A Comparative Essay Of The Poems ‘Salome’ (C.A.Duffy) and ‘The Arrival Of The Bee Box’ (S.Plath) Essay Example for Free

A Comparative Essay Of The Poems ‘Salome’ (C.A.Duffy) and ‘The Arrival Of The Bee Box’ (S.Plath) Essay ‘Salome’ by Carol Ann Duffy and ‘The Arrival Of The Bee Box’ by Sylvia Plath have many similarities and differences. ‘Salome’ is ostensibly a poem about an individual, most likely a woman, who wakes up and finds ‘a head on the pillow’ beside them. The poem continues to detail their immediate actions and finally reveals that this head is in fact ‘on a platter’. ‘The Arrival Of The Bee Box’ appears on the surface to describe the empowerment felt by an individual as they explore their control over a box of bees. An interesting similarity is both poets are female. C. A. Duffy was born in Glasgow in 1995 and is the eldest of five children. Plath was born in 1932 and was born in Boston. If you read the poems from a biographical perspective it is possible to identify certain factors which the poet has included due to their personal circumstances. Personally, I believe that both C. A. Duffy and S. Plath have points to make. For example, Duffy’s poem could be seen to have many links to the role of woman in society and the power they possess over their male counterparts. This mental attitude, which has filtered through into her poetry, could stem from the fact she is the first women and the first openly gay person to hold the position of Britain’s poet laureate. Similarly, ‘The Arrival Of The Bee Box’ contains subversive ideas of power and possibly connotations to women taking an untraditional role in society. In ‘Salome’ the pace, tone, rhythm and structure are all fractured. This is very effective as it reflects the psychological standing of the voice in the poem. The effect is created through the techniques of enjambment and rhetorical questions and these can be observed in the fifth line â€Å"what did it matter? . The line is isolated and this draws the reader’s attention to it. Alongside this the rhetorical question then compels the reader to think â€Å"what did it matter? †. This emphasises the point to the reader that it does matter and is very important in the given context of the poem. By contrast, ‘The Arrival Of The Bee Box’ is made from six uniform stanzas of five lines. There is little by way of caesura and it therefore differs greatly, in terms of structure at least, from ‘Salome’. Personally, I believe this is because the speaker is portrayed as being more collected and comfortable with the received power, relative to the voice in ‘Salome’. The second line is an excellent example; â€Å"Square as a chair and almost too heavy to lift. † The rhyme of ‘square’ and ‘chair’ gives a positive sound and in turn this can be seen to signify control and enjoyment of power. The above evidence suggests that C. A. Duffy and S. Plath both have different ideas on which way structurally is best to communicate their ideas. However, I believe the free structure of ‘Salome’ adds more than the rigid structure of ‘The Arrival of The Bee Box’ as it generates an extra dimension in which readers can have more freedom to interpret the desired meaning of the poem themselves. Integral to both poems is the theme of power and the relation it has with the owner, especially women. The similarity and hegemony is this attack on the stereotypical views that if allowed to stand could drive woman to the periphery of society. In ‘Salome’ the voice is somewhat of a ‘player’ and it is this scopophilic attitude which generates Duffy’s point. In a modern society it is often seen as ‘cool’ or ‘macho’ for a male to sleep with many women. By contrast, if females replicate these actions then they stand a high chance of being bombarded with derogatory terms. It would appear that S. Plath would chose to focus more on the interest of power. She refers to different times in history (Greek, Slave Trade, Roman). This sets quite a theatrical atmosphere because referring to these superpowers through the ages helps the reader to appreciate the importance of power in our society both in the past, present and future. It highlights the fact that in Duffy’s opinion (and I agree) that it is embedded in humans to seek out power and control others. Overall, both poets have similar themes in their poems but chose to express them in different ways. A similarity between both poems is that they make allusions to either religious names or different parts of the Bible. C. A. Duffy in ‘Salome’ chooses to use iconic Christian names such as John and Peter. Whereas S. Plath uses the concept of a heaven; â€Å"There is the laburnum, its blond colonnades, And