...This document is an excerpt from the novel Ellis Island and other stories written by Mark Helprin in 1976. The extract is entitled « On the threshold of a new world », the scene takes place in Ellis Island, which is a small island in the NYC harbor. It’s an immigration station where immigrants came from all over Europe to get their American dream, which means freedom and equality. The narrator comes from Eastern Europe and he describes his arrival in Ellis Island, which consists in a very precise medical examination. . The medical examination (l.1 to 21) -The immigrant is surprised, he asks the officer “why” (l.8) but then he has to obey to him; he’s at his mercy, the officer can decide of his future and he could ship the immigrant back to Europe -The narrator is young and a bachelor; he’s well educated (l.29); he might be a Jew from Eastern Europe since he speaks Hebrew, Yiddish, Russian… -Must have emigrated for: political and religious reasons; persecuted for his beliefs; denied the right to vote; wanted to have a good job and a good life. -He hoped he could sell his books, find prosperity, have more freedom, better standard of living, better future, no social boundaries to climb up the social ladder. . The questioning examination: a suspicious immigrant (l.22 to 41) -The young woman is very wary about the narrator: “suspicious”, “sharply”, “disgust”, “commanded”, “shouted”, “cold eyes”. -He might be a danger, a threat because he writes books, he may...
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...In the galleries above, I was taken from room to room and looked over rather carelessly. After lifting my eyelids with a button hook, a young man with a military bearing saw that I had no trachoma. Someone else made me cough and breath. I had to take off my clothes and turn around several times. In another room, a big fat man asked if I could bend over. “Why?” I asked in turn, thinking that the only reason he wanted to know was because he himself would never be able to do such a thing. “Is it that everyone who comes to America has to be able to bend over?” “Yes,” he said. “What for?” “Because when we sing our national anthem, we bend over. Now do it or I’ll send you back to Serbia.” “I on’t come from Serbia,” I protested. “Exactly,” he said. “But if I want to, I can ship you yhere, so you’d better do as I tell you.” I bent over and was passed on to the next room. There, a pretty young woman with cold eyes asked me if I knew how to read and write. “Of course,” I said. “What languages?” she asked. When I replied, “ Hebrew, Yiddish, Russian, German and French –and English, as you can seen,” she got very suspicious and asked me what I did for a living. “I write books,” I said. Little did I know that in America no one ever believes this. She looked at me the way one looks at a madman. “What kind of books?” she asked sharply, closing one eye and squinting with the other. “Stories,” I replied pompously, “essays, dissertations on Biblical poetry, political science, et cetera...
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...Threshold experiences in the novels My Antonia and The Age of Innocence In any a piece of literature setting is an essential pillar of narrative construction: it not only includes some factual information about time and place or provides the background in which the events take place, but also has the power to shape the habits and attitudes of their users, or characters. Both Willa Cather in My Antonia and Edith Wharton in The Age of Innocence create the particular narrative texture that implicates some dynamics, i.e. some shifts and changes – on the one hand, the setting of the novels continually changes, and this invariably entails the changing of the characters. Since the setting doesn’t remain static, each time it changes there should be some “turning point”, from which moment on the further development of events becomes completely different. But what exactly this turning point is, what are those “triggers” that help to create this dynamic picture, how can we trace the changes and the molding and development of characters’ personalities, the changes of their identities? The thing is that the authors of both above-mentioned novels create series of “threshold experiences” taking place at the most significant, climatic points in the lives of the protagonists, acting like triggers, indicating some transformations in the outer world of the characters that entail the changes in their inner world as well. These thresholds operate on all levels: separating the interior...
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...Critical Reflections on Learning Learning and teaching We would suggest that learning and teaching are two sides of the same coin and our understanding of what it means to be a good teacher (see Critical reflection on teaching) is based in part on what we had to do to become successful learners, so this area of our belief system will provide fruitful material for evaluation and reflection. Williams and Burden express this well: The successful educator must be one who understands the complexities of the teaching-learning process and can draw upon this knowledge to act in ways which empower learners both within and beyond the classroom situation. (Williams and Burden,1997: 5) As a start to reflecting on your teaching, you are asked to reflect on (your own) learning. Take a few moments to: • think about the strategies, techniques and approaches that you personally found helpful (or not) as a learner • consider whether we should assume that others (especially your students) will respond in the same way • analyse distinctive elements of learning in your own subject or discipline Exploring learning We probably all have personal beliefs about how learning happens. Take a few more moments to think about your own learning • Do you consider yourself to be a successful learner of your subject? Why (not?) • Are there any particular strategies or techniques that work(ed) well for you as a learner? • Did you learn your subject...
