Our Duties to the Environment Essay Example for Free

Our Duties to the Environment Essay Technology, unfortunately, has two-faces; while it can aid the human race in easing tasks, curing countless diseases, and even lengthening life spans, it can also destroy the earth and its inhabitants. There is much good to be said about the development of the human race when it comes to technology, but it cannot be denied that insofar as Mother Earth is concerned, there were countless of damages inflicted through the process of development. There is a need to evaluate the costs and problems that will be met whenever new developments arise, as well as find means to finally minimize these problems. In order to come up with the information on how such problems may be minimized, there needs to be an analysis of the literature regarding such issues (Pojman and Vaughn 895). Despite the fact that various literature has been written about the problem, the human race cannot escape the fact that they might have not done enough to address such issues. Our Duties to the Environment shows that in order for such problems to be solved, there is a need for humans to acknowledge the fact that technology and development can cause as much harm as good to everyone. Work Cited Pojman, Louis, and Lewis Vaughn. â€Å"Our Duties to the Environment. † The Moral Life: An Introductory Reader in Ethics and Literature. , Louis Pojman and Lewis Vaughn. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. 893-895. Print.

The Importance Of Online Reviews

The Importance Of Online Reviews In the wake of digital age, the internet offers a relatively complete and comprehensive environment for people all over the world to communicate and share information. The form of film review is reforming as well. From traditional critics of experts to review of ordinary audience (Awad, Dellarocas Zhang, 2004), cyber world offers a newly effective channel for audience sharing their comments about movies; cinema industry also encounters more challenges on box office from consumers (Boatwright, Kamakura Basuroy, 2005). For film industry, online review of critical audiences plays an important role. On one hand, the good comments of a movie can attract more audiences in general. On the other hand, the good comments do not necessary mean high box revenue and vice verse. The impact of film review has been proved by previous study on motion pictures (Litman, 1983; Eliashberg, Shugan, 1997; Basuroy, Chatterjee, Ravid, 2003; Desai, Basuroy, 2005; Gemser Gerda, 2007). However, most study tends to research film review from traditional critic review of journals or other form of articles while less study approach to the impact of online review on box office success. Within this paper, I approach to explore the correlation between the online review of new social media and the box office success of different types of movie. Although there are previous researches about the influence of online review on box office, those researches tend to study the whole catalog of film. In differ from previous research, the target of this paper is to find out to what extent online review could influence box office success and whether the impacts of different types of movies are the same. According to Gino and Ferrian research (2006), new social media can reflect the successful of the movie to a great extent. Audiences preferences and tastes can and stimulate final box office as much as the most positive comments from newspaper. Comparing with traditional media, such as articles written by critics or reporters on influential newspaper and magazine, obviously new social media is more powerful and covers a lager scope of audiences. By offering the opportunity to share preferences among ordinary audience, online movie database has established (www.IMDb.com). In the next couple of years, IMDb has expanded fast and became the best known platform for sharing information of the movie. The famous TOP 250 Movies list represents the best movies around. By cooperating with major film company and convenient operating platform, it has been recognized by both experts and audiences. The online ranking order of movies in IMDb, as the most direct and transparent approach to reflect th e positive or negative review of movie, is decided by normal audience worldwide. Due to the reliability and authoritative data of IMDb, this paper focus on online ranking order of IMDb. By dividing the first 100 movies of TOP 250 Movies into different catalogs which are artistic film and commercial film, the paper tests the correlation between the box office and the four independent box office drivers that are production budget, awards obtained, MAPP rating and online ranking order. In order to explore the correlation, this paper uses two equations for multiple regression analysis to test the possible difference between artistic film and commercial film by running SPSS. Comparing the results of outputs, there is statistical significance of both kinds of film. However, for artistic film, online ranking order has relatively less impact on box office while the most important determinant is awards. Meanwhile, the result of commercial film shows the strongest correlation between online ranking order and box office success comparing with other determinants. Thus, I con clude that higher online ranking order indicates higher box office of commercial film. As for artistic film, how many awards it obtained is the most important reason for box office. To be admitted, there are some limitations of the paper due to the small sample size of the research. Literature review 2.1 Artistic film and commercial film Film industry as an important part of creative industry has created huge fortune in both material and psychological of human contemporary history. Although there are plenty of types of movie and different catalog involved, considering the high marketing participation, film industry classifies two catalogs which can generalize all are types of movie. The