tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60549625420254636612011-11-28T08:57:30.553+08:00This is my English Language Resources Online website. Are you studying for General Paper? Are you studying for English Literature? Are you studying for Knowledge and Inquiry? Do you need to take the Verbal component of the SAT, or any English language qualifications? Welcome to my English language & General Knowledge resources website!Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comBlogger651100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-53649543178504214422010-05-06T13:16:00.003+08:002010-05-06T13:25:19.500+08:00<strong>English Language Resources Online - General Knowledge Quiz</strong><br /><br />I am back after a long hiatus! My students have been bugging me to keep writing and posting essays and English language materials on this site, so here I am again. Here I have put up the General Knowledge and Cultural Quiz, so good luck!<br /><br />Notice: This GK and cultural quiz on <strong>English Language Resources Online </strong>is targeted mainly and directly at a Singaporean student body. However, some of the questions can be easily answered by students worldwide as they pertain to general historical figures and geography, literature, Hollywood movies and other contemporary cultural motifs.<br /><br /><strong>General Knowledge and Cultural Quiz</strong><br /><br />1. What is the name of the US president who came up with the 14 points and was a major player at the Paris Peace Conference?<br />a. Betrand Russell<br />b. Harry Truman<br />c. FDR<br />d. Woodrow Wilson<br />e. Hitler<br /><br />2. Name the founding father of Germany who was a Prussian Junker.<br />a. Kaiser Wilhelm I<br />b. Kaiser Wilhelm II<br />c. Bismarck<br />d. Hitler<br />e. Truman<br /><br />3. Who is generally acknowledged to be responsible for starting WWII in 1939?<br />a. Mussolini<br />b. Hitler<br />c. Batman<br />d. Superman<br />e. Stalin<br /><br />4. Who was the famous Fascist Italian Leader during WWII?<br />a. Lenin<br />b. Stalin<br />c. Hitler<br />d. Mussolini<br />e. Stalin<br /><br />5. In which year did the Bolsheviks come to power in Russia?<br />a. 1911<br />b. 1914<br />c. 1915<br />d. 1917<br /><br />6. What is the name of the US President responsible for dropping the bomb on Japan in WWII?<br />a. Harry Truman<br />b. FDR<br />c. JFK<br />d. Woodrow Wilson<br />e. Stalin<br /><br />7. In 1962, there was the Cuban Missile Crisis. Which two names come to mind? a. Superman and Spiderman<br />b. Nikita Khruschev and John F Kennedy<br />c. Fidel Castro and Raul Castro<br />d. Kim Jong Il and my neighbour, Howard Jims<br />e. Stalin and Lenin<br /><br />8. Who allowed the USSR to place nuclear missiles in his country, in 1962?<br />a. Fidel Castro<br />b. Khruschev<br />c. Kennedy<br />d. Spiderman<br />e. Truman<br /><br />9. Who is famous for the Watergate Scandal?<br />a. Batman<br />b. Nixon<br />c. Joseph Karer<br />d. Jimmy Carter<br />e. Bill Clinton<br /><br />10. Who is famous for Star Wars (the Strategic Defence Initiative) in the USA and generally known for the collapse of the Soviet Union?<br />a. Ronaldo Reeman<br />b. Ronald Reagan<br />c. Ronaldo Reegan<br />d. Ronald Rivaldo<br />e. Cristiano Ronaldo<br /><br />11. Which US president is famous for his sex scandal, which became public?<br />a. Kennedy<br />b. Truman<br />c. Clinton<br />d. Reagan<br />e. Buffett<br /><br />12. Name the Austrian bodybuilder who later became a famous actor, then became the governor of California, USA.<br />a. Buffett<br />b. Hitler<br />c. Schwarzenegger<br />d. Sieger<br />e. Hitler<br /><br />13. Who is the famous German singer who sang 99 Luftballons?<br />a. Udo<br />b. Nena<br />c. Leni<br />d. Hitler<br />e. Riefenstahl<br /><br />14. Famous for GUESS, who was the German supermodel who reached fame and money?<br />a. Cindy Crawford<br />b. James Blunt<br />c. Marilyn Monroe<br />d. Superman’s wife<br />e. Claudia Schiffer<br /><br />15. “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.” Which girl?<br />a. Marilyn Monroe<br />b. Cindy Crawford<br />c. James Blunt<br />d. Audrey Hepburn<br />e. Megan Fox<br /><br />16. Which one of the following is not a Beatle?<br />a. Lennon<br />b. Ringo Starr<br />c. McCartney<br />d. Johnson<br />e. Michael<br /><br />17. The Jackson 5 is famous for…?<br />a. Batman<br />b. Spiderman<br />c. Indian music<br />d. Michael Jackson<br />e. Michael Jordan<br /><br />18. In the Blackadder, what is the name of the actor who plays Lieutenant George?<br />a. Hugh Laurie<br />b. Tom Cruise<br />c. Jonny Depth<br />d. Rowan Atkinson<br />e. George Clooney<br /><br />19. In the Blackadder, what is the name of the actor who plays Captain Blackadder?<br />a. Hugh Laurie<br />b. Black Adder<br />c. Tom Cruise<br />d. Rowan Atkinson<br />e. George Clooney<br /><br />20. This movie stars Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore, and has the famous line: “you can’t handle the truth!”<br />a. A Few Bad Men<br />b. A Few Good Men<br />c. A Few Spidermen<br />d. A Night of the Truth<br />e. A Day of Truth<br /><br />21. Who plays Forrest Gump, in the movie of that name?<br />a. Tom Jones<br />b. Tom Hanks<br />c. Forrest Fump<br />d. Tommy Lee Jones<br />e. Tom Hanks Jones<br /><br />22. Who is the world’s richest investor, running Berkshire?<br />a. Lee Kuan Yew<br />b. Warren E Buffet<br />c. Graham<br />d. Benjamin Graham<br /><br />23. Name the founding father of Singapore most famous for being Lee Kuan Yew’s lieutenant, and also famous for both economics and the SAF.<br />a. Graham White<br />b. Nee Soon<br />c. Tommy Lee<br />d. Goh Keng Swee<br />e. Chee Son Juang<br /><br />24. Who is Melinda Gate’s husband?<br />a. Bill Gates<br />b. Bernard Gates<br />c. Billy Gean Gates<br />d. Shawn<br />e. Jonny Gate<br /><br />25. Who is the most famous footballer in Singapore’s history, who made it to foreign leagues?<br />a. Michael Jordan<br />b. Ahmad bin Salleh<br />c. Danni Mandi<br />d. Fandi Ahmad<br /><br />26. Who is the long-time manager of the most famous English football club in the world based at Old Trafford?<br />a. Ferguson<br />b. Matteoti<br />c. George Best<br />d. Beckham<br /><br />27. In which year did Einstein develop the theory of Special Relativity?<br />a. 1901<br />b. 1903<br />c. 1905<br />d. 1908<br /><br />28. Who is the scientist most well known for blackholes and astronomy?<br />a. Stephen Fry<br />b. Stephen Lee<br />c. Stephen Hawkings<br />d. Stephen Seah<br /><br />29. Name the most famous Austrian musician and composer whose name is on postcards and food!<br />a. Beethoven<br />b. Chopin<br />c. Bach<br />d. Mozart<br />e. Foodster<br /><br />30. Who was the Pope before Benedict the 16th?<br />a. Benedict 15th<br />b. John Paul<br />c. John Paul II<br />d. John XVI<br /><br />31. Where is the Vatican located?<br />a. Italy<br />b. Germany<br />c. France<br />d. Singapore<br /><br />32. Name the four empires which collapsed as a result of the First World War, 1914-1918.<br />a. German, Austro-Hungarian, Italian, French<br />b. German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian, Ottoman<br />c. German, Ottoman, Russian, Bolivian<br />d. German, Ottoman, Italian, Russian<br /><br />33. Who made the Taj Mahal as a mausoleum/tomb for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal?<br />a. Mughal emperor Shah Jahan<br />b. Mughal emperor Aurangzeb<br />c. Akbar the Great<br />d. My friend, the next door neighbour<br /><br />34. Hagia Sophia ______________________<br />a. Is currently a mosque mueseum, but was originally a church<br />b. Is currently a church museum, but was originally a mosque<br />c. Is Roman Catholic<br />d. Is Orthodox Christian<br /><br />35. Machu Picchu is ______________<br />a. An Indian place in India<br />b. An Inca place in Peru<br />c. An Indian place in Inca<br />d. An Inca place in India<br /><br />36. Napoleon Bonaparte was a …<br />a. Football player<br />b. Leader of the French resistance<br />c. Emperor of the French<br />d. Prime Minister of the French<br />e. Leader of the French Third Republic<br /><br />37. What is the difference between a bison and a buffalo?<br />a. You can’t wash your hands in a buffalo.<br />b. You can’t wash your hands in a bigot.<br />c. There is no difference.<br />d. There is a major difference.<br /><br />38. Who is not a footballer?<br />a. David Beckham<br />b. Rivaldo<br />c. Ronaldinho<br />d. Raul Castro<br /><br />39. Which of the following is a game in Facebook?<br />a. Batman<br />b. King Kong<br />c. Social City<br />d. Restaurant Love<br /><br />40. Which of the following does not belong?<br />a. Neopets<br />b. Neopoints (NP)<br />c. Neocolonialism<br />d. Shop Wizard<br /><br />41. Which of the following does not belong either?<br />a. Tag<br />b. Facebook<br />c. Blog post<br />d. Advertisement<br /><br />42. She’s the One and Rock DJ are associated with…<br />a. Robin Williams<br />b. Robbie Williams<br />c. Blake Williams<br />d. William Blake<br /><br />43. This is a famous street magician who is famous for inflicting pain on himself and Gothic styles.<br />a. David Blaine<br />b. David Jones<br />c. Criss Angel<br />d. Ricky Jay<br /><br />44. Famous for Mind Control and Something Wicked This Way Comes, _________ is a magician from England and can speak German.<br />a. Derren Brown<br />b. David Blaine<br />c. Criss Angel<br />d. Ricky Jay<br /><br />45. This is a famous card magician who appears on TV and movies, and can play cards well.<br />a. Derren Brown<br />b. Criss Angel<br />c. Ricky Jay<br />d. Richard III of England<br /><br />46. The Second Prime Minister of Singapore, after Lee KY and before Lee HL.<br />a. Goh CJ<br />b. Goh CT<br />c. Goh KS<br />d. Goh SW<br /><br />47. Monet is famous for<br />a. Expressionism<br />b. Impressionism<br />c. Cubism<br />d. Mathematical art<br /><br />48. Picasso is famous for<br />a. Expressionism<br />b. Impressionism<br />c. Cubism<br />d. Mathematical art<br /><br />49. Escher is famous for<br />a. Mathematics<br />b. Language<br />c. Art<br />d. Philosophy<br /><br />50. Fritz Lang was a<br />a. Film director<br />b. Actor<br />c. Stuntman<br />d. Writer<br /><br />51. Leni Riefenstahl was a<br />a. Writer<br />b. Propagandist<br />c. Movie Star<br />d. Nazi leader<br /><br />52. Which of the following is not a Disney Film?<br />a. Pocahontas<br />b. Billy Jean<br />c. Sleeping Beauty<br />d. Mickey Mouse<br /><br />53. Who is responsible for Operation Rolling Thunder, the bombing of North Vietnam?<br />a. JFK<br />b. LBJ<br />c. FDR<br />d. Harry Truman<br /><br />54. Who is the protagonist of the series, Batman?<br />a. Superman<br />b. Spiderman<br />c. Batman<br />d. The Joker<br /><br />55. Who is not the antagonist of the series, Batman?<br />a. The Joker<br />b. The Penguin<br />c. The Riddler<br />d. The Sandman<br /><br />56. Which of the following is NOT true of the transformers?<br />a. They come from Cybertron.<br />b. The good guys are called Autobots.<br />c. The bad guys are called Decepticons.<br />d. The Autobots hate Cybertron and like to eat Energon bubbles.<br /><br />57. Darth Vader is a famous bad guy – from which famous movie?<br />a. The Thing<br />b. The Incredible Hulk<br />c. Star Wars<br />d. Star Trek<br />e. X Men<br /><br />58. Who is the famous female artiste who starred in Funny Face, a Roman Holiday and – above all – Breakfast At Tiffany’s?<br />a. Marilyn Monroe<br />b. Julie Andrews<br />c. Ellen Degeneres<br />d. Audrey Hepburn<br /><br />59. Pat Morita was a famous actor. Which role is he most famous for?<br />a. Mr Miyagi in the Karate Kid<br />b. Mr Miyagi in the Blogging Man<br />c. Mr Miyagi in the Karate Experts<br />d. Mr Miyagi-san in the Karate Man<br /><br />60. Richard Gere and Julia Roberts acted in this movie about a street hooker. What is it called?<br />a. Famous Prostitutes<br />b. The Passion of Prostitutes<br />c. Sex in the City<br />d. Pretty Woman<br /><br />61. Who is famous in football for the Hand of God, as well as alcoholism/drug abuse?<br />a. Michael Owen<br />b. David Beckham<br />c. Diego Maradona<br />d. Raul Gonzalez<br /><br />62. Who came up with the universal law of gravitation?<br />a. Michael Owen<br />b. Michael Faraday<br />c. Isaac Newton<br />d. Albert Einstein<br /><br />63. Who was placed under house arrest by the Roman Catholic Church because he defended the Copernican perspective on the revolution of the earth around the sun?<br />a. Michael Faraday<br />b. Isaac Newton<br />c. Copernicus<br />d. Galileo<br /><br />64. In 1969, the Americans landed on the moon. To which German scientist, who also invented the V2 rocket in Nazi Germany, do they owe this honour to?<br />a. Werner’s Kitchen<br />b. Werner von Braun<br />c. Werner von Beethoven<br />d. Stefan Hawkerns<br /><br />65. “Moonlight Sonata” and “Fuer Elise” are associated with…<br />a. Bach<br />b. Beethoven<br />c. Austria<br />d. Chopin<br />e. Handel<br /><br />66. “Turkish March”, Austria, and famous composer are associated with…<br />a. Bach<br />b. Beethoven<br />c. Mozart<br />d. Handel<br />e. Tschaikovsky<br /><br />67. Wedding March is associated with (there are two possible answers)…<br />a. Mendelssohn<br />b. Wagner<br />c. Handel<br />d. Bach<br />e. Batman’s cousin<br /><br />68. In which famous Biblical scene does Jesus Christ give the beatitudes?<br />a. The sermon on the sea<br />b. The sermon on the mount<br />c. The sermon at the canteen<br />d. The sermon by the lake<br />e. In the House of the Pharisees<br /><br />69. Which French King, associated with Versailles and le etat c’est moi, was known as the Sun King?<br />a. King Louis XIIV<br />b. King Louis XIV<br />c. King Louis XV<br />d. King Louis XVI<br /><br />70. Which French King is associated with the French revolution of 1789, and is famous for being guillotined, along with his wife Marie Antoinette?<br />a. Louis XIV<br />b. Louis XV<br />c. Louis XVI<br />d. Superman<br /><br />71. Times Square is located in…<br />a. India<br />b. Britain<br />c. China<br />d. New York<br />e. London<br /><br />72. Which of the following is not part of Alvin and the Chipmunks?<br />a. Alvin<br />b. Simon<br />c. Smarty Pants<br />d. Theodore<br />e. Dave<br /><br />73. Name that famous wastrel, former heiress, and girl who can’t sing yet is named after a place associated with beautiful music and love.<br />a. “London” Lindsay Lohan<br />b. Paris Hilton<br />c. Paris Helton<br />d. London Mavis<br />e. London Lavis<br /><br />74. Who is not Japanese in the choices below?<br />a. Ayumi<br />b. Boa<br />c. Takako Matsu<br />d. Nanako Matsushima<br /><br />75. Who is not from the female band, SHE?<br />a. Ella<br />b. Hebe<br />c. Xiao S<br />d. Selina<br /><br />76. What is the army rank after staff sergeant but before 2nd Warrant Officer?<br />a. 3rd Sergeant<br />b. 2nd Sergeant<br />c. Master Sergeant<br />d. 1st Warrant Officer<br /><br />77. What comes after Captain and before Lt-Col?<br />a. Major<br />b. Lieutenant<br />c. Colonel<br />d. General<br />e. Brigadier<br /><br />78. Which three famous people are associated with Pirates of the Carribean?<br />a. Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom, Johnny Depp<br />b. Keira Knightley, Superman, Spiderman<br />c. Clinton, Truman, Kennedy<br />d. Kieira Knightley, Orlando Bloom, Jonny Depth<br /><br />79. Which of the following is not a scholarship offered in Singapore?<br />a. MOE Teaching Scholarship<br />b. EMS<br />c. SAFOS<br />d. OMO<br /><br />80. What is the name of the organisation most highly valued for civil service scholarships in Singapore?<br />a. Public Service Council<br />b. Singapore Government Scholarships Service (SGSS)<br />c. Public Service Scholarships<br />d. Public Service Scholarships Centre<br />e. Public Service Commission<br /><br /><em><strong>Notice: This GK and cultural quiz on English Language Resources Online is targeted at a Singaporean student body.</strong></em><br /><br /><strong>English Language Resources Online</strong><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-5364954317850421442?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-21365087960430780962009-07-19T23:20:00.009+08:002009-07-19T23:34:21.857+08:00<p><strong>A Brief Diversion - How to Cite Articles (using the method I am most familiar with)</strong></p><p><strong>Basics follow</strong></p><br />I am currently still with the essay theme "leadership, power and politics", and in particular, "Virtue and Leadership". However, one of my readers asked me how to cite in essays, so I've included the essays citation method that I used in my articles and past writing, right here in this post.<br /><br />This is not THE authoritative guide to citation because there are hundreds of styles, and many citation methods differ, but each of them has books and books and books on the topic of citation. Thus, this is just one of the many possibilities.<br /><br />Here goes: a beginner's guide to citation (all names cited here are fake)<br /><br />"Sophie's World is a tour de force, that changes your weltanschauung" (Surname Year:page number)<br /><br />For instance:<br /><br />"Sophie's World is a tour de force, that changes your weltanschauung" (Jerome 1999:55)<br /><br />At the back of the essay, you need a biblio entry that states:<br /><br />Jerome, Fatty. 1999. <em>Sophie's World is a Tour De Force, Man!,</em> London: Sausage Prints, pp.19-100000.<br /><br />or<br /><br />Jerome, Fatty and Johnny Walker. 1999. <em>Sophie's World is a Tour De Force, Man!,</em> London: Sausage Prints, pp.19-100000.<br /><br />or<br /><br />Jerome, Fatty. "Sophie's World is a Tour De Force, Man!", in <em>The</em> <em>Madman's Journal</em>, Vol. 20, No. 20, (1999), pp.19-100000.<br /><br />or<br /><br />Jerome, Fatty. 1999. Sophie's World is a Tour De Force, Man!. London: Sausage Prints.<br /><br />There are many variations, but the key thing is that you need to adopt one only.<br /><br />The essay citation style must be consistent.<br /><br />The cited entries must be easy to identify, hence the surname comes first.<br /><br />You may need to consult your teacher or professor asking for this particular assignment or essay.<br /><br />There will be handbooks on how to cite in the various disciplines - arts varies from sciences. Each arts subject differs from others as well.<br /><br />Thanks for reading, all the best, and cheers! Hope this helped :)<br /><br />Shawn Seah<br /><br /><strong>English Language Resources Online!</strong><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-2136508796043078096?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-21479084604000833942009-05-14T00:30:00.003+08:002009-05-14T00:37:53.123+08:00<strong>English Language Resources Online - series on leadership, power, politics, part 12</strong><br /><br />Here is yet another short assignment written by me, for the topic of Virtue and Leadership. In many ways, my site has expanded from merely literary topics to religious topics and now onto leadership, power and politics.<br /><br />This is a unique take on a virtuous leader, combining virtue with leadership.<br /><br /><br /><strong>In what ways is Moses a virtuous leader and in what ways does he fail as a leader in the episode of the Golden Calf?</strong><br />Shawn S.<br /><br />Moses is a virtuous leader in that he fulfils the role of religious leader with a divine mission assigned to him by God, and we see his virtue as a leader by contrast with Aaron. Yet, Moses also has shortcomings as a leader, because his anger and passion lead him to make very bold moves, which can be construed either charitably as strong, righteous leadership, or non-charitably, mere anger, even irreverence. However, Moses is in the difficult position of being accountable as a leader, not just to his people, but also to God, and this adds another level of complexity to the question.<br /><br />Basically, Moses is a virtuous religious leader because of his fidelity to God and His mission, to bring the Hebrews as the chosen people to the Promised Land. We can see Moses’ virtues by comparison with Aaron, put in charge during Moses’ absence. Moses comes across as a loyal and faithful leader vis-à-vis Aaron, who can be construed as a kind of populist leader, who gives in easily to the crowd and their demands (Exodus 32:1-5). Moses adheres to God’s will, whereas Aaron gives in to crowd pressure; hence, basically, it can be said that Moses is a virtuous leader.<br /><br />Furthermore, Moses is a virtuous leader because he has love for his people. For instance, in his defence of his people from God’s wrath, he invokes God’s promises: “I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land I will give to them as an everlasting inheritance” (Exodus 32:13). This placates God. Moses later tries to intercede and obtain pardon for the transgression again (32:31). This shows that he is virtuous in his willingness to take responsibility and blame for the people’s transgression, because it shows his compassion and love, such that he is even willing to pay the ultimate price of his life, even though he had not been present during the fiasco. This is very much unlike Aaron who passes the blame to the people and makes excuses when confronted by Moses: “You know this people and how evil they are” (32:22). By this glib line, Aaron lays the blame on the people and not himself. Relating the incident, Aaron secretly omits his role (32:24). Aaron can thus be seen as a classic case of a non-virtuous leader: he engages in fault-finding, takes no responsibility, and conjures impossible excuses such as the impossible emergence of a golden calf from fire. Thus, we establish Moses’ virtue in handling the situation by comparison with Aaron, who has neglected his responsibilities.<br /><br />However, Moses’ major problem is his anger – anger leading to the smashing of the tablets with God’s writing (32:19). One might say that such a reaction shows a lack of self control, and might be not virtuous or becoming as a leader. Moses is supposed to be a prophetic leader, a religious leader with God’s words, and yet anger causes him to smash the tablets from God. Hence, surely Moses’ anger got the better of him. Yet, the reaction is understandable, and it is hard to argue that righteous anger is misplaced, although there is indeed some overreaction of Moses’ own volition. However, it can be argued that this anger provokes strong leadership by Moses and immediate remedial action; while Aaron tries to buy time and weakly skews the issue back to God by declaring a “feastday for Yahweh” (32:5), Moses directly rebukes the people and burns the calf, forcing the people to drink water with powder from the idol as punishment, compared to inaction on Aaron’s part. Hence, it is difficult to simplistically say that Moses fails as a leader due to anger, because the situation is complex and multifaceted.<br /><br />Indeed, Moses is more than angry; he is very passionate, and using drastic measures, he re-establishes his authority by killing the guilty perpetrators, using the fact that not everyone had participated in the event (32:26-29). Moses is a very bold person in this episode. He orders the Levites: “Go back and forth from door to door and don’t hesitate to kill even your brothers, your companions and your relatives” (32:27). This mass killing quells the rebellion against Yahweh and against Moses’ religious leadership. Perhaps it is a wrong question to ask if Moses has failings in this scenario, as there is a pressing need to restore order. Perhaps, while there is little virtuous leadership here in terms of a peaceful reconciliation, there is virtue here in restoring God’s will.<br /><br />However, in the final analysis, most leaders are accountable only to their people, but Moses as a prophetic, religious leader is in a unique position of being both accountable to the people and to God, and in this episode, his greater responsibility was to God. This raises the question of the connection or relationship of a leader and his followers. Moses, as the people’s leader, has a responsibility to them, and on the other, also a responsibility to Yahweh, the God who is the very reason for the Hebrews’ escape from Egypt. Moses is both a follower of God as well as a leader of his own people. This enables us to see that his reactions to the episode of the Golden Calf and his suppression of the rebellion, though bold and harsh, were justified. In this light, in my opinion, Moses is a virtuous leader, to a very large extent.<br /><br /><strong>The Bible: Exodus, 32.</strong><br /><br /><br /><br /><strong>English Language Resources Online</strong><br /><br /><strong>English Language essays, term papers, history essays, literature essays, GP essays, KI essays and other English language essay resources and essay materials for learning and essay research</strong>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-2147908460400083394?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-36520658866510576982009-05-10T22:11:00.003+08:002009-05-10T22:19:08.241+08:00<strong>English Language Resources Online - series on leadership, power, politics, part 11</strong><br /><br /><em><strong>What is the significance of religious observances such as the Passover? What is the significance of religious observances?</strong></em><br /><br />Here is another sample essay on virtue and leadership, a course that I did at university on virtue ethics and leadership. This series has had many essays and many variations, and here is yet another one. Do remember to read the essay and also do remember to ask questions about the writing and the essay.<br /><br />The essay:<br /><br /><strong>What is the significance of religious observances such as the Passover? What is the significance of religious observances?</strong><br /><br />This essay focuses on the significance of religious observances in general, and the Passover and the concomitant Feast of the Unleavened Bread in particular, and argues that religious rituals such as these serve as memories to a people, uniting them, symbolising their hopes and aspirations, and providing them with authority and legitimacy as God’s chosen people. <br /><br />On a basic level, religious observances commemorate events – they are memories of events. For example, the Passover is dedicated to the escape from the tenth biblical plague of the death of firstborns (hence, “passing over”), and the Feast of the Unleavened Bread is the commemoration of the leaving of Egypt (Exodus 12:1-20). Hence, clearly these events are immortalised in the collective memories of the Hebrews, and the actual practices do in fact become traditions and customs today, collectively termed Passover. Yet, this collective memory is more than just a mere commemoration of events. <br /><br />Religious observances also unite people – and the Passover definitely united the Hebrews. The Passover marked them as separate and different from the Egyptians and therefore united them by highlighting the difference between “the Hebrews” and “the Egyptians”, the self and the other. In Exodus, Yahweh promises: “I will see the blood and pass over you; and you will escape the mortal plague when I strike Egypt” (Exodus 12:13). This promise basically means that the Hebrews are on one side and the Egyptians are on the other, in a dichotomous and antithetical relationship; the Hebrews are united, and they stand in opposition to the Egyptians. In addition, the stern admonition of “anyone who eats what is leavened will be cut off from the community of Israel” (Exodus 12:19) suggests that the Feast of the Unleavened Bread unites the community and those who do not follow will be separated, literally, from that community. There are also implications for leadership here – a leader such as Moses can lead his people, against Egyptian oppressors and also to a faraway, unknown destination, because of their shared, united experience. It can be strongly argued that religious observances enable the participants to conceive of themselves as separate and different from those who do not practise their rituals, thus literally segregating two groups of people, providing a distinct group identity. <br /><br />Religious observances can also be taken figuratively, possessing rich symbolism. For example, the Passover consists of a lamb to be eaten in a particular manner: “with a belt round your waist, sandals on your feet and a staff in your hand” (Exodus 12:11). This dressing is symbolic and suggestive of the rapid and hasty departure from Egypt. Also, it is commonly said that the reason why bread is to be eaten unleavened is also symbolic of the rapidity with which the Hebrews will leave their Egyptian masters behind, as the baking of the bread must be quick. Furthermore, the blood of the lamb put upon the “doorposts” and “doorframes” (Exodus 12:7) are reminiscent of a symbolic sacrifice to Yahweh, as the food is consumed by the Hebrews as a ritual and the blood symbolises an offering to God. When these observances are practised later, the symbolism will remind the participants of the events and what they mean. Does symbolism have implications for leadership? On a deeper level, perhaps the practice of rituals amounts to the symbolic acceptance of God as divine leader, who delivers and liberates his people from the Egyptians, and Moses, who derives his religious authority from God, as a representative, temporal leader. The religious symbolism contained within the rituals thus show an ideal reverence for God and therefore symbolise a dedication to God as a leader.<br /><br />The corollary of leadership is followership, and clearly all the participants including Moses and Aaron, Yahweh’s representatives to the people and who relay God’s orders, are followers of God. Religious observances can be said to ensure that the Hebrews conceive of themselves as the chosen people of God, who must follow His commands, since all the rituals originate from God, passed down to the Hebrews via Moses. This divine source means that these rituals are legitimate and hence authoritative. The Hebrews will therefore follow Moses, and by extension, Yahweh. It might be said that the death of all the firstborn in Egypt (Exodus 12:29) fulfilled the promises of God to the Hebrews and endowed them with a confidence that they were God’s chosen people and must leave Egypt, a land of suffering. The Hebrews were indeed supposed to be God’s people before Moses came to them, but the advent of the new ordinances and rituals made them explicitly God’s chosen people. As God’s chosen people, they were to follow Him and trust in his leadership. <br /><br />In conclusion, religious observances commemorate events, unite people by differentiating between inside and outside, symbolise the reverence and dedication to God, and provide legitimacy to the Hebrews, who have been persecuted in Egypt and need a legitimate, authoritative tradition to follow. All these ideas have important implications for religious leadership by affecting religious followership.<br /><br />Source of this virtue and leadership essay:<br /><strong>The Bible: Exodus, Chapter 12.</strong><br />Author and editor: Shawn Seah<br />Special thanks to Tiffany C May and Yeung Kar Fu<br /><br /><strong>English Language Resources Online </strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>English Language essays, term papers, history essays, literature essays, GP essays, KI essays and other English language essay resources and essay materials for learning and essay research.</strong><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-3652065886651057698?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-37334176586949053102009-01-05T16:09:00.008+08:002009-01-05T16:32:57.209+08:00<strong>English Language Resources Online - series on leadership, power, politics, part 10</strong><br /><br /><span style="color:#003300;">Summary and Citations for Virtue and Leadership term paper by Shawn Seah</span><br /><br /><strong>Are leaders born or educated? Suggest a leadership education for Singapore.</strong><br />By Shawn Seah<br /><br />This <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/"><span style="color:#000000;">term paper</span></a> seeks to address the question: are leaders born or educated? On the one hand, nature provides the basis for nurture to work on, as nurture would not work without nature. Yet, nature is unable to result in leadership intrinsically by herself, and a person needs training in order to become a leader, and leadership has to be learnt. The central thesis of this paper is: both nature and nurture are required for leadership; leaders are born and educated. At the same time, a concomitant idea or a parallel thesis is the idea that nature and nurture are both very closely intertwined and the interrelationship between these two leads to leadership; there is a false dichotomy between nature and nurture, because the two mutually influence each other. I suggest a leadership education in the latter part of my paper.<br /><br />First, leaders usually have natural character traits that they are born with. For this paper, a general working definition of leader would be a person who leads his/her followers to goals, by influencing or guiding them. In addition, there are different types of leaders in different contexts, such as military leaders and military campaigns, political leaders and their countries. These basic definitions would suggest that there are certain traits that followers would look for in a leader, perhaps such as courage in a military leader and an extroverted personality in the case of a political leader, for instance. Many of the qualities that people expect of their leaders can be said to be natural. Apart from courage and extroversion, other natural qualities would possibly be native intelligence, kindness, strength, prudence, and other personality traits. Thus, nature plays a role.<br /><br />However, one can see that there is already a kind of link between nature and nurture, for while a person may be born with such qualities, these qualities can be enhanced and developed by education and experiential learning. One usually talks casually of developing one’s character. To Confucius, the jun zi can indeed be cultivated. It can be said that Confucius felt that “native substance” played a role in making a jun zi but this “native substance” had to be tempered with “refinement’ and, by extrapolation, education; only a person who cultivated his character would become a jun zi. Hence, nature and nurture go hand in hand because education can nurture natural gifts.<br /><br />In addition, to take an extended view of nature and being born with gifts, some leaders are born with a rich family background and family connections. However, this additional idea also leads us to the argument that there is a tight, interlinked relationship between nature and nature, because there is no guarantee that someone who is born with the right circumstances will eventually become a leader. Clearly, some sort of education is required.<br /><br />It is possible to argue that certain types of leaders need certain types of education which do not come naturally or are intrinsic in human beings. Let us examine a military leader. A military leader needs military training. This shows that a military leader requires a particular type of education in order for him to develop his natural gifts, for instance courage, strength and intelligence. In Book I, Chapter 4 Cyrus exhibited signs of natural characteristics needed for military leadership – “he loved to learn”, “he did not run from being defeated into the refuge of not doing that in which he had been defeated; rather he immersed himself”, and he was courageous and bold while hunting (C4:34-35). Yet his youthful exuberance and natural characteristics nearly got him killed “when he saw a deer leap up, he forgot everything he had heard and pursued it, seeing nothing but the way it went as it fled” (Book 1 C4:35). This shows that while Cyrus had many natural characteristics that could potentially have led to excellent military leadership, his same natural qualities untrammelled were hazardous to himself and to his guards. Compare this youthful reckless behaviour to the discussion Cyrus conducts with his father, who is educating him in the arts of war in Book I, Chapter 6. The Cyrus who emerges from this talk comes across as more mature, and better able to learn lessons from his father in the arts of war, and able to realise his mistakes when they are pointed out to him. While Cyrus’ love of learning is innate and something that he is born with, the effect of education countering his other innate qualities of boldness and reckless courage is important in transforming him from a mere talented youth into a great military leader.<br /><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/"><span style="color:#ffffff;">English Language Resources Online</span></a><br />Similarly, a political leader needs some kind of government and public administration education. One could take Machiavelli’s The Prince as an example, as the whole book is basically a written treatise serving as political education for Lorenzo de Medici, a political leader who ran a principality (Machiavelli’s Letter, cited in Bull 2003:3-4). Let us examine one of Machiavelli’s ideas: “the need to avoid contempt and hatred” (XIX), where he suggests ideas on how to avoid being hated so as to prevent internal subversion and rebellion. When examining the Roman Emperors in this regard, he noted that anyone who wanted to maintain political power had to pander to the wishes and demands of those who supported him, therefore one “should strive assiduously to escape the hatred of the most powerful classes” (XIX, 2003:62). Machiavelli makes the most insightful comments when he analyses the Turkish Ottomans: their political system also makes it necessary for Sultans to accommodate the military, whereas in Italy, in the context of Machiavelli, the common people are more powerful and must be accommodated (XIX, 2003:66). Hence, Machiavelli’s take is that there are rules to be learnt for political mastery, but circumstances differ, from Roman emperors to Turkish Sultans to Renaissance Italy. Machiavelli’s treatise shows that the issue on education is far more complex than simple.<br /><br />Let us also examine a leader in history to see what insights we can gain. A case in history would be Bismarck and his successful manipulation of European diplomacy to maintain peace in Europe (Pflanze 1958). It can be seen that Bismarck, as an educated Junker set on the path to government leadership in authoritarian Prussia, studied and learnt Machiavellian ideas; thus he is an example of being born into the right circumstances by birthright while also possessing a leadership education. I would argue that Bismarck’s adaptations of Machiavellian ideas to the situation in central Europe led to the rise of Realpolitik, “the politics of realism”, where there was “a particular conception of the realities of political life” and “techniques of achieving positive results in view of those realities”, where politics to Bismarck is power (1958:493). This political strategy was developed from studying politics and Machiavellian ideas. Bismarck manipulated events as they occurred and moulded history by using the relationships between various events, such as the rise of nationalism and industrialisation (511-512). Bismarck eventually unified Germany by the orchestration of many wars (504-506). Hence, ostensibly education in terms of studying politics seems to be the major factor in the making of this leader. Yet, Bismarck was himself ambivalent on why he was a great political and diplomatic leader – he considered himself a “genius” who had an intuitive touch given by nature, yet there was “the persistent recurrence of the same general pattern of political conduct”, where he used a Machiavellian “basic approach to political strategy” (513-514). It could thus be said that both nature and nurture were closely interconnected in Bismarck’s case. A further possible extrapolation would be that education does not necessarily have to be always formal, but can be a developmental process of self-education.<br /><br /><em>A suggestion for a leadership education in Singapore<br /></em><br />The challenge here is how we encourage the interplay of nature and nurture, as expounded in the first part of the paper, to groom leaders for Singapore. Therefore, it is no controversy to say that a selection process should ensure that the trainee has the requisite intelligence as well as some desirable natural characteristics deemed conducive for leadership, and these natural qualities must be able to be developed and groomed. Assuming that a leadership education would be concerned with the survival and development of Singapore, or simply, “the good of Singapore”, I would suggest that a leadership education for Singapore leaders should have the following four elements: training in military affairs and national defence, international relations and diplomacy, political leadership or what is sometimes colloquially termed the “art of government”, and the development of character.<br /><br /><em>1. Training in military affairs and national defence<br /></em><br />It is easy to say that most countries acknowledge the need for a strong military or the ability to defend one’s territorial integrity. In addition, with the rise of terrorism and non-state threats, the importance of a flexible military is now greater than ever before. Therefore there are many strategic reasons why a leadership education in Singapore should involve a military education. A military education, either in Officer Cadet School or even at the tactical level at the School of Infantry Specialists will teach trainees practical soldiering skills, which are specific, but beyond that, improve communication skills, mental endurance and enhance qualities such as discipline and persistence.<br /><br /><em>2. Training in international relations and diplomacy<br /></em><br />Singapore leaders need training in international relations and diplomacy because of our geopolitical situation: Singapore basically is a Chinese enclave in a Malay-dominated region, with all the concomitant cultural, historical and political sensitivities. Training in international relations need not comprise merely the study of diplomacy, but can involve the study of history, political science, international law and many other related disciplines. This knowledge is important as an understanding of the geopolitics of our region in Southeast Asia and viable policy options to deal with changing circumstances will prove essential to leadership. In fact, diplomacy is linked with military defence, as both military strength and diplomacy are twin arms of deterrence; military strength also enables successful diplomacy as our neighbours will be inclined to take us seriously. Beyond the narrow confines of our region, Singapore is connected to the world economy and depends on it. Hence, no leadership training in Singapore will be complete without an intimate knowledge of international relations and diplomacy.<br /><br /><em>3. Training in political leadership or “the art of government”<br /></em><br />The study of government or public administration is also important for Singapore leaders, as this is directly relevant to the day-to-day running of the nation. Political leadership is also linked to defence and diplomacy. Singapore leaders are in the unique position of being more than administrators because a prevailing paradigm in Singapore is that economic growth is prioritised over other concerns, and hence leadership is more important than mere stewardship.<br /><br /><em>4. The development of character<br /></em><br />At the same time, the training of knowledge and skills in military strategy and tactics, international relations, and political leadership will not be complete without “character building”, or a kind of “moral compass”. Knowledge and skills by themselves do not necessarily lead to good leaders; values which reflect certain moral viewpoints are needed, and these can be developed from qualities that have been selected for. Therefore, clearly prudence is a virtue that political leaders in should possess, because technical and practical skill must be tempered by ethical considerations and done for the betterment of man, and in this case, for Singapore. The suggestion of a “moral compass” to guide actions suggest two more ideas – that there is no escaping the fact that “virtue” and the “virtuous leader” are real and pressing areas of study, but the “virtuous leader” as a topic is beyond the scope of this paper; and that there is once again a close interrelationship between nature and nurture. Ultimately, character is arguably a concatenation of predisposition from birth as well as a developmental process of both formal and informal education.<br /><br />In summary, leaders usually are born with natural character traits which are the potential for leadership. There is a link between nature and nurture because these natural characteristics can be enhanced and developed by education. Certain types of leaders need certain types of education which are not intrinsic in humans. We examined military leadership and political leadership from two of our course texts, Cyrus and Machiavelli. In addition, we explored a historical figure – Bismarck’s political and diplomatic leadership. Therefore the thesis holds, firstly, that leaders are born and bred, and concomitantly that any attempt to separate nature from nurture is unwarranted because there is a close and mutually reinforcing relationship between nature and nurture, where I suggested that distinguishing the two as separate or different may be a false dichotomy. As for a leadership education, much was discussed: a selection process should ensure that the trainee has the required natural qualities that have potential to be developed for leadership, in an attempt to use the results from the first half of my discussion in application to Singapore’s context. I suggested that a leadership education for the good of Singapore should have the following elements: training in military affairs and national defence, international relations and diplomacy, political leadership, and the development of character. To conclude, this is a complex but very relevant topic in Singapore.<br /><br /><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/"><strong><span style="color:#000000;">Works</span></strong></a><strong><span style="color:#000000;"> cited/ select bibliography for my term paper/ analytical essay<br /><br /></span></strong>Cronin, Thomas. “Leadership and Democracy”. In The Leader’s Companion, ed. J Thomas Wren, (Free Press: 1995), pp. 303-309<br /><br />Lau, D. C. Confucius: The Analects. London: Penguin Books, 1979.<br /><br />Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince. Translated by George Bull. London: Penguin Books, 2003.<br /><br />Moskop, Wynne Walker. “Prudence as a Paradigm for Political Leaders”. In Political Psychology, Vol. 17, No. 4 (December 1996), pp. 619-642.<br /><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/"><span style="color:#ffffff;">English Language Resources Online</span></a><br />Pflanze, Otto. “Bismarck’s ‘Realpolitik’ ”. In The Review of Politics, Vol. 20, No. 4 (October 1958), pp. 492-514.<br /><br />Xenophon. The Education of Cyrus. Translated by Wayne Ambler. New York: Cornell University Press, 2001.<br /><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English Language Resources Online</a> </strong><br /><strong>English Language essays, term papers, history essays, literature essays, GP essays, KI essays and other English language essay resources and essay materials for learning and essay research. Thank you for visiting! Cheers. </strong><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-3733417658694905310?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-10940664845232343512009-01-05T15:58:00.003+08:002009-01-05T16:08:36.735+08:00<strong>English Language Resources Online - series on leadership, power, politics, part 9</strong><br /><br />In the previous sections, on Virtue and Leadership, you have been reading my term paper and its various sections. Firstly, the introduction to the essay; the body of the essay/ the main body of the essay; and then in the previous post, the suggestions to answer the second part of the essay question.<br /><br />For easy access, the posts on my Virtue and Leadership term paper are:<br /><br /><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/12/english-language-resources-online.html"><strong>series on leadership, power, politics, part 6 (intro)</strong></a><br /><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/12/english-language-resources-online_24.html"><strong>series on leadership, power, politics, part 7 (body)</strong></a><br /><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/12/english-language-resources-online_29.html"><strong>series on leadership, power, politics, part 8 (suggestions)</strong></a><br /><br />In this post, you will be reading the carefully crafted conclusion. Be sure to ask yourself questions and see if you can improve on the writing.<br /><br /><br /><strong>"Are leaders born or educated? Suggest a leadership education for Singapore."</strong><br /><br /><br /><strong>Conclusion to my analytical essay</strong><br />(my very long <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/"><span style="color:#333333;">term paper</span></a>, which took me hours to write and to craft carefully, as well as almost endless revisions; edited by Tiffany C. May)<br /><br />In summary, leaders usually are born with natural character traits which are the potential for leadership. There is a link between nature and nurture because these natural characteristics can be enhanced and developed by education. Certain types of leaders need certain types of education which are not intrinsic in humans. We examined military leadership and political leadership from two of our course texts, Cyrus and Machiavelli. In addition, we explored a historical figure – we looked at Bismarck’s political and diplomatic leadership. Therefore the thesis holds, firstly, that leaders are born and bred, and concomitantly that any attempt to separate nature from nurture is unwarranted because there is a close and mutually reinforcing relationship between nature and nurture, where I suggested that distinguishing the two as separate or different may be a false dichotomy. As for a leadership education, much was discussed: a selection process should ensure that the trainee has the required natural qualities that have potential to be developed for leadership, in an attempt to use the results from the first half of my discussion in application to Singapore’s context. I suggested that a leadership education for the good of Singapore should have the following elements: training in military affairs and national defence, international relations and diplomacy, political leadership, and the development of character. To conclude, this is a complex but very relevant topic in Singapore’s context, and although any education models suggested will be sure to have some flaws, I hope I have contributed to the debate.<br /><br /><br />This conclusion makes some moves that are very standard, and yet has aspects that one could learn and adapt from. What are the ideas and concepts that you can learn from this conclusion?<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English Language Resources Online</a></strong> - online essay materials, sample English essay site, essay techniques and essay skills site, and English language resources for all sorts of topics and all sorts of levels from O levels, to A levels, to university level English for all sorts of English language learners<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-1094066484523234351?