Literary Analysis Paper – Cathedral

Literary Analysis paper – Cathedral â€Å"Cathedral† by Raymond Carver tells us short story about a blind man who comes to visit his friend and her husband. In the story, even though the husband can technically see and has a normal sight, in the beginning of the story he is the one who shows the signs of true â€Å"blindness† through inability to see Robert beyond his blindness, incapability to communicate with Robert, him feeling uncomfortable and acting awkward around Robert. The husband does not realize how Robert's blindness changes him as human being.Carver skillfully shows the occurrence of change in the personality of the husband from being very awkward around a blind man to coming to realization that Robert is a person and not just a blind man. In the story, â€Å"Cathedral† Carver brings out the concept of husband's spiritual blindness and the theme of broke marriage to shows what is wrong with the modern world. Carver portrays husband's spiritual blindness to show parallel to the spiritual blindness of the modern world.The narrator sees his wife's blind friend as handicap and not as a whole person. The narrator is not enthusiastic about the visit because blind people make the narrator uncomfortable â€Å"†¦ and his being blind bothered me. My idea of blindness came from the movies. In the movie the blind move slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they were led by seeing-eye dogs. The blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to† (114). In this way, Carver shows how spiritual blindness can limit people in our everyday life just as it did the husband.In reality, spiritually blind people are unable to understand matters beyond their physical site. The theme that Carver touched in the â€Å"Cathedral† of the spiritually blind verses physically blind has been touched in the Bible as well. Passage in John 9:1-41 points out an interesting comparison between physical and spiritual blindness that take s place in this passage. It mainly describes how a blind man who believed in Jesus as the Son of God was forgiven and men with sight who could not see what the blind man saw remained in their sin.It very much gives reassures that personal understanding of the truth, understanding of the things beyond your physical sight are far more important that the physical. Carver brings this theme in order to show the reader the problematic spiritual blindness of our modern society that looks more at the physical rather than looking at thing in a more deeper and meaningful prospective. Another way in which Carver points out the concept of broken marriage relationships in our society is by portraying characters as being in an unhappy, depressed marriage relationship.The narrator lacks true marriage relationship with his wife, as is evident not only in their sparring in the narrative present, but also in the remoteness of perspective as he tells the story of her attempted suicide a few years befo re: â€Å". . . one night she got to feeling lonely and cut off from people she kept losing in that moving-around life. She got to feeling she couldn't go it another step. She went in and swallowed all the pills and capsules in the medicine chest and washed them down with a bottle of gin. Then she got into a hot bath and passed out. But instead of dying she got sick. She threw up.Her officer—why should he have a name? he was the childhood sweetheart and what more does he want? —came home from somewhere, found her and called the ambulance† (115). Although an attempt to suicide may be considered a personal weakness, nether the less, the unhappy marriage relationship had its influence in this matter. Relationship with a person who has mental health problems can lower the satisfaction levels. It surely takes a toll to live with a depressed person. Like in the case with the narrator and his wife, the more depressed and more anxious they become, the more dissatisfied is the marriage.Untreated depression poses a very real threat to a marriage such as in the situation with the wife. This is in reality a big problem in our society today. Such as in the story husband and wife experienced depressed relationship and indeed, in the reality the depressed spouse will experience less happiness, satisfaction and contentment in the marriage. Narrator mentions â€Å"†¦ every night I smoked dope and stayed up as long as I could before I fell asleep. My wife and I hardly ever went to bed at the same time†¦ and in reality the partner will struggle with handling the increased isolation and social withdrawal of the depressed spouse, the loss of emotional intimacy, (and often sexual intimacy as well), and the prevalent negativity in the relationship. When one spouse is depressed, the depression colors everything in the relationship. The depressed spouse sees the world through a darkened lens that limits his or her perspective. The author wants to point out that the negative events are interpreted even more negatively; neutral events are also interpreted negatively, and the positive appenings are often overlooked. The depressed spouse often loses interest in activities that used to bring pleasure and may experience fatigue and listlessness. There can be loss of sleep or sleeping too much; eating too much or be like the husband that smokes marijuana to bring some excitement in to his life. Feelings of love and sexual desire may become dulled or absent when an individual is depressed. The biggest danger when this happens is that the depressed spouse may erroneously conclude that this means he or she is no longer in love with the mate.In conclusion, I would like to draw parallel between the story of â€Å"Cathedral† by Raymond Carver to our modern society. In our modern society, we continue to meet individuals similar to the character of the â€Å"husband† who have physical but not spiritual vision as well as facing simi lar broken marriage problems. The issues that Carver touched in his story are rather social and relevant to our modern society rather than related to single individual. In addition, we see individuals similar to the â€Å"blind man† who are physically disabled; however, they exhibit a truer intuition into life and their surroundings.They have the ability to see spiritual concepts and understand people and the world around them. We learn from the story that those who are physically enabled can still learn from those who may seem disabled but have in reality a better understanding of life. Sometimes experiencing the hard ships of life helps, us grow and experience life in a different way than we normally would. It is like one who cannot see the forest for the trees. Work Cited Jan Zlotnik Schmidt, Lynne Crockett. â€Å"Portable Legacies: Raymond Carver's ‘Cathedral'. â€Å"