two catalogs are labeled as major and independent films (Zuckerman Kim, 2003), or art house and mainstream films (Gemser, Oostrum Leenders, 2007). The reason of the different names attributes to the slightly difference about definition and criteria. However, those differences reflect the degree of artistic and commercial of a film (Bagella Becchetti, 1999). Thus, artistic and commercial film can be summarized as the most applicable assortment for film industry. Within this paper, I apply the concept of artistic film and commercial film on my research target since it is a relatively comprehensive classification. According to the author of Cinema of Outsiders: The Rise of American Independent Film, who had interviewed dozens of independent director and film researcher, whether a film could be defined as artistic or commercial film can be judged from two aspects. One is based on the way indies1 are financed, the other focuses on their spirit or vision (Emanuel Levy, 1999). The former concept refers to marketing issues including distribution and budget. While the latter one tends to be a abstract definition which is the fresh perspective, innovative spirit and personal vision that are determining factors. Since the concept is too ambiguous, the distinction between artistic film and commercial sometimes to be blurred to a great extent. Even a number of insiders of film industry tend to ignore the difference between artistic film and commercial film. Joseph Burstyn, a film distributor offered his point of view about artistic film. He said, I hate the expression art filmà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ there are o nly two kinds, good films and bad films. Based on his opinion, there is no fixed meaning of art film. And obviously the concept of art film and commercial is flexible because of the increasing complexity of producing a film due to the financial issue of the film. Nevertheless, there still are certain standards for distinguishing artistic film and commercial film according to previous study. The factors might determine whether a film belongs to artistic film or commercial film refers to several more practical elements that contain production budget and advertizing effect (Geer, 1998), the participation of super stars and award-winning situation (Bagella Becchetti, 1999), the number of released screen (Reinstein Snyder, 2005), or the story line and the narrative structure of the movie (Bordwell Thompson, 2001). Those elements construct the standards of judging whether a movie is an artistic or a commercial one. And the two types of film construct the success of movie industry. Since there are different criteria of artistic film and commercial film, the box office success, the potential influence, and the reputation are distinct. Traditional concept about artistic film tends to be closed to the definition of independent movie which indicates independent production without any financial support of the eight major film company, MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), Paramount, 20th century Fox, Warner Brothers, RKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum), Universal, United Artists, Columbia Pictures (Levy, 2001). However, throughout the development of the century, the eight companies have been through broken, emerged and rebuilt. The concept is not suitable anymore. In my research, I only focus on the distinction of box office success between the artistic film and commercial film by texting different determinants of box revenue. In order to research the correlation between online review and different types of film, which are artistic film and commercial, I consider three elements which ar e production budget, language (English/non-English) and the number of released screen as the criteria that can classify all the films preciously into artistic film and commercial film. Since I conduct quantitative research in this paper, the three factors could offer a clarity standard for classifying artistic film and commercial film. 2.2 The function of film review First of all, film as information good has an important characteristic, which is experience good. The feature of experience good is that consumers must experience it before they know what it is (Hal, 1998). This factor results in a permanent problem which is incomplete pre-purchase information. Thus, reviews of film help overcoming this problem to a great extent. By providing evaluations and comments to potential consumers are ubiquitous in digital age (Hal, 1998). Although it is still a limited access for consumers getting to know the product, reviews play a curial role in the whole film industry, especially before video image became popular. Due to the importance of review in film industry, there are plenty of studies and researches about the influence of film reviews. To be more specific, most researches discover the relationship between reviews and box office success. And the result proved to be positive in most cases (Wyatt, 1991). Nevertheless, there are a number of different study implies opposite result of the correlation between box office success and positive review. Negative or positive review does not indicate the significant relationship between box office success and the movie performance. For instance, Transformer as one of the best known profitable series of film history did not earn too much positive review from professional experts or public. However, the worldwide box office of Transformer reached 836,297,228 US dollars worldwide, four times more than production budget, according to official data collection of IMDb. Most study about how review impacts box office tends to have the similar conclusion that there is significant-but-weak association between judgments of reviewers and box office success (Holbrook, 2007). Based on previous research, there is a significantly positive correlation between the average of ratings in two critical guidebooks and distribution rentals (Prag Casavant, 1994). On