10th Literature and Notes Flashcard

10th Literature and Notes

Police Brutality.

Police Brutality. Police brutality in the United States is almost an everyday part of life. In most major cities across the country, officers abuse their authority in the most flagrant ways. New York and Los Angeles are the most notorious cities for police brutality. In February of 1999, New York police burst into an apartment building in pursuit of Amandou Diallo. The police officers shot forty-one bullets at the unarmed African and hit him nineteen times. Reverend Al Sharpton started a protest movement against the killing. In a jury trial of their peers the police officers who shot and killed an unarmed man were acquited of all charges. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani responded to the verdict by stating "Probaly until the day I die, I will always give officers the benefit of the doubt." Two days after the verdict, Malcolm Ferguson, also unarmed was gunned down in the same Bronx neighborhood where Diallo was shot.Speaker Pelosi presented the first Lantos Human Ri...Police officers engage in unjustified shooti ngs, severe beatings, fatal choking, and unnecessarily rough physical treatment in cities throughout the United States, while their police superiors, city officials, and the Justice Department fail to act decisively to restrain or penalize such acts or even to record the full magnitude of the problem. Habitually brutal officers - usually a small percentage of officers on a force - may be the subject of repeated complaints but are usually protected by their fellow officers and by the shoddiness of internal police investigations. A victim seeking redress faces obstacles at every point in the process, ranging from overt intimidation to the reluctance of local and federal prosecutors to take on brutality cases. Severe abuses persist because overwhelming barriers to accountability make it all too likely that officers who commit human rights violations escape due punishment to continue their abusive conduct.Human Rights Watch recognizes that...

Coaching Theories and Models Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Coaching Theories and Models - Essay Example An understanding of the particular needs of an employee and diagnosing them appropriately is one of the most important aspects in coaching. In this essay, a perspective of two coaching models will be considered in order to ensure that the best one is applied in coaching. The differences and similarities of the GROW theory and contingency model will be drawn. Both theories have advantages as well as disadvantages that will be compared through this analysis. The contingency model of coaching is a widely used theory in leadership. It is geared towards promoting performance among the employees. The main point of concern under this theory is the adoption of the balance between the performance and taking care of the needs of the people (employees). This theory requires that the manager act in an effective way that demonstrates respect for the employees. Coaching through this model has no particular pattern that the manager should adopt in order to achieve desirable employee performance. The situation of the employee is the one that determines the type of coaching style that is adopted. This model was developed by Julie White and Rick Tate in an endeavor to diagnose the needs of an employee in order to ensure that they exhibit good performance. The manager is required to customize their coaching to the specific needs of an employee. After diagnosis of the employee needs, the manager is required to develop effective and systematic approach of dealing with the needs of that specific employee (Impact Achievement Group, n.d). The GROW model is geared towards solving problems that emanate from the organizational setup for employees. Apart from providing solutions, the manager can step ahead to solve problems that emanate from the employees. This GROW model is an acronym that stand for Goal, Reality, Obstacles & Options, and Way forward. This model helps managers in dealing with day-to-today problems that confront employees in an organization. Despite having

Role in Criminal Procedure of US Constitution Essay

Role in Criminal Procedure of US Constitution - Essay Example In the US Constitution itself, there is an Article that includes provision for both pre-trial and trial rights. Article III, Section. 2, Clause 3 indicates that â€Å"[t]he Trial of all Crimes [†¦] shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed [†¦]† (National Archives, â€Å"Constitution of the United States, Art.III,  §.2, cl.3†, 1787) This passage determines two important elements of criminal procedure, namely the jury and venue. These are crucial while they describe the place and method of criminal procedure.As for the Bill of Rights, there are several Amendments that are relevant to the current research question. To be more specific, Amendments Fifth, Sixth and Eight seem to be the most important to determining criminal procedure. Within the Fifth Amendment, there are several crucial points to understand in regard to criminal procedure. First, this Amendment rejects punishment for capital or i nfamous crimes except for specific cases. Similarly, in the Eight Amendment, it is stated that â€Å"[e]xcessive bail shall not be required†, nor â€Å"excessive fines, nor cruel and unusual punishments.† (National Archive, â€Å"Bill of Rights, Amendment VIII†, 1789) Second, Amendment V also indicates that one person will not be answering twice for the same crime. Third, any person has the right not to witness against oneself. Finally, the Amendment does not allow the punishment of a person without due juridical process. (National Archive, â€Å"Bill of Rights, Amendment V†, 1789).

