Huntsville/Madison County NAACP president reacts to town hall on police deadly force

Data pix.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. --  The NAACP held a town hall Monday night for the public to ask the district attorney questions about the justice system. The Huntsville/Madison County NAACP president says it was a benefit.

One question regarding the release of body camera footage had the crowd questioning the district attorney's answer.

"The public is not entitled to that evidence at this time," said Madison County District Attorney Rob Broussard.

NAACP President Jerry Burnet says at that point, the meeting couldn't seem to get back on topic, which was disappointing. Burnet adds that the crowd's attendance and engagement was a plus.

"Even though it didn't turn out the way I would have like it to... I think it was a benefit to the community," says Burnet. "From the feedback that I'm getting is that they were glad to be able to engage with the D.A. and the sheriff."

Burnet says the NAACP will be looking into more options moving forward, such as a possible town hall meeting with the Madison City administrators and police department.


Boundaries sometimes overlap when categorizing Southern Europe as many of the countries listed in this part of the continent are also listed in other broader regions. However, the one unifying factor in this group of sixteen countries that make up this part of Europe in the Mediterranean Sea. Quite predictably, the food and culture are influenced by the climatic conditions of the region, as is the landscape. Visitors head to Greece’s Santorini or Croatia’s coastline in droves to experience first-hand the wonders of the Mediterranean lands. While Spain and Italy are the most industrialized countries in Southern Europe, the rest of the countries in the region rely greatly on agriculture.
Southern Europe too is dipped in history, and the remnants of great civilizations and cultures are visible in the ancient ruins and great monuments. The grand Colosseum of Rome, the Alhambra in Granada, and the San Giovanni Fortress in Montenegro are a testament to the region’s glorious past. Southern Europe’s fascinating present is reflected in the well-heeled cities of Milan and Barcelona and in the gastronomic centers of San Sebastian and Bilbao.

Top 10 Things To Do In Mostar

Top 10 Things To Do In Mostar

Enchanting Mostar, also known as the “City of Sunshine” for its pleasant climate, is a seamless blend of the ancient and the modern. Tucked into a serene valley on the banks of the Neretva River, the beautiful city has put behind its war-ravaged past to welcome tourists with its historical landmarks, spiritual centers, natural beauty,…

Top Things To Do In Sarajevo

Top 8 Things To Do In Sarajevo

Sarajevo is the proud capital of the emerging democratic country known as Bosnia and Herzegovina. A small yet vibrant balkanic city filled with history, gorgeous architecture, spectacular scenery and welcoming people. Every corner of this beautiful city has a story to tell, their streets and homes hosted for centuries adherents of Islam, Orthodoxy, Judaism and…


Admitting children to the Masjid

Q: What is the ruling on allowing children and the insane to enter Masjids (mosques)?

A: It is the duty of the guardian of the insane to prevent them from entering the Masjid to prevent any harm that could happen to the Masjid or to the people praying there. Also, it is their duty to give the insane good therapy. As for children, they should not be prevented from going to Masjids whether with their parents or by themselves in case they are discerning children or they are seven years old or more. In this way they will be able to offer Salah with other Muslims.May Allah grant us success. May peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family, and Companions.


University of Central Asia

The University of Central Asia was founded in 2000, and aims to promote the social and economic development of Central Asia, particularly its mountain societies.  It is establishing three campuses, in Tajikistan, the Kyrgyz Republic and Kazakhstan.  The International Treaty and Charter that established this secular and private university was signed jointly by the Presidents of those three countries, and the founder His Highness the Aga Khan.

UCA brings with it the commitment and partnership of the broader Aga Khan Development Network, offering an internationally recognised standard of higher education in Central Asia.

In addition to providing high-level education, UCA enables the different peoples of the region to preserve and draw upon their rich cultural traditions and heritages as assets for the future. It seeks to contribute leadership, ideas, and innovations to the transitioning economies and communities of the region through modern educational and vigorous research programmes that produce knowledgeable, skilled and creative graduates.

UCA and the Cambridge Trust work together to offer the University of Central Asia Cambridge Scholarship, for postgraduate students from the UCA region whose studies reflect the current focus subjects of the UCA.

Note for students

You are encouraged to use the Trust's scholarships search to find all the awards for which you may be eligible.


National Hero Velaphi Ncube gets huge send-off

09 May, 2019 - 00:05 0 Views
National Hero Velaphi Ncube gets huge send-off Body of the late national hero Cde Misheck Ncube

The Chronicle

Mashudu Netsianda, Senior Reporter

HUNDREDS of people from all walks of life yesterday converged at Lobengula Hall in Bulawayo to bid farewell to the late national hero Cde Velaphi Misheck Ncube.

Cde Ncube (82), who was also Zanu-PF’s National Consultative Assembly (NCA) member, succumbed to diabetes on April 29.

In an emotional send off, speakers spoke well of Cde Ncube, describing him as a humble, honest and dedicated revolutionary who contributed immensely to the country’s liberation struggle.

Addressing mourners, Bulawayo Provincial Affairs Minister Cde Judith Ncube described the late national hero as a true cadre who fought a good fight and left a rich legacy for the country.

“In mourning Cde Velaphi Ncube as Bulawayo province and Zimbabwe as a whole, we are saying there is need to follow in his footsteps as he was a hard worker. We can only honour and preserve his legacy by working hard to grow our economy and improve the people’s lives,” she said.

Cde Ncube said if Zimbabweans change their attitudes, the country will be a better place to live in.

“I remember the late Vice-President Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo in his own words saying ‘Mr (Robert) Mugabe if we are not careful we are leading towards a chaotic situation. We need to rectify this issue of corruption before it is too late because if we don’t our children will destroy this country’s economy.’ Let us therefore put our heads together, unite and work for our country,” said Cde Ncube.

Body of the late national hero Cde Misheck Ncube being flown to Harare from Joshua Nkomo International Airport in Bulawayo

Zanu-PF Politburo member Cde Absolom Sikhosana said Cde Ncube was a revolutionary icon with an illustrious liberation history.

“Cde Ncube was a true hero whose credentials are unquestionable. He was a revolutionary icon with inescapable liberation history who left an indelible mark during the liberation struggle and even after independence,” he said.

Cde Sikhosana described the late national hero as a principled man who always preached peace, development and love.

Renowned historian Mr Phathisa Nyathi also gave a detailed narrative of the documented history of Cde Ncube’s contribution to the liberation struggle.

He said the late national hero was a selfless liberator who was among a group that went to Ghana and Egypt to receive military training with a special focus on sabotage.

“Cde Velaphi was one of the pioneers of the liberation struggle. He was always in and out of prison for participating in the armed struggle and it is through sacrifices by people such as Cde Ncube that we attained our independence,” said Mr Nyathi.

He said at the time of Cde Ncube’s death he had started documenting his history.

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Strong intrinsic motivation is essential to virtual teams

Direction and meaning are essential triggers, and a key competency for effective virtual leaders.

With this post I am continuing the series as announced in the opening blog post 5 weeks ago:  I will present the fifth competency and reflect on how you can develop this further also in order to strengthen your effectiveness as a virtual leader.

The other competencies, should you have missed them, were self-leadership, effective communication and productive relationships and intercultural sensitivity.

Let me start again with describing this competency first.

What do I mean by Direction and Meaning?

Motivation and inspiration are essential drivers for any human being to engage actively in tasks or challenges. Hence, fostering motivation and inspiring people is a fundamental leadership competency. However, members of virtual teams are facing the challenge of being distracted by local requests and stakeholders. As a consequence the virtual team itself will suffer if its members are not motivated and inspired to contribute to its goals. The psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi(**) summarises the insights from his research into flow in the following way: “If a leader demonstrates that his purpose is noble and transcendent, that the work will enable organisational members to connect with something larger and more permanent than their material existence, people will give the best of themselves to the enterprise”. To me that means, the most powerful force to motivate people is to give them direction and meaning in the way Mihaly describes it. The stronger you are in this, the more you can bind your virtual team members to the course of your endeavour.

How to give direction and meaning?

