Cultures And The Globalization Of Mcdonalds Cultural Studies Essay

Cultures And The Globalization Of Mcdonalds Cultural Studies Essay In this essay I aim to develop a better understanding of globalization through studying something vital to globalizationMcDonaldization. I am focusing on a McDonald s in Bradford in the United Kingdom and the categories of people who frequent it and why they go there. Meanwhile, I will contrast the McDonald s in Bradford with McDonald s in China on the basis of questionnaires, observation, communications and memory, indicating whether McDonald s in the two countries is similar or different. By highlighting on customers as well as staff nationalities and behaviours, menu, decoration, I would advise that the influence of McDonald s as a symbol of American culture has been increasing throughout the world, and it is clear to realize that it comes under the heading of globalization. Subsequently, this study therefore gives some support to the cultural aspects of globalization including the theory about Mcdonaldization. Description of the ethnographic study in McDonald s I went shopping in the city centre of Bradford on 13th December 2009. I was attracted by the obvious logo of McDonald s, the striking festive menu drawing as well as free-wifi drawing in the transparent windows. Subsequently, I entered the restaurant, as usual in China in my memory and waited in the team line as well as prepared to order. Meanwhile, I found the menu in UK roughly the same in china except for a slight difference. For example, McDonald s hamburger in china will not directly put the raw cheese into hamburger. The staff with a Christmas hat and the McDonald s uniform smiled at me to help me order the menu. Surprisingly, the waiting time was relatively short, the same as the McDonald s in China. Thus, I am reminded of the four elements for the success of McDonald s business systems that refer to efficiency, calculability, predictability and control. The decoration in McDonald s is warm with golden, white or mirror walls, light ivory wooden table tops, blue or deep red cushion with golden blackboard wooden chairs and upholstered armchairs in deep red colours. Contemporary art or framed photographs handing on the walls are also attractive. It is worth mentioning that in the corner, many paintings are displayed on the walls around the children playground area, especially those of McDonald s Characters such as Ronald McDonald Grimace, Ham burglar and Birdie the Early Bird. In general, the decoration of McDonald s is aimed at making the store look more casual and sunny, which is similar to Starbucks. Compared with McDonald s in China, the decoration style is similar, but in the children playground area, there are more facilities like slides, wooden horses in China. Apparently the facilities are the same in Bradford and China. Behind the food serving area there are numerous technologies like automatic French fry machines and various c ertain products like happy meal which are available to the customers almost instantaneously through the carefully regulated and controlled system. With respect to people, there are several nationalities such as British, China, Pakistan, and Africa among the customers and the staff. Most people wear leisure clothes and overall the colours of people s clothes are drab. It is clear that the area of age is extensive, up to eighty- year- old people, down to two- aged children. Interestingly, the most frequent combination is an adult accompanied by her or his child, who plays the toy from happy meal as well as eats food. Meanwhile, McDonald s is the best choice for young people to enjoy the foods after shopping as the food is inexpensive and convenient. It is worth noting that both in Bradford and China I found people are more likely to be treated similarly in McDonald s, irrespective of their race, sex, sexual orientation, or social class. Accordingly, they have a high awareness to take the empty boxes and litters to the trash before they leave. Specifically, the staff with a smile to everyone and provide efficient goods and service s to meet the customer. A brief overview of the perspective A summary of my chosen theory of globalization would then follow. This is such a vast topic that I would have to focus on just a small part of globalization theory. I am particularly interested in theorizing the globalization of culture. Accordingly, I would be well-advised to consider the Mcdonaldization, as one of a number of globalization processes. Ritzer 2004 puts forward the view that globalization can be in general identified as the worldwide proliferation of practices, relations and social life, meanwhile, the people tend to share a new global consciousness across continents. In terms of the theorizing the cultural aspects of globalization, Pieterse (2003) suggests that there are three major approaches divided into cultural differentialism, convergence and hybrization. More specifically, first and foremost, with regard to lasting difference, Pieterse (2003) admits that the differences in culture perspective exist among the different regions and countries. To a great extent, in this theory area, some people like Huntington (1996) believe that the people tend to persist the local culture, civilization and remain culturally distinct. However, Ritzer (2004) believes that compare to the radically view