Engineering The palms in Dubai aka 8th wonder of the world Essay

Engineering The palms in Dubai aka 8th wonder of the world - Essay Example The Islands add about 1, 600 km to Dubai’s coastline and have already been termed as the eighth wonder of the world. The three islands facilitate over 100 luxury hotels and a large number of residential and entertainment centers [1]. This report presents an analysis of one of the best engineering marvels, the Palm Islands project. The report will first give a background of the project, including the construction process, and then discuss the challenges faced by the engineering team. The impacts of this mega project on the local environment and the coastal eco system will also be discussed in detail. Table of Contents Abstract 1 Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Reasons for construction of the Palm Islands 4 Construction Process 4 Curving the land 5 Engineering Challenges 6 Environmental Impact 8 Project Result 9 Conclusion 9 References 11 Introduction The UAE is one of the world’s largest and fastest growing economies. This country has witnessed immense investments in the construction industry hence becoming the largest construction market in the GCC [2]. According to Noack [3], the country’s construction industry managed to record a strong development between 2007 and 2009 despite the global financial distress. In 2009, the industry contributed approximately 8% to the country’s GDP. ... An island is made up of piles of lava rising above the water level. Technically, the Palm islands are manmade peninsulas made of sand dredged from the Persian Gulf [4]. Among the three islands, the Palm Deira is the largest and is also the largest artificial island in the world. Construction was commissioned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. The islands were constructed by Jan De Nul and Van Oord, the former being a Belgian company and the latter a Dutch company, with each settlement shaped like a palm tree. Palm Jumeriah was the first island to be constructed. Its construction commenced in June 2001. Also situated on an artificial island in Dubai is the Burj al Arab. This is a luxury hotel standing 280 meters from Jumeriah beach. It is the world’s fourth tallest hotel and has a private curved bridge connecting it to the main land [5]. Reasons for construction of the Palm Islands The Palm Island is unquestionably one of the most ambitious and enterprising ventures to h ave ever been imagined and constructed. The core purpose of the entire construction of the islands was to increase the tourism sector in Dubai. This was to be achieved by providing a tourist destination that stands out from the rest, brimming with world class hotels, upscale amenities and hundreds of miles of beaches all in one unique place [2]. The other objectives of the construction project were to complete reclamation of land and as a result, achieve pioneer status as well as fame. The reclamation would then allow for construction of hotels and housing facilities. This would involve many foreign investors and hence improve Dubai’s international recognition [3]. Construction Process Construction of The Palms began in mid 2001 [5]. The Islands are made of sand

From Cinematic Space To Mental Space

From Cinematic Space To Mental Space Space is an the unlimited three dimensional expanse in which all objects exist or it is the interval of distance and time between two points, objects or events.  [1]   The concept of the term space evolved with time. Initially this term strictly had a geometrical meaning evoking the idea of an empty space which is Euclidean, isotropic, or infinite, basically a mathematical concept.  [2]   Physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicist usually consider it with time to be a part of the boundless four dimensional continuum known as Space-time.  [3]   According to the Wikipedia information, the concept of space has been discussed throughout history. Plato has discussed about this concept of space in one of his treatise Timaeus, where he reflects on what the Greek called: Chora/ Khora (that is space). Aristotle has dealt with space in Book IV, Delta, in the definition of topos which means place. In a discourse on place (Qawl fi al makan) by the eleventh century Arab Polymath Ibn al _Heythum (Alhazan) discusses geometrical conceptions of place as space qua extension. Aristotelian tradition had held that space and time were those categories which facilitated the naming and the classing of the evidence of the senses. On the other hand, the thinker, Descartes was taken to be important in shaping the concept of space and the key to its matured form. According to most historians of the Western thoughts, he has brought an end to the Aristotelian tradition. As the Cartesian logic evolved, space was considered to be absolute. It became dominant containing both the subject and the object. Science and mathematics has defined this concept of space in their own way respectively and later even the philosophers. Some scholars has studied and analyzed the relationship of time and space. The metaphysicist Immanuel Kant defined space and time as elements of systematic framework that humans use to structure their experience. In his Critique of Pure Reason, he said that space is a subjective pure a priori form of intuition. Therefore its existence depends on the human faculties.  [4]   The Kantian space has revived and revised the old notion of space. Here space is relative, a tool of knowledge, and a means of classifying phenomenon, separated from the empirical sphere. It has a transcendental and ungraspable structure.  [5]   According to Henri Lefebvre, the mathematicians, quite contrary to philosophy, has identified space as Non-Euclidean spaces, curved spaces, x-dimensional spaces( even spaces with an infinity of dimensions), spaces of configuration, abstract spaces , spaces defined by deformations or transformation, by the topology and so on.  [6]   Though the mathematicians has defined and constructed the term spaces, classifying in various ways and measured them, what philosophy did as Leonardo da Vinci had said, is that it helped in the formation of the mental thing that is the mental space. According to Isaac Newton space exists independently and permanently even without the presence of any object in it and therefore it is absolute. On the other hand naturalist philosophers thought that space was a collection of relations between objects given by their distance and direction from one another. The 18th century philosopher and theologian George Berkely attempted to refute the visibility of spatial depth in his essay Towards a new theory of vision. Initially time and space was viewed as independent dimensions. Einsteins discoveries showed that due to relativity of motion, our space and time can be mathematically combined into one object space-time. One can freely move in space but not time. In the middle of the 19th century, psychology first began to study the way space is perceived. Psychologists analyzed the perception of space and were concerned about how the recognition of an objects physical appearance or its interactions is perceived. The philosophy of space and time are inspirations to and central aspect of early analytic philosophy. There are questions related to whether time and space exist independently of the mind and each other. From the theory of logic, space has transcended to nature, practice and theories of social life which unfolds in space.  [7]   The modern field of enquiry has the notion that space has acquired the view of mental thing or mental space. This concept of mental space has no generalization and even no clear account. We hear of different spaces like literary space, ideological spaces, the space of the dream, psychoanalytic topologies etc. Michel Foucault said that knowledge (savoir) is also the space in which the subject may take up a position and speak of the object with which he deals with in his discourse.  [8]   But he neither explained the spaces nor defined their distinctions. The linguist Naom Chomsky has given the idea that a mental space has certain specific properties with orientations and symmetries but completely ignores the gap between linguistic mental space and social space. Lefebvre believed that the modern thinkers had fetishized the philosophico-epistemological notion of space and that the mental realm envelopes the social and physical ones. The quasi-logical presupposition of an identity between mental space (the space of the philosopher and epistemologists) and the real space creates a gulf between the mental sphere on one side and the physical and social spheres on the other. He said that there cannot be a fixed knowledge of space and without it we transfer to a level of discourse-the level of mental space a large portion of the attributes and properties of what is actually social space. Between the sixteenth and nineteenth century, he said that space was not only read but there existed a code which is architectural, urbanistic and political, with a specific language which is common to all strata of people. He said that anything like leisure, work, play, transportation etc., can be spoken of in the spatial terms in an artists or writers world. Therefore there is an indefinite multitude of space around us. He questions whether space can be nothing more than the passive locus of social relations. In general he talks about three kinds of spaces: 1. The physical space nature, the cosmos. 2. The mental space with its logical and formal abstractions. 3. The social space. What he is concerned with is the logico-epistemological space, the space of social practice, the space occupied by sensory phenomenon, including products of imagination such as projects and projections, symbols and utopias.  [9]   There are certain specializations of space. When we think of a space, we are immediately concerned with what occupies the space and how it does so along with the energy present within the space. Without energy, the physical space has no reality. This space is always associated with time. space considered in isolation is an empty abstraction.  [10]   According to Fred Hoyles theory, space is a product of energy. Henri says that multiplicity of particular spaces, yet diverse are offered by this universe. Apart from the concept of physical space, mental space and social space, he dealt with the minute elements in space like ideal space related to mental space and real space associated with social space These two spaces are in a way related to each other. He said that philosophy has played an important role in the development of the abstract (metaphysical) representations of space, where the Cartesian notion of space became significant due to its homogeneous, isotropic character which helped it to become absolute and infinite and divine. But space is even beyond this. Plato talks about the cosmic space, where the space of the city is a reflection of the Cosmos. Literature too reveals different spaces to us. But the problem is that the space here is enclosed, described, projected, dreamt off and speculated about. When we talk of a particular space, we distinguish it and not isolate it. Various kinds of space comes together to produce a space. In relation of language, Henri questions whether a language follows or accompanies a social space. Many people have explored space in different ways. In his work, George Bastille has played with the space on inner experience on one hand and the space of physical nature on the other and social space. Through Hegelian viewpoint, space is considered to be a product and residue of historical time. Though Hegel had the idea of a concrete universe. Social space is a social product and when produced serves as a tool for thought and action. As said by many thinkers, it is difficult to distinguish social space as distinct from mental space and even physical space. Every society produces a space of its own. The Asiatic mode of production of space is different from the Western mode. There are multitudes of intersection in space. The way certain spaces are represented by the society, lead to the representations of space. Representational spaces on the other hand deals with spaces associated with its images and symbols. These spaces represent something of their own. It overlay the physical space, making symbolic use of its objects. Even though they are abstract, the representations of space, has a role in social and political practice. They have a role to play in the established relations between objects and people, following certain rules. This is not the case of representational spaces. It is filled with symbolic and imaginary elements. According to Henri Lefebvre, a psychoanalyst or anthropologists are students of representational spaces. Childhood memories, dreams are all part of this representational space. The gap between representations of space and representational spaces is culture. Therefore what can be concluded is that the producers of space are related to the representations of space while the users of a space are related to their representational space. Here I conclude that space with its original and represented identity occupies a part of our physical and mental self and even helps in the identification of these self. Each physical space creates a mental space, a space with certain intimate values. A house can be used for the phenomenological study of the intimate values of space.  [11]  All inhabited space bears the essence of the notion of home. Thoughts and experience is not the only thing that sanctions human values. We will deal more with this later in the thesis. After dealing with the basic idea of space with the help of the views and ideas of Henri Lefebvre, I want to connect this idea of the concept of space in dealing with the cinematic space. Cinematic space is the represented space, selected, manipulated and projected as a finite field of vision.  [12]  As Henri Lefebvre has said that it depends on the producers of space. This space is what we see on the screen. This screen space is marked by a frame which acts like the borders in a painting. It is geometric and represents the space that we see on the screen. In this way it divides the screen space into onscreen and off-screen spaces. The frame acts as a window connecting u to the film space and on the other hand separating the space we inhabit from the film space.  [13]  We the spectators look through the frame. According to Gilles Deleuse, the cinematic frame is a relatively closed system Which includes everything which is present in the image ­- sets characters and props framing  [14]  . The frame acts as a system providing us with all the information regarding the image and all these information acts like a data which are known as the elements in the frame. Therefore the frame is inseparable from two tendencies towards saturation or towards rarefaction.  [15]   This image that the frame provides is not just to be seen, it is a message, and it gives us certain information, which are produced by the elements present in the frame (these elements are also some information}. This is how the space produces its own language. He said that the frame is a spatial composition of parallels and diagonals, helping to form equilibrium. the frame is conceived as a dynamic construction in act, which is closely linked to the scene, the image, the characters and the objects which fill it.  [16]   The frame cannot be separated from its rigid geometrical boundaries. It has certain limitations. Like many Western painters this has been explored by many film makers like Griffith, Eisenstein. Deleuze said that light too is a subject of geometrical optic, when it is divided into two parts forming light and shadow.  [17]   They help in the making of this space. The presence of objects inside the frame creates secondary and tertiary frames like for example the house, doors, windows, mirror and even a fence. Therefore a frame is never fixed. A gradual progression takes place which is physical and affects the viewers psychologically. Each object inside the frame has something to say, something to express and therefore have a meaning. Here geometrical divisions in the frame becomes insignificant. The framing angle is also an important characteristic of the frame. Deleuze said the frame is related to an angle of framing. This is because the closed set is itself an optical system which refers to a point of view on the set of parts. Of course the point of view can be or appear to be bizarre or paradoxical: the cinema shows extraordinary points of view at ground level or from high or low, from low to high, etc. but they seem to be subject to a pragmatic rule which is not just valid for the narrative cinema: to avoid falling into an empty aestheticism they must be explained ,they must be revealed as normal and regular either from the point of view of a more comprehensive set which includes the first, or from the point of view of an initially unseen, not given element of the first set. give an example if It is here that the frame becomes an optical system, logically justified. But this justification does not always work. In the conclusion of his essay, Deleuze says that the frame finally determines an out-of-field, in the outline of a larger set which extends it or in the figure of the whole into which it is incorporated.  [18]   In the book Republic, Plato talks about two modes of representation which are distinct and opposed to each other. These two modes are mimesis (imitation) and diegesis (narration). Theatre is related to imitation which shows us something whereas novel tells us a story. Cinema on the other hand incorporates both these characteristics.  [19]   In its early years, cinema followed the theatrical mode of representation. Here the frame is tableaux form, static and faces the audience. Therefore the cinema much influenced by the theatrical stage. The camera is static. The character enters the stage, performs and walks out. The camera does not follow the movement of the characters. Hence just fixed in the centre. Traditional theatrical space is an architectural product, where beyond the proscenium it does not exist for the viewers. Classical narrative cinema has transformed this space into an illusorily continuous cinematic space. The cinematic film space is a figurative construction, resulting from medium specific techniques such as framing, camera movement and editing.  [20]  This space is linked to the codes of renaissance perspective, where the property of centering addresses to the subject whose position the space determines. Classical Hollywood cinema gave lot of importance to the use of space. This graphic space of the image, that we see on-screen acts as the vehicle for the narrative development.  [21]  These films created an illusion of reality where the screen became just a transparent object and the frame became invisible. A powerful three dimensional space is represented through the use of lens, lighting, camera movement and angles and other techniques. The space became as important as the narrative structure. So, what is the basic function of the frame? The frame shows us the image and creates an illusion of reality. We already know that the Classical Hollywood films were highly inspired by visual art and as art has evolved, cinema has also evolved gradually taking inspiration from it. Film studio developed, taking inspiration from the workroom of artists and painters. There is a lot of similarity between classical Hollywood cinema and classical novels. Their style is influenced by the post Renaissance painting. Along with centering, the main aspect of this style is balancing, frontality and depth. Here, in the composition of the image, the subject or the character is always in the centre, with all the attentions, in focus. With the coming of the Renaissance period, human thoughts became anthropocentric. It is no more centered on the religion, god. The importance of man as an individual identity instead turned out to be the thought of the period. There was a highlight on the facial expressions and the human body became the centre of attraction other than the narrative. Like in the paintings, a balance is always maintained in the visual composition of the film. The characters are evenly distributed in the film space. Both these technique helps in the progress of the narration. The use of frontality is an influence of the Greek and Roman theatre. Through this technique the narrative action is addressed to the viewers. The depth is established through the use of lighting mainly 3 point lighting (the key, fill back lighting and etc.) and costumes. Sometimes the set is painted in different colour to create the various depths. I think the use of sound to produce an illusion of depth came much later. By the establishment of depth, the film s tries to portray a perspective which is more or less linear, influenced by the ancient Greek Perspective, where the vision is organized around the static monocular observer, and in his vision all the parallel lines recede in the vanishing point. In this way, a personalized space is achieved, trying to conceal the flatness of the film space. The emergence of this classical narrative logic gives rise to cinematic subjectivity and the isolation of the spectator.  [22]   Classical Hollywood cinema places the spectator in an ideal position of intelligibility.  [23]   A film uses onscreen and off screen space to produce the diegetic world. Cinematic off screen space is different from the theatrical off stage space. The off screen film space has a pro filmic reference. The early films of Lumiere a Melies, had camera pointed at the action and remained static for the duration of the action. The early films acknowledged the space outside the frame, for example the workers leaving the Lumiere factory 1895, showed the people moving through the frame and off the edge. The most important element of the film frame is mise-en-scene, a theatrical term. Both are depended on each other. It means everything which is put into the scene, or what we find in the film space. The frame along with the set design, camera and character movement, lighting and even sound, everything combined together form the mise-en-scene. And this mise-en-scene helps in the formation of the composition. Mise-en-scene can be defined as the articulation of the cinematic space, and it is only concerned about the space.  [24]   On the film set it creates an illusion of the reality or fantasy. The setting of the film is an important aspect of the mise-e-scene. It includes the shapes, designs and color of the film set. Colour also helps in the development of the narrative. It is used as a symbol. A set can be artificially constructed for an indoor shot or manipulated in the outdoor shot. Apart from the design and colour, props play an important role, in the development of the narrative. In the absence of the actors, they even tell a story and which are not possible in a theatre. They express certain mood, and say what is unsaid by the film narrative. the elements of the setting turns into motifs  [25]   Along with the props and costumes, the make up of the actors also furnishes the setting of the narrative. The props and costumes are also used for the film publicity, and they even help to turn certain characters into cult figures. Lighting is another aspect of the mise-en-scene, other than creating the illusion of reality, artificially producing light for an indoor shoot or day for night shoot, light along with colour and sometimes the prop creates the mood of his film. In the shot composition light and shadow works together. It helps in the development of the film space, sometimes maintaining continuity when camera movement takes place within a space. And at other times, different lighting helps to distinguish various spaces used in the film. I must say here that along with lighting sound also plays the