Our Previous Samples

As attested by Sherry Turkle, the difference between 'conversation and connection' is interactive communication or the discourse between two or more people by mutual exchange of ideas and information in a real face-to-face is conversation. While connection means the social network that links you to your social groups through various forms of media, in Turkle's article, she stated 'face-to-face conversation unfolds slowly. It teaches patience when we communicate on our digital devices. We learn different habits.' Thus, having a conversation with a diverse group of people using digital media could lead to acquiring various manners and adopting them within ourselves.

The concept of Sherry Turkle's 'being alone together' is that, 'Technology-enabled, we are able to be with one another, and also elsewhere, connected to whenever we want to be.' Although people are not conversing as much as we used to, the use of digital devices has the power to control and keep us connected despite how far we are and the distance from each other. Real-life conversations change through innovative connections in a way of socializing and communicating. Nowadays, it is accessible to be attached to every single one. However, people have been secluded in their personal space, which has resulted in a detachment between social groups, including loneliness.

The author argues the 'flight from conversation' can lessen the possibility of fostering self-reflection if the conversation is absent. She pointed out, 'Self-reflection in conversation requires trust.' On top of that, Turkle raises concerns about how people's lives are now plugged into digital devices. The real face-to-face conversation in one's vitality and its necessity is gradually gone. She also demonstrates how people are influenced by the growth of technology and the way humans choose to live with it. In a modern society where we often think of machines that look after us, for instance, in paragraph 15 found in Turkle's article, 'A high school sophomore wishes he could talk to an artificial intelligence program instead of his dad about dating; he says the A.I. would have so much more in its database.'

As technology dominates today's world, we tend to depend and remotely believe in the power of digital media rather than focusing on each other. We are now capable of relying on its capacity due to the fact that our social lives are dramatically altered. Hence, instead of building a better way of enhancing camaraderie, with the rise of interconnection by social media and with the touch of our mobile screens, we are now losing authentic social interactions. Sherry Turkle defines 'I share; therefore, I am' as we are accustomed to using technology to convey our sentiments and opinions on various platforms of social media. It has had a massive impact on our daily lives, like Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, and such have deliberately replaced spoken communications.

Furthermore, Sherry Turkle provided suggestions for creating sacred spaces at home or 'device-free zones' for us to disconnect from technology and prevent being isolated, besides maintaining real face-to-face discourse and valuing the conversation with our loved ones. Turkle asserted, ‘Most of all, we need to remember ’in between texts and e-mails and Facebook posts' to listen to one another, even to the boring bits, because it is often in unedited moments, moments in which we hesitate and stutter and go silent, that we reveal ourselves to one another.' In the latter part of the author's article, she encouraged everyone to ‘look up, look at one another and let’s start the conversation.'

Table of contents

1. Adam Goldenberg and Don Ressler Success Journey
The Growth of TechstyleTechstyle UniquenessTechstyle’s Future Prospects

Some time back, Norcal posted a refresh about Don Ressler and Fabletics and their advertising methodologies. Techstyle Fashion Group accessory or beauty organizations got established by Don Ressler and Adam Goldenberg. It incorporates various membership-based attires. Shockingly, the two folks once knew almost nothing about fashion. What they possessed was a solid drive to succeed and the sharp consciousness of what shoppers go searching.

Adam Goldenberg and Don Ressler Success Journey

Adam Goldenberg joined the business world at the of fifteen years. Gamers Alliance was his start-up organization which was a promoting system intended for gaming sites. At twenty years old, Intermix had delegated him as the Chief Operating Officer. Then again, Don Ressler’s way to joining Intermix was comparative. His site was sold to Intermix in 2011, and then, he had done well-raising capital for an assortment of online organizations. It is amid their stay at Intermix that they grew to be friends, and later into business accomplices. They began an online business organization called Intelligent Beauty in 2006 and went ahead to make other fruitful brands too.

The Growth of Techstyle

Techstyle’s first organization was JustFab which is an enrollment-based dress organization that enables individuals to get customized athletic garments and adornments every month. The firm likewise exhibits how to blend and match design pieces. JustFab experienced a rebranding procedure and moved toward becoming Techstyle in 2016, named for the way Ressler and Goldenberg’s organizations tend to mix technology and fashion into one. Since both Goldenberg and Ressler have a history in advanced business, it appeared well and good to give the organization another tech-accommodating name.

Techstyle Uniqueness

The organization headquarters look like the bright and current workspaces you would discover in numerous Silicon Valley new companies. However, the emphasis on design is anything but difficult to perceive. The pioneer’s sense of duty regarding social obligation makes it more one of a kind. The focus isn’t just on profiting and running a productive enterprise. It’s tied in with enhancing lives. The organization is likewise dedicated to giving back to the community.

Techstyle’s Future Prospects

These two driven business visionaries have a considerable measure of potential keep on focusing their endeavors on making Techstyle the best wellspring of apparel and adornments for ladies around the globe. They are driven by their central goal of making activewear that looks awesome, influences it’s wearer to feel incredible, yet that wouldn’t burn up all available resources.

“Safe Sex” by Donald Hall discusses relationships. While the speaker seems to hail a specific type of distant disconnection between a “he and she” (1) in question as the most effective type of relationship, it is implied that this relationship is shallow and lacking in one of love’s key ingredients: passion.

Donald Hall was born in Hamden, Connecticut to two parents who fostered his love for and fascination towards poetry and prose. Having had his first poem published at 16, Hall demonstrated a firm grasp of poetic qualities from a young age. With alma maters like Harvard, Oxford, and Stanford, Hall worked alongside fellow poets Adrienne Rich, Robert Bly, Frank O’Hara, and John Ashbery during his time there and surrounded himself with the rich literary cultures of such prestigious institutions. Eventually, he married the poet Jane Kenyon, who died of leukemia in 1994. Hall pushed on, and with his style of building surrealism with simple language and structure in his works, he earned and is still earning various honors, the most notable of which was his appointment as the 14th U.S. poet laureate in 2006. (Poetry Foundation)

In “Safe Sex,” Hall embodies the persona of a scorned lover, or perhaps just a man learned from experiencing heartbreak. This poem is aimed towards everyone, primarily those considering a stress- and drama- free romantic relationship. Just as this poem does not feature any obvious references to when or where it takes place, its themes—love and death—are universal and applicable to many people. Taking on a tone of mystic warning, reminiscent of an omniscient storyteller, Hall presents the idea of how passion is a double-edged sword in relationships. While it brings excitement to the partners involved, it also paves the way to darker times ahead.

