Italian Renaissance essays

Northern/Italian Renaissance essays Northern Vs. Italian Renaissance Art The characteristics of art that seem the most prevalent during the Renaissance are Classical Revival (going back to Greek and Roman times for subject matter and inspiration), Humanism (the idea that humans are focus), Window of Nature (the idea of including nature in the pieces), Syncretism (including Greek and Roman mythology and/or characteristics in Renaissance art), Cult of Beauty (Plato's notion of ideal beauty and love), Empiricism (making the work look as real as possible), Individualism (individuals are important, and become a focus of art), and Idealism (humans and religious figures are painted in their most ideal form). Raphael's fresco The School of Athens and Brueghel's oil painting The Wedding Dance. Although both pieces contain the characterizing elements of Renaissance art, they are different in many Raphael's fresco stands 26 feet by 18 feet and is a model of Italian Renaissance art, containing obvious examples of each of the components of Renaissance art. The School of Athens is a prime model of the Classic Revival. The school portrayed is a school of philosophy in ancient Athens. The people are wearing Greek loose fitting robes for their garments. The architecture of the building is primarily Greek with the columns and arches representing those of the times of Aristotle and Plato, whom are also represented. Humanism and Individualism can be seen in the fresco because humans are the subjects of the painting. Individual people are the focus of the piece, and each has been given their own personality and identity. Raphael has done a phenomenal job depicting each person's facial expression and body movement. The Window of Nature is evident (although not as prevalent as in other works of this time period) in the background of the work in the clouds painted over the heads of Aristotle and Plato. Raphael h...

Ashes Ashes We All Fall Down Essay

Ashs, Ashes, We All Fall Down Essay, Research Paper Bubonic Plague I buried with my ain custodies five of my kids in a individual grave. No bells. No cryings. This is the terminal of the universe. ( Deaux, 1969 ) These are the words of Italian writer Agniol di Tura, but they reflect the emotions of an full state in the 1300 s. It was at that clip that Europe was struck by the hardest blow that a pestilence would of all time swing. The Bubonic Plague hit Europe with a fierceness that could neer hold been predicted. Spread of the Plague Through Europe The spread of the Bubonic Plague in the 14th century happened rapidly as a consequence of hapless life conditions, trade paths and ignorance of the disease. The first reported instance of the pestilence was in 543 when it hit Constantinople. ( Hecker, 1992 ) This was a minor eruption and there were others similar to it, but since no one knew where it came from and so few were deceasing from it, no 1 took the clip to happen out. But so in 1334, an epidemic struck the northeasterly Chinese state of Hopei that people couldn t ignore. It killed up to 90 % of the population- around 5,000,000 people. ( Armstrong, 1981 ) This caught people s attending, but by so it was excessively tardily. Sadly, some of the events that aided the rapid spread of the Plague could hold been avoided. In 1347, in the southern Ukraine near the Black Sea, the native people began deceasing of a cryptic disease. They suffered from concerns, failing, and many staggered when they tried to walk. But most evidently, each carried a common hallmark of the plague- they all began to develop big puffinesss of the lymph nodes in the inguen and underhand countries. Fear and choler at the disease gave manner to accusal. The indigens of the country pointed the incrimination for their expletive at the Italian bargainers who traveled in and out of their ports. Convinced that they were the ground for their agony, the indigens attacked the ports. After a hebdomad of combat, the indigens found their soldiers deceasing of the disease. Hoping to infect the Italians, the indigens used slingshots that where usually reserved for big bowlders or dead animate beings to throw dead or deceasing organic structures of those infected with the pestilence over the barrier. They succeeded. When the bargainers fled to Sicily, they carried the pestilence with them. ( Strayer, 1972 ) The pestilence foremost arrived in Messina, Sicily in October 1347, but it would non halt at that place. Aware of the rate at which the pestilence would distribute, the Sicilian functionaries tried to incorporate the disease by coercing the 12 work forces on board who were left alive to remain on the ship. But black rats, which carried fleas that where contaminated with the pestilence, managed to acquire off the ship and come in the metropolis. Within eight months, the pestilence had spread throughout the island and the rats which carried the pestilence had boarded ships that were headed for mainland Italy and