the petticoats of the cherry. † The description of this utopian setting could be linked to the feelings felt by the voice in ‘Salome’ when she/it says ‘I saw my eyes glitter†¦and ain’t life a bitch’. The voice sounds as though it is satisfied, justice has been done and it has reached a metaphorical destination. This destination, in my opinion, is that the voice feels like they have somehow reached equality by committing this grotesque act. A large influence in terms of language in both poems is the personal pronoun ‘I’. This similarity is most likely due to the recurring them of power in each poem. The narrators are trying to express that they are the ones in charge. The language in both poems is very simplistic but the words can be used in quite complex ways. Both poets have chosen not to overcomplicate their language and I think they have made their poems very accessible to all people. Colours are used in both poems for different effects. In ‘Salome’ the ‘red sheets’ could signify the anger felt by the voice for the injustices that have driven them to undertake the atrocity. In ‘The Arrival Of The Bee Box’ ‘the petticoats of the cherry’ and the ‘blond colonnades’ are used as the colours of the heaven. The use of colours is different in each poem but both work well. In conclusion, I feel that Carol Ann Duffy and Sylvia Plath are both very successful in presenting their ideas in the two poems. The poems are left open to interpretation and depending on the type of reading you undertake (colonial, biographical, etc) they can mean different things to different people. However, I personally feel that ‘Salome’ is more interesting and mesmerising to the reader. This is most likely due to the fact I found ‘The Arrival Of The Bee Box’ too abstract for me and I found it difficult to grasp. I think the poems have opened my eyes not only to the inequalities felt by certain groups of society but also to the disparities across the globe in general.

Race Conflict and Issues: Whites and Non-Whites Post- Revolution Essay

European settlers have a long history of mistreating Native Americans. The most famous example is the Trail of Tears in which President Van Buren and the federal government forcibly and violently removed Cherokee Indians in 1838 from their native land. Over 18 thousand Cherokee women, men and children were forced to walk 1,000 miles from Georgia to Oklahoma. Of these people, 4,000 died from harsh weather, starvation and exposure to illnesses. European settlers during this time viewed Native Americans as uncivilized savage and used this perception to justify violently removing the Native Americans from their land. Native Americans initially accepted the European settlements but pleaded against being removed. The status of African-Americans in this time has generated debate among historians but there is enough evidence to show they were perceived similar to Native Americans; as not equal to European settlers. European settlers justified this by denying their natural rights. African-Am ericans, however, were seen as useful resources and they remained on their land and were used as slaves. In return African-Americans responded by attempting to escape to their freedom. Native Americans were viewed poorly in the eyes of European settlers. "Europeans early perceptions of Indians were an important factor in how explorers and early colonist dealt with Native American people and in the end subdued them. They were sometimes considered barbarians because of their different lifestyle. European settled discussed in primary sources how their rituals and traditions were "horrible and abominable, and deserving punishment.† For example, Native Americans sacrifice souls to their idols as a ritual. Europeans did not think this was good behavi... ...wn ever received a like sentence. The court made these rulings simply because of the color of their skins, which to them reduced African-Americans to a status lower than any white person. It is evident that the Native Americans were unfairly removed from their homeland because the Europeans settlers saw them as savages not worthy to live among them. The Native Americans responded to their cruelty with pleads of desperation. These pleads of desperation were annoyed and instead excuses of doing what’s â€Å"best† for them both proceeded. Works Cited Breen, T. H., and Stephen Innes. "Myne owne ground": race and freedom on Virginia's Eastern Shore, 1640-1676. 25th anniversary Ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Wheeler, William Bruce, and Susan D. Becker. Discovering the American past: a look at the evidence. 6th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2007.

