The novel The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, is about a troubled young man named Holden Caulfield. Holden searches his teenage life, struggling to find answers to his questions about himself and his identity. No matter where Holden goes, in his opinion he is surrounded by phonies. They appear to be everywhere Holden is: his school, the hotel, the theatre, and all over the streets of New York. The story is told from Holden’s point of view, as he endeavours to put together the pieces of the puzzle that he calls his life.      Holden Caulfield, the main character in the novel, is an immature teenager. Holden is sixteen years old, six feet two inches tall, with a crew cut and prematurely greying hair. His story begins as he is kicked out of prep school, and takes off to New York. Holden's thoughts and ideas reveal many of his character traits. One late Saturday night, four days before the beginning of school vacation, Holden decides to leave Pencey, his school, at once and travels to New York by train. Once in New York, he decides that he will stay in a cheap motel until Wednesday, when he is to return home. His plan shows how very impetuous he is and how he acts on a whim. He is unrealistic, thinking that he has a foolproof plan, even though the extent of his plans are to “take a room in a hotel...and just take it easy till Wednesday.†This course of action proves Holden’s recklessness and immaturity very early on in the novel.      Another considerably minor (and yet still imperative) addition to the novel is Phoebe Caulfield. Holden’s younger sister is his main supporter. She sticks with him no matter what, but she also, however, is not afraid to scold Holden for his errors. Although Phoebe is merely a young child, she understands Holden, sometimes more than he does. “Old Phoebe didn’t say anything, but she was listening.... she always listens when you tell her something. And the funny part is she knows, half the time, what the hell you’re talking about. She really does.†(167) Phoebe is an instant reminder of delight to Holden, and every decision he makes revolves somehow around the sister he loves so much.      Holden Caulfield, at first, appears to be having a conflict with society, but, upon closer examination, we see that he is truly only at war with himself.
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Case Analysis: McDonald’s and Hindu Culture Julia Evans Misericordia University Case Analysis: McDonald’s and Hindu Culture The case study discusses the struggles that McDonalds faced when it began to do business in India. The Hindu culture prohibits the consumption of beef because they look at the cow as being a sacred animal. In addition, India has a large Muslim population whose religion prohibits the consumption of pork products. These limitations completely contradict the traditional menu that McDonald’s has perfected.McDonalds had to find a way to accommodate these limitations and still be appealing to the Indian consumers. McDonalds created a version of the Big Mac that was made with chicken. McDonalds also created an extensive vegetarian menu. Just when they thought they perfected this they were sued for using beef products in their french fries. Concentrating on the other parts of their menu they overlooked a beef additive to their French fries. This proved to be a large mistake by McDonalds.It is surprising that McDonalds was as well received as it was. The Indian consumers could have boycotted the fast food chain because of the use of beef in their restaurants in countries other than India. McDonalds took a large gamble trying to accommodate Indian palates. Localization of products is the key strategy that international firms should do to maintain a customer base in other countries. Foreign ventures are very expensive and included in this cost is the cost of streamlining products and services to the local tastes and traditions.Without this streamlining the products may not be successful. Sometimes the people of other areas of the world may not even know what to do with a product unless it is customized to their way of life. McDonalds was lucky that their mistake of not eliminating beef products in their French fries didn’t taint their standing in India forever. They had their popularity in other parts of their world to keep them afloat. Indian parents enjoyed taking their children to have an American experience and heir efforts to eliminate beef and pork kept their restaurants appealing to Indian consumers. If McDonalds could have avoided the mistake of leaving the beef in their French fries maybe Indian consumers would have considered not going a day without having a McDonald’s chicken burger. Works Cited Hill, C. W. (2009). McDonalds and Hindu Culture. In C. W. Hill, International Business (p. 103). New York: McGraw-Hill Company.
