Hemingway’s Catherines Death Drives and Destruction in A Farewell to Arms and The Garden of Eden - Literature Essay Samples

Catherine Barkley, who predeceases the retrospective narration of her bereaved lover in A Farewell to Arms, has nevertheless transcended her untimely death to become immortalized as a frequent and much-debated subject of Hemingway criticism. Since her debut in 1929, Catherine has taken many a turn beneath the critical microscope as scholars have shuffled through various lenses. Catherine has weathered countless critical trends and multiple waves of feminism, throughout which critics have cast her in many roles, from her infamous early days as a â€Å"divine lollipop† and â€Å"inflated rubber-doll woman† to her later restoration not as Hemingway dream girl, but Hemingway code hero (Hacket, Bell qtd. in Spanier 76). Whether critical darling or demon, Catherine Barkley remains one of Hemingway’s most iconic and well-known characters. And yet, oddly, she is not Hemingway’s only Catherine. In 1986, another Catherine, Catherine Bourne, made her debut as the female lead of the posthumously published The Garden of Eden. Although Catherine remains a common name, I reject a reading that figures this repetition as purely coincidental. Noting, as Carl Eby points out, that Hemingway maintained a fascination with the name Catherine both within and outside of his fiction—even adopting the name for his own private use later in life—I contend that Hemingway would not repurpose the name of one of his best-known heroines on another leading character in anything other than an intentional move (â€Å"Literary Jealousy and Destruction† 104). As David Bourne himself reminds us in The Garden of Eden, â€Å"Names go to the bone† (GOE 141). The significance behind the twin names is increasingly hard to ignore as it becomes clear that the female leads of A Farewell to Arms and The Garden of Edenshare more than just a first name. Catherine Barkley and Catherine Bo urne consistently and eerily echo each other’s desires, fantasies, and impulses. Most fundamentally, the Catherines mirror each other in a shared desire for a romantic ideal of merged identity, which is intimately related to their twin fantasies of gender play and transgression, as well as to their infamous destructive impulses. Both Catherines entertain a fantasy of very literal romantic unity in which desiring another means to also desire to becomethe other. Catherine Barkley willfully dissolves her identity within her lover’s, declaring â€Å"There isn’t any me, I’m you,† a sentiment she insistently echoes throughout the novel (FTA115). Catherine Bourne acts on similar desires, engaging in gender-bending sexual activities in which she calls her husband â€Å"Catherine† and asks, â€Å"Now you can’t tell who is who, can you?† (GOE17). Later, in convincing her husband to get matching haircuts, Catherine Bourne fulfills a fantasy of tonsorial twinning earlier expressed by Catherine Barkley to her own beloved: â€Å"Let it grow a little longer and I could cut mine and we’d be just alike† (FTA299). Along with their mutual commitment to a romantic ideal of love as shared identity, the two Catherines share a destructive impulse apparently also rooted in this romantic ideal. â€Å"I want to ruin you,† Catherine Barkley announces in a declaration that Catherine Bourne later echoes with the assertion, â€Å"I’m the destructive type, and I’m going to destroy you,† (FTA305, GOE5). There is, as Eby notes of the latter Catherine’s statement, â€Å"something sinister† in this language that becomes increasingly haunting as Catherine Bourne continues to echo and intensify the most bizarre desires of her eponymous predecessor (â€Å"Literary Jealousy and Destruction† 99). As she consistently mirrors one of Hemingway’s most famous female characters, dead but not forgotten, Catherine Bourne rises out of the posthumous publication like a ghostly doppelganger. I propose that neither these similarities nor their eeriness are merely coincidental. Moreover, I suggest that both Catherines can trace the origins of their romantic desires and destructive impulses to yet a third—and no less spectral—Catherine: Emily Brontà «Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s Catherine Earnshaw, whose famous avowal, â€Å"I am Heathcliff,† resounds in the romantic model of merged identity sought by Hemingway’s Catherines (Brontà « 82). A novel of doubleness and merger, destructive and self-destructive impulses, and quasi-queer relationships, Brontà «Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s Wuthering Heightsshares many motifs with Hemingway’s works—motifs that may initially seem better suited to Brontà «Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s gothic than Hemingway’s realism. Illuminating Hemingway’s position in the gothic tradition, comparisons with Wuthering Heightsauthorize an exploration of darker imagery and motifs in Hemingway’s work through the psychoanalytical lens of the death drive. A pulse many critics have long identified in Wuthering Heights, I propose that the death drive is also a driving force uniting the similarities in A Farewell to Arms andThe Garden of Eden. My reading is interested in highlighting the similarities between Hemingway’s Catherines while showing how thematic and psychoanalytical parallels with Wuthering Heightscan help illuminate and explain their destructive impulses as subversive reactions against patriarchal structures of meaning. An â€Å"enigmatic† text to which even the most authoritative sources still attribute a â€Å"peculiar power† that renders the novel a â€Å"challenge to both fictional and moral conventions,† Wuthering Heightsremains something of an outlier even within its own generic and historical context (Alexander Smith 560). A novel that is difficult to figure in conversation even with ostensibly similar texts, Brontà «Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s gothic masterpiece may strike as a particularly ill-suited companion to Hemingway’s famously stark realism, written a century later and in an entirely different literary tradition. Discordant as the comparison may initially ring, I am not the first to note traces of Brontà « in Hemingway. In fact, Lisa Tyler goes as far as to provide a reading that convincingly figures A Farewell to Armsas â€Å"a retelling† of Wuthering Heights. In defense of this â€Å"fairly unusual reading,† Tyler points to a 1935 Esquirearticle in which Hemingway ranks Wuthering Heightsfourth on a list of favorite books (81, 79). As Tyler proposes, and I agree, â€Å"Hemingway’s inclusion of Brontà «Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s novel in his list of important works suggests that†¦it may, in fact, have influenced his writings in ways we have yet to fully acknowledge† (79). Tyler goes on to outline the various similarities between the two seemingly disparate texts, arguing that such allusions are at once so numerous and often so obvious that they can constitute nothing less than â€Å"deliberate signals to the reader of the underlying thrust of the book† (80). Tyler pro vides a fairly comprehensive overview of the similarities uniting the two texts, many of which are worth reviewing here. Tyler begins, as I have, with â€Å"the most obvious and superficial similarity:† both heroines are named Catherine (82). However, as Tyler shows—and I plan to elaborate on by extending a reading of this â€Å"superficial similarity† to yet another Hemingway text—the shared name is far from truly superficial, in fact signaling an important thematic connection to Wuthering Heightsthat figures Catherine Earnshaw as something of a literary foremother to Hemingway’s Catherines. The connections that allow us to hear Wuthering Heightsin the underlying pulse of A Farewell to Armsand its echoes in The Garden of Edenbegin with the nominal allusion to Brontà «Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s gothic heroine. Such similarities continue to crop up, some obvious, others in minute detail. Both Catherines die in childbirth. Both give birth to children named Catherine, although, as Tyler notes, Catherine Barkley’s stillborn son only bears this name in utero (Tyler 82). In Catherine Barkley’s first appearance in A Farewell to Arms, she somewhat inexplicably carries â€Å"a thin rattan stick like a toy riding-crop, bound in leather† (FTA 18). Pressed for explanation, Catherine Barkley responds only that it belonged to her late fiancà ©. Tyler, however, provides a more satisfactory explanation, noting that the article is â€Å"reminiscent of the whip that Catherine Earnshaw asks her father to bring her in her first appearance in Wuthering Heights† (82).Of course, Catherine Earnshaw never actually receives such an item; instead of the gifts promised, Mr. Earnshaw returns with the child Heathcliff, much to the chagrin of his own children (Brontà « 37). Heathcliff becom es a symbolic substitution for Catherine Earnshaw’s lost whip, while inversely, â€Å"the little