“Safe Sex” begins by listing all the possibilities that could prevent the development of affection and attachment between a “he and she.” If they are strangers, if there is no romance, if she becomes ignorant and oblivious, if sex is their only desire, or if their relationship was formed for purposes of retribution against others, they would be safe from conflict and heartbreak. There would be no fights, no arguments, and no rash decisions (“Safe Sex”).

Hall’s choice of words in this poem allow for better expression of the poem’s message. The title itself, “Safe Sex”, contrasts against the body of the poem due to seemingly differing topics. Yet, as the phrase “safe sex” is commonly used to describe protective methods against pregnancy and sexual diseases, the same concepts of protecting oneself and the differences between relationships and sex can be found. This is echoed through Hall’s descriptions of how heartbreak and the frenzied passion that follows can be avoided.

Similarly, Hall’s illustration of the “families of entitlement and steel” (5) serves as a metaphor for arrogance and unwavering ignorance, thus bringing in references to tales like Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, in which the two lovers ended up dead like the final line in this poem. The personification in “trembling days” (8) also doubles as a metaphor, forming an image of days filled with caution, sadness, and perhaps even apprehension towards someone else. Following this, the alliteration of “t” sounds in “vomit at midnight” (8) contribute to the gentle spitting pronunciation echoing the description of vomiting at midnight. This can even be interpreted as an implication of pregnancy, thus giving a nod to the poem’s title.

As for imagery, this poem is rich with compelling images that further the reader's’ impression and comprehension of the poem. For example, the repetition in “insensible skin under skin” (3) emphasizes the depth of indifference one can build, while the “hurled words on permanent humiliation” in line 7 dramatize the scarring, deprecating things that are said during an argument. The most poignant image in this poem, however, is the “repeated / apparition of a body floating face-down at the pond’s edge” (8-9), possibly alluding to yet another Shakespearean character—Ophelia, whose madness drove her to death by drowning. The choice of the word “apparition” suggests a ghostlike vision, a frequent, ominous premonition tormenting its victim until they decide to end their life.

Aside from diction and imagery, Hall also makes use of hyperbole and irony in this poem. The main train of thought this poem presents is that avoiding any form of devotion or connectivity will save us from conflict and thoughts of death, which can simply be an exaggeration of how heartbreak affects us. But, the idea that a loving relationship turned sour will result in ghostly sights involves the use of hyperbole, and greatly overstates the results of sorrow, devastating as they may be. Furthermore, there is irony in the poem’s title in relation to its contents. In keeping ourselves “safe” from the woes and pains of heartache, we certainly manage to shield ourselves from further despair, but we will also never know what it is like to fully devote ourselves to someone and for them to do the same.

This poem is written in free verse and iambic octameter, with 15 or so syllables per line. The lines are arranged in 4 sets of couplets and 1 final line, all of which involve line breaks. By doing so, Hall manages to maintain the flow of the poem despite splitting the stanzas and sentences, and forms a poetic structure that clearly presents every change that occurs within the persona’s ideas. As the poem progress, so does the main topic of the poem, slowly shifting until it reveals the persona’s innermost thoughts, which is to protect oneself against heartbreak and save ourselves from any further harm.

By listing the actions one could possibly take against impending heartaches and the results that follow, Hall presents a compelling case against the prospect of fiercely and passionately loving someone in a strongly-connected relationship. However, in doing so, he also sheds light upon what seems to be a much more optimistic message. Although it is true that the things that make us happiest bring us the most misery, these ups and downs are what keep ourselves and our relationships alive. As presented in lines 1-5, there is no connectivity or meaning in relationships without love. Through cold, calculated moves to conceal our true feelings, we find a false sense of safety. If we limit ourselves in our devotion for fear of being hurt, we won’t know what it’s truly like to live, love, and die.

To conclude, the themes of love, safety, and heartache are very strongly depicted in Donald Hall’s poem “Safe Sex.” It appears distancing ourselves will protect us from all harm, but it does little in terms of allowing us to fully experience the joys and pains of every relationship. These conscious efforts to hide our hearts away will only further the truth of love’s labor’s lost, and therefore hold us back in our efforts to find love.

A friend asked me why, if given a choice, I would choose Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton and this post is my response to that. For those who look at every issue in black and white (I call them politically color blind), I wish to make it clear that I do NOT hail Donald Trump as the savior of mankind, this is just an objective analysis of why he is a better choice RELATIVE to Hillary Clinton. If you are unable to understand this nuance, then I have been called a redneck Milo spokesperson once before, one more time won't make a difference.

These are the ten reasons why I would choose Trump over Hillary:

1. Tax Reforms: Trump administration has rolled out an ambitious almost $1.5T worth of Tax Reform that brings down tax brackets from 7 to 4 which would mean a bigger paycheck for a large percentage of Americans, while Hillary Clinton, being the socialist that she is, advocated higher taxes on an average American citizen.
2. Corporate Regulations:Trump has nullified hundreds of corporate regulations on education, employment, corporates etc which would mean greater autonomy for corporates and more development. This is the most ambitious crackdown on regulations since Ronald Reagan.
3. Unemployment: As a result of granting autonomy to the corporations, the businesses were able to create more jobs. As per a June 2018 survey, the unemployment rate in US is 3.8 which is lowest in 18 years. It could not have been possible in a Clinton Presidency as she would have re-inforced Obama-era regulations.
4. Immigration Policy: There is a lot of controversy on Trump's immigration policies, left-liberal media has branded him a racist for banning Muslims from entering US. First of all, he never banned Muslims per se, he tightened the screening process from 7 countries in the Middle East. Leftists do not know that not every Arab is a Muslim and more Muslims live in South Asia than in Middle East who he didn't ban. Secondly, Obama deported and arrested more Muslims than Trump has, but Obama, being the con man he was, went discrete about it. Leftists also do not know that ICE arrests dropped from 23% in 2014 to 17% in 2017. And thirdly, Clinton wanted to ease the immigration which would mean cultural suicide like what's happening in UK, Germany, France and Sweden.
5. Humanitarian War: Hillary Clinton was the one who helped create the idea of "humanitarian war", i.e. aiding the rebels of a particular country to cause Civil War and destabilize the State. She was a key figure behind invasion of Syria, she convinced Obama to go after Gaddafi, she made a plea to her husband Bill Clinton in 1999 to bomb Yugoslavia and she legitimized the Honduran millitary coup in 2009 which claimed the lives of thousands of innocent Hondurans. She is one of the main reasons, apart from Henry Kissinger, why Middle East crisis exists.
6. Iraq War: Apart from all these catastrophes, she was the key figure in advocating invasion of Iraq while on the other hand, Trump called Iraq War a "big fat mistake that destabilized Middle East".
7. Destruction of ISIS: Under the idea of Humanitarian War, Obama administration is responsible for creating ISIS by providing weapons to the extremists. Obama Administration, with Hillary, never let the millitary do its job because the left doesn't want extremists to end, it uses them as useful idiots. On the other hand, Trump let the millitary do its job and allowed the necessary crackdown on the terrorists.
8. Identity Politics: Despite being the neo-conservative that would give most Republicans and Evangelical Christians nightmares, Hillary Clinton re-invented herself as an anti-racism, anti-Islamophobia, pro-LGBTQ social justice warrior against the fascist, racist, straight white men. Though she once notoriously called Black children “super-predators” and referred to welfare recipients as “deadbeats.” She also plays the victim card of being a woman instead of contesting on the policies.
9. Cold War/Nuclear War: Despite claiming to be pro-LGBT and a champion of woman rights, Hillary gets cozy with Wahhabi Saudi regime which is the most homophobic and misogynistic shithole on earth. And in order to get the arms trade of Saudi Arabia booming, Democratic Party doesn't want Cold War to end. Hillary has always advocated strengthening of NATO against Russia which means pushing the two countries away from each other. On the other hand, Trump is on extremely good terms with Putin. Similarly, North Korea has agreed to come on table with Trump, while with a war-monger like Hillary as President, we know what to expect.
10. Hypocrisy: Both Hillary and Trump might be anti-Muslim, anti-LGBT, misogynistic racists but the difference is that Trump doesn't claim to be a champion of Human Rights while Hillary does. Moreover, Trump might have banned illegal immigrants from Muslim Countries, but Hillary is responsible for bombing Muslim countries.

In his perhaps most famous poem, “No Man Is An Island,” John Donne explores the theme of interconnectedness to show the invisible ties between people and their effect on us. In this short poem, the writer adopts a range of literary devices to enhance this masterpiece’s beauty and express the message mentioned above. An extended and regular metaphor, simile, and allusion work together to illustrate the author’s idea. The thoughtful and meditative tone of the poem emphasizes the philosophical attitude of the speaker that contributes to the overall meaning. Plain and precise, diction of this poem appeals to the readers of different educational backgrounds and makes a deep idea also a comprehensible one. An extended metaphor ties an individual and a humankind together by comparing a person to part of the mainland. Another metaphor draws a connection between “a clod” (a human) and Europe (place where it belongs). The speaker uses a comparison to imply that there is no difference between the reader’s and someone else’s possessions or values of their lives since the division between individuals is rather illusory. The structure of the poem itself accentuates the meaning embodied in the last line. Therefore, Donne uses such figures of speech as metaphor, simile, and allusion to argue that an individual and mankind are interconnected and both weaken and strengthen each other. An enlightened and supporting tone combined with a definite diction helps to instruct the reader on this lesson. This poem’s structure serves to attract readers’ attention to its main idea.

Philosophical and caring, this poem’s tone enhances the idea of people’s connection and mutual dependence. It implies that despite their somewhat exaggerated differences (the complete social isolation, that one of “an island”, separated from the mainland by the ocean, is almost impossible for a human), people are connected through what matters the most: their lives and deaths. Speaker’s diction is simple and comprehensive, this word choice conveys compassion and earnest desire to enlighten. Overall, the reasonable and comprehensive manner with which the poem starts creates an image of father instructing a child. The extended metaphor of “a man” as “a part of the main” supports the idea of interconnectedness by bounding people to their social environment. In other words, this figure of speech implies cultural and social connection between people. The speaker begins the instruction by simply disputing what an individual is not,

No man is an island,

Entire of itself,

And moves on to the pointing out the connection between people, as those between a piece of land and the entire continent.

Every man is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main.

The next lines establish social bonds between “a piece of the continent” - an individual and “the mainland” - large social fabric people belong to.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,

Europe is the less.

Donne uses gentle words to explain the idea: the loss of an individual causes damage to humankind. The speaker does not distance himself/herself from the reader. He/she uses the common language to elaborate on the idea of people’s mutual dependance.

As well as if a manor of thy friend's

Or of thine own were:

The next lines’ understanding and empathetic intonation contributes to the idea of humankind’s shared suffering.

Any man's death diminishes me,

Because I am involved in mankind,

The word choice in the lines above further supports the idea of people’s interconnectedness. For example, the word “involved” implies both dependence and contribution. While being affected by the death of someone else, the speaker benefits from knowing that his/her sufferings are also shared with the other people.

However, at the end of the poem the tone shifts from kind to harsh. The speaker aims to teach the reader an important lesson and attempts to shock him/her with an unexpected truth. No matter how distant someone else’s sufferings might seem, the bell always, “tolls for thee. ” This allusion to the bell tolling for the deceased encapsulates the entire meaning of the poem. People cannot avoid their connections and need remember about that while treating others or experiencing their “personal” pain. Poem’s structure itself makes this point noticable. While the second to last line, “And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls” is longer than the rest and leads the reader into the state of expectation, the last one, “It tolls for thee” resolves the accumulated tension and leaves the reader surprised. The “bell” that tolls for someone else also tolls for him/her. Short and final this phrase repeats itself again and again with a sound of a tolling bell.

