International Political Economy Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

International Political Economy - Assignment Example ment of patents and copyrights which will strictly intellectual property rights and investor-state-arbitration that will grant investor the right to initiate dispute against a foreign government under the international law. Personally, I do not think it is necessary to have an additional agreement such as TPP to govern MNCs and FDIs because there are already existing frameworks that functions like TPP such as GATT, NAFTA, APEC etch. TPP however strengthens the enforcement of intellectual property rights and provide investors to initiate dispute against foreign government which could instill confidence among MNCs and FDIs. Recently, President Barack Obama visited its allies in Asia the latest of which is the Philippines. Albeit the two countries had different expectation about Obama’s visit, where President Obama is lobbying for the TPP and the Philippines to get the commitment of United States against China’s increasing aggression, the latter expressed openness and willingness to participate in the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership). Walmart is good for the US/global welfare because it has dramatically cut the price of products by partnering with China. By offshoring its supply center to China, the cost of goods that will be sold drastically dropped making goods and services more affordable and therefore good for US/global welfare. Walmart changed the center of power in retailing that manufacturers no longer dictates price which made it expensive but rather the retailer such as Walmart which is sensitive to the market and dramatically dropped it. Walmart is not good for women. In its drive to bring the cost of its retailed products down, one of the components it downgraded is the salary and benefits of its employees. In addition, there had been reports also that Walmart discriminate against women in its retail outlets which made the retail giant not good for women. Cutting costs to sell cheap had the implication of not only lowering salaries which is

Financial analysis and management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Financial analysis and management - Assignment Example It has been observed that profitability ratios have been fluctuating for the airlines in recent years with major setback in the fiscal year 2011-12. However, both the airlines have experienced increase in their liquidity ratios in the fiscal year 2012-13 with Emirates showing higher rate of increase indicating that the companies are in a good financial position to pay off their short term and long term loans and obligations. From investment ratios it has been observed that British Airlines is in a better equity position than the Emirates. This means British Airlines is more efficient in utilizing shareholders’ equity for garnering profit making it more lucrative company for prospective shareholders. Aviation industry is concerned with manufacturing and flying of commercial aircrafts. This industry provides the most rapid transportation network connecting every country in this world. The contribution of aviation industry on international business and tourism is immense. Aviation industry provides employment opportunities on the line of many activities including aircraft maintenance and ground-based infrastructure. The industry plays a very prominent role in a country’s economic structure. As economic development has increased air transport demand across the world, the industry itself is considered as a catalyst of economic growth. Providing a network of transport between all countries, the aviation industry allows easy access to the global market thus enhancing productivity leading to growth of economy. Increased air travel between two countries can have a great positive impact on the GDP of both countries. For instance, growth in air service between Poland and UK since 2 003 has paved the way for long term GDP growth in Poland by US$634 million every year while UK has been benefited with annual GDP growth by US$45 million. Also, since increased connectivity

Noun Formation: English And Vietnamese

Noun Formation: English And Vietnamese As we all know, word are the most important unit in one language. We use words everyday, in many various fields of life: from work to studying, form informal situation to formal situation. From word, we can create phrases, sentences to communication with each other under many forms. Amongst words, noun is a rather crucial part. Nouns have several functions in sentences. They can be the subject, an object, an appositive, or a complement (Rakoczy). Therefore, noun-formation can be recognized as the sub process of word-formation, and it will share some same characteristic of word formation. My essay is aimed at identifying, analyzing and contrasting the noun formation between English and Vietnamese to magnify the similarities and differences. Based on this paper, I hope to help my readers clear about noun formation and help the educators have a universal perspective of the unavoidable errors of learning process in both Vietnamese and English learners. NOUN-FORMATION IN ENGLISH Because noun-formation is the sub-process of word-formation, it also follows the same morphological rules of word-formation. Nouns are formed by morphemes as well. According to the classification, we have compounding, affixation or derivation, and conversion. More