The Cold War and U.S. Diplomacy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 9

The Cold War and U.S. Diplomacy - Essay Example the United States was in no way susceptible, but it had the task of defending its partners as well as bring to a stop the development of nuclear armaments (Ambrose, 1989). President Nixon had the same ideas and he based his goals in ensuring world peace is maintained. After his election into office, there was an increase from American citizens for American troops to be sent back home from foreign missions. Nixon promised American citizens that he will support American allies with resources but not man power. However, the process was delayed as protests became a daily scene in the streets on the United States. In providing a specific case scenario, the number of American troops who died in Vietnam reached 500, 000 (Dallek, 2007). This made citizens even more irritated by Nixon’s regime. Nixon however, launched vietnamisation which was a strategy to pull out American troops in the region, help build a Vietnamese military squad and provide them with weapons and financial resources. He succeeded in this particular quest as he was applauded for successfully ensuring peace in Vietnam and getting American troops back home. Nixon took over American during a time when the nations had a lot of enemies in terms of diplomatic relations. However, the nations also had significant allies Nixon was keen to retain (Ambrose, 1989). On many occasions involving warfare, Nixon was forced to use diplomatic efforts to be able to come up with lasting solutions. For instance, during the invasion of Arab countries in Israel, Nixon realized the significance of having good diplomatic relationships with the Arab countries (Dallek, 2007). Nixon was able to negotiate with Egypt and he convinced them to pull out in the war against Israel. Additionally, Nixon also used diplomatic efforts to solve the China-Pakistan war. In this occasion, Pakistan is an American ally and China a great ally to the Soviet. According to Parmet (1990) the diplomatic relationship between the Soviet and the United

Gender and Sex in an African Society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Gender and Sex in an African Society - Essay Example The invention of women demonstrates, on the contrary, that gender was not constructed in the old society of Yoruba, and that organizations in the society were determined by relative age. A meticulous epistemological and historical account of an African culture embracing its own terms, this book makes an argument that is persuasive based on the culturally dependent context that interprets social reality. It calls for a gender discourse preconception and categories on which such studies can rely. Moreover, the book bares the hidden assumptions in thoughts of different cultures. It is a truly comparative sociology of the Western tradition and African culture that will change the way gender and African studies proceed.  Oyewumi's analysis advances greatly into the postcolonial mapping of the European distinction that has been developing in the recent decades. It traces how Western visual privileging insures that biological determinism and social constructivism cannot be mutually exclus ive in cultures of the West. Gender categories were one kind of new tradition that European colonialists institutionalized in many African cultures including the Yoruba culture. Contemporary Western feminism has continued to extend their empire. Oyewumi enables the reader to envision what is hard to imagine within Western feminism world after gender. The book makes a huge contribution to not only feminism and African studies but also to philosophy, social theory and sociology in general. In Male daughters and female husbands.

Sexuality In North By Northwest

Sexuality In North By Northwest While the Cold War conjured diverse anxieties, I will center my presentation on the idea of Domestic Containment, specifically the containment of homosexuality in America (Cohan). I came across this concept in Elaine Tyler Mays Homeward Bound. It deals with the political and ideological reasons 1950s America insisted on promoting rigid heterosexuality and capitalist drives, ridding itself of backward men and Communist traitors, something completely in line with Hitchcocks mission in the film Moreover, by invoking the homophobic categories of Cold War political discourse, in particular the construction of the homosexual as a national security risk, N by NW virtually guaranteed that gender and nationality functioned as mutually reinforcing categories of identity. In this presentation, I will discuss sexuality as related to ideas of nation-hood and argue that there is a mini cold war being waged in North by Northwest, one that deals specifically with advancing the American heterosexual couple over the Soviet homosexual one coded throughout the film. With the American, heterosexual couples triumph on screen comes an ideological victory for America in 1959. SLIDE Before I analyze clips and stills from North By Northwest that deal with currents of sexuality and nationality, I wanted to show this clip from the latter half of the film to show that Hitchcock makes it abundantly clear that we are supposed to read North by Northwest as a Cold War film concerned with sexuality. CLICK!!! I want you to take away from this clip the obvious language of the cold war as well as how sexuality or bedding down is wrapped up in this international struggle. In this way, North by Northwest presents in biting form America immersed in Cold War ambiguity in which people on both sides were served up as sacrificial lambs. N by NW was made and released during the latter phase of the second term of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a time when the Cold War was in full force, with the US and rival Soviet Union utilizing the most sophisticated spy techniques. This new kind of war required constant vigilance and readiness to fight