Otherness and Alienation in Joyce Essay Example for Free

Otherness and Alienation in Joyce Essay The striking feature of James Joyce’s hero in A Portrait of an Artist as a young Man and Dubliners is that of a detached observer of his fellow-beings and environment: home, religion and country. From a normal boy of Dublin he gradually emerges to be an artist of high sensibility who shuns the influences of social and religious order. The esthetic power of re-creating the world makes Stephen reject the order of the Jesuits. In the stories as well as the novel, the hero chooses the role of an artist in exile. The lack of social value framework makes the artist feel he has no function to play; he must practice his part in silence and in exile. Joyce raises the question of proper aesthetic attitude and develops art from egocentric lyrical to dramatic approach. He has portrayed human activities with complete aloofness, using dramatic method. His fictions have epiphany rather than the conventional suspense, well-contrived plot and action. James Joyce shows the growth of a highly sensitive artistic mind in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in an atmosphere dominated by conservative religion. His hero as a detached observer is very similar to Albert Camus’ protagonist in The Outsider, except for the fact that Stephen begins with religious faith and ends with his esthetics which is definitely a positive feature. From a normal boy of Dublin he gradually emerges to be an artist of high sensibility who shuns the influences of social and religious order. The esthetic power of re-creating the world makes Stephen reject the order of the Jesuits. In the stories as well as the novel, the hero chooses the role of an artist in exile. The lack of social value framework makes the artist feel he has no function to play; he must practice his part in silence and in exile. Joyce raises the question of proper esthetic attitude and develops art from egocentric lyrical to dramatic approach. He has portrayed human activities with complete aloofness, using dramatic method. His fictions have epiphany rather than the conventional suspense, well-contrived plot and action. Having been dissatisfied with the religious doctrines as inadequate, he goes on develop his esthetics which is, according to David Daiches : To look at the world with the eye of the artist who combines the naked sensibility and the pure aesthetic eye and be satisfied with the artist’s god-like power to re-create the world with words. It is this discovery that prompts Stephen’s rejection to join the order of the Jesuits. (Daiches. 199) The drab surroundings of Dublin and his sharp intelligence and excessive sensibility turn every experience into a conflict in Stephen’s soul – the religious versus the pagan, the struggle of the flesh versus the spirit. Joyce said, ‘I call the series Dubliners to betray the soul of that hemiplegia or paralysis which many consider a city. ’ (Beja. 16) The boy narrator of â€Å"Araby† finds the Dublin environment pretty dull (described in the first paragraph) and he tries to forget it by falling in love with his friend Mangan’s sister. He manages to suppress his obsession with the girl, but fails miserably to buy her a gift from the fair because of the insensibilities of the salespersons. At the end he is left with an excruciating depression which culminates in an epiphany: ‘Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger. ’(Dubliners. 33) It is the realization of the aloof artist who is disillusioned with the ways of the world. The insensitive behavior of the salespersons makes him disenchanted about the world. Another hero in â€Å"An Encounter† shows his isolation when he confesses that he has no sweethearts while Mahony and his friends have plenty. ‘I answered that I had none. He did not believe me and said he was sure I must have one. I was silent. ’ (Dubliners. 23) Stephen’s experience at the Jesuit school is a perpetual conflict with the environment as is evident:

