Dead Stars Essay

Paz Mà ¡rquez-Benà ­tez (1894-1983) Paz Marquez-Benitez, a Filipina writer born in 1894 in Lucena City, Quezon, authored the first Filipino modern English-language short story, Dead Stars, published in the Philippine Herald in 1925. Born into the prominent and affluent Marquez family of Quezon province, she was among the first generation of Filipinos trained in the American education system which used English as the medium of instruction. She graduated high school in Tayabas High Schooland college from the University of the Philippines with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1912. She was a member of the first freshman class of the University of the Philippines, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1912. Two years after graduation, she married Francisco Benitez, with whom she had four children. Mà ¡rquez-Benà ­tez later became a teacher at the University of the Philippines, who taught short-story writing and had become an influential figure to many Filipino writers in the English language. The annually held Paz Marquez-Benitez Lectures in the Philippines honors her memory by focusing on the contribution of Filipino women writers to Philippine Literature in the English language. Though she only had one more published short story after ―Dead Starsâ€â€" this of which is entitled ―A Night In The Hills,â€â€" nevertheless, she made her mark in Philippine literature because her work is considered the first modern Philippine short story. For Marquez-Benitez, writing was a life-long occupation. In 1919, she founded ―Woman’s Home Journalâ€â€", the first women’s magazine in the country. ―Filipino Love Storiesâ€â€", reportedly the first anthology of Philippine stories in English by Filipinos, was compiled in 1928 by Marquez-Benitez from the works of her students. When her husband died in 1951, she took over as editor of the Philippine Journal of Education at UP. She held the editorial post for over two decades. ―Dead Starsâ€â€" is the 1925 short story that gave birth to modern Philippine writing in English. TRIVIA: Dead Stars had been praised as ―a model of perfection in character delineation, local color, plot, and message.â€â€" ILLUMINATIONS ON THE THEME EXTRACTED Since the author’s life and experiences is not significant to the content of the short story, MoralPhilosophical as a literary lens was applied. This is an approach that puts literature as one that teaches morality and explores philosophical issues. By looking and analyzing Benitez’ ―Dead Starsâ€â€" the short story reflects the time in which the literary work was written along with the language, the norms and the way people think. It serves as a literary time machine for readers as it enables them to understand how courtship, marriage and fidelity were viewed through the early 1900 standards. It renders a sound comparison between the past and the present, the existing modern culture and the fading, almost obsolete tradition. I could say that the philosophical principle of the story is love. This is further compared to the concepts and dialogues of the characters in the story like the concept of engagement and marriage, the dialogue of Esperanza which is ―I am not blind, or deaf; I see and hear what perhaps some are trying to keep from meâ€â€" and also ―If you are tires of – why don’t you tell me you are tired of meâ€â€", the words of Alfredo to Julia which are ―I could study you all my life.â€â€" and ―Nothing? There is you.â€â€" and the concept in which Alfredo had been seeing light of the dead stars and the immense sadness that invaded his spirit. These concepts and words from the characters of the story bring the force this unifying thread: Love is like a puzzle, it is confusing and mind blowing for it can be gained and it can also be lost in a snap of a finger. PART TWO: MY TEXT-DEPENDENT INTERPRETATION In Light of Modernist Vistas: Formalism (Elemental Exploration) and Structuralism (Binary Opposition and Signification) EXEGESIS ―Was he being cheated by life? Love—he seemed to have missed it! Or was the love that others told about a mere fabrication of fervid imagination, and exaggeration of the commonplace, a glorification of insipid monotonies such as made up his love life? Was love a combination of circumstances, or sheer native capacity of soul? In those days love was, for  him, still the eternal puzzle; for love as he knew it, was a stranger to love as he divined it might be.â€â€" –Alfredo Julia is quite different from Esperanza—―a girl striking and vividly alive, the woman that could cause violent commotion in his heart, yet had no place in the completed ordering of his life.