Social justice for African American women Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Social justice for African American women - Essay Example ing the black women criminals,appears far easier than creating a health care system that ensures healthy babies for all citizens†. She argued that, there are two main ‘ingredients that powerful white men have poured into establishing social order.The first pertains to â€Å"the dehumanization of Africans on the basis of race,†and â€Å"the control of women’s sexuality and reproduction† (Rhapsodyinbooks, 2008). Before the feminist movement, according to Roberts the black African women had no rights; they were just slaves to the masters. In fact, the worse was they did not own their body--denied of the right to self-preservation. They were so unfortunate that they just like a chattel--a thing that could be sold. In addition, masters (the white men) would pay $400 and get a young female.The poor black woman would be forced to procreate for the masters.After she was used,the master would then sell her and her three kids for an amount of $4000. Roberts add ed that, â€Å"for slave women procreation had a little to do with liberty†... That was the scenario before, but it seems like the ban of importation of slaves during 1808 did not reach its power and influence in today’s time--United States government enslaves, criminalizes and dehumanizes those who do not compliment to the white men and women. 1.3 Injustice and Inequality Social problems in America still haunt the soul of Black women. Dawson (n.d.) stressed that white women were always praised and often tagged with kind words like industrious, intelligent, and responsible. On the contrary, Black women were dubbed as lazy, ignorant, and shiftless. Despite the provisions enclosed in 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), black women were still treated the way they were before. In addition, this act discriminates the poor black women--it limits their time on aid to a lifetime maximum of five years. Further, it strictly requires single mothers to marry. Those who lived far beyond in their segregated homes would suff er to travel miles of distance just to find livelihood for their children (Rhapsodyinbooks, 2008). 1.4 Assessment Justice requires equality and just treatment--no discrimination and violation of rights. Roberts, in her exemplary work detailed the points how black women were treated as if they were not human and did not exist. She argued that the concept of â€Å"liberty† was just about and for the interest and welfare of the whites only; for those who belong to middle class--that â€Å"liberty† is just concerned on the concept of â€Å"abortion.† Towards the end, she also reiterated that many policy proposals were detrimental to the Americans specially the ‘underestimated’ black women. Her argument

Mathematics of Finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Mathematics of Finance - Essay Example The potential of real option analysis is like Discounted Cash Flows (DCF), and other investment analysis techniques is simply another tool. The two techniques are complementary. Management should employ both methods in the analysis of potential investments and gather information from both (Amram, 2000). Further, we must consider a real option analysis is not ordinarily a simple technique. With it comes an amount of technical comfort required on the part of the analyst in order to implement the technique correctly. Like most techniques derived from financial theory, it is easily abused. Those who will utilize the information provided by real option analysis need training in the proper interpretation of its results (Eiteman, 2007). DCF analysis, defined as the process of valuing capital budgeting projects by discounting their future expected cash flows. DCF framework, defined as the valuing of an asset by discounting its expected future cash flows at some discount rate. Real option analysis is gaining in use and popularity. Senior management prefers this option because it has two sequences of a project. It describes the cash inflows and out flows at different times. Usually this is the way that management sees projects unfold. Real option analysis values management by its very nature.