Lucian Freud Essay -- Visual Arts Paintings Art Artist Painter Essays

Lucian Freud Freud, Lucian (1922- ). German-born British painter. He was born in Berlin, a grandson of Sigmund Freud, came to England with his parents in 1931, and acquired British nationality in 1939. His earliest love was drawing, and he began to work full time as an artist after being invalided out of the Merchant Navy in 1942. In 1951 his Interior at Paddington (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) won a prize at the Festival of Britain, and since then he has built up a formidable reputation as one of the most powerful contemporary figurative painters. Portraits and nudes are his specialities, often observed in arresting close-up. His early work was meticulously painted, so he has sometimes been described as a `Realist' (or rather absurdly as a Superrealist), but the subjectivity and intensity of his work has always set him apart from the sober tradition characteristic of most British figurative art since the Second World War. In his later work (from the late 1950s) his handling became much broader. Normally I underplay facial expression when painting the figure, because I want expression to emerge through the body. I used to do only heads, but came to feel that I relied too much on the face. I want the head, as it were, to be more like another limb. - Lucian Freud Freud was born in Berlin in December 1922, and came to England with his family in 1933. He studied briefly at the Central School of Art in London and, to more effect, at Cedric Morris's East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing in Dedham. Following this, he served as a merchant seaman in an Atlantic convoy in 1941. His first solo exhibition, in 1944 at the Lefevre Gallery, featured the now celebrated The Painter's Room 1944. In the s... ...h seeing. His attempt to demystify the human form whilst recording the stories of his subjects marks a significant stance against the vacuity of much of contemporary art, which refuses to acknowledge even the existence of such stories and glorifies only the visible form. Even though he does not explore those stories, the fact that Freud records their presence within his subjects makes his work compellingly humane. "My work is purely autobiographical,...It is about myself and my surroundings. I work from people that interest me and that I care about, in rooms that I know... When I look at a body it gives me choice of what to put in a painting, what will suit me and what won't. There is a distinction between fact and truth. Truth has an element of revelation about it. If something is true, it does more than strike one as merely being so." - Lucian Freud

