Argumentative Essay Topics With Samples and Explanations

Argumentative Essay Topics With Samples and ExplanationsArgumentative essay topics with samples and explanations is a good way to begin writing an essay. This article will give you some sample topics to use when you are starting out with this essay topic.The first sample essay topic has some explanations about physics and Newtonian physics. This topic has a detailed explanation of how to tackle a topic such as this. You will learn about topics such as solutions and gravity.You can use these and other popular examples that are available on the internet. If you really want to get into the writing habit, then you will need to get these ideas down. This is a good start to getting your research together. Then you can focus on writing.There are many reasons to write this way. One reason is that you get to write as much as you want. Another reason is that you can actually learn more by writing than by reading books and taking tests. You will also be able to improve on your writing skills wi th this type of writing.Argumentative essay topics with samples can help you figure out what subject matter is right for you. This may be something that you never thought of before, or you may have been writing in one subject for years. It is fun to see that you were wrong in any of those areas.You can also get practice by taking these sample essays and using them in the different essay subjects. You will be surprised at how many different topics you can tackle with this type of writing. After a while, you will be able to write a simple discussion paper on any topic.Students who have never done formal argumentative writing will be able to enjoy the process and still have fun writing. This will make them less likely to feel intimidated and it will make the process enjoyable. When you get bored, then you can take a break from it.To get started, you can take a look at the samples available on the internet or find some in your school library. Do some research on the topic, write a draft , and rewrite it as many times as necessary until you are satisfied with the essay. As long as you work hard and keep practicing, you will have no trouble writing the final version of the essay.

When I began to look at the relationship between C Essay Example For Students

When I began to look at the relationship between C Essay hris Markers film, La Jetee, and Roland Barthess book, Camera Lucida, I was thinking only about their most obvious link: photography. The more I looked, though, the more Marker and Barthes seemed to have in common. It was almost uncanny. Some things had to be twisted a little, but the strangest sort of interplay between the two works seemed to be happening, and it felt as if I were the first to discover it. For example, the first lines in the film, This is the story of a man marked by an image from his childhood, coincide amazingly well with Barthess story, branded by the image from his Mothers childhood, and subsequently his own. Even where they differ, it seems to me that the fact that Marker and Barthes are even considering the same ideas upon which they can differ is an amazing similarity. Perhaps every single major idea Barthes addresses in his novel I can find addressed in La Jetee. Because of this fact, and because of the power of both works, I was led at the end of my researc h to some new, yet fundamental ideas about the nature of photography itself. We will write a custom essay on When I began to look at the relationship between C specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now One of the most interesting aspects of this study, and also the most challenging, is the nature of Markers film itself. Simply the fact that I have to put the word film in quotes when applying it to La Jetee is perhaps the strongest evidence of the enigma that this film has been throughout its history. What exactly is la Jetee? This is a question that haunted my research. How do you take a book about photography, and apply its statements to this film? Now, obviously there are some answers to this question. Markers film is of course largely about photography because it is largely photography. However, in many ways it also defies classification. We have a series of heterogeneous photographs. There is nothing to separate them out from any other photographs that one might find in the world, except that they are given a narrative. Suddenly a film is created. Yet, I would propose that the soul of Markers film is still photography, and that film is its heart. Thus, though there were some ve ry perplexing issues in applying Barthess ideas to La Jetee, I found that on the whole it could be done without making many stretches or leaps in interpretation. A startling number of similar themes and motifs are present in each of the works. As I said, the number of parallels is uncanny, and Barthes and Marker are certainly examining the same fundamental ideas that lie at the center of the photograph. Death, time, memory, history in the sense of the individual photographs history, and the raw power and mystery of the photographic image are all issues that are explored in both works. Barthes and Marker are looking at the same things in different ways. Barthess method is lucid and personal. It is essentially a long critical essay in a very liberal form. The important thing is that no interpretation is necessary, Barthes is telling us exactly what he thinks and feels about photography. We can learn from Camera Lucida and look at it in light of something else, but alone it is unassail able, we cannot read between the lines. La Jetee, however, is completely different. Marker is not simply examining the fundamental aspects of photography and giving us conclusions. Instead, he is playing off of these fundamental ideas, both on a theoretical level and upon that of the average persons paradigms. His film requires interpretation, and has gotten a great deal of it. I found Barthess book to be a perfect vehicle for this task. Barthes writes that, the photograph is violent. It is violent because on each occasion it fills the sight by force, and because nothing in it can be refused or transformed. What he means is that the photograph is only what you see, and nothing more. The individual photograph cannot be interpreted, it yields itself wholly to the viewer, and the viewer cannot and does not need to go anywhere else but to the photograph in order to understand it. I stress this point now because it is important when examining La Jetee. If the photograph arrests interpret