American Literature

Edwin Arlington Robinson- father/mother/ 2 brothers died. Love of life married brother. Never Married. Wanted to be poet since age 11 and chose to live In poverty. Wrote traditional poems. Old-fashioned but deals with modern problems. Philosophy: Behind â€Å"the peaceful and genteel communities of small-town America† lies a substrata of failure, â€Å"loneliness, and terror. † Conflict with light and dark with the individual. Major Works; The Children of the Night, The Man Against the Sky, and The Man Who Died Twice. Quotes; I finally realized I was doomed, or elected, or sentenced to life, to the writing of poetry†¦Major Works; A Boys Will, North of Boston, West-Running Brook. Quotes; â€Å"l am not a teacher but an awakener. † ; Education is the ability to listen† ; â€Å"Poets are eke baseball pitchers. † ; â€Å"In three words I can sum up everything† ; A poem begins In delight and ends in wisdom† ; â€Å"The world Is full of willing people† ; â€Å"And where an epitaph to be my story I'd have a short one ready for my own. † Mending Wall, Home Burial, The Road Not Taken, Birches, Fire and ice, Stopping by Woods, Desert Places, Design, Nothing Gold Can Stay, Out Out, Departmental. T. S. Eliot; The Hollow Men, The Love Song of J. Alfred Frock.William Carols Williams- pediatrician. Images, suggest rather than offer, present concrete Images, strive for Pictures from Brushes, Paterson, The Farmer's Daughter and Other Stories. Quotes: â€Å"If you can bring nothing to this place† ; â€Å"The better work men do is always† ; â€Å"When they ask me, as of late† ; â€Å"If they give you lined paper, write the other way. † ; â€Å"It is difficult to get the news from poems† ; â€Å"Poets are damned but they are not blind† ; â€Å"One thing I am convinced more and more is true and that is this† ; Tract, The Great Figure, The Red Wheelbarrow, This Is Just to Say, A Sort of Song.E. E. Cummings- 3 months in French prison, Harvard. Unorthodox punctuation, compressed spacing, literary cubism. (Grasshopper) Images: avoid click ©s, create new rhythms, use common speech. Philosophy; spontaneous, rebellion against conformity, authority, exploitation of life, romantic and sexual love. Major Works; Tulips and Chimneys, XSL Poems, ViVa, No Thanks, 1 * 1, Agape: Seventy-One Poems, The Enormous Room. Quotes; â€Å"The most wasted of all days is one w/o laughter. ; â€Å"To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing† ; â€Å"A political is an erase upon which† ; â€Å"The poems to come are for you and me† In Just, My Sweet Old Etcetera, I sing of Loaf glad and big, If There are any heavens, Plato Told, I thank you God, she being brand-new, Jimmies got a soil, Old age sticks, Pity this busty monster unkind, L(a), Next to of course God America l, look at this, who are you, little l, Maggie and mills and molly and may, I carry your heart with me, I like your body when it is with your. Longboats Hughes- Lawrence, Topeka.Black writer. Rhythms of Jazz and blues. Oral tradition of black culture. Philosophy: direct engagement with people, pride of heritage, promotion of racial Justice. Major Works; The Dream Keeper, Montage of a dream deferred, Not Without Laughter. Quotes; â€Å"A dream deferred is a dream denied. † ; â€Å"l have discovered in life that there are ways† ; â€Å"Humor is laughing at what you haven't got when you ought to have it. ; â€Å"Like a welcome summer rain† ; â€Å"l swear to the Lord† ; â€Å"l will not take but for an answer. † ; â€Å"Well I like to eat sleep drink and be in love. ; â€Å"Oh god of dust and rainbows† ; â€Å"7 * 7 + Love = † The Energy Speaks of Rivers, The Weary Blues, Song for a Dark Girl, Trumpet Player, Motto, Harlem, Dream Variations, I too sing America, theme for English B. F. Scott Fitzgerald- named af ter cousin who wrote star spangled banner. Wife was Zelda. Heavy drinker. Zelda became mentally ill. Clear lyrical prose. The American Dream. Philosophy: The lost generation, all gods dead, all wars, fought, all faiths hake. Major Works; The Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and the Damned, The Great Gatsby, Tales of the Jazz Age, Tender is the Night, The Last Tycoon, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.Quotes; â€Å"In a real dark night† ; The test of a first-rate† ; â€Å"Sometimes it is harder† ; â€Å"First you take a drink† ; â€Å"Either you think or else others have you think for you† ; â€Å"Family quarrels are bitter things† ; â€Å"I'm a romantic† ; â€Å"It is in the thirties† ; â€Å"Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat. † ; â€Å"The world as a rule† ; â€Å"The faces of most American women† ; â€Å"Show me a hero and I will write you a ragged. † ; â€Å"There are no second ac ts in American Lives. † Babylon Revisited allegory, gothic romance. Philosophy; southern memory, reality, myth.Major Works; Sartorial, As I lay dying, light in august, Abyssal, the unvanquished, go down Moses, intruder in the dust, the sound and the fury. Quotes; â€Å"Given the choice† ; â€Å"The young man or woman writing today' ; â€Å"Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do† ; â€Å"If I were reincarnated† ; â€Å"A mule will labor 10 years† ; â€Å"Loving all of it even while he had to hate some of it† ; â€Å"I believe that man will not merely endure. He will prevail. A Rose for Emily Ernest Hemingway; mother dressed him as a girl until he was 6. Suffered from malaria, skin cancer, anemia, depression, diabetes, high blood pressure.Etc. Survived 2 plane crashes in 2 days. Athletic prose, iceberg theory writing style. Major Works: The Sun also rises, in our time, men w/o women, a farewell to arms, death in the afternoon, the snows of Kilimanjaro, for whom the bell tolls, the old man and the sea. Quotes; â€Å"Always do sober† ; â€Å"But man is not made for defeat. † ; â€Å"Courage is grace under pressure. † ; â€Å"Every mans life ends the same way.. † ; â€Å"Madame all stories if intended far enough end in death† ; â€Å"Never think that war no matter how necessary' ; â€Å"The world breaks everyone and afterward many are stronger at the broken places. The Hemingway Hero; suffered traumatic experience and lives.. Code Hero Big Two-Hearted River John Steinbeck; Journalistic, lyrical, biblical rhythms. Philosophy; fight against poverty/ social injustice, combo of realism, romanticism, and naturalism. Major Works; Tortilla Flat, The long valley, the red pony, of mice and men, the grapes of wrath, the pearl, the log from the sea of Cortez, cannery row, east of Eden, the winter of our discontent, travels with charley. Valued privacy. Wrote screenplay for Lifeboat . American Literature ?American literature is any written work of art that is created in the United States. American literature is like all literature, it has literary experiences and contextual history of America. It depicts how America has changed is still changing today. American literature has changed over time just like most canons of literary works. The uniqueness of American literature is that America from its beginning had a special philosophy of life and freedom. The special philosophy of life and freedom that made American literature so unique was reflected in its writings.Americans believed and had faith that God was and is the given of all our rights and freedom. We as Americans had faith in ourselves that we could succeed in anything that we try doing. The literature that we Americans wrote made life worth living because it was displayed for the world to read and understand that life was what we made it. Also by Americans having the ability to spring back from diversity made life worth living and George Washington was a perfect example of this. Literary canon is basically a suggested list of readings that belongs to a country or a certain period in time.Literary canon contains literary works that is mainly by authors who are accepted as an authority in their field and their writings constituting a serious body of literature in any given language. The works that are collected that is included in a literary canon is approved largely by cultural and academic institutions and is observed as literature of that language. Literary work’s popularity is not based only on the quality, but on the relevance of what matters to the context historically, socially, and artistically.Literary canon relate very well to what is going on in society because of what is most important at that time work is being written. The context of the society, whether it is historical, social, or artistic, that is basically the topic. Ethnic writers express the special challenges of realism, natural ism, and regionalism within the American literary experiences. Realism labels a movement in English, European, and American literature that gathered force from the 1930s to the end of the century.Realism attempted to record life as it was lived rather than life as it ought to be lived or had been lived in times past. William Dean Howells stated that realism â€Å"is nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material. † Present-day literary theorists are probably more aware of what may be called â€Å"the crisis of representation†-the difference between representation and the thing represented-than were these realists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.Naturalism is understood by some as an extension or intensification of realism. It introduces characters from the fringes and depths of society whose fates are determined by degenerate heredity, a sordid environment, and/or a good deal of bad luck. Regionalism writing, another expression of the realist impulse, resulted from the desire both to preserve a record of distinctive ways of life before industrialization dispersed or homogenized them and to come to terms with the harsh realities that seemed to be replacing these early and allegedly happier times.By the end of the twentieth century, every region of the country had a â€Å"local colorist† to immortalize its natural, social, and linguistic features. Ethnic writers define literature as literature that is written by people of a different culture, language, religion, or race. It differs from the canon of traditional American literature because literary canon is a list of work from American instead of from a different race or religion. The historical, socio-political, and cultural topics that might be covered by ethnic writers would be slavery and how the slaves were treated during that time.Slavery is a topic that can be covered under all three. Government issues are a topic that could be covered under so cio-political. The debate against government issues such as health care and taxes could be something that ethnic writers could write about. It does not differ from the canon of traditional American literature because the writings have to be by authors who are accepted as an authority in their field and their writings of literature in any given language. American Literature A . Some of the best names that come into mind when one speaks of modern English literature and fantasies are Editha, and Kate Chopin. Their works stand tall in the golden pages of modern literature, influencing most people of this generation and many more to follow. They have painted and breathed life into each character of the novel, The Awakening, with great magical artistic skills. Such is the greatness and purity of the artists that they are believed to have given birth to a completely new form of writing that the modern Literature is so proud of.Hence they are considered premodern. There are some more writers such as Tolkien who have contributed immensely towards this. â€Å"I believe, Mr. Tolkien has succeeded more completely than any previous writer in this genre in using the traditional properties of the Quest, the heroic journey, the Numinous Object, the conflict between Good and Evil while at the same time satisfying our sense of historical and social reality† (W. H . Auden, 1956). The greater the power, the more dangerous is the abuse. The truth in the statement is well