Biographical Information Essay Example for Free

Biographical Information Essay Regarded by contemporary and recent critics as one of the most notable female poets in Western literature, Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote Aurora Leigh at the height of her literary career, and the poem is deemed her masterwork in terms of poetics and narrative. Part autobiography and part social criticism, the poem traces the life of an Englishwoman and poet, Aurora Leigh, and is frequently cited as a proto-feminist treatise for its portrayal of difficulties arising for female characters from traditional values and practices of English society. Brownings innovative use of genre, self-reference, and feminine perspective make Aurora Leigh a landmark of nineteenth-century literature. Biographical Information Browning had planned to write a novel in blank verse as early as 1845, and had proposed that the subject would be a critical narrative of ordinary English life. At the time of Aurora Leighs publication in 1857, Browning, supported by her friendship and eventual marriage to Robert Browning in September of 1846, had recovered from a long period of poor health, family catastrophes, and isolation. In 1850, Sonnets from the Portuguese, written during her courtship with Browning, had been published to popular acclaim, and her reputation as a poet, especially of sentimental works, had grown. A son, Robert Wiedemann Barrett Browning, had been born to the couple in 1849, and this seems to have rejuvenated Brownings artistic endeavors. The Brownings began to travel extensively and became involved in politics on the Continent; Barrett Browning subsequently expressed in Aurora Leigh a concern with social issues, particularly the rights of women and the poor, and revealed her familiarity with European and classical literature as well. Aurora Leigh, published in 1857, was the most successful of Brownings works from a commercial standpoint: the book had gone through nineteen editions by 1885. Plot and Major Characters A novel in verse, as Coventry Patmore called it, Aurora Leigh follows the life of its heroine through her birth and childhood in Italy, intellectual development, literary career, and personal relationships. At a young age, Aurora Leigh resists the conventional and complacent English values imposed on her by a maiden aunt who cares for her after the death of her parents, and she discovers the pleasures of literature. Her early creative compositions stir her ambitions to support herself through a poetic career, and in time she becomes moderately successful in London literary circles. In the process of accomplishing this, Aurora rejects a marriage proposal from her cousin Romney Leigh, a wealthy philanthropist and owner of the family estate, who soon rescues a young woman named Marian Erle from poverty. The growing attachment between Romney and Marian is severed, however, by the unscrupulous Lady Waldemar, who is herself in love with Romney. Lady Waldemar contributes to Marians disappearance from London and her reappearance in a Paris brothel, where Marian is sexually assaulted and bears a child. Aurora, on her way to Italy, recognizes Marian in Paris and takes her and her child to Florence. When Romneys socialist Utopian community disastrously fails, he acknowledges the emptiness and hypocrisy of conventional methods of philanthropy, and travels to Florence. After a series of misunderstandings in which Aurora believes Romney has already wed Lady Waldemar, Romney once again asks Aurora to marry him. This she does, recognizing that art needs to be aided by love and partnership in the process of self-realization. Major Themes Browning addressed several major social issues in the narrative of Aurora Leigh—the relationship between art and individual self-fulfillment, the issue of class politics, and the issue of gender roles. The work suggests that individual freedom, regardless of class or gender, allows for inner development and the cultivation of creativity and inspiration. However, the novel-poem shows sensitivity to other aspects of the creative process, such as the background to the production of any artistic work and the source of creativity in turmoil and conflict. Furthermore, Aurora Leigh intricately weaves the political implications of Brownings own strong individualism and her emphasis on the actualization of ones lifes work into Aurora Leighs struggle to find her place, as a woman poet, in the traditional social order found in the poem. In addition, the work focuses on the institutionalized sexism and classicism of the Victorian age, and directs its severest criticism at conventional philanthropy as hypocritical and paternalistic. Also, Aurora Leigh depicts, through the character of Marian Erle, the horrific consequences of the abuse and neglect suffered by the poor—particularly poor women. The subplot of Marian and her child also censures the Victorian tendency to reject those who have been sexually attacked, and argues for greater concern for and treatment of the innocent victims. Critical Reception Despite its tremendous popular success, Aurora Leigh received mixed reactions from contemporary critics. Many, in addition to calling it immoral, found fault with its characterization, plot, and language; others, however, found the work proof of Brownings poetic genius. The poem was largely neglected by subsequent critics until the early 1930s, when Virginia Woolf s enthusiastic article on the poem was published. The emergence of feminist criticism helped spark renewed interest in the work, although Aurora Leigh is not unanimously accepted as a precursor to modern feminism. Commenting on the poems conclusion in particular, many feminist critics have regarded Auroras acceptance of marriage as the beginning of her loss of independence. Others have found in the ending a radical deviation from traditional nineteenth-century thought—instead of losing her independence through marriage, Aurora gains a rewarding and satisfying life through the blending of her artistic achievement with the love and partnership of another. According to several twentieth-century critics, this innovation is echoed in Brownings style: although contemporary reviewers criticized her unconventional poetic tendencies, more recent scholars consider her style to be innovative. Altogether, Aurora Leigh illuminates both Brownings artistic strengths and her weaknesses: she is praised for her ability to express passionate emotion, yet she is criticized for choosing such an abstract topic for Aurora Leigh as her highest convictions upon Life and Art. She is commended for her lyrical tone and innovative use of imagery, yet she is criticized for her verbose style, improbable plot, and unrealistic characters. In light of fervent endorsements of the poem by such literary figures as Emily Dickinson and Virginia Woolf, Aurora Leigh is generally judged to be a masterwork with noticeable flaws and remains highly significant to contemporary literary historians and critics.