Donne suggests that a loss of an individual leads to the loss for entire mankind. People are tied with the most important event in their lives: their death. This connection weakens but unites and, therefore, strengthens them. For shared pain brings people together and becomes easier to bear. This poem attempts to teach readers to remember that their suffering are also those of others and motivates people to land a hand to those in need. This work serves as a source of consolation for those who suffer and a reminder for those who feel sheltered from catastrophe. Moreover, this poem brings up another more subtle philosophical idea: because of the cultural connection there is a little of living in the dead which makes a death of a single person a tragic event to the whole mankind but allows departed to transcend death. Donne masterfully implements a variety of literary devices to achieve instinctive poetic beauty and support concepts mentioned above. An extended metaphor disagrees with the idea of individual’s social and cultural isolation; with the idea of self-sufficiency. Another metaphor compares a person to a piece of a continent, loss of which lessens the mainland. Donne also employs a simile to blur the difference between people. Philosophical and sympathetic tone that is woven into the fabric of the poem helps to instruct the reader on the moral lesson discussed earlier. Honest and humble diction emphasizes writer’s desire to enlighten the readers while showing compassion. The overall structure of the poem highlights the main idea summarized at the end with the help of the allusion to the tolling bell. Thus, Donne chooses metaphor, simile, allusion, diction, tone, and structure as his tools to convey the idea of interconnectedness that both weakens and strengthens mankind.

“Holy Sonnet XIV” written by John Donne is a poem that emphasizes Donne’s desire for a more intimate relationship with God. The words that Donne chooses in this poem insinuates that he wants a platonically intimate relationship with God, but the ambiguous meanings of the words could be grasped as Donne’s desire for God to abuse him sexually. The sexual imagery that Donne uses is so descriptively abusive, it could also be portrayed as rape imagery. Donne equally uses religious and sexual representations to further emphasize the closeness in which he wants to have with God.

Donne uses harsh language in “Holy Sonnet XIV” to show that he is infatuated with the idea of God abusing him in a sexual way. Donne wants God to hit his heart repeatedly instead of gently asking Donne to come into God's arms and accept God’s word. In the book of Revelations, God says in Revelations “behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” (Revelations.3.20). God is a benevolent being a shining figure, and seeking broken souls to mend, pointed out in line two when Donne says in the poem “as yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend” (Donne line 2). Donne telling God to force himself into Donne’s soul is the opposite of what God is described of doing in biblical texts. He is asking God to abuse him, the opposite of what God is portrayed as doing because he feels he does not deserve God’s love. Donne also compares himself to a town that he wishes for God to usurp or take from him. Donne is the usurper of his love and belief in God, which is this town, and mentions in the poem that the town belongs to another, the owner being God. He then states that he works to admit to God, but finds it hard. This goes back to the first line, where Donne says “batter my heart, three-personed God” (Donne line 1) because battering also refers to attacking the fortress of a city. The use of these harsh words in the poem, like batter, o’erthrow, bend, break, blow, burn, divorce, untie, break, take, imprison, enthrall, ravish, creates a violent image of God.

Another example of the harsh language Donne uses is in the lines four and five of the poem. Donne wants God to take over his old, unrepairable soul to make way for a new soul. The harsh alliteration Donne uses in the fourth line of the poem shows how violent he wants God to be with him, which suggests sexual violence. Donne wants God to use his force to “break, blow, burn, and make new” (Donne line 4). This describes the desire for God to dominate Donne in a sexual way, evident when, in the poem, Donne says “o’erthrow me and bend/ your force, to break, blow, burn” (Donne line 4-5). Donne wants God to break him into fragments, blow his dust over the ground, and burn his remains. He wants God to do this because he wants God to remake him in an image by violent means so God will take him back. The repetition of the initial sound in line four of the poem shows the reader the sexual punishment he wishes to receive from God.

In lines seven and eight of “Holy Sonnet XIV”, Donne talks about his unfaithful relationship with God. The way the relationship is portrayed is more like a humanized, marital relationship and not like a more religious relationship with God in the traditional sense. Donne tells God that reason is his governor and should be defending him, but is imprisoned. The imprisonment of his reason “proves weak and untrue” (Donne line 8). Donne’s reason was captured by things ungodly, and it revealed himself to be unfaithful to God. Lines ten and eleven also include examples of the type of relationship Donne yearns for. Donne states that he loves God dearly and would gladly be loved back by God, but “am betrothed unto your enemy” (Donne line 10). This could be perceived as Donne wanting to be in an intimate relationship with God but is in a marital relationship with either satan or his worldly possessions. Donne asks God to break the marriage that likely satan or his worldly possessions have so that Donne can be with God. He says to God “divorce me, untie, or break that knot again” (Donne line 11), with again being the keyword. The word again is important because it shows that he has strayed from God once before, and he wishes for God to take him back again. Donne tells God, “take me to you, imprison me” (Donne line 12). Donne wants God to wrap him in his love, affection, and entire being. This could also mean that Donne wants God to catch hold of him and ensnare him in God’s affection, which could have sexual connotations. God grabbing and entrapping him has sexually abusive imagery, like a master, God, and their sexual slave, Donne.

The last two lines of Donne’s “Holy Sonnet XIV” reads, “except you enthrall me, never shall be free, / not ever chaste, except you ravish me” (Donne line 14). Here Donne uses the words enthrall and ravish to better describe the relationship he wishes to have with God, but these words are double entendre, words with more than one meaning. To enthrall can mean to enslave, but it can be defined as to excite. To ravish can mean to charm or to captivate, but it can also be defined as to excite. He also uses these words to show that he wishes God would ravish him to establish his chastity. Donne tells God that he wants to follow God, but he cannot be free of God’s enemy unless he is enslaved and captivated; he cannot be chaste unless God excites him. This could be portrayed as a relationship between a master and a slave, with God being the master and Donne being the slave in the relationship. Slaves prefer to be sexually abused by the one they adore, and Donne wants God to ravish and dominate him. He wants to be broken away from his enemy and his heart to be battered by God because he wants to be punished for being unfaithful in their relationship. Being punished by being ravished and dominated are thought of as being sexual in context.

