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In David Malouf’s novel Fly Away Peter, several key ideas are introduced by being paired with the natural environments that surround the central character Jim. Malouf presents the ideas of the horror of war and the destructive nature of humanity, demonstrating how such aggression affects the natural environment. In doing so, Malouf creates a series of binaries or opposites, contrasting characters and the world around them. The most extreme example of these binaries is innocence contrasted with experience, which is a predominant feature within the characters that interact with Jim throughout the novel. This contrast becomes obvious within the natural environments (grassy, mountainous environment to muddy ditch) as well as how the characters interact: the mutual respect of the sanctuary compared to the defacing of the European battlegrounds. Furthermore the symbolic use of birds in the novel constructs a heavy contrast, with Malouf transitioning from colourful, harmonious birds to bleak imagery of crows overhead. In the three settings of the book (“the sanctuary”, the “quiet section of the front,” and in the trenches) Malouf presents his key ideas through the changes in natural environment.

Malouf initially depicts a peaceful and beautiful natural environment: “the sanctuary.” This is a place where Jim is happy and safe, as if in a second home, and through powerful imagery, Malouf builds an image of paradise. This paradise is free from any harm or suffering, a clear reference to the biblical Garden of Eden. It is made immediately clear that the sanctuary is a beautiful place, “the land in that area gradually rising towards far, immensely blue mountains”, clearly using imagery to captivate the audiences into Malouf's construction of a perfect place - representing the innocence of Ashley and Jim. Within paradise is peace, with “each section supported it’s own bird life; territorial borders..which the birds were free to cross, but didn’t”. This is paired with the description of beautiful birds and has the effect of building the basis of a powerful contrast, in that case identical to that of a tragedy. It is during Jim’s time working near the sanctuary that he finds out about the war breaking out, which Malouf uses to show the innocence of the youth who are queuing up to enlist which contrasts Miss Harcourt’s knowledge of experience, initially described as “angry” at the idea of Jim leaving to go to war, however she later makes an effort to appear indifferent about it, even to the point of reassuring him that she will “hold the fort”, showing the immense care she has for Jim. In terms of the key ideas however, it serves to show that nature is beautiful without the terrors of war tearing it apart and how it manages to maintain this beauty and peace by not being afflicted by human nature, which later tarnishes the European towns with war; turning beauty to muddy, horrible battlegrounds - a progressive change presented by Malouf.

The following section shows Jim’s life drifting out of control as he feels the world “tilting him” towards the “mouth of hell” and occurs while the company of troops spends some time at the “quiet section of the front”, serving to introduce many aspects of both plot and key ideas through the introduction of experience; a transitional point between environments and sections of Jim’s life, where for the first time Jim is forced to “suppress his black rage”. This section is an introduction to the blatant and raw contrast that will be presented in the third section of the novel, with it being quickly established that it is surrounded in “local people whose farms had been where the war now was” however despite evacuating, life must resume for the locals. Therefore, this section is critical in Malouf’s development and presentation of his key ideas. In order to instigate the building of the idea of the horror of war, Malouf begins to foreshadow terrible things for these soldiers, “These wagons had once taken cattle up to the slaughter house”, also acting as a simile as the wagon ride was an inbetween stage for the cattle at one stage. When Jim arrives, Jim sees locals who, while peaceful, are described as having hostile mannerisms, “They hadn’t left and they weren’t all that grateful for their land being defended from invaders”. These early minor characters are key in the highlighting of the innocence contrasting experience idea as they are the first characters Malouf writes about that have personally witnessed the true horror of war and the barbaric nature of humanity; the nature that they rely so heavily on with their farms have been trampled and destroyed beyond resurrection, clearly outlining the true horror of war that these people have experienced. However, this only adds to the foreshadowing nature of the text.

Malouf presents an opposite view of the sanctuary as he describes Jim’s journey into “the mouth of hell” - the battleground trenches. Once again Malouf utilizes a wide variety of techniques to contrast the two major environments and in turn, highlight the idea of war and nature. Furthermore, this is the section of the novel where Jim’s innocence leaves him and he realises just how horrible the place he is in is. Malouf describes the world around Jim as being mad, as if the ground Jim stands on is dying from the fighting occurring on top of it, “duckboards were a foot under water...a whole earth wall had fallen”, it is made to seem as if the world around Jim is giving up and collapsing. “Jim saw that he had been living, till he came here, in a state of dangerous innocence”, in this Malouf finally reveals the true horror of war and the experience that comes from it - Jim witnesses his friend Clancy being obliterated by a “minnie” along with the removal of Eric’s legs which reacts powerfully with the audience. With the Earth giving way around him and the true nature of humanity is revealed to Jim, Malouf reaches a climax in the presentation of his key ideas.

Malouf has effectively described the natural environment to emphasise the central ideas presented in Fly Away Peter. Through Malouf’s use of contrast between settings, Malouf is able to show his key ideas about war, nature and humanity; alongside Jim’s own discovery and transition from being a part of the innocence to being one of the experienced, which is learnt on his miserable descent into hell. This makes Jim’s life seem even more tragic, with biblical connections in scale and context; adding to Malouf’s idea of the true horror of war.

We’ve all seen flying cars in plethora of science fiction movies and always wondered when would we be able to fly in those three-dimensional transport vehicles. Recently, accelerated technological advancement is turning many Sci-Fi stuff into reality. Dozens of startups in Silicon Valley have been focused on building flying cars and hover-boards. Most startups face problem of building a flying machine that is both powerful and light weight, the combo that is difficult to attain. Many have failed and many are still determined to not give up the dream.

A Canadian firm called Opener is finally taking us a step further in the future by announcing its flying car called BlackFly. BlackFly is world’s first ultralight, all-electric, fixed-wing aircraft. BlackFly is a single-seat Personal Aerial Vehicle (PAV) that takes off vertically from the ground. The reason to make BlackFly a vertical takeoff and landing craft was that most people don’t have a runaway for a drive-away. So instead of finding a large drive-away to get aircraft in air, you can simply takeoff vertically from the ground. It has a fixed wing at the front and rear of the vehicle, each with a bank of four propellers to provide both lift and thrust.

Although, the BlackFly is very efficient with power usage it’s disadvantage is that it can’t go very far. It has a maximum flying range of 40 kilometers (25 miles) and a top speed of 72 miles per hour (115kph). In compared to Tesla Model S, BlackFly has an efficiency of 245Wh/mi, whereas a Tesla Model S is around 320Wh/mi. The difference in range is also due to the fact that BlackFly has to fly, which means that it needs to use a smaller battery to reduce weight. BlackFly uses a battery of just around 8kWh to 12kWh whereas Tesla Model S uses a battery that weighs 60kWh to 70kWh.

BlackFly also comes with an autopilot system that you can use in order to land the vehicle in an emergency. The autopilot can also transport you back home. BlackFly’s design is modular with three backup control systems. According to Opener, BlackFly has performed perfectly across 40,000 propulsion system and tests. It has flown 12,000 miles during its tests. “OPENER is re-energizing the art of flight with a safe and affordable flying vehicle that can free its operators from the everyday restrictions of ground transportation,” said Marcus Leng, CEO.

According to Opener, engineers have built an intuitive control system in BlackFly that anyone can learn to use very easily. Opener is also making a statement about its aircraft that you won’t need a license to fly it in America because it’s small and light enough to be considered an ultra-light vehicle by the FAA, while in Canada it requires an ultra-light pilot certification.

Opener hasn’t announced any details on the cost of BlackFly and when will it start taking orders from people. It may take some time for it to make its aircrafts more efficient and durable for public usage. In the meantime, governments are trying to build new transportation laws because of companies like Uber and Lyft. They may eventually find need to create new laws for three-dimensional transportation.

Works Cited

1. Opener. (n.d.). BlackFly - World's First Ultralight, All-Electric, Fixed-Wing Aircraft.
2. Foust, J. (2018). Opener unveils BlackFly personal electric aircraft. SpaceNews.
3. Geuss, M. (2018). BlackFly wants to be the first ultralight electric VTOL aircraft you fly. Ars Technica.
4. Opener. (n.d.). Innovation. Retrieved from [Insert URL]
5. Paur, J. (2018). Opener Unveils BlackFly, A Low-Cost, Easy-to-Operate Electric VTOL Aircraft. Flying Magazine.
6. Federal Aviation Administration. (n.d.). Part 103 - Ultralight Vehicles.
7. Muskal, M. (2018). Ready for a personal flying car? It's almost here. Los Angeles Times.
8. Overly, S. (2018). Electric flying car unveiled during high-profile tech conference. The Washington Post.
9. Johnson, E. (2018). BlackFly Flying Car, From the Founder of Syma. DIY Drones.
10. Erickson, B. (2018). The Electric VTOL Revolution Is Upon Us. Aviation Today.

The main themes of “The Duchess of Malfi” are expertly demonstrated by Webster throughout many of the play’s intriguing scenes and dialogues. One particular instance occurs in the famous echo scene (5.3.1-55) between Antonio and Delio. As they are discussing the nature of fate in the lives of men, their words are met with a ghostly echo, presumably the voice of the Duchess’ from beyond the grave. The echo, a definitively gothic element, is important in exploring the limitations of death and the power of fate as themes in this classic tragic tale.

The idea of female power and its limitations is uniquely crafted by Webster in the character of The Duchess. In life, she is depicted as a definite figure of female heroism and a bold and fearless woman of power. Due to the many stigmas surrounding her behavior as a female, the Duchess is consequently met with scorn and is faced with limitations upon her power to make decisions. These hindrances, however, often do not deter her from giving up her independence or bold spirit. The famous line “I am Duchess of Malfi still” (4.2.134) relays the power, duty, and above all, heroism the Duchess possesses even at the brink of death.

The echo scene marks a complete shift in the Duchess’s possession of power. Here, the Duchess is still able to communicate and suggest ideas to her husband, but she is unable to physically ensure that they are accomplished. Death represents the definitive limitation against the Duchess. In life, most of her power was relayed not only through her voice and words, but by her body as well. Naturally, her physical beauty had played a role in her successes in dealing with others. Antonio earlier states that, “Whilst she speaks, She throws upon a man so sweet a look, that it were able to raise one to a galliard” (1.1.189-191) -- meaning that she could sway a man with just one look. It is clear that her possession of physical beauty played a large part in how well she was able to influence others, and it seems to have been a key advantage in her sense of female power. In the echo scene, death has left her at a loss for her most powerful asset in persuasion—her body.