Bureaucracy & Formal Organizations

Chapter Summary Society is organized â€Å"to get its job done†. It does so through formal organizations and bureaucracies. The same system that can be frustrating and impersonal is also the one on which we rely for our personal welfare and to fulfill our daily needs. The society of today, however is not the society of yesterday, nor will it be the society of tomorrow. The rationalization of society refers to a transformation in people's thinking and behavior over the past 150 years, shifting the focus from personal relationships to efficiency and results.Karl Marx attributed this transformation to capitalism, while Max Weber, who disagreed with Marx, related it to Protestant theology. As a result of rationality, formal organizations, secondary groups designed to achieve specific objectives, have become a central feature of contemporary society. With industrialization, secondary groups have become common. Today, their existence is taken for granted. They become a part of our l ives at birth and seem to get more and more complex as we move through the life course.The larger the formal organization, the more likely it will turn into a bureaucracy. Bureaucracies are defined as formal organizations characterized by five features that help them reach their goals, to grow, and endure. These five features are (1) clear levels, with assignments flowing downward and accountability flowing upward, (2) a division of labor, (3) written rules, (4) written communications with records, and (5) impartiality. Although bureaucracies are the most efficient forms of social organization, they can also be dysfunctional.Dysfunctions of bureaucracies can include red tape, lack of communication between units, and alienation. Examples of these dysfunctions include an overly rigid interpretation of rules and the failure of members of the same organization to communicate among one another. According to Max Weber, the impersonality of bureaucracies tends to produce workers who feel d etached from the organization and each other. According to Karl Marx, workers experience alienation when they lose control over their work and are cut off from the finished product of their labor.To resist alienation, workers form primary groups, banding together in informal settings during the workday to offer each other support and validation. They also personalize their work space with family photographs and personal decorations. Not all workers, however, succeed in resisting alienation. One reason bureaucracies endure and are so resilient is because they tend to take on a life of their own through a process called goal displacement. Once a bureaucracy has achieved its original goals, it adopts new goals in order to perpetuate its existence.A classic example of goal displacement involves the March of Dimes. Originally founded to fight polio, the organization was faced with being phased out after Jonas Salk discovered the polio vaccine. Rather than disband, it adopted a new missio n, â€Å"fighting birth defects†, which was recently changed to a vaguer goal of â€Å"breakthrough for babies†. In addition to bureaucracies, many people in the United States become involved with voluntary organizations, groups made up of volunteers who organize on the basis of some mutual interest.But even voluntary organizations are not immune from the affect of bureaucratization. Although formal organizations provide numerous beneficial functions, they also tend to be dominated by a small, self-perpetuating elite, a phenomenon Robert Michel referred to as the iron law of oligarchy. Even volunteer and non-profit organizations are affected by the iron law of oligarchy. Sociologists use the term, â€Å"corporate culture† to refer to an organization's traditions, values, and unwritten norms. Much of what goes on in corporate culture, however, is hidden.To ensure that the corporate culture reproduces itself at the top levels, people in positions of power groom ot her people they perceive to be â€Å"just like them† for similar positions of power. In the United States, personal achievement is central; workers are hired on the basis of what they can contribute to the organization that hires them. To counter the negative side of bureaucracies, many corporations have begun taking steps to better humanize work settings. This includes the establishment of work teams, corporate day care, employee stock ownership plans, and the quality circles.There has been a great deal of research directed at comparing the Japanese corporate culture to the American corporate culture. The Japanese corporate model differs significantly from the American corporate model in the way it views work, workers, and work organizations. Although considered as superior to the American corporate culture, more recent inspection shows this to be more of a myth than a reality. Successful Japanese businesses have adopted many of the American methods. The real bottom line is that we live in a global marketplace of ideas as well as products, with no single set of cultural values being universally superior.Key Terms in Chapter Seven alienation: Marx's term for the experience of being cut off from the product of one’s labor that results in a sense of powerlessness and normlessness. (p. 181) bureaucracy: A formal organization with a hierarchy of authority; a clear division of labor; emphasis on written rules, communications, and records; and impersonality of positions. (p. 176) capitalism: An economic system characterized by private ownership of the means of producing goods and services, the pursuit of profit, and market competition. (p. 176) corporate culture: The orientations that characterize corporate work settings. p. 186) formal organization: A secondary group designed to achieve explicit objectives. (p. 176) goal displacement: A goal displaced by another; in this context, the adoption of new goals by an organization; also known as goal replace ment. (p. 182) humanizing a work setting: Organizing a workplace in such a way that it develops, rather than impedes, human potential. (p. 188) Peter principle: A bureaucratic â€Å"law† according to which the members of an organization are promoted for good work until they reach their level of incompetence, the level at which they can no longer do good work. p. 182) rationality: The acceptance of rules, efficiency, and practical results as the right way to approach human affairs. (p. 174) rationalization of society: A widespread acceptance of rationality and a social organization largely built around this idea. (p. 174) self-fulfilling prophecy: As applied to corporate culture, predictions that later come true based upon values and stereotypes. (p. 186) the iron law of oligarchy: Robert Michels’ phrase for the tendency of formal organizations to be dominated by a small, self-perpetuating elite. (p. 185) he McDonaldization of society: The process by which ordinary aspe cts of life are rationalized and efficiency comes to rule such things as food preparation. (p. 179) traditional orientation: The idea, characteristic of tribal, peasant, and feudal societies, that the past is the best guide for the present. (p. 174) voluntary association: A group made up of volunteers who have organized on the basis of some mutual interest. (p. 183) Key People in Chapter Seven Alexis de Tocqueville: In his report of his travels across the United States, Democracy in America, Tocqueville observed the tendency of Americans to join voluntary associations. p. 183) Peter Evans and James Rauch: Evans and Rauch found that the most prosperous countries are those with central bureaucracies that hire workers on the basis of merit and offer them rewarding careers. (p. 182) Elaine Fox and George Arquitt: Studying local posts of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Fox and Arquitt found that leadership positions in organizations are typically decided behind the scenes with current lead ers choosing their favorite candidates for other leadership roles. (p. 185)Rosabeth Moss Kanter: In her organizational studies of corporations, Kanter discovered that corporate cultures reproduce themselves at the top levels by selecting workers that they think best match the corporate model; providing those workers with the opportunities and resources to do well; and after they succeed, promoting them to high-level positions. (p. 186). Gary Marx: Noting technology’s role in the control of workers, Gary Marx warned of a maximum-security workplace where computers keep track of every movement workers make on the job. (p. 190)Karl Marx: According to Karl Marx, the rationalization of society was due to the transformation to capitalism, which, in turn, created alienation—workers who lost control of their work and were cut off from the finished product of their labor. (p. 174) Robert Michels: Michels coined the phrase â€Å"the iron law of oligarchy† to describe the t endency of formal organizations to be dominated by a small, self-perpetuating elite. (p. 185) William Ouchi: Ouchi identified five ways that the Japanese corporate model differed from the American corporate model. p. 191) George Ritzer: Ritzer coined the term â€Å"the McDonaldization of society† to describe the process by which ordinary aspects of life are becoming more and more rationalized. (p. 179) David Sills: Sills identified four of the seven functions of voluntary associations. (p. 184) Max Weber: According to Weber, a change in people’s religious orientation and their way of thinking produced capitalism. Weber also argued that the impersonality of bureaucracies tends to produce workers who feel detached from their organizations and each other. (p. 175)

