Bad for Teenagers Worldwide Essay Example for Free

Bad for Teenagers Worldwide Essay This research paper mainly deals with how hip-hop music and things that are related to hip-hop are bad for teenagers. Some factors to be found that affect the teenagers are their lyrics or language used, media, clothes integrated, cross-over appeal, gender bias and racism, and the potential of this culture to break ethnic groups in our society. This also tackles some punishments that might be incurred by the youth from the bad effects of hip-hop. The hip hop traditions have pervaded all the rage way of life in an extraordinary manner. While shaped by â€Å"black youth† on the road, the impact of hip hop has turned out to be global. It has undertaken the outer reaches, to the peripheries, and into the communal panel quarters. Even though that the hip hop customs is a probable intense merger of varied populace for the reason that it has its massive traverse attractiveness, it still has its drawback effects. Having its collective influence on teenagers, the concept of hip hop has the aptitude to carry political, societal and trade and industry concerns in the way of life by exposing the public perceptiveness on what is in actuality occurring worldwide and negative aspects on the society and teenagers in particular (Africa Resource Center, Inc., 2007). Language Hip hop in the contemporary time is not similar as it appeared when it started. The precedent hip hop did have a discussion with reference to troubles of existence and music was merely for enjoyment. Different from the earlier period, the present day hip hop confers about subordinates and diversion. Each and every recent hip-hop composition are about the flight of the imagination vivacity as being prosperous, having grandeur, and catching every gorgeous lass, thus altering the standards of living of youngsters. They also influence the teenagers psyche on how to get all these assets aside from rigorously exerting one’s effort in a genuine job. The hip hop lyrics sway them to just vend illegal drugs, filch, and do not be concerned regarding other people. Street verbal communication is broadcasted to the hip hop ethos in the course of rap melody (Williams, 2003). One can perceive the sound of a hip hopper by means of the similar colloquial speech as the African American performers. Irrespective of their civilization, they use words like the word â€Å"nigger† which is one of their most common terms, with some customary belittling connotation of the remark. The rap performers may be revealing narratives of their jagged existence all the way through compositions, however the language used is wreaking the mentality of the listeners, does somehow indoctrinating them, as they tend to take note of the libretto over and over again. The majority of hip-hop music has exaggerated lines to gain lure more interest and sales. Hooligan hit, which shamelessly portrayed fugitive demeanor in the metropolitan, became prevalent. Media The channel of hip hop give the impression of being awfully accommodating of this kind of song and facilitates performers a great deal for their endorsements. Countless television programs have been allotted to hip hop. New-fangled records are constantly publicized on small screen. In point of fact, radios are also enormously especially significant for the progress of hip hop melodies since the youth can have the opportunity to eavesdrop various sorts of the hip hop songs everywhere. Even subversive kinds of music are aired here. These media are the factors that thrust them in the hip hop realm. Ahead of backing hip hop additionally, all hit music videos on music television or MTV must be evaluated well at the same time the youth cohorts of hip-hop must be monitored. If a small screen program can detonate a person from expressing his outlook on certain matters, then recording corporations should also be able to lay off artists for affronting people. Hip hop songs expose this class of aggression and compulsion around sexual pursuits as ordinary affairs. There is an existing reception among adolescents of the type of â€Å"sexual objectification† eminent in this manner of composition, and its displayed videos (Dickinson, 1998). Clothing As indicated by Kakutani, city juvenile African-Americans have drafted in the clothing of higher class whites as a sign of being short of authority in American civilization. Despite the fact that definite stuff achievement maybe unfeasible, the justification for embellishing luxurious branded get-up items is to put forward a picture of victory (1997). A means to utter contempt is by making out with the rebel figure of the street. A lot of fair children are civilizing sightseers who put on a pedestal the extremely ghetto living that numerous black youth desire to getaway. As an alternative of the dreadful transience degree for black adolescents, they perceive the thrill of hostility and as a substitute of aggravation, they set eyes on the vocal disobedience of that annoyance. She also proposed that this explicit channel of emblematic manifestation of teenagers have been converted into the biggest addressees of gangster music. Dark pelt and smeared tresses corresponded to the zeitgeist. The period of 1990 has become subjugated by hip hop style. This is made up of saggy denims showed very slackly, caps displayed rearwards, extra-large tops, and costly sporty footwear. This trend, distinctive from that of the other age groups, has inimitably crossed nearly every cultural frontier. A noteworthy quantity of African American, Whites, and Asian teenagers, without a doubt, get dressed the correspondingly despite of their background (Kakutani, 1997). Cross-over appeal For the reason that hip hop becomes an growing craze, colossal business corporations such as branded shops, industrial stores, and food chains in fact have profited from this occurrence (Salzman, Smith, and West, 1996). While detractors of the hip hop traditions appeared to be paranoid on the implication of sexual characteristics, brutality, and ruthless lingo, this field provides the youth of an archetype of what could be. In the equivalent stratum, the hip hop culture has defied the