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-440164718686741142008-12-29T23:23:00.003+08:002008-12-29T23:31:11.741+08:00<strong>English Language Resources Online - series on leadership, power, politics, part 8</strong><br /><br />This is the second part of my essay, here on <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/"><strong>English Language Resources Online</strong></a>, where I wrote about a leadership education for Singapore - my own personal recommendations and my own personal suggestions. The essay question that I was answering was the following essay question:<br /><br /><strong>"Are leaders born or educated? Suggest a leadership education for Singapore."<br /></strong><br />Here follows the rest of my <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/"><span style="color:#000000;">analytical essay</span></a>:<br /><br /><strong>A suggestion for a leadership education in Singapore<br /></strong><br />The central argument has been that education takes nature further and leads to the realisation of the leader’s full potential, where nature is basic and nurture builds on nature. The challenge here is how we encourage the interplay of nature and nurture, as expounded in the first part of the paper, to groom leaders for Singapore. Therefore, it is no controversy to say that a selection process should ensure that the trainee has the requisite intelligence as well as some desirable natural characteristics deemed conducive for leadership, and these natural qualities must be able to be developed and groomed. Selection in this conception could take place when the potential candidate is young, perhaps 12 years old, although it is possible to select candidates who are older who possess the requisite intellect and characteristics. Assuming that a leadership education would be concerned with the survival and development of Singapore, or simply, “the good of Singapore”, I would suggest that a leadership education for Singapore leaders should have the following four elements: training in military affairs and national defence, international relations and diplomacy, political leadership or what is sometimes colloquially termed the “art of government”, and the development of character. Why am I taking this approach, seemingly mainstream ideas that are seemingly common currency in Singapore? Thomas Cronin, for instance, has argued in favour of a liberal arts education so as to create citizen leaders – where a whole nation would become “competing leaders” so as to resolve the conflict between democracy and elitist leadership (1995:307-308). This suggestion of a liberal arts education for grooming leaders is a good one in America’s context, but there are issues that must be discussed here. Democracy is an essentially contested concept, and thus what is good for the USA may not be good for Singapore, and what is considered democracy in the USA may be different from local conceptions. In addition, Singapore has its own unique geopolitical situation, limitations and requirements. Therefore I have elected to come up with this education and have not gone for commonly recommended western modes of higher education for leaders, such as Cronin’s suggestions.<br /><br /><strong>1. Training in military affairs and national defence<br /></strong><br />It is easy to say that most countries acknowledge the need for a strong military or the ability to defend one’s territorial integrity. It is less clear but no less important then that Singapore’s military plays a more important role than merely defence, because a strong military enables us to maintain peace and stability in our geographical region while enabling us to negotiate with our larger neighbours on equal footing. In addition, with the rise of terrorism and non-state threats, the importance of a flexible military is now greater than ever before. As Singapore’s military posture says, the role of the military is to deter threats to Singapore, and should deterrence fail, to deliver a swift and decisive victory. Therefore there are many strategic reasons why a leadership education in Singapore should involve a military education. A military education, either in Officer Cadet School or even at the tactical level at the School of Infantry Specialists will teach trainees practical soldiering skills, which are specific, but beyond that, improve communication skills, mental endurance and enhance qualities such as discipline and persistence. Communication skills are easily trained when one has to command units of soldiers and convey orders; mental endurance is more important than physical endurance because the sheer difficulty of soldiering goes beyond physical strength per se, and qualities such as discipline and persistence will be enhanced in a military environment.<br /><br /><strong>2. Training in international relations and diplomacy<br /></strong><br />Singapore leaders need training in international relations and diplomacy because of our geopolitical situation: Singapore basically is a Chinese enclave in a Malay-dominated region, with all the concomitant cultural, historical and political sensitivities. Training in international relations need not comprise merely the study of diplomacy, but can involve the study of history, political science, international law and many other related disciplines. This knowledge is important as an understanding of the geopolitics of our region in Southeast Asia and viable policy options to deal with changing circumstances will prove essential to leadership. For instance, Singapore is highly dependent on her neighbours Malaysia and Indonesia, and political developments in these areas will affect Singapore. Therefore, Singaporean leaders need to know about such developments, their history and course, as well as potential policy options to deal with threats to Singapore’s peace and security. In fact, diplomacy is linked with military defence, as both military strength and diplomacy are twin arms of deterrence; military strength also enables successful diplomacy as our neighbours will be inclined to take us seriously. Beyond the narrow confines of our region, there is also the larger Asia-Pacific region and beyond, where Singapore is connected to the world economy and depends on it for her living. Hence, no leadership training in Singapore will be complete without an intimate knowledge of international relations and diplomacy.<br /><br /><strong>3. Training in political leadership or “the art of government”<br /></strong><br />The study of government or public administration is also important for Singapore leaders, as this is directly relevant to the day-to-day running of the nation. One can construe public management as leadership as economic and social conditions change rapidly due to globalisation and socio-economic factors, and thus leaders are required for public administration. Political leadership is also linked to defence and diplomacy. Singapore leaders are in the unique position of being more than administrators because a prevailing paradigm in Singapore is that economic growth is prioritised over other concerns, and hence leadership is more important than mere stewardship. Given the fact that leaders will usually work in the Singapore Civil Service or the Administrative Service, the “art of government” will be invaluable training to assist them on the job.<br /><br /><strong>4. The development of character<br /></strong><br />At the same time, the training of knowledge and skills in military strategy and tactics, international relations, and political leadership will not be complete without “character building”, or a kind of “moral compass”. These terms may be morally loaded or pointed but I am using them here merely to mean that there is a need to complement skills and knowledge with certain values. Knowledge and skills by themselves do not necessarily lead to good leaders; values which reflect certain moral viewpoints are needed, and these can be developed from qualities that have been selected for. Therefore, there should be an emphasis on qualities and values such as teamwork, discipline, and prudence. Consider prudence as a vital virtue – Wynne Moskop has an interesting analysis where prudence as a virtue is an important “paradigm for political leaders”, as prudence can be construed as “an architectonic psychological capacity to bring diverse kinds of information to bear on a decision to act”, a virtue expressed more succinctly by Aristotle as “practical wisdom” (1996:619). Furthermore, Moskop argues that “prudence combines technical and ethical information”, and using Aristotle’s description of a prudent household manager “teaches us that the agent is supposed to tailor the technique of acquiring wealth to the service of human good” (1996:624). Therefore, clearly prudence is a virtue that political leaders in should possess, because technical and practical skill must be tempered by ethical considerations and done for the betterment of man, and in this case, for Singapore.<br /><br />The suggestion of a “moral compass” to guide actions suggest two more ideas – that there is no escaping the fact that “virtue” and the “virtuous leader” are real and pressing areas of study, but the “virtuous leader” as a topic is beyond the scope of this paper; and that there is once again a close interrelationship between nature and nurture, namely that the personalities and characteristics that one is born with can be enhanced and improved over time through the judicious use of focused training or through experiential development where values are enhanced and shaped gradually. Ultimately, character is arguably a concatenation of predisposition from birth as well as a developmental process of both formal and informal education.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="color:#000000;">You have seen the introduction to my long </span><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/"><span style="color:#000000;">analytical term paper</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">;</span> you have seen the core text and the main essay content; you have also seen my suggestions for a leadership education in Singapore. Next will come the conclusion in my next post. Thanks for reading, and be sure to learn and question, and cheers.<br /><br /><br /><strong>English Language Resources Online</strong> - online essay materials, sample English essay site, essay techniques and essay skills site, and English language resources for all sorts of topics and all sorts of levels from O levels, to A levels, to university level English for all sorts of English language learners<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-44016471868674114?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-74907284122361039662008-12-24T16:38:00.006+08:002008-12-24T16:50:01.945+08:00<strong>English Language Resources Online - series on leadership, power, politics, part 7</strong><br /><br />There are two distinct parts to this virtue and leadership essay - one is on the nature versus nurture debate, and the second is the specifc recommendation that I make in order to answer the essay question that I was set. Here in <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/"><strong>English Language Resources Online</strong></a>, I continue from the essay introduction and go on to the first part of my essay.<br /><br /><strong>Essay title:</strong><br /><strong>Are leaders born or educated? Suggest a leadership education for Singapore.</strong><br /><br /><strong>The first part of my <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">essay</a> (essay body)</strong><br /><br />First, leaders usually have natural character traits that they are born with. For this paper, a general working definition of leader would be a person who leads his/her followers to goals, by influencing or guiding them. In addition, there are different types of leaders in different contexts, such as military leaders and military campaigns, political leaders and their countries. These basic definitions would suggest that there are certain traits that followers would look for in a leader, perhaps such as courage in a military leader and an extroverted personality in the case of a political leader, for instance. Courage is a quality that soldiers would most likely look out for in a leader because they want to feel that they are being commanded by someone with bravery and who would be able to lead them to success, and at the same time it is difficult to imagine a political leader who is very introverted and keeps to himself being able to influence people. Many of the qualities that people expect of their leaders can be said to be natural, meaning that the leader is to a large extent born with them. Apart from courage and extroversion, other natural qualities would possibly be native intelligence, kindness, strength, prudence, and other personality traits. Thus, nature plays a role in leadership.<br /><br />However, one can see that there is already a kind of link between nature and nurture, for while a person may be born with such qualities, these qualities can be enhanced and developed by education and experiential learning. One usually talks casually of developing one’s character. To Confucius, the jun zi (gentleman or exemplary person) can indeed be cultivated. It is possible to examine one of Confucius’ sayings:<br /><br />“When there is a preponderance of native substance over acquired refinement, the result will be churlishness. When there is a preponderance of acquired refinement over native substance, the result will be pedantry. Only a well balanced admixture of these two will result in gentlemanliness.”(Confucius: The Analects, translated by D. C. Lau, 1979:83).<br /><br />It can be said that Confucius felt that “native substance” played a role in making a jun zi but this “native substance” had to be tempered with “refinement’ and, by extrapolation, education; only a person who cultivated his character would become a jun zi. Confucius stressed the importance of education and learning many times in his discourses. Hence, nature and nurture go hand in hand because education can nurture natural gifts.<br /><br />In addition, to take an extended view of nature and being born with gifts, some leaders are born with a rich family background and family connections. Some people are born royalty or offspring of rich and powerful people. However, this additional idea also leads us to the argument that there is a tight, interlinked relationship between nature and nature, because there is no guarantee that someone who is born with the right circumstances will eventually become a leader. Clearly, some sort of education is required.<br /><br />What sort of education, then, is required? It is possible to argue that certain types of leaders need certain types of education which do not come naturally or are intrinsic in human beings. Let us examine a military leader. A military leader needs military training; for instance, Cyrus, the great Persian king, underwent Persian training that involved schooling, physical training, military training, magistrate practice, tests and hunting, among other methods of education (Xenophon, Book I, C2:23-28). This shows that a military leader – Cyrus happened to be both a political leader as well as a military leader, but as he went on many campaigns we can justifiably focus on his military leadership – requires a particular type of education in order for him to develop his natural gifts, for instance courage, strength and intelligence. Let us delve deeper and compare Cyrus’ childhood and his later years, to see the impact of education on training leadership out of natural characteristics. In Book I, Chapter 4 Cyrus exhibited signs of natural characteristics needed for military leadership – “he loved to learn”, “he did not run from being defeated into the refuge of not doing that in which he had been defeated; rather he immersed himself”, and he was courageous and bold while hunting (C4:34-35). Yet his youthful exuberance and natural characteristics nearly got him killed “when he saw a deer leap up, he forgot everything he had heard and pursued it, seeing nothing but the way it went as it fled” (Book 1 C4:35). This shows that while Cyrus had many natural characteristics that could potentially have led to excellent military leadership, his same natural qualities untrammelled were hazardous to himself and to his guards. Compare this youthful reckless behaviour to the discussion Cyrus conducts with his father, who is educating him in the arts of war in Book I, Chapter 6. The Cyrus who emerges from this talk comes across as more mature, and better able to learn lessons from his father in the arts of war, and able to realise his mistakes when they are pointed out to him. To take a specific case, Cyrus acknowledges his father’s wisdom that he “must contrive a source of income”, and indeed, does follow the advice and learns from his initial mistakes (Book 1 C6:48-49). He extrapolates the lessons himself and learns what to do, and how to use the education that he has had to his advantage in battle. While Cyrus’ love of learning is innate and something that he is born with, the effect of education countering his other innate qualities of boldness and reckless courage is important in transforming him from a mere talented youth into a great military leader.<br /><br />Similarly, a political leader needs some kind of government and public administration education. One could take Machiavelli’s The Prince as an example, as the whole book is basically a written treatise serving as political education for Lorenzo de Medici, a political leader who ran a principality (Machiavelli’s Letter, cited in Bull 2003:3-4). Let us examine one of Machiavelli’s ideas: “the need to avoid contempt and hatred” (XIX), where he suggests ideas on how to avoid being hated so as to prevent internal subversion and rebellion. When examining the Roman Emperors in this regard, he noted that anyone who wanted to maintain political power had to pander to the wishes and demands of those who supported him, therefore one “should strive assiduously to escape the hatred of the most powerful classes” (XIX, 2003:62). In the case of the Roman emperors the soldiers were key to their rule and emperors had to maintain control over them. Machiavelli makes the most insightful comments when he analyses the Turkish Ottomans: their political system also makes it necessary for Sultans to accommodate the military, whereas in Italy, in the context of Machiavelli, the common people are more powerful and must be accommodated (XIX, 2003:66). Hence, Machiavelli’s take is that there are rules to be learnt for political mastery, but circumstances differ, from Roman emperors to Turkish Sultans to Renaissance Italy. Machiavelli’s treatise shows that the issue on education is far more complex than simple. There are implications arising from his analysis: governments differ and there are differing types of polities and political systems: democratic, authoritarian, or a mixture. This is not to say that Machiavelli’s ideas cannot be applied to different situations – they can – but one notes that there are different leaders in different contexts and that therefore a nuanced understanding of education is key, where it is difficult to find a “one-size-fits-all” solution to problems.<br /><br />Let us also examine a leader in history to see what insights we can gain. A case in history would be Bismarck and his successful manipulation of European diplomacy to maintain peace in Europe (Pflanze 1958). Bismarck can be taken to be a case study where I will show the intimate relationship between being born a leader and being educated to become one. It can be seen that Bismarck, as an educated Junker set on the path to government leadership in authoritarian Prussia, studied and learnt Machiavellian ideas; thus he is an example of being born into the right circumstances by birthright while also possessing a leadership education. I would argue that Bismarck’s adaptations of Machiavellian ideas to the situation in central Europe led to the rise of Realpolitik, “the politics of realism”, where there was “a particular conception of the realities of political life” and “techniques of achieving positive results in view of those realities”, where politics to Bismarck is power (1958:493). This political strategy was developed from studying politics and Machiavellian ideas. Bismarck manipulated events as they occurred and moulded history by using the relationships between various events, such as the rise of nationalism and industrialisation (511-512). Bismarck eventually unified Germany by the orchestration of many wars (504-506). Hence, ostensibly education in terms of studying politics seems to be the major factor in the making of this leader. Yet, Bismarck was himself ambivalent on why he was a great political and diplomatic leader – he considered himself a “genius” who had an intuitive touch given by nature, yet there was “the persistent recurrence of the same general pattern of political conduct”, where he used a Machiavellian “basic approach to political strategy” (513-514). While Bismarck obviously had very high natural intelligence as well as a great deal of courage, perseverance and charisma, and could manipulate events to his advantage, there was also an application of Machiavellian and Enlightenment intellectual ideas, such as rationalism and nationalism, running through his policies. Yet many other politicians and diplomats of other countries were familiar with Machiavelli and Enlightenment ideas but none emerged as strong as Bismarck. It could thus be said that both nature and nurture were closely interconnected in Bismarck’s case. A further possible extrapolation would be that education does not necessarily have to be always formal (academic), but can be a developmental process of self-education. Bismarck seems to have developed his own methods creatively from what he studied and did not blindly learn. To summarise: there clearly is an intimate link between nature and nurture, as exemplified by Bismarck, 19th century political leader and diplomat, whose successes could be attributed to both nature and nurture, and while education plays a role, education can be extended to “informal” education, such as self-reflection and experiential learning, not just merely “formal”.<br /><br /><br />Remember to ask yourself questions about the essay and always think about how you can improve your own writing, or my writing, for that matter. Thanks and cheers.<br /><br /><strong>English Language Resources Online</strong> - online essay materials, sample English essay site, essay techniques and essay skills site, and English language resources for all sorts of topics and all sorts of levels from O levels, to A levels, to university level English for all sorts of English language learners<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-7490728412236103966?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-45789787823162153912008-12-19T13:30:00.014+08:002008-12-19T13:40:47.207+08:00<strong>English Language Resources Online - series on leadership, power, politics, part 6</strong><br /><br />Virtue and Leadership are both very interesting and powerful concepts and many essays can be written on these two topics. Due to special requests, I will be placing a term paper here that I have written for a course on Virtue and Leadership.<br /><br />This was a term paper written for Virtue and Leadership, a USP course at the National University of Singapore, and it is here for reference. As usual, I will be breaking the long term paper up into the smaller constituent parts, like the introduction to the essay, the body of the essay, as well as the conclusion and the recommendations to the essay and the citations at the end of the essay. This is to encourage learning rather than regurgitation and copying.<br /><br />Essay title:<br /><strong><u>Are leaders born or educated? Suggest a leadership education for Singapore.</u></strong><br /><br /><strong>Introduction</strong><br /><br />The central theme of this discussion is basically the perennial nature versus nurture debate. In the context of leadership we shall be exploring whether leadership is born or educated, or in other words, whether nature or nurture is more important as the determining factor for leadership. The paper seeks to address the question: are leaders born or educated? On the one hand, nature provides the basis for nurture to work on, as nurture would not work without nature, for instance in the trivial case of a cripple who aspires to be a military leader or a mute who aspires to be an oratorical speaker. Yet, nature is unable to result in leadership intrinsically by herself, and it would seem that a person needs training in order to become a leader, and leadership – in various forms, such as military and political leadership, and in various contexts, in democratic and authoritarian societies – has to be learnt. Therefore, the central thesis of this paper is: both nature and nurture are required for leadership; leaders are born and educated. Natural qualities and background foundations are provided by nature, and through education, nature is refined and enhanced and leadership is formed. At the same time, a concomitant idea or a parallel thesis is the idea that nature and nurture are both very closely intertwined and the interrelationship between these two leads to leadership; there is perhaps a false distinction or a false dichotomy between nature and nurture, because the two mutually influence each other. There are many possibilities for a leadership education in Singapore, and later in the course of the paper I will suggest a leadership education, comprising military affairs and national defence, international relations and diplomacy, political leadership, and beyond academics, the development of character.<br /><br /><br />As usual, the learning point is of course to ask questions - here are some questions that you could ask: what is the strength of this introduction? How would you answer this essay question? How can you take this introduction to improve your English essay writing skills? What can you learn and what can you take away from this instructive piece of good writing? What can you expect to see in the body of the essay? More essays and other essay materials to come on my site! Thanks and cheers.<br /><br /><strong>English Language Resources Online</strong> - online essay materials, sample English essay site, essay techniques and essay skills site, and English language resources for all sorts of topics and all sorts of levels from O levels, to A levels, to university level English for all sorts of English language learners<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-4578978782316215391?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-29532966333274993632008-11-22T12:29:00.009+08:002008-11-22T12:39:04.560+08:00<strong>English Language Resources Online - series on leadership, power, politics, part 5</strong><br /><br />Welcome back to the series on leadership essays, power essays, and politics essays. This part deals with <strong>Virtue and Leadership Essays</strong>.<br /><br />With respect to the previous post, here is the second part of the essay under scholarly or technical critique. Do remember to read and learn with an open and inquiring mind, as it is good for you to see what is bad in this paper.<br /><br />Part 2 (of the<span style="color:#000000;"> </span><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/"><span style="color:#000000;">essay</span></a>, with the essay title:<br /><strong>Are there certain virtues that are necessary for leadership?<br />Or does it all depend on the situation?</strong><br />Comparing Machiavellian and Confucian schools of thought)<br /><br />The Confucian Analects seem to focus quite a lot on the perfection of human conduct, portrayed as a cultivation that can only take place by engaging and maintaining relationships with other people in a social context. Merely talking about the ideals without practicing them was of little value to Confucius. And the person who understands the importance of refinement of human conduct, he called an “exemplary person”, or Chun-Tzu (Pg 12, Ref 5), a term that literally means “scion of ruling family”; which is sometimes translated as “superior man” or “noble man” (Pg 37, Ref 6). Honour, for Confucius, was not ascribed by birth but achieved by effort and through developing human relationships in compliance with Confucian virtues such as humanity (jen), righteousness (yi), conscientiousness (chung) and faithfulness (xin). For him the ‘Way’ to be Chun-Tzu lay in enacting these ideals. The term “Way”, or Tao, literally means a path or road, and figuratively it means a way to act (Pg 37, Ref 6). Confucius perhaps wanted to convey that it is human endeavour that articulates Tao and not the other way around, and that this human endeavour encompassed the knowledge and practice of different virtues.<br /><br />From the Analects, it is revealed that Confucius expects “the objective of Chun-Tzu to seek the Tao” (XV, 31, Ref 4). There are many dialogues in the Analects that make it clear that Confucius expected a Chun-Tzu to dedicate himself to the cause of Tao, regardless of his circumstances. The dedication, according to Confucius, needs to be so deep that a person who “aims to be Chun-Tzu does not seek satisfaction in eating nor comfort in lodging; he is diligent in his work and careful in his speech. He associates with the people of principle that he may be rectified” (I: 14, Ref 4). So much so that “regardless of whether there is starvation in farming or riches in the pursuit of studies, a Chun-Tzu worries about Tao and not about poverty” (XV: 31, Ref 4). His adherence to the Tao must involve no association to those who deviate from it but nevertheless he must be prompt to correct his own mistakes (I: 8, Ref 4). He applauds Chu Po-Yue as being “indeed a Chun-Tzu (for) when the state wanted to follow the Tao, he served it. When the state discarded the Tao, he rolled his principle up and kept it in his breast” (XV: 6, Ref 4). Thus perhaps even in the case of leadership, Confucius expects one to dedicate oneself to the fundamental Confucian virtues in order to ascertain his adherence to Tao.<br /><br />The word Tao was a cardinal principle of common faith at the time of Confucius (and not simply the monopoly of the Taoists). It was the common denominator of truth and the fundamental criterion of moral conduct to all different schools of religion and philosophy (Pg 38, Ref 6). Thus, Confucius emphasized that the Chun-Tzu should be dedicated personally to the cause of Tao, no matter what one’s personal fortune and destiny would be. From the Analects, it seems that the Tao is not merely a metaphysical idea to be pondered and speculated upon, but the fundamental cause of humanity to be enacted in life. Confucius seemed to not bother explaining what Tao is but to be more concerned with the question of how to act out Tao. But he simultaneously postulated that Chun-Tzu should be a man of many Confucian virtues like jen (humanity), chung (conscientiousness), shu (altruism) and so on.<br /><br />Thus far we have seen that Machiavellian virtù is a concept that seems to be fundamentally in contrast with the principle of Confucian virtues. While one does not see just appearing to be virtuous as immoral or not “virtuous” (as long as the prince’s purpose is fulfilled), the latter considers a person to be “virtuous” only if he or she is truly and sincerely devoted to the way of the exemplary person. But as to why they differ so much in the assessment of one’s “virtue” in his leadership is not the concern <span style="color:#000000;">of </span><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/"><span style="color:#000000;">this essay paper</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">.</span> What we shall now explore is how these two aforementioned interpretations of “virtue” show an agreement over the non-existence of a definite set of virtues that are required for leadership. They both suggest that it in fact depends on how an apt “virtue” is implemented by a leader according to the situation. This will be done by trying to understand the similarities between the flexibility of Machiavellian virtù and the dependence of Confucian virtues on a Chun Tzu’s situation (or role) in society.<br /><br />The adjective 'Machiavellian' has become a synonym for immoral scheming. Machiavelli seems to be advocating immoral behaviour (possibly for its own sake) when he sings the praises of Cesare Borgia who thought nothing of having his own henchman murdered and left him in pieces on the piazza. On closer inspection, however, Machiavelli's position is far more subtle. As Isaiah Berlin has shown in his essay – The Originality of Machiavelli, Machiavelli wasn't writing a manual for leaders who wanted to learn how to be evil. The Prince, at least according to Berlin, shows how there can be more than one morality, that neither the conventional morality of Christianity nor the classical tradition of the virtues will suffice for the leader who wants to be an effective ruler. What is needed in a ruler, Machiavelli tells us, is virtu, the courage to be cruel when necessary, even to the point of sacrificing innocents for the sake of the principality.<br /><br />Additionally, it may be commonly understood from The Prince that Machiavelli divided politics from morals; and that he recommended actions, which common opinion morally condemns, as politically necessary for a prince. But that is not necessarily a completely correct judgement. For Machiavelli, the ends that he advocated are those to which he thinks wise human beings, who differentiate reality from the ideal world, will dedicate their lives to.<br /><br />Machiavelli says that it is necessary for a prince to “know how to play the beast as well as the man” – a role that the ancient philosophers taught covertly when they imagined Chiron the centaur as a teacher (Pg 22, Ref 1). As Leo Struass has pointed out, Machiavelli here agrees with the ancients and with Christianity that man’s nature is composite, but he replaces the Christian combination of God - man with that of beast - man. He represents the latter image as the one ancient philosophers in fact meant (except that the philosophers back then used it covertly) and exposes this by speaking next of using the fox and the lion. In Machiavelli’s perception, human beings take the shape of animals instead of Gods (Ref 1, Chapters 7: Cesare Borgia and Chapter 19: Severus as virtuous and most ferocious lion). By omitting the comparison of man to Gods, Machiavelli may have tried to direct our attention away from the similarity between the ancient views of man as a rational animal, in which rationality is something divine, and the Christian viewpoint. By removing this divine element from the human character (Pg 41, Ref 2), what mainly remains is the element of flexibility of Machiavellian “virtue” – while beasts are confined to their single natures, man is a beast who, because of his rationality, is flexible to take on the nature of any convenient beast. When Machiavelli says that the prince must use both natures of the lion and the fox, he adds that “the one without the other is not durable” (Ref 1, C18). The two ‘beast-like’ qualities are necessary to each other; they are correlated and inter-independent. Perhaps for this “durability”, that Machiavelli thus suggests flexibility in virtù is necessary. We shall now seek to understand the dependence of Confucian virtues on a situation of a leader.The notion of Confucian virtue, in contrast to the notion of Tao that it falls under, seems multifarious in the Analects. For instance, in the context of father-son relationship, parental care and concern are required of a father, and filial piety and respect are required for a son. But in the context of ruler-subject relationship, the ruler is to be responsible and credible, and the subject is to be dedicated and supportive. Several passages illustrate various virtues Confucius mentioned as the moral quality of Chun-Tzu. In the Analects, Confucius saw Tsze Ch’an as a Chun Tzu who did not show more than one “virtue” – “In his private conduct, he was courteous; in serving his superiors, he was respectful; in nourishing the people, he was kind; in ordering the people, he was just” (V: 15, Ref 4). Apart from these, the Analects described more such Confucian virtues that a Chun Tzu must have according to the context of the dialogues. For instance, Confucius, humbly disentitling himself as a Chun Tzu, says that a Chun Tzu is characterized by the following “virtues” in his conduct – “Virtuous, he is free from anxieties; wise, he is free from perplexities; bold, he is free from fear” (XIV: 30, Ref 4). More importantly (with regards to the purpose of this paper), when Confucius said that a “Chun-Tzu regards righteousness as the substance of all things; he practices it according to the guide of propriety” (XV: 17, Ref 4), this may serve as direct evidence to deduce that simply knowing Confucian virtues, without the knowledge of where and when to apply them, is inadequate.<br /><br />The virtues such as righteousness, courage, wisdom, broadmindedness are highlighted by Confucius as the moral quality of Chun-Tzu. It is clear from the Analects that virtuous conducts in human life, enveloped by the way of humanity or Tao, are various. In each different situation, a specific virtue is called for. Now a ‘situation’ cannot simply be understood as an instantaneous circumstance in a rather temporal sense; there is a broader way to do so. Part of the structure of society is determined by the different roles each member plays in that society. Since Confucius expects a Chun Tzu to work towards the welfare of the society, he can only begin to do so by first playing his role(s) in that society according to Tao. Hence each of such roles is a significant part of the ‘situation’ in which a Chun Tzu must not fail to follow the Tao. A Chun Tzu must be aware of these different roles of human relationships that he plays, and hence be competent in flexibly applying the “virtue” befitting his role at any given moment, in any given situation. Though it is impossible, according to Confucian Analects, to itemize all the virtues, but a Chun-Tzu should be the person of many virtues and also learn the wisdom of applying these aptly. In other words, the appropriately flexible conduct of “virtues” according to a situation is essential to follow the Tao - a central principle of morality in the teachings of Confucius.<br /><br />Therefore, while the distinction between Confucius’ teachings to follow the Tao and Machiavelli’s guidelines for a prince to preserve the State is correctly observed, so is the similarity in the flexible way both expect a person to apply his “virtue” in leadership. The thoughts of both Confucius and Machiavelli (at least as understood from their respective works) merge to the idea that the “virtues” required for leadership depend on the situation the leader faces. Some may not agree to this thesis saying that the flexibility of Machiavelli’s virtù is absolutely different from the Confucian virtues that depend on a Chun Tzu’s role and situation. For Confucius, the flexibility in applying Confucian virtues is only within the domain of following the Way for one to be Chun Tzu whereas for Machiavelli the flexibility crosses the line to encompass use of immoral means to achieve the prince’s purpose. While Confucian virtues are driven strictly by the idea that a leader must strive to comply with Tao regardless of what his objective is, Machiavelli’s virtù is a rather a guideline to make a prince consequentialist in his objective to “preserve the State”. As much as these analyses are valid and important, the discussion on the difference in the limits and levels of the flexibility between Machiavellian virtù and Confucian virtues is not of concern in this paper. In fact, these differences in the flexibility are nothing but a manifestation of their respective interpretations of “virtue”. However, differences in their interpretations of the social construct of “virtue” would not necessarily imply that their ideologies on applying “virtue” in leadership are distinct as well. Instead, the above analysis of Machiavelli’s The Prince and the Confucian Analects reflects that two ideologically and historically very different viewpoints have shown a striking similarity on how “virtue” must be implemented in leadership. There is sufficient evidence in the respective texts suggesting that for a leader to be “virtuous” (in association to Machiavelli’s virtù and Confucian Tao), he must be versatile in employing his “virtues”. This versatility (or flexibility) needs to come from the leader’s thorough comprehension of the kind of situation he is in; only then, in the Machiavellian and Confucian schools of thought, can a leader best apply an apt “virtue” to it. It is unrealistic to consider an individual as a leader only based on his knowledge of a certain virtues ‘necessary for leadership’. As important is the knowledge of “virtues” in leadership, so is the judgement of calling the right “virtues” in the right situation. The question that then arises is whether this skill of making the right judgement is innate to one’s personality, or if it can be learnt from guidance and experience. Since this skill seems to be a significant ingredient of leadership, perhaps the answer to that question can throw some light on if leadership, too, is by virtue of one’s nature or nurture.<br /><br /><br /><br />We have come to the end of this analytical essay on <strong>Virtue and Leadership</strong>.<br /><br />What have you learnt from this paper and the manner of writing - its technique, style and concept? Do consult the previous post to remind yourself of the important questions that you should be asking yourself regarding this second part of the essay. Thanks for reading and cheers!<br /><br /><strong>English Language Resources Online</strong> - online essay materials, sample essay site, essay techniques and skills site, and English language resources for all sorts of topics<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-2953296633327499363?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-39594934147470591662008-11-22T12:11:00.014+08:002008-11-22T12:29:35.101+08:00<strong>English Language Resources Online - series on leadership, power, politics, part 4</strong><br /><br />This series on my English language and essay site deals with leadership, power and politics, and also with an important side issue of virtue and leadership. You have seen an instance of a good essay with all the good aspects of writing, in terms of good essay style, good essay structure and good essay skills being shown in writing, in the previous essay on the difference between political power and legitimacy. To see Mabel L Q H's essay, click here: <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/10/english-language-resources-online.html"><strong>the difference between political power and political legitimacy</strong></a><strong>.</strong><br /><br />However, to improve one's writing, there is a need to look beyond just the good essays and learn from them. It is also a good idea to look at writing that has flaws and problems, so that you can learn what not to do. This is the first time that my site is going to post up an essay that has several flaws in ideas, writing skills and writing style, so that you can learn from it. The learning point here is that we can learn what not to do but observing what people do in bad writing, and then improve.<br /><br />What is bad writing? How is the essay below bad, compared to other writing here on this site? Why does it appear to be a well written essay to people who have not been learning skills and ideas in writing? How come it seems to the casual observer that bad writing seems to be as good as good writing? What moves does the writer fail to make here? What moves does the writer make that are good, and what moves that the writer makes that are simply, for want of a better word, wrong? How can we improve this essay?<br /><br />And beyond that, for thinking and critical skills, what is good writing and what is bad writing? What is the distinction? Is it merely technical, or does flair play a role?<br /><br />This essay is an analytical essay on Virtue and Leadership - and it has several technical flaws as well as conceptual flaws.<br /><br /><strong>Title: Are there certain virtues that are necessary for leadership?<br />Or does it all depend on the situation?: </strong>Comparing Machiavellian and Confucian schools of thought<br /><br />(Part 1)<br /> <br />The word ‘virtue’, being the complex social construct it is, has been interpreted and understood very differently throughout history. Although the term ‘virtue’ used today has a moral connotation, this may not have always been the case in the past; the most obvious example being Machiavelli’s The Prince. However, virtue can be broadly understood as a feature of one’s character: a disposition to act in a certain way in relevant circumstances. With regards to leadership, both Machiavelli and Confucius have mentioned the importance of their respective interpretations of “virtue” (defining the term ‘virtue’ is beyond the scope of this paper, hence quotation marks have been used to indicate inclusion of all interpretations). As much as these two interpretations may seem to be poles apart to the reader, there is surprisingly one commonality in their understanding of the functioning of “virtue” in leadership – they both suggest that there is indeed no certain set of “virtues” that assists in leadership, but that the “virtue” in leadership depends on what situation the leader is facing or going to face. This ironical match may then suggest a guideline to understand the relationship between virtue and leadership. But let us first understand the two very contrasting standpoints that Machiavelli and Confucius come from in their interpretation of “virtue” in the realm of leadership.<br /><br />Although Niccolo Machiavelli did not advocate dissimulation and cruelty at times, he reserves his praise for those who know how and when to use force and guile. He explains how a strong and effective ruler can best serve the interest of his principality. His advice was not meant for just anyone: it was advice for princes – rulers whose actions determine the fate of their subjects. Such people, he suggests, should not be squeamish. They need to act swiftly and effectively to do what is best; and what may be the best for the principality may include ignoring conventional morality.<br /><br />The Prince was written in the genre of ‘mirrors of princes’ – short tracts advising and inspiring rulers. These were popular in the Renaissance and would typically advocate virtues such as courage and compassion (Pg 48, Ref 3). But Machiavelli’s advice was in complete contrast to that of others – whereby a successful prince will only honour his word when it suits him to do so, though it usually pays him to simply appear honest. He conveys a message that a prince needs to know how to act like a beast: a challenge to the humanistic tradition in which a prince is expected to act as moral exemplar to his people.<br /><br />The key concept in understanding The Prince is the Italian word virtù, usually translated as prowess. Although it comes from the Latin word for virtue (virtus) (Pg 42, Ref 2), it has, for Machiavelli, a very different meaning. Throughout the book his aim was to explain how a prince can display this quality of virtù. This virtù can perhaps be understood as the ability to act swiftly and effectively to help secure the safety of his authority and continuing prosperity of the principality. This would include making false promises or murdering those who threaten the prince even if it would mean butchering his own supporters.<br /><br />Machiavelli’s model of a prince who demonstrates virtù was Cesare Borgia (C7, Pg19, Ref 1). His prowess involved tricking the Orsini into coming to Sinigaglia where he had them murdered. However, the move of Borgia’s which Machiavelli seems to appreciate the most was taken against one of his own employees – Remirro de Orco. Remirro, a cruel henchman of Borgia, was successful in pacifying Romagna through violence. Borgia realized that such cruelties “aroused some hatred against him” (C7, Pg20, Ref1), and in order to expunge that hatred, he had Remirro murdered and left hacked in two halves in a public piazza. Machiavelli applauds Borgia’s virtù and the way, with a single brutal spectacle, he kept the people of Romagna both appeased and stupefied. But in the very next chapter he contrasts Borgia’s approach with that of Agathocles. Agathocles became the king of Syracuse by crime: he slaughtered the senators and the elite of Syracuse and simply seized power. Though the means of both Borgia and Agathocles towards political power were similar, but Agathocles’ “excessive cruelty and inhumanity and his infinite crimes” (C8, Pg24, Ref 1) made Machiavelli not credit him with having virtù. Not ruling out this judgement of Machiavelli as simply a self-contradiction, there is a more plausible conjecture to explain this. While Borgia kept his people in law and order (despite being almost certainly inspired by a lust for power), Agathocles was just a brutal tyrant whose actions left Syracuse in a worse situation than before; his actions were nothing more than criminal and hence he did not demonstrate virtù.<br /><br />According to Machiavelli, since a prince cannot rely on inheritance, he must acquire. He suggests that this can be done through “one’s own arms” and not by depending on others. Yet surely the prince needs assistance from others (without really depending on them). Now he cannot get help through the gratitude of those whom he benefits, because the beneficiaries already believe or soon convince themselves that they are entitled to their benefits, hence that the prince is obliged to provide those benefits (C7, Pg14, Ref 1). Machiavelli warns that when the prince runs out of such benefits, the beneficiaries would not show any more gratitude to the prince. So he suggests that the practical solution to this problem is to use fear – that the prince can prevent such an attitude among beneficiaries by putting them in fear of his authority. They must at times be unrewarded or punished when they deserve benefits; so that they will be “grateful” to receive them. Such kind of gratitude can be manufactured if a prince mixes some deliberate but unexpected actions of injustice with his justice. This will cause his beneficiaries to not take his benefits for granted and come to his side when he needs their help, not merely when they want to.<br />The justice of the prince is thus more impressive and effective when contrasted with his injustice. The virtù a prince is reputed for, regardless of the actuality of its existence, is the virtù he needs and one that is most useful to him (C18, Ref 1). Virtù, in the actions of a prince, needs vice as a recurring and steady associate for him to sustain his political authority. And in order to keep this possible, virtù must include the occasional practice of vice. This is very well reflected in the fifteenth chapter of ‘The Prince’ where Machiavelli claims to “depart from the orders of others.”<br /><br />Having broadly understood the Machiavellian virtù, the Confucian interpretation of “virtue” (termed ‘Confucian virtue(s)’ from here onwards) can now be explored to realise how contrary these two viewpoints appear to be.<br /><br />What have you learnt from this academic paper? What have you learnt about writing, essay skills, critical thinking and essay techniques? The second part follows in the next post here on English Language Resources Online.<br /><br /><strong>English Language Resources Online</strong><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-3959493414747059166?