Failure and the Degeneration of America in Fitzgerald’s...

The Great Gatsby is a bold and damning social commentary of America which critiques its degeneration from a nation of infinite hope and opportunity to a place of moral destitution. The novel is set during the Roaring Twenties, an era of outrageous excesses, wild lavish parties and sadly, an era of regret and lost potential. As the audience, they take us on a journey guided and influenced by the moral voice of Nick Carraway, a character who is simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life. Nevertheless, when Carraway rejects the East, returning to the comparatively secure morality of his ancestral West, we realize that gaiety was merely a thin facade, and that behind it†¦show more content†¦All Gatsby wants is to seize the green light in his fingers but light is intangible, and like Gatsbys dream, it will always remain beyond his grasp. Gatsby is trapped in a state of timelessness where his future is an illusory reflection of this past. His unbridled imagination has created a world in which reality is undefined to itself and thus through this wilderness of illusions, Gatsby attempts to realize the possibilities of life. Such was the colossal vitality of Gatsbys illusion that he believed that his social status could recreate the past. Why of course you can, was his automatic response. Yet once the party was over, reality begins to dominate and tragically, Gatsby falls to his demise. Gatsby finds himself in a world material without real and as he looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves... he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass. Confronted by reality, Gatsby realizes how disgusting it really is compared to his world of illusions. Yet while the whole caravansary had fallen in like a card house, Fitzgerald questions the essence of reality and asks us if it is really worth sanctifying. He demonstrates that given the ugliness of Gatsbys surroundings, his dream served a purpose, though it led to utter destruction. Fitzgerald parallels Gatsbys demise with the degenerationShow MoreRelatedAnalytical Essay On The Great Gatsby1048 Words   |  5 PagesThe Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, is hailed as a masterpiece of American fiction. The author, F. Scott Fitzgerald offers up a commentary on the American society of which he was a part. He successfully encapsulates the mood of a generation during a politically and socially crucial and chaotic period of American history. In fact, The Great Gatsby stands as a brilliant piece of English literature, offering a vivid peek into American life in the 1920s. Fitzgerald carefully setsRead MoreANALIZ TEXT INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS28843 Words   |  116 Pagesthe text reveals under close examination. Any literary work is unique. It is created by the author in accordance with his vision and is permeated with his idea of the world. The reader’s interpretation is also highly individual and depends to a great extent on his knowledge and personal experience. That’s why one cannot lay down a fixed â€Å"model† for a piece of critical appreciation. Nevertheless, one can give information and suggestions that may prove helpful. PLOT The Elements of Plot When we

Inside a Totalitarian Regime Key features of Stalinism Essay

Stalin’s rule lasted almost thirty years, from the middle of the 1920’s until his death in 1953. His rule deeply transformed the USSR and destalinization is still not fully achieved today. While Stalinism and Nazism are often compared because they were the two totalitarian regimes of the 20th century, the Stalinist regime lasted for decades while Nazism collapsed after 12 years, thus raising several questions concerning the particular nature of the Stalinist Society. What were the key features of Stalinism, thus differentiating Stalin’s policy from Lenin’s and Marx’s theory? Was Stalinism a logical outcome of the Marxist theory or a betrayal of communism? In this perspective, one must analyze Stalin’s key policies, collectivization,†¦show more content†¦W. Davies 1989, 1036) and the use of the agricultural production to finance the industrial expansion. Despite Bolsheviks encouraging collectivization in the early years of the revolut ion, collective farms had remained anecdotic . Stalin’s arrival to power marked the start of a forced and often violent campaign of collectivization. In agreement with his doctrine of Communism in one country, Stalin aimed at developing a self-sufficient agricultural system based on the Marxist theory of collective property of means of productions. In 1929, kolkhozy (farmers owned cooperative) and sovkhozy (state owned farm employing farm workers) were created. Collectivization was as quick as brutal and symbolized the inefficiency of the Soviet agricultural policy. Indeed, while collective farms quickly became the majority agricultural model , thousands of prosperous peasants, the kulaks, were expropriated, deported and executed: â€Å"More than one million peasant families—five million people, at least – were dekulakized† (Viola 1996, 86). However, despite an increased workforce, the interwar years’ Soviet agricultural production never reached th e prerevolutionary levels. Indeed, in 1937 which was the best interwar harvest, the agricultural production increased by 8.1 percent compared to 1928 while the population increased by 12 percent in the same period (Davies 1989, 1030). Furthermore, the agricultural production was used to fuel the growing industry. Peasants wereShow MoreRelatedThe Rise and Rule of Single-Party States7795 Words   |  32 Pagesand social policies * role of education, the arts, the media, and propaganda * status of women, treatment of minorities, and religious groups * Regional and Global impact * foreign policy as a means of maintaining the regime * impact of regime outside the state * as a factor in the Cold War * Examples of material for Detailed Study * China: Mao Zedong * Cuba: Fidel Castro * Germany: Adolf Hitler * Italy: Benito Mussolini * Russia: Vladimir Lenin andRead MoreOrganisational Theory230255 Words   |  922 Pagesshaped by ideas and concepts. The authors have brought their wealth of experience and understanding and provided the field with an imaginative resource to address the dynamics between theory and practice. Dr Susanne Tietze, Bradford University, UK The key to success for managers is not only to be result oriented but also to be wise in their decision making. This requires that they have a deeper than superficial understanding of management and organization issues. McAuley et al. helps student and managers

