Travelling

Oscar Wilde s The Picture Of Dorian Gray - 1295 Words

It is apparent that vanity, sin, and beauty are the key elements found in The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. But, where do these elements originate from? What is the reason behind man’s internal need to pursue sin or his ideal sense of beauty that, on occasion, leads to his vanity? In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde explores naturalism through the use of symbolism and the tools of characterization, such as speech, action, interiority, the narrator, and the actions of other characters towards the protagonist, to illustrate how humanity’s perception of vanity, sin, and beauty are an inherent part of man’s nature and a blinding disillusion to the meaning of life. Naturalism is the objective study of human behavior in literature. The idea of naturalism is that all humans are animals with natural instincts and passions, but their behavior in life can be molded by the environment they are subjected to. While Dorian Gray was sitting for his portrait he w as constantly bombarded with compliments regarding his aesthetic beauty by the two most prominent people in his life, Basil Hallward and Lord Henry. It is this type of recurrent action and environment that steadily groomed Dorian’s perception of beauty and elevated his ego, which eventually lead to the development of his self-destructing vanity. At one point, Lord Henry tells Dorian â€Å"You have a wonderfully beautiful face, Mr. Gray. And Beauty is a form of Genius---is higher, indeed, than Genius, as it needsShow MoreRelatedOscar Wilde s The Picture Of Dorian Gray1544 Words   |  7 Pagescelebrity I find that it is inevitable to avoid being a part of some sort of controversy. At the height of Oscar Wilde’s career is where he found himself in just that. Although Wilde’s novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray is praised today, in the late 1800s it was seen by others as a negative shift in society and literature. In the film â€Å"Wilde†, after the release of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde’s wife Constance and his mother Jane have a conversation in regards to the novel that gives insight toRead MoreOscar Wilde s The Picture Of Dorian Gray Essay1517 Words   |  7 Pagesin connection with Dorian demonstrates how he tries to live surrounded by exquisite sensations. As Oscar Wilde once said, â€Å" Beauty is above genius, because it does not require understanding.† This shows that beauty is everything no matter who it s towards. Oscar Wilde was a well known author for his brilliant wit, his style in writing , and infamous imprisonment for homosexuality. He shows his great works in the novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, which is about how Dorian Gray meets Lord Henry WottonRead MoreOscar Wilde s The Picture Of Dorian Gray1656 Words   |  7 Pagesstill embraced some radical views that today we would associate as prudishness and repression. In 1890, author Oscar Wilde wrote The Picture of Dorian Gray and submitted it to Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine. The magazine’s editor, J.M. Stoddert, immediately declined the novel and determined that it would offend the sensibilities of his readership (Wilde x). It was believed that Oscar Wilde’s book contained explicit sexual, especially homosexual, content which contradicted the time period of theRead MoreOscar Wilde s The Picture Of Dorian Gray1040 Words   |  5 PagesCorruption can do many things. It can lead to unstable lifestyles, pollute minds and bring on the downfall of just about anything or anyone. One of the best examples would be from the story, Dorian gray by Oscar Wilde. This story showed a young Dorian living his innocent life, only to be surrounded and influenced by the corrupt society around him and would ultimately lead to his demise. It is not easy to define corruption as a whole. But to narrow it down, corruption is mainly associated with briberyRead MoreOscar Wilde s The Picture Of Dorian Gray1049 Words   |  5 PagesKevin McElroyIn The Picture of Dorian Gray, the author Oscar Wilde relays the message to the reader that youth decays with age but value and beauty does not. The character Dorian Gray mourned his stage of youth through the portrait instead of having cherished the times he experienced. This use of symbolism through the portrait is Wilde s way of expressing this theme. This main symbol is the portrait itself as the author uses it to gradually reveal Dorian’s true identity. Dorian Gray is an attractiveRead MoreOscar Wilde s The Picture Of Dorian Gray1644 Words   |  7 PagesLooking back on Oscar Wilde s life, there are many realizations that he struggled finding something that suited him best with his type of work. A man of the 19th century, who is best known for his only novella The Picture of Dorian Gray and his play The Importance of Being Earnest as well as his infamous arrest, imprisonment and being a gay author leading to his downfall. Oscar Wilde who was known as a playwright, author, sometime poet, and also a not very