The Development Of Pretty As An Intensifier English Language Essay It is commonly acknowledged that the first thought about the definition of pretty is good-looking as an adjective when it is discussed; nevertheless, when this word is searched with ICE-GB, merely 20 instances are found as an adjective whereas 112 examples are adverbs, the frequency of which is nearly five times higher. This result is similar to the other corpora, such as British National Corpus with the frequency of 55.60 per million words as an adjective while 118.17 per million words as an adverb in the year of 2000. Accordingly, the lexicon pretty is normally used as an adverb rather than an adjective. What increases the adverbial usage of pretty? This essay is going to analyze the progress of the word pretty as an intensifier or a downtowner through the corpus of ICE-GB. First of all, the meaning of intensifiers or downtoners will be defined, followed by the historical alteration of pretty, and the way of grammaticalization. After that, collocations and meaning scales are also worth discussing. In the final part, the number of examples in spoken and written registers will be explained. Intensifiers and downtoners are semantically categorized as modifiers or degree words, which are traditionally under the classes of adjective and adverb. Syntactically, modifiers control elemental level rather than clausal level (Nevalainen and Rissanen, 2002: 361). This indicates intensifiers and downtoners to some extent vary the degree of the word that they modify. As defined by Biber (1999: 554-555), intensifiers enhance the degrees of the word on a scale, but downtoners decrease the scale on the gradable items. Moreover, although Bolinger (1972: 17) does not distinguish the difference between these two, he still calls degree words as intensifiers and divides them into four classes based on the scalar region: boosters, compromisers, diminishers, and minimizers, which are from higher level to the lower part of the scale. This completely shows that there must be a scale among modifiers, which amplify or lessen the words that they modify. Backlund (1973: 69) states that pretty is a moderate degree adverb because it uses a weak statement to reinforce a positive meaning into the word that it modifies. The point of view is similar to the idea of a scale among modifiers, since moderate degree adverbs also increase or decrease the degree of modified words; that is to say, I can employ Bolingers idea to consider pretty as an intensifier, to be more specific, compromisers. Pretty as an intensifier modifies the adjectives because it shows the middle scale of the adverbs: It was quite pretty stimulating stuff and I really enjoyed it. …theyre you know pretty experienced counsellors. Its actually a pretty outstanding game so far. …which was pretty obvious to most observers by this time,…. Pretty also modifies the adjectives: …your first degree has got to relate pretty closely if youre going to get on a course in most cases. …then one comes down pretty squarely in the period before priests and Levites were separated. …you saw last week we can date pretty exactly in the late sixth century. I mean the the Tories started pretty messily. The word pretty, according to Nevalainen, and Rissanen (2002: 367), can be traced back to Old English as a form of prættig with merely 10 instances, and mostly means cunning or cleverness in negative contexts. In Middle English period, the meaning of pretty extends into three categories: (1) cunning, and clever, (2) manly, fine; fair-sized, considerable, great; of a beating, and (3) handsome; elegant; enjoyable and pleasant, which Nevalainen and Rissanen claim that the development of the adverb pretty originates from the definition: fair-sized, considerable , and great (2002: 308). Furthermore, they also point out that although none of the examples show the use of pretty as an adverb in fifteenth century, historically, pretty or prettily starts to be adverb in the fifteenth century. Seventeenth century sees a significant increase in the number of instances of pretty as an adverb, which suggests that the intensifier meaning of pretty is gradually developing, and from the examples that Nevalainen and Rissanen exploit, pretty and very seem to be interchangeable (2002:309). The following instances taken from ICE-GB demonstrate very is the synonym of pretty: This loss of heat would pretty soon lead to its reaching a very cold temperature…. I hope, pretty briefly because this has been a short case. The first three lines are pretty easy really, Its pretty hard to park there anyway. Later on, in the nineteenth century positive ideas are conveyed by the usage of pretty, which is found to modify adjectives and adverbs (Backlund 1973: 133). If pretty is considered to be an intensifier, it may have undergone a process of functional shift, (Biscetti, 2006 :62) which means the procedure of intensifier forming is related to semantic feature copying, which is established by Lorenz in 2002. This refers to the fact that pretty becomes an intensifier through connecting the adjacent lexicon which has similar meaning. Therefore, Nevalainen and Risssanens idea about the origin of pretty as an adverb can be applied to examine the forming of intensifiers. Thats pretty good. [great] I think they did pretty well