Motif Affairs: The Great Gatsby

Throughout the novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses the motif of affairs to show development in Daisy Buchanan's character. As a reader slowly pieces together what is the love puzzle of this novel, it becomes clear to them Daisy's true self. Starting off the novel Fitzgerald uses Tom's affairs with Daisy(his wife) and Myrtle(his mistress) to show how Tom treats Daisy. He is very sexist towards not only Daisy but also myrtle. â€Å"Daisy loved me when she married me and she loves me now,†(131) this is said by Tom, giving the reader an example of just how controlling he is of his wife.It is evident to the reader, through the lens of feminism, that Tom objectifies women, treating them like objects rather than people, Daisy especially, making him feel it is acceptable to have more than one woman. This gives the reader a sense of sympathy for Daisy, because of the way her husband treats her. It upsets the reader that although Daisy is aware of her husband's affair with Myrtle, s he ‘accepts' it and feels she deserves it because she is a woman and that's simply what women get.As the novel goes on, it is made clear to the reader Daisy's obsession with money. â€Å"Her voice is full of money†¦ That was it. I‘d never understood before. It was full of money – that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals‘ song of it†¦ High in a white palace the king‘s daughter, the golden girl†¦ â€Å"(120) We learn of an affair in Daisy's past that she had with Gatsby, and that the only reason she married Tom rather than Gatsby was because of Tom's wealth.When this is brought up it refuels old feelings between the two of them, leading to an affair between Daisy and Gatsby. Readers go from feeling bad for Daisy to almost having sympathy for Tom. After accusing Tom of objectifying Daisy and not being loyal to her, it is made clear that daisy is not loyal to Tom. She is not in love with him, but rather his money. Through these recurring affairs and the lens of feminism Daisy's true character is exposed to the reader.

Ethnic Groups and Racism Essay

GENERAL SOCIOLOGY/SOCIETY CULTURE â€Å"ETHNIC GROUPS AND RACISM† I. INTRODUCTION Race and ethnicity are important concepts in the field of sociology and are ones that are studied a great deal. Race plays a large role in everyday human interactions and sociologists want to study how, why, and what the outcomes are of these interactions. A race is a human population that is believed to be distinct in some way from other humans based on real or imagined physical differences. Racial classifications are rooted in the idea of biological classification of humans according to morphological features such as skin color or facial characteristics. An individual is usually externally classified (meaning someone else makes the classification) into a racial group rather than the individual choosing where they belong as part of their identity. Conceptions of race, as well as specific racial groupings, are often controversial due to their impact on social identity and how those identities influence someone’s position in social hierarchies. Ethnicity, while related to race, refers not to physical characteristics but social traits that are shared by a human population. Some of the social traits often used for ethnic classification include: †¢nationality †¢tribe †¢religious faith †¢shared language †¢shared culture †¢shared traditions Unlike race, ethnicity is not usually externally assigned by other individuals. The term ethnicity focuses more upon a group’s connection to a perceived shared past and culture. II. CONTENT/ CREATIVE REPORT DEFINITION OF RACE AND ETHNICITY Race is a socially defined category, based on real or perceived biological differences between groups of people. Ethnicity is a socially defined category based on common language, religion, nationality, history or another cultural factor. Sociologists see race and ethnicity as social constructions because they are not rooted in biological differences, they change over time, and they never have firm boundaries. Example: White The distinction between race and ethnicity can be displayed or hidden, depending on individual preferences, while racial identities are always on display. THE SOCIOLOGICAL MEANING OF ETHNIC GROUPS AND RACISM The classification of people into races and ethnic groups carries deep implication on the social and political life of different racial and ethnic groups. These classifications led to the notion of racial superiority and racial inferiority, culturally advanced groups and culturally disadvantaged, the use of derogatory undertones and parody, apartheid policy, discrimination and prejudice, and stereotyping of groups of people. Ethnic conflicts have been regular process within the same territorial borders and among the nations of the world. Ethnic conflicts have been pervasive and dangerous because they cause massive humanitarian suffering, civil wars, and destabilizing effects. Sociologically, â€Å"race† refers to a group of people whom others believe are genetically distinct and whom they treat accordingly. This term is commonly used to refer to physical differences between people brought about by physical characteristics of genetic origin. This commonness of genetic heritage may be manifested in the shape of the head and face, the shape and color of the eyes, the shape of the nose, lips, and ears, the texture and color of the hair, the skin color, height, blood type and other physical characteristics. Among the significant racial categories studied by early social scientists were the Caucasoid, Mongoloid, Negroid, and the subgroups of primary and derived races. Racial differences are seen as physical differences singled out by the community or society as ethnically significant. It is preferable to refer to ethnicity or ethnic groups rather than race for its historical and biological connotations. An ethnic group represents a number of persons who have a common cultural background as evidenced by a feeling of loyalty to a given geographical territory or leader, a feeling of identification with and unity among historical and other group experiences, or a high degree of similarity in social norms, ideas and material objects. Members of ethnic groups see themselves as culturally different from other groups in the society and are viewed by others to be so. SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF MEMBERSHIP IN RACIAL AND ETHNIC GROUPS Membership in racial and ethnic groups influences people’s social status and roles as they interact with others. Physical characteristics, especially skin color and certain distinctive cultural traits, complexes, and patterns, become badges for social and economic status. Frequently, they establish a person’s or groups position in the social stratification system and make up the foundation for prejudice, discrimination, and other forms of differential treatment. Furthermore, when an ethnic group becomes a target of discrimination, such group may utilize the unique physical or cultural traits as the rallying force for promoting common loyalties and enhancing collective action. When people’s definition of physical characteristics greatly affects their relationship, such definitions generally become interlinked with cultural differences. A classic example is the white man’s justification of his technological, economic, political and military superiority. Examples are such ideologies as the God-chosen race, the white man’s burden and more recently, the apartheid policy. Since the early days of the United States, Native Americans, African-Americans and European-Americans were classified