The Glass Menagerie Essay

â€Å"Choose a play in which a central character behaves in an obsessive manner. Describe the nature of the character’s obsessive behaviour and discuss the influence this behaviour has on your understanding of the character in the play as a whole.† â€Å"The Glass Menagerie† is a play written by Tennessee Williams. The play is semi-autobiographical, told from the point of view of the writer. It is a memory play set in the home the Wingfield family. The play is about a young man, Tom, who lives with his mother, Amanda and his sister, Laura. The play explores the various struggles of each individual during the great depression. The characters all have their flaws and motives which help us to understand them and sympathise or agree with them. All the characters in the play behave in some sort of obsessive manner; however, Amanda behaves most strongly this way. Amanda Wingfield is one of the main characters and plays a great role in the readers understanding of the play as a whole. She behaves in a very obsessive manner throughout the play and this creates conflict between the other characters. In Scene one, we are introduced to Amanda’s obsessive and controlling behaviour. As Tom eats at the dinner table, Amanda continuously pesters him, telling him how to eat his food. â€Å"Don’t push with your fingers. If you have to push something, the thing to push with is the crust of bread†¦So chew your food and give your salivary glands a chance to function!† Amanda treats Tom like a child which frustrates him. He is very short tempered and easily irritated by Amanda’s over controlling and obsessive personality. She also obsesses over Toms bad habits, proclaiming that; â€Å"you smoke too much.† Amanda is constantly complaining about Tom and criticising him, this is due to her infatuation and constant desire for perfection in all aspects of her life. She is like this as she cares for them but does not realise that she is smothering her children. In Scene three, Amanda has a heated argument with Tom. This is instigated by  Amanda’s act of throwing out Toms books. She exclaims that she â€Å"took that horrible novel back to the library.† This angers Tom and he vents all his frustration on her controlling nature and the sense of entrapment as a consequence of this. Amanda is also very controlling over Toms actions as she gets suspicious of what he gets up to at night. This emphasises the lack of freedom that Tom feels due to her behaviour and it creates tension and arguments between them. Tom feels the need to escape but Amanda is obsessed with the fact duty and responsibility comes first. Amanda is worried about her children and feels that it is her responsibility to monitor their actions at all times, however she fails to realise the effect this has on them. Amanda also obsesses over Laura in Scene three; â€Å"Laura began to play a more and more important part in Mother’s calculations. It became an obsession†¦ the image of the gentleman caller haunted our small apartment.† She is preoccupied with finding Laura a gentleman caller as she feels that this would be best for the family. Laura, being disabled, puts financial strain upon the family. If Amanda was able to procure a gentleman caller for her, this would ensure a better quality of living for her and the family. Amanda constantly tells Laura to expect many gentlemen callers and decides to ignore her disability. She tells Laura to â€Å"stay fresh and pretty for gentleman callers.† Amanda’s insensitivity in this matter crushes Laura’s confidence. In Scene six, on hearing the news of the arrival of the potential gentleman, Amanda â€Å"has worked like a Turk in preparation.† This implies her obsession with appearance and impressing Jim. She deceives people into making them think that they are a wealthy family – despite the fact they are not rich. She attempts to make a lasting impression on Jim in the hope that he may be their saviour from poverty. Amanda is doing this for the benefit of both herself and her family. Whilst trying to secure a suitor for Laura, Amanda often reminisces about her own past. She is still living in the past and speaks of it often – so often that Tom and Laura can already foresee what is coming next. â€Å"Tom: I know what’s coming. Laura: Yes. But let her tell it†¦ She loves to tell it.† She often talks of her â€Å"seventeen gentlemen callers.† Amanda is self obsessed and narcissistic, implying that she judges a woman’s worth by the amount of attention she receives – further causing Laura to feel insecure about herself. Amanda is vain and egotistical and obsesses over her appearance. In Scene two she is described as wearing â€Å"cheap or imitation velvety-looking cloth coats with imitation fur collar.† She cares very much for her appearance and she takes pride in it. Her clothes show that she is still living in her own past yet now is only a faded southern bell. Amanda is used to attention and in Scene seven, she makes sure to dress attractively, despite the fact that it is supposed to be Laura’s night. Amanda â€Å"wears a girlish frock of yellowed voile with a blue silk sash†¦ the legend of her youth is nearly revived.† The occasion of Jim the potential gentleman caller, reminds her of her own past, in which she had countless gentleman callers. Not only does Amanda obsess over her own appearance but also the appearance of her children. Before Jim arrives, in Scene six; â€Å"Amanda produces two powder puffs which she wraps in handkerchiefs and stuffs in Laura’s bosom.† This highlights the recurring theme of appearance versus reality, which is evident in many of Amanda’s actions. She is so engrossed in her actions, she I willing to deceive people in order to get what she feels she needs. She obsesses over many things in Scene seven, for example, she insists that Laura open the door to Jim and Tom and is insensitive to Laura’s anxieties and insecurities. However Amanda is only doing this due to the fact that Jim acts as a beacon of hope for them all and she is eager for the evening to be a success. In conclusion, Amanda is deeply flawed throughout in regards to her obsessive and over controlling manner. Due to her behaviour, she eventually drives Tom away. However, she only means well in her actions. She is critical of her children because she feels she knows what is best for them. Her obsessive nature influences the readers understanding of her character in the play as a whole. It helps the reader understand Amanda’s and her children’s  struggles, hopes and fears.

