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Culture refers to the learned norms based on values, attitudes and beliefs of a group of people and cultural difference is the variation of the belief, valued, and behavior. In this era due to globalization the culture seems to vary from each other’s nation. And in doing business this internet technology makes it easier to know other cultures before doing any business.

As companies continue to expand their business across border and the global market becomes more accessible. Multinational and cross-cultural teams are likewise becoming ever more common, meaning businesses can benefit from an increasingly diverse knowledge base and new, insightful approaches to business problems. However, along with the benefits of insight and expertise, global organizations also face potential stumbling blocks when it comes to culture and international business. But in the concept of international business, what is common and accepted norm in one country may be different for another country.AS we are trying to expand the business to England we need to consider few issues for an example -like demographic, culture, economy, social status, peoples income, religion. But to specifically in doing business the three core main thing we need to consider is communication, workplace etiquette, and organizational hierarchy.

Effective communication is very important in business, as our business function will operate from there, an assigned employee will be there to do the work along with other sub -ordinate. The first barrier for communication is language, so the manager or employee from Bangladesh needs to well train in English language and speaking skills. Along with verbal communication nonverbal communication also make an important impact for communication. Usually English people are very reserve which makes people to think them as a moody but in reality they are very friendly with foreigner and helpful. Bangladeshi are also very friendly but people are reluctant to talk in English so which cause a discomfort to communicate with people. Bangladeshi people usually greeting each other with Salam whereas English people greet each other with by saying Good morning , smiling at each other etc. Shake hands with everyone present -- men, women, and children -- at business and social meetings. Shake hands again when leaving. The handshake must be firmly not very tight. Tightness indicate very ill manner in their society. But Bangladeshi don’t follow any rule. A coworker relation between male and female needs to maintain a certain distance in Bangladesh but have to talk in a very formal way, whereas English are very fond of this relation. A certain physical contact may consider a ill manner like patting on coworker (female), or hand shake but British don’t follow this instead this sort of behavior is very normal. English people Use last names and appropriate titles until specifically invited by your British hosts or colleagues to use their first names. But in Bangladesh people usually call their bosses with sir or madam. The British like a certain amount of personal space. Do not stand too close to another person or put your arm around someone's shoulder. Bangladeshi people can put their arms on someone’s shoulder which is very normal. Staring at other consider a big crime in British whereas Bangladeshi people are always curious at others. These are the some basic differences in the culture.

Workplace etiquette is another vital issues. In Great Britain, punctuality is important for business meetings and they always try to be on time but the corporate culture of Bangladesh is something very opposite scenario. But Bangladeshi people are hard working. Meetings should be scheduled well in advance. Meeting need to have a concrete objective such as making a decision, developing a plan. Etc. British always try to set goals for their business and try to achieve those goals. Presentation should be detailed and perfect.

In British culture the Board of Directors is the source of power and the principal decision-making unit in a company. For every business function formal approval from the hierarchy is needed that’s why decision making is very slow. Business organization traditionally is multi-layered with a vertical chain of command. A network of committees, formal and informal, exists in larger companies. Group consensus is preferred to individual initiative.

England is a highly industrialized economy with a well-established trade infrastructure. Ever since colonization started, trade has been the most prominent factor of England’s economy.

England, recorded a figure of $351.3 billion in 2009 and ranked 10th in the world when it came to exports. Although the recession brought down the figure from $466.3 billion achieved in 2008, the economy was still helped by the amount of exports.

England’s most common exported commodities are: Manufactured goods, Fuels, Chemicals, Food, Beverages, and Tobacco.

Major export partners are: US, Germany, Netherlands, France, Ireland, Belgium, Spain.

Imports in 2009 were recorded at $473.6 billion, in contrast to $639.3 billion in 2008. England was the 7th country in the world in terms of import volumes.

England’s imports are dominated by the following commodities: Manufactured goods, Machinery, Fuels, Foodstuffs.

England’s major import partners are: Germany, US, China, Netherlands, France, Norway, Belgium, Italy

After UK exit from Europe union many economist thought that British would collapse but it didn’t happen. Their pound rate increase by 9% than dollar according to Forbes. Their GDP increases by 1.8 % in 2016. Economic growth has been sustained up to now, therefore unemployment has sunk to 4.3%.Much uncertainty remains with the official exit from the EU scheduled for March 2019. Some U.K. companies are holding off on investments to see how Brexit effects trade relations, and growth is forecasted to slow in 2018, but Britain’s business climate remains attractive. The U.K. ranks first for the first time in Forbes’ 12th annual survey of the Best Countries for Business. Many big companies are investing on their country to make a hub in Europe. International companies locate to the UK because they want:

• to access new or existing customers
• develop new products
• find new suppliers and partners
• do more business in other countries across Europe.

Companies based in UK can reach more than 500 million customers across Europe. No payments have to make while transferring any inventory through UK because it’s free.

The UK has a workforce of over 30 million people. This is the 2nd largest in the EU. The UK has:

• a workforce with strong skills
• a flexible labor market
• regulations designed to protect employees

England government has made a “flexible labor law “which means companies can employee staffs in a way that suits the need of the business. Labor costs in the UK are the most competitive in Western Europe helped by low employer social security contributions. The UK’s overall cost of labor is lower than countries such as France, Ireland, Netherlands and German.

In England there was a Department of international trade which was run by the government to provide free essential service to foreign investor to establish business in England. This help includes:

• identifying market opportunities in the UK and Europe
• providing access and introductions to the right people
• setting up in the UK
• market research
• selecting the best location
• tax advice
• ongoing government support after establishing yourself in UK
• applying for visas and entry to the UK
• finding staff
• support for entrepreneurs

Transportation system in UK are very good and efficient which will make easy to transport inventory from one state to another. England already has the 2nd largest port in Europe, largest air transport system in Europe, most improved rail network in Europe.

Cross-border communications and managerial issues

Regardless, certain areas of business are likely to be impacted to varying degrees, particularly by changes to/ divergence from existing trading rules.

Contract reviews

While the future shape of the UK’s trading relationship with the EU is unclear, contingency

Legal issues planning involving contract reviews should start now with a view to identifying and managing risk.

Reviewing strategic contracts in place where there is a dependence on UK trade and where pricing mechanisms are in place that assume no tariffs, quotas or other barriers

Reviewing contractual terms that could be triggered (against you) because of the circumstances of a UK exit from the EU (including market volatility)

Reviewing contractual terms that should perhaps be varied because of a UK exit from the EU. This should also be considered for any future tender or evaluation process for new arrangements.

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On exit, EU competition laws (which incorporate three main areas: merger control, anti-competitive agreements and state aid) will cease to be applicable in the UK. The British will have their own competition laws that Irish companies carrying on business in the UK will need to comply with (independent of EU competition law).

The constitution certainly created and helps to uphold a democratic nation. It outlines and set in place a particular democratic government and set of laws. The men who wrote the Constitution were not elected. Certainly there were great leaders, but there were no formal election processes in place in order to select them to write the document. The Constitution was written behind the closed door and signed by the authors. It was not voted on in the same way as the laws and bills are voted on today. The people of the newly forming American nation did not have the same ability to offer input and make a selection that we enjoy today. With this, it could be argued in a way that this was notably undemocratic. Should the winning presidential nominees win by the popular votes and not by electoral votes? For that reason, the winning presidential candidates should be represented by the electors.

As the framer of this country, the presidential nominee’s is chosen by Electoral College. The Electoral College are a group of people who appointed by each state, who will formally elect the president and vice-president of the country. And these electors are selected by the population of the states, which is why some states have more representatives. The Electoral College system opens up the Pandora's Box of electors not voting as instructed to by the American people. The Electoral College critically misinterprets the equal representatives from each state. Not only there is a possible chance that the presidential candidates to win by popular votes, but he/she would not win during the election. For instance, during the election in 2000, during the presidential election, the republican nominee won the election, even he lost the popular. With the Electoral College, this situation has become very probable. The presidential candidates that won by Electoral College were unfair with representation of the voters in the country (Dahl). He also went on and gives an example of how a vote in Wyoming is worth about four times as much as a vote from California (Dahl). In fact, bills proposing a constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College are routinely introduced in every Congress (William). If presidential candidates are won by Electoral College and lost in popular votes, does people votes really matter?

Do the people votes really matter, when The Electoral College should be removed and the system should be the popular vote? With the Electoral College, the electors would not know if their votes count or not. They are not the one who elected the president candidates, even if their name is on the ballot. With the way that Electoral College set up, they might even vote your candidates choice or they might elect someone that does not represent you. Where the electors lived may make their vote useless because of their state population. There will be the time that presidential candidates will be the tie and that is when the popular vote comes in. If this situation really happens then the House of Representation and the Senate has the power to elect the president (Ginsberg). As Dahl states, in order to make Electoral College represent the electors, that the “the Electoral College will abolish in favor of a direct election by popular vote would be highly desirable” (Dahl). With the way Electoral College present whose get to elect the president, the question rise is that should we, as the citizens alter the Electoral College?

