Carbon Tax Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Carbon Tax - Research Paper Example The proposal of establishing a system of harmonized carbon taxes are being made in different parts of the world. In a harmonized carbon taxation system, the country that will be setting the taxes would be entitled to keep all the revenues incurred from these taxes. The proponents of a harmonized carbon tax system like Dinan and Rogers (2002 ) have proposed that all the participating countries in this system would be subjected to a common carbon tax rate which will help to achieve cost effectiveness in the long term scenarios (Dinan and Rogers 56-60). Nevertheless, the opponents of the harmonized carbon tax system have identified that there may be a number of constraints and problems associated with this kind of taxation system. One major criticism made against the harmonized carbon tax system is that in this taxation format, the developed as well as the developing countries would be subjected to the same carbon tax rate which is not a justified and fair idea. This is because, the rel ative level of responsibility and welfare towards the environmental and climatic problems is higher for the developed countries as compared to the developing countries because   the level of industrialization, the availability of resources and the use of energy sources are more in the developed nations that in the developing nations.   As such, the developed counties would not have major incentives in adopting a uniform carbon tax rate. There are many aspects that should be considered to understand the potential issues and solutions.

Modernity and Literature Essay Example for Free

Modernity and Literature Essay Modernity by itself is a very abstract concept which can be associated with all new experiences in history. It is largely temporal because what is modern today is the old or obsolete tomorrow. Modernity is said to be a logic of negation because it tends to give importance to the present over the past, and at the same time also frowns over the present with respect to the future. From a purely historical perspective however, the society which evolved in Europe after the French Revolution of 1789 can be termed as modern in so much so that there is a marked difference or break in the way of thinking, living and enterprise between the societies after and before the French Revolution. The evolution of the modern society was not a process that happened overnight. The roots of the modern society and its gradual evolution can be traced back to the beginning of the eighteenth century. In fact the period from that point in history to the French Revolution is termed as the period of intellectual Enlightenment when there was a radical change in philosophy, science, politics, arts and culture. It was on these new forms of knowledge that the foundation of the modern society or modernity was based. Defining the Traditional Many scholars have tried to analyze the basic or instinctive nature of human beings in attempts to track back how modernity could have affected the core individual. In his book Leviathan, Hobbes deduced that in an environment uninfluenced by artificial systems or in a ‘state of nature’ human beings would be war like and violent, and their lives would consequently be solitary, poor, brutish and short. Rousseau however contradicts Hobbes. He claims that humans are essentially benevolent by nature. He believed in the ‘noble savage’ or the concept that devoid of civilization human beings are essentially peaceful and egalitarian and live in harmony with the environment – an idea associated with Romanticism. Human beings have however lived in communities and formed societies since the very early ages. In what is now known as the ancient world or the world of classical pagan antiquity typical of the societies of Greece and Rome, the concept of the ‘new’ or ‘change’ was absent. Time, like the seasons, was supposed to move in cyclical order, repeating itself with regularity cycle after cycle with nothing new or changed to break away from the established order. The people were steeped in more superstitious and religious beliefs which ruled almost every aspect of their lives. Christianity brought about changes in the belief systems of the ancient world. Christianity postulated that time was linear, that it began from the birth of Jesus Christ and would end with the apocalypse and the second coming of Jesus. This was a linear concept of time that moved in a straight line and not in a cycle that kept coming back to the same point. The Foundations of Modernity It was during the Enlightenment period that the Christian concepts of time and history were secularized to give way to the modern approach to change and progress. There were many other basic changes during the Enlightenment. The key ideas which formed the basis of the enlightenment period were autonomy and emancipation, progress and the improvement of history and universalism. The development of scientific knowledge gave rise to religious skepticism. People were no longer willing to submit blindly to the dictates of ordained religion. In other words they attained emancipation from the shackles of religion that had governed almost all aspects of their lives. This emancipation led to autonomy of the individual. Individuals began to decide for themselves instead submitting to an external authority such as religion. The people now decided by themselves what kind of authority, rules and regulation would be good for them, and such authority must be natural and not supernatural. Enlightenment encouraged criticism. Enlightenment thinkers did not hold anything sacred and freely criticized, questioned, examined and challenged all dogmas and institutions in their search for betterment or progress. Thinkers such as Voltaire defended reason and rationalism against institutionalized superstition and tyranny. The belief that there could and should be a change for the better came to be a prominent characteristic of modernity. The critical attitude of enlightenment thinker to contemporary social and political institutions paved the way for scientific studies of political and social studies and subsequent evolution of better forms of such institutions. The scientific revolution during the period, culminating in the work of Isaac Newton, presented a very practical and objective view of the natural world to people at large, and science came to be regarded very highly. Scientific inquiry was gradually extended to cover new social, political and cultural areas. Such studies were oriented around the cause-and-effect approach of naturalism. Control of prejudice was also deemed to be essential to make them value free. Enlightenment thinking emphasized the importance of reason and rationality in organization and development of knowledge. The gradual development of the scientific temperament with a paradigm change from the qualitative to the quantitative is also very evident in Europe of the time. People came to believe that they could better their own lot through a more scientific and rational approach to everything. The concept of universalism which advocated that reason and science were applicable to all fields of study and that science laws, in particular, were universal, also grew roots during the period. People began to believe in change, development and progress – all basic tenets of modernity as we know it today. Autonomy to decide for their own good, gave the people the right to choose the form of authority that could lead them as a society or community towards a better future and progress. This opened the doors to the emergence of states with separate and legally defined spheres of jurisdiction. Thus we find that modernity represents a transformation – philosophical, scientific, social, political and cultural – at a definite time in history at a