Obstacles in Mao’s Last Dancer Essay

In Mao’s Last Dancer we are introduced to the obstacles faced daily by a Chinese boy and his family, living in poverty. In Meltdown by Ben Elton, we are introduced to obstacles faced daily by Jimmy Corby. Obstacles we can all relate to in the modern world. This is why I think we should study Meltdown by Ben Elton as well as Mao’s Last Dancer as a core text in the Overcoming Obstacles unit. Meltdown is about City Trader Jimmy Corby. Jimmy was living the life being rich, pampered and spoilt. That is until it all comes crashing down and the Global Financial Crisis hits. He discovers that anyone can handle success, it’s how you handle failure that really matters. We can all relate to these obstacles and the themes of the story. Some themes of the story are money, loss, family and success. All of these themes are somehow incorporated in our life. We all care about money and work for it, we all experience some form of loss during our lives, we all have family who we love and care about and we all hope to be successful in the future. This makes it the perfect book for us to study as a core text. Another reason why we should study this book in the Overcoming Obstacles unit, is we join Jimmy on the journey of overcoming these obstacles. We see how he deals with loss, how he copes with family life, and how he handles failure. Elton, the author of the book, uses various techniques to convey how he overcomes all these obstacles. He uses humour to give us a funny insight on the daily problems. Humour also makes us, as the reader, enjoy the book even more. Lastly, I believe we should study this book as it opens our eyes to real life problems that we all could face in a few years. The Global Financial Crisis is real for all of us. I think that Meltdown is highly appropriate for us to study as it is based around daily struggles faced every day. The main audience of the text are teenagers and young adults making it the perfect book for us. The purpose of the book is to make us realise that there are more important things in life than money. We have to enjoy what we have and not dwell on what we don’t. This is an important message for all of us in life. In Mao’s Last Dancer we focus on the obstacles faced by a Chinese boy living in poverty who is given the chance to make life better for himself and his family. He faces struggles daily and is taught to overcome them. He deals with being alone, a long way from home and his own mental health. We don’t understand these obstacles as much as someone living in poverty would, seeing as we aren’t living in poverty. But then again, someone living in poverty wouldn’t understand the struggles we face daily. Also, by studying Meltdown by Ben Elton as well as Mao’s Last Dancer, We are given two inputs of struggles in the world. We are taught the obstacles faced by someone living in poverty who doesn’t have much money and then is given the opportunity of a lifetime which could give him everything. But then we are also taught the obstacles faced by a man who has money, a house, a healthy family and enough food, but nearly loses it all. We are given two aspects on life. Meltdown is the perfect book for us to study as the obstacles featured in the book are all known to us, we can see and learn how we could possible overcome these obstacles and by studying it along with Mao’s Last Dancer we are given two inputs on life.

Greenlawn Commercial Package Business Essay

So, eventhough some significant costs such as lease expense, service techs, fertilizer costs and overhead costs have decreased, the decrease in revenues due to the decrease in applications leave only a 1% contribution margin vs a 13% contribution in the before scenario. 3- Personal recommendation. It appears to me that the organization has already indicated that it wishes to back Amy Carter and the biological engineering and environment vision. Calling Amy the division’s thought leader. This new era project is a â€Å"hat trick† for the division and is the vision for Greenlawn’s future. If the organization loses revenue in the short term, when can they expect to breakeven with the current revenues of the ten million. The expectation is that revenues will decrease to six million, but will then be capable of growing the customer base, whereby replacing the revenue lost by changing to the advanced new generation of products that are easier to apply, have lower costs and more importantly environmentally friendly. This environmentally friendly approach to Greenlawn’s business will keep the company at the cutting edge of technology in its field. Maintaining its status and reputation as the nation’s largest lawn-care and landscape-services company. I would recommend either keeping it the same as before with the revenues at ten million, or reducing the fertilizer costs and selling the new generation of products in order to gain more customers. If more customers are gained due to environmentally friendly process than the revenues and contribution margin will increase. Should the organization change, they can expect a short term reduction in revenue, with the likeliness of long term sustainability for generations to come.

German Threat Was the End to Splendid Isolation

The Growing German threat was the most important reason for Britain ending its policy of Splendid Isolation. How far do you agree? At first examination it would seem that it was not actually the fear of Germany that prompted Britain to end their policy of splendid isolation if we take into consideration that this of fear of Germany only really came to fruition in about 1905. However it was before this that Britain had broken its so named policy of ‘Splendid Isolation’ by signing an alliance with japan in 1902 and then going on to form an entente with the French in 1904.Certainly there are indeed other reasons other than the emerging German threat that might have forced their hand, such as the emergence of alliance’s all around the globe which had begun to upset the balance of power (Franco Russian) this may have left Britain feeling pushed into a corner somewhat so that they felt that they had no other choice but to join an alliance so it was not left behind as it s own level of relative power decreased.Furthermore with the decrease of Britain’s level of relative power (it was easily being led by the US) but most notably Germany, the fact that a state as new as Germany could grow at such a rate made the British sit up and take note. And when in 1905 during the first Moroccan crisis it was the German’s who attempted to test the new bonds between the French and the British it demonstrated not only to Britain but to the world that the German’s wanted to carve out their own chunk of glory and they were not about to let anyone stand in their way.It was indeed between the years 1906-14 when the Anglo-German naval race was to take place. It was during this time that Germany drastically increased size of its navy, however this navy was only ever meant for short term purposes. Looking at it now it is obvious why the level of British Paranoia may be reaching breaking point at this time as a fleet of short range boats began to mass on her border, it demonstrated once again that the Germans were determined to become one of the great powers.It could however be argued that this naval race was nothing more than an inconvenience towards the British as they in the end emphatically managed to build substantially more ships than the Germans. But it was to show once again that the German’s were without a doubt an up and coming nation and one that Britain must watch carefully and so it was here that the first feelings of fear of Germany were beginning to be felt. Moreover it was understood that the German’s did not actually ever want a war with the British and that the only reason for the assing of this fleet was as I have already said to inconvenience the British and indeed provide a certain amount of leverage over them in terms of international affairs and agreements, this began to scare Britain, so much so that Britain it would seem began to move even more out of the idea of ‘Splendid Isolationâ⠂¬â„¢ when, in 1912 it came to a series of military agreements with the French and actually handed over control of the Mediterranean which actually included the main route to India for the British (The Suez canal).Although these agreements were not intended as a military alliance some historians have seen it as such, but there is no mistaking that it was definitely a move away from the policy of ‘Splendid Isolation’ that Britain had previously adopted, and it would also seem to be because of the fear of the every growing in power Germans. As Germany grew in power Britain began to realise that if it came to war that the only way in which Germany could be defeated is if Britain herself became involved with yet another alliance and so in 1907 it did this with Russia, thus forming the triple entente.I believe that if it was not for increasing aggression of the German’s then Britain would most probably have never had to forge this alliance which once again brought it forward out of its formerly adopted policy of ‘Splendid Isolation’. Although the fear of Germany was undoubtedly important another important factor in regard to the dropping of the policy of ‘Splendid isolation’ is the dropping of Britain’s level of relative power and also trade.The fact that other countries (USA and Germany in particular) were growing exponentially gave Britain cause for concern and she knew that sooner or later she would lose her empire if she did not act, if she continued to operate this policy of splendid isolation then not only in time would her empire collapse around her, therefore severing any trade routes she may have had with them, but the other powers would also continue to grow until eventually they are considerably stronger than her and Britain alone would be no match for Germany.Another important factor that we need to consider in all of this is of course the influence that the Boer war may have had on Britain’s f oreign policy. And when Britain eventually did emerge from that war in 1902 she emerged victorious but it had come at a cost and that cost was a great deal of pride. Although that they had in essence been victorious it is not to be forgotten that they had beaten some lowly people, not the great powers that they had defeated in the past.Britain had to pour huge amounts of resources into this war and this was to come at a massive cost as it was to leave her extremely vulnerable in other places around the world, not least in India. Moreover this links back to the fear of Germany because it was in actual fact the German’s who were angry at Britain for fighting the Boer’s, Indeed this helped to start the path of sour relations with Germany. Not only this but Britain’s industrial power was coming under increasing levels of threat, and although they still ruled the seas it was only a matter of time before it was caught on that front also.The seas became a contentious i ssue for Britain and around 1902 they realised that they would no longer be able to uphold a two power naval standard and the fear of Russia factored into this. The fact was that if Russia and Germany or Russia and France (Franco-Russian alliance) were to attack Britain at sea then her navy would be crushed. She was severely concerned about this fact and so sought the aforementioned alliance with Japan that would help her to hopefully keep both the Russian’s and the German’s at bay.It is clear that fear of Russian along with fear of the German’s was extremely high on the list of priorities of the change in direction of British foreign policy, which in the end culminated with their withdrawal from their so called ‘Policy of Splendid isolation’. Therefore I believe that although Britain’s fear of the growth of German power was significantly important in regard to them ending their policy of ‘Splendid Isolation’ it is not the sole r eason but is the most important.The fact that they had been badly bruised by emerging with their ‘bad victory’ in the Boer war and the fact that they could no longer bear the financial strain of keeping a two power standard navy also meant that they had to drop that policy. And although it was indeed before the intervention of the German actions that the 1902 alliance with Japan and the 1904 entente with France, it is clear that the impact of the German‘s was also extremely important if not more so than the Boer war, the fear of Russia and the fear of losing trade and the routes to India.