Should the Electoral College be altered or abolish from the election? As this research paper states above, that the Electoral College has an unfair representative in elect the president of the country. By having a presidential nominee’s win the election by the Electoral College, which means that the winning candidate does not represent the electors at all. If we alter or even abolished Electoral College, the candidate who will win the election will represent the electors in the country. But at the same time, by using alter or even abolish the Electoral College, it will create a bigger problem in the senate. If the Electoral College is altered the bigger states have more advantages than the smaller states. With this, the smaller states will need and entitled to protect by the large states (Dahl). Since altering or abolishing the Electoral College would not work, what can the electors do to have someone in the office will represent them? According to Dahl, there two solutions that make Electoral College more representative to the elector. One is that if no candidate received a majority, a run-off between the two top candidates should be held. And another one is to distributing vote to candidates proportionally (Dahl). For instance, if the Electoral College is abolish and the presidential candidate is elected by popular vote. What will be the outcome?

The Diary of Anne Frank and I Will Bear Witness are a must read for anyone who wishes to ascertain what daily life was like for Jews living in Nazi Germany. The non-fiction Diaries really help understand the insidious and incremental horror of what it meant to live under a totalitarian and racist regime whose every move was aimed at suffocating the life out of a group of people (the Jews) — not for anything they had done but simply because they existed. The collective entries by both the diarist slowly but inexorably draw the reader into the claustrophobic, increasingly threatening, and all-pervasive fear that the Nazi terror and the never ending promulgations and restrictions had on the life of each and every Jew living in Europe 1939- 1941.

The Diary of a Young Girl was written by a 13 year old girl during World War II and her diary has gone to change the world, by spreading awareness and showing the true colours and horrors of the war through the eyes of a child. After two years spent in hiding the family was betrayed and taken to auschwitz where only Anne’s father Otto Frank survived. After the War ended Otto Frank fulfilled Annes dream of becoming a famous writer and published her diary. In her diary Anne wrote about her emotions, thoughts and sometimes we as the audience got a close insight about the world outside the annex through what was said on the radio and from the messengers that the family had. “I see the eight of us in the Annex as if we were a patch of blue sky surrounded by menacing black clouds. . . . [They loom] before us like an impenetrable wall, trying to crush us, but not yet able to. I can only cry out and implore, “Oh ring, ring, open wide and let us out!” The use of metaphoric language shows how Anne was becoming depressed and worried about her family's chance of survival. She was tired of hiding and missed living a normal life and being on the outside. This shows how life during the war was inhumane, and so many were suffering. People lived in hiding because they were afraid of being taken to a concentration camp a place where millions of ordinary people were enslaved as part of the war effort, often starved, tortured and killed. “I sometimes wonder if anyone will ever understand what I mean, if anyone will ever overlook my ingratitude and not worry about whether or not I’m Jewish and merely see me as a teenager badly in need of some good, plain fun” In this passage, Anne reminds us that she is just a normal young girl who has been forced into extraordinary circumstances. She willingly makes sacrifices and deals with the restrictions of the annex without much complaint because she knows that she is more fortunate than her friends who have already been arrested and sent to concentration camps. Aside from wanting to return to the freedoms and comforts she had before the war, Anne simply wants to experience a normal childhood. She does not want to live in a world that places such significance on where she is from, what her religion is, or whether she behaves well with adults. She wants to be in a place where she does not have to worry whether she will live or whether her friends are suffering. The diary has such emotional impact because we see Anne not as a saint, but as a normal girl with real human feelings and imperfections who falls victim to the tragedy of the Holocaust.”I get cross, then sad, and finally end up turning my heart inside out, the bad part on the outside and the good part on the inside, and keep trying to find a way to become what I’d like to be and what I could be if . . . if only there were no other people in the world” This statement ends Anne Frank’s last diary entry, written on August 1, 1944. Anne does not intend to end her diary at this point: to her, it is just the end of a regular day of hiding in the annex. However, this turns out to be her last entry because the Nazis arrest her and her family just three days later. This shows how Anne was never allowed to reach her full potential and never got the chance to become the good person that she had in mind. This was the case with all the holacaust victims, all the 6 million never got to live their life to the fullest potential only because of their religion,personal identity and their personal features. Anne Frank’s Diary is a fantastic source of insight into the emotional journey that people encountered throughout the holocaust. It allows us to put our feet in their shoes and imagine what it would've been like.

The diaries published as I Will Bear Witness were compiled by Victor Klemperer from 1933 — until the end of the war in 1945. Klemperer, the son of a Jewish Rabbi, had been a university professor in Dresden before the war. He had chosen to be baptized a Christian and married Eva, a German Christian, which saved him from death. Victor lost his professorship under the National Socialist government and was forced to wear the star to identify his Jewish ancestry, although his wife Eva was spared this humiliation.The diaries offer a first-hand account of life during wartime for a marginalized couple that was not quite Jewish yet not quite fully German during an authoritarian regime that placed the blame for the economic suffering of Germany on the Jewish minority. Klemperer's book, is one of the most important first-person accounts of life in Nazi Germany from a Jewish perspective. He is one of the few Jewish witnesses of the entire Nazi period. This is because having a diary was considered life threatening as if you were caught with one you would have been arrested or even killed. “Their opinion: If at the cost of going backwards internally, he restores Germany’s power externally, then this cost is worthwhile. Conditions at home can always be made good later – politics is just not a clean business” This quote offers an explanation of the internal justification by those who supported Adolf Hitler and the Nazi government. Germany was crippled after the First World War. The country was humiliated by the War Guilt Clause of the Treaty of Versailles, and the reparations being made to France led to severe inflation. Eager to once again be an international player, the people of Germany saw Hitler's ideology as a way to end their struggles. People were desperate and Hitler was known to be as one of the best public speakers of all time. He had the ability to brainwash millions of people into his party. “Whoever is not a mortal enemy of the Nazis, cannot be my friend”. This quote shows how Klemperer grows more angry and embittered. The years pass and the Jews are increasingly ostracized, isolated, and subjected to punishing regulations. The restrictions on Jews, they were plentiful and never-ending. Midway through Volume One, Klemperer experienced the odd sensation that the Nazis seemed to be working literally around the clock to devise new and ever more soul-destroying ways to harm the Jews’ sense of self and position in society. The situation finally comes to a head, at which point he makes the decision to refuse to associate with any of his friends or colleagues who do not share his detestation of the Nazis. Klemperer insights us in his journey of interaction with people who believed what Hitler was doing was thought to be acceptable and admirable. Not everyone thought killing people based on their religion was inhuman as millions of people loved Hitler and thought what he was doing was brilliant. Through diaries like these we now know that this is absurd and racist as they share first hand experiences along with emotions and thoughts.

Diaries are very significant and should be treasured because sooner rather than later there will be no actual first hand victims alive to retell their stories. The horror of the war should never be forgotten and should stand as an example of something that should never be repeated again. Diaries offer a unique perspective on the events of the Holocaust as they convey the chaos and confusion of the time and the lack of reliable information. Both these diaries will be read and remembered eternally as they play a huge roll in showcasing a dark reality which happened in our history.  

The industrial era was a period in American history that encountered tremendous technological development. Great economic opportunity accompanied this technological progress, which served to sculpt a more competitive and impersonal American identity. A plethora of important intellectual and cultural changes emerged during this time, many of which have had a long-standing impact on life in the United States. These changes included the intellectual shift from expansionism to urbanization, the creation of the corporate form, and the behavior of conspicuous consumption among the upper class. Coupled with these widespread shifts in thought and action, the direct reactions that stemmed from each of these changes played an important role in the way that these changes would affect the well being of people in the future. These reactions included the introduction of public space in urban areas, the Populist movement, and the development of a mass culture.

One of the most significant changes in American thought during the industrial era that served to enduringly alter the nature of settlement within the United States was a new and radically divergent perception of space. Before the late 1800s, American history was characterized by a fundamental desire to explore and settle upon uncharted territory. The development of the Frontier provided an avenue for trailblazing individuals to exercise those pursuits. Legislation that was passed shortly after the Civil War, such as the Land Grant Act and the Pacific Railroad Act, provided the incentive for Americans to move into unsettled land and helped to stimulate the growth of industry and markets in the Western United States.

The separation of the uncharted West represented a state of true independence that favored the most resourceful and driven individuals. The West was regarded as a crucible for strength and virility. From the perspective of the West as a frontier, it existed as a borderland between civilization and savagery—the Wild West—which provided for the creation of a very lucrative “cowboy culture” for Easterners to exploit through dime novel stories and performances such as Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.The West possessed tremendous appeal from an economic and a cultural standpoint for all Americans, Western settler and Eastern citizen alike. This multitude of Wests that emerged during the 1800s served to cement a national American identity. By the turn of the 20th century, however, the West began to die out in the public eye. The United States underwent a significant shift in economic orientation during this period from a characteristically agrarian society to an increasingly industrialist society. More wage laborers were needed in the factories that were built in East Coast cities and less independent landowners were needed to grow crops. This newly formed and unregulated industrial system thrust the American people into a system of great economic potential met with great social and political unfamiliarity.

