Analysis of a Job Advert and My Employability Skills Essay Example for Free

Analysis of a Job Advert and My Employability Skills Essay Describe the qualifications required: GCSE A*-C standard English and Maths, this is essential because you need to be able to simple adding and English is a necessity because you need to be able to read and speak fluent English. To have a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) Level 1 or 2 in customer service you can also have a food safety certificate. Describe the level of experience in a similar role required: To have a previous experience at least 1 year or 2 year in a quality restaurant or bar. Describe the level of experience in the industry required: N/A Describe the knowledge of goods and services required: To have good knowledge about the Restaurant and other department’s hotels. Describe the level of effectiveness in meeting personal and team targets required: Ensure that you have a high level of effectiveness in meeting personal and targets so that you are happy for the job and show appreciation to the job. Describe the level of ability to observe and raise professional standards required: The level of ability should be high because you will need to be able to show individual courtesy to customers for example if there is a bad product on the shelf you tell them immediately and they will get you a better product. Personal Skills Organisation Name: Frontline Role: Food and Beverage Assistant Describe the amount if patience required: Good interpersonal and customer facing skills, maintain professionalism, display patience and politeness within a busy environment are some of the skills required. Describe the level of hard work required: Candidates must be reliable, flexible and have a ‘can do’ attitude. You must have good attention to detail, ability to work within a close team and also work with minimal supervision. Describe the level of ability to work as part of a team: Candidates must show the ability to have an excellent work ethic and be part of a team as required. Describe the level of good interpersonal skills required: Interpersonal skills are essential when socialising with colleagues and friends. Interpersonal skills include everything from communication and listening skills to attitude and deportment. Describe the level of cooperation with line managers and colleagues required: Line managers play a vital role in businesses as their duties are to ensure that activities are planned and organised in their area that involve a significant risk to the health and safety of staff. Candidates must cooperate effectively to line managers at all times. Describe the level of negotiation in seeking agreement with customers required: Negotiation is essential with customers as potential candidates must be able to negotiate with customers effectively and try to provide the best prices as possible to the customer. Describe the attributes you already possess or expect to posess by the end of course: 1. I will develop the habit of meeting deadlines. 2. I will develop my planning skills in order to prioritise myself for my coursework deadlines. 3. I will try to participate in all team/group activities. 4. I will ensure to communicate effectively with my team mates 5. I will try to practice my presentational skills effectively. 6. I will try to develop my patience. 7. I will try to organise myself by bringing the right equipment to lessons. 8. I will time manage my work and try to ensure to hand all coursework in on time. 9. I will ensure to use my essay skills effectively 10. I will ensure problem solving skills are used to the best ability.

Contributions that can be made by emotional literacy for social and emotional wellbeing of childrens

Contributions that can be made by emotional literacy for social and emotional wellbeing of childrens How can parents and carers, schools and communities aid the social and emotional wellbeing of children? Discuss what contribution can be made by emotional literacy. For many years, the emphasis on childhood as evolved on the cognitive and physical aspects of child development. Recently, more attention has been given on the emotional and social welfare of childrens development. Childrens emotional maturity and immaturity on their personal happiness, performance and behaviour has finally been recognised, as a consequence, this is currently being recognised by schemes such as, The Healthy Schools Initiative. The Healthy Schools Initiative contributes significantly to emotional health and well-being. All children deserve the opportunity to achieve their full potential. This is set this out in the five Every Child Matters (ECM) outcomes that are key to children and young peoples well-being: The five outcomes are: * Stay safe * Be healthy * Enjoy and achieve * Make a positive contribution * Achieve economic well-being To achieve ECM, The HM document states children need to feel loved and valued, and be supported by a network of reliable and affectionate relationships. If they are denied the opportunity and support they need to achieve these outcomes, children are at increased risk not only of an impoverished childhood, but also of disadvantage and social exclusion in adulthood (HM Government, 2006, pg 32). In a nutshell, the promotion of positive emotional health and well-being helps young people and children to build their confidences and express their feelings. It embeds the understanding and their capacity to learn effectively. Emotional literacy is the ability to understand ourselves and others and to be aware of, understand and to use information about the emotional states of others with competence. It includes the ability to understand, express and manage our own emotions, and respond to the emotions of others, in ways that are helpful to ourselves and others. Developing the Emotionally Literate School (Weare, 2004) Emotional Intelligence is linked to The Nuturing Programme. The programme origniated in the United States as a result of research undertaken by Dr Strephen J. Bavolek who pioneered in the prevention of child abuse and neglect and the development of family life. The progamme aims to enable children to become emotionally literate by exploring ideas which can contribute to learning to mange our emotions. Learning these skills can improve our motivation, help us feel good about ourselves and explores ideas for managing our emotions. Learning these skills can contribute to building self-esteem, which is crucial to provide positive attitude towards living. This is important as it controls how you think, the way you act and more importantly, how you relate to other people. Consequently, emotional literacy leads to emotional health; this health can have a huge impact on your potential to be successful in every aspect of life. All ingredients for emotional literacy are reflected in the Nurturing programme. The programme offers an effective way of encouraging co-operative behaviour, which empowers both parent/carer and children. It is also an emotional literacy programme. It is therefore crucial to state, that as a facilitator we need to reflect upon our own level of emotional literacy, as we cannot help others to become more emotionally literate unless we are emotional literate ourselves. We are all born with emotional intelligence and naturally, wired to our brains. However, how this emotional literacy develops depends on the kind of relationships they have and the adults caring for them. There are five elements of emotional literacy reflect the key principles of the Nurturing Programme. These are required in order to develop and become emotionally literate. Family Links quotes these key principles as:  · Knowing our emotions Self-awareness recognising a feeling as it happens is the first stage. We can eventually learn to stay aware, simply noticing the emotion rather than being overwhelmed by it, however turbulent we may be feeling at the time. This takes a lot of practice!  · Managing our emotions Handling our feelings builds on our awareness of them. Its helpful if we have ways of reassuring ourselves when were feeling anxious, calming down when were angry, soothing ourselves when we are upset, and so on. Every feeling has its value and significance theyre signposts to whats going on in our lives. The ratio of comfortable to painful feelings determines our emotional well-being.  · Motivating ourselves Harnessing our emotions to help us identify our goals and reach them helps us to achieve our aims. If we are kindly in charge of our emotions, rather than being overwhelmed by them, we can also take charge of our actions. We can guide our behaviour positively, and also resist the lure of instant gratification in other words, we develop self-discipline.  · Recognising emotions in others Empathy, the ability to be sensitively aware of what another person is feeling, is the most important people skill of all, and essential for satisfying relationships. Children who are treated with empathy and respect will grow up to be empathic and respectful towards others. * Handling relationships Building on empathy, the art of relationships is based on skill in coping with emotions in others while also managing and expressing our own effectively having good communication skills. Emotionally skilled people are great to be with because we enjoy their rapport. People who have these skills are easy to trust with our feelings, and learning these skills ourselves enhances all our relationships. (Family Links, 2004) Contained in the Nurture programme are four constructs, which fundamentally become the programmes building blocks. All the approaches, strategies and ideas in the Nurturing Programme are based on these four key concepts as outlined by Family Links:  · Self-awareness and self-esteem The art of self-awareness is to know ourselves well what we do and dont like, what our needs are, how we feel. If we are sensitive towards ourselves, its easier to look after our needs. Nurturing ourselves by meeting our own needs helps to boost our self-esteem, making it easier for us to nurture others and particularly to help children develop their self-awareness and a healthy, positive self-esteem.  · Appropriate expectations Children grow up in different ways: physically, intellectually, socially and emotionally. We need to match our expectations to what they can actually do. They learn all the thousands of skills at different rates. What one child finds easy another child of the same age might find hard. If we expect too much or too little of them, children tend to become rebellious, frustrated and angry, or to give up in despair. It is helpful to them if we recognise each small step in their learning.  · Positive discipline All children need discipline to learn what behaviour is OK and what is not. Positive discipline focuses on praise, rewarding their efforts, giving choices, negotiating and awarding responsibility. There are also fair penalties for poor behaviour. It makes life more enjoyable for adults and children, and helps to build self-esteem. Negative discipline, on the other hand, uses punishment and fear; it is stressful for everyone. There is convincing evidence to suggest that developing the social and emotional competence of children and young people leads to improved well-being, self-esteem, pro-social behaviour and higher achievement.  · Empathy This is the cornerstone of the Nurturing Programme. Empathy is the ability to sense how someone else is feeling, to tune in to their emotional point of view. We dont have to agree with what the other person thinks just to be sensitive to the way they feel, and to accept it. An empathic response to a childs inner world, to their excitement, frustrations and fears, fosters a close, trusting relationship, and helps them learn to respond sensitively towards others (Family Links, 2004) The author works with children weekly within the school environment. The work centres on supporting the development of childrens personal, social, emotional and behavioural growth. The aim is to: * Raise childrens self awareness * Develop healthy self esteem and confidence * Help children to manage their emotions and behaviour/social difficulties * Improve motivation and improve learning opportunities in and out of school The children work on individual targets, and sessions help them practice the skills they require to meet these targets both within class and all areas of their lives. A balance of role models promote group dynamics and peer support. A wide range of techniques are used within the session which includes: * Art focused work * Structured play * Drama * Counselling approaches * Relaxation, visualisation and reflection exercises * Circle time discussions * Reflection exercises Parent/carers play a huge role in their childs social and emotional well-being. It is important in its own right, simply because it can affect their physical health for both the child and parent/carer and can have a detrimental effect on how well the child does at school. Therefore, good social, emotional and psychological health protects children from emotional and behavioral problems, misuse of drugs and alcohol, for example. Therefore, it is equally important to pay attention to the social and emotional skills that children develop in their earliest years, as it will enable them to succeed through the transition from primary to secondary school and into adulthood. In a nutshell, responsibility for school readiness lies not with the child, but with the parent/carers who care for them and the educational systems in place to support them. Critically, intervention may not be successful with all children and families, especially those with Special Educational Needs (SEN), English as an Additional Language (EAL) and a withdrawn and shy child. One must take into account the dynamics of the group and these must be taken into account when actively planning intervention. Therefore, group work may not be the appropriate solution, therefore one to one teaching may be a useful strategy in order to provide intervention. This work complements existing national initiatives to promote social and emotional well-being. It should be considered in the context of the Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) programme and related community-based initiatives. These initiatives stress the importance of such programmes to enable children to participate fully in the development to ensure their views are heard. To conclude, we are now beginning to understand that by providing these enriched environments children and young people are more able to develop emotional intelleigence and maturity far more effectively than they used too. Many schools, like mine, is putting so much empahisis into the development, simply because it leads to so many benefits. Therefore, schools are finding ways to explicitly place emotional literacy at the heart of the curriculum with their approach to learning, teaching, delivery, behavoiur and well-being. Staff are being specificially training and coaching enable them to put the theory into practice. It is important to stress, virtually all the interventions described, only work if they are embedded in the whole community. Those efforts can promote resilience and build the strengths that already exist in the family and the community. References DCSF, (2008) Every Child Matters Resources-and-Practice, Nottingham: DfES Publications, (online), extracted from http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/deliveringservices/caf/ (Accessed 8th Feb 2010) Family Links The Nurturing Programme Handbook for Parent Group Leaders, 2004 Weare, K, Developing the Emotionally Literate School, London: Paul Chapman Publishing, 2004 Knowledge and understanding of: * 1.2 the emotional, physical, intellectual, social and moral lives of children aged 0-12 as they develop and experience transitions in their lives. Cognitive skills: * 2.4 identify and re ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡ect on own values and positions and those of others, and assess their relationships to policy and practice. Practical and professional skills: * 4.3 develop communication and engagement skills that could be applied to work with children * 4.4 understand the importance of sharing information and developing critical analytical practice that will contribute to a) listening to children b) promoting childrens wellbeing and c) multi-agency working with children and families. After