definite spatial location. This transformation also represents a continuum up to the present in so much so that its basic principles are inherent in the societies and nations of today. The period of enlightenment can be seen as one of transition from the ‘traditional’ to the ‘modern’ forms of society, from an age of blind beliefs to a new age of reason and rational. Different Perspectives on development of Modernity Different political and philosophical thinkers have however developed different, and sometimes contradicting, theories of the development of modernity. Friedrich Hegel and Karl Marx are two of the leading thinkers whose theories run counter to each other. For Hegel, the development of modernity was a dialectical process which was governed by the increasing self-consciousness of what he termed as the collective human ‘mind’ or ‘spirit’. According to Hegel, the dialectic process of development of the mind comprised three stages, with two initially contradicting positions synthesizing into a third reconciled position. Human beings live what Hegel called an ‘Ethical Life’ or in a social environment shaped by customs and traditions. This ethical life has three stages: the first is the family, which is dissolved in due course, the second is the ‘civil society’ that a person builds up as a result of his social interactions beyond the family and greater relations, and finally the third stage of the ‘state’ which Hegel defines as the highest form of social reason. For Hegel therefore, the formation of the modern state is the mark of modernity when human beings achieve the ultimate stage of social existence. Hegel believed as individuals or families, human beings are too selfish and self-centered co-exist in harmony and work for development. It is the state that is able to integrate the contradictions of different individuals, and not market forces. Since the state by itself is composed of political institutions, Hegel’s theory equates the development of the modern state or modern political institutions with modernity. Marx took a completely opposing view, when he asserted that material forces drive history. For him the state by itself is not an ideal entity for the integration of human beings into a cohesive whole for their development as a nation or a society. According to him it is the material forces comprising social and economic forces that drive history towards modernity. People engage in production for their means of subsistence, they bind together and form states for the sake of production. Different forms of productions create different class relations. It is to maximize production and gain the maximum benefits and advantages that people bond together in different classes in the form of the modern state. The different ways in which production is organized give rise to complex forms of social organization because a particular mode of production is an entire way of life for the people who are involved in it. For Marx social existence is not consciously determined by human beings, rather, it is the other way round: their social existence determines their consciousness. When there are contradictions between productive forces and the social relationships of production, class conflict arises. For Marx, therefore, modernity is defined by the state of social existence. Marx acknowledges that ‘capitalism has been the most productive mode of production, and it contains the most potential for the realization of human freedom’. This very dynamic characteristic of capitalism is born out of its destructiveness for all traditional social constraints such as religion, nation, family, sex, etc. But it is the same destructiveness and creativeness that creates the experience of modernity in Capitalism. This vital association between capitalism and modernity from none less that Marx himself establishes that the capitalism that evolved after the period of enlightenment in Europe has been acknowledged as the modern era of the period of modernity by Marx. Marx however states that capitalism is exploitative, and because it is exploitative, its full potential cannot be harnessed for the benefit of all. He therefore advocates communism which is a system of planned and conscious production by men and women of their won free will. This brings us to the question whether humanity has already passed through a stage of history that has been termed as modernity, and has moved on to the postmodern era (Mitchell, 2009). Another important point is regarding the placing of modernity. Modernity is understood to be a process that began and ended in Europe, and was later exported to other parts of the world. Thinkers like Marx tend to differ. He saw Capitalism emerge as a ‘rosy dawn’ not in England or the Netherlands but in the production trade and finance of the colonial system (Marx, 1967). Therefore, though the concept of modernity can be defined in various ways, it definitely refers to the process of evolution of the human mind and the society to a point where people were able to come together for their own advantage and benefit and work for unceasing development under a collectively formalized authority such as the nation state. It can also be state with a certain degree of assertiveness that the period from the beginning of the Eighteenth Century to the French Revolution in 1789 actually marked the period of active development of modernity in Europe. The concepts that were nurtured during the period bore fruit immediately afterwards in Europe and the West and later spread to the rest of the world. The world has continued since on very much the same basic principles but with far more advanced technologies and superior social, economic and political approaches. Influence of Modernity on Literature Modernity had a profound influence on literature. As people began to think differently, they also began to write differently. The modernist ideas of religious emancipation, autonomy, reliance on reason, rationality and science, and on development and progress began to find expression in the literature that developed even during the period of enlightenment and thereafter. This new form of literature came to be known as the Modernist Literature. Modernist literature tended to vent expression to the tendencies of modernity. Modernist literature, as also modernist art, took up cudgels against the old system of blind beliefs. Centering around the idea of individualism or the individual mind, modernist literature displayed mistrust of established institutions such as conventional forms of autocratic government and religion. It also tended not to believe in any absolute truths. Simmel (1903) gives an overview of the thematic concerns of Modernist Literature when he states that, â€Å"The deepest problems of modern life derive from the claim of the individual to preserve the autonomy and individuality of his existence in the face of overwhelming social forces, of historical heritage, of external culture, and of the technique of life. † Examples from two Greats A few examples of Modernist literature will serve to make its characteristics more clear. Rene Descartes (1596 – 1650) is considered to be one of the early enlightenment thinkers whose literary works opened the avenues to the modern era. Known as the founder of modern philosophy and the father of modern mathematics, Descartes was a French philosopher, mathematician and scientist whose influence has served to shape the beginnings of Modernist literature. In his famous work, The Discourse on Method, he presents the equally famous quotation ‘cogito ergo sum’ or ‘I think, therefore I am’, which about sums up the very principle of the basis of the modern era. â€Å"I observed that, whilst I thus wished to think that all was false, it was absolutely necessary that I, who thus thought, should be somewhat; and as I observed that this truth, I think, therefore