English Literature

Charles Dickens with no doubt was a great writer whose imagination, close observation and vivid descriptions made many readers like his literary works. Throughout this passage, Dickens depicts himself as a genius in presenting striking and detail-to-detail human situations and experiences. The Old Curiosity Shop is one among his masterpieces, it is noticeable because of the way in which he picks a life experience  death - which anyone can come across, depicts a single face picked in a crowd and follows the individual until the completion of the story. Waving them off with his hand, and calling softly to her as he went, he stole into them room. drew close together and a few whispered words  not unbroken by emotion. This phrase shows the grief of the mourning schoolmaster and the loss all have to bear with. The beauty of his writing comes in the way he packages our subconscious thinking at the scenery that is better in our mind than expressed in our talking. The vivid description of Little Nell and her personality actually marvel us as readers because of the minute details in presenting the boundless poetry of life.

Death is a topic which has been written by other numerous writers who have generalized it but with keen eyes from the third person perspective, Dickens describes the death of Little Nell bringing each aspect in its own from the unnatural and stark staring innocence to the awkward and constrained piety. This is expressed in the words seemed a creature fresh from the hand of God, and waiting for the breath of life. The element of disbelief is quite clear of the onlookers which highlight the writers artistic expression in giving the insignificant child the personality in the story. She was dead. Dear, gentle, patient, noble Nell, was deed. The writers vivid descriptions are as if to repair the injustice of death that has been done to this innocent girl. She was dead. No sleep so beautiful and calm. (Dickens, 1863) What emerges from the description is the way in which he draws the sympathy of the readers not as pathetic but as a tragic accident which should not have happened at all.

The writer is truthful in presenting the aspects of the human body after death where he goes ahead to immortalize the realities of death. According to Dickens (1863), there is no pain, sorrow and suffering to the human body. It is also arguable in the way the writer objectifies death of Nell. It is like he is happy that she is dead, to be away from the fatigues and sufferings of this world for, according to him, she has found perfect peace and happiness in death. Sorrow was dead indeed in her, but peace and perfect happiness were born. He points out to the traces of her sufferings, early cares, and fatigues which are all gone ironically thanks to death. I would however, strongly differ with the writer because he should be objective in Nells life rather than her death. The picture described of Nell death personality, if we can talk of it as personality, implies of Dickens mistakes in falling to his simple assumptions and literary vices. It shows his character of real objection to sorrow and his mere hunger in all manner of paying tribute to dead and in the descriptive process experimenting with his arrogance. With ease he describes and enjoys the sorrow of the bereaved tormented and haunted by their loss by showing how death mocks the efforts of sympathizers. The old man held one languid arm in his, and had the small hand tight folded to his breast, for warmth. the hand she had stretched out to him with her last smile. Through this keen observation, readers are able to sympathize with bereaved for their loss of loved ones. In the passage, two strands of meaning makes readers laugh but also tried to make them cry, sincere expression of heartfelt feelings and the deliberate sarcasm it laughing at human powerlessness in the hands of death are addressed by the writer.

Human fate cannot be controlled as the writer in this passage implies. Nell is dead and beyond the help of the mourning spectators. We cannot fail to notice how vividly the writer brings out the void left by Nells death. rooms she seemed to fill with life, even while her own was waning fast. They all had to accept that Nell is gone forever. The futility of human wishful thinking of death is mocked by the writer in the last passage for no amount of tears can bring Nell back to life. She is dead, and past all help or need of it. In the saying it is not on earth that Heavens justice ends summarizes all the human inability at the fangs of death that robe the loved ones.

In conclusion, Dickens, in sarcastic depiction of death and the sympathetic description of sorrow borne by man helps us come to terms with the inevitable and live life because there is nothing we can do to alleviate it from very existence.

Ive always dreamed of fertile land that can bring good food and better living for us, a place where we can settle, a place that we can call ours, a home, not just a temporary shelter until the worst of weathers come about.  You know Ive always wanted the best for you and our parents, you know I will sacrifice everything just to be sure you are safe, you are fed and you are well.

But I am alone now.  A fool believing that in some way, this foreign land can be my home.  The brute force from which I was taken was better than the life I live in now.  I can vaguely remember how the animals we have there were treated, all I know is they are made to work and carry on a lot of responsibilities so we can survive.  I remember that only because that life was much better than mine.
I dont even know if you exist.  Im too tired to think now actually, I cant remember much.  I dont even know if this language will make sense to you, if you can understand.  I do know one thing I envy you for you are free.  You are privileged to remain as ignorant as you are now.  You live in fear to be like me, you should be.  There is nothing to look forward to in this kind of life but death.

At first, there was that desire to continue living, to fight for my life and believe that this bondage is part of a test that shall make me stronger.  After all, I was not alone in this prison.  There were others like me, others who will understand.  I believed that the gods allowed this to happen for a purpose.  But I have come to understand.  There is no such thing as  others like me.   Because even if we are slaves, they are not my kin.  They are no one.  Nobody cares.  There are no gods.  There is nothing in this life but my master and his desires.

I shall not hope.  There is no hope.
Whoever you are, what name you have been given, your country gives you away.  You will become like me.  I dont care.  I dont even know you.

That Nathanial Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown addresses how human beings perceive and respond to the coexistence of good and evil is hardly a novel observation.  The more interesting question, given the fact that the text never truly resolves whether Browns journey into the forest actually occurred or was merely a dream, is whether Hawthorne intended to comment on the good versus evil dichotomy generally with reference to the human race or more specifically with reference to how a particular individual approaches questions of good and evil.  This question is especially important given the fact that Hawthorne lived for a long while in Salem, Massachusetts, a place well-known for its extreme Puritan views (Abrams 358), and his personal experiences with this tension between good and evil must have been extraordinarily intimate. A careful review of the storys text, and the main thesis of this paper, is that Hawthorne did intend to present an implicit argument to the effect that individual human beings must reconcile themselves to the fact that evil is a necessary complement to good.  A failure to accept the necessity of evil has tragic consequences for Brown whereas the storys other characters are able to continuing living their lives fruitfully because they are able to acknowledge the presence and the inevitability of evil.  In support of this thesis, that an individuals inability to accept the coexistence of evil with good has tragic emotional consequences, this paper will contrast how the storys characters approached the good versus evil dichotomy, how Hawthorne employed a stylistic technique that heavily relied on symbolism in an effort to portray Brown as an absolute believer in good, and how this type of moral absolutism ironically doomed Brown to a life of emotional solitude and unhappiness.

As an initial matter, it is important to acknowledge that the world created by Hawthorne is from Browns perspective one of extremes and absolutes.  There is no moderation, in terms of tone and its effects, throughout the story.  On the one hand, for example, all of the characters to which Brown refers as a frame of reference are either very good people or very bad people.  The good people tend to be influenced by Christian virtues and include Goody Cloyse, his minister, and Deacon Gookin.  His wife is also portrayed at many times as akin to an angel and being adorned in a soft and virtuous pink color.  Even his own name, Goodman, illustrates and reinforces this rather extreme version of goodness and virtue to which Brown aspires to as an idealistic characterization of human existence and the community in which he lives.  The bad people, on the other hand, are influenced in the text by the devil.  Whether anyone was actually in the service of the devil is not clear from the story, the entire sequence of events perhaps being nothing more than a bad dream, but the creation of the two extreme poles represented by Christian virtue and the devil demonstrates that Hawthorne did intend to create extreme types of human behavior through which he could more effectively compare moral absolutism and moral moderation.  Such an interpretive approach has been noted in the academic literature one scholar, in this respect, has stated that Hawthornes fiends and devils, rarely presented in corporeal form, generally prove to be a force that corrupts mankind in the realm of the psyche HYPERLINK httpwww.questia.comPM.qstaod5000702923(Maus 76).  This reference to the human psyche, in turn, suggests an individual psychological conflict in which a human being either comes to terms with the coexistence of good and evil or becomes psychologically traumatized by clinging to unrealistic expectations.  Another scholar has characterized the short story as a failed attempt to resist moral absolutism by characterizing Browns venture as a failed journey, noting that Goodman Brown leaves the security of his hearth, his home and his Faith to undertake a journey he knows is not in keeping with who he thinks he is--a good Christian husband HYPERLINK httpwww.questia.comPM.qstaod5016654146(Moores 6).   The initial thematic point of departure is therefore Browns internal psychological and spiritual refusal to accept the fact that evil is always present and a pervasive feature of human existence.  These struggles are consistently set forth in the text.