Representing (Repressed) Homosexuality in the Pre-Stonewall Hollywood Essay

Representing (Repressed) Homosexuality in the Pre-Stonewall Hollywood Homo-Military Film - Essay Example It was thus easy to detect homosexually behavior among the officers. Theories have been put forward trying to explain this phenomenon. Some believed that people who had homosexual tendencies joined the army so that they could repress these feelings however, with the many intimate contacts with the young men they find themselves succumbing to temptations. Others engage in this act out of curiosity and need to experiment new things. There are several films that have been produced that show the existence of homosexuality in the 1950s and 1960s without violating the censorship act. Among them is the gay deceiver, Damn the Defiant, Billy Buddy and the Strange Ones. All these moves contain scenes that imply homosexual actions without actually talking about homosexuality (Sconce, 73). This article analyzes the production history, reception and the social context of these films. The social context Looking back in the social context of the 1960s would help us understand the reception of the g ay related movies. In this age, people perceived homosexuality in a very different light than they do today. There were no gay hubs as the ones that exist in Ney York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Most homosexuals practiced this lifestyle in secret with the fear of being marked by the society. Homosexuality as a sex identity was seen to be a mental illness and any acts of homosexuality were labeled as crime. Before the passing of the 1967 Sex offense Bill, homosexuality was illegal. Lesbianism was however not considered illegal but people who practiced it were looked down upon by the society. Although the cities would be seen as the refuge of minorities, it was not supportive of the gay community. The often found refuge in gay bar but these ones would also be raided by police patron. The police would also alert the media in case there was such a raid such that people who were caught ended up featuring in the news (Butt, 238). The Stone Wall bar owned by the mafia exploited gay peo ple making money from them. The rural areas were not a better hub for the gay people either. People living here were expected to get married and have children. Many homosexuals were thus pressured into getting married with these marriages having unhappy endings and in some cases leading these men to commit suicide. The issue of homosexuality became a contentious one when Bill Clinton tried to amalgamate the forces. It became evident that the issue of homosexuality had existed for centuries. People were also concerned on the reasons that would make gay men join the military. . It was viewed that the military was a refuge that tried to still the chaos they were going through inside due to repressing their homosexual desires. They would also escape from the pressure of the society that expected them to have heterosexual relationships. The manner in which the military was organized with strict discipline would create a new identity for them as soldiers replacing their old confused ident ity. Psychologist actually said that the gay men joined the force hoping that this experience would cure them considering that homosexuality was then believed to be a mental illness. Intercourse of queer men in the military was a common thing during the World War 2 and even after. Some psychologists were of the view that the prevalence of gays in the military was as a result of the antigay policies. This is because human

