Abstract This paper analyzes the book "Plan B" by Chester Himes, focusing on the stereotypes and labels imposed on black people by whites as a false measure of superiority. The paper illustrates the fact that Tomsson Black - the main character of the book - is aware of these social constructs and this allows him to beat the white man at his own game. The writer portrays Tomsson as someone who plays on the white man's stereotype of the black man, and without a hint of suspicion, succeeds in becoming the white man's worse enemy.
From the Paper "In Chester Himes? novel, Plan B, Tomsson Black is the personification of white man's fear and hatred towards blacks. Black is a tall, strong, dark- skinned, militant black man who starts a race riot in Himes? novel. Despite the fact that Tomsson has been a member of the Black Panthers, started his own Black organization, visited Communist countries to study Marxist ideologies, and raped a white woman, he is loved by whites. He is the last person white officials suspect of starting the race riot. The reason Tomsson is able to do all these things and get away with them is the fact that he plays the role the whites want him to play. By playing the role of the Negro, Tomsson giving whites what they want- control. By controlling the black man's image, the white man can force him to be anything he wants him to be."
Tags: label, race, racism, riot, stereotypes, tomsson, discrimination, negro, control
Abstract This paper examines the relationship of Sir Lanval/Launfal with women from two different interpretations of the story of Camelot and the Knights of the Round Table. In "Sir Lanval", the female characters have no real substance, they seem to appear merely to help the plot along and increase the trials and triumphs of the protagonist. In "Sir Launfal", Chester gives these important female characters more depth by giving both the fairy princess and the queen names. Neither writer develops these important female characters to their fullest potential.
From the Paper Many Medieval English works contained tails of the legendary King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Marie de France's Lanval is yet another medieval work set primarily in Camelot and contains the Knights of the Round Table -- As well as Thomas Chester's Sir Launfal, which is influenced greatly by Marie de France's work. Sir Launfal varies slightly from Lanval, but the plot is basically the same.
Tags: arthur, fairy, france, king, medieval, sir, camelot, knights
An evaluation of the Theodor Adorno/Walter Benjamin debate surrounding popular music and mass culture and its bearing on the debates of other major musicologists and sociologists in the field.
Abstract This paper outlines the opposing standpoints of Adorno and Benjamin on popular music, with specific reference to their view of the consumer. The value of these theories are then discussed with reference to the later theories of David Riesman and Henry Pleasants, Andrew Chester, Simon Frith, Richard Middleton and Max Paddison.
From the Paper "Yet, even if the consumer's perceptive capacity is limited, there is still scope for individual choice, and thus for varying levels of the self-reflective in popular music. If consumers use their music to construct their identity, there will always be a market for these varying levels. As Frith suggests, 'the question should be 'how can popular music construct people?'' A reflection of the person behind the consumer in popular music rejects Adorno's claim that the industry invalidates the individual. Longhurst and Shuker explore this further in their analyses of the industry's sub-cultures, which allow mass identity to segregate and the potential for the individual to find their own route."
Abstract This paper analyzes Chester Finn's article "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Test?", which concerns national education testing. It explores Finn's view that national educational testing is the solution to the problems confronting education today.
From the Paper "Chester E Finn Jr has written an article that supports establishing national testing standards for schools. This is not a balanced article that considers the advantages and disadvantages of the issue and ..."
Tags: education, big bad test, finn, national, education, testing
Abstract This paper compares and contrasts the modern management philosophies of Chester Barnard and John Adair. The paper also touches briefly on prior theories of management similar to that of both Barnard and Adair. In addition, the paper provides a detailed understanding of the evolution of management thought and philosophy.
From the Paper "According to Adair, a manager's responsibilities were to establish, agree, and communicate standards of performance and behavior. The manager was responsible for monitoring and maintaining discipline, ethics, and integrity while focusing on objectives. Adair's philosophy was action-based, focusing on the goal of the organization or the group as a whole. The main difference in Barnard's philosophy from Adair was that Barnard's focus appeared to be individual based, rather than on based on the organizational as a whole. In Adair's theory, and the theories that it was based on, the role of the manager included assessing and changing as necessary the balance and composition of the group. Barnard focused on the individual moral influences that an individual encountered and that motivated them personally. That is most likely the central difference between both management philosophies."
Examines the role and significance of settings and the impact on the characters in Dickens' "Hard Times", Doctorow's "Ragtime", Dos Passos' "Manhattan Transfer" and Chester Himes' "If He Hollers Let Him Go".
1,350 words (approx. 5.4 pages), 5 sources, 1999, $ 47.95
From the Paper "Characters of different genders in various novels encounter one another in public spaces, and in these interactions, the author evokes certain political, social, and economic aspirations, differences, and conflicts. This can be illustrated by reference to a number of novels in which different urban settings become characters in their own right, characters that shape the attitudes and destinies of the human characters who inhabit these areas.
Dickens in Hard Times offers a social message which he brings to life through character and setting. Coketown in Hard Times is a representation of the sort of world that was being created because the Industrial Revolution centered entirely on promoting the economy through increased profits while ignoring the human element that makes the whole thing operate. Coketown ..."
Abstract When Beech-Nut was found to have marketed apple juice that contained virtually no apple juice, the scandal caused the company long-term damage. More importantly, perhaps, the actions of the managers at Beech-Nut were called into question, and this case study examines their motivations and the corporate culture that allowed the incident to happen. A summary of the research is provided in the conclusion.
