What is it to be Homeless Essay Example

What is it to be Homeless? Essay Homelessness, it carries strong connotations of poverty, abandonment, and despair, yet it is still a major problem in American society with no end in sight for the people who find themselves in its midst. In 2004, over 7% of Americans found were defined as homeless, a number which continues to grow in connection with job losses and housing unavailability (Donohoe, 2004). Growing up in an upper middle class family, homelessness is something I’ve never had to experience firsthand but have witnessed time and again in people pandering for money in parking lots and on street corners. I have seen men, women, and children huddled together as they brace themselves for a night on the streets but until this point had largely kept myself separate. Through my field work and research for this project, I have come to a better understanding of the causes and effects of homelessness not only on the individual but on the family and society as a whole. Defined as sleeping in shelters, on the street, in cars, abandoned buildings, train or bus stations, homelessness is a constant reminder of the inequalities of society (Donohoe, 2004). In Kentucky, where the homeless rate has climbed steadily, it is a growing problem. In 2005, the number of homeless persons seeking assistance in Kentucky was 19,908 a noticeable jump from the previous year when the number was 15,226 (Kentucky Statistics). The question is posed in viewing these statistics, as to what happened to cause such a high increase in individuals and families finding themselves without a home during a time when the economy was in an upturn. Now, in recent light of the recession and overall jobless problem in the United States, the outlook does not seem promising. We will write a custom essay sample on What is it to be Homeless? specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on What is it to be Homeless? specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on What is it to be Homeless? specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The primary causes of homelessness range from domestic abuse, lack of housing, poverty, low wages, post-traumatic stress disorders, etc (â€Å"Factors Contributing to Homelessness†). The causes are as varied as the people who find themselves in this situation. Annually there are anywhere from 2.3 million to 3.5 million people nationwide who are homeless, 39% of which are children (â€Å"How Many are Homeless,† 2006). Their day to day lives center around finding food and shelter for themselves, of which are becoming scarcer as public assistance continues to decrease. As part of my research I conducted several interrelated field studies, each meant to give me a better understanding of the homeless in Kentucky and to better ascertain the reasons behind their homelessness. The best way to understand this, I reasoned, was to place myself in their shoes. My experiments involved viewing the public’s response to homelessness. Dressing down in jeans, a t-shirt/sweatshirt combination, and a pair of old gym shoes with an old baseball cap borrowed from a friend, I set out to downtown Lexington to try and pander for loose change. As this had been my most common experience with the homeless, I sought to dispel my own stereotypes as well as experience through action what it means to be reduced to these circumstances. Standing on the corner of S. Broadway and Main streets, I scanned the area and saw a man farther down the street dressed in rags and holding a cardboard sign. I momentarily regretted my decision to forego the sign myself as it would be help ful in drawing people to me. However, I reasoned that as this was meant as a means of interacting with the public as a homeless person I had a better chance at verbal communication without the sign. Having chosen both a high traffic area and a busy afternoon, I was soon watching people pass me without so much as a backward glance. Unsure of myself, I tried to remember my own experiences with being asked for money. It had seemed almost an effortless endeavor, lending to the stereotype I have heard most commonly thrown about that people begged no out of necessity but laziness. I soon discovered that pandering was no easy task. Seeing an elderly woman, who reminded me of my grandmother, I called to her, asking the standard question, â€Å"can you spare some change?† Maybe I called it too loud in my nervousness or possibly the dirt I had purposely smeared and worked into the fabric of my clothes and my general appearance of disarray but she moved away from me seeming to hold her breath. I smiled, trying to dispel her unease but it was too late. Surprising me with her speed and agility, she quickly made her way past darting between other ongoing pedestrians. Trying not to lose my nerve, I quickly turned my attention to the other people crossing in front of me. A man in a business suit, out of place himself on a Saturday afternoon, stopped in front of me as I called to him trying this time to temper my voice and not appear over enthused or worse disingenuous. â€Å"Why don’t you get a job?† he asked. â€Å"I work 50 hours a week to support my family, and you can’t go to McDonald’s and flip burgers for some cash? No! You expect me and all of these other hardworking people to give you theirs!† and with that he dug in his pocket, tossing a handful of pennies and pocket lint on the sidewalk in front of me. This was not easy. Pandering required that you have not only a tough skin but also that you set aside your pride. I found myself struggling with tears, wanting to call out to the man as he plowed his way down the street that I wasn’t really homeless. I wanted to call, but I’m a college student, I have a job, I have a home but this would only stunt any further work I wished to accomplish in this area. I needed to blend. A young woman, not much older than myself, stopped in front of me as I struggled with my own ego trying to reconcile the humiliation of the research with understanding I knew I would gain. I looked up and she appeared the very opposite of the man in the business suit. Dressed similarly to me, though clean with freshly washed hair and fashionably distressed jeans and a bright green sweater, she held a cup of coffee in one hand and a few dollar bills in the other and on her face was a sympathetic smile. â€Å"Don’t let him bother you,† she sai d handing me the coffee and forcing the bills into my hand. â€Å"I know where you are coming from. I lost my job two years ago and was in the exact same spot as you. I was evicted from my apartment and lived in my car and the shelter for 2 months before I was able to get back on my feet. Just be happy you don’t have kids, I still feel guilty that my daughter had to go through all of that with me.† With this, she smiled and waved to me before crossing to the other side of the S. Broadway. Within minutes of each other, I had experienced the two extremes of the human interaction side of pandering. Though the man in the business suit had almost discouraged me to the point of blowing my cover, the kind young woman’s kindness made me feel a new kind of guilt. She did not seem a financially well off woman but she had still tried to help. Even more than the embarrassment and loss of pride at the man in the business suit judging me all from a simple request, â€Å"can you spare some change† I felt guilt at having taken money from this woman and her daughter. I made a mental note to try and ask the homeless people I encountered how they felt at asking for money from strangers. First, I had the day to worry about. I had purposely set off on my research without money or other means of procuring food and drink. For the moment, if I wanted to eat, I would have to continue to pander for a little more cash. As it went from morning to afternoon, I had no repeat encounters with the anger of the businessman but also did not experience any more of the kindness of the young woman. Many people either ignored my call for spare change or reach into their pockets without looking in my direction. One man asked why I needed the money. I tried to reply that I just needed enough to get a meal or two, at which he laughed before tossing some loose change my way, â€Å"Sure. Last time I checked, crack wasn’t a meal.† The audacity of the man completely surprised me. Did I look like a drug addict? Did he think people only became homeless because of personal mistakes? I realized I was taken aback because he had asked a question aloud that I had only thought in my own head as I gave spare change to people in the past. Though drug addiction is a major problem for the homeless community, it is not the root of the problem. Given the discrepancies in statistics though it is understandable that this would be associated with   and even blamed for the continually growing rate of homelessness. In information published by the National Coalition for the Homeless in 2005, it is noted that early statistics for substance abuse and addiction among the homeless were incorrectly calculated leading to an assumption that over 60% of the homeless suffer from one form of substance addiction of another. However, recent statistics from US Conference of Mayors in 2005 puts the number as being closer to 30% (â€Å"Who is Homeless† 2005). The question is though, did their drug addiction lead to their homelessness or is it a result? After collecting almost $15 dollars, I set off to find a homeless person or people who would talk to me about the circumstances that led to their current state. Walking toward the man with the cardboard sign, I thought at first to speak with him as I had grown to feel a certain kinship with the man having worked the same street this morning. As I approached him, I saw a group of teenage boys stopped in front of him. They were laughing as one of them tore the man’s sign from his hands and proceeded to tear it in half. The man, obviously angered, kept his head down to the verbal abuse that rained from the teens mouths. No one it seemed was in the least concern. Pedestrians kept a wide breadth of the scene and kept their eyes to the ground. Finished with their fun, the boys threw the sign at the man’s feet and continued walking, still laughing at the humiliation of the man. Seeing the anger of the man, I decided that now would not be a good time to speak with him. Instead, I continued walking past him knowing that while his pride may be hurt, he had been spared any actual physical violence. I knew that this man had been one of the lucky ones. From 1999-2005 there were 472 acts of violence committed against homeless individuals (â€Å"Hate Crimes.† 2006), targeted specifically because of their homeless status. Of that number, 169 were murders. Shelter workers and advocates have heard increasing stories of harassment, beatings, being set on fire, and even decapitation (National Coalition for the Homeless. â€Å"Hate Crimes.† 2006) as the years have gone by. After walking for several blocks, I stopped in a corner store to buy myself some water. Walking to the back of the store where the refrigerators were,   I could feel the clerk’s eyes follow me. I guess, making sure I was not shoplifting. With this, I understood yet one more stereotype and misconception of homelessness namely the role of criminal. Though I had the money to buy the water, though I had spent a day being verbally abused and ignored in order to scrounge together the change for this very water, the clerk assumed I would steal it. I walked to the counter, feeling his eyes on me, I assume checking my body’s silhouette for bulges of pilfered food. â€Å"1.47† he said, simply, still not taking his eyes off of me, his nose curling at the smell he assumed must be wafting off of me. Counting the change onto the counter, I saw my hands with the fingernails lightly ingrained with dirt and the grime of the street. Reaching forward to hand him the change, I sa w him recoil slightly and I instead placed the change on the counter where it was carefully counted. Expecting the â€Å"have a nice day† I had come to rely on as part of the retail experience, I was surprised when after processing my order, I received no more than a nod. Later that afternoon, I found myself sitting on a park bench beside a young homeless man, trying to find his life story in the sometimes incoherent ramblings. John was an Iraq War veteran who after returning from his stint in the Army, found himself increasingly anxious and unable to forget the bloodshed. Now a methamphetamine addict, he is thin to the point of starvation. Under his beard, I could see sores where the meth was surfacing and his front teeth were rotted to nothing. John is just one of many veterans who make up the homeless population. With approximately 11% of the total homeless population veterans, comprising 40% of the total male population of homeless persons (National Coalition for the Homeless, â€Å"Who is Homeless,† 2005), John is the embodiment of the what happens to veterans when resources become limited and their problems too big to be handled effectively by the system. â€Å"A lot of the guys you see out here who are veterans were in ‘nam, they’ve been back and forth between the veterans hospital, group homes, and the street. When I first came back, I went back to working in my uncle’s garage fixing engines and changing oil. I hadn’t really had many plans before I signed up following 9/11. When I came back, my mom and girlfriend were pushing me to go back to school. Use the G.I. bill, you know. But I just couldn’t concentrate. I couldn’t sleep at night. When I did sleep, I had bad nightmares, bodies piled to the ceiling, blood everywhere. I started drinking, so I could sleep but it just made things worse. I slept but when I was awake nobody wanted to be around me. I went to the V.A. and they diagnosed me with post traumatic stress, gave me a couple prescriptions and a list of counselors and sent me on my way. For a little while the pills helped, but I was still drinking and had started to smoke meth. It kep t me awake a lot but I thought I was getting things done. But then I lost my job, my girlfriend left me and I was stuck living in my parents’ basement. I started snorting meth and then shooting up,† with this, John pulls up his sleeves to show me the track marks running along his forearms. â€Å"Eventually, even my parents had enough. I wrecked their car, stole $4,000 worth of jewelry and computer equipment that I pawned for half that to buy more meth and booze. This is where I ended up.† I told John about my earlier experience pandering and asked him if he ever felt bad for asking strangers for money. To this he shrugged and smiled, showing blackened gums above where his two front teeth once were, â€Å"You must be new. When I first started asking, sure I felt bad. I never thought I’d be asking for handouts. I wasn’t raised that way. Shit, if my dad saw me on a street corner begging he’d probably kick my ass. But you gotta do what you gotta do. I mean, come on, who is going to hire me? I stink, I’m paranoid, I have a meth addiction and no teeth. If I want to eat or get more drugs, I have to beg or steal. I’d rather beg than steal any day. I still have some scruples,† he laughingly explained. Had he ever tried rehab or contacting on the programs that helps the homeless? â€Å"Sure. I’ve gone down to the shelter and filled out the paperwork but they don’t have a whole lot of money either so I couldn’t stay forever and the rehab program they tried to get me into was full. I tell myself everyday that this will be the last. Once I’ve shot up the last of my bag, I just won’t buy anymore but it never works out that way. I start jonesing and the nightmares come back. I sat over in there one night,† he said, pointing to a pavilion on the other side of the park, â€Å"and cried because I thought I was back in Iraq. I could hear the mortars exploding around my head and the screams of children in my ears. My friend found me after a couple of hours and offered me his needle and it all melted away. Of course, I found out a couple months later that he had hepatitis and had passed it onto me but he was just trying to help, I guess I can’t blame him too much. I’ll die sooner than later anyway.† When I asked him what he meant, he shrugged again. â€Å"Look at how I live. I’m lucky to eat every other day. I’ve shot up so much meth that itâ€℠¢s coming out my pores and am lucky to find a vein anymore. I’ve been beaten up, pushed in front of cars, spit on. I had pneumonia last winter, almost died from that. And I want to die. I should have died in Iraq, I think of that every day. If I knew then what my life would become,   I would have shot myself when I still had a gun. The day I don’t wake up, will be the best day of my life.† Shaken, I thanked John for talking to me and tried to make sense of what he had told me. Before talking, he had taken a quick dose of meth to loosen his tongue but what he let loose was more than just his own story. Between John’s veteran status, gender, drug addiction, and mental illness he is unfortunately a prime example of homelessness in America. Approximately 22% of the homeless population suffers from one form of mental illness or another (â€Å"Why Are People Homeless,† 2006). Though it has been said that the increase in mentally ill homeless people is due to the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill, this is false. Most of this was done between the 1950s and 1960s but homeless rates did not begin to reach their current rates until the 1980s. According to a 2003 report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, many of the mentally ill homeless could and can live within the community and receive treatment from outpatient facilities. Many however , are unable to receive treatment or housing because of the lack of availability (â€Å"Why Are People Homeless,† 2006). As John noted, with waiting lists and the unpredictability of street life, finding ones next meal is hard enough. Finding help with housing and medicine is even more of a challenge. Having been shaken by my experiences at pandering, moving through regular daily activities like making a small purchase at a convenience store, and John’s own tales I knew I was neither prepared nor willing to spend my night as a homeless person. Before going home, I ventured to the bus station, where I had originally planned to spend the night. Walking towards the entrance, I saw a man holding a cardboard sign. Thinking he was the man from earlier, I hurried forward to try and see how he had fared after his run in with the teenagers. I was wrong. Though similar in dress and situation, this was a new man. Much older, appearing to be in his sixties or seventies. I braced myself for a request for spare change, forgetting my own appearance, but he ignored me. I knelt down to ask him some questions, figuring that this would be my last chance as I was now determined after my brief experience before returning to my normal life. No one, I now knew would knowingly choose homelessness. Asking his name, he eyed me warily, â€Å"you ain’t a cop are you?† Deciding to blow my cover, such as it was, I explained that I was a college student trying to understand what it means to be homeless. â€Å"Why would you do that? You think this is a game?   Just go home, at least you have one. I been sleeping on park benches and in bus stations for 5 years, count your blessings.† With this he turned away from me, his eyes fixed on a couple walking along the sidewalk. Speechless, I left him to his pandering. Regardless of my experiments, I had still only had an outsider’s experience of his daily life. I could, as he put so bluntly, go home. I had a home. Even as I begged on the street, I knew that I had a bank account across town with more money in it than this man would see in a week. I would finish my education and get a job, buy a home and build a family. For this man, that kind of life must seem a dream. I now knew, however, that the future I have so long imagined and planned for can just as easily be taken from me. It can start with something as seemingly changeable as losing a job and spiral into a hopelessness that left some dead, others wishing for death. For John the tipping point had been a combination of factors: mainly his drug use and trying to cope with post-traumatic stress. The causes, I now realized were encompassing of us all in one form or another. I now was able to understand through my experience that just like the woma n from that morning find myself living in a car one day and begging on a street corner for real next time. â€Å"Kentucky Statistics.† Homeless in Kentucky. Retrieved March 30, 2009 from http://www.kyhousing.org/homeless/KH.asp?ID=602. Donohoe, M. (2004, July 7). â€Å"Homelessness in the United States: History, Epidemiology, Health Issues, Women, and Public Policy.† Medscape. Retrieved March 30, 2009 from http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/481800. â€Å"Who is Homeless.† (2006, June) National Coalition of the Homeless. Central Kentucky Housing and Homeless Initiative. Retrieved March 30, 2009 from http://www.ckhhi.org/Who%20is%20Homeless.pdf. â€Å"Why are People Homeless.† (2006, June) National Coalition of the Homeless. Central Kentucky Housing and Homeless Initiative. Retrieved March 30, 2009 from http://www.ckhhi.org/Why%20are%20people%20homeless.pdf. â€Å"Hate Crimes and Violence Against People Who Are Homeless.† (2006, June) National Coalition of the Homeless. Central Kentucky Housing and Homeless Initiative. Retrieved March 30, 2009 from http://www.ckhhi.org/Hate%20Crimes.pdf. â€Å"Factors Contributing to Homelessness.† Homeless Resource Network. Retrieved March 30, 2009 from http://www.homelessresourcenetwork.org/causes.html.

