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Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are progressively being applied by organizations to reach the corporate growth and maintain their stand and status in the marketplace. The total value of global M&A increased from US $807 billion in 1995 to the highest peak of US $4.580 billion in 2007, with a significant decrease in 2002 to US $1.340 billion (Thomson Reuters 2012). Even though M&A activities experienced a phase of stagnation in the crisis period (US $2.300 billion), the worldwide value remains at a very high level, with a return to the previous peak of US $4.500 billion in 2015 (JPMorgan Chase and Co. 2016). Cross-border M&A set a record in 2015, with a deal value exceeding US $1.380, comprising more than 31 percent of the year’s total M&A deal value (Deloitte 2016). The prevalence of M&A determines that acquisitions are a fundamental element of corporate strategy, as they may contribute to the cost reductions and higher profitability considerably. The expansion and synergy realization, being the most frequently claimed motives for acquisitions, play a significant role in a successful M&A deal (Galpin & Herndon 2007, Gaughan 2007, Picot 2008). Product or knowledge sourcing and organizational learnings are also considered as the reasons for a merger (Bannert-Thurner 2005, Grant 2008, Ichijo & Nonaka 2007, Leonard & Swap 2005, Goulet & Schweiger 2006). By various entities, M&As are perceived as an effective way for development and expansion into new markets, incorporation of new technologies and creation of new knowledge. Even though this trend is likely to remain, numerous studies demonstrate that two-thirds of all M&A deliver surprisingly low success rates and fail to create the intended value (Cartwright & Schoenberg 2006, Gomes et al. 2011, Haleblian et al. 2009).
Get original essayAccording to Haspeslagh &; Jemison (1991) and Jemison &; Sitkin (1986), the inefficient integration process in the post-merger phase is one of the primary causes of the disability to generate the value. Recent studies state that high failure rate of M&A transactions, especially for cross-border deals (Grotenhuis 2009), is due to the poor post-merger performance, namely the planning and implementation of integration activities (Galpin & Herndon 2007, Weber & Tarba 2012). The underestimation of the importance of these processes may entail negative consequences concerning the synergy realization. Thus careful and accurate planning and implementation processes along with the adequate time and resource allocation are the fundamental elements of M&As’ success (Galpin & Herndon 2007, Galpin & Whittington 2010, Gomes et al. 2011). Notwithstanding, the executives still underestimate the complexity of M&A transactions. The process involves various dimensions; therefore careful attention is needed throughout the whole process: from the pre-merger phase to the completed integration of the organizations.
As was previously mentioned, the global economic crisis had its adverse effect on the cross-border M&As from 2007 onwards. However, the record-breaking 2015 indicated that the upward trend for this type of corporate activities is not coming to an end (Baker & McKenzie, 2016).
The growing M&A market, especially in the developing countries, determines the relevance of the Master Thesis. With the fast increasing popularity of cross-border acquisitions, various studies were conducted regarding the determinants of the success of such deals, while very few scholars analyzed the risk and its causal factors the acquirer is exposed to by executing before-mentioned transactions. Even though the cross-border acquisition entails the portfolio diversification, the acquirer is also incorporating the internal risk of the target company. In particular, this relates to the target from developing countries with high political uncertainty.
The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate the changes of the default risk of the acquirer in cross-border M&A transactions, where the acquiree is from the emerging markets (BRICS countries); to examine the significance of these changes and their determinants. The proposed research questions are following: Does the inbound mergers and acquisitions with the target company from the developing country impact the probability of default of the acquirer? Is the influence positive or negative? What are the determinants and causal factors of this impact, if it exists?
The theoretical framework for this work will be based on existing scientific literature that studies the phenomenon of M&As. Worth to mention, that the scholars analyzed this issue in two scientific journals of the Q1 category (First Quartile – Based on Impact Factor data in the Journal Citation Reports by Thompson Reuters). The papers mentioned above are focused only on the transactions with American acquirer. Thus, the comparison with these research will be conducted.
Consequently, it is necessary to apply the multiple linear regression analysis to investigate the fundamental causal factors of the changes in the default probability. Additionally, the modified Merton Model will be employed to assess the default probability of the acquirer.
The structure of this thesis is threefold. Part I of this study aims to provide an explicit overview of the BRICS countries’ M&A market as well as of the global one. Moreover, the literature review will be included in this section to elaborate on the following topics: M&As impact on the performance of the companies; Models for the Default Probability assessment of the organizations; The intersection of the former and the later – M&As influence on the default probability of the acquirer.
Part II aims to review various approaches for the Default Probability assessment. Despite the classical methods which are no longer among the most used ones, like inferring default probability from credit spread, this section will cover the cornerstone of this topic – The Merton Model for Structural Credit Risk (1974). Furthermore, the most relevant and conventional models will be discussed – modified Merton Models (Bharat and Shumway (2008); Simple Naive Model). Moreover, Down-and-Out (barrier) option model will be described. Part III is dedicated to the data sample description and summary statistics, multiple linear regression and its assumptions, followed by the results presentation and the conclusion.
Usually, the expression “Mergers and Acquisitions” refers to a wide range of practices through which a firm can restructure its assets, by incorporating those of another company. M&As relate to the aspect of corporate finance strategy and management dealing with the merging and acquiring of different corporations and other assets by another company.
Mergers and acquisitions, whether being domestic or cross-border are considerably important for companies in the continuously increasing competitive environment. Moreover, the successful completion or, in contrast, failure of the M&A transaction may entail tremendous consequences for the entities as well as for the other constituencies in them (Sudarsanam, 2010).
Mergers and acquisitions are often referred to being synonyms, however there are slight differences between the two processes. The Merger relates to the process of combining the assets as well as the operations of the companies, sharing the resources to establish a new legal entity and achieving the collective objectives. Consequently, two individual companies cease to exist and a new combined entity is created. On the other hand, when the acquisition takes place, the acquirer purchases the share or assets of the target firm. In other words, an Acquisition is a transaction where one company takeovers the operations of another company. The acquirer posses the control over the assets with the operations being transferred to it. (Ross, Westerfield & Jaffe 2013).
Mergers and Acquisitions tend to occur in cyclical waves. Usually, the M&A activity fluctuates in conjunction with business cycles. For instance, when the economy is prospering, the volume of M&A deals increases dramatically. In contrast, in the period of the recession, the volume experience a significant decline. Nevertheless, taking into consideration recent years statistics of Mergers and Acquisitions, it can be seen that M&As may also be a source of growth even when the overall economy is stagnant. Usually, the takeover waves are driven by the technological and industrial shocks and frequently fueled by the changes of the legislation. The patterns depict that the takeovers increase in the periods of economic recovery, while their disruption is usually explained by a steep decline on the stock market. According to Martynova & Renneboog (2008), all the M&A waves are unique and have the peculiar characteristics which differentiate them from each other.
At the time of the first wave, multiple giant companies were formed as a result of the increased M&A activity. Public concern grew because of the monopolization attempts which marked restructuring activity. Consequently, the Antitrust Law was inducted in both Europe and the US (Gregoriou & Renneboog, 2007). The objective of the anti-trust policy was to break up dominant firms. As a result, companies expanded through vertical integration, where the firms in a supply chain are united through a joint owner. From that period onward, the Industries were dominated by several corporations, instead of one giant entity. The effort of the corporations to achieve economies of scale was the characteristics of the second wave, in comparison to the first one where the market power was the primary goal. The second wave was a movement towards oligopolies since after the wave many industries were dominated by two or more companies as opposed to just one (Martynova & Renneboog, 2005). The second wave collapsed in 1929 with the stock market crash and The Great Depression (Martynova & Renneboog, 2005). The third M&A wave started in the 1950s and lasted for almost two decades (Martynova & Renneboog, 2005). Similarly to the second wave, the third one also collapsed because of the economic recession. The third wave was different in the UK and the US. While the previous wave emphasized vertical integration, the third wave focused on diversification and development of large conglomerates since the anti-trust legislation left the acquiring firms in the US with the only option of buying companies outside their industries. However, countries without a strict antitrust policy, such as France, Germany, and Australia, did also pursue conglomerate strategies in hopes of enhancing company value and reducing earnings volatility (Andrade, Mitchell & Stafford, 2001).
According to Martynova & Renneboog (2008), due to the inefficient conglomerate structures the need to reorganize the business models appeared. It was a causal factor of the fourth wave in the 1980s. The fifth wave occurred during the 1990s as a result of economic globalization and technological innovations. Similarly to the previous waves, the fifth one ended as a consequence of the equity market collapse in 2000. A distinctive feature of the fifth wave was a substantial number of the cross-border transactions. The sixth wave started in 2003, when the economy began to recover after another stock market crash, the dot-com bubble. A striking characteristic of the recent merger wave is that market returns were considerably lower than market returns before deals in the fifth merger wave. At the time of the sixth wave investors and corporate managers started to show real signs of skepticism about the state of credit markets and its potential destroying effect on the financial system and the economy as a whole (Alexandridis et al., 2012). Start from the period of 2011 and onwards, the last identifiable wave takes place. In comparison to the previous wave, the optimist returns to the market. In 2014, M&A activity experienced the most significant transactions volume since 2007. It is observed that the today’s business environment which is characterized by the risk aversion of the investors and organic growth is dissipating. Nowadays, managers believe that purchasing the growth is significantly less complicated process than building it.
An interesting characteristic of the M&A waves is that they are differentiated from each other, despite the fact that they occur in readily identifiable waves over time. Consequently, the M&A activity in each particular industry tends to vary over time. Thus, sectors with the high merger activity level in one period are no more likely to exhibit the same level of merger activity in the subsequent one. This may indicate that a significant portion of merger activity may be due to industry-level shocks like technological innovations, supply shocks and deregulation (Andrade et al., 2001).