I want to summarise two aspects under this heading, providing a vision (direction) and a higher purpose (meaning) for the team and share some ideas how to use them most effectively:

Start developing a very compelling vision for what you see the team could achieve through highly effective collaboration. Share and refine this vision as often as possible to activate your dispersed members. In one of my previous blogs I have provided more ideas about how to create compelling visions. You can read more about it here.
Explore and clearly express how the team contributes to the higher purpose of the organisation or even create a higher purpose for the team itself. This is useful as long as it is not becoming too artificial. My colleague Bert Krijnen has summarised in a blog a very good book, ‘The Why Café’ by John Strelecky, about how to explore purpose. Find his blog here.

The best quote I can think of describing what it really means is the following by Antoine De Saint-Exupery: “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders.  Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”

Although a fairly complex theme I hope this gives you enough food for thought to start developing this competency further. If you are interested in an in-depth conversation feel free to get in touch with me or share your thoughts in the comment section of this post below.

(**) Mihály Csíkszentmihályi is noted for his work on the study of happiness and creativity, but is best known as the architect of the notion of flow and for his years of research and writing on the topic. He is the author of many books and over 120 articles or book chapters.

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Grant writing is a special type of writing. Even if you’re already good at other types of writing, whether it’s academic, creative, or for entertainment, there are still a few things to keep in mind when you’re writing a government grant proposal. These are the top five mistakes made by otherwise good writers who are inexperienced with writing government grant proposals. Contributing to this list were ideas from grant writer Veronica Robbins.

The first item you already know if you’ve read some of my other articles, and that’s to follow the instructions exactly. When we have something to say and want to communicate it to the reader it’s easy to get carried away and end up providing different information than was requested. Be sure that you’re answering what was asked and do a final review before submitting, that you’ve done precisely what was requested.

The next mistake a novice government grant writer might make is to be too long-winded and include too much detail. Your goal is to tell your story, but tell it concisely. Including overly long explanations and tedious details might seem like thoroughness to you, but to the government grant reviewer, it may be boring or confusing. It takes some practice, but the sweet spot to aim for is enough explanation to be clear, but not so much that the main points are lost.

For this next item, first a little quick review of government grant proposal components. Your proposal should show that a need exists, how you can make the situation better, and what it will take for you to accomplish it. That means that you have a needs statement, a plan, and a budget. Now, here’s the important part. They must interconnect and all make sense, both independently and together. Your plan isn’t meaningful if it’s not clear what it is that’s getting remedied; a needs statement without a good plan to fix it is really just problem without a solution. The proposed budget has to mirror what you say in the rest of the proposal. If you ask for too little in your budget, then the reviewer will conclude that you can’t get the job done. Too much, and you may seem like an opportunist. Some government grant writers will add some goodies into the budget, but forget to explain or justify it elsewhere in the document.

The next common pitfall is to assume that the government grant reviewer is familiar with you or already knows the subject matter that you’re discussing in your proposal. If the reviewer has a big pile of grant proposals to review and yours contains unfamiliar acronyms and industry jargon, do you think that the reviewer will take the time to look up what you’re talking about, or just go on to the next one? Be sure to explain or spell out anything that isn’t commonly known.

Finally, once you’ve followed all the previous recommendations in writing your proposal, be sure to proofread it thoroughly. What you’re looking for is overall clarity and coherence, plus any spelling or grammar mistakes. The best way is to have someone else who is knowledgeable read it and offer feedback. If you don’t have anyone to ask, then a second-best option is to set your government grant proposal aside for a day or two, then re-read yourself. With the way our brains work, if we stare at something long enough, we can no longer spot errors, at least not until we take a long break from it. No matter how good a writer or editor you are, this still holds true, so don’t underestimate its importance.

You can become a very proficient government grant writer, especially now that you know what the common mistakes are to avoid. This will give you a good running start on developing your skill and getting the government grants you want.


Neuro-Integration Therapy and Brain Mapping For Addiction Recovery

At Seaside Palm Beach, we use only the best cutting-edge, evidence-based practices when treating individuals who struggle with a substance use disorder. Neuro-integration therapy and brain mapping are currently at the forefront of addiction treatment research and have been proven highly effective in the assessment and treatment of patients. The process and results are tangible, able to be read and deciphered by professionals on a virtual map of a person’s brain. This enables our medical doctors, psychiatrists, and clinicians to develop an individualized treatment plan for each patient at our luxury South Florida rehab.

Our neuro-integration therapy and brain mapping for addiction recovery are separate from our typical programming. In order for a patient to see optimal results from neuro-integration treatment, they will have to participate in the program for a minimum of 14 days. Patients are able to participate in this additional treatment process.

How Neuro-Integration Therapy & Brain Mapping Work

Neuro-integration therapy and brain mapping are painless, non-invasive therapies that yield results and help treating professionals to better understand the mechanisms that affect a person’s decision making and reaction process. In terms of addiction recovery, neuro-integration therapy and brain mapping address how an addicted individual’s brain processes information in a dysfunctional way.

Typically, drug and alcohol dependence block information from being transferred properly in a person’s brain, creating messages that the brain reads inaccurately. This affects emotional regulation, decision-making skills, memory, insomnia, stress levels, and the phenomenon of craving, among other crucial aspects that affect recovery.

Brain mapping is a recording of activity that analyzes brainwave frequency and bandwidth, showing electrical activity of the cerebral cortex. The process then creates a topographic color-coded map that professionals are able to use as an assessment tool throughout the course of addiction treatment. These maps show deficient and excessive brainwave activity as well as communication issues between brain sites. The mapping process is conducted on a regular basis throughout our patients’ time at our luxury residential rehab program to measure progress and is used in creating effecting treatment plans as they progress through our various programs.

Electromagnetic Pulsed Stimulation For Addiction Recovery

Electromagnetic pulsed stimulation is one of the methods utilized throughout the brain mapping process as part of a treatment plan to address the patient’s physiological issues. It is used to help the brain find balance within the areas that are either over stimulated or under stimulated based on the initial assessment. This is done by placing electrodes on the area of the head that correlates with the areas needing treatment, producing oscillating bodies that a patient’s own brain will begin to mirror. This procedure is noninvasive, painless, and has no known side effects.

The Biomat is a unique medical and therapeutic process that utilizes ionic channels and infrared technology approved by NASA. The Biomat produces deep-penetrating infrared light rays and negative ions that activate the body at the molecular level. This enables patients to fully relax. The Biomat itself holds amethyst crystals which are used to focus the Far Infrared Rays, calming and protecting the mind and nervous system. This process makes the body feel fully charged and energized. It also causes a net increase in metabolism and enables healing to occur at a more accelerated rate. This is an integral part of the neurotherapy process, and the effects can be felt in just a few sessions.

Vibroacoustic Therapy

The element of sound is equally important in the neuro-integration therapy process for addiction recovery. Through the use of sound waves, patients can calm or stimulate their minds. Vibroacoustic is utilized while a patient is using the Biomat. Patients will wear a set of headphones that emit these soundwaves. The benefits of vibroacoustic therapy include: stimulating blood circulation, reducing blood pressure, decreasing the experience of physical pain, stress reduction, decreased depression, lowered anxiety, decreased hyperactivity, development of sensory awareness, and increased relaxation.

Here at Seaside Palm Beach, we strive to offer patients the highest caliber of care through the most effectively proven techniques to treat addiction. We recognize that every patient is unique, and therefore create treatment plans that are individualized for each patient’s needs. Neuro-integration therapy and brain mapping for addiction recovery are just one of the many add on ancillary services of our luxury addiction treatment programs offered at Seaside Palm Beach, where our goal is to heal patients’ minds, bodies, and souls.


Photoshopped or not?

"Kirby Jenner," the self-proclaimed twin of Kendall Jenner, has been photoshopping himself into the reality TV star's Instagram photos for the past year or so, and internet users can't get enough of him.

Known for his bushy mustache and his Kendall-esque captions, Kirby Jenner has built a following of over 600,000 users on Instagram.

In an interview with Teen Vogue, Kirby shared some insight on his relationship with Kendall.

"Kendall and I are as freakin close, what's an example of two REALLY close things? Like, two rocks sitting on top of each other?" Kirby said. "Or no, like we're as close as two people stuffed into the same phone booth. Or like, two pieces of ham slapped onto a sandwich."

He went on to describe how he and Kendall spend their time together.

"I guess our fav thing is singing karaoke to songs in different languages (so so funny not knowing how to pronounce the words) or building pillow forts with Kanye or doing spin-art together. Just lots of regular twin stuff, you know?"