as belonging to different races. But the criteria for membership in these races were radically different. For Africans, the government considered anyone with African appearance to be purely African. Native Americans, on the other hand, were classified based on a certain percentage of Indian blood. Finally, European-Americans had to have purely white ancestry. The differing criteria for assigning membership to particular races had relatively little to do with biology; it had far more to do with maintaining a group’s defined roles and position. Racial and ethnic membership leads to a sense of people-hood. By this, we mean a sense of identification with a relatively small segment of the world’s population- those who by virtue of common ancestry or heritage we consider â€Å"our own kind†. Erich Fromm wrote in 1941: â€Å"The identity with nature, clan, religion, gives the individual security. He belongs to, he is rooted in, structuralized whole in which he has an unquestionable place. He may suffer from hunger or suppression, but he does not suffer from worst of all pains- complete aloneness and doubt. † PATTERNS OF ETHNIC GROUP RELATIONS People who occupy a subordinate status are usually called a minority group. What determines a minority group is not the unique racial or ethnics traits nor their great number but the relationship of different groups in the society of which they are a part. A minority group, then is one that, because of the power of differences among the groups, is singled out for unequal treatment in the society. A minority refers to a group which, because of physical and cultural characteristics, occupies a subordinate position in the society and subjected to collective discrimination, in some cases, even segregation, oppression, slavery, peonage, military subjugation, religious persecution, and economic, political, educational, and social suppression. The patterns of ethnic group relations include the following: 1. Patterns of Racism a. Prejudice and discrimination †¢Racism – is behavior that is motivated by the belief that one’s own group is superior to other groups that are set apart on the basis of physical characteristics Structural racism refers to inequalities built into an organization or system. An example of structural racism can be seen in recent research on workplace discrimination. [37] There is widespread discrimination against job applicants whose names were merely perceived as â€Å"sounding black. † These applicants were 50% less likely than candidates perceived as having â€Å"white-sounding names† to receive callbacks for interviews, no matter their level of previous experience. †¢Prejudice – prejudged negative attitude or opinion about a group without bothering to verify the merits of the opinion or judgment The relationship between prejudice and discrimination is complex. Robert Merton’s study and typology of the relationship between prejudice and discrimination Four patterns 1. Unprejudiced nondiscriminatory – integration 2. Unprejudiced and discriminatory – institutional discrimination 3. Prejudiced and nondiscriminatory – latent bigotry 4. Prejudiced and discriminatory – outright bigotry In his study, (1974), Bulatao listed impressions on some ethnic groups by respondents from five Philippine cities: Ilocanos and Chinese were viewed as most industrious, serious, thrifty; Tagalogs, progressive; Bicolanos and Cebuanos, humble, friendly, warm, and peaceful; Warays, lazy but strong; and Ilongos, proud and extravagant. b. Discrimination refers to the act of disqualifying or mistreating people on the basis of their group membership or on ascriptive rounds rationally irrelevant to the situation. Whereas prejudice is a state of mind, discrimination is actual behavior. Prejudice and discrimination work hand in hand to create and sustain racial and ethnic stratification, (Jarry J. 1987) THEORIES OF PREJUDICE Light gives the following explanations on the origin of prejudice: 1. Economic Theory- assumes that racial prejudice is a social attitude transmitted by the dominant ethnic majority class for the purpose of stigmatizing some group s as inferior so that the exploitation of the group resources will be justified. 2. Symbolic Theory- asserts that prejudice arises because a racial or ethnic group is a symbol of what people hate, fear, or envy. 3. Scapegoat theory- maintains that human beings are reluctant to accept their mistakes for their troubles and failures so they look for an ethnic-minority to shoulder the blame. 4. Social norm theory- asserts that ethnocentrism is a natural development of group living. Hatred and suspicion for the out-group are the standard and normal way of doing things, particularly in dealing with people. c. Stereotypes are often simplified and unsupported generalizations about others and are used indiscriminately for all cases. A few examples are Ilokano, â€Å"bantay kuako† (heavy smokers) and â€Å"kuripot† (stingy); Pampangueno, â€Å"dugong aso† (dog blood or traitors); Batangueno, â€Å"balisong† (knife-wielding); Bicolanos, â€Å"sili† ( pepper or hot people). 2. Patterns of Competition, Conflict and Domination When ethnocentric attitudes are coupled with intergroup competition for territory and scarce resources, an explosive social situation may arise. When two groups both strive for the same things- and they perceive their respective claims to be mutually exclusively and legitimate- the stage is set for conflict. In modern societies, the state has become the vehicle that enables one group to dominate and keep the other group subordinate. In sum, competition supplies the motivation for systems of stratification, and ethnocentrism directs competition along racial and ethnic lines, but power determines which group will subjugate the other (Noel, 1972; Barth and Noel, 1975). 3. Economic and Political Subjugation. The economic takeover of one nation by a more powerful one and the subsequent political and social domination of the native population is called colonialism. If the takeover of one nation is trough the military superiority of the more powerful one for the purpose of territorial expansion and establishing colonies, it is termed as military colonialism. On the other hand, if the economic takeover is made through the great technological superiority of the more powerful one, the institutionalization of their businesses in their former colonies, the control and domination of most of a colony’s natural resources, the imposition of trade policies and economic treaties favorable to their side; the establishment of outlets for their surplus capital; the need for more cheap labor, raw materials, and markets to fuel their growing economy, the process is termed neo-colonialism or economic imperialism. 4. Displacement and Segregation of the Native Population Economic and political subjugation of a minority population by a more powerful group is not the only pattern of conquest that occurs when different racial and ethnic group meet. Displacement of native population can be made possible through the influx of powerful settlers or invaders with their vastly superior weapons. It is typically found in areas rich in natural resources and similar in geography and climate to the homeland of the invading group. Displacement takes the following forms: a. ) by attrition, that is, numbers of the weaker group may die of starvation or disease either deliberately or not; b. ) by population transfer; and c. ) by genocide- deliberate and ruthless extermination of the weaker group. Segregation involves the enactment of laws and/or customs that restrict or prohibit contact between groups. Segregation may be ethnic or racial or based on sex or age. 5. Patterns of Accommodation and Tolerance. Interracial and interethnic accommodation can be carried out through miscegenation or amalgamation- the intermarriage of members of the majority and minority groups. This can result in the blending of their various customs and values and the creation of a new cultural hybrid. This involves a cultural and biological blending in which the customs and values of both groups are to some extent preserved and their biological characteristics appear in the offspring. 