The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence Essay Example for Free

The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence Essay Hagar Shipley is main character in The Stone Angel written by Margaret Laurence and goes through a rough life after growing up in the little town of Manawaka, Canada. At the age of ninety, she realized how stubborn and reserved she was to people she was closest to, her father, her brothers and her own son. In Hagars younger years she was skating on the pond with Dan and Matt, her brothers when one of the, Dan, fell in the pond skating backwards, trying to impress some ladies. Back home Matt then asked Hagar to get and put on the old plaid shawl their mother used to wear, then comfort Dan who has pneumonia, just as their mother used to comfort the boys when they were little. But Hagar refused: He turned to me then, and held both my hands in his, theonly time I ever recall my brother Matt doing such a thing. [] I cant. Oh Matt, Im sorry, but I cant, I cant. Im not a bit like her. [] Before Matt let himself mourn or even tell me it went over, he came close to me and put both his hands on me quiet gently, except that he put them around my throat. Pg. 25-26 This shows parts of Hagar and her stubbornness, she can not even comfort her own brother as it would make her appear as a weak young woman, thus completley against what she grew up with, her dad always drilled Hagar not to show any emotions in any situation but also the way she liked to be since she did not know the other Hagar. She was taught to be stubborn, selfish and emotionless. Hagars relationship to her own father was not the greatest since he never treated her the way a father is supposed to by showing pride of his girl, treating her with respect and actually show emotions, rather then just nodding after she has done something correctly: When I repeated them all through [] hed nod. Thats all hed ever say, when I got it right. He never believed in wasting a word or a minute. Pg. 7 She was taught to be the cold-hearted lady and never to sympthasize with anyone. Hagars entire life was a tragedy, she did not even hug her own son before he left to fight in the war. I didnt know what to say to him. I wanted to beg him to look after himself, to be careful, as one warns children against snowdrifts or thin ice or the hooves of horses, feeling the flimsy words may act as some kind of charm against disaster. I wanted all at once to hold him tightly, plead with him, against all reason and reality, not to go. Pg. 129 Hagar did not know what to say to him but she knew exactly what she would have done to him, hold him tightly and hug him for maybe the last time in her life, but then she is ashamed of doing so. Hagar, once again, is emotionless to people she is closest to, even her own son. But I did not want to embarrass both of us, nor have him think Id have taken leave of my senses. While I was hesitating, he spoke first. Pg. 129 Hagar is embarrassed of hugging her own son, as she says she does not want him to think that she would have taken leave of her senses, which, for her, was the total emotionless, stubbornness and monotonuesness. Hagar even hesitates to talk to him, she is totally lost with the feeling of insecurity about herself, her life and the way she lived it. Those four incidents show how tragic Hagar was in her lost life, her own world created by herself with her stubbornness and her father, drilling into her head that showing emotions to anyone is the weakest thing to do. Hagar, ninty years old, does not know what emotions are, does not know what love is or even feels like. You call that love. Lady, if that wasnt, what is? I dont know. I just dont know, Im sure. Pg. 228

Joan Miró Essay -- Visual Arts Paintings Art

Joan Mirà ³ Spanish painter, whose surrealist works, with their subject matter drawn from the realm of memory and imaginative fantasy, are some of the most original of the 20th century. Mirà ³ was born April 20, 1893, in Barcelona and studied at the Barcelona School of Fine Arts and the Academia Galà ­. His work before 1920 shows wide-ranging influences, including the bright colors of the Fauves, the broken forms of cubism, and the powerful, flat two-dimensionality of Catalan folk art and Romanesque church frescoes of his native Spain. He moved to Paris in 1920, where, under the influence of surrealist poets and writers, he evolved his mature style. Mirà ³ drew on memory, fantasy, and the irrational to create works of art that are visual analogues of surrealist poetry. These dreamlike visions, such as Harlequin's Carnival or Dutch Interior, often have a whimsical or humorous quality, containing images of playfully distorted animal forms, twisted organic shapes, and odd geometric constructions. The forms of his paintings are organized against flat neutral backgrounds and are painted in a limited range of bright colors, especially blue, red, yellow, green, and black. Amorphous amoebic shapes alternate with sharply drawn lines, spots, and curlicues, all positioned on the canvas with seeming nonchalance. Mirà ³ later produced highly generalized, ethereal works in which his organic forms and figures are reduced to abstract spots, lines, and bursts of colors. ...