Critical Thinking Essays (762 words) - Bariatrics, Obesity

Critical Thinking Essays (762 words) - Bariatrics, Obesity Critical Thinking It is in our nature, much of our thinking is, distorted, partial, uninformed or down-right prejudice if it were left to itself (The Critical Thinking Community, 2009). We all think daily since our daily activities require us to decide on what we need to do, where to go, routes to take and what to wear. Those are the things that on a daily basis that requires minimal thinking. There are times we will encounter situations or problem that will require us to do some critical thinking. Critical thinking is that model of thinking- about any subject, content or problem- in which thinkers improve the quality of his or her thinking by skillful analyzing, assessing, and reconstructing it (Paul & Elder, 2006). To be a well- cultivated thinker, you need to raise vital questions and problems, gather and assess relevant information come to be well-reasoned conclusion and solution, think open-mindedly, and to communicate effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems (Paul & Elder, 2006) I dont do a lot of critical thinking in the field that I currently work in but my personal life is a different story. A year and half ago, I struggled with my weight tremendously, trying to find ways to lose weight and nothing worked. After talking to a friend who had been put on the weight loss drug phentermine and how good it was working for her, I decided to talk to my doctor about it. I went to the doctors, not able to see my normal family physician, I saw another doctor who went over the different weight loss options such as gastric bi-pas surgery, which makes changes to your digestive system to help you lose weight by limiting how much you can eat or by reducing the absorption of nutrients, or both. (Gastric bypass surgery). The doctor went over some of the risk that included excessive bleeding, infection, adverse reactions to anesthesia, and leaks in your gastrointestinal system, gallstones, bowel obstruction, malnutrition, vomiting, and ulcers (Gastric bypass surgery), but my BMI (body mass index) was not high enough for my insurance to consider the surgery to be paid for and I did not think that I should be a candidate for that surgery because I did consider myself to be that much overweight. I mentioned to my doctor the phentermine drug, this is tablet indicated as a short-term adjunct in a regimen of weight reduction based on exercise, behavioral modification and calorie restriction in the management of exogenous obesity for patients with an initial body mass of 30 to 27 (Phentermine) and how I want like to try it, but the doctor said why wouldnt you just gain a few more pounds to increase your BMI so that you could have the gastric bi-pas surgery? The doctor proceeded to give me the some of the side effects of the drug including, chest pain, dizziness, fast, irregular, pounding, or racing heartbeat or pulse, dry mouth, sleeplessness, and difficulty having bowel movements (Phentermine Side Effects). After he said that I opted to wait and talk to my normal family physician and take into consideration both options that I was given either to gain more weight to have the surgery that I personally did not think I needed and taking a big risk of something going wrong or to just take a pill a day that would give me the energy and give me a bit more control over my appetite. I decided to just start on the phentermine and see what happens with that first, before even thinking about any drastic surgeries. I went back to see my normal family physician and after having the necessary blood work done, he gave me the prescription and two months later I was down 25 pounds. I got the results that I was looking for and without having to go under the knife. Using critical thinking allowed me to research all the information I needed and gave me all the options available before making my decision. It allowed me to take many things into consideration and to make a decision that was best. When making important decisions, such as the one I had made, its better to review