† The rare-turnedregular neighboring trips lead Alfredo to deep conversations with Julia and hence, develop an admiration for the woman. Sometimes, he would forget he is engaged, continuing his meetings with Julia while thinking that Esperanza ―was not prone to indulge in unprovoked jealousies†¦ (for) she was a believer in the regenerative virtue of institutions, in their power to regulate feeling as well as conductâ€â€". Unfortunately, he also forgets the fact that Esperanza is a woman and, being so is already a risk factor for jealousies, provoked or otherwise. ―I do not understand you at all! I think I know why you have been indifferent to me lately. I am not blind, or deaf. I see perhaps some are trying to keep you away from me†¦ Whatever my shortcomings, and no doubt they are many in your eyes, I have never gone out of my way, out of my place to find a man.â€â€" – Esperanza Julia is in love with Alfredo. That much is pretty obvious in the story, especially after learning belatedly that Alfredo is engaged. An unconscious believer himself in the regenerative virtue of institutions, Alfredo still marries Esperanza. Over the years, he becomes an impassive husband. I feel sad for both of them but must I say they brought it upon themselves? Alfredo, for one, does not really know what he wants and so he lives his life as it comes. He was not unhappy in his marriage. He felt no rebellion: only the calm of capitulation to what he recognized as irresistible forces of circumstance and of character†¦ From his capacity of complete detachment he derived a strange solace†¦ At such times did Esperanza feel baffled and hopeless; he was gentle, even tender, but immeasurably far away, beyond reach. –Alfredo Eight years later, he still could not forget Julia. So while on business, he makes a side trip to Julia’s hometown to check if he had meant anything to her and her to him. Julia has not married. This implies many things—one of which could be that she is still in love with Alfredo but chooses not to fight for that love because she was taught that the act of giving through self-denial is a good thing and so she turned from a spirited young woman into a boring one living a boring life after she  lost Alfredo to propriety and social order. What did Alfredo fi nd during his meeting with Julia after his marriage? Dead stars So that was all over. Why, why hade he obstinately clung to that dream from the weariness of actuality? And now, mere actuality had robbed him of the dream. So all these years—since when?—he had been seeing the light of dead stars, long extinguished, yet seemingly still in their appointed places in the heavens. -Alfredo Alfredo has been clinging onto something that is unattainable because he is bored with the predictability of his life. Julia was a like a star, brimming his dull life with light and excitement for a short time. Because of the choices they made, Julia and Alfredo (and even Esperanza) become dead stars. ILLUMINATIONS ON THE THEME EXTRACTED It is in this section of the paper where Formalism as a literary lens was used. This is the key to grasp the meaning of the text exists within the text itself. It involves elemental exploration of the literary piece via explication and exegesis. If one will look and interpret the story, Dead Stars is a love story written in prose with a heart-warming message. It is told from the perspective of Alfredo Salazar who is in personal conflict with his feelings towards two women—Esperanza, his fiancà ©e of four years, and Julia Salas whom he met while ―neighboringâ€â€". Esperanza is the embodiment of the ideal wife to the ideal man, and so they make an ideal couple in the eyes of society. Alfredo has pursued her at the start of their relationship with intense courtship, but later on, the feeling seems to subside. These interpretations of the poem based on the views of the author bring to the force unifying thread: Our decisions or choices in life can make us dead stars – we are living in our delegated places in the society but not actually glimmering, not actually living our lives. STRUCTURALISM ―Dead Starsâ€â€" BINARY OPPOSITION SIGNIFICATION NEED WANT Love a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. Marriage a legally, religiously, or sociall y sanctioned union of persons who commit to one another Detachment freedom from selfinterest or bias; disinter estof it. ILLUMINATIONS ON THE THEME EXTRACTED It is in this part of the paper where STRUCTURALISM as a literary lens was employed. This is an approach which asserts that literature is a text. A particular structure of language produces reality. This further includes literary interpretation via binary opposition (concepts in opposition) and signification (signifier and signified). Through simply looking into and interpreting the lines of the short story ―Dead Starsâ€â€", we could say that the two opposing concepts are NEED and WANT which we could say that these two entities are powerful and supreme. These interpretations of the poem say that: For the sake of reputation, a man will do the things he ought to do even though he does not wholeheartedly like what he need to do thus he is not living and building a life rather he is just living to survive.