of Huntington, the existence of a distinct attitude is due to a clash between the developed countries like the Unites States and the developing countries like China. With the advent of an increasingly modern development once the economic develop to a certain level, the developing countries like China will seek and adapt other cultures to enter the global market totally, while at the same time the developed countries tend to welcome what they provide. Therefore, in Ritzer s view, Huntington s opinion is likely to exist on the short time. Secondly, with respect to cultural growing sameness, Ritzer (2004) points out that global assimilation is a tendency, which means to some degree the cultures of the world are regarded as growing increasingly the same. To illustrate, Ritzer (2004) also figures that cultural convergence is characterized by the appearance of Cultural imperialism , westernization, Americanization, Mcdonaldization and world culture . Last but not the least, with regard to ongoing mixing of cultures, according to the view of Pieterse (2003), hybrization emphasized on growing diversity combination of the unique mixtures of local as well as global, thereby resulting in unique phenomenon in different areas. It is important to point out that to some extent it is the same meaning of the glocalization , which has been indicated by Robertson (2001). Also, Robertson (2001) distinguished the difference between globalization and glocalization, for example, the core concepts of globalization include capitalism, Americanization and Mcdonaldization whereas the main ideas of glocalization include hybrization, creolization and heterogeneization. To put it in another way, he believes that the outcome of globalization processes in future is likely to be the ongoing open-ended mixing that is glocalization. Accordingly, with respect to Mcdonaldization theory, it is critical to point out that the sociologist George Ritzer (1993) coins the McDonaldization in his book The McDonaldization of Society. He describes that McDonaldization is the process by which the beliefs of the fast-food restaurant seem to play a dominant role in the increasing number of sectors of American society and the rest of the world. On the one hand, Mcdonaldization is clearly closely related to a global cultural perspective as well as the influence of McDonald s and McDonaldization has a dramatic spread of the worldwide homogenization of societies. To illustrate, Bryman (2003) along with Ram (2004) indicates that McDonaldization is not only the extension of the sameness of food products but also the proliferation of a series of business principles as well as operation systems around the world. Moreover, it is worth noting that Big Mac Index is the significant index of McDonaldization, published by a prestigious magazine, the economist. It demonstrates the purchasing capacity of diverse currencies in the world dependent on the local price (in dollars) of the Big Mac as an identical basket of goods and services in each country. Meanwhile, Thomas (1999) in New York Times Magazine states that Big Mac Index creates the ubiquity and unique role of McDonald s around the world. On the other hand, Mcdonaldization may be considered as not only an illustration to drive the globalization process but also a major motor force in the future development of globalization. More specifically, according to the opinion of George Ritzer (2004), admittedly, a certain degree of glocalization happens with Mcdonaldization, but the majority of aspects of Mcdonaldization relate to globalization that the existence of homogeneity more than heterogeneity is related to the process of Mcdonaldization. For example, Robertson (2001) demonstrates that in glocalization theory, social processes are contingent and depend on the different geographic areas while in globalization theory, social processes are deterministic. Analysis of the McDonald s within Globalization model An analysis of McDonald s based on the theory of the globalization of culture as well as Mcdonaldization would then follow. To put it another way, the central issue would be discussed that the fact of ethnographic studies and a general sociological understanding of the globalization culture as well as Mcdonaldization, which is consistent or inconsistent. In terms of differences in cultures existing among the different regions and countries are demonstrated by Pieterse (2003), which is the same story. To illustrate, nowadays McDonald s for Chinese tends to be an excellent place to have fun together in particular the students group and parents comply with children while Mcdonald s for British is likely to be a convenient and inexpensive place to deal with hungry. More specifically, Mcdonald s for Chinese children is regarded as a pleasure ground more than a fast food restaurant. Thus, different cultures lead to the different decoration designs in the children playground area, which seems to provide more facilities like the slide and the wooden horse in China. However, whether Mcdonald s American culture will be constant in the long-term as suggested by Huntington (1996) or will last for in a short-term as indicated by Ritzer (2004) is still to be proved by time. It is worth noting the third possibility of Pieterse (2003), where it is may be likely to increase diversity association of the unique mixtures of local culture as well as