to get to end up like that. [great] These two examples seem to represent that pretty pre-modifies its similar words, good and well, in the meaning of great. However, they cannot represent the whole conversion because these two words are the high frequency lexica that pretty collocates with in ICE-GB with thirteen and six times respectively. The other highly collocating examples found in ICE-GB do not show the semantic feature copying: I am pretty sure that it is actually…. It is uh pretty quick. If functional shift or semantic feature copying cannot completely explain the change of pretty, there are some other reasons. According to Mendez-Naya (2003: 372), intensifiers can be said to undergo a process of grammaticalization, on account of the fact that the function of a grammatical form are generated by the gradual loss of lexical idiosyncrasy. In addition, Ito (2003: 261) also points out delexicalization, which is a procedure of grammaticalization, and elucidates the intensifiers as a lexicon that the speakers comment or evaluation towards the word they want to express. Then, five stages are further illustrated from (a) original meaning, (b) expressing emphasis, (c) affirming truth of modified words, (d) attributive adjectives, to (e) intensification without the original meaning. Some instances are found in ICE-GB: (17a) It was actually really pretty. (17b) …its in a quiet three-lined street filled with pretty houses,…. (17c) I am pretty sure of that. (17d) Apparently thats a pretty good idea. (17e) You were pretty stroppy then. Pretty in (17a) is an adjective to show the original definition of pretty either in three of them in Middle English Dictionary. (17b) contains an adjective pretty as well, but it shows the highlighting of the word houses, and it to some extent weakens its other original meaning, such as clever. Pretty in (17c) enhances the sureness of the speaker, while in (17d) it becomes the attributive adjectives and modifies either good or idea. Pretty in both (17c) and (17d) still possess some meaning of great itself, while in (17e) it is purely an intensifier in view of the fact that pretty can straightforwardly be considered as its synonym very. These instances manifest the grammaticalization and make pretty seem to experience semantic shift. Apart from grammaticalization, the frequency of collocation that pretty has also interests the discussion value. There are eighty-four examples of adjectives that pretty modifies in ICE-GB. The first one and two are good and sure, which have thirteen and four examples respectively. Big, busy, and quick have three instances for each, and difficult, hard, impressive, low, slow, strong only have two examples. Backlunds (1973: 134) states that pretty primarily combines with positive or neutral words, and occasionally, with negative words to express irony. This is perhaps due to the reason that pretty as an intensifier does not amplify or attenuate the gradable word up to the top of the scale or down to the bottom. It is interesting to notice that good is a positive word which is the highest tendency word to collocate with pretty, followed by sure, big, busy, and quick, the neutral words. The negative words that pretty collocates in ICE-GB are bad, dreary, grim, sad, wrecked, and stroppy, which only have one example. On the other hand, the adverbs that pretty modifies are six examples of well, two examples of quickly, and the others briefly, closely, exactly, high, messily, seriously, soon, sort of, and squarely. Similarly, there is a tendency for pretty to collocate with well, a positive word. The meaning scale of pretty as an adverb is categorized by Backlund (1973: 134-143) into (i) lowering the emotional level, (ii) lowering criticism, (iii) function of weak statement, (iv) degree modifier, (v) expression of phrasal, (vi) self-compliment, and (vii) front-position. (18i) …I suspect thats a pretty daunting record,…. (18ii) Yeah I mean hes a pretty normal boy. (18iii) So I imagine you have pretty strict regulations concerning its us. (18iv) …it would have been pretty well impossible to get in without a key. (18v) …your memory was pretty good basically, and this wasnt a problem. (18vi) Ive had a very uhm pretty straightforward sort of a life Im afraid. (18vii) Pretty much yeah Ive got to admit. The sentimental word daunting in (18i) is brought down by pretty because if this instance expressed without pretty, then it will be an explicit expression, showing the record is intimidating. In (18ii), pretty produces the idea that the interlocutor does not concern the thing he or she states, while pretty in (18iii) weakens the degree of strict, making the example sound euphemistic. Example (18iv) is more interesting because pretty modifies not only well but also the adjective impossible. The reason is based on the x schema (Santorini and Kroch, 2007): pretty dominates the following well and impossible in the phrase pretty well impossible. Examples (18v) and (18vi) manifest positive thoughts of the expresser, and these two instances are the evidence of the fact that pretty are likely to collocate with positive and neutral lexical. Front-position, as Backlund (1973: 143) claims, only occurs in the beginning of a full sentence, or can be recovered by the eliminated components, that is or it is. Hence, (18vii) can be uttered