ation, then one must go to the narration of the film to find out what Marker is trying to say. This is where the brilliance of La Jetee is for me. The photographs in the movie except for those of the time traveling experimentscould be pictures from just about anywhere, relating to just about anything, so one must ask, Why this story? When one does ask this question, the film opens up, and an understanding of what Marker is saying begins to form. I am not sure that I can totally agree with Barthess comment that the photograph arrests interpretation. I believe he must be speaking strictly of the image itself, of the actual action of looking at it. However, this is not where the mystery of the photograph lies. The mystery is behind the photograph, and this is why so many questions arise when people look at certain pictures. So very often, when looking at a photo, I want to know What. What is going on in this photo? How did the events leading up to it come about? Who are these people? How did the photographer do that? What, essentially, is the story behind this photograph. Obviously, Barthes is aware of this characteristic of the photograph. Looking at Kerteszs portrait of a young schoolboy, he exclaims, it is possible that Ernest, a schoolboy photographed in 1931 by Kertesz, is still alive today (but where? How? What a novel!) Barthes is looking at the future of the photographed subject, rather than the story behind it, but the re is still this underlying desire on the part of the viewer to want to know more. Furthermore, I believe that Marker, in La Jetee, is playing off of this instinctive desire of the viewer. He is giving the viewer of the story the History that he yearns for. As I said before, most of the pictures in the film are not strange or unbelievable. They are not science fiction, as is the story. Even the pictures of the time traveling experiments could, on second glance, be taken for some sort of Vietnam War photographs. What I am trying to say is that none of the photos in the film need this particular story in order to have a believable history. They are almost all ordinary photographs, and Marker is playing off this fact. One gets the feeling that he could almost have picked up some random family album and simply mad up a story to go along with the pictures he saw. Of course, this is not what Marker did. The story, an utterly fantastic fiction, is well chosen. Through the irony of this imp ossible story and these entirely possible photographs, Marker is saying that though the photograph may be so forcefully clear, so completely fact, this history that we yearn for can never be true to the photograph. Instead, it will always be a story, and if we ask for the history of the photograph we will get a narrative fiction. Moreover, this history, being a fiction, and therefore blind to all the facts, will leave us wanting, with as many if not more questions than when we began. This is why so many things in the film are not told to the viewer, who is made all the more aware of these gaps because there is a narration in the first place. We do not know anything really about the experiments, or the camp, or the war, or characters. We are not even told the name of the hero or the name of any character in the film for that matter! This fact leaves me thinking of all the photographs there must be in the world with nameless people in them. Even if one were to be given a history of th ese photographs, one essential question could never be answered: Who is that person?In fact, if there is one very striking thing in La Jetee, it is indeed this coalescence of sorts between the representation (what there is to see: theimages) and the experience (what there is to feel: the affect); we cannot think of La Jetee without being touched, moved, and even deeply upset. It is a film that leaves its mark, that cannot easily be forgotten. Near the beginning of his book Barthes writes that the photograph is composed of three practices: to do, to undergo, to look. These are the three things that are involved in the function of the photograph. The spectator is the viewer of it, the operator is he who takes the picture, and the target is that thing which is photographed. In La Jetee, the spectator and the target are obvious, but as soon as I read this in Camera Lucida I wondered, Who is the operator? It does not, to me, seem to be Marker for some reason. He seems connected with the story of the film, and perhaps with the order and composition of the photographs, but I cannot imagine him as the actual photographer. Not because he could not be the photographer, but the because the photographs in the film just seem to have none. This is, I feel, a large part of what creates the haunting quality of La Jetee mentioned in the quote above. We are used to photographs having a photographer, but here we have none. Even the occasion al anonymous in place of a photographs name is something, we know that it came from somewhere. Now obviously the photographs in the film came from somewhere, and were of course carefully planned out, but I cannot shake the haunting feeling I get when I think about and view the film. We have a director, not a photographer, and subsequently, for me, the photos in the film feel somehow ghostly and ethereal. .u374ade41cdc61e1dc741da6c94d925f0 , .u374ade41cdc61e1dc741da6c94d925f0 .postImageUrl , .u374ade41cdc61e1dc741da6c94d925f0 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u374ade41cdc61e1dc741da6c94d925f0 , .u374ade41cdc61e1dc741da6c94d925f0:hover , .u374ade41cdc61e1dc741da6c94d925f0:visited , .u374ade41cdc61e1dc741da6c94d925f0:active { border:0!important; } .u374ade41cdc61e1dc741da6c94d925f0 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u374ade41cdc61e1dc741da6c94d925f0 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u374ade41cdc61e1dc741da6c94d925f0:active , .u374ade41cdc61e1dc741da6c94d925f0:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u374ade41cdc61e1dc741da6c94d925f0 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u374ade41cdc61e1dc741da6c94d925f0 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u374ade41cdc61e1dc741da6c94d925f0 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u374ade41cdc61e1dc741da6c94d925f0 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u374ade41cdc61e1dc741da6c94d925f0:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u374ade41cdc61e1dc741da6c94d925f0 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u374ade41cdc61e1dc741da6c94d925f0 .u374ade41cdc61e1dc741da6c94d925f0-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u374ade41cdc61e1dc741da6c94d925f0:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Evaluation of 12 Angry Men Using the Seven Step Me EssayThere are, I believe, two imagesone from the film, and the other from the bookthat are amazingly similar in their function within their respective works and can be paralleled in two major ways. One is Barthess Winter Garden photographthe photo of his mother as a child that he uses to explore the link between memory and the photograph, and through which he discovers the photographs amazing power of being able to capture the air of a person. The image from the film, which parallels the Winter Garden photograph, is the image of the woman (the heroine of the film) on the jetty. It is, for the hero, the only peacetime imag e to survive the war, and it is the only thing that he loves or that gives him hope. This image also has to do with memory and it is, in fact, a memory of the heros. Furthermore, it holds, for him and for the viewer of the film, the air of that character in the film. Barthes sits down one day shortly after his mothers death to sort and compile the photographs of her. Why? Because this is what people do in modern society. We use the photograph as a memory device. It is ritualistic, so intertwined with memory as to be a supplement to it. We keep photographs of people so that we can remember what they will look like, and after their death a photograph of them is placed above their coffin or on their grave. However, though Barthes engages in the ritual, he denies the photograph as memory. Not only is the photograph never, in essence, a memorybut it actuallyblocks memory, quickly becomes a counter-memory. One day, somefriends were talking about their childhood memories; they had any number;but I, who had just been looking at my old photographs, had none left. This idea is an interesting one, and it is tied up with Barthess idea of Death and the photograph, which I shall deal with later. For now, I turn to the image of the woman on the jetty and its relation to memory. The first thing that struck me about the Jetty Image is that it seems, to me, to be an impossible image. The woman is staring thoughtfully into the distance, her fingers frozen on her lips in a pensive, poetic manner. It is an immediately striking image, and purposefully soit is the first time you see her in the film. But, it is first and foremost the mans memory of her, and it seems to me to be an impossible memory; the perfect frozen gesture, the hair blowing in the winddo people really remember this way?! What is Marker saying here about memory? Could he not have used a picture that was less stylized, more ordinary? This image is a central part of the film. It stays on screen form several seconds, long enough for the narrator to say a few sentences. Had he really seen it, the narrator asks, Or had he invented that tender moment? So is Marker saying that memory is invented, made into a likeness of the photograph by the mind, fantastic and romantic, or that memory is being replaced by the photograph, that we can no longer distinguish between the image on paper and the one in our heads? I cannot say for sure. Later in the film, during the early part of the heros time travels, he is bombarded by images. Other images appear, merge, in that museum, which is, perhaps, his memory. If memory is like a museum, a place where art is kept, then memory is like art, man made and built to please or perhaps horrify, but always constructed. I would not say, however, that Marker is proposing that the photograph is a counter-memory. The fact that this photographic photograph is used as a mans memory is saying something different, either that the photo is replacing memory, or that memory is photographic in the sense that it is stylized and fictionalized. The link between Barthess Winter Garden photo and Markers Jetty Image does not end with memory, though. They are also similar in that they both represent something more about the person in them than simply their image. Barthes, engaging in his ritualistic study of the photographs of his mother, immediately comes up against a wallnone of the pictures satisfy. He looks through dozens of photos, but he does not recognize his mother. The pictures carry only her likeness, they do not hold her being, her manna. Since photography (this is its noeme) authenticates the existence of a certain being, I want to discover that being in the photograph completely, i.e., in its essence. Suddenly, with this in mind, Barthes comes to the Winter Garden photo, and he has found what he was looking for, he has found her. It is at this point in his book that Barthes begins to consider the power the photograph has of being able to capture the air of a person. The air is a kind of intractable supplement of identityit expresses the subject. It is, furthermore, only through this quality of the air that Barthes believes a photograph comes alive and becomes more than simply a supplement to memory or something one can learn raw facts fr om. The Winter Garden picture becomes for him a symbol, almost an embodiment, of his mother. The Jetty Image serves an analogous function for the hero of the film. In it, Marker certainly has placed the air of the character. I feel that Marker would agree with Barthes about the importance of the air in a photograph, and that he is commenting on the raw power of it when it does happen. Not only does the hero of the film remember this image for his entire life, but also it is, as I said before, the only peacetime image to survive the war. Furthermore, it is the way that the viewer of the movie is introduced to the female character. Marker wants us to feel as struck by this image as the man in the film was; he wants us to see the air of that character in the photograph and remember it long after the movie has ended. The image is poetic and riveting, we are filled with the heros longing. Each photograph is a certificate of presence. Probably the most prevalent, important, and intertwined themes throughout both La Jetee and Camera Lucida are Death and Time. These two issues are at the heart of both the film and the book, and I was astounded by how often Barthes and Marker seem to be exploring these issues in a similar way. Barthes writes that within every photograph there is that terrible thing, which is the return of the dead. For Barthes, the photograph cannot escape from Death. Every single photograph is, at its heart, an image of death. This is because every photograph is shows something that has been. Each photograph shows a