Ben and Jerry

Their mission statement included three dimensions; product, economic, and social. Their objectives were not always in harmony, however. They’ve had to sacrifice some objectives to meet others, for example they didn’t want to rice prices due to the fact they wanted to be a â€Å"ice cream for the people† company, but had to sacrifice the social objective in order to stay in business. Of their three mission statement objectives, their social consciousness seems to be their leading objective. BenJerry donates 7. 5% of their pretax earnings to charities and foundations. I think that the current takeover offers are justifiable. The pre-offer announcement share prices were $21 per share. The price per share as of November 1999 was $25. The worth to the bidders is in the brand name of BenJerry, and in the eyes on the ice cream consumers, BenJerry’s is a respectable brand. Given that the sales per-share were . 34, their bids are in line with that. The EPS is $1. 06 per-share. Morgan should support one of the acquisition offers. The company in recent years hasn’t done as well, and some of the offers are very intriguing. They are overpaying in comparison to the pre-offer share price of $21 per share, and in the likely event that BenJerry’s can survive on its own, its best to take one of the offers and merge with a company who may have better advantages. Its his job to look out for the shareholder and not the com

Journal Article Review - Phonemic Awareness Essay

Journal Article Review - Phonemic Awareness - Essay Example Performance of other abilities such as sound-based tasks and other related activities can be performed. Although this is the case there are differences in the performance of children with CI and those with normal hearing capabilities. In terms of the phonological awareness (PA) for children with CI, learning phase that is protracted and long can be observed. Controlled tasks and revealed no significant difference from the normal children (Spencer and Tomblin, 2008). Based on the objective of the study that is to present a comparative analysis in the different hearings properties such as phonological awareness in relation to CI use, it can be perceived that the research conducted was able to achieve such goal. The exercises and tests that had been undertaken can be considered simple yet were able to clearly present the needed data. Variation in the use of tasks to test the hypotheses can also be observed in the research undertaken. These characteristics of the results are important in the characterization of the success of the study. It can be perceived that the methodology had been able to cover the possible points that are needed to be included in the area under study. Aside from the methodology undertaken, the presentation of the data and the analysis of the results had been presented in a commendable manner. Important characteristics of the organization of data are simple, clear and can easily be analyzed and understood. The presentation and development of the paper can also be considered important. For the said paper, the ideas and concepts had been developed and presented clearly and segregated properly for better understanding. The presentation of pertinent data related to phonological awareness is also essential. Included in the tasks under study are rhyming tasks, blending words task and Elision task which are determinants of the capabilities of the CI children in relation to learning how to read (Spencer and Tomblin, 2008). These

The Catholic church did not help the Jewish people during the Essay

The Catholic church did not help the Jewish people during the Holocaust - Essay Example It has been estimated that during the Holocaust approximately nine million Jews occupied Europe but almost two thirds lost their lives through Holocaust. Pope Pius XII was the catholic Pope during the time of the Holocaust1. Various controversies surrounded the position of the Pope in advocating against the Holocaust. The Pope took a more neutral position; he only made statements that condemned the injustices done against humanity, without coming boldly to condemn the Nazis for the massacre. The Pope failed in his authority and demonstrated that the Catholic Church had no firm position on the Holocaust. The Catholic Church’s main representative to the modern age is the Pope, During the Holocaust; Pope Pius XII was besieged to help the Jews to no avail. The Jews were constantly killed throughout every collaborating country in Europe. The Pope has continued to hold a supreme authority and was seen to influence political situations. Around 1941, the Cardinal of Vienna, Cardinal Theodor Innitzer took time to speak with the Pope on the issue of Jews that were deported from Spain to Germany where they were killed. In addition, there was pressure from a delegation from the United States to have the Pope condemn the killings2. However, the Pope took a very undefined position and was not bold and vocal in condemning the attacks. The argument by the Pope was that condemnation of the atrocities would have negative implications on the catholic faithfuls in Germany. This reason made the Pope to take a more neutral position. When a Ukrainian citizen, Andrej Septyckyj wrote to the Pope poi nting out to the ruthless nature of the German government, surprisingly the Pope replied with a verse from the Bible asking Andrej to bear adversity with patience3. There were opportunities for the voice of the church leaders to be heard but the neutrality aspect made the Pope and his cardinals to remain mum. Around 1940,

