The Absence Of Mr Glass English Literature Essay

The Absence Of Mr Glass English Literature Essay In May 29 1874, Gilbert Keith Chesterton was born in London, England. In 1887, He enrolls as a day student at St. Pauls Preparatory School and begins writing and sketching in journals. His time there was not outstanding like his writings. He lacked the capability to direct his attention to subjects that did not interest him. Physically he was a large and clumsy boy, and in athletics he won no distinction whatsoever (British Writers, 1983, Vol. 6, P.335-246). He was depressed, which triggered his thoughts of suicide. Though he was intelligent, his academic career was not going so well. However, he blossomed with his writing and with the encouragement of his friends. He enjoyed debating and journalism. In 1893 however, when he joined the Slade School of Art, he experimented with an Ouija board and became almost fascinated with diabolism. In 1895 Chesterton left University College without a degree and worked for the London Publisher Redway and T. Fisher Unwin (Gilbert Keith Chesterton-Biography and works). In 1899, war broke out against two small Dutch South African Republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. Chesterton had strong political interests (Biography: G K Chesterton, writer). Chesterton opposed this war, not because he was a pacifist, but because he thought that this was an unjust war. Chestertons liberalism was always a liberalism of belief in small unites. He hated imperialism and large units and the uniformity that imperialisms tyranny imposed upon people of different traditions. He was in violent reaction against the popular imperialism of the day (British Writers, 1983, Vol. 6, P.335-246). In 1896, he fell in love with a girl named Frances Blogg only to fin d him in a spiritual crisis in 1900. Then, in 1901 he married Frances Blogg, who pulled him out of his spiritual crisis. In 1901, he begins writing a regular Saturday column for Daily News, much to his journalisms delight. He was then asked to preach in 1905 at St. Pauls Church, along with entering a 30-year public debate with George Bernard Shaw (Chestertons Literary Life). He was officially received into the roman Catholic Church in 1922, but had been writing from a Roman Catholic point of view for a long time before that( G K Chesterton, Writer). Though he was a journalist, Chesterton wrote many fiction novels. He wrote books like the Father Brown Mystery novels, and the adventure story The Man Who Was Thursday. The tone of the story, as of every Chesterton story, is strongly affected by the exuberant style of the author (G K Chesterton, Writer). Chesterton was influenced by many people in his lifetime. In his childhood, when he was struggling, he surrounded himself with a group of friends. One of these friends would be recognized later in life as E.C. Bentley; who created a light verse known as the clerihew and helped formed the Junior Debating Club. He was also influenced by his family, which gave him his liberal nature concerning politics. His parents were Unitarian in religion; but that was something he did not inherit. However, his little brother Cecil joined the Roman Catholic Church in 1913 (Chestertons Literary Life). Unfortunately, just five years later in 1918, Cecil dies in war. The next year he traveled with his wife Frances to Jerusalem, the Continent, and North America. He fell gravely ill in 1914, which it is unknown to as whether it related to his death in 1936. He died the 14 of June in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. During his life he published 69 books and another ten of them would be published after his de ath (Chestertons Literary Life). Overview/Summary of Father Brown Mystery Stories: Mr. Glass This story is from a collection of the Father Brown Mystery Collection. The story begins with a scientist by the name of Orion Hood is reading a grand collection of novels. The novels whereabouts and identities were emphasized strongly in this story. The Doctor was suddenly interrupted by a disheveled man, stumbling over heavy load of luggage and an umbrella. It was Father Brown, the priest, who had come to see him. Father Brown then begins to explain the situation that he has come for advice on, because Dr. Hood has assisted criminologists and detectives in his career, because he was a genius in his department and