Physical Education In School Essays - Education, Behavior, Learning

Physical Education In School I believe that Elementary School physical education is an essential curriculum for the development of all children. Early physical education classes provide children with a medium for progression from the random play stage to the eventual organized game and eventual structured learning. Throughout this process, children learn the value of group dynamics. Values such as sharing, team play, communication and respect for others become common practice. Apart from group development, physical education at an early age can also dramatically help children succeed in the classroom environment. All children learn at different rates. Learning new ideas and developing them require time and much practice before reaching some success. Most children at some point during this period will struggle. Physical education at this age can provide children with the opportunity to success and be a sort of mental recess. Games and Play can be developed so that kids can associate learning with activity. Since kids enjoy games and play and can easily succeed in this medium, physical activity therefore confidence bumper that will last forever in every child. Success in play can be carried over into the classroom and in future life endeavors. Physical education for children is also very important in the development of their bodies. During this early period in tier lives, children can develop poor eating habits that make physical play difficult to participate in, eventually weaning children away from physical activity participation. It is therefore important to keep kids involved in physical participation, teaching them the values of participation thereby setting the foundation for physical participation for the rest of their life. Apart from the physical rewards of physical education, children can also expand their creative minds in physical play. Through play, children are free to be as creative as they so wish. Experimentation of the mind and body is a regular occurrence in playgrounds as kids adapts games and develop new challenges for their minds and body. Playgrounds are transformed into foreign lands to explore, fields become stadiums backyard rinks become professional hockey coliseums where legends are made and anyone can be score the winning goal, race to victory and save the world in less than an hours time. These are just some of the values that early physical education can provide to a developing child. The importance of these values as developed through physical education I feel will dictate the levels of personal success any individual will have in their life.

buy custom Macro Factors essay

buy custom Macro Factors essay Corruption is one macro factor affecting foreign investment in tourism. Government officials engage in corruption acts especially when it comes to licensing a company kick-off its operations. During taxation, some companies also bribe officials to pay less tax. There is also a tendency of misappropriation of funds obtained from the industry. Locals end up not benefiting from these operations hence negative attitudes towards it. Government policies such as taxation are risk factors as they impose heavy taxes on the companies. This factor drives away most companies due to unfavorable investments environment. The locals end up not benefitting as opposed to when the taxes were low hence attracting investment (Cunliffe, 2). Additionally Cuba is an environment where there is high government control over private businesses. This keeps of most foreign investment or denies them freedom to operate in manner that they want. Mitigation measures Reducing taxation burden on foreign investors Reducing bureaucratic measures Arresting all corrupt officials within. Diversification of operations of tourism. Buy custom Macro Factors essay

Business Law and Ethics for Future and Fiction

For Skye to successfully take action against Charlene for her alleged negligence action, she is required to provide the necessary evidence illustrating duty of care that her instructor owes her. (Mathiason, 2013, 880). Below is a discussion of the issues, correspondent laws, appliances, and wind up statements regarding Skye’s action against Charlene. Negligence, according to Robertson (2013, 31) refers to a presumption whereby a party is considered responsible for occurrence of accidents or injuries which may be averted. An individual is bound to be responsible for negligence action, especially if the defendant consciously refuses to take precautions care, so as to avoid injury and damage caused to people under their care and supervision. Negligence claims requires provision of substantial evidence brought forth by the plaintiff legally proving that the defendant undoubtedly needs to perform the duty of care (Murgatroyd et al 2016, 1). The four major steps essential in providing substantial evidence of perpetrated negligence includes the following: Obligation of care is a stated duty under law where individuals are expected to perform and conduct themselves in a way that causes no damage to individuals under their care (Pagura, 2015, 254). Naturally, the duty of care will be believed as to be carried out by family, relatives or people close to someone. According to the law of negligence, the duty of care is to be performed by any individual with a social responsibility of ensuring other people's safety, whether close or not. Charlene, being Skye's yoga instructor, acts responsibly in going an extra mile to provide her students with rubber soled socks to prevent them from unnecessary falling and injuries. She is keen to note that the floor of the hall she hired to hold yoga classes is slippery and cannot sustain the yoga moves. Most importantly, Charlene is able to note that larger student groups are not east to supervise without injury cases. Prior to this issue being noted, Charlene makes a risky choice of inviting her students for a free Thursday lesson to pensate for the lost time. As it is expected, the students turn up was greater than usual. The 45 students are contained in the same hall which was initially concluded to have limited space that can fortably a modate a maximum of 25 yoga students. Charlene should have thought of the dangers she has been exposing her students to by placing the tea urn in the same room of yoga participation. Since yoga is known to involve vigorous movements, the tea urn should have been kept in a separate place to avoid accidents of burning or tipping over the urn or table. Most importantly, on that day when the student turn up was larger than normal, Charlene would have been wise as to divide the class into half so that she could deal with the first group then the next in turns without having to pete for space. It will be right to subject the instructor to owe a duty of care to Skye because the tea urn would not have originally been placed near the practice area. Breaching of duty can be related to circumstances whereby a defendant fails to do something responsibly pared to a normal individual’s behavioral response if put in a parable condition (Iacobucci, &Trebilcock, 2016, 175).   Standard of care on the other hand is the degree of caution taken to prevent a person under a duty of care from harm's way (Barravecchio, 2013, 5). Charlene is responsible enough to purchase rubber soled socks to prevent her students from falling and hurting themselves. She is also concerned with the space of the hall and therefore opts to admit a lesser number of students so she can provide equal attention to all. On the particular day when the student turn up was 45, 20 more than usual, the yoga instructor failed to meet the required standard of care. She a modates all the students in the same hall well aware of the dangers inherent in her choice. The limit of space in the hall is what causes Skye to look for an alternative position at the back where she has limited space for movement. It is obvious that the instructor’s attention was majorly focused more on the students at the front than those at the back. This way she could not easily notice that one of her students was not wearing her socks. Voluntary risk assumption illustrates the protective action, taken by a defendant so as to prove the voluntary involvement of a plaintiff knowingly assuming likely risks as a result of   their action (Bant& Bryan, 2015, 427). Risk assumption by the plaintiff if proven by the defendant will reduce the right of pensation for damages and injury caused. Generally, the assumption of risk explains that a plaintiff very well aware of the dangers they are exposing themselves to goes ahead to indulge in the risky action (Goudkamp, &Klar, 2016,849). In the particular incident where Skye decides not to wear the provided dancing socks with the thought that the socks did not match her hot pink outfit, she knowingly chooses to go against her teacher’s instructions. Moreover, Skye makes a grave mistake of attending the yoga classes under alcohol influence. She must have known that alcohol will most likely affect her normal judgment but she blindly assumes the dangers she was exposing herself to. Additionally, Skye arrives late for her dancing lessons and cannot occupy her original space. She is left with no choice but to find a different space which is much less than her normal space. I would argue that it is Skye’s fault that she could not occupy her normal space in the hall due to her lateness. If she knew she was going to attend yoga classes, she should have prepared early for class and avoid attending the after party. In addition to her lateness, she ignores the risk of indulging in the yoga class under alcohol influence. Despite the fact that Charlene had not fully explained the need of wearing the socks throughout the dancing lesson, it was a mandatory requirement for all students to wear the socks. If only Skye would have considered all the stated facts, she would have prevented the risk of getting burnt at the yoga class. In the law of negligence, before a plaintiff decides to seek legal action for implied negligence, there should be available proof that their damages are resultant from the defendant’s negligent actions (Turton, G 2015, 80). It is also vital to reflect on the actual circumstance that led to the injury. Was it anticipated by the defendant or it unexpectedly happened (Law, 2014). Before Skye proceeds to take action against Charlene, she must avail proof stating that her burn resulted from the accused’s negligent action. Skye's skin is seriously scolded when her foot tips the table on which a tea urn and steamer are on. This causes the appliances to topple over her body resulting in the severe burns. Partially, it is Charlene’s fault that Skye gets involved in the accident. She should have looked for an alternative area to place the urn and steamer, considering the limit of space in the hall. It is also Skye’s fault that she skid for ignoring to wear the provided rubber-soled socks. Additionally, Skye who had consumed three glasses of wine might have had affected vision as a side effect of drinking wine. It is only right for both Charlene and Skye to be held responsible for their actions. Hosting of a large number of students overshadows Charlene's capability to efficiently supervise the students. Moreover, Charlene knowingly accepted to host all the 45 students well aware of the great difficulty of management she subjects herself to. If only the students would have been the normal number, the instructor would have been able to notice that Skye was not wearing the socks as instructed. This observation would have helped Charlene to take necessary action on her defiant student. On the other hand, if only Skye was obedient enough to put on the socks and not to put priority in her fashion sense, she would have refrained from skidding into the table. If also she avoided drinking wine before her classes, she would have been more alert. It is most likely that the wine caused her to have impaired judgment and bodily imbalance causing her to unwillinglyskid into the table. Bant, E., & Bryan, M. (2015). Fact, Future and Fiction: Risk and Reasonable Reliance in Estoppel. Oxford Journal Of Legal Studies, 35(3), 427-452. Robertson, A 2013, 'On the Function of the Law of Negligence', Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 31-57. Barravecchio, JA 2013, 'The Tort Of Negligence', Legaldate, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 4-7. Bohlen, FH 1906, 'Voluntary Assumption of Risk', Harvard Law Review, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 14-34. Goudkamp, J, &Klar, L 2016, 'Apportionment Of Damages For Contributory Negligence: The Causal Potency Criterion', Alberta Law Review, vol. 53, no. 4, pp. 849-862. Iacobucci, EM, &Trebilcock, MJ 2016, 'An Economic Analysis Of Waiver Of Tort In Negligence Actions', University of Toronto Law Journal, vol. 66, no. 2, pp. 173-196 Law, T. (2014). Case Note: O'Mara v Air Canada 2013 ONSC 2931. Travel Law Quarterly, 6(2), 127-131. Mathiason, T 2013, 'Are You Part Of The Global Workforce?: An Examination Of The "Duty Of Care" To Business Travelers And International Assignees Under The Ilo Occupational Health And Safety Conventions And As Emerging International Customary Law', American University International Law Review, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 873-904. Murgatroyd, D. F., Harris, I. A., Yvonne, T., Cameron, I. D., & Tran, Y. (2016). The association between seeking financial pensation and injury recovery following motor vehicle related orthopaedic trauma. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, 171-14. Pagura, I 2015, 'Negligence: What you need to know', Journal of the Australian Traditional-Medicine Society, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 254-256. Turton, G 2015, 'Risk and the damage requirement in negligence liability', Legal Studies, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 75-95

