Early Racism in Disney Movies Essay

Disney’s early work has always had a hint of racism in them, I recently watched Disney’s Fantasia released in 1942 was edited and remade because of a very racist scene. I watched a scene where there are many colorful centaurs, male and female; they are frolicking through like a forest. When the lady centaurs notice the males there are little baby cupids that come down and are getting them all dolled up for the male centaurs. Every male is matched up with their matching color centaurs the scene ends with every centaur and their mate flirting and having a ball. The part that was cut out was one little black centaur a girl with barrettes in her hair. She was wiping the hooves of the other centaurs and brushing their hair while the little baby cupids, she had no mate she was just a little servant.(Cite here) We all know the story of Pocahontas; a lot of people only know the Disney version. The movie does have some truth to it but is definitely racist. John Smith a colonist coming to find the new world, a very stunning, kind young man. (Cite #4) traveling with his men and of course Governor Radcliff, with his ugly little pug and very opinionated, a man who is not afraid to share his morals to the world. He was probably the most racist character referring to Native American Americans as savages and uncivilized, and the only reason he is coming to the new world is because he wants gold and to become wealthy. (cite #4) now this part of history is dead on, the settlers did not want to make friends and start a new life in a new place, they wanted gold and land, and they didn’t care for native Americans to much. (Cite here) There is even a song called â€Å"Savages† a very very racist song about natives. Like it wasn’t enough to call them savages they go on to say things like â€Å"They’re not like you and me. Which means they must be evil We must sound the drums of war!† because natives did not speak or dress like the settlers; but that’s not all they call them â€Å"Redskin Devils† and say â€Å"they’re barely even human† with Radcliff saying things like â€Å"What can you expect. From filthy little heathens? Here’s what you get when races are diverse (That’s right). Their skin’s a hellish red. They’re only good when dead. They’re vermin, as I said.† (Cite #4) this song is a song I sang as kid never knowing what I was singing, like it was so wrong for a culture to be different, is this what Disney is teaching our children? That anything that is different cannot be trusted or even given a chance. Disney movies have always had racism in their movies but the one movie that had the most obvious racism would have to be Disney’s Song of the South. The Song of the South, one of Disney’s most controversial movies ever made, racism, stereotyping, and ignorance galore. The Song of the South was aired at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, Georgia in 1946, over 64 years ago. (Cite #1)Walt Disney’s animation empire wasn’t doing so good finically and decided he wanted to a movie based on a childhood book he read as a kid. (Cite #2) a story about an old Negro, who tells stories to a young white boy the stories of uncle Remus (Cite #2).The animation was based on stories told by an old African American man, Uncle Remus about a Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Fox, the same plot, as the book with very similar characters, and the same message. The message that a lot of people got was that slavery was being glorified. The angriest was the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) they were the most offended. They had many concerns with the entire film; they didn’t want people thinking that this how slavery wa s. (Cite #3) In this movie Uncle Remus, played by James Baskett (cite #1) was an old Negro who lives in Georgia on a plantation. He is not like normal slaves, he comes and goes as he pleases, and he loves his life on the plantation. He sings songs like Let the Rain Pour Down with lyrics like â€Å"Let the rain pour down, let the cold wind blow Gonna stay right here in the home I know (Trouble fly away fly away). When you’re achin’ with the mis’ry, and you’re old and gray, (headin’, headin’) Then you’d better be thankful that He let you stay;† which means that even though they made us come here and do this hard work we still should be thankful for what they do actually let us have, like a place to stay. (Cite #1) to add even more fuel to the fire Disney thought it would be a good idea to premier this movie in Atlanta, a very segregated city at the time, the stars of the movie James Brackett, uncle Remus and Hattie McDaniel his wife Aunty Tempy would not even be allowed to sit in the same seats as the white dignitaries. Their own Governor made statements like â€Å"I was raised among niggers and I understand them. I want to see them treated fairly and I want them to have justice in the courts. But I want to deal with the nigger this way: he must come to my back door, take off his hat and say, ‘Yes, sir'† (Bernstein 233). (Cite #2) even still  Disney claims they were not in a racist state of mind. (Cite #2) this movie will go down in history as probably the most blantaly racist movie Disney has ever made. Disney does not have anything to say about theses animations, they have become one of those things people just don’t talk about anymore. Even though a lot of these racist movies are still popular today, and are being remade and rereleased. Disney is still very successful business even with these very rough patches in the beginning and majority of children and parents in the world really do enjoy Disney, but does that mean we should just disregard their mistakes and stereotypical movies, should we just pretend that these movies have offended and will continue to offending races without any concern for people they offend?

Family Culture Change Essay

The depression era family culture demonstrated a close knit community which spent large amounts of time together (Craig 2006). Many families used to gather around the same radio and listen to entertainment or news and the fire side chats then President Roosevelt gave provided reassurance for a worried public (Craig 2006). The lifestyle of a nuclear family with close contacts has developed to a fast paced world where family members frequently do not communicate regularly leading to alternative groups settings (Koesten, Miller, & Hummert 2001). Information on divergent lifestyles is now easily accessible to people which influences behavior (Koesten, Miller & Hummert 2001). The radio was introduced as a communication and entertainment medium during the great depression (Craig 2006). The radio provided instant access to news and weather in addition to the entertainment value it provided (Craig 2006). Entire families would gather around the radio during the evening and spend quality time together (Craig 2006). Businesses used the radio advertisements to lure the public in to considering buying purchases that were not considered prior to the advent of the radio (Craig 2006). Despite the economic hardships created by the great depression households who owned radios increased from 30% in 1930 to 70% in 1940 (Craig 2006). In 1940 the foundation had but formed for the future technology revolution that is present today (Craig 2006). This is where the perception of the current American consumer started that buying a product would solve all of one’s problems (Craig 2006). Today’s United States population now has a variety of electronic devices such as cell phones and computers enabling true access on demand to information and entertainment (Koesten, Miller, & Hummert 2001). The multiple methods of communication available to the average American today can foster unhealthy influences on behavior which can result in unhealthy consequences (Koesten, Miller, & Hummert 2001). People today spend more time communicating with others outside their immediate family with jobs, activities, and socialization than within the family unit (Koesten, Miller, & Humert 2001). The behavior of children from this generation will be influenced more by society than parentally which will impact the behavior displayed (Koesten, Miller, & Hummert 2001). The familial influence has been replaced by peer influence which has decreased the importance of family within today’s culture (Koesten, Miller & Hummer 2001).   This decreased emphasis on familial communication has lead to increased peer pressure which results in a greater likelihood of risk taking behaviors (Koesten, Miller, & Hummert 2001). This feeling of isolation has resulted in a dramatic increase in depression resulting from the loss of close family contact (Paxton, Valois, Watkins, Huebner, & Drane 2007). A depressed mood is different from clinical depression and is described as a feeling of sadness, lasting from a couple of hours to days (Paxton, Valois, Watkins, Huebner, & Drane 2007). Clinical depression is defined as sadness lasting at least two weeks that interferes with the activities of daily life (Paxton, Valois, Watkins, Huebner, & Drane 2007). People who are depressed are more likely to engage in behaviors that are hazardous to one’s health (Paxton, Valois, Watkins, Huebner, & Drane 2007). Due to this family isolation and depression unnatural death has become the leading cause of adolescents and has increased dramatically recently (Anonymous 1987). Substance abuse has become more prevalent which has resulted in significant morbidity in the adolescent and young adult population (Anonmyous 1987). These problems did not exist in the epidemic proportions they do today because despite the multiple modalities available to communicate with family society communicates less than in the depression era. References: Anonymous (1987). Health Risk Behaviors. Pediatrics. 80 (1) 144-147. Retrieved on December 20, 2008 from the ebscohost database. Craig, S. (2006). The More they Listen, The More They Buy. Agricultural History. 80 (1)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   1-16. Retrieved on December 20, 2008 from the ebscohost database. Koesten, J., Miller, K. I., Hummert, M. L. (2001). Family Communication, Self Efficacy, and White Female Adolescent Risk Behavior. Journal of family Communication 2 (1) 7-27. Retrieved on December 20, 2008 from the ebscohost database. Paxton, R. J., Valois, R. F., Watkins, K. W., Huebner, E. S., Drane, J. W. (2007) Association Between Depressed Moods and Clusters of Health Risk Behaviors. American Journal of Health Behavior 31 (3) 272-283. Retrieved on December 20, 2008 from the ebscohost database.

Brighter Sunnyday

Of all the movies that I’ve seen, only â€Å"A brighter Summer Day† was the longest hours film of them all, a very large project for the Chinese-language film. This film was directed by a Taiwanese director, Edward Yang who made it all possible to direct 100 actors to portray different roles. â€Å"A Brighter Summer Dayâ€Å"was actually based on a true incident which happened during 1960. The story was also a mixture of Yang’s youth which can be seen in the film though there is a little variation from the original. In June 15, 1961, a Taiwanese high school male killed his girlfriend in Gulling Street without any reasons.â€Å"A Brighter Summer Day† was a personal vision which recalls both an actual street murder that shook the nation and Yang's own childhood at the same time. The story doesn’t mainly focused on the gangster’s street rival in Taiwan during 1960’s but it’s story goes behind a young man who was experiencing a ma jor upheaval in his own country in which he wants to overcome. This movie serves as an exploration of the novel which depicts the cultural identity of the Taiwanese. This film revolves around the life of S'ir, who was a high school student by then.The cast was filled with different characters which seem equally worrisome. His cast is filled with plenty of variables, but each character’s plight seems equally worrisome. His father was one of the Chinese mainlanders who went all the way to Taipei during the wake of civil uprisings in 1949. Since the film was set over the course in 1961, it gave a printed introduction which explains that state is now in uncertainty where gangs thrive on the streets so they should be careful about their children and keep them safe and under control at all times.The narratives of Yang jumps back and forth with different subplots which made it difficult to track, especially the shots that was taken from medium to long shots. Given that, the story te lling skills of Yang made it possible to recognize some cues for each sequence which lets the audience trail the story. The most memorable scenes that revolve around the gangster’s school-age girlfriend have been smitten with him. They wind up next door, while they cut classes, and get easily attracted with the looks of the girl.Upon forming an endearing bond, Si’rs friends warned him about being close to the girl and should not let her become the cause of any bad blood. This part is very thrilling, and mysterious enough to watch since you really want to know what the story behind the murder is as if you are really seeing how it happened. Yang sensed that when the dark historical moment happens, driving and being driven become one. I think that because of this feeling, it made a narrative filmmaking that creates a new genre of modern experience.Literary, this film had hypnotically built a single act of violence when it reaches and end of one’s life which is inev itable and shocking at the same time. â€Å"A Brighter Summer Day† emerged as one of the finest film made in Taiwan. Even though the cast were all non-actors, the film was still beautifully made- shots were good, houses especially the interior were great, even the schools and the dance clubs brought a real effect that happened in the countryside during summertime. The film also created a good effect by inserting violence and serenity alternately.The film is a rhythmic and poetic evocation of a particular era. Its ironic title (in that there is no â€Å"brighter summer day† for these characters) is taken from an Elvis song that one of the kids sings at a nightclub. It is a truly exemplary modern masterpiece that got no distribution in the West but deserves to be hunted out at all costs by those who love and cherish the film art. You can also see other characters with singing careers that has been the source of frustration and source of income of the gangsters.The song w hich was entitled â€Å"Are You Lonesome Tonight† was the source of the movie’s title a song by Elvis song which was sung by some nightclub kids. This song was one of the artifacts that appear in the movie though it did not originate from Taiwan. The song captures the audience through its melodic sound and its giving such goose bumps effect when you hear it while it plays as a particular scene was shown. There were also several important props in the film particularly the samurai sword, radio a flashlight and a tape recorder as well.Older characters appear to be strictly adhering to Taiwanese’s tradition or to something else like Christianity. The older characters, when they appear, either stubbornly adhere to Taiwanese traditions or have grabbed onto something else, such as Christianity while other older Taiwanese seemed to be powerless and weak. Children somehow understand this but perhaps cannot dig dipper to comprehend it and despite the murder that was insp ired by a true to life incident, this film sees a light of hope.S’ir’s father here was a civil servant with a high-ranking job and the accomplishments of his daughter. He often attends the best government-sponsored college and was very proud. If his son disappoints him, he butts his head against bureaucracy, hoping that he would get personal favors the system which he believes to have fair and firm regulations. Yang simplifies things by tossing a metaphor into the stew which made it so confusing in general when he narrates about the operation of the government against the people.The backbone of the narrative structure was formed by S’ir’s shifting morality when the tragedy befalls him seems to be heartbreaking which made the entire nation moved by it. The strain has been weighed down on him and at that time, his family seems to be epidemic in the country. According to my research, the film took over several years to finish because its preparation needed t o be meticulous on its construction as well as the feelings that community might have. Because the length is almost four hours, it definitely shows a remarkable film which gave an epic quality of the film.Since the there are more than hundred speaking parts in the film, you should really focus in watching so that you’ll keep on track of what was going on with the story, which is a good strategy on capturing the audience attention. Without looking into the contradictions that it may bring in a political discourse, Yang personalized the politics and its complexities. The style of the film creates a paradox. He used I little bit of close-ups, which keeps it far away from his subjects but not so far in order for the viewers to judge them objectively and doesn’t’ lose the grasp on their concern.The main accomplishment of Yang focused on the narrative that he made, as well as the political and emotional chaos. Familiarity arose from the running time that goes on with the consistent political attitudes which was evident in the script assures that audience concern were given focus where Yang wants it. This happens without using too much cinematic language which in turn prompts the viewer to barely identify the protagonists. Yang was never intimidated throughout the film although he made as a very expansive scope of a messy autobiographical of such territory.Attached with the film is a nostalgia but not to the point of intelligence. Yang created a manifesto which obviously shows conflicting attitudes about the history of his country. We can see in the film that it was seemingly limitless to examine the country’s lamentation which a storyteller like Yang has done to probe the history of a nation’s developing country and its progress. For me, â€Å"A Brighter Summer Day† sure stands as a monumental achievement, and could probably be the greatest film among all modern Taiwanese cinema.