This sudden closing of the West was the result of a shift in thinking that was driven by intellectual literature such as The Significance of the Frontier in American History by Frederick Jackson Turner.  In 1893, Turner, a young historian from the University of Wisconsin, composed a paper that provided insight into the value of the Western United States as well as its ultimate limitations. Turner’s “Frontier Thesis” laid out the development of the American frontier from the 1600s up through the 1890s. After outlining the extent of American settlement, Turner concluded that there was no undiscovered land remaining in North America—the frontier line was ostensibly nonexistent. Within a country that was forged upon a desire to expand, Turner articulated that this ability to expand our territory was suddenly gone. While in a realistic sense, Western land was only beginning to be occupied; this expansionist logic of Turner and other academics had hit an extreme.

However untrue, Turner was well aware of the influence of technology and the industry that was quickly growing in cities on the East Coast. A highly mechanized society demanded large amounts of wage labor packed into small areas near factories and presented itself as very foreign and almost opposite to the widespread and familiar agricultural system. In retrospect, the West possessed a vast wealth of land for occupation during Turner’s time and continues to today, as well. Realistically speaking, the actual closing of the Frontier likely differed from Turner’s speculation regarding the demise of the West. From an ideological standpoint, the Frontier Thesis possessed great merit in correctly anticipating this profound shift in American society towards industry and urbanization. Additionally, Turner’s Frontier Thesis frames the crisis that he and other educated citizens had to come to terms with in the near future—the soaring, unbounded American spirit that these individuals have believed in for over 200 years no longer exists.

From this intellectual impetus that shifted American thinking from the West to condensed cities in the East, there was a cultural backlash to this new and constricting manner of urban living through the introduction of public spaces. When cities became the center of civilized life within the United States, an abundance of social, political, and health issues plagued the inhabitants of these new environments. Over the course of time and through the publishing of literature, which exposed the troubles of urban living such as How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis, the US Government stepped forward to bring order to a previously disorganized system. Organizations that regulated the resources that city life warranted such as proper sanitation, public transportation, and basic utilities were developed as areas became more urbanized. Local political corruption that permeated places such as Tammany Hall in New York City began to be subdued through muckraking journalism and powerful legislation. For as quickly as the American became accustomed to congested living conditions, residents concurrently acquired a desire for greater liberty in their environments. This breathing room was established through the introduction of public parks.

This cultural response to the confinement of cities through the making of parks and public spaces was one of the most significant urban developments on a human level. The development of parks in the United States marked significant social change for the American people and was one of the first and most perceptible means that the stratification of social class that the industrial system forged was overcome. The development of parks provided a degree of freedom, however small, to all people living in the cities. Considering how rapidly urbanization occurred during the turn of the 20th century, all individuals needed to have a place where they could depart from the fast-paced, hard-working, and impersonal ambience of the city to find solace in organic open spaces. The idea to appropriate space for parks and green space was an all-inclusive one, considering that all human beings, regardless of their position in society, have a fundamental connection to nature. The development of these new spaces allowed for a degree of civic attachment among people of different classes. Much like open space in the American West was utilized as a common culture among the American people, parks were, to some extent, an analogue to the Frontier by facilitating the creation of a more connected identity albeit within a smaller and more centralized setting.

Frederick Law Olmstead was a pioneer in park development who believed in the social reform that these open spaces could provide for city-dwellers.5 Olmstead was arguably the most prolific landscape architect in the United States and was recruited from coast-to-coast to design urban parks, roadways, college campuses, and other structures. According to Olmstead, public parks had the potential to shape the behavior of the public in a positive manner. By creating a forum for people of all backgrounds to intermingle, particularly immigrants who had yet to fully assimilate with society and those of higher class, parks could erase the disturbing foreignness of the working class and replace them with middle class values.6 From the perspective of Olmstead, parks carried great weight through their ability to transcend class boundaries.

The development of parks also contributed to a new paradigm in regard to the personality of cities. Parks advanced the idea that these loci of production can be reformed from something that merely highlights the disparity between people by virtue of their respective living and working conditions to an area that can display the similarities that people share. The presence of public spaces helped to show that cities are more than merely centers for employment. Parks are a place where one can abandon business interests and embrace spending leisure time and getting to know others. The presence of parks was a reminder that cities are an amalgam of individuals that come together to form a social organism. Every person plays a role in its functioning and, consequently, the particular rights and interests of all individuals should be considered. During the industrial era, this movement towards the appropriation of public spaces aided in preserving some degree of humanity within a highly antagonistic and impersonal setting.

The industrial era represented a profound change in the scope, profitability, and the overall ethic of American business interests as embodied by the development of new economic forms. Although Britain as well as other European countries had undergone their own period of industrialism before the United States, products invented in the United States became distinctly American. With respect to communication, Alexander Graham Bell developed the telephone and in the realm of electricity, Thomas Edison invented the first commercially practical incandescent light bulb. With respect to American business, a new industrial engine known as the corporation arose to meet the opportunity that existed in this unregulated system. Unlike previous American businesses, corporations intended to satisfy a much larger market by having more workers on staff and by increasing the range and scope of their operations.

The appeal of corporations existed in their ability to protect investors by bestowing a limited liability upon their investment, making the act of having a stake in a company safer. Limited liability had the effect of concentrating unprecedented amounts of capital, which corporations could utilize to expand horizontally or vertically within their market. Corporations represented a complete restructuring of private enterprise, in which the independent business had usurped the government as the engine of economic development within the United States.8 As compared to Adam Smith’s idea of the invisible hand, which had governed market interactions up until the 20th century, a very visible hand in the form of a professional class of white-collar workers utilizing this new corporate form guided the American economy.

The corporation was not only the pinnacle of American industrial achievement because of its scope of operations and size of output, but because it represented the conflation of many industrial components. The success of the corporation was the result of the managerial revolution, the transportation revolution, and the creation of a vast national market. Corporations utilized middle management, a newly developed, educated breed of worker that possessed the ability to lead others, delegate responsibility, and communicate over a wide distance, which allowed for more business to be done more efficiently than with unskilled labor.9 Additionally, extensive railroad networks allowed for a vast distribution network in order to tap into a huge national market.

To the same extent that technological changes during the industrial era provided for the development of the corporate form, the corporation itself ushered in unprecedented change on the intellectual life and the values of the United States. In a brief 20-year period, the business culture of the United States was completely remade into a profoundly powerful force not only in American culture, but also relative to the rest of the world. After acquiring a stronghold on US markets, economic opportunity and the presence of communication networks such as the telegraph drove corporations to pursue foreign consumers. It was through the corporation that Europeans first encounter American life, namely through the selling abroad of the Singer sewing machine.

Beginning with the railroad, the corporation expanded to almost all aspects of American life in the late 1800s. Considering that the success of a business is determined by the demand of a product sold, the corporation emerged as an embodiment of society’s values and aspirations. Firms like Standard Oil and the American Tobacco Company expressed the American attachment to such things as transportation and smoking. Paradoxically, the increased pervasiveness of the corporation directly led to its inconspicuousness. Although the presence of vast international companies was a considerable concern in its day, the excessive production and distribution of advertisement from such organizations came to be customary in society. Even though the corporation arose with the sole aim of developing the most efficient manner of acquiring profit, this selfish approach to business remains deeply entrenched in American life and thought.

In spite of the incredible productivity of the corporation, its rise to power did not lack in trepidation among the American public. Inspired by desires to reap profits and impose order on a chaotic, unstable economy, many captains of industry were exemplars of the work ethic who displayed great ingenuity and skill organizing complex industrial enterprises. The quintessential industrialist during this time was John D. Rockefeller, who possessed a titanic corporate conglomerate known as Standard Oil. During Standard Oil’s heyday, roughly 80% of the country’s petroleum was under the control of Rockefeller. In light of such remarkable market control in which price-setting was inevitable, it is understandable why many Americans living during this period felt powerless to resist the economic influence of these firms.

Due to the exploitation of the system by many factory owners such as Rockefeller, new realms of intellectual thought such as Populism were created among the American people that addressed this new economic and social chasm that formed between the new “haves” and the “have-nots” of American society. By virtue of it being both a body of thought and a political party, Populism served both an ideological and political purpose. Populism was a direct response by the laboring class, namely farmers, to corporations that inflicted an external economic influence that farmers had no control over. The most common medium of economic control that corporations channeled in relation to these farmers was the grain elevator. Many of the corporations that existed in the Western United States functioned as monopolies due to a lack of other companies inhabiting the same area. Both railroads and the grain elevator could enforce unfair terms over the farming community.

Following the Panic of 1873 as a result of bankruptcy of the bank Jay Cooke & Company, farmers lost the ability to loan money from all financial intermediaries. They were unable to increase their crop production and, as a result, these farmers struggled to survive. For any hope of economic gain, political involvement became necessary for these individuals. Pitted against this economic crisis, the farmers formed the Grange Movement, a small organization of farmers that attempted to affect political change with the hopes of building regional legislation that favored the farmer. The Grange Movement went on to personally finance their own grain elevators to ensure that there were no monopolies over farmers from certain regions and that the farmer himself was always being treated fairly.14

Other groups such as the National Farmer’s Alliance and the Knights of Labor developed from the Grange Movement in order to uphold the rights of farmers within a larger sphere. The groups that resulted from this initial interest, however, pointed to the importance of the rights of the worker. If corporations were to remain a powerful form of industry, the rights of all people need to be upheld. This is what the Knights of Labor came to be about: protecting the rights of both skilled and unskilled labor on a national level. Although skilled workers were an investment, much more so than unskilled workers who could have been easily replaced, it was the interest of people in general that became most important.