In the very beginning of the story, for example, Brown explicitly states that he feels guilty and perhaps unclean for setting out on this journey specifically, he states that  Poor little Faith thought he, for his heart smote him. What a wretch am I, to leave her on such an errand HYPERLINK httpwww.questia.comPM.qstaod101082851(Hawthorne 61).  Leaving his Faith, a symbolic representation of his moral conviction that goodness is a dominant aspect of human existence, is a journey that he only pursues with a great degree of guilt.  Brown must test his Christian convictions, he must determine whether his belief in the essential goodness of people is fundamentally correct, and such a testing process demands that he step away from and question his faith for the duration of the journey.  The realization that develops as Brown progresses through this journey is that his faith in goodness and other human beings has been misplaced.  This faith has been misplaced with respect to his own ancestors, with respect to highly esteemed members of his community, and even with respect to his own angelic wife.  Walking along the dark path with the old man, in reality the devil, Brown either learns or begins to admit that both his father and his grandfather had committed acts that were deemed to be sins under an absolute Christian paradigm of human behavior.  The devil informs Brown with respect to his grandfather that  I helped your grandfather, the constable, when he lashed the Quaker woman so smartly through the streets of Salem and with respect to his father that it was I that brought your father a pitch-pine knot, kindled at my own hearth, to set fire to an Indian village, in King Philips war HYPERLINK httpwww.questia.comPM.qstaod101082853(Hawthorne 63).   Goodman found these acts, beatings and perhaps murders, to be difficult if not impossible to accept.  Interestingly, the text does not provide enough background information to know whether these acts were carried out with honest intentions or with malice.  This, however, is not particularly important because the fact is that Goodman cannot reconcile the fact that even his loved ones have committed acts that are considered evil in a Christian perspective.  The same theme is reinforced when Browns spiritual advisors are portrayed as having evil parts and most particularly when Faiths pink ribbon drops to the tree branch.  The falling of Faiths ribbon, in a very real way, symbolizes the realization by Brown that there are no pure angels and that human beings are flawed by design.  As a moral and religious absolutist, or at least Hawthornes representation of such an approach to good and evil as they pertain to the underlying nature of human beings, Brown is consequently traumatized and completely unwilling to function normally in a society in which good and evil are merged rather than clearly distinguished.  This trauma is also cleverly illustrated throughout the text through Hawthornes use of vivid imagery and symbolism.

Even a cursory examination of Hawthornes stylistic use and deployment of symbolism further supports this papers thesis more particularly, his style in this story employs and relies on a variety of symbols to very clearly demarcate the distinction between good and evil and to demonstrate how Browns absolute faith in goodness functions to destroy his ultimate faith in all human beings when he finally recognizes that goodness can never be an absolute condition of any human beings existence.  It is well-established in the academic literature that Hawthorne depended heavily in symbolism to make points subtly rather than overtly indeed, it has been observed that

The notoriously elusive and ambiguous atmosphere of Hawthornes colonial New England fiction, in which objects seem to start away with almost ghostly indistinctness and setting so often becomes murky and confused, remains a misunderstood -- if widely discussed -dimension of Hawthornes craft.

The point is that symbolism matters in Hawthornes work.  The use of symbolism in Young Goodman Brown is integral to the presentation of the storys dominant theme.  The most persuasive use of symbolism in this respect relates to Browns wife.  First, she is named Faith.   Her very name symbolizes Browns emotional attachment and his spiritual dependence on goodness.  His journey demands a departure from faith and once he learns that evil coexists with goodness he can never again be truly reunited with Faith.  This inability to reconcile with Faith his wife symbolized his psychological and spiritual inability to reconcile good and evil at the end of the story, for example, it is provided that  Often, awaking suddenly at midnight, he shrank from the bosom of Faith, and at morning or eventide, when the family knelt down at prayer, he scowled, and muttered to himself, and gazed sternly at his wife, and turned away.  

His wife may very well have never existed and the storys dominant theme would have been the same.  Academics have noted that Hawthorne frequently used female characters symbolically one academic has argued after analyzing female characters in all of Hawthornes work that

The critical recognition of static types of female characters in Hawthornes work has a long tradition, though the significations that critics accord to these types are--by, as I suggest, authorial design--still much in play. The repeated pairings of women representing values of purity or chastity with others who are tainted by sensuality and tendencies toward philosophical speculation is a constant in his oeuvre, though the texts themselves can seem to sanction readings according authorial sympathy to either term of the equation.

The story is ultimately about a single human beings struggle with the nature of his own existence and the struggle with the design and the nature of human beings.  Faith as a woman is not as important to Hawthorne as Faith as a symbolic representation of goodness found and lost.  An additional effective use of symbolism involves the devils staff.  What at one point in the story appears to be a simple walking aid is suddenly transformed into what appears from Browns perspective to be a living snake.  This type of symbolism accomplishes multiple goals.  First, it is well-established in the Christian bible that the original sin attributed to Eve derived from the offering of an apple by a snake.  Snakes therefore often function as symbols of temptation and sin.  Second, and more importantly, the very fact that what appeared at first glance to be a simple piece of wood was not simply a piece of wood symbolizes the dangers associated with believing in absolute truths.  Even when Brown witnessed the transformation from inanimate staff to living snake, he refused to abandon his belief in absolute certainty by noting that  This, of course, must have been an ocular deception, assisted by the uncertain light HYPERLINK httpwww.questia.comPM.qstaod101082852(Hawthorne 62).  Moral relativism is thereby characterized as a type of deception in Browns mind, a trick played by a sensory moment of confusion, and it is this very inability to view the world more moderately that ultimately causes his subsequent sadness and emotional isolation.

In the final analysis, both the trajectory of Browns journey and the symbolism used to characterize the nature of the journey suggest that Hawthorne was doing much more than merely contrasting good and evil.  A more persuasive argument is that Hawthorne intended to demonstrate the dangers of moral absolutism in the form of dominant Christian values of the time in which the story was written.  Moral or religious absolutism would inevitably lead to disillusionment given the fact that good and evil coexisted as natural features of all human existence.

Choices influence the kind of life that we lead and all the social groups in our society. Mostly they will lead to long lasting results for the person involved and can also influence those people around him or her. These effects can be felt either indirectly or directly according to the choices made and the contact person. Choices are the most challenging and maybe some of the thorny things that everyone faces everyday and seems to be a very heavy load that we have to bear. There are different negative side effects that follow as a result of  wrong choices such as anger, unbelief, fear, enmity ,hostility just to mention a few. As a result, the relationship between people is broken and causes lack of confidence. On the contrary, positive aspects are noted as a result of good choices like trust, faith, and confidence in the results of what had been planned. Good decisions will lead to strong relationships and motivates one to move on to greatness.

Peter Goldsworthy (1997) illustrates how every choice we make even affects our future life and has great influence. He explains how the long process from infant to adulthood takes place and the decisions that he made as a young boy affected his adult life. These choices are not gone but affect everyday part of life. At the stage of young adult Paul is not aware how this stage was going to influence finally. He engages in some lessons from Keller to satisfy his hopes and his goals this gives him some inspirations to concentrate in his lessons. His experience broadens and his skills due to the persistence of his teacher who pushes him. Keller is much involved in perfecting Paul as pianist later he understands that he cannot .He recognizes that some of the in born values can only be made perfect through appreciating your world. As illustrated in the book, when Paul started his lessons with Keller, he had a negative impression he never liked him. Paul gains more knowledge on his ability in music through Keller. He develops and grows to realize himself and also his teacher in such a way that he comes up with a novel. As he matures his feelings towards Maestro develops and becomes warmer and they become so tight. I slipped my arm beneath his head and kissed him. This shows how much they had bonded with Keller. All through Paul did not regard Maestro and he thought his counsel was exasperating and contradictory. This reveals how much our choices can influence our future outcomes. Many young people disregard the advice of their elders and refer them as old fashioned ideas which cannot fit in the current generation. As a result they turn a deaf ear and make their own choices according to their feelings. Digging further, we find that following Kellers death, Paul understands the chance Keller had offered him and the kind of wealth that he had taken for granted. Mourning for a great man, yes, but also mourning for myself for times and possibilities that will never come again. This indicates his regrets after he had wasted precious chance freely offered to him. Paul reflects exactly todays generation which has corrupted the moral standards and have compromised the truth. Most youth are self centered and do every thing out of selfish ambitions through following their feelings and the anxiety to discover more. Just like Paul, it dawns on them when it is too late when nothing can be reversed all these depends on the choices one makes. In addition to maturity in piano skills, his perspective in regard to life matures throughout his life stages. It is clear that his choices are influenced by sexual desires that have soon caught him. As illustrated he even runs away from the classes and goes to the vehicle where Rosie was waiting for him. He overreacts due to the previous night thoughts when they had spent a night with Rosie.  This illustrates how the different choices we make finally affect even our moral integrity and cause us to compromise our principles as discussed further below.

