Saturday, January 25, 2020

Violent Video Games and Increased Aggression Essay -- Media Violence 20

Video games have been a rapidly expanding industry since their inception in the 1970s. Along with their growth have come concerns about violent video games and their effects on aggression and violence in young people. The endless numbers of school shootings have pushed this issue to the forefront. These events brought about the question: do violent video games induce aggression in youth? That’s the question I set out to answer by looking at research. The research shows that there is a link between playing video games and increases in aggression in adolescents. What implications does this fact have ethically? It means that video game producers and distributors need to be held responsible for their releases and the way they end up in the hands of kids. Video games are a rapidly growing industry. There are nearly two games sold for every household in America each year (Anders 271). The vast majority of these are sold to adults, but there is no national law that prohibits minors from buying violent video games. A few states have legislation pending that will prevent this, but the fact is that minors do have access to violent video games. There is a voluntary rating system implemented by the ESRB, where games are rated based on their content. The games that are rated Mature are not supposed to be sold to anyone under seventeen and Adults Only titles, but â€Å"some retailers do not impose such limitations† (Anders 271). The bottom line is that minors do have access to these violent games. One article points out that video games have a big impact on children’s lives and that many of the games played are violent. Researchers have found that â€Å"nearly all children spend time playing video games† and studies have found that â€Å"8th graders spent an average of 17 hours per week playing video games† (Tamborini 336). Moreover, 68% of the most popular video games contain violence (Tamborini 336). So it is clear that many children have access to violent video games and they have a big impact on their lives simply because of the amount of time spent playing them. The shooters at Columbine high school, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold frequently played violent video games such as Doom, and Harris even created a modification for the game. The modification allowed two shooters to use a large arsenal weapons to shoot unarmed civilians (Anderson 353). Is seems eeril... ...ids, I would think twice about my decision to work on the project. I would realize that video games probably more good than harm in a utilitarian approach, but I would also take into consideration the social contract theory and ask, â€Å"would I like to live in a society where people are more aggressive because of something I helped to create?† I hope that I would make the right decision in that situation. Works Cited Anders, Kelly L. "Marketing and Policy Considerations for Violent Video Games." Journal of Public Policy and Marketing 18 (1999): 270. Communication & Mass Media Complete. EBSCO. DePaul Library. 7 Mar. 2008. Anderson, Craig A.; Bushman, Brad J. "Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggressive Behavior, Aggressive Cognition, Aggressive Affect, Physiological Arousal, and Prosocial Behavior: a Meta-Analytic Review of the Scientific Literature." Psychological Science (2001). EBSCO. DePaul Library. 7 Mar. 2008. Tamborini, Ron ; Eastin, Matthew S. ; Skalski, Paul ; Lachlan, Kenneth ; Fediuk, Thomas A. ; Brady, Robert. "Violent Virtual Video Games and Hostile Thoughts." Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media (2004). EBSCO. DePaul Library. 7 Mar. 2008.