the remainder of Europe. ( Strayer, 1972 ) Despite the attempts of metropolis functionaries, the pestilence continued to distribute. They had ignored it excessively long, now it was out of their custodies. The pestilence spread through port metropoliss rapidly because it is transmitted by rat fleas. The fleas, which spread the pestilence, would catch the bacteriums from a rat who had already acquired the disease. The bacteriums would so wholly fills the tummy of the flea, doing it so the flea could no longer digest any blood. It would so be so hungry that it would sucks blood into its already full tummy, coercing it to regurgitate, therefore distributing the bacterium. ( Walker, 1992 ) A disease that is spread by rats would likely non present a large job to most topographic points in the 21st century, but in the fourteenth century there were many rats aboard most ships and few people took notice to them, as they were such a common fixture in the dirty life wonts. Because people were so accustomed to them, these gnawers carried the pestilence from port to port with no 1 recognizing that they were the confederate to the disease which was doing the decease of 1000000s. Myths As a consequence of the multitudes that were deceasing, people would readily accept any account of the cause of the pestilence as truth. A physician by the name of Galen had one of the most widely recognized theories. He said that the pestilence was spread by miasmas, or toxicant bluess coming from the swamps which corrupted the air. Peoples were urged to go forth low, boggy countries or at least remain inside their places, covering their Windowss. Because people believed that foul smelling air caused the pestilence, many walked around transporting corsages of flowers to their olfactory organs, believing that this would salvage them from decease. ( Strayer, 1972 ) Some thought that the pestilence could acquire into the organic structure through the pores in their tegument. As a consequence of this, many people refused to bath during the clip of the pestilence, as they felt that rinsing their organic structures would open the pores further, giving the pestilence even more chance to infect them. Though many people chose to accept these theories for their surface value and take the safeguards suggested, few found consolation in them as they watched those around them die. Some people felt that the pestilence had come as a signifier of penalty from God. A group of persons known as the flagellants insisted that it was the wickednesss of adult male that had compelled God to penalize them. Flagellants could be identified by the flagellum that they carried with them. This was a wooden stick with three or four leather pieces attached, each with an inch long spike of Fe at the terminal. The flagellants would run into in the centre of a town and impulse others to fall in them in their rites. Each member would deprive from the waist up and so would get down to flog himself with his flagellum. They did this as a signifier of repentance and believed that God would forgive them and maintain the pestilence from them every bit long as they showed their compunction. This ritual would happen at least one time a twenty-four hours for three yearss before the group would travel on to the following small town where they would being once more, hopefully increasing their Numberss ( Biel, 1989 ) . Some who were seeking for replies joined the flagellants, but they shortly found that they faced the same fate as the remainder. Symptoms The pestilence had many hallmark symptoms, but at first the victim could look to hold a figure of morbid. The first symptoms of the pestilence include concern, sickness, iciness, emesis, and hurting articulations. ( Strayer, 1972 ) These traits are besides common to other diseases, but in a pestilence septic metropolis, anyone who possessed these traits was considered doomed. However, shortly after undertaking the disease, the symptoms would go more obvious. Within a twenty-four hours or two, the puffinesss appeared. They were hard, painful, firing balls on the cervix, under the arm, and besides the interior thighs. Soon they turned black, disconnected unfastened, and began to seep cunt and blood. These puffinesss, called buboes, gave the disease its name and may hold grown to the size of an orange. ( Garrett, 1994 ) The puffinesss appeared because one time a individual became infected, the B, Yersina plague, made its manner into the lymph nodes. There, it would infect and destruct cells of the immune system, and in the procedure, it would besides trip a concatenation of chemical reactions in which the organic structure would try to throw out the encroachers through pustules and furuncles that emerge on the tegument. ( Garrett, 1994 ) Once the bobues appeared, the victim would get down to shed blood internally. Blood vass would interrupt, go forthing the blood underneath the tegument to run free. Once dried, the blood would turn black and leave black