The character of Paul show similar issues as todays adolescent boys would go through in order to fit to the new school and be able to relate with girls. At the beginning, he approaches Megan since she was attractive and more famous. Mostly you find todays generation would associate with Paul many make choices from the outward appearance. They choose their mates according to the type of dressing, the new fashion of dressing, hair styles and surprisingly how much their body is exposed by their dressing. Others will also choose their friends in terms of fame. Many are attracted to the public figures, those that are common in public rallies and always appear on stage to give speeches. They are allover known even the village children go on shouting their names, they are the heroes of the village. These are the people that every youth want to be intimate with and justify themselves to develop long term relationships. However, the fact remains all that glitters is not gold. Most of these friendships do not last and they cause break ups. Many are hurt and their lives are crammed with bitterness and regrets, they lead a lonely life .Some develops some phobia towards their opposite sex and they never want anyone to approach them. They develop some kind of hostility, resentful attitude and their lives is led by unforgiveness finally they can be singles through out their lives. This has caused fading away of the fundamental principles in our society and moral standards are no longer viewed as part of life. Later you find that he recognizes that Rosie was better since she is fond of Paul and he too likes her company. As stated earlier, we realize the dramatic change in Pauls life as he comes to understand himself. He runs away from the lessons that he was fond of and goes to meet Rosie in the car where she was waiting for him. He is over controlled by his emotions as he remembered the previous night they had spent with Rosie. He clearly portrays how our emotions can easily influence our actions. Due to what he had already fed in his mind from the choices he made, Paul no longer gives priority to his lessons as a result of the awakened love to Rosie. This explains the reasons why you find most youths no longer concentrate in their classes, parents advice or other important basic values. They prioritize what their emotions are dictating and they end up corrupting their integrity. At the end we find that as years passed Paul married and had children. Though he finally works as a musician, he feels that he has not un leashed his potential. Later he tries to find out more about his previous teacher. He goes ahead and visits Keller who was dying and tries to understand what he was instructing him.

On the other hand, Keller was a famous musician from Vienna. He was renowned in away that he thought the war could not affect him. At the end he loses his son and his wife during the war. He ends up running away from his country and everyone thought he was dead. As a result of all these dreadful encounters and bitterness he evolves and changes to become a different man. The grand piano becomes his refuge and his security, assisting him to deal with the fears of the world safe beneath that grand piano and in the same way directing Eduard a way of destructing life. Never trust the beautiful  beauty simplifies as Keller talks about music and also referring to the world. Goldsworthy was portraying beauty as a away of evading the reality as shown by Pauls realization of true love from Rosie whom had referred as mousy as he was attracted to Megan. Pauls father views Darwin (where the action of the novel happens).as a place for Philistines who refers to it as a city of booze, blow, and blasphemy. He considers that it is a city of refuge for those people segregated by the society and regarded as not part of the society. It is a town which is overpopulated by women and men who have abandoned their original homes and escape as far as they could. This was the basis of Eduard Keller becoming a music teacher to Paul. We find fate playing part in Pauls life as he meets Keller as his teacher .He is ambitious and concerned about Paul he pushes him during his lessons to shape him. Through the lessons we find that he guides him and offers advice to him as a parent would do to their children. At first he was not impressed by Paul just like Paul was probably because of his alcoholic nature also because he does not agree to talk about his wartime in the past. We find that Paul thinks he might be previous Nazi of which has some truth in it since he was involved with Nazi regime but not in the same manner Paul views him. However, later we understand that Keller had the most dignified musical pedigree and he had once in his life time become a pianist of distinction. With this knowledge he tries to impact Paul but he reveals his immaturity when he chooses to hit the European contest circuit than take more time to improve on his skillfulness. He tries his best although we find that Paul takes for granted the advices that he gave him. Keller is therefore reflected as a figure of dignity and also power. He is like the one in charge of Pauls life from the time he was innocent young boy until he started to appreciate himself and to realize more about his social life till he became an adult.

In summary both Paul Keller tries to bring out the struggle of mankind in his quest to differentiate the reality of life and dreams. We find both of them making choices that are some extent hard others affect their lives and they bear the results throughout their lives. In conclusion, its important to think twice before making any choice because we must bear the consequences at the end. Some will cost us our whole life since they ruin our values and corrupt our moral standards. Mostly choices made at young stage will always affect the adult life as portrayed by Paul, it is worthy taking into consideration some of the advices given by guardian sieve those that are not important .In the youthful stage there are major decisions that one makes and they are the core foundation of the future life.

IntroductionAbsurdity is a key phrase in Becketts spectacular writings as well as of the entire Theatre of the Absurd. This section is a short introduction to the philosophical backdrop of Absurdity, in which I deal with three major problems what Absurdity is, in what shape a life instant it seems, and what consequence for a human outlook of life it retains with itself.

What is the value of having such a vision
One of the most rudimentary philosophical inquiries if there is any significance in our reality at all. The human necessity of unifying interpretation of world has habitually been persuaded by belief and creators of the philosophical schemes who made the human life meaningful. The natural yearn to get to understand and realize the world in its most concealed spheres was fulfilled by devout dogmas about the reality of God, which assured the significant possibilities of human life.

Influence on literary figures
In 1883 Friedrich Nietzsche released his magnum opus Thus Spoke Zarathustra, where of the revolutionary thesis that God is dead appeared (Nietzsche, 1992). From that time of Zarathustra the vintage everyday certainties of life begun to lose their certainty. World War I and World War II initiated deep decimation and decrease of human supreme certainties and decisively conveyed about a world missing any unifying standard, a world senseless and disconnected with human life. If one appreciates the non-attendance of sense, and this is the sign of the essence of epoch, in which the Theatre of the Absurd is fixed, the world becomes irrational and the confrontation between the world and the human being who starts to be estranged from it arises here. Martin Esslin mentions Ionescos aligned notion of the absurdity Absurd is that which is devoid of purpose. ...Cut off from his devout, metaphysical, and transcendental origins, man is lost all his activities become senseless, absurd, and useless.

Albert Camus (1913-1960), a French novelist and essayist, who worked out the idea of absurdity and who furthermore directed this thesis in his scholarly writings, agreements with the absurd destiny of man and literally illustrates it with the famous very vintage myth of Sisyphus in his stimulating investigation The Myth of Sisyphus (Essif, 2001). Camus precedes into the difficulty what the absurdity is and how it arises. He furthermore presents the characteristics of human rudimentary ontological classes as the sentiments of denseness and the strangeness of the world, which are the sentiments of the Absurdity of man in a world where the down turn of devout conviction has deprived man of his certainties.

Becketts Individualistic Approach to Absurdity
Absurdity comprises in enduring confrontation, it is a contradiction and a struggle. It can be faced only through laboring with it and contradicting with it. That is why, as Camus states, to consign suicide means to acquiesce with absurdity, it means to give in, because the sense of life is looked for in another world. None of Becketts individual characteristics commit suicide or pass away in any way. It appears that it is unrealistic to get away from the absurd destiny, to stay here means to face it, to commit suicide means to consent to it, and thus it should be accepted (Chabert, 1982). That is the cornerstone of human freedom. Absurdity does not have any sense, does not have any causes, any aspires, and that is why it does not contemplate yesterday, neither tomorrow. The absurd man misses any wants, designs, and problems about his future. He is recommended only as an instant and that is what his flexibility comprises of.  The only way how to paralyze absurdity is to not inquire for reasons.

As a young man, Beckett also experienced this sense of absurdity and meaninglessness in the modern world, but, unlike his modernist predecessors, he could not even muster faith in his art or in language. Thus, while Joyce could revel in the possibilities and textures of the written word, Beckett could not. Instead, he reduced his fictions, his plays, and his poems to the barest elements, and, throughout his career, he tried to rejoin art and life in his own way. For the pre-modernists, art imitated the world beyond the human mind. The modernists rejected this idea of imitation, and so did Beckett. Instead, his art reflects the inner world, the world of the human voice, the only world human beings can ever really experience. In the pre-modern era, art was successful if it depicted some truth about the world. For the modernists, art succeeded only on its own terms, regardless of the world beyond the scope of the arts.

When the Swedish Academy selected Samuel Beckett to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969, the award only confirmed what critics and readers had known for some time that he is one of the most important literary figures of the late twentieth century. Few authors in the history of literature have attracted as much critical attention as Beckett, and with good reason he is both an important figure in his own right and a transitional thinker whose writings mark the end of modernism and the beginning of a new sensibility, postmodernism. The modernists of the early twentieth centuryJames Joyce, W. H. Auden, Virginia Woolf, Marcel Proust, and otherswere stunned by the absurdity of their world. Previous generations had filled that world with philosophical, religious, and political meanings, but their orderly vision of reality no longer seemed to apply to life in the early 1900s (Cronin, 1996).

The modernists lacked the faith of their forebears they had experienced the chaos of the modern world with its potential for global war and the destruction of civilization, and they believed that the order of reality was a fiction, that life was unknowable. In response to their doubts, they turned literature in upon itself, separating it from life, creating an art for its own sake. These writers trusted in language to create new meanings, new knowledge, and a separate, artistic human universe.

Conclusion
For Beckett, art never succeeds. It is a necessary failure which never manages to link the inner mind to outer reality. As such, art is an exercise in courage, foredoomed to failure, like human life itself. Human beings are human beings not because they can give meaning to the world or because they can retreat into aesthetics but because they can recognize that their world is meaningless and that their lives are leading them only toward death yet they must continue to live and strive. As a philosopher of failure, Beckett was the first thinker of the post-modern age.