specifically: Affixation or derivation, forms nouns with affixes. Compounding is the combination of two or more morphemes. Conversion, also called zero derivation, is the creation of a word from an existing word without any change in form (Conversion, 2001). For example, word shifts from verb to noun without change of its morphemes. There is other noun-formation such as reduplication, clipping, blending, acronyms, and borrowing. Reduplication is repeating an item with a change in the beginning consonant or change in the middle vowel. Clipping is a process which consists in the reduction of a word to one of its parts (Marchand:1969). Clipping is also known as truncation or shortening. (Clipping, 2001), without changing its meaning. Blending is combining of shortened of two or more morphemes to form a new word. On the other hand, acronyms are nouns using the initial letters in words, phrases, or proper names. Last is borrowing, which actually has two types: using the exact word from another the language and translating it literally, we often called the second type calque or loan translation. NOUN FORMATION IN VIETNAMESE Similar to English, noun in Vietnamese was also formed by morphemes. However, the noun-formation from affixation does not appear in Vietnamese as it is in English. The free morpheme and bound morpheme in Vietnamese are defined differently. More particularly, the bound morpheme in Vietnamese can be used as a separate word. In English, when the bound morpheme stands alone, it doesnt make a full word. In Vietnamese, noun was formed by combining two free morphemes, two bound morphemes, or one bound morpheme and one free morpheme. As a result, noun is formed by compounding, conversion together with other methods such as reduplication, clipping, acronyms, and borrowing. Moreover, because of the long-term domination of the Chineses dynasties and French colonist, the vocabularies which Vietnamese borrowed from Chinese and French are numerous and various. CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE 1. Affixation (Derivation) In this part, I will discuss the affixation in English. The affixes involve prefixes and suffixes. For example, from the adjective literal, we only need to add the suffixes -cy to form the noun literacy. Together with the suffixes, the prefixes also contribute to the noun formation. When we offer a new add-on il-, we immediately have a new noun illiteracy which has the opposite meaning to the noun literacy. Consequently, the prefix of noun can change the meaning of the origin, but it still maintains the word class. The suffix, on the other hand, when be attached to the base, it can transform a verb to a noun or other word class. Some typical suffixes for noun are: -ant, -er, -or, -mentà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. In addition, prefixes and suffixes contain some given meanings which were displayed below: Prefixes Meaning Suffixes Meaning Anti- Against -tude state of Mis- wrong, astray -ist dealer, doer Post- After -ism doctrine, belief Dis- not, opposite of -ity state of being Inter- between, among -cy state of being De- get rid of -eer, -er, -or person who 2. Compound nouns In English, except some single words are noun themselves, noun can be formed by many methods, such as some in table Compound patterns Examples Noun + Noun bloodstream, seashore, cupboard Adjective + Noun hardboard, blueberry, softball Verb + Noun swimming pool, washing machine Preposition + Noun inbox, outbox, overcoat Verb + Verb make-work, drop-kick Verb + Preposition breakaway, hideout, takeaway Phrases Compound stock-in-trade, mother-in-law Special Compound tetragon, archeology According to the table, there are many patterns to form a noun. However, we can classify all the patterns into 3 categories: The solid or closed form: two words were combined as one word. Ex: timetable, blackboard. The hyphenated form: two words are connected by a hyphen. Ex: son-in-law, stitch-up. The open or spaced form: the word consists of two longer words, and often written separately. Ex: high court, slow motion. Meanwhile, in Vietnamese we have the coordinated compound noun and the principal-and-accessory compound noun, which were also known in Vietnamese are tà ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚ « ghà ©p Ä‘Ã ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ³ng là ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ­p and tà ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚ « ghà ©p chà ­nh phà ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚ ¥. The coordinated compound noun is the noun was built from two components with equal meaning, for example: chà ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚ £ bà ºa, quà ¡Ã‚ ºn à ¡oà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. The coordinated compound noun often expresses the general and synthetic meaning which was one main point that makes it different from the principal-and accessory compound noun. The principal-and accessory compound noun is the noun that involves two components, in which one component depends on the other. The secondary component will classify the main component. For instance: we have the first component is Ä‘Æ °Ãƒ ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚ ng, which means the way to go, and the second one is sà ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ¯t, a kind of metal that made this kind of way. When we combine those two components, we will have