Greek tragedy Essay Example for Free

Greek tragedy Essay A view from the bridge was written by Arthur Miller in 1947. Arthur Miller uses a range of dramatic techniques effectively throughout the play to create tension and suspense, but particularly in the climax at the beginning of Act 2. These dramatic effects consist of; Stage direction, Greek tragedy, Foregrounding, Scenery, actions such as tension and climax and finally dramatic irony. In a view from the bridge, the central themes are, love, justice, family, the law and codes of honour. Together, they increase the characters development, so as an audience we empathise with the characters personal views, thoughts and opinions. Dramatic irony, is when the audience knows what is going to happen before the Protagonist is embedded within the text. An example of dramatic irony in the play is when Eddie returns home drunk whilst Catherine and Rodolpho are upstairs in the bedroom making love. This creates tension and suspense between the characters and also the audience, as we already know of Eddies hatred for Rodolpho because of Catherines loving feelings towards him. Arthur Millers use of the specific elements of a Greek Tragedy make the play extremely intense. The rules of a Greek tragedy consist of; A protagonist which dies at the end of the play The protagonist is clearly Eddie, as he is the central character and also sadly dies at the end of the play, he is brutally killed by Marco. A chorus is also needed in a Greek tragedy, The chorus explains and narrates the plot The chorus in the play is Alfieri as he is the commentator, he sets the scenes dramatically and also informs you what is going to happen in the upcoming scene/section. The protagonist is essentially good but his/her fate is sealed by a central flaws in character This is briefly reflected towards Eddie, as he was loving caring and protective over Catherine to start of with. He states-Now dont aggravate me Katie, your walking wavy! - This makes Eddie seem secretly obsessed with Catherine as it looks like Eddie does not want Catherine to grow up, by not letting her dress up like a normal eighteen year old girl would. Before the death of the hero, he has a moment of self understanding-Eddie gets stabbed by Marco in the end of the play, but before he dies he has a personal moment of self-understanding and forgiveness. Eddie, Beatrice and Catherine share their last goodbyes, publicly. Eddie finally states-My B! It sounds as if he wants her to forgive him for all the trouble and rebellion he has caused, Over something he could of easily let go of, but sadly didnt. This is an emotional time for the cast and audience as Eddies death was not expected, especially by Marco. The audience feels both empathy and dislike for the hero at different points. -At times Eddie can release anger, frustration and annoyance towards the audience and characters, by doing this Eddie loses his empathy from the audience. Eddie starts off with physical conflict with Rodolpho. This creates a lot of tension, with each scene of conflict becoming more intense than the one that preceded it. The tense atmosphere during the boxing scene at the end of Act One expresses Eddies secret jealousy towards Rodolpho, which results in Eddie releasing his frustration by physical violence. Eddie fires at Rodolpho-You cant hurt me [Rodolpho more seriously, jabs at Eddies jaw] The audience will not approve if Eddie interfering in Catherines and Rodolphos relationship which includes physical tension. There are also times when the Audience empathise with Eddie, as he is being loving and caring and trying to do the right thing, whereas Catherine acts selfish and ignores him. The character Alfieri has a very important role in the play A view from the bridge. Alfieri acts both as a narrator and commentator but his main function is to offer ideas to the audience to set them thinking about the message of the play. Alfieri also divides each act into unofficial scenes, and inform the audience on any missed action. Alfieri is a character in the play and yet his advice is objective and sympathetic. Alfieri is the first character to speak in the play; he therefore sets the scene and informs the audience the background to the action. He is a lawyer but in this area of Brooklyn the people distrust the law, he tells us-A lawyer means the law, and in Sicily, from where their fathers come, the law has not been a friendly idea since the Greeks were beaten. This speech immediately sets up tension between Alfieri, a representative of written law and the Italian immigrant community, who prefer to follow their own law. Alfieri understood Eddies love for Catherine was impossible to control. Alfieri empathised with Eddies in a way Beatrice could not. It aint nice Eddie This shows Beatrice confronts Eddie more than she actually Comforts him, whereas Alfieri states-Yes but those things have to end Eddie. This shows Alfieri understands Eddie psychologically whilst slowly and persuasively trying to steer him out of his unbearable dilemma. Stage Directions are very important in drama and this is evident in Arthur Millers A view from the Bridge. Stage directions give actors and directors character motivation and this allows actors to create believable characters and explain a characters actions and feelings. They also highlight characters emotions that are indirectly portrayed through stage directions, especially when describing the main focus of the play. , Eddie Carbone. In the beginning of act one, Catherine appeared to be an extremely friendly, confident little girl. I just got it, you like it? Catherine projects herself in this scene as a young, timid girl who does not have much knowledge of the outside world as she has been over-protected by Eddie all her life. [She turns for him]- Arthur Miller uses a variety of stage directions to develop Catherine as a character. The stage directions in the beginning of act one are secretly intimate and kind of shows a hint of sexual tension between Catherine and Eddie. [wipes her hand over her skirt]-Not many nieces do these flirty flexes with their uncles, but for Catherine this seems as it is normal to be twirling and flirting. When Rodolpho arrives, Catherine seems to be getting stronger and braver towards Eddie. She feels as if she is independent and superior. [She frees her arm, steps back into the bedroom] Catherine frees her arms from Eddie, Arthur Miler uses stage directions effectively in this section as it is building Catherines character from a Shy, inferior, tiny girl into a strong-minded, selfish, superior woman. This dramatically changes the audiences impression of Catherine. Catherine has always had an innocent fondness toward Eddie, but Eddie takes it the wrong way which makes their father and daughter relationship seem more sexual and possessive. [As she strives to free herself, he kisses her on the mouth] Eddie was obviously drunk when this stage direction was performed, but when your drunk your true feelings come out and Eddies passionate love for Catherine had finally been . sexually released. This had a massive impact on the audience as Arthur Miller created suspense in this section. Whilst Eddie is sexually obsessed over Catherine, Catherine just wants unconditional, parental love from Eddie and Romantic sexual love from Rodolpho. Catherine later bursts out Ill Kill you- If Catherine was secretly in love with Eddie like Eddie was with Catherine, she would have not threaten to kill him. When Catherine and Rodolpho are home alone, there is tension building up. Catherine starts curiously questioning Rodolpho, Suppose I wanted to live in Italy. She is testing his love for her, as Eddie had informed Catherine that Rodolpho is most l;likely using her just to be an American Citizen. Catherine refused to believe this but Eddie might of got the better side of her. Catherine later exploded with-You dont know, nobody knows! - This is showing Catherines neglect and isolation from Rodolpho and Eddie. She Presumes that no one understands her, but the audience thinks shes only confused as she does not know who to trust.

