The Symbol of the Heart in The Floating Opera Essay -- Floating Opera

The Symbol of the Heart in The Floating Opera  Ã‚      The heart is the dominant symbol in The Floating Opera, more important even than the symbol of the showboat of the novel's title. From beginning to end the book is richly populated by references to the heart on both a literal, physical level, and a figurative, symbolic one. In the first case, literal references are made to Todd's heart condition. In the second case, the heart plays two symbolic roles; not only does it serve as a symbol of Todd's emotional and non-rational side, but the frailty of Todd's heart serves as a correlative for the fragility of all human life. This paper will examine several examples from The Floating Opera that demonstrate this multi-levelled usage of the heart. Hearts make an early appearance in the text, in the very first chapter, when Todd describes his heart condition; a "kind of subacute bacteriological endocarditis"1. This condition predisposes Todd towards myocardial infarction (heart attack), and consequently Todd writes, "What that means is that any day I may fall quickly dead, without warning - perhaps before I complete this sentence, perhaps twenty years from now."2 Although this may seem to be a purely literal device, Barth is using Todd's heightened awareness of the delicateness of his own life as an exaggerated symbol for the vulnerability of all human life. This early focus upon the heart continues due to the centrality in the novel's plot of Todd's decision to kill himself, and his subsequent "change of mind". At the core of this decision to suicide is Todd's realisation that his life has been governed by his heart (his emotions), despite his best efforts to live by will, reason and intellect: "My heart was the master... ...when Froebel had Parnassus in his pan?"8 This quotation is demonstrative of both the inability of reason to overcome emotions - the very problem which Todd has grappled with for much of his life, and which lies centrally in The Floating Opera - and also of Todd's acute awareness of that inability. This, like so many of the "facts" in the narrative, has both a symbolic and a literal meaning, and shows the extent to which the heart and what it stands for permeate the fabric of the entire novel. Bibliography Barth, John, The Floating Opera and The End of the Road, Anchor Books, New York, 1988. Endnotes 1 Barth, John, The Floating Opera and The End of the Road, Anchor Books, New York, 1988, p. 5. (All subsequent page numbers refer to this book.) 2 p. 5. 3 p. 226. 4 p. 49. 5 Ibid. 6 Ibid. 7 p. 124. 8 pp. 94-5      

Monty Python and the Holy Grail :: essays research papers

Monty Python and the Holy Grail In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, logic is used in an unfamiliar way. This logic does not deal with the nature of life, but deals with the more complex forms of logic that require the filling of blanks to make things work out. Although, for the most part certain things did not make sense, but yet they did express logic. They used environmental attributes to make sense of the complexities they had. The first application of logic found in the movie was in the first scene with the use of coconuts. They argued about how King Arthur had coconuts here in a moderate climate while coconuts only grow in tropical climates. King Arthur’s explanation for this was that a swallow brought it back when migrating. The peasant said that is impossible because a little bird cannot carry a coconut while it migrates. Hence with no other possibilities the peasant had concluded that it is impossible to have a coconut in England, which had been brought back, from a tropical area from a small migrating bird. This is a perfect example of how the movie breaks down logic and uses the settings environmental attributes and resources.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another example of this uncouth logic is seen with the town’s people’s belief of the woman being a witch. The town’s people said that she shall be burned for being a witch, but the knight, in his use of logic says that if she is a witch, and must be burned then she is made of wood. The knight goes on to say that if she is made of wood then she must float, and that if she floats she must be the same weight as a duck. So they weigh her and from the magic of movies she weighs the same as the duck, concluding that she is a witch. This shows the irrational logic that is being used in the movie, as well as the use of environment to draw a basis for conclusion. From this they arrive at the same conclusion they had in the beginning, that being that the women was a witch.

Citizens Have to a Guaranteed Minimum Income in a Democratic Society Essay

â€Å"Although abuse of the system are inevitable, social welfare payments are essential to protect the rights citizens have to a guaranteed minimum income in a democratic society† Discuss. Social welfare is an essential element of an advanced society. Good systems are always abused, but that does not mean they are faulty. In my opinion, the two main reasons why welfare payments are necessary are as follows: First of all, critics forget that there are many forms of welfare besides payments to the unemployed. Their negative opinions harm those who are not capable of earning a wage, such as single-parent mothers, the disabled, and the sick. Moreover, the unemployed have the right to an income, too. They are not always at fault for not having a job, and in most cases the tax they have paid in the past entitles them to assistance. The second reason is that crime increases when people have no means of support. The desperately poor inevitably turn to crime, which is not only dangerous but costly. Policing the streets is more expensive than providing welfare. A policeman’s wage is four or five times higher than a â€Å"dole† payment. Certain members of society believe that people should look after themselves. They point out that welfare increases dependency on others and destroys dignity. This may be true, but in the case of the unemployed, the relief payments are usually temporary. It is surely the fault of the government if there are long-term unemployed. Welfare critics also believe that it is the responsibility of a victim’s family to provide financial assistance. However, it is too expensive to provide complete help for a severely disabled person. To conclude, it is vital to understand the need for welfare in a modern democratic society. Without welfare payments the poor are destined to become poorer. The first duty of a government is to provide a financial safety net for all disadvantaged persons, and that includes those without work.