Thursday, January 16, 2020

Mythic proportions Essay

Linton Heathcliff is a contradiction in terms. His name signifies the unnatural union between Heathcliff and the Lintons or between passion and convention and his sickly nature demonstrates the impossibility of such a union. In Linton both love and convention emerge as corrupted by each other. He is described as ‘a pet’, a ‘puling chicken’ and a ‘whelp’. Like both his parents, however, Linton’s view of the world is singular, and it is his inability to see it in any way but his own terms which renders him absolutely available for manipulation by Heathcliff. Hareton Of his generation, Hareton’s character is perhaps the most intriguing, reversing the comparative lack of interest we feel for his father, Hindley. Hareton is brutalised by Heathcliff, structurally repeating Heathcliff’s own suffering at the hands of Hindley. Hareton’s relationship with Cathy has similarly been read as mirroring Heathcliff’s with Catherine, in as much as he is desirous of impressing her, and he is proud in her presence. His love of Cathy, however, might be said more closely to resemble Edgar’s love of Catherine in as much as it is moderate yet tender, devoted yet restrained. Hareton also exhibits an unwavering love for Heathcliff, in spite of the ill-treatment he has received at his hands. Like Catherine, Hareton is constant in his initial affections, and when Heathcliff first arrives into his life they form an alliance against Hindley. Although Hareton’s name is inscribed above the door of Wuthering Heights, his inability to read, coupled with the repetitious doubling of names and signatures, means that he fails to inherit his rightful property. Hareton is dispossessed by Heathcliff, but can also be seen as a rewriting of Heathcliff, a surrogate or symbolic Heathcliff. The development of Hareton’s characterisation revolves around his education. He is initially nursed by Nelly, the novel’s surrogate mother, and under her tuition he begins to learn his letters. However, left to the ministrations of his dissolute and unpredictable father Hindley, Hareton grows wild and uncultivated, unable to read, and with no social skills. His attempts at self-improvement are the source of mockery and derision by Linton and Cathy, and it is not until the end of the novel that he is able to acquire the skills necessary for him to achieve social status with Cathy and come into his rightful inheritance. The domestic romance which typifies the final union between Cathy and Hareton may well resolve some of the conflicts that thwart the other relationships in the novel, but their union lacks the grand passion, the wild power of the original love between Catherine and Heathcliff. Cathy Structurally the second Cathy can be seen as revising her mother’s story. She achieves her identity at the price of her mother’s, and Edgar always differentiates her in relation to the first Catherine, whose name he never diminished. Unlike Linton, who has the misfortune of inheriting the worst of both his parents, Cathy appears to have inherited the best from both of hers. Nelly sees Lockwood as a possible escape route for Cathy should he be induced to fall in love with her. We are privy to reports of Cathy’s pride, and her insensitive mockery of Hareton’s lack of formal knowledge. The revolution of the novel in which she and Hareton form their attachment is something of a mythical resolution, a romantic conclusion which transcends the central conflicts of the novel to restore a traditional novelistic plot of courtship and marriage. Cathy and Hareton’s relationship restores to the novel and version of domestic bliss that was the Victorian ideal, but it is well to bear in mind that Bronte’s is a version in which Cathy clearly has the upper hand. Nelly Nelly Dean is the second and dominant narratorial voice in this novel. She takes up the story from Lockwood and gives it both substance and credence. Lockwood’s inability to read the signs of the culture in which he finds himself cannot sustain the story, though it acts to remind us that all narratorial voices, including Nelly’s, are partial. Nelly Dean is a local, and has known each generation of the Earnshaw and Linton families. She is therefore well-placed to offer Lockwood a commentary upon the events she describes. Her position of servant is differentiated from that of that of other servants, both in terms of the fact that she appears to move effortlessly between the two houses, mediating between their differences, and in terms of her voice. Nelly Dean does not share a regional dialect with the other servants but she understands it perfectly. She also emerges as an educated woman, having read most of the books in the library at Thrushcross Grange – the house of culture – and in having experienced the vicissitudes of Wuthering Heights – the house of nature. In keeping with her dual roles, Nelly has two names, Ellen, her given name which is used by those wishing to accord her respect, and Nelly, the name her peers and familiars employ. Nelly is one of the most interesting characters in this novel, not least because of the language she uses. She occupies a unique cultural position in this novel. She has access to a range of discourses that might be considered beyond her ken in terms of her position as a family servant; yet as the central narrator Bronte presents her as a speaking subject, partially excluded from culture but nonetheless positioned so as to be able to comment upon it. Nelly acts as a surrogate mother to many of the motherless characters in this novel: she brings up Hareton for the first five years of his life; she cares for Cathy from birth through to her marriage to Linton; she regrets the brevity of her charge of Linton, which is forced by circumstance; and she acts as confidant and advisor to Catherine and Heathcliff. She also acts as a mother-figure to Lockwood as she nurses him back to health. As surrogate mother Nelly provides food and moral sustenance to her nurslings. Nelly Dean is most carefully, consistently and convincingly created for us as the normal woman, whose truly feminine nature satisfies itself in nurturing all the children of the book in turn. This reading of Nelly as the mother-figure alerts us to another of her roles, for Nelly is a mother goose, the teller of this fairytale, the keeper of its wisdom. The name might also be a corruption of Mother Gossip. Both of these definitions are pertinent to the figure of Nelly, since the knowledge she conveys is at least twofold: it is about women’s experience, and it is about the nature of love. Nelly knows that her story has to entertain and ensnare us. Yet her voice is rooted in the realist narrative. With her love of a well-brushed hearth and gleaming copper pans, Nelly weaves for us a fairy tale of mythic proportions. Given our narrator’s sympathies we are inevitably drawn to the novel’s celebration of passion, and find the strictures of its dominant discourses of marriage and religion as stifling and incomprehensible as do its main protagonists.