I am (COGITO ERGO SUM), was so certain and of such evidence that no ground of doubt, however extravagant, could be alleged by the sceptics capable of shaking it, I concluded that I might, without scruple, accept it as the first principle of the philosophy of which I was in search† (Descartes, 1637). In this work, Descartes drew on ancients such as Sextus Emiricus to revive the idea of skepticism, and reached a truth that he found to be undeniable. â€Å"Descartes started his line of reasoning by doubting everything, so as to assess the world from a fresh perspective, clear of any preconceived notions. In other words, he rejected man’s reliance on God’s revealed word, placing his own intellect on a higher plain† (McCarter, 2006). David Hume (1711 – 1776) was a philosopher, economist and historian from Scotland, and was considered a notable personality both in western philosophy and of the Scottish Enlightenment movement. In his works, he had a way of projecting the errors of scepticism and naturalism, thus carving out a way for secular humanism. In his most famous work, ‘An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding’, Hume asserts that all human knowledge is imbibed through our senses. He argues that unless the source from which the impression of a certain entity is conveyed to our senses is identified, that entity cannot exist. The logic would nullify the existence of God, a soul or a self. â€Å"By the term impression, then, I mean all our more lively perceptions, when we hear, or see, or feel, or love, or hate, or desire, or will. And impressions are distinguished from ideas, which are the less lively perceptions, of which we are conscious, when we reflect on any of those sensations or movements above mentioned †¦It seems a proposition, which will not admit of much dispute, that all our ideas are nothing but copies of our impressions, or, in other words, that it is impossible for us to think of anything, which we have not antecedently felt, either by our external or internal senses†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Dover Philosophical Classics, 2004) In the same work Hume also postulates two kinds of human reasoning – Relation of Ideas and Matters of Fact. The former involves abstract concepts such as of mathematics where deductive faculty is required, and the later is about empirical experiences which are inductive in nature. This postulate has come to be known as Hume’s Fork. Hume, along with his contemporaries of the Scottish Enlightenment, also proposed that the basis for principles of morals is to be sought in the utility that they tend to serve. This shows the questioning nature of modernist literature not only of religious but also of moral and social norms and values. A very visible influence of modernity is therefore seen in the works of Hume. Present-day Modernist Literature If modernity influenced literature, it also used literature to shift from a philosophical and theoretical domain into the practical lives of people. Modernity could infiltrate into the lives of people through literary works that defined and reiterated the legitimate new modes of classification. Old literary forms with traditional meanings attached to them were reworked, allowing readers to modify or contravene the older meanings. â€Å"This opening-up process allowed readers to glean new meanings that modified or contravened the older ones. In the course of these changes, words, forms, and institutions altered their meaning in British life: they, and the practices they comprised, referred differently†¦. modifying ‘reference potential’ in literature fed back into how readers responded to changes in life†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Rothstein, 2007) In art and literature, many critics view ‘modernism’ as a new trend in the field of art and literature, defined basically by stylistic and structural variations. They would not accept the fact that ‘modernism’, it is basic approach, was the principles of modernity rendered plausible in literature and art. Modernity has always tried to hold up the world in new perspectives. Similarly, modernist literature opens up the world in all its forms – theoretical, philosophical, aesthetical and political – for fresh scrutiny. Even in its present form, modernist literature attempts to break the objective world of the realist. â€Å"Modernist writing †¦ takes the reader into a world of unfamiliarity, a deep introspection, a cognitive thought-provoking experience, skepticism of religion, and openness to culture, technology, and innovation† (Melton, 2010). Modernist literature exhibits a fascination with the workings of the mind, and how reality is reflected by the mind. The questioning of life, with or without the presence of God, is another trademark of the philosophical and theoretical moorings of modernist literature. Charles Darwin’s work challenges God as the Creator and presents the process of natural selection in the survival of life. This led to modernist literature of time travel, of questioning the existence of individuals and the purpose of the universe. Modernism brought about a new openness in the areas of feminism, bisexuality, the family, and the mind. In the world of today, modernist literature still display much of the characteristics of the times in which it first took shape. A very important theme of modernist literature today is a feeling of being alone in the world – a feeling stemming from estrangement or alienation. Characters are often presented as being depressed or angry. A second common trait is that of being in doubt. â€Å"It may be disbelief in religion, in happiness, or simply a lack of purpose and doubt in the value of human life. Finally, a third theme that is prevalent is a search for the truth† (Foster, 2010). Then there is a third theme in which the alienated character is always in the search for truth and seeks answers to a plethora of questions relating to human subjectivity. In all these characteristics are to be found the same questioning nature, the same denouncement of blind beliefs and the same dependence on reason and rationality that the Eighteenth Century enlightenment thinkers had pursued. The character is alienated and estranged because he or she questions all that is deemed not right by his or her own mind; the character questions the beliefs of religion and other institutions which are not based on reasoning; and finally the character seeks answers and the truth. â€Å"Modernist literature encompasses the thematic fingerprints of a rebellious, questioning, disbelieving, meditative, and confident type of form, which was conceived out of a change in the belief of humanity, the mind, a God, and the self brought on by the shift from capitalism to an ever-increasing society of revolutionary changes† (Melton, 2010). References Descartes, R. , 1637, The Discourse on Methods. Dover Philosophical Classics, 2004, David Hume, An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding, Dover Publications Inc. Foster, J. , 2010, Modernism in Literature and History, Available: http://www. helium. com/items/743749-modernism-in-literature-and-history Karl Marx, 1967, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, 3 vols. , New York: International Publishers, 1:703. McCarter, J. , P. , 2006, Literature of the Modern Era, The Puritans’ Home School Curriculum. Melton, L. , 2010, Modernism in Literature and History, Available: http://www. helium. com/items/809291-modernism-in-literature-and-history Mitchell, T. , 2000, The Stage of Modernity, Available: http://www. ram-wan. net/restrepo/modernidad/the%20stage%20of%20modernity-mitchell. pdf Rothstein, E. , 2007, Gleaning Modernity, Earlier Eighteenth Century Literature and the Modernizing Process, Rosemont Publishing and Printing Corp. , Associated University Presses. Simmel, G. , 1093, The Metropolis and Mental Life.