MATH 1)NUMBER SYSTEMS 2)PYTHAGOREAN BROTHERHOOD 3)BOOK 'HOW TO SOLVE Essay

MATH 1)NUMBER SYSTEMS 2)PYTHAGOREAN BROTHERHOOD 3)BOOK 'HOW TO SOLVE IT' 4) JOHN NAPIER - Essay Example Napier was one of the first, if not the first, to use the decimal point in expressing decimal fractions in a systematic way and according to the modern system of decimal notation[1]. The first tables of logarithms were published independently by the Scottish mathematician John Napier in 1614 and the Swiss mathematician Justus Byrgius in 1620. The first table of common logarithms was compiled by the English mathematician Henry Briggs [1]. Henry Briggs (1561-1630) was born at Warley Wood, near Halifax at Yorkshire and educated at St. John's College, in Cambridge. He is notable for changing Napier's logarithms into common/Brigessian Logarithms [2]. In the year 1616, Henry Brigss visited John Napier in his home in Edinburgh to discuss the suggested change to Napier's work [2]. The next year, Henry again visited John regarding the same matter. He proposed the alteration of the scale of logarithms from the hyperbolic 1 / e from which John Napier had given to that which unity is assumed as the logarithm of the ratio of 10 to 1 [2]. During their conversation, the alteration proposed by Briggs was agreed upon by Napier and published the first chiliad of his logarithms du ring his second visit to Edinburgh in 1617. In 1624 Henry Briggs gave a numerical approximation to the base 10 logarithm. The Pythagorean Brotherhood is one of Greece's ancient societies. ... settled in Crotona, a Greek colony in southern Italy, where he founded a movement with religious, political, and philosophical aims, known as Pythagoreanism.. There he founded the famous Pythagorean school in the south of Italy, which in addition to being an academy for the study of philosophy, mathematics, and natural science, developed into a closely knit brotherhood with secret rites and observances (Eves, 54). The Pythagoreans adhered to certain mysteries, observed bedience and silence, abstinence from food, simplicity in dress and possessions. The Pythagoreans believed in immortality and in the transmigration of souls. The brotherhood became so great that the democratic forces of the south of Italy destroyed the school buildings and caused the society to disperse (Eves, 55). According to Eves, the Pythagorean philosophy rested on the assumption that whole number is the cause of the various qualities of matter, which led to the exhaltation and study of number properties and arithmetic along with geometry, music and spherics constituted the fundamental liberal arts of the Pythagorean program of study(Eves, 55). The brotherhood dispersed after Pythagoras was said to have died through murder. Although scattered in different places, not only in Italy, the brotherhood continued to exist for at least two (2) more centuries. For the reason that Pythagoras' teaching was entirely oral, and also because of the custom of the brotherhood to refer all discoveries back to the revered founder, it is now difficult to know which mathematical findings should be credited to Pythagoras himself, and which to other members of the society (Eves, 55). How to Solve It How to Solve It is a book in small volume describing the methods in problem solving [3]. George Plya was

Human Resource Management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Human Resource Management - Research Paper Example Visual sexual harassment is through showing unwanted signs, photographs, drawings, gestures suggesting sex to an individual in the work place (Boland, 2005). Job analysis is the method employed to identify and determine the responsibilities and duties within a job description. The first step in job analysis is identifying its main objective it is important in determining the data to be collected. The second and third steps are choosing the best analyst and suitable method respectively. The fourth step involves training the analysts on how to use the chosen method (Mathis & Jackson, 2010). The fifth step in job analysis entails preparing for analysis by communicating the project to the whole organization. Collecting data fall on the sixth step while reviewing and verifying the collected data falls on the seventh step. The last step is implementing the results which at this time are the developed job description and specification. The advantages of this technique are; gaining of first class information about the job, efficient way of hiring employees and efficient way for appraisal and performance evaluation. The disadvantages are; require s a lot of data, it has a personal bias and it is time consuming (Heron, 2005). Internet recruiting has derived its importance through advances in technology and the need for a 24/07 access of employees and employers. Through internet recruiting, it has been possible, for employers to access qualified personnel from the global environment. Website containing details of job descriptions post vacancies through which a qualified individual responds to. The following three are advantages of internet recruiting. Firstly, it is a cost effective method of hiring. Secondly, the automated recruiting process is accessible 24/07. Thirdly, it is possible to access a large number of skilled individuals from a wider geographical area (Arthur, 2006). Security in the workplace refers to being safe from risks that can occur

Technical Solutions to Ensure the Building Is Energy Efficient and Research Paper