many years of emphasis on the cognitive and physical aspects of childhood development, recently more attention has been focused on the social and emotional developmental cycles of children. The impact of a childs relative emotional maturity or immaturity on their behaviour, performance and personal happiness is finally being recognised. Furthermore, the issue of mental (emotional) health has been acknowledged as part of schemes such as The Healthy Schools Initiative. Against a background of increasing social exclusion, a worrying trend in diminishing self-esteem in teenage boys, and increasing numbers of children being recognised as having additional learning needs or presenting challenging behaviour, there is a growing pressure to find solutions. A childs capacity to learn and grow depends to a very significant extent on their ability to manage personal and social tasks. Without the ability to be aware of their emotional states and self-management skills to contain and handle these, their work will suffer. Without the ability to be aware of others, what they are feeling and to practise relationship management skills, their friendships and social support will vanish. There has also been a steady rise in recognition of the importance of sound self-esteem for children. This recognition has emerged through psychological studies into the aetiology of behaviour disorders, learning difficulties and other disturbances to the steady development and maturation of children. This has coincided with research into human Emotional Intelligence and the development of emotional literacy training programmes. Emotional Intelligence is now known to play a very significant part in achieving goals set, as well as being the foundation for personal satisfaction. Many gifted educators and child-care workers have already developed excellent emotional literacy programmes to support and develop children at every level of need. These enable children to learn the skills and abilities to give them greater emotional awareness, more emotional control and strong relationship building skills. This in turn leads to higher emotional intelligence, and usually, sound self-esteem.http://www.schoolofemotional-literacy.com/content.asp?ArticleCode=147 We now understand that by providing these environments, together with specific training and coaching in personal and social skills, we can enable children and young people to develop emotional maturity far more effectively than we could before. Many schools believe that emotional intelligence can and must be developed because it leads to so many benefits. They are therefore finding ways to explicitly place emotional literacy at the heart of their approach to learning, teaching, achieving, behaviour change and well-being. The environments that encourage emotional and social competence are: * an enriched physical environment * an enriched emotional environment. Aspects of emotional literacy The various aspects of emotional literacy as described by Katherine Weare in her book Developing the Emotionally Literate School are outlined here. Self-understanding: * having an accurate and positive view of ourselves * having a sense of optimism about the world and ourselves * having a coherent and continuous life story. Understanding and managing emotions: * experiencing the whole range of emotions * understanding the causes of our emotions * expressing our emotions appropriately * managing our responses to our emotions effectively: for example, managing our anger, controlling our impulses * knowing how to feel good more often and for longer * using information about emotions to plan and solve problems * resilience: processing, and bouncing back from, difficult experiences. Understanding social situations and making relationships: * forming attachments to other people * experiencing empathy for others * communicating with others and responding effectively * managing our relationships effectively * being autonomous, independent and self-reliant. Every parent, every politician, and every teacher want young children to enter kindergarten ready to succeed. Often the focus is on cognitive skills, early literacy, or early math, and indeed there are exciting new developments in early education. But it is equally important to pay attention to the social and emotional skills that young children develop in their earliest years. These skills-how children manage their feelings, follow directions, concentrate, relate to other children and to teachers, and approach learning-will enable them to succeed as they transition to kindergarten and first grade. . Importantly, virtually all the interventions described here work best if they are embedded in a larger community effort to promote resilience and build on the strengths that exist in families and communities. Four core assumptions shaped the guide: * The family plays the most important role in a young childs life. * Responsibility for school readiness lies not with children, but with the adults who care for them and the systems that support them. * The first 5 years of life are a critical developmental period. * Child development occurs across equally important and interrelated domains-physical and motor, social and emotional, language, and cognitive. The guide is intended to be especially useful for: * Child care providers, preschool and kindergarten teachers, and others who work directly with young children and their families. * Families and school readiness coordinators and administrators involved in organizing early childhood school readiness and early literacy campaigns. * Family support advocates and others who provide support to parents and other caregivers (e.g., grandparents and foster parents) of young children. * Community leaders and coalitions who understand the importance of reaching out to young children and families to ensure early school success. * Mental health and other professionals who want to do more to ensure that young children and families get help when they need it. Section I answers frequently asked questions about why it is important to pay attention to social and emotional development as part of school readiness. Section II provides examples of the resources that are available to help programs and community planners as they seek, intentionally, to promote social and emotional school readiness. It is organized in three parts: * Resources to Help Parents describes resources and strategies that can help parents, particularly low-income parents and others raising young children, promote healthy emotional development in young children. * Resources to Help Child Care Providers and Teachers describes resources and strategies that can help child care providers and teachers promote healthy social and emotional development and school readiness. * Resources to Help Young Children and Families Facing Special Stresses describes resources and strategies that can promote resilience in the most stressed young children and families so that these children, too, can enter school ready to succeed. Each part provides examples of specific resources that can be embedded into and adapted to particular program and community circumstances. Section II of this guide highlights several informal and community-based approaches that bring families and community leaders together to develop preventive strategies, connect existing resources better, and take action around high-priority challenges to promote early school success for all young children in the community. The guide concludes in Section III with a set of questions to guide community action and 10 principles to guide action. This guide complements Spending Smarter: A Funding Guide for Policymakers and Advocates to Promote Social and Emotional Health and School Readiness, as well as a series of issue briefs that the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) has developed over the past several years. (For more information, see Appendix B or www.nccp.org.) Both documents recognize that for every young child to enter school ready to succeed, focusing solely on supporting the early physical, emotional, and cognitive development of young children is not enough. There must also be powerful and sustained attention to ensuring that families can earn enough to support their children, to improving the overall quality of child care and early learning experiences, and es- pecially to ensuring that when young children enter schools, the schools are ready for them. However, the guide also recognizes that for some young children and families, without intentional strategies that are focused on social and emotional well-being, even ready schools and ready communities may not be enough. http://www.nccp.org/publications/pub_648.html