The Great Gatsby Essay

The Great Gatsby Essay Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby as a satire that comments on American ideals in the 1920s. He shows the carelessness of everyone during the time by portraying them in the community of East and West Egg. Fitzgerald conveys two different themes throughout the story. One is the American Dream is corrupted by the desire for wealth and the other is the Attainment of a dream may be less satisfying than the pursuit of it. He uses those themes to show how The Great Gatsby is a satire of American Ideals. The American dream is life should be better and richer and fuller for one. This dream is corrupted between the relationship of Gatsby and daisy. Daisy is the symbol of all that Gatsby strives for; her voice is full of money, as Gatsby describes it. Her voice was full of money-that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals song in it (Fitzgerald 120). She can be interpreted as a twentieth-century flapper because she ensnares men with her husky, mysterious voice. Gatsby became so enamored by her voice that he based all of his actions on winning Daisy over. Her voice contains the promise of vast riches. However, Gatsby is too late to realize that money is the only thing her voice promises. There is no compassion in Daisy, just as there is none in cold, hard cash. Daisys dream is corrupted by wealth because she is caught up with Toms wealth and Gatsbys wealth. Daisy and Toms marriage is further proof of the collapse of the American dream. Although they belong to the West Egg social group and have extreme wealth, they are unhappy. Tom is first described as one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterwards savours of anti-climax (Fitzgerald 6). Tom and Daisy are both in unsatisfied with life and are searching for something better. They have traveled to France and drifted here and there unrest fully wherever people were rich and played polo together (Fitzgerald 6). They are unhappy and bored with life. Tom seems to be searching for the excitement that he found in playing football in college, and he finds an outlet for his dissatisfaction by cheating on his wife with Myrtle. Once again, Gatsby does not see that attaining wealth and power does not equal happiness. The Buchanans marriage is full of lies and infidelities, yet they are united through their corruption. After Tom has discovered Daisys infidelity and Myrtle has been killed, their callous selfishness is revealed when they are reunited over fried chicken and two bottles of ale (Fitzgerald 145). They instinctively seek out each other because each recognizes the others strength in the corrupt spiritual element they inhabit. After Myrtle and Gatsby are both killed, neither one of the Buchanans sends their regards or seem remorseful. In fact, they go on a short vacation, which is an indication of the lack of compassion they have toward others. There was no love for anyone. All people cared about was wealth and parties. Nick perceives Tom and Daisy as they really are, heartless and careless. They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made (Fitzgerald 179). Tom and Daisys actions are an indication of the detrimental and emotionally numbing effects that wealth can have on someone. They focus too much on appearance and things of monetary value, while ignoring peoples feelings and lives. Jordan Bakers plans are also negatively impacted by the corruptive qualities of wealth. Although Nick is attracted to Jordans bored, jaunty, careless air at first, he finally understands that it conveys her profound disregard for other peoples feelings. Jordan supports Daisy having an affair, because Daisy ought to have something in her life (Fitzgerald 79). She sees Gatsby as something, not someone. Jordan also has a reputation for being dishonest and for being a gossip. She was involved in a golf tournament scandal in which she was accused of moving her golf ball to her advantage. Jordan belongs to the East Egg social group because of her careless, dishonest ways. She serves as a hint as to the true nature of the people from East Egg. Jordan may also be an indication of the types of people that Gatsby entertains, since she attends his parties. She is similar to many of his partygoers in that she exploits his hospitality yet never shows any genuine kindness toward him. It is very te lling that Gatsbys house is full of people throughout the entire summer, yet when Gatsby dies, no one attends his funeral except Nick and Gatsbys father. The shallow acquaintances of Gatsby were never his true friends-the only used him for his lavish generosity. The countless people who attend his parties, ride on his hydroplane and in his car, and drink his alcohol are nowhere to be seen when the time comes to pay their respects for him. The theme of the pursuit of a dream is more satisfying than attaining the dream itself repeats itself throughout the book. Gatsbys dream was to get Daisy. We see this repetition of a green light though out the story. Every time Gatsby looked at Daisys house Fitzgerald mentioned the green light. Fitzgerald compares Gatsbys green light to the green breast of the new world (Fitzgerald 180), comparing Gatsbys dream of rediscovering Daisy to the explorers discovery of America and the promise of a new continent. However, Gatsbys dream is tarnished by his material possessions, much like America is now with our obsession with wealth. Gatsby wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to tom and say: I never loved you (Fitzgerald 109). Gatsby tried and tried to get Daisy to think she never loved Tom but the truth was that she did love him. The pursuit of the dream was more satisfying for Gatsby than actually attaining it. He threw parties just to hope she would come and he would be a ble to see him. He became rich so he could impress her with nice things. If Gatsby truly got Daisys heart they would end up doing the same thing as Tom and she normally do. In the end they will have the same dinner fried chickenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦and two bottles of ale (Fitzgerald 145) and it would get old and then they would end up having an affair with other people around town like nothing ever changed. On the surface, Fitzgeralds novel may appear to be just a shallow novel about the jazz, parties, and glitz that he experienced in the early twentieth century. After closer examination, however, it is apparent that The Great Gatsby is a profound social commentary on the corrupt and disillusioning effects that materialism can have on members of society. We also learn that in the end attaining your dream is not as fun as trying to get it. Fitzgerald did write a satire that showed the ideals of the 1820s.

McCain vs. Obama :: John McCain Barack Obama

The 2008 democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and the republican presidential nominee John McCain are both very well political speakers when it comes to the presidential election, but have certain issues that they differ on. To name a few issues are abortion, economy, same sex issues, taxes, and the war in Iraq. Which ever presidential candidate becomes elected this year, it will be a year to make the history books. If Barack Obama becomes elected he will be the first black president of the United States and if John McCain becomes elected his running mate Sarah Palin will be the first ever woman Vice President in America. It will truly be an interesting and history-making race for future generations to study. Barack Obama is forty-seven years old and born on August 4th 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii (obama-mccain.info). John McCain is seventy-two years old and born on August 29th 1936 in the Panama Canal Zone where his mother and father, both naval officers, were stationed (obama-mccain.info) Both their family roots have a bit of Scottish and Irish, but Obama’s ancestry also includes the Cherokee Indians and Lueo people of Kenya. John McCain graduated in Episcopal High School in Virginia and then went on to the United States Naval Academy in 1958 (obama-mccain.info). Barack Obama went to many different schools up through high school but then attended Occidental College in Los Angeles for two years then went to Columbia University in New York for political science. He then continued school at Harvard University and graduated in the top ten percentile of his class. When Obama was interviewed about his grades in school he simply replied with, â€Å"Graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and a D in 8th grade French† (obama-mccain.info). Differences in both presidential candidates begin to arise most when you look at their military service and religious backrounds. John McCain is Episcopal whereas Barrack Obama belonged to the United Church of Christ for twenty years. Obama’s resignation from this church followed many offensive comments by his reverend. Obama also has no military experience while John McCain has had Naval aviator training, attended the United States Navy from 1958-1981, served in Vietnam, and was awarded numerous times for his achievements. Both contenders have had much experience in politics nevertheless. They have been senators at one time in their lives and each candidate has superb charisma and speaking talents.

