The Good Teachers Essay Example for Free

The Good Teachers Essay The desire to throw away youth and to grow up in evident also in ‘The Good Teachers’ as the speaker reveals a list of things she used to do as a child in order to make herself appear older and more mature, ‘You roll the waistband/ of your skirt over and over’, the repetition of the latter phrase demonstrating the action itself, ‘all leg, all/ dumb insolence, smoke-rings.’ Through the continued use of the pronoun, ‘you’, we, as the reader can share in Duffy’s adolescent experience as they are actions universal to all teenagers. Both poems deal with the positive aspects of adolescent experiences, but also with the negative ones as well; in ‘Lanarkshire Girls’ the experience begins uneasy and unpleasant as the speakers recalls how ‘Summer annoyed us†¦ Like a boy with a stick through railings’. This simile is very sensory as it strikes an image in the readers’ head of a boy dragging a stick across railings and the sound it makes is prominent. The bus is trying to exit the rural country as the nature is trying to stop it, making the journey initially difficult, ‘We bent whole treetops/ squeezing through as they rained down twigs.’ This symbolises the transition from adolescence into adulthood and how the girls are struggling to make it. However, when they finally make it out of the country, the tone of the poem changes from annoyance and struggling, to admiration for the city and excitement to be in a new stage of their life and for their new found sense of fre edom. The same is true for the speaker in ‘The Good Teachers’ as Duffy uses the metaphor of ‘a wall you climb’ to describe the transition from adolescent into adulthood. Even in the most positive point of the poem where she expresses her passion and love for both her English teacher and the subject itself is tainted. Her adoration is evident through the repetition of, ‘so much’ and through her actions such as remembering ‘The River’s Tale by Rudyard Kipling by heart’ and by ‘making a poem for’ her teacher. The speaker suggests that even this adolescent experience was tainted as her teacher who she admired is not perfect and her ‘cruel blue’ eye demonstrates this. This symbolises how no adolescent experience is perfect. Both poems end on very different tones and therefore have different outlooks on adolescent experiences. ‘Lanarkshire Girls’ ends with a feeling of excitement as the bus, ‘spilled’ the girls out dreaming themselves up. Whereas, ‘The Good Teachers’ ends on a tone of regret as the speakers finds truth in what her teachers told her that, ‘you’ll be sorry one day’ for not working hard enough and for racing to throw away their childhoods.

Camera Phones Trigger Controversy Essay -- Communication Technology Ce

Camera Phones Trigger Controversy When Catherine Zeta Jones appeared in a television commercial, she was one of the first to advertise one of the newest additions to a cell phone: the camera phone. The purpose of the commercial was to show how convenient, compact and useful such an apparatus could turn out to be. The theory is quite simple, basically combining a cell phone and a digital camera into one gadget. Major cellular companies like Nokia, Samsung and Sanyo observed how popular digital cameras were becoming, and decided to integrate it with one device most Americans find a necessity and not a luxury; the cell phone. No sooner than the phones hit the market, did the stores sell out of the phone. In 2002 An estimated 16 million camera phones were sold worldwide, with 5 million of those being in the U.S. (strategyanalytics). The camera phone had become a hit. Not even a few months after the release of the phone did controversy hit. What appeared to be a harmless little tech device left some people feeling invaded. Apparently, the phones picture-taking ability was being exploited to covertly photograph individuals with out their consent. In addition to people, certain places could not be captured on disk that usually prohibit photography. This can then allow the picture taker to post these pictures on the internet, sell them, or blackmail people for favors. The question that then must be asked is how is a camera phone any different than any other form of surveillance where your picture is taken? This is a very difficult question to answer and one that will be addressed in a legal sense. After all, having your picture taken by a camera phone or by a hidden camera in a shopping mall could be the s... ...: Look At Me† Ctnow: Technology March 2, 2003 http://www.ctnow.com/technology/hc-camphones.artfeb,27,0,5168365 (2) Batista, Elisa. â€Å"New Privacy Menace: Cell Phones?† WiredNews March 3, 2003 http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,57692,00.html (3) Lacey, Eugene. â€Å"Smile! You’ve just been caught out on camera phone† ZDNet UK Febuary 28, 2003 http://comment.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t527-s2122702-pl,00.html (4) â€Å"STRATEGY ANALYTICS: 10 MILLION CELLULAR CAMERA PHONES SOLD WORLDWIDE THROUGH Q3 2002† March 3, 2003 http://www.strategyanalytics.com/press/PR00026.htm (5) Greenspan, Robin. â€Å"The digital imaging big picture† Cyberatlas Hardware March 2, 2003 http://cyberatlas.internet.com/big_picture/hardware/article/0,,5921_1546341,00.html (6) Jones, Rob. â€Å"Saudi phone ban may be lifted† vnunet March 4, 2003 http://www.vnunet.com/news/1337796