According to the theoretical framework of Mergers and Acquisitions, there are three types of merger or acquisition deals, namely horizontal, vertical and conglomerate. A horizontal transaction involves merging with or acquiring a competing entity from the corresponding industry. With this kind of acquisitions, companies typically endeavor to achieve the economies of scale, economies of scope and strengthen their market power. (Ross et al. 2013; Singh & Montgomery, 1987).
A vertical deal refers to merging with or acquiring a company with whom the entity has a supplier or customer relationship. In a given type of transactions, the two companies operate “vertically” in different levels of the production process. Organizations usually seek to exclude or limit the possible hold-up obstacles and enhance the efficiency of the production process with vertical acquisitions. (Ross et al., 2013)
A conglomerate transaction involves merging with or acquiring a company that is not a competitor, purchaser or seller and that is product-unrelated (Gaughan, 2007). The concept behind the conglomerate acquisitions is diversification and the ability to penetrate the new markets and product lines. Conglomerate acquisitions may frequently be considered as less risky and cheaper way of developing a company’s product portfolio or entering new markets. Nevertheless, when neither the acquirer or the target operates in the same industry, economic benefits of the deal can easily be exaggerated (Gaughan, 2007).
Furthermore, Mergers and Acquisitions can be characterized as friendly or hostile, depending on the position of the target company’s management or board of directors. A friendly takeover involves a merger between two corporations or the acquisition of the shares or assets of one corporation by an entity or an individual, with the approval of the directors and the shareholders of both corporations (Gaughan, 2007). In contrast, a hostile takeover occurs when an acquirer endeavors to obtain the control of the firm without the consent or cooperation of the target company’s board of directors. Thus, the fundamental aspect of a hostile takeover is that the target company’s management does not want the deal to fall through. Sometimes a company’s management will defend against unwanted hostile takeovers by using several controversial strategies, such as the poison pill, the crown-jewel defense, a golden parachute or the Pac-Man defense.
A hostile takeover is accomplished by proceeding directly to the company’s shareholders to get the acquisition approved. A hostile takeover can be executed through either a tender offer or a proxy fight. The acquisition type can be defined by various factors employed by the companies for deciding on a potential alliance partner (Galpin & Herndon 2007, Zollo & Singh 2004). Moreover, Mergers and Acquisition can also be classified depending on how the companies physically combine themselves in the transaction to form one entity. The conventional finance paradigm implies that the behavior of economic agents is entirely rational. Consequently, M&A activity is genuinely driven by the economic reasons, and should, therefore, lead to measurable improvements in the post-M&A performance. However, the empirical evidence explicates that numerous M&As destroy shareholder value in the post-merger period.
Behavioral explanations of the Acquisitions replace the belief that stakeholders in the M&A process act rationally in a frictionless environment with more relaxed behavioral assumptions (Baker & Kiymaz, 2011). Behavioral corporate finance theories are based on psychology and the assumptions that there are additional motivations, besides value maximization, which explain why firms engage in mergers and acquisitions. From the opposite point of view, neoclassical theories are founded on value maximization and rational human behavior. Neoclassical theories imply that markets are efficient and that stock prices always entirely reflect all available information (Fama 1972). Additionally, these theories are also known as synergistic, and they perceive M&As as an efficiency-improving response to different industry and economic shocks (Shleifer & Vishny 2003).
The most common incentive for the companies to initiate M&A is the synergy argument claiming that the value of the post-merger firm is greater than the sum of the individual companies’ value before the merger. Generally, synergies are considered as the primary objectives of Mergers and Acquisitions. The concept of synergy is ubiquitous in the context of mergers and acquisitions. The realization of synergies is one of the most crucial drivers for M&A transaction. Moreover, synergy is the fundamental concept that lies behind value creation through M&A. Synergy can be very clearly defined as the concept that 2 + 2 = 5, or creating something that is more valuable than the sum of its components. In other words, the merging of two firms will generate a more valuable entity than the value of the two firms if they were to stay independent (Dermirbag, Ng and Tatoglu 2007). According to Lubatkin, synergy occurs when two operating units can be run more efficiently and more effectively together than apart” (Lubatkin, 1983).
There are two primary kinds of synergies: revenue-based synergies and cost-based synergies. Revenue-based synergies emerge from top-line growth through revenue enhancement while maintaining the same cost base. Whereas, the cost-based synergies occur from the bottom-line improvement due to cost savings while maintaining the same revenue level. According to Capron, horizontal acquisitions create value by utilizing cost-based and revenue-based synergies (Capron,1999). These synergies need not necessarily be mutually exclusive. Beyond these two primary sources of synergies, a value can also be created by generating new resources and capabilities that lead to revenue growth or cost reduction (Sudarsanam, 2003).
Revenue augmentation can arise from a variety of sources. A consolidated firm may increase the market share, enabling it to have extra market power. As was previously mentioned, when two entities consolidate in a horizontal merger, they are usually similar or related regarding products and markets, although not identical. Therefore, after the merger, the companies can leverage marketing resources and exploit each other’s geographic and product platforms to improve their offering (Sudarsanam, 2003). Other sources of revenue enhancement involve the incorporation of each organization’s best practices as well as scientific and technical gains (Ravenscraft and Long, 2000). While the development though revenue augmentation can comprise a genuine source of value creation, it is considered “fairly elusive” and is frequently disdained in favor of its more substantial synergy counterpart: bottom-line enhancement through cost savings (Sudarsanam, 2003). Cost saving strategies are considered as less challenging than the revenue-enhancing ones, as the former usually involves simply the elimination of duplicate costs. (Dermirbag, Ng and Tatoglu, 2007).
According to leading M&A theorists and practitioners, cost savings are considered as a less daunting challenge compared to revenue growth. In economic terms, there are two primary paths which may lead to the cost savings, namely the economies of scale and scope and elimination of inefficiencies (Ravenscraft and Long, 2000). As the name implies, economies of scale emerge from a size factor. Economies of scale occur when the physical process inside the firm is restructured in the way that the same amounts of inputs, or factors of production, yield a greater quantity of outputs. By more efficient allocation of the resources, the firm can reduce its average cost curve and thus enjoy a competitive advantage (Lubatkin, 1983).
Apparently, there are natural boundaries to cost savings imposed by the minimum efficient scale required for operations. If the cost-cutting strategy imposes the negative consequences on company's revenues, this could ultimately lead to value disruption. Thus, the existence of synergies is not enough to justify that an acquisition will create value. There are two crucial factors, which may potentially offset the above-mentioned synergy effect.
First of all, the synergies realization does not come free. The costs associated with the post-merger integration stage like firing employees or shutting down plants may be enormous (Ravenscraft and Long, 2000). Indeed, post-merger integration is considered as one of the most notable challenges of M&A and is frequently cited as the main reason for merger failure. One can not neglect these costs must undoubtedly keep in mind when touting the value creation potential of the synergies.
Second of all, the present value of the synergies should exceed the premium paid in order to create value. Since the acquirer pays the premium up front and purchases an option on uncertain future synergies, it could be stated that the premium is an advance payment on a speculative synergy bet (Rappaport, 1998). When the buyer pays a premium to the target, the latter’s shareholders attain an immediate benefit. The acquirer relies on synergies to capture the value, however in case of an overpayment, the entity diminishes the upside potential and its chances to create value.
Behavioral economics and behavioral finance are the disciplines of economics that combine psychological theories with economics and finance and seek to develop the explanatory power of economics by psychology (Camerer & Loewenstein, 2002). In contrast to traditional finance, behavioral finance implies that markets are not entirely efficient and the agents do not possess unbounded rationality (Mullainathan & Thaler, 2000). As was previously mentioned, neoclassical theories imply that M&As are undertaken only when both the acquirer and the target benefit from the transaction. Various acquiring firms claimed about the potential synergies obtained through mergers and acquisitions. However, it is not always the case. A notable number of M&As never realized the expected synergies.
'The relationship of agency, where one party (the agent) acts on behalf of another party (the principal) on a particular decision problem, is one of the oldest forms of social interaction.' (Ross, 1973). As was mentioned previously, Neoclassical theories on corporate finance imply that corporate agents are rational and always attempt to act in the best interest of the shareholders. Ultimately, managers are shareholders' agents, and they strive to maximize the firm value. Although in reality, managers should make adverse decisions where the personal interest does not necessarily correspond to the shareholders' one (Ross, 1973). According to Jensen & Meckling if both parties of the agency relationship, namely, the manager and the shareholder, expect to maximize their utility, then there is a strong reason to assume that the manager will not always act in the best interest of the shareholder (Jensen & Meckling, 1976). Moreover, the authors stated that the conflict of interest between the giving parties might arise when the company generates significant free cash flows. With accordance to value maximization, the excess cash flows should be distributed to the shareholders. However, it entails the reduction of the resources under the management and thus the agents' power. Besides, managers may prefer to maximize corporate growth rather than corporate value since the managers’ profits such as salary, bonuses, promotions or status tend to grow in line with corporate size (Cheng et al., 2007). Nevertheless, according to Datta, Iskandar-Datta & Raman, equity-based compensation is a useful approach to align managements interest with those of shareholders efficiently (Datta, Iskandar-Datta & Raman, 2001). The authors explained that there is a strong positive correlation between equity-based compensation and stock price reaction on M&A announcements. Consequently, the managers with high equity-based compensation pay lower premiums and acquire more top growth targets.