Identity as citizenship and the human rights

Identity as citizenship and the human rights This essay will be discussing about one of the three types of Bruneis citizenship. Brunei citizenship is divided into three categories. It is categorise by color which are yellow, purple and green and these color will be the color of the identity card hold by each of Brunei citizenships according to which citizenship they are categorised. In Brunei Darussalam, different identity card holder will get different specialty offered by the Bruneis government because in Brunei Darussalam, Brunei government is responsible for its citizen welfare. Specialty means welfare in terms of education, health care and job offer. The welfare given is different from one identity card holder to another. IDENTITY AS CITIZENSHIP AND THE HUMAN RIGHTS The focus of this essay will be on the purple card holder and my focal point is on students. The issue will be discuss after I elaborate the details of the purple citizenship status and their human rights in their stay in Brunei Darussalam. The purple card holder is for a citizen who came into Brunei Darussalam and married to a Brunei woman. This citizenship will also descent to their children if the father are not a local Bruneian. The child whose father holding the purple citizenship is categorise the same as their fathers citizenship even though they are born in Brunei. Purple card citizenship can also be given to people who plan to live permanently in Brunei Darussalam. The specialty given to the purple citizenship is different from what is given to the yellow card citizenship. Yellow citizenship is the pure citizenship which is called as local people. There is another citizenship status in Brunei which is a green card holder which will not be include in this discussion but the b est description is this type of citizenship is for temporary foreign worker who work in Brunei with two years renewable visa. The local people are the community who are given the specialty from the government in terms of education, health care and job offer. Local students are given scholarship for education. They do not have to pay anything for their primary school and secondary school even texts books are provided without any expense demands. Unlike the purple card citizenship, although they are born in Brunei they have to pay the school fees. The school fee is paid monthly and the cost will be increasing as they went to a higher level of education. Regarding health care, people with purple citizenship have to pay the amount of BND$30 for every prescription unlike the local citizenship which is the yellow card holder they only paying an amount of BND$1 for their prescription. They also have to pay for their stay if they were admitted in the hospital while local people pay nothing. Other than that, the purple card holder also cannot work as a government staff only until they get their yellow citizenship. The issue that questions this situation is why as a permanent citizenship (purple card holder) do not get the government specialty even though they have been staying in Brunei permanently and even some of them are born in Brunei. In Brunei if a local resident (yellow card holder) students applying for university they have to have an outstanding result in order to get a scholarship. If they are qualified with their result they will continue their study to the university and they will be given monthly allowance by the government. Unlike the purple citizenship, even though they get an outstanding result but they cannot enter the university by scholarship. They have to pay the school fee which is at the amount of BND$4000 per semester and this will cost them an overall of BND$24,000 for the whole degree course which took four years to be completed. As of the different welfare, occur some cases in Brunei where some parents did not afford to pay their childrens school fee and despondently their children are categorise as a very outstanding student in school. Sometime the students have to quit even at their early primary or secondary school because they could not continue their study due to financial matter. What makes it as a fair decision to differentiate a student with foreign father to pay for their education but they have been in Brunei since they born and are not going to another place to stay and grow other than in Brunei. If the government let them get the same benefit as the local resident will that harm the government in any way? This is the question which really needs a clear explanation especially for those who faced this situation. The children are considered as Brunei asset but why they have to be treated like foreigner. If the government cannot make any change to this children welfare who else can support their future. If the government cannot overcome this situation what will happen in the future if the number of unemployment is increasing. This would trouble the country and even adverse the future of Brunei because of the regardless of some outstanding asset. Below are the law and regulations of Brunei Government for applying the yellow card citizenship as stated in Brunei National Registry Members Section.  