Voltaires Candide as Vehicle to Discredit Optimism Essay -- Candide e

Voltaire's Candide as Vehicle to Discredit Optimism   Ã‚   Optimism was an attractive to many because it answered a profound philosophical question: if God is omnipotent and benevolent, then why is there so much evil in the world? Optimism provides an easy way out: God has made everything for the best, and even though one might experience personal misfortune, God (via your misfortune) is still helping the greater good.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Voltaire's experiences led him to dismiss the idea that this is the best of all possible worlds. Examining the death and destruction, both man-made and natural (including the Lisbon earthquake) Voltaire concluded that everything was not for the best. Voltaire uses Candide as the vehicle to attack optimism. Pangloss is meant not to attack Leibnitz, but rather optimism as a philosophy. Thus the reader cannot forget that all of Pangloss's ramblings are not Voltaire's personal attacks on Leibnitz, but in some way represent a characterization of the "typical" optimist. Pangloss, writes Voltaire, "Proved admirably that there cannot possibly be an effect without a cause, and that in this best of all possible worlds the Baron's castle was the most beautiful of all castles and his wife the best of all possible baronesses" (Voltaire 2). Thus we have established Pangloss as the champion of optimism.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Yet just as quickly, Voltaire points out the absurdity of this doctrine. "Observe," says Pangloss, seeking to demonstrate that everything has a cause and effect, "noses were made to support spectacles, hence we have spectacles. Legs, as anyone can plainly see, were made to be breeched, and so we have breeches" (Voltaire 3). The sheer stupidity of these illogical conclusions will likely... ... Candide respond, in closing, to his friend the Optimist?    "That is very well put, said Candide, but we must cultivate our garden" (Voltaire 75).    Works Cited and Consulted: Bottiglia, William. "Candide's Garden." Voltaire: A Collection of Critical Essays. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968. Durant, Will, Ariel Durant. The Story of Civilization: Part IX: The Age of Voltaire. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1965. Frautschi, R.L. Barron's Simplified Approach to Voltaire: Candide. New York: Barron's Educational Series, Inc., 1968. Lowers, James K, ed. "Cliff Notes on Voltaire's Candide". Lincoln: Cliff Notes, Inc. 1995. Richter, Peyton. Voltaire. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1980. Voltaire's Candide and the Critics. California: Wadsworth Publishing Company, Inc., 1996. Voltaire. Candide. New York: Viking Publishers, 1998.

Effect of Colonialism on Gender Equality Relating to the Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