When a Comma Means And

When a Comma Means And When a Comma Means â€Å"And† When a Comma Means â€Å"And† By Maeve Maddox Although â€Å"blessed† by Fowler and the Chicago Manual of Style, the serial comma is readily dropped by a growing number of writers who prefer the advice given in the AP Style Guide: Use commas to separate elements in a series, but do not put a comma before the conjunction in a simple series: The flag is red, white and blue. Put a comma before the concluding conjunction in a series, however, if an integral element of the series requires a conjunction: I had orange juice, toast, and ham and egg for breakfast. In the Penguin Guide to Punctuation, R.L Trask likewise recommends omitting a comma before and. As does the AP guide, he says the only excuse for placing a comma before the and is to avoid ambiguity. Trask points out another use of what he calls the â€Å"listing comma.† In a list of adjectives all describing the same noun, a comma may be used to separate them: My dog’s long, dense, rough fur requires frequent brushing. A frequent error is to place commas between adjectives that are not all describing the same noun: My first pet was a purebred, Alaskan Husky. By remembering that the listing comma is a substitute for the word and, writers can avoid error by mentally replacing each comma in a list of adjectives with the word and. Compare the following examples: My dog’s long and dense and rough fur needs frequent brushing. My first pet was a purebred and Alaskan Husky In the the first example, replacing the commas with the word and makes the expression cumbersome, but it does not alter the sense. All three adjectives describe the same noun, â€Å"fur.† In the second example, replacing the comma with and makes no sense because â€Å"purebred† does not describe â€Å"Husky†; it describes â€Å"Alaskan Husky.† It’s sufficient to write, â€Å"My first pet was a purebred Alaskan Husky.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Punctuation category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:10 Grammar Mistakes You Should Avoid50 Nautical Terms in General UseLetter Writing 101

At the beginning of our day out Briggs is portrayed as an antagonist Essays

At the beginning of our day out Briggs is portrayed as an antagonist Essays At the beginning of our day out Briggs is portrayed as an antagonist Essay At the beginning of our day out Briggs is portrayed as an antagonist Essay Essay Topic: Literature At the beginning of Our Day Out the character of Mr. Briggs is told to keep an eye on things. At this point we dont know a great deal about him apart from the fact that he acts a bit like a spy. Briggs addresses the pupils on the coach to sit down and his first words are typical of a strict teacher: Reilly. Dickson. Sit down! It shows it will not be easy for the pupils to get on with as they want to have a good time, and a good time in his eyes is to sit down quietly and talk to people sitting near by you. Briggs dialogue indicates that he is strict. He does not talk to people in a normal tone; it is more of a strict tone. And there are a lot of exclamation marks in his dialogue indicating he shows most of the time. Mrs. Kay is the classes teacher, she is a nice lady that knows the children wont amount to much, as there is no jobs around in that area. Briggs and Mrs. Kay seem to not get along, this is because of the different teaching styles. Briggs does not understand that the pupils fathers work hard and do not have much to show for it. Whereas Mrs Kay understands it is hard for them, understand they wont grow up to be much and tries to be nice. Mrs Kay and the other teachers are as disappointed as the children when they hear Briggs is coming on the trip because they know what he is like. He does not think the children deserve to be allowed on a trip like this and enjoy it. He is an old fashion teacher, who sticks by rules. He thinks Mrs. Kay should teach them in a different way. He is under the impression that if they learn something they will have a better lifestyle. Comedy is a main ingredient to the play. It happens in many scenes throughout the play. To begin with when Les walks out to get Carol across the road. He sets his timing just right to stop the arrogant get that is Briggs. Then, there is the scene when Mrs. Kay fools the driver into believing that the children are poor. The zoo, the shop, the girls with Colin all of these scenes all have comedy in them. Briggs serious nature also adds to the humour because the behaviour of the children makes him so mad. Mrs Kay persuades Briggs to sit down and have a coffee. He does not think that the children should be left alone, however Mrs. Kay reassures him that they will be okay. Yet when Briggs finds out the children have stolen the animals he gets angry. He disagreed with Ronsons view about the caged animals and he says that was all they were used to. Here, Willy Russell speaks metaphorically. The caged animals are like the children. The children see the life they want, like the bears see the freedom, yet they cant reach it. Russell shows us that Briggs and the children are so different thought the language by using phonetic spelling to highlight accent. At the beach and the fair, Briggs seems like a different person. He tells the driver to go to the fair. He seems to have become used to the children by this time. At the beach, Carol, a student from the progress class that has big dreams but no way of getting them, goes missing. Briggs finds her on the edge of a cliff and tells her to get away from the edge. She replies with something the audience thinks, You dont care. The audience then start to see a different side to Briggs when he replies If I didnt care, why am I here now. This implies that Briggs does care about the students, but he is an old-fashioned teacher. He believes that children go to school to learn, not to have a fun time. The end of the play is relaxed. The children have a good time at the fairground and Mrs Kay takes some photos, which Briggs gets hold of, with the promise to develop them, yet he throws them away. Personally I dont think Briggs changes. Just before the bus got back to school, Russell adds this stage direction: Briggs takes off his hat, combs his hair and put back on his jacket I think he relaxed and tried to enjoy the trip, but when he gets back to school, his place of work, he is the old Briggs again. I think in general that the audiences view has changed of Briggs. He is an old fashioned teacher and thats the way he is, but I think that the audience now see that there is a different side to him. A side that is rarely seen. I think that Briggs is a good teacher and that he does have a better approach to the children than Mrs Kay. Although she understands them better, I think that Briggs would teach them more as he has strict rules, He would make them learn, where as Mrs Kay simply talks to them and plainly understands them.