motivated school student, still came toRead MoreOscar Wilde s The Picture Of Dorian Gray2021 Words   |  9 PagesMcNeight English Lit II 3/1/15 Dorian Gray: A Battle With One’s Self Oscar Wilde’s â€Å"The Picture of Dorian Gray† is a story that focuses on the journey of an innocent and pure man, and his downward spiral of giving into temptation and committing crime, and living a life of pleasure. The story is centered around the idea of aestheticism. Everything is beautiful, the thought of something having any kind of â€Å"moral† meaning is just absurd. â€Å"The Picture of Dorian Gray† by Oscar Wilde both honors and condemnsRead MoreOscar Wilde s The Picture Of Dorian Gray1998 Words   |  8 PagesRackshana Sithirasenan Mr. Cimetta ENG4U1-01 24 November 2014 Dorian’s Pursuit Towards Hedonism Dorian Gray once told Henry The soul . . . can be bought, and sold. It can be poisoned, or made perfect (Wilde 213). Likewise, it would not be beneficial for one to sacrifice their soul with an exception of exchanging it in order to attain perfection. Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray explores the themes and ideologies of Hedonism and Aestheticism. Hedonists believe that pleasure is the mostRead MoreAnalysis of Oscar Wilde ´s The Picture of Dorian Gray590 Words   |  2 Pages The Picture of Dorian Gray The difference between art and life is quite simple, art is created and imagined by an artist and life is a representation of the living and the actuality of experiencing situations. Conversely, in the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde demonstrates how the main characters mistake art for life, and life for art. Through The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde reveals the proper perspective for life and art, art has the ability to stand alone in society withoutRead MoreLiterary Criticism Of Oscar Wilde s The Canterville Ghost And The Picture Of Dorian Gray Essay2157 Words   |  9 PagesAnalysis of characters, plot and literary criticism of Oscar Wilde’s Novel â€Å"The Canterville Ghost† and â€Å"The Picture of Dorian Gray† Oscar Wilde was an Irish playwright, novelist, poet, and critic. He is viewed as one of the best dramatists of the Victorian Era. Besides literary accomplishments, he is also famous, or perhaps or notorious, for his intelligence, showiness, and affairs with men. He was tried and imprisoned for his homosexual relationship (then considered a crime)

Trashed Free Essays

Largest Landfill in the World Soon going to the will no longer be a vacation option unless you do not plan to swim. There will probably be a huge amount of plastic and trash in the water. This is due to the Pacific trash vortex. We will write a custom essay sample on Trashed or any similar topic only for you Order Now All of the plastic that has accumulated over the years had either eended up in a landfill or in the ocean. It is however, more likely that the trash has ended up in the ocean. Trash that people just toss in the water ends up in the ocean. Americans fail to realize that bodies of water connect to larger bodies of water which eventually leads to that onee fun special vacation spot. A trash vortex is a big lanfill of garbage and plastic that ends up in the water. It is also known as a garbage patch. Sometimes the vortex is hard to see because the materials sink down to the bottom of the ocean floor. There has been much more garbage placed in the ocean than most people realize. Until you actually research this understanding how much trash ends up in the ocean is not possible. â€Å"Because of its durability and our increased use in recent decades, scientists estimate that plastic makes up 60 to 80 percent of marine debris worldwide. ( â€Å"Trashing the Ocean. â€Å") This essay will further summarize what the pacific trash vortex is, describe the impacts the trash vortex has on the environment, talk about some of the biggest controvesies around this issue, and give my point of views on the issue. A trash vortex is a large area of garbage in the ocean. This area of garbage in the ocean takes up a large amount of space in the ocean. â€Å" It is roughly the si ze of Texas, containing approximately 3. 5 million tons of trash. â€Å" (â€Å"Trashing the Ocean†). This area is so very large that it can not be hidden. Sometimes the materials just float, but then there are several types of materials that sink into the water and are not very visible by humans. â€Å"The expedition easily spotted some types of plastic. But a larger problem may lurk below the surface. †(â€Å"Giant Ocean-Trash Vortex Documented-A First 5). Most of the trash that has been found in the ocean are things such as plastic bottles, plastic bags, old household materials, etc. There is more than just one trash vortex around the world. â€Å"The Pacific Vortex isn’t the only one. The Atlantic and Indian ocean, which have different current patterns, have plastic gyres of their own†(Walsh, Bryan 1). About ten percent of all the plastic produced in the world ends up in the ocean. â€Å" Perhaps ten percent of the two hundred and sixty million tons of plastic