According to the theory of managerial hubris, presented by Richard Roll, managers may have good intentions in increasing their firm’s value. (Roll, 1986). However, by being over-confident, they over-estimate their capabilities to create synergies. Over-confidence increases the likelihood of overcompensating and may leave the winning bidder in a winner's-curse circumstances, which considerably increases the chances of failure (Malmendier and Tate, 2008; Dong et al., 2006). Berkovitch and Narayanan provided empirical evidence of hubris in US takeovers, and Goergen and Renneboog (2004) find the same in a European context. According to the latter about one-third of the large takeovers in the 1990s suffered from some form of hubris. Overconfident managers, who voluntarily keep in-the-money stock options in their own firms, more frequently engage in less profitable diversifying mergers (Malmendier and Tate, 2005). Rau and Vermaelen stated that hubris is more likely to be observed amongst low book-to-market ratio firms – that is, amongst the so-called ‘glamour firms’ – than amongst high book-to-market ratio 'value firms'.
The Hubris hypothesis implies that takeovers reflect individual decisions. Managers may convince themselves that their valuation is correct and that the market does not reflect the full economic value of the combined firm. Although the gains do exist for some M&As, a part of the takeover premium could still be induced by the valuation error (Roll, 1986). The hubris hypothesis is consistent with strong-form of market efficiency, which implies that prices at any given time incorporate all information, whether public or private (Frankfurter & McGoun, 2002), and financial markets are thereby assumed to be efficient in that asset prices reflect all information about individual firms (Roll, 1986).
In order to successfully execute a cross-border M&A transaction a spectrum of complicated and bewildering issues must be navigated. The most successful deals are based on thorough and detailed 'homework,' well-thought-out plans, and deal structures that assume likely and concerns. Most of the issues associated with the transaction should be appropriately addressed beforehand for successful completion of the deal. The cross-border M&A obstacles, tend to be more challenging to overcome than those of domestic M&A due to the risks concerning the different national cultures and institutional settings (Shimizu et al., 2004). The investigation of a target firm initiated by the acquirer before the takeover and the process of realizing the actual value and risks associated with the deal is called the due diligence process. The process usually involves the precise and comprehensive analysis of political, legal and economic environments as well as the target's tax and accounting systems.
The cross-border transactions usually include the approaching of a considerable number of legal entities which are governed by local legislation. In this case, a foreign bidder may experience some disturbances due to the potential lack of information. Moreover, some legal incompatibilities might arise in the acquisition process resulting in a deadlock, even in a 'friendly' merger. Furthermore, depending on the national legislation of different countries, some kinds of offers might be restricted (i.e., cash only vs. exchange of shares). Additionally, some countries may support a “national industrial policy”, which intends to create the so-called “national champions”. One may argue that such a policy may secure adequate financing of the national economy. However, this political intervention may block a cross-border acquisition, even though such transaction is compatible with the existing rules. Also, the cross-border M&As are confronting the hurdles associated with the differences in social and cultural norms, language barriers and history (Shimizu et al., 2004).
In cross-border transactions the parties usually come from divergent cultural backgrounds, speak different languages, have different business approaches, and are located in far-flung territories. Overlooking these concerns may entail an unsuccessful business integration or a failed deal. Organizational differences might also be considered as a barrier for firms to realize integration benefits. Since the organizational culture is extremely influenced by the national culture, the risk of failure associated with cross-border M&A rises with growing cultural differences between the target and the acquirer (Harzing & Van Ruysseveldt, 2004). According to Martynova and Renneboog differences in the quality of corporate governance standards between the bidder and the target countries may explain part of the expected value creation in cross-border M&As (Martynova and Renneboog, 2008).
To conclude, the companies usually engage in mergers and acquisitions to maximize value through synergies and resource sourcing. However, for various reasons, mergers also can destroy value. The primary theoretical justification for such destruction concentrates on the agency-cost idea that the interests of managers and shareholders may not be aligned. Thus, managers may pursue M&As because of motivations other than the ones in the best interest of shareholders. The motives which are not associated with value-maximization constitute approximately a quarter of all M&A activity (Seth et al.,2000). Both value-increasing and value-destroying motives may coexist during the same merger or acquisition, and considerably impact the outcome of a merger (cf. Seth et al. 2000, Haleblian et al. 2009, Peng 2006). Taking into consideration the fact that anticipated synergies at the time of a deal announcement are frequently exaggerated or inflated, keeping these caveats in mind is particularly important. In fact, most mergers do not achieve the entire synergies that were expected, and actual post-merger integration costs can sometimes exceed the forecasted expenditures. This is precisely what make
In general, comic strips and graphic art are given little attention as complete works of literature. Considered to be lacking substance and novelistic qualities, graphic novels are undeservingly lumped into a category that does not account for their quality and influence. With that being said, Art Spiegelman’s MAUS Tales conquers generalizations about graphic novels and in turn, has become an example for demonstrating the ways frames, panels, and faces can produce narrative qualities inaccessible to traditional, non-pictorial novels. Uniquely, MAUS primarily weaves between two separate timelines which allow Spiegelman to tell his story in addition to his father’s. The frame-tale timeline begins in the narrative present with author Art Spiegelman interviewing his father, Vladek, about his experiences during the Holocaust for the project Artie hopes to complete. In the narrative past, Artie recounts the years leading up to the war and follows his parent’s story through their liberation from Nazi concentration camps as told to him by his father. Accompanying this detailed history are simple, minimalistic drawings that Spiegelman uses to explore real life images and to create a type of universality for all readers. With that being said, Spiegelman’s Maus uses a combination of words and images to create an inviting, engaging, and realistic account of the Holocaust that effectively merges past experiences with present daily life.
Get original essayWithin the novels, Spiegelman uses a carefully calculated hybrid of text and visual in order to transform the narrowly relatable Holocaust experience into an open and inviting discussion for all readers. Most importantly, the predominant visual metaphor in MAUS is the depiction of German, Polish, and American Jews as mice. Drawing in a minimalistic and iconic style, Spiegelman relies on their simplicity to become the object of reader’s projection and sympathy. Interestingly, as the novel progresses, the mice drawings become less and less representative of mice and increasingly imitate a human form. For example, the novel’s prologue shows a young Artie and his father most closely resembling mice, complete with mouse ears, facial fur, and even tails (Spiegelman 5-6, panels 1-10). Yet these details become decreasingly prominent as the story moves forward. By the end of MAUS I, it is only his triangular head and ears that separates Artie and the other mice from a rough human sketch (Spiegelman 160-161).
By initially illustrating his characters as welcoming and cartoonish, Spiegelman prompts the reader to project themselves into the story and experience thoughts, feelings, and emotions the same way the characters do. As the Jews become less and less animalistic, the reader is trapped in a human experience without realizing it. Furthermore, it is this disassembling of the mouse allegory that allows Spiegelman to elicit sympathy and compassion for the oppressed in their situation. With that in mind, it is equally important to consider why, then, do the novel’s other characters remain unchanged throughout the story? Although the mice eventually lose their whiskers, their tails, and other specific traits, the Nazi cats in the story never lose their stripes or whiskers, nor do the pigs ever become less distinctive. Spiegelman’s choice in allowing the mice to become more and more iconic and universal while other characters/nationalities remain unchanged prevents the reader from sympathizing with or relating to any group other than the Polish and German Jews. In doing so, Spiegelman successfully transforms the selective trauma and suffering of the Holocaust into something that is palatable and understandable for all audiences.
To further demonstrate the effectiveness of the choice to keep the illustrations simple, we can contrast the MAUS drawings with Spiegelman's Prisoner on Planet Hell comic, which describes the emotional trauma surrounding his mother’s suicide. The comic-within-a-comic starkly contrasts MAUS’s simplified artwork with highly stylized, detailed drawings of real humans that depict Art’s personal distress and suffering following the death of his mother (Spiegelman 102-105). Whereas Maus uses vague illustrations to create an inviting and relatable experience, Prisoner on Planet Hell feels isolated, personal, and specific in comparison. On that note, often times reading a historical account leaves the reader disconnected and disinterested; however, Spiegelman manages to create an involved and educational narrative without ever directly addressing the reader. In short, through his oversimplification of illustration, Spiegelman achieves what a traditional novel can not.
Ostensibly, MAUS Tales gives an explicit history of the Jewish experience throughout the Holocaust. Implicitly, however, Spiegelman emphasizes the psychological torment produced from inconceivable suffering and its lasting effect throughout generations, continuing into the present day. From the first chapter, Spiegelman incorporates signifiers of both the past and present in his drawings as well as his text. Within the first few pages, the reader is shown Vladek’s concentration camp tattoo, pre-War photographs of both Artie’s parents, and even historically accurate depictions of telephones (Spiegelman 14-15).
Yet the past is seamlessly integrated into the present with the inclusion of Artie. For example, in chapter three, Artie’s body physically becomes the link between the past and present-day. Lying on the floor of his father’s New York apartment, Artie is looking in Vladek’s direction as he waits for the narrative to continue. Meanwhile, his legs are literally overlapping the previous frame that illustrates Vladek hiding in army trenches (Spiegelman 47, panels 1-2). By doing so, Spiegelman is disallowing the past to be removed from the present. Similarly, there is a verbal intersection of past history and present experiences. When Vladek is detailing his experience cleaning stables as a Prisoner of War, he interrupts his own thought: “But look what you do, Artie! You're dropping on the carpet cigarette ashes.You want it should be like a stable here?" (54). As the story moves forward, these narrative interruptions become slightly more sinister and haunting. For example by Maus II, Artie’s cigarette smoke billows up to become the smoke of dead bodies being burned in the Auschwitz crematorium (Spiegelman 229, frames 7-9). By including these moments, Spiegelman proves that the past and the present are not mutually exclusive: it is impossible to understand the present without first understanding the past, and vice versa. Ultimately, he is asking the reader to consider their relationship with history, suggesting a sort of continuousness of the past into the present-day.