Related Video: Kendall Jenner facing more controversy because of Vogue Magazine cover

Kendall has yet to publicly acknowledge the existence of her twin, but Kirby blames a member of her fashion team for that.

"I think it's mostly this guy Mario on her fashion team. I accidentally flew my drone into his face and I don't think he's forgiven me," Kirby said.

Kirby's full account can be found here.


SACRAMENTO — Electronic cigarettes would be regulated in the same way as tobacco products under a bill approved by the state Senate on Tuesday.

SB140 by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco would include e-cigarettes in the definition of tobacco products in order to prohibit the devices from being used at workplaces, schools and public places, just as tobacco products are under the state’s Smoke Free Act.

SB140 would also make it a misdemeanor to provide e-cigarettes to minors. California bans the sale of e-cigarettes to anyone under 18, but Leno said young teens still have access to them and they are becoming increasingly popular among middle and high school students.

“They are being marketed to minors,” Leno said. “They are being marketed in flavors such as gummy bears and watermelon and Mountain Dew and sugar-sweet flavors to attract young people. They are being very successful in doing this.”

Opponents have argued that the bill would allow landlords to ban e-cigarettes from being used in their properties and would negatively impact those who turn to the devices as a means of quitting smoking.

The state Senate passed SB140 in a 24-12 vote, with most Republicans voting against the proposal.

The bill now heads to the state Assembly, which will also consider a bill to increase the smoking age to 21 years old. The Senate on Tuesday also passed SB151 by Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina (Los Angeles County) to raise the smoking age from 18 to 21.

If both bills were signed into law, Leno’s bill would also raise the minimum smoking age for e-cigarettes to 21 years old.


How much money does it cost to sponsor a refugee family?

Your group will have to show that you have £9,000 in a bank account ringfenced solely for the purpose of sponsoring. Depending on the part of the country you were from, you might need to raise more money than that. In expensive areas such as London, we recommend that you aim to raise at least £12,000.

On the other hand, you could find that this money is not all spent. Some variables include:

- Whether you find a house rented at social housing rates, or if your group will contribute towards rental costs each month

- The needs and progress of the refugee family you sponsor

- Whether you have to pay for professional interpreters, or you have enough volunteers for this role

- How much you receive in in-kind donations (e.g. furnishings, initial groceries, clothes, etc.)

See Fundraise

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chapter  12
8 Pages

Shifting Tides: Climate Change, Migration, and Agency in Tuvalu

The islands of Tuvalu are geologically very young and dynamic, subject to subsidence, reef growth, and eroding and accreting forces of the sea and weather (Baines, Beveridge, and Maragos 1974). In addition to complex geomorphology, limited technical research contributes to scientifi c debate about how the islands will be affected by sea-level rise (Hunter 2004; Webb and Kench 2010). Nonetheless, there is broad agreement on the general effects of climate change that include sea-level rise, sea-surface and subsurface temperature increases, ocean acidifi cation and coral bleaching, coastal erosion, increased intensity but decreased frequency of rainfall, and increased frequency of other extreme weather events including drought (Nurse et al. 2014). Already, an upward trend in sea-level rise is discernable at the sealevel gauge on Funafuti, the island that is home to the national capital, of 2 ± 1 mm per year over the period 1950 to 2001. Continued and increasing rates of sea-level rise will lead to increased coastal erosion, fl ooding, and compromised freshwater resources (Church, White, and Hunter 2006).


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Textual Analysis Essay - Read, Grasp and Analyze

Jun 12, 2018

One of the most significant and substantial traits that every student must possess is a knack for analyzing. It is basically what college is about: learning to perceive and process information on the go. College professors assign you tasks that are meant to develop your analytical, writing and conceptual skills. One of such assignments is a textual analysis essay, also known as literary analysis essay. The point of it is precisely what the name implies - the analysis of a certain piece of text. But, do you know how to write a textual analysis essay? Not all students have the required set of skills. It may not be easy for every scholar to master the task of writing a textual analysis. And if by any chance, you are among them, we are here to help you out. Our professional team have been performing all kinds of writings for years now. And today we want to help you figure out how to write a textual analysis, understand its definition and purpose, and learn all the ins and outs. Let's begin!

What is a Textual Analysis Essay? Let's Find Out!

In order to understand how to go about the writing, you need to grasp the textual analysis definition first. Like mentioned before, the name explains itself. You are presented with an extract or the entirety of a piece of writing, be it a novel, a short story, an article, or something else falling under the "text" category. Textual analysis essays are papers that break down the whole given body of the written work, fractionate it as a whole and as an assembly of a few different parts, and explain the meaning or intent behind them. Sounds a tad too complicated, doesn't it? Well, that's what you get when you apply to college - a lot of unnecessarily fancy words and sleep deprivation. Basically, you need to write a fully detailed study, highlighting strong and weak points and making conclusions based on text references. It is, after all, an analysis. So, if you understand now what is a textual analysis essay, you are prepared to take on the task of the text inspector.

Textual Analysis Essay Structure - What Goes Where

The first thing you need to do is, of course, pick a text you're planning on analyzing. In most cases, the assigner provides you with one right away, but sometimes you need to choose it yourself. Proceed carefully and don't make a mistake of overestimating your abilities. Choose something that is easy for you to understand, and therefore, easier to write about. Try finding as many sources as you can. Of course, all the analyzing must be done exclusively by you, but it's not prohibited to reference someone else's work when presenting examples.

One of the main secrets about how to write a good textual analysis is planning. By the way, it applies to any type of work: before starting anything, you need to make a plan in order to reach the maximum efficiency in your doings. Back to your task - first, put together the structure. Make a textual analysis essay outline. It will help you organize your thoughts. While writing an outline, you can see more clearly how your essay will look like. Getting the "big picture" of it all is a crucial stage of writing. Just like you're assembling Lego's with an outlined instruction, you need to build your essay from separate pieces. And to find those pieces - make a plan!

The introduction section

The introduction of textual analysis is, in a way, the most important part of the paper. If the intro "hooks" the reader, they will proceed with examining your essay further. Yes, you are writing it for your professor, but every college assignment should be regarded as one up for the nationwide publishing. It gives you a better understanding of its significance. So, try your best to catch the reader's attention. For instance, you can add an epigraph with a quote from a book you're compiling an analysis on. The introduction part needs to establish the theme of your essay, and explain why it is important to investigate it. Once again, your topic must be something you are interested in, intrigued by, or feel the need for a discussion. After you've done that, proceed to make your thesis statement. It is desirable, although not necessarily, for your thesis statement to be the last sentence of the introduction section. After that, it's all about convincing your reader in the main body.

A little tip: write your introduction when the rest of the essay is done. It seems strange, but composing the main part first will help you see all the major points you need to mention at the beginning.

Let us provide you with an example of an introduction to a textual analysis essay on the Victor Hugo's Les Miserables.

"His flaring nostrils, his downcast eyes, gave to his implacable Greek profiles that expression of wrath and chastity which for the ancient world belonged to justice." ― Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

Victor Hugo's epic novel about the destinies of various societal outcasts is one of the most significant written works ever to exist. In it, the author portrays the human nature as a neutral state. People are born with neither good nor bad qualities, but they are shaped by the society and circumstances of their lives. The problematique of "nature vs. nurture" is as old as the literature itself, but in this essay, I would like to look more closely at the destiny of one particular character. Young revolutioner Enjolras. His story is made even more interesting in this discourse, for he was brought up as an aristocrat, but ended up on the barricades fighting to bring down the king. Enjolras' portrayal by Hugo was clearly intended as a re-establishing of the old archetype of Orestes in the new age.

As you can see, we've set the mood of the essay and added our thesis statement at the end.

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The main body

When you get to the part of the actual analysis, it's time to whip out a good old argumentative structure. In the textual analysis, you are required to provide a few examples regarding your thesis statement, following by the explanations and elaborations that prove the said statement to be true. Don't make them vague and subjective. Write short and on point. At this stage, you don't need to go into details. Prove in general terms - just why your statements are true. You'll get to the more thorough analysis later on.

Next step is to demonstrate your perception of the author's strategy. Describe how and what the author does to highlight something, bring attention to it, or deny it. Don't write about everything there is in the book, though. You only need to mention the points that connect directly to your thesis statement.

