Motivation and Employees Essay

Motivation is the word derived from the word ’motive’ which means needs, desires, wants or drives within the individuals. It is the process of stimulating people to actions to accomplish the goals. In the work goal context the psychological factors stimulating the people’s behaviour can be – * desire for money * success * recognition * job-satisfaction * team work, etc| One of the most important functions of management is to create willingness amongst the employees to perform in the best of their abilities. Therefore the role of a leader is to arouse interest in performance of employees in their jobs. The process of motivation consists of three stages:- 1. A felt need or drive 2. A stimulus in which needs have to be aroused 3. When needs are satisfied, the satisfaction or accomplishment of goals. Therefore, we can say that motivation is a psychological phenomenon which means needs and wants of the individuals have to be tackled by framing an incentive plan. THEORIES OF MOTIVATION MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS Abraham Maslow is well renowned for proposing the Hierarchy of Needs Theory in 1943. This theory is a classical depiction of human motivation. This theory is based on the assumption that there is a hierarchy of five needs within each individual. The urgency of these needs varies. These five needs are as follows- 1. Physiological needs- These are the basic needs of air, water, food, clothing and shelter. In other words, physiological needs are the needs for basic amenities of life. 2. Safety needs- Safety needs include physical, environmental and emotional safety and protection. For instance- Job security, financial security, protection from animals, family security, health security, etc. 3. Social needs- Social needs include the need for love, affection, care, belongingness, and friendship. 4. Esteem needs- Esteem needs are of two types: internal esteem needs (self- respect, confidence, competence, achievement and freedom) and external esteem needs (recognition, power, status, attention and admiration). 5. Self-actualization need- This include the urge to become what you are capable of becoming / what you have the potential to become. It includes the need for growth and self-contentment. It also includes desire for gaining more knowledge, social- service, creativity and being aesthetic. The self- actualization needs are never fully satiable. As an individual grows psychologically, opportunities keep cropping up to continue growing. According to Maslow, individuals are motivated by unsatisfied needs. As each of these needs is significantly satisfied, it drives and forces the next need to emerge. Maslow grouped the five needs into two categories – Higher-order needs and Lower-order needs. The physiological and the safety needs constituted the lower-order needs. These lower-order needs are mainly satisfied externally. The social, esteem, and self-actualization needs constituted the higher-order needs. These higher-order needs are generally satisfied internally, i.e., within an individual. Thus, we can conclude that during boom period, the employees lower-order needs are significantly met. Implications of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory for Managers | As far as the physiological needs are concerned, the managers should give employees appropriate salaries to purchase the basic necessities of life. Breaks and eating opportunities should be given to employees. | | As far as the safety needs are concerned, the managers should provide the employees job security, safe and hygienic work environment, and retirement benefits so as to retain them.| | As far as social needs are concerned, the management should encourage teamwork and organize social events.| | As far as esteem needs are concerned, the managers can appreciate and reward employees on accomplishing and exceeding their targets. The management can give the deserved employee higher job rank / position in the organization.| | As far as self-actualization needs are concerned, the managers can give the employees challenging jobs in which the employees’ skills and competencies are fully utilized. Moreover, growth opportunities can be given to them so that they can reach the peak.| The managers must identify the need level at which the employee is existing and then those needs can be utilized as push for motivation. Limitations of Maslow’s Theory * It is essential to note that not all employees are governed by same set of needs. Different individuals may be driven by different needs at same point of time. It is always the most powerful unsatisfied need that motivates an individual. * The theory is not empirically supported. * The theory is not applicable in case of starving artist as even if the artist’s basic needs are not satisfied, he will still strive for recognition and achievement. HERZBERG’S 2 FACTOR THEORY In 1959, Frederick Herzberg, a behavioural scientist proposed a two-factor theory or the motivator-hygiene theory. According to Herzberg, there are some job factors that result in satisfaction while there are other job factors that prevent dissatisfaction. According to Herzberg, the opposite of â€Å"Satisfaction† is â€Å"No satisfaction† and the opposite of â€Å"Dissatisfaction† is â€Å"No Dissatisfaction†. Herzberg classified these job factors into two categories- a. Hygiene factors- Hygiene factors are those job factors which are essential for existence of motivation at workplace. These do not lead to positive satisfaction for long-term. But if these factors are absent / if these factors are non-existant at workplace, then they lead to dissatisfaction. In other words, hygiene factors are those factors which when adequate / reasonable in a job, pacify the employees and do not make them dissatisfied. These factors are extrinsic to work. Hygiene factors are also called as dissatisfiers or maintenance factors as they are required to avoid dissatisfaction. These factors describe the job environment / scenario. The hygiene factors symbolized the physiological needs which the individuals wanted and expected to be fulfilled. Hygiene factors include: * Pay- The pay or salary structure should be appropriate and reasonable. It must be equal and competitive to those in the same industry in the same domain. * Company Policies and administrative policies- The company policies should not be too rigid. They should be fair and clear. It should include flexible working hours, dress code, breaks, vacation, etc. * Fringe benefits- The employees should be offered health care plans (mediclaim), benefits for the family members, employee help programmes, etc. * Physical Working conditions- The working conditions should be safe, clean and hygienic. The work equipments should be updated and well-maintained. * Status- The employees’ status within the organization should be familiar and retained. * Interpersonal relations-The relationship of the employees with his peers, superiors and subordinates should be appropriate and acceptable. There should be no conflict or humiliation element present. * Job Security- The organization must provide job security to the employees. b. Motivational factors- According to Herzberg, the hygiene factors cannot be regarded as motivators. The motivational factors yield positive satisfaction. These factors are inherent to work. These factors motivate the employees for a superior performance. These factors are called satisfiers. These are factors involved in performing the job. Employees find these factors intrinsically rewarding. The motivators symbolized the psychological needs that were perceived as an additional benefit. Motivational factors include: * Recognition- The employees should be praised and recognized for their accomplishments by the managers. * Sense of achievement- The employees must have a sense of achievement. This depends on the job. There must be a fruit of some sort in the job. * Growth and promotional opportunities- There must be growth and advancement opportunities in an organization to motivate the employees to perform well. * Responsibility- The employees must hold themselves responsible for the work. The managers should give them ownership of the work. They should minimize control but retain accountability. * Meaningfulness of the work- The work itself should be meaningful, interesting and challenging for the employee to perform and to get motivated. | | Limitations of Two-Factor Theory The two factor theory is not free from limitations: 1. The two-factor theory overlooks situational variables. 2. Herzberg assumed a correlation between satisfaction and productivity. But the research conducted by Herzberg stressed upon satisfaction and ignored productivity. 3. The theory’s reliability is uncertain. Analysis has to be made by the raters. The raters may spoil the findings by analyzing same response in different manner. 4. No comprehensive measure of satisfaction was used. An employee may find his job acceptable despite the fact that he may hate/object part of his job. 5. The two factor theory is not free from bias as it is based on the natural reaction of employees when they are enquired the sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction at work. They will blame dissatisfaction on the external factors such as salary structure, company policies and peer relationship. Also, the employees will give credit to themselves for the satisfaction factor at work. 6. The theory ignores blue-collar workers. Despite these limitat ions, Herzberg’s Two-Factor theory is acceptable broadly. Implications of Two-Factor Theory | The Two-Factor theory implies that the managers must stress upon guaranteeing the adequacy of the hygiene factors to avoid employee dissatisfaction. Also, the managers must make sure that the work is stimulating and rewarding so that the employees are motivated to work and perform harder and better. This theory emphasize upon job-enrichment so as to motivate the employees. The job must utilize the employee’s skills and competencies to the maximum. Focusing on the motivational factors can improve work-quality.