Literature Essay Example

Literature Essay What made JFKs Inaugural Address so effective? Logos of customers who have attended courses Email Newsletter icon, E-mail Newsletter icon, Email List icon, E-mail List icon Sign up for our Email Newsletter FREE weekly newsletter with presentation tips, humor, quotes anecdotes you can use in your very next speech or presentation. Simply place your email address in the box on the left and press GO. If anyone ever tells you that speeches dont make a difference, point them at JFKs Inaugural Address. After winning the Presidential election by one of the smallest margins in history, he received a 75% approval rating from the American public the following day, something most of todays politicians would kill for. The fact that so much of it is still remembered today is an indication of just how powerful his words were. People still debate today who wrote most of the speech President Kennedy himself or his speechwriter Ted Sorensen so perhaps we should just agree to look at it as a team effort. I think there are 4 main reasons its been so critically acclaimed. 1. Simplicity Like Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill before him, JFK never used a $10 word when a 10 cent one would do the job just as well. He was a master of simple, plain speaking, which is apparent if we take the penultimate paragraph as being characteristic of the speech as a whole: â€Å"In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. We will write a custom essay sample on Literature specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Literature specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Literature specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it. And the glow from that fire can truly light the world. And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. † This paragraph consists of 111 words, but 102 of them consist of only one or two syllables. And of the 9 longer words history, generations, defending maximum, responsibility, generation, devotion, endeavor and Americans none could be considered either remotely fancy or unusual by any stretch of the imagination.. Its also at 1,355 words brief. Though not the shortest of Inaugural Addresses, it was still shorter than most. He said to Sorenson, I dont want people to think Im a windbag. 2. The Big Picture Unlike (say) President Obamas recent 2nd Inaugural, JFKs Inaugural was aimed not only at the people of American but the people of the world. It was, after all, delivered at the height of the Cold War (the Cuban Missile Crisis happened only 20 months later). If you read it in full you are immediately struck by how international in character and globally-focused it is. Using a rhetorical device called anaphora, in successive paragraphs he directs his words To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, To those new states whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe To our sister republics south of our border, To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations, Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversary 3. Use of Antithesis President Obama used Tricolon twenty two times in his first Inaugural Address. JFK used it twice. Instead, he made most of his important points using Antithesis, the deliberate juxtaposition of two opposing idea in the same sentence. He uses it three times in the very first sentence of the speech and the most famous words of the entire speech And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country, though technically an example of chiasmus, are a form of antithesis. We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom, symbolizing an end as well as a beginning, signifying renewal as well as change not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God United there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided there is little we can do Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us I do not shrink from this responsibility I welcome it sk not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man 4. Alliteration Various studies have shown that alliteration (as in Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper ) makes poetry much easier to remember. JFK uses the device twenty one times. same solemn oath man holds in his mortal hands for which our forebears fought to friend and foe alike whether it wishes us well or ill we shall pay any price, bear any burden the survival and the success of liberty faithful friends colonial control

10 Personification Examples in Poetry, Literature, and More

10 Personification Examples in Poetry, Literature, and More SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Personification is an important literary device- as a form of metaphor, personification compares two things quickly and efficiently, often in a poetic fashion. But what is it? In this guide, we’ll discuss what personification is, what it does, and why so many writers use it, as well as a whole bunch of examples to help you get accustomed to identifying personification when you see it. This isn't quite personification, but it is cute. What Is Personification? Personification is pretty simple, but before we can get into what it is, we need to discuss metaphors. Personification is a form of metaphor, a literary device comparing two things by applying the qualities of one thing to another. One famous example is the Walt Whitman line, â€Å"And your very flesh shall be a great poem.