When it comes to delegating responsibility, allocating power, and demanding equality, there always seems to be an underlying bias towards the masculine sector of society, which allows an imbalance regarding gender equality. Understanding where this way of thinking comes from is an essential part of trying to shift and completely erase the bias. Throughout history, a patriarchal pattern and way of thinking has been passed down from generation to generation; what we fail to see is the reason for this pattern and the ways in which we can remedy the situation.A great example of this issue is displayed in the novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz. The female characters of Junot Diaz’s novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, La Inca, Beli, and Lola, demonstrate the ways in which colonialism led to the dehumanization of citizens, especially women, and how these power dynamics carry over into modern society in relationships between the majority and minority, b oth in terms of race and gender in their oppression and the stigma that is attached to being a Dominican immigrant women in America. There are three important women in the novel: La Inca, Beli, and Lola.Each are strong women who battle each other, men, the fuku, their past, their color, and–most important the fact that they are women. One can argue that this habit of undermining the female population comes all the way from when colonialism began to take place. Not only did this Western idea of colonizing mean degrading those that were more, barbaric and unfortunate. â€Å".. we must study how colonization works to decivilize the colonizer,to brutalize him in the true sense of the word, to degrade him, to awaken him to buried instincts, to covetousness, violence, race hatred, and moral relativism. (Cesaire 35) But it was from this that the idea of judging humans by their appearance came about and began to exist. Prior to this the idea of looking and judging by color, gender a nd physical appearance was non-existent. What we fail to see as a society is the realness of this matter, the fact that still in the 21st century this idea of inequality hits almost every single female in one way or another, affecting even the capability to sustain themselves economically because of the still present gender gap in salary wages. This struggle is specifically seen in foreign females residing in America.Junot Diaz in his novel very craftily, with much use of heteroglossia- the presence of two or more voices, discourses, or expressed viewpoints in a text or other artistic work and uncensored truth displays this with his female characters. Lola, represents the first generation American Hispanic female who struggles with finding a balance of her spanish culture and the urge of freeing herself from the stereotype she is expected to uphold. In her journey to oppose such characterization, and as a modern Dominican girl she could only push and dream on. â€Å"with promises t hat once I reached college I would be able to do whatever I pleased, burst out.I couldn’t help it†¦ It was a message more than a feeling, a message that tolled like a bell: change, change, change. † (Diaz 58) This feeling of hope is what drives and keeps many women working hard and pushing for positive changes still to this day. But the constant tag of war with essentialism- belief that a group of pe2ople exhibit traits, characteristics, or behaviors that are essential to their nature and membership to that group, is what drove Lola to the verge of insanity. â€Å"What it’s like to be the perfect Dominican daughter, which is just a nice way of saying Dominican slave. (Diaz 56) She fought like a mad cat for justice, freedom and opportunities. Basic human rights, but not for the average foreign female in the U. S. Her battle was seen as her â€Å"crazy years.. what Dominican girl doesn’t have those? † (Diaz 24) Her sense of independence and brav ery is taken and classified just merely because she is an ethnic female. â€Å"She’d turned into one of those Jersey dominicanas, a long distance runner who drover her own car, had her own checkbook, called men bitches, and would eat a fat cat in front of you without a speck of verguenza. (Diaz 25) To call such attitude honorable would be out of the question because to society she is stepping out of what her stereotype is suppose to be.On the other hand, feminism to traditional La Inca was never even a thought. La Inca is part of the female group that accepts the oppression and her given expected role in society. Instead of fighting against it she lives her entire life trying to maintain and protect her assigned role â€Å"La Inca, you see, was a serious woman, an upstanding woman, one of the best in her class. (Diaz 102) She fought hard to keep the status of her family up high, she is the result of a woman from a colonized country. She knows nothing more than what she is g iven and refuses and is scared to venture. La Inca is the traditional dominican mom, her only wish was for her daughter, Beli to succeed and achieve what she could not. But like many traditional mothers she wanted her daughter to stay rooted in her culture, just the mere thoughts of Beli going to the â€Å"extranjero† brought her anger â€Å" The U. S. was nothing more and nothing less than a pais overrun by gangsters, putas, and no-accounts. (Diaz 158) La Inca lives by what society has taught her to be, to do things for the well being of the men in society, to take care of the home but more importantly to stay at the bottom of the chain and not even think about fighting it. The fight against what colonialism has built the female population to be was started thanks to women like Beli. She represent the females who were tired of living the role they were given.