same role. Light, colour and sound combined or individually can create suspense, horror, happiness and even loneliness. Light creates texture.Four major features of film lighting can be isolated are: its quality, direction source and colour. Light quality depending on its intensity creates a sharp or a soft image by diffusion. With the use of hard light the shadow becomes bold creating definite contours. Light along with the lens and camera angle can be used to manipulate the shape of an object to enhance a mood. the proper use of light can embellish and dramatize every object -Josef von Sternberg. As earlier film makers used the frontality of the characters to highlight their presence, to give them a central position, similarly light is used to keep certain character at the centre of attention. This technique is also used in theatre. The direction of light in the film space, creates the presence of an off screen space. This idea also developed from the influence of paintings from the Renaissance period. Every light has a point where it is brightest and a point towards which it wanders to lose itself completely.The journey of rays from that central core to the outposts of blackness is the adventure and drama of light.   [26]   Depending on the narrative, the film space is generally lit up by top lighting, backlighting, side lighting, and frontal lighting and under lighting. Backlighting creates a dreamy; fantasy image similarly under lighting is used to create a horror image. Different sources of light works together in the cinematic space to create the mental space of the spectators. Generally during a shoot three point lighting is used with key light (primary), fill light (secondary, softens the shadow) and backlight which highlights the character and separates it from the background thus creating depth. We have already discussed earlier how this method of lighting is use in Classical Hollywood cinema. Along with the direction, the source of the light on the film space creates an impact. For out door shoot during the day, we get the sun light, the sky light and the reflected light from the objects around. The lighting is natural and therefore the look is also natural. This light can be manipulated to give a bluish tone with the use of 85 filter and the light can be further controlled with the use of neutral density filters to avoid over or under exposure of the film. In the case of indoor shooting, it is obvious that artificial light is to be used even to give the reference of a natural source of light. Light is continuously measured and blended to create the ci nematic space. Here I want to say that though the basic reason for the use of lighting in a cinematic space is similar to theatrical space but the technique is different. This is because lighting in the theatrical space is more loud and dramatic whereas in the film space it is subtle. From all the information that I have acquired and the knowledge that I have gained, I therefore say that light is a language through which we can also tell a story. Its use is dynamic and is very important in the cinematic space. Only through light, we can see the film space. Mise-en-scene helps the character to express feelings and thoughts. The movement of the actors, their action, everything gets enhanced by the presence of the mise-en scene. Even acting in the cinematic space is different from the theatre. Cinematic space creates an illusion, where the screen frame acts as the window but the actors never stairs at the window; they do not stare back at the audience, unless and until it is required by the film narrative. So through the presence of the actors, the way they move, talk, behave provides the film with an illusory realistic space. When we take a shot, the space in front of the camera is two dimensional when we take the shot, it remains the same but when the film is projected, and we see it on the screen, we see a three dimensional space and this space is enhanced through certain aspects of the mise-en-scene like colour, balance, size and movement. In a static set the movement of certain objects draws the attention. Colour can enhance certain mood. We know that it is used as a symbol. It can refer to different time space or change of space. The balance in placing the figure is also important. It determines the attention of the viewers. Size work in relation to the movement, colour and balance. The size of the objects creates the illusion of depth, where the objects in the foreground are generally larger in size and the objects in the background are small. The closer the object, it is more in focus. The depth creates a volume in the space. A different plane of the shot gets established due to the use of depth wh ich creates the illusion of space. A film suggests volume by the use of movement, shape and shading.  [27]   Mise-en-scene can control not only what we look at also when we look at it.  [28]   It creates a sense of movement in time. Mise-en-scene helps to compose the film shot in space and time. Inside the film space, therefore it is the mise-en-scene which creates the cinematic space using both the onscreen and off-screen space and it is this cinematic space which creates the illusion of a real world or a fantasy world. The film narrative does not work with space alone but space and time. Time is ever changing and space also keeps evolving. Leaving aside, all the scientific reasons for the evolution of space, what I think that a space evolves with time only with the intervention of a man. It evolves in the imagination of the man. The cinematic space is an example of this space. Other than cinema this space can also be created through literature, music, dance, painting and even food. We prefer more of this cinematic space other than where we belong to, because it incorporates our likes and dislikes, keeping in mind that it is our own creation. In dealing with the space and time in a film, it is necessary to study their unity within a shot and between two shots. It is not possible to visualize time on a screen without any action or movement in the space. Movement in reality is continuous but movement on the screen is discontinuous and is achieved very quickly by a series of still photographs.  [29]   In a film the dimensions of space and time cam be manipulated and this has become easier with the digital techniques. Slow or fast motion is used by changing the film speed. This manipulated space is artificial. From the early years of human civilization, paintings, sculptures have evolved as a language. A visual language, which can preserve itself. It creates its own memory. With the coming of industrialization and modernity, photography became more popular. Its basic function or utility is to freeze a moment, capture it and create a memory. Cinema moves a step ahead. It not only captures a specific a moment, but a period of time  [30]   It is som

Comparing Marting Luther King Jr. and Henry David Thoreau Essay

Comparing Marting Luther King Jr. and Henry David Thoreau Martin Luther King Jr. and Henry David Thoreau were both people who were sent to prison for defying laws that they believed were unjust towards society. These two men were very different people but were very much the same. Each had his own theories and reasoning behind their acts, but their goals were always the same. Each man believed in standing up in what they believed in no matter what the repercussions. In Martin Luther King's letter he says and believes that everyone, no matter where they live are together in one community. You can't say that what ever happens in Atlanta does not affect you in Birmingham. If there is an injustice in Atlanta it affects you in Birmingham and is a threat everywhere no matter who you are. If you live in the U.S. you are never considered an outsider. King also believes that no one is weak and unimportant and that everyone has a role in the community. No matter how small of a job he has, if he doesn't perform his obligations the community c...