In this scene, the spirit of the Duchess expresses itself through the mysterious echoing that follows Antonio and Delio’s words: “A thing of sorrow” (5.3.23), “Do not” (5.3.29), and “Be mindful of thy safety” (5.3.32) are all cautions the Duchess desperately attempts to relay to Antonio. Importantly, the spirit of the Duchess does not repeat each line that is spoken -- as a true echo would -- but rather only highlights those words dealing with death, sorrow and fate. Due to the Duchess’s lack of physical presence, her warnings are ultimately unsuccessful in gaining the serious attention of these two men. Antonio instead seems to spurn the ghostly advice of his wife by dismissing it as nothing more than a natural occurrence.

These echoes also serve to craftily explore the ambiguity regarding the nature of fate and how much influence our decisions have over our own lives. While standing in the ruins of an ancient abbey, Antonio regards that “all things have their end: Churches and cities, which have disease like to men, Must have like death that we have.” (5.3.17-19). He is reflecting on the idea that men have no true influence over their own fates nor the fate of what is around them. As the phrase goes, often the best laid plans of men go awry. After Antonio makes this statement, the echo presents its first interjection, repeating his line about death. Delio comments that the echo has “caught” Antonio, an interesting insinuation that he is helpless not only to his fate but to these ominous warnings as well. This introduces the notion that there is a higher power among the characters in the ruins, one that could possibly be in control of Antonio’s own future.

Ignoring the advice of his companion and that of the ghostly echoes, Antonio asserts his belief that one cannot outrun one’s own fate. As Delio reminds Antonio to “be mindful of thy safety” (5.3.31), Antonio replies that he is ambivalent towards caution. He is compelled to be careful; however, he also realizes that treading along the path of life softly does not ensure that you can do so safely. “You’ll find it impossible/To fly your fate” (5.3.33-34), he proclaims. Here, the Duchess interjects with an alarming echo that disagrees with Antonio’s opinion: “O fly your fate” (5.3.35), the echo calls in an almost pleading manner. It is clear the Duchess is also very concerned for the safety of Antonio, and believes he must attempt to escape his fate.

To her credit, the Duchess does manage to get Delio on her side. He tells Antonio that the echo seems to be giving good advice, and that perhaps Antonio should dodge his fate. However, Antonio dismisses the echo as a mere “dead thing” (5.3.39) and holds fast in his idea to face whatever the future holds for him. Antonio clearly believes that men have no true power over the events that occur in their lives, and often their attempts to change it prove for the worst: “Though in our miseries Fortune have a part, Yet in our noble suff’rings she hath none. Contempt of pain—that we may call our own.” (5.3.54-56). Antonio decides to face his future head-on by remaining at the castle, rather than flee the country and risk living in a “mockery and abuse of life” (5.3.47).

The echo scene of Act V clearly raises the question of how much influence one man can have over his own life. It also raises the question as to whether or not these characters can truly outrun their fates. Webster presents both sides of the argument: Delio and the Duchess’ echoes are clearly in agreement as they both believe Antonio can escape his foreboding death by running away, while Antonio maintains that fate will play out the way it wishes, irregardless of any man’s attempts to flee it. He would much rather prefer to stand up to his fate than fly from it. In this case, fate does win over as most of the characters, Antonio included, are eventually brutally murdered. This echo scene thus serves as Webster’s masterful attempt at exploring the limitations of death and the nature of fate in the lives of humans. The prevailing role of fate is most beautifully captured by Bosola in his final musings at the closing of the play: “We are merely the stars’ tennis balls, struck and banded/Which way please them.” (5.4.54-55).

Table of contents

1. Introduction
2. Discussion
3. Conclusion

Introduction

Many creatures that live in the desert rely on some sort of special adaptations, and fog beetles have one of the weirdest ways of finding water.

The Namib desert where these beetles live, is located on the South-West coast of Africa (21°07´S 14°33´E) This is one of the most arid areas of the world, receiving only 1.4 centimetres (0.55 in) of rain per year. The cold Benguela current runs along the desert creating the most arid habitats on earth. Water is essential to all living organisms and this harsh environment presents a major challenges for all life forms. However, the cold coastal current not only suppresses rainfall over the desert, but is also the origin of fog that can reach as much as 100 km inland from the coast. But some species of tenebrinoid beetles living in the Namib Desert obtain water by drinking water that condenses from fogs. They may simply take condensate from any surface, but some species exhibit behavioral adaptations for collecting condensate. (The insects, structure and function; R. F. Chapman; page 577).

The advantage of fog collection for water intake in extremely arid desert is obvious, and critical when rainfall is absent over prolonged periods of times. Long term studies on the population density of darkling beetles in the Namib desert clearly shows that the fog collecting beetles are still present in great numbers during periods of low rain fall, whereas the large majority of Darkling beetles that lack this adaptations disappear or decline to less than 1% of their mean abundance (Norgaard and Dacke, Frontiers of Zoology, July 20, 2010).

Here, four Darkling beetles – Onymacris unguicularis, Onymacris laeviceps, Stenocara gracilipes and Physasterna cribripes have been discussed. Some features of fog stand beetles: Size: length up to 2 cm. Habitat: The Namib Desert in southwestern Africa. Food: Any plant and animal matter. Food is often hard to come by in the harsh desert, so fog beetles have adapted to eating anything they can find. Their sharp jaws can slice up plants and the bodies of dead animals, and tiny hairs in their mouth absorb moisture from food. Long legged: Long legs are essential to these beetles’ existence. Their legs keep their bodies above the scorching desert sands. They also allow them to run at a speeds up to 3 feet per second and cover a lot of ground in the daily search for food. Shelter: Fogstand beetles need a way to get out of the scorching sun from time to time. With no natural shelter in the desert, they burrow into the sand with their front legs, and can disappear in a matter of second. Marathon mate: Male beetles chase females during mating season, but the females can outturn them. If a male loses sight of a female after she digs into the sand for the night, he will wait and head-butt any other males that approach to drive them away from his female.

Distribution of fog basking desert beetles. Life cycle of darkling beetles: Beetles, like other insects, go through a complete process of metamorphosis in which it goes through four stages of development. Eggs: It begins with the female beetle laying tiny, oval white or yellow eggs. It usually take 4-7 days for the eggs to hatch. Then they enter into the ‘ larval stage’. Larvae: At this stage, they will eat a tremendous amount of food and continue to grow, shedding its exoskeleton many times while it grows.it takes about 3-7 weeks. Then it enters to the pupal stage. Pupa: It then enters into pupal stage which can take up to 7-11 days. After pupating, an adult emerge. Adult: This beetle will then feed, mate and if it is a female, she will lay eggs for the beginning of another generation. Usually their life span is about up to 2 years. Fig: life cycle of darkling beetle What is fog-basking behavior? Fog basking is adapting a characteristic head-down stance on the dune crests, and facing into the fog-laden wind; water from the fog condenses on the dorsum and then trickles down to the mouth where the condensate is imbibed (Hamilton & Seely, 1976; Seely, 1979). Strikingly, fog-basking frequently occurs outside of the normal activity period of this species, at ambient temperatures and wind velocities far removed from their preferences, and they are not known to seek food at these times (Seely et al., 1983; Louw et al., 1986).

Fog basking posture of Onymacris unguicularis. Photograph of a fog-basking O. unguicularis inside the fog chamber exhibiting a characteristic fog-basking head stand. This posture allows fog water collected on the beetle’s dorsal surface to trickle down to its mouth. Mechanism of fog basking: · After long night, when the air was cooled by the sea breeze , the sun comes up to warm up the Namib Desert. Turning itself to face the shore, fogstand beetle uses its long hind legs to prop its rear end up in the air. The fog begins to form after several minutes, and a few drops of moisture appear on the beetle’s body. After an hour of standing perfectly still, the beetle’s body is covered by dew, and drops of water drips into its mouth. The mechanism by which fog water forms into large droplets on a beaded surface has been described from the study of the elytra of beetles from the genus Stenocara [Parker A Lawrence CR]. The structures behind this process are believed to be hydrophilic peaks surrounded by hydrophobic areas; water carried by the fog settles on the hydrophilic peaks of the smooth bumps on the elytra of the beetle and form fast-growing droplets that - once large enough to move against the wind - roll down towards the head.

Here systematic position of four tenebrinoid darkling beetles are given: Comparative fog basking behavior and water collection efficiency in these four Namib Desert Darkling beetles: The fog collecting behaviour of four tenebrionid beetle species was compared: Onymacris unguicularis (Figure 1A) is known to fog bask and has a smooth dorsal surface with wide grooves [7]. Onymacris laeviceps (Figure 1B) has a similar surface structure, albeit with finer grooves, and inhabits the same sand dune habitat as O. unguicularis. It is nevertheless, not known to fogbask but does drink from fog-dampened surfaces [Seely et al., 2005]. Stenocara gracilipes (Figure 1C) and Physterna cribripes (Figure 1D) are found outside the sand dune habitat and have elytra with a more or less regular array of smooth bumps. It is a matter of debate if either of these two species or genera fog-bask or not []. Size differences: Figure 1 Size difference between the four model beetles. Examples of specimens from each beetle species placed next to each other for size comparison. A: O. unguicularis, B: O. laeviceps, C:S. gracilipes, and D: P. cribripes. The dorsal surface area of P. cribripes was found to be 1.39 times larger than O. unguicularis, 1.56 times larger than O. laeviceps, and 2.52 times larger than S. gracilipes.

Elytra surface structure: SEM images and photos taken through a dissection microscope show details of the pronounced differences in elytra structure among the four beetle species). Whereas the pronotum on all beetles is rather smooth, it is the elytra that have different structures. The elytra of O. unguicularis are almost completely smooth except for the posterior half that has large distinct grooves, approximately 0.5 mm wide, divided by narrow ridges. The elytra of O. laeviceps have much finer grooves (Figures 2B1), approximately 0.1 mm wide, that cover almost the entire elytra. The valleys of the fine grooves are not as smooth as those of O. unguicularis but rather have a coarser surface. In live animals, the posterior half of O. laeviceps has a blue-gray colouration . The elytra of the small S. gracilipes are covered in jagged bumps that form irregular lines, although there are also bumps in between the lines. The elytra of the large P. cribripes likewise have bumps that form irregular rows with additional bumps in between. The bumps are slightly rounder than those of S. gracilipes and are found over the entire elytra, with a smooth stripe on either side of the suture of the beetles’ fused elytra.

Elytra structures.

A)Onymacris unguicularis

B)Onymacris laeviceps

C)Stenocara gracilipes

D)Physasterna cribripes.

