Powered by ProofFactor - Social Proof Notifications

Artistic Authenticity in Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life

Dillard wrote her last book, The Writing Life. Inherent and conspicuous in all Dillard’s works are her focus on self−sacrifice and her try to get in touch with life’s beauty with its known horrors. Although she is known as a writer of nature, she can be described neither as an expert, nor as an appreciator of nature. Rather, she is a student of the person ideas and is passionate about how people perceive their surroundings and world. Actually, her idea of nature and art can be identified as the two factors of the same coin. This is especially apparent in The Writing Life. This material will discuss and evaluate the theme artistic authenticity and how it has been developed in the book (Dillard 24). In her previous works, Dillard (54) have a perception of the the world through her natural creatures analysis, but in The Writing Life, she decides the way of lifestyle and actions of other artists to come to understand the suffering life.

People Also Read

In this book, she made a huge step from what she did in her previous works, and provides with, what is gradually, a wrong feeling of comfort from a group, as if to say artists are usually different from the public. It is apparent that Dillard seems left out from society and seriously desires to find others with whom she be identified with. She looks out for the neighbors’ views and at some aspect accepts that however fashionable her job might be, writing is just a job in the end.

The Writing Life main theme is the Dillard’s wish of authenticity in art. On an insignificant learning, one might neglect the grotesqueness of anecdotes and value of the metaphors. Clearly, Dillard wanted to make an exploration on the human conditions as an extension of the kinds she used in her formerly works. Those who belittled her work as disjointed also did not see it in the light of her formerly works. Dillard never wrote actions, which were truly complete in themselves but effective the growth of her designs through her actions to add our understanding of each of her actions.

One of the most amazing anecdotes in The Writing Life is the story of Dillard about the stunt pilot called Dave Rahm. Through the story, she explains her world vision. Dave Rahm was a climber of the mountain who became a mountain exert and explored many mountains from every view point for the desire to find out more about the mountains from every perspective. He furthermore studies geography and later became a professor of geology, yet both geology and geography seemed to be “too pedestrian” for Dave Rahm, and so he decided to pursue piloting (Dillard 76).

The narrator makes a parallel between the stunt pilot’s life and the writer’s life. She parallels the writing sensation to spinning, which brings out how seriously Dillard takes the writing of a book challenge, and how self absorbed she became in the process of realizing her goals as a writer. “The writing sensation of a book is the spinning sensation, blinded by daring and love. It is the sensation of peering and rearing from the bent tip of a grass blade, looking for a route.” (Dillard, 86)

While the narrator watches Dave Rahm passionately, she ponders over her own craft. It comes out clearly in the language applied to give a description her sensation as a writer that she gives it a consideration much like the show that Dave Rahm creates on his airplane (Dillard 85).

The first similarity pointed out by the narrator is that she neither sees them while they are performing. Neither is aware of their work developments, their art while they are in the process of doing out their task. “He could not see them himself. If he did not see it on a film, he never saw them at all, as if Beethoven could not hear his last symphonies because he was inside the paper he was writing and no9t that he was deaf” (Dillard, 62).

At the end of The Writing Life, the narrator make identification of herself with Dave Rahm and sees the world through the eyes of Dave Rahm, which makes her to have a perception  all forms of art including the writing act, as a vocation, a life honorable worthy of the ultimate sacrifice.

Dillard (19) uses Icarus and Dedalus to exemplify her art and invention understanding, which at time s demands sacrifice totally. Dillard respects people who give up themselves completely to their art and make a risk on everything for them to achieve perfection, just like what the stunt pilot and Icarus did in The Writing Life. She believes clearly that at least she should be esteemed for the sacrifices she had all along made. However, she also brings out the “not seeing” danger. She also critically examines herself as transcendentalist who concentrates much on seeing what her eyes are sometimes dimmed because of their self-importance. Now, she seems to have to have gotten over the set limits of the artists who were there before her (Dillard, 14).

In The Writing Life, she chooses different mediums through which she was able to see the world. The other artists descriptions which tell the readers more about writing or about herself than about the described artists: the stunt pilots analogy which seriously shows how she take her work, the Dedalus and Icarus myths  which tells the reader how significant is her ambition, sacrifice and achievement as a writer (Dillard, 64). Through these mediums, Dillard brigs out the basic question, how do we see the world around us? This is a question about the person who has the right to give interpretation and how best it should be accomplished. Moreover, what is the understanding behind per consistent pursuit of art in this The Writing Life book? Self-sacrifice in her art chosen is work frame and can be understood as her life ethics. Without understanding way of looking art, we cannot understand her way of getting to understand the nature. Because of she gives much respect to self-sacrifice in art and the life, she seeks worldly sacrifice and beauty in the natural world grotesqueness. Before examining and understanding her way of looking at nature, it is important to recognize her way of perceiving the world (Dillard, 72).