the new noun: Ä‘Æ °Ãƒ ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚ ng sà ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ¯t, which actually means railway in order to distinguish with Ä‘Æ °Ãƒ ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚ ng khà ´ng, Ä‘Æ °Ãƒ ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚ ng thà ¡Ã‚ »y, Ä‘Æ °Ãƒ ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚ ng bà ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â€ž ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ 3. Conversion The conversion is a very interesting process of forming new word. It occurs in both English and Vietnamese. Without changing its forms, we can change the meaning of the word, even the word class (but I dont talk about word class-change because this essay is focused on the noun formation, not the word formation) more specifically, lets examine these two examples: Ex 1: Firstly, in English, with the word stop in 2 sentences It is time to put a stop to the violence. I get off at the next stop. In the first one, stop means the act of stopping the violence, but in the second sentence, stop actually means a place where a bus or train stops regularly for passengers to get on or off. Clearly, the form of the noun stop doesnt change. Ex 2: In Vietnamese, take the word phà ¡Ã‚ »Ã… ¸ as example Mà ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ¹ tà ´i nà ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ¥u phà ¡Ã‚ »Ã… ¸ rà ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ¥t ngon. Khà ¡ nhià ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚ u ngÆ °Ãƒ ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚ i Ä‘Ã  n à ´ng hià ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â‚¬ ¡n nay cà ³ tÆ ° tÆ °Ãƒ ¡Ã‚ »Ã… ¸ng chà ¡n cÆ ¡m thà ¨m phà ¡Ã‚ »Ã… ¸. phà ¡Ã‚ »Ã… ¸ in the first sentence is a Vietnamese dish, but the second sentence connotes the meaning of something new, especially another women, not their wives. Thus, English and Vietnamese resemble each other on this process of forming new nouns. Being used under many various circumstances, the word itself generates many different metaphorical meanings. 4. Other formation a. Reduplication Both English and Vietnamese have reduplication. However, reduplication only seizes a small number of nouns in English. Vietnamese reduplication has two types: repeating the whole word (ba ba, chà ¢u chà ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ¥u, cà  o cà  oà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦) and repeating some components of the word. Moreover, we dont find many Vietnamese nouns which belong to the second types. The maximum length of Vietnamese reduplicative words is no more than four, and the minimum length is two. Most of the reduplicative words are two-word length. Some of reduplicative English words are: ping pong, flip flop, tick-tockà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. b. Clipping According to VÃ…Â © Ä Ãƒ ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚ ©c Nghià ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â‚¬ ¡u, Vietnamese only considers this process as temporary form or the spoken form of word. By definition, it doesnt happen with every word (Nghià ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â‚¬ ¡u 2007). bÆ °Ãƒâ€ Ã‚ ¡m bÆ °Ãƒ ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â‚¬ ºm Æ’Â   bÆ °Ãƒ ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â‚¬ ºm ki-là ´-gam Æ’Â   kà ­ là ´ Ä Ãƒ ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ £ng cà ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â€ž ¢ng sà ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ £n Vià ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â‚¬ ¡t Nam Æ’Â   Ä Ãƒ ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ £ng Whereas, English have lots of words was formed by clipping such as: photo from photograph, rhino from rhinocerosà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ c. Acronym By using the initial letters of a phrase as one word, acronym has produced a massive number a word. Because those words were created by acronym are more memorable than the phrases, many people like this type of noun-formation, especially in names of some organizations. In English, we have AIDS, radarà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. In Vietnamese, we also have some acronymic words such as TW from trung Æ °Ãƒâ€ Ã‚ ¡ng, CLB for cà ¢u là ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ¡c bà ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â€ž ¢. d. Blending Blends deal with the action of abridging and then combining various lexemes to form a new word . This process combines shortened of two or more morphemes to form a word. For instance, brunch is the combination of breakfast and lunch, motel is the combination of motor and hotel. This is one special feature of English which doesnt exist in Vietnamese at all. e. Borrowing English and Vietnamese borrowed a vast number of words. In Vietnamese, because of the Chinese and French domination, the borrowed vocabularies are mainly from those two countries. It was divided into two layers: Chinese origin and Indo-European origin. Some examples should be taken into account are described in the tables below Vietnamese French xà   phà ²ng Savon pà ª-Ä‘an pà ©dale mà ¹i xoa mouchoir Vietnamese Chinese Ä‘Ã ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â€ž ¢c già ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ £ à ¨Ã‚ ®Ã¢â€š ¬Ãƒ ¨Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¦(dà ºzhĆº) kà ½ già ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ £ à ¨Ã‚ ¨Ã‹Å"à ¨Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¦(jà ¬zhĆº) Vietnamese also translate literally some vocabulary in Chinese and French into Vietnamese for necessary usage, it usually was known as quà ¡ trà ¬nh Vià ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â‚¬ ¡t hà ³a hoà  n toà  n such as: Ex: à ©Ã‚ £Ã¢â‚¬ ºÃƒ ¦Ã‚ ©Ã… ¸ (fÄâ€Å"ijÄ «) phi cÆ ¡, phi = bay, cÆ ¡ = mà ¡y mà ³c â‚ ¬Ã‚ ¢ mà ¡y bay (Vietnamese) (Ä Ãƒ  o Duy Anh, 2005) à ¨Ã‚ Ã‚ ½Ãƒ ¨Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ (tÄ «ngzhĆº) thà ­nh già ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ £ (Chinese), in Hà ¡n-Vià ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â‚¬ ¡t tà ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚ « Ä‘ià ¡Ã‚ »Ã†â€™n già ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ £n yà ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ¿u, thà ­nh = nghe, già ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ £ = chà ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â‚¬ ° và ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚  ngÆ °Ãƒ ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚ i â‚ ¬Ã‚ ¢ ngÆ °Ãƒ ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚ i nghe (Vietnamese) (Ä Ãƒ  o Duy Anh, 2005) English also have two types of borrowing vocabulary: the exact foreign word and calque. According to different sources, around 30% of all English words have a French origin (Calque, 2001). Some of the French words that were used in English are ablation, accent, bonnet, desertà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Similar to Vietnamese, English also translate the words literally from many other languages for usage. We can take some calques as examples: Latin: Lunae dies => Old English: Monan dà ¦g (day of the moon) => Modern English: Monday (University of Oxford, 2005) French: gratte-ciel and Spanish: rascal cielos (both literally means: scrape-sky) => English: skyscraper. (Calque, 2001) TEACHING IMPLICATIONS The aim of contrastive analysis between English and Vietnamese is to draw out the linguistic same and differences. However, it also has another valuable practical basis for teaching and learning. By contrasting those two languages, we can forecast the potential difficulties that the learners may encounter when learning foreign languages. Firstly, Because of the differences in word order, Vietnamese pupils tend to produce error such as room dinning instead of dinning room, which means phà ²ng ăn in Vietnamese pie apple instead of apple pie, which in Vietnamese it is bà ¡nh tà ¡o. This error often happened in compound noun. Secondly, when we want to mention the plural forms of nouns in Vietnamese, we usually use the word nhià ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚ u before nouns such as: nhià ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚ u ngÆ °Ãƒ ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚ i, nhià ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚ u hy và ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚ ngà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. That is the point. In English, we must add -s or -es behind countable nouns, for example: girls, boysà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ and preserve the uncountable nouns. Therefore, Vietnamese learners have a tendency to forget the -s and -es for countable nouns and vice versa for uncountable nouns. This also elucidates the reasons why Vietnamese pupils misuse two words many and much for countable and uncountable nouns. Thirdly, in Vietnamese, we can say Chim Ä‘ang hà ³t without any determiners. This sentence conveys the full meaning and is grammatical right. Otherwise, if we apply this rule in to English, which requires the determiners for noun, it is completely wrong. We cannot say Bird is singing (the right sentence should be The bird is singing). Finally, I want to emphasize that, besides the methods of teaching and learning, the syllabus, one of the major causes of the above errors is the differences in English and Vietnamese, or we can call it the linguistic cause. CONCLUSION Vietnamese and English show similarities as well as differences, and noun formation is a complicated process in both languages. It demands the learners to master the rules and apply it in the proper place. Vocabulary in English and Vietnamese are copious. However, Vietnamese have more types of noun formation in English, which makes the Vietnamese is more difficult for the foreigners. If you understand these linguistic characteristics of theses two languages, you make a further step in absorbing them. What Age Should Marriage be Allowed? What Age Should Marriage be Allowed? People should be allowed to get married only after age of 30 Marriage is one of the most important systems which keep the continuation of the social unity through marriage between a man and a women, who agree together to build a family. Getting married is a very important decision in every individuals life because they are planning to spend their entire life with their spouses. Sometimes people get married at an early age and than experience problems in their relationship. If People are allowed to get married only after age of 30 than they will be more matured, professionally settled and have a good financial position. And