Female Social Roles In Victorian Literature

Female Social Roles In Victorian Literature During the period between Victorian and modern age, female social roles have changed significantly; however, they still have remained some convention inherited from its previous generation. To examine women and society of their time, Charlotte Brontà « in nineteenth century and Virginia Woolf in twentieth century could provide the reflection in a clear and realistic way. However, there are similarities and differences in female social roles in their ages. The aim of this study was to compare and contrast Brontà « and Woolfs portrayal of women and their contemporaries in terms of professions, marriage, and awareness. It is concluded that even though the Victorians pioneered to give the emancipation of women, they were hardly abandon the domestic marriage in Brontà «s fiction. On the other hand, Woolf had claimed women rights should be developed by economic independence, but she did not deny matrimony. This may be interest feminists, socialists and literature readers, especially who want to know more about women modern times. Contents Abstract Introduction 1. Working Women in the Literature of Charlotte Brontà « and Virginia Woolf 1.1 Similarities 1.2 Differences 2. Wives and Mothers in the Literature of Charlotte Brontà « and Virginia Woolf 2.1 Similarities 2.2 Differences 3. The Awareness of Women in the Literature of Charlotte Brontà « and Virginia Woolf 3.1 Similarities 3.2 Differences Conclusion References Introduction Female social roles have changed dramatically from Victorian age (1837-1901) to modern age (from twentieth century to the present), and literature would reflect in a vivid way the relation between women and their eras. Writers such as Charlotte Brontà « and Virginia Woolf are particularly influential on the literature and the contemporaries in Victorian and modern age. As the female writers, which are not valued in their generations, Charlotte Brontà « and Virginia Woolf have more closeness and concern to the women in their society. Before and at the beginning of nineteenth century, a model of femininity was the perfect lady, which was inherited as a Victorian ideal of women. Family and morality were the base of Victorian society, and girls were all taught to submit to the authority and matrimony (Vicinus 1972). The concept of The Angel in the House, which was referred to the embodiment of Victorian women, was prevail in the Victorian society. As a result, women in Victorian Age were regarded as incompatible and excluded in many professions. Showalter(1999) points out that the first professional activities of Victorian women are either in the home or in womanhood. From the nineteenth century, however, the prevalence of education attributed to the gradual rising incidence of working women. Besides, by the struggles of individuals and feminists, the obstacles to the entry into professions for women, whose exclusion and incompatibility in work had been debated, were removed in the beginning of twentieth century. (S windells 1985) Meawhile, the concept of morality and family was strongly suspected by the critics and feminists, who argue that there is no The Angel in the House. Within a century, not only female social roles but also female awareness had been emancipated from restraint, though some conventional notions had still remained. The purpose of this paper is to compare female social roles in Charlotte Brontà «s Victorian fiction and Virginia Woolfs modern literature in terms of three aspects: working women, wives and mothers, and awareness of women. Women and professions in Brontà « and Woolfs literature will be compared and contrasted firstly. Then the similarities and difference of married women their work will also be examined. Finally, how female consciousness is portrayed in their work and its development from Victorian to modern age will be discussed. 1. Working Women in the Literature of Charlotte Brontà « and Virginia Woolf 1.1 Similarities Nineteenth century is a crucial period for modern age because of the gender attitude and practices and professional structure which people inherited were formed. Besides, despite of the fact that the entry of Victorian women with professions had not happened in significant numbers (Swindells 1985), the idea of professionalism in Victorian age also stimulates the inspiration of the contemporary novelist, Charlotte Brontà « and the modern writer, Virginia Woolf. Due to the fact that women have gained more access to education since the middle nineteenth century , both Charlotte Brontà « and Virginia Woolf have positive stance on women professions because women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do. (Brontà « 1985:141) Women and professions are presented in Charlotte Brontà «s novels. The most prevailing occupation for young girls in the middle-classes in Victorian Age is governess, as Charlotte Brontà «s Jane, the well-educated heroine, in Jane Eyre. To quote from Franà §oise (1974:155), à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦she is completely free in her work, that her relations with her pupil Adele are goodà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦, she deplores Adele French coquetry and frivolity. Mr. Rochester has enough books in his library for her teaching methods. In Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontà « depicts the background of a governess life in her employers family. In Virginia Woolfs viewpoint, it was possible that women are kept away from academies and institutes, but women cannot be forbidden from using the pen, paper and writing desk. Katharine Hilbery in Virginia Woolfs Night and Day is the implication of her approval of female professionals. During the daytime, Katharine helps her mother write the biography of her grandfather Richard Alardyce, who is a well-known poet, and she develops her interest at night. In addition, Katharine Hilbery is expected to be a writer to inherit the talent of her family estate. Virginia Woolf uses Katharine as her idea of a feminist: marriage is not the only destination for women. As the incidence of working women has increased, writers as Charlotte Brontà « and Virginia Woolf create their own heroines concerning the relation between female and professions. Though they belong to the two generations that female capabilities are often denied, Charlotte Brontà « and Virginia Woolf share the same point that women can do as good as men in vocations. However, there are some different development of their novels which represent Victorian and modern ideologies of women who have jobs, and they would be discussed in the following section. 