A Discussion on Realism and Impressionism Essay Example for Free

A Discussion on Realism and Impressionism Essay The world was changing dramatically in the late 18th century. In North America, the British colonies had successfully revolted against the English empire and formed the United States of America. Fueled by this success, Europeans began to feel a strong desire for change, most notably in France, where the search for liberty led to the bloody French Revolution, which lasted from 1788 until 1799. At the same time, populations were starting to rapidly expand, and science and technology were producing the engines and tools to make the Industrial Revolution possible. It was in this atmosphere of change that a new artistic movement was born; a movement that wanted to view the world around it in a different way. Prior to this era, works of art commonly exemplified idealized scenes from historic events, or placed the subject in larger-than-life, heroic circumstances. Artists of the new movement wanted to show life as it really existed; its triumphs as well as failures; its beauty as well as its baser attributes. These artists were a part of the new movement: Realism. See more: Analysis of Starbucks coffee company employees essay As the name of the movement implies, Realism was an artistic movement toward attempting to capture the subject of the artwork in a true-to-life manner. Stated simply, realist artists sought to produce accurate and objective portrayals of the ordinary, observable world, with a focus on the lower classes and with a critique of the established social and political order (MindEdge, 2012). Considered by many to be the father of Realism is the French painter Gustave Courbet (1819 – 1877). In his life-sized depiction of two workmen he met along the roadside called The Stonebreakers (1849-50), we see the hallmarks of the Realist movement. (Courbet, 1850) Not only does Courbet pay careful attention to the detail in order to â€Å"paint as he sees it†, but he treats the subject matter with almost reverent respect. The laborers are not being extolled as heroic figures in an epic struggle, as would be expected in a more Romantic-style work of art. Instead, the two workmen are seen busy at a most ordinary task, that of breaking and moving heavy stones by the roadside. The simple act of everyday, hard labor is glorified and given a dignity that transcends heroism. This new-found, at least for the time period, respect for the common person and his or her struggles and successes in everyday life, as well as the desire to depict those struggles and successes with accuracy, are the true hallmarks of Realism. The paint had hardly dried on the early works of the Realist movement when another group of artists began to focus on a different aspect of artistic expression. This new technique was begun by the French artist Edouard Manet (1832 – 1883). Manet was a Realist painter who also wanted to bring truth to the color and light involved in his paintings. Manet and others of this new style had found that, rather than mixing colors on the palette and applying this mixture to the canvas, by juxtaposing different colors close together on the canvas, a more intense hue could be produced. This caused the painting have an almost unfinished look to them, especially when viewed from close range. This effect, along with the treatment of light on the subjects to capture time, motion and emotion in daily life and nature, is a key element of Impressionism. One of the most well-known of the Impressionist painters was Claude Monet (1840 – 1926). His work, Impression, Sunrise (1872), is quite characteristic of the Impressionist movement. (Monet, 1872) This depiction of a harbor scene in France is done in very loose brushstrokes, suggesting the subject matter rather than clearly defining it. The painting creates a â€Å"feeling† of water and boats in the early morning. This treatment of the subject and the light illuminating it gave art critic Louis Leroy the idea, in 1872, to ridicule the painting using its own name against it; implying that the impression he perceived was that the work was incomplete. While his critique has not proven to stand the test of time, his description of the work did help to label the artistic movement Impressionism. How do Realism and Impressionism compare? The choice of subject matter is often similar. Artists of both schools often chose scenes from everyday life and attempted to portray them on the canvas. While Courbet’s, The Stonebreakers, does show us clearly delineated characters in a realistically depicted scene, and Monet’s, Impression, Sunrise, imparts the â€Å"feeling† of the scene and allows the viewer to build context around that feeling, both paintings pay homage to a common, uncomplicated activity with a certain dignity and respect. In this sense, Impressionism can be seen as a natural extension of the Realist movement. Impressionism took Realism in another direction, however, with its unique treatment of light on the subject matter and in its coloring technique. This allowed Impressionist painters to capture feelings of motion, time and emotion in their art while continuing the Realist’s quest to examine the beauty in everyday life. As can be seen with an examination of the various movements in art history, Realism artists reacted to the fanciful, larger-than-life depictions of subjects in the Romantic period by turning toward detailed, â€Å"as you see it† renderings of the life and times of the common man and his surroundings. Impressionism, resonating with the tenets of Realism, took the movement even further, seeking to portray, not only life as we know it, but also life as we experience it. This opening up of the artistic mind to the possibilities of greater experimentation and more liberal viewpoints can be seen as the first salvo in an assault on the sterile, regimented ideology of the more traditional schools of artistic thought. The cracks created in the armor of traditional art styles allowed for future generations of artists to explore even further into their imaginations in order to redefine art in the modern era.