on a moments notice. The Cold War lasted longer than any other war in our countrys history, starting when the United States introduced nuclear terror to the world by dropping its first atomic bomb on Japan on August 6, 1945, and lasting into our lifetime with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Although the Cold War shaped and distorted virtually every aspect of American life, perhaps more than anything else, nuclear weapons changed the world. With them, an element of vulnerability existed unlike anything in history. Nuclear threat escalated during the 1950s, the decade were concerned with today. In August 1949 the Soviets had their first successful nuclear bomb test. Both the US and the Soviet Union held hydrogen bomb tests in 1952 and 53 and in October 1957 the Soviets launched Sputnik. Americas nuclear buildup, global mobilization, and interventionism during the Cold War were justified in the name of stopping Soviet communism, a foe policymakers deemed so diabolical that its defeat warranted the risk of destroying civilization itself. The fact that the Soviet Union was not just a military, economic, and geopolitical but an ideological foe, posed a unique kind of challenge to a resolutely capitalistic nation. This ideological antagonism between socialism and capitalism polarized the world along new lines. And it is against this backdrop that Hitchcock gave birth to his suspense thriller North by Northwest. SLIDE Certain historical trends and demographics are crucial to understand before analyzing the films comments on sexuality. During the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s, an amazing rise in the birth rate, a declining age of marriage, a growth in the marriage rate, and low divorce rate all converged in the midst of the most intense years of nuclear fear and ideological and surrogate warfare. Since family formation and fertility respond to both positive and negative economic and cultural stimuli, it is not surprising that this era of comparatively good times brought increased marriage and fertility. At the same time, however, increased sexual activity at younger and younger ages, especially for women in the late 1950s and beyond, problematically, included increasing instances of pre-marital sex Thus the history of sexuality in postwar America is the story of increasing liberalization Men, too, participated. The rebellion of men against marriage and the increasingly permissive fantasy life associated with the playboy lifestyle of the late 1950s, appears to be the kind of life our protagonist and hero, Cary Grants character Roger Thornhill, ascribes to. And, in terms of female rebellion, perhaps even more dismantling is the sexual promiscuity of Eve Kendall, played by Eva Marie Saint. Thornhill is typed as a womanizer, with two failed marriages to boast of, and Eve, as if completely aware of the expectations of her 1950s culture, introduces herself to Thornhill curtly stating that shes 26 and unmarried, and thats all he needs to know. SLIDE Examining domestic containment in relation to national identity has multiple advantages. It allows us to see that what we have heretofore regarded as a unique Cold War phenomenon was in fact part of the larger, ongoing process of defining America. The very meaning of America had become greatly problematized in the 1950s. Perhaps this instability of American identity is why Hitchcock constantly reasserted distinctly American values and American locations throughout North by Northwest, on screen are just a few of the most memorable sites Hitchcock takes us. AD-LIB I will present many facets of North by Northwest that deal specifically with America and American life in order to further ground the containment of homosexuality as a Cold War strategy in the film. I first want to discuss the opening credits of the film. Understanding Hitchcocks brilliant beginning gives us-the viewers and our class today-a lens through which to understand Hitchcocks understanding of Cold War America, homophobia, heterosexuality and communism. SLIDE Designed by American graphic designer and Academy award winning filmmaker Saul Bass, the credits provide a kind of map meant to locate or orient the spectator. A series of intersecting lines, clearly intended to invoke a map or graph, traverse a blank screen placed at an angle to the camera. They eventually dissolve into a shot of an office building whose glass and steel faà §ade reflects the moving traffic on the busy street below. The mirror like surface of the faà §ade that emerges from the intersecting lines functions as a screen on which the images of the busy street below are not so much reflected as projected. Consequently, according to Robert Corber in his book In the Name of National Security: Hitchcock, Homophobia, and the Political Construction of Gender the opening titles seem to suggest that, as a semiotic practice, the film has the ability to organize and define reality, to construct a map of it that fixes its meaning for the spectator. In this way, they call attention to the artificiality or constructed-ness of the films representation of reality. It provides the spectator with coordinates that enable him/her to locate and define his/her position in the world and thereby make sense of it-a concept integral to audience reception that we have discussed at length this semester, and that I will touch on in greater depth shortly. By beginning in this way, according to Corber, the film demonstrates its ability to conjure reality, to construct a representation of the world that the spectator does not question but assumes accurately reflects contemporary society b/c of its perceptual intensity or so-called impression of reality à   thus, from the beginning, we are meant to assume that Hitchcock s representation of America in 1959 is how it really was. Another important element of the films beginning is that our protagonist Roger Thornhill appears as if plucked from the crowd at random, as he is initially