The legacy of the corporation was the standard that it inaugurated in American business. Corporations, through their ability to appeal to a national market, intended to maximize economic profit. Although in many cases, these mergers and business strategies which sought to corner the market on certain items, much like Rockefeller did for oil, allowed for important legislation to be developed such as the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 which prevented the unfair growth of these trusts. Although the prospect of future monopolies came to be quickly checked by the government, the precedent of monopolistic competition arose due to these large companies which were formed and broken apart, a feature that the US economy still possesses today. This original intent to capitalize upon the progression of technology and the connectedness of the country by virtue of railroads and telegraph led to a tremendous production of goods and services.

The opportunity for large amounts of capital in this corporation-dominated industrial system allowed for a new acquisitive ethic among the wealthy in American society. Historian Thorstein Veblen published a book entitled The Theory of the Leisure Class, which looked at the creation of an entirely new cultural class which Veblen labeled the leisure class. The members of this leisure class who had access to large amounts of wealth took on a new function by using ostentation and accumulation to show their importance and significance. This class, which prided itself on not having to work, was the antithesis of the working class. The view of these individuals was that not having to work was a mark of superior achievement. Leisure, the non-productive consumption of time, revealed an elevated social position and importance. The tendency of the leisure class towards inactivity was not an accident; it was intentional. The leisure class and the conspicuous consumption that they participated in was a chance for rich Americans to exert their influence by, in effect, attempting to create an American aristocracy.

In light of all of the exclusivity that the leisure class attempted to impose during this time through their articulation of wealth and the invidious way that they demeaned the working class, the remaining classes acquired their own means of consumption. Mass culture was a means of amusement that was developed in order to rival this high culture. New technology allowed for the expansion of a market for the entertainment of individuals of all amounts of income. In addition to the mass production dime novels for which the rotary printing press provided, amusement parks with new rides and displays became a big hit to the public. A highlight of the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893 was the introduction of the Ferris Wheel. For those living in New York City, the weekend getaway that Coney Island provided also became a prominent locale for working class people seeking entertainment.

The World’s Columbian Exposition juxtaposed these two competing cultures of consumption—the mass culture of entertainment along with the civic virtues of high culture as embodied by the fair’s architecture. Mass culture, especially in new industries, meant that the benefits of modern technology reached more Americans than ever before. Although the acquisition of massive fortunes among the social elite had deleterious consequences for society at large, the prior exclusivity of consumption contributed to an insatiable appetite among the public for mass-produced items and amusement. This new opportunity for all the working class served to greatly change American culture. The idea of consumption for all social classes became a normative value of American life. This business culture that was created during the late 1800s allows for tremendous production, but allows for consumption on an unprecedented level. While households previously suffered from a scarcity of resources, industrialism created a unique economic situation for the consumer. For the first time in history, products became available in outstanding quantities, at outstandingly low prices, which made them available to virtually everyone. This began the era of mass consumption, a behavior that has come to pervade every corner of American living.

During the era of American industrialism, major shifts towards ideas such as urbanization, corporations, and consumption represent the zeitgeist of American industrialism. For many Americans, economic prosperity became the governing American ideal. For all of the economic gain that technological progress enabled, however, industrialism also fostered a serious concern that everything that previously made the United States excellent was being challenged. Although America has never been a country of different classes, this particular avenue towards opportunity for many Americans created a system of greater disparity.

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The most prominent cultural responses to these economically oriented ideas indicated a return to traditional American values. The creation of parks across the United States, the creation of the Populist Party, and mass culture are all attempts to curb the tyrant of industry. All of these reactions place the equal rights of men at their forefront of interest. Although providing for oneself is an essential American desire, business interests should never trample upon the rights of others. This is arguably the legacy of the American industrial era—to create a country in which industry can prevail while still preserving the basic rights of all citizens. Although the United States has improved greatly in this respect between the late 1800s and the present day, this difference between the personal interests of Americans and the moral interests of Americans will always clash. It will forever be the job of the people to speak out for the common good as compared to what appears best for the individual.

In the early hours of Sunday the 25th of April 1915 the first contingent of Anzacs landed at a beach North of Gaba Tebe, this was the first of many landing staged at Gallipoli. On the same day over 8 landing were staged. Whilst the allies were backed by a heavy naval presence the fighting was savage and heavy causalities were inflicted on the both sides. When we directed our fire at them I saw a lot of heads, legs and arms fly into the air * (an account from an Anzac troop). On the eve of the 25th both armies were at a standstill. These landing were the first part of huge campaign, which were to last 10 months.

Gallipoli was where Australian and New Zealand troops (the Anzacs) were branded with reputation of brave, tough and good willed soldiers who loved their countries and fought courageously for them. They were also considered as larrikins by some, competitive, understanding, caring and nationalistic. The Anzacs (as they were called) were hailed on for having these values. A single Victorian digger (L.C. Albert Jacka) evicted a group of Turks from a captured Australian trench shooting five and bayoneting two more. This single man sums up the bravery shown by Anzac diggers when fighting the Turks. At times the Australian s would rather play cricket than battle it out in the trenches. They played under the danger of enemy fire yet they continued, proud of their country and really laughed in the face of danger,

On May the 24th an armistice was agreed by both sides to collect bodies this was an act of understanding. Whilst the Turks killed and wounded Anzac soldiers the Anzacs treated enemy prisoners well even offering wounded enemy soldiers drinks in the field. Whilst these were acts of humanity, the competitive nature of the Anzac troops also prevailed with shooting competitions held with the Turks between the trenches, notes were also passed over between the two sides with stupid questions asked like How far is Constantinople . Some Anzac troops even helped Turk soldiers celebrate the end of Muslim festival of Ramadan by offering gifts of food and drink. Anzac troops were so devoted to their mates and country that in times of trouble they carried casualties long distances across treacherous terrain to safety. All these deeds really brought out the true nature of the Anzac troops.

The civilian public in countries like New Zealand and Australian were fed false information about the war and Gallipoli and a lot of soldiers believed that Gallipoli was going to be fun and rejoiced over it. Yet these statements supplied by the media were indeed false. Below are segments from letters home from soliders who were brainwashed with garbage from the media and were about to be sent to Gallipoli: so I am going to a place where monotony is unknown, a year seems like one crowded hour of glorious life. I am on the eve of entering the firing line and rejoicing . and .I shall be soon seeing the real thing and believe me, I am looking forward to it. ..I used to think it was silly when I heard others talking like that but now I am right up against it, I want to be there .. .

Yet what they experienced was far from what they imagined. This is a small insight of what really happened from the diary of Sergeant Lawrence (Australian Engineers): As I said before, they (Anzacs) have simply been cut to pieces by bombs. There is just one continuous stream of wounded down form the trenches mostly flesh wounds caused by bombs. Awful sights, nearly all soaked in blood, perhaps half a leg blown away, a hand or jaw missing . and The smell is just awful. The newly captured trenches are just full of the dead still, whilst others lie on or just over the parapets. In one place we have had to build a parapet of bodies #. These two snippets are just a few of many and actually illustrate that both sides suffered and that the media and even the conscription services established a false curtain of truth of what was actually happening.

Whilst the men fought at Gallipoli and lost their lives, no women were actually on land at Gallipoli but needless to say women still had a fairly significant role in the campaign. With casualties in there thousands the main role women undertook was that of a nurse. As there was limited Allied space on the peninsula all casualties were taken off shore to hospital ships or White Ships as they were called and treated by female nurses. Soldiers would then be cleared to hospitals in Egypt, Lemnos or Malta where again they would be treated by Sisters . These sisters had to deal with the hardships of the dying men and this actually was a very traumatic experience for most of the sisters on the hospital ships. A brief insight into life on these ships from the diary of Sister Kitchen: We stayed with a dying man making the 3rd that day and one more in the night and Several large shells were fired at the store ship near us today .Got 2 bad abdominals ; one died.

Not only were women located quite close to the action (as nurses) they also played substantial roles back in home countries: making ammunition and looking after the countries while the men were away (even those these situations are not directly with Gallipoli they did contribute to the soldiers well being and the armies munitions levels). Women made ammunition (shells ect.), donated and made clothing, worked the land, worked as post women, bus conductors, policewomen, ambulance drivers and many other things. They kept the countries going whilst the men weren t there and were proud of what they did. By July 1915 there were over 520,00 working in the hazardous munitions industry. Most of the ammunition made during theses periods went to frontline areas like Gallipoli and assisted the troops in their endless battle against the enemy.

After many heroic battles like the attack on Suvla bay, Lone pine, Sari Bair and Krithia, after many military tactics had been played out, after many shells had been fired, after ships had been sunk and men been killed a stale mate had substantiated. The allies then schemed a huge convert evacuation of allied troops off the peninsula. This commenced on the 12th of December by the 18th half the force had been withdrawn. By dawn on the 20th of December every man had been taken off. Ingenious devices like popping guns distracted the Turks for some time until a mine (underground tunnel laden with explosives) exploded on Allied soil. The Turks then realised something was wrong and by the time they ventured into Allied ground passing through booby traps and mines the Allies were long gone.