the other hand, there are evidence indicating a negative relation between the earnings of selected films and their critical evaluation, which could be explained by the application of technical and analytical considerations and stringent artistic standards in critical evaluations, whereas audiences looked simply for enjoyable entertainment (Hirschman Pieros, 1985). To explain the different result, there is the assumption that ordinary consumers like more accessible, realistic forms of entertainment, while professional critics give higher ratings to more complex, abstract, and intellectually demanding artwork (Holbrook, 1999). Despite of previous research on correlation between box office success and review, the perspective of the research is prone to focus on favorability of journalistic reviews or judgments of film experts (Prag Casavant, 1994). There are relatively less researches concerning about publics review. Due to the popularity of internet, audiences are able to share their review and preference through the internet instantly. Holbrook concludes audiences opinion towards motion picture as popular appeal which contains online rating and review. The popularity of online review is the nature consequence of digital age. Neoclassic theory emphases the importance of demand induces. As for film industry, companies pay attention on the importance of marketing power even more than products themselves (Belaux Marteaux, 2007). Thus, there has been a growing increase in the emphasis of web-related promotion for nowadays film industry (Zufryden, 2000). Zufryden (2000) did the research on the development and empirical testing of a variable mathematical model approach for predicting a films box-office performance as a function of film website activity, as well as other relevant explanatory variables. The results of his study support the relative importance and statistical significance of website activity as a predictor of a new films box-office performance. In accordance with promotion of website, variables including screens, film grade, time from film release, production budget and seasonally were also found to be significant covariate s in the prediction of ticket sales during a films life cycle. Obviously, online review and ranking system account for an important part of variables that can influence box office success according to Zufrydens research. Moreover, Holbrook (1999) summarizes different types of film review according to multiple cultural markets of distinction (Hall, 1992): professional critics versus ordinary consumers, expert judgments versus popular appeal, extensive training versus naive appreciation, emphasis on aesthetics versus entertainment, genuine or pure versus commercial or commoditized art, highbrow versus lowbrow standards, elite versus mass tastes, legitimation versus market success, dominance via cultural capital versus economic capital, autonomous versus heteronomous principle, and restricted versus large-scale production. Own to those different concepts, film reviewers have their own opinions about certain film. The ordinary audience in question does not share in the relevant habits governing the dispositions that guide the professional critics standards of evaluation. Therefore, the different judgments from ordinary consumers are quite personal. However, the influence of those judgments can be differe d according to different tastes. Holbrook (1999) compared popular appeal representing ordinary consumers and expert judgment in order to analyze the most importance variable for box office success. The data Holbrook collected for conducting research focus on polls of film viewers. Since his paper has published in 1999, one year from the establishment of IMDB, the best popular internet movie database, which involves film grade and audiences review. Therefore, there is a gap of studying to what extent online review system can impact a films box office success. My research in this paper would try to fulfill this missing part. The development of IMDB The IMDB has become one of the most popular forums for on-line interaction. The popularity of a movie can be gauged by the number of votes. The establishing of IMDB can be trace back to the late 1980s and early 1990s. Col Needham, the founder of IMDB, created a database that sought to provide useful and up to date movie information online across as many platforms as possible (Dodds, 2006). Since the year of 1990, the technology of constructing web site has developed speedy. Col Needham as a big fan of movie believed that there should be a place in cyber world to offer a free land for sharing ordinary audiences comments2. Therefore, IMDB has been created and expanded quickly since then. Firstly, the IMBD includes new features such as votes awarded to individual films. Later in 1995, it was formally launched and the Amazon.com Company subsequently bought it in the 1998. The site has been further enhanced to allow for greater on-line interaction as well as additional features providing updates on movie releases and film gossip (Dodds, 2006). Till now, IMDB import Metacritic, a similar movie database but focus on judgment of professional movie review like authoritative movie magazines and journals. Although there is increasing number of competitive online movie database, IMDB is still the most reliable, recognizable, professional and comprehensive online movie community containing the largest users and offering the best platform for sharing information and interaction. The ranking system of IMDB represents audiences opinion. The famous Top 250 list indicates the best movie in the history throughout time, culture and races. And the option belongs to ordinary audience. The top 250 films are also based on a weighted rating formula referred to in actuarial science as a credibility formula (Norberg, 2007). In order to create a fair and reliable grading system, IMDB sets a formula to calculate the final result of the movie as the following equation: This