produced worldwide each year end up in the sea-much of it in the swirling currents of the North Pacific Gyre and other ocean vortices. ( â€Å"Giant Ocean- Trash Vortex Documented-A first 2) Plastic can not be broken down so if there is nothing done about it over a period of time the ocean will just accumulate more plastic. Most of our waste today is comprised of plastic. Plastic, which is made from petroleum, is a material that the Earth cannot digest. Every bit of plastic that has ever been created still exists. â€Å" (â€Å"Trashing the Ocean. â€Å") If there is more plastic accumulated there will be more animals in the ocean that die. No one knows exactly when trash started becoming a proble m in the ocean or why it became a problem. The trash vortex has been known to kill several animals in the ocean. The trash gets into the ocean a few ways. One of the ways that the trash gets into the ocean is by people throwing trash on land and the rain washing it into things such as sewers. There are several different sizes of garbage that have been thrown in the ocean. â€Å"A single one litre drinks bottle could break down into enough small fragments to put one on every mile of beach in the entire world. These smaller particles are joined by the small pellets of plastic which are the form in which many new plastics are marketed and which can be lost at sea by the drum load or even a whole container load. (â€Å"The Trash Vortex†). Not all of the things that are thrown in the ocean are large. â€Å"While large pieces are common, the garbage patch is not an island of plastic, the team found on their 19-day expedition in August. Much of the debris is in the form of countless thumbnail-size scraps. †( â€Å"Giant Ocean- Trash Vortex Documented-A first†1) Sewers and rivers all lead to the ocean. All the garbage tha t ends up in the sewers eventually end up into the ocean. Another way that garbage ends up in the ocean is by us directly throwing things into the water. The trash vortex has a very unknown impact on the community. There is an unknown impact on the community because not many people know that all this trash exists in the ocean. Some of the people that know the trash vortex exist do what they can to help stop the issue. The trash vortex has a very negative impact on its environment. All the garbage in the ocean has killed several marine animals. Birds are dying because they are mistaking the trash in the ocean for food and an animal can not digest plastic materials. So this leads to the death of several marine animals such as birds and turtles. It has become such an issue to the point where there may not be many marine animals if there is more plastic put into the ocean â€Å"In the ocean, plastic waste accumulates in swirling seas of debris, where plastic to sea life ratios are 6:1; where birds and mammals are dying of starvation and dehydration with bellies full of plastics; where fish are ingesting toxins at such a rate that soon they will no longer be safe to eat. â€Å" (â€Å"Garbage Patch. â€Å") There has also been an issue with the plastic because of an essiential organic compound called zooplankton. They have been finding more trash in the ocean than zooplankton and that is not good because zooplankton is essential to the ecosystem. Zooplankton are little tiny organisms that are important because they feed the animals in the water. Algae is a type of zooplankton. The trash in the water has also been known to absorb organic pollutants which are there for a reason. When they are gone it will be hard to acquire more. People will not realize the full effects that this issue has until it becomes a very severe problem and leads to the death of many marine animals. It can also become a severe problem by effecting the way we have a great time at the beach or on a river trip. The trash vortex in the Pacific ocean is a big issue mainly because it is starting to be a lot more trash than is needed. Trash in the ocean can not be broken down and it does not decompose. â€Å"The very thing that makes plastic items useful to consumers, their durability and stability, also makes them a problem in marine environments. †(â€Å"The Trash Vortex†). That means that the animals that eat the trash will eventually die. That also means that the number of marine animals will decrease tremendously. That also means that the trash will begin to pile up worse than it is now. That can also affect our water supply because the water we drink on a daily has to come from somewhere. Our water has to be kept clean or it could become a problem to the environment around us and the ecosystem. I believe that this issue does not have to stay an issue. The trash vortex can be handled over a period of time if we all work together to take care of the water. If we clean up and recycle more the garbage patch will not be as big as it is now. The things we can do from our location are make sure that others recycle more and to make sure that we do not become apart of the issue by throwing things in bodies if water. There are a few organizations that try to help by going to some