shown emerging from an elevator jammed with office workers. He is completely typical of New Yorks crowded people, lacking direction. Indeed, purely by accident, he is kidnapped shortly after he arrives at the hotel by two of Vandamms men, who mistake him for the fictitious American agent George Kaplan. Thus, Hitchcock makes us think that anyone of us, too, could have been sucked into this crazy plot. One other interesting thing to glean from the title sequence is that it alludes to the traps in which the protagonists find themselves throughout the film as well as frames the films trajectory This grid recurs throughout the film, in railway cars, deserted prairie crossroads, and national monuments. From the very beginning, moreover, I want you to note that the film is an exploration of Cold War AMERICA, as seen in the vertical top shots of the Madison Avenue skyscraper, UN headquarters and Mount Rushmore and the horizontal shots of the railway car and of the empty Midwestern plane I will now show a hilarious trailer for North by Northwest from 1959, which gives a brief but comprehensive geographical tour of Hitchcocks locations, which I wont have time to flesh out on my own in this presentation, but are extremely important. SHOW TRAILER HERE! SLIDE Having recently discussed how the opening credits situate and control the spectators view of the film, and, by extension, portray the Cold War climate according to Hitchcocks construction, I want to specifically link this form of control with the viewers sexual identification. Hitchcocks films contributed indirectly to the pathologizing of same-sex eroticism by suggesting that in order for the individual to achieve a relatively stable heterosexual identity she/he had to successfully negotiate the Oedipus complex Because Hitchcocks films occupied the subject position, the spectator became complicit with her/his own Oedipalization, which, in the 1950s, was tantamount to accepting the terms of the postwar settlement. By examining N by NW in the context of the postwar settlement, I want show to that Hitchcocks films participated in a regime of pleasure that helped to consolidate the emergence of the national security state. His representational practices were complicit with the dominant construction of social reality during the Cold War era. Hitchcocks tendency to subjectivize the individual spectators experience constitutes one of the principal links b/w his films and the anti-Stalinist project of American Cold War officials. Thus, in N by NW, Hitchcock demonstrated how the discourses of national security produced fantasies that brought the individual spectators desire into alignment with the nations security interests. SLIDE Now I will move into the meat of my presentation: the politicization of sexuality. The Cold War persuaded millions of Americans to interpret their world in terms of insidious enemies who threatened them with nuclear and other forms of annihilation. McCarthyism contributed heavily to viewing the world through this dark, distorting lens and setting global and domestic policies to counter these threats. According to the Federal Government, if homosexuals felt alienated from mainstream American society, that was b/c they were maladjusted, their problems were not political but personal and were best remedied in a doctors office. On the other hand, however, the dominant discourse of same sex eroticism tried to show that homosexuality promoted communism and therefore politicized gay identities. The gay community, which had emerged with new cohesion and visibility in the wake of World War II, found itself a prime target for anticommunist crusaders. It was believed that they were especially vulnerable to blackmail by Soviet agents eager to recruit intelligence sources As a result, the early 1950s witnessed widespread purging of homosexuals from the State Department, the military, and other federal agencies. However, more than just a greater risk of blackmail was involved. Homosexuals were seen as deficient in character, moral integrity, and real masculinity. Unfit as Cold Warriors, they were thus undesirable citizens. This stigmatization, as historian John DEmilio points out in his study of Cold War sexual politics, was carried still further by conservative politicians who linked homosexuality directly to communism, re-conceptualizing homosexuality as a contagious disease spread by communists to weaken the nation from within. A single homosexual, officials maintained, could easily contaminate an entire government office. The oppression of homosexuals at all levels became yet another act of containment in the fight against communism. Homosexuals, further, were seen as especially dangerous to the extent that a gay male character was virtually indistinguishable from straight male ones, thereby demonstrating that homosexuals, like communists, could dangerously escape detection. During its highly publicized hearings in the 1940s and early 1950s, the House UnAmerican Activities Committee did not limit its investigation to the Communists who had supposedly infiltrated the federal Government, but extended it to include homosexuals who passed as heterosexual. On the basis of testimony from psychiatrists and other medical experts who testified that they were susceptible to blackmail by Soviet agents b/c they were emotionally unstable, thus officially pinning homosexuals as national-security risks. The publication of the Kinsey reports on male and female sexual behavior, in 1948 and 53 respectively, only reinforced the politicization of homosexuality. The reports provided scientific evidence suggesting that sexual identities were fluid and unstable rather than exclusively and permanently heterosexual or homosexual. In recognizing the fluidity of sexuality, hindering the attempts of gays to define themselves as members of an oppressed minority The pervasive allusions to homosexuality in North by Northwest enables me to stress the centrality of the politicization of