6. Patterns of Acculturation and Assimilation Acculturation and assimilation are two very important concepts in sociology and anthropology that describe cross cultural effects on both minorities as well as majorities in societies that are multi ethnic and multi cultural in nature. Assimilation is a broader concept as described by sociologist Jean Piaget and refers to the manner in which people take new information. There are many people who think of the two concepts as same and even use them interchangeably. If you belong to a minority community in a country and retain your own culture but cannot remain isolated and are affected by the majority culture in such a way that you adapt to some aspects of the majority culture, the process is referred to as acculturation. Assimilation is a process whereby people of a culture learn to adapt to the ways of the majority culture. There is a loss of one’s own culture as a person gives more value to the cultural aspects of the majority community in the process of assimilation. What is the difference between Acculturation and Assimilation? †¢ Meeting of cultures always produces results in terms of changes in both the cultures, and acculturation and assimilation refer to two important and different changes in these cultures. †¢ Assimilation refers to the process where some of the majority community’s cultural aspects are absorbed in such a manner that the home cultural aspects get mitigated or lost. †¢ Acculturation is a process where the cultural aspects of the majority community are adapted without losing the traditions and customs of the minority community. †¢ Minority culture changes in the case of assimilation whereas it remains intact in the case of acculturation. 7. Patterns of cultural Pluralism or Ethnic Diversity Cultural pluralism refers to the coexistence of different racial or ethnic groups each of which retains its own cultural identity and social structural networks, while participating equally in the economic and political systems. (Light, 1985) In pluralistic society, each group retains its own language, religion and customs, and its members tend to interact socially primarily among themselves. Yet all jointly participate in the economic and political systems and live in harmony and peaceful â€Å"coexistence†. A prime example of such an arrangement can be found in Switzerland. There, people of German, French, and Italian heritage preserve their distinct cultural ways while coexisting peacefully and equally. No one group enjoys special privileges or is discriminated against. ETHNIC GROUPS IN THE PHILIPPINES. Ethnic groups in the Philippines are classified according to certain physical, cultural, linguistic, religious and geographic criteria. A. According to distinctive physical traits 1. The Negritoes who are regarded as the aborigines of the Philippines. 2. The Indonesian- Malayan stock which is predominant among the Filipinos. 3. The Chinese who make up the largest national group. 4. The Americans and the Spaniards, and a few other Europeans who came as colonizers. B. According to cultural standpoints 1. Cultural minorities or cultural communities 2. Muslims 3. Christian groups C. According to linguistic groupings PANAMIN reports that there are about 87 ethno linguistic groups in the Philippines-e. g. , Tagalog, Ilokano, Waray, Hiligaynon, Kapampangan, Ilonggo, etc. D. According to religion 1. Roman Catholics 2. Muslims 3. Aglipayans 4. Protestants 5. Iglesia ni Cristo 6. Buddhists 7. Jehovah’s witnesses 8. Other religious sects. E. Muslims of Southern Philippines The Muslims make up the largest single non-Christian group. They have nine ethno-linguistic groups, namely: 1. Taosug 2. Maranao 3. Maguindanao 4. Samal 5. Yakan 6. Sanggil 7. Badjao 8. Molbog 9. Jama Mapun. From the Spanish regime to the present, Muslim and Christian intergroup relationships have been characterized by animosity and suspicion. This has been expressed in the Muslims’ ongoing resentment of Christian settlers and attempts at secession to form an independent Mindanao. Muslim revolutionary groups the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Bangsai Moro Liberation Front (BMLF) want Mindanao, Sulu, and Palawan to secede from the Philippines. THE CULTURAL COMMUNITIES AND THE CHRISTIAN FILIPINOS The non-Christian Filipinos now known as cultural communities make up 10% of the total national population. They have maintained their culture in their clothes, art, religion, ethnic dialect, customs, traditions and other superficial differences. There are 77 major ethno-linguistic groups in the Philippines. A. Northern Luzon 1. Isneg 11. Ivatan/Itbayat 21. Malaweg 2. Kalinga 12. Ilocano 22. Yogad 3. Ifugao 13. Apayao 23. Pangasinan 4. Bontok 14. Balangao 24. Palanan 5. Kankanai 15. Bago 25. Kapampangan 6. Ibaloi 16. Kalanguya 26. Tagalog 7. Gaddang 17. Iwak 27. Bicol 8. Tinggian 18. Isinay 28. Negrito 9. Ilongot 19. Ibanag 29. Sambal 10. Ibalahan 20. Itawit B. Smaller Groups in Luzon 1. Aetas 2. Dumagats of Quezon Province 3. Mangyans of Mindoro. 4. Hanunoo C. Visayas 1. Bataks 7. Aklanon 13. Solud 2. Keney 8. Rombloanon 14. Bukidnon 3. Negritoes 9. Bantoanon 15. Boholano 4. Alangans 10. Hiligaynon 16. Cebuano 5. Masbateno 11. Kiniray-a 17. Waray 6. Abakon 12. Hamtikanon D. Mindanao 1. Tagurays 8. Mansakas 15. Kamiguin 2. Tagabilis 9. Maranao 16. Mamanwa 3. Bilaans 10. Sangil/Sangir 17. Butuanon 4. Mandayas 11. Ilanun 18. Kamayo 5. Manobos 12. Maguindanao 19. Bagobo 6. Tasadays 13. Tiboli 20. Kalagan 7. Magtisalugs 14. Subanon 21. Kalibugan E. In Sulu/Tawi-Tawi 1. Yakan 2. Sama 3. Sama Dilaut 4. Tausug 5. Jama Mapun F. In Palawan 1. Tagbanua 2. Agutayanen 3. Kuyonen 4. Molbog. 5. Palawan 6. Batak 7. Tau’t Baten III. GROUP REFLECTION Within sociology, the terms race, ethnicity, minority, and dominant group all have very specific and different meanings. To understand the sociological perspective on race and ethnicity, it is important to understand the meanings of these concepts. An ethnic group is a social category of people who share a common culture, such as a common language, a common religion, or common norms, customs, practices, and history. Ethnic groups have a consciousness of their common cultural bond. An ethnic group does not exist simply because of the common national or cultural origins of the group, however. They develop because of their unique historical and social experiences, which become the basis for the group’s ethnic identity. For example, prior to immigration to the United States, Italians did not think of themselves as a distinct group with common interests and experiences. However, the process of immigration and the experiences they faced as a group in the United States, including discrimination, created a new identity for the group. Some examples of ethnic groups include Italian Americans, Polish Americans, Mexican Americans, Arab Americans, and Irish Americans. Ethnic groups are also found in other societies, such as the Pashtuns in Afghanistan or the Shiites in Iraq, whose ethnicity is base on religious differences. Like ethnicity, race is primarily, though not exclusively, a socially constructed category. A race is a group that