moment passed and gone, never to be repeatedin other words, dead. This idea is, in Camera Lucida, tied up with Time. Time, writes Barthes, is engorged in the photograph. Barthes comes to this conclusion through the observation that every photograph has the amazing quality to certify, unequivocally, that this has been. In Barthess opinion (and in my own), It is the advent of the photograph which divides the history of the world. Before the photograph nothing about the times before ones own memory was certain. History and art existed to teach people about the past, but both of these things were interpretations of the facts, fictionalized by the human intermediary. History is lik e a narrative, a story about the past seen through the eyes of certain people, while painting and other arts are simply representations of things, regardless of how hard they try to be realistic. Then, along comes the photograph, and the past is no longer uncertain. From a phenomenological viewpoint, in the Photograph, the power of authentication exceeds the power of representation. The fact of something, the existence of something can now be proven, undeniably, by this image on a sheet of paper, and the world is changed forever. Yet this eventthe proving of the past, of Timeseemingly so wonderful at first glance, is full of irony in Barthess eyes. The photograph, in trying to capture, prove, and celebrate life, unwittingly becomes a symbol of Death. Moreover, as the photograph tries to capture the individual person in order to celebrate, commemorate, or remember them, soon it has gone too far, and far too often the picture is more like a rape of the individual. In an added irony, t he photograph begins by trying to turn man into art, and ends by turning him into a spectacle. The modern age is full of this phenomenon. Bombarded by the media, we are constantly assaulted by the public images of other peoples private lives. Yet they are not real, they are a spectacle. It is through this type of action that photography, for Barthes, has transformed subject into object. A celebrity himself, he comments on the process: for what society makes of my photograph, what it reads there, I do notknowbut when I discover myself the product of this operation, what I see is that I have become Total Image, which is to say, Death in person;othersthe Otherdo not dispossess me of myself, they turn me, ferociously, into an object, they put me at their mercy, at their disposal,classified in a file, ready for the subtlest deceptions How unbelievable it was for me to take these ideas and apply them to La Jetee, a story about a dead man traveling in time to a world of dead people. Sent by a group of scientists who have turned him into an object, and before whom he has no private life, he is to be used and then discarded. Uncanny was an understatement, for Barthes and Marker seem to be seeing exactly the same issues in the photograph. Death and Time are as pervading in La Jetee as they are in Camera Lucida. They are everywhere in the film. Set in a future world of dead people, killed by World War III, the film tells us the story of the survivors, struggling to escape Death. The main character is a man, kept alive and given hope by memories of the scene of his own death, who must travel back in time to the world of the dead to try to save the present. This proves, to me, that Marker also sees that Death and Time are the most striking things about a photograph, and that he views their affect in a similar way to Barth es. When Marker sends his character into the future the inhabitants of that world are like Barthes, viewing a photograph from the past. This photograph, like the hero, is undeniable. Right there before us, it loudly demands that we remember it, that we look back to the certainty of its existence and are aware that it in fact existed, all under the guise of a sophism, which is, for the photograph, art. Moreover, the hero and heroine in the film meet in a museum filled with eternal creatures. Here we have the ultimate marriage between Death and Timea museum not of art, but of geology. Dead creatures in a parody of rebirth, they are put on display in an attempt to recapture their life and create a memory of them. The exact description Barthes gives of the photographic process. Adding another layer, Marker takes photographs of these statues and puts them in a story, thereby effectively removing them from time altogether. For this is what stories do, they negate time by taking you and pl acing you within the fiction of the story where real time is irrelevant. Perhaps this is what creates that strange, haunting quality of film, the certainty of the photograph combined with the fiction of the narrative. .u63e89a17cac7cdfc5a6ac30978c27923 , .u63e89a17cac7cdfc5a6ac30978c27923 .postImageUrl , .u63e89a17cac7cdfc5a6ac30978c27923 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u63e89a17cac7cdfc5a6ac30978c27923 , .u63e89a17cac7cdfc5a6ac30978c27923:hover , .u63e89a17cac7cdfc5a6ac30978c27923:visited , .u63e89a17cac7cdfc5a6ac30978c27923:active { border:0!important; } .u63e89a17cac7cdfc5a6ac30978c27923 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u63e89a17cac7cdfc5a6ac30978c27923 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u63e89a17cac7cdfc5a6ac30978c27923:active , .u63e89a17cac7cdfc5a6ac30978c27923:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u63e89a17cac7cdfc5a6ac30978c27923 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u63e89a17cac7cdfc5a6ac30978c27923 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u63e89a17cac7cdfc5a6ac30978c27923 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u63e89a17cac7cdfc5a6ac30978c27923 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u63e89a17cac7cdfc5a6ac30978c27923:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u63e89a17cac7cdfc5a6ac30978c27923 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u63e89a17cac7cdfc5a6ac30978c27923 .u63e89a17cac7cdfc5a6ac30978c27923-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u63e89a17cac7cdfc5a6ac30978c27923:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Overpopulation EssayThe hero of the film is, like the subject of the modern photograph, turned into an object. He is used by the scientists in the name of the race, much as a journalist uses the image in the name of society. He has no private life, The thought police see even into dreams. Barthes writes, the age of the photograph corresponds precisely to the explosion of the private into the public. At the end of the film the man is shot down, killed because