same-sex eroticism to post-war American culture and to show that containment of homosexuality was necessary to conditions of the Cold War. Thus, North by Northwest epitomizes this tight bond between sexuality and national security in the Cold War era. SLIDE Now I will begin my analysis of sexuality in the film with what I call a montage of references to homosexuality. When looking at these stills from the movie, keep in mind how Cary Grant, our dashing American protagonist, too, can be wrapped up with homosexuality, speaking to the pervasiveness and dangers of homosexuality infiltrating American lives. SLIDE The films drama basically begins with Roger Thornhill going to an all-mens bar in the Plaza Hotel. Although he has a date for that evening, it is with his mother no less, a problem I will discuss shortly! SLIDE The theme of the kidnapping of the hero, Thornhill, by two sinister men, with the hero often seated in a car, tightly between them, recurs throughout the film in myriad forms. Pictured above are just a few examples that represent this theme of Thornhills encounters with homosexuality. CLICK FOUR TIMES. SLIDE Now we arrive at the Villain Phillip Vandamms home who is played by George Mason. I want you to keep this seemingly benign image on screen in mind throughout the remainder of my presentation. While no scholar has mentioned the significance of the cars pulling into Vandamms gate, I think this action is importantly mirrored in the iconic ending of the film that I will show later. For now, however, just keep in mind that a car driven by a man and with our protagonist squished tightly b/w two other men in the backseat, penetrates the gate to a Soviet home. SLIDE Vandamm, the lead villain, unsurprisingly is connected with homosexuality. His masculinity should be suspect because of his relationship with his sadistic, overtly homosexual associate, Leonard, played by Martin Landau, who Hitchcock notes in the screenplay should be read as gay. The slide above features Leonard, with the help of two male henchmen, forcing the neck of a liquor bottle between Thornhills lips, making him drink its full contents-an obviously phallic reference of homosexual rape SLIDE As I noted a few minutes ago, a central facet of the politicization of sexuality in the 1950s, came with associating homosexuality with communism. While Hitchcock doesnt specifically mention the country of origin of the foreigners in the film, he locates Vandamms home importantly in Glen Cove, New York. This location directly implies that Vandamm and his associates are from the Soviet Union, who at the time had a mission in that town on northern Long Island. This fact sheds particular light on the stills of homosexuality I am showing, as they are directly linked with communism. Further, later in the film, the Professor describes Vandamm as an importer exporter of government secrets, thereby coding him as a Soviet agent involved in the Cold War. SLIDE Before I move on to show and discuss the famous crop-dusting scene-the scene I regard as the most compelling, and famous, visual representation of the threat of homosexuality to our protagonist-I must first discuss another aspect of Thornhills unsuitable sexuality: his unhealthy relationship with his mother. In order to Contain Thornhill and set him on the proper sexual path, his relationship with his mother needs to severely change. The basic mother-son story line goes as follows: the film opens with an ageless male, Thornhill, identifying himself first of all as a son. He speaks of his efforts to keep the smell of liquor on his breath from the watchful nose of his mother, and he comes to the attention of his enemies because of an unresolved anxiety about getting a message to his mother, whereupon he is taken captive. (Cavell) Hitchcock suggests that Thornhills involvement in the Communist underworld, an underworld marked by sexual as well as political deviance, is not purely coincidental but is indirectly related to his devotion to his mother. The film tries to show that b/c he has failed to internalize the Law of the Father and remains emotionally dependent on his mother, there is a sense in which his irresponsible behavior is complicit with the Communist infiltration of the American government. The discourses that linked communism and homosexuality actually warned against the potentially pernicious effects of motherhood specifically and point to a reaction against the emergence of the feminine mystique of the 1950s. On the one hand, as we have seen throughout seminar, post-war American culture experienced a proliferation of glorified representations of motherhood designed to lure women back into the home following the war. On the other hand, many Americans resented the glorification of motherhood b/c it gave women supposedly too much power in the domestic sphere. With the outbreak of the Cold War, Mom-ism too became linked to the spread of communism and led to the creation of a demonology of motherhood. Suddenly, mothers risked making their sons susceptible to Communist propaganda. The discourses of mom-ism limited womens empowerment in the domestic sphere and ensured that their child-rearing practices conformed to the nations security interests. For, if women disregarded the expert advice of psychiatrists and other trained professionals, they risked producing children who were Communists as well as homosexuals. In N by NW this aspect of the demonization of motherhood is obvious in Thornhills relationship with his mother. Thornhills sexual immaturity thus is incompatible with the nations security interest. In the postwar period, the nations political stability and economic prosperity were thought to depend upon the production of subjects who had internalized the rules and regulations governing Oedipal desire. Thus Thornhill was not so different from the films Communists and homosexuals. ADLIB-mom younger than Grant, problematic. SLIDE To close this section on homosexuality, I want to look at the