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-43067025489573470422008-11-03T23:08:00.005+08:002008-11-03T23:26:20.011+08:00<span style="color:#000000;"><strong>English Language Resources Online - series on leadership, power, politics, part 3<br /></strong><br /><span style="color:#000000;">Welcome back to my academic, essay writing, essay skills and </span><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/"><span style="color:#000000;">English Language resources</span></a><span style="color:#000000;"> for intermediate and higher education learners. This is a series of essays, papers, writings and academic thoughts on the questions of leadership, power, politics and above all, virtue and leadership issues. In the last post, this question was answered in the form of Mabel L Q H's essay:<br /></span><br /><strong>Essay Question: "Exploring the difference between political power and political legitimacy, describe three ways in which legitimacy is conferred upon political power and how power itself can be politically legitimating."</strong><br /><br />The conclusion to her essay was:<br /><br />In conclusion, though power and legitimacy are different by definition and action, they can be seen as inseparable entities in politics. Especially in the modern world where people are more educated and are aware of the various types of government rule, it is no longer possible to rule solely by power. Power has to be supported by legitimacy, and legitimacy is a result in the receiving of power. Even so, legitimacy is mostly partial and never complete as it is impossible for any government to be able to obtain full support from all the citizens. Power and legitimacy is present so long as the ruler has the support of most of the citizens.<br /><br /><strong>The references to her essay are:<br /><br /><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">Essay References</a><br /></strong><br /><strong>Coulter, E. M. (1991). <em>Principles of Politics and Government</em>. Dubuque, IA: Wm.C.Brown Publishers.<br /><br />Heywood, A. (Eds.). (2007). <em>Politics</em>. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.<br /><br />Hornsey, M. J., Spears, R., Cremers, I., &amp; Hogg, M. A. (2003). Relations Between High and Low Power Groups: The Importance of Legitimacy. <em>Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin</em>. 29( 2 ), 216 – 227.<br /><br />Ma, L. (2000). A Comparison of the Legitimacy of Power Between Confucianist and Legalist Philosophies. <em>Asian Philosophy</em>. 10(1), 49 – 59.<br /><br />Tajfel, H. (1982). <em>Social identity and intergroup relations</em>. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.<br /><br />Tyler, T. R. (2005). Introduction: Legitimating ideologies. Social <em>Justice Research</em>. 18(3), 211-215.<br /><br />White, L. T. (2005). Legitimacy: Ambiguities of political success or failure in <em>East and Southeast Asia series on contempory China</em>; Volume 1. Singapore, New Jersey: NJ World Scientific Publishing Company. </strong></span><br /><span style="color:#000000;"></span><br /><span style="color:#003300;"><strong>There are several learning points that you can learn from her </strong></span><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/"><span style="color:#003300;"><strong>excellently written essay</strong></span></a><span style="color:#003300;"><strong> and from her essay references here: firstly, you can see what books she has read and what journals she has cited from - they are monographs/ journals/ textbooks. But note that most of them are monographs and there are very few general books that she has worked or cited from. Why is this the case?</strong><br /></span><span style="color:#000000;"></span><br /><span style="color:#000000;"><strong>Why is it better, when writing a good essay, to cite monographs and other specialised forms of writing or specialised essays or specialised journals?<br /></strong></span><span style="color:#000000;"><br /><strong><span style="color:#000066;">What are the problems with citations coming from textbooks? Are they any use and how so? There are many questions that you can ask and thereby learn from.</span><br /></strong><br />Cheers and thanks for reading. Stay tuned for more on this interesting series here on my essays - history essays, literature essays, philosophy essays and English essays in general - and <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English language resources site</a>!<br /><br /><strong>English Language Resources Online!</strong></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-4306702548957347042?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-42979027108101230682008-10-16T19:16:00.005+08:002008-10-16T19:28:54.215+08:00<strong>English Language Resources Online - series on leadership, power, politics, part 2</strong><br /><br />Welcome back to my online resource for English language essays on many topics. There are going to be many essays on the topics of leadership, power, politics and virtue here on this site. This site seeks to improve the standard of intellectual essays and analytical essays, and serves as a place where you can get ideas, English Language essays and resources to improve your essays for Knowledge and Inquiry, GP, English O and A levels, as well as any other major English essay writing module at university or junior college. This first essay in this series will be on :<br /><br /><strong>"Exploring the difference between political power and political legitimacy, describe three ways in which legitimacy is conferred upon political power and how power itself can be politically legitimating."</strong><br /><br />This essay was not written by me, but written by a friend of mine called Mabel L. Q. H. First and foremost, what is the question asking? How can I approach this essay and answer the question? Remember to always ask yourself questions.<br /><br /><strong>Question: "Exploring the difference between political power and political legitimacy, describe three ways in which legitimacy is conferred upon political power and how power itself can be politically legitimating."</strong><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/"><span style="color:#000000;">Essay answer</span></a>:</strong><br /><br />The notion of power and legitimacy has been a popular interest of study amongst scholars of different fields of study in the last few centuries as they try to fathom the way humans act in a group. As stated by Tajfel (1982), “a combination of illegitimacy and instability would become a powerful incitement for attempts to change the status quo” (p. 52). Thus, legitimacy is fundamental in any political leadership. In this essay, I will first explore the difference between political power and political legitimacy, before describing three ways in which legitimacy is conferred upon political power. Lastly, I would argue how power itself can be politically legitimating.<br /><br />Political power and political legitimacy are different in many ways. Political power is seen as being a part of politics, while political legitimacy is a subset of political power. According to Heywood (2007), political power is defined as “the ability to influence the behaviour of others in a manner not of their choosing” (pg 7), while political legitimacy is described as “the rightfulness of a regime or system of rule” (Heywood, 2007, pg 219). In short, political power is the ability of the political leader to command the obedience of the people, whereas political legitimacy is the recognition from the people as having the right to govern. From these definitions, we can also see that political power has more emphasis on the forcing people to conform by means of thought control or coercion, but political legitimacy emphasizes on free will and the willingness of the people to comply with the government because they have given them special authority to govern. From Ma (2000), it is suggested that in a legitimate society, the party who disobeys is rejected socially: he has committed an act judged as bad by the others. This might be due to authority in a political legitimate society being given by the people; hence, people are obligated to obey the authority. On the contrary, the party who disobeys a leader who has political power may be rejected because his power might not be accepted by the general public.<br /><br />‘Legitimate power’, which is also known as ‘authority’, is based on an acknowledged duty to obey rather than on any form of coercion or manipulation (Heywood, 2007, pg 5). The first way in which legitimacy is conferred upon political power is by what Jean-Jacques Rousseau called the ‘social contract’: “a discussion in which all would participate, and arrive to a consensus that would be called the ‘General Will’ ” (Coulter, 1991, pg 32). The people obey a regime because they believe in the wisdom of its leaders or the fairness of its policies, rather than the fear that disobedience would lead to sanctions (White, 2005, pg 3). This type of power arises from the general population, and requires the support of the people as the contract is made with the idea of how the state should be managed, and not with the leader or government itself. Hence, there is the need for a common agreement by the population to confer power to the leader, and in return for power, the population would expect certain benefits from the leader. Secondly, legitimacy can arise from “the charisma of an exceptional being” (Ma, 2000, pg 52). This unique person, such as a religious leader, is ‘chosen by heaven’, and has received power from heaven to lead the people. Nevertheless, the exceptional being still needs to conform to the values and goals of the society, or he or she would risk losing power and support from the people. This can be seen from the Imperial days of ancient China, where the Emperor, who is also known as the ‘son of god’, can also be overthrown if he does not care about the well-being of his people. Lastly, legitimacy can be given by “the authority of the customs” (Ma, 2000, pg 52). This form of legitimacy relies on peoples’ traditional belief that it is morally right to obey the leader, because such values have been instilled in them from a tender age. People who do not conform are viewed as going against the norms of society, and believed to have committed a bad act. As a result, they would be rejected and ostracized by society.<br /><br />From the <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/"><span style="color:#000000;">definition</span></a> of power, we can see that power results in the ability to persuade people, and influence people to grant legitimacy. This also means that the acquisition of more power results in greater legitimacy. In an experiment, participants “acknowledged the power relations to be fairer in the high legitimacy condition than in the low legitimacy condition” (Hornsey et al., 2005, pg 220). From this experiment, we can see that power can result in perception of legitimacy, resulting in power being politically legitimating. This perhaps is due to the belief that greater power is the result of greater legitimacy and acceptance by the general public. This creates a snowball effect - with more power, more people would accept such rule as being fair. Thus legitimacy increases, and the ruler becomes ‘more powerful’. Some may argue that this form of power is not legitimate as it relies on the traditional belief of people to obey the ruler. Nonetheless, the rule of the political power is right, and thus can be considered as legitimate.<br /><br />Power can become legitimating in the case of absolute power. In the situation of absolute power, “the government must thus misinform the people, manipulate them by means of propaganda, and make them believe that the power is very concerned with their situation and hopes” (Ma, 2000, pg 52). In such governance, the people are ‘brainwashed’ by the government to believe that their government is the best and that they care for the people. Opposition parties are eliminated so that the people would not know of negative information in the governance. This is a form of ‘thought control’, and the only political information people receive are sanctioned by the government, and only information that put the government in a positive light are disseminated to the public. Thus, they are no longer able to distinguish right from wrong, good from bad, and blindly trust the government. Though this form of power may seem to be illegitimating, it becomes legitimate as people decide to grant the government the right to rule, whether or not the decision was made in the light of adequate information. Nevertheless, this form of power is less common in today’s society as it is now difficult to restrict information due to the presence of the mass media and internet, where people have fast and easy access to a wide variety of information.<br /><br />Tyler (2005) states that “those who have power can bribe or coerce others and are able to thereby shape their behaviour, giving the powerful the ability to lead groups, organizations, and societies” (pg. 211). Here, we realise that with power, we can attain legitimacy by means of bribery or coercion. The leader would be able to bribe people with authority, such as the police force and/or the influential people of the state to support him or her, to gain power. In other words, legitimacy can be bought with money. With the legitimacy gained after bribery, the leader would then be able to coerce the people in the state to submit to his or her authority. One example can be seen in Malaysia, where Mahathir made use of power police and the courts by jailing his planned successor, Anwar Ibrahim, in 1999 (White, 2005, pg 49-50). Nevertheless, power and legitimacy acquired by means of bribery and coercion may not be permanent. If the leader is unable to manage the country well and to bring peace and prosperity, rebellions may take place. A charismatic leader would usually arise to lead the people into overthrowing the ruler. Such example can be seen in China where Chairman Mao, the charismatic leader, was able to garner the support from peasants to overthrow the leaders of the country. Thus, even if bribery and coercion are used to control the people, the ruler must also ensure that the people are able to meet their basic needs.<br /><br />In <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/"><span style="color:#000000;">c</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">onclusion</span>, though power and legitimacy are different by definition and action, they can be seen as inseparable entities in politics. Especially in the modern world where people are more educated and are aware of the various types of government rule, it is no longer possible to rule solely by power. Power has to be supported by legitimacy, and legitimacy is a result in the receiving of power. Even so, legitimacy is mostly partial and never complete as it is impossible for any government to be able to obtain full support from all the citizens. Power and legitimacy is present so long as the ruler has the support of most of the citizens.<br /><br /><br /><em>A few side points to note apart from the essay and the style of the writing: why copy essay/ writing answers and buy essays from essay mills that are of low standard, or pay a lot of money to cheat and get good answers, when you can develop your own writing skills? Do not do that. This essay can be used as a model to help you improve your writing and then you can develop your skills to write better and on your own. In addition, copying without asking yourself questions and writing without knowing the skills of essay writing will always in the long run damage one's education, so do think about that. Final disclaimer: please do not copy essays - study how to improve your English skills and learn how to write better and better. It is always better for you. More to come here on my <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/"><strong>English Language Resources</strong></a> site!</em><br /><br />(References/ citations will be provided in the next post.)<br /><br /><strong>English Language Resources Online</strong><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-4297902710810123068?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-26357557702505935772008-09-27T18:21:00.001+08:002008-09-27T18:33:32.068+08:00<strong>English Language Resources Online - series on leadership, power, politics</strong><br /><br />There are many essays on various topics here on my site for educational purposes; some are bible essays, some are literature essays, some are history essays, and all of them are essays that provide references and ideas for writing in English. As a <strong>disclaimer</strong> once again, because there have been people who have been telling me:<br /><br /><span style="color:#000066;">This <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English Language Resources site</a> is for educational purposes and for references only - like how to write an essay, how to improve one's English, how to improve on one's writing style and writing method, and also on ideas, concepts, knowledge and much more about Knowledge and Inquiry at A levels, English at O, A and AO levels, as well as any other English essay writing examination or essay writing competitions. The articles here are written by myself or taken from students at university or junior college level who have volunteered their materials, and are not for sale or not for copying. This site is a learning and educational site, and you can get ideas and impressions here, but you should not be copying/ cheating but learning.</span><br /><br /><span style="color:#660000;">Additional disclaimer: if students cheat, teachers can tell using software such as Turnitin and other various methods, including university software or google software to check essays, articles, writing and the like. So do be honest, because I know that some people have copied my essays. While I am very flattered and honoured, copying and cheating are not learning and are not good for your education. In addition, you might be penalised in grades and dishonoured. Learn wisely, adapt methods and strategies and learn from my essays as well as others' essays, and do not merely take my work as your own. My bible essays, literature essays, History essays, intellectual essays, and other various English essays are for your reference and learning and intellectual enjoyment only. Thank you very much for your kind understanding!</span><br /><br />In this series here on my site, I will be offering a variety of essays on leadership, power and politics. I am currently undergoing a university scholarship course doing the topic:<br /><br />Virtue and Leadership<br /><br />and all materials from that course will be posted here on this English Language resources guide. You may take the essays for reference and learning purposes, but remember the disclaimers that I make.<br /><br />Cheers, and thanks for reading and learning with <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English Language Resources Online</a>. I hope you have learnt a lot and improved on your writing, reading and comprehension skills. Thank you very much and do stay here on this site!<br /><br /><strong>English Language Resources Online</strong><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-2635755770250593577?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-20937651573886630992008-07-20T17:34:00.003+08:002008-07-20T17:45:51.176+08:00<strong>How to write analytical essays - News and the Media 4</strong><br /><br />In the previous post, here on <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/"><strong>English Language Resources Online</strong></a>, I showed you my longest and most researched paper that I wrote regarding journalism and political beliefs. As usual, as with most other essays and articles here on my site, you should question and ask yourself some questions about the essay and how you can improve the writing that I have done, as well as what learning points you can take away from the essay.<br /><br />This brings a close to the News and the Media section of <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English Language Resources Online</a>, at least for now. The three essays and writings on News and the Media were:<br /><br /><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-to-write-analytical-essays-news-and.html"><strong>Underlying Metaphorical Support for the PAP in “NKF Saga”</strong></a><strong><br /><br /></strong><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-to-write-analytical-essays-news-and_10.html"><strong>Underlying Political Ideology in K&amp;R’s “What is journalism for?”</strong></a><strong><br /><br /></strong><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-to-write-analytical-essays-news-and_20.html"><strong>Defining Democracy</strong></a><strong><br /></strong><br />These analytical essays can be studied and learnt, especially for General Paper, general knowledge, as well as Knowledge and Inquiry. These were all written for a scholarship programme at the National University of Singapore at university, year one, and can give great insights into writing and thinking critically. Also, it should be noted that term papers, long essays and other academic papers can be written in a similar manner and similar style to the abovementioned three News and the Media articles.<br /><br /><strong>More essays, articles and English resources for literature, history and more to come on English Language Resources Online! Thanks, and cheers.<br /></strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>WORKS CITED</strong> for Defining Democracy<br /><br />Exoo, Calvin. 1994. The Politics of the Mass Media. Minnesota: West Publishing.<br /><br />Herman, Edward and Noam Chomsky. 1988. Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. New York: Pantheon Books.<br /><br />Kovach, Bill and Tom Rosenstiel. 2001. The elements of journalism: What newspeople should know and the public should expect. New York: Crowe Publishers, 15-35.<br /><br />Morrow, John. 1998. A History of Political Thought: A Thematic Introduction. New York: New York University Press, 46-104.<br /><br />Page, Benjamin. 1996. Who Deliberates? : Mass Media in Modern Democracy. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1-16.<br /><br />Rohmann, Chris. 1999. A world of ideas: A dictionary of important theories, concepts, beliefs, and thinkers. New York: Ballantine Books.<br /><br />Starr, Paul. 2004. The Creation of the Media: Political Origins of Modern Communications. New York: Perseus Books Group, 385-402.<br /><br /><br /><strong>English Language Resources Online</strong><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-2093765157388663099?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-73414421185712580242008-07-20T17:28:00.004+08:002008-07-20T17:35:40.469+08:00<strong>Defining Democracy</strong><br /><br />With regard to the US news media, liberal journalists appear to be very similar to anarchist commentators in terms of what they say regarding the role of the news media in democratic societies, that is, to give people information to allow them to make up their own minds, and in doing so achieve a democratic society. On a superficial level it seems that both liberal journalists and anarchists are in favour of democracy. Yet, despite this apparent similarity in wanting democracy, anarchist commentators criticise liberal journalists vehemently. In particular, anarchist commentators such as Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky have argued that the supposedly-liberal US media are deliberately preventing people from making up their own minds by favouring some news over others, and thus blocking true democracy (1988, 1-2). Herman and Chomsky do not think that liberal journalists do what they claim they are doing, given that the declared aim of liberal journalism is “to provide citizens with the information they need to be free and self-governing" (Kovach and Rosenstiel 2000, 17) and, by extension, to promote democracy. Hence, the question is: why is it that anarchist commentators criticise liberal journalists for subverting democracy, when they both appear to be in agreement regarding the role of the news media, namely to achieve democracy? It appears that there is some difference, leading to conflict between the two groups, regarding the definition of democracy, hence their acrimonious exchange over the media. Thus, the related question is: how do anarchist commentators differ from liberal journalists regarding the definition of democracy?<br /><br />This paper will argue that the disagreements between anarchists and liberal journalists stem from a conflict of understanding of the definition of democracy, because the liberal view of democracy has a strong element of government and capitalism whereas the anarchist view has a strong element of freedom and is anti-government and anti-capitalism. I will first present a current working definition of democracy as liberal journalists understand it. I will then articulate a definition of democracy as anarchist commentators probably see it, given that there is no actual fixed definition of democracy for anarchists, and then a comparison and contrast will be made of the two definitions. This comparison and contrast enables us to solve the issue that despite writing in remarkably similar terms and possessing virtually the same idea of the problems facing the media today, anarchist commentators claim that liberal journalists are subverting democracy by not allowing the public to make up their own decisions. Finally, this paper will take Herman and Chomsky’s Propaganda Model (1988) as a specific case study and analyse it in terms of the differences in the definitions of democracy to understand the conflict between liberal journalists and anarchist commentators.<br /><br />First and foremost, it should be noted that democracy can be defined in many ways. It means different things to different groups of people and is notoriously difficult to define specifically. However, to attain a working definition of democracy according to liberals, let us consider the definition given by Chris Rohmann of a “liberal democracy”: a government characterised by “democratic institutions” and “democratic protections” (where democratic “protections” are generally taken to mean institutional safeguards of citizens’ individual rights, for instance, by enshrining those rights in law or the Constitution) typically maintaining “capitalist economies” and stressing “private property rights” (Rohmann 1999, 97). This key statement of the definition of democracy according to liberals strongly supports government in the form of state institutions to provide protection of the property rights of the people, and above all, mentions the important aspect of capitalism. Capitalism is commonly understood as an economic system that promotes private ownership of resources, which are the means of production, and via the production of goods and services resources are transformed into private wealth. Liberal democracy needs government involvement so as to protect the property rights and commercial agreements which are the cornerstones of the capitalist system. Regarding capitalism, Rohmann suggests that liberalism in “its modern incarnation favours state involvement in social welfare and economic policy while upholding personal liberty and opportunity” (1999, 231). More importantly, this means that while the government structures and institutions are there in large part to promote and uphold capitalism, the government also has the responsibility to take care of its citizens and ensure their economic welfare. In a related vein, according to Benjamin Page, the crucial points leading to democracy are “competition and diversity” in “the marketplace of ideas” (1996, 8). This reinforces Rohmann’s ideas that there is a very strong element of capitalism in the liberal conception of democracy, as competition and diversity are essential for capitalism. Thus it can be seen that in the liberal conception of democracy there is a very strong governmental and capitalist element.<br /><br />In anarchist thought, however, there is a different vision of democracy. Strictly speaking, there is no definition of democracy for anarchists per se, in terms of a fixed and positive statement that clearly states their definition of democracy. Hence, I will construct their definition of democracy from the various important strands of anarchist thought relating to politics and democracy, fashioning various key ideas into a working definition.<br /><br />John Morrow claims that the key to anarchist thought is that there is a rejection of the State due to a belief that the State harms human liberty (1998, 94). The main belief of anarchists is in “human liberty”, and this affects the way they view the kind of democracy that they may hope to achieve. To anarchists, it can be said that “liberty” refers to the autonomy and independence of every individual human being (Morrow 1998, 94). Thus, more pertinently, to anarchists “human liberty” above all means freedom from the “repression of the State and legislation” (Bakunin, mentioned in Morrow 1998, 97), and that means in political terms the removal of the State and the State apparatus. Thus, to them, true democracy would rightfully entail the substitution of the State with many “small and intimate communities where individuals would be subjected only to the rational and non-coercive influences of their neighbour’s arguments” (Godwin 1969, cited in Morrow 1998, 95). This clearly shows that the anarchist conceptions of democracy would be vastly different from the liberal conception as their ideas on “small and intimate communities”, suggesting that political life should revolve around small neighbourhoods and local communities, would directly contradict the overarching government institutions that liberals believe in. Furthermore, this point regarding this contradiction is reinforced by the statement that “The authority of the state … is counter-productive; it produces conflicts and injustices that would not exist in a stateless, free environment” (Morrow 1998, 98). Clearly in anarchist thought democracy would not have a State-based overarching control of institutions but would have “small and intimate communities” instead. In addition to rejecting the state, it appears that anarchists also reject capitalism. Morrow states that “large-scale industrial enterprises would be controlled by working men’s associations made up of those involved in them” (1998, 96). This shows that the anarchist idea of rejecting the State as an overarching authority extends to capitalism, where instead of having privately-owned businesses, where ownership is distinct from the day-to-day ground operations of the firms, democracy according to anarchists would have instead enterprises controlled by the workers. This creation of small self-governing working communities is clearly a rejection of capitalism as the liberals understand it. To sum up, a working definition for the anarchist definition of democracy in this paper will thus be: a political system of “small and intimate communities” free from the “repression of the State” and its institutions and free from capitalism, as this definition combines the two elements of the rejection of the State and the similar rejection of capitalism.<br /><br />With the two definitions in mind, let us examine the Propaganda Model put forth by Herman and Chomsky. It is an illuminating case study of why liberal journalists do not see themselves as deliberately misleading the public yet they are strongly criticised as doing just that by Herman and Chomsky. In brief, the main argument that Herman and Chomsky make is that the “democratic postulate is that the media are independent and committed to discovering and reporting the truth” and that this assumption is at odds with the truth that “the powerful are able to fix the premises of discourse” (1988, xi). The Propaganda Model suggested by Herman and Chomsky shows how “the government and dominant private interests … get their messages across to the public”, filtering out the “news fit to print” and marginalising dissent, using five filters, which are the ways in which the rich and the powerful are alleged to be able to carry out the deed: “profit-orientation of the dominant mass-media firms”, “advertising”, “reliance of the media on information provided by government, business, and ‘experts’”, “flak” as a means of media control, and “anticommunism as a national religion and control mechanism” (Herman and Chomsky 1988, 2). While “anticommunism as a national religion and control mechanism” is no longer applicable due to the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, let us consider the other four filters to see how they reflect our working definition of anarchist democracy.<br /><br />It is immediately apparent that the definition of democracy according to anarchists proves to be their main source of contention vis-à-vis liberal journalists. For instance, the first two parts of the Propaganda Model regarding the “dominance of the mass-media firms” and “advertising”, which Herman and Chomsky strongly reject as blocking democracy, are related to the aspect of capitalism in the definition. We can consider these two filters as essentially related to capitalism (or to put it another way, commercialism) and as such consider the two filters as one major argument. According to our working definition of democracy from the viewpoint of anarchists, we can see that anarchists strongly reject capitalism, and yet it is clear that in the modern media today, commercialism and, its corollary, advertising play a big part. As Paul Starr states succinctly, “Our public life is a hybrid of capitalism and democracy, and we are the better off for it, as long as the democratic side keeps the balance” (2004, 402). Hence, in the liberal definition of democracy, there is support for capitalism. As there is support for democracy, it does not appear wrong to liberals at all that there should be a strong capitalist focus for the media. According to Starr, “the power of the media … has its roots not only in legal rights but also in commercial success” (2004, 392) and he goes on to claim that American communications had taken a “private, advertising-supported, and competitively driven broadcasting system” (Starr 2004, 395). These ideas about the US media are strongly reflected in the liberal definition of democracy because they reflect the role that capitalism played in forming the power of the media. While Starr acknowledges that commerce may sometimes distort the media, it creates incentives to engage “new groups in public debate” and historically “advertising revenue also enabled papers to field far more reporters and provide a wider range of news independent of political subsidy” (Starr 2004, 395). Nonetheless the point remains: US liberal representatives of the media define democracy partly in terms of capitalism and are not ashamed that capitalism is part of the media today, compared to anarchists, who reject capitalism resolutely and unequivocally in their definition of democracy.<br /><br />Furthermore, according to Chomsky, the State is an important source of political news and it indirectly controls the media by fixing the premises of discourse. It can fix the premises of discourse precisely because it is a major provider of political news and the media need to rely on the government for their supply of political news. Indeed, government agencies tend to be credible sources for news and in conjunction with private corporations actually do provide news for the media (Herman and Chomsky 1988, 18-22). The point that the media has to rely on the State as a reliable source of news is reinforced by Calvin Exoo’s enumeration of the problems facing a newsman: Filling a “newshole” that can carry enough advertising weight, without much staff and “under a deadline” (Exoo 1994, 102). He argues that such simple limits, corporate cost-cutting and even the limits facing camera crews combine to make the media turn to established sources of news (Exoo 1994, 103). These same restrictions are also stated by Herman and Chomsky (1988, 19). In a nutshell, the point is that due to these limitations on the media, they have to turn to the State as a provider of information out of necessity. The logistical and practical limitations, such as deadlines to meet and commercial limitations of staff and crew, force the media to turn to the State because it provides reliable and steady information to them, and is hence very attractive as a source to news organisations. According to the anarchist definition of democracy, there is a rejection of the State and hence if the State provides information for the media, that is regarded as blocking democracy, as the information may not be reliable and may be used to manipulate the public. However, regarding the influence that the State has over the media, on the contrary, most liberal representatives of the media do not take that to be necessarily a repudiation of democracy, if we apply the definition of democracy where liberals generally accept State involvement and institutions.<br /><br />Further, Herman and Chomsky argue that “negative responses to a media statement or program” (flak) aim to control and subdue the media, as flak is “both uncomfortable and costly to the media” (1988, 26). According to Herman and Chomsky, both politicians and “the corporate community” can produce flak (1988, 27), and it can be argued once again that this stems from the difference in the definition of democracy. Using the definitions as a framework, having the State and “the corporate community” form institutions to research and check on the media would correspond to a liberal’s model of democracy, as a liberal democracy involves both having an overarching State with its institutions and capitalism. However, to take a point further, “the corporate community” can be interpreted as a large group or perhaps even a monolithic, homogeneous group of powerful companies. This is in direct contrast with the anarchist definition of democracy, where politicians and “the corporate community” should not interfere with human liberty and hence the anarchist version of democracy, small communities where “the corporate community” has been replaced with small working communities run by the workers. Hence, it is clear that the differing definitions of democracy lead to a conflict of interpretation.<br /><br />In conclusion, this paper has demonstrated that with an understanding of the two different definitions of democracy, the key issue that both anarchists and liberals want democracy but yet criticise each other acrimoniously can be better understood. Liberal journalists and supporters of the US media have a definition of democracy that supports government, and in particular, supports government in the protection and promotion of capitalism, involving property rights and business agreements. Anarchists, on the other hand, have different ideas on how democracy should operate, and based on extrapolation from their political ideas, I have constructed a working definition of democracy from an anarchist point of view. As anarchists are opposed to governmental control and institutions and are strongly against capitalism, their idea of democracy suggests small and intimate communities of people working together. This definition strongly counteracts the belief in the overarching State and capitalism inherent in the liberal definition of democracy. Hence, it is clear why Herman and Chomsky criticise the media strongly while liberals do not see themselves as deliberately blocking democracy despite acknowledging certain aspects of the Propaganda Model as true. Yet it should be noted that this issue is a very controversial one, and that there has been no final resolution to the debates over the link between democracy and the media today. Perhaps, I would suggest, further analysis and more research should be done with regard to the question of the extent of the media’s role, or even success, in the propagation of democracy itself.<br /><br /><strong>English Language Resources Online</strong><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-7341442118571258024?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-16288522702511767042008-07-10T23:18:00.003+08:002008-07-12T17:34:32.010+08:00<strong>How to write analytical essays - News and the Media 2</strong><br /><br />Here on English Language Resources Online is another analytical essay on News and the Media. In this series, the news and the media are the main focus of the essays, and the essays in particular are analytical essays. There are of course many different types of essays that you can learn from and read here on this site, ranging from history essays to Bible essays, from Literature essays to reviews/ articles and other types of essays.<br /><br />This analytical essay here on this post on English Language Resources uses a method of analysis called the lens technique. The lens technique is to use another article or a methodology to view another article, hence the word lens. Simply put, to write an analytical essay using the lens technique, use another article to inform your understanding of an article that you wish to analyse.<br /><br />Analytical essays are all about analyses of newspapers, articles, and other writings and essays. Do remember to ask yourself pertinent and important questions about the essays and this essay in particular.<br /><br /><strong>Note: unlike other articles and other essays here on English Language Resources</strong> <strong>Online, this analytical essay can only be understood fully or clearly if one knows Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel and Lakoff's model. Nonetheless, you can still proofread, analyse, read, and review this analytical essay for your own edification and educational purposes. If you are able to turn out and write analytical essays like this, this English language resource is more of revision for you rather than learning. If you are an intermediate learner, it is less important to learn and know the content that follows here, as in Lakoff and K&amp;R, than techniques and ideas in writing and how to write good essays. All the best and do enjoy the essay.</strong><br /><br /><strong>Title: Underlying Political Ideology in K&amp;R’s “What is journalism for?”</strong><br /><br /> It is common knowledge that writers have underlying political values and beliefs that affect the way they perceive issues. Some people label these political values and beliefs “ideology”, and few would argue that writing can be completely free from the author’s ideology. Similarly, Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel also have their political ideology embedded inside “What is Journalism For?” where they argue that "the primary purpose of journalism [in democratic communities] is to provide citizens with the information they need to be free and self-governing" (Kovach and Rosenstiel 2000, 17), and expound on the challenges facing journalism in the age of rising technology, globalisation and conglomeration. Finally, they propose a return to the original purpose and mission of journalism (Kovach and Rosenstiel 2000, 31- 33). On the surface the article seems to be simply about that. However, a failure to understand the ideological basis of Kovach and Rosenstiel’s arguments might result in an incomplete understanding or misunderstanding of their arguments. Specifically, it appears that Kovach and Rosenstiel seem to favour a liberal understanding of the functions of journalism, and are primarily against the rise of self-interest in the form of rising commercialism and conglomeration as the key issue they, and thus they stress a return to the fundamental liberal values of journalism as a means of resolving what they see as a challenge to journalism. Why this is the case can be understood more clearly by identifying and analysing their underlying political ideology that is embedded in both the literal foreground meanings and the metaphors in the article.<br /><br />I will attempt to prove that Kovach and Rosenstiel start from a basic traditional liberal viewpoint of the news and move to challenge a rising moderate conservative self-interest in the form of conglomeration, which is the key to a better and nuanced understanding of the article, by looking at the metaphors and using foreground meanings to corroborate my claims. I will be using George Lakoff’s essay “Metaphor, Morality, and Politics: Or, Why Conservatives Have Left Liberals in the Dust” (Lakoff 1999) as a basis to look at the metaphors in the article. Lakoff argues that “we may not always know it, but we think in metaphor” and, based on that premise, puts forth a model that allows one to identify underlying political ideology as reflected by metaphors (1999, 139-140). Lakoff’s model identifies a liberal as someone who gives “nurturance” first priority and a conservative as someone who gives “moral strength” first priority in his ideological view of the world, and suggests that metaphors relating to the “strict father model” reflect conservative ideology (1999, 145), while the “nurturant parent model” reflects liberal ideology (1999, 149). Enlarging the analysis of metaphors from what he terms “Nation-as-family” (1999, 148), I intend to extrapolate and consider various other complexes of metaphors related to the models of the strict father and the nurturant parent that he suggests in order to show that Kovach and Rosenstiel’s liberal understanding leads them to attack rising commercialism and conglomeration, which they see as threats to journalism.<br /><br />There are two major groups of ill noticed but important metaphors in Kovach and Rosenstiel’s article revolving around conversation and service, suggesting that Kovach and Rosenstiel possess a liberal viewpoint and are against a very highly ranked “self-interest” viewpoint, suggesting that conglomerates are probably self-interested conservatives, who value “self-interest” and “moral strength” over “nurturance” (Lakoff 1999, 153).<br /><br />The first group of metaphors revolves around conversation. Conversation is about talking, yet the journalism that Kovach and Rosenstiel consider in the article is primarily about print, writing, and presumably reading. This seemingly minor point is significant because conversation can be taken to be a metaphor of journalism. Looking through the article, the evidence presents itself: “Perhaps in the end journalism simply means carrying on and amplifying the conversation of people themselves” (Kovach and Rosenstiel 2000, 18) suggests that journalism is like continuing a conversation, and making words sound louder and more important. Also, journalism arose “literally out of conversation” and “spirited conversation” (2000, 21). These are metaphors of conversation and debate. This is significant because it appears that the nurturance aspect of the “Nurturant Parent Model” (Lakoff 1999, 149) is being reflected where there is communication in the form of conversation and lively debates within the family, suggesting that Kovach and Rosenstiel have underlying liberal beliefs.<br /><br />The second group of metaphors revolves around service. The journalism that Kovach and Rosenstiel support is print journalism, and the sense of service that they may have is dissemination of information. Dissemination of newsworthy information is a liberal idea because it is related to Lakoff’s metaphor of “nurturance”, as information nurtures people with knowledge and provides them with news “service”, which is connected to core liberal beliefs. Hence, it appears that “service” metaphors augment the view that Kovach and Rosenstiel seem to favour a liberal understanding of the functions of journalism. For instance, the statements “The press was to serve the governed” (Kovach and Rosenstiel 2000, 23) and the meaning of “serving the interests of the widest community possible” (2000, 29) both suggest that the press is like a person who is in the service of the “wider community”, a form of “social nurturance” and “social ties” (Lakoff 1999, 150), a view that confirms a liberal understanding of journalism’s purpose because service is usually about the interests of others and not one’s own, and by serving the “wider community” one builds bonds, and thus nurtures society.<br /><br />Further, service is inextricably linked to community. The statement “The news media help us define our communities, and help us create a common language and common knowledge rooted in reality” (Kovach and Rosenstiel 2000, 17) seems to corroborate the evidence regarding service, where the repetition of the word “help” also suggests service, as if the news media literally were a “servant” or a person helping to define communities and creating language. In a related vein, the word “community” also consistently comes repeatedly, for instance in the revealing statement that “it is impossible to separate news from community, and over time more specifically from democratic community.” Hence, service and help cannot be divorced from the community, because, according to Lakoff, the liberal understanding is about assistance and service to one’s community, and in his words, “deriving meaning from one’s community and from … secure attachments” (Lakoff 1999, 149). Extrapolating from these key ideas, it is clear that liberal journalism derives its purpose by building bonds and a sense of attachment and close relationships with its community. Hence, the evidence seems to reinforce the literal foreground proposition that “The primary purpose of journalism is to provide citizens with the information they need to be free and self-governing” (Kovach and Rosenstiel 2000, 17).<br /><br />As an additional point related to conversation and community, consider “Burgin’s theory of the diverse page” and “The Theory of the Interlocking Public” (Kovach and Rosenstiel 2000, 27), where the word “diverse” suggests a multiplicity of ideas and can be applied to both conversation and community. A conversation that covers many different topics can be considered diverse, and a community can be diverse in the sense of having many different members. Diversity is thus a traditional liberal idea, reinforced by the concept that “out of a diversity of voices the people are more likely to know the truth and thus be able to self-govern” (2000, 23). The word “interlocking” suggests a connection, relationship and enmeshment, and can also be applied to both conversation and community. Conversation creates and connects relationships, and communities are also about interlocking relationships. Diversity and interconnectedness could easily be elements of the “nurturant parent model” in Lakoff’s model, and hence “Burgin’s theory” and “The Theory of the Interlocking Public” both reinforce a traditional liberal view because they focus on diversity and interconnectedness in conversation and community.<br /><br />On the other side of the issue, we can see that Kovach and Rosenstiel view the rise of conglomeration as the main challenge to their liberal views. Consider the evidence given by the example they chose of Rupert Murdoch, who is described as a “media baron” (Kovach and Rosenstiel 2000, 30), where the word “baron” suggests nobility, a metaphor strongly suggestive of monarchical conservatism. Rupert Murdoch argues that “Singapore is not liberal, but it is clean and free of drug addicts. Not so long ago, it was an impoverished, exploited colony with famines, diseases … Now people find themselves in three-room apartments with jobs and clean streets.” (2000, 30) The repetition of the word “clean” suggests that it is a metaphor and not just descriptive of Singapore’s streets. Furthermore, using Lakoff’s model, “clean” suggests moral health and cleanliness, and this would appear to be a conservative viewpoint as conservatives value moral health, wholeness and cleanliness. Furthermore, the antonym “diseases” taken metaphorically indirectly reflects Lakoff’s model where disease can be taken to be a direct challenge against conservatism and its correlated moral health and wholeness. Hence Kovach and Rosenstiel seem to challenge this conservative view, which is contrary to the liberal functions of journalism. In addition, when Rupert Murdoch claims that “Material incentives create business and the free market economy” (2000, 30), the literal statement is highly suggestive of “self-interest”, and Kovach and Rosenstiel’s criticism of “a market-based journalism increasingly divorced from the idea of civic responsibility” (2000, 30) suggests their metaphorical attack on the conservative view of the family, as coming under divorce, or perhaps even a metaphorical separation of self-interest from liberal ideals.