Jay Gatsby- The Legend Essay Example for Free

Jay Gatsby- The Legend Essay ‘It is not enough to make progress; we must make it in the right direction. ’ How important is it to apply this saying our lives? Well, is very important. What is that makes us human beings and not animals? Is it where we come from and what we have or self-control of our wants and needs? To what extent are we ready to go to gain power that we no longer remember who we are! Jay Gatsby from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby will be able to answer these questions to us. Jay Gatsby, a year or two over thirty, was a mysterious persona. He lived in West Egg, Long Island and was greatly known in the locality for his lavish parties that housed both the invited as well as the uninvited. With extravagant cuisine, rich fresh fruits from New York, Vladimir Tostoff’s Jazz and his Rolls Royce moving to and fro picking up guests, Jay Gatsby threw big parties. He used the phrase ‘old sport’ very often while addressing everybody. His picking of words with care only showed some fishiness regarding his identity. By calling himself an Oxford Educated and wealthy person without any family, he camouflaged his true identity and was a liar. Jay Gatsby, was truly James Gatz a nobody from North Dakota whose parents were unsuccessful farm people. Gatsby’s humiliation of being poor and a man without any class increased his hunger for power and he didn’t care how he got it. â€Å"Contemporary legends such as the â€Å"underground pipe-line to Canada. attached themselves to him, and there was one persistent story that he didn’t live in a house at all, but in a boat that looked like a house and was moved secretly up and down the Long Island shore† (Fitzgerald) only establishes the fact that his business was unethical and notorious. He was a bootlegger and had various links to people like Wolfsheim. His current attitude and outlook that showed off his wealth and dignity was certainly not inherit ed as he worked as a janitor and was a drop out from St. Olaf’s college in Minnesota. Unhappy about his poverty and class, â€Å"he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end. † (Fitzgerald) His belief that money and power could accomplish anything and change the past, only portrays his blatant attitude that led to conceal his true identity and he thus showed off his wealth through his parties despite that fact that it mostly invited fake people. Madly in love with Daisy, a beautiful woman who was married to the Tom Buchanan, Gatsby hoped to win her back and thus kept throwing those wonderfully big parties. His world and life revolved around the dream of winning back his love Daisy. â€Å"Gatsby buys his West Egg mansion with the sole intention of being across the bay from Daisy Buchanans green light at the end of her dock, a fantasy which becomes Gatsbys personal version of the American Dream† (Novel Analysis). Having his emotions bottled up for Daisy for so many years, it became a burning passion in his heart, made him very obsessive. He used richness and wealth to lure her back to him. His love for Daisy had blinded him to the fact that she had left him for a man with solid position, wealth and prosperity which was another reason in his life to become rich. He idolized her and he felt married to her and wanted her back at any cost even though she killed Myrtle-Tom’s lover while driving Gatsby’s car. Having lived the life the way he want and working towards achieving his goal and dream, Jay Gatsby is that legend with whom we can relate ourselves. We all have wants and desires. But his desire for Daisy only led to his downfall. Misguided by his belief and seeking vengeance for Myrtle’s murder, Myrtle’s husband George killed Gatsby in his own pool thinking that it was Gatsby who murdered his Myrtle which in reality was Daisy! A funeral with only few friends and his father Henry Gatz and none of the fake people who attended his parties, nor Daisy for whom he was killed, Jay Gatsby’s life only portrays that it is not money that maketh man, it is his values and ideals. It is not what we want, but why we want something and a constant check on the direction we are going makes us who we are!

Loneliness and Dreams in Mice of men Essay Example for Free

Loneliness and Dreams in Mice of men Essay John Steinbeck wrote the novel of Mice and Men during the great depression. During this time there were few jobs which meant people had to migrate in search of jobs. This meant they were constantly moving and could not establish lasting friendships or relationships. Steinbeck portrays the loneliness and hardship felt by people living through the 1930s American depression. He shows how the dreams of the characters were what helped them survive through this period. In this essay I will discuss the dreams and loneliness of the characters in the novel and how Steinbeck reveals each characters loneliness and dreams. George and Lennie both experience loneliness. Even though they had each other George needed somebody on his wavelength, with his level of maturity because Lennie is like a child and does not think like an adult, he is mentally retarded. One almost gets the feeling that he doesnt want Lennie for companionship at all when he is talking to Lennie about how he would live without him. God a mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. Page 11 As George carries on talking of his laid back carefree lifestyle he dreams of he progressively gets angrier. It makes the reader wonder why he even stays with Lennie if he feels so overwhelmed with the responsibility of looking out for Lennie. George is a thinker he sees how bitter other men on the ranch have become through their loneliness; George knows that staying with Lennie stops him from being truly lonely. He also has protection from Lennie because he knows he is safe when he has a big guy like Lennie as his friend. Looking out for Lennie gives him a purpose, a reason, a role in his life he gets the satisfaction of knowing he is needed. George fell silent. He wanted to talk. Page 41 This quote is from when George talks to Slim. He is happy to have the chance to talk to someone on his level of maturity. As Slim is a good listener and tries to understand the relationship between George and Lennie. Lennie doesnt really experiences loneliness although he needs to pet something, to hold something. He always has George to look after him sees George as a father figure. George instructs him on how to behave and what to do in certain situations. Slowly, like a terrier who doesnt want to bring a ball to its master, Lennie approached, page 9 This quote is taken from when George wants to take a dead mouse away from Lennie who doesnt want to give it up. It reveals how George has an authority over Lennie. George and Lennies dream is to one day own some land. They wish to live on this land and be their own boss. George no longer wants to comply with somebody elses rules. He wants to have a purpose in working hard on the land because then he will benefit from his hard work. Whereas when working on a ranch he is working hard for somebody elses profits. Lennie is only interested in tending to the rabbits. He just wants to be able to pet some animals. His dream fits in with Georges it doesnt matter if he owns the land or not. Curleys wifes name is never mentioned she is always referred to as Curleys wife. Steinbeck never uses her name because the other men see her as belonging to Curley, just another possession of his on the ranch Curleys wife is the only woman on the ranch, she married Curley recently and she is still quite young. She is lonely because she has no one to confide in. When she wants to talk to the men she uses the