scheme in conduct that have amalgamated persons, predominantly the youth, crossways an abounding cultural variety. Notwithstanding this maturity of teenagers toward the sense of right and wrong of a nation for advancement, they all the same accepted a facade of American hip hop celebrity verves. Youngsters, alcohol, merrymakings, automobiles, posh garments make up their milieu. They typically do this to demonstrate their control although as a substitute of that, they are debasing their representation and showing a ghastly paradigm to the young people. Hip hop genre which give the impression to be acting the equal part which is to congregate the adolescents as one for an enhance awareness of societal matters and as a result, youngsters are urged to move violently for countrywide settlements. That is why events and performance are continuously prepared to allow the adolescents to put across their way of thinking and behaving through these avenues (Reese, 1998). Gender bias and racism Loads of individuals believe that Hip hop songs and traditions have an immoral power on the youth and that these have an unscrupulous standing of demeaning females through compositions that employ nasty colloquial speech and label females as â€Å"hoes†. What is sardonic is that the performers bring into play renowned terms, nevertheless if was to be told, it would sound as a racist. The artists do not become conscious that the youth is more affected by their kind of songs than any other. They ponder that coarse-hood living is breezy, amusing, and ferocity on the roads is hip, too. Moreover, if the commerce indicates agreement of librettos upholding abhorrence and taking advantage of the females are more and more acknowledged as valid types of inventive demonstration, hip hop music will certainly continue. Such well-known artists like Eminem has obtained a large amount of appreciation and awards delinquent hip hop music which is idolized by many. According to an interview with Dr. Gwendolyn Pough, â€Å"It definitely has an impact on young women, especially young black women† and there exists a few correlations to the themes of hip hop music and how a quantity of juvenile females picture themselves or perform (Alexander, 1998). That melody can generate a frame of mind for the youth and currently, there is a mounting penitentiary female inhabitant for their dealings, for vending illegal items and executing offenses for their boyfriends. A commended multimedia display intended to replicate female encounters with pestering, declares that hip hop melody has at all times been manipulative since it is so undemanding to absorb. It is an idea that females are perceived as things that is acceptable to be merely handed over along the guys. Punishments As stated by Rose in 1991, the associations between trendy society and lawbreaker regulations make available a brief account of hip hop customs, with particular consideration to the violation of directives that is present at the hip hop customs origin. This describes the bearing of hip-hop to the modern discussion in criminal decree erudition about public conventions. The point expressed is that â€Å"street† felony is a chief peril to the youth’s welfare and interests. Each of the notions of penalties such as vengeance, preclusion, incapacitation, and treatment, has come to more projection because of the inventive propositions of hip hop line of attack (Butler, 2004). It initially presents the inkling to engage retaliation as for the belief that for each deed there is an equal rejoinder. Hip hop culture grasps chastisement in person. Several youth in the hip hop realm have been imprisoned or have relatives who have been detained. Reprimand is an implementation of the society’s law enforcement control, as well as a repercussion of personal associations. The hip hop principle of retribution for the youth recognizes that once numerous youngsters are gone from their areas for the reason that they are being damned by the authority, penal complex may have inadvertent costs. Reprisal must be the entity of castigation; nevertheless it should be restricted by critical public good. In a noteworthy period in American record, hip hop sounds are mulling over the outlays of chastisement. Daring, defiant, time and again blasphemous, its melody has multicultural critic since for an instance, the concepts of hip hop aired in different media without fail disapprove of the authority’s courses of action (Lewis, 1998). The most normally alluded to current case in point is harsher central consequences for the use of prohibited drugs such as â€Å"crack cocaine† by the youth. These states of affairs are difficult to envisage for the reason that most of American hip hop customs are not directly articulated politically. Moreover, there almost certainly would be extensive divergence among the creators and regulars of the hip hop scheme about what political views to promote. The chastisement for producers was in particular severe. This topic is not fresh or remarkably astounding within a democratic system wherein anyone would anticipate hip hop society to report to bylaw. The latent of hip hop customs, nonetheless, to manipulate regulations appears less palpable, perchance as hip hop is a merchandise of youngster way of life and conceivably as it give the impression to rejoice insolent and even fugitive demeanor (Africa Resource Center, Inc., 2006). There are a number of stuffs about the formation of hip hop under this category. Initially, numerous performers acquired an active vision of the regulations. The infringe edict did not discourage the graffiti performer, the patent ruling did not hinder the disc jockeys from checking out any hip hop songs that they sought after, and the assets rule did not put off the jockeys from taking advantage of electrical energy from road posts at community recreational areas. Additionally, the hip hop way of life was more about reprocessing or remixing rather than generating out something new. Practically countless hip hop performers labeled themselves reflecting of the criminal directive. As a conclusion, hip hop traditions are atypical, habitually plainly opinionated. Its affairs of state are