Collection of Film Review Examples

Collection of Film Review Examples Shane Meadows is known to make movies about his own experiences. This is England is no exception. The idea for the movie came from the director s childhood, and it is the most personal film Shane Meadows has made so far, as he said himself. In an interview at the British Film Institutes Southbank theatre in April, Meadows talked about his upbringing. Yeah, every moment of joy in my life usually stunk of sadness. Every time I was just about to get somewhere someone stuck a dart up my arse. Thats how I remember growing up in Uttoxeter. When things were at their shittest, people seemed to be at their best and when things were at their best, people seemed to be at their worst The film starts with a sequence of clips, introducing the viewer to England in 1983. When watching the intro, I got the feeling I am about to see some kind of documentary, due to the footage being shown. The mise en scene is outstanding in this piece C to be perfectly honest, I was silly enough to believe it was actually shot in 1983 in the beginning, which makes me extremely embarrassed. The careful casting, costumes, sets and props makes it hard to believe the film was actually shot in 2006, which makes the story much more believable and easier to get into. The piece is put together extremely well and the soundtrack comprises of the hits from the eighties, which sets the mood perfectly. The main character is alone in the beginning C he doesnt really have friends, he is being bullied at school, he gets in a fight with a boy, who makes fun of his dead father. Although the movie talks about some really serious issues like gang culture and racism, lack of jobs and immigration, it still manages to make you smile, like the bit when Shaun comes back home to his mother and complains about his trousers. This way not only are you amused and it takes off the depressing mood in the movie, but it also feels more real, less movie-like. The movie is a typical coming-of-age sort of piece, where the main protagonist changes and matures as the story unfolds. His story basically starts when he crosses paths with skinheads and discovers belonging to a group makes things easier. They go out hunting together, and this comes from a real story of the director s childhood. The group he joins is relatively harmless C compared to what lies ahead. The good days don t last long C soon enough, Combo comes back from prison and steps up as the leader of the group. There is a feeling of tension building and although we see Shaun developing attachment to Combo, who is now like the father figure the boy never had, there is a strong feeling something will go seriously wrong. Soon everything goes from a group of youngsters, fooling around, to Shaun attending a National Front meeting. For me, a person, who isn t too political, this movie is also educating C seeing what life and politics were like in 1983. In the movie we see Shaun becoming a man in a very short period of time. A very important scene in This is England is when Shaun gets his cross tattoo. The director, Shane Meadows, has the exact same tattoo on the same finger. This marks Shaun, as a worthy member of the Skinheads, who agrees to stay in the group for the rest of his life. Although Shaun is now Combos protegee   and receives his undivided attention, we see that his relationship is starting to become dangerous and Combo is a bad influence on the young boy. Silly hunting games that Shaun used to play with the previous skinhead group turn into real acts of violence in Combo s. It must be noted that the performance by Stephen Graham, who plays Combo, is simply astonishing C when the group robs the shop, the intimidation and hatred he created were so real and believable, for one moment there I got into the action so much, I was scared for the shop owner s life, only to realize it s just an actor. In my opinion, Combo is just as important as Shaun, because the complexity of Combo s character is what drives the story. One second he is talking to Milky with respect and treating him like a brother, the other, he bursts out and beats him to death, which shows Shaun the real face of his beloved idol, when the latter unleashes his fury even upon his close friends. The piece ends with a reference to 400 blows , which is another coming-of-age film. The main character Shaun runs to the sea, which is considered to be a symbol of freedom and throws the England flag into the water, freeing himself and making clear that he is not coming back to the group. The last shot, exactly like in 400 blows , is him, looking up at the camera, making a connection with a viewer. After all, this is exactly what Shane Meadows intended to do in the first place. Pierrot Le Fou by Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard always said that he doesn t really plan his movies too carefully, and he does not intentionally leave any secret messages in them. It is all up to the viewer, to make what he or she wants of it. After watching it I think Pierrot Le Fou is one of those films that you either hate or love and it is definitely not for everyone C the plot here can be confusing sometimes and the main characters hard to understand. Also, there are references to Vietnam War, which I didn t even notice and thought it was another random element of the main characters fooling around. The movie is about Ferdinand and Marianne, a complicated couple who decide to run away together. They find each other, two misfits, and realize they want to isolate themselves from the fake reality they live in. This is really well portrayed in the beginning of the movie. We see Ferdinand in a party, which looks a lot like a parody for TV commercials. The guests are talking about different products in such manner you would expect to find in a commercial. The effect of it all being fake and distant to Ferdinand is also strengthened with experimental lighting. I think one of the most brilliant scenes in the movie is at the same party, when Ferdinand meets a movie director and talks about cinema with him. This is obviously self-referential, but it was also brilliant to observe the misconnection between the two of them, because of the language barrier. The funny thing is, when Ferdinand asks the American director what is cinema, although the woman translates the sentence completely wrong, asking about his movie, not cinema in general, his answer, in my opinion, is exactly right. It is a battleground. It is love. Hate. Action. Violence and death. One word C emotions. This conversation, that might not leave a big impression on the others, left me in awe of the script-writing for Pierrot Le Fou . Another thing that I realized is the lighting changing, when he moves on from the TV-ad conversation to the American director. It goes from red, which is usually considered a colour of danger, alarm, awareness to green, which is soothing, nature-like. It is another way of the director showing that Ferdinand is very interested and comfortable talking about the arts. The colour scheme in Pierrot le Fou is very important; I would say that at some points the colours even tell the story better than the action. I noticed two leading colours, which represent the main characters C red and blue. Blue is Ferdinand s colour C he is often shot next to the blue sky, or the sea, he drives a blue car and even paints his face blue, before committing suicide. I think the blue also represents his character, quite calm, relaxed, and even cold sometimes. Red, on the other hand, is the complete opposite and it is the colour of Marianne C she drives a red car, wears red clothes, and is simply a vivid, energetic character. Another important colour in the film is