Describing the morphology and behavior of gorilla, white-handed gibbon Essay

Describing the morphology and behavior of gorilla, white-handed gibbon and bolivian grey titi monkey - Essay Example Most gorillas are diurnal and forage mostly on ground from sunrise to nightfall. They usually feed in the mornings and afternoons with a long mid-day break and rest in between. There is little aggression amongst members of the same family. Western gorilla shows visual signs through facial expressions. They exhibit around 22 distinct sounds; barks, grunts, hoots and screams. Hoots could be contact call to tell forest location. Gorillas displays quadrupedal knuckle walking. Mountain gorillas are totally folivorous whereas wild gorillas are vegetarians but captive gorillas readily eat meat. This is a primate whose fur coloring varies from dark-brown and light-brown to black, sandy colours. The feet and hands are white; likewise there is a ring of white hair surrounding the black face. They are literally aerial acrobats.Gibbbons are predominantly brachiators, moving through the forest by swinging from one branch to another by the use of their arms. It has curved fingers, very long arms, elongated hands, short legs. Although they rarely come to the ground, while down they walk bipedally raising their arms above their heads. Gibbons have got tough, bony padding on their buttocks called ischial callosities. Gibbons are frugivorous.The white handed gibbons are arboreal and diurnal. White handed gibbons protect their family groups by warding off the rest of the gibbons by their calls. Every morning each family gathers on the territorial edge and starts a â€Å"great call†, which is a duet between the mating pair.This is their way of communication. The Bolivian titi is a species of titi. It is from eastern Bolivia and a tiny territory of Brazil. The Bolivian titi is diurnal, cryptic and lives in small groups of families. It is monogamous in nature and mates for life and stays in groups that are made up of 2 to 7 members; some 5 young ones and 2 adults. There

Religion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 3

Religion - Essay Example Since I had no connections in the church, I was thankful that I could actually go to a church without being too obvious. Therefore, I dressed up with my usual clothes and went to Life Church in November 11, 18 and 25. I arrived at the church early and so I had time to look around. I guess since the church is not as big as other churches with hundreds or even thousands of attendees, one can easily spot a newcomer. The first time I went there, a young lady approached me and welcomed me with a handshake. She must have known I was new. She introduced herself as Grace Morgan and asked a bit of information about me. She was very friendly and accommodating I found myself actually enjoying her company. She invited me in and made me sit. When she learned that I was visiting the place for the first time, she asked me how I found out about the church. I then told her about the assignment and she nodded her head with understanding. She then asked me if I understood about my beliefs and other things she considered important such as my knowledge about God, Jesus, salvation and how I perceived church. I told her my beliefs are basically based from the Bible and she articulately conversed with me about assurance of salvation. I accepted what she was trying to tell me then sh e asked me if she could pray with me. I said yes and she prayed a short prayer for me, blessing me with the blessing of God. After which, Miss Morgan encouraged me to visit the church again even after I am finished with my assignment. She assured me that I will enjoy being and working with them. She also encouraged me to bring my friends with me during my next visits so that they will also discover the joy of getting involved in a church like Life Church. I said I was not promising anything but that I will try what I can do. When the service (on the Roman Catholic and Episcopalian churches, it is called mass) started, I actually was surprised to see that the attendees did not dress formally.

How to Write a Good Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

How to Write a Good Paper - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that when writing a good research paper, you, as the author, must first do the research. You need to consider the topic that you want to discuss and decide your stance on that topic. Do you agree or disagree with what it is saying? This is important to know because you are trying to convince your audience of your position by providing them with this paper. The research will allow you to back up your argument, letting your audience see the evidence you have to support your claim. Once you have your resources and the basis of your paper, it is best to write an outline. This will allow you to stay on track when writing your paper and to keep your ideas and facts organized. It will also help you to flesh out your ideas even more, in the case you want to dwell a bit more on certain aspects of your argument. A good thesis statement states quite clearly the purpose of the paper. In one or two sentences, you prepare your audience for what the topic of your paper is; this is what will grasp their attention, letting them know upfront if the paper is something that would interest them. The thesis statement sets up the rest of the paper, whether it is presenting an argument, a claim, or a stance that you take on a certain subject. It acts like "a road map for the paper; in other words, it tells the reader what to expect from the rest of the paper." Following your thesis statement, you should briefly sum up the rest of your paper in a paragraph.