of these areas and cleaning up the land around them. It is not easy to clean up once the plastic has drifted to the bottom of the ocean floor. The issue has not become a huge problem yet, but people have not begun to look at the long terms affects to the environment. If the issue does not stop I feel that it will most certainly become a problem. It will have a negative effect on the marine animals. It is very possible that if the problem does not get any better that we could possibly be looking at some future endangered species. In conclusion, there are so many unknown things floating in the ocean you will be amazed at what people find floating in the ocean â€Å"shoes, toys, bags, pacifiers, wrappers, toothbrushes, and bottles too numerous to count are only part of what can be found in this accidental dump floating midway between Hawaii and San Francisco. (â€Å"Trashing the Ocean. †). The Pacific trash vortex is still an unknown mystery. There are still things that scientist can not figure out about this garbage patch they are actually still trying to figure out all the details. â€Å"Researchers are keen to learn how the massive influx of plastic pieces in recent decades affects area animals from larger creatures such as fish and bird s- which swallow toxic plastic- to tiny organisms such as bacteria and plankton. This plastic may also be hosting invasive bacteria or other species researchers say†( â€Å"Giant Ocean-Trash Vortex Documented- A First 3). Trash vortex have been slowly killing birds and other types of animals. This is something that needs to be stopped as soon as possible if we want to help save our animals and our land. Everyone can help in the process whether it is realized or not. The land is something that should not be taken for granted. If we want future generations to have a land then it is our job to protect the land. Work Cited â€Å"Garbage Patch. † Think Beyond Plastic. â€Å"Giant Ocean- Trash Vortex Documented -A First. † National Geographic News. 28 Oct 2010 â€Å"Planet100: The Pacific Trash Vortex Explained. † Online Posting. Youtube, 7 June 2010. Silverman, Jacob. â€Å"Why is the worlds biggest landfill in the Pacific Ocean? † How stuff works. â€Å"The trash vortex. † Greenpeace International. â€Å"Trashing the Ocean. † Ocean Portal. 2010 Walsh,Bryan. â€Å"Expedition Sets Sail to the Great Plastic Vortex. † Time Science. 01 Aug 2009 . How to cite Trashed, Papers

Using QQ to Teach Kids English free essay sample

Importance of using technology in promoting language learners’ ability to effectively use language can not be ignored. Nowadays there are numerous number of technology-based language materials that a language learner might use dependently or independently. One of the technologies which is widely used by language teachers is CALL. The area that we are discussing in this paper is the use of internet for the sake of language teaching and learning. The technology which specifically is used in this research is QQ. QQ is an IM, like MSN or Gtalk and is very popular in China. So far no study has been conducted among the primary students at private language schools in China using internet to evaluate the teachability and learnability. In the network classroom, teacher assumes the role of facilitator of learner activity (Harasim, 1986: p. 65, referenced by Ken Beatty in his book Teaching and Researching CALL). In the following study, I tried to play the role of facilitator to help students communicate effectively and use their English to negotiate meaning as much as possible. As mentioned by Ken Beatty, one might use technology to establish a field of courseware known as edutainment. According to Bill Anderson, instructors must examine the affordances and features of the technologies of communication and use them to support the educational goals of students. Traditionally, much research on CALL has focused on whether or not students learn better with a computer. But, the question is no longer whether or not computers should be used in the classroom. Questions now include how computers should be used and for what purpose (Teaching and Researching CALL, Ken Beatty, P. 190). We might consider using technology-based teaching to improve students’ language abilities, and to use it effectively, we should think of how it can do the improvement. If any kind of technology is being used by a teacher, the teaching method should change accordingly. Besides, role of teacher is more significant and might be shifted from an instructor to a facilitator. Chapelle and Jamieson (1991) summarized ten studies from 1971 to 1986 and suggested that they do not provide strong empirical evidence for the superiority of CALL over classroom instruction (p. 37). However, a more recent review by Meich, Nave and Mosteller (1996) in an examination of 22 empirical CALL studies conducted between 1989 and 1994 concluded the opposite: CALL can â€Å"substantially improve achievement as compared with traditional instruction† (p. ) (referenced by Ken Beatty, Teaching and Researching CALL, P. 197). In an experiment conducted by Hema Rosheny