How Benna in Anagrams Creates Her Own Reality Essay Example for Free

How Benna in Anagrams Creates Her Own Reality Essay In the novel Anagrams by Lorrie Moore the main character Benna bounces back between reality and the reality she creates. At times is hard to tell what’s what. Benna is a widow that lives alone and has an on and off relation with Gerard. She has also created an imaginary friend Eleanor and a daughter Gorgianne. When she is talking to the people she created it is hard to tell that their not really there. Bouncing back between created reality and what’s actually going on is at times hard to follow. This false reality she created plays a big role in â€Å"The Nun of That†. Benna creates her own reality in a few different ways. She imagines a daughter and a friend that she has full conversations with. The daughter she creates name is Gorgianne. She was named after Benna’s husband George that committed suicide. â€Å"Georgie has dinner and a bath, and Mrs. Kimball comes over and I say good night and drive over to Gerard’s apartment. † (Moore 118). This quote shows that Benna treats Gorgianne as a real daughter. Benna gave her dinner, and a bath; she even hired a baby sitter. Now if these things actually happened there is no evidence. With Benna talking like it’s actually happens it makes it hard to tell that her daughter is imaginary. â€Å"She holds up a little soap chunk she has broken off the bar. She is crying. â€Å"I put it up my nose,† she sobs. â€Å"I wanted to be all clean for tomorrow for school but now it won’t come out. † (Moore 74). This is another example of how Benna creates her own reality. She goes in complete detail of how and why the soap is stuck in Georgianne’s nose. Now clearly this did not happen because she in not real but the next day in class Benna tells them that was the reason she did not momorize there names. Eleanor is Benna’s imaginary friend. She is another example of how Benna creates a false reality. â€Å"Eleanor puts her pen down, all histrionics, and gazes out the lounge window, at the parking lotand the one tree. â€Å" You know, I just hate it when I lose my composer,† she says. † (Moore 65). Here Benna and Eleanor are grading tests I the lounge at FVCC. His is clearly one of Benna’s fabricated realities. Benna talks with Eleanor quite often. Their conversations are just like any other friends would have. This makes it hard to tell that Eleanor is not really there and just imaginary. There are a few reasons that Benna has this false reality. One reason is that she could be lonely. She makes up her daughter and friend so she doesn’t have to be alone. After her husband she had no one to live with so she probably thought she could imagine someone. Another reason could be that Benna always wanted to have a kid. Benna at times mentions that she would like to have a family, so she imagined that she had a daughter to have one. Also Benna could have imagined Eleanor just as someone to talk to and as a part of a life that she would have wanted to live with a friend like that and a daughter as well. Benna, the main character in the novel Anagrams, by Lorrie Moore goes back and fourth between reality and a reality she creates. She imagined a friend and a daughter. They have full on conversations with each other like they are actually there. At times her reality seems so real that it is hard to tell apart from what is actually going on. This makes it hard to tell what is actually being said and at times if the Imagined people are actually imagined. The main reason Benna creates this false reality is because he is lonely and wants people to spend time with and talk to. Moore, Lorrie. Anagrams: A Novel. New York: Knopf, 1986. Print.