All in all, The Complete MAUS Tales directly confronts and dismisses criticism that claims graphic novels are the lesser in comparison to conventional, non-pictorial novels. By creating a unique hybrid of both text and images, combined with carefully thought out animal allegory, Spiegelman transforms an insulated experience into something inviting and worthy of world-wide readership. In conjunction, he uses this universally palatable narrative to prompt an active engagement in historical events and successfully shows how these events transition into and impact the present-day.
Victor Frankenstein, a young doctor, creates a monster out of dead body parts. Shattered by his mother’s death, he becomes consumed with the idea of bringing the dead back to life. He creates a monster with no plan to take care of it, so he runs away.
Get original essayThe monster is not born “evil” or “bloodthirsty”. In fact, he only becomes so because he is rejected by society and has no mother. When he asks Victor to create him a mate, he declines. The beast only wants to be accepted and loved. It is through rejection that he seeks revenge on his creator’s family, and eventually ends up killing his brother, William.
Since such studies of life and death had never been done, Victor was unaware of the consequences of his experiment. Once he realized it was too late. In fact, he feels sick about what he has created, and it horrifies him.
Many critics say this was reckless, unethical and irresponsible, since he had not done further research on what he would produce. This is a warning that Mary Shelley is trying to present to modern scientists. She is cautioning them to be careful when making new discoveries.
Mary Shelley’s states that “invention must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos.”
The unknown creates feelings of adrenaline and anticipation.
Likewise, Victor had many questions that puzzled him on life and death that he wanted answered, which motivated his passions.
Innovators are so curious that they don’t fully examine the consequences of their experiments, as did Victor.
According to Erin Griffith, senior writer at Wired magazine “It's a question of ‘Can we build this?’ That's what techies have always asked themselves but they've never really asked themselves ‘Should we build this? And what are the potential negative consequences if we do?"
Shelley cautions scientists that some experiments are best to not be explored.
Mary Shelley is cautioning scientists to be careful when beginning new studies. It is the unknown that causes obsession for creators to find answers, even without considering the repercussions.
When Victor speaks with Captain Walton early in the book, he strongly demonstrates his burning passion: “with all the favor that warmed me, how gladly I would sacrifice my fortune, my existence, my every hope, to the furtherance of my enterprise. One man’s life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought” (Shelley, 29)
The inventors of many technological advances most likely did not assess the long term consequences of their inventions.
It is probably impossible to do so, furthermore, they have to accept that their inventions will have a life of their own.
Shelley demonstrates Victor’s regret: “torn by remorse… i beheld those i loved spend vain sorrow upon the graves of William and Justine, the first hapless victims to my unhallowed arts”(Shelley, 74)
Often scientists prioritize their work and ignore their social life and their health.
Mary Shelley shows the consequences of over working through Victor’s dialogue. He openly says that he neglected his friends and family and forgot to take care of himself.
“And the same feelings that made me neglect the scenes around me caused me also to forget those friends who were so many miles absent, and who I had not seen for a long time.” (Shelley, 29)
Shelley uses the “monster in Frankenstein” to represent modern day technology.
Shelley warns about things from artificial intelligence to genetic editing.
Amazon’s Alexa; play music, answer questions, make phone calls etc.
What if the robot is programmed to do something destructive? Or what if it programmed to do something beneficial, but uses destructive methods? Will the robot begin to create its own “thoughts” and outsmart humans?
Similarly to Victor’s creation, today’s inventions can all have negative consequences on humanity. (social media and the internet= dependency, addiction etc.)
According to Adam Briggle, an associate professor of philosophy and religion at the University of North Texas:
“Frankenstein probably is… the story about things being too late...Once the cat is out of the bag or the genie is out of the bottle, you can't stuff it back again. I think we're in that situation with Facebook.”
The methods of creating life used by Dr. Frankenstein, like the cloning process, arouse a controversy of morals and ethics in society.
According to the Human Genome Project, there are three types of cloning: DNA, therapeutic and reproductive cloning.
Victor’s creation resembles reproductive cloning, using organs from host organisms.
According to Louise Harding, BA in English, professional fiction writer similarities:
Shelley uses this tragic situation to warn scientists of creating life. Through Victor’s discoveries, the reader sees repercussions of cloning organisms such as animals or humans.
“Who shall conceive the horrors of my secret toil as I dabbled among the unhallowed damps of the grave or tortured the living animal to animate the lifeless clay?”
The overall message is not that technology is evil, but that the inventor is responsible for their creations. In this novel, Victor desired to uncover new discoveries, but he did not take care of his creation. Through the themes of obsession, technology and the unknown, Shelley warns modern day scientists to take responsibility for their discoveries.
The unknown fascinates humanity, but it is important that we are cautious with our research as to not create or uncover anything that will endanger us.
Metacognitive awareness is based on the notion of metacognition. The word Metacognition has its root in the Greek word ‘Meta’ which means going behind and is used to denote the concept which is an abstraction behind another concept. Generally, Metacognition is referred to as “cognition about Cognition” or “thinking about thinking”. But it’s just a quick definition. Metacognition is also used as synonyms for a variety of epistemological process i.e. Meta-memory, Meta-perception, and Meta-comprehension (Papaleontiou-Louca, 2008). But, the term metacognition is a comprehensive term. Metacognition gained popularity in the field of cognitive psychology in the last few decades.
Get original essayResearch in Metacognition has begun with John Flavell, who is considered to be the father of metacognition and thereafter number of empirical and theoretical research dealing with metacognition can be registered, suggesting various strategies that enhance children metacognitive abilities, which teachers can also use in their teaching. Metacognition is a fuzzy concept and is very difficult to define. Numerous psychologist takes it differently, Flavell (1978) defined metacognition as “knowledge” that takes as its object or regulates any aspect of any cognitive endeavor”. Whereas Moore (1982) defines it as “an individual’s knowledge about various aspects of thinking” and it has also been described as “the abilities of individuals to adjust their cognitive activity in order to promote more effective comprehension”. Similarly, Flavell (1979), defined the concept of metacognition, as all those conscious cognitive or affective experiences that accompany and pertain to an intellectual enterprise.
Moreover, Paris and Winograd (1990) describe metacognition in terms of its two essential elements i.e. self-appraisal and self-management of cognition. Self-appraisal is the personal reflection of one’s own knowledge, abilities, whereas, the self-management is the affective states regarding one’s own knowledge, abilities, motivation, and characteristics as learners. Contrary to it Hennessey (1999) define metacognition in terms of cognitive function and its application, according to him metacognition refers to “Awareness of one’s own thinking, awareness of the content of one’s conceptions, an active monitoring of one’s cognitive processes, an attempt to regulate one’s cognitive processes in relationship to further learning, and an application of a set of heuristics as an effective device for helping people organize their methods of attacking problems in general”.
Gradually, the concept of metacognition has become broader and now it includes everything came in the domain of psychology. For example, if one has knowledge or cognition about one’s own emotions or motives concerning a cognitive enterprise (e.g. being aware of his anxiety while solving a problem in an exam paper), this can be considered metacognitive. In fact, the recent literature completes the term, by adding to its cognitive domain, the emotional one referring to the emotions that accompany the cognitive processes and the person’s ability to monitor them, as well as the domain of cognitive habits (Louca, 2008). Educational psychologist encourages the use of metacognition in teaching learning process as it enables students to be a successful learner and has been associated with intelligence also.
Metacognition is a powerful phenomenon that enables students to set goals, plan, solve the problem, monitor progress, and evaluate their own thinking effectiveness (Beamon, 2001). It is a regulatory process that enables an individual to control and understand his/her mental process and become an independent learner. Metacognitive skills enable learners to know how to learn, evaluate and make strategies to solve a particular problem. Metacognitive abilities enable children to understand what actually they know, how they learned, and how they manage and regulate or adjust their own thinking processes to maximize learning and memory. (Ormrod, 2006).
Metacognition plays an important role in oral comprehension, reading comprehension, problem-solving, attention, memory, social cognition, personality development, communication and various types of self-control and self-instruction which are key concerns for school (Flavell, 1979 cited by (Lihua, 2013). Metacognition acts as a self-reflection, self-assessment, self-regulation of students weakness, learning strategies and strength of performance and makes students independent learner. Researchers like (Tok et.al. 2010; Coskun, 2010; Narang and Saini, 2013; Lihua, 2013; Eluemuno et.al. 2013; Rasha, 2014) reported that metacognition helps students to do better, enable them to become an independent learner, has a positive impact on academic outcomes and tend to increase their performance on intelligence test also. It cannot be denied that students are using metacognitive strategies in learning and in other life situation as well, but how much these strategies yield positive result cannot be predicted.
However, Metacognition is needed when tasks are more puzzling, challenging and cumbersome. Man is endowed with rational characteristics and this rationality distinguished him from animals. The thought process is a very important aspect of human existence. In present-day life, it is very difficult to deal with the life situation without using metacognitive abilities. Teachers should try to develop metacognitive abilities among students so that they become a self-directed learner. These abilities develop self-regulation and self-monitoring among learner that enhance academic achievement, intellectual growth and made them independent learner. Metacognition also enhances student’s engagement in learning and development potential to deal with the things wisely in their own way.
