Hamlet vs Gladiator essay Essay

When watching the movie Gladiator, one might notice how very similar this story is to the Shakespearean play, Hamlet. In Gladiator the main character seeks vengeance for the loss of his son and wife, as does Hamlet for the loss of his father. The vengeance sought out in Gladiator is a result of treachery involving loved ones as is the vengeance sought out in hamlet. Finally, both Hamlet and Gladiator are examples of dramatic tragedy where the main character ends up dying. Along with these similarities there are also many differences. There are the difference in characters, the difference in when these stories take place, and the difference in the endings. By comparing and contrasting a modern tragedy, Gladiator, with an ancient tragedy, Hamlet, it shows why dramatic tragedy has survived throughout the ages. In the beginning of Hamlet King Hamlet’s ghost pays a visit to Prince Hamlet. The ghost tells Hamlet that while â€Å"sleeping in [his] orchard, a serpent stung [him].† He then tells Hamlet â€Å"the serpent that did sting thy father’s life now wears his crown.† Hamlet, who already suspected his father’s death to be murder, is furious upon learning that it was not only murder, it was his father’s uncle that committed the act of treachery. In a rage of fury Hamlet swears to the ghost of his father that he will seek vengeance on Claudius, for his sake and that of his father’s. This is very similar in Gladiator when Commodus kills his father, the Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Maximus, a Roman General, was very close with Marcus who told Maximus â€Å"he [was] the son [he] should have had†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and wanted Maximus to carry on as Emperor instead of his son Commodus. Maximus seeks vengeance on Commodus not only for murdering Marcus, but also because he murdered Maximum’s wife and eight-year-old son. In both cases Claudius and Commadus wanted to reign, to have power; in both cases they were not meant to have it. Hamlet was the â€Å"heir to the throne,† and Aurelius wanted Maximus to take his place as emperor. Both Claudius and Commadus wanted power so badly, that they killed in order to get what they wanted. ———————————————————————————————– These stories are both similar in treachery because the men that they had trusted and confided in had murdered them. Claudius betrayed his brother by poisoning him then marrying his wife; Commadus betrayed his father by suffocating him after learning Aurelius did not want his only son to rule. Another example of the similarities between these two stories is that Hamlet and Maximus both had to change themselves in order to seek their vengeance. They both went from being looked highly upon in society, to being looked down on. Hamlet fooled people by acting like he was crazy. This way his stepfather could not suspect Hamlet of knowing that he had murdered Hamlet’s father. Following the death of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Maximus finds himself an enemy of the new Emperor Commadus. He is reduced to the status of a slave and eventually falls into the hands of a gladiator trainer. He then begins to forge a new life for himself as a ruthless killing machine that entertains the fickle crowd, as the behind-the-scenes politics of second century Rome stand to make him a hero of the people. By fighting as a gladiator he seek revenge on the new Emperor of Rome. Hamlet and Maximus want to avenge those who have been killed so badly that they undergo obstacles with courage and their heads high as well as they both risking their lives for what they believe in. Throughout Hamlet, one might also notice they have taken similar ideas from â€Å"Hamlet† and used them to help make their story a (better one). Towards the beginning of the story before Aurelius is killed, Commadus tells the senators that â€Å"they’ll be pouring honey potion in people’s ears†¦Ã¢â‚¬  in order to make the country republic. What is similar is that Claudius poured â€Å"potion† into King Hamlet’s ear, in order to kill him. Another moment in Gladiator that makes you think of Hamlet is towards the end when Commodus tells his nephew, Lucius, about their ancestor Emperor Claudius. He tells Lucius that â€Å"[Claudius] was betrayed! By those closest to him†¦Ã¢â‚¬  This is similar to Hamlet because Gertrude betrays Claudius and Lucilla betrays Commodus. This is ironic because both Claudius and Commodus betrayed loved ones in order to gain power. Along with these similarities there are also many differences. For instance Hamlet was born a prince while Maximus was the general for Aurelius’s army. Also King Hamlet was killed by his brother and Aurelius was killed by his son, and Hamlet’s mother dies in the end while Commadus’ sister survives. The main difference, however, is in the end of these stories. In Hamlet, he never lets on to Claudius that he knows how his father died. Instead he acts as if he is crazy. It is not until a theatrical group re-enacts how King Hamlet was murdered that Claudius realises that Hamlet knows†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. In Gladiator, as soon as Maximus sees Commadus in the Coliseum he tells Commadus that he will kill him for the murders he has committed. In the end Maximus kills Commadus while all of Rome watches this form of â€Å"entertainment† take place. Maximus, badly wounded dies soon after giving the Empire to the senators to become republic. Even though these two stories have their differences, they are both dramatic tragedies. The emotion that a tragic character portrays helps us to relate and become more entranced with the story. Up until the heroes have died they have got to know that person. They have understood the character, their motivations, and reactions. When they die, they have died courageously for what they have believed in. In life we are always looking for an â€Å"idol† hero-worshipping. Our fascination for dramatic tragedy has survived throughout the years because man in his inadequate ways needs to have someone whom they can look up to, so to speak. Lets face it we are often intrigued by human suffering especially if it is for noble causes. People often carry the same beliefs as these leaders, and fully support them. These heroes are the epitome of what we believe in, willing to die for causes. We love to believe that someone is willing to go to that extent for our beliefs. Their deaths often accomplish what could not be done while they were alive. This is illustrated when Maximus says â€Å"what we do in life, echoes in eternity.† The similarities and differences in Hamlet and Gladiator are what help make dramatic tragedies survive through the ages. However, it is not only in movies or plays, it is also in real life. These heroes have died for what they believed in and have made a difference in our lives. It gives us strength to face the world we live in today, and it gives us understanding as to why these leaders are fighting. This is why dramatic tragedies have survived throughout the ages, and this is why they will continue to survive for years to come.