A1-D1) Extended Depth Focus images of examples of the experimental animals obtained with a dissection microscope. Scanning Electron Microscope images of the apex of the elytra. Figure: Hydrophobic dorsal surface of Physasterna cribripes Fog basking behavior: Out of the four beetles in the Namib Desert during a fog event only O. unguicularis could be observed to actively collect water from the fog. In an experimental chamber these beetles positioned themselves on the top of a sand ridge and assumed a fog basking position after 114.5±9.28 sec. The starting point of this behaviour was defined as the time at which O. unguicularis had oriented itself with the back towards the fog and thereafter remained in this static position with its head tilted downwards for a minimum of 2 min. The ventral side of the beetle was held at an angle of approximately 23° to horizontal during these events.

In contrast, the other three beetle species kept walking around in the arena during the 20 minutes they were observed in the fog chamber. These three species were consequently excluded from further behavioural experiments in the fog chamber. The fog-basking O. unguicularis when again tested in the fog chamber at temperatures equivalent to what exists under natural fog events, this time without any fog in the chamber. With no fog present, O. unguicularis did not display any fog-basking behaviour during the 20 minutes they were observed in the chamber. However, if the temperature was elevated to room temperature and the chamber was filled with fog, six out of twelve beetles assume a fog-basking position after 175 ± 21.65 sec.

The other six beetles remained active and moved around for the 20 minutes they were observed, but never adopted a static head standing position. High humidity, rather than low temperature, is thus the critical condition under which the fog-basking beetles will assume their characteristic head stand for water collection. However, a combination of fog and low temperatures is the strongest trigger for this behaviour. Fog-water collection efficiency: Irrespective of their ability to actively collect water from fog in the fog chamber or not, the ability of the four beetle species to passively collect water from fog was tested by the scientists from dead specimens. Mounted head down at an angle of approximately 23°. After two hours in the fog chamber, Onymacris unguicularis and O. laeviceps, that have smooth elytra with grooves had collected 0.16 ± 0.03 and 0.11 ± 0.01 ml of water respectively. Stenocara gracilipes and P. cribripes , that have elytra with an array of bumps had, during the same time, collected 0.11 ± 0.01 ml and 0.14 ± 0.03 ml respectively. Onymacris unguicularis and P. cribripes showed a tendency to harvest more fog water than O. laeviceps and S. gracilipes, but not significantly so. Despite distinctly different elytra structures and behaviours the four beetles collected the same amount of water over a 2 hour period in the fog chamber.

The four beetle species do, however, vary in size. The relative sizes of beetles’ dorsal surface area (the dorsal part of the head, the pronotum, and the elytra) were established from coloured latex casts of the different beetles used in the water collection efficiency experiments. Scientists found that the dorsal surface area of the large P. cribripes on average is 1.39 times larger than the same region in O. unguicularis, 1.56 times larger than O. laeviceps, and 2.52 times larger than that of the smallest beetle S. gracilipes. By applying these relative differences in dorsal surface areas as conversion factors to the absolute amount of water collected per species ,an estimation have been gotten of the water collecting efficiency of each species that is independent of their sizes.

Despite the fact that O. unguicularis is the only beetle in this study that actively collects water from fog, it does not seem to come equipped with any surface structures that are superior for this purpose compared to those of the other beetles. In fact, no significant difference in water harvesting per unit of dorsal surface area can be found between O. unguicularis (0.22 ± 0.04 ml) and O. laeviceps (0.18 ± 0.01 ml), or O. unguicularis and S. gracilipes (0.27 ± 0.02 ml). The water collecting efficiency of the big P. cribripes (0.14 ± 0.03 ml) is, however, significantly lower than that of the fog-basking O. unguicularis. The small (S. gracilipes) and the big (P. cribripes) both have elytra with distinct bumps, but the water collecting efficiency of these two beetles come out in the high and low end of the spectrum, respectively, with a significant difference between the two.

In fact, S. gracilipes harvests almost twice as much water per surface area unit (0.27 ± 0.02 ml) during the two hours in the fog chamber compared to P. cribripes (0.14 ± 0.03 ml). Figure 5 Fog harvesting efficiency. Beetles killed by freezing had their legs and antennae removed and were positioned head down at an angle of 23° in a fog chamber. An Eppendorf tube for water collection was placed under each beetle’s head. After two hours in the chamber the total amount of water captured by each of the four beetle species was measured (blue). The relative dorsal surface area of each beetle was determined and normalized to the largest beetle. This conversion factor was used to obtain the relative amount of water captured per dorsal surface area (red). The columns show mean ± SE. Columns marked with matching lower-case letters above are not significantly different at p < 0.05 (Kruskal-Wallis test and Dunn’s Multiple Comparisons Test).

Discussion

Fog basking behavior in an experimental fog chamber: When the four darkling beetles from the Namib Desert were exposed to fog in a small chamber,(temperature is about 10-12°, which is a temperature range similar to that of a fog event in Namib Desert), the fog basking beetle O.unguicularis readily assumed their characteristic fog basking stance after a little more than 2 minutes in the chamber. The static head stance assumed by O.unguicularis while fog-basking in the chamber was very similar for the same species while fog –basking at the crest of a sand dune during a fog event in the Namib Desert.

The other three beetles remained active but did, at no time, assume a similar stance during their 20 minutes in the fog chamber. The lack of a fog-basking behavior in these three species of beetles is in accordance with long term observations of Darkling beetles in the Namib Desert, [5], where only two out of approximately 200 beetle species inhabiting this area have ever been observed to fog-bask - both from the genus Onymacris. O. unguicularis readily and predictably fog-basks in the same artificial environment supports the validity of the experimental setup. However, P. cribripes and many other tenebrionid beetles will also assume a tilting posture as a common alarm response [9]. The beetle then sticks its head into the ground, spreads its legs wide, and raises the rear part of its body. This posture resembles fog-basking and could have been mistaken for it in the study by Parker and Lawrence [10]. Fog was found to be the triggering factor for O. unguicularis to assume the fog-basking stance. None out of twelve beetles assumed this stance at low temperatures with no fog, but half of the tested O. unguicularis engaged in fog-basking when exposed to fog at approximately 23°C.

In contrast, all O. unguicularis placed in a chamber filled with fog at temperatures similar to those under a natural fog event in the Namib Desert [9] assumed a fog-basking stance. This indicates that the temperature is a contributing, but not critical factor, for eliciting this behaviour. The recorded tolerance for variability in the factors that trigger fog collection further supports our finding that other beetle species do not engage in this behaviour. Even if the temperature in the chamber might not have been set at the absolute critical temperature to elicit fog-basking behaviour in O. laeviceps, S. gracilipes or P. cribripes, fog-basking stance when placed in the fog chamber was never observed.

Water capturing efficiency by beetle elytra: Experimental results reveal that the small beetle S. gracilipes is as efficient a fog water harvester, when measured per square unit of dorsal surface, as the bigger O. unguicularis, even though it never has been observed to actively fog-bask in nature [5] or in our fog chamber. The high water collecting efficiency recorded for S. gracilipes is most likely a result of its relatively smaller size. Other organisms in the Namib Desert use fog as an important source of water, and small leaves have been shown to be an important factor for plants when harvesting water from fog [12]. This is because small or narrow leaves have only thin boundary layers (an envelope of slow moving air around the object) that allow the fog water to collect on the surface of the leaf, rather than being blown around the leaf and away [13,14].

Also, a smaller beetle should have a thinner boundary layer and would thus be better at collecting water from the fog laden wind. In the light of this, it is less surprising that the small S. gracilipes proves to be a good fog-water harvester as measured per unit area, and the big P. cribripes the worst. Interestingly, the 1.81 times larger O. unguicularis is as good at fog-harvesting. As S gracilipes, but not the slightly smaller O. laeviceps. This indicates that O. unguicularis - in addition to their fog-basking behaviour - could have structural adaptations on their elytra to improve water harvesting from fog. Part of this favourable outcome for O. unguicularis could of course be influenced by the fact that all beetle species were mounted in the fog-basking position assumed by live O. unguicularis. The finding that P. cribripes turns out to be the worst water harvester of all four beetles, despite its reported hydrophobic and hydrophilic elytra structures for droplet formation [10] does, however, warrant a comparison between the highly different elytra structures of O. unguicularis and P. cribripes.

Elytra structures of Onymacris unguicularis and Physasterna cribripes: On a macroscopic scale, the elytra of P. cribripes are covered in an array of bumps, 0.5-1.5 mm apart, each about 0.5-1.5 mm in diameter. This is in accordance with earlier reports on the elytra of this beetle [10]. The fog-basking O. unguicularis rather have smooth elytra that, in the back half, are folded into regular grooves that bend towards the apex of the body. The grooves are approximately 0.5 mm wide and approximately 0.1 mm apart. These bumps and grooves could, theoretically, form the basis of the combination of hydrophilic and hydrophobic points to improve water capture from fog [10]. Experiments did not reveal any hydrophilic areas on the elytra of any of the beetles . Observations does not agree with earlier reports of P. cribripes having hydrophilic zones on the apex of their elytra bumps [10].

Water harvesting in the fog-basking beetle O. unguicularis is not improved by a combination of hydrophilic and hydrophobic points on its elytra. If the comparatively high fog-harvesting efficiency on the smooth surface of O. unguicularis is caused by structural adaptations the effect of these appears to be small. The observation that S. gracilipes - which is covered in bumps, rather than grooves - is an equally efficient harvester of water if placed in a fog-basking position, further suggests that a combination of grooves and smooth surfaces are in no way critical for fog-harvesting in the darkling beetles. It is therefore concluded that water harvesting from fog in the Namib Desert beetle O. unguicularis is primarily a consequence of behavioural, rather than structural adaptations to the utilization of an alternative source of water in an environment where rain is a rare event. Harvesting water as inspired by darkling beetles: For over hundred years, scientists and engineers have been studying ways to effectively harvest fog as a source of water in arid regions. Although some of these man-made systems have proved useful, the plants and insects that inhabit desert are far more efficient dew collectors. After spending a considerable amount of time studying the water collecting mechanism of the Namib Desert beetle, researchers have imitated this astounding method by creating water collection nets and even bottles.

Water collection methods:

Keep in mind:
This is only a sample.