If we give definitions to nature and art in the broader sense, as Dillard did in The Writing Life, then we can see that she tends to ask fundamental questions about how we perceive and interpret the printed art forms. Arts such writing, but also how deeper understanding of these forms of art leads to a deeper understanding of life (Dillard 53).

Work cited

Dillard, Annie. The Writing Life. New York: Harper & Row, 1989. Print.

 

 

 

5/5 - (1 vote)

Gender Roles in the 18th Century through “The Rover” by Aphra Behn

Outline

During the eighteenth century, women’s roles in society were categorized as domestic. The roles of women were strictly defined in areas such as “work, family, and society according to ideas of what is appropriate for the sex” (Easton 389).  These roles gave women fewer career choices, loveless marriages with few rights and many, many domestic duties (Hawthorne et al. 34). Many women writers, who lived during the 18th century, wrote about the experiences that women were faced with during that time.  Chief among those voices was Aphra Behn, who attempted to come to grips with the role of women during this period in society. One of Behn’s most famous plays, “The Rover”, depicted her views on how women were portrayed in society during the 18th century.  This paper will present the roles women were forced to carry out during the 19th century. This paper will relate the roles of the women characters in the play “The Rover” to the roles of women during the 18th century.  This novel will be used like a reference to depict how Aphra Behn used her artistic and literary skills to express her feelings about the gender roles of women during the 18th century.

People Also Read

Introduction

Aphra Behn, a controversial and female author, is one of the notable literary critics throughout the centuries (Canfield et al, 221). The literary plays she documented during the period of restoration were very popular on the stage. Similarly, her poetry and fiction were successful. Gallagher (97) asserted “the feminine interest now giving importance to Behn as a pioneer in professionalism, in women, began to emerge.” Moreover, she used her literary work to address politics, social commentary, money, sex, power, relationships, ideal and virtue. However, her major writing focus was on gender roles.

The essay will examine the of gender roles through the through the work of Behn of “the rover”. According to Hutner (198), the play of “the rover” criticized the arranged marriages through the inclusion of societal criticism. To understand the play of “The Rover” better, it is of great importance to understand the relationship of her life to her writing, her society she lived and perception of the women’s roles. The rover provides an oral criticism of the expectations of the society, denounces ideas of forced marriages and lastly the accompanying authority of the parents.

The rover is about of sisters’ Florinda, and Hellena who are making an attempt  of an escape from the fates of their male members of their family have decided for them, in addition to a band of, English cavaliers in Naples who are burnished at the carnival time. Link (109) observed that men are promiscuous and gay; there is the loyal Belvile, Wilmore, the rover, blunt and the negative Fredrick, the low comedian squire of the country. Belvile met and rescued the Florinda from being attacked by Naples previously, and eventually fell in love with her. Forinda, on the other hand, is destined for a pre arranged marriage. However, Hellena is destined for a convent. The escape of the sisters to the carnival is where they meet the cavaliers. Furthermore, Florinda loves Belivele and Hellena and Wilmore fall in love. However, Angelina Bance, the gorgeous courtesan complicates things. She is also in love with Wilmore although she has Pedro, the brother to Hellena and Florinda and Antonio, one of the potential future husbands of Florinda fighting to get her attention.

The plot of the play has complicated series masking, intrigues, and overall character confusion. There is love, rape, sex, anger, betrayal, jealousy, despair and joy. The play finally ends with marriages of Wilmore and Hellena and Belvile and Wilmore.

According to Markley (68), the main conflict in the play of the rover originates from the arranged marriage idea. This is attributed to the own experience of Behn and her marriage which was arranged and unhappy. Despite the fact that Behn was successful in the contemporary literature realm, her life clearly shows struggles which the women of the restoration faced in forging their identities in a large society dominated by the control of patriarchs. Even as Aphra Behn created new grounds for women by writing and publishing her literary plays in the public stage, the society she went against and raged bound her both by social ideals and financial dependence (Canfield and Sneidern, 109).

“The Rover” shows how Behn challenged the patriarchy hegemony as she applied male play writers texts, Thomas Killinger and later manipulated it  propose subtle social commentary on the women’s roles. Moreover, Behn, like other women in the restoration period applied tools such as improvisation, wit, madness, disguise and sexuality as ways in their endeavor to strive for theatre equality. The culture of restoration Behn confronted was a typical in which women held very little respect or independence (Gallagher, 61).

According to Hutner (395), rape was considered to be culture endemic by many people as the authority of men over women was total and supreme. Hutner (395) further pointed out that the crime of rape in 17th and 18th centuries was not prosecuted the same way it is done today. It was not even considered a crime, but it was a man exhibiting and expressing his power and sexuality over a woman. The violence of rape which was heinous did not transcend the social classes or even advertised; rather it reinforced the variation between the non privileged and the privileged. Behn, one of the feminist writers, disagreed with this rape representation and she later incorporated these wrongs into her work.

Similarly, the restoration society did not see the difference between the realms of dueling and courtship. This reflects the inherent violence in the female-male relations. Behn allowed her audience to see through the Rovers lens the representation of the courting and dueling. This is intrinsically the similar scenario in which there is a struggle by men to possess women as objects. Women according to Quinsey (284) are belittled to the commodity status, and airs of love just becomes the marketable transactions.

