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In All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren, the theme of the power of knowledge is prominent throughout Jack's journey within the great web of the world. His path brings to light his true self and along with it the realization that he and everyone else in the web must take responsibility for their actions and the reverberations that they cause. Through Jack's struggle against his inevitable rebirth, readers see how the power of knowledge affects Jack and all those around him. The knowledge of love, knowledge of truth, and knowledge of one's self all wield immense consequences for Warren's characters. It is how each of Warren's characters deals with this power of knowledge that guides their life.

Through Jack's narration, readers travel along with him on his path toward rebirth. In the early stages of his adult life, Jack is "huddled away up inside himself," trying to stay aloof from the knowledge and responsibility of the outside world (Girault 62). Jack finds solace in history and truth and "warm[th] in [his] not-knowing"(Warren 11-12)(Simmons 75). He blindly uncovers facts for Governor Stark, without regard to consequence or responsibility. "Jack loves Truth, loves it voraciously, with a precise, judicious, almost niggling dedication" (Bohner 87). He is focused on the "black line down the center"(Warren 1) of the highway, and later mesmerized by the cones of light that project out in front of him when he drives down the dark highway of his life (Bohner 87-88). This guiding line and guiding light are the direction in Jack's life and studies. It is this path, however, and his love of truth and fact, which bring the knowledge to the surface that ultimately leads to his downfall and rebirth.

The truth that Jack unearths regarding Judge Irwin ultimately causes the Judge's suicide. When Jack attempts to blackmail Judge Irwin by confronting him with the Littlepaugh scandal, he is blind to what consequences could result. He has no idea that Irwin is his biological father; he is simply carrying out the Boss's will, blindly following the path towards the warm solace of knowledge and truth. When Irwin commits suicide as a result of his encounter with Jack, the chain of events that leads to Jack's rebirth begins2E Jack is awakened by his mother's "silvery soprano scream" (Warren 348) in the middle of the night. This scream signifies the labor pains of Jack's rebirth about to come (Girault 61). Jack's mother is in despair over Irwin's death and, in her hysteria, she accuses Jack of killing his father. At that moment, Jack realizes that Judge Irwin is his true father. It is knowledge that destroyed Judge Irwin, and it is this knowledge of Irwin's true identity that gives Jack his revelation and self-definition (61). Through this new knowledge Jack is given a father he can accept in Judge Irwin, and a new mother in the sense that he has discovered through her anguish that his mother is capable of love (61). His mother is no longer the vain and pretentious woman he thought she was, but now has new meaning to him in his re-birth (61). In one stroke, " [Jack's] illusory world is shattered," and he is forced to realize that his actions do have meaning and consequence, as he knows now he is responsible for his father's death (63).

The truth that Jack digs up about Irwin also reaps great consequences for Adam and Anne Stanton. Throughout their lives, Adam and Anne have held high moral standards as a result of their well-respected father, Governor Stanton. In Jacks discovery about Irwin, he also finds that Governor Stanton was involved in these underhanded activities. When this knowledge is revealed to the Stanton children, their once high moral standards are dashed, and they take part in actions that they originally would not have considered. Adam, the "man of idea,"(Bohner 92) has an idealist view of the world, where morality and good deeds are key (92). When his idealist view of his father is crushed, he is able to go against his previous moral standards and become the head of Willie Stark's hospital. Adam's views originally contrasted with those of the Boss's proclivity for "stark" truth (93). The Boss feels that one must generate good from bad, and that the ends justify the means. In Adam's ideal view, good deeds must be carried on throughout all actions. In the real world, however, these ideal actions are not always possible to achieve a goal. For Anne, the knowledge of her father's mistakes causes her to break previous moral standards and become Willie's mistress. After this affair with Willie, she reveals to Jack what allowed her to act the way she did. "Then you told me- you told me about my father. There wasn't any reason why not then. After you told me" (Warren 325). The power of knowledge is evident here, for Jack's simple revelation of the truth caused himself much anguish and lowered the moral status of the girl he loves, the girl which he has been trying to see as perfect all his life (Girault 62). Before this confrontation, when Jack first receives knowledge of Anne's affair with Willie, he is sent into a state of withdrawal and heads west. Alone in a hotel room in California, Jack attempts to revert to his "womb-like" state of innocence where Anne is still perfect in his eyes (62). Jack, however, must learn that this innocence is impossible to retrieve, for he cannot deny the knowledge he has just received. His westward movement is a symbol of his realization of that fact, a "stage in his intellectual and spiritual development" (Bohner 91). Jack also realizes that he is responsible for changing Anne's view of the world, a consequence Jack never considered, but which results from his blind search for truth.Warren further explains the implications of Jack's westward journey through Jack's observation of Adam's surgery on a schizophrenic patient. The catatonic schizophrenia the lobotomy patient endures parallels Jack's attempts to return himself to the state of "not-knowing" (Simmons 74). The symptoms of "gradual withdrawal from reality, the sudden loss of animation, a tendency to remain motionless for long periods of time, some degree of emotional apathy and periods of stupor alternating with those of intense activity" (74) are all evident in both the patient's condition and Jack's states of the "Great Sleep" (74). In a sense, Jack's final withdrawal to California is his own "lobotomy." Jack emerges in "good spirits," socializing and remaining "perfectly happy" (78). Jack's mood parallels Adam's description of the cured state of the lobotomy patient: "relaxed, cheerful and friendly... He will be perfectly happy" (Warren 336). The joyfulness, however, is a falsely induced feeling. The lobotomy patient is simply joyful because he has lost some of his brain, which has been replaced with the emotion of another man (Simmons 78). Similarly, Jack's happiness is simply a result of repressing his emotions and avoiding any humanistic interpersonal relationships. He realizes that by being in such a personal relationship with Anne, she was no longer the piece of "machinery" to him, but rather a human. The same applied for Lois, from whom Jack was forced to separate when he could no longer distinguish "Lois the person" and "Lois the machine" (78-79). When Jack comes to know people in this way, it only brings him hurt and suffering, which leads him to his states of withdrawal and the "Great Sleep."

The other major event Jack's search for knowledge causes is Willie's death. The chain reaction that leads to this event is complex and has a wide variety of causes. In the end, almost everyone, including Jack, is responsible. It is ironically Willie, however, who triggers the bizarre series of events that lead to his demise. Because Willie asks Jack to uncover knowledge to blackmail Judge Irwin, he has indirectly caused Anne to have an affair with him. One of the results of this affair is Sadie Burke's anger. With her irritation at yet another of Willie's affairs that isn't with her, Sadie sees the opportunity that both she and Tiny Duffy have been waiting for, the opportunity to kill Willie Stark. She takes action, and passes her powerful knowledge of Anne's relationship to Adam, with the help of some truth twisting from Duffy. They tell Adam that Willie's affair with Anne is the only reason he was offered the job as head of Willie's hospital. Adam is furious, and tells Anne that he "[will not be] pimp to [her] whore" (Warren 391). Adam then acts as expected and, standing symbolically under the towering statue of his father, critically wounds Willie Stark, only to immediately be shot and killed by Sugar Boy. These tragic events were all set in motion by the immense power of knowledge. Knowledge led Anne to Willie, knowledge pushed Sadie over the edge, knowledge caused Adam to kill Willie, and the same knowledge caused Adam's death. "The end of man is to know" (Warren 9).

The culmination of Jack's rebirth occurs when he is given the chance seek vengeance on Tiny Duffy. In the basement of a library, knowing Sugar Boy's pistol is tucked away under his shoulder ready for action, Jack refuses to give Sugar Boy the knowledge he needs to lead him to kill Tiny. This decision clearly demonstrates Jack's realization that he was wrong in thinking his actions were "neither good nor evil, but meaningless" (Girault 63). By not sinking to Tiny's level, he walks boldly into the "convulsion of the world and the awful responsibility of Time" (Warren 438). Here, everything is connected, and the power and limitations of human knowledge are known, and man knows the moral responsibility that he holds as a result of his actions (Girault 66).All of this knowledge, truth, and action are linked together in the gossamer spider web introduced in Cass Mastern's journal. Through the journal, Warren illustrates his belief that all actions send effects to the "remotest perimeter" (Warren 188) of the "fabric of the world" (178). Jack divulges into the past of Cass and brings forth this theory of responsibility that, through his journey and rebirth, he must learn to accept (Cottrell 118). Jack's first reaction to the theory is to shut it away, "put aside the journals and boxed up three-by-five cards"(118). As a result, Jack is plunged into his journey, with the words of Cass Mastern etched upon his memory (121). At first Jack cannot accept responsibility or even the fact that his actions have such effect; however, through his experiences he must come to terms with the Spider Web theory. The synchronicity between Cass's revelations and Jack's life emerge as Jack begins to see the consequences of the twitching of the web he causes, "whether or not [he] meant to brush the web of things"(Warren 189). Warren also draws a parallel between the idealism of Cass and Adam, as well as the realism between Cass's brother and Willie (Cottrell 121). Jack observes this parallel by contemplating "...perhaps the Gilbert Masterns are always at home in any world. As the Cass Masterns are never at home in any world"(Warren 162). Through this observation, Warren illustrates that the idealist man is always uncomfortable with the true immoral nature of the world, whereas the man who will allow his ends to justify his means will be able to adapt to any situation and at least make some good out of it (Cottrell 121). Reflecting on Judge Irwin's suicide Willie Stark's assassination, Jack can trace the order of vibrations back to his actions. Even though Jack did not "brush the web"(Warren 189) purposely, he must take responsibility and assume guilt for his actions. Cass illustrates this quality through his attempt to save the slave girl, Phebe, who was sent off by Annabelle for her "knowing eyes" (119). In the end, Jack sees the true power of the Spider Web, and that "all are equally balanced, equally vulnerable, on the infinite Spider Web of God" (123). By realizing this equality, Jack is able to separate himself from being simply an idealist or a man of results, and therefore is able to deal with the good and evil he encounters while at the same time taking responsibility for how he balances the two forces (123).