The life of people at war places Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The life of people at war places - Essay Example This is the most widespread war in the whole world which had more than 100 million militaries that were mobilized to participate in the war. This war resulted in an estimate of 50 to 70 million people who died during the war (Sulzberger, 2015). The second most deadly war is the Taiping Rebellion. This war occurred in China. It was a widespread civil war that took place in southern China. The war took place in the year 1850 to 1864, and it was led by the heterodox Christian Hong Xiuquan. The primary reason for him starting this war is because he claimed that he had received visions that he was the younger brother of Jesus and was against the ruling Manchu-led dynasty. This war led to the deaths of around 20 million people. In the year 1914 to 1918, there was another deadly war. The name of the war is World War I. The war took place in the entire world but was centered in Europe. This war involved all of the countries that are considered as a superpower. The war comprised more than 70m illion military that was mobilized to take part in the warfare. Among the 70 million militaries, 60 million came from Europe. During this war, more than nine million soldiers were killed. Positive effects of war Even though there are many effects that are associated with war. Positive effects also exist. However, positive effects of war rely wholly on upon in the place that a particular kind of war took place. War can result in positive impact on the economy of an area such as the great depression during the 1930s in the US.

Multinational company from UK enters the Russian market Case Study

Multinational company from UK enters the Russian market - Case Study Example A company's brand image and its strengths in the local market can be used to leverage its global strategy". When an organization like Volvo competes in the International market, it can use its power in the industry to its advantage because of its improved negotiating power among the suppliers, creditors, distributors and other stakeholder groups. When a multinational company from UK enters the Russian market, the factors that have to be taken into account in the macro environment are discussed in this essay. PEST analysis which provides a comprehensive idea about the various environmental factors has to be used. Hence, this essay focuses on the different factors from the external environment that have to be evaluated in order to create a strategy for exploiting the Russian markets. Though the company is successful in the various countries, the factors that influence the business environment in specific to Russia have to be focused. Hence, this report is presented for the perusal of the Board of Directors. 1. Transition economy: Russia is changing dynamically in every aspect of operations. Because of the opening of the economy, there are a huge number of opportunities created. It can be noted that Russian economy is in a boom and the global recession has not had a very disturbing effect on the economic growth of the country. Market implicatio Market implication - When new sectors are opened up and there is a huge increase in the demand for heavy vehicles and construction vehicles. The basic factor for the business development which is the demand for products is created. Strategic implication - Entering into the markets in Russia can benefit the stakeholders of the company. 2. Local government role - A reform introduced by the president of Russia stipulates that the regional heads are to be appointed based on the key success factors such as economic growth of the region, social stability and political loyalty. Hence, there is a competition among various regions to attract investment. The regions are creating Investment Promotional Agencies. Many Russian regions maintain websites in other languages and participate in international exhibitions to welcome investors. Market implication - these moves by the government shows that the Russian government is committed to boost foreign investment. Strategic implication - This will help in a more favorable climate and the business community can expect more reforms in the coming future which will be helpful in establishing business in the country. 3. Political stability - Russia is a former super power, trying very hard to maintain its global dominance. The economy is in the transition and there are a number of pitfalls in the administration. Foreign companies often complain that there are numerous administrative procedures and bureaucratic hurdles to start business, but the country has a stable political climate and the commitment to reform process has been confirmed strongly by the government measures. Strategic implication: though there is a politically stable climate, it is necessary to note that because of the war climate with Georgia, foreign investors were concerned and the stock markets were affected. Hence, the company has to keep in mind the political factors that may lead to economic downturns as stated here. 4. Government procedures: Often it is annoying for the international investors about the need for

