Chen Xun s New Year s Sacrifice - 1762 Words

Lu Xun’s New Year’s Sacrifice (1924) begins with the narrator returning to their hometown for New Year after several years. The narrator can be said to symbolise the dilemma of an intellectual hoping for social reform but feeling helpless when it comes to helping women. The female protagonist is Mrs Xianglin who lives under three oppressive powers: that of the husband, of the father, and of religion. From the outset of the story, we are presented with a very traditional setting; we are introduced to Uncle Lu who is described as a â€Å"diehard Neo-Confucian of the old imperial college† and â€Å"a man ruled by superstition†. The narrator then goes on to describe the preparation for the New Year’s Sacrifice with the women as the workers â€Å"Hens are slaughtered // everything scrubbed and scoured until the women’s arms are soaked red†, however Lu Xun tactfully adds that although the women are the main labourers, they are excluded from ceremony, â€Å"Once devotions – from which women are banned – have been made, the firecrackers are lit.† This shows the reader that women appear to be the backbone of the household however are held in much less regard than their male counterpart. When Mrs Xianglin is introduced as a young widow, although however capable she may be, Uncle Lu is unconvinced in hiring her as she is a widow and may bring bad luck to the household; â€Å"Uncle frowned; my Aunt knew what was worrying him – the fact that she was a widow†. The patriarchal character represented as Uncle Lu

Ernest Hemmingway Research Paper Free Essays

Steven Glansberg English Comp II Research Paper 3/28/12 Every writer has his or her own unique style of writing. Writing is such a personal matter that authors have no choice but to get creative. One of the most famous, classic American writers and journalists was Ernest Hemmingway. We will write a custom essay sample on Ernest Hemmingway Research Paper or any similar topic only for you Order Now Ernest Hemmingway had one of the most unique writing styles of all time. His distinctive writing style, characterized by economy and understatement, influenced 20th-century fiction, as did his life of adventure and public image. Ernest Hemingway’s fictional style of writing was successful due to the fact that the characters he presented exhibited authenticity that resonated with his audience. He created characters that would directly relate and grow upon the audience of his work. Ernest Miller Hemmingway was born on July 21st, 1899. He was born and raised in Oak Park, Illinois. Hemmingway led a normal life and after his high school graduation he worked as a reporter for the Kansas City Star. After that job he left for the Italian front where he became an ambulance driver during World War I. Unfortunately Hemmingway was seriously injured during his duty and returned home to the states in less than a year. This over-seas experience during war would later be the basis for his novel â€Å"A Farewell to Arms. † Ernest Hemmingway did most of his literary work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s. His career in writing ended shortly after he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. In his career Hemmingway published seven novels, six short story collections, and two non-fiction work. An additional three novels, four collections of short stories, and three non-fiction works were published posthumously. Hemmingway’s first novel was â€Å"The Sun Also Rises†. The New York Times wrote on this novel saying, â€Å"It was a truly gripping story, told in a lean, hard, athletic narrative prose that puts most literary English to shame and also no amount of analysis can convey the quality of this novel. † This novel was written in a spare, tightly written prose, which Hemmingway was notorious for. Hemmingway had one of the most distinct styles of writing in all of iterature. Many literature analysts believe that his writing style was influenced by his time spent in World War I. It is also thought that while at war Hemmingway lost his faith in the central institutions of Western civilization. Hemmingway created his own style of writing that reacted against the â€Å"elaborate style† of 19th century writers. By creating a style in which meaning is established through dialogue, through action, and silence he was able to create a fiction in which nothing crucial is stated explicitly. He said everything while keeping â€Å"under the radar† per say. That is how the Iceberg Theory came into place with Hemmingway’s writing style. The Iceberg Theory, also know as the Theory of Omission, was a theory that was all about how Hemmingway kept the he facts floating above the â€Å"water† but keeps the supporting structure and symbolism operate out-of-sight just like the structural view of an iceberg. In other words the meaning of a piece is not immediately evident, because the crux of the story lies below the surface, just as most of the mass of a real iceberg similarly lies beneath the surface. In Hemmingway’s novel â€Å"The Art of the Short Story,† he explains, â€Å"A few things I have found to be true. If you leave out important things or events that you know about, the story is strengthened. If you leave or skip something because you do not know it, the story will be worthless. The test of any story is how very good the stuff that you, not your editors, omit. † Hemmingway clearly states that by leaving out obvious facts, you unintentionally strengthen your writing by making your audience think and ask questions about certain topics that you wanted to focus on in the first place. A famous piece of writing by Hemmingway that clearly supports the Iceberg Theory was â€Å"The Old Man and the Sea. † This novel centers upon Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. The plot of this story consists of the aging fisherman Santiago that sails out to see, catches a great white marlin, but then struggles all the way back to shore fighting off sharks to the point where he ends up with nothing but the carcass of the marlin. This story doesn’t seem like it has any literary significance on the surface but if you read between the lines you find out that this novel is a meditation upon youth and age. Even though the protagonist, Santiago, spends little or no time thinking of those terms you can see that the details point towards a struggle between ages. Another story that also has an underlying reflection upon the struggle between ages is â€Å"A Clean Well Lighted Place. † In this novel there is an internal struggle between the young and the older waiter in a restaurant. The struggle between characters in this novel is that the younger waiter thinks that he know more about life and love than the older waiter. Hemmingway doesn’t have the younger waiter come out and directly say he knows more than the older waiter for a specific reason. By not making the younger waiter say that he strengthens that topic because then his audience is now asking themselves questions about the young and old waiter’s feud. In this story Hemmingway used a large portion of dialogue. The reason for this is to create a constant back and forth motion between the two waiters. With this constant back and forth it is much easier to make a comparison between the two waiters. Hemmingway also did something very unique in this story. He used Spanish language in this story to even further the excellence of his language use. Ernest Hemmingway’s writing style can never be recreated or copied by anyone. He knew how to get the most from the least in his writing. He mastered the art of pruning language. Getting ever last drop of language genius out. No one knew how to multiply intensities as well as he did or knew how to tell nothing but the truth in a way that allowed for telling more than the truth. Unfortunately Ernest Hemmingway committed suicide in the summer of 1961. Even though he is gone his literary legacy lives on through his works still being read and used all around the world. His unique style of writing and his very interesting way of leaving out a topic that was important in order to strengthen his argument will be a great example for other writers even as the years pass. How to cite Ernest Hemmingway Research Paper, Essays