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1. Water collection net: The net is hung between two poles in a vertical position. It has a large surface area to maximize the amount of fog it traps. Fog goes through it whilst leaving behind droplets of water which flow down and are collected. This method has been adopted in countries like Chile where they have a lot of fog, and Israel which is a mostly a desert but is now a leading exporter of agricultural products.
2. Liquid collecting permeable structure: A net is however not the only surface that is used to collect water. A research team led by Kyoo-Chul Park of Harvard, for example, created a surface replicating the beetle’s shell. The surface is made up of hundred of grooves that grow wider at the bottom to permit easier runoff. Its slick waxy surface made from a pitcher plant further aids in the runoff. This invention has resulted in increased efficiency in industries that rely on condensation not to mention provision of water to areas that have it in short supply.
3. Dew bank bottle: Another fantastic invention is the Dew Bank Bottle that is placed outside at night to collect water. It is made of stainless steel because of its cold property. Since it gets really cold during nights in the desert, bottle gets colder than the air so water droplets condense on the surface. The droplets immediately collect into the bottle through openings only wide enough for water to penetrate to prevent contamination.

Conclusion

Researches shows that O. unguicularis is the only one of our four model beetles that assumes a head standing fog-basking stance in a low temperature environment with artificially produced fog. A comparison of the fog-water harvesting efficiency of the elytra of the fog-basking and non-fog basking beetles reveals that the small S. gracilipes and the fog-basking O. unguicularis were the better fog water harvesters, while the large P. cribripes was the worst. The differences in water collecting efficiency were however minor and it has been concluded that it is the fog basking behaviour itself (i.e. moving to the top of the sand dune ridges and assuming the fog-basking stance) rather than physical adaptations that is the important factor allowing O. unguicularis to exploit fog as an alternative.

Zora Neale Hurston wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God in seven weeks while she was in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, researching the country’s major voodoo gods and studying as an initiate under the tutelage of Haiti’s most well-known Voodoo hougans (priests) and mambos (priestesses). However, while many scholars have explored Hurston’s interest in and study of voodoo in her ethnographical texts, such as Mules and Men (1935) and Tell My Horse (1938), only a few have explored the relationship between voodoo and Their Eyes Were Watching God. Close analysis of the novel reveals that voodoo imagery and symbolism is integral to the development of the predominant themes of Hurston’s second novel.

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston explores the natures of black women and black men; the ways in which their natures are shaped by their individual and collective experiences within American and African American cultures; and how their experiences inform their self-knowledge, their connection with the world around them and their relationships with others. More specifically, Their Eyes Were Watching God is concerned with a young black woman’s quest for self-discovery beyond the false values imposed on her by a society that allows neither women nor black people to exist naturally and freely. Through her female protagonist, Janie Crawford, Hurston critiques the status of black women and the roles available to them within American and African American cultures; and she offers them an alternate frame of reference for their unique experiences within the world and an alternate path to self-determination and autonomy. That path is Voodoo, a religion which Hurston describes as “the old, old mysticism of the world in African terms . . . a religion of creation and life” (Tell My Horse 376).

Voodoo is a syncretization of African and European religious beliefs and practices, through which its devotees strive for personal and communal power by achieving harmony with their respective individual natures and with the world in which they live. According to scholar of voodoo, Alfred Métraux, the religion has “no national church, no association of priesthood, no written dogma, no code, no missionization” (Métraux 13). Consequently, it is a religion that can be and has been adapted—through the integration of new symbolic materials—to address the changing social and political circumstances of the cultures that practice it. It is the adaptability of the religion and the religion’s historical and social relevance to the unique experiences of black people (especially women) upon which Hurston draws in Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Employing voodoo as an intertext for her novel, Hurston has at hand a system of beliefs and practices replete with powerful female deities, female leaders and female adherents. As a religion which reflects the desires and aspirations of its followers, which functions as an alternate form of power for those that might otherwise feel powerless, and which privileges women’s lives in ways other religious traditions do not, Voodoo is an effective vehicle through which to explore the role and status of black women within modern African American culture. Through the integration of voodoo imagery and symbolism, Hurston provides an alternate path by which women can transform and transcend the socio-cultural pathologies and existential constraints that distinguish the African American female experience.

Despite the apparent absence of a unified social or ideological superstructure, Voodoo has a body of basic beliefs and practices that characterize the religion throughout the world (Métraux 13). Central to the religion is the existence of loa or mystères, spirits or deities that personify the experiences, hopes, and aspirations of their devotees or followers and upon whom followers call for the remedy of ills, the satisfaction of needs, and for hope and survival. When summoned in a voodoo ceremony, the loa ‘mounts’—as a rider mounts a horse—or ‘possesses’ his or her servant and then speaks and acts through his or her ‘horse,’ addressing the specific circumstances for which s/he has been summoned.

There are two classes of voodoo loa: the rada and the petro. The rada loa are considered “high and pure” (Tell My Horse 441). They are gentle gods who do only good things for people. They may exercise violence to punish a Vodouisant, but never—like certain petro—out of sheer spite. Petro loa are more implacable and violent than their rada alter ego. There is a category of petro loa known as gé-rouge or “red-eyes” that are, without exception, evil and even cannibal. While the petro loa are known as evil, they can also be made to do good things. However, the petro work for an individual only is s/he makes a promise of service. When someone swears her- or himself to the petro, s/he must pay for the debt; or the petro will exact revenge.

Central to Hurston’s narrative is her female protagonist, Janie Crawford-Killicks-Starks-Woods, as the embodiment of Erzulie (or Ezili), the loa that governs the feminine spheres of life. The figuration of Erzulie entered the religion during a time when slave owners sexually exploited their female slaves and separated families at will (“Erzulie” A-muse-ing Grace). In her rada and petro manifestations (Erzulie Freda, Erzulie Danto and Erzulie Gé-Rouge), she represents the ideality of love, the sanctity of motherhood, women’s innate strength and creativity, their ability to endure and survive adverse circumstances and their determination to fight for what is most dear to them. Through her characterization of Janie-Erzulie, Hurston explores a more complex subjectivity for African American women beyond that of sexually-exploited slave and tragic mulatta (two of the earliest female character types to appear in African American literature); and she inscribes a new archetype into the pantheon of African American female selves: a heroic African American ‘Everywoman’ who masters her world and claims her place within it as a fully-integrated, autonomous and creative self.

Through her seamless integration of voodoo, Hurston challenges and subverts the predominant stereotypes of voodoo as ‘primitive magic’ and ‘witchcraft,’ legitimating what she fervently believed to be an authentic, African spiritual path and establishing its viability as a medium of empowerment for those without power. She also challenges and subverts the predominant myths and stereotypes that perpetuate the condition and treatment of women, in general, and black women, in particular, within American culture; and she re-elaborates existing archetypal patterns of the African American female socio-cultural experience, loosening the constraints under which black women exist.

The result is a narrative of ‘mythic’ status and import. Just as myths transcend the limitations of common life and imbue daily actions with universal (i.e., archetypal) significance, Hurston uses voodoo imagery and symbolism in Their Eyes Were Watching God to create a modern American myth—grounded in the African diasporic tradition—that transcends what is expected and accepted as historically and culturally plausible for black women within the prevailing social order. She valorizes a tradition through which black women can achieve selfhood that integrates both their public and private selves and that reflects agency and authority over their own lives and their own stories.

Hurston relies on the stages of the archetypal quest paradigm, which comprise the foundation for the monomyth of the hero’s journey, to structure her novel. Each culture has its version of the monomyth. However, in all cultures, the quest is traditionally cyclical and can be divided into three major stages, as follows: (1.) Separation (Call to Adventure); (2.) Initiation (the Journey); and (3.) The Return (“Ageless Wisdom,” Divine). Each section of Hurston’s novel represents a different stage of Janie’s quest toward selfhood. However, Hurston uses imagery and symbolism from both voodoo and black American folklore to adapt and transform the conventions of the paradigm and to situate the text within a tradition that is identifiably African American and female. Also, the novel is a frame narrative. Janie’s story of her journey to selfhood, recounted in her own voice, is framed and aided by that of a third-person omniscient narrator, who possesses the folk wisdom and knowledge of the black experience for which Janie is questing and can, therefore, represent the minds and speech of all of the characters from a timeless perspective that Janie’s direct discourse alone cannot. The distinctive blending of spiritual and folk imagery and symbolism, coupled with Hurston’s use of both direct discourse and an omniscient point-of-view which functions to “present past and fictional present as if each is present time” (Pondrom 201) contributes to the mythic status of Janie’s story.

As the novel begins, Janie’s quest is completed, and she returns to Eatonville, the place from which she embarked on her journey, to narrate to her friend, Pheoby Watson, the manner in which her identity has been revealed to her. Hurston establishes an immediate connection between African-Haitian and African-American southern cultures in her description of the residents of Eatonville:

It was time for sitting on porches beside the road. It was the time to hear things and talk. These sitters had been tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences all day long. Mules and other brutes had occupied their skins. But now, the sun and the bossman were gone, so the skins felt powerful and human. They became lords of sounds and lesser things. (1)

The description of the townspeople as “tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences” recalls Hurston’s description of zombies in Tell My Horse. Zombies, according to Hurston, are individuals who have died and whose bodies have been, following their burial, taken from the grave and given an “antidote” that “resurrects” them. The antidote restores the body’s vital signs, allowing the body to move and act, but leaves the victim with no memory, no willpower, unable to speak or hear, and with “dead eyes” that stare without recognition (Tell My Horse 469). In this state, zombies can be easily used as field laborers, as ‘beasts of burden.’ In her description of the townspeople, Hurston links the experiences of African diasporic people and alludes to the dehumanizing effects of slavery as the possible genesis of the figuration of zombies in the Voodoo religion. She alludes, as well, to the perpetuation of this aspect of slavery in the lives of poor southern African Americans beyond the Reconstruction era. Also, in her description, Hurston points to the restorative capabilities of the community. Once they are removed from the authority of “the bossman” and are safely ensconced within their own community, the townspeople reclaim their strength and humanity; and it is the community’s potential for individual and collective self-possession and self-expression with which Hurston is ultimately concerned.

However, Hurston makes it clear from the beginning of the novel that while communal self-determination plays a significant role in the novel, it is “the woman”—as Janie is referred to for the first three pages of the novel, reinforcing her archetypal persona—who is the central focus of the narrative. Janie returns to Eatonville wearing overalls, with her long hair swinging in a braid down her back; and the townspeople sit in appreciation or judgment, according to gender, upon her return:

The men noticed her firm buttocks like she had grapefruits in her hip pockets; the great rope of black hair swinging to her waist and unraveling in the wind like a plume; then her pugnacious breasts trying to bore holes in her shirt. They, the men, were saving with the mind what they lost with the eye. The women took the faded shirt and muddy overalls and laid them away for remembrance. It was a weapon against her strength. ( 2 )

Janie is the essence of Erzulie Freda in physical appearance, carriage and demeanor. Erzulie Freda is the rada loa of love, beauty and elegance; she is the potential lover of all of the men of Haiti and the rival of all of the women. In Tell My Horse, Hurston describes her as a mulatta—as is Janie; she is the product of her mother’s rape by her white schoolteacher—with long dark hair, “a beautiful woman of lush appearance [with] firm, full breasts and other perfect female attributes” (384). In fact, Hurston’s description of Janie closely resembles Alfred Métraux ‘s description of Erzulie Freda in Voodoo in Haiti: “At last, in the full glory of her seductiveness, with hair unbound to make her look like a long haired half-caste, Ezili makes her entrance . . .. She walks slowly, swinging her hips” (111).

