Year of Wonders Essay Example for Free

Year of Wonders Essay â€Å"I wished to know how things stood in the world†. For Anna, the year of the plague is about a journey from ignorance to knowledge. Discuss. In the extraordinary novel, Year of Wonders, Geraldine Brooks exposes the difficult yet admirable life of Anna Frith, trapped in a community caught in desperate times. As the plague strikes this small village, ignorance and a fear of the unknown become dominant sensations in Eyam in 1666-1667. Anna is completely unaware of the opportunities to grow and succeed that surround her as she struggles with uneducated parents throughout her childhood. London Tailor, George Viccars, opens Anna’s eyes to the world, inspiring her to learn more about herself and the way in which the world works after bringing the devastating illness known to Anna as, â€Å"God’s wrath made manifest† to the village. Anna works hard and dreams of finding a cure for the plague after the loss of her two sons. Anna turns to herblore and together with motherly-like figure Elinor, the pair study together after initially not being â€Å"interested† in such beliefs. Anna then goes even further, extending her knowledge in the health area after delivering a child by pure instinct. This is the first of many as from this Anna gains in confidence. She slowly begins to improve her understanding of father Josiah and step mother Aphra and why they came to be how they are, although still despises them for their oblivious actions. However it is at the novel’s conclusion, when Anna flees Eyam due to revealing circumstances that she finally recognizes her ignorance to the world she has been living in. She is able to see most clearly her abilities and skills that have been withheld from her due to an uneducated life. It is at this point when she realizes, â€Å"I was alive, and I was young, and I would go on until I found some reason for it†. A child’s upbringing can shape their experiences for the rest of their life; this was the case for Anna Frith. Anna never got to familiarize herself with a normal childhood, brought up by her father Josiah Bont whom she witnessed kill her biological mother at a young age. She was married off to Sam at the tender age of fifteen years old under the instruction of her father. Anna was ignorant to the world around her, as she didn’t know any better. A â€Å"timid† girl, Anna despised her father stating â€Å"he loved a pot more than his own children†. This situation worsened when Josiah married new wife Aphra, who looked down upon Anna. Anna has the clear view that, â€Å"to my stepmother Aphra, I was always a pair of hands before I was a person, someone to toil after her babies†. She taught Anna nothing but how not to care for you own children believing it was â€Å"ill fortune to love a child until it walks and is well grown†. Anna was easily confused at this and wondered how Aphra could think so. If it wasn’t for a natural motherly instinct in Anna, she may well have followed in Aphra’s footsteps unwittingly. Anna never knew she had the ability to stand up to her father and is very conservative about her opinions of him although she trusts her own decisions. The arrogance and plain ignorance of Josiah Bont led to Anna’s childhood being very uneducated and undesirable, resulting in Anna not being well prepared for the years of devastation to come. Anna discovers a wider world the minute deadly disease is brought into her life. It is London tailor George Viccars, bearer of the plague, who opens Anna’s eyes to world beyond Eyam. When Viccars arrives at Anna’s croft, â€Å"he brought the wide world with him†. Anna had not had a man of any real significance in her life since the death of Sam, until the arrival of George Viccars. He showed her that there was more to life than everyday chores in a small village. Captured by his talents, Anna begins to realize the opportunities to learn that surround her. Seeing the work of Viccars and hearing the stories of his life, Anna, â€Å"wished to know how things stood in the world†. Anna is devastated at the death of Viccars, and it is at this point in the novel where she learns of the plague as a fatal disease. Although the plague spells the end of a lifetime for many villagers in Eyam, including Anna’s two sons, it is the beginning of a new life for Anna. Her first instinct is to help in as many ways as she can, attending the dying bedside of all sufferers, caring for widowed wives and orphaned children. However she does not only wish to care for the ill, but dreams of finding a cure to stop the small pandemic. She approaches the ever intelligent Elinor, who inspires her to learn. Anna expresses, â€Å"when she had discovered that I hungered to learn, she commenced to shovel knowledge my way†. The plague intrigues Anna, as the reader observes her transformation from being completely illiterate to becoming deeply involved and gaining a slightly better understanding of the way the