as Its pretty much. Yeah, Ive got to admit. So far, the thing that has not been discussed is the instances pretty much, which appears in ICE-GB eight times. According to Backlund (1973: 138), pretty much can be regarded as almost since much gains the implication of almost and nearly from the phrase pretty much the same, and pretty is often excluded. (19) I was pretty much advanced on the delegates. Likewise, pretty well comprises a similar sense almost as pretty much, but it also contains hesitance and reservation in the utterance (Backlund, 1973: 140). (20) …those percentages were pretty well reversed. Although Bolinger (1972: 215-217) asserts that when pretty much is used as a pre-modifier, it is a type of fusion, and it becomes a sentence modifier with the less restrictions of connecting verbs, no instances can be found in ICE-GB. Finally, there are 134 instances that can be found in ICE-GB, and 20 of them are written registers while the others are spoken ones. This implies that pretty used as an intensifier is still rare in written works, just as Gonzalez-Diaz (2008: 233) claims that verbal situations are the initial stage that language change happens, and later written language is influenced if speakers have created the innovation. In conclusion, pretty has experienced the language change from pure adjective clever to polysemy, and one of its meaning belongs to a modifier. Grammaticalization and the frequent collocations that pretty use may be the causes of the transformation. When people are inclined to utter the pattern of expression, the expression will gradually fixed, consequently leading to the novel usage of the word. That is the reason why there are some analogous meanings between pretty much and pretty well, even though pretty is considered as an intensifier. Overall, no matter how pretty develops, intensification is the linguistic expression of exaggeration and depreciation. (Bolinger, 1972: 20) Totall: 2050
12/5/2019 0 Comments The Significance of the Role of Malcolm X on African American Activists Essay Example for Free The Significance of the Role of Malcolm X on African American Activists Essay
A. Plan of the Investigation To what extent was the role of Malcolm X significant in the rise of radical African American activism (1965-1968)? This investigation will assess the significance of Malcolm X’s significance in giving rise to African American activism. Malcolm X’s motives, involvement in the civil rights movement and his leadership will all be discussed in order to understand the extent of his significance. To add further understanding and provide justification a summarization of evidence will be included. Also, an evaluation of sources will allow for details which provide justification in saying that Malcolm X’s role was significant; both sources being evaluated in their origin, purpose, value and limitations. B. Summary of Evidence Malcolm X, initially born under the last name Malcolm Little in 1925. Later on life he adopted X, which became a symbol to represent his lost past, particularly the rejection of his “slave†name. Malcolm X was an activist and an outspoken public voice for the Black Muslim Faith who challenged the civil Rights movement and the non-violent pursuit of integration that was led by Martin Luther King Jr. Malcolm X was an activist who believed that non-violent acts would achieve nothing in receiving racial equality, he believed that people had to take action. He once said “it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of racial attacks.†Malcolm X was so significant to the rise of radical African American activism because he is one of the two most important and influential black leaders during the late 20th century. Malcolm X rearticulated and gave African Americans clarity as to who they are, what their problems were and how to solve them. He did this by speaking about the black radical tradition which consisted of ideology, class and culture. And he made many African Americans energized to take action. Also, Malcolm X was an advocator of black pride which led more people to follow him and his ideas. Malcolm was such a powerful leader and activist that he gave way to some black art activists, which is interesting because art was not his main focus. Malcolm wanted blacks to learn about their roots and gain and understanding of their heritage, therefore he made it a central part of the Organization of Afro-American Unity which in turn furthered radical black art activists. Malcolm X gained this desire when he partook on a journey through North Africa and the Middle East. Malcolm’s desire for wanting blacks to understand their heritage also promoted the rise of cultural nationalism within the Black Panther Party. C. Evaluation of Sources Malcolm X and the Black Arts Movement by James Smethurst was published by Cambridge University Press in the year of 2010. The purpose of this source is to demonstrate how Malcolm X was deemed such a commanding figure and brought rise to Black activists, even in the arts, a subject that Malcolm X rarely spoke about. The value of this source lies within the author’s description of how Malcolm X was a leader and how he inspired many people to rise and take a stand, especially in the arts. For example: X did not touch on the subject of arts as often as his did race in his