One of the most substantial campaigns Australia was involved in during WW1 came to a close. In what was a diaster on both sides over 9,700 Anzacs, 10,000 French and 25,000 British and 87,000 Turkish killed in what was a futile campaign. Amazingly only a handful of Allied troops ever saw the straights of the Marmara Sea during the whole period of the campaign.

Table of contents

1. Introduction
2. Social inequalities
3. Financial influence
4. Political influence
5. Conclusion

Introduction

The French Revolution was a radical period of extreme political and societal upheaval from 1789 to 1799. Despite the many causes for the revolution, it is to my contention that the most significant reason was the social inequalities that triggered the demand for change and reform of the nature of political power in France.

The debate regarding the exact causes of the revolution continues and is prevalent amongst historians today, however, the following reasons are adduced. The major reasons for the revolution lies in the social impacts, specifically the social inequalities in France due to the estates system as well as the weak and inept leadership due to the absolute monarchy. The financial impact being the financial inequalities of the people in France and finally, the political impacts being the enlightenment ideas which had spread amongst the Third Estate. There are ultimately a range of reasons as to why the revolution occurred and it continues to influence modern society today, however the inequities in France at the time are arguably the biggest cause for the French Revolution. In this essay, I will explore how did Enlightenment ideas influence the French Revolution. 

Social inequalities

Social inequalities are argued by historians as the cause for the French Revolution. During the 18th century, France was under an absolute monarchy of Louis XVI who was king shouldered the blame for causing the French Revolution due to his weak and inept leadership. The French king took the throne at twenty years old, lacking political insight and self-confidence due to being unprepared by his education as his government failed to prepare him for the challenges of government. His weak and inexperienced leadership led France into deep debt partly through an inadequate taxation system in an attempt to minimize the royal deficit. In support of this, historian John Hardman describes Louis XVI as “the biggest blunder of his reign.”

French society was divided into three states: the First Estate which consisted of priests who ran the Catholic church as well as some aspects of France such as collecting church tax (the tithe), supervising education, and registering births, deaths, and marriages. The Second Estate consisted of members of the royal family and nobility. Lastly the Third Estate (consisted of peasants, farmers, and the bourgeoisie). The Nobility and Clergy were exempt from paying taxes, meanwhile, the Third Estate had to contribute their earnings to the King, as well as having to pay half of their earnings to the tithes of the church and the nobles. The social inequalities between the Third Estate and the First and Second Estate are clear and were a major contributing factor of the French Revolution.

Louis XVI’s decision-making and lack of authority drastically changed the views held by the people of France, resenting the despotic monarchy and portrayed to be indifferent to the needs of the French, because of this, triggering radical change.

The Third Estate had little to no power, despite making up a majority of the French population (98%). This ultimately led to dramatic inequalities between the estates.

A cartoon titled 'Le peuple sous l'ancien Regime' (Dated 1815) Depicts King Louis XVI, a bishop and a member of the aristocracy riding on the back of a man who is blindfolded and in chains, on his hands and knees. The man represented the people and highlighted the people's attitudes and their unhappiness with their condition. This could be due to the fact that they were very heavily taxed by the government, and were not entitled to the privileges that the clergy and nobles had. It is evident that there was tension between the people and the estates because of this, and thus is a contributing factor of the cause of the French Revolution. This is further supported by another propaganda poster titled “A faut esperer que jeu la finira ben tot” , dated 1789 depicts a peasant carrying the two orders - clergy and nobility) . It is clear from this that the people of France were suffering under the Estate system. ‘A faut esperer que jeu la finira ben tot’ and 'Le peuple sous l'ancien Regime' both highlight the heavy burden that the Third estates have to carry of the clergy and the nobles, while they reap the rewards. Through this, it can be understood that propaganda posters were used to communicate the people’s feelings and attitudes towards the higher estates, and heavily influenced the people’s demand for change, as well as playing a large role in politically influencing people’s views, ultimately being a major cause for the revolution.

Financial influence

The financial crisis in France played an important role in creating the social background for the revolution. Throughout the late 1700s, France was facing a mounting economic crisis and by 1789 France was broke as the peasants did not have the financial means to pay taxes and the nobility opposed paying taxes. The main reasons for this were the unfair tax structure implemented by King Louis XVI and the corruption and lifestyle of the royal family. France’s involvement in the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) deepened the country's debt due to the cost of fighting the war. Their support in providing goods and billions of livres towards the American Revolution (1755-1783) caused great financial strain to France’s economy.

France’s population was growing which resulted in a shortage of food supply. The 1788 winter resulted in widespread famine. This is evident in Arthur Young’s, an agriculturist's travel excerpts. Young traveled through France from 1787 to 1789. “The lack of bread is terrible..stories arrive from the provinces of riots and disturbances.. The bread has risen above people's ability to pay. This causes great misery” (adapted) Food shortages and excessive pricing sparked a wave of public outrage in the Paris Basin’s towns and villages. This is further supported by a print depicting the French aristocrats gorging on food while the protesting and angered crowd starved. The print reflects the difference of quality of life based on the Estates. The peasants struggled greatly with affording and obtaining food, meanwhile, the higher estates were able to enjoy these privileges. Young's extract and print heavily highlight the economic crisis of France and the impact it had on the people. From 1789 until 1799, the Third Estate heavily contributed to the French Revolution by participating in widespread riots that eventually overthrew the feudal system's strict segregation known as the old regime. Therefore, the financial grievances in France sparked distrust, violence and demand for change, thus playing a significant role in the French Revolution.

Political influence

The Enlightenment played a significant role in the French Revolution. The Enlightenment was a movement that opposed absolute monarchy and ultimately inspired revolutionary ideas of transforming France into a republic. Philosophers such as Abbe Sieyes played an important role in spreading Enlightenment ideas to the people of France through inspiring people to question the system in which they lived and to consider political involvement, freedom, justice, and equality. This is exemplified through the lines of an extract from a famous pamphlet named What is the Third Estate? written by Abbe Sieyes January 1789 (adapted), an Enlightenment scholar. “What is the Third Estate? Everything. What has it been until now in the political order? Nothing. What does it want to be? Something.” It is clear that from this extract the Third Estate wanted more influence in the political system. The three short statements convey the mood of the Third Estate, outlining their frustrations of being treated poorly and overlooked by the two other Estates. Sieyes’ statement also outlines The Third Estate’s social, political, and economic complaints. The pamphlet expressed concerns that would become heavily contested during the Estates-convocation General in 1789. Through attacking the old regime, Sieyes's pamphlet played an extreme role in influencing the revolutionary thought that drove France into a revolution. Additionally, Historians, today believe that the Enlightenment ultimately led France toward a revolution. Modern Historian Albert Soboul states that the Enlightenment “undermined the ideological foundations of the old order” and “was positive: a rising class with a belief in progress” through these quote extracts, Soboul reiterates the impact that the Enlightenment had on French society at the time, with ideas spreading, challenging the old regime. By opposing the old regime, people as well as the bourgeoisie began demanding political influence. Soboul’s extract as well as the What is the Third estate? The pamphlet essentially communicates the significance of the Enlightenment as it promoted democracy, which contributed greatly to the French Revolution. It can be understood that the Enlightenment had a great impact in encouraging ideas for reform by criticizing the monarch.

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Conclusion

To conclude, there are a number of reasons for the French Revolution such as social inequalities, the spread of political influences, as well as financial grievances. The social inequalities however were the most significant reason behind the resolution. King Louis XVI’s poor leadership, the exploitative social system implemented and the majority of the population left disregarded by the old regime caused growing discontent, calling for the radical change which triggered a 10-year upheaval and the end of a thousand-year monarchy. It was the social inequalities in France that contributed significantly to the Revolution.

One theory of how emotion affects the cognitive process of memory is flashbulb memory. It is a theory that was suggested by Brown and Kulik (1977). Flashbulb memories are emotional memories that are both vivid and detailed that are formed after a highly emotional event. These memories are recorded in the brain like a picture, hence the name. Flashbulb memory theory has features that make it unique to other memories. They are more vivid, accurate, consistent, last longer and are easier to remember. This is different from normal memories that tend to be selective, unreliable and are easily changed/distorted.

Some events stand out in the memory more than others. When events occur, the person experiences a high emotional state, whether it be extreme happiness or extreme sadness. It is this high emotional state that causes the event to become imprinted in the memory. Events can either be personal or something that affects the world. An example of this would be the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963 or the death of Princess Diana in 1997.

Flashbulb Memory was first demonstrated by Brown and Kulik in a study that they conducted in 1977. The aim of their study was to investigate flashbulb memories and to determine how it works. There were 80 American participants that were used in the experiment. Half of them were African Americans and the other half were Caucasian Americans. The participants were given 10 questions to answer about different events. Out of the 10 events, 9 of them were assassinations (or attempts) of well-known American public figures. The last event was one was a personal event that each of the participants chose. This even had to have involve “self-shock.” The participants were then asked how much they went over these events, either overtly (discussing with other people) or covertly (thinking about it privately).

The findings showed that 90% of the participants were able to recall what happened with regards to J.F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963. African Americans recalled more flashbulb memory of assassinations of civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King more than the Caucasian Americans did. For the tenth event, the one which was self-selected, the majority of the participants recalled shocking events such as the death of a parent.