lastly, individuals would have lived and enjoyed all their dreams which are sometimes not possible after marriage. Firstly, People should be allowed to get married only after age of 30 as they will be able to understand relationships more maturely. Age and experience brings with it wisdom most of the time. An individual marrying after the age of 30 would be able to precisely understand their spouse, would have learnt to deal with problems effectively, which will help them lead a healthier married life. For instance, if a couple gets married at an early age and if they do not know how to handle family problems than this can become a big drawback for their marriage and can lead to divorce. Secondly, People should be allowed to get married only after age of 30 as till this age most of the individuals would have achieved a lot of success in their career life and would have a good financial position to take care of their family. If individuals get married at an early age than the couple have to struggle in personal and professional lifes due to insufficient funds. For instance, if people will be allowed to get married only after age of 30 than they will plan their future well and have enough earnings to handle the expenses to keep their family happy. Lastly, People should be allowed to get married only after age of 30 is that waiting till the age of 30, will allow people to â€Å"live their dreams† as they will have many years after education to achieve what they want to. Individuals would have lived and enjoyed their peak years in their lifes which will lead to fulfillment of their dreams and will provide them with a sense of satisfaction in life. For instance, if an individual is allowed to get married after age of 30 will know a particular age limit of getting married and will try to live all their dreams in life till that age so that after marriage they do not have any complications related to their dreams and they can live a joyful married life. In conclusion, people should be allowed to get married only after age of 30 because they will be more matured and will have a better understanding of relationships, secondly till the age of 30 individuals would have achieved success in their careers and lastly individuals would have lived all their dreams till they turn to 30. These factors will make them feel more comfortable about their married life. They will be able to give all the happiness and love to their life partners because till 30 they would have found a right life partner who can take good care of their needs and wants.

Contributions of Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. Du Bois to the Civil Rights M

Contributions of Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. Du Bois to the Civil Rights Movement Equality for African-Americans! Before Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of it, Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. Du Bois fought for it. In the 1920’s, blacks and whites were still greatly separated both physically and mentally. Equal rights were strongly sought after by many people in various ways. The most effective of those methods came from two highly influential men: Garvey and Du Bois. After the push by Booker T. Washington, the most respected black man in America at that time, to accept being subhuman and not having rights, both men began campaigns to accomplish what they perceived Washington incapable of: civil rights. Although their methodology was sometimes questionable, and the results seemingly slim, Garvey and Du Bois did pave the way for future civil rights activists. During the 1920’s, both men affected change for sure†¦but just how influential were they? Marcus Garvey was rather aggressive in his attempts at change during the 1920s and beyond. He did not believe in simply trying to integrate with the white people by lobbying for equality. Instead, he fancied that an African nation with an army and power to back it would make African-Americans safe all over the world. This was deemed the "Back to Africa" movement. This so-called movement entailed the migration of prominent black figures back to Africa, where they would establish a strong foundation and tentative government for their new country. Once the "basics" were established, blacks all over the world would be welcome here. "However, he [Garvey] did not support full scale migration. He believed blacks should try to improve their conditions wherever they found themselves," (Garvey, 5). Jus... ...hters—but without their beginning efforts, the world today might be very different. It is important to realize, though, that before a child can run, he must first learn to crawl and then walk. The first steps are often the most important. These men took those steps and learned to mobilize themselves and others—an admirable movement. Works Cited and Consulted Dumenil, Lynn. The Modern Temper. New York: Hill and Wang, 1995. Garvey, Marcus. The UNIA Papers Project. http://www.isop.ucla.edu/mgpp/lifesamp.htm. 1925 McKissack, Patricia and Frederick. W.E.B Dubois. New York: Franklin Watt, 1990. Sewell, Tony. Garvey’s Children: The Legacy of Marcus Garvey. Trenton:Africa World Press, Inc., 1990. Stein, Judith. The World of Marcus Garvey: Race and Class in Modern Society. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1986. UCLA. http://www.isop.ucla.edu/mgpp/facts.htm. 1995

From dependence to independence Essay