Implications of a published quantitive study Essay

Implications of a published quantitive study - Essay Example The authors do not state precisely the data analysis methods adopted in the study. However, the authors rely on tabulation and graphical analysis of the collected data. The tables organize the results into a logical format and where trends can be observed at a glance. Also, the scatter graph provides visual correlation between the DAFNE and non-DAFNE groups. The study has several implications for the nursing profession. First, nurses must first investigate whether a patient has undergone training on managing blood sugar level before medicating them. This is because some patients have managed to balance their blood sugar using a precise mix of diet and insulin. When patient factors are not considered upon admission, patients can lose focus and control of their blood sugar due to medication and different diet at the hospital. In conclusion, the study stresses that DAFNE assists diabetes patients to manage blood sugar at home, thus reducing diabetes-related deaths. However, the study has questionable sections as noted above. Data collection methods and analysis should have wide

Effects of divorce on children Research Proposal

Effects of divorce on children - Research Proposal Example (Clark-Stewart, 2007) In this regard, it is very important that core principles should be taught to the people of American society, which will help in achieving a potential and mature individual. Divorce of a number of parents is resulting in suffering of more than a million children in the United States. Moreover, studies have indicated that every year, half of children’s population suffers effects of divorce around the country. Evidence related to social science has shown that present and future generations of society are affected socially, economically, emotionally, as well as, physically by devastating effects of divorce. In brief, this paper will try to define, discuss, and analyze some of the aspects of divorce that affects the children. Statistics have specified that an increasing number of children are reported to be involved in different cases of abuse, who were living with divorced parents. More emotional and behavioral problems are exhibited by such children, who are an important part of human society. Moreover, higher frequency in drug abuse and crime has been reported with children living with single divorced parent. (Clark-Stewart, 2007) In educational terms, reading, math, and spelling are some subjects that are severely affected after divorce of the parents. In some of the states, lower rates of college graduation are observed in children with divorced parents. In other words, divorce affects the children on intellectual platform as well, which is responsible for significant development of the society. Additionally, fifty percent drop in grades is observed in children that experience divorce of their parents, as compared with their grades before the divorce. Eighty-five percent of adolescents have reported state of loneliness after the divorce, which shows the emotional effect of divorce on the children. Religion is an important aspect of human life, which has been associated with a number of activities, and studies have shown that

A Dialogue between Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay Research Paper

A Dialogue between Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay - Research Paper Example Before embarking upon the dialogue, it would be advisable to present a brief introduction of both the personalities under discussion. Andrew Jackson serves as one of the most influential statesmen the USA has ever produced. By dint of his talent, wisdom and foresight, he achieved the height of triumphs against his political opponents and was elected to be the seventh and eighth President of America. Jackson adopted courageous strategic policies and combated with several internal and external challenges in a successful manner. However, his economic policies are aptly criticized by the opponents to be inadequate ones. Similarly, Henry Clay is also regarded to be a considerable personality in the early history of America, who served as senator, speaker of the House of Representatives and US Secretary of State, who demonstrated his diplomatic skills while serving at the same position. He entered into conflict with President Jackson, and was among the most dominant personalities laying th e foundation stone of a new political group under the title Whig Party in 1833, which was to become an important political faction against the Jacksonian Democracy. The Dialogue: Jackson: As you know it very well sir that I had won the popular votes during 1824 elections, though I had not obtained majority votes (Nye & Morpurgo, 1955: 214). However, instead of supporting me on bagging electoral votes, you put your weight in favor of John Adam, who was not a popular leader, you see. You just gave him support for personal gains, as President Adams would appoint you as the secretary of state in order to return your favor subsequently. Clay: Mr. Jackson! It is right that I had voted in favor of President Adams, which was my right actually to let the candidate elected which I considered to be the most apposite one for this key position. However, I did not cast my vote for personal gains; rather, my appointment as the secretary of state was actually the acknowledgement of my talent and se rvices as statesman. It is therefore there appeared many diplomatic achievements in my career as secretary. I voted against you due to your unauthorized invasion on Spanish West Florida in 1818, during which you exercised cruelty and even did not hesitate to set the houses of the British and Spanish to fire as you thought that both these groups were involved into providing the Indians with financial and moral aid (Watson, 1998:31). Thus, targeting me by applying false allegations of selling my political position for personal benefits does not appear to be an appropriate way of criticism altogether. Jackson: Invasion on Spanish Florida was not my personal decision; rather President Monroe had appointed me as military governor in order to crush the revolt raised by the traitor Indians and slaves of Florida backed by the British and Spanish enemies of the country. I had the powers to crush the revolt that could put the solidarity of my country at grave jeopardy. It is therefore I appli ed all the methods that I felt inevitable for purifying the region from traitors and foes at large (Remini, 1999: 286). Since no serious revolt launched by the enemies of the country could be tarnished by applying kind and considerate measures, use of force and some cruelty was essential for gaining control over the area. Had I not dealt with this challenge in a rational manner, the USA could have lost the entire area subsequent to the revolt, you see.  

Markteing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Markteing - Essay Example The company offers a wide range of products that are certainly unique and different from those offered by the other rival competitors. This company grew through different stages in its history to reach its present status. This study will attempt to analyse different strategies used by the company such as differentiation, its strategy in segmenting the market, competitive advantage as well as consumer behaviour. Recommendations will also be given in this study about what can be done by the company in order to remain a force to reckon with in terms of mobile computer technology. Apple was established in the 1976. On April 1st, Steve jobs agreed to sell only 50 Apple I personal computers to the Byte shop which was the first retail computer store chain in the America. Following this development, Apple was incorporated in 1977 when Wayne sold all his shares of the company to the Jobs and Wozniak and then the company was later renamed Apple Computer Inc. After a few years, Apple II revolutionized its operations to focus on manufacturing of personal computers. The Apple II mainly developed a personal computer market which created hundreds of millions dollars. Apple Inc was ranged to be among the Top 500 companies in America just 5 years after its establishment (Apple Inc). In the 1980’s, Apple launched two different kinds of computers namely Lisa and Macintosh. The Lisa was a commercial failure because of its software limitation and high price tag. The Macintosh was the next product to be launched and sold well at the beginning, but sales were weak in the days that later followed. The reason for failure of Macintosh was the same as Lisa which included high prices and limited software capabilities (Apple Inc). In the late 1980’s, Apple witnessed a significant decline in business as a result of wrong decisions that were made. During that time, Apple failed to satisfy at a lot of targeted customers

Public Opinion and Responding to Crisis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Public Opinion and Responding to Crisis - Essay Example Rather, it takes the collective effects of all stakeholders and departments of the school management process to successfully undertake the roles of the school as a system of institutional transformation. In his work, Kowalski creates the awareness to the fact there are three major identified departments or stakeholders in the school management system and that the individual roles played by each of these departments needs to be harnessed and coordinated in such a way that they each become dependant on the other for the common goal of transforming lives through the school. These stakeholders are the staff, parents and students. In the case of the suicide at McKinley Middle School, there could be a thorough discussion of how the roles of each of these stakeholders could best be played from the perspective of public opinion and response to crisis to salvage future occurrences or better still to have prevented the happening totally. Problem identification mechanism in schools From the cas e, there is a clear indication of a major deficiency in the school management system that has to do with problem identification mechanisms. ... Clearly, suicide is a psychological problem that is most likely to be reflective in the life of a student or a person who has very little psychological attention. If all stakeholders in the schools management process as identified earlier could play their collective roles well to come to terms with some of the basic problems that students face in their academic life therefore, there is every indication that other major problems that could lead to worse forms of reaction to problems such as suicides would be catered for. Crisis Response Deficiencies More to the fact that schools do not put in much effort to identifying and mitigating crisis in students and for that matter crisis in schools, there also exists a serious challenge that has to do with the fact that schools do not respond to crisis quick enough even after the crisis have started. For instance there are a number of bureaucratic formalities that schools expect parents to go through to get crisis handled or responded to. This happens because schools fail to acknowledge and appreciate the fact that parents are part of the schools management system and that they should be in a position to have full access to the school especially in times of crisis response (Kowalski, 2010, p. 221). In the case of the suicide, there are several crisis response deficiencies that were noticed. Without an iota of doubt, if there had been a clear-cut policy in the McKinley Middle School regarding how crisis of all manners ought to be responded to, there remains a whole lot that could have been done to salvage the situation. Because of the absence of such crisis response policy, crisis always arises before solutions are sought. The way forward To conclude, it is important to reflect