â€Å"Beli could no longer abide working at the bakery or being the â€Å"daughter† of one of the â€Å"most upstanding women in Bani. † She could not abide, period†¦ hat she wanted, more than anything, was what she’d always wanted throughout her Lost Childhood: to escape. † (Diaz 80) She was able to detach herself and learn that there is more to life than what she was told. It is thanks to females like her that we are becoming aware of how far down colonialism has push females. That the â€Å"worship of women as objects of chivalric adoration† (Kaplan 107) should not be, society makes females feel â€Å"invited to imagine themselves participating in the adventures of empire as a means of rejoicing traditional roles. (Kaplan 110) This is what the support of imperial conquest has created. Hypatia Belicia Cabral, a lost dominican single mother in the U. S trying to escape from the culture that expects her to fulfill a given role. Colonialism allowed the lessening of a person just because of an aspect of their look or status.Just as Aime Cesaire states,  ".. while colonialism in its formal sense might have been dismantled, the colonial state has not. Many of the problems of democracy are products of the old colonial state whose primary difference is the presence of black faces. (Cesaire 27) This being a clear example of Oscar, who even in a new country with endless possibilities to succeed still drags on with him that curse of fuku and the result of colonialism as his cross which leads him to find a way to not succeed. Judged by his skin color and his constant battle of achieving the mastering of this male chauvinism, that also came as a result of colonialism and its oppression of woman. The reality is that colonization taught human beings to â€Å"dehumanizes even the most civilized man. † (Cesaire 41) It allowed this concept of â€Å"ownership† and superiority of a race against another- creating an evil chain.Wealthy men were the owners of less fortunate men, and as a result of chauvinism, men were the owners of wome n. â€Å"Colonial activity, colonial enterprise, colonial conquest, which is based on contempt for the native and justified by that contempt, inevitably tends to change him who undertakes it; that the colonizer, who in order to ease his conscience gets into the habit of seeing the other man as an animal accustoms himself to treating him like an animal, and tends objectively to transform himself into an animal. (Cesaire 27) Colonialism began to build a pyramid of levels of importance in society, placing wealthy men at the top following by the rest of the men population and lastly are those wealthy and educated woman; that regardless how hard they try could never climb up the set social cast as we see in the battle of Lola against this very restricted stereotype she gets casted into. Although many of these casted minorities move to the United States in search of freedom and equality, as Beli did in order to â€Å"escape,† many of them instead find a world heavenly still conden sed in the social dynamics carried over from colonialism.American domination – the only domination from which one never recovers. I mean from which one never recovers unscarred. † (Cesaire 77) As the ethnocentric country that we are, we like to criticize other nations in the way they handle their national issues but this is merely part of colonization, a skill that the United States as a whole has down to the most specific detail. By doing so the nation as a whole makes it that much easier for members of such colonized countries to undergo the process of which colonization becomes epidermalization- â€Å"The interiorisation of an inferiority complex based on socioeconomic inequalities. Such experience that all the characters in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao undergo and are in constant conflict with. As a nation of great power we possess many great attributes but lack immensely in the topic of equality of genders. Judging rulers of other countries such as Chavez, Castro and Hitler, when these rulers had so much more to offer their woman in comparison to the United States.Although they committed crimes of which none are applaud for, what we don’t like to state and teach is that in spite of all this â€Å"wrong†, women in these particular countries received the support and were asked to better themselves and contribute to the economical development of their own nation. â€Å"By any standards, the position of women in Cuba ranks among the highest indices of equality of treatment and opportunities. † (Women In Cuba) In Venezuela Chavez receives the support of thousands of women, both in government and outside. Tania Diaz, governing party candidate for the capital district and previously minister of communications, said the aim of the activity was to support the president†¦. Since the government came to power women’s opportunities for development and for participation in Venezuelan society had multiplied. † (Pearson) While in Hitlers world, women were encouraged to train and become strong in order to become competitive with the male population and thus take part in the advancement of the Nazi nation. Hitler provided places for the female youth to learn and support each other in such advancements.These youth group was called the League of German Girls, founded in 1930. An important part of life in the League of German Girls was to help the girls build character, and to prepare them for what were supposed to be their future tasks within the Nazi Volksgemeinschaft, or people's community, by getting them involved in programs that were for the â€Å"good of the people† (Chris Crawford and Stephan Hansen) Empowering woman was something that was done in these nation, had These nations although accused of being some of the most dehumanizing, underdeveloped societies, have more opportunity and support for all of their women citizens.Allowing them to become just as competitive in the wor k force and every other aspect of society. While in America the gap between male and female equality is still so spread, and even more so the gap between male and an ethnic female. The power of oppression towards women as a result of colonialism and how these power dynamics carry over into our modern society is something that we must begin to shift. That although America tries to escape from being called a colonizer, we have become victims of our own poison. â€Å"Domestic and foreign spaces are closer than we think, and that the dynamics of imperil expansion cast them into jarring proximity. (Kaplan 1)Cesaire, Aime Discourse on Colonialism, 1955 Edition Presence Africaine Chris Crawford and Stephan Hansen, http://bdmhistory. com/research/main. html#two, copyright 2003-2008. Diaz, Junot The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, 2007 Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Kaplan, Amy The Anarchy of Empire In the Making of U. S Culture, 2002 President and Fellows of Harvard College ?Pearson, Tamara, à ¢â‚¬Å"Venezuelan Women Swear to be â€Å"Guardians† of Chavez in?Response to CNN,† VENEZUELANALYSIS. COM, http://venezuelanalysis. com/news/5644 Women in cuba- http://www. cuba-solidarity. org. uk/

