The Great Wall of China Essay examples -- History Historical China Chi

The Great Wall of China To the northwest and north of Beijing, a huge, serrated wall zigzags it's way to the east and west along the undulating mountains. This is the Great Wall, which is said to be visible from the moon. This massive wall has not only been one of the Ancient Seven Wonders of the World, but it has also been inspiration for many artists, and writers. The building of the Great Wall is one of the biggest tragedies, but through this tragedy arose triumph with the wall, being so much to so many people. The Great Wall of China is much more than a wall, and was built for many reasons that are hidden to most. Construction of the Great Wall started in the 7th century B.C. The wall states that under the Zhou Dynasty in the northern parts of the country each built their own walls for defense purposes. After the state of Qin unified China in 221 B.C., it joined the walls to hold off the invaders from the Xiongnu tribes in the north and extended them to more than 10,000 li or 5,000 kilometers. This is the origin of the name of the "10,000-li Great Wall". (Karls, Robert 10,000-li Great Wall) To understand everything about the Great Wall it is necessary to know the many components of the wall, and their purposes. The Great Wall was renovated from time to time after the Qin Dynasty. A major renovation started with the founding of the Ming Dynasty in 1368, and took 200 years to complete. The wall we see today is almost exactly the result of this effort. With a total length of over 6,000 kilometers, it extends to the jiayu Pass in Gansu Province in the west and to the mouth of the Yalu River in Liaoning Province in the east. What lies north of Beijing is but a small section of it. (Karls) The Badaling section of the Great Wall snaking along the mountains northwest of Beijing was built at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty in the 14th century. Being 7.8 meters high and 5.8 meters wide at the top on the average, it has battle forts at important points, including the corners. (Karls) Located 10 kilometers south of the Badaling section of the Great Wall and built in an 18.5-kilometre-long valley, the pass has always been an important gateway northwest of Beijing. The name is believed to have its origin in the workers and slaves conscripted to build the Great Wall in ancient times. Cloud Terrace, built in 1345, was originally the base of a pagoda over... ...arwick Press, 1986 4. Kalman, Bobbie. China the Land. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company, 1989 5. Kan, Lao Po. The Ancient Chinese. London: Macdonald Educational   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Holywell House, 1981 6. Nancarrow, Peter. Early China and the Wall. Minneapolis: Lerner   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Publications Company, 1980 7. Overbeck, Cynthia. Thompson, Brenda. The Great Wall Of China.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Minneapolis: Lerner Publications Company, 1977 8. Toy, Sydney. A History of Fortification. London: William Heinemann,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  1955 9. Karls, Robert. 10,000-li Great Wall. New York, Crabtree Publishing Company, 1958 10. Forbes, Geraldine. Asian Studies. New York, Mifflin Company, 1993 11. China, A Country Study. United States Government, Federal Research Division, 1988; 11-15. 12. Twitchett, Denis and Loewe, Michael. The Cambridge History of China: Volume 1. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, England, 1986; 61- 63. 13. Twitchett, Denis. The Cambridge History of China: Volume 3. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, England, 1979; 56-59. 14. Ledoux, Trish. Ancient Civilizations: Sanfrancisco, Mixx publishers, 1984 15. Muyaka, Ho Chin, Huang River: New York, Penguin Publishers, 1994

Comparison Contrast of Death of a Salesman and Glengarry Ross

Sasha Schmidt Midterm Essay Question 4 Jeannine Russell 10/28/12 The True Criminal Being a salesman has always carried a negative stigma since the early 1900s. Being seen as pushy, high pressure, deceitful people; the dreaded activity of purchasing some car or new appliance has haunted everyone at some point or another. Many words have come to describe salesman such as â€Å"sharks†, â€Å"cons†, â€Å"thieves† etc. , and these words have stuck with the profession throughout the century. Two very realistic depictions of such phonies can be seen in Death of A Salesman by Arthur Miller and Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet.They depict the styles of two salesmen who have very similar selling techniques, but at the same time can be contrastingly different. Willy Loman, the protagonist of Death of a Salesman, is often regarded as a tragic figure with whom the audience feels sympathetic. At the same time, his deceitful, dishonest, adulterous ways are despised. In addi tion to this, his over confident attitude seems supercilious and creates more of a disdain for the character as can be seen when he says â€Å"Goddammit, I could sell them! † (Miller 1071). The same can be said as Mamet’s character, Shelly Levene, starts declaring how great of a seller he was.Basking in his own light he boldly exclaims that his success as a salesman is due not to his luck but his skill†( Mamet 1419). Both characters often times talk about how back in the day they were great assets of the company â€Å"averaging a hundred and seventy dollars a week in commissions† (p. 1089) and â€Å"Cold calling. Nothing. Sixty-five, when we were there†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Mamet 1419). Both characters meet their tragic ends as they realize that their deceitful and deceptive nature, the facade of great selling they lived behind, is a shattered reality. All both of them want is a chance and to live like they did in the old days and both are denied the chance.Whil e their characters mimic each other, the selling techniques of these two are completely different. Willy’s approach is to go in making natural conversation and the client feel as if they are human. Much to his chagrin is the new reality he is facing, where