Migration from developing countries Essay

Migration process originated from ancient times when people move from this place to other place due to the exhaustion of nature resources. Pass thousands year of development, people have not only searched for natural resources for their demand but also they have looked for a life with high quality of living, education and social security. Nowadays, there are many people living for away from their home country. Environmental problems, poor, conflict and riot, corruption and gap between rich and poor countries are all factor cause migration. As the matter of the fact is almost migrants move from developing countries to developed countries such as the United States, Canada, France, Italy and Germany to find stabilization and freedom. According to United Nations (2013), 3.2 percent of world’s population – over 230 million people were international migrants in 2013. Moreover, migrants have significant influence in not only society but also economy of both abandoned countries and the countries they are moving to. Although, migration could lead to brain drain and income inequality but migration from developing countries to developed countries should not stopped because it provides considerable labor for the shortage of workers in developed countries as well as reducing the poverty in developing countries. Migration should not be stopped because migrants from developing countries are providing a large proportion of worker for labor shortages in developed countries. According to a report from International Business Leader (n.d), more than 40% of labor forces in the Gulf region are migrants. Additionally, the labor workforce in the United States is increasing because of growing of international migration. Foreign-born persons (in the United States) accounted for 16.4 percent of the local labor force – 23.1 million people (Singer 2012). Furthermore, over one in every four foreign workers in the United Stated are Mexican – made up approximately 4 percent of labor force (Grieco & Ray 2004). Furthermore, according to Labor Force survey of Eurostat (2013), in 2012, 8.6 million foreigners who came from outside Europe worked in 27 countries in Europe. These data figures suggest that the supplementation of migrants from developing countries into labor force in developed countries were strong evidence for the benefit of migration. However, it has been argued that migration leads to brain drain in developing countries. The International Organization of Migration (IOM) estimated that Africa has lost one-third of its human resources,  particularly skilled people (Siddiqui, 2012). Since 1990, proximately 20,000 doctors, university lectures, engineers and other professionals have gone to developed countries every year (Unesco, (n.d)). This view claims that brain drain is a worrying problem in some countries that have a small number of qualified people in workforce. For example, Ethiopia has the highest rate of losing human resources. Over 10 -15 years ago, 50% of Ethiopians did not come back their country after finishing their courses in foreign countries (African Renaissance Ambassador (n.d)). Moreover, between 1988 and 1991, 74,6% of human capital from many different organizations was lost in Ethiopia (African Renaissance Ambassador (n.d)). Additionally, 75% Jamaicans who are highly educated have been in the United States (Newland, 2003). According to Migration Policy Institute, a huge proportion of highly skilled people – 12% of population in Mexico is working in the United States and 30% of its was PhDs (Newland, 2003). Therefore, if losing highly skilled people continues, impact of brain drain from migration to developing countries is enormous. The is no denying the fact that developing countries have lost many highly skilled people due to migration but they also got benefits from its. Firstly, developing countries received a lot of remittances from migrants. In 2010, according to the Factbook’s, remittances from migrants sending back to developing countries increased from $307 billion in 2009 to $325 billion in 2010 – three times the size of official development assistances (Theguardian, 2010). Most of remittances amount are transferred to middle- income countries. Furthermore, remittances have an important role in some poorest countries that made up to 25% of countries’ GDP (Theguardian, 2010). Secondly, there is a trend for migrants to return their home countries taking new skills and knowledge back with them base on policies for attracting talent of the government in developing countries. For example, Chinese government has attached special important to seek and develop talent for Chinese living aboard in recent years through some programs such as the 2008 Thousand Talents Program; 2010 Thousand Young Talents Program; 2011 Thousand Foreign Experts Program; 2011 Special Talent Zone and the 2012 Ten Thousand Talent Plan. The purpose of those programs was to attract Chinese migrants return back and contribute their talent for the development