Life Lessons in Maya Angelous Graduation Essay -- American Literature

Life Lessons in Maya Angelou's Graduation Throughout life we go through many stepping stones, Maya Angelou's autobiographical essay "Graduation", was about more than just moving on to another grade. The unexpected events that occurred during the ceremony enabled her to graduate from the views of a child to the more experienced and sometimes disenchanting views of an adult. Upon reading the story there is an initial feeling of excitement and hope which was quickly tarnished with the abrupt awareness of human prejudices. The author vividly illustrates a rainbow of significant mood changes she undergoes throughout the story. From the outset of the story there is an overwhelming sense of hope that has enveloped the entire community and school with the upcoming graduation. The communitie's involvement strengthens the authors excitement in her rite of passage. Everyone is preparing for the ceremony and seeking to see how it will affect the lives of those involved. "Only a small percentage would be continuing on to college" (835) and others were just excited for the "glorious release" (834) from school. She felt like she was on top of the world, after all, "the graduating classes themselves were the nobility" (834). It is obvious how much pride she takes in her community by the way she describes her class as "an extended family." (834). The author's school was not the most impressive school compared to the white schools in the area but that could not damper the spirit that was filling the air. Parents who were buying or making new outfits for their graduates made everyone including the author the center of attention. Her "momma launched out on [hers]," (835) and she was swollen with pride that she was going to be a walking mod... ...fe she really knew and felt deep down to the core of her being what the words truly meant. The words had brought back her hope and pride in herself and in her community. What Leavy had said was a fallacy and they could as they have in the past rise above the world's bigotry. Righteousness returned to Angelou and the entire community; "we were on top again."(841). During the essay the author lost her innocence but graduated to a deeper appreciation and clarity of who she is and who she could become. In her school with no visible fences keeping the children within the schoolyard, there were the invisible fences of racism that tried to limit them from reaching their full potential. The author concludes, "I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death" (841). Works Cited: Angelou, Maya. 'Graduation.' Cromley 29-39.

Analysis of Badinerie by J. S. Bach Essay

The piece Badinerie is best known for its destinations as the final movement of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Orchestral Suit No.2 in B minor. Johann Sebastian Bach was born on the 21st March 1685 and died on the 31st of July 1750. He was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, and violinist. He wrote sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments. Bach drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity. The piece Badinerie is in a light mood and structured in the Binary Form. It is cast in swift 2/4 metre beginning on the upbeat or anacrusis. This piece was originally written for a Chamber Orchestra and a solo flute. The piece starts in B minor and played in allegro tempo throughout. Badinerie start with a messo forte dynamic marking meaning moderately loud with motive A in the pickup bar at the beginning and motive B starts on the second beat in bar two to bar 3. The Antecedent ranges from the beginning of the music to the first beat of bar four, which ends on a Perfect Authentic Cadence. The Consequent started on the second beat of bar for four to the first beat of bar ten, which ended on an Imperfect Cadence a one to a five suspended two chord in second inversion. They are long phrases throughout the duration of the piece. In the first five bars the bass line plays a Bassa Continuo style in Baroque music, however in modern day it is called a Walking Bass style. In bars six to ten the melody line plays a similar rhythm that the bass was playing in the first five bars and the bass line plays a similar rhythm to what the melody line was playing. The second beat of bar 10 the dynamic marking changes to forte meaning loud which is the beginning of the phrase extension and sequential progression to bar 16. There is a great build up in this phrase with a messo forte crescendo leading up to forte and the use of sixteen notes in the bass notes the section intense and bright. Bar sixteen the end of the first section is repeated and ends on an Imperfect five of five going to five cadence called tonicization. The second section of the piece is a development of A, which is the same melody played a fifth up. The Antecedent started from the pickup beat to the first beat of bar twenty and the consequent picked up on the next beat and ended on bar twenty three on a five of three going to a three cadence. The piece then modulated to D major in the next bar then f# minor in bar 30 then back to b minor in bar thirty two. There is a phrase extension starting on the second beat of bar twenty to the first beat of bar twenty eight. The same idea comes back again of the melody line taking the rhythm of the bass line and the bass line taken the rhythm of the melody line in bars twenty eight to thirty two. There are pedal points in bars 33 to 35, interesting to note that there is use of octaves. In bars thirty six the first beat has a loud dynamic marking and the second beat has a soft dynamic marking which is quite interesting. There is a crescendo in the next bar leading up to forte towards the second to last bar. This section is then repeated and the section time around there is a rit. 2 Volta which means turn around then retard the second time. The piece ends on a Perfect Authentic Cadence.