Jonathan Kozols Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools Ess

Jonathan Kozol's Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools In this detailed and shocking book, Jonathan Kozol describes the horrific and unjust conditions in which many children in today’s society are forced to get their education. Kozol discusses three major reasons for the discrepancies in America’s schools today: disparities of property taxes, racism, and the conflict between state and local control. The first of these reasons is that of the differences of available property tax revenues. Kozol discusses the inconsistencies in property tax revenues and the problem that the poorer districts aren’t getting the same opportunities for education as the more affluent neighborhoods. He says the reason for this is that the poorer districts don’t receive as much money as the affluent districts because their property isn’t worth as much, therefore they get less money in return. Therefore, if they demand more money for the school systems, they end up taxing themselves more money. Kozol uses shocking statistic s to get the reader’s attention. For instance, a classroom in Chicago â€Å"received approximately $90,000 less each year than would have been spent on them if they were pupils of a school such as New Trier High† (54). Kozol also discusses a solution for this problem, the Foundation Program, which is meant to set a standard of basic or minimum education for the less fortunate neighborhoods. Although this program seems to work on the surface, it makes a bigger gap between the rich and poor districts. Using descriptive details and scenarios, he informs the reader of the awful conditions these children attend school in. For example, he tells about a conversation with a little boy whose sister was raped and murdered, but the child cannot recall if this took place last week or last year. These children suffer many health problems, including terrible pain in their teeth from bad dental health. They are also subjected to dreadful amounts of sewage in their schools and in their backyards, contaminating the water and the soil. Kozol then describes the more affluent schools and the wonderful opportunities they are given. He contrasts the poor and rich schools to show the reader just how terrible these conditions are. He attempts to make the reader angry and succeeds many times. One other way by which he attempts to irritate the reader i... ...computers are nice to have, but are not essential in the learning process. Also, Kozol, in his racism argument, forgets that there is a chance the inequalities in education might not be so much racial segregation, but affluence segregation. True, a large percentage of the poor districts are black and Hispanic, but this is due to society itself, not necessarily the school systems. Kozol sometimes seems to be reaching for an argument just for the sake of having one. On the other hand, a large portion of what Kozol says is well supported and highly effective. He is a very passionate writer and does a wonderful job of stating the facts, not just his side of the story. He uses conversations with the children and teachers to get the reader’s attention and make the reader understand that these are real people these things are happening to, not just numbers. Kozol is a very persuasive writer, with brilliant ideas and down-to-earth opinions. He doesn’t want his readers to be hateful towards the public school systems; he wants us to know the truth. Works Cited: Jonathan Kozol. Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools. New York, Harper Collins, 1991. 262 pp.

Homoscocial and Homoerotiscism in Shakespeare

Consider the relationship between homosocial and homoerotic in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice and A Twelfth Night. â€Å"To talk of an Individual in this period as being or not being a ‘homosexual’ is an anachronism and ruinously misleading† (Bray, 1982, pg. 16) Before a solid argument can commence the reader has to first distinguish a number of key points of view, and more over understand them. The problem with such arguments is of course the hurdle between contemporary opinions and renaissance beliefs. The majority of modern reader/audiences have an understanding of homosexuality, or it in some way has been visible to them.This leads to the problem of a modern audience assuming a character is a homosexual based on modern presumptions. However what would be regarded as gay in today’s society may not have during the renaissance. Another issue that must be raised when considering this essay is the difference between ‘homosocialâ₠¬â„¢ and ‘homoerotic’. Homosocial is defined by a relationship of a non-sexual or romantic nature between two or more members of the same sex. Homoerotic is defined as sexual attraction between members of the same-sex.There for it is imperative the reader stay objective when considering the notions of homosocial and homoerotic behaviour. The reader must also try to remember the contextual factors in which it was written and the audience/readers estimations. The first relationship this essay will focus on is the one between Antonio and Bassanio from William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. These two share a very strong friendship, so much so that Antonio