Like Erzulie Freda, Janie stirs the lust of the men and evokes the envy of the women. However, while she physically resembles Erzulie Freda, Janie’s overalls recall the petro aspect of the loa, Erzulie Danto. While Erzulie Freda is “a city girl of refined tastes and desires,” Erzulie Danto is a hard-working, industrious country woman who can become overbearing, aggressive and acerbic in her aspect and who is frequently envisioned wearing the blue denim of a Haitian peasant woman (Filan 1). In integrating the two figurations of Erzulie, Hurston indicates that Janie has succeeded in integrating all aspects of black womanhood in her journey; and upon her return, she shares with Pheoby the specifics of the adventures through which she has achieved this integration.

Janie begins her story at the point at which her “conscious life” (10) began—at the age of sixteen, when she lay under a blossoming pear tree in her back yard. As she watches a bee pollinate a bloom on the pear tree, Janie experiences her sexual awakening. She identifies with the pear tree (“Oh to be a pear tree—any tree in bloom!”); and as she leans over the gate post, “waiting for the world to be made,” she commits herself to finding “a bee to her bloom” (Their Eyes 11, 31). The recurring metaphors of the blossoming pear tree and the horizon (the world) frame and help to unify Janie’s quest. The pear tree symbolizes unpossessive, mutually affirming, passionate love—the idyllic union of equals. In using organic imagery to symbolize Janie’s dawning awareness of herself as a woman, Hurston elevates her protagonist’s sexual awakening above the profane stereotypes imposed on black women’s sexuality by society; and she legitimates passion and sexual desire as natural, rather than aberrant, aspects of black womanhood. The horizon symbolizes the life experiences that are necessary to achieve a complete awareness of self, including meaningful participation in the traditions of the black community (Hemenway 239). The imagery symbolizes the inner (spiritual) and outer (material) aspects of life, respectively; and the successful integration of the pear tree vision and the horizon signifies the telos of Janie’s quest to selfhood.

Voodoo imbues the imagery with another level of symbolic significance. The tree and the horizon are both symbols connected to the loa Legba, who, in keeping with the ceremonial order of the Voodoo religion, is the first loa ‘summoned’ in the novel. Legba, like the tree, symbolizes the connection between heaven and earth, the spiritual and material worlds. He is the gatekeeper, the lord of the crossroads, who provides “the way to all things” (Tell My Horse 393). As the bridge that the Vodouisant uses to transverse into the spiritual realm of the loa, Legba aptly represents Janie’s spiritual awakening. Along with Legba, Erzulie Freda, the loa of ideal dreams, hopes and aspirations, is invoked in Janie’s pear tree vision. It is said that “Erzulie looks into mirrors and dreams of perfection” (“Erzulie Freda,” Sosyete); and as Janie—who is described as having “glossy leaves and bursting buds” (11)—looks into the mirror of the pear tree, she dreams of the perfect union of equals.

With her dawning awareness of self, Janie is poised to accept the Call to Adventure of the archetypal quester. However, before Janie can embark on her journey to the horizon in her quest to actualize the pear tree vision, her quest is indefinitely deferred by her grandmother Nanny. Nanny, whose world-view establishes the contrast between the ‘real’ or ordinary world and Janie’s vision, witnesses Janie kissing a neighbor boy over the front gate and immediately declares Janie “a woman” (12). As a former slave who was raped by her master and bore his child, Janie’s mother, Nanny embodies society’s conventional notions of black women as “mules,” “work oxes,” and “brood sows” (15). She tells Janie, “Ah wanted to preach a great sermon about colored women sittin’ on high . . . fulfil[ling] dreams of what a woman oughta be and to do” (15). However, Nanny’s life experiences enable her to testify only to her racial and sexual oppression as a black woman. Nanny wants to see Janie safe in life, and safety for her means a life that mirrors as closely as possible the material stability and social status of the white middle-class. Consequently, she has arranged a marriage for Janie; and she has chosen Logan Killicks, a widower much older than Janie who has the only organ in the town and owns sixty acres of land (22).

Janie, incapable at this point of expressing her own desires, refuses her Call to Adventure in exchange for security and seeks a way to meld Nanny’s vision with her own. She reasons that with the legal union of marriage comes love: “Husbands and wives loved each other and that was what marriage meant” (20). However, living with Killicks on the back road isolates Janie from the larger community, and Killicks ultimately attempts to turn her into the ‘mule’ Nanny sought to prevent her from becoming. Consequently, Janie realizes that the institution of marriage does not guarantee the love she envisions; and with this realization, “she became a woman” (24). It is the first significant lesson of Janie’s adult life.

Disappointed in her first attempt at love, Janie turns her attention to the horizon. She meets Joe Starks, a stylishly dressed man from the city who is traveling through town on his way to Eatonville, Florida, where he plans on being “a big voice” (28). Janie is initially skeptical of Joe because “he doesn’t represent sun-up and pollen and blooming trees;” however, he does “speak for far horizon . . . for change and chance” (28). The prospect of fulfilling her dream of the horizon renews Janie’s hope for fulfillment of her dream of romantic love, and she leaves Logan to accompany Joe to Eatonville.

In her marriage to Joe, Janie channels Erzulie Freda. Like Freda, who prefers sweetened drinks and sweet food, Janie, when she initially meets Joe, tells him that she drinks sweetened water (27). In fact, Joe’s relationship with Janie resembles that of the Haitian male devotees of Erzulie Freda, a kept woman who does not work and who eschews menial labor. As the wife of the storekeeper, postmaster and mayor of Eatonville, Janie has material comforts and enjoys a social status that sets her above and apart from the common townspeople. In this respect, Janie’s marriage to Joe perpetuates Nanny’s vision of material stability and respectability.

Joe “classes off” (107) Janie; he isolates her from the community, forbids her to engage in the daily store porch conversations with other townsfolk, and he excludes her from the observances of the town’s rituals and traditions. He reasons that as the wife of Eatonville’s “big voice,” Janie should be satisfied to sit silently and submissively on her social throne. However, the potential power of Janie’s voice is indicated when she publicly compliments Joe on the way he handles a community dispute, and one of the men comments: “ Yo’ wife is uh born orator, Starks. Us never knowed dat befo’. She put jus’ de right words tuh our thoughts” (55). Janie’s voice has the potential to build and affirm the community, while Joe’s “big voice” seeks submission and imposes divisiveness. Janie, in her effort to transform Joe into a “bee for her bloom” (31), initially submits to Joe’s control, allowing him to place her on a pedestal. However, she soon realizes that she has, again, equated marriage with her pear tree vision and that her ideal has, again, been debased.

As Joe continues to deny Janie’s freedom of expression and participation in the community, the organic imagery is revived; Janie discovers that she has “no more blossomy openings dusting pollen over her man” (68). The revival of the pear tree imagery indicates the progress of Janie’s developing self. After twenty years of marriage, she is much more aware of the differences between women and men and of how these differences negatively influence the status of women within their relationships and within the community. She continues to make an outward show of obedience to Joe while she nurtures and protects her innermost self. She realizes that “she was saving up feelings for some man she had never seen. She had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she knew how not to mix them” (67).

This new stage in Janie’s self-discovery is foreshadowed when Joe orders Janie to tie her hair up in a head rag so that she is less attractive to the town’s men. Having to wear the head rag is a serious point of contention for Janie and marks the beginning of her fighting back against Joe. The conscious defiance on Janie’s part conjures the figuration of the petro loa, Erzulie Danto, who is sometimes envisioned wearing a moshwa, or head scarf (Filan 1). Danto, a fearsome defender of women, gives her female devotees the strength to endure and to overcome adversity and the confidence to stand up for themselves, which is exactly what Janie does in compartmentalizing the inner and outer aspects of herself.

The invocation of Erzulie Danto also heralds Janie’s coming to voice. When Janie makes a mistake measuring a quantity of tobacco in the store, Joe uses the incident as an opportunity to attack her womanhood in a way he hasn’t before: “A woman stay round uh store till she get old as Methusalum and still can’t cut a little thing like a plug of tobacco! Don’t stand dere rollin’ yo’ pop eyes at me wid yo’ rump hangin’ nearly to yo’ knees” (74). Janie’s bitterness and resentment boil over; and for the first time ever, she stands in the middle of the store in front of all of the men and responds: “Naw, Ah ain’t no young gal no mo’. . . . But Ah’m a woman every inch of me, and Ah know it. . . .Talkin’ ‘bout me lookin’ old! When you pull down yo’ britches, you look lak de change of life” (74-75).

Janie’s attack on Joe indicates her awareness of and increasing confidence in her femaleness. In confronting Joe she publicly exposes the ineffectiveness of his masculine authority, which goes to the very core of his being; and she speaks herself down from the pedestal upon which he has set her as an outward sign of his status and power. As a result, she and Joe are permanently estranged. The damage to Joe’s psyche contributes to his already failing health, resulting in his death.

After Joe’s death, Janie, in keeping with the quest paradigm, takes stock of herself. She confronts those social conventions that have restricted and limited her growth; and she finally rejects Joe’s and Nanny’s value system, which privileges material possessions and social status over spiritual freedom and romantic love, and the imitation of white success over the celebration of the lives of black folk. She reflects:

She had been getting ready for her great journey to the horizons in search of people; . . . But she had been run off down a back road after things. . . . Nanny had taken the biggest thing God ever made, the horizon . . . and pinched it into such a little bit of a thing that she could tie it about her granddaughter’s neck tight enough to choke her. She hated the old woman who had twisted her so in the name of love. (85)

With Joe’s death, Janie becomes an active agent in her own life and is finally poised to accept the quester’s Call to Adventure. It is Verigible “Tea Cake” Woods who will facilitate Janie’s physical journey and around whom all of the imagery of the novel comes together.

Tea Cake embodies the organic union of Janie’s pear tree vision; he is “a bee to a blossom—a pear tree blossom in the spring” (102). He also embodies Erzulie Freda’s ideal of the perfect lover. Just as Freda craves sweets, Janie wants “things sweet” (23) in her relationship. Tea Cake’s name indicates that Janie’s desire is satisfied in her union with him. Perfumes and flowers are traditional offerings to Erzulie Freda; Tea Cake “seems to be crushing scent out of the world with his footsteps” (99).