While modern society has come a long way in challenging gender and racial stereotypes, the socially approved roles of women versus men as well as black versus white, are still alive in the experiences of individuals even today. Jamaica Kincaid s running monologue of advice, delivered from mother to daughter and showing the sharp lines of division that define woman s role in the world, illustrates a young woman s growing awareness of the hypocrisies that govern her existence in the world. Brent Staples s experiences as a black man, confronting all too often the fear created from stereotypes of violence and crime wrongfully attached to the black race, mirrors Kincaid s essay of the inequality that still pervades the psyche of contemporary society. While one essay concentrates on the role that gender plays in the rules of society and the other deals with race as a creator and a product of fear, both show how society s perception of the self can seek to redefine the individual.

In  Girl  Kincaid constructs her story in such a way that the reader is placed in the perspective of the young girl, there is a feeling of sitting off to the side of an older woman who gives sideways commands that have little rational but a lot of conviction. The narrator, the motherly figure, rattles off a list of the proper way to do certain chores, to socialize, to interact with men, and other domestic and social tasks.  A girl is to keep up after herself and to employ practicality rather than idealism to move through her day,  soak your clothes after you take them off when you buy cotton to make yourself a nice blouse, be sure that it doesn t have gum on it, because that way it won t hold up well after the wash  (Kincaid, 53). At the same time as she is being lectured on the values of performing her household chores, the  girl  is being lectured on how to be a woman within the confines of her social situation. The speaker seems to have little interest in the girl s own happiness but is instead concentrated on the need of a girl to act within a certain set of rules,  on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming  (53). The latter half of this line is important as Kincaid repeats it throughout the story, to show how sex and sexuality have a big influence on the lives of women in modern society. More importantly it draws attention to the unequal view of sexuality between genders if the narrator were speaking to a son, it is unlikely that first of all the story would read as a list of chores and secondly that sexuality would be addressed at all. Boys, as a rule, are given more freedom to explore themselves within this context, without being judged a  slut.  The idea that the girl s mother expects her daughter to become a slut runs throughout but it is not an actual accusation so much as a warning of things to come if she does not follow her mother s advice. In the black and white view of the narrator, a woman is either good or a slut, there is no in-between.

There are but a couple instances in the story when the girl answers back both are simply minor protests. Warned by her mother not to  sing benna in Sunday school  (53), the girl protests in what seems a meek tone,  but I don t sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school  (53). It is not the tone but rather the infrequency of the girl s voice in the story that implies a meek acceptance to the lessons taught by her mother. This is no weak woman, the narrator she has the knowledge and strength of her own experience and conflicts. Through her directives, she shows a kind of absolute power and confidence in the herself and her place in the world.  Some of her advice equally contradicts the inferior position of femininity she seems to preach. While in one instance she is telling the girl,  don t squat down to play marbles   you are not a boy, you know  (54) and showing her differing ideas of behavior for men and women, she later describes to her daughter the covert power of feminine manipulation. In dealing with men, the narrator tells the girl,  this is how to bully a man this is how a man bullies you this is how to love a man, and if that doesn t work there are other ways  (54). While woman may be restricted by the roles assigned to them in society, she still retains a power than runs throughout the whole narrative in the strong voice of the mother. The second and last response from the girl seems only minor, and like the protestation concerning benna is delivered in a passive tone, concerns the baker but is a lead in for the exasperated conclusion of a mother who has just lectured her daughter to little avail. The girl asks in response to her mother s advice to squeeze the bread,  what if the baker won t let me feel the bread  (54). Reading this comment in her stark understanding of the world, where a daughter is either saint or sinner, the mother responds,  you mean to say that after all you  are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won t let near the bread  (54). This is, of course, simply another way of repeating her line about the girl becoming a slut. What is important is that this is not the mere tough love of mother to daughter but is indicative of an entire idea running beneath the surface of society. This mother, clinging to the gender roles of the past, is continuing the tradition with her own daughter. Where tradition fails shame and guilt take over.

While Brent Staples essay is neither about gender, it is about his relationship to the world around him. Staples essay describes his experiences living as a black man in society and how the perceptions of that society are based more on stereotypes than actual people. Beginning his essay with,  My first victim was a woman,  he denotes feelings of irritation in the tone of sarcasm and the play on words and perception (40). Having been perceived the enemy though he walks at a distance from the woman, Staples is aware that the fear of such people is neither practical nor respectful of his individuality. Like the female role described in  Girl,  society has placed Staples within the role of intimidator simply because of the color of his skin. The woman does not merely express her fear in body language but actually physically flees from the danger she believes to be inherent in a sole black man walking at night. Such a reaction creates conflicting and broiling emotions in Staples, and he notes,  I was surprised, embarrassed and dismayed all at one. Her flight  made me feel like an accomplice to tyranny  (40). He has unwittingly fallen into a role created and propagated by a society that fails to understand his own personal identity and that of African Americans in general.

Up until this point, Staples had not experienced this type of reaction from another but it is a reaction he will become all too familiar with as his life progresses,  In that first year, my first away from my hometown, I was to become thoroughly familiar with the language of fear  (41). It is a language of the body, that is seen in the quickly retreating steps of the lone female  victim and in the  thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk of the driver   black, white, male or female   hammering down the locks  (41) of their car doors against him as he crosses the street. More importantly it is a language spoken without prompting from Staples and is simply a reaction to his race. In these beholders, he is broken down to a base image that has very little to do with Staples own actions,  As a boy ... I came to doubt the virtues of intimidation early on. I chose, perhaps unconsciously, to remain a shadow   timid, but a survivor  (41).. As the mother figure in  Girl  sees women as falling into two categories, either slut or saint, Staples comes to the realization that a black man walking alone at night fits into only one category regardless of his own personal inclinations. In a society where people lock their doors against him, cross to the other side of the street when they see him walking toward them, he has no choice in his public role. Even in the work environment, he is mistaken for a burglar and on the street he encounters not only fearful pedestrians but overzealous police. Staples notes that he has learned to cope with the unreasonable fear he seems to inspire,  I learned to smother the rage I felt at so often being taken for a criminal. Not to do so would surely have led to madness  (42). He takes precautions against the assumptions of society, in his dress and more tellingly through humming classical melodies as he walks alone. A lone criminal humming strains from Vivaldi is so at odds with societys image of danger that it in effect dismantles the entire theory upon which it is based. Staples calls this his  equivalent of the cowbell hikers wear when they are in bear country  (42).

At the heart of both story and essay is the idea that while we struggle against the roles defined and enforced by society it seems to ultimately be a struggle of futility. Kincaids  Girl  will always find herself under the loving and judgmental eye of a maternal force that adheres to and propagates the traditional role of women. Similarly, Staples essay in not about overcoming the racism at the heart of his own experiences of being made a criminal by association but instead he adapts to it. Both show how important the roles assigned to us in life can be in who we become and how we are perceived by the world at large.

The story, The Found Boat by Alice Munro is an interesting story that uses setting to achieve certain things in the piece.  It is about a group of friends who love to play in the river riding log rafts.  Later, the friends find an old damaged boat and they spend time repairing the boat with pieces of lumber that they have collected.  The friends then take the repaired boat to the river and take turns riding it until they all decide to take it further.  The group, two on the water, and two running on the bank of the river, head to an old, abandoned railway station where they have a makeshift picnic and play games.  Later, they all decide to go skinny dipping in the river, and while the girls went out of the water, the boys took the boat and left the girls behind.  The story takes place mostly in the Wawanash River and its banks during the turn of winter, while the ice melted and spring was on its way.  In the later part of the story however, the setting shifts to become the old railroad station.  The two settings in the story are used as platforms to symbolize childhood, friendship, and the loss of innocence.

In using the setting as a symbol of childhood the author attributes it with elements of growth, immaturity, and development.  In the earlier part of the story, the river is described as, Light reflected off the water made every- thing bright and cold, as it is in a lakeside town, and woke or revived in people certain vague hopes of disaster, (Munro) suggesting the glow of childhood as well as the tendency of this stage of life to awaken uncertainty among adults.  In addition, we also have the author infuses the early part of the story with games of childhood such as trying to make a raft, from lumber they had salvaged from the water, (Munro) an active imagination as in the lines describing the log river trip, Suppose it was the sea, thought Eva. She thought of drowned cities and countries. Atlantis. Suppose they were riding in a Viking boat-Viking boats on the Atlantic, (Munro) and fearlessness as in the dialogue exchange between the boys and the girls, she yelled at them.Youd be scared to come out here, this water is ten feet deep Liar, they answered without interest, (Munro), qualities consistent with childhood and innocence.  Based on the textual evidence, we see how the author uses the attributes of the setting, as well as the descriptions of it by the characters to represent certain elements of childhood.  The setting does this by serving as a mirror of emotion as well as a platform for ideas to emerge.