proved in Tolkien’s The Hobbit.The author makes his political report in this twentieth-century fable that could be relished as an elating and exhilarating story. He, very well comments upon the abuse of political power and how the poor and down trodden fall prey to the diplomacy of sly rulers. In the midst of haziness between an imagination and reality this twentieth-century fable portrays the evil in Middle-Earth as totalitarian evil and that war is an immense ingredient of this malevolence. Many premodern authors have flourished on the fantasy genre. Age cannot wither their novels nor custom stale their infinite variety.The best, modern novels seem inexhaustible. They are a permanent source of inspiration for humanity. Fantasy literature generally encompasses unreal, nonhuman creatures, unusual powers, created mythologies and imaginary settings. Frost, who can also be termed as a premodern poet remains faithful to the spoken language of his time. His language, in the poem, is a mixture of playfulness and seriousness. He portrays regionalism with its rich stock of images, situation and anecdotes. This in turn provides an abundant source for metaphors and symbols.The conversational tone and the dramatic situation in the poem strike the readers. The picture at the core of â€Å"Mending Wall† is striking. Two men convene on terms of good manners and sociability to put up a barricade between them. The wall is erected out of convention, out of tradition. Nevertheless the very ground works against them as well as makes their task thorny. The two neighbors thrust stones, back on top of the wall; however as a result of hunters or elves, or the chill of nature’s imperceptible hand, the boulders topple downward yet again.The informal fashion and lack of rhyme masquerade the ploy in Petit the Poet. Some of his most praised and entertaining work s involve Petit the Poet and Seth Compton, marvelous creations of Edgar Lee, best reveal his blending of wit with humor. His personal and conversational style makes the reader involved in his tone and mood. He takes the reader into confidence through his easy and delightful pace. Furthermore it appears quite realistic with some witty descriptions.The tone is very somber and the reader cannot help but a distinct hopelessness, of the plight of human beings not being able to choose what they remember, and also that the memories cherished today, will be much different than the memories cherished tomorrow. C. Mending Wall Robert Frost was born in San Francisco, U. S. A, in 1874. Disenchanted with the lofty subjects of many American poets, Frost opted to write about country life with which he was most familiar. In the poem, â€Å"Mending Wall† shows sound posturing, a form of writing based on the tones of everyday speech.In his collection, North of Boston (1914), Frost began to exp eriment with poems of monologue and dialogue, which critics have called his dramatic poems. The present poem, â€Å"Mending Wall† too reflects his interest in dramatic and natural speech. The stanzas of the poem â€Å"Mending Wall† are straightforward also sound more akin to an extraordinary human frame of mind than a fuming portrayal of the poet’s neighbor. A breakdown of the rhyme scheme sends the reader into a mesmerizing situation and the words is comparatively free from portentous and dark imagery. Robert Frost’s poetry is well known for its intensely personal and touching theme.A great deal of Frost's verse is confessional and reveals his life experiences through metaphor or explicitly. â€Å"Mending Wall† asserts his abhorrence for a wall or a barrier between human beings. This Frost does through the exercise of powerful imagery articulated through language, structure, and tone. A wall divides the poet's land from his neighbor's. They get to gether to saunter to the wall and mutually mend it, when it is spring time. â€Å"Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, And spills the upper boulders in the sun,And makes gaps even two can pass abreast†. (Lines 1-4) The speaker sees no reason for the wall to be kept–there are no cows to be contained, just apple and pine trees. He does not believe in walls for the sake of walls. The neighbor chooses to stick to his father’s words: â€Å"Good fences make good neighbors. † The poet remains skeptical and impishly forces the neighbor down to come across the outdated interpretation. However his neighbor will not be persuaded. The poet visualizes his neighbor as a leftover from a reasonably obsolete time. He is an existing paradigm of an old orthodox.Nevertheless the neighbor merely goes back over the saying. Frost retains five stressed syllables designed for each line; however he shows a discrepancy in the fee t widely to maintain the usual dialogue in the rhyme. The dearth of radiance, gloom and unhappiness, have been brought into play. Perceptibly the wall is thought of as a vengeance for transparency, light and security. The turnaround of proceedings in the poem reiterates the dismay of hostilities and the futile misfortunes that could have been evaded if those drawn in would have scrutinized the dealings they were caught up with.Even though the reader of the poem gets the notion of the neighbor portrayed in the poem by Frost, he does not subsist outside of descriptions of men from the past or historical pictures. The poet’s neighbor is, in many senses, of a weak temperament rather undeserving of examination because there is nothing that detaches him an ordinary human being. There is realization that hostilities are but a ploy to gain power and supremacy over the feelings of people. A sense of guilt revolves around the entire novel and expresses that wars are unfortunate and onl y a gamble where the leaders resort to exploit the poor, down trodden masses.â€Å"Mending Wall† is a lingering recollection of life events and dreams that have spiraled out of control due to hostilities. The hopes and dreams that once seemed so right and so justifiable become shattered because of the wall that inflicts the very core of the poet’s soul. Frost remains faithful to the spoken language of his time. His language, in the poem, is a mixture of playfulness and seriousness. He portrays regionalism with its rich stock of images, situation and anecdotes. This in turn provides an abundant source for metaphors and symbols. The conversational tone and the dramatic situation in the poem strike the readers.The picture at the core of â€Å"Mending Wall† is striking. Two men convene on terms of good manners and sociability to put up a barricade between them. The wall is erected out of convention, out of tradition. Nevertheless the very ground works against them a s well as makes their task thorny. The two neighbors thrust stones, back on top of the wall; however as a result of hunters or elves, or the chill of nature’s imperceptible hand, the boulders topple downward yet again. â€Å"The work of hunters is another thing: I have come after them and made repair Where they have left not one stone on a stone,But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,†(lines 5-8) Even then, the neighbors carry on with their work of mending the wall. The poem, consequently, looks as if it contemplates typically on themes like, human construction of blockades, separation, and hostility. What sets in motion in unsophisticated candor ends in intricate symbolism. This wall-building work appears primeval, as it is portrayed in formal, conventional terms. It engrosses â€Å"spells† to work against the â€Å"elves,† and the neighbor comes into view as a Stone-Age savage at the same time as he lifts and carries a boulder. â€Å"We have to u se a spell to make them balance:‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned! ‘ We wear our fingers rough with handling them. Oh, just another kind of out-door game,†(lines 18-21) Frost’s treatment of objects of nature shows that he does not idealize or glorify them. His attitude towards the stone wall is not actually that of a realist, nor so much of a romantist. Frost’s poems on natural objects are not dealt with as the starting point for the mystical meditation. Like other poems, â€Å"Mending Wall† carries a moral but the moral is indirectly presented either as a dramatic situation. Frost’s poems are profoundly philosophical in spite of their homely diction.In â€Å"Mending Wall†, he uses symbolism to communicate a deep rooted principle. The symbolism in the poem comes out as an indirect method of communication. The poem has a surface meaning but it also shows a deeper significance, which is understood only through a closer scrutiny of the poem. D. Edgar Lee Masters is acclaimed as one of the leading humorous poets of the world. He has produced some of the best works of his time. His readers have long appreciated him for his classical interpretation of human nature and several critical thematic concerns of society but yet in a most humorous, easy and light hearted representation.One of the simplest and easy flowing poems of Edgar Lee is Petit the Poet. The informal fashion and lack of rhyme masquerade the ploy in Petit the Poet. Some of his most praised and entertaining works involve Petit the Poet and Seth Compton, marvelous creations of Edgar Lee, best reveal his blending of wit with humor. His personal and conversational style makes the reader involved in his tone and mood. He takes the reader into confidence through his easy and delightful pace. Furthermore it appears quite realistic with some witty descriptions.The tone is very somber and the reader cannot help but a distinct hopelessness, of the plight of human beings not being able to choose what they remember, and also that the memories cherished today, will be much different than the memories cherished tomorrow. The poem is composed to 18 lines. The concluding verse shows an analogous allusion. â€Å"Seeds in a dry pod, tick, tick, tick, Tick, tick, tick, what little iambics, While Homer and Whitman roared in the pines? † The concluding part of the poem brings us backwards in time, which allows the reader to view true accounts and suffering that people have to endure in a village.Thus Petit the poet, no doubt is thought to appall us yet again but with a twist. Thus the irony in, Petit the poet, comes through as we read it. The analytical issue of Seth Compton is beautifully depicted with a humorous disposition. The poet describes human behavior through the process of loving and forgetting. The poet tactfully and with an aroma of humor, describes the social and moral matters of the modern times from the perspective of a clean hearted human being. He craftily incorporates humor to the arena and at the same time, trying to bring into light the disgrace of corruption.For this kind of his writing, he has been also long criticized for his more moderate representation of the extents of social illness of the time. The Poet is distressed to see the state of the people after death. The circulating library that he constructed was son disposed off. â€Å"When I died, the circulating library Which I built up for Spoon River, And managed for the good of inquiring minds, Was sold at auction on the public square† The poem gives a feeling that Seth Compton has been keeping a note of all the happenings after his death.During the period when the poem was written, although seemingly flowing in a positive direction, human relations were beginning to withstand new strains, trapped now in a cleverer and more civilized society. These relations were more official and formal than social and personal. This new form of the society was less institutionalized but at the same time was more difficult to resolve or combat. This new tactic, intoxicated with the velvety diplomacies of pity, care and tolerance, made things even worse. Very ironically and rightly, the Poet criticizes the aspects of morality in terms of critical social concerns. American Literature Mark Twain's celebrated novel Tom Sawyer (1876) has generally been considered by literary