Obedience and Disobedience in A Few Good Man Essay -- Psychology

â€Å"In the heart of nation’s capital, in a courthouse of the U.S government, one man will stop at nothing to keep his honor, and one will stop at nothing to find the truth.† This tagline helps to sum up the tone of the film A Few Good Men. Two soldiers caught in the middle of right and wrong will keep there hope and loyalty high as they wish for the best. Will the instigator of it all be pressured through his own anger to reveal the truth? Rob Reiner presents Col. Nathan R. Jessep as having an exaggerated self opinion while using his power for evil, based on dispositional factors. Lt. Daniel Kaffee uses his Harvard law education to represent two Marines who are being charged for murder in the movie A Few Good Men. Lt. Cdr. JoAnne Galloway and Lt. Sam Weinberg assist Kaffee on his investigation, thought to be a Code Red, a form of abusive peer discipline. While conversing with Jessep and his two senior officers in Cuba, Kaffee becomes suspicious about certain information given. In the end, Kaffee is triumphant over the case by proving Jessep’s guilt. Stanley Milgram, a Yale psychologist, introduces his opinion on obedience in his article, â€Å"The Perils of Obedience,† while discussing the background to his experiment. An experimenter ordered the unaware teacher to give the learner agonizing shocks, not knowing that the learner was not truly hooked up to the voltage. The experimenter’s goal was to make sure that the teacher followed all orders, even if that meant supposedly harming the learner. Surprisingly, more people obeyed the experim enter rather than following the instinct to help the learner. Likewise, Erich Fromm, a psychoanalyst and philosopher, claims that obedience and disobedience both can have good and bad consequences. From... ...of two marines, to perform a code red on Santiago, the learner. Although no harm was intended, the life of an ailing soldier was brutally taken due to the respect of an order. From Fromm’s outlook on the situation, obedience may sometimes be right, but unfortunately might lead to an unwanted outcome, similar to the circumstances portrayed in A Few Good Men. A person with hateful and self conceited characteristics is someone that most people don’t want to be around. This can impact society by causing less appreciation among people. Works Cited A Few Good Men. Dir. Rob Reiner. Perf. Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise, and Demi Moore. Columbia Pictures, 1992. Film. Fromm, Erich. â€Å"Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem† Writing and Reading for ACP Composition. Ed. Thomas E. Leahy and Christine R. Farris. New York, New York: Pearson, 2009. 258-263. Print.