Importance of computer in education system Essay Example for Free

Importance of computer in education system Essay The computer and its related technologies are now such an integral part of every day life that it must be an ingredient in educating for participation in present and future society. For educators it is a tool for lesson preparation: research information on any topic find activities to print and use gather ideas used by other teachers for presenting lessons using word processing, page layout and presentation software to produce activity pages and audio/video lesson presentations The internet in particular keeps teachers up to date when they join in on forums and blogs about teaching practices etc. Online courses are also available for adding to teaching credentials. (This is a boon for those who are not living close enough to a large city centre where classes, conferences and meetings can easily be attended. ) For students, access to computer (and in particular internet technology) at school can be a great leveler. While most students are comfortable using the computer, those who do not have one at home are at a disadvantage for completing assignments that require research and producing a printed document. The computer can be a tool for learning in many areas of the curriculum: math teachers should take advantage of the opportunity to allow students to create spreadsheets to manipulate data formal teaching in the finer points of using word processing and presentation software to produce polished presentations of creative writing or research reports would prepare students to meet the expectations of the business world music classes can be dynamic when students are given the opportunity to explore composition using computer software. Learn about varieties of music by listening to files available on the internet set up pen pals in another city or country for their students to learn communication skills (also a great way for students who are learning another language to practise by chatting with another student Teachers are constantly discovering new ways to integrate computers into their programs. In todays education the computer has become the new pencil and paper, text book, library and in many cases   teacher.