human body functions. Together Anna and Elinor research further into a mysterious practice known as herblore. Anys and Mem Gowdie are seen as the â€Å"witches† of Eyam, which ultimately leads them to their death. For Anna however, she believes the work of the Gowdie’s was innocent, and has a strong desire to keep the ractice of herblore alive. Anna openly shares that she never had a close relationship with Anys, yet before she was murdered, the pair bonded. It is when Anna learns of Anys’ relationship with George Viccars, which intrigues Anna to get to know Anys and learn of her beliefs and values. Anys teaches Anna that it is acceptable to be independent. Anys believes she was, â€Å"not made to be any man’s chattel† and following this Anna admires her for, â€Å"listening to her own heart rather than having her life ruled by others conventions†. The plague’s devastating effects require Anna to research herblore. Together with Elinor, the duo explore and grow in this area of expertise together. Anna is able to quickly grasp many herblore concepts and invent new herbal remedies in hope that each new one may be a good treatment for the plague. Anna goes on to deliver several children in the area. At first she delivers a baby with no experience only motherly instinct. Over time, she develops the skills necessary to repeat this many times. With the help of Elinor, Anna begins to learn and see the world as a bigger place, as well as have better understanding of it through education brought about by the plague. When it is revealed to her that Michael Mompellion had mistreated Elinor, Anna has the knowledge of the wider world to make the decision to flee Eyam. Although well educated, Michael Mompellion reveals a dark secret that tests Anna’s awareness and knowledge. When it is exposed to Anna that Michael had been denying Elinor sexual desires as punishment for her aborting a child when she was younger, Anna is shocked. She is forced to cope with the fact that the man who she had admired since being the Rector of the village, had betrayed her, â€Å"beautiful friend, full of affection, made for love†. Although this doesn’t sit well in Anna’s mind, it uncovers much confusion for her. She comes to the realization of why she had never seen Elinor and Michael touch and concretes in her mind that Michael is a man of very strong beliefs. Anna comes to an understanding of why Michael punished Elinor in this way, as he believed it was almost too difficult to, â€Å"atone for a life†. Anna loses her faith in Michael but does not lose hope in her life to come as she flees Eyam with adopted child Aisha, biological daughter of Mrs. Bradford. It is the beginning of the end at this stage of the novel for Anna as she leaves her hometown after dealing with the plague and much death, to create a new life full of joy and hope. It is in her new Muslamic country where she meets husband Ahmed Bey, whom she marries in order to be able to stay under his roof and learn medicine. Ahmed agrees to this as he needs female doctors to deliver children as husbands do not let him do it himself. Anna continues her studies and grows in her literacy skills. It becomes apparent that by this stage Anna has set herself up in the world with a good standard of knowledge and education. It is clear that by the end of the novel, Anna Frith underwent a journey from ignorance to knowledge. From living in the small village of Eyam with no direction given to her by her parents, Anna overcomes the plague and its terrible effects by being eager to learn. She develops intellectually during the novel, learning how to read and write from scratch, as well as researching remedies and delievering babies. By the conclusion of the novel, Anna is a well-educated young woman, aware of the opportunities and world around her.

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Motivation Motivation is defined as the process that guides, initiates, and maintains goal orientated behavior and thought (Cherry, 2013). Motivation is what drives individuals to do what they do, whether it is something as simple as getting a drink because he or she are thirsty or something as big as getting up every day and gong to work for a paycheck. Identify at least two sources of motivation Motivation can come from internal sources (intrinsic), which have psychological and biological variables or from external (extrinsic) sources like incentives and goals (Deckers, 2010). Intrinsic motivation develops in individuals to give them their own personalities and preferences towards specific behaviors, examples include participating in certain activities or sports because you find them enjoyable or doing a Sudoku puzzle because it is a challenge you find fun or interesting. In these examples, an individual’s behavior is motivated by something internal that makes them want to participate in the activity just to do it (Cherry, 2013). Extrinsic motivation is when an individual performs...