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...ACT ONE The Ordinary World: The hero’s life is established in his ordinary world. This story beat is also known as: * The Known * The Set-Up * The Status Quo * Limited Awareness Call to Adventure: Something changes in the hero’s life to cause him to take action. This story beat is also known as: * TheInciting Incident * The Call to Action * The Catalyst Refusal of the Call: The hero refuses to take action hoping his life with go back to normal. Which it will not. Also known as: * Threshold Guardians * Defining Moment * Separation * Reluctance * New Situation * The Debate * Meeting Mentor Crossing the First Threshold: The hero is pushed to a point of no return where he must answer the call and begin his journey. Also known as: * Energetic Marker 1: End of the Beginning * The Point of No Return * Committing to the Goal * Act One Climax * Plot Point One * Break into Two * Turning Point One * The Threshold * Awakening ACT TWO Tests, Allies, and Enemies: The journey through the special world is full of tests and obstacles that challenge the hero emotionally and/or physically. Also known as: * The Fun and Games * Resistance and Struggle * Rising Action and Obstacles * Belly of the Whale * Push to Breaking Point * The Special World * Road of Trials Mid-Point: The energy of the story shifts dramatically. New information is discovered (for positive or negative)...
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...Cristal Zeas Professor Rogoff FYE 1320 April 1, 2014 Sharing is Caring In present day society, individuals dedicate their time to social media on the internet and electronics, towards updating statuses, rebloging pictures, favoriting videos, reading up on current events, and staying connected in general. It’s only been 25 years since Tim Burners-Lee invented the world wide web and it’s no secret that it is one of the most progressive and influential invention of our time. Dave Eggers, in his current book The Circle, foretells his version of what can happen with the growth of technology and social media and pushes our current standard of being virtually connected from the main social networks Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Tumblr. In this book, focusing on the ninth threshold of social networks and the technological self, we notice the influence of technology on societal construction and deconstruction of privacy and the nature of democracy impacting humanity’s digital life. Set in an undefined future time, Eggers’s novel tells the story of Mae Holland, a young idealist who comes to work at the Circle, an immensely powerful technology company that has conquered all its competitors by creating a single log-in for people to search, shop and socialize online. The company demands transparency in all things; two if its many slogans are “secrets are lies and privacy is theft.” Anonymity is banished; everyone’s past is revealed; everyone’s present may be broadcast live in video...
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...Sinaan in front of the door of Daar Al-Arqam when the Prophet (PBUH) was there. I asked, "What do you want?" He answered, "And what do you want?" I said, "I want to meet Muhammad (PBUH) to hear what he is saying." He said, "I want the same." We both entered and met the Prophet (PBUH), who invited us to embrace Islam, and we converted. We stayed as we were till evening. Secretly he went out. Thereupon, Suhaib got to know his path to Daar Al- Arqam. He got to know his path to guidance and light, but also to difficult sacrifice and great redemption. Entering through that wooden door, which separated Daar Al-Arqam and what was inside from the outer world, was not just crossing a threshold, but crossing of a whole world of limitations. An old world, with all that represented it - religion, manners, customs and life - crossing it towards a new world with all that represented it - religion, manners, customs, and life....
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...Threshold guardians are those that guard the mythical world before the hero enters. Within the story, the green knight, the porter at the castle, and the guide that was with Gawain to show him where the green chapel was can all act as threshold guardians. Although the green knight presented the call, he still tested Gawain's ability before crossing the threshold into the unknown by presenting to him the beheading game. This game tested Gawain's stance as a knight and also started his journey. If he could not have successfully beheaded the green knight then he would have been unable to set about the journey in the first place. This therefore shows how the green knight can function as a threshold guardian. Likewise, the porter is a threshold guardian since at the castle he asked Bertilak if Gawain can cross the bridge in order to enter the castle. The other threshold guardian is the guide that was sent with Gawain to the green chapel. When the guide questioned him and asked if he was certain that he wanted to encounter the dangerous man that lies in the...
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...What is a heroic journey? Well according to Joseph Campbell's theory it’s the way all stories go. They all have the same basic principles that tie them together, this is important because after all, going to a new world/place can be difficult, it can come with new challenges. New people to meet and new things to discover. This all may seem hard at the time, but it will soon all be worth it. Every story has to have multiple characters with multiple personalities in order to have a proper story. These might be humans or even a beast or dragon’s. Stories are built by the characters that are or around the hero. These might be good characters, like Gandalf in The Hobbit a strong leader and father figure for Billbo. Or even Toothless helping Hiccup...
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...mythological adventure being magnified in the rites of passage. Also, the myth goes around in a cycle and is repeated with different social and cultural references throughout the world. Furthermore, Leeming explains that, “the monomyth itself is an expression of the journey of the hero figure, of our journey through physical and psychic life, and of the evolutionary path of humanity to full consciousness” (Leeming). Homer’s use of Joseph Campbell’s monomyth in the Odyssey seen with Odysseus, the hero and main character, provides a great structure throughout the epic in several ways. To begin, the monomyth in the Odyssey can be divided into 11 stages of the hero journey. The first stage that structures Homer’s epic is birth or the ordinary world. Odysseus is born to his father Laertes in Greece under no distinguished ancestry to boast of. Rasovsky stated, As Odysseus grew to be a young boy he showed signs of his talents which included archery (Rasovsky). Going further on with Rasovsky’s findings, Odysseus was intelligent, clever, and exhibited strength through his appearance (Rasovsky). In the Odyssey, Odysseus’s ordinary world is on the peaceful island of Ithaca. Odysseus is the well-loved and respected king of the island. He has a wife, Penelope, whom he is madly in love with. Homer creates the birth and ordinary world of Odysseus to establish a pedigree, meaning how special he is, in order to foreshadow his destiny later on in the epic. The next stage of the monomyth is the call to...