After that, it's time for our usual argument-example scheme. You need to have at least three paragraphs on this, as per usual. Here, you can go into as much detail as you want. Bring out the references to the text or some other sources to relate to your arguments. There's no restriction about using quotes straight from the text, but it is advisable to avoid them. Instead, you can reference the part you want to bring to attention.

After everything is done, look it over and make sure you didn't omit anything. The next part of the writing process is simultaneously the easiest and the hardest one.

The conclusion part

The textual analysis conclusion can be a tricky thing. On the one hand, you are already at the finish line, and you just need to summarize everything you've written in the central part. On the other hand, it can be hard to condense everything without repeating yourself a lot. Be careful and precise: go back to your thesis points and paraphrase them in a way that makes answers from them, not questions. Conclusively end your essay, and finish every thought you've started.

An Example of a Textual Analysis Outline

  1. Introduction
    • Thesis Statement
  2. Main Body
    • Topic Sentence
      The destinies and characteristics of Enjolras and Orestes are paralleled through the ages.
    • Example
      Meaning of the name Orestes is "one who can conquer mountains," which goes strongly in line with Enjolras' characteristics.
      According to the myth about Orestus, his destiny is to fight and be an avenger and a warrior, who is, however, doomed to fall before seeing his goal through. Enjolras is described as the passionate man who died fighting for the freedom but never saw said freedom coming to France.
    • Two or three topic sentences with accompanying examples, written in the same fashion.
  3. Conclusion
    Victor Hugo accomplished a great deal of things with writing Les Miserables, including reestablishing and reshaping certain archetypical tropes in literature. He managed to bring to life the shapeless abstract form of French life and people who were long gone by the time he started writing the first pages of his magnum opus. One of the brightest examples is the character of Enjolras, a young rebelling aristocrat who defied all the expectations and became a warrior, just like Orestes did centuries ago... etc.

And that's how you go about writing a textual analysis. Of course, there are a lot of different methods that can help you with this task. But the one we provided is simple and accessible, so don't be shy and buy custom paper writing online.

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Top 10 People Who Shouldn't Play Certain Historical or Religious Figures

The people who would be oh so unfitting for these roles, even in parody movies! (Note: These people don't need to be alive right now, but they must have been alive after these historical events happened.)

The Top Ten

1 Stephen Hawking as God Stephen William Hawking (January 8, 1942 - March 14, 2018) was an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author and Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge.

He was the only one I knew from this list.

As a christian, I approve of this message. - namesnipe

One of the greatest atheists of all time (definitely inspired someone like me). Why would he play something he doesn't even believe in?!?! - PhoenixAura81

As someone who is an actor (of the stage) I have a problem with what you're saying. I don't believe in vampires; by your logic, I can't (or at least shouldn't) play Dracula because of this. As long as someone has enough talent, why should their views prevent them from acting. - aj2005

Let's take one of the most famous atheists ever and have him play God. Great idea! - 445956

The description says that as long as the person was alive after the event, it qualifies, even if they are dead now. - 445956

2 Victor Garber as Adolf Hitler Victor Joseph Garber is a Canadian film, stage and television actor and singer. He is known for playing Jesus in Godspell, John Wilkes Booth in Assassins, Jack Bristow in the television series Alias, Max in Lend Me a Tenor, Thomas Andrews in James Cameron's Titanic, and Ken Taylor, Canadian Ambassador more.

Anyone with no brain would want to cast Victor Garber as Hitler, because a Jewish gay man playing Hitler totally makes sense, right? - 445956

It's Acting. The actor doesn't need to have Any resemblance or similarities to the personality, values or lifestyle of the character. A Jewish, gay man may be able to enact the best possible portrayal of Hitler - especially if he's a talented and capable professional. - Billyv

3 Richard Spencer as Martin Luther King Jr.

An alt-rightist playing his worst nightmare. - 445956

That would be both ironic AND absolutely terrible. - PhoenixAura81

The irony is right there.A white supremacist and leader of the alt right playing the role of the leader of the civil rights movement and the man who gave people of colour equal rights as whites.-DarkBoi-X

Liam Neeson, who played Schindler on the big screen, may not be Jewish, but he sure isn't a crazy anti-semite like Gibson, which would make sense why an anti-semite shouldn't play a man who saved several Jews from Hitler. - 445956

5 Bernie Sanders as Andrew Jackson Bernard "Bernie" Sanders is an independent American Senator from Vermont and was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2016 election.

Probably one of the biggest male feminists in politics wouldn't want to play our most racist president. (Yes, Jackson was more racist than Trump.) - 445956

6 Harvey Fierstein as Heinrich Himmler

Imagine a parody movie about Nazi Germany with people like Victor Garber as Hitler and Harvey Fierstein as Himmler? It would be a parody movie as Victor and Harvey are both gay jews! - 445956

7 Brandon Flynn as Josef Mengele

This young Jewish gay actor would totally work out as a Nazi who did experiments on jews, and also hated gays, right? But now I think I will stop putting gay jews here for playing Nazis. - 445956

8 Connor Franta as Naphtali

Because let's just have a cute YouTuber play one of Jacob's sons, amirite? - 445956

9 Chadwick Boseman as Joseph Stalin

He looks a lot like Stalin though! - Cyri

I couldn't find any lists of anti-communist celebrities, so I took someone completely unfitting for the role of Stalin. - 445956

10 Dave Goelz as Confucius

You know what we need more of? White puppeteers playing Asian philosophers! - 445956

The Contenders

11 Donald Trump as Barack Obama

I'm laughing so hard! "Yes we can make America great again! " Haha!

Shut up and take my money!

12 Adam Sandler as Adolf Hitler

It doesn't help that Sandler is also Jewish.

13 Peter Dinklage as Abraham Lincoln

Because let's make the midget play one of the tallest presidents ever.

14 Bill Cosby as Jack the Ripper

I want to see this. - Cyri

No it’s a great decision lmao
~ AlphaQ

15 Hillary Clinton as Elizabeth Báthory
16 Donald Trump as Mahatma Gahndi
17 Donald Trump as Martin Luther King Jr.

"Make America Great Again" was Bill Clinton's official campaign slogan-m Trump stole it from him.

I have a dream that we can make America whi- I mean great again!

18 Lil Wayne as Martin Luther King Jr.
19 Seth MacFarlane as Walt Disney

The creator of Family Guy as the creator of many kids movies? I'd love to see how this turns out - KingSlayer93316

20 Nicki Minaj as Jesus

I made an unholy monstrosity! - Cyri

21 Neil Patrick Harris as a Klansman
22 Kevin Spacey as Chris Hansen
23 Jim Caviezel as Maximilian Kolbe

I actually made a mistake when I made this suggestion. I misread what the list was about. I didn't see the 'n't' after "should.' - clusium

24 Keemstar as Harvey Weinstein

Haha, this is something I would pay to see - KingSlayer93316

25 Rob Halford as Josef Mengele

Halford isn’t Jewish, but Mengele hated homosexuals - NightmareCinema

26 Barack Obama as Donald Trump
27 Nicki Minaj as Māyā Angelou
28 6ix9ine as George Washington

The unholy child of Skittles and the worst of modern hip-hop leading the American Revolution... - Cyri

29 Riley Dennis as Adolf Hitler
30 David Duke as Jesus Christ
31 Chanty Binx as Karl Marx
32 Nicki Minaj as Maya Angelou
33 Lil Xan as Mozart
34 RiceGum as Hayao Miyazaki
35 Barack Obama as Jesus
36 Donald Trump as Hillary Clinton
37 Michael Bay as Steven Spielberg
38 Roy Moore as Abraham Lincoln
39 Fred Phelps as Jesus
40 Rob Schneider as Stan Lee
41 Honey G as Osama Bin Laden
42 Woahvicky as Mother Mary
43 Justin Bieber as Freddie Mercury
BAdd New Item


Earn more with the same resources. In general, this is what we mean by improving the sales force’s productivity, one of the main goals of any modern company. To companies with sales force, this is defined as the relation between the number of sales achieved by sales force and the resources invested to obtain the aforesaid goals. Experience shows that the most quick and efficient way to improve sales force is to change the way in which it is managed.