yellow, which is represents jealousy and betrayal. Toward the end of the movie, we see the exchange of the colours C Ferdinand s head, wrapped in a red scarf, when being tortured; symbolizing the fact that it s all happening because of his relationship with Marianne. Also, the couple exchanging cars and Ferdinand starting to wear a bright red shirt. When Ferdinand and Marianne separate, after Marianne taking the briefcase with her, we notice yellow flowers in the background. When Ferdinand approaches the dock, where Marianne is leaving on a boat, with her new lover, on his way there, red and yellow are dominating in the background. Ferdinand reaches the dock, where a single yellow barrel is standing, as he watches the woman he loves running away with another man. The next shot of him is approaching a man sitting the ground, singing. We now see yellow taking over, as it is seen, as Ferdinand walks with his head down. When he is on the boat, in the front there is a big yellow box, as if it was telling us that jealousy is driving him to the island. Ferdinand is walking through a field and singing Do you love me at the same time as he passes yellow flowers. The yellow starts to dominate again, as he approaches and shoots Marianne. The climax of this is Ferdinand s suicide, when he is wearing the red shirt, painting his face blue, and wrapping himself with red and yellow dynamite, which represents Marianne s betrayal. Pierrot Le Fou is definitely now one of my favourite films of all time, and has so many different sides to it, that to decode the whole piece would take me an eternity, but I guess that is one of the reasons why I fell in love with it. Meshes of the Afternoon by Maya Deren Although I am not a big fan of surrealism, Maya Deren s film had much more meaning to me, than Dali s and Bunuel s work. Meshes of the Afternoon , in my opinion, was less random, more carefully set and the symbols carefully picked to convey a message. It s a movie about a woman s state of mind, her dream world and her reality mixing together in the end. This film, just like many surrealism films, is an experience C you cannot watch it like you would watch a drama or a comedy. You could call it brain exercise, if you wish. Throughout the film there are a lot of symbols and the randomness at first might seem pointless, but the production is made really carefully. The film starts with a flower, put in the middle of the road by a long female hand. We instantly realize this is not going to be an ordinary movie C both time and space are distorted C the hand comes from nowhere, and suddenly disappears. The flower, of course, symbolizes beauty, love and femininity. Soon after this we see a woman picking up the flower, which indicates it is a piece about her and her place, as a woman. The fact we do not see the main character s face, creates tension and curiosity about her intentions. As she tries to open the door, she loses the key and it falls all the way down the stairs. To me the key probably symbolizes answers, freedom and solutions. She enters the house and sees things scattered all over the place C newspapers, a knife and a telephone. Once again, I can only interpret it in my own way C a knife is an obvious danger, also a possible symbol of a phallus. A telephone is probably a representation of the main character s connection, in this case C with herself. When she goes upstairs, she sees a window open, which also can be interpreted as a symbol of freedom and escape. She notices a record player working, but not making any noise. I cannot really explain why, but to me the record player symbolizes her own life C it is playing, but there is no music, no purpose, so she turns it off. Maya Deren keeps jumping from one place to another C just like it would be in a dream. As we see the world through her eyes, she turns her head and finds herself in a whole different room. This is all done to disrupt any feeling of order and continuity. When she falls asleep, in her dreams, we see the cloaked figure for the first time. After seeing the whole movie I can only interpret it as the symbol of death, the Grim Reaper. This creature has a mirror for a face and it makes me wonder whether the main character is following it, because she is desperate to look at the mirror and see her true self. The cloaked figure is moving really slowly and the main character is running, but she cannot get even close to catching up with it. This represents her conflicted persona and the difficult state her mind is in. When she comes back to the house once again, the knife is now on the stairway, in her way, indicating that it is unavoidable that she uses it. After this we have a sequence of shots, which adds to the feeling of a dream C slow motion of her footsteps, tilted camera angles as she climbs up the stairs. Once again, the feeling of continuity is disrupted, as she enters the room through the window. The main character discovers the telephone and the knife on the bed, which creates a feeling of unavoidable danger. She goes back to the window and it seems like there is no gravity, a quite common dream that probably most of us have. The main character now looks down and sees herself sleeping in the armchair, with the record player by her side and turns it off again. The circle begins again, as she approaches the window and sees herself running. This creates a feeling of her being trapped in a vicious circle, with no chance to change it. She then opens her mouth and takes out the key, which to me symbolizes coming up with a solution to her suffering. The cloaked figure is now in the house and we get the feeling that death is coming for the main character. When the cloaked figure disappears, the main character finds the knife again, but this time she doesn t look scared at all C she looks like is now at peace with the fact she is about to die. The key appears in her mouth again and transforms into a knife, which clearly symbolizes that death in the answer. The three representations of the main character now gather around a table and play a bizarre surrealistic game, where they find out who will have to be the killer. The chosen one is now wearing strange glasses, which to me feels like a symbol of her, not seeing clearly. I found it quite fascinating, when the killer walks towards the sleeping woman and the surroundings change with each step C it starts out with a beach, then she steps on grass, then sidewalk and then finally C onto the carpet in the house. This, I think, represents the journey you have to make, when deciding to kill yourself. It is probably the hardest thing you could ever do and the steps represent exactly that. As the main character wakes up, the killer in the dream turns into her lover in reality, but we see the symbols from the dream around the room and the two start to mix together. The main character s lover is acting exactly like the cloaked figure and we realize the main character is blaming all her problems on him. As she breaks the mirror that appears to be her lover s face, we see the sea behind it, which is widely interpreted as a symbol of freedom. When her lover enters the house, we see the main character covered in mirror shards, dead. The mirror represents finally breaking free. All about my mother by Pedro Almodovar To Bette Davis, Gena Rowlands, Romy Schneider to all actresses who have played actresses, to all women who act, to all men who act and become women, to all the people who want to be mothers. To my mother. Dedication, All About My Mother, 1999 Pedro Almodovar is one of the most successful and well known Spanish directors of all time. He is famous for his movies, where he tries to explore the nature of being a woman. His movies, although quite complicated, almost always have a big international success and are being shown in cinemas all over the world. You could say this one is a chick-flick for the more intellectual woman. All about my mother is another film about women suffering, with many characters and different stories, intertwining and showing different sides of womanhood. It is also worth mentioning that almost all the cast is female in this piece. This particular film declares that to be a woman you do not have to be born one, so we get