he is no longer useful. Barthes writes, The only way that I can transform the Photograph is into refuse: either the drawer or the wastebasket. To end my analysis, I shall address one of Barthess most powerful and most important ideas in Camera Lucida, that of the punctum. The punctum of a picture is what, for Barthes, makes that picture special. It is a detail within a picture that somehow makes that picture stand out and prick the viewer. A photographs punctum is that accident which pricks me (but also bruises me, is poignant to me). Not all photographs have a punctum, and every photograph might have a different punctum for a each different person viewing it, but when the punctum is there the picture suddenly becomes alive for the viewer. For Barthes, the punctum is a necessary quality for any great photograph, it is the only thing that can make a photograph come alive. My first photography teacher often talked about the punctum, pointing it out in whatever photographs he found it in, and it is an idea that has been ingrained in my head for some time. So, when I first saw La Jetee, I immediately asked myself: What is its punctum? An answer came to me right away, and I felt very certain of it, but at the end of my research I came to question it, and was led to an alternate choice. This first thought, though, was that the punctum in Markers film is that one and only moment in the movie in which there is true movement (created with a motion camera rather than a photographic camera). The scene in which this happens is a very simple yet extremely powerful one, falling very close to the middle of the movie. The heroine of the film is lying in a bed, asleep. Though under the covers, we assume she is undressed and that she and the man whose story this is have just made love. We are shown a series of pictures of her like this. There is no music, only a sligh t and haunting rustling sound that begins quietly and builds to a crescendo. The pictures fade into one another, giving the illusion of movement, and then back into blackness. Suddenly, in the last photo, we see her open her eyes. As the rustling sound builds to a height we realize that this is not a trick of sandwiching negativesthis is actual film, we can see her breathing!! She stares right at the camera, which represents the mans point of view, and she blinks before fading to black. I was immediately struck by this moment the first time I saw the film, as were the people who watched it with me. Almost every person in the audience gasped or made some sort of comment. For me, it is the most memorable and powerful moment in the film. Moreover, I believe it is perhaps the most important moment in the journey of the main character as well. We are looking, at this point, through his eyes, and suddenly we see movement, suddenly the woman comes alive and is no longer frozen and dead lik e a photograph but moving and fluid like film. Or like a memory. Suddenly, in light of this part of the film, I am rethinking my earlier conclusion that Marker would not see the photograph as a counter-memory. If this moment is so important, so striking and memorable to the main character, whyif the photograph is like memorydoes Marker use film here? What makes this so interesting is that the only two images in the film that I am certain are from the heros point of view are this image and the Jetty Image. What is Marker trying to say? Is the photograph not like memory at all, is the Jetty Image a pure fabrication, or are both parts of the film equally a part of the characters memory? Once again, I cannot be sure, but I can say for certain that I think the film sequence is a true memory of the character, and that it is the photograph I am uncertain of. Another interesting aspect of this punctum of the film is that Marker achieves the power of this moment in the film by negating photography.He seems to be proving Barthess point that the photograph cannot escape death because at this point the woman comes alive for me, and also for the character in the film. She is suddenly living and breathing, real to both the viewer and the character, and photography had to be negated to achieve this effect. As I began to explore this idea, and as I began to reexamine Barthess idea of the punctum, I began to rethink this original conclusion. This is because Barthes wrote that the punctum of a photograph is that thing which makes it stand out, makes it prick the viewer. When I thought about it, though, I realized that most, if not nearly all of the images in La Jetee prick me, and then I realized that the entire movie pricks me. Looking at the individual photographs in the film, I realized that not every one really struck me as an individual photograph, and that yet somehow they did strike me within the experience of the film. Then I realized that what I was looking for was exactly what I had already decided I needed to look to for my answers: the narration. So, I propose that the narration, the story, in La Jetee is its punctum, that thing which makes these photographs stand out and prick the viewer. Another way to put it would be to say that the punctum of La Jetee is that it is a film, and not a slide show. Yet this does not negate the video image in the film as its own punctum. That part is the punctum of the story within the film, and the narration is the punctum of the film itself. To conclude, I would say that Roland Barthes and Chris Marker are, in their respective works of Camera Lucida and La Jetee, exploring the nature of photography and that, furthermore, they have come to, on the whole, almost exactly the same conclusions. They both are addressing Time, Death, and memory. They are both aware that these three things are deeply ingrained in the nature of the photograph and that they cannot be avoided by a person involved in the photograph, whether he be spectator, target, or operator. They are also examining the unique affects, powers, and characteristics of the photographic. Things such as the power of the photograph to capture the air of a person, or the power of specific photographs to come alive or deeply affect someone. Also, they are both aware of t he negative affects of the photograph in the modern age, and the modern persons tendency to become unfeeling in the face of so much symbolic Death. As I said before, the amount and quality of the parallels between La Jetee and Camera Lucida is uncanny, and I feel like there is much more that could be written on the subject. Alas, I do not have the time to delve any more deeply, and I shall end this study here.