The representation of Angelica Bianca shows the real illustration of an empowered woman by her sex and matter to its consequences as exchange object. She is courtesan and thereby sells her sex and body to a man. Todd (117) observed that not only did men physically possess her, but also possess her as power or status symbol. While Angelica is portrayed as able to control her situation, the rejection by Wilmore of her love shows that she is in mercy of the patronage of men. Women according to Woodcock (42), had to negotiate between their sex, physical power, their intellect and mental capacity, which men believed, they did not have. On the theatre stage, they were able to use their wit and body sexuality together with one another to subvert the power of male.

According to Canfield (97), the female legibility was heavy and pressing concern and Behn bring out this through Angelica the hypocrisy of denouncing the poetess for subverting the sex of female. Even the women who were most contentious were bound socially and financially to men, their livelihoods and hearts resting in the men’s whims.

The play of “The Rover” of the 17th century portrays the problematic nature of the independence of female. Despite the fact that Behn has become an icon for equality among the feminine, she was snared by patriarchy dependence that she opposed. Explicit sexuality as asserted by Behn makes an ideal power that contrasts the dangerous vulnerability reality for women (Behn, 34-97).

The role of women is expressed in the three characters, in the play of “The Rover”; Angelica Biance, Hellena and Florinda. The stage was one of the only arenas and spaces where social experimentation could be done. Therefore, it served the purpose of questioning the gender roles and even the feminism precursors. In reality women had little power but the stage was one of places to subvert the reality.

The roles of women brought out from the play of “The Rover” were diverse. There were expectations from the society on women and the society defined their roles. Behn, who was a female writer does not encourage complete overthrow of the expectations of the society on women despite being distain. Even when Hellena and Florinda rebelled against the wishes of their father, they firmly keep themselves within the confines of their gender roles. Similarly, Hellena escapes a convent so as to play the traditional women role by becoming the wife of the philandering libertine who targets her fortune (Behn, 61).

According to Gallagher (72), in the play of “The Rover,” two types of women are seen. The first woman is the one which represent the societal woman which had no roles to express her desire, and the second woman which depicts the real life of Behn. This is a woman who becomes the desiring subject by adopting positions of power, distance and coldness.

According to Hutner (240), the society placed the value on women by virtue of possessing particular features. Florinda also applies these traits to make a judgment of her own self worth. She tells her sister “I understand better what is due to my fortune, birth and beauty, and more to my soul, than to obey those commands which are unjust” (Behn, 26-28). Similarly, she goes on to argue against her brother and make her point: “let him consider my fortune, beauty and youth” (Behn, 93-95). This brings out the social issues women underwent that time and also explains the reason of Florinda’s rebellion. The same traits she believes should give her freedom to choose her own husband are the very same traits the male members of the family exploit to sell her off to the wealthiest bidder. The women are valued like property to be sold off, and this was one of the social issues.

Another social issue in the play of “The Rover” is the exploitation experienced in the forced marriages. “The Rover” is a perfect example of a discussion that Behn was not a revolutionary, by making an attempt to overthrow the gender roles that were prevailing. For instance, the disdainful idea of forced marriages which Behn seems, to oppose not just the way it applies to women but to men too. The forced marriages are characterized by exploitation and unhappiness. The play acknowledges the expectations of the arranged marriages that were harmful to the forced women and men who did not have a say on them (Quinsey, 183)

In the play, it is evident that there were many major ways the men in the society nurtured and maintained their gender roles. Todd (112) pointed out that one of them was rape, and this was a major social issue of the time. Rape was used for many different reasons. For Blunt, rape was a means in which men exerted revenge on women in general just for the action of one particular woman. However, for Wilmore, rape was like a seduction or a diversion. The reason the heroes of Behn violate the conservative standards of sexual morality in the play of “The Rover” is to legitimize aristocratic worth and birth notions (Woodcock, 53).

Behn’s view of marriage seems to be consistent with the view of Wilmore in the play. When Hellena first suggest about marriage, his first response is “Hold Hold…no no, we will have vows now but not love, child, nor witnesses but the lover…marriage is a kind of a nuisance to love, as lending money is same as to friendship”(Behn, 124)

According to Canfield and Sneidern (319), Hellena is characterized by emotional strength and masculine wit and appears to have huge success for a woman in the play. He has both charm and wit to seduce her lover, in addition to self interest to, persuade him for marriage. Gallagher (102) pointed out that Hellena fits the image of a new heroine genre. Hellena suggested that, through a women’s wit, they has the manipulative power to the social hierarchy and gain equal footing with the male counterparts. She mirrors the real image of Behn, who through the writing creates a degree of sexual and financial independence. Similar to the way Hellena manipulates and uses sex to get her honor, Hutner (119) suggested that the play writing of Behn shoulders her vulnerability and broaden her sexual power.

