The Inability To Provide For His Family, And Why It Drove Mr. Shimerda

The Inability to Provide for His Family, and Why it Drove Mr. Shimerda to Suicide My Antonia, by Willa Cather, is a novel about Jim Burden and his relationship and experiences growing up with Antonia Shimerda in Nebraska. Throughout the book Jim reflects on his memories of Nebraska and the Shimerda family, often times in a sad and depressing tone. One of the main ways Cather is able to provoke these sad emotions within the reader is through the suicide of Antonia's father, Mr. Shimerda. His death was unexpected by everyone and it is thought that homesickness is what drove him to take his own life. Homesickness was surely felt by Mr. Shimerda, as it was by many, but it was the failure to adequately find a way to provide for his family that sent Mr. Shimerda into a depressing downward spiral that left him no foreseeable alternative but to take his own life. The first descriptions of Mr. Shimerda are that of a successful businessman that had always provided well for his family. I noticed how white and well-shaped his own hands were. They looked calm, somehow, and skilled. His eyes were melancholy, and were set back deep under his brow. His face was ruggedly formed, but it looked like ashes - like something from which all the warmth and light had dried out. Everything about this old man was in keeping with his dignified manner (24) Mr. Shimerda was indeed a prosperous man in Bohemia, but had made his living in the business world, not by running a farm to provide for his family's needs. His hands show that he rarely performed hard manual labor, but that he did work hard with his hands to weave. His face however shows signs that he was already having doubts about the welfare of his family and their survival. The apparent glow that he must have once had was now replaced by the look of heavy thoughts. This came from the burden of providing for his family by way of very unfamiliar and difficult means. He had already lost a great deal of money in the family's traveling expenses and overpaid for their property. They paid way too much for the land and for the oxen, horses and cookstove (22). Mr. Shimerda must not have thought that he would have to support his family by means of plowing fields for food and actually building a home from materials gathered from the earth. He was a businessman and made a life for his famil y in Bohemia by working. He was a weaver by trade; had been a skilled work man on tapestries and upholstery materials (22). There was no work for him in this new country and he did not have the money to relocate his family. Certainly before he left Bohemia he believed that they had more than enough money to get by. The reality of his family's circumstances was just beginning to show their impact. Antonia points out to Jim that Mr. Shimerda looks ill My papa sick all the time Tony panted as we flew. He not look good, Jim (36). It is obvious that Mr. Shimerda was terribly stressed and was staring to show it physically. Most likely he looked ill due to not sleeping and eating. Nevertheless, Mr. Shimerda wanted desperately do the best that he could for his family. He moved his family with the hopes of finding good husbands for his daughters and wealth and land for his son. He calls onto Jim to teach Antonia to read. He does so in a very pleading, helpless way which leaves an unforgettab le memory in Jim's mind. Jim takes on the task, but unfortunately Mr. Shimerda gets little help from anyone else in the town for anything. Mr. Shimerda never really understands why he receives virtually little help from neighbors getting the farm going. He knows nothing about running the farm, and didn't even have the appropriate tools necessary. He and his family on the other hand are very trusting and would give the shirts off their backs to anyone who needed anything from them. There never were such a people as the Shimerdas for wanting to give away everything they had