Courtship essays

Courtship essays Over time the once universal definition of courtship has become a manifestation of one's personal beliefs and values. The once formal structure of courtship is now an individual meeting process. However there are still some formalities to the process. Every couple has a story of how they met. Many couples are high school sweethearts, others meet through mutual friends. Joe and Eileen Marini met in court. The story begins in the summer of 1975, in the town of Wildwood, NJ. One night after partying at the local dance club, a lively group of young men return to their hotel room to finish off the evening with a few drinks. Once inside, they began acting wildly and someone broke down a door separating the room adjacent to theirs. Inside the second room was a group of young women settling in after a long day of bathing in the ocean. After removing the uninvited guest from their room the girls decided to get some rest and settle the problem the following morning. On the proceeding morning two of the girls went next door to talk over the situation with the guys. When they knocked on the door a young gentleman, who had been absent the night before, answered. His name was Joseph Marini, and the two girls were Cathy Holland and Eileen Carew. The girls sat and discussed what would be done to absolve the situation and the gentlemen agreed to pay for damages. Of course, the owner of the hotel was not as forgiving as the girls. The case was assigned a court date and the fines would be accessed at that time. Following their fiasco the two groups went on their separate ways, except for one lucky meeting. After shopping downtown, Eileen and Cathy returned to the hotel to shower and prepare for the night. In the parking lot they crossed paths with the young man that had answered the door that morning. They began talking and Eileen took the liberty to invite Joe to join them at the dance club that night. On their first date, Eilee...

Identity-Based Brand Equity Model A Conceptual Framework Essay

Identity-Based Brand Equity Model A Conceptual Framework - Essay Example The following paper aims to close this essential marketing research gap and presents a new integrated brand equity model based on the identity-based brand management approach. It explores the sources of brand equity from internal and external perspectives on behavioral and financial levels in order to achieve a higher level of brand equity measurement and management quality. Since the late 80's - with the rise of the value-based management philosophy - brand equity has developed as one of the key marketing concepts throughout management theory and practice (Srinivasan et al., 2005). The challenge of delivering comprehensible evidence of brand-based equity creation encouraged researchers to develop a wide range of different brand equity models. Today it can be assumed that more than 300 different models have been developed and implemented worldwide. (Amirkhizi, 2005) Majority of these models focuses on the consumer. (Aaker and Joachimsthaler, 2000) Supporters argue that the source of brand equity is based on the consumer's brand knowledge predominantly following an outside-in approach. (Keller, 2003) However, an integrated brand equity approach also reflecting on inside-out approach has yet not received any attention. Nevertheless, it would be highly relevant to also consider brand equity being already created inside the company, for instance through emp loyees. Not only do employees represent an important stakeholder group, but they also operate as the original source of brand equity. (Joachimsthaler, 2002; Jones, 2005) Such a brand equity model with an integrated brand equity definition implicates the following advantages: First, most established models are based on past information and they accordingly derived prognosis. Only the integration of an internal perspective enables an accurate assessment of the entire brand equity, since the employee's attachment to the company is captured. This useful information however is only accessible within the company. Employees are therefore capable of anticipating positive or negative tendencies of internal and external development at an earlier stage, which increases both timeliness and validity of brand equity measurement. Secondly, in majority of developed models, brand image represents the basis of evaluation. Unfortunately it cannot be directly controlled from the company's perspective. In this context, the expression of "brand image as a construct of acceptance" was defined. (Burmann and Meffert, 2005) Brand image results from decoding the brand-driven a nd interpreted signals. In contrast, brand identity represents a "concept of sender". (Kapferer, 1992b) It can be directly managed by the company. Thirdly, the consideration of brand potential and future brand options has received little attention in

General Motors and United Auto Workers Union Case Study

General Motors and United Auto Workers Union - Case Study Example However, there is more to be done if GM is to avoid bankruptcy, or emerge from a reorganization process as a financially sound company. This paper will examine the options that the UAW, GM, and their management have, and make recommendations in regards to managing the hourly pay issues at GM. The UAW's hourly pay is broken down into three main categories and several sub-categories. As of December 2008, the total compensation was comprised of the hourly pay of $30 per hour, premium payments of $10 per hour, and current and future benefits of $33 (Sherk). Premium payments include overtime pay, shift premiums, and vacation and holiday pay. Benefits include health and life insurance, disability, unemployment benefits, and pension payments. The health and retirement benefits paid to retirees is considered a current compensation expense, and according to Sherk, "Since there are more retired than active employees this makes it appear that GM employees earn far more than they actually do". Reducing the hourly compensation to the $50 goal will require that GM and the UAW