In conclusion. John Donne visualizes a violently sexual relationship with God in the poem; some of the words used are harsh enough to be illustrated as being representations of rape imagery. He utilizes double entendres and harsh language to make his point known. John Donne’s poem “Holy Sonnet XIV” has depictions of an unwholesome, sexualized relationship with God that are not brought to light by cutting language, but are hidden with indeterminate language. On the surface, it appears as though Donne wishes only for a relationship with God simply as one of God’s followers, but, with further investigation of the text within the poem, it is clear that he prays for a much more intimate and sexual relationship with God.

Table of contents

1. Migrant Mother
Dorothea Lange (1885-1965)How Lange Has Documented Life, Why She Is Important

Migrant Mother

In my mind, Dorothea Lange will always be identified with this image. I first saw it watching a documentary on the Great Depression in my sophomore History class. The impact it made was so strong that ever since that first view I can picture it whenever I want with perfect clarity and detail in my mind.

Even without knowing the historical context, you can guess it from the clothes, the expression, and the despair of the mother s face. Yet you can also see that though tired, and old before her time, this woman is strong, and her spirit is not yet broken, and that is a lesson for those of us more fortunate. Lange's great skill and craft, patiently learned over many years of portraiture photography, were justified and rewarded in the creation of this magnificent photograph. The Migrant Mother captures the concern of a weary mother for her children during the Great Depression.

Dorothea Lange (1885-1965)

Born in 1885 in New Jersey, Lange was studying to become a teacher when she discovered photography. She was fortunate to study with Clarence White at Columbia before striking out on her own. She opened a studio in San Francisco, and worked as a portrait photographer while raising a family. When the depression arrived in the 1930's she started to use her camera to record the plight of San Francisco s poor. Paul Taylor, an Economics professor and social activist, noticed these photographs and he persuaded her to work with him in support of the migrant workers.

In 1935 she was recruited to Roy Stryker's astonishingly talented team of photographers in the Resettlement Administration (later renamed the Farm Security Administration). With other greats like Walker Evans, Ben Shahn, Arthur Rothstein, Russel Lee, and Carl Mydans she produced some of the finest ever-social documentary. The heritage can be traced right up to outstanding photographers of today such as Sebastio Solgardo.

The unit survived until 1942 when it was overtaken by the events of WWII. Lange left full time work with the unit in 1937, though she continued to do occasional work for it until its demise.

She continued to work and exhibit right up to her death in 1965, but her fame stems from those three extraordinary years from 1935 to 1937.

How Lange Has Documented Life, Why She Is Important

Ask most people who know her work where and what she photographed and they will reply: bread lines, strikers, tenant farmers, the Central Valley, and the Great Plains.

Dorothea Lange is remembered for her images of proud and destitute sharecroppers from the south, and of the people who moved west in search of a brighter future who ended up in camps in the Central Valley.

Her portrait of a Migrant Mother, Nipoma, California, 1935 is a classic image of the dust bowl era. Several different versions of this famous image appear in exhibits of Lange s work around the U.S.

America was going through tremendous changes and Lange was there to document them. An explanatory placard at San Francisco s Museum of Modern Art states "By the 1930s, farm tenancy had essentially replaced slavery, making Black and White tenants equally vulnerable to landlords and reinforcing conditions of dependency and poverty. Here the causation of migration were manifest: the poverty of the overused and undernourished soil, the eagerness of farmers to produce mainly a 'cash crop' rather than living in harmony with what the land could produce and sustain, and finally the gradual introduction of large scale farming equipment, often financed by Roosevelt's various programs designed to help the poor farmer. Lange documented the change."

It is little wonder, that upon the outbreak of WWII, the population was on the move again.

The Lange show at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is divided up into several categories and several rooms: San Francisco and the Central Valley; Changes, Rural America; The War Years, and After the War.

The impact of displaced farm workers moving to California that began in 1930s was followed by a mass migration of southern sharecroppers in the 40s to take the many wartime jobs that opened up in this bustling port city.

The Kaiser shipyards in Richmond built 727 ships during the war, including one-fifth of the country's Liberty Ships. The Anthony Wayne was completed in just four days. In Women Line Up for Paycheck Richmond Shipyard, 1942 happy workers are looking forward to relaxing after a hard day at work.

Due to housing shortages, people not only worked in shifts-they slept in shifts, too. Several images No Rooms; Camp, Richmond CA 1944; El Cerrito Auto Camp; Furnished Rooms, Richmond California, 1943; and Day Sleeper, Richmond, 1943 graphically display this problem. Many businesses were open 24 hours a day to cater to the defense workers. The pace was non-stop. In Cafe, MacDonald Street, Richmond, California, 1942, a young woman stands proudly in front of The Richmond Cafe, in her evening furs -- in the middle of the day.

The population of Richmond before the war was 20,000. After war broke out the Kaiser shipyard employed over 100,000 workers building freighters. The impact on the community was considerable.

The human aspect of this change fascinated Lange -- particularly by the ethnic and racial mix of people who worked along side each other (in Richmond). Lange found the energy and newness of the experience exhilarating and saw in it a premonition of the future.

The images of Richmond in the Lange exhibit were taken for an assignment for Fortune Magazine. The article, written 1944, documented a 24-hour sequence at the Kaiser Shipyard in Richmond.

Dorothea Lange had a partner in this assignment -- Ansel Adams. Known for his monumental landscapes, especially of Yosemite National Park, they seem a mismatched pair. Even their styles of working were different.

Dorothea Lange was almost invisible as she wandered around photographing; Ansel Adams, however, wearing his ten-gallon and bushy beard, attracted attention. Crowds gathered around him as he set up his bulky photography equipment. In this assignment Dorothea Lange's people photographs were more successful than Ansel Adams'.