Coup dEtat and Coup de Grace

Coup dEtat and Coup de Grace Coup d’Etat and Coup de Grace Coup d’Etat and Coup de Grace By Maeve Maddox Watching a rerun of Castle (U.S. television police drama), I was startled to hear a character use the expression counting coup. TV script writers rarely throw in literary or historical allusions. I was pleased to hear it, but disappointed to hear the character pronounce the p in coup. English has borrowed coup from the French not once, but twice. In about 1400, coup came into English with the literal meaning of â€Å"a blow or a stroke.† As a completely naturalized word, this use of coup was pronounced with a p until it dropped out of use. Later, in about 1640, the word coup was borrowed into Modern English in the expression coup d’etat. coup d’etat /ËÅ'ku deÉ ªÃ‹Ë†tÉ‘/. noun. a sudden and decisive stroke of state policy. In this figurative expression, the p at the end of coup and the t at the end of etat (French for â€Å"state†) are silent. Several other figurative expressions containing the word coup may be found in English texts written since then. At least twocoup d’etat and coup de graceare still common in the general media. Coup d’etat is often shortened to coup and used to describe a take-over of power, as in â€Å"a military coup.† The p is silent. coup de grace /kudÉ™ ˈgrÉ‘s/ noun. a blow by which one condemned or mortally wounded is quickly killed to be spared further suffering. As novelist Rick Castle explains to his bewildered detective friends, counting coup refers to a custom of the North American Plains Indians. Counting or taking coup could be a literal touching of an enemy with hand, weapon or stick and escaping alive, but it could also refer to taking a scalp, stealing horses, or any other bold act that bestowed prestige upon the doer. I’ll mention one more use of coup that may be familiar to billiard players: to run a coup. This, according to the OED, is â€Å"the act of holing a ball without its first striking another ball.† In case anyone is wondering, the word coupe, in which the p is pronounced, comes from the French verb couper, â€Å"to cut.† The French past participle form is coupà ©, pronounced /kuˈpeÉ ª/. American usage dropped the accent mark, changing the pronunciation to /kup/. The word first came into use to describe a type of horse-drawn carriage. Now it refers to a two-door automobile. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:5 Uses of InfinitivesHyper and HypoMay Have vs. Might Have