Using Play Activities to Increase Comprehension

For my undertaking I wanted to concentrate on an country that involved some kind of pupil play/interaction. I teach Pre-K so most of what my pupils do is through geographic expedition utilizing haptic procedures. My pupils truly bask books and I can state when I ‘m reading that they are wholly engaged in what ‘s to come. Through observation of my pupils I besides know that they enjoy moving out assorted things while they are at centres. Since some of my childs seem to hold problem with comprehension and retrieving cardinal information from the book I thought that conveying the book to life might be helpful for those fighting.Background/Class Information:I teach at SGA Elementary School in Sardis, GA which is located in Burke County. This school has grades Pre-K through 5th. There is 1 principal, 1 frailty principal, 1 instructional coordinator, 1 counsellor, 1 medical helper, 1 office director and 2 office forces. The school is comprised of 33 schoolrooms, including the r esources: art, physical instruction, and music. Grades Pre-K through 3rd all have a paraprofessional in each room and 4th and 5th portion a drifting paraprofessional between the grades/classes. This school is in a really rural portion of the county. Income degrees are really low and most parents suffer from high unemployment. If parents do work it is for a low paying/minimum pay occupation. Because of this factor all pupils are served a free breakfast and tiffin everyday at school. Pre-k besides receives a bite at the terminal of the twenty-four hours that is provided by our lunchroom. At this school there are 401 entire pupils. There are a sum of 186 females with the cultural dislocation including: 3 Hispanic, 4 multi-racial, 71 White, and 108 Black. For the males, there are a sum of 215 including: 4 Hispanic, 4 Multi-racial, 77 White, and 130 Black. Since we do hold several households in our school that are Latino the school recognizes that there is a linguistic communication barrier. We have a transcriber who can be used in order to assist do communicating easier for them every bit good as ourselves. Most households have household members who can assist and they will come to events in order to help them. In my schoolroom I have 1 Latino pupil. She began the twelvemonth talking broken English and has now progressed, but still gets hung up on a few thoughts. Her male parent speaks really small English with a strong speech pattern and her female parent speaks no English at all. When he needs to talk to me or I need to talk to him about his kid they prefer to utiliz e their girl to assist with interlingual rendition. The parents said that made them more comfy to utilize her so I have ne'er had to use the services of our transcriber, but the linguistic communication barrier truly has n't been excessively large of an issue. In my schoolroom I have 20 pupils. It consists of 11 misss and 9 male childs. For the misss I have 3 White, 7 Black, and 1 Hispanic. I have 6 White male childs and 3 Black male childs. In my schoolroom it is myself and a paraprofessional. She has been in a Pre-K schoolroom for 5 old ages. We reasonably much have an equal distribution as to what we do, how we do it, and how things get accomplished. I teach the bulk of the clip, but there are times in which she will learn calendar. She ever assists when we are in a big group puting and making an activity during that clip. We portion a joint function in carry oning little group. I have created groups based on degree. We decide what needs the pupils have and seek to come up with activities to assist them pattern so they can get down acquiring better at them. This is the country in which I can see the pupils profiting from the most because they are able to acquire our one-on-one attending and we, in bend, are able to truly concentrate on them and assist them where they struggle. Or if we see that they can make a undertaking with easiness we give them something to dispute them. Needs are tweaked harmonizing to the groups .Action Research Question:The focal point of my undertaking was based on the inquiry: if after reading narratives aloud to my pupils I give them different avenues to research the narratives during centre clip will this assist them develop a better apprehension for what is read? As I mentioned earlier, I knew this was the country I needed to concentrate on since some of my pupils had problem with comprehension. I do n't cognize really many childs who do n't bask playing either so integrating it with something active seemed best. Even while carry oning my research I did n't hold any countries of my inquiry that needed to be changed.Supporting Datas:Description:Students ‘ chief exposure to books in a pre-k schoolroom is to nursery rimes and authoritative narratives. Nursery rhymes present the footing for a narrative: a character, an event and an stoping ( GSU, 2008 ) . Students besides gain understanding through the beat and repeat. With authoritative narratives, pupils are able to larn the difference between fact and phantasy every bit good as understanding the construction of a book ( GSU, 2008 ) . This manner, there is a clear beginning, center and terminal for the pupils. A instructor should learn one rime a hebdomad, highlight one a month, integrate a rime into a unit and promote kids to move out the narrative or rime by supplying chances at big group and/or centre clip ( GSU, 2008 ) . To advance narrative comprehension and enjoyment, pulling and treatment are widely practiced and accepted in simple schools, but a 3rd less frequently adept manner to follow up reading to kids is dramatic drama ( Galda, 1982 ) . Children connect books to play by actively seeking for book-related playthings and props in order to back up comprehension through set uping a more concrete appreciation on thoughts. Book-related make-believe drama represents a richer method of supervising pupils ‘ apprehension of narratives, traveling beyond the typical inquiries and simpl e retellings ( Welsch, 2008 ) . A focal point on drama around familiar narratives and literature capitalizes on the plot lines that define pretend strategies ( Welsch, 2008 ) . Literacy related activities allow kids to polish their turning constructs of the maps of written linguistic communication and supply valuable, extremely meaningful pattern with emergent reading and authorship ( Christie, 1991 ) . Within an early childhood schoolroom, book-related make-believe drama could be considered an equal chance experience, in which every pupil can set on the chapeau, pick up the fork, travel in the house, and enter the universe of the narrative ( Welsch, 2008 ) . Recognizing that a kid acquires linguistic communication through active engagement and that literature provides rich linguistic communication theoretical accounts, storytelling and retellings is an first-class technique for furthering growing in linguistic communication and increasing comprehension ( Biegler, 1998 ) .Implementa tion Ideas:â€Å" Preschool and kindergarten schoolrooms, even those specifically designed as intercessions for kids at hazard of reading troubles, must be designed to back up cognitive, linguistic communication, and societal development, including exciting verbal interaction and enriching kids ‘s vocabularies. Play affords kids chances to develop physical, societal, and cognitive abilities that will function them subsequently in non-play state of affairss † ( Christensen and Kelly, 2003 ) . There are a figure of things that can be done in a schoolroom to increase a pupil ‘s comprehension. The chief manner is through dramatic drama. Using props and other stuffs makes the narratives come to life. Teachers can first supply a assortment of rereading experiences: spouse reading, Readers Theatre, echo reading, choral reading, shared reading, single reading ( Hicks, 2009-2010 ) . All of these things help with eloquence and increase comprehension. Play activities are the centre of immature pupils ‘ zones of proximal development, where new cognition is gained through societal interactions with more competent participants and, while feigning, pupils translate their perceptual experiences of the existent universe into the actions that create and define the universe of drama ( Welsch, 2008 ) . On their ain and by their ain choosing, pupils may utilize this type of drama to research the most cardinal intent of literacy, the building of significance ( Welsch, 2008 ) . High-level drama is widely recognized as an instructional scheme that builds linguistic communication, vocabulary, and underlying cognitive accomplishments necessary for kids to go successful readers and authors ( Christensen and Kelly, 2003 ) . Children pattern verbal and narrative accomplishments that are of import to the development of reading comprehension and instructors can help the linguistic communication and literacy development through high-ranking drama in the undermentione d ways: 1. ) triping or developing kids ‘s background cognition for the drama scene, 2. ) scaffolding the building of scenarios and retellings, 3. ) going involved in drama scenes to steer the kids ‘s attending and larning through mold and interaction, 4. ) supplying the appropriate sum of unequivocal and narrative props, and 5. ) supplying clip and infinite for high-ranking drama ( Christensen and Kelly, 2003 ) . Research has demonstrated that use of the schoolroom drama environment through physical agreement of drama centres, inclusion of literacy-related stuffs ( pencils, paper, typewriter, etc. ) , and dramatic drama props can impact the quality and assortment of a kid ‘s unwritten linguistic communication usage, battle in literacy behaviours, and narrative comprehension ( Monson and Nielsen, 1996 ) . Some narratives lend themselves to the usage of marionettes, felt-boards and still others can be developed as prop narratives which make storytelling semen alive, exciting the imaginativeness and affecting the hearer ( Biegler, 1998 ) .Research Findingss:Assorted surveies have been done as to whether or non these signifiers of active engagement work. Analysiss of cases where drama was related to the significances of the books the kids had read indicated that each case of book-related dramatic drama could be described in footings of six belongingss including ( a ) the range of drama, ( B ) the type of connexion constructed between books and drama books, ( degree Celsius ) kids ‘s intents for drama, ( vitamin D ) the position or point of position explored, ( vitamin E ) the mark systems used and their relation to book reading events, and ( degree Fahrenheit ) the sorts of societal interaction involved ( Rowe, 1998 ) . Rowe ( 1998 ) besides noted that analyses demonstrated that the kids created direct linkages between their book and drama experiences. Children ‘s book-to-play connexions involved: linking books to the universe of obj ects by turn uping and keeping book-related playthings and props, personal response to books through dramatic passages of feelings and actions, take parting in book-reading events through the character of a make-believe character, aesthetic reenactments of book events, screening out the writer ‘s significances through drama, character surveies and utilizing book subjects and characters as springboards for personal enquiries about the universe ( Roskos and Christie, 2000 ) . Authors Pellegrini and Galda noted the importance of the equal interaction and the good facets of make-believe as lending to pupils ‘ increased ability to understand the narrative ( Welsch, 2008 ) . The Committee on the Prevention of Reading Difficulties in Young Children clearly saw high-ranking drama as an instructional scheme that Fosters literacy development and future reading success in which kids reflect on state of affairss through dramatisation ( Christensen and Kelly, 2003 ) . In a survey don e by Deborah Rowe she suggested that there are a figure of features of the drama observed in her survey that may hold provided both motive and chance for the immature kids ‘s literacy acquisition: connexion, ownership, flexibleness, openness, multiple mark systems, transmediation and community ( Rowe, 1998 ) . The consequences from Bieglers ‘ survey was that kids exhibited greater comprehension and narrative memory by utilizing dramatic narrative reenactment than those who reconstructed narratives in instructor led direction and art activities and narrative related comprehension was most efficaciously facilitated by prosecuting in fantasy drama and retellings ( Biegler, 1998 ) . Jodi Welsch wrote an article in 2008 entitled, Playing within and beyond the narrative: encouraging book-related make-believe drama. In this article there are many good points covering with pupils playing and groking information. Welsch ( 2008 ) stated that kids connect books to play by actively seeking for book-related playthings and props in order to back up comprehension through set uping a more concrete appreciation on thoughts. Book-related make-believe drama represents a richer method of supervising pupils ‘ apprehension of narratives, traveling beyond the typical inquiries and simple retellings because a focal point on drama around familiar narratives and literature capitalizes on the plot lines that define pretend strategies ( Welsch, 2008 ) . Two writers, Pellegrini and Galda are quoted in Welsch ( 2008 ) observing the importance of the equal interaction and the good facets of make-believe drama as lending to pupils ‘ increased ability to understand the narrative . Play activities are the centre of immature pupils ‘ zones of proximal development, where new cognition is gained through societal interactions with more competent participants and, while feigning, pupils translate their perceptual experiences of the existent universe into the actions that create and define the universe of drama ( Welsch, 2008 ) . On their ain and by their ain choosing, pupils may utilize this type of drama to research the most cardinal intent of literacy, the building of significance ( Welsch, 2008 ) .Plan and Timeline:Execution of this scheme took topographic point over a 10 twenty-four hours span in my schoolroom from February 1st through the 12th. I taught a unit on nursery rimes one hebdomad and faery tales/tall narratives during the other hebdomad. I eased my category into the alterations during our unit clip as we discussed the narratives. The manner it was introduced to my pupils and carried out is as follows: -Monday ( 2/1 ) : The unit for the hebdomad is Nursery Rhymes. I introduced what a baby's room rime was, elements that it contained, and talked about riming words. -Tuesday ( 2/2 ) : I read â€Å" Humpty Dumpty † to my category. We talked about all the words that sounded likewise in the verse form. They so did an activity where they drew what Humpty Dumpty might ‘ve been if he had n't fallen off of the wall. I added this felt board narrative to our marionette centre in the loft. -Wednesday ( 2/3 ) : Today we talked about â€Å" Mary had a Small Lamb. † I foremost played the vocal and most of the childs recognized it and sang along. I so read it to them and added the book and music to the hearing centre. -Thursday ( 2/4 ) : I talked about the baby's room rime, â€Å" Jack be Agile. † I had a little taper holder with a taper in it and I had my childs take bends stating the rime and jumping over the candle stick. After the lesson was over I put the candle holder in our dramatic drama country. -Friday ( 2.5 ) : The concluding baby's room rime we covered was â€Å" 5 Small Ducks. † We discussed how this utilised math and numbering backwards/down. As we read the narrative I had 5 pupils keeping a duck and each clip one went off I had the pupil sit down. I besides played this on a Cadmium and the pupils took turns moving it out with the ducks. The Cadmium was added to the music centre. Five ducks were placed in music as props and the other ducks were placed in math as manipulatives. -Monday ( 2/8 ) : This started the hebdomad in which I introduced fairy narratives and tall narratives. I started out by giving different scenarios and the pupils had to assist me calculate out if it was the truth or a story. I so explained the elements of these types of narratives and had the pupils create one of their ain through a drawing. My paraprofessional and myself dictated their responses. -Tuesday ( 2/9 ) : I started by reading Cinderella. I wanted pupils to assist me foretell what would go on following since I figured this was a familiar narrative to them. I added a Cinderella costume and a suit coat to the dramatic drama country. -Wednesday ( 2/10 ) : Today I read â€Å" The Elvess and the Shoemaker. † After discoursing the book I had pupils pull what they would make to assist people if they were charming elves. My paraprofessional and myself dictated their responses. -Thursday ( 2/11 ) : â€Å" Small Red Riding Hood † was discussed today. I talked about aliens and asked pupils if they thought this could truly go on. The book and tape for this narrative was placed in the hearing centre. -Friday ( 2/12 ) : To stop the hebdomad I read â€Å" The 3 Small Pigs. † I had the pupils help me foretell what would go on to each house and each hog as we went through the book. I added gum elastic hog noses to the dramatic drama country every bit good as the felt board narrative to the marionette centre in the loft. -*All books from both hebdomads were kept out on my bookcase so pupils could utilize them during independent clip or if they chose the reading centre.Consequences:During this procedure I monitored pupils as I read and as they chose centres. While watching them as I read I looked to see if they were reacting to voices, certain parts of the book and if they were replying the inquiries I asked at different points throughout reading. This helped me cognize right off the chiropteran if they were groking or non. This besides helped me do note of who I could watch during centres to see if they utilized any of the points I placed around the room after reading the books. I was surprised because the bulk of those that seemed lost during me reading the book frequently selected reading or hearing and selected those books we had talked about. I could hear them reading out loud and utilizing the images in the book to assist steer them so they could state what was go oning. They would acquire excit ed when they would acknowledge that was something I had shared with them and it seemed to intend more to them than merely picking a book at random. It was amusing to watch pupils at the hearing centre excessively because they would hold their earphones on and be in the quiet zone, but all of a sudden you would hear them get down stating the narrative out loud. In the dramatic drama country all of the props and costumes were the first things anyone grabbed. There were a few who would set on the Cinderella costume and say that she was a princess and drama in it, but there were others who would have on it and truly acquire into moving out the narrative. I do n't hold many male childs that go to the dramatic drama country because aside from dress-up apparels it is largely used by the misss as the housekeeping country. There was one male child that struggles to grok narratives and he selected dramatic drama everyday after we read Cinderella and he would travel over at that place and set on the suit and feign to be Prince Charming. He did a great occupation at reciting assorted things that happened so he truly benefited from the excess support. The last country I added things in was our marionette centre in the loft. The pupils truly enjoyed the felt board narratives. I have had felt board stories up at that place all twelvemonth and I can merely remember two times in which they have been used. After reading the narratives and adding them to that centre everyone that went up at that place used the pieces to recite the narratives. It was incredible to me since it had seldom been used in the yesteryear that they would utilize it every bit much as they did and every bit efficaciously as they did. One thing that truly stood out to me was pupils who would choose the authorship and art centres. While in these centres about all of the pupils over the two hebdomad span brought me something they had created and told me it was a certain portion from one of the books we had di scussed. I thought that was neat because even though I had n't added anything new for them to utilize they still utilized the stuffs they had to demo their enjoyment and comprehension of the narratives.Artifacts:Throughout this procedure I did several things in order to roll up informations and do observations. As I mentioned in the subdivision above, I foremost watched the pupils as I read/introduced the book and made a mental note of who I was most funny to watch during halfway clip. Then during centre clip I circulated the room and listened to student treatments as they played. The bulk of them, at least for a part of the clip exhausted playing, related in some manner to the books we had discussed. If I saw pupils dressed up as a character, stating a felt board narrative or listening/reading one of the books we had talked about I would acquire my camera and snarl some images. I video recorded several pupils reciting nursery rhymes on the felt board every bit good as a group in dr amatic drama re-enacting the ball from â€Å" Cinderella. †Decision:I feel that this procedure was an utmost success and thoroughly replies a resonant yes to my research inquiry. I was really pleased at the overpowering response by my pupils to the props that were accessible to them. The chief intent of my end was to see if this helped more with comprehension and I can state that it truly did. I have several pupils who ca n't state me anything about a narrative after it is read and those are some of the 1s I focused on watching. They all, at some point or another, chose a centre and selected an activity within that centre entirely because they recognized it from our readings. All of them were able to state at least a portion of the narrative, if non all of a narrative, when utilizing the props. This is decidedly something that I will go on to make every bit much as possible in order to go on to assist those pupils who struggle to grok. For those that can grok good it will go on to function as added support for their content cognition.