From the Paper "In an episode of the popular animated television series, "The Simpson's," Mayor Qwimby is outraged to find that Fat Tony and his gang have been supplying rat milk to the schoolchildren of Springfield as part of a kickback scheme. Mayor Qwimby's reaction: "Rats? You promised me dog or higher!" This particular episode may well have been in response to the plight Beech-Nut's leadership, Niels L. Hoyvald and John F. Lavery, found themselves in when they were indicted and convicted for selling "apple juice" which was in reality nothing more than water, sugar, coloring and flavorings. Parents were outraged and James Traub says the Beech-Nut baby-food scandal "is a case study in the warping effects of blind corporate loyalty.""
Abstract This paper examines popular music from the 60s to the present day as an area of sociological and musicological change. The paradoxical concepts in Elliott Smith's music are discussed in order to highlight the key issues in the development of popular music-- authenticity, mass culture, subculture, standardisation and post-modernism.
From the Paper "The music of Elliott Smith (1969-2003) exemplifies the presence of the Adorno / Benjamin debate in contemporary popular music, most pertinently on XO (1998). This album pivots between authenticity of expression and commercial appeal, mass cultural and subcultural generic trends, and thus between the democratization and the standardization of popular music. Yet, despite its fusion of these paradoxical dichotomies, XO is an unassuming work; indeed, it seamlessly disguises its competing ideologies."
Tags: adorno, beatles, chester, folk, frith, goodwin, punk, riesman, rock
Abstract This paper selects two musical styles and explores their cultural geography, while considering the extent to which they demonstrate diffusion, place creation/environment and resistance/expression. The styles discussed are American Rhythm-Blues of the 1950s (i.e. McKinley Morganfield "Muddy Waters" and Chester Burnett "The Wolf") and British Rocking-Blues of the 1960/70s (i.e. Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones). The geography of music is a fairly new phase of geography and music study, it has only been fully developed in the last 30 to 40 years. Much study has been done into cultural geography's effect of global music and this paper concentrates on American music, which relies heavily on place creation, diffusion, environment and expression to create memorable music that remains viable and fresh for decades.
From the Paper "Developed from jazz, blues, and countless other forces, the first rock and roll songs are attributed to bands like Bill Haley and the Comets and Elvis Presley. Historian Barlow continues, "Hence, blues diffusions can be traced to African-American rhythm and blues, soul, and even rap musical styles. Moreover, they can be traced to the flowering of rock and roll, and then rock music, among white youth" (Barlow 61). As rock and roll music grew in popularity, it was simply natural that different cultures would develop their own forms of the music, and this is true with rock, which led to offshoots around the world, including British rockin' blues by bands such as Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones. Rock too is a form of social protest, and so, it defines a time and a place in culture and society, just as the blues defined an earlier era, and then helped create other defining musical styles."
Abstract This paper uses the works of eight authors to discuss Los Angeles' sense of place. It looks at how the combination of geography, history, art and the demographics influence people who live in L.A. and how they interact within that space. Authors referred to include Mona Simpson, Joan Didion, Marc Norman and Chester Hines among others.
From the Paper " Los Angeles is sometimes known as the City of Angels or even the City of Lost Angels but in many ways it is the City of Dreams. Sometimes it is the City of Dreams Come True while other times it is the city where dreams go to die. Then there are ..."
Abstract This paper discusses the many features of Simon Winchester's book, "The Professor and the Madman" - from its compulsively readable style to its arresting story to its comprehensive research. This paper examines the skillful way in which Winchester builds suspense vis-a-vis the odd relationship between William Chester Minor and Dr. James Murray. The paper looks at how Winchester piques the interest of the reader with regards to Minor's curious life-course and how he also explicates the factors which brought the idea of the Oxford English Dictionary into being.
From the Paper "In Simon Winchester's "The Professor and the Madman", the ringing question which keeps being asked of the reader is to imagine a time when the modern-day dictionary simply did not exist. Suffice it to say, most readers alive in the early years of the twenty-first century can scarcely imagine such a thing - but that was precisely the case in nineteenth-century Great Britain. However, beyond the fact that Winchester's book forces its audience to re-examine our remarkable reliance upon the Oxford English Dictionary, his text is spell-binding because it offers a tale of intrigue, murder and insanity that reads more like a fanciful thriller than an actual real-life tale."
Abstract The paper examines how white authors portrayed racial stereotypes in early American literature such as in Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and Edgar Allan Poe's "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket". The paper then looks at Ralph Waldo Ellison's "Invisible Man" that portrays the racist environment of the North and South and at Chester Himes' "If He Hollers Let Him Go" where the narrator battles racial stereotypes in Los Angeles. The paper discusses the mass media's stereotype of African Americans' involvement in criminal behavior and accuses the media of biased coverage of the Los Angeles riots of 1965 and of Hurricane Katrina. The paper therefore contends that the media is constantly ensuring the survival of the underlying racism that plagues American society.
From the Paper "Americans like to believe that racism and oppression is now a buried past horror. However, a simple glance at the nightly news or the commercials on MTV proves that racism is not dead and gone; rather it is alive and well. Racism flourishes through covert images and representations in mainstream and mass media. Representations of black characters in literature paint a picture of the early forms of these negative stereotypes, such as the African as being ignorant, poor, and even completely savage. These images have survived through the generations and are now represented more covertly in mainstream media. As seen in earlier white representations of African Americans, the long seated images of felons and poverty are still implicitly rooted in modern media publications and transmissions."