Dance theory Essay

At the beginning of this dance class, I honestly thought it was going to be easy to get by for someone who really knows nothing about dance or anything related to it. Currently, knowing the techniques involved in different types of dance like the Dunham technique I would not say the same thing. It does get better with time because practice gradually makes perfect and every time you do a particular dance move, you get the chance to realize what you do wrong and keep it in mind for the next time you do that same move. Conditioning and training the body for dance is also one thing I have come to realize is essential to start off well especially when doing a variety of dance movements. This is because dance is like going up in different stages where the first one serves as a foundation for what is coming next. Even though I am still in the process of learning, I have quickly realized that dance is complex and there are many components like breathing, body alignment, and control involved to make every dance step better. So far, some of the dances I have learned include traditional dances like Kpalogo, which is a West-African dance originated from the fishermen of Ghana, Rocking Horse which is just as the name implies. It is an African warrior dance in which your hands are raised about chest level to sort of indicate your shield and one leg is raised as high as possible while the other leg stays grounded before you swing forward and alternate hands. This dance in particular requires â€Å"groundedness†. It is fierce and you need to have correct body alignment and ensure you are controlling your breath because using an appropriate breathing technique is a necessity if you do not want to wear yourself out before completing the dance routine. Proper breathing also helps when working on slow movements like body rolls, flat back, pelvic rolls amongst many others. I think controlling my breath has helped me a lot when dancing since the beginning of this class. I 2 have learned when to take longer and slower breaths in order to assist my body control when doing certain things. Hence, I know breathing correctly when dancing, has a difference over a period of time because correct breathing enables you to strengthen your body internally. It also seems like breathing and your type of movement work hand in hand together to get the best results possible. Personally, I think emphasizing the importance of body alignment is very necessary. Proper body alignment enables you to have a sense of understanding what your body is doing. A poor body alignment defeats the whole purpose of doing a certain movement. For example, when doing plie and releve where you lengthen your spine and work on your posture and balance, you defeat the purpose if your feet are not well placed and your buttocks are not tucked under and as a result, the benefits of this rhythmic exercise will not be maximized. Also, body alignment relates with balance and when the body alignment is correct, balancing your body weight becomes easier. I know this because initially, I thought it was all about just trying to move your body by doing what the rest of the class does because you cannot go wrong when following the majority. I later found out that I was absolutely wrong because when you become aware of your own body internally and you focus on getting your body alignment right, it definitely reflects on the outside. This means that if you just dance without understanding the dance process involved in whatever move you are trying to do, your body movement would be as disorganized as your thought process. Also when doing fall and recovery, I loved it the most because I thought it was so easy. I did not see the point of it, but then I realized I was defeating the whole purpose because of my poor body alignment. Fall and recovery involves stretching and reaching with your hands when you bend over to flat-back and initially I just placed my hand where I felt comfortable without reaching and actually stretching my muscles. My head alignment was also 3 wrong and therefore, my spinal actions were not as good as they could have been. At this point, I was probably doing more damage that good to myself by not aligning my body correctly. Also correct body alignment removes the possibility of suffering any sort of injury or irrelevant body pain caused by the strain that could possibly occur in tedious exercises. Every dance move is like a piece of the puzzle that all come together to create a better dancer as progression occurs. This makes body control also very key in dance. You need proper control in order to make sure that you are conditioning and training your body when dancing. Body control involves focusing on the action that is taking place and being in charge of it. A good example of where control is absolutely needed is when doing Up and Over otherwise known as Pelvic Rolls. Pelvic Rolls are a combination of flat-back, fall and recovery, and the pelvic placement exercise. In Pelvic Rolls, the abdominal plays a major role and the spine has to be in proper alignment like in the flat-back position. It takes good control to start from going into a flat-back holding it there, then holding your body in plie, tucking you butt in, pointing your knees to the ground after and then circling your arms up to raise your body before you go into releve and then slowly bring your heels down to maintain flat feet. It takes a lot of energy and most importantly body control. Your mind has to focus on every single move you make in order to make sure you are connecting with your body both internally and externally. With proper body control, you strengthen your body and prevent injury from occurring.