<br /><br />Furthermore, more evidence reflects Kovach and Rosenstiel’s criticism of the rise of conglomeration. “Yet there is a growing list now of other examples of ownership subordinating journalism to other commercial interests” (Kovach and Rosenstiel 2000, 30) has a metaphor of subordination, which can be analysed vis-à-vis Lakoff’s model of the strict father (Lakoff 1999, 145), as placing journalism under “commercial interests” suggests that journalism is dominated by the “father” of “self-interest”. Indeed, this metaphor of domination is corroborated where critics of journalism are supposed to have said that “Lippmann’s view dominates too much of how journalists operate today” (Kovach and Rosenstiel 2000, 27). Expanding on Lakoff’s ideas, “domination” is too top-down, and strongly suggestive of the “strict father”, contrary to the nurturing relationship of the “nurturant parent”, thus suggesting a bias towards a liberal ideology and against conservative “self-interest”.<br /><br /> In conclusion, I have shown that Kovach and Rosenstiel’s underlying liberal ideology leads them to privilege their own understanding of the functions of journalism and hence to criticise rising self-interest in the form of conglomeration, which they view as posing the main challenge to their view of the function of journalism. Their criticism of rising conglomeration and commercialism is due to their underlying liberal values and their concomitant opposition to what they view as the rise of conservative self-interest. It is clear that metaphors can reveal insights into the thinking and motivation of writers. Ultimately, there is a need to understand the ideological basis of an author’s arguments to have a complete and nuanced understanding of their arguments and to fully understand why and how they privilege their views over another set of views which they criticise.<br /><br /><strong>WORKS CITED<br /></strong><br /><strong>Kovach, Bill and Tom Rosenstiel. 2001. The elements of journalism: What newspeople should know and the public should expect. New York: Crowe Publishers 15-35.<br /></strong><br /><strong>Lakoff, George. 1999. Metaphor, morality, and politics: Or, why conservatives have left liberals in the dust. In The workings of language: From prescription to perspective, ed. Rebecca S. Wheeler, 139- 155. Westport, CN: Praeger.</strong><br /><br /><em>What have you learnt from this intellectual, analytical essay?</em><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-1628852270251176704?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-87533358365381557682008-07-07T10:06:00.003+08:002008-07-07T10:18:23.261+08:00<strong>How to write analytical essays - News and the Media 1</strong><br /><br />This section will be made up of three intellectual essays on News and the Media, primarily in Singapore but also about all around the world, especially the USA. How does one write a good analytical essay? These here are all good analytical essays for you to review and analyse, so that you can write your own essay properly and in an intellectual fashion.<br /><br />This was my first formal writing course in university as well, and hence it bears a lot of significance for me. My final grade was an A-, but given the fact that this is university level essay writing and that formal essay writing and formal analytical essays of News and the Media is hard, this written work is valuable in terms of learning and essay skills.<br /><br />The essay topic is of significance for most Singaporeans, but can also be of great interest to students from all over the world, because this essay deals with the media being influenced by governments. Read the analytical essay here and do remember to ask yourself questions about the essay, over and over again. More to come on English Language Resources Online. (Note: this essay/ article about to follow is an analytical essay that analyses a particular Singapore newspaper.)<br /><br /><strong>Underlying Metaphorical Support for the PAP in “NKF Saga”</strong><br /><br />Most educated people believe that news analysis should be about a review of issues, explication of various alternative understandings, and a clear line of analysis. It is taken for granted that news analysis should be unbiased and fair. In addition, Kovach and Rosenstiel echo common sentiment when they say that "the primary purpose of journalism [in democratic communities] is to provide citizens with the information they need to be free and self-governing" (Kovach and Rosenstiel 2000, 17), meaning that information and analysis are both presented for people to make their own informed decisions. Yet in the news article “NKF Saga: The SDP Hobby Horse that Failed to Gallop” (Henson 2006), which appears to be just an ordinary news analysis, there is underlying strong metaphorical support of the People’s Action Party (PAP) where it resolved a potential political problem regarding the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) scandal brought up by the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP). In other words, the article is apparently neutral in presenting a line of analysis, but the metaphors are actually in favour of the PAP and condemn the SDP (and by extension the opposition) and hence do not provide completely unfettered information and unbiased analysis.<br /><br />The article explains that the NKF saga did not become an election issue even though the SDP made it a key issue for their election campaign, because the PAP government stepped in quickly to diffuse the potential political crisis, and thus stopped the opposition from using the NKF as a credible political issue. Actions taken by the PAP government included the criminal case against Mr Durai, the civil lawsuit against the old NKF, and the court case pitting the Lee family against Chee Soon Juan and his sister. The article also makes the major point that if the PAP had not resolved the NKF issue quickly and effectively, there would have been negative political repercussions (Henson 2006).<br />Metaphorically, however, the article did more than just simply analyse the issue. The underlying metaphors portrayed the SDP as creating trouble over an issue, and the PAP stepping in to resolve the problem. There are many metaphors inside the article, but I have only focused on a few major groups of metaphors in order to illustrate my argument. In my analysis of the metaphors inside the article, I have divided the metaphors into three main groups: the metaphor of the hobby horse in the title itself, metaphors pertaining to medicine and health, and metaphors related to a fire created by the opposition being put out by the PAP.<br /><br />The title of the article is “NKF Saga: The SDP hobby horse that failed to gallop” (Henson 2006), and it is a metaphor that conjures up an image of Chee Soon Juan rocking back and forth on his hobby horse, using a lot of effort but getting nowhere. Interestingly, the phrase to ‘ride one’s hobby horse’ means to talk frequently and in a boring manner regarding one’s pet idea, with the implication that no one takes the speaker seriously. This metaphor damages the public view of the SDP by portraying them as foolish and unwise, and suggesting that no one takes them seriously.<br /><br />There also appears to be a clear link between the NKF and the metaphors of health and medicine in the article. It is reported that Chee Soon Juan “has given (the issue) a shot” by demanding from the Health Minister an explanation why the NKF had its “tax exempt status restored” “despite signs that all was not well” and that the National Council of Social Service “saw fit” to revoke its tax exempt status earlier (Henson 2006). These metaphors portray the NKF issue as a health problem that the government is expected to deal with. The Health Minister’s answer was that his ministry had “probed the matter” and given the charity the “all-clear” (Henson 2006), suggesting that the government, like a doctor, had examined the health of the NKF and given it a clean bill of health. Later on, the writer states that “With the bases covered, explanations and remedies applied, it appears that the opposition can add precious little to the discussion” (Henson 2006). This statement with its metaphor of the “remedies applied” (Henson 2006) by the government suggests that the opposition is not as effective as the government, and that the government has effectively resolved the problem, metaphorically remedying the health problem posed by the NKF. The writer also further states that “The NKF issue has been effectively neutralized” (Henson 2006), where “neutralized” is a chemical term, playing with the idea that the PAP has effectively counterbalanced the potential repercussions of the NKF issue, as well as the fact that neutralization is the fusion of acid and base forming a neutral salt. The metaphors embedded in the news analysis clearly show that the writer is not just reporting or just giving mere facts, but also introducing pro-PAP ideas while attacking the SDP.<br />In addition, running throughout the news analysis is an extended metaphor of a fire that the PAP has managed to put out. The reporter writes that the NKF “whipped up” some “heat” and that it was the “hottest political potato” just some time back (Henson 2006). The image created is that of a fire, where the NKF could potentially be a serious political problem for the PAP. In addition, the reporter’s analysis also argued that the “opposition would have been able to ride on a hotbed of anger” (Henson 2006), suggesting that the “ground”, meaning the public, would have been very angry with the government because of the NKF issue. However, the “Government moved in real quick to defuse the issue” (Henson 2006) and “even that potential fire was doused” (Henson 2006), conjuring up images that the government managed to put out the fire of the potentially dangerous situation that the opposition could have made use of. The extended metaphor also continues where it says in the article that any unhappiness would be “quenched” (Henson 2006). All this evidence goes to suggest that the opposition would have gleefully made use of the fire to whip up anti-PAP sentiment, but the resourceful PAP managed to “clean up the NKF” and made “sweeping changes” (Henson 2006) that swept the organisation clean and made it ‘healthy’ once again.<br /><br />Furthermore, the reporter has suggested that the SDP might purposely stir up the fire again in future. The foreground meanings merely show Ms Chee stating that “They know that we have something on them. They know we will stand firm, speak up for you, no matter what” (Henson 2006). The background metaphor “reignited” (Henson 2006) suggests that either interest in the matter could resume once again after the election due to the exciting nature of the court case, or it could be that the SDP would once again want to use the NKF as an issue to “reignite” unhappiness and create a fire again with the government or the way it is handling this issue.<br /><br />In summary, the news article has done more than just analyse an issue and just explicate various understandings. It should be unbiased but is not. It has metaphorically supported the PAP’s actions and portrayed the SDP as foolish and trouble-making. Metaphors, often unnoticed, turn out to be vital in a complete and nuanced understanding of news in Singapore. Some people feel that the Singapore press is pro-PAP. Perhaps it might be true, after all, that the Singapore press is the official “mouthpiece of the Government”, metaphorically speaking.<br /><br /><strong>Works cited</strong><br /><br /><strong>Kovach, Bill and Tom Rosenstiel. 2001. The elements of journalism: What newspeople should know and the public should expect. New York: Crowe Publishers 15-35. </strong><br /><br /><strong>Henson, Bertha. 2006. NKF Saga: The SDP Hobby Horse that failed to gallop. Straits Times, May 5, 2006. <http:>http://web.lexis-nexis.com/ (accessed August 22, 2006)</strong><br /><br /><em>Disclaimer: this is just an essay - an analytical essay that is for intellectuals and scholars to mull over. This essay is also for students who are studying News and the Media, as well as GP, KI, general knowledge, English and Literature, and has absolutely nothing to do with politics, meaning: I do not write about politics nor take a political stand here. This is just an educational essay for edification and learning purposes. Thank you for reading and understanding this essay.</em><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-8753335836538155768?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-71584472521291501052008-06-30T17:58:00.003+08:002008-06-30T18:14:50.234+08:00<strong>English Language Resources Online essay questions</strong><br /><br />These are all the titles of essays and essay questions that have been covered in English Language Resources Online so far. In the next series, a Singapore-specific and a media-specfic series of essays and term papers (sociology essays or media essays) will be dealt with. Here, however, I list all the questions that you have seen or can see on this site correct as at June 2008. You should be able to pick any question below and write excellently on any topics.<br /><br />Questions and essay titles that have been dealt with here on this site are:<br /><br /><strong>History essay: the History of Women in Britain, 1750-1950</strong><br /><strong>WHAT PART DID WOMEN PLAY IN BRITISH POLITICAL LIFE BEFORE THEY WERE GRANTED THE VOTE?</strong><br /><br /><strong>History essay (South and Southeast Asian history): "As the various East India companies fell by the wayside, crown or governmental authorities began to exert and cement their influence within their Asian dominions through political, social, economic and cultural means. "Using the example of TWO countries covered in this course, elaborate how this process was carried out and critically analyse the impact of colonial rule on these countries.</strong><br /><br /><strong>History essay (Southeast Asian history): “The forces that contributed to the ending of the colonial empires in Southeast Asia were a boon rather than a bane to the development of a distinct regional identity in its aftermath.” Explain why you agree or disagree with this statement.</strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>Did ASA and Maphilindo Fail for the Same Reasons?</strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>Theories of Decolonization and Indonesian Independence</strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>The Impact of Confucianism in Vietnam</strong><br /><br />The Bible - Bible essays and essays associated with the Bible:<br /><br /><strong>The Bible: Two Accounts of Man’s Origin in Genesis?<br /><br />The Bible: A Literary Analysis of The Parable of the Sower<br /><br />The Bible: What Did Jesus Teach Nicodemus?</strong><br /><br />Literature essays:<br /><br /><strong>Rudyard Kipling’s The White Man’s Burden (1899): Imperialism and its Discontents</strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “How Do I Love Thee”: Just How Does She Love Him?</strong><br /><br /><strong>William Blake’s The Divine Image: Did Man Make God in His Image?</strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>William Blake’s The Tyger: What Was Blake Thinking about God and Creation?</strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>William Blake’s A Cradle Song: Is This Poem Truly a Cradle Song?</strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>William Blake’s The Lamb: Religious References and Imagery</strong><br /><br /><strong>William Blake’s The Human Abstract:Comparison and Contrast: A Critique of “The Divine Image”?</strong><br /><br />John Donne's series of literature essays:<br /><br /><strong>John Donne’s The Flea: The Flea as Metaphor of Virginity’s Unimportance<br /></strong><br /><strong>John Donne: Holy Sonnet XIV “Batter my heart” – Violence and Sex in a Holy Sonnet?<br /><br />John Donne: The Anniversary – Passionate Love as Royalty<br /><br />John Donne’s Song “Go and catch a falling star” – Misogyny in Donne’s Poetry<br /></strong><br /><strong>John Donne: Death Can Die<br /><br />John Donne: A Valediction Forbidding Mourning – Argument and Conceit<br /><br />John Donne’s Wilt Thou Forgive That Sin: Donne’s Personal Guilt?<br /><br />John Donne’s “As Due by Many Titles I Resign”: Religious Paradoxes</strong><br /><br />Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel’s “The Manifesto of the Communist Party”:<br /><br /><strong>How do Marx and Engels differentiate their Communist Party from other socialist parties in Europe?</strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>Is the Communist Manifesto merely an exhortation to the wretched, poor, labouring classes?</strong><br /><br />Intellectual History - Rousseau:<br /><br /><strong>Write a gobbet on Rousseau. <br />Every law the people has not ratified in person is null and void - is, in fact, not a law. The people of England regards itself as free; but it is grossly mistaken; it is free only during the election of members of parliament. As soon as they are elected, slavery overtakes it, and it is nothing. The use it makes of the short moments of liberty it enjoys shows indeed that it deserves to lose them. (ROUSSEAU)</strong><br /><br />Economic History essay:<br /><br /><strong>How far did the post-war settlement of 1919 contribute to European economic instability during the 1920s?</strong><br /><br />Other writings and other essays and written articles:<br /><br /><strong>How to write a basic review: A Boy Meets Bossanova</strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>“Their lonely betters” by W.H. Auden - a literature review</strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>Arthur Clarke and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space OdysseyHAL: The perils of technology, and technological malfunctioning</strong><br /><br />Perhaps you should or could try one or two example essays - read the sample essays then try writing your own excellent essay; or do your own essay and then compare yours with mine.<br /><br />Practice makes perfect and permanent - practise some of these essays, and try out a range of answers for the various essays. You might find that literature, history, general knowledge, the Bible and intellectual thought have many elements in common, when it comes to writing essays in the English Language. More essays, term papers, literature reviews and articles to come here on English Language Resources Online!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-7158447252129150105?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-32548748666019788552008-06-25T23:26:00.002+08:002008-06-25T23:34:14.252+08:00<strong>History essay: the History of Women in Britain, 1750-1950 part 3</strong><br /><br />Here on <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English Language Resources Online</a>, you can see how the introduction of the essay and the body of the essay were constructed:<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/06/history-essay-history-of-women-in.html">History essay: the History of Women in Britain, 1750-1950 (the essay introduction)</a></strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/06/history-essay-history-of-women-in_23.html">History essay: the History of Women in Britain, 1750-1950 part 2 (the essay body)</a></strong><br /><br />Here is the conclusion to the history essay about the history of women in Britain from 1750-1950. Remember to ask yourself questions about the history essay presented here, as well as compare and contrast the various writing styles and writing approaches given in this website. Not all the essays are written in the same way and in the same writing style. What is different and what is unique about the essay conclusion shown and presented here in this history essay?<br /><br /><strong>Conclusion to the history essay:</strong><br /><br />Women had been political actors long before achieving their vote. Their political involvement was strictly related to their social class and became more transversal with the suffrage campaign at the end of the nineteenth century. In England, ‘elite women played a greater part in the political life of the nation than anywhere else in Europe’[1] and their qualities in canvassing, campaigning and managing the political dynamics were widely appreciated by their candidates. Middle class and working class women were often politicized through their roles as mother and wife, as we have seen, for example, in the Anti-Corn Campaign and in the Chartism Movement because the division between public and private was highly demarcated, above all in the nineteenth century. This did not mean that women’s political roles were ‘indirect, unaccountable and unquantifiable’.[2] Sometimes the division between female and male spheres was hard to identify. Often, in fact, the ways of campaigning and fundraising, although public activities, were completely feminine modes like the bazaar in the Anti-Corn-Law Campaign C129.[3] Women became aware of the potential power they could have as the female group responsible of the domestic sphere, both as moral judges of the public events that could threaten households’ stability, and as consumers through the boycott of specific products. The suffrage movement conclusively demanded a different women’s role in the society adopting, in the early twentieth century, new forms of social struggle clearly in contrast with normal accepted female behaviour. Generally, women’s political involvement, through the centuries, demonstrated how different female roles in society could be, compared to their earlier traditional roles.[4]<br /><br /><em>And, as a side note to the history essay, also note: the bibliography style here seems to be rather different from other bibliographies in other history essays, other term papers, other literary or literature essays here on this site. Why and how are these different? Check it all up if you have the time and inclination.</em><br /><br /><strong>BIBLIOGRAPHY<br /><br />- Hall, Catherine. White, Male and Middle Class: Explorations in Feminism and History (Cambridge, 1992).<br /><br />- Wahrman, Dror. ‘“Middle Class” Domesticity Goes Public: Gender, Class, and Politics from Queen Caroline to Queen Victoria’, Journal of British Studies 32 (1993), pp.396-432.<br /><br />- Clark, Anna. The Struggle for the Breeches: Gender and the Making of the British Working Class (London, 1995).<br /><br />- Mayhall, Laura Nym. ‘Creating the “Suffragette Spirit”: British feminism and the historical imagination’, Women’s History Review 4 (1995), pp. 319-344.<br /><br />- Caine, Barbara. English Feminism (Oxford, 1997).<br /><br />- Foreman, Amanda. ‘A Politician’s Politician: Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire and the Whig Party’, in Hannah Barker and Elaine Chalus (eds), Gender in Eighteenth-Century England: Roles, Representation and Responsibilities (Harlow, 1997), pp.179-204.<br /><br />- Chalus, Elaine. ‘“That epidemical Madness”: Women and Electoral Politics in the Late Eighteenth Century’, in Hannah Barker and Elaine Chalus (eds), Gender in Eighteenth-Century England: Roles, Representation and Responsibilities (Harlow, 1997), pp. 151-178.<br /><br />- Chalus, Elaine. ‘Elite Women, Social Politics, and the Political World of late Eighteenth-Century England’, The Historical Journal 43:3 (2000), pp. 669-697.<br /><br />- Morgan, Simon. ‘Domestic Economy and Political Agitation: Women and the Anti-Corn Law League, 1839-46’, in Kathryn Gleadle and Sarah Richardson (eds), Women in British Politics, 1760-1860: the Power of the Petticoat (Basingstoke, 2000), pp. 115-133.<br /><br />- Chalus, Elaine and Montgomery, Fiona. ‘Women and Politics’, in Hannah Barker and Elaine Chalus (eds), Women’s History: Britain, 1700-1850. An introduction (London, 2005), pp. 217-259.<br /></strong><br />[1] Foreman, ‘A Politician’s Politician’, p. 179.<br />[2] Chalus, ‘“That epidemical Madness”’, p. 152.<br />[3] Morgan, ‘Domestic Economy and Political Agitation’, pp.129.<br />[4] Chalus and Montgomery, ‘Women and Politics’, p. 249.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-3254874866601978855?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-60878591304995911222008-06-23T11:29:00.003+08:002008-06-23T11:41:47.130+08:00<strong>History essay: the History of Women in Britain, 1750-1950 part 2</strong><br /><br />In <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English Language Resources Online</a>, there are many history, English Literature, English General Paper, general knowledge and Knowledge and Inquiry materials. This series is about the History of Women in Britain, and in particular, features and focuses on a history essay written by a friend of mine from Italy. Her native language is not English, and yet she can write an excellent history essay/ history term paper for her University of Manchester history coursework.<br /><br /><strong>The essay title once again: WHAT PART DID WOMEN PLAY IN BRITISH POLITICAL LIFE BEFORE THEY WERE GRANTED THE VOTE?</strong><br /><br /><strong><em>Here is the essay body to the history essay in question:</em></strong><br /><br />A more inclusive understanding of the eighteenth century politics started when historians began to give attention to the study of political culture discovering the social dimension of politics.[1] The involvement of women in eighteenth century politics was familial, factional and occasionally personal[2] and concerned women of the social elite. Despite the fact that women were not officially allowed in high politics, they played a fundamental role in the politicians’ electoral campaigns. During the social politics events as canvassing and campaigning, women sought votes among the freeholders persuading them with their personal charm and speech abilities. This was ‘an accepted and expected part of the electoral responsibilities of women whose families were involved in elections’[3]. Sometimes women were also the organisers and managers of the campaigns and they held a position of authority over men.[4] An important role of women was also to gather and send electoral information to their husbands or candidates[5] and often they missed meals and stayed up all the night to follow political developments.[6] Another way to support the candidates was to ornament the ‘dresses and themselves with ribbons, bandeaux, and other political symbols’[7], for example, Georgiana wore the Prince of Wales’ features in her hair.[8] She was a remarkable example of women’s political participation being one of the leaders of the Whig party and she was considered responsible for Fox’s victory in 1784 because of her indisputable talent in canvassing.[9] From 1801 to 1806 she was a fundamental figure in the ‘rebirth of the Whig party’[10], contributing in the alliance between Charles Fox, Lord Grenville and the Prince of Wales. In this phase of political-negotiation, she worked discretely to avoid the criticism of the ‘public eye’ that judged her previous political activity as inadequate for the contemporary ‘double standard’ model.[11]<br /><br />Women were active at the political level also in the period between elections. Successful political women and politician’s wives were expected to support their families’ political interests or their party organizing and participating in social events such as assemblies, balls, breakfast, dinners and race meets.[12] Two examples were Lady Rockingham and the duchess of Devonshire, Georgiana, who turned their houses in political headquarters and used dinners as a means to gain their guests’ loyalty.[13] Therefore, society was the ‘extra-parliamentary stage upon which both small and large political dramas could be enacted’,[14] and the home, the women’s sphere, was one of the main venues where it happened. Sometimes women were preferred as actors of political manoeuvres because their eventual failure could pass unnoticed.[15]<br /><br />Middle class women’s participation in political life can be shown through the examination of their involvement in the Queen Caroline affair, in the Anti-Slavery Campaign and in the anti-Corn-Law Campaign. The Queen Caroline affair, in 1820, demonstrated the force of the public opinion which was mainly attributed to the middle class. Middle-class women played a part in this ‘public affair’ because, as Tomas Laquer wrote, it ‘became a woman’s cause’ in which ‘women acted as defenders of familial values and communal morality’[16]. Through the press many woman addressed the Queen directly expressing their support and contributing to create the public opinion which determined the outcome of the royal affair. Women entered the political arena also through philanthropic work. In the anti-slavery campaign, in fact, it was hard to distinguish between the philanthropic and political involvement of women. Women formed female anti-slavery societies which appealed to women ‘as wives and mothers’ and valorised female skills in their activities. For example, the Birmingham Female Society for the Relief of British Negro Slaves established in 1828 initially produced ‘workbags, albums and portfolios’ and used the gains to support dropped slaves.[17] Later the Birmingham Society undertook a boycott campaign asking women, sometimes house to house, to not buy slave-produced items. They said: ‘Is it for Christian females to be bribed by the greater cheapness of this, or the other articles of daily consumption, to lend themselves to the support of a flagrant system of blood-guiltiness and oppression, which cries to heaven for vengeance?’[18] This kind of public activities gave to women, as managers of the household, a strong political power. From 1839 women were also involved in the Anti-Corn Law campaign and they contributed to the establishment of the Anti-Corn Law League as a national movement. The modes of women’s involvement were various and they differed during the development of the campaign. Women participated in political lectures and meetings, they organised themselves in local committees, they supported tea parties, and they sent petitions to the Queen and gathered signatures for them.[19] The apex of women’s involvement was reached when bazaars were held in Manchester, in 1842, and at Covent Garden, in 1845, to raise money for the campaign.[20] Women from all over the country participated directly in the different phases of the organization and the carrying out of the bazaars, creating a nationwide political organization.<br /><br />The first women’s movement emerged in Britain in the 1850s and 1860s. It was a middle-class movement which worked to reform the laws which deprived married women of any property, to expand the women’s employment chances, to make secondary and higher education accessible to women and, later, to obtain suffrage.[21] They sought to gain parliamentary and popular support for their aims, holding meetings, circulating petitions, participating in drawing-room gatherings, addressing small conference and speaking at larger public meetings.[22] The Langham Place Circle, the National association for the promotion of Social science and the establishment of women’s periodicals were fundamental steps to achieve a public-political profile for the movement. In 1969, the movement campaigned to repeal the Contagious Disease Acts, producing propaganda, directing political intervention in by-elections and organising large-scale demonstrations;[23] the act was repealed in 1886. Women campaigned also for women’s higher education with two different main aims: ‘Butler’s group’ fought to achieve a special education for women while ‘Daves’ group’ required the same education of men and both lines fought the tradition acceptance of sexual intellectual difference.[24]<br /><br />Working-class women participated actively in the Chartism Movement which considered citizenship as a ‘universal political right of every human being’[25] and fought to end the universal male suffrage. The strength of the movement was the mass mobilisation of the working class and for this reason the Movement appealed to women also because the government could not imprison hundreds of women.[26] They contributed to both the militant as well as the moderate tactics of the Movement: they purchased weapons for their husbands and brothers, they took part in the demonstrations, they gathered signatures on petitions, they struck, they boycotted the shopkeepers who did not support the Movement, they wrote essays for the cause and they held public speeches.[27] Women created more than a hundred and seventy female Chartist associations between England and Scotland[28] and a few of them demanded the vote for women as natural rights. However, the prevalent Chartist women’s aim was related to the ‘domestic sphere’ as the female Chartists of Manchester demonstrated with these words: ‘we have a right to struggle to gain for ourselves, our husbands, brothers and children, suitable houses, proper clothing and good food’.[29] Clark has defined this approach as a ‘militant domesticity’,[30] a way of public-political participation that left the public sphere in the hands of the man, avoiding, in part, a moral conviction from the middle-class.<br /><br />The suffrage campaign started in 1860s with the establishment of committees in the main cities of the country.[31] Lydia Becker was the moderate figure who connected the different local strategy in a national movement.[32] In the late 1860s and early 1870s, Mid-Victorian feminists conducted the suffrage campaign in a way that showed their acceptance of Victorian codes. Men in the parliament, for example Jacob Bright and John Stuart Mill, were expected to play a fundamental role in the struggle for women’s emancipation.[33] Women did not guess the enfranchisement for all the women but, as Fawcett argued, ‘the enfranchisement of single women and widows would lead to the gradual removal of laws oppressive to women, and would ensure to women fair play in future legislation’.[34] In the early twentieth century, there was a radical change in the forms of struggles adopted by the movement. The campaign for the vote between 1906 and 1914 was, in fact, characterized by different forms of militancy. The demonstrations of radical militancy were often associated with the Women’s Social and Political Union, leaded by Emmeline Pankhurst, and encompassed ‘property damage, including arson, window-smashing, and painting-slashing; the suffragette hunger strike; and the forcible feeding of hunger-striking prisoners’[35]. A larger number of women pursued more moderate forms of protest such as passive resistance and tax resistance[36] but, as Mayhall stresses, there was no clear division between militant and constitutional organisations also because many women were members of different organizations.[37]<br /><br /><br />[1] Chalus, ‘Elite Women, Social Politics, and the Political World of late Eighteenth-Century England’, p.672.<br />[2] Chalus, ‘Elite Women, Social Politics, and the Political World of late Eighteenth-Century England’, p.675.<br />[3] Chalus, ‘“That epidemical Madness”’, p. 173.<br />[4] Chalus, ‘“That epidemical Madness”’, p. 155.<br />[5] Chalus, ‘Elite Women, Social Politics, and the Political World of late Eighteenth-Century England’, p.678.<br />[6] Chalus, ‘Elite Women, Social Politics, and the Political World of late Eighteenth-Century England’, p.676.<br />[7] Chalus, ‘Elite Women, Social Politics, and the Political World of late Eighteenth-Century England’, p.694.<br />[8] Foreman, ‘A Politician’s Politician’, p. 183.<br />[9] Foreman, ‘A Politician’s Politician’, p. 184.<br />[10] Foreman, ‘A Politician’s Politician’, p. 189.<br />[11] Foreman, ‘A Politician’s Politician’, p. 185.<br />[12] Chalus, ‘“That epidemical Madness”’, p. 156.<br />[13] Chalus, ‘Elite Women, Social Politics, and the Political World of late Eighteenth-Century England’, p.688.<br />[14] Chalus, ‘Elite Women, Social Politics, and the Political World of late Eighteenth-Century England’, p.673.<br />[15] Chalus, ‘Elite Women, Social Politics, and the Political World of late Eighteenth-Century England’, p.682.<br />[16] Wahrman, ‘“Middle Class” Domesticy Goes Public’, p.408.<br />[17] Hall, White, Male and Middle Class, p. 165.<br />[18] Hall, White, Male and Middle Class, p. 165.<br />[19] Morgan, ‘Domestic Economy and Political Agitation’, pp.116-117.<br />[20] Morgan, ‘Domestic Economy and Political Agitation’, pp.117.<br />[21] Caine, English Feminism, p. 88.<br />[22] Caine, English Feminism, p. 90.<br />[23] Caine, English Feminism, pp. 108-109,122.<br />[24] Caine, English Feminism, pp. 116-117.<br />[25] Clark, The Struggle for the Breeches, p.220.<br />[26] Clark, The Struggle for the Breeches, p.227.<br />[27] Clark, The Struggle for the Breeches, p.228-230.<br />[28] Clark, The Struggle for the Breeches, p.228.<br />[29] Clark, The Struggle for the Breeches, p.229.<br />[30] Clark, The Struggle for the Breeches, p.229.<br />[31] Caine, English Feminism, p. 117.<br />[32] Caine, English Feminism, p. 118.<br />[33] Caine, English Feminism, pp. 106-107.<br />[34] Caine, English Feminism, p. 121.<br />[35] Mayhall, ‘Creating the “Suffragette Spirit”’, p.322.<br />[36] Mayhall, ‘Creating the “Suffragette Spirit”’, p.322.<br />[37] Mayhall, ‘Creating the “Suffragette Spirit”’, p.322.<br /><br /><strong><em>Note that for this history essay, the citation of the history paper is somewhat different from the citation methods and citation styles of other history essays and history term papers here in <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English Language Resources Online</a>. There are many ways and many methods to cite resources and sources in history essays, and Laura, my Italian friend, has done one of the other differing and different essay citation methods.</em></strong><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-6087859130499591122?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-58167536956731644912008-06-21T23:58:00.005+08:002008-06-22T00:16:34.938+08:00<strong>History essay: the History of Women in Britain, 1750-1950</strong><br /><br />This is a history essay that I edited for my Italin friend, Laura. In <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English Language Resources Online</a>, there are many history resources, history essays, and history term papers spanning these various topics:<br /><br /><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/search/label/Communist%20Manifesto"><strong>the Communist Manifesto</strong></a><strong>,<br /></strong><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/search/label/Southeast%20Asia"><strong>Southeast Asian history</strong></a><strong>,<br /></strong><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/search/label/South%20Asia"><strong>South Asian history</strong></a><strong> (India under the British, in particular),<br />and </strong><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/search/label/history"><strong>history essays and history term papers</strong></a><strong> in general.</strong><br /><br />This history essay on women in Britain, here on my site, is by my friend Laura, whose native language is not English. The essay has been edited by me, and you can see where the differences of expression are, and where the similarities of expression are. One thing to take away from this essay series on the History of Women in Britain is that: if Laura from Italy can write well, and if she can write a history of women essay properly with some English editing from a friend and do well for it and get graded excellently, you can do it too.<br /><br />That is: self confidence and self belief are important in writing a good history essay.<br /><br />If my Italian friend can write a good history essay, so can you - even if English is not your first language. If it is your Third or Fourth language, bear in mind that that is the same case for Laura my friend too.<br /><br />In addition, if English is your first language, and you are seeking to improve your general knowledge, Knowledge and Inquiry, history and other important writing skills and information, this essay written by a foreigner to English will be very illuminative of writing practices and skills. Do remember to ask questions! Here is the essay question and here is the essay introduction.<br /><br /><strong>The history essay question: </strong><br /><strong>WHAT PART DID WOMEN PLAY IN BRITISH POLITICAL LIFE BEFORE THEY WERE GRANTED THE VOTE?</strong><br /><br />From the eighteenth century there was a continuous development in women’s political involvement that brought women the right to vote at the end of the First World War in 1918. This political participation concerned, in different ways, women of all social classes. Political historians have considered the political history before the suffrage movement as male history because women were not actors of high politics, they were not allowed to sit in parliament, and they could not vote to be represented. Women’s political participation was normally considered by historians as ‘indirect, unaccountable and unquantifiable’[1] and the ‘separate sphere’ model made easier the identification of the politics sphere as exclusively male. But, in reality, politics during the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twenty centuries was the result of the convergence between high politics and social-politics which considers all the different social class as political actors because they played a fundamental role in the political scene also without being empowered. Women were involved in different ways in the political life of Britain. In this essay, I will analyse some crucial moments of political history when women were protagonists of political events, demonstrating in this way women’s fundamental involvement in the ‘public sphere’ along the centuries. I will examine how women of the social elite participated in the political life of the country through their family’s interests and network of political-friendships; how working-class women took part actively in the politic scene participating, for example, in the Chartist Movement; and how middle class women were involved in the anti-slavery campaign and in the Anti-Corn Law League. Finally I will examine the struggle for women’s suffrage from the 1860s.<br /><br />[1] Chalus, ‘“That epidemical Madness”’, p. 152.<br /><br /><em><strong>If you note any mistakes, bear in mind that Laura is not a native speaker of English.</strong></em><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-5816753695673164491?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-91518093314616133422008-06-20T00:05:00.002+08:002008-06-20T00:11:48.121+08:00<strong>Southeast Asian and South Asian history resources - how to write a history essay 3</strong><br /><br />Here on <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English Language Resources Online</a> is the conclusion of an essay written by me about Southeast Asian and South Asian history for my Asian history course. In the following two posts I had already covered both the introduction to the essay and the body of the essay.<br /><br /><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/06/southeast-asian-and-south-asian-history_17.html">Southeast Asian and South Asian history resources - how to write a history essay</a><br /><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/06/southeast-asian-and-south-asian-history.html">Southeast Asian and South Asian history resources - how to write a history essay 2</a><br /><br /><strong>Conclusion of the essay/ term paper:</strong><br /><strong></strong><br />In conclusion, this paper has shown how the colonial powers dominated using political, economic and socio-cultural means, and analysed the consequences. In India, the overall impact was rather positive in political, socio-cultural terms, but negative in economic terms. In Indonesia, the Dutch imposed deleterious policies and largely impacted Indonesia negatively. In both cases, nationalism was the long-term result. This paper argues that British and Dutch policies had different, varied impacts on India and Indonesia. In the final analysis, effects on colonies varied widely, and there can be neither easy generalisations nor common consensus as to whether the impact of European rule was ultimately negative or positive.<br /><br /><strong>WORKS CITED/ SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY:<br /><br />Christie, Clive J (2001). Ideology and Revolution in Southeast Asia 1900-1980. Richmond: Curzon Press.<br /><br />Lewis, Martin Deming (1962). The British in India – Imperialism or Trusteeship? Boston, USA: DC Heath and Company.<br /><br />Marriott, John A R (1932). The English in India – A Problem of Politics. Great Britain: Oxford.<br /><br />Tarling, Nicholas (2001). Southeast Asia: A Modern History. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.<br /><br />Van Niel, Robert (1992). Java Under the Cultivation System. Leiden: KITLV Press.<br /></strong><br />Remember, the key here is to summarise and then conclude your term paper or your essay. You can review and check up other articles and other term papers here on my website to learn and refresh your memory and skills for exams and for term papers and written essays. How do you write a good essay, and in particular a good conclusion? Read more in the various articles here and all the best!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-9151809331461613342?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-91412513097157900382008-06-17T13:02:00.006+08:002008-06-17T13:11:28.374+08:00<strong>Southeast Asian and South Asian history resources - how to write a history essay 2</strong><br /><br />Here, to recap, is the esssay title and essay question. This is currently a South Asia and Southeast Asian history resource and essay, for <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English Language Resources Online</a>.<br /><br /><strong>Term Paper/ Essay Question: As the various East India companies fell by the wayside, crown or governmental authorities began to exert and cement their influence within their Asian dominions through political, social, economic and cultural means. Using the example of TWO countries covered in this course, elaborate how this process was carried out and critically analyse the impact of colonial rule on these countries.</strong><br /><br />For South Asian and Southeast Asian history resources, here is the body of the essay. By now, we have covered how to write a response paper, a short essay, a biblical essay (bible essay), a term paper, a literature paper, a history paper and much more. Do remember to ask yourself questions about the essay, apart from how do I answer this history question and how do I write this essay. Ask deeper, probing questions.<br /><br /><strong>Body of the term paper/ body of the history essay</strong><br /><br />The British exerted political control on India through collaboration and the imposition of bureaucracy. After the Mutiny of 1857, the East India Company was abolished and its political power given to the Crown (Marriott 1932:216-217). Main political control was through the creation of classes allied to the British, the Indian Civil Service (ICS) and the military. The ICS was “indianised” so that Indian bureaucrats were loyal to the British and executed their orders; the landlord system, to collect taxes and impose control over villages, created “new classes and vested interests who were tied up with [British] rule and whose privileges depended on its continuance”; Princes of India, the Police and Indians in the Indian Army were coopted into the British system (Nehru, quoted in Lewis 1962:18-19).<br /><br />British political control had short-term and long-term effects. One important consequence was “the integration of vast territories” into one unified India, “both by the machinery of government which [British administration] created and by the forces of resistance to which it gave rise” (Panikkar, quoted in Lewis 1962:109). Thus, the unification of a divided India provided the basis for nationalism. Also, short-term resentment developed into nationalism. “As late as 1913 over 80% of the highest … posts in the Civil Service as a whole were still in British hands” (Coupland, quoted in Lewis 1962:29). The British held controlling posts in the Army, Police and Government; hence there was resentment against the foreign monopoly of top positions, and anti-colonial nationalism was the long-term result. However, the British introduced constitutional reforms in 1909, 1919 and 1935 that increased “Indian participation in legislative and executive authority”, to counter “the rising tide of Indian nationalism” (Lewis 1962:xiii). This shows that the British did not disregard Indian nationalism, but tried to control it. Lastly, British rule brought about a “Pax Britannica” of relative stability and peace (Marriott 1932:225).<br /><br />The British also exerted economic controls in the macro-economy and export-economy. According to Romesh Dutt, the primary economic motivations of the British was the exploitation of India for raw materials, the provision of markets for British goods, and the suppression of a potential economic rival (quoted in Lewis 1962:2-3). The British thus imposed tariffs on Indian goods and simultaneously flooded India with British goods, especially textiles – clearly economic domination.<br /><br />The impact was disastrous, creating poverty, famines and ruralisation. According to Jawaharlal Nehru “those parts of India which have been longest under British rule are the poorest today” (quoted in Lewis 1962:15). Nehru argued that the real cause of poverty in India was that the British stopped Indian manufactures from being exported and only allowed the export of raw materials, and did not “apply the new (industrial) techniques to India”, thus causing massive unemployment for the artisan and textiles-producing classes. These classes then put pressure on the countryside when they turned to agriculture and caused “ruralisation” with a “crisis in agriculture” (quoted in Lewis 1962:16-17). In summary, the British imposed economic control over India’s export economy, only allowing her to export raw materials and agricultural products, and the impact was, in the short-term, famine and unemployment, and in the long-term, poverty.<br /><br />However, the British did introduce “a better system of communications”, steamship services, railways, telegraphs and “cheap and uniform postal service” (Coupland, quoted in Lewis 1962:31). Yet, the fact remains that Britain developed India’s agriculture without any concomitant industrial improvement (1962:32-33), and one cannot avoid the conclusion that the economic effects of Britain’s policies damaged India, with the exception of communications and transportation.<br /><br />The British imposed socio-cultural influence via education and law. The education system was for training administrators and clerks rather than educating and enlightening them. Yet the impact was more than just the short-term provision of ICS members; English became a lingua franca, and Indian nationalism had its roots in education via the common language of nationalists, political philosophies, and Western ideas (Marriott 1932:224). In law, the Sadr Adalat (local court) was abolished, and the Indian High Courts Act (1861) established a judiciary under the Crown (Marriott 1932:219). This new system kept law and order. On the one hand, Thomas Macaulay established equality before the law, and revolutionised the inconsistent old Hindu system (Panikkar, quoted in Lewis 1962:107-108). On the other hand, while the British insistence on using Hindu case precedents gave consistency and certainty, it was inflexible and ancient Hindu law was perpetuated without improvement (Nehru, quoted in Lewis 1962:24). Overall, British education and law were beneficial.