famous scene where Thornhill is attacked by a crop-dusting plane. This iconic sequence of events is both the central image of Thornhills victimization and surprisingly, or unsurprisingly as my presentation is attempting to prove, a powerful instance of homosexual attack. The night before this scene takes place Thornhill and Eve violate a taboo. We know that Thornhill spent the night with Eve, boldly and obviously suggesting pre-marital intercourse. I understand the attack Im about to show, which once again occurs the very next day, to be a powerful visualization of punishment for intercourse CLICK SHOW CLIP!!! CLICK AFTER! The linkage of this scene with sexuality is evident in Hitchcocks filming. The association of the prairie with the sexual landscape of the train compartment where Thornhill and Eve had sex the night before is signaled by his camera shots. Right before the clip I just showed, a close-up of Eves face at the train station dissolved into an aerial shot of the road and fields of the plane attack, explicitly linking these scenes. This shot transition begs for an allegorical identification of the woman and this stretch of land, the very land where Thornhill undergoes his attack. To discuss this scene I will rely on the analysis of Theodore Price from his book Hitchcock and Homosexuality. He notes that firstly, we must note the phallic symbolism associated with birds and of flying objects in general. According to Price, aside from the birds shape, and its darting, pecking beak, a bird is, to everyones unconscious, a phallic symbol because it flies. Flying also is a symbol for getting an erection, for potency, and for sexual intercourse in general according to Ernest Jones. Thus, in a way, the crop-dusting plane scene can conjure undertones of homosexual rape from above. There are several meanings that arise when looking at this scene from this angle. 1) This scene could represent a fear on the part of Thornhill of homosexual rape-and/or fear in his strange attraction to homosexual rape. This connection is clear especially when considering the homosexual rape still I showed earlier of Leonard forcing liquor down Thornhills mouth. The phallic bird-plane then may be interpreted as Grants fear of his former attraction to homosexuality as he starts out on still another new love affair with a woman. 2) The plane could also stand for the avenging phallus of the father figure in the film, here Vandamm, who is understandably angry at the son figure, Thornhill, for making time with the mother figure, Eve. 3) Additionally, the sequence could mean that the plane represents the Castrator, Eve, who set him up in the cornfield to begin with. For, from the psychoanalytic view, birds can be woman or vagina symbols too. SLIDE Regardless of which way we read this scene, a powerful avenging phallus, sent by Communists, launches its bullets-take this fact as an allusion to ejaculation-at our male hero. Luckily for Thornhill, he finds safety in the cornfields of America-which, in my opinion, represents finding protection from this Communist phallus in the heartland of America. SLIDE Having catalogued countless instances of the presence and associated dangers of homosexuality in the film, I now need to show how these dangers were contained by the insistence on heterosexual couple. To do so, I will use Mays analysis of 1950s Domesticity in Homeward bound. In this work, May linked the exaggerated domesticity that characterized the long fifties-from 1945-1965-that weve discussed at length in seminar to homosexuality and anticommunist imperatives. May readily acknowledged the extraordinary stresses placed upon the American family by the Great Depression and World War II. Postwar Americans, finding additional threats to traditional family life in rising rates of out-of-wedlock pregnancy and sexual promiscuity, as I discussed before, juvenile delinquency, as Willi discussed two weeks ago, and the ultimate threat of nuclear war, Americans understandably sought normalcy in marital sex, pro-natalism, and suburban domesticity during this time. Further, just as anticommunism required the containment of Sino-Soviet expansion abroad, so, too, May argued, gender revolution and deviant expression of sexual desire had to be effectively contained at home, hence domestic containment. Promotion of family values, policymakers believed, would ensure not only a place for men to return to the workforce, but also the stable family life necessary for personal and national security, a kind of Cold War victory on the domestic front. Hitchcock too received the memo, as he promoted the heterosexual couple throughout the film. Hitchcock, by associating homosexuality with the soviets coded as communists, both comments on its pervasiveness of both groups in America at that time and establishes it as the inferior sexual bond that must be checked and contained by the heterosexual couple. Thus, no mere exercise in nostalgia, domestic containment was part of a new Cold War consensus about the meaning of America and deeply embedded in the plot of North by Northwest. Now Im going to show you a series of slides that blatantly show the heterosexual couple of Thornhill and Eve. CLICK AND ADLIB SLIDE When contextualized within the domestic politics of marriage during the cold war, heterosexuality and Re-Marriage take on great importance. We come to see that Thornhill and Eves adventures throughout the film serve as trials for their suitability to get married. Eve is sexually immature before she becomes an agent for the American government, according to the terms of the postwar settlement. Although she is partially redeemed by acting as an American agent-showing her willingness to perform her patriotic duty-she nevertheless continues to occupy a position outside the law. This is so because to perform her patriotic duty she must violate the rules that govern female sexuality in the 1950s, making her only partly rehabilitated. She is a treacherous little tramp