Other than just childhood, the setting is also used to represent friendship.  The author, characterizing the characters, used the setting as a backdrop for the friendship of the characters.  This is also evident in the text, such as when they were already trying out the boat in the river and the boys decided not to name the boat There was no name on it, after all. The boys could not imagine that it needed any name to keep it separate from the other boats in the world (Munro) the author suggests that friendship, regardless of where it occurs, does not need to be qualified.  Then the author offers an analogy in the story, And the thing about being in a boat was that it was not solidly bobbing, like a log, but was cupped in the water, so that riding in it was not like being on some- thing in the water, but like being in the water itself. (Munro) which could be interpreted as an analogy of friendship that friendship is not being over or on each other but being in or into each other.  So, other than just using the setting as a venue for the nurture or development of friendship, we see how the author uses it in this story to actually symbolize friendship and if there is childhood and friendship, the loss of innocence follows suite.

Although the loss of innocence is first implied in the line, Before she went to sleep a picture of Clayton came to her mind she saw him sitting astride the boat, tar painting, with such concentration, delicacy, absorption. She thought of him speaking to her, (Munro) which suggests that Carol had felt attracted to Clayton, the representations of the loss of innocence happen mostly in the second setting which is the old railroad station.  Of course, we also have the author introducing a contrast between the two settings with the line, They did not know how far they had gone on the river, but things had changed- the water had got shallower, and the land flatter. (Munro) portraying perhaps the coming of age, when the depth of childhood gradually vanishes.  Initially, we have the description of the station as, dark, cool. All the windows were broken. Glass lay in shards and in fairly big pieces on the door, (Munro) which is a description symbolic of the broken perceptions of adolescence or adulthood as well as the unpredictability of adult life.  Then the group plays a game of truth or dare in which they all dare each other to strip during which period, the author describes the experience as, They felt as if they were going to jump off a cliff and fly. They felt that something was happening to them different from anything that had happened before, and it had to do with the boat, the water, the sunlight, the dark ruined station, and each other. (Munro)  This line says it all.  It implies brand new feelings resulting from exposure to a situation where new things happen  the author attributes this brand new feeling  to the primary setting, the water which had gone shallow  childhood vanishing, and each other  attraction.  So, it is obvious in this particular part of the story that the setting was used to serve as a backdrop for the development of a conscious awareness of each other as well as the newfound sensations of this awareness.

The setting in the story serves a very interesting purpose and the author is able to achieve this in different levels.  The setting is successfully able to convey the ideas of childhood, friendship and loss of innocence in this cleverly written tale by Alice Munro.

I believe that the most important part of the poem, The Village Bell is the third stanza.  The reason for this is that if one reads through the poem, the first stanza simply states the narrative of the poem, or better yet, the description of the village bell and what it is used for.  While the narrative is very important of poetry, it only serves to set the tone and the direction of the poem.  Then, the second stanza is the stanza the poem acquires its persona because it is in this stanza that the voice speaks about hisher own death and what happens when heshe dies.  Putting these first two stanzas together, one is left hanging as to the relationship of the bell to the death of the voice.  Of course, it is suggested that the bell tolls for the dead, and then in the second stanza the voice dies, but so what  The third stanza is where the poem acquires deeper meaning and what most literaturists would term as the emotional anchor.  It is in this stanza that the voice allows the reader into the poem by giving the reader the opportunity to feel the way the voice feels in the poem.  This is why this particular stanza is very important.

The stanza begins with, If some pious hand rings you in my honor,  Oh Sadden no one with your brazen sobs. (19-20) and here in these lines we now see how the voice perceives his death that his death, despite meriting the tolling of the village bell, should anyone ring it for himher, should not cause grief to those who hear it, hence, the phrase brazen sobs.  Although this could indicate the voices perception of his death, it also indicates that although the bell is told for death, it does not feel anything, hence the word, brazen.  The stanza continues with, Do not go begging tears from the horizon  But put on your festival voice, and ring over my tomb With the joyous noise of a chain falling  On the free threshold of a prison (21-24) and these lines confirm the earlier assumption that the stanza speaks of the voices perception of death being an event that should not be sorrowful, but rather, joyful, because death represents a freedom from the bondage of life, hence the final lines to this stanza, With the joyous noise of a chain falling  On the free threshold of a prison (23-24) This stanza gives the entire poem heart and allows the audience to identify with the emotions of the poem, therefore, making it the most important stanza in the entire piece.  The last stanza serves the same purpose as this third stanza and allows the poem to move towards silence.

In the past years, the rise in obesity and overweight in children has been on the rise. The rise has reached an alarming proportion. Therefore, immediate action needs to be taken to prevent farther prevalence. A research conducted in Australia, New South Wales, on children between the kindergarten classes to the age of ten indicates that 17 of all children in both sexes are obese. There are many obese boys as compared to the girls. The proportion of girls that are obese is 6 while that of boys is 8.

Both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Agriculture Organization has formed a collaboration that has come up with a report that recognizes food marketing to children that childrens food preferences is influenced at the category and brand level, habits in food consumption, behaviors in purchasing and requests in purchasing.

Most of the food adverts are aired on the television. Consequently, most of the children engage in watching television as their main favorite electronic media. The reason as to why the corporate members use this means of airing their adverts is due to the fact that children need only to watch the television and understand the kind of food being advertised. Since many of them find no time to read published journals, the printed media have received low attention and therefore they are not much used in advertising foods. In the USA for example, only 16 of the total expenditure aimed at advertising food through magazines is used.

The study conducted in Australia indicates that food references are very popular within childrens magazines. Although there were some healthy foods that were advertised through the childrens magazines like fruits and fruit related products, the majority of the foods advertised were unhealthy. The research indicated that the healthy foods advertised through the childrens magazines took the proportion of 36.3 while those that were unhealthy almost doubled the latter coming up to an alarming 63.7.

Most of the adverts of unhealthy foods targeted the males and children who were between the ages of 7 to the age of 12. On the contrary, healthy foods mostly targeted the females. Additional information included in these magazines is directions towards weight loss as well as dieting.

The overall branded references claimed a greater number of the unhealthy foods that aimed at promoting a precise food trade name. The non-branded foodstuffs however aimed at advertising the healthy foods. The branded food references concentrated on promoting some of the food stuffs like snack foods, high-sugar drinks, iced confection as well as ice creams in large numbers. These adverts therefore affect the purchase behavior of the children leading them to purchase more of these unhealthy food stuffs.

Despite the rise in advertisement that aims at promoting the unhealthy foods, its commendable that many magazines advertise healthy foods in the childrens magazines. Some of these foods are mainly advertised in the recipe and the editorial sections. The problem with the advertised healthy food references is that they are non-branded and therefore they dont quite influence the purchase behavior of the childrens. Therefore, the branded products in the adverts majority of which are unhealthy undermine the healthy food references positive effects health wise.

Though the television is dominating the advertisement scene of these reference foods, the internet is fast taking the track. Quite a considerable number of adverts that promote both healthy and unhealthy foods have been posted on the internet. Such foods are being used in conjunction with various children games. By so doing, the children are influenced to purchase the unhealthy food stuffs. There is also an influence on the child behavior to abuse drugs or drink alcohol once he sees the stuffs being used in various films. This is due to the fact that they tend to think that the behavior is allowable since the celebrity in the film is doing it.

There has been a rise in controversy regarding food advertisement in the television in Australia. There has been a strict regulation regarding foods that are aimed at influencing the purchase behavior of the children. This therefore means that the various corporations involved will look for alternative methods of advertising their products. One of the most targeted media being the childrens magazines will therefore still be in the position to persuade children to purchase their products that are unhealthy.

The involved health corporations may therefore find a hard time trying to regulate the use of such adverts that are misleading. However, with persistence, there will be few adverts that are targeting children. Its the role of the government therefore to intervene in such cases since an increase in the number of children who are obese or overweight will consequently lead to the increase in the number of health risks that include diabetes and high blood pressure in the young generation. This means that the death rates will also be on the rise.

To curb farther spread in children obesity and overweight, various actions need to be taken. The corporations involved in health matters like the World Health Organization (WHO) should be on the front line in setting up strict rules regarding advertisements that aim in promoting unhealthy foods to the children. This includes adverts aired on the television as well as those that are on the children magazines.

By so doing, the childrens purchase behavior cannot be negatively affected. Consequently, this will lead to a reduction in the number of children who are overweight or are obese.

The genetic research, a rapidly developing area of science, offers the possibility of the cloning technology, which has entailed a lot of debate and discussions. If one examines the history of its evolution, it becomes clear that this particular technology has undergone much research and constant studies before it attained its current status as a significant part of the modern science. This paper attempts to identify and evaluate the various changes that have occurred in this technology with the passage of time. Besides, it examines the milestones in genetic engineering and cloning. Because of its tremendous appeal to the scientific world and to its utility in the medical field and other areas, this technology has rapidly developed as a result of constant researches.  Cloning refers to the development of offspring that are genetically identical to their parent (Bailey, 2010, para.1).  The human race can derive many benefits from cloning and, therefore, it should be allowed, but with appropriate restrictions.