1.2 Differences In the late Victorian age, the conventional social roles of women, who start to demand their own welfare and seek for more constructive roles in society, met great challenges (Vicinus 1972). Therefore, there has been a rise of the number of women who have professions since Victorian age. In the literary work of Charlotte Brontà « and Virginia Woolf, there are different implications and stances of working womens final outcome. Women in Charlotte Brontà «s fiction are affected by the ideology that marriage is the ultimate goal for women in Victorian age. Franà §oise points out that Jane in Jane Eyre, ends up by marrying after being independent and free for a time, and that she gives up the task of a tutor and enjoys the moral satisfaction. Jane also indicates that Victorian married women in working-class were still minority. Another heroine in Charlotte Brontà «s Shirley, Shirley Keeldar, who longs for pursuing an occupation, would never stray from the domestic model eventually: Caroline, demanded Miss Keeldar abruptly, dont you wish you had a profession a trader? I wish it fifty times a day. As it is, I often wonder what I came into the world for. I long to have something absorbing and compulsory to fill my head and hands, and to occupy my thoughts. Can labour alone make a human being happy? No; but it can give varieties of pain, and prevent us from breaking our hearts with a single tyrant master-torture. Besides, successful labour has its recompense; a vacant, weary, lonely hopeless life has none. (Brontà « 1977:235) This passage represents the confrontation of love and professions in Victorian age. Though Caroline wants to have a richer life by working, professions for her still cannot be prior to love and marriage. The function of work is to prevent us from breaking our hearts with a single tyrant master-torture. As Vicnus (1972:xi) pointed out, many young women suffered the pangs of unrequited or false love, as described by Caroline. On the other hand, Virginia Woolf claims that women must be economically independent to develop their professions. In A Room of ones Own, Virginia Woolf particularly points out the difficulties that women as vocational writers have met. The imaginary heroine, the talented Shakespeares sister, is neglected and rejected by the society. If she has the room of her own, her creativity would be valued. In Professions for Women, Virginia Woolf states her opinions after the beginning of womens liberation from work in early twentieth century: The whole position, as I see ithere in this hall surrounded by women practicing for the first time in history I know not how many different professions-is one of extraordinary interest and importance. You have won rooms of your own in the house hitherto exclusively owned by men. You are able, though not without great labour and effort, to pay the rent. Your are earning your five hundred pounds a year. But this freedom is only a beginning; the room is your own, but it is still bare. It has to be furnished; it has to be decorated; it has to be shared. How are you going to furnish it, how are you going to decorate it? With whom are you going to share it, and upon what terms? (Woolf 1942:153) In the process of making the entry into the work, women had won their own rooms and five hundred pounds a year, which Virginia Woolf regarded as necessary. She considered professions for women as extraordinary interest and importance. The room, professional work, was no longer possessed only by men. Finally, women had the decision to furnish, decorate, and share the room. In sum, women in the beginning of modern age had strived for their rights to get the access to the professions, the innovation and great progress in female history. 2. Wives and Mothers in the Literature of Charlotte Brontà « and Virginia Woolf 2.1 Similarities Since most of the literature of Charlotte Brontà « and Virginia Woolf explore the relation between female and their contemporary era, marriage hardly fails to be neglected. Calder(1976:59) states, marriage [in Victorian age]was the core of social life and social aspiration. In the early twentieth century, modern society still remains the domesticity and morality inherited from Victorian age. Thus, female roles in the fiction of both Charlotte Brontà « and Virginia Woolf inevitably follow the conventions of the idea of marriage. Marriage is a social success in Victorian age, and being unmarried is considered the failure of womens lives. In Jane Eyre, Janes marriage with Rochester is domestic, with her total dedication to her husband. Jane is in the social doctrine that a Victorian woman should be all devoted to her husband and children, and that her duty is to provide a comfortable and domestic life for her mate On the hand, Caroline in Charlotte Brontà «s Shirley finds that an unmarried woman is doomed to be the victim of society, as shown by Miss Mann and Miss Ainsley. Single women are