characters like Lola and Agrado, who are transvestites. Almodovar always liked complicated stories and although he tries to make it as real as possible, the lives of the characters sometimes seem so dark, it made me question whether there is actually too much drama involved. The film begins with mother and a son, Esteban and Manuela. I got the impression in the beginning that the story will revolve around Esteban, his wish to become a writer and the story he began to write about his mother. This illusion was soon shattered, when Esteban died after being hit by a car. The shot of him, lying on the ground for me was probably the most impressive shot in the film C the camera takes Esteban s POV and spins around, before falling to the ground. We see his mother approaching Esteban is slow motion, her coat red, the colour of blood and taking the camera, Esteban s head, into her palms. As she screams and lets go, the camera slowly moves back to the ground. This way of showing the tragedy that happened adds to the drama so much more than a normal two-shot ever would. Manuela, who works as a transplant coordinator, is the one who has to give the consent to donor her boy s heart this time. Searching for some kind of closure, she secretly follows the recipient after the operation. This crushes her completely and she decides to go to Barcelona, where she used to live with the boy s father, who is a mystery to the viewer so far. The focus from then on turns to the main character s relationships with other women she meets, her road to self-discovery and opening up once again. The different characters is what makes this movie interesting to watch. Although for the most part, it focuses on Manuela, we get a good glimpse at the lives of other women that surround her. This film, although so complicated and melodramatic, resembles real life as well C it makes us cry and laugh with the women who are in it. Manuela, who loses her son, discovers she can deal with her grief helping others C she becomes a personal assistant to actress Huma, who is going through an emotional crisis, rescues Agrado from an enraged client and helps pregnant nun Rosa through her pregnancy. Film references are very important in this piece as well C it begins with the mother and son watching All about Eve , which resembles the film s name and gives Esteban the idea how to call his work. Another significant film that is constantly brought up is A streetcar named desire . The main character, Manuela once played Stella in a drama group, when she was younger and this piece holds a special meaning to her, since she also met Esteban s father there, who played Kowalski. After so many years, due to the original actress not being able to perform, Manuela has to play Stella s part once again. This, for me, is a key point in the story, when the main character lets go and releases her pain. I found it interesting, because by acting, and pretending to be somebody else, she could finally be herself and cry out loud. The colour scheme in the movie is quite controversial and has been criticized numerous times for overshadowing the actual story. Just like in Pierrot Le Fou we see red, blue and yellow dominating, but the two movies are so different, it makes you wonder whether the colour scheme is appropriate in All about my mother . In my opinion, the colours are completely suitable and well thought out, because in a way they represent the colourful life and characters of the women in the film and by losing the colours the film would lose a bit of it s soul as well. Overall, I enjoyed watching All about my mother C Pedro Almodovar is one of the directors who really tries to understand women and what it s like to be one. I found the film really emotional and touching, Almodovar knows how to create a bond between a character and a viewer, so you end up really involved with the story and the destinies that these women have as well as getting to know individuals like Agrado and Lola who to some viewers might be a mystery and really hard to understand. The 400 Blows by Francois Truffaut The 400 Blows is a very important film, which started the French New Wave. It introduced another level of cinematic experience through cinematography, acting and much more naturalistic look and feel to the movie, which, for today s viewer, might be really hard to imagine. The camera in The 400 Blows moves around much more freely and more smoothly, and besides recording, starts to tell the story with it s movement as well. Different angles and camera positions are introduced. Antoine Doinel seems like an ordinary boy, who seems to get in trouble wherever he goes, his teacher constantly punishes him for the slightest mischief, his mother disregards him as simply being a waste of space and the beginning of his teenage years is proving to be a real hassle for young Antoine. He soon finds out his mother is having an affair, but we can see the boy is not bothered at all C he is much more concerned whether he ll get in trouble for skipping school. Later that day when his father comes back home and announces that the mother won t be joining them for dinner, it seems that Antoine is hoping that she will never come back, when he asks the father if she has left for good. This establishes the fact that the relationship between Antoine and his mother is less than perfect. For myself, it was hard to watch how the adults treat Antoine; it seems there is nobody at all, when it comes to adults, who understand him. He sleeps on his tiny bed, lonely, disposable, like the trash he has to take out every night. Although Antoine is disregarded as hopeless and simply ungifted he, as many children of his age, is simply starting to question the system and the fact he does not perform well in class certainly does not mean he is not capable. This film serves parents who find it hard to understand their children, because we get a glimpse of how hard it sometimes is to be a teenager C parents seem to forget it. It is much like a documentary in a sense that we observe Antoine, an ordinary boy and his transformation to a young man, as well as the work of camera being hand-held. For a short time in the movie, seems like the family has come back together and Antoine does not feel isolated anymore, but after failing yet another paper in class, he runs away once again and stays with his friend. I think one of the most important scenes in the film, since it represents French New Wave, is the scene where small children are watching Little Red Riding Hood . Their expressions, reactions to the play are so genuine and lack that over the top acting, that the viewers who sat in the cinema theatre, watching the movie in 1959 should have been fascinated. And they were, since the cinema was never the same again. The main actor s Jean-Pierre Leaud s performance in the scene where Antoine is being questioned by the psychologist once again brings me back to think of this film as a documentary C the acting is extremely believable and it is hard to tell yourself that it is a character, not a real person in front of you. The most famous scene of the film, of course, is the scene where Antoine runs away from the Juvenile Detention Centre. There are two extremely long tracking shots, that break the conventions of cinema and stay with the subject for much longer than usual, but this is exactly what fascinates the viewer. His run symbolizes his long and constant search for freedom, and his desperate wish to be acknowledged. His last look at the camera to me looked like he was thinking And what do I do now..? This last shot has been widely interpreted, but to me it feels like he has reached the sea, but he cannot escape from himself. When watching this film, I thought about how lucky I was to have a childhood, and that many kids grow up all too soon. My mother used to say that you can tell if a person was loved, when they were little. This all applies to Antoine C he grows up too soon, due to the time he lives in, his parents not caring enough, the educating system failing to acknowledge his efforts to study and him wanting to be noticed, even if it s for misbehaving. Even to this day, The 400 Blows is a remarkable film, which has and still is influencing many directors.