Prejudice, Stereotypes, and Discrimination Essay Example for Free

Prejudice, Stereotypes, and Discrimination Essay â€Å"We all decry prejudice, yet are all prejudiced. † Herbert Spencer. One of the greatest problem that our world faces is prejudice, we discrimination and stereotype those that we find not to be the same as us or even slightly different. In some form or another we all have experience some form of stereotype or discrimination. It has an effect on the way we think and act. Here we try to understand the reason for prejudice, why we stereotypes and discrimination that has continue to affect out world. What is prejudice? â€Å"Prejudice is the act of judging an individual of a certain group based on perceived notions about that particular group. Prejudice is linked to discrimination but prejudice is an attitude whereas discrimination is the action associated with that attitude. †(Prejudice 2001). Many times we dislike something or someone just because they look or act differently from us. â€Å"A group that you are a part of is called your in-group. Ingroups might include gender, race, or city or state of residence, as well as groups you might intentionally join, like Kiwanis or a bowling league. A group that you do not identify with is called your outgroup. † ( Feenstra, 2013) everyone belongs to a certain group and we all know who is in our group and those that do not fit in our groups. Most time adult do not realize when they somehow out a person from there groups, but some do it intentionally. When we out a person from our group we really do not take the time to get to know or find out who they are, but we tend to pass judgment on them anyways. â€Å"Stereotypes are beliefs about the characteristics of particular groups or members of those groups. †( Feenstra, 2013) people tend to place into categories things and people, gathering them together without learn who or what they are. For example; that everyone that speaks Spanish is Mexican, when in reality there is a total of 21 Spanish country and they do not all speak the same Spanish. When we stereotype people into groups, we form opinion about them without getting to know there person, this sometime causing prejudice and discrimination against them. â€Å"They not only reflect beliefs about the traits that characterize the typical member of a group but also contain information about other qualities, such as social roles, the degree to which members of the group share a quality, and emotional reactions. Stereotypes imply a substantial amount of other information about a person besides what is immediately apparent and generate expectations about individual group members beyond the current situation ). One important time frame in the world would be the holocaust were the Jewish people were separated from other people because they were believed to be lower than the German and the cause of their problem lead them to torture and abuse the Jewish people as well as kill thousands of Jewish men woman and children. The people that suffer the most from prejudice and any form of discrimination are woman and children especially those living in third world country were at time it is the root of wars. I have been lucky not have been affected by any form of prejudice or discrimination. But as a teen in high school there was always that one person that felt like stereotyping a few people to try to hurt them. Only thru education can we combat any form of stereotypes, discrimination and Prejudice. In conclusion stereotypes, discrimination and Prejudice has influence the way people think and act. It has been the cause of suffering to those effected, as well as the cause of war and separation. Prejudice is a form of ignorance; it is a lack of knowledge, a lack of understanding toward others. Thru education and tolerances we can learn to accept other no matter where they.

Millers Irony and the Truth about American Witch Hunts Essay -- Polit

Silence has pervaded every imaginable recess in the old dilapidated courthouse. A hundred silent onlookers hold their breath in baited anticipation. Suddenly, the dull sound that only wood can make as it slams into an desk echoes for what may as well be all eternity. A single man garners the attention of two hundred eyes as he unintentionally clears his throat. However his lips only are able to take form around one bloodcurdling word: guilty. Although of what crime depends on the time period of the aforementioned case, for trials such as these have occurred in American History not once but twice. The first began back in the 1600's in a little town known as Salem Massachusetts, where people were killed for crimes of witchcraft. The second instance, while not quite as known for bestowing rigor mortis still put ruin on the lives of many. Trials in the 1950's fueled by McCarthyism and the idea that communism was invading the United States led to the blacklisting of many people as supposed socialists. Arthur Miller saw the real story of the trials for supposed unamericans during his time and he set about making it known to the public. However, had miller outright stated his views he would have found himself in the same position as those who's stories he tried to tell. Therefore he devised a creative solution; he wrote a story based on events in the Salem witch trials that is nearly perfectly symbolic of the McCarthyism trials. Miller's extensive [use of] irony in the crucible reveals the actual motives behind events carried out during the Salem witch trials, and thereby he exposes the dark truth of what happened during 1950's McCarthyism trials on Unamerican activities. Even in the very beginning Miller wastes no time in d... ... in the court goes back to the confession of John proctor. He finally admits to his sin after months of concealing it and then Danforth and the court bluntly say to him â€Å"she spoke nothing of lechery, and this man has lied.† (113?) This shows that when an actual bit of truth is presented to the lawmen, they reject it and again side with the liars. The situational irony lies in the fact that when Proctor confesses his sin, the court rejects his confession altogether on only the evidence of his wife's claim. These three examples of irony are perhaps the most important of all in relation to McCarthyism. They reveal that the court itself may represent unfairness in its proceedings. (jr 23?) Miller urges his readers to believe that the judges not only believed liars and rejected the truth, but also that they pushed for the convictions rather than a fair trial.