not all the time straightforward to uncover, and on a few matters, there is an immense multiplicity of viewpoints. Hip hop characteristics indeed presents a lot of disadvantages for the youth as these not only harm them physically, but also mentally. On the evenhandedness and efficacy of American iniquitous impartiality, the hip hop population seems to be dangerously addresses as solitary and the acts of certain groups of youngsters may be hazardously carried out in the society. In the modern account of the world, it is challenging to believe that another leading style of well-liked tradition is growing at a larger scale since several teenagers seem to be listening and adapting the fashion. Hip-hop customs also creates physically powerful set of circumstances for a revolution of criminal impartialities worldwide in the future.Bearing in mind the aforementioned negative factors, this prospect ought to have further inspections and assessments. References: Africa Resource Center, Inc. (2006). Black Life, its Culture, Politics and Consciousness, for â€Å"All Over the World†. ProudFlesh Journal. Africa Resource Center, Inc. (2007). Hip-Hop Culture. Academic Peer-Reviewed Journals. Alexander, Keith L (1998, December). Hip-Hop Magazine Gets Fiery Start, Good and Bad, USA Today interview, 30. Butler, Paul (2004, April 1). Much respect: toward a hip-hop theory of punishment. Introduction: The Hip-Hop Nation. Dickinson, Chris (1998, January 4). 3-CD Set Chronicles History of Rap,† Everday Magazine, 3. Kakutani, Michiko (1997, February 16). Common Threads: Why Are Homeboys and Surbanites Wearing Each Others Clothes?. The New York Times Magazine, 18. Lewis, Gregory (1998). Hip Hop Gives Birth to Its Own Black Economy, The San Francisco Examiner. Reese, R. (1998). The Hip Hop Culture and Ethnic Relations. Far West and Popular Culture Conference From the Fringe. Retrieved June 12, 2007, from http://www.tolerance.org/

Encomium of Jimmy Carter :: essays research papers

There is an old Latin saying that reads, â€Å"Dimidum facti qui coepit habet sapere aude† (He who has begun has half done. Have the courage to be wise.). For proof of this, you need look no further than to our thirty-ninth president James Earl Carter Jr., more fondly known as Jimmy Carter. During his presidency, Pres. Carter showed himself prudent and often made the wise decision over the popular vote. Jimmy Carter aspired to make government competent and compassionate and his achievements were notable.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Pres. Carter was probably instilled with the gift of prudence because of his upbringing. Born on October 1, 1924, right in the middle of the depression, Pres. Carter had to help his family with the peanut farming. However, he knew that peanut farming was the not the right career choice for him. Talk of politics and devotion to the Baptist faith were also mainstays of his upbringing. Starting out slowly, Pres. Carter entered politics in 1962 and eight years later ran for the Governor of Georgia and was elected. President Carter began his two-year campaign for President in December 1974. Campaigning hard against President Gerald R. Ford, he debated him three times. Jimmy Carter won the election by 297 electoral votes to 241 for Ford.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Now, we could point out a number of prudent decisions Jimmy Carter made for our country. He dealt with the energy shortage, he prompted Government efficiency through civil service reform, he sought to improve the environment, and created the Department of Education. The biggest challenge Pres. Carter faced during his time in office, and the one where his virtue of prudence shined, was with Iran. On November 4, 1979, Iranian militants stormed the United States Embassy in Tehran and took approximately fifty-two Americans captive. The terrorist act triggered the most profound crisis of the Carter presidency and began a personal ordeal for Jimmy Carter and the American people that lasted 444 days. President Carter committed himself to the safe return of the hostages while protecting America’s interests and prestige. He pursued a policy of restraint that put a higher value on the lives of the hostages over protecting his own political future. Ultimately, his cho ice to bring them home, ended in his defeat.

Tea and Social Class Boundaries in 19th Century England

Matthew Geronimo Professor Haydu SOCI 106 12 March 2013 Tea and Social Class Boundaries in 19th Century England How did tea rituals, customs, and etiquette reinforce social class boundaries in 19th century England? This question is relevant, in that it asks us to reflect on how simple commodities such as tea can distinguish social differences between classes, both past and present; it also allows us to ponder on how tea was popularized into the daily-consumed beverage it is to this day with people of all class backgrounds. In her book A Necessary Luxury: Tea in Victorian England (2008), Julie E.Fromer discusses how in 19th century England â€Å"new identification categories and new hierarchies of status developed along lines stemming from consumption habits, creating moral guidelines based on what and when and how one consumed the commodities of English culture,† (Fromer, 6). After discussing some origins of certain tea rituals such as low and high tea, I will elaborate on how those rituals influenced and reinforced social boundaries between the lower and upper classes; furthermore, I will analyze how certain tea customs and etiquette shaped the practice of tea-time between the lower and upper classes.There are variations on the origin of the afternoon tea ritual. â€Å"The accepted tea legend always attributes the ‘invention’ of afternoon tea to Anna Maria, wife of the 7th Duke of Bedford, who wrote to her brother-in-law in a letter sent from Windsor Castle in 1841: ‘I forgot to name my old friend Prince Esterhazy who drank tea with me the other evening at 5 o’clock, or rather was my guest amongst eight ladies at the Castle,† (Pettigrew, 102).While tea was already a luxurious beverage at the time, when to drink tea during the day became a national cultural custom. â€Å"The Duchess