Compare and contrast Orwell and Atwoods presentation Essay Example for Free

Compare and contrast Orwell and Atwoods presentation Essay Both Atwood and Orwells novels are based in a dystopian societies, a society of a negative and undesirable nature. The novels both alert us to the economic, political and social affects this dystopia has on a society and the characters. In both books there is an immediate contrast between the living standards of both characters and their immediate surroundings. In Gilliard, Offred is living in a clean, simple white room, A chair, a table, a lamp. Using ellipsis and a simple asyndetic list, Atwood has represented the room through language. In Oceania however Winston is living in filth, a swirl of gritty dust Orwell appeals to the senses here for us to understand how he lives. These living conditions are in very stark contrast even though they live in societies that restrict them; their restrictions are in different ways. Winston does not have a clean living space and Offred has nothing to do in hers, the in-depth description of her room immediately shows us how bored she is already. As Offred is sent to Gilliard to produce a child for the commander and his wife, she is not allowed to have simple things like cigarettes, or even caffeine, I looked at the cigarette with longing. For me, like liquor and coffee, cigarettes re forbidden. In the dystopian society of Gilliard, desirable pleasures and possibly addictions, like smoking, are forbidden to the handmaids. However, Winston is able to smoke freely in his society, yet he is still placed under restriction by the fact these luxury items are under ration, The new ration did not start till tomorrow and he had only four cigarettes left. These restrictions along with the strangling way of life for both societies result in Offred considering rebelling and Winston actually rebelling. However, the consequences mean that for Offred she, cant take the risk. The oppression of her society means that she has no voice and cannot say or ask what she wants to. She has no way of communicating with the other handmaids nor discussing the predicament she is in, something which we see could possibly drive her mad. In Oceania, Winston has already rebelled and keeps a diary, To mark the paper was the decisive act. He is taking a huge risk here; if the thought police were to catch him doing this he would face death. He was already dead His own thoughts against the government are wrong. In both Offred and Winstons societies, language has been a way of oppressing them, but in different ways. In Gilliard, Offred isnt able to speak as she wishes; she is often left saying things which is deemed as the expected response. How I used to despise such talk. Now I long for it. Offred does not actually seem to have a truthful or even a full length conversation with anyone up to this point in the novel; she depends upon the trivial conversation to keep her sane. On the other hand in Oceania, there is a whole new language called newspeak. This language was to make any thought crime or alternative thinking impossible by removing any words or possible constructs which describe the ideas of freedom, rebellion and so on. In both novels dystopian society has moulded and warped the views of many young people. This is especially emphasised in Oceania where the children of the Parsons are willing to submit anyone to the thought police as long as they can rise through the ranks, possibly even their own parents. Their children are described as, like tiger cubs which will soon grow up into man-eaters. This simile shows us how a vicious society has turned these children into; they have no family or moral values, only those to please their government. Slightly less prominent is the role of the guards in the Oceania; they are young men working for the government and eager to do their job well, The young ones are often the most dangerous This incident leads to read about a woman being shot by the guards but she was innocent, even the innocents in society suffer which we will see later on. These submissive youths also have no idea of the past, a subject that leads for Winston and Offred to both suffer, but for different reasons. Offred we have so far learned through the stream of consciousness technique often finds herself thinking about her past and the people in it. However, we do not know as of yet who these people are, especially Luke. The past for her is not a nostalgic memory, Such freedom now seems almost weightless. It just reminds her of how she used to be and how she is now. Winston on the other hand can barely remember his past; he can remember vague visions of his mother, father and sister, He must, he thought, have been ten or eleven years old when his mother disappeared. He does not know where his family went and probably never will. This suffering extends throughout both novels, under the regimes which are in place; everyone in society suffers, whether they know it or not, not only the main characters, and this may be the most prominent theme of dystopian societies. Everyone is oppressed or brainwashed under this change in rule and culture, no one in neither 1984 or The Handmaids Tale is truly happy. In conclusion, Gilliard and Oceania have so far presented many problems being dystopian societies. They oppress those living in them; take away rights, individuality and freedom. Not only political but social restrictions have been emphasised in the two novels and most importantly how the characters are affected.