stick†¦returned with his things† is the substitution Catherine Barkley receives in place of her dead fiancà © (FTA 19). Rain is another seemingly superficial shared motif to which Tyler points, noting that in both novels, â€Å"rain functions as a poignant and pointed symbol of separation and death† (82). While, as Pearl James notes, the reading of rain inA Farewell to Arms as either symbolic or historical remains a subject of debate, the â€Å"over determined† presence of rain in the novel, whether historically accurate or not, can hardly help but underscore the gothic undertones present in Hemingway’s text (James 136). Considered alongside a parallel motif in Wuthering Heights, this traditionally gothic symbol helps illuminate other dark and seemingly inexplicable or bizarre aspects stained through the realism of A Farewell to Arms. Unsurprisingly, Catherine Barkley is most often the harbinger of the novel’s most jarring and bizarre images. Even before her long, agonizing death brings the novel to a dark, gothic close (set, no less, against a backdrop of rain), Catherine peppers the novel with strange ideas and imagery that border on the traditionally gothic grotesque. In one such image, she expresses a desire to possess a fox tail with little explanation, conjuring a perverse bestial image (FTA 303). She also entertains a bizarre and vaguely eerie fantasy of twinning with Frederic, imagining them with matching haircuts. Taking an even darker turn, Catherine also wishes to have had gonorrhea, so, as she explains to Frederic â€Å"to be like you† (FTA299). All of these jarring images have their roots in Catherine’s ultimate desire to literally beFrederic: â€Å"Oh darling, I want you so much I want to be you too† (FTA 299). It is no coincidence that this desire is also at the heart of the similarities between A Farewell to Arms and Wuthering Heights. Both Tyler and I point to the heroines’ passionate declarations of love, which echo each other unmistakably in a shared fascination with merger. As noted earlier, Catherine Barkley’s repeated insistence that she and Frederic Henry are one extends to the point of entire self-dissolution: â€Å"There isn’t any me, I’m you. Don’t make up a separate me† (FTA115). Catherine’s declarations that she isFrederic cannot help but parallel Catherine Earnshaw’s famed avowal, perhaps among the most famous lines in Wuthering Heights: â€Å"Nelly, I am Heathcliff—he’s always, always in my mind—not as pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself—but as my own being† (Brontà « 82). Tyler suggests that comparisons between Catherine Earnshaw and Catherine Barkley can help the latter escape the â€Å"geisha girl† reading that has long plagued her and instead cast her as a â€Å"Romantic heroine,† rendering her â€Å"a more comprehensible and better realized character, one with whom feminist readers can more comfortably sympathize† (80). My reading of these parallels, however, does not explicitly seek to portray Catherine Barkley as a feminist heroine—work which, I would argue, has been better accomplished by the likes of Sandra Whipple Spanier and to which comparisons with Catherine Earnshaw add little—but rather a gothic one. Like Tyler, I hope to render Catherine Barkley â€Å"more comprehensible.† However, having established gothic undercurrents at work in A Farewell to Arms via parallels with Wuthering Heights, my approach seeks to explain Catherine’s bizarre and destructive behavior through the darker psychoana lytical lens of the death drive. In her seminal feminist reconsideration of Catherine Barkley’s character, Spanier identifies and challenges a pervasive binary approach to Hemingway women which finds them invariably resigned to one of two types: â€Å"those who destroy men and those women men could only dream of† (76). While early criticism tended to figure Catherine Barkley as what Spanier calls â€Å"the prototypical dream girl,† her character does display some unmistakably destructive behaviors. In perhaps the most notable example, Catherine herself states in no uncertain terms that she wants to ruin Frederic. â€Å"What do you want to do? Ruin me?† Frederic asks, to which Catherine responds simply, â€Å"Yes. I want to ruin you,† (FTA 305). Of course, taking Catherine at her word, there is no â€Å"separate† Catherine to ruin a separate Frederic. Her identity is intertwined inextricably with her beloved’s. In this sense, then, her desire to â€Å"ruin† Frederic becomes not simply destructive, but rather self-destructive. As noted earlier, the self-destructive impulses at the heart of Catherine’s willful self-abnegation appear at various points throughout the novel, often manifesting physically. Upon hearing that Frederic’s experience with gonorrhea was â€Å"very painful,† Catherine’s immediate response is to wish that she’d also had it (FTA 299). While here, Catherine explains her desire for gonorrhea as parallel to her desire â€Å"to be like† Frederic, other manifestations of her self-destructive impulses receive no such explanation. Throughout her painful and ultimately fatal labor, Catherine expresses a perverse desire for pain, referring to the more pa inful contractions as â€Å"good ones.† When the pains are less severe, Frederic notes that â€Å"she was disappointed and ashamed† (FTA 314). I suggest that Catherine’s obsession with pain and self-abnegation is ultimately symptomatic of her death drive. Returning again to Tyler’s parallel reading of A Farewell to Arms and Wuthering Heights, she calls on the work of Ernest Lockridge, whose analysis of A Farewell to Armsrests on the claim that, â€Å"It is Catherine’s effort to resurrect her lost love†¦that is the whole novel’s primary mover† (qtd. in Tyler 82). According to Tyler, this reading â€Å"establishes a profound thematic parallel with Wuthering Heights, in which it is Heathcliff’s effort to resurrect a lost love that is the whole novel’s primary mover† (82). In psychoanalytical parlance, which Tyler borrows from William A. Madden, both novels structure their narratives around a character trapped in a classically Freudian â€Å"repetition compulsion,† through which they repeat their trauma in an attempt to restore â€Å"psychic wholeness† (qtd. in Tyler 89). This desire to return to an earlier state of wholeness comprises the heart of the Lacanian conception of the death drive, in which psychic wholeness belongs exclusively to the domain of the pre (or post)-linguistic realm. In Lacanian theory—as outlined by Robin DeRosa in her analysis of the death drive in Wuthering Heights—it is language, a system based on separation and difference, that is responsible for the psychic rupture that renders wholeness impossible. The move from the pre-Oedipal, pre-linguistic â€Å"imaginary† into the symbolic realm necessitates a departure from this original wholeness, resulting in a system in which â€Å"language and desire are both positioned around loss† (Derosa 28). The repetition of trauma and self-destructive behaviors, then, can be read as an attempt to return to this earlier state of wholeness, a â€Å"desire to attain a kind of fullness outside the range of discursive signification† (Derosa 32). While Tyler, referencing Madden, presents Heathcliff as the primary enactor of the repetition compulsion in Wuthering Heights, Derosa instead presents a reading that figures Catherine Earnshaw as the novel’s main embodiment of the death drive. In light of parallels already drawn between Catherine Earnshaw and Hemingway’s Catherine Barkley, I hope to extend this reading of Earnshaw’s death drive to illuminate a similar pulse in Catherine Barkley’s character. According to DeRosa, â€Å"Catherine [Earnshaw]’s death drive involves two foundational desires: the desire to merge with Heathcliff and the desire to return to an innocent state of childhood† (33). I propose that Catherine Barkley’s death drive likewise involves two parallel desires: the desire to merge with Frederic and the desire to return to an earlier state of wholeness. The desire to merge with the beloved is, for both—or, as I plan to show later, all three—Catherines, rooted in the desire for wholeness sought through the death drive. Perceiving themselves as fractured, split-off halves of divided egos, the Catherines seek wholeness through merger with another. For both Catherine Earnshaw and Catherine Barkley, the beloved with whom they hope to merge embodies the desired state of pre-linguistic wholeness and childhood innocence. Raised together as children, Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff are childhood playmates turned sweethearts. Moreover, as the illiterate â€Å"gypsy boy† who first arrives at Wuthering Heights repeating â€Å"some gibberish that nobody could understand,† young Heathcliff effectively embodies the pre-symbolic, pre-linguistic realm to which Catherine desires to return (Brontà « 37). For Catherine Barkley, meanwhile, the desire to merge with Frederic is a death-driven attempt to recreate the earlier sense of unity she enjoyed with her