Comparison Essay on “Dead Souls” and “Taras Bulba”

I. The great achievement of prose of the XIX century (from the 1840s to the 1890s) was Russian Realism, which is represented by many great Russian writers and Nikolai Gogol is not the last in this list. It is often mentioned that after 1830 Pushkin turned more and more to prose, although being the greatest poet of the time. However, the writer who established really innovating novelistic and narrative tradition in Russian literary culture was Gogol. Gogol's example, combined with the authoritative literary pronouncements of the greatest literary critic of the period, V. G. Belinsky, proved prose to be the literary medium of the future. Later, the great Russian novelist   (and not the worst philosopher of religious thought) Dostoevsky have said, referring to himself and his fellow Realists, â€Å"We have all come out from under Gogol's â€Å"Overcoat†Ã¢â‚¬  (meaning the famous story by Gogol, â€Å"Shynel† or Overcoat).Vladimir Nabokov highly esteemed Gogol as a grea t Russian (in no case Ukrainian, he is sure, in spite of the fact that Nikolaj Gogol-Ianovski originates from Ukraine, Mirgorod, and his world outlook is obviously marked by Ukrainian national tradition) novelist, dramatist, satirist, and founder of the so-called critical realism in Russian literature, best-known for his novel â€Å"Mertvye Dushy† (1842, Dead Souls). Praising the imaginative power and linguistic playfulness of the writer’s latest works (â€Å"Shynel† or Overcoat, â€Å"Mertvye Dushy† etc), Nabokov states that Gogol is everything but the romantic folklore novelist.Actually, there can be defined two main periods in Gogol’s writing: conservative romantic and vernacular idealism of the Ukrainian past (which we find in Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka and Taras Bulba) and the next evolutionary period of modernistic urban life reflection with all its psychological abnormality and deviations. If to believe Nabokov, in the mature age Gogol was ashamed of the playful artificialness of his early works; and as for the famous Russian critic, it is a dreadful nightmare even to imagine Gogol scribbling Ukrainian folkloristic novels volume by volume†¦ Had he chosen this path, the world would have never heard his name. So, let’s compare these two antagonistic periods of Gogol’s writing corresponding to the most vividly representative works of his: â€Å"Taras Bulba† and â€Å"Dead Souls†.II. Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka, the book of Ukrainian folklore stories, which appeared in 1831-32, was Gogol's breakthrough work (Gogol had greatly admired Pushkin, and he used in this work the same narrative device as Pushkin did in his Tales of Belkin). It showed his skill in mixing fantastic and demonic ideas of his people with macabre, and at the same time he said something crucial about the Russian and Ukrainian (ignoring Nabokov’s imperialistic snobbism, it is important to mark Gogol’s Ukrainian roots) character.After failure as an assistant lecturer of world history at the University of St. Petersburg (1834-35), Gogol became a full-time writer. Under the title Mirgorod (1835) Gogol published a new collection of his stories, also inspired by Ukrainian vernacular culture, beginning with â€Å"Old-World Landowners†, which described the decay of the old way of life.The book also included the famous historical tale (poem in prose) â€Å"Taras Bulba†, which according to many literary critics showed the influence of W.Scott and L.Stern. However, it is rather ignorant not to take into account the original Ukrainian novelistic tradition, which is widely based on folklore (Gulak-Artemovski, Kvitka-Osnovjanenko and many other writers of Ukrainian romanticism are evidently folkloristic). The protagonist of â€Å"Taras Bulba† is a strong, heroic character, absolutely non-typical for Gogol’s later cavalcade of bureaucrats, lunatics, swindlers, and losers, numerously represented on the pages of â€Å"Dead Souls†.In 1569, dominion over the right-coast Ukraine passed to Poland.   The Polish lords (lyahy) promptly tried stamping out Ukrainian culture by savagely exploiting the peasantry, outlawing the Ukrainian language and imposing Catholicism (Unia) and Papal supremacy on the Orthodox population.   In response, Ukrainian male peasants flocked to join the military groups known as the Cossacks. They founded the Zaporizhian Sitch on the Hortycya Island.The Cossacks, essentially a wild cross between mercenary crusaders and highwaymen,  became the focus of resistance to the Poles, the Turks and the Crimean Tatars. Gogol’s novel tells the story of the old and wise warrior Taras Bulba who, with his sons Ostap and Andrij, sallies forth to join the Sitch. Gogol's incontestably romantic adventure was as much a propaganda piece for his own time as an elegy for a way of life that had passed.   In â€Å"Taras Bulbaâ⠂¬  we meet conservative Gogol, who has just arrived to Petersburg and is not yet sophisticated in the city life. He is shocked by the corruption and moral decay of the city dwellers. He craves for the Golden Age of his people’s history and this age, he thinks, was the glorious times of the Zaporizhian Sitch.â€Å"Taras Bulba† is a remarkable example of the early romantic Gogol (if to call Gogol the writer’s texts). However, this novel works on both levels (historical and pshycological, more typical for the later Gogol’s works) and is surely one of the most exciting masterpieces in world literature.  Set sometime between the mid-sixteenth and early-seventeenth century, Gogol’s epic tale recounts both a bloody Cossack revolt against the Poles (led by the bold Taras Bulba of Ukrainian folk mythology) and the trials of Taras Bulba’s two sons.As Robert Kaplan (translator) writes, â€Å"[Taras Bulba] has a Kiplingesque gusto . . . that makes it a pleasure to read, but central to its theme is an unredemptive, darkly evil violence that is far beyond anything that Kipling ever touched on. We need more works like Taras Bulba to better understand the emotional wellsprings of the threat we face today in places like the Middle East and Central Asia.† (Jane Grayson and Faith Wigzell; p.18). And the critic John Cournos has noted, â€Å"A clue to all Russian realism may be found in a Russian critic’s observation about Gogol: ‘Seldom has nature created a man so romantic in bent, yet so masterly in portraying all that is unromantic in life.’