is treated as distinct in society based on certain characteristics. Because of their biological or cultural characteristics, which are labeled as inferior by powerful groups in society, a race is often singled out for differential and unfair treatment. It is not the biological characteristics that define racial groups, but how groups have been treated historically and socially. Society assigns people to racial categories (White, Black, etc. ) not because of science or fact, but because of opinion and social experience. In other words, how racial groups are defined is a social process; it is socially constructed. A minority group is any distinct group in society that shares common group characteristics and is forced to occupy low status in society because of prejudice and discrimination. A group may be classified as a minority on the basis of ethnicity, race, sexual preference, age, or class status. It is important to note that a minority group is not necessarily the minority in terms of numbers, but it is a group that holds low status in relation to other groups in society (regardless of the size). The group that assigns a racial or ethnic group to subordinate status in society is called the dominant group. There are several sociological theories about why prejudice, discrimination, and racism exist. Current sociological theories focus mainly on explaining the existence of racism, particular institutional racism. The three major sociological perspectives (functionalist theory, symbolic interaction theory, and conflict theory) each have their own explanations to the existence of racism. Functionalist theorists argue that in order for race and ethnic relations to be functional and contribute to the harmonious conduct and stability of society, racial and ethnic minorities must assimilate into that society. Assimilation is a process in which a minority becomes absorbed into the dominant society – socially, economically, and culturally. Symbolic interaction theorists look at two issues in relation to race and ethnicity. First, they look at the role of social interaction and how it reduces racial and ethnic hostility. Second, they look at how race and ethnicity are socially constructed. In essence, symbolic interactionists ask the question, â€Å"What happens when two people of different race or ethnicity come in contact with one another and how can such interracial or interethnic contact reduce hostility and conflict? † The basic argument made by conflict theorists is that class-based conflict is an inherent and fundamental part of society. These theorists thus argue that racial and ethnic conflict is tied to class conflict and that in order to reduce racial and ethnic conflict, class conflict must first be reduced.

Essay on dickin’s journey to niagra Essay

Dickens felt transported by the sublimity of Niagara Falls when he visited it on his 1842 journey to the United States and Canada. In a letter to Forster (26 April 1842), he said of Horseshoe Falls (the Canadian side of Niagara) that â€Å"It would be hard for a man to stand nearer God than he does there† (Letters 3: 210). Dickens proceeds to effuse over the beauty and majesty of the falls in a passage that forms the chief part of his description of his experience in American Notes, although the letter actually offers the superior account: There was a bright rainbow at my feet; and from that I looked up to –great Heaven! To what a fall of bright green water! The broad, deep, mighty stream seems to die in the act of falling; and, from its unfathomable grave arises that tremendous ghost of spray and mist which is never laid, and has been haunting this place with the same dread solemnity–perhaps from the creation of the world (Letters 3: 210-11). In this essay, I analyze Dickens’s reaction to Niagara Falls in the context of other British travel narratives from the previous decade, and examine how Niagara speaks to Dickens of life after death (as he describes it above, the falls die and then rise again in ghostly mist). His profound experience at Niagara Falls shaped his treatment of climactic, transcendent moments in subsequent novels; in particular, from this point on Dickens repeatedly uses water imagery (especially seas, swamps and rivers) as symbols of death, rebirth, transformation and of being disturbed with â€Å"the joy of elevated thoughts,† to use Wordsworth’s phrase in â€Å"Tintern Abbey.† But Dickens’s reaction was more than just a typical Romantic experience, similar to those of other nineteenth-century British travelers; it was in part shaped by his overall disappointment in America and his relief to be on English ground again. Niagara Falls fulfills several definitions of the sublime. Philosophers since Longinus have used the term â€Å"sublime† to refer to experiences that go beyond the everyday, that inspire awe, that involve a sense of grandeur, that elevate one’s thoughts and feelings and that exceed the capacity of human descriptive powers. Longinus, of course, used the term in reference to rhetoric, but later philosophers found many of the same qualities in sublime scenes of nature. Edmund Burke in his Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757) emphasized the role of terror in the sublime, for only the presence of fear, he felt, could account for the complete overwhelming of all other thoughts and sensations in experiencing sublime scenes in nature. Alexander Gerard in â€Å"An Essay on Taste† (1759) stressed the importance of physical immensity in the experience of the sublime: â€Å"When a large object is presented, the mind expands itself to the extent of that object, and is filled with one grand sensation, which totally possessing it, composes it into a solemn sedateness and strikes it with deep silent wonder and admiration† (11). Similarly, the Romantics, and particularly Wordsworth, felt that natural scenes that impress the viewer with their immensity and particularly their power, such as mountains or waterfalls, create sublime sensations that feed the soul and the poetic imagination both at the moment and in the future by the aid of imagination and memory. Niagara Falls embodies all the qualities traditionally associated with the sublime–its immensity, power, and beauty overawe viewers, reminding them, particularly in nineteenth-century accounts, of the presence of other awe-inspiring forces such as death and God. Niagara Falls, oddly enough, fits even the scientific definition of sublime, which is â€Å"to cause to pass from solid to the vapor state by heating and againcondense to solid form.† Not by heating but by motion and pressure the falls turn water into vapor, the ever present mist that surrounds them, and the vapor eventually returns again to the falls, a cycle that led Dickens to use death/resurrection imagery in the description quoted above (i.e. â€Å"The broad, deep, mighty stream seems to die in the act of falling; and, from its unfathomable grave arises that tremendous ghost of spray and mist which is never laid†). It is the never-ending presence of great volumes of spray that leads to the ever-present rainbows in descriptions and paintings of the falls, such as Frederic Church’s famous 1857 painting, â€Å"Niagara.