A Perspective of Cultural Conflict in Classroom Essay

This paper draws from the understanding that cultural differences and imbalance has extensively repressed the process of learning as well as literacy development. This factor is evident by the continual differential treatment of teachers on white and black children thus affecting the progress of colored children in literacy development. Learning literacy encompass the efforts employed by the teacher to help the child develop reading and writing skill in the second language. As such, this process occurs within the threshold of culture and is influenced by social factors ranging from the belief of the teacher and the ability of the children to literary skills. The evaluation of methods of literacy practice help in deigning validity and reliability of the instruments of instruction used in literacy acquisition and development amid cultural differences and conflicts reflects an element that formulates an important factor in situations where the teacher and his beliefs as well as the literacy practice extensively leverages the varying degrees of the whole language. Introduction Literacy acquisition and development is a pedagogical aspect that begins long before children commence their formal education as well as formal school instruction. During these years, children acquire skills and knowledge that are typified by literate behavior in a setting that is guided by socio-cultural manifestations. The whole process is influenced by a number of factors ranging from cultural implications, the beliefs of the teacher and the instruction methods for literacy practice. The teacher should emphasize on the development of literacy as a process that is ongoing, and through a classroom learning environment. This means that for the efficiency of literacy acquisition development, all aspects of literacy must develop simultaneously, with the language and literacy sharing similar features hence allowing students to encounter a natural hierarchy to the stages of development. Methods of Literacy Practice The complexity of literacy development rests on the pedestal of the children’s ability to effectively read and write in English as the formed literate culture. Delpit argues that our cultures and communities lay the basis on which differences in instructing children as they learn new language is evidenced (Delpit, 2006). This cultural bias and weakness presents a conflict which should be resolved by the teacher’s attempt to maximize the educational potential of children from colored racial background.   The teacher and his belief about literacy development play a significant role in the entire process of literacy and language development.   There is an interrelationship between literacy and language such that, the teacher should base his instruction on language; which plays a key role in building the foundation for reading and not on the racial backgrounds. Accordingly, the teacher should use the method of immersion to enable children develop literacy by being surrounded by spoken language. In so doing, children will not only learners to talk but will also encounter print language in charts labels and stories and an organized library which enables students to read and write in areas of the   print language. In addition, it is plausible to note that as a teacher, it is vital to use   a practical method of   instruction that help children demonstrate the literacy skill being learned in a context where the teacher uses good classroom management to root out racial power imbalance that exist in classrooms. As such, this should be done both in classroom and outside classroom situations. For example, Delpit contends that when people around children use language positively, things happen positively. Ideally, language, which the backbone of literacy, become part of life around children (Delpit,2006). This out of classroom situation means that a teacher should emphasis on the importance of language which is mirrored through books, literacy events and writing and thus children will learn the language at home, in town and in the villages where they are. In a classroom setting, demonstration of literacy skills should be enhanced by the teacher through modeling where children learn the four skills of language such as reading skills, writing skills, speaking skills and listening skills throughout the day. In this way, children will acquire and develop literacy skills by observing purposeful literacy in a myriad of ways. Furthermore, the teacher should advise parents to highly expect their children to talk thus relieving the whole process the pressure and tension of literacy development from learning in an environment that is cultural conflict. The teacher works on helping the students to learn literacy skills by working on these skills at appropriate levels. As a result, a teacher should provide children with enough materials that match their literacy levels and by catering for individualized differences; a teacher sets the pace of developing literacy skills thus structuring the class with expectation of leaning. To illustrate, the ways by which people respond and react during a conversation influences the behavior of a child and usually non verbal expressions such as smiles, cuddles and other remarks creates a verbal interaction that shapes the development of literacy. Therefore, acquiring and developing literacy skills does occur anywhere; at home, in groups, with relatives among others and this natural way should be used in helping the process of literacy acquisition and development. With the classroom, the teacher should create a collaborative learning environment where children have the opportunity to provide positive feedbacks to their peers which specifically is encouraging and constructive in terms of learning literacy skills. With regard to this, little children should be engaged in learning whether at home or in school the teacher should help the children to aim at better speaking skills, reading skills, writing skills and listening skills at school in activities that help them to make sense of their acquired literacy knowledge