Essays --

Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman shows us how one man's blind faith in a misconception of the American Dream becomes an obsession of accomplishment that destroys his life and nearly that of his family. Miller's main character Willy Loman somehow comes to believe that success always comes to those who are well liked and good looking. His downfall is that he does not equate success with hard work and perseverance. This faulty thinking keeps him from achieving his goals of wealth and status. His boys Biff and Happy are taught the same faulty values and are destined to fail as well. The devastating effects of Willy's obsession are seen throughout the family starting with Willy who begins to lose his mind and his confidence that he will someday prevail. He is torn between denial that he is ultimately a failure and desperation to succeed at any cost. In Willy's opinion a man without success is nothing. Linda, Willy's adoring wife weather's Willy's ups and downs with patience and hope that someday he will realize that he is successful. She believes that a home, a loving family, and food on the table are all anyone needs. Linda says to him "why must everybody conquer the world? You're well like and everyone loves you" (p292). She is often trying to point out his accomplishments, but, he turns a blind eye. Happy, Willy's youngest son is truly a mess. He follows in his father's footsteps into the business world, where he is admittedly unhappy, yet continues because it is what is expected of him. He, like Willy believes that success is the measure of a man. He says "I gotta show some of those pompous, self important executives over there that Hap Loman can make the grade" (p 250). We see his blind desire to succeed and know he's headin... ...g Charley, there's more of him in that front stoop than in all the sales he ever made" (p328). The final requiem of this play includes some brilliant lines. Most importantly, Linda's final words at her husband's grave; "Willy, dear I can't cry, why did you do it, I search and search and I search, and I can't understand it, Willy. I made the last payment on the house today. Today, dear, and there'll be nobody home. We're free and clear. We're free...We're free..." (p329). Linda knew all along what was important, and now Willy has died before ever realizing how much success he really had; a true friend in Charley, and the love of his wife and sons. His home, paid for and fixed up with his own two hands. If anything can be learned from the life of Willy Loman, it is that sometimes what we wish for is not what we need, and by striving blindly we might miss what we have.

Yamaha YZF R6 :: essays research papers

Some people may define this disease as a â€Å"need for speed†; the adrenaline shock which pulls you closer to it like magnets attracting and forcing you nearer. A secret obsession sparked on and revved up. Redlining the velocity of your heart burning out through each sufferer’s eyes set gazing at the perfect motorcycle a Yamaha R6. When you first look at the bike you immediately picture yourself on it. The coolness factor skyrockets. Bent towards you are the handlebars and at either end silver shiny levers on top of the warm fitted handles. A perfect fit for anyone’s anxious hands. You’ll probably catch a glimpse of yourself as a shimmering, twinkling eyes is seen in the rearview mirrors just behind the windshield. It’s small, sleek and swoops to the back of the bike. Below are housed crisp headlights; halogen beams casting daylight in front. A whirlwind of wheels with dipped chrome rims hold the bike and its counterparts. Flat smooth tred is wrapped around them eight inches in width. A concave padded seat spills latex liner over the entire top of the motorcycle. This leads to the back brake lamp that drops off at a point. All over, stickers sport Yamaha, YZF and R6 modesty aside. Plastics cover the intricacy of the engine, with thick, smooth fittings. Vents are sliced into the plastics bel ow the bulging gas tank following the indents for knees to hug each side of the motorcycle snuggly. On the bottom left side of the bike you will find the gear pedal, the foot brake opposing. These stick out like thorns, gouging the rubber of your shoes stuck stiffly to their surface. Popin’ off the engine invokes your nostrils with a warm mixture of oil and gas. A mild head rush to increase the already trembling presence of power. Generously flood the carburetor with fuel to burn a musty whiff out the wobbling muffler rumbling thunderously. A clean idle pants softly gurgling within. Inside your helmet heavy breath fills, humidifying and raising your body temperature. Open the visor to feel the rush of cool oxygen streaming around your face. The longer your mounted above the motorcycle the warmer the insides of your legs become. Reverse sensations occur whether stationary or in motion. When stood still the heat becoming of the engine intensifies letting the mild breeze cool the exposed skin. While in motion the chilly air greets you leaving the motorcycle to warm you up.