Did you know that an unfocused and without leader sales team sells a 40% less? The figure of the Sales Manager is –due to its privileged position to influence, persuade and enhance sellers towards the highest levels of success– key for any company with sales force. However, this usually goes unnoticed due to its big amount of work, complicating this way the workers’ productivity at its expense. How to solve this? The 6 tips below will help you achieve it.

1. Support your sales team

No matter how big your sales staff may be, your duty as the Sales Manager is to know your team very well in order to reach the planned goals and achieve above average results. For your sales team work properly, sellers should be lined up, motivated and do a good performance.

It’s not enough to tell your employees what to do and how to do it focusing only on indicators and terms to try to boost their performance, because this will turn into a hostile environment and they will feel overwhelmed. You must know each of your workers and adapt to their needs: enhance their strong points and help them with their weaknesses. An effective Sales Manager is the one who finds the best way to reach his team with motivation and rewards that make the best of them. This is what will stimulate their productivity!

Confidence is gained in the “battlefield”, going to the sales visits and working side by side with them. The sentence “a happy employee works better“ is quite right. Coaching is the less cared responsibility by the Sales Managers because it requires more time. Sales Managers have realized that supporting their workers is the basis to obtain their teams’ confidence and unity.

2. Offer the best resources

Providing the best tools, a lot of training and a good working environment are essential things to develop and feed back your team. It is indispensable that, at least once a month, the sales force has the chance to renew the documents they use to reinforce their arguments and speeches when selling. Offer them the latest technologies so that they could sell your products more and better. Make their work easier with specific apps for sales force that will boost sales.

Furthermore, at least once a year, they should receive additional professional information to progress in their job function. Bear in mind that, in the most of the cases, sales force fails due to a lack of training rather than their attitude. To finish, don’t forget to create a proper working environment so that your sales team could feel motivated and therefore, they will increase their performance, fighting for an increment in the company’s sales.

3. Boost the internal communication

It is proved that those Sales Managers who share a lot of information and knowledge with their sales team become more effective. Hence the importance of does a meeting weekly and communicating every day with their workers.

To know exactly what to do, to have Sales Manager’s support via mobile, to share knowledge and transmit experience make the sales force more capable. Is because of this that we recommend to create a WhatsApp group including the members of sales team so that they could use it when a seller has difficulties and help him instantly.  Workers appreciate having support, especially in the most complicated moments.

4. Manage sales force

Sales Manager’s essence has not changed in the last years: an efficient leader must be skilled in planning, organizing, managing, evaluating and controlling his area and his workers to boost their productivity.

A good Sales Manager knows his workers and how to manage them according their nature. The “star sellers” must be cared, motivated and rewarded to maximize their performance. On the contrary, you must work proactively with those workers who present small negative behavior patterns to prevent bad habits or low results that will lead to affect the annual productivity.

The best way to manage and unite the areas and the sales workers is to promote integration and cooperation activities. Make funny out-of-work activities in which everybody must work together to reach a goal. This way, you’ll find out what are the problems existing among the company’s staff. Furthermore, you’ll make that they trust each other in their jobs, because working together outside the working space unites the team.

The last point, and the most important one, is the tracking of all that influences the sales. Measure all the activities to see their efficiency and track the results accurately.

5. Recognize their merits

Win is funny and it must be celebrated. So, recognize the individual and team merits whenever you have the chance. The best way to relax is to reward their triumphs –even the most insignificant ones– as often as you can and use it as an opportunity to boost your team. A joint celebration creates motivation and unity to keep on selling and reaching their goals.

6. Commit to failures

To be a good Sales Manager you must commit to your workers’ failures too. To fail is not as bad as it seems: it means not to achieve a goal or an objective but also to learn how to avoid this mistake. It is very important to know: Why do we fail? How can we solve it? What do we need? What are we going to change the next time? How can we help our sales force?

To blame the responsible before analyzing the situation causes a bad working environment, suspicion and deception for that person. At this point, the sales team can both become unified or divide completely. If you are comprehensive with your worker, support him and help him to overcome, he’ll trust you and will fight more the next time. As popular sayings says:

“You must keep together in good times and in bad ones”

According to recent studies, the 70% of the staff gives up the boss, not the work. That’s why we recommend having a tracking of your workers, to be close to them, to support them, to help them when they need it the most and to build ties to make them feel comfortable inside the community and motivate them to sell. Do you think your company follows these advices?


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Livre imprimé
The undeserving rich : American beliefs about inequality, opportunity, and redistribution
Éditeur Cambridge University Press
Année 2013, cop. 2013
Notices liées
Notice détaillée
1 vol. (XVII-300 p.) ; 23 cm
Bibliogr. p. 277-292. Index
Classification Dewey
339.220 973
1. Introduction: thinking about income inequality ; 2. Beyond the opposition between opportunity and inequality: theories of beliefs about inequality from the nineteenth century to the present ; 3. The emergence of a new social issue: media coverage of income inequality and social class in the United States, 1980-2010 ; 4. American beliefs about income inequality: what, when, who, and why ; 5. Why do Americans care about income inequality? The role of opportunity ; 6. Social policy preferences in the era of rising inequality ; 7. Conclusion: a new era of beliefs about inequality
"It is widely assumed that Americans care little about income inequality, believe opportunities abound, admire the rich, and dislike redistributive policies. Leslie McCall contends that such assumptions are based on both misleading survey data and past economic conditions. In fact, Americans have desired less inequality for decades, and McCall's book explains why. Americans become most concerned about inequality in times of inequitable growth, when they view the rich as prospering while opportunities for good jobs, fair pay, and high quality education are restricted for everyone else. As a result, they favor policies to expand opportunity and redistribute earnings in the workplace, reducing inequality in the market rather than redistributing income after the fact with tax and spending policies. This book resolves the paradox of how Americans can express little enthusiasm for welfare state policies and still yearn for a more equitable society"--
Origine de la notice
Abes (SUDOC)

inMedia v4.4


Код каталога: MDRM005
Мастеринг: Manifold Studio
Обложка: Chitoon
Тип: Album
Формат: Digital, Cassette
Стиль: Electronic, Bass Music, IDM
Here we go! Chitoon finally reveals his long awaited second album and we can asure you this record is a huge step up in his creative music career. The artist challenged his ability to seek and find perfect balance between modern, underground and classic. Yoshi is a lovingly produced very soulful album full of kaleidoscopic inspiring sounds. The tracks are full of inner harmony, captivating arpeggios and catchy melodies that raise lyrical emotions in the listener’s heart. Some are a bit technical, groovy and sound more experimental without being way too complicated. This new album is noticeably different from the previous one. The author leads but doesn’t follow. From one track to another it becomes obvious that Chitoon remains true to his signature style that means no music boundaries, genres and styles. The record reflects the artist’s past emotions, views and thoughts on electronic music making.


Konrad Lorenz’s epistemological criticism towards Jakob von Uexküll

  • Carlo Brentani

In the work of Lorenz we find an initial phase of great concordance with Uexkülls theory of animals’ surrounding-world (Umweltlehre), followed by a progressive distance and by the occurrence of more and more critical statements. The moment of greater cohesion between Lorenz and Uexküll is represented by the work Der Kumpan, which is focused on the concept of companion, functional circles, social Umwelt. The great change in Lorenz’ evaluation of Uexküll is marked by the conference of 1948 Referat über Jakob von Uexküll, where Lorenz highlights the vitalist position of Uexküll. In the works of the years after World War II, the influence of the Estonian Biologist greatly diminishes, even though Lorenz continues to express his admiration for particular studies and concepts of Uexküll. References to Uexküll’s work are less and far in between, while the difference is highlighted between the uexküllian theoretical frame (vitalistic) and Lorenz’s one (Darwinian and evolutionist). The two main critical lines of argument developed by Lorenz in this process are the biological and the epistemological one: on the biological side Lorenz heavily criticizes Uexküll’s vitalism and his faith in harmonizing forces and supernatural factors (which leads to concepts such as the perfect fusion of all biological species in their environment and the absence of rudimentary organs). On the epistemological side, Lorenz, arguing from the point of view of the critical realism, accuses Uexküll of postulating the separateness of all living beings, a separateness which is due to the  Kantian idea that every subject of knowledge and action is imprisoned in the transcendental circle of its representations and attitudes.