The fragile web that holds together Jack Burden's world transfers knowledge and truth through its fibers, bringing into light the true necessity of accepting responsibility for one's action. Through Jack's narration, the reader gains insight into Jack's journey towards rebirth and acceptance of the Spider Web theory. The knowledge and experiences Jack gains allow him to learn the importance of acceptance of responsibility. Each of the characters in Warren's novel deals with knowledge in their own way that ultimately decides their fate. For Willie and Adam, "the end of man is to know;" (Warren 9) however, in Jack's enlightened state, it is only the beginning.

Works Cited

Bohner, Charles H. Twayne's United States Authors Series: Robert Penn Warren. New Haven: Twayne Publishers, 1964.

Cottrell, Beekman W. "Cass Mastern and the Awful Responsibility of Time". Twentieth Century Interpretations of All the Kings Men. Ed. Robert Chambers. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice, 1977. 116-126.

Girault, Norton R. "The Narrators Mind as a Symbol: An analysis of All the Kings Men." Robert Penn Warren: Critical Perspectives. Ed. Neil Nakadate. Lexington: University Press, 1981. 60-76.

Simmons, James C. "Adam's Lobotomy Operation and the Meaning of All the King's Men." Twentieth Century Interpretations of All the Kings Men. Ed. Robert Chambers. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice, 1977. 73-84.

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Warren, Robert Penn. All the King's Men. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1946, 1996.

Table of contents

1. Abstract
2. Definition
3. Defining creativity
4. Defining knowledge
5. Knowledge and creativity approaches
6. Conclusion

Abstract

The aim of this paper is analysing the effect of knowledge and creativity on the overall result of a design process, in order to investigate how to apply these two principles to produce the best outcome.

After defining these two concepts, different kinds of methods and approaches will be deepened, drawing a parallel between knowledge-based, convergent thinking, and creative, divergent thinking. These two methods use different tools and therefore pursue different results.

Nevertheless, facing a design problem relying only on one of these two methods is in itself limiting, since they allow to analyse only a part of the overall question.

In the end, a new approach will be outlined, in which the creative and knowledge-based approaches intertwine, so that the designer can both rely on his or her previous knowledge, but also create new ideas by finding hidden correspondances.

Definition

It is not uncommon to hear the words “knowledge” or “creativity” in an everyday conversation, even if it’s involving people unrelated to design activities.

All people share a general idea about the meaning of these terms, an idea clear enough to make them use these words and be understood by others: yet, if anyone was asked to give their own definition of knowledge or creativity, each of them would have a slightly different answer.

Defining knowledge and creativity is troubling not only for people not involved in design, but for all sorts of experts, that have produced different explanations over the course of history.

Since it would be difficult to compare two concepts that are unclear, like this paper aims to do, it would be appropriate to start by framing each of them in a clear definition.

Defining creativity

The writer Eric Jerome Dickey compared explaining creativity to asking a bird, 'How do you fly?". Despite its simplicity, this quote embodies the problem: the result of creativity is visible (the bird flying), the process is not.

In recent times, one of the academic institution striving to explain this concept in a univocal way is Marconi Institute for Creativity (MIC), based in Bologna, Italy. They pursued a well-structured process of definition, starting from the so-called standard definition of creativity: “Creativity requires originality and effectiveness”. (fonte: Runco, Garrett)

Based on that, they then proposed the Dynamic definition of creativity: “Creativity requires potential originality and effectiveness”.  The need for the word “potential” is explained as follows: first of all, it must be born in mind that creativity is not necessarily a successful process. Someone can invest time and resources in a creative action, and eventually end up with a failed result. This doesn’t mean that the creative process was useless (as Corazza claims, it would be like saying that a football team that did not score in a match did not actually play football)

Secondly, the potential has also a temporal meaning: the creativity of an object, a piece of art, a design choice is inevitably bound to the judgement of a specific historical time. Many artists were not appreciated during their lifespan, despite their creativity being undeniable.

So, to sum up this definition, creativity is a potential that, even when it’s present, it can be expressed only when the outcome is successful and recognized by society.

Defining knowledge

The discussion about knowledge is immensely more ancient, as classical age philosophers first tried to give it a definition: one of the earliest examples is Plato’s Theaetetus (fonte: Stefanov), in which various attempts are made, but in the end the author left the question open. The general definitions is: human faculty resulting from interpreted information; understanding that germinates from combination of data, information, experience, and individual interpretation (businessdictionary.com, 2015).

Nevertheless, over the course of history, it was variously defined as, "Things that are held to be true in a given con-text and that drive us to action if there were no impediments" (Andre Boudreau). "Capacity to act" (Karl Sweiby). "Justified true belief that increases an entity's capacity for effective action" (Nonaka and Takeuchi). All these definitions point out an idea of knowledge allowing action: therefore, without knowledge, a person (or, in a broader sense, a team, a company…) is not entitled to act in any way, or his actions have no meaning.

Otherwise, by seeing it the other way round, it means there’s no reason for knowledge if it doesn’t lead to action. So, like creativity, also knowledge can be seen as a potential, that cannot be expressed but by applying it concretely. This leads us to design. Another aspect that cannot remain ignored is the relativity of knowledge, since it’s an ever-changing concept whose parts can be reformulated, expanded or removed. That’s possibly what makes this term so difficult to grasp.

Knowledge and creativity approaches

Knowledge and creativity are undoubtedly two key components in any design process: what is less obvious is how these two principles blend together to create a successful result. The effects of knowledge and creativity on design have been mapped individually, as their application is embodied by two different approaches, convergent and divergent thinking.

Convergent thinking is more intimately related to knowledge, namely using existing knowledge to produce new knowledge, leaving no room for unknown possibilities. Convergent process rely on methods based on the designer’s previous knowledge, like evaluation matrix

The result is typically one, or very few, answers to a given problem. It can lead to knowledge-based mistakes, when the designer’s evaluation is affected by his previous knowledge, that makes him or her ignore other important aspects of the problem.

Divergent thinking, on the other hand, is the ability to explore off the beaten path, creating a variety of possibilities from available informations. Usually it uses free-flow methods (brainstorming, bodystorming…), therefore the solutions given are numerous.

Although convergent and divergent thinking were often seen as competing processes (Getzels and Jackson, 1962), in more recent there has been a recognition of their mutual usefulness (Rickards, 1993; Brophy, 1998). The aim of this paper is to prove, like many other sources, that the best approach is a mixture of the two.

Several methodologies and approaches have been developed so that these two ways of thinking are used together in a fruitful way: one of the most preminent is undoubtedly C-K theory (Concept-Knowledge theory) (fonte: Le Masson): it is not by chance that this theory was first developed during the 1990s, just when traditional innovation was facing an unprecedented crisis. For this reason, new approaches to design and production were needed, while knowledge and know-how were not enough anymore.

Considering that, in the information revolution, new knowledge was available to every company, the true competitive difference is made by what is now yet known. Le Masson refers to that as “desirable unknown”, that’s always linked to what already exists. In this way, there’s a perfect balance between creativity and knowledge, and each of them gains more strength from the other.

Another example is the Double Diamond method: developed by the British Design Council in 2005, it shows how the flows of convergent and divergent thinking are intertwining (fonte British Council) knowledge base of creativity (Feldhusen), Lubart (2000-2001) expressed the link between knowledge and creativity in a homely but convincing way: He suggested that there may well be no difference between the processes of divergent and convergent thinking, but that differences in outcome may depend instead on " ... the quality of the material (e.g., knowledge) (p. 301)". Lubart extended this thought with the concrete metaphor: "The engine is the same, but some people use better grade fuel (p. 301)."

A practical example: professor Giovanni Emanuele Corazza, to prove the creative potential of unusual associations, provided his students with this assumption: “the coffee machine is a planet”. What does that mean? Which features of a planet can be included in the design of a coffee machine? It comes without saying that, the more a person knows about a planet, the more ideas this sentence will bring: a person who know just generally what a planet is would probably imagine a sphere-like shape, or a floating coffee machine; some more informed people may think about putting a ring around it, providing “satellite” accessories or rotating colour patterns

Our brain is extremely efficient in recollecting informations from past experiences and finding correspondences in the present (fonte?). With this in mind, the idea of the designer producing brilliant ideas out of nowhere must be debunked: one common thought is that designers are “creative” people. But there’s no such thing as creative and non-creative people: it’s all on the curiosity we have.

One famous example involves Philippe Starck, drawing the Juicy Salif lemon squeezer on a paper tissue, after being inspired by a calamari dish. Starck managed to have this successful idea because all he saw, experienced and designed up to that moment led him to that. Moreover, he has been proven to seek inspiration from everywhere, especially nature, that he brought about in many other designs.

“Chance always favours the prepared mind”, a quote by Pasteur, perfectly embodies this concept:

As a further confirmation, artists and creative minds of the like of Van Gogh and Edison, never hid the numerous failed attempts that they were enduring, thus meaning that the extremely creative results they produced were generated by a long learning process, rather than by some genius intuition.