Mcdonald s America culture and then leads to a unique phenomenon in Mcdonald s among different areas. With respect to Mcdonaldization and the influential globalizing flow, an illustration of global culture assimilation is argued by George Ritzer (2004), which is a true story. In the first place, it is universal acknowledge that McDonald s is the leading global foodservice retailer which occupies a central place in American popular culture. According to McDonald s official website, the statistics points out that McDonalds operates over 31,000 restaurants in 119 countries around the world and employs more than 1.5 million people. In the second place, in mentioning McDonald s worldwide operation system, the McDonald s staff in Bradford told me that in general McDonald s operation around the world is nearly the same because any McDonald s systems are associated with the centrally controlled system of American headquarters and every individual who is working in McDonald s knows what is expected of him based on uniform McDonald s operation and training manual. Specifically, the McDonald s staff in Bradford also told me some regulations and documents like 8 steps making a McDonalds Big Mac according to the McDonald s operation and training manual. Therefore, the situation in McDonald s for workers, customers and managers is around the same. For example, a year ago I lived in China or this year I live in England, McDonald s for me offers the best available way to get from being hungry to being full due to the similar convenience as well as efficiency both China and England. It is worth noting that it also corresponds to the theory of the dimensions of Mcdonaldization indicated by George Ritzer (2004), who claims that efficiency, predictability, calculability and control through nonhuman technology are the important elements of the McDonald s success. In other words, efficiency is generally beneficial to customers who are able to obtain what they need more quickly. As regards Mcdonaldization the core concepts of globalization demonstrated by Robertson (2001) during the observation, are found to be a little different. The main reason is that the local strategies of McDonald s in different countries reflect the integration of McDonald s American culture and local culture. For instance, McDonald s managers in 2008 realized that the spectacular Olympic Games would be held in Beijing began on August 8th 2008 at 08:08:08 PM, when the people around the world would be happy with excitement and pretension. Thus, McDonalds unveiled four new Olympic-themed television advertisements developing its im lovin it brand essence with the magic and ideals of the Olympic Games to attract people in particular Chinese. On the other hand, it is worth noting that George Ritzer (2004) who admitted there are some things which reflect the features of glocalization in Mcdonald s whereas the main characteristic corresponds to the globalization and the sameness more than difference in the process of Mcdonaldization in contemporary. To a great extent, it is true, that although there are some modifications based on different countries the demand for the marketing specific marketing strategies of Mcdonald s, the main business model and culture idea of Mcdonald s is constant like nonhuman technology service. Conclusion Overall, it is important to point out that the situation between McDonald s in Bradford and McDonald s in China was same similarities rather than differences, which takes into account abundant elements such as business system, nationalities, behaviour, menu and decoration based on the questionnaires, observation, communications and memory. Meanwhile, the fact of ethnographic studies and a general sociological understanding of the globalization culture as well as Mcdonaldization are likely to correspond with each other mainly. Subsequently, there are some points I am partial to reiterate as followed. First and foremost, admittedly, a comparison of McDonald s in Bradford and McDonald s in China on the basis of an ethnographic study reveals that McDonald s has become a symbol of American culture symbolising inexpensive, convenient and nonhuman technology service in people s minds with a global influence under the heading of globalization. Secondly, the situation of McDonald s and Mcdonaldization reflect the characteristics of global cultural homogeneity beyond the features of differentialism. To put it in another way, the Mcdonaldization is a type of the idea of worldwide homogeneity of societies through the influence of multinational corporations. Thirdly, in my personal perspective, the development process of McDonald s maybe considered as a process of dealing with the conflict of local culture and American McDonald s culture and assimilating each other in order to balance this paradox. Therefore, McDonald s paradox to a great extent can be considered as the rivalry between globalization and interregional in terms of cultural aspects. Last but not the least, nearly the same as Pieterse s (2003) opinion, as far as I am concerned, Mcdonald s in future may be likely to grow with diversity connection of the unique mixtures of local culture as well as Mcdonald s America culture and then create a unique phenomenon in Mcdonald s among different areas. Accordingly, the outcome of globalization processes is open-ended leading to a mixture in the future.