Accounting Conservatism and Risk Taking Decisions

Accounting Conservatism and Risk Taking Decisions Introduction Manager is in a position of Captain in Charge in ship of the Organization, so that to make organization more beautiful Manager has duty to make an important decision on Corporate Investment. These types of decisions create Agency Problems because of the time interest differences between manager and shareholder. This research is carried out to understand how conservatism accounting reduces agency problems, and examines the effect of conservatism on manager’s high risk investment decision. This research also examine that whether accounting conservatism solves the misalignment of interest between managers and organization through increasing hurdle rates used by managers during project selections, and sheds lights on literature attempting to identify the relation between accounting conservatism and manager’s investment decisions. Motivation A study was conducted by Givoly and Hayn (2000), Beatty et al. (2008), and Khan and Watts in 2009, to measure accounting conservatism and firm’s characteristics such as size, leverage, and market-to-book ratio. They found evidences to support their hypothesis that accounting conservatism improves firms’ investment efficiency. According to Khan and Watts managers’ investment hurdle rates and induces conservative investment decisions are significantly increase under conservatism accounting, even when the agency problems are more severe this effect is more pronounced. According to the positive accounting theory accounting conservatism plays very effective role in the roll contracting process. Corporate investment is an important decision, but this decision are not always made in the best interest of shareholders, so many time manager invest in a risky and even negative net present value projects just because of their personal interest in of investment. Accounting conservatism is a reporting mechanism which reflects accountant’s trend to require lower threshold to recognise bad news than good news. Accounting conservatism helps to improve corporate investment by preventing investment in high risk or unsuccessful investment projects by early terminations of such projects. This early terminations of projects reduces managers compensation and increases managers interest of job turnover. If manager is rational to predict the accelerated recognition of losses, and the timely termination of unsuccessful projects, they will be more cautious to make the investment decisions. (Francis and Martin (2010) and Bushman et al. (2007)) The increased cautiousness to invest will be reflected in the hurdle rate, which used to evaluate an investment project. In theory, hurdle rate is as equals as the cost of capital; managers should not take decision to invest in a project if the return is lower than the cost of financing. Indeed hurdle rate is observed to be either lowers than the cost of capital in practice, because of managerial discretion. The result of the study state that Corporate governance role have established the roll of accounting conservatism in resolving information asymmetry, reducing agency costs, and improving debt contracting efficiency. (Ball (2001), Ball and Shivakumar (2005)) Literature Review There are many research has been carried out in about the relation of the accounting conservatism and manager’s risk taking decision. Ahmed and Zhang, 2009 found that accounting conservatism reduces information imbalance between lenders and borrowers, and also reduces cost of capital for borrowers. They also found that if conservatism cause financially constrained firms to under investment than the relation between conservatism and firm’s future performance will negative. On the other hand reduce overinvestment problem for financially constrained firms, than the relation will be expected positive. Another research carried out by Leuz (2001) and Guay and Vierrecchia (2006) and found that accounting conservatism force manager to avoid positive NPV projects, because Impaired incentives created for managers if gains not recognize timely untimely gain recognition, and manager force to avoid those types of positive projects. In particular, if gains are not recognize timely than manager will responsible for investment for those project, and may no longer be in the office by the time gains are realized. This is because always expect their future incentive rate higher in long term, than the firms required rate of return. If gains recognise by timely than even positive NPV for shareholder became negative for manager. Accounting conservatism increases corporate investment efficiency in two ways. First is, by timelier incorporating bad news into earnings, accounting conservatism inform the board’s investigation of the unsuccessful investment project that may lead to its early abandonment, saving shareholders from unexpected future losses (Watts 2003). On the other hand, the expected personal costs related to project such as compensation, reputation and career concerns would increase managers’ cautiousness in choosing investment projects at the outset. Extant studies by Ball and Shivakumar, 2005; Francis and Martin, 2010 believe that accounting conservatism can restrain managers to investing in negative NPV projects by accelerated loss recognition. In addition, if managers recognise ex ante about failure of particular project, they should record losses timely, because it will affect to their reputation and income as well, so manager should postpone investing in those project. Furthermore, Roychowdhury (2010) found that risky projects are mostly become negative projects, therefor managers try to avoid risky projects due to timely loss recognition, because it creates also risk-averse, even if the projects have profitability to shareholders. If managers know that the project is have many risks of failure, manager have to write losses more timely before failure of project, because manager’s reputation income linked with compensation will be affected by it, so that manager avoid to involve to invest in those projects, even though projects are profitable. Smith and Watts 1992; Kwon and Yin 2006 found that, firms with higher growth opportunities prefer to assets have higher contracting costs, because growth opportunities are often intangible in nature, so that information related to them are likely less verifiable. Therefore, managers have greater unrestricted power, and are more likely to manage earnings through accruals, so that agency costs are higher in high-growth firms. Furthermore high growth firms are more likely to have more volatile returns and higher probability of lawsuits, which creates a higher demand of accounting conservatism (Khan and Watts, 2009). Empirically, we use book-to-market ratio (an inverse measure of growth opportunity) to measure the growth opportunity of firms. Driver and Temple (2010) found that, if the manager is aware of the embedded risk a hurdle rate that is higher than the cost of capital will be used by the irreversibility of the investment project. Corporate investment is efficient in the situation where internal funds flow gives the highest returns from investment project. However, managers deviate from the optimal level of investment, because of dysfunctional investment incentives (Stein et al. 2003). These dysfunctional incentives can be reflected in the hurdle rates used to select projects. Finance textbooks state that managers should benchmark the investment return to the cost of capital, so that with the project with lower returns than the cost of capital are rejected. In addition, managers use hurdle rates which sometimes higher or lower against the cost of capital, it depends on the managerial incentives invest. Consistent with Hayn (2000),andWatts (2003), They found that both not only firm with goodwill purchased but also without goodwill have increasing trend in conservatism over time. Indeed He argue that lach of information will limit managers to random affect to recognize impairment losses agains their advantage timely. The following hypotheses are proposed for this study: H1 Accounting conservatism improves firms’ investment efficiency. H2 Accounting conservatism helps manager to recognize bad news timely. H3 Accounting consarvitism accelerates terminations of successful projects. H4 Accounting conservatism can restrain managers to investing in negative NPV projects by accelerated loss recognition. To testing hypothisese Basu’s (1997) used measure of conditional conservatism, because of theverification standerds of the hypotheses of recognizing bad newsand good news assumsions. (Richardson, 2006; Denis and Sibikov, 2010) they also examine relation between accounting conservatism with the component of investments by ussing total investments and changes in firm capital. This study conclued that accounting conservatism is an important monitoring and contracting mechanism, and its helps manger to recognize bad news timely,so that manager could increase their managerial interest regarding project. Indeed accounting conservatism accelerates terminations of unsuccessful projects, also study found that conservative accounting increases hurdle rates, in addition conservatism changes hurdle rate because it reducing the future financial cost rather than by increasing the efficiency of contracting with the managers. We also find conservatism adds value to firms. This study also sheds lights on relation between accounting conservatism and managers’ investment decisions. The study also show that the accounting conservatism negatively correlate investment and firms future operating performance.