Not Just Another Outdoor Company Essay Example

Not Just Another Outdoor Company Essay Example Not Just Another Outdoor Company Essay Not Just Another Outdoor Company Essay Nau is an outdoor company which the whole organization shares a belief that â€Å"in addition to generating a profit, companies have an equal responsibility to create positive social and environment changes†. To achieve this target, they claimed that they have 3 approaches in design, sales and financial areas to do a green business. The public get an impression that this company is doing something to improve the society by using the sustainable approaches and they must be ethical and responsible. However, if we keep a lookout for it, we will have questions. Is this company really doing something good for the society or it is just some marketing gimmicks? I have doubts and do not think that they are ethical and responsible. Firstly, in the design area, they stated that they develop 24 of its 32 fabrics to be more sustainable. To some certain extent, the sustainable fabric is a real boon to the environment. But what is the inwardly intention by achieving this goal? The raw material of the sustainable fabrics may be much cheaper than the original one. By developing these, the companies can save cost and their revenue is higher. They may not be so considerate to the environment but these are just pretty covers. Secondly, in the sales area, they have provided a web store so that customers can do online shopping. As the real store inventories has reduced, the store become smaller. The company claimed that this is good for the planet by minimizing the operational cost to save energies. Let us have an exhaustive examination of the issue. Provide online shopping platform is for saving the cost to hire staff and promoting their business using the World Wide Web. They also save the cost to rent a bigger store. These helps their business for better revenue which nothing done with the environmental protection. That’s only the goldbrick to create a positive reputation for the company. Thirdly, in the financial area, the company has pledged 5% of the sales to charitable organization. Compared to other companies, Nau has donated a much higher sale to the charity. However, what if Nau raised the selling price higher and customers pay more. Therefore, the 5 % denotation is actually all coming from the customers and Nau have the same profit without any sacrifice. They use the tricks on the selling price and make everyone thinks that they have corporate responsibility to do something good for the world. All in all, I do not think Nau’s approaches place much emphasis on the social responsibility. Although their ideas are worthy of praise, they are still under suspicion due to the above reasons. This is not a good approach for Nau to do business. You can use this as the decoration for your company to increase the reputation but this is not a long term way to build the images. Nau has now decreased the denotation to charity from 5 % to 2% which provide a bad impression to the public that if this company can stay long in the market. This also scares away the investor to put their investment into Nau. If the price of the material of the sustainable fabrics increase a lot and this makes the company cannot survive, will the company abandon the sustainable fabrics and use the normal fabrics? Therefore, it is not wise for the company to only build their images on this areas and they should think of some other promotion gimmicks like good and colourful appearances of their products.