| McGREGOR’S THEORY X & Y In 1960, Douglas McGregor formulated Theory X and Theory Y suggesting two aspects of human behaviour at work, or in other words, two different views of individuals (employees): one of which is negative, called as Theory X and the other is positive, so called as Theory Y. According to McGregor, the perception of managers on the nature of individuals is based on various assumptions.Assumptions of Theory X * An average employee intrinsically does not like work and tries to escape it whenever possible. * Since the employee does not want to work, he must be persuaded, compelled, or warned with punishment so as to achieve organizational goals. A close supervision is required on part of managers. The managers adopt a more dictatorial style. * Many employees rank job security on top, and they have little or no aspiration/ ambition. * Employees generally dislike responsibilities. * Employees resist change. * An average employee needs formal direction.| Assumptions of Theory Y * Employees can perceive their job as relaxing and normal. They exercise their physical and mental efforts in an inherent manner in their jobs. * Employees may not require only threat, external control and coercion to work, but they can use self-direction and self-control if they are dedicated and sincere to achieve the organizational objectives. * If the job is rewarding and satisfying, then it will result in employees’ loyalty and commitment to organization. * An average employee can learn to admit and recognize the responsibility. In fact, he can even learn to obtain responsibility. * The employees have skills and capabilities. Their logical capabilities should be fully utilized. In other words, the creativity, resourcefulness and innovative potentiality of the employees can be utilized to solve organizational problems. Thus, we can say that Theory X presents a pessimistic view of employees’ nature and behaviour at work, while Theory Y presents an optimistic view of the employees’ nature and behaviour at work. If correlate it with Maslow’s theory, we can say that Theory X is based on the assumption that the employees emphasize on the physiological needs and the safety needs; while Theory X is based on the assumption that the social needs, esteem needs and the self-actualization needs dominate the employees. McGregor views Theory Y to be more valid and reasonable than Theory X. Thus, he encouraged cordial team relations, responsible and stimulating jobs, and participation of all in decision-making process. Implications of Theory X and Theory Y | Quite a few organizations use Theory X today. Theory X encourages use of tight control and supervision. It implies that employees are reluctant to organizational changes. Thus, it does not encourage innovation.| | Many organizations are using Theory Y techniques. Theory Y implies that the managers should create and encourage a work environment which provides opportunities to employees to take initiative and self-direction. Employees should be given opportunities to contribute to organizational well-being. Theory Y encourages decentralization of authority, teamwork and participative decision making in an organization. Theory Y searches and discovers the ways in which an employee can make significant contributions in an organization. It harmonizes and matches employees’ needs and aspirations with organizational needs and aspirations.| MOTIVATION INCENTIVES – INCENTIVES TO MOTIVATE EMPLOYEES Incentive is an act or promise for greater action. It is also called as a stimulus to greater action. Incentives are something which are given in addition to wagers. It means additional remuneration or benefit to an employee in recognition of achievement or better work. Incentives provide a spur or zeal in the employees for better performance. It is a natural thing that nobody acts without a purpose behind. Therefore, a hope for a reward is a powerful incentive to motivate employees. Besides monetary incentive, there are some other stimuli which can drive a person to better. This will include job satisfaction, job security, job promotion, and pride for accomplishment. Therefore, incentives really can sometimes work to accomplish the goals of a concern. The need of incentives can be many:- 1. To increase productivity, 2. To drive or arouse a stimulus work, 3. To enhance commitment in work performance, 4. To psychologically satisfy a person which leads to job satisfaction, 5. To shape the behavior or outlook of subordinate towards work, 6. To inculcate zeal and enthusiasm towards work, 7. To get the maximum of their capabilities so that they are exploited and utilized maximally. Therefore, management has to offer the following two categories of incentives to motivate employees:- 1. Monetary incentives- Those incentives which satisfy the subordinates by providing them rewards in terms of rupees. Money has been recognized as a chief source of satisfying the needs of people. Money is also helpful to satisfy the social needs by possessing various material items. Therefore, money not only satisfies psychological needs but also the security and social needs. Therefore, in many factories, various wage plans and bonus schemes are introduced to motivate and stimulate the people to work. 2. Non-monetary incentives- Besides the monetary incentives, there are certain non-financial incentives which can satisfy the ego and self- actualization needs of employees. The incentives which cannot be measured in terms of money are under the category of â€Å"Non- monetary incentivesâ⠂¬ . Whenever a manager has to satisfy the psychological needs of the subordinates, he makes use of non-financial incentives. Non- financial incentives can be of the following types:- a. Security of service- Job security is an incentive which provides great motivation to employees. If his job is secured, he will put maximum efforts to achieve the objectives of the enterprise. This also helps since he is very far off from mental tension and he can give his best to the enterprise. b. Praise or recognition- The praise or recognition is another non- financial incentive which satisfies the ego needs of the employees. Sometimes praise becomes more effective than any other incentive. The employees will respond more to praise and try to give the best of their abilities to a concern. c. Suggestion scheme- The organization should look forward to taking suggestions and inviting suggestion schemes from the subordinates. This inculcates a spirit of participation in the employees. This can be done by publishing various articles written by employees to improve the work environment which can be published in various magazines of the company. This also is helpful to motivate the employees to feel important and they can also be in search for innovative methods which can be applied for better work methods. This ultimately helps in growing a concern and adapting new methods of operations. d. Job enrichment- Job enrichment is another non- monetary incentive in which the job of a worker can be enriched. This can be done by increasing his responsibilities, giving him an important designation, increasing the content and nature of the work. This way efficient worker can get challenging jobs in which they can prove their worth. This also helps in the greatest motivation of the efficient employees. e. Promotion opportunities- Promotion is an effective tool to increase the spirit to work in a concern. If the employees are provided opportunities for the advancement and growth , they feel satisfied and contented and they become more committed to the organization. The above non- financial tools can be framed effectively by giving due concentration to the role of employees. A combination of financial and non- financial incentives help together in bringing motivation and zeal to work in a concern. Positive IncentivesPositive incentives are those incentives which provide a positive assurance for fulfilling the needs and wants. Positive incentives generally have an optimistic attitude behind and they are generally given to satisfy the psychological requirements of employees. For example-promotion, praise, recognition, perks and allowances, etc. It is positive by nature.Negative IncentivesNegative incentives are those whose purpose is to correct the mistakes or defaults of employees. The purpose is to rectify mistakes in order to get effective results. Negative incentive is generally resorted to when positive incentive does not works and a psychological set back has to be given to employees. It is negative by nature. For example- demotion, transfer , fines, penalties.| THE IMPORTANCE OF MOTIVATION Motivation is a very important for an organization because of the following benefits it provides:- 1. Puts human resources into action Every concern requires physical, financial and human resources to accomplish the goals. It is through motivation that the human resources can be utilized by making full use of it. This can be done by building willingness in employees to work. This will help the enterprise in securing best possible utilization of resources. 2. Improves level of efficiency of employees The level of a subordinate or a employee does not only depend upon his qualifications and abilities. For getting best of his work performance, the gap between ability and willingness has to be filled which helps in improving the level of performance of subordinates. This will result into- a. Increase in productivity, b. Reducing cost of operations, and c. Improving overall efficiency. 3. Leads to achievement of organizational goals The goals of an enterprise can be achieved only when the following factors take place :- d. There is best possible utilization of resources, e. There is a co-operative work environment, f. The employees are goal-directed and they act in a purposive manner, g. Goals can be achieved if co-ordination and co-operation takes place simultaneously which can be effectively done through motivation. 