and skills. Racial, class, ethnic and gender conflicts influence the quantity of literacy instruction in a racially mixed class. However, a teacher should influence children and parents from disfranchised cultural groups to develop measures of subverting negative pressure dominant group. Delpit notes that the community environment as well as home leverages the literacy development of a child. As such, schools, homes, families and classroom are learning environments situated in the community. In this case, the out of class element extensively influences learning opportunities and gives a chance to take part in the process of literacy acquisition and development of their child (Delpit, 2006). Significantly, this narrows down to a cultural aspect in learning and impacts on the literacy development children acquire. For example, a child from a poverty stricken neighborhood encounters a disintegrated learning environment and owing to the fact they are likely to be face social emotional and behavioral conditions that are strong makes them develop non Standard English hence their literacy skills being interfered with. In addition, Delpit contends that the culture and environment directly relate to the ability of the child to develop vocabulary skills and thus the literacy development at kindergarten should be well structured because it determines how the child’s academic achievement varies in school and classroom. Children’s, socio behavioral, emotional self regulations are viewed within the precincts of cultural orientations   and all these are influenced by homes, families, schools and society at large. On this ground, Delpit postulates that the development of a child’s literacy skills should be allowed to take place at all times and in every place (Delpit, 2006). Accordingly, literacy is construed to be composite of varied dimensions that transcend the boundaries of classroom and society and this interplay strongly affect the learning opportunities that children are presented with both at home and in school. In light of this, there is considerable evidence that shows that proficient literacy obligate that children must have strong foundation in oral language; an element that borders phonological and vocabulary skills as well as the overall language skills which is basically determined by the cultural orientations. This falls in the wider dimension of influencing how a child demonstrates systematic and explicit ways of decoding, comprehending and writing language which is greatly impacted by the cultural base of the child. Due to the cultural influence in learning language and literacy skills, the preschool experience forms an important factor in the acquisition and development of literacy skills. Therefore, it has been speculated that achieving this learning element depends on the social economic status of the child’s family. Accordingly, children form less fortunate families begin their literacy levels late and without financial ability to buy literacy resource, many children from such backgrounds become literate very late. As such, the teacher should come to the aid of this group of children by working out a correlation that will improve home and classroom learning environment through what is inarguably called direct parent training and education. In essence, Delpit portends that parents from such economic thresholds should strongly embrace the concept of early preschool interventions in a bid to socially and academically make a vital difference in the literacy acquisition and development of their children. Similarly, the classroom environment influences the belief and mindsets of a teacher in their literacy development instruction. In essence, the attitude of the teacher over the children he is instruction posses a shared characteristic that   is marked by a safe and orderly environment high expectations for the literacy achievement of the students, strong educational leadership, the amount of time given to literacy instruction classroom management and available methods of evaluations and instructions. Accordingly, a flexible and homogenous literacy skill provides a more successful effect on reading, speaking and writing thus making the instruction children receive in the class more substantially. However, in the event of a heterogeneous literacy skill, it becomes difficult as the teacher to have clear cut expectations on the literacy achievement thus his beliefs may not allow him to substantially provide instruction that enhances literacy awareness. For the most vulnerable children in the black American community, the development of literacy skills is under certain progression challenges such as underachievement but Delpit shows that the social and motional support offered by the teacher creates a climate that leads to the efficiency in building literacy levels of children from multicultural backgrounds. The classroom setting should provide a highly social, emotional support and the teacher should therefore come in with a n instructional support which will systematically a stronger child literacy development and social outcomes. Particularly, such learning environment become important for children from the back community because they are typical of social problems and during the development of literacy skills, they may exhibit weak social skills. The engagement of children in different learning environment helps boots their motivation to learn and this contributes to their literacy growth. Conclusion From the foregoing discussion, it is evident that the type and amount of literacy instructions that a teacher should give to children in classroom and the continuous learning of literacy skills at home and in the society facilitates a constant and systematic literacy growth. Accordingly this involves a combination of methods that range from code focused strategies o holistic and meaning strategies prove to be the effective models of enhancing literacy development. Teachers therefore should use sustained interventions that range form intensive and balanced pedagogical aspects in literacy acquisition and development. Teachers therefore need to structure the instructional designs on the structure of the language and other social cultural elements that aids in the acquisition of literacy skills. Reference   Delpit, L (2006) Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in Classroom. New York: News press