offers to lend Bassanio a very large sum of money. Antonio being a wealthy merchant however does not have the cash upfront as it is tied up in his merchandise off shore.He thus decides to go to a Jewish money lender called Shylock and offers his property as guarantee for the loan. Shylock has been spurned by the Venetian citizens on numerous occasions and quite frequently retells these cruelties. As a result instead of the property he decides he would rather have a pound of flesh from Antonio. Shylock -â€Å"In such a place, such sum or sums as are/Express'd in the condition, let the forfeit/Be nominated for an equal pound/Of your fair flesh, to be cut off and taken/In what part of your body pleaseth me. (Act 1, scene 3) Antonio – â€Å"Content, i' faith: I'll seal to such a bond/And say there is much kindness in the Jew† (Act 1, scene 3) In this exchange between Antonio and Shylock, we are exposed to the great lengths in which Antonio will go to make his friend and confidant Bassanio happy. He is willing to offer his life as insurance. This speaks magnitudes for the â€Å"love† these two share, and if you take the image of the flesh it could be said that the friends’ fates are now tied to one flesh. Then the man (Adam) said, â€Å"This at last is bone of m y bones and flesh of my flesh†¦ † Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh. † (Genesis 2:23-25) To consider this image as a representation of marriage, this steers the reader/audience to believe that Antonio possibly loves Bassanio more than a friend. It could be implied that there is a romantic connection between the pair and thus that their relationship is homoerotic rather than homosocial.This is especially reinforced by the earlier scenes of the play where Antonio is displayed as a largely melancholic character. Antonio knows bassanio is in want of a wife; his depression could perhaps be originated from jealousy. On the other hand it could be argued that Antonio is just upset, because he is now going to be spending less time with Bassanio. One of the main problems with trying to define the relationship between Antonio and Bassanio, is how often their relationship has switches between homoerotic and homos ocial undertones.Generally it depends on how the reader takes their exchanges, for example Antonio’s melancholy at the beginning of the play could be attributed to his jealousy of Bassanio’s want for a wife, or it could be his worry about the friendship in which the two share. Antonio – â€Å"And such want-wit sadness makes of me, / that I have much ado to know myself. † The problem would appear judging by Antonio’s description of his sadness that, he is worried about himself. Both Antonio and Bassanio share very close relationships in which both men have grown together their characters are defined by each other.Bassanio seems to have matured to a point where his life needs more than companionship and wishes to get married; Antonio on the other hand is not ready for this change and as result has to do some soul searching. It is Antonio’s dismay at this rather than a romantic connection which causes the assumption that their relationship is h omosocial rather than homoerotic. When Antonio offers to give shylock a pound of flesh if he defaults on his loan Antonio expects to have the money rather easily so it’s a rather empty gesture suggesting a homosocial relationship.However when he does default on the loan Antonio professes to Bassanio. Antonio – â€Å"Say how I loved you, speak me fair in death / And when the tale is told, bid her be judge /Whether Bassanio had not once a love† Antonio is still willing to sacrifice his life for Bassanio and once again professes his love for his friend again suggesting a romantic relationship. The language which Antonio and Bassanio use when talking to or describing each other for a modern audience coxes them to believe them as being homosexual.However the cultural differences between contemporary audience’s and renaissance audiences allow for a different interpretation. Bassanio – â€Å"To you, Antonio, /I owe the most, in money and in love, / And f rom your love I have a warranty/To unburden all my plots and purposes† (Act1, scene1) For a modern audience if a man says to another man he loves him or talks of the love they share, it would be a safe assumption to label them homosexual or at least expect some type of romantic connection. However if you substitute â€Å"love† from this extract for friendship it reads more or less the same and makes perfect sense.This is a difference in language, in Shakespeare’s time â€Å"love† would be used to describe friendship on a regular basis. The relations between men during the 16th century were very different from they are today, for example it would not thought suspicious if two men were to spend large amounts of time together or even share the same bed. In general terms it would be very difficult to discern a homosexual relationship from companionship during Shakespeare’s time. The reintroduction of the sodomy act in 1565 meant sodomy was now a capital crime and anyone caught being homosexual was punishable by death.Homosexuality its self was not even invented or at least the term was not so sodomy was used to describe this act. Interestingly enough there are no occasions where a person has been arrested or hung