From dependence to independence – To what degree does Jo mature during the play and become less dependent on other people? Jo was a naà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ve young schoolgirl, dependent on her unreliable mother Helen, never knowing her father. She was trapped between school, her mother and grotty little bedsits, never really having an outside life. This kept her young, so she was often childish and had a fear of the dark. Jo was desperate to leave her mother and spread her wings. Her life is a roller coaster and the play shows her life with its ups and downs. From meeting the black sailor, to getting ready to give birth, we see her mature and become independent. In Act 1, Scene 1, we find out about Jo’s schooling and talents. When she arrives, she wants to find somewhere to plant her bulbs. As she says, â€Å"It’s nice to see a few flowers.† Helen also finds some drawings that Jo had done and gives her a rare compliment by saying, â€Å"I didn’t realise I had such a talented daughter.† Jo replies by saying, â€Å"I’m not just talented, I’m geniused.† Jo is also intent of leaving school – and Helen – at Christmas. She seems to think that she is mature enough to do so. She hates the flat and when Helen says, â€Å"This is the place,† Jo replies, â€Å"And I don’t like it.† She hates life and doesn’t realise how good it can be because she is always on the move. She also seems lonely. This is most likely because she is never in one place long enough to make any friends. Her mother gives her very little support so she must seek affection from other sources. She is sarcastic, but witty and is always answering Helen back. Although she seems to hate Helen, Jo is very dependent on her and – to a certain extent – Helen is dependent on Jo. She is always making Jo do things for her (getting drinks, cooking, etc). Jo and Helen are mother and daughter but someone who didn’t know them, might think that they were strangers that abhorred each other. The pair are constantly bickering and Jo even says, â€Å"I’m sick of you. You’ve made my life a misery.† Jo blames Helen for her misfortune and, in truth; most of it is Helen’s fault. There is no typical mother / daughter relationship between them. They mainly communicate through bickering and rasied voices. Jo is desperate to leave her mother as soon as she has the chance. The teenager is always criticising Helen and vice versa, although Jo does a lot more, for example, â€Å"You’re knocking it back worse than ever.† Jo never calls Helen ‘mother’. This is probably because Helen never acted like mother and cared for her daughter like a mother should. Even Helen says, â€Å"I know, I’m a cruel, wicked woman,† not using the word ‘mother’. Towards the end of the play, Helen comes back to live with Jo. The readers then think that she has decided to be a good mother before her child deserts her. Instead we see that Peter has thrown her out and Helen has become the dependant party, not Jo. There is total role reversal here as Jo has matured but Helen is immature – perhaps naà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ve – thinking that she can just move back in with Jo and return everything back to how it was. Peter is a brash car salesman with an eye patch. Helen moved again to get away from him but he tracked her down. He wants her to marry him but Helen declines the first time but agrees when he persists. Jo seems to hate him and even asks if he’s already married. She seems spiteful and full of hatred towards Peter. They are both fighting for Helen’s love. Jo asks Peter, â€Å"Do you fancy me?† and he responds, â€Å"Not yet.† He also has photographs of all his ex-girlfriends. Jo teases him quite a bit, asking about his eye and why he’s marrying Helen. Jo also has a fear of the dark, â€Å"I’m not frightened of the darkness outside. It’s the darkness inside I don’t like.† This could be that she is only scared of her future and not what’s happening to everyone else. Jo lives in a poor, sad life and her needs are not important to Helen and the terrible mother neglects Jo a lot, for example, leaving her alone for a weekend while she runs off with Peter. Helen also makes no attempt to help Jo when she’s pregnant. Because of the lack of motherly love, Jo is determined to become independent. She plans to move out, get a job and marry a black sailor. Her mother disapproves but that makes Jo even more single-minded. She is only sixteen so we see that she is pretty independent for her age. She is growing less dependant on Helen, which is a good thing. Readers may think that she is doing this because she has realised that Helen will never love her as much as her many boyfriends. Jo had a brief love affair with a black sailor. Readers never find out his name but Jo calls him Jimmie. It is a quick relationship as he has to leave but the relationship is quite odd. They both say that they love each other but are very relaxed with each other and Jo doesn’t seem to care that he doesn’t come back. Jimmie offers quite a lot of comfort. He is older than Jo and they could move in together if he wasn’t always on the move. He also asks Jo to marry him. She jumps at the opportunity, probably because it means she can leave Helen. As I said, Jo appears to love the sailor but doesn’t expect him to return and doesn’t panic when there’s no sign of him. This could be because her life is so bad anyway, that she becomes pessimistic and doesn’t expect her life to improve in any way. She has had her taste of honey and it has gone forever. Her ideas about him do change. Jo says, â€Å"Last Christmas I had him,† and she realises that she loves and misses him but only when the baby is due. It seems to her that it was all a dream and she can’t remember the reality. The trouble is, the dream left her pregnant with an unintended baby so it must be real. While Helen’s away, Jo meets Geoff, a gay, art student and the pair move in together, without Helen knowing. In today’s society, there is nothing wrong with this but homosexuals were frowned upon in the 1950’s. Geoff is an ideal best friend for Jo. She is no longer dependent on Helen but is instead dependent on Geoff, probably more than she was on her mother. Jo even says, supposedly to the baby, â€Å"Let’s see what big sisters making us.