fiancà ©. Others, whether or not engaged in a psychoanalytical reading, have noted that Frederic functions as a replacement for Catherine’s deceased former lover, often pointing to Frederic’s own hope that Catherine will employ him in such a role: â€Å"Maybe she would pretend I was her boy that was killed† (FTA 37). Like Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, Catherine Barkley and her fiancà © â€Å"grew up together† (FTA 19). Like Heathcliff, then, the fiancà © represents â€Å"the sexual and necessarily language-less innocence† inherently associated with childhood in Lacanian theory (DeRosa 28). While Catherine’s fiancà © is presumably not illiterate, he resists language in other ways, embodying—like Heathcliff—the pre-linguistic phase to which the death drive aims to return. Nameless and therefore not represented by a linguistic sign, Catherine’s fiancà © predeceases Frederic†™s narrative, effectively leaving him outside the linguistic realm represented by the narrative structure itself. Catherine’s attempt to recreate that earlier wholeness through a merger with Frederic, then, represents a desire to return to the pre-linguistic, pre-symbolic realm. What my own language here betrays, however, is the sheer inescapability of the symbolic order. Even those characters whom I have here identified as â€Å"representative† of the pre-linguistic realm thusly remain trapped in structures of representation that are inherently symbolic. Addressing this quandary, DeRosa explains that the novel, as a form, is an inherently linguistic structure eternally moored in representation. The novel, then, is in direct opposition to the death drive, and cannot help but â€Å"save its own life,† as well as â€Å"the lives of the characters desperately trying to die within it† (34). Indeed, although both Catherines literally succumb to their death drives, dying in childbirth, their deaths hardly constitute a transcendence of the symbolic order. As Tyler notes, both Catherines’ stories are told only after they die, imprisoning them in narratives in which they are both â€Å"grievously misunderstood and misrepresented† by their retrospective first-person narrators (83). Misrepresentation, of course, still constitutes representation, and both Catherines are left eternally imprisoned within the symbolic, despite their best death-driven efforts to escape it. In fact, it could even be argued that it is death itself that ultimately thwarts these characters’ attempts to escape the symbolic. In his reading of A Farewell to Arms as a trauma narrative, Trevor Dodman figures Catherine’s death as the trauma Frederic hopes to revisit and overcome through narrative representation: â€Å"Looking back on events, reconstructing his memories, Frederic reveals a desire for a whole and perfect retelling of the past; his narration functions as a prosthesis meant to stave off a sense of the self as a disarticulated scar† (250). In this way, then, Catherine’s attempt to transcend the symbolic in death is in fact the very action that leaves her immortalized in the symbolic realm of Fredericâ₠¬â„¢s narrative. In a shared attempt to escape the symbolic and return to a state of psychic wholeness, both Catherine Earnshaw and Catherine Barkley follow the death drive to its literal end, only to become eternally imprisoned and immortalized in the very structures they sought to escape. In the wake of her failed predecessors, Hemingway’s second Catherine, The Garden of Eden’s Catherine Bourne, emerges to avenge the thwarted attempts of her literary foremothers. Unlike Catherines Earnshaw and Barkley, Catherine Bourne does not succumb to her death drive. Instead, her destructive impulses successfully issue a challenge to the phallocentric structures of meaning inherent in the Lacanian conception of language, signaling a subversion of the patriarchal order. Despite a considerably younger and shorter critical lifespan than her eponymous predecessor in A Farewell to Arms, Catherine Bourne’s critical reputation is scarcely less controversial than Catherine Barkley’s. To return to the binary approach Spanier identifies and challenges, critics are easily and understandably tempted to resign Catherine Bourne to the cast of Hemingway women â€Å"who destroy men† (76). Taking the Biblical bait set out in the title, criticism of The Garden of Edenreadily casts Catherine as â€Å"Eve and serpent rolled into one† (â€Å"Literary Jealousy and Destruction† 99). In a less canonical approach to the Garden of Eden mythology, Tamara Powell even figures Catherine Bourne as Lilith, â€Å"the archetypal woman-as-destroyer† (78). Of course, these comparisons can hardly be called unjustified. Catherine herself invites if not demands them, unabashedly declaring herself â€Å"the destructive type† in her very first appearance in the novel (GOE 5). As noted earlier, such declarations of destructive impulses are among the key ways in which the Catherines of A Farewell to Arms and The Garden of Eden echo each other. However, while Catherine Barkley’s desire â€Å"to ruin† Frederic remains a mere wish, Catherine Bourne’s destruction is given as a promise—one she pursues with much greater intent than her predecessor—solidified in her final, infamous destruction of David’s manuscripts. While Catherine Barkley merely expresses a desire to destroy — â€Å"I wantto ruin you† —Catherine Bourne makes it clear that she has no intention of seeing her own desire go unfulfilled, instead promising, â€Å"I’m going todestroy you† (emphases mine, FTA 305, GOE 5). Moreover, Catherine Bourne continues to elaborate, promising to enact such a memorable—however unnamed—act of destruction that it will warrant â€Å"a plaque up on the wall of the building outside the room. I’m going to wake up in the night and do something to you that you’ve never seen or heard of or imagined† (GOE 5). Certainly there is, as Eby identifies, â€Å"something sinister† at work beneath this â€Å"playful and loving† banter (â€Å"Literary Jealousy and Destruction† 99). However, unlike the many critics that have cast Catherine as the successor to serpentine evil in the Garden of Eden mythology, I see this â€Å"something sinister† as not so much Satanic as it is Lacanian. As Eby contends, â€Å"Almost the entire psychosexual content of The Garden of Edencan be found in A Farewell to Arms, only expressed more subtly† (â€Å"Reading Hemingway Backwards† 109). Among these psychosexual parallels, I again point to the death drive as the underlying force through which to trace and explain Catherine Bourne’s destructive impulses, uniting her with Catherine Barkley in their shared pursuit of psychic wholeness. Just as Catherine Barkley’s insistent desire to merge with Frederic renders her destructive impulses toward him in fact self-destructive, so does Catherine Bourne’s insistence on twinning and merger with David transform her acts of destruction into those of self-destruction. Like Catherine Barkley, who loves Frederic so much she wants to be him, Catherine Bourne longs for a total merger with her husband in which â€Å"you can’t tell who is who† (GOE 17). Catherine Bourne’s insistence on matching haircuts and even referring to David as â€Å"Catherine† suggests that, like Catherine Barkley, Catherine Bourne wants to beher husband. And, according to some interpretations, she is. Eby presents a reading that figures Catherine and David as two halves of a divided ego—namely, Hemingway’s ego. According to Eby, â€Å"Both David and Catherine are, of course, reflections of Hemingway’s imagination and different aspects of his psy che,† with Catherine Bourne representing â€Å"Hemingway’s split-off other-sex alter-ego† (â€Å"Literary Jealousy and destruction† 104). Significantly, Eby repeats almost this exact parlance in his analysis of A Farewell to Arms as â€Å"a book about the onset of Hemingway’s fetishism and the birth of ‘Catherine’ as the split-off other-sex half of his ego† (â€Å"Reading Hemingway Backwards† 109). This reading, as Eby elaborates, â€Å"helps us to understand why Catherine and Frederic want to ‘be’ each other—for on some level, as emblems of two halves of a divided ego, they already are† (111). Thus, Catherine’s destructive actions—though certainly more egregious than those of her predecessor—do not constitute acts of vengeance or jealousy against her husband so much as they do a desperate attempt to escape the symbolic and restore unity through merger with the other half of her divided ego. Whether or not we accept Eby’s biographical approach, the figuration of Catherine and David as two halves of a divided ego—Hemingway’s or otherwise—can help align Catherine’s destructive impulses with the death drive. As one half of a divided ego, Catherine belongs to a world of separation and fractured identity. Like Catherine Barkley, who desires to return to the earlier state of wholeness she enjoyed with her fiancà © by merging with Frederic, Catherine Bourne’s death drive manifests in her desire to restore psychic wholeness through merger with