in his studies. So Father Brown, a detective as well as a priest, came to him with a case. He asks for the help of the doctor to solve a case involving a young couple, Mr. Todhunter and Ms. MacNab. They are planning a wedding and the mother of Ms. MacNab is complaining about the profession of young Todd. She says that he spends hours in his room, talking to an unknown pers on named Mr. Glass, who is described as a tall dark stranger with a silk top hat on. The young man denies these accusations and says that his trade will be revealed before the wedding. The young woman suddenly interrupts the discussion, saying that Todd had been tied up and a murder could have occurred. Naturally, Father Brown and Dr. Hood rush to the seaside hotel and investigate the so called murder. What they find when they arrive is a man tied up with scarves on the floor, presumed to be Mr. Todd, of course. They examine the room intensely to understand the gravity of the situation, and find several key items. First, they discover two wineglasses on the table and then a smashed one on the floor. Then they also discover a sword with a drop of blood on the tip, along with a silk top hat, much too large for Mr. Todd, with no trace of hair inside of it. There were playing cards scattered across the floor as well. Dr. Hood deduces that the sword was the murder weapon of Mr. Glass, and the glasses on the floor were from their session together. The hat belonged to Mr. Glass, and he was evidently bald because there was no hair on his head and he was also elderly. He al so deduced that Todd could break free from his binds at any time, and that this was his cover up for killing Mr. Glass, who was evidently buried somewhere in the garden or stuffed up the chimney (Chesterton, Gilbert Keith). But when the clever man thinks he has solved the case, Todd begins laughing because of the accusations Dr. Hood placed on him. Father Brown then figures out the truth: Todd is really a magician. The hat was too big for him because it wasnt meant to be worn, it was meant for pulling rabbits out of. The glasses and the conversations between him and Mr. Glass were really Todd juggling and saying one, two, three, missed a glass, not Mr. Glass. The playing cards scattered all over the floor was him trying to perform card tricks. Lastly, the sword with blood was him trying to swallow swords and falling. As for the scarves, he was trying to perform a Houdini and escape from them successfully. Critical Analysis: Influences Throughout Chestertons childhood he wasnt athletic or popular. He had trouble academically, which I believe was the influence on the character Dr. Hood, who was extremely intelligent and at the end of the story, was dumbfounded because his deductions are wrong and Father Brown figured out the truth. When Chesterton went to college he struggled with skepticism and depression in 1893 and during this period he experimented with an Ouija board and grew fascinated with diabolism. (Gilbert Keith Chesterton) These events may have influenced his writing of Heretics or the mystery stories he wrote in collections called The Father Brown Mystery Stories, or the Wisdom of Father Brown. . Chestertons religion also came into play with his writings. He wrote many speeches for churches and books that often the character struggled for good morals and godly behavior. His novel, the man who was Thursday, was an anarchist named Thursday who struggled with his self and his religion. There is also a character named Sunday who is considered to resemble God in his characteristics. That was partly influenced by his experiments with the Ouija board and with his wife, Frances Blogg, who was a major part in pulling him out of his crisis (Gilbert Keith Chesterton). .Critical Analysis: Main Themes The main themes of Chestertons novels revolve mainly around religion and changing circumstances. In his novel, The Man Who was Thursday, the main theme of it is focused mainly on the character Sundays shifting perceptions of Sunday. The detective initially experiences a vague sense of evil in the presence of this godly figure, but is later replaced with respect for the man, who is thought to represent the human failure to completely fathom the paradoxes of life and nature (The Man Who Was Thursday). In his short story The Absence of Mr. Glass the themes that are evident are the changing circumstances. The