(The Rise of Prose: Nikolai Gogol).But this statement does not cover the whole ground, for it is easy to see in almost all of Gogol’s work his â€Å"free Cossack soul† trying to break through the wall of gloomy and non-heroic ‘today’ like some ancient demon, essentially Dionysian. So, through the years, this novel sounds at once as a reproach , a protest, and a challenge, ever calling for joy, ancient joy, that is no more with us. This wide interpretation lies far beyond previously often-uttered accusation of vernacular populist romanticism.Nikolai Gogol searched for the joy and sadness in the Ukrainian songs he loved so much. Ukrainian was to Gogol the language of the soul, and it was in Ukrainian songs rather than in old chronicles, of which he was not a little contemptuous, that he read the history of his people. So, here in this novel the writer’s intention is not the historical but rather the psychological picture of his people. Hence no one (even Nabokov) has the right to accuse Gogol of Ukrainian culture profanation as if following the modern literary trend of his time.Indeed, so great was his enthusiasm for his own land that after collecting material for many years, the year 1833 finds him at work on a history of ‘poor Ukraine’, a work planned to take up six volumes; and writing to a friend at this time he promises to say much in it that has not been said before him. However, Gogol never wrote either his history of Little Russia (Malorosiya) or his universal history, he didn’t become Ukrainian Balzac but is often called Ukrainian Goffman or Poe.Apart from several brief studies not always reliable, the result of his many years application to his scholarly projects was this brief epic in prose, Homeric in mood (The Rise of Prose: Nikolai Gogol). The sense of intense living, ‘living dangerously† – to cite Nietzsche – the recognition of courage as the greatest virtue, the God in man, inspired Gogol, living in times which tended toward grey monotony, with admiration for his more fortunate forefathers, who lived in a poetic time, when everything was won with the sword, when every one in his turn strove to be an active being and not a spectator. In â€Å"Taras Bulba† we find the people of action, and â€Å"Dead Souls† gives us the gallery of people of things.Russia! Russia! I see you now, from my wondrous, beautiful past I behold you! How wretched, dispersed and uncomfortable everything is about you†¦(Nikolai Gogol)III. Gogol began working on â€Å"Dead Souls† in 1835. The plot and the main idea of the story was suggested to Gogol by Pushkin who seemed to have understood Gogol as a writer quite well. Pushkin felt that the idea of a man travelling all over the Russian Impire buying up the ownership rights to serfs who had died (‘mertvye dushy’) would allow Gogol to make at once the literary success. In fact, it was an opportunity to introduce a multitude of characters, varied settings, mountains of detail, and the scope within which to be able to elaborate the anecdotal story of the work to his heart's content and to reveal all the sins of his contemporary. Gogol had big ideas of becoming a scriptor of his age a sort of Balzac†¦For the next six years, he devoted almost all of his creative energy to â€Å"Dead Souls†. His compulsive craftsmanship is evident in that the entire work was revised at least five times; the author stated that some passages had been rewritten as many as twenty times. He felt that this novel should be his best one.Unfortunately, only the first part of Dead Souls, twelve chapters in all, was completed by Gogol. The second part, as we know it, (some chapters of which are often published with the first part) is a recreation from various sources of what Gogol might have done with the continuation of his work. Influenced by the fanatical priest Father Konstantinovskii, he burned what he actually had already written for the second part of the novel just nine days before his death.The situation from which the novel develops is based upon a scheme which theoretically was possible in Gogol's day. The government had a policy of loaning money to landowners, feeling that this class was its strongest support. Lands owned, however, were meas ured not in acres, but by the number of â€Å"souls† (serfs, or here, mertvye dushy) residing on them. De facto, landowners were serf owners†¦ The government was ready to accept the land (that is, the serfs) of an individual as collateral for a loan. Thus, a method was required by which the holdings of an individual landowner could be established at any given time.This method stated that an individual possessed the number of ‘souls’ recorded as such that belong to him/her in the most recent population census. The census was taken every ten years, which meant that near the end of the ten-year cycle almost every landowner would have some serfs who were not recorded in the preceding census because they had recently been born, and some serfs still recorded even though they had died long ago since the last census. In â€Å"Dead Souls†, the main character, Chichikov, schemes to buy from the serf holders a number of those â€Å"souls† who had died but were still counted as living until the next census.An absurd situation becomes possible: dead souls are sold as being alive people, which ar estil able to work. â€Å"It's cheap at the price. A rogue would cheat you, sell you some worthless rubbish instead of souls, but mine are as juicy as ripe nuts, all picked – they are all either craftsmen or sturdy peasants†, – Sobakievich boasts to his weird buyer (Gogol, Nikolai Vasilievich). Once Chichikov had a number of such souls, he would apply to the government bank for a loan, using the â€Å"souls† as his collateral.With this low-interest loan in hand he would then buy and work an actual country estate, eventually paying back the loan and purchasing living souls to work the land. Well, passing the whole plot, it is imporatnt to state Gogol’s idea of small marginal people actually decaying in their small towns and farms. The Russia of small towns is the country of odd and irreversibly narrow-minded p eople. What Gogol proves is that these small landowners are actually dead†¦ They have burried themselves alive in their dirty stinking flea-bitten houses.Contrudicting the wide-sprea yet contested idea of Gogol’s evolution as a writer, it is possible to say that either completing histoical heroic plot or conveying contemporary decayed society, Gogol’s intention stays the same – to show the depth of a human soul and how this soul can be filled with live brightness of heroism or by dead wickedness and miserable oddity. Bibliography Gogol, Nikolai Vasilievich. Taras Bulba and Other Tales. Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library// http://web.archive.org/web/20080517101149/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/GogTara.htmlNikolay Gogol: Text and Context, ed. by Jane Grayson and Faith Wigzell (1989).N. V. Nabokov: Nicolai Gogol, 1944.The Rise of Prose: Nikolai Gogol// http://lol-russ.umn.edu/hpgary/Russ3421/lesson6.htm

Women Rights in Islam

Women rights in Islam Outline Introduction Background Equal rights of men and women in Islam Social rights .right to get education .right to accept or reject marriage proposal .right to get divers .right to secrecy .right to just treatment in case of polygamy .right to entertain and dine out .right to demand separate house .right to deny doing all the chores of home .right to dress Economic rights .right to Inheritance .right to ownership .right to dowry .right to maintenance (Iddah, child upbringing) .right to seek employment .right to do business Legal and political rights right to be equal before law .right to witness .right to vote .right to work on legal and political positions Conclusion Women rights in Islam Holy prophet (S. A. W) said, â€Å"Among you the most respectable is the one who respects women and the most disrespectable is the one who disrespect the women. † The above instruction of holy prophet (S. A. W) declared the ground of honor and respect for a person i n Deen-e-Islam . Islam gave women an honorable life and ignite the light of rights in her life. Before Islam women were extremely deteriorated by the society.Arabs used to bury their daughters alive, wives were harshly beaten, step mother became legacy of eldest son and the sisters were given as a compensation for any sin of her family. Islam