† Whitman isn’t suggesting that your flesh is literally a poem- that would be both impossible and uncomfortable- but rather that your entire self is a work of art. Within the context of the Leaves of Grass preface, where this quote comes from, the quote means that, through love and patience and living with meaning and purpose, your entire self will have meaning and purpose, just as a poem does. Though Whitman’s quote is a metaphor, it’s not personification. Personification is a more specific type of metaphor in which something that is not human is given human traits. Whitman’s quote compares flesh, something human, to a poem, something inhuman, meaning it’s not personification. Instead, personification will look something like this quote from John Keats’ â€Å"To Autumn†: â€Å"Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run.† Here, the thing doing the conspiring is autumn, and ‘him’ is the maturing sun. Neither of these things can conspire- autumn is a season, and the sun is a star- but for the purpose of illustrating how perfect the season is, Keats suggests that they can. In this example, Keats gives both autumn and the sun the human ability to conspire. That doesn’t mean that Keats wants you to picture the sun and autumn literally whispering in one another’s ears; he’s suggesting harmony and a natural order of things. As the sun matures (another thing it isn’t technically doing, at least not in this poem) into the later stages of the year, the fruit on the vines begins to ripen just in time for the harvest. As the sun moves further from the earth and the weather grows colder, the season switches to autumn, as if the two were consciously working together. Hence, the idea of conspiring. As you can see, personification can add a dramatic and more evocative flair to writing. If Keats’ poem had simply read, â€Å"The sun gets further away from the earth as the season changes to autumn, just in time for the fruit to ripen,† itwouldn't feel particularly inspiring or interesting. But when he suggests that the sun and autumn are conspiring, we get a much more vivid, memorable picture of what the seasons are like. This isn't personification either. Examples of Personification Keats is just one writer using personification- there are lots of different ways to use this literary device to great effect. You don’t even need to be world-renowned Romantic poet to use it! Basic Examples of Personification Since personification is just giving something that isn’t human the characteristics of a human, it’s very simple to do! Check out these examples: The stars winked in the night sky. Stars, having no eyes, cannot wink. But when you see this phrase, you know that they’re twinkling. The bridge stretched over the interstate. A bridge can’t stretch, but from this phrase, we get the mental image of it being long and gracefully curved. The cave mouth yawned. A mouth can yawn, but a cave mouth cannot. Still, we get the mental image of the cave mouth stretched wide. The smell of baking muffins welcomed us inside. A smell can’t welcome, but we can still understand that the narrator of this sentence feels welcomed by the homey smell. Poetry Examples of Personification We often encounter figurative language like personification in poetry, where a few words have to carry a lot of meaning. Some of the most famous examples in poetry are: â€Å"Because I could not stop for Death –He kindly stopped for me – The Carriage held but just Ourselves – And Immortality.† - â€Å"Because I could not stop for Death† by Emily Dickinson In this poem, Death is personified as a person driving a carriage. Within the confines of this poem, Death may in fact be a person; but Dickinson isn’t writing about a literal event that happened to her. She’s using her relationship with Death figuratively, illustrating how Death goes about its business with little regard for humanity’s work and leisure. â€Å"BlackberriesBig as the ball of my thumb, and dumb as eyesEbon in the hedges, fatWith blue-red juices. These they squander on my fingers.I had not asked for such a blood sisterhood; they must love me.They accommodate themselves to my milkbottle, flattening their sides.†- â€Å"Blackberrying† by Sylvia Plath Plathmakes a direct comparison between blackberries and humans- she says blackberries, like eyes, are 'dumb,' in that they cannot speak. But we also know that they can’t squander, they can’t be a sisterhood, and they can’t love or accommodate themselves. Plath isn’t trying to tell us that these are magic blackberries with all those traits. She’s using personification to illustrate her relationship with these blackberries, demonstrating a unique bond with them. Even without the context of the whole poem, Plath’s use of personification shows us that these blackberries aren’t just fruit to her. Literary Examples of Personification Poets aren’t the only writers using personification- it’s also valuable for prose writers! Check out these famous examples from literature: â€Å"[The eyes of TJ Eckleburg] look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose. Evidently some wild wag of an oculist set them there to fatten his practice in the borough of Queens, and then sank down himself into eternal blindness or forgot them and moved away. But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground†¦." - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald If these eyes were attached to a human being, they might brood as an extension of the human. But the eyes of TJ Eckleburg are painted on a billboard, not attached to a human face. It’s impossible for them to brood, as they don’t have emotions. However, this quote demonstrates the mood that the eyes cast over the valley; it’s dark and dreary, and the way that Fitzgerald characterizes these painted eyes reflects that. "There is something subversive about this garden of Serena’s, a sense of buried things bursting upwards, wordlessly, into the light, as if to point, to say: Whatever is silenced will clamour to be heard, though silently. [†¦] Light pours down upon it from the sun, true, but also heat rises, from the flowers themselves, you can feel it: like holding your hand an inch above an arm, a shoulder. It breathes, in the warmth, breathing itself in." - The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood This paragraph has a couple of instances of personification. Buried things don’t really burst upward- they grow, but to ‘burst’ is to move suddenly, which is something that these plants don’t do. Likewise, Atwood says that the heat breathes. Because heat doesn’t have lungs, it can’t breathe, but it’s clear that Atwood is giving everything in Serena’s garden a sense of life so that even the heat has vitality. Pop Culture Examples of Personification You don’t have to look to books you’ve read in school to find personification, either! Everything from TV shows to music to video games can contain personification, such as these examples: Inside Out Though everything that happens in the movie Inside Out can be read to be happening literally- it’s a fantasy movie!- it’s also a form of metaphor. We know that in real life our emotions aren’t little humanoid figures running around pulling levers, but giving emotions like joy and sadness human characteristics encourages viewers to appreciate their complexity. Sadness isn’t bad, and joy isn’t always good- when we give them human traits, we see that any emotion can mean multiple things! "You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make itYou start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyesYou're paralyzed'Cause this is thriller, thriller nightAnd no one's gonna save you from the beast about to strike."- "Thriller" by Michael Jackson There are a few examples of personification in this song- in just this verse, terror "takes the sound" and horror "looks you right between the eyes." Logically, we know that emotions can't take or look at anything. But using that kind of language to describe fear gives it an agency that infuses this song with energy. It's not difficult to understand why this works so well; if you've ever been afraid, you know how it can affect the way your body feels, sometimes paralyzing you. That's what Jackson is tapping into in this song: the sense that fear can trap you and make you feel like you're out of control. What’s Next? Personification is just one of many literary devices at your disposal. Check out this list of literary devices and how they're used for a whole bunch more! Want to know more about how the Valley of Ashes is constructed inThe Great Gatsby? Learn more from this post all about how the Valley of Ashes works as a symbol! Understanding how personification works can help you in AP literature- just like this reading list for AP lit students! What kind of man so likes being described by his mother as the personification of "the beast" that he adopts it as his own nickname? Learn more about the strange life and times of Aleister Crowley with this article.

Financial and Resource Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Financial and Resource Management - Essay Example Therefore the net cost of training amounts to $60 only. But this is a good arrangement as it will save the time taken for the repair of the machine thereby keeping the revenues flowing. As per the Quantitative analysis tools like NPV, IRR etc the new investment proposal is viable. A forecast of the revenue for the four year period highlights that the new investment will generate positive net cash flows. The Leisure and Health Club, the gym facility at Bombay Excelsior is planning to refurbish itself to keep in line with Excelsior International standards. For this the club plans to purchase new equipments, as the equipments currently in use do not meet quality requirements. For the purchase of equipments the hotel has a number of options- it can either buy the equipments outright or it can take a lease. The budgets are designed to direct the organization towards the achievement of the business objectives. There can be three types of budgeting approaches like Incremental Budgeting, Zero-based budgeting and Mixed Approach. The Incremental budgeting is based on the estimates of the last year, Zero-based budgeting is done afresh and Mixed Approach, as the name implies, comprises the elements of both the incremental and zero-based budgeting. The budgeted estimates are then compared with the actual results to identify any deviations. In the event of unfavourable or adverse variance corrective action is initiated. In the financial year 2009 Bombay Excelsior estimated a Total Income of $7421200. But the actual income during the period was $6817500. This shows that there is an Unfavourable variance in the estimated Total Income of $603900. The highest deviation in this regard has been in the case of Room Revenue and Food Revenue whereas actual Beverage and Other Revenue match their budgeted projections. In December 2009 the Planned Total Income was