Conclusion

Surrounded by social reprimand, Behn fought to have equal footing in the stage. Using the space of the public as a platform to air her thoughts, she challenged the society by her authorship and the content of her plays. Behn did not consider or believed herself to be an exception of the rules but a spokesperson on behalf of her gender. The play of the rover exposes double blind feminism and frustrations of the restoration women. The social issues and the role of women in the restoration period have been elaborated. Women were defined.

Work Cited

Behn, Aphra. The Rover. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1967. Print.

Canfield, J D, and Sneidern M.-L. Von. The Broadview Anthology of Restoration & Early Eighteenth-Century English Drama. Peterborough, Ont: Broadview Press, 2001. Print.

Gallagher, Catherine. Nobody’s Story: The Vanishing Acts of Women Writers in the Marketplace, 1670-1820. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995. Internet resource.

Hutner, Heidi. Rereading Aphra Behn: History, Theory, and Criticism. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1993. Print.

Quinsey, Katherine M. Broken Boundaries: Women & Feminism in Restoration Drama. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 1996. Print.

Todd, Janet M. Aphra Behn. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999. Print.

Woodcock, George. Aphra Behn: The English Sappho. Montréal: Black Rose Books, 1989. Print.

 

 

 

 

 

 

5/5 - (1 vote)

Overcoming Community Barriers in Online Education

Chapter One: Introduction

Education conducted through the internet is a typical choice for many learners. The versatility of the studying procedure is particularly the reason learners prefer to research on the internet. Learning institutions are applying various factors of on the online education in their program. Online education is a program that allows individuals from different parts all over the globe to fulfill up with and interact culturally. The comprehensive development in technical innovation has provided significantly towards the online education intensity. It has offered an opportunity for people working on the internet on the long distance education to achieve out beyond their limitations and cultural limitations.

People Also Read

Gauvain (1995) recognized three techniques in which a society impresses upon the developing a kid what studying and educating “mean”:

(1) Any learning and teaching scenario rests upon a foundation–sometimes only designed, sometimes made clearly explicitly–about what kinds of goals and actions a culture values;

(2) The culture provides the trainer and student with tools and materials to fulfill up with the goals and make a support to those values;

(3) There are available “high-level community structures” (e.g., programs, workouts, and rituals) that are considered suitable and useful to apply the goals and ideas in culturally outstanding and building up ways.

These three subsystems, Gauvain claims, assist and limit the intelligent development of the student, demonstrate what it “means” to educate and learn, and route her thinking in techniques suitable to and valuable of her culture. Gauvain (2001) has also demonstrated how culture-specific messages shape the child who is developing as she:

1) Understands “problem solving skills” (techniques to apply and the base of knowledge to develop to be able to identify and approach and settle a problem);

2) Constructs “memory” (which requires taking in ideas revealed as remembrances of “exemplary situations” as well as studying particular techniques for remembering);

3) Understands of the guidelines for “planning” (learning how to organize someone’s own actions to be able to achieve goals as well as the suggestions for how to organize programs with the programs of others).

When learners from cultures structured with the teacher’s normative culture are more effective it does not actually mean that they are less large than other learners. It generally indicates that they are better ready for that scenario with a community worldview is more effective with the worldview of the trainer and university than is the community worldview of learners from society cultures. This problem is the same, only perhaps raised in some techniques, in the internet perspective.

Cultural comprehensive variety represents different individuals in a society or company whereby different ideas techniques and terminology limitations are available. It is experienced in on the online education in three different factors. They include:

a) Communication barriers

b) Educational policies

c) Public divides

Technological developments and the rapid development in online use have provided significantly towards global on the internet information. Public comprehensive variety problems have come up which range from terminology limitations. For instance, most of the online education techniques usually indicate on the English-speaking world’s perspective in accordance with the style of the online education program. It sides out the non-English sound system. Public and terminology variations usually do not be incorporated in the planning and style of the internet information. Nevertheless, cross-cultural on the online education is growing as well.

In addition, community gaps are available among on the online education users. Contribution rates vary in accordance with the various community groups. Some learners may face problems with the position of the interface and techniques of on the internet information. It is mainly because of the community variations. Public variations are available and they cause to community conditions in on the internet information.

Cross-cultural problems associated with online education mostly impact the studying and educating procedure. Learning is very reliant on someone’s actions. Students are expected to apply the found ideas in their lifestyle. The importance to someone’s culture mostly relies on your business presentation and is culturally affected. The ideas found are considered to be real if they are culturally relevant. At this point, an outstanding student attracts comparison depending on his or her community concepts. The challenge rests in because of the different cultures among the learners utilizing on the internet information. Different learners have different understanding and understanding of the ideas found depending on their cultures. The method of business presentation varies from one personal to the other. On the internet programs are becoming extreme. It is necessary to come up on the internet studying techniques that take into consideration the community comprehensive variety among the learners.