for sodomy alone. It would seem that same sex relations were generally frowned upon but normally ignored. It seems it only became an issue when it threatened social order, the passive male would also be prosecuted more harshly than aggressive male which was perceived by the authorities as a surrendering of his â€Å"natural† masculine role in favour of a subordinate feminine one.As mentioned above during the renaissance period there was a large emphasis on the relationships between men. The thought that a man could find an equal, not in his wife but in a male friend and that bond be stronger than the one capable between men and women. This is true of Shakespeare’s plays also he uses sexuality to define his c haracters. The platter of sexual ambiguity in â€Å"Twelfth night† we are introduced to homosocial relationships as well as homoerotic and bisexual tangents.The relationship between Antonio and Sebastian is very suspect. The first we see of Antonio and Sebastian is in Act 2 scene 1 where Sebastian is wanting to leave for Count Orsino’s court in Illyria but Antonio has enemies there. Despite the dangers to Antonio he seems adamant to accompany Sebastian, however Sebastian states on more than one occasion he wishes for Antonio to stay. Antonio – â€Å"Will you stay no longer? nor will you not that I go with you? † Sebastian – â€Å"By your patience, no.My stars shine darkly over/me: the malignancy of my fate might perhaps /distemper yours; therefore I shall crave of you your /leave that I may bear my evils alone: it were a bad /recompense for your love, to lay any of them on you. † Antonio – â€Å"Let me yet know of you whither you are bound. † (Act 2, Scene 1) As mentioned before â€Å"love† is often used within Shakespeare’s language as a substitute for friendship. However the exchanges between Sebastian and Antonio clearly signify something different, Antonio’s desperation to accompany his â€Å"friend† leads the reader and audience to assume there is a romantic connection.The fear of danger is outweighed by Antonio’s love for Sebastian and thus he decides to travel to Illyria. The homoeroticism between the two men is clearly evident and is spelt out in laymen’s terms when later in the same scene Antonio says: Antonio – â€Å"If you will not murder me for my love, let me be your servant† â€Å"But come what may, I do adore thee so/That danger shall seem sport, and I will go† (Act 2, Scene1) Antonio here also admits his love, sexual desire and submissiveness to Sebastian.Joseph Pequigney describes Antonio’s sexuality in his book such is My Love: A Study of Shakespeare sonnets as: â€Å"The reason for Antonio’s portrayal as homosexual is that a liaison with him opens space for Sebastian in the diverse bisexual fictions that make up the Twelfth Night† (Pequigney, 1985, pg 203) Antonio has clear homoerotic feelings for Sebastian and paints a very clear image of his sexual urges. Compared to Antonio from The Merchant of Venice, whose desire was born from friendship and homosocial. Shakespeare seems to have stepped up on the sexual commentary and made it far more obvious.The progression of Sebastian and Antonio’s â€Å"love† is finalised in act 3 scene 3, the audience sees Antonio make several comments regarding his desire for his lover. His love is best displayed by his speech to Sebastian: Antonio –â€Å"My desire, / More sharp than filed steel, did spur me forth, / And not all love to see you / But jealousy what might befall your travel† (Act 3, scene3) His passion, desire a nd lust for Sebastian again clearly visible, later in the scene a discussion of sleeping arrangements leads to a very brave piece of stage writing where Shakespeare clearly refers to the Antonio and Sebastian having sex.Antonio – â€Å"There shall you have me,† (Act 3, scene3) Very plain and provocative and suggestive writing by Shakespeare, Pequigney as mentioned above declares that Antonio is depicted as quite openly flamboyant homosexual is so Sebastian can part take in the bisexual theme of the play: â€Å"While he remains heterosexually virginal, he is unlike the virgins Viola and Olivia or Orsino in that he entertains homosexual impulses that are fully conscious and indulged.Antonio awakens those impulses, initiates him into interpersonal sexuality, and perhaps thereby prepares him to receive the sudden, surprising advances of the Illyrian lady† (Pequigney, 209-10). Pequigney’s opinions identify the relationship between Antonio and Sebastian as clea rly homoerotic and indeed homosexual/bisexual. Shakespeare leaves little room for speculation regarding this pair of lovers/friends the nature of their relationship would be clear to an audience of the renaissance and to a contemporary audience. The bisexual subplot in A twelfth Night is continued by the relationship between Orsino and Cesario (Viola).Orsino and Cesario share a similar relationship to Antonio and Sebastian however there are a number of major differences. Cesario is of course a woman disguised as a man. During the exchanges between them we see Orsino refer to Cesario as a man but then juxtapose these with images of a pretrachal sonnet referring to Viola/Cesarios beauty, soft voice and femininity. So essentially the relationship between them both is homoerotic. As there is a clear sexual attraction to each other. To a modern audience