Essay Social Media And Advertising Essay

Social media plays a significant role in ensuring that advertising is successful. Social media is made up of websites that enable users to create and share content with other users across the internet. In today’s world almost everything that takes place revolves around social media and as a result any new product, business or service being advertised is associated with social media in some way. According to some analysts, social media is â€Å"a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content† (Kaplan, p61). With the world growing to be more technological enhanced it shows that more customers and potential customers are becoming more dependent on social media when pursuing a product or service of interest. Social media is user friendly, allows for sharing of content with a wide audience and makes it possible for relationships to develop among o ther brands. Social media is important in ensuring advertising is successful because it provides a user friendly platform that is compatible with its intended user’s ability to use it easily and successfully. Previously, mainly younger persons were the ones who used social media; however, recently older persons are being more engaged in social media because it is much easier to operate and understand now. Many persons believe that social networks are only for younger people, yet we find that everyday older people are using social media not just to keep up with family and friends but to actually communicate with organizations of interest and to engage with their customers. From an older person’s perspective, â€Å"social media allows them to have their own say and provides them with a warm welcoming feeling that they belong† (Ongeri, 1). This would therefore lead to an increase in the success received from advertising via social media because customers prefer easily accessible and user-friendly platforms; where all the required information is at hand when using the internet in search of a new product or service. Social media also plays a significant role in advertising because it allows the product or service being advertised to be shared with almost anyone who uses the internet, by sharing pages, photos and videos. Facebook is one of the most popular social networks with approximately 1.15 billion users, and this is  just one of many social networks available. Therefore, this information provides a better understanding of the scale of persons who have access to material shared via social media and helps to showcase why almost every organization enforces the use of social media when advertising a product or service. It is also beneficial because every time content is shared with others it introduces the business to a new prospective each time. This basically means that users are enabled to access the material that other users and businesses have posted online, which generates feedback that may cause users to develop different thoughts and opinions towards the business or brand. Since social media is collaborative and pretty much viral it allows the brand to build up authenticity and loyalty among customers and potential customers. This basically means that every different social network used brings a unique perspective to brands, allowing them to communicate with consumers while reinforcing the brand image. By using Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to name a few; each platform is responsible for providing the consumer with a different outlook and better perspective as to how they view the product or service being offered. This would increase the product’s reputation and sales due to the impact that social media has on advertising. Thirdly, social media plays a significant role in advertising because it allows for relationships with other brands across other social media platforms to be developed. Just as social media have transformed the way in which individuals communicate with each other, it has also transformed the way in which businesses communicate and interact with each other. Relationships are developed through good business trades and links across social networks, some businesses may prefer to deal directly with a specific supplier because of the previous experience they have received from them which they would not want to jeopardize. This link goes both ways with producers and suppliers and can lead to special deals and incentives being offered to each other based on the good business relationships that have developed. This can also filter down to the consumers and allow brands to offer incentives to their customers which would strengthen existing relationships and build new ones at the same time .It would prove to be beneficial for the product being advertised because potential customers always look for new exciting deals being offered. Overall advertising via social media is a positive for any business or firm  promoting a product or service, simply because they are more advantages than disadvantages of using social media when advertising. Social media is used to discover, interact and share new ideas across the internet; therefore once implemented these aspects all play vital roles in showing that social media plays a significant role in advertising.

Biography of Queen Min, Korean Empress

