...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 and the exterior, the real and the imagery...
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...what I learn and how I will use my new found knowledge as it relates to diversity consciousness. Observation I consider myself middle-class based on my college degree, profession, income, and ownership of a home and vehicle. Because I consider myself middle-class, I chose to observe what I believe to be members of upper and lower class. I decided to take advantage of the back to school season and choose two locations where school children and their parents would buy clothing. I chose the stores based on reputation. I spent time at the upscale Macy’s in the Mall of America and at the secondhand store Goodwill. To make my observations not so obvious I browsed the clothing sections and even tried items on. Macy’s was definitely more out of my comfort zone because it is so expensive and fancy. I even felt uncomfortable in the restroom. Another factor that increased my discomfort knew I didn’t look as well as the other customers. I was among individuals with purses that cost more than my mortgage. I felt uncomfortable at Goodwill, but not nearly as uncomfortable as I did at Macy’s. I felt uncomfortable at...
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...environment, making new friends, stepping out of my comfort zone and so much more. Let's put them into details: 1. Independence - I think independence can be picked up even locally, but your parents will always be there to pick you up when you fall unlike when you are overseas by yourself. That to me, living by yourself, simple things like; settling your daily meals & needs, doing laundry and just everything by yourself is one of the best ways to me to up your independence. 2. Exploring new things / different culture - Like what Mary Anne Radmacher said, "I am not the same, having seen the moon on the other side of the world." Embracing a whole different culture will not only help better myself as an individual but also widen my horizons that can be useful whether it is in business settings or street knowledge in the near future. 3. Making new friends - There's nothing better than making more friends, especially around the world. Period. I like to see having friends in this manner "Friends teaches you life lessons like no others can." 4. Stepping out of my comfort zone - I think this is one of the greatest takeaways from the OSEP. Just basically, staying in a foreign country where English isn’t native language for close to half a year, the longest, I had ever left Singapore. What you hope to gain out of it? All in all, I hope to gain not only memories that will last a lifetime but also personal lessons or experiences from every individual or situation I...
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...that I had to take a courageous step to come out of my comfort zone. Some of them include moving to U.S. from my native country, attending school in America, the first time performing on stage for a school play, my first swimming lesson, starting my own business, and pursuing my MBA degree. On the other hand, there are still certain things I dared not to step out of my comfort zone; things like riding the roller coaster, dining in the restaurant by myself, and learning to say “No” to other people. Every time when I am facing with a choice of whether to stay put with my limitations or expand it out of my comfort zone; I begin to look into my fears, personal limits, and boundaries. Many times the reasons why I wouldn’t step of the box because I could not predict what the final outcome is going to be, and I wasn’t ready for change in my lives. There were moments that I would prefer to stay where I was in life and just hope that something grand would come my way in the very near future. Yet, I know that there is more for me to do with my lives. As I replay the moments I stepped out of my comfort zone, they actually felt great. I felt I had just conquered my fear of something like being afraid of water, being shy, accepting and encountering challenges in a new environment, change, and taking risks. As I expand my comfort zone, it is that slightly over the boundary of comfort; but I am controlling it. I can stop it...
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...positive results can mean stepping out of one’s comfort zone and doing things you have never tried before. Real life experiences taught me to always be result driven in everything I am doing. When I was an IT manager at an accounting audit firm, one of my tasks was to prepare a yearly financial budget for my department. Unfortunately, all I knew in accounting at that time was the basic balance sheet theory which was not enough to complete this task. My Focus was getting the desired result, although I had no idea where to start, I immediately thought of attending a crash course to help me through the process, and I quickly consulted one of my accountant colleagues who gave me a crash course on how to go about getting the budget done. The process was quite challenging, getting au fait with the accounting language and understanding the budget process took me a while because it was not my comfort zone, however, I never gave up which was very...