This study supported Brown and Kulik’s (1977) theories of flashbulb memory. It showed that they were formed in situations in which we receive surprising and highly emotional information. Flashbulb memory are maintained by both overt (discussing memory with others) and covert (private) rehearsal. A specialized neural mechanism is involved in the creation of flashbulb memories. This neural mechanism stores information permanently in a unique memory system.

One strength of flashbulb memory theory is that most of the studies involve real life events (it’s naturalistic) and people’s reactions and memories concerning them. This means that the ecological validity of these studies are high. One weakness of this theory is that these studies are not as reliable because they can’t be duplicated. It is therefore impossible to see if the results are consistent. Flashbulb memories can also be affected by emotions because memory is either enhanced or repressed through rehearsal.

William Blake and John Keats were both prolific English poets of the Romantic era. Blake, an early Romantic along with Wordsworth and Coleridge, produced a poem called "Night" in 1789, which is part of a series of illustrated poetry called "Songs of Innocence." This poem represents Romantic values through its emphasis on self-realization, freedom of expression and the natural world. These ideas are conveyed by Blake's use of sensorial imagery and evocative language. Keats, a late Romantic along with Shelley and Byron, produced "Ode on Melancholy" in 1819 along with other odes known as "The Great Odes". This Ode embodies the Romantic turn to nature, the importance of expressing emotions, and experiencing through the senses.

The late 18th century saw a move towards the ideal that to be a truly modern person, one needed to break free of the rules that constrained society. This movement was labeled Romanticism, a term derived from the medieval tales of myth, magic and the supernatural that were called "Romances" because they were written in the language of Romanz. The movement lasted from 1798 to 1832 and was thought to have begun on par with the French Revolution. It was the first time England had been involved with a revolution, and the violence and terror that accompanied it were a shock to many. It was Wordsworth who contemplated the idea of having a revolution of the imagination and everything completely disassociated with war rather than a revolution of the people. The Romantic period was in many ways a backlash against the Enlightenment that preceded it. The Enlightenment of the early 1700s emphasized a mechanical, deterministic universe with prominence given to rationalism and science, and was therefore called the "Age of Reason." In a Europe torn by revolutions and war, the certainties of the Enlightenment had already been shown to be false. Philosophically, Romanticism represented a shift from the certainty of science to the uncertainty of imagination-from objective to subjective. This move coincided with German philosopher Immanuel Kant proposing that we do not directly see "things-in-themselves" but that we only understand the world through our human point of view. Romanticism was essentially the opposite of everything that the Enlightenment represented.

The roots of Romanticism had grown concurrently with neoclassicism but by the 1780s, the neoclassical virtues of reason and decorum were rejected and the Romantic mood took over in music, poetry, painting and architecture. The Romantic values of expressing the emotions and imagination were embodied in all forms of the arts. Romantic music was concerned with conveying moods, feelings and passions. Mendelssohn's Midsummer Nights Dream overture and Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique are both examples of works that exploit instrumental expressive capabilities and each tells a story of sorts. The poetry relied on use of the senses to relate experience whilst paintings saw a shift toward portraying landscapes and other objects of nature. The Romantic emphasis on the individual was reflected in ideas of self-realization and in a turning to nature. It was believed that the individual could directly understand nature without the need for social artifice and that the solitary individual achieved salvation. The people generally tended towards adopting informal behavior, allowing their emotions to flow freely and focusing on their inner selves. They held in high esteem the concept of human freedom rather than human moderation.

Romanticism brought about an existence beyond surface reality, and a sense of abstract idealism. There was a revolt against conventional morality, authority and government. People began to question fundamental issues such as the existence of a God and conventional Christianity more significantly. Romantics held beliefs in the exploration of the senses rather than use of the brain or any such rationalist way of thinking. This was a direct contrast to the ideals of the Enlightenment and the neoclassical period. The 1792 publication of Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft sparked the beginnings of the feminist movement, with the formation of women's political nightclubs in Paris in the wake of the French Revolution. Romanticism remained a force in the arts until the end of the 19th century.

Blake's poem on night exemplifies Romantic values. The first stanza sets the "night" scene of the poem. He creates this atmosphere by using sibilance throughout the stanza, an example of which is "The sun descending in the west, the evening star does shine." This soft sound establishes an atmosphere of calmness and stillness, which is further enhanced by the use of alliteration, as demonstrated in the last line "with silent delight, sits and smiles on the night" and also by the repetition of the word "silent." The poem is organized into six stanzas, each consisting of eight lines, the first four of which are in iambic pentameter, with an alternate rhyme scheme (ABAB). The use of iambic pentameter serves to add a lilting quality to the poem, its regular rhythm echoing the pleasant tone of the poem and the scenes that Blake is describing. Blake paints a picture in the reader's mind of these scenes through his use of visual imagery, shown by "the evening star does shine;" personification, "the moon...sits and smiles;" and simile, "the moon, like a flower." These techniques enable Blake to adequately portray the scene of "Night" and set the poem's mood in the first stanza.

The next stanza introduces a supernatural, somewhat magical element to the poem. This is evident by the appearance of the angels, which reinforces the allusions to "heaven" that Blake depicted in the first stanza. The angels are portrayed pouring "blessing...on each sleeping bosom." This emphasizes the Romantic ideal about care for the individual. This ideal is upheld throughout the poem, seen by the angels protecting the sheep from its prey and guarding "every beast, to keep them all from harm". The night atmosphere is carried through the second stanza by repetition of the words "silent" and "sleeping", and figurative imagery: "silent moves the feet of angels bright" (visual) and "where lambs have nibbled" (tactile). Blake's use of alliteration in "each bud and blossom and each bosom" at the end of the second stanza emphasizes the fact that the angels care for each and every individual creature. The fourth stanza witnesses the angles weeping for the sheep about to be eaten and also for the wolves and tigers who cannot help being cruel to the sheep. This is representative of the Romantic value of letting the emotions go and expressing oneself freely. It is implied by "receive each mild spirit new worlds to inherit" that the angels will take the sheep to heaven even if the tigers kill them. Blake has juxtaposed the natural with the supernatural perhaps to install a message of protection for the weak and to show the innocence of the angels' sympathy for the creatures. This emotive mood in the fourth stanza is enhanced by Blake's use of assonance on the "ee" sound through words such as "weep", "seek", "keep", "sheep" and "heed" as well as his aural imagery as shown in "when wolves and tigers howl for prey".

The final two stanzas demonstrate the epitome of Romantic sentiment, with the lion pitying the "tender cries" of the sheep whilst its "ruddy eyes shall flow with tears of gold". The lion's tears could symbolize an awareness of the fragility of innocence, innocence being clearly represented by the sheep. The aural imagery of the "bleating lamb" emphasizes its helplessness and thus heightens the lion's role in looking after it. The allusion to "immortal" once again suggests a heavenly atmosphere, pertaining to the "new world" referred to in the previous stanza. It has been suggested (I) that the "new world" is merely an extension of the earthly world, as earthly creatures reside in the new world and experience the same emotions. However, the lion clearly says that wrath "by his health sickness is driven away from our immortal day" and thus Blake could be suggesting that the world must be transcended so that the innocent vision can triumph.

Romanticism is reflected in this poem by the references to nature, the individual and the emotions sustained throughout the poem. Nature is not only used to describe the atmosphere but also conjuncts with ideas presented, such as the metaphor "life's river" and the simile "the moon, like a flower." Blake's use of sensorial imagery is also representative of Romantic values, which maintained that thing have to be experienced rather than be obtained by use of reason. The image of the angels "pitying stand and weep" epitomizes this statement - all that the angels achieve is through use of their sense and their emotions. Likewise, Blake uses sensorial imagery to describe the setting and set the scene. The juxtaposing of the natural/heavenly relies on the imagination and a sense of the abstract, also a Romantic characteristic. The wolves and tigers can be seen to represent a form of authority, which Blake clearly rejects, as would most Romantics, shown when the angels try to "keep them from the sheep." Yet this can also be seen as the innocence of the 'natural order' (the tiger and wolf preying on the lamb) which is really a defiance of Romantic values as it does not promote care for the individual. However, the final image that remains etched on the reader's mind is that of the lion guarding "o'er the fold." It is apparent that the lion has achieved happiness by doing so when he uses the simile "My bright mane for ever shall shine like the gold." Perhaps this is Blake's way of saying that true happiness is only achieved through self-realization, focus on the individual and freedom of expression, all characteristic of Romantic values.

In three stanzas of ten lines each and a decasyllabic structure to each line, Keats has chosen the subject of "melancholy" on which to write an ode. In the first stanza, Keats urges the reader not to let life's misery consume them, for death will come eventually. This is implied by "for shade to shade will come too drowsily, and drown the wakeful anguish of the soul." This evocative use of language implies that a sleep will eventually drown all sorrows. The mood of this poem, unlike Blake's, is, as the title suggests, quite melancholy. This melancholic atmosphere is established in the first stanza by the neoclassical symbols of grief and death, such as "death-moth", "downy owl" and "rosary of yew berries." Keats has alluded to symbols of Greek mythology, such as Lethe, a river whose water produced forgetfulness of the past, as well as Proserpine and Psyche, Olympian deities who govern emotion. Keats has used visual imagery, such as the symbols of grief, as well as tactile imagery in "nor suffer they pale forehead to be kissed" and metaphors such as "ruby grape" in order to express the view that a person should not respond to melancholy by letting it consume them. Yet Keats also seems to be advising us that such searching after surcease of sorrow is premature since sleep of "shade to shade will come too drowsily."