abolished all these dark practices and made the paradise under the feet of mother, guaranteed paradise to a father who brought up her daughters with love, assured paradise to the husband who care her wife and made sisters partners in the inheritance. Today Muslim woman is facing problems not because of lack of her rights in Islam but due to the male driven and illiterate society.Islam promised women respect, honor and safety before and more than any other religion, civilization and moderation. Islam gave women all rights to women before 15 centuries which any one can expect in today’s highly modern world. The sad pages of history only pr esent crying voices and tears of women that break the heart the reader. All the big civilization of their time including Hubsha, Byzantine, Room, Greece, Egypt, China, Hindustan and Arabian Penusiuala ruined the women under the feet of brutality.Those who are claiming themselves the leaders and providers of women rights in today’s world were in fact the real usurper of women rights from centuries. Women In these civilizations struggled so hard and fight for her rights centuries and centuries even than their male dominant leadership never gave them rights until they need them. After the two world wars when men strength became insufficient in forces and in the other fields of life then they brought women out of house and used her for their different purposes on the name of women rights.Let’s have a look on the dates of rights givers as a prove US in 1920,British in 1918,France in 1944,Norway in 1907,Sweden in 1921,Belgium in 1919,Japan in 1945,Netherland in 1919 and so o n. Whereas Islam gave all social, economical, political and legal rights to the women long before fifteen (15) centuries. Everyone knows Islam claim that it is a complete code of life. Therefore Islam is not only complete code of life for men it is also complete code of life for women. It gives equal rights to men and women. It is very important for everyone that there is big difference of meaning between the words â€Å"equal† and â€Å"same†.As women and man cannot same physically so there rights can also not same due to their duties but they have equal rights on or the other way. This equal terminology can also be explain by taking a very simple example. There are two students in class one called Saeed scored 4 in economics,3 in political studies and 3 in social studies and another called Sadia scored 2 in economics, 4 in political studies and 4 in social studies. Saeed got (4+3+3)=10 and Sadia got (2+4+4)=10,that shows both Saeed and Sadia scored equal marks that i s total 10 but they score different marks in different areas.It illustrates the real meanings of equal and its similar to the meaning of equal rights of men and women in Islam. If father has more rights and responsibilities economically than women then mother has more rights and responsibilities that balance their rights in all circumstances. For further classifications of women rights in Islam, let’s discuss them under different heads such as social, economic, legal and political. Starting from the social, holy prophet (S A W) said â€Å"Education is mandatory for men and women. † The above hadith does not discriminating gender that means it is not only mandatory for men but also for women.Therefore no body restricts her from getting education. Its her right to get same education as her brother gets. Holy prophet (S A W) said â€Å"You have to get education even its available in China. † Again there is no discrimination of gender in above hadith. If a boy can g et education by traveling long distance then girl can also. She has right to go to school and mosque. If women had right to go to mosque for getting education and offer prayers during the period of holy prophet (S A W) and Caliphate than why not she has this right in today’s modern world. Hazat Ayasha(R.A) was the teacher of 8000 companions and she was expert of history, medicine, hadith, literature and law. Once a lady came to Holy prophet (S A W) and said that she was forcefully married   by her father and she is not happy with her husband, the Holy prophet (S A W)   dissolved her marriage then and there and emphasizes for marrying couples by their consent. Above hadith validating the consent of females before marriage and made it compulsory for all Muslim parents. She can also demand to see the person before her marriage and she can also talk to him in the presence of her legal blood relative.Once hazrat Aysha (R. A) showed desire to see the ongoing circus in the stree t. Holy prophet (S A W) happily replied to her that she can hide herself at the back of holy prophet (S. A. W) and then watch the circus. Aysha(R. A) did this and enjoyed the circus as long as she can stand there when became tired she went back to home. The Holy prophets (S A W) stand there more than an hour for her entertainment. This hadith is highlighting very kind treatment of Holy prophet (S A W) to his wife. It also emphasizes the right of entertainment to women.Some people having wrong perception that Islam binds women in the walls of house and she has no right to come out for any purpose. In fact this is opposite of Islamic teachings. It is also her right that she should be treated with love by her husband. Al-Quran â€Å"You and your wives are dresses of each other. † Therefore it is women right that she should be entertained by her husband. Once Holy prophet (S A W) said to one of his companion â€Å"Why not you get marry so that you can play with your wife and she can play with you. †It is making clear that it’s not matter of disrespect or against the sobriety of men or matter of hummer if he entertains his wife. Dinning out or going out for outing with wife is also encouraged in Islam. It is also women right that she should be taken out by her husband for outing or for dinning. Once an Iranian companion of Holy prophet (S A W) who was a very good cook cooked some food and came to Holy prophet (S A W) house for inviting him. Holy prophet (S A W) asked â€Å"can Aysha (R. A) also come with me. † Because of any reason companion replied† no she can’t. † Holy prophet (S A W) also replied â€Å"then I also cannot†.Companion invited Holy prophet (S A W) three times and got same answer from the Holy prophet (S A W) . At last companion said â€Å"yes she can also come with you† then Holy prophet (S A W) accepted invitation and brought her for dinner along him. Therefore bringing wife to dine out i s not only encouraged but also SUNNA of Holy prophet (S A W). In addition, to demand separate house for living is also right of wife from his husband. If she does not like to live with the family of her husband then she has complete right to live with her husband in a separate place. Many cruel of our male driven society are considering this right against their ago.So often instead of fulfilling this true right of wife they give diverse or beat their wives for forcefully living with their family like a servant which is completely against Islamic teachings. Furthermore, Islam is not binding women to cook food to do crockery or to wash clothes of her husband. If she refuses to do all this then its not making her guilty in the eyes of almighty ALLAH. But yes, she might be very guilty in the eyes of her husband who brings her for doing all these services for him. Many of Muslim women love to do all these services for their husbands, so their husbands