Greek Heros

Myths of the Greek Heroes Achilles and Ajax are both know as great heroes of the Trojan War. Behind the guts and glory of war, what were they, who were they? Achilles was the son of nymph Thetis and Peleus the king of the Myrmidons. Ajax was the son of Telamon, who was the son of Aeacus and grandson of Zeus. Achilles and Ajax are closely related and their relationship being so close knit makes being at war a dismal time for both of them. Achilles was a man of anger and with this anger he dishonored Agamemnon, the commander of the Achaean forces. This forced Achilles to withdraw from the battle.After Agamemnon took Chrysies the daughter of a priest of Apollo, Achilles saw a way of returning to his rein in the war. He followed Agamemnon instruction in protecting the prophet with the key to saving Greece from the plague that was forced upon them in order to free Chrysies. At the same time sweltering with wrath Achilles prayed to Thetis to convince Zeus to the Trojans gain ground in the war. He then would regain is honor in the Trojan War, the honor that he lost when dishonoring Agamemnon. After saving Greece from the plague Achilles refused to fght the war.He believed that they were fighting for the wrong purpose. According to books, gods are immortal; Achilles proved this to be false. Patroclus was a beloved friend of Achilles and he was also his brother-in-arms. Achilles needed help with regaining power in the war since he was no longer fighting. Patroclus took his place and succeeded in pushing the Trojans back from the beaches he was killed by Hector the leader of the Trojans. After hearing of the death f his cherished friend, Achilles grieved knowing that it would have been him if he had stayed in the war.After the death of his friend, Achilles decided to end his protest. With this built up anger he fought and killed many Trojans but, he was always seeking out Hector. After finding his prey, Achilles chased Hector around Troy three times before Hector was con vinced by Athena in the form of Hectors brother Deiphobus to fight Achilles face to face. After much more grieving over many loses of family and friends Achilles finally met his demise by bleeding out through the only ortal part of his body, his Achilles tendon hence the name Achilles. He was killed by Apollo and Paris.Ajax was a man of great Stature. He endured his training from Centaur Chiron, right alongside his cousin Achilles. Being described as vicious, fearless, strong and powerful Ajax was also known for a very high level of battle intellect. He himself fought Hector twice. The first encounter was in Ajax's control. He hit Hector over the head with a hefty boulder even though Hector fghts back, Zeus calls a draw on the fight and it ends without a winner. The second fght between Ajax and Hector happened when the fght breaks out in the Mycenaean camp among the ships.Hector is set on burning the ships of the Greeks. He feels that the Greeks would be defeated without their ships . The failure of defeating Hector made Zeus second guess who he wanted to favor. Agamemnon then sends Ajax to attempt to reconcile witn the great warrior Achilles and introduce him back to fghting in the war. He fails at convincing him to come back. After the death of his cousin Achilles, Ajax fights for the body of the hero and buried him next to his riend Patroclus.After Achilles's death Ajax was known as the most vulnerable warrior in Agamemnon's army. After arguing and portraying the story of why Ajax deserves the magical armor of Hephaestus, Ajax lost the argument and the armor was awarded to Odysseus who proved to be more persuasive and believable in times of battle. Even though Ajax was the one who fought Hector driving him away with a massive rock and then fought him again away from the ships saving most of the Greek army and killing much of the charging Trojan Army.After fighting for the armor nd losing Ajax falls to the ground and when he wakes he is under a spell put on h im by Athena. The spell leads him to a flock of sheep who believes to be the Achaean leaders, Odysseus and Agamemnon and slaughters them. Waking up the blood of sheep he realizes what he had done. He preferred to no longer live than live in shame. In the first battle between Ajax and Hector, Zeus ended the fght and they exchanged gifts. Ajax gave him a shield and Hector gave him a sword. This very swords is the one is said to of been the one Ajax committed suicide with.

Historical Book Analysis Assignment Essay

History, it has often been said, is as much a story of individual people as it is of places, events and larger circumstances. This is especially true when considering pivotal figures from American history, for in the stories of pivotal historical figures, the saga of the growth of America can often be seen. Such is the case with first lady, political activist and women’s rights pioneer Abigail Adams and former American slave, orator and anti-slavery advocate Frederick Douglass. It is with these two prominent historic figures in mind that two historical books about them, Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave will be discussed. Upon conclusion of the research, not only will two historical icons be better understood, but also, two key works about these people will be as well. Main Character of Each Work As was mentioned in the Introduction to this paper, two historical books as well as the people who were the main characters of those books would be discussed. Understanding the books first requires an understanding of the backgrounds of each of these main characters respectively. Abigail Adams, for all of the achievements that her life would hold, was not the product of fine universities or finishing schools; rather, she was for the most part an educated woman, and someone who possessed a great deal of inner drive and instinct, which more than made up for the lack of formal education. The wife of John Adams, who was a founding father of the United States and would eventually become president of the nation, Abigail managed the family farm, took care of the children, and showed a great streak of independence while John, early in his political career, was compelled to travel internationally. Abigail shared her husband’s passion for American independence, with one glaring exception- she did not subscribe to the idea that all men were created equal. For Abigail, there certainly was room to tolerate slavery, but this is not to say that Abigail felt the same about gender issues. One could fairly classify Abigail as a feminist, which she continued to advocate when she accompanied her husband to the White House. Overall, while not perfect, Abigail Adams contributed a great deal to the cause of women’s rights and by some accounts, aided her husband significantly during his presidency (Withey). Like Abigail Adams, Frederick Douglass was not the most formally educated man, but through sheer determination and a high level of natural intelligence, in time became one of the most articulate men in America, slave or free (Douglass). Early evidence of Douglass’ yearning for freedom and equality in a nation which promised this but only delivered to select races can be seen in his escape from slavery and refuge in northern free territory as a young man. This escape not only allowed him to pursue his own destiny, but also allowed him to seek the same for every man, with the abolition of slavery as Douglass’ main ambition. In fact, it was Douglass’ personal experience as a slave which gave him the credibility and passion that he required in order to be able to see the abolition of slavery to completion. Historical Events that Involved the Main Characters of Each Work When comparing Adams and Douglass, it can fairly be said that each of them were similarly exposed to extraordinary circumstances that inspired them to action, while being impaired to a certain extent by limitations that society attempted to place on them. In both cases as well, each of these individuals used that adversity not as a roadblock to future progress, but as a catapult to bigger and better things. Abigail Adams entered the stage of American history at a time when the role of the president as well as first lady was far from well defined, as well as a time when women were largely regarded as subordinates to their husbands and not worthy of equal opportunities or education. In the midst of all of these circumstances, Adams devoted a great deal of her energies in assisting her husband-some say too much- in the duties of the presidency and set the protocol for first ladies to come. Also, Adams chose as her cause the equality of women in all areas of society, making her an early pioneer for women’s equality. Like Adams, Frederick Douglass came upon the American scene at a time when pivotal issues were still undecided; for all of the talk of liberty and justice for all, Douglass had to flee from an environment whereby he was owned, like property, by another human being, as were tens of thousands of other African-Americans. Also, Douglass fearlessly spoke out against the evils of slavery, and became an influential resource for none other than Abraham Lincoln, who would become known in history as The Great Emancipator.