Be the Very First to Read What an Old Pro Thinks About Simple Definition of Chemistry

|December 5, 2019|Uncategorized|0

Frequently the tools from these other areas aren’t quite suitable for the requirements of physics, and will need to get changed or more advanced versions have to get made. When you have identified classes that may fulfill your needs, start utilizing those flashcards! Technology in industry is all about thinking beyond the box and using materials to address problems.

There’s so much DNA in a cell, it should be coiled up and tightly packed as a way to make room for the remainder of the structures the cell should maintain its day-to-day functions. It is, actually, the most effective technique in consolidating long-term memory. For example, one poem might allow for six syllables in every single line.

lab report outlines

Life After Simple Definition of Chemistry

Some plants, for example, utilize waxes to steer clear of water from escaping through evaporation. It’s a nonmetal as it is black and brittle and cannot be made into sheets or wires. A salt within this case denotes the chemical definition of salt a neutral compound formed as a consequence of acid-base neutralization. A good example of a typical electrode is silver chloride. Other common manufactured polymers have backbones including elements aside from carbon.

More specifically, it’s a measure of the quantity of protons or hydrogen ions that are found in an aqueous solution. Some polymers are made to never be in a position to crystallize. To begin with, an atom may lose an electron to be a cation. In polybasic acids, more than 1 hydrogen atoms exist in a molecule. A molecule is a combination of a few atoms. Molecule of element is a mix of a few atoms of the precise type.

A compound is a mixture of over 1 element. The pH scale is utilized to demonstrate the acidity level of a specific solution. Various telescopes are essential to study the many different wavelengths. Rough pH measurements might be made using litmus paper or a different form of pH paper that’s known to change colors around a particular pH value.

The subsequent space-filling diagrams might help. Learn about such factors and the way to figure the speed at which a reaction can happen. This property is called miscibility. Universal indicator is a mixture of many different indicators.

A scientist is somebody who works in and has expert knowledge of a certain area of science. The definition of the expression substance is an illustration of how chemistry has a certain definition for a word that’s employed in everyday language with a different, vaguer definition. If you don’t understand who you are then you cannot develop personal chemistry with somebody else. Biomolecular chemistry is an important category within organic chemistry which is often studied by biochemists.

Physics employs these theories to not just describe physical phenomena, yet to model physical systems and predict how these bodily systems will behave. Enthalpy change is merely one of the most essential concepts in chemistry. This has resulted in a great deal of specialization in physics, and the introduction, development and application of tools from different fields. Green chemistry is also referred to as sustainable chemistry.

The Secret to Simple Definition of Chemistry

I think it’s truly not possible to define STEM as it means so much for so many diverse groups of individuals. Cars are made using mechanical robots, which is quite advanced technology. Individuals are doing various kinds of work in the sphere of nanotechnology. It can be construed you have accepted an offer, despite the fact that it wasn’t presented in obvious words.

Insurance can be challenging to grasp. According to Use of Technology, technology is the use of science to address an issue. Matter can be classified by its state. Others are made to be in a position to be crystallized. It has been divided into different sub-groups based on their concerned area of study.

Simple Definition of Chemistry Secrets That No One Else Knows About

Scientists have created it rather simple to understand the strength of an acid or a base. This paper is known as pH paper. Drugs and supplements are an issue of chemistry. Food chemists may do the job for private industry to create new products or increase processing.

Amino acids, which are utilized to produce proteins in the body. Elements are chemically the easiest substances and hence can’t be broken down using chemical reactions. Bases may be used to neutralize acids. They are a key characteristic of almost all solutions. Acids and bases neutralize one another, sometimes coming together in an effective reaction which can be dangerous.

The Foolproof Simple Definition of Chemistry Strategy

In every one of these instances, physical chemists attempt to comprehend what’s happening on an atomic level, and why. A number of these reactions are connected with functional groups. There are a lot of subdivisions within chemistry. The scientific custom of creating novel synthetic routes for complex molecules is known as total synthesis. You are able to master the crucial concepts yourself.

Chemists have set decades of research within this possibility. The next they may be too large. There are a lot of important modern developments.

The body is composed of a few dollars worth of chemicals. Think about the sodium metallic element once it reacts with water it produces a type of hissing sound by giving out hydrogen for a gas. Everything on the earth is created of chemicals.

Colors count on the chemical makeup of substances and what sort of light they reflect. There is admittedly that mystery cause’s attraction and frequently times the origin of the mystery is that people don’t understand they have personal chemistry and so have developed feelings of attraction. You are able to imply acceptance by simply remaining silent.

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A watershed moment is when everything changes after one event. Helen Keller was robbed of both her hearing and sight by a childhood illness. At the age of 19 months she was plunged into a world of silence and darkness. Helen learned to recognize particular vibrations by the approach of her family members and could find her way by means of touch, but it was unlikely her inmost thoughts would ever be released from their sensory prison.

Just before her 17th birthday her teacher came into her life. Helen’s parents hired 20- year-old Annie Sullivan to see if she could open a window into Helen’s world.

Annie started by giving Helen a doll and spelling the word into her hand. Helen ripped it to shreds. Helen lived in a dark world with no sentiment or tenderness. Annie then took Helen outside and placed Helen’s hand under the water spout. “As the cool stream gushed over one hand, she spelled another word in my hand. Suddenly the mystery of language was revealed to me. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy and set it free. Now the world made sense, everything had a name and Helen wanted to know them all.”

When Helen returned to the destroyed doll, she tried to put it back together. Her eyes filled with tears, “I realized what I had done, and for the first time I felt repentance and sorrow.”

The watershed moment in Helen Keller’s life was the arrival of her teacher. Is there someone whose presence has divided your life into before and after? Has anyone opened your mind and dispelled your darkness?

This is the role of Jesus in our lives. Too often we relegate Jesus to some other function: the answer to an esoteric theological question or a symbol on a cross, maybe an eternal fire insurance policy in case we need help in the next world.

When we enroll Jesus as our teacher, suddenly our lives get transformed. He opens up both this truth about this world and the next. Jesus gives us a glimpse into ourselves both our strengths and weaknesses. Most importantly Jesus leads us into the life-giving relationship with God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is in this connection we truly understand our existence.

Rev Dr William A Lewis


Advances in Literary Study
Vol.02 No.04(2014), Article ID:51089,5 pages

Postmodern Strategies in Ian McEwan’s Major Novels

Jie Han, Zhenli Wang

Foreign Language Department, Baoding University, Baoding, China

Copyright © 2014 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc.

Received 20 July 2014; revised 21 August 2014; accepted 17 October 2014

Ian McEwan, together with Martin Amis is now the best-known and controversial contemporary British novelist. McEwan seems to be interested in the relationship between reality and imagination, history and fabrication in the process of writing, which is generally considered as one of the themes related to postmodern metafiction writing. He also adopts the postmodern intertextuality in his writing practice. Those postmodern concerns and strategies confirm his position as a postmodernist.

Ian McEwan, Postmodern Strategies, Intertextuality, Atonement, Black Dogs

1. Introduction

Ian McEwan, together with Martin Amis is now the best-known and controversial contemporary British novelist. He has been regarded as a serious, objective writer who is interested in writing about obsessive behavior, sex and moral corruption. In 1975, McEwan published his first collection of short stories First Love, Last Rites, which won the Somerset Maugham Award. With the publication of the subsequent collection, In Between the Sheets and his two early novels, The Cement Garden and The Comfort of Strangers, he gained the nickname of “Ian Macabre”. The macabre continued to be a feature in his later novels. His third novel showed some significant changes from his earlier works.

As one of the outstanding British novelists of his generation, McEwan has won several awards. Those honors and awards have confirmed his position at the forefront of the contemporary British literary world, and have ensured him a niche in the British literary pantheon.

The contemporary literary field is permeated with all kinds of experimental genres of novels; postmodern novels are one of the most influential ones, with the unique techniques of postmodern narration. Like many writers of this age, “McEwan was strongly influenced by the postmodernist techniques of contemporary novelists such as Irish Murdoch and John Fowles in England” (Lynn, 2010).

Many postmodern novelists feature metafiction or “historiographic metafiction” and intertextuality in their writings, Ian McEwan is of no exception. The settings of McEwan’s The Innocent, Atonement and Black Dogs carry postmodern features, which have confirmed his position as a postmodern experimentalist. With self-con- scious language, the issues of imagination, fabrication, history and storytelling are closely connected with these novels. McEwan’s recent novels always carry the features of metafiction and the writer is consciously or unconsciously using such kind of devices. It is without doubt that McEwan is an experimentalist in his exploration of metafiction in the framework of the historical novel.

