Shakespeare’s larger purpose in his characterization of Coriolanus in Act I

Shakespeare, being the masterful, prolific author he is, strategically molded the one main character of the play 'Coriolanus' to seize two diverse identities: one through the body and nature of 'Caius Martius', who was present in the start of Act 1, and the other through 'Coriolanus', who was introduced at the end of Act 1 as a result of a series of events, which purely unveils and affirms Shakespeare's larger purpose of birthing a complex political play, exposing the two frameworks of the play that is the setting of the battlefield versus the city and capitol building, as well as constructing the conflicts of the plot and future visions.

On account of the instantaneous objection of the citizens of Rome on the shortage of corn, a deleterious relationship is set off between the commoners and patricians of the senate, where the immediate social barriers implanted between the lower-class citizens embodied by plebeians, and higher-class figures mainly epitomized by Martius, hatched an imbalance of control over both voices and decisions, consequently birthing a complex political play. The trigger of such imbalance is Martius, in which his harsh, abrupt words towards the plebeians: "What's the matter, you dissentious rogues, that rubbing the poor itch of your opinion, make yourself scabs?" stimulated hate towards him and the burning desire to take him down; political catastrophes emerged due to Martius's deficient political language as well as arrogant character, revealing his lack of verbal control and diplomatic speech.

In the following scenes during the Roman's battle against the Volsces, the honored character of Coriolanus arises to uncover Martius's new status as a demi-god, leader, and hero, consequently creating a contrast from his former image. This is attributable to his singular significant defeat against Aufidius, in which left him with bloody scars as evidence for his bravery and determination to protect Rome. In addition Shakespeare unveils his leader-like qualities as a result of his commands on positioning and strategies to overthrow the Volsces. Moreover, after the battle, Coriolanus grows to become very wise and humble, as he does not ask for a reward; he declared: "But cannot make my heart consent to take a bribe to pay my sword. I do refuse it and stand upon my common part with those that have beheld the doing." Thus, he earns a temporary higher standing in the eyes of the plebeians. Taken as a whole, in comparison to his first identity as Martius, it is evident that Coriolanus is better at welfare than politics as he was able to prove his physical power on the battle field in comparison to his weak political speech and verbal communication in the city capitol. Shakespeare therefore establishes that being physically strong does not make one qualified to lead a country or for Martius's case, the city of Rome.

This disproportion in the identity of Martius instigates the groundwork of the conflict of the plot, as well as foreshadows future events that occur within the play. The conflict is triggered by the attempt of electing of Coriolanus as consul, which is dependent upon the votes of the citizens of Rome. Thus, the plebeians needed to reflect on his ruthless attitude at the start as well as his brave victory of the battle against the Volsces, in order to make the decision. Therefore if both contrasting identities were absent, there would be no conflict because it was the imbalance of qualities that created questioning on whether or not Coriolanus will become consul. The conflict derived from the plebeians revoking their votes because Martius's irresponsibility of words overpowers his heroic victory in the battle. Consequently his failure leads to him joining forces with Aufidius, fighting against Rome, then turning back down, and dying. Additionally, Shakespeare characterized Coriolanus as 'mama's boy', which is shown within act 1, where his mom was his motivation, as she had set goals for him to fight and win battles. This foreshadows that it is his mom that convinces him to retrieve from his partnership with Aufidius, which then leads to his death. Furthermore, due to his weakness in verbal communication Coriolanus also withholds bad acting skills, which this flaw is then passed down within the play when his mother convinces him to pretend to care for the plebeians to obtain their votes. But because he doesn’t have any internal desires to please the common followers and because he was unable to act well and was immediately enraged by the commoners, he failed; this also impacted his collapse of becoming consul, which then led to the following actions of joining forces with Aufidius and then dying. From this, Shakespeare suggests that successful political leaders are good actors.

Hence from Shakespeare's characterization of Martius's contrasting identities that withhold opposing qualities, greater drives are targeted within the play that in fact impact the conflicts and future events of the plot, construct the diverse settings, as well as establish its genre as a political play.

" I suggest that we may learn from spaces of silence as well as spaces of speech..."