The Influence Of Cultural Difference On Trademark Translation Cultural Studies Essay

The Influence Of Cultural Difference On Trademark Translation Cultural Studies Essay As a product of the development of the world market economy, trademark has been well regarded as a key element in the success of the advertising of an enterprise. Trademark is closely related to the sales and reputation of businesses and it has long been proved by history that a successful trademark would always facilitate the success of a business. As for trademark, it may have the following functions. Firstly, the trademark performs the role of identifying the goods of a particular manufacturer and gives an indication of its origin, or establishes a connection in the course of trade. Secondly, trademark assures quality of the product and acts as a symbol representing the goodwill of the business.(wikipedia, 2011) Also a trademark advertises the product and creates an image in the mind of the ultimate purchaser. Therefore, the naming of trademark has developed into an important strategy in winning the market for businesses all around the world. Since Chinas accession into the WTO in 2000, it is becoming increasingly involved in the world market economy and is faced with more chances as well as challenges ever in history. Furthermore, with the rapid development of global economy integration, more and more foreign commodities have been rushing into Chinas domestic market, posing even fiercer competitions in terms of not only quality and service of commodities but also trademarks. All these have suggested that the study on the translation of trademark is of great importance. Over the past several decades, with the rapid development of the world economy, numerous new-born industries have sprung up all around the world. This has consequently made the trademark one of the fastest and most dramatically developing advertising texts which influence peoples life in various ways and which, as the economy further develops, would exert even more influences on the world. However, being inconsistent with the rapid development of trademark terms, trademark translation, which is becoming increasingly important internationally due to the dramatic development of economic globalization, is still in its infancy stage with only few articles or monographs on trademark translation available in domestic study. Good news is that trademark translation as a whole has been receiving increasing attention from advertisers, marketers as well as scholars, though none of their studies exclusively specialize in trademark translation. As a matter of fact, trademark translation is regard ed as part of advertising translation and studies on trademark translation have been included in some of the studies on advertising translation. Therefore, the development of advertising translation could to some extent, shed some light on the evolution of trademark translation. In 1972, the term of advertising translation made its virgin appearance among the people in Hurbins article Peut-on Traduire la Langue de la Publicite-Can You Translate the Language of Advertising. Hurbin states in the article the importance of the study on advertising translation and demonstrated the way advertising materials such as brand names, slogans and trademarks are expressed in different languages. (Hurbin 24-32) Vestergaard and Schraders The language of Advertising in 1985 illustrates the range of linguistic and visual techniques advertisers use to achieve emphasis and special effects. They reveal the ways in which the advertiser preys on beliefs about sex roles and prejudices about social groups which bring the previous studies to a discourse level. In 1995, Candace Seguinot, in her article of Translation and Advertising: Going Global in Cultural Functions of Translation, discusses translation advertising from a cultural and semiotic perspective, saying that the marketing of goods and services across cultural boundaries involves an understanding of culture and semiotics that goes well beyond both language and design(Seguinot,1995:55-72), which indicates the importance of cultural elements in translating both ads and trademarks. After that, with the emergence of the ever fast-developing international trade and economic globalization, studies on advertising translation have increased in number. 1997, Smith V. and C.Klein-Braley published a paper Advertisinga Five-stage Strategy for Translation in which they concluded the approaches to the problem of translating advertisements into five categories, and some of them such as Straight translation, Adaptation(keep visuals, change text slightly or significantly) and Revision(keep visuals, write new text) are regarded as quite applicable to trademark translation. And in line with the economic globalization, Mathieu Guidere wrote a book named Translating Ads in 2000 which is considered to be the only book exclusively specializing in advertising translation. In his book, Mathieu aims at describing advertising translation in the context of globalization and deals with the advertising of multinational corporations which are in need of translating their slogans, communication campaigns and trademarks into several other languages. Mathieu also proposed the translation be effective in a purpose to promote the sales of the product or service in the target culture. ( Guidere 89) In China, the study on advertising and trademark translation did not begin until the 1980s