Technical Solutions to Ensure the Building Is Energy Efficient and Consistent with the Planets Ecosystem - Research Paper Example According to Speigel and Meadows (2012, p 16), most corporations and investors are seeking green solutions and want energy efficient materials to be present in their buildings. This study aims to highlight sustainability and usefulness of such products and their relevance at the end of the corporation. This paper entails the innovative and technical solutions that are necessary to ensure the building is energy efficient and consistent with the planet's ecosystem. Nowadays numerous buildings are expected to accomplish the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) ratings when constructing. Speigel and Meadows (2012, p.58) assert these standards are meant to advance the sustainability goals, diminish energy utilization, and encourage sustainability of the buildings and renewability. Replenishment of Insulation and energy deficiencies in a building can be through the introduction of high-performance windows that are thick and can guarantee diminution loss of warmth during win ter. Moreover, the windows with low E have capabilities of keeping heat either in or out (Simmons 2010, p.62). These windows can be put in the rooms where workers will spend a large proportion of their time. It is essential for the internal thermal conditions to be conducive for the inhabitants to be comfortable. This windows can be initially expensive but eventually, the will be cost saving. This is because an alternative mode will be utilizing electricity to increase the thermal levels of the rooms. In addition, there are solar windows that are transparent but encompass qualities that enable them to absorb the sun’s beam. This is a renewable resource, and it will accumulatively harness energy that is clean and comparably efficient as electricity.

Broad environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Broad environment - Essay Example When the economy experiences a downward trend, people tend to cut down on their eating out activities and as such, the sales of the restaurants are directly impacted. This is because, spending in restaurants is considered to be a leisure activity due to which the priority to save money by cutting down on these activities are higher (American Business, 2011). Consumer activism with respect to the restaurant sector of the US is high and as such the restaurants operating in this segment have to concentrate on continually adhering to the existing consumer demands and preferences so that a higher level of sustainability is achieved in the businesses (Glickman, 2009). There have been major regional shifts in the population of the United States noted in the last few years. This phenomenon has changed the patterns in which the restaurant industry hires people. The employment patterns have changed with an increase in the influx of diverse groups of employees into the restaurant industry of th e country. Considering the interest rates and the banking trends remain a first financial priority for the restaurants in the United States. Also, the restaurants have to continuously adapt to the economic change so as to ensure higher sustainable competitive advantage (Chibng, 2011). The technological changes have also become a crucial influencer of the functioning trends of the restaurant segment. The advent of new technologies has facilitated different ways of reducing operational costs and achieving higher efficiency levels in the restaurants services. The new cooking technologies and equipment makes it possible for the restaurant businesses to reduce the cost of operating and create higher levels of consumer service and consequently enhance the consumer experiences. The use of new technologies, robots and electronic gadgets for operating the manual equipment used for cooking food and disturbing food in the restaurants has become a high

Sarajevo Blues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Sarajevo Blues - Essay Example all essays, prose vignettes, and poems all written in the first person and reflecting the terrible ordeal of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War.† (Segel 267) The author of Sarajevo Blues, Semezdin Mehmedinovic was born in 1960 in Bosnia. He contributed to cultural activities in Bosnia before he fled to the United States of America in 1996 along with his family to avoid the affects of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian war. Mehmedinovic claims that even though the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina was broadcast extensively throughout the world, the perspective it portrayed was fairly limited due to political pressures. News on television, radio and in newspapers provided an incomplete, outside perspective on the war. Through his poems, essays and short stories in his book Sarajevo Blues, Semezdin Mehmedinovic provides a new perspective on the war; a view from the inside. A political act is â€Å"an event that forever alters our assumptions about someone else’s experience† (Mehmendivoni). Therefore, politics refer to acts that people commit which have the ability to alter people’s perceptions about a state of affairs. It is a tool for manoeuvring people’s opinions and perceptions in a certain direction in order to fulfil some ulterior motive. Politics is capable of manipulating not only a person’s perception of the world but a person’s perception of himself/herself. Mehmedinovic is sceptical about political factors affecting mass media, which in turn affects the global population’s combined and individual thinking because it is the most popular means of distributing information about past and current affairs. Semezdin Mehmedinovic’s act of writing Sarajevo Blues can also be called politics because it has the ability to and is intended to change the perception of the masses about war. He aims to show people how the media alters the realities of war. Mehmedinovic is talking about the blues faced by the inhabitants of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Before the war and the

How do my consultancy project develop my skills Essay

How do my consultancy project develop my skills - Essay Example While English was the common language of conversation, yet the group members had different dialects and accents. Working with this group enhanced my ability to understand English when it is spoken in a variety of accents. While doing this project, I had a detailed insight into the merits and demerits of group work. Some of the merits of group work include having a wider knowledge-base, having a variety of perspectives, and having a well-organized team to make a structured and well-thought approach toward the achievement of goals. Some of the demerits of group work include problems of communication, and conflicts originating in the contrast of opinions and beliefs. I have realized the importance of good leadership for making a group achieve its optimal potential in work. Our leader had a democratic style of leadership. He included all group members in the decision making process and sought their opinions. This gave a sense of increased participation and engagement in the decision making process to all group members and they felt respected. As a result, their motivation for work increased. A very important skill that I improved as a result of this project was time management. In the consultancy project, we had definite and well-identified goals and milestones that had to be achieved within particular deadlines. While the milestones were numerous and the deadlines were close, we had limited resources to draw the help from. This imparted the need to be very particular about planning and scheduling so that the available resources could be made optimal use of. I made a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) of the whole project in which I identified the key deliverables, work packages, and individual activities. I made the WBS on MS Project 2010. Having such a breakdown of the whole scope of the project enabled me to carefully assign the resources to each activity individually without over-allocating the resources. In the same way, after

Mystic Monk Coffee Essay Example for Free

Mystic Monk Coffee Essay The Wyoming Carmelite monastery was founded by Father Daniel Mary who lived as a Carmelite hermit in Minnesota before moving to Clark, Wyoming, to establish the new monastery. Soon after arriving in Wyoming, Father Daniel Mary had formed the vision of acquiring a new piece of land where he will be building a new monastery with accommodations for 30 monks. This new monastery that Father Daniel Mary has in vision will also be a retreat center for lay visitors, a Gothic Church, a convent for Carmelite nuns, and a hermitage. There were 13 monks dedicated to a life of prayer and worship in the Wyoming Carmelite monastery. Brother Elias, better known as Brother Java, was Mystic Monk Coffee’s master roaster; and ironically is not a coffee drinker. Mystic Monk Coffee had its own website that was responsible for the majority of their sales. Mystic Monk Coffee was also marketed on websites through the ShareASale participation program. A new larger roaster was quoted at $35,000. Father Daniel Mary had a set plan to maximize the potential of monastic opportunities, and realize his vision of buying the Irma Lake Ranch for $8.9 million dollars, and will be the location of the new monastery. Father Daniel Mary is fully aware of the challenge he has in front of him in order to acquire the Irma Lake Ranch. I believe Father Daniel Mary has set definite objectives and performance targets for achieving his goal and I believe that starts with him realizing that the cloistered monastic environment offered unique challenges to operating a business enterprise, but also provides opportunities that were not available to secular businesses. Father Daniel Mary used the word of mouth among loyal customers as a marketing tool in Catholic parishes across the United States. Father Daniel Mary is also fortunate to receive donations, a $250,000 one in particular; but there is also a group of local business owners that had formed the New Mount Carmel Foundation, which helps the monks raise funds. I believe that Mystic Monks Coffee is using the broad differentiation strategy because they are distinguishing that they are different from other coffee companies because of their strong religious background. Through religion the monks are able to market their coffee brand to other Catholic parishes throughout the United States. The monks are able to make $56,500 per month in their first year of operation through sales of coffee and accessories; but they only make a profit of 11 percent from all sales, which is $6,215 a month in revenue. That’s only about $75,000 in profit after their first year of operations. A larger revenue will be needed in order to purchase Irma Lake Ranch. So right now I believe that Father Daniel Mary has made great progress but he is still a long ways away from purchasing a $8.9 million piece of land. Father Daniel Mary resolved to develop an execution plan that would enable Mystic Monk Coffee to minimize the effect of its cloistered monastic constraints, maximize the potential of monastic opportunities, and realize his vision of buying the Irma Lake Ranch. I would consider this a winning strategy because through good faith Mystic Monk Coffee will maximize profits and be embraced by all Catholic parishes in America, and each parish will be able to spread the good word through risk-free marketing. My only recommendation to Father Daniel Mary would to recruit more monks, which will help with the growth of Mystic Monk Coffee. More monks equals more productivity.