is said to have experienced ‘a sinking feeling’ in the middle of the afternoon, because of the long gap between luncheon and di nner and so asked her maid to bring her all the necessary tea things and something to eat – probably the traditional bread and butter – to her private room in order that she might stave off her hunger pangs,† (Pettigrew, 102).Upper-class citizens caught on with this trend, participating in a ritual that would define a nation. Upper-class families would participate in low tea at a good hour between lunch and dinner. â€Å"Manners of Modern Society, written in 1872, described the way in which afternoon tea had gradually become an established event. ‘Little Teas’, it explained, ‘take place in the afternoon’ and were so-called because of the small amount of food served and the neatness and elegance of the meal,† (Pettigrew, 104).Consuming food with tea during the day between meals might have speculated the English people for growing accustomed to eating too much during the day, but according to Marie Bayard in her Hints on Etiquette ( 1884), afternoon tea was â€Å"not supposed to be a substantial meal, merely a light refreshment. † She adds, â€Å"Cakes, thin bread and butter, and hot buttered scones, muffins, or toast are all the accompaniments strictly necessary. † The upper classes during the 19th century were known more for drinking more expensive and refined teas, such as those from China, Ceylon, or Assam.The wealthy and privileged groups of 19th century England took pride in their customs; with the custom of tea, they spared no expense in staying true to their idealized rituals. Low tea was a daily practice for the upper classes. Martha Chute created a series of watercolor paintings that portrayed daily life at the Vyne in Hampshire in the mid-nineteenth century. This particular 1860 watercolor (Pettigrew, 99) depicts a dining room table prepared for breakfast with the tea urn in the middle of the table and the tea cups laid out.The painting’s setting takes place in a very upper class room with portraits of upper class citizens and scenery artwork hung all around the room. Published in 1807, Thomas Rowlandson’s Miseries Personal (Pettigrew, 65) illustrates powerful upper-class men and women socializing while consuming tea to the extent that the men are all practically drunk because of drinking too much tea. From the illustration, the audience can see that these powerful men have no cares, worries, or concerns at all; they’re not worried about getting food on the table for their families.They are only concerned with having a good time with the somewhat disgusted women in the painting while they consume heavy amounts of tea, symbolizing their refinery and high social class status. Published in 1824, Edward Villiers Rippingille’s The Travellers’ Breakfast (Pettigrew, 77) illustrates members of the literary circle that idealized Sir Charles Elton, including Coleridge, Southey, and Dorothy and William Wordsworth, as they have breakfast in an inn, with the tea urn focused in the middle of the table. According to Mrs.Beeton in the 1879 edition of her Book of Household Management, â€Å"’At Home’ teas and ‘Tea Receptions’ were large afternoon events for up to two hundred guests. Tea was laid out on a large table in the corner of the drawing or dining room, and servants would be on hand to pour and hand round the cups of tea, sugar, cream or milk, cakes, and bread and butter,† (Pettigrew, 107). Beeton reinforces the notion that these products were expected to be present at the tea table for afternoon tea with the upper classes. For the upper-classes, afternoon tea could be taken out to the garden.In an 1871 graphic artwork titled Kettledrum in Knightsbridge, (Pettigrew, 106) the artist displays men, women, and a child socializing in a garden, with trees and flowers surrounding them, while they enjoy their afternoon tea. According to Pettigrew, the caption reads â€Å"In this form of aft ernoon party, ladies and gentlemen can mingle . . . it is certainly much better to talk scandal in the garden than indoors,† (Pettigrew, 107). From this context, Pettigrew hints that scandalous gossip was common in between people in the upper classes during afternoon tea, and that it was better to gossip outdoors rather than indoors.While the etiquette and customs of low tea can be reflected in the mannerisms of upper class breakfast with tea, â€Å"In 1884, Marie Bayard advised in Hints on Etiquette that ‘the proper time . . . is from four to seven’, whereas others advised ‘about five’, or referred to ‘small 5 o’clock teas’, (Pettigrew, 108). Staying true to the specific hours with afternoon tea was significant to the upper classes in order to preserve the expectations that came with afternoon low tea. â€Å"Guests were not expected to stay for the entire time that tea was going on, but to come and go as they pleased during the allotted hours.Most stayed half an hour or an hour but ‘should on no account stay later than seven o’clock’, (Pettigrew, 108). The relationships between upper-class families and servants were distinguished with tea. â€Å"Families who employed servants very often took high tea on Sunday in order to allow the maids and butler time to go to church and not worry about cooking an evening meal for the family,† (Pettigrew, 112). Tea was so relevant during the 19th century that Pettigrew notes how upper-class families would rarely take a break from it.On Sundays, instead of eliminating tea from the day entirely, upper-class families would substitute their afternoon tea for high tea, which included heavier foods to replace dinner, all for the sake of allowing their maids and servants go to church. Servants of the Queen reference her liking of tea in the 19th century as well. â€Å"In London, Queen Victoria introduced afternoon receptions at Buckingham Palace in 1 865 and garden parties, known as ‘breakfasts’ in 1868,† (Pettigrew, 115). One of Her Majesty’s Servants† is quoted in The Private Life of the Queen (1897), â€Å"Her Majesty has a strong weakness for afternoon tea. From her early days in Scotland, when Brown and the other gillies used to boil the kettle in a sheltered corner of the moors while Her