Queen Min (October 19, 1851–October 8, 1895), also known as Empress Myeongseong, was an important figure in Koreas Joseon Dynasty. She was married to Gojong, the first ruler of the Korean Empire. Queen Min was highly involved in her husbands government; she was assassinated in 1895 after the Japanese determined that she was a threat to their control of the Korean Peninsula. Fast Facts: Queen Min Known For: As the wife of Gojong, the Emperor of Korea, Queen Min played a major role in Korean affairs.Also Known As: Empress MyeongseongBorn: October 19, 1851 in Yeoju,  Kingdom of JoseonDied: October 8, 1895 in Seoul, Kingdom of JoseonSpouse: Gojong, Emperor of KoreaChildren: Sunjong Early Life On October 19, 1851, Min Chi-rok and an unnamed wife had a baby girl. The childs given name has not been recorded. As members of the noble Yeoheung Min clan, the family was well-connected with Koreas royal family. Although the little girl was an orphan by the age of 8, she went on to become the first wife of the young King Gojong of the Joseon Dynasty. Koreas child-king Gojong actually served as a figurehead for his father and regent, the Taewongun. It was the Taewongun who selected the Min orphan as the future queen, presumably because she did not have the strong family support that could threaten the ascendancy of his own political allies. Marriage The bride was 16 years old and King Gojong was only 15 when they married in March 1866. A slight and slender girl, the bride could not support the weight of the heavy wig she had to wear at the ceremony, so a special attendant helped hold it in place. The girl, small but clever and independent-minded, became Queen Consort of Korea. Typically, queen consorts concerned themselves with setting fashions for the noble women of the realm, hosting tea parties, and gossiping. Queen Min, however, had no interest in these pastimes. Instead, she read widely about history, science, politics, philosophy, and religion, giving herself the kind of education ordinarily reserved for men. Politics and Family Soon, the Taewongun realized that he had chosen his daughter-in-law unwisely. Her serious program of study concerned him, prompting him to quip, She evidently aspires to be a doctor of letters; look out for her. Before long, Queen Min and her father-in-law would be sworn enemies. The Taewongun moved to weaken the queens power at court by giving his son a royal consort, who soon bore King Gojong a son of his own. Queen Min proved unable to have a child until she was 20 years old, five years after the marriage. That child, a son, tragically died three days after he was born. The queen and the shamans (mudang) she called in to consult blamed the Taewongun for the babys death. They claimed that he had poisoned the boy with a ginseng emetic treatment. From that moment on, Queen Min vowed to avenge her childs death. Family Feud Queen Min began by appointing members of the Min clan to a number of high court offices. The queen also enlisted the support of her weak-willed husband, who was legally an adult by this time but still allowed his father to rule the country. She also won over the kings younger brother (whom the Taewongun called the dolt). Most significantly, she had King Gojong appoint a Confucian scholar named Cho Ik-Hyon to the court; the highly influential Cho declared that the king should rule in his own name, even going so far as to declare that the Taewongun was without virtue. In response, the Taewongun sent assassins to kill Cho, who fled into exile. However, Chos words bolstered the 22-year-old kings position sufficiently so that on November 5, 1873, King Gojong announced that henceforth he would rule in his own right. That same afternoon, somebody—likely Queen Min—had the Taewonguns entrance to the palace bricked shut. The following week, a mysterious explosion and fire rocked the queens sleeping chamber, but the queen and her attendants were not hurt. A few days later, an anonymous parcel delivered to the queens cousin exploded, killing him and his mother. Queen Min was certain that the Taewongun was behind this attack, but she could not prove it. Trouble With Japan Within a year of King Gojongs accession to the throne, representatives of Meiji Japan appeared in Seoul to demand that the Koreans pay tribute. Korea had long been a tributary of Qing China (as had Japan, off and on), but considered itself of equal rank with Japan, so the king contemptuously rejected their demand. The Koreans mocked the Japanese emissaries for wearing western-style clothing, saying they were no longer even true Japanese, and then deported them. Japan would not be so lightly put off, however. In 1874, the Japanese returned once more. Although Queen Min urged her husband to reject them again, the king decided to sign a trade treaty with the Meiji Emperors representatives in order to avoid trouble. With this foothold in place, Japan then sailed a gunship called Unyo into the restricted area around the southern island of Ganghwa, prompting the Korean shore defenses to open fire. Using the Unyo incident as a pretext, Japan sent a fleet of six naval vessels into Korean waters. Under the threat of force, Gojong once again folded; Queen Min was unable to prevent his capitulation. The kings representatives signed the Ganghwa Treaty, which was modeled on the Kanagawa Treaty that the United States had imposed on Japan following Commodore Matthew Perrys 1854 arrival in Tokyo Bay. (Meiji Japan was an astonishingly quick study on the subject of imperial domination.) Under the terms of the Ganghwa Treaty, Japan got access to five Korean ports and all Korean waters, special trading status, and extraterritorial rights for Japanese citizens in Korea. This meant that Japanese accused of crimes in Korea could only be tried under Japanese law—they were immune to local laws. The Koreans gained absolutely nothing from this treaty, which signaled the beginning of the end of Korean independence. Despite Queen Mins best efforts, the Japanese would dominate Korea until 1945. Imo Incident In the period after the Ganghwa incident, Queen Min spearheaded a reorganization and modernization of Koreas military. She also reached out to China, Russia, and the other western powers in hopes of playing them off against the Japanese in order to protect Korean sovereignty. Although the other major powers were happy to sign unequal trade treaties with Korea, none would commit to defending the Hermit Kingdom from Japanese expansionism. In 1882, Queen Min faced a rebellion by old-guard military officers who felt threatened by her reforms and by the opening of Korea to foreign powers. Known as the Imo Incident, the uprising temporarily ousted Gojong and Min from the palace, returning the Taewongun to power. Dozens of Queen Mins relatives and supporters were executed, and foreign representatives were expelled