in the sacrificed social status, just like the homeless and unemployed people. (Franà §oise 1974) Similarly, Virginia Woolfs women are cast in a highly traditional mould and still confined to a female sphere'(Stubbs1979:233). Mrs. Ramsay in To the Lighthouse leads an well-ordered life and creates the harmony not only be giving birth to children but also by giving a peaceful life for them. In fact, the stability of the family is based on the nature endowing with life, the mother. In Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa is the hostess arranging the party in her house, and she is also the symbol of the natural bond to the convention and society despite of the fact that her husband and her are an unequal couple. (Marder 1968) In sum, the ideas of marriage in the ages that belong to Charlotte Brontà « and Virginia Woolf are similar; that is to say, wives and maternity are the basis of stability and the core of domesticity. Nevertheless, Poovey (1988) has indicated that the Victorian subordination of one to another is always unstable, and the inequality can explain the emergence of the opposite, the various movement of feminists. The change of the structure and the ideology of family has implied in Virginia Woolfs later novel, Three Guineas. 2.2 Differences Marriage in Charlotte Brontà «s literature differs from Virginia Woolfs in terms of the womens subordination. In Victorian age, men control over women in relationship and matrimony, both of which are suggested in Charlotte Brontà «s Jane Eyre. However, this situation has changed in modern age, when masculine power has gradually eroded. Instead of staying in the masculine domination, people start to be suspicious of the value of marriage in modern age. Virginia Woolfs Three Guineas has indicated the decadence of family. In Jane Eyre, the theme of mastery of male power could often be seen. In Janes childhood, she is demanded to call John Reed my master. When she develops the relationship with St. John and Rochester, she insists on her personal will and freedom. However, she expresses her struggle and inability to avoid the domination of St. John: By degrees, he acquired a certain influence over me that took away my liberty of mind: his praise and notice were more restraining than his indifference (Brontà « 1977:423). As for Rochester, he completely masters Jane, not only as an employer but also a man. Jane says, for a moment I am beyond my own mastery (Brontà « 1977:272). She cannot resist the attraction of male domination from Rochester, even when she tries to escape from him. In the end, the rebellious and ambitious Jane submits to her master, Rochester, and finally becomes absolutely bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. (Calder1976) In Virginia Woolfs opinion, unlike Charlotte Brontà «, marriage to women is a way to show subordination in masculine society. Once women are married, they lose their independence, self-identity and the bond with society. In Mrs. Dalloway, it suggests that its likely that women are the prisoners in marriage; nonetheless, Clarissa, the protagonist, still can feel at ease and find a way out in matrimony by arranging a party at home. May (1981:134) claims, Mrs. Dalloway is about degrees and kinds of relatedness and human beings to one another, varying from lonely madness to self-compromising sociability. Virginia Woolfs Three Guineas is based on her observation of the society. In the beginning, the Victorian family (the Pargiters) seems stable but gradually falls into decadence. Eventually the members of the three family have been separated, and many of them remained unmarried or even isolated. At the end if the story, the children and grandchildren gather in a party, which indicates th at time has brought the revolution and breakdown to traditional Victorian society. From the literary work of Charlotte Brontà « and Virginia Woolf, we can discover the development of the idea of marriage from Victorian to modern age. Virginia Woolf, as a female writer, examines and criticizes womens role in marriage, which is an ultimate goal for Victorian women. 3. The Awareness of Women in the Literature of Charlotte Brontà « and Virginia Woolf 3.1 Similarities More work opportunities provided for women were the implication of females awareness of the importance of economic independence. Therefore, independent heroines could be seen in Charlotte Brontà «s literary work in Victorian age (Vicinus 1972). Besides, they became the foreshadow of Virginia Woolfs modern literature. Independent heroines are often portrayed in their fiction. In Charlotte Brontà «s novels, Shirley and Jane Eyre, the outspoken main female protagonists are the models of women independence. Shirley Keeldar, who describes herself as a woman, and something more, is an economically independent woman in Shirley. In addition, Shirley also suggests that the dependent relation is always unstable and leads to misery. Like the workers to their owners, wives are maltreated and ignored. In Jane Eyre, Jane will not succumb to the reality, and it could be seen from her rebellion in childhood to her pursuit for knowledge and love in womanhood. Jane is not satisfied with the feeling of confinement: Then I longed for a power of vision which might overpass that limit; which might reach the busy world, towns, regions full of lifeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ I desired more of practical experienceà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ more of intercourse with my kindà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦(Brontà « 1977:140). Franà §oise(1974) also points out that Jane does not deny her love for Rochester and that she confesses and attentively listens to his depiction of his story, as a result of her refusal to the traditional feminine