Beowulf Cycles free essay sample

BEOWULF To many, life seems to be one straight, narrow path but in Beowulf the notion of â€Å"rings† appears to be overwhelming. These rings can represent such diverse things like the course of existence, a hero’s glory, and vengeance. Through literal and figurative examples, rings in the poem represent reacquiring sequences and endless cycles. The idea of rings in Beowulf eludes the common thought of a â€Å"circle of life†. There are several situations within the poem where things return in a way in which they came. Beowulf opens with the story of the great Spear-Dane, Shield Sheafson. The poem reveals that he was abandoned as a child and found floating in the ocean. After his death, Shield’s people honor him with a lavish funeral and â€Å"decked his body no less bountifully with offerings than those first ones who cast him away when he was a child†(43-45). In this way, Shield (who has come from the sea) has completed his ring of life by returning to it. We will write a custom essay sample on Beowulf Cycles or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Shield’s plunder and treasures have also traveled full circle, as they were returned to him in death: Far-fetched treasures Were piled upon him, precious gear†¦ The massed treasure Was loaded upon him: it would Travel far out into the ocean. (36-42) It was unknown if this was the Danish king’s request, but it is evident that the bold warrior Beowulf would want something similar to Shield’s final send-off. â€Å"If the battle takes me, send back my breast-webbing that†¦Hrethel gave me, to Lord Hygelac† (452-454) is what Beowulf tells the Danes before facing Grendel, one of the wretched spawn of Cain. By saying this it is clear that Beowulf would prefer his armor returned to its point of origin, similar to Shield and his possessions. Grendel’s Mother also wished for her son’s arm to return back from where it came when she broke into Heorot to retrieve it. This repeated representation of people and objects involved in cycles is another way Beowulf hosts the idea of continuous rings. Rings as a literal form are also present in Beowulf. As actual objects, they form a circle, which is in fact never-ending. Rings also create a continuous legacy for their wearers. Throughout Beowulf, kings are repetitively called â€Å"ring-givers† or â€Å"giver of rings† (353). This is because in medieval times kings would give their most valiant warriors treasure. When Hrothgar is notified of the arrival of Beowulf he declares, â€Å"This is my hope; and for his heroism I will recompense him with a rich treasure† (384-385). Treasure would sometimes include neck- or arm-rings as tokens of gratitude for the warrior’s noble deeds. In fact, Beowulf received â€Å"two arm bangles†¦and rings† (1903-1904) for smiting Grendel and freeing Hrothgar’s people from his reign of terror. When worn these rings would be seen by many and would have the wearer recognized for their heroic feats. In Beowulf, recognition and fame are two themes that go hand and hand. By becoming well known from one’s actions, fame would be achieved. And in fame, comes eternal glory and a continuous place in history; much like the continuous structure of a ring or loop. A halo of vengeance is embodied within countless characters in the poem. This omnipresence surrounds individuals and monsters alike and drives them to an endless ring of revenge. It first starts when Grendel attacks the Danes in Hrothgar’s mead-hall, Heorot. His reign of terror lasts for 12 years. He â€Å"grabbed thirty men from their resting places† (122-123), took them to his lair, and brought back their butchered bodies. None other than the hero, Beowulf, could continue this early cycle of payback. Once he arrived in Heorot, he decided to face the monster unarmed. Even so, the mighty Geat ripped the outcast’s limb off, causing the â€Å"sinews to split and the bone-lappings to burst† (816-817). Accordingly, Grendel’s mother did not take the death of her son lightly. She too wreaked havoc on the mead hall by killing one of Hrothgar’s favorite warriors. At this, Beowulf stroke back and killed her. This ceaseless cycle of vengeance is another expression of â€Å"rings† in Beowulf. Again and again, the idea of an eternal, continuous, â€Å"ring† is presented in Beowulf. Through life and death, people and objects seem to return to where they once came. In the course of a hero’s career, kings have the power of providing him with undying fame. And finally, a cycle in also found through vengeance and abiding feuds.

Concept Of Gender Inequality Gender Socialization Children And Young People Essay Essays

Concept Of Gender Inequality Gender Socialization Children And Young People Essay Essays Concept Of Gender Inequality Gender Socialization Children And Young People Essay Paper Concept Of Gender Inequality Gender Socialization Children And Young People Essay Paper Harmonizing to many sociologists, there exists difference between sex and gender. Sexual activity is the biological categorization and gender is the result of societal building of separate functions of males and females. Harmonizing to Lorber ( 2005 ) , maleness and muliebrity is non congenital that is kids are taught these traits. Equally shortly as a kid is identified as being a male or female so everybody start handling him or her as such. Children learn to travel in gendered ways through the support of his environment. They are learning the gendered functions projected person who is female or male. As the kid grows up, he develops his individuality, cognize how to interact with others and larn the function to play in the society. Lorber, Judith. 2005. Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender. In The Spirit of Sociology: A Reader, erectile dysfunction. R. Matson, 292-305.New York: Penguin. There are many drivers involved in the socialisation procedure which transmits the traditional gender function to the kids and henceforth taking to occupational segregation subsequently on. One set of gender socialisation occur between parents and offspring. Parents are considered to be the primary bureau in the procedure of socialisation. They are inclined to interact with male childs and misss in distinct manners. For illustration, a one twelvemonth old babe is considered to hold no sex difference, and nevertheless, parents are likely to move with male childs and misss in dissimilar ways. They react to male childs, when they seek involvement by being aggressive and misss when they use gestures. Such interaction have long term consequence on misss and male childs communicating manners, taking male childs to more self-asserting manners and misss with more affectional manners. Ann Oakley and Ruth Hartley ( 1974 ) , surveies point out four chief ways in which socialisation into gender functions occur. First, using diverse physical and verbal uses to the kid, for illustration, dressing a miss in feminine apparels. Second, pulling the kid attending towards gender-identified playthings. This is known as canalisation whereby, male childs and misss are given certain playthings, vesture, athleticss equipment, and other objects are frequently culturally identified more with one gender than the other. Boys playthings tend to promote physical activity, whereas misss playthings tend to emphasize physical propinquity and mother-child talk. Harmonizing to Oakley ( 1974 ) , the socialisation procedure assistance to the care of male laterality and female subservience. The functions learn through the above procedure form grownup behavior and hence, contribute to the reproduction of differences in behaviour of males and females. Third, Applies Different Verbal Descriptions to the Same Behavior: Even old ages subsequently, working in professional callings, adult females might happen that they have to cover with different criterions for the same behaviour, being called pushy, for illustration, for behaviour at work that in work forces is admired for being aggressive. The same thing happens in childhood: A male child is encouraged for being active, where as a miss is rebuked for being excessively unsmooth. Or a miss is complimented for being gentle, but a male child is criticized for non being competitory plenty. _ Encourages or Discourages Certain Stereotypical Gender-Identified Activities: As a male child, were you asked to assist female parent with stitching, cookery, ironing, and the similar? As a miss, were you made to assist dad make yard work, shovel snow, takeout the rubbish, and so on? For most kids, it s frequently the contrary. Note thatthe designation of misss with indoor domestic jobs and male childs with outdoorchores becomes developing for stereotyped gender functions ( McHale et Al. 1990 ; Blair 1992 ; Leaper 2002 ; Shellenbarger 2006 ) . The instruction system is besides considered to be a major portion of the gender socialization procedure. The concealed course of study is known for reenforcing the traditional theoretical account of how misss and male childs look and act through the usage of class stuff. For illustration, instructors reinforces gender functions by promoting male childs and misss to develop different accomplishments. Harmonizing to Thorne ( 1993 ) , kids besides divide themselves along gender lines in the tiffin room, claiming different infinites of the resort area, and frequently sanction persons who violate gender functions. Mass media are one of the most powerful tools of gender socialisation because telecasting, magazines, wireless, newspapers, picture games, films, and the Internet are omnipresent in American civilization. Like other societal establishments, mass media reinforce traditional gender functions. Magazines targeted at misss and adult females emphasize the importance of physical visual aspect every bit good as determination, pleasing, and maintaining a adult male. While male childs and work forces s magazines besides focus on the importance of physical visual aspect, they besides stress the importance of fiscal success, competitory avocations, and pulling adult females for sexual brushs ( instead than enduring relationships ) . These supposed masculine and feminine features and behaviours are reinforced across the media system, from video games and films that show athletic heroes delivering thin and bosomy demoiselles in hurt, to telecasting plans that depict adult females as homemakers, nurses, and secretaries and work forces as attorneies, physicians, and corporate barons. Print media besides play an of import function in socialisation. In kids s literature, for illustration, boys typically are the supporters, who use strength and intelligence to get the better of an obstruction. When misss are included in narratives, they are typically inactive followings of the male leader or assistants eager to back up the male supporter in his program. This province of personal businesss is undergoing alteration, nevertheless. An increasing figure of telecasting shows ( Zena: Warrior Princess, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Alias, and Veronica Mars ) , films ( Laura Croft: Tomb Raider and Elektra ) , and books ( Harry Potter ) have crafted new visions of maleness and muliebrity. It remains to beseen if these images take clasp and affect gender socialisation processes. Mass media They besides learn gender functions, the behaviour and activities expected of person who is male or female. These outlooks channel male and female energies in different gender- appropriate waies. As kids learn to look and act like male childs or misss, most reproduce and perpetuate their society s version of how the two sexes should be. When kids fail to act in gender-appropriate ways, their character becomes suspect ( Lorber 2005 ) . Lorber, Judith. 2005. Night to HisDay: The Social Construction ofGender. In The Spirit of Sociology: A Reader, erectile dysfunction. R. Matson, 292-305.New York: Penguin. At the minimal people call misss who violate the regulations romps and male childs who do so pantywaists. The gender socialisation procedure may be direct or indirect. It is indirect when kids learn gender outlooks by detecting others words and behaviour, such as the gags, remarks, and narratives they hear about work forces and adult females or portraitures of work forces and adult females they see in magazines, books, and on telecasting ( Raag and Rackliff1998 ) . Raag, Tarja, and Christine Rackliff.1998. Preschoolers Awarenessof Social Expectations of Gender: Relationships to Toy Choices. Sex Functions: A Journal of Research38 ( 9-10 ) : 685. Socialization is direct when signifi buzzword others deliberately convey the social outlooks to kids. Agents of Socialization Agents of socialisation are the important people, groups, and establishments that act to determine our gender identity-whether we identify as male, female, or something in between. Agents of socialisation include household, schoolmates, equals, instructors, spiritual leaders, popular civilization, and mass media. Child development specializer Beverly Fagot and her co-workers ( 1985 ) observed how preschool instructors shape gender individuality. Specifically, the research workers focused on how yearlings, ages 12 and 24 months, in a drama group interacted and communicated with one another and how instructors responded to the kids s efforts to pass on. Fagot, Beverly, Richard Hagan, Mary Driver Leinbach, and Sandra Kronsberg. 1985. Differential Chemical reactions to Assertive and Communicative Acts of Toddler Boys and Girls. Child Development 56 ( 6 ) : 1499-1505. Fagot found no differences in the interaction manners of 12-month-old male childs and misss: All of the kids communicated by gestures, soft touches, whining, shouting, and shriek. The instructors, nevertheless, interacted with them in gender-specifi degree Celsius ways. They were more likely to react to misss who communicated in gentle, feminine ways and to boys who communicated in self-asserting, masculine ways. That is, the instructors tended to disregard miss s self-asserting Acts of the Apostless but respond to boys self-asserting Acts of the Apostless. Therefore, by the clip these yearlings were two, they communicated in really different ways. Fagot s research was conducted more than 20 old ages ago. A more recent survey found that early childhood instructors are more accepting of misss cross-gender behaviours and geographic expeditions than they are of male childs . Harmonizing to this research, instructors believe that male childs who behave like pantywaists are at greater hazard of turning up to be homosexual and psychologically ill-adjusted than are misss who behave like romps. This fi nding suggests that while American society has expanded the scope of behaviours and visual aspects deemed acceptable for misss, it has non extended the scope for male childs in the same manner ( Cahill and Adams 1997 ) . Children s plaything and celebrated images of males and females fi gure conspicuously in the socialisation procedure, along with the ways in which grownups treat kids. BarbieAÂ ® dolls, for illustration, have been marketed since 1959 with the intent of animating small misss to believe about what they wanted to be when they grew up. The dolls are available in 67 states. An estimated 95 per centum of misss between ages 3 and 11 in the United States have BarbieAÂ ® dolls, which come in several different tegument colourss and 45 nationalities ( Mattel 2010 ) .

Late 20th century United States history Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Late 20th century United States history - Essay Example Truman operated on the policy of containment through war by proxy. This was due to the Truman doctrine that said that the United States would supply aid and weapons to those people in nations that were being threatened by communist pressures. In addition, the Truman administration made great use of the CIA, Central Intelligence Agency. This was in order to gain intel on the enemy and combat their espionage program, the KGB. Thus, the Truman administration took a far greater stance on containment than did any other president, most notably with the failed attempt in Vietnam. The Regan administration, seeing the response and failures of his predecessor, took a different route on containment. He was more in favor of peaceful coexistence, which was achieved through diplomatic channels. Rather than aiding forces directly with American troops, the Regan doctrine allowed the United States to supply enemies of communism with weapons and economic support. Because the United States had a stronger economy, Regan built up a nuclear stockpile in which the Soviets could not keep up. Ultimately, this along with other internal failures, lead to the fall of the Soviet Union and the survival of the world’s last superpower. Between the two presidents, there was a lot learned from the differing strategies on the policy of containment. Adaptive leadership helped the United States adapt and overcome obstacles, which lead to the fall of the Soviet