Conclusion

In the light of all the examples, it can be assumed that the most effective way to increase one’s creative potential is giving themselves as much cognitive “raw” material as possible.

A purely knowledge-based approach is to be avoided, to prevent stagnation, like a method fully based on creativity must always be filtered by knowledge, to prevent solutions from being too detached from reality.

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Designers should never take his or her knowledge for granted: in the wake of each design problem, they must start with openmindness, always questioning their current knowledge before applying it. Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected (William Plomer) .Contamination of different knowledge fields.

Table of contents

1. Benefits to the organization
Costs associatedA prioritized list of initiatives
2. Knowledge Management Solutions
Proposed Solutions
3. Sound Recommendations

Knowledge Management (KM) is the structured running of a company’s knowledge assets to generate value and meet skillful and strategic conditions. It includes strategies, initiatives, procedures, and structures that support and nourish the refinement, storage, sharing, evaluation, and inception of knowledge. In the discussion below, its benefits, costs associated, how it can be used to solve problems, and sound recommendations of the Bobco Company are clearly outlined.

Benefits to the organization

It betters a company’s agility by having improved and quicker decision-making. It fastens their ability to solve issues. It fastens the gauge of innovation. It also leads to more sustained worker growth as well as development. It improves communication and nourishes business operations. There is also the sharing of expert prowess. This will, in turn, lead to better products and services rendered as well as enhance profitability as well develop better business plans. This will in the long run enable Bobco Company to increase their profits and acquire the skills to be able to reuse knowledge and skills. There will be heightened procedural productivity and staff efficiency. It will make Bobco Company make completely utilize their collective intellectual capital and it will aid them to be a step ahead of their competitors. The company will also be able to realize the market trends early enough hence having an added advantage against their competitors. KM will help Bobco Company to avoid repeated effort and also helps in avoiding the recurrence of mistakes done. It meets the company’s needs by providing techniques, templates, and tools as well as examples. It also provides hard-to-find expertise broadly available through community discussion forums, questioning the specialist systems, podcasts, recorded presentations, videos, and white papers. It also fastens customer delivery to customers leading to higher win rates, new customers, and add-on business. Capacitating a company to leverage size.

Costs associated

Knowledge Management incurs different costs that majorly include the personnel, material needed, equipment, systems, and other outside-originated costs; travel, seminars, office equipment, training, and value for supplies as well as other costs for the Knowledge Management program.

A prioritized list of initiatives

‘Before starting a knowledge management initiative, the company should learn more about its field. To start, read books, periodicals, websites, and blogs; attend training conferences; participate in professional communities to deepen one’s understanding of the field of knowledge management. This is practicing what a company encourages will allow it to learn from the experience of others, reuse the best ideas and avoid the usual problems’. The available resources include books, blogs, communities, consultants, conferences, thought leaders, tweeters, sites, and training. The list of initiatives to increase competitive advantage include a cost management initiative where the company has to offer to attract pricing to lure customers. It can also implement an innovative initiative where a company carries out things in a different and new manner. The company can also use the technology-based initiative where workers use up-to-date technology to better their products. It can also implement the adaptability competitive advantage by being open to change and adapting effectively this is all done by implementing technology-based knowledge where needed.

Knowledge Management Solutions

It solves the problem of customer relations by tracking the number of calls, questions issued and those answered as well as emails. Hence improving customer-company interaction that creates room for improvement. It also enhances customer satisfaction by availing customer satisfaction abilities. It also improves the customer feedback tools hence an organization can know areas to work on or what to avail.

Proposed Solutions

The Bobco (metals) company might be facing a number of challenges and in the long run want to get better results like increased orders by improved collaboration between sales, back-office duties, and services. Improved revenue by restoring a continuous run of innovations for the latest goods as well as new services. Heightening profits by distributing and reusing lessons acquired. The Knowledge Management solutions will implement this by laying down initiatives that motivate recompense collaboration, offering up-to-date ideas, and distributing and reusing lessons acquired. Furthermore, it will network by enabling multi-purpose collaboration. Thirdly, KM will codify by classifying and quoting particular lessons acquired and proposals. It will also analyze by selecting the best lessons acquired and proposals. It will also invent by developing up-to-date products and services and corporation and yielded ideas. It will provide augmentation by implementing professional systems for constructing new products, designing, and engineering. It will also disseminate by distributing lessons learned via email messages as well as an issue out blog entries on up-to-date ideas.

Sound Recommendations

Knowledge Management is the best course of action to provide the solutions stated above to the Bobco Company. It puts measures in place to motivate by offering users incentives and rewards to inspire their desired behaviors hence more customers and thus more profits. It will also motivate employees by enhancing communication, and training, establishing objectives that are placed in every performance plan and observing and giving feedback on the development of company goals. An example includes when the Bobco Company senior leaders carry out coffee talk meetings or regular meet-ups together with the employees who bring in systematized performance objectives, reusable information, monthly progress reviews, and awards for employees that set a good illustration for others to follow by sharing one’s knowledge.

It also puts specific measures to network as it enhances sharing of knowledge by connecting those who might be of assistance and also provides communication among organizational silos hence really good and up-to-date ideas are exchanged. This is implemented by constructing and enlarging social networks which in turn build treasured connections among various individuals as well as groups. Up-to-date social software and platforms sustain these networks by being able to add friends, tagging resources, and realize common interests. Carrying out conversations is a major way of developing trust, obtaining understanding, and coming up with amazing brand new ideas that aid the company. They also improve communication with the local community hence allowing members to acquire knowledge together this is done by team spaces, community spaces, and threaded discussions.

These solutions are justified and heavily recommended since KM works for hands-on with the organization (Bobco) clearly shown when they enhance the supply of knowledge with strategies like document repositories, project databases, and expertise inventories. The contribution side of knowledge management involves document collection and files combination, obtaining information and products of labor as well as keeping in storage these forms of comprehensive knowledge in repositories for instance, in Bobco Company when targeting to enhance supply, presentations and conversations must be recorded and collection of stories must be done for future reference and reuse of the content. The content obtained is exactly the raw materials that should be retrieved, analyzed, searched for, codified, disseminated, questioned, and reused.

The Knowledge Management Team also analyzes the supply of obtained knowledge hence implementing in useful ways. Before coming to a conclusion by using what has been obtained, the information is thoroughly speculated to verify its validity. Confidential information has to be scoured thoroughly and then ultimately secured. Analyzing obtained information may bring out patterns, tendencies, or trends which can be corrected, expounded on, and exploited. Processing data to bring out the vital parts can lead to knowing brand new ideas and acquiring skills on how to improve output. Knowledge is obtained in various forms like rules of thumb, lessons learned, and proven methods. Dave Snowden describes technologies that process large volumes of data with a view to weak signal detection and pattern recognition by naturalistic sense-making, derived from an understanding of the cognitive processes that underpin human decision-making as resourceful and able to nourish businesses. In the Bobco company, measures put in place to enhance analyzing of data include social network analysis maps that synchronize relationships and moves among organizations, people, or groups hence nourishing communities, realizing missing connections, and better links between groups. The method of Positive Deviance can also be implemented thus aiding in locating those vital practices, and behaviors and thus the ability to obtain improved ways used in tackling problems that occur more frequently than their adjacent competitors with similar access to equal resources.

After analyzing data, the KM codifies the collected knowledge to yield standard methodologies, repeatable processes, and standard methodologies. Data can be combined, content collected and processes joined to produce better business results. Codifying knowledge also includes finding the worth of intellectual property, and summing metadata to information kept away in repositories to ensure ease of availability when looking for them. It also involves tagging content making it easier for users to find collections, useful views, and connections. Bobco Company can put such measures in place by selecting important files as quality set aside knowledge, recognizing procedures and demonstrated practices as well as issuing a list of formal methods. After obtaining knowledge, one should clarify it hence making it effortlessly available to be reused hence providing it in a worthy state.

After analyzing and codifying the obtained knowledge, it is still not of much worth unless probable information users are notified that it is available. Hence its subsistence must be distributed both broadly to create awareness to all probable users and n to let aimed customers narrowly know of its existence. Communication vehicles are used in the distribution of knowledge. Email messages, newsletters, and websites are used to create understanding and awareness. Podcasts, blogs, and wikis that are available online can be looked up via feeds. Contents can be spread through association and collected via assembling, also including being able to create personalized sites to show specifically useful knowledge. Bobco Company can put out the following strategies to aid in dissemination. ‘This includes giving out custom-made notifications of new or altered content, weekly newsletters showing up-to-date submissions to repositories, and A KM section on the company’s home intranet handle having the top ten most-visited documents for that particular month. Podcasts featuring discussions with presumed leaders should be uploaded weekly. Con calls done weekly having conversations about acquired skills and email messages which should be shared are manifested practices and also better methods of improving awareness’.

Knowledge Management also focuses on demand which is on the opposite state of supply. This includes looking for users and information, obtaining the information, questioning as well as yielding queries. Demand-steered information takes the merit of codification, connections, analysis, and distribution. Thus encouraged by distribution and the ability to make it simple in getting the necessary resources. Bobco Company can put certain measures in place to entertain this. These include demand strategies such as prowess locators, search engines, and asking on the skilled processes. Particular tools and methods that permit demand for more knowledge consist of threaded discussions and e-learning structures.