Majesty and the young Princesses sketched, the refreshing cup of tea has ever ranked high in the Royal favour. † Various forms of artwork captured the ritual of tea-time during 19th century England.A photograph from the 1880s presents a clear black-and-white image of what tea time looked like for the wealthy; in this particular case, for the Prince and Princess of Wales as they socialize with the Rothschild family at Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire, (Pettigrew, 114). In the photo, we see a garden tea party taking place, both men and women well-dressed, all sitting down in a straight posture except for the single servant, the tea table set with the tea urn in the middle, a tent set up, and even an umbrella placed at an angle to prevent any discomfort from the sun.While consuming tea was popular in the 19th century, the art and strategy of selling it as a valuable commodity grew in trend. Advertisements in the 19th century for tea advocated certain product brands, claiming that that specific brand was better than the rest, even hinting that they were a brand for more sophisticated, upper-class tea drinkers. An advertisement for Lipton, Tea, Coffee and Provision Dealer (Fromer, 84) attempts to differentiate regular tea drinkers from Lipton tea drinkers: â€Å"On the left, an illustration depicts two women smiling as they drink their tea.Their features are smooth and regular, their cheeks are pleasingly plump, and they wear bonnets over their fashionably curled hair. Their dresses indicate their middle-class wealth and fashion sense; they wear modest, high-necked gowns without e xcess frills or ornaments, yet the designs of their dresses reveal up-to-date fashion, with curving bodices, bustles, and narrow waists,† (Fromer, 83). In the advertisement, the choice to drink other tea besides the Lipton brand is reflected on their mis-shaped bodies, poor etiquette, and disappointing behavior. Tea and its consumption reinforced social class boundaries in 19th century England.In Mary Gaskell’s North and South (1855), tea consumption serves as a statement of people’s social class and their standards. â€Å"Throughout the changes in the Hales’ financial and social status throughout the novel, their tea drinking continues unabated, and despite the economies that they are forced to observe after Mr. Hale gives up his living, they never mention giving up tea,† (Fromer, 132). Fromer comments on Gaskell’s North and South (1855), marking how tea for upper-class citizens, such as the Hales, it too valuable in social status worth to s acrifice.Fromer continues â€Å"†¦their [the Hales] identity within the industrial town of Milton derives from their consumption patterns, their participation in the market economy of the city, the amount of money they have to spend, and the ways in which they spend it. † Mr. Hale is caught off guard and is petrified by Margaret’s story of a mill worker who has come to join them for tea. Margaret â€Å"Told [the story] completely; and her father was rather ‘taken aback’ by the idea of the drunken weaver awaiting him in his quiet study, with whom he was expected to drink tea,† (Gaskell, 285). â€Å"’Oh dear! A drunken infidel weaver! ’ said Mr.Hale to himself, in dismay,† (Gaskell, 286). Mr. Hale cannot handle the idea of having a low-class worker in his home, participating in his family’s afternoon tea. The very thought of it is inconceivable to him, especially seeing how Margaret invited the mill worker for tea. The working class was distinguished by having less etiquette and being not nearly as strict with their tea rituals as the middle and upper classes. Tea for the poor was still cherished, was still valuable, but as far as how refined they could be, based on their social class status alone, they constantly went through hard times on a daily basis. During the working day farm workers and labourers generally drank beer,† but in the 19th century, there was a drastic shift from beer being the common beverage workers drank throughout the day to tea. â€Å"All around the country, workers refreshed themselves with hot or cold tea – in factories, mines, offices and farmers’ fields, on railways, roads and fishing boats. Tea had become the best drink of the day,† (Pettigrew, 125). The poor and working class participated mostly in high tea, which was substituted for dinner. Meals throughout the day for the working class included tea. The first National Food Inquiry of 1863 discovered that little had changed for the working classes since the late eighteenth century and that farm labourers and home workers, such as silk weavers, needlewomen, glover makers and shoemakers, throughout Britain, started the day with a meager meal of milk or water gruel or porridge, bread and butter, and tea,† (Pettigrew, 98). Every day was a struggle for the lower classes. Many working class families started each day still hungry. They would be â€Å"sent off in the morning after a meager breakfast of potatoes and tea to walk several miles to their place of work.Lunch was dry bread with perhaps a little cheese in good times, and more potatoes and tea at home in the evening,† (Pettigrew, 124). While daily meal intakes were simply meant to fuel laborers to get through the day, tea was always considered a luxury, something that still connected them to the upper classes, regardless of how less refined their etiquette was. â€Å"Dickens’s stories are full of poor families, young apprentices, social outcasts, and those who survived from hand to mouth, just about coping in very mean lodgings that contrast markedly with the sumptuous breakfast tables of the upper and middle classes,† (Pettigrew, 99).In Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel Mary Barton (1848), Gaskell conveys the thought-processing that went into listing what was needed for working-class meals and the importance of tea: â€Å"Run, Mary dear, first round the corner, and get some fresh eggs at Tippings . . . and see if he has any nice ham cut that he would let us have a pound of . . . and Mary, you must get a pennyworth of milk and a loaf of bread – mind you get it fresh and new – that’s all, Mary. † â€Å"No, it’s not all† said her husband. â€Å"Though must