The Character of Caliban in Shakespeare’s The Tempest Essays -- Tempes

The Character of Caliban in Shakespeare’s The Tempest Caliban is one of the most interesting of Shakespeare’s characters. For centuries, scholars have puzzled over the meaning and importance of this central character. Who or what is this creature? Is he a man or a beast (Peterson, p.2)? Most of the people who have debated this question take the question itself at face value. Caliban is either a man or a beast. The other characters in the play dismiss him as a "poisonous slave," "savage," and "hag-seed" (Act 1, Scene 2), but that does not mean that the reader must do so as well. Let us take a closer look at Caliban the individual and evaluate the question of his humanity. In the end, I think we will see that Caliban is just as human as the other characters in the play. The first charge against Caliban is his shape. Prospero beckons him come by shouting, "What ho! Slave, Caliban!/ Thou earth, thou, speak!...Come thou tortoise!" Prospero does not even deign to place him among humankind; instead he is called "earth" as if he is part of the very ground-- the dirt that Prospero rules. Later, Trinculo calls him "A strange fish" and Stephano refers to him as a "monster of the isle with four legs." (2,2) Indeed, Caliban is never spoken of without some dehumanizing adjective added to the address. I would, however like to challenge the notion of his ugliness. During Shakespeare's day, there was a very narrow, very specific concept of beauty. For example, a woman was usually considered most beautiful if she was very fair. This showed that she was not exposed to the sun through any type of common labor and thus signified her gentility. To most of Elizabethan England, this concept of beauty was the only concept of beaut... ...ight not all be good ones, are, nevertheless, very human ones. In fact, most of Shakespeare's characters exhibit attributes far worse than Caliban's, yet their humanity is ever called into question. Consider Iago of Othello. Iago exhibited a startling lack of redeeming qualities, yet he was never called a monster. The only reason that Caliban should be called a "monster" lies in the only way he differs from the other characters-- his appearance. It is a shame that, while a modern audiences may question the treatment of Caliban, they do not often question the reason behind it, and by failing to do so, they, along with Prospero become slaves to their own preconceptions. Dale Peterson and Jane Goodall encompassed the lesson that we must learn from Caliban. They said, "By enslaving Caliban, we enslave ourselves. Only when we free Caliban will we free ourselves."