Text: http://www.wright-house.com/ac/papers97/Gilbert-Manning-Paper.html

Written by Fenix A. Gilbert-Manning in 1997 for a conference facilitated by an instructor for the advocates for the children program, part of the College Park Scholars community at the University of Maryland, college park, this paper greatly demonstrates one of bell hook's quotes that states: " I suggest that we may learn from spaces of silence as well as spaces of speech, that in the patient act of listening to another tongue we may subvert that culture of capitalist frenzy and consumption that demands all desire must be satisfied immediately, or we may disrupt that cultural imperialism that suggests one is worthy of being heard only if one speaks in standard English…"

Despite the prefabricated reputation that the United States proudly grips for retaining and sheltering a wide-range of populations, historically it has built a linguistic wall that bears the weight of their national identity, while blocking the languages and dialects of others, therefore excluding diversity. This encompasses the use of "Standard English".

"Standard English" is the designated label that communicates the 'correct' and widely accepted form of the English language; and if not used, this linguistic wall acts as a barrier for other languages to be heard or even acknowledged; African Americans have greatly suffered from this, leading to the birth of controversies of their language, that is Black English; in spaces of silence from the African Americans, Americans used racial classification in the naming of their "language" - Black English. As a result, in the 1970s within spaces of speech from the African Americans, an alternate stamp: African American Vernacular English (AAVE) was given, which provides recognition as a separate language that holds great worth and value. 

However due to the Americans' ignorance regarding the presence of African Americans and their language, the development of Black English was bumpy and rather harsh. As mentioned in the paper, the deficient theory, in which proposes that "the brains of minority children are lacking a quality that makes them unable to speak Standard English" supports that from these 'spaces of speech' as well as 'spaces of silence' from the African Americans, the Americans assumed that they were attempting to speak the broken version of the Standard English. If only the speakers of 'Standard English' had the patience to listen to African Americans' way of speaking, they would recognize that they have a distinct language that is in their eyes their own 'Standard English' or standard way of speaking.

Another controversy is the unfair placement of black students within special education programs, resulted from the teacher's personal judgement, believing that they have learning disabilities; however they only respond to questions in a form of English that the teacher would not understand. This causes trouble for the black students as the unexpected and unnecessary placement into these programs limits their abilities to learn, while confining them from expanding their knowledge. Therefore within spaces of speech, this was proven wrong by the black student that made the local news, who was an honour roll student that spoke Standard English at home and school. Teachers are impatient, and if only patient in the act of listening to AAVE or in fact any black student, would learn that they are worthy of being heard despite the use of Non-standard English. This marks the acceptance of AAVE by the users of Standard English as well as the disruption of cultural imperialism. Also, AAVE should not mark societal level, as there are also no general consensus on how to deal with AAVE on a societal level. Therefore this subverts the culture of capitalist frenzy and consumption that demands all desire must be satisfied immediately, as AAVE completely breaks such belief.

Speaking In Tongues

What is the value of preserving indigenous languages? 

The significance of indigenous languages is resembled through a plant, where the firm, green stem is the native language, that if constantly watered by its people in the means of care and attention, will grow to form many connected branches, in which embody the language's culture, customs, religion, identity, and community. Therefore, when this stem is standing strong as a result of constant maintenance, so will the language's culture, people, religion, customs, and identity.

These indigenous languages established linguistic bases that many other languages followed, enabling communities to share religions, cultures, and traditions through their means of communication. The language of aboriginals, lift whole communities, while securing their existent cultural connections as well as spiritual traditions. When one's indigenous language is preserved, their identity is positively affirmed.

If this valuable stem was not maintained through its people attention and use, the linked branches will perish and this strong connection between the native language and its culture, traditions, and religion is broken, causing the loss of their traditional background that one community once shared.

Securing and preserving the languages of the aboriginals is also necessary not only to uphold culture and identity, but to preserve their rich vocabulary used within the natural world. The ancient languages of the aboriginals once formed strong interactions with the natural world, in terms of ecosystems, animals, plants, and the wilderness, that is nature. In addition medicinal terminology is described through the words of the indigenous languages, and these words have no translations in other languages. This is very much key to the scientific world, as certain discoveries have been made through the indigenous languages that scientists still haven’t discovered.