Issues in Multicultural Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Issues in Multicultural Education - Essay Example For instance, cultural diversity in the US public schools is growing at rapid pace in the present decade. As a result, the teachers are facing intense problem to deliver education facilities to a culturally diverse classroom. A common problem identified by teachers in this context is the successful understanding of the needs of the each diverse student and providing education assistance effectively. As argued by Fullan (1991), the teachers should be capable of understanding the uniqueness of each student and successfully control the diversities to improve the students both academically as well as behaviorally within a diverse classroom. (2) Who is involved? (A) As part of the problem? The problem of cultural diversity in the classroom is especially faced by students and teachers, which result in poor performance of the learners in their curriculum. Generally teachers and students face significant problems to convey the intended information to each other, which in turn causes significant miscommunication problems. Additionally, differences between the cultural backgrounds of the students and the teachers, also raises the proper identification of students’ values (Worrell, n.d.). ... (3) What is the proposed solution? Identifying the Key Student Differences Each student in the classroom is unique in relation to their behavioral traits, learning capabilities and styles, feelings as well as responsiveness. These distinctive parameters for any specified child becomes more apparent in a diverse environment. Therefore, teachers should be capable to meet successfully with the ‘point of need’ of every child to provide efficient guidance as per their requirements (Worrell, n.d.). In this regard, lessening the teacher and student ratio within a classroom setting shall provide with greater opportunity to teachers in monitoring the needs of every student distinctively and more critically. Improve Co-Relation with the Students’ Families For the better understanding of the students’ societal and cultural background, the school authorities should increase communication with the students’ parents or legal guardians. This method undoubtedly woul d support the teachers to understand the background of the student and modify the teaching process accordingly (Worrell, n.d.). Introduce School-Wide â€Å"Cultural† Alliance Effective communication among the students of several cultures along with successful collaboration through cultural programs and activities shall assist teachers to meet the requirements of the both ends (London, Gurantz & Norman, 2011). Culturally Responsive Teaching Method To enhance cultural responsiveness throughout the teaching method, teachers should be research oriented for better understanding of the capabilities of each student. Teachers should be capable to identify the deficiencies and also the

Summary 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Summary 3 - Essay Example Effectively, this gives the teachers, students, and stakeholders in these systems little faith that conditions will improve. The article represents challenges in school districts after a study conducted by The Broad Foundation. The study identified 75 challenges that explain three phenomena that affect the public schools system. In the first phenomena, the article provides fifteen challenges that explain the reasons why resources failed to reach the classroom. These include, ineffective monitoring of expenses, unnecessary duplication of resources, overspending in construction maintenance, poor communication within the organization, slow central office systems, severe budget cuts, and many other examples. Secondly, the challenges explain the reasons that contribute to teacher’s failure to receive the support that they required to play their roles effectively. These challenges include the lack of access to proven interventions for struggling students, practices to grow professionally, challenging curriculum and technology. Conversely, the bar for teaching and learning is also low while teachers also lack adequate information on students’ progress, and many other challenges. The challenges identify challenges that go forth to explain why policies and procedures failed to allow the school system to pursue its mission. For instance, stagnation of the status quo for adults, inconsistency in orders from above, differences in scientific research in educational disciplines, the lack of strategic plans, and other challenges contributing to this phenomenon. In conclusion, the article identifies the importance of transforming the public school system in order to ensure that American students competed with other students academically. Importantly, the article identifies the importance of collaborative efforts in eliminating these challenges in order to eliminate bureaucracy and enhance the process of

Basic Prerequisite Skills for the Global Workplace Essay Example for Free

Basic Prerequisite Skills for the Global Workplace Essay Outline some of the main issues facing higher education in the 21st century. To what extent is higher education an effective means of both obtaining employment and learning the basic prerequisite skills for the global workplace? Higher Education is one of the most important phenomenons in the 21st century. It is undergoing some major transformations and developments which are mainly effected by Globalization. Such as, international education, global capitalism, spread of culture and media, trade and work. Thus, it’s crucial to interpret the term of Globalization, which becomes a major backdrop of other phenomenon, including high education. Certainly, higher education provides prerequisite skills and higher life opportunities to people. However, the education system today is facing some challenges. There is over-education and over- supply of educational institution and the change of the global labour market. Higher education provides more chances for people to obtaining jobs. People who graduated from university are highly employable due to their wealth knowledge, creativity and ability of solving problems. According to the research of Yue et al. (2004) ‘The level of education level has a significantly positive impact on successful job seeking. The higher the education level, the greater the probability of success. ’ Which indicated that higher education make a positive effective to people in job seeking as well as working in a favorable position. The reputation of the higher education institution also has a significant and positive impact on employment. Graduates from key universities have greater employment probabilities than their counterparts from ordinary universities. The employment rate of graduates of public institutions is significantly higher than for private institutions. (Li, 2008, p8) Moreover, a good paper qualification helps you attract the attention of the boss. Employers are preferred to hire a more promising candidate with a better degree than someone whos just out of school, without a pretty diploma. Furthermore,people who studied in university can gain more information about potential employment from universities or collages have apparent advantages both in employment probability and the starting salary. (Spence,1973;Stiglitz,1975).

Turnaround Strategies Essay Example for Free

Turnaround Strategies Essay Emphasis is on speed of change and rapid cost reduction and/or revenue generation. Managers must prioritise things that give quick and significant improvements. Although used interchangeably, restructure is different from turnaround. ? ? Operational Turnaround The focus is on ways of improving the operation of the business and designed to halt the decline. Strategic Turnaround The focus is on adjusting the strategic focus of the business in terms of its Product/Market profile and halt the decline. ? Cost Reduction Strategies Asset Reduction Strategies Financial Restructuring Strategies Management and Cultural Change Strategies Revenue Increasing Strategies Product/Market Redefinition Strategies Turnaround †¢ Restructure †¢ Restructure is a course before failure to avoid failure An unsuccessful restructure may be followed by a turnaround. Turnaround is a course after failure †¢ 7 steps of Turnaround: ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Crises Stabilization Management Changes Gaining stakeholder support Clarifying the target market Re-focusing Financial Restructuring Prioritization of critical improvement areas Aim: Regain control over the deteriorating position Focus: At this time focus remains ? Cost Reduction ? Revenue Increase Turnaround requires proper alignment of causes of decline and the solutions. Changes at top level management is required Reasons: ? Old management may be seen as the cause of the problem by the stakeholder ? Management with experience in turnaround is required ? Different approaches and fresh perspectives may be brought by outsiders ? In a situation of turnaround it is vital that key stakeholders are kept well informed and a clear picture is sent. The main stakeholders involve employees, bank of the organisation, shareholder group Assessment of power of different stakeholder groups is of vital importance. ? ? While turnaround it is very important to clearly segment the target market. This step gains importance due to the following reasons: ? Not identifying targeting the right target market may itself be the reason for turnaround. ? Leads to revenue generation A more focused approach from the management would lead to discontinue of products and services not suitable for the target market. This will lead to discontinue of products returning lower revenues. This will lead to utilizing opportunities more profitable. It is the reorganizing of a business assets and liabilities. Although companies can restructure for any reason, in most cases it is done when there are serious problems with the business, and to avoid bankruptcy liquidation. Financial restructuring would typically involve:? Changing existing capital structure ? Raising additional finance Renegotiating agreements with creditors ? Managers need to identify critical improvement areas ; prioritize them. They need to prioritize things that give immediate and effective improvement. TURNAROUND OF INDIAN BANK IN 2000 Known as the queen of turnaround management, Ms Ranajana Kumar, Chairman ; Managing director took a bleeding public bank out of successive losses. Situation prior of Ms Kumar:

scope of feminist method in social science research

scope of feminist method in social science research This paper examines the distinctive contribution of a feminist methodology in social science research. The Introduction outlines both the historical and future perspectives. The paper is then divided into two distinct parts (1) Feminist Research What this means in terms of social science research, the methods used together with the challenges and choices involved. Concluding with the epistemological issues raised by doing feminist research (2) considers the different perspectives and critique of conventional research. This illustrated by appropriate case study examples. Most researchers in sociology tend to agree that there is no single distinct feminist methodology. There is more a collective consciousness that was born from feminist movements in the 1960s and 1970s where a group of women talked openly, developing a mode of inquiry that challenged the conventional norms of research. These women collectively became known as feminists and enlightened individuals that formed a new bas is for knowledge. Although the original works were conducted outside of an academic setting, it soon became apparent that there was a lack of feminine representation in mainstream sociology or social science. (Devault 1996). Over the last 25 years female sociologists have made significant advances in pushing back the prejudices against women and in general interpreting the workings of society. Feminism was essentially born from a movement and a belief in resolving gender inequalities. Within the general claims to male dominance in social theory, three challenges have emerged (i) the criticism against that of female knowledge and its inability to demonstrate adequate work that illustrates scientific or unbiased knowledge. This resulted in feminists coming under scrutiny in order to demonstrate abilities to rationalise knowledge, perform verification, subjectivity and freedom from political bias. Secondly, how different influences shaped womens lives. Examples cited included that of cultural divisions, social divisions and power relations (Caroline RamazanoÇlu 2004). The danger here is one of stereotyping and simply branding women as one gender that provides a uniform result. The third challenge intertwines that of knowledge and gender whereby in essence women are taken for granted. In 1987 Sandra Harding (Harding 1987) provided insight into the difference between that of Method, Methodology and Epistemology. She equated Epistemology to that of a theory of knowledge with the objective of answering specific questions. Further, that there are two distinct epistemologies namely that of a Feminist empiricism and a Feminist Standpoint. The empirical part is that where a response is provided to bias and traditional responses (Harding 1987). Whereas, standpoint refers to a specific feminist opinion founded upon an explanation of knowledge. In order to understand and complete a feminist standpoint the reader needs to become more involved with the intellectual and political struggles that a womens experience is built upon Sandra Hardings views on Standpoint Epistemology focused more on the concepts of objectivity. Harding advocated a new concept of strong objectivity, as opposed to that of the weak concept which she referred to as objectivism. She stated that objectivity must contain all social values and interests from the research that is carried out. She was aware that certain social values could adversely impact the research and cause potential distortions. As such Harding viewed traditional research concepts and objectivity as the denial of cultures best beliefs (knowledge), whereas the new version fully embraces both political and historical origins. Harding believed that her new theory holds validity, particularly from the feminist standpoint i.e. women are part of an oppressed group and as such they approach research problems in a less arbitrary way. They are more likely to evaluate theories that might otherwise be overlooked or denied by more traditional concepts or viewpoints. Harding states that that the standpoint has a substantial foundation in the empirical experiences of women and although this may not constitute a foundation of knowledge, nevertheless it does create a more diverse contribution leading towards increased objectivity. (Stanley 1990). Historically the most common expression of female action has been associated with that of liberation and the emancipation of women. This has ranged from the concept of radical insistence, to clarifying the purpose of research and ultimately to transformation in terms of political action. It was Maria Mies that proposed feminist research should be consistent with the overall political goals and aspirations of women. Hence, there needs to be a full integration of social and political; action appropriate to the emancipation of women. (Mary Margaret Fonow, Beyond methodology: feminist scholarship as lived research 1991). FEMINIST RESEARCH Feminist research can essentially be defined as research conducted by what has become known as feminists, essentially drawing upon experiences of women in what is perceived as a male dominated world. The objective of research is based the creation of useful knowledge in order to make added contributions by different perspectives of thought. Feminism is based upon a praxis of women sharing the same agenda with men and overcoming the struggle relative to gender, race and class. The foundation of this was really built in the 1980s. Feminist research has since become more focused on how the lives of women have become materially altered by men and the development of strategies in order to resist this process (Mary Maynard 2005). Feminist research in general terms has had a lack of agreement to what precisely defines feminist theory and practice. As such there is not really a single unifying theory. It was Patricia Maguire (Breyton 1997) that offered the premise that feminism is (i) An understanding and belief that women face some form of oppression (ii) A commitment to understand female oppression and exploitation in all of its forms (iii) A commitment towards elimination of all forms of female oppression. (Breyton 1997). FEMINIST METHODS IN SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH: Feminist methods may have four main objectives: (i) the ability to uncover and overcome types of bias in research (ii) The ability to detect and create social change (iii) a concept or method to illustrate human diversity (iv) An acknowledgement of the credentials and position of the researcher. In order to create social change any method must include and respect the participants as change agents. The method needs to acknowledge diversity and that not all women see the social world in the same way e.g. the method approach to interviews and inquiry that explore the experiences of different religions. (Sprague 2005)i.e. evidence has been presented to support theory presented. Feminist studies use both qualitative and quantitative research techniques, although qualitative research is more readily used. The term methodology relates to more of a process of how to conduct research i.e. what you need to select, empirical study of what to observe, what to measure and how to conduct analysis. The method id more related to the precise technique of carrying out the study. (Sprague 2005) A common assumption has been that methodology and epistemology are identical. This has created a relatively narrow technical approach towards carrying out and conducting research. The concept of methodology essentially opens the way for conducting choice i.e. the implications of what we should do and how we might do it. It facilitates questions on data collection and assimilation. As such methodology paves the way for critical reflection and creativity within the social sciences. THE CHALLENGES AND CHOICES: Feminist researchers have taken very different approaches to the adoption of methodology. As such they have adopted differing means to the acquisition and validation of knowledge. This has tended to lean towards a more scientific and evidential base of presenting knowledge. This has avoided the more serious challenges of refuting feminist research and rejecting it on the basis that it contains no scientific method. The example being the study into child abuse, as such it never becomes a clear cut case but contains many complex shades of grey and is nearly always disputable. In many situations feminist researchers are particularly vulnerable in this regard. (Caroline RamazanoÇlu 2004). In current terms it is important to recognise that a large number of women are employed in science, engineering and academic positions. As such they offer a diverse range of opinions on a wide range of subject matter. The female positions tend to have two distinct types of focus (i) that engaged with the sciences and (ii) that focused upon society. Researchers have emerged from former marginalised groups and as such have had a profound way of changing the pattern of inquiry and thought process. There are still those however that holds the opinion that feminism is a threat to the objectivity of science. Sandra Harding pointed out that if all knowledge is socially constructed it will pose a major threat and challenge to science. For example with most scientists the notion that their views of the natural world are subjective is counter to their professional training. (Wyer 2008) It is important to note that the feminist researchers have made a significant impact over the last thirty yea rs. This has included a significant contribution to methodologies in the social sciences; particularly responding to the challenge of how women have been silenced in both society and research. The feminists have obtained significant success in bringing about social change and creating a degree of equity in both professional and personal lives. Whilst much of the success has been in the first world countries, there still remains a significant challenge for women in the third world and those emerging economies. In particular the native women of Africa, the women in the Islamic communities and others in the emerging countries like India and China. LEADING CONTRIBUTIONS: Early contributions in the 1970s were made by feminist sociologists that include the likes of Marcia Millman and Rosebeth Moss Kanter.  [1]  They made a number of suppositions in sociology that focused on issues or problems with existing use of sociological methods. In essence they objected to how assumptions to sociological theories manifested themselves. They challenged the empirical views of male sociologists and demonstrated a new vision as seen purely from the female perspective. (Harding 1987). The researcher and author Carol Gilligan  [2]  [In a different voice: Psychological Theory and Womens Development] agreed the point that conventional theorists are wrong to dismiss the wisdom of women on grounds of lower maturity. Gilligan asked that we listen to women in their different views and not try to compartmentalize them but credit women for the significant contributions over many disciplines in the sciences and the arts. (Harding 1987). Evelyn Fox Keller  [3]  had completed a great deal of ground breaking work that exposed sexual bias in the sciences. She predicted that women needed to be careful in rejecting concepts of objectivity and rationality as they would not be regarded as the icons for creating a new frontier but were more likely to be doomed and marginalized outside of the political mainstream. Fox herself later found herself in the dilemma of having to choose between feminism and science. Fox stated that the more we questioned methodology the greater it generated papers on epistemology and as such methodology became an end-in-itself. (Winnie Tomm 1989). Maria Mies  [4]  (McDonald 2004)concluded that the quantitative survey method is itself not free from androcentric bias, further there is a contradiction between the prevalent theories of social science, methodology and the political aims of women (McDonald 2004). Meis argued that if we revert to these old traditional concepts they will again be turned into instruments of repression new wine should not be poured into old bottles (McDonald 2004) One of the most influential people in the field of standpoint epistemology was that of Dorothy E Smith. Smith is famous throughout the world as a developer of theories and as such she has advanced the academic position from a feminist standpoint. Smith developed theories and concepts around the subject matter of gender and particularly that of the ruling texts of man. She advocated that many texts were compiled from the male perspective and as such were responsible for defining gender. She further advocated that such rules written by men determined the rules of society and defined the way in which we live and conduct our lives. Amongst the books that Smith referenced were the US Constitution, The Holy Bible and the Communist Manifesto. Smith stated that the rulings defined in many of these books were completely opposite to the manner in which women conducted their lives today. Such obsolescence creates the way for transformation of thinking and revision in these areas. Ryan B Johnso n (Johnson, Standpoint Epistemology Summary 2010). EPISTEMOLOGICAL ISSUES OF FEMINIST RESEARCH: Epistemology of feminist research broadly refers to the value of knowledge or the scientific method applied in order to conduct the research. An example being that of empirical or qualitative research. One of the important issues relates to the variation between quantitative and qualitative techniques in feminist research. The historical association that exists between the two research methods have been documented; however the logical associations remain debateable. As such feminist methodology cannot be firmly anchored to either camp of quantitative or qualitative style of research. Gilligan  [5]  pointed out that qualitative research represents the voice that is most consistent with female research values. Equally the researchers often use the perspective of a different voice, this being done in order to provide the distinction between that of a male opinionated voice. The female voice seeking to be far more evident in defining in the definition of connection and relationships. Mies stated that because women have been well versed in repression they have greater objectivity than men in this subject area. This is evident when they are involved in researching exploited groups. In essence women have more empathy and are able to better understand the important issues in a different light or perspective. (Janet Holland 2010). There is also the concept of stereotyping all women as feminists. Many female researchers have been primarily trained in traditional qualitative methodologies and despite the fact that they may have alternate or other views are most likely to revert to the traditional methods of carrying out research. Psychologist Laurie Rudman has completed research that has changed the views on negative stereotyping of women. Rudmans research found that negative stereoptypes of women are very widespread and even include educated young women. Her research further substantiated that strong independent women have satisfying romantic lives and their men are happy too as opposed to the widely held convention that feminists are man hating harpies (Branson 2007) SUMMARY PERSPECTIVES Female researchers have made a number of distinctive contributions to feminist methodologies in social science research. It remains questionable however as to whether a distinct feminist methodology exists, rather it is an approach to which female researchers have enlivened the debate by bringing fresh perspectives and valuable new insight, thereby challenging traditional methods. There have been some outstanding contributions to social science research from leading female researchers Goelting and Fernstermaker,  [6]  1995; Orlans and Wallace, 1994 and Thorpe and Laslett, 1997 are to name but a few. (DeVault 1999) Many sociologists agree that the original feminist movement had a core objective of changing the method of consciousness that was historically rooted in concepts of empirical research. Women became more aware of an alternate base for knowledge and the concept of introducing the womens experience into the methodology deployed. The early movement thereby highlighted the omission of this perspective. In addition, the group highlighted the racism that was faced by African/Americans in the USA and how white women had an advantage in obtaining academic research jobs. From these early beginnings female researchers have learnt to respond to the issues in social sciences and improve the overall field of inquiry. The female approach has been compared to that of excavators (DeVault 1999)where female researchers have been used to identify gaps or missing components in research or that which has been ignored. The unique voice of women often lends itself to a more empathetic approach to those delicate research areas i.e. child abuse, drug or substance abuse, juvenile crime etc. This often results in a more holistic and complete enquiry than would otherwise have been obtained from the traditional male dominated approach. (DeVault 1999). The emancipation of women in social science would provide women with an increased knowledge of their own social circumstances within society. Any feminist methodology therefore needs to be grounded in objectivity in social science. The feminist movement, in achieving liberal values, must not itself become an instrument of repression against the male community. As such the concept goes beyond methodology to more of a process of transformational change and make research more inclusive and objective. Feminist research is therefore aimed at the liberation of women. In achieving these objectives they increase the base of knowledge and add value to the overall method approach in social research and inquiry. (Mary Margaret Fonow, 1991). All the decent people, male and female, are feminists. The only people who are not feminists are those who believe that women are inherently inferior or undeserving of the respect and opportunity afforded men. Either you are a feminist or you are a sexist/mi sogynist. There is no box marked other.- Ani DiFranco. (M. P. Johnson 2005). 3406

Freud And The Unconscious Essay -- essays research papers

Freud was particularly interested in the psychoanalytic school of thought and the founder of psychoanalysis. He believed that our unconscious minds are responsible for many of our behaviors. According to Freud, he thought that there was a significant relationship between slips of the tongue and what we are actually thinking. Today these are called Freudian slips. Similarly he believed that we get information, like our fears and wishes, out by just merely saying what comes to mind. He was able to tell a lot about people, including their past experiences, how they were feeling, and what they wished and feared, just by simply encouraging them to speak whatever came to mind.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In sitting down and tape recording myself speaking about anything that came to mind, a lot of unconscious thoughts about myself were revealed. I noticed myself speaking of things that I normally wouldn’t have. For instance, I spoke of God, death, and negative things about my friends. I also said a lot of stuff that really made no sense at all. An exact piece of what I recorded myself saying was, â€Å"I don’t care. That’s just the way I am. I don’t give a shit. It’s like†¦ I don’t know. Die. Maybe God will. Yeah†¦ maybe. Ha. Butterflies. Stand on walls, do that dance. Yeah†¦ Buddy’s cool. Stop. No. Eva. Duh. She’s†¦ so fucking stupid. Ugh. Drink. Yeah right. Who cares? It’s little.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  &...

Jerzy Kosinkis Being There :: Being There Essays

Jerzy Kosinki's Being There At quaint coffee houses, expensive restaurants, and homes around the world, movies and books are spoken of quite frequently. What happens when a best- selling book turns into Hollywood's project? In many cases, the remade story often does not do the book justire. Remaking a movie after a book can also propel a book and its author into stardom. This is the case for Jerzy Kosinki's popular book Being There. Patterning the remade movie version of Being There after the original book, Kosinski greatly enhances the entertainment value for the audience. "...you're a very photogenic man, you know." (p. 81). "...when I see how good looking you are..." (p. 85). These statements are said by one of the female photographers and the hostess of the UN soiree about the intriguing Chauncey Gardiner. The reader is led to believe that Chance is a handsome young man, possibly in his late thirties, with a very powerful aura about him. When he enters a room, all those present sit up and take n otice. On the other hand, in the movie, the audience notices that Kosinki portrays Chance as a striking man, yet he seems to be in his early or mid-fifties. This is not a disappointment to the reader, it just seems a bit suprising. His effect is not diminished when he walks into a room, yet most younger people may not picture him the way Kosinski portrays him. In the written version of Being There, Thomas Franklin, the lawyer who initially threw Chance out of the only home he has ever known, can not place the now famous Chauncey Gardiner. He knows he has seen his face before when he sees him on the television show This Evening. He even believes that he may have met him, but he still has no idea why. On the other hand, in the movie, Mr. Franklin knows right off the bat who he is seeing when This Evening airs. Although he recognizes Chauncey for the Chance that he is, he does not quite put it all together. He assumes that there must have been some government setup at the time he had met him at the Old Man's house.