How Have Human Activities, some of which may be Conflicting, essays

How Have Human Activities, some of which may be Conflicting, essays There are many reasons why a country would decide to change or manipulate a river. As every country is unique there are rarely occasion where two or more countries have used the same reason to change their river. However the status, possible economic, limits and dictates how many choices the country has. Generally MEDCS have more options and techniques available to change the river, because they are not restrained by large debts. However both MEDCs and LEDCs encounter their own individual problem, which affects the river and its environment. An example of an MEDC river management is the Mississippi River. And in 1993 a large flood in the basin of the Mississippi River caused great economic and environmental problems. Conflict arose as environmental groups said that trying to manage the river only makes it worse and that the damage caused by flooding would not have been so serve had minimal river management occurred. However the groups managing the river said the irregular weather patterns caused the floods. The management of the river started decades ago as America was a NIC it used the river to enhance its economic position as well as attempting to create a better living standards as the soil near the river was very fertile and would encourage agriculture into the area. The river management techniques used by the group was the creation of levees as this in turn raised the river level, and effected the environment it surrounds. The flood meant that waste products in the river were released onto the fertile soil also tow ns created along the river were flooding leaving thousands of people without homes. Therefore urbanisation was another major factor in human activities on the river. The flood itself killed 50 people and caused $10 billion of damage. This flood occurred partially because of human factors including: 1. Channelisation causing problems downstream, 2. Levees causing water to back up, &midd...

Pioneer Women essays

Pioneer Women essays Wyoming liberates Ehrlichs soul from the deadening confines of industrial civilization, and at once provides her with purpose and meaning in her otherwise empty life. She comes because she wants to lose herself in the uninhabited wilderness of Wyoming; she wants to fill the void within her with the boundless land, hoping to ossify a numbness within, so that she will no longer have to think and feel. Instead, she finally feels alive, vulnerable to the lure of the land and nature. The very essence of her being is challenged by the harshness of her new way of life, forcing her to reconsider the core of her own existence and beliefs. Ultimately, it allows her to grow and understand the universal truths about life and what it means to be alive. Ehrlichs life is anchored by the land. The parameters of her life are defined by the land and its predictable indifference steadies her. She comes to understand that A persons life is not a series of dramatic events for which he or she is applauded or exiled but a slow accumulation of days, seasons, years, fleshed out by the generational weight of ones family and anchored by a land-bound sense of place. She discovers a different language, a different code of conversation, and an ethical and moral code which is unsullied by the spurious desires and meretricious greed fueled by conventional society. People share one eye, and although there is vast amounts of space separating people from one another, and although they live the majority of their days in isolation, tending to their individual plots of land, the strength and loyalty of the relationships among these people underscores their community. She writes of the profound silence that characterizes much of the human interacti ons; the few words that are actually uttered are replete with meaning and speak volumes. The wind, the "meticulous gardener, leaves everything raw...

Company directors and managers goal of maximising profits Essay

Company directors and managers goal of maximising profits - Essay Example Company directors’ and managers’ goal of maximising profits Managers and the directors set objectives which they struggle to attain of which the main objectives are earning profit, adding to wealth of shareholders, growth and customer satisfaction etc. Directors, at times, are more concerned with growth of the company and addition to the wealth of the shareholders while meeting the expectations of the shareholders with considerable profits as they are the ones owning the business. The prime responsibility with which the directors are entrusted is to maximize the profits for the shareholders of the company who are the actual owners of the company and to them the directors are accountable to. Since the directors of the company are the representatives of the shareholders and act on behalf of the shareholders, the onus lies on them to keep the interest of the shareholders in mind to the add to the wealth of the shareholders who have invested in the company for the same. The key purpose of the board of directors along with the managers is to make sure the prosperity of the company through jointly handle the affairs of the company, at the same time meeting the suitable welfare of its stakeholders especially the shareholders. Klaus J. Hopt mentioned in his research that â€Å"Being responsible for the going concern of the company the directors hold themselves liable and accountable to the shareholders and aim at maximizing their returns, where the law also directs them the same.†