roles: reliance, modesty and shyness. According to Showalter (1999), Janes running away from Rochester is her self-preservation. In Jane Eyre, as cited by Showalter (1999), Jane tells herself, I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself (Brontà « 1977:344). For her, action is always the way to independence. Franà §oise (1974) claimed that Charlotte Brontà «s heroines represented the female disobedience to conventional rules and the liberty of the Angel in the House. In modern age, Virginia Woolf also claimed the importance of being economic independent and having a room for ones own for women. As Virginia Woolf (1945:112) stated in A Room of Ones Own, the habit of freedom and the courage to write exactly what we think,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦then the opportunity will come and the dead poet who was Shakespeares sister will put on the body which she has so often laid down. If the room of ones own is a place for the feminine conference, which contains the authority, politics, and aggression in male world, it will be a grave, as Clarissas attic bedroom in Mrs. Dalloway. However, if it is a center combined with female tradition and culture; if people here make efforts to women independence, then Shakespeares sister, the future Virginia Woolf, may appear eventually. That female shares the equality with male is not a fantasy (Showalter 1999). In Virginia Woolfs To the Lighthouse, Lily, a female painter, eagerly wants to prove her ability to Charles Tansley, who claims that women cannot paint and write. She represents the women of independence and females desire of overtaking the gender boundary. Charlotte Brontà « and Virginia Woolf have indicated the female awareness and independence of their contemporary ages; however, it seems that Victorian women still fail to be separated from domestic marriage. The differences of Charlotte Brontà « and Virginia Woolfs heroines in terms of female awareness will be examined in the following section. 3.2 Differences Though both Charlotte Brontà « and Virginia Woolf have portrayed and declared their stances toward women awareness, they have endowed them with different characteristics and destinies suggesting the conventional notions in Victorian and modern age. In Brontà «s novels, however, female roles ultimately cannot avoid the bond of marriage, which is considered as the destination of Victorian women. On the contrary, Woolfs women would not always follow this pattern. Furthermore, she has pointed out the flaw of Brontà «s fiction. In spite of the fact that most of the heroines in Brontà «s novels are passionate, restless, and often contradictory in their inner world, they are often tied to matrimony at the end of the story. Both Brontà «s Jane Eyre and Shirley provide the evidence of convention that Virginia Woolf attacks. Love and marriage are significant ingredients in the literature in nineteenth century.In Jane Eyre, Jane is ambitiously desired to pursue the vastness of knowledge. Meanwhile, like Shirley Keeldar in Shirley, she can only contemplate marrying a man who can be her master (Calder 1976). Similarly, the two heroines in Shirley, Caroline and Shirley, hunt for independence; however, both of them quest for ideal mates as well. The pattern of Jane Eyre and Shirley is similar to some extent: those female protagonists have no choice but being dominated by men at last. In twentieth century, Woolfs Night and Day shows that womens consciousness has challenged the social notion concerning female roles and that marriage to women is not the only solution. Though being in the dilemma of the fact that if she should break the convention and disobey the expectation from her family, Katharine Hilbery can decide her own future. Besides, in Virginia Woolfs A Room of Ones Own, she argues that Charlotte Brontà «s writing inherits masculine style, It was a sentence that was unsuited for a womans use. Charlotte Brontà «, with all her splendid gift for prose, stumbled and fell with that clumsy weapon in her hands (Woolf 2000:77). Virginia Woolf regards that literature has been authorized by men since ancient time; thus, masculine sentences are inevitable even in womens literary work. Showalter (1999) has expressed a similar view that female writers had been deprived of the language of their own style and the awareness of ambition, and their deprivation had extend ed from Victorias reign to the twentieth century. The delicacy and fastidiousness of Woolfs language is an expansion of this feminized style. Conclusion Charlotte Brontà « and Virginia Woolfs portrayal of female characters had reflected the female social roles in Victorian and modern age. In the transition between nineteenth and twentieth century, the womens ideology and the social norms had changed, while some of them still had been inherited. They were presented in Brontà « and Woolfs literature in a various and fascinating way. To compare and contrast women in the literary work of Brontà « and Woolf, the female roles in professions and marriage and their awareness were chosen. More and more women had had their vocations, which meant that they had the economic independence; however, Victorian women still could abandon it for marriage. Besides, it was discovered that while domesticity had been valued in both Victorian and modern age, people gradually had found the flaw of the subordination of wives. As for womens inner world, self-discovery and thirst for independence were both considered in Brontà « and Woolfs literature. Unlike Brontà «, Woolf had emphasized the significance of womens own income and feminine language. It is concluded that female had gained more freedom in modern age and that Virginia Woolf strongly supported the idea of gender equality and was optimistic toward the future women status.

