Wednesday, November 27, 2019

1984 Essays (646 words) - Nineteen Eighty-Four, Mass Surveillance

1984 1984 as an Anti-Utopian Novel A utopia is an ideal or perfect community. While some writers have created fictional places that embody their ideals societies, other writers have written satires that ridicule existing conditions of society, or anti-utopias, which show possible future societies that are anything but ideal. In 1984 , George Orwell presents a terrifying picture of future as life under the constant surveillance of ?Big Brother.? This book 1984 is an anti-utopian novel. The main character Winston Smith lives in the large political country Oceania, which is eternally at war with one of two huge countries, Eurasia and Eastasia. At any moment all existing records show either that Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia and allied with Eastasia, or that it has always been at war with Eastasia and allied with Eurasia. Winston knows this, because his work at the Ministry of Truth involves the constant correction of news. ?Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past,? the party slogan reads. Basically, Winston takes real news and twists it to what ?Big Brother? wants the people to know. In the grim city and terrifying country, where ?Big Brother? is always watching you and the Thought Police can practically read your mind, Winston is a man in great danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions. He knows the party controls people by feeding them lies and taking away their imaginations. The Party forbids thought, love, and relationships. Drawn into a secret love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Together with his lover Julia, he puts his life on the line in a deadly match against the powers of the Party. George Orwell creates an anti-utopian society in the novel 1984 . The society involves monitors called telescreens watching you every step you take, love is forbidden, conformity, and your assigned to work at one of four ministries. In this society you can't enjoy life or have any fun. After reading the novel you hope that the future wont be dreadful. ?When 1984 was new, and 1984 far in the future, the novel struck its most responsive readers as an unprecedented torment, an extreme and intolerable vision that stood out? (Miller 19). The book makes the reader put their head up and question if this is how our time will end. Orwell creates a book where being different is illegal. ?In 1984 Orwell is trying to present the kind of world in which individuality has become obsolete and personality is a crime? (Howe 322). Imagine living in a society where if you expressed your own opinions or ideas you would be sent to a Ministry of Love where you would be tormented and corrupted. Living in Oceania doesn't seem like an ideal lifestyle. In 1984 you see the Party kill Winston Smith's individuality. ?Winston Smith, the hero of the novel, is shown arming himself with ideas against the Party and defying it by forming a sexual relationship with Julia: but from the first we know that he will not escape the secret police, and after he is caught we see him undergoing a dreadful metamorphosis which burns out his human essence, leaving him a wreck who can go on living only by becoming on of them? (Rahv 313). It is sad that Winston can't overcome the power of the Party. It seems all faith in a pleasant future will be stopped by the Party. 1984 ?s anti-utopian society is a horrible one. If the future is as dark as George Orwell portray, lets hope we have individuals that will fight for a better world. Anti-utopian novels open up peoples eyes about life and existence. Works Cited Howe, Irving ?The fiction of Anti-Utopia? 1984 (New York: Harcourt Brace Javonovich, Inc., 1982) Miller, Mark ?The Fate of 1984? Irving Howe. 1984 Revisited (New York: Harper and Row, Inc.,1983) Rahv, Phillip ?The Unfuture of Utopia? Irving Howe. 1984 Revisited (New York: Harper and Row, Inc.,1983) Book Reports