Comic Book Literature :: Reading Learning Education Essays

Comic Book Literature It's funny how time flies and how the memory seems to go with it. I remember when I was fourteen and decided to write the great American novel. I thought then that I was going to have to like the dreaded of all subjects, English. I gave it a good try. I gave 110% to the writing assignments, read most of what they told us was good, and really tried diligently to care about gerunds. But like it or not, a lot of English was drier than my grandmother's skin. I tried remembering some of the things my classmates and I read in our junior high school English classes and I managed to come up with a few: The Canterbury Tales, Romeo and Juliet, and A Rose for Emily, other than that, I draw a blank. Seems I spent less time reading the textbook than I did the comics I hid inside it. I look back at that time now with affection. The eighties and early nineties were a revolutionary period for comic books. With comic book writers like Grant Morrison, Frank Miller, and Alan Moore, children didn't graduate from reading comic books into reading other things; the comics seemed to mature with us. Of course, our teachers didn't see the literary revolution occurring in coming books – I'd wager most of our teachers hadn't read a comic book since their own youth. But now the comic book readers of the eighties are coming of age, we're entering the workforce, we're slowly taking over the world, and it's time we made a few changes. If I were to ask teachers if they taught or considered incorporating comic books into their lessons, the answer I expect from most would be â€Å"no.† Comic books, while another form of creative writing is not represented in nearly all of today's literature textbooks, even though comics have been around for centuries. According to Will Eisner, comic creator and advocate for comics in the classroom, â€Å"Long before the invention of the alphabet, which depends on readers' ability to memorize its code, sequential pictures were used to record knowledge and communicate man's experiences, either read or imaginary† (75). I think this issue may have started because comic books are not simply a medium based on words as a short story is. Instead, comics are words juxtaposed with art work – art work that often times seems very iconic, almost –dare I say— cartoonish . Comic Book Literature :: Reading Learning Education Essays Comic Book Literature It's funny how time flies and how the memory seems to go with it. I remember when I was fourteen and decided to write the great American novel. I thought then that I was going to have to like the dreaded of all subjects, English. I gave it a good try. I gave 110% to the writing assignments, read most of what they told us was good, and really tried diligently to care about gerunds. But like it or not, a lot of English was drier than my grandmother's skin. I tried remembering some of the things my classmates and I read in our junior high school English classes and I managed to come up with a few: The Canterbury Tales, Romeo and Juliet, and A Rose for Emily, other than that, I draw a blank. Seems I spent less time reading the textbook than I did the comics I hid inside it. I look back at that time now with affection. The eighties and early nineties were a revolutionary period for comic books. With comic book writers like Grant Morrison, Frank Miller, and Alan Moore, children didn't graduate from reading comic books into reading other things; the comics seemed to mature with us. Of course, our teachers didn't see the literary revolution occurring in coming books – I'd wager most of our teachers hadn't read a comic book since their own youth. But now the comic book readers of the eighties are coming of age, we're entering the workforce, we're slowly taking over the world, and it's time we made a few changes. If I were to ask teachers if they taught or considered incorporating comic books into their lessons, the answer I expect from most would be â€Å"no.† Comic books, while another form of creative writing is not represented in nearly all of today's literature textbooks, even though comics have been around for centuries. According to Will Eisner, comic creator and advocate for comics in the classroom, â€Å"Long before the invention of the alphabet, which depends on readers' ability to memorize its code, sequential pictures were used to record knowledge and communicate man's experiences, either read or imaginary† (75). I think this issue may have started because comic books are not simply a medium based on words as a short story is. Instead, comics are words juxtaposed with art work – art work that often times seems very iconic, almost –dare I say— cartoonish .