blotchs on the victim s tegument. Thus giving the disease it s most popular moniker, Black Death. In most terrible instances, decease would normally occur within two yearss after the bobues had appeared. This, frequently times, was non shortly plenty for the victim. Effectss The Bubonic Plague had a great consequence on households, the church, and besides the outlook of society during the in-between ages. The decease of an estimated 1/3 of the civilised universe in the mid-14th century ( Armstrong, 1981 ) was certain to alter every facet of life for the people populating at that clip. During the pestilence, there was a general diminution in morality, which finally led to the church losing most of it s authorization. In portion, people didn t listen to the church because they didn Ts privation to hear Torahs that they knew wouldn T be carried out. But the chief ground was that many lost religion after watching their friends and household dices such atrocious deceases. The lost religion of the people can be seen through their art. In many plants, alternatively of celestial existences naming the dead to heaven, decease was represented as an aged adult female in a black cloak and wild, snake-like hair.. and a scythe to roll up her victims. ( Strayer, 1983 ) The regulations of the church itself besides changed during the pestilence. Rome announced an exigency relaxation of canonical jurisprudence, allowing the deceasing to squeal aloud to God or to any individual who would listen, even a adult female. ( Deaux, 1969 ) This was announced because functionaries of the church were deceasing off at the same rate as the remainder of the community and people were deceasing without the Sacrament of Penance. In the clip of the pestilence, non merely was faith flips aside, but besides morality as a whole. Italian writer, Boccaccia, wrote about the mortality of the society in the fourteenth century. With so much affliction and wretchedness, all fear for the Torahs, both of God and of adult male, fell apart and dissolved, because the curates and executed of the Torahs were either dead of ailment like everyone else, or were left with so few functionaries that they were unable to make their responsibilities ; as a consequence, everyone was free to make whatever they pleased. ( Biel, 1989 ) Many people felt that decease was inevitable and hence decided to pass nevertheless many yearss they may hold left alive the manner that would most delight them. Many found comfort in traveling from tavern from tavern, imbibing and much as they wished and listening to and speaking merely about pleasant things. Others threw eternal parties in their places and welcomes all who would come. ( Armstrong, 1981 ) These parties were easy to happen because everyone behaved as if they were traveling to decease shortly, so they cared nil about themselves nor their properties. As a consequence, people lost all sense of duty as they felt that all of their properties and finally their lives, every bit good as the lives of those they cared about, would be taken off from them. Despair filled the people with the loss of so many that they loved and many of them went into a province of denial. Such was the hurt that an order was base on ballss that would non let public proclamations of decease because the sick could hear them, and the healthy took fear every bit good as the sick. ( Garret, 1994 ) In fact, in Florence, it was prohibited to even print the figure of the dead for fright that the life would lose hope. ( Biel, 1989 ) Even with these safeguards, the decease of 1000000s could non be hidden from those that survived it. The odor of the dead fill the air and there were few people who could non assist but give up. Most people failed to see value in anything but their life. Peoples were so positive that they would shortly be faced with decease, that ownerships ment nil to them. Many times, fright of the pestilence would be much greater than the desire for ownerships and the houses of the dead, or sometimes those who were merely really ill, would be burned to the land to forestall the spread of the disease. ( Garret, 1994 ) Boccaccia said that such was the figure of houses full of goods that had no proprietor, that it was astonishing. Then the inheritors to this wealth began to turn up. And person who had antecedently had nil all of a sudden found himself rich. ( Biel, 1989 ) Many houses were left vacant after the proprietors died because people thought that everything interior was contaminated with the pestilence. Peoples felt that their wellness was of much more importance than anything that person could posses. As a consequence of the great fright that people had of the pestilence, many households fell apart. Boccaccia talk about this in the debut to his book, The Decameron: The ordeal had so withered the Black Marias of work forces and adult females that brother abandoned brother, and the uncle abandoned his nephew and the sister her brother and many times, married