circumstance changes drastically when Dr. Hood indicts the murder of the pseudo Mr. Glass on Todhunter, but the truth was ironically discovered by Father Brown when he points out the truth of the murder objects. His novel The Man Who was Thursdays theme also focused on spiritual struggle, something Chesterton himself also experienced during his years of college that he ended up dropping out of. Religion is a theme for most of his stories because of his own struggles with it, when he became fascinated with diabolism (Gilbert Keith Chesterton) and when he was writing from a Catholic point of view when he was accepted into the church in 1922 but in 1905 when he was asked to speak for the churchs behalf. Critical Analysis: Stylistic Devices All authors use some method of literary and stylistic device. G.K. Chesterton was no exception. In his story he incorporated many devices, such as similes. But if one took a volume of Chaucer or Shelley from that rank, its absence irritated the mind like a gap in a mans front teeth. (Chesterton, Gilbert K.). He used such devices like synesthesia, which is words describing different sensations. For example, in his story he uses heathen holiness (Chesterton, Gilbert K.). The effect of synesthesia is meant to be poetic and to provoke thoughts to the reader. Chesterton also uses rhetorical questions in his writing, such as Maggie MacNab and young Todhunter want to get married. Now, what can be more important than that? (Chesterton, Gilbert K.). The effect of a rhetorical question is the emphasis of the subject. Chesterton enjoys using a lot of allegories in his writing, for example in The Man Who Was Thursday. The suffering of the main character was contributed to Chesterton, who also suffered from depression during his college days at Slades Art School, and claimed afterwards that he wrote this book as a strange confirmation that goodness was at the heart of every aspect of the world. He also used aspects of the bible in this work, Sunday, the character that represented God, sits on a throne in front of the other members of the anarchists. His last words were, can ye drink of the cup that I drink of?, and that is the same question that Jesus asks James and John in Mark 10:38-39, because he wanted to challenge their commitment in becoming his disciples. Critical Analysis: Characters Since the Father Brown mystery stories were short stories, the characters were not as plentiful as are in longer stories. But the characters that are mentioned are Father Brown, Maggie MacNab, Mr. Todhunter, Dr. Orion Hood, and Mrs. MacNab. Father Brown was the detective, and he added to the story because he introduced the idea to the doctor and was demeaned somewhat by the presence of the scientist and logical sense of Dr. Hood. He seems rather disorganized, as well as not as intelligent as Dr. Orion Hood. Maggie MacNab did not add much to this thrilling short story except she was the one who informed the Father and doctor of her courters current situation. Mr. Todhunter was the innocent magician; he was practicing his tricks and was wrongly accused of murder by Dr. Hood. Dr. Hood was the brilliant scientist, who deduced a wrong persecution of Mr. Todd from a convincing set of clues. When the doctor was contradicted of his intelligent assumption it was rather of a shock to the reader because he was seemingly as intelligent as Sherlock Holmes. Lastly there is Mrs. MacNab, mother of Maggie MacNab, who misheard the mutterings of the magician as she nosed in on his room whilst he was practicing his magical arts alone. She interpreted ventriloquism and Mr. Todd saying missed a glass into a second person named Mr. Glass into the conversation with Mr. Todhunter. In the story, Maggie MacNabs mother overheard some conversations between Mr. Todhunter and the fictitious Mr. Glass. She hears Mr. Todd talk, then overhears a strange, high pitched voice. She assumes it to be another person, but is actually Mr. Todd practicing his ventriloquism, for he is a magician. Mr. Glass was rumored to be a tall, strange man in a silk top hat with a strange spectral quality to his presence. Such rumors were false, of course, because Mr. Glass was nothing more than misinterpreted dialect of the magician with himself. The point of Mr. Glass was that he was a made up character by the household to explain Mr. Toddhunters strange behavior as a reticent magician.