Free Essays on History is power

National Pride When trying to analyze another’s being one must first consider the past experiences and influences that have help to shape them. Another important idea about History, is how it can serve a dual role: The one of destroyer or the other of savior. The message a people's history transmits from the past can either kill a people's spirit or empower and magnify. If a people's history has been a past laced with hardship, meekness, subjugation, and servility, no empowerment can be derived from it. This history of hardship had been the version being transmitted to the Korean people by the Japanese: a nation of meek farmers, always stuck in a peninsula, with no strength to become anything. However, instead of causing the Korean’s to be come weak, this only built up in their psyche, having been invaded a total of 966 times from outsiders the Koreans have survived and have never been seen as power hungry people. The most visible cause of this historical view lies in the Japanese colonial era. Every colonial power does its best to instill a sense of inferiority, defeat, and hopelessness into the psyche of the subjugated. The Japanese did everything their power allowed to do to achieve this end; that included a massive sixteen-year compiling of their version of Korean history, The Chosen-sai. Chosen-sai essentially has never been discarded Yi Byong-do, who was an active participant in the compiling of the Chosen-sai. But Yi not withstanding, the Japanese didn't get their idea just out of the blue, but rather exploited centuries of sadaejui practiced by the Yi Dynasty. Since sadaejui itself was a self-derogatory ideology that whole-heartedly embraced Sino centrism and the "dominant sinic culture", the foundation for the distortion of Korean history had already been laid, the Japanese just simply built on their version of Korean inferiority on top of another that was already there. But there is another historical view of Korean h... Free Essays on History is power Free Essays on History is power National Pride When trying to analyze another’s being one must first consider the past experiences and influences that have help to shape them. Another important idea about History, is how it can serve a dual role: The one of destroyer or the other of savior. The message a people's history transmits from the past can either kill a people's spirit or empower and magnify. If a people's history has been a past laced with hardship, meekness, subjugation, and servility, no empowerment can be derived from it. This history of hardship had been the version being transmitted to the Korean people by the Japanese: a nation of meek farmers, always stuck in a peninsula, with no strength to become anything. However, instead of causing the Korean’s to be come weak, this only built up in their psyche, having been invaded a total of 966 times from outsiders the Koreans have survived and have never been seen as power hungry people. The most visible cause of this historical view lies in the Japanese colonial era. Every colonial power does its best to instill a sense of inferiority, defeat, and hopelessness into the psyche of the subjugated. The Japanese did everything their power allowed to do to achieve this end; that included a massive sixteen-year compiling of their version of Korean history, The Chosen-sai. Chosen-sai essentially has never been discarded Yi Byong-do, who was an active participant in the compiling of the Chosen-sai. But Yi not withstanding, the Japanese didn't get their idea just out of the blue, but rather exploited centuries of sadaejui practiced by the Yi Dynasty. Since sadaejui itself was a self-derogatory ideology that whole-heartedly embraced Sino centrism and the "dominant sinic culture", the foundation for the distortion of Korean history had already been laid, the Japanese just simply built on their version of Korean inferiority on top of another that was already there. But there is another historical view of Korean h...

Click vs. Clip

Click vs. Clip Click vs. Clip Click vs. Clip By Maeve Maddox The following comment appeared in my Facebook news feed: You have to clip on the picture to see [the complete image]. The context surely called for click, not clip. Curious, I cruised the Web to see if I might find other instances of clip used in a context calling for click. I was surprised by how common the error seems to be. Here are just a few examples that I found: To see a full side-by-side visual comparison of my standard vs responsive design home page as seen on my Android smartphone, clip on the image below. If you would like to utilize the pictures I used in this activity, clip on the image below. Please clip on the image  above to download a  freebie  sample game. Clip on the image or name of the image below to download a high resolution PNG file of that picture. Clip on the image  below for a look A Google search brought up about 400,000 hits for the phrase, â€Å"clip on the image,† compared to 58,800,000 for the correct idiom, â€Å"click on the image.† In the context of computing, click is used as both noun and verb. As a noun, click refers to the act of pressing a button on a computer mouse: How Many Calories are Burned with the Click of a Mouse? What if a click of the mouse could save the environment? Search for over 20,000 parts and place an order with the click of a mouse. As a verb, click means, â€Å"to press a button on the mouse†: New users: Click â€Å"Register.† Right-click an empty spot on your desktop or in a folder of your choice. Double-click the file to launch it. The common meaning of clip, on the other hand, is, â€Å"to cut with scissors or shears.† Hair, wool, grass, and various other things are clipped. In the context of media, the words clip and clipping have acquired specialized meanings. In the old days, when printed publications dominated the media, people cut articles from newspapers and magazines and placed them in files or in scrapbooks. Artists and politicians were especially interested in tracking their publicity. The first agency for the purpose of collecting and organizing printed articles for clients was established in London in 1852. In American usage, articles clipped from publications are called clippings; in British usage, they’re called cuttings. Like click, clip has also become a computer term: Sight is an iPhone-optimized app that  lets you clip articles from any iOS app in  one  snap. Quickly and easily clip articles, text, and images right into Evernote. Web clipping is extracting static information from a Web site in order to display the data on a Web-enabled PDA. In the context of computer use, click applies to the operation of a mouse. Clip refers to some form of cutting. One might clip an image to use it elsewhere, but one clicks on an image to enlarge it or download it. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Dialogue Dos and Don'tsStory Writing 101While vs. Whilst