Heroes and Villains: Explore the ways sympathy for and/or dislike of a character is created in the text you have studied. Essay

INTRODUCTION: In the novella ‘Of Mice and Men’, Steinbeck has used many different language features in order to create such a complex and sophisticated character whom I will be investigating – Curley’s wife. Curley’s wife is a pivotal character. She has been presented as a villain in the early stages of the book and her character seems to unravel as we read on. As a reader, we comprehend the factors which had influenced her actions and how living in a misogynistic society has affected the way she behaves – alternating the way we feel about this character and instead sympathy begins to develop, demolishing all the negativity that was created towards her in the first half of the novella. In this essay I will be exploring the language techniques that Steinbeck uses in order to create both sympathy and dislike for Curley’s wife. DISLIKE: The first time we hear about Curley’s wife is from an unfavourable insight of her when Candy is in conversation with George and Lennie, which Steinbeck portrays through dialogue. We begin to perceive that Curley’s wife is a mean and seductive temptress as â€Å"she got they eye† and it has only been the period of two short weeks that she has been forced into a marital relationship with Curley, and is already beginning to commit signs of deceit. Due to Curley’s wife’s lack of power, she aims to attract the rancher’s attention through her physical appearance as this is the only method of gaining any form of communication with a person on the ranch. This quotation could also suggest that Curley’s wife is a ‘whore’ and has a wondering eye therefore proclaiming that she is a flirtatious, self obsessed and an egotistical woman who has the power to trap men in her very own spiraled web. However, during this time, women w ere seen as an object which held no power or dignity. They were degraded in their society and were only used for the purpose of sex, therefore, females were taught at an early age to behave in this manner to gain at least some form of attention. By demonstrating Curley’s wife’s actions through dialogue in this scene, Steinbeck wanted to introduce the audience to the compulsion that women had to undergo as a result of them being lowly regarded in society. DISLIKE: Additionally, Steinbeck again develops dislike towards Curley’s Wife’s character when she makes her very first appearance. He does this by using symbolism. When she was first presented in the book, â€Å"the rectangle of sunshine in the doorway was cut off† providing a strong indication that Curley’s wife is an extreme threat to George and Lennie’s stereotypical American dream. This can be inferred as the word ‘sunshine’ is referring to George and Lennie’s dream. However, when the violent phrase ‘cut off’ is sequenced straight after the blissful word previously mentioned, negative vibes are echoed as this is symbolising that Curley’s wife will surely cause the destruction of ‘living off the fatta the land’, foreshadowing the potential dangers that are yet to come. An alternative meaning to this quote may be that Curley’s wife is the obstacle that is impossible to overcome in order to accomplish their dream, which has been furnished with small but significant details time and time again. The reader begins to question whether there is an inevitability to the novella’s end†¦ The context that this is relating to is that the slightest of movements of women are powerful enough to completely demolish the good intentions that men may have had of them (which was highly unlikely at the time). Steinbeck wanted the audience to know that Curley’s wife is going to be the reason for George and Lennie’s bad fate that they’ve been destined with. He wanted the audience to acknowledge that women were the only barrier between a man and his dream. However, he also pursues the idea of the futility of the American dream and reminds the reader that the dream will have been left a dream anyhow, and will never have transformed into reality, no matter how hard they try. DISLIKE: In Section two, Curley’s Wife’s description is continued and from this, the author formates further antagonistic feelings towards her through the use of colour imagery and symbolism. She is described as having â€Å"full rouged lips† and that her â€Å"fingernails were red†, and is also wearing a dress with â€Å"red mules†. Curley’s wife’s whole outfit is constantly referred to the colour red and Steinbeck has intentionally, repeatedly mentioned this colour in Curley’s wife’s description to emphasise the significance of it. This clarifies that Curley’s wife is going to be a potential threat to George and Lennie’s dream. She is a sign of jeopardy and Steinbeck is foreshadowing that she will bring harm to George and Lennie’s dream. This  idea can then be confirmed to be rightfully conceived as the colour ‘red’ is also symbolic of danger, aggression and violence. This links to th e woman in weed who was also dressed in red, indicating that Lennie will attack Curley’s wife as she is also dressed in red. Here, Steinbeck is foreshadowing the future of the book. Throughout the novel, we discover that George and Lennie’s dream is indeed shattered because of Curley’s wife. Steinbeck is once again reiterating the futility of the American dream, reminding the audience that not all wishes come true. DISLIKE: Another way in which Steinbeck stimulates dislike for this character is through the use of dialogue. In section four, she says, â€Å"Listen, Nigger†¦ You know what I can do if you open your trap?† This quotation accentuates the fact that Curley’s wife is deliberately making Crooks feel inferior just because he is a ‘negro’. During this time, dark skinned people had no respect or status in society. They were equivalent to the invisible atmosphere. Meanwhile, women were also socially degraded and to be in the circumstance of living in a misogynistic society and being the only woman on a ranch full of men, it was not the ideal place for a woman. Hence, Crooks was the only person on the ranch that Curley’s wife claimed more power over, which is the reason to her offensive behaviour. We feel hatred towards Curley’s wife as she has deliberately singled Crooks out, threatened him, and is now humiliating him in front of people who alrea dy consider him to be of minor existence. By portraying this negative aspect towards Curley’s wife, Steinbeck wanted to show that the only person Curley’s wife seemed the slightest of superior towards, was to the most degraded person on the ranch – Crooks. The author also pursues the idea of power in this scene. SYMPATHY: Conversely, Curley’s wife is also presented as lonely and isolated and Steinbeck depicts this through foreshadowing and animalistic imagery. When Curley’s wife is first presented in the novella, it says that her dress is designed with â€Å"little bouquets of red ostrich feathers†. The fact that Steinbeck has included the word ‘ostrich’ in his description of Curley’s wife’s first appearance, it proposes the idea that Curley’s wife is trapped as an ostrich is a bird that is incapable of flight and Curley’s wife too, is captured in a prison, from which she cannot escape. Steinbeck has chosen  to make a resemblance between Curley’s wife and the ostrich to symbolise that she is in a relationship with an arrogant man and is unhappy with her life – yet it is impossible to withdraw from, likewise the ostrich being unable to fly. This idea associates with the event of her death which takes place in Sectio n five. The quote, â€Å"a pigeon flew in through the open hay door† is possibly suggesting that death was the only way of escaping her unfortunate and miserable life. This can be inferred as the author is now relating her to a pigeon which is a bird that can fly, therefore implying freedom. SYMPATHY: Furthermore, Steinbeck again creates sympathy for Curley’s wife by introducing her maternal side when she is talking to Lennie in the barn. Steinbeck does this through the use of calm and comforting adjectives. In the novella, it states that â€Å"she consoled him† and she also â€Å"moved closer to him† and spoke â€Å"soothingly†. All the words utilised in this phrase are a clear portrayal that Curley’s wife is in fact a very cordial and affectionate woman and is only forced to act the way she does due to her loneliness and desperation of the desire to speak to someone. An alternative meaning may be that she is genuinely a very nice person but cannot project her true character due to the perceptions that have already been made of her as she is a woman. Steinbeck wanted to show the audience that men in a misogynistic society had always been prejudice about women and women were disadvantaged as a result of that. They were unable to be seen as nothing but a ‘tart’ or a ‘bitch’ which is exactly how Curley’s wife was viewed. She was branded with these titles and no one ever payed attention towards the consistence of her personality hidden beneath her physical appearance. SYMPATHY: Steinbeck creates a compassionate feeling towards Curley’s wife as we come to learn about her dream in Section five. She is illustrated as a very innocent character and Steinbeck does this through the use of dialogue. In the revelation of Curley’s wife’s dream, we learn that she wanted to be an actress. She says, â€Å"He said he was gonna put me in the movies. Says I was a natural.† This quotation indicates that Curley’s wife was very naive as she was unaware that the man was only using her to fufil his own satisfactions. He had no intention of making her an actress and simply used  her for his desires. However, Curley’s Wife was too innocent to understand disloyalty and deceit that she instead, blamed her mother for not receiving the letter she was promised. An alternative reason may be that she was too engrossed into her dream that she was in denial to accept the fact that the repulsive man was a fraud with no sense of emotion, and had only taken advantage of her as she was vulnerable and young. The author creates sympathy for Curley’s wife in this scene as she still believes that she would have been an actress if it weren’t for her mother. She is ignorant to the truth as a result of her innocence and is not ready to accept the facts. Steinbeck reiterates the idea of the futility of the American dream as once again, another dream has gone down the drain. Steinbeck wants to show the audience that the American dream will always remain a dream regardless of how much effort is made to fulfil it. SYMPATHY: The final departure of Curley’s wife from the book is completed with a content description of her in death. Steinbeck creates affectionate emotions towards Curley’s wife by using innocent descriptive words. She is described as â€Å"pretty and simple† and â€Å"sweet and young† and to be â€Å"sleeping very lightly†. The descriptive words in these quotes have been chosen under the specification of contentment and youth. We feel sympathy for Curley’s wife as Steinbeck once again reminds the readers of Curley’s wife’s innocence which emphasises that Curley’s wife did not truly deserve death. Alternatively, the words ‘pretty’ and ‘simple’ are often used to describe youthful people and for the first time in the book, Curley’s wife was described like this, rather than a ‘tart’, therefore suggesting that Curley’s wife is not what we had initially thought she was. Th is contrast is extremely significant as it shows us the transition of the two different perceptions that were made of her throughout the novel. However, even after the death of Curley’s wife, the ranchers were only silent due to the devastating shock they had received. But within minutes, the silent mourning had ended as the men had realised that they need to move on. Life during The Great Depression was like a cycle. If one worker was fired, another took his position. Similarly, Curley’s wife was replaceable. Steinbeck wanted the audience gain knowledge of the hardships of the women living in a misogynistic society, and of the men struggling through The Great  Depression. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, Steinbeck presents Curley’s wife as both a hero and villain. Steinbeck manipulates the readers making it seem as if Curley’s wife is at fault. Before we even meet Curley’s wife, snide comments are made by the ranchers. She is called a ‘tart’, ‘looloo’ and ‘she’s got the eye’. This shows that Steinbeck wants us as the reader to dislike her. However, it is only in section five that we learn about her maternal figure, youth and innocence. This leaves the reader with the option of whether to dislike or feel sympathy for her. Finally, we never learn her name, and this stops us from empathising with her, and we begin to develop sexist views that she is less than the other characters, which will have been perceived at the time.