Tea Cake also speaks for horizon. His last name, Woods, connects him with the symbolism of the tree and thus with Legba, the spirit of the fields, the woods and the general outdoors. Tea Cake is, for Janie, the “Son of Evening Sun” (169), which is also an allusion to Legba, who has been described as “the Orient, the East, the sun and the place the sun rises” (“Vodoun,” The Mystica). Janie and Tea Cake’s relationship symbolizes the melding of African American southern folklore and Haitian Voodoo. Also, Janie physically resembles the mulatta goddess Erzulie Freda, while Tea Cake has the black skin of Erzulie Danto. Their union foreshadows the integration of the two aspects of the loa in Janie’s life.

Janie and Tea Cake’s relationship indicates the culmination of the mythology surrounding Erzulie Freda. Just as “troubled dreams” (Tell My Horse 387) are a signal that a man has been called as a devotee of Erzulie Freda, Tea Cake tells Janie that his sleep has been troubled by dreams of touching her long, thick hair, an attribute she shares with Erzulie Freda. Janie begins wearing the color blue—Erzulie’s color—because Tea Cake loves her in blue. Erzulie is considered a triple goddess. As such, she has three husbands: Damballah, the sky god; Agwe, the sea god; and Ogoun, the god of fire and iron. Janie’s wedding to Tea Cake, at which they both wear blue, is Janie’s third marriage, mirroring Erzulie Freda’s three husbands.

Through her relationship with Tea Cake, Janie enters into communion with the world. Tea Cake takes Janie dancing and to the movies; he teaches her to fish, to hunt, to play checkers and to drive. Within the context of the quest paradigm, Tea Cake is Janie’s mentor and helper. He helps Janie to gain confidence and insight, and he accompanies her on her journey as an equal partner in confronting the journey’s trials. Tea Cake also, channeling Legba, facilitates Janie’s “crossing of the threshold” from the ordinary or everyday world (Eatonville) into the “world of adventure,” when he and Janie move to the muck on the Florida Everglades.

Janie’s pear tree vision is actualized in her marriage to Tea Cake, and their idyllic union flourishes on the muck. However, Janie tells Pheoby before she and Tea Cake leave Eatonville, “Ah wants to utilize mahself all over” (107). In order to achieve this level of agency and autonomy, there are aspects of Janie’s identity that must still be developed, aspects that invoke the figuration of Erzulie Freda’s alter ego, Erzulie Danto. Janie begins to embrace these aspects of herself when she and Tea Cake move to the muck with its “rich black earth” (125), an image which evokes Erzulie Danto’s black skin. The description of the workers who settle on the muck reflects Janie’s introduction to the working-class folk identity that characterizes Erzulie Danto: “Skillets, beds, patched up spare inner tubes all hanging and dangling from the ancient cars on the outside and hopeful humanity, herded and hovered on the inside . . .. People ugly from ignorance and broken from being poor” (125). Janie immerses herself in the life of the folk and becomes an accepted participant in the community. While Joe required her silence and submission, Janie and Tea Cake are peers and co-workers. They work side-by-side on the muck, picking beans. Janie learns to shoot and becomes a better shot than Tea Cake. She develops her story telling skills and adds her voice to the others on the muck. Their house becomes the center of the community.

On the muck, which represents the poor, working-class folk that Hurston loved so much, Janie and Tea Cake accomplish what Hurston herself aims to accomplish with her novel: a redefinition of the black community that acknowledges and privileges the unique gifts of all of its members. This act of communal re-creation is explicit in Janie’s and Tea Cake’s befriending of the Bahamans or “Saws” who work on the muck and perform their drum rituals and fire dances in secret, away from the scornful eyes of the Americans. Rather than demanding that the “Saws” relinquish their practices and traditions in order to gain acceptance, Janie and Tea Cake assimilate the Bahamans and their unique cultural expressions into the community that they have created on the muck.

However, the idyll on the muck cannot last. Just as the archetypal quester must confront trials and tests along his or her journey, Janie must ultimately confront those societal—and natural—forces that proscribe her journey to selfhood. Ironically, while Tea Cake facilitates Janie’s quest, he ultimately problematizes its successful completion. This stage of Janie’s quest finds its context within the mythology surrounding Erzulie Freda, who embodies all that is good and noble about love as well as all that is unattainable or painful about it (Collins 148). The Haitian rituals honoring Erzulie Freda begin with gaiety, as the loa’s ‘horse’ greets and flirts with the men; however, they typically end with inconsolable weeping, as the loa recalls a past betrayal or disappointment (Collins 138). Derek Collins explains: “Erzulie Freda is . . . intrinsically unable to be satisfied by, or truly able to satisfy another in love. Although she may offer men the most bounteous and perfect love, it is fleeting, perhaps because such a full and overflowing love is beyond the capacity of men to keep” (148-49). This aspect of the mythology surrounding the loa manifests when Tea Cake discovers that Mrs. Turner, who operates a diner on the muck, plans to fix Janie up with her brother. Although Janie has given no indication that she is receptive to Mrs. Turner’s plans, Tea Cake gives in to his male insecurities and slaps Janie around in order to show Mrs. Turner and the people on the muck “who is boss” (141).

This incident signals the beginning of the end of Janie and Tea Cake’s idyllic union and sets in motion the events that will culminate in the supreme ordeal—the central life-or-death crisis (“Ageless Wisdom,” Divine)—of Janie’s quest. Tea Cake’s actions indicate a need for an outward show of his possession, which places him in the same league with Joe Starks. However, while Janie’s treatment at Starks’ hands brings her to voice and self-awareness, her love for Tea Cake is “self-crushing” (122). She seems satisfied to subordinate her life to Tea Cake’s. Hurston culls this situation from her personal experience. When Hurston’s lover, who inspired Their Eyes Were Watching God, hit her in the heat of an argument, Hurston did not retaliate, nor did she immediately end the relationship. However, as she relates, her uncharacteristic passivity made her realize that “she had lost hold of herself” (qtd. in Boyd 275). The realization frightened her, and she soon left her lover in order to regain control of herself and her life.

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This 500-word essay on following orders, discusses odrers as a crucial aspect of obedience and conformity within the public service.

Conformity is when someone behaves or acts in accordance with prevailing social standards, practices, or attitudes. Following social normalities is a type of conformity, this is a normal type of conformity that most people take place in for example a social norm would be if you sore a long que to get into a shop you would go to the back of the line you wouldn’t push in front because we know it would highly not be accepted by others. People conform to feel accepted and fit in this is most commonly seen in people who have a lower self-esteem they need that social approval. people who don’t participate tend feel lonely and stand out in today’s society. Conformity is used in the public service on a daily basis for example in the Army they will issue their soldiers with matching uniform and make them participate in a daily routine. By issuing the same uniform and the same daily routine to everyone it means everyone will be treated equally and hopefully gain the same knowledge and set of skills. The routine the soldiers are given is not just their day- to-day routines, it means they are conforming to the Army life and are fitting in with the more skilled soldiers. Using conformity means that one's disciplined self can impact another to act in the traditional manner of a soldier, it also influences them to become obedient with those distributing command and orders.

Obedience is the act of fulfilling one's duties or submissive compliance with an order given by those of higher authority. It ensures that the public services remain efficient with their work and maintain a disciplined state. Blind obedience is where someone will follow an order even though they do not believe in it, regardless of whether they think it is morally, ethically, or legally right.

There are two types of obedience: conscious and unconscious. Conscious obedience is when someone makes an effort to follow orders assigned to them, while unconscious obedience is when someone has done something so many times that they no longer need to think about it, like ironing their uniform in the morning.

Maintaining obedience and discipline in the public service can be achieved through different methods. Fear is one of these methods, where disobedience can result in significant consequences and punishments. Rewards are another way to ensure obedience, where personnel who conform to the rules may receive medals, promotions, or increased leave. Love and honour towards their service and team members can also motivate personnel to follow every order given.

In conclusion, conformity and obedience are essential aspects of the public service. Following orders is crucial for maintaining discipline and ensuring that the intended purpose of each order is accomplished. By using different methods like fear, rewards, and appreciation for service, the public service can ensure that personnel are obedient and disciplined in their duties.

Table of contents

1. Introduction
2. Rats Can't Resist Junk Food
3. What's Really Is the Most Addictive Food?
4. The Skeptics

Introduction

First of foremost, the subject at hand is still in constant debates; whether food addiction truly exist or not, for as we all know food is vital to our survival as a living organism. Also, we all have this tendency to get addicted to anything, ergo; it is logical and stands to reason that our body can have some sort of chemical reaction to something wherein it makes us want more of it.

I hovered around different websites to gather informations regarding the subject, contemplating the aforementioned introspection to check if my basic cent were right. Well, hell yeah it is. Research suggests that food can be addictive  fats and sugar were the two most prominent and pointed out determinants, still, the conclusion drawn is controversial. Which foods are the hardest to resist wherein we can experience withdrawal symptoms?

Obviously, we can be addicted to just about everything: phones, sex, shopping and I'm discussing a topic where food should be addressed so junk food to be specific. There is, of course, a point in which a serious clinical addiction and figurative addiction are distinct construed throughout this thesis, it's the former. As I stated earlier, food is necessary for our survival as living organisms, and this is the rhetorical question that I want to raise: can we really become dependent on certain unhealthy foods in the same way that we can on drugs?

Rats Can't Resist Junk Food

What in the hell does rat have to do with this? Well, I stumbled upon this research paper where a group of psychiatrists contemplating the study of obesity decided to dig deeper into whether some people's anecdotal claims of food addiction could be proven. They conducted a subsequence of studies wherein rats are served with highly palatable sugary or fatty food (they had the option of their regular healthy food, too, but that didn't get a look-in).

To expand a quote from Nicole Avena (part of the research team) "We found signs of tolerance, withdrawal, craving and measurable changes in neural chemicals such as dopamine and opioid release,". Boiling it down to my own understanding, it seemed that though the animals were addicted to a drug, even tolerating "foot shock" (running over an electric grid) to appease to their urge.

Today, the food addiction theory is still relatively young and controversial on its very essence. Regardless, expanding a quote from Avena, "additional studies have been conducted that validate these initial findings. And there's been some studies done in humans now that have really begun to characterise this."