Hamlet Appearance vs Reality Essay

Appearance vs. reality in Shakespeare’s, Hamlet, is a jaded yet common theme. This play is teeming with characters that play their roles behind a veil of duplicity. They often appear to be one way when they really are something entirely different. Things within the play appear to be true and honest but in reality are polluted with evil. Many of the characters within the play hide behind a mask of dishonesty. Four of the main characters that hid behind this mask are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Polonius, and King Claudius. From behind this mask they give the impression of a person who is sincere and true, in reality they are overwhelmed with lies and evil. One of the most obvious examples of appearance vs. reality in Hamlet is the character of Claudius. Claudius longed to be king, rule the land and crown his queen. He gave no regard to the feelings of the family. He was jealous and ruthless in pursuing his dream†¦ruthless to the point of murder. He pretends to be concerned and upset with the actions of Hamlet and his well being, when in reality he is frightened that Hamlet is aware of his deadly secret. It was as if he cast a spell on the whole kingdom for his own self-fulfilling interest. Our â€Å"innocent† Claudius even summons spies to investigate the origin of Hamlet’s madness†¦not for the good of Hamlet but for himself. He is indeed a jaded character, whose kind aura masks the face of a selfish murderer as he says â€Å"whose whisper o’er the world’s diameter, as levels as the cannon to his blank transports his poisoned shot, may miss our name and hit the woundless air. Oh come away! My soul is full of discord and dismay! †- Claudius, act 4 scene 1, lines 42-46. This quote demonstrates how Claudius seems to be worried about Hamlet and his actions when he is really fearful of him discovering the truth. In addition, the king’s royal associate, Polonius, appears to be a loyal and trustworthy servant to the kingdom throughout the play, willing to take on tasks and burdens requested by their majesties. However, in reality Polonius is an evil, greedy selfish man, who serves not his kingdom but himself. One example of this is how Polonius appears to be happy, concerned and supportive of his son, Laerte’s, journey to France. He seems to be supportive of his son until he sends Reynaldo as an emissary, in order to detect what sort of mischief he stumbles upon in France. In addition, Polonius, again, displays his devious characteristics when he spies on Hamlet and Ophelia in an attempt to analyze Hamlet’s madness. He soon orders Ophelia to stop seeing Hamlet, as he brainwashes her with lies about Hamlets motives, when in reality Hamlet is truly in love with Ophelia. Once again, Polonius proves his scheming behavior when he listens in on Hamlet and Gertrude’s conversation while in the bedchamber. Hamlet finally teaches him his lesson when he unexpectedly murders the â€Å"rat. † In reality Polonius is anything but a loving father watching out for his children, he uses everyone to his advantage and for his own purposes; this proves as evidence for his sneaky demeanor. Even two of Hamlet’s childhood friends are victims of the appearance vs. reality theme. They were sent and bribed by the king and queen to try and determine the cause of Hamlet’s insanity. They approach Hamlet as long-lost pals when they are really anything but. They were there not as friends but hired help for Hamlet’s condition. In act 2 scene 2 line 299, Guildenstern quotes â€Å"What should we say my lord? † Completely denying the fact that they were sent for by the king and queen. Hamlet quickly reveals the truth and says, â€Å"Were you not sent for/ And there is a kind of confession in your looks, which your modesties have not craft in color. † (Shakespeare 2:2:278) From these words he is demanding an answer from his schoolmates as to their unexplained arrival. At the end he tells them nothing. As the play continues his â€Å"friends† are asked again by the king to go to Hamlet and try again to find the real reason for Hamlet’s behavior. Hamlet insults them at every chance knowing that they are lying to him about their purpose of the visit, â€Å"’Tis as easy as lying: govern these ventages with you finger and thumb, give it breath with your mouth†¦ † (Shakespeare 3:2:348) The twins show their appearance of being Hamlets friends but in truth they have a hidden reason for visiting with Hamlet. Both show that it will be very difficult for Hamlet to uncover the reliability hidden within the lies. Throughout the play, characters help to show the theme, which is appearance verses reality. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Polonius, and the king all appear to be good and honest. As Hamlet finds out, all contain lies and have hidden intentions within them. As each character is presented in the play all appear to be good and honest making it a hard for Hamlet to uncover the hidden truth about the nature of each character. Throughout the play everyone puts up a front so to speak, for different reasons. Hamlet believed that the world was corrupt and deceiving, this led him to become violently ambitious. Claudius was manipulative and cunning, and used his greed to achieve what he desired. Deception is a major theme of the play. Obviously throughout the play there are many discrepancies between appearance vs. reality. It seems everyone is jaded and full of deception or ulterior motives. With such controversial people in the kingdom, it is quite appropriate to state that there truly is something rotten in the state of Denmark.