Objectives of the Study

This research is designed at introducing the different community conditions faced by learners in on the internet information. By the end of the research, the specialist is designed at creating few techniques, which can be valuable in reducing community limitations for learners.

Research Questions

I. How to get over community problem in on the internet education?

Subsidiary Questions

I. Does community distinction also are available in variety education?

II. Do disputes as a result of community variations transfer from the conventional class room to the distance-learning environment?

III. How do instructors and learners get around different cultures of studying in these environments?

IV. What role are instructors playing in conquering community conditions in on the internet education?

V. What should possibly be done to deal with community limitations in on the internet education?

Chapter 2: Literature Review

There are several problems to on the internet information. One of the first great problems in cross-cultural e-mails, also obvious in on the internet studying, is that many of our goals are designed, below our stage of awareness and unseen to us. It is typically only when we are in through contact with another way of doing factors, and when that way of doing factors does not fulfill our designed goals that we can start to locate what our original goals were and how they might vary from different techniques of understanding and being.

For an example, Spindler (1963) claims that there is a normative national The the united states culture which might be invisible to most People the united states because they assume everyone on the globe stocks the same reasoning. He suggested that the conventional ideas that create up the primary of the Anglo-American design involve the following five characteristics:

a) A Puritan concepts, particularly regarding the company of a family and sexual reliability of partners,

b) A idea that effort will cause to success,

c) A top quality placed on personal image,

d) An position of someone’s initiatives towards culturally and economically fulfilling success.

e) A future-time orientation–that is, seeing someone’s present actions and conditions in terms of their upcoming generate, almost as if the present were an continuous investment later on (pp. 134-136).

It is in deep and significant e-mails with others that People the United States start to realize not all hold the same initial reasoning. Many of the world’s individuals have social-psychological features that usually vary from these to one degree or another. Nisbett (2003) categorizes cultures as relatively separate and independent relatively, which are totally dissimilar in the following ways:

1. Insistence on independence of personal activity vs. a choice for combined action

2. Desire for personal distinctiveness vs. choice for combining harmoniously with the group

3. A choice for egalitarianism and obtained position vs. acceptance of structure and connected status

4. A understanding that the suggestions managing proper actions should be globally vs. a choice for particularistic techniques that take into account the perspective and you will of the connection involved.

Cultural comprehensive variety in on the online education results in community conditions. It is due to several factors of community comprehensive variety.

i. Communication Barriers

Culture and Learning

Teaching is an significantly community act. Knowledge is essential in most cultures. Moreover, studying and educating extremely relies on what is culturally approved subject to community ideas and specifications. The community specifications and techniques figure out the content that is suitable for educating. On the online education is no exemption to the community goals. Pai and Adler (2001) declare that culture and information are so related that they figure out each other.

The processes of studying and educating are affected by the primary ideas, concepts, and actions, as well as the frequent intelligent and connections styles and terminology styles, of a culture. Further, the educative procedure, whether formal or casual, is equally affected by the socioeconomic position of the student, professional requirements, you will of the connection between popular and society groups, and the result of technology in the society. Regardless of how information is determined, from a community perspective it can be considered as the filled with meaning indicates by which each society initiatives to deliver and perpetuate its idea of the outstanding culture, which is based on the society’s essential concepts concerning you will all over the globe, information, and ideas (p. 4).

Although the influence of socio-culture on mental development was mentioned significantly by Vygotsky in the 1920s-1930s, and recognized by Dewey in the Thirties, other following movements (behaviorism, intelligent, etc.) seemed to give less focus to these matters, until recently with the reemergence of socio-cultural ideas of studying (e.g. Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989; Lave & Wenger, 1991; Siemens, 2004).

Online information is a program that allows for the connections of learners from different cultures. Developing these cultures proves to be challenging because of the different goals. For example, France learners and the United States learners have different goals.

i. Difference in the training and studying systems

The United States information program evaluates clients’ performance through participation in class room conversations and getting them while trainer is lecturing. In the France information program, this act is considered disrespectful to the trainer.

ii. Fear of incapable is typical between France students

French learners are seen to be shy. The stage of participation in the class room is relatively low. They are scared of giving the wrong answers in the class room. The trainer in charge must help learners get over this worry.

iii. Differences in the position system

In the United States program, a C+ grade is considered a pass while in the France System it is considered incapable. The learners are likely to get confused about the position.

Differences in culture impact studying. Teachers and learners need to accept these variations especially in an on the online education environment. Joan Vienna said,

“The only way we will matter is through information.”We should perspective these variations as opportunities to create our intercultural connections and share our best techniques for a better globe. Consequently, it would be easier to live and understand each other in this reducing world”

When learners from cultures structured with the teacher’s normative culture are more effective it does not actually mean that they are less large than other learners. It generally indicates that they are better ready for that scenario with a community worldview is more effective with the worldview of the trainer and university than is the community worldview of learners from society cultures. This problem is the same, only perhaps raised in some techniques, in the internet perspective.

5/5 - (1 vote)

A Review of Brenda Niskala’s Of All the Ways to Die

Outline

“Of All the Ways to die” is a book authored by Brenda Niskala, as a little ghost story that is offbeat, sweet and short. The story weaves the ordinary people’s lives together, teetering on the edges of hope with historical figures that are fascinating. The plot of the story shows how the author narrates her story. The author of the “Of All the Ways to Die” book takes readers into the long journeys of the underworld, the real living world of the Saskatchewan and the land of the dead. Urma in the book of “Of All the Ways to Die” holds for people the pot luck. These are the people she has lost in her entire life. Every individual brings their favorite recipes, a dish and their life stories and how they used to live, and how they died. Death comes to all people, and it does not matter the lifestyle, fame and fortune that one possessed in the true life.

People Also Read

Human compassion gets portrayed in the book, compounded by marvelous character collection and a marvelous prose of the analogy. The invitation from Urma attracts attention from acquaintances, loved ones and a few faces that are famous including that of the bog mummy, a Cree grandmother, St. Antony and the prairie ship builder who is eccentric (Niskala, 24). Is there a possibility that these people can help Urma in finding Eleen, the teenager who is missing?

Critical analysis

Niskala (44) attempts to show that the journey into the afterlife or death is not as easy and straightforward as people may imagine. Not only are important aspects of the dead lost along the way, there are cases where people are completely lost and unable to trace their journey into the after-life. Despite the fact that a new life awaits them, people could end up desperately lost, with the living and the dead completely unaware. This is signified through Eleen the young teenager being rescued in the novel.

Death comes to all people, and it does not matter the lifestyle, fame and fortune that one possessed in the true life, when death comes knocking all people are equalized. The characters in the novel, famous, rich and average, all together lived different lives. Lives in which they all admit, perhaps, they would never have willingly crossed paths. However, upon death they all become equalized, journeying together into the unknown (Niskala, 88).

The reader gets drawn into the lives of the characters both past and present, often finding villains and heroes mixed in the group. Those who are willing to help trace and find Eleene and those who desire to remain as they are.

Unlike the many novels of death and the journey into the death, Niskala finds a way to add satire, humor and mystery into a book educating people on life after death. Conflicts between the characters, inspiring stories of their lives and Urma the girl who brings it all together manage to make the book not drab, and dull as many books on death are, but more lively and exciting.

According to Niskala (7), the book of “Of All the Ways to Die” is a novella about a pot luck dinner, where the entire guests who have been invited are all dead. The book leaves the readers in suspense wondering whether the book is for zombies. The interplay at the pot luck dinner is wonderful witty and charming. Death is portrayed as meaningless as the characters laments on their unachieved dreams during their lifetimes.

The story has been narrated casually, fascinating and in a friendly manner. Moreover, the amazing thing in “Of All the Ways to Die “is that the author has packed hell in the meaning of death. The afterlife is not portrayed as pleasant to the readers in about a hundred pages of the book. The story is also sorrowful that can make a reader cry a bunch of times.

Niskala (42) indicated “Of All the Ways to Die” can also make the reader smile until the face hurts. The recipes elaborated in the book may tempt an individual to go and try them. Niskala (52) pointed out the characters contained within the book. They include stores of drug addicts, sex trade workers, pow-wows, acquired brain damage, love family, war dreams, royalty, hope, death, life, mystery and food. The book is entirely a mystery, a historical and a speculative fiction, and a fantasy. Furthermore, “Of All the Ways to Die” is also a recipe book and a brilliant tribute to people who are inspirational.

The novel provides a way for people to relive and find what they lost in their real lives. It provides an insight into what the characters of the novel found to be important during their lifetime. Whether it is a recipe or a piece of attire, it is one thing that these characters would have wanted to have before and after their death. It is also a story of denial, despite being the living dead, these people have desires and wants which have been denied them. They seek ways to have the desires restored, small things that may not be considered important, and perhaps they did not consider important until their demise. Urma gives the characters a chance to find happiness through finding for them the small things they lost in their journey between the worlds.

Work cited

Niskala, Brenda. Of All the Ways to Die. Thornhill, ON: Quattro Books, 2009. Print.

 

 

 

5/5 - (1 vote)

Efficiency Challenges in Public and Private Healthcare Systems

The terms private and public are descriptive words used in healthcare systems. The private in healthcare means the process where the business, individuals and charitable organizations gets involved in while the public refers to the involvement of the government (Grover, 2007).

People Also Read

The current healthcare system does not operate efficiently and this calls for improvement in the system to increase efficiency of the system. However, the efficiency of the system cannot be improved if there is no standard mechanism of measuring the efficiency and the probable actions that should be taken or put in place to improve it.

Measuring of the efficiency in the healthcare system is also challenging because of lack of standard framework to measure the efficiency, technical issues which have not been resolved and notable differences to data access (Long, 1998).