for China has just been going to the international economy for about 30 years. During that period of time, most of these studies were done from the lexical, syntactical or rhetorical perspectives. And it was in the 1990s that several advertising and trademark translation principles came to take their initial shape. Among these, various new perspectives such as religious, aesthetic and psychological perspectives were added to the principles of ads and trademark translation. According to domestic data available, Zhao Jian-cheng and Yu Liu-guo (1993) applied the theory of textual function in their study of advertising translation. And later, Huang Guowens book Theory and Practice of Discourse AnalysisA Study in Advertising Discourse (2001), made a detailed study of English advertisement from the perspective of Systemic-Functional Linguistics. (Huang 75) The book of Advertising Linguistic: A Course Book (2009) by Cao Wei and Gao Jun is yet another example of an overall study on advertising and trademark translation from lexical, syntactical and rhetorical perspectives. In recent years, pragmatics has emerged as another approach toward advertising and trademark translation. Apart from this, there are also experts who suggest advertising and trademark translation be done under mere consideration of the cultural and ideological differences between different audiences while literal honesty to the original texts should be discarded when addressing oversea audiences. 2.2. Problems in Previous Researches However, despite the increasing researches and studies on advertising and trademark translation, some problems remain unsolved. Trademark is one of the most important means of advertising products because it performs the role of identifying the goods of a particular manufacturer and makes the first impression of the goods on consumers, which would create an image of goodwill in the mind of the ultimate purchaser. Thus, trademark translation becomes a very important task in introducing products to overseas markets in different cultures. Nowadays, the situation is becoming even more urgent under the circumstances of the deepening economic globalization which has made international trade across different cultures a common place. Regrettably, although great achievement of the study of trademark translation has been made, there are still some problems remain unsolved. Firstly, most studies done in this field is based on the manifestation of specific examples of trademark translation witho ut a series of systematic and scientific theories. There are a lot of good examples of trademark translation but there is never a systematic and scientific theory by which researchers can follow. Some of the traditional theories, in most cases, may lead to misunderstandings resulting from undue adherence to the source text and inadequate consideration of cultural differences. Secondly, the previous studies of the translation of trademark-a symbol of the rapid changes in modern society-has lost its charm of vigor due to the lack of fresh materials with repeatedly quoted examples and single minded perspective: Coca-cola which is translated as à ¥Ã‚ Ã‚ ¯Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ Ã‚ £Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ Ã‚ ¯Ãƒ ¤Ã‚ ¹Ã‚  and Benz as à ¥Ã‚ ¥Ã¢â‚¬ Ãƒ ©Ã‚ ©Ã‚ °, etc. Finally, the studies of trademark translation are mostly done in forms of papers or essays with few systematic and scientific monographs or books specializing in the study on this subject. 2.3. The Importance of the Study As has mentioned above, trademark is a product of the development of the world market economy and it has been well regarded as a key element in the success of the advertising of an enterprise. Trademark is closely related to the sales and reputation of businesses and it has long been proved by history that a successful trademark would always facilitate the success of a business. A trademark is embodied with rich cultural content. The cultural differences between different nations play a major role in understanding advertising and advertising or trademark translation, for cultural differences have their manifestation in social conventions, consumers psychology, religion and aesthetics, all of which have a dramatic influence on peoples life. Some scholars has concluded that trademark translation is not just a simple transfer of one language to another, but a blending and collision between different cultures, thus, making trademark translation more of a cultural translation. Therefore, the study on trademark translation from a cultural aspect is indeed very necessary and important. 2.4. Theory Applied in the Study To analyze the influence of cultural difference on trademark translation, the Adaptation Theory from Verschueren is adopted by the author for it provides a more comprehensive perspective from social, cultural and cognitive aspects for the research on trademark translation. The theory of adaptation is advanced by Verschueren in his book of Understanding Pragmatics, 1999. The theory originates from the basic principle of adaptation for species in wild life-in order to survive the bitter wild environment, biological species have to constantly make adaptations to the changing environment. In Verschueren eyes, the same holds true for the language communication-language using is a process of adaptation in which communicators making negotiable linguistic choices from a variable range of possibilities