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Ch. 20 -Practice 1. If M = the money supply; Y = real output, P = the price level, and V = velocity, which of the following equals the velocity of money? A. (Y x M)/P B. (P x M)/Y C. (P x Y)/M D. (P x Y) +M 2. If the equation of exchange is MV = PY the Y represents:Â   A. Nominal GDP B. Real GDP C. Potential output D. Economic growth 3. According to the equation of exchange, if real output and the money supply stay the same and the price level increases:Â   A. The velocity of money has to increase B. The velocity of money has to decrease C. The real GDP had to rise D.Nominal GDP remains constant 4. Which of the following expresses the equation of exchange? A. MY = PV B. MV = Y C. MV = PY D. MP = VY 5. Using the equation of exchange, if inflation is 1. 5%, real output grows by 3. 0%, and the growth rate of money is 5. 0%, the change in the velocity of money is:Â   A. Zero; velocity is constant B. -0. 5% C. +4. 5% D. +0. 5% 6. Using the equation of exchange, if real GDP increases by 3. 0%, the velocity of money grows by 1. 0% and the growth rate of money is 3. 0%; what is the rate of inflation? A. +1. 0% B. It is constant or a 0% change C.It is the same as the growth rate of money, or 3. 0% D. -1. 0% 7. Using the equation of exchange, if inflation is 1%, the velocity of money grows by 1. 0% and the growth rate of money is 3. 0%; what is real growth? A. +3. 0% B. 1% C. 4. 0% D. -1. 0% 8. If velocity of money is constant; real growth in the output of the economy is +2. 5%; and inflation is 2. 0%; what is the growth rate of money? Here we can employ the percentage change form of the equation of exchange where: %M + %V = %P + %Y. Inserting the known values and solving for the %M we obtain: %M + 0 = 2. 0 + 2. or %M = 4. 5. 9. The CPI is a commonly used and closely watched measure of inflation. However, it has limitations. What are they? Economists maintain that the CPI, which is a common measure of inflation, overstates the true rate of inflation by about one perce ntage point per year. This is primarily due to the fact that the CPI is measured using a fixed basket of goods. The bias in the CPI arises from several sources. First, consumers' buying patterns change, and in particular, consumers can substitute away from higher priced goods towards less expensive substitutes.A second source of bias arises from the fact that quality improvements are not always adjusted for, so what looks like a higher price may simply be an improvement in quality. 10. Assuming a constant nominal GDP, would the velocity of M1 equal the velocity of M2? Explain. No, the velocity of M1 would be greater than the velocity of M2. The formula for velocity is nominal GDP/M. Given a constant numerator and the fact that M2 ; M1 the velocity of M1 has to exceed the velocity of M2.

Different cultures Essay

In the past, different cultures have been developing in various ways and in different parts of the world. These cultures have been influencing the living styles of various nations in the world. It is now very important that different countries be grouped according to their cultural beliefs and civilization e. g. European communities will share those cultures which will differentiate them from those people who are coming from China or Africa. It is believed that those cultural differences of people in the world will clash based on where and how an individual was civilized. This is mainly the ‘clash of civilization’, the concept of Harvard professor Samuel Huntington. This is because people from different parts have ways on which they were civilized and they have different views on the way they view about life,the way they relate to one another and on their various religious beliefs. †We have moved into a world in which ‘civilisation’, some seven or eight of them, and defined much as Arnold Toynbee and some other scholars defined them in the first half of this century,are the building blocks of the new world order† Huntington added. Also most people these days are traveling a lot and therefore the interaction between people from different parts of the world and of different civilization is increasing. These interactions of different people from different civilizations has increased the awareness that this kind of difference in culture exists all over the world, Africa immigration will generate hostility when they settle on European or Asian nations. This is typically due to the clash in their culture. A country whose culture is completely different from another has a problem in investing in a foreign land as compared to those other rivals in the same land. This is because most countries fear to give investment license or such countries due to different ways in their cultural beliefs. The process of economic development and socialization has also resulted in the clash on the ways people live. Samuel Huntington once said†,Pattern of trade will be decisively influnced by pattern of culture†. The different religious beliefs in most of the different cultures is an example of this. We find that there are various types of religions in the world today. These are Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam. Another reason which brought about the clash in different culture was the way in which people in different parts of the world viewed about civilization. Many communities found civilization rather hard to adopt because it had other believes and cultures which clashed with their original beliefs. This made different communities to quit the idea of civilization of adopting the western culture and replacing it with their