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...There was no doubt a moment I felt alone. From the day I got home from the hospital until this present day moment my family and friends have always been by my side. With the inability to move, I realized how much others cared about me. Every day and every night we had family and friends over with either some awfully delicious food or some gorgeous scented flowers, some even came with silly get well soon cards and those fluffy teddy bears that I used to love when I was a little girl. You forget about the pain and the negative thoughts you have when you are surrounded by ones that love and care about you. In our world, we take things for granted. We are so fortunate to be living in such a wonderful country. But do we ever take the opportunity to acknowledge the good things that happen in our lives? Wrong, we don’t. For me? I do. I learned to acknowledge every little thing in life from this experience. It was not a downfall but an upbringing into a new world. A world that I am so thankful to be in because of everything and everyone in...
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...grade the only high school I dreamed of attending was Blackstone Valley Tech (BVT). One Monday afternoon in mid-spring was the day I received that little white envelope and that dream became a reality. On my first day at Valley Tech I knew I had immediately found a new home. The reason being, I found myself in a place where being yourself and exploring your full potential is highly encouraged. It was crazy to think that I was in the same position as three hundred people, from thirteen towns with diverse interests, each of us starting a new chapter of our lives. This idea had a big influence on me starting at a new school. Sometime within that first week, in a car ride home with my mom, I said to her, “This is an opportunity to reinvent myself”. I took this saying with me for the rest of the year and still to this day....
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...in our bodies because we are all adopted. Growing up in this unique household showed me the world from another perspective when my family and I embarked on a journey to adopt my younger sister from China. Traveling back to my birth country shaped me into the person I am today because I have become open-minded...
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...abroad implies leaving your family, your friends, and adapting yourself to a new culture and to a new city; but in the end you will live the joy of your new life with new friends, more knowledge, and probably you will get the job of your dreams, or whatever your first purpose of changing was. When we think on change sometimes we think that it must be something painful, and it can be, but we need to learn to postpone our rewards. Change means sacrifice some things to get others even better. And as I already said, although the process of change can be painful and frustrating, the reward can be bigger than this pain. Starting the change is just a matter learning where you must start; people can change their lives if they dare leaving their comfort zone, creating a dream and taking action. I. Create a dream Creating a dream is the first step to start changing your life, and this means that you need to set your first goals. Bird (2012) uses the term 3% to mean that you need set a little goal. He recommends setting a goal that you feel comfortable with, and that you are completely sure you can achieve. In other words, you need little dreams to star your change and then the change will get bigger and bigger as you go on, because if you want to succeed in change realism is an important point; for example, if your goal is to become a CEO of a company, but you have no experience, this goal might not be realistic, or at least not yet. A 3% goal would be getting experience and as you go on...
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...I feel caught, trapped in a vortex of anxiety, stress, and procrastination. After self-criticism, I think the most common factor which helps me to procrastinate is because I'm disorganized, and I want to do everything at the same time in the last minute. The answer of this question warned me to take action and step up strategies that I can apply in my life to face these issues. So from there to face these issues , I write down my goal and give myself a deadline. Because a goal without a deadline can put me off. Visualize the future I want. I Imagine the emotions I will feel. Picture myself in a favorite place celebrating what I’ve accomplished.I Imagine those who love me most celebrating my success. And I act bravely daily. Starting today.I Build momentum because it is crucial as I start out. So I commit to stepping out of my comfort zone at least once per day. Every I keep positive attitude and i behave. I know It can be something really small. After all, it doesn’t matter how fast you are going, so long as I'm stepping forward in a direction that inspires me. So this is the steps i take when I face procrastination...
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...I plan to make my music stand out by doing things I’ve never seen done before such as stepping out of my comfort zone and playing with other musicians that I never played with before. I want to jump outside of the box and work hard to reach my goals of becoming an accomplished musician. I would include things in my music that have true meaning. I would like to be able to make someone’s bad day into a good day. I want my music to express the feelings I have about what is going on in the world around us. I would like for people to let my music flow though their minds, forget their problems and be able to look forward to the future that will bring a brighter day. Themes that I would explore in my music would be about life experiences, exploring different cultures, genres and styles. Doing these things will help me become a better accomplish musician and have a better understanding of the music world. I want my audience to feel and have passion for my music. I want them to know that every note that they hear has a meaning. Whether it is an emotional or a physical response, I want my audience to feel something when they listen to my music. After listening, I want people to be inspired to play an instrument, sing or hum. I want them to know that they can do anything they want, as long as they are determined. I will want my music to allow people to move away from their comfort zone. My music will make people want to experience, appreciate and create music. My work so far has allowed...