You can see Lange's influence on Adams, though, in the photograph, Trailer Park Children, Richmond, California, 1944 in the companion show, Friends and Contemporaries - Documentary Photography in Northern California, where Adams captures a lyrical portrait of three children.

Life was not always that peaceful as shown in Relationship #2 Girl and Boy, Richmond California 1944 MacDonald Avenue. In Trailer Park Camp, Richmond, 1944, you can feel the tension between the unhappy couple.

Dorothea had a dream never realized of organizing a project modeled on the Farm Security Administration of the 1930s, to "study the ways society shift-change from a small rural community to an urban mass culture".

In addition to documenting the Richmond area, Lange also captured the changes occurring it the rest of the Bay area: Bill Board, Pleasanton CA, 1945, showing a large vacant field and a real estate sign. The hills probably look the same today, but I'm sure the fields are gone.

As you can tell, Dorothea Lange documented numerous things with her camera, showing us her view of society. She has photographed much more than I have listed, although I feel that I have shown why she is someone important in the world of the arts. I believe to be considered important, you need to have made an impact on a large group of people with your work. Certainly Lange has done so, she photographed during a period when change was normal, everything was changing, she took less than desirable conditions, and by photographing them turned them into pieces of art that have influenced many, and give you a true feeling of what went on. Dorothea Lange has definitely made an impact on people of America with her work, and has definitely been an important person in the world of the arts.

"While there is a province in which photograph can tell us nothing more than we see with our eyes, there is another in which it proves to us how little our eyes permit us to see."

Keep in mind:
This is only a sample.

Get a custom paper now from our expert writers.

-Dorothea Lange

Dorothy Wordsworth, poetess, diarist, and sister of William Wordsworth, a well-known Romantic author, was not recognized as a notable literary figure until well after her death in 1855. Despite her close connection with her brother, her strong friendship with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and her general involvement in the Romantic literary community, Wordsworth’s own writings were largely kept private with the exception of a few anonymous publications in 1815 in her brother’s collection of poetry, Poems. Even after the posthumous publication of her journals, The Alfoxden Journal and The Grasmere Journals, in 1897 and the even later publication of her poetry in 1987, her position as an author seems overshadowed by her brother’s prestige. Still, Wordsworth’s writing is deserving of some degree of reverence as it offers unique insight into the life and mind of a nineteenth century woman. Never intending for her journals to be published, the intimacy of Wordsworth’s writing reveals small details about herself, her brother, and the time period that would have otherwise been lost to history. The small details contained in Wordsworth’s Alfoxden and Grasmere Journals expose larger truths about nineteenth century British society concerning gender, identity, and expression.

Wordsworth focuses the larger part of her writing on recording small, seemingly insignificant details about weather, food, and foliage. Almost every entry in Wordsworth’s journals details the weather to some extent. Sometimes she tells about the weather with great specificity so that readers can easily visualize the environment that she describes, while other times she includes simple, brief descriptions of daily weather conditions in passing. Writing in her The Grasmere Journals on April 15, 1802, Wordsworth describes a storm in a short yet vivid manner. She writes, “It was a threatening, misty morning, but mild. […] The bays were stormy, and we heard the waves at different distances, and in the middle of the water, like the sea. Rain came on” (409-410). Because she so consistently records the weather conditions in her writing, whether she directly addresses the weather conditions or gives a quick overview, it may be assumed that Wordsworth was connected with, or in some way moved by, the conditions of her environment. While these small details about such things as the weather seem trivial, it may be contended that these small details were integral parts of Wordsworth’s life. Anne Kostelanetz Mellor, author of Romanticism & Gender, a book that examines the gender-based differences among writers of the British Romantic period, notes, “When we look at this female-authored literature, we find a focus on very different issues from those which concerned the canonical male Romantic poets” (2). Because men and women of nineteenth century Britain had such vastly different social and domestic roles, it makes sense that they would write about different subject matter. Further, because women were confined to the private sphere as men ruled the public sphere, these Romantic women focused their attention on what they were most familiar with: domestic affairs.

It is likely that Wordsworth focuses on weather for two reasons. The first reason being the obvious Romantic convention of having a close connection with nature. This reason would account for the flowery presentations of weather conditions. The second reason may be that her daily work and wellbeing relied on the weather, and this would account for the seemingly meaningless inclusions of daily weather reports in her journals. Mellor points out the various domestic responsibilities held by Wordsworth: “Dorothy did the vegetable and flower gardening (sowing, weeding, harvesting, preserving), baking, laundry (washing, bleaching, drying, starching, ironing, folding), clothes-making and mending, shoemaking, housecleaning, wallpapering, whitewashing and wall painting, carpet binding, mattress making, carpentering and window glazing” (163). She likely focuses on the weather so consistently because it provided her food source, determined if she could wash and dry clothes, and more or less decided her daily activities. Jill Ehnnen, author of “Writing against, Writing through: Subjectivity, Vocation, and Authorship in the Work of Dorothy Wordsworth,” writes, “Dorothy’s non-narrative, detail-oriented journal is not evidence of inferior artistic vision and/or arrested development, but should instead be read as evidence of her radical departure from William’s view of the self and world” (75). In contrast to the writing of conventional masculine Romanticism, Wordsworth’s writing was focused on the subject matter which impacted her life. She was not, like many Romantic men, concerned with transcendence; instead, she wrote about what she knew. By comparing Wordsworth’s seemingly insignificant subject matter with the grand thoughts of spiritual transcendence that were often discussed by Romantic men, it becomes apparent that there was a divide between the two genders and their ways of life, thought, and identity.