Pondering the thought whether it's the nutrient or taste (I.E fat or sugar), after digested, that's makes us chemically high. It could possibly be both. Involved in Avena's experiment are rats getting the taste of sugar and nut necessarily the nutrient also other way around, and any of which way dopamine is still released, ergo; these two together shall result in a dopamine double whammy.

What's Really Is the Most Addictive Food?

Up until this point, exact confirmations calls attention to both fat and sugar, rather than a particular items, for example, oat or toffee. In any case, we now realize that fat and sugar create diverse reactions in the cerebrum's limbic framework. With sugar, rats undergoes withdrawal; shaking, perspiring, changes in body temperature, nervousness and, says Avena, "they show changes in the brain in terms of release of chemicals such as dopamine and the opioids." Fat doesn't have this impact, however this doesn't really mean it is less strong than sugar. Avena brings up that cocaine addicts don't hint at withdrawal like heroin addicts do.

There have been studies on the foods individuals say they find addictive. A considerable amount human examinations into food addiction have been based around the Yale Food Addiction Scale (pdf), a poll used to decide if somebody could be delegated a food fanatic. One of its inquiries is about which foods the subject finds most hazardous, and Ashley Gearhardt, the co-maker of the scale, has shared the top 10 nasties. Crisps, chips, desserts, chocolate and rolls manifest -- no curve balls there. White bread and pasta likewise highlight, and number one is dessert.

This is a subject of continuous discussion. Avena and associates established a finding criteria in the standard American guide for specialists, The Indicative and Factual Manual of Mental Issue. This stipulates three of the accompanying more likely than not connected to a person over the previous year to qualify them as addicts:

• Tolerance
• Withdrawal
• The substance is regularly taken in larger amounts than planned.
• A tireless attempt or unsuccessful endeavors to cut down substance dependence.
• A great deal of time is spent in activities necessary to obtain the substance.
• Important activities are given up or reduced because of substance use.
• Substance use is continued despite knowledge of having a persistent or recurrent physical or psychological problem that is likely to have been caused or exacerbated by the substance.

Even if we grant validity to its very gist, the manual itself, in general, has lost credibility, pulling in a revolt from numerous specialists and criticism for including such things as "gambling issue" and "caffeine withdrawal".

What's more, as an aside, there are substance addictions (which are frequently treated by specialists) and conduct addictions, for example, betting (which are definitely not). It isn't clear who ought to treat "food addicts" and how, in spite of the fact that Avena has been seeking after microbiological examines into food fixation, aware of potential future pharmacological medications.

Now, without a doubt: if food addiction truly exists, it can't be a sweeping fault for obesity. As Gearhardt says, "Most people don't become addicted to any addictive substance. For example, only about 10% of people become addicted to alcohol, but around 90% drink it."

The Skeptics

I would've been one of the skeptics, not until I've done my own personal research which confirms my unsure presumptions. Paul Fletcher, proffesor of health neuroscience at Cambridge College, is confused by the "evidently uncritical acknowledgment of food addiction." As he would like to think, it is far too soon for it to be taken as a legitimate or helpful notion, let alone a theory.

While the observed evidences from the rat are sound, he says, how much they can be extrapolated to people that arew restricted. Also, whatever is left of the examination comes about are conflicting. Likewise raised amidst his disposition what, exactly, the addictive substance in food is: sugar, salt, fat or simply anything that tastes great? Hmmm which I would gladly agrue with implications for.

In the mean time, his partner Hisham Ziauddeen, in a shockingly diverting comical way (yeah there is a such thing as scholastic comedy), about the authoritative ramifications of food habit. Parentss who feed their and, wheeze, their youngsters cake moved toward becoming tyke abusers medium-term? The chocolate advertise is driven underground?

Fletcher says: "We are finding that 'addiction' is a handy term to be applied to lots of human behaviours now: sunbed addiction? Facebook addiction?" Does the idea of nourishment fixation seem to be valid to you? Has sugar withdrawal given you the sweats or shakes? What nourishments do you think that its irresistable??

Anyhow, I surely, find the notions with implications for food addiction compelling and I think they should conduct more experiments and scrutiny to confirm and establish its validity as a scientific theory for it to help with our advancement in the medical field.

In Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, conflicts involving hunger are clearly of significance, appearing throughout every chapter of her memoir from “No Name Woman” to “A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe.” Paul Outka’s “Publish or Perish: Food, Hunger and Self-Construction in The Woman Warrior” argues that Kingston uses food to symbolize body and mind; while food fulfills physical need, it also represents desire and aspirations. More specifically, Outka believes the narrator Maxine struggles with adhering to the traditional Chinese expectations of women (her physical need) while being unrestrained in her expression of identity through writing The Woman Warrior (her non-physical desires). While not explicitly disagreeing with Outka’s interpretation, I would like to take Kingston’s use of food in a different direction: toward defining one’s identity through their power over food. Kingston uses female struggles with food to thread a common issue through the novel, an issue faced by No Name Woman, Fa Mulan, Brave Orchid and eventually Maxine. By understanding each woman’s individual struggles with food, we come to learn more about each woman’s unique identity. Therefore, triumphs over food within Chinese culture reflect each woman’s power, or lack thereof: Kingston proves that female power is a culmination of physical and mental strength.

No Name Woman’s lack of control over food, through her struggle with Chinese societal norms, results in her existence being erased and her soul left eternally hungry, the ultimate debasement of power. When explaining No Name Woman’s adultery through the perspective of the villagers, Kingston says, “Adultery, perhaps only a mistake during the good times, became a crime when the village needed food.” Therefore, No Name Woman’s fatal violation of societal norms is creating another female mouth to feed during famine, rather than the sexual immorality of her actions; the severity of adultery – wavering between “mistake” and “crime” – depends solely on food availability. No Name Woman, living with her own family, is perhaps cast away from her husband’s household for the same reason her child brings along her demise. Women are a waste of resources, especially when food is scarce. This ideology crushes No Name Woman under its immense weight, like the Sitting Ghost pressed upon Brave Orchid’s chest, “absorbing her energy and getting heavier” (69). Bringing upon a figurative curse of death upon her family – she “killed us” – and being shunned and rejected by her community, No Name Woman is left unimaginably ashamed and nearly powerless, a “dead ghost” who had “never been born” (14). Unable to cope with the hatred of her reality, No Name Woman uses her last token of power, her physical body, to enact revenge on the villagers through her “spite suicide, drowning herself in the drinking water” (16). No Name Woman’s defeat by the village’s expectations surrounding food and women cost her life and honor, but her true punishment, her true loss of power, comes after death and continues through generations of silence.

No Name Woman’s village deliberately denies her existence and kinship to reflect her “crime” upon her forgotten soul, sentencing the aunt to a desolate eternity of hunger. Imagining No Name Woman’s afterlife, Kingston explains, “Her betrayal so maddened them, they saw to it that she would suffer forever, even after death. Always hungry, always needing, she would have to beg food from other ghosts” (16). By reintroducing the conflict of hunger in her afterlife, Kingston reveals that No Name Woman never escapes the repercussions of her defeat by the Chinese ideology of food. To the villagers, No Name Woman’s daughter, a blasphemous waste of food, threatens to worsen the hunger of everyone in the community; “could people who hatch their own chicks and eat the embryos…could such people engender a prodigal aunt?” (6). They choose to punish the aunt by enforcing and magnifying that same threat upon her afterlife, leaving her ghost as hungry as they imagine the village would become. The tragic and chilling truth, however, is that being subjected to starvation in the equivalent of a Chinese hell is not the full extent of No Name Woman’s punishment, nor is it the most heart wrenching. What else can you take from a woman who loses her honor, her life, her child, and her family? No Name Woman’s kin refuse to say her name. The aunt’s last bastion of power, the memory and story of her existence, is repressed and forgotten as though she had “never been born”; Kingston admits, “there is more to this silence: they want me to participate in her punishment. And I have” (16). No Name Woman is an entity completely removed of all power (although the vast majority of women in China had little to begin with). She is left physically weakened before death, but mentally – her thoughts, beliefs, and memory of her life – made nonexistent, until Kingston breaks the cycle of punishment by writing “No Name Woman.” If No Name Woman displays the loss of power that follows the constraints of food in Chinese society, then Fa Mu Lan depicts the opposite, a story of liberation and discovery that follows domination over food.

Fa Mu Lan’s survival training grants triumph over food by allowing her to repress hunger, granting the mental and physical strength to become an unworldly woman warrior. Unlike the erased memory of No Name Woman, Fa Mu Lan’s successes are proudly passed down for generations. After her enlightening encounter with a vision of two golden, multiethnic dancers, Fa Mu Lan attributes the experience to hunger: “It would seem that this small crack in the mystery was opened, not so much by the old people’s magic, as by hunger” (27). By surviving in barren wilderness, Fa Mu Lan conquers food by overcoming her body’s starvation; the completion of her “survival test” proves she is no longer dependent on the male-driven Chinese society to feed her (28). This defeat of hunger, prompting the “crack in the mystery” to widen, opens Fa Mu Lan’s mind, granting her the mental strength and capacity that contributes to her immense power. She now comprehends the complexity of time, “spinning and fixed like the North Star,” perceives the precious equality of all humanity, “how peasant’s clothes are golden,” and foresees a strange “machine-future” (27). As Fa Mulan realizes that her mental strength, and therefore power, comes from defeating food, the hunger segment of her training ends. Fa Mu Lan’s triumph over hunger, opening her mind to grand insights, serves as the gateway to attaining her physical strength, the other component of female power. Only after completing her “survival test” can she begin her dragon training, in which she “worked every day” to strain and empower her body – even “exercising in the downpour” during the rain (29). After completing her training, Fa Mu Lan’s relationship with food persists through her journey and battles, allowing her to slay corrupt barons and overthrow an evil emperor; “when I get hungry enough, then killing and falling are dancing too” (27). By triumphing over the social norms of food and women, Fa Mu Lan is able to attain great power through her immense physical and mental prowess, using her power to become the avenging, sword-wielding, woman warrior of legend.

Brave Orchid, like Fa Mu Lan, exerts a commanding control over food, but rather than embrace starvation, Brave Orchid balks at it; a woman who can eat anything will never go hungry. During Brave Orchid’s struggle with the Sitting Ghost, she boldly proclaims, “you are a puny little boulder indeed. Yes, when I get my oil, I will fry you for breakfast” (71). Unfazed, Brave Orchid vows to “fry you for breakfast,” a proclamation of authority over food; Brave Orchid can and will eat anything, even the powerful, hairy, grotesque beast that threatens to consume her. In a battle between two eaters, who becomes the food? Brave Orchid’s viscous verbal assault on the Sitting Ghost, an onslaught of insults and threats, demonstrates that even when physically overpowered, the mental tenacity gained by her control of food allows her to overwhelm and “eat” her opponent. The Sitting Ghost itself is ironically a strong eater too, emphasizing Brave Orchid’s victory; she explains that “it’s a good thing I stopped it feeding on me, blood and meat would have given it strength to feed on you” (73). Therefore, it is Brave Orchid’s lack of pickiness, her eagerness to eat anything she needs to, that grants her the power to defeat the Sitting Ghost.