look at all these areas in an effort to find cost saving opportunities. A central key to saving labor costs is reducing the size of the workforce. Currently GM has established a 'buyout' program that compensates the employee with up $45,000 cash immediately (Bunkley 2). In return, the employee severs all ties with GM, and the cost of current and future benefits is reduced to zero. While the recent round of buyouts resulted in 7500 workers leaving GM, 14000 remain at GM who are eligible for the program. However, GM terminated the program in early April 2009 and has made no plans to reinstate or continue it. The money saved through the buyout program is critical because it saves in the short term as well as the long-term future benefits such as health insurance and retirement pensions. Two thirds of the eligible workers declined the arrangement, but GM could increase the incentive in an effort to increase that number. Further voluntary reductions in the workforce will allow GM to restructure its product lines in an environment of higher productivity with fewer employees. The fact that the workforce reductions are voluntary maintains good employee relations as well as Union/Management cooperation. A GM that is reduced in size will allow them to focus on the product lines that have the most potential for sales growth. GM has made some pro-active moves in this direction by announcing the closing of 13 plants, phasing out the Pontiac brand, and cutting 21,000 hourly jobs (GM to Phase Out Pontiac Brand). Ford, who has reduced hourly compensation to about $55 per hour has pursued a similar strategy and said that "the figure would continue to decline as more workers took buyouts and as the new-vehicle market recovered, allowing increased production" (Bunkley 2). An extension of the buyout program by GM, an added incentive for taking advantage of it, and the increased productivity would put GM on par with Ford at $55 per hour. Further reduction in the hourly pay could be accomplished by more closely limiting the

Cyber Security Research Paper Essay Example for Free

Cyber Security Research Paper Essay 1. Preface This security profile of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is based on two documents of public record. The first is the published VA Handbook 6500 (VAH 6500) which defined policy and procedures for systems within the purview of the VA (Department of Veterans Affairs, 2007). The second document is the Federal Information Security Management Act Assessment for FY 20011 commissioned by the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) and performed by Ernst Young in accordance with Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) guidelines (VA Office of Inspector General, 2012, p. i). 2. Identification of Controls This security profile presents one control function from three primary policy and procedure controls. These controls are â€Å"System/New Technology Development Life Cycle† from Management Controls, â€Å"Security Training, Education, and Awareness† from Operational Controls, and â€Å"Remote Access† from Technical Controls. These controls are selected based on the lack of resolution based on information provided fiscal year 2006, 2010 (VA Office of Inspector General, 2011) and 2011 (VA Office of Inspector General, 2012) FISMA audits. 3. Management Controls The protection of systems via risk mitigation techniques are referred to as management controls. Management controls are designed to minimize risk associated with development process and systems implementation. 4.1. VAH6500 Section 6.a.(7) System/New Technology Development Life Cycle VAH6500 requires that any new technology undergo a systems development life cycle (SDLC) specific to the VA. The cycle consists of Initiation, Development / Acquisition, Implementation, Operation / Maintenance and Disposal. Systems must be able to encrypt/decrypt data. Systems not capable of this must receive a waiver from the OIG. 4.2. Implementation Assessment The SDLC program provided does not provide the necessary information for an effective program. No supporting material or references to NIST SP 800-64 Rev2 Security Considerations in the System Development Life Cycle or VAH 6500.5 Incorporating Security and Privacy into the System Development Life Cycle is made. 4.3. Implementation Impact The OIG 2011 FISAM Assessment indicates that â€Å"FISMA Section 3544 requires establishing policies and procedures to ensure information security is addressed throughout the life cycle of each agency information system† (VA Office of Inspector General, 2012, p. 9). Based on the lack of consistency in use of SDLC and change control, major security risks may go unnoticed. 4. Operational Controls Operational controls focus on techniques and procedures put in place by Information Technology staff or systems managers. The purpose is to increase security and provide deterrence via system controls. 5.4. VAH6500 Section 6.b.(11) Security Training, Education, and Awareness VAH6500 provides a concise policy which states any individuals that access sensitive information or systems must complete annual security training. Key persons with â€Å"significant† roles must attend additional training. All training is monitored for completeness. Policy indicates before employees can use systems security training must be completed. 5.5. Implementation Assessment Policy indicates that fourteen key pieces of information must be covered before an individual is allowed to begin work. This training must also be refreshed annually. The tracking of this information is the responsibility of the local ISO (Department of Veterans Affairs, 2007, p. 57). 5.6. Implementation Impact The distributed manner of training management is not conducive to consistent security training. The OIG 2011 FISAM Assessment findings indicate a centrally managed training database be used to ensure personnel receive the proper training needed for their job function (VA Office of Inspector General, 2012, p. 15). 