Political Correctness Has Gone Too Far Essay -- History Censorship Arg

Political Correctness has Gone Too Far The â€Å"Politically Correct† movement’s purpose is to bring historically condescending terms, offensive music and art, and controversial educational content to an end and replace them with more positive and less-offending references. Offensive and demoralizing efforts are wrong, but the censorship and deletion of words and phrases that do not contain the intention to demoralize are taking political correctness too far. Politically correct (or â€Å"PC†) antics have created a social decline that is growing worse with each generation, specifically regarding areas of art, education, language, and our right to freedom of speech; the degradation they have brought to the American psyche has even led to name-changing. The PC mindset has also discouraged artistic expression. Imagine being to be so sensitive about offending people that we let the art we create be determined by the offended. New art would be restricted and old art would be censored. The creative ability would be limited to what is considered acceptable by everyone. We would be like the fool who tries to please everyone. How would music and art exist if the free reign of creativity ended? If art and music continue to face influential restrictions on content, then the quality of art will fall into artistic mediocrity. PC policies have also compromised the accuracy of educational content in textbooks. Material close to being offensive is removed or adjusted to satisfy the super-sensitive or to avoid any unforeseen complaints. For example, American Indians can't be depicted with long braids, in rural settings, or on reservations, even though many American Indians do have long braids and live in rural settings or on reservations. If the depictions of our historical figures are incorrect, then the new PC textbooks should ensure their historical accuracy and footnote each change appropriately. In addition, if the information is correct but is being altered to satisfy sensitive groups, it should be changed back, regardless of the offending potential. How far could this evolve? Will we continue to erase provocative and controversial details of our history? It â€Å"dumbs down† our textbooks, leaving them bland and far less interesting. This effort to cleanse our history is wrong and it is killing our education efforts/system today. We are becoming more aware of the sen... ...n the January 1993 Library Journal, makes a similar suggestion: "Ultimately, however, we hope we use language that is more sensitive without enforcing strident political correctness or orthodoxy." We, as a society, are so concerned about avoiding confrontations that we are going overboard changing non-offensive names. The attempt to avoid possible protests of sensitive pressure groups by sanitizing our language is, in my opinion, censorship. Changing a man’s career name from trashman to custodial engineer is an example that is justifiable and is why political correctness was brought about. It is the oversensitive effort to numb out historical content, which is neither offensive nor demeaning, which leads me to believe that political correctness has gone too far and needs to be stopped. Bibliography Fialkoff, Francine. "The Word Police." Library Journal 118 (1993):25. S.I. Hayakawa and Alan R Hayakawa, Words with Built-in Judgments. Language Awareness, Readings for College Writers. Ed. Paul Escholz, Alfred Rosa, Virginia Clark. Bedfort/St. Martin’s: Boston, New York, 2004. 229-234 Wikipedia the Free Online Encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowman 2004