† Geoff is a friendly carer and is totally different from the sailor. Whereas the sailor wants a sexual relationship, Geoff is content with caring for Jo and making cakes. Geoff even asks Jo if they should get married and also asks her what she’d do if he started something. Jo replies, â€Å"In my condition, I’d probably faint.† He adores babies but Jo is less keen on them. Geoff seems to want, more than anything, to be the father of Jo’s child. To begin with, Jo treats Geoff with little respect, joking around and saying things that could hurt him. As their relationship progresses and they get to know each other better, Jo respects Geoff more and more. Jo eventually realises that the baby will need a father figure and decides to let Geoff stay, but they wouldn’t get married. Jo has mixed feelings about becoming a mother. She is intent on keeping the baby at first because she thinks it is cruel to have them aborted. She does, though, have some doubts. For example, she doesn’t want to breast feed her baby. Geoff brings her a doll to practice holds on. She says the colour’s wrong – the father being black – and explodes. She screams, â€Å"I’ll bash its brains out! I’ll kill it! I don’t want to be a mother,† which makes us think that she may have an abortion after all. Previously though, the baby kicked her and she was overwhelmed. All of these details then leave us wondering if she is ready for motherhood. It is more likely that she is ready to become a mother because she has matured a lot since the beginning of the play when she was dependant on Helen. As the play progresses, we see Jo turn from a naà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ve young girl to a mature woman. She is no longer dependant on anyone and, although she is probably destined to a life living in small flats and houses, the prospects are bright and, as she sings at the very end, a glimmer of hope shines through and we think she may have a happy life.

Everyone is a traveler, choosing the roads

Everyone is a traveler, choosing the roads to follow on the continuous journey of life; there exists not a path that leaves one with but a sole direction in which to advance. In his poem, â€Å"The Road Not Taken†, Robert Frost exhibits insight and perception in using poetic techniques to communicate this message. The piece depicts a man’s regret at not being able to travel two roads, and having to make a choice between the two. The importance of making decisions is disclosed in the narrator’s assertion that his choice â€Å"has made all the difference.†The first few lines of the poem introduce the elements of Frost’s primary metaphor and symbol, the diverging roads. The use of the road suggests that life is a journey that the narrator is traveling. The â€Å"two roads diverged† symbolize the points in this journey where one must make choices. As the narrator contemplates his decision, wishing that he could take both paths at the same time wh ile knowing there is no possibility in that, the reader is able to glimpse the strength of Frost’s symbolism- every person must make decisions with the knowledge that going back and changing them is impossible, because one has already traveled too far down the chosen path to turn back.The setting, along with imagery, assists in developing the key symbols of the poem. The piece opens with the narrator taking a walk in the woods during the autumn season, when he is suddenly confronted with a diverging path. The central image of â€Å"two roads diverged† helps to convey the theme of having to make choices in life. The â€Å"yellow wood† corresponds to the autumn season, a period that is often related to the end of the annual cycle in flora and foliage. Autumn may be perceived as a state in limbo between the vivacity of summer and the chill of winter.The speaker examines one path to the best of his ability: â€Å". . . and looked down one as far as I could to where it bent in the undergrowth†. His vision, however, is limited because the path bends, and a certain amount of undergrowth obscure the destination of the road. The description of the paths indicates that although the speaker would like to acquire more information, he is prevented from doing so because of the nature of his environment. The road that will be chosen leads to the unknown, as does any choice in life. The concept of â€Å"two roads diverged in a yellow wood† illustrates an interval between two phases in life, and helps convey the theme of one having to inevitably choose between digressing paths.The ironic tone is inescapable: â€Å"I shall be telling this with a sigh / Somewhere ages and ages hence.