of nation. In 2008, over 3,300 Chinese highly skilled professional returned back their home countries by The Thousand Talents  Program (United Nations Chronicle (2013)). Consequently, the problem of brain drain would not be a matter of concern of migration from developing countries to developed countries. Another issues are migration can reduce poverty in developing countries. At national level, remittances from international migrants have considerable effect on poverty. According a survey of Adams and Page (2005) which crossing 71 countries, investigated that every 10% of increasing in official international remittances per capita causes decline of 3.5% in people living poverty. Furthermore, international remittances was proved as a method for â€Å" deep and severity of poverty† in Latin America, East – West and South Africa, South Asia and other religion (Adams 1991; Adams 2006; Ajayi et al. 2009; Anyanwu and Erhijakpor 2010; Fajnzylber and Lopez 2007; Gupta et al. 2007; Lachaud 1999). In Nepal, national poverty rate decreased from 42% in 1995-1996 to 31% in 2003-2004 because of growing significantly in remittances (World Bank 2006). In addition, remittances were responsible for considerable reduction on poverty at family level. In South Africa, remittances from migrants accounted for 32% of household income in rural (Rwelamira and Kirsten 2003). In overall migrant household income in the four districts of Bangladesh, 55% of its were from international remittances (Siddiqui & Abrar 2003). According to the IOM household remittance survey of Bangladesh (2009) investigated that remittances were cause of 20% migrant household who have increased household income at least once. Dang & et all (2010) found that families have members which are migrant can earn more money and save it better than family with no migrants. In Ghana, the impact of economic shocks on household welfare had already decreased significantly due to remittances (Kwankye and Anarfi 2011). On the other hand, some studies found that international remittances are likely to increase income inequality. In 2006, base on data of household survey in Ghana, Adams investigated that Gini index is a standard measure of income inequality, increased from 0.402 to 0.413 when remittances are included in family income. Furthermore, richer family received remittances much more than poorer family in Eastern European and former Soviet Union (World Bank, 2007). Milanovic (1987) also support for this idea after using panel date from the 1973, 1978 and 1983 Yugoslavian household survey, the inequality is increased due to international remittances. According to Stahl (1982) and Lipton (1980)  migration tend to increase inequality in rural areas because only wealthy families can give facilities for searching better change for family’s members in urban or aboard. In addition, a study of Adams (1989) indicated increasing inequality has happened Egypt because of international remittances. It has argued that international remittances have no impact to increase significantly income inequality, even decrease income inequality index. In 2006, Mckenzie analyzed data of 214 cities with population less than 100,000 people and investigated that migration is a cause of increasing income inequality in the early period but as levels of migration increase, remittances tend to reduce income inequality. Additionally, a survey conducted in Philippines by Yang and Martinez (2006) with a sample group of 26,121 families, which showed that the impact of international remittances on income equality was not statistically significant. Moreover, other report also indicated that remittances have positive effect to increase income and decrease income inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean (Acosta & et al, 2007). In another recent study, Gubert, Lassourd and Mesplà ©-Somps (2009) found that poverty rates in Mali decreased from 16% to 11% and income inequality by about 5%. Similarly, remittances have been toward for improving the welfare of poorer rural households (Stark and Taylor (1989); Adams (1991)). Therefore, international remittances have impact of decreasing income equality in developing countries. Migration is not problem for one country or one area of the world. Furthermore, migration has both positive and negative effect to country of origin and destination. However, the fact is that developing countries continue to face challenges to brain drain and income inequality caused by migration. In addition international remittances from migrant sending their home countries help to reduce poverty at nation and family level. At the same time, migration from developing countries provides a huge proportion of worker for labor shortage in developed countries. Migration is benefit to the social and economy. This is to say; migration from developing countries to developed countries should not be stopped because of reducing poverty and providing employees for labor shortage. Reference: Acosta, P., Fajnzylber, P and Lopez, J. H. (2007). The Impact of Remittances on Poverty and Human Capital: Evidence from Latin American Household Surveys. World Bank Policy Research Working, paper 4247, June. Adams, R., H., Jr. 1989. Worker Remittances and Inequality in Rural Egypt. Economic Development and Cultural Change 38, No. 1: 45-71. Adams, R., H., Jr. 1991. The Effects of International Remittances on Poverty, Inequality, and Development in Rural Egypt. IFPRI Research Report 86, Washington: IFPRI Adams, R. H. Jr 2006. Remittances and poverty in Ghana. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3838. Washington, DC: World Bank. African Renaissance Ambassador (n.d). Brain drain in Africa.. Last viewed 26 June 2014, from http://www.aracorporation.org/files/factsandfigures.pdf Biffl, G (n.d). Labour market integration of low skilled migrants in Europe: economic impact. Last viewed 26 June 2014, from http://migrationfiles.ucdavis.edu/uploads/rs/files/2012/ciip/biffl-eu-lowskilledmigrants.pdf Clemens, M. 2007. Do Visas Kill? Health Effects of African Health Professional Emigration. CGD Working Paper, No. 114, Center for Global Development, Washington DC. Grieco, E. & Ray, B. 2004. Mexican immigrants in the United States labor force. Last viewed 26 June 2014, from http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/mexican-immigrants-us-labor-force Gubert, F.; T. Lassourd; and S. Mesplà ©-Somps. 2009. Do remittances affect poverty and inequality?: Evidence from Mali. Last view 29 June 2014 from http://gdri.dreem.free.fr/wp-content/gubert_lassourd_mesple-somps_paper.pdf Eurostat, (2013). Labor force survey: Foreign citixens accounted for 7% of total employment in the Eu27 in 2012. Last viewed 29 June 2014, from http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_PUBLIC/3-07062013-BP/EN/3-07062013-BP-EN.PDF Hall, M., Singer, A., Jong, F. F. D, and Graefe, D. R 2011. The geography of immigration skills: Educational profiles of metropolitan areas. Last viewed 26 June 2014, from http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2011/06/immigrants-singer International Business Leader (2010). Business and migration: from risk to opportunity. Last viewed 29 June 2014, from http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.gbsnonline.org/resource/collection/C6833BC0-02C0-42E2-8804-5FAB1D3B217B/BusinessAndMigration.pdf Lipton. M. (1980), â€Å"Migration from Rural Areas of Poor Countries: The Impact of Rural Productivity and Income Distribution†, World Development, Vol. 8, 1 – 24. Lucas ,R.E.B 2006. Migrations and Economic Development in Africa: A Review of Evidence. Journal of African Economies, Vol. 15, AERC Supplement 2, pp. 337-395. McKenzie, D. (2006), â€Å"Beyond Remittances: The Effects of Migration on Mexican Households†, in C. Ozden and M. Schiff (eds), International Migration, Remittances and the Brain Drain, World Bank, Washington, DC Milanovic, B. 1987.Patterns of Regional Growth in Yugoslavia, 1952-1983, Journal of Development Economics, vol. 25, pp. 1-19. Newland, K. (2003). Migrantion as a factor in development and poverty reduction. Last viewed 29 June 2014, from http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/migration-factor-development-and-poverty-reduction Singer. E 2012. Immigration workers in the U.S labor force. Last viewed 26 June 2014, from http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2012/03/15-immigrant-workers-singer Siddiqui, T. (2012). Impact of migration on poverty and development. Last viewed 29 June 2014, from http://migratingoutofpoverty.dfid.gov.uk/files/file.php?name=wp2-impact-of-migration-on-poverty-and-development.pdf&site=354 Stahl, C., (1982). Labor Emigration and Economic Development, International Migration Review, Vol. 16, 868 – 99. Stark, O and Taylor J. E. (1989), â€Å"Relative Deprivation and International Migration†, Demography, vol 22, 1 – 4. Theguardian, (2010). Migrants send home three times more money than countries receive in developed aid, says World Bank. Last view 29 June 2014, from http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2010/nov/10/migrants-send-money-home-aid United Nations Chronicle (2013). China’s return migration and its impact on home development. Last viewed 26 June 2014, from http://unchronicle.un.org/article/chinas-return-migration-and-its-impact-home-development/ United Nations (2013) Number of international migrants rise above 232 million. Last viewed 30 June 2014, from http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/population/number-of-international-migrants-rises.html Unesco (n.d). From brain drain. Last view 29 June 2014, from http://www.unesco.org/education/education_today/brain.pdf World Bank (2007a), Migration and Remittances: Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union. World Bank, Washington DC. Yang, D., and C. Martinez (2006), â€Å"Remittances and Poverty In Migrants’ Home Areas: Evidence from the Philippines†, in C. Ozden and M. Schiff (eds), International Migration, Remittances and the Brain Drain, World Bank,

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