Available: http://www.imigresen.gov.bn.html. Last accessed 19th Jannuary 2011. The yellow card citizenship are recognise as the people of His Royal Highness Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam. Only this people are eligible to get the welfare specialty given by the government. So in order to get the entire welfare from the government the resident with purple card holder can apply to change their purple card to yellow by the following regulations. ABSOLUTE EFFECTIVE BY THE LAW (CHAPTER 4 OF THE NATIONAL STANDARD OF BRUNEI) Application Requirements Status as a people of His Royal Highness Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam: 1 Section is recognized as the Peoples Representatives of His Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam. 2 Assign legally in the country while the application is made. REGISTRATION BY [Chapter 5 (1), 6 (1) and 8 (1) OF THE NATIONAL STANDARD OF BRUNEI] CHAPTER 5 (1) THE APPLICANT IS BORN IN STATE Requirements for Applying for Status as the People of His Royal Highness Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam: The applicant has reached 18 years when the application is made The applicant is recognized as permanent residents to have Entry Permit / Residence Permit for 12 years from the date of issue Resided continuously in the country for 2 years prior to application Qualifications to people of His Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam: Good behavior (to be reviewed by the parties concerned) Malay Language Examination Citizenship Status should divest Origin Obedience Oath lift Seta (after obtaining consent of His Gracious Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam. CHAPTER 6 (1) APPLICATION STATUS BY FATHER / MOTHER / PARENTS lift CITIZENS OF BRUNEI Application Requirements Status as a people of His Royal Highness Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam The applicant is under 18 years old when the application is made Father / Mother / Parent Adoption is recognized as a people of His Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam Legally residing in Brunei Darussalam during the application is made. Eligibility To be people of His Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam Good behavior (to be reviewed by the parties concerned) Shall deprive Kewarganegraan Original Status CHAPTER 8 (1) THE APPLICANT IS BORN ABROAD Application Requirements Status as a people of His Royal Highness Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam The applicant is under 18 years old when the application is made The application is recognized as permanent residents with Entry Permit / Residence Permit for 20 years from the date of issue Resided continuously in the country for 2 years prior to application. Eligibility To be people of His Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam Good behavior (to be reviewed by the parties concerned) Passed the Malay Language Shall deprive Kewarganegraan Original Status Faithful Obedience Oath lift (after getting Perkenaan His Gracious Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam) As the regulation stated in the law of Department Of Immigration and National Registration Ministry of Domestic Affair Brunei it shows that it is applicable to be the people of His Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam as long as they are qualified according to the law and regulation of National regulation. Somehow what can be seen from the regulation is it took a very long time for a purple card citizen to become and even apply the yellow citizenship. It is at some points wasting their time waiting and also wasting their money to spend on expense demand as a purple citizenship while at the end they will still to be recognized as a yellow citizenship. Therefore in this case time is really matter because through time it shows how much we spend for the expense demand and we could thing how worth it is to spend that amount of money just to go through that time estimation stated in the regulation. What if within the time the students are not be able to continue their study just because they cannot afford to pay the fees and after a long time when they get the yellow citizenship but at that time it is already impossible for them to continue their study because of their age factor. In Brunei there is school regulation where only certain age can enter certain level of education as stated in Education System.  Available: http://www.moe.edu.bn. Last accessed 15th Jannuary 2011. If they could not continue their study just because of this matter then who are to be blame and who are to be responsible for their future. According to regulation on chapter 5(1) for applicants who born in Brunei. They can only apply the yellow citizenship if the y reach their age of 18 years old. But if we think about this prudently why do the parents have to pay for their education until they reach their age of 18 years old and then after that they are conform to be a local citizenship. This is a waste of money. Of course in terms of future it is sometimes under the responsibilities of their parents. But what if the father earns low income just because he cannot work with the government. The government cannot offer any job and he has to work at private sector with low salary because he is still waiting for the yellow citizenship and he could not get the job offer by the government since he is still holding the purple citizenship. This will affect the future of their child especially when they have number of children to depend on them. As stated in Job Vacancy.  