and uses sex like a fly swatter according to the movie so she remains a marked woman throughout. However, when Thornhill rescues her from Vandamm, he enables her to do something genuinely worthwhile for the nation: become a proper wife and mother The relationship b/w gender and nationality suggests that Thornhills activities as an American agent also need to be reconstructed according to the post-war settlement. His activities as an American agent create a scenario that puts an end to his womanizing. Thornhills mix-up within the CIAs efforts to combat communism actually increases his desire for marriage and domesticity. To Thornhill, the domestic sphere not only provides a refuge from the government which has recklessly endangered his and eves lives, but also constantly restages his pre-Oedipal attachment to his mother. In this way, his espionage activities ensure that the organization of sexuality and his identity as a citizen are mutually reinforcing. Thus, Hitchcock stresses the ability of the American government to regulate and control the construction of the individuals subjectivity-as it is only once he is involved in its activities that he is redeemed. According to the discourses of national security then, Thornhills resistance to his role as a husband is un-American, and his activities as an American reorganize him as a proper citizen. This scene shows how the series of events that have unfolded have transformed both protagonists views of marriage, and suggest that re-marriage in the name of national security is on the horizon. CLICK SHOW CLIP As you just saw Thornhill uses the loaded word proposal that explicitly suggests marriage. Also, they discuss his former failed marriages, alerting the viewer that we are dealing with re-marriage here. Also, Cary Grants sly wit about leading too dull a life suggests that as a result of his involvement in matters of state, he has achieved a level of excitement suitable for marriage and can now enter into a proper relationship. SLIDE I want to show you a series of images and a clip from the end of the film that pit homosexuality explicitly against heterosexuality. With their placement at the end of the film they attain great significance, suggesting that the winner of this sexual battle is the victor in a mini cold war. In addition, I show images with men and women, homosexuals and heterosexuals, in these clips, to show both strains of sexuality at odds within a single frame. SLIDE Before I show these stills and clips, I need to discuss the importance of the Vandamm house itself, where the majority of these clips take place. Situated in a fictitious forested plateau atop the Mount Rushmore, Vandamms house dominates a devotional shrine of American democracy-its positioning alone reveals how even Americas most iconic monuments are endangered by Soviet penetration. Further, the houses Midwestern location-in the Black Hills region, near Keystone, South Dakota, is also important. The move toward the west, evoked by the films title, brings the protagonists to the American heartland, the spine of the continent. Additionally, the houses placement atop a mountain has wider implications. It expresses visual domination and panoptic control. The fact that blatant homosexuality pervades a site that serves simultaneously as a great threat to an iconic American monument and exerts intense control, suggests how dangerous the threats of homosexuality and communism have at once become at the end of the film. CLICK THROUGH CLIPS and ad-lib CLICK, SHOW CLIP! In this clip, we see Leonard using phrases like his womans intuition aligning himself with homosexuality, or femininity at the least and Vandamm noting that hes touched by jealousy. SLIDE Now I would like to move into the final phase of my discussion: a comprehensive discussion of Mount Rushmore, and the battle between the US and Soviet Union that occurs atop its democratic faces. First and foremost, we must understand Mount Rushmore to be a place so definitely and undeniably American. Using a carved rock containing the gigantic granite portraits of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln as a backdrop, Hitchcock suggests that what happens there is of NATIONAL IMPORTANCE. After a few savvy moves, Thornhill and Eve leave Vandamms house and find themselves atop monument being chased by Vandamm, Leonard and their henchmen.

Analysis of The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela Essay -- The Underdogs Mar

Analysis of The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela In The Underdogs written by Mariano Azuela, we are introduced to a character that strongly symbolizes the fuel of the Mexican Revolution. Heroes like Demetrio Macias brought the Serrano’s hope of giving them what they felt they truly deserved. Although Demetrio Macias, the general (colonel) of a rebel army is hunting down the army of Pancho Villa, he seems to have the same ideals as the enemy. In addition to Demetrio Macias, we meet women like Camilla and War Paint who represent the different roles that women played during the Mexican Revolution. The character of Demetrio Macias proves to be quite ironic. One facet of his character reveals his determination to find Pancho Villa’s army, while the other side of his character parallels the extraordinary qualities Pancho Villa had as a hero. People viewed Pancho Villa as a revered hero who pushed out foreign "proprietors" and fought for the common man. On one hand, there is the compassionate man who helped those in need and rescued orphans providing them with food, education, and a home. On the other hand, there was the ferocious general who destroyed villages and killed innocent victims. Villa was generous and helpful to his followers, of which he insisted on loyalty and trust, but to those who violated his trust and authority, he was merciless and cruel. We can clearly see the similarities of these two leaders when we analyze their noble actions. Demetrio’s reluctance to stop ...