original beliefs. De-westernization has therefore been seen in many non-western countries. ( http://www. bintjbeil. com/articles/en/d-huntington. html). The cultural beliefs of people originating from different parts of the world are very hard to adopt to the same culture unlike other things such as economic and political ones. This is because cultural beliefs of more than two nations are not compatible, rather they are clashing. For example a political system of one country can be adopted by another country but the religious issues are far more complex to be adopted form one country to anothere. g. Muslims are very hard to change and start believing in Christianity but they will be very easily convinced to accept to change and adopt other country’s leadership styles. People of the same civilization have also been known to spur economic growth. This has mostly been witnessed in Europe, East Asia and North America. The development of the nations living in this regions usually is because these people have the same civilization and almost the same beliefs in terms of their culture and their social lifestyles. A country like Japan on the other hand who entirely have different civilization has faced a lot of hurdles in their economic development. Their lifestyles and its cultural beliefs have been known to be clashing with that of its neighbors and therefore making it hard for them to get a business partner with the same interests and beliefs. Thus reducing the rate of their growth. (Ghost, 2003) Yes Huntington’s point of view is supported. This is because there are numerous conflicting issues on people living in different parts of the world today. Huntington described an era in which people everywhere define themselves in cultural terms, ‘ a world in which cultural identities are central’. There is a pre-dominant clash of ideas between the religious communities. This is because there is a split between the western Christianity, Orthodox and the Muslims. These difference are traced to have occurred in the year 1500. There were cultural lines which were traced to have been the source to the different cultural belief of these communities. The people who were living to the west and the north of the line were protestant and others were Catholics. They were economically well of than those who were living to the East. The differences and the conflict of various issues between western and Islamic civilization has been going on for almost 140 years. This was mainly due to the attempt by the westerners to introduce Christianity in the Islamic region which faced a lot of oppositions mainly because various issues regarding the beliefs and norms of Muslims culture were conflicting with those of the Christians. The relationships existing between Japan and America has of late worsened so much. This is mainly due to the culture differences which will result to economic conflicts. The attitudes, and the way people relate to each other between the two societies are very mush different. As compared to the European nations, the economic issue between United States and Japan are very serious. This is because the economic difference in culture between United States and the European nations is far much less as compared to those of Japan civilization. Japanese civilization is very much different because their geographical location is far away as compared to the geographical location dividing America from European nations. This has resulted to a very different type of culture being developed in Japan which on the other hand conflict with that of Americans. ( Edwards, & Glover, 2001). According to Huntington, ‘East Asian economic success has its source in East Asian culture’. Culture and civilization have also influenced economies of various countries. Chinese economy ha been enormously growing within the last 15 years than that of Japan. These growth in the China’s economy has been a result of almost the same culture and civilization china enjoyed with its immediate neighbors. Unlike Japan who did not have some cultural resemblance with other nations, china had almost the same cultural beliefs with most of the developing nations in Asia. These countries include Taiwan-which are very much advanced in technological issues, Hong Kong – which is known for the creativity and marketing strategies, Singapore –which is very rich in communication technology. All these three have the same civilization as that of China and therefore they can understand each other in terms of being trading partners, carrying out investment and also respecting each others religious beliefs. (Murshed, 2002) The increase in population among the various countries in the world has resulted to the migration of people. This has mainly occurred in countries particular those living in the Northern part of Africa. The communities living in these parts are then forced to move to western Europe. This movement has resulted to development of other cultures in these countries. These then leads to instability in the normal social life of the citizens in the country both religiously and culturally. The results might be emergence of racism which might cause violence in the country. Reference: Edwards, Rusalind & Glover Judith. Risk and Citizenship: key issues in welfare. New York. Routledge, 2001. Ghost, B. N. Contemporary issues in Development Economics. New York. Routledge, 2003 The clash of civilizations. Samuel Huntington. September 1993. Bint Jbeil. 22/10/2007.http://www.bintjbeil.com/articles/en/d-huntington.html

The Financial Crisis Of 2008 - 2083 Words

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