the other half of her fractured identity. For Catherine Barkley, this earlier state of wholeness is represented by her relationship with her late fiancà ©, who predeceases the novel and evades symbolic participation in Frederic’s narrative. For Catherine Bourne, this â€Å"earlier† state of psychic wholeness has a more literal Freudian parallel, corresponding to the androgyny of inf ancy. Queer experimentation and androgyny are among the most notable motifs that first appear in A Farewell to Arms, where they are stunted by â€Å"a greater degree of condensation, displacement, and symbolization,† only to resurface relatively uncensored in The Garden of Eden(â€Å"Reading Hemingway Backwards† 109). Pointing to Catherine Barkley’s fascination with merger, desire for twin haircuts, and momentary allusion to lesbianism — â€Å"I wish I’d stayed with all your girls† — Debra Moddelmog notes that â€Å"there is more than an implication in A Farewell to Arms that gender transgressions and reversals of traditional male and female roles during sex lie beneath the androgynous fusion of two parts into one whole† (FTA 299, Moddelmog 18). What is perhaps â€Å"more than an implication† in A Farewell to Armsbecomes a blatant portrayal in The Garden of Eden, with Catherine Bourne actually completing many of the queer exper iments to which Catherine Barkley only alludes. Catherine Bourne â€Å"changes from a girl into a boy and back to a girl carelessly and happily† (GOE 31). She successfully convinces David to get the matching, androgynous haircuts that Catherine Barkley proposes, with little response, to Frederic. In her sexual relationship with Marita, Catherine Bourne even â€Å"stays with† one of David’s girls. In Freudian psychoanalysis, androgyny is pre-symbolic, reflective of the infant’s pre-linguistic state of â€Å"polymorphous perversity.† Thus, Catherine’s desire for androgyny becomes a manifestation of her death drive. Her queer experimentation constitutes an attempt to return to an earlier, pre-symbolic state of wholeness and unity characterized by androgyny. This death-driven fascination with androgyny can also help explain Catherine’s ultimate act of destruction: the burning of David’s manuscripts. The honeymoon narrative that Catherine prefers, and which she played some role in the creation of, is â€Å"androgynously conceived,† while the African narrative that she destroys is a â€Å"masculine narrative† from which she is excluded (Burwell 199). Catherine destroys the masculine text in order to restore and preserve the androgynous wholeness of the honeymoon narrative. Catherine’s death drive also surfaces in her almost overtly Lacanian fascination with mirrors. A recurring motif throughout The Garden of Eden, the use of mirrors has notable parallels in related Hemingway texts as well, including A Farewell to Arms and the short story â€Å"The Sea Change.† In The Garden of Eden, Catherine expresses a desire for a bar mirror at the hotel: â€Å"A bar’s no good without a mirror†¦Then we can all see each other when we talk rot and know how rotty it is. You can’t fool a bar mirror† (GOE 103). In basic Lacanian ideology, the mirror stage is a pre-symbolic state in which infants respond to a seemingly coherent image of wholeness reflected in the mirror. Catherine’s obsession with mirrors reflects her desire to return to this earlier state. Seeing herself as the split-off half of a divided ego, Catherine—like the pre-symbolic infant—responds to and craves the image of wholeness in the mirror. In corporating French feminism, Kathy Willingham perhaps best outlines Catherine’s relationship to mirrors in the Lacanian register: Catherine’s inability to access language, or to enter into the Symbolic smoothly, in the Lacanian sense, is further reinforced by Catherine’s obsession for gazing into mirrors. She is so fascinated with observing herself that she suggests purchasing a mirror to hang in the bar so that the three of them â€Å"can all see each other when we talk rot and know how rotty it is. You can’t fool a bar mirror.† Cixous repeatedly speaks of alienation from the symbolic as advantageous, and Catherine’s interest in mirrors shows a similar satisfaction with existence in the imaginary or pre-symbolic condition. (52) For Catherine, then, mirrors are a way to transcend the symbolic and access the Lacanian â€Å"real.† For David, however, mirrors are a source of distress and dissociation. â€Å"It’s when I start looking quizzical in one that I know I’ve lost,† he tells Catherine (GOE103). Indeed, like the unnamed young man in â€Å"The Sea Change,† who looks into the bar mirror and sees â€Å"a different man,† David often finds himself â€Å"looking quizzical† in mirrors (â€Å"The Sea Change† 401). David resists mirrors because, as pre-symbolic, they challenge patriarchal constructions of meaning. As a writer, David deals in the symbolic, and recognizes that Catherine’s death drive is in direct opposition to linguistic creation. Calling on Sarah Webster Goodwin and Elizabeth Bronfen’s argument in Death and Representation, DeRosa explains the conflict between the death drive and symbolic representation: â€Å"‘Representations are fantasies of wholeness, invented to protect each human being from confronting an initial traumatic ex perience that installed them in the first place as split-off meanings, as re-presented.’ Thus, any encounter with the real is an encounter with the realm outside of representation; representations and death are always in direct opposition† (DeRosa 28). For David, then, merger with Catherine is a threat to the symbolic order, which of course includes his own writing. He wants to resist merging with Catherine and instead maintain the separation that, in Lacanian theory, makes language possible. For this reason, David is compelled to dissociate when he looks into mirrors, seeing â€Å"someone else† and resisting the psychic wholeness of the imaginary that threatens the male symbolic order of separation and difference (GOE 84). Frederic, too, experiences similar instances of dissociation when confronted with mirrors in A Farewell to Arms. While Catherine Barkley expresses her desire â€Å"to do something really sinful† as she combs her hair in front of the mir ror, Frederic shows resistance and dissociation around mirrors, at various points throughout the novel regarding his own reflected image as â€Å"strange† or â€Å"fake† (FTA153, 258, 311, 319). For Catherine Barkley, like Catherine Bourne, the mirror is a way of accessing the death drive. For the men with whom they seek to merge in order to reclaim the imaginary, however, mirrors pose a threat to the male symbolic order. Unlike Catherine Barkley, Catherine Bourne thwarts this male resistance with the successful installation of the hotel bar mirror, foreshadowing her consummate challenge to the patriarchal order through her destruction of David’s manuscripts. This reading has alluded to a number of ways in which Catherine Bourne successfully consummates the unfulfilled desires of Catherine Barkley. In The Garden of Eden, Catherine Bourne fulfills Catherine Barkley’s haircut fantasy and engages in physical acts of twinning and gender bending instead of mere verbal expressions of metaphorical oneness. Finally, in her most infamous act of destruction, Catherine Bourne destroys David’s manuscripts, successfully issuing a challenge to the symbolic order in which her predecessor remains imprisoned. While Catherine’s destructive impulses are infamous, they cannot entirely obscure her creative ones, however stunted. Catherine frequently expresses a frustrated desire for creative output, comparing her inability to paint and write to an insatiable hunger she is powerless to quench (GOE 53). Despite Catherine’s own doubts, critics have noted that her creativity is not simply abortive, but rather seeks other outlets. Eby explains that â€Å"Catherine and David’s creativities work very differently—largely in different psychological registers† (â€Å"Literary Jealousy and Destruction† 101). Taking a Lacanian approach, Eby claims that Catherine â€Å"creates in the register of the imaginary; David in the symbolic. Her imagination is driven by identification; David’s by representation. She stresses the signified; David the signifier† (100). What Eby neglects to emphasize, however, is that these creative differences are not merely pe rsonal, but gendered. As Willingham points out, Catherine lacks â€Å"full access to the traditionally male-controlled tool of literature† because of her gender (47). In Lacanian theory, entry into the symbolic is made possible by the â€Å"law of the father† or the â€Å"father’s no.