Graduate Employment and Labor Market in Singapore

Question: Write a reflective essay on "Graduate Employment and Labor Market in Singapore". Answer: The graduate labor market in Singapore has exhibited a drastic change in the recent past. With the increase in the number of graduates as well as the disparity in the number of the jobs available has led to a transformational change in the process of employment. In most cases, the graduates expect to get a job immediately they complete their education; however, this is not always the case for most of the graduates since the labor market is skewed . The scenario in Singapore has been predicted to exhibit a change in the rate at which employment opportunities will be created by the government and the private sector. The shift from intellectual to technical skills has seen most of the graduates taking a lot of time to secure an employment. There is the need for a strategic approach to the unemployment rates building up in the country because of several factors such as the shift to the lean workforce and technological leveraging within organizations to increase productivity and quality. This excerpt examines the current position of the labor market in Singapore as well as giving a highlight of the means of securing job opportunities. The number of graduates seeking employment is Singapore by the year 2014 rose to about 65% according to the rate of labor participation. The service sector registered a significant increase in the job opportunities in the recent years but a notable decrease has characterized the industry within the quarters of 2014 (Government of Singapore, 2014). The graduate employment trends in Singapore can be attributed to the nature of the profession the learning institutions are focusing. The service sector was one of the lucrative sections of the economy with a high number of job opportunities; however, the change witnessed in 2014 showed that the unemployment of residents between 25 and 60 years of age rose significantly over the three years. If the rate of the graduate underemployment continues, then Singapore economy will witness an education impact on the economic performance due to skewed training. According to the Government of Singapore, the participation training, which incorporates t he graduate education programs, increased to a high value of 36% in 2014 even though employees are enthusiastic to pay premiums (Government of Singapore, 2014). The rate of professional degree training also witnessed growth as compared to diploma and secondary qualifications. The cumulative analysis of the training intervention showed that the country has more skills that the available job opportunities creating the need for an awakening in the job sectors. It is important to note that the tight labor market transformation and expansions in higher education also affected the foreign workforce annual figures that dropped from 80,000 to 26,000 between the year 2010 and 2011. The actions taken by the local and international investors in Singapore affected the skill combinations for maximum productivity (Kalra et al., 2015). Many organizations have shifted to automated manufacturing and processing procedures because of the global advancement in technology. The stiff competition from the government corporations and the foreign market dominance has led to a change in the mechanisms used to enhance quality. The levels of experience and expertise required from graduates have been escalated to the high standard that does not match most of the graduate skills available in the market. The fascinating scenario in Singapore labor market is the shift to local hiring that leads to significant underemployment rates (Kalra et al., 2015). Graduates have been hired to work on small payments or carrying out duties, not in line with their high qualifications. The labor market effect is complicated since it is not easy to segregate the effect emanating from the concepts of graduate employment, the acquired skills, and the requirements of the available jobs. Whichever the case, strategic approaches need to be adopted by the curriculum implementers and the hiring organizations. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Manpower in Singapore has estimated the rate at which the effect of part-time workers affects the labor market. The little pay encourages more people to extend their working hours to increase their pay. Such a scenario leads to decrease in the organizational duties that tend to nullify the need to hire more employees. The national report by the government noted that the level of unemployment may stabilize, but the guarantee of being immune from possible uncontrolled unemployment does not exist (Daniel, 2016). The exit of the baby boomers in the labor market in Singapore may alter the level of the graduate employment since there is no certainty of high valued jobs being offered to the young professionals (Cunningham, 2016). The reality of the labor market is yet to be exhausted since there is not comprehensive approach set forth to measure the level of unemployment by factoring all economic and academic aspects (Koskela and Stenbacka, 2009; Clancy and Ker , 2010). However, the top degree programs remain to be Law, Business, Medicine, and Information Technology. The professional competencies with low ranking have been noted to be Art and Design, Psychology, Media Studies, and Music (Daniel, 2016). On average, a freshly hired graduate in