Controversial Questions in Phonological Theory

Question: Discuss about the Controversial Questions in Phonological Theory. Answer: Introduction: Being a social animal, human being needed a means of communication through which his interactions within the group moves beyond the basic sound patterns that animals make to communicate with each other. Over the course of human development and the fight to evolve from animal into human beings, somewhere along the way humans acquired the intelligence to formulate and retain a set pattern of sounds that were passed on through the generations and became the basis for the modern languages that we see prevalent today. Language became this means of communication which helped humans in all spheres of life right from keeping them safe to helping mingling with each other. It is a complex system, highly governed by rules (Brown , 2000). A definition of language as defined by Chomsky is: Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation. In 1960s, Noam Chomsky gave a theory on First Language Acquisition which stated that the first language that a person learns is inherently stored in him and is innate to his nature. This involves an inherent knowledge of grammar also which later forms a basis for further language acquisition (Lenneberg, Chomsky Marx, 1967). Views of Noam Chomsky on language acquisition were something of a revolution in a stream of thinking which always believed that language learning is an acquired process and a child learns all the language he knows from the culture and environment in which he grows up. First Language Acquisition The learning of sounds, and words, meanings and constructions by children starting right after their birth (Clark, 2009). A number of theories have been proposed to explain this phenomenon most well-read and accepted of which are Behaviourist theory, Mentalist theory (Innatism). Innatism refers to the theory proposed by Chomsky. Behaviourist theory is a theory of native language learning that is more of a psychological theory stating that imitations, rewards and practice is the process by which infants learn language from human role models (Cooter Reutzel, 2004). E.L.T. Thorndike was the first behaviourist to explore the fact that learning is the process establishing associations with a particular behaviour and the consequences of that behaviour. Second Language Acquisition Second Language Acquisition (SLA) refers to the process of learning a foreign, non-native language by a child after he has learnt his own mother tongue. The process of SLA is fraught with rules and restrictions and is believed to be more difficult than first language acquisition. SLA is a conscious effort made by an individual while FLA happens without much effort (Klein, 1986). Being a conscious learning effort, SLA is influenced by personality as well as the motivation of the learner. There involves a great role of surroundings also to support that learning process and comes as a part of conscious effort on the part of learner as well as his peers. On the other hand, first language acquisition is more rapid, complete, natural and effortless. Non-practice of FLA for an extended period of time might lead to a diminished remembrance of it however it will not be wiped out from the memory completely as opposed to SLA (Hickey R., n.d.). Profuse literature exists on Second Language Acquisition. For instance, Lightbown and Spada wrote How Languages are Learned to demonstrate the research findings and theoretical concepts about SLA (Lightbown, Spada, Ranta, Rand, 1993). Different theories that explain second language acquisition include: Krashens Monitor theory, Cummins second language framework, McLaughlins attention processing model, Automaticity Model, Selinkers Interlanguage theory. The following diagram depicts the second language acquisition process as explained by Krashens Monitor theory. It shows how an adult graduates from an acquired system of language to learned form and finally converts it into uttered form of language. Harris, a well-known US linguist, in 1982 proposed that a majority of language learning happens through structured relation of a word to other word and the social learning also plays a significant role in this (Harris, 1982, 1991). However, his student Chomsky in 1960s abandoned this structuralist approach towards language learning and brought in a new thought process that developed principles and parameters for the learning of grammar. Grammar as well as language development was no longer a learning based emergent system but rather became a rule-governed, top down system. (Gass Mackey, 2013). Chomsky likened language learning to walking. According to him, as a child has all the inherent mechanism required to walk, similar is the case with language which a child has basic mechanism to understand and only requires proper guidance and training to master. To corroborate his theory and to give further proof to the fact that language learning is inherent in an individual, Chomsky gave the concept of Universal Grammar as well as Critical Period Hypothesis. A glimpse of Chomskys views on Universal Grammar is seen in the following quote by him: It's perfectly obvious that there is some genetic factor that distinguishes humans from other animals and that it is language-specific. The theory of that genetic component, whatever it turns out to be, is what is called universal grammar. Universal Grammar Chomsky noted that majority of human beings follow similar patterns while and rules when it comes to grammar. Based on this and the observation that there is a rapid pace of language and grammar learning by humans, Chomsky postulated that language is hard-wired into human brains (Tool Module, n.d.). Universal grammar is an extension of the concept of Language Acquisition Device (LAD) that Chomsky proposed was present in human brain. This is the basic device that stores the universal