Leonardo Da Vinci The Greatest Thinkers - 1201 Words

Leonardo da Vinci is one of the greatest thinkers in all of history. He has many skills and he has mastered everything from art, to science and engineering. He lived during a time filled with other brilliant people. The achievements that he has made in his lifetime were unimaginable and so advanced for his time period, that many of his ideas were not taken seriously until modern times. Leonardo da Vinci was born in April 15, 1452 in the Republic of Florence. He was the illegitimate son of a Florentine legal notary and a peasant woman called Caterina. Leonardo da Vinci studied in the studio of a distinguished Florentine painter, Verrocchio. He had an informal education in Latin, geometry and mathematics. He spent most of his life working for Ludovico il Moro in Milan. During Leonardo da Vinci’s lifetime, his inventions, his outstanding physical beauty, infinite grace, great strength and generosity, regal spirit and tremendous breadth of mind as described by Vasari, made other people very interested in his work. From September 1513 to 1516, Leonardo spent much of his time living in the Vatican in Rome where Raphael an Michelangelo were both working. Leonardo Died at Clos Luce, on May 2, 1519. Twenty years after his death, Francis I of France said that â€Å"There has never been another man born in the world who knew as much as Leonardo, not so much about pai nting, sculpture, and architecture, as that he was a very great philosopher.† Leonardo da Vinci’s work can beShow MoreRelatedThe Epic Life of Leonardo Da Vinci682 Words   |  3 PagesThe Epic Life of Leonardo da Vinci Within the midst of one of the greatest cultural revolutions known to humanity, a superior artist was born to Ser Piero da Vinci of Italy whom went by the name of Leonardo da Vinci (Vasari 1). According to Giorgio Vasari, a writer born in 1511, this man was nothing short of a demigod. Though this may be a gross overstatement, it would appear that Leonardo da Vinci (not to be confused with Leonardo DiCaprio) was well respected and highly regarded as a human beingRead MoreLeonardo Da Vinci: A Man of Many Things Essay1093 Words   |  5 PagesLeonardo Da Vinci was one of the greatest minds of his time. 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