History of Cloning
The history of cloning can be traced back to the time when genetic engineering has caused much furor in its advent and development. Starting from plants and  later on introduced in animals, cloning has made a solid impact on the development of science and technology with its close relationship with the practice of medicine. Cloning of non-mammals was first accomplished in 1952 (History of cloning What is the history of cloning 2010, para.1). This indicates that the genetic research has succeeded in achieving the real time implementation of what the scientists observed and noted in the course of their work.

The further path has been to develop various cloning techniques useful in the research as well as the development of clones. The techniques developed include the following the Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer, the Roslin Technique and the Honolulu Technique (Bailey, 2010, para.3). All these techniques have impacted the field of genetic engineering to evolve as an excellent tool to derive diversified benefits to the human race.

The Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer is a method in which the nucleus of any cell except germ cells is used to replace  the nucleus of an egg,  to produce an embryo. The nucleus of the egg used will be removed before the neuclear transfer and it is followed by proper cultivation of this unfertilized egg leading to rapid division and the production of embryo. The embryo thus developed is later implanted inside the uterus of a surrogate female where it develops into a baby.

The Roslin Technique is the one that has been utilized to produce Dolly, a sheep, the first mammal to be cloned. The name of this technique is derived from the institute that devloped this method of cloning. In this method, the somatic cell is intended to  be used to separate and allow them to divide later, keeping them away from any type of nutrition. The cells are said to be in a dormant state then. A system is evolved where an egg, devoid of the nucleus, is kept in close proximity to those dormant cells and electric stimulation is done on the system, leading to fusion of cells which then develope to an embryo. Later, it is implanted in the surrogate mothers womb.

The Honolulu Technique is the contribution of Dr. Teruhiko Wakayama. This method removes somatic nucleus which is then injected  into the egg sans its nucleus. Then it is washed in a chemeical mixture and cultivated to form an embryo. The embryo developed in this way is later implanted into a serrogate mother.

The demonstration identified in cloning history was done by a team of scientists in Philadelphia working at the lab of Robert Briggs cloned a frog embryo (History of cloning, n.d., para.5). It is this development that helped  further nuclear transpalntation in genetics. The test so conducted included the replacement of nucleus of a  frogs egg with that of a cell from the frogs embryo. When the egg receives a complete array of chromosomes there occurs no delay for cell division  and scientists claim of this success as long back as1951, as a result of their research of years related to nuclear transplantation.

Dolly was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, rather than an embryo (Cloning Dolly the sheep, 2010, para.2).
 INCLUDEPICTURE httpwww.animalresearch.info_uploadsimgpoolDolly195px.jpg

MERGEFORMATINET
1996 was the year marked by the birth of Dolly under the inspection of Ian Wilmut. But the major mishap was her death on 14th February 2003 at the age of six years seven months and nine days. Usually, a sheeps age is about twice that of Dolly. The reason attributed to the death is that the donor cell was already six years old, implying that Dolly was already six years on her birth. However, the event offered possibilities for future cloning and elimination of redundancies in the knowledge about reproduction as well as genetic disorders in cloned mammals.

The scope of cloning is high but on the other hand, the exploitation of  women and children cannot be condoned.The children produced by cloning as well as donors and serrogates will be under continuous experiment, most of the times exposed to chemicals and drugs. So, the authorities have taken many steps taken to prevent such eventualities. Regulations issued by the FDA extend the Common Rules basic requirements to private sponsors conducting human drug, device, and biological product testing (Dresser, 2003, para.2). There are many laws and regulations implemented to stop the misuse of women and children in the name of cloning which is a positive sign.

Cloning is divided  into two types regarding the end usage of the embryo developed through the process. These are Reproductive Cloning and Therapeutic Cloning. The names indicate the purpose of each.

Therapeutic Cloning
As the name  suggests, this is perfornmed to achieve certain medical objectieves. Therapeutic cloning, also called embryo cloning, is the production of human embryos for use in research (Cloning fact sheet, 2009, para.9). The embryos developed through this system is used for the  treatment of various ailments as well as to facilitate the development and replacement of damaged organs.

The embryos developed are taken to extract stem cells which are the base of any cell in a body. The stem cells planted with any cells tend to develop into those cells surrounding them. The eggs at the stage of blastocyst are the main utiltiy for therapeutic applications. The stem cells that are being kept at the  liver of a person, will develop in to new liver cells and  the same applies for all organs.
Therapeutic cloning is  one of the major milestones in stem cell research. The stem cells produced by eliminating the redundant chromosomes responsible for various ailments will help in making a human organ free from any diseases.

Moreover, this can help in the initial stages of reproductive cloning as well. The therapeutic research on embryos to develop a clone of a living creature will alwas help in removing possible genetic disorders to a great extent.

Benefits of Therapeutic Cloning
Cells removed are pluripotent the fact is evdient that stem cells are useful for the treatment of any deteriorating organs. Thus it can be stated that they serve multipurpose benefits to humans.
Lower risk rates of the immunological rejection the risk of rejection of transplants or replced cells is very much reduced because stem cells are produced with cells from the patients own body, producing same genetic code.This eliminates the possibility of the production of antibodies owing to new transplanted cells.

Lowered delay for the transplant since the procedure includes injecting and culturing of stem cells on damaged parts, no delay as in the case of  ordinary transplant surgery is present. Also, immunological delays are eliminated by therapeutic cloning.

Enhancement of information the enhancements of information regarding stem cells, their production and culturing is  very significant in therapeutic cloning.

Limitations of the Therapeutic Cloning
Tedious approach to meet the requirements there is no scope for success in creating feasible egg at the firist attempt itself and this drawback necessitates much time and cost.

Blsatocyst the embryo at blastocyst stage gets disrupted completey due to the extraction of stem cells.
Fear of the new cloned humans human cloning is not accepted as such and there are existing frights that following therapeutic cloning the researcher may opt for further developoment leading to human cloning because the entire procedures are carried out with human genome and stem cells having pluripotency.

Reproductive Cloning
The reproductive cloning  is used to produce a new living clone  identical to the donor. Reproductive cloning is a technology used to generate an animal that has the same nuclear DNA as another currently or previously existing animal (Cloning fact sheet, 2009, para.7). A duplicate copy is created with reproductive cloning. The nucleus from a non germ cell is fused into an egg having no nucleus which is then left to develop through division into an embryo. The embryo is then planted into the uterus of the sugrrogate mother who carries it as usual conception process to give birth to a baby who is identical to the donor. The genetic makeup will imitate donor with no gene transaction between baby and serrogate mother. This is a better option when a parent is impotent or infertile to give birth to a baby owing to some problem in impregnating or conceiving natuarlly or due to certain genetic disorders. Dolly, the first cloned mammal, has proved that reproduction is possible in the same manner as that of ordinary mammals.

Benefits of Reproductive Cloning
The major benefit of reproductive cloning is the blessing it offers to parents who cannot have children in the natrural way. Pregnancy becomes a true bestowment to such females and their husbands yearning ardently for a child.

Limitations of Reproductive Cloning
Shorter life spans the life span of the cloned individuals will always be shorter than of the normal humans or animals. This because of the fact that the clone child born will have the maturity of genes and other traits of growth matured upto that of the donor. So, such a clone has to live from that age to complete his life span.

Genetic diversity the gene pool of the world will obviously have similar traits which are being considered as a major redundancy  possible through reproductive cloning. The genetic diversity will get exceptions if reproductive cloning is done.

The Arguments against Cloning
The negative aspects of cloning can be examined by considering the arguments against  therapeutic and reproductive cloning separately.Arguments against Therapeutic Cloning
 Following are the four major arguments against therapeutic cloning The Anti-Abortion Argument, the Therapy-Enhancement Blur Argument, the Deal with Reality Argument, and the Anti-Medical Advancement Argument (Yount, 2004, p.5).

The Anti-Abortion Argument claims that the process of disrupting embryos at the blastocyst stage is illegal and immoral. The morality of destroying embryos is questioned in the case of therapeutic cloning.

The next main objection is that the Therapy-Enhancement Blur argument draws on the narrowing of the gap between therapy and development through therapeutic cloning. The usage of the treatment, those who promulgate this argument say, has extended to the betterment which, according to them, is not the right thing to do.

Next in line, the Deal with Reality argument can be seen as something close to a theological approach. The proponents of this argument believe that the reality of life and death cannot be kept separated from ones life. Many are of the opinion that diseases alone cannot or must ever be eliminated completely from the world.

The final one, the Anti-Medical Advancement argument, opines that the therapeutic cloning has a redundancy of knowing about a person more than for medical purposes which cannot be permitted on ethical grounds.

Arguments against Reproductive Cloning
The arguments made against reproductive cloning are Not IVF Argument, the Unacceptable Medical Risks Argument, the Psychological Harms Argument (Yount, 2004, p.2).