grammar in itself and helps children learn and excel sentence formations and syntaxes. Universal grammar defines how certain grammatical rules and parameters are same in case of all the languages and new language acquisition thus becomes easier because the governing rules are more or less set and only the specifics of a new language have to be learnt (Chomsky, 1965). The concept of universal grammar is also seen in the following statement made by Chomsky. The most striking aspect of linguistic competence is what we may call the 'creativity of language,' that is, the speaker's ability to produce new sentences, sentences that are immediately UNDERSTOOD by other speakers although they bear no physical resemblance to sentences which are 'familiar. Here, Chomsky explains how even if a language is unfamiliar, due to universality of grammatical rules, it is not too difficult to understand these sentences. Critical Period Hypothesis According to this hypothesis, the first few years of an individuals life are the most essential ones for him to learn a new language and if presented with adequate stimuli, the person can learn the given language very fast. It also states that the level of competence one acquires with a second language often depends upon the time period at which the learning is begun rather than the amount of time spent learning that language. Recent experiments have found that Chomskys theory might have been factual and has truth to it. According to researcher Dr. David Poeppel, their experiments proved crucial aspects of Chomskys theory as unpopular as it might be (Ding, Melloni, Zhang, Tian Poeppel, 2015). As popular as Chomskys theories are, they are equally strongly and widely disputed also. It is difficult to accept that a child at the time of being born has certain concepts and understanding of language inherent in him. In contrast to what Chomsky believed, it is necessary to understand that language is something that a child learns through his surroundings and environment. An Australian child born and brought up in China will be able to speak Chinese more fluently than Australian English even though his genetic makeup is more inclined towards Australian environment. Conclusion Chomsky claimed that the language is an inherent quality in a child and the further learning of language happens based on the innate knowledge (LAD) that the child has of language and its rules. The process of learning language is a process of repetitive learning and reinforcement of certain set parameters and rules through rewarding, punishment and frequent usage. Practice makes one of the most important part of learning anything and the same stands true for language also. Especially in the case of Second Language Acquisition, practice plays a major role in a person learning the language. Language learning theories try to explain the process of both First Language learning as well as Second Language learning. A majority of these theories before Chomsky, believed in the learned nature of language and that language is an experiential effect learnt only after coming in contact with it. However, all these beliefs were challenged by Chomsky who challenged the philosophy followed by his tutor Harris and brought in the concept of parametric nature of language. He called it being hard-wired into human brain just like the knowledge of walking is. Chomsky also gave the concepts of Universal grammar which says that the linguistic grammar in usage across different cultures is fundamentally similar and is pre-coded in human brain in the form of a Language Acquisition Device (LAD). Another concept that Chomsky talked about was the Critical Period Hypothesis which states that the best period to learn any language is in the early childhood and the ease with which a language can be le arned in ones formative years cannot be repeated anytime else. Chomsky might have affected the study and learning of linguistics and created a ripple in the complete system of learning language through his theories but he has had an equal number of dissenters too. The knowledge inherent in a child comes from his genetic makeup and for language there have not been any proven genes affecting it. Also, as mentioned earlier, a greater effect on the language learning is of the environment in which the child is growing rather than the type of language he has been programmed to learn. References Brown, H. D., . (2000). Principles of language learning and teaching. Chomsky, N., Halle, M. (1965). Some controversial questions in phonological theory. Journal of Linguistics, 1(02), 97-138. Clark, E. V. (2009). First language acquisition. Cambridge University Press. Ding, N., Melloni, L., Zhang, H., Tian, X., Poeppel, D. (2016). Cortical tracking of hierarchical linguistic structures in connected speech. Nature Neuroscience, 19(1), 158-164. Gass, S. M., Mackey, A. (2013). The Routledge handbook of second language acquisition. Routledge. Harris, Z. S. (1982). A grammar of English on mathematical principles. John Wiley Sons Inc. Harris, Z. (1991). Theory of language and information: a mathematical approach. Hickey, R. (n.d.) First and second language acquisition: A brief comparison. English Linguistics. Campus Essen. Klein, W. (1986). Second language acquisition. Cambridge University Press. Krashen, S. (1981). Second language acquisition. Second Language Learning, 19-39. Lenneberg, E. H., Chomsky, N., Marx, O. (1967). Biological foundations of language (Vol. 68). New York: Wiley. Lightbown, P. M., Spada, N., Ranta, L., Rand, J. (1993). How languages are learned (Vol. 998). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Reutzel, D. R., Cooter, R. B. (2004). The essentials of teaching children to read: What every teacher needs to know. Prentice Hall. Tool Module: Chomskys universal Grammar (n.d.). Retrieved from https://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/capsules/outil_rouge06.html.