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...The Hero’s Journey James Shin The Hero’s Journey, or the Monomyth, is a simple universal pattern that contains many elements found in mythical adventures The Hero’s Journey can be found in many books or movies, but each story can still maintain originality. In every Journey, the hero of the story must travel to and conquer a strange new world while he himself undergoes fundamental transformation. Orson Scott Card’s novel Ender’s Game showcases aspects to the Journey of the Hero because Ender leaves his home on Earth, overcomes Battle School, and emerges from the war a hero to the people on Earth. Before Ender arrives to Battle School, Colonel Graff is a guide that assists Ender by initiating the journey, who then overcomes his first challenge...
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...for them it becomes easy to spot these patterns and examples in films, literature, theatrical productions, etc. The goal of this paper is to familiarize the reader with a few different authors concepts and criteria that commonly occur in a vast majority of stories that contain any sort of adventurer or hero-type figure. In the case of J.R.R. Tolkien’s tale of The Hobbit, when broken down and analyzed using concepts from Joseph Campbell, and occasionally Marie von Franz, and Vladimir Propp, the reader may use their concept to read the book with insight and clarity that opens up a whole new way of looking at the hobbits adventure and the journey he partakes in. After one has a knowledge of the sequence of events that help to make up an adventure story it is hard to look at many books and films you’ve already seen in the same way. My hopes is that by the end of this, you will see The Hobbit in a new light. The Hobbit embodies significant aspects of the “hero’s journey” and the exploration of these using different authors works helps the reader to understand the analyzation and important theories of this work of literature and other pieces they already know and love. The adventure begins in the Shire, home to one Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit of no extraordinary reputation or worth. He is no born leader, muscular athlete, or rising star in the community; just an average hobbit that likes his comfort, food, and pipe. Not exactly what you would expect a hero to be,...
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...journey, a sequence of actions that can be found in most stories. In fact, the structures of the monomyth outlined by Campbell are consistent with those of The Godfather: Part I, a 1972 film directed by Francis Ford Coppola. By taking Michael Corleone, the main character of The Godfather, and viewing him as a hero within his world, one may be able to conclude that Coppola may have employed the ideas of Campbell. Campbell’s monomyth theory consists of 17 stages that may appear at different times along the story. Nonetheless, a story may not contain all 17 stages. The Godfather contains many elements of the monomyth, however, they are found in an unusual order. DEPARTURE The first part of the adventure of the hero, as seen in Campbell’s book, is Departure. This is the initial frail state before the hero’s transformation begins. The hero is sympathetically introduced to the audience. The hero’s situation and dilemma can already be noticed and we can see that he is living some kind of polarity which is pulling him in different directions and causing him stress. In this chapter, there are many stages that a hero must go through....
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...action movies in the film industry in decades. It was understandable after the success it had at the box office, and its success among viewers, which was not only local but global also. The structure of the journey of the hero, Neo, is nothing new. In fact, it starts and it ends like all the other journeys that preceded it, with the advantage of being rich in thought-provoking themes in comparison to the other movies of the genre. In order to help in the development of those themes, the Wachovski brothers use a lot of allusions, references from religions, myths, philosophy, literature, without changing the pattern of their hero’s journey which is clearly the same as the one represented in Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey. Using the latter, it would possible to understand the use of certain figures of imagery, camera movements, and other tools by the Washovski brothers in the making of this film. 1- Departure Just like any other hero’s journey, the story of the matrix starts with the departure, which is comprised of five steps: a) The call to adventure b) Refusal of the Call Fotso 2 c) Supernatural Aid d) The Crossing of the first threshold e) The Belly of the Whale During this first stage of the journey, the hero has to separate from the world he knows, and in the movie “The Matrix” there are lots of symbols, motifs with connections to sleep, dreams, reality and choice. a) The call to adventure “The call to adventure is the point in a person's life when they are first given notice...
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...Accounting-based regulation embeds accounting numbers as a threshold. * There are both benefits and costs to accounting-based regulation. * The costs of accounting-based regulation include opportunistic behavior by management to manipulate accounting numbers, and capital resource misallocation. * The benefits of accounting-based regulation include the potential to mitigate resource misallocation by preventing poorly performing firms from entering the market and to avoid “adverse selection problems” by managers. * Recent Chinese regulations on rights offerings and seasoned equity offerings shed light on the costs and benefits of accounting-based regulation in emerging capital markets. Introduction One of the most controversial debates in economic policy is: Should governments intervene in or regulate capital markets? Pure free-marketeers believe that the “invisible hand” can correct all market failures. However, advocates of intervention characterize the regulation process as one in which government intervention corrects market failures and maximizes social welfare. In the case of regulating stock issuance after initial public offerings (IPO), governments in many countries adopt a “disclosure-based approach” with limited government regulation and intervention. No official approval is needed to issue additional shares as long as companies provide adequate disclosure. There is no accounting-based profitability threshold that the company...
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