Duck, Duck, God Essay

The premise of the â€Å"Duck Dynasty† reality program is duck, duck, God. The Christian based series revolves around the Robertson family and their duck- call business. The series is entertaining and honestly meets my Christian ethics better than any other show on television. First on the agenda is the introduction to the Duck Commander crew then the connection between my values and the Robertson families’ ethics concerning prayer, respect, and family unity. Phil Robertson invented and perfected the world-famous product throughout a thirty-year period. Phil and Miss Kay are the parents of four sons two of which have served in Christian Ministry professionally God-fearing and family-oriented is the best way to describe the crew. Truly, God has blessed the loving family in a million ways. The television show did influence my view of what family is; therefore, this prompted me to investigate the redneck family. â€Å"Duck Dynasty† is clean family entertainment. The Robertson’s boldly express their Christian conviction both on and off camera according to The Christian Chronicle (Ross Jr.2012.) The Ten Commandments are used as a rulebook at the Duck Commander. The small family ran business is a wildly successful. The glory of the Duck Commander is given to the Lord. The strong Christian credence took hold of the bunch as they witnessed the amazing change in their father’s life. Phil Robertson, was a drunken dummy lost in a world of hurt until the age of twenty-eight. The family’s life totally shifted to a great extreme documented in The Christian Chronicle (Ross Jr. 2012) when he accepted Jesus Christ into his heart. God took Phil from dummy to dynasty. The family believes and therefore, receives all that God has to offer. The show focuses on prayer, respect, and family unity. My Christian values alien with those of the Commander crew. The actions and words of the bearded boys uncover their deeply faithful souls. Hey Jack, hey, it is a fact; prayer is where it is at. Each episode ends with the family sitting around the dinner table, heads lowered in reverence, as the head of the household sends words of praise to the Lord in prayer. The Christian Chronicle stated the words ending the prayers in ‘Jesus’ name we pray ends up on the cutting-room floor every program (Ross Jr.2012.) The same practice is one traditionally taught in my own home. Call upon the Lord at any time in prayer and he will continually be there. Goodness, respecting God, others, and one’s self is a solitary action vitally associated with Christian values. The series unfolds the importance of respect among the Robertson group. The program displays respect toward elders equally when ideas and opinions differ. The thoughts of Uncle Si often differ from the main stream; however, the family always treats him with an adoring esteem. Respect is infectious; thus, respecting the Lord demands the respect of others. The men indicate a pronounced level of admiration toward the women continuously. Robertson children clearly display a pronounced level of respect toward their parents. â€Å"Duck Dynasty† accurately connects with my Christian mindset. The combination of prayer, respect, and family unity fostered by faith is the law behind the Duck Commanders family. The bunch works, plays, and prays together. The importance of family love is soaked into the spirit of each individual. The series reflects the family values of the duck crew. Family unity binds the souls of both natural and adopted members. The platform reveals the genuine relationships. Willie and Korie added to their family both through adoption and through fostering children, I agree Christian’s are responsible for delivering devoted guidance for all children in need, I believe we all should be united as a family in the good Christian fight. Redneck, Christian entertainment is enlightening and fun for everyone. The â€Å"Duck Dynasty† series closely aligns with my own Christian beliefs concerning prayer, respect, and family unity. The reality is the Robertson family is deeply devoted to the Christian faith; however, much of the religious zeal is not presented on the platform; because of, Hollywood’s unethical choices. Duck, duck, God the weekly episode is a breath of fresh-air. The hairy, hunting clan is devoted to their Christian position both on television and through guest evangelic speaking. â€Å"Duck Dynasty† is not associated with a Christian platform taking a profound stand for Christ. My values connect directly with those of the Robertson family. As a Christian, I intensely appreciate their courageous, unusual, stand. References Ross Jr., B. (2012, November). Faith, family, and ducks: Behind the scenes of â€Å"Duck Dynasty†. The Christian Chronicle.

Identity struggle †The narrow and broad path in James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain Essay

James Baldwin’s life was deeply marked by an identity struggle. A struggle to find out what it meant to be an American and foremost what it meant to be an Afro American. Like in other works he also deals with this topic in his first novel Go Tell It on the Mountain, where John Grimes confronts this problem on his fourteenth birthday. The following paper will therefore take a look at the possibilities offered to the Afro American characters in the story, especially to John, and what role the church plays in this context. Moreover it will outline John Grimes situation between a religious up-bringing in poverty and the longing for a better financial life by adopting white ways. Finally it will try to elaborate on the basis of two key scenes whether John’s decision is based on faith or hopelessness. II. Imposed roles – Afro Americans in a dominantly white society From the very beginning of the novel the possibilities of Afro Americans in American society are depicted as very remote, especially in John Grimes’ case: â€Å"Everyone had always said that John would be a preacher when he grew up, just like his father.† . His entire life and all the people in it are set in a religious environment, blocking out any kind of secular influence. As a matter of fact no other future option for him is ever mentioned in the novel. At some point though his teachers notice that he is very intelligent: â€Å"You’re a very bright boy, John Grimes [†¦] Keep up the good work.† .His parents don’t seem to be aware of this or don’t consider this to be of importance for his future perspectives. This hopelessness can be traced throughout each character’s life in the novel. Those who do not accept their role imposed to them by society tend to fail in life. For example Aunt Florence who sets out North in order to achieve a higher living standard, but ends up alone after driving her husband away from her due to her ambition to gain a higher social standard. Further, John’s real father Richard is crushed by the injustice against black men in a dominantly white society and consequently commits suicide. Hence, John and the following generations are taught to accept the circumstances and their status in American society. In order to cope with this they are advised to lead a highly religious life and to shut out all secular elements. It is this aspect that Baldwin criticizes mostly. He blames the black people for accepting the myth of being inferior to white people without a struggle . Moreover he accuses them of copying white ways and replacing their own African traditions . Aunt Florence even takes a step further in the novel by trying to bleach her skin with beauty products, hereby rejecting her black skin and thus her heritage. At the same time he blames the Anglo-American society for depriving black people of all freedom and power to direct their own lives . This identity struggle is clearly visible in John’s case and will be discussed in detail in chapter three. 