excuse she is looking for Curley. Any you boys seen Curley? Pg81 This quote is from when Lennie, Candy and Crooks are in Crooks room and Curleys wife comes in. In this chapter we know she uses the excuse she is looking for Curley as a way to talk to the men on the ranch. We know this because, after the men tell her he hasnt been there she says Think I dont know where they all went? Even Curley. I know where they all went. Page 81 She uses this excuse every time she wants to talk to the men but she has shown that she knew exactly where he was this time. She then calls them the weak ones the bunch of bindle stiffs but even after that she wishes to talks to them. This is because she is desperate for some company anyone to talk to. She is seen to be a tart and jail bait by the other men on the ranch, but she still wants to have them for company. Curleys wife also had dream, she still has, and when she was younger she wanted to be an actress. She says how she could have been famous, rich and happy. I coulda made somethin of myself. She said darkly, Maybe I will yet. Pg 93 The fact that she still hopes to fulfil her dream is rather pathetic. Her dream is very unrealistic she will never break free from her unhappy marriage. She has this dream because it is a form of escapism, she can pretend that she is not lonely and that one-day she will not have to live the way she very much dislikes. I tell you I aint used to livin like this. Pg 93 She reveals her dreams to Lennie when hes on his own she finds that the men only talk to her when they are on their own. Even when Lennie is on his own he is reluctant to talk to her because of what George has said about her. Crooks is a Negro in a society that considers non-whites as sub-human. He also is partially crippled which does not help when he is living in a society that value people by their ability to provide a service. Because of his race he does not sleep in the same room as the other workers, he lives in the room where he works in and a manure pile under the window. Because of this Crooks spends most of his time on his own leading to a great feeling of loneliness. His only companions are his books and as he has seen people come and go he has acquired more possessions than the others have. His loneliness is revealed when he is talking to Lennie. Lennie is talking to Crooks in his room, telling him about the land they will one day own. A guy needs somebody-to be near him. Pg 77 Crooks reads books but because of his colour he has no friend not even somebody on his wavelength. He is on his own every night whereas all the other men share their room in the bunkhouse. Crooks is so overcome with his loneliness that he cannot hope or dream anymore. He doesnt take any notice of Lennies dream because he has heard it all before. I seen hundreds of men come by on the road An every damn one of ems got a little piece of land in his head. An never a god-damn one of em ever gets it. Pg 78 Although after he hears how this dream could become a reality Crooks is influenced and wants to join in. He later retracts his statement because of the way Curleys wife treats him. Well you keep your place, then, Nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it aint even funny. Pg 85 Shes racist and through her body language she shows that she has the authority over him. This is why he no longer wanted to join in with the plan of owning land. Candy is lonely because he has nobody; he only had one companion, which was his dog that he had since the dog was a puppy. Candy was very upset when his dog had to be killed. His loneliness is revealed when Carlson proposes that the dog should be shot. Whynt you shoot him, candy? The old man squirmed uncomfortably. Pg 47 The thought of Candys only companion being shot fills him with dread. The thought is uncomfortable. He tries many times to reason with Carlson and find a way that he can put off the death of his dog. Candy said hopefully, you aint got a gun. Pg 50 The only reason he lets his dog die is because he cannot argue with Carlson. Also Slim agreed with Carlson and Slim word is the law in this play, the voice of reason. Candy is so desperate for companionship that he keeps a blind dog that is in pain from dying in a way this is an act of selfishness. Candy listens attentively while George and Lennie are talking about their dream. He offers to buy the land they need to fulfil their dream. Sspose I went in with you guys. Thas three hundred an fifty bucks Id put in Pg 62 Candy is very old, because of the great depression there is no job security and because of this he thinks he will be sacked soon. At this point the dream seems more real to them than it has ever been before. Before it was just a fantasy, some thing to find comfort in, but he could never actually let himself believe it. They all sat still, all bemused by the beauty of the thing, Pg 64 I think now their dream is more realistic but not realistic enough because George says if Lennie and he dont spend anything they would have $450 but they are bound to spend something especially when George is interested in going to the cat house. Also the asking price is $600 it will take a lot longer for them to raise that amount of money. The great depression in America had its effect on many of the characters; money was hard to come by. Loneliness is a major theme in the novel Of Mice and Men because many of the characters suffer from this more than anything else. Loneliness kills Curleys wife, embitters Crooks and candy although Lennie and George put it off through the fact that they have each other for companionship. Guys like us, that work on the ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. Lennie broke in. But not us! Because because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and thats why Pg 14 Steinbeck doesnt offer any answers to the characters problem of loneliness. Showing the reader a graphic and moving portrayal of how loneliness affects people without providing an antidote or giving a happy ending makes the novel really sad. Lennie and Georges dream brought nothing but pain and grief instead of promised joy and happiness, which ties into the tittle of the book which was taken from a poem titled to a mouse by a Scottish poet called Robert Burns. This poem was about how a mouse, which had planned for the winter by making a nest, had its nest ruined by a tractor. George and Lennie planned carefully how they were going to achieve their dream of being free and independent but forces beyond their control shattered their dream. Steinbeck never suggests that dreams should not be had, Lennie and Georges dream was so powerful that Candy was drawn in and for a short time so was the cynical Crooks. This dream was what comforted Lennie and helped George survive. The dreams the characters had had to be had they were what was needed to hold on to, to survive and to work for. This period of time made people bitter because they were lonely, the only person they had to look out for was themselves, kindness had no place on the ranch. They all cried out for love and care but only Lennie openly expressed his need for it through his constant talk of rabbits. Characters like Crooks had become cynical, he had lost hope and he couldnt dream. At first when Lennie talked of his dream Crooks thought it was another pathetic dream he was beyond imagining how everything could be. Curleys wifes dream was rather pathetic and quite unrealistic but it was a form of escapism for her. So she fantasised about her dream coming true but it was her way of coping when she was in an unhappy marriage that she had no way out of. It is sad to think that the loneliness that she was trying to get away from killed her in the end.