â€Å"it’s all cut and dried, and there’s no chance for bringing friendship to bear†(Miller 1089). In contrast, Levene takes on the role of â€Å"cut and dried† sales techniques, often using his other associates as pretend clients in order to just make the sell, whether or not he’s tricking extorting money out of his clients.Right from the beginning, he is trying to con â€Å"leads† out of Williamson, his supervisor. â€Å"†¦ I need the leads†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , he boldly tells Williamson who reluctantly begins to make him a deal (Mamet 1418). Right from the get go, Leven is already using the manipulation techniques he uses day in and day out on his co-workers even. Loman pushes hi s honest, integrity, and personality traits as the key to selling success, though we see an obvious decline in his selling abilities compared to the others. That being said, both characters are still very flawed with illusions of owning their own companies and waiting for the right client to come along.They both still have some nasty personality traits and are still putting on a facade to trick people; however, Willy Loman is tricking his family while Shelly Levene is tricking his consumers. Hard selling is a selling technique in which the salesman manipulates the psychological state of the consumer in order to achieve a sale, whether or not the sale is good (Baron & Branscombe). There is little concern for the consumer at all, in fact, often times the seller knows that the consumer is going to be placed into a bad situation, but they specifically rely on the ego-depletion of these buyers.They use a variation of techniques such as door-in-the-face and foot-in-the door just to name a few (Baron & Branscombe). Miller and Mamet depict this from the salesman’s side. They place this psychologically demanding technique at fault of the company, who requires them to sell a goal amount or face termination from the job. Such fear could incite higher pressure selling techniques, which actually make the consumer and the seller feel uncomfortable.Mamet and Miller criticize such deceptive techniques through their plays, highlighting the negative effects (the destruction of the central unit) and exacerbating the flaws of the technique. The role of a salesman has been part of America since the very beginning. With its recent revolution in the 1900s, it has now been associated with a negative stereotype often depicted by movies, literature, and plays. While there might be individual differences in the selling techniques, sellers are all perceived the same: dishonest, deceitful, and as con artists.Such a stigma created by their lack of concern after the sell has been mad e often reconfirms this stereotype. These prejudices notwithstanding, society often places a high demand on consumerism to help the economy and pushing the achievement of the American dream. Miller and Mamet uncover the treacheries of the salesman industry leaving the question as to whom the true criminal is : society or the salesman. Works Cited Jacobus, Lee A. The Bedford Introduction to Drama. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009. Print. Baron, Robert A. , and Nyla R. Branscombe. Social Psychology. Boston: Pearson, 2012. Print.

Identity Impacts Medical Ethics and Genocide - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1438 Downloads: 7 Date added: 2019/02/20 Category Medicine Essay Level High school Tags: Medical Ethics Essay Did you like this example? In The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, he depicts the idea of slavery and racism through the creation of Cora’s journey to freedom. Whitehead expresses the importance of ones’ identity with the use of imagery in order to describe the impact an identity can have. Ones character and physical traits uniqueness can be a determining factor of how an individual is treated by the majority. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Identity Impacts Medical Ethics and Genocide" essay for you Create order Whitehead is able to utilize his skill of imagery to create scenes in the reader’s mind to describe the hardships a slave has to go through. To show the struggles of a slave, in this case the point of view of Cora, Whitehead takes the audience on an adventure using The Underground Railroad as a metaphor to make it seem as a literal form of transportation showing Cora’s gradual progress towards freedom. Each state represents a new chapter filled with oppressing obstacles that she has to overcome. Some of the many discriminating barriers Whitehead describes are the experiences of medical unfairness and genocide due to the uncontrollable identity Cora has as a black woman. Although the Underground Railroad’s concept itself was real, the physical train was nonexistent. The idea behind secret codes, rendezvous, and private organizations was used in the process of helping the slaves, as a unique twist, Colson Whitehead decided to have a different take on the aid of the escapees and implement the additional representation of an operating train. Respectively, the horizontal journey Cora chose between train routes allowed her to get to her goal and pave her pathway to where Cora finally arrives, freedom. The Underground Railroad was successful and helped approximately 100,000 slaves escape, â€Å"The tunnel, the tracks, the desperate souls who found salvation in the coordination of its stations and timetables this was a marvel to be proud of.† (Whitehead, 68). The slaves would not have been able to escape if it wasn’t for the help of the morally good people who stood up for what they believed in and participated in the operation of the Underground Railroad. People who aided the slaves were also heavily at risk with punishment identical to what slaves would have received if caught, which includes torture and death. This was because â€Å"The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 also outlawed the abetting of fugitive slaves.