womans abandoned their hubbies, and, what is even more unbelievable and barbarous, female parent and male parents abandoned their kids and would decline to see them. ( Biel, 1989 ) The state of affairss that Boccaccia radius of were non uncommon. Writer Francisco Patriarch said that may people died of hungriness, for when person took ailment to his bed, the other residents in panic told him: I m traveling for the physician ; and softly locked the door from the outside and didn T come back. ( Deaux, 1969 ) The precedences of everyone became rearranged as they all feared for their lives. Peoples cared nil of other people, they merely wanted to populate and they did what they had to make to maintain their lives. One Italian author said that things had reached such a point, that people cared no more for the decease of other people than they did for the decease of a caprine animal. ( Armstrong, 1981 ) Future With all the progresss that the universe has made in the past seven centuries, it is unthinkable that such a catastrophe could take topographic point once more. Rarely in the US do you happen a topographic point where rat and adult male live so harmoniously with one another. But other parts of the universe are non so fortunate. The most recent eruption of Bubonic Plague was in India and it didn t go on a few hundred old ages ago. It happened in 1994. The job with solved with a $ 30 million loan from the World Bank which they used to relocated 52 small towns which the authorities saw as job countries. Research workers think that the eruption was caused by an temblor that stirred up the B which can put hibernating in the dirt for two or three decennaries, but they say that the conditions of the small town favorite invasion. Relatively few people died in this recent outbreak thanks to what one small town leaders calls beautiful antibiotics. With five yearss of unwritten antibiotic therapy utilizing a inexpensive, readily available drug called Achromycin, bubonic pestilence is 100 % curable ( Garret, 1994 ) . Thankss to medical scientific discipline, the muss in India was cleared up with really few deceases and the universe can be grateful that they will neer hold to see life as 1000000s in the fourteenth century did. Mentions Armstrong, K ( 1981 ) . The coming of the pestilence to Italy. New York: Weber Printing Biel, T ( 1989 ) . The black decease. San Diego: Aglow Books. Deaux, G. ( 1969 ) . The black decease. New York: Weybright and Talley Ellis, E. A ; Esler, A. ( 1997 ) . World history. Upper Saddle River: Prentic-Hall, Inc. Garrett, L. ( 1994 ) . Anatomy of a pestilence. New York: Webb Publishing. Hecker, J. ( 1992 ) . Black decease depredations Europe. Babington: Bureau of Electronic Publishing, Inc. Strayer, J. ( 1972 ) . Dictionary of the in-between ages. New York: Charles Scribner and Sons Walker, J. ( 1992 ) . Famine, drouth, and pestilences. New York: Glaucestu Press.

Ratio Analysis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ratio Analysis - Research Paper Example It is interesting to see that the organization increased its profit margin from only 1.9% in 2012 to 6% in 2013 and 8.9% in 2014. As per the Morning Star (n.d.) financial reports, the company’s debt to equity ratio was nearly stable over the 2012-14 period posting 0.57%, 0.60%, and 0.59% respectively in 2012, 2013, and 2014. Comparing to the years just before the global financial crisis, Toyota is yet to achieve a stronger leverage and equity position. The company had a price-earnings (P/E) ratio of 40.46% in 2012, and this high P/E ratio indicates that investors were expecting higher earnings growth in the future because the economy had begun overcoming the recessionary pressures. Toyota’s P/E ratio declined to 15.30% in 2013 and to a further 10.30% in 2014 as the global economy regained its growth momentum, and hence investor did not expect a significant future growth in earnings. Similarly, the company’s inventory turnover ratios for the fiscal years 2012, 201 3, and 2014 were 11.20%, 11.17%, and 11.52% respectively. These ratios are low as compared to that in 2011(12.19%) and a low inventory turnover ratio indicates poor inventory management or low sales. The firm’s current ratio was almost stable over the last three years (1.05%, 1.07%, and 1.07%) (Morning Star). Referring to Allen (2011), since these ratios are greater than 1, it is clear that Toyota is â€Å"able to meet its current obligations, with a surplus of working capital† (p.202). While evaluating Toyota’s time interest earned over the 2012-14 period, it is identified that the organization is placed in a better position to meet its debt obligations effectively. Toyota recovered fast from the severe impacts of the global financial crisis 2008-09 and the organization gained notable increases in revenues in the last two fiscal years. To illustrate, Toyota’s revenue fell to  ¥18,583,653 million in 2012 due to global economic turmoil, and some major product recalls due to quality issues.