in such as way so as to approach points of satisfaction for communicative need (Versehueren, 1999:61). He then thoroughly examined the social progress of communicating and included the social, cultural and cognitive aspects in his theory from the perspective of pragmatics. However, previous approaches of trademark translation lay emphasis on the result of trademark translation while neglecting translating process. Therefore, the research on trademark translation under the framework of adaptation theory is almost a virgin area. In this regard, the author of this paper, enlightened by the findings of the Theory of Adaptation, considers it to be the best theory for trademark translation from the perspective of cultural difference. Under the Adaptation Theory, Verschueren maintains that the language consists of three properties, namely, adaptability, variability and negotiability which is quite in line with trademark translation, for trademark is changing and spreading rapidly across different cultures nowadays and the variability provides different choices for translation, negotiability explains how choices are made for different cultures and the adaptability interprets why choices are made. Also, the research scope of Verschueren covers social, cultural and cognitive aspects which are similar to the basic elements of cultural difference with social to social conventions and cognitive to psychology. 3. Understanding of Trademark 3.1. Definition of Trademark The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English defines a trademark as a special name, sign, or word that is marked on a product to show that it is made by a particular company, that cannot be used by any other company(HarrisLevey, 1975). And according to the definition of trademark from en.wiktionary.org/wiki/trademark, a trademark is a word, symbol, or phrase used to identify a particular companys product and differentiate it from other companies products.(Wikipedia, 2011) Mostly, a trademark is composed of a whole picture and one or a few words. For instance the trademark of, which consists the word BMW and the whole picture of . Some may feel confused about such term as trademark, trade name and brand name. These three terms do not only share a large number of similarities but also great differences that lie mainly in four aspects: firstly, according to the definition of trade name in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English a trademark is different from a trade name in that the precious one is used to identify a particular companys product while the latter is used to identify a particular manufacturer or company engaged in production(Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 2004). Therefore, a trademark can be used individually while a trade name cannot. The difference between a trademark and a brand name mainly lies in that a brand name has a larger scope than that of a trademark or in other words, a trademark may be part of a brand name while a brand name is not. 3.2. Functions of Trademark An successful translation of a trademark from one culture to another is very important for the marketing and development of a enterprise because of the following functions a trademark may have. Informative function: As a special means of advertising, trademark contains a lot of information about products. A trademark is just like a bridge which conveys the most distinctive features of a product directly to customers. For instance, the translation of the trademark Rejoice to à ©Ã‚ £Ã‹Å"à ¦Ã… ¸Ã¢â‚¬ (shampoo) implies part of its function which is smoothing your hair. Excelle(car) originating from excellent gives an impression of superb quality and in the case of Fairlady(shoes for femal), it serves as a bridge that combines its product and the target customer which in this case refers to women. In this way, customers would find it easier to find what they want and companies easier to market their product. Aesthetic function: the creating of a trademark is an art that integrated the creating of graphic beauty, phonetic beauty and semantic beauty rather than just a work of choosing words, for creating a readable, easily memorizing and attention attracting trademark is one of the most important aspects in the advertising and publicizing of a product. A successful example in the realization of aesthetic functions of a trademark would not only provide sufficient information but also possess a sense of beauty, easy to memorize and would finally arouse customers deaire to buy the product. Persuasive function: as one kind of advertising text, the ultimate goal of a trademark is to persuade customers to buy its product. Therefore, a trademark text should not only provide enough information about the product but also be psychological appealing. For example, the word à ¥Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ °Ãƒ ¥Ã‹â€ Ã‚ ©(aotomobile) in China means auspicious and good luck. It arouses customers purchasing desire by appealing to their psychological needs. Due to the difference of development in history, different value concepts have been developed into the society. The difference between values may have its manifestation in many aspects such as aesthetic concepts, different views on beauty and so on. Western trademarks have a preference on naming trademarks after names-names of the founders or celebrities-for their worship for individualism is embedded in their values and they lay much emphasis on