The Birth of China :: The Birth of China Herrlee Glessner Essays

The Birth of China Herrlee Glessner Creel wrote The Birth of China. The book was published in 1937 at Frederick Lungar Publishing in New York City. Creel was born in Chicago, Illinois on January 15 1905. Both Creel’s mother and father were writers. Creel attended the University of Oklahoma, Creighton University, and finally the University of Chicago where he received his Ph.D. in 1929. In 1922 he worked as a newspaper reporter and later became a Sinologist discovering oracle bones that dated back to 3,000 years. Eventually, Creel became a Professor of Chinese History and Literature at the University of Chicago. Creel died in June of 1994, he was then living in Parlos Park, Illinois. His books have been published in England, France, Japan, Italy, and Spain. He wrote once that, â€Å"My principal concern is to understand the origins and the early history of humanity’s most continually enduring civilization, that of China.† The first section of this book talks about the true discovery of china. Creel notes that until the late 1800’s and early 1900’s with the discovery of China’s magnificent marble sculptures and oracle bones, we had to rely on tradition and legend for the knowledge of the Chinese people. He goes on to talk about the excavation of Chinese artifacts and finally the origin of the Chinese people. In the second section Creel goes on to the talk about the great city of Shang. The Shang were the first people known Chinese history. That period in time is now referred to as the Shang Dynasty. He discuses there livelihood, handicrafts, sculpture and bronze, society, war, writing, their gods, and talks about sacrifice. Finally, in the last section, Creel talks about the Chou Dynasty. A huge advance in civilized living gave him a chance to discuss China’s early politics, literature, marriage, family, business, religion, and law. This book got many great reviews. Collectively they all described this book as well written, colorful, and exciting. Alan Priest of the â€Å"New York Times† wrote, â€Å"Mr. Creel produced a most interesting study of the life and culture of a civilization†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Mr. Priest was not alone in his review of the book. Yet, another review of this book comes from and unknown author with â€Å"Time† magazine.