essay on chernobyl :: essays research papers

Chernobyl Accident The April 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukraine was the product of a flawed Soviet reactor design coupled with serious mistakes made by the plant operators in the context of a system where training was minimal. It was a direct consequence of Cold War isolation and the resulting lack of any safety culture. The accident destroyed the Chernobyl-4 reactor and killed 30 people, including 28 from radiation exposure. A further 209 on site were treated for acute radiation poisoning and among these, 134 cases were confirmed (all of whom recovered). Nobody off-site suffered from acute radiation effects. However, large areas of Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and beyond were contaminated in varying degrees. The Chernobyl disaster was a unique event and the only accident in the history of commercial nuclear power where radiation-related fatalities occurred.* On 25 April, prior to a routine shut-down, the reactor crew at Chernobyl-4 began preparing for a test to determine how long turbines would spin and supply power following a loss of main electrical power supply. Similar tests had already been carried out at Chernobyl and other plants, despite the fact that these reactors were known to be very unstable at low power settings. A series of operator actions, including the disabling of automatic shutdown mechanisms, preceded the attempted test early on 26 April. As flow of coolant water diminished, power output increased. When the operator moved to shut down the reactor from its unstable condition arising from previous errors, a peculiarity of the design caused a dramatic power surge. The fuel elements ruptured and the resultant explosive force of steam lifted off the cover plate of the reactor, releasing fission products to the atmosphere. A second explosion threw out fragments of burning fuel and graphite from the core and allowed air to rush in, causing the graphite moderator to burst into flames. Some 5000 tonnes of boron, dolomite, sand, clay and lead were dropped on to the burning core by helicopter in an effort to extinguish the blaze and limit the release of radioactive particles.

Religion and New Age Movements

Using material from item A and elsewhere, assess the view that most people today see spirituality and religious belief as purely private and personal matters. In society today religion can be seen in two different ways, as a private and personal matter or something to share with your community.Some sociologists would argue that religion and spirituality is a private matter because of televangelism, which is where people watch their religions services on television or go on online churches in the comfort and privacy of their own home when we have free time but other sociologists argue that this does not mean that religion and spirituality is a private matter, but that we have to use televangelism due to the fact we live in a postmodern society which means society is constantly changing and causes us to lead hectic lifestyles.This also links in with vicarious religion, which is where a small group of people practice for the wider community. Another reason why sociologists would argue t hat religion and spirituality is a private matter is that there has been a large increase in new age movements, such as; horoscopes, tarot cards and Wicca. Which focus on individualistic beliefs and self-healing, increasing amounts of these springing up indicates that because we live in a postmodern society we are starting to focus on ourselves more meaning that our beliefs are becoming privatised.Other sociologists would argue against this by saying that they are not a true picture of our religious beliefs, and are in fact, just fads, which we can pick and choose whether, we believe in them and don’t necessarily believe in them throughout our whole lives. This is linked to spiritual shopping, which is where we pick and choose which parts of different religions we believe in. Our beliefs are not a set structure and we have personal choice in what we believe. Also, another reason why religion may have become privatised is because of industrialisation, which caused us to no lon ger live in small tightknit communities.Before industrialisation churches and other religious organisations were often the centre of small tightknit communities and also, there was social stigma attached to not going to church before industrialisation. Industrialisation caused people to go from living in extended families to living in small nuclear families so that they could move round and find work where it was available, This lead to more hectic lifestyles and less time for people to go to churches meaning that they had to practise privately.Because of this, industrialisation also therefore decreased the amount of social stigma around not attending church allowing people to choose whether they actually wanted to go or not. You could argue that this means that religion is now more pure because we chose what we believe and don’t just ‘believe’ so that we fit into the rest of society. On the other hand, other sociologists argue that there are still other religiou s people about that still live in tightknit communities such as Muslims.Muslims tend to use their religion as a form of cultural defence to protect their identity from scrutiny from outsiders of their religion. But other sociologists would argue that this is a Eurocentric argument because Muslims do not use their religion as a form of cultural defence outside of Europe, and the reason they do it here is because of how they are represented in the media and because people connect them with fundamentalist attacks that happen causing ‘islamaphobia,’ Which is the irrational fear of Islam.Structural differentiation has meant that religion has become more privitised because we now live in a multi-cultural society we now have more choice in what we believe in allowing us to ‘spiritual shop’ Lyon did a study called ‘Jesus in Disneyland’ believes that we have become religious consumers, meaning that me pick and choose what we believe from all the differe nt religions in the world. This has been made possible because of globalisation creating stronger links between different countries and allowing us to have access to multiple types of religions with all different norms and values.This gives us greater choice between what we believe in and what we don’t. There are many methodological problems with measuring whether religion has become privatized, on of these problems is that ‘ how do you measure how many religious organisations there are? ’ this is a problem because it is near impossible to count every single religious organisation in the world because of the amount of cults and sects that exist that not everybody may now about. Sociologists argue that there has been a decrease on the number of religious organisations, and therefore religious belief is decreasing, but they do not take into account that it may not be religious belief that is declining, but that lack of funding has meant that the religious beliefs c ould not remain forcing people into practise privately, Also, how do you define what a religious organisation is.Another problem with measuring whether religion has become privatised is that you can’t know what people are thinking, just because they don’t visit a religious organisation, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are not religious, they may just not have the time to visit the organisation so instead use things like televangelism to practise at home.Also, just because people don’t attend religious organisations often, Stark and Bainbridge believe that the decline in traditional religions has created a demand for newer religions, this includes new age movements that focus on private practice. They believe this is due to people being naturally religious and needing religion as a compensator during times of crisis. They think that people still turn to religion for rites of passage and in times of life crisis, so, when people feel their life is unst able and they need something to make them feel better.