2.1. Black church as a helpful companion or a mere distraction from reality? Since the current story evolving around John primarily takes place in a church and deals with his conversion it is important to take a closer look at the role of Black Christianity and the Black Church. The Temple of the Fire Baptized, family Grimes’ church, is presented to the reader as a place of redemption and as a shelter from all the sin in the world. John is confronted with this supposedly sin on his way to church every Sunday in the form of men and women coming home from bars and cat houses . The constant threats of damnation and hell itself, which Macebuh states as being part of the Black Christianity, also appear throughout the entire novel. Due to the permanent warnings of temptations and sin by his parents and the church community, John lives in abiding fear of God’s wrath, even in harmless places such as the movies: He waited for the darkness to be shattered by the light of the second coming, for the ceiling to crack upward, revealing, for every eye to see, the chariots of fire on which descended a wrathful God and all the host of Heaven. In return for refuge and brotherhood, the members are curtailed freedom and have to renounce all worldly pleasures. Especially this aspect of religion is irreproducible for John and even more for Roy, who openly criticizes his father for forcing them to obey: Yeah [†¦] we don’t know how lucky we is to have a father what don’t want you to go to movies, and don’t want you to play in the streets, and don’t want you to have no friends, and he don’t want this and he don’t want that, and he don’t want you to do nothing. We so lucky to have a father who just wants us to go to church and read the Bible [†¦]. In the novel the church primarily seems to be a place of comfort for those in sorrow, such as Aunt Florence. She remembers having gone to church only once since she moved to the North and her visit to the Temple of the Fire Baptized now is due to her cancer and fear of death. So it seems that people rather turn to God out of despair than out of strong belief. This assumption is also enforced by an ironic observation the narrator makes concerning the character’s habits of church going: Tarry service officially began at eight, but it could begin at any time, whenever the Lord moved one of the saints to enter the church and pray. It was seldom, however, that anyone arrived before eight thirty, the Spirit of the Lord being sufficiently tolerant to allow the saints time to do their Saturday-night shopping, clean their houses, and put their children to bed. Especially the younger people do not seem to go to church voluntarily to help out, leaving John usually alone to clean up the Temple, unless Elisha shows up to give him a hand: â€Å"Lord, Sister McCandless,† he said, â€Å"look like it ain’t never but us two. I don’t know what the other young folks does on Saturday nights, but they don’t come nowhere near here.† . Ironically, while Elisha says this, John thinks to himself that not even Elisha shows up frequently on Saturdays. All these passages show that the so called â€Å"saints† in the novel do not go to church out of religious reasons but because they are desperate and consider the church as a â€Å"rallying point around which they sought to lessen their pain by sharing in one another’s joys and suffering† as Macebuh puts it . Peter Bruck interprets this similarly. He sees the Negro Church as the only available social space for the black society in history. But still this social field of activity does not help to change the inhuman conditions each character suffers and the prayers also do not improve their psychological and social circumstance . In this context, particularly in chapter two, â€Å"The Prayers of the Saints†, the reader gets an idea of what the prayer of each member consists. During mass all of them reflect on their past and recall their sins, but they do not pray out of their love for God but out of fear that He might make them suffer his wrath, since He is not the â€Å"compassionate God of the New Testament† . Colin MacInnes goes even further in his essay by referring to religion as â€Å"a fierce and constant compulsion that never abandons them [the characters] a second† . Bone states that religion means refuge from the terrors of everyday life and God therefore represents safety: â€Å"God and safety became synonymous, and the church, a part of his survival strategy†. However, the price for this safety is renouncement of personal power of one’s sex and social power of one’s people . Overall Bone reckons that the church offers either the path of self-hatred or the path of self-acceptance, with Christ as a kind of spiritual bleaching cream. In this structure the Negro masses function as a ritual enactment of their dai ly pain . Edward Margolies depicts the Negro Church as a â€Å"kind of community newspaper† which links the new immigrants to their Southern past and functions as an output for their rage, terror and frustrations . In addition to all the authors here mentioned, Margolies expands the church’s functions upon the field of masculine identity. The church exemplifies by means of the wrathful Old Testament God a masculine role model many Negro adolescences lack in their family environment . This can also be applied to John’s case. Rejected by his father, or as the reader knows, his stepfather, he feels unloved and ugly. On the one hand he despises God, since he sees his father as God’s minister . On the other hand though, he longs to be saved and become God’s son, who would then protect him: Then he would no longer be the son of his father, but the son of his Heavenly Father, the King. Then he need no longer fear his father, for he could take, as it were, their quarrel over his father’s head to Heaven – to the Father who loved him, who had come down in the flesh to die for him. This passage clearly shows that the church provides John with some kind of psychic compensation for the love his father deprives him of and that he sees in God an ally against his father. This would become redundant if he were to find out that Gabriel is not his real father and that he has also sinned in his past life, namely in the form of his unclaimed firstborn son with Esther . As for Elisha, who also tries to bring him closer to God, John sees in him a brotherly and fatherly figure he looks up to, but he also feels attracted to him in sexual ways. Elisha somehow represents the earthly protection and guidance John needs in order to find his identity. He is also the one who shows him another side of God and religion. Instead of the wrathful God his father preaches him, Elisha speaks of a caring and blessing one who protects and saves . In general, the church is depicted as a kind of sanctuary for the characters, just as it was for James Baldwin himself. The black Church offered him in a similar way shelter and refuge from the terrors of the streets . Overall, true belief is disregarded in contrast to safety which now stands for Christianity. III. In search of identity: Between secularization and clericalization Given the background so far John Grimes is trapped between the clerical life his parents force unto him and the secular life that awaits him outside his home on the streets. The title of the novel, the first line of a Negro spiritual, refers to the good news of Jesus Christ’s existence. Additionally, the first chapter that introduces the reader to the characters is called â€Å"The seventh day†, a clear reference to the creation story of Genesis . Both function as allusions to biblical constructions. In a figurative sense, John’s fourteenth birthday can therefore be seen as a creative process, which marks his finding of self-identity, as well in religious terms as in worldly or sexual terms. The following chapters will take a closer look at two passages where John faces different paths concerning his identity, one characterized by a more material and white world and another leading to a strictly religious life. 3.1. John’s getaway to Manhattan – Denial of his black heritage? On his fourteenth birthday John uses the money his mother gives him to buy a metro card and drive down to Manhattan. As mentioned before John feels attracted to the shining and sparkling world of white men and is not so â€Å"much interested in his people† . He cares more about what the white people think of him and feels very proud when they notice his intelligence in school . This intelligence symbolizes for him a special power the others do not possess and which he hopes will bring him the love he lacks: â€Å"Perhaps, with this power he might one day win that love which he so longed for.