get sixpennyworth of rum to warm the tea . . . †A watercolor painting by Thomas Unwins (1782-1857) titled Living off the Fat of the Land, a Country Feast (Pettigrew, 111 ) illustrates â€Å"high tea in a country cottage,† with what is depicted as a lower class family eating hams, cheeses, and baked bread while drinking tea. The painting portrays many people filled in a small cottage having high tea in replacement of dinner, with children playing on the floor, vegetables fallen from a sack lying on the floor, cats and dogs sleeping and jumping around, a man sneezing close to the ham, a woman drinking her tea out of a saucer while tending to a child, etc. the whole illustration is a mess. While refined tea was mainly consumed by the upper classes, the working class still treasured tea as a luxury, its value and worth could be tasted even with just a little bit of sugar. â€Å"In 1853, the Edinburgh Review wrote: ‘By her fireside, in her humble cottage, the lonely widow sits; the kettle simmers over the ruddy embers, and the blackened tea-pot on the hot brick prepares her evening drink.Her crust is scanty, yet as she sips the warm beverag e – little sweetened, it may be, with the produce of the sugar-cane – genial thoughts awaken in her mind; her cottage grows less dark and lonely, and comfort seems to enliven the ill-furnished cabin,’† (Pettigrew, 111). In an 1878 photo of a poor Victorian household during tea time (Pettigrew, 104), the audience can make out the small room in which they are all in, laundry drying on a clothesline, with some of the children not even being able to sit at the table, just sitting on a bench close to it against the wall.This photo demonstrates the difference in tea etiquette between the upper and lower classes, especially with what looks like the eldest daughter caring for the youngest infant on her lap at the table, this being unlikely at an upper-class tea table. Tea was just as imperative as a daily commodity as it was to the upper classes. â€Å"The poor household, therefore, represented a scaled-down version of the middle-class home, suggesting that ninet eenth-century histories of tea portray class as a matter of degree rather than kind.Working-class families aspired to the same values as the middle classes, responding to their smaller incomes by taking further measures of economy but not by sacrificing the consumer commodities that had become necessary to English everyday life,† (Fromer, 79). Tea served as a revitalizing commodity for all, even the elderly. According to Day from the Edinburgh Review in Tea: Its Mystery and History (1878), â€Å"It is not surprising that the aged female whose earnings are barely sufficient to buy what are called the common necessaries of life, should yet spare a portion of her small gains in procuring the grateful indulgence.She can sustain her strength with less common food when she takes her Tea along with it; while she, at the same time, feels lighter in spirits, more cheerful, and fitter for this dull work of life, because of this little indulgence, (Day, 75-76). While the wealthy upper c lasses had standards and expectations with their consumption of tea, the lower classes, even the poor elderly, perceived tea as a great luxury of worth that altered their everyday behavior. â€Å"Tea affected her (the poor aged female’s) demeanor, her manner, and her cheer, enabling her to accept her burden and work harder, being ‘fitter’ for the dull work life,† (Fromer, 83).Tea time for the working class wasn’t meant to be a socializing event, nor was it a strict ritual. â€Å"Tea drinking, according to nineteenth-century ads and histories of tea, replaced the vices that were typically found among the ‘humbler classes,’ including alcoholism, violence, and a lack of attention to domestic arrangements, with the values of domestic economy, respectability, good taste, thrift, and an appreciation for high-quality consumer luxuries associated with more-fortunate, middle-class economic circumstances,† (Fromer, 87).Within Gaskellâ€⠄¢s North and South, we get glimpses of Margaret Hale’s life as a younger girl. â€Å"She remembered the dark, dim look of the London nursery. . . . She recollected the first tea up there – separate from her father and aunt, who were dining somewhere down below an infinite depth of stairs; . . . At home – before she came to live in Harley Street – her mother’s dressing-room had been her nursery; and, as they had her meals with her father and mother,† (Gaskell, 38).Gaskell emphasizes the difference in settings in Margaret Hale’s life, contrasting the less refined and luxurious life she had â€Å"before she came to live in Harley Street,† to her now higher social status in Harley Street. Gaskell hints this with how tea was consumed between the two settings. More than simply differentiating the social boundaries created by tea through certain tea rituals, the etiquette of tea drinking of both the lower and upper classes reinforced these social class boundaries in 19th century England.English upper class etiquette did not just distinguish them from the poor, but also from other countries as well. A cartoon published in 1825 (Pettigrew, 84) points out the difference in manners and etiquette between the English and the French. The cartoon refers to the English custom of placing a spoon across or inside the teacup to express that the drinker does not need a refill, though the audience can see that the English characters in the cartoon have been refilling the Frenchman’s teacup multiple times in a humorous manner. Certain rules and expectations went into tea-time with the upper classes. Invitations to tea were issued verbally or by a small informal note or card,† (Pettigrew, 108). Many aspects and variations went into tea etiquette that defined the upper classes. For how to receive guests into one’s home, the Lady at Home and Abroad (1898) explains that for small tea gatherings â€Å"the host ess receives her friends in the drawing room as on any other afternoon . . . but when it is a case of a regular afternoon entertainment, she stands at the head of the staircase and receives as she would at a ball or a wedding reception. Like Gaskell’s North and South, novels