† The rainbows naturally heighten the spiritual effect of the falls as they are the perfect image of a bridge between earth and heaven and are the symbol of God’s covenant with man in the flood story in Genesis. They are also a striking conjunction of energy (light) and matter (water particles) and as  such are a powerful metaphor for the presence of the divine on earth. It is the rainbows that seem to move Dickens the most on his second visit to Niagara in 1868, a quarter of a century after his first visit, a trip he took purely for pleasure. As he wrote to Forster on March 16, 1868: The majestic valley below the Falls, so seen through the vast cloud of spray, was made of rainbow. The high banks, the riven rocks, the forests, the bridge, the buildings, the air, the sky, were all made of rainbow. Nothing in Turner’s finest water-colour drawings, done in his greatest day, is so ethereal, so imaginative, so gorgeous in colour, as what I then beheld. I seemed to be lifted from the earth and to be looking into Heaven. What I once said to you, as I witnessed the scene five and twenty years ago, all came back at this most affecting and sublime sight (Letters 12: 75). Dickens was certainly not the only English tourist to be awed by Niagara Falls. In fact, his visit there, and even his mystical effusions about it, could be considered customary and necessary elements of any narrative of travels through America and Canada. As Amanda Claybaugh states in The Novel of Purpose: Literature and Social Reform in the Anglo-American World, â€Å"the conventional itinerary included the †¦ [main] natural sites (the Mississippi River, the prairies of the West, and above all else, Niagara Falls)† (71-2). In Domestic Manners of the Americans (1832), Frances Trollope refers to all the chief elements of the sublime in her description of Niagara Falls, repeatedly expressing that they defy description and that in viewing them â€Å"wonder, terror, and delight† overwhelmed her (337). â€Å"I wept with a strange mixture of pleasure and of pain,† she writes, â€Å"and certainly was, for some time, too violently affected†¦. to be capable of much pleasure; but when this emotion of the senses subsided †¦ my enjoyment was very great indeed.† She notes the mystical effect of the falls as well: â€Å"It has to me something beyond its vastness,† over which â€Å"a shadowy mystery hangs,† which â€Å"neither the eye nor even the imagination can penetrate† (337). Harriet Martineau visited the falls in 1834 and, like Trollope and Dickens, associated them with the mystical: â€Å"to offer an idea of Niagara by writing of hues and dimensions is much like representing the kingdom of  Heaven by images of jasper and topazes† (96). On her second visit to the falls months later, Martineau descended the stairs behind the falls and wrote: From the moment that I perceived that we were actually behind the cataract, and not in a mere cloud of spray, the enjoyment was intense. I not only saw the watery curtain before me like tempest-driven snow, but by momentary glances could see the crystal roof of this most wonderful of Nature’s palaces (104). Perhaps the oddest narrative of a British visit to Niagara Falls comes from Captain Frederick Marryat, who wrote about his 1837 trip to the falls in his Diary in America, published in 1839: As I stood on the brink above the falls, continuing for a considerable time to watch the great mass of water tumbling, dancing, capering, and rushing wildly along †¦ I could not help wishing that I too had been made of such stuff as would have enabled me to have joined it; with it to have rushed innocuously down the precipice; to have rolled uninjured into the deep unfathomable gulf below (111). The longer he stood there the more the urge to jump into the falls rose in him until he had to pull himself away, an experience that testifies to the terror that Burke argued was inherent in the sublime, a terror that Trollope experienced but Dickens denied feeling in viewing the falls. As it turns out, Marryat might have done himself a favor to jump, for as Jules Zanger, the editor of his diary, asserts, â€Å"of all the literary lions who have made their progress through †¦ America †¦ the most tactless and blundering was Captain Frederick Marryat.† Zanger points out that Marryat began his journey as an â€Å"honored guest,† but before he concluded his trip, â€Å"he had been threatened by a lynch mob, had watched his books burned in public bonfires, and †¦ had seen himself hung in effigy [twice] by angry crowds† (9). He had a habit, it seems, of regularly saying the wrong thing, a habit that at times carries over into his travel narrative, as in a bizarre passage where he wishes he could transport Niagara Falls to Italy and pour them down Mount Vesuvius and thereby â€Å"create the largest steamboiler that ever entered into the imagination of man† (111). Later, Marryat counters the oddness of this image with the more conventional statement that the voice of Niagara was the  voice of the Almighty, and that a Presbyterian minister he heard nearby should have preached on its message instead of on the uninspiring and hackneyed subject of temperance (112). These were the American journeys and narratives most in the British public eye when Dickens embarked on his trip to North America. In this context, his ecstatic description of the falls may seem rather ordinary. Romanticism was still the dominant cultural influence at the time, so one was expected to have Romantic effusions about iconic Romantic scenes. (1) But while the journey to the falls may have become customary, and the experiences of the sublime similar in most narratives, yet the effect was still profound for Dickens, as one can see particularly in the letters where he goes beyond the vague, mystical language often associated with the sublime and makes specific personal connections with the falls. As I have pointed out above, the falls made Dickens think almost immediately of the cycle of death and resurrection with the falls descending into the abyss and rising again in spray. But even more specifically they reminded him of his beloved sister-in-law Mary who had died suddenly seven years earlier. As he wrote to Forster from Niagara, â€Å"what would I give if the dear girl whose ashes lie in Kensal-green, had lived to come so far along with us.† But then he takes back the wish because he decides that she must have â€Å"been here many times, I doubt not, since her sweet face faded from my earthly sight† (Letters 3: 211). His associating the falls with Mary’s death and her continuing spiritual presence on earth allows Dickens to make the falls his own, at least in part. They become linked to a personal family tragedy and offer a consolation for her loss. But Dickens makes another personal connection with the falls. In letters written from Niagara, he repeatedly adds to the date the phrase â€Å"Niagara Falls (Upon the English Side)† with â€Å"English† underscored with as many as ten dashes. He only does this in letters to his English friends, of course–including Forster, Mitton and Beard, as if to express a sense of relief. After Dickens’s well-known disappointments with Americans–his exasperation with their greed, their spitting, their lack of respect for privacy and copyright laws, not to mention their slavery–topics covered  fully in American Notes and in letters–being among English on English turf must have been a welcome experience. Writing to Forster on 26 April 1842, Dickens mentions that there were two English officers with them as they first approached the falls, and he exclaims â€Å"ah! What gentlemen, what noblemen of nature they seemed,† implying that he had not seen much of their kind in the States (Letters 3: 210). In emphasizing the English side of the falls, Dickens once again seems to imagine a personal connection to something that transcends the personal. He tries to come to terms with the sublimity of the falls, reduce them at least in part to his level, make them part of himself, part of his family story, part of his Englishness. In this way he can own his experience of the falls, anchor it mentally and emotionally and then use it