† (Eastern Illinois University). If a slave were able to escape to a different state, but was eventually caught, slave catchers would have the right to be able to bring them back to their master’s plantation, backtracking and halting a complete stop to their getaway. The uncertain destiny of the slaves taking each train route represented the risk the slaves took being dependant on a line that was unsure of their outcomes. In South Carolina, Whitehead is able to express a homey feeling and sense of settling for Cora that she may have found her forever home. â€Å"they had gained a few pounds, earned wages, and begun to forget the daily sting of the plantation.† (Whitehead 104). The image of her having a daily monotonous life of going to work and having a home to go back to gives us a sense that Cora has warmed up to and found comfort in South Carolina. Whitehead proceeds to illustrate the continuous separation between whites and blacks, but specifically in the medical aspect of society. With the daily medical checkups Cora receives, she proceeds cautiously and questions some of the doctor’s recommendations. Later, Whitehead reveals the real intentions of the doctor’s, which is to gain research and knowledge to use against black people; â€Å"What if we tempered those bloodlines carefully overtime? The data collected on the colored pilgrims†¦ will prove one of the boldest scie ntific enterprises in history†¦ the perfection of new surgical techniques on the socially unfit.† (Whitehead, 122.) It shows that the whites can never wholeheartedly trust the blacks and feels the need to keep an eye on them, let alone change and mold them into something they aren’t. Whitehead’s concept of medical ethics such as beneficence is out the window when it’s regarding black people, the whites intend to use the blacks as a practice subject for their own malicious reasons. In addition to whites wanting to change blacks, they wanted to ensure that the black population stops growing. Cora is specifically targeted for â€Å"strategic sterilization† (Whitehead, 122.) because she is a woman minority, capable of reproducing and adding to the continuous â€Å"overflowing† of blacks. Whitehead illustrates the strength doctors have over patients because of the ethical trust placed upon them. The Tuskegee syphilis experiment is a prime example of how past doctors had an ulterior motive and selectively choose who they wanted to help, â€Å"The subjects were not informed about their disease and were denied treatment even though proven cure in the form of penicillin was available by the 1950s.† (Thiele). Although whites were treated, low-income African Americans were denied in order to be monitored and used as â€Å"human experimental subjects† by the doctors reasoning to â€Å"to observe the ‘natural’ course of the disease.† (Thiele). People tend to believe that doctors have a high standard to live up to and to have professionalism when doing their jobs which is why they seek guidance, but instead, the reliability upon doctors can actually backfire as they take advantage of the opportunities that the uninformed patients give them in order to be in control and do what is beneficial for themselves. The ending of each chapter has a cliffhanger that keeps you on your toes wondering what will happen next. The buildup Whitehead produces gives the audience a suspenseful reading, he again creates a thriving environment, but this time on the Valentine farm in Tennessee. Instead of the medical aspect of society, this chapter focuses more on the revenge and hatred of blacks that leads to genocide. Uniting as one, blacks can become extremely powerful, and when they do work together, they can overpower the slave catchers. Escaping the threshold of Ridgeway, a notorious slave catcher, through the help of fellow escapees, Cora retries to build a life on the farm. Overtime, she becomes more hopeful towards the Valentine community, â€Å"She’d been adamant about staying ever since the talk of resettling started.† (Whitehead, 281). As she lowers her guard, she can actually see herself living a life there. Just when Cora is slowly able to ease in, Whitehead inserts the plot twist downfall of it all, the annihilation of the farm community. The slave catchers sought revenge and barged into the farm shooting and killing everyone on sight, â€Å"No one knew where best to run, and no reasonable voice could be heard above the clamor. Each person on their own, as they ever had been.† (Whitehead, 288). The rescued slaves grew comfortable on the farm and had their guards down, allowing the slave catchers to seize this moment and kill anyone they got their hands on. Genocide occurs when perpetrators go to an extreme extent to get rid of their problems, in this case the conflict between the slave catchers and escapees. Slaves offered an economic system for their masters and when they did not provide or hindered the product of money, they were punished; â€Å" the â€Å"inferior† races were associated with unwaged labor, while the â€Å"superior† race, and indeed whiteness itself, was linked with wage as well as with institutional power within colonial administration.† (Nemser, 6). The use of blacks as labor to work for whites shows the impact of ones identity, inferior groups are categorized because of the differences from the main population. The conflicting beliefs or morals contribute to hierarchy and positioning in society; it is due to the identity of a pers on, in those times, focused on race as the determining factor. Colson Whitehead’s characterization of Cora allowed the train to come through as a a progressing adventure of her goal to freedom. Often times, he builds a pleasant community by the use of imagery in order to get his point across that not everything is what it seems on the surface. This was proven in both South Carolina and Tennessee showing Cora’s struggles regarding medical ethics and genocide. Cora is experiencing these barriers due to her identity as a black woman. The majority, white people, focuses on the discrimination of people who are different. It gives them a sense of superiority to put down minorities and gives them an opportunity to selfishly do what is beneficial for them. Overall, Whitehead’s take on the Underground Railroad allows the audience to get a sense of troubles such as medical and social discrimination a woman slave had to go through.