Analyze Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Analyze - Essay Example In the first story, Graduation by Maya Angelou, the author tends to explain an array of emotional turmoil that the protagonist undergoes; she is a young girl belonging to an African American race thus making her skin tone black as compared to the other white students in her classroom. The story is set in the 1940s, the year which she is to graduate and at the final graduation day speech, her heart begins to flutter as she listens to one of her professors speak proudly about the â€Å"white students† as he goes on and on about how they will prosper and become the next generation of famous scientists, architects, artists and politicians of the country. He completely undermined the feelings of those students that belonged to other races and in this manner discriminated against them; the young girl felt disappointment, anger, sadness and then pride within herself during the course of the speech. When the valedictorian, a young classmate by the name of Reed gave his speech, he trie d to encourage those that had been left out and the girl felt happy that there were some people who thought differently. She made it a point to be proud of her background instead of being angry at the professor; she understood that people would probably discriminate against her in the long run in life however she motivated herself to do extremely well in life and not hear their taunts. She thus overcame her challenge by moving on and not thinking about things that people say who do not even matter. The second beautiful piece, ‘A Hole in the Wall’ by Andrea Barrett is a wonderful account of a couple moving into Brooklyn to spend their lives with each other. The author talks about the shoddy surroundings where they took up a dwelling however the love and affection with which she had begun to care for the place; with time, she began to overcome her fear of living in a less luxurious place and gave in

Lab Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Lab Report - Essay Example The exercise involved the use of a sinusoidal signal generated in MATLAB for (preliminary Q.5) generated for this experiment using the C6713 system board with f (frequency) = 500 Hz, Fs (sampling frequency) = 8 kHz and A (amplitude) = 1V. IIR filter was applied to this signal with different kind of equations. A construction of a pole-zero plot was applied with the aim of understanding the nature and functions of the signals. For the implementation of the filter on the C6713, the magnitude function was swept at different frequencies to see the effect on the Vout (output voltage). Figure 8 and 9 show the effect of sweeping frequency for one at 1000 Hz and the other at 2000 Hz. Experiment 1 majored on the application of an IIR filter to generate a single sinusoid on C6713 system. As illustrated in the above experiment, the different equations were used in the construction of the sinusoidal signal and a pole-zero plots was used in making observations. The pole-zero plot in figure 4 shows two poles located on the unit circle; this implies that the signal is ‘marginally stable’ meaning that it maintains its stability throughout the experiment (Kuo, Lee & Tian, 2013). This is the trend for the waveform evidenced in Figure 3, where the signal remains constant as it oscillates. This is contrary if the poles were located within the unit circle, the signal would change by beginning to decay as it is considered stable. If the poles were located outside circle, the signal would start increasing, which implies that the signal is unstable. For the case in experiment 2, a 4th order Butterworth filter designed both in MATLAB and on the C6713 system. For the Butterwort filter in MATLAB portion, the magnitude response (linear and dB) was constructed while conditioned on the C6713 system, the voltage inputs and outputs were measured at different frequencies. A construction of a pole-zero plots was made as a feedback to the magnitude response. In doing so,

In Defense of Traditional Marriage By R. Anderson Essay

In Defense of Traditional Marriage By R. Anderson - Essay Example Anderson in his article about traditional marriages argues that a marriage should still be viewed in the traditional sense of it being a reunion between a man and woman for the purpose of procreation as is indicated in the constitution (Anderson, 2013). His argument therefore dispels the gay activists’ attempts to have this wording changed in the formal documents simply because they have already been accorded the right to get married. The article further ascertains that this definition of marriage has been in existence way before there was any evidence of same sex marriages and hence cannot be changed now. Furthermore, the moment the federal government will change this definition; it will mean that it will be on the road to changing other things as well and being cornered to allow enforcement of other untraditional issues in the marriage institution such as allowing polygamy and the likes. Anderson stands with his word that simply because the gays were allowed to get married i n the states that they have does not allow them the power to demand a change of the traditional institutional definition of marriage (Anderson, 2013). They should be glad with what they have been accorded and remain silent on the issue and let traditions remain as they have always been. The argument by Anderson leans more towards deductive reasoning where he starts by stating the general rules and laws of marriages that have always been and moves to focusing on the sole aspect of procreation. This argument is based on only one major point and a few others that are not too strong to support the traditional marriages or even provide enough reason to avoid the definition of marriage being changed in the constitution despite it being an age old definition whose changes will open up a Pandora’s box of other issues related to modern marriages. The argument of