later in his fiction, as he indeed does. His account of the falls in American Notes lacks some of the interest of his descriptions in letters precisely because he leaves out the personal connections he makes in correspondence, no doubt deeming them inappropriate for the public narrative. Having made these personal associations between the falls and the death and spiritual presence of Mary and between the sublime and the English, it is not surprising, then, that Dickens would work the falls and other powerful images of water into his portrayals of death, transformations, and transcendent moments in his subsequent novels. In order to gauge the change we must first look at the imagery Dickens used for such moments in his earlier novels. In the novels Dickens published before visiting Niagara in 1842, he frequently gestured toward transcendence in death scenes and in concluding chapters, but the imagery he used tends to center on sunny little communities, flowers and other greenery, angels, and churches. Consider Mr. Pickwick’s cheery rural community at the end of his tale–not transcendent, perhaps, but in the bond between Pickwick and Sam which â€Å"nothing but death will sever† certainly leaning to the legendary (ch. 57). Or consider the â€Å"gentle light† that Rose Maylie sheds as she stands with Oliver by Agnes’s tomb in Oliver Twist (both characters are suffused with light in Cruikshank’s last illustration). Nicholas Nickleby ends with a summery community of Nicklebys and friends with their children strewing flowers on Smike’s grave–Phiz nicely captures the feeling of summer and sunshine in  his final illustration (Figure 1). As Dickens describes the scene: The grass was green above the dead boy’s grave, and trodden by feet so small and light, that not a daisy drooped its head beneath their pressure. Through all the spring and summer-time, garlands of fresh flowers wreathed by infant hands rested upon the stone, and when the children came to change them lest they should wither and be pleasant to him no longer, their eyes filled with tears, and they spoke low and softly of their poor dead cousin† (ch. 64). Barr, Alan P. â€Å"Mourning Becomes David: Loss and the Victorian Restoration of Young Copperfield.† Dickens Quarterly 24 (June 2007): 63-77. Berard, Jane. Dickens and Landscape Discourse. New York: Peter Lang, 2007. Claybaugh, Amanda. The Novel of Purpose: Literature and Social Reform in the Anglo-American World. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2007. Dickens, Charles. The Pilgrim Edition of the Letters of Charles Dickens. Vols. 3, 12. Ed. Madeline House, et al. Oxford: Clarendon, 1974-2002. Gerard, Alexander. â€Å"An Essay on Taste.† Intro. Walter J. Hipple. 3rd ed. 1780. Gainesville: U of Florida P, 1963. Marryat, Captain Frederck. Diary in America. Ed. by Jules Zanger. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1960. Martineau, Harriet. Retrospect of Western Travel. Vol. 1. 1838. New York: Johnson, 1968. Metz, Nancy Aycock. The Companion to Martin Chuzzlewit. Robertsbridge: Helm Information, 2001. Page, Norman. Ed. and Intro. The Old Curiosity Shop. NY: Penguin, 2000. Poole, Adrian. Ed. and Intro. Our Mutual Friend. NY: Penguin, 1997. Slater, Michael. Ed. Dickens’ Journalism. Dent Uniform Edition. Vol. 2. London: J. M. Dent, 1997. Trollope, Frances. Domestic Manners of the Americans. London: Routledge, 1927. NATALIE MCKNIGHT (Boston University) NOTES (1) Jane Berard sees Dickens’s description of the falls simply as customary, but pays scant attention to his descriptions in letters (51). (2) Recent examples include Michelle Allen’s Cleansing the City: Sanitary Geographies in Victorian London, Athens, OH: U of Ohio P, 2007; Leon Litvack’s â€Å"Images of the River in Our Mutual Friend,† Dickens Quarterly 20.1 (2003): 34-55; and Pamela Gilbert’s â€Å"Medical Mapping: The Thames, the Body, and Our Mutual Friend,† in Filth, Dirt, Disgust and Modern Life, ed. by William A. Cohen and Ryan Johnson, Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 2005, 78-102. (3) â€Å"Transmutation of Species,† AYR (9 March 1861), 519-21. Dickens was aware of other theories related to evolution as well, and refers to â€Å"the Monboddo doctrine †¦ of the human race having once been monkeys† in the first chapter of Martin Chuzzlewit (Metz 37-9) and to Robert Chambers’s Vestiges (1844) in a review of Robert Hunt’s Poetry of Science published in The Examiner in 1848 (Slater 2: 129-34). In addition, Household Words included F. T. Buckland’s â€Å"Old Bones,† (24 Sept. 1853) and Henry Morley’s â€Å"Our Phantom Ship on an Antediluvian Cruise† (16 Aug. 1851). See also Natalie McKnight, â€Å"Dickens and Darwin: A Rhetoric of Pets,† The Dickensian 102 (2006), 131-43. COPYRIGHT 2009 Dickens Society of America No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder. Copyright 2009 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. Please bookmark with social media, your votes are noticed and appreciated:

The Grave: Redemption and Coming of Age

The Grave: Redemption and Coming of age Everyone has that one person that they look up to as a child. In the short story â€Å"The Grave,† a young girl named Miranda grew up without a mother and is considered to be a tomboy. Her older brother, Paul, is that person she looks up to. She has a sort of epiphany after playing and digging through dirt in her grandfather's old grave with her brother and finding a gold ring which gears her into discovering her femininity.The author, Katherine Anne Porter uses symbolism to a great extent to illustrate the themes of redemption and Miranda's epiphany of deciding to accept and embrace her existence as a woman. The main form of symbolism that porter uses in the story is Christian Symbolism. Prior to when Miranda and Paul explore the graves, Porter describes the cemetery by stating: â€Å"The cemetery had been a pleasant, small, neglected garden of tangled rose bushes and ragged cedar trees and cypress. . . † (362). The description o f the grave refers to the Garden of Eden which is a Christian Biblical setting.Grubbs acknowledges that: â€Å". . . Something that Miranda says about a snake following their exploration of the graves makes the Biblical connection almost obvious. â€Å"We [the reader] guess that there will be a fall however, when Miranda asks if she can ‘have the first snake’ in their hunt, suggesting the snake that led Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge† (Smith, Ed 3). This supports the theme of redemption to this Biblical reference. Miranda and Paul feel much like how Adam and Eve felt in The Fall of Eden; the reader can make this comparison by this quote in the short story saying: â€Å". . The cemetery was no longer theirs, and they felt like trespassers† (Porter 363). When Adam and Eve begin to feel as if they have done a forbidden act, they start to have negative feelings such as shame and the fear of being discovered, just like Miranda and Paul, and how they do not want anyone to know that they have been playing in their grandfather's grave. Grubbs points out the meaning of the graves being, â€Å". . . symbols of experience . . . and one of the story's many links to the fall† (2).In the graves Miranda found a silver dove and Paul found a gold ring, which they soon traded their findings. Considering the dove as well, Grubbs notes that â€Å"The dove's emergence from the grave suggests innocence born from experience . . . † he reports as well that â€Å"Graves and treasures represent loss and recovery; together they suggest continuity† (2). The symbolic meanings of the dove and the gold ring have a large impact on the story. The gold ring though has an even more of an impact on