<br /><br />We now examine the Dutch East Indies. Politically, like the British in India, the Dutch ruled mainly using collaboration and indirect rule (rule by utilisation of indigenous collaborators), with some direct rule (Dutch political control). The Dutch, with limited resources from a small country, could not dominate the entire archipelago without local collaboration (Tarling 2001:53). Yet, “actual occupation … [was] necessary to ensure that other powers respected a colonial possession”; the Dutch called their system “protection”, establishing ‘protection’ over ‘client states’ (2001:54-55).<br /><br />Certainly the collaborators benefited, even though they lost their independence in all but name and their “position had deteriorated” (Tarling 2001:52). The common people did not benefit, because the Dutch became overlords and exacted economic demands. More importantly: Indonesia was unified because the Dutch combined separate areas, creating a “new political entity” (2001:55). In the short-term this created a centralised, unified colony under the Dutch and in the long-term created conditions for eventual Indonesian independence, because there was a state for nationalists to focus on (2001:55).<br /><br />The Dutch imposed economic controls, a major example being the Cultivation System in Java. The process and impact of economic controls by the Dutch monopoly, contract labour, and other policies have been debated, but due to limitations only the Cultivation System will be examined. It was introduced in 1830 with “the primary goal of stimulating the production and export of agricultural commodities saleable on the world markets”, for instance, sugar, coffee and indigo (Van Niel 1992:208-209). The Dutch imposed the Culture System to profit from East Indies crop exports.<br /><br />It is commonly argued that the Cultivation System was disastrous. Firstly, the system was disastrous in terms of human costs. The immediate impact was “a tax in labour”, as the peasantry worked harder than ever before, with “maladministration” and deaths (Van Niel 1992:214). Secondly, the economic system benefited indigenous elites and the Dutch, but not other Javanese. These elite “came to be closely linked through family ties in the capital and political needs for this agricultural expansion” (1992:209). They became rich together at the majority’s expense. The corollary was elite politico-economic ascendancy. The Dutch needed them to maintain the system through socio-cultural control. There was a “close alliance among government contractors, private planters, import-export houses, and government civil servants”, a “special privilege” for the elite group (1992:210). Perhaps, the only possible positive effect was the opening up of the East Indies for entry into the global marketplace.<br /><br />The Dutch also imposed socio-cultural control by depending on “prestige”. They depended upon the collaboration of prestigious elites in Indonesian society to control labour, and controlled the elite using the “prestige” of the white man (Christie 2001:15). Furthermore, the Ethical Policy gave “access to Western education and expertise to the children of [the] hereditary indigenous elite” (2001:13). The colonial government wanted to enhance the status of collaborators in Javanese society, but despite thinking that education “would bind the elite to the colonial project without disturbing the existing structure of native society”, this inadvertently led to the rise of Indonesian nationalism (Kartini, quoted in Christie 2001:13-16). Education ‘bred’ nascent nationalism. It can thus be argued that “anti-colonialism” stemmed from the socio-cultural system of “prestige” (Christie 2001:2).<br /><br /><strong>Remember to ask yourself critical thinking questions about this essay body, and more than just "how", but why and what as well. Learn from this essay both the </strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>style/ manner of writing </strong><br /><strong>and </strong><br /><strong>history/ resource content.</strong><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-9141251309715790038?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-10047881614186718312008-06-16T23:41:00.005+08:002008-06-16T23:48:36.924+08:00<strong>Southeast Asian and South Asian history resources - how to write a History Essay</strong><br /><br /><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English Language Resources Online</a> offers resources for literature, history, philosophy, intellectual history, general knowledge, and much more, for English language exams, General Paper in English, Knowledge and Inquiry for Singapore examinations in English, History, Literature and other writing courses and writing essay modules. Do browse around and use my resources for your own personal education and edification. English Language resources are all here for your own personal development in both <strong>content</strong> and writing <strong>style and skill.</strong><br /><br />Here is another sample introduction for a history essay, this time on South Asian history (related to Southeast Asian history as well). Read the essay introduction for yourself and ask yourself questions about the essay. More to come in the next few posts on the essay body, and of course, the essay conclusions. Note that this history essay, although it seems long, is actually very tightly written and is very analytical, though short and succinct in several key areas.<br /><br /><strong>Q1. As the various East India companies fell by the wayside, crown or governmental authorities began to exert and cement their influence within their Asian dominions through political, social, economic and cultural means. Using the example of TWO countries covered in this course, elaborate how this process was carried out and critically analyse the impact of colonial rule on these countries.<br /></strong><br /><em>(always read and analyse the essay question - and this essay question was taken from an NUS examination and term paper question; for educational purposes only)</em><br /><br />The New Imperialism can be taken, for the purposes of this essay, to refer to the European domination of Asian countries via political, economic and socio-cultural means from the 19th century onwards. During the period of the New Imperialism, crown and governmental authorities began to take greater interest in how colonies were run instead of depending on governance by East India Companies. This paper deals with how the Europeans imposed colonial rule on their Asian colonies during the New Imperialism and the impact of colonial rule. The two countries under scrutiny are British India from 1857 to 1947 and the Dutch East Indies from the 1800s to 1945. I will examine how the Europeans imposed political, economic and socio-cultural control on their colonies and evaluate the subsequent impact.<br /><br /><strong>Remember to ask yourself questions about the essay!</strong><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-1004788161418671831?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-12364396516759669742008-06-14T10:56:00.003+08:002008-06-14T11:06:32.464+08:00<strong>Southeast Asian History resources - how to write a term essay/ term paper 3</strong><br /><br />This is the conclusion of the Southeast Asian history term paper/ term essay with the title/ question:<br /><br /><strong>“The forces that contributed to the ending of the colonial empires in Southeast Asia were a boon rather than a bane to the development of a distinct regional identity in its aftermath.” Explain why you agree or disagree with this statement.</strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>(Dr Ernest Chew, USP professor, NUS)</strong><br /><br />Remember, this English Language Resources Online blog is meant to improve General Paper writing, Knowledge and Inquiry writing, English Literature writing skills, history, philosophy and Intellectual History writing skills, and other elements of general knowledge and intermediate or higher level English skills. Therefore, do not just read the essay ending, and do not take the essay conclusion for granted or at face value.<br /><br />Ask yourself questions about the term paper conclusion given below: does the term paper conclusion follow from the premises and from the introduction? How can I write this term paper better, overall? How can I address this question such that I can do better for this term paper? Are there any other methods of concluding a term paper? I hope you learn a lot from both the content of the essay as well as the structure and system of writing.<br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>Conclusion:</strong><br /><br />In conclusion, to a large extent, I disagree with the statement; I suggest that the forces that ended the colonial empires were largely a bane rather than a boon to the development of a distinct regional identity initially. This was because of the subsequent creation of individual, nationalistic nation-states with their own national interests, which had to simultaneously deal with their internal problems and grapple with the formation of their own national identities; and the Cold War division of Southeast Asia into two “blocs”, communists on one hand, and anti-communists on the other, with the communist threat of insurgency within individual countries. I suggest that these factors hindered the development of a regional identity because they did not allow common perceptions of a Southeast Asian socio-political “imagined community”. Yet, I concede that nationalism was not anathema to regional identity, and the Cold War led to some measure of regional identity in the long-term, instrumental for ASEAN’s formation. It is also important to note that this topic is complex and that generalization runs the risk of over-simplifying matters. In addition, I have looked at the development of regional identity in the context of only two forces of decolonization. I further concede that no consensus has been derived yet regarding regional identity and that this contestable issue will be hard to resolve. However, all considered, I disagree with the statement.<br /><br /><br />(Always remember to write down your works cited and bibliography, etc etc, at the end of a major term paper or at the end of a major essay. How to write a term paper? You need an introduction, body, conclusion and a works cited section. Do not forget!)<br /><br /><strong>Works Cited/ Bibliography </strong><br /><br /><strong>Acharya, Amitav. (2000). The Quest for Identity: International Relations of Southeast Asia. Singapore: Oxford University Press.<br /><br />Anderson, Benedict. (1991). Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. UK: Verso.<br /><br />Christie, Clive J. (2001). Ideology and Revolution in Southeast Asia 1900-1980. Richmond: Curzon Press, 2001.<br /><br />Darwin, John. (1991). The End of the British Empire: The Historical Debate. Oxford: Blackwell.<br /><br />Osborne, Milton. (2000). Southeast Asia: An Introductory History. 8th edn. Australia, NSW: Allen &amp; Unwin.<br /><br />Ricklefs, M. C. (2001). A History of Modern Indonesia Since C1300. 3rd edn. Hampshire: Palgrave.<br /><br />Severino Jr, Rodolfo C. (2002). ASEAN Today and Tomorrow. Jakarta: ASEAN Secretariat.<br /><br />Tarling, Nicholas. (1998). Nations and States in Southeast Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. </strong><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-1236439651675966974?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-15101375262397411762008-06-13T12:50:00.002+08:002008-06-13T12:55:51.801+08:00<strong>Southeast Asian History resources - how to write a term essay/ term paper 2</strong><br /><br />This is the body of the term paper, dealing with the essay topic on Southeast Asian regionalism and history here in <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English Language Resources Online</a>. Questions to ask yourself about this essay are: what is the style of the term paper like? What is the content of the term paper like? Can I write this paper better? Are there any elements that need refining or better expression for this term paper? Read and study the term paper essay body about Southeast Asia's distinct regional identity and more...<br /><br /><br />It appears that events within the colonies leading to decolonization negatively impacted the future development of regional identity, because the rise of indigenous nationalism and the concomitant rise of anti-colonialism led to the creation of different independent nation-states that pursued national self-interests and thought in terms of a “national” rather than a “regional” identity. It should be stressed that is possible for a country to have both national and regional identities, but it seems that the rise of indigenous nationalism was initially a “bane” for the formation of regional identity. Amitav Acharya argued that “initially, nationalism undermined the prospects for regionalism”, for instance, Sukarno’s Indonesia, whose “belligerent nationalism threatened his Southeast Asian neighbours and left little scope for … regionalism to flourish” (2000:164). Furthermore, Southeast Asia was nicknamed “the Balkans of Asia”, with “petty nationalisms and jealousies, complete with border disputes and rivalries” (Albert Ravenholt, quoted in Acharya 2000:78). This reinforces the idea that state nationalism was initially a hindrance to the formation of regional identity, as Sukarno’s Konfrontasi (Confrontation) during the 1960s was directed against the formation of Malaysia (2000:82). This nationalistic belligerence can be taken to be ill-boding for the initial formation of regional identity.<br /><br />Taken superficially, however, one might think that there was only one type of nationalism in the creation of Indonesia. Actually, there were many competing nationalisms, and different forces in the Indonesian “Revolution”, for instance, the rebellion against the Republican forces and the attempt to form the “Darul Islam” (Islamic state) and the communists who took over the Madiun area (Ricklefs 2001:279-281). These complicate the issue. In any case, nationalism was a major force leading to violence and confusion that forced the Dutch to leave Indonesia, but it was also ultimately that same “nationalism” that later hindered the formation of regional identity, because the Republican nationalism engendered thought in terms of Indonesian national interests while competing “nationalisms” created unrest within the country. State nationalism had difficulties maintaining national unity and identity where competing nationalisms caused internal strife. Milton Osborne argued that there was the problem of arriving at an agreed form of government as various groups and minorities had different priorities (2000:185). That which he termed “regional” problems (2000:185) can be named, in this paper, as “localized” problems due to minorities within Southeast Asian nations. According to Osborne, there were factional problems in Indonesia (2000:159). The communists and extremist Islamic sects caused problems during the Revolution that led to “developments in Indonesian politics… that were linked to issues that have continued to preoccupy Indonesian politicians until the present day” (2000:159). I would thus suggest that this internal strife and factional politics hindered the formation of regional identity because the Indonesian government had to settle these internal problems and because the “competing nationalisms” imagined their own version of the state, thus hindering an imagination of the region.<br /><br />The rise of nationalism was generally accompanied by anti-colonialism. In Indonesia, this could further illuminate why regional identity was hindered. According to Cliff Christie, the main focus for the Indonesian nationalist movement was “unity” (2001:51) Christie argued that Sukarno had to “base Indonesian nationalism on an anti-colonial perspective”, and since Sukarno felt that the reason for the Dutch continued presence in the Dutch East Indies before the Japanese came was due to a lack of unity among Indonesians, he had to remedy this by stressing “unity” (2001:51-54). Theoretically, ideologically speaking, to Sukarno, “the obvious response to imperialism’s ‘divide and rule’ tactic was to insist on national unity above all things”, and hence a mass mobilization of the population (Paget, quoted in Christie 2001:54). Thus the formation of a national identity predicated initially on anti-colonialism in the face of challenges was to be an important part of Sukarno’s Indonesia, whereas regional identity was unimportant. Simply, anti-colonialism was the main focus for nationalism while regionalism had no role.<br /><br />On the other hand, Amitav Acharya noted that nationalism that resulted in decolonization did not always nor entirely prohibit the formation of regional identity. This means that it was possible, in the long-run, to form a sort of regional identity despite fervent nationalism. It occurred later, when Southeast Asia was well into the Vietnam War, and in the middle of the Cold War, that “Southeast Asian regionalism came into its own” (Acharya 2000:165). According to Acharya, “moderate nationalism” resulted in a regionalist framework that could promote regional identity, and certain leaders “recognized a sufficient congruence between the nationalist and regionalist project” (2000:165). While this serves as a counterweight to the argument that nationalism hindered the formation of regional identity, this alliance between nationalism and regional identity occurred later and in conjunction with the Cold War, a major force in international politics at that time. This confluence of nationalist self-interests and the Cold War situation had a complicated, complex impact on regional identity. Let us deal now with how the Cold War led to decolonization in the case of Indonesia, and then how this affected the formation of regional identity.<br /><br />The “international theory” postulates that it was changes in the international situation that led to decolonization. It seems that the international situation impacted the formation of a regional identity, due to the Cold War, and specifically, the Vietnam War in the aftermath of French decolonization. The arrival of the Cold War in Asia, on the one hand, led to decolonization in the case of Indonesia, and on the other hand led to a prolonged war in Vietnam before true independence was achieved under communist auspices (Osborne 2000:167). It must be noted that the “international theory” is more complex than just that and this paper focuses on the Cold War in Southeast Asia’s context. In the international situation after WWII there was no place for colonialism as the USA and the USSR wanted to replace imperialism with “their own varieties of influence” (Darwin 1991:6). Simply put, under the international situation after 1945, decolonization speeded up because the world had changed. It can thus be justified that under the “international theory”, the Cold War was the international situation.<br /><br />The international situation played a large role in the independence of Indonesia. “In the context of the CCP’s approaching triumph, as well as their growing perception of a world-wide threat from Communism”, the USA supported Indonesian independence (Tarling 1998:100). It was the threat of communism reaching Asia and the concomitant threat of communism spreading globally that led to the USA supporting Indonesian independence. According to Nicholas Tarling, it was by a “mixture of struggle and diplomacy – and of some luck” that the Indonesians had won “endorsement” from a superpower and secured their independence (1998:100). This is better understood when we consider the American commitment to the independence of nation-states, and its support for non-communist regimes, in its efforts to contain communism. This view is corroborated by Ricklefs, who argued that Indonesian Republicans, by defeating the communist rebels, “turned vague American sympathy based on anti-colonial sentiments into diplomatic support based on global strategy” (Ricklefs 2001:282). Ricklefs also pointed out that American strategic thinking was dominated by the idea of conflict between the American-led “free world” and the Soviet-led communist bloc – a useful definition of the Cold War – and hence it was important to support Indonesian independence, since Indonesia was anti-communist (2001:282-283). This resulted in pressure from the UN and USA on Holland (2001:283). This impacted regional identity later because Southeast Asia became divided into two ‘blocs’, one anti-communist and the other communist. Acharya suggested that the Cold War “polarized” Southeast Asia (2000:78). Indonesia was anti-communist, but other former colonies like Vietnam were communist; hence I suggest that this “polarization” into two ideologically-opposed areas indeed hindered the formation of regional identity.<br /><br />The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was formed much later in 1967 (Severino 2002:13). Dewi Fortuna Anwar argued that “the establishment of ASEAN in fact divided Southeast Asia into two distinct, but not necessarily, antagonistic subregions” (Anwar 2001:26). It seems fair to say that this division of Southeast Asia into two “subregions” appears to have been a setback for regional identity. Furthermore, while ASEAN aimed for an inclusive Southeast Asia encompassing all Southeast Asian nation-states, “for twenty five years its raison-d’etre was to some extent defined by the existence of the other Southeast Asia” (2001:28). I would refine her words by suggesting that it was not the establishment of ASEAN that divided Southeast Asia; rather, it was a reflection that the region was not one unified, uniform whole. Nonetheless, her ideas are important. The “other Southeast Asia” ostensibly refers to Indochina (and Burma); the key idea is that any regional identity has to decide what is “in” and what is “out” of the imagination. Clearly, communists were not part of ASEAN’s “imagined community”, whereas anti-communists were; Indonesia, for instance.<br /><br />However, it can be counter-argued that the Cold War actually led to a distinct Southeast Asian identity, however limited. The founding ASEAN states cooperated, “with peace and economic, social and cultural development” the primary goals (Severino 2002:13). That was a form of regional identity because it had a common “imagined community”. The “Treaty of Amity and Cooperation” was signed in 1976, a decade after ASEAN’s formation (2002:17). Clearly, that was the start of a “distinct regional identity”, because the Treaty became the basis for ASEAN membership (2002:17), and also because ASEAN entered the common imagination of Southeast Asian states, although communist Indochina only bought into this imagination later. Indeed, one of the long-term outcomes of the Cold War was to make ASEAN, as a regional organization, part of the Southeast Asian common imagination. Rodolfo Severino, a former Filipino ASEAN Secretary-General, proudly declared:<br /><br />“A fragmented Southeast Asia does no good … for the prosperity of the world. A united, cohesive and strong ASEAN is a potent force for regional peace and security and for the economic vitality of Asia Pacific and the world.”<br />(Severino 2002:22)<br /><br />One could thus possibly argue that the Cold War led, in the long term, to regional identity.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-1510137526239741176?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-75016522277736011272008-06-12T17:46:00.004+08:002008-06-12T17:58:41.605+08:00<strong>Southeast Asian History resources - how to write a term essay/ term paper 1</strong><br /><br />In the previous posts on Southeast Asian History here on <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English Language Resources Online</a>, I dealt with some Vietnam history, some Indonesian decolonisation history and also with ASEAN, ASA and Maphilindo. These resources on Southeast Asian History should help you if you are doing General Paper, Knowledge and Inquiry, Southeast Asian History for A or O levels and for general knowledge of Southeast Asia.<br /><br />A term essay or a term paper is a longer essay that can be 3000, 4000 words or more and spans many pages. A term essay/ term paper is usually researched and cited, and covers many aspects of a topic and is formally and structurally crafted. A history term paper looks like the term paper given in these posts:<br /><br /><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-to-write-term-paper-for-history.html">How to write a term paper for History part 1</a><br /><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-to-write-term-paper-for-history_12.html">How to write a term paper for History part 2</a><br /><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-to-write-term-paper-for-history_7348.html">How to write a term paper for History part 3</a><br /><br />For Southeast Asian history, here is the sample term paper question for analysis today.<br /><br /><strong>“The forces that contributed to the ending of the colonial empires in Southeast Asia were a boon rather than a bane to the development of a distinct regional identity in its aftermath.” Explain why you agree or disagree with this statement.</strong><br />(Dr Ernest Chew, USP professor, NUS)<br /><br />Here is the introduction for the term paper to deal with this question. As a term paper is long, the introduction may be long and powerful too, dealing with many key elements. This answer that I am about to provide was "A" grade. Here is how to write a term paper introduction for Southeast Asian history.<br /><br /><strong>“The forces that contributed to the ending of the colonial empires in Southeast Asia were a boon rather than a bane to the development of a distinct regional identity in its aftermath.” Explain why you agree or disagree with this statement.</strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>(Dr Ernest Chew, USP professor, NUS)</strong><br /><br />There are three main theories of decolonization that can be used to explain the ending of colonial empires in Southeast Asia, the “metropolitan theory”, “international theory”, and “indigenous/peripheral theory” (Darwin 1991:5-7). The metropolitan theory argues that changes within the home power resulted in the end of colonial empires; the international theory postulates that changes in the international situation, especially the rise of a bipolar world and the advent of the Cold War, resulted in decolonization; the indigenous theory argues that it was events within the colonies themselves that led to decolonization (1991:5-7). These decolonizing forces impacted the development of a “distinct regional identity”. Yet before dealing with the central question of whether those forces were more a “boon” or a “bane”, there is a need to deal with some key terms.<br /><br />What is a “distinct regional identity”? The word “distinct” suggests that the area in particular is different from other parts of the world and is unique. According to Amitav Acharya, there are many distinctive characteristics of Southeast Asia that separate it from the rest of the world, and one such possible distinction is its diversity (2000:4). Hence it is clear what the word “distinct” means, as Southeast Asia has some qualities that other parts of the world do not. The second word “regional” apparently refers to Southeast Asia, yet it should be noted that “region” is a very complex and “contested” concept (2000:4). In short, the region of Southeast Asia has been the subject of debate, but that should not detain us here. The word “identity”, to me, refers to “self-conception” or “personal meaning”, but here the word means more. A working definition of “distinct regional identity” could be Acharya’s suggestion of a Southeast Asian conception of an “imagined community” (Benedict Anderson, quoted in Acharya 2000:9). There are many possible meanings and interpretations of regional identity, but this definition has been chosen because Anderson’s ideas of the nation as an “imagined political community” that is “inherently limited and sovereign” can be extended to Southeast Asian regional identity (Anderson 1991:6; Acharya 2000:9-11). Extrapolating from Anderson’s ideas, where a “community” means an imagined “deep, horizontal comradeship” (1991:7), a regional identity consists of these two elements, where “deep” suggests familiarity of the Southeast Asian imagination within a country, and “horizontal” means that, laterally, other Southeast Asian nations also have this same “comradeship”. Simply, the definition of “distinct regional identity” is a unique Southeast Asian imagined political community, common among the different countries that make up Southeast Asia today. With this definition, the paper becomes tractable and we can deal with the forces of decolonization and their impact on the development of this identity.<br /><br />The statement states that “the forces that contributed to the ending of the colonial empires in Southeast Asia were a boon rather than a bane to the development of a distinct regional identity”. This means that factors leading to decolonization were positive, rather than negative, for the development of regional identity. This paper intends to analyze if the forces for decolonization were positive or negative for the formation of a distinct Southeast Asian regional identity. Firstly, I will analyze the impact of the ‘indigenous factor’ and evaluate if it was a boon or bane for regional identity. Secondly, I will then analyze the impact of the ‘international factor’ in terms of Cold War politics, evaluating it similarly. The focus of this paper will hence be on nationalism and the impact of the Cold War. The metropolitan theory will not be considered due to limitations and the essay’s focus, which considers if indigenous nationalism and the Cold War assisted or hindered the development of regional identity. I will also be mainly using Indonesia for illustration.<br /><br /><br /><em>The body of the term paper is to come in the next post here on </em><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/"><em>English Language Resources Online</em></a><em>.</em><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-7501652227773601127?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-82402136187483445162008-06-10T18:10:00.002+08:002008-06-10T18:18:05.404+08:00<strong>Southeast Asian History resources - how to write a short essay 3</strong><br /><br />These are the other two essays (short essays/ response papers) on this <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English Language Resources Online</a> blog about Southeast Asian history and culture:<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/06/southeast-asian-history-resources-how.html">Southeast Asian History resources - how to write a short essay 1</a></strong><br /><strong><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/06/southeast-asian-history-resources-how_09.html">Southeast Asian History resources - how to write a short essay 2</a></strong><br /><br />The first mini essay is about Vietnam and its relationship with China and confucianism in particular. The second essay is about decolonisation in general and Indonesia in particular.<br /><br />This third essay is about an esoteric and very interesting subject to ASEAN academics about ASA and Maphilindo. If you live in Asia or in particular SE Asia, this might be of use and interest to you, to know that regionalisation has been an topic of vast interest in Southeast Asia. Remember to ask yourself questions about the short essay as well as about the content. Cheers!<br /><br /><strong>Did ASA and Maphilindo Fail for the Same Reasons?</strong><br /><br />The Association of South-East Asia (ASA) was an “experiment in regional cooperation established on 31 July 1961 in Bangkok” by the governments of Malaya, the Philippines and Thailand (Leifer 2001:59). Maphilindo (coined in 1963), an acronym of Malaya, the Philippines and Indonesia, was a “plan for a confederation of nations of Malay origin predicated implicitly on a common anti-Chinese sentiment” (2001:179). ASA and Maphilindo were early attempts at Southeast Asian regional cooperation after decolonization, but were based on different aims. ASA wanted to offer “an alternative approach to security”, and was predicated on the idea that “economic progress provided the foundation for political stability and the best guarantee for political independence” (2001:59). Maphilindo, by contrast, was based on race and was an attempt to reconcile the Philippines and Indonesia with Malaya, especially since Malaysia was about to be formed then (2001:179). The question is: why did ASA and Maphilindo fail? The specific question that this paper will be addressing is: did ASA and Maphilindo fail due to the same reasons? I will explore why they failed, and if the two different attempts floundered due to the same reasons.<br /><br />According to Amitav Acharya, the ASA was doomed due to Indonesia’s opposition to both the organization and the formation of Malaysia, and the Philippines opposition to Sabah joining the Malaysian Federation (2000:81). Sukarno did not like the idea that both ASA and Malaysia were “pro-Western”, “Western-inspired” and anti-communist (2000:81). Hence, it seems that the impending formation of Malaysia was a key issue for the failure of ASA. Sukarno did not support the ASA, of which Malaya was a founding member; the Philippines’ claim to Sabah was also a major stumbling block to her acceptance of ASA. In the case of Maphilindo, similarly, the impending formation of Malaysia was also a major crisis for both Indonesia and the Philippines. Sukarno, Macapagal and Tunku Abdul Rahman tried to settle the Malaysian issue amicably, but when Malaysia was formed on 16th September 1963, Maphilindo died (Acharya 2000:82). Hence, one could say that the formation of Malaysia was one of the triggers for failure.<br /><br />On another level, it can be argued that Indonesia’s cooperation was vital to the successes of any regional groupings. Firstly, it can be seen by the fact that Indonesia is a huge country in Southeast Asia. Furthermore, it can also be seen by the fact that Maphilindo was created, in a way, to invite Indonesia into a regional grouping. The Macapagal Plan aimed at restoring and strengthening “the historic unity and common heritage among the Malay peoples, and draw them to closer political, economic and cultural relations” (Macapagal, quoted in Acharya 2000:82). The same plan also aimed at bringing Indonesia into the “greater Malayan family” (2000:82). Hence, it can be argued that Indonesia was regarded as crucial for any regional cooperation, and as Sukarno did not support the ASA, and did not see through Maphilindo through the failure to compromise on the Malaysia issue, failure was the result.<br /><br />It can be further argued that differing national interests also contributed to the failure of ASA and Maphilindo. In the case of ASA, Malaya wanted it to succeed “to advance its nationalist agenda” because it was “a means of securing legitimacy for the Malaysian nation” (Acharya 2000:80). Yet it is clear that this national interest of Malaya was strongly opposed by the Philippines, which was a member of ASA, and Indonesia, which was not. In the case of Maphilindo, the Philippines wanted to settle the Sabah dispute with Malaya (2000:82). This aim was consistent with Malaya’s endorsement of Maphilindo “in an attempt to encourage Indonesia and the Philippines to accept Malaysia” (Leifer 2001:179). Yet the failure to solve the issue led to the withering away of Maphilindo as a workable concept. Thus differing national interests hindered early regional cooperation.<br /><br />Finally, to answer the broad question, why did ASA and Maphilindo fail? The impending formation of Malaysia was anathema to Indonesia and the Philippines; Indonesia’s support for ASA or Maphilindo was needed but lacking; various national interests conflicted, and the concatenation of these led to the failure of the two early attempts at regional organization. To answer the specific question, did they fail for the same reasons? My answer is: largely, yes.<br /><br /><strong>Works Cited</strong><br /><br /><strong>Acharya, Amitav (2000). The Quest for Identity: International Relations of Southeast Asia. Singapore: Oxford University Press.<br /></strong><br /><strong>Leifer, Michael (2001). Dictionary of the Modern Politics of Southeast Asia. 3rd edn. London: Routledge, 2001.</strong><br /><br />Did you learn a lot from this short essay? Many people do.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-8240213618748344516?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-79123947148014161382008-06-09T17:03:00.002+08:002008-06-09T17:12:55.270+08:00<strong>Southeast Asian History resources - how to write a short essay 2</strong><br /><br />Here is another short essay on my website, <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English Language Resources Online</a>, about Southeast Asian history. In particular, this short historical essay refers to theories of decolonisation and independence, focusing in particular on Indonesia. Hence, you can see clearly the construction and focus of the essay. How is it structured, and what is the manner of the writing? You can see both theory and practical, empirical, real life evidence. There are many essay techniques that can be gleaned from this essay, as well as a lot of knowledge about decolonisation and Indonesia.<br /><br />This <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English Language Resource</a> specially focusing on Southeast Asia does not in any way remove the need for your own individual and extra research, and also does not remove the need for you to conduct your own research into other areas. One key idea to learn and bring away with you in your mind is to always read widely. Reading widely and reading varied sources and articles will always help you. If you are doing General Paper, English, the SAT, Knowledge and Inquiry and other English and general knowledge related subjects, this will be useful to you.<br /><br />Read more, and do read about Indonesian independence here:<br /><br /><strong>Theories of Decolonization and Indonesian Independence</strong><br /><br />After the Second World War, Southeast Asian colonies gained independence, in a process known as decolonization. There are three main theories of decolonization: the “metropolitan theory”, the “international theory”, and the “indigenous/peripheral theory” (Darwin 1991: 5-7). Simply put, the metropolitan theory maintains that the factors leading to decolonization stemmed from the mother-country (the colonial power) itself; the international theory suggests that decolonization resulted from changes in international politics or the international situation, and the indigenous/peripheral theory argues that decolonization was due to the efforts and nationalism of the locals (1991: 5-7). Quite clearly decolonization in any particular Southeast Asian country can be explained by one of the theories, or a combination or concatenation of factors. This paper attempts to answer the question: which of the three theories best explains Indonesian independence, 1945 – 1949?<br /><br />Firstly, the metropolitan theory appears weak in the case of the former Dutch East Indies. Did the Dutch leave of their own accord? They did not. The Dutch did not want to give Indonesia independence. This can be seen by the “Netherlands Commonwealth or imperial federation” that the Dutch were willing to offer the Indonesians, given their declaration of independence (Stockwell 1992: 355). Arguably the Dutch were perhaps willing to give the Indonesians ‘self-government’ in that the country would be under the indirect control of the Netherlands but under Indonesian control for day-to-day affairs, but this would not be real decolonization, but rather a form of imperialism and indirect control with Indonesian collaboration.<br /><br />Secondly, the international theory can be applied to Indonesia. Did international politics force the Dutch to leave? To a certain extent, yes. According to Stockwell, the rise of America as a superpower committed to “the containment of communism” led to the situation that the non-communist Republic of Indonesia gained independence despite the strong military presence of the Dutch, while the weaker French position in Indochina did not lead to complete Vietnamese independence, as the Americans put pressure on the Dutch (1992: 364-365). This shows that decolonization was accelerated in Indonesia by the international situation, but it does not explain why Indonesia became independent. Moreover, the Dutch were able to “withstand international opprobrium” before 1948 (Stockwell 1992: 359), suggesting that they wanted their colony so much that initially they ignored international opinion. Hence, the international theory does explain US support for independence for a non-communist Indonesia but it does not have the greatest impact on Indonesian independence.<br /><br />The indigenous/peripheral theory appears to hold the greatest weight when applied to Indonesia. Did the Dutch leave because of the efforts of the nationalists? That appears to be the case. There were many nationalists and anti-Dutch groups, for instance Sukarno, Sjharir and Hatta, and even the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), with appeals to “populist, socialist and Islamic strands of Java-centred Indonesian nationalism” (Stockwell 1992: 357). These nationalist groups, though divided, fought ferociously for independence even though the Dutch still controlled large parts of islands away from Java and offered them a partnership via a “Commonwealth” (1992: 356). Given that there was strong opposition by Sukarno and other nationalists against the Dutch; given that there had been consistent resistance against the Dutch; given that during the Japanese Occupation, the Dutch were not in control of the East Indies; given that Islam was a strong force in Indonesia and that the Dutch were after all, an alien government with an alien religion, and given that the Indonesians themselves declared independence (merdeka) immediately after WWII in August 1945 (1992: 331-360), one could convincingly argue that the indigenous theory is the best explanation for decolonization in Indonesia.<br /><br />In conclusion, while all three theories can possibly explain rapid decolonization in Indonesia, to a large extent the indigenous theory best explains Indonesian independence. This is not to argue that other factors were unimportant, but that Indonesian nationalism appears to be the key reason for independence. The metropolitan theory was unable to explain decolonization because the Dutch did not want to give up their colony; the international theory only argues that Indonesian independence was speeded up by the advent of the Cold War, but the indigenous/peripheral theory, with strong Indonesian nationalism, seems to be the clearest and strongest explanation.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Works Cited </strong>(You may notice that there are many types of citations and various citation styles. Be sure that you always know which style is needed or wanted by your teacher, publisher, or university. Also remember to compare this essay with the previous SE Asian History essay on Vietnam. What are the similarities and differences between the two interesting essays?)<br /><br /><strong>Darwin, John (1991). The End of the British Empire: The Historical Debate. Oxford: Blackwell.<br /></strong><br /><strong>Stockwell, A. J. (1992). ‘Southeast Asia in War and Peace: The End of European Colonial Empires’. In The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia. Ed Nicholas Tarling. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. </strong><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-7912394714801416138?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-42645569041548473882008-06-09T12:23:00.003+08:002008-06-09T17:03:07.043+08:00<strong>Southeast Asian History resources - how to write a short essay 1</strong><br /><br />There are many types of essays and many types of historical writings and analyses, for instance, gobbets, long essays, shorts essays, term papers, and many other types of written responses - response papers, short answers, question and answer types of essays and other essays. All these essay types and styles will be covered and/or have been covered in <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English Language Resources Online</a>. In this series, I will be contributing Southeast Asian history resources for <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English Language Resources Online</a>. This means that the next few posts will be on Southeast Asian history or socio-cultural essays. In addition, I will be using a short essay (short written article) format for the essays. Do remember to ask yourself questions both about<br /><br /><strong><em>- the content of the essay</em><br /><em>- the writing and style of the essay.</em><br /><em></em></strong><br /><em>Here is the short essay question/ theme/ subject and answer:</em><br /><br /><strong>The Impact of Confucianism in Vietnam<br /></strong><br />Historically, Vietnam underwent a process of Sinicization that impacted and changed its society. Sinicization is commonly taken to mean the influence and impact of China on other countries in terms of culture, traditions and institutions. There were many Chinese influences in Vietnam, and one of them was Confucianism. Confucianism can be defined as “a body of ethical teachings… to live in accordance with the way of Heaven” (Heidhues 2000: 75), and is a philosophy that deals with “hierarchy and rationalism”, dealing with family relations and the relationship of the state and people (76). In this paper, I will be considering the extent and impact of Confucianism in Vietnam, not other influences. The specific question being addressed is: what was the extent and impact of Confucianism in Vietnam?<br /><br />Confucianism was doubtless an important aspect of Vietnamese history. According to Clark D. Neher, during the occupation of Vietnam by China (111 BC to 939 AD), the Chinese “did all they could to assimilate the Vietnamese into China”, creating a “Confucian bureaucratic and family structure”, co-opting the Vietnamese political elite (2000: 31-32). This shows that the Chinese implanted the seeds of Confucianism into Vietnam and suggests that it was widespread. Indeed, after the Chinese left, Confucianism was still influential. For example, “under the Le rulers Vietnamese political institutions were rebuilt in a more Confucian mould then ever” (Anthony Reid 2000: 5), although the reason this time was that the “centralized mandarinate … was used to ensure that Vietnam remained permanently independent of China” (Reid 2000: 5). The Vietnamese still maintained Confucianism even when the Chinese had been driven out, and this proves that Confucianism was extensive and prevalent in Vietnam from the Chinese occupation onwards.<br /><br />Thus it is clear that Confucianism remained to give Vietnam a “firm basis to meet internal and external challenges” (Heidhues 2000: 76). It did this mainly via education, by extension the Vietnamese bureaucracy, and Confucian culture, what Heidhues terms “Confucian orthodoxy” (76).<br /><br />According to Heidhues, “the system of education … was oriented to central examinations for entry into the bureaucracy” (76). This shows that the education system was similar to the Chinese system, where it is common historical knowledge that China used central examinations, based on Confucian thought, for entry into the imperial bureaucracy. Perhaps Vietnam adopted the Chinese system directly because it suited their needs for education and bureaucracy.<br /><br />Heidhues also argues that “the restored Nguyen dynasty needed to prove its legitimacy to a populace devastated by rebellion and civil war” and its means was the “propagation of Confucian orthodoxy” (94), or what one could call Confucian culture or tradition. Adherence to “Confucian orthodoxy” literally meant the persecution of Catholics and restrictions on Buddhism, as they were competing religions and philosophies. Heidhues gives the example of Minh Mang’s restrictions on Buddhism, movement controls and censorship (94). In fact, it appears that Vietnamese monarchs even “vied with the Chinese emperors … in their adherence to Confucian orthodoxy” (94). Thus, through education and orthodoxy, Confucianism was influential and significant in Vietnam.<br /><br />However, Confucianism was not maintained entirely in its pure form. It appears to have been localized and adapted to fit Vietnamese society. Many historians have emphasized this important point: “(Vietnamese) society, culture and politics remained distinctive, incorporating indigenous Southeast Asian and Chinese elements” (Heidhues 2000: 95).<br /><br />One of the aspects was family life. According to Heidhues, “Vietnam always retained something of Southeast Asia” in that its women enjoyed much more liberty, unlike “pure” Confucianism in China where the wife was subordinate to her husband, prompting the Chinese emperor in the 15th century to combat “un-Confucian mores” via the distribution of a “bible of Confucian uprightness” (Heidhues 2000: 76).<br /><br />In conclusion, to a very large extent, Confucianism impacted Vietnam strongly, but was localized and modified. I have shown that it was prevalent in Vietnam since its earliest history, and also that, via education and culture, it was used to maintain the legitimacy of the political elite. Yet Confucianism was also localized and adapted to Vietnam, and other local beliefs remained strong. In the final analysis, despite Sinicization, Vietnam has remained a distinctly unique Southeast Asian country.<br /><br /><strong>Works Cited</strong> ( I have cited these works for this essay but you may use any other resources that you so choose or want... short essays do not need more than three cited sources and do not need essay bibliographies that are long. I was hardworking and methodical for this short essay here.)<br /><br /><strong>Heidhues, Mary (2000). Southeast Asia: A Concise History. London: Thames &amp; Hudson.<br /></strong><br /><strong>Neher, Clark D (2000). Southeast Asia: Crossroads of the World. Dekalb, Illinois: N. Illinois University.<br /></strong><br /><strong>Reid, Anthony (2000). Charting the Shape of Early Modern Southeast Asia. Singapore: ISEAS. </strong><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-4264556904154847388?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-23064960834485236082008-06-06T09:49:00.005+08:002008-06-06T18:26:46.320+08:00<strong>Literature essay - Rudyard Kipling's "The White Man's Burden"</strong><br /><br />In <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English Language Resources Online</a>, this literature essay post is about Rudyard Kipling. The essay is about imperialism and its discontents and it is about the colonialism and imperialism that existed while Rudyard Kipling wrote his poem. Have a good look at the essay and read through it.<br /><br />Remember to ask the usual questions about the essay that follows, but more than just that, ask yourself if historical background and historical understanding helps your writing of the essay. How can you write a good or better literature essay or semi-historical essay? Can you improve on this essay?<br /><br />Also, the title that I have chosen for my essay is very unique. Why have I chosen this title for the essay and what does the title refer to?<br /><br /><br /><strong>Rudyard Kipling’s The White Man’s Burden (1899): Imperialism and its Discontents<br /></strong><br />"Take up the White man's burden -<br />Send forth the best ye breed -<br />... ...<br />Through all the thankless years,<br />Cold-edged with dear-bought wisdom,<br />The judgment of your peers!"