critics to slightly less accomplished on a technical and thematic level than its purported sequel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, (1885).Although many reasons for this discrepancy in the level of critical reception of the two works may be reliably cited, one of the contributing factors to the critical reception of Tom Sawyer both on its initial publication in the nineteenth century and during its present status in critical estimation is the function of literary realism. In short, because Tom Sawyer represents to most literary critics a â€Å"less sophisticated† execution of Twain's literary technique, it also functions a less developed example of Twain's expression by way of literary realism.Important, also, is that fact that Twain was and is viewed by critics as one of America's foremost realist writers and Twain's realism is regarded as having had a liberating influence on American literature as a whole: â€Å"It led him to make use of the vernacular and ultimately to develop popular speech, as an instrument for character portrayal and effective narrative, to near perfection,† (Long 102) which, in turn, led to the first authentically American idiom in fiction.However, as in Huckleberry Finn, the aspects of realism (or verisimilitude) which permeate Tom Sawyer, also function as â€Å"scaffolding† for mythic ideas and iconographic expression which directly contradicts the purpose and function of literary realism itself. In essence, by regarding realism in Tom Sawyer not a governing principle of Twain's aesthetic, but rather as a tool or a literary device which is used to convey a deeper theme or aesthetic — namely romanticism — can be identified.In Twain's case, the romantic or idealized strains of his theme in Tom Sawyer relate directly to the myth of American expansion and prosperity which were as prevalent cultural fascinations in nineteenth century America as they are in twenty-first century America.Before Tom Sawyer itself can be examined in light of its use of realism as a literary device, it is important to restate what the (critical) understanding of literary modernism is really all about and what literary modernism meant to the writers who comprised the movement in its earliest stages and what literary realism means to contemporary literary critics, and specifically those critics who have turned their energies to explicating Tom Sawyer.It should also be pointed out that Twain presents special problems even for the most studious and energetic of critics because his work is founded, first adn foremost upon humor, which is a very difficult literary premise to quantify and define in critical terms. Despite the fact that â€Å"criticism is notoriously helpless in the presence of writing that is really funny† (Smith 1), specific aesthetic principles and influences can be rooted out and separated to so me extent from the over-riding satirical vision in Twain's work.Any attempted critical understanding would be greatly aided in first accepting Twain as a literary realist as this designation is the most expedient as to opening a â€Å"clear window† into the purported purpose and themes of Twain's writings. Literary realism comprised an artistic response to the changing social conditions beginning in the 19th century which saw a dominant rise of industry, science, and rationality in western culture. Realism attempted to develop a literary idiom which was able to convincingly portray the actual events and circumstances of life.The movement toward realism can be seen as an artistic mode of grappling with changing and frightening circumstances of western culture. In addition to seeking out themes of social significance, writers such as Zola, Dos Passos, Eliot and Flaubert — advanced a narrative technique which â€Å"jettisoned rhetoric–a stylized language of elevat ed expression designed to demonstrate that the writer had mastered the tradition of polite letters–for everyday speech, (Borus 22) so that highly-stylized narratives still evoked the realism of everyday speech and everyday life.Part of the technique of literary realism involved the use of dialect, sometimes extensively, to create the sense of verisimilitude which was essential to the realist aesthetic. The combination of real-world dialect and the studies technique of the realist writers resulted in a unique blend of linguistic styles which resulted in a generating a set of readers who considered themselves â€Å"cultivated readers of dialect, † (Barrish 37). because realist writers sought to evoke in extensive detail, the living settings of their works, many realist writers were committed to regionalism — that is, they wrote about the world they experienced directly.Examples of this are Faulkner who wrote extensively about a fictional Southern county which was based on counties which actually existed. Realist writers desired to create fiction that felt and read as close to real life as possible in order to allow readers to â€Å"see† and experience aspects of life which would otherwise have remained unknowable to them. With this bit of critical history in mind, one further aspect remains quite important relative to Twain and that is the fact that â€Å"realism as a guiding principle of criticism† (Smith 5) has been rigidly and thoroughly applied to Twain's work with the resulting conclusion that â€Å"shortcomings [†¦] have led to its gradual abandonment during the last quarter of a century on both sides of the Atlantic. † (Smith 5). What are these shortcomings, specifically? The answer to that question is complex and lies in the seemingly comprehensive nature of Twain's realism. The fact that Twain's realism is distinct from naturalism or purely journalistic writing is his sophisticated employment of realism as a device, rather than as a guiding principle of theme or overall technical approach.In other words, because â€Å"Mark Twain's realism does not stop at externals† (Smith 29) that same realism must by necessity engage emotional, psychological, and â€Å"spiritual† (or mythic) concepts and identities which are by definition elusive of any â€Å"realistic† depiction. By delving deeper than â€Å"externals† Twain must, by necessity, abandon verisimilitude as a guiding aesthetic principle and instead accept it as a device, like a single color on a painter's pallette.In order to illustrate this somewhat elusive point, it must be emphasized that Twain's external realism is devastatingly powerful adn accurate, almost â€Å"photo-realistically† so. Twain is obviously quite capable of conveying â€Å"the special atmosphere of each characteristic environment† (Smith 29) and from this mastery of description of the external world, the reader is led to â €Å"trust† that Twain's excursions into the â€Å"inner† world will be just as faithfully rendered and just as obviously based on â€Å"reality.† However, a clear, if subtle, distinction separates Twain from â€Å"photorealistic† artists. A key aspect to Twain's particular use of realism is that â€Å"His purpose is not to say everything, nor even to present everything in an objective way† (Smith 30) but render the impression that what is described, whether it be a river, or a young boy's stream-of-consciousness inner-monologue, is a faithful representation of the actual world.By rendering the impression of realism rather than a rote â€Å"copy† of nature, â€Å"Twain allows himself to pursue his inquiries into reality with varying intensity, to support his observations with a wider or a narrower range of evidence† (Smith 30) and, by doing so, achieves an acumen which is capable of â€Å"misleading† he reader into mistaking wha t is actually a mythic or romantic impression as a realistic observation.To demonstrate this concretely, a single mythic aspect of Tom Sawyer can be isolated and compared with Twain's realistic prose-style to indicate the duality of his narrative idiom, where realism generally indicates, if at an oblique angel, a mythic undertone. For example, the â€Å"treasure-hunt' sub-plot of Tom Sawyer conveys the uniquely American myth of â€Å"striking it rich† through pure luck adn adventure.This is in fact a very durable American myth, the myth that anyone despite his or her stature in life can â€Å"hit pay-dirt quickly, blindly, almost accidentally† (Coulombe 16) and like Huck and Tom become â€Å"rich entirely by good luck† (Coulombe 16). Such a myth was used by Twain not only in Tom Sawyer and in his other of his fictional works, but also as an attribute of his own author-persona.Twain cultivated a deliberate distortion of his biography by attempting to further the notion that his accomplishments were â€Å"effortless and intuitive—a rustic genius rising naturally to the top† (Coulombe 16). In this case, literary biography plays a contributing role to thematic explication because Twain's true experience belied the myth he inserted into Tom Sawyer regarding wealth adn the pursuit of adventure. In reality, Twain was a careerist â€Å"who worked diligently, even desperately, to earn success and money† (Coulombe 17).The aforementioned biographical detail is mentioned merely to illustrate that Twain,had he been truly interested in being a literary realist and depicting the authentic world he had experienced would have obviously dismissed any mythical ‘treasure hunt† ending in blind, wild fortune as being over-the-top romantic, and perhaps even foolish. At this point, it is useful to examine the manner by which Twain attempts to insert verisimilitude into what is essentially a mythic fantasy.he does so retrospective ly by describing what appears to be a very convincing description of the rection of the little town of St. Petersburg to the boys' discovery of treasure: THE reader may rest satisfied that Tom's and Huck's windfall made a mighty stir in the poor little village of St. Petersburg. So vast a sum, all in actual cash, seemed next to incredible. It was talked about, gloated over, glorified, until the reason of many of the citizens tottered under the strain of the unhealthy excitement.Every â€Å"haunted† house in St. Petersburg and the neighboring villages was dissected, plank by plank, and its foundations dug up and ransacked for hidden treasure–and not by boys, but men–pretty grave, unromantic men, too, some of them. (Twain 285) This attempt to balance a romantic myth with a deliberately anti-romantic description of the aftermath of the discovery is thorough right down to Twain's choice of diction.The word â€Å"unromantic† is specifically clever and powerful in forwarding a sense that Twain's treasure hunt is grounded in reality and not in a boyish, culturally incited fantasy. Every detail seems to have been accounted for right down to the observation that â€Å"The village paper published biographical sketches of the boys† (Twain 285) which made them celebrities. Here it is interesting to note that Twain's romantic urge and his urge to restrain his story in verisimilitude are operating at equal strength and simultaneously.If Twain is capable of obscuring what are essentially romantic myths beneath a veneer of realism as was demonstrated by the preceding description of his expression of the â€Å"rags to riches† myth of America, what other myths might be discovered under the narrative surface of Tom Sawyer? Obviously, because Twain embraces the presence of violence in American as a part of his role as a realist writer, depictions of violence and of death in Twain deserve special attention in regard to the myths they may o r may not express beneath the highly detailed and unusually accurate level of narrative description employed by Twain.While it is true that — for Twain â€Å"The sight of a pistol blazing or knife flashing, followed by the red blood gushing from a death wound, was actuality † (Long 99) it is also conspicuously true that Twain's depiction of violence in Tom Sawyer is â€Å"not prevailing, and as in the realism of Howells,† and that in Twain â€Å"happiness, not sorrow, was the general rule† (Long 99) despite the actuality