Miranda than it does on Paul.Following trading the ring with Paul, Miranda has an epiphany regarding her feelings about her existence as a woman and moving away from being a tomboy and move toward embracing her femininity. Once Miranda saw the ri ng she loved it, in the short story it states: â€Å"Miranda was smitten at sight of the ring and wished to have it† (Porter 363). The ring becomes to have a stronger effect on her when she begins to resent her boyish clothes. â€Å"Now the ring, shining with serene purity of fine gold on her rather grubby thumb, turned her feelings against her overalls and sockless feet . . . (Porter 365). She then wanted to go home and wanted to â€Å". . . dust herself with plenty of Maria's [her older sister] violet talcum powder† and â€Å". . . put on the thinnest, most becoming dress she owned, with a big sash, and sit in a wicker chair under the trees . . . † (Porter 365). With this being stated the reader can observe how Miranda is realizing the reality of the true differences between her and her brother. Cromie and Karr reason that: â€Å"This fantasy obviously works to prepare us for Miranda's acceptance of her destiny as a woman, but it is also reminiscent of the F all† (4).This is true because Miranda accepting herself as being a woman reflects her loss of innocence in relation to the story line in the Fall of Eden. Porter uses many different examples of symbolism throughout the story to connect the concept of death and rebirth [redemption] and Miranda's maturing into a young woman. Grubbs comments that: â€Å"The narrator draws us into ‘The Grave' through several layers of time and seemingly disjointed events, each layer revealing more than the one before† (2).Throughout the story the reader can follow Miranda's thoughts and behaviors to conclude her significant changes from a young girl who looked up to her older brother as a role model to designating her older sister as her role model, not to mention Miranda's discovery of continuity. Work Cited Porter, Katherine Anne. â€Å"†The Grave†Ã¢â‚¬  The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter. Orlando: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1979. 362-68. Print. Rooke Const ance and Bruce Wallis. â€Å"Myth and Epiphany in Porter’s ‘The Grave,’. Studies in short fiction 25. 3 (Summer 1978): 269-275. Rpt. In Short Story Criticism. Ed. Jenny Cromie and Justin Karr. Vol. 43. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. Literature Resource Center. Web. 26 Oct. 2012. Grubbs, M. A. â€Å"The Grave. † Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition (2004): 1-2. Literary Reference Center. Web. 26 Oct. 2012. â€Å"The Grave. † Short Stories for Student. Ed. Jennifer Smith. Vol. 11. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. 78-93. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 25 Oct. 2012.

Nurses Knowledge and Attitude Regarding Essay

A significant number of patients continue to experience unrelieved pain during hospitalization despite decades of research, improved therapeutic measures and advancement in technology. Delays in recovery, decreased patient satisfaction, decreased quality of life and increased healthcare costs are some consequences related to poor pain management. Limitation in nurses’ knowledge about pain assessment and management contributes to poor pain management in hospitalized patients. Literature suggests concerns about addiction and respiratory depression as a likely cause of under treatment of pain (Lewthwaite et.al, 2011). A study conducted to explore nursing opinions about pain revealed a tendency for personal opinion to influence the choice of opioid dose (Lewthwaite et.al, 2011). The purpose of this study was to better understand the registered nurses’ level of knowledge of and attitudes toward pain management. Where do nurses receive and update their knowledge about pain management? A 2007 survey of Canadian university undergraduate programs showed pain education virtually nonexistent in the curricula of health care professional faculties (Watt-Watson, McGillion, & Hunter, 2007). Providing adequate pain management depends on the level of knowledge of, skills, and attitudes of nurses. To address learning needs effectively, and prior to planning educational opportunities, it is essential to identify these knowledge gaps. Education alone may be insufficient to change practice, given limited improvement in pain management over the last three decades. Some suggest changing the entire culture within any given organization to one that designates and empowers nurses in areas of assessment and management of patients’ pain experiences , thereby giving the nurse greater influence over these areas (Lewthwaite et al., 2011). Strong nursing leadership and support from clinical nurse specialists, educators, and administrators is needed to introduce and sustain practice changes. Methods Design and Sample This descriptive quantitative study was conducted in an urban tertiary care hospital in Midwestern Canada. A convenience sample included 761 full and part-time registered nurses who administer analgesia as part of their practice. Clinical units included surgery, woman and child, cardiac sciences, medicine, family medicine, geriatric-rehabilitation, emergency, mental health, and the hospital float pool (Lewthwaite et al., 2011). A self-administered one-page data survey was created for the study, which collected demographical information as well as years of experience and pain knowledge. The survey included the Ferrell and McCaffery (2008) Knowledge and Attitudes Survey Regarding Pain (KASRP) tool. The original KASRP tool would be thought of as too long to complete during working hours, so a revised survey using only the 22 true and false question on the KASRP tool was used (Lewthwaite et al., 2011). The KASRP tool, developed in 1987 and revised in 2008, is used extensively as a pre and posttest evaluation measure for educational programs to assess nurses and other healthcare professionals. The content was reviewed and validated by pain experts, and content information was established through current pain management standards derived from organizations including the World Health Organization, American Pain Society, and the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research. Construct validity was established by comparing scores of nurses at various levels of expertise from students, to senior pain experts (Ferrell & McCaffery, 2008). Procedures An alpha level of 0.05 would determine statistical significance. Construct validity was evaluated by comparing nurses scores with varying levels of expertise, from students to senior nurses and pain experts. Test-retest reliability was established (r > 0.80) and internal consistency was shown, with a coefficient alpha of 0.85 (Lewthwaite et al., 2011). Results Out of 761 nurses, 324 participated and returned the surveys, for a response rate of 43%. Years of experience ranged from 24% with more than 25 years of professional experience to 22% with five years or less of professional experience. The majority of nurses’ reported working in surgery, woman and child, and cardiac sciences. Almost half of the participants (48.8%) scored 80% or higher and 66% of the nurses rated their knowledge of pain management as good. Questions relating to pharmacology, in particular those involving knowledge of opioids, scored the lowest. As with similar studies on this subject, this study found knowledge gaps among acute care nurses. The findings of this study can be used to design continuing educational opportunities in the work place that include pharmacology information to meet specific needs in the workplace. The