formula is equivalent to a Bayesian posterior mean3. In this equation, represents weighted rating, which means final score of the movie. means rating, represents average for the movie as a number from 0 to 10 (mean). refers to number of votes for the movie, more votes represents more influence. indicates minimum votes required to be listed in the Top 250, the current entrance is 3000 votes. is the mean vote across the whole report (currently 6.9)4. Because of my research focus on box office success and online review while IMDB includes all the official data and information, I introduced the brief history of IMDB and rating equation in order to convince people the reliability of this database. Determinants of the successful box office success Investing film industry has been considered as higher risk business even more than stock. Pervious study indicates that only three to four out of ten movies could reach breaking even point, and about one out of ten becoming profitable at the box office success (Valenti, 2004). Although film producers make profit through various channels such as DVD sales and sound track CD or any other related business. Box office still accounts for the largest part of gross revenue for the film market. Furthermore, box office success has been related to the successful of the movie itself to a great extent. Talking about the standards of a good movie, there are diversity of criteria according to different scholar and the era they lived in. In the last century, three indicators of judging success of a movie which are the reviews of professional critics, the size of audience and industry recognition via awards (Hirschman Pieros, 1985). The relationship among the three indicators has certain order. Fir stly reviews of critics come out, followed by amount of audience and finally awards prove the success of the movie. Besides, the three indicators have inside impact on each other as well. As for the determinants of motion picture in the 21st century, there are a number of detailed factors from several disciplines have been used in the literature to understand and explain various aspects of motion picture success (Hennig-Thurau, Houston Walsh, 2007). In general, there are three groups of movie-success drivers have been recognized in this century. The three determinants are movie characteristics, post-filming marketing studio actions, and non-studio factors (Elberse Eliashberg, 2002; Hennig-Thurau, 2001). Movie characteristics refer to star power, director power, cultural familiarity, genre, and certification. However, the research of questioning whether star power related to a successful movie has been published (De Vany Walls, 1999). As for director power, so far there is no empi rical evidence about a successful movie on economy can be decided by director. The second determinant studio actions are the term including the production budget, marketing expenditures, timing, and the number of screens. Finally, non-studio factors contain reviews, awards, consumers perceived movie quality, and early box-office information. The Academy Awards tend to represent a compromise between art and commerce (Caves, 2000). Audiences review does ascend the movies opportunity on obtaining an award. In another word, audiences voice has equal importance as experts judgment. Sony picture indicates that the insiders of film industry believe that movie review is important for box office success (Terry, Butler Armond, 2005). Combining the indication of Sony, one of the largest film companies in the world, the output of commercial film tends to prove Sonys standpoint. Firstly, there is statistic significance according to the output. And R-square is 0.694 which indicates 69.4 percentages dependent variable, in this case, box office, can be explained by the four box office drivers. In another words, the four determinants are major drivers of box office for commercial film. Production budget still has less importance comparing with other independent variables. Meanwhile, awards have positive and strong impact on box office of commercial film as artistic film. However, table 6 shows that among the four elements, the strongest correlation exists between box office and online ranking order. For commercial film, online ranking is the strongest box office driver, f ar more than artistic film. Comparing the outputs of artistic film and commercial film, online ranking order has less influence on artistic film while the strongest determinants of commercial film. Meanwhile, the higher online ranking order do result in better box office success in both artistic film and commercial film. Especially, for commercial film, the recognition from audience attributes to box office to the largest extent. Although there are some distinguish cases, the tendency of impact of online ranking order is quite clear according to the research. Conclusion Summary Online ranking order as the direct and clarify symbol of online review provides important information for audience. This paper tests the correlation between online ranking order and box office success by comparing online ranking order with other determinants of box office. Throughout running multiple regression analysis in SPSS, the result indicates online ranking order has stronger impact on commercial film while less important for artistic film. However, high online ranking order contributes to higher box office in general for any kinds of movie. Limitations This paper only includes four major determinants of box office success. However, other determinants such as released screen, released date, star power and region are also contributing to the box office success. Due to the limited words and research time, there are more important indicators are excluded. Besides, the result could be less trusted and accurate because of relatively small sample size. Furthermore, due to the producing time of some movies are quite old, the lack of some data and currency rate might lead to different results slightly.