of violence and death in human experience.One might rightly ask: how is such a proposition: that violence and death do not preclude human happiness based in realism? Plainly, one does not require an observational adn descriptive acumen that is equal to Twain's to readily perceive that violence and death in the real world often do preclude human happiness. Clearly, Twain's depiction of violence, like his depiction of material ambition and the attainment of wealth, partakes of a mythic rather then realistic expression.This mythic appraisal of violence and human mortality allows Twain to establish the entire framework of Tom Sawyer on the mythic scaffolding of death and rebirth. In fact, † The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is constructed on a loose framework whose major elements include games of death and games of resurrection† (Aspiz) and these â€Å"games† are purely mythic rather than realistic both in conception and execution.Because it is mythic violence and mythic death that Tom interacts with in the novel, he and the other characters depicted in the novel seem to â€Å"exist on the manic edge beyond which lurks the menace of destruction and the unknown† (Aspiz) but the teetering over and falling â€Å"over the edge† which is repeatedly depicted by Twain in Tom Sawyer results in â€Å"the illusion that all experience is ultimately reducible to entertainment† (Aspiz).Imagination is stronger than the mere presence of death and its associated pains in Twain's fictional world, which is propelled in part by startlingly realistic descriptions and observational details. The result is paradoxical: Murder, grave-robbing, the withholding of life-saving evidence, impulses to suicide, simulated disasters, numerous close brushes with death, the violation of sanguinary oaths, wrenching fear and guilt, and numberless suppressions of the truth and miscarriages of justice are all transformed, through masterful orchestration and narrative control, into entertainment.(Aspiz, 108) Of course it is the power and depth of Twain's â€Å"masterful orchestration and narrative control† which drives the perception on the reader's behalf that Twain's mythic expressions of pain, death, and sorrow are as meticulously accurate as his objective descriptions of rivers, school-houses, and grave-yards. The paradox is born out of the divergence of the mythic and realist strains of Twai n's own consciousness and his narrative expression. The character of Tom Sawyer is, himself, an expression of this paradox and duality.Tom is ultimately portrayed as heroic, but also realistically, so that his flaws can be easily spotted and used to increase the ironic impact of the novel. In fact, careful study of Tom's behavior throughout the novel reveals that â€Å"Tom was neither noble nor pure. Rather, he was often vindictive, violent, and obscure—much like the natural world to which he was linked† (Coulombe 129) and — ironically — it is within this construction of nature, as a character, that Twain achieves a more dour and realistic expression.Twain's impulse to romanticize even human bigotry is evident in his depiction of Injun Joe and Muff Potter, during the trial-scene when Muff fallaciously confesses to murdering the Doctor. Historical reality dictates that it was white men who cam and tricked the native American tribes out of their lands and d estroyed their culture, a fact readily available to anyone, even in Twain';s time, who cared to exert minimal energy doing research.However, rather than seizing on this massive historical reality, Twain opts to facilitate the extant prejudice against racial types that existed in his time, and continue to exist, by positing a mythic â€Å"half-breed,† Injun Joe, who is more cunning and diabolical than the white society he despises. During the trial scene, Muff Potter is confronted with his knife which was used by Injun Joe to slay the Doctor in the cemetery.Potter's reaction is pitiful â€Å"Potter lifted his face and looked around him with a pathetic hopelessness in his eyes. He saw Injun Joe, and exclaimed: â€Å"Oh, Injun Joe, you promised me you'd never– † (Twain 100) and then, slowly, Potter realizes that he must confess to his crime. The reversal of historical reality is chilling. In reality, Native Americans were often controlled and victimized with liquo r and in Twain's depiction, the half-breed, Injun Joe, has turned these realities on their head.It is the Indian who is dastardly and manipulative; and it is the white man, Muff Potter, who is drunkenly victimized and falsely sentenced to death. Such reversals under the fluent realism of Twain's technique can only be considered, rightly, as propaganda. By no stretch of the imagination can propaganda ever be regarded as realistic or objective, so it is obvious that on at least three major themes: materialism, mortality, and racial prejudice, Twain embraces a mythic, rather than realistic, mode of expression in Tom Sawyer.Again, as in the treasure-hunt scenario, Twain attempts to balance his mythically driven conceptualization of race with what appears to be a cogent adn realistic description of the court-room itself and the boys' reaction to Potter's confession: â€Å"Then Huckleberry and Tom stood dumb and staring, and heard the stony-hearted liar reel off his serene statement, the y expecting every moment that the clear sky would deliver God's lightnings upon his head,† (Twain 100).This passage, in fact, only strengthens the essentially culturally chauvinistic impulse of the courtroom scene by positing the half-breed no only as a notorious murderer but as an enemy of the white man's God. Twain's romanticism may be rightly regarded as determinant in the thematic expression of Tom Sawyer. In every case, it is mythic impulse rather than natural or historical realism that drives both the conceptualization and execution of the scenes in Tom Sawyer and the associated themes which these scenes express.Rather than solidifying the aesthetic ideas of literary realism, Twain's use of the idiom in Tom Sawyer is sublimated to his interest in forwarding culturally resonant, American myths which would ostensibly engage and entertain his audience. It is quite possible that Twain's own material ambitions, as previously mentioned, drove, at least in part, his decision to make a literary concession throughout Tom Sawyer to romantic myths, a concession which completely eradicated any claim that might be made on Twain's behalf that the novel embodied literary realism.Works Cited Aspiz, Harold. â€Å"Tom Sawyer's Games of Death. † Studies in the Novel 27. 2 (1995): 141+. Barrish, Phillip. American Literary Realism, Critical Theory, and Intellectual Prestige, 1880- 1995. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Borus, Daniel H. Writing Realism: Howells, James, and Norris in the Mass Market. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1989.Coulombe, Joseph L. Mark Twain and the American West. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2003. Long, E. Hudson. Mark Twain Handbook. New York: Hendricks House, 1957. Smith, Henry Nash, ed. Mark Twain: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1963. Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. New York: P. F. Collier & Sons, 1920. American Literature If I was teaching a course in American Literature since 1865, the texts that I would choose to teach would be â€Å"Tulips† by Sylvia Plath, Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, Sula by Toni Morrison, Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Daisy Miller by Henry James, and Drown by Junot Diaz.I feel that it is important to chronologically span the 150 or so years of literature in this time period, to choose a diversity of authors in terms of gender, race and sexuality, to represent the nation regionally as well as possible, to include texts that focus on important issues in the nation including immigration, gender equality and race relations, and to focus on texts that are relatively accessible and reflect the time period in which they are written. With these texts, I feel that this is accompl ished.Chronologically, this list is relatively complete – there are texts that represent the period of reconstruction (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) and that are from around ten years ago (Drown). Indeed, different aspects of this list speak to the Industrial Revolution and ever-changing face of America through technological advancement, and others discuss the ways that race and gender exist in the time period in which they are written (â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† and Sula, for example).Further, not only do these texts represent a breadth of time periods, but they also show different regions of the United States, including the South (Wise Blood) and the West (Housekeeping), with the typical representation of the Northeast and many texts that are not necessarily central to any specific region.Through providing a diversity of chronological and regional representation, I feel that students, especially in a nation that is not as familiar with the United States as we are, would be able to get a better feel of how the United States changed over the past 150 years and how the different regions of the United States face different challenges. Just as it’s important to represent different literal aspects of the United States, it’s just as important to represent the diversity of people that make the nation up.By providing works from authors like Toni Morrison and Junot Diaz, students would get a perspective on the African American and immigrant experience in the United States, respectively. Indeed, America exists differently for the immigrant characters in this collection of Diaz short stories than it does for the characters seeking the American Dream in The Great Gatsby, and it’s important for students to explore these differences among communities in the U. S.Indeed, this collection of texts also reflects issues that are of the utmost importance in the United States – â€Å"Tulips† and â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaperâ €  discuss what it means to be a woman and how motherhood or marriage can trap women, for example. Wise Blood explores the intricacies of religion, and more specifically Christianity, in the South, and Sula thoroughly discusses how black Americans live in the â€Å"Bottom† while whites live at the top long after the conclusion of the Civil War.Students reading my list of texts would be exposed to a breadth of issues, while also reading canonical literature that explores natures such as Leaves of Grass and the work of Henry James and his take on relationships and people. All of the works that are included in this list cover so many different aspects of American Literature, and together they paint a picture that represents the time period and nation as well as any ten-piece collection can.Regionally, canonically and chronologically, the list covers all of the essential points present in American literature, and it also touches on multiple issues of diversity within the texts as well as issues central to American culture in these different time periods. These poems, short stories, novellas and novels are an excellent window into American Literature as well as the ever-ubiquitous American culture, and I would be excited to teach these texts to any classroom. 