The Not IVF argument claims that the reproductive cloning is not a natural procedure on the initial stage. It is the person conducting the research who defines the possible and required qualities of the child produced. The promoters of this argument hold that this is totally against moral ethics. Moreover, they feel that there is a possibility that at times this can end up being great disasters.

The Unacceptable Medical Risks argument states that jeopardy is not far in the case of clones. Genetic as well as physical problems can occur in such individuals, forcing them to have a life with many difficulties.

The Psychological Harms Argument goes through the link between psychology and genetic relationship. A feel of copied identity and competing mentality to outsmart the donor will always remain there, causing psychological problems to the cloned individual.

Conclusion
The field of genetics and cloning has achieved the rapid growth and success over the recent years and the trend continues. The benefits and redundancies are being studied over years but could never diminish the glory of this concept. The scientists in the field are hoping for many developments making biomedical field a better domain of success to be deployed for the benefits of human race. If one considers the advantages and disadvantages, it becomes apparent that the former outweigh the latter. In terms of the benefits cloning brings in the medical field and the blessings humans can tap through it, cloning definitely is a desirable technology and the government should allow its practice. However, before deciding so, the authorities have to ensure that this technology is not used for attaining the vested interest of any party, including the scientists, by implementing appropriate regulations. The human race must learn to use as a boon as a boon and prevent its misuse and then they can negate the disadvantages.

The post-apartheid literature of South Africa reflected the underlying socio-political and cultural tensions prevailing in the country. While the period leading up to the imposition of the apartheid witnessed the whites enjoying a distinct privilege over the blacks, subversion of roles was soon on the cards. Nadine Gordimers famous novel Julys People, brought out in 1981, vividly documents the aftermaths of the revolt that took place in the 1980s. The narrative recounts the story of a white family that enjoyed class superiority prior to the South African revolution against racism. The novel itself is a landmark in the history of African literature as it predicts the course of events well before the racial segregation was dissolved in 1994. One of the most critical themes addressed in this novel is how social as well as domestic roles interchange and how this affects human relationships as a whole. Furthermore, the novel also explores the characters occasional outbursts as they can no longer relate to their changed roles.

Julys People recounts the story of the Smales family that used to enjoy a privileged social status courtesy of their white descent. The author builds up the backdrop of the narrative by imagining a civil war between the oppressors and the oppressed, in which the latter overturn the former. This incident compels the Smales family to flee Johannesburg and take refuge in the house of their black servant named July. The beginning divulges subtle hints as to the direction of the rest of the novel. By and large, the novel makes a singular attempt to point out that by the time it was written, a change was imminent in the socio-political context of the nation. The starting sequence of the novel bears ample testimony to the radical displacement of social roles between servants and masters
No knock but July, their servant, their host, bringing two pink glass cups of tea and a small tin of condensed milk, jaggedly-opened, specially for them, with a spoon in it (Gordimer 1).

It is quite apparent that July is introduced by the author as their servant, their host. This juxtaposition of roles immediately grabs the readers attention. As regards the change of roles depicted in Julys People, it may be noted that this change is projected by the author as a logical consequence to what the blacks experienced earlier during the dictatorial white regime. It may be noted that given the changed circumstances in the new world order of the blacks, the familiar meekness and loyalty expected of the servants class is no longer there, and that it is perfectly justifiable not to question the sincerity of human relations in the larger context of class conflicts. The earlier white supremacy is seen as referential points throughout the novel, most notably in the scene when Maureen Smale, almost in a feat of epiphany, rediscovers her past and tries to question the utter absurdity of the disdainful white attitude to the blacks. Upon looking at a picture of herself as a kid accompanied by her familys maid Lydia, she fails to reason why Lydia used to carry her book case everyday. This self-criticism by Maureen implies a sense of irresolute surrender not just to her unwitting guilt conscience, but also to the fact that time has changed and she must learn how to treat everyone on the basis of equality People in delirium rise and sink, rise and sink, in and out of lucidity (Gordimer 3).

The borderline between the servant-master relationships in Julys household is very well defined, as both Maureen, her husband Bamford Smale and their three children gradually come to understand.

However, this adjustment is difficult to make, especially since it was the Smales who used to command July earlier and not the other way round. The moments of explosion occur frequently for both the Julys family and the Smales family. As the precursor to a redefined state of hierarchy, situation of the hosts compels them to act more out of authority than loyalty to their former masters. As a matter of fact, Julys People goes beyond the traditional outlooks on master-servant relationships. It makes a wholehearted attempt at challenging long-held perceptions about how a relation dictated by power and position should be functioning when a paradigmatic shift in authority takes place. It may be noted, however, that neither the Smales nor the Julys are antagonistic to one another. It is just the uneasiness with newly ascribed roles that triggers a massive reversal of values and orientations in the novel.

The concept of exploding characters in Julys People may well be conceived of by the author during her 30-year long stay in Africa. In this sense, this notion is by no means a fanciful excogitation meant for sensationalizing the readers responses. What it actually achieves is quite encouraging for the international readers. The plot devices incorporated in the novel are unique and original. Far from providing just the exposition of resistant behavioral traits shown by the Smales, the narrative tools help sparking a strong response to peoples familiar ideas about racism.

In essence, Julys People by Nadine Gordimer is at once a futuristic tale of hope and prosperity and at the same time, a bleak narrative dealing with the likely implications of such transmutations. The authors basic objective is to show that liberalization of values does not blindly lead to the future. The Smales are liberal and virtuous. But that does not make much difference when it comes to demolishing the tools of exploitation and social subjugation. The need for the same is acutely realized by the Julys who represent the black brigade in Africa. The common human instinct to react negatively to intimidation is another key concept addressed by the author. She tries to instill the fictitious hope that encourages us to take forward steps in life through acceptance of change, without worrying about the uncertainties changes normally bring along.                                

Handmaid in this story are characterize as fertile women forced to bear children for barren and elite couples. They are trap into the Gilead society which was established in response to the crisis caused by severely decreased of birthrates. The state assumed a complete control of women s bodies and sense of individuality. Women in this society have limited individual freedom. Any activities and social involvement that may give them a sense of independence and literacy are restricted for them. They are not allowed to vote, to hold property, to acquire job and education. The definition of their existence in this type of society revolves in their duty to conceive and procreate. Women are not only treated inhumane emotionally and intellectually but also physically. During a woman s menstrual cycle, she is obliged to have an impersonal and wordless sex with the elite husband, with the wife holding her hands. Women are treated subhuman and incomplete wherein their sense of meaning lies in their fertility.

All handmaids in the novel are trained at the Red Center. A group of women called Aunts brainwashed and manipulated them into submission to their new role. Their primary and only role is to bear children for the elite and childless couple in the Republic. To maintain their purity, they are not allowed to freely express themselves, to read, to write and to associate with other men. Their birth names are being taken from them and rather be tattooed with a number for identitys sake. In addition, they are taught to believe the general idea that women should be the ones to blame in any ills of the society while men are always blameless. In addition, fertile women in the society are considered useless. In the Gileadean society, if a handmaid has a child, she will never be exiled to do hard labor. When tourists ask them if they live a fair life in that kind of society, handmaids should answer positively or else there is a risk of being arrested.

However even if substantial humane power is taken from the women in the society, they will still find a way to maintain their dignity. Other handmaids would rather  commit suicide then be treated like a toy. But Offred for example, the main character and the narrator, finds ways to manipulate her sexuality in subtlest ways. She is forcedly separated to her husband after the establishment of Republic of Gilead and whose only child is forcedly adapted by a childless elite couple in the Republic. Having proven to be fertile, she is considered a significant commodity in the society.

I used to think of my body as an instrument, of pleasure, or a means of transportation, or an implement for the accomplishment of my will . . . Now the flesh arranges itself differently. I m a cloud, congealed around a central object, the shape of a pear, which is hard and more real than I am and glows red within its translucent wrapping (Atwood 124).

She becomes a handmaid whose job is to bear children for elite, childless couple. Since fertility is rare in the Gilead society, handmaids are beneficial commodity to the society. Offred has one more year left to have a child before she is considered barren and so sent to the Colonies to be either a prostitute or a servant. Since Offred has been powerlessly separated from her family, she leads a restricted or repressed lifestyle.  Her emotional state regarding her seemingly hopeless situation fills her being with despair, resignation and rebellion. In the novel, the only physical description of Ofred is the only she tells about herself  I am thirty-three years old. I have brown hair. I stand five feet seven inches without shoes  (Atwood, Handmaid s Tale 143). Ofred becomes a handmaid to bear a child for Commander Fred and his wife Serena Joy. The commander however sees the realities of the situation.