Kurt Lewin Essay example - 1210 Words

Kurt Lewinnbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Kurt Lewin was a great innovater at his time in the field of Psychology. The theories he developed, the methods of reserch he used and the people he influenced all have had a profound impact on Psychology and even more specifically on Social Psychology. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Lewin was born in 1890 in what is now Poland but at the time was the Prussian province of Posen, in the village of Moglino and was the second of four children (Greathouse). His parents owned a general store, and a farm on the outskirts of the village. When Lewin was fifteen his family moved away from the small village, the farm and their store and went to Berlin.†¦show more content†¦In 1932, after several years of work with Wertheimer and Kohler in Germany, Lewin was invited to be a visiting professor at Stanford University (Patnoe pf.3). He stayed in the United States for six months and then moved back to Germany just as Hitler was coming to power. Being a Jew Lewin wanted to get out of the country as fast as possible. Luckily he was able to do this because of the Committee on Displaced Scholars (Frostburg). nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Lewins first job after his immigration was at Cornell. There he did studies quot;concerning social pressure on eating habits in children (Patnoe pg.4).quot; During his time there Lewin published one of his eight books, quot;A Dynamic Theory of Personality.quot; After two years of work and the exhaustion of funds at Cornell, Lewin took a new position at The University of Iowa at their Child Welfare Research Station where he would stay for ten years (Frostburg). nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;In 1945 he moved back to the East Coast and established two new centers of research and study of his own; one at M.I.T., The Research Center for Group Dynamics and in New York, the Commission for Community Interrelations (Patnoe pg.8-9). His aspirations for the two centers were that they would corroborate quot;to combine scientific study with Action Research in an effort toShow MoreRelatedWhat Workplace Educational Programs Need to Know About Behavioral Change: Tapping the Work of Kurt Lewin: Gershwin Mary Crabbe3538 Words   |  15 PagesCourse: EDLP 602: DYNAMICS OF EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP Review of article: What Workplace Educational Programs need to know about behavioral change: Tapping the work of Kurt Lewin: Gershwin Mary Crabbe The purpose of the article is to evaluate Kurt Lewin’s paradigm of change, and its implications for workplace education programs. I chose the article because it relates to my current work place situation, which has undergone major changes in the past two years, as well as some changes I have attemptedRead MoreAnalysis Of Kurt Lewin s Change Management Model And John Kotter s Eight Step Change Model2105 Words   |  9 Pageschoice and its theory of use. Unfortunately â€Å"it is difficult to identify any consensus regarding a framework for organisational change management† (Todnem By, 2005, 370). This section will look to critically analyse two of the most commonly used models, Kurt Lewin’s change management model and John Kotter’s eight step change model (Mourfield, 2014). Carnall (2007) states Lewin’s change management model is a Linear, step by step guide that may be good for a manager to follow for planned changes. Lewin’sRead MoreKurt Lewin1247 Words   |  5 PagesKurt Lewin Kurt Lewin was a great innovater at his time in the field of Psychology. The theories he developed, the methods of reserch he used and the people he influenced all have had a profound impact on Psychology and even more specifically on Social Psychology. Lewin was born in 1890 in what is now Poland but at the time was the Prussian province of Posen, in the village of Moglino and was the second of four children (Greathouse). His parents owned a general