Leo :: essays research papers

Leonardo sped from one creative experience to another his reach as for his grasp. His career was vagrant and unfocused; in fact, he never had a career. He seemed to have had no civic loyalty. Nor devotion to church or Christ. He willingly accepted commissions from the popes or their enemies. He lacked the sensual worldliness of a Boccaccio or a Chaucer, the recklessness of a Rabelais, the piety of a Dante or the religious passion of a Michelangelo. The vast disorderly notebooks in his own hand mystify as much as they explain. No other artist bequeathed so copious a record of his thoughts and yet told us so little of himself. The 3,500 closely written pages that have survived of his notebooks may be only a quarter of those left at his death. Whole notebooks have been lost or broken up, and single sheets now turn up around the world. Some of the 19 existing notebooks were small enough to be carried about on Leonardo's belt for occasional jottings, some were large folios. While most of the script is clear, and legible if viewed in a mirror, it is almost all in "mirror writing," written "backwards." Since Leonardo was probably left-handed, this way of writing might have come quite naturally to him. It could hardly have kept the contents secret or deceived the censors since his texts were copiously illustrated. Perhaps Leonardo only wished to make trouble for any who dared to read his private jottings. The vast disorderly notebooks in his own hand mystify as much as they explain. No other artist bequeathed so copious a record of his thoughts and yet told us so little of himself. The 3,500 closely written pages that have survived of his notebooks may be only a quarter of those left at his death. Whole notebooks have been lost or broken up, and single sheets now turn up around the world. Some of the 19 existing notebooks were small enough to be carried about on Leonardo's belt for occasional jottings, some were large folios. Leo :: essays research papers Leonardo sped from one creative experience to another his reach as for his grasp. His career was vagrant and unfocused; in fact, he never had a career. He seemed to have had no civic loyalty. Nor devotion to church or Christ. He willingly accepted commissions from the popes or their enemies. He lacked the sensual worldliness of a Boccaccio or a Chaucer, the recklessness of a Rabelais, the piety of a Dante or the religious passion of a Michelangelo. The vast disorderly notebooks in his own hand mystify as much as they explain. No other artist bequeathed so copious a record of his thoughts and yet told us so little of himself. The 3,500 closely written pages that have survived of his notebooks may be only a quarter of those left at his death. Whole notebooks have been lost or broken up, and single sheets now turn up around the world. Some of the 19 existing notebooks were small enough to be carried about on Leonardo's belt for occasional jottings, some were large folios. While most of the script is clear, and legible if viewed in a mirror, it is almost all in "mirror writing," written "backwards." Since Leonardo was probably left-handed, this way of writing might have come quite naturally to him. It could hardly have kept the contents secret or deceived the censors since his texts were copiously illustrated. Perhaps Leonardo only wished to make trouble for any who dared to read his private jottings. The vast disorderly notebooks in his own hand mystify as much as they explain. No other artist bequeathed so copious a record of his thoughts and yet told us so little of himself. The 3,500 closely written pages that have survived of his notebooks may be only a quarter of those left at his death. Whole notebooks have been lost or broken up, and single sheets now turn up around the world. Some of the 19 existing notebooks were small enough to be carried about on Leonardo's belt for occasional jottings, some were large folios.

Dukes of T-Town :: essays research papers

Dukes of T-Town   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Yo, Balls, that sheriff is following you pretty close, how drunk are you?† Chris asked me just before I looked in my rearview mirror to see if anyone was following us. I saw that a sheriff was about two city blocks behind us. Looking at my speedometer to check my speed and sure enough, I was speeding. We were going 51 in a 45 so I slowed down to give him one less reason to pull us over. All we wanted to do was get home safely without any tickets for a DUI or minor having Consumed (MHC), and my turn was just up ahead. When I got in the turning lane, I saw the sheriff take a quick turn behind me on a road that would lead to county road 116 that goes straight to the county 127 which I was turning on. So with some quick thinking we turned onto county 127 and then took an immediate right that led to another dirt road that couldn’t be seen by the sheriff.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"I’m gonna ditch this fucking pig,† I said, as I turned off the lights in the Subaru that I had borrowed from my blind grandma. I was now trying to drive â€Å"blind† on a dirt road, and to make matters worse I was going about 65 mph. We hit big potholes; the shoulder, along with most of the road, was washboard. The road was hard enough to drive on straight while sober, let alone drunk.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Holy shit this is fun as hell! Hey, Balls, that was one bad-ass party don’ cha’ think?† I hear Brionne yell as I slam on my breaks to shop behind a tree on a bend in the road so that we were not visible from any road. The three of us watched with our breath held as the sheriff shined his spotlight all around, but it never made it to us. We were too far away and hidden much too well. Then he hit his other spotlights on top of his truck and they made it to about 50 yards out in front of us, but still he can’t see us. During all this time, we could hear the fleas jumping off Chris’ nuts. Not a word was spoken, even when the lights went off and the truck pulled away.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Still we were silent and still careful not to make any quick movements; half from fear of the sheriff and half from the fear of rolling into the narrow dry ditch that the car was now teetering on.