Available: http://www.pelitabrunei.gov.bn. Last accessed 19th Jannuary 2011 which is showing the conditions for applying government job as below: General Conditions: The applicants of the people of His Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam. The applicant knowledge of kerasmian religion, customs, culture, social development, economics and politics of Brunei Darussalam. Willing to work anytime outside normal working hours on working on a rotation basis (shift) or during public holidays and also be willing to serve in any district in the country. In order for a child to rely on their fathers citizenship as stated in the regulation chapter 6(1) the father has to have a permit of 20 years as a purple citizenship (permanent citizenship) and the child must not yet reach the age of 18. Lets say the father has not reach the estimation time staying in Brunei for 20 years and the child are already eligible to apply the yellow citizenship, this would delayed the child from making the application for the yellow citizenship until they reach their age of 18 years old. There are also cases happen to purple citizen students where they have to postpone from entering the university because they have to wait until they reach their age of 18 years old to make them eligible to get the scholarship to enter the university as the regulation stated in admission.  Available: http://www.ubd.edu.bn. Last accessed 15th Jannuary 2011. They also do not have any option for example to work with the government even though the finished their study in the government school by fee because they have to have the yellow citizenship. In cases like this also happen that the child cannot make the application to get the yellow citizenship at all because if they already reach their age of 18 and was born abroad and their father have not reach the 20 years being a permanent resident they are no longer eligible to make an application. This is because as stated in chapter 8(1) if applicants are born abroad they are only eligible to make application before they reach the age of 18 years old. They also having problem to apply for scholarship to study abroad. In Brunei, students with outstanding A level result will be eligible to get study abroad scholarship but the condition is they must be holding the yellow citizenship as stated in Scholarship.  Available: http://www.moe.edu.bn. Last accessed 15th Jannuary 2011. For students who are holding purple citizenship, they cannot apply for this scholarship even they have got a very excellent result. Therefore some of them who did not afford to pay for a very expensive school fee cannot continue their study to a higher level of education especially university. Sometime they have to waste their time waiting for their citizenship application to be approved by the Department Of Immigration and National Registration Ministry of Domestic Affair Brunei. For applicants stated in chapter 8(1) the law and regulation of Department Of Immigration and National Registration Ministry of Domestic Affair Brunei for applicants who was born abroad in order to be have the yellow citizenship of Brunei they have to pass their Malay Language Test. If they do not pass the test they have to try until they can get through and qualified to be the yellow citizenship. In this cases happen that they have to try for so many years to be qualified but what is worth trying in years in order to get the scholarship if the scholarship has limit the requirement only to students who is below 25 years old. In Brunei if someone is to apply for education scholarship they must be not more than 25 years old. If someone with purple citizenship are recognised as the yellow citizenship after their age of 25 years old than what is worth fighting for doing the test in years while according to their academic qualification they are actually qualified to continue their study. For those who can afford to pay for their education to university level and manage to complete their degree with outstanding qualification that does not mean that they can work with the government. This is because the regulation to work with the government is they must have a yellow citizenship. If they do not qualified in terms of citizenship their academic result will not be considered by the government even though they are qualified in terms of academic qualification. In the end they have to spend years working with private sector and earn lower income which is not suitable for their academic qualification and what have they been going through will continuously happen to their children as well. Some of them also have to move to other country to seek for appropriate and suitable job for their qualification. CONCLUSION There are so many things to be considered and analysed in this issue. The regulation delayed the application in terms of the demand of the time requirements to be the yellow citizenship. Most applicants have to wait for a very long time until they are applicable to be the yellow citizenship. Along their journey to get the yellow citizenship they have lost so many valuable things such as their time, their effort and even their future. If this happen continuously to the resident of Brunei specially the purple citizen it will leads to a big lost to the country in terms of losing the intelligent assets and also will leads to massive number of unemployment in the future. It is not erroneous to put a law for people to apply the yellow citizenship of Brunei. But the time required for the purple citizenship to apply the yellow citizenship should be decreased for the country and resident own good and for a better future. (2,860 words) Bibligraphy: admission.  Available: http://www.ubd.edu.bn. Last accessed 15th Jannuary 2011 Education System.  Available: http://www.moe.edu.bn. Last accessed 15th Jannuary 2011. Job Vacancy.  Available: http://www.pelitabrunei.gov.bn. Last accessed 19th Jannuary 2011 Members Section.  Available: http://www.imigresen.gov.bn.html. Last accessed 19th Jannuary 2011 Scholarship.  Available: http://www.moe.edu.bn. Last accessed 15th Jannuary 2011.

George Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four 1984 :: Free Essays on 1984

The Orwell’s perception of an ideal government is pretty much the same as Montesqueue describes in â€Å"Persian letters†. They both seem to think that the best government would be one in which power was balanced among three groups of officials. As opposed to totalitarian regime of the Party, Montesque’s ideal government would be the government elected by people and not a product of a despotic ruler’s ideas. He, as well as the Orwell believed that the success of democracy- a government in which the people have the power - depended upon maintaining the right balance of power. Moreover, the only way of achieving this would be dividing power onto three branches: an authority that enforced laws (like a king), Parliament, which made laws, and the judges in courts who interpreted laws. According to Montesqueue it is called ‘separation of powers’. Avoiding placing too much power on one individual or group of individuals would certainly prevent total itarian governments of coming into existence. Therefore, no branch of the government could threaten the freedom of the people. Orwell’s society displays a threatening projection of a totalitarian system into the future. Indeed it is a regime very similar to the tyrannies of the 20th century and strongly echoes Stalin Russia or Nazi Germany. The dominant mood inside this repressive system is one of threat and suppression due to the systematic persecution and oppression of non-conformists. As Goldstein explains in his ‘Oligarchical Collectivism’ there have always been three classes: the high, the middle and the low with the middle and the high constantly changing their respective position. Eventually this movement was identified by historians as being cyclical. In an attempt to interrupt this recurring pattern the Party is essentially focusing on the problem of Stability. Indeed Stability becomes principal in Oceania as well as in the other two superpowers Eastasia and Eurasia. In short it is the problem of how to keep things the way they are and maintain a hierarchical society without risk ing an overthrow of the established system. Several devices and attitudes have been conceived to achieve this aim. First of all the Party constantly controls and monitors its subjects. A crucial device in this scheme is the telescreen which, by being able to send as well as to receive information, allows a constant surveillance of all Party members. In addition other institutions such as the Thought Police or the Spies have been contrived to guarantee a maximum of surveillance.

Critical Analysis and Research on Sylvia Plath’s poems Essay

The literary tradition Plath is most closely associated with: Confessionalism, engenders robust biographical interpretation due to the innately self-revelatory idiom. Plath, even more so than other Confessional poets like Anne Sexton or Robert Lowell, explored the poetic possibilities of contemporaneous self-expression which involved intimate, sometimes deeply personal psychological and biographical revelation. This aspect, along with deftly executed figurative language, expressive and interesting prosody, and stark, often violent imagery distinguishes the poems of Plath’s most well-known book of verse â€Å"Ariel. † Plath’s most famous poem â€Å"Daddy† enjoys myriad biographical interpretations, an understanding of which are as necessary as understanding the poem’s other dimensions: prosody, rhyme, image, and theme for a thorough reading of the poem. Interestingly, Plath her self noted, in a reading for the BBC, that â€Å"Daddy† was â€Å"spoken by a girl with an Electra complex. Her father died while she thought he was God. Her case is complicated by the fact that her father was also a Nazi and her mother very possibly part Jewish. † (Plath, Nos. 166-188). These words express Plath’s attempt to pace a narrative distance between herself and the speaker of the poem and seem to indicate that she felt such a distinction failed to be strongly apparent in the poem itself. This latter conclusion is understandable; close inspection of Plath’s diary, biographies, and the lines of â€Å"Daddy† exhume a potent parallels between the events described in the poem and the events of Plath’s life. Beginning with the most obvious parallel as well as the poem’s central theme of a â€Å"girl with an Electra complex,† Plath’s journals reveal that she, indeed, suffered personally from an â€Å"Electra complex. † While undergoing treatment with her psychologist Dr. Ruth Beuscher, Plath experienced a cathartic emotional climax during psychotherapy and recorded her subsequent Sylvia Plath’s Poems Page -2- thoughts. Plath also noted that her father was an â€Å"ogre† and â€Å"tyrant† and that he kept a hidden Nazi flag in his closet which he occasionally paraded in front of while dressed in Nazi regalia. â€Å"He wouldn’t go to a doctor, wouldn’t believe in God and heiled Hitler in the privacy of his home. † Of her mother Plath observed, â€Å"She suffered{†¦ } bound to the track naked and the train