Essay about AIDS and Philadelphia (1993) - 1126 Words

The disease known as AIDS, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, is the final stage of HIV, human immunodeficiency virus, which causes an exceptional amount of damage to the immune system. Certain white blood cells known as lymphocytes are destroyed, resulting in loss of the bodys ability to protect itself against disease. Victims undergo an increased susceptibility to infections, various types of cancers, and neurological disorders. The origins and widespread epidemic of AIDS occurred from the 1970s to 1990s in the United States. There are a number of factors that may have contributed to the sudden spread including widespread drug use, the blood industry, and international travel. The 1970s saw an increase in the availability of heroin†¦show more content†¦Semen containing white blood cells infected with HIV comes into contact with tissue in the rectum and vagina. The virus can then enter the bloodstream of the host through perforations in the tissue surface. The risk of thi s happening is greatest in anal intercourse, either between two men or a man and a woman.† HIV is spread through a direct exchange of blood or blood products. This mode of transmission is most frequent among IV drug users who share injection needles. It includes, as well, hemophiliacs and other persons who receive blood transfusions, and fetuses of mothers who carry the AIDS virus.† AIDS has sparked considerable interest and controversy since the start of the epidemic. However, in trying to identify where AIDS originated, there is a danger that people may try and use the debate to attribute blame for the disease to particular groups of individuals or certain lifestyles. When the AIDS epidemic became offical in June 1981, it was widely considered exclusively a gay disease† and this was because many people were confused and uneducated about this new, foreign disease that faced and ravaged our society as a whole. There is no doubt that many people coming from all walk s of life were subject to discrimination when other people discovered that they were suffering as victims taken by the disease. The cultural and social response to AIDS portrayed in the film Philadelphia (1993) covered all of these aspects and wasShow MoreRelatedThe Film Philadelphia, By Andrew Beckett833 Words   |  4 PagesThe film Philadelphia involves a homosexual man, named Andrew Beckett, who suffers from the chronic disease known as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). During the 1980s, AIDS became known as the â€Å" gay† disease. It was titled â€Å"gay† disease because a high incidence of AIDS was detected within the gay community especially among homosexual males. AIDS can cause many side effects such as skin lesions, coughing, sweating, diarrhea, and pneumonia. 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This shift in the acting world happened on July 9, 1956 when a star was born. Thomas Jeffrey Hanks was born in Concord, California; his parents names areRead MoreAbout Hurricane Sandy1120 Words   |  5 Pagesprecisely kept. Storm tide records were also broken in Sandy Hook (a large sand spit or barrier spit, the expansion of a barrier peninsula along the coast of New Jersey, separated from the mainland by the inlet of the Shrewsbury River), New Jersey and Phila delphia, Pennsylvania, with highest tides of 13.31 feet (4.06 m) and 10.62 feet (3.24 m), correspondingly. The tidal pattern in Sandy Hook became weak while the tide was still ascending, in essence the tide exceeded higher than the listed peak. A buoy