must be thankful for their wives.Sub sequently, human being is used to make mistakes. So if there is any conflict arises between husband and wife then husband needs to resolve it first only by consulting her wife. In case matter could not solved by both of them then they need to bring any other family member for consultation. Secrecy is also immensely important for the matrimonial relation of couple. It is duty of husband to keep all secrets of bed relation with her wife. Holy prophet (S A W) said, â€Å"The person who shared his wife bed relations with anybody, he is the worst man and he cannot get even the smell of paradise. Similarly, when conflict between husband and wife became bone of contentions and seems unsolvable. In this case if wife no more wants to live with her husband then she has right to get diverse. In case husband is not willing to give diverse she can consult court for getting diverse. Further, in case of polygamy Islam teaches full justice, equal and fair treatment to all waives. Practically this is very hard for a men to keep completely fair balance between all wives therefore it is highly recommended if he is not strong enough financially, physically and morally then he should not gets married even with a single woman.If anyone has more than on wife and he could not maintained just and fair treatment among all wives then he is severely treated by almighty Allah at the Day of Judgment. Adding to it, growing age of fashion makes many minds ultra modern. Now husband wants to look his wife as a model and he forced her to wear dresses according to fashion. In this case Muslim women has right to wear all these dresses which are according to Islamic dress code while going out of house. If her husband forced her to do so she can refuse to her husband to wear any vulgar dress which is against the teachings of Islam.Allah almighty knows all strength and weaknesses of his creatures. He made women physically very sensitive and weak than man. Therefore he shifted all the financial burd en of women on men’s shoulder. When she is daughter she is duty of her father. If father died she becomes duty of her brother. When she is wife she is duty of her husband and when she is mother she is duty of her son. In this way she can live her life very comfortably and can take care of house easily. God assigned all the financial requirements of women as a duty of men but even then he does not make women empty hand in economical rights.Before Islam there was no concept of inheritance for women. Islam gave right to women in the inheritance. Women have half of the part as men have in parent’s properties. This does not mean she has half right than man. But as it is mentioned above she does not have any financial responsibility to fulfill as the men have. Therefore she can save or invest her part of the property for her future and making profit. It is also very clear in Islam that her husband can demand a single penny from her wife and she not bound to give anything to anybody. In addition to she can buy property on her own name as a legal person.She can possess property without anybody’s interference. She has complete right on her property as she can sale it, rent out it and can give it to anyone as a gift. Furthermore, wife has right to get dowry from her husband before establishing matrimonial relations. Husband is bound to give her wife dowry at the time of marriage. When Allah almighty created Eve (R. A) for Adam (R. A) . Adam (R. A) was attracted towards Eve (R. A) and wanted to touch her. At that time Allah almighty said to Adam (R. A) that He should not touch her without paying her dowry. One more thing needs attention here that Islam did not fix any maximum limit of dowry.Husband can give whatever maximum he can give to his wife. In region of Hazrat Ummer(R. A) he forward a bill in the parliament for fixing the maximum limit of dowry. That bill was challenged by a female parliamentarian and she said nobody can fix the maximum limit of dowry if Allah himself did fix it. Hazrat ummer(R. A) asked her that why it couldn’t be fixed. She quoted the holy Quran â€Å"If husband gave her wife bundles and bundles of wealth as dowry even then he cannot demand anything after diverse. † Hazrat ummer (R. A) said that she is right and today men made a mistake and women corrected him.Subsequently, maintenance is also on the shoulder of men at her stages of life. Father, brother, husband and son has to give her food clothes and other needs of life respectively. Holy prophet (S A W) said, â€Å"Anyone who brought her daughters with full care and then merry them. He is as close to me as my two fingers. † Maintenance of x-wife is also husband responsibility during the period of Iddah. Some of Islamic scholars agreed that husband has to fulfill his x-wife’s maintenance until her second marriage. In case if any childe from her x-husband then it is also responsibility of child’s father.Moreover, s he has right to seek employment. If she wants to do a job and if society needs her then Islam give her full right to seek employment. But if she doesn’t want to do the job then nobody can force her to seek employment. Similarly she has the right to do business and to trade things in order to earn finance. Hazrat Khadija(R. A), Wife of Holy prophet (S A W) said, was the famous business lady at that time. Apart from social and economic securities in Islam, women have also legal and political securities. In the eyes of law she is as legal person as a man. she can be witness but her witness is half of man.It is not because she has half right as an human but due to her sensitive and shy nature. In fact God made her half responsible than man in all legal witnesses. Similarly she has right to vote from first election of Islam. After the election result of hazrat usman(R. A). Hazrat usman(R. A) and hazrat Ali (R. A) got equal votes. Therefore Hazrat abur Rahman bin Auf was appointed as a chief polling agent and assigned the task to get votes of men and women. He did this work three days and ultimately hazrat usman (R. A) elected. Above event proved that women were having the right to vote from the beginning of Islam.Adding to it, women used to work at different legal positions from the start of Islam. During the period of Holy prophet (S A W) women worked in different sectors such as in wars and in hospital. Hazrat Ummer (R. A) appointed hazrat Shifa(R. A)as an administrator and account officer for the market. Hazrat Usman(R. A) made hazrat umm-e-kulsoom an ambassador and sent her to Room. Women has right to be consulted as other family members have right to be consulted. Many people believe that it is folly to act or listen women advise in fact they themselves are disbelievers and unaware to the sunna of Holy prophet (S A W).At the event of Hudabiya Holy prophet (S A W) have consulted hazrat umm-e-Salma and acted on her advice to move on. By summing up the who le discussing it can be said that Islam is the first sun that embrace women with light of all social, economical, legal and political rights before 15 centuries. It is very unjust if anybody is blaming Islam for the present state of suppresses women. In fact it is not Islam to be blamed it is because of forgetting the teachings of Islam. In khutaba hijtul Weda, the Holy prophet (S A W) said, â€Å"O, people fear from Allah in the matter of women, treats them carefully and fairly as Islam teaches you. †