According to (Grover, 2007), for the healthcare to perform highly, efficiency is one the factors that need to be employed. Inefficiency in the healthcare system is manifested in different dimensions. For example, the spending in the healthcare has little impact on the outcome of the beneficiaries. Furthermore, high cost for healthcare is also evidenced in some places and satisfaction of the patient or health improvement is minimal nowadays.

Moreover, it is evidenced in many hospitals that some costly physicians produce low quality services and the low priced physicians produce the highest quality of services (Long, 1998). This calls for ways to measure the efficiency of the healthcare system. However, it is challenging to measure the efficiency of the healthcare because there is limited scientific evidence on the authenticity and validity of the measuring criteria. In addition, the implication of the reporting the efficiency measures to the public can be detrimental. According to United States, & United States. (2002) it is challenging to define the healthcare efficiency because of the following reasons:

  • The relative nature of the term efficiency. There is a great influence on the perspective of the healthcare delivery elements .Furthermore; definition of the efficiency is different by payers, purchasers, consumers, plans and consumers.
  • All these category of people have different perspective on what forms and constitutes appropriate cost and quality.
  • Efficiency also comes in different types. These include productive, technical and social efficiency. Productive and technical efficiency cannot be described alongside social efficiency. Moreover, some efficiency types are viewed as contradicting the healthcare practitioner’s values. For instance, the perception of the physicians of their obligation as a priority over the needs of the individuals in the society.
  • Lack of a true definition of efficiency. There is lack of evidence to certainly assert how many and what healthcare services input will produce the best efficiency with what kind of benefits and risks.
  • The rewards such as financial are often not associated with the actual outcome of the healthcare. For example, the patients pay for the healthcare which can be measured in monetary terms or visits to the hospital. However, the outcome of the healthcare is not factor in the purchasing equation.

In comparison of the healthcare of the United States with other industrialized countries we find some similarities and differences. For example united states spend highest on the healthcare in relation to her gross domestic product (GDP) than any other country. For instance, in the year 2010 alone united states spent 17.9% of her GDP on healthcare. This translated to $8402 per person (Grover, 2007).

According to United States, & United States. (2002), the most trusted organization to source data for comparison of healthcare among the industrialized nations is the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). This organization’s journal documents the inefficiency of the US healthcare system in relation to other countries. These inefficiencies are evidenced by the way US conducts its operations for example the manner in which they counts the number of live births. Although the efficiency of the healthcare cannot be measured, OECD derives the statistics from the observable measures as health status proxies to provide comparative analyzed results. However, the reality which is depressing is that the observable realities are just mortality derivatives. Three statistics of the OECD in which they use to base their analysis in its report includes the life expectancy, infant mortality and the premature death.

There has been growing discontent among the populations in United States over their expenditures on healthcare and access to necessary services which is inverse. This is in sharp contrast with other industrialized nation which has a universal decent medical care access at a cheap cost compared to United States (Long, 1998). The US escalating healthcare cost which is  lined to exclusively the healthcare organization system, delivery and funding which has gone through a process of evolution in United states.

Furthermore, in comparing the healthcare systems of many industrialized nations, there is no common feature amongst them. Every system is unique .However; According to Oandasan, I., & Canadian Health Services Research Foundation. (2005), the systems of the healthcare in many nations are struggling with the intense pressure of the aging persons, exponential increase in medical costs and over reliance on high tech procedures and solutions which are extremely expensive. Similarly, all the industrialized nations battle with the way to balance the three common and shared problems in the modern health care. These include cost, quality and access.

As discussed above, industrialized nations have made the decisions to employ different approaches to address their healthcare concerns. The paper will examine the systems of heath care in United States and Canada and try to make comparisons. In United States, the health care system is offered majorly through the private sectors while in Canada the system in place for administration of the health care is through provincial government system.

Canada

Canada employs the capitals economy which is similar to the economy of United States. Moreover, her healthcare system uses a system of free-for-service which is administered by the entities of the government (Oandasan, I., & Canadian Health Services Research Foundation, 2005). In this system, the coverage for the healthcare services is universal. Moreover, all the citizens of Canada are covered. The ten provinces of Canada administer and manage themselves but the differences are very few. The costs for the plan are mostly paid by the provincial government through premiums subscription and payment of taxes. Moreover, the government of Canada further funds the system by provision of additional funds to each provinces of Canada by grant systems and funds transfer generated and gotten through corporate income taxes and personal revenues. However, as much as the healthcare system in Canada is social and universal, the plan does not cater for drugs taken at homes, cosmetic surgery and the dental care (National Pharmaceuticals Policy, 2011).

About the hospital expenditures, those are regulated and determined by the central government. The doctors’ salaries are surrendered by the government according to the determination through negotiation between the doctor’s associations and the provincial governments (Grover, 2007).

The social healthcare system of Canada which is universal which ensures every Canadian citizen have access to healthcare also has its advantages and disadvantages. The main advantage which is conspicuous is that it ensures that healthcare coverage is universal. Moreover, despite the fact the health care cost is also rising in Canada, the cost of administration is appreciably lower because of the use of one payment source in each province (Long, 1998).