Ratio Analysis Memo Essay

The following memo will explain the findings of the financial statement analysis for 2008 for Berry’s Bug Blasters as well as offer advice significant decreases in profits or increases in liabilities if they apply. Some quick facts: Liquidity is up for 2008 Current ratio shows we pay assets 5.99 times for every current liability, an increase of 62% from 2007 Significant liquidity ratio decrease in 2008 was in inventory turnover Inventory tuning over 6.67 times per year, down 42% from 2007 Berry’s Bug Blasters inventory turnover is affecting the profits. The profitability ratios decreased with the stockholders’ equity decreasing the most by 56%. The interest expense for 2007 and 2008 has been eliminated. Berry’s Bug Blasters total debt was decreased to assets by 24% in 2007 to 16%, the company’s number now shows solvency. In order to determine if a company will meet short term debt obligations liquid ratios are used by businesses and investors. Berry’s Bug Blasters has proven short term obligations 5.99 times to 1 liability. At the point when an owner or investor evaluates an organization’s liquidity ratios, they are utilizing data from the Balance Sheet to evaluate if an organization has the ass ets and the ability to pay off short term liabilities. Berry’s Bug Blasters have met the mark. Stakeholders use profitability ratios to pick up understanding on the adequacy or sufficiency of an organization’s profits. Loaning organizations and investors will utilize profitability ratios to help focus the conceivable financial related profits for the investment into that particular organization. Administration inside of an organization can use profitability ratios to issue territories inside of the organization and make any vital enhancements to enhance execution in those areas. The accompanying attachments will demonstrate that we have decreased in the amount of profit margin. This decrease demonstrates that business has hindered in 2008. Berry’s Bug Blaster may need to look over marketing  methodologies to produce more business in the impending year. Solvency ratios are for the most part utilized by long term lenders and stakeholders. Both clients are utilizing solvency ratios to focus the long term quality and survival of an organization. Long term monetary quality of an organization is essential to these clients to demonstrate that an organization will have the capacity to pay off debt and accrued interest of a mature debt. Berry’s Bug Blasters has made a decent showing of decreasing the measure of amount of total debt to assets. Generally speaking, Berry’s Bug Blasters is in great financial health in correlation to others in the business. An intercompany near analysis was performed utilizing our organizations nearest traded on an open market contender, Rollins Inc. Like Berry’s Bug Blasters, Rollins Inc. provides pest and termite control services to business and private customers. The Rollins Inc. SEC filed 10-K for the period ending 12/31/08, the attached ratio, horizontal and vertical analysis are the source documents for the data below. The profit margin is by far the most valuable accounting aspect for any company. Berry’s Bug Blasters has doubled the profit margin (16%) other than Rollins Inc. (6.6%) In regards to solvency, Berry’s Bug Blasters incurred no interest expense while Rollins Inc. paid $761,000 interest expense. Another commonly used profitability ratio used primarily by investors is the return on common stockholders’ equity. Berry’s Bug Blasters and Rollins Inc. performed splendidly and tied at 30%. The ratio, horizontal, and vertical analysis performed managers, creditors, and investors can see that Berry’s Bug Blasters remains competitive, and is a valuable investment. I hope you have gained further insight into the financial health of Berry’s Bug Blasters. References: Weygandt, J.J., Kimmel, P.D., & Kieso, D.E. (2010). Financial Accounting (7th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Apollo Group Virtual Organization. (2011). Berry’s Bug Blasters. Retrieved from:https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/secure/aapd/CIST/VOP/Business/Berrys/index.asp on July 24, 2015.

Tree Rosales Saga

The Different Customs and Moral Principles of the Filipino Nation Reading books has many benefits both mentally and morally. Firstly, your mind will be active and engaged into old age, and reading can help you forget the problems in your life, and get you captivated by the adventures of someone else or by the author itself. Reading is a fun and great way to leave the stresses of your life and Just unwind.Through reading it can also improve one's skill and strategy use, builds fluency, enlarges scapulars, and builds knowledge of the world. And so we are given a task to read Filipino fiction books. There is a range of choice of books that were given to us and I choose the book of F. Session Jose, entitled Tree. Francisco Session Jose or simply known as F. Session Jose, he is one of the most prominent authors of literary books in the Philippines; he created a lot of books that tackled the different issues such as domination, deliverance, compassion, social prejudice and so on.F. Session Jose has been called a Philippine national treasure too. He was born on December 3, 1924 in Resale, Philippines. He was introduced to literature in public school and later at the University of Santos Atoms. While working as a Journalist in Manila, he began his interest in writing short stories and eventually novels. One of the books that he created which is known as the Resale novels that earned several awards like the 1980 Ramona Massage's Award, 2001 National Artist Award for Literature and the 2004 Pablo Neared Centennial Award is the book entitled Tree.According to Session Jose, as stated at the back of his book, â€Å"Tree is a story of a boy growing up in a small Looking town, surrounded by friends below his social class, by relatives and doting servants who have served his family all their lives. It is also a story of oppression and compassion†see, F. S. , 1978). Tree is one of his few masterpieces' in which I have the chance to read and I assume that this book was wr itten based from the author's experience since it is written in the first person point of view.I decided to use the social and the moral-philosophical approach in discussing the story. Tree is a story that tackles about the different customs that are practiced by the Filipinos and it is also a narrative that teaches moral values. The story happened in a small town of Resale in the province of Panamanian, during the year sass's, the period of the American and Japanese colonization in the Philippines. The story revolves about a young boy who is growing up where in he is surrounded by his friends, family, servants who are all lower than his social status.The boy is growing up together with his father who is very prominent in their town because his father is working for a big person who is Don Vaccine, a well-known land owner in Resale. His father is known o be as an assistant of Don Vaccine and he also has the authority to possess lands and persuade people as he pleases. The young boy grew up in a kind of life that everybody dreamed of. There is no need for him to work to have something to eat, to live; everything is well provided for him by his father.Even the young boy