In addition to her overwhelming amount of domestic responsibilities that decided how she spent her days, Wordsworth also provided help with her brother’s writing. She was, without doubt, entirely devoted to William and his passions. Susan J. Wolfson, author of the article “William & Dorothy Wordsworth: All in Each Other,” notes the significance of the work that Wordsworth did for her brother:

She was the prized, constant interlocutor for his poetry, keeping journals that were resources of ideas, even phrasings for the poetry, conversing about the writing at hand, listening to it, editing it, and with other female hands, functioning as a ceaselessly transcribing and fair-copying (word-processors avant la lettre). Not just the spiritual superstructure but also the material infrastructure of William’s career requires acknowledgment. (213)

Throughout her journals, the bond between the Wordsworth siblings becomes quite obvious. Bordering on infatuation, Wordsworth’s relationship with William seems to be of utmost importance to her. In fact, she declares in The Grasmere Journals that the reason she writes is because she wants to please William. On May 14th, 1800, she writes, “I resolved to write a journal of the time, […] and I set about keeping my resolve, because I will not quarrel with myself, and because I shall give William pleasure by it when he comes home again” (406). It is apparent that Wordsworth’s own self-definition was tied to her brother. Because women existed in the private sphere, it was their duty to provide as much assistance as possible for men to be successful in the public sphere. It was William who would be the face of the family, so Wordsworth provided as much help as she could to contribute to his happiness and success.

Wordsworth’s journals help showcase how she identified herself. It is clear through the subject matter of her writing that the smallest details of the day greatly impacted Wordsworth’s existence. As a woman of the nineteenth century, she was not permitted the same lifestyle as her brother and other Romantic men. Therefore, she did not identify or relate to the world in the same manner as these men did. Instead of philosophizing over the moon, Wordsworth writes about the practicalities of life that made her who she was. Regarding the form of self-definition that is found in Wordsworth’s journals, one which is exterior rather than interior, Mellor notes the commonality of this sense of self among nineteenth century women:

The self that is written in Dorothy Wordsworth’s Journals is one embodied in a routine of physical labor, of the daily production of food and clothing and shelter. […] It is a self that derives its sense of well-being from its continuing connections with those significant others she herself carved, in a ideogram of relatedness. […] It is a self built, as were many other nineteenth century women’s selves, on a model of affiliation rather than a model of achievement. (166)

Because of the confining nature of gender roles in nineteenth century Britain, many women were restricted by their roles in the private sphere, and this resulted in women basing their identities on their familial and communal relationships and their own domestic responsibilities. Wordsworth’s extreme devotion to her brother may be attributed to her desire to self-identify with his successes. Even after William’s marriage, Wordsworth devoted her life to his family, even assisting in raising his children. Her connection to William, nature, her work, her food, and other small details that made up her life are the things that she writes about because these are the things that make up her identity.

Wordsworth’s journals, The Alfoxden Journal and The Grasmere Journals, demonstrate a gender division between writers of the British Romantic period. The subject matter of her journals may be perceived as being trivial, but when the gender roles of nineteenth century Britain are taken into consideration, the subject matter seems appropriate. Wordsworth identified her self in relation to her domestic responsibilities and her familial and communal ties. Her frequent journaling of the weather, food, William’s writing, and other observations about children and people living in the nineteenth century British countryside demonstrate the importance of these things to Wordsworth’s identity. Because men and women served such drastically different roles, it is only appropriate that their writing differs in terms of subject matter, identity, and expression thereof. Wordsworth’s journals illustrate these differences.

Works Cited

Ehnnen, Jill. "Writing against, Writing through: Subjectivity, Vocation, and Authorship in the Work of Dorothy Wordsworth." South Atlantic Review, no. 1, 1999, p. 72. EBSCOhost, doi:10.2307/3201745.

Mellor, Anne Kostelanetz. Romanticism & Gender. Psychology Press, 1993.

Wolfson, Susan J. "William & Dorothy Wordsworth: All in Each Other." Wordsworth Circle, vol. 46, no. 4, Sept. 2015, pp. 213-215. EBSCOhost, dsc.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=112731549&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Keep in mind:
This is only a sample.

Get a custom paper now from our expert writers.

Wordsworth, Dorothy. The Alfoxden Journal and The Grasmere Journals. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, 9th ed., vol. D, W.W. Norton, 2012, pp. 402-414

Gender double standards, which are among the effects of gender stereotypes, are reflected in Sylvia Plath’s semi-autobiographic novel The Bell Jar, which was published in 1963. This work tells the story of a young woman named Esther Greenwood, who is extremely intelligent but starts to consider committing suicide in New York during her internship with a magazine company. One of the main reasons for her suicide attempt is that she cannot handle the burden of the double standard of gender brought on by the society. She is expected to play a traditional woman role by society and by the people around her, but she fails to fit into such a constraining image. This limited gender role is upheld by social activities such as education, marriage, sexual liberty prescriptions, and career choices in the novel.

First, gender double standards exist in education and career in The Bell Jar. The society depicted by Plath provides women with education, but Esther pointedly describes the education of the young women who are staying at the Amazon Hotel: “They were all going to posh secretarial schools like Katy Gibbs, where they had to wear hats and stockings and gloves to class, or they had just graduated from places like Katy Gibbs and were secretaries to executives and simply hanging around in New York waiting to get married to some career man or other” (56). Esther’s descriptions imply that the women's education is useless because educated women and uneducated women both were waiting to get married instead of working.

In the novel, some women are obliged to work on their own because the men they rely on fall to disability or death. Esther’s mother can be cited as an example: “My mother was teaching shorthand and typing to a lot of city college girls and wouldn’t be home till the middle of the afternoon” (115). The double standards of the society produce these limitations in women’s career. Though Esther gets a college scholarship to major in English (a seemingly male pursuit), her mother keeps asking her to study shorthand, because shorthand was a stable and safe job. Such work was prescribed for women and accepted by the society at that time. Plath describes Esther’s mother’s attitude towards Esther’s more cerebral major: “I didn’t know shorthand either. This meant I couldn’t get a good job after college. My mother kept telling me nobody wanted a plain English major” (76). This is not only Esther’s mother’s view but also the view of Esther's world at large. Plath uses specific, well-engineered vocabulary to show how Esther undergoes such uncertainty about her career: “The only thing was, when I tried to picture myself in some job, briskly jotting down line after line of shorthand, my mind went blank. There wasn’t one job I felt like doing where you used shorthand” (122). Even worse, women were compelled to give up their careers due to the pressures from the society that surrounded them. Dodo is one of the example in the novel, a woman who gives up her career or maybe who has never had a career. After all, “Dodo raised her six children—and would no doubt raise her seventh—on Rice Krispies, peanut-butter-and-marshmallow sandwiches, vanilla ice cream and gallon upon gallon of Hoods milk" (116).