4. Builds friendly relationship Motivation is an important factor which brings employees satisfaction. This can be done by keeping into mind and framing an incentive plan for the benefit of the employees. This could initiate the following things: h. Monetary and non-monetary incentives, i. Promotion opportunities for employees, j. Disincentives for inefficient employees. In order to build a cordial, friendly atmosphere in a concern, the above steps should be taken by a manager. This would help in: a. Effective co-operation which brings stability, b. Industrial dispute and unrest in employees will reduce, c. The employees will be adaptable to the changes and there will be no resistance to the change, d. This will help in providing a smooth and sound concern in which individual interests will coincide with the organizational interests, e. This will result in profit maximization through increased productivity. 1. Leads to stability of work force Stability of workforce is very important from the point of view of reputation and goodwill of a concern. The employees can remain loyal to the enterprise only when they have a feeling of participation in the management. The skills and efficiency of employees will always be of advantage to employees as well as employees. This will lead to a good public image in the market which will attract competent and qualified people into a concern. As it is said, â€Å"Old is gold† which suffices with the role of motivation here, the older the people, more the experience and their adjustment into a concern which can be of benefit to the enterprise. From the above discussion, we can say that motivation is an internal feeling which can be understood only by manager since he is in close contact with the employees. Needs, wants and desires are inter-related and they are the driving force to act. These needs can be understood by the manager and he can frame motivation plans accordingly. We can say that motivation therefore is a continuous process since motivation process is based on needs which are unlimited. The process has to be continued throughout. We can summarize by saying that motivation is important both to an individual and a business. Motivation is important to an individual as: 1. Motivation will help him achieve his personal goals. 2. If an individual is motivated, he will have job satisfaction. 3. Motivation will help in self-development of individual. 4. An individual would always gain by working with a dynamic team. Similarly, motivation is important to a business as: 1. The more motivated the employees are, the more empowered the team is. 2. The more is the team work and individual employee contribution, more profitable and successful is the business. 3. During period of amendments, there will be more adaptability and creativity. 4. Motivation will lead to an optimistic and challenging attitude at work place. Staff Motivation – Motivation Tips for Employees Employees are the building blocks of an organization. Organizational success depends on the collective efforts of the employees. The employees will collectively contribute to organizational growth when they are motivated. Below mentioned are some tips for motivating the staff / employees in an organization: Evaluate yourself- In order to motivate, encourage and control your staff’s behaviour, it is essential to understand, encourage and control your own behaviour as a manager. Work upon utilizing your strengths and opportunities to neutralize and lower the negative impact of your weaknesses and organizational threats. The manager should adopt the approach â€Å"You’re OK – I’m OK†. Be familiar with your staff- The manager should be well acquainted with his staff. The more and the better he knows his staff, the simpler it is to get them involved in the job as well as in achieving the team and organizational goals. This will also invite staff’s commitment and loyalty. A cordial superior-subordinate relationship is a key factor in job-satisfaction. Provide the employees certain benefits- Give your staff some financial and other benefits. Give them bonuses, pay them for overtime, and give them health and family insurance benefits. Make sure they get breaks from work. Let them enjoy vacations and holidays. Participate in new employees induction programme- Induction proceeds with recruitment advertising. At this point of time, the potential entrants start creating their own impressions and desires about the job and the organization. The manner in which the selection is conducted and the consequent recruitment process will either build or damage the impression about the job and organization. Thus, the manager must have a say in framing the advertisement and also in the selection and recruitment process. After the decision about the candidate is made, the manager must take personal interest in the selected joinee’s joining date, the family relocation issues, cost of removal, etc. Being observed by the new recruit and your entire team / staff to be involved completely, will ensure a persuasive entry in the organization. Provide feedback to the staff constantly- The staff members are keen to know how they are performing. Try giving a regular and constructive feedback to your staff. This will be more acceptable by the staff. Do not base the feedback on assumptions, but on facts and personal observations. Do not indulge in favouritism or comparing the employee with some one else. Sit with your staff on daily or weekly basis and make sure that feedback happens. This will help in boosting employee’s morale and will thus motivate the staff. Acknowledge your staff on their achievements- A pat on the back, some words of praise, and giving a note of credit to the employee / staff member at personal level with some form of broad publicity can motivate the staff a lot. Make it a point to mention the staff’s outstanding achievements in official newsletters or organization’s journal. Not only acknowledge the employee with highest contribution, but also acknowledge the employee who meets and over exceeds the targets. Ensure effective time management- Having control over time ensures that things are done in right manner. Motivate your staff to have â€Å"closed† times, i.e., few hours when there are no interruptions for the staff in performing their job role so that they can concentrate on the job, and â€Å"open† times when the staff freely communicate and interact. Plan one to one sessions of interaction with your staff where they can ask their queries and also can get your attention and, thereby, they will not feel neglected. This all will work in long run to motivate the staff. Have stress management techniques in your organization- Create an environment in which you and your staff can work within optimum pressure levels. Ensure an optimistic attitude towards stress in the workplace. Have training sessions on stress management, and ensure a follow-up with group meetings on the manner stress can be lowered at work. Give your staff autonomy in work. Identify the stress symptoms in employees and try to deal with them. Smile often- Smiling can have a tremendous effect on boosting the morale of the staff. A smiling superior creates an optimistic and motivating work environment. Smiling is an essential component of the body language of confidence, acceptance and boldness. Smile consistently, naturally and often, to demonstrate that you feel good and positive about the staff who works for you. It encourages new ideas and feedback from the staff. The staff does not feel hesitant and threatened to discuss their views this way. Listen effectively- Listening attentively is a form of recognizing and appreciating the person who is talking. Reciprocal / Mutual listening develops cordial and healthy personal relationships on which the employee / staff development rests. If the managers do not listen attentively to the subordinates, the morale of the subordinates lowers down and they do not feel like sharing their ideas or giving their views. Effective listening by the manager boosts up the employees’ morale and thus motivates them. Ensure effective communication- In order to motivate your staff, indulge in effective communication such as avoid using anger expressions, utilize questioning techniques to know staff’s mindset and analysis rather than ordering the staff what to do, base your judgements on facts and not on assumptions, use relaxed and steady tone of voice, listen effectively and be positive and helpful in your responses. Share your views with the staff. Develop and encourage creativity- The staff should be encouraged to develop the creativity skills so as to solve organizational problems. Give them time and resources for developing creativity. Let them hold constant brainstorming sessions. Invite ideas and suggestions from the staff. They may turn out to be very productive. Don’t be rigid. Be flexible- Introduce flexibility in work. Allow for flexible working hours if possible. Let the employees work at home occasionally if need arises. Do not be rigid in accepting ideas from your staff. Stimulate flexible attitudes in the employees who are accountable to you by asking what changes they would like to bring about if given a chance. Adopt job enrichment- Job enrichment implies giving room for a better quality of working life. It means facilitating people to achieve self-development, fame and success through a more challenging and interesting job which provides more promotional and advancement opportunities. Give employees more freedom in job, involve them in decision-making process, show them loyalty and celebrate their achievements Respect your team- Respect not only the employees’ rights to share and express their views, and to be themselves, but their time too. This will ensure that the employees respect you and your time. Make the staff feel that they are respected not just as employees / workers but as individuals too.