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

The Emoji Movie Analysis - 1640 Words

In the past few weeks there has been great backlash on a movie that had been released called ‘ The Emoji Movie’. Megan Garber, a staff writer at ‘ The Atlantic ‘ situated in Washington releases an article on why ‘The Emoji movie ‘ fails. The goal I want to achieve by writing this essay is to identify how the author builds the argument of the topic using different rhetorical strategies and check if the author established solid credible evidence to validate the arguments she made. The article being discussed was released on August 4,2017 shortly after the release of the movie on July 28, 2017. Garber writes this text to explain the problems with the movie and later on supporting her arguments by using related examples and statistics that†¦show more content†¦Garber states that The Emoji Code condemns The Emoji movie as it portrays emojis as a language, however Evan’s views it as a tool. The writer adds that the reason that emojis are vastly used is because of its flexibility, meaning that there is no specific way to use them. She includes an example like the writer of the emoji could use it with a certain meaning but the recipient could interpret an extremely different message. Another example she mentioned was when the singer Drake got a tattoo and people thought it was two hands praying or even a high five, however Drake soon addressed the situation by confirming that his tattoo was indeed praying hands. Garber also mentioned that people have associated certain emojis to specific actions. For instance a car emoji can represent people commuting, sunglasses on a smiling face can represent coolness, a winking face can represent that the message was intended to be humorous and many more emojis have many more meanings. The author mentions that emojis were intended for a specific purpose, but eventually began being used for fun and a way for people to express themselves . Towards the end of the article she includes words from Alex French, a reporter for The New York Times stating that a popular business in Hollywood is taking existing work and converting it into a fresh story. In a recent study it was shown that the onlyShow MoreRelatedRhetorical Analysis Of The Emoji Movie1005 Words   |  5 PagesIntroduction: In the past few weeks there has been great backlash on a movie that had been released called ‘ The Emoji Movie’. Megan Garber, a staff writer at ‘ The Atlantic ‘ situated in Washington releases an article on why ‘The Emoji movie ‘ fails. The goal I want to achieve by writing this essay is to identify how the author builds the argument of the topic using different rhetorical strategies and check if the author established solid credible evidence to validate the arguments she made. SummaryRead MoreFilm Analysis Of The Emoji Movie2078 Words   |  9 Pagesis changing, people are communicating with each other in ways people even as recently as 40 years ago could have never dreamed of. The words â€Å"Emoji Movie† are one of a new generation, one of a new voice, a â€Å"this is how we talk now and we don’t care if you like it or not† generation. This movie is something that could have only been made in 2017. This movie is what the world needed to define a generation that needs to be defined. It shows themes of outcasting, loneliness, bullying, being yourselfRead MoreHarry Potter And The Deathly Hallows4316 Words   |  18 PagesHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 Critical Analysis of the trailer By Lydia Turner Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 released in 2011 and directed by David Yates. Warner Bros distributed the film. It is based upon Harry Potter the Deathly Hallows written by J.K Rowling that was split in to two parts this film was the final film of the whole series, which consisted of eight films. The films target audience are people of the ages of 15 to 24 however younger and older audiencesRead MoreMagical Discourse Markers Used On Mandarin1895 Words   |  8 Pagesmentioned that the discourse marker in Mandarin has four characters 1) It will not change the meaning of the sentence. 2) it will not increase the extra meaning of the sentence. 3) limited by the situation 4) have some function similar as iPhone s emoji. Besides, Brown P. and S. Levinson(1987) said that the discourse marker often has some connection between the previous and now and it has the meaning that enhances and response for the preceding sentence or the very beginning of the same sentence.