Analysis of Bao-yu’s dream in Cao Xueqin’s ‘Story of the Stone’ Essay

The Story of the Stone by Cao Xueqin is an animated, lively account of life in a large Chinese household in the mid-18th century Qing dynasty. It remains a fascinating novel for modern readers with its vivid and detailed descriptions of the minutiae of daily life – from clothing, food and interior design to education, marriage and death. For all its realism however, The Story of the Stone is not set entirely in reality. The very premise of the whole tale, that of a single rock left out of the goddess Nu-wa’s repairing of the sky, is one based on a magico-religious dream world. The rock is found by a Buddhist and a Taoist who take it down to the mortal world where it lives out a human life, that of Jia Bao-yu, before attaining Nirvana. Once a rock again, a Taoist copies the inscription on its surface †from beginning to end and took it back with him to look for a publisher†. Cao Xueqin’s emphasis on dreams can be seen in the alternative titles for his m asterpiece. A Dream of Red Mansions is the title by which the book is perhaps most commonly known. Twelve Young Ladies of Jinling is also a title suggested in chapter one. Both of these titles refer to the same dream. As David Hawkes explains, ‘hong lou’, red mansion, has the more specialised meaning of the residences of the daughters of rich men and thus, the young ladies themselves. The dream alluded to in these appellations occurs in the fifth chapter of volume one, The Golden Days. Cousin Zhen’s wife, You-shi, has invited the women of the Rong-guo house, accompanied by Bao-yu, round for a flower viewing party. Needless to say, Bao-yu soon tires and asks to take a nap. Rather than going back to the Rong mansion, the wife of his nephew, Jia Rong, leads him to her chamber to sleep. Bao-yu immediately drops off into a vivid dream world. He meets the fairy of Disenchantment who shows him to the Land of Illusion and into the Department of the Ill-Fated Fair. Within this department is housed the ‘Jinling, Twelve Beauties of, Main Register’, a record of the twelve most notable females in Bau-yu’s own province of Jinling. The fairy of Disenchantment allows Bao-yu to read the fates of the twelve girls as recorded in the form of four-line verses. Bao-yu can make little sense of what he reads. Later, the quatrains are expanded into a series of twelve songs entitled A Dream of Golden Days. While the words are sung by a troupe of entertainers, Bao- yu reads along with the manuscript. He still does not understand. Indeed, both the verses in the register and in the song-cycle contain allusions and metaphors not immediately obvious and not easily deciphered. Yet at a most basic level, they provide an outline of the fate of twelve principle female characters in The Story of the Stone. Their fate unfolds throughout the course of the five volume novel. The Golden Days therefore, is only the beginning. But, by the end of the first volume, to what extent have the women already prepared the way for their future course? The first verse in the Main Register is a joint record of Lin Dai-yu and Xue Bao-chai. These two young girls share the affection of Bao-yu and Grandmother Jia. In their own individual ways, they are both paragons. It seems odd therefore that they share only one verse between them. Hawkes puts forward the argument that Dai-yu and Bao-chai †represent two complementary aspects of a single ideal woman†. Evidence for this interpretation lies in the first two lines of their quatrain: One was a pattern of female virtue, One a wit who made other wits seem slow. The combination of wit, or intelligence, and virtue were ideal traits in a Qing woman of the upper class. Arguably it was Dai-yu who held the upper hand in wit while Bao-chai, with her †generous and accommodating disposition†, was the more virtuous. Although in the song-cycle there are two songs for Dai-yu and Bao-chai, it is not the case that one is dedicated to Dai-yu and one to Bao-chai. Albeit the second so ng is solely about Dai-yu, but there are references to both characters in the first song. The character ‘lin’ in Lin Dai-yu is made up of two tree radicals and has the meaning ‘forest’. ‘Xue’ in Xue Bao-chai sounds the same as the Chinese word for ‘snow’ while ‘bao chai’ can be translated as ‘precious’ or ‘gold hairpin’. Thus, the references come in the form of gold, flowers, snow and trees. Bao-yu is alluded to using jade or stone as he was born with a jade stone in his mouth. The first song, The Mistaken Marriage, refers to †the marriage rites of gold and jade†. This foreshadows the marriage of Bao-chai (gold) and Bao-yu (jade). The speaker however, still remembers the relationship between ‘stone and flower’. There is indeed, a special bond between Bao-yu and Dai-yu. Although Bao-yu, †a child†¦whom nature had endowed with the eccentric obtuseness of a simpleton†, fails to recognise it, Dai-yu is an intensely jealous character and resents any time he spends with Bao-chai and not her. Bao-yu struggles to understand the cause of Dai-yu’s mainly irrational sulks, yet always attempts to comfort her: Take kinship first: you are my cousin on Father’s side; cousin Bao is only a mother-cousin. That makes you much the closer kin. And as for length of acquaintance: it was you who came here first. You and I have practicaly grown up together†¦Why should I ever be any less close to you because of her? There is a profound love between Bao-yu and Dai-yu that seems to grow with the progression of the first volume. They share an understanding †so intense that it was almost as if they had grown into a single person.† The speaker suggests however, that later on Dai-yu (†that fairy wood†) dies. Thus, even a wife †so courteous and so kind† as Bao-chai is no substitute for the wife that Dai-yu could have been. Their marriage, even though †others all commend it†, is a mistake. This is succeeded by Hope Betrayed which deals specifically with the close relationship between Dai-yu (†a flower from paradise†) and Bao-yu (†a pure jade without spot or stain†). They are clearly meant for each other but the poem augurs future disaster. The pain heartache that stems from such an ardent love will all be in vain. In one sense these two poems pose an insurrmountable contradiction. Fate, the belief in which provides the premise for this entire dream scene, will have them be together but they are not. They are meant to be but cannot and this inability is portrayed as some kind of mistake, a going against the natural order. Is there then, even such a thing as fate? This question aside, it can be seen that, in the case of Dai-yu and Bao-chai, their journey has barely begun by the end of The Golden Days. Their relationship with Bao-yu is entirely platonic (physically at least) and, although it is perhaps assumed that one of them, most likely Dai-yu, will be be Bao-yu’s future bride, this is only hinted at in jest among the maids and is a source of great embarassement to Dai-yu. The second quatrain and the third poem can be interpretted as Yuan-chun’s fate. Yuan-chun, daughter of Lady Wang and Jia Zheng, is Bao-yu’s elder sister. The first two lines describe her, age twenty, leaving her family to live in the emperor’s palace as a royal concubine. As can be seen by the subsequent effort put into a lavish garden compund in honour fo her visit, this was a posi tion held in great esteem. Although out of modesty, Yuan-chun later changes the name, the setting for her reunion with her family within Prospect Garden initially bears the inscription ‘Precinct of the Celsetial Visitant’. Hence perhaps, the use of the phrase †pomegranate-time†. Hawkes stresses the †redness’ of the original Chinese text, the colour red being a symbol of good-fortune and prosperity. Although much of this sense has inevitably been lost in translation, the red skin of the pomegranate could perhaps be taken as emphasising the great advantages such a position could bestow on both concubine and family. The second half of the quatrain however, does not bode so well for the future. Although Yuan-chun is superior if not in beauty and intelligence then in success to her half-sister Tan-chun and her cousins, Ying-chun and Xi-chun (the †three springs†), her charmed life will come to an end †when hare meets tiger†. Hare and tiger refer to Chinese years. Thus, this prophecy specifies that the date of Yuan-chun’s death will fall at the end of a tiger year and at the beginning of a rabbit year. The third song, Mutability, again prophesises Yuan-chun’s departure from the Rong-guo household to the emperor’s palace. It goes on to describe her appearing before her parents in a dream to pay her †final duty†, forewarning again of her death. By the end of The Golden Days Yuan-chun has indeed left home to become a royal concubine. Although the location of the Jia clan in The Story of the Stone is questionable, it is clear that Yuan-chun and he r family feel cut off from each other in spirit if not by physical distance. Their reunion in chapter eighteen is an emotional one and although the emperor allows visits in the palace once a month, special permission must be granted for a once-yearly return to the family home. It is for this reason, †so far the road back home did seem†, that Yuan-chun will be forced to pay her final filial duties in a dream. (Hawkes points out that this dream sequence never in fact took place. He suggests that Xueqin used the material for this episode in chapter thirteen instead, when Qin-shi appears before Xi-feng in a dream.) Tan-chun, half-sister to Yuan-chun, one of the †three springs† referred to above and daughter of Jia Zheng and a concubine, is the subject of the fourth quatraine in the Main Register. She is †by far the most gifted of the three springs† as well as possessing a kind, generous nature. The first line, †Blessed with a shrewd mind and a noble heart†, is countered however, by the second, †Yet born in time of twilight and decay†. Although The golden Days is essentially a story set in the happy, carefree years of childhood, the bigger picture reveals a time of political and social upheaval, a sense of which permeates many aspects of the novel. Tan-chun’s prophesised marriage in the final two lines will thus perhaps be related to economic considerations. The marriage will clearly not be a happy one. The very title of the fourth song, From Dear Ones Parted, suggests the insuperable distance between Tan-chun and her home and her intense homsickness. The song has Tan-chun referring to †our rising, falling†, meaning the rise and fall of the Jia family. As a result of this, †each in another land must be, each for himself must fend as best he may†, again suggesting that the marriage will be one of economic convenience. Apa rt from allusions to her wit and good character, we learn little about Tan-chun in the first volume of The Story of the Stone. There are however, hints to be found as to her fate. In chapter 22, she attends Grandmother Jia’s riddle party. Asked to compose a riddle, the answer to Tan-chun’s is ‘a kite’. This image of a kite as associated with Tan-chun symbolizes her departure †a thousand miles† away, her flight from the nest. Her riddle also foreshadows her unhappiness once in the marriage: My strength all goes when once the bond is parted, And on the wind I drift off broken hearted. This description of drifting off in the wind ties in with the suggestion in the song that she will be taken to her new husband by boat †through rain and wind†. Like Tan-chun, relatively little reference is made to Shi Xiang-yun, the subject of the fourth quatrain and fifth song. She is the daughter of Grandmother Jia’s brother’s son. Orphaned as a young girl, she first lived with Grandmother Jia before moving in with her uncle, Shi Ding, and his wife. It seems from both the register and the song, that Xiang-yun is destined to find the man of her dreams, †a perfect, gentle husband†. But happiness will be fleeting: Soon you must mourn your bright sunâ€⠄¢s early setting. The Xiang flows and the Chu clouds sail away. The Xiang was a river flowing through the ancient kingdom of Chu. This was believed to be home to a goddess of lovers. But soon †the clouds of Gao-tang faded, the waters of the Xiang ran dry.