The Importance of Keeping Your Chain of Command Informed

It is important to keep your chain of command informed at all times, especially if you are in charge of the well being of soldiers. On the twenty sixth of January I failed as a Non Commissioned Officer to fulfill this duty. I was informed that one of my soldiers might be going to the hospital. I asked that person to keep me informed of my soldier’s status. Instead I should have checked on the soldier personally because her health was already in a fragile state and the problem she was having was of a very serious nature. I let my soldier down and endangered her by trying to keep the situation at the lowest level. I knew it was important to her that at the time her situation remained discreet. Although my soldier’s personal life is their business, their health and well being is mine and that should have taken precedence. My actions not only affected my soldier and myself but by keeping my chain of command in the dark I potentially could have affected their reputation negatively in the sense that, should that soldiers condition been more severe they would have been blindsided and their chain have command would have question why they did not act sooner. I took the situation too lightly and that was not my place to brush it off and assume that everything would get better. I know now that as an NCO it is my job to take care of my soldiers but it takes more than one NCO to do so. By keeping my squad leader and platoon sergeant out of the equation I limit my resources for help on evaluating and fixing the problem. What I should have done the second that this information was passed down to me was to contact the soldier themselves to affirm the information and get details and then immediately get a hold of my chain of command and let them know what is going on. My chain of command has been in the ARMY much longer then I and would know better what to do in a situation like this. It was selfish of me to think I was able to handle a situation of this matter on my own. I should have gone to the people who have experience in how to handle the situation and would do what is best for the soldier. My counseling says â€Å"When you receive information about a soldier being sent to the hospital it is your obligation to inform your chain of command so that information can be passed up the chain and the appropriate actions can be taken if need be. I understand that it might not seem like a very big deal but a soldier getting admitted to the hospital for any reason can take a turn for the worse without notice and also we have to account for the soldier while they are in the hospital. In the future make sure you pass this information up the chain as soon as it is received. † This counseling helped me grow as a NCO because it made good points that I never thought of when acting in this situation. First of all the fact that I, someone who is not a doctor cannot make a proper evaluation of someone in order to assume that there health problem is no big deal. And by acting like is no big deal I could have made the situation take a turn for the worse. Also I neglected to remember the importance of knowing my soldiers general where abouts at all times whether at work in the field and even at home. The consequences of my actions could have resulted in more than a counseling. Most importantly my soldier could have been in serious danger and by the time I seeked help it could have been too late to keep the condition of the situation minimal. She could have gotten really sick and her chain of command would have no idea and therefore would have been no help to her. Furthermore my dereliction of duty is punishable under the uniform code of military justice. It could have led to a loss in rank and pay or dismissal and separation from the Army under Army Regulation six-hundred and thirty five dash two-hundred chapters five, nine, thirteen and fourteen. If this would have happened I could have received an honorable discharge or even worse an other than honorable discharge. The results of these actions would have been immense. I would have not only have let down that solider but my other soldiers as well as my chain of command. Without the Army I would be unable to support my future family and would have let down my family and my country because I am a good soldier and am learning to become a good NCO. It all goes back to the NCO creed where it states that â€Å"I will communicate consistently with my soldiers and will never leave them uniformed. † It goes unsaid that I am responsible for linking the information between my chain of command and those soldiers under my command. When I got a call saying my soldier needed me I neglected to act on this and inform my chain of command who is equipped to deal with the situation. In the future I will be sure to notify my chain of command of anything that has to do with my soldiers or I because they can not properly do their jobs if I do not do mine. I am sorry for being careless and plan to use this event as a learning tool. I now know how serious things can get when a corporal tries to do the job of a platoon sergeant and will not let it happen again. A lot of people say that â€Å"it takes a community to raise a child† being an NCO is very much the same because one NCO cannot do everything it takes to take care of a soldier, it takes a platoon.

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