do high school administrators have the right to have unannounced locke :: essays research papers

Do high school administrators have the right to carry out unannounced body or locker searches? Does it violate the student’s body or personal belongings? Many people think that it is wrong for administrators to have random body and locker searches, but I think it is ok and somewhat necessary. Having unannounced body searches or locker searches is necessary because they keep schools safer, they enforce rules and they avoid harmful incidents.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Random body and locker searches keep schools safer. When someone or their locker is searched, whatever it is that is illegal is removed and the student is suspended. This helps because it gets rid of whatever isn’t safe and takes the person who brought it out of the school for a while. This avoids anything else from happening   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I’m not saying that every student that gets caught with something is a bad student. Sometimes unsafe or illegal items are brought to school by â€Å"accident†. We all know that accidents happen. That is why there are special guidelines for â€Å"accidents†. For example, a boy goes fishing with his dad on Sunday. They use a pocketknife to cut and gut the fish. The boy puts the pocketknife back in his jacket pocket and wears the jacket to school the next day. The boy doesn’t realize the knife is in there until he takes the coat off and puts his gloves in his pockets and outs and outs the jacket in his locker. Now the boy wouldn’t have gotten in trouble if he had followed the guidelines for when accidents happen. All her had to do was take the pocketknife to an administrator and explain the situation and he wouldn’t have gotten suspended. The locker searches enforce the rules because it gives the students an opportunity to ke ep themselves out of trouble, while keeping students from bringing anything because they know about the locker and body searches and wont bring anything to school to avoid punishment.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Have you ever sat and wondered if the students at Columbine High School were given random body and locker searches would that incident have happened?

Women’s contemporary work

In the United States the labor market is strongly segregated according to sex: there are distinctive men's and women's occupations, jobs, and work tasks. Examples of women's gender-non-traditional occupations are: engineer, manager of a private business, technician, police officer, auto mechanic. This work reveals some of these hidden aspects of women's work. In different ways, the studies reported here point to the pervasiveness of gender as an organizing principle in the world of employment. The first goal of this paper is to identify the systematic and institutionally created and reinforced dimensions of women's work experience. The paper shows how gender affects the ways in which women are included in the labor force, the impact of work technologies, the threat of sexual harassment, government policy toward workers, the accessibility of labor organizations, the ability to protest collectively, and employed mothers' attitudes toward their work lives as related to the division of labor at home. Today the majority of working-age women (18-64) are in the labor force. Single and divorced women tend to have higher labor force participation rates than married or older widowed women, but marital status is having a decreasing effect on women's chances of working for pay. Although giving birth has traditionally been a reason for women to drop out of paid work and begin full-time homemaking, as the labor force participation rate for women has increased, the rate for mothers of young children has increased even faster. By 1983, half of all mothers of two-year-olds were in the labor force, and the proportion of women working increased with the age of the youngest child (Waldman 1983). Over their lifetimes, virtually all women will spend more years in the labor force than as child rearers. Most women, like most men, work as individuals for large or small companies and agencies; the family enterprise has virtually disappeared. The last holdout, the family farm, has largely gone under in the 1980s farm crisis. In 1983, 93 percent of employed women were wage and salary workers, working neither for themselves nor in family businesses, but for companies and businesses. Women workers are important to all industrial sectors. Women are more than 50 percent of the workers in retail trade; finance, insurance, and real estate; and services, particularly entertainment, health, hospitals, elementary and secondary education, welfare, and religion. Only in agriculture, mining, and construction are women less than 20 percent of the workers. Fox and Hess-Biber (1984) have summarized the extensive body of research on women workers: The occupations held by women are concentrated in the secondary labor market – jobs characterized by low wages, poor working conditions, little chance for advancement, lack of stability, and personalized employer/employee relations conducive to arbitrary and capricious work discipline. Although there has been some limited decline in sex segregation since 1970, the work world remains basically segregated into men's jobs and women's jobs. Even the slight decline appears less positive when examined closely: women tend to be able to enter previously male work when those occupations are declining in power and status