Anxiety Disorders Essays -- OCD Post-Traumatic Stress Panic

This paper is going to be about anxiety disorders. I am going to explain what anxiety is and the different types of anxiety disorders. The types of anxiety I am going to talk about are Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Post-Traumatic Stress, Panic Disorder and Social Phobia.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress. It helps some one deal with a tense situation in the office, study harder for an exam, keep focused on an important speech. In general, it helps some one cope. But when anxiety becomes an excessive, irrational dread of everyday situations, it has become a disabling disorder.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Anxiety disorders are serious medical illnesses that affect approximately 19 million American adults. These disorders fill people's lives with overwhelming anxiety and fear. Unlike the relatively mild, brief anxiety caused by a stressful event such as a business presentation or a first date, anxiety disorders are chronic, relentless, and can grow progressively worse if not treated. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: OCD afflicts about 3.3 million adult Americans. It strikes men and women in approximately equal numbers and usually first appears in childhood, adolescence, or early adulthood. One-third of adults with OCD report having experienced their first symptoms as children. OCD involves anxious thoughts or rituals you feel you can't control. With OCD you may be obsessed with germs or dirt, so you wash your hands over and over. You may be filled with doubt and feel the need ...

Pliny the Younger

This letter was written by Pliny the Younger to the Emperor Trajan while he was serving as the Governor of the Roman Province of Asia Minor during the time frame 111 through 113. This letter was written after Pliny had his first interactions with the Chirsitans. This letter seems to have been written as a letter of concern, asking the Emperor for guidance on how to handle legalities of his interactions with Christians. This concern was seen in his opening statement to the Emperor, It is my invariable rule, Sir, to refer to you in all matters where I feel doubtful; for who is more capable of removing my scruples, or informing my ignorance. †1 In my opinion, I believe that Pliny is clear in his communication to the Emperor. â€Å"I am unacquainted not only with the nature of their crimes, or the measures of their punishment, but how far it is proper to enter into an examination concerning them. †2 This statement to me, clarifies his concern of the religion, in whether or n ot the practice of Christianity is unishable. This letter signifies the importance of the changing world and the concern of how to handle those changes. I think that Pliny voiced that concern throughout this letter. He seemed to have been disturbed and unaware of how to handle these changes, and, if in fact these changes could be punishable; as this was not the way of the Roman beliefs. This was put clearly toward the end of Pliny’s letter, â€Å"This contagious superstition is not confined to the cities only, but has spread its infection mong the neighboring villages. †3 In summary, I feel that this letter is of significant concern and is an interesting account into the history of how Christianity was observed and dealt with in the Roman Empire. Bibliography Pliny the Younger. The Letters of Pliny (Caius Plinius Caecilius Secundus): Book 10, Letters 97 and 98, Translated by Melmoth, Revised by the Rev. F. C. T. Bosanquet, 1905. http://wadsworth. com/history_d/special_ features/ilrn_legacy /wawc 1c01c/content/wciv1/readings/pliny. html