2. The Problematic Relationship between Fiction and Reality

McEwan seems to be interested in the relationship between imagination and reality (fiction and reality) in the process of writing, which is generally considered as one of the themes related to metafiction writing. In his novels, McEwan lays great emphasis on the constructive power of imagination on reality and fiction writing, discussing fictionality inexplicitly in the first chapter. Rene Welleck’s comments may give some light to the reader’s understanding of this issue.

Art is illusion… The recognition of the difference between life and art, of the ontological gap between a product of the mind, a linguistic structure and the events in real life which it reflects, does not and can’t mean that the work of art is mere empty play of forms, cut off from reality. The relation of art to reality is not as simple as older naturalistic theories of copying or “imitation” or Marxist “mirroring” assumes. “Realism” is not the only quarters of the world’s literature. It minimizes the role of imagination, personality “making”… (Welleck, 1963).

The relationship between art and fiction is complex, as the theory of writing is developing with the time. On one hand, the gap between imagination and fiction is hard to overstep. On the other hand, “reality” is to some extent “fictional” or “imagined” and can be understood through an appropriate “reading” process, so there is concord between them. Thus, metafiction does not give up the “real world” for the mere pleasure of the imagination. By showing us how imagination creates a new world, the metafictionist is indicating that composing a novel is no different from composing “one’s reality”.

McEwan’s Atonement is a novel about storytelling. The writer focuses on issues like writing, imagination, history and the nature of truth. Thus, imagination plays a vital role in this novel, helping the story develop into the final incident. The issue of imagination is best represented by the protagonist and underlying writer, Briony, a 13-year-old girl embedded with a wild imagination.

McEwan once said writing fiction is about showing the possibility of what it is like to be someone else. It is the basis of all sympathy, empathy and compassion. Cruelty is a failure of imagination. The novel starts with the central character Briony Tallis, the younger daughter of the Tallis family who is “possessed by a desire to have the world just so” (McEwan, 2007). She wrote her first play at the age of eleven, and could not have been held back from her writing.

The fictionalized depiction of the fountain scene is her first misinterpretation and lays the basis for the subsequent illusions. Her imagination and passion for writing blind her to the truth, to the fact that Robbie and Cecilia are real people as she is, instead of fairy tale figures. Consequently, she misinterprets what she is seeing and turns an accidental event by the fountain into a so called blackmail. Looking from the window, Briony sees Cecilia and Robbie standing by the Triton fountain. She tries to interpret the scene and add meaning to this event, but her interpretation is definitely wrong. At the very beginning, Briony reads the scene in the perspective of folk tales, that is to say, this should be a proposal of marriage, just as the humble woodcutter did in her tale. Then she passes over the boundary of romance and steps into realism.

Briony assumes that Robbie is commanding Cecilia to undress by “imperiously” raising his hands. Meantime, she is also wondering “what strange power did he have over her? Blackmail? Threats?” (48) Briony’s idea is seemingly developing from a child’s point-of-view to a mature one.

She intends to write the scene from three points of view: her own, Robbie’s and Cecilia’s. She meditates that there is no absolute meaning in an event, but only meaning from two different people. Unfortunately, she can not distinguish her childish thoughts from the reality, regarding Robbie as a potential danger to her sister. And her construction of the event from what she has seen is partial and dangerous, for she has little experience of the world. Although Briony is actually innocent, she turns out to be terribly thoughtless and cruel, not qualified to be a writer.

The twisting of life by Briony’s imagination leads to a terrible disaster which changes the destiny of Robbie, Cecilia and even herself, which makes her atone for the rest of her life. Briony interprets events according to her own will, and sees what she expects to see. She believes in symmetry, forbidding any stories being violated in real life. She has been composing stories with the scene at the fountain and the incident in the library, not realizing the serious consequences she will bring about.

By relating Briony’s fantasy and imagination and a series of misunderstandings resulting from them, this novel explores the problematic relationship between life and fiction. Briony misunderstands, misinterprets, and misconceives the life of others through imagination, and blurs the line between fact and fiction.

3. The Overlapping of History and Fiction

Contemporary British writers, especially those in the last two decades, are interested in the description of history, and their works are generally regarded as “new historical novels”. Robert Macfarlane once commented that “the questions of how the past is represented in language have become the central obsession of British fiction over the past three decades” (Hidalgo, 2005). Some representatives of this trend are A. S. Byatt, John Fowles, and Ian McEwan.

McEwan’s Atonement is a historical novel with its setting ranging from 1935 through the Second World War to the recent days. In the novel, the fates of individuals are intermingled with the verisimilitude of history and society. And history, fact and fiction are knitted into the narrative framework.

In response to Robert Macfarlane’s review of Atonement for The Times Literary Supplement, Pilar Hidalgo observes that “the tendency has been far more marked in the 1990s and the early 2000s, when British novelists have engaged with the past in ways that have little to do with the traditional forms of historical novel or with the self-conscious parody of the historicgraphic metafiction” (Hidalgo, 2005). Since Atonement is a new historical novel with elements of realism and metafiction, apparently influenced by the trend of postmodenism, some related conceptions must be taken into consideration. It may be stated with some degree of safety that without some understanding of postmodernism and historicographic metafiction, there can be no real and full understanding of McEwan and even the contemporary British literature. In some way, the construction of Atonement itself is a reflection of the writer’s understanding or meditation on contemporary fiction writing, an experimental novel on history and metafiction.

In terms of the relationship between history and fiction, Aristotle states that the historian could speak only of what has happened; the poet, on the other hand spoke of what would or might happen. To Linda Hutcheon, “historiographic metafiction” as part of the phenomena of metafiction and a variant of historical novel, reveals the best combination of history and fiction. By labeling it, she means those popular novels which are both self- reflective and paradoxically also lay claim to historical events and personages. Such novels redefine the concepts of “reality”, “history” and “truth” and blur the line between fiction and history.

Ian McEwan’s Black Dogs “critically addresses postmodern notions of history and the self, precisely by employing them in order to show up their limitations”. The novel is full of the historical issues, such as the postwar British communism, the Second World War and the fall of Berlin wall. In Black Dogs, one of the main characters offers his understanding about World War II. He ponders

Atonement is different from Black Dogs in terms of the war. It is a novel with a broad historical significance. The love story between Robbie and Cecilia interweaves with the history, especially of the Second World War, making it a modern romantic epic. The story is mainly composed of three parts and an epilogue, which chronologically corresponds to the time span of the story line. The first part focuses on the pre-war rural life at the Tallis family mansion in England and about the sin committed by Briony. The second and third parts depict the events during wartime, with the former focusing on the retreat from Dunkirk and latter focusing on the London hospital. Here McEwan turns his subject to the Second World War which is “the great ignored, unignorable subject for a generation of English novelists, who have on the whole preferred to deal with it obliquely, as Kazuo Ishiguro did in “The Remains of the Day”. In fact, McEwan has taken the darkness of the Nazi Regime in his Black Dogs, which also has a connection with war as discussed earlier.

So in Atonement, McEwan combines the fates of the individuals with the historical background of World War II, placing great importance to the retreat at Dunkirk, which is the key element of part two and three. Just as Hermione Lee observes in an article, Atonement has a political perspective in that it deals with both the literary history and the Second World War.

In the novel, McEwan combines historical fact and fiction, blurring the line between fiction and history, and creates a new whole by narrating the past in a new way. In some way, McEwan’s narrative has some connection with Fowles’s The French Lieutenant’s Women, in which the juxtaposition of the past and fiction is obvious everywhere. In Atonement, McEwan takes the history of Dunkirk into consideration, exhibiting a paradoxical relationship with the past, which is mythologized and glorified in many artistic depictions.

McEwan makes a detailed depiction of the horrible sight of the war. At the same time, he makes the reader meditate on those details of history, about which his novel may offer more information than those historian. So here fiction provides a number of possibilities ignored by the historians. Those possibilities, whether they are real history of the past or not, are no less real in his fictionalized world.