Online Video Rental Management System Information Technology Essay

Online Video Rental Management System Information Technology Essay For web-based video rental management system, the asp.net is use to develop this project as a front-end system and vb.net 2008 as a back-end system. This system is linking with MySQL 2005 as database resource. Comparing between Online Video Rental Management System with another existing system in the current market is needed to identify the weakness and strength of the systems and the specialization of this project. This chapter will begin with definition of Online Video Rental Management System which proved by several journals or articles and follow by description of advantages and disadvantages of Online Video Rental Management System, workflow architecture for Online Video Rental Management System, and lastly is comparison this project with similar system in current market that included VidRent Online DVD Rental Software, Video Rental Software, DRS Pro Start, W3Rentà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ Rental System, and Online Video Rental Management System. Definition of Online Video Rental Management System Table 2.1: Definition of Online Video Rental Management System(no italic) Author Definition (Bertino.E, Trombetta.A, Montesi.D, 2002) Each particular system is build from what types of the data it handles and the functionalities that performs. An indexing and querying of video data can be supported by the system which is database for billing purposes or video store system which just store the video data that lacking the typical features of database. (Bertino.E, Trombetta.A, Montesi.D, 2002) A particular system is introduced in the architecture because quality of service is an important requirement for whole management system. Architecture result consists of several systems that integrated all their functionalities while preserve autonomy, extensibility and data integrity where necessary (R.Walker, P. Foster, and S. Banthorpe, 1997). An powerful interactive video systems must not only store the videos, but it also provide full functionalities included queries support, insertions and deletions for managing the videos as well as for users subscription and billing according to some policy and it must ensure adequate quality of service. Author Definition (Basile. P, Tinelli. E, Degemmis. M, Noia, T. D., Semeraro. G, Sciascio, E. D, 2007). Through online catalogues, videos are recommended to customer normally are described in both of useful features which are textual features and non-textual features. Online catalogues are the motivation that often behind the research of the developer on the recommendation features. (Dr. Oliver Hinz, Dipl.-Kfm. Jochen Eckert, 2010). Search videos and videos recommendation tools play a crucial role in e-commerce. There are only beneficial for consumers if successful to search for appropriate products supported by system which help them to identify products that fit to their preferences. So, customers can use actively for their search and recommendation systems that independently recommend products on the basis of certain algorithms and data. (Dr. Oliver Hinz, Dipl.-Kfm. Jochen Eckert, 2010). There had two different consequences of the search and recommendation systems for the rental and sales included decreasing search costs can increase the sales based on additional consumption and there can also be a shift in demand from blockbusters to niche products and vice versa, so that substitution effects can be observed. Author Definition (Yanjiang. Y Beng Chin. O, 2005). Current rental records containing two purposes to identifying information serve primarily that are users who holding overdue rental items can be trade by the service provider but only in case the user does not return the items in time. Second is the service provider can enforce rental limit such that a user cannot simultaneously keep more than a limited rental items. To be effective, an anonymous rental system has to afford these two functions as in a regular rental service. (J. J. Jozefowicz, J. M. Kelley, S. M. Brewer, 2008) A serious lack of success films exist in the video rental market from analysing even the obvious popularity of this form of entertainment and the fact that the majority of film studios domestic revenues are generated by home video viewing. (Zhan Wang, Harrison Stein, Chin Yeung Siu, Ruiqi Rachel Wang, 2005) Customers can easily rent the movies through online or at rental stores to enjoy watching the movies whenever at a much cheaper cost rather than watching movies in theatres. Movies rental is more flexibility to support the customers and enabling them to enjoy the movies in comfort of their own homes. State Simplify: By increasing media technology in movies recorder, especially movies which are stored in DVD rather than VCD are become most popular in rental business nowadays. There are about quadruple of storage in DVD larger than VCD with lower price. Customers more prefer watching movies in home in cheaper price rather than go cinema. In additional, the location of the company that support in this project is no cinema. So, movies rental is a very popular business in Cameron Highlands and it is play an important role in entertainment for resident. This project had allocated to two applications that are front-end application and back-end application. The front-end application which is interface that designs to interact with the users through online customer services. Several functions such as movies previews, videos rating, voting, and some recommendation are provide to help in sales increases by hearing from the customer. Information that collects from the customers at the front-end application needs to processes from back-end application that control by administrator but not customers such as transaction record, customer information, order management, payment detail and movies stock. By fulfilling the company requirement, a customization system is need to design based on company need and condition. In this case, system design is more focus on the customer services rather than administration functions. So, this project is needs to add more additional functions to improve the customer services and fulfil their need at the same time benefit to the company in two ways. Targeting to expand the company, a flexible system is mainly consideration by the company to adding a communication space to collect the information from customer and understand what the customer needs. Customers are freely allows to remove, add, or cancel reservation of the videos within certain period. By cooperation several functionalities, an integration management system is create and it is fully customise to the company and help the company improve the business daily transaction. Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Video Rental Management System Online video rental management system is design with several advantages that benefit to organizational, customers and business processes. According to PlanMagic(2010), advantages included legendary ease of use, advanced functionality, low cost of ownership, customer approved and competitor Approved. Same as proved from PlanMagic, 2010, this project had advance functionalities to achieve competitive advantages that are more focus on customer services by adding the automation email sending, attraction interface, and given movies recommendation to let customer unlimited browse and watch movies preview through online and leave some commends on the movies after they watched. Movies recommendation specially provides to customer who are in hesitate of choosing movies. Lower prices of the movies rental are suitable for local students and residents because the owner is obtain the low cost of the movies resources by suppliers. From such advantages, its user-friendly format can be easily controlled by anyone and at the same time, it able requires and maintains to only one person with reducing overheads to a great extent. This video rental system can be understood and installed within a few minutes. In this project, it can benefit to the owner by reducing the human resource and fully utilize system performance to easily keep track the rentals and sales history, storing customer information, auto calculate late payment and generate payment that customer need to pay. All these features are totally customizable and make for unique Online Video Rental Management System to meet the expectation of the Stop and Stick Company. Online reservation is one of the advantages from this project to let the customer making order anytime and anywhere. They no need arrive to the shop to checking whether the movies in stock or not. By applying this project, owner can get the business easily through customer online reservation and increase the orders from suppliers to expand their business quickly. According to Web Experts, 2008, Our online reservations system for videos, DVDs, equipment, or whatever else you want to rent handles everything included east stocking and management. By applying online video rental management system, customers are freely to browse the website, view the movies preview, given recommendation, or making reservation of the movies in whole day 24 hours whether the shop is close or not. Reservation list will be auto arrange in order and handle by owner for second day. Besides of advantages, this project had some disadvantage that cannot be avoided. Compare to the current online video rental system, local DVD movie rental from this project have to treat with late fees, due dates and traffic but through online videos rental system, there are no need to worry about it by ship the videos to the customer after make order from online. Due to the small business company, the company had not suitable yet to running the business by delivery the DVDs to customer through online reservation. By consideration of limited resources of movies and human resources, it is difficult for company to append this service with higher cost. Customer needs to arrives the shop and rent the movies which are reserved. Due dates and late fees are needed charges from customer to maintains and manage the limited stock of movies. In additional, by the reason of the good company location which is stay at middle of the city, so that students must pass by the shop after school for everyday. It is bringing a larger market for the students who are rent the movies or return with easily and convenience. So, it is hard to provide the online payment feature from this small company, customer cannot enjoy any payment through online. Transaction process is done by cash exchanges between the owner and customer at the shop after reservation on the portal. Besides that, one of the disadvantages of this project is the problem of DVDs damage or broken after return by customer and gets negation by customer. The lost of physical cost lost is one of the disadvantages of this project which cannot be avoided and only can control it by manageable the videos under the rule and procedure before rent to the customer. Workflow Architecture for Online Video Rental Management System Figure 2.2: Workflow Architecture from source (Riderck, 2009, March 28).(no date, no italic) (Riderck, 2009) In this section, the overall structure of the online video rental management system is referring by Ridercks video rental system which is similar with this project. Same as Riderck workflow, all customer need to register as a member before utilize the web-based video rental management system at the shop to obtain the id number and membership card by owner. Customer information will be store into the database for rental use. According to the Riderck workflow, it is an offline video rental system and transaction will be keep track after customer rent the movies in the shop. Payment will be calculate by admin part that is inside the video rental system and generate the receipt to customer. By compare with this project, using web-based video rental management system is bringing tremendous benefit to the customer and company for manage the company and effect in increasing sales. After registered as a member, customer can freely leave their comment, rating, voting and making reservation on what the movies they need through online. Besides that, latest release movies and promotion had automatic received by customer at the first time by email sending. Movies which are coming up to date had reminded by email sending from company to prevent movies fine. Reservation or direct orders by customers are process sequence by admin part who are first come first serve. Payment automatically calculates by system that included late payment and total of videos rent let the company easily and speed up the transaction processes. Simple report will be generate for every month to clearly define the total of sales, total movies that are rent and help in decision making by ordering the movies from supplier based on the popular rate of movies. A concept of workflow architecture at the below is draw by developer for this project to let readers more understand about the system process of Online Video Rental Management System as a big picture. Figure 2.3: Workflow Architecture of Online Video Rental Management System Comparing Online Video Rental Management System 2.4.1 Comparison between Online Video Rental Management System with existing current system Table 2.4: Comparing Online Video Rental Management Systems with existing system- Administrator Part (Back-end Application)(no itallic, pls retructure table become smaller) Feature/Functionality VidRent Online DVD Rental Software Video Rental Software (quote) DRS PRO START 5.1 (quote) W3Rentà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ rental system (article) Online Video Rental Management System Administrator Function: (Back-end Application) User login à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ Profile management à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ Inventory management à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ Transaction record à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ Time and date management à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ Auto late calculation payment à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ Report à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ Transaction calculation à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ Billing à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ Email automation sending à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ Damaged/Missing Item à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ Table 2.5: Comparing Online Video Rental Management Systems with existing system Customer Services Part (Front-end Application) Feature/Functionality VidRent Online DVD Rental Software Video Rental Software (quote) DRS PRO START 5.1 (quote) W3Rentà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ rental system (article) Online Video Rental Management System Customer Services: (Front-end Application) Powerful search engine à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ Movies Categories à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ limited à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ Movies previews à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ Prompt out related movies preview à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ Auto count numbers of visitor à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ Movie rating, voting and recommendation à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ System auto give suggestion à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ Movies reservation/order à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ 2.4.2 VidRent Online DVD Rental Software VidRent is web-based or online video rental software that promotes to the customer in rental business area. According to Spectrum Research, Inc., 2010, VidRent system was first releasing by Gold Entertainment Group, Inc., and they had almost 5000 distributors and customers for a year before they fall into the recent video rental company price wars and ceased operations. From rapidly development of video rental, VidRent is no longer available because the prices became cheaper and it is cause by competitive advantages. Same as this project, VidRent is consisted of two parts; there are administrator part and customer services part. Through this system, customers can login to the website and making reservation of the videos after registered as a member. Besides that, VidRent provided several movies in difference categories that can let the customer making choices on the movies which types they are preferable. Movies voting, rating and recommendation given by customer on the movies are important to increase the interest of customers on movies rental in certain types. Search function is one of important part that provided to customer to find the movies easily by typing the title name of the movies. It is lack of functionalities on the payment section in this VidRent system. According to the features that state from the VidRent system, there are no provided transaction calculations and billing to customer after the movies are reserved or prepared on the cart. This system is no provided payment function and customer need process their payment by arrives to the shop. Payment record is not build in VidRent system and it may needs to link with another accounting system or POS system to control the business. From observation of the VidRent system, all information and pictures of the videos allocated on the interface that is too simple and the pictures are combination together make the interface looked complicated. Figure 2.6: Administrator Support (VidRent Online DVD Rental Software) Figure 2.7: Customer Support (VidRent Online DVD Rental Software) 2.4.3 Video Rental Software Commodity Rental Video rental software is a very efficiency system in the accounting area and transaction processing system. By adding accounting and point of sales system into video rental system, all-in-one system is powerful to let the user more easily to manage their transaction with auto calculation of the total payment and monthly account calculation. By using this function, cost saving and system simplification help the company run their business smoothly. From above statements, this is strengthens of this video rental software and it encouraged use in medium size of organizational. Same as VidRent system, video rental software has divided into two parts which are administration part and customer services support. This system is strongly concentrated on the administrator part especially the payment area. Accounting function and point of sales function in the system will benefit to the user in calculating monthly sales and transaction will become more quickly and sufficiency. From customer support section, the drabness layout and functionalities of the customer supports website is one of the weaknesses in this system. The most important of the search engine was ignored builds in video rental software, so customer cannot quickly search the movies which they need. It needs to take a longer time to search the movies by click the one page to another page until the end. In additional, there are no categorize of movies that place in order on the main page, user may be confused and it is become more complicated when the new movies are adding or update in the future. Besides that, this website is totally no interaction with the customers because customer recommendation, voting and movies ranking is no provided to the customer. This system is strongly focused on administrator part that use in business transaction process but it is poor in customers support. Figure 2.8: Administrator Support (Video Rental Software Commodity Rental) Figure 2.9: Customer Support (Video Rental Software Commodity Rental) 2.4.4 DRS PRO START 5.1 Online DVD Rental System 5.1 is divided into three versions which are DRS Pro Start 5.1, DRS Pro Business 5.1, and DRS Pro VIP 5.1. Three difference versions of the system can meet the difference need from customer who is running their rental business. In this case, basic function is more suitable for apply by small enterprise.  By the way, DRS Pro Business 5.1 and DRS Pro VIP 5.1 are more suitable for the medium or large company with contained advanced functionalities and specific solution that is given. DRS Pro Start 5.1 is a system that fully implement through online, customer no need reach to the shop and all the services are provided to customers through E-Commerce. After reservation is making by customer, videos are pack in envelop and directly shipping to the customer, it bringing a convenience way to the customers at difference location. Time saving and cost saving is a main issues for customer when they getting to the shop to choose the movies. Through online services, there are no any due date or late payment of the movies rental. So, the two functions that are time and date management and auto late calculation payment of the system can be ignore and omitted. By using this system, company need spend a larger amount of the human resources cost and material cost such as shipping cost, quantity of DVDs, and worker. From the powerful function of automation email sending function in this system, customer can receive the notification which sending by the system automatically such as disc returned/dispatched, titles requiring rating, recommendations, titles coming soon and etc. The function of search engine is provided to let user quickly search movies. Video rating, customer commend are welcome update by users. There are very limited catalogue in DRS Pro Start 5.1 package. The simple layout and less attraction website easy lead the users bored. Figure 2.10: Administration Support (DRS PRO START 5.1) Figure 2.11: Customer Support (DRS PRO START 5.1) 2.4.5 W3Rentà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ rental system According to the article, W3Rent is an online system that similar with DRS Pro Start 5.1 which is implements the business through E-Commerce. Customer no need arrive to the shop but they can receive the movies anytime, anywhere through shipment method from making reservation through online. So, time and date management and auto late calculation payment can be ignored same as DRS Pro Start 5.1. Security had provided to prevent unauthorized to access the information. Difference users in this system have difference access level such as customer only can login to the customer support website but they are not allow access to the administrator functional area. The staff can login to manage the inventory and being transaction with customer of the administrator area. Limit the functionalities can clearly divide the task for difference type of position and not confuse. According to article, there are no provided report function and transaction record function to the customer. So customer cannot find the history of transaction when they want check back the movies whether had rent by them previously or not. Report cannot generate without historical of transaction record. There are special function in this system is this system can handle the damaged item such as broken of DVDs, damaged DVDs, or lost of DVDs. The system can keep track this DVDs and placing them to specific section. Automation email sending had provided by this system that can help the company saving the cost of time because any notification, returned or dispatched are auto send out to the customer by mail. Besides that, this system had less interaction with the customer because it no provided movies rating and recommendation on the movies to the customer. So, company does not know which type of the movies is more preferable by customer and focusing on promote the popular movies that rate by customer. 2.4.6 Online Video Rental Management System Focusing on customer service is the main purpose of this project to target the customer preferable on the movies to affect the sales. An attractive main page of the customer website is very important to capture the interest of the customer when they are browsing to the website. Short movies previews at the website can attract the customer to click them and watch the content of the movies, so customer will immediately take a consideration of the movies to rent based on their preference. Besides that, the related movies will be prompt out below the movies that watching by customer, so customer can rent more. Powerful search engine and movies catalog should provide to the customer to search the specific movies with easily and faster. Furthermore, this system will give some suggestion to the customer when customer in hesitate to choose the movies by key in some words about what types of the movies are more prefer by them based on the mood feeling. After customer watched the movies, they can give some recommendation and movies rating through login to the website. In the administrator part, access level has provide to users to separate the position such as customer can browse to the customer support area to watch the movies, leave recommendation and enjoy the services that provide by this system, staff can login to administrator function to process the transaction with the customer but they are not allows to change any information of the inventory or delete the customer information. Only the boss or manager can access all the data in this system. Limit the function to difference users are important to ensure the security if the company to prevent attack by un-authorization. By the way, transaction record, payment detail and calculation functions have included in this system. Report need to generate and show the total sales of each month to easy the user make decision in supply the videos from supplier. Email automation sending function can given notification, promotion for new movies and remind customer when the rental is up to date. This system no provides videos shipping, so customer needs to rent the movies directly in the shop base on the limited resource of the Stop And Stick Company. 2.4.7 Discussion of table 2.4 and table 2.5 By comparing online video rental management system with another four existing systems, it found that the previously of four software are very strongly focused on the administrator part. If company only focus on administrator part, they would not know what are the types of movies customer more prefer from interaction with the customer through get feedback from them. By focusing customer services within this project, long term profit can be measure by update information from customer. All of these systems allow the users to keep track the rental, stores the customers detail, taxes calculation which are basic functionalities of the system accept VidRent system. Beside this, there have provides customer rating, recommendation give by customer and get the feedback from customer accept W3Rent System. VidRent System and Online Video Rental Management System no provide online payment and the transaction need directly process in the shop because of limited resource and the system are suitable for small enterprise use. Nowadays, more and more system needs to focus on the customer services to provide integrated system to the customer and catch up their time. By automation email generation, email can auto send to the customer when the movies up to date or during release the new movies to save the cost and time. From this, VidRent and Video rental software is lack of this function. Besides that, search engine and movies catalog is most important function to easy find information, product or movies from the customer. Lack of those functions from Video Rental Software and DRS Pro Start 5.1 System are easy confused and make the interface more complexity. For DRS Pro Start 5.1 and W3Rent system, the functions of time and date management, and auto late calculation payment are no need because they provided the shipping services to the customer and there are no any fines on the late return. There are differences of Video Rental Software which is included the functionalities of time and date management, and auto late calculation payment no matter it is same area with DRS Pro Start 5.1 and W3Rent system. 2.5 Chapter conclusion Chapter 2 concluded with five system comparison that included VidRent Online DVD Rental Software, Video Rental Software, DRS Pro Start, W3Rentà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ Rental System, and Online Video Rental Management System. Comparing between these projects system with other systems in current market had been done by comparing the specialization, features and functionality of the system. From the lack functionalities require by other system, full functionalities and special functions are need to add in this project to enhance the quality of the system and target to enlarge the market from small enterprise. Before comparison process, definition of this project had been identified and it advantages and disadvantages of this Online Video Rental Management System.