Character Description of King Duncan and Macbeth Essay

One of the smaller, yet important, characters is King Duncan. Duncan is an intelligent, generous, trusting and simply, a good king. Especially his goodness contributed to the doubt of Macbeth to actually kill the king. Complimenting his companions for all their nobleness demonstrates Duncan’s love to the people around him and effects their compassion for him. â€Å"O valiant cousin! Worthy gentlemen!† (Act I, Scene 2) is Duncan’s response to someone he barely knows and just explains what had happened during the battle and how Macbeth saved Duncan’s kingdom. Of course it is logical that Duncan is very content with the news of a victories view on the battle. However, to call someone a valiant cousin and a worthy gentlemen if he does not know who this men with the news is, shows Duncan’s respect to a man who is of much lower class than himself. As well it gives the audience the feeling that Duncan is a man who rather lives in a peaceful country than in a country that often fights for land. Besides men he does not know very well, his appreciation of his noble follower Banquo is more than once expressed by Duncan. Firstly he â€Å"infold thee (Banquo) and hold thee to my heart† (Act I Scene 4) and not much later expresses again his thankfulness of Banquo’s loyalty when he compliments him (to the audience) by calling him truly worthy. And by naming Macbeth thane of Cawdor he demonstrates his generosity and appreciation for a, in his eyes, noble man. Duncan really is a loving and generous man; he wants the very best for his people and recognizes loyalty and the good side in people. Maybe that is his tragic flaw. Perhaps Duncan is naà ¯ve, or perhaps he wants to set the example for his country since he is the king, and by doing so he does puts his own status in a dangerous position. His real intentions for being the person that he is are not obvious. Although Duncan is too naà ¯ve to suspect anybody from hurting him, which is not necessary because he is well respected for his deeds, he admits his mistake. When Banquo and he are talking about the man that deceived him and fought the battle against him he explains that â€Å"there is no art to find the mind’s construction in the face: he was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust† (Act I Scene 4). His intelligence, on the other hand, is a little bit more obvious. Duncan has  not shown any knowledge about a possible assassination, but still tells the people his son Malcolm is going to be the king after him (Act I Scene 4). Duncan is intelligent enough to understand that he will not be king forever. And although he has no real signs of diseases or death, there is something that drives him to the point where he officially announces that his son is going to be king before he departs to visit the person who caries the same title as his last traitor. It is ironic that the thane of Cawdor is his traitor and his murderer. Despite the fact that Macbeth wants to kill Duncan for his own sake, he acknowledges Duncan’s goodness and intelligence in his soliloquy in which he doubts whether or not he should kill Duncan. â€Å"This Duncan hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been so clear in his great office, that his virtues will plead like angels trumpet-tongued against the deep damnation of his taking off† (Act I Scene 7). A completely different character is the direct half that murdered king Duncan. The direct half is the part of the conspiracy that actually murdered the king, the other half, the indirect part, is the person that helped thinking about and inspiring the assassination. Macbeth himself is the direct and Lady Macbeth the indirect half. Macbeth, a worthy warrior, deals with his ambition in conjunction with his conscience. His ambition leads him to think about ideas his conscience disapproves, but since his ambition is shared by the indirect part, Lady Macbeth, his ambition conquers his conscience. As soon as Macbeth has the chance to understand what happened to him after the three â€Å"witches† told him he would be thane of Cawdor and king, his imagination leads him to think it is possible that his sons could become king. â€Å"Do you not hope your children shall be kings, when those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me promis’d no less to them?† (Act I Scene 3) are his thoughts when he releases that the witches gave him what they promised, the title of thane. How great would it be if his sons could become rulers of the country? Soon his ideas about his sons change to the idea that he could become king himself if the king would die before announcing the next king. When Duncan does announce that Malcolm should be king after his dead, Macbeth demonstrates to the audience that this means he needs to fight him as well. He thinks that â€Å"in my way it lies† (Act I Scene 4), it is his destiny to become king. But a couple lines before that he tells the king that the victory was his duty to the king. Clearly he does not have any problem by wearing a mask over his thoughts, or as he states in Act I Scene 7; â€Å"false face must hide what the false heart doth know†. His ambition is there, he wants to be the king, now he knows he is destined to be king he feels more tendency to murder than to be loyal. However, his conscience is at some points stronger than his will. In his soliloquy he is persuading himself that he should not murder because of many reasons. The part where his conscience plays a huge role is concerning the fact that â€Å"we still have judgment here; that we but teach bloody instructions, which being taught return to plague th’inventor† (Act I Scene 7). Ironically, since he is the murder, Macbeth is the only one who doubts himself so often. The other characters know what they wanted; the king wants all the good for his country, Banquo wants all what is good for the king, and Lady Macbeth, Macbeth’s â€Å"dearest partner of greatness† (Act I Scene 5), wants to see her husband becoming the king. Macbeth admits that his greatest weakness is his â€Å"vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself and falls on the other† (Act II Scene 7). Having ambition is one of those things in life you can’t afford it too have too little, but neither can you have too much or it will work against you. In Macbeth’s case there is enough to make him consider killing his king, but not enough to actually act the murder out. He needs someone who can persuade him to do it. Lady Macbeth fits in this picture perfectly. She is supportive enough to ask Macbeth if he rather lives as â€Å"a coward in thine own esteem† (Act I Scene 7) or that he becomes king. If Lady Macbeth would not continue to push him and give him orders, he would probably not have done the job without big mistakes. Even after the â€Å"deed† Lady Macbeth needs to calm him down. She needs to tell him that he should â€Å"consider it not so deeply† (Act II Scene 2) when he was not able to pronounce the word â€Å"amen†.