Using a Collocation Dictionary to Improve Your English

Using a Collocation Dictionary to Improve Your English One of the least appreciated tools for learning English is using a collocation dictionary. A collocation can be defined as words that go together. In other words, certain words tend to go with other words. If you think about how you use your own language for a moment, youll quickly recognize that you tend to speak in phrases or groups of words that go together in your mind. We speak in chunks of language. For example: Im tired of waiting for the bus this afternoon. An English speaker doesnt think of ten separate words, rather they think in the phrases Im tired of waiting for the bus and this afternoon. Thats why sometimes you may say something correctly in English, but it just doesnt sound right. For example: Im tired of standing for the bus this afternoon. To someone whos imaging the situation standing for the bus, makes sense, but standing goes together with in line. So, while the sentence makes sense, it isnt really correct. As students improve their English, they tend to learn more phrases and idiomatic language. Its also important to learn collocations. In fact, Id say its the single most under-used tool by most students. A thesaurus is very helpful to find synonyms and antonyms, but a collocations dictionary can help you learn the right phrases in context.   I recommend the Oxford Collocations Dictionary for Students of English, but there are other collocation resources available such as concordance databases. Using a Collocation Dictionary Tips Try these exercises to help you use a collocations dictionary to improve your vocabulary. 1. Choose a Profession Choose a profession you are interested in. Go to the Occupational Outlook site and read the specifics of the profession. Take note of common terms that are used. Next, look up those terms in a collocations dictionary to extend your vocabulary by learning appropriate collocations. Example Aircraft and Avionics Key words from Occupational Outlook: equipment, maintenance, etc. From the collocations dictionary: Equipment Adjectives: the latest, modern, state-of-the-art, high-tech, etc.Types of Equipment: medical equipment, radar equipment, telecom equipment, etc.Verb Equipment: provide equipment, supply equipment, install equipment, etc.  Phrases: the proper equipment, the right equipment From the collocations dictionary: Maintenance Adjectives: annual, daily, regular, long-term, preventive, etc.Types of Maintenance: building maintenance, software maintenance, health maintenance, etc.Verb Maintenance: carry out maintenance, perform maintenance, etc.Maintenance Noun: maintenance personnel, maintenance costs, maintenance schedule, etc.   2. Choose an Important Term Choose an important term that you might use on a daily basis at work, school, or home. Look the word up in the collocations dictionary. Next, imagine a related situation and write a paragraph or more using important collocations to describe it. The paragraph will repeat the keyword too often, but this is an exercise. By repeatedly using your key term, youll create a link in your mind to a wide variety of collocations with your target word.   Example Key Term: Business Situation: Negotiating a contract Example Paragraph Were working on a business deal with an investment company who carries on business with profitable businesses throughout the world. We set up the business two years ago, but weve been very successful due to our business strategy. The CEOs business acumen is outstanding, so were looking forward to conducting business with them. The companys business headquarters are located in Dallas, Texas. Theyve been in business for more than fifty years, so we expect their business experience to be the best in the world. 3. Use the Collocations You Learn Make a list of important collocations. Commit to using at least three of the collocations each day in your conversations. Try it, its more difficult than you might think, but it really helps with memorizing new words.

Pachyrhinosaurus Facts and Figures

Pachyrhinosaurus Facts and Figures Name: Pachyrhinosaurus (Greek for thick-nosed lizard); pronounced PACK-ee-RYE-no-SORE-us Habitat: Woodlands of western North America Historical Period: Late Cretaceous (70 million years ago) Size and Weight: About 20 feet long and 2-3 tons Diet: Plants Distinguishing Characteristics: Thick bump on nose instead of nasal horn; two horns on top of frill About Pachyrhinosaurus Its name notwithstanding, Pachyrhinosaurus (Greek for thick-nosed lizard) was an entirely different creature from the modern rhinoceros, though these two plant-eaters do have a few things in common. Paleontologists believe Pachyrhinosaurus males used their thick noses to butt one another for dominance in the herd and the right to mate with females, much like modern-day rhinos, and both animals were approximately the same length and weight (though Pachyrhinosaurus may have outweighed its modern counterpart by a ton or two). Thats where the similarities end, though. Pachyrhinosaurus was a ceratopsian, the family of horned, frilled dinosaurs (the most famous examples of which were Triceratops and Pentaceratops) that populated North America during the late Cretaceous period, only a few million years before the dinosaurs went extinct. Oddly enough, unlike the case with most other ceratopsians, the two horns of Pachyrhinosaurus were set on top of its frill, not on its snout, and it had a fleshy mass, the nasal boss, in place of the nasal horn found in most other ceratopsians. (By the way, Pachyrhinosaurus may turn out to be the same dinosaur as the contemporary Achelousaurus.) Somewhat confusingly, Pachyrhinosaurus is represented by three separate species, which differ somewhat in their cranial ornamentation, especially the shape of their unflattering-looking nasal bosses. The boss of the type species, P. canadensis, was flat and rounded (unlike that of P. lakustai and P. perotorum), and P. canadensis also had two flattened, forward-facing horns on top of its frill. If youre not a paleontologist, though, all three of these species look pretty much identical! Thanks to its numerous fossil specimens (including over a dozen partial skulls from Canadas Alberta province), Pachyrhinosaurus is quickly climbing the most popular ceratopsian rankings, though the odds are slim that it will ever overtake Triceratops. This dinosaur got a big boost from its starring role in Walking with Dinosaurs: The 3D Movie, released in December 2013, and it has featured prominently in the Disney movie Dinosaur and the History Channel TV series Jurassic Fight Club.