Government office and its customer service Essay

Government office and its customer service - Essay Example However, the government has been criticized because of its inefficiency that arises from influences of the politicians that are interested in keeping power via investment. The DPS has been too aggressive because it is one of the significant partners in the government. This was criticized because it caused delay in the privatization of the national telecoms carrier. Further, it caused inefficiency in the tobacco company that forced serious restructuring of government. The DPS’s ethnic of the Turkish constituency has a significant interest in the tobacco sector, and during 2007, it was criticized of frustrating the sale of tobacco under the successor government. According to Cohen, Eimicke, and Heikkila (10), the government, especially DPS has been moving to modernize its capability to offer fast, high quality customer service, but it lags behind the private sector. The government is viewed as wasteful and corrupt when offering the resources required in a different office. This has affected the credibility and even the possibility of efforts to organize, legalize and plan the customer services. Meanwhile, the government has lost its image as an institution where people can do well and serve their fellow customers. The government employees have suffered an essential decline in status in the recent years due to increase of negative perception from public. It has been criticized because it lacks methods to convince customers to effect change and improve their lives via working in government offices. The government’s forceful effort to attack the pentagon has not significantly changed the common perceptions of government. According to Cohen, Eimicke, and Heikkila (5), the focus on tax cut and downsizing the customers have increased the criticism of government because it finds more difficult to respond to crisis of persistent public problems. This is caused by the inefficiencies in the government budgeting and

Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines and Forester’s A Passage to India

Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines and Forester’s A Passage to India In British imperial fiction, physical setting or landscape commonly plays a prominent role in the central thematic subject. In these works, landscape goes beyond an objective description of nature and setting to represent â€Å"a way of seeing- a way in which some Europeans have represented to themselves and others the world about them and their relationships with it, and through which they have commented on social relations† (Cosgrove xiv). By investigating the ways in which writers of colonial ficition, such as H. Rider Haggard and E.M. Forester, have used landscape, we see that landscape represents a historically and culturally specific way of experiencing the world. In Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines, the landscape is gendered to show the colonizer’s ability to dominate over native territory. However, while the scenario of the male colonizer conquering a feminized landscape reinforces a legitimizing myth of colonization, it is later overturned by Forester’s A Passage to India. In this novel, the landscape takes on a complex, multifaceted role, articulating the ambivalence of cross-cultural relationships and exposing the fragility of colonial rule. In contrast to King Solomon’s Mines, A Passage to India uses landscape as a tool to expose the problematic nature of colonial interaction that might have easily been left obscured and unacknowledged. We can read the landscape as a type of secondary narrator in A Passage to India that articulates the novel’s imperial ideology. The African landscape of King Solomon’s Mines is clearly feminized. The treasure map shows that the geography of the travelers’ route takes the shape of a female bod... ...d the sky said, ‘No, not there’† (Forester 362). We would expect that the structures of colonial rule, such as the jail and the Guest House, would symbolically pull Aziz and Fielding apart. The presence of nature, the earth, the horses, the birds, with the sky itself dictating that they cannot now be friends is a deeper form of rejection to the notion of cross-cultural relationships. The only hope we are left with is the sky’s qualification of the â€Å"no†: not yet†¦ not there. Works Cited Cosgrove, Denis. Social Formation and Symbolic Landscape. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998. Forester, E.M. A Passage to India. London: Harcourt, 1924. Ridger Haggard, J. King Solomon’s Mines, ed. Gerald Monsman. Ontario: Broadview Press, 2002. Suleri, Sara. The Rhetoric of British India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.

