Analysis of Sam Spade Essay -- sexual maturity, masculinity, film

There a many definitions of masculinity and those definitions are heavily influenced by culture, environment, media, and the child’s parents. When young men start to reach their sexual maturity, they have to create their own definition of what it is to be a man. The idea of masculinity creates a lot of questions, because there is no resource that will give a young male the answer. Due to this, young males learn what it is to be a man from a grab bag of possibilities. Eventually, the young male will have accumulated traits, appearances, behavior, and so on that defines what it is to be a man. With a new sense of self, the young male transforms into his idea of masculinity. In the Maltase Flacon, masculinity is defined through the actions of Sam Spade whom demonstrates the masculine principals of making his achievement of alpha male status a top priority, aggressive behavior, avoiding being feminine, homophobic, and restriction of his emotions (Meek) through his interaction with several characters throughout the film. Through out the film, Sam Spade has a constant need to prove to himself and other people around him that he is an alpha male. This need is triggered when Sam Spade feels intimidated or challenge by another male. Sam Spade’s alpha male status is challenged when he is taken at gunpoint by Wilmer Cook to see Kasper Gutman. Sam quickly rises to the challenge and manages to take Wilmer’s guns away from him (Falcon). Considering that the gun is a phallic symbol, one could interpret that when Sam took away Wilmer’s guns he symbolically took away Wilmer’s masculinity as punishment for challenging his alpha male status. Sam’s action of emasculating Wilmer inflates his ego and reinforces his masculinity though his achievem... ...ith several characters throughout the film. This particular definition of what it is to be a man is presented to the public in the form of media. It is possible that this film could serve as a guide for how young men of the past, present, or even future should behave in order to be considered a man. In this film, the femme fatale sexuality is censored, but the ideals that acting violently towards people who are homosexual, constantly fulfilling a need to achieve dominance through aggressive and violence behavior is the cultural norm of what it is to be a man. This film demonstrates people acceptance of this behavior and acts as propaganda. Works Cited Meek, Dr. Will. Psychology of Men. Ed. Dr. Will Meek. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2013. . The Maltese Falcon. Dir. John Huston. 1941. Warner Bros., 2000. DVD-ROM.