Accounting-- Annotated Bibliography Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Accounting-- Annotated Bibliography - Essay Example I learned quite a lot from reading this article. Firstly, I grasped the meaning of key terms such as internal restructuring. Secondly, I also learned to show differences between company profits by using tables which can make it easier for readers to follow. This source is an important reference for future researches regarding financial institutions ability to adapt to economic changes. In addition to this, the source can serve as a guide on further exploring the importance of market perception in the profitability of the company. This reading can also provide good model in analyzing the problems of insurance companies. Anver, Versi, ex al. "Africas Top 100 bank African Business Annual Rankings."African Business". Business Source Premier (2008): 2p. Oct2008 The article talks about banking in Africa and outlines information about the top 1000 banks found on the continent. Whilst the total assets of the 1000 banks are estimated to be $856 billion, it can be noted that about 84% of the banking assets are held by the top 30 banks. South Africa has 43% of the continent’s total bank assets. This article is also related to accounting where the author mainly relied on using numbers and statistics to illustrate the structure of banking in Africa. The author also talks about profits in the banking sector which is related to accounting. This article is very enlightening particularly when I am also writing something characterized by figures and statistics. The article is arranged in a nice format where ideas flow in a sequence which is easy to follow. It compares the operations of each bank as well as the profits. In the future, this article can be used in other related studies about banking and provide in-depth reference to what makes a bank successful in the industry. Furthermore,

Evaluate Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Evaluate - Essay Example Evaluation Rationale The justification behind evaluation in human resource development can be attributed to instructional provision of empirical data that would be helpful in improving the outcome of the training program. Most organizations expect a better overall performance but this is attached to individual productivity. This explains the need for individual focused training that is likely to help trainees realize their unique and diverse potentials. There will be three general levels of evaluation and the first one will be perception. In this level, the recruits or employees will be initiated to develop sense of training environment where instructors use different approaches to express ideas (Piskurich, 2003). In this case, much attention will be shifted to level 2 type of evaluation which constitutes learning. This level of evaluation will be executed through administration of written test to find out the content knowledge of the trainees at the end of the program. In regard to biometric voter registration kits applications, this test may equally include practical requirement that trainees show their newly acquired skills in ease of using the kit, successfully assembling and disassembling it. The tests are taken through review by the human resource team to identify the strengths and weak points of each employee for further actions and improvement strategies. The last part and third part which is performance is critical as it will help the trainers and human resource team identify the pitfalls when the trainees have begun to undertake trials with the kit. The five W’s and H of learning as a critical aspect of training in human resource development and for the use of biometric voter registration kit is presented in the table below. Who What when where why how Perception Administered by electoral body Facilitator Measure recruits perception of the training Immediately after training session In the classroom before they leave the training program Determ ine if the recruits/staff were satisfied with the content and / or the instructor Survey Learning Administered by electoral body Facilitator Measure knowledge and skills learned in using the BVR kit Administered at the end of the training program In the classroom and on the job To ensure that recruits/staff have acquired necessary knowledge to use the kits Hands on test In class practice Performance Administered by electoral body HR Development and Training head. Measure of actual transfer of learning of assembling the BVR kit components, using it to successfully register potential electorate and disassemble after use. After the recruits finish a given stage of training On the orientation phase Determine recruits’ ability to understand and use the Biometric voter registration kit. Observation Supervisor assessment Performance checklist Evaluation Tools Level 1 Training Survey Evaluation Scale: Evaluation Scale (1) Superior (2) Excellent (3) Good (4) Fair (5) Poor The content of the module was practical and useful to my contract I will be able to use the knowledge and skills gained through this training program The content of this activity matched announced objectives The delivery method (handouts, videos and demonstration) were appropriate The instructor was