Michael Leunig cartoon “My Former Self” Essay

Leunig deeply values the truth and he questions why people feel that the truth is never good enough. Leunig acknowledges the difference between who we want to be and who we are, he suggests that people strive to unrealistic expectations concerning career, image, relationships etc. and by lying to themselves and everyone around they lose the importance of the truth. Personally I agree that people try so hard to appear how it is thought they should and to be successful, they lose their inner self and who they are. I think that we can get caught up in the race to the top and we end up living a lie about who we really are and what we really value. In Leunigs cartoon My Former Self he suggests people are trying to rid themselves of flaws, recreating themselves to better suit society, sacrificing happiness, disguising themselves to better fit what they want, and some people are even embarrassed of who they really are. Therefore it is presumable that Leunig believes lies are controlling and overpowering peoples values in life. It is shown through Leunigs cartoon, that imperfections are not a respected part of our lives, and people feel that they should do whatever they can to get rid of any flaws. Leunig sees everyone to be striving for perfection, not letting anything get in the way. In the cartoon My Former Self the character goes to the extent of burying the flaws he believes he has. The character recites the imperfections he has insulting his former self as he goes. This is supporting Leunigs view has that people do not accept their own weaknesses or faults as part of their ideal selves. Instead they feel the need to cover or remove them. According to Leunig the desire to be perfect is continually creating lies. In Leunigs cartoon My Former Self it is evident that people are not happy with themselves the way they are and they are willing to go as far as recreating themselves to better suit society. Leunig suggests that some people want to be flawless so badly, they recreate themselves over and over again, lying about who they are, to better suit the values of perfection inflicted upon us. Leunig cartoon states that people can be as silly as creating a funeral for themselves so they can reinvent their personality traits, Leunig shows this through his cartoon My Former Self where a man wearing black is explaining to another man that he is attending the funeral  of his former self, he goes on to describe the flaws of the person he used to be. This segment of the cartoon clearly demonstrates that Leunig does not see the need in sacrificing yourself to be a better person, and by doing so you are lying to yourself and everyone around you about who you really are. When we put so much effort into becoming what we think we want, we sacrifice happiness. It is a constant battle to hide ourselves and it just doesnt seem worth it. Leunig believes that we should not have to pretend to be something were not in order to be happy, it should come naturally. Within the cartoon, this sacrifice for happiness is evident in the illustrations. The whole time the character is talking about his former self, his expression is dim. But as soon as his former self clambers out of the hole, his expression changes and he looks happy. He also refers to his former self as a grinning fool, but why would he grin if he werent happy that way? We are at our happiest when we are being ourselves. Through this cartoon, Leunig is stating that no one should have to pretend to be something theyre not just to be happy, it should come naturally. People lie through their appearances by disguising themselves in a number of ways, hiding what they dont want known. They can disguise how they act, talk, dress etc. to appear different from what they really are. Leunig draws attention to the fact that we sometimes change the outer image of ourselves eg. the way we dress, to change the perception people have of us. Within My Former Self A man is dressed in black because he is attending a funeral, the black attire is supposed to be projecting his emotions of being sombre to anyone looking at him, but when he is questioned on why he is wearing black, he replies that the outer person is sometimes opposite to the inner person, contradicting the message his outer person is sending. Deep down he is happy to be burying his inner self because he was embarrassed by it. He is lying about his emotions, he is not in mourning or upset. He is wearing black because that is what society says you should do at a funeral, it is not how he feels inside. This disconnection between the inner and outer person is another example of leunigs views on the lies we tell and that even when they are not spoken, they can still be intentional and misleading. Leunig has realised that due to the desire to be perfect, people are embarrassed of themselves because of what they think to be flaws. Leunig questions this embarrassment, because the flaws are only human and why should we be embarrassed about who we are? He has portrayed his views through the cartoon My Former Self. There are two sections of the cartoon strip where the character refers to his embarrassment; the first is where he is continuing to insult himself and he refers to himself as the badly designed, embarrassing mess and the second is when his former self is returning and he says to the man with him forgive me, this is so embarrassing. He is ashamed of things that should not matter, like being badly designed. This example is suggesting that we lie to cover things up that are not even worth worrying about. Both these instances support the generalisation that to avoid the embarrassment of imperfection, we lie. Leunigs strong value of truth is demonstrated in his cartoon My Former Self. He has drawn attention to some of the ways people lie everyday, they are constantly trying to rid themselves of flaws, people are recreating themselves to better suit society, are sacrificing happiness, they are disguising themselves to better fit what they want, and some people are even embarrassed of who they really are. In conclusion Leunigs cartoon supports the notion that a lie is a constant battle that isnt worth fighting because the truth is always stronger. His final message within this cartoon is that no matter how many lies you tell, and no matter how far you push your inner person away, the truth will always come out. Bibliography: Goatperson, Michael Leunig