called Life coming with a frown and a choo-choo around the bend. † (Plath Journal, 430) This latter turn of phrase (with its train imagery) informs the imagery of Daddy when Plath writes: â€Å"An engine, an engine/ Chuffing me off like a Jew. † Likewise, the Nazi imagery of â€Å"Daddy† conveys a sense of bleakest hopelessness, with Plath directly identifying her own childhood pain and loss of her father with the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis. â€Å"I have always been scared of you/ With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo. / And your neat mustache/And your Arayan eye, bright blue. † Although the poem expresses the dramatic revelation of an â€Å"Electra complex,† the poem’s opening lines foreshadow a strange inversion of powers; the admonition â€Å"You do not do, you do not do/ Any more, black shoe† portends or infers that the speaker has won a victory over her oppressor (s); taken at their full impact, the opening lines convey not only a release from the familial neurosis implied by the aforementioned biographical details, but a sinister hint at the poem’s ultimately suicidal themes. The line â€Å"in which I have lived like a foot/For thirty years, poor and white† mean to strike to the heart of the poet’s entire life and not merely the â€Å"Electra complex† that is so obviously rendered. The â€Å"shoe† is all form of oppression and constriction, though throughout the poem there is a strong sense of male domination and patriarchal oppression. â€Å"Of the poems that Sylvia Plath’s Poems Page -3- concentrate on the family, those dealing with the father provide the clearest and most powerful example of Plath’s divided conception of the universe. † (Rosenblatt 119) That said, the poem gains its most sinister and perhaps most powerful energies from deeply autobiographical confession. Lines such as â€Å"In the waters off beautiful Nauset. /I used to pray to recover you. † can only be interpreted as personal motifs, since Plath summered in Nauset with her family and often referred to this time period as the most gloriously happy in her life. Memory, in the poem, is like the child remembers: â€Å"Daddy† brilliantly enlarges the memory of Plath’s father to legendary proportions. â€Å"Plath dramatizes the situation between daughter and father as if no time had passed since the father’s death: the emotional situation is still burning in her consciousness. † (Rosenblatt 160) This constant tension between the ideal and the real – the remembered and the present – the child and the grown woman mirror the universal experiences of most people whether the specific biographical details are similar. In order to firmly establish the mythical impact of her private â€Å"theater† Plath employs heroic exaggeration via the imagery of the poem: While most of the geographical references in Plath’s poetry are to New England or England, â€Å"Daddy† refers to San Francisco in the lines â€Å"Ghastly statue with one gray toe / Big as a Frisco Seal / And a head in the freakish Atlantic. † These lines identify the daddy in the poem as a colossus who stretches across America from the Atlantic to the Pacific–a colossus even larger than the one described in â€Å"The Colossus. † (ANO194) Similarly, Plath demonstrates that her personal life, as a focused theme for her thoroughly crafted poetry, attains a mythical stature in the process. This mythical resonance is prevalent in her poem â€Å"medusa,† which, while not as generally well-known as â€Å"Daddy† is actually a complimentary piece to the more famous work, with Medusa providing the maternal aspect of the Sylvia Plath’s Poems Page -4- two parentally themed pieces: â€Å"†Medusa† corresponds in Plath’s work to â€Å"Daddy†: both represent the search for freedom from parental figures. † (Rosenblatt 127) If â€Å"Daddy† drew upon events from Plath’s life and juxtaposed them with sweeping images drawn from world history, â€Å"Medusa† presents a more directly mythological connotation. From the title, alone, the reader is set to expect a resonance with Greek myth. However, what ensues is an inversion of the technique employed in â€Å"Daddy,† which utilized a mathematically precise rhyme scheme and colloquial diction to elevate the personal to the status of myth. In â€Å"Medusa,† a well-known myth is used as a kind of â€Å"anchor† by which the personal can be magnified and universally comprehended. Plath imagines her mother as the Medusa, capable of turning all who look at her into stone. â€Å"†Medusa† paints the portrait of a similar figure: she observes the speaker from across the Atlantic; she has a hideous head that can apparently turn the self to stone; and she wishes to hurt the speaker. † (Rosenblatt 127) One of the most interesting images in the poem is that of the Atlantic cable viewed by the poet as a â€Å"barnacled umbilicus† which keeps her tied to the â€Å"stone† world of Medusa with its â€Å"God-ball,/Lens of mercies† and Medusa’s â€Å"stooges† following the poet â€Å"Dragging their Jesus hair. † This image also allows the infusion of biographical details, as in â€Å"Daddy† and in