Time Magazine Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Time Magazine - Research Paper Example Hadden co-founded Time Magazine after they worked together on the Yale Daily News in Yale but the death of Britton Hadden in 1929 saw Luce’s name becoming the most dominant name in 20th century American as the Time Magazine grew to be one of the most successful magazines in American history. The first Time Magazine publication came out on March 3, 1923 as Vol. 1 Number 1. The difference between the first Time Magazine publication and what has been the distinguishing feature of Time Magazine was the lack of the classic red border. The cover of the first Time Magazine publication featured John G. Cannon, an 86 year old retiring member of congress who had served 23 times in the House of Representatives. The main reason given for the cover having Cannon was that it represented the main aim of Time Magazine of speaking to the readers through people. The aim of the founders was to create a magazine that informs busy readers in United States and the rest of the world on current events in a systematic, organized, and concise manner. After its incorporation in 1922 by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden and the first publication in 1923, Luce purchased Life Magazine in 1936 and made it a photojournalism publication. The company began trading in the New York stock exchange in 1964. At the passing of Luce in 1967, Time Magazine was worth $ 109 million dollars and the development and growth of Time Magazine continued. In 1972, Time and Chuck Dolan launched Home Box Office (HBO) that has grown over the years to rack in almost $5 billion in revenue and 100 million subscribers. In 1989, Time merged with Warner Communications forming a company with $ 10 billion annual revenue and valued at $ 15 billion dollars. 1995 saw the purchasing of Turner Broadcasting system by Time but in 2000 Time merged with AOL in the biggest merger and acquisition deal ever. Time magazine had a disastrous association with AOL that led to an investigation into its accounts leading to the ditching of AOL

Political science Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 3

Political science - Essay Example In this essay, some major changes that have occurred in international relations since 1900 shall be reviewed. In the era of 1914s, there arose a phenomenon that came to be known as the Problem of Sovereignty and Great Power System. Sheehan (2006) explains that sovereignty concerns its self with the ideology that â€Å"political power is distinct from other organizations in the community—religious, familial, economic.† Further on, â€Å"sovereignty asserts that this public authority is preeminent and autonomous, that is, superior to institutions within the community and independent from those outside† (Sheehan, 2006). Before the 1914s, various nations of the world who were supposedly known as the world’s super-powers ventured into what came to be known as colonization. Colonization involved talking political dominion over another nation. However in the periods of 1914s, most nations who were colonized began fighting for common course of freedom to attain sovereignty and power over their own system of governance. The actors involved here were colonial masters and t heir colonized countries. Most colonial masters did not welcome the quest for sovereignty in good faith and there were reports of wars in most parts of the world. However as the demands began pressing, foreign treaties were signed to grant freedom to the pressing countries. The Problem of Sovereignty and the Great Power System was therefore a period of hostility among international relationships between colonies and colonial masters. The eventual sovereignties that were granted led to economic crises in most parts of the world as the colonial masters were no longer getting supply of free trade and payment of tax from their colonies. Economic retardation was therefore the global challenge that characterized the Problem of Sovereignty and the Great Power System. The middle of the twentieth century saw a new trend in international relation that

A literature review on Capital Investment Decisions Essay

A literature review on Capital Investment Decisions - Essay Example Some experienced investors feel that while making investments decisions it is very important to have a personal involvement rather than admitting a broker. The Global Investment Institute [2007] observes that relying on brokers will lack attention towards the account section, which seems to help a lot in increasing the returns of investments. In addition to that it says, â€Å"You need to become familiar with each stock you have in your portfolio so that you can make decisions on your own in the short-term, while still relying upon your financial advisor to structure your portfolio with a mix of the right instruments (stocks, bonds, money market, etc.) to help you make money in the long run†.Global-Investment-institute.com [2007]. Investment decision making is not an easy job, as the people involved in decision-making process have to calculate the previous income statements of the company or business is addition to evaluating all the accounts report and statistical details of the profit and loss of the company. Capital investments decisions have to be prepared relying on the returns and analysing whether the investment would be profitable. However, they are found to be useful in terms of â€Å"formulating long term goals†, â€Å"recognition of statistically dependent proposals†, â€Å"estimation and forecasting of current and future cash flows† etc observes [fao.org 2007] in addition to this fao.org initiates the economic evaluation of the investment proposals as another important aspect of investment decision making. The investment alternatives also have to be considered in order to make the decision in a profitable way. The investment analysis plays a very important role as a precautionary step in decision-making as there appears to be risks in returns, which would be acting as a major drawback in the financial conditions of a business or a company. There are instances of wrong decision-making in which there might be either lack of organised

