The Bluest Eye :: essays research papers

THE BLUEST EYE The Bluest Eye is a complex book. Substance wise it is a disturbing yet relatively easy read, but Toni Morrison plays with the narrative structure in a way so that complexity is added to the hidden depth of the text. From the beginning to the end of the book, the author takes the reader through a series of point of views that take turns in narrating the story. But by the end of the book, the author leaves the reader unclear on who the actual main character of the book is. Pecola Breedlove, although never the narrator, seems to be the constant victim and equally the main character of the story. Many readers can see the book as a story about Claudia MacTeer, who is the main narrator of the book, but most everything she narrates has a direct tie to Pecola’s life. From the very start, Claudia describes the home environment in which she lives in. That home environment is linked to how Pecola comes to live with them and what affect the two had on each other. Pecola’s presence slightly foreshadows her future longing for blue eyes by showing the great interest she had in Shirley Temple, who was known for being a pretty white girl. Claudia then goes into a series of stories and descriptions of what type of environment Pecola must live in at her own home. She describes the abandoned store in which the Breedlove family lives in and the terrible condition of the furniture, which reflects the type of family the Breedloves are. Whether it was Claudia or another unknown third person narrator, a specific situation is described in a brutal manner of exactly what type of envir onment exists in Pecola’s home. The situation was where Cholly and Polly fight each other with little hesitation or thought, and the brief narration ends with how Pecola is affected by such actions. Claudia’s experiences are even more tied to Pecola’s life through the events that occurred with Maureen Peal. Claudia begins describing Maureen as her own enemy but soon enough Maureen is introduced into Pecola’s life along with the point of view she had upon the ugly child. Maureen was fascinated by Pecola, which represents one of the many characters who looked down upon her. Along with the narration of Claudia and the third person, Cholly and Polly have a significant representation in the story.

Communication via SMS:

The British Journal of Social Psychology published an article in 2007 entitled â€Å"Interacting via SMS: Practices of social closeness and reciprocation†.This paper deals with the sequential structure of communication via short message service (SMS), also known as text messaging, among adults and young adults, aged 25-35 and 50-65.   A collection of 173 SMS exchanges for personal communication, spontaneously composed by participants, was gathered.   Each exchange was photographed from the display of the participant's mobile phone and then analyzed with the approach of conversation analysis.A questionnaire was also administered during the collection procedure. The analysis of the practices organizing the action sequence reveals that exchanges frequently lack openings and closures, show an effort towards reciprocation and use implicit or anticipated actions. Social presence seems then characterized by a sense of constant availability, symmetric commitment and shared underst anding.The article concluded that the sequential structure of mediated communication may give insightful details on the nature of the social presence thereby constituted and may provide a criterion to compare different communication modes (2007).   This paper will attempt to analyze the strength of the evidence presented in this article.Communication via SMS: An Article ReviewThe article entitled â€Å"Interacting via SMS: Practices of social closeness and reciprocation†argues that SMS has developed into a recognizable social place, with its own practices and affordances for establishing social presence and that it is characterized by â€Å"persistency, reciprocation and familiarity† (Spagnolli, 2007).They also found, through conversation analysis that SMS communication is designed around the turn, with very frequent multiple-action turns. The first question one may consider when presented with this article is was this research necessary?   Although not quite neces sary, this research does provide some interesting insights into the ever more popular communication method of text messaging.This research was in supplement to previous research on the same subject.   Some practices of SMS usage are already known, as ethnographic and linguistics studies have been carried out on teenage users.   Some researchers have investigated the communicative setting and its social norms (Grinter & Elridge, 2003).They show that SMS exchanges can be initiated in situations where other modes are forbidden, such as in class or at night, and that their intersection with other activities requires practices of participation management and context messages (Thurlow, 2003).In particular, a group of researchers has collected large numbers of messages and illustrated how SMS writers make the most out of a limited set of the available alpha-numeric characters well beyond the mere use of ‘emoticons’ whose actual rate is often quite low (Ling, 2005).The func tions and topics of an SMS exchange have been categorized and their communicative style identified as a peculiar mixture of morality and writing, spontaneity and care, supporting strategies of self-presentation and linguistic play (Ling, 2005).However, the kind of practice that has been less considered, if at all, is the one responsible for inner structure of an SMS exchange.   That is where this research comes into play.   Since a communicative exchange is a form of interaction conducted through discourse, these practices can reveal important aspects of the social presence created (Spagnolli, 2007).The goal of the research behind this article was to â€Å"investigate the interactional and pragmatic resources that five cohesion to a series of otherwise discrete contributions, and by allowing the sequential organization of these exchanges, create the coordinates along which the encounter is organized† (Spagnolli, 2007).   In contrast to other studies on SMS, which have c onsidered individual messages, this study analyzed each message with reference to the previous and subsequent one in sequence.   It was the exchange of messages that was most important to these researchers.   Another point of originality of this study also relies on the kind of participants involved.   Prior, SMS literature focused on teenagers, who could be considered as ‘core’ users.However, if using this medium is participating in a social place as is argued, then even peripheral users like adults should follow shared practices instead of totally idiosyncratic ones.   Therefore, the researchers chose to study young adults and adults.Next, it is important to determine whether the methods the authors implemented for their research were the proper method and whether they were effective.   According to the authors, given the need for exploring a poorly covered phenom, i.e. SMS exchanges between adults, they looked for natural data, while at the same time, tryin g to collect a fair number of exchanges (Spagnolli, 2007).According to the authors, diaries would have offered a richer, contextualization of the exchanges collected, but they could have also decreased spontaneity during the message exchange and required a more limited number of participants with a longer commitment with the research (Spagnolli, 2007).   Therefore the authors chose to collect 180 exchanges using the following system.They asked people for one series of sent and received messages still present in the memory of their cell phone, regardless of who initiated the exchange, but with the requirement that the series be complete with all messages exchanges (Spagnolli, 2007).   In this way, messages were not composed for the sake of research and the length of the exchanges were naturally defined.   This was very intuitive on the part of the authors as the data they collected was natural and not skewed because of the research method.