and males are able to find better jobs elsewhere. On the whole, women have been able to increase their numbers in the labor force because the occupations and industries into which they are segregated have been expanding their need for labor. The barriers to occupational change are extensive, and involve both public and private patriarchy: childhood socialization of boys and girls to want different work, discriminatory practices of career counselors and employment firms, corporate personnel practices, harassment by male coworkers, failure of government to require affirmative action, reluctance of women to face the battles and hostilities that would result from their entering nontraditional work, child care responsibilities, and the refusal or inability of husbands to share housework and child care equally. Women's wages tend to be lower than men's even within the same occupational groupings, whether these are professional subspecialties or blue-collar work. On the whole, women and men do not work in the same occupations. The expansion of women's paid work since World War II has been less in professional or highly paid technical work, and more in service occupations characterized by low pay and lack of promotion opportunities. In some cases the hierarchical relationship of men and women is built directly into the work structure of individuals. The relation of an executive secretary to an executive is that of an â€Å"office wife†. In other cases the hierarchy is occupational. Staff doctors, predominantly male, leave orders for hospital nurses (predominantly female) to carry out. Management of the labor force is a white male prerogative. Although low-level management positions may be filled by women, 96. 5 percent of persons making $50,000 or more in executive, administrative, or managerial positions in the 1980 census were males; 94. 9 percent were white males. Among members of professional specialties making $50,000 or more, 96 percent were male and 90 percent were white males (U. S. Census Bureau 1980). The higher-level managers not only manage the labor force, they also set and carry out the policies and programs of business, public administration, education, medicine, and other fields. Nor does government offer an antidote to disproportionate male power. In 1982, women were only 12 percent of state legislators and 6 percent of mayors; in 1983 they were only 4 percent of the U. S. Congress (U. S. Census Bureau 1985). Promotion tracks tend to require a flow of family work mothers generally lack. Promotion in skilled and semiskilled blue-collar jobs typically depends not on outside schooling but on on-the-job training. Skilled workers such as electricians and plumbers are trained through apprenticeships, many of which require nighttime classes for several years. This may contribute to the fact that women were only 7 percent of registered apprentices in 1991. Semiskilled workers learn their jobs often in training programs that take place in overtime. This means that women are excluded from such training because they are less likely to have a family member available to care for their children (Kemp 247). An increasing amount of control over women's daily labor is held by employers, not husbands. Husbands may willingly accept, even urge, wives to engage in less homemaking and child care in recognition that what women can buy with the money they earn working may be more valuable than what they can produce through their unpaid labor at home. What they can buy depends on what goods and services companies offer; in other words, what employees are paid to do. The goods and services that are produced, the conditions of the work that produces them, and the market relations under which they are offered to clients and customers are all hierarchically ordered. American society is capitalist. The increase of public patriarchy is an increase in the power of corporate managers and the upper class. It is an increase in the power of higher-level men at the expense of the erstwhile privileges of lower-level men. Upper-level men continue to have stay-at-home wives and in addition have women employees, whereas lower-level men have either no wives or working wives and are themselves employees. They obtain goods and services to the extent that the decision-making elite considers the provision of such goods and services to be in the interest of the elite, and to the extent that the men's wage levels or other statuses permit. Although the benefit is largely to the upper-level men, it is not only to them. The jobs of many working women are oriented to giving â€Å"service with a smile,† making life nicer for men at all levels (Hochschild 1983). Examples range from television entertainers, provided free by advertisers to everyone with access to a television set, to airline flight attendants, provided by airlines to those who can afford to fly. It could be said that under public patriarchy, women are provided as a public good for all men. Poorer men who could never afford homemaker wives may now receive the services of working women, albeit at a much lower level. For example, men in some public chronic care hospitals have their beds made and rooms cleaned by women workers. Women's benefit from public patriarchy depends on their economic class and their family status. Although women's wages are well below men's, professional women's wages are higher than unskilled women's wages. Clearly, what can be bought can be bought better by those with more income. The career woman combines freedom and income to a greater extent