DNA Sequence Analysis Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

DNA Sequence Analysis - Coursework Example Open reading frames (ORFs) shall be selected from he solution of suggested on the web based platform. Before then the linear DNA sequence is checked and the first graph shows us the location of restriction enzymes and their point of action. What follows is the choice of primers that would match the segment of DNA sequence chosen for this case wasEL784663 from our observation the following primers would be the most appropriate:- At a temperature of between 50-65oC, the pUC18 plasmid vector is digested by any of the restriction enzymes found at the multiple cloning sites (MCS) to make a single cut in the plasmid. This shall make the otherwise circular dsDNA module to become linear which will enhance its ability to coalesce with the DNA sequence that has been cut with the same restriction enzymes. The ORFs are then cloned in the amplified into the pUC18 to ensure that the DNA is transformed into chemically competent E. coli. During cloning EcoRI (5... GA  A  T  TC ...  3) site was preferred because it matches both the MCS restriction enzymes and the restriction enzymes of the linear graph of the DNA sequence chosen. However it is not in the sequence it is just outside the chosen sequence. This means that the selected primers require additional bases so that the EcoRI cuts the two sites at the same time during the Polymerase Chain Reaction. The protein has several biological functions and of importance is for example in biological folding, regulation of transcription, DNA binding, heat shock protein binding. The protein is usually in existence during the transcription stage of DNA sequencing and polymerase chain reaction. In protein folding process it’s where functional shapes of proteins are shaped from the constituent polypeptides. It involves the use of both covalent and non covalent bonds are made to coalesce in the required shape. This protein is in the DNA and is usually instrumental in this kind of process (Kieleczawa,

Home Depot and Lowes Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Home Depot and Lowes - Case Study Example They were initially set up as a local hardware store but it turned out to be a nationwide chain of home improvement stores. They serve to all the needs for complete home improvements like products from bathrooms to the storage rooms and paints to safes. Lowes store has approximately 216, 000 employees all over its stores. Home Depot was started in the year 1978 and is operating currently in all 50 states of United States. They were initially a warehouse and then turned out as one of the America's best home improvement retailers providing products from appliances to hard wares. They have approximately 209, 300 employees working with them through out their stores. Both these organizations provide all the home improvement products under one roof. Lowes and Home Depot have their own websites for the customers to browse through and purchase products. They offer variety of facilities as an online shop. In the recent decade online shopping has become on of the most comfortable and preferred was of buying goods and services. The E-commerce times (2005) stated "Online shopping has increased over last year because both new and experienced Internet buyers are not only researching products and comparing prices online before making a purchase, but they are also finding good holiday discounts online," said Heather Dougherty, senior retail analyst, Nielsen//Net Ratings. It is important to keep the information and the content interesting so that there is a high inflow of new and existing customers to the site. There are few factors that are very essential for a website. The Gantt chart below represents the important aspects of a website from the Polls result of Port 80, Australian web industry association. Good functionality 1 4.35% Site content 9 39.13% Meeting customer's expectations 3 13.04% Search engine optimization 2 8.70% Good graphic design 2 8.70% Keeping content current 1 4.35% Professional presentation 2 8.70% User friendliness 3 13.04% Security of site where apply eg credit cards, privacy 0 0% A study on the websites of the home improvement retailers Lowes and Home depot: Lowes' website: Lowes has an exclusive website, www.lowes.com. The site is simple and neat which has its name and their caption which is "Let's build something together". The focal point is the photo at the centre of the home page. The picture simply demonstrates the availability of all the home improvement products at the store. The picture has all the products required for a complete living providing a spacious atmosphere interpreting the availability of modest merchandises. The description below that states "Campus kick off", which insists on the availability of all the home improvement products with them under one roof. The first glance of the site provides idea about the products available at the store, the offers at the store, quick link to other services and the service desk. The products in the site are separated according to the departments and rooms. This helps in easy identification and selection of products. The page also helps customer choose products by the offers at the store and ther e are a lot of useful information about Lowes in the home page. The