The audit report and internal control evaluation. Apollo Shoes Inc Essay

The audit report and internal control evaluation. Apollo Shoes Inc - Essay Example The auditing process of financial statements and evaluation of internal control systems of Apollo shoes was perfect. This is a report of findings, and recordings of the audit firm as of 31st December 2011. The audit follows the basis on the international Standard of Auditing and general accepted audit standards of United States of America. Key target of the audit is to obtain a reasonable assurance on whether there are any material misstatements on the financial statements. This will lead to drawing an opinion to the shareholders regarding the state of financial records (Ainapure, 2011, p. 26). Background Apollo shoes Inc. is a leading company in the United States of America. In reference to the evaluation conducted by the audit company, the Apollo management team is highly competent with certified employees. The management team comprises of 13 members and an executive committee of three members. The company's revenue of the year ended 31st December 2011 $108 million. This is a 6% in crease in reference to the working papers of previous auditor. It also has over 600 full time employees, 3500 part-time graduates, and 1000 undergraduates. The company has many branches all around the States to increase the net revenue. In this financial year, the company won different awards as a result of its quality management strategies. This has raised the creation of a sustainable business environment in such a competitive economy. It proves to be among the best performing companies in this line. Accounting sampling and testing procedures The audit entailed different sampling and testing procedures. This is to provide material evidence before presenting the opinion to the shareholders and directors. Tracing the flow of transactions and authorization is the crucial task in auditing. This is because auditors will identify transaction initiation and completion by the company. The audit team also made a detailed compliance test seeing whether all guidelines within the company are functional. A test on the control system is pivotal in auditing; its helps the auditor to identify the extent of other tests. In reference to the audit team, it is evident that Apollo shoes management is competent in implementing these tools. This implementation is responsible for immaterial gaps in the company. The auditing team gives all recommendations and management action plans to cover these gaps. Risk Exposure From the audit analysis, internal auditors perform detailed risk analysis targeting all areas of concern of the company. The key target areas are cash inflows, grant activities, operating systems, level of external rules and regulation among others. The objective of evaluating risk exposure through the internal audit team is identifying all entities that should receive audit attention (Ainapure, 2011, p. 32). Scope The main aim of auditing the statements is to represent the shareholders in affirming the fairness of the statements. It also helps in determining whether th ey are in accordance with the accepted accounting standards of USA. The audit includes testing, examining basis, evidence on the supporting information, and disclosing the financial statements to all parties. It also includes a review of administration grant, safety, network security, and service centre. It covers the period from 1st January 2011 and 31st January of the same year. This is in reference to Apollo Shoes financial year. The report has made a combination of analytical review procedures on the financial statements (Ainapure, 2011, p. 36). Opinion In accordance with the financial statements presented by the management of Apollo shoes Company, the company’s financial statements are in line with the USA accounting standard. This is in reference to the financial records of the year ended 31st January

Review of Financial Statements Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Review of Financial Statements - Essay Example In this case, also all type of liabilities accounts i.e. current and non current liabilities accounts will be affected. For example, accounts purchases, sundry current liabilities, interest payable, bank loans, long term debt etc 2) The financial statements which will show the impact of the transaction at the time of merge will be balance sheet and cash flow statements. Since in merger a firm acquires another firm therefore balance sheet will record the changes in the assets as well as the liabilities of the firm and the resulting changes in them. Another financial statement which will be affected by this is cash flow statement which will record the movement of any cash paid to the owners/shareholders as the consideration for the merger. (Warren, Reeve, & Duchac, 2008) It is also important to note that the income statement may also be affected if acquiring firm has to expense out some earlier losses of the acquiring firm through provisioning. However, this may not be