Freedom Road Term Paper Essay

Howard Fast, the author of the book Freedom Road, was born on November 11, 1914 and died at the age of 89 on March 12, 2003. Fast lived a long and adventurous life. A few of the things he did throughout his lifetime were; joining the American Communist party in 1943, serving a prison term in 1950 for refusing to cooperate with the House Committee on Un-American Activities, and his books were purged from American school libraries. On the other hand some of the positive things that happened in his life was that in 1953, he was rewarded the Stalin Peace Prize and in June of 1937 he married his first wife, Bette Cohen. In adjunction with his adventurous lifestyle, Fast spent most of his time writing. He wrote seven works of nonfiction, two autobiographies, fifty-two novels, five short stories one essay, and seven Masao Masuto Mysteries under the Penn name E.V. Cunningham. As well as writing, he created two films based off novels. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Fast) In the book Freedom Road, Howard Fast tells a fictional story based off the true events that occurred during the Constitutional Convention. The beginning of the book does not start the way most books start. This novel starts by talking about the main character, Gideon, as if we are supposed to know who he is. At first, this is confusing but after a couple of pages, you catch on and start to understand a lot easier. The first thing we are told about in the book is how all of the freed men from the small town of Charleston, had left a few weeks back to go vote. However, neither the town nor the men who left knew what voting actually was. Not knowing what voting was, made everyone who stayed in town very nervous and worried, they were not sure whether or not those men would be coming home or not. Therefore, when they men were spotted walking back into town everyone was extremely excited and could not wait to hear all about this voting thing. However, it seemed that none of the men were really talking, until one of them tells the town that they have some big news to share with everyone. Thus far, into the book, we have yet to hear from the main character, and we have actually been reading from his wives point of view. Once the returning men started talking, the book transitions from the wives point of view to Gideon’s, and that is when things start to pick up. We learn that the men’s big news is the fact that Gideon was elected to be a delegate. Because of his prowess in battle, the other ex-slaves looked to him as their leader in peacetime, but he was an uneducated man who felt himself unsuited for leadership. Yet knowing that his people wanted and needed him, he was determined to make himself fit into the pattern their hopes had cut out for him. However, none of them truly knew what a delegate was or what exactly a delegate did. The only thing they really knew was the Gideon would be receiving a letter once all the votes were counted to tell him if he had won the election. Several months go past in the book and nothing happens, no one in the town hears anything about Gideon being elected. Then one day, the postal man comes around and hands Gideon the letter that he had been waiting for. At this point in the book, we find out how afraid he is to go to Charleston because he is a â€Å"nigger.† He feels as though he is not very smart. He does not want to go â€Å"to city full of white houses†¦ full of white folks making fun†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (p. 16-17). So in order to help him overcome that fear Brother Peter tells him the people need a leader and because of how strong Gideon is physically and mentally, he was chosen to represent them. Because of Brother Peter, Gideon decides to go to Charleston. When he arrives in Charles and he realizes that, he has no money and no place to sleep, so he ends up sleeping under a hay barrel for the first night. It is the next morning when Gideon is offered a couple of cents for some physical labor, he reluctantly accepts the job realizing that he has no other option but to. Because of that money he is able to rent a room for the nights he will be at the convention, buy some food, and clothes that will look appropriate for the convention. Moreover, this is when we start getting into the convention. For the first couple of days Gideon was determined not to speak at the convention, in fear of making a fool of himself in front of all the educated white folk. Yet one day he is outraged and just cannot help himself, he gets up and speaks. Nevertheless, he was still embarrassed that he could not find the right words for what he was saying and for the fact that he sounded very uneducated compared to some of the rest. However when he was given some books that taught him how to read and speak properly, he began to speak out more and voice his opinion. To his surprise he was heard, people started to listen to what he was saying, and even siding with him. Fast explains that the Constitutional Convention worked because, though neither black nor poor whites were overly fond of each other, both realized they had a common enemy in a planter group. With the help of Gideon’s voice, and many others they fought against the planter group. The fought for a system of public schools, the abolition of imprisonment for debt, a simple and fair divorce law, a statute making it impossible for a wife’s property to be sold in settlement of her husband’s debts, and a measure for universal suffrage – which, came as close as man had ever come to giving women a break and land. Even though he fought for all of these things, the most important ones for Gideon were fair and equal education, and lan d. Throughout his time at the convention lets his wife slip away from him and stands by while a white