5. Technical Controls The technical control area focuses on minimizing and/or preventing access to a system(s) by unauthorized individuals via technical measures. The measures are designed to ensure the confidentiality, integrity and availability of a system(s) (VA Office of Inspector General, 2012, p. 54). 6.7. VAH6500 Section 6.c.(3) Remote Access Control VAH6500 relies on nineteen policy requirements to enforce technical control. VA policy states that no sensitive information may be transmitted via internet or intranet without proper security mechanisms that meet NIST FIPS 140-2 criteria (Department of Veterans Affairs, 2007, p. 61). Each department within the Agency is responsible for monitoring remote access and privilege functions. Access can be revoked by a supervisor or superior at any time. The remaining requirements cover contractor access, PKI certificate distribution and termination of accounts. System protection is the responsibility of the ISO for each area of access. 6.8. Implementation Assessment VAH6500 does not utilize NIST SP 800-46 Guide to Enterprise Telework and Remote Access Security. The OIG 2011 FISAM Assessment also indicates some remote access systems do not provide Network Access Control (NAC) to block systems that do not meet predefined security requirements (VA Office of Inspector General, 2012, p. 6). 6.9. Implementation Impact The diversity of ISO management practices coupled with a lack of specific procedures for management, auditing and access creates opportunity for security breaches. 6. Summary The three controls outlined in this document show the disparity between written policy, procedure, and implementation. In order for the VA to be successful in meeting the standards of future FISMA assessments, a fundamental change in operations within the VA is required. 7. Comments The multifaceted nature of operations within the VA requires guidelines that meet the needs of multiple departments within the Agency. All three controls discussed in this document have very broad definitions to accommodate the extensive variety of services the VA provides. This flexibility coupled with a drop in training acceptance, legacy systems (VA Office of Inspector General, 2012, p. 7) and the lack of an â€Å"implemented components of its agency-wide information security risk management program† (VA Office of Inspector General, 2012, p. 3) will continue to limit future progress. These delay factors provide an understanding of why twelve recommendations from prior FISAM assessments remain open. Of the twelve recommendations listed in the VA FISMA FY 2011 report, only three have been closed, while three other recommendations have been superseded by new recommendations (VA Office of Inspector General, 2012, p. 19). The recent announcement of the Continuous, Readiness in Information Security Program (CRISP) seems to indicate a fundamental shift in the way the VA views security issues (United States Department of Veterans Affairs). In order for this program to be successful, this message must be understood and acted upon by all persons under the VA umbrella. 8.References Department of Veterans Affairs. (2007). VA Handbook 6500. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office. Retrieved February 20, 2013, from http://www.va.gov/vapubs/viewPublication.asp?Pub_ID=56 Department of Veterans Affairs. (2010). Strategic Plan FY 2010-2014. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office. Retrieved February 20, 2013, from http://www.va.gov/op3/Docs/StrategicPlanning/VA_2010_2014_Strategic_Plan.pdf National Institute of Standards and Technology. (2010). Guide for Assessing the Security Controls in Federal Information System (NIST 800-53a). Washington, D.C.: US Government Printing Office. http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-53-Rev3/sp800-53-rev3-final_updated-errata_05-01-2010.pdf United States Department of Veterans Affairs. (n.d.). CRISP. Retrieved February 21, 2013, from United States Department of Veterans Affairs: http://www.saltlakecity.va.gov/features/CRISP.asp VA Office of Inspector General. (2011). Department of Veterans Affairs Federal Informati on Security Management Act Assessment for FY 2010 (10-01916-165). Washington, D.C.: US Government Publishing Office. Retrieved from http://www.va.gov/oig/52/reports/2011/VAOIG-10-01916-165.pdf VA Office of Inspector General. (2012). Department of Veterans Affairs Federal Information Security Management Act Assessment for FY 2011 (11-00320-138). Washington, D.C.: US Government Printing Office. Retrieved February 20, 2013,from http://www.va.gov/oig/pubs/VAOIG-11-00320-138.pdf

Different Kinds Of Love In Great Expectations Essay -- Great Expectatio

In Great Expectations, there are many odd points of view of love and what love should mean. Pip’s love toward Estella is a yearning craze, and he is blinded by her fascinating beauty. On the other hand, Uncle Joe has a very respected love for Mrs. Joe, considering how harshly she treats him, Mrs. Joe doesn’t seem to love Joe at all. Biddy’s love for Pip seems true, until Pip leaves his home to become a gentleman. Estella also gets married to a man that loves her, Bently Drummle, but does not return his love, and chooses to marry for profits only. Love plays a large part in this story, binding some of the characters together, and ruining other’s relationships. When Pip was very young, he was confused at what love should really be. It is no surprise that Pip has a very odd point of view about women at this point in the story. He’s met so many harsh women, he must think at his young age, that most women are like that. Estella, Pip’s first love, looks down on him, and Miss Havisham, confuses him and even tells Estella to break his heart. It is a mystery to know how Pip actually learns what love is with all the confusion from when he was young. Estella does not return Pip’s love when they are young, but when they grow older, she learns to love him dearly as a friend. When Pip traveled to London to become a gentleman, he becomes very close friends with the convict Magwitch. Later, Pip finds out that Magwitch is Estella’s real father, and on his deathbed, Pip, by his side, admits h...