who has knowledge of psychology and a broader understanding f gay society will understand Sigmund Freud’s opinion on sexuality wh ich I feel helps explain the attraction between Orsino and Cesario. â€Å"A large proportion of homosexuals retain the mental quality of masculinity†¦and that what they look for in their real sexual object are in fact feminine mental traits. † (Freud, 1905) While Freud’s view helps us understand Orsino’s attraction to Cesario it is still difficult for an audience/reader to catalogue which sexuality Orsino belongs. Essentially the text suggests he is bi curious, Orsino in love with Cesario suggests a homosocial relationship perhaps with erotic undertones.However his love remains unconsummated until viola revels herself as a woman and thus their marriage is possible. However Penquigney states: â€Å"The love for Cesario could not have changed instantaneously with the revelation of his femaleness; if it is erotic then it would have been erotic before; what does change is that marriage suddenly becomes possible, and hence the immediate proposal† (Pequign ey, 207). If in agreement with Pequigney it would suggest that the relationship between Cesario/Viola and Orsino has always been homoerotic it was only the constraints of society that prohibited Orsino from the actual act of love.For a Shakespearian audience this must have been a difficult sub-plot to follow as of course women were not permitted to act. There for those audiences would be watching a small boy/young man, play a woman, which was disguised as a man. So their reactions to the performances of A Twelfth Night would be different for modern audiences. In conclusion Shakespeare manages to create a multitude of relationships within the plays The Merchant of Venice and A Twelfth Night. He crosses the lines between homosocial and homoerotic on a number of occasions.The juxtaposition of quite blatant homoerotic with seemingly homosocial relations keep the audience in a state of uncertainty where by sexuality, love and friendship are clouded. The differences that arise between a m odern or renaissance audiences/ readers result in a modern audience being quicker to judge the relationships as homoerotic. By keeping your mind free of modern social conventions we can gain a better understanding of the world of sexuality that Shakespeare was trying to convey.Bibliography The Merchant of Venice –William Shakespeare the Cambridge university printing press published 1953 The Shakespearian Stage 1574-1642 3rd edition Andrew Gurr Twelfth Night the Macmillan Shakespeare 1972 Such Is My Love: A Study of Shakespeare*s Sonnets. By Joseph. Pequigney. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985 The sexual aberrations S Freud – The Material Queer: A Lesbigay Cultural Studies †¦, 1996 – West view Press The New International Version The Holy Bible Homoerotic space: the poetics of loss in Renaissance literature By Stephen Guy-Bray 1982 University of Toronto press http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Sodomy http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Timeline_of_LGBT_histor y

The Theory Of Anger And Its Effects On The Individual s...

Sell et al. (2009) address the relationship of anger to the ability to inflict costs and confer benefits during negotiation through bargaining. This is assessed within the recalibrational theory of anger which theorises there is an evolutionarily derived anger system that is used in bargaining to gain favourable outcomes by incentivising others to re-assess the worth they place on the angry individual’s welfare. Welfare Trade Ratios (WTRs) compute how much worth is placed on the welfare of another compared to the self within the recalibrational theory. Anger works to gain the highest cost-effective WTR from others depending on bargaining position that is derived from an individual’s ability to inflict cost (through aggression) and†¦show more content†¦Therefore, anger is more effective in negotiation for stronger and more attractive persons. The authors made these variables operational by proposing that: A. for men upper-body strength predicts ability to inflict cost through aggression B. for women attractiveness is used as an advantage in bargaining and would predict ability to confer benefit They consequently predict that: A. stronger men and more attractive women will have an advantage in bargaining (ability to inflict cost/confer benefit), therefore succeed in conflicts more often, feel entitled to better treatment and be more prone to anger. B. Stronger men should have a history of fighting and endorse violence as a resolution to personal and international conflict. Correlation and regression analyses assessed relationships between self-report and upper-body strength measures. Men’s physical strength was measured using: A. Lifting strength assessed using weight lifting machines (study 1) B. Portable handgrip measures and cumulative scores of flexed bicep circumference, self and other perceived strength (based on rating photographs) (study 2) The sample from study 1 was recruited from a gym. This sample may have atypical features so the student population was sampled in study 2. Participants in both studies completed self-report scales assessing anger-proneness, fighting history, rumination, belief in the utility