Fully Homomorphic Encryption and cryptography

Fully Homomorphic Encryption and cryptography Introduction Transferring files between machines (and users) is a common daily occurrence although the confidentiality of the data is a basic condition. Now problem was how to secure them from inadvertent addressee from observing the data, which are supposed to confidential and likely on risk if prepared well-known to negligent parties. In each of these cases, its important to know what options are available to get your file from point A to point B and to comprehend whether the technique you choose provides sufficient security given the sensitivity of the data being transferred. Cryptography is ability of secret text, or more precisely of stock up resource (for a long or shorter period of time) in a shape which allows it to be revealed to those you wish to see it yet hides it from all others. A cryptosystem is a technique to accomplish this. Cryptanalysis is to put into practice to overcome such endeavors to hide information. Cryptology comprises of both cryptography and cryptanalysis. The unique information to be hidden is called plaintext. The concealed information is called ciphertext. Encryption or Decryption is any modus operandi to convert plaintext into ciphertext. A cryptosystem is designed so that decryption can be consummated only under certain conditions, which usually means simply by persons in control of both a decryption engine (these days, generally a computer program) and a meticulous piece in sequence, called the decryption key, which is supplied to the decryption engine in the course of decryption. Plaintext is transformed into ciphertext by process of an encryption engine (again, generally a computer program) whose operation is fixed and determinate (the encryption method) nevertheless which functions in practice in a way dependent on a piece of information (the encryption key) which has a major effect on the output of the encryption process. The main purpose was to make sure privacy while you transferring your private data from one place to another place do not matter electronically or via users. There were many scheme but very complicated to follow them and most important less security. So time by time many scientists discover different techniques but Gentrys technique â€Å"Fully Homomorphic Encryption† got a tremendous value against all technique. All others techniques were performing well but with restriction but Gentrys scheme user can perform unlimited action. Objective Cloud computing Literature review â€Å"Homomorphic encryption is a paradigm that refers to the ability, given encryptions of some messages, to generate an encryption of a value that is related to the original messages. Speciï ¬ cally, this ability means that from encryptions of k messages (m1,†¦,mk), it is possible to generate an encryption of m* = f(m1,†¦,mk) for some (efficiently computable) function f. Ideally, one may want the homomorphically generated encryption of m* to be distributed identically (or statistically close) to a standard encryption of m*. We call schemes that have this property strongly homomorphic. Indeed, some proposed encryption schemes are strongly homomorphic w. r. t some algebraic operations such as addition or multiplication.† (Rothblum R, 2010). â€Å"An encryption method is presented with the novel property that publicly revealing an encryption key does not thereby reveal the corresponding decryption key. This has two important consequences: 1. Couriers or other secure means are not needed to transmit keys, since a message can be enciphered using an encryption key publicly revealed by the intended recipient. Only he can decipher the message, since only he knows the corresponding decryption key. 2. A message can be â€Å"signed† using a privately held decryption key. Anyone can verify this signature using the corresponding publicly revealed encryption key. Signatures cannot be forged, and a signer cannot later deny the validity of his signature. This has obvious applications in â€Å"electronic mail† and â€Å"electronic funds transfer† systems.† (Rivest et al, 1978) â€Å"Homomorphic encryption enables â€Å"computing with encrypted data† and is hence a useful tool for secure protocols. Current homomorphic public key systems have limited homomorphic properties: given two ciphertexts Encrypt (PK, x) and Encrypt (PK, y), anyone can compute either the sum Encrypt (PK, x+y), or the product Encrypt (PK, xy), but not both.† (Boneh et al, 2006) ARMONK, N.Y 25 Jun 2009: â€Å"An IBMResearcher has solved a thorny mathematical problem that has confounded scientists since the invention of public-key encryption several decades ago. The breakthrough, called privacy homomorphism, or fully homomorphic encryption, makes possible the deep and unlimited analysis of encrypted information data that has been intentionally scrambled without sacrificing confidentiality.† (IBM, 2009) â€Å"We propose the first fully homomorphic encryption scheme, solving a central open problem in cryptography. Such a scheme allows one to compute arbitrary functions over encrypted data without the decryption key i.e., given encryptions E(m1) ,†¦,E(mt) of m1,†¦.,mtone can efficiently compute a compact ciphertext that encrypts f(m1,†¦.,mt) for any efficiently computable function Æ’. This problem was posed by Rivest et al. in 1978.† (Gentry C, 2009) â€Å"Searching databases is usually done in the clear. And even if the query is encrypted, it has to be decrypted (revealing its contents) before it can be used by a search engine. Whats worse is that databases themselves are stored as plaintext, available to anyone gaining access. The smarter way to handle sensitive information would be to encrypt the queries, encrypt the database and search it in its encrypted form. Impossible until now, IBMs T.J. Watson Research Center (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.) recently described a homomorphic encryption scheme that allows encrypted data to be searched, sorted and processed without decrypting it. Fully homomorphic encryption schemes theoretically allow ciphertext to be manipulated as easily as plaintext, making it perfect for modern cloud computing, where your data is located remotely.† (Johnson R C, 2009) Body History of Cryptography In earliest era communications or correspondence among recipient and correspondent were only possible through extremely safe and sound way like loyal pigeon, physically or any other source but must be trusted. That was a time when it was very tough to believe or trust on available sources. There was a little doubt and big risk for the sender was if transporter discloses the information then any one can harm them. Progressively a newly ideas came with world called Cryptography/Encryption† means this is a technique in which the sender encrypts the communication using proper key and its only possible for receiver to decrypt it if he possessed the key. Key based Encryption. In key based encryption keys are the most important part of creating new ciphertext. A sequence of small piece used generally in cryptography, letting people to encrypt/decrypt facts and the same key can be used to carry out additional mathematical business as well. Specified a secret message, a key established the connection with the sequence to the ciphertext. The key we use for a special cryptosystem has worth so whenever this key used to ciphertext, always lets the encrypted communication to be decrypted and always doing reverse like encrypt the plaintext. In ancient era because calculation was very hard so they prefer to use not lengthy keys in respect of bits but on the other hand its safe to use longer key. Communications also one can encrypt in n-bit blocks. It is true that the longer a key is, more difficult for one to break the encrypted message. Encryptions consist of two categories. Private Key or Symmetric Key Encryption Public Key or Asymmetric Key Encryption Private Key / Symmetric Key Encryption This was thousands of years ago when Julian Caesar used this scheme to send his communication to his military. He used very simple key based classic cryptographic algorithm in which he just shifted each letter with preplanned key number 4. In his algorithm key varies so thats why we cannot guess what number he will use next. Lets take said number 4 which means â€Å"A† will swap with â€Å"D† and â€Å"B† will swap with â€Å"G† and so on â€Å"X† will swap with â€Å"A† etc. ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ DEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABC The same letter changing technique was useful to small case correspondence and also covering around the letters as well. (S. Tewksbury). Cryptography history is very old so we can divide it in to two categories. Classic era Cryptography Computer era Cryptography In classic era there was no computer or any electronic machine to solve this problem so people were used pen and paper to unreveal the truth of letters. Julian Caesar technique is classic era practice. Until WWII all cryptography techniques are none as classic era cryptography. After WWII development of machine made cryptography life very complex and that time was very easy to break all classic time encryptions mostly called key based techniques. Key word was very important in these practices and because of the key it was very easy to break through encryption algorithm. ROT13 is the best practice of encryption algorithm which we know its famous name Caesar cipher and this is extension of Julian Caesar scheme. The most useful technique was ROT13 in which they used fix key 13 to encrypt the letters. This algorithm was very famous in the beginning of computer era and anyone wants to use ROT13 scheme, both side parties must use the same key to encrypt and decrypt the code. This key calle d secret key. The development of the machine set a stander in respect of key codes and then everyone prepared a code book to share as a key code book. For example in ROT13 simply they rotate the letters by 13 places. Application of this scheme is very easy like Julius Caesar technique where he swapped letters with fix key 4 and now in ROT13 with key 13 and wrapping around like â€Å"a† become â€Å"n† and â€Å"m† become â€Å"z† and wrapping continue if necessary but the problem was user can play only English alphabet. The beauty of this technique was it made its function its own inverse like for any text x we can write its function mathematically inverse of ROT13(x) or ROT13 (ROT13(x)) where x is belong to a character which one wants to encrypt. This characteristic furthermore called an involution in arithmetic and a give-and-take code in cryptography. This scheme work as below ABCDEFGHIJKLM ↔ abcdefghijklm NOPQRSTUVWXYZ ↔ nopqrstuvwxyz In this scheme problem was again if someone steel or rob your data then it is very easy to decode it. This is not reasonable cryptographic proposal even though its known as secret key cryptosystem. If we observe closely the ROT13 is partially homomorphic particularly with respect to the concatenation function because it has a reciprocal property. Lets write a function to prove its homomorphic property using secret key 13, in this function we encrypt the text using said algorithm and we will add the encrypted text to see its homomorphic property and then finally decrypt the result. Java ROT13 Code. import java.util.*; public class ROT13 { static int x,y,n,fx,l,m; public static void main(String[] args) { Scanner sc=new Scanner(System.in); System.out.println(Enter your text); String t = sc.nextLine(); int j=0; int key=13; for (int i=0; i { char ch3 = t.charAt(j); if (ch3 >= a ch3 else if (ch3 >= n ch3 else if (ch3 >= A ch3 else if (ch3 >= A ch3 System.out.print(ch3); j++; }}} OUTPUT Enter your text HelloWorld UryybJbeyq The above algorithm is very uncomplicated algorithm to illustrate how ROT13 scheme works and in above output â€Å"Uryyb Jbeyq† is encrypted cipher formed with above algorithm. To check its homomorphic property now anyone can break this cipher text and then apply a concatenation (addition operator) to this text. After getting a new text anyone can apply ROT13 algorithm to decode it to see if he/she is getting the original text. import java.util.*; public class ROT13 { static int x,y,n,fx,l,m; public static void main(String[] args) { Scanner sc=new Scanner(System.in); System.out.println(Enter yout text); String t = sc.nextLine(); int j=0; int key=13; for (int i=0; i { char ch3 = t.charAt(j); if (ch3 >= a ch3 else if (ch3 >= n ch3 else if (ch3 >= A ch3 else if (ch3 >= A ch3 System.out.print(ch3); j++; } System.out.println(); System.out.println(Enter yout 2nd text); String t1 = sc.nextLine(); int j1=0; int key1=13; for (int i1=0; i1 { char ch3 = t1.charAt(j1); if (ch3 >= a ch3 else if (ch3 >= n ch3 else if (ch3 >= A ch3 else if (ch3 >= A ch3 System.out.print(ch3); j1++; } System.out.println(); System.out.println(Enter the 1st encrypted result=); String a=sc.nextLine(); System.out.println(); System.out.println(Enter the 2st encrypted result=); String a1=sc.nextLine(); String con = a+a1; System.out.print(con); System.out.println(); int j2=0; int key2=13; for (int i2=0; i2 { char ch3 = con.charAt(j2); if (ch3 >= a ch3 else if (ch3 >= n ch3 else if (ch3 >= A ch3 else if (ch3 >= A ch3 System.out.print(ch3); j2++; }}} OUTPUT Enter the 1st encrypted result=Uryyb Enter the 2st encrypted result=Jbeyq UryybJbeyq HelloWorld Explanation of Output Text a = Encrypt (13, Hello); a = Uryyb Text b = Encrypt (13, World); b = Jbeyq Text c = Concat (a,b); c = UryybJbeyq Text d = Decrypt(13, c); d = HelloWorld As we can see clearly that we used an addition (concat) property to encrypt the text but after this we got the same result as we got without using concat. This property demonstrates that ROT13 is partially homomorphic scheme with respect of addition. The problem start with this technique when machine came in to being and it was easy to break secret code and even drawback of this scheme was numbers because user only were to able to encrypt alphabetic. Then gradually, ROT47 new scheme introduced and this scheme was derived from ROT13 as-well. Inside this scheme there was a big border for its users so now they were able to play with numbers and special characters. ROT47 exercise a larger alphabet, resulting from a regularcharacter programmingwell-known asAmerican Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII). The ASCII is a 7-bit code to correspond to English alphabet structure and these codes are in practice to symbolize data which includes numbers used in central processing unit, interactions technology and additional associated mechanism. The first publication of this standard code was in 1967 then afterward restructured and produced as â€Å"ANSI X3.4-1968†, at that time as â€Å"ANSI X3.4-1977† and at last as â€Å"ANSI X3.4-1986†. It is given that, it is a seven-bit code and it preserves the largest part symbolizing 128 characters. It presently characterize 95 printable characters together with 26 upper-case letters (A to Z), 26 lower-case letters (a to z), 10 numbers (0 to 9) and 33 special characters as well as arithmetic signs, punctuation marks and space character. . (Maini A K, 2007) However ROT13 introduced with new values of its alphabets separately both capital and smaller. Unlike ROT13, ROT47 was also not able to protect your text at all. This scheme is also having homomorphic property like addition. If closely observe the both scheme then we will be able to see that there is only little difference in both schemes. Both working pattern is same, both dealing with alphabets but ROT47 got advantage because this scheme deal with numbers and individual characters. In this method ASCII cipher connect to trade letters or numbers during encryption/decryption. Knowledge of ASCII codes to one lead to revel the facts. So here this scheme becomes the same like ROT13, so failure of this scheme once again involvement of the secret key. Is Symmetric Key Encryption Secure? ROT13 encryption scheme is not secured at all because the code of this scheme you can decode very easy. This was the disadvantage of this scheme. The reason we encrypt our transcript is to make it protected from illegitimate access however this scheme only consist of 26 characters which is very simple to decipher even from side to side a common person who have an access to the written text. For example: Anyone wishes to encrypt â€Å"atotaa†, after that the cipher we will achieve â€Å"ngbgnn† which is very effortless to work out through repetition of â€Å"a g†. ROT47 was novel encryption scheme derived from ROT13and also another example of symmetric key encryption but bit difficult. In ROT47 moving the basic letter swiftly like ROT13 with given substitute of ASCII. In this scheme one can take care of numbers and many other special characters as a substitute of the basic 26 letters however awareness of ASCII codes can show the way to one to search out the facts. Consequently, at this point this scheme turn into insecure category like ROT13, so failure of this scheme was once again its own typical contribution of the ASCII codes. Public Key or Asymmetric Key Encryption An important contribution in the peak field that time named â€Å"public-key cryptography† fulfilled by Whitfield Diffie, Martin Hellman and Ralph Merkle in 1976 when they introduce an elegant cryptosystem for a public-key. The major difference as compare to prior scheme was one extra key named as public key. The public key assume to be used for encryption and then private key will use to decryption. Cryptography has been a derivative security entirety once a secure channel exists along which keys can be transmitted, the security can be extended to other channels of higher bandwidth or smaller delay by encrypting the messages sent on them. The effect has been to limit the use of cryptography to communications among people who have made prior preparation for cryptographic security. (W Diffie and M Hellman, 1976) ABOVE NOT COMPLETE YET RSA respected the idea of Diffie et al and in 1978 they introduced first public key algorithm in public at MIT byRon Rivest,Adi Shamir, andLeonard Adleman. They illustrate what is predetermined by a trapdoor cipher, but how do you construct one? One usually used of the secret message of this type is called RSA encryption, wherever RSA are the initials of three initiators which are Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman. It is based on the