results also provide a benchmark to evaluate the effectiveness of enhancing pain education in the classroom setting. Ethical Considerations Ethics approval was obtained from the study hospital research review committee, and a university research ethics board. The list of potential participants was obtained from the human resources department. Hospital volunteers delivered the study packets to unit-based staff mailboxes. The package included a letter of invite to participate, the survey questionnaire, and a self-addressed return envelope. Participation was voluntary, and completion and return of the questionnaire indicated such. In this self-reporting study, participants may have taken the opportunity to discuss questions or seek answers from other sources, as well as answer questions in a professionally or socially desirable fashion. Conclusion The battle to achieve effective pain management despite years of research and efforts by all involved continues to be a challenge. Previous nursing studies, along with this study, cite a knowledge gap amongst nurses as one reason for poor pain management and identify areas such as pharmacology, where nurses in particular lack knowledge. Continuing education opportunities are essential to achieve improved pain management skills. Education alone will not improve pain management; optimal quality care is dependent not only on a culture of learning but also on a cohesive professional team with inter-professional collaboration to ensure effective, individualized pain management. References Ferrell, B., & McCaffery, M. (2008). Knowledge and attitude survey regarding pain. Retrieved December 12, 2012 from http://prc.coh.org/Knowldege%20%20Attitude%20Survey%20-%20updated%205-08.pdf Lewthwaite,B.J., Jabusch, K.M., Wheeler, B.J., Schnell-Hoehn, K.N., Mills, J., Estrella-Holder, E., & Fedorowicz, A.(2011). Nurses’ knowledge and attitudes regarding pain management in hospitalized adults. Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 42(6), 251-7. Retrieved December 12, 2012 from http://ehis.ebscohost.com.library.gcu.edu Watt-Watson, J., McGillion, M., & Hunter, J. (2007). A survey of pain curricula in pre-licensure health sciences facilities in Canadian Universities. Retrieved December 12, 2012 from http://www.pulsus.com/journals/pdf_frameset.jsp?jnlKy=7&atlKy=9192&isArt=t&jnlAdvert=Pain&adverifHCTp=&sTitle=A%20survey%20of%20prelicensure%20pain%20curricula%20in%20health%20science%20faculties%20in%20Canadian%20universities,%20Pulsus%20Group%20Inc&HCtype=Physician.

Distinction between Heath and Illness in Context with the Medical Assignment

Distinction between Heath and Illness in Context with the Medical Anthropology - Assignment Example Finding the differences between the two notions seems to be useful in medical anthropological context since diseases are mainly concerned with the biomedical curing, while illness involves both biomedical curing as well as psychological treatment. The psychological factor encompasses the perception of the patient’s emotions, which forms the basic concept in the field of Anthropology. Thus, for example the disease which includes measles can be cured by biomedical medicines, whereas illness which may include both mental and physical disorders need to be treated accordingly. In this context, an explanatory model reveals how individuals sense their illness and the related experiences of it. The explanatory model are usually used to explain â€Å"how people view their illness in terms of how it happens, what causes it, how it affects them, and what will make them feel better† (â€Å"Explanatory Model† ). Thus one of the advantages of the explanatory model would be, it can assist in the integration of clinical, epidemiological and other social science related aspects of diseases and illnesses, thereby enhancing the depth of the scientific understanding of any diseases and illness. ... four major steps: 1) With the effective background of the cultural myth, and under the culture specific symbols, both the experiences of the healed and the healers becomes generalized. 2) The patient’s problem is described by the healer in the form of a myth. 3) Patient’s emotions are attached to the transactional symbols from the general myth 4) Finally, the healer manipulates those transactional symbols skillfully and help the patient transact his/her emotions. (Waldram). Variations in the structure of this symbolic healing happens when the treatment has to be fastened and due to certain culturally specific symbols. The basic crux of all these symbolic healing methods is, the healing process involves â€Å"an ontological shift for the patient into a particularized mythic world.† (Dow 61). A symbolic healing can be considered a success and even possible when that particularized mythic world is present for both the healer as well as the patient, and importantly, when the patient fully agrees to the power of the healer to judge and de?ne the patient’s relationship to it. When this healing is compared with biomedical curing, the difference is the focus on mind in the case of healing, while the focus is on the physical body in later case. In general the psychosocial factors become one of the neglected areas in biomedical curing. Thus the biomedical curing can be considered as a historic shift from the ways the doctors carried out their practice. That is, in the case of symbolic healing the patient’s emotions are centered, while in biomedical curing the body rather than the mind is targeted. Brief description of Medicalization, pregnancy and Demedicalization with suitable examples Medicalization can be defined as a process in which many key non-medical aspects of

Religion and Theology Questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Religion and Theology Questions - Assignment Example In Jainism, dharma refers to the eternal law which all of its followers must adopt thereby becoming indifferent of the material senses of the world. It promotes a sense of self-denial and nonviolence. Karma, more than being just a principle, is a way of preventing sins in Jainism (Andrea & Overfield, 2012). Karma in Jainism also acquires a physical and material exists within the soul rather than being the consequence of an action. In Buddhism, dharma refers to the law of righteousness, especially as it was taught by Buddha himself. Dharma in Buddhism characterizes that universal law of nature that spans the mundane and extra-mundane, engendering the duties of Man as realizing through meditation as did the Buddha (Andrea & Overfield, 2012). In Buddhism, Karma not merely relies on one’s actions but also on the intention behind any action. As such, Karma explains the causal relationship between the various actions and the kind of next life which leads to. While the basic concept of dharma is the same in all three traditions, Hindus understand it as a natural law that governs social relations and responsibilities. On the other hand, dharma in Buddhism refers to the teachings of Buddha as well as the mental states experienced by Man. These include all the impulses and conscious thoughts. Further, the concept of karma differs in Hinduism and Jainism whereby karma in Hinduism does not occupy an existential state within the soul whereas it occupies a material state within one’s soul in Jainism. 2. Being monotheistic religions, there is one God in all three Abrahamic religions although the concept of God differs in each of these. As noted by Neusner, Chilton & Graham (2002), Christians and Muslims rely on cumulative knowledge of God as added on by each additional scripture. Jews, however, rely on a dual knowledge of God through oral and written Torah.