A Human Character to the Corporation From a Moral Perspective Research Paper

A Human Character to the Corporation From a Moral Perspective - Research Paper Example Corporations law and partnership law are currently separate. However, current amendments to the Partnership Act of 1892 (NSW) have made provision for LLP and ILPs, with the facility of limited liability being extended in these cases to promote innovation and risk-taking. While this could address the limited use of partnerships due to their inability to restrict liability5, it also allows for benefits to be gleaned by foreign investors and large entrepreneurs, promoting a capitalistic structure that may not necessarily be beneficial to Australian interests. If the limited liability benefits of a corporation are to be extended to small partnership like arrangements of a few Directors who also share profits among themselves as in the Ebrahimi case, then the taxation laws must be amended 6 and the Partnership Act of New South Wales must be amended to permit such business to take advantage of tax reforms. This will enable issues of fairness and equity of a partnership where partners/inves tors owe each other a duty of good faith to co-exist successfully with the limited liability of corporations. The purpose of including disclosure through prospectuses for securities was mainly (a) to protect investors from underlying risks (b) enhance the efficiency of the securities market and (c) prevent fraud. Ruth Hines discovered that although the financial statements that are a part of such reports are considered vital, only those experienced in accounting were able to understand them sufficiently to make their decisions on the basis of those reports.

Personal statement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 8

Personal statement - Essay Example I am deeply aware that any interest in life can best translate into a real-time success only through impeccable academic credentials. My father himself built his military career on the foundation of his study at Sandhurst Academy in the UK. In line with this belief, I chose to pursue my Bachelor of Science in International Business Management at Lynn University. As a senior, I can confidently say that this is indeed what I want to do with my life. I have enjoyed all my undergraduate courses, particularly Operations, Management, Marketing and Finance. I perceive that Masters in Information Technology from a reputed university like Pace is the logical next step to open the doors to my entry into the tech industry. Right from High School, I have grabbed every opportunity to gain computer related knowledge. My internship with the Gardeniya Ladies Centre at Alkhobar, Saudi Arabia, gave me valuable exposure to customer relations. I learned that interpersonal communication is the bedrock of any commercial venture. I went on to another internship at the Click Travel Agency in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where I scheduled flight arrivals and departures, and honed my organizational prowess. I am confident that my internships have given me valuable skills in time management, dispute resolution and innovative packages design. At Lynn, I am a faithful and interested participant in the numerous CEO presentations on campus, absorbing the invaluable, first-hand inputs of professional businessmen and entrepreneurs. I also made use of the opportunity to be a part of the preparation for the 2012 Presidential Debate hosted at Lynn. What a learning experience that was! I believe that volunteer work is the ideal way to self-fulfillment. One of the most enriching periods of my life is the time I spent as a student volunteer at the Senior Nursing Home/ Orphanage Facility for Children at Dammam, Saudi Arabia. I was part of a social media campaign to