<br /><br />A simple question might be: what is this poem all about? A simple look at the poem immediately tells us the subject of the poem: the historical civilising mission of the White man, also known as the White Man’s burden. In the heydays of imperialism and colonialism, the domination of the rest of the world by the imperial European powers, there was a belief that the White man had a civilising mission, a noble mission to take care of the rest of the world and civilise them. Although this poem was written by an American, Rudyard Kipling, in response to the 1898 War, this poem is clearly thematic and about the civilising burden of the Whites towards the rest of the so-called underdeveloped world. “Take up the White man’s burden” is the beginning of the poem, and introduces the idea of the White man’s burden to the readers.<br /><br />“Send forth the best ye breed/ Go bind your sons to exile/ To serve your captives’ need” suggests the valiant, brave and courageous sending out of the most talented and brightest White progeny to go out to the literal wilderness of the colonies so that they can “serve” their captives. There seems to be a strong suggestion that the sending out of colonial officers was for the service of the captive peoples. There is an irony here that perhaps Kipling did not notice, or perhaps even intended; on the one hand, there is actually little evidence to show that the White people served the people under their control as there was usually imperial exploitation of all kinds, from trade to culture, and on the other hand, the people under colonialism did actually serve the White men instead, most of the time. History did not favour this literary poem.<br /><br />In addition, “to wait in heavy harness/ On fluttered folk and wild” is very interesting because of the two elements involved: one is the alliteration of the “heavy harness” referring to the White men being harnessed for the benefit of the colonised, and the second element is the portrayal of the colonised as wild people. Ironically, there was little in the way of toughness of a job in the colonies for the Whites, as most of the time, the jobs were sinecures, or even cushy occupations that served to promote them back home in their imperial centre. In addition, some of the people that the Whites colonised even had longer and more illustrious histories and cultures, and were not wild at all. This suggests strongly that the Westerners of the time had indeed a very condescending view of the colonised and saw them as backward and primitive. In addition, the colonised people were not just seen as backward and primitive, but also characterised as wayward children. “Your new-caught, sullen peoples/ Half devil and half child” brings to mind an image of an unhappy people, who are both evil and resistant to change, like young and disobedient children. This would be obvious, since no one would be happy to be taken prisoner and dominated by others, and would definitely resist.<br /><br />Every stanza begins with the same phrase in order to emphasise and reiterate the nobility of the burden of duty. This civilising mission and the burden of the West to colonise and improve the East was a common justification then, and in addition, the repetition of the phrase suggests that it was a kind of propaganda, repeated over and over again. Yet it appears that there was a belief in it, as the phrase “in patience to abide” suggests that patience was needed to bear the heavy burden of the civilising mission. At the same time, Kipling also appears to know the true nature of imperialism: “To veil the threat of terror/ And check the show of pride”, as these suggest that imperialism is apparently based on terror and arrogance. Yet this realisation is immediately dashed, as the self-congratulatory “to seek another's profit/ And work another’s gain” once against suggests the kindness and altruism of the imperialist masters. At the same time the irony is clear, because the colonised are the ones who are working for their masters and giving them gain.<br /><br />“The savage wars of peace” is symbolic and historic, because of the many wars that were fought in the name of imperialist ambition disguised as the civilising mission. At the same time, the arrogance of the following lines show the strong belief in the civilising mission of stopping famine, as personified by an evil person, and the kindness of a doctor in terms of stopping diseases, merely by bidding it to stop. All these words suggest that the imperialist master is like God, in terms of stopping famine and disease. “The end for others sought” reflects selflessness, altruism, and kindness, where one works for the good of others, and yet this is counteracted by the arrogant assertion that “Sloth and heathen Folly” ruins all the good that the White men do. In historical terms, the Sloth and Folly of the colonised were not even true.<br /><br />The French Revolution of 1789 did away with the “tawdry rule of kings”, and led to a bourgeois and working-class nation state in France, that later spread to the rest of the world. This idea is also reflected in the poem, in “toil of serf and sweeper/ The tale of common things”, yet ironically the “serf and sweeper” and commoners in the West persecuted and ill-treated the colonised under their control. One could convincingly argue that this subverted the ideals and lofty ambitions of the original French Revolution. The next few lines are even more poignant because of the strong irony – “The ports ye shall not enter/ The roads ye shall not tread/ Go make them with your living/ And mark them with your dead!” Did Kipling mean that the White men made all the infrastructure of ports and roads, and defended them? This is in stark contrast and at odds with even a basic knowledge of history, because the White men did no such thing and in fact, there ports and roads were built by the common colonised people in order to benefit the colonial masters. The irony is that many in the West believed this propaganda. The next two stanzas continue with the same theme, the theme of subjugation of the colonised peoples for their own good, the central key idea of the entire poem.<br /><br />The final stanza ends the poem with a conclusion, that the goodness and kindness of the civilising colonial masters was misunderstood. “Have done with childish days” suggests that this colonising mission is both a rite of passage for male Whites, and at the same time, it reflects the maturity of a society that has advanced, so that it can finally do its mature duty of civilising and improving the world. “The lightly proffered laurel/ The easy, ungrudged praise” suggests that the mission to civilise was never easy. “Through all the thankless years” conveys the impression of a long-drawn, hard fought victory to civilise the colonised. The ending of the poem is poignant as well, with the emphatic “The judgment of your peers!” There is a sense in spite of all the good that the Whites have done to civilise others, not only do the natives not understand, but the public who are against imperialism also go against the hardworking and noble imperialists. The irony cannot be more pressing and obvious here.<br /><br />In this analysis, no one can say for certain if Kipling was in favour of the imperialists and writing a simple, obvious propaganda piece for them, or if he was ironic and writing in favour of the colonised, against colonial domination. One could say that there is actually no real way of telling. This poem is about “imperialism and its discontents”, for both the colonised, and the home public of the colonising imperialists, are very discontented with the imperialists indeed.<br /><br />Bibliography<br /><br /><strong>Kipling, Rudyard. “<em>The White Man’s Burden”.</em> McClure’s magazine 1899.<br /></strong><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-2306496083448523608?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-9352549663096430842008-06-05T18:05:00.005+08:002008-06-05T18:13:35.727+08:00This literature essay here on <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English Language Resources Online</a> deals with how to incorporate biographical data and biographical inferences into a literature essay. In particular, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's relationship with her husband is looked at, essentially, in this written analysis.<br /><br />Some literature essay writers will tell you not to put biographical inferences and knowledge into the essay, but that is not always true. How can one use biography to make the literature essay better? How can one improve on this essay? How can you write the essay better, or what would you do differently? In your essay, would you focus on the literary part more, or on the biographical part more? Have a look at "Just How Does She Love Him" and decide for yourself.<br /><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “How Do I Love Thee”:<br />Just How Does She Love Him?</strong><br /><br />It is commonly argued that Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote this sonnet for her husband to be, Robert Browning, and many critics and authors have argued that she became famous because of the autobiographical nature of her poetry, where all the love sonnets were real reflections of her own love life. This paper considers it a given that the sonnet is an autobiography of her love for her husband, and one would be hard pressed to offer an alternative explanation in lieu of the many analyses written on the subject. The question to be considered in this essay instead is: just how does she show that she loves him? There is no doubt intense love and passion in this sonnet, reflective of the Romantic period of expressing naturalistic and feelings-based tendencies, and this paper will analyse how she expresses her love through a critical literary analysis and critique.<br /><br />The overall theme of “How Do I Love Thee” is obviously intense passionate, romantic love. In this poem, the speaker is clearly the poet, herself, Elizabeth Barrett Browning. “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways” immediately introduces us to the theme of love and the enumeration of the various reasons for her love. In the first line, one can immediately suggest strongly that “thee” is referring to Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s husband, Robert Browning, which one can take to be the beloved, or the lover. “My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight / For the ends of Being and ideal Grace” are stating that the speaker cannot even begin to describe the feelings that she has towards her man, as the feelings are too passionate. The words “ends of Being and ideal Grace” are deliberately ambiguous, yet they suggest that her love is graceful, ideal and far-reaching, conjuring up romantic images.<br /><br />In the second stanza, “I love thee to the level of every day’s / Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light” suggests that the speaker will love her man every day, all the time. This includes the day and night, because arguably the sun represents the day, and candle-light represents the night. This practical level is in stark contrast with the earlier high-minded and idealistic love, and can be said to show that she loves him not just in an ideal way but also in a “every day” and “quiet” and normal way. In addition, “I love thee freely, as men strive for Right” suggests that the speaker loves her man as much as men who fight for freedom. Therefore it seems clear that she would fight for the right to love him, which is reflected autobiographically where she and Robert elope. At the same time, “I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise” suggests that the speaker loves her beloved without any desire for praise, and accepts him for who he is. Loving her man day and night, with a mind to fight for him if the need be, and loving him for who he is without asking for any return or praise, the speaker expounds her true love for her man. Clearly the speaker utilises many angles to carry her point across repeatedly.<br /><br />“I love thee with a passion put to use / In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith” suggests that the speaker loves her man even when she is suffering, and she loves him with the same faith that she had as a little child, where it is known that little children have innocent and strong faiths. This is reflected in the next line, “I love thee with a love I seemed to lose / With my lost saints”. She seemed to have lost her childhood faith as she grew older, yet this childhood faith and childhood beliefs are all invested and put onto her loved one. With a certain religious ring to the line, it is clear that she now loves her beloved in the same religious and rather fervent way that she had her faith in the past, as reflected by the phrase “my lost saints”. In addition, the repetition of the words “I” and “my” reflect her love for her beloved, and suggest a possessiveness and continuous love on her part.<br /><br />“Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose, / I shall but love thee better after death” is the poignant, final, ending couplet. In this ending couplet, the speaker is stating that her life is too romantic but her love for her man is strong and will be never-ending. It should be noted that, clearly, Browning uses anaphora, the repetition of self-repetitive words or phrases, when she uses “I love thee” in eight different lines throughout her sonnet. This helps to build up the central idea of her strong love for him. Hence, when she uses ‘I shall but love thee’ in the final line it also shows the use of anaphora, in the sense that it strengthens and ends the poem by its unique emphasis. The repetition of these words helps to build the rhythm of the poem and continually influences us with respect to its passionate love theme.<br /><br />In summary, taken to be autobiographical, this poem shows Elizabeth Browning’s strong love for her soon-to-be husband, Robert Browning. Her love is so strong for him that she says that her love reaches past the spiritual realm, and past the heavens. It shows that she loves him freely without any grief. She loves him for him and not for personal gain. But most importantly, she loves him even after death, literally and figuratively showing her passionate love. In real life, Browning wrote this poem before she married Robert, and wrote this to show exactly how much she loved him. With the use of anaphora, various reasoning and poetical arguments, repetition and more repetition, and emotive language, the poet has conveyed her love for her man strongly in this very passionate love sonnet; Elizabeth Browning loves Robert Browning.<br /><br />Bibliography<br /><br /><strong>Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. <em>Sonnets from the Portugese</em>. United Kingdom: Kessinger Publishing 2004.<br /></strong><br /><br />Notes for beginning or intermediate literature students: there are many difficult words in this essay. Do you know what the words mean? Remember to ask yourself questions about this essay, and do not take things at face value!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-935254966309643084?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-55355915576022518102008-06-03T08:19:00.004+08:002008-06-03T08:26:45.789+08:00<strong>How to write an essay - Bible Essays 3</strong><br /><br />This is the third and last instalment on <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English Language Resources Online</a> about how to write a good Bible essay, or an essay on biblical scholarship. For your ease of reference and easy accessibility to the other written works, analyses and essays available here on this website:<br /><br /><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-to-write-essay-bible-essays.html">how to write an essay - Bible essays</a><br /><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-to-write-essay-bible-essays-2.html">how to write an essay - Bible essays 2</a><br /><br />Most of the essays and written analysis resources here on <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English Language Resources Online</a> are rather controversial essays, but in particular, Bible essays are more controversial and interesting than other types of essays given the particular nature of the essay. There are many different perspectives on the Bible and on religion that one can possibly take while writing an essay.<br /><br />Here in this essay, an analysis of mankind's origins is explored. This is controversial and there are no fixed answers to any essay questions here. Remember to ask questions about the essay.<br /><br /><strong>The Bible<br />Two Accounts of Man’s Origin in Genesis?<br /><br /></strong>Some critics of the Bible assert that Genesis contains two different accounts of the creation of the Earth and mankind. Allegedly, these two accounts reflect different authors and time periods, and even contradict each other in some particulars. The key question is: does Genesis chapter one contradict chapter two? Both chapters generally describe the creation of the universe, Earth, and life; that much is clear and certain. Some have said that these accounts are pure myths. One of the reasons for this perception is due to the apparent contradiction between both chapters in the creation accounts of the Earth and man. Chapter one describes the creation of plants, followed by animals, then humans. Chapter two seems to describe the creation of humans, followed by plants, then animals. If this analysis is true, it would seem that there is indeed a contradiction between the creation accounts. One can explore Genesis to find out if indeed there are two accounts of man’s origins, or there is only one single story in two chapters.<br /><br />What does it say in the Bible about Genesis chapters one and two? The first chapter of the Bible begins with the creation of “the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1) - the entire universe. This account is notable for being sequential since the events are listed numerically by days in which they apparently occurred. In a sense, Genesis one suggests that creation was universal. Besides describing the formation of land and sea, it describes the creation of plants and animals: the account begins with the creation of plants (Genesis 1:6-13). Following this comes the creation of birds, large sea creatures and assorted sea life (Genesis 1:20-23). On the final day, God created mammals and carnivores along with small mammals, culminating finally with the creation of mankind with the declaration of “Let us make man in our image” (Genesis 1:24-31). Genesis two is not a direct retelling of Genesis one, au contraire to critical belief: It describes God's preparation of a location on earth, Eden, for habitation by the first humans. For instance, the focus is now only on man: man is formed out of dust out of the earth (Genesis 2:7) and the Garden of Eden, which has entered popular culture and common imagination (Genesis 2:8-14). All creation descriptions in chapter two can be attributed to the preparation of a place where these first humans will live.<br /><br />Can it thus be said that Genesis one is of a different approach from the second chapter, but essentially does not differ in what it portrays as truth of the origins of the universe? Yes, it seems that is the case. Genesis one is the account of the creation of the universe and life on earth as it happened in chronological sequence, whereas Genesis two is simply an expanded explanation of the events that occurred at the end of the sixth day, when God created human beings. Genesis one provides no details about the creation of human beings other than that humans were created in the image of God. Chapter one was thus never intended to stand apart from chapter two. Therefore, Genesis two arguably further develops the account of mankind's creation at the end of the sixth day rather than being a separate and different account of man’s origins.<br /><br />Can it be said that Genesis two is actually a more detailed version of the origins of man, rather than the more general and very literary, rhetorical “so God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created him” (Genesis 1:27)? Yes, again, it can be said that Genesis two is the explicated version of chapter one. The topic of the creation of the man and the woman appears to be the focus of the whole of chapter two. What the author had stated as a simple fact in chapter one, that man was created in God’s likeness, is explained and developed throughout the narrative of chapter two. Man is made out of dust (Genesis 2:7) and woman is made out of man’s rib (Genesis 2:22-23) according to Chapter two; this story is not in chapter one.<br /><br />What about the apparent contradictions in the accounts about the order of men and plants? Genesis one and two are said to contradict each other in the relative creation-order: in chapter one, apparently plants were created on the third day, and man was made on the sixth day (Genesis 1:11-26), whereas in chapter two, plants and herbs seem not to appear until after the formation of man (Genesis 2:4-7); it seems that Genesis one represents animals as existing before man, yet chapter two has Adam created before animals are formed. There are several possible means by which to resolve this alleged difficulty. Chapter two merely suggests that the animals were formed before being brought to man; it says nothing about the relative origins of man and beasts in chronology; that might solve the contradiction. Some agree that different matters are in view in these accounts: in Genesis one, vegetation in general is under consideration, but in Genesis two the writer is discussing the specific sort of vegetation that requires human cultivation. It can be seen that the agricultural words “plant”, “field” and “grew”, never occur in the first chapter; they are terms expressive of the produce of labour and cultivation – farming basically – evident only in chapter two (Genesis 2:4-7), probably meaning that no cultivated land and no vegetables fit for the use of man were yet in existence then. This might solve the contradiction too. Another view is that chapter two does not refer to the condition of the Earth at large; rather, the writer could be discussing the preparation of the garden in which man was to live. In any case, there can be many possible resolutions, such as those already discussed, so the charge of contradiction may not be valid.<br /><br />In summary, are there differences in the narratives of Genesis one and two? Clearly there are. But differences do not necessarily imply contradictions, and analysis reveals that there is purpose in the apparent individuality of these two sections. Hence, there are different emphases in them but the reason for these is obvious – chapter one talks about the narrative of creation until man is made in God’s image. Chapter two, on the other hand, gives added details about man’s origins. These respective sections have a different literary, theological and religious purpose, and cannot be seen through objective or even jaundiced scientific eyes. Genesis one is “chronological”, revealing sequential events, whereas Genesis two is topical with special thematic concern for man. There is clear evidence that chapter two was never another independent creation account. There are too many crucial elements missing for that to have been the case. For instance, there is no mention in chapter two of the creation of the Earth, the oceans, and no allusions to the sun, moon, and stars. Genesis chapter two therefore presupposes the former chapter and is built upon it; the strictly complementary nature of the two accounts is hence crystal clear – Genesis one mentions the creation of man as the last of a series, without any details, whereas in Genesis two man is the cynosure, so to speak, and more specific details are given about him and his setting. In the final analysis, there are no contradictions, and there is only one single, unified account of man’s origins in the Bible.<br /><br /><strong>‘The Holy Bible – New International Version’. Singapore: International Bible Society 1984, pp. 1 -2.</strong><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-5535591557602251810?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-56275772385412018572008-06-01T15:43:00.005+08:002008-06-01T15:56:23.255+08:00<strong>How to write an essay - Bible Essays 2</strong><br /><br />In my last post here on <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English Language Resources Online</a>, I dealt with a Bible essay. There are many types of essays - literature essays, Knowledge and Inquiry essays, General Paper essays, term papers, gobbets and many other variations and types of essays. This is the second post on Bible essays, which are also essays, but the topic and focus of these essays here are somewhat different due to the religious nature of the essays being intertwined with literature. Bible essays can be said to be a mixture of literature essays and religious essays.<br /><br />Please note that all written works, essays, information, resources and materials here on <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English Language Resources Online</a> are for your academic and personal use and not for sale or distribution or redistribution.<br /><br />The last sample essay, or bible essay, dealt with The Bible - <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-to-write-essay-bible-essays.html">What did Nicodemus teach Jesus</a>? Click <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-to-write-essay-bible-essays.html">here to go to the essay in particular</a>.<br /><br />In this essay here below on my blog, I give a literary analysis of the Parable of the Sower, which is one of the most famous stories and parables in the Bible. Most people have heard of it. All Christians probably know it. In this essay, a clearly literary approach is taken for the essay, so that readers who read this essay will know what it is about even if they are not of the same religion. The Bible in a sense is also a work of art.<br /><br />Remember to ask yourself questions about the essay and also ask yourself how you would have written this essay differently or better.<br /><br /><strong>The Bible<br />A Literary Analysis of The Parable of the Sower</strong><br /><br />Many Christians know about “The Parable of the Sower”, but few literary analyses have been done on it. At its core is the central message that Jesus sows the seed of knowledge about eternal salvation, yet people’s responses to that truth vary due to various circumstances and situations. However, there is a saving grace despite this situation, and that is, the men who hear the words of Jesus and believe and act on them will yield more ‘successes’ than those on whom the holy word is wasted. This key message is an important one in the book of Matthew of the New Testament. Here, in this passage, one can take a linguistic, metaphorical analysis of the text, rather than reconstructing its actual direct, literal meaning over and over again, a common exercise by Christians. What Jesus said is relatively well-understood, because he explained his parable after his disciples asked him; what is relatively not well understood is the literary beauty and imagery that Jesus utilised in his parable, and how the imagery contributed to the meaning of the explanation.<br /><br />It is clear that Jesus used the parable of a sower, for that is the title. What are more interesting are the words used in the parable itself and the subsequent concomitant explanation of the parable. “A farmer went out to sow his seed” (Matthew 13:3) conjures up the image of a farmer going out to throw his seeds on the ground, for planting, where the “seeds” are the basic fundamentals of life. This means that not only is the seed about knowledge about the salvation, the seed itself is the basis of salvation, because it leads on to life, from something inanimate to something alive and real. The idea of planting is exactly the kind of metaphor well-suited for Jesus’ preaching to the crowds, because it is a metaphorical kind of sowing seeds of knowledge, which he was actually doing.<br /><br />“Some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up” (Matthew 13:4) is highly intuitive; Jesus’ explanation was the most obvious where the evil one steals away the good seed sown in one’s heart (Matthew 13:19). What is less obvious is that the phrase ‘falling along the path’ refers to someone getting lost, and the birds in question could be easily imagined to eat up the promising seeds and destroying them, preventing them from germinating. One could even easily picture the birds as vultures or crows, and this would highlight Jesus’ amazing eye for literary and visual devices to get his story across. One can even suggest strongly that the path in particular is the path on the way to goodness, a common literary device that Jesus often utilises – the “way” to truth, the “way” to God, and in here, a path to salvation, only that the seed falls on the pathway rather than continuing on its journey.<br /><br />“Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil” (Matthew 13:5) does not require much imagination, because the visual words “soil” and “rocky” refer to the lack of root of Jesus’ words in men’s hearts, as well as a place not conducive for growth, as the word rocky connotes. The shallow soil depicted in the parable would have carried a more convincing meaning to the poor and agriculturally-based community that Jesus was pitching his story to. Furthermore, indeed the plants were “scorched and withered” because “they had no root” (Matthew 13:6). This planting metaphor carries the hidden meaning that it takes time and effort to grow roots into one’s heart, and that the heat of the sun, leading to scorching and withering requires discipline, focus and concentration on the Good News to prevent a metaphorical withering. The richness of the metaphor and its easy depiction in images makes Jesus a very talented orator, because of the continuity of the images and the likelihood that such a situation would have occurred in real farming life.<br /><br />“Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants” (Matthew 13:7) has two key words, “thorns” and “choked”. Thorns are prickly and hurtful, and are used as defence mechanisms in the plant kingdom, yet here they can be interpreted as painful and irritating, and indeed we have the phrase the “thorny truth” in English. In addition, “choked” suggests a metaphorical strangling of someone, and in the plant metaphor, actually refers to a parasitic relationship, where the thorns take up time and effort and compete for limited natural resources alongside the good crop, which eventually withers away. This expresses Jesus’ explanation perfectly, where “worries” and “wealth” (Matthew 13:22) compete alongside the truth in a rich man’s life, and he cannot decide between the two, or chooses wealth and worldly cares instead. The parallels are incredibly well-woven and the images clear and sharp.<br /><br />The really tricky analysis is in the last case: “Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop – a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown” (Matthew 13:8). Here, the metaphor is continued; the successful seeds that were sown successfully created successful crops – but that is the end of the analysis, in a sense. Jesus makes no mention what the “crop” is, but the logical inference is that the crop probably is the spread of the Good News, the word of the Lord, to more and more people, or even perhaps a metaphorical or even metaphysical eternal salvation. There does not seem to be any easy way of telling. The delightful ambiguity of the word “crop” in the parable, as well as the explanation given by Jesus, using the word “crop” once again, is that while the meaning is implied, that it is indeed the truth about eternal salvation that is being spread, Jesus has avoided speaking about it directly.<br /><br />In conclusion, the extended metaphor of the farmer inside the parable accurately and beautifully portrays exactly what Jesus intended to say, except that the notion of the successful crop was left ambiguous. It is true indeed, that “He who has ears, let him hear” (Matthew 13:9); the crowd heard this parable, full of imagery and clear visual pictures, and they still failed to understand or to accept what He said. On the one hand, using a farming metaphor, the word “ears” for ears of corn, meaning that whoever is a farmer or owns crops (basically the common man) should listen, at the same time, the ears can mean physical ears, ears to listen with, and listening, one can actually detect Jesus’ meanings through the parable.<br /><strong><br />‘The Holy Bible – New International Version’. Singapore: International Bible Society 1984, p. 727.<br /><br />Essay notes:</strong><br /><br />Note the use of citations and the use of quotes in the essay. How does a Bible essay differ from other types of essays - literature, history, philosophy, and intellectual history of ideas?<br /><br />Note also that this essay is different from most other essays that you have seen on <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English Language Resources Online</a>... but how and why is it different?<br /><br />Cheers!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-5627577238541201857?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-63595871755520917652008-05-31T03:21:00.004+08:002008-05-31T03:39:38.443+08:00<strong>How to write an essay - Bible Essays</strong><br /><br />Here on my English Language Resources Online blog, where I deal with General Paper materials, Knowledge and Inquiry materials, general knowledge, English and English Literature, I am going to deal with a short series of Biblical research essays, or Bible essays for short. As you know there are many different English language and literature resources here on this website and all the essay questions and materials and resources are all available on the sidebar on the right. All essays, resources and materials here on English Language Resources Online are not for sale and not for distribution and are only for your academic use and reference only. This is just a kind and friendly reminder for visitors to this English language, general knowledge resources and essay resource centre.<br /><br />The Bible is the world's bestseller and many literature resources, many essays, many poems, many books and many writings all refer to it one way or another. As such, even though you may or may not be Christian, it is important to know a little bit about the Bible and how to write a Bible essay or a written work associated with the Bible. In addition Bible essays and biblical scholarship are also part of general knowledge and many want to know how to write such essays, so here is a sample essay right here for your knowledge and essay research. How does one write an essay, and in particular, an essay to do with the Bible ( a Bible essay)?<br /><br /><br /><strong>The Bible – What Did Jesus Teach Nicodemus?</strong><br /><br />Nicodemus was a Pharisee and in particular a prominent member of the High Council, the Sanhedrin. However, unlike nearly all of his peers, he recognized Jesus Christ as the Messiah. He was the recipient of Jesus’ “born again” teaching and John 3:16, one of the most famous and widely-quoted verses of the entire Bible. Nicodemus thought he was going to have a comfortable conversation with Jesus, but he heard more than he could understand. Nicodemus in the Gospel has never heard of the “Son of Man”. He does not understand Jesus’ reference to His own sacrifice and subsequent resurrection when He says, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up” (John 3:14). Perhaps it is important to know that this particular scene happened for our sake, as John’s Gospel explains. John writes so that his readers will understand and believe. The goal for Nicodemus is also to believe, but in order to, he has to realize that he does not know anything of the truth. Therefore the answer is not given to Nicodemus at the beginning, but by the end of the Gospel of John, Nicodemus understands and becomes a believer. What exactly did Jesus teach Nicodemus, then? To be a believer, Nicodemus had to first realize that he was an unbeliever.<br /><br />The first important teaching that Jesus told Nicodemus came as a shock to him. “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” (John 3:3). This simple sentence carries a multitude of meanings and it is the literal meaning that Nicodemus understands. “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born” (John 3:4). The problem with the literal understanding is that it makes no sense whatsoever, not just from Nicodemus’ view but also from any rational thinker’s view; however, if one takes the figurative and metaphorical meaning, it becomes clearer. As Jesus explains:<br /><br />“Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ ”.<br />(John 3:5-7)<br /><br />Apparently enigmatic, this paragraph yields a basic interpretation. Jesus refers to the spiritual world, and hence this rebirth and “born again” idea is clearly in reference to spiritual rebirth. There is an element of reconciliation via being once again a new believer, and clearly this suggests that a metaphorical and metaphysical understanding of the paragraph makes more sense than a literal understanding. The “water” is commonly taken to be baptism, or a symbolic washing of sins to cleanse someone. However, the obscurity of Jesus’ many statements does not further Nicodemus’ understanding, although it seems clear that Jesus suggests that Nicodemus should once again re-learn and undergo some sort of Risorgimento in his life.<br /><br />Interestingly enough, despite Nicodemus’ lack of understanding, Jesus still reveals to him yet more truths, more Christian doctrines that we believe today:<br /><br />“I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven -The Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.”<br />(John 3:11-15)<br /><br />The argument and logic is clear here: because people can only talk about things that they know, this suggests that Jesus is indeed divine, because He is talking about heavenly and divine things with His authority. In addition, the phrase “the Son of Man” and the related and concomitant phrases “lifted up” and “eternal life” are all suggestive that Jesus is indeed the Messiah who came into the world. All in all, Jesus states that He knows what He is talking about; He suggests that He came down from Heaven; Jesus describes in metaphorical language His own death and subsequent resurrection. This leads on further:<br /><br />“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”<br />(John 3:16-21)<br /><br />These few sentences are the most famous and recognised in the entire Bible, the famous John 3:16. Jesus now claims boldly that God gave his one and only Son to save the world, and whoever believes is saved, but those who do not are condemned. The analogy of “light” is related to the theological thinking here: man loves darkness because it hides away sins, whereas God, who does not condemn the world, is sending someone from the “light” in order to save the world. It should be noted that there is some disagreement about who the speaker in John 3:16 is, as some say that perhaps it is John making an editorial comment, rather than Jesus speaking to Nicodemus, while others say that it is Jesus making a reference to Himself in the third person. Jesus did not refer to Himself as “the Son,” though He did call Himself “Son of Man.” He did not use the former phrase because He was veiling His identity then, and was not yet revealing He was the Son of God. It was not the correct time, for this was the beginning of His ministry and people would not have understood. So in John 3:16-18 it is more likely that the author is explaining to us what Jesus means, so we will not be in Nicodemus’ position of not understanding. Yet the point is clear: whether or not it was an editorial comment in the Bible or an actual statement from Jesus, the divine message is that God has sent his Son into the world in order to deliver it from sin and hence give eternal salvation according to the old Jewish Scriptures.<br /><br />In conclusion, what exactly did Jesus tell Nicodemus? Jesus told Nicodemus many divine truths. Firstly, his understanding of the Kingdom of Heaven and God was sorely lacking; Jesus is the Son of God who can predict his own death and resurrection, and because there is a divinity in Jesus, He can teach the truth about God’s sending of his Son into the world in order to bring about eternal life to believers. Theologically speaking, John chapter 3 is very important theologically and metaphysically because it reveals Jesus, one way or another, as divine and more than just another Jewish teacher or preacher.<br /><strong><br />‘The Holy Bible – New International Version’. Singapore: International Bible Society 1984, pp. 790-791.</strong><br /><br />Regarding this Bible essay, the main theme of my English Language Resources Online blog is the same as all the other essays and other poets and thinkers featured in various other essays: ask questions about the essay here. My key theme is the asking of questions when answering essay questions and when writing and developing essays.<br /><br />1. Is this essay different from other essays?<br /><br />2. If this essay is, why? and if this essay here is not different, why not?<br /><br />3. How can I improve on this essay and make my essay better? How do I write my own Bible essay? Is my essay better or is this one better, and why?<br /><br />4. What is the difference between Bible essays, biblical scholarship and normal Literature essays? Is there a difference at all?<br /><br />5. Is this essay akin to a LITERATURE ESSAY, HISTORY ESSAY, PHILOSOPHY ESSAY, or is it somewhat different? Reminder: how do I write a literature essay? how do I write a history essay? how do I write a philosophy essay? etc, etc.<br /><br />Ask yourself more questions about this essay. Cheers!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-6359587175552091765?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-71485910467835716562008-05-29T14:38:00.003+08:002008-05-29T14:54:29.982+08:00<strong>How to write a literature essay - William Blake series 5</strong><br /><br />Here on my English Language Resources Online blog is the fifth instalment of literature literary essays on William Blake. If you are studying English, Literature/ English Literature or Critical Analysis in poetry, these resources will be off immense help and use to you. The other literature resources and written analyses, here on this English Language blog, associated with William Blake are:<br /><br /><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-to-write-literature-essay-william.html">How to write a literature essay - William Blake series 1</a><br /><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-to-write-literature-essay-william_23.html">How to write a literature essay - William Blake series 2</a><br /><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-to-write-literature-essay-william_25.html">How to write a literature essay - William Blake series 3</a><br /><a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-to-write-literature-essay-william_28.html">How to write a literature essay - William Blake series 4</a><br /><br /><br />Here I try to write a literary analysis that is controversial, or at least purports to be controversial.<br /><br />Perhaps you'd like to ask yourself some questions about this essay? Do you agree with what it says? Do you like the style of the essay? Is it too controversial or is it actually run of the mill? What can you do to improve your own writing when it comes to your own essay? What can you do to provoke your reader when he reads your essay? There are many questions that you must ask yourself actively when writing your essay. Also, remember to have fun writing your essay, if that is possible, because when you have fun or when you enjoy writing, it makes the task easier.<br /><br /><br /><strong>William Blake’s The Divine Image: Did Man Make God in His Image?</strong><br /><br />There can be so many interpretations to any good poetry, as one of the virtues of good poetry is a kind of literary ambivalence, meaning an openness to varied and rich interpretation. It could be easily said that William Blake’s "The Divine Image" of "Songs of Innocence" attributes the virtues of Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love to the human form while also simultaneously giving God all of the glory for the creation of humans in His own form. This suggests that the biblical reference of God making man in his image is true, reflected in the last two lines of the poem, "Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell/ There God is dwelling too." Yet, it can be seen that it is also possible to suggest that this poem has another view to it, that perhaps man made God in his own image, as this poetry has a deeper, darker and more philosophical, metaphysical side to it than appears on first glance.<br /><br />The opening lines are rather like a hymn or a prayer, reflected in the word “pray” and “virtues”, words associated with prayer and Christianity in general. The lines “To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love/ All pray in their distress” introduces the cast of Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love, which are virtues and nouns that are personified and imbued with lifelike qualities and characteristics. They even seem anthropomorphically human, as they take on human names. By returning “their thankfulness” in prayer to these four characters, it is acknowledged that these virtues are important in human existence, and indeed in human prayer. Now the question is: are these qualities from God, or are they human qualities?<br /><br />According to the main thrust of the poem, “Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love/ Is God our Father dear” can be seen immediately as the four virtues belonging to the Christian God, the Almighty Father. It is suggested that these qualities are from God. Yet, the phrase “and Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love/ Is man, His child and care” counter-suggests that these virtues belong to man as well. On the one hand, it can be suggested superficially that these lines portray that man was created by God, and as his children, possess His qualities and virtues. Yet on the other hand, one gets the nagging suspicion and the immediate implication that man is so much similar to the portrayal of God, that there is an uncanny resemblance.<br /><br />The next few lines confirm one’s intellectual and literary suspicion. “For Mercy has a human heart/ Pity, a human face” has a tone that reinforces that nagging suspicion that man is so similar to God, because the repetition of the word “human” suggests that these two virtues are human virtues, and even more importantly the words “heart” and “face” are human body parts. There is clearly a huge physical element, as can be seen by the body parts, to the poem that belies its Christian and spiritual tone. “And Love, the human form divine/ And Peace the human dress” further continue the repetition of the word “human”, while at the same time, the alliterative words of “divine” and “dress” show a paradox; while divine means that something is Godly and from the heavens, dress reflects something man-made and not divine, as well as something used to cover up, or “dress up”, as it were.<br /><br />The next lines of “Then every man, of every clime/ That prays in his distress” are a direct reference to the apparently universal fact that most human beings pray only while in distress, where they plead with God whenever there are problems. This is a very human quality. Praying to “the human form divine” suggests that man prays to God on a superficial level, but is actually praying to humans, or to the human forms, in terms of the virtues attributed superficially to God. The next line corroborates this interpretation “and all must love the human form/ In heathen, Turk, or Jew”, because while it can be taken to mean that all heathens, Turks or Jews, meaning all pagans, Muslims or Hebrews, are just as human and have human virtues like everyone else, it can also be taken to mean that everyone regardless of race has these human characteristics. This ambiguity and ambivalence suggests that the human form is what counts, and that divinity could be considered extraneous to the argument. Finally, the coup de grace: “Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell/ There God is dwelling too” from a Christian perspective means that God dwells in the heart of men, whenever one can see the good virtues of Mercy, Love and Pity. Yet on the other hand, the personification of these virtues, and their being made into anthropomorphic human qualities, as well as the fact that in the place of God there is man, the dualism of God in man suggests that perhaps man did make God in his own image. In other words, where there are these qualities, man is dwelling, but then again, so is God. Hence, perhaps the poem is telling us that man and God are interchangeable; clearly our lens will influence our interpretations of what we see.<br /><br />The ambiguity, ambivalence, open-endedness and texture of the poem, in its prayer-like form with its many possible perspectives, lends easily to either the common interpretation that God made man in his own image and that we should love our fellow men, or the equally valid and darker, deeper, more metaphysical interpretation that there is little distinction between God and man, and the inevitable, even existentialist interpretation, that man made God in his own image. In the final analysis, controversial and unlikely as it may seem, to a certain extent, perhaps the hidden meaning of the poem is indeed true, that man made God in his own image.<br /><br />Bibliography<br /><br /><strong>Blake, William, David Erdman and Harold Bloom. The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake. California: University of California Press 1982.</strong><br /><br />More to come in future posts on various styles of writing and various styles of essays...<br /><br />Sometimes it is interesting to look at how the Bible is written and how religious essays are done, or Christian essays are done. There will be some essays and analyses done on Biblical studies soon here on my resources website. Stay tuned for more English language and Literature resources here on my English Language Resources Online blog. Cheers!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-7148591046783571656?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-4340295531413015722008-05-28T15:31:00.002+08:002008-05-28T15:39:17.289+08:00<strong>How to write a literature essay - William Blake series 4</strong><br /><br />One of William Blake's most famous and most interpreted poems is of course "The Tyger". I have heard that even the Pope, Pope John Paul II, had interpreted and written his literary analysis and his literature analysis of the poem. Here in this literature resource that I am writing today, I have written about William Blake's "The Tyger", and asking about the underlying religious and Christian references. Remember that in any written work or any written analysis, always refer to the essay question. You must try your very best to answer the essay question.<br /><br />Always remember to write out the essay question in your introduction and frame the question in such a way as to make you able to answer it properly. Then do remember whenever you write your written paper or your essay - answer the essay question in your own words, then write out what you will be talking about in the course of this essay. Note that when you become very good or even become an expert at writing, for Literature, English, Knowledge and Inquiry, General Paper and other subjects, then you can play around and look around to do something new and innovative. Other than that it is not advisable.