Causes of the Revolutions in Latin America

Causes of the Revolutions in Latin America The French Revolution has often been credited with fanning the revolutionary flames that swept through Latin America at the turn of the nineteenth century. It thus seems logical that the struggle against Spain was conditioned by the ideas and events that caused the upheaval in France, and that the great liberators of the continent, men like Simon Bolivar and Jose de San Martin, were inspired by political tremors from across the sea. Yet a careful study of the Latin American uprisingsplaced against the nineteenth-century backdrop and amid the influences of the American Revolution, several English authors, and the writings of some liberal Jesuitsmakes the French connection rather difficult to discern. The scholar must also distinguish between the influence of the famous critics of the ancien regimeRousseau, Voltaire, Montesquieu, and the encyclopedistsand the impact of the guillotine. In Latin America, the first carried much more weight than the second. Placing the whole period in historical perspective, it is safe to say that French Jacobinism produced a negative reaction among most Latin revolutionary elites. By the mid-eighteenth century, the Creolesa powerful white minority born in the colonieswere undergoing a cultural crisis. Taught that their mother countries were glorious and powerful empires, they realized Spain and Portugal had become second-rate powers, far beneath mighty England and enlightened France. Seeking cultural independence, the Creoles learned economic liberalism from England and political liberalism from Francealong with near mystical faith in the power of a constitution, popular sovereignty, and the evils of absolutism. Ideologically armed, they aimed their criticisms against the obsolete policies of Spain and Portugal. Although increasingly chaffing under colonial rule, and impressed by these new ideas, the Creoles were far from revolutionaries. They wanted to curtail their monarchs authority and become equals to the Spaniards and Portuguese without violent upheaval. Surrounded by seemingly docile Indians, black slaves, and mestizos, most Creoles worried that any political turmoil would provoke a disastrous racial conflict. The Indian rebellions of 1791 in Peru (which had drawn the Creoles to the Spanish side), and the heroic, successful black revolt in Haiti in 1794 (the one Latin American uprising directly connected to the French Revolution) gave credence to this worry. The writings of the French critics of absolutism (particularly Rousseau and Montesquieu), which began reaching Latin America at the end of the eighteenth century, were thus cautiously embraced by the enlightened elite, despite cultural and traditional barriers to their acceptance. For example, even the most radical Creoles, unlike their French masters, were outspokenly Catholic. In 1810, the Argentinean revolutionary Mariano Moreno translated Rousseaus Social Contract, but suppressed those chapters criticizing religion. Concerning religion, Moreno explained, the great French philosopher suffered a certain delirium. Consequently, the Creoles were willing to approve or applaud the events in France as long as they followed a pattern outlined by the ancien regimes critics. The proclaiming of a constitution and the Declaration of the Rights of man thus had a profound impact. But when the Revolution intensified, Creole attitudes changed. The royal executions, mob violence, religious persecutions, and Robespierres guillotining provoked a general rejection. At the end of the eighteenth century, Colombian leader Antonio Narino and a group of Venezuelan conspirators translated and distributed the Declaration of the Rights of Man, defending most French revolutionary ideas. A few years later, Venezuelas Francisco de Miranda, the great ingurator of Latin independence who had fought as a general in the French revolutionary army (his name is inscribed in the Arc de Triumph), stressed that the ideas of the French Jacobins and Girondins should not be allowed to contaminate the continent, not even under the pretext of bringing us freedom I fear anarchy more than dependence, he stated. That pervasive fear of anarchy (evident in the writings of Bolivar and San Martin) and the events leading to Napoleons rise reinforced the creoles cautious instincts. They associated in French Revolution with anarchy, bloodshed, and sacrilege. In 1800, the distinguished Peruvian politician Pablo de Olavide (who like Miranda had lived in France during the revolution) publicly recanted his former liberal ideas and exalted orthodox Catholicism as the only defense against the destructive tide of the French Revolution. I was in Paris in 1789 and saw the birth of the horrible revolution, which in little time has devoured one of the most beautiful and rich kingdoms of Europe, de Olavide wrote. Almost at the same time Mexico Citys Fray Servando de Teresa y Mier, who had endured prison and fought for Mexican independence, attacked the Revolution: The French have deduced it is necessary to hang each other to attain equality in the cemetery, the one place we are all equals. To judge from the writings and declarations of the period, three concepts survived the creoles rejection of revolutionary excess: constitutionalism, republicanism, and popular sovereignty. Too hastily attributed to the French Revolution, all had penetrated Latin American years before, legitimized by the popular (at the time) example of the United States. In 1806 Napoleon deposed and imprisoned Spains King Ferdinand VII, imposed his brother Joseph on the throne, and caused the Portuguese royal family to flee to Brazil. When the Spanish people rebelled, the creoles cultural crisis became decidedly political. Amid the collapse of royal authority and the threat of anarchy, they moved from condemning Napoleons crime and asserting their loyalty to the deposed king to proclaiming their independence. After Napoleon was forced to free Ferdinand, most creoles, enjoying new political power, fought the kings attempt to regain authority over his colonies. The struggle intensified after the fall of Napoleon (denounced by the creoles as an ambitious tyrant and the product of the French Revolution) and the vague threat of the Holy Alliance formed in Europe to crush any revolutionary movement. Only then, when the campaigns against Spanish armies had become tough and bloody, did some creoles refer to the early stages of the Revolution in glowing terms, comparing their fight to the French peoples. The allusion was as rhetorical as creole claims of fighting to avenge the conquered and abused Indians. By the mid-nineteenth century, nearly all the newly created Latin American republics had inserted into their constitutions the basic tenets of liberal tradition: the division of power, individual rights, and equality before the law. All decreed Catholicism the official religion. But unlike the previous period, many Latin writers were by then crediting the political advances to the French Revolution. The change of attitude may have stemmed from two main factors. First, the creolesthe new upper elite of their respective countries, with firm control of the state forcesnow had less fear of social turmoil. As the danger of anarchy declined, sympathy for the French Revolution increased. Conservatives acknowledged the justice of the peoples uprising, and liberal factions in each country strove to realize constitutional freedoms. The Triumph of Romanticism: Another factor was the triumph of Romanticism, the most popular and lasting literary movement in Latin America. For many Latin writers, Romanticism was embodied by France, and primarily Victor Hugo. France became the spiritual fatherland for Latin intellectuals, with a pilgrimage to la Ville Lumiere, Paris, mandatory. Ironically, Europes romantic poets glorified the bandits, rebels, and outcasts. French writers from Michelet to Hugo hailed the glories of revolution, of barricades, and of violence against tyrants, and extolled Napoleon, now transformed into the Great Soldier of the Revolution. The Latin writers followed suit. Suffering postindependence disillusionment, watching the rise of caudillos who trampled their beloved constitutions, enduring what the Argentinean poet-politician Esteban Echeverria called the shipwreck of our dreams; they declared themselves the heirs of the Girondins and the Jacobins, and the continuers of a revolution for independence frustrated by tyrants. Every leader, idealist, or bandit who challenged the status quo proclaimed himself revolutionary, with