A Hero Within

Everywhere you turn society today seems to be keen on portraying African Americans as a scapegoat to white societal issues and inadequacies. Ernest Gaines exemplifies this idea in the novel A Lesson Before Dying in which a young black man, Jefferson, is sentenced to trial and execution for what can be considered a â€Å"wrong place and wrong time† incident. Grant, who is an educator in the community, plays the role of a cynic and buffer between Jefferson and the rest of the community. He begins this novel as a somewhat worn out empty husk of what his full potential can fully allow. In a society that is dominated by white people in a post slavery pro-racist world very few opportunities present themselves for African Americans, such as Jefferson or Grant, that allow for growth and fulfillment of one’s existence. As the novel progresses Gaines provides the right elements to allow for self-fulfillment and growth for both characters that lead to life changing epiphanies and ultimately allow for a hero figure to rise. Although almost opposite in composition both Jefferson and Grant lack elements that allow them to feel whole and truly live. As individuals both struggle to live in a world that seeks to oppress causing each to barely live, but through their combined experiences and shared struggles, each are able to break the chains of oppression and rise to their ultimate potential. Grant begins the novel feeling distanced from the other members of the black community while at the same time feeling intrinsically bound to them. He feels pressured to conform to a society in which white people are superior and give little to no privilege to blacks. This idea is furthered as Dr. Joseph visits Grant’s school and compliments his students mentioning that they are a â€Å"good crop†, insinuating that the black students are subhuman or objects for a slave type of work. Although Grant’s inadequacies leave him feeling conflicted, hollow, and helpless to do anything but run away, he often remembers the pride and excitement surrounding black heroes such as Jackie Robinson and Joe Louis as they stood up to the white men and society. A hero as seen through Grant’s eyes is â€Å"a man who does something that other men do not do or cannot do. † Although Grant believes he is not a hero, he believes that Jefferson can embody the idea of a hero and that he can stand up to defy the white people proving that African Americans are human too. Grant continues by explaining to Jefferson while crying that he (Grant) needs him (Jefferson) more than Jefferson needs him. The crying and showing f helplessness marks the first transition for Grant towards the hero he can become and shows the character’s positive growth. This transition also marks where the individual struggles between Jefferson and Grant end and unification towards the embodiment of heroism begins Grant continues to embody the idea of a hero and show character progression while drinking at the Rainbow Club by standing up for Jefferson, when it would have been much easier to ignore the situation and derogatory comments. Grant’s passion and inability to sit back while the mulatto bricklayers demean the idea of Jefferson promotes the hero within, by standing up for the weak and doing something when others would not. Even though a fight breaks out and Grant is knocked unconscious, it is still another positive step towards the inner fulfillment he desperately needs. Grant also embodies a non-traditional hero in the sense that he keeps his loved ones, Vivian, at arm’s length at all times. This typically is done to protect the loved ones from impending harm; however this differs because in this instance it stems from his own inadequacies and lack of conviction in himself. Although Grant lacks the ability to see his true inner potential, others such as Tante Lou have shown positive encouragement and ultimately given everything in the belief that Grant can be great. In this instance Tante Lou has kept hidden the fact that she works incredibly long hours and works her fingers to the bone, just to send Grant to college. These outside positive factors have helped pave the pathway so that one day Grant can find his inner hero and live up to his full potential. Another important transition into Grant’s heroic path is the belief in himself which stems from an important connection with Jefferson whom he felt provided an idea he lacked, wholeness. Grant explained to Jefferson that he felt lost and needed Jefferson to believe in something so that someday he (Grant) can look to Jefferson as an example and start believing in himself. Through Jefferson, Grant has learned to stop hiding behind his own fear and inadequacies. This marks the change in status for both men as Jefferson for the first time exemplifies strength, which is shown in his posture and offer to provide Jefferson food. Grant steps back from a teaching role and exemplifies a student role in which he feels inadequate, realizing that perhaps his opinions and cynic views on life have been wrong. This is an important point in the book because it marks the final transition into the fulfillment of both men’s existence. At this point he reader has seen both characters come full circle and grow from empty husks into in depth complex people, both of which can be considered as heroes. On Jefferson’s last night Jefferson apologizes to Grant for crying when he realized that Grant would not be at the execution, stating that nobody had ever been as good to him as Grant had been during his incarceration. This kindness shown by Grant once again exemp lifies the hero role as doing something that other men do not do; in this case it was treating Jefferson as a man, a human, and as an equal. Finally Jefferson’s diary shows how Jefferson has grown into his potential and indicates that his faith is placed not in God but in his friendship with Grant. His finding of faith is the last part needed by Grant, to fully believe in himself and become the man Tante Lou and everyone else knows he can become. Although both individuals started on a path of isolation, cynicism and were shown as empty husks of their true potential, they each found fulfillment and growth. Even though it was unintentional both Jefferson and Grant grew from the experiences provided by the other and were finally able to break the chains holding them back to fulfill their potential as heroes. Upon the epiphanies that each had based on the others actions and conversations, both characters were able to grow and accomplish what individually they could not. Even though in the end Jefferson was still put to death, this book shows that two men who have nothing in common can create something so great that it shakes the very foundation on which they are built. This can apply to present day society as well as to society in the past.