† When the imaginary is disrupted by threat of castration in Lacan’s refiguring of the Oedipus complex, the father’s opposition to the son’s incestuous desire for the mother thrusts the child out of the imaginary and into the symbolic. Thus, the symbolic realm is inherently patriarchal. As a woman, Catherine Bourne is excluded from male-centric structures of meaning, and instead â€Å"employs a language which clearly opposes phallogocentric discourse† (Willingham 59). In destroying David’s manuscripts, Catherine seeks to both annihilate the patriarchal order of language from which she has been excluded, as well as to abolish the male text that separates her from David and thwarts her efforts to merge with him in pre-symbolic wholeness. What is often viewed as a jealous attack on the husband is actually a desperat e, self-destructive act intended to thrust both Catherine and David out of the symbolic so they can merge and restore the wholeness of a single, undivided ego. In this physical attack on the symbolic order, Catherine Bourne exhibits some influence from her earliest predecessor, Catherine Earnshaw. In Wuthering Heights, DeRosa notes Catherine Earnshaw’s â€Å"aversion to to the printed word,† pointing to a scene in which a ghostly Catherine pushes aside a pile of books Lockwood has assembled in an attempt to prevent her entry into his bed: â€Å"While she can manage to thrust the books protecting Lockwood aside, thereby demonstrating her control over the texts, she is also in thrusting them aside destroying the barrier that separates her from Lockwood; and Lockwood, as stand-in for Heathcliff, is precisely the ‘other’ to whom Catherine wishes to connect† (31). Like Catherine Earnshaw, who violently thrusts aside text in an attempt to merge with another in the pre-symbolic, Catherine Bourne’s destruction of David’s manuscript is an attempt to destroy the story that has literally created a fissur e in their marriage, as well as to destroy the patriarchal system of language that ruptured the psychic wholeness of the imaginary to which she wishes to return. Catherine Bourne, of course, does not succeed in abolishing the symbolic order. In fact, in the novel’s uncharacteristically optimistic ending, both David and the text appear to make a full recovery, with David rewriting the stories in a triumphant blaze of reclaimed authority. Catherine’s challenge to the symbolic, however, does seem to authorize her participation in the patriarchal discourse she seeks to subvert. Despite an earlier lamentation that she â€Å"can’t even write a letter,† Catherine does write a letter to David at the end of the novel, one he even acknowledges as moving (GOE 53, 237). Conversely, Catherine Barkley remembers on her deathbed that she meant to write Frederic a letter, but â€Å"didn’t do it† (FTA330). Once again, Catherine Bourne succeeds where Catherine Barkley fails. Through her subversive efforts, Catherine Bourne successfully navigates the symbolic in a way that neither of her predecessors—whose deaths render them imprisoned in the symbolic realm of narrative—manage. Catherine Bourne’s literal survival, then, emerges as another key way in which she triumphs over her predecessors. As noted, both Catherine Earnshaw and Catherine Barkley die in childbirth. By contrast, Catherine Bourne not only survives her narrative, but in fact struggles to conceive. Viewed in light of the Lacanian significance of dying in childbirth, Catherine Bourne’s failure to conceive becomes yet another way in which she triumphs over the patriarchal systems that lead the other Catherines to their demise. In basic Lacanian ideology, as outlined by Doreen Fowler, a child enters the realm of the symbolic and acquires language by becoming aware of difference and separating from the mother. If separation from the mother is the key to the symbolic realm, then â€Å"the murder of the mother is constructed as positive step toward establishing identity,† (317). This Lacanian tradition of symbolic matricide can help explain why both Catherine Earnshaw and Catherin e Barkley die in childbirth. Catherine Bourne, however, escapes this fate. While critics often figure Bourne’s failure or inability to conceive as symptomatic of her other creative failures: â€Å"She finds that she can’t even have what she calls ‘a damned baby’† (â€Å"Literary Jealousy and Destruction† 100), I read Catherine’s childlessness as yet another way in which she successfully thwarts the patriarchal order. As a survivor, Catherine Bourne is able to successfully exit the narrative. Her last appearance in the novel is in her letter, through which she briefly takes control of the narrative before fleeing it. She does not remain imprisoned in the symbolic order via a man’s first-person narrative, like both Catherine Earnshaw and Catherine Barkley, whose death-driven attempts to escape the symbolic only render them immortalized in the writing of male narrators. Catherine Bourne does not literally succumb to her death drive—at least not in the current published edition of the novel. She does not become yet another ghostly Catherine trapped in a haunted text. In her successful navigation of the symbolic, Catherine Bourne manages to both escape and survive. It would be easy enough to write off Hemingway’s repetition of the name Catherine as mere coincidence. It is, after all, a common name. It could even be argued that Hemingway was only using the familiar name as a place holder, and would have changed it before the novel’s publication. However, as Eby points out, it is clear that Hemingway spent a lot of time thinking about the name Catherine, both within and outside of his fictional pursuits. It was the name he used for himself when exploring his own other-sex alter-ego, and he also considered repeating the name yet again on another character in theGarden of Eden manuscript, even toying with the working title â€Å"The Two Catherines† (â€Å"Literary Jealousy and Destruction† 104). Clearly, the name Catherine implied an inherent doubleness for Hemingway, one that I think can perhaps trace the whispers of its origins to Emily Brontà «Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s original tale of two Catherines. As alluded to earlier, Wuthering Heightsis itself a novel of â€Å"two Catherines† —Catherine Earnshaw and her daughter Catherine Linton. And just as Catherine Earnshaw â€Å"is† Heathcliff, Hemingway’s Catherine Barkley â€Å"is† Frederic, and Catherine Bourne, in turn, â€Å"is† David. Thus, if Catherine Bourne is the serpentine destroyer of Eden, it is not out of jealous vengeance against her husband. Her destructive impulses echo a long literary tradition of desperate attempts to reclaim the other half of the self. Works Cited Alexander, Christine and Margaret Smith. â€Å"Wuthering Heights, A Novel.† The Oxford Companion to the Brontà «s. Oxford UP, 2003. pp. 553-561. Burwell, Rose Marie. â€Å"Hemingways Garden of Eden: Resistance of Things Past and Protecting the Masculine Text.† Texas Studies in Literature and Language, vol. 35, no. 2, 1993, pp. 198–225. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40755009. Brontà «, Emily. Wuthering Heights. New York: Barnes Noble, 2004. Dodman, Trevor. â€Å"‘Going All to Pieces’: ‘A Farewell to Arms’ as Trauma Narrative.† Twentieth Century Literature, vol. 52, no. 3, 2006, pp. 249–274. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20479772. Eby, Carl P. Who is â€Å"The Destructive Type?’: Re-Reading Literary Jealousy and Destructionin The Garden of Eden. The Hemingway Review, vol. 33 no. 2, 2014, pp. 99-106. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/hem.2014.0005 Eby, Carl P. Reading Hemingway Backwards.† Teaching Hemingway and Gender ed. by Verna Kale (review). The Hemingway Review, vol. 37 no. 1, 2017, pp. 104-114. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/hem.2017.0025 Fowler, Doreen. â€Å"Matricide and the Mother’s Revenge: As I Lay Dying.† The Faulkner Journal 4. 12 (1991). Rpt. in As I Lay Dying. Edited by Michael Gorra. New York: W.W. Norton Company, 2010. Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. New York: Scribner, 2003. Hemingway, Ernest. The Garden of Eden. New York: Scribner, 1995. Hemingway, Ernest. â€Å"The Sea Change.† Ernest Hemingway: The Short Stories. New York: Scribner. James, Pearl. â€Å"Regendering War Trauma and Relocating the Abject: Catherine Barkley’sDeath.† The New Death: American Modernism and World War I, University of VirginiaPress, 2013, pp. 119–159. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wrkcw.8. Moddelmog, D. A. ‘â€Å"We Live in a Country Where Nothing Makes any Difference†: The Queer Sensibility of A Farewell to Arms. The Hemingway Review, vol. 28 no. 2, 2009, pp. 7-24. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/hem.0.0029 Powell, Tamara M. Lilith started it! Catherine as Lilith in The Garden of Eden.'The Hemingway Review, vol. 15, no. 2, 1996, p. 78+. Academic OneFile. Spanier, Sandra Whipple, and Scott Donaldson. Hemingways Unknown Soldier: CatherineBarkley, the Critics, and the Great War. Cambridge University Press, 1991. Tyler, Lisa. Passion and Grief in A Farewell to Arms: Ernest Hemingways Retelling of Wuthering Heights'. Hemingway Review, vol. 14, no. 2, 1995, pp. 79-96. ProQuest. Willingham, Kathy. Hemingways The Garden of Eden: Writing with the body.† Hemingway Review, vol. 12, no. 2, 1993, pp. 46-61.