from the capital. King Gojongs ambassadors to China appealed for assistance, and 4,500 Chinese troops then marched into Seoul and arrested the Taewongun. They transported him to Beijing to be tried for treason; Queen Min and King Gojong returned to the Gyeongbukgung Palace and reversed all of the Taewonguns orders. Unbeknownst to Queen Min, the Japanese ambassadors in Seoul strong-armed Gojong into signing the Japan-Korea Treaty of 1882. Korea agreed to pay restitution for the Japanese lives and property lost in the Imo Incident, and also to allow Japanese troops into Seoul so they could guard the Japanese Embassy. Alarmed by this new imposition, Queen Min once again reached out to Qin China, granting them trading access to ports still closed to Japan, and requesting that Chinese and German officers head her modernizing army. She also sent a fact-finding mission to the United States, headed by Min Yeong-ik of her Yeoheung Min clan. The mission even dined with American President Chester A. Arthur. Tonghak Rebellion In 1894, Korean peasants and village officials rose up against the Joseon government because of the crushing tax burdens imposed upon them. Like the Boxer Rebellion, which was beginning to brew in Qing China, the Tonghak or Eastern Learning movement in Korea was anti-foreigner. One popular slogan was Drive out the Japanese dwarfs and the Western barbarians. As the rebels took provincial towns and capitals  and marched toward Seoul, Queen Min urged her husband to ask Beijing for aid. China responded on June 6, 1894, by sending in almost 2,500 soldiers to reinforce Seouls defenses. Japan expressed its outrage (real or feigned) at this land-grab by China  and sent 4,500 troops to Incheon, over the protests of Queen Min and King Gojong. Although the Tonghak Rebellion was over within a week, Japan and China did not withdraw their forces. As the two Asian powers troops stared one another down and the Korean royals called for both sides to withdraw, British-sponsored negotiations failed. On July 23, 1894, Japanese troops marched into Seoul and captured King Gojong and Queen Min. On August 1, China and Japan declared war on one another, fighting for control of Korea. Sino-Japanese War Although Qing China deployed 630,000 troops to Korea in the Sino-Japanese War, as opposed to just 240,000 Japanese, the modern Meiji army and navy quickly crushed the Chinese forces. On April 17, 1895, China signed the humiliating Treaty of Shimonoseki, which recognized that Korea was no longer a tributary state of the Qing empire. It also granted the Liaodong Peninsula, Taiwan, and the Penghu Islands to Japan, and agreed to pay a war indemnity of 200 million silver taels to the Meiji government. As many as 100,000 of Koreas peasants had risen up late in 1894 to attack the Japanese as well, but they were slaughtered. Internationally, Korea was no longer a vassal state of the failing Qing; its ancient enemy, Japan, was now fully in charge. Queen Min was devastated. Appeal to Russia Japan quickly wrote a new constitution for Korea  and stocked its parliament with pro-Japanese Koreans. A large number of Japanese troops remained stationed indefinitely in Korea. Desperate for an ally to help unlock Japans stranglehold on her country, Queen Min turned to the other emerging power in the Far East—Russia. She met with Russian emissaries, invited Russian students and engineers to Seoul, and did her best to stoke Russian concerns about the rising Japanese power. Japans agents and officials in Seoul, well aware of Queen Mins appeals to Russia, countered by approaching her old nemesis and father-in-law, the Taewongun. Although he hated the Japanese, the Taewongun detested Queen Min even more  and agreed to help them get rid of her once and for all. Assassination In the fall of 1895, Japanese ambassador to Korea Miura Goro formulated a plan to assassinate Queen Min, a plan that he named Operation Fox Hunt. Early in the morning of October 8, 1895, a group of 50 Japanese and Korean assassins launched their assault on Gyeongbokgung Palace. They seized King Gojong but did not harm him. Then they attacked the queen consorts sleeping quarters, dragging her out along with three or four of her attendants. The assassins questioned the women to make sure that they had Queen Min, then slashed them with swords before stripping and raping them. The Japanese displayed the queens dead body to several other foreigners in the area—including the Russians  so they knew their ally was dead—and then carried her body to the forest outside the palace walls. There, the assassins doused Queen Mins body with kerosene and burned it, scattering her ashes. Legacy In the aftermath of Queen Mins murder, Japan denied involvement while also pushing King Gojong to posthumously strip her of her royal rank. For once, he refused to bow to their pressure. An international outcry about Japans killing of a foreign sovereign forced the Meiji government to stage show-trials, but only minor participants were convicted. Ambassador Miura Goro was acquitted for a lack of evidence. In 1897, Gojong ordered a careful search of the woods where his queens body had been burned, which turned up a single finger bone. He organized an elaborate funeral for this relic of his wife, featuring 5,000 soldiers, thousands of lanterns and scrolls enumerating Queen Mins virtues, and giant wooden horses to transport her in the afterlife. The queen consort also received the posthumous title of Empress Myeongseong. In the following years, Japan would defeat Russia in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) and formally annex the Korean Peninsula in 1910, ending the Joseon dynastys rule. Korea would remain under Japans control until the Japanese defeat in World War II. Sources Bong Lee. The Unfinished War: Korea. New York: Algora Publishing, 2003.Kim Chun-Gil. The History of Korea. ABC-CLIO, 2005Palais, James B. Politics and Policy in Traditional Korea. Harvard University Press, 1975.Seth, Michael J. A History of Korea: From Antiquity to the Present. Rowman Littlefield, 2010.