Carbohydrates :: essays research papers

Introduction:Carbohydrates are molecules that contain Carbon, Hydrogen, and Oxygen. The most basic sugar- carbohydrate is the monosaccharide. Carbohydrate molecules are categorized by the number of carbons present in the molecule. Glucose, the most common monosaccharide has six carbons per molecule, which is called a hexose. Carbohydrates also have a 2:1 hydrogen to oxygen ratio. This aids in the condensation and hydrolysis reactions. A condensation reaction occurs when two monosaccharides join by the removal of H2O. During condensation synthesis one monosaccharide losses an OH and the other losses a H. As a result the two monosaccharides bond by forming maltose a disaccharide with a by-product of a free H2O. When three or more monosaccharides or monomer are involved in a condensation synthesis a polymer or polysaccharide is formed with a by product of water. Starch and Glycogen are two common chain polymers.Just as the removal of water joins carbohydrates together via condensation synthesis, hydrolysis is the reaction using water to break apart Di and polysaccharide. A Di-saccharide is bound by sharing an oxygen with one hydrogen on each opposing side. When H2O is re-introduced via hydrolysis the two monomers in the disaccharide no longer need to share one H2O, and as a result the opposing sides absorb the OH and H and break apart. This reaction is a common theme in the digestion of complex carbohydrates.Experiment 3: Test for SugarsWe will test five different solutions for presence or absence of reducing sugars using a premixed Benedict's reagent. These dependent variable solutions will be water, glucose , onion juice, potato juice, and starch suspension. When the Benidict's reagent is combined with sugars at a boiling temperature, a color reaction will occur. Our independent variable, Benidict's reagent color is blue.The negative control will be the combination of water and Benidict's reagent. This sample will undergo all the steps of the test except for the one being tested for i.e. sugars. If the end result is negative color change (blue) , it will thus be determined that the experiment and the Benidict's reagent is not contaminated and the experiment may proceed. The negative control will also serve as a comparison to gauge against the color change in the other four sugar tests.EXPERIMENT 3: Test for Sugars: TESTS MAT. & METHODS HYPOTHESIS RESULTSTube 1 1cm water+2cm Benidict's reagent. No color changeNegative control no color change. Neg-sugar. BlueTube 2 1cm glucose solution+ 2cm Benidict's reagent.