Taken as a whole, the value of preserving indigenous languages is shown through its effective response of strengthening individual communities, as well as preserving cultural diversity, which is necessary in maintaining a varied, intricate, and intriguing world.

YouTube Stars - Are they being exploited or empowered?

I certainly believe that YouTube, the most popular video-sharing service at the moment, is a source of empowerment for ordinary people that start posting videos at a young age out of their pure interests in 'broadcasting themselves' and sharing their unique content to the public. If unexpectedly views accumulate, an excessive amount of likes are collected, and many positive comments are received, a huge rush of self-determination is experienced that will enable them to continue to represent their interests, acting on their own authority. The small percentage that become YouTube famous for the most part did not have intentions of becoming 'stars' and globally well-known. Therefore once hitting that victorious and thriving mark, they are in a state of amazement, disbelief, and shock, in which boosts their self-esteem and self-worth to continue, as a result energizing them. Dug within their videos are deep roots of themselves and their interests, and as a result they attract certain audiences that encompass similar passions; the birth of a new community is present, and with much support from YouTube, simply empowers the current 'stars'.

Despite the presence of hateful comments, there are many loved ones, which is a vital driving factor for the YouTuber to upload and continue to expand. Consequently, appreciation is shown in the eyes of the stars to their subscribers and YouTube 'family'; a strong connection is existent between the audience and the YouTuber, in which again emancipates the ordinary person behind the camera. Resultantly, tours arise, merch is created for the subscribers to purchase, and fandoms are formed. This continuously energizes the YouTuber from within and motivates them to continue their journey of success. Some YouTubers, who start a channel due to their hunger for fame and money wind up being unsuccessful as there is no connection being drawn with their audience, causing their channel to shut down with failure.

Roman Atwood, a YouTuber that creates daily vlogs, in which he records his daily life and exposes it to the YouTube world and the public to watch, communicates very much with his subscribers and brings out positivity to YouTube as a whole through his captivating talks and advice. His success was astounding; as the number of subscribers started from 10,000 and rose to 10,000,000 in a matter of years, he was very touched to see such large amount of people watching and enjoying his content. His audience is continuously expanding with no limits, which is a great source of empowerment for him and his family, and in no way shape or form he is being exploited.

Do you think that advertisers have a moral duty to avoid stereotyping people?

Current advertisements take sharp turns for the worse as their source of persuasion for appealing to their global target audience has no pure intentions of educating or informing, but to persuade. These advertisements tend to contain stereotypical components, which refer to the oversimplified creation of generalizations made to a particular group of people, thus forming labels of in-groups and out-groups, also known as social categorization. Discrimination of certain groups and the impartiality of other groups would hence take place. Moreover, this leads to the degradation of cultural and traditional values of particular racial or religious groups, as well as the instinctive creation of oversimplified false assumptions. Therefore, through constant daily exposure of such advertisements within newspapers, magazines, television, billboards, and online sources that portray stereotypical thinking, viewers, listeners, and readers would then comprehend the presented conventional message as the most 'correct' or most socially accepted mind-set. Therefore there are definite ethical values that need to come into consideration when creating advertisements. Hence advertisers do have a moral duty of avoiding stereotyping people, as it is their responsibility to send a positive message to global viewers through their advertisements to avoid stereotyping and any other negative outlooks within society. It isn’t worth creating disaster within our small world in order to successfully sell a product. This could be easily done through the use of positive persuasion techniques rather than the negative.

"Her Future Begins on Two Wheels"

The print advertisement, established by Child Fund International publicizes about their new Dream Bike Program. When explicitly analyzing specific components that tie together the advertisement as a whole, it can be said that the persuasive appeals and strong visual content reveal the cultural, social, and historical contexts as well as the values of its production.