2nd Essay: Southern Literature is fraught with guilt, struggle and a resistance to dominant American cultural norms.Three of the most important authors in Southern Lit, Zora Neale Hurston, William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor, are all incredibly attentive to issues important to all Southern people, but they each discuss Southern life in a different form. While all three deal with the integral issues of race relations in the South, the constant struggle with the separation of the North from the South, and what exactly it means to have a Southern identity, each of these authors does this in a very different manner.Hurston focuses on African American dialect and unique experiences within those communities, Faulkner traditionally discusses close-knit small town communities in a stream of consciousness and highly narrative manner, and O’Connor takes a highly moralistic tone, with a focus on religion and community in the South. Hurston’s â€Å"Sweat† is similar to her most famous Their Eyes Were Watching God in that gender struggles and dialect within African American communities are showcased. Indeed, one of the central conflicts in â€Å"Sweat† is the struggle for dominance within the relationship between Delia and Sykes Jones.Even though aspects of Southern femininity and masculinity are inherent to this struggle, femininity is the focus as this is typical of Hurston and the protagonist, and thereby where the reader’s sympathies more dominantly lie, is with Delia Jones. The work focuses on how African American communities exist, with a focus on Delia’s humming and the music that’s present, thereby demonstrating a focus on a n oral tradition that doesn’t necessarily exist within Faulkner and O’Connor’s work.Further, the end of the short story demonstrates how women are able to obtain dominance in relationships, if they ever are able to do so, through Sykes’ horrifying death. Indeed, this story demonstrates many of Hurston’s focuses, and it shows typical struggles within Southern African American communities in terms of gender relations and oral traditions versus dominant narratives. Faulkner’s â€Å"Barn Burning† is different from this in that its focus is on a father and son, and also on the town in which the characters live.Indeed, the story begins in â€Å"The store in which the justice of the Peace's court was sitting† and continues to focus on the actual location and Southern-ness of the setting. Like Hurston, the dialogue of â€Å"Barn Burning† is uniquely Southern, with the characters saying the word â€Å"it† as â€Å"hit,â⠂¬  thereby demonstrating Southern dialect and accents in a way that separates it from any Northern dialogue. Also like Hurston’s work, the story discusses race relations in the South, though necessarily from a white perspective instead of a black perspective.Because of this, the community at the center of the story is a white community instead of a black community, and it thereby emphasizes race relations and oppressive institutions within Southern society instead of exploring the ways in which African American communities form themselves. While there are no explicit O’Connor works on the syllabus, it would be remiss to discuss Southern writing without using O’Connor as an example.In her â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find,† for example, the explicit focus of the narrative is on what it means to be a good person, and how a criminal is not necessarily a more evil and corrupt person than a grandmother without good intentions. While the criminal who murders t he family who are at the center of the story is clearly not a â€Å"good man,† neither is the matriarchal grandmother who is central to the story: indeed, she would have been good if â€Å"it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.† O’Connor discusses Southern society in terms of morality and religion throughout her novels and short stories, and within this discussion also exists issues of race relations, Southern society and dialect, and other things. Indeed, O’Connor, Faulkner and Hurston all recognize the differences between the South and other regions in the United States, the unique moral and community systems that exist there, and demonstrate these aspects differently. 3rd Essay: William Carlos Williams’ â€Å"The Red Wheelbarrow† and e.e. cumming’s [my sweet old etcetera] both rely on unconventional, modernist poetic form and use this form to convey separate messages. Williams’ poem uses its form t o put emphasis on a dependence on the smallest things – indeed, the form and subject of â€Å"The Red Wheelbarrow† hinge on the wheelbarrow itself, and demonstrate how form and subject are both integral to a poem’s ultimate message. Similarly, cummings’ unconventional form is different from almost any other poet and uses multiple definitions of etcetera.Both poems show how form is as essential to function as subject and literal messages are, and both use this form to reiterate the meaning of the poem. Williams’ â€Å"The Red Wheelbarrow† is from a time period in which poets were able to play with form and think more consciously about how a poem can be unconventional in form and still convey a message. Indeed, this poem more or less relies on form to convey that message. What is so interesting about this poem is that there is no terribly clear message in the poem; in fact, it initially seems to not say much of anything and instead to toy arou nd with words.However, the way the poem is structured, the seemingly insignificant nouns are placed at the forefront. As the poem reads, â€Å"so much depends / upon / a red wheel / barrow† (lines 1-4). Here, the poem does in fact depend on the â€Å"barrow† – every couplet in â€Å"The Red Wheelbarrow† hinges upon a second one-word line that consists of a relatively common and insignificant noun. The nouns continue to locate the poem. The red wheelbarrow is â€Å"glazed with rain / water / beside the white / chickens† (lines 5-8), showing that while each couplet is grounded by the final one-worded line, the entire poem is grounded by the wheelbarrow.Indeed, all of the lines refer back to it: it is the thing that is glazed with rainwater, and it is the thing that is beside the white chickens. The first couplet itself makes it increasingly clear that the wheelbarrow is at the center of this poem in multiple ways: everything in the poem depends on it literally, as is stated in the first two lines, but it is also structurally at the center of the poem. William Carlos Williams is able to use this unconventional form to make a statement about what is important – after all, how can so much depend on a wheelbarrow unless Williams demonstrates it in this unconventional way?Similarly, e. e. cummings poem [my sweet old etcetera] challenges ideas of what the â€Å"etcetera† of the poem is by introducing it in a form that allows multiple interpretations. Indeed, the poem begins with â€Å"my sweet old etcetera / aunt lucy† (lines 1-2), and also includes references to it as â€Å"not to / mention shirts fleaproof earwarmers / etcetera wristers etcetera† (lines 11-13), â€Å"my / mother hoped that / I would die etcetera† (lines 13-15), â€Å"my / self etcetera lay quietly† (lines 19-20), and â€Å"dreaming, / et / cetera, of / Your smile / eyes knees and of your Etcetera† (lines 23-27).All o f these uses of etcetera are different and challenge what exactly the word means: indeed, the word literally refers to a continuing list of things, but here sometimes it’s used in an apathetic sense, sometimes as a euphemism, and other times as its definition connotes. Like â€Å"The Red Wheelbarrow,† this poem hinges on the definition of one word, and because of seemingly spontaneous line breaks and capitalization, that word carries entirely different meanings at different places in the text.Interestingly, in the last parenthetical notation, etcetera refers to both the never-ending list of actions of the speaker and also, presumably, the body of the woman who is being described, thereby showing the many definitions of the word. Both â€Å"The Red Wheelbarrow† and [my sweet old etcetera] use relatively unconventional form to challenge traditional notions of established words and concepts. By relying on a different method of poetry and description, both writers a re able to disrupt these ideas that are so closely tied to the words, and also to redefine both the words and the poetic form that they are using to describe them.4th Essay: If I could choose any two authors to explore more fully, I would pick Zora Neale Hurston and Henry James to look at further. Not only are these two authors very different in terms of their writing styles, but they also are from different time periods and different literary perspectives, with Hurston generally describing communities and concrete people more fully while James writes conceptually and canonically in a way that focuses on narrative and other literary forms.Both authors speak to different audiences, both of which I at least partially identify with, and I look forward to reading more by each author. In this course, we read â€Å"Sweat† by Hurston, which I wrote about for one of my other essays. I really enjoy this work not only because I enjoy Southern literature, but also because it focuses on a different aspect of identity than many of the authors that we’ve read in this course.Indeed, Hurston focused on African American oral narratives, and was actually often involved in sociological work and gathering African American folktales to preserve in writing instead of simply within an oral tradition. Because her life was not always spent in looking at writing through a strict literary lens, I think that she has a unique perspective in representing life as it truly exists within communities that are not typically discussed in popular fiction.She herself grew up in an African American town, and is particularly knowledgeable and gifted and representing these types of communities. I would love to read Their Eyes Were Watching God if only because it is similar to â€Å"Sweat† but, as a novel instead of a short story, allows more time to delve into a character’s mindset and to develop a sense of what it means to live within an African American community. Furthe r, I think that Hurston has a unique and powerful style that explores language in a way that many authors simply don’t.She is able to write using heavy symbolism and metaphors throughout her prose, but she’s also able to interesting, intelligently and authentically portray the language that exists within black southern communities, something that most authors would not even think about discussing. Indeed, because of her early life in a unique community that most canonical authors do not understand, her sociological work on oral narratives within black communities, her interesting view on language and style, and her emphasis on women’s issues and gender equality, I would love to look more closely at Zora Neale Hurston’s body of literature.Henry James is also an incredibly important figure in American Literature, but for very different reasons than Hurston. Indeed, James style is not as accessible or engaging as Hurston’s often is, and he is much mor e cerebral in the issues that he chooses to tackle. As Daisy Miller demonstrates, though, James has a terrific understanding of how to manipulate narrative to show multiple dimensions of characters, and his other work demonstrates this even further.The novel which I would most like to read by him is The Turn of the Screw, primarily because it is both a frame narrative (similar to the Canterbury Tales), which provides many unique and interesting insights into narrative, and also because it is a unique version of a ghost story that is much more literary in style than most of what gets represented in popular culture today. Because James is so able to take on narrative, I enjoyed Daisy Miller thoroughly: not only were the characters deep, complex, round and interesting, but the timeline was also challenging.I really enjoy reading Henry James because he is, in many ways, timeless – while his work is obviously dated in certain ways in terms of subject and the setting, the human con dition is so central to everything that he writes that it can be understood outside of this context. Because of his narrative abilities, interest in the human psyche and innate human struggles, challenging prose that pushes different ideas of symbolism and identity, and the innovative subjects that he chooses to write about, I would also very much enjoy looking at what else Henry James has written.