‘The knowledge that we consider knowledge proves itself in action. What we now mean by knowledge is information in action, information focused on results. The results for disseminating, supplying, codifying, analyzing, networking, motivating and demanding information is paid off through action’. Hence KM program will aid the Bobco Company when including knowledge into scheduled workflow and using procedures and various processes to be done through codification. Distributing acquired skills enables it to be applied into newly arising situations. Reusing and using information, replying to requests, and answering questions asked are actions that are brought about by demand.

A particular type of action is invention. This includes developing brand new products as well as services and developing up-to-date ideas to examine and come up with innovative techniques and procedures that can aid transform a company, firm or even a country. Generating up-to-date roots concerning the demand of a consumer, restoring personal nourishment as well as that of the organization, and reconstructing the existing set of rules can aid a company to nourish, thrive, and undergo tough times.

Intelligence computing can cause the human thinking process to imitate how the brain works thus dealing with complex problems that contain ambiguity as well as being uncertain. Artificial Intelligence carries out functions comparable to acquiring skills and making decisions in humans. Intelligent personal assistants can recognize voice commands and queries, respond with information or take desired actions quickly, efficiently, and effectively. Using these approaches can enhance the capabilities of humans by augmenting their powers of observation, analysis, decision making, processing, and responding to other people and to routine challenging situations. Cognitive computer techniques for instance IBM Watson, intelligent assistant techniques that include Amazon Echo, Microsoft Cortana, Apple Siri, and Google Now as well as the artificial intelligence techniques, for example, expert systems can be used to expand the capacity of people to comprehend, make a decision, act, acquire skills and avoid problems.

A Knowledge Management program contains various priorities that include a consulting firm, software company, and research, and development firm. In order for the Knowledge Management program to exist, one needs to create a three priority objective list consisting of challenges as well as opportunities that the KM program takes note of. Avail around answers to queries on technology, users, and procedures. Describe the Knowledge Management initiatives hence particular measures will be put in place to aid in the implementation of the program. Gain support from the senior executive using around ten commitments that will help the KM initiatives to be implemented. Come up with and implement an Implementation Plan that consists of program governance which includes individuals, procedures, complement section, desired ways of skill flow, and technology. People components needed are those with culture and values especially the community, knowledge manager, and surveys from people. ‘Knowledge Management surveys include; KM opportunities Survey, KM Resource Survey, KM Employee Satisfaction Survey, Community Managers Survey’. It also includes training, documentation, communications, goals and measurements, incentives, and rewards. Process components include methodologies, creation, capture, skills acquired, proven practices, content management, classification, merits as well as reporting and management of change.

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In conclusion, Knowledge Management is an important tool for different companies. All their initiatives include recognizing vital knowledge as well as organizing, collecting, and storing the important knowledge and then distributing knowledge and information among users hence improving company businesses in the long run. They concentrate majorly on knowledge empowerment measures as well as sharing of information.

“Human beings can be awful cruel to each other” (Twain 294). Nobody understands the human condition better than Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Though he is just of boy of little education and lacking sophisticated culture, he gained his knowledge the hard way, through experience. On the opposite pole is Tom Sawyer, a minor character who plays a major role. He understands the world around him through one thing, books. His battle cry seems to be, “Because it ain’t in the books so—that’s why” (12). Understanding these two opposites at work is to appreciate why Twain ended the book the way he did. Tom is a focal character in the beginning, showing his bravado and how much Huck doesn’t know. In the end, he must return to show how much the experienced Huck has grown, and the consuming importance of experiencing life instead of just reading about it.

Mark Twain wrote from experience, and though he was not highly educated (he left school at age fourteen), he had a keen understanding of the true gem of intelligence. In writing Huckleberry Finn, he only wrote what he knew from his own experience, and he never embellished upon what he did not know. “Mark Twain was unfamiliar with the territory. He was searching for a plan to take them down the great river into territory that he knew from his days as a pilot” (Emerson, xxv). He stalled the flow of his tale until he could travel to the areas to have first hand knowledge of what he was writing about. He wanted to avoid the mistakes of the Tom Sawyers who wrote just to inflate their literary ego with pompous narration of ideas they did not truly know.

At the beginning of the tale, Huckleberry Finn is naïve and ignorant. He follows the antics of Tom Sawyer out of humility and emulation for one so cultured as the well educated Tom who could read many books. Thus, he follows him out of innocence in hopes of learning more about life as is expected of all “ignorant” folks, but all he ends up learning is that there is a difference between dream and reality, something Tom Sawyer lacks. When he joins the boy gang of robbers and murderers in search of adventure and finds only childish stories and fantasy, he cannot believe the waste of time and energy. “So then I judged that all that stuff was only just one of Tom Sawyer’s lies. I reckoned he believed in the A-rabs and the elephants, but as for me I think different. It had all the marks of a Sunday-school” (Twain 19). Huck is too level headed for the likes of Tom, though he is young in age. He is the average boy or man in search of truth and finds it not in the almighty institutions of knowledge.

Most people believe that published books, fiction or non-fiction, contain the ultimate truths of the world, that books are the definitive authority in a field, and that what is written should be believed. However, even the most respected writers of yesterday have proved to be wrong or inaccurate from time to time. There is only so much practical knowledge a book can bestow upon everyday life. Tom is the firmest believer in the written word. In fact, his life didn’t call for much practical experience with life. His family had sheltered him with culture and money, so the life he lived became so constricting that he had to reach out and actually do something just to prove that he was alive. Tom represents the bookish experts who have read it all but lived none of it. People like Tom are akin to show off how much they know without doing a lot. The use of big words that no one understands and discussing obscure topics that have no relevance to the situation at hand is how Tom astounds those around him. At one time he even strikes up a conversation about heraldry just to show how much he has read (329). He may know the words, but he doesn’t know what they mean exactly so he uses them incorrectly. It is merely for show and by using big words that he doesn’t really understand inflates his ego to prove to himself that he does, in fact, have intelligence. When questioned about what he is talking about, he comfortably falls back upon the scholastic’s excuse, “but that’s what they do. I’ve seen it in books; and so of course that’s what we’ve got to do” or say (12).

At the very start of the novel, Tom Sawyer becomes victim to the scholastic’s quixotic way of thinking. Tom calls Huck ignorant because he has not read Cervantes Don Quixote, and reading such books as that, one acquires an imagination. But an imagination that goes unchecked is the very source of the irony in these picaresque novels. A Handbook to Literature defines such novels as “presenting the life story of a rascal of low degree engaged in menial tasks and making his living through his wits than his industry…and affords the author an opportunity for satire of the social classes” (“picaresque novel”). Thus, Tom shows his own ignorance in referring to the book Don Quixote by becoming exactly what the book satirizes, that of an impractical idealist. Tom, like Don Quixote, starts to believe that he is the hero or villain from the tales he reads, and thus sets off on ludicrous adventures that nobody else seems to understand but him.

Huck is the exact opposite; he has the desire to pursue knowledge for the sake of growth not amusement. “Huck has not imagination, in the sense in which Tom has it: he has, instead, vision. He sees the real world; and he does not judge it—he allows it to judge itself” (Eliot 74). Often in just living life, he grows in maturity and knowledge without even knowing it. This is the way of experience as the classroom instead of books. All know the amount of time it takes to read books, and how simple it is compared to real life. This is why Tom is dropped suddenly from the narrative, and Huck continues on in the classroom of life. The reader watches Huck grow as he takes his journey on down the river. It is not until Tom returns at the end of the book that the reader sees how much Huck has grown as a real person. Sure he is the same old Huck, ignorant and far from civilized, but he has what counts, morality and humanity; whereas, Tom is still stagnant as a human being, living life only through the eyes of others.

The change in Huck is shown when he confesses to Tom that he wants to steal Jim from the slave owners. Tom jumps at the idea and chooses to do so for the adventure of it; he thirsts for the life in his books without knowing the true consequences of his actions. To him there is only the hero and the villain, and no morals outside of his adventures. Huck wants to steal Jim because it is the right thing to do; he has learned that much from his travels. Through his real experiences outside of the literary world, he has grown and sees things as they really are; colored and not just black and white.

Huck’s humanity is further illustrated when he sees the King and Duke finally caught. Though they did some atrocious things to Jim and him, Huck gives good words of wisdom learned from life in the real world. “It made me sick to see it; and I was sorry for them poor pitiful rascals, it seemed like I couldn’t ever feel any hardness against them any more in the world. It was a dreadful thing to see. Human beings can be awful cruel to one another” (Twain 294). Huck has developed a conscience in his experiences and knows right from wrong even though those older and more intelligent than him do not appear so. Whether we are human or animal is what Twain satirizes, and how much inhumanity must one endure and suffer before he or she realizes the truth is not what those in authority say, but what is in the heart, as the conscience dictates.

This is why Huck is in awe that someone in Tom’s standing would face the shame of stealing a slave. He just doesn’t realize Tom’s motives. For Huck, he is doing it out of love and respect for a friend, and Jim is no friend of Tom’s; he is merely an acquaintance. Tom steals Jim out of glory for adventure. This is the main difference. Huck lives and has adventure through reality. Tom seeks adventure so that he can live outside of reality. That is why he must create his own exploits, to find his challenge. Adventure creates Huck and challenges him to a higher level. Tom is the opposite, however. He tries to create the great escape to fit exactly with the books for the glory of it. Huck then comes up with a levelheaded plan for an escape that would give them freedom and no worry. On the other hand, Tom wants the romantic rescue that is befitting of his books, but that will also create more work and possible detection. One who lacks real life skills, and is only book learned, seeks the need for outlandish recognition because they only have the knowledge but not the lifestyle to carry out such bold moves.