northerner helps Gideon’s oldest son, Jeff, through medical school in Scotland; there was no medical school in America free enough from prejudice to accept him. Gideon loses site at what he loves the most in his life, and lets them all slip away because freedom seems more important than family. Some of the themes of this book are love and understanding, vigilance and perseverance, and hope. The reason why I say that a theme is love and understanding is because in the beginning of the book we hear about how his wife has stayed by his side through thick and thin. She waited for him though the war that he willingly signed up to go fight for. She let him go vote because she realized that even though no one knew exactly what it was, it was something of importance to her husband. In addition, though she has just gotten her husband back and did not want him to leave again; she understoo d that this was something that he needed to do. She stood by his side, maybe not physically but mentally, throughout the entirety of the convention. Although this theme is not a main theme in the book, I think that it is a rather important one. The other theme I had mentioned was vigilance and perseverance. I believe these two themes are the main themes of the book, because everyone in this book is persevering in one way or another. Brother Peter insists that Gideon goes to the convention. Everyone at the convention is pushing for exactly what it is that they want written down, and his son is moving to a land unknown to him for an education that he cannot receive where he is. The last theme I had mentioned was hope. I believe that hope is the most predominant theme throughout the book, because every single person has hope. In the beginning, the town and the men who left were hoping that this voting thing was not going to get them killed. Gideon’s wife hoped that he would not leave her again, and when he did, she hoped that he would be okay and that she would get to see him again. The people of the convention all held on to the hope that what they say and what they want will be written down into a law. Then we have Gideon himself, he has hope that he will be able to read, write and give all freed slaves the right to an education. The theme of hope plays repeatedly throughout the story. All of the stories characters played a large role in the book, everyone influenced the book in one way or another, but a few of the characters that stood out to me are Brother Peter, Gideon, and Cardozo. The first character that really stands out to me is Brother Peter. I think the fact that he did not stand up and ask people to vote for him, as a delegate was a selfless act. All of the people in town look up to him and ask him for advice, they would have easily voted for him as they did Gideon, but brother Peter knew that Gideon would have more to learn from being a delegate than he would. Brother Peter also knew that Gideon would have more of a fight in him than he would. I th ink the reason why Brother Peter was so pushy about Gideon going to the convention was that he knew that Gideon would get things done. The other character that stands out to me is Gideon. Gideon starts in the beginning of the book being illiterate, but pushes though the struggle of learning how to read and write by himself. He also struggles with the fact that he is poor and does not measure up to some of the other people in the convention. Gideon fights for education and freedom so much that he lets go of everything that he truly loves. He lets his wife slip away and his son leaves. He forgets that he has people waiting for him back home. Even though I hate that he loses sight of the place he came from and his family, he over comes many struggles and fights to achieve his goals. The other character that stands out to me is Cardozo. Cardozo is the first person at the convention that comes up and talks to Gideon. I like the way Cardozo sees things differently, he is a black man that has been free all his life, got an education, socialized around white people his entire life. Therefore, when he first talks to Gideon he wants him to explain why black people should have en education. Once Gideon explains himself Cardozo understands, and helps Gideon as much as he can. He introduces him to all the right people, he supports him in the convention, and most of all he gave Gideon books that taught him how to read and write. He gave Gideon what he had come to fight for. I think it takes very kindhearted people to stand by someone who cannot even form the words to fight by themselves. Before I actually started reading this story, I thought it was going to be another extremely boring history book, however once I started I could not put it down. The way this story was written was fabulous. The way Fast incorporated Gideon’s thoughts, his writing and speaking was interesting. I loved that the real facts of what happened during that time was not just thrown in our faces, it was mixed into the fictional story that kept you interested. I think the way that we are lead through the past so effortlessly was a fascinating way to keep reader interested. I like the way Fast incorporated all the different kinds of people at the convention. In the story, the laws of freedom, education, and land would not have got through without the black folks and poor white folks being there. I think the way Fast portrayed Gideon, as a strong illiterate freedman was a great way to grab the reader’s attention and walk us through the past in a wonderful way. I think the only thing that Fast is really missing is more of Gideon speaking. Fast does an excellent narration of illiterate folks, but he does not do enough of it. Overall, this book was great, I will most likely be keeping it, and not reselling it so I can re-read it repeatedly.