Sociology and Understanding Human Behavior †Socl215

September 8, 2011 Phase 4 Individual Project Sociology and Understanding Human Behavior – SOCL215 The sports sociology exists because of the strong relationship between sports and society. As a culture, we as Americans value sports for the entertainment, physical activity and many other benefits it provides to us. I believe that is the reason so much research has gone into discovering how and why it affects us as a society. Sports are enjoyed all over the world, particularly soccer and baseball in many parts of the globe. I am a really big fan of and enjoy football. It is my favorite sport. During the fall and winter months much of my life rotates around being able to watch professional football games and to cheer for my favorite team, the Carolina Panthers. It’s my favorite sport because I enjoy the energy, the socialization, competition and action. Because it is so widely revered in America, it is not very difficult to find another football fan or sports bar. Football is widely represented in the media which also helps to be a fan. ESPN (Entertainment Sports Programing Network) covers games if you may have missed a game or play as well as offer news about teams and players. During the local news broadcast a sports segment is always included. And in local as well as nationally published newspapers a sports section is included. I however am not a typical viewer/fan in the football demographic. Most fans are middle aged white men that make $55,000. However the number of women watching football is on the incline. According to the New York Times the number of women watching â€Å"Sunday Night Football† has increased 23 percent over the last two years. (Baker, 2011) The fan base for football is expanding for minorities as well. I think this is because more minorities are playing the sport. To get a better understanding of how sports and society affect one another I went to a local high school football game. I have always gone to football games as a fan, never as an observer and I knew this experience would be different. I decided to attend this event because I enjoy football and I knew a few of the students from work that go the high school. It was also an opportunity to learn more about high school, I usually only watch NFL (National Football League) football games. The following are my observations from the fieldwork done during the football game. The setting for this game was a high school football game was Carolina Forest High School. The elements that would affect behavior included banners, posters and cheerleaders. This affected the home team in a positive way as they feel more support and motivation. It could negatively affect the away team as they feel intimidated and home team as they could feel more pressure to win. The attendees/fans were students, parents, cheerleaders, ROTC members, teachers and other dance team members. Most of the fans were white high school students between the ages of 14 to 17. I would say it was divided pretty evenly between males and females. They seemed upper middle class with a few that seemed to be upper class. The players were similar to the fans as they were high school students, 14 to 17 years old and middle class but there were a few more black players than white. The dress of the fans was typical of teenagers. Students mostly wore jeans, T-Shirts and flip flops. Many were shirts that had the schools logo and mascot on it. There was a group of young men with hair dyed black and wore similar skateboard type attire. The students seemed to stay in groups together as did the parents. There definitely seemed to be groups that stayed to themselves and did not socialize with anyone outside of their group. This behavior applied to parents and students. The students in these groups were of the same social class and did dress similarly. The atmosphere was very positive and happy at the football games. The home team won which helped with the atmosphere. There were a couple moments of tension when the home team had a penalty or was losing. I saw symbolism in the flags used by the high school’s NJROTC drill field team. Other symbolism I saw was used by the referees. They used hand gestures to convey the penalties being issued to either team. The other observation I noticed was the language used during the football game. Students used chants that were exclusive to their school to show their support. There was also verbiage used to describe which down and field position the game was being played at. There was also commentary from the announcers tell the audience which players were preforming which plays and their positions. From my field work I learned that energy of the game is in direct correlation of fans. Because many high school students don’t know the rules of football and go to games as a form of socialization only the energy isn’t as high. However there seemed to be less tension and conflict among the fans as a result of this. When emotions run high, there is a greater risk of conflict. This seems to happen a lot in football because of the loyalty fans feel for â€Å"their† team. I previously stated in week one’s assignment that functionalist perspective was most useful when looking at the sociology of football because it played a part in society has a purpose to fulfill as a whole. And I still believe holds true. It helps to bring people together, gives a sense of competition and a role model for children. It also helps fund the education of promising athletes and promotes good physical wellbeing. American football culture has a positive impact on society. College students that show promise are able to get a higher education on a full paid scholarship. This allows more potentially more successful people in society. People throughout the world love sports. Mankind loves to get together for a common interest and celebrate. Even in the face of war and other devastating losses, we as a society will feel hope and inspiration from the victory of our sports team. This is the reason why sociologists are so interested in researching sports. It is a strange and intriguing phenomenon. I think the reason the so many participate is the social status it gives you. Children look up to athletes as role models. There is also the factor of money as well. Fans will dedicate a lot of money and loyalty to their favorite players. I also think they enjoy the feeling of having people rely on their abilities and come from very far away to watch them play. Many just have a passion for the sport they play. Fans play large roles in society. One way they do this is by providing economy to metropolitan areas that have professional or college sports teams. They are also the reason why sports media has grown to be what it is now. If it weren’t for fans there would be need to have things, like instant replay that has helped the integrity of many sports. We wouldn’t have tailgate parties so more members of society can come together for a common interest. â€Å"The importance of sport varies with the individual. It plays little or no role in the lives of some people. For others, it is a light diversion from the cares of everyday life. But for many, it is a central feature of their existence. † (Delaney, 2003) Sports will continue to play a part in society, people will gather from all across the world to watch sports like we do with the Olympics. There will also be controversy and conflict but I believe the benefits of enjoying sports still make being a sport’s fan worth the effort. References Baker, K. (2011, January 28). Gridiron Girls. Retrieved September 8, 2011, from nytimes. com: http://www. nytimes. com/2011/01/30/magazine/30FOB-wwln-t. html? _r=1 Delaney, T. (2003). Sports and Deviant Behavior. Retrieved September 8, 2011, from philosophynow. org: http://www. philosophynow. org/issue41/Sports_and_Deviant_Behavior Response to Peer Discussion Board Suggestions and Questions: I think the number of women watching football is unsurprising because many women have men in their lives that love football and expose women to the sport. I grew up watching the New York Giants because my father and our family favored that team. I stopped watching football so often until I met my husband and now we watch every game that is played by his favorite team. If I didn’t have these influences didn’t exist in my life, I wouldn’t watch sports at all. I’ve always enjoyed independent research. I like to work with groups and on my own which is a wonderful benefit to going to Colorado Technical University. I like being able to physically research and see for myself the ideas and concepts that are in our textbook. It makes the subject of Sociology feel more â€Å"real. † An interesting point is that fan behavior is not only affected by the game it is also affected by the team or sponsor they play for. I think it’s very true that some fans are definitely â€Å"fair weather. † Meaning a fan likes a team or supports a team because they win or are winners. I believe in supporting a team even if they lose or are not a very popular team. Another point I didn’t mention was how fans affect the player moral in a game. I think that if fans are cheering for a team and have good energy that this can affect a team in good and bad ways; good because the team will try to perform better and bad because they may not perform as well because they feel they don’t need to try as hard. There can also be the opposite effect of a team that is not doing well and is not being supports. They can either succumb to the negativity or work harder to overcome it.

Reasons Behind Colonial Settlements in North America Essay

As a whole, I believe economic development had a larger impact on colonial settlement than religious concerns, but this varies with the individual colonies. Each colony had something different to offer England and a different motive for settling. New England came about because the Puritans and Separatists wanted a place to worship free the original Church of England. Virginia, on the other hand, was established at first as a trade colony and base for gold and precious metal expeditions. The Maryland colony was founded in order to further the cultivation of certain crops like tobacco. Religion was by no means pushed away in the colonies. It was a strong and meaningful force for almost all colonists; it Just wasn’t always their driving force. England held economic control over all colonies and did not let anything get in the way of that. Virginia became an agricultural settlement that brought large amounts of money to Britain. Religion was important and valued higher than everything except money. The colony of Maryland was given by Charles I to George Calvert, whose son (Cecilius Calvert) allowed freedom of religion to all Christian settlers in the colony. That was the biggest difference between Maryland and Virginia, who both became agricultural societies fairly quickly. Indentured servants were shipped to work the fields, which created a populous community and a strong economy. New England was created for more than Just a place for the Puritans and Separatists to worship freely. Because of American influence in English lifestyle (mainly food), the population doubled, leading to high inflation, a very unbalanced wealth distribution, and a plummeting economy. As a result of overpopulation and poverty, people were drawn to North America. Among the attracted people were Puritans and Separatists, who could both escape poverty and start a new colony based off of their own religious beliefs. These people were rebels in the eyes of the English hierarchy, and therefore received much less funding and support from the government. New England evolved as more of a family friendly colony than the Chesapeake Bay colonies, which were more business and economically focused. The Chesapeake Bay colonies were established by the English government for the sole purpose of economic development, while New England was founded by religious leaders escaping English intolerance. The Massachusetts Bay Company was moved to New England, along with the addition of three thousand Puritans by the year of 1643. The area sprouted busy seaports in coastal towns and farms in agricultural. As the population grew, New England became more financially inclined. Compared to other European societies, English colonies were as equally everyday life centered as economically centered. They brought their culture, religion, and everyday life to North America. New England and the Chesapeake Bay colonies had different personalities and goals when it came to economic, religious, and settling beliefs. The economy was a focus point for both colonies, but especially the Chesapeake bay colonies, while religion was the founder of New England.

Discuss the extent to which economic integration within the EU has Essay - 1

Discuss the extent to which economic integration within the EU has been subordinated to the achievement of political objectives - Essay Example World War; the legal, economic and political framework of the EU is rooted in the Franco-German tradition, which has lent itself to EU tensions with the political agendas of certain other member states such as Britain (Lippert, 2001, p.114). The fragmentation of the single monetary union and the EU agenda with national political agendas has become increasingly prominent in relation to the EU enlargement programme particularly with the controversial Turkey accession question remaining uncertain (Lahav, 2004, p.113). Indeed, Artis & Nixon suggest that the EU’s economic objectives in the last decade have reached crisis point on grounds of the bicycle theory paradigm, where there is a â€Å"slowing of momentum precedes collapse, or in this case crisis† (Artis & Nixon, 2007, p.1). In supporting their proposition, Artis and Nixon comment that as follows: â€Å"the list of setbacks is rather a long one. The negative outcomes of the referenda on the European Constitution in France and the Netherlands in 2005 must head the list because of their symbolic significance†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ these cannot but induce a loss of confidence in the viability of the European Union† (2007, p.1). They further argue that the EU relies on co-ordination and mutual co-operation of states and that the enlargement of the EU and free movement within the labour market rules has fuelled numerous derogations from certain member states (2007). This in turn has raised the question as to the extent to which national political objectives are actually taking precedence to EU economic objectives. For example, Artis and Nixon refer to the fact that many member states opt out or derogate or suspend certain obligations to address national political agendas such as certain member states derogating from the free movement of workers provisions for a period of seven years and the conditions of former communist Eastern European states as part of EU enlargement (2007). With regard to the latter, the continuation of the