According to United States, & United States. (2002), the disadvantage of the system is that hospital expenditures control by the system has created a scenario whereby some forms of the latest technology such as the cardiac surgery have led to overflowing waiting lists and the patients face delays. Moreover, the physical conditions of some facilities in the hospitals have deteriorated because of insufficient funding to maintain them.

In comparing the health system of Canada, there are many differences which come out. According to Oandasan, I., & Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (2005), the data of 1989 stipulates that the healthcare expenditure per capita of united states was $2354 compared to Canada which had $1683.Moreover, the healthcare in united states took a budget of 11.8% of the gross domestic product of the country compared to Canada where it was 8.7% of the gross domestic product. It is important to note that the GDP of united stets is far much higher than that of Canada. Therefore, this shows that their expenditure was higher.

It is very difficult or close to impossible to compare how the health cares in a certain country in relation to the other. However, the simplest way to bring out the differences is by analyzing the statistics of the nation such as the infant mortality which are the deaths which occur in the first year of life, life expectancy and the prenatal mortality which are the deaths that occur within the seven days of birth (Grover, 2007). From the statistics, Canada has the highest life expectancy and the lowest percentage of infant mortality (Oandasan, I., & Canadian Health Services Research Foundation, 2005). This brings the conclusion that higher expenditure does not result to a better healthcare.

Obamacare

The Obamacare is a common term used to refer to The patient protection and Affordable Act (PPACA) which was signed by president Obama in 2010. The healthcare law has since received criticism and support alike since it was enacted, passed and signed into law (Tate, 2012)

The law has does the following things to the citizens of United States as discussed below. The main purpose which was stated since the formulation of the law was to increase the number of citizens of America covered by health insurance and reduce the healthcare cost. However, the most parts which people usually talks about in the Obamacare is that there will be no exclusion of anyone from getting insurance and everybody will have to obtain the insurance (Tate, 2012).

According to Tate, (2012), the companies of insurance cannot refuse to cover the citizens of America like they used to do before and furthermore they cannot revoke the insurance cover they had on the citizens of the America. Moreover, there will be no forcing of people to pay extra for the coverage because of the conditions which are pre existing. However, there will be a set limit on the amount the insurance companies can get profit legally and eventually they will have to cover all forms of preventive care. All these changes the Obamacare is introducing among others have the main aim of containing the health care spending of the United States which is skyrocketing (Tate, 2012).

Since the law was passed almost three years ago, from the outward analysis, it seems that that no significant change has taken place due to the introduction of the law. However, the law promises that most significant changes will be realized after the first ten years. However, some of the noticeable changes which have affected the insurance companies in the united states and the slowing down of the health care spending for the last three years (Tate, 2012).

However, the bone of contention in the law which has led to many disputes was the mandate of every individual that required most citizens of America to get a health insurance cover which is essential at least at minimal. Moreover, this is the part of the law that prompted ACA to file a case at the Supreme Court (Tate, 2012).

From the discussion of the Obamacare law, the pros has been identified and discussed clearly. However, the cons to the law are also discussed below. More than forty five million Americans do not have the health insurance. However, the law requires every citizen t have a minimal health cover by the year 2014 when the law will go into effect (Tate, 2012). What is the projected number that will have taken the health insurance by the year 2014?

The government of the states and the federal government have put in place exchanges that are expected to start in October. Exchanges are simply open markets where business which are medium or small and the people can shop for the insurance and also compare the benefits and prices. This will be done online on the web sites (Tate, 2012).

However, the big question is the affordability of the insurance covers. The government has subsidized it for the people with moderate source of income where they can get the money or discounts to help them in payment. However, the low income earners will get the Medicaid care.

According to Tate (2012), the conservatives have been upbeat because of the radical nature of the Obamacare law in transforming the health sector. Furthermore, they claim the system is costly to the many citizens of America in terms of the required minimal health insurance cover. In addition, the conservatives have opposed the law out of political reasons. It is political game of supremacy between the Republicans and the Democrats.

References

Grover, J. (2007). Healthcare. Detroit: Greenhaven Press.

Long, M. J. (1998). Health and healthcare in the United States. Chicago, Ill: Health Administration Press.

United States., & United States. (2002). Help Efficient, Accessible, Low Cost, Timely Healthcare (HEALTH) Act of 2002: Report together with dissenting views (to accompany H.R. 4600) (including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office). Washington, D.C: U.S. G.P.O.

Oandasan, I., & Canadian Health Services Research Foundation. (2005). Teamwork in healthcare: Promoting effective teamwork in healthcare in Canada : policy synthesis and recommendations. Ottawa, Ont: Canadian Health Services Research Foundation.

Healthcare reform, including: health care reform, medical cannabis, publicly funded health care, comparison of the health care systems in Canada and the United States, single-payer health care, the citadel (novel), national pharmaceuticals policy. (2011). S. l: Hephaestus Books.

Tate, N. (2012). ObamaCare survival guide.

5/5 - (1 vote)