Analysis of Major Characters Hannah Jarvis

In the struggle between emotion and reason in Arcadia, Hannah Jarvis acts as the voice of reason. Hannah is the academic, feminist researcher who prides herself on thorough and well-thought research and sacrifices human contact for it. Hannah, like Thomasina's description of Queen Elizabeth, is able to separate sex from intellectual power and, in her case, push sex from view. Hannah resists carnal knowledge with effort: she doesn't like the idea of having her picture taken or submitting to a kiss, she refuses Valentine's idea of calling her his fiancee, and she scorns Gus's flirtation. Most of all, Hannah rejects Bernard's proposal that Lord Byron would have been silly enough to kill someone out of love. It seems that Hannah did, at one point, know love but has decided to pursue better things (â€Å"I don't know a worse bargain. Available sex against not being allowed to fart in bed†). Hannah's rejection of love or knowledge of love has left her unaware of her own self. It appears as though she has deluded herself into academic sterility. Bernard tells Hannah that, if she understood herself a little better, she wouldn't have written her first book about Caroline Lamb, a romantic â€Å"waffle. When Hannah storms into Bernard's lecture and interrupts his speech about Lord Byron killing someone for love, Chloe turns psychologist for Hannah and politely asks her if she has been deeply wounded in the past. Hannah cannot, however, reject the love of the shy Gus. The mute boy and mystery of the modern Croom household is able to crack Hannah, he is able to get her to dance with her. Gus's genius qualities, much like Thomasina before him, make him not only mentally like the subject of Hannah's studies, but give him an intuitive sense of history. Read also Analysis of Characters in Flannery O’Connor’s â€Å"The Life You Save May Be Your Own† As a silent messenger and connection to the past of Sidley Park, Gus gives Hannah the apple Septimus will eat and whose leaf Thomasina will describe. Gus also dresses Augustus in Regency wear, finds the foundation for the destroyed outbuilding, reveals the identity of the Sidley Park Hermit and asks Hannah for a much needed dance and embrace. Hannah accepts Gus's invitation for unknown reasons, but possibly his relevance and help with her own research play into the mix and certainly a real need for carnal embrace. ThomasinaThomasina is the girl genius of epic proportions. Thomasina intuitively knows the second law of thermodynamics and can refute determinism based on her ideas. Thomasina is a typical thirteen and then sixteen-year-old girl, except for the fact that she is unusually privileged and is given unusual educational opportunities. Although Lady Croom tells Thomasina that she must wed before she is overeducated, Lady Croom seems unconcerned at the intensity of her child's work until Thomasina nears the age of seventeen. Thomasina is clearly driven not only by academic zeal but also by a desire for sexual knowledge. In the first scene, during her lesson with Septimus, Thomasina asks Septimus to tell her what a â€Å"carnal embrace† is. From the first pages of the book, Stoppard makes clear a duel purpose within Thomasina's character—to discover the rules of life and love while also working out the rules of mathematics. Thomasina's approach, including both carnal and academic knowledge, leads her to great success because she understands the principles of heat. Heat, which becomes equated with sexual knowledge, is the key to Thomasina's theory. Specifically articulated by Chloe, Thomasina's modern day counterpart, Thomasina's theory holds that sex messes up the Newtonian Universe because it is completely random. Thomasina is ironically engulfed in the flame that she once seemed to understand better than anyone. Her tragic death, at the eve of her womanhood, drives Septimus to spend his lifetime tragically attempting to prove Thomasina's hypothesis. The final waltz that Thomasina and Septimus share at the end of play reveals a necessary urgency for sexual knowledge between all people. While the two talk about the end of the Earth, it seems Thomasina knows her end will be near. There is an understanding between tutor and student in the conclusion of the play; Thomasina and Septimus both understand the limits of and the ultimately unfulfilling nature of academic knowledge. Septimus and Thomasina dance and embrace to revel in the mystery they will never solve. Bernard NightingaleBernard, the modern and foppish academic, reveals the danger of allowing present motivations to leap ahead of historic truths. Bernard's theory, that Lord Byron killed Mr. Chater in a lover's duel, is the product of his lust for fame and recognition. The evidence that Bernard puts together seems sketchy at best and the result of his theory and publication of his results is clear from the outset. Bernard never brings the platonic, third letter on stage, and it remains unclear how Byron got a hold of Septimus's book. Nevertheless, Bernard can't restrain himself. Undoubtedly reflecting Stoppard' s own commentary on academic eagerness, Bernard ignores Hannah's objections to his theory in favor of quick fame. Bernard has little interest in the Croom family besides an opportunity to bring him recognition. But Bernard, despite his mistakes, is essential to Hannah finding the identity of the hermit. While seducing Chloe in the library stacks, Bernard notices â€Å"something between her legs,† a contemporary account of the hermit's identity that describes the hermit's turtle, Plautus. This is Bernard at his best, his sole constructive contribution into the Croom mystery. Bernard is one character who is not aided by his sexual knowledge, despite his discovery while supposedly having sex (the modern day account of the hermit). Bernard's forthright proposal to Hannah and seduction of Chloe do no more than win him a loyal teenage fan. Bernard does, however, seem to know a bit more than Hannah because of his supposed knowledge. Bernard tells Hannah that she wouldn't have written a book about Caroline Lamb if she had known herself better. Yet, it remains unclear why Bernard didn't know himself better than to publish his results about Lord Byron before having more concrete proof of the theory. It is evident that neither academic nor canal knowledge alone will do. Themes, Motifs, and SymbolsThemesEmotion versus IntellectThere are two sorts of knowledge in Arcadia: the knowledge of love and academic knowledge. These two types of knowledge are in constant conflict throughout the text. It is only the proposition of marriage, the intellectual justification for sex, which allows a resolution between the two forces. The theme of love vs. intellect is touched upon in the first pages of the play. Thomasina interrupts her lesson with Septimus by asking what carnal knowledge is. Sexual knowledge always acts in conflict with intellectual knowledge, and here it gets in the way of the lesson. Thomasina also remarks on the conflict between emotion and intellect in her history lesson. Her question is prompted by Septimus himself who was found having sex with Mrs. Chater in the gazebo the day before. Thomasina describes Cleopatra as making â€Å"noodles of our sex† because Cleopatra was weakened by love. Thomasina heralds Queen Elizabeth who would not have been tempted by love to give away land or power. The great Hannah Jarvis is, like Thomasina's Queen Elizabeth, unswayed by romantic passions. She believes, as does Thomasina, that romantic inclinations would destroy or distract her from her work. Hannah refuses warmth or emotion: she refuses a kiss, denies Bernard's propositions, laughs at Valentine's proposal, and brushes off Gus's flirtation. Nonetheless, Hannah, like Thomasina, Septimus, and Gus all waltz at the conclusion of the play. Hannah cannot refuse emotion or the bashful Gus by the end of the play and is drawn into an uncomfortable and uneasy dance. The conflict between emotion and intellect is resolved because Hannah suddenly understands that the two are inseparable. Hannah is unlike Thomasina, who unconsciously understands this, driven forcefully by the mystery of both. The Mystery of SexSex remains the final mystery of Arcadia. Septimus, in the conclusion of the play, reveals the final sadness and emptiness of an academic life: â€Å"When we have found all the mysteries and lost all the meaning, we will be alone, on an empty shore. † Septimus implies that the mysteries of mathematics will someday be solved. As if knowing his own fate, Septimus embraces and kisses Thomasina in earnest, finally indulging in the mystery of his attraction and love. Septimus will not go to Thomasina's room, although she asks him, but he is restrained for a reason that remains unknown. Septimus realizes the ultimately unfulfilling nature of academic progress but will only tragically experience the fulfilling nature of love for a brief moment in a waltz and kiss with Thomasina. In the same manner, Hannah Jarvis submits to a dance with Gus. She, like Septimus, has solved her mystery and now looks to Gus for fulfillment and new mysteries. The Path of KnowledgeSeptimus describes to Thomasina the path of knowledge, a humanity that drops knowledge and learning as it picks up new ideas and developments. Septimus tells Thomasina she should not be upset at the loss of the library of Alexandria because such discoveries will be had again, in another time and possibly in another language. This story is ironic to the fate of Thomasina's own discoveries that aren't unearthed until 1993 by Valentine. Thomasina's discoveries are made again: chaos theory and thermodynamics are formal concepts by the time her primer is found and analyzed. Arcadia works as a description of humanity's own progression of knowledge. While Thomasina and Septimus make new discoveries, Hannah and Valentine work to find their discoveries. The work of Thomasina and Septimus is lost but later found again. MotifsFireFire takes on multiple meanings in the play, but it most strongly symbolizes death and the eventual and inevitable end of the human species. Like Thomasina's diagram of heat exchange, as exemplified by Mr. Noakes's steam engine, all will eventually end. As the law of thermodynamics prescribes, we will all eventually burn up. Fire is destruction and death happening over and over again. Septimus burns Lord Byron's letter, unread, a rare and valuable piece of historical literature. Fire is also sexual, the burn that keeps bodies in motion. Septimus observes that Mrs. Chater is in a state of â€Å"tropical humidity as would grown orchids in her drawers in January†. Thomasina and Valentine wish to describe and analyze the universal laws of heat and destruction. The final scene is the greatest culmination of the fire motif. While Valentine and Hannah discuss the meaning of Thomasina's heat-exchange diagram, Thomasina holds the flame that will eventually cause her own destruction. As Thomasina and Septimus waltz, the audience is aware of Thomasina's fate. We can see the workings and progress of the heat diagram before our eyes. SexSex persists as the anti-academic driving force in Arcadia. Academic knowledge is never separated far from carnal knowledge—academic knowledge somehow equating sexual prowess. For example, when Bernard makes his great discovery he immediately propositions Hannah, indicating how academic knowledge gives Bernard sexual confidence. Sex is also equated with heat, making it the eventual objective and need of all humans. The relationship between Thomasina's theory of heat exchange and sex is clearly articulated by Chloe who tells Valentine that Newton forgot to account for sex in his deterministic universe. Heat, like sex, is unchangeable, persistent, and random. MathematicsMathematics and â€Å"Simple English Algebra† is the foundation ofArcadia. The mysteries of math reveal greater truths about humanity and the family as a whole. Mathematics is also a source of pride within the play. Valentine, as a chaos mathematician himself, is reluctant to share Thomasina's theory and fractal with Hannah. Thomasina's algebra and geometry lessons culminate into her genius understanding of the laws of thermodynamics and chaos theory. The laws of thermodynamics dictate the fate of all the characters on stage, and the realization of such fate eventually conclude the play (most tragically, Thomasina's own ironic death by fire). Septimus and Thomasina, along with Gus and Hannah, succumb to the law of thermodynamics by coming together in a waltz. The couples know their mathematical, unstoppable fate and embrace each other in spite of it. SymbolsGardenThe Gardens of Sidley Park symbolize the transformation and transition between romanticism and classicism. Mr. Noakes wishes to alter the gardens into the picturesque and thoroughly romantic style and means to tear out the gazebo in favor of a hermitage and drain the lake with a newly improved steam engine. Lady Croom accuses Mr. Noakes of reading too many novels by Radcliff, such as The Castle of Otranto (actually written by Horace Walpole, as Mr. Chater points out), and The Mysteries of Udolpho. Mr. Noakes means to transform the green, lush perfect Englishman's garden into an â€Å"eruption of gloomy forest and towering crag,† Lady Croom describes it as a haunt of â€Å"hobgoblins. As Hannah describes it, the garden is a classical painting imposed on landscape or â€Å"untamed nature in the style of Salvatore Rosa †¦ everything but vampires†. The garden represents romanticism, (for Hannah) a decline from thinking to emotion, and the need for â€Å"false emotion† and â€Å"cheap thrills. † Regency ClothesThe modern day characters wear the Regency Clothes or clothes that would be worn to a fancy dress ball in Thomasina's time. Regency Clothes symbolize high society and privilege. The dress not only links the two generations and time periods, but it reve als the hay day of the English aristocratic family. Chloe, Gus, and Valentine wear the outfits to have their pictures taken and dress for the annual dance. The dress reestablishes their power as a family and role in the community, seemingly diminished in modern times. PrimerThe Primer is the symbol of learning and academia. Thomasina is the first to use the primer, which once belonged to Septimas; however, at the conclusion of the play, Septimus has taken back his primer. Septimus's use of his the primer once again symbolizes his return to being a student; this time he is a student of Thomasina, who has surpassed his knowledge and teachings Scene OneSummarySeptimas Hodge and Thomasina Coverly sit in the front room of an old estate in Derbyshire, England. The house is surrounded by beautiful, traditional park-like landscape, which is lush and green. Thomasina, a curious and rather impetuous girl of thirteen, is the student of Septimas, who is twenty-two. Each is working on separate problems when Thomasina asks Septimas what â€Å"carnal embrace† might be. Thomasina overheard Jellaby, a servant at the estate, telling the cook that Mrs. Chater, wife of the poet Ezra Chater, had been found in carnal embrace in the gazebo. Jellaby had heard the story from Mr. Noakes, gardener of the estate, who had actually witnessed the event. Septimas tells Thomasina that the act of â€Å"carnal embrace† is throwing ones arms around a side of beef. Thomasina, quite perceptive, tells Septimas that a gazebo is not a â€Å"meat larder† and asks if carnal embrace is kissing. Thomasina demands that Septimas tells her the tr uth, and so Septimas gives her the true scientific meaning: the insertion of the male genital into the female. Uncomfortable with this disclosure, Septimas quickly returns to work. Thomasina pesters Septimas to tell her more about sexual intercourse. Jellaby, the butler, interrupts the conversation. Jellaby brings a letter to Septimas from Mr. Chater. Septimas reads the letter and tells Jellaby to tell Mr. Chater that he will have to wait until the lesson is finished. After Jellaby leaves, Thomasina asks Septimas if he thinks it is odd that when one stirs jam in his or her rice pudding into swirls in one direction, the jam will not come together again if they swirl the pudding in the opposite direction. In other words, she asks why one cannot stir things apart. Thomasina's question leads to a discussion about Newton's Law of Motion. Thomasina believes that if one could stop every atom in motion, a person could write a formula for the future. Mr. Chater suddenly swings the door to the room open. Septimas bids Thomasina to leave the room. Chater accuses Septimas of â€Å"insulting† his wife in the gazebo. Septimas tells Chater that he is wrong and that he made love to Mrs. Chater in the gazebo the day before at Mrs. Chater's request. Chater challenges Septimas to a duel, but Septimas declines. Septimas tells Chater that he cannot shoot him because there are only two or three first rank poets living, Chater apparently one of them. Septimas distracts Mr. Chater by complementing him on his new poem, â€Å"The Couch of Eros,† and tells Chater he will write a good review of the work. Chater, flattered, forgives Septimas for his indiscretion and even offers to sign Septimas's copy of â€Å"The Couch of Eros. † Septimas only means to distract Chater. Noakes enters the room, soon followed by Lady Croom, mistress of the estate, and Captain Edward Brice. Lady Croom is very upset by Noakes's plans for the landscaping of Sidley Park. Lady Croom thinks that Noakes's plans are too modern, Sidley park is beautiful and an â€Å"Arcadia† as it is. The sound of hunting fire outside the window precedes Lady Croom's exit. Lady Croom, in the style of a grand general, orders Noakes, Brice, and Chater to follow her. As Mr. Chater leaves, he shakes Septimas's hand in friendship. Thomasina and Septimas are again alone. Thomasina remarks that she has grown up with the sound of hunting guns and that her father's life is recorded in the game book by the game he has shot. Thomasina delivers a secret note to Septimas from Mrs. Chater. AnalysisIt has been suggested that one of Tom Stoppard's favorite ideas is â€Å"all men desire to know. † This seems particularly evident in Arcadia, a play obsessed with knowledge of many kinds. The characters in Arcadia seek three different sorts of knowledge: mathematical knowledge, historical knowledge and sexual knowledge. The play opens with the problem (quite literally) of mathematical knowledge. Septimus has given Thomasina the challenge of finding a proof for Fermat's Last Theorem (more to keep her occupied than in hopes of her solving it). At the time the play was written Fermat's Last Theorem was, indeed, a great mathematical task. Thomasina proposes her own original solution to the theorem: Fermat's marginal note was an eternally tormenting joke to drive posterity mad. It is ironic that in real life, shortly after the play opened, Andrew Wiles announced a proof of Fermat's theorem that has, after subsequent amendments, been accepted as correct. But the quest for mathematical knowledge persists within the play. Thomasina is the genius girl who can miraculously understand the foundations of thermodynamics and chaos theory a century before their formal definition. Thomasina's algebra lesson is interrupted by her own search for another type of knowledge. Thomasina asks Septimus what â€Å"carnal embrace† is. Septimus's characteristically witty reply, that it is the act of throwing one's arms around a side of beef, does not deter Thomasina from her desire to know about sex. Chloe, Thomasina's modern counterpart, has less desire for formal, mathematical, or book knowledge but craves sexual knowledge. For Thomasina, the desire for sexual knowledge is a juvenile curiosity;emdash more a means to marriage and a first waltz. On the other hand, for the modern hormonal Chloe, sex is real sex; Chloe persuades Bernard to go up into the library stacks with her for what may be real sex. Until Thomasina is sixteen, she only desires the waltz and kiss. While Thomasina asks Septimus to come to her room after they waltz in the conclusion of the book, he refuses, and she is content. Thomasina studies history with disdain and boredom. As she tells Septimus, she is bored with and hates Cleopatra. Thomasina abhors Cleopatra's weakness for men and sex, as she complains Cleopatra makes â€Å"noodles of our sex. † Thomasina has seemingly distinguished between sex that is exciting and sex that weakens women and destroys knowledge and progress. Thomasina, herself, seeks sexual knowledge and mathematical knowledge but does not sacrifice one for the other. Historical knowledge is also sought after more urgently in the present. In scenes depicting modern-day Sidley Park, historical knowledge is rewarded by great fame and possibly sexual prowess. The modern characters value historical knowledge foremost. Bernard, of course, lusts after historical knowledge most of all, intent on receiving any and all fame it may bring. Hannah, with more reserve, also looks among the books of Sidley Park for a glimpse into the past and writes bestsellers on her findings. The intertwining past and present of Sidley Park provides commentary on the progression of knowledge or quest for knowledge in modern times. The modern day characters are concerned with the workings and findings of the past, while Thomasina and Septimus work to make new discoveries. The quest of all of the scholars thus forms a sort of loop; what is undervalued in one generation is greatly revered in the next. The state of inquiry revolves and evolves from an interest in the future to that of the past. And, like Septimus's apt description of humanity's quest for knowledge, the modern day continues to pick up what has been lost in the past, while simultaneously finding new ideas and formulas.