<br /><br />Here is the written literary analysis of "The Tyger" by William Blake.<br /><br /><br /><strong>William Blake’s The Tyger: What Was Blake Thinking about God and Creation?<br /><br />The Tyger<br /></strong> <br />“The Tyger” begins with the speaker asking a tiger what kind of divine being could have created it: “What immortal hand or eye/ Could frame thy fearful symmetry?” There is an air of questioning throughout the poem. Each subsequent stanza contains further questions, all of which refine this first fundamental question. From what part of the universe could the tiger’s fiery eyes have come; who would have dared to handle that; what sort of physical presence, what kind of craftsmanship, would have been required to “twist the sinews” of the tiger's heart? The speaker wonders how, once that heart “began to beat” its creator would have had the courage to continue. With the image of a blacksmith, the speaker thinks of the “anvil” and “furnace” that creation would have required and the blacksmith who yielded it. And when the tiger was completed, the speaker wonders how its creator would have felt. This is the summary of “The Tyger”, but the analytical question is: what is the underlying and deeper meaning in relation to creation and to God? Perhaps there is no real simple and obvious answer to: “What was Blake thinking about God and creation?” This analysis delves into the deeper meaning of the poem, its literary beauty, and aims to determine what Blake might have wanted to say about creation, God, and ultimately, Christianity.<br /><br />Firstly, the poem comprises six quatrains in rhymed couplets, where the meter is rhythmic and regular, and its repetitive hammering rhythm is suggestive of the blacksmith hammering away and creating the tiger that is the poem’s central image. The alliteration of the hard consonant sounds also capture attention, as the “Tyger, Tyger”, “burning bright” and hard “d” sounds throughout the poem focus the readers on the substantive matter of the poetry, which suggests a hard and harsh underlying interpretation of the truth about creation. The simplicity and neatness of the poem’s regular form perfectly suit its uniform structure, in which all the questions contribute to the articulation of a single central idea.<br /><br />The opening question develops the drama of the exciting poem, and each subsequent stanza elaborates: Blake builds on the conventional idea that nature, like art, must in some way contain a reflection of its creator. The tiger is naturally beautiful yet simultaneously horrific in its violence and inclinations. What kind of a God or Creator, then, could or would design such a “contradictory” beast? In more general terms, what does the undeniable existence of evil and violence in the world tell us about the nature of God, and what does it mean when a living creature can at once contain both beauty and horror? This is perhaps the key to understanding the poem fully: that it is an exploration of the age-old and common philosophical “problem of evil”. The tiger initially appears as an exciting and sensuous image, but as the poem progresses it takes on a symbolic character, embodying the spiritual and moral problem which the poem explores: beautiful yet destructive, the tiger becomes the symbol for an investigation into the presence of evil in the world. Since the tiger exists both in “physical” and “moral” terms, the speaker’s questions about its origins must also encompass both those physical and moral dimensions. The poem’s questions repeatedly ask what sort of physical creative being could create that “fearful symmetry” of a tiger; assumedly only a very strong, powerful being could be capable of such a beautiful yet terrible creation.<br /><br />There appears superficially to be a key theme of fire in the poem. “The Tyger” is “burning bright” - a first and obvious reference to fire that is a constant recurring theme in the poem. “Burnt the fire of thine eyes?” reflects the image of fire once again. Perhaps that can be regarded as an interesting reference to Heaven and Hell and continuing the doubts raised regarding the creation of such a beast from the question posed in the first stanza. More than simple speculation, the fire is indeed needed for the poem in order to suggest a forging of the tiger, with all its concomitant imagery.<br /><br />The “forging” of the tiger suggests a physical, laborious and deliberate kind of creation; it emphasizes the awesome physical build and nature of the tiger, and therefore precludes the idea that such a creation could have been accidentally or haphazardly produced. Clearly Blake was not a fond supporter of evolutionary theory, as his idea smacks somewhat of creationism and intelligent design. The forging of the creature comes with the imagery of fire, with its own simultaneous connotations of creation in fire, purification with fire, and destruction due to fire. The speaker stands in awe of the tiger as a physical and aesthetic achievement, as he also recoils in possible horror from the moral implications of such a creation; the poem addresses the moral question of who could make such a creature. In the third stanza, one observes the parallelism of “shoulder” and “art” as well as the fact that it is not just the body but also the “heart”, metaphorical and literal, of the tiger that is being forged, suggesting that the creator was indeed responsible for the tiger’s vicious and terrible nature. The repeated word “dare” to replace the “could” of the first stanza introduces an important element of aspiration, willingness and wilfulness into the creative act.<br /><br />Using another perspective, an alternative view may be suggested. “What the hand, dare seize the fire” suggests perhaps a shift in the poem from a wilful God who created an awesome yet fear-inducing creature – the shift to the courage of creation is another possible interpretation. In other words, God is courageous to create the tiger. The creation metaphor completes its passage because all the elements of creation in the forge have been contemplated: the “furnace”, the tools, the hammer, the chain and the “anvil” all reflect and augment the physical strength and courage of the smith. In the line “Dare its deadly terrors clasp”, the word “dare” reappears and perhaps the idea of a courageous, rather than simply a capable, Creator is developed. Perhaps there is further depth than simply the creation of evil by God as Creator. Indeed, the poem reaches the heart of the most troubling issue that racks theologians and philosophers alike. How can a benevolent God allow, for example, the death of an innocent child through famine or malnutrition or war? Clearly the idea of the “problem of evil” is central to the poem, no matter the interpretation of the lines. The change in the poem from simply a capable creator to a brave creator possibly suggests that Blake saw a necessity for balance in the world.<br /><br />In addition, the reference to the lamb in the second-last stanza reminds the reader that both the tiger and the lamb have been created by the very same God, and raises questions about the implications of this “fact”. “The Tyger” consists entirely of unanswered questions, unlike “The Lamb”, where the answers are clear and rather dogmatic-sounding, and the speaker leaves us here to stare at the complexity of creation, the magnitude of God's power, and the inscrutability of His will. This poem involves an acknowledgment of what is unexplainable in the universe, presenting evil as something that cannot be denied. The open awe of “The Tyger” contrasts with the easy confidence and facile answers in “The Lamb”, of a child’s innocent faith in a benevolent and omnipotent Creator. In conclusion, there can be no easy answers. It is easy to say that Blake was thinking of the “problem of evil” and about the apparent contradiction of a God who could create both beauty and terrifying horror in one creature, but beyond that this poem is far more complex philosophically, beyond words in its recognition of contradictions.<br /> <br />Bibliography<br /><br /><strong>Blake, William, David Erdman and Harold Bloom. The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake. California: University of California Press 1982.</strong><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-434029553141301572?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-13691709964440860602008-05-25T17:57:00.003+08:002008-05-25T18:12:13.916+08:00<strong>How to write a literature essay - William Blake series 3</strong><br /><br />Here is my third post on the <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English Language Resources Online blog</a> for William Blake poetry specifically, in my series on Blake. In my earlier posts, I <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-to-write-literature-essay-william.html">compared and contrasted poems for Blake</a> (in a compare and contrast essay) and I also wrote about <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-to-write-literature-essay-william_23.html">religious images and references in Blake's poetry</a>.<br /><br />This is another William Blake literary analysis sample essay for your learning, education and information. You can get a better understanding of the poem as well as a better understanding of how to write a good literature essay, if you follow the blue instructions within the essay and ask yourself questions about how to improve your writing and your literary style consistently. Have a good look at the essay here below and remember to bear the essay title in mind as you read the essay. Also, a very important essay writing tip to bear in mind here is that: every time you write an essay for an examination or a test or an essay deadline, be sure to bear the question always in mind and focus on answering the question.<br /><br /><br /><strong>William Blake’s A Cradle Song: Is This Poem Truly a Cradle Song?</strong><br /><br /><em><span style="color:#003300;">The question is: is William Blake's poem "A Cradle Song" really just about a cradle? You can see here in this essay that the question is asking for you to dispute and/ or prove that the above statement is true. </span></em><br /><br />William Blake’s poem, “A Cradle Song”, is delightfully ambiguous and multifaceted. On first glance, one might be immediately tempted to simplistically and superficially say that this is just a poem about a little baby going to sleep, or that this poem is simply as the title banally suggests, a song sung merely for a baby to sleep. However, on deeper analysis, the question is: is this poem truly just a cradle song? This question suggests that this song is not what it appears to be, in the sense that it is not just merely a song to send little babies to sleep, but that it is a philosophical stance of what is wrong with the world, and that sleep brings some sort of respite, escapism perhaps, as represented by a sleeping baby in an apostrophe, and that the title masks the true underlying poignancy of the poem. Yes, on the one hand, the song is ostensibly merely about a speaker singing a little baby to sleep; on the other hand, the reality is that this poem is about a philosophy of life, and has a take on sleeping and its relationship with escapism and happiness. This analysis will look at the second possibility in greater depth than the first.<br /><br /><span style="color:#003300;"><em>After telling your readers what the poem is about and what you are going to tell them, then do tell the readers in the course of the body of the essay what you promised them in the introduction of the essay. </em></span><br /><br />The poem opens with the sibilance and alliteration of “sleep, sleep, beauty bright”, where the word “bright” seems rather ironic given that night is supposed to be dark, and conjures up a conflicting image. Perhaps Blake intended that the baby is the one both beautiful and bright, which he later intends to contrast with the harsh reality of the world. Yet the positive aspects of sleep are definitely highlighted as the alliteration of “beauty bright” accentuates a certain beauty of sleep, and a beauty of night. “Dreaming in the joys of night” suggests clearly a baby sleeping happily and joyfully in the night, with sweet dreams. Yet, at the same time, there is a sinister “little sorrows sit and weep”, where there are some sad happenings personified to be crying. Perhaps, this can be seen easily as the child not feeling any sorrow when it is asleep, but at the same time, it could simultaneously mean that sleep can also be the residence of those sorrows. There is therefore an ambivalent ambiguity here. This does not set the tone for the rest of the poem, but the atmosphere is immediately seen to be not really just a cradle song, but a song with some melancholy underlying it, conveying a deeper message.<br /><br />The speaker beholds the baby and addresses it with tender care: “Sweet babe, in thy face/ Soft desires I can trace” clearly shows tenderness and love, just like any parent would do while singing a lullaby to a loved baby, where the title “Cradle Song” is actually justified, as the speaker sings to the baby lovingly. “Secret joys and secret smiles/ Little pretty infant wiles” have many meanings, but the repetition of the word “secret” and the words “little pretty… wiles” suggest that the baby is dreaming of things that secretly make it happy. The word “wiles” is interesting, as it can mean both charm and tricks, where on the one hand, there is a feeling where the baby is charmed by all sorts of beautiful things, perhaps, and on the other hand, the little baby might be imagining all sorts of cunning tricks that he would love to do. Nonetheless there is definitely a positive image here that contrasts starkly with the earlier stanza.<br /><br />The speaker sees that “Smiles as of the morning steal/ O'er thy cheek” and this could immediately conjure up the image of a smiling baby in its delightful sleep, or the word “steal” could suggest something more sinister. There is a sense that the little baby has stolen some respite from the sad and harsh world in its sleep, where the extended meaning is perhaps that the world is a harsh place and only in sleep is there true respite, even for a little baby. The phrase “thy little heart doth rest” does imply that the poem is a cradle song and is intended for a little baby, but at the same time, there is a sense of resting from the cares of the world, as suggested by the word “heart”. Hence, the literary evidence seems to be piling up in favour of this poem being more than just a mere song.<br /><br />Therefore, the meaning of the last stanza actually becomes clear: “O the cunning wiles that creep/ In thy little heart asleep!” is an interesting exclamation where the speaker sees the subconscious happiness of the little baby sleeping coming through as the baby sleeps. This clearly means that sleeping is preferable to being awake, because of the happiness and pleasure that somehow fills the baby as it peacefully slumbers. The final two lines corroborate this idea strongly: “When thy little heart doth wake/ Then the dreadful light shall break”. The waking of the little baby brings about some bad thing, because the word “dreadful” is a negative word with negative connotations, and the word “break” is negative as well, suggesting something discontinued abruptly or destroyed, where on the one hand, the coming of the light is the superficial meaning, and on the other, the light of daybreak is not something to celebrate and be happy about, but an abrupt return to sad reality. Hence, the meaning of the poem, built slowly, line by line, suggests that this is indeed a cradle song sung to babies, as perhaps a form of lullaby, but the deeper underlying meaning is that real happiness and pleasure comes from sleeping where there are no worldly cares, for once daybreak comes, reality comes back.<br /><br /><em><span style="color:#003300;">Reiterate the question and the answer. In the terminology of my <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-to-write-excellent-essay-using.html">English Language Resources Online blog</a>, you ask the Knowledge Based Problem and then answer it via the Thesis. You can go back here to the earlier article on <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-to-write-excellent-essay-using.html">how to write an excellent essay via structure</a> to refresh your memory if you like. Here you summarise and then conclude, and hence that is why this is called the conclusion of the essay. </span></em><br /><br />Is this poem just a cradle song? No, it is far more than merely that – it is a cradle song that actually speaks of the inherent sadness and melancholy in the wider world that can only be avoided and escaped from by the beautiful happiness that comes from night. It is a sombre and darkly philosophical topic for a cradle song.<br /><br /><em><span style="color:#003300;">As usual, either you have a bibliography in your essay and writing (writing a major paper, writing for A levels and writing for university), or you do not have a bibliography in your essay and writing because it is not required ( as in during an examination, informal work, non cited work, etc). </span></em><br /><br />Bibliography<br /><br /><strong>Blake, William, David Erdman and Harold Bloom. The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake. California: University of California Press 1982.</strong><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-1369170996444086060?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-24114857852587167902008-05-23T21:44:00.003+08:002008-05-23T21:55:31.422+08:00<strong>How to write a literature essay - William Blake series 2</strong><br /><br />Here is the second post on the William Blake series in my <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English Language Resources Online blog</a>. This <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English Language Resources blog</a> can also help you in your revision if you are doing Literature at "O" or "A" levels or even if you merely have an interest in either writing good literature essays or poetry. Note that the blog is not just about William Blake, and in the sidebar on the right you can see the other poets and other topics relating to general knowledge, literature, history, the history of ideas, and philosophy as well.<br /><br />In the other <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-to-write-literature-essay-william.html">earlier post on Blake</a>, I <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-to-write-literature-essay-william.html">compared and contrasted two poems in my essay</a>. There are many types of essays for literature, and the comparison essay is a major type of essay that you need to know about. In this essay here, I analyse instead images and religious references, as these two are key elements in understanding Blake's literature. Remember to ask questions about the essay and think about how you can improve on my writing.<br /><br /><strong>William Blake’s The Lamb: Religious References and Imagery</strong><br /><br />"The Lamb" from "Songs of Innocence" is a very symbolic poem. This paper discusses the religious references and imagery that permeate the entire poem and give it its key meaning and essence, because, while apparently a simple Christian poem that is easy to understand and simple in meaning, “The Lamb” has deeper philosophical issues embedded into its structure and symbolism. One can look at the symbols, the structure, the questioning that the little child-speaker uses in the poem, and the answer that he offers for the very difficult and philosophical question and answer of life’s origins.<br /><br />Firstly, what are the obvious symbols in the poem? The “little lamb” in the poem can superficially and obviously symbolize innocence, childhood, serenity, Jesus, or even a sacrifice, and these are images and devices that are associated exclusively with Christianity. A lamb is a gentle and meek creature that is submissive, and in many ways a lamb is very much like a child. In this poem, the lamb being spoken to can be interpreted literally as a real lamb that the child-speaker is addressing, and simultaneously also be taken to be the symbol of Jesus, because the traditional image of Jesus as a lamb underscores the Christian values of gentleness, meekness, and peace. These are also the very same characteristics from which the child-speaker approaches the ideas of nature and of God, as can be seen in the words “tender”, “rejoice” and the alliterative “meek” and “mild”. These words suggest that both the child and the lamb are gentle, and bring forth the imagery of Jesus and Christianity. In addition, the image of the child, the speaker himself, is also associated with Jesus: in the biblical Gospels, Jesus displays a special care and concern for children, and the Bible's depiction of Jesus in his infancy shows him as vulnerable. Hence, once again, there is an interrelationship between the child-speaker and the lamb, as both of them are very similar, according to Christian belief.<br /><br />Secondly, how does the structure of the poem contribute to its religious appearance and form? "The Lamb" has two stanzas, each with five rhymed couplets, giving the poem a sense of connectedness, eloquence and fluidity, like a kind of gentle prayer or some chanting. Thus the poet creates a child-like tone through a very song-like form and structure; repetition in the first and last couplet of each stanza makes these lines into a refrain, and helps to give the poem its song-like quality. “Little lamb, who made thee?/ Does thou know who made thee” and “Little lamb, I'll tell thee;/ Little lamb, I'll tell thee” make the poem sound like a song, because of the consistent and lyrical repetition of the phrases. At the same time, the flowing “l’s” and soft vowel sounds contribute to this effect, and further suggest the gentle bleating of a lamb or the soft-spoken character of a little child's chanting or singing. Through the use of apostrophe, where the speaker addresses the lamb which is present and central to the story but not literally within the poem, but instead outside of it, Blake actually attributes human qualities to a lamb, the lamb being the listener and the child being the speaker. Perhaps the lamb can also be considered human, like another little child, even. Once again, throughout the entire poem the lamb and the child are interchangeable, the child is a lamb, yet the lamb is a child. Yet at the same time, “I a child, and thou a lamb/ We are called by His name” suggests clearly that there is a distinction between the child and the lamb, and that the child is cognisant of the fact that he is distinct from the lamb, despite having the same Creator. Hence there is some ambiguity and ambivalence, which characterise William Blake’s poetry. In any case, the poem is thus clearly a child's song, in the form of a question and answer, where the first stanza is where the child asks the lamb about its origins, and the second stanza is where the child tells the lamb the answer, according to his innocent Christian beliefs.<br /><br />What, then, does the questioning do? The poem actually begins with the immediate and direct question, "Little Lamb, who made thee?" The speaker, a child, asks the lamb about its origins: how it came into being, how it attained its own manner of feeding, its "clothing" made of wool, and its "tender voice", basically rhetorically asking how the lamb got all its beautiful qualities. The child's question is simultaneously both naive and deeply, philosophically profound. The question "who made thee" is a simple one, and yet the child is asking the deep and timeless questions that all human beings have about their own origins and creation. At the same time, the poem's apostrophic form contributes in a sense to an effect of naiveté, since the situation of a child talking to an animal is a believable one, and conjures up very innocent images. What this does is it gives the poem an innocent view in the first stanza, and sets up the answer for the second stanza.<br /><br />Finally, what are the implications of the answer, and the religious, theological imagery of the answer that the child gives? In the second stanza, the child-speaker attempts an answer to his own question: the lamb was made by one who "calls himself a Lamb," one who resembles in his gentleness both the child and the lamb – in other words, Jesus. It immediately shows the whole connectedness of all things: the creator, the lamb, Jesus, through the use of the extended metaphor. The three lines “He became a little child/ I a child, and thou a lamb,/ We are called by His name” connects the three, child, Jesus and lamb, because it suggests that Jesus was born as a little child, just like the speaker, and the fact that both child and lamb are called by His name links them all together. The child-speaker tells the lamb, which could even come across as a rapt, attentive little child, how Jesus was just like a lamb, using symbolic language, comparing Jesus to a child. This creates a connection once again, as a child is like a lamb, and Jesus is like a child. Yet, at the same time, by answering his own question, the child converts his important question into a rhetorical one, thus counteracting the initial spontaneity of the poem. The child's answer, however, reveals his confidence in his simple Christian faith and his innocent acceptance of its teachings. One the one hand, this can be interpreted as Blake’s interpretation of Christianity; on the other, it is equally valid that this is only how little children perceive Christianity, and that Christianity may be something else altogether.<br /><br />In conclusion, the symbols, the structure, the questioning and the answer given all contribute to a unified sense of the poem, where “The Lamb” is a Christian poem that is completely self-contained and portrays conventional Christian images and values as beautiful and innocent, answering a little child’s actually very difficult and very philosophical question of where we come from. It is not simple at all, for the richness and varied interpretations of the child, the lamb and Jesus, reflect conventional Christianity while at the same time showing a little child’s weltanschauung of Jesus, very philosophical indeed.<br /><br /><em><span style="color:#000066;">Note that for O level literature or any written examination, your essay does not need a bibliography; but if you are doing A levels or higher level literature or essay writing in particular, you will need a citations section/ works cited section/ bibliography for each and every one of your written essays. </span></em><br /><br />Bibliography<br /><br /><strong>Blake, William, David Erdman and Harold Bloom. The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake. California: University of California Press 1982.</strong><br /><br /><em>All the essays on this English Language Resources Online blog are written by or edited or collected and vetted by Shawn Seah and are NOT for sale and NOT for distribution. They are for educational and reference purposes only.</em><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-2411485785258716790?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-42131470533358035862008-05-23T05:55:00.003+08:002008-05-23T06:10:42.624+08:00<strong>How to write a literature essay - William Blake series 1</strong><br /><br />Before I begin, I would like to reiterate that this is NOT an essay selling website, and these essays that I write here on this blog are NOT for distribution. These articles and essays and samples here on my English Language Resources Online blog are for your own personal education and personal viewing only and are not for distribution or sales. So that it is clear and on the record, I do not sell any of my essays here on this site, and I do not distribute literature essays. I am here to provide educational resources and share my ideas and works for your education and not for anyone to cheat on examinations or to cheat for assignments. You may use my literature essays for your own personal learning. Learn English and learn Literature here on this blog - all the resources and literature essays are here for you.<br /><br />The next few posts here on this English language resources online blog will be about William Blake and how to write literature essays with William Blake as a focus. Many literature essays around the world deal with Blake because he is famous and popular anyways. Romanticism, literary analysis, comparisons of various romantic poems and the like will be all part of the course.<br /><br />As an aside, Knowledge and Inquiry students in Singapore taking KI as a subject may not necessarily need a knowledge of literature, but knowing about it and how to write an essay will be invaluable skills in the repertoire. Learning how to write a literature essay will be just as useful as learning how to write essays in general. All these materials and ideas on how to write good essays are available on my blog, with its resources on essays and sample essays.<br /><br />In any case, here is a sample literature essay on William Blake. I have broken it up into parts to show that these are for your education.<br /><br /><strong>William Blake’s The Human Abstract:<br />Comparison and Contrast: A Critique of “The Divine Image”?<br /></strong><br /><em><span style="color:#000066;">This is how you write an introduction, and introduce the theme(s) and the question and the answer:</span></em><br /><br />“The Human Abstract” offers an alternative analysis of the virtues of Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love that constituted God and Man in "The Divine Image”, and can be thus considered a companion poem. The speaker argues that Pity could not exist without poverty, and that Mercy would be unnecessary if everyone were happy, and that Peace derives from fear, which gives rise to “selfish loves”. Cruelty personified plants and waters a tree in “the human Brain”, and utilising and expanding on this gardening or tree metaphor, the roots of the tree are “Humility”, the leaves are “Mystery”, and the fruit is “Deceit”, thus suggesting that negative human characteristics actually stem from originally valuable, noble virtues. On the other hand, it could be said that Blake’s “The Divine Image” of “Songs of Innocence” attributes the virtues of Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love to the human form while giving God the glory for the creation of humans in His own image. This suggests that the biblical reference of God making man in his image is true, reflected in the last two lines of the poem, "Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell/ There God is dwelling too". This analysis will compare and contrast the two poems “The Divine Image” and “The Human Abstract”, and show that this poem is indeed a critique of its companion.<br /><br /><em><span style="color:#000066;">Make your points clear and add literary terms. What else can you see about this paragraph in this essay?</span></em><br /><br />Firstly, the lines of “The Human Abstract” have none of the uplifting and sweet-sounding quality typical of Blake’s poetry; the poem’s didactic, pedagogical tone and serious subject matter occasion the harsh, severe rhythm he employs. By way of contrast, the opening lines of “The Divine Image” are like a hymn or prayer, reflected in the word “pray” and “virtues”, words associated with prayer. The lines “To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love/ All pray in their distress” introduces the cast of Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love in terms of a prayer, which are virtues that are personified and imbued with lifelike qualities and characteristics. By returning “their thankfulness” in prayer to these four anthropomorphic characters, it is acknowledged that these virtues are important in human existence.<br /><br /><em><span style="color:#000066;">Doing the same as for the previous paragraph, ask yourself questions about the paragraph in this essay and how it relates to the essay theme.</span></em><br /><br />Secondly, in general “The Human Abstract” preaches that the traditional Christian virtues of mercy and pity presuppose and depend on a world of poverty and human suffering. Furthermore, these virtues represent a kind of passive, useless, resigned sympathy or resignation that suggests no obligation to alleviate or ameliorate that suffering or to create a more just and fair world. The speaker in “The Human Abstract” therefore refuses to think of them as ideals, suggesting and reasoning logically that in an ideal world of universal happiness and genuine love there would be no need of these qualities. This seemingly cynical approach is quite unlike “The Divine Image” where “Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love/ Is God our Father dear” can be seen immediately as four ideal virtues belonging to God the Almighty Father. It is suggested that these qualities are from God and thus that makes the world a good, just and fair world. The phrase “and Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love/ Is man, His child and care” also suggests that God loves mankind and has these virtues to protect His children and to care for them, and does not have the negative worldview or weltanschauung present in “The Human Abstract”.<br /><br /><em><span style="color:#000066;">Doing the same as for the previous paragraph, ask yourself questions about the paragraph in this essay and how it relates to the essay theme.<br /></span></em><br />Furthermore, “The Human Abstract” is a methodical critique of the key and important virtues that were so praised in “The Divine Image”. Proceeding through Pity, Mercy, and Peace, the poem then arrives at the phrase “selfish loves”, where the word “selfish” conjures up negativism. These clearly differ from Love as an innocent abstraction, and the poem thus explores the growth, at once insidious and simultaneously organic, of a system of values based on stagnation, repression, hypocrisy and fear. This is rather unlike “The Divine Image” which suggests a rather more positive tone with respect to Pity, Mercy and Peace. “For Mercy has a human heart/ Pity, a human face” has a tone that suggests that man is so similar to God, and carries a positive connotation. “And Love, the human form divine/ And Peace the human dress” further show that there is little similarity with fear, hypocrisy, repression or stagnation, as love and peace are divine and provide protection in the form of dressing. “Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell/ There God is dwelling too” from a Christian perspective means that God dwells in the heart of men, whenever one can see the virtues of Mercy, Love and Pity. Furthermore, the line “and all must love the human form/ In heathen, Turk, or Jew” can be taken to mean that all heathens, Turks or Jews, meaning all pagans, Muslims or Hebrews, are just as human and have human virtues like everyone else. Clearly there is a more negative atmosphere and negative connotations in “The Human Abstract” vis-à-vis the more positive “The Divine Image”.<br /><br /><em><span style="color:#000066;">Doing the same as for the previous paragraph, ask yourself questions about the paragraph in this essay and how it relates to the essay theme.</span></em><br /><em><span style="color:#000066;"><br /></span></em>The description and extended metaphor of the tree in the second part of “The Human Abstract” shows how intellectualized and apparently academic values like Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love become a breeding-ground for “Cruelty”. The speaker depicts Cruelty as a conniving and knowing anthropomorphic person; in planting a tree, he also lays a snare. This personification allows the poem to express further ideas: Cruelty’s tree flourishes on fear and weeping; “Humility” is its root, where the real meaning of humility has been soundly distorted, “Mystery” its foliage; but this growth is not natural or even desired. Rather, the tree is associated with “Deceit”, and its branches harbour the “raven”, an important and common symbol of death. By the end of “The Human Abstract” we realize that the tree’s description is a glimpse into the human mind, and is probably about man’s mental experience, with all the negative items of mystery, deceit and death. Thus the poem comments on the way abstract reasoning and understanding of virtues undermine a more natural system of values. The result is a grotesque resemblance to the organic, real type of values, which brings forth a tree that lies “sequestered” secretly in the “human Brain”. Perhaps it means that all these virtues and ideals actually only exist within the human brain and that Cruelty is inevitably the end result, suggesting a more negative and metaphysical, philosophical ending to the poem. These elements are all missing from “The Divine Image”.<br /><br /><em><span style="color:#000066;">Summarise and conclude the essay!</span></em><br /><br />In summary, “The Human Abstract” differs in tone and atmosphere from its companion poem; this poem preaches that traditional Christian virtues of mercy and pity presuppose a world of poverty and suffering and that these virtues represent a kind of useless resigned sympathy that suggests no obligation to ameliorate suffering, whereas in “The Divine Image”, Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love can be seen as ideal virtues belonging to the Almighty God. In addition, “The Human Abstract” is a critique of the important virtues that were so praised in “The Divine Image”. Analysing Pity, Mercy, and Peace, these clearly differ from Love as an innocent abstraction, and the poem explores the growth, insidious and organic, of a system of values based on fear, hypocrisy, repression, and stagnation. This is unlike “The Divine Image” which suggests a more positive tone with respect to Pity, Mercy and Peace. The extended metaphor of the tree in “The Human Abstract” ultimately shows how intellectualized academic values like Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love become the breeding-ground for “Cruelty”, depicting Cruelty as a conniving anthropomorphic entity; he lays a trap; his tree flourishes on fear; “Humility” is its root, “Mystery” its foliage; this growth is unnatural. Rather, the tree is associated with “Deceit”, and its branches harbour a symbol of death. The tree metaphor is a glimpse into the human mind, where the poem comments on the way abstract reasoning and understanding of such virtues undermines a more natural system of values. In the final analysis, this poem is indeed a critique and re-evaluation of “The Divine Image”. Blake’s poetry is far deeper and philosophical than a mere cursory, peripatetic reading suggests.<br /><br /><em><span style="color:#000066;">All good essays have this at the end - either works cited or a bibliography or both, in the case of some essays.</span></em><br /><br />Bibliography<br /><br /><strong>Blake, William, David Erdman and Harold Bloom. The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake. California: University of California Press 1982. </strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong></strong><br />Warning: Cheating or stealing other people's ideas is a bad thing and may catch up with you, so please don't entertain such thoughts if you are. These literature essays are by Shawn Seah. Essays on this site are meant for educational purposes and instructional purposes ONLY. They are written and prepared by Shawn Seah. Thank you.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-4213147053335803586?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-57281164641935731172008-05-19T15:42:00.004+08:002008-05-19T15:48:16.391+08:00Here is another History essay on the <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/05/history-essay-communist-manifesto.html">Communist Manifesto</a>. Here is some analysis of the structure of the essay for you to observe: there is a question asked and there is an answer (a knowledge based problem and a thesis). There are also many definitions in-built into the essay and you can find them where they are. There are many citations and the language is clear and lucid. Then, as usual, I will ask you once again: how can I improve on this essay? What can be written better and more accurately in terms of the language and ideas? Remember that essay writing is a long drawn out process that requires hard work and practice. Read and re-read your essay many times and work out your good drafts into excellent essays.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel’s “The Manifesto of the Communist Party”:<br /></strong><br /><strong>How do Marx and Engels differentiate their Communist Party from other socialist parties in Europe?</strong><br /><br />One major question about the <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/05/history-essay-communist-manifesto.html">Communist Manifesto</a> is: how do Marx and Engels differentiate their Communist Party and its ideals from other socialist parties in Europe? Clearly they distinguish themselves from the socialists, and consider themselves to be a very radical and different type of socialist/communist. In their analyses, they set themselves apart from the other parties of the time. What are these other parties of the time, mentioned in the Manifesto? Reactionary socialists were the first major group: for instance, groups of people belonging to feudal socialism, petty-bourgeois socialism, and German or “true” socialism. The second group was comprised of the conservative or bourgeois socialists. The third group was labelled the “critical-utopian” socialists and communists, comprising Owenites and Fourierists, among others. These socialist-communist parties and groups were all distinct and different from Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel’s communist party, which saw itself as the true, real product, as opposed to these perversions that called themselves socialists or communists. This paper will analyse those other groups and how Marx and Engels separated themselves from those parties to present their communists as the true bearers of change, and ultimately revolution.<br /><br />First, what were the criticisms of Marx and Engels against the various groups? Reactionary socialists were the first major group targeted for criticism: in particular, feudal socialism, petty-bourgeois socialism, and German or “true” socialism. Marx and Engels criticise feudal socialism because it is primarily based on aristocracy and nobility, who were basically defeated time and time again after the French Revolution of 1789, and therefore masqueraded as socialism in order to win the support of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie (36-37). Marx and Engels strongly claim that these types of fake and useless socialists can never be useful to the real, true cause of communism. The petty-bourgeoisie also lost out in the fight against the capitalism of the bourgeoisie (middle class), and hence became both “reactionary and utopian”, supporting “corporate guilds for manufacture; patriarchal relations in agriculture”, not noticing that the world had already moved on (37-39). These petty-bourgeois socialists were not real communists, according to Marx and Engels, and hence do not deserve an important mention as they are merely reactionary and supporting modes of production that have long gone extinct, to use an evolutionary term. In addition, Marx and Engels did not like German “true” socialism, because when it imported ideas from French socialist and communist thinkers, German socialism incorporated those ideas into traditional German philosophy and made communism serve German ends (39-41). It is important to note that at this point, around 1848, there was still no unified Germany as Germany became unified only in 1871, after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871. The point still remains that German philosophers utilised communist ideas and infused them into their culture and philosophy, rather than taking on board the real communism that Marx and Engels espouse. Hence, with great condemnation, reactionary socialists were all soundly rebutted and ignored by Marx and Engels in their monumental tract.<br /><br />The second group was comprised of the conservative or bourgeois socialists. For this group Marx and Engels had more condemnation – it was because these people were essential bourgeoisie who wanted to keep the bourgeois in power, and “pretended” to be on the side of the working class (42-43). “It is summed up in the phrase: the bourgeois is a bourgeois – for the benefit of the working class” (43), which obviously is anathema to Marx and Engels, and this is simply not true to them. Marx and Engels only see the perpetuation of bourgeois administrative rule, power, and control over the weakening working classes, as this apparently noble, kind and wise move to control the excesses of capitalism and ameliorate the conditions of the working class is not actually intended to improve lives or to make the playing field equal, but rather to perpetuate the status quo. It can be strongly argued that Marx and Engels do not like socialists and think that they are weak at best, and evil at worst.<br /><br />The third group was labelled the “critical-utopian” socialists and communists, comprising Owenites and Fourierists, among others. Marx and Engels criticise these people for their utopian ideals and stupidity in utilising “peaceful means” and “small experiments” in order to further the cause of communism (44). On the one hand, the experiments of, for instance, Owen in England, were very favourable and drew attention to the ideals and ideas of communism in practice; on the other hand, it was silly to assume that no political action, no serious revolution, and no serious use of violence could solve the dominance of the bourgeoisie over the working class (44-45). Hence, clearly something more had to be done. It can be seen that Marx and Engels simply did not agree with any of the other groups of socialists and communists.<br /><br />Indeed, Marx and Engels instead approved and analysed the strength and importance of the communists. In summary, "the Communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of things”, bringing “the property question” to the forefront, and finally labouring “everywhere for the union and agreement of the democratic parties of all countries” (47). These three key ideas form the basis of the Communist Manifesto: revolution; the idea of property and capitalism; a huge, expansive and worldwide basis, not just a focus on democratic countries alone. These central ideas differed from the other groups, which generally were more status-quo, more run-of-the-mill, and less radical in terms of their political theory and orientation.<br /><br />“The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.<br /><br />Working men of all countries, unite!” (Marx and Engels, 1963:47)<br />(Note: The Communist Manifesto was written in 1848, but this author uses the 1963 edition)<br /><br />With these moving, stirring words, Marx and Engels summed up and concluded their tract. In summary: revolution with no negotiation with the bourgeoisie nor compromise!<br /><br />In summary, <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/05/history-essay-communist-manifesto.html">Marx and Engels</a> differed from the other socialist-communist parties because of their refusal to compromise with the bourgeoisie, and their strong belief that the other parties were wrong in coming to terms with or adapting to the status quo. In the final analysis, revolution and the violence brought about by the inevitable and definite material dialectic separated them from other socialists – because ultimately <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/2008/05/history-essay-communist-manifesto.html">Marx and Engels</a> were radical communists.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels, ‘The Manifesto of the Communist Party’, in Marx, Engels and Lenin: the Essential Left (London: Unwin 1963), pp. 7-48.<br /></strong><br />(1089)<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-5728116464193573117?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-58872536247536053182008-05-19T04:26:00.002+08:002008-05-19T04:30:40.227+08:00Here is a sample essay on Intellectual History/ History essay: in particular the Communist Manifesto. Remember to ask yourself questions about the essay, and how to write better essays.<br /><br /><strong>The Manifesto of the Communist Party</strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>Essay Question: Is the Communist Manifesto merely an exhortation to the wretched, poor, labouring classes?</strong><br /><br />Is the Communist Manifesto merely a motivational and emotional exhortation to the wretched, poor, labouring classes of the 1800s and 1900s? Or is it more than just that?<br /><br />“Owing to the extensive use of machinery and to division of labour, the work of the proletarians has lost all individual character, and consequently, all charm for the workman. He becomes an appendage of the machine, and it is only the most simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is required of him. Hence, the cost of production of a workman is restricted, almost entirely, to the means of subsistence that he requires for his maintenance, and for the propagation of his race.” (21)<br /><br />Here, Marx and Engels appear superficially to be describing the wretched state of the proletariat. In reality, this extract is more than just a mere description of the monotony of the workman and his suffering, and is part of Marx and Engel’s fuller, more complete analysis of the proletariat, which according to them, is the class that is exploited by the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie were a class of people who arose after the industrial revolution of the 1750s and who benefited the most from capitalism and the burgeoning free market. They benefited from the system by earning lots of money and buying capital, which they used to make more money. The proletarians, or the proletariat, were the people who worked for the bourgeoisie, and earned money for them while they slaved away in poor conditions. They were the working class. The passage suggests that the existence of the proletariat is because of the bourgeois need for them, hence explaining the rise of the modern working class.<br /><br />This is the key issue: the relationship between capital and labour, where the bourgeoisie own the capital and the proletarians own only their labour, and sell it to the bourgeoisie. The proletarians are subordinated to the machines, becoming appendages of the machines, and the economic law of “division of labour” (21) applies to them, because they are considered nothing more than labourers, and hence that is why their wages are so low, to the point that it only gives “subsistence … for the propagation of [their] race” (21). The words ‘subsistence’ and the phrase ‘propagation of his race’ both suggest an exploitation of the proletarians as well as suggest the continuation of this unfortunate and terrible chain of events. Hence, one can see the wretched situation of the proletariat. This is the fundamental basis of the passage, because the extract explains how the bourgeoisie have called into existence the proletariat as a class, and while the bourgeoisie own all the capital, the proletarians are nothing more than just operators of the machines, earning low wages. Hence it contributes to the major idea that the fundamental basis of relationships within society is economics – where one class dominates over another because of the ownership of capital, the factors of production, which confer on them a socio-economic status that the proletarians do not possess. In summary, the Communist Manifesto is about economics, and the economic relationships between people, or rather classes of people.