Zeus Research Paper

rZeus Beginning around 700 B. C. , stories by Homer and other Greek poets told of the lives of powerful gods who involved themselves in human affairs. Supreme among these gods was Zeus, but to the Romans he was known as Jupiter. Zeus was the supreme god and ruler of Olympus. He was known by many titles: Lord of the Sky, the Cloud- gatherer, the Rain-god, and Zeus the Thunderer. All of which are the most popular names dating back to ancient Greek history and mythology. Zeus was the child of the Titans, Cronus and Rhea, and was the youngest of all his siblings.Cronus , Zeus’ father, had been warned that one of his children would overthrow him. Cronus knew the consequences, for he had overthrown his father, Uranus. To prevent this from happening Cronus swallowed his newborn children Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades and Poseidon, but according to legend his wife Rhea and her mother Gaia, wrapped a stone in swaddling clothes in the place of the infant Zeus. Cronus thinking it was the n ewborn baby swallowed the stone. Meanwhile Rhea and her baby were taken to Crete, and there, in a cave on Mount Dicte, the divine goat Amaltheia suckled and raised the infant Zeus.When Zeus had grown into a young man he left the cave and returned to his fathers domain, and with the help of Gaia, tricked Cronus to vomit the five children he had previously swallowed. However, this led to war and Zeus led the revolt against his father and the dynasty of the Titans. In the end theTitans were defeated and banished to â€Å"Tartarus†, which was a region lower than the underworld. Once Zeus had control, he and his brothers divided the universe amongst themselves: Zeus gaining the heavens, Poseidon the sea, and Hades the underworld.Being the supreme ruler he upheld law, justice, and morals, and this made him the spiritual leader of both gods and men. Zeus has always been associated as being a weather god, as his main attribute is the thunderbolt for which he used to rule Olympus. Her a was Zeus’ wife and was very jealous of her husband's many affairs. His wife Hera, bore him Ares, Hebe, Hephaestus, and Eileithyia, however Zeus had numerous other children with both goddesses and mortals. His affair with a woman named Leto led to the birth of the twins Apollo and Artemis.Hera being the jealous wife she was, forced Leto to roam the earth in search of a place to give birth, for Hera had stopped her from gaining shelter on land or at sea. The only place she could go was to the isle of Delos in the middle of the Aegean Sea, for Delos was a floating island. This would be one of many of Hera’s revenges on her husband’s affairs. Zeus used many different disguises to seduce women. When he seduced the Spartan queen Leda, he transformed himself into a beautiful swan, and from the egg which Leda produced, two sets of twins were born.They were Polydeuces and Castor and Clytemnestra and Helen of Troy. He also visited princess Danae as a shower of gold, and from this, the hero Perseus was born. He kidnapped the Phoenician princess Europa, disguised as a bull, then carried her on his back to the island of Crete where she had three sons. They were Minos, Rhadamanthys, and Sarpedon. These were just some of his many children. Zeus had many Temples and festivals in his honor, the most famous was Olympia, the magnificent â€Å"Temple of Zeus†, which held the gold and ivory statue of the enthroned Zeus, which was sculpted by Phidias.It was later to become one of the â€Å"Seven Wonders of the Ancient World†. Also the Olympic Games and many other numerous festivals throughout Greece were held in his honor. In art, which was a big part of Greek culture, Zeus is usually shown as bearded, middle aged, but with a youthful figure. He seems very poweful and imposing. Artists always try to show the power of Zeus in their art, usually by giving him a pose as he is about to throw his bolt of lightening. To this day Zeus is still consider ed to be one of the most interesting parts of Greek mythology.