Parmalat Case free essay sample

Something Went Sour at Parmalat Parmalat is a multinational Italian dairy food corporation that today represents one of the biggest fraud scandals that has marked history in Europe. What happened and why weren’t the scandalous activities detected beforehand? Parmalat’s investigation was triggered when it â€Å"defaulted on a $187 million bond payment in mid-November 2002. † This led to further revelation of the nonexistence of $4 billion worth of claimed bank deposits held by a subsidiary in the Cayman Islands in a Bank of America account.The company was basically falsifying accounts in order to increase assets and hide losses. The increase in assets would influence the public to believe that they were in a good position which in turn allowed them to continue borrowing money from investors and creditors. Grant Thornton was the company’s auditor from 1990 to 1999, but that changed when the company was forced to change auditors under Italian law. Grant Thornton remained in charge of auditing services provided to off-shore subsidiaries located in the Cayman Islands. We will write a custom essay sample on Parmalat Case or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Fraud related activities continued to be discovered when the new appointed auditor, Deloitte Touche Spa, received a forged letter that confirmed the existence of the nonexistent account. Further investigation resulted in the company’s filing for bankruptcy protection against the revelation of massive missing or nonexistent funds previously reported by the company. This fraudulent scandal raises concerns on the auditing procedures practiced during these years because they clearly failed to detect the nature of these activities for a long period of time.In this next section I will address the possible errors committed by auditors when investigating Parmalat. An auditor ordinarily takes certain steps when confirming cash balances held on deposits with financial institutions. The correct process should be initiated with an inspection of bank statements obtained directly from the client’s financial institution. Was this achieved? Deloitte definitely requested this confirmation, but requesting a confirmation is not always enough.As auditors, they have the responsibility of not only requesting a confirmation, but they should also follow up on necessary procedures to make sure that this process is accurately completed. Their duty is to be able to have control over this process from beginning to end in order to be able to rely on the evidence requested. Additional steps should have been taken by the auditors when they received the smudged fax copy printed on the Bank of America letterhead. As mentioned before, the evaluation of the evidence obtained is as important as requesting it.The firm did not confirm the forged documents with the bank; for this reason, the evidence remained unreliable and the forgery wasn’t revealed until later. Auditors should have been concerned with knowing where and whom the confirmation letters came from. Was the initial confirmation request mailed directly by Grant Thorton SpA or by Parmalat or was it obtained directly from the bank? Auditors should be aware that confirmations that are sent through fax are much less reliable than confirmations sent by mail. Their duty was to find out if the correct process was altered in any way.Additional concerns have been made in regards to the red flags missed by auditors. First of all, auditors should have been alarmed by the size of the cash account held in the Cayman Islands. Auditors should have remained skeptical about the existence of this account. They should’ve addressed this red flag with questions. Some of these questions might have been: When was this account created? What was the source of the increase in this account and what is the account’s function? Was it typical for Parmalat to have such large sums of cash on deposit in a cash account?Then, why would they continue to borrow money if so much cash was available? De loitte and Touche SpA should have taken additional steps with respect to Grant Thornton’s audit of the Cayman Island subsidiaries. Grant Thornton was no longer the company’s head auditor, but it managed to remain auditing the Cayman Island subsidiaries which actually increased the assets they were in charge off by a big amount. That alone should have been a red flag to auditors in Deloitte and Touche SpA. Fraud had been occurring for numerous years; for this reason, one might be able to wonder if Thornton had any intentions on concealing the fraud.In a typical audit situation, cash is not viewed as a high audit risk area if internal controls are operating effectively. Bank reconciliation is an important internal control; furthermore, a lack of such reconciliation would signal a red flag for potential poor controls. Did Grant Thorton SpA ever send a second confirmation request given the time between the confirmation request and the response? If confirmations are not received on time auditors should be alarmed to perform alternate procedures.