special, independence, or self-reliance. On the other hand, Chinese trademarks are always named after flowers or animals or other substance in nature, for the Chinese values are greatly influenced by its traditional philosophies of Confucianism, Taoism and so on. They lay much emphasis on the harmony of nature and the balance between human society and nature. Therefore, their admiration for the nature and the substance in of nature is also embedded in their value concepts. The psychological differences between China and western countries mainly refers to their difference between philosophy, science, religion, art and other concepts. Formed through their work and development generation after generation, the psychology of a nation is an integral part of a culture. It reflects peoples views on certain things such as their preference or prejudice toward certain things, taboos and so on. For instance, the number 13 is considered to be a serious taboo in the west while in China it indicates nothing else but the figure 13. Customers have a tendency to lay their confidence in those commodities whose trademarks contain positive meaning rather than those with negative meaning. Therefore, in the case of figure 13, translators should spare no effort to transliterate the negative meaning of 13 for the target customer. Customs and social conventions together is regarded as an overt expression of the social culture of a nation. It reflects a cultures unique way of life which makes up the major aspect of a society. The difference between what Chinese people and people from the west will say in their greetings serves as a good example: Chinese people usually express their greetings by asking if he/she has had his/her meal or not when he/she encounters an acquaintance accidentally, while this is considered to be very misleading in the west for people would take it seriously that you want invite him/her to have a meal with you. Customs and social conventions is also a important element which may have a great influence on customers purchasing activities. A trademark translation which is appealing to the customs and social conventions will very likely win the target customers trust and thus arouse their desire to purchase. Cultural values actually contains a so large range of contents that in some cases other cultural elements such as psychology and customs could all be included in it. Indeed, many people believe that value concept is one of the most influential factors that influence customer behaviour. Value is considered to be so important because it is a series of principles and criteria learned throughout peoples life which tell people what to do, what to pursue, whats right and wrong, whats required and whats forbidden. It permeates a culture and exerts tremendous influences on every part of life. An understanding of value may help us understand the behaviour of other people and thus resolve many problems and conflicts. This is also very helpful in the translation of trademarks and the promotion of sales. For example, Americans hold different value concepts toward politeness from those of Chinese. They consider the punctuality of time a more important part of being politeness than Chinese people do. By knowing this, when Chinese businessmen are doing business in America, they may pay more attention to puncutality so as to leave a good impression on their American counterparts. However, an understanding of value is just not enough in the case of trademark translation. Value is associated with things such as ethics, morals, religions and attitude toward life which are so deeply embedded in one culture that it can be transmitted from one generation to another without any tremendous change. Therefore, when trademarks are to be translated into the target culture, the cultural contents should be adapted so as to conform to the values of the target market and promote sales consequently. Different countries have different customs and social conventions which would exert tremendous influence on what product are to be manufactured, how they are manufactured, by whom will these product be purchased and in what way will these product be consumed. These information are all very important to trademark translation, for something which is very necessary and appropriate in one country may turn out to be redundant and ridiculous and fail to attract peoples attention in another. China and western countries have developed a series of different customs and social conventions such as different political systems, different festivals, different ways of greeting, different views toward animals and different aesthetic concepts. When a trademark is to be marketed in another country, it must be adapted to the target social conventions and customs. Chinese and English are very different from each other in all aspects. They have developed different idioms or phrases. There is a classic example of how different idioms and phrases can effect ones sales. à §Ã¢â€ž ¢Ã‚ ½Ãƒ ¨Ã‚ ±Ã‚ ¡ is a famous trademark for battery, it carries a meaning of purity(à §Ã¢â€ž ¢Ã‚ ½) and strenth(à ¨Ã‚ ±Ã‚ ¡). However, the word à §Ã¢â€ž ¢Ã‚ ½Ãƒ ¨Ã‚ ±Ã‚ ¡ which means a white elephant in English has a different implication in western countries. In the west, a white elephant is a conventional phrase which refers to something useless or necessary. Therefore, the trademark of à §Ã¢â€ž ¢Ã‚ ½Ãƒ ¨Ã‚ ±Ã‚ ¡ can never be translated directly into white elephant. A better option is that is