Is one who is educated necessarily more intelligent than one who isn’t? Tom likes to think so, but the mere stupidity and rote of his actions speaks of his lack of real world knowledge. “It might answer for you to dig Jim out with a pick, without any letting on, because you don’t know better; but it wouldn’t for me, because I do know better” (314). He asks for a case-knife to dig the hole with and when Huck give him one he states it again, wanting the ignorant one to make a blunder of mistaking a pick for a case knife for him. Although he can’t make any mistakes in the endeavor, the uneducated one can, for they are the fools. Huck becomes the scapegoat for Tom’s own bumbling pride, and if an uneducated man who has experience in the world doesn’t find what the educated say to make sense, it goes against all natural thinking, and the whole experience is considered a waste. Never mind that the uneducated can actually teach the educated through the experience they have had. But even if they do not understand, they are still to conform as if what is said is truth and not merely opinion. When Jim complains about all the things he must do as a prisoner according to the romantic books, “Tom most lost all patience with him; and said he was just loadened down with more gaudier chances than a prisoner ever had in the world to make a name for himself, and yet he didn’t know enough to appreciate them, and they was just about wasted on him. So Jim he was sorry, and said he wouldn’t behave so no more” (336). It is a shame that so much practical knowledge has been lost over the ages because the “civilized” deem the uneducated as stupid.

To think that education is intelligence when in practical terms it is only written foolishness and chicanery has become the “civilized” world’s folly. Jim, being the most uneducated of them all, proved to be the most intelligent throughout the novel because he has knowledge of experience instead of books. “And [Tom] told him how to keep a journal on the shirt with his blood, and all that. He told him everything. Jim, he couldn’t see no sense in the most of it, but he allowed we was white folks and knowed better than him; so he was satisfied, and said he would do it all just as Tom said” (316). How much culture and knowledge have been destroyed by the civilized countries that know nothing more than what a man and a book tell them? An educated person can be the burden on any person, and it would be better to suffer in ignorance than to be caught in the whiles of an individual who thinks he knows everything. Many a nation mourns their wondrous days before the empires came to “civilize” them and create more problems than they ever had before. “I never knowed b’of’ ‘twas so much bother and trouble to be a prisoner” (334). To Jim, because a book says it, it must be true. If a book says snakes can be tamed, then anyone can do it. The first rule of the intellect is to do it for glory of showing one’s own intelligence, to be the first to do something no matter how foolish it may seem. “‘Why, Mars Tom, I doan’ want no sich glory. Snake take ‘n bit Jim’s chin off, den, whah is deh glory?’” (333-334). Again the most uneducated can hold the most common sense, proving that education isn’t the only mode for intelligence.

Anybody who has gone out and experienced the world knows that life doesn’t follow any rules. Usually, if the same situation is repeated, another outcome will result. For real knowledge, truth comes from experience, yet for those of high education, who study just books in their ivory towers, truth is not essential as long as the rules are met. A highly ordered life requires rules, and rules do not always follow the truth. If something doesn’t quite fit, or isn’t understood, then they may create a new idea with lots of fresh jargon to explain what cannot be and call it truth. Black men are inferior because of the color of their skin only because educated men told the world so! Furthermore, other educated men will believe this because it is published and then teach it in schools. Only the educated will call superstition fact. Education is the illusion of truth and that is what separates the educated from the uneducated. “‘And don’t call it mullen, call it Pitchiola—that’s its right name when it’s in a prison. And you want to water it with your tears.’ ‘Why, I got plenty spring water, Mars Tom.’ ‘You don’t want spring water; you want to water it with your tears. It’s the way they always do’” (336). This is the typical classroom setting where the educated buffoons of yesterday unteach the common sense out of the youth of tomorrow.

Many critics have criticized the ending of the book, when Tom comes in and takes away the glory that Huck deserves. Nevertheless, this is exactly the point Twain wanted to illustrate. By the end, it is Huck who has learned the true meaning of life, and is sensitive to others feelings. When he wants to go visit Tom after getting shot, he wanted to escape in the middle of the night, but seeing his surrogate Aunt sitting up all night waiting for Tom to return, makes him reconsider. He feels the true error of what they did. “I wished I could do something for her, but I couldn’t, only to swear that I wouldn’t never do nothing to grieve her any more (360). In contrast, Tom has gone through an adventure of his own and learns nothing new. Even when he is shot, he is the happiest of everyone because he has a war wound, some trophy to talk about, and never mind that his life was at stake and Jim almost got caught and later does get caught. The innocent must continue to suffer at the hands of bookish intellects who actually know nothing more than what another writer tells them is truth. Nonetheless, it was not the learned antics of Tom that actually saved Jim, it was Jim’s own humanity and caring for Tom more than freedom that allowed him to be viewed as an equal. This was the person who was the most influential to Huck: Jim, an uneducated, black man and not Tom, the educated, cultured white boy. Even on his deathbed, Tom still insists on the doctor being brought according to the rules of the book. He still cannot differentiate between dream and reality.

The book starts with Tom. It is only natural to end it with Tom. The reason why it stirred up such a controversy as to why its ending is unconventional is what Twain was trying to point out. Educated intellectuals would argue that Twain made a mistake “because it ain’t in the books so—that’s why. Now […] do you want to do things regular, or don’t you?—that’s the idea. Don’t you reckon that people that made the books knows what’s the correct thing to do? Do you reckon you can learn ‘em anything? Not by a good deal” (12). Truth is experience and not another’s convention. A humble experience deserves a humble ending; let the bookish intellects have the glory of a heroic ending that is just as gaudy as Tom Sawyer’s rescue.

Works Cited

Emerson, Everett. Introduction. Adventure of Huckleberry Finn. By Mark Twain. Ed. Everett Emerson. Revised ed. New York: Washington Square Press, 1994. ix-xxix.

Eliot, T.S. Introduction. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. London: The Cresset Press, 1950.

“Picaresque Novel.” A Handbook to Literature. Ed. C. Hugh Holman and William Harmon. Sixth ed. New York. Macmillan Publishing Company, 1992.

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Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Ed. Everett Emerson. Revised ed. New York: Washington Square Press, 1994.

Table of contents

1. Birthday and Age of Kobe Bryant
Educational Background
2. Kobe Bryant’s Wedding, Wife and Children
3. Kobe Bryant’s Career, Awards and Achievement
Net Worth and Salary of Kobe Bryant
4. Conclusion

2020 Jan 26 is the black day for the whole sports lover, the world lost one of the rare gem. Yes, we are talking about the Kobe, he dies in helicopter crash last Sunday in Orange country California. Most Valuable Player of 2018 was with his daughter Gianna when he was killed in the crash. Kobe was known for his astonishing scoring ability and his championship pedigree. Well now, revealed the secret and uncover facts of Kobe Bryant along with net worth, career, death, wife, age, body measurement, career, achievement.

Birthday and Age of Kobe Bryant

The handsome American basketball player Bryant was born as Kobe Bean Bryant. His name was given by his birth giver after the famous beef of Kobe, Japan, which they had seen at a restaurant menu. Later he got famous by his stage name Kobe Bryant. He used to celebrate his birthday every year on 23rd of August. In1978, he had opened his eyes in Philadelphia, United Sates of America. His father Joe is also a former NBA player while his mother Cox profession his not available yet. Belonging to a Black ethnicity while he holds an American Nationality. Born with Virgo zodiac sign while he had celebrated his total 41 birthday to date. He had grown up with his parents and sibling at his hometown and birthplace. He shares his parents with two sister, but the name of his sister is unknown.

Educational Background

The handsome Kobe had done his schooling from Lower Merion High School. Which is located in Ardmore, Philadelphia suburb of Lower Merion. Since childhood he has a passionate towards basketball. His passions took him to play basketball in his school day.

Kobe Bryant’s Wedding, Wife and Children

When it some to Kobe personal life, the handsome hunk is already married man. He tied his knot with Vanessa Laine Bryant. The duo meets for the first time in 1999. At that time, she was working as a background model on a music video. After six months of dating they got engaged.

2001, it was a year when they tied their knot in a romantic way. Interestingly, during their wedding his family member were absent. The reason behind their lacking is his parents were worried about him marrying so young, and the couple's decision not to get a pre-nup.

In their conjugal life, they became the parents of three daughter. They welcomed their first daughter in 2003. They named their first baby as Natalia. After the birth of his Natalia he was arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old in a hotel in Colorado. Despite suspicion Laine always remain supportive to Kobe.

After 3 years they became parents for second time. Their daughter Gianna was born in 2006. Later Venessa filled a divorce in 2011, citing 'irreconcilable differences'. At that time, she might receive half of Kobe's $150million fortune, but the couple patched things up and called off the divorce in 2013. In 2016 they welcomed their third daughter, Bianka.

Kobe Bryant’s Career, Awards and Achievement

Talking about the professional life of Kobe, he began his journey from a very tender age. He played for Los Angeles Lakers against former Lakers players Larry Drew and Michael Cooper. In 1996 he was drafted into the NBA by the Charlotte Hornets with the 13th overall pick of the 1996 draft. Which makes him the youngest NBA player in history at age 17.

In the following year, Kobe had also represented the United States team in World Championships and Olympic Games. Unfortunately, in 2016, he officially declared his resignation from the team and as well as the NBA.