idea below; it is simply multiply numbers together, particularly with the help of computers reason, factorization of this numbers could be difficult. To get them, one needs to factor N, which seems to be an extremely complex problem. But exactly how is N used to encode a message, and how are p and q used to decode it? Below is presented a complete example, although there will be used minute prime numbers so it is easy to follow the arithmetic. Actually in RSA encryption scheme they used very big prime numbers. As per them it makes scheme more secure because in their algorithm they need to factorize the number to get the result. If someone using small number then its easy to factorize the number but it is not the same with big number. Therefore, they in their algorithm they used key size 768-bit for ordinary use and they suggest 1024-bit key size for commercial use but for highly important information key size should be double (2048-bit) as compare to business key size just for mind satisfaction regarding security threat. RSA advised to one and all concerning their scheme that how scheme work to get own encryption and decryption key if any want using their method. First step decide two separate prime numbers like p, q. Later than multiply integers pq and make n = pq public. Exposing n in public will help one to hide original integers like q q and now it will be very difficult for illegitimate person to find original integers p q because factorization will be very hard for big prime numbers. This achievement will help to hide the value of multiplicative inverse d and the way derived from co-prime e. Choosing big integer d but d must comparatively prime with φ((p-1).(q-1)) and must fulfill the condition of greater common devisor gcd (d, (p-1)(q-1)). Finally one can compute the integer e â€Å"1 Mathematically Implementation of RSA algorithm RSA algorithm steps below Two prime integers p=61 and q=53 Multiply both prime integers n = pq = 61.53=3233. The value of n afterward used as modulus for public and private key. Calculate φ(n) = (p-1).(q-1) = 3120. Where φ is Eulers totient function. For the value of e = 17 select any integer from 1 One can conclude d = e-1 mod φ(n). The value of d = 2753 will be using in private key exponent so supervision of this key is essential. Extended Euclidean algorithm helps to determine the d. Thepublic keywill be (n= 3233,e= 17) and for text m the encryption function is m17 mod φ(n). Theprivate keyis (n= 3233,d= 2753) and for the encrypted text c decryption function will be cd mod φ(n). For example: Encryptm= 65, we compute c= 6517(mod 3233) = 2790. For decryptc= 2790, we calculate m= 27902753(mod 3233) = 65. Using the above boring however easy for a computer to calculate, One can decode others message and obtain the original message m = 65. Java Code for RSA Algorithm: public class RSACode { static long x,y,n,fx,l,m; static int p,q,e,tn; public static void main(String[] args) { Scanner sc=new Scanner(System.in); System.out.println(Please enter ist prime no P); p =sc.nextInt(); System.out.println(Please enter 2nd prime no q); q =sc.nextInt(); n=p*q; System.out.println(p*q = n +n); //Totient of n tn=(p-1)*(q-1); System.out.println(Totation of tn(pq) = +tn); int k=tn; for (int i=1; i { int fi= (int)(Math.pow(2, i)+1); l=fi; while (tn % fi !=0) { int r = (tn % fi); tn = fi; fi = r; } if (fi==1) System.out.println(GCD Of+[+k+,+l+] is+fi+Recommended for you); } System.out.println(So please use +l+ as e); System.out.println(Enter number to exponent e); e=sc.nextInt(); for (int d=1;d if ((e*d)%k==1) System.out.println(The value of e^-1 mod n= d ==+d); System.out.println(Enter the above valu of d); int d1=sc.nextInt(); System.out.println(Enter number to encrypt); m=sc.nextInt(); //encryption function is c = (m ^ e)/n; double encryption = (Math.pow(m, e)% n); System.out.println(encryption Key =+ encryption); System.out.println(The value of d= e^-1 mod n ==+d1); double decrypt = (Math.pow(encryption, d1) % n); System.out.println(encryption +to decryption is = + decrypt); OUT PUT Please enter ist prime no P 5 Please enter 2nd prime no q 7 p*q = n 35 Totation of tn(pq) = 24 GCD Of[24,5] is1Recommended for you GCD Of[24,9] is1Recommended for you So please use 9 as e Enter number to exponent e 5 The value of e-1 mod n= d ==5 Enter the above value of d 5 Enter number to encrypt 9 encryption Key =4.0 The value of d= e-1 mod n ==5 4.0to decryption is =9.0 The above java code works fine on small prime integers with small exponential power and small value of d (multiplicative inverse). OUT PUT Please enter ist prime no P 61 Please enter 2nd prime no q 53 p*q = n 3233 Totation of tn(pq) = 3120 GCD Of[3120,17] is1Recommended for you So please use 17 as e Enter number to exponent e 17 The value of e-1 mod n= d ==2753 Enter the above value of d 2753 Enter number to encrypt 65 encryption Key =887.0 The value of d= e-1 mod n ==2753 887.0to decryption is =NaN The same java code work perfect on big numbers but there you need different data types to adjust the output value the error NaN means data type mismatch. Practically Implementation An RSA operation whether encrypting, decrypting, signing, or verifying is fundamentally a modular exponentiation. This computation is executed with a sequence of modular multiplications. In practical uses, it is general to select a small public exponent for the public key. In reality, entire group of users preserve to use the matching public exponent, every one through a different modulus. However there are few boundaries on the prime factors of the modulus when the public exponent is set. For the reason of this it creates encryption more rapidly than decryption and verification quicker than signing. Through the typical modular power algorithms used to put into practice the RSA algorithm, public-key operations takeO(k2) steps, private-key operations take O(k3) steps, and key generation takesO(k4) steps, wherekis the number of bits in the modulus. (RSA 2010) Is RSA Work Secure? This scheme is not fully secure on the basses of following attacks Elementary attack Low private exponent attack Low private exponent attack Implementation attack Boneh et al Homomorphic Encryption (Boneh D, 1999) examined the RSA cryptosystem, was original exposed in the 1977-1978 topic of â€Å"Scientific American†. The cryptosystem is mainly generally in practice for offering confidentiality and certification validity of digital data. In those days RSA was positioned in many big business organizations. It is used by web servers and browsers to safe web transfer, it is used to make sure confidentiality and legitimacy of correspondence, it is used to safe remote login phase, and it is at the heart of electronic credit-card payment method. However, RSA is commonly take part in meanings anywhere safety of digital data is on risk. In view of the fact of first publication, the RSA scheme evaluates meant for weakness through a lot of examiners. However since 1977 to 1999, examiner have direct to a many interesting attacks but not any of them is critical. They typically demonstrate the risk of offensive use of RSA. Definitely, protected execution of RSA is a nontrivial job. Twenty years of research into inverting the RSA service created various perceptive attacks, other than no shocking attack has ever been discovered. The attacks exposed so far mostly demonstrate the drawbacks which one can avoid once applying RSA. Currently comes into view that correct applications can offer assurance to afford protection in the electronic globe. Openattacks on RSA scheme: Chosen chipper attack is very famous in cryptography in it attacker gathered information in pieces and then process it. This attack claimed against RSA in 1998 by Y. Desmedt and A. M. Odlyzko. According to RSA choose two prime numbers to calculate n then use φ(n) for modulus in encryption and decryption but if any enemy used brute force attack on their public key (N, e) to find the factorization and as well as their φ(n). On the other hand if we assume that only big prime number only allowed in RSA then it will affect the speed of the scheme because performance depend on n-bit key. While encrypting with not big encryption supporter e= 3 and small values of them like m Another attack was if sender send a plain clear message to e or more beneficiary after encrypted and the recipients distribute the similar exponente, except differentintegers p,q, andn, in that case it is simple to decode the plaintext using theChinese remainder theorem.Hà ¥stadJ become aware of that, this attack is achievable still if the plaintexts are not identical, however the attacker recognize a linear relation among them.Afterward Don Coppersmith enhanced this attack which was low exponent. RSA has the property that the multiplication of two encrypted text is the same to the encryption of the product of the individual plaintexts. That isâ€Å"† since of this multiplicative property achosen ciphertext attackis possible. For example an attacker, who needs to identify the decryption of a ciphertextc=me(modn)possibly will request the owner of the private key to decrypt an innocent appearing ciphertextc =re c (modn)for random rselected by the attacker. For the reason that of the multipli