A comparison between Jean Rhys and Una Marson Essay

Voyage into the Metropolis: Exile in the Works of Jean Rhys and Una Marson. In Jonathan Miller’s 1970 production of Shakespeare’s â€Å"The Tempest† the character of Caliban was cast as black, therefore reigniting the link between the Prospero/Caliban paradigm as the colonizer/colonized. It was not a new idea, indeed Shakespeare himself envisaged the play set on an island in the Antilles and the play would have had great appeal at the time when new territories were being discovered, conquered, plundered and providing seemingly inexhaustible revenue for the colonisers. What is particularly interesting, however, is how powerful the play later becomes for discourse on colonialism. This trope of Caliban is used by George Lamming in â€Å"The Pleasures of Exile† where he likens Prospero in his relationship with Caliban, to the first slave-traders who used physical force and then their culture to subjugate the African and the Carib, overcoming any rebellion with a self righteous determinism. In â€Å"The Pleasures of Exile† Lammi ng sees Caliban as: â€Å"Man and other than man. Caliban is his convert, colonized by language, and excluded by language. It is precisely this gift of language, this attempt at transformation which has brought about the pleasure and the paradox of Caliban’s exile. Exiled from his gods, exiled from his nature, exiled from his own name! Yet Prospero is afraid of Caliban. He is afraid because he knows that his encounter with Caliban is, largely, his encounter with himself.† 1 The Prospero/Caliban paradigm is a very relevant symbol for the colonizer/colonized situation of the West Indies but it nevertheless remains a paternalistic position. Where does that leave women of the Caribbean? It could be argued that the Caribbean woman has been even further marginalized. That in making Caliban the model of the Caribbean man it is therefore providing him with a voice. Yet nowhere in the Tempest is there a female counterpart, rendering the Caribbean woman invisible as well as silent and ignoring an essential part of their historical culture. Another issue raised here, is that Caribbean literature has for many years been male dominated. Just as the colonizer sought to ignore and marginalize their savage ‘Other’ so the Caribbean male has ignored their female counterpart. Opal Palmer Adisa, in exploring this issue, believes that it is â€Å"out of this patriarchal structure, designed to make her an object, part of the landscape to be used and discarded as seen fit by the colonizer, that the Caribbean woman has emerged.†2 It was out of such a ‘patriarchal structure’ that Jean Rhys and Una Marson emerged. The writing of both women revise and expand theme and personae, subverting a colonial and patriarchal culture. Both women â€Å"may exist in different ethnological and ontological realms but they both exist in worlds which have, at one time or another, attempted to censure, silence or ignore the ideals and interests of women†3 Like many of their male Caribbean counterparts to succeed them, their writing was greatly influenced by voyaging into the colonial metropolis and living in exile. In this essay I will discuss the importance of that journey in seeking to find a voice, an identity, and even a language to challenge established notions of Self, gender and race within the colonial structure. But essential to their experience is their struggle. Naipaul recognised, in Rhys, the themes of â€Å"isolation, an absence of society or community, the sense of things falling apart, depende nce, loss†.4 This could also be said of Marson. Jean Rhys was born Ella Gwendoline Rees Williams on 24th August 1890, in Roseau, Dominica to a Creole mother of Scottish descent and a Welsh father who was a doctor. Rhys left Dominica in 1907, aged sixteen and continued her education in a Cambridge girls’ school and then at the Academy of Dramatic Art which she left after two terms. Rhys experienced feelings of alienation and isolation at both these institutions and these feelings were to stay with her for much of her life. Upon pursuing a career as a chorus girl under a variety of names Rhys embarked on an affair with a man twenty years older than herself and which lasted two years. It is broadly accepted that this early period of her London life formed the structure for Voyage In The Dark, and like all of Rhys’s novels, explores homelessness, dislocation, the marginal and the migrant. The character of Anna, like most of her female protagonists exists in the demimonde of city life, living on the wrong side of respecta bility. What Rhys does effectively in this novel is to centralize the marginalized, those subjects â€Å"who belong nowhere, between cultures, between histories.†5 Una Marson was born in rural Jamaica in 1905. Her father was a well respected Baptist minister and as a result of his standing within the community Marson had the opportunity to be educated on a scholarship at Hampton High School, a boarding school for mainly white, middle class girls. After finding employment as a stenographer, Marson went on to edit the ‘Jamaican Critic’, an established literary publication, and from 1928-1921, her own magazine ‘The Cosmopolitan’. Having established herself as a poet, playwright and women’s activist Marson made the decision to travel to Britain. Her achievements in London were impressive; a social activist within the League of Coloured Peoples which led to her taking a post as secretary to the deposed Emperor Haile Selassie and later she was appointed as a BBC commentator. In reality, however, Marson, like Rhys found the voyage into the Metropolis very difficult. Facing blatant racial discrimination like ‘so many West Indian women migrants of the 1950s, Una found herself blocked at every turn. She complained and cried; she felt lonely and humiliated,’. 6 In spite of many literary and social connections she remained an isolated and marginal figure. Her poetry displays the uncertainty of cultural belonging where her language ties her to colonialism yet also provides her with a powerful tool with which to challenge it. In placing Rhys alongside Marson as pioneering female writers, it is important to explore the notion of nationality, of being Caribbean and to question the grounds upon which such ideas are constructed. Both women were writing at the same time, having been born and educated in the British colonies. Both these writers, whose lives span the twentieth century, are situated at the crossroads of the colonial and post-colonial, the modern and post modern, where the threat of fascism and war result in anti colonial struggles and eventual decolonisation across the world. Their voyages from the colonies into the metropolitan centre generate similar experiences. What is clear with both is that by journeying into the metropolis, as women, they occupy a double marginal position within an already marginalized community. Their journey can be seen as an exploration of displacement where, according to Edward W. Said, the intellectual exile exists ‘in a median state, neither completely at one with the new setting nor fully disencumbered of the old, beset with half involvements and half attachments, nostalgic and sentimental at one level, an adept mimic or a secret outcast on the other.’7 Rhys and Marson, having left the Caribbean are asking us to consider what it means to write from the margins. Within their work, both women challenge notions of women’s place within society and women’s place as a colonized subject in the metropolitan centre. The protagonist, Anna Morgan, in Voyage in the Dark, reflects Rhys’s own multi indeterminate, multi conflicted identity. Anna, like Rhys is a white descendent of British colonists and slave traders who occupy a precarious position of being â€Å"inbetween†. Hated by the Blacks for their part in oppressing the slaves and continuing to cling on to that superior social position, they are also regarded by the ‘mother country’ as the last vestiges of a degenerate part of their own history best forgotten. Moreover, 1930s England, still under the shadow of Victorian moral dicta, continued to judge harshly a young woman without wealth, family, social position and with an odd accent. Throughout the novel Anna is identified with characters who are â€Å"usually objectified and silenced in canonical works: the chorus girl, the mannequin, the demimondaine.†8 Much has been made of her reading of Zola’s Nana and indeed there are many parallels between the two characters. Anna, like Nana becomes a prostitute and in the first version of Voyage in the Dark Anna like Nana dies very young. There is of course the obvious anagram of her name but, as Elaine Savory highlights, some interesting revisions by Rhys. Whereas Zola, in Nana, creates a character who brings about the downfall of upper class men not through power but â€Å"with only the unsophisticated currency of youth and raw female sexuality†9 Rhys, in Anna, creates a character who is herself destroyed by men. â€Å"In Rhys’s version the men who use her youth and beauty are for the most part evidently cowardly or downright disreputable: Anna herself begins as naively trusting, passes through a stage of self destructive hopelessness and passivity and ends, in Rhys’s preferred, unpublished version, by dying from a botched abortion.†10 If we are to see Walter Jeffries as the original European, existing in a world viewed certainly by himself as principally ordered and reasonable then Rhys is, through this character, highlighting the degenerate aspect of using power to commodify and even destroy, thereby subverting the colonizer’s position in relation to the colonized. Through the character of Anna, Rhys explores those oppositions of â€Å"Self† and â€Å"Other†, male and female, black and white. Even though she outwardly resembles the white European, enabling her, unlike Marson, to blend visually within London, her association with the Caribbean sets her apart as between black and white cultures and as an exotic â€Å"Other†. This ambiguity of Anna’s position results in â€Å"slippage†. Anna and her family would have been regarded in the West Indies as the white colonizers. In England and in her relationship with Jeffries she becomes the colonized â€Å"Other†. In being read as the colonized subject Anna is continually having to adapt her world view and sense of identity to the perspective being imposed on her. A good example of this is the chorus girls’s renaming her as the â€Å"Hottentot† aligning her more with the black African and demonstrating the homogenizing of the colonized peoples b y the colonizers. This is similar to Spivak’s belief that ‘so intimate a thing as personal and human identity might be determined by the politics of imperialism.’11 Interestingly, â€Å"Hottentot† is the former name for the Nama, a nomadic tribe of Southern Africa. A somewhat apt comparison which reflects Anna’s own nomadic existence as she moves from town to town as a chorus girl and from one bed sit to another. The term â€Å"Hottentot† developed into a derogatory term during the Victorian era and became synonymous firstly with wide hipped, big bottomed African women with oversized genitals and then with the sexuality of a prostitute. Jeffries is fully aware of the implications of the name â€Å"Hottentot†. In response to hearing Anna’s renaming he says, â€Å"I hope you call them something worse back.†12 Elaine Savory makes a strong connection between Anna’s renaming and her relationship with Jeffries, her eventual seducer. Whilst â€Å"not looking at Anna’s body in an obvious way, eventually the transaction between them is understood fully on his side to be a promise of sexual excitement from a white woman whom he perceives as having an extra thrill presumably from association with racist constructions of black females in his culture.†13 Franz Fanon, in his book Black Skin, White Masks perceives these complex colonial relations as being in a state of flux rather than fixed or static. In his introduction to Fanon’s text, Homi Bhabha highlights this point, stating that the ‘familiar alignment of colonial subjects†¦Black/White, Self/Other†¦is disturbed†¦and the traditional grounds of racial identity are dispersed.’14 So it is in the relationship between Jeffries and Anna. In transposing the colonizer’s stereotypical images of a black woman onto Anna he is disrupting and dispersing those ‘traditional grounds of racial identity’. Moreover, Anna is subconsciously enacting a mediated performance, aware of her impact upon him and the implications of her actions, in an attempt to adhere to his preconceptions of her. The relationship cannot be sustained on these fundamentally unstable preconceptions. Anna, both as a female and racial â€Å"Other† is penetrated by Jeffries and with the exchange of money is commodified. Without independent means Anna becomes that purchasable girl who is at the mercy of and eventually becomes dependent upon the upper middle class Jeffries. The relationship between these two characters reflects Rhys’s own location in the world where the West Indies was at the time still a commodity of the British Empire. In another analysis of the colonial stereotype, Homi Bhabha challenges the ‘limiting and traditional reliance of the stereotype as offering, at any one time, a secure point of identification on the part of the individual,’15 in this case Jeffries and Hester. Bhabha does not argue that the colonizer’s stereotyping of the colonized ‘Other’ is as a result of his security in his own identity or conception of himself but more to do with the colonizer’s own identity and authority which is in fact destabilized by contradictory responses to the Other. In order to maintain a powerful position it is important, according to Bhabha, for the colonizer to identify the colonized with the image he has already fixed in his mind. This image can be ambiguous as the colonized subject can be simultaneously familiar under the penetrable gaze of the all seeing, all powerful colonial gaze and be incomprehensible like the ‘inscrutable Oriental’. The coloni zed can be â€Å"both savage†¦and yet the most obedient and dignified of servants†¦; he is the embodiment of rampant sexuality and yet innocent as a child; he is mystical, primitive, simpleminded and yet the most worldly and accomplished liar , and the manipulator of social forces.†16 In short, for Bhabha, the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized is riddled with contradictions and inconsistencies which, when imposed upon the colonized ‘Other’, cause a crisis of identity. So it is with Anna. Jeffries upon first meeting with the very young Anna can see that she is as ‘innocent as a child’ and is ‘most obedient’ sexually, but by her association with the Caribbean and the Hottentot as I have previously explored, she is subsequently attributed with being ‘the embodiment of rampant sexuality’ resulting in his taking of her virginity, abandoning her to prostitution but also leading to as Veronica Clegg observes ‘a loss of temporal referents’17 Anna’s stepmother, Hester, also attempts to impose an identity upon Anna which not only conflicts with Anna’s own sense of identity but is also based around stereotypical perceptions. . Hester, whose ‘voice represents a repressive English colonial law’18 believes that Anna’s father’s troubles resulted from his having lost ‘touch with everybody in England’19 and that these severing of ties with the Imperial motherland is a signal to her that ‘he was failing’,20 losing his identity, reduced to the level of the black inhabitants of the island. This idea of contamination and racial reduction is explored by Paul B. Rich who explains that there was a belief in the early twentieth century that white people in the tropics risked ‘in the absence of continual cultural contacts with their temperate northern culture, being reduced to the level of those black races with whom they had made their â€Å"unnatural home†Ã¢ €˜.21 In Hester’s eyes this apparent loss of identity is also experienced by Anna. She continually criticizes her speech, her relationship with Francine the black servant, and also insinuates degenerative behaviour on the part of her family, particularly Uncle Bo. Hester’s views reflect the growing disapproval in England at that time, of relationships between white people and the black population in the West Indies. Inter-racial relationships were discouraged for fear of contamination of the white ‘Self’. In voicing her disapproval of Anna’s friendship with Francine along with her continual use of the racist and derogatory term â€Å"nigger†, Hester is alluding to the fact that, in her opinion, Anna, especially through her speech, has indeed been contaminated and reduced racially and that Anna’s association with Francine thwarts her attempts to reconnect her with the colonizer’s ‘cultural contacts’. Hester rails that she finds it ‘impossible to get you [Anna] away from the servants. That awful sing-song voice you had! Exactly like a nigger you talked†¦and still do. Exactly like that dreadful girl Francine. When you were jabbering away together in the pantry I never could tell which of you was speaking.’22 Hester’s constant criticism only serves to undermine Anna’s real identity and dislocate her further from the Caribbean world she once inhabited and the alienating London world she is now experiencing. Her accent sets her apart, drifting between two worlds. Anna’s difficulties in negotiating these two worlds is a result of the ‘return of the diasporic’ to the metropolitan centre where ‘the perplexity of the living is most acutely experienced.’23 This can certainly be seen in her response to the weather which, according to Bhabha, invokes ‘the most changeable and imminent signs of national difference’24 The novel opens with; â€Å"It was as if a curtain had fallen, hiding everything I had ever known. It was almost like being born again. The colours were different, the smells different, the feeling things gave you right down inside yourself was different. Not just the difference between heat and cold; light, darkness; purple, grey. But a difference in the way I was frightened and the way I was happy. I didn’t like London at first. I couldn’t get used to the cold.