can be translated into brown lion which carries an implication of strength and power. It is known to us all that westerners have a opener character toward many things such as love than Chinese people do. Consequently, west trademarks are also more open and direct in expressing such things. For example, Kiss Me is considered to be a appropriate trademark for cosmetic, for it directly expresses womens pursuit and wish for love, thus arouses womens sympathetic responses in their inner hearts. However, Chinese people tend to have a more conservative and traditional concept toward such things as love and so on. In order to conform to the target customers psychological custom, the trademark should not be translated into à ¥Ã‚ Ã‚ »Ãƒ ¦Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ. Instead, it is translated as à ¥Ã‚ ¥Ã¢â‚¬ ¡Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ £Ã‚ «Ãƒ §Ã‚ ¾Ã… ½ which implies the beauty(à §Ã‚ ¾Ã… ½) of women. In Chinese history, à ¦Ã‚ Ã…“à ¥Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ·is a very honourable person for he is the one who first invented wine, a kind of drink which has become part of Chinese peoples life in history. Therefore, he is honored as the god of wine by Chinese people and there is also a trademark for wine named after him. However, when à ¦Ã‚ Ã…“à ¥Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ·was introduced into the west, it was translated into Chinese pingying Dukang which failed to convey its traditional meaning to customers in the west. As a matter of fact, though China and western countries have different tales and traditions, there do exist an western version Chinese à ¦Ã‚ Ã…“à ¥Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ·, namely, Bacchus who is the god of wine and fertility in Roman mythology. In this way, the trademark of Bacchus can bring about associations with wine and alcohol for westerners. Beside all these mentioned above, there are still many differences in customs and social conventions which marketers should pay special attention to in trademark translation. For instance, the unit China and western countries use to measure the same thing may be well different from each other. Chinese people usually use such unit as cm, m, kilometer, kilogram etc. While most western countries prefer to use such unit as foot, inch, pound, oz. Such differences in social conventions sometimes may cause difficulty in understanding and thus affect promotion in sales. Therefore, in some cases, such units should be replaced by those that are familiar to the target customers. However, all these differences talked above are interrelated and no one can be replaced by one another. They are integrated as a whole and exert an joint influence rather than respective ones on trademark translation. Therefore, in the process of translating trademarks, marketers should take all these cultural aspects into consideration so as to work out a version that conforms to the target culture to the largest extent possible.

Skeeball and The Secret of The Universe :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the book Skeeball and The Secret of The Universe, the main characters are; Matty-narrorator, Cal-Matty's best friend, Dana, Cal's sister, Finch-the old mant hat works at the arcade, Jennifer-the cute girl Matty likes, with the red sports car, and Jennifer's two roomates, Denise and Claudia.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The conflict of this book is person vs. self because, throughout the whole book, Matty is mad at Cal for getting a job and at the end, he finally realizes he was mad at himself and taking it out on Cal. This book was first person because Matty was talking about what happened to him.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This book was about Matty and Cal making an pact on not to get a job because it was their last summer together and they wanted to make it count. Cal ended up getting a job nbeacuse he hated bumming money off of his friends and family. Eventually, Matty ended up getting so mad at Cal he stopped talking to him. Matty had nothing to do anymore since hie best friend was off at work all the time and he was mad at hime, so her started going to the arcade and he didn't like the video games, he liked the carnival games.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One night whgen he was playing skeeball, this old man that worked there, Finch, started giving him a lot of tokens and tips on skeeball. After a couple of weeks of going to the arcade, on his way home, he was going to the Stop and Shop where Cal had been working for a while. Matty was walking through the prking lot when three cute gilrs pulled up in a red sports car, Jennifer, Claudia, and Denise. They asked him the address to the beach house Jennifer's dad had just bought for them. He started giving them the diretions and they told him to get in the car and just show them. When Matty laid his eyes on Jennifer he thought she was the one.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Later on, Matty found out Cal's sister, Dana, liked him. Matty realized that Cal was mad at him, but he didn't know what for. When he found out Dana liked him, he realized Cal was mad at him because of that. Matty kept Finch up-to-date on everything, Dana found out that Matty started playing skeeball so she started playing also. Finch kept telling Matty that he should talk to Dana more often because Finch knew Dana liked Matty.

Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough

Introduction:Take that part of the history, when the first interactions between the native Indians and the British settlers. Mostly, it began with the initial hesitation, mutual distrust, pitched battles ensued, lots of bloodshed resulted with loss of human lives on either side, the true and noble emotions of the human beings played their part, love episodes between the white man and black beauties happened. Did it help to smooth the relations between then tribes and the settlers, or worsened the situation resulting in more mistrust and bloodshed. Many constrains come in the path of writing the history of the sixteenth century and what really happened in Jamestown, in the absence of authentic historical records   as for the conditions and contributions of the native Indians. British historians have sidetracked many facts, according to Helen Rountree and she has tendered archeological evidences to prove her findings.The Lives Changed:Pocahontas is regarded as the most famous Native American who ever lived, hailed from the native tribes. But as documented by the historians, during the process of settlement of Jamestown and for two subsequent centuries, the great Tribal Chiefs, Powhatan and Opechancanough took the front seats. Pocahontas demanded lots of attention for different reasons. Opechancanough captured the British captain John Smith. To save his skin and perhaps his life from his unpredictable captor, John Smith came out with certain original ideas to impress his captors in that land of uncertainties for the early adventurous settlers.He gave his captor a compass, and told him the details about a spherical earth which revolved around the sun. He had apprehensions whether his captor was a cannibal in which case Smith’s life was in danger. That was a wrong assumption– he was no cannibal but he ‘knew’ that the earth was flat. John Smith was duly presented before the paramount chief Powhatan. The meeting had positive results as for John Smith. He got an opportunity to meet Powhatan’s daughter Pocahontas. Thinking him to be a good individual and believing that he had a firm ally, he released Smith from captivity. Within the next few decades his people were the subjects of the British Crown.The 400th anniversary of Jamestown’s founding:Helen Rountree is a nationally renowned scholar of Native Americans. Historians could not get much of the events that shaped the lives of Powhatan or Opechancanough, but Rountree’s book fills up this lacuna.  Ã‚   Pocahontas steals the limelight as for the remarkable life that she lived. All the three historical figures have been adequately covered in the book. The initial introduction, the interaction period and the final confrontation between the natives with the English settlers have been taken into account. An interesting turn to the events of the era was the intriguing diplomacy following     the marriage of Pocahontas and John Rolfe. This personal event was against the social traditions then practiced by the tribal. During Opechancanough’s reign the native sovereignty came to an end.The essential difference between the writing and recordings of the British Historians and Helen Rountree:The book written from the ethno-historical angle, Rountree has utilized two important tools required for honestly constructing historical facts—anthropology and written records. The writers among the white settles did their own job. Their writings remained unchallenged, whether right or wrong, because there was not another writer, who could tell facts. By no account English can be termed as heroes. They were Tassantassas (strangers), squatters and invaders. The truth must be told, feels Rountree and she has constructed her recordings in an authentic manner on the basis of facts and evidences.When romance scores over history:History is an interesting subject; history with romance is very interesting. Historical fiction novels are good playing ground for the imaginative movies to sprout. For one thing, the historical characters lay quietly in their graves and they are not likely to challenge your version of their romance. John Smith, known in his day as a bad boy, would not have done anything good for the fifteen years young Princess Pocahonas, the daughter of Chief Powhatan. Did she play a role to save John Smith’s who was imprisoned by the Tribal Chief—can’t say but her contribution to lessen the tension between the colonists and the natives was noticeable and mentioned prominently by the historians. She married Jon Rolfe, a British nobleman. She learned to speak English. She adopted the Christian religion.She moved to London and became a lady. In the meantime, Powhatan tried and did his best for unity between the natives and colonists. He seemed to have succeeded for a while but later the conflicts resumed.The systematic and scientific approach to writing by Helen Rountree:Rountree wri tes without any prejudice, and calls spade a spade. She has termed the British settlers as invaders and rightly so. The book intensely covers the period from 1607 to 1644.She has highlighted three important points, a) Virginia Company’s settlement in Jamestown, b) deterioration of relations between colonists and natives and c) the wars of 1622 and 1644. She has given detailed description about the pre-invasion life of the tribes, highlighting the importance of  Ã‚   rituals in their life. She has mentioned the different lifestyles and environments, and shown how values were entirely different. The contents of the book give the overall picture of the founding of Jamestown from the Indian point of view.