in these genres which contain moments of great beauty. He preferred to express his talent in songs and short pieces for piano. Schumann had an ability to translate deep and delicate states of the soul. He did this in works such as the song cycle Dichterliebe by Heinrich Hein which means A Poets Love and in his collections of short piano pieces, which include Phantasiestà ¼cke (Fantastic Pieces), Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood), and Waldszenen (Forest Scenes). Schumann began playing the piano at the young age of 10, after being encouraged by his father to pursue his musical and literary talents. In 1828, he became a law student at the University of Leipzig, even though he preferred music, philosophy, and Leipzigs taverns. He also started piano lessons with well-known Leipzig piano teacher, Friedrich Wieck. Schumann became a compulsive womanizer and a heavy drinker. He failed to become a concert pianist when he became partially paralysed in his right hand. Wieck had a daughter, Clara, who grew up and fell in love with Schumann but her father didnt approve. Despite his opposition, Clara and Robert gained the legal right to marry in 1840. Heinrich Hein (1797-1856) was a German poet and critic. He received his early education at the Lyzeum in Dà ¼sseldorf and went to Hamburg in 1816 to work in the banking office of his uncle, Salomon Heine. The business failed in 1819 and he entered the University of Bonn attending August Wilhelm Schlegels lectures on literature. He matriculated as a law student in 1820 at the University of Gà ¶ttingen but ended up getting suspended for participating in a duel. He continued his studies in Berlin between the years of 1821 and 1823. Heines poetry was used by all the major composers of the 19th century and by some minor figures as well. His verses were also popular in music well into the 20th century, and the 19th century witnessed the production of approximately 8000 lieder on Heine texts. It was the year 1840 when Schumann launched his year of song with a Liederkreis (op.24) on a poetic cycle from the Junge Leiden section of the Buch der Lieder. For his Dichterliebe, he selected 16 poems from the Lyrisches Intermezzo. Schumann set 43 of Heines verses. Dichterliebe was composed during the year of 1840 and apparently in a matter of days. It was composed during the same month that Schumann wrote his Liederkreis, Op 24. The texts originate from 16 poems from the Lyrisches Intermezzo which is a section of Heinrich Heines Buch der Lieder which was wrote in 1827. The song cycle originally held 20 songs, but when it was published as Op. 48 in 1844, four songs were omitted. In the opening poems, Im wunderschà ¶nen Monat Mai which translates to In the Wonderful Month of May and Aus meinen Trà ¤nen spriessen, Springing from my tears, optimistic imagery of springtime and birds singing is featured. Schumann used to end the vocal line of a song hanging on a dissonant chord, and the piano would complete the rest of the piece. In Im wunderschà ¶nen Monat Mai, Schumann ends the piano accompaniment also on an unresolved chord, this suggests that the love the singer is showing may remain unreturned. In the fifth song of the cycle, the speaker now sings in the past tense, instead of the present. The seventh song, which is Ich grolle nicht, has a decidedly sardonic tone. The accompaniment has a powerful bass line which supports a repeated chordal right hand part, while the singer sings in a royal, heroic tone. However, the text pretends to have austerity in order to cover its suffering. I saw you in a dream, and saw the darkness trapped in your soul, and saw the serpent that gnaws at your heart; I saw, my love, how miserable you are. Schumanns accompaniment makes it clear that the miserable one is the speaker, and not his beloved. In the conclusion of the collection, the speakers tone is fed-up and all pretence is gone. The music in Die alten, bà ¶sen Lieder sounds ploddy and unrelenting in its rhythm and figuration, it also sounds dark. Ascending arpeggios break the minor key into a brief major mode, only to find an ironic answer in minor once again. In the end of the song, the singers final, sorrowful strains fade and a last piano postlude offers a sense of rest, not found anywhere in Heines original.

Marshall Matt Dillon - An Old-West Hero :: American History Essays

Marshall Matt Dillon - An Old-West Hero In the 1950s the radio program, Gunsmoke, starred William Conrad as Marshall Matt Dillon. Gunsmoke was set in Dodge City, Kansas between 1872 and 1885, when the Santa Fe Railroad reached town and when the Texas cattle drives were forced to end by local farmers. Known as the Queen of the Cow Towns, the Wicked Little City, and the Gomorrah of the Plains, this little town had the reputation for being a hostile, lawless town where the fastest gun ruled (Gunsmoke). The character Marshall Matt Dillon was modeled after the real lawmen such as Wyatt Earp (1848-1929) who tamed Dodge City. Dillon was laid-back, tried to avoid conflicts, and was tough when the need arose. Gunsmoke includes the talented actors of Howard McNear (Doc), Parley Baer (Chester) Georgia Ellis (Kitty) along with Dillon who makes up the cast of four main characters. Chester is Dillons middle aged helper who is around him often. Everyone goes to see the town physician, Doc, and visitors and friends alike are able to meet Kitty, a saloon girl, at the Texas Trails. Matt Dillon, with a laid-back personality, liked to peruse the town or just sit on a porch with his buddy, Chester, chatting about the days events. One day, as the two are chatting, their friend Kitty walks up to invite them for a drink in the bar. Sure, why not, they reply. Not much happens at times in their small humble town, except when certain people come around and stir up situations where the Marshall has to be involved. Even when at the doctors office getting a piece of lead removed from his leg, Dillon is easy-going and care-free. When needing to confront someone, Matt Dillon would rather not approach a situation where conflicts might occur. In one episode, Webb Johnson walks up to Dillon and almost defiantly states that just because Dillon has a star on his chest does not make Johnson afraid of him. Dillon just looks at him, not threatened at all. Knowing Johnson is a big fan of the saloon, Dillon avoids the place at all costs. Another morning, while Chester and Dillon are visiting at Dillons desk, a Mr. Cook runs in looking for someone. He says he wants to kill the person, which is a strange comment to say in front of a federal Marshall. Dillon wants to stay out of this seemingly personal brawl, but as a Marshall, his job is to protect people and stop brutal fights.

The Usefulness of Functionalism for an Understanding of the Family Essa

The Usefulness of Functionalism for an Understanding of the Family Functionalists focus on the roles of the family as an institution and its interaction with other institutions, such as the ratio of functions the family has to perform compared to those that other institutions such as schools and the NHS perform. Functionalism sees the use of the family in society and how it can take pressure from the government by becoming an almost dependent institution that will help support its own members. George Murdock analysed 250 societies and studied the purpose of the family, he came up with a final definition; that the family performs several main functions. These functions help the individuals within the family; Murdock believed the functions are sexual, educational, economic and reproductive. However, Murdock did not consider that the family may have a detrimental affect on members of the family as he seemed to assume that all families are harmonious and do not have any arguments or problems. He also overlooked alterna...