every revolution a child of the glorious French barricades. This lasting devotion to nominal radicalism moved philosopher Hermann Keyserling to register a keen observation. Everywhere, he wrote in 1905, the words tradition and revolution are opposite. Except in Latin America, where politicians appear to be traditionally revolutionary. In 1849, a group of Chilean writers and mystic revolutionaries adopted the names of Danton, Saint-Just, and Demoulins. They formed a Society of Equals and attempted a popular uprising in Chile. Although the revolt was a total fiasco, leader Francisco Bilbao (a writer in the apocalyptic style) swore they had saved the dignity of the Chilean people and vindicated the glory of the French Revolution. Bilbao may have used the wrong example. In 1848, France and other European countries witnessed a new revolution, one whose failure heralded a new concept of what revolution should be. For the first time, Paris saw a parade of workers displaying red flags and witnessed the bloody collapse of their barricades. The following year, Marx and Engels published their Communist Manifesto. The Romantic movement had died. Romanticism took the rest of the century to die in Latin America. At the end of the Latin American romantic era, Nicaraguan Ruben Dario became the acknowledged leader of Modernism. By then, the French Revolution had been sanctified. It was a political and philosophical ideal, a sign of the Latin identity before the menace of the barbarians from the north (the American Revolution was now viewed as the source of American imperialism) and a spiritual bond with the beloved France. The French Revolutions mythic influence has far exceeded its actual contributions to the political trends, constitutions, and laws of Latin America. But the myth has had an influence, helping to maintain the dream of real democracy and true equality for Latin Americans. Sadly, contemporary Latin revolutionaries raise banners closer to the red flags of 1848 than to the ideals of Liberte, Egalite, and Franternite. The French Revolution and Freedom: We have devoted a considerable portion of this months issue to the two hundredth anniversary of the French Revolution. Americans, who are aware that France has been our ally since the time of our own revolution, empathize with the French celebration. The Statue of Liberty, a gift from France, shares with the flag and the bald eagle the distinction of symbolizing our own nation and civilization. The great motto of the French RevolutionLiberty, Equality, and Fraternityexpresses values we Americans respect greatly. Yet, it would be dishonest if we did not note the distortions these values suffered during the Revolution. In one of his rare poetic moments, Hegel referred to the concept of absolute freedom, as it came to be expressed in the French Revolution, as absolute death, meaningless death, as meaningless as quaffing a glass of water or clefting a head of cabbage. French intellectual life at the time of the Revolution was dominated by the philosophers. Some, like Holbach, were empiricists, who believed that knowledge started with sensation. These sensations produced a picture of an external world that was in principle completely knowable. Others, like Condorcet, following the model of inquiry initiated by Descartes, were rationalists. Conceiving of the world on the basis of mathetmatical logic, they believed it was governed by fundamental axioms the mind could grasp intuitively. If Godwho had made the world but then left it to its own devicesknew the initial conditions of the atoms, he would be able to predict the entire future. Men were machines in a clocklike world that science, in principle, could understand thoroughly. Because ignorance had destroyed the initially happy state of nature, science would be required to restore such a state in modern societyeven if humans had to be forced to be free. It is this aspect of the French Revolution that justified the Terror in the minds of its partisans. And it is this aspect of the French Revolution that inspired the Bolsheviks. It is the concept of limitless freedomthe kind of freedom that Hegel satirizedthat today inspires a number of discontented groups in the United States. Although the German language, with its immense penumbra of connotations, permits the looseness of reasoning that one finds in a Mein Kampf, it is the lucidity and precision of the French language that inspires a type of rationality that allows a few a priori axioms to constrain thought about life and politics. The absolute freedom that Hegel called absolute death is an abstract freedom that lacks concrete connectedness. All freedoms are dependent upon correlative constraints. For example, if an object is to be free to roll, it must have a rounded shape that makes it difficult for it to rest on the crest of a slope. The ability to think rationally is dependent, among other things, on not taking mind-altering substances. There is no absolute freedom and no absolute perfection, at least not in this life, where every choice and every freedom involves a trade-off. The ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity also require trade-offs. Any attempt to absolutize one of these values will impose intolerable costs on the others. Possibilities are limited by circumstances. Noveltyand this includes at least some aspects of the futureis not predictable. Moreover, even with respect to mechanicsand especially with respect to quantum theorypredictive power is limited. In fact, the paths of planets are not entirely predictable, for both measurement error and the accumulation of small effects eventually will produce radical, unforeseeable change. Any philosophy that fails to give due weight to uncertainties, complexities, and historically concrete idiosyncracies is likely to encourage tyranny. Any philosophy that is willing to jettison established institutions solely on the basis of a prior theory is likely to produce a reign of terror. This is not an argument against rationality per se, but against only a particular type of rationality, the type that manifested itself in France at the time of the Revolution and against which the most profound French thinkers now are reacting. The overreaction that France experienced twenty years ago in the deconstructionist movementwhich risks turning into its oppositenow is being rejected by the best French thinkers at the very time that deconstructionism has invaded prestigious American universities. The reexamination of the French Revolution, which is so vigorous in France today and which we recount in this issue, should help to inoculate against this intellectual virus. We can thrill to the ideals of the Revolution while sternly rejecting its excrescences and false ideals. Hail, Marianne, still beautiful, glorious, and lucent. This time your scholars and intellectuals are leading the way. From El Cid to El Che: The Hero and the Mystique of Liberation in Latin America Spain gave the world the hero incarnate in El Cid and the transcendent hero in Don Quixote. Much of Spanish destiny would unfold in their shadow, as affirmation and negation of their exemplary lives. The poem and the novel reflect and foreshadow the two great epics of Spanish history: the reconquest of Spain and the conquest of America. For almost eight hundred years Spaniards were obsessed, consumed by the passion of the reconquest of Spain from the infidels, the Arabs who invaded in 710. The notion of lucha, struggle, which permeates much of the revolutionary poetry of Spanish America today, probably goes back as far as 1099, when it is said that El Cid, already dead but strapped to his horse Babieca, won his last battle at Valencia. The capture of Granada and the final expulsion of the Moors from the Iberian peninsula in 1492 was the epic feat of another Spaniard not unlike El Cid, Gonzalo de Cà ³rdoba, El Gran Capità ¡n, whose tactics, training, and organization would make Spanish infantry invincible for almost two centuries. The centuries devoted to warring against the infidel, an enterprise involving much the male population, resulted in plebeians who regarded themselves as noblemen, fumo di fidalgo, according to the Florentine ambassador to Spain in 1513. A Frenchman who visited Spain in the seventeenth century was amazed to hear a poor squire boast that I am as much a noble as the king, aye, and nobler, for he is half Flemish. And the noblemans, or hidalgos, chief occupations were to make war and attend mass; a knights tasks, like Don Quixotes, were battle and prayer. The heroic life was, had to be, a quest, a gesta filled with