Andy Warhol and His work on the Contemporary Art Essay Example for Free

Andy Warhol and His work on the Contemporary Art Essay Andy Warhol (1928-1987) of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, less commonly known as Andrew Warhola, was a central figure in the pop art category. He is an American artist who reigned around the world as a painter, author, avant-garde filmmaker and as a public personage for his connection to many people of different fields of work and status. Warhol studied in Carnegie Institute of Technology (now known as the Carnegie Mellon University) to hone his artistry (www. artgallery. com, 2008). Warhol unify his works through the Keatonesque style which is aritistically and personally affectless. In his work s a Pop artist, conceptual aspects were always there as a key factor. His art was known for its irony, in most of its sense. Campbell’s soup cans was probably his most famous work. The mundane images he made were turned to the so-called ironic art through enlargement, hand-painting or silk-screening. He always mentioned that the idea of his work is always at the surface of his work, obvious, apparent. Other attributes of his work were slight color changes using ink spots (www. pbs. org, 2007). His work reveals contemporary art in such a way it concerns some human desires that never ceases to revolve around. He even made his film where he was an international celebrity and a pop artist. His experiences with many people brought him the ideas of what is contemporary, and made sure that no traces of the artists can be recognized from his artwork. Andy Warhol and His work on the Contemporary Art. (2017, Feb 14). We have essays on the following topics that may be of interest to you

Sales Management Practices at Shield Financial Assignment

Sales Management Practices at Shield Financial - Assignment Example In any service or industrial sector, no company can enjoy monopoly; competition always exists. Shield Financial has a major competitor named All-Safe which follows fairly good practices, and Shield Financial also designs and re-designs its products and sales practices in order to compete in a healthy manner. From the case, we have seen that Shield Financial has changed its direction a little in order to stay updated in the competition. Previously, it has always focused on small to medium accounts for generating income, but this time the goal is to target bigger accounts. Focusing on bigger accounts is a challenging task because the sales representatives and managers are quite used to dealing with the small and medium account holders. Shield Financial has named this new approach as the First Plus program. The management practices at Shield Financial are strictly resulted oriented. The senior managers want to achieve the outcomes of the goals they plan out for the company. In the resul t oriented approach, the management determines priorities and ensures that the employees have adequate resources available such as workforce, capacity, and infrastructure. The employees, on the other hand, are given the authority to take personal responsibility for achieving the goals laid down by the senior management. They have to plan out their time, talent and knowledge so that they can deliver results as per the expectations of the management. In our given case, the CEO holds the philosophy that if the employees keep on adding numbers, everything else will take care of itself, meaning if the sales in figures keep coming in, everything will run smoothly. By following the result oriented approach, the management set out the goals for the sales managers to promote the First Plus program as a means to earn revenue. Managers including Doug Bloom find the task challenging because it is difficult to redirect the efforts of the sales staff to just one initiative when they are already w orking hard on their previously set targets. Serving as a sales representative for over four years, Doug Bloom understands that the sales staff will not be happy with the job of taking hold of larger accounts because small accounts are easy to handle and have commission tied up with them too. Furthermore, sales representatives will show clear resentment when the new goal from the corporate would be presented to them. Some might even fail to adopt and resign, so Doug will have to use management skills (such as motivation, encouragement, or non-monetary rewards) to achieve consent and results from his team. This might be a great problem for Doug who is new at the management position.  Ã‚  