Churches Tax Exempt A Matter Of Constitutional Right Religion Essay

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Melindas Improvement :: essays research papers

For the past few weeks, we have been reading the book Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson. The book is about a girl named Melinda Sordino, who for the most part refused to speak or interact with others after being raped at a end-of-the-summer party before the start of her freshman year in highschool. Ever since she was raped, she completely changed. However, I think she shows signs of improvement during the second half of the year.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ever since the party, Melinda rarely talked to anybody, including her parents. Nevertheless, I noticed that during the second semester of the year she talked considerably more. â€Å"All right, but you said we had to put emotion into our art. I don’t know what that means. I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel.†(p122). This quote is from the third marking period when Melinda was talking to her art teacher Mr.Freeman. I believe that she wouldn’t have said anything had it been earlier in the year. â€Å"Stinks. It was a mistake to sign up for art. I just couldn’t see myself taking wood shop.†(p.146). This quote is another example of Melinda talking, this time to Ivy in the mall. I think these quotes prove that Melinda starts talking more as the year progresses.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  At the beginning of the year, I noticed that Melinda wasn’t very active or social. For the most part, she avoided most social activities. She seemed to prefer to be alone inside her closet. But during the second semester, I noticed that this started to change. â€Å"I start on the leaves suffocating the bushes†(p.166). This quote describes Melinda going outside and doing yard work on her own without being asked to, which I don’t think she would have done before. Another example is when she asked her dad to bring her some flower seeds(p.168). There quotes prove that Melinda definitely becomes more active during the second half on the year.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When the year started, Melinda did poorly in school. She often used stolen late passes and rarely did homework. By the end of the year this was much different. In the third marking period, Melinda says how she showed up to class every day throughout the semester, did some homework, and didn’t cheat on any tests. I see this as a vast improvement. Melindas Improvement :: essays research papers For the past few weeks, we have been reading the book Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson. The book is about a girl named Melinda Sordino, who for the most part refused to speak or interact with others after being raped at a end-of-the-summer party before the start of her freshman year in highschool. Ever since she was raped, she completely changed. However, I think she shows signs of improvement during the second half of the year.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ever since the party, Melinda rarely talked to anybody, including her parents. Nevertheless, I noticed that during the second semester of the year she talked considerably more. â€Å"All right, but you said we had to put emotion into our art. I don’t know what that means. I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel.†(p122). This quote is from the third marking period when Melinda was talking to her art teacher Mr.Freeman. I believe that she wouldn’t have said anything had it been earlier in the year. â€Å"Stinks. It was a mistake to sign up for art. I just couldn’t see myself taking wood shop.†(p.146). This quote is another example of Melinda talking, this time to Ivy in the mall. I think these quotes prove that Melinda starts talking more as the year progresses.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  At the beginning of the year, I noticed that Melinda wasn’t very active or social. For the most part, she avoided most social activities. She seemed to prefer to be alone inside her closet. But during the second semester, I noticed that this started to change. â€Å"I start on the leaves suffocating the bushes†(p.166). This quote describes Melinda going outside and doing yard work on her own without being asked to, which I don’t think she would have done before. Another example is when she asked her dad to bring her some flower seeds(p.168). There quotes prove that Melinda definitely becomes more active during the second half on the year.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When the year started, Melinda did poorly in school. She often used stolen late passes and rarely did homework. By the end of the year this was much different. In the third marking period, Melinda says how she showed up to class every day throughout the semester, did some homework, and didn’t cheat on any tests. I see this as a vast improvement.