than other women except those with clear title to inherited wealth. Those who perceive themselves as powerless and fit mainly for motherhood will reject policies and practices connected with public patriarchy. These particulars may be less matters of income and more matters of education and class background. Low-income women may be better off under the programs of the welfare state than under the power of lowincome husbands. Women may get both jobs in the public sector and services from the public sector. Services to low-income people are provided to women as well as men (such as free television or Medicaid hospital beds). Married women at most levels of the class system may enter the welfare system when they become divorced. Compared with husbands, public agencies may be more reliable, more amenable to negotiation, and less likely to become violent while drunk. The increase in working women and the increasing importance of public patriarchy have various implications for men and women. Lower wages and job segregation for women assure the continuation of male domination. Speaking of the relation between women's low wages in public and their subordination in the family, Heidi Hartmann ( 1981b) says, â€Å"The lower pay women receive in the labor market both perpetuates men's material advantage over women and encourages women to choose wifery as a career. Second, then, women do housework, childcare, and perform other services at home which benefit men directly. Women's home responsibilities in turn reinforce their inferior labor market position† (p. 22). Thus public patriarchy continues to uphold private patriarchy even as it undercuts and changes it. Just as women differ from each other, so they share a number of common features almost irrespective of their race, class, and family responsibilities. All women's wages are lower than those of equivalently skilled and qualified men; all women are vulnerable to stereotypical assumptions about their aptitudes and their commitment to work, in particular, about the potential impact of their current or future children upon their work; all women are vulnerable to sexual harassment. Despite the factors which distinguish women from each other, it is still possible to discuss the disadvantages that women suffer as a group. Minority women are differentially affected by the change. Black men and women have always been subject to a patriarchy originating outside of, and destructive to, their family structure. In the early stages of the women's movement some feminists seemed to envy black women their freedom from the private patriarchy of black husbands, without recognizing the oppression they suffered from the public patriarchy of white, male-dominated society. For black women and for other minorities, the family can be both a source of oppression and a protection against the worst excesses of capitalism. It has been suggested that there are very likely to be increased opportunities – in terms of both recruitment and promotion – for women in the field of computing as a consequence of its internal organisational shifts. Commentators are divided as to whether the kinds of social and communication skills which are now seen as critical for such work are attributable to nature or nurture, but are united in thinking that we are more likely to find them in women than in men. Women, typically, are seen as more empathetic, creators of harmony as opposed to hostility, of co-operation. The new technologies associated with computers are being hailed or decried as the basis of a new revolution for women. Women's labor force participation remains high for all ages and marital statuses. But past experience has made it clear that employment in occupations may expand or contract with economic change. There is evidence that the high-tech economy will automate some of the services and clerical work that have been the mainstay of women's employment. One possibility is that decreased employment will send women back into the home. Housewife† has often been a euphemism for â€Å"unemployed,† and may become so to a greater extent. It is not clear, however, that unemployed women will in fact become housewives supported entirely by their husbands (Bose 90). Private patriarchy declined in part because many men did not see a benefit to themselves in supporting a wife. Perhaps unemployed women will become divorced unemployed women. Perhaps they will become welfare mothe rs subject to a particularly important part of the public patriarchy. Perhaps they will find jobs in newly developing industries. All of these changes have taken place within a relatively short space of time. There is no denying that women's employment rights have radically increased in that time. But for all of this, women still earn a great deal less than men (if full-time and part-time women workers are considered together, about 70 per cent of men's hourly wages). Occupational segregation has remained almost constant to date and women are still concentrated, for the most part, at the bottom of the wage hierarchy. A few women have broken through one or more layers of glass ceiling, but the majority remains in jobs which, however demanding and skilled, pay less than those jobs in which men work. The social division of labor is maintained. Women do women's work and men do men's work, both in the home and in the paid work place. Women's work is low paid or unpaid; men's work is higher-paid, enabling men on the whole to buy women's work both at home and in the market. Control over social policies remains in the hands of men.