Native American Community Problems with Substance Abuse - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 6 Words: 1876 Downloads: 5 Date added: 2019/08/16 Category Health Essay Level High school Tags: Substance Abuse Essay Did you like this example? Native American Community: Problems with Substance Abuse Abstract The Native American community has experienced a lot of trauma throughout their history.   The past experiences continue to impact the generations today.   Along with historic trauma, the community has experienced a lot of problems with substance abuse where the main concern is alcohol.   Native American communities have many risk factors that contribute to the trouble with substance abuse; however, there are a handful of ways that the communities have found the ability to overcome and be resilient.   Substance abuse is a struggle for individuals and could be even harder for whole communities because it becomes normalized.   Although the community has found many ways to be resilient, there are other supports that could also be helpful.  . Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Native American Community: Problems with Substance Abuse" essay for you Create order Native American Community: Problems with Substance Abuse   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Any amount of trauma is an event that can lead to lifelong struggles, and it is something that is familiar to the Native American community.   Historical trauma has been the root of many issues within the population, and it has made substance abuse a problem for many generations.   While substance abuse is something that is hard to deal with, there are ways that the community can get the proper help that they need.   Although help is possible, it is crucial that those who help know how the risk factors can impact the process.   Resiliency is promoted when the community is together and can offer support to one another, and it is important to also provide more supports to ease the impact of substance abuse.   Background Substance abuse impacts cultures and people all around the globe.   The Native American community has experienced many hardships, and alcohol has been used as a coping method.   Although it has been a way to numb memories, it was also normalized for generations as it become more frequently used and introduced in the community.   Resiliency has been a key factor in the healing process of the Native American community.   However, being resilient is not enough to end the generational cycles of substance abuse.   It is important that the population gets the help that they need, but it also important that they are able to bring the past struggles to the present to promote healing. Issues of Prevalence   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Substance abuse in the Native American community is a prevalent issue that has many consequences.   In the past, alcohol usage has been a problem for this community, and it continues to be in the modern Native American communities (Cunningham, Solomon, Murmoto, 2016).   The abuse of alcohol has been one of the leading causes of death and other threatening diseases within the Native American communities, which highlights the importance of giving the population the proper help that they need.   There are a variety of reasons why a person would resort to alcohol as a coping method, and it is thought that it is used in the Native American community as a way to numb themselves from the trauma that has been experienced and the discrimination that they are still facing (Myhra, 2011).   Substance abuse is a widespread concern in the Native American population, and it needs to be addressed.   Many substance abuse disorders for this community have a seri ous lack of service, and issues with alcohol often come with many stigmas (Hasin, Kerridge, Saha, Huang, Pickering, Smith, Grant, 2016).  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Risk for the Community   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Native American community has many risk factors when it comes to substance abuse.   Most of the risks come from the past and how it has affected the later generations; however, there are many factors in the present that contribute to the risk.   Historical trauma within the Native American community often leads to resulting in unresolved grief, inability to practice cultural traditions, and feeling oppressed (Brown, Dickerson, DAmico, 2016).   These are all major risk factors that have affected members of the community in the past, and they continue to impact the community members currently.   The unresolved grief is a large problem for the community because it limits their ability to accept their culture and be proud of who they are.   They also are unable to feel and grieve properly for things that were lost, including family members and traditional practices.   The lack of proper grieving makes it hard for current members of the Native American community to enjoy all aspects of their culture.   Without culture, there is a lack of identity that contributes to risk within the community.     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Many risk factors have to do with childhood.   In the past, children were removed from their communities and were moved into places outside of their homes (Brown, Dickerson, DAmico, 2016).   Moving out of community meant that kids were given to new parents and often felt unloved.   The children also noticed when drinking increased, which led to them using different substances to cope at an early point in life (Patterson, Adely, Duran, Dulmus, Manning, 2014).   This early start of substance abuse made it harder to break the habit as time goes on.   Removing kids from their community takes away the chance of forming family bonds, which is an important part of eliminating risk factors (Brown, Dickerson, DAmico, 2016).   Being taken away from their own families and being introduced to alcohol early makes it hard for cycles to break and can make it hard for subsequent generations (Myhra, 2011).   There are many risk factors within the Native Am erican community when it comes to substance abuse.   Most of these factors stem from the past and have a continuing presence in the community.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Resiliency in the Community   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Despite the many risk factors, there are a few ways that the community finds resilience; most of these ways revolve around culture and the community that is found within a culture.   One of the most effective ways is the restoration of cultural and spiritual practices.   These practices can promote proper grieving for past and present losses (Debruyn, 1998).   Being able to grieve allows room for acceptance of the past and a path toward change in the future.   One of the main reasons that substance abuse occurs is because of the shame that is felt about their culture, which takes away from personal identity.   Activities like reconnecting with family and community can provide a space for support and motivation.   Seeing other people who are making progress with substance abuse problems can be inspiring to others who are struggling (Myhra, 2011).   Resiliency can be hard, especially when it comes to addiction; however, events like traditional practices can provide healing.   Promoting a stronger sense of community and culture can help distance the desire to use substances.   With a solid bond between community members, it can be easier to share stories of loss and grief.   Hearing and sharing other narratives can help lift the weight of the past because of the verbal confessions and emotional catharses.   Counseling sessions are a way that the community can go about this.   Having time to talk with community members can help with getting treatment and healing (Patterson, Adely, Duran, Dulmus, Manning, 2014).   Regaining many of the lost cultural pieces supports the healing and resilience in the Native American communities.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Treatment for Substance Abuse within Native American Community   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Getting treatment is important, but it is even more important that the Native American community gets proper treatment that can promote healing.   One of the most promising ideas for treatments is fostering appreciation for the culture.   This can be done a number of ways, and incorporating and bringing back traditional ceremonies is an effective way.   Having customary practices back in place gives the community a way to start healing through appreciation of their culture and the ability to talk about shared pain (Brown, Dickerson, DAmico, 2016).   With the growth of appreciating culture and restoration of many traditions, it is also important to create new practices.   Issues with substance abuse has been plaguing this population for a long time, so it is important that they are able to create new community goals that can help combat temptations, like using alcohol as a coping method (Myhra, 2011).   Working toward sobriety can be hard, but with the support of a community, there are ways that it is achievable.   The Native American population could take advantage of their group dynamic by introducing activities that would encourage healthier choices (Brown, Dickerson, DAmico, 2016).   Activities that endorse beneficial lifestyle changes could be put to use on weekends or celebrations when the urge to use alcohol might be stronger.   Doing this would help all members of the community who are struggling with substance abuse, but it would also be a great way to be role models for younger generations and discourage the use of alcohol as a method of managing stress.   Encouraging community groups to interact with one another is important because many of the youths have felt disconnected from their culture, which causes a delayed interest in traditions. Another treatment path that would be beneficial is the practice of brining the past to the present.   This may be hard for many community members because the past has been filled with many traumatic experiences, which have been passed down over the years (Brown, Dickerson, DAmico, 2016).   However, being able to talk about the past can help bring a sense of healing (Patterson, Adely, Duran, Dulmus, Manning, 2014).   It is important that the group does not feel that the past is a reflection of themselves.   The Native American community has experienced years of shame for their culture, which is damaging.   Being able to recognize that as historical oppression is crucial because it takes away the sense of personal failure.   Conclusion The Native American community has had many struggles in their past that continue to affect their lives today.   Substance abuse is a heavy outcome of the historic trauma that the population has experienced.   Because of the harsh treatment in the past, the group of people have many risk factors that make using alcohol an easy way to cope with the past.   Despite having gone through many hardships and being normalized to the use of alcohol, there are ways that the Native American community can slowly recover.   Focusing on resiliency is a part of the process, and there are specific ways that can facilitate healing.  Ã‚   Works Cited Brown, R. A., Dickerson, D. L., DAmico, E. J. (2016). Cultural Identity Among Urban American Indian/Alaska Native Youth: Implications for Alcohol and Drug Use.Prevention Science,17(7), 852-861. doi:10.1007/s11121-016-0680-1 Cunningham, J. K., Solomon, T. A., Muramoto, M. L. (2016). Alcohol use among Native Americans compared to whites: Examining the veracity of the Native American elevated alcohol consumption belief.Drug and Alcohol Dependence,160, 65-75. doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2015.12.015 Patterson Silver Wolf, David., Adelv Unegv, Duran, B., Dulmus, C. N., Manning, A. R. (2014). Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention as Standard Practice: Working with the American Indian/Native Alaskan Populations.Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment,24(3), 399-407. doi:10.1080/10911359.2014.875340 Hasin, D. S., Kerridge, B. T., Saha, T. D., Huang, B., Pickering, R., Smith, S. M., . . . Grant, B. (2016). Prevalence and Correlates of DSM-5 Cannabis Use Disorder, 2012-2013: Findings from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions–III.American Journal of Psychiatry,173(6), 588-599. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2015.15070907 (2011). It Runs in the Family: Intergenerational Transmission of Historical Trauma among Urban American Indians and Alaska Natives in Culturally Specific Sobriety Maintenance Programs.American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research,18(2), 17-40. doi:10.5820/aian.1802.2011.17

Essay on Gender Role Bias in Advertising - 669 Words

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College Is Not The Cheapest Thing - 883 Words

Many people state that college is expensive and they are now starting to question whether or not it is really worth it in the end. College is every bit worth it, the knowledge that students can gain from the courses are substantial. There are many courses that are geared toward your career choice and this will help you in the long run. While there may be students who are not able to find jobs after they earn their degree, many do and get paid at a high amount. Even though college is not the cheapest thing, the money spent is well worth it. For instance, let us say that the degree necessary for a surgeon is about eighty-thousand dollars. The money spent is well worth it because surgeons easily make about almost two-hundred thousand dollars. Most importantly, the experience you gain from attending such a high institution is like no other. The knowledge students gain from college is like no other, other institutions can not even compare to it. 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Dhirubail Ambani International School Department of...