With the aim of attracting, persuading, raising awareness, and educating, Child Fund emotionally connects (pathos) with financially stable individuals to get engaged to provide young girls living in impoverished countries with "two wheels" (Dream Bike) as their source of transportation to their path of success. This is specifically aimed to target parents through the immediate need to nurture those young girls that are lacking a safe transportation on their everyday route to school. As a result, they would sympathize and donate to Child Fund. Since girls in India as well as most impoverished countries, are restricted in obtaining their equal rights of having an education due to gender inequality and cultural beliefs on gender roles, this ad fights this catastrophic issue by promoting and guaranteeing a simple solution that young girls could have the potential of accessing a safe pathway to an education through the funding and use of a Dream Bike. It is valuing the rights of women to receive an education, as it is very well-known that within this generation, females face concerning struggles regarding the inequality on their part in comparison to the overpowering males. As a result empowerment towards women are specifically looked upon in comparison to the men that are completely ignored. This is due to the breaking of the stereotype of young Indian girls not prioritizing their right to pursue an education, while men having more rights to get an education, acquire a job, and earn money to financially support the household. This ad therefore promotes that through the simple solution of funding "two wheels", one will be making the greatest difference to India in regards to reviving the girls' dreams and supplying them with a guaranteed path and ride to a successful future.

Recreational Drones

Advertising Pitch

Within the pitch presentation, five main appeals were approached; these include the bandwagon appeal, rational appeal, need for affiliation, need to achieve, and need for aesthetic sensations. They effectively display the fascination of the recreational drone and its positive consequences to attract the target audience, those are the parents that are investing in the recreational drone, and the teenagers that are using the drone. The bandwagon appeal would be managed to add popularity to the drone by featuring a professional camera operator and his son/daughter using the drone, while demonstrating that there is potential for the son/daughter to acquire such skill and interest as the dad while having a great time and capturing memories. This drone is targeted to be initially used for fun, and can then progress to become a hobby, and then could possibly become a profession. Therefore parents and their children wouldn’t want to miss out on this fun and educational experience. Furthermore, exposing the drone's competitors, the go-pro and regular cameras, gives rise to the drone's identity and would therefore show that why would one use a regular camera when you can remotely-control a flying aircraft with a high-quality camera that can capture the beauty of nature and our surroundings while being on ground. Secondly, through the approach of ration, emphasis on the drone's wide range of extraordinary features that include its fast flight speed, lightness, HD camera quality, and remarkable stability, would attract the target audience. Thirdly, the need for affiliation will be approached by suggesting that hobby groups and flying clubs can form within these suburban neighborhoods in New Zealand trigger friendships, and plugging those teenagers into a group is a great way for them to meet other people passionate about flying, while learning how to fly, new techniques, service, and maintaining their aircraft. Fourthly, there would be the need to achieve within the advertising of the drone by giving the teenagers needs to produce high-quality as a result of using such innovative and professional device.  Finally, the need for aesthetic sensations will be focused on by featuring the wonderful views of suburban New Zealand, to grab the attention of young viewers and their parents with the beautiful scenery captured by the drone.  

Three specific persuasive techniques used were Repetition, New, and Rhetorical questions. Repetition will simply cause for the teenagers watching YouTube videos to be continuously bombarded with the drone's advertisement that will result in their interest in purchasing the drone. The second persuasive technique approached is "New"; it is effectively used to show that our product isn’t like any other regular camera or go-pro. It is a new and innovative product that can capture beautiful views from the perspective of a bird, while remotely controlling the aircraft from ground. Rhetorical questions is the third technique approached within the advertisement to impact the teenagers to agree with the speaker within the commercial in regards to answering the obvious questions of wanting to have fun and capture stunning videos. These were believed to be effective as they demonstrated within the advertising video that the drone is new, fun, and simple, and not like any recreational device.

Being aware that our product is based on recreation, this influenced the target audience to be mainly based on teenagers that need entertainment in their lives and are lacking outdoor activity. In addition, since the context included to be in Suburban New Zealand, this provided the approach of placing a camera on the drone to capture beautiful views while practicing outdoor activities. This awareness influenced the overall approach to this activity to be based on exciting the target audience with the extraordinary features of the drone and its aesthetic production of the wonderful views, as this would attract the target audience the most, living within the suburban context.

In regards to the content, more attention should’ve been given to the specific features of the drone, as they were only briefly listed off, without mentioning attractive specifications that could top off the advertisement of the recreational drone. This includes small details. In addition, in terms of preparation, more time should’ve been spent practicing with the group members as a whole, rather than separately practicing and then presenting each part distinctively. As a result, the presentation lacked flow.