The problem wasn t only with the women, he says. The main problem was with the men. There was nothing for them anymore . . . I m not talking about sex, he says. That was part of it, the sex was too easy... You know what they were complaining about the most Inability to feel. Men were turning off on sex, even. They were turning off on marriage. Do they feel now I say. Yes, he says, looking at me. Theydo (Atwood 128)

Though the commander is dissatisfied with his marriage and his role in the community, he is unwilling to take the risk of going out in his situation. But Commander Fred also introduces her to a secret club where women are allowed to dress in the way they want. He also engages her into intellectual pursuits such as reading and playing scrabble. Moreover, she is also given lotion and other cosmetics. Ofred just like other handmaids are hungry of knowledge and freedom, and so grab every opportunity that will fulfill their simple human desire.

The pen between my fingers is sensuous, alive almost, I can feel its power, the power of the words it contains. Pen Is Envy, Aunt Lydia would say, quoting another Center motto, warning us away from such objects. And they were right, it is envy. Just holding it is envy. I envy the Commander his pen. Its one more thing I would like to steal (Atwood 186).

Offred, like most women in Gilead society, is just an ordinary woman placed in an extraordinary circumstance. Offred is definitely not a hero in the story because even though she resists the system inwardly, she submits to the rules outwardly. Although she is friends with some women who are members of the resistance, she is never bold enough to join herself. As a matter of fact, she always felt uncomfortable with her mothers activism. Ultimately when she begins to have an affair with Nick, she seems to forget to escape and almost feels that life in Gilead is already bearable.

He was not a monster, to her. Probably he had some endearing trait he whistled, offkey, in the shower, he had a yen for truffles, he called his dog Liebchen and made it sit up for little pieces of raw steak. How easy it is to invent a humanity, for anyone at all. What an available temptation (Atwood 120).

The physical and emotional companionship she has with Nick makes the restrictions almost bearable. Offred is apparently a good hearted yet passive character. She never fights liberally and strongly. If she does escape, it is because of the resistance or Nick, and not because of anything she does herself. The writer somehow condemns Offred because of her complacency . Even if she will continue to complain, she fails to make a difference. Tiny rebellions must be guaranteed with will and strength. But in the case of Offred, she only managed to escape because of luck rather than personal or physical resistance

Gilead society is dictator where power is imposed entirely from the top. There is no possibility of petition, no hope that an outside power will intervene the way United Nations interfered during the era of apartheid and no way of protecting oneself legally from the government since the government itself enforced this kind of dystopian or miserable society. The most frightening part of this book is how Gilead authority distortedly justify the given norms and standards specifically the nature of the handmaids through biblical stories in the Old Testament. This is not just a story about the uneven distribution of human rights between man and woman but most importantly this is a glimpse of reality towards human nature, what man is capable of doing either good or bad.

The Handmaid s Tale carries on the tradition in maintaining control over names. Gilead society creates a system of titles and vocabularies. Men are defined by their military rank and strength while women are define only by their gender roles such as wives, Marthas or Handmaids as if their names defines their sense of individuality. Jews and Blacks for example are defined by biblical terms that alienate them from the rest of the society which makes their persecution easier. That label which symbolizes their identity is already a manifestation of inequality by which their sense of purpose is classified according to his or her given distinction. As a result, women in this type of society readily accept the given roles. Women with their lack of control because of illiteracy and ignorance support Gilead s existence by willingly participating in it, serving as political instruments for reproduction. In this totalitarian state, the character of Offred suggests that individuals can endure oppression willingly as long as they receive some slight amount of freedom or power. Women from Gilead society perceive their situation as part of the natural order of things so they willingly participate and submit to the customs.

One of the major of Gileadean regime is on the control of sex and sexuality. Before the establishment of Gilead society, the commander and the aunts claim that women are better protected in Gilead. They promised that they will be treated with respect that is safe from abuse and violence. To prove this, they executed lesbians and gays, outlaw divorce and second marriages and they kill abortion doctors. But it is surprisingly at the end of the novel how Gilead society itself institutionalizes violence, how they created an automatic group of prostitutes called handmaids to serve the male elite.

One of the concept or themes subtly prevailing in this novel is the concept of utilitarianism where actions must be for the benefit of majority s happiness and pleasure. Note that the Gileadean society is in the midst of extreme pressures where their population is shrinking. They will be totally disappeared if they will not make concrete and severe actions. Obviously the Gileadean society is acting under the idea of utilitarianism that attempts to do what they think is best for the greatest number of people via women s isolation and ovaries. The survival of the group they believed depends on women s fertility. This concept may seem rationally illogical but Gilead society approaches it that way perceiving women as simply sexual symbols with their misinterpretation and literal approach towards the Bible.

I choose to answer Question  3

A Doll House is a tragedy play written by Henrik Ibsen in the year 1879.  It is one of the most famous plays around the world and is required by many colleges and professors to be evaluated and read. The play focuses on the themes of marriage which took a lot of controversies following its production and adaptation through the years. On the other hand, it was accepted as a breakthrough from the customary approach to play writing such as expressionism and romanticism. Moreover, Ibsens work was also distinguished as one of the true feminist play of the century. The play also showcases the natural things that happen in real life and it focuses also on the different responsibilities and tasks that men and women play during the 19th century.

All tragedy plays involve a change of fortune of one or more main characters. This will be observed in the play A Doll House. This play also shows an opposing thought to Aristotles definition of a tragedy in which he explicated that tragedies only happen to those with power and high status. The changes of fortune of the characters that are ordinary people living their ordinary lives show that a true tragic play involves the exploration of each characters weaknesses and suffering. Ibsen created two separate endings to the play A Doll House. In effect, this created two different stories. He wrote the tragic ending and this is the original one but he was also forced to write a different ending which was softer and offered more acceptances to his initial audience of German people. Under the conditions of a change of fortune and certain tragedy play attributes, both endings will be contrasted and compared.
A Doll House is one of the best tragic plays available today. Basically, a tragedy means that there is a conflict of characters, values and morals in the play. This involves twists and turns within the storyline and essentially requires a change in fortune nearing the end of the story. Comparing this to A Doll House, Ibsen provided a definite tragic ending to this play and also inserted brief but important events within the story which also showed the tragedies existing within characters, their society and traditions. The original tragic ending of play was highlighted by Nora leaving his husband Torvald and her children. This event defined that real tragedy of the play and was more so captivating because it also gave out a resolution to the characters problems in a way that conservative and conventional people would definitely refuse. This change of fortune event also helped Ibsen to pierce to the hearts and minds of his audience. One of the most important quotes to support the tragic ending in the story was the dialogue of the realization of Nora

You and papa have committed a great sin against me. It is your fault that I have made nothing of my life. Our home has been nothing but a playroom. I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I was papas doll-child and here the children have been my dolls. (A Doll House Act III)

This quote from Nora highlighted the definite change of pace in the story and this was also a key dialogue in which the audience will realize that the story is going to be tragic. The importance of the change of fortune of the main characters in this version of Ibsens ending is to magnify the tragic events that were happening in between the story and emphasize all the emotions and sensations in the end of the story. In relation to the need to have character fall from a high place and remain there, my opinion is that this is not really important and this does not define the real meaning of tragedy. Falling from a higher place down a low one very subjective and does not really relate to tragedy. In actual analysis of the original tragic ending, Nora was actually in a lower place during the beginning of the play and was escalated to a higher place due to her realization of her roles and the situation of her marriage. This realization and recognition of Nora is the highlight of the tragedy. Let me quote one of the lines that Nora used to express her sad realization of what things were

I was simply your little songbird, your doll, and from now on you would handle it more gently than ever because it was so delicate and fragile. At that moment, Torvald, I realized that for eight years Id been living her with a strange man and that Id borne him three children. Oh, I cant bear to think of it - I could tear myself to little pieces

(A Doll House Act III)

One of the things that counteracted the magnanimous realization of Nora was that in the original ending she decided to leave her husband and children. This was probably the hardest thing to accept as a spectatoraudience of the play. Nora leaving her children was not really acceptable as compared to Nora leaving her husband. This also brings to light the real tragedy of the story. This tragic ending is one of the reasons why Ibsen was forced to change the ending. One of his play coordinators realized that the tragic ending will not fit the traditions and the likes of their initial audience in Germany so Ibsen changed it.

In this alternative ending, we can clearly say that this has changed the whole perception of the story. Ibsen regretted making an alternative and labeled this ending a barbaric outrage in relation to what he originally wrote. In this alternative ending, Nora was guided to see her children after the confrontation that happened. Nora sees her children and without warning she collapsed and then this was already the end of the story. Furthermore, it was also shown that Nora did not choose to leave her husband and children. This version of the ending definitely lacked grandeur and has no character. Compared to a tragedy play this ending changed the pace of the story to a traditional one. The tragic ending was not present and this made a clear-cut difference between the original story with the original ending and the revised one. The change of fortune of the main character in the alternative ending was not present. In conclusion, it is indeed necessary for a change of fortune of the characters in tragedy but this doesnt mean that they must fall from a high place down to a low one. Tragedies are defined by going against the conventional flow of decisions and soft and happy endings.