Child Abuse Prevention and Control Essay Example for Free

Child Abuse Prevention and Control Essay Child abuse is a serious and widespread problem throughout the world. It can take the form of sexual abuse, physical or psychological mistreatment , or child neglect. Can child abuse be prevented? Can the child abuser be rehabilitated? What can be done within your own home or community to prevent or control child abuse? Once discovered, child abuse can be addressed, but how does one report child abuse, and what are the legal requirements for reporting the abuse? Are you aware of the effect that the abuse has on other family members, or what the long term effects of child abuse can be? Learn how you can be part of the solution to the tragic problem of child abuse. Child abuse, regardless of what form it takes, is extremely damaging to the child, the family, and society. Approximately eighty percent of twenty-one year olds that have survived childhood abuse have at least one psychological disorder, and about thirty percent of abused or exploited children become abusers themselves as adults. Statistics tell us that five or more abused children die every day in America alone, not including the many abuse-related deaths that go unrecorded. Child abuse is a worldwide occurrence which crosses all boundaries. No financial, racial, religious, cultural or other situation has been found to preclude child abuse. Reporting child abuse United States, Guam, and Puerto Rico are among several areas of the world that have mandatory reporting laws. In these areas, any person who suspects or observes child abuse of any type must report the situation to the legal authorities. There are several professions in which the mandate to report is even more thoroughly enforced. Traditional authority positions such as school teacher, law enforcement, and physician are a few examples. The importance of reporting the abuse cannot be stressed enough. The younger the child is when the abuse is stopped, the better the chances of healing the psychological and/or physical damage inflicted. The longer the abuse is allowed to continue, the more damage is done, and healing becomes progressively more difficult. Studies show that children who simply witness abuse within the family are just as negatively affected as the subject of the abuse, further demonstrating the scope and gravity of this type of situation, and the importance of early intervention. Preventing child abuse The following are some ways that we can attempt to prevent the abuse before it even starts. If you are a parent, be sure you are able to de-stress in a healthy way instead of directing your frustrations toward your child. Physical activity, meditation, or involvement in a support group outside the home and away from the children are all excellent ways of positively redirecting anger or frustration. If you believe that you, or someone in your family is at risk of losing control or becoming abusive, do not ignore the issue or delay taking action. The person on the verge of losing control must get help before the abuse ever occurs. If you notice a parent clearly struggling under a lot of stress, try sympathizing, and perhaps offer to babysit, or even trade babysitting services to give the adults some down time. Donate, volunteer, or become otherwise actively involved in raising awareness about, or assisting, families and children in crisis. Controlling child abuse already occuring in the home It is no simple task to rehabilitate a child abuser. Generally, it is a long term process, involving not just the abuser, but the entire family unit. Each family member must be willing to cooperate in the rehabilitation program. Mental or psychological instability or illness, and/or substance abuse often contribute to the abusive behavior, complicating matters even more, and and making rehabilitation much more difficult. If the abuse violation is considered low level, the abuser may possibly be permitted to remain within the home while treatment takes place, as long as steady improvement is observed and no further abuse occurs. This is normally decided on a case by case basis. The definition of low level varies according to local laws, but one example would be mild incidences of neglect, as opposed to actual physical or sexual abuse or exploitation, or more severe cases of neglect. Instances in which the abuse has become more serious usually require removal and temporary relocation of the child, or removal of the abuser, until such time as the offender is determined to be rehabilitated. Requirements vary depending on locale, but in all instances, there are specific conditions that must be satisfied before the family is reunited.

The Working Poor in America Essay example -- Exploratory Essays Resear

The Working Poor in America The concept of the "working poor" has gained prominence in the post-welfare reform era. As welfare rolls shrunk, the focus shifted from the dependent poor to the working poor. It was obvious that without substantial outside support, even families with full-time low-wage workers were still earning less than the official poverty line. And while American society purports that anyone can prosper if they work hard enough, it became apparent that with inadequate opportunity or bad luck, a growing number of families could not attain the American dream, or even break the cycle of poverty. The new challenge for American social policy is to help the working poor lift themselves out of poverty. That's why progressives who supported ending welfare as we know it have set a new goal -- the government should "make work pay" so that no one who works full time is poor. After substantial decreases in the 1990s, poverty rates stopped their decline in 2000 and have actually started to again creep upward. The great conundrum of how one simultaneously alleviates the multiple causes of poverty has become a central obstacle to poverty reduction. Into this debate comes author David Shipler, a former New York Times Pulitzer Prize winner, with an aptly titled look at the state of poverty in America today, The Working Poor. Shipler's book is more anecdotal and descriptive than analytical and prescriptive. Yet it is a valuable portrait of poverty in America, just as Michael Harrington's landmark book, The Other America, was in 1962. While he does not offer many concrete solutions, Shipler provides readers with an intimate glimpse of the plight of the working poor, whose lives are in sharp contrast to the images of excess w... ... funding and direction, including those of local government and philanthropy, are critical to tailoring programs to the specific needs of local communities, and should be leveraged through federal funding. The final ingredient is responsibility, both personal and collective. Individuals must be empowered to improve their own lives, and the community must support the effort rather than look the other way, or looking past the working poor, who can so easily blend into the background. Shipler concludes the book with these thoughts: "Workers at the edge of poverty are essential to America's prosperity, but their well-being is not treated as an integral part of the whole. Instead, the forgotten wage a daily struggle to keep themselves from falling over the cliff. It is time to be ashamed." No, it is time to move past the ideology and make work pay for all Americans.