Second Chance Act of 2007 Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Second Chance Act of 2007 - Research Paper Example The legislation was passed under pressure from the criminal justice system, which releases nearly 650,000 men and women each year from state and federal prisons. The United States Congress deemed it necessary for the federal government to provide protections and services to these individuals such that the costs of providing such public interest services outweigh the costs of unsuccessful transitions back into society. The legislation, until repealed or changed, will provide useful for former members of prison populations attempting to make a successful reentry into their respective communities. The social justice aspect of the legislation revolves around the concept of disadvantage for one part of the population: namely, recently released prisoners. In the past and the present, when individuals are released from prison or jail, they are at a distinct disadvantage. Because it is society that puts these individuals at a disadvantage, it is perceived social justice responsibility of soc iety to give them that advantage in proportion to what was lost.

Description and Work Aspects of Amazon Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Description and Work Aspects of Amazon - Essay Example Amazon.com is one of the pioneers of online shopping. Founded and operated by Jeff Bezos, this company began operations from Seattle but quickly spread to many different parts of the world including UK, Germany, Japan, Spain, Canada, Brazil, and China. This company now offers a wide range of products and has even started offering innovative services such as cloud computing (Amazon, 2013). Amazon.com works on a consumer-centric approach and it is on account of this approach that this company invests heavily in research and development and comes up with innovative products time and again. Despite the recession, Amazon.com has been able to enjoy a growth spurt of 14 percent (Stockport, 2010). Amazon was able to show a growth spurt even in a recession because of the leadership it has in the form of Jeff Bezos. He revolutionized the use of internet and the way consumers shop by introducing an online bookstore. Previously, consumers were skeptical of shopping through the internet as they feared being cheated. However, this perception was altered through revolutionary entrepreneurs such as Bezos. Now online websites are being increasingly preferred over brick and mortar shops; especially for goods such as music and books. Change is the only thing constant in the technology industry. Since Amazon is included within this industry, it faces the pressure of being obsolete. It has to continuously upgrade itself and come up with new products in order to retain its presence in the industry. Technology has also made it possible for improving the reach of the consumers. With the introduction of Android and other such phones, the online store is even more accessible to the average consumers. They can even purchase, sell or use the website on the go. The company has always focused on the needs of the consumers. Any strategy or move that the company made, it made for the good of the customers.  

Facility Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Facility Management - Essay Example ‘Green buildings provide financial benefits that conventional buildings do not’ (Kats 2003). This dissertation attempts to find an optimum path for green construction where the possibly higher costs of using sustainable technologies and materials can be offset by lower running costs of such facilities. Facilities management mainly deals with the management of facilities of communal buildings like offices, colleges, hospitals, etc. Facility management is very similar to property management but is in most cases applied to larger commercial properties where the operations and management of the building is more extensive and complex. Newer buildings and facilities need to be developed with a ‘green’ design basis, contextual relevance, cost sensitivity, adherence to building code as also the fundamental requirement of functioning in the best manner possible i.e. it is very important that the building serve its necessity (Atkins& Brooks, 2005). A green building consists of several aspects, including the building envelope, building services including HVAC, Electricals, IBMS, Efficient waste management (including solid waste and e-waste) and a Water Balance Plan that seeks to reach a point where all the amount of water that the facility needs is used productively within it. S tress on the importance on the building envelope in the ‘greening’ of a facility is obvious, as it is in many ways the first line of defence against wasteful energy expenditure. It may be considered like an epidermal covering that regulates the inside, as also indicated the status of components within the body. It is important as a gateway between the climate-controlled interior and the uncontrolled exterior environment. This allows for a differentiation from the surroundings and provides an entity for the building on its own (Barret & Baldry, 1991). The

Drivers of automobiles using cellular phones Essay

Drivers of automobiles using cellular phones - Essay Example Use of cell phone while driving is no less dangerous than drunk driving, and thus, should be condemned equally. People tend to deny that using cell phones while driving is dangerous and see it as a debatable topic. Cell phone use while driving is dangerous and the biggest evidence of this is the acknowledgement of dangers associated with this practice by the people who indulge in it. According to Gallup and Gallup (2003, p. 432), two-thirds of people that make use of cell phone as they drive disregard the idea that this practice is safe. There has been considerable law-making against eating while driving and sitting a child on the lap of the driver while he/she drives. Cell phone use while driving is much more dangerous than any of these cases because this practice distracts the driver mentally and makes him/her mentally absent while he/she is physically on the driving seat. The risk of using cell phone while driving increases considerably with age. As people age, they decline in the ir agility of reflexes and are not able to make best use of their capabilities. Ranney and Pulling (1990) have noted declines in the processing of information with increase of age. Arenberg (1982) determined increased difficulty in problem solving with increased age while Temple (1989) found that increase in age causes short term memory. All of these factors make the driving increasingly riskier. Findings of these researchers suggest that old people are more susceptible to accidents when they use cell phones while driving as compared to the young people. A lot of research has been conducted in the past to suggest that use of cell phone while driving is dangerous. Use of cell phones instantly slows down the reaction time of drivers and hence, makes them more susceptible to be caught in accidents. Young people hearing calls along with driving are no better than sleepy septuagenarians. David Strayer, the Professor of Psychology in the University of Utah conducted a comprehensive resear ch to analyze the effects of cell phone use on the capability of drivers. The team of researchers determined in 2001 that even the hands-free calls play an important role in distracting the drivers. A reason for this was found in 2003 as a result of the continued research. They found that although the cell phone using drivers look, yet they are not able to see because their mind is focusing on the conversation. If you put a 20-year-old driver behind the wheel with a cell phone, their reaction times are the same as a 70-year-old driver who is not using a cell phone †¦ It’s like instantly aging a large number of drivers †¦ Once drivers on cell phones hit the brakes, it takes them longer to get back into the normal flow of traffic †¦ The net result is they are impeding the overall flow of traffic. (Strayer cited in Britt, 2005). Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign second the results derived by Strayer and his team. Arthur Kramer, the re search leader said that the cell phone using drivers of any age are not able to pick out significant changes in the surroundings, and their reaction time is also longer accordingly (Britt, 2005). Number of deaths in US per year that can be attributed to the use of cell phones while driving is 26000 while 330000 injuries happen because of accidents that

How Pa Chin's novel Family reflects the tensions withtin chinese Term Paper

How Pa Chin's novel Family reflects the tensions withtin chinese society and within the chinese family - Term Paper Example This book will be of interest to all who are interested in the society and history of modern China. Family is the story of the Kao family which consists of four generations. The story takes place in Chengtu, a large city in the province of Szechwan. The novel’s principal characters are the three brothers, Chueh-hsin, Chueh-min and Chueh-hui. The brothers live with their uncles and aunts, cousins and their grandfather, the Venerable Master Kao, in their family estate. It is the Venerable Master Kao who is the autocrat in the family, in control of all family affairs, unable and unwilling to admit that his country and his family are changing with time. Chueh-hsin, the eldest and the meekest of the three brothers, takes over the responsibility of his younger brothers after the death of their father. Chueh-hsin is supposedly responsible for his brothers, but as the novel progresses we come to know how much or rather how little control he has over them. He is married against his wishes to a woman chosen by his family. He is doing a job he hates, this too being chosen by his famil y. He is shown navigating through life using his "compliant bow" philosophy which to him means that he should not oppose the elders of the family under any circumstance. Chueh-min, the second brother, is determined to marry the girl he loves in spite of his familys opposition. The youngest brother, Chueh-hui, hates everything the family represents and is trying hard to break the fetters and live life according to his wishes. Each brother is facing challenges at home, a home characterized by archaic morality and hierarchical dependence that was typical of those days. The brothers are caught in between the old system and their desire for a new system. The book records the daily lives of the Kao family. The situations that are described, unique as they may be to that time, are similar to many circumstances of todays world, such as the

Contemporary Management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Contemporary Management - Assignment Example Organisations are established with the aim of being successful in meeting set objectives for the management. Being successful in Organisational management requires interplay of many factors. It is a whole process ranging from people management to successful application of strategies that deliver expected outcomes. In addition, there are many interpersonal and intrapersonal skills which when effectively implemented, are crucial towards achieving success in established organizations. In order to appear effective and successful, most Organisational managers themselves competitive advantages by scouting for best talents in human resources. In doing this, they hope that the key personnel can successfully achieve business objectives and deliver quality work to attract clients, hence becoming successful (Right Management 2014, para 1). Generally, there are many tools, strategies and formulas available to managers on how they can effectively work with both human and non-human resources to meet strategic goals and achieve Organisational objectives. Many of the tools available to managers will always present an extensive analysis of a single tool giving it more preference. When managers apply this tool it becomes strength to the organisation. Having wide knowledge about a certain concept is a huge advantage since it gives an organisation a competitive advantage. When the challenge arises it is usually effectively tackled and the organisation continues with normal operations without worries and doubts (British Quality Foundation, n.d, para, 2-3). However, the above approach is not very desirable in effective organizational management, there are many areas that drive overall success in organizations. Being good in one area alone means there are many others sidelined. This may bring a scenario where benefits from a particular initiative may not be celebrated or shared in the entire business organisation. Quality standards stipulate that