McEwan skillfully combines the scene of retreat to Dunkirk with his storytelling, blurring the line between fact and fiction. In fact, many of the depictions about war are drawn from or at least influenced by his father’s experiences during the Second World War. And the scene of the leg on the tree comes from a picture taken from Bosnia. So sometimes, the writer of fiction is a particular kind of historian, for in his fictional world, history becomes fictionalized. The writer’s design of plot and structure reflects his attitude towards history. The examination of the novel itself makes the reader ponder the story’s relationship with the past, between fiction and history.

4. The Employment of Intertextuality

Postmodern novels utilize various devices to help the reader appreciate the theory and practice. Apart from the other traits, it often employs intertextual references and allusions by discussing and presenting fictional works to achieve its style of writing.

Atonement is a self-aware novel in terms of the many literary precedents and works it mentions and discusses. In fact, Ian McEwan has consistently drawn attention to the status of his fiction as an artifact in his early works. By alluding to or parodying traditional literary genres, he makes the reader pay more attention to the presence of a self conscious narrator.

He has described each of his early stories as “a kind of pastiche of a certain style [···], its origins were always slightly parodic” (McEwan, Hamilton 17). Similarly most of his novels, according to him, allude in some way to existing genres―The Cement Garden is “an urban Lord of the Flies” (Smith, 69); The Innocent added to and subverted the spy genre (McEwan, Hunt 47); The Comfort of Strangers draws on the sinister setting of Venice established by Thomas Mann in Death in Venice; his play for television, The Imitation Game, was indebted to Virginia Woolf’s Three Guineas (Haffenden, 175); and “Amsterdam is an Evelyn Waugh tribute novel”, McEwan told Ambrose Clancy (E1.) (Brian, 2004).

Even in his most recent novel, Saturday, McEwan alludes to some literary figures like Marthew Arnold, whose poem “Dover Beach” is quoted in the novel. So it is natural to notice that McEwan draws on many writers in his novel, such as Jane Austen, Henry James, Elizabeth Bowen, and Virginia Woolf. In the reviews of Atonement, many critics have made comments on Atonement’s connections with some specific fiction, namely L. P. Hartley’s The Go Between, which is also about a child’s misunderstanding of adult sexual relationship in a country house, together with Henry James’ What Maisie Knew. In terms of history and mystery, this novel has some connection with Possession by A. S. Byatt and The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles. The recognition and appreciation of those literary references give the novel a richer meaning and enable the reader to read in a productive way.

At the very beginning, McEwan chooses a quote from Jane Austen’s novel Northanger Abbey as an epigraph. The thoughtful reader can not help wondering what this epigraph serves for, what the purpose is. Possibly, this salient intertextual reference serves as a guide to the reader. As Finney indicates, like Austen, McEwan is playing with the reader, making use of their spontaneous and naïve expectations and finally leading them into a wrong judgment.

McEwan has sometimes mentioned Atonement in the interview as his “Jane Austen” novel. It is apparent that Briony is a “Jane Austen Heroine” in the way that she bares some resemblance to Morland. In addition to this, Atonement also has some other connections with Jane Austen. The first part of Atonement takes the country house as its background and is presented in a traditional realistic manner. It is well known that living in the countryside, Jane Austen restricted her subject matter to a small world: the quiet, middle class circle in provincial surroundings. Her arts of vivid characterization and psychological penetration make her the cult figure in twentieth century English literature.

Indeed, the first notable country-house novels were written by Jane Austen, namely, Mansfield Park, Sense and Sensibility. The Tallis house scenes securely rooted in traditional realistic literature, with basic elements like plot, character and the country house motif. At the end of the novel, the Tallis house has been turned into a hotel with the new name of “Tilney”, which takes the reader back to the quotation of Northanger Abbey.

Later, Briony’s melodrama, The Trials of Arabella is another allusion to Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa. The protagonist in Briony’s melodrama, Arabella, is the name of Clarissa’s sister. The choice of name in the drama is not accidental but of some artistic value. This will naturally remind the reader of the novel Clarissa and the treatment of sentiment. In fact, McEwan has mentioned this novel through the description of Cecilia’s after- school life. When Cecilia graduates from Cambridge, she stays at home and reads Clarissa to entertain herself. During their conversation, Cecilia uses the word “boring” to comment on this book, and expresses her interest in Fielding who is psychologically crude in the eyes of Robbie. To a certain extent, Cecilia’s preference for Fielding over Richardson includes some sexual explicit message, for the works of Fielding may indicate a taste for the blood and sensual.

In addition to this, the rape scene may make the reader reflect on A Passage to India by E. M. Foster. During a trip to the Marabar Caves, the white British schoolmistress Adela Quested falsely accuses Dr. Aziz, an Indian Physician of attempting to rape her. There are many parallels between the two novels. Both of them make a description of the rape scene and its aftermath. Similarly, Adela, like Briony commits a sin which exerts enduring influence on the victim. Aziz, just as Robbie, is less likely to be believed, becoming a victim of discrimination. The difference is that the former is prejudiced by racial discrimination; the latter is a victim of class consciousness.

In Paris Review, McEwan has admitted the influences of L. P. Hartley’s The Go-Between on Atonement by saying that “L. P. Hartley’s The Go-Between made a huge impression on me”. In the interview with David Wiegand, McEwan said that

By the time I was at boarding school―a very unelite place―I was reading very intensely. In fact, one of the books I read at the age of 12 that formed the seed for “Atonement” was “The Go-Between”. I was completely taken by that, partly because it was set in a country house and my boarding school was in a country house (Wiegand, 2002).

Atonement makes another literary allusion to Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin. James Harold, argues, the two novels are similar in terms of characterization, settings and plots and the narrative arts. Both of the works take advantage of the reader’s innocence and employ a tactical trick in the narration, which is the application of the unreliable narrator. When it comes to the unreliable narrator, Atonement also bears resemblance to Kazuo Ishiguro’s Booker Prize Winner, The Remains of the Day, which turns out to be incredible in spite of its seeming objectivity.

McEwan weaves some other figures in literature into the fabric of Atonement, which highlight its artificial nature. When Robbie reflects on his life in the prison, he reveals the way Cecilia and he communicated with each other under the prison’s censorship. They write in codes, which is mostly based on the books and figures in literature. Robbie compares himself and Cecilia with the literary figures he used in the letter such as Tristan and Isolde, Troilus and Criseyde, Venus and Adonis, the Duke Orsino and Olivia, and so on so forth, among which only Emma and George Knightley from Jane Austen’s Emma have a happy ending. Despairingly, he even makes a reference to Prometheus, chained to a rock, suffering from life there.

The irony, like descriptions of Briony’s melodrama scene and others, is obvious in the novel, discriminating the writer’s quotations as intertexts instead of sources. “Both Kristiva and Jacque Derrida argue that any text seen as intertext entails productivity”. That is to say, the intertexts which Atonement related render more meaning to the original text and make it more productive in many ways. It is safe to draw the conclusion that the application of the intertextuality renders the novels of McEwan more aesthetic significance and postmodern elements.

5. Conclusion

It could be stated that McEwan makes a tentative writing of the “postmodern novel” with his unique thematic concern and postmodern techniques. The writer is concerned with the postmodern themes. He not only focuses on the dark issues like violence, sex and immorality, but also probes into the problematic relationship between fiction and reality, history and fabrication. Meantime, he adopts the postmodern intertextuality in his experimental writing practice.

As a matter of fact, McEwan’s major novels approximate the traditional narrative mode of realistic novels, but deep down there are considerable postmodern elements and techniques. McEwan successfully performs his own understanding of fiction writing. In his eye, the significance of fiction writing lies in that when the book is revealed, it will show the reader its own rules and the way of writing, which is, without any doubt, an appropriate illustration of postmodern writing.

This paper is under the project of Postmodernism in Ian McEwan’s Major Novels (2011S12). And it is sponsored by the English Literature Teaching Team of Baoding University (Td20090204). I am deeply indebted to all the team members, who offered invaluable advice and comments.

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  3. McEwan, I. (2007). Atonement. New York: Anchor Books.
  4. Hidalgo, P. (2005). Memory and Storytelling in Ian McEwan’s Atonement. Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, 2, 82.
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  6. Wiegand, D. (2002). Getting Rid of the Ghosts. San Francisco Chronicle, 10 March 2002: M.2.