† This suggests another calamity, perhaps the sudden death of her husband. There is no intimation of Xiang-yun’s fate in The Golden Days. The main scene involving her is one of comic relief as Dai-yu teases her about her lisp and Xiang-yun responds good-humouredly. The impression created is of a happy-go-lucky, lively young girl, quite a contrast from the rather intense and moody Dai-yu. This is best illustrated in Xueqin’s description of them asleep: Dai-yu was tightly cocooned in a quilt of apricot-coloured damask, the picture of tranquil repose. Xiang-yun, by contrast, lay with her hank of jet black hair tumbled untidily beside the pillow, a white arm with its two gold bracelets thown carelessly outside the bedding and two white shoulders exposed above the peach-pink coverlet, which barely reached her armpits. ‘A tomboy, even in her sleep!’ Bao-yu muttered†¦ The sixth woman included in the register is the only one of the twelve who is not a member of the Jia family. Adamantina nevertheless lives among them in Prospect Garden after Yuan-chun issues an edict stating that the garden is not to be closed up. She is a nun and this is reflected in the descriptions of her †otherworldliness† and her †grace and wit to match the gods† that set her †with the rest at odds. Nauseous to [her] the world’s rank diet.â⠂¬  Her final destination however, is clearly one of disrepute. In both the quatrain and the song, she ends up in the mud, impure and shameful. The fact that down here, †only wealthy rakes might bless their luck† suggests that Adamantina will end her days as perhaps a prostitute. By the end of The Golden Days however, she is still a nun who †looks down on common flesh and blood† The seventh of the Twelve Beauties of Jinling is Ying-chun, the eldest of the three springs. She is Jia She’s daughter by a concubine. With the arrival of Dai-yu and Bao-chai, the three springs are relugated to a secondary position in Grandmother Jia’s affections. Ying-chun is thus a rather underdeveloped character in The Golden Days. The sixth entry in the register and the seventh poem both suggest that she will be married off to a violent, unfaithful and cruel bully. There is no hint of this fate in the first volume of the novel. The Golden Days gives away equally little about the subject of the next quatrain and song, Xi-chun. Sister of Cousin Zhen and the youngest of the three springs, seems destined to seek release †from youth’s extravagance† and †to win chaste quietness and heavenly peace† by becoming a Buddhist nun. Wang Xi-feng on the other hand, wife of Jia Lian and cousin to Bao-yu, plays a far more prominent role in The Golden Days. She is a very strong character, a feminist role-model. She has all the qualities of the ideal wife with her managerial prowess and defere nce to her elders, and yet she always manages to be on top. This combination of cunning and virtue can best be seen in the chapters dealing with Qin-shi’s funeral. Having been relegated posthumously to the status of a Noble Dame, the funeral is a grand affair. The sheer cost and man-power involved is staggering and Xi-feng is put in charge of it all. Nevertheless, she manages it with †the decisiveness of a little general†. On the night of the wake, her maturity and superior social skills are further demonstrated when it is left entirely to her to do the honours. Xi-feng’s vivacious charm and social assurance stood out in striking contrast†¦She was in her element, and if she took any notice of her humbler sisters it was only to throw out an occassional order or to bend them in some other way to her imperious will. This can be juxtaposed with the episode in the next chapter when, after the funeral, Xi-feng, Bao-yu and Qin-zhong spend the night in the Water-moon Priory. The prioress Euergesia, catching Xi-feng alone, tells her the story of a benefactor of the priory called Zhang. He is desperate to call off his daughter’s engagement to the son of a captain in the Chang-an garrison. The captain however, is being thoroughly unreasonable and refusing to take back the betrothal-gifts. Euergesia beseeches Xi-feng to use her unfluence to get Jia Zheng to write a letter to General Yun asking h im to †have a word with† the captain because †It is hardly likely that he would refuse to obey his commading officer.† Xi-feng coyly turns her down until Euergesia questions Xi-feng’s ability. Xi-feng ‘relents’ and agrees to take part for the the not so small sum of three thousand taels of silver. Xi-feng is clearly fiscally-minded and savvy, never one to let an opportunity for profit slip by. The hush-hush manner in which this matter of the captain is broached also suggests that it is rather shady business. Yet, any qualms Xi-feng feigns to have about getting involved seem to be easily forgotten. Xi-feng is indeed, as the ninth song states, †too shrewd by half†. She is too focused on self-advancement but with the fall of the Jia family later in The Story of the Stone, Xi-feng’s plotting and manouevering will all come to nothing: Like a great building’s tottering crash, Like flickering lampwick burned to ash†¦ Although the exact nature of Xi-feng’s future is not specified, it is clear that it is not a bright one. She will, as the title of the ninth song says, be †caught by her own cunning†. Although we see none of her decline in The Golden Days, there are hints of a fall to come. When Qin-shi appears to her in a dream, she warn s Xi-feng of the future fall of the Jai family as a whole. She quotes a proverb: †The higher the climb, the harder the fall.† Could this be referring equally to Xi-feng as to the family? Is there a reason why Qin-shi appears before Xi-feng specifically? The tenth Beautiy of Jinling, interestingly enough, does not even appear in the first volume. Qiao-jie, daughter of Xi-feng, nevertheless has some sort of trouble ahead of her. It seems that no one will be spared pain and grief as the Jia family declines. The penultimate Beauty included on the Main Register is Li Wan, mother of Jia Lan. Li Wan was married to Jia Zhu, brother of Bao-yu. Jia Zhu died before the start of the novel as implied by the third line in the eleventh song, †Ã¢â‚¬ ¦the pleasures of the bridal bed† soon fled. The quatrain suggests that their son, Jia Lan, †her Orchid†, will be successful. The song goes further to describe the †awesome sight† of †the head with cap and bands of office on, and gleaming bright upon his breast the gold insignia†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Jia Lan will later pass the civil service exam and become a high official. It is perhaps slightly far-fetched but one of the few mentions of Jia Lan comes in chapter nine, set in the Jia clan school house. As for Li Wan, there is no hint that †the black night of death’s dark frontier lay close at hand.† It would seem that she tragically dies after her son’s appointment. Finally, there is Qin-shi, the twelfth Beauty of Jinling. She is the young wife of Jia Rong but dies of a mysterious unidentified disease half way through The Gol den Days. Of all the women, Qin-shi is the only one whose whole fate is played out in the course of the first volume. It does not, however, run according to plan. Both the quatrain and the song, The Good Things Have an End, explicitly express that she will hang herself. The most likely reason for her suicide is the family’s discovery of her incestuous affair with her father-in-law, cousin Zhen: Say not our troubles all from Rong’s side came; For their beginning Ning must take the blame. Indeed, there are indications of such intrigue. A drunken servant lets slip, in a fit of rage, †Father-in-law pokes in the ashes†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The reader is clearly meant to take note of this comment, as Bao-yu subsequently questions Xi-feng as to it’s meaning. Xi-feng is quick in quashing any ideas Bao-yu may have on the subject and †terrified by her vehemence, Bao-yu implored her forgiveness.† There is obviously something to hide. Cousin Zhen’s hysterical reaction after her death is also a sign that their relationship was not as it seemed. He is inconsolable, proclaiming: †Now that she has been taken from us it’s plain to see that this senior branch of the family is doomed to extinction!† The poem accordingly, states that her death, †the ruin of a mighty house protended.† Qin-shi’s suicide does not however, take place and she instead dies of natural causes. A reason for this discrepancy is put foward by Hawkes. While Xueqin did originally have Qin-shi hanging herself †from painted beams†, a notation by one of the commentators on the original manuscript states that her †ordered† Xueqin to remove the scene. Xueqin reluctantly did so but, unenthusiastic about the change, failed to make the necessary alterations to the rest of the text. Having examined the fates of the Twelve Beauties of Jinling as expressed in the Main Register of the Department of the Ill Fated Fair and in the fairy of Disenchantment’s song cycle, it becomes immediately obvious that tradgedy lies ahead. With the decline of the Jia family will come a decline in the fortunes of each of the women. It is also clear that by the end of the first volume of The Story of the Stone the story has, in fact, barely begun. The Jia household is still powerful and rich, the child heros are still young and and insouciant, these are still the golden days.