I chose to write about metacognition for this essay as it is the one of the most significant discussions in the era of learning and teaching. This discussion is Metacognitive Strategy that plays a key role in learning the second or foreign language. The meaning of Metacognition is cognition about cognition or thinking about thinking and also knowing about knowing, mostly it helps you to be aware of one's awareness and higher-order thinking skills. The root word of this this term is meta, and it means 'beyond' Metacognition. It can have many forms; the different forms include knowledge about when and how to use specific strategies for learning or for problem-solving. Metacognition generally have two components: have a high knowledge about cognition and rules of cognition.
Get original essayLearning styles and strategies are components which help us to determine how well students learn a second or foreign language. Also language acquisition is affected positively by learning strategy. In terms of forms and functions, it may improve learners' learning in language comprehension and production. Graham in his study mentioned that 40-50% of adult communication time is spent in listening. Listening is an important part in the second language acquisition process. Moreover, Chamot determined that instead of considering listening as a single process, it is better to consider it as related processes of sound recognition, perception of intonation patterns, and interpretation of relevance of what is being mentioned about the topic. He mentioned that, while listening to a second or foreign language, learners use strategies consciously and in their first language they use them unconsciously.
The metacognition history go back to two studies by the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC): On the Soul and the Parva Naturalia. This higher-level cognition was presented mostly by American developmental psychologist Flavell as metacognition. He firstly contended that metacognition includes both monitoring and regulation and is intentional. In any sort of psychological exchange with the human or non-human environment, an assortment of data preparing activities may continue. In addition to other things, Metacognition alludes to the active observing and resulting regulation and coordination of these procedures in connection to the cognitive objects or information on which they bear, usually in administration of some concrete objective or goal.
Also Flavell defined metacognition as knowledge about cognition and control of cognition. For example, a person is engaging in metacognition if he notices that he is having more trouble learning A than B, or if it strikes her that she should double-check C before accepting it as fact, Flavell. Andreas Demetriou's theory (one of the neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development) used the term hypercognition to refer to self- monitoring, self-representation, and self-regulation processes, which are regarded as integral components of the human mind. Moreover, with his colleagues, he showed that these processes participate in general intelligence, together with processing efficiency and reasoning, which have traditionally been considered to compose fluid intelligence.
In conclusion, Flavell made a major work in developing metacognition concept and he defined as knowledge about cognition and control of cognition. It also can be defined as the process. The process of thinking about one's own thinking. Metacognition is needed for effective learning, as it allows individuals to understand their own strengths and weaknesses, and to adapt their learning strategies accordingly. Research has shown that individuals who use metacognitive strategies tend to be more successful learners. They are better able to understand and remember new information, and they are better able to solve problems and make decisions.
In his masterpiece The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien writes a collection of heartbreaking, witty, unbelievable stories about a group of young American soldiers trudging through the war against Vietnam. The Things They Carried manages to convey the feelings associated with being in war without telling the reader what to feel. Critics and readers alike ask: what was O’Brien’s goal when he wrote this novel? What message was he trying to convey? Through several stories such as “Speaking of Courage,” O’Brien makes a statement about the fact that people are sensitive to the topic of war. The passing of war stories from soldier to soldier suggests that as taboo of a subject as it is, talking about war is important not only to educate others but to heal those traumatized by it. The use of metafiction throughout the book helps O’Brien to convey these messages. Tim O’Brien wrote The Things They Carried to address the fact that nobody wants to talk about war, but that, it still must be discussed in order to acknowledge the horrors that go on everyday and to help soldiers to heal. The metafiction in this novel is used primarily to convey this importance.
Get original essayTo start, metafiction is regarded as one of the core techniques that highlights the importance of reader engagement in postmodern literature. Through the emphasis on the nature of existence rather than its reason or belief, metafiction draws attention to the paradoxes that prevail in humanity: individual freedom at the cost of alienation, technological progress at the cost of dehumanization, and several such issues that seem to have culminated in a monotonous and hopeless existence in the Postmodern world. The technique allows the reader to participate actively and consciously, in the shaping and constructing of the plot.
Throughout every story in the novel, it is shown how difficult it is for the soldiers to talk about their war experiences. In “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong,” it is mentioned how U.S. women back home will “never understand any of this, not in a million years” (O’Brien 108), a soldier’s expression of why he would never attempt to explain it to one. At the beginning of “On the Rainy River,” O’Brien expresses extreme shame for the story he proceeds to tell, saying he has never told anyone before. However, I found that the story that most displayed the difficulty of communication about war was “Speaking of Courage,” a story about Norman Bowker, a soldier returning home after years at war in Vietnam. Throughout the story, the reader hears Norman’s thoughts as he an considers telling his father, family, or old girlfriend about his experiences in Vietnam. He drives around his hometown, thinking about how everything seems exactly the same. It is clear to the reader that Norman feels that he has changed, and sees the town in a whole new light as a familiar yet foreign place. Norman feels that he no longer belongs, and no longer has a place in the world. It is expressed that Norman does not want to talk to his loved ones about the war because, while he can predict the exact reactions he would instigate, he knows that nobody will understand anything shares. He also feels that nobody cares.
In this story, O’Brien was trying to show soldiers’ and society’s aversion to talking about the tragedies of war, and the negative effects this has upon Bowker’s character. “The town could not talk, and would not listen. ‘How’d you like to hear about the war?’ he might have asked, but the place could only blink and shrug...The taxes got paid and the votes got counted...It was a brisk, polite town. It did not know shit about shit, and did not care to know” (O’Brien 137). This quote demonstrates Norman’s feelings that there was nobody he could talk to about the war: in his mind, his town “did not care to know.” The town is described as very organized and well-run; a town with all hustle and bustle, but with no emotion. When it comes to facing serious topics, such as what goes on in Vietnam, nobody wants to hear it. O’Brien uses this town to symbolize U.S. society, and Norman as a raumatized American soldier returning home to no place in the world and nobody to talk to about his experiences. This story shows the avoidance of the topic of war in U.S. society. Norman’s struggle with this fact shows the importance of facing it.
Once O’Brien properly conveys the negative affects of lack of conversation about war upon returning soldiers, it becomes clear that he displayed that message in order to show the importance of sharing war stories. This is shown throughout the book through the exchange of stories among soldiers. In “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong,” Rat Kiley tells Mitchell Sanders and Tim O’Brien’s character a story about experiences when he was stationed elsewhere. In “How to Tell a True War Story,” Sanders tells Tim a story about one of his close friends. The way the boys all tell each other stories reveals the importance of talking about the war. It is therapeutic. “‘Why not talk about it?’ Then he said, ‘Come on, man, talk’” (O’Brien 124). This quote shows how the soldiers consider it healing to talk to one another about what they’ve just seen. They feel comfortable talking to one another because all of them have experienced the same things, and it makes them feel understood. Storytelling helps them to remember, and in the remembrance, they are helped towards acceptance of what they have witnessed. The stories told by other soldiers are interlaced with metafiction, an insertion of O’Brien’s own thoughts. This makes his intentions more clear because in the passages of metafiction, O’Brien supports the lessons of the stories told with his own thoughts and opinions.
O’Brien’s use of metafiction in the novel helped to reveal his message more clearly because he was able to tell the readers how he felt. He often uses metafiction to break the reader out of the world of the stories by writing in the first person, referring to himself, addressing the reader specifically, etc. This aids O’Brien because it allows him to show the reader what war has done to him, and how he has been traumatized by the war. “Forty-three years old, and the war occurred half a lifetime ago, and yet the remembering makes it now” (O’Brien 36). In this quote, taken from a metafictitious passage, O’Brien is reflecting upon the fact that even twenty years after his time in Vietnam, memories still catch up with him. The following few sentences of that passage support the fact that metafiction allows O’Brien to say that he is helped by the process of writing down his memories and sharing stories: “And sometimes remembering will lead to a story, which makes it forever...Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story.” This quote shows how the stories, because they put a kind of untouchable permanence to the war memories, allow relief from carrying those memories in one’s mind. In O’Brien’s opinion, it is easier to handle the memories in the form of stories, where they can be shared and spread. This shows the reader that we cannot avoid talking about war as we do, because of it’s level of tragedy, and also because it advances the healing process for soldiers.
In conclusion, O’Brien conveyed a clear message throughout his collection of war stories: people do not always like to address the sensitive topic of war. Even soldiers who return home after serving avoid the topic because they feel understood. However, O’Brien showed that it is important to share one’s stories because the sharing of stories helps people to accept what has happened to them. O’Brien intended to share this lesson because he has been through it himself, and understands how much the sharing of stories has helped him personally. In that aspect, the book as a whole is an example of how telling stories heals.
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Get custom essayThe fact that this is O’Brien’s intention is clear through stories such as “On the Rainy River” and “Speaking of Courage.” The stories the soldiers tell one another support this as well, and metafiction plays a very important role in revealing the message. In conclusion, Tim O’Brien’s intention in writing The Things They Carried was to share the message that while people may feel the need to avoid the topic of war, it is very important to address it because of the ways in which it helps soldiers to heal from the trauma they have suffered.
The Victorian concept of masculinity is one caught up a series of interrelated metaphors relating to the empire and national identity. Throughout the Victorian corpus there are a number of texts that create a metaphorical relationship between femininity and the colonised. In Lord Alfred Tennyson’s ‘The Princess’, the poem represents the social conquest of marginal feminist politics through a metaphor of military conquest. Sexual and social domination therefore become metaphorically related to the colonial enterprise. Similarly, Froude’s report on colonial Trinidad serves to feminise the natives through depiction of their passivity and connection to the domestic sphere; the direction of the metaphorical relationship is reversed but the effect is similar – the representational practice of both categories become confused and the two become almost symbolically interchangeable. In contrast, the feminisation of the motherland serves an entirely different purpose. The mother country is depicted as a nurturing domestic space that needs to be protected and provided for by the colonising male. Epitomised by Queen Victoria, the image of mother England is an enabling and validating but ultimately passive force. This contrasts with the Victorian conception of a colonising masculinity. This masculinity is active and prescriptive, proving its bodily and mental control through a colonial exercise. As with the examples above, the process of colonisation and the achievement of masculinity become metaphorically indistinct so that one is analogous for and a part of the other.