adventure and longing, longing for honor, even deathanything but the ordinary. Otherwise one might as well be dead or worse, working with money, papers, or ones hands, like Jews and other infidels or, God forbid, women. The regard for leisure and aversion to ordinary work that existed in medieval Spain were exacerbated by the conquest of America. Saint Teresa describes how one of her brothers, having returned from America, refused to work the land. Why should he toil like a dirt farmer after having been a seà ±or in the Indies? The notion of a heroic life was propagated by the cantares de gesta, or chansons de geste, the heroic poetry of the Spanish Middle Ages, the popularity of which is exemplified by Don Quixotes reciting such a ballad to an innkeeper perceived to be the governor of a fortress: Mis arreos son las armas mi descanso el pelear mi cama las duras peà ±as mi dormir siempre velar (Arms are my ornaments combat, my rest vigilance, my sleep the hard rock, my bed). If Spain is the home of the idea of chivalry, observes Miguel de Unamuno, then Quixotism is simply the most desperate phase of the battle of the Middle Ages against its offspring the Renaissance. The books of chivalry, which popularized the medieval ethos of heroic poetry, were the favorite reading not only of the general public but of such austere spirits as Saint Ignatius, Saint Teresa and the Emperor Charles V. indeed, Cervantes, who published the worlds first novel in 1605 to ridicule the genre, was in a sense unhorsed by his own creation, a caricature that took off with a life of its own, leaving its creator behind, eclipsing all his serious works, galloping onto posterity to become that most endearing and enduring of gallant knights. The conquest of America was the consecration of the Spanish hero as crusading knight. The conquistadors exemplify Joseph Campbells definition of the hero: individuals who venture forth from the world of common day into regions of supernatural wonders where fabulous forces must be encountered and decisive victories won so that the triumphant hero can return home with the power to bestow blessings and riches on his fellow men. And the feats of the conquest would be as heroic as anything in the books of chivalry. Few men have shown the daring of Cortes marching into Mexico with 400 men or of Pizarro taking over the Inca empire with 180. And what witnesses they had in their soldiers! One of Cortes men, Bernal Diaz del Castillo, writing as an old man, left us the most vivid, unforgettable account of that mythic European entry into the New World: With such wonderful sights to gaze on we did not know what to say or if this was real that we saw before our eyes and, as I write, it all comes before me as if it had happened only yesterday. But the first wizard to infuse the New World with all the magic and wonder of the Old Worlds legends was the discoverer himself. Columbus painted the inhabitants of Hispaniola to the Spanish sovereigns as if they were blissful creatures from the Golden Age, unsullied before the fall; free of violence or greed, the natives showed as much love as if they were giving their hearts. And from the seed of Columbuss fancy would grow that most enduring American myth, one that combined the bliss of Ovids Golden Age with the innocence of the Bibles paradise lost: the notion of the Noble Savage, a much stronger and lasting presence in the history, literature, and folklore of Latin America than in the United States. In a brilliant examination of Latin American political mythology, the Venezuelan author Carlos Rangel points to the connection between the past notion of the Noble Savage and todays notion of the Noble Revolutionary. The present essay is an exploration of this connection, an attempt to establish whether the Latin America guerrilla of today is somehow the latest incarnation of the Spanish hero. The crusader, warrior, savior, is once again stalking the continent, charged with a sacred mission: to liberate us, to restore us to that free and happy state that Columbus found before the rot set in, to convert us to the true faith, to that very old belief in the New Man. Spanish America, the Nineteenth Century: The Hero As Emancipator: Is it possible, as has been pointed out, that the most significant achievement of that prototypical hero of the nineteenth century, Napoleon, was one that never entered his mind: the emancipation of Spanish America? That Napoleon was both the denial and the consummation of the French Revolution is exemplified by the coins that bore the inscription: REPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE, NAPOLEON EMPEREUR. But even more than France itself, the young Spanish American republic would be doomed to the paradox of that inscription, to the cyclic transmutation of revolutionary liberation into absolutism. After the Napoleonic invasion of Spain and the abdication of King Ferdinand VII in 1808, the Spanish American colonies proclaimed their freedom. Their independence, however, was achieved after sixteen years of savage war with the Spanish armies, a campaign led by the Venezuelan Simà ³n Bolivar (1783-1830), thereafter known as the Liberator. At the time, belief in the power of the heroic individual was at its peak. And Bolivar, a dashing, brilliant, irresistible personality, exemplified the Napoleonic ideal (the Argentine Josà © de San Martà ­n, the liberator from the South, was more of a George Washington and did not fit the heroic-romantic mold). Bolivar had not only the conceit of genius but, as noted by Unamuno, the heroic energy, indomitable will, and cult of glory characteristic of Don Quixote. The Latin American war of independence was fought with unwilling, untrained, and poorly equipped recruits, over terrain of a savagery inconceivable to either Julius Caesar or Napoleon. In such circumstances, military science counted less than the heroic will and a gift for leadership, traits that were characteristic of Bolivara brilliant improviser who lived by Dantons famous maxim: Laudace, laudace, toujours de laudace! Audacity in everything. In addition to being a great warrior, Bolivar was also the regions first romantic writer and the first great interpreter of Spanish American history. Unquestionably one of the most gifted revolutionary leaders in history and the first Latin American to attain universal renown, he was also the regions greatest visionary. Not the least of his gifts was the clarity of insight with which he analyzed the Latin America conditions that would prevent the liberation he so brilliantly led from producing either a workable political system, as in the Unit ed States, or extensive social and economic reforms, as in post-Napoleonic Europe. He concluded that to serve the revolution was to plow the sea. Truthfulness, harsh honesty about the problems and faults of Latin America, as well as emphasis on the regions responsibility for its own destiny, have been characteristic of the true Latin America hero. But in a political culture where mendacity, sentimentality, and the rationalization of responsibility are endemic (especially among the elites and the intelligentsia), Bolivars harsh truths have never been popular. The great irony of Spanish American emancipation was that el puebloall who are not among the elite (e.g., Indians, blacks, mestizos, mulattoes, poor whites)were consigned to either harsher bondage or greater servitude after liberation than they had been in colonial times when the humanitarian laws of the Spanish Crown did, to an extent, shelter the weak from total exploitation by the powerful. Partly as a result of such abuses and injustices, there arose in the nineteenth century a veritable tide of populist leaders, the rural caudillos who would wreak almost as much havoc and destruction across the young republics as had the savage wars of independence. With clairvoyant desperation, Bolivar anticipated the vengeful rise and bloody wake of these Latin American Cossacks. Another true and truthful hero, the Cuban Josà © Martà ­ (1853-1895), a great admirer of Bolivar, also expressed doubts about the relevance of North American or other democratic systems of government for Latin America. Alluding to the continents violent heritage, the tradition of meeting force with force, he warned, to paraphrase him, that you dont stop the charge of a caudillos stallion with a Hamiltonian decree. The magnitude of Bolivars achievement, the continental scope of his mission, as well as his unrealized dream of an independent and unified Latin America would haunt future generations and inspire in Martà ­ and others a peculiarly