Red My Secret Favorite Color Essay Example

Red My Secret Favorite Color Essay Example Red My Secret Favorite Color Essay Red My Secret Favorite Color Essay Red my secret favorite color Red is my favourite colour secret favourite colour. Why I like red has always been a mystery, and well, even I cared less to sit and think why red? Everyone has their own favourite colour (although I never understood how we decide our favourite colour. I think there must be a gene in our very complicated human body for that too) and so do I, but mine is secret! I don’t tell anyone about my choice of colour, the mere reason being – it is not supposed to be a boys’ colour. I really fail to understand who decided, and moreover how did they decide that blue is the shade for boys and pink for girls? 6 I mean, how can someone else decide what is my favorite colour? If I want my room to be painted red and black, why does everyone else say that it should be blue instead? The world is, like our human body, very complicated! The only problem in me as a young boy has been anger. Anger more than the word actually means! I still very clearly remember getting a score of 113 out of 150 in a â€Å"Magnitude of anger in You† test when the class average was just 58! So, that makes it very clear. Why I am talking about my anger is because I relate this to my favourite colour red. Red is usually used to symbolize anger, violence and aggression. So it may be my choice of colour red that attracts anger in me, or it may be completely the opposite – anger in me being the reason for my liking towards red. Whatever it may be, I still love red. What else does red symbolize? Blood! Blood really fascinates me, well not when it is pouring out of my own knee! But generally, I like blood; perhaps it started when I used to see blood every night. That does not mean I am a Dracula; it was actually my dad’s tiny drop of blood that was forced out of his finger every days to check his sugar level. I used to get excited about that ‘dark red liquid’ and hold the machine at a distance from his finger and tell him to aim that drop of blood onto the white strip of that machine, but then mum would give me those looks so I knew I was supposed to get the machine closer to his finger. Since then I like the dark shade of red that blood possesses. It was this fascination towards blood that incited me to go and watch Twilight! Poor fellows the other boys who told me it’s a girly movie and I shouldn’t be watching it obviously didn’t know that I saw it not for Edward Cullen or for that matter even Bella. I was going to see blood (although I was quite disappointed at the very limited ‘screening’ of blood in the movie). And how would they know anyway, after all they didn’t know about my secret favourite colour? Whenever I think of the colour red, one thing that is very prominent in my thoughts is my dad’s red tie. Aah! I have never wanted anything more than that in my life. And I envy him so much, not just for possessing one, but for the fact that he doesn’t let me wear it! Only once had I got the honor of having it around my neck – during the Model United Nations, when I had literally pleaded my dad and convinced him that I will keep it very safely. I walked with my head up in the air throughout the day. I wish he saw my love for that red tie and gave it to me more often. Strangely enough, I can say I sometimes hate red too. I hate it when I see lots of it in the rear lights and I know I’m stuck in a traffic jam late at night; I hate it when I am late to school, and the last traffic light goes red, just when I’m almost there; and I completely hate it when I am almost done programming my java applet and then a sign appears in red – â€Å"Error†. But whatever it may be, red continues to attract me. I don’t how or why, but red seems to give me strength, it gives me passion, shows me my aim. I wear red, I feel confident. I think of my future, I see that red dot in the centre of the dartboard my aim and the difficulties I have to face to reach there. Red is not just a colour to me, it’s much more – it’s my secret favourite colour.