Maxim Gorky

Russian short story writer, novelist, autobiographer and essayist, whose life was deeply interwoven with the tumultuous revolutionary period of his own country. Gorky ended his long career as the preeminent spokesman for culture under the Soviet regime of Joseph Stalin. Gorky formulated the central principles of Socialist Realism, which became doctrine in Soviet literature. The rough, socially conscious naturalism of Gorky was described by Chekhov as â€Å"a destroyer bound to destroy everything that deserved destruction. † LIFEMaxim Gorky whose real name was Aleksei Maximovich Peshkov, was born on March 16, 1868, in the Volga River city of Nizhny Novgorod, which in 1932 was renamed Gorky in his honor. His father, a cabinetmaker, died when Gorky was 4 years old, and the boy was raised in harsh circumstances by his maternal grandparents, the proprietors of a dye works. From the age of 10 Gorky was virtually on his own, and he worked at a great variety of occupations, among them shopkeeper's errand boy, dishwasher on a Volga steamer, and apprentice to an icon maker.At a very tender age he saw a great deal of the brutal, seamy side of life and stored up impressions and details for the earthy and starkly realistic stories, novels, plays, and memoirs which he later wrote. He was self-taught in many areas, including literature, philosophy, and history, both Russian and Western. In 1884 Gorky moved to Kazan, dreaming of entering university. That didn’t come to happen because of lack of money. Instead he enrolled in the â€Å"revolutionary underground school. † He attended gymnasium and university populist clubs, reading the relevant literature and fighting with police.At the same time he earned his living doing menial work. In December 1887 a series of misfortunes led him to a suicide attempt. After that, Gorky traveled around Russia in search of a job and experience. He traveled to the Volga Region, the Don, Ukraine, Crimea, South Bessarabia (now part of Moldova) and the Caucasus. He worked as a labourer in a village, a dishwasher, a railroad guard and a worker at a fishery, a salt-works and a repair workshop. At the same time he managed to get acquainted with people from arts circles, take part in clashes with police and earn an overall reputation as an â€Å"untrustworthy† individual.In his travels, he collected prototypes for his future characters, which can be seen in his early works, where the characters were people from the â€Å"bottom† echelons of society. In 1895 he was appointed at the â€Å"Samara Newspaper† (â€Å"Samarskaya gazeta†), where he wrote daily articles for the gossip column â€Å"By the Way† (â€Å"Mezhdu prochim†), signing them as Iegudiil Khlamida. While at the paper he met Ekaterina Volzhina, an editor, whom he married a year later. In 1897 he suffered from aggravated tuberculosis and moved to the Crimea together with his wife. Later they moved to the vill age of Maksatikha in Ukraine’s Poltava Region.That same year, his son Maksim was born. At the beginning of 1898 Gorky returned to Nizhniy Novgorod and in April 1901 Gorky was detained in Nizhniy Novgorod for having taken part in student unrest in St. Petersburg. Later he was expelled to Arazmus. Gorky was elected an honorary academic of polite literature. However, under Emperor Nikolay II’s order, the result of the election was annulled. In 1903 he broke up with his wife and in 1904, the Moscow Theatre Actress Maria Andreeva became his common law wife. In 1905 Gorky was an active participant in the revolution.He was a close associate of the social-democrats but at the same time, on the eve of â€Å"Bloody Sunday† (a key moment in Russia’s history, which served as a trigger for the 1905 Revolution) he visited Sergey Witte, the author of the October Manifesto of 1905, and together with a group of intellectuals he tried to prevent the tragedy. After the revo lution Gorky was arrested on charges of preparing a coup d'à ©tat, but both Russian and European cultural figures rose up to defend the writer. He was released and at the beginning of the following year, emigrated from Russia.He went to America to collect funds to support the Russian Revolution. In 1913 Gorky returned to Russia. After the 1917 Revolution his position became ambiguous: on the one hand, he was supportive of the new authorities, but on the other hand, he kept to his own beliefs, thinking that mass culture is more important than class struggle. At the same time, he started working at the â€Å"World Literature† (â€Å"Vsemirnaya literatura†) publishing house, founding the newspaper â€Å"New Life† (â€Å"Novaya Zhizn†). Gorky’s relations with the authorities gradually aggravated.In 1921 he left Russia, officially going to Germany for medical treatment, but in fact escaping Bolshevik retribution. He lived in Germany and Czechoslovakia until 1924. During this time he actively wrote articles for German magazines (â€Å"The Acknowledgement of a Poet and the Russian Literature of Our Time,† â€Å"The Russian Cruelty,† â€Å"The Intellectuals and the Revolution†). All the articles show his rejection of what had happened in Russia. Gorky actively strived to unify Russian artists working abroad. In the mid-1920s Gorky moved to Sorrento, Italy, where he started work on the novel â€Å"The Life of Klim Samgin† (â€Å"Zhizn Klima Samgina†).The novel was never finished. In 1928 he journeyed to the USSR and spent the summer traveling around the country. His impressions on the trip were published in the book â€Å"Around the Union of Soviets† (â€Å"Po Soyuzu Sovetov†). Three years later Gorky moved to Moscow. Having seen the results of Bolshevik rule while traveling, he set as his goal the promotion of the new â€Å"cultural construction† of the country. He initiated th e creation of literary magazines and publishing houses. Later he organized and chaired the first all-Soviet meeting of Soviet writers. In May 1934 Gorky’s son was killed.Some suspected the NKVD (the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs) was responsible for the killing. Two years later Gorky died himself. Speculations continued to surround his death for years; one popular theory suggested he was deliberately poisoned. Gorky is buried in Moscow. LITERARY CAREER Gorky rose to prominence early in life and made his mark as a writer, playwright, publicist, and publisher in Russia and abroad. His literary career began in 1892 with the publication of the story â€Å"Makar Chudra. † His articles and stories were soon appearing in provincial newspapers and journals.His ideas of the writer's involvement in the social, political, and economic problems facing Russia were close to those of Leo Tolstoy and Vladimir G. Korolenko, who became his mentor and friend. Some of h is literary works had important political significance, such as the poem Burevestnik (The Stormy Petrel), which in 1901 prophesied the oncoming storm of revolution. While visiting the United States in 1906 on a mission to win friends for the revolution and raise funds for the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party (RSDWP), he wrote the novel Mat (Mother).Gorky's revolutionary ideology lay in his insistence on the inevitability of radical change in Russian society. He started to write for newspapers, and his first book, the 3-volume Sketches and Stories (1898-1899), established his reputation as a writer. Gorky wrote with sympathy and optimism about the gypsies, hobos, and down-and-outs. He also started to analyze more deeply the plight of these people in a broad, social context. In these early stories Gorky skillfully mixed romantic exoticism and realism. Occasionally he glorified the rebels among his outcasts of Russian society.In his early writing career Gorky became friends wit h Anton Chekhov , Leo Tolstoy , and Vladimir Lenin. Encouraged by Chekhov, he composed his most famous play, The Lower Depths (1902), which took much of the material from his short stories. It was performed at the Moscow Art Theater under the direction of