Film Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 8

Film - Essay Example However, even though the films are of same genre and have similar background themes, the setting and the characters are distinct, and have unique personalities. The films ‘It Happened One Night’ (1934) and ‘Maid in Manhattan’ (2002) have similar background themes where a wealthy person falls in love with a ‘commoner.’ The love interest gets the wealthy characters (Ellie and Chris) distracted from the goals they had set to achieve. For example, in the movie ‘It Happened One Night,’ the female character Ellie runs away from her wealthy father to get married to a man of her choice. However, when she meets Peter and gets to know him during their travel to New York, she falls in love with him and gets distracted from the goal for which she had run away from her father. Similarly, in the film ‘Maid in Manhattan,’ Christopher Marshall who is a senatorial candidate, gets distracted from his goal of focusing on his campaign when he falls in love with a maid working in a classy hotel in which he stays. However, the contrast in the theme is that when Ellie confesses her love towards Pete r, he agrees that he is also in love with her. However, the character of Marissa, who is a maid, tries to avoid Christopher when she realizes that he is romantically interested in her. The other difference in the themes of the films is the truth about the characters who are ‘commoners’. In the movie ‘It Happened One Night,’ Peter discloses his real self to Ellie right from the beginning, and that too, with certain flamboyance and charm. On the other hand, Chris misunderstands Marissa as a socialite guest at the hotel, and considers her as a wealthy woman and not a ‘commoner’. Hence, when Chris falls in love with Marissa, he is not aware about her true identity of a maid. In this way, even though basic themes of the films are similar, the shades of the characters are different. The basis of the romantic comedies

The barriers of new energy development in Beijing Essay

The barriers of new energy development in Beijing - Essay Example The findings and discussion provide evidence that personal background and attitude are strongly influenced in the willingness to buy a new energy car. Government policy and marketing investigations indicate that relevant regulations are still in an unclear developmental situation, and the marketing of new energy vehicles is still a difficult endeavour. Therefore, the relevant non-sound rules and regulations, the continued use of fossil fuel, the nearly saturated automotive and second hand vehicles market, as well as some deep-rooted personal views are the main barriers for the development of new energy vehicles in Beijing. The consumer age groups purchasing new energy cars are mainly younger people. The results also show the difference in the development of new energy vehicles between Beijing and cities of other developed countries. The main conclusions and recommendations drawn from this study are that the new energy vehicle cannot replace the motor vehicle directly; they can be onl y gradually developed because time is required for the establishment of regulations, policies and charging stations, and for people’s attitudes to change. If motor Enterprises produce a car that achieves the requirements of a reliable level of technology, security and an attractive appearance, the popularity of the car will be increased. If new energy vehicles are able to reach this level, new energy vehicles will also be fast to become popular. Acknowledgements and Declaration This dissertation would not have been possible without the help and guidance of certain people. It is a pleasure to thank those who made this dissertation possible, such as my parents who gave me spiritual encouragement and the economic support I required, and my professor, Lynn CROWE, who supervised me and enabled me to develop an understanding of the subject. I owe my deepest gratitude to Education Adviser Viv THOM, who gave me advice about structure and corrected my language errors. I would also lik e to thank a friend, Minfeng YAN, who introduced two important people to me, one is Teng LI, the consultant of the Audi 4S store, and Feng ZHANG, a salesperson of the Toyota 4S store. I must make a special reference to Minfeng YAN, because without his help I could not have gotten such relevant information. I am thankful to respondents and friends in the support and cooperation of the surveys and interviews. Lastly, I offer my regards and blessings to all of those who supported me in any respect during the completion of the project. It is declared that this Research Report is entirely the product of my own work. 1.1 Overview The questionnaire sample sizes were 65 and 78 for face-to-face and online survey respectively. To ensure the accuracy of the answers, each face-to-face survey was completed by different people and the online survey could only be filled in once for one IP. In order to understand the condition of the auto vehicles market in a short period, the interpretive intervie ws selected consultants and salespeople from different mainstream 4S stores, where one consultant came from an Audi 4S store, another one came from a Toyota 4S store, and the last one from BYD. 1.2 Personal background The age distribution in the face-to-face survey demonstrates that there is no age limitation. 60% of total respondents were aged from 19 to 30, while 32.3% of them were aged between 31 and 50 years old. In contrast, most of respondents of the online survey (92.3%)