Spanish American mystique of continental liberation. The millenarian and totalitarian tendencies of this cult would become more evident in the twentieth century when more than one liberation movement resulted in the oppression and repression of the people it liberated. The great Russian writer Alexander Herzen (1812-1870), who had known or befriended many European revolutionaries of the nineteenth century, including Marx, Bakunin, Garibaldi, and Mazzini, was as prescient as Bolivar about the dark forces unleashed by liberation. He foresaw them engulfing his own country with dire consequences for the Russian people. His statement about Catholic Europe also applies to Latin America: The Latin World does not like freedom, it likes to sue for it; it sometimes finds the force for liberation, never for freedom. He concluded that if only people wanted, instead of liberating humanity to liberate themselves, they would do a great deal for human freedom. Cuba, the Twentieth Century: The Hero As Revolutionary: It is no accident that the Cuban Revolution of 1959 took place in one of those Caribbean islands mythified by Columbus: The earliest utopias of the imagination and the starting places for many key nineteenth century revolutionaries were often islands. The old utopia was thus reborn in the romantic dream of a socialist island inhabited by noble revolutionaries, led by a new Prospero who, like the discoverer himself, could transmute American reality into the stuff European dreams are made of. At long last, through magic incantation, through the language of fantasy and sorcery, a much beloved figure would be summoned: the Noble Savage as New Socialist Man. Like the medieval Spanish knight who consecrated his words, his life, and his death to the nobility of his cause, one of the islands warriors would set forth into the wicked world to proclaim the good news, to spread the gospel of the incarnation of the revolutionary word: In Latin America a New Man had risen to die for our sins, and the New Man was heErnesto Che Guevara. Almost twenty years ago, I published a memoir about him, reminiscences of the young man I knew in Cordoba, Argentina, in the 1940s-1950s, Ernestito Guevara as we knew him then: a handsome, mesmerizing young man who was wildly eccentric and shockingly opinionated but unusually idealistic and generous. But now, I write not about that boy, but about El Che, the Revolutionary, the Guerrilla, an implacable zealot of total war, whose ultimate end is as much a mystery to me as to anyone else. The attempt to unravel it here, to explore from the distance of years, books, articles, this second, abstract persona against the me mory of the first real and immediate human being that I knew well, is a disconcerting endeavor, somehow like refocusing a multiple exposure in which the first impression will always overshadow the others. He was different from other childrenwiser, tougher, more independentprobably because of having been from infancy on the verge of death because of asthma attacks. From the beginning, we wondered at his amazing nonconformity, his passion for the out-of-the-ordinarywhat in hindsight now appear to have been the first stirrings of that very Spanish yearning for the heroic. Unamuno described this yearning as the need to live a life of restless longing, an existence driven, in Huizingas words, by the vision of a sublime lifeor perhaps a sublime death? In a journal he kept as a young man, he carefully transcribed the words of an unidentified victim of the French Revolution: I go to the scaffold with my head high. I am not a victim, I am the blood that fertilizes the soil of France. I die because I must, so that the people can live on. And so are revolutionary myths spun and revolutionary heroes born. In our case, the mythmaking begins with the history of the Cuban Revolution, which would not be portrayed not as the outcome of an extraordinarily favorable constellation of forces and circumstances (e.g., approval rather than intervention on the part of the United States; enthusiastic reports in the American press; massive support on the part of the Cuban middle class; active encouragement and even some assistance from democratic governments in Latin America; and last but by no means least, a powerful and deadly urban terrorist network of middle-class students). The peasants, as Leo Sauvage has observed, played a more important role in Ches imagination than they did in the Cuban Revolution. But the myth of a rural-based revolution would grow and persist, all credit being accorded Cubas peasants as well as that indispensable factor: a miraculously small band of men the armed vanguard, the twelve apostles that would le ad the poor peasants to victory. The number twelve is no coincidenceeven if the original survivors of Batistas first attack were in fact fifteen. The incorporation of biblical or eschatological imagery into political ideology is characteristic of what one historian has called the revolutionary faith. In the nineteenth century, revolutionary ideologies became secularized versions of the old Judeo-Christian belief in deliverance-through-history. At a deep and often subconscious level, the revolutionary faith was shaped by the Christian faith it attempted to replace. In the Paris of the French Revolution there was, as in Galilee, a revolutionary apostolate of twelve, presided over by an ascetic visionary aptly called Saint-Just. The apostles would return with the Russian Revolution in Alexander Bloks 1918 poem The Twelve, the final image being that of Christ-as-revolutionary leading armed apostles into windswept St. Petersburg. As in Paris and St. Petersburg, the apostles third apparition in Havana in 1959 would be as ominous, as fraught with danger for the flock as for the apostles themselves. The Cuban gospel was so electrifying that Ches words would reach as far as his original arch enemy: the Catholic Church. Latin American priests would adopt th

Cheating Essay -- Education Cheating Cheater Essays

Cheating There is an ever broadening problem spreading throughout colleges all across America: cheating. Is it a serious offence or just a harmless crime? Cheating is on the rise, but schools and colleges are not far behind with ways of dealing with it. Mark Clayton deals with this issue in his essay entitled â€Å"A Whole Lot of Cheatin’ Going On.† Clayton’s essay is heavily quoted along with an obvious absence of his ideas. The reader is supposed to believe that his quotes accurately represent his views on the matter at hand. Clayton’s essay is primarily pathos due to the amount of quoted ideas. The essay starts off quoting a freshman at University of Texas: â€Å"’Cheating is an answer. It might not be a good answer, but none the less it is an answer.’† (20) Clayton goes on saying that the student does not believe in cheating but was only trying to prove a point. Clayton later quotes an associate provost at Rutgers University who describes how cheating is on the rise. Clayton says, â€Å"He and others blame poor role models and lack of parental guidance for the growing acceptance of cheating in colleges.† (20) Neither Clayton nor the associate provost proves themselves to make a pathos statement such as this one. Clayton never states why the reader should trust what he has to say or what he believes. All of his information comes from quoted material; so what makes his position any more credible than the average Joe with access to the internet or a library? Ethos is integrated well with Clayton’s personal feelings by stating, â€Å"[P]ervasive change in societal values [can make] students easily be snared if they lack a strong moral compass.† (20) However, Clayton goes right back to his quotes after having only one de... ...y, I’ll go next week. You do the reading this week, I’ll do it next week.† (24) These students and others usually do not find sharing work to be a form of cheating. They simply help each other. However, colleges with honor codes feel that by placing students in an honest environment, they are more likely to be honest themselves. On the whole, Clayton does a good job at presenting a problem, explaining it, and even describes what is being done about it; however, he does not do a good job at presenting an argument on his own. His entire view on the matter at hand is expressed through quotes with little-to-no emotional views of his own. He uses pathos, logos, and ethos throughout his article even though he heavily stands on the ethos of other people. I would consider this to be more of an informative essay that depicts just how much cheating really is going on.