Analysis of three sun articles on the execution of Robert Harris Essay

These three articles printed in the sun newspaper in 1992,approach the execution of Robert Harris in very different ways . The articles have chosen to cover different parts of the Robert Harris case. Article 1 is focused on the way Robert Harris died and the T. V reporter Michael tuck giving a graphic description of the execution and the build up to it . The second article is about he nuns including Mother Teresa who tried to turn the decision around so Harris’s life could be spared. Article three gives a description of where and how the victims were murdered and what how the parents felt and thought of Harris’s execution. The first article explains and describes what happened to Robert Harris. It starts with a detailed description of Harris’s execution. † Gurgled and gasped as cyanide gas choked the life from him†. This has been written as the second sentence to give an immediate impact of disgust and it plays with your emotions and it makes you more interested and you want to read on. Once the writer has got the readers attention, he then goes to the lead up to the execution. The first article is very against the death penalty as when it talks about the execution was reprieved twice before he was finally gassed, the article tries to make you feel sorry for Harris. Michael Tuck describes the execution as â€Å"grisly† â€Å"and† not a humane way to die† and in this he is confirming that he is against the anti-death penalty. Alternatively, article three is not against the anti-death penalty. It starts off with Harris’s victims parents, giving there opinion on Harris’s execution. One of the victims farther said ‘ I have no time for do-gooders who says that he should be spared look what he did to my son’. † Am I supposed to erase the memory, the pain of that†. This is trying to make you feel sorry for the parents of the victims and it is trying to persuade the reader that capital punishment is good. Article two is set out in a bold headline, which reads â€Å"NUN’S MERCY BID† and under the headline is a small paragraph. It mentions Mother Teresa Name to give a sort of good feeling to the article because Mother Teresa well know personality of being warm, nice and a gentle person and it says that she appealed to a California governor Pete Wilson to spare Harris’s life this sort of makes you feel that if Mother Teresa is trying to safe his life then she must be doing the right thing and Harris’s life should be spared. It says in the article that there were loads of anti-death sentence campaigners who urged for the killer not to be killed. This is a fact that many people wanted Harris to live and theres evidence of Mother Teresa point of view. Theres a couple of lines in this article that say that â€Å"Harris had alcoholic parents and he was fifth of nine children terrorised by there farther†. His lawyers said that he may have been brain damaged by a beating at the age of two†. This could make the reader feel sorry for Harris and its not fair for Harris to be killed in this way but there no evidence that the article is true. The visual presentation in the articles plays a very important role. In article one, theres a big picture above the article of two chairs where Harris was probably killed I think that this picture is trying to make you feel sorry for Harris as the picture makes you feel a sort of horrific sense of dying and displays a horrible looking setting in where people are chained to chairs and then are choked with gas and then killed. Beside the picture is â€Å"TV man watches Harris in gas chamber†. This is very emotive language and makes the article more dramatic. In article two there is a photo of a man I think its Harris but it could be a different number of people maybe Michael Tuck watching the execution or is it Harris himself its good as it lets the reader speculate. All three articles are made up of fact an opinion. Article one is mainly made up of opinion it is nearly all Michael Tuck telling the readers what he thought. He said â€Å"But IF you ask me this is not a clean and humane way to die† This is Michael Tuck expressing his opinions on the execution. Article two has got a bit of opinion He said â€Å"he may have been brain damaged by a beating at the age of two† The words â€Å"may have† means that not necessarily true. The only fact in this article is that Mother Teresa fought with other campaigners to spare Harris’s life. Article three appears to be a balance of fact and opinion. The first half of the article is mainly opinion. Theres the victims parents saying what they think about Harris’s execution. â€Å"They were out for a fun day fishing when they were executed by this beast†. It is the parent’s opinion that Harris is a â€Å"Beast†. The second half of the article seems to tell more fact, it says how the victims were killed, for the first time across the three articles. But after telling the story theres still opinions added. † The grinning Harris calmly ate the boys hamburgers†. There is know way that anyone could of none this so this must be opinion. In conclusion all articles have different stories, which all connect together, but as you can see Harris was an evil man as he shot two innocent boys dead for no reason at all. Language used in these articles is effective and ahs been used well to give you a clear picture of how Harris died and how he killed two innocent teenagers. People tried to save him but it didn’t work. When all three articles are read separately they create a biased opinion on Harris execution, but when read together you have a balanced account of Harris case.

Essay about David Katan’s Translating Cultures - 1038 Words

Fitzgerald or Fagles? Translations are essential to us and our culture, because through ancient documents, inscriptions and books, historians and archeologists reconstruct the ancient societies and civilizations, as well as the story of our forefathers and the history of the entire human race. They allow communication between us and different countries and nations, whose language might be different from ours and this may create difficulties in being able to understand each other. However, translators make this possible as they are the mediators between two different cultures. The need for translations is massive, from both a social and political outlook. According to David Katan’s Translating Cultures, â€Å"The translator is a bilingual†¦show more content†¦Though introductions of both translations of the original Ancient Greek Odyssey by Fitzgerald and Fagles have many similarities, Fagles’ is better structured, while Fitzgerald’s is more convoluted and the text is grouped together. For example, one of the more obvious ones is the division into paragraphs, which in Fagles’ translation is much more clear and neat in terms of layout; therefore it is easier to read and to follow. Fitzgerald’s translation, by comparison, is not divided into paragraphs; it is a bit more challenging to read, because there are no subdivisions or titles for each paragraph which would make the reader understand better what they are going to read about in that specific section. Nevertheless, through reading both introductions, the reader gets involved by the plot and the book itself, due to the summary and description of the historical background, which opens up the story of this famous archetypal hero: Odysseus. The first verses of a translation are those that tell us the most. In the Odyssey, the first verses are very important because the bard Homer asks the Muse to inspire him and aid him in narrating the story of the hero Odysseus but also it plays a key ro le in the summarizing of the whole narration. Therefore, the importance of these lines lies in its translation to engage the reader and convey not only Homer’s purpose but also the