A Place I Would Like to Visit

There are a lot of wonderful places I wish to visit. One of the places where I would like to visit is Hollywood. I always wanted to see how the films are made, meet famous actors and actresses and just have a good time. Hollywood is famous for making films there. I like to watch movies and I spend a great amount of my free time watching new and also old films, especially the Hollywood films. While watching the films I like, I always want to know how the director managed to made such wonderful and awesome films, what technologies he or she used, and how the actors performed dangerous stunts. Hollywood seems to be the best place to satisfy my interests in making films. Many famous American actors and actresses have houses in Hollywood. Therefore if I visit this place I will probably have an opportunity to meet them take autographs and even have a talk with them asking them questions. Thus, visiting Los Angeles I will have numerous opportunities of meeting famous figures in cinema industry. Moreover, Los Angeles, where Hollywood is one of the beautiful places in the world. It has a lot of beaches and as it is always hot there, you can spend your time swimming and sunbathing. Hollywood is one of the interesting site s in my dream list. A Place I Would Like to Visit â€Å"Hollywood† There are a lot of wonderful places I wish to visit. One of the places where I would like to visit is Hollywood. I always wanted to see how the films are made, meet famous actors and actresses and just have a good time. Hollywood is famous for making films there. I like to watch movies and I spend a great amount of my free time watching new and also old films, especially the Hollywood films. While watching the films I like, I always want to know how the director managed to made such wonderful and awesome films, what technologies he or she used, and how the actors performed dangerous stunts. Hollywood seems to be the best place to satisfy my interests in making films. Many famous American actors and actresses have houses in Hollywood. Therefore if I visit this place I will probably have an opportunity to meet them take autographs and even have a talk with them asking them questions. Thus, visiting Los Angeles I will have numerous opportunities of meeting famous figures in cinema industry. Moreover, Los Angeles, where Hollywood is one of the beautiful places in the world. It has a lot of beaches and as it is always hot there, you can spend your time swimming and sunbathing. Hollywood is one of the interesting site s in my dream list. A Place I Would Like to Visit â€Å"Hollywood† There are a lot of wonderful places I wish to visit. One of the places where I would like to visit is Hollywood. I always wanted to see how the films are made, meet famous actors and actresses and just have a good time. Hollywood is famous for making films there. I like to watch movies and I spend a great amount of my free time watching new and also old films, especially the Hollywood films. While watching the films I like, I always want to know how the director managed to made such wonderful and awesome films, what technologies he or she used, and how the actors performed dangerous stunts. Hollywood seems to be the best place to satisfy my interests in making films. Many famous American actors and actresses have houses in Hollywood. Therefore if I visit this place I will probably have an opportunity to meet them take autographs and even have a talk with them asking them questions. Thus, visiting Los Angeles I will have numerous opportunities of meeting famous figures in cinema industry. Moreover, Los Angeles, where Hollywood is one of the beautiful places in the world. It has a lot of beaches and as it is always hot there, you can spend your time swimming and sunbathing. Hollywood is one of the interesting site s in my dream list. A Place I Would Like to Visit â€Å"Hollywood† There are a lot of wonderful places I wish to visit. One of the places where I would like to visit is Hollywood. I always wanted to see how the films are made, meet famous actors and actresses and just have a good time. Hollywood is famous for making films there. I like to watch movies and I spend a great amount of my free time watching new and also old films, especially the Hollywood films. While watching the films I like, I always want to know how the director managed to made such wonderful and awesome films, what technologies he or she used, and how the actors performed dangerous stunts. Hollywood seems to be the best place to satisfy my interests in making films. Many famous American actors and actresses have houses in Hollywood. Therefore if I visit this place I will probably have an opportunity to meet them take autographs and even have a talk with them asking them questions. Thus, visiting Los Angeles I will have numerous opportunities of meeting famous figures in cinema industry. Moreover, Los Angeles, where Hollywood is one of the beautiful places in the world. It has a lot of beaches and as it is always hot there, you can spend your time swimming and sunbathing. Hollywood is one of the interesting site s in my dream list.

Philosophy of Plato and American Culture Research Paper

Philosophy of Plato and American Culture - Research Paper Example There are so many diverse cultures all around the globe which are based on some philosophies which can still be observed in the 21st century. Plato was one of the philosophers whose philosophy is eminent in the Western culture and it can be said that today’s American culture emanates the philosophy of Plato in a number of ways. According to Alfred North Whitehead, the safest generalization of the different characteristics of the Western culture is that it is based on the philosophy of Plato. The philosophy has not been adopted in a systematic way but it can be easily seen that the scattered ideas of Plato have been included in the culture (Lachs & Talisse, 2008). Platonism had already developed for a period of two millennia after Plato’s death after it had any influence on the American philosophy. There are a number of ideas found in the works of Plato that have played significant role in the development of American philosophy. The main three ideas that have influenced the American philosophy the most are; the importance of formal understanding of mathematics; the conception of nature as in process and the conviction that because of the roles of form in natural processes, value is a part of nature. Following is the comprehensive analysis of the influences that the philosophy of Plato has on the American educational structure and society in general. Plato’s Philosophy and American Education System American culture is influenced by Plato philosophy in some way or the other. There are a number of ways in which American culture intersects with Plato’s philosophy. One of the main examples is the system of State and education. Plato founded the basic concepts for a number of subjects which have been developed over time and they are taught in the educational institutes of America. Dialogues of Plato have been used in a wide range of subjects which include; mathematics, ethics, philosophy and logic. There are a number of ways in which people come across the philosophy of Plato, sometimes without even realizing it. Plato’s philosophy is considered to be the foundation for the democratic philosophies of education as he proposed a whole system of education. Plato always encouraged education in his philosophy and his teachings can still be observed in American culture. According to Plato; children with talent should be selected by the State from all the social classes regardless of the social position of the children. Plato considered children as the assets of the State and he suggested that the State should educate the children in order to make them eligible for the right kind of service to the State. Children should be educated in such a manner that they become fully trained for the kind of service they are to perform in the future. Plato suggested that the educated children may serve in; military services, city management and dialectic. The State should take the responsibility of the education of such talented ch ildren. According to Plato, the children should go through a comprehensive educational training which begins with gymnastics, music, and mathematics. Plato gave significant importance to the concept of mathematics and this philosophy of Plato has influenced American culture in a number of ways. The development of scientific methods in America