Table of Contents Mission Statement The mission of Dhirubhai Ambani International School Department of College Counseling is to meet the needs of the entire college-bound population. We are dedicated to the success and educational development of every student in pursuit of their passion through the medium of post-secondary education. Through individualized support planning, counseling and collaboration with families, the Department of College Counselling team reinforces educational values that enable the DAIS students achieve their goals and succeed in competitive college environments. Commitment The Department of College Counselling is fully committed to the overall mission of the DAIS and we firmly believe that every student†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ Conduct an annual presentation for 11th and 12th students and parents at the beginning of the school term. †¢ Educate students and parents on how to navigate through the Naviance System. 3. Counsellor-Student Interview The initial interview with each student is an integral part of the support planning process. The one-on-one meeting is the student’s opportunity to detail plans, discuss challenges, resources and to gain a good understanding of how The Department of College Counselling support services will be tailored to their unique situation. †¢ Schedule appointments with student and parents (DU) a. Identify student’s interest/passion b. Assist students in assessing their interests and understanding how they relate to their academic and co-curricular options and career opportunities. c. Establishes a formal plan with input from students and their families d. Explain what is financial aid e. Advise on College Board Test f. Facilitate the application process g. Identify colleges that are a good fit based on students interest, academic performance/capabilities, resources and choices 4. Individualized Student College Plan The individualized plan provides the framework for counsellors, students, and their families with measurable outcomes to ensure progression and success. †¢ What the student wants to achieve (the outcome) †¢ Identify the student’s strengths and weaknesses †¢ Method used to help

The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller †Linda Free Essays

Ms. Woods ENG 252 Sec 400 October 29, 2012 Linda – A Pillar of Strength and Balance In the Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller My question for discussion is what I think of Linda, the wife of Willie Lohman in the play â€Å"The Death of a Salesman†. We will write a custom essay sample on The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller – Linda or any similar topic only for you Order Now This is my response. I feel that Linda is the strongest character in the play. Everyone around her has major issues, her sons and her husband. Even in the reflections of the past her brother-in-law had his issues – greed being one of them. She represents stability, goodness and balance in this story. She can be looked at as the foundation of this family, like most strong women. This story takes place in the 1940’s when the environment or way of living was the woman stayed home and tended to the family and the husband was the provider. And we also have a male dominated, sort of male chauvinist society at that time. So being that the man was the provider, a man had a sense of being the King of his home. Because of this general idea, it reduced the importance or view of women and their roles. Meaning a woman’s role was less than important because the man was King. Therefore, we see the questionable, forceful and harsh tones that Willie uses sometimes when speaking to Linda which can be interpreted or misinterpreted in different ways. And when this happens we see Linda back down or just close her mouth. But it also should be noted that Willie is losing everything around him, at home he feels that is the only place he can control what is going on. Then we see Willie’s dementia coming to a serious level of illness. This is not mentioned in the story but we see something wrong with Willie’s mental state. By the evidence given in the story, we can conclude many things – guilt, dementia, pressure and stress or just getting old and not wanting to face it. We are not given a reason for this deteriation. But it is evident by the reflections Willie has and how he is stuck in the past and/or stuck in a fantasy that something very deep is going on. This story is very male dominated with the symbolic theme of women are just extra’s. We hear this thru Willy Jr and Biff. They don’t seem to respect women either. Thru out the story no one seems to listen to her, her sons and neither Willie her husband. Linda is a faithful wife, playing her role. She stands and supports her husband. You never hear her say a bad word about her husband other than him being sick. She knows what’s wrong but I don’t think she knows how to handle it. At a time when medically no one really knew about mental illness, I think she viewed it as stress driven. Willis has been reduced at his job, he doesn’t want to face he’s getting old and his sons not being productive are just a few issues that contribute to the unrest in this household. She tries to explain to her sons what is going on but the fact that Willie probably was traveling salesmen for a long time and has been away so much that he has no real relationship with his son’s. Therefore they feel no pity for him, especially Willy Jr. who lost faith in his father a long time ago. So part of them being worthless and non productive can be contributed to not having their father around while they were growing up. So they do not have any attachment to him or what is going on with him nor does Willie Jr. care because of what he discovered when his father was having an affair. They only have attachment to their mother, Linda. She loves her boys regardless and her husband but she feels her duty first is to her husband. We also conclude that Linda does not know about the affair Willie had nor does she know that Willy Jr. knew about it. All she knows is the relationship between big Willie and junior Willy has been severely altered. Clinging to the suspicion that Willie (husband) is suffering from mental deterioration she wants to do whatever it takes to let him just grow old gracefully and peacefully, even if it means turning her back on her children. This is not to be taken as rejection or meanness because they are grown and are not contributing anything positive to the situation or conditions that are evolving. That is evident when they leave Willie in the bathroom at the restaurant and he suffers a severe breakdown and they don’t even come back to check on him. I feel that when she unloaded on her sons and voiced all the truths that were said is her finally being fed up with all the confusion going on around her. She is fighting to stay strong, guide and stay dedicated to her husband while moving all negatives out of the way. That is a sign of strength and dedication. This is symbolic of how she is truly the foundation and the balance of this family. Willie is losing control of everything, his job, his mind, his finance, his pride, his youth, etc. and Linda sees all of this. Thus his harsh treatment of her I do not feel is meant to hurt her. Remember a woman’s value in this era is reduced so she has no voice, no say and she abides by that. But in today’s time we would consider that disrespectful. I am considering the era of this story. But Linda stays strong and is always positive. Willie does realize he loves his wife and she loves him because at the end before he leaves to commit suicide he sends her to bed because he knows she would try to stop him from going out. And he knows she would do that out of love for him. Even though in his mind he sees this as a way of taking care of her and his sons. So in conclusion, the question remains do I believe that Linda was a dishrag? No I do not. Linda was the epitimy of a good wife, supportive, grounded, sacrificial and wise. She knew when to back down and when to be strong and speak out. She held Willie together as long as she could, until it was out of her hands. As she stated at his grave site, she truly did not understand how deep Willie’s issues really were. Thru all the symbolism of this story, good and bad (the sons), rich and poor (the environment and Willie’s associates), young and old (his reflections back to his younger days) Linda was the central figure in this story representing neutrality, balance and humbleness. How to cite The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller – Linda, Essay examples

Business Opportunity Fundamental Principles †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Business Opportunity Fundamental Principles. Answer: Introduction The Corporations Act, 2001 (Cth) is a key piece of legislation which is applicable for all the companies in Australia. This act acts as a governing act for the companies in the nation, where each and every aspect of the functioning of the company is ruled by the act. So, from the naming requirement of the company, to its type, from its incorporation to winding up, all such and more provisions are provided under this act (Latimer, 2012). One of the key provisions of this act relates to the director duties covered under Part 2D.1. When the duties laid down under this section are contravened, a case is brought against the directors and they have to face relevant penalties for such breach (Cassidy, 2006). Hannon v Doyle [2011] NSWSC 10 is one of such cases where a breach of director duties was claimed, and these were established by the court, but as they were not claimed upon, no decision was made on these duty braches. This case revolved around the claims of minority oppression management and the resulting remedies from it (Wright, 2011). This report covers a detail of the different aspects which surrounded this case to specifically highlight the duties breached in this case. In this case, David Hannon had applied for leave so as to initiate legal action on behalf of APH, i.e., Afro Pacific Holdings Pty Ltd and APC, i.e., Afro Pacific Capital Ltd, where APH held 88% shares, based on section 237 of the Corporations Act. As he had been a former director and the member of these companies, he made a claim pursuant to section 236(2)(a)(i) and section 236(2)(a)(ii) and left the court to decide upon whether the criteria covered under section 237 of this act was fulfilled. It was argued in the matter of serious question by Hannon that unsecured loans were made by APC to Doyle and Turner and some of these loans were interest free. He also claimed that the 15 million options which APC held in TFC, i.e., Transvaal Ferro Chrome Ltd had been alienated to the two companies which were owned by the two directors of APC, i.e., by Doyle and Turner, along with the options of the company being sold at a price which was below the market value. He also highlighted that Doyle a nd Turner were provided with excessive remuneration by