† . For John the white world represents power and success . Thus, once he arrives at Central Park and reaches the top of the hill, he feels as if he could counter the entire city: He did not know why, but there arose in him an exultation and a sense of power, and he ran up the hill like an engine, or a madman, willing to throw himself headlong into the city that glowed before him [†¦] Then he, John, felt like a giant who might crumble this city with his anger; he felt like a tyrant who might crush this city beneath his heel; he felt like a long-awaited conqueror at whose feet flowers would be strewn [†¦] He would be, of all, the mightiest, the most beloved, the Lord’s anointed, and he would live in this shining city which his ancestors had seen with longing from far away. There alone on the top of the hill he dreams of being part of the city and belonging to the upper white class, which would accept him unconditionally. But as soon as he recalls the people’s reactions to him he is pulled back into reality: â€Å"He remembered the people he had seen in the city, whose eyes held no love for him [†¦] and how when they passed they did not see him, or, if they saw him, they smirked.† . Despite these incidents John still feels as part of the white social stratum due to his intelligence, but reality looks quite different and resembles more his parents’, especially his father’s warnings of the city and white men in general. As he walks along Central Park he keeps imagining what it would be like living in such an environment and being wealthy. The absence of God in this society is not a drawback for John, since he sees that the way of life according to the Lord has not really helped his parents with their everyday struggles: In the narrow way, the way of the cross, there awaited him only humiliation forever; there awaited him, one day, a house like his father’s house, and a church like his father’s, and a job like his father’s, where he would grow old and black with hunger and toil. The way of the cross had given him a belly filled with wind and had bent his mother’s back; they had never worn fine clothes, but here, where the buildings contested God’s power and where the men and women did not fear God, here he might eat and drink to his heart’s content and clothe his body with wondrous fabrics [†¦]. Despite the fact that he knows that â€Å"their thoughts were not of God, and their way was not God’s way† , he cannot believe how the white society, being so beautiful and gracious, could end up in hell. He himself had been witness of their capacity to do good when he was sick and one of his teachers had brought him medicine. Although John does not really know yet who he is and where he belongs, at this point he does know that he never wants to end up like his father. Due to his young age and inexperience it is more likely that he feels attracted to the white society on the grounds of a wealthier future it seems to offer and not because he tries to deny his black heritage. His aversion to black people derives basically from the fact that his entire Negro environment characterizes itself by poverty and does not offer him a successful, strong or caring male role model. On the contrary, John’s self-hatred and accusation are a result of his father’s treatment. Hence, he tries to find an explanation for his father’s rejection in his own shortcomings, such as his desire to leave the ghetto or his intelligence which singles him out . Gabriel’s ongoing criticism of John’s outward appearance leads to insecurity and self-doubt: His father had always said that his face was the face of Satan – and was there not something – in the lift of the eyebrow, in the way his rough hair formed a V on his brow – that bore witness to his father’s words? In the eye there was a light that was not the light of Heaven, and the mouth trembled, lustful and lewd, to drink deep of the wines of Hell [†¦] two great eyes, and a broad, low forehead, and the triangle of his nose, and his enormous mouth, and the barely perceptible cleft in his chin, which was, his father said, the mark of the devil’s little finger [†¦] he most passionately desired to know: whether his face was ugly or not. By contrast, the white society stands for success and seems to offer him all the possibilities his father deprives him of. Most of all John associates access to knowledge with white people. Next to the incident at school, which was mentioned earlier on page three, John feels both attracted and frightened by the Public Library on 42nd Street. He believes books to be part of high culture and thus a white privilege. Scared he stands in front of the building not knowing how people would react to him if he dared to go inside: He loved this street, not for the people or the shops but for the stone lions that guarded the great main building of the Public Library, a building filled with books and unimaginably vast, and which he had never yet dared to enter [†¦] But he had never gone in because the building was so big that it must be full of corridors and marble steps, in the maze of which he would be lost and never find the book he wanted. And then everyone, all the white people inside, would know that he was not used to great buildings, or to many books, and they would look at him with pity. This passage also shows that even though the big city fascinates John, it also seems to him as a kind of maze that terrifies him and brings back his father’s words of warning. Despite all these admonitions and the fact that John is aware of the Negro treatment and history in the United States , he believes that his knowledge is the key to white acceptance. His getaway to Manhattan also leads him to Broadway, which he automatically associates with the broad path to Hell and damnation: â€Å"Broadway: the way that led to death was broad, and many could be found thereon [†¦]† . Still he immediately dismisses this image and decides to see a movie on Sixth Avenue, where once again he is plagued by thoughts of God punishing him for this supposedly sin . Inspired by the main character of the movie, whom he admires for her strength and independency, John tries to figure out whether there is a third path in life: â€Å"John thought of Hell, of his soul’s redemption, and the struggle to find a compromise between the way that led to life everlasting and the way that ended in the pit. But there was none [†¦]† .   This trip to Manhattan signifies for John an escape from his father’s religious world and one step closer to the life he wishes to lead, one that is characterized by financial security and social status independent of his skin color. As mentioned before, this tendency in John can be ascribed to a longing for a better life and not to an intended denial of his blackness. Still his desire to be part of the white society leads automatically to a negation of his ancestor’s past and hence to alienation from his own people. Therefore John’s desired white identity is only a mock identity which would never work. The only way of finding his real identity is by accepting his own heritage and history and consequently his own father . Moreover, by attending the movies he does not only carry out an act of social participation but also an act of defiance both against morality and religion, since he identifies with the white heroine’s attitude, who â€Å"tells the world to kiss her ass† . Ironically, in the end John remains in his secular thinking as much a victim of his fears of God as those who are willing to accept God’s power . 3.2. John’s conversion – True belief or a mere survival gimmick? The other path, the narrow one which is available for John, is the religious one his parents and his community offer him. Here the third chapter â€Å"The Treshing Floor† or rather the conversion scene in this chapter can be taken as a good example. Even though John mentioned before that â€Å"he did not long for the narrow way, where all his people walked† , in chapter three he engages in an ecstatic conversion. Therefore this experience is questionable and rather seems to be a flight from the quest for identity into the ostensible safety the black church offers . During his spiritual experience he encounters various obstacles, his father being the most difficult one. While John is lying in front of the altar he sees his father looking down on him without pity or love, but instead he keeps hearing him say: â€Å"I’m going to beat sin out of him. I’m going to beat it out!