Criticism on the Metamorphosis and analyze on Metamorphosis - Kafka Research Proposal

Criticism on the Metamorphosis and analyze on Metamorphosis - Kafka - Research Proposal Example Yet, Kafka’s message is deeper. He seems not to desire Gregor’s salvation from death, but his death from the society should serve as salvation. Gregor’s condition may seem similar to the condition of those dying from mortal diseases. The very beginning of the story indicates to such a point of view. â€Å"One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin†. It is easy to imagine a person who once learns an awful diagnosis of his and informs his family of it. As he wakes up in the morning he finds out that his family’s attitude to him has changed entirely. Now Gregor is not able to earn his old parents and small sister’s living, and this is the only question which really troubles him. However, his family is frightened and feels disgust. His parents do not even want to hear of him or see him. Only his younger sister, whose head is full of romantic images, â€Å"sacrifices† herself caring of her sick brother. However, Grete stops perceiving her elder brother as a human being. She is squeamish about touching his personal thi ngs and hurries to the window to open it and air the room, as if it is filled with poison. Grete avoids looking at her brother and doesn’t address him. Gregor’s mother faints at Gregor’s sight. Gregor’s father feels such disgust that even injures his son â€Å"protecting† himself from the sick. Mr. Samsa doesn’t allow Gregor to leave the room. The whole family perceives Gregor’s condition as shame. At first the family tries not to treat Gregor as an enemy, while â€Å"family duty required the suppression of disgust and the exercise of patience, nothing but patience†. However, after the three gentlemen deny paying rent on the pretence of having shared the apartment with such a monster, even Grete bursts out, exclaiming – â€Å"We must try to get rid of it!†, – and Mrs. Samsa entirely

Star school Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Star school - Essay Example The strength of STAR school lied in its ability to strive for excellence irrespective of socio-economic barriers that existed around it. Its aim was to ensure that children stood first, the class room sessions are as effective as ever and the fact that leadership and accountability are the key areas to success should be inculcated within kids. For this a new in charge of the committee Ackerman was appointed under whom another committee was working that worked to respond more effectively to the requirements to a certain standard. However, it was observed that African American students had been underperforming. They showed lack of interest and had not been able to give result at par with that of native students. As a result of this, even the teachers had been observed lacking interest in teaching these students. The results kept dipping and the African students continued showing major dip in their performance. An â€Å"Excellence for all† strategy has been worked out, the main aim of which is to ensure that students from all kinds of socio-ethnic backgrounds are looked after and there is Excellency of results observed amongst all students enrolled. For this purpose, schools in various districts were evaluated and funds were raised to help refurbish them. It was figured out which were the low performing schools, in what areas were they not performing well and what were the barriers hindering the overall performance of the schools. The Federal government’s help was also sought after while raising funds for sustainability. The central administration of the schools was checked critically and any immediate steps taken. SWOT tools help to analyze and identify key issues for developing future strategies for Star. Emphasis for future should be more on excellence in performance than on quantity in order to improve the results of the African-Latin students and to help their motivation. In the current situation of global

Conceptual framework for financial reporting Essay

Conceptual framework for financial reporting - Essay Example This made accounting standards haphazard, and many scandals could be witnessed (Alexander et al. 2007, p.150). This saw the introduction of ‘a conceptual framework for financial reporting.’ The aim of this paper is to examine what a conceptual framework for financial reporting is, and discuss the usefulness of such a framework. In addition, the paper will assess whether conceptual frameworks such as the International Accounting Standards Board for the preparation and presentation of financial reports has succeeded in achieving the stated objectives. What is a conceptual framework for financial reporting? The conceptual framework for financial reporting refers to a set of standards that public sector entities use to guide them in preparing financial statements. The standards in a conceptual framework establish the guidelines to be used in developing International Public Sector Accounting Standards, as well as other concepts that give guidelines about information that will be contained in financial reports (IASB, 2010). The conceptual framework focuses on the financial statements that business enterprises, including state owned corporations, should prepare and present annually in order to meet the information needs of users of financial statements (Zeff 2000, p.8). The IASC Board approved the Conceptual Framework for the Preparation and Presentation of Financial Statements in April 1989; the framework was later published in July the same year. In April 2001, the IASB adopted the framework (Bragg 2010, p.16). Why the Conceptual Framework for financial Reporting may be considered useful The conceptual framework for financial reporting can be considered useful based on the benefits derived from the use of such a system. First, use of the conceptual framework decreases the risk of inconsistency in financial standards. As such, the framework ensures that there is an objective that guides the preparation of financial statements by organizations (Barth et al. 2001, p.81). The conceptual framework is also useful as it incorporates a statement of the functions and roles played by financial statements. This helps to improve the process of setting standards, enhances consistency in financial reporting, and facilitates the development of future standards in the field of accounting (Barth 2008, p.1161). The framework can also be considered useful since it assists users of financial statements to interpret the information in financial statements. This is because it enhances understanding of the princ iples upon which the statements are prepared (Deegan, 2009). The conceptual framework of financial reporting can also be considered useful since it helps accounting bodies to review the International Accounting Standards already in existence. Moreover, the framework plays an essential role in assisting the IASC Board to promote the harmonization of accounting standards, regulations, as well as procedures that relate to the presentation of financial statements (Ellwood & Newbury, 2006). Another role played by the conceptual framework includes assisting national bodies that set standards to develop national accounting standards. The framework may also be considered useful as it helps auditors to form opinions on whether an organization’s financial statements conform to the International Accounting Standards (Greuning 2009, p.2). The conceptual framework also assists users of financial statements to interpret the information contained in financial statements, which conform to In ternational Accounting Standards (Macve, 1997). Critical Assessment whether conceptual frameworks have succeeded in achieving their objectives A look at the conceptual fr