In the real world, Plath had a painful marriage. In the novel, Esther is subject to the virgin/whore dichotomy, a troubling standard that society uses to value women. Esther has few expectations regarding marriage: “I knew that's what marriage was like, because cook and clean and wash was just what Buddy Willard's mother did from morning till night, and she was the wife of a university professor and had been a private school teacher herself” (79). In the perspective of Esther, a woman's role in marriage resembles the role of a nanny. Society sees women who do not choose to marry as outliers. In Esther's own personal life, Buddy laughs at Esther when she refuses his proposal; Esther loves Buddy until she knows Buddy is not virgin. After all, Esther desires equal relationships and compatible standards between men and women: “It might be nice to be pure and then to marry a pure man, but what if he suddenly confessed he wasn’t pure after we were married, the way Buddy Willard had?” (81). Esther's society expects women to be pure before marriage, but encourages men to have more sex before marriage. This double standard of sexual behavior for men and women annoys Esther. Thus, she sleeps with other men to catch up with Buddy even though once women have sex they, supposedly, become whores. There is no middle space for virgin and whore: “Instead of the world being divided up into Catholics and Protestants or Republicans and Democrats or white men and black men or even men and women, I saw the world divided into people who had slept with somebody and people who hadn’t, and this seemed the only really significant difference between one person and another” (87).

In general, Plath relates the frustrating lives of Esther and herself from the aspects of education, career, and marriage, since The Bell Jar is a semi-autobiography. Much of the psychology of the story was derived from life, but Plath changed the names and places. Esther is not the only woman placed in the bell jar, but she is an epitome of the women who suffered from the double standards of Plath's era.

Work Cited Plath, Sylvia. The Bell Jar. New York: Harper & Row, 1971. Print.

Did you know that the Trojan War was all started because of a girl? Well, the Queen of Sparta, Helen, was abducted by Paris the King of Troy. This was one of the many major events that lead to the downfall of Troy. Other events include the fairest goddess, thousand ships, and the Trojan horse.

The first major event that leads to the downfall of Troy was started because Eris the Goddess of Discord offered the guests of Peleus and Thetis’ wedding a golden apple. The golden apple, sometimes known as the Apple of Discord, marked “for the fairest.” Paris, the youngest prince of Troy, was chosen to decide who deserved the apple. Three goddesses fought over the apple and offered Paris their gifts in trade for the apple. Athena offered her wisdom and skill in war, Hera offered him to be king of Europe and Asia, and Aphrodite offered him the most beautiful woman in the world. This woman was named Helen, the queen of Sparta. Paris ended up choosing Aphrodite.

Aphrodite had promised Paris the most beautiful woman, Helen, who was already married to King Menelaus. So, Paris visits King Menelaus’s kingdom for a few weeks and with the help of Aphrodite Paris steals Helen. King Menelaus had been aware that there was a possibility that his wife might be stolen away from him because Helen had been snatched away from him prior to their marriage. Once the king had finally won Helen’s hand in marriage, he had made all other suitors promise that they would come to his aid if Helen was taken away. Once he had rounded up all of the leaders that had promised to join the king launched a thousand ships towards Troy. Thousands and thousands of Greeks went to Troy to battle Prince Paris and the Trojan Army.

This war between the people of Troy and the Greeks had raged on for ten years. In the war’s tenth year when the most dramatic events finally took place. The leader of all the Greeks captured a priestess of Apollo and when the Greek leader refused to return her. Shortly after they had refused to return the priestess a plague struck the Greeks. Their health would only be restored when the priestess was returned. The Greek leader, Agamemnon, agreed to return her, but only if he could have a substitute prize Achilles mistress.

Later, there was a battle between the eldest son of King Priam, Prince Hector, and Achilles. Achilles killed Hector in a single combat and dishonored his body by dragging it around the ground tied to his chariot by a belt. Days later, the king of Troy, convinced Achilles to stop abusing his eldest son’s body and return it for a proper burial. Later Achilles was killed by an arrow hit him in the heel, his only weak spot, that was shot by Paris. Paris was not that great of a marksman and only had a small chance of hitting him in that spot. Paris had the help of Apollo.

Odysseus finally came up with a plan to end the Trojan way once and for all. A giant wooden horse filled with Greek men that would be left at the gates of Troy. The Trojans had noticed the Greek ships sailing away earlier in the day and thought the horse was a peace offering from the Greeks. Some Trojans believed that they should burn it where it stands but the giant wooden horse was let in through the gates of Troy. The Trojans rejoiced and feasted, drank, and fell asleep. During the night, the Greeks in the wooden horse crept down to the gates and opened them for the other Greeks who pretended to leave on the ships. The Greeks destroyed Troy, killed the men, and took the woman as prisoners. Helen, who was still beautiful, was returned to her husband Menelaus.

Works Cited

1. Homer. (1998). The Iliad. Translated by Robert Fagles. Penguin Classics.
2. Homer. (2003). The Odyssey. Translated by Robert Fagles. Penguin Classics.
3. Wood, M. (1998). In Search of the Trojan War. University of California Press.
4. West, M. L. (2003). The East Face of Helicon: West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth. Oxford University Press.
5. Graves, R. (2012). The Greek Myths. Penguin Books.
6. Gantz, T. (2004). Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources. Johns Hopkins University Press.
7. Latacz, J. (2004). Troy and Homer: Towards a Solution of an Old Mystery. Oxford University Press.
8. Cline, E. H. (2014). 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed. Princeton University Press.
9. Caldwell, R. (2018). The War that Killed Achilles: The True Story of Homer's Iliad and the Trojan War. Penguin Books.
10. Rutter, J. B. (2005). The Trojan War: A New History. Johns Hopkins University Press.