â€Å"Jamestown's founding approaches, nationally renowned scholar of Native Americans, Helen Rountree, provides in a single book the definitive biographies of these three important figures. In their lives we see the whole arc of Indian experience with the English settlers â⠂¬â€ from the wary initial encounters presided over by Powhatan, to the uneasy diplomacy characterized by the marriage of Pocahontas and John Rolfe, to the warfare and eventual loss of native sovereignty that came during Opechancanough's reign.† (Three†¦.)  Rountree, with her scholarly approach gives facts about seventeenth-century Powhatan culture. It is being appreciated by the scholars for the wealth of understanding it brings.   The lay readers like it for the personable prose and lively narrative structure. Her interpretations are backed up by careful, acceptable research-based reasoning and extensive knowledge.To get the truth, sieving the biased and none-sided approach of the British historians is a tough task and Rountree has managed her job well, despite hard constrains. Powhatan lacked a written language. She has relied upon evidence derived from archaeology. She has highlighted Powhatan’s own vocabulary of seasons linked to different forms of food g etting. One feels of getting the other side of the story—the real story! â€Å"In particular, the three main subjects of the book all begin to emerge—Powhatan and Openchancanough from their relative obscurity, and Pocahontas from the myths that have surrounded her since at least the nineteenth century. Just in time for 2007, they appear with all of the complexity of character and motivation that the history books have typically reserved for only a few of the â€Å"strangers† like John Smith.† (Virginia†¦.)Hollywood portrayals:â€Å"When Disney Studios released the 1995 movie, Pocahontas, Dr. Rountree subsequently devoted many interviews to debunking the myths surrounding the young girl who, today, plays such a pivotal role in the American imagination.† Recently Hollywood movie â€Å"The New World† is released. This movie is an adult version of the Pocahontas and John Smith romance.  Ã‚   The four hundredth anniversary of Jamestownâ₠¬â„¢s founding was inaugurated, May 2006, that will last for 18 months.Conclusion:Helen Rountree’s credits and achievements through this book can be summed up thus. She has thrown fresh light on the life and culture of the native Indians. One is able to understand Jamestown in a better perspective. The indigenous voices are heard. She has shown how important are the lives of Pocahonas, Powhatan and Openchancanough to understand what happened in and to Jamestown in the sixteenth century.References Cited:Rountree, Helan C. Book: Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough: Three Indian Lives Changed by Jamestown. Publisher: University of Virginia Press; Edition (June 15, 2006) ISBN-10: 0813925967: ISBN-13: 978-0813925967Article: Three Indian Lives Changed by Jamestown. Target.comwww.target.com/gp/product/0813925967) Retrieved on 17th September 2007.Virginia Magazine of History and Biography: Article: Powhatan, Opechancanough: Three Indian Lives Changed by Jamestown...www.vahistorical. org/publications/review_rountree.htm – 9k – Retrieved on 17th September 17, 2007

Current Event on Political Contention: Bush Winning the Political War by Vennochi Essay

An example of newspaper article critiques that is a recent political contention or argument can be the article written by Joan Vennochi entitled ‘Bush Winning the Political War’. This item appeared at the Opinion section of the Boston. com News (http://www. boston. com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/05/06/bush_winning_the_political_war/). It is obvious that what the author had to do in order to attract readers was to give a blunt, eye-catching statement regarding President Bush: â€Å"President Bush doesn’t know how to win the ground war in Iraq. But he does know how to win the political war at home over Iraq† (Vennochi 2007). The use of eye-catching lines and statements attract the readers and keep them from ignoring the pages. It affects content with the need to display facts and incidents that prove the basic argument, which can be stated as follows: Bush loses the ground war over Iraq but wins the political war over the American public. For the author, the ground of the political world only resides at home. What matters in the political arena is the support and strength of the countrymen, so that when it comes to the political war over Iraq, the author is giving a presumption that what the American government should do is to make sure the American troops in Iraq are not hurt—not that there is a timetable for withdrawal, which only suggests that America is on the verge of giving up. Vennochi is like saying that Bush only wants money. For Bush, it is mission accomplished, but for Vennochi, the incident is very far from it. Vennochi has used research, convincing statements, and strong supporting details (such as polls, surveys) to back up his argument, and this gives a very convincing conclusion. In fact, it gave me a different, negative opinion on what President Bush really is like, and it has changed my mind on some beliefs I held only previously. This gives me an impression that the political world works like a movie: Politicians are merely actors that want as much resources as they can accomplish. They get what they want by acting splendidly in front of the camera. Works Cited Vennochi, Joan. Bush Winning the Political War. 6 May 2007. Boston. com News: Opinion. 7 September 2007 .