Registered nurse and Registered practical nurse should have individual Essay

Registered nurse and Registered practical nurse should have individual regulatory body - Essay Example As stated by Melrose and Wishart (2013), RN’s study for a longer period of time and have more in depth scope of practice and have greater knowledge in decision making, critical thinking, leadership, research utilization, resource management and healthcare delivery systems. An RN focuses on greater understanding of patient care and identifies the need for involvement of other health professionals (Melrose &Wishart, 2013). RPN’s focus on collecting data such as vital signs, monitoring the progress of patients and reporting any adverse reactions. RN’s not only gather data, they incorporate the data in a more holistic approach for better patient care (Melrose &Wishart, 2013). Considering their educational background, RPN’s have been trained to care for stable patients, where there may not be medical interventions required. The autonomy of an RPN will depend on the complexity of their patient’s condition (RPNAO, 2012). The RPNAO explains that when the care of a patient becomes more complex, there is a greater need for RN’s. This information would imply that RN’s have further educational training that allows them to care for patients with greater needs. On the other hand, one would argue that the nursing knowledge of an RPN is comparable with the educational knowledge of an RN and for this reason they should be regulated under the same body. Along with RN’s; following graduation, RPN’s take a national certificate examination that will allow them to obtain their license to practice. RPN’s also study from the same body of knowledge as RN’s and have a more focused foundational knowledge. In addition, over the past 10 years, it is evident that the RPN program has started to lengthen and their scope of practice has become broader and comparable with RN’s (RPNAO, 2012). Martin and Weeres (2012) suggest that RPN’s are not working to their full scope of practice and are unable to utilize their

The expectation of fear Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The expectation of fear - Essay Example An in depth analysis of the essence of watching movies and reading articles that encompass creative violence is thus essential. To begin with, Rose (2011) notes that since the emergence of reading as a culture, and with the modern technological development of the internet, children have access to movies and video games whose contents can only be described as horrific, and which are quite immersive to the extent that after watching them elicit mixed reactions, that of excitement and fear. Jones gives an example of Oliver Twist’s achievement through increased readership of his works, having been made more accessible by developments in the print. While Jones notes that the upper class were not quick with embracing serialization as a means of enhancing the thrill in novels and thus increased entertainment among children, there existed a polite society that embraced it. Jones posits that watching violent media is critical to personality identification among children. While giving an example of himself of how watching Marvel comics formed the foundation for his true identity as a writer, who then became one of the greatest script writers, he observes that the move helped him in unlocking his potential and enabled him to overcome his fears and pursue his fantasies, which finally led to his career. Based on this argument, he discredits the claim by some critics that the recent gun-drama observed in schools across America is not as a result of violence media. He notes that ‘even the trashiest pop-culture story can have its own developmental function.’ He posits that just the mere pretension of possession of superhuman powers by a child plays a critical role in helping them overcome the feeling of incapability that hovers in the minds of children. He further notes that the dual nature of most characters playing superhero roles is healthy fo r children in creating a state of harmony between their innate feelings and

Chinas Transition to a Market-oriented Economy Essay

Chinas Transition to a Market-oriented Economy - Essay Example This paper is one of the best examples of objective analysis of the macroeconomic situation in China through the recent years of macroeconomic transformation. Being the most populous country in the world, China set out to transform its economy from a centrally planned one to a market oriented one in 1978. This transformation came after the regime of Mao and is seen to take place in two stages: between 1979-1993 came the first stage and the second stage began in 1994 to presently. The two stages are primarily differentiated by the 1989 Student Movement. Multinational Corporations developed interest in China and, since it presented unique marketing issues and challenges. These MNCs anticipate the growth and expansion of these economies and have thus endeavored to expand their operations to them. The greatest challenge facing China’s transition is structural impediment existent within the economy particularly with state-owned enterprises and state-owned banks; where both have interrelated problems that the state continues to intervene in their investment decisions and capital allocation. The state sector has set up several state-owned enterprises with supposed policy loans from the state-owned banks to prevent bankruptcy. The Chinese government has directed large amounts of funds into infrastructure and other projects leaving the budget at deficit levels; all this in a bid to fuel economic growth. The transition has been riddled with corruption primarily in the central and regional governments as well as in the commercial sector. This has made it difficult to undertake relevant projects beneficial to the public and not specific individuals. Beijing officials have attempted to end this by running public anti-corruption campaigns and holding trials of senior party officials in public. Nonetheless, it has continued to exist and this has made the public averse to social reforms. This has created the problem of rising inequality and in turn an overpowering middle class; which results in a shrinking workforce

The Pen is Mightier than Sword Essay Example for Free

The Pen is Mightier than Sword Essay Is the sword mightier than the pen or vice-versa? I think the pen is inevitably mightier than the sword. A pen can do a lot more things than a sword. Unlike a sword, it can be both constructive and destructive. And its destructive power is stronger than the sword’s. The power of a pen is out of people’s imagination. First, the pen is much more influential than the sword. Some may say that a pen cannot hurt anyone, but a sword can actually kill someone. However, what matters the most is not the pen itself, but the words. As history and facts have revealed, the impacts of wars cannot last long. It can last for a few centuries, at most. Yet books can last for thousands of years. For example, the Holy Bible is the most influential book that has ever been published. Many people study and read it every day. Moreover, it changes people’s lives. It is not only that the Holy Bible that influence people, but a lot of classic books are also playing an important role in inspiring and guiding people. Moreover, a pen can hurt others eternally. As a matter of fact, a sword can cause trauma in someone. Yet that kind of trauma is physical and can be healed. However, for most of the time, the wound, which is caused by words, cannot be healed easily. For example, if you have a fight with your friends, and you quarrel with them, you may talk to each other after a few days. But if you write a letter to revile your friends, you may not be able to be friends with them anymore. It is because the harms that words can bring to others can be huge. Finally, a pen can control people’s minds. People can use a sword to force others to do something, but they are never willing to do. Yet, a pen can actually make people to something with all their might, no matter whether the thing is merciful or felonious. There was a notorious man in history, who knew the fact that a pen can control people’s minds, caused a big war. That man was Adolf Hitler. He used his speeches to control people’s minds, and caused a poignant disaster in history. In conclusion, people can do huge things with a pen, as it can control people’s minds, cause trauma on others eternally, and influence people. The power of a pen can change a person’s mind from inside out, while a sword can only hurt or kill the body. The sword is powerful, but the pen is much more powerful.