What Are Elliptical Galaxies

Galaxies are huge stellar cities and the oldest structures in the universe. They contain stars, clouds of gas and dust, planets, and other objects, including black holes. Most galaxies in the universe are spiral galaxies, much like our own Milky Way. Others, such as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, are known as irregular galaxies, due to their unusual and rather amorphous-looking shapes. However, a significant percentage, perhaps 15% or so, of galaxies are what astronomers term as ellipticals. General Characteristics of Elliptical Galaxies As the name suggests, elliptical galaxies  range from spherically shaped collections of stars to more elongated shapes similar to the outline of a U.S. football.  Some are only a fraction the size of the Milky Way while others are many times larger, and at least one elliptical called M87 has a visible jet of material streaming away from its core.  Elliptical galaxies also appear to have a large amount of dark matter, something that distinguishes even the  smallest dwarf ellipticals from simple star clusters. Globular star clusters, for example, are more tightly gravitationally bound than galaxies, and generally have fewer stars. Many globulars however, are as old as (or even older than) the galaxies where they orbit. They llikely formed around the same time as their galaxies. But, that doesnt mean theyre elliptical galaxies.   Star Types and Star Formation Elliptical galaxies are noticeably absent of gas, which is the key component of star-forming regions. Therefore the stars in these galaxies tend to be very old, and star formation regions are relatively rare in these objects. Furthermore, the old stars in ellipticals tend to be yellow and reddish; which according to our understanding of stellar evolution, means they are smaller, dimmer stars. Why no new stars? Its a good question.  Several answers come to mind. When many large stars are formed, they die quickly and redistribute much of their mass during a supernova event, leaving the seeds for new stars to be formed. But since smaller mass stars take tens of billions of years to evolve into planetary nebulae, the rate at which gas and dust is redistributed in the galaxy is very low. When the gas from a planetary nebula or a supernova explosion finally drifts into the intergalactic medium, there is usually not nearly enough to begin forming a new star. More material is needed.   Formation of Elliptical Galaxies Since star formation seems to have ceased in many ellipticals, astronomers suspect that a period of rapid formation must have happened early in the galaxys history.One theory is that elliptical galaxies may primarily form through the collision and merger of two spiral galaxies. The current stars of those galaxies would become intermixed, while the gas and dust would collide.The result would be a sudden burst of star formation, using up much of the available gas and dust. Simulations of these mergers also show that the resulting galaxy would have a formation much like that of elliptical galaxies. This also explains why spiral galaxies seem to dominate, while ellipticals are more rare. This would also explain why we dont see very many ellipticals when we survey the oldest galaxies we can detect. Most of these galaxies are, instead, quasars - a type of active galaxy. Elliptical Galaxies and Supermassive Black Holes Some physicists have theorized that at the center of every galaxy, almost regardless of type, lies a supermassive black hole. Our Milky Way certainly has one, and weve observed them in many others. While this is somewhat difficult to prove, even in galaxies where we dont directly see a black hole, that does not necessarily mean that one is not there. Its likely that at least all (non-dwarf) elliptical (and spiral) galaxies that we have observe contain these gravitational monsters. Astronomers are also currently studying these galaxies to see what effect the existence of the black hole has on their past star-formation rates.   Edited by Carolyn Collins Petersen