Sunday, November 24, 2019

The Essence of Chinatown Essays

The Essence of Chinatown Essays The Essence of Chinatown Essay The Essence of Chinatown Essay Essay Topic: Chinatown It is Chinese New Year. The hustle and bustle of trade, the haggling of prices fills the air as people jostle through the crowd to buy that kilogram of barbecued pork, or that bunch of golden rat-shaped decorations to welcome the year of the Rat. However, many people simply run through the epicentre of joyful noise and energy that can only be Chinatown without stopping to wonder at the past it possesses and the reason for its existence in a predominantly Chinese Singapore. Modern day Chinatown I stand silently at the start of Pagoda Street and look down from my vantage point of an overhead bridge to see a place that embodies the very story of Chinatown is the Chinatown Heritage Centre. Sitting right in the center of Chinatown, it is a quaint shop house that has been converted into a wealth of memories and untold stories. These stories are showed to the public on three different levels and exhibit the lives of early settlers. It traces the evolution and growth of both Chinatown and the Chinese people of Singapore, from coolie workers and maids to bosses and politicians. The Heritage Centre shows why Chinatown is the way it is in modern day Singapore. It tells the story of a place that never really sleeps through an exhibit called â€Å"Where the day never ends† and tells us of how Chinatown was always rampant with festive mood during celebrations like the Lunar New Year. Like present day Chinatown, the Chinatown of the past was an energetic place whenever Chinese festivals were around the corner. When asked about what the Heritage Centre taught him, a secondary school student whom I interviewed on location told me, â€Å"This place shows us that that every Chinese person had a stake in Chinatown. It also teaches me not to forget my roots,† The Heritage Centre, for many youth, also carries a cautionary tale against the four vices of life. An exhibit details the lives of people who have fallen to opium smoking, prostitution, gambling and secret societies and is still a relevant warning to today’s Chinese population in Singapore about the dangers of indulging in forbidden pleasures. A Prostitute’s Room I asked one shopper why she went to Chinatown to visit the Heritage Centre and I was told that, â€Å"Chinatown is the place many Chinese had lived in the past. I am a Chinese and I really like to know what my roots are,† What she said clearly highlights to us why Singapore needs a Chinatown: Cultural identity. The Heritage Centre tells us that Chinatown has existed ever since Singapore was conceptualised as a colonial state. The place was characterised by shop houses that possessed five-foot walkways and cramped quarters on the upper floors. Large scale immigration forced occupants of Chinatown to stay in small, cramped and sordid cubicles that lacked proper sanitation and facilities. People squeezed together, sometimes seven in cubicle. However, Chinatown was more than just a living quarter for the Chinese migrants who came by boat from mainland China. It was a retail location for uniquely Chinese goods, a uniquely Chinese socialisation ground which gave birth to the coffee shops that we see in contemporary Singapore. A life-sized model of such coffee shops can be seen in the Heritage Centre. Chinatown was, most importantly, a place representative of escape from oppression, poverty and injustice in mainland China. My late great-grand mother, who came from China with nothing but the clothes on her back once told me that, â€Å"Chinatown, although small, cramp and noisy, was the home away from home for many, a place where Chinese people put down new roots and built new lives for themselves and their descendants. † I believe that this spirit of emancipation and determination to make it in the world is what is so beautiful about Chinatown’s Heritage Centre. While Singapore is a multi-racial nation that does not discriminate creeds, race or religion, it is undeniably mixed in its racial denominations to a very high degree. As such, people need to hold on to their cultural identity. Unlike many other countries where Chinese are not the dominant race and thus need a Chinatown, Singapore’s Chinese population needs a Chinatown not to give them a sense of home, but to satisfy a deep-seated need to retain the uniqueness of being Chinese while becoming Singaporean all the time. Chinese, like all other races, need a place where we can identify with both culturally and, on a deeper level, spiritually. We need a place that tells us who we are and where we really came from and Chinatown provides us with that cultural belonging and identity. Chinatown is â€Å"where Chinese go to be Chinese and not worry about how we would be looked at, simply because it is Chinatown,† as said by a passer-by when I asked him what Chinatown meant to him as a Chinese person. When I started primary research, I did not expect such a deep-rooted sense of belonging to Chinatown in the Chinese people because even I, a Chinese, did not have great attachment for the place. However, I have come to understand that Chinatown is more than a place. It is a record book, a place that history has etched its mark on to educate and enlighten future generations of Chinese people. Therefore, the true idea behind why we need a Chinatown in Singapore is because the essence of the Chinese people is the essence of Chinatown.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Macroeconomics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 2

Macroeconomics - Essay Example It is computed as the difference between exports and imports. GDP is flawed for the following reasons: "it does not include the value of non-market production and leisure; it contains intermediate and regrettable expenditures that do not contribute to economic welfare; government expenditure on health, education, social services and environmental protection does not necessarily reflect outcomes in these areas; it does not account for resources required for sustainable development; and it does not directly measure investment in social capital." 3. What is fiscal policy Using the income expenditure model, explain the effect of an increase in government spending on real output. What factors or possible problems should a government bear in mind when devising an expansionary fiscal policy Fiscal policy aims to correct the economy by increasing or decreasing tax levels and public spending. For example, if the economy is down and the government wishes to fuel the economy, it will reduce tax levels. This will give consumers more disposable income and encourage spending. With the increase in demand, businesses will then turn to higher production. It can be seen that in fiscal policy, the sensitivity of interest rate is not significant for the policy to be effective. In this type of macroeconomic tool, the economy is corrected without influencing the level of interest rate in the economy. The policy directly targets consumer spending and business production. However, economists should also take into account that any increase in government spending (a fiscal policy) will have a tendency in raising interest rates, causing private investment and net exports to fall. This is known as the crowding out effect. 4. Give short definitions of both the IS and LM curves and briefly explain how this model can help economists understand the interaction between the goods and money markets. Show how the IS and LM curves can be derived and explain how equilibrium is reached. The IS curve shows the combinations of interest rates and the aggregate output for which the goods market is in equilibrium, while the LM curve gives out combinations for which the money market is in equilibrium. The IS curve is the downward sloping schedule which shows the equilibrium in the goods market. The slope of the IS curve denotes the interest elasticity of investment demand and the marginal propensity to save. The LM