Effects of War Exposed in All Quite on the Western Front, Bury the Dead

Effects of War Exposed in All Quite on the Western Front, Bury the Dead, and Paths of Glory      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   "From the happy expression on their faces you might have supposed that they welcomed the war. I have met with men who loved stamps, and stones, and snakes, but I could not imagine any man loving war." Margot Asquith revealed her discontent with war in this quote. War is defined in the American Heritage Dictionary as a concerted effort or campaign to combat or put an end to something considered injurious. A rather contradicting definition from the dictionary when one examines war's true meaning and the effect it has on mankind. Wars do not put an end to something considered injurious, war starts them. War stems from human greed and ignorance and is often used as a tool by men to seek fame and glory. People remember the glory of Alexander the Great, Hannibal, and Napoleon but forget the number of deaths caused by these so-called heroes. War is about death and the destruction of the human character and spirit. World War I, not only claimed millions of lives , but left deep scars in the memories of those who survived. Disillusioned and disheartened, these young people became known as the Lost Generation. Even though the cost of war was staggering, its psychological effects had no boundary. The soldier's greatest struggle during war is not physical, but mental and spiritual.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A war novel that gives its reader an insight into the lives of soldiers during WWI, All Quiet on the Western Front, written by Erich Maria Remarque, is considered the greatest war novel of all time. This book brings its readers into the personal life of Paul Baumer and the horrors he had to encounter as a young German s... ...think about themselves, about religion, and about war. Sometimes, when a soldier gets too caught up in the war, he tries to hide his true feelings even though he is facing the biggest battle of all: with himself.    Works Cited:    Cobb, Humphrey. Paths of Glory, a Novel, Viking Press, New York 1935, new edition, Dell 1957, William Heinemann Ltd, London.    Hynes, Samuel. A War Imagined: The First World War and English Culture, London: Bodley Head, 1991.    Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front. New York: Ballantine Books, 1984.    Shaw, Irwin. Bury the Dead. New Theatre & Film, 1934-1937. Ed. Herbert Kline. San Diego: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanich, c1985.    Stephen E. Tabachnick, "Afterword," to Humphrey Cobb, Paths of Glory (1935) (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1987), pp. 267-304.      

World War II Essay -- History, Pearl Harbor

America’s involvement in World War II has often been equated to the Japanese waking the â€Å"sleeping giant†, and is often thought of as an invincible superpower. The reality is that the United States’ invincibility has never been really tested. The United States’ is separated from the rest of the Western world by an ocean on either side of its borders and has therefore only had two attacks on native soil. While America’s invincibility is not easily tested, and therefore not easily discredited, whether or not the Japanese awoke the â€Å"sleeping giant† by bombing Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, is, however, debatable. The American public before the attack on Pearl Harbor were isolationists, they may have felt sympathy for the victims of Hitler, Franco, and Mussolini, but did not in fact care enough to get involved in another war. The congressmen they elected into office from the late 1930’s to the early 1940’s respected th e wishes of their constituents and therefore did everything in their power to prevent U.S involvement in World War II even after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In fact one of the only Americans to appear at all concerned with the horrific events occurring across the ocean was President Franklin Roosevelt, however, despite pleas from the heads of the allied forces, even President Roosevelt could not entirely commit to the need for U.S involvement and remained a wishy-washy figure up until the late 1930’s. It was not until 1940, that President Roosevelt was able to take a stand and begin the attempts to talk the American people into actively supporting the allied forces against Nazi forces. The Japanese may get the credit for waking the â€Å"sleeping giant†, however, it is in fact President Roosevelt and a small portion of t... .... War secretary Stimson believed it was necessary to â€Å"maneuver them into the position offering the first shot without too much damage to ourselves†. (515) Roosevelt may not have left the fleet at Pearl Harbor exposed intent ally, but he did seem aware that a sacrifice would be necessary to rouse the will to fight. This sacrifice came in the form of 2,403 men at Pearl Harbor on December 5, 1941. (522) Congress would declare war just three days after the Japanese attack, with only one dissenting vote. (523) The American people had finally realized what Roosevelt had been saying for years, that the Axis powers could not go unchecked or it could and would bring about consequences for Americans. The attacks had exactly the opposite effect that Yamamoto had intended, the American people were furious and cried out for vengeance against the â€Å"treacherous japs†. (523-524)

Psychology “working alliance”

The effectiveness of therapy in counselling is dependent substantially on two factors; namely, the patient’s cooperation, and the expertise of the therapist. Many experts in the field of Psychology have observed the significant contribution of the client to the over-all process. The individual’s perception of the therapist is extremely crucial to the ensuing treatment. Without the needed initial positive perception of the therapist on the part of the one seeking treatment, the whole process will not generate a desired momentum that would set the entire scheme in a strategic stance.Of course, the expertise of the therapist is another major factor – actually, the other half – but it’s a given to the whole package of treatment (Borys and Hope, 1989). Since a â€Å"working alliance† has to be established first before the actual treatment is administered, there are important or vital considerations for this â€Å"working alliance† between c lient and therapist to occur, which can be influenced greatly by the occurrence of transference and counter-transference, and this is in precis, the intentions of this paper.This will be considered as part of the issues and challenges that therapists face as they practice their profession (Corey, 2004, p. 36-112). Discussion The past baggage of the client. From any vantage point, the level of trust by client on his therapist, whether that perception is based on attractiveness, trustworthiness or as someone who knows what he may be dealing with in terms of credentials, are valid, and is the utmost concern of the helping relationship. Trust in the part of the client is necessary for the healing process.However, because the full ramifications of the issue almost always hinge on the perceptions of the client, the problems and hindrances need to be addressed or at least cited for clarity and deliberation at the outset of the relationship (Corey, 2004, p. 36-145). As hinted above, the cli ent may be bringing (emotional) baggage into their mutual involvement which may be due to prior engagements with other professionals in the therapeutic relations, whether positive or negative.Oftentimes, in many cases, these may be liaisons which were unsuccessful, distasteful or even traumatic for a few. The author pointed out that any form of future therapy will be affected due to these previous experiences, and it has to be dealt with right away at the outset (Horvath & Luborsky, 1993, p. 4). Defining transference and counter-transference It was a Freudian conception that catapulted â€Å"transference† into a much recognized terminology within the counseling practice.This was first observed when in the practice of psychotherapy, patients or clients developed strong emotionalities such as attachments and even fantasies that were not realistic. In greater sphere today, transference does not happen within psychotherapy but rather a common encounter by many. Closest to the ter m transference, is an illustration such that a person can be considered a biological time machine, when something is recalled based on certain situations or conversations that trigger the recollection and bring episodes and passions to the current reality.The elements of a person’s past needs in emotionality and psychological areas are transferred into the present. Furthermore, the feelings can be confusing as to the reasons of its appearance and oftentimes powerful enough an influencer of relationships and conduct of one’s affairs. Illustration 1. (Source: Dombeck, 2009) For most people, there is recognition of the presence of a triangle in the figure above; a recognition when in reality, no triangle is actually present.This optical illusion of a triangle exists due to prior exposure to a similar figure. The presence of a triangle is similar to transference experience wherein