APC (Wright, 2011). A noteworthy point raised by Hannon was that APC had lent some money to Africa Pacific Capital Pty Ltd, herein referred to as Pacific, which was a company formed and owned by Turner and Doyle. Further, Turner and Doyle made Pacific supply certain services to such companies which were the existing clients of APC, and where the services procurement was based. There had also been diversion or transfer of assets to Pacific, and these assets were such to which APC had been entitled. Lastly, Hannon highlighted that no dividend had been paid by APC even when there was amiability of profits, where the dividends could have been paid prudentially. And this gave rise to a claim to be made under section 232 of this act for the oppressive conduct of affairs (Wright, 2011). Duties Breached Under the Corporations Act, the directors of the company have been imparted with certain duties. One of the reasons for imparting these duties on directors is that the minority shareholders of the company are to be protected from oppressive conduct and where such is done, the remedies have to be awarded to the minority shareholders (Paolini, 2014). Under section 181 of this act, the directors have been given the duty to make use of their powers and to undertake their obligation for such a purpose which can be deemed as fair, which is not only undertaken in good faith but also for the best interest of the company (Australasian Legal Information Institute, 2017). A duty has been placed on the directors through section 182 for to not using their position of the company for their own, or for someone elses benefits, particularly when a detriment is caused to the company (WIPO, 2015). In case the provisions covered under these sections are contravened, a civil penalty is applied on the breaching party which is covered under section 1317E of the Corporations Act (Federal Register of Legislation, 2017). Based on this section, the court can make a declaration of contravention and this further gives the option to ASIC to either seek pecuniary penalties based on section 1317G or apply for disqualification order based on section 206C. Based on the duty covered under section 181, is the duty to work in the interest of the different stakeholders of the company (ICNL, 2017). The directors duty is enhanced when it comes to minority shareholders as these shareholders do not hold the ability of influencing the company affairs due to their minority status. So, the directors need to take special care of the shareholders and ensure that the decisions are taken in a manner which denotes the best interest of not only the company but also of its shareholders. Where a director fails in doing so, not only the statutory obligations are contravened, but also claim can be made against them pursuant to section 232 and 232 of this act (Easton, 2013). The claims of Hannon were made for granting leave to the member of company based on section 236(2)(a)(i) as per which he was satisfied that: Based on section 237(2)(a) of this act, it is a possibility that the proceedings would not be brought by the company; Based on section 237(2)(b) that the applicant had been acting in good faith; Based on section 237(2)(c) that it was in the companys best interest to grant the leave to the applicant; and Based on section 237(2)(d) that a serious question had to be tried (Wright, 2011). These points raised by Hannon showed that the directors of the company, i.e., Doyle and Taylor had breached their director duties by not working in the best interest of the company and taking advantage of their position in the company. This is evidence from Doyle and Turner were being overcompensated by the company for the financial year which ended on Feb 29th, 2008 by being paid $1,566,960 and $1,570,234 respectively as consulting fees, which was a sum higher than the reasonable fees in such situations management. Further, these sections were again breached when they benefited their own company, Pacific instead of APC and even caused detriment to APC for benefiting Pacific (Wright, 2011). The court also analysed the use of business opportunity of the director where the business opportunity of one company was taken by another company which had been formed by such director. This diversion was seen as a breach of the fiduciary duties which were owed by the company and also a breach of the statutory duties. However, as these breaches were not claimed by Hannon, a decision was not made on the contravention of these duties. Instead, the court stated that in the best interest of APH, a claim of breach of director duties should be brought against the directors of the company on behalf of Hannon (Wright, 2011). Decision of the Case Each of the issues which were raised by Hannon was separately considered by the judges in this case. With regards to the point raised for the loan, no contention had been made regarding the loans being made. It was noted by the judges that each of the loans was made to either the director or to the entity which was related to the directors. This was seen as a contravention of the fundamental principles as were stated under the case of Aberdeen Railway Co v Blaikie (1854) 1 Macq HL 461. In this case it had been stated that none of the agent of the company could enter into arrangements where a conflicting interest is present, particularly with the interests of such individuals who could be in conflict. This was necessary so that a contract cannot be claimed as being fair or unfair later on. And so, the judges were satisfied that the claims made under section 237(2)(c) and section 237(2)(d) had been rightly claimed (New South Wales Caselaw, 2011). When it came to the options claim regrading TFC, the same reasoning was applied by the judges. It was noted by the judges that it was of not relevant if the options were sold at a price which was lower than the market value based on the "no question is allowed to be raised as to the fairness or unfairness" of the particular contract. And so, the claims made based on the two sections were also satisfied. The court also addressed the claims regarding the overcompensation of Doyle and Turner and stated that indeed the consulting fees were higher than the reasonable fees. And on this basis, again the two subsections were satisfied (New South Wales Caselaw, 2011). In the matter of the last claim regarding the major claims in reference to Pacific, it was noted by the judges that a letterhead was deliberately designed adopted by Pacific which was deceivingly similar to that of APC and there were several misrepresentations made on their website which resulted in an impression being created that APC and Pacific were the same business. Further, Pacific had informed the bankers that the income was received by them from the sale of shares where these shares belong to APC and not to Pacific. Lastly, in this matter, the judges also noted that Pacific and APC operated as one and so they had to be considered as one. Hence, it was concluded by the judges that a serious question indeed had to be tried in this case (New South Wales Caselaw, 2011). It was held by the judges that a serious question was present in this case regarding the claim of oppression made by Hannon which was related to the non-payment of the dividend. However, it was held that the absence of the dividends could not be deemed as sufficient for fulfilling claims under section 232 and that these claims had to be assessed after considering all of the relevant circumstances. In the case at hand, there was a lack of dividends which "may properly be made part of the matrix" of the claims made under section 232, in addition to the particular claims regarding the breach of duty. In the end, it was held by the judges that in this case, section 237(2)(a) and section 237(2) (b) had been clearly fulfilled. And so, it was concluded by the judges that Hannon actually and honestly believed that a good cause of action was present due to the evidence which had been put forward by Hannon, along with the efforts which he had put into for pursing the claims which were made under this section and the findings with regards to the serious question being present. Lastly, they stated that all these claims made by Hannon were indeed in the best interest of the company (New South Wales Caselaw, 2011). Conclusion In the preceding sections, the case of Hannon v Doyle was discussed, which acts as a key example for a claim being raised by the member of the company on behalf of the company, when the company fails to do so itself, as a result of the directors being involved in activities which were not in the best interest of the company. This claim saw a leave appeal being made by Hannon where the judges took into consideration the presence of serious question so as to allow this claim. The claims raised by Hannon were allowed in this case due to the questionable loans made by the directors, the alienation of the share options to the companies of the directors, the provisions whereby excessive remuneration was being provided to the directors, the diversion of business of the company to another company which was owned by the directors and by being engaged in oppressive conduct, which satisfied the criteria laid down under the different sections of the Corporations Act. The director duties were bre ached in this case by Doyle and Taylor on several grounds but owing to the absence of a claim being raised in this regard, a claim of breach of directors duty could not be allowed by the court. References Australasian Legal Information Institute. (2017). Corporations Act 2001. Retrieved from: https://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ca2001172/ Cassidy, J. (2006). Concise Corporations Law (5th ed.). NSW: The Federation Press. Easton, M. (2013). Dont forget minority shareholders. [Retrieved from https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/2009/342.html?context=1;query=Nassar%20v%20Innovative%20Precasters%20Group%20Pty%20Ltd Federal Register of Legislation. (2017). Corporations Act 2001. Retrieved from: https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2013C00605 ICNL. (2017). Corporations Act 2001. Retrieved from: https://www.icnl.org/research/library/files/Australia/Corps2001Vol4WD02.pdf Latimer, P. (2012). Australian Business Law 2012 (31st ed.). Sydney, NSW: CCH Australia Limited. New South Wales Caselaw. (2011). Hannon v Doyle [2011] NSWSC 10. Retrieved from: https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/54a634483004de94513d82c7 Paolini, A. (2014). Research Handbook on Directors Duties management. Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar. WIPO. (2015). Corporations Act 2001. Retrieved from: https://www.wipo.int/wipolex/en/text.jsp?file_id=370817 Wright, G. (2011). 5.13 Granting of leave to bring derivative proceedings under section 237 of the Corporations Act. Retrieved from: https://www.glenwright.net/files/Granting%20of%20leave%20to%20bring%20proceedings%20under%20the%20Corporations%20Act%202001,%20section%20237.pdf