Demand versus supply paper paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Demand versus supply paper paper - Essay Example As a result, many diseases that were considered deadly a few years ago are effectively curable today. As an important example of these improvements, prescription drugs have leapfrogged in the health industry in ways that in some cases they have even reduced the occurrence of surgery (Kimbuende et al, 2010). This paper attempts to discuss customer demand for prescription medicines in connection with the variables of cost and supply in the USA. The major question we, at the very start, come across is if the theories of economics fit well in case of healthcare. According to Scott II (2001), the actual application of the concepts and theories of economics are not a straightforward exercise. The application of economics to healthcare theories is a complex question and therefore, the results found in research can not always be dependable. However, there are two major economic concepts that apply well to the case of healthcare: (1) Allocation of Scare Resources and (2) Economic Efficiency (Scott II, 2001). In case of our health care product, prescription medicines, these two notions are the most obvious. Thus, as far as the allocation of resources is concerned, more and more is being devoted to the production of such magical potions to produce even better products and at lower costs (Scott II, 2001). With the discovery of every new disease more allocation of resources takes place in the prescription drugs industry, not to forget that in most of the cases prescription drugs are more than necessity. Moreover, increased competition in the drug industry demands the firms to be more efficient in their production. The question then arises if there is any relevance of the forces of demand and supply in the prescription drugs markets; it has been observed that an increase in the market prices for prescription drugs serves as a signal to the producers that they are in demand and the supply is thus triggered (Scott II, 2001). Thus we

A Case Study of Two Entrepreneurs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

A Case Study of Two Entrepreneurs - Essay Example He is not only a hard worker but he finds the application of creativity to pure business solutions very invigorating. Because of his dedication to the industry he was awarded an OBE for services to the retail industry. He is keener in using skill and craft to come up with exclusive products and prefers to make simple dresses. He likes to work in a team. Conran’s designs are inspired by early garments of Coco Chanel and he is known for the elegant versions of the British tweed suits (Answers Corporation, 2010). He did not change his main collections every season and hence his garments were considered a long-term investment. He was a talented person but did not get the opportunity to expand to his fullest potential. Under a ten-year licensing agreement with the Marchpole Group Plc, Conran would be able to penetrate the European market with his menswear collection and expand the range to include accessories. However Conran did manage to position himself solidly in the British fashion scenario with clientele such as Diana, the late Princess of Wales. The motivation was from his father who too was a designer – Sir Terence Conran, known as the design guru (Donald, 2010). One of the top fashion designers, Conran has had a prosperous profession for the past twenty years (Mahalo, 2010). He was amongst the first designers to show at London Fashion Week. Over the years he entered into furniture, luggage, children’s wear, fragrances and fine bone china. Overall his collections personify sophisticated, authoritative lines. He started his career as a design consultant but within a year launched his own collections. He is the recipient of several awards in the fashion world. He has 45 different lines sold in 68 different countries (Roberts, 2009). Although he has it in his genes to be a designer like his father, but Conran did not find it easy to be the child of a living god who has to carve a place for himself in life. Conran has also entered

Maternal and New born care Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Maternal and New born care - Research Proposal Example During the pregnancy, proper care should be taken to ensure no complications are encountered and in case of any problems, they should be handled with urgency. After childbirth, the issue of newborn care then comes into play concern about the newborn health, nutrition and development. In rural and peri-urban populations in India, proper maternal healthcare is not adhered to during pregnancy. Due to this, children are born with numerous health complications. The mother may die or lose the child. Majority of these take place because of the lack of access to adequate information on proper maternal health. There also exist a lot of cultural beliefs and practices that hinder the women from accessing heath services and information from health care providers. There is also the problem of high level of poverty that limits the amount of disposable income that can be spent on medical care. Matters concerning health need to be handled with a certain level of urgency especially those involving maternal health and newborn health. Most of the problems encountered have very simple solution but the absence of adequate information among folks in rural and peri-urban settlements is causing devastating health effects. Knowledge particularly on proper maternal nutrition is lacking. Folic acid is an important variety of the vitamin B9. Extremely water-soluble and in occurs in the natural state as folate. In fortified foods, folate occurs as folic acid. Folic acid is important for a pregnant woman it aids in proper growth and development during pregnancy (World Health Organization, 2003). It significantly diminishes the probability of a baby being born with any defects. These defects always mainly occur to the brain and the spinal code. Folic acid achieves this through the development of the neural tube. Consuming a diet-containing vitamin B9 reduces the chances of getting any de fects by up to seventy

Taxation and you must use Ireland taxation to do this essay

Taxation and you must use Ireland taxation to do this - Essay Example Failure to retain it, it will expose Sonya to parents original CGT that was evaded by Retirement Relief and any CGT liability on their own disposal. This implies that there will be no capital gains tax liability when Tom transfers the business to Sonya. Disposal of shares in family trading company to Sonya will require standard qualifying conditions, control voting rights requirement and working directorship for 10 year and 5 year periods. Sonya must also own 25% or more of the voting rights in the company or own 10% or more of the voting rights in the company. In addition, the family must own 75% or more which includes the individual’s own 10% throughout the 10 year qualifying period. ii) The transfer of the business to the local businessman is also qualifying since Sonya is above 55 years and it involves the transfer of shares in the family trading company. Disposal to others are exempt from CGT if the gross sales proceeds from qualifying assets during the individual’s lifetime from the age of 55 onwards does not exceed â‚ ¬750,000. In the case of sale to the local businessman, the amount of 850,000 exceeds the set limit of 750,000. The capital gains tax liability will be calculated as follows b) If Tom transfers his business to his daughter, there will be no capital gains tax liability, but when he sells the business to the local businessman there is a capital gains tax liability of 50,000. This can be analyzed in the sense that an increase in the capital gains tax liability minimizes tax liabilities. Therefore, Tom should consider selling the business to the local businessman so that he can minimise the tax liabilities. It will also help to minimise the requirements of directorship and control of voting rights. There is no consideration if Sonya agrees with Tom to take over the business now since it is within the family and she has worked for 5 years plus the current year. However, if Sonya

Freshmen in the University (problem and solution) Essay

Freshmen in the University (problem and solution) - Essay Example This paper discusses some of the potential problems that freshmen experience in universities and offers amicable solutions to the students to help them work their way out of the commonly encountered problems. Problems: Many students have to live on-campus during the university life. Students come from far off places to renowned universities in order to gain high quality education, and have to reside in hostels. They may feel homesickness in the initial days. Some students feel so disturbed because of homesickness that they find it difficult to adjust in the hostel and lave the university. Others, that survive through it may be bullied and threatened by their hostel fellows. With increased freedom that a university has to offer, students normally tend to hangout too much with friends. Bunking is normal. Education becomes a secondary purpose of being in the university, and building the social relations for future needs becomes the primary purpose. The trend, if not controlled in the ve ry first days in university only grows with time until one’s grades start to suffer. Solutions: If a student can not help feeling homesick, and also can not live at home because of its distance from the university, he/she should go for renting a room in the vicinity of the university. Many flats are constructed around universities to serve the very purpose.

Overview of the Annual Report and Form 10k and the Balance Sheet Essay Example for Free

Overview of the Annual Report and Form 10k and the Balance Sheet Essay I should be able to understand your answer and see what the numerical support is without looking at your tables. For all problem sets, please show tables and calculations with each answer (unsupported answers will be marked wrong), not in separate tables. I should be able to look at your tables or calculations and see what the answer should be without actually reading it. And I should be able to read and understand your interpretation of a table without having to look at it. Clearly show and label any and all calculations. Your output should look professional. 1. Corporate Message: What does Coca Cola’s 2012 Annual Review tell you about the message the company wants to convey to its readers? Point out examples to support your discussion. 2. Describe the three types of Coca Cola’s bottling relationships. Name the significant companies that are accounted for by the equity method. Does Coca Cola have a controlling interest in these companies? Explain and demonstrate why or why not? What would the company’s balance sheet look like if Coke were to account for its publicly traded equity method investments at fair value rather than using the equity method? . Except for Property, plant, and equipment, what was Coca Cola’s largest single asset (not asset category) at 12/31/2012? How does it compare to 2011? Why do you think it increased? What was its relative impact on the change in total assets? Which component of Coca Cola’s balance sheet is the primary factor causing the company’s change in total assets fro m December 31, 2011 to December 31, 2012? How much did this factor change by relative to (i. e. , as a percentage of) the change in total assets? 4. Income Tax: Is Coca Cola’s effective (i. e. , average) tax rate more or less than the U. S. federal (â€Å"statutory†) rate? What is the primary reason(s) that it was more/less in 2012? 5. Look at Coke’s 10K. For 2012, is the amount of dividends declared equal to the amount of dividends paid? What are these amounts? Where did you find them? Did dividends declared increase, decrease, or remain the same – per share and in total, compared to 2011? 6. Prepare a 2011 and 2012 common size balance sheet for Coke. Comment on differences between the two. A common size balance sheet is one for which each item in the balance sheet is divided by total assets. Download Pepsi’s 2012 10-K from Pepsico. com 7. Using the information in Pepsi’s 2012 10-K, calculate the company’s a. Total market value for 2012 and 2011. b. Book value to common shareholders for 2012 and 2011 (Hint: Pepsi does not have dividends in arrears on their preferred shares. Use Pepsi’s call price located in the footnotes for the preferred stock claim. Just subtract the total preferred stock call price amount from total stockholders’ equity. c. Market to book value ratios for 2012 and 2011. d. How do the above ratios for Pepsi compare to those of Coca Cola for the same two years? How do you interpret any differences? 8. Make a common size balance sheet for Pepsi for 2012 (round your percentages to 1 decimal place – i. e. , the same as 0. xxx ) Examine the two companies’ common size balance sheets. What do you notice about a. Cash and cash equivalents b. Net receivables c. Current liabilities d. Long term debt What do you think any significant differences between these ratios might mean? Do you notice any other significant differences between Coke and Pepsi? 9. Working capital: Working capital equals total current assets minus total current liabilities. How much working capital does Pepsi have at 12/31/2012 and 12/31/2011? How much working capital does Coca Cola have at 12/31/2012 and 12/31/2011? Can you directly compare the two companies’ working capital? Why or why not? If not, how could you make them comparable? Are the two companies experiencing similar changes in working capital?