A comparison between Jean Rhys and Una Marson Essay Example for Free

A comparison between Jean Rhys and Una Marson Essay Voyage into the Metropolis: Exile in the Works of Jean Rhys and Una Marson. In Jonathan Millers 1970 production of Shakespeares The Tempest the character of Caliban was cast as black, therefore reigniting the link between the Prospero/Caliban paradigm as the colonizer/colonized. It was not a new idea, indeed Shakespeare himself envisaged the play set on an island in the Antilles and the play would have had great appeal at the time when new territories were being discovered, conquered, plundered and providing seemingly inexhaustible revenue for the colonisers. What is particularly interesting, however, is how powerful the play later becomes for discourse on colonialism. This trope of Caliban is used by George Lamming in The Pleasures of Exile where he likens Prospero in his relationship with Caliban, to the first slave-traders who used physical force and then their culture to subjugate the African and the Carib, overcoming any rebellion with a self righteous determinism. In The Pleasures of Exile Lamming sees Caliban as: Man and other than man. Caliban is his convert, colonized by language, and excluded by language. It is precisely this gift of language, this attempt at transformation which has brought about the pleasure and the paradox of Calibans exile. Exiled from his gods, exiled from his nature, exiled from his own name! Yet Prospero is afraid of Caliban. He is afraid because he knows that his encounter with Caliban is, largely, his encounter with himself. 1 The Prospero/Caliban paradigm is a very relevant symbol for the colonizer/colonized situation of the West Indies but it nevertheless remains a paternalistic position. Where does that leave women of the Caribbean? It could be argued that the Caribbean woman has been even further marginalized. That in making Caliban the model of the Caribbean man it is therefore providing him with a voice. Yet nowhere in the Tempest is there a female counterpart, rendering the Caribbean woman invisible as well as silent and ignoring an essential part of their historical culture. Another issue raised here, is that Caribbean literature has for many years been male dominated. Just as the colonizer sought to ignore and marginalize their savage Other so the Caribbean male has ignored their female counterpart. Opal Palmer Adisa, in exploring this issue, believes that it is out of this patriarchal structure, designed to make her an object, part of the landscape to be used and discarded as seen fit by the colonizer, that the Caribbean woman has emerged.2 It was out of such a patriarchal structure that Jean Rhys and Una Marson emerged. The writing of both women revise and expand theme and personae, subverting a colonial and patriarchal culture. Both women may exist in different ethnological and ontological realms but they both exist in worlds which have, at one time or another, attempted to censure, silence or ignore the ideals and interests of women3 Like many of their male Caribbean counterparts to succeed them, their writing was greatly influenced by voyaging into the colonial metropolis and living in exile. In this essay I will discuss the importance of that journey in seeking to find a voice, an identity, and even a language to challenge established notions of Self, gender and race within the colonial structure. But essential to their experience is their struggle. Naipaul recognised, in Rhys, the themes of isolation, an absence of society or community, the sense of things falling apart, dependence, loss.4 This could also be said of Marson. Jean Rhys was born Ella Gwendoline Rees Williams on 24th August 1890, in Roseau, Dominica to a Creole mother of Scottish descent and a Welsh father who was a doctor. Rhys left Dominica in 1907, aged sixteen and continued her education in a Cambridge girls school and then at the Academy of Dramatic Art which she left after two terms. Rhys experienced feelings of alienation and isolation at both these institutions and these feelings were to stay with her for much of her life. Upon pursuing a career as a chorus girl under a variety of names Rhys embarked on an affair with a man twenty years older than herself and which lasted two years. It is broadly accepted that this early period of her London life formed the structure for Voyage In The Dark, and like all of Rhyss novels, explores homelessness, dislocation, the marginal and the migrant. The character of Anna, like most of her female protagonists exists in the demimonde of city life, living on the wrong side of respectability. What Rhy s does effectively in this novel is to centralize the marginalized, those subjects who belong nowhere, between cultures, between histories.5 Una Marson was born in rural Jamaica in 1905. Her father was a well respected Baptist minister and as a result of his standing within the community Marson had the opportunity to be educated on a scholarship at Hampton High School, a boarding school for mainly white, middle class girls. After finding employment as a stenographer, Marson went on to edit the Jamaican Critic, an established literary publication, and from 1928-1921, her own magazine The Cosmopolitan. Having established herself as a poet, playwright and womens activist Marson made the decision to travel to Britain. Her achievements in London were impressive; a social activist within the League of Coloured Peoples which led to her taking a post as secretary to the deposed Emperor Haile Selassie and later she was appointed as a BBC commentator. In reality, however, Marson, like Rhys found the voyage into the Metropolis very difficult. Facing blatant racial discrimination like so many West Indian women migrants of the 1950s, Una found herself blocked at every turn. She complained and cried; she felt lonely and humiliated,. 6 In spite of many literary and social connections she remained an isolated and marginal figure. Her poetry displays the uncertainty of cultural belonging where her language ties her to colonialism yet also provides her with a powerful tool with which to challenge it. In placing Rhys alongside Marson as pioneering female writers, it is important to explore the notion of nationality, of being Caribbean and to question the grounds upon which such ideas are constructed. Both women were writing at the same time, having been born and educated in the British colonies. Both these writers, whose lives span the twentieth century, are situated at the crossroads of the colonial and post-colonial, the modern and post modern, where the threat of fascism and war result in anti colonial struggles and eventual decolonisation across the world. Their voyages from the colonies into the metropolitan centre generate similar experiences. What is clear with both is that by journeying into the metropolis, as women, they occupy a double marginal position within an already marginalized community. Their journey can be seen as an exploration of displacement where, according to Edward W. Said, the intellectual exile exists in a median state, neither completely at one with the new setting nor fully disencumbered of the old, beset with half involvements and half attachments, nostalgic and sentimental at one level, an adept mimic or a secret outcast on the other.7 Rhys and Marