Tuesday, April 28, 2020

The Two Faces Of Ancient Greece Essay Example For Students

The Two Faces Of Ancient Greece Essay The two most dominating city-states in Greece of their time, Athens and Sparta, were great rivals with two very different ways of life. Sparta’s overbearing military and Athens’ impartial justice system and government are models for many modern day countries. Even though these two city-states differ greatly from one another, they share many characteristics of their country and their time period. Athens and Sparta were the two most powerful Greek territories of their time. Like most cities of the same country, they have the same Greek culture, worshipping the same Greek gods and speaking Greek. Like all Greeks, their people loved to talk and tell stories. Although they fought against each other, their citizens equally had great amounts of pride for their entire country as well as their city-states. The two rivals were both devoted mainly to agriculture and based their wealth, but not their success, on agriculture. Both also participated in the annual Olympics, an ancient Greek national athletic competition which is now a worldwide tradition. These to Greek city-states were the most feared city-states in all of Greece. We will write a custom essay on The Two Faces Of Ancient Greece specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now Though Athens and Sparta were similar, they were also very different. Athens was the first democracy, and it was also the first to govern with trial by jury. Athens’ main accomplishment was that it had a very strong Navy. It was the command of the sea and the head of the Naval Alliance, or the Delian League. Athens was the most feared city-state to fight at sea. Its other achievements were that is had excellent forms of art, architecture, drama and literature, philosophy, science, and medicine. It was very wealthy and had beautiful, extravagant temples. The boys of Athens went to school between the ages of five and eighteen, where they learned reading, writing, mathematics, music, poetry, sports and gymnastics. The girls stayed at home and learned spinning, weaving and domestic arts. Athens had well educated men, a good sense of art, and an all-powerful navy. Sparta developed the most powerful military oligarchy of their time. They had a very strong army and were the most feared city-state to fight on land. Sparta was a member of the Peloponnesian League and was the most powerful people in it. Its excellent military conquered many territories, which they controlled with slaves. Sparta’s sole achievement, other than military supremacy, was that its people possessed a simple life style, with no care for the arts of Athens. When Spartan boys turned seven years old they began training for the military, and they ceased their training at the age of twenty. There was much more gender equality in Sparta than in Athens, and girls went to school where they learned reading, writing, athletics, gymnastics, and survival skills, and they could even join the military. Sparta was militarily supreme over Athens, and it also supported better equality and simplicity of life. Sparta and Athens contrasted greatly in military, art, education, government, and in many other areas. The few similarities they had were mainly based on their country’s rituals and traditions. These rituals and traditions are what the modern world remembers of the Greek culture. History

Thursday, March 19, 2020

Amelie essays

Amelie essays Follow the Blue Arrows: Looking Closely at One Part of Amlies Spectrum The color blue is used symbolically in the visual design of Amlie to represent happiness. Watching Amlie to gather info on the visual design of the film lends itself to the realization that to write a paper on the overall visual design of the film would take dozens of viewings and a book worth of analysis. With that in mind, the focus of this analysis is on a repeated visual design theme: the timely, strategic, and meaningful placement of blue lighting and blue objects to augment and represent the themes of the story, specifically, the theme of happiness. The main set colors in Amlie are green red and yellow. Volumes could be written about the set design, color, and decoration, and how it illustrates each characters personality, but as stated earlier the focus is the importance of the use of the color blue in the set, the props, characters clothing, and lighting. Compared to the reds and greens blue is relatively rare, but very easily noticeable throughout the movie. While it is possible that blue objects coincidently appear at important times, and rarely anywhere else, knowing Jean-Pierre Jeunets reputation as a highly visual (see The City of Lost Children), fastidious (this was the first movie Jean-Pierre Jeunet shot on location and, due to the lack of control, it will likely be the last), and preparatory (shots, angles, lenses, and camera movements were decided days in advance on storyboards) director, the chance of coincidence becomes slim. The color blue represents the main characters Amlie and Nico search for happiness and the things that make them happy. When Amlie sees Nico after spending the night in a photo booth and we see Amlies feelings for Nico, there is a large blue backlit poster on the wall behind him. When Nico runs off to ch...

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Definition and Examples of Double Negatives in English

Definition and Examples of Double Negatives in English There are two different definitions of double negatives in English grammar: A double negative is a  nonstandard form using two negatives for emphasis where only one is necessary (for example, I cant get no satisfaction).A double negative is a  standard form using two negatives to express a positive (She is not unhappy). Examples of Double Negatives for Emphasis I wont not use no double negatives. (Bart Simpson, The Simpsons, 1999)Ther nas no man nowher so vertuous. (Geoffrey Chaucer, The Friars Tale in The Canterbury Tales)Nor never noneShall mistress of it be, save I alone.(William Shakespeare, Viola in Twelfth Night)You ain’t heard nothin’ yet, folks! (Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer)Badges? We aint got no badges. We dont need no badges! (Alfonso Bedoya as Gold Hat in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, 1948)The world dont owe me nothing. (Delta bluesman Honeyboy Edwards)Listen here, Sam, this  wont do you no good, you know. (Judith Lennox, Middlemere. Hachette, 2004)I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong.† (Muhammed Ali, February 17, 1966, quoted by Stefan Fatsis in No Viet Cong Ever Called Me Nigger. Slate, June 8, 2016)June Cleaver: Oh Wally, I wonder if youd mind going to the supermarket for me.Wally Cleaver: Well, I guess I could. Im not hardly doing anything.June Cleaver: Wally, you never use not and hard ly together. Either youre not doing anything, or youre hardly doing anything.Wally Cleaver: Oh. I wasnt sure, so I stuck em both in.(Beaver Finds a Wallet. Leave It to Beaver, 1960) Mencken on Double Negatives Syntactically, perhaps the chief characteristic of vulgar American is its sturdy fidelity to the double negative. So freely is it used, indeed, that the simple negative appears to be almost abandoned. Such phrases as I see nobody, I could hardly walk, I know nothing about it are heard so seldom among the masses of the people that they appear to be affectations when encountered; the well-nigh universal forms are I don’t see nobody, I couldn’t hardly walk, and I don’t know nothing about it. (H. L. Mencken, The American Language, 1921) Definition #2: Double Negatives to Express a Positive It is hoped that American teachers may not find this Manual inappropriate to their use. (J.M. Bonnell, A Manual of the Art of Prose Composition. Morton, 1867)Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings, save upon those not infrequent occasions when he was up all night, was seated at the breakfast table. (Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles, 1902)I know a college president who can be described only as a jerk. He is not an unintelligent man, nor unlearned, nor even unschooled in the social amenities. (Sidney J. Harris, A Jerk, 1961) Triple Negatives You better not never tell nobody but God. (Alice Walker, The Color Purple, 1982)We try every way we can do to kill the game, but for some reason, nothing nobody does never hurts it. (Sparky Anderson, quoted by George Will in Baseball Lit. 101, 1990) A Triple Positive I got interviews with all three remaining  residents, and one of them told me Ruth Singh had received a visitor that night. So it was worth going back. Information that could lead to an arrest, as they say.Yeah, right, thatll happen.Well done, Meera, a triple positive to make an emphatic negative- nice use of English.(Christopher Fowler, The Water Room. Doubleday, 2004) Quadruple Negatives Why, sir, I never knowed no manner o luck on no ship nowhen and nowhere, wi unmarried females aboard. (Lovepeace Farrance, quoted by George Choundas in The Pirate Primer: Mastering the Language of Swashbucklers and Rogues. Writers Digest Books, 2007)Right down on the ground his stick he throwed.And he shivered and said, Well, I am blowed.And he turned away, with a heart full sore,And he never was seen not none no more.(Robert J. Burdette, Romance of the Carpet)Proscriptions Against the Double NegativeMost kinds of double negative are inappropriate in spoken and written Standard English except in jocular use . . .. This was not always so, however, and the double negative remains one of the best illustrations of what was once a perfectly acceptable locution being driven by the decisions of grammarians, not out of the language, but out of Standard use. (Kenneth G. Wilson, The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. Columbia University Press, 1993)The prohibition on double negatives may have begun with Robert Lowth, an 18th century Bishop of London, who wrote A Short Introduction to English Grammar. In it he stated that two Negatives in English destroy one another, or are equivalent to an affirmative. Perhaps his high status as a bishop led people to believe that his strictures on language were divinely inspired. The ban stuck. In the late 19th century, for example, an educator commented: The student . . . is instructed how contrary to reason is a Double Negative. Yet it never entirely disappeared. It is still found in some varieties of English, as in the old music hall song: We dont know no one wot don’t want no nine inch nails. (Jean Aitchison, The Language Web: The Power and Problem of Words. Cambridge University Press, 1997) Like many rules that are apparently based on logic, the view that double negatives are illogical is an artificial  rule introduced in the eighteenth century. It first appears in James Greenwoods An Essay Towards a Practical English Grammar (1711), where we find the statement, Two Negatives, or two Adverbs of Denying, do in English affirm. As is usual in such works, no support for the claim is offered; it is certainly not based on practice, since double negatives had been common since Old English. (Simon Horobin,  How English Became English. Oxford University Press, 2016) The Lighter Side of Double Negatives Albert Collins: Im not sharing with no one.Gene Hunt: What is that, a double negative? Dont they teach you anything in nutter school these days?(Andrew Vincent and Philip Glenister in Life on Mars [UK], 2006)You shut up! You just shut up! Youre a nasty horrid person and we dont want you playing in our house! Alice is my friend!I wasnt doing nothing, I was only talking. I didnt touch nothing, I neverThats a double negative! Youre a stupid uneducated little snot, and you live in a council estate, and youre not allowed to play with nice people! That was a double negative, Alice, did you hear it? Thats what happens when you ask them in. Youll be picking up all sorts of language.(Alan Coren, Baby Talk, Keep Talking Baby Talk. Chocolate and Cuckoo Clocks: The Essential Alan Coren, ed. by Giles Coren and Victoria Coren. Canongate, 2008)Dr. House: You two shower together?Dr. Cameron and Dr. Chase: No!Dr. House: Double negative. Its a yes.(Half-Wit. House M.D., 2007) Also Known As:  negative concord

Sunday, February 16, 2020

A Human Character to the Corporation From a Moral Perspective Research Paper

A Human Character to the Corporation From a Moral Perspective - Research Paper Example Corporations law and partnership law are currently separate. However, current amendments to the Partnership Act of 1892 (NSW) have made provision for LLP and ILPs, with the facility of limited liability being extended in these cases to promote innovation and risk-taking. While this could address the limited use of partnerships due to their inability to restrict liability5, it also allows for benefits to be gleaned by foreign investors and large entrepreneurs, promoting a capitalistic structure that may not necessarily be beneficial to Australian interests. If the limited liability benefits of a corporation are to be extended to small partnership like arrangements of a few Directors who also share profits among themselves as in the Ebrahimi case, then the taxation laws must be amended 6 and the Partnership Act of New South Wales must be amended to permit such business to take advantage of tax reforms. This will enable issues of fairness and equity of a partnership where partners/inves tors owe each other a duty of good faith to co-exist successfully with the limited liability of corporations. The purpose of including disclosure through prospectuses for securities was mainly (a) to protect investors from underlying risks (b) enhance the efficiency of the securities market and (c) prevent fraud. Ruth Hines discovered that although the financial statements that are a part of such reports are considered vital, only those experienced in accounting were able to understand them sufficiently to make their decisions on the basis of those reports.

Sunday, February 2, 2020

Both sides of free trade Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Both sides of free trade - Research Paper Example ironmental sustainability, the citification mechanism of producers in exporting countries and certification of products in importing countries and creating awareness of such products among consumers of the developed world (Singh, 2001). On the other hand free trade is a global effort to carry out international trade free of negative protectionist practices such as higher tariffs on imports, subsidies to domestic producers, foreign exchange restrictions, dumping cheaper goods abroad, imposing dubious standards on imports and import substitution by propping up unwieldy domestic industries. Theoretically free trade is based on neoliberal economic principles dating back to Ricardo’s argument on the principle of comparative advantage. Free trade and fair trade aren’t necessarily the same though some of the ultimate outcomes would converge. In fact divergences between the two are many and if free trade were practiced with full force indeed, fair trade would take a back seat. Globalization has been the catch word used by many who advocate free trade. Such people vehemently support all and everything in the name of free trade. On the other hand fair trade is a distant cousin of free trade. An inevitable aspect of this relationship between the two is that the former is marginalized while the latter is well placed at the center of the global market. Fair trade is essentially replete with intricate nuances ranging from market access facilitation processes to marginalized producers to sustainability efforts. Such noble principles need some theoretical and conceptual frameworks to support them though. Free trade theories are many while the principle of comparative advantage is the most predominant among them. The basis on which free trade is advocated by its supporters is determined by a series of arguments which in turn are associated with neoliberal perspectives. In the first place globalization is the logical premise used by supporters of international free trade to

Saturday, January 25, 2020

Misconceptions of psychology

Misconceptions of psychology Numerous studies have shown undergraduate students and everyday people to have a range of misconceptions about psychology. This study examined misconceptions among one group of first year psychology students, and another group of first year engineering students in order to determine whether psychology students perform significantly better than students of other academic disciplines in regards to their knowledge of psychology. A quasi-experimental independent-groups design was used, with the independent variables in this study having two levels, or whether the participant was either a psychology or engineering student and the dependent variable of the number of correct questions the individual achieved on the questionnaire. Results of this study showed that students from the two disciplines differ in their misconception and knowledge of psychology, with descriptive statistics and analyses of an independent groups t-test and a point biserial correlation showing a significant difference between the two groups. Conclusively, this study suggests that psychology students do have fewer misconceptions compared to engineering students, while further stating an alternative explanation and critically analysing procedures used to determine the produced results. Further research of in this area could focus on testing the misconceptions of a more varied sample, administer a different type of questionnaire, while also extending such research to a range of groups such as psychologists, doctors, teachers, or students of numerous disciplines. Misconceptions of psychology: A comparative study between psychology and engineering students Psychological research, regardless of the specific topic of study, is based upon the same scientific principles as the other hard sciences like physics and chemistry. Nevertheless, psychology has a long history of fighting a commonly held perception that it does not qualify as a scientific discipline and that it generates knowledge that is mere common sense. In many cases, however, common sense leads to an incorrect appreciation of phenomena that have been scientifically investigated by psychologists. Several studies have shown that undergraduate students and lay people alike hold many misconceptions about psychology. These misconceptions have been demonstrated in the United States and England and in several different courses of study. McCutcheon, Furnham, and Davis (1993) asked if there was a significant difference in the prevalence of misconceptions about psychology between American and English university students. They administered a 65 item multiple-choice questionnaire and found that English students generally did better than American students, though neither group answered more than half of the questions correctly. While the authors offered no clear explanation for either the poor performance or the difference between the two groups, they speculated that selective reporting in the mass media may contribute to both the formation of misconceptions and their resolution. Martin, Sadler, and Baluch (1997) tested undergraduate students from psychology, sociology, business, English and engineering from Middlesex University, U.K. on their general knowledge of psychology. Questions on their test invited common sense but incorrect answers. Out of a possible score of 38, psychology students scored highest with an average score of 17.08 while engineering students scored lowest with 11.57. Martin et al. also found that engineering students were least likely to regard psychology as one of the hard sciences or even one of the social sciences. The present study followed up previous reports of students generally poor performance on tests of misconceptions about psychology. Specifically, we repeated a portion of Martin et al.s (1997) study of misconceptions about psychology. We tested two Australian undergraduate classes, one introductory psychology class and one introductory engineering class, on a true/false test of common misconceptions about psychology adapted from Best (1982).This way of replicating a study is known as conceptual replication. While not all details of the Martin et al. study were replicated, this study allowed researchers to answer the overall question of misconceptions in psychology from a different angle. For this to be considered an exact replication of the Martin et al. study, misconception tests should have been given to individuals from a range of both first and last year psychology, sociology, business studies, engineering and English students, compared to just first year psychology and engineerin g students. Additionally, this study did not use a multiple choice test of misconception, but rather assessed misconception using a true or false questionnaire and provided no questionnaire of student attitudes towards psychology. The present study aimed to determine whether psychology students perform significantly better than students of other academic disciplines in regards to their knowledge of psychology. It was hypothesized that psychology students would have the lowest number of misconceptions about psychology, while engineering students would express the most misconceptions. Method Participants The 641 participants in this study consisted of 282 first year, undergraduate psychology students and 359 first year, undergraduate engineering students. Of the two groups in the study, the psychology group consisted of 75 males and 207 females, with ages ranging from 16 to 59 years, and a mean age of 20.3 years and a standard deviation of 5.5 years. The engineering group consisted of 264 males and 95 females, with ages ranging from 16 to 59, and a mean age of 20.0 years and a standard deviation of 5.3 years. The experiments were conducted at a university during Week 2 tutorials in the second half of the university year. Students were recruited by means of whether they were enrolled in either PSYC1040 or ENGG1000, two courses offered at the university. Design and Materials For the present study, a quasi-experimental independent-groups design was used. Similar to a true experiment, this study set up two levels of the I.V. (independent variable) and measured its effect on the D.V. (dependent variable). In this case, formation of the two groups was established by random assignment, but also by criteria established prior to completing the study. The independent variable in this study had two levels, or whether the participant was either a psychology or engineering student, while the dependent variable was the number of correct questions the individual achieved on the questionnaire. The key difference in a quasi-experiment is that participants in this study were tested on their knowledge and misconceptions according to characteristics they already acquired. The experiment used a 36-item true or false questionnaire (see Appendix A) to measure participants misconceptions and knowledge about psychology. The statements were drawn from a previous study conducted by Best (1982), which additionally suggested these statements appeared in a range of contemporary psychology textbooks and other similar questionnaires. Each statement consisted of a short sentence describing a simple scenario or event (e.g. psychiatry is a subdivision of psychology) and for which each participant was instructed to provide a true or false answer. Procedure All 641 participants received one copy of the questionnaire. Individuals were given the questionnaire during tutorials in Week 2 of Semester 2, 2010. Members of each tutorial group were assigned randomly by means of being there at the given time. Participants were instructed to complete each item individually and answer the statement as honestly as possible. The questionnaire was completed individually by the participants, without any interaction with fellow colleagues. Participants were given 10 minutes to fill in their answers, after which they were asked to swap their questionnaires with the person sitting next to them. Each participant then counted how many of the answers were correct and wrote down a score out of 36. For all the questions, the answer was false. Questionnaires and scores for both PSYC1040 (see Appendix B, figure 3) and ENGG1000 (see Appendix B, figure 4) were collected for further analysis and publication of the raw data. Results Data for both groups was explored graphically through frequency tables, frequency polygons, and box-and-whisker plots and were statistically analysed by means of an independent groups t-tests and a squared point-biserial correlation coefficient. Table 1. Mean questionnaire score and standard deviation of PSYC1040 and ENGG1000 Descriptive Statistic Psychology Engineering Mean 20.674 12.262 Standard Deviation 5.246 4.030 Psychology students scores were the higher of the two groups, with a mean of 20.7 and a standard deviation of 5.25 (see Table 1). Engineering students, on average scored lower than psychology students, with a mean of 12.3 and a standard deviation of 4.0 (see Table 1). As further indicated in Appendix C, psychology students performed better, with clear indication scores ranged between 16 and 26, while the engineering students highest scores ranged from 9 to 18 correct answers. Relative frequencies (see Appendix C, tables 4 5) were greater for scores between 15 and 28 for the PSYC1040 group, while scores between 8 and 18 for the engineering students proved to be more relatively frequent. Similarly, Figures 2 and 3 (Appendix D) illustrate PSYC1040 participants to have performed better than ENGG100 students, as psychology students achieved a higher score of 20 (indicated by the peak in the graph) most frequently and compared to engineering students who achieved a high score of only 12 m ost frequently. Additionally, from the distribution illustrated, the highest score from the PSYC1040 group was 36, while the lowest score was 6. Contrastingly, engineering students performed worse, achieving a high score of 30 and a low score of 0. Systematically, psychology students scores (See Appendix E and Appendix G, Figure 5), showed a mode and median of 20 and a range of 30. Descriptive statistics (Appendix E) and the box and whisker display (Appendix G, Figure 6) for the engineering group indicate a mode of 11 and a median of 12, while the range proved to be 30. Descriptive statistics (Appendix E) for the two groups show a significant difference between the two groups. Psychology students in fact performed 8.41 points greater than engineering students. However, in order to obtain a difference which is statistically important, certain assumptions were made to in order to perform further statistical analyses. Three assumptions were made of the independent groups t-test performed. Firstly, it was assumed that scores of PSYC1040 were independent of scores by ENGG1000 students, that data collected is representative of normally distributed populations and that variances of the two groups scores are alike. Test scores of PSYC1040 can be assumed to be independent of test scores of ENGG1000, as individual test scores from PSYC1040 could in no way be related to test scores achieved by ENGG1000 students, as the two groups were different. By means of illustration using the frequency polygons (Appendix D), the second assumption can be proven correct. Whi le the two distributions of the sample look more skewed and peaked than a normal ideal curve, we can make a decision that indeed the two samples of scores are from normally distributed populations as distributions of scores are not too skewed or peaked to violate such an assumption. Variances of the two populations differ slightly, as variance for the psychology group was 27.525 and variance for the engineering group was 16.243. There is no great difference to assume the two differ, so as a result we accept the given data and proceed. An independent groups t-test (see Appendix H) revealed that psychology students (M = 20.67, SD = 5.25) performed significantly better than engineering students (M = 12.26, SD = 4.03), with t (639) = 22.92, p Discussion As predicted, psychology students performed best in the misconceptions of psychology test than engineering students. The independent t-test and point biserial correlation both support the hypothesis proposed. The independent t-test showed significance between the two groups. The difference is very unlikely to occur if the samples were of no difference in the population and as a result the assumption is rejected. In other words, we reject the null hypothesis () and accept the alternative hypothesis, or that we are accepting a difference between the means that is no equal to zero. In this case the mean for psychology test scores is larger than the mean for engineering test scores, so it can be concluded that studying psychology leads to significantly higher tests scores when it comes to misconceptions of psychology. Additionally, the squared point-biserial correlation coefficient also supports the predicted hypothesis. Indicating the proportion of variance in a two sample study, the proportion ranges from 0 (variable has no effect) to 1.0 (variables control scores and therefore 100% of all scored can be predicted accurately). Variables representing between 10% and 30% of variance, indicated a relationship. Therefore, it can be concluded that being an engineering or psychology student accounts for a significant amount of the variance in the test scores. The variable therefore plays an important part in determining the test scores on the misconceptions survey. This means that the study was significantly more accurate at predicting a participants knowledge of psychology by knowing the condition they were in as opposed to just utilising the overall mean score for both conditions. Alternatively, composition of the two classes may have affected the data obtained. In both classes a gender difference exists. The psychology group consisted of more females than males, while the engineering group consisted of more males than females. Uneven numbers of males and females allows the data to be slightly bias. While experimental logic states that if one variable is manipulated, and if everything is kept the same, then all differences we observe are due to the manipulation of that variable. Quasi- experimental studies, which use gender as a variable, cannot be easily manipulated, meaning we cannot change gender throughout the experiment and we cannot be sure everything else stays the same. In order to control for the factor of gender bias, it is important to ensure the samples are representative of both males and females, in both the psychology and engineering groups. Possibly, other types of groups could be tested, all of which should be representative of both genders. McCutcheon (1991) critics the questionnaire used in this study. The Test of Common Beliefs has been constantly criticised on the basis that many items are ambiguously written. It has been argued that making the correct answers to all items false exposed individuals to accept without protest and gives many the opportunity to guess the answer by chance. Furthermore, McCutcheon suggests, items on several misconception tests are not widespread, meaning the test only focuses on a specific set of topics. Several studies such as Vaughan (1977), Lamal (1979), Gardner and Dalsing (1986) and Griggs and Ransdell (1987) all found that only a fraction of their questionnaire items were answered and only by half of their participants. It is possible to come to the conclusion that students which are beginners in psychology do not have many misconceptions about the subject. McCutcheon also proposes a possibility that true-false surveys are perhaps not the best at measuring misconceptions. In order to counter for this, McCutcheon steers away from using the true-false test of misconceptions, including several questions related to participant interest. Overall, results of this study suggest that in fact psychology students do have fewer misconceptions about psychology. It may be that other students of other disciplines are not aware of the knowledge required to overcome such misconceptions and therefore may even dismiss psychology as being a hard science. Further research in the area could include a study of misconceptions based on a larger, varied sample, while also using a questionnaire related to participant interests instead of a true or false questionnaire. Furthermore, future studies could also integrate participants who may be more experienced in the field, such as qualified psychologists in order to further analyse inter-disciplinary comparison of attitudes about psychology.

Friday, January 17, 2020

Analysis of the Movie “Juno” Essay

Sixteen year-old Juno MacGuff is the type of girl that beats to her own drummer, and doesn’t really care what others may think of her. She learns that she’s pregnant from a one-time sexual encounter with her best friend, Paulie Bleeker. Juno and Paulie like each other, but don’t consider themselves to be exclusive boyfriend/girlfriend let alone be ready to be a family complete with child. Although she would rather not be pregnant, Juno is fairly pragmatic about her situation. Paulie really leaves all the decisions about the baby to Juno. Initially, she decides that she will have an abortion, but that’s something that she ultimately cannot go through with. So she decides to have the baby and give it up for adoption. But first she has to tell her father, Mac, and stepmother, Bren, that she is pregnant. Although they would have preferred if Juno was on hard drugs or expelled from school, Mac and Bren too are pragmatic about Juno’s situation. The next step is to find prospective parents for the yet unborn child. In the Penny saver ad section, Juno finds Mark and Vanessa Loring, a yuppie couple living in the suburbs. Juno likes the Lorings, and in some respects has found who looks to be a kindred spirit in Mark, with whom she shares a love of grunge music and horror films. Vanessa is a little more uptight and is the one in the relationship seemingly most eager to have a baby. On her own choosing, Juno enters into a closed rather than open adoption contract with the Lorings. During the second and third trimesters of Juno’s pregnancy which she treats with care but detachment, Juno’s relationships with her family, with Paulie, and with the Lorings develop. She gives the baby to Venessa, when she gives birth. At the end, Juno and Bleeker get together and they realized their feeling to each other. After summarizing the movie, I want to analyze it. The 2007 film release of Juno offers certain challenges to past conceptualizations of girlhood, yet the representation of female sexuality as tied to traditional notions of ‘‘femininity’’ remains substantially unchanged. Juno represents a cultural artifact of changing ideologies of girlhood, yet it also functions as an example of the pervasive ambivalence towards the sexual subjectivity of girls. The representation of girls as sexless is challenged. Rather than a stereotypical depiction of the female body as sexual object, sexual desire is visibly expressed and acted upon by the girl character. Throughout the film, Juno is shown as agentive in the decisions she makes about her body, sexual desire, and modes of self-expression; her classification as a girl who identifies as a ‘‘freak,’’ cares little about what other people think of her, and dresses in grunge style clothing connote an independent self-confidence that is apparent in all of her intimate relationships. Although Juno has received praise for its originality, the story is most notable as a surprisingly familiar cultural fairy-tale. Juno’s character is understandable as a metaphor for conditions of female sexuality that continue to limit girls’ full expressions of sexual desire. Like the character of Juno, girls today are caught between increased expectations of agency on the one hand and continuing restrictions of their sexual expressions of desire on the other. In conceptualizing Juno’s agency it is important to recognize the material and social ways in which Juno’s agentive ‘‘choice’’ is constrained. Juno is not a free agent; her actions and her agency operate in connection to material and social structures influencing her daily livelihood. The central paradox within Juno is that it celebrates agency for girls while simultaneously linking that agency to their physical desirability and role as potential reproducers.