Singapore earns between 3,500 and 5,000 US Dollars and the figure might be significantly small depending on the profession. However, graduates should note that several avenues could be used to seek for employment opportunities. A graduate should be conversant with the area of expertise and conducted a personal preliminary research about the related competencies and the emerging issues related to the acquired profession (Gibbs, 2007). It is important to work with the updated information as well as existing trends before looking for a job opportunity (Hager and Holland, 2006). The process of seeking a job opportunity starts with updating the resume that will show the essential qualifications regarding the profession of the graduate (Jacobs, 2013; Fowler, 2011). Young people can access jobs by building their networks through social interaction. The people we engage with on daily basis are attached to an organization or working something out to generate income. Touching a base with such people through open discussion may assist in securing a job opportunity (Jacobs, 2013). Linking up with alumni of from the s ame institution of learning who took the same profession is important because it helps in getting access to possible internship placements and employment opportunities. Dillon and Media (2016) have noted several ways to enhance the job hunting process for graduates. The duo pointed out that the newspapers and journal offer information regarding an existing job position for different professional qualification. Taking time to go through the pages can assist as the graduate to secure a place. Several employment agencies specialize in job seeking and advertise the opportunities to the public. The organizations offer recruitment and training services (Dillon and Media, 2016). It is essential for graduates to register their resume with such agencies and make follow up and regular applications for the available positions on the respective websites. Although visiting organizations to seek for a job has been considered as an old method, using such an approach is important because it gives the opportunity for the graduate to present the reasons why they should be considered (Keynes and Krugman, 2007). Speculative letters have assisted many graduates to secur e employment since the administrators regularly file most of the applications without referrals (Dillon and Media, 2016; Fowler, 2011). Besides, voluntary and internship positions have assisted graduates in Singapore to secure employment in the end. Whether unpaid or paid, graduates should seek opportunities, which will enable them to prove their unique skills. Abilities such as time management, team leadership, organizational skills, and planning cannot just be stated to be endorsed but must be proved through practice. Volunteering can assist graduates to show their competence and eventually win the appeal of the organization (Dillon and Media, 2016; Fowler, 2011). Internships are valuable because they support the young professionals to build experiences as well as offering avenues to familiarize with organizational structures and procedures. Social media platforms are also essential in interacting and acquiring information regarding the opportunities in different companies (Dillon and Media, 2016; Fowler, 2011). Following the pages and social handles of organizations on the internet or regular check on their offici al websites will keep graduates updates on the possible employment openings available. In conclusion, the labor market in Singapore has exhibited transformational changes regarding the previous stable patterns due to the economic changes. The shift to automation of the processes through technology advancement has reduced the number of possible job opportunities. The private and public sector should set measures to create a sustainable environment safe for graduates, other job seekers, and the hiring organizations. The possibility of an open rate of unemployment may affect the countrys economic position by increasing government expenditure and lowering the GDP. Moreover, graduates should consider sharpening their professional skills and employ multiple measures to secure employment. Through internships, the graduates can build relevant experience for the job market by familiarizing themselves with the procedures of the organization. Besides, voluntary positions are avenues for graduates to prove their competence. Taking measures such as engaging the social media, employ ment agencies, and networking with familiar people can assist a graduate to land a work opening. References Clancy, G. and Ker, D. (2010) Labour force survey unemployment and benefits durations, Economic Labour Market Review, 4(4), pp. 2031. doi: 10.1057/elmr.2010.48 Cunningham, J. (2016) Genres of underemployment: A Dialogical analysis of college graduate underemployment, Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1), p. 1. doi: 10.17583/qre.2015.1393 Daniel, K. (2016) Graduate employment survey 2015 (published 2016). Dillon, S. and Media, D. (2016) 10 ways to find a job. Gibb, A. (2007) Get that job!: The complete, thorough, hands-on guide to the whole recruitment and selection process - for graduates and ambitious executives in early career. Government of Singapore (2014) Labour Force: Singapore Labour Market. Available at: Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer-Verlag New York Jacobs, D. L. (2013) The Six best ways to find your next job.