In his entire career, he had won several titles including NBA champion for 5 times, NBA Finals MVP for 2 times, NBA Most Valuable Player, ‘NBA All-Star for 18 times, NBA All-Star Game MVP for8 times, NBA Slam Dunk Contest champion, NBA All-Defensive Second Team, NBA All-Defensive First Team, and many more.

Net Worth and Salary of Kobe Bryant

As one of a legend player he had earned huge name and fame in his lifetime career. The net worth of the handsome hunk has been estimated at around $ 500 million Us dollars as of 2019. While he makes around $ 30million as an annual salary. There is no doubt that he is one of the highest earning player in NBA history.

Conclusion

It was a short story about the life of a famous American basketball player, the father of three girls and a world-famous man. It is hard to believe NBA superstar Kobe Bryant, whose phenomenal talent and a win-at-all-costs attitude rendered him one of the most recognized and embellished players in history, is no more with us.

The Korean Pop Music (K-Pop) has its own way to connect to its fans both in Asia and the world. K-Pop is a whole production industry that comes with high profiled artists, variety of music genres, videos and well-choreographed dances. K-Pop is a well packaged industry of music as it contains singing, dances and rapping. K-Pop artist has a way to connect with its audience throughout almost all platforms. They connect with fans through social media, fan meetings, shows and other musical events. In addition, they bring their fans together which forms a vast community full of person of different ages, genders, culture, religion and races.

The process of creating this talented music stars involves struggles since they need to find the western cultured artists. K-Pop does not only contain Koreans but also Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese and the Thai. This makes the process of training this artist even very difficult. To create high quality artists, every one of them have to undergo harsh training. They are trained both in vocals, rap and vocals. Some of the female employees are sometimes forced to takes diets and plastic surgery to keep fit Jung, (2010) and also keep and maintain with the Korean beauty standards. On the other hand, their male counter parts get little or no sleep from training. Finally, upon announcement of the group to participate on a group debut, the trainees’ trains more competitively to make it to the line-up. Other train for the period of 10 years before making a debut. This develops a lot of anxiety and depression among the trainees.

Forgetfulness. This song topic has been clearly shown and expressed by Boukyaku. She was typically translating the topic to audience by explaining how to deal with the fact of losing someone close to you and the one so loved. She did the song in honor of her fan Rena who died in Osaka.

Family love. Explained by the song done by Yanghwa and Zion T. It is a well-organized composure about him and his family Love. This topic was depicted in Karuta’s song Ichiba no Takaramano which means most treasured. The song has several genres.

The video has been greatly influenced by the American culture. K-Pop. K-Pop has incorporated the American dance together with pop, Hip pop and R&B styles which is associated with America. The video is also accompanied with synchronized dancing styles which is a common accompaniment of the American songs. The video also has aspect of matching outfits and flash lights.

The role of Seo Taiji and the Boys in relation to the development of K-Pop and the abolishment of the "star system"

Seo Taiji and the Boys came to prominence in the 1990s and it’s the most popular Korean music artists. The K- Pop was virtually created by these Artists. Seo Taiji and the Boys played a major role by abolishing the star system and adopting the K-Pop genre which has greatly borrowing a lot from the foreign styles of rap, dance and singing Jung, (2010). In addition, Seo Taiji and the Boys performed creative and experimental songs that were a mixture of rap and Korean traditional music. This commercialized music and artists in the Korean and Asian music market.

In the video BoA is really is showing the extent to which American culture and music has had to K-Pop. The blend of this video from dancing, choreography and singing is western cultured style. The song truly shows that in K- Pop music image is the key element. Dancing and singing is the foundation of building idol groups and dance groups. The K-Pop music industry takes much into consideration beauty and shape of its artist and Idols. In addition, the song listen to my heart is a true reflection on how the K-Pop music has combined the foreign style and the Japanese culture in music.

BoA being one of the key figures to the rise and development of Korean Pop music to prominence had a great influence to the industry through her fame. Her son power made and gave her an important recognition as she was given appointment as the honorary ambassador by the Korean tourism organization. Secondly BoA brought commercial achievement to the K-Pop. Being one no the few star of her generation the broke many barriers Language and culture being few of them to achieve commercial success. Furthermore, BoA was a role model of the Her generation and generation to come in music industry both in her country and worldwide.

In the song "We Are the Future” the H.O.T were emphasizing on the need of the child freedom. The old world of adults is gone and children have the right to what is right for them and stop living in the shadow their parents. The song explains how the young adults are not yet free as parents fuss and bother them. The song uses imagery to explain how the young generation is not free yet and is over dependent to the old generation yet they claim to be the future.

It addresses the social issues and the problems in the society. The song addresses the materialism in the society. The lyrics is thoughtless and condemns extravagance in the society as one of the artist tells how it’s not good for living a life beyond means.

By the spring of 1865, the confederate forces had conceded their cause to secede from the union. The Union's victory meant an end to an era in the south, it abolished slavery and had upended southern society completely. The once prosperous south was now reduced to rubble, impressive cities like Charleston and Richmond were devastated by the war, and their economy was crippled by inflation and an unproductive agriculture. In this turmoil, newly freed slaves had the especially difficult task of finding their place in society and many white southerners were worried about the implications that their freedom would have on them, so the Ku Klux Klan was formed. Terrorist groups like the Klan were able to thrive in the south because of the turmoil that resulted from the war, the south was in disarray and the outrage of emancipation made blacks targets.

In 1868, the Ku Klux Klan made it clear that their purpose was to prevent free blacks from exercising their rights and to combat the new social structure that had emerged. During a South Carolina election campaign, they demonstrated they wouldn't tolerate blacks voting and they ended up killing eight black men, two of which were congressmen. From 1870 to 1871 the Klan's activities were especially alarming, they meant to “oppose negro rule, bayonets... and lawmakers”. During this, 9 month period in South Carolina six murders were blamed on the Klan and whippings and beatings could have numbered in the hundreds.

As the Ku Klux Klan's actions were becoming more heinous and frequent the federal government needed a way to protect citizen's constitutional rights. Initially, the enforcement act was passed to prevent their rights from being violated, but it proved to be inefficient in doing this. Congress later passed a much stronger act, the Ku Klux act was aimed at people who conspire to deprive citizens of their legal rights. This act would allow for president Grant to declare an area under martial law and to suspend habeas corpus, but throughout the nation people argued for and against this bill. Democrats argued that the bill gave powers to the president that were tyrannical and unconstitutional, but Republicans like Robert B. Elliot argued that since citizens were being denied a republican form of government they needed to take action to guarantee that to them.

In South Carolina, Klan violence had forced refugees, both white and black, to hide in the woods from Klan attacks. The situation had become so dire that it was publicized by the New York times, and Attorney General Akerman urged president Grant to use forceful action to put an end to this crisis. Eventually, Grant was convinced to take decisive action by warning the Klan to disarm within 5 days, but to no avail. After the 5 days Grant suspended habeas corpus and Akerman began to assemble a list of possible Klansmen, his strategy was to hit several towns suddenly and simultaneously, while backed up by the 7th cavalry. Akerman and Grant's strategy was meant to instill a panic throughout the Klan and it was extremely successful, within 10 days of the proclamation 100 arrests were made, and by the end of November 600 arrests were made.

The first person to be put on trial in the Ku Klux court cases was Robert Hayes Mitchell. Mitchell was an ordinary farmer, a subordinate of the Klan, but he provided an important testimony to the federal government detailing the inner workings of the Klan and its crimes. The case also revealed an elaborate series of signs and passwords used by the Klan to maintain secrecy and identify each other, as well as the Klan's constitution and its deadly oath of secrecy. Another count of conspiracy against Mitchell dealt with the assault against a black man and his family, in the end, defense attorney Reverdy Johnson could not dispute the charges of Klan violence and declared that they were “... brutes, insensible to the obligations of humanity and religion.”

Throughout 1872, Klan arrests continued to be issued in South Carolina, but it appeared as though the government's war against the Klan was coming to an end. Funding for the ongoing Klan prosecutions was lacking and in January 1872 Attorney General Akerman resigned from his position. Akerman's successor was less concerned with the Klan violence, even when a federal marshal was murdered and a prosecution witness had his throat slit. That same year, Congress decided to restore habeas corpus, which hindered the authorities' ability to detain and prosecute suspected Klan members. By August, convicted Ku Kluxers began to be pardoned, and the war came to an end when in 1877, Rutherford B. Hayes ordered the end of reconstruction.

The government's decision to suspend habeas corpus in South Carolina was a controversial issue at the time. Some people argued that suspending habeas corpus was a tyrannical decision, but I believe that it was necessary to bring an end to the Klan's terrorist behavior. By suspending habeas corpus the government could imprison suspected Klan members more efficiently and help protect the rights of those who they terrorized. In 1876, the supreme court reached the decision that the Ku Klux Act was unconstitutional and that it had unjustly superseded states' rights. Although the supreme court reached this decision suspending habeas corpus was necessary to guarantee Blacks and any others whom the Klan terrorized, with a republican form of government.

Although they take place in disparate settings the 1871 war on terror against the KKK and the current war against Al-Qaeda share some similarities. They are similar in that the terrorists' main objective was to terrorize the enemies of their ideologies; white southern supremacists wanted to terrorize blacks and their sympathizers while Al-Qaeda terrorizes enemies of their version of radical Islam. Both groups also came to prominence after great turmoil rocked their respective regions; in the south, the KKK was created after the American civil war, and Al-Qaeda formed following a war against Russia. These regions were devastated following the wars and extremism was able to grow in its ruins, and in response, the American government took drastic measures to fight against both terrorist groups. Grant suspended Habeus corpus to bring an end to the KKK's reign of terror and the US invaded Iraq partly to combat terrorist organizations.