Informative Essay Sample on “Beloved” A Summary

Informative Essay Sample on â€Å"Beloved† A Summary The novel Beloved opens in 1873 with an introduction to the House on 124. Baby Suggs, Sethe’s mother-in-law, lived at 124 until she died. 124 was a way station for Blacks run by Baby Suggs. 124 is the address where Sethe and her family lived, who had four kids, the third child was killed. Sethe also has 2 sons, Howard and Buglar who ran away at the ages of twelve and thirteen. The spirit of Sethe’s third child who was killed at the age of one, haunts the house of 124. When Mr. Garner died, she ran off from â€Å"Sweet Home† to 124. Things changed shortly after Mr. Garner died. Sethe sent her two boys and her baby girl off to Cincinnati to live with their grandmother Baby Suggs. As Sethe was trying to escape from â€Å"Sweet Home† she was caught by white men who cornered her, took her milk, and beat her back so badly, that once healed she had been told that the scars look like a â€Å"cherry tree†. Paul D from â€Å"Sweet Home† visited Sethe at 124. While in the kitchen discussing the past, Paul D approached Sethe, unbuttoned her dress to get a good look at the â€Å"cherry tree† scars on her back. Sethe speaks to Paul D of the time when the two white men took her milk that she was saving for her newborn that she sent to Cincinnati. Paul D then reaches around Sethe and places his hands over her breasts. At that very moment the spirit of 124 confronts them. Paul D puts up a fight with the spirit and finally after 18 years of haunting it seems that he has gotten rid of the babys spirit. After doing so they feel that Paul D has finally put their past lives to rest. Sharing their hard times together, Sethe and Paul D start to plan a future together with each other. Paul D promises to be there for Sethe and she reluctantly agrees to let him take hold of her life. As Paul D, Sethe and Denver arrive back from the carnival they notice a women is leaning against a tree in the yard. This woman seems to be very tired, extremely thirsty, her shoes look new, and her skin flawless. She has a very rough voice however, when they ask her what her name is, she manages to spell out B-E-L-O-V-E-D. Denver cares for Beloved for weeks. However, Beloved begins to show devotion towards Sethe. Beloved tends to inquire about Sethe’s past, constantly asking questions that trigger old memories for Sethe. Paul D begins to grow suspicious of Beloved. Paul D tends to constantly question Beloved about her past, yet Beloved continuously avoids his questions. Denver reveals to Beloved that she knows Beloved was the spirit of 124. Now she wants to know why she came back alive. Beloved tells Denver that she really came back for Sethe. Beloved speaks to Denver about the place from where she came. Beloved explains the place as hot, very small, nothing to breath, and no room to move. Her description symbolizes both a womb and a slave ship. One night while sitting by the fire Beloved begins humming a song. Sethe realizes that the song she is humming is a song that she had made up and used to sing to her children. Nobody knows that song but me and my children, Sethe tells Beloved. Sethe then realizes whom Beloved really is, her third child come to life. She interprets Beloveds return as a sign that she has been forgiven and freed from the past. She then decides not to worry anymore about the outside world, yet to focus towards her family. Sethe tries to justify to Beloved that the murder was an act of love. She continuously assures Beloved that she will be a good mother. Sethe is no longer troubled with Paul D leaving. Sethe did everything and gave everything to Beloved, Beloved was never satisfied. Denver starts to fear for their lives because food has been starting to become scarce, so for the first time in eighteen years she leaves the house to go look for food. Denver decides that it would be best for her to get a job, for she is very fearful for her mothers life. She finds herself a job at Bodwins. Beloved was pregnant and sucking up every bit of Sethe’s life. The local women came to 124 to help Sethe and Denver from Beloved. During Mr. Bodwin’s appearance at 124, Sethe’s action was to kill Mr. Bodwin mistaking him from Schoolteacher thinking he was going to take her children. With all the singing and praying, Beloved vanished. You can order a custom essay, term paper, research paper, thesis or dissertation on   Beloved topics at our professional custom essay writing service which provides students with custom papers written by highly qualified academic writers. High quality and no plagiarism guarantee! Get professional essay writing help at an affordable cost.

Critically Compare the Concepts of Equal Opportunities and Sports Equity in British Sport Essays