In the second stanza, Keats seems to be advising us what to do when misery enters our lives. He emphasizes the suddenness of the "melancholy fit" with a simile, "sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud." The personification of the cloud adds to the intensity with which melancholy can descend upon us. Keats then goes on to say, "glut thy sorrows on a morning rose...or on the rainbow of salt sand-wave," both references to nature. Keats is in fact implying that by turning to nature in times of melancholy, we can achieve sanction, a highly esteemed ideal in the Romantic era. Romantics believed that nature was a reflection of the soul and thus was connected to the individual. The focus on nature paralleled a focus within the self and was so thought to bring some form of salvation. Keats could also be suggesting that the antidote to melancholy is a renewed consciousness of beauty. He embodies this in the form of a woman: "Or if they mistress some rich anger shows, emprison her soft hand...feed deep, deep upon her peerless eyes". Keats has used assonance in "deep" and "peerless" and repeated the word "deep" to enhance the woman's beauty and emphasize an almost hypnotic feel about her peerless eyes. The contemplation of these objects of brief beauty is perhaps meant to be a reminder of the brevity of human experience and the mutability of humanity. In order to advise us what to do with melancholy, Keats suggests turning to nature and seeking remedy through beauty.

The third stanza witnesses the personification of the emotions of Melancholy (her) and Joy (his). Keats has used the metaphor "temple of delight" to allude to Greek mythology again, as this temple is where all the deities were supposed to have lived and inside it, "veiled Melancholy has her sovran shrine". Perhaps Keats is implying that melancholy has her place amongst all other emotions. This idea is emphasized in the opening line of the stanza, "she dwells with Beauty: Beauty that must die". Keats could be celebrating the dualities of life, acknowledging that melancholy dwells with beauty and joy, but is with those things for a short time. However, the power of melancholy is emphasized through the metaphor "cloudy trophies" and Keats' use of alliteration, "his soul shall taste the sadness of her might", implying that we shouldn't attempt to dismiss melancholy because she will always be there, but instead we could learn to co-exist. This form of evocative language has been used in the poem whenever an atmosphere of anguish is depicted.

The strong Romantic nature of the poem is revealed by the references to nature and the encouragement of displaying emotions. Keats is encouraging people to "glut they sorrow on a morning rose," not to ignore the melancholy, but to experience the emotion along with other emotions, to literally pour the emotion out. He mentions that if "they mistress some rich anger shows...let her rave," i.e.: let her express her anger. This purging is something that Romantics valued highly, along with nature's ability to soothe the soul. The sensorial imagery and constant allusion to the senses used throughout the poem are also reflective of the Romantic notion of feeling rather than thinking.

Blake's "Night" and Keats' "Ode on Melancholy" both combine to constitute the values held by people of the Romantic era. Blake captures the essence of this by portraying happiness as being achieved through the senses, as depicted by the lion weeping for the sheep and the angel's sympathy for all creatures. Keats encourages turning to nature for inner sanction and a renewal of beauty yet letting the emotions flow. The poems, although very different in tone, have essentially the same message and thus embody the values represented in the Romantic era.

Bibliography

Blake, William. 1994. A Selection of Finest Poems. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Keats, John. 1988. A New Selection. Penguin Books, London.

Lombard, Stephen. "Songs of Innocence and Experience" [online] http://www.english.uga.edu/wblake/SIE/20/20whitt.bib.html September 9th, 1997.

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Tobum, Emilio. "The great odes of John Keats" [online] http://www.Teode.go.ip/jkeats/embum/97uk.html May 11th, 1998.

Theater and acting fundamentally allow people to become something else- to transcend the bounds of their identities and present, or be presented with, a different reality. The process of writing, a theme particularly prominent in ‘Atonement’, is arguably comparable to acting- they both permit a person to gain a new control of themselves and their surroundings, in creating an imagined realm. Theater is overtly used in ‘Atonement’, the novel being framed by Briony’s ‘ The Trials of Arabella’, and in ‘The Go-Between’ can be seen more implicitly, through Leo casting himself in different roles throughout the novel, as well as imposing them on others. The medium of theater reveals much of both narrators- either through their reflections on it, or changes they undergo by it.

Firstly, by beginning his novel with the words, ‘the play’, McEwan immediately signals the emphasis on literature within the text, and invites the reader to be highly conscious, from the beginning, that they are reading fiction- a common quality of post post-modernist texts. This aids in setting up the reader as a ‘judge’ in later parts of the novel. Of equal significance, is the insight into Briony as a character, which McEwan’s descriptions of the play unveil to us. Indeed, the story of the play demonstrates the values and strands of life which the young Briony views to be of importance. For example, the dangers of ‘love which did not build a foundation on good sense’, the perfection in reconciliation and happy ending, and the romanticized notion of ‘saviour’- notions which remain of value to her through to her old age. As influenced by the fairy and folk tales Briony voraciously read, the significance of a happy ending is great to her, and reflects the intent of ‘her controlling demon’ and ‘her desire to have the world just so’. Suitably, by beginning and ending the novel with descriptions of ‘The Trials of Arabella’, a fitting cyclicality is created, complementing Briony’s characteristic penchant for control and order. Further, the play demonstrates her attempts to influence in real life, and control in an imagined world, the actions of those around her- in this case, those of her brother, Leon: ‘it was for her brother, to (…) provoke his admiration and guide him away from his careless succession of girlfriends’. The powerful verbs of ‘provoke’ and ‘guide’ certainly convey the force and influence which Briony intended her writing to have on the activity of others in real life , particularly through the more tangible, active form of theatre. It could alternatively be viewed that the ‘prince’ figure in the play was intended by Briony to be representative of Robbie as the ‘impoverished doctor’, channelling the childhood crush which is later revealed to the reader- considered vital to her actions by Robbie, and almost entirely denied by Briony herself. The poster and ticket booth being ‘the project’s highest point of fulfilment’ could therefore hold a subtle irony; her romanticized idea of Robbie being her saviour is quickly inverted, as in her mind he is transformed into a perverse villain- Briony’s planned role for him is never carried across to reality, just as the play never is. Indeed, her wish for ‘the beginning of love at the end of our travail’ fails- although she attempts to reconstruct this love between Robbie and Cecelia through her writing, the epilogue shows Briony’s inability to make the world conform to her imagination and ‘love of (… ) the principles of justice’.

Further, the collapse of Briony’s play and her consequent rejection of this literary form, allows McEwan to highlight the disorder Briony perceives in it, despite initially viewing it as ‘tidiness indeed’. In writing, the play is controlled and direct, as Briony deems, ‘a world reduced to what was said in it’- but when rehearsals begin, the interpretation of other minds causes her play, and world, to become ‘defaced’, creating a barrier between Briony’s perfect vision, and the communication of this to an audience. The ‘telepathy’ she values in story-writing cannot be achieved, which perhaps hints at McEwan’s ideas of the impossibility of finding ‘truth’ in a novel- the intentions of the author cannot always be seamlessly communicated from one mind to another. Arguably, in reality novels are closer to theater than Briony believes- truth is distorted and disordered by interpretation, and opinion and perception clash between the author and reader. Perhaps this prevents Briony from ever achieving atonement through novel form- she can never purge herself, as the events cannot be relayed transparently. Like theater, fiction forms a translucent layer between writer and receiver- the actors and stage play, just as the viewpoint from which a reader regards the text, blur the original meanings of the author.

In ‘The Go-Between’, the idea of acting and taking on different roles equally reveal much of the narrator, Leo. Stemming from his fixation with the gods of the Zodiac, Leo essentially rejects his own identity when he rejects his star sign, stating: ‘I could not identify myself with him’. When at Brandham, Leo elevates himself by taking on the role of ‘Mercury’- despite still only serving ‘the Gods’, he sees himself to be of the same transcendent nature. Hartley furthers this idea of role-playing with the introduction of Leo’s green suit which, like a costume for theater, helped to ‘alter (his) outlook on the world’. It is clear that Leo feels under obligation to adapt and improve himself in such a way, when he states, ‘I must increase my stature, I must act on a grander scale’ in order to ‘be in tune with all that Brandham hall meant’. The forceful repetition of ‘must’, emphasizes how compelled Leo feels to acclimatize himself, and when he associates himself with ‘Mercury’, he feels he has undergone ‘a spiritual transformation’ having been ‘cast for a new role’. In the same way that Briony finds control by casting roles onto others, such as Leon and Robbie, Leo seems to find order and control in his foreign surroundings by casting the ennobling role of ‘Mercury’ onto himself: Briony, as mirrored by her role in ‘The Trials of Arabella’, directs, whereas Leo acts. Further, Leo’s transformation into this new character only propels him to continue re-adapting and imagining different versions of himself, for example, ‘a Robin Hood in Lincoln green’, a role which fittingly emphasizes his position of servitude to Marian, while paradoxically aggrandizing Leo’s view of himself. In this way, Hartley demonstrates the power that the imagination brings in enabling Leo to ‘act’ thus, as further into the text Leo realizes that this duality provides him with ‘a sense of power’- as does his role as a magician, before he comes to Brandham. Similarly, Briony’s penchant for imposing roles onto others inspires power within her, such that it ‘dispels her own insignificance’, as it equally does for Leo.