such as Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights (1847) capture the norms and etiquette that come with upper class tea time and how those norms are broken and revealed through character reactions. â€Å"Within ‘Wuthering Heights,’ tea creates boundaries between characters, rather than erasing them. The rituals of the tea table cause Lockwood (and readers of the novel, to an extent) to feel isolated, unwanted, and threatened, rather than welcomed in and nourished as guests and as intimates,† (Fromer, 152-153).In a scene from Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, the character named Lockwood, an upper-class male, seeks refuge from an early snowstorm in Wuthering Heights. Young Catherine hesi tatingly admits Lockwood into Wuthering Heights and he accepts it as an ideal setting for tea. While Catherine attempts to attain a canister of tea leaves almost out of reach, Lockwood makes a â€Å"motion to aid her† (Bronte, 16), but she responds, â€Å"I won’t want your help . . . I can get them for myself. † Bronte continues with Lockwood’s narration: â€Å"’I beg your pardon,’ I hastened to reply. Were you asked to tea? ’ she demanded, tying an apron over her neat black frock, and standing with a spoonful of the leaf poised over the pot. ‘I shall be glad to have a cup,’ I answered. ‘Were you asked? ’ she repeated. ‘No,’ I said, half smiling. ‘You are the proper person to ask me. ’ She flung the tea back, spoon and all; and resumed her chair in a pet, her forehead corrugated, and her red underlip pushed out, like a child’s, ready to cry,† (Bronte, 16-17). Bronte use s this scene to underscore a significant aspect of upper-class tea tiquette: again, â€Å"Invitations to tea were issued verbally or by a small informal note or card,† (Pettigrew, 108). While to present day audiences of Wuthering Heights, Catherine’s behavior may have seemed rude, to Bronte’s audience in the 19th century, Catherine’s response to Lockwood probably seemed understandable because according to upper-class tea etiquette, in order to engage and participate in tea-time with someone, he or she needs to be invited first. In another scene from Wuthering Heights, Catherine plays hostess during tea-time with characters Edgar and Heathcliff at Wuthering Heights. The meal hardly endured ten minutes. Catherine’s cup was never filled; she could neither eat nor drink. Edgar had made a slop in his saucer, and scarcely swallowed a mouthful,† (Bronte, 97-98). Here the audience can see the difference in etiquette between the higher and lower class es, even if the difference in class is not too vast. â€Å"Edgar’s ‘slop’ in his saucer signals his unsteady hand†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Fromer, 162). â€Å"This moment of tea, which is supposed to bring people together and erase boundaries, instead emphasizes those boundaries and signals the end of peace and familial happiness,† (Fromer, 162-163).Again, Bronte distinguishes the class differences reinforced through the tea ritual and form of etiquette. Like Bronte’s Wuthering Heights (1847), 19th century novels such as Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) delineates social class boundaries reinforced by tea etiquette. The story of Alice adventuring into Wonderland is a reflection of facing elements people are not used to; for Alice, what she believed was her forte was etiquette. Carroll thus plays on the idea of expectations; he assumes that we as readers, like Alice, have certain expectations of what a tea party offers, an d he continually frustrates those expectations through his depiction of â€Å"A Mad Tea Party,† (Fromer, 169). During the infamous â€Å"Mad Tea Party† scene, Alice encounters the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and the mouse at their tea party. Alice expects to be welcomed at the tea table, seeing how â€Å"the table was a large one, but the three were all crowded together at one corner of it . . . † (Carroll, 60).But as she approached the table, the Hare and the Mad Hatter cried out, â€Å"No room! No room! † (Carroll, 60). Both audiences of the 19th century and present day may have found the hosts to be incredibly rude exclaiming that there is no room while there obviously was, but, again, we must remember principle etiquette: that guests must be invited to tea. Both Bronte’s Lockwood and Carroll’s Alice encounter tea setting and expect to be invited; therefore, they approach the hosts and proceed to the tables, yet both characters are actual ly unwanted from both hosts in each novel.Lockwood and Alice are characterized as being of middle or upper class in their own storylines and they both invite themselves to these tea tables where they were never originally invited to; and when they are confronted about it, they both are shocked. â€Å"At any rate I’ll never go there again! . . . It’s the stupidest tea-party I ever was at in all my life,† (Carroll, 68). Carroll reinforces Alice’s stubbornness an inability to realize that she was the one who violated the etiquette and customs of tea time by inviting herself to tea instead of waiting for an invitation from the Mad Hatter and the March Hare.The exchange between Alice and the Mad Hatter and March Hare exceeds levels of rudeness that audiences of both 19th century and present-day England would be appalled by. â€Å"I don’t think – † then the Hatter cuts her off, â€Å"Then you shouldn’t talk. † â€Å"This piec e of rudeness was more than Alice could bear: she got up in great disgust, and walked off: the Dormouse fell asleep instantly, and neither of the others took the least notice of her going, though she looked back once or twice, half hoping that they would call after her,† (Carroll, 67).While Alice storms off believing that the Mad Hatter and March Hare are in the wrong, Carroll’s use of depicting Alice looking back conveys that in her heart, perhaps Alice knew that she was the one who violate the proper mannerisms and etiquette of tea time. From Fromer’s perspective, â€Å"After feeling adrift and confused during her travels through Wonderland, Alice has finally stumbled upon a setting where she feels at home and thinks that she knows what to expect and how to act – at the