In Summary, the end of the civil war left the south in shambles and southerners now had to deal with the fact that blacks were now free and could advance in society. The outrage of this truth led southerners to take action against freed blacks and take whatever steps necessary to keep them subservient. The Ku Klux Klan was a terrorist organization that formed in response, and their purpose was to terrorize freed blacks and anyone who opposed their racist ideologies. For a time the Klan acted without opposition they murdered, beat, and whipped people in the south, but a public outcry against these terrorists forced the government to act.

It was Grant's administration that was tasked with combating terrorism, which the KKK had propagated in the south. Klan activity occurred all throughout the south, but in South Carolina, it was especially violent. Congressmen and ordinary citizens were murdered during the KKK's reign of terror, they were disguised for their own protection, but that didn't stop Grant's administration from ascertaining their identities. Grant later suspended habeas corpus in counties suspected of harboring Klan members, and eventually, hundreds of Klan members were arrested and convicted for their crimes. Although these were significant actions, racism wasn't eradicated, but it struck fear into southerners who would dare to terrorize others.

Since the inception of the first Klan in 1865, the Ku Klux Klan rooted its values in their perception of Christianity. In one instance, we see people like Sam Bowers who was a supposed Methodist, yet was one of the more powerful voices in reviving the Klan during the 60’s. After going underground during the 1920s, Bowers was a leader in Mississippi, named the Grand Wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. He often used his religion as a point of reference for the morality of what he was doing, even though he often contradicted himself and the Bible. Along with him, we have someone like Richard K. Tucker who identifies what made the early 20th century reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan so successful and why it could very well happen again. Tucker goes on to describe the similarities between Klan values and modern Christian values, as well as comparisons with the average American values. Even today, when we look at the official website of the American Christian Dixie Knights we can see that they so commonly reference God and his “chosen people” as their reasoning for their crooked beliefs. These comparisons are not coincidences, and the more we look into the core values of the Klan and what they have interpreted through the Methodist church it becomes apparent that they do not simply make the choice to be morally corrupt people, but their understanding of God and his message was allowed them to act the way they do.

The Ku Klux Klan in the beginning, as described by Richard K. Tucker in The Dragon and the Cross, looks different from the white robes people imagine today. The Klansman's main enemy was Jewish and Catholic Americans, or those they saw as a threat to what their idea of a good Christian American was. Racism against African Americans played a part in the 1920’s, but it was not the main part. Tucker wrote, “it was to its millions of joiners and supporters across America a far cry from the paranoid racist violence so often associated with the robed, redneck fringe calling itself the Klan today” (Tucker). He mentioned Christianty had more of an effect on the Klan’s success than white supremacy at the time. “Every responsible source, including those who actively fought the Klan, has agreed that the Invisible Empire was made up largely of people of substantial and decent standing, most of them active members of Protestant churches, with definite if somewhat narrow ideals” (Tucker). At this time the Klan got its strength from numbers. Before his arrest in 1925 David Curtis Stephenson was Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan and the most powerful man in Indiana. He was the reason many Klansmen held power in the state and had a huge influence, there were around a quarter million members in Indiana alone. Ultimately Stephenson’s arrest played a large part in the Klan’s downfall at the time. Stephenson went from an idol to rapist and murderer, and politicians he had backed had to run from public scrutiny.

Although Tucker’s book was enlightening when comparing common Christian values and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the early 20th century, his book was published in 1991 and does not account for the more current standings of the American Christian Dixie Knights. In particular, their current website talks quite in depth about their origins, values as Knights, and what their supposed purpose in modern America is. First, they begin to speak on what makes them superior, stating “We as Caucasians are in fact God's chosen race. It was not long ago this fact was widely known and accepted” (ACDK). This misinterpretation of the Christian word that there is one superior race is a fundamental reason for the existence of all generations of the Ku Klux Klan. This is also cited in Tucker’s reading as well as Samuel Bower’s own “Imperial Executive Orders.” Next, they talk about the need to re-segregate our nation because, “Forced integration was and is still pushed on us on a daily basis and was and is NOT WANTED by the Whites OR the blacks” (ACDK). Their faith drives them to think that because God has his chosen people, that means pride in any other race is a sin. When reading through their website, it seems as though that they are more fearful for their demise than ever before, whereas in 19th century clan history there is a sort of pride associated with their morals. They go on to talk about the “anti-white” movements that have been prevalent today and that white people will no longer exist by 2050, but the basis of their order comes from their Christian beliefs. Once again, these similarities and roots within Methodists beliefs are intertwined and not simple coincidences. Even in modern day America with what is left of the dying Ku Klux Klan, they still use their faith as the purpose of their existence.

Sam Bowers is partially to blame for the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1960’s. He co-founded the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and even became the Imperial Knight. Bowers Identified as Christian, specifically Methodist, with a substantial conversion confrontation. He had wanted to die, but claimed God Called him to create chaos and destruction, similar to narratives of prodestant Christians and being born again. He believed in operating in silence and chaos as it was the only way for his cult to survive, unlike the Klan in the 1920’s. Bowers used his power to attack secretly and directed his frustration to POC and planned many attacks during the night as though to not be seen. He was adamantly against the Civil Rights Movement and the rehabilitation it would offer other individuals. In 1964 several Civil Rights Activists were murdered and in 1967 he was found guilty, he served six years in prison before being found guilty again in 1998 and getting sentenced to life. His actions transpired from a simple “message from God” and it seems that many Methodist believers who have had similar experiences came together to promote evil.

When looking at some of the larger rises of the Ku Klux Klan in American history, we see a major similarity: they all believe in God and his calling for Klan leaders to spew hatred and evil into the world against their “enemies.” While some more modern Klans may believe in re-segregating to protect the white supremacy they once knew, others like Sam Bowers claim that God called upon him in a time of need in order to save his life through violence and frustration. And Richard K. Tucker found that the correlation between Klans and the Christian faith shows a strong correlation between the radical enlightenment these people claim to go through and the excuses they make for their prophetic rise to power. These significant points in the Ku Klux Klan timeline offer more questions than answers, it seems. What is it about faith in one’s religion that allows a single man to do much good but can also cause such anguish and disparity between people? Are these people truly called upon by God to promote terror, or is it simply for the purpose of justifying what is so clearly wrong? These questions may be unanswered for a lifetime to come, but what is certain is the strong ties the Ku Klux Klan’s history has with Christian values and readings.

In Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Kundera depicts a society almost devoid of human connection. Kundera utilizes the characters Tomas, Sabina, Franz, and Tereza to explore the inability for human beings to allow themselves to attach to others, either consciously or subconsciously.

Tomas’s tendency to place his own priorities above others renders him unable to fully comprehend and exhibit the selflessness that love and connection requires. He fears commitment for the responsibility it inevitably brings. The thought of acting purely for the good of others repulses him, as demonstrated by his inability to sustain relationships of any form, whether with women, or family such as his son. He claims an inability to “live side by side with any woman, and could be fully himself only as a bachelor” (Kundera, 10). Tomas’s ideal life is one where he could indulge in the sin of selfishness and live without the influence of others affecting his decisions. He is unwilling to compromise, exhibiting that he honors his own desires above those of others. He is also unable to sleep in the presence of others, demonstrating the innate sense of discomfort once he has to allot for the presence and emotions of others. Love then becomes a burden that would compromise the pure selfishness of his life. However, Tomas seems to free himself of his flaw once he falls in love with Tereza. Tomas explains his newfound love through the idea of compassion, where he experiences emotionally telepathy with Tereza and feels the sensations she feels, whether it is pleasure or pain. Through compassion, Tomas is able to emotionally become one with Tereza. Through alleviating her pain, Tomas alleviates his own as well, providing a solution to his selfish tendencies. Kundera sets up his novel in a duality of opposites; lightness and weight, light and darkness, warmth and cold. Selfishness and compassion therefore becomes another set of opposites, as compassion is capable of diminishing selfish desires and encouraging the compromise that is essential to be able to experience love.

Kundera uses Franz to explore an alienation that occurs due to an inclination to live within the fantasy of his dreams and inability to understand his interactions. Franz is established as a dreamer who often opts for the ideal rather than truth. He demonstrates his alienation within his own mindset by his failed relationships with his wife and Sabina. Franz was capable only of a logical understanding of human language, but not the semantics that underlies it. He sheltered his wife emotionally “for twenty years” because “he had seen his mother- a poor, weak creature who need his protection- in his wife… because of a misunderstanding!” (Kundera, 118). Franz lived a lie based on miscommunication for twenty years; without truth and communication, human beings cannot experience love and connection. A combination of his preference for the unreal and lack of human understanding led him to subconsciously sabotage his relationship with Sabina as well. He lived in the “darkness [that] was pure, perfect, thoughtless, visionless… for [Sabina], darkness did not mean infinity; for her, it meant a disagreement with what she saw… the refusal to see” (Kundera, 95). Franz relished in the boundless freedom of his daydreams. He depended upon it too heavily as an escape from life; to the extent it eventually overpowered the reality of his life. Darkness is perfect because it is visionless, he can imagine whatever his heart desires. However, as he dwells in the unreal, he is unable to sustain his relationships and interactions because he does not understand what elements are required to sustain them. He could not comprehend that his desire to live a fantasy cost him his relationship with Sabina, who was repulsed by fantasy as the rejection of the real. Franz is capable of only a façade of human connection, but in reality is alienated due to his inability to understand interactions.