Art in culture essays

Art in culture essays Art is an expression of a particular person, or group of people. Art can have a large effect on culture, as it can be symbolic of traits, morals, and religious characteristics. An artist is defined as a person whose creative work shows sensitivity and imagination.1 That sensitivity and imagination is what can make a culture. Artists have the ability to manipulate the form of their art therefore manipulating the experience of that art.2 Art is everywhere ; it is in the car we drive, the magazine we read, and in the food that we eat. Art is something that influences many parts of our lives. Art is what drives us to be creative. To make a car better, we need to have an impeccable design. To build a better house, we have to have an imagination to construct. Art is in everything around us whether it is the car we drive or the house we go home to, it is someones artwork. It took someones creativity and thought to fabricate the masterpiece. The arts provide a way for people to explore new possibilities to notice the world.2 Art defines a culture because culture is a pattern of behaviors, ideas, and values shared by a group.3 Without art, what is a culture? A way of life? Culture is sometimes defined as the tastes in art and manners that are favored by a social group.1 Some would come to the conclusion that there isnt culture without art. If you take away all man made things, do you have culture left? Culture is an expression, and without art, there is nothing left but survival. Art offers a type of release, whether through song, paint, clay, or simply writing in a diary. Everyone has a passion for a type of work, whether it be crunching numbers on a calculator or spraying paint all over a canvas. Everyone likes to think that their work shows sensitivity and imagination. People also like to strive to ...

Macbeth as Tragedy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Macbeth as Tragedy - Essay Example For instance, the Elizabethan viewers were so concerned about the subject matter that can be seen in conventional tragedies. Besides, the main characteristics of a tragic play include a hero and his fatal flaw and his death in the end. McEvoy (2006) makes clear that â€Å"For Aristotle, a tragedy has a main character, a protagonist† (p. 208). The theme within the play can be divided into a number of sub-plots. For instance, the whole play can be considered as Lady Macbeth’s villainy and its aftereffects. At the same time, the play can be considered as the aftereffect of Macbeth’s ambitiousness and impotency (say, his inability to be a father and to commit cruel deeds). On the other side, the play can be evaluated as revenge conducted by King Duncan’s sons. From a different angle of view, the form of the play is strictly limited to the sphere of conventional tragic plays during Elizabethan age. The literary elements in the play include the basic literary el ements of tragedies. B. Tragic qualities of the play Macbeth and larger messages The tragic qualities of the play Macbeth is interconnected with the traditional norms on tragedies and tragic heroes.

Global issues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Global issues - Essay Example The economic inequality refers to the gap that exists between the rich and the poor; whereas the social inequality is concerned with the freedom of speech, right to vote, the extent of property rights, etc. There are various factors that influence the income inequality in a particular country. Some of the major factors are the family structure, the rapid advancements in technology, the rate of immigration and the growing markets. The family structure is changing. The rate of women in the labor market is increasing, which has changed the outlook of the labor market. Each family contains two or three times more workers than there were in the past. With rapid technological advancements the demand of skilled labors is increasing; therefore people who are not skilled are left behind. As the larger markets are growing the smaller markets are almost vanishing. Immigration affects the supply of labor and skilled labor often move to developed countries for opportunities. Global climate is considered to be the temperature, atmospheric pressure, temperature, wind precipitation, etc. The global climate is continuously changing and it is turning out to be more unequivocally warm. Scientists think that the human activities such as the emission of gases from green house are the major reason behind the changing global climate. It is important to understand the dynamics of global climate because it helps us to gain information about the atmosphere, biomass, oceans, cryosphere and the land surface. The only solution to minimize the effects of this phenomenon is to study it in detail and minimize the activities which impose negative effect on this phenomenon. Biological diversity implies the variety or the diversity of different species of plants and animals living in a specific area. Biodiversity is very important as it boosts the productivity of the ecosystem. Human activities are a major threat to biodiversity. Despite of the increased efforts conservation;