Irony in Antigone: King Creon Essay

In the tragedy Antigone, Sophocles pens a tale about a stalwart and distrustful king, Creon, and his misuse of the power he possesses. In the play he disregards the law of the gods to fit his whims, something that the heroine of the play, Antigone, wholeheartedly disagrees with; she disobeys his order to leave her dead brother, Polynices, unburied and sentences herself to death in the process. Antigone is engaged to Creon’s son, Haemon, who does not agree with his father’s actions in regard to the burial of Antigone’s traitorous brother. The disagreement between father and son leads to Haemon’s suicide; ironically, Creon thinks it is his life that will be taken and not his son’s. Creon and Haemon argue about Antigone’s impending fate; their disagreement on the subject prompts a threat from Haemon: â€Å"No. Don’t ever hope for that. She’ll not die with me just standing there. And as for you— your eyes will never see my face again. So let your rage charge on among your friends Who want to stand by you in this (870-875)  Haemon declares that Antigone will not die without reaction from himself; Creon will never see Haemon again because if Antigone is killed Haemon plans to join her in death: by his own hand. Haemon then says that Creon’s rage will force Haemon’s own hand to do something that Creon will regret. Creon does not understand that Haemon is threatening his own life; instead, he believes that his own life is being threatened, and his reactions to Haemon ’s words are lined with fear, ignorance, and irony. The irony of the situation is that Creon is so blinded by his own ego that he thinks his own life is in danger, when it is actually his son’s that is. Creon only realizes the error of his assumptions and actions after Haemon commits suicide. More irony arises with the death of Haemon; he has joined Antigone in death to have what Creon denied them while living: each other. At the close of the play Antigone, Haemon, and Eurydice, Creon’s wife, have all committed suicide because of Creon’s actions. Creon is suspicious through the entire play; in the beginning he accuses Antigone and Ismene of plotting to steal his throne, saying: â€Å"You there—you snake lurking in my house, sucking out my life’s blood so secretly. I’d no idea I was nurturing two pests, who aimed to rise against my throne. Come here. (607-610)† These words are directed towards Ismene more so than Antigone because Creon already suspects her of wrongdoing. He is surprised to see Ismene lurking in the shadows as she eavesdrops on the judgment of Antigone; upon seeing Ismene, Creon is convinced that she has conspired with Antigone to steal his life and throne. In short, he is aware of one pest, Antigone, but does not consider Ismene as a pest until she is discovered eavesdropping. After Ismene is discovered Creon calls her over to be judged alongside Antigone. This is the first sign of Creon’s extreme suspicion that the reader sees; not only does he accuse Antigone and Ismene of conspiring to steal his kingship, but he accuses them of trying to take his life as well. Creon’s suspicion of his impending death is ironic because at the end of the play both Antigone and Haemon take their own lives instead of Creon’s. Creon does not realize the damage he has caused until it is too late to fix; the time for rectification of the situation has passed and he feels deep anguish at the loss of his son. He never imagines that Haemon spoke of killing himself when they had their exchange of words earlier in the play; when next to Haemon’s corpse Creon says: Aaiii—mistakes made by a foolish mind, cruel mistakes that bring on death. You see us here, all in one family— the killer and the killed. Oh the profanity of what I planned. Alas, my son, you died so young—a death before your time. Aaiii . . . aaiii . . . ou’re dead . . . gone—not your own foolishness but mine. (1406-1414) Creon explains with grief that he now realizes his actions caused the death of Haemon; his mistakes are cruel and Haemon is gone not of his own foolishness, but of Creon’s. Further irony shows after Creon discovers that his wife, Eurydice, is also dead; he asks for death by double-edged sword, when earlier he was extremely fearful about his own death and vehement about not dying. He says, â€Å" Aaaii . . . My fear now makes me tremble. Why won’t someone now strike out at me, pierce my heart with a double bladed sword?  