Get original essayThe representation of the woman and the colony in Victorian literature works by a system of mutually reinforcing metaphors – the woman is the colony and the colony is the woman. Lord Alfred Tennyson’s poem, ‘The Princess’ attempts to articulate a distinction between masculinity and femininity. Ultimately, the poem repudiates Princess Ida’s feminist separatism and King Gama’s chauvinism. Nevertheless, the poem implicitly upholds a patriarchal power dynamic. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick goes so far to say “the Prince’s erotic perceptions are entirely shaped by the structure of the male traffic in women – the use of women by men as exchangeable objects, as counters of value, for the primary purpose of cementing relationship with other men.” Women become therefore become peripheral to the homosocial power-relationships. One of the more interesting aspects of this poem is that this exploration of gender politics is executed by means of a colonial metaphor; the issue of feminism/chauvinism is projected onto a colonial landscape. Therein, the woman is represented as an ‘Other’ landscape, in need of colonisation. The novel conflates Victorian anxieties regarding the session of colonial dependencies (as in ‘Opening of the Indian and Colonial Exhibition by the Queen’, another of Tennyson’s poems#) and radical feminism. Princess Ida states that her aim is to “[d]isyoke their necks from custom, and assert/None lordlier than themselves...” – here, the Princess draws simultaneously upon images of both separatist advocates in colonial states and radical feminist philosophers of the Victorian period.# The poem also accentuates cultural differences between the two kingdoms:
“I seemed to move among a world of ghosts;
The Princess with her monstrous woman-guard,
The jest and the earnest working side by side
The cataract and the tumult and the kings
Were shadows; and the long fantastic night
With all its doings hand and had not been,
And all things were and were not.”#
In this way, the concept of the unknowable woman and the unknowable native are amalgamated into a single representational unit; metaphorically, the woman becomes the colonised. This contrasts with James Anthony Froude’s ‘The English in the West Indies’ which retains all the individual elements of the aforementioned woman/colonised metaphor but reverses them to a similar end. That is, Froude uses techniques evident in Victorian representation of women and uses them to feminise (and therefore, disempower) the ‘native’. Throughout the text, Froude consistently indexes the native to a domestic sphere; that is, the traditional space of the Victorian woman. He says, “...plantains throw their cool shade over the doors; oranges and limes and citrons perfume the air, and droop their boughs under the weight of their golden burdens [...] Children played about in swarms, in happy idleness and abundance”. Like the English domestic space, Froude’s West Indies are a place marked by simplicity and granted abundance (as opposed to abundance directly earned). Moreover, the West Indies (again, like the English domestic sphere) are represented as being in a precarious political position. The prelapsarian innocence that Froude describes are only maintained “so long as English rule continues...”. In his view, England is not motivated by mere altruism but states that to allow the West Indies self-government would be “to shirk responsibility”.# Like the traditional Victorian woman, the West Indies native is an innocent and delicate creature, unable to maintain their paradisal state without the protection of the masculine imperial project. Ultimately, Froude and Tennyson both construct their texts through the conflation of the feminine and the colonial and as an inevitable result, indexing masculinity to the imperial project.
If Froude and Tennyson use representational practice to code the colonised as a sexual conquest (and vice versa), contemporaneous English literature also shows a tendency towards a different kind feminisation of England – the motherland. The colonising male is coded as the provider and protector of an idealised, domestic home. England therefore, acts as a metaphor for the domestic mother-figure: spiritually and emotionally nurturing but ultimately in need of protection by the active, colonial male. Eliza Cook, in her 1851 publication of ‘The Englishman’ provides a unique instance of a female voice describing the workings of the colonial mechanism.# Throughout the poem, Cook creates a space of domestic comfort in the form of spiritual and emotional validation. She describes the titular Englishman as possessing “...a deep and honest love/The passions of faith and pride” and who “yearns with the fondness of a dove/To the light of his own fireside”. Moreover, writing as a woman, Cook’s evocation of national pride and solidarity becomes a test of true masculinity. If Englishmen are “lion spirits that tread the deck [and who]/Have carried the palm of the brave”, then male subjects who not conform to this image are, by implication of the poems representational politics are emasculated and disavowed; they are not truly Englishmen.# In return for their conformity, the figure of the colonising male is confirmed in his masculinity and granted a privileged cultural status. Their masculinity precludes them from banal mortality. They are “the deathless ones who shine and live/In arms, in arts or song,/The brightest the whole wide world can give/To that little land belong”. The male subject becomes validated and immortalised in reward for his exhibition of masculinity. He is able to claim the “glorious charter” that is to say “I’m an Englishman”. This masculinity is of course, directly related to the ability of the male to colonise on behalf of the domestic, feminised motherland. The Englishman is always described in terms of his activity (as opposed to passivity):
“The Briton may traverse the pole or the zone
And boldly claim his right;
For he calls such a vast domain his own
That the sun never sets on his might.”
Even morality of The Englishman is coded in terms of its activity. He “leaps with burning glow,/The wrong and weak to defend;/And strikes as soon for a trampled foe/As it does for a soul-bound friend”. In this way, the masculinity of the colonial male is delineated and re-affirmed by the female poetic voice, who in turn represents the validating domestic sphere that is England itself. A similar coding of the motherland can be found in Tennyson’s “Opening of the Indian and Colonial Exhibition by the Queen”. The very title of the poem (and indeed, the act it describes) exhibit the power of the domestic female, epitomised in Queen Victoria to validate the colonial activity of the male subject. Domestic familial relationships are stressed in the poem; the colonising agents are not ‘other’ to the homeland but “[s]ons and brothers”. Tennyson evokes a sense of national solidarity through his continual admonition to the reader: “Britons, hold your own!” Most significantly, Tennyson expresses his wish that “...as ages run,/The mother may be featured in the son”. That is, that the then Prince of Wales, Albert Edward would live up to the success of his mother, Queen Victoria. The politics of the nation thus become flattened to the domestic: the mother enables the masculinity of her son, who in turn provide, “Produce of your field and flood,/Mount and mine, and primal wood;/Works of subtle brain and hand,/And splendours of the morning land.” Thus, in both poems, the masculinity of the son of England is indexed to his ability to provide – a metaphor that once again conflates domestic and colonial representations. The female voice (speaking from the motherland) may validate and enable this activity but the activity itself is ultimately the domain of the male subject.
These various appropriates of feminine metaphors act as a counterpoint to the development of a colonising masculinity. In Tennyson’s “Opening of the Indian and Colonial Exhibition by the Queen”, discussed above, the poet constructs the image of colonising sons of England as a counterpoint to the female domestic epitomised in the image of Queen Victoria. Like Cook’s Englishman, Tennyson’s masculinity is an active, progressive forces, rather than passive or stagnant. The masculinity of the male subject is not implied but rather achieved through the colonising action:
“And may yours for ever be
That old strength and constancy
Which has made your fathers great
In our ancient island State,
And wherever her flag fly,
Glorying between sea and sky
Makes the might of Britain known”
The ability of the male to achieve masculinity (through identification with the father) is achieved through military/colonial conquest. If the role of the domestic female is to enable the conquest of the son-figure, it’s fully realised father-figure form retains the ability to order and control – the female space can only express a passive, matriarchal authority while the male possesses the active power of the patriarch. Tennyson explores this construction through reference to the United States. He states that previous rulers, “[d]rove from out the mother’s nest/That young eagle of the West/To forage for herself alone”. It is the domain (and responsibility) of the patriarch to organise and control the family-empire. The existence of the patriarch-figure implicitly creates the family unit and the empire as a whole. Most importantly, the masculinity of the imperial project serves to unify the nation and create a sense of security and solidarity. Tennyson describes this in the final stanza of the poem:
“Shall we not thro’ good and ill
Cleave to one another still?
Britain’s myriad voices call
‘Sons, be welded each and all
Into one imperial whole,
One with Britain, heart and soul!
One life, one flag, one fleet, one Throne!”
As a result, the ‘myriad voices’ of a dissolute empire become solidified through a masculine construct. This vision of masculinity if further expounded by Rudyard Kipling in his poem, “If—“. Written from a father’s perspective, the poem explores the transfer of masculinity from father to son. The title of the poem and the continual repetition of the word ‘if’ signal to the audience the prescriptive nature of masculinity. It is not granted but achieved if the subject in question conforms to the prescriptions. Like Cook’s description of masculine morality, Kipling indexes ethical behaviour to activity. The opening stanza of the poem describes a man who “can think — and not make thoughts [his] aim”. The ultimate pursuit of the ideal male is not metaphysical but actively physical – he is described as continually rebuilding, “with worn-out tools” that which is destroyed. The physicality of masculinity is something that Kipling repeatedly emphasises throughout the poem. The masculine man can “...fill the unforgiving minute/With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run”. He is judged both by his physical superiority and by his ability to progress both literally and metaphorically. His progression becomes metaphorically related to the colonial project itself, the act of moving out and testing oneself physically and mentally. Ultimately, Kipling suggests that masculinity is achieved through control. Firstly, through control of the self, “the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’”. Having established this trait, the masculine male is able to control his surroundings. In a continual state of conquest, the man “can make a heap of all [his] winnings/And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,/And lose, and start again at [his] beginnings/And never breathe a word about your loss”. For those who manage to achieve the standards set out in the poem, Kipling promises “the Earth and everything that’s in it,/And — which is more — you’ll be a man my son”. As with femininity, metaphors of empire and masculinity become confused into a mutually referring set of signifiers. The ideal man is a colonising force and the imperial project is analogous to the achievement of masculinity.