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...Personal Action Plan and Observation COMM/315 June 25th 2012 Elizabeth Jane Riegner, RN, PhD, NCC Personal Action Plan and Observation Social Class differences in American society are typically described as lower, middle or upper class. This determines to a large extent where one lives, work, go to school and even worship. Social class refers to one’s status in society and is usually determined by a variety of social and economic factors such as net worth, position of power, job title and dwelling. (Bucher, 2010). Other superficial factor that comes into play in social class distinction includes type of outfit, hairstyle, car, makeup, jewelry and mannerisms. The purpose of this paper is to observe a different social class outside of my normal environment and develop a personal action plan based on my observation to share with class while integrating my new found knowledge to improving cultural awareness and diversity skills. Observation I place myself in the middle class category based on my profession, net income, and decent home in the suburban area. Because of my middle class status, I chose to observe people I believe to be in the upper socio-economic class. I chose the Lenox mall located at Buckhead- Atlanta GA which has been frequented by the superstars and Millionaires. I took advantage of the weekend shopping for father's day to visit the mall and chose the high end store called Louis Vuitton (LV), a luxurious brand name store that sells variety of leather...
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...measure of a man is not where he stands in the moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy,” is a strong quote by Martin Luther King Jr which is a statement that I think is true. A man cannot be judged on his actions when he is comfortable, but when he is going through challenges and hardship. Literary work that shows this is true is in the book Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the character Hamlet is found in conflicts and dilemmas that he cannot solve. This quote is also true in Lord of the flies by the character Ralph who tries to find out who the beast is but cannot see that it is the savagery between the boys on the Island and the character piggy...
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...generation is ready for a change. Brett and Alex our twin brothers from Oregon who were taught at home by their parents. When they were only sixteen years old, they got the chance to intern at the Alabama Supreme Court and did everything from make copies of documents to drafting internal memorandums for some of the state justices. When they were seventeen, they served as grass-root directors for four statewide political campaigns. At eighteen, they authored the most popular Christian teen blog on the web. These are just some of the things they have accomplished. Through-out this book, they talk about a word that they made up called “Rebelution” which means for teens to rebel against low expectations and to do the hard things. This does not mean doing hard things like break into a bank, or come up with a plan to take over the world. It means to challenge yourself to grab hold of more exciting options for your teen years rather than doing what our society sees us teens doing in today’s world. How do you do hard things you might ask? It could be by stepping outside of your comfort zone and doing something you would not normally do like Jared for example. His youth group’s worship leader was going away for a mission trip. Even though Jared had only been playing guitar for a short amount of time, he stepped outside of his comfort zone. A year later, he was leading worship for the entire church; and his band is looking to put out their first album. Another thing you can do is to get other...
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...so inspiring about this children’s book? Well, it may look like a colourful bedtime story for someone less than four feet tall, but in reality, this poem contains virtually all you’ll ever need to know to make it successfully through life. This poem has so many lifelong lessons that it could easily be compared to any song. Here are some examples: A lyric from the song Anything, “Don’t play with fire...forget that, I can do anything”. The singer is emphasizing that everyone should pursue their dreams. You might counter unexpected challenges, but these obstacles will help you grow and compel you to step out of your comfort zone. Likewise, there will be people who will reprimand every choice you make but you should never let these naysayers waver your ambitions. A quote from the poem,“Waiting around for a Yes or No... Everyone is just waiting”. The author is indicating that people do not like making choices because they presume that one wrong turn will lead to a bitter...
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