Konstantin Stanislavsky. The Lower Depths enjoyed a huge success, and was soon played in Western Europe and the United States. Gorky was literary editor of Zhizn from 1899 and editor of Znanie publishing house in St. Petersburg from 1900.Foma Gordeyev (1899), his first novel, dealt with the new merchat class in Russia. The short story Dvadsat' shest' i odna (1899, Twenty-Six Men and a Girl) was about lost ideals. â€Å"There were twenty-six of us – twenty-six living machines locked in a damp basement where, from dawn to dusk, we kneaded dough for making into biscuits and pretzels. The window of our basement looked out onto a ditch dug in front of them and lined with brick that was green from damp; the windows were covered o utside in fine wire netting and sunlight could not reach us through the flour-covered panes.Our boss had put the wire netting there so we could not give hand-outs of his bread to beggars or those comrades of ours who were without work and starving. † (from ‘Twenty-Six Men and a Girl', 1899) The joy in the lives of the bakers is the 16-year old Tania, who works in the same building. A handsome ex-soldier, one of the master bakers, boasts of his success with women. He is challenged to seduce Tania. When Tania succumbs, she is mocked by the men, who have lost the only bright spot in the darkness. Tania curses them and walks away, and is never again seen in the basement.Gorky became involved in a secret printing press and was temporarily exiled to Arzamas, central Russia in 1902. On leaving Russia in 1906, Gorky spent seven years as a political exile, living mainly in his villa on Capri in Italy. Politically, Gorky was a nuisance to his fellow Marxists because of his insiste nce on remaining independent, but his great influence was a powerful asset, which from their point of view outweighed such minor defects. He returned to Russia in 1913, and during World War I he agreed with the Bolsheviks in opposing Russia’s participation in the war.He opposed the Bolshevik seizure of power during the Russian Revolution of 1917 and went on to attack the victorious Lenin’s dictatorial methods in his newspaper Novaya zhizn (â€Å"New Life†) until July 1918, when his protests were silenced by censorship on Lenin’s orders. Living in Petrograd, Gorky tried to help those who were not outright enemies of the Soviet government. Gorky often assisted imprisoned scholars and writers, helping them survive hunger and cold. His efforts, however, were thwarted by figures such as Lenin and Grigory Zinovyev, a close ally of Lenin’s who was the head of the Petrograd Bolsheviks.In 1921 Lenin sent Gorky into exile under the pretext of Gorky’s needing specialized medical treatment abroad. In the decade ending in 1923 Gorky’s greatest masterpiece appeared. This is the autobiographical trilogy Detstvo (1913–14; My Childhood), V lyudyakh (1915–16; In the World), and Moi universitety (1923; My Universities). The title of the last volume is sardonic because Gorky’s only university had been that of life, and his wish to study at Kazan University had been frustrated.This trilogy is one of the finest autobiographies in Russian. It describes Gorky’s childhood and early manhood and reveals him as an acute observer of detail, with a flair for describing his own family, his numerous employers, and a panorama of minor but memorable figures. The trilogy contains many messages, which Gorky now tended to imply rather than preach openly: protests against motiveless cruelty, continued emphasis on the importance of toughness and self-reliance, and musings on the value of hard work.Gorky finished his trilog y abroad, where he also wrote the stories published in Rasskazy 1922–1924 (1925; â€Å"Stories 1922–24†), which are among his best work. From 1924 he lived at a villa in Sorrento, Italy, to which he invited many Russian artists and writers who stayed for lengthy periods. Gorky’s health was poor, and he was disillusioned by postrevolutionary life in Russia, but in 1928 he yielded to pressures to return, and the lavish official celebration there of his 60th birthday was beyond anything he could have expected.In the following year he returned to the U. S. S. R. permanently and lived there until his death. His return coincided with the establishment of Stalin’s ascendancy, and Gorky became a prop of Stalinist political orthodoxy. Correspondence published in the 1990s between Gorky and Stalin and between Gorky and Genrikh Yagoda, the head of the Soviet secret police, shows that Gorky gradually lost all illusions that freedom would prevail in the U. S. S . R. , and he consequently adjusted to the rules of the new way of life.He was now more than ever the undisputed leader of Soviet writers, and, when the Soviet Writers’ Union was founded in 1934, he became its first president. At the same time, he helped to found the literary method of Socialist Realism, which was imposed on all Soviet writers and which obliged them—in effect—to become outright political propagandists. Gorky remained active as a writer, but almost all his later fiction is concerned with the period before 1917. In Delo Artamonovykh (1925; The Artamonov Business), one of his best novels, he showed his continued interest in the rise and fall of prerevolutionary Russian capitalism.From 1925 until the end of his life, Gorky worked on the novel Zhizn Klima Samgina (â€Å"The Life of Klim Samgin†). Though he completed four volumes that appeared between 1927 and 1937 (translated into English as Bystander, The Magnet, Other Fires, and The Specter) , the novel was to remain unfinished. It depicts in detail 40 years of Russian life as seen through the eyes of a man inwardly destroyed by the events of the decades preceding and following the turn of the 20th century.There were also more plays—Yegor Bulychov i drugiye (1932; â€Å"Yegor Bulychov and Others†) and Dostigayev i drugiye (1933; â€Å"Dostigayev and Others†)—but the most generally admired work is a set of reminiscences of Russian writers—Vospominaniya o Tolstom (1919; Reminiscences of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy) and O pisatelyakh (1928; â€Å"About Writers†). The memoir of Tolstoy is so lively and free from the hagiographic approach traditional in Russian studies of their leading authors that it has sometimes been acclaimed as Gorky’s masterpiece.Almost equally impressive is Gorky’s study of Chekhov. He also wrote pamphlets on topical events and problems in which he glorified some of the most brutal aspects of Stalini sm. Assessment. After his death Gorky was canonized as the patron saint of Soviet letters. His reputation abroad has also remained high, but it is doubtful whether posterity will deal with him so kindly. His success was partly due, both in the Soviet Union and to a lesser extent abroad, to political accident.Though technically of lower-middle-class origin, he lived in such poverty as a child and young man that he is often considered the greatest â€Å"proletarian† in Russian literature. This circumstance, coinciding with the rise of working-class movements all over the world, helped to give Gorky an immense literary reputation, which his works do not wholly merit. Gorky’s literary style, though gradually improving through the years, retained its original defects of excessive striving for effect, of working on the reader’s nerves by the piling up of emotive adjectives, and of tending to overstate.Among Gorky’s other defects, in addition to his weakness for philosophical digressions, is a certain coarseness of emotional grain. But his eye for physical detail, his talent for making his characters live, and his unrivaled knowledge of the Russian â€Å"lower depths† are weighty items on the credit side. Gorky was the only Soviet writer whose work embraced the prerevolutionary and postrevolutionary period so exhaustively, and, though he by no means stands with Chekhov, Tolstoy, and others in the front rank of Russian writers, he remains one of the more important literary figures of his age.