Fitzgeralds Exploration of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby Essa

Fitzgerald's Exploration of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, is a one of the best stories written during a chaotic period in our nation’s history, The Jazz Age. The Twenties were a time of social experiments, self-indulgence, and dissatisfaction for majority of Americans. Fitzgerald depicts all these characteristics throughout the novel with his interesting themes, settings, and characters. The most elaborate and symbolic character Fitzgerald presents to his readers is Jay Gatsby. Fitzgerald uses Gatsby as a vehicle to explore the idea of The American Dream, which was a key element in shaping American society and it’s citizens. Fitzgerald does not sugar-coat his definition of the American Dream, but lets his protagonist voice these elements and its decline, challenging the reader to explore the true nature of America in the 1920s. Jay Gatsby, like many average Americans, has a dream of becoming successful and noble. In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby decides to pursue The American Dream as a young adult. Gatsby came from a poor social class, which forced him to work hard even though he would receive no high status in life. Gatsby knew this, but always remained very ambitious and refused to settle for a life of â€Å"janitor’s work†. It wasn’t until Jay was 17 years old when he found his real inspiration to become successful. Before World War I, Jay Gatsby met Daisy and fell instantly in love with her. Unfortunately for Ga...

Drama at the Farm: A Canadian Survival Story Essay

Canadian Writer Margaret Atwood would argue that every country in the world has a single unifying and informing symbol, to act as a belief system that keeps everyone together and working for common ends. These unifying symbols manifest in the literature produce by authors and literary thinkers; whether or not it is done consciously or subconsciously. According to Atwood, in the United States â€Å"Frontier† is the unifying symbol, the exploration of new land, the west and independence from imperial powers. In the United Kingdom the â€Å"Island† is a distinct symbol of common national sentiments, the idea of the central island nation controlling its lands and wealth from behind the safety of its metaphorical walls; this symbol is perfectly represented by the medieval castles and fortresses of that nation. With these examples in mind Atwood states that the unifying symbol for Canadian Lifestyle, and consequently literature, is â€Å"Survival†. As a result of the Canada’s geographical shape, its vast landmass and bitter climate, as well as the nation’s origins as subordinate to imperial rule, Survival becomes the common thread which bonds the lives thought and experiences of all Canadians. It is more real to us than the frontier or the island. In her essay, † Survival : A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature†, Atwood goes into great detail about this idea of survival and victimization, she outlines her four victim positions with the intention of increasing understanding of Canadian literature, and how these guidelines apply to anyone, Canadian or otherwise. In â€Å"The Watcher†, by Guy Vanderhaeghe, Atwood’s concepts can be used to identify and understand the position of Vanderhaeghe’s main character, Charlie Bradley, as well as increase understanding of Vanderhaeghe’s work as a piece of distinctly Canadian fictional Literature. Atwood’s four victim positions can be used to understand characters from Canadian fiction from the distinctly Canadian point of view, survival. The hero of most Canadian fiction is the survivor, the main character or protagonist survives where the other characters do not, or they survive one ordeal only to succumb to something else, â€Å"The survivor has no triumph or victory but the fact of his survival; he has little after his ordeal that he  did not have before, except gratitude for having escaped with his life.†(Atwood 33). The Canadian protagonist or survivor doesn’t portray the myth that they can beat adversity to better themselves or their situation, rather they are no better of than before their ordeal, or maybe worse, by are fortunate to have escaped with their lives. The survivor is therefore inherently and unavoidably a victim in one form or another, and Atwood’s position can be use to identify and grasp a greater understanding of the survivo r character, his actions, thoughts, and decisions. To understand Charlie Bradley one must first understand the four basic victim positions. A person of the first victim position is in denial of the fact that they are the victim, usual their slightly elevated status above their peers makes them feel that anyone can succeed if they wanted to and those that don’t are just lazy. A person from the second victim position acknowledges their victimization but resigns to it because of feelings that it is the result of uncontrollable exterior forces such as fate, they feel their position as a victim is inevitable and cannot be changed. Individuals of the third position acknowledge their victimization but refuse to accept the role is inevitable as in position two. However a person in position three doesn’t use their frustration at their victimization in a creative manner, they don’t use their energy to change their position they just loath themselves and are jealous of those who are not victims. A person in position four is what Atwood calls â€Å"a creative non victim† (Atwood 38). For these individuals victimization is not a reality, they use their energy to rise above the existence of victimization and are positively creative with their situation. Vanderhaeghe’s main character from his short story, â€Å"The Watcher†, Charlie Bradley fits perfectly into Atwood’s definition of the second victim position. Charlie Acknowledges his victimization but feels there is nothing he can do about it. Evidence of Charlie’s position can be found numerous times throughout the text. From the very first sentence of Vanderhaeghe’s story one can cast type Charlie. He says, â€Å"I suppose it was having a bad chest that turned me into an observer, a watcher, at an early age.† (Vanderhaeghe 207). From this statement you already know that Charlie blames his situation as being an observer on his bad chest, an uncontrollable external for, he cannot control his sickness and so resigns to be a victim of it. The rest of the story centers around Charlie’s talent for observing events but never participating, the situation he deals with when he is shipped of to his grandmas farm and forced to deals with his mentally unstable aunt and her freeloading boyfriend Thompson. Charlie fancies himself a spy observing the details and doing nothing. More evidence of his position comes from thoughts on his aunt’s situation, Charlie says, â€Å"†¦ Evelyn, was evidence enough of how firmly bound we all are to the wretched wheel of life and its stumbling desires.† (Vanderhaeghe 221). Again resigning everything to the whims of fate. Charlie’s true position as the surviving victim comes at the end of the story when he is forced into the game, no longer a watcher, and must chose between taking the side of his Grandma or that of Thompson in identifying the assailants, who identity he does know to be the Ogden Brothers hired by his Grandma to beat up Thompson. â€Å"And now he is asking me to save him, to take a risk, when I was more completely in her clutches than he would ever be. He forgot I was a child. I depended on her.† (Vanderhaeghe 239). Charlie admits to withholding the truth to save himself, even if it meant hurting Thompson. Charlie is the survivor, he is the victim of circumstance be he has the foresight to save himself even if it isn’t the right thing to do. Canadian short stories are full of survivors, the characters created by Vanderhaeghe as well as those of many authors face different challenges than the characters of literature from other nations. Canada is a nation of survivors, if only just barely. Margaret Atwood is one Canadian writer who fully understands this survivor position and the levels of victimization that come along with it. Canadian heroes are the ones who face adversity to gain something, but those who are pounded by the outside world and are just able to have on to their lives. This situation, at least metaphorically, will be familiar to all Canadians and the great cross section of writers from various cultural backgrounds. Their diversity only reinforcing the notion that this country, the land changes you, give us all something in common, that unifying symbol that Atwood praises as the center of everything  Canadian. Survival. As Atwood aptly puts it, â€Å"A writer’s job is not to tell a society how it ought to live but how it does live.†(Atwood 42) Works Cited: Atwood, Margaret. â€Å"Survival.† Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature. Toronto: Anansi, 1972. 25-43. Vanderhaeghe, Guy. â€Å"The Watcher.† Man Descending. Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1982.