Mustafa, Noridah Sain and Noor ZainabAbdul Razak called â€Å"Using Internet for Learning Vocabulary among Second Language Learners in a Suburban School†, it has been investigated that whether using computer assists the learning of vocabulary among second language learners in a suburban secondary school i n Malaysia. Their findings suggested that the experimental group showed great result in learning vocabulary using computer. In the following study, use of text-mode QQ will be assessed among the New Oriental School Language Learners in China. DISCUSSION At the time of doing the experiment I was in China, Wuhan city, and to do my experiment I asked one of the famous private language schools’ manager, to let me keep in touch with a number of students for a few sessions to practice what they have already been taught at school. It should be mentioned that my cooperation with the school was temporary and for the sake of the experiment. Actually, the students already had their own teacher. I explained to the responsible teacher that I want to use QQ to enhance students’ ability to communicate effectively; besides to work on one of the class weak points to see if I can facilitate teachability and learnability and make improvement. At New Oriental School, the students’ age range differs from 5 to 14. I asked the responsible teacher to choose the older students who can use chat skillfully and meaningfully. At the time of thinking about the research design, I was reading a research article by David Coniam and Richard Wong, â€Å"Internet Relay Chat as a tool in the autonomous development of ESL learners’ English language ability: an exploratory study†, and noticed that authors have used a carefully screened number of students in their pilot study. So I followed their lead in case of the student selection and asked the school to select students based on the below criteria: 1. Student should know how to use English typing properly 2. Student should have used QQ for at least one year . Students should possess and have used computer for at least two years 4. Students’ age range should be between 10-14 After about one month, the responsible teacher contacted me and informed that because the parents are so strict and do not let their children use computers so often and also because they are assigned to do homework at home, she could arrange with 5 students only to partici pate in my study. However, to justify the parents, the responsible teacher had been mentioned that the online class is one of the requirements assigned by school. I carried out my research using QQ on Jan 15, 2013. The teacher had arranged 3 online sessions each lasting 1:30 hours; totally four and half hours. The teaching content was â€Å"pattern practice† which was part of the students’ book, Junior New Concept English. Based on what the teacher had been told me before designing my teaching plan, â€Å"pattern practice† part is one of the most difficult parts both for teaching and learning. In this part students should use the given patterns to compose their own sentences. As I had been told, because of time shortage and students’ lack of concentration, occasionally the tasks’ aims can not be appropriately fulfilled in the class; irrespective of how hard the teacher tries in the class. Nature of such a task requires students’ full consciousness and attention. My assumption was that, probably if the students are being situated in front of the computer individually, by the given instruction, their learnability might be enhanced. The teaching method that I employed in this study was task-based language teaching. Task-based approaches to network-centered learning are seen as being particularly suited to fostering learner autonomy and collaborative effort. Soh and Soon (1991) found that in a cross-cultural project based in Canada and Singapore, learners writing skills were enhanced through exchange with learners from a different cultural background. Such approaches are also viewed as leading to a renegotiation of the teachers role in the electronic classroom (Bump, 1990) (Referenced by Mark Peterson, Language Teaching and Networking). In a networked classroom, learners not only read and write; they are constantly reacting to writing, thus fostering the sense of personal engagement and discovery is essential to successful language learning (Mark Peterson, Language Teaching and Networking). By asking students to do the online discussion I had the following motives: 1. To assess the students’ writing ability and do an occasional corrections, if possible 2. To create an environment in which students could freely interact with each other. It might be argued that students may share incorrect language input to one another, thereby reinforcing the language errors. Research findings suggest, however, that students may learn equally well from their peers as from their teachers (Referenced by David Coniam and Richard Wongs, see, e. g. , Long and Porter, 1985; Lightbrown and Spada, 1999). 