Wind Tunnels :: essays research papers

Wind Tunnels In this report I will talk about the wind tunnel. I will described what they are used for. The different types of wind tunnels from the slow speed subsonic to the high speed hypersonic tunnels. I will also give A few examples of the wind tunnels used today. The wind tunnel is a device used by many people, from High school students to NASA engineers. The wind tunnel is a device used to test planes to see how well it will do under certain conditions. The plane maybe as big as a full size 747 or as small as a match. To understand how a wind tunnel is used to help in the designing process you have to know how a wind tunnel works. How Wind Tunnels Work A wind tunnel is a machine used to fly aircraft's, missiles, engines, and rockets on the ground under pre-set conditions. With a wind tunnel you can chose the air speed, pressure, altitude and temperature to name a few things. A wind tunnel is usually has a tube like appearance with which wind is produced by a large fan to flow over what they are testing (plane, missiles, rockets, etc.)or a model of it. The object in the wind tunnel is fixed and placed in the test section of the tunnel and instruments are placed on the model to record the aerodynamic forces acting on the model. Types of Wind Tunnels There are four basic types of wind tunnels. Which are low subsonic, transonic, supersonic, and hypersonic. The wind tunnels are classified by the amount of speed they can produce. The subsonic has a speed lower then the speed of sound. The transonic has a speed which is about equal to the speed of sound (Mach 1 760 miles per hour at sea level). . The supersonic (Mach 2.75 to 4.96) has a speed of about five times the speed of sound And the fasts of them all the hypersonic (Mach39.5) which has a speed of more then 30,000 miles per hour. Wind Tunnel Test There are basically two types of wind tunnel test which are static stability and the pressure test. With these two test you can determine the aerodynamic characteristics of the aircraft. The static stability test the measures the forces moments due to the external characteristic. These forces include axial, side and normal force, rolling, pitching and yawing moment. This forces are found by using a strain gauge which is located on the external portion of the plane. It measures the external flow fields. Then the shadowgraph is used to show the shock waves and flow fields at a certain speed or angle of

Philosophy of Education :: Philosophy of Teaching Statement

Philosophy of Education I knew at an early age that I wanted to be a teacher. As a child, my friends and cousins always played school and of course I always had to be the teacher! We had a cinderblock building that we called the "playhouse" and this is where my teaching career began. We would play for hours doing reading, spelling and writing. I always loved to grade the papers. And most of all I had strict behavior rules. Throughout life, even though my teaching career has been on hold, I have worked in various atmospheres with children from babysitting to different types of leadership roles. Mostly being a youth leader in our church has had a lot of various types of teaching skills. Keeping children's motivation level and interest is a difficult task. I have worked with all different ages from preschool through the sixth grade. I truly believe that sometimes a teacher is the most important role a child comes across. The impact that a teacher makes will last a life time. My elementary experiences were wonderful years that I feel have made me into the person I am today, especially my second grade teacher, Ms. Fezer. She was the greatest teacher of all times. She not only had love for her students but compassion to want them to learn and made sure they that they understood the material. She made learning fun and always had a wonderful smile. I hope to run a classroom in the manner that she did. Another great teacher that stands out is my dad. He is a retired sixth grade teacher. He was very strict, but all the children loved him. He made sure that they were ready for seventh grade. Along with teaching respect and manners and he never failed to help any child in need. These children, now grown up still make a point to speak to him when they see him out. Some even thank him for being so strict and making them work hard that they have told him it sure did pay off later on down the road. As a father, he's the greatest and always willing to help .