Life of a Hoarder - 790 Words

The Hoarders Most of us picture hoarders as crazy single women who don’t have the heart to throw away any container. Hoarders collect materials like newspapers, plastic containers and clothes, all of which are things that can be recycled or disposed of. Hoarding is defined as the acquirement of, and inability to discard worthless items even though they appear to have no value, causing excessive amounts of clutter to impede the livability of his or her home. Hoarding is associated with substantial harmful health risks, economic and social burdens. (Hoardingcleanup.com) An estimated 700,000 to 1.4 million people in the United States are thought to have compulsive hoarding syndrome. (OCFoundation.org) Compulsive hoarding is not just a person who has an overwhelming coin or rock n roll memorabilia. People who hoard may have enormous difficulty throwing anything away such as water bottles, empty boxes, plastic bags, even old magazines in fear that they may use the item in a later time. Their homes are usually fill with items that the rest of the community would call junk. Hoarding behaviors can be caused by psychiatric disorders, but are commonly behaviors in people with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Hoarding has been linked to families with other mental health disorders such as bi-polar, anxiety, depression, and drug use. Compulsion often starts in early childhood and in the early teenage years. In adulthood the compulsion begins to show signs of the severe symptoms.Show MoreRelatedHoarding Research Paper1425 Words   |  6 Pagesexpressions have been replaced with the coined terms: â€Å"hoarder or compulsive hoarding.† What is hoarding? â€Å"Compulsive hoarding is a specific type of behavior marked by acquiring and failing to throw out a large number of items that would appear to have little or no value to others, severe cluttering of the persons home so that it is no longer able to function as a viable living space, and significant distress or impairment of work or social life (Kelly Owen).† In addition to obtaining excessive amo untsRead MoreProfile Essay1466 Words   |  6 Pages1021 Composition 03/09/13 Mike Koran (left) and Doug King (right) â€Å"I’m Doug. And I’m a survivor.† â€Å"I love to have fun! It is in my blood.† Doug speaks this way as if to show signs of life enjoyment behind scarred mental anguish. 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This instinct contributes to our sense of self. What is ‘me’ fuses with what is ‘mine,’ and our ‘self’ consists of what we possess† (Frost and Steketee, pp. 48). It seems that even this brilliant mind, who has been considered the father of AmericanRead MoreThe Connection Between the Little Mermaid and Hoarding Essays959 Words   |  4 PagesMermaid, I think the main character Ariel suffers from disposophbia, also known as hoarding. Obsessive-compulsive disorder/hoarding has always interested me. These people take collecting to an unhealthy level. Ariel is the perfect example of a Hoarder. Hoarding is not currently considered an illness on its own right.  Compulsive hoarding has been treated as symptom or subtype  of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (Cluttergone). About 15% of people with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder reportRead MoreThe American Society For The Prevention Of Cruelty1198 Words   |  5 Pagescommunity are often animal hoarders, over three quarters of hoarders are women. Often, animal hoarding is caused by traumatic experiences like a relationship breakdown or complex grief situations. On average, a hoarder can acquire from forty to hundreds of animals in their home, cats are more likely to be hoarded followed by dogs (Williams 35-39). After time, hoarder’s homes become deteriorated, overrun with feces, urine, vermin, and the smell of ammonia. Regardless of the good hoarders believe they are doingRead MoreThe Marshmallow Test Was An Experiment Devised By Walter Mischel1258 Words   |  6 Pagesexhibit willpower. This test, in essence, tested the ability of a child to exhibit willpower in a tempting situation. Basically, if the child was able to resist the temptation of a treat, they would be able to resist i n other tempting situations later in life. If they proved to be able to resist eating the snack at such a young age, then as the child grew older, they would be able to resist situations that can tempt them. The experiment tested the ability of a young child to display willpower in an alluring