Interestingly, in both texts the heat of their surroundings is greatly emphasized and seems to tie in with ideas of theatricality. Particularly in ‘The Go-Between’, the temperature appears as an evolutionary, theatrical medium which permits Leo to take up his new role: ‘the heat was a medium which made this change of outlook possible’. The heat adds another dimension to Leo’s reality, just as theater seems to be a level above reality- it permits one, in both cases, to cross ‘the rainbow bridge from reality to dream’. It is a filter which gives Leo the ability to live up to his zodiac ideals, leading him to claim that ‘one felt another person, one was another person’. The linguistic movement of ‘felt’ to ‘was’ shows the transition from potentiality to reality, enacting the effect that the filter of heat has upon the ideals in Leo’s mind- their being transferred from the imagination, to his perception of reality. In ‘Atonement’, the heat, arguably symbolic of Robbie and Cecelia’s acknowledged passion, accentuates everything; as in ‘The Go-Between’, it adds another layer to reality, acting as a theatrical medium which renders the events more pointed, intense and urgent- as Leon states it becomes ‘a different country. All the rules change’. Heat, then, allows for transgression over both social and personal boundaries, as theater allows a person to lift themselves above their self, and surroundings. These transformative powers of the heat enable Briony to elevate her imagination further, and to develop a more dramatic and exaggerated imagined scene, both at the fountain, and concerning Robbie’s alleged ‘attack’ of Cecelia and rape of Lola. McEwan and Hartley certainly both seem to employ ideas of theatricality, such as role-playing and the environmental mediums which allow for this, in order to emphasize their respective narrators’ imaginative aims to control and shape the world around them.

Additionally, in both texts, the authors’ use of the idea of acting has implications upon social order and compliance, particularly in ‘The Go-Between’. The narrative is interspersed by scenes depicting guests of the house, mostly unnamed, sitting around the dinner table and engaging in polite conversation. The final, most pointed of these scenes precedes the dramatic destruction of Marian and Ted’s love, and is rife with tension as to the unspoken doubts of Marian’s whereabouts. Throughout, the guests and family members seem to be following a social script, involving measured and courteous conversation about the rain, or Marian’s fondness of ‘Nanny Robson’. This is especially true for the unnamed characters, whose presence seems to form a Greek chorus; their speech building up in the dramatic unfolding of the truth. Their echoing, repetitive words such as, ‘Where can she be?’ followed by, ‘Yes, where can she be?’ certainly shows them to be abiding by the appropriate social script- making non-committal, off-hand queries in order to tiptoe around the already unstable social situation. Details such as ‘every action and almost every remark’ being ‘followed by a pause’ further the sense of the rehearsed theatricality of the situation. Interestingly, Hartley interludes these moments by a burst of crackers and smoke, which could be seen as evocative of the special stage effects used in theater: ‘the detonations, the tearing paper, the smoke, the acrid fumes’. This evident theatricality seems to be used by Hartley to build up a layer over the truth of the situation before the smoke and sound die away, and reveal the butler’s affirmation of Marian’s unexplained absence. This creates a sudden shift and change in atmosphere: the unspoken awkwardness of Marian’s absence cause the ‘chorus’ and members of the table to suddenly lapse out of the act- as described by Leo, ‘they had forgotten themselves’, and they neglect the requirements of their social stage directions. The image of the guests being cast in an eerie ‘dark-red’ lighting also seems pointedly theatrical, as if on stage. This breach of the social script is furthered, catastrophically, by Mrs Maudsley: ‘all at once Mrs Maudsley pushed her chair back and stood up (…) her body was bent and trembling, her face unrecognisable’. This lapse out of character and the social act, both for the guests around the table and Mrs Maudsley, seems to turn them into something monstrous and abnormal in Leo’s view- the guests with their ‘hobgoblin look’ and Mrs Maudsley with her distorted ‘unrecognisable’ face. In this way, Hartley appears to criticize the duplicity of such fake, social facades, in implying that underneath their courteous, conformed exteriors, is something completely different, exaggerated to the point of being inhuman. Notably Leo himself shows great interest in social order, as seen in his attempts to separate Marian and Ted through means of the occult, in the hope that ‘Puck or whoever he is (…) will vanish gracefully from the scene’. Alluding to ‘A Midsummer’s Night Dream’ thus, Leo implies that the play of social order was disrupted by some force, and inverted ridiculously in their union- as Puck plays with couples and love, and upturns the former order of things. Hartley therefore uses the idea of theater and acting to demonstrate the facade of ‘high class’ society at the turn of the century, and thus criticize their strict conformity to social standards, which are only idealistic- a dream world, such that can only be reached through theatricality.

It could be viewed that similar ideas are conveyed in ‘Atonement’- Briony appears to abide by a social script, helpfully crafted for her by her surrounding authorities, when the conviction of Robbie is taking place. When being questioned, Briony relates how she became ‘anxious to please’ and how ‘it was comforting to feel that she was confirming what they already knew’. Although Briony is the one who relates what she ‘saw’, it appears that the inspectors put words into her mouth and help to form her ‘script’, in order to relay the events of the crime. Briony describes how they built a ‘sensitively created space’ in which they seem to craft her words: ‘”You’re saying you saw him?” “Yes, I saw him”. Essentially, the inspectors invoke her to change the word ‘know’ to ‘saw’, leading to her indignant repetition of ‘I saw him. I saw him’. Briony switches her choice of word to conform to the script which the inspectors laid out for her, in order to fit into their expectations and abide by what she believed they wanted to hear. Through this, McEwan may have been criticizing the force that authorities, particularly patriarchal authority, has over others- such to the extent of compelling them to comply with their ideas. Therefore, this scene can be compare to the dinner table moments in ‘The Go-Between’- in both, characters seem to be acting, taking on a role to please, or conform to, others or society’s norms.

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Overall, both McEwan and Hartley appear to have crafted ideas of theater into their texts primarily to illuminate the characters of their respective narrators, as well as highlighting the falsity of society. Theater is a medium, like fiction, which allows actors or writers to lift themselves above reality, and attempt to create and control a new self and the effect of it on the audience; indeed, this is what Leo and Briony strive for with their apparent acting and directing. Both characters attempt to embellish and guide situations in their lives through means of the imagination, an effect which is certainly achieved through theater, but such control is never truly carried across to reality, for either Briony or Leo.

Natural Disasters are never a good thing. In areas where they happen, they affect everything in a negative way. They can destroy whole town, cities, the economy, infrastructure, and in some cases the human population. They wreak havoc on whatever they touch. Probably the thing that it affects the worst, besides the population, is the local economy. Everything else can be fixed, some of which with federal funds, such as infrastructure or public buildings. The economy though, is harder to fix. The government can’t just repair the local economy to what it is was before. It requires the people of the area to do that, but that’s really hard to do when pretty much everything you’ve ever known is destroyed. They have to worry about their loved ones and getting the basic necessities of life before they worry about getting a job or reopening, possibly even opening, their business.

That’s why the economy recovering in natural disasters takes time, and sometimes won’t recover depending on how bad the disaster is. This is shown in the article in this quote, “Disasters also appear to have adverse longer-term consequences for economic growth, development and poverty reduction.”. Some people will just move if there is really nothing left for them after a disaster. That only makes it harder for the economy to recover, but who could blame them. They have nothing left and probably lost their job after the disaster. Government policies try to help fix the economy to some degree after a disaster, but this doesn’t completely solve the problem. It only helps. One of these programs is FEMA. They provide shelters and food and everything else that people might need to survive when they lose everything. There is also a government flood insurance program, to help relieve the financial burden of having to build a new house if it gets destroyed in a flood. They help stimulate economic growth by trying to solve the problems that they can for people, so that the people can get back to work or back to running a business so that the economy can start to grow again.

Recently, when Hurricane Harvey occurred, it decimated south-east Texas’s economy. It flooded a huge part of the area. On a national level, it didn’t affect our economy too much yet, but I’m sure it will make a dent in it considering how badly Houston was hit by the storm. The only major thing it has affected so far is the gas prices because the refineries in Texas will have to close for a period of time. The trading on oil commodities has caused the price to go up. The kinds of business who make money during times like these are grocery stores, since they usually sell out of everything, and gas stations. Every company that has things that people will need will benefit in the short term. In the long term, construction and other trades similar to that will flourish because of all of the work they will have, and they will be able to charge higher prices because they have a surplus of available job opportunities. The businesses that will get hurt most by natural disasters are luxury stores and restaurants, and really anything leisure related. For at least a short period, the people in the area will not have the time or money to go to or buy from those types of places. Natural Disasters, especially Hurricanes, really destroy local economies, and I don’t see a way to prevent this, except with things that can be done for the infrastructure through the government.

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