Sabina, one of the most extreme characters depicted by Kundera, lives and seemingly revels in her completely emotional alienation. Her detached nature is a manifestation of her disgust with society, either with the repressive influences of society or the human weakness that fall victim to it. She demonstrates obvious disdain for human weakness through her intolerance for Franz. Franz surrenders power to the ones he love, and would never order them around, which “struck her as grotesque” (Kundera, 112). Franz demonstrates the human weakness that surrenders to the ways of society, an idea she detests. She thrives upon betrayals for the freedom and lightness it provides her. She refuses to allow society to control her decisions or impulses. Her ideals are revealed in her lifestyle and mindset. She strictly maintains that love must be private: “Sabina did not suffer in the least from having to keep her love secret. On the contrary, only be doing so could she live in truth” (Kundera, 113). Once her affairs become public, there is now an outside influence affecting her decisions. Sabina well understands this power of destruction society holds. She could only live freely and indulge in her own thoughts without the presence of others that might lead her to subconsciously alter her behavior to accommodate for the norm. However, by considering the presence of society a burden, she ultimately admits a hidden regard for what others think of her. This is reinforced by her idolization of the bowler hat, which not only embodies the past of her family, but also the lovemaking with Tomas. She attempts to recreate that fleeting moment on multiple occasions (such as her encounters with Franz); however, she is continually disappointed in her sole search for eternal return.

Sabina also demonstrates a pure affection and connection for Tomas, one of the only men who ever understood her. She attempts to vocalize her strong affection, but instead is only capable of uttering, “’you don’t know how happy I am to be with you’, that was the most her reserved nature allowed her to express” (Kundera, 98). Sabina is so consumed by her overwhelming desire to escape the effects of society that she does not realize she is ultimately entrapping herself by her unrealistic mindset. She regards love as weakness and a surrender of power, and chooses instead to exercise lightness and promiscuity. However, her fear of society and commitment has paralyzed her actions that she cannot express her affection for Tomas. Sabina, one of the most complicated and extremes characters Kundera creates, demonstrates that an absolute intolerance for human weakness, emotions, and love causes a subconscious alienation through a self-entrapment in her inability to break rank of her own expectations.

Kundera demonstrates that no one is free of the inevitable alienation, even the most romantic of characters, Tereza. Through her ten year relationship with Tomas, where she relinquished her own desires and needs in order to please Tomas, Tereza is still partially alienated in the end. Tomas will never provide the pure love and devotion, as contrasted by Karenin. Tereza admits Karenin provided a “better love” because:

It is a completely selfless love… Perhaps all the questions we ask of love, to measure, test, probe, and save it, have the additional effect of cutting it short. Perhaps the reason we are unable to love is that we yearn to be loved… we demand something from our partner instead of delivering ourselves up to him demand-free and asking for nothing but his company (Kundera, 297).

Human alienation is inevitable in today’s society since we have lost sight and understanding of the true purity of love. The insecurities people experience (manifested in attempts to measure and test love) only act as a negative reminder that love is vulnerable to destruction.

Kundera exposes the detached nature of human society through the interactions and confessions of Tomas, Franz, Sabina, and Tereza. The alienation of society is a result of selfishness, miscommunication, and fear. People become entrapped within an absolute pursuit for human individuality, freedom, and the illusion of perfection that they disregard the true source of happiness, love and human connection. However, despite the social criticism, Kundera exemplifies through the psyches of his characters that human nature is fragile, and people are ultimately attempting to protect themselves from the pain that accompanies love. Kundera showcases the unfortunate truth that the purity of society has decayed to the extent that each individual must honor his or her own desires above all else. Selfishness permeates, overpowers, and tarnishes the purity and goodness that existed in society, and force individuals to place themselves as the top priority in order to avoid the pain inflicted by others.

"Heart of Darkness" is about a man's journey into a darkness both physical and metaphorical: he travels to both the inner depths of the Belgian Congo and to the deepest regions of the human heart. In the novel, the shadowy world of Africa has been turned by the Company, an organization concerned with exporting ivory and civilizing natives, into a den of exploitation and greed, a place where insanity thrives in the heart of the Congo. Kurtz, a Company agent, represents sanity in this insane world.

The madness of the other characters, namely the Company's agents and pilgrims, reveals itself in a number of early incidents that only emphasize, by contrast, Kurtz's ability to reason. A French man-of-war is seen firing into the African bush, seemingly at nothing: "Pop, would go one of the six-inch guns...and nothing happened. Nothing could happen. There was a touch of insanity in the proceeding, a sense of lugubrious drollery in the sight." The "pop" made by the guns is symbolic of a crazed, incomprehensible, and ultimately futile attempt to subdue the continent. Similarly, Company men are engaged in detonating a series of explosions on a cliff for no apparent reason: "The cliff was not in the way or anything; but this objectless blasting was all the work going on." Even more absurdly, a pilgrim attempts to put out a fire one night by carrying water in a bucket with a large hole. The sheer insanity of these actions only shows the lack of progress by the Company in the Congo, as well as the Company's inability to affect the country.

These moments of madness contrast sharply with Kurtz's sanity: his resolution of purpose and his ability to reach his goals is astounding. As described by the accountant, Kurtz "is a very remarkable person...Sends in as much ivory as all the others put together." With his rational will and deft reasoning skills, Kurtz rises to a position of great power and influence over the natives - one not unlike that of God - and he uses this deified role to prompt the natives to raid villages and pilfer the land for ivory. Although these are barbarous and morally reprehensible acts, they nevertheless demonstrate Kurtz's enormous capacity for practical action towards the fulfillment of concrete ends. This affirms Kurtz's sanity: he does what he does with reason and with purpose.

Kurtz further proves his sanity in his acceptance of reality, something other agents and pilgrims foolishly, and ludicrously, ignore. Only Kurtz sees the Company for what it is: a cold business enterprise bent on raping Africa of its wealth in ivory while pretending to be a force of civilization and religion among its inhabitants. Hypocrisy, the denial of reality, is one of the leading traits of the Company's workers - the agents claim they are concerned with improving the natives' lives, but a glimpse of the effects of this "improvement" is enough to destroy the credibility of their so-called concerns: "They were dying slowly - it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now - nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom." Likewise, the pilgrims claim that their purpose is to instill religion and morals in the natives, but at the same time, they carry staves with which to beat the African laborers. It seems as if the only God they worship is wealth, and the only religion they follow is one of imbecile rapacity, for "the word 'ivory' rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were praying to it." This hypocrisy enrages Kurtz: he is disgusted by the lies that surround him. When the Manager arrives to "rescue" him, Kurtz cries, "Save me! - save the ivory, you mean. Don't tell me. Save me!" Eventually, Kurtz can no longer tolerate the Company's "methods" of plunder and pretense, and to preserve his sanity, he goes to extremes. He extorts ivory from the natives with no hypocrisy, thereby accepting the brutal reality of his malicious actions instead of hiding inside a sanctimonious cloak of treachery as the Company does.

Although Kurtz's extremity might appear to be lunacy, it is only a natural response to a world of madness that threatens to overwhelm and consume him. Kurtz isolates himself from this absurd environment to protect his sanity: unable to be part of the cruel hypocrisy of the Company any longer, he frees himself from the restraints of civilized society. "He had kicked himself loose of the earth. Confound the man! He had kicked the very earth to pieces." In abandoning the constraints of society, Kurtz breaks free from the restraints of morality, "kicking himself loose of the earth." Yet, in his extremity, when Kurtz "kicks the very earth to pieces," he dismisses the idea of morality all together. His subsequent actions are deemed immoral and insane by "civilized" people, but they are only the result of Kurtz's struggle to maintain his sanity, his battle to escape the moral shackles of a world that has ceased to make sense.

Whatever his faults, Kurtz remains sane to the end. He acknowledges the truth about himself and the world; in their insanity, those around him do not. Kurtz journeys into the darkest parts of himself to find truth, while those around him only suppress and ignore it. Having rejected civilized European society, Kurtz is forced to look into his own soul. This introspection leads to his moral depravity, for in escaping from an unreasonably hypocritical society, Kurtz uncovers the masks that civilization wears to conceal the truth about the inherent evil in human nature. Kurtz succumbs to this evil, though he is enlightened and comes to understand the darkness in his heart. Once, in a flash of illumination, Kurtz's true, black nature reveals itself at the end of his altruistic report on the treatment of natives in a startling postscript: "Exterminate all the brutes!" However, Kurtz's most profound message of truth is found in his death, as described by his admirer, Marlow:

I saw on that ivory face the expression of somber pride, of ruthless power, of craven terror - of an intense and hopeless despair. Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge? He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision - he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath: "The horror! The horror!"

Kurtz faces who he is at the end, when he sums up mankind in two fateful words: "The horror! The horror!" His sanity asserts itself at last, and he is able to confront the ultimate truth about himself and human nature. Kurtz's reasoned purpose, acceptance of reality, and realization of truth firmly establish his sanity. He frees himself from the imposing absurdity of European civilization, discovers his own truth, and follows his own creed. These actions of sanity allow Kurtz to save his soul and remain faithful to who he is. Ultimately, his sanity saves him from the immense heart of darkness that threatens to swallow the rest of the world.