tea table . . .She expects the boundaries that so clearly separate her from all of the other characters she has met to finally be overcome, so that she can feel welcomed and nourished as an intimate guest rather than an unexpected and unwelcome intruder,† (Fromer, 170-171). Tea rituals, customs, and etiquette distinguish people from one another, they sort them into groups labeled either poor or wealthy. â€Å"Teatime functions, in countless novels, as a moment of highlighting the boundaries between self and other, inside and outside, day and night – boundaries both within outside of the intimate realm . . Part of what makes this particular tea party ‘mad’ is the fact that it violates the boundaries of time just as much as it destroys expectation of hospitality and civility,† (Fromer, 172). Both Alice and Bronte’s Lockwood assume that simply by being part of the upper classes of society that they are entitled to respect from others; but as Gaskell’s and Carroll’s audiences have realized, having respect for others defines social status and influences social mannerisms and proper etiquette. Within Gaskell’s North and South (1854-55), the image of the tea table functions as a crystallization of English national identity and the various social classes that make up that national sense of self,† (Fromer, 129). Fromer analyzes North and South as a novel that distinguishes the different social classes in 19th century England and how their social statuses are formed and reinforced by through tea rituals and etiquette.Furthermore, â€Å"based on circulating cultural expectations of the social manners and consumption rituals performed during teatime, the English ideal of the tea table served as shared experience upon which to base one’s identity and to gauge the social status of others,† (Fromer, 129). â€Å"Tea, as a fluid constant in English culture, with its accompanying social rituals, was flexible enough to accommodate – and to mark – subtle differences in social status, to mediate these differences between groups within the English nation,† (Fromer , 12).Members of both the lower and upper classes participated in tea rituals; depending on their social class statuses, they were more than likely to participate in one or the other. Quite simply, the middle and upper-class members of societies engaged in afternoon low tea the majority of the time because of its origin to English royalty and the purpose to keep hunger away between noon and dinner meals. On the other end, the poor and working class members of society engaged in high tea, combining their dinner meal with tea in order to alleviate the time and costs of tea time in the middle of the afternoon.The working class did not concern themselves with strict and traditional customs and etiquette like the middle and upper classes did. They participated in high tea for the practical purpose of fighting off hunger while retaining a sense of dignity and luxury with the value and worth of tea. As put by Fromer (11): â€Å"Nineteenth century representations of tea highlight the role of the tea table in forging a unified English national identity out of disparate social groups, economic classes, and genders separated by ideologically distinct spheres of daily life. Bibliography Bayard, Marie. Hints on Etiquette. Edited by Marie Bayard. London: Weldon & Company, 1884. Beeton, Mrs. Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management. Edited by Nicola Humble. Abridged version of 1861 edition. NewYork: Oxford University Press, 2000. Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. New York. Penguin Books, 1993. Carroll, Lewis. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. Day, Samuel Phillips.Tea: Its Mystery and History. London: Digital Text Publishing Company, 2010. Fromer, Julie E. A Necessary Luxury: Tea in Victorian England. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2008. Gaskell, Elizabeth. Mary Barton & North and South. Edited by Edgar Wright. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987. â€Å"One of Her Majesty’s Ser vants. The Private Life of the Queen. Edited by Emily Sheffield. Gresham Books, 1979. Pettigrew, Jane. A Social History of Tea. London: National Trust Enterprises, 2001.

Life Is But A Choice Essay - 653 Words

Life Is But A Choice Beginning with the time of birth until the time of death, people have to make choices everyday on how to achieve the goals in their lives. One can imagine life as a long winding road with millions of other roads branching off in many directions. The only problem is that life is too short to explore every single road. In addition, the essence of time will not allow anyone to go back to a road that was passed. Everyone must choose his/her own roads through life regardless of what other people might think. Robert Frost wrote in The Road Not Taken, quot; I took the one less traveled by And that has made all the difference quot;(Frost 423). By managing ones time efficiently and making clear rational choices,†¦show more content†¦Everyone is different and that is what makes our world so interesting. Another important choice in life is having a healthy body. The key to achieving a healthy body is diet, exercise, and rest. In the world today, doctors are constantly reminding us to watch our body fat, cholesterol, and nutritional intake. In addition, eating a well balance diet can greatly reduce risk of disease and live longer lives.. Also, doctors tell us that smoking and excessive drinking of alcoholic beverages can be extremely harmful to our health. Making a choice to exercise is very important also. Doctors tell us that exercising at least thirty minutes a day will reduce the risk of a stroke and heart disease. Not to mention, exercising is a great way to cope with the stress of everyday life. The most important way to stay healthy is to get plenty of rest. The body needs a break to the mind and replenish cells in the body so the body can function properly. Without rest, one is more likely to make mistakes and even have a higher level of stress. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;One more important choice in life is spirituality. 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