nearly all of the â€Å"Ariel† poems, as functional a part of the aesthetic as meter, rhyme, and diction. â€Å"The reference in the poem to the umbilical attachment between the poet and Medusa identifies this figure as the mother. Plath also alludes to a visit that her mother made to England in the summer of 1962 in the line: â€Å"You steamed to me over the sea. â€Å"[†¦ ]†Medusa† attempts to cast off the parental image and to attain personal independence. † (Rosenblatt 127) Sylvia Plath’s Poems Page -5- The diction of â€Å"Medusa† is deliberately colloquial, conversational and punctuated by complex, corresponding imagery and figurative language. This alloy of disparate impulses, one toward the informality of a phone call or table-conversation, the other for the deep mythological reference and probing psychological confession, produces a brilliant and enduring poetic tension in Plath’s â€Å"Ariel† poems. Perhaps more than nay other single poem in the â€Å"Ariel† sequence, â€Å"Lady Lazarus† pushes the parameters of the poetic idiom described above. The subject of Lady Lazarus, like the subject of â€Å"Daddy† and â€Å"Medusa† is simultaneously autobiographical and mythological. In this poem, Plath conjoins her first suicide attempt with the Biblical story of Lazarus. And again, Plath produces a tension in diction by contrasting formal and colloquial language. â€Å"Lady Lazarus† defines the central aesthetic principles of Plath’s late poetry. First, the poem derives its dominant effects from the colloquial language. From the conversational opening (â€Å"I have done it again†) to the clipped warnings of the ending (â€Å"Beware / Beware†), â€Å"Lady Lazarus† appears as the monologue of a woman speaking spontaneously out of her pain and psychic disintegration. † (Rosenblatt 40) Against the predominantly colloquial diction, complex Latinate terms and phrases are contrasted providing the voice of the â€Å"establishment,† of the â€Å"enemy† and the numb, indifferent, objective world. â€Å" The Latinate terms (â€Å"annihilate,† â€Å"filaments,† â€Å"opus,† â€Å"valuable†) are introduced as sudden contrasts to the essentially simple language of the speaker. † (Rosenblatt 40) The prosody of â€Å"Lady Lazarus,† with its sporadic, nursery-rhyme like rhymes: â€Å"I do it exceptionally well/ I do it so it feels like hell† â€Å"A wedding ring,/ A gold filling† ventures near the territory of light-verse, but the poem’s themes and images are anything but light. The strain of the prosody and diction against the profound themes of suicide, Nazism, psychiatric and medical Sylvia Plath’s Poems Page -6- tyranny, and social-alienation is produced without poetic collapse due to Plath’s unerring control of language: â€Å"The inventiveness of the language demonstrates Plath’s ability to create[†¦ ] an appropriate oral medium for the distorted mental states of the speaker. The sexual pun on â€Å"charge† in the first line above; the bastardization of German (â€Å"Herr Enemy†); the combination of Latinate diction (â€Å"opus,† â€Å"valuable†) and colloquial phrasing (â€Å"charge,† â€Å"So, so †¦ â€Å")—all these linguistic elements reveal a character who has been grotesquely split into warring selves. (Rosenblatt 39) â€Å"Lady Lazarus† closes, like â€Å"Daddy† and â€Å"Medusa† with the affirmation of the speaker’s vengeful triumph over adversaries. This closing â€Å"sting† in many of the most successful of the â€Å"Ariel† poems suggests a rebirth for the fragmented self described in â€Å"Lady Lazarus. † The successful rebirth also indicates another, if secondary impulse, in the â€Å"Ariel† poems, that of communal identification or empathy. It is as though poet, having undergone the vivisections of â€Å"Daddy† â€Å"Medusa† â€Å"Lady Lazarus† and other poems, can now empathize with others who have been similarly wounded. An ironic take on this aspect is the pome’ The Applicant,† which substitutes the idea of salesmanship for compassion, admitting, however, that identification with the customer is a necessary component of selling. â€Å"One of the more bitter poems in Ariel is â€Å"The Applicant† ( October 11, 1962), a portrait of marriage in contemporary western culture[†¦ ] Somehow all interaction between people, and especially that between men and women, given the history of the use of women as items of barter, is conditioned by the ethics and assumptions of a bureaucratized market place. † (Annas 104) Plath’s melding of colloquial and formal diction in â€Å"The Applicant† results in an ironically bitter observation on the consequences of human-objectification, a theme which upon close inspection informs nearly all of the â€Å"Ariel† poems. Works Cited Annas, Pamela J. A Disturbance in Mirrors: The Poetry of Sylvia Plath. New York: Greenwood Press, 1988. Plath, Sylvia. The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath. New York NY Anchor Books. 2000. Plath, Sylvia. â€Å"The Source of the Vampire and â€Å"Frisco Seal† in Plath’s â€Å"Daddy†. † ANQ 4. 4 (1991): 194-194. Rosenblatt, Jon. Sylvia Plath: The Poetry of Initiation. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1979.