hypokalemic periodic paralysis Essay Example

hypokalemic periodic paralysis Essay Example hypokalemic periodic paralysis Essay hypokalemic periodic paralysis Essay Hypokalemic periodic paralysis is a rare, autosomal dominant channelopathy characterized by muscle weakness or paralysis with a matching fall in potassium levels in the blood (primarily due to defect in a voltage-gated calcium channel). In individuals with this mutation, attacks often begin in adolescence and are triggered by strenuous exercise followed by rest, high carbohydrate meals, meals with high sodium content, sudden changes in temperature, and even excitement, noise or flashing lights. Weakness may be mild and limited to certain muscle groups, or more evere full body paralysis. Attacks may last for a few hours or persist for several days. Recovery is usually sudden when it occurs, due to release of potassium from swollen muscles as they recover. Some patients may fall into an abortive attack or develop chronic muscle weakness later in life. Some people only develop symptoms of periodic paralysis due to hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid). This entity is distinguished with thyroid function tests, and the diagnosis is instead called thyrotoxic periodic paralysis. [l] Patients often report years wasted with wrong iagnosis, wrong treatments, deadends and multiple doctors, test and clinics. The CMAP (Compound Muscle Amplitude Potential) test, also called the exercise EMG or X- EMG, is diagnostic in 70-80% of cases when done correctly. Besides the patient history or a report of serum potassium low normal or low during an attack, the CMAP is the current standard for medical testing. Genetic diagnosis is often unreliable as only a few of the more common gene locations are tested, but even with more extensive testing 20-37% of people with a clinical diagnosis of hypokalemic periodic aralysis have no known mutation in the two known genes. 2] Standard EMG testing cannot diagnose a patient unless they are in a full blown attack at the time of testing. Provoking an attack with exercise and diet then trying oral potassium can be diagnostic, but also dangerous as this form of PP has an alternate form known as hyperkalemic periodic paralysis. The symptoms are almost the same, but the treatment is different. The old glucose insulin challenge is dangerous and risky to the point of b eing life threatening and should never be done when other options are so eadily available[citation needed]. People with hypokalemic periodic paralysis are aften misdiagnosed as having a conversion disorder or hysterical paralysis since the weakenss is muscle based and doesnt correspond to nerve or spinal root distributions. The tendency of people with hypokalemic periodic paralysis to get paralyzed when epinephrine is released in fight or flight situations further adds to the temptation to dismiss the disorder as psychiatric. [3] hypokalemic periodic paralysis By Jian-Portacion

Psychology of Diversity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Psychology of Diversity - Essay Example Wiki’s leadership traits are inherent and her family has been custodian of ‘ceremonial treasures’ used in Yurok cultural rituals. She firmly believes that education is the vital tool that would not only raise the living standard of the American Indians but it would also help propagate the rich cultural heritage of the tribe and bring it on the world map. Wiki’s efforts were recognized and school initiatives that prepare the disadvantaged students to get secondary school diploma and college credits are being funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Wiki’s assertion that ‘this is the frontline of our civil rights movements’ tells the sorry state of American Indians in a country that is considered the be one of the most developed and technologically advanced nations of the world. American Indians got this name when Columbus landed in America in 1492 but thought that he has reached India and named the brown skinned people as Indians. Since that time, the American Indians have existed in diverse geographical locations, having their unique customs and cultural identity but unfortunately, they have not yet been absorbed into the mainstream American society. One can glean from the article that they have yet to become true citizens of the country. The whites have maintained a racial divide within the society through deliberate use of powerful lobby of the whites and financial advantages that they enjoyed over their less privileged counterparts. The Native Americans and blacks were not allowed to participate in social activities and even education was denied to them so that they would remain unequal socially and economically. It is indeed, ironical that month of November is celebrated as ‘National American Indian Heritage Month’ and the government and non-government agencies honor American Indians for their contribution and

Effective Approaches in Leadership and Management Essay - 4

Effective Approaches in Leadership and Management - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that there is a significant shortage in the number of nurses around the globe. Many countries including the United States strive to deal with this problem since it’s the mandate of the respective governments to safeguard the health of its citizens. According to recent studies, the shortage is likely to worsen if responsible authorities do not take the appropriate corrective action. By 2020, estimates point that there will be a 36 % deficit in the number of nurses available to care for patients in the U.S if there are no corrective measures. The current deficit impedes the ability of the nation to handle all its medical cases and presents a cause for worry in the event of a disastrous health event. Therefore, nursing leadership and management have roles to play in correcting the current situation while also taking the future of nursing into consideration. It necessitates retaining current nurses and recruiting qualified ones to fill t he gap. There is a host of factors that cause the shortage of nurses. Some of these influences include high levels of nurse turnovers and poor nurse retention strategies, an ageing workforce, overworking of nurses poor working conditions, inadequate remuneration, shortage in the nursing faculty outputs and other better career options for women.   The strained relationship between hospital administrators, poor hospital staffing, and organization and personal reasons are the major influences causing increases in the rates of nurse turnover.