An Overview of Urban Geography

Urban geography is a branch of human geography concerned with various aspects of cities. An urban geographers main role is to emphasize location and space and study the spatial processes that create patterns observed in urban areas. To do this, they study the site, evolution and growth, and classification of villages, towns, and cities as well as their location and importance in relation to different regions and cities. Economic, political and social aspects within cities are also important in urban geography. In order to fully understand each of these aspects of a city, urban geography represents a combination of many other fields within geography. Physical geography, for example, is important in understanding why a city is located in a specific area as site and environmental conditions play a large role in whether or not a city develops. Cultural geography can aid in understanding various conditions related to an areas people, while economic geography aids in understanding the types of economic activities and jobs available in an area. Fields outside of geography such as resource management, anthropology, and urban sociology are also important. Definition of a City An essential component within urban geography is defining what a city or urban area actually is. Although a difficult task, urban geographers generally define the city as a concentration of people with a similar way of life-based on job type, cultural preferences, political views, and lifestyle. Specialized land uses, a variety  of different institutions, and use of resources also help in distinguishing one city from another. In addition, urban geographers also work to differentiate areas of different sizes. Because it is hard to find sharp distinctions between areas of different sizes, urban geographers often use the rural-urban continuum to guide their understanding and help classify areas. It takes into account hamlets and villages which are generally considered rural and consist of small, dispersed populations, as well as cities and metropolitan areas considered urban with concentrated, dense populations. History of Urban Geography The earliest studies of urban geography in the United States focused on site and situation. This developed out of the man-land tradition of geography which focused on the impact of nature on humans and vice versa. In the 1920s, Carl Sauer became influential in urban geography as he motivated geographers to study a citys population and economic aspects with regard to its physical location. In addition, central place theory and regional studies focused on the hinterland (the rural outlying are supporting a city with agricultural products and raw materials) and trade areas were also important to early urban geography. Throughout the 1950s and 1970s, geography itself became focused on spatial analysis, quantitative measurements and the use of the scientific method. At the same time, urban geographers began quantitative information like census data to compare different urban areas. Using this data allowed them to do comparative studies of different cities and develop computer-based analysis out of those studies. By the 1970s, urban studies were the leading form of geographic research. Shortly thereafter, behavioral studies began to grow within geography and in urban geography. Proponents of behavioral studies believed that location and spatial characteristics could not be held solely responsible for changes in a city. Instead, changes in a city arise from decisions made by individuals and organizations within the city. By the 1980s, urban geographers became largely concerned with structural aspects of the city related to underlying social, political and economic structures. For example, urban geographers at this time studied how capital investment could foster urban change in various cities. Throughout the late 1980s until today, urban geographers have begun to differentiate themselves from one another, therefore allowing the field to be filled with a number of different viewpoints and focuses. For example, a citys site and situation is still regarded as important to its growth, as is its history and relationship with its physical environment and natural resources. Peoples interactions with each other and political and economic factors are still studied as agents of urban change as well. Themes of Urban Geography Although urban geography has several different focuses and viewpoints, there are two major themes that dominate its study today. The first of these is the study of problems relating to the spatial distribution of cities and the patterns of movement and links that connect them across space. This approach focuses on the city system. The second theme in urban geography today is the study of patterns of distribution and interaction of people and businesses within cities. This theme mainly looks at a citys inner structure and therefore focuses on the city as a system. In order to follow these themes and study cities, urban geographers often break down their research into different levels of analysis. In focusing on the city system, urban geographers must look at the city on the neighborhood and citywide level, as well as how it relates to other cities on a regional, national and global level. To study the city as a system and its inner structure as in the second approach, urban geographers are mainly concerned with the neighborhood and city level. Jobs in Urban Geography Since urban geography is a varied branch of geography that requires a wealth of outside knowledge and expertise on the city, it forms the theoretical basis for a growing number of jobs. According to the Association of American Geographers, a background in urban geography can prepare one for a career in such fields as urban and transportation planning, site selection in business development and real estate development.