†25 And later upon arriving in England with Hester she describes it as being ‘divided into squares like pocket-handkerchiefs; a small tidy look it had, everywhere fenced off from everywhere else’ 26and then in London where the ‘dark houses all alike frowning down one after another’27 Throughout the novel Anna continually experiences feelings of being enclosed. Many of the bedsits are restricting and box-like. On one occasion she remarks that ‘this damned room’s getting smaller and smaller†¦And about the rows of houses outside gimcrack, rotten-looking and all exactly alike’.28 The many small rooms between which Anna moves emphasize her disempowerment through enclosed spaces. These spaces, in turn, serve as metaphors for the consequences in voyaging into the metropolitan centre. She is at once shut inside these small monotonous rooms and shut out from that world which has sought to colonize her. It is perhaps ironic that the further she mo ves into the centre of the city, ending up as she does on Bird Street, just off Oxford Street , the more she is shut out and marginalized by that imperialist society. Her memories of the West Indies are in sharp contrast to her impressions of England. The images of home are always warm, vivid and exotic, ‘Thinking of the walls of the Old Estate House, still standing, with moss on them. That was the garden. One ruined room for roses, one for orchids, one for ferns. And the honeysuckle all along the steep flight of steps’.29 When comparing the two worlds she remarks to herself that ‘the colours are red, purple, blue , gold, all shades of green. The colours here are black, grey, dim-green, pale blue, the white of people’s faces – like woodlice’. 30 Her memory of home is experienced sensuously as she recalls the sights and smells: â€Å"Market Street smelt of the wind but the narrow street smelt of niggers and wood smoke and salt fishcakes fried in lard’ and the sound of the black women as they call out, â€Å"salt fishcakes, all sweet an’ charmin’, all sweet an’ charmin’.'†31 Anna attempts to convey this richness to Jeffries. His failure to appreciate the beauty she describes merely underlines the differences between the two. He expresses a preference for cold places remarking that ‘The tropics would be altogether too lush’.32 Jeffries’s reaction to the West Indies in fact reflects the colonizer’s view that the ‘ruined room for roses’ and ‘orchids’ portray a disorder, a garden of Eden complete with its implications of moral decay and as Bhabha states, a ‘tropical chaos that was deemed despotic and ungovernable and therefore worthy of the civilizing mission.’33 Anna’s association with this world sets her up, in Walter’s eyes, as a figure representing a secret depravity promising forbidden desires. Anna, like the West Indies is something to be overpowered, enslaved and colonized, where the colonizer seeks to strip their identity and impose their own beliefs and desires. It is significant, therefore, that following this scene Anna loses her virginity to Jeffries and recalls the memory of the mulatto slave girl, Maillotte Boyd, aged 18, whose record Anna once found on ‘an old slave list at Constance’.34 Like Maillotte Boyd, Anna is now merely a commodity and Jeffries has no intention of ever seeing her as an equal. Her purity, in his eyes isn’t worth preserving as he already considers her the contaminated ‘Other’. By his actions he succeeds in maintaining that patriarchal imperialism which relies on institutional forms of racial and national separateness. Anna, as a twentieth century white Creole, is no freer than the nineteenth century mulatto slave. Just as Maillotte Boyd is, as racially mixed, suspended between two races, so Anna as a white Creole is suspended between two cultures, leaving her dislocated. Anna’s voyage into the imperialist metropolis leads to boundaries and codes of behaviour, language and dress being constantly imposed upon her. She is aware for example of the importance of clothes as a means of controlling her social standing and also her standing as a woman. Through her dress Anna almost becomes that elegant white lady, mimicking London’s female high society. For Jeffries, Anna represents the ‘menace of mimicry’, which , according to Bhabha is ‘a difference which is almost nothing but not quite’ and which turns ‘to menace- a difference that is total but not quite.’35 This mimicry serves to empower Anna as it ultimately destabilises the essentialism of colonialist ideology, resulting in Jeffries imposing upon Anna the identity of the West Indian ‘Other’ This in turn leads to feelings of loss, alienation and dislocation, a rejection of being white and a desire to be black. ‘I always wanted to be black. I was happy because Francine was there†¦.Being black is warm and gay, being white is cold and sad.’36 Anna’s association with Hester meant that she ‘hated being white. Being white and getting like Hester, †¦old and sad and everything.’37 Yet the warmth she expresses in her memories of Francine are always tempered by her realisation that Francine disliked her ‘because I [Anna] was white.’38 Her feelings of being between cultures and feeling dislocated are never fully resolved. Anna’s voyage in the dark, reflects Rhys’s own sense of exile and marginality as a white West Indian woman. Teresa O’Connor remarks that ‘Rhys, herself caught between places, cultures, classes and races, never able to identify clearly with one or the other, gives the same marginality to her heroines, so that they reflect the unique experience of dislocation of the white Creole woman.’39 The language used to express feelings of exile and loneliness, destitution and dislocation is both sparse and economic. It is neither decorative nor contrived, devoid of sentiment or without seeking sympathy. In commenting upon an essay written by Rhys discussing gender politics, Gregg writes that ‘It is important to note her [Rhys’s] belief that writing has a subversive potential. Resistance†¦can be carried out through writing that exposes and opposes the political and social arrangements.’40 Helen Carr, in her exploration of Rhys’s language believes that: â€Å"Rhys in her fictions unpicks and mocks the language by which the powerful keep control, while at the same time shifting, bending, re-inventing ways of using language to open up fresh possibilities of being.†41 Una Marson, another Caribbean to voyage into the metropolis, also experienced loneliness, isolation and a struggle with the complexity of identity. Like Rhys, Marson fought with these feelings throughout her life, resulting in long periods of depression. Her belief in women’s need for pride in their cultural heritage established Marson as ‘the earliest female poet of significance to emerge in West Indian literature’.42 She not only ‘challenged received notions of women’s place in society’ but also raised questions about ‘the relationship of the colonized subject to â€Å"the mother country†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢43 There was a considerable amount of poetry emerging out of the West Indies around this time but most of it was dismissed as being ‘not truly West Indian’,44 the reason for this being partly because many of the writers were English but also because many of the styles used by these writers mimicked colonial forms. Many of Marson’s early poetry reflects this mimicry showing a reliance upon the Romantics of the English poetic tradition, particularly Shelley, Wordsworth and Byron. The poem Spring in England reveals this indebtedness to the Romantics, including as it does a stanza where, having observed the arrival of Spring in London, the poet asks: ‘And what are daffodils, daffodils Daffodils that Wordsworth praised?’ I asked. ‘Wait for Spring, Wait for the Spring,’ the birds replied. I waited for Spring, and lo they came, ‘A host of shining daffodils Beside the lake beneath the trees’ (The Moth p6)45 Clearly there are echoes of Wordsworth’s Daffodils throughout the stanza, reflecting the drive by colonialism through education to eradicate the West Indian selfhood. Yet for Marson this harnessing of English culture not only posed few problems but indeed was, I would argue, a necessary step in her voyage of self discovery. As seen with Rhys, mimicry was a subversive threat to colonial ideology, especially through language. Homi Bhabha’s notion of mimicry seeks to explore those ambivalences of such destabilizing colonial and post-colonial exchanges. â€Å"The menace of mimicry is its double vision which in disclosing the ambivalence of colonial discourse also disrupts its authority. †¦The ambivalence of colonial authority repeatedly turns from mimicry – a difference which is almost nothing but not quite – to menace – a difference that is almost total but not quite. And in that other scene of colonial power, where history turns to farce and presence to a ‘part’ can be seen the twin figures of narcissism and paranoia that repeat furiously, uncontrollably.†46 Bhabha’s essay in recognising the power, the play and the dynamics between the colonizer and the colonized offers an alternative to the pessimistic view held by V.S. Naipaul who believed that West Indian culture was doomed to mimicry, unable to create anything ‘original’. Marson’s mimicry of the Romantics could be seen as a preparation to enter the colonizer’s metropolis, and to attempt to assimilate into the colonizer’s world. In making that voyage to the metropolis, Una Marson succeeds in taking that step from ‘the copy’ to the ‘original’. By remaining in Jamaica Marson risked remaining in an environment too rigidly ingrained by colonial prescriptions. Una Marson’s voyage into ‘the heart of the Empire’, however, resulted in intense disappointment. For the first time, Marson experienced open racism and according to Jarrett-McCauley ‘The truth was that Una dreaded going out because people stared at her, men were curious but their gaze insulted her, even small children with short dimpled legs called her â€Å"Nigger†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦She was a black foreigner seen only as strange and unwanted. This was the ‘Fact of Blackness’ which Fanon was to analyse in Black Skins, White Masks(1952), that inescapable, heightening level of consciousness which comes from â€Å"being dissected by white eyes†.’ 47 Unlike Rhys, Marson was finding it impossible to blend visually within London. Consciousness of her colour made Marson conscious of her marginality. This consciousness led her seriously to question the values of the ‘mother country’. Marson’s work moved from mimicry to anti-patriarchal discourse, seen in her poem Politeness where she responds to the William Blake poem Little Black Boy with: They tell us That our skin is black But our hearts are white We tell them That their skin is white But their hearts are black (Tropic Reveries p 44) The poem demonstrates Marson’s growing resentment at being alienated by the colonial power. There is an uncertainty in her desire to both belong and to challenge, echoing Rhys in her sense of cultural unbelonging. Those anti-patriarchal feelings are present once more in her poem Nigger where she communicates the anger she feels at being abused and marginalized as the racial ‘Other’. They call me ‘Nigger’ Those little white urchins, They laughed and shouted As I passed along the street, They flung it at me: ‘Nigger! Nigger! Nigger!’ She retorts to this abuse furiously with: You who feel that you are ‘sprung Of earth’s first blood’, your eyes Are blinded now with arrogance. With ruthlessness you seared My people’s flesh and now you still Would crush their very soul Add fierce insult to vilest injury.48 In its repetition of the shocking term ‘Nigger’, Marson is confronting the white colonialist’s use of the word to exert power over and oppress the colonized. The violence of its use reflects the violence of their shared history where ‘Of those who drove the Negroes / To their death in days of slavery,’ regard ‘Coloured folk as†¦low and base.’49 In highlighting this history of violence, oppression and slavery, Marson is attempting to invert this oppression and dislodge the notion of white supremacy, whilst attempting to negotiate a position from West Indian to African and in doing so, fashion an identity. By writing the poem in the first person singular and moving from ‘They’ to ‘You’ when addressing the white colonizers, Marson succeeds in centralizing herself and reversing the binary system of ‘Self’ and ‘Other’. Nigger marks Marson’s sharpened perspective on issues such as racism and identity. Her voyage into the metropolitan centre triggers those ’emergent identifications and new social movements†¦[being]†¦played out’.50 It was a time in Marson’s life where she was made to feel inadequate, lonely and humiliated but it also roused her to ‘resist the corrosive force of her oppressive world.’51 Nigger reveals this sense of belonging and not belonging felt by Marson, of being part of the empire but never part of the Motherland, yet it simultaneously challenges the very essentialism in which the colonial Self is rooted. Moreover, the hostility she experiences in many ways acknowledges the success of Marson’s performance as a hybrid. Marson’s frustration and anger was compounded by the fact that in being middle class and educated she possibly saw herself as ‘a notch above the poor, black working class women from the old communities in Cardiff, Liverpool and London’52 Marson explores this question of how middle class West Indians negotiate being educated and yet marginalized and even considered inferior in her play London Calling. The play, based on the experiences of colonial students in London charts the story of a group of expatriates who, upon being invited to the house of an aristocratic English family, dress up in outlandish native costume and speak in ‘broken’ English. The play, a comedy, takes a light hearted look at the stereotypical images held by the British, at the same time countering the myth of black inferiority. There is, in the play, a curious twist as the students from Novoko are presented as black versions of the British in their dress and behaviour, ‘mimic men’ and yet they themselves attempt to ‘mimic’ their own folk culture. They are eventually discovered by one of the family, Larkspur, who then proposes marriage to Rita, one of the Novokans. The play ends with Rita declining Larkspur’s proposal in favour of Alton, another Novokan. This rejection of Larkspur places Rita in a powerful position. Rita is no longer the undesirable ‘Other’, she has resisted the oppressive world of the colonialists and placed herself as the centralised ‘Self’. Rita is Marson’s fantasy where the black woman is recognised as beautiful and an equal. Marson’s activities in the League of Coloured Nations gave her purpose, direction and the opportunity to advance her political education whilst introducing her to the Pan – African movement ‘a sort of boomerang from the horrors of slavery and colonialism, to which Una, like many of her generation, was being steadily drawn.’53 Marson’s work around this time reflects a desire to reclaim and restore that ‘Other’ cultural tradition, a difficult task as the Caribbean was not an homogeneous agency and it was not easy to establish a pre-colonial culture. The ethnic mix was large and hybrid making the notion of ‘Caribbeanness’ less easy to define. The Pan-African movement provided links with an alternative body to European colonialism and offered Marson a platform to renegotiate and redefine her idea of ‘Caribbeaness’ and race, an option not offered to Rhys. Having established a sense of being a black person in a white imperialist centre, she