The Aims and Goals of Jackson Pollock Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The Aims and Goals of Jackson Pollock - Essay Example The paper "The Aims and Goals of Jackson Pollock" discusses Jackson Pollock, his art and his aims. He often used hard sticks and even paint applicators to make an abstract. He not only had a different style but also his work has being majorly influenced by many artists from around the world and even Lee Krasner who he married. His possible influence was a Ukrainian artist Janet Sobel. He was a struggling alcoholic who in 1939 he visited a Jungian analyst to treat his alcoholism who encouraged him to paint, which also influenced his work a lot, his paintings not only showed his thoughts but also the fear and terror in humanity living in the times of nuclear war. Indian culture also played an important role in his work, he was influenced mainly by sand painting, and Indian culture also influenced him in a way where he use to get ideas for subjects and motifs for his drawings. Many art critics have said that his work has shown nature of chaos motion, it expressed the chaos theory even b efore it had been formed. Jason Pollock has been one of the most significant artist in the field of abstract expressionism. His work has been very different from the art at that time, his paintings bought together techniques like Cubism, Surrealism, and Impressionism which made his work stand out from other paintings. And for that reason he has been in the spotlight of media since then, people have written about him made biographical films on his life and his art is still recognised among the master pieces of abstract expressionism.

Identifying Fallacies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Identifying Fallacies - Essay Example In this regard, a rosy picture of Iraq is painted so as to hide the fact that armed battle was going on in that country. The use of the words "brutal, calculating and instructive" already suggests prejudice. These biased terms are used so as to justify to the American public and persuade people to positively perceive the Administration's decision to wage a war on Iraq. One of the programming companies, which develops anti-virus for computers, came up with an internet advertisement that shows all the files in your computer being deleted when one clicks an "OK" button on a pop-up screen. "We've also seen images of a young American facing decapitation. This vile display shows a contempt for all rules of warfare." - President George W. Bush (Remarks by the President on Iraq and War on Terror, 2004) In his speech, President Bush painted images of an American being decapitated. In this regard, he rouses the public to feel pity for the young American and at the same time provokes anger so that the people will feel the urge to fight back. An example is given by Freeman (1987) in The Courier-Journal wherein Barry Schweid of the Associated Press generated a report from a group from Stanford University that claimed to find diminutive proof of cheating by the Soviet Union on arms control-treaties. This appeals to false authority, which in this case is the group from Stanford University, a highly prominent organization. The credibility of the reports and validity of claims are established only because its was produced by a team from an Ivy League school 2.4. Appeal to Bandwagon "Why should you feel guilty for seeking your own happiness when that's what everyone else is doing" - Harry Browne (The Unselfish Trap) This statement is clearly an appeal to bandwagon because it justifies the correctness of an action to the perception that "everyone" is doing the same. 2.5. Appeal to Prejudice "These elements of Saddam's repressive regime and secret police have reorganized, rearmed and adopted sophisticated terrorist tactics. They've linked up with foreign fighters and terrorists" - President George W. Bush (Remarks by the President on Iraq and War on Terror, 2004) This statement aims to discredit Saddam's group by bringing up its linkage to foreign fighters and terrorists. The problem is no sufficient evidence is presented to support the soundness of the claim. Note that the primary reason of US invasion of Iraq is the presence of weapons of mass destruction as "proven" by intelligence report. However, these other issues are also brought up to appeal to

Law and Morality Essay Example for Free

Law and Morality Essay It is not an everyday occurrence that someone must decide the fate of anothers life. The dilemma of making a decision that someone must die in order for the others to survive, can obviously be troubling. The process in which the termination of ones life may be easy to make, but to justify that decision is the most difficult one. This paper is given a situation in which a decision of taking ones life is essential. The situation is that a nuclear war has occurred, which has destroyed most of the centres of civilization. There are five people that are that have escaped death by finding their way to a nuclear bunker. These five people consist of a pregnant woman; an old man, who is a retired judge; two teenagers a fourteen-year-old boy and a sixteen-year-old girl; and a young and healthy woman who is a doctor. They all have been there for fifteen days and they must remain there for an additional fifteen days before they can be rescued. The problem is that although there are five of them in the bunker, there is only enough food for four people to survive for the remaining fifteen days. Rationing the food will not be of any use, because all will die with such a plan. The only way for most of the survivors to live for the next fifteen days is for one to die. Somehow they have contacted an outside source to advise them on the questions of Who shall die? , and How should the decision of choosing the person be carried out? These are all very difficult questions to answer, but something must be done. It is unlikely that someone will voluntarily allow someone to kill them so that the others may live, that is why another form of decision making must be allowed. The best way to do so is probably by that outside aid to suggest that they try drawing lots. For example whoever pulls the shortest straw is the one who dies. With no time to procrastinate, this would seem the most time efficient and fairest way to choose who will die. Of course a reason must be provided to the person who had drawn the shortest straw, and that is the objective of this paper. This essay will explain how the decision will be made that will ultimately take one of the survivors lives to save the remaining four people. From that explanation of the decision made, it will attempt to justify it. This paper proposes to explain and justify the decision by using legal tools such as Law and Morality, the Meta Rule, and The Doctrine of Necessity. The advice provided on how to carry out the unfortunate death of an innocent person may not be a right one, but perhaps it will be legally and morally justified. Law and morality play a large role here, mainly because there is a legal issue and a moral issue associated with the predicament. The reason law has a part in the situation is that after the decision is made, it will be examined legally and must be accountable for its consequences. Morality has its place too, because many will find it morally wrong to take ones life despite any justification. . there is some connection between law and morality, but the two are clearly not identical. First, morality is only concerned with right or wrong, with the good and evil; law is concerned with lots of things on which there is no right and wrong procedures for land registration, incorporation and so on. Second, morality is to some extent uncertain and a matter for each individual, law tries to be objective, written down in black and white and there for all to see. Third, morality often leaves things vague and subject to general principle, law goes into specifics. 1 From that description of law and morality, it is obvious how they relate to the issue here. When the time comes for one of the five people in the bunker eventually to die, it must be legally justified. The reason for this is that murder is illegal, unless legally justified. 2 On the other hand, reasons for the killing must be provided to put to ease those who question the dilemma in accordance to morality. Since law and morality are equally important and both are evenly delicate when dealing with this issue, advising the survivors on what to do will not be easy. Pleasing everybody is impossible, whether it is examined from a legal viewpoint or a moral one. However, if the situation is analysed with both the law and morality issues in mind, there may be a chance that many will see some sort of vindication behind the decision to kill someone. One example that can probably create a good foundation to better explain the complexity of the given situation, is that of the case of R. v. Dudley and Stephens. A basic summary of the case is as follows: Thomas Dudley, Edward Stephens, another man by the name of Brooks, and Richard Parker, who was a boy in his late teens, were the crew of an English yacht. All four of them were cast away in a storm 1,600 miles away from the Cape of Good hope. This boat was not supplied with any water or any food, except a few canned vegetables that lasted them a duration of three days. Being lost at sea, with no food or water, they needed to find someway to keep themselves alive so that they could live long enough for them to be rescued. Many days went by, and within that time they had not eaten or drank anything. Both Dudley and Stephens suggested to Brooks that someone be sacrificed to save the rest, Brooks disagreed, and they never told the boy of the idea. The next suggestion by Dudley and Stephens was that they should draw lots to see who should sacrifice their life to save the others, again Brooks refused and they did not let the boy in on the plan. Eventually the decision that if no vessel were to come around the next day, they should kill the boy. This decision, yet again, came from Dudley and Stephens. Again Brooks disagreed and the boy was never consulted. A day passed and no vessel was in sight. Dudley went to the boy, who was sleeping, and killed him. They fed upon the body of the boy and drank his blood for the following four days when they were finally rescued. After being returned to shore Dudley and Stephens were brought to court, put on trial, and lastly sentenced to death by the court. This decision was eventually brought down to life imprisonment, but then they released Dudley and Stephens after six months. 3 The case of R v. Dudley and Stephens is very similar to that of the one being looked at in this essay. In both cases, each group of people do not have enough or any food to survive long enough to be rescued, someone must die in order for the rest to survive, and both situations have legal and moral repercussions. Both Dudley and Stephens had understandable reasons to kill the young boy in order to survive, and could have escaped being sentenced to death if they had done one thing, consulted the boy. By not consulting the boy, an argument can be formulated to prove that they should have never released Dudley and Stephens from their first sentence of death. The boy never consented to his life being taken away from him, but if he were consulted and provided a reason to why he must be killed then perhaps Dudley and Stephens could have avoided any type of punishment. It is probably safe to assume that the boy would have not wanted his life to be taken away from him, and Brooks obviously rejected all of Dudley and Stephens suggestions, therefore it is apparent that some method of solving disputes was in order. So is the case with the five people in the bunker. Although they are in a dilemma of who and how someone should be chosen to die. Unlike Dudley and Stephens, these five people were able to reach an outside source to aid them with their problem. First of all, this outside source can offer them a method of solving their disputes by administering the Meta Rule. The way in which the Meta Rule operates is as follows, Disputes are resolved by the decision of one or more persons, once arguments from each side of the issue have been put. 4 An outside aid is ideal in such a predicament, because they can offer an objective review of the situation and listen to all the arguments made by those in the bunker; this a process that is called Audialteramparten, which in Latin means to hear both sides. It is important that the decision-maker hear both sides and that the decision-maker also be a generalist. 5 The reason for this, is that by listening to both sides they can know all the concerns that the people in the bunker have, and by being a generalist they can be impartial to the situation, thereby making a rational and fair decision. By imposing the Meta Rule, this outside source can make a decision, and according to the Meta Rule, this must be carried out. Whether or not the decision is wrong does not matter, it is imperative and necessary that one be made to resolve the dispute of who, how, and why someone must die. The doctrine of necessity is a very important notion to this case, because it is necessary that someone die in order for the remaining four survive. ? Necessity knows no law, it is often said. In other words, you cant be held legally liable for an act you had to do. 6 This is what the people in the bunker must remember, and this will legally justify the decision to kill someone. Morally, whether the decision was right or wrong, can be argued till the end of time, but there is no time to accommodate a moral debate. All that is left to do now, is to draw lots and find out who is going to have to die for the others to live. When the selection has been made by lots, the victim yields of course to their fate; or if they resist, force may be employed to coerce division. 7 As harsh as it may sound, if necessity has no legal standing in this situation, it should not stand in any other case. In other words, necessity has been used as an argument to justify ones actions in other cases and is accordingly justifiable in this circumstance. Making a decision on the situation without examining it with knowledge of law and morality, the Meta Rule, and the doctrine of necessity would make it even more difficult to find a rational reason why one of the five people in the bunker should die, let alone justify it. Law and morality illustrated how sensitive a situation such as this can be, and how difficult it is to make a pure legal decision when morals are a large part of everyones lives. The Meta Rule showed that even when the courts are not present to facilitate a case, there is always another method of resolving disputes legally. Finally, the doctrine of necessity explained why some forms of action are necessary and must be taken and applied to a given condition. It is unfortunate that there are cases in which people, whether or not they know each other, must kill someone else to save their own life. It must be even more disturbing, rather than unfortunate, for a person to sacrifice their life for the welfare of another, nevertheless it is noble. Perhaps this goes to show that when it is absolutely necessary to kill someone in order to preserve ones own life, murder is always justifiable. Works Cited 1 Patrick Fitzgerald and King Mc Shane. Looking at Law: Canadas Legal System. 4th ed. (Ottawa: Tri-Graphic Printing Ltd. ) 1994. Pg. 3. 2 Carleton Dept. Of Law Casebook Group. Introduction to Legal Studies 2nd ed.. (North York: Captus Press Inc. ) 1995. Pg. 24. 3 Carleton Dept. Of Law Casebook Group. Introduction to Legal Studies 2nd ed. . (North York: Captus Press Inc. ) 1995. Pgs. 19-24. 4 Fraser, D. Fall Term Law Notes for 51. 100A. (Carleton University) 1996. 5 Fraser, D. Fall Term Law Notes for 51. 100A. (Carleton University) 1996. 6 Carleton Dept. Of Law Casebook Group. Introduction to Legal Studies 2nd ed. . (North York: Captus Press Inc. ) 1995. Pg. 25. 7 Fraser, D. Fall Term Law Notes for 51. 100A. (Carleton University) 1996.

Grounded theory in research

Grounded theory in research Evaluate the contribution of grounded theory, as an approach to data analysis Introduction The concept of grounded theory is from the Glaser and Strauss research in 1967. In 1960s, they made a research for medical personnel to deal with an imminent death of the patients field observation in a hospital, and then discovered and developed the grounded theory. In this essay, I will evaluate the grounded theory in 5 parts. The first part is the characteristics of grounded theory; the second part is the procedure of grounded theory; the third part is comparison with other types of research methods and the forth part is the contribution of grounded theory research in management field, and the last part is the future of grounded theory. 1. The characteristics of grounded theory Some perspectives of grounded theory In Suddabys (2006) view, the grounded theory can be described as: â€Å"Grounded the ­ory is best understood historically. The methodology was developed by Glaser and Strauss (1967) as a reaction against the extreme positivism that had per ­meated most social research.† (Suddaby 2006, p.633) And Gephart (2004) points out: â€Å"Glaser and Strauss (1967) proposed grounded theory as a practical method for conducting re ­search that focuses on the interpretive process by analysing the â€Å"the actual production of meanings and concepts used by social actors in real settings† (Gephart, 2004, p.457). And another view is Glasers perspective (1992, p16), he argues that: â€Å"The grounded theory is a general methodology of analysis linked with data collection that uses a systematically applied set of methods to generate an inductive theory about a substantive area.† Grounded theory research method is a type of qualitative research which is based on induction. It used in many sociological research areas such as education, religion, and many others. Zhigang (2007) argued that the method is characterized by extracting the theory from the phenomenon to create or enrich existing theoretical system. In the view of Layder (1993), Grounded theory method is a process of generating a theory, which including constant comparison, thinking, analysis and transformation of information. The characteristics of emphasis on information and more interactive approach, which makes the researchers collect data by making use of a continuous and intimate interactions of the parties and events. In summary, in the first place, according to Zhigangs perspective,(2007) the grounded theory is a bottom-up approach to establish substantive theory, which is finding the core concepts reflects the social phenomenon based on systematical data collection, and then generate the relative theory through the links between these concepts. Secondly, grounded theory must be supported by empirical evidence, but it is not the main feature of grounded theory, the main feature is that it generates new theory or idea abstracted form the experience and data analysis. Lastly, in philosophical ideology, grounded theory approach is a paradigm based on the post-positivist, which emphasize on falsifying current theory which has been constructed. The comparative analysis the core of data analysis of grounded theory Strauss Corbin (1998) pointed out that the grounded theory emphasizes on development of the theory, but also the theory is based on the data collection of realities, and continuing data analysis through the comparison. The strategy of comparative analysis usually used in sociology research. In grounded theory, it is a very important process. Glaser and Strauss (1967) argued that it should be first contrasted the use of the method with certain other users in the research process, and then define and describe what type of theory be created through comparative analysis. The purpose of comparative analysis, as a strategic method for generating theory, is to obtain the accurate evidence, which is the difference between establishing theory and verifying theory. The evidence collected from some comparative groups, which is used to examine whether the original evidence was correct. The characteristic of comparative analysis for establishing theory or concept puts a high emphasis on theory as process. In other words, theory is not perfected; it needs develop continuously through comparative analysis. Glaser and Strauss (1967) believed that theory renders the reality of social interaction and its structural context as a process. The coding Coding is a key element of the data analysis in grounded theory. BaiKai and YuanBo (2009) argued that the encoding is the usually used technology in the qualitative research which is entirely different from quantitative research. In qualitative research, the purpose of coding is not counted, but rather deconstruction of information to form the concept. They would be re-arranged in different categories, in order to promote the comparison of information and proposition of theoretical concepts in one category. Zhigang (2007) points out that the effective use of the grounded theory primarily depends on the following two aspects: on the one hand, the researchers should make an effort to choose a meaningful direction or area of research. It is difficult to identify the gaps that may exist in the theoretical proposition; On the one hand, the researchers should pay attention to data collection and collation, and propose some theoretical assumptions and refining the new conclusions in accordance with the principles, steps and techniques of the grounded theory. 2. The procedure of the grounded theory In Strauss and Corbins view (1998), it is important that focus mainly on the process. They believe that the process is more important as describing and coding everything which is continuously changing. The process of grounded theory research made based on the view of Pandit. N (1996) Source: Pandit. N (1996) The Creation of Theory: A Recent Application of the Grounded Theory Method As can be seen clearly, there are mainly 3 phases in the process of grounded theory research design phase, data collection phase and data analysis. The whole process is started at review of technical literature and finished at reaching closure, but it is need to note here is that if the result is theoretical saturation after the theoretical sampling step, it should be restarted the second step selecting cases. According to the Suddabys view (2006), There are 2 key points in the method which described by Glaser and Strauss (1967) â€Å"constant comparison,† and â€Å"theoretical sampling,† in which data are collected and ana ­lysed simultaneously, and â€Å"theoretical sampling,† in which decisions about which data should be collected next are determined by the theory that is being constructed. Therefore, the most important steps in the process are data analysis and theoretical sampling, which are the key difference in contrast with other research methods. 3. Comparison with other methods of qualitative research Grounded theory and other various ways in social research have different advantages and disadvantages. Possibly different types of methods can be used in different areas. Researchers select different research methods, could means that they have different research ideas and objectives. At the same time, selection and use of methods could more depend on the topic or the attribute of research. The necessary requirement of obtaining the valuable research findings is the appropriate combination between objectives and methods of the research. Comparison with Hypothesis Testing The Hypothesis testing method is different from the Grounded theory method. The definition of Hypothesis testing can be described as: â€Å"Hypothesis testing research investigates a phenomenon in terms of a relationship between an independent and dependent variable, both of which are measurable numerically. This relationship is called a hypothesis. The aim of the research is to test whether the hypothesized relationship is actually true, using statistical methods.† (Auerbach and Silverstein, 2003, p.3) Although hypothesis testing and grounded theory are good research methods to do the research in some areas, there are some differences between them. The hypothesis testing method is mainly different from the grounded theory in the process of building theory. In hypothesis testing method, the hypothesis or idea has been generated first. Researchers can make hypothesis without any evidence, then they will look for the evidences or collect data and information to support their hypothesis or idea. In contrast, grounded theory is an inductive method which focuses on the discovery and does not rest on hypothesis testing but on building hypotheses according to the data and relative information. Suddaby (2006) point out: â€Å"Glaser and Strauss rejected positivist notions of falsification and hypothesis testing and, instead, described an organic process of theory emergence based on how well data fit conceptual categories identified by an observer, by how well the categories explain or pred ict ongoing interpre ­tations, and by how relevant the categories are to the core issues being observed.† (Suddaby, 2006, p.634) It is clear that the hypothesis testing a grounded theory would be used in different fields, such as the hypothesis could be used for working out the mathematics problem and grounded theory could be used in the research in the social areas. Which method can be chosen for research depends on the objectives of the research. Comparison with Ethnography Creswell (1998) argued that ethnography involves prolonged observation of the group, typically through participant observation in which the research is immersed in the day to day lives of thepeople or through one on one interviews with members of the group. Clearly, the ethnography method could be more used in the research of human, culture and language etc. From the view of Creswell (1998, p148), the following table can describe the differences between grounded theory and ethnography in data analysis process. Data analysis and representation Grounded theory Ethnography Data managing Create and organize files for data Create and organize files for data Reading, Memoing Read through text, make margin notes, form initial codes Read through text, make margin notes, form initial codes Classifying Engage in axial coding Engage in open coding Analyse data for themes and patterned regularities Interpreting Engage in selective coding Develop a conditional matrix Interpret and make sense of findings Representing, Visualizing Present a visual theory Present propositions Present narrative presentation augmented by tables, figures and sketches Source: Creswell, J. (1998) Qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five traditions As can be seen clearly, the most difference between grounded and ethnography is from classifying step to visualizing step. The 3 core coding steps play an important role in the data analysis of grounded theory, which make the grounded theory can be developed through the constant comparison. And also it is one of the advantages of grounded theory in contrast with other qualitative methods as an approach to data analysis. Mello and Flint (2009) believe that the grounded theory primarily uses interviews, but also uses observation and documents analysis like an ethnography method. It differs from an ethnography method because of its purpose, which is to build theory. Like many other interpretive qualitative approaches, grounded theory has helped other disciplines open up fruitful new avenues of research. Hammersley (1990) argues that much ethnography places emphasis on the ‘description as an important purpose of research, there are other strands that focus on a form of ‘theoretical description. However, while Glaser and Strauss think that grounded theory is related to the wider context of qualitative analysis and method. The grounded theory approach is highly distinctive and unlike other types of qualitative methods. 4. Grounded Theory in management research It is no doubt that the grounded theory can be used in a wide range of research such like nursing, business and management, mathematics and many types of sociology. Then, I will talk about the contribution of grounded theory focus on the business and management area. Firstly, the following table gives some examples of the grounded theory used in management research. Examples of grounded theory in management research Example references Senior executives and IT Systems development Managing understanding in orgnisations Organisational culture Staff perspectives on work Retailer response to manufactures low-cost programmes Rural women entrepreneurs Competitive strategy and manufacturing Process technology Building co-operation in competitive industries Consumer behaviour Advertising and mass media Marketing Career development Electronic data interchange Leadership in organisations Strategic alliances Ideal business images for women Tourist behaviour Employment outcomes Seeley and Targett (1997) King (1996), Calloway and Ariav (1995) Brown (1994, 1995) Turner (1981, 1988) Clegg et al. (1996) Nuefeldt et al. (1996) Manning et al. (1998) Egan (1997) McKinley-Wright (1995) Schroeder and Congden (1995) Congden (1995) Browning et al. (1995) Houston and Venkatesh (1996) Goulding (1999b,1999c,2000b,2000c) Hirschman and Thompson (1997) Burchill and Fine (1997) De la Cuesta (1994) Beard (1989) Sperber-Richie et al. (1997) Crook and Kumar (1998) Parry (1998) Hunt and Ropo (1995) Lang (1996) Kimle and Damhost (1997) Riley (1995, 1996) Mullins and Roessier (1998) Source: Goulding, C. (2002) Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide for Management, Business and Market Researchers From the table above, it is obvious that the grounded theory can be used in many researches about business and explores a wide range of management problems. â€Å"These situations merely serve to demonstrate the transcending nature of grounded theory and its potential for application in the field of management research.† (Goulding, 2002, p.51) Taking the marketing field as an example, â€Å"grounded theory has begun theoretical development in the areas of the creation of a market oriented firm, moving away from previous research that merely described what a market oriented firm looks like.† (Gebhardt, Carpenter, and Sherry, 2006, citied in Mello, and Flint (2009) A Refined View of Grounded Theory and Its Application to Logistics Research p.109) 5. Grounded theory in the future What grounded theory will happen in the future? It is no doubt that the grounded theory will be used for doing research in the wider range of fields. Increasing researchers will choose the grounded theory as the first choice. Youhui (1996) think that one of the characteristics of grounded theory method is that the discover believe that it is necessary to generate theory in the research of sociology and both data analysis and theory building should be focused in qualitative research and any other research methods. Therefore, the grounded theory method is ideally suited to the areas such as: the existing theoretical system which is not perfected, the phenomenon which is very difficult to effectively explain, or the new areas and phenomenon which has no systematical theory currently. About the Justifying Grounded Theory in the future, Glaser described it as: â€Å"The future will bring less need to legitimize grounded theory; hence, there will be less need to justify using it. Now, many researchers have to explain it and argue for its use. Its future portends that grounded theory will be as accepted as are other methods (e.g., surveys) and will require little or no explanation to justify its use in a research project.† (Glaser, B.G. 1999, pp.845) Charmaz (2005 citied in Denzin, N.K. and Lincoln, Y.S. (2005) Handbook of Qualitative Research) believe that a major strength of the grounded theory is that they provide tools for analysing process, and these tools hold much potential for studying social justice issues. She also believed that coding practices can help us to see our assumptions, as well as those of our research participants. Rather than raising our code to a level of objectively, we can raise questions about how and why we developed certain codes. Grounded theory has its own advantages, it is to believe that grounded theory will be developed deeper and suitable for the research, Charmaz (2005 citied in Denzin, N.K. and Lincoln, Y.S. (2005) The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research 3rd ed.) write that: â€Å"As its best, grounded theory provides methods to explicate an empirical process in ways that prompt seeing beyond it. By sticking closely to the leads and explicating the relevant process, the researcher can go deeper into meaning and action than given in words. Thus, the focused inquiry of grounded theory, with its progressive inductive analysis, moves the work theoretically and covers more empirical observations than other approaches. In this way, a focused grounded theory portrays a picture of the whole.† (Charmaz, 2005, pp.529) Conclusion To sum up, the grounded theory has a wider use range than other methods. For those social areas which lack current theory and some phenomenon which lack enough evidence and explanation, the grounded theory method is an effective analytical technique as an approach of data analysis. This method not only can help researchers to use inductive methods to abstract the basic theory from the phenomenon in the research, but also it is a good way to build and develop the theoretical system gradually to achieve the combination with the current theory effectively. There are many contributions of grounded theory in many different areas such as business, education, medicine and other many others. In terms of many advantages and characteristics of grounded theory, we believe that it will be use in more range of social research as an approach to data analysis and developed more to be accepted by more researchers. Reference Auerbach, C.F. and Silverstein, L.B. 2003 Qualitative Data: an Introduction to Coding and Analysis. New York University BaiKai and YuanBo. 2009. The analysis of impression series by Grounded theory Journal of Shaanxi Administration School Vol.23, No.1 pp.15-20 Borgatti, S. 2009. ‘Introduction to Grounded Theory [Online] [Accessed Nov 2009] Available From Creswell, J. 1998. Qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five traditions Sage Publications. London Denzin, N.K. and Lincoln, Y.S. 2005. The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research 3rd ed. California: Sage Publication Gephart, R. P. 2004. Qualitative research and the Academy of Management Journal. Academy of Management Journal, Vol.47, pp.454-462 Glaser, B.G. 1992. Basics of Grounded theory Analysis Mill Valley, CA: Sociology Press Glaser, B. G. 1999. The Future of Grounded Theory Qualitative Health Research, Vol. 9, No. 6, November pp.836-845 Glaser, B.G. and Strauss, A. 1967. The Discovery of Grounded Theory. New York: Aldine De Gruyter Goulding, C. 2002. Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide for Management, Business and Market Researchers. London: Sage Publications Hammersley, M. 1990. Whats wrong with ethnography? The myth of theoretical description. Sociology, Vol. 24, pp.597-615 Layder, D. (1993) New Strategies in Social Research: An Introduction and Guide Cambridge: Polity Press Mello, J. and Flint D. J. 2009. A Refined View of Grounded Theory and Its Application to Logistics Research Journal of Business Logistics, Vol. 30, No. 1, 107—108 Pandit, N. 1996. The Creation of Theory: A Recent Application of the Grounded Theory Method The Qualitative Report, Vol. 2, No. 4 2009 Strauss, A and Corbin, J. 1998. Basics of Qualitative Research California: Sage Publications Suddaby, R. 2006. From The Editors: What Grounded Theory Is Not Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 49, No. 4, pp.633-642 Youhui Hu. (1996) Qualitative Research: Theory, Method and Local Women Case Studies Research Taipei: Juliu Publications Zhigang Li. 2007. The Study of Grounded Theory in Business Research. Journal of East Forum. Vol.4, pp.90-94

System to Filter Unwanted Messages from OSN User Walls

System to Filter Unwanted Messages from OSN User Walls M.Renuga Devi, G.Seetha lakshmi, M.Sarmila Abstract—One fundamental issue in today’s Online Social Networks (OSNs) is to give users the ability to control the messages posted on their own private space to avoid that unwanted content is displayed. Up to now, OSNs provide little support to this requirement. To fill the gap, in this paper, we propose a system allowing OSN users to have a direct control on the messages posted on their walls. This is achieved through a flexible rule-based system, that allows users to customize the filtering criteria to be applied to their walls, and a Machine Learning-based soft classifier automatically labeling messages in support of content-based filtering. 1. INTRODUCTION ONLINE Social Networks (OSNs) are today one of the most popular interactive medium to communicate, share, and disseminate a considerable amount of human life information. Daily and continuous communications imply the exchange of several types of content, including free text, image, audio, and video data. According to Facebookstatistics1 average user creates 90 pieces of content each month, whereas more than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news, stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) are shared each month. OSNs there is the possibility of posting or commenting other posts on particular public/private areas, called in general walls. Face book allows users to state who is allowed to insert messages in their walls (i.e., friends, friends of friends, or defined groups of friends). The aim of the present work is therefore to propose and experimentally evaluate an automated system, called Filtered Wall (FW), able to filter unwanted messages from OSN user walls. We exploit Machine Learning (ML) text categorization techniques. The major efforts in building a robust short text classifier (STC) are concentrated in the extraction and selection of a set of characterizing and discriminant features. We base the overall short text classification strategy on Radial Basis Function Networks (RBFN) for their proven capabilities in acting as soft classifiers, in managing noisy data and intrinsically vague classes. We insert the neural model within a hierarchical two level classification strategy. In the first level, the RBFN categorizes short messages as Neutral and Non-neutral; in the second stage, Non-neutral messages are classified producing gradual estimates of appropriateness to each of the considered category. The system provides a powerful rule layer exploiting a flexible language to specify Filtering Rules (FRs). In addition, the system provides the support for user-defined Black Lists (BLs), that is, lists of users that are temporarily prevented to post any kind of messages on a user wall. 2. RELATED WORK The main contribution of this paper is the design of a system providing customizable content-based message filtering for OSNs, based on ML techniques. As we have pointed out in the introduction, to the best of our knowledge, we are the first proposing such kind of application for OSNs. However, our work has relationships both with the state of the art in content-based filtering, as well as with the field of policy-based personalization for OSNs and, more in general, web contents. 2.1 Content-Based Filtering Information filtering systems are designed to classify a stream of dynamically generated information dispatched asynchronously by an information producer and present to the user those information that are likely to satisfy his/her requirements. In content-based filtering, each user is assumed to operate independently. As a result, a content-based filtering system selects information items based on the correlation between the content of the items and the user preferences as opposed to a collaborative filtering system that chooses items based on the correlation between people with similar preferences. Documents processed in content-based filtering are mostly textual in nature and this makes content-based filtering close to text classification. Single label, binary classification, partitioning incoming documents into relevant and non-relevant categories. More complex filtering systems include multi label text categorization automatically labeling messages into partial thematic categories. Content-based filtering is mainly based on the use of the ML paradigm according to which a classifier is automatically induced by learning from a set of pre-classified examples. Several experiments prove that Bag-of-Words (BoW) approaches yield good performance and prevail in general over more sophisticated text representation that may have superior semantics but lower statistical quality. The application of content-based filtering on messages posted on OSN user walls poses additional challenges given the short length of these messages other than the wide range of topics that can be discussed. 3. FILTERED WALL ARCHITECTURE The architecture in support of OSN services is a three-tier structure (Fig. 1). The first layer, called Social Network Manager (SNM), commonly aims to provide the basic OSN functionalities (i.e., profile and relationship management), whereas the second layer provides the support for external Social Network Applications (SNAs).The supported SNAs may in turn require an additional layer for their needed Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs). The core components of the proposed system are the Content-Based Messages Filtering (CBMF) and the Short Text Classifier modules. The latter component aims to classify messages according to a set of categories. In contrast, the first component exploits the message categorization provided by the STC module to enforce the FRs specified by the user. The possible final publication can be summarized as follows: 1. After entering the private wall of one of his/her contacts, the user tries to post a message, which is intercepted by FW. 2. A ML-based text classifier extracts metadata from the content of the message. 3. FW uses metadata provided by the classifier, together with data extracted from the social graph and users’ profiles, to enforce the filtering and BL rules. 4. Depending on the result of the previous step, the message will be published or filtered by FW. 4. SHORT TEXT CLASSIFIER Established techniques used for text classification work well on data sets with large documents such as newswires corpora but suffer when the documents in the corpus are short. In this context, critical aspects are the definition of a set of characterizing and discriminant features allowing the representation of underlying concepts and the collection of a complete and consistent set of supervised examples. We approach the task by defining a hierarchical two-level strategy assuming that it is better to identify and eliminate â€Å"neutral† sentences, and then classify â€Å"non-neutral† sentences. The first-level task is conceived as a hard classification in which short texts are labeled with crisp Neutral and Non-neutral labels. The second-level soft classifier acts on the crisp set of non-neutral short texts. 4.1 Text Representation The extraction of an appropriate set of features by which representing the text of a given document is a crucial task strongly affecting the performance of the overall classification strategy. We consider three types of features, BoW, Document properties (Dp) and Contextual Features (CF). Text representation using endogenous knowledge has a good general applicability; however, in operational settings, it is legitimate to use also exogenous knowledge, i.e., any source of information outside the message body but directly or indirectly related to the message itself. We introduce CF modeling information that characterizes the environment where the user is posting. These features play a key role in deterministically understanding the semantics of the messages. In the BoW representation, terms are identified with words. Dp features are heuristically assessed; their definition stems from intuitive considerations, domain specific criteria and in some cases required trial-and-error procedures. Bad words: They are computed similarly to the correct words feature, where the set K is a collection of â€Å"dirty words† for the domain language. Correct words: It expresses the amount of terms tk 2 T K, where tk is a term of the considered document dj and K is a set of known words for the domain language. Capital words: It expresses the amount of words mostly written with capital letters, calculated as the percentage of words within the message, having more than half of the characters in capital case. Punctuations characters: It is calculated as the percentage of the punctuation characters over the total number of characters in the message. For example, the value of the feature for the document â€Å"Hello!!! How’re u doing?† is 5/24. Exclamation marks: It is calculated as the percentage of exclamation marks over the total number of punctuation characters in the message. Referring to the aforementioned document, the value is 3/5. Question marks: It is calculated as the percentage of question marks over the total number of punctuations characters in the message. Referring to the aforementioned document, the value is 1/5. 4.2 Machine Learning-Based Classification We address short text categorization as a hierarchical two level classification process. The first-level classifier performs a binary hard categorization that labels messages as Neutral and Non-neutral. The first-level filtering task facilitates the subsequent second-level task in which a finer-grained Classification is performed. The second-level classifier performs a soft-partition of Non-neutral messages assigning a given message a gradual membership to each of the non-neutral classes. Among the variety of multiclass ML models well suited for text classification, we choose the RBFN model for the experimented competitive behavior with respect to other state-of-the-art classifiers. RFBNs have a single hidden layer of processing units with local, restricted activation domain: a Gaussian function is commonly used, but any other locally tunable function can be used. RBFN main advantages are that classification function is nonlinear, the model may produce confidence values and it may be robust to outliers; drawbacks are the potential sensitivity to input parameters, and potential overtraining sensitivity. The first-level classifier is then structured as a regular RBFN. In the second level of the classification stage, we introduce a modification of the standard use of RBFN. The collection of pre-classified messages presents some critical aspects greatly affecting the performance of the overall classification strategy. To work well, a ML-based classifier needs to be trained with a set of sufficiently complete and consistent pre-classified data. The difficulty of satisfying this constraint is essentially related to the subjective character of the interpretation process with which an expert decides whether to classify a document under a given category. A quantitative evaluation of the agreement among experts is then developed to make transparent the level of inconsistency under which the classification process has taken place. 5. FILTERING RULES AND BLACKLIST MANAGEMENT In this section, we introduce the rule layer adopted for filtering unwanted messages. We start by describing FRs, and then we illustrate the use of BLs. In what follows, we model a social network as a directed graph, where each node corresponds to a network user and edges denote relationships between two different users. In particular, each edge is labeled by the type of the established relationship (e.g., friend of, colleague of, parent of) and, possibly, the corresponding trust level, which represents how much a given user considers trustworthy with respect to that specific kind of relationship the user with whom he/ she is establishing the relationship. 5.1 Filtering Rules In defining the language for FRs specification, we consider three main issues that, in our opinion, should affect a message filtering decision. First of all, in OSNs like in everyday life, the same message may have different meanings and relevance based on who writes it. As a consequence, FRs should allow users to state constraints on message creators. Given the social network Scenario, creators may also be identified by exploiting information on their social graph. Definition 1 (Creator specification): A creator specification creator Spec implicitly denotes a set of OSN users. It can have one of the following forms, possibly combined. Definition2 (Filtering rule): A filtering rule FR is a tuple (author, creator Spec, content Spec, action), where author is the user who specifies the rule; creator Spec is a creator specification, specified according to Definition 1: Content Spec is a Boolean expression defined on content constraints of the form à °C; mlÞ, where C is a class of the first or second level and ml is the minimum membership level threshold required for class C to make the constraint satisfied; action 2fblock; notifying denotes the action to be performed by the system on the messages matching content Spec and created by users identified by creator Spec. In general, more than a filtering rule can apply to the same user. A message is therefore published only if it is not blocked by any of the filtering rules that apply to the message creator. Note moreover, that it may happen that a user profile does not contain a value for the attribute(s) referred by a FR (e.g., the profile does not specify a value for the attribute Hometown whereas the FR blocks all the messages authored by users coming from a specific city). 5.2 Online Setup Assistant for FRs Thresholds As mentioned in the previous section, we address the problem of setting thresholds to filter rules, by conceiving and implementing within FW, an Online Setup Assistant procedure. 5.3 Blacklists A further component of our system is a BL mechanism to avoid messages from undesired creators, independent from their contents. BLs are directly managed by the system, which should be able to determine who are the users to be inserted in the BL and decide when users retention in the BL is finished. To enhance flexibility, such information are given to the system through a set of rules, hereafter called BL rules. Such rules are not defined by the SNMP; therefore, they are not meant as general high-level directives to be applied to the whole community. Similar to FRs, our BL rules make the wall owner able to identify users to be blocked according to their profiles as well as their relationships in the OSN. Therefore, by means of a BL rule, wall owners are, for example, able to ban from their walls users they do not directly know (i.e., with which they have only indirect relationships), or users that are friend of a given person as they may have a bad opinion of this person. 6. EVALUATION In this section, we illustrate the performance evaluation study we have carried out the classification and filtering modules. We start by describing the data set. 6.1 Problem and Data Set Description The analysis of related work has highlighted the lack of an publicly available benchmark for comparing different approaches to content-based classification of OSN short texts. 6.2 Short Text Classifier Evaluation 6.2.1 Evaluation Metrics Two different types of measures will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of first-level and second-level classifications. In the first level, the short text classification procedure is evaluated on the basis of the contingency table approach. In particular, the derived well-known Overall Accuracy (OA) index capturing the simple percent agreement between truth and classification results, is complemented with the Cohen’s KAPPA (K) coefficient thought to be a more robust measure taking into account the agreement occurring by chance . At second level, we adopt measures widely accepted in the Information Retrieval and Document Analysis field, that is, Precision (P), that permits to evaluate the number of false positives, Recall (R), that permits to evaluate the number of false negatives, and the overall metric F-Measure (F_), defined as the harmonic mean between the above two indexes. 6.2.2 Numerical Results By trial and error, we found a quite good parameter configuration for the RBFN learning model. The best value for the M parameter, that determines the number of Basis Function, is heuristically addressed to N=2, where N is the number of input patterns from the data set. 6.2.3 Comparison Analysis The lack of benchmarks for OSN short text classification makes problematic the development of a reliable comparative analysis. However, an indirect comparison of our method can be done with work that show similarities or complementary aspects with our solution. 6.3 Overall Performance and Discussion In order to provide an overall assessment of how effectively the system applies a FR. This table allows us to estimate the Precision and Recall of our FRs, Let us suppose that the system applies a given rule on a certain message. In contrast, Recall has to be interpreted as the probability that, given a rule that must be applied over a certain message, the rule is really enforced. Results achieved by the content-based specification component, on the first-level classification, can be considered good enough and reasonably aligned with those obtained by well-known information filtering techniques. 7. DICOMFw DicomFW is a prototype Face book application8 that emulates a personal wall where the user can apply a simple combination of the proposed FR’s. Throughout the development of the prototype, we have focused our attention only on the FRs, leaving BL implementation as a future improvement. However, the implemented functionality is critical, since it permits the STC and CBMF components to interact. To summarize, our application permits to 1. View the list of users’ FWs; 2. View messages and post a new one on a FW; 3. Define FRs using the OSA tool. When a user tries to post a message on a wall, he/ she receive an alerting message if it is blocked by FW. 8 CONCLUSIONS In this paper, we have presented a system to filter undesired messages from OSN walls. The system exploits a ML soft classifier to enforce customizable content-dependent FR’s. Fig. 3. DicomFW: A message filtered by the wall’s owner FRs We plan to study strategies and techniques limiting the inferences that a user can do on the enforced filtering rules with the aim of bypassing the filtering system, such as for instance randomly notifying a message that should instead be blocked, or detecting modifications to profile attributes that have been made for the only purpose of defeating the filtering system. REFERENCES [1] A. Adomavicius and G. Tuzhilin, â€Å"Toward the Next Generation of Recommender Systems: A Survey of the State-of-the-Art and Possible Extensions,† IEEE Trans. Knowledge and Data Eng., vol. 17, no. 6, pp. 734-749, June 2005. [2] M. Chua and H. Chen, â€Å"A Machine Learning Approach to Web Page Filtering Using Content and Structure Analysis,† Decision Support Systems, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 482-494, 2008.