† . As mentioned before the only way to God is through his father and by admitting his sin. Like the son of Noah, he too had made fun of his father’s bareness and was now cursed for it to the present just like Ham. By accepting this, namely that â€Å"all niggers had come from this most undutiful of Noah’s sons† and that â€Å"a curse was renewed from moment to moment, from father to son† , he embraces his black heritage. Some critics, e.g. Csaba Csapà ³, go even further by assuming that by doing so he also embraces his homosexuality, which comes to show in his relationship with Elisha . But this is altogether a different topic of the novel, which does not contribute to this essays matter and will therefore not be discussed at this point. His ongoing journey takes him into a grave, which symbolizes the past, isolation, death but also resurrection, where the collective singing and praying further strengthens his realization of his own history : In this murmur that filled the grave [†¦] he recognized a sound that he had always heard [†¦] This sound had filled John’s life, so it now seemed, from the moment he had first drawn breath. He had heard it everywhere [†¦] It was in his father’s anger, in his mother’s calm insistence, and in the vehement mockery of his aunt [†¦] Yes, he had heard it all his life, but it was only now that his ears were opened to this sound that came from darkness, that yet bore such sure witness to the glory of the light. And now in his moaning, and so far from any help, he heard it in himself. This experience creates an identity in John which no longer separates him from his black environment but rather strengthens the feeling of solidarity. Nevertheless, this identity-shaping does not change John’s relationship to his father: â€Å"[†¦] the living word that could conquer the great division between his father and himself. But it did not come [†¦]† . Peter Bruck explains this situation with the fact that John’s experience does not signify relief from his damnation, but merely constitutes a momentary ease from the existing situation, similar to the Noah and Ham network . This assumption is also supported by Gabriel’s comment after John’s conversion: â€Å"It comes from your mouth [†¦] I want to see you live it. It’s more than a notion.† . He reminds John of the fact that his conversion is merely the first step and that he is still to be tested by the long, complex journey of life. This is also emphasized by the unchanged picture the saints face the morning after John’s conversion, which stands in contrast to the development he has undergone: Yet the houses were there, as they had been; the windows, like a thousand, blinded eyes, stared outward at the morning – at the morning that was the same for them as the mornings of John’s innocence, and the mornings before his birth. The water ran in the gutters with a small, discontented sound; on the water traveled paper, burnt matches, sodden cigarette-ends; gobs of spittle, green-yellow, brown, and pearly; the leavings of a dog, the vomit of a drunken man, the dead sperm, trapped in rubber, of one abandoned to his lust. This passage clearly shows the constant burdens of life and the unimproved reality awaiting John. The picture is characterized by decay and waste and thus depicts John’s hopeless situation in spite of his new found identity. As his father mentioned to him he is still endangered by his environment and his relationship to yonder has not improved at all. The people will still confront him with the same pity and hostility as before, calling him â€Å"Frog-eyes† and other names . Hence the church only offers a temporary place of refuge without really creating better options for the future. It only partially illuminates things and merely hides or damns others . But in the midst of all this pessimism there also exists a spark of hope for John. He has now found a new ally in Elisha who already helped him through his conversion and will keep on doing so in the future. Further, he has introduced John to the love of God, instead of the theological terror of the false God his father preaches . As Robert Bone also hints at, the church can function as a â€Å"path of self-hatred† or as a â€Å"path of self-acceptance† . The following lines point to a new start and ongoing journey lying ahead of Jo hn: The sun had come full awake. It was waking the streets, and the houses, and crying at the windows. It fell over Elisha like a golden robe, and struck John’s forehead, where Elisha had kissed him, like a seal ineffaceable forever. Again, this kiss and the rising sun can be interpreted as John’s awakening homosexuality, which in the following works of Baldwin is also seen as a source of hope . The closing lines of the novel â€Å"I’m ready [†¦] I’m coming. I’m on my way.† impart an open ending to the story, leaving out which path John is going to take after all. IV. Conclusion The ending of the novel leaves the reader wondering whether John has definitely chosen the â€Å"narrow path† he so long avoided, even despised. Only several hours before, he still dreamed of a wealthy life midst the white society, far away from his own people and poverty. The moment he realizes that â€Å"this world was not for him† and that â€Å"they would never let him enter† , as his father always kept preaching him, he turns to his only other option, the black church. Thus, it seems to be more a last desperate act to survive in the brutal streets of Harlem, than an act of religious belief. This step can also be found in James Baldwin’s own biography. After having served as a preacher for several years, he left the black church unsatisfied and misunderstood, still searching for his own identity as an American, better as an Afro American. In exchange for sanctuary he had to give up his sexuality and entirely isolate himself from the outer world, which might get him into conflict with the white power. This meant exchanging the personal power of one’s sex and the social power of one’s people in exchange for the power of the Word, in Baldwin’s eyes the historical betrayal of the Negro Church . A similar pattern of behavior can be observed in John, who sees in religion also a survival gimmick. Although during John’s religious ecstasy the reader might get the impression that he is acting according to belief, his final words to Elisha on the way home evoke insecurity in this decision: â€Å"[†¦] no matter what happens to me, where I go, what folks say about me, no matter what anybody says, you remember [†¦] I was saved. I was there.† . It seems as though he knows that his conversion is not the finish line and yet another journey awaits him that may lead him away from the church, as it did James Baldwin. V. Bibliography Primà ¤rliteratur †¢Baldwin, James: Go Tell It on the Mountain. New York: Bantam Dell 1980. Sekundà ¤rliteratur †¢Bone, Robert A.: â€Å"James Baldwin† in: Keneth Kinnamon: James Baldwin. A Collection of Critical Essays. New Jersey: Prentice Hall 1974, p. 28-38. †¢Bruck, Peter: Von der „store front churchâ€Å" zum „American Dreamâ€Å". James Baldwin und der amerikanische Rassenkonflikt. Amsterdam: B. R. Grà ¼ner 1975, p.24-36. †¢Csapà ³, Csaba: „Race, Religion and Sexuality in Go Tell It on the Mountain† in: Carol E. Henderson: James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain. Historical and Critical Essays. New York: Peter Lang 2006, p.57-74. †¢Fabre, Michel: „Fathers and Sons in James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountainâ€Å" in: Keneth Kinnamon: James Baldwin. A Collection of Critical Essays. New Jersey: Prentice Hall 1974, p.120-138. †¢Jones, Beau Fly: „The Struggle for Identity† in: The British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 17, No.2 (June 1966), p.107-121. †¢Kent, George E.: „Baldwin and the Problem of Being† in: Therman B. O’Daniel: James Baldwin. A Critical Evaluation. London: AD. Donker 1977, p.19-29. †¢Macebuh, Stanley: James Baldwin: A critical Study. New York: The Third Press Joseph Okpaku Publishing Company 1973, p.49-68. †¢MacInnes, Colin: „Dark Angel: The Writings of James Baldwin† in: Gibson, Donald B.: Five Black Writers. New York: New York University Press 1970, p.119-126. †¢Margolies, Edward: „The Negro Church: James Baldwin and the Christian Vision† in: Harold Bloom: James Baldwin. New York: Chelsea House Publishers 1986, p.59-76. †¢Rosenblatt, Roger: â€Å"Out of Control: Go Tell It on the Mountain and Another Country† in: Harold Bloom: James Baldwin. New York: Chelsea House Publishers 1986, p.77-90. †¢Sylvander, Carolyn Wedin: James Baldwin. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co. 1980, p.27-44. View as multi-pages