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Get custom essayIn summation, the process of colonisation and the Victorian conceptualisation of gender are mutually reinforced through their representation in contemporaneous text. The literature of the time shows a tendency to depict the act of colonisation as sexual conquest by rendering the native population passive and feminine. Similarly, radical feminist politics are represented by Tennyson as a dangerous cultural other, in need of a colonising masculine influence. In both cases, the feminine and the colonial become conflated into indistinct categories so that one can stand for the other. In contrast, the image of the motherland serves as an equally feminine but more matriarch signifier. The matriarch, epitomised in the depiction of Queen Victoria can validate and enable the colonising male but is ultimately relegated to passivity. It is the domain, therefore of the male to provide for and protect the domestic sphere of the homeland through the colonial mechanism. This ability to provide and protect becomes a signifier of masculinity. Masculinity becomes itself imperial, therefore. As a result, the achievement of masculinity becomes, like femininity, conflated in ambiguity. Ultimately, the subjects achievement of masculinity comes about not only the act of colonisation itself but by metaphorical relationship to the creation and maintenance of the empire – an imperial masculinity.
Man as a thinking being, although we are a finite being, we are guided to think and embrace the whole of reality. The main concern in metaphysics is to understand all the realities of living things by understanding the total number of things that can be understood and discovering the highest points of reality. However, this effort will be of no value without a person who has a rational gift to know everything that must be known about existence, who is the only being endowed with such a gift.
Get original essayIt is man’s nature that is anxious, he is always curious and seeking knowledge in every faucet. In this condition, he has the drive to search for the highest level of knowledge by capturing the comprehensive reality that he knows and understanding the meaning of his existence. That man’s existence is not just for himself, but for other beings too, in other words, when humans exist, they are always bound by this fact that they have the right to feel 'home' with their entire true identity community. Therefore, other organisms, including humans, are in a relationship.
Since human beings and all other living things are in a relative sense, it is the human responsibility to maintain that relationship with the feeling of 'staying home' in the universe because he is the only thing that is gifted with the right reason and will. But how can men feel that they are 'at home' together with the living community?
Although humans are finite beings, we came to understand enough to reality. We know that our journey in this empirical world is in the great circle of travel and someday we return to the One who created and give life to everything.
Being is still a mystery because it is half-light and half-shadow and also ambiguous. In discovering being we need to penetrate intellectually into something finding and revealing the basic types of existence that are normal for everyone. In expanding the horizon of the drive to know that it knows what the recoil exceeds. The horizon is the discovery of its limitations. The criterion for reality is that what is real is something that can be done by itself and it is. The center or source of one's own actions. Things that manifest or reveal their existence to each other by their actions. Being is a radical doing. It is like energy where it is the root or cause of all other doing.
The unity of being is endangered by the variability of a being, all beings in our experience undergo changes, and it is inevitable for a being. The principle of self-identity is not static but a constant dynamic activity. It maintains its identity by constantly and actively assimilating the world it encounters. It is affected by the process of change but it has a dynamic power that maintains its identity within the process of change.
The inner dynamism of all beings moves in a great circular journey. It is a total journey of all finite beings: the journey out means, exodus, and the journey back, reditus. All finite beings belong as members to the one great community of real existents. Man as a rational being the one who is conscious to the whole process is the mediator between the material world and to God himself.
The first phase is called exodus, the vast multitude of finite creatures pour out from their infinite source in the act of creation. God acts as the Ultimate Efficient Cause, the one who brings all things into existence. The journey of all created being out from its Ultimate Source or as what it is called the exodus. This journeying out of all being from the Source who is conceived to be God. It is the journey of the many beings who are finite in nature but originated from the one who is Infinite in nature. Human beings who is a finite beings has limited participation in its own way. The exodus is a journey of a community of beings wherein by nature of each being who are finite are able to communicate and the interrelated world of beings.
As the doctrine of common participation states, “being is the act of belonging”. In other words, the unity that occurs is manifested through the act of belongingness. This act of belongingness can lead man into an awareness of goodness that is both good to body and soul that man is not isolated or alone. Having a sense of isolation man thinks that he does not belong anywhere. In the process of its journey, the finite beings participate with the One Infinite Source.
The second phase is called reditus, no sooner are creatures launched into existence and action then their Source begins to draw them back to itself by the pull of the good. The journey of all created being back to its Ultimate Source or as what it is called the reditus. The great journey of a man in the physical realm will come to an end for man is a finite being. Man is a finite being that is subjected to an end. In his journey of going back to the Ultimate source, man is expected that he has done his part of taking care not only for himself alone but also taking care of other existents or being.
The completion of man’s journey is reliant on in the creativity of man upon his stay or upon the journeying process. This said the journey of going back of a man is the pull of the good in each of the being. By seeking the fullness of its own perfection in each individual the inner act of pulling the good in every individual. Coming from this goodness the passages of involvement of each being acts in the same manner as to the Ultimate Source of goodness which is the original act of existence.
Reflecting on the image of the universe as the journey of all beings, both flowing and returning home to the Infinite Source, we can assert that as human beings we have the duty and responsibility and not just for our own existence but also to other beings who has existence. In this sense, therefore man has to value his own life and also the value and give value to the creation. It is right to give value to the world for man has profited in his living through using in achieving one’s own desire. Hence, the true meaning of human existence is to be one with the world, which must have a profound feeling and a community that has the whole universe.
In fact, metaphysics is a part of what happens in our daily lives. It is the essence of our existence. We acknowledge that there are changes in every life. That his identity remains intact despite changes Humans are the rational creatures and the highest creatures in the creation of the creator. Therefore, we have the right to use our intelligence to understand the creation created by the creator and live life to the fullest
As I journey in this world I am reminded that I am guided by the loving presence of our Creator and reminded that I am created in His image and likeness. My journey in this empirical world is to dwell in the creation of the Ultimate Source, to have recognized the richness and wonders of His creation. Thus, I am to understand and live in the reality, and that me as a finite being is expected to go back to the presence of the Infinite Source the Creator of all beings, which is our true home.
The “Method” chapter of Foucault's history of sexuality, characterizes his views of power. Foucault reprimands the constraints of the "juridico-discursive" origination of power, which considers power to be something at last practiced to command, subdue, or to leave a subject submissive. Foucault considers power to be comprehensive: everything and everyone is a foundation of Power. Power exists in each connection, and domination, stillness, or subservience don't mean an absence of power to such an extent as an alternate appearance of power. Foucault progresses five suggestions with respect to power.
Get original essayTo begin with, power isn't something that you can or can’t have, rather it’s continually being practiced from all focuses in any connection. Secondly, power isn't just connected remotely to sex, economics and knowledge. Or maybe, it is inside these connections and decides their interior structure. Thirdly, power does not just descend from above, and not all power connections are shaped by a ruler/ruled model. Relatively, power connections fly up at all levels of society autonomous of the decision powers. Fourthly, however it is conceivable to recognize outlines and systems in power connections, there are no individual subjects practicing this power. There is a sanity and rationale behind power connections, however there are no mystery schemes or driving forces coordinating these powers.
Finally, obstruction is a piece of a power relationship, and isn't outer to it. Moreover, opposition does not typically show itself in a strong, relentless frame. Or maybe, pockets of obstruction fly up in better places and move about as flow of power change. Foucault's investigation of power demonstrates that we can't talk about sexuality in terms of one independent power connection. Or maybe, we have to take a closer look at all the various power relations that are around our discussions on sex that leads to show itself in the way that it does. Foucault came up with four rules to follow that fill in as guidelines in his examination:
Foucault finishes up, by saying that power does not appear as law. But instead, it functions in numerous levels and in different ways.
Isolation of DNA is a very important technique which is the foundation for many types of techniques such as the diagnosis of many genetic diseases as well as fingerprinting DNA. How much amount and purity required, the DNA type is what makes the difference for the different methods for DNA isolation. There were three different E. coli cultures the aim was the analyse the DNA of the E. coli.
Get original essayMultiple amounts of techniques were used to manipulate and isolate the DNA from E. coli. We start of by Isolating the plasmid DNA from the 3 cultures using alkaline lysis. Alkaline lysis is an extraction method used to isolate plasmid DNA from bacteria. Next the DNA which has been isolated restriction enzymes is used for digestion. Restriction enzymes are able to cleave DNA and make them into fragments and this is within the molecule at sites called restriction sites. Bacterial transformation was also done. Finally, is the analysis of the E. coli which is transformed and this is achieved by using agarose gel electrophoresis.
Practical 1
Three E. coli cultures A, B and C were provided which has been grown overnight shaken at 37°C. The bacterial pellet is dissolved in 100 ml of solution 1. Solution 1 contains 50Mm glucose the glucose aims to provide an osmotic balance between the cell and the solution and this prevents the cells from bursting at this stage. Solution 1 also contains 25Mm Tris (pH 8.0) this is used to stabilise the ph in the solution. EDTA 10Mm is also a chemical which is necessary to allow DNA degrading enzymes. The main purpose for EDTA is to bind to magnesium and calcium and this stops the DNA from degrading. The EDTA is also able to stabilise the DNA phosphate backbone as well as the cell wall.