3. To create an authentic situation for the students to use their knowledge of English language practically and to build-up their confidence Organization and Setting of the Online Sessions To begin the online discussion, I organized the sessions by assistance of the responsible teacher. The students were asked by their teacher to add my QQ number in their list. I had already informed them a few days earlier about the time of our sessions and the content of discussion. Meanwhile they already knew about the time, they could primarily arrange for their own schedule. Also I had asked them to avoid using Chinese language while they are discussing in the public chat room. I told them that they are free to negotiate with each other in Chinese out of the public chat room and privately. I gave them the â€Å"Google translate† online link, so that in case, they can use it to translate Chinese to English. They have been asked to use â€Å"yahoo image search† whenever they faced with difficulty to express their ideas in English. They could easily find the correct image and send it to others. As far as their age and language level, they were not able to use English easily in every occasion, so the best option was to show their feelings and ideas through images. We started the first session at 7:00 o’clock in the evening. Lesson one was about practicing how to tell time in English and in different ways. Here are a number of questions and answers we had: What time is it? 8:45 Answers: quarter to 9 eight forty five What time is it? 2:30 Answers: two thirty half past two What time is it? 7:22 Answers: seven twenty two twenty two past seven I used two methods to practice with them. 1. Giving them the time (not in number but in letters) and asking to search Google for the relevant picture or to draw a picture in QQ and send 2. Sending pictures to the, and asking to tell me the time (in letters) After assigning any single task, I have waited for a while to receive response. By receiving the first correct answer, I have asked the rest of them to decide if the answer is right or wrong; then I have confirmed the answer to them while displaying a happy image expressing my positive feeling for their efforts. Sometimes they shifted to Chinese language to tell others about their feelings; I tried not to interrupt them and not to ruin the magic moment which had been created within the discussion. Additionally, they were asked to create full sentences based on the given pattern. 10:30 â€Å"Is it half past 2. No it isn’t. It’s half past 10† Is it 3:45? Yes, it is. It is quarter to four. Is it half past nine? No it isn’t. It’s 8:30. In the second session, we practiced how to tell the locations in English, â€Å"under†, â€Å"on† and â€Å"in†. Again I used images to practice. I gave them a single instruction. â€Å"I will show you a picture; you should tell me where the objects are†. A number of our online practice: Where is the rabbit? Students’ answer: in box Where is the boy? Students’ answer: under tree What do you see? Students’ answer: cat on table I asked them to create a sentence based on the given model. Where is the boy? The boy is under the tree. So they just needed to replace the subject and adverb with the new ones. In the third session we discussed about the comparative adjectives â€Å"longer†, â€Å"shorter†, â€Å"bigger†, â€Å"smaller†, â€Å"thicker† and â€Å"thinner† First I have shown them the pictures and then asked them to follow the given pattern to compose a correct sentence. Where is the thicker pencil? It is on the desk Is the thicker pencil under the desk? No it isn’t. The thinner pencil is on the desk. CONCLUSION In this paper we have examined kids’ use of online chatting through QQ and accordingly the effect of using this technology on their language learning and communicative skills. As mentioned by Gill Valentine and Sarah L. Holloway in â€Å"A window on the wider world? Rural children’s use of information and communication technologies†, the Janelle’s (1973) concept of extensibility, which refers to the ability of people to overcome the barriers of physical space through technology is totally confirm the use of technology. In this paper we could overcome three barriers. First helping students practice their language learning without leaving home (time barrier). Second, we did not need to occupy a class (place barrier). Third, students’ lack of concentration improved as the result of being detached from the class environment. Findings of the paper come from two interviews from the teacher before and after the research. Based on the interviews, the teacher found improvements in case of students’ active participation in the class and besides, the students’ accuracy have been raised. It can be concluded from the results of this study that online chatting has positive effects on the learning process. Using such technologies outside the classroom results in better motivation and facilitates the learning process of children and their cognitive achievement. The learning process becomes much more enjoyable and by engaging children in such online classrooms, the stresses and lack of concentration involved in the learning process are drastically reduced.