Indian Ocean Region Essay

Change and Continuity of Commerce in the Indian Ocean Region from 650 CE to 1750 CE. The Indian Ocean has always been a powerful trading region, between East Africa and China, that has caused religion, crops, languages, and people to spread. Through the rise and fall of powerful land and sea empires, trade routes shifted and control switched hands numerous times over history. The goods have remained fairly constant, compared to the traders and the powers behind them that changed from 650 C.E. to 1750 C.E. Spices, textiles, manufactured goods, and raw goods were staples on the many of the routes that led from the coast of Zimbabwe all the way to the ports of China. Early traders from Polynesia even traveled to Madagascar. With the rise of Islam and of the Mongol Empire, overseas trade slowed slightly because of the importance of the Silk Road as the main connection between China and Europe. However, as the Mongols declined, the Indian Ocean trade became more important to the empires o r kingdoms of China and the regional powers of India. The Chinese Ming Dynasty engaged heavily in foreign trade and they displayed their wealth with giant treasure ships and junks that sailed the day from China through the port of Malacca to the east coast of India. The ships carried silk and porcelain, goods that were in high demand in Europe and Arabia. The ships also picked up spices and hardwoods from Southeast Asian islands. In India, the majority of these goods were sent on dhows to the Arabian Peninsula, stopping at major important ports like Aden, and then continuing on to East Africa and the Swahili Coast states of Mogadishu, Kilwa, and Sofala. The ships sailed according to the monsoons, they then returned loaded with gold and ivory from Africa, to China where the cycle would restart. Eventually states like Gujurat and Calicut grew in importance in manufacturing and the textile production of cotton. The powers around the Indian Ocean remained in control, until the arrival of Europeans in the 16th century. While Silk Road trade with Europe was thriving, Europeans wanted to cut out the Arab middlemen and get direct access to Asian goods. As the tools of navigation developed and new nation-states sought after trade and exploration, Portugal led the continent in the race to Asia. When Vasco da Gama reached India in 1498 by sailing around the tip of Africa, he was greeted with a mocking laughter of people he needed to trade with and was turned down most of the goods he had to trade. The powerful merchants of Gujarat and neighboring states were used to the highest quality goods so they did not want to trade with Gama’s poor quality goods. However, before long, Portugal took over almost all trade in the Indian Ocean, establishing ports like Goa in India and controlling strategic areas with their imperialistic manner. Around the same time, Britain also began its expansion and joined with joint-stock companies like the Dutch East India Company. They proceeded to dominate the region as well, taking land they thought suited their purposes. The sea empires and the cut off of foreign trade by the Ming dynasty did not greatly change the products traded, but did affect the overall trade system. Goods were now produced for the success of mercantilist people in European countries, not for the enrichment of local powers. While the trade routes and the goods that passed through them may not have been greatly changed, the impact of the European trading empires and the decline of nations like India and China changed who benefited from Indian Ocean trade and who were mostly involved.

Did the Civil War Ultimately reduce sectional antagonism...

Prior to Civil War, distinct Northern and Southern cultures had been established; The free North occupied the commercial industry, while the slavery-based South undertook an agricultural occupation. The South and the North began to fight over right and wrong. The major issue was regarding slavery, as the South wanted to preserve slavery while, the North wanted to get rid of it. These conflicts rose into sectional antagonism and eventually put the United States and President Lincoln in a loophole. During the Civil War however, Lincoln made some extremely controversial decisions, that resulted in a reduction of the sectional antagonism present, and the United States became truly â€Å"one nation.† The sectional issue of slavery erupted when†¦show more content†¦Slavery was a crucial issue on the Union s diplomatic front with Britain. Lincoln realized that he could use emancipation as a weapon of war as the war was now primarily being fought over slavery. He also wanted to satisfy his own personal hope that everyone everywhere would eventually be free. So in June 1862, Congress passed a law prohibiting slavery in the territories. Lincoln issued the final form of his Emancipation Proclamation (Document F). It stated, â€Å"slaves within any State...shall be then, thencefoward, and forever free.† The proclamation had a powerful symbolic effect. It broadened the base of the war by turning it in to a fight for unity. The climax of the war occurred at Gettysburg, where General Ulysses S. Grant faced General Robert E. Lee. The Union had won the war, by cutting the Confederacy into two halves. Shortly after, Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address (Document G), in which he stated that all men are created equal. He was not only trying to acknowledge the slaves, but also the section issues living between the North and South. He stated, â€Å"God shall have a new birth of freedom...by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.† In addition to this, the results after the Civil War showed that there was a reduction in antagonisms in U.S. At his Second Inaugural Address, Lincoln announced the imperative duty of American people to, â€Å"proceed with malice toward none; withShow MoreRelatedContemporary Issues in Management Accounting211377 Words   |  846 PagesFrance Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York ß Oxford University Press 2006 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2006 All rights reserved. No part of this publication mayRead MoreOrganisational Theory230255 Words   |  922 PagesBusiness Administration, Finland This book makes it easier to understand the current stand of organization theory. I strongly recommend it to anyone seriously interested in the different intellectual traditions that contribute to our understanding of organizations. Professor Tomas Mà ¼llern, Jà ¶nkà ¶ping International Business School, Sweden . McAuley, Duberley and Johnson’s Organizational Theory takes you on a joyful ride through the developments of one of the great enigmas of our time – How should