now needed to make sense of being a black woman within this paternalistic centre. The poem Little Brown Girl attempts just this, constructing a dialogue of sorts between a white Londoner, whose gender is unclear, and a little brown girl. The poem begins with a series of questions put to the child: Little brown girl Why do you wander alone About the streets Of the great city Of London? Why do you start and wince When white folk stare at you Don’t you think they wonder Why a little brown girl Should roam about their city Their white, white city? (The Moth, p11) The questioning of the little brown girl’s presence in London suggests a linguistic imperialism. It may be construed as the speaker challenging her right to be in the city, establishing her as the nameless, black ‘Other’. Her feeling of difference is emphasized in the repetition of the word ‘white’ on the final line of the second stanza. The third stanza plays out an interesting reversal in notions of blackness. The speaker asks why she has left the ‘little sunlit land / where we sometimes go / to rest and get brown’54 alluding to the desire of white skinned people to tan which for the white colonialist signifies wealth, for the black ‘Other’ being inferior and uneducated. From here there is a subtle shift of speaker and London is seen through the eyes of the little brown girl. Her perception of the city is distinctly unattractive where ‘There are no laughing faces, / people frown if one really laughs’ and: There’s nothing picturesque To be seen in the streets, Nothing but people clad In Coats, Coats, Coats, (The Moth, p11) If the poem began with the strangeness of the brown girl to the white gaze, here it teases out those feelings of alienation felt by the little brown girl at being in such a cold, drab place, so different from her own home. Once more Marson creates a reversal in the stereotype as she seeks to objectify white people observing that ‘the folks are all white -/ White, white, white, / And they all seem the same.’55 In homogenizing the colonizers, the hybridity of the West Indians are then celebrated in the many varied skin tones of ‘black and bronze and brown’ which are themselves homogenized by the label ‘Black’. The vibrancy, colour and friendliness of ‘back home’ where the folks are ‘Parading the city’ wearing ‘Bright attractive bandanas’ contrasts with the previous stanza of the dour images of London. The dialogue is handed back to the white speaker who attempts to establish the origins of the little black girl but succeeds in once more re-establishing the homogeneic white gaze indicated in the speaker’s inability to distinguish between many distinct nations : And from whence are you Little brown girl? I guess Africa, or India, Ah no, from some island In the West Indies But isn’t that India All the same? (The Moth, p13) More than anything the poem conveys that sense of isolation felt by the little brown girl in the city. She never answers the white speaker directly and is positioned in the middle of the poem, again centralizing the colonized. In asking the question ‘Would you like to be white/Little brown girl?’ there is a sense of the colonizer attempting to manipulate and dominate the colonized, to Europeanise, ultimately leading to mimicry. Yet the questioner responds himself with ‘I don’t think you would / For you toss your head / As though you are proud / To be brown’. 56 Marson, here, signals a move away from being a ‘mimic man’ seeking to challenge that whole Eurocentric paternalistic world and centralise the black women, the most marginalized figure in society. The themes central to Little Brown Girl’s themes echo Rhys’s own negative reactions to London seen in the opening page of Voyage in the Dark. Like Rhys, Marson succeeds in capturing that colour and warmth of the West Indies contrasting greatly with the misery of London, experienced by both and which reinforce that racial and national separateness. Those differences prove for both to be irreconcilable, making it impossible for both Rhys and Marson to integrate, leaving both women dislocated from the metropolis. Little Black Girl serves as a useful reminder that many immigrants were women. This encounter between the city and a woman (in Marson’s case, a black woman) echoes Anna’s encounter in Voyage in the Dark albeit as a prostitute. Both walk the streets of the city and as women-as-walkers encounter the metropolis, negotiating its spaces. Denise deCaires Narian suggests that certainly Marson could be considered as a flaneuse.57 Neither Rhys nor Marson, however have the confident panache of the flaneuse and neither fulfil the requirements of flanerie originally set out by Baudelaire. The flaneur, he asserted, saw the ‘crowd as his domain, †¦ His passion and his profession is to merge with the crowd’.58 The flaneur and therefore the flaneuse is engaged in strolling and looking but most importantly merging ‘with the crowd’. For Marson this is impossible as she is a black woman in a white city. Moreover, Baudelaire expands upon the idea of the flaneur as having ‘the ability to be away from home and yet to feel at home anywhere, to be at the centre of the world, and yet to be unseen of the world’.59 Again this is problematic for both Marson and Rhys as their wanderings around the metropolis seek only to reinforce those feelings of ‘Otherness’, isolation and marginality. For Marson these feelings of alienation gained her the reputation of being a ‘true loner who didn’t exactly seek out company’60 leading to a ‘heightened level of bodily consciousness’ which comes from ‘being dissected by white eyes’.61 In her struggle with being marginalized as a black women always at the mercy of the white metropolitan gaze, Marson was always aware of that Europeanised sense of beauty being white. This idea of beauty was so entrenched, even within the black community that they themselves set beauty against the paleness of their own skin. The importance of popularly disseminated images is tackled in Cinema Eyes where a black mother in addressing her daughter attempts to challenge the idea that ‘Europeans still provide the aesthetic reference point’.62 The speaker urges her eighteen year old daughter to avoid the cinema fearing that it might reinforce the idea that white is beautiful causing the girl to lose sight of her own beauty: Come, I will let you go When black beauties Are chosen for the screen; That you may know Your own sweet beauty And not the white loveliness Of others for envy. (The Moth, p88) By growing up with a ‘cinema mind’ the mother has allowed herself to be at the mercy of those tools used by the colonizer to marginalize and indoctrinate, promoting their own superiority. Once again the ‘mimic man’ re-emerges when black women reject their own in seeking an ‘ideal man’. ‘No kinky haired man for me, / No black face, no black children for me.’63 This rather melodramatic narrative within the poem tells of the mother’s ‘fair’ husband shooting her first suitor whom she had initially rejected for being too dark, and then committing suicide. The shooting scene, a re enactment of a gun fight in a western, presents the cinema as a racist and degenerate institution. By the end of the poem, the speaker acknowledges her mistake in rejecting the first lover and finds a sense of self, previously denied by the saturation of cinematic images. In shaking off the colonizer’s indoctrination, which seeks to marginalize her, she addresses the question posed by Franz Fanon which is ‘to what extent authentic love will remain unattainable before one has purged oneself of that feeling of inferiority?’64 Black invisibility in the cinema results in white ideology being forced upon a black body and essentially commodifying it and it is this which Marson seeks to deconstruct. Another poem which tackles the reconstruction of female identity is Black is Fancy, where the speaker compares her reflection in the mirror with a picture ‘Of a beautiful white lady’.65 The mirror serves to reclaim the idea of black as being beautiful and a rediscovery of self: Since Aunt Lisa gave me This nice looking glass I begin to feel proud Of my own self (The Moth, p75) The speaker eventually removes the picture of the white woman suggesting that black worth and beauty can only really exist in the absence of white colonialism. The poem ends in a victory of sorts as she declares that John, her lover has rejected the pale skin in favour of ‘His black ivory girl’.66 Kinky Haired Blues represents Marson’s quest for a more effective and authentic poetic voice in its use of African American speech.. The poem explores the rhythms and musical influences found in Harlem and gathering momentum about this time. Kinky Haired Blues like Cinema Eyes and Black is Fancy criticizes the oppressive beauty regime of white colonialism which seeks to disfigure and marginalize the black woman. The poem opens with the speaker attempting to find a beauty shop: Gwine find a beauty shop Cause I ain’t a belle Gwine find a beauty shop Cause I ain’t a lovely belle. The boys pass me by They say I’s not so swell (The Moth, p91) The speaker seeks to Europeanise her black features in an attempt to make herself more attractive. Male indifference experienced in the metropolis forces the speaker to see herself as an aberration, thrusting her onto the margins of a society which is continually projecting the idea that ‘white ‘is ‘right’. The beauty shop contains all the trappings of the colonizer’s idea of beauty, ‘ironed hair’ and ‘bleached skin’. Yet she is caught between being left to ‘die on de shelf’ 67 if she doesn’t change herself, or eradicating her ethnic features and therefore her inner self if she does. By using blues within the poetry she is able to communicate this misery felt within her, that male perceptions of beauty projected by the colonizers dictate that she must distort her own natural beauty in order to fit in and conform. The poem highlights the struggle Marson experiences in trying to preserve her selfhood against such oppressive cultural forces. Marson defiantly attempts to stand against this patriarchal order. She proudly announces that ‘I like me black face / And me kinky hair.’ Inspite of this brave stand Marson eventually succumbs and admits that she is ‘gwine press me hair / And bleach me skin.’ She, like Rhys can only resist internally to the colonialist’s ideals imposed on them. As writers voyaging into the metropolis both Rhys and Marson share in their writing a pervasive sense of isolation where, from the location of London, their particular voices and concerns are, at the time, not recognised. Both writers, from this isolated position on the periphery of the centre. explore issues of womanhood, race and identity,. Marson’s experiences bring about an acute awareness of her difference and ‘Otherness’ as a Black woman. Her work is a defiant voice against this marginalisation and isolation. She was, as Jarrett MaCauley claims ‘the first Black feminist to speak out against racism and sexism in Britain.’68 She was a pioneer in a growing literary culture which was to become the new postcolonial order. Rhys, by contrast, a white West Indian from Dominica was experiencing a declining white minority status against a growing black population, itself an isolating factor both at home and within the metropolis. Kenneth Ramchard suggests that the work of white West Indian writers is characterized by a sense of embattlement: â€Å"Adapted from Fanon we might use the phrase ‘terrified consciousness’ to suggest the White minority’s sensations of shock and disorientation as a smouldering Black population is released into an awareness of power.†69 It is this ‘terrified consciousness’ which contributes to the struggle experienced by Anna in Voyage in the Dark . Located simultaneously both inside and outside West Indian socio cultural history, her journey to the ‘mother country’ seeks only to exacerbate these feelings of ‘in-betweenness’ and to suffer feelings of dislocation and alienation. Both writers, therefore, in their voyage into the metropolis endure different kinds of anxieties in their sense of ‘unbelonging’ to either or both cultural worlds. Both use their writing to speak for the marginal, the hegemonic, the dispossessed, the colonized silenced female voice situated as they were within the cold, oppressive, hierarchical colonial metropolis attempting to impose an oppressive identity upon the exiled women.    1 George Lamming The Pleasures of Exile (London: Alison, 1960) p15 2 Palmer Adisa De Language Reflect Dem Ethos† in ‘The Winds of Change: The Transforming Voices of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars’ ed. By Adele S. Newson and Linda Strong Leek. (New York: Peter Lang 1998 p23) 3 ‘The Winds of Change: The Transforming Voices of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars’ ed By Adele S. Newson and Linda Strong-Leek. (New York: Peter Lang 1998 p6) 4 V.S. Naipaul New York Review of Books 1992. Quoted in Helen Carr Jean Rhys (Plymouth: Northcote House Publishers Ltd., 1996) p15 5 Helen Carr Jean Rhys (Plymouth: Northcote House Publishers Ltd., 1996) p. xiv 6 Delia Jarrett-MaCauley The Life of Una Marson (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998) p51 7 Edward W. Said Representations of the Intellectual (London: Vintage 1994) p49 8 Molly Hite The Other Side of the Story: Structures and Strategies of Contemporary Feminist Narrative Quoted in Joy Castro ‘Jean Rhys’ in The Review of Contemporary Fiction Vol. 20, 2000. www.highbeam.com/library/doc.3.asp p6.Accessed 1 December 2005. 9 Elaine Savory Jean Rhys p92 10 Elaine Savory Jean Rhys p93 11 Gayatri Spivak ‘Three Women’s Text and a Critique of Imperialism’ in Henry Louis Jr. Gates Race, Writing and Difference (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987) p269 12Jean Rhys Voyage in the Dark (London: Penguin Books 1969) 13 Elaine Savoury Jean Rhys (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1998) p 95 14 Homi Bhabha ‘Remembering Fanon’, forward to Franz Fanon ‘s Black Skin, White Masks (London: Pluto, 1986) p ix 15 Homi Bhabha ‘The Other Question’ Location of Culture (London: Routledge 1994)p69 16 Ibid p69 17 Veronica Marie Gregg Jean Rhys’s Historical Imagination: Reading and Writing the Creole (North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press, 1995) p115 18 Sue Thomas The Worlding of Jean Rhys ( Westport: Greenwood Press 1999) p106 19 Jean Rhys Voyage in the Dark p53 20 Ibid 21 Paul B. Rich Race and Empire in British Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986) p19 22 Voyage in the Dark p56 23 Ibid p320 24 Homi Bhabha â€Å"DissemInation: Time, Narrative and the margins of the Modern Nation† The Location of Culture p319 25 Voyage in the Dark p7 26 Ibid p15 27 Ibid p16 28 Ibid p26 29 Ibid p45 30 Ibid p47 31 Ibid p7 32 Ibid p46 33 Homi Bhabha The Location of Culture p319 34 Voyage in the Dark p45 35 Homi Bhabha Location of Culture p85 36 Ibid p27 37 Ibid p62 38 Ibid p62 39 Teresa O’Connor The Meaning of the West Indian Experience for Jean Rhys (PhD dissertation, New York University, 1985)cited in Caribbean Woman Writers; Essays from the first International Conference. p19 40 Taken from Rhys’s non fictional analysis of Gender Politics. Veronica Gregg, Jean Rhys’s Historical Imagination p47 41 Helen Carr Jean Rhys, (Plymouth: Northcote House Publishers Ltd, 1996) p 77 42 Lloyd W. Brown, West Indian Poetry (London: Heineman, 1978) p 38 43 Denise deCaires Contemporary Caribbean Women’s Poetry: Making style (London: Routledge, 2002) p 2 44 Ibid p4 45 Una Marson The Moth and the Star, (Kingston, Jamaica: Published by the Author, 1937) p24 46 Homi Bhabha The Location of Culture, (London: Routledge, 1994) pp85-92 47 Delia Jarrett-MaCauley The Life of Una Marson pp 49, 50 48 The Routledge Reader in Caribbean Literature ed. Alison Donnell and Sarah Lawson Welsh (London: Routledge, 1996) p140-141 49 Ibid 50 Homi Bhabha Location of Culture p 320 51 Jarrett-MaCauley The Life of Una Marson p51 52 Ibid p51 53 Ibid p54 54 Una Marson ‘Little Brown Girl’, The Moth and the Star. (Jamaica: The Gleaner. 1937) p11 55 Ibid 56 Ibid p13 57 deCaires Narain puts forward an interesting link between Marson and Sam Selvon’s The Lonely Londoners highlighting external identity in her book Contemporary Caribbean Women’s Poetry p 21 58 Baudelaire The Painter and the Modern Life cited in Keith Tester The Flaneur (New York: Routledge, 1994), p 2 59 Ibid p3 60 Jarrett-MaCauley, p53 61 Ibid p50 62 Laurence A. Brainer An Introduction to West Indian Poetry (Cambridge: CUP, 1998), p154 63 Una Marson ‘Cinema Eyes’ The Moth and the Star. (Jamaica: The Gleaner.1937) p87 64 Franz Fanon Black Skins, White Masks (London: Pluto, 1986), p4 65 Una Marson ‘Black is Fancy’ The Moth and the Star p75 66 Ibid p76 67 Una Marson ‘Kinky Hair Blues’ The Moth and the Star p91 68 Jarret MaCauley pvii 69 Kenneth Ramchard The West Indian Novel and its Background (London: Faber, 1870), p225