Decades later as a mother, Brave Orchid remains just as fearless an eater, carrying her control over food from ghost-fighting talk story into daily, family life. When retelling the story of eating monkeys’ brains, Brave Orchid is not disgusted in the slightest, exclaiming, “you should have seen the faces the monkey made. The people laughed at the monkey screaming” (92). Although seemingly cruel, Brave Orchid’s unabashed storytelling reflects her perspective that anything is food; live monkeys or Sitting Ghosts, nothing is too obscure for her palate. As a response to the belief that women are a waste of food, burdensome “maggots in the rice,” Brave Orchid’s adaptation is one made for survival in China (43). In order to claim victory over hunger, she must purge her sympathies and readily consume anything if needed. Eating live monkeys is finding food, not torturing souls. This mindset contrasts strongly with Fa Mu Lan’s – to not kill animals, only eating roots and nuts – exemplifying their differences in triumphs over food. While different paths to this common goal exist, Brave Orchid attempts to enforce her perspective upon her Chinese-American children, “ ‘Eat! Eat!’ my mother would shout at our heads bent over bowls, the blood pudding awobble in the middle of the table” (92). Brave Orchid wants to share her dominance over food with her children, urging them to expand their range of food with the hope that, like her, the children could “contend against the hairy beasts whether flesh or ghost” (92). To Brave Orchid, her children must be accustomed to eating anything, from raccoons to turtles, because the power that accompanies control over food is vital to surviving in the ghost-filled, foreign land of America. Brave Orchid is a champion, a bold, fearless eater who disregards Chinese norms of food by consuming anything in her path; the power Brave Orchid gains through triumphs over food allows her to defeat all enemies – “big eaters win” (90).

In contrast to Brave Orchid’s dominance over food, Maxine’s relationship with food is unstable, representing her shifting identity and expression of power. When Maxine reflects upon the legend of Fa Mu Lan, she thinks, “If I could not-eat, perhaps I could make myself a warrior like the swordswoman who drives me. I will – I must – rise and plow the fields as soon as the baby comes out” (48). Maxine imagines herself in control of food, able to “not eat,” acknowledging that Fa Mu Lan’s power is sourced from her ability to embrace hunger. However, this scenario is unreachable for Maxine. She will never have mystical survival training amongst the white tigers, regardless of how strongly she searches for it; “My brain momentarily lost its depth perception. I was that eager to find an unusual bird (49). Maxine forfeits this aspiration, conceding to “rise and plow the fields as soon as the baby comes out,” exposing her fears that being unable to “not eat” will make Chinese female subservience her fate.

Like Maxine’s inability to attain Fa Mu Lan’s control of hunger, her attempts to replicate Brave Orchard’s management of food also ends in failure. When responding to Brave Orchid’s dishes of squid eyes, blood pudding, and strange brown masses, Maxine expresses her revulsion, clearly stating, “I would live on plastic” (92). Maxine’s preference of inedible plastic to her mother’s cooking, although stated semi-jokingly, strongly emphasizes the contrast between Brave Orchid and Maxine’s view of food. Maxine is a picky eater, incapable of Brave Orchid’s indiscriminate appetite toward anything and everything. Maxine’s American tastes diminish her desire for traditional Chinese staples; she would deny bowls of rice from the old couple in White Tigers, thinking to herself, “do you have any cookies? I like chocolate chip cookies” (21). The American portion of her identity prohibits her from inheriting Brave Orchard’s power; Maxine’s taste buds have assimilated. Therefore, Maxine, who cannot escape her reliance on society for food by overcoming starvation like Fa Mu Lan, also fails to embrace her mother’s lack of pickiness when eating.

Although Maxine does not dominate or control her food like Fa Mu Lan or Brave Orchid, she still possesses power like a woman warrior. To prove that she has overcome the ideology that women are a waste of food, distancing herself from No Name Woman, Kingston says “When I visit my family now, I wrap my American successes around me like a private shawl; I am worthy of eating the food” (52). Maxine’s “American successes,” her academic and literary triumphs, allow her to defeat the stigma that women in Chinese culture are “maggots in the rice” – declaring she indeed is “worthy of eating the food” (43). Since she cannot be Fa Mu Lan or Brave Orchid, she attains power by just being Maxine: using her written words to tell her life’s narrative in an attempt to grasp identity. While control over food allows Fa Mu Lan to behead corrupt barons and Brave Orchid to vanquish dangerous Sitting Ghosts, Maxine’s control over words empowers her to share her story, exposing the issues of gender, ethnicity, and the dubious nature of an American-Chinese identity.

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By drawing parallels between control over food and possessing female power (mental and physical strength), we come to understand how conceptions of food and hunger are far more important than simply the need to nourish our bodies. Food is materialistic and elementary, but also profound, self-expressive, and vital to culture; separating groups of people from food does more than keep them hungry, it impacts their identity. This demonstrates why triumphs over the idea that women are a waste of food are so important, granting power to help fill the void created within one’s identity. Therefore, by highlighting the few women warriors who can defeat their society’s resentful attitude toward feeding them, perhaps Kingston aims to reveal a chilling dystopic tragedy: the inescapable strife of the rest of China’s women, more like No Name Woman than Fa Mu Lan, suppressed by the notion of being a burden, an unfortunate waste of food.

Table of contents

1. What is food coloring?
Propose food coloring?Natural food colors
2. History of food coloring
Synthetic Food Dyes (arterial food)
3. The disadvantage of food Artificial coloring

What is food coloring?

Food coloring is a pigment or any substance that can color the food we eat or the drinks we drink, it can be in many forms like liquid, powder, paste and even gel. They're used to make the orange color of oranges brighter and more consistent. And added to marshmallows to make them whiter in color.

Propose food coloring?

Why do people add color to food? There could be many reasons for that:

1. To make the food more eye-catching to the person eating.
2. To provide color to the neutral food.
3. Allow purchaser to recognize the products ordered.
4. Improve the color that arises naturally.

Natural food colors

There are many foods that contain its natural color and can make a variety of difference in food. Some of the most common natural food dyes are carotenoids, chlorophyll, anthocyanin, and turmeric:

Carotenoids have a red, yellow or orange color and the most well-known carotenoid is beta-carotene which gives sweet potatoes and pumpkins their color. Beta-carotene is often added to margarine and cheese to give it a more delicious color. Chlorophyll is a natural pigment found in all green plants. Mint- and lime-flavored foods like candy and ice cream are often colored using chlorophyll Anthocyanin’s give grapes, blueberries their deep purple, and blue colors, and they are often used to color water-based products like soft drinks and jelly. Turmeric is not only used as a spice but also as a pigment to turn foods an enjoyable deep yellow color as in mustard and other foods.

And there are many other food colors or specialized derivatives of these groups included:

• Annatto reddish-orange dye made from a seed
• Caramel coloring made from caramelized sugar
• Carmine a red dye derived from the insect
• Elderberry juice
• Lycopene
• Paprika
• Turmeric

Blue colors are especially rare but they can be found in spirulina.

History of food coloring

In ancient times, natural ingredients like plant and herb extracts, and vegetable and fruit peelings were used to add rich color to foods for examples they were using carrots for orange color spinach for green color tomato for red color and more. The addition of stains to foods is thought to have occurred in Egyptian cities as early as 1500 BC when candy makers added natural extracts and wine to improve the products' appearance.

With the onset of the industrial revolution, people became dependent on foods produced by others. Many synthesized dyes were easier and less costly to produce and were more in coloring properties when compared to naturally derived replacements. Lots of coloring agents were produced in the industries without confirming the harmfulness of those products which affect the life of the people eating these products in their foods. During the Industrial Age, the colorings of sweets with poisonous chemicals were particularly common so that the sweets would look more attractive to children. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, the colors used in cosmetics, textiles, drugs, and foods (whether poisonous or not) were of natural origin from animals, plants and minerals. In 1856, the first synthetic color, mauveine, was discovered accidentally by Sir William Henry Perkin, who was trying to form an anti-malaria drug. A new color industry was born and rose-pink, violet, as well as a range of blue and green colors quickly followed. These colors were used in many other industries, particularly the textile industry. For the growing food industry, the colors showed very popular and quickly found their way into a wide variety of foods. Several problems occurred from the over-excited use of colors by the new food industry. Artificial colors were not only being used to cover poor quality but allowed for fake foods to be sold as the real thing eventually confusing the purchaser.

Synthetic Food Dyes (arterial food)

Synthetic Food Colors, also known as Artificial Food Colors and are manufactured chemically and most commonly used stains in food. A color is likely natural if its origin is a plant, microbiological, animal or mineral. Whereas artificial colors were created in labs and sometimes unintentionally by chemists. This is because when natural food colors became too costly because of the cost of get-together and processing the materials used to make them synthetic dyes could be produced at little charge.

The disadvantage of food Artificial coloring

Artificial food coloring makes your foods more fascinating and desirable. While the safety of these dyes has been called into the issue. The disadvantages of using artificial food coloring seem to be greater than the advantages. The disadvantages may vary from the colors causing simple allergies to some heavy metallic colors that can be carcinogenic or cancer-causing. And more often than not even the safe food colors are used in extreme amounts to giving the food a nice color which may be harmful. Some of the artificial colors can even destroy the nutrients in the food because of their chemical composition. They can also cause many others like:

A small nervousness

Impaired concentration: worsening of an individual's judgment and decreasing in his or her's physical ability

Sudden mood swings: change in your mood

Hyperactive behavior: refers to the constant activity being easily distracted, inability to concentrate, aggressiveness and constant moving

Estrogen Enhancers: Sunset yellow (Yellow 6) and tartrazine (Yellow 5) have been shown to behave like estrogen in the human body. High level of estrogen in the body increases chances of breast cancer.

Contributes to ADHD Risk: Numerous investigations have established a significant link between artificial food dyes and hyperactivity in children. An Australian study examining food dyes effects on 200 children found that 75% of parents noticed an upgrading in behavior and attention once dyes were removed from their child’s diet.

Created From Petroleum: Originally made from coal tar food dyes now come from the whole fuel source. Many popular sports drinks, sodas, powdered mixes, and energy drinks contain petroleum resulting food colorings