grew up together with his father with a life that is very comfortable; his relationship with his father is distant and remote. He only sees his father very often and they even talk giving birth (pig. 9). And all that is left for him were the memories how people would scribe how beautiful her mother is and stories from people about how his father had loved her mother so much. And so the young boy still thirsts for her mother's presence and loving care. He even foolishly wishes to see her mother even she would be a pallid spirit.In some way, he feels proud whenever people would praise her mother however he still feels the sense of loss and futility (pig. 9). But even though he doesn't have a mother beside him, still he grew up with proper manners and a submissive child. He is a young boy who never Judges those people who are around IM despite the differences between social standing. He never chooses people to mingle. He makes friends to all and treasures them as a part of his life since he has this belief that those people he meet along the way teaches him different lessons in life that would make him a better person.Like his friend Angel, who strives to make a difference for himself by Joining what his heart truly desires to be a soldier because he believes that is where he would really belong, he does not want to be a servant for all his life and serve their family Just to pay the debts of his dead parent's. Angel imply wants freedom for himself and so he told his preparation to escape and Join those soldiers in the mountain to fight against what should be for them to the young boy. Hilled is another friend of the main character in the story (pig. 14).Hilled is a girl somewhat about his age who is a member of the circus team that performs walking in a tightrope up in the he ights. As his friend, Hilled taught him a lot of things in life, even at a young age Hilled work already Just to earn money and have something to eat. She uses her skills in entertaining. She almost disregarded her studies and Just soused on performing in the circus team to be able to help her parent's and those who are expecting from them. Cousin Marcelo, a relative of the main character in the story also made an impact in his life. Cousin Marcelo was a very educated man and a good role model for the main character.Despite the knowledge that he gained from studying, he never used it for immorality, to take advantage to his fellowmen. Since he is educated, he knows how to use his knowledge properly and at the right instances. Another character in the story is Old David and Seep. They are the loyal Emily servants who were devoted and willing to serve until the end for the main character's family. They already spent their whole life in serving the family because they owe a lot to the family for giving them a good life and a steady Job. Tree is also a literary work that exhibits different cultures and beliefs.Since the setting of the story happened during the period of sass's it expected that cultures and traditions during that time is still practiced. Like one in the chapters in the story that narrates about the happenings during their town fiesta that happened in the month of June. The month of June is a month that is full of festivities for Resale(pig. 14). Everybody is expecting for big undertakings during their town fiesta since there are many people who would come and celebrate with them and what's most exciting is that the circus would also arrive and be a highlight for the event.During their time, town festivities won't be a success without the fiesta of their patron San Antonio De Pads, the competition for the fiesta queen and the presentation from the circus team which is usually held in their plaza. Another tradition that is present in the story when t heir orientated passed away. They practiced this tradition of mourning that is still day of the burial of the dead and it is celebrated with dining and drinking depending on the finances of the bereaved family.The relatives of the deceased are also required to be dressed in black mourning clothes and black bands for a year until the period of mourning would end. But those relatives who are not directly related to the deceased may stop wearing the black clothing for mourning. In the story during the special occasions like the holidays particularly during Christmas, they prepare a big feast. It's their custom to celebrate Christmas with all the family, the servants, friends and relatives that even they are far from Resale they still give effort to attend the Christmas celebration held every year.In the story of Tree, it also narrated the different social injustices, compassion and oppression that take part in the story. One of which is a property-owner versus a peasant. If you are a p easant you don't have the power to persuade the landowner to stop from possessing your land. If you disobey and refuse to agree with what they want, certainly those peasants would be rut and they would make sure that those people who challenged them would be destroyed (pig. 1 1). There is no equality for the marginalia people during their time.Justice can only be served to those who are wealthy, to those who have strong influence and with the ability to manipulate things or even people through the use of money. Through their money and their high social status, everything for them is achievable. The book also showed portrayal about compassion. It is during the time that the father of the young boy presented him to her mother's grave and he was introduced to his mother grave. The theme of the story tells us that life is can be painted by those people who are around us.They can help us grow, mature and go out with our comfort zones and mold us into better persons through the way they i nfluence us in different ways. Since those people around you shared their learning through experiences in their existence. Those characters mentioned in this paper made an impact to the main character on how he should face the trials in life and how to be a good person. He learned that being a good listener, responsible, humility and being tough is essential in life. Another thing is that money is not the answer to everything, morals are more important to most people.How much values you have for yourself the more people would learn to value, respect and look up to you. The tree or the title of the book itself is the symbol in the story. The ablate tree in particular. The ablate tree as described in the book is meant to give shade from the sun and also from the rain (pig. 2). The tree seemed like ageless it's so huge and taller than the church (pig. 2). The tree is the witness to all happenings in the town. It seems to be unyielding. Even when an American soldier with an excavator ru ns into it, the ere survives and the excavator was destroyed.It is also important to note that underneath the ablate tree nothing grows. In Tree, the author uses this representation to suggest that, left to its own device; maybe the Philippines might have prospered but it is never achieved. After all, the tree was indigenous. Tree is a novel supplied with cultural experience that is mixed moral reference. It also showed the importance of having social standing in a society. It also portrayed the way of living during the early period in the Philippines and the struggles of those people who have low social status.