speeches. However, some Black art activist came to see him as a commanding figure. This source is limited due to its lack of detail. This source mainly gives brief description on how Malcolm X laid the foundation for different types of Black activists but does not go in depth about what he did to influence these activists. Malcolm X: A powerful black leader who fought for human rights by Sharrod Patterson was published by the student newspaper of Winston-Salem University in the year of 2007. The purpose of this source is to identify Malcolm X’s rise to becoming a world renowned activist. The value of this source lies in the discussion of where Malcolm X started to where he ended. He started as a young boy who began to head down the wrong path, getting into drugs and involved with the wrong people but overcame that and ended up being a prominent civil rights activist. However, this source is limited due to the lack of discussion about his impact on many people and how he laid the foundation for many activist groups and organizations. D. Analysis When making the final evaluation of Malcolm X’s role of significance in bringing rise to African American activism, tow aspects of his role must be evaluated. One includes his motivation and the other is what he wanted to accomplish. Malcolm X’s motivation was his oppressed youth. When Malcolm was younger he and his family were harassed by the Ku Klux Klan which caused them to move to another part of Michigan. Sadly enough, after they moved, the racism became worse. A racist mob set his family’s home on fire and all of the white emergency responders and firefighters watched their house burn down. Shortly after this, Malcolm X’s father died and this sent his mother into a deep depression of shock and grief which eventually caused her to be submitted into a mental institution. Malcolm left home and after leaving, he became involved in drugs and crime. This became his motivation. He wanted to fight back and provide young black youth with better and more positive opportunities. However, it was not just young black youth he was advocating for, but it was all African Americans. As an outspoken civil rights leader in the 1960s, Malcolm X wanted to encourage black power. He advocated Black Nationalism and separation form the white society.17 He argued that integration of blacks and white represented the succumbing of African Americans to white culture and values. African Americans needed to embrace their own culture and communities and be independent of the white world. Many people embraced the ideas of Malcolm X. Many people began to see what he was advocating as true. This served as a contributing factor to the rise of African American activism. Through his radical tactics and his self- defiant demeanor, he open many gates for African Americans and led them along the path of fighting back or taking a stand. Malcolm X wanted to better the lives of blacks and open their eyes to who they are and what being an African American stood for, pride and promise. The more people who started to realize this, the more people who took action. Needless to say, Malcolm X’s role as a leader and a civil right activist, played a significant role in causing rise in African American activism. E. Conclusion Malcolm X played a significant role in bringing rise to African American activism. Malcolm X shed light upon the many dreadful conditions faced by the people of African descent. However, while it may be impossible to measure his impact in its entirety, it is just to say that Malcolm X helped to expose unfair practices towards African Americans which ultimately led to significant changes, changes that the legal system deemed unlawful. This drive to better African Americans made Malcolm X an extraordinary leader and gave African American new incentive. This led African Americans to begin to take further action which gave rise to activists groups such as the Black Panther Party. It is evident that Malcolm X played a significant role in giving rise to African American activism. His role is equally as significant to that of Martin Luther King Jr. or even that of Rosa Parks. And while some may call him violent or racist, others consider Malcolm X to be one of the most influential and greatest African Americans in history. Works Cited Eric Foner and John A. Garraty, eds., The Reader’s Companion to American History (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 1991) http://www.history.com/topics/malcolm-x (accessed November 29, 2012) William W. Sales, Jr., “The Legacy of Malcolm X,†Online Publication. http://www.socialistalternative.org/literature/malcolmx.html (accessed November 29, 2012) James Smethurst, “Malcolm X and the Black Arts Movement,†Cambridge Collection Online. http://cco.cambridge.org/extract?id=ccol9780521515900_CCOL9780521515900A007 (accessed November 29, 2012) Sharrod Patterson, “Malcolm X: A Powerful Black Leader Who Fought for Human Rights,†Student Newspaper of Winston-Salem University, February 19, 2007. Bio. True Story, “Malcolm X Biography,†The Biography Channel Website. http://www.biography.com/people/malcolm-x-9396195 (accessed November 29, 2012) Teachers Domain. Malcolm X: Black Nationalism.†18 Jun. 2004. Web. http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/iml04.soc.ush.civil.malc1/ (accessed December 5, 2012) |