Did Anyone Benefit from the Cultural Revolution? Essay

Few people would deny that the Cultural Revolution is one of the most significant events in China’s history, with its extraordinary effects on many groups of the population. The main aim of the revolution was simple: having risen to power, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) wanted to reform the Chinese population so that they followed the communist ideology – the favour of absolute social equality. While the initial impression of this aim seems positive, many people nowadays consider that there were few benefits of the Cultural Revolution, due to the turbulence that it caused between 1966 and 1976. Whilst it could be considered that there was initially some reform of the Chinese people, it is now widely considered that these reforms did not bring about benefits. The group that the CCP wanted to help most was the lower class, especially the peasants in the countryside. Meisner (1986, p.373) points out that initially, the Cultural Revolution hardly affected the countryside , with the Red Guards banned from entering the peasant villages, presumably because virtually all peasants were already loyal followers of Mao. Mao tried to restore peasant associations in an attempt to bring more political power to rural areas. Nevertheless, in general, if these peasant associations tried to participate in their villages, higher powers intervened. Therefore, all in all, peasants did not really gain power from the Cultural Revolution (Meisner 1986 p.375). Some argue that there were benefits of the Cultural Revolution for rural areas. Meisner (1986 pp.376-378) states that a main aim of the revolution was to promote rural industrialisation to narrow the gap between urban and rural living and to make use of the local labour forces. Thanks to this project, almost 20 million peasants became industrial workers. However, one aspect that certainly did improve in rural areas was the availability of health care. According to Byong-joon Ahn (1976 p. 155), in the early 1960s, more than 200,000 health clinics were closed in rural areas of China. However, as Meisner (1986 p.379) mentions, Mao changed this by reducing the program of study of doctors from six years to three in order to encourage more rural students to join the health care. In spite of the decrease in the number of study years, the knowledge and ability of the doctors was generally sufficient, as they were only trained to deal with the most common problems. It is worth considering the changes in the education system in rural areas. According to Meisner (1986 p. 380), Mao’s attitude was that the book-learning technique that had been used before the Cultural Revolution should be replaced by a system which combined education with productive labour. Additionally, monetary aid given by the state to richer areas was cut and more support was given to rural areas, thus increasing the number of primary school students from 116 million to 150 million and secondary school students from 15 million to 58 million (Pepper 1986 pp. 6-7). â€Å"Tuition fees, entrance examinations and age limits on student attendance were abolished† (Meisner 1986 p.381), thus making education more accessible for those of lower social classes. However, in spite of these changes, Meisner (1986, p.382) also points out that the living conditions and incomes of the peasants in rural areas showed little improvement. Therefore, it is questionable whether the improvements made brought true benefits to society. The Cultural Revolution was frustrating for many as China underwent turmoil and disruption to industry and education, yet without much positive change. As Meisner (1986 pp.382-385) states, during the Cultural Revolution, many demands were made by the wor king class which were not responded to. For example, producers, who were frustrated by the dominance of the state which prevented them from making their own decisions, demanded more control over the means of production. However, there was little change, even with the new factory revolutionary committees. What happened was that factory revolutionary committees were given less importance than the factory party committees, meaning that the state continued to make the decisions in these industries. Prior to the Cultural Revolution, there was a â€Å"highly exploitive system of temporary and contract workers† (Meisner 1986 p.383). This system was denounced for being capitalist and for not promoting the egalitarian state that the CCP desired. Thus, both the workers (who would have been better off with permanent jobs to guarantee a constant income) and the CCP suffered because of the fact that this system remained (Meisner 1986 p.383). It is also worth considering the state and government workers. Initially, these had more privileges than the average Chinese person, with much higher salaries and meals provided and some even had houses, servants and personal drivers (Meisner 1986 p.391). However, Mao wanted change this as it was preventing the country from achieving egalitarianism. He therefore ordered government officials