prior exposure to people and relationships bring many resulting experiences to the present ev en without much effort or strain (Dombeck, 2009). In therapeutic relationship, the understanding of the presence of transference in all of one’s relationships helps a practitioner to also provide the client insights into complications comprising transference (Corey, 2004).Actively evaluating these possibilities of the practitioner’s transference tendencies can help eliminate or reduce problems that hinder the therapeutic relationship. Hating a therapist or developing an infatuation are strong feelings that can be experienced by a client which are examples of transference. Therefore, it is within the context of the helping profession and it is legitimate for a therapist to search or evaluate together with the client what similar treatments he experienced before had he felt the same emotions.Self-awareness is an important aspect in emotional growth and/or maturity hence awareness of the therapist’s own tendencies is a fundamental ingredient in the practice. This m ust also be effectively conveyed to and understood by the client (Kitchener, 2000, p 45). Moreover, the occurrence of counter-transference in which the therapist develops attitudes and feelings (transference) towards his client can be real and more often counter productive. Dealing carefully with the issues that the therapist possesses are critical aspects of the profession.Only experts and those who intentionally had established ethical ways of dealing with patients or clients can better handle counter-transferences that occur (Welfel, 2005, p. 320). Bereavement, loss and termination Bereavement is loss of a loved one and any form of loss such as death, separation and the termination of relationship of whichever kind as long as these relationships were vital to the psychological well-being of an individual are all considered similar or the same (Jacobs et al. , 2000).All these human experiences are common to one’s existence and unavoidable or inevitable in one’s lifet ime. When a person experiences grief, he goes through a state of mourning and various upheavals in his emotions and psychological functioning arise. It can range from panic disorder, major depression, anxiety disorder or even PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorders) which may result to drug or alcohol use or the increase of the consumption of toxic and harmful substances (Jacobs et al. , 2000; Jacobs & Prigerson, 2000, p.23). Transference and issues of loss or termination The experience of grieving for loss can be possible also when a client has to terminate his or her therapeutic relationship. Prior experiences of loss such as death or separation like divorce can probably trigger similar emotions when the therapist finally says goodbye and closes the professional relationship with this client. This was true with a friend who had gone through therapy and for the long while attained a semblance of well-being because of the sessions.However, because this was already turning to a progress ively successful helping relationship, her therapist slowly accented the possibilities of the need for terminating the therapy. This friend came home and started to experience similar to a panic disorder which she went through when her husband announced that he was divorcing her. Waves of anger and frustration, and mostly grief and loss and emptiness seemed to engulf her, threatening to overwhelm her again. This was a critical episode of her life which might unravel the strengths she had gained in the therapy (Jacobs & Prigerson, 2000, p.23). Therapist’s counter-transference on client’s issues of loss, bereavement or termination As mentioned, awareness of one’s issues must be a matter of choice and constant self-monitoring and evaluation since this can be critical to the client’s optimal functioning or recovery as well as the therapist’s own retention of psychological and physical well-being (Welfel, 2005, p. 235-355). Thus, issues of loss, bereave ment or termination that once affected the therapist should also be dealt with and preparations in handling for potential occurrence are a must (Neimeyer, 2000).In my case, it is undeniably true that I have had occasions that a therapeutic relationship turned sour because of counter-transference. In the issue of termination though, another friend-client of mine went through grief counseling because of the death of her child whose demise was untimely in a sense. It was an accident of which she was also a witness. In the course of their helping relationship, this client-friend soon overcame her grief and loss and was restored to the normal day to day conduct of her affairs. Thus, there was time to say goodbye, and this client-friend turned to say goodbye to her therapist.Unbeknownst to her, the therapeutic relationship was already awakening deep issues within her therapist. There developed a counter-transference that though the therapist was trying to avoid and limit had already gone its course. Until the termination came to its final stage, this client-friend never knew of what was happening because her therapist never made her aware of the dilemma. I came to know about it because I knew both the therapist and the client as I was partly instrumental to their meeting. In short, the therapist had developed strong feelings of attachment to the client.She said that when termination came it was as if feelings of rejection came all over again reminiscent of the time when her former husband of several years told her that everything between them was a joke and that he was leaving her for someone else. The separation was sudden and quick and she said she was not allowed time to stall the relationship or even convince her husband to stay. Her loss was devastating and it was an issue for her of trust, denial of friendship and deep seated anger for the plain thought of someone important just leaving her for not enough convincing reasons.It was for this therapist a very irr ational step to do to one who was faithful and true. Thus, though the situations were vastly different, there was the friendship that she caught her unawares and her reactions to the termination was something that surprised the therapist. Her issues on leaving and loss were critically revived at this point with her client. Probably, she was not critically aware of where the emotions will be aroused that triggers the counter-transference or that she let her guard down.Whichever, the important thing is that the therapist reassesses her vulnerability and must again provide ways that will enable her to handle her relationships better in the future (Kitchener, 2000; Welfel, 2005). Conclusion 2. The fitness of the therapist By fitness, we mean sufficient, wide-ranging exposure, and right training to the kind of illness/es or disorder/s that he may be dealing. Even with years spent in the academe will not guarantee the development of skills in handling such complex and true-to-life situati ons or scenarios.At times, the theoretic skills acquired, instead of enabling the new therapist, may deter or hamper the process. This means to say that the therapist must possess more than head-knowledge; he should not allow his schooling to affect him to the extent that it made him conceited with no room for more learning especially when additional knowledge are available in the patient himself. He must also have the sensitivity to employ his gut-feeling to at times, direct the course of the therapy (Davison et al. , 2000).Therapeutic relationships are almost always exhausting, but it will be an undesirable experience for the alliance partners when just one of them becomes disinterested, hence as Luborsky pressed that â€Å"reciprocity† must be established, cultivated or maintained until the relationship is terminated, hopefully because the client is well (Horvath & Luborsky, 1993, p. 4). Bibliography 1. Borys, D. S. & Pope, K. S. (1989). Dual relationships between therapis t and client: A national study of psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 20(5), 283-293. 2. Corey, Gerald (2004).Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy. Thomson Learning, USA. 3. Davison, Gerald C. and John M. Neale (2001). Abnormal Psychology. Eighth ed. John & Wiley Sons, Inc. 4. Dombeck, Mark (2009). Transference. Accessed June 2, 2009 at http://www. mentalhelp. net/poc/view_doc. php? type=doc&id=8253 5. Kitchener, K. S. (2000). Foundations of ethical practice, research, and teaching in psychology. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 6. Horvath, Adam O. , Lester Luborsky (1993). Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Vol. 61, No. 4,561-573 Copyright 1993 by the American Psychological Association, Inc.0022-006X/93/S3. 00 7. Jacobs S & Prigerson H. (2000) . Psychotherapy of traumatic grief: a review of evidence for psychotherapeutic treatments. Death Studies, 24, 479-495. 8. Jacobs, Shelby, Carolyn Mazure, and Holly Prigerson (2000) â€Å"Diagnostic Criteria for Traumatic Grief. † Death Studies 24 185–199. 9. Neimeyer R. (2000). Searching for the meaning of meanings: grief therapy and the process of reconstruction. Death Studies,24:531-558. 10. Welfel, Elizabeth R (2005). Ethics in Counseling and Psychotherapy: Standards, Research, and Emerging Issues: Wadsworth Publishing