Next solution II is added, solution II is 0.2M NaOH and 1% (w/v) SDS. This strong alkaline solution is able to disturb the cell membranes and allows to come in contact and denature the plasmid and chromosomal DNA. The cell contents made contact with the extracellular chemicals which allowed EDTA to chelate with the metal ions in the cells. SDS precipitate with proteins in the cell contents and form insoluble complex. As a result, precipitates were observed in the solution. Chromosomal DNA and plasmid DNA were denatured by the high pH in the solution. The process is known as denaturation as it
Solution 3 is added next which is 3M potassium acetate pH 4.8. The potassium acetate is able to decrease the alkalinity of the solution so it able to renature the plasmid DNA but does not renature the chromosomal DNA. The ssDNA can re nature the dsDNA because the hydrogen bonds between the single stranded DNA is re-established. Through hydrophobic relations a white precipitate is formed by the SDS, denatured cellular proteins and the single stranded genomic DNA all sticking together whereas the double stranded plasmid dissolves in the solution.
At this point most of the cells debris is separated from the plasmid DNA but in the solution there is the debris the salts, Rnase and EDTA so the solution has to be cleaned up and the plasmid DNA concentrated. 70% ethanol is added next and it is able to change the DNA’s structure as they aggregate and precipitate from the solution. Using centrifugation, the DNA which is precipitated can be separated.
Practical 2
From the E. coli which had been isolated next we begin to degrade the DNA using restriction nucleases. Restriction enzymes cut DNA molecules in specific areas to cut them into smaller fragments. Different kind of DNA sequences are cut and recognised by different restriction enzymes. These restriction enzymes also need a buffer which is suitable this includes magnesium as a co factor. A certain concentration and a Tris to buffer the ph. For different kinds of enzymes there are different optimum salt concentrations. Samples B and C are isolated with 10 units of enzyme.
There are 2 tubes called tube BR and tube CR. Tube BR contains DNA B, 10 x EcoR1 buffer, EcoR1 enzyme and water, Tube CR contains the same but instead of DNA B it contains DNA C. There is a specific order in which these are added. Firstly, water is added then it is the buffer, the DNA and then finally it is the enzyme. The reason for this order is because a suitable environment has to be created before the enzyme is added. Eco R1 is basically a restriction enzyme isolated from E. coli, which at particular locations cuts DNA double helix at specific restriction site. EcoR1 is able to make cuts in the backbone of both of the strands, and this allows there to be two sticky ends at the cutting site of the DNA.
There is a specific sequence which the EcoR1 can recognise this sequence is GAATTC and the enzyme cuts in between the G and A on the strand which is complimentary. To start the solution is added orderly with water, buffer and the enzyme. The water is used to dilute the buffer because the manufacturer concentrates the buffer. The EcoR1 buffer is there as it is the optimal buffer used for the enzyme performance. When the conditions are finally suitable for the enzyme it is added. This is when it opens up or fragmentise the plasmid DNA. Once the both the tubes had been completed they were incubated.
Transformation of plasmid
Now a technique known as bacterial transformation is used and two tubes B and B are diluted in a Tris buffer at pH 7.6 and this makes up 40 folds of the final volume of the mixture, as they have been diluted they are labelled diluted B and diluted BR. The purpose of bacterial transformation is to introduce DNA into bacterial cells. There are many techniques used to achieve this but the reliable technique is a heat shock technique. When the DNA has been taken up it has to either join with a host genome or autonomously replicate. Circular forms of DNA are the only DNA which are going to be able to replicate, the linear form which use restriction enzymes will not be able to transform. The circular form when introduced to E. coli will be able to replicate.
The heat shock technique uses calcium chloride which creates a calcium rich environment, between the plasmid DNA and the bacterial cellular membrane the rich calcium environment cancels the electrostatic repulsion between them. In the bacteria pores are created as there was been a sudden increase in the temperature so this allows the entry of plasmid DNA to the bacterial cell. When the cell takes up the DNA it establishes itself to create a steady tranformant. In the practical the unknown strain of E.coli cells were added with calcium chloride and pre cooled in ice. The procedure is repeated twice and kept in ice. At the same time tube 1 which contains no plasmid DNA is prepared, tube 2 containing diluted plasmid B is prepared and tube 3 containing diluted plasmid BR is prepared.
The pre cold competent cells were added to the tubes 1 2 and 3 and mixed gently. As the cells are fragile, it is important to avoid using the vortex. After 15 minutes the tubes were shocked with hot water at 42°C. At this stage the cell membrane becomes thinner and plasmid DNA can enter the cell body. After 2 minutes the tubes were set in ice for 5 minutes to allow the cell membrane to recover. L broth is added to each tube and water bathed at 37°C for at least 20 minutes. After that cells in each tube were transferred LB amp plate spread and incubated overnight.
Practical 3
Agarose Gel electrophoresis is a common used method for analysing the size, purity, quantity and the sequence of DNA molecules and plasmid DNA molecules. Agarose is a polysaccharide it is a one of the components to agar and is extracted from red seaweed. It is also made up of anhydrous-galactose units. There are many reasons why the agarose gel is beneficial for gel electrophoresis. Between the polysaccharide unit’s non-covalent bonds are formed by the agarose gel. A sol state is formed as non-covalent bonds hold the structure of the agarose gel so it undergoes a phase transition at high temperature, When the running buffer and the agarose powder is mixed it creates the gel with later arrangement of the sol state at a higher temperature and also arranged cooling.
To start an agarose gel is prepared by the molten agarose being poured in the former. Wells are formed in the DNA sample for the DNA to be loaded by combs, they are then left for approximately 20 minutes to set. Once the gel has been set TBE buffer is used to carry a current and provide ions it is also able to maintain the Ph. As we know DNA is negatively charged, so when the electric field is applied for the period of electrophoresis there will be movement of the DNA towards the anode which is the positive pole. The sample loading wells be towards the negative pole which is the cathode, so when the gel is placed in the electrophoresis tank it is orientated.
A loading buffer solution is used to treat the plasmid sample before it is loaded on the gel. The density is increased of the sample as the loading buffer contains glycerol. DNA is able to travel towards the positive electrode as the larger fragments are slowed down in compare to the smaller fragments which is why they do not travel far. A band is also formed as all the fragments gather at a point and travel at more or less the same rate. So now when all the fragments have travelled and separated the different sized fragments, there is a dye known as SYBER-SAFE and this is used to visualise the DNA. When the dye is hit by a UV radiation there is an orange coloured fluorescent light. Finally, the UV trans illumination photographs the gel which contains the stained DNA molecules. A loading buffer completes the circuit as well as balances the pH in the gel.
Results
The transformed E. coli from tube 1, 2 and 3 were grown in the agar plate. Tube contained 0 colonies, tube 2 contained 300 colonies and tube 3 had contained 5 colonies. Tube 1 contained 0 colonies as it only contained buffer. Tube 2 had contained 300 colonies as it contained circular plasmid DNA. Tube 3 had only contained 5 colonies as it only contained linear DNA so the only way it may have contained colonies may have been contamination or mutation. From the results Tube C shows it did not travel far as the molecules were large or had a low molecular charge so they were not able pass through the gel network. Incomplete precipitation of the chromosomal DNA could be a possible error.
It is known that tube A contains no plasmid but tubes B and C contain plasmid. It is because the results show that there are 2 DNA bands on both tubes B and C but there are no DNA bands in tube A. The plasmid DNA which is within E. coli is in a circular form. The bands on the top of tubes B and C are known as nick DNA they were linearized by alkaline solutions and are not able to renature. Circular DNA is able to travel further as its shape causes less friction and it is smaller in size. The nick DNA does not travel far as it is in a linear form which causes more friction. And it has a larger molecular size.
Plasmid DNA in tube C is cleaved into two fragments by the restriction enzyme because it contains two recognition sequences. The band of the two fragments can travel further than the band of plasmid DNA C because they experience less resistance. Therefore, the band of the linear plasmid DNA C has lower position than circular plasmid DNA C. Whereas plasmid in tube B cleaves at only one recognition site the circular plasmid opens up forming a nick DNA. Which experience higher friction than the circular plasmid DNA. Therefore, circular plasmid DNA C can travel faster than the nick plasmid DNA C forming a band at a low position.
The marker X contains linear double stranded DNA with no molecular weight. When it is loaded in electrophoresis, the DNA with different molecular weight runs to different position and forms a DNA ladder. By comparing the bands of linear plasmid DNA from B and C with the ladder the molecular weight of the plasmids is known. Linear plasmid DNA of E. Coli B has a molecular weight of 3kbp. The linear plasmid DNA fragments have molecular weight of 4.7 and 5.3 kbp therefore the molecular weight of plasmid DNA C is 10 kbp
Discussion and Conclusion
Keep in mind:
This is only a sample.
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Get custom essayTo start most of the macro molecules such as the proteins, chromosomal DNA and high molecular weight RNA were all removed by the process of Alkaline Lysis. But from the results it has shown there was some macromolecules which had remained in tube C. The possible reason for the Tube C containing the macromolecules could be Tube B+ had the RNA degraded using the RNase. When the alkaline lysis experiment was performed there was no single stranded linear DNA when denaturing was done, and this has shown that there was control on the pH. 5 colonies of antibiotic resistant were grown on plate 3 by linearized plasmid B. There was linearized plasmid in tube BR but at low points the reason for this is there was no circular plasmid DNA seen in electrophoresis. Post inspection should be done on the colonies formed on the L-amp plate. When bacterial transformation had been carried out there may have been a chance some of the plasmid B which is linearized has merged with the chromosomal DNA.