Pseudoscience: Critical Thinking and Author Essay

People often regard the ideas that are generally accepted by the multitudes as â€Å"truths†. However, many of them are not scientifically proven and lack logical and reasonable explanations. According to Saupe’s â€Å"What is Pseudoscience?†, such ideas are called â€Å"pseudoscience†. To be more specific, they are claimed to be scientific, but do not have objective evidence to prove that they are true. If people cannot distinguish between pseudoscience and scientifically proved science, the results would be consequential. False science would lead to the misunderstanding of things and cause people to do things wrongly and might lead to harms and damages eventually. To evaluate if the information is credible, there are some standards; for example, check the credentials of the author, check the credibility of the sources of the information and the relevant sources that the information contains and see if the author has good logics to prove the information ( Saupe, 2005). In the three articles, they all talked about the problems of globalization. They either claimed that globalization benefits the environment or causes harms. Among the three articles, â€Å"Green and Brown? Globalization and the Environment† by James J. Boyce appears to be the most credible. The most obvious indicator is that it comes from a published journal; according to the journal, the author’s credential is clearly addressed. In its thesis, the author examined the assumption that the â€Å"global North is relatively ‘green’ and the global South relatively ‘brown’†. He also argued that the claim of globalization leads to a convergence toward better or worse environmental practices cannot be proved by either theoretical or experimental evidence. To support his arguments, the author explained how it is uneven and what global polarization is. The arguments and the evidence the author used to prove his ideas are very logical and also credible since they are mainly from other peer-reviewed journals. The entire article appears to be reasonable and understandable. Thus, this article is considered to be the most credible one. Just a little bit not as good, the article â€Å"Globalization: Myths and Realities† by Jim Dolmas is ranked behind the previous article. In his article, although he has reliable credential, he did not make good use of facts as empirical evidence. The author explained too much by his own views and ideas, and did not use enough references to support what he said. Though, this is overall a credible enough article since the author’s claims and explanations still appear to be logical and understandable. The least credible article is â€Å"The Environmental Benefits of Globalization† by John A. Charles. First of all, the author does not have credential at all since it only mentioned his name and did not give any other information about such as his title or so. Then, while trying to prove that globalization benefits the environment, he did not use enough credible sources. The sources are also not well cited. Although the author still wrote logical and understandable supporting arguments and statements, they still lack the use of scientifically proved facts. As a result, this article appears to be more pseudoscientific. To give another example of pseudoscience, I believe that most of people have been warned not to eat high cholesterol food, such as seafood and eggs. These foods are bad for health because they cause people to have cholesterol level hike. What makes me concerned about this claim is that I have seen some people in my life who eat a lot of these food everyday but st ill stay in good health. In fact, according to my research, eating food that contains high cholesterol should not be worried like how people are afraid of eating them now. According to Johnson and Ridlen of the University of Illinois, eating foods like eggs actually does a little effects to human cholesterol level. The main reason that people have high cholesterol level is because their bodies themselves lack the ability to regulate the cholesterol in their blood stream. The intake of cholesterol from food is only partial the cholesterol in the bodies. In most of the cases, the overproduction of cholesterol of the body is the leading cause of high cholesterol level. Thus, people should not worry too much about eating eggs and other high cholesterol food if their bodies have good control over cholesterol regulation themselves, and we should not see eating eggs as a demon to avoid in our diet. Pseudoscience exists everywhere in our lives. To obtain the accurate knowledge and true science, we need to observe the world and keep questioning to examine the credibility of information to best avoid pseudoscience. Work Cited Boyce, J. K. (2004). Green and Brown? Globalization and The Environment. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 20(1), 105-128. Charles, J. A. (2004, July 14). The Environmental Benefits of Globalization. Global Envision. Retrieved from http://www.globalenvision.org/. Dolmas, J. (2004, September/October). Globalization: Myths and Realities. Federal Reserve Bank of Dellas, 13-14. Johnson, H. S., & Ridlen, S. F. (2013). Eggs and Cholesterol. Retrieved from University of Illinois Extensions website: http://urbanext.illinois.edu/eggs/. Saupe, S.G. (2005). What is Pseudoscience? Biology Department, St. John’s University, Collegeville, MN 56321.

Racial Prejudice in the Bluest Eye and to Kill a Mockingbird

In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the reader is introduced to the theme of racial prejudice through the experiences of the characters Scout and Jem Finch. The story is told from the perspective of Scout. In Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye, the reader is also introduced to the theme of racial prejudice through the experiences of Pecola Breedlove and Claudia MacTeer. The story is told through the perspective of Pecola Breedlove, and Claudia MacTeer. Both of the novels show different ways of illustrating the same theme. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the reader sees the young and innocent children; Scout and Jem Finch become exposed to the racial prejudices of Maycomb. Scout is not like the typical young girl in†¦show more content†¦People in the African-American community express their self-hatred toward Pecola and degrade her. Pecola’s ugliness has made others feel beautiful, and her suffering has made others feel better about themselves. Pecola is regarded as an ‘ugly little black girl’ who is not worthy of any respect or dignity, and because Pecola continues to live after she becomes insane she serves as a reminder to the town or the ugliness and hatred that they have tried to repress. Claudia’s life is quite different from Pecola’s life. Claudia is a victim of beauty standards, as Pecola is, but Claudia is able to fight back against the standards because she has a stable family life. When Claudia is given a white doll to play with, she despises the doll, and dissects and destroys the doll, and Claudia hates Shirley Temple because Shirley is pretty and white â€Å"I hated Shirley. Not because she was cute, but because she danced with Bojangles, who was my friend, my uncle, my daddy, and who ought to have been soft-shoeing it and chuckling with me. Instead he was enjoying, sharing, giving a lovely dance thing with one of those little white girls whose socks never slid dow n under their heels†(Pg. 19). Claudia is not jaded because when Pecola becomes pregnant with Pecola’s father’s child Claudia tries to come up with a plan to save Pecola’s baby â€Å"We have to do it right, now. We’ll bury the money over by her house so we can’t go back and dig it up, and we’ll plant the