Critically Compare the Concepts of Equal Opportunities and Sports Equity in British Sport Essays Critically Compare the Concepts of Equal Opportunities and Sports Equity in British Sport Essay Critically Compare the Concepts of Equal Opportunities and Sports Equity in British Sport Essay Critically compare the concepts of equal opportunities and sports equity in British sport This paper aims to compare the ideas of equal opportunities and sports equity with regard to sport in Britain. Within this structure, there will be particular emphasis on the theoretical approaches that are used to look at equality in British sport. A key part of this comparison is the study of (social) equality; this includes formal, radical and liberal interpretations of equality. The arguments and suggestions will be reinforced and supported by literature and other texts outside of just the sporting context. Many sports historians such as Holt (1989) say that sport, pre 20th Century, was almost private and restricted to the upper class minority. Recreational sports had a complex set of laws (i. e. tennis) this was to restrict participation from the lower classes. Another vestige of the times was the limitation of sport to women; this was not necessarily written law but was accepted none the less. Racism in sport was not tackled or even considered until well into the 20th century when the government introduced laws and legislation that banned prejudice based on race. As a consequence of these legalities, many recognised sporting institution in Great Britain have introduced policy and recommendations to deal with the problems of ‘inequality’ within their respective organisations. Nevertheless, as indicated by Guttman’s analysis (1978), continuous development in recent years has slowly begun to break down certain barriers to equality. Should someone wish to investigate further into actual modern equality work they can access a variety of net resources. A quick look at equality policies of the Football Association for example demonstrates that work is being done for the purpose of equality. Guttman (1978) even goes so far to say that in many sports worldwide, participants of any circumstance and environment are encouraged to participate. He also states however that equality in sport and its aims is seen by some as a distant achievement, it remains unrealistic. Guttman’s (1978) study illustrates that as sport entered the 2nd half of the 20th century, systems that control other components of a balanced society would also affect modern sporting institutions in the same way In order to better understand the aim of this paper, a number of key terms need some more clarity. The first term that needs defining is ‘equality’ and more pecifically ‘basic equality’. According to Baker (2004) basic equality is the concept that people have the same worth and are consequently worthy of equal interest and value. Many would argue that certain individuals and groups have earned more respect than other people and therefore inequalities should exist. Maybe w hat we should be considering is a minimum level of equality, a fundamental idea of equality whereby people all exist at the same point of respect. This would mean putting a threshold on what it is to be human. As indicated by Craig and Beedie (2010) the study of equality is an area of fascination to many sporting sociologists. Coakley (2003, p326) states, that this curiosity is established because many believe that sport goes beyond monetary and economic inequalities. A common belief is that sport is available to all; irrelevant of which equality strand someone may fit into (age, race, ethnicity etc). According to Craig and Beedie (2010) some consider the sporting domain a discrimination free arena; where a result is contested on fair grounds and the result goes to those with the most aptitude or skill. Another key term is stratification. This is a way of breaking down the different levels of society based on their sociological group. This helps to highlight the in/equality that is present in sport. A number of actual examples have been highlighted by Craig and Beedie (2010). Examples of these stratification layers include; the system of class formation affects the poor, the working class, and the lower/ middle and upper classes, these structures all seem to be highly rigid. The concept of social class is best recognised by using Marxist ideas of capitalism, where the idea of equality is seen in financial terms. Feminism however opposes the theory that ‘class stratification’ is the most important foundation of social inequality. Justifications about the gender distinctions in a sporting context vary from those concentrated on a biological argument to the arguments that place more impetus on the social understanding of gender. There is a repeated and constant emphasis in sport and society on the power of patriarchal arrangements; this too is present in sport. Liberal equality can be a little difficult to decipher in that it accepts basic equality but denies some other aspects of equality. The main principle according to Baker (2005) is that inequality of income and power cannot be alleviated. Equality as a concept plays the part of controlling inequalities so that income and power are more fairly distributed. In a way it can be said that liberal equality requires supporting the bare minimum that people are allowed and have access to, whilst controlling the advantage experienced by those that have more. Baker (2005) further states that the main underlying belief of liberal egalitarianism is the upholding and support of the most basic rights that all should have access to. Equal opportunity of course plays a key part in this study. Liberal equality is often used in conjunction with equality of opportunity. This is where groups or individuals have equal access to the opportunity to gain higher representation within their respective circles. It is rooted in the idea that inequalities in power will be ever present. Baker (2004) summarises this sentiment, he claims that the point of equality of opportunity is for everyone to get a fair chance in the sociological struggle, within a society that is unequal. Baker (2004) describes equal opportunity as the belief that everyone in society deserves a fair chance to contest over the positions in society that carry the most power. This concept was first used officially in the French Declaration of human rights in 1789. It states that everyone can hold a position â€Å"within their abilities† (French Declaration of the rights of man 1789). These days institutions everywhere boast equality policies and equality laws that make the discrimination based on gender and race in social institutions against the law In support of this, equal opportunity claims that nobody ought to benefit or suffer from their social circumstances; any prosperity and expectation ought to come about due to personal skills and endeavours. Rawls (1971) labels this concept ‘fair equal opportunity’. He believes that education should be used as a vehicle by the lower classes to develop the skills that would put them into a more advantaged situation. Equal opportunity is unachievable whilst those in positions of power use their influence to achieve hierarchy over others. Liberal equality approaches do not take into account the characteristics of structured inequality. Powerful social stigmas are not dealt with. We can therefore conclude that people’s opinions and beliefs (inequality) cannot change whilst such stigma still exist. Some would argue that this is good in theory but education doesn’t actually function in this way. A different aspect of equal opportunity includes establishing policies and legislation to assist people from minority groups in getting work and schooling/qualifications. Were people from minorities perhaps not supported properly in schools or education institutions then this could be down to them not having ‘equal opportunities’ to progress as the majority do. Baker (2004) appears to believe that the biggest sign of equal opportunity within an organisation is seen in the participation rates. A more comprehensive liberal equality view is that of Rawls (1971). This states that inequalities ought to favour those that need them the most. For those that believe in liberal equality this is not always the final solution however; improvements can be made to a number of factors contributing to equality, including: education, sport, the economy etc. A fine-tuning to these frameworks rather than completely overturning them is often the preferred way to achieve to equality. In order to understand liberal equality properly however, something to compare it to is required. Radical approaches to equality oppose the liberal view of equal opportunity. It maintains that in order to eradicate inequality much larger steps should be taken. Inequalities should not just simply be dealt with after recognition. â€Å"The key to this much more ambitious agenda is to recognise that inequality is rooted in changing and changeable social structures, and particularly in structures of domination and oppression. These structures create, and continually reproduce, the inequalities which liberal egalitarianism sees as inevitable. † (Baker 2004, 18) This handsomely describes the way in which radical equality aims to eliminate equality compared to the liberal view. As oppose to the liberal view of concentrating on the power distribution allocated to individuals, the radical view allows for advantage to more than just individuals, but groups. On the contrary to liberal ideas of how power is allocated, the radical approach attempts find answers in the social connection between related parties. Another trend of the liberal approach is to reward individuals with their own triumphs and indeed failures. The radical approach on the other hand tends to attribute these triumphs and failures to larger social occurrences. As indicated by Baker (2004) many argue that the liberal approach to equality differs from that of equality of outcome. However, the radical approach, as does the liberal approach encourages choice as the final outcome. There is no reason that both approaches to equality cannot allow for choice. In order to summarise the above comments â€Å"basic egalitarianism tends to concentrate on subsistence needs, liberal egalitarianism on the idea of a decent standard of living and radical egalitarianism on what people need for a full human life† (Baker 2004, 19) In order to fully understand this task, we must also look at the origins of sport in the UK. During the late 1800s (Victorian period) Great britain went through a major reform, this is commonly known as the ‘Industrial revolution’. It was driven by invention, engineering breakthroughs and class restructuring. A movement from farming and agriculture towards Industrial urban based work meant that labourers moved from the countryside to the city. This mass movement of workers into factories allowed the newly middle class employers considerate control over the workforce and the opportunity to influence the way workers should spend their leisure time. Throughout this era of reform, sport was still however considered an activity of the higher classes. The control exerted over the masses encouraged employees and workers into a different way to spend their leisure time. Structure in recreation became encouraged. According to Townson (1997) this became the norm as the middle classes had fears that the increasingly large urban population may become unruly. The idea of ‘rational recreation’ became the name of this notion. Over the years the bourgeoisie anticipated discomfort among the working class. Towards the end of the 19th century in Great Britain the concept of ‘Muscular Christianity’ (Holt 1989) was established in order to distract the masses from want to reform (Holt 1989) â€Å"The very idea of a play discipline would have seemed absurd, yet this is what a growing band of bourgeois idealists advocated during the second half of the century† (Townson 1997). Sport and recreation had been introduced by the bourgeoisie. This helped maintain a healthy labour force and diverted masses away from ‘urban radicalism’. It was during this time that the upper classes and more advantaged started to consider the importance of fairness through reform and education. While sport for the masses still took on a rational recreation edge, sport was undergoing a period of change. A combination of factors leading to this change included an emphasis on health through exercise (due in part to inferior performances from the British forces in South Africa) and an increasing emphasis on professionalism. Sports clubs and facilities were made available by middle class. Key factors that occurred during the Victorian period according to Davis (2000): An ethical code produced by the bourgeoisie became associated with sport Realisation of fair-play (introduction of rules and equal conditions) Freedom at weekends gave people more time for recreation. Sport in education was limited to gym and discipline The second notable phase in british sport history swaying further towards equality was the establisment of the Wolfenden report of 1960. This was written for the Central Council of Physical Recreation by an autonomous group of individuals to determine the state of sport in the UK. According to Rous (1960) it was published to demonstrate the inequalities and problems that existed in UK sport in comparison with its peer countries. After the publication of the wolfenden report the government took yet a further step towards a more interventionist approach by establishing the GB sports council in 1972. Collins (2003) claims that this was an important step for the government, as it allowed authorities to make social and welfare provision for public sport After new labour came to power in 1997, sport was given a new social status. The organisation of UK sport structure at the time was considered an obstacle to governments recently set out aims: Increased youth participation Increased succes in elite sport This quote taken from Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) demonstrates the awareness that some had of the state of sport within the UK â€Å"There is a need for a radical rethink of the way we fund and organize sport, we offer a modernizing partnership with the governing bodies of sport† (DCMS 2000 p19). In the same review they also threaten Governing Bodies within sport with withdrawal of funding should they not meet required governmental targets. The 3rd and perhaps most important stage of movements towards equality came in the shape of sporting equity. Sport England (2000) very broadly defines sports equity as fairness in sport. According to Sport England (2000) sports equity is in place to make sport more accessible to everyone period. It is a concept larger than sports equality and all strands of equality are made irrelevant. Equity: In its simplest sense, ‘fairness’; the process of allocating (or reallocating) resources and entitlements, including power, fairly and without discrimination. It may also use positive action initiatives and measures to address existing inequities. † (Sport England 2000 p39) As already stated inequalities date back to the beginnings of sport, in some ways they were institutionalised (Sport England 2000). After all the development i n sport however, cases of inequality do still exist. Even in todays modern society there are still only a handful of for example; ethnic minority ‘power’ in sport. Coaches seem to remain white, middle class. However, these inequalities are now recognised and agencies are putting in structures to improve the situation for these inequalities â€Å"Sport England is committed to supporting governing bodies in their quest to overcome inequality in sport† (Sport England 2000, p3). Equity in sport came around relatively late. A number of thngs happened which really pushed the equity movement forward. Equity issues came under the spotlight during the Macpherson Report and the stephen Lawrence inquiry. Both of these highlighted the extent of discrimination still present in society. Sporting campaigns and government iniatives have pushed for further equity in sport and according to Sport England (2000) but have committed to further action in the future. â€Å"It cannot be assumed that any sport is open and accessible to all members of the community† (Sport England 2000, p4). Even the sport england equity page recognises that more needs to be done to secure access to sport for all. Further policy will be encouraged and implemented. Society is changing and the existence of organisations, societies or clubs that exclude large sectors of the population from their activities, whether directly or indirectly, is viewed as anachronistic and increasingly unacceptable†. (Sport England 2000, p3). This quote demonstrates that the government is aware of the mass change in stance towards inequality. Despite the emergence of sports equity policies and propositions; inequalities still exist in sport. This can be seen in the recent Luis Suarez racism case and the John Terry racism case. These examples demonstrate that equality exists at the highest level. Equality work needs further development, much in the same way sports equity has developed. References Baker, J. ; Lynch, K. ; Cantillon, S. ; and Walsh, J. (2004) Equality: from Theory to Action London: Palgrave. Coakley, J (2003) Sports in Society: Issues and controversies. New York: Mcgraw-Hill Collins, M. F. with Kay, T. (2003). Sport and social exclusion. London: Routledge. Craig P and Paul Beadie (2010) Sport Sociology. 2nd Edition. Active Learning in Sport Davis, B. et al. (2000) Physical Education and the Study of Sport. UK: Harcourt Publishers Ltd Department for Culture, Media and Sport. (2001a). Elite Sport Funding Review (chair, J. Cunningham). London: DCMS. Guttman, A (1978) From ritual to record. New York. Columbia press Holt R. (1989) Sport and the British: A Modern History. Oxford: Clarendon Rawls, J. A. (1971) A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press Sport and the community : the report of the Wolfenden Committee on Sport 1960 Sport England, June (2000). Governing Body Resource Pack. Planning for sport. Factfiles: Sports equity Stanley Rous. Chairman, Executive committee, C. C. P. R. 1960 Nigel Townson 1997 The British at Play – a social history of British sport from 1600 to the present