How miserable I am . . . aaiii . . . how full of misery and pain . . . (1453-1457). † Creon begs for the death that he is unreasonably obsessed with earlier in the play; it takes the fulfillment of Haemon’s threats to make Creon seek death, and is most definitely ironic in comparison to his attitude towards death earlier in the play. Ironically, Creon now feels the misery of Antigone and Haemon, which he caused; he pierces each of their hearts respectively when he denies Antigone proper burial of her brother, Polynices, and when he denies Haemon his bride, Antigone. Creon’s final words are: Then take this foolish man away from here. I killed you, my son, without intending to, and you, as well, my wife. How useless I am, I don’t know where to look or find support. Everything I touch goes wrong, and on my head fate climbs up with its overwhelming load. (1485-1490) Once filled with immense confidence and arrogance, Creon now feels helpless and useless; ironically, he feels hopeless and distraught not because of anyone trying to steal his power or take his life, but because of his own distrustful actions and ignorant thoughts that cause his world to unravel before his very eyes.

Saving Water

The Solution is in the Tips of our Hands. â€Å"We think this water may one day be lost to us forever,† a phrase said by Mohanbhai G. Patel, a hopeless well owner from India mentioned on the essay Water Pressure, presented in the book Green. This essay portrays a great understanding of how humans can change the water scarcity problem in remote places, such as villages in India and Africa, by just spreading their knowledge and showing methods that will decrease the effect of this ceaseless issue.Some of us do not have the capacity and resources to help third world countries, but we do have the ability to change the community we live in; and it all starts at home. A simple, sustainable method we could practice is running the clothes washer and dish washer only when full. This concept may seem extremely appealing to members of a household but the actual idea of practicing the method might turned out to be unrealistic.In order to make this water saving practice effective, one pers on should begin the trend of implying the practice in their daily life, demonstrating to the people surrounding him/her it’s not difficult to become a guardian of this crucial element. The conception on how the problem should be faced are based on my beliefs and inexperienced perception of human action, for this reason I consulted my grandmother's judgment on this matter. Agueda grew up in the Cuban countryside where washing machines didn’t even exist less than a decade ago. If you need three pieces of clothes for the next day, just fill a little bucket with water, place the items inside, and let it sit there for thirty minutes; your clothes would be as wearable as if you wash it twenty times in the washer. †(Delgado) It was important taking into consideration the concerns of person my age and how water shortage worldwide was affecting his life. One of my classmates, named Carlos Garcia, who seems very passionate about this issue, was the perfect candidate to pro vide some information on this method. I asked him about the dishwasher and how he believed using this machine only when needed as going to make a change. He laughed at the fact that people actually use them as an instrument for washing dishes. â€Å"Just because a person got a patent on an invention do not means is useful at home,† Carlos quoted. From his point of view having a dishwasher at home is a waste of space, water, and electricity. His mother, who is the main user of the dishwasher, stores kitchen appliances and has never turn power button on. The author of the essay presented earlier, Fen Montaigne, shows a variety of approaches on how to solve the water deficiency problem and demonstrates how this water distress affects different regions of the world.The story starts as he travels throughout India with a popular dam constructor that has built, with his movement, an estimated of 4,500 dams in about 1000 villages. This break of events illustrates how a person can imp act thousands of people by just showing them how to work together to alleviate the great necessity of water sources that were nonexistent to this time. Now how do I relate his experiences to my sustainable practice at home? We start conserving water using a simple method will then expand our horizons little by little when we get our families involved, and later on our community.Judging on the opinion of an elderly person, a college student, or an educated writer should not be well structure evidence on how the problem should be confronted. You would make your own decision according to your beliefs, and understanding of the concept. By investing on researching any of the earlier stated methods and creating greater knowledge, anyone can help to promote water preservation, and anyone can help to halt this international crisis.