Environmental sustainable development

Environmental sustainable development Introduction Sustainability can be described as a state in which humankind is living within the carrying capacity of the earth. This means that the earth has the capacity to accommodate the needs of existing populations in a sustainable way and is therefore also able to provide for future generations. Humankind is nowadays facing the fact that, with its intensive industrial activities, pollution, and resource exploitation has exceeded the earths carrying capacity. This means we must make strong and concerted shift of development in direction where earth can sustain humankind needs. This concerted and integrated action and change of direction can be referred to as sustainable development. Changes and integrated action can be first applied on micro level sectors like mining industries, where cumulative effects of such small changes can give very good results, in terms of sustainable development, (B. Clayton et al, 2002). The Brundtland Commissions (1987) vision of sustainable development is to mee t the needs of the present generation without undermining the capacity of future generations to meet their needs. . Sustainable development can be looked at as a process; this process involves the economic, social and cultural aspects of mankind as well as the environmental health of the planet, (Brundtland, 1987). This report is to elaborate on the Mining and Minerals sector how Sustainable development can be applied to the sector to confront present challenges. Jonathon Porritt puts it: Sustainable development is the only intellectually coherent, sufficiently inclusive potentially mind-changing concept that gets even half-way close to capturing the true nature and urgency of the challenge that now confronts the world and there is really no alternative, (D.Clayton et al., 2002). In the past decade, the mining and minerals industry has come under tremendous pressure to improve its social, developmental, and environmental performance, (http://ccsenet.org/jsd). Like other parts of the corporate world, companies are more routinely expected to perform to ever higher standards of behaviour, going well beyond achieving the best rate of return for shareholders. They are also increasingly being asked to be more transparent and subject to third-party audit or review. In response, a number of companies, either independently or with other actors, is establishing voluntary standards that often go beyond any law. But even so, some observers remain suspect that many businesses are merely engaging in public relations exercises and doubt their sincerity. In particular, the industry has been failing to convince some of its constituencies and stakeholders that it necessarily has the social licence to operate in many areas of the world. Despite the industrys undoubted importance in meeting the need for minerals and its significant contributions to economic and social development, concerns about aspects of its performance prevail. Mining, refining, and the u se and disposal of minerals have in some instances led to significant local environmental and social damage. It is not always clear that mining brings economic and social benefits to the host countries, as the minerals sector sometimes operates where there is poor governance, including corruption, and is thus associated with it, (G.J. Coakley, 1999). In some cases, communities and indigenous groups near or around mines allege human rights abuses. Many countries and communities depend on minerals production as a source of income and a means of development. And with growing trade liberalization and privatization, much of the investment in minerals exploration and production has turned to developing and transition countries. Mining is important in 51 developing countries accounting for 15-50% of exports in 30 countries and 5-15% of exports in a further 18 countries, and being important domestically in 3 other countries. About 3.5 billion people live in these countries, with about 1.5 billion living on less than US$2 per day, (World Bank, 2002). Minerals development can create many opportunities, including jobs, a transfer of skills and technology, and the development of local infrastructure and services. However, there is sometimes a lack of capacity, knowledge, and incentives to turn investment into development. The industry has generated wealth in direct and indirect ways but, it is alleged, there is a mismatch of opportunities and problems the wealth often being enjoyed far from the communities and environments that feel the adverse impacts. Sustainable development objectives A review of literature on sustainability suggests that sustainability can be described in terms of social, economic and environmental states that are required in order for overall sustainability to be achieved. The World Summit on Sustainable Development Plan of Implementation provides range of sustainable development objectives that should be aimed in order to achieve sustainability. Environmental Sustainable Development Objectives: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Size, productivity and biodiversity: Ensure that development conserves or increased the size, biodiversity and productivity of the biophysical environment. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Resource management: Ensure that development supports the management of the biophysical environment. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Resource extraction and processing: Ensure that development minimizes the use of support of environmentally damaging resource extraction and processing practices. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Waste and pollution: Ensure that development manages the production of waste to ensure that this does not cause environmental damage. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Water: Ensure that development manages extraction, consumption and disposal of water in order not to adversely affect the biophysical environment. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Energy: Ensure that development manages the extraction and consumption of resources in order not to adversely affect natural systems (Gibberd, 2005). Economic Sustainable Development Objectives: Vol. 3, No. 1 Journal of Sustainable Development, (http://ccsenet.org/jsd). à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Employment and self-employment: Ensure that development supports increased access to employment and supports self-employment and the development of small enterprises. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Efficiency and effectiveness: Ensure that development (including technology specified) is designed and managed to be highly efficient and effective, achieving high productivity level with few resources and limited waste and pollution. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Indigenous knowledge and technology: Ensure that development takes into account and draws on, where appropriate, indigenous knowledge and technology. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Sustainable accounting: Ensure that development is based on a scientific approach that takes in to account, and is formed by, social, environmental and economic impacts. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ An enabling environment: Develop an enabling environment for sustainable development including the development of transparent, equitable, supportive policies, processes and forward planning. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Small-scale, local and diverse economies: Ensure that development supports development of small-scale, local and diverse economies, (Gibberd, 2005). Social Sustainable Development Objectives: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Access: Ensures that development supports increased access to land, adequate shelter, finance, information, public service, technology and communications where this is needed. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Education: Ensure that development improves levels of education and awareness, including awareness of sustainable development. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Inclusive: Ensure that development processes, and benefits, are inclusive. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Health, Safety and Security: Ensure that development considers human rights and supports improved health, safety and security. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Participation: Ensure that development supports interaction, partnerships and involves and is influenced by the people that it affects. This description provides simple definitions for sustainability and sustainable development. A useful aspect of the definition is that it provides both an ultimate state that must be strived for a swell set of actions or objectives, which if addressed and implemented, will lead towards sustainable development, (Gibberd, 2005). Sustainable Development Framework for the Minerals Sector Applying the concept of sustainable development to the minerals sector does not mean making one mine after another sustainable. The challenge of the sustainable development framework is to see that the minerals sector as a whole contributes to human welfare and well-being today without reducing the potential for future generations to do the same. Thus the approach has to be both comprehensive taking into account the whole minerals system and forward looking, setting out long-term as well as short term objectives, (D. Clayton et al, 2002). Moving from the concept of sustainable development to action requires: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ a robust framework based on an agreed set of broad principles; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ an understanding of the key challenges and constraints facing the sector at different levels and in different regions and the actions needed to meet or overcome them, along with the respective roles and responsibilities of actors in the sector; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ a process for responding to these challenges that respects the rights and interests of all those involved, is able to set priorities, and ensures that action is taken at the appropriate level à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ an integrated set of institutions and policy instruments to ensure minimum standards of compliance as well as responsible voluntary actions; and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ verifiable measures to evaluate progress and foster consistent improvement. If the minerals sector is to contribute positively to sustainable development, it needs to demonstrate continuous improvement of its social, economic, and environmental contribution, with new and evolving governance systems. The sector needs a framework within which it should judge and pursue any development. The Challenges of Implementation One of the key challenges for minerals sector is implementation. I n other to facilitate putting sustainable development into practice in the mining and minerals sector, policy makers will need to select a mixture of the principles of sustainable development outlined above. Putting sustainable development into practice also requires actors in the minerals sector to be publicly committed to explicit and well-understood goals and objectives. Leadership from the top is a must, as is the need to ensure that all employees understand what sustainable development entails. This is necessary not only for companies but also for government ministries and departments at all levels, as well as labour, civil society organizations, and communities. Capacity building is also a key to moving forward, (D.clayton et al, 2002). Conclusion The concept of sustainable development is not new for it brings together ideas from a long history of human development into one common framework. This is becoming an increasingly important guide and judge for many actors whether from government, industry, or civil society. There is little disagreement about the broad principles contained in the framework, although different groups and individuals accord different priorities to the various spheres economic, environmental, social, and governance depending on their interests and their level of understanding and implementation. These priorities will determine the paths of action for implementation of the principles. The differences do not detract from the high level vision of sustainable development, which allows for different iterative and ever improving approaches. For improvement this actions have to be enforced: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Consistency with the sustainable development framework; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Continuous and clearly defined objectives and incentives to change towards better practice; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ SMART specific, monitorable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound approach; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Enforcing higher levels of trust and cooperation; and, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Where possible, built on existing structures and institutions. In many ways the picture today is already more positive than it was some decades ago. There remains much to be done in improving the sectors contribution to all aspects of sustainable development. But the largest companies and their newest operations at least are now being held to higher standards. Indeed, the best mining operations are now in the sustainable development vanguard not merely ahead of what local regulations demand, but achieving higher social and environmental standards than many other industrial enterprises. Reference:  · Brundtland: World Commission on environment and Development (1987). (pp.43).  · Dalal-Cayton.D.B and Bass.S (2002). The Nature of Sustainable Development Strategies.(pp.66-77,115,261).  · George J. Coakley, 1999. The minerals industry of Ghana in the US Department of the interior, US Geological survey, minerals yearbook. Area Reports: International 1997, Africa and the Middle East. Volume III  · Gibberd J. T., (2005). Developing a Sustainable Development Approach for Buildings and Construction Processes Smart Sustainable Built Environments. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Chapter 27. (pp 300-310).  · Maja Mitich : Sustainable Approach to A Reform of Coal Mining Industry in Serbia. University of Singidunum, Belgrade, Serbia. http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jsd/article/viewFile/4797/4461 (Accessed: 06/05/2010).  · Vol. 3, No. 1 Journal of Sustainable Development, http://www.ccsenet.org/jsd (Accessed: 07/05/2010).  · World Bank International Finance Corporation (2002) Treasure or trouble? Mining in developing countries. Draft.