<br /><br />This domination of one class, the proletariat, by another, the bourgeoisie, will not remain the status quo, according to Marx and Engels. According to them, “the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles” (14), meaning that even though the Manifesto was written in 1848 where middle-class bourgeoisie were on the upswing, this domination would finally end in class conflict and a struggle for supremacy once again. This smacks of revolution, and indeed, that is what Marx and Engels promote. A simple historical background to this would be the Russian Revolution in 1917, and the Cuban communist government, North Korean communist government and the Chinese communist government. Communists in real-life history believed in spreading the word of Marx and Engels and the ideas of revolution to counter oppression. There is indeed a movement, a world-wide and expansive one in fact, promoted in the writings of Marx and Engels, and this has a motivational and exhortative side to it which cannot be denied. Yet the text is more than just that, because it had the power to move millions to action.<br /><br />Indeed, in a wider sense, Marx and Engels’ interpretation of history is known as historical material dialectic, as they are not merely supporters of an exploited working class. The “history” in particular refers to the rise and fall of the feudal system vis-à-vis the rising economic power of the bourgeoisie. The word “material” reflects the economic and tangible nature of Marx and Engel’s analysis, and the word “dialectic”, borrowed from Hegelian thought sans the theological and teleological aspects, reflects the progress, movement and historical process of the analysis. In fact, Marx considered his predictions inevitable, since the material dialectic implied an inevitable, inexorable class struggle between the bourgeoisie and the working class, where ultimately the working class would prevail, all in a matter of time. The Communist Manifesto has a deeper, philosophical and intellectual background, and cannot be said to be merely an exhortation or a motivational tract.<br /><br />In conclusion, the Communist Manifesto is more than just about the wretched working conditions of the poor proletariat, the oppressed class that arose due to the new economic imperatives brought about by the collapse of feudalism and the rise of the bourgeoisie. There is more to it than meets the eye, and the initial extract at the start was merely a starting point to the discussion. The subordination of these workers to machines, the degradation of their lives and worth, the profits that the bourgeoisie reaped upon the backs of these workers, who eked out only subsistence and earned enough only to propagate their race, in order to be exploited again and again, would ultimately lead to inevitable and perennial class conflict. In the final analysis, that was ultimately the true meaning and intent of the Communist Manifesto. Historical dialectic, class conflict and eventually revolution, leading up to some kind of utopia: there can be no doubt about it.<br /> <br /><strong>Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels, ‘The Manifesto of the Communist Party’, in Marx, Engels and Lenin: the Essential Left (London: Unwin 1963), pp. 7-48.<br /></strong><br />(1011)<br /><br />1. Bear in mind the citation and citation methods.<br />2. Bear in mind the approach and style of the esssay - and ask yourself how to improve on it.<br />3. What other ideas can you think of about how to improve on this essay or your own essay?<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-5887253624753605318?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-65126262744428447872008-05-18T16:19:00.003+08:002008-06-01T15:58:16.775+08:00<strong>Literature essay - John Donne's "The Flea"</strong><br /><br />Here in this post, I analyse John Donne's "The Flea", which is apparently one of his more carnal and basically not-innocent poems. Warning: This literary poem and this literary analysis/ essay that is about to follow may be offensive to students who are not used to studying erotic literature, or may be offensive to students who are of more conservative backgrounds. While it is true that many of the essays and literary analyses consider Donne to be a love poet, it is not always true because Donne was both a religious poet and a love poet at the same time, as reflected in this essay series on Donne.<br /><br />Be sure to ask yourself questions about the essay and think deeply about what the speaker is trying to say, as well as what John Donne is trying to convey.<br /><br /><strong>John Donne’s The Flea: The Flea as Metaphor of Virginity’s Unimportance </strong><br /><br />This poem exhibits John Donne’s skill for turning the least likely images into elaborate metaphysical symbols of love, lust, and romance. This poem uses the image of a flea that has just bitten the speaker and his beloved to describe and intimate a conflict over whether the two will have sex. The speaker wants to but his beloved does not, and so he uses the flea as an argument and metaphor to show how innocuous carnal love can be. He reasons that if their blood mingling in the flea is harmless and innocent, sexual mingling would be equally innocuous too. The speaker tells his beloved to look at the flea and to note “how little” that “thing” that she denies him is, thus trivialising sex. Their blood mingling cannot be called “sin, or shame, or loss of maidenhead”, but rather the flea has joined them together in a way that, “alas, is more than we would do”. His arguments go far beyond this preliminary idea, and are even turned on their heads when his beloved kills the flea. This paper examines the core idea that the flea is a metaphor used as an argument to trivialise sex, and ultimately, the flea is a metaphor that virginity is unimportant.<br /><br />First and foremost, the opening line “mark but this flea, and mark in this, how little that which deniest me is” shows that the flea is small and inconsequential, and his lady denies him what he wants. The metaphor of the flea develops as it relates to the other symbols, for instance, blood. Blood is used more than once as a symbol in the poem. The speaker talks of blood reverently and equates it to honour, where blood symbolises life and soul. The flea has bitten him and his lady, hence the speaker remarks that in the flea his blood and his lady’s blood are mixed, therefore, during sex their souls are “mingled” and become one. The speaker therefore speaks apparently respectfully about sex, that it can be spiritual and important. But this is eventually revealed to be only a ploy to prove that if the speaker’s lady can treat sex so irreverently after he comments how sacred it is, than it should not be dealt with so seriously and that virginity is unimportant.<br /><br />As his beloved moves to kill the flea, the speaker “stays” her hand, asking her to spare the trinity of three lives in the flea: his life, her life, and the flea's life. In the flea where their blood is mingled, they are almost “married”, even more than married, and the flea is their “marriage bed” and “marriage temple” metaphorically mixed into one. Though their parents “grudge” and disapprove of their romance and though she does not want have sex with him, they are nevertheless united and “cloister’d” in the living walls of the flea’s body. He asks that she not kill herself by killing the flea that contains her blood; he says that to kill the flea would be sacrilege, "three sins in killing three", suggesting a holy trinity, which is a religious Christian image, reflecting that he is using the flea as a metaphor in order to convince his lady of his high-minded and apparently sophisticated argument.<br /><br />But when his beloved still kills the flea despite his protestations, arguments and persuasion, and probably as a deliberate move to destroy his argument, the speaker turns his argument on its head and claims that despite the high-minded sacred or even holy or respectable ideals he has just been invoking, killing the flea did not impugn his beloved’s honour. That means that despite the high-minded and sacred ideals she has invoked in refusing to have intercourse, doing so would not impugn her honour. Simply, Donne’s speaker seems to adapt his argument as it progresses, sometimes in contradictory ways, a feature that perhaps challenges that image of the metaphysical conceit of the flea as a single, consistent, unified, confident metaphor. “Cruel” the speaker calls his lover, who has killed the flea, “purpling” her fingernail with the "blood of innocence", suggesting that the flea was “innocent” and that his ideas were entirely noble and high-minded. The speaker asks his lover what the flea's sin was, other than having “suck’d” from each of them a drop of blood. His lover apparently replies that neither of them is less noble for having killed the flea, and he agrees that it is true, and it is this that proves that her fears regarding honour are false: if she were to “yield to” him and have sex, she would lose no more honour than she lost when she killed the flea. Basically using the flea as a metaphor for interpretation, the speaker is commenting that sex does not have the power to take away innocence. There is more to it than just that. The “murder” of the flea also adds to the poem. As we have seen, the exchange of lifeblood during intercourse forms a “marriage” between the partners, and the narrator asks his lady not to kill the flea, which is symbolic of the end of intercourse, or orgasm. It was common in thinking during that period that every time a man had sex his life was shortened, thus it is reasonable to say that the speaker is also representing the murder of the flea as his own life being taken by his lady during the act. Conclusively the speaker states that the flea has not taken anything from either of them and, therefore the act of sex will not diminish their lives and his lady will not be giving up anything by yielding to him. Thus the speaker reasons with his lady by lessening the importance of virginity.<br /><br />In this clever, cunning and sexual poem Donne uses a flea, blood, and the murder of the flea as analogies for the oldest, base, erotic exchange. In summary, the flea, blood and death of the flea are all used as metaphors for sex, with the flea forming the main conceit and the thrust of the poem; the exchange of lifeblood within the act of intercourse, represented as something as insignificant as a flea, and then orgasm, which is as important as the death of a flea. The speaker in this poem hopes to convince his lady to sleep with him by trivializing sex. Donne not only questions the validity of coveting virginity but also questions the importance of intercourse. This poem is one of many clever love poems that use the flea as an erotic, sexual image, a genre derived from Ovid’s. Donne’s skill of indirectly hinting (yet strongly) at the erotic without ever explicitly and directly referring to sex, while at the same time leaving no doubt as to what he means, is incredible: the idea that being bitten by a flea would represent “sin, or shame, or loss of maidenhead” gets the point, that virginity is overrated, across with a certain conciseness, clarity and literary beauty that while seemingly absurd as a metaphor, gets us thinking.<br /><br />Bibliography<br /><br />Donne, John. Poems of John Donne. vol I. E. K. Chambers, ed. London: Lawrence &amp; Bullen, 1896 pp. 1-2.<br /><br />(1166)<br /><br />Questions about this essay:<br />1. Donne seems to be both a religious poet and a love poet at the same time. What explains this dichotomy? What is a dichotomy, in the context of John Donne's poetry and all the essays covered in this essay series so far?<br /><br />2. How can I improve on this essay?<br /><br />3. What has this essay got to do with the mores and customs of our time? Are there any key elements within the essay, that speak about society of that period of time, that I should be aware of?<br /><br />4. What is the difference between this essay and all the other essays of Donne in this essay series? What are the similarities between this essay and all the other essays of Donne in this essay series?<br /><br />5. What other questions can I ask about this literary analysis paper?<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-6512626274442844787?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-27707519805025729572008-05-18T16:08:00.004+08:002008-06-01T15:58:47.721+08:00<strong>Literature essay - John Donne's "Batter my Heart"</strong><br /><br />Here is yet another John Donne literary analysis essay, and this time on his religious poetry once again. As we all know, most of the essays here on my blog in this John Donne series revolve around his Holy Sonnets (his religious poetry) or his more common and very famous love poems. Perhaps if you study John Donne for literature it might be a good idea to look into his personal life and biography so as to achieve a better understanding and that might help you with your literature and your essay writing and critical analysis or poem analytical skills. Remember to ask yourself questions about the essay and how it is written.<br /><br /><br /><strong>John Donne: Holy Sonnet XIV “Batter my heart” – Violence and Sex in a Holy Sonnet?</strong><br /><br />"Batter my heart, three-person'd God; for you<br />As yet but knock; breathe, shine, and seek to mend;<br />That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend<br />Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.<br /><br />I, like an usurp'd town, to another due,<br />Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.<br />Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,<br />But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.<br /><br />Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,<br />But am betroth'd unto your enemy;<br />Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,<br />Take me to you, imprison me, for I,<br /><br />Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,<br />Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me."<br /><br /><br />John Donne is normally well-known for his conceits and his erotic, sexual love poems, but here in this religious sonnet, “Batter my heart”, he goes further. Combining violence, sex, conceits and religious imagery, all into one potent mix in this poem, he has now fashioned a very interesting sonnet that addresses God using terms and words rich in violence and sex. What is the key to understanding this sonnet? The key to understanding this poem is shocking violence. In this poem it is possible to take Donne’s persona, or speaker, as Donne himself. We will be examining the violence and sex in this Holy Sonnet to understand what role violence had in the meaning of the sonnet.<br /><br />“Batter my heart”, the first three words, already immediately convey a strong sense of violence, in terms of a battering ram, a battering of the heart in order to apparently let the “three-person’d God” in. Donne, as speaker and persona, suggests that the only way into his hardened heart is for God to pound his way in. This violence is expressed ironically via a pleading prayer to God, a kind of plea or argument, as Donne negotiates and talks to God. The word “knock” and “seek to mend” suggest a strong need to correct something that is wrong. Donne then employs irony where the only way for him to “rise, and stand” is to be overthrown and forced to “bend” by God, via all sorts of violent ways. The irony is that paradoxically, in order for Donne to become closer to God, he has to stand upright, and yet the only way for him to stand upright is for him to be figuratively and metaphorically overthrown by God. This reminds Christians of Nicodemus’ talk with Jesus as reflected in the Bible, and the conclusion that man has to be reborn in order to be a true Christian. This is corroborated by the “force” that will “break, blow, burn, and make me new”. The alliteration of “break, blow, burn” emphasise the Christian belief that one has to be born anew in order to be closer to God, and it can be seen that breaking someone, blowing someone away, and burning (the concept of fire as regenerative and resembling hell) could metaphysically make someone new.<br /><br />The metaphor, or rather the conceit, of the “usurp’d town” is also very convincing in the overall flow of the argument. The town is due to God because it belongs to Him, and wants to let Him in, yet being taken over by enemies, “labour to admit” God into the place. There is a strong sense of helplessness here. This extended metaphor goes on to show that “Reason”, the Lord’s viceroy and protector of the town, should have defended Donne from sin and the Devil, and has yet let God down because reason has been captured, and proven either “weak or untrue”. Reason was supposed to help God but was captured and found to not assist God’s creations, and was found not to live up to its reputation. These damning accusations of the failure to keep to God’s word are embedded into the violent language of a besieged town in the middle of a violent war.<br /><br />The volta comes with the “Yet dearly I love you”, and now the conceit of war has given way to the conceit of a marriage, where there is a strong element of sex and the erotic. The extended metaphor of marriage is utilised where Donne protests that despite loving God, he is “betroth’d unto” the enemy, and hence a traitor. For a religious and Holy Sonnet, this poem reeks and smacks of adultery, sexual love and violence, and this is corroborated further, where the solution according to Donne is “divorce” and a forceful seizure of the bride. It is important to note that Christians, especially Roman Catholics, frown upon divorce. There is, furthermore, an element of imprisonment and the rescue of the lover. This sexual innuendo is key to understanding this poem as it reflects the ambiguity that Donne feels, and his being torn between God and his worldly passions, or the Devil. In addition, the fact that the metaphor is of marriage already lends credence to the view that Donne is stuck with his worldly views and behaviour.<br /><br />In addition, the final couplet ends the poem on a sexually charged note: “Except you enthrall me, never shall be free/ Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me”. This suggests that unless God steals the metaphorical bride away, in terms of the very strong and poignant word “enthrall”, He will never catch Donne and get him back, and also reveals the metaphorical irony that if God does not rape (“ravish”) Donne, Donne will never be pure and chaste. The two lines are correlated and linked to the central image of the marriage. Basically, the paradox of the sexual metaphor is that Donne needs to be violently violated by God, by being enthralled and by being ravished and raped, so that the shock and power of God entering his life will make him holy and proper again.<br /><br />To conclude, there is a lot of sex and violence in this poem, and there can be no doubt about that. The key idea, however, is that Donne merely wants God to come into his life, and sees no way out except through violent and rather sexual means, because of the failure of God’s gentle reminders and gentle persuasion. Gentleness and gradual conversion do not seem to work well on Donne and have done nothing good for him, but violence apparently can work and will force him to let God in. He wants to let God into his life. Metaphorically speaking, this poem is not contradictory, although it seems rather paradoxical and ironic. The metaphysical qualities of violence and sex are intended to bring real good and real honour to Donne.<br /><br />Bibliography<br /><br />Donne, John. Poems of John Donne. vol I. E. K. Chambers, ed. London: Lawrence &amp; Bullen, 1896. p. 165.<br /><br />(982)<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-2770751980502572957?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-60436126731424025722008-05-17T15:53:00.005+08:002008-06-01T15:59:12.759+08:00<strong>Literature essay - John Donne's "The Anniversary"</strong><br /><br />Here is an analysis of the literary poem "The Anniversary" by John Donne. You can see all the various <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/search/label/John%20Donne">John Donne series of literature analysis and critiques</a> here (the essays and analyses of poems) on my <a href="http://englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com/">English language resources online</a> blog.<br /><br /><br /><strong>John Donne: The Anniversary – Passionate Love as Royalty<br /></strong><br />“The Anniversary” by John Donne is about a couple who are celebrating their first year together in a relationship. The underlying conceit of the entire poem is the metaphor of royalty, where the speaker addresses his lover, and himself, as if they were royal kings and nobles. At the same time, divine imagery and death images permeates the poem, but that is not the focus of our discussion here. The question under scrutiny in this paper is: how does Donne use royal imagery to convey the idea of a passionate love? There is no doubt that there are religious, divine images within the poem and that there is constant reference to death and decay, but the opening line of “all kings” immediately suggests that the central theme is indeed royalty.<br /><br />The opening line immediately declares that “All kings” and all the “glory of honours, beauties, wits/ The sun itself” have aged by one year ever since the speaker met his lover. This suggests that the two lovers have been together for one year, and yet, unlike the kings and glories, and even the sun which brings life and time, the two lovers have not aged in their love. There is a reference to kings in the beginning of the poem, setting the stage for later metaphors. “All other things to their destruction draw/ Only our love hath no decay” is a grandiose statement by the passionate speaker who proudly declares that while everything may decay and rot away, his love will not and does not decay. This love appears to be divine and everlasting. “This no to-morrow hath, nor yesterday” declares that his love will last forever because it has no tomorrow, and that it does not look back to yesterday, and this idea is corroborated where despite time and the love running forwards together, “it never runs from us away”, suggesting that the love will never run away, but instead “truly keeps his first, last, everlasting day”, being eternal and long-lasting. There is little reference to royalty apart from the first two words in the stanza, yet it can be said that the arrogant phrasing of the words and the proud and loquacious declarations of the speaker remind the reader of a kingly declaration or an announcement.<br /><br />The persona then turns to talk proudly about death, where death would unite the two lovers in the grave, and thus “death were no divorce”. The love that the speaker feels for his lover is so strong that only death can physically separate them, and even more, on a spiritual level, death cannot even separate them metaphysically, as death is not considered a divorce, at least to the speaker. The metaphor of princely royalty once again emerges: “as well as other princes, we/ —Who prince enough in one another be” suggests that the two of them should have princely pride and love, different from other people, whose love is not pure, noble and royal as their love is. The theme of death is strong in this second stanza, where “eyes and tears” fed with “true oaths, and with sweet salt tears” have no choice but to physically disappear into the grave. Yet, the spiritual element saves the love: “But souls where nothing dwells but love”, a reference to his own higher level spiritual love, suggests that the loving souls are freed from the prison of the body, and then can still be reunited. This concept sounds very unbelievable and somewhat illogical, in contrast to the arguments and very structured build up in the poem by Donne, but Donne is merely using as a poet, the poetic license, in order to manipulate spurious theories and twist theology to suggest that spiritual love is the best and has an underlying meaning beyond the grave.<br /><br />With death “then we shall be throughly blest”, but that is not the key idea, because when they are dead, they are merely having a spiritual love just like all other lovers who have died, “now no more than all the rest”. This is not different nor spectacular, since many have already died in love. “Here upon earth we're kings, and none but we/ Can be such kings, nor of such subjects be” refocuses the final stanza back into the present, on earth, and utilises the imagery of kingship and royalty. On earth, and still alive, both the speaker and his lover are royalty and subjects at the same time. This kind of love may be subject to treachery, but that is not possible, because since both of them love each other, “treason” is out of the question. The word “treason” was chosen because of the royal metaphor and analogy, where if any one of the two lovers cheats, being both subjects and royalty at the same time, then treason has been committed against their state. “True and false fears let us refrain” is an honest, proud declaration of loving without fear, and then the final declaration is the intention of keeping their reign long and long, “to write threescore”, loving “nobly” and living nobly. The royal metaphor clearly shows that the elements of kingship are apparently present in the couple’s relationship, and also that the speaker wants them to love each other just like royalty do, in what he sees as a passionate love just like a closed and unified society.<br /><br />In conclusion, Donne conveys passionate love in terms of royalty by comparison, proud declarations and the interconnectedness and weaving with death, spiritual love and other elements, hence making royalty into an overarching metaphor for noble, kingly love. This poem is about two people forming a society, with themselves as kings and subjects all at once – a very interesting take on love.<br /><br /><br />Bibliography<br /><br />Donne, John. Poems of John Donne. vol I. E. K. Chambers, ed. London: Lawrence &amp; Bullen, 1896. pp. 24-25.<br /><br />(953)<br /><br /><br />Questions to ponder:<br /><br />1. Do you like this essay? What is good about it, and what is not so good about it?<br />2. How would you improve this literature essay?<br />3. What other perspectives or opinions could there be on the poem? How would you write your essay on this topic?<br />4. Is there a way of writing the essay in a simpler fashion? Can you simplify the essay?<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-6043612673142402572?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-24348587434945669912008-05-16T23:41:00.003+08:002008-06-01T16:00:02.694+08:00<strong>Literature essay - John Donne's "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning"</strong><br /><br />Here is another literature essay by me here on my English Language Resources Online blog, about John Donne's misogyny in his Chanson. I did not add in the poem this time because formatting it and copying it out was a chore, so here is just the analysis of the poem. Again, when studying English literature or English or any other academic subject for that matter, always ask yourself questions on how to improve your essay and how to write better.<br /><br /><br />John Donne’s Song “<strong>Go and catch a falling star</strong>” – Misogyny in Donne’s Poetry<br /><br />Many know that John Donne’s poetry usually revolves around sexual, erotic love, and occasionally spiritual and higher-level love, as well as religion in his Holy Sonnets. In this poem, however, Donne’s speaker suggests something more than the usual list of Donne’s favourite topics in poetry: this poem is about misogyny – the mistrust, hatred and suspicion of women. The speaker in the poem is debating and arguing with his friend that it is impossible to find a woman who is both loyal and beautiful, “true and fair”. Donne’s poems usually involve a lot of argument and conceits, yet in this poem, a different set of literary devices have been used. How has the speaker conveyed his misogyny and pushed his argument in this poem? In the analysis, it is clear that using a list of feats impossible to achieve, the speaker is suggesting clearly that there is no such thing as a woman both “true and fair”; even if the friend travels the world, he cannot find such a woman; finally, if he actually manages to find one, there is no point in going to her. The speaker manages to use his list and the image of travelling to convey his point and thus further his misogynistic case.<br /><br />First and foremost, there is a list in the first stanza. It was common in those days to issue lists of objectives, but this list in particular is unique because none of the objectives can be met, hence, it is a list of impossible things to do. “Go and catch a falling star” is not possible, because shooting stars cannot be caught at all, and the speaker knows that; while a “mandrake root” reputedly looks like a human, and in fact, in some traditional and primitive cultures, this mandrake root was supposed to have human qualities that underscored its look, it is impossible to make a root of a herb pregnant “with child”. The rhetorical question of “tell me where all past years are” is mere linguistic, cunning wordplay because they have not gone anywhere; it is also impossible to tell “who cleft the devil’s foot”. “Teach me to hear mermaids singing” is impossible because, firstly, there are no mermaids, and secondly, according to old legends, if one heard mermaids sing, they might not survive a ship journey; finally it is impossible to “keep off envy’s stinging” because envy and jealousy are innate in human nature. Hence, clearly the list that Donne’s speaker has issued his friend is designed to be impossible, thus underscoring the idea that it is impossible to find a woman “true and fair” and promoting the first part of his argument, with which he convinces his friend.<br /><br />The second stanza is about journeys and how impossible it is to find a woman both “true and fair” despite travelling all around the world. “If thou be’st born to strange sights/ Things invisible to see” suggests that even if one has seen the strangest sights on earth and even seen things and events that have been deemed impossible, it is still more impossible to find a loyal and beautiful lady. This has an emotional ring to it that is furthered in the poem. “Ride ten thousand days and nights/ Till age snow white hairs on thee” reinforces that idea where it suggests that despite travelling for years and years, till one grows old and weary, in the winter of one’s life, a man can still never find a woman “true and fair” despite being able to see “all strange wonders that befell” him. Simply put, it is more possible to see all the strange wonders than find a loyal woman; clearly this poetic structure displays the strong misogynistic tendencies of the speaker, as well as reinforces the impossible challenge that he issued to his friend in the first stanza.<br /><br />The last stanza states that even if the speaker’s friend actually manages to find the impossible, a woman both “true and fair”, it would be pointless to go to her, because while she may have been true and fair when the friend last saw her, by the time Donne’s speaker goes to her, she would have cheated men, “two, or three” already. “If thou find’st one, let me know” suggests sarcastically that “such a pilgrimage were sweet”, where if there were such a person, he would want to travel to meet her. The word “pilgrimage” suggests a divine, religious quality, as such a lady would be a precious and important figure worthy of a pilgrimage, and the word “sweet” suggests that it would be nice, noble and worth going to look for such a valuable and virtuous woman. “Yet” immediately suggests a volte-face, where the speaker apparently changes his mind. “Yet do not, I would not go” claims the speaker, because he is sure that he does not want to meet such a lady. “Though at next door we might meet” suggests that even if she lived next door or nearby, metaphorically and literally, he would still not go to meet her. “Though she were true, when you met her” suggests that her loyalty and apparent virtuous steadfastness would not last, and “Yet she/ Will be/ False, ere I come, to two, or three” concludes the argument with a poignant, pointed and pre-determined conclusion that the lady in question, would have been dishonest and disloyal before he meets her. Simply put, the last stanza corroborates the misogyny and the arguments of the first two stanzas.<br /><br />In summary: misogyny, misogyny and more misogyny. Donne’s speaker condemns women through the use of an impossible list of impossible achievements, suggests that a friend travelling around the world would not find a woman who was both beautiful and loyal, and concludes that even if one were to be found, it was only a matter of time before her cunning, conniving and cheating nature would emerge. With these devices has Donne’s speaker conveyed the misogynistic idea that women cannot be trusted.<br /><br />Bibliography<br /><br />Donne, John. Poems of John Donne. vol I. E. K. Chambers, ed. London: Lawrence &amp; Bullen, 1896, pp. 4-5.<br /><br />(994)<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-2434858743494566991?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-6057178725081188392008-05-15T15:30:00.002+08:002008-05-15T15:32:52.903+08:00<span style="color:#000000;"><strong>John Donne: Death Can Die</strong><br /><br />Death be not proud, though some have called thee</span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not soe,</span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,</span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill mee.</span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,</span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,</span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,</span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.</span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,</span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,</span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,</span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then?</span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,</span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.<br /></span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">(citations and bibliography are at the end of the poem)<br /><br />This is a poem about Death. John Donne’s persona, in the form of his speaker, addresses and talks to Death in this poem, where Death is personified as a person who possesses human characteristics. Here, the speaker talking to Death insults him by showing how weak and powerless and dependent he actually is, and declares finally that Death will die. The question of central discussion here in this poem is: how can Death die?<br /><br />“Death be not proud” is, firstly, an obvious and direct verbal attack on death, where the speaker in the poem tells death using the arrogant-sounding imperative form that he is going to tell him reasons why he is weak and has no right to be arrogant. Death is not “mighty and dreadfull” for many reasons, and typical of John Donne’s poetry, the speaker is going to give reasons why. This is known as the argument in Donne’s poetry, where the speaker gives logical and self-contained reasons and explanations for some event or some situation. Here, the persona is going to show that death is neither “mighty” nor “dreadful”, in a variety of ways. </span><br /><span style="color:#000000;"></span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">Firstly, Death thinks that it can kill and his strength indeed is killing; yet, “those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow” do not die, according to the speaker. This is a curious state of events, where people who are killed and overthrown do not actually “die”. This can be seen superficially and immediately as the death and decay, as it were, of death. There is a condescending and patronising tone where Donne’s speaker criticises Death, even taunting him, and analyses why he cannot kill anyone. The taunting “nor yet canst thou kill mee” shows that death cannot even kill him, and the reason is that Death is no different than resting and sleeping. The phrase “rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee” suggest that both resting and sleeping show images that are similar to death, and yet no one has actually died. In fact, by way of contrast, resting and sleeping are rather pleasurable. Death can thus be easily replicated by states of being that are not deadly. Furthermore, “and soonest our best men with thee doe goe/ Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie” suggests that strong men in war actually get their well deserved rest and get their souls delivered to heaven when they die in battle, meaning that dying in war is not a sad thing, but a thing to be admired, due to eternal rest and salvation. This idea would be reiterated later, at the last part of the poem. This taking of the sting away from death corroborates the weakness of Death, according to the confident speaker.<br /></span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">Secondly, Death is not master, but slave. “Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men” is yet another criticism of Death, because now Death is no master, controlling the fates of others, but is merely a “slave”, to be used and manipulated by “Fate, Chance, kings and desperate men”. These are the people who use Death as a means to further their own personal ends. Fate and Chance being bad luck that result in deaths, perhaps, and kings are really no strangers to using death to kill people in wars, political intrigue, and such struggles, and desperate men such as criminals – all of them manipulate and use Death for their own personal goals. Death can be thus pitied rather than feared or respected, because he is being used for human goals and needs, and can be said to be a slave.<br />Thirdly, Death does not exist on his own, and cannot kill by himself. Death appears powerless and dependent rather than independent and powerful. Death lives with poison, war and sickness, and can only kill with their help and not otherwise; according to the speaker: Death “with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell” suggests that death is not unique or special either. Death cannot kill and cannot exist without these means of dying, so the speaker’s idea is that Death should not be arrogant and proud, as there is no basis for any arrogance and pride. Death is once again no better than sleep, where the phrase “poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well” show that death is very much like sleep, where poppy and charms can achieve the same effects as poison, war and sickness. The immediate insult, “Why swell'st thou then” further jeers at Death, taunting him again and again, and asking him why he is proud, humiliating and insulting him.<br /></span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">In the final part of the poem, the last two lines finally reveal the reason why Death will die. “One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally/ And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die” is a clear reference to Christian belief of the resurrection. Donne’s speaker is suggesting that Christian theology and belief are true, with that proud and confident statement, sounding like fact. We should bear in mind that Donne was a very religious person, so that may have affected his literary writings and come through with the speaker. With Death taken to be like a short sleep, according to Jesus, when believers wake up, they will have eternal life and salvation in Christ, and Death will finally “die”, a paradoxical but self-evident Christian truth. Death is the last one to be put under Jesus’ rule and control, if one believes the Bible. In the final analysis, Death as an ‘anthropomorphic’ entity gets it bad in this poem – insulted, humiliated, shown to be nothing more than rest and sleep, shown to be weak, useless, powerless, and ultimately a slave, and finally, Death is put to death himself at the end. According to Christian belief, yes, Death can die.<br /><br />Bibliography<br /><br /></span><span style="color:#000000;"><strong>Donne, John. The Complete English Poems [of] John Donne. Ed. Albert James Smith. United Kingdom: Penguin Classics 1986.<br /></strong><br />(957)</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-605717872508118839?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-1265053841606083952008-05-15T03:03:00.002+08:002008-05-15T03:07:14.808+08:00<strong>John Donne: A Valediction Forbidding Mourning – Argument and Conceit</strong><br /><br />A VALEDICTION FORBIDDING MOURNING<br />by John Donne <em>(by the way, all these sources - of poetry - have citations at the back - do cite and recognise your sources; all the articles and all the analysis are written and composed by Shawn Seah unless stated otherwise)</em><br /><br />AS virtuous men pass mildly away, <br />And whisper to their souls to go, <br />Whilst some of their sad friends do say, <br />"Now his breath goes," and some say, "No." <br />So let us melt, and make no noise, <br />No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move;<br />'Twere profanation of our joys <br />To tell the laity our love. <br />Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears; <br />Men reckon what it did, and meant; <br />But trepidation of the spheres, <br />Though greater far, is innocent. <br />Dull sublunary lovers' love <br />Whose soul is sense—cannot admit <br />Of absence, 'cause it doth remove <br />The thing which elemented it. <br />But we by a love so much refined, <br />That ourselves know not what it is, <br />Inter-assurèd of the mind, <br />Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss. <br />Our two souls therefore, which are one, <br />Though I must go, endure not yet <br />A breach, but an expansion, <br />Like gold to aery thinness beat. <br />If they be two, they are two so <br />As stiff twin compasses are two; <br />Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show <br />To move, but doth, if th' other do. <br />And though it in the centre sit, <br />Yet, when the other far doth roam, <br />It leans, and hearkens after it, <br />And grows erect, as that comes home. <br />Such wilt thou be to me, who must, <br />Like th' other foot, obliquely run;<br />Thy firmness makes my circle just, <br />And makes me end where I begun. <br /><br />"A Valediction Forbidding Mourning" is a good example of John Donne’s spiritual love poetry, where the typical elements of his poetry such as argument and reasoning, and the widespread use of conceits, are in full bloom. This is one of Donne's most famous and most direct statement of his ideal of spiritual love, whereas in other poems Donne has a fascination for physical and erotic love. For all his erotic, sexual carnality in poems, such as "The Flea," Donne, through his speakers in the poems, also professed a liking for a kind of spiritual love that transcended the merely physical. Here, in summary, the speaker, anticipating a physical separation from his beloved invokes the very nature of that spiritual and true love to ward off the "tear-floods" and "sigh-tempests" that would inevitably appear at their temporary separation. The poem is essentially an argument, not in the meaning of quarrel, but rather a sequence of metaphors and comparisons, each describing a way of looking at their separation that will help them to avoid the mourning forbidden by the title. There are many elements within this poem to analyse and to read into, but in this paper, only the central argument of the poem and the major conceit, the extended complex and unusual metaphor of the compass, will be dealt with.<br /><br />The speaker explains in the first few stanzas that he is forced to spend time apart from his lover, because he going somewhere, but before he leaves, he reasons with her. This is the main argument, the logical reasoning, of the poem: he tells her that their farewell should not be the occasion for mourning and sorrow. In the same way that virtuous men die “mildly” and without complaint, he says, so they should leave without "tear-floods" and "sigh-tempests," for to publicly announce their feelings in such a way would profane their spiritual and higher-level love. The term “laity” itself suggests that their love is a kind of higher order, even ecclesiastical love, compared to the normal or even base love that other lovers possess, because of its religious quality. The speaker says that when the earth moves, it brings "harms and fears," but when the heavenly spheres experience "trepidation," though the impact is greater, it is also innocent. These suggest once again that their love is strong and does not have the same impact as normal people on earth, but possesses the strength and uniqueness of the heavenly spheres. The love of "dull sublunary lovers" cannot survive separation, because it removes the most important things which constitutes the love itself, as the word “sense” suggests a physical and sensual love that depends on physical presence; however, the special and unique love that he shares with his beloved is so refined and "inter-assured of the mind" that they need not worry about missing "eyes, lips, and hands", physical elements that other people depend on in their love relationships. Clearly the argument is rather convincing and logical in its own ways, and the speaker pushes the point further, as he needs to convince his lover not to cry.<br /><br />Though he must go, their souls are still one single soul, and, therefore, according to the speaker’s argument, they are not enduring a breach, but rather an "expansion"; in the same way that malleable gold can be stretched and expanded by beating it "to aery thinness," the single unified soul that they share will simply stretch to take in all the spaces and distance between them, hence, expanding and being all-encompassing. Here the main metaphor is used: the conceit of the image of the compass. It is unusual to use a compass as a metaphor because its scientific and mathematical feel can hardly be used as a romantic metaphor, yet here it can be used, as John Donne’s speaker explains. If their souls are separate, he says, they are perhaps like the feet of a compass. His lover's soul is the fixed foot in the center, and his is the foot that moves around it. Her foot fixed in the centre provides, on the one hand, focus, and on the other, a kind of stability. The reason for this is that in order to draw a circle, the centre foot must be stable and stationary. The firmness of the center foot actually makes the circle that the outer foot draws perfect: "Thy firmness makes my circle just, / And makes me end, where I begun” suggests that this interpretation is correct, and the ending suggests that finally happiness will resume when he is finally back from his travels, when he ends by coming back to the beginning. The word “run” also further suggests that Donne’s speaker will rush to get back home to meet his lover once again, where running is not just about the compass leg, but also about real human legs. Hence, it can be seen that the compass is the key conceit of vast importance to the poem’s positive meaning and its positive ending.<br /><br />The argument of the poem, by the reasoning and the analysis used by the speaker, and the conceit of the compass are key elements to understanding this poem, and indeed, with the metaphorical compass, the poem ends on a hopeful and happy note that the speaker will, one day, return to his lover. On the one hand, the title “Forbidding Mourning” could be taken to be sad, melancholy and negative, where “mourning” and “morning” sound similar, where the morning would never come back for the waiting lover, and the harsh-sounding order to prevent mourning could be taken to be predictive of a sad or even tragic ending; on the other hand, the compass metaphor suggests that forbidding mourning is indeed for final happiness. In the final analysis, the argument and conceit both complete and fulfil the happy ending of the poem.<br /><br /><br />Bibliography<br /><br />Donne, John. The Complete English Poems [of] John Donne. Ed. Albert James Smith. United Kingdom: Penguin Classics 1986.<br /><br />(974)<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6054962542025463661-126505384160608395?l=englishlanguageresourcesonline.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Shawn Seahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054962542025463661.post-14125305781412951542008-05-14T03:18:00.004+08:002008-06-01T16:00:40.686+08:00<strong>John Donne’s Wilt Thou Forgive That Sin: Donne’s Personal Guilt?</strong><br /><br />Wilt thou forgive that sin where I begun,<br />Which was my sin, though it were done before?<br />Wilt thou forgive that sin, through which I run,<br />And do run still, though still I do deplore?<br />When thou hast done, thou hast not done,<br />For I have more.<br /><br />Wilt thou forgive that sin which I have won<br />Others to sin, and made my sin their door?<br />Wilt thou forgive that sin which I did shun<br />A year or two, but wallow'd in, a score?<br />When thou hast done, thou hast not done,<br />For I have more.<br /><br />I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun<br />My last thread, I shall perish on the shore;<br />But swear by thyself, that at my death thy Son<br />Shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore;<br />And, having done that, thou hast done;<br />I fear no more.<br /><br /><br />Many literature students know that John Donne was a famous love poet who wrote love poetry, spiritual or carnal, platonic or sexual, in the style of conceits and metaphorical, metaphysical language. However, what is perhaps less known is that he was a religious poet as well, and even less known than that is that John Donne’s personal struggles in his religious life profoundly affected the way he wrote his poetry, and in particular this piece. This poem can be seen as a personal talk with God, and it comes across as a monologue, or perhaps even a heart-felt speech, or even a prayer. One can take a stance that this is no persona, no speaker talking to God; this poem is from John Donne himself. Donne himself is the speaker of the poem.<br /><br />In the first stanza, he is referring to two sins: one can be seen as a particular reference to Christian belief, “original sin”, and the other is a more common human sin. “Wilt thou forgive that sin where I begun/ Which was my sin, though it were done before” can be taken to mean original sin, which in Christian belief is the original, initial sin that all of us are guilty of, disobedience to God. This allusion is rather clear and straightforward, as the words “begun” and “done before” suggest that this sin stems from Genesis in the Bible, reflecting a beginning, and has a long history to it. “Wilt thou forgive that sin, through which I run/ And do run still, though still I do deplore” is harder to detect or to decipher, but can be interpreted to mean any sin that Donne still does, even though he knows that it is wrong. Basically, Donne is only human, and in here, there is nothing spectacular about his committing of sins that he knows to be wrong, because he is, after all, fallible as all humans are. However, this second sin leads on to the third, which is more critical to the poem.<br /><br />In the second stanza, he is referring to two further sins. The third sin is apostasy: “Wilt thou forgive that sin which I have won/ Others to sin, and made my sin their door” can be interpreted as his self-hate for his apostasy, where he revoked and recanted his Roman Catholic beliefs which he loved and held dearly, in order to become a Protestant. His guilt stems from the fact that he held a high post in the Church of England and was indeed, according to his own beliefs, leading others to sin, as his sin became their “door”, opening