store, and a farm on the outskirtsRead MoreKurt Lewin As A Good Theory1374 Words   |  6 Pagesmade by Kurt Lewin. Simply put there is nothing better than learning a new theory and putting your thoughts and ideas to test. We live in a real world where everything has a place and time. There is always a theory on how everything works and how we can understand it more. When Lewin stated this, he was looking at the present situations, the world around him and all the theories and ideas left to be explored. Somehow all the factors of our lives affect each other and as a sociologist Kurt Lewin knewRead MoreKurt Lewin s Leadership Styles1526 Words   |  7 PagesLeadership Styles There are three classic leadership styles. Kurt Lewin’s leadership styles vary in the degree of control that they give their followers. Kurt Lewin (1890-1947) was a social psychologist whose extensive work covered studies of leadership styles and their effects, along with many other theories (Kurt Lewin). Along with two other colleagues, Lewin performed research on the effects of three different leadership styles and the outcome on groups of boys. The three leadership styles thatRead MoreCurrent Schools Of Thought On Change Management1559 Words   |  7 Pagesinclude consideration of two current schools of thought on change management and how they have contributed to organizational change Kurt Zadek Lewin (September 9, 1890 – February 12, 1947) was a German-American analyst, known as one of the advanced pioneers of social , authoritative, and connected brain research An early model of progress created by Lewin portrayed change as a three-stage process. The primary stage he called unfreezing. It included overcoming dormancy and disassembling theRead MoreKurt Lewin s Work With Psychology1051 Words   |  5 PagesKurt Lewin was born in Poland on September 9, 1880. Lewin was a German American psychologist predominantly known for his work with psychology field theory, group dynamics and his theory of change. A majority of Lewin’s work was focused on practical psychological issues such as racism, child development, and humanization of the workplace and school. Some describe Lewin as the founder of experimental social psychology. Kurt Lewin was born in Poland on September 9, 1880 into a jewish family. In 1909Read MoreMainstreaming Of National Australia Bank1174 Words   |  5 Pagesorganizations brings to the problems that 2. Complete a force field analysis using kurt lewin’s change management model, clearly illustrating the driving and restraining forces for change in a force field diagram. Kurt Lewin’s Change Management Model Kurt Lewin s Force Field Analysis is a powerful strategic tool used to understand what s needed for change in both corporate and personal environments. Kurt Lewin wrote that An issue is held in balance by the interaction of two opposing sets ofRead MoreCharacteristics Of A Good Leader1655 Words   |  7 Pagesleadership styles exist, three well-known and commonly-practiced leadership styles that will be examined include the Autocratic, Democratic and the Laissez-Fare. These three leadership styles were discovered by psychologist Kurt Lewin in nineteen-thirty nine (Cherry). Psychologist Lewin completed a study that involved assigning various schoolchildren to one of three different groups (Cherry). While each group was led by a particular leadership style, researchers witnessed and recorded all behavior thatRead MoreKurt Lewin s Leadership Model1186 Words   |  5 Pagesinfluence on their followers by convincing and inspiring them to achieve their goals while motivating them to work hard and succeed. Leader’s usually shift from one style to another depending on the situation. I will be discussing three examples of Kurt Lewin ’s leadership model that we see in organizations today known as, autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire. To start with the autocratic leadership style, I have chosen the CEO of our company. He began in January of this year and I could tell