† The speaker anticipates his own future insincerity. He knows that he will be inaccurate, at best, or hypocritical, at worst, when he holds his life up as an example. In fact, he predicts that his future self will betray this moment of decision as if the bet rayal were inevitable.This realization is ironic and poignantly pathetic. But the â€Å"sigh† is critical. The speaker will not, in his old age, merely gather the youth about him and say, â€Å"Do what I did, kiddies. I stuck to my guns, took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.† Rather, he may say this, but he will sigh first; for he won't believe it himself. Somewhere in the back of his mind will remain the image of yellow woods and two equally leafy paths.Ironic as it is, this is also a poem infused with the anticipation of remorse. Its title is not â€Å"The Road Less Traveled† but â€Å"The Road Not Taken.† Even as he makes a choice (a choice he is forced to make if does not want to stand forever in the woods, one for which he has no real guide or definitive basis for decision-making), the speaker knows that he will second-guess himself somewhere down the line–or at the very least he will wonder at what is irrevocab ly lost: the impossible, unknowable Other Path. But the nature of the decision is such that there is no Right Path–just the chosen path and the other path. What are sighed for ages and ages hence are not so much the wrong decisions as the moments of decision themselves–moments that, one atop the other, mark the passing of a life. This is the more primal strain of remorse.It is observed that the title of the poem, â€Å"The Road Not Taken,† may be intended to serve as a subtle hint, an insinuation of the narrator’s dissatisfaction with the decision he made. What about â€Å"the one less traveled by†? Neither of the roads was less traveled than the other. He less traveled both roads because this was the first time the narrator had come upon these paths. Leaves covered the ground, and since the time they had fallen no one had yet to pass by on this road; both were worn about the same â€Å"in leaves that no step had trodden black.† Nevertheless , the speaker is unhappy that he took the path that he chose, and yearns to go back and take â€Å"The Road Not Taken.† Time, however, does not allow second chances.â€Å"The Road Not Taken† is an ironic commentary on the autonomy of choice in a world governed by instincts, unpredictable contingencies, and limited possibilities. It parodies and demurs from the biblical idea that God is the â€Å"way† that can and should be followed and the American idea that nature provides the path to spiritual enlightenment. The title refers doubly to bravado for choosing a road less traveled but also to regret for a road of lost possibility and the eliminations and changes produced by choice.â€Å"The Road Not Taken † reminds us of the consequences of the principle of selection in al1 aspects of life, namely that al1 choices in knowledge or in action exclude many others and lead to an ironic recognitions of our achievements. At the heart of the poem is the romantic myt hology of flight from a fixed world of limited possibility into a wilderness of many possibilities combined with trials and choices through which the pilgrim progresses to divine perfection.The reader finds, at the literal level, the narrator expressing his regret at his human limitations, at not being able to travel two roads; he must make a choice. The choice is not easy, since it took him a long time to come to a decision: â€Å" . . . long I stood and looked down one as far as I could†. He examines one path â€Å"to where it bent in the undergrowth†, but his vision is limited because the path bends and is covered over. He describes the second path as â€Å"just as fair† as the first rather than more fair, and that the paths are â€Å"really about the same†.This ambiguous evaluation of the paths reveals his search for a clear and logical reason to decide on one path over another– only that reason is unavailable. When the narrator finally makes h is decision, he tries to persuade himself that he will eventually satisfy the desire to travel both paths, while simultaneously admitting that such a hope is unrealistic:  Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.  At the end of the poem, in the future, the narrator will claim that the paths were actually different from each other, and that his choice â€Å"has made all the difference.†The last lines of the poem suggest that life would have been different had the speaker taken the other path: â€Å"I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.† The fact that the speaker says the entire last stanza â€Å"with a sigh† works together with the title to show that the speaker is disappointed with the choice he made. Once the entire poem is read, it may be realized that this is not an inspirational piece about why one should be different from everyone else. Rather, it re minds the reader of the consequences that follow a decision, and the manner in which one choice can shape one’s life.In his poem, Robert Frost conveys his notion of life as a journey that every person must travel, a journey laden with diverging roads, many decisions, and occasional sighs; the piece demonstrates the poet’s belief that it is the road that one chooses that makes him or her the person who he or she is. â€Å"The Road Not Taken† leaves its readers with many different interpretations. In any case, however, it is Frost’s clever use of poetic techniques to express the theme that opens the door for analysis, and allows all readers from different backgrounds to relate to the poem.