Significance of the Stono Rebellion

The Stono Rebellion was the largest rebellion mounted by slaves against slave owners in colonial America. The Stono Rebellions location took place near the Stono River in South Carolina. The details of the 1739 event are uncertain, as documentation for the incident comes from only one firsthand report and several secondhand reports. White Carolinians wrote these records, and historians have had to reconstruct the causes of the Stono River Rebellion and the motives of the slaves participating from biased descriptions. The Rebellion On Sept. 9, 1739, early on a Sunday morning, about 20 slaves gathered at a spot near the Stono River. They had pre-planned their rebellion for this day. Stopping first at a firearms shop, they killed the owner and supplied themselves with guns. Now well-armed, the group then marched down a main road in St. Pauls Parish, located nearly 20 miles from Charlestown (today Charleston). Bearing signs reading Liberty, beating drums and singing, the group headed south for Florida. Who led the group is unclear; it might have been a slave named Cato or Jemmy. The band of rebels hit a series of businesses and homes, recruiting more slaves and killing the masters and their families. They burned the houses as they went. The original rebels may have forced some of their recruits to join the rebellion. The men allowed the innkeeper at Wallaces Tavern to live because he was known to treat his slaves with more kindness than other slaveholders. The End of the Rebellion After journeying for about 10 miles, the group of roughly 60 to 100 people rested, and the militia found them. A firefight ensued, and some of the rebels escaped. The militia rounded up the escapees, decapitating them and setting their heads on posts as a lesson to other slaves. The tally of the dead was 21 whites and 44 slaves killed. South Carolinians spared the lives of slaves they believed were forced to participate against their will by the original band of rebels. Causes The rebelling slaves were headed for Florida. Great Britain and Spain were at war (the War of Jenkins Ear), and Spain, hoping to cause problems for Britain, promised freedom and land to any British colonial slaves who made their way to Florida.   Reports in local newspapers of impending legislation may have also prompted the rebellion. South Carolinians were contemplating passing the Security Act, which would have required all white men to take their firearms with them to church on Sunday, presumably in case of unrest among a group of slaves broke out. Sunday had been traditionally a day when the slave owners set aside their weapons for church attendance and allowed their slaves to work for themselves. The Negro Act The rebels fought well, which, as historian John K. Thornton speculates, may have been because they had a military background in their homeland. The areas of Africa where they had been sold into slavery were experiencing intense civil wars, and a number of ex-soldiers found themselves enslaved after surrendering to their enemies. South Carolinians thought it was possible that the slaves African origins had contributed to the rebellion. Part of the 1740 Negro Act, passed in response to the rebellion, was a prohibition on importing slaves directly from Africa. South Carolina also wanted to slow the rate of importation down; African-Americans outnumbered whites in South Carolina, and South Carolinians lived in fear of insurrection. The Negro Act also made it mandatory for militias to regularly patrol to prevent slaves from gathering the way they had in anticipation of the Stono Rebellion. Slave owners who treated their slaves too harshly were subject to fines under the Negro Act in an implicit nod to the idea that harsh treatment might contribute to rebellion. The Negro Act severely restricted the lives of South Carolinas slaves. No longer could a group of slaves assemble on their own, nor could slaves grow their food, learn to read or work for money. Some of these provisions had existed in law before but had not been consistently enforced. Significance of the Stono Rebellion Students often ask, Why didnt slaves fight back? The answer is that they sometimes did. In his book American Negro Slave Revolts (1943), historian Herbert Aptheker estimates that over 250 slave rebellions occurred in the United States between 1619 and 1865. Some of these insurrections were as terrifying for slave owners as Stono, such as the Gabriel Prosser slave revolt in 1800, Veseys rebellion in 1822 and Nat Turners rebellion in 1831. When slaves were unable to rebel directly, they performed subtle acts of resistance, ranging from work slow-downs to feigning illness. The Stono River Rebellion is a tribute to the ongoing, determined resistance of African-Americans to the oppressive system of slavery. Sources Aptheker, Herbert. American Negro Slave Revolts. 50th Anniversary Edition. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.Smith, Mark Michael. Stono: Documenting and Interpreting a Southern Slave Revolt. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2005.Thornton, John K. African Dimensions of the Stono Rebellion. In A Question of Manhood: A Reader in U.S. Black Mens History and Masculinity, vol. 1. Ed. Darlene Clark Hine and Earnestine Jenkins. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1999.