to engage in productive labour in order to narrow the gap between classes. Whilst this did happen, all in all, the officials were still treated as officials, having higher salaries and official titles (Meisner 1986 p. 391). Therefore, these officials did not benefit from the Cultural Revolution, as their status and standard of living remained the same. Few would disagree that the most harmed individuals during the Cultural Revolution were the intellectuals. Meisner (1986 p. 386) points out that Maoism was particularly anti-intellectual, as it was these intelligent people that were considered the most â€Å"bourgeois† in society, with their superior knowledge and possessions. Meisner (1986 p.387) describes the suppression that these intellectuals underwent: â€Å"their homes (were) frequently ransacked, their books burned and manuscripts destroyed†¦they themselves were often subjected to physically as well as psychologically agonizing â€Å"study and criticism† sessions†. Like the state workers, many were sent to the countryside to carry out menial work or were arrested. Due to this maltreatment, many feared to continue with their studies and research, which led to a dampening in the Chinese intellectual level. Whilst it could be argued that rural students benefited from the Cultural Revolution, few would deny that urban students suffered. In fact, Mao sent them off to the countryside to be educated by the peasa nts, whose knowledge was inferior to the intellectuals in the cities. Again, the aim was to narrow the gap between the city and the countryside by putting all members of society on a similar level. But by doing so Mao harmed the future of these youngsters by refusing them a good education (Meisner 1986 p.388). Meisner (1986 p.389) states that this generation of urban youngsters regarded themselves as â€Å"the lost generation†. Likewise, those that worked for the arts, such as writers, painters and playwrights, suffered in the Cultural Revolution. Very few writings were accepted, except those of Mao, and there were declines in the number of paintings produced and in the number of actors and musicians performing. The only accepted art forms were those that were considered â€Å"revolutionary†, such as Chiang Ch’ing’s ballets and operas (Meisner 1986 p.388). However, one person who did benefit from the Cultural Revolution was Mao himself. Previously, Mao’s reputation was weak due to the failure of the Great Leap Forward, when he â€Å"moved too fast†, for example, with his optimism in the peasants to produce high-quality steel without good-quality resources (Spence 1990 pp.550-1). Many people disapproved of his lifestyle, as he seemed to be living like an emperor. His doctor Li Zhisui (1994) provides details, describing Mao to have a personal swimming pool (p.132) and to indulge in sexual pleasures with multiple women (p.358). However, the views of Mao significantly changed in the years ahead. Timothy Cheek (2002 p.229) describes how Mao was viewed like a god during the Cultural Revolution, saying that people â€Å"paid homage to his image, sang Mao quotation songs, chanted his sayings, performed the Loyalty Dance†. Additionally, the Cultural Revolution solidified Mao’s power. During the Great Leap Forward, Mao was marginalised by the CCP while Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping rose to power. Another key figure was Lin Biao, who Mao originally trusted with the role of Minister of National Defence, but who became an enemy. However, his death in a plane crash helped Mao to eliminate this enemy. As for Liu and Deng, Mao removed their threat to his power by removing them from the communist party. Therefore, the Cultural Revolution allowed Mao to grasp more power. In conclusion, few would deny that the Chinese Cultural Revolution was a period of turmoil in so many ways. For many, the standard of living remained unchanged, even if certain aspects, such as the availability of education and health care in rural areas, were improved. For some, such as intellectuals, urban students and those who worked for the arts, the situation was dampened, with their activity disrupted and many were subjected to violent torture or imprisonment. The only person who definitely benefited was Mao himself, as he gained power and popularity. All in all, it is no wonder that Chinese people regard the Cultural Revolution as a period of disaster. Reference list Books: Byong, J.A. 1976. Chinese Politics and the Cultural Revolution. Seattle: University of Washington Press. Cheek, T. 2002. Mao Zedong and China’s Revolutions. New York: The Bedford Series in History and Culture. Li, Z. 1994. The Private Life of Chairman Mao. New York: Random House. Meisner, M. 1986. Mao’s China and after: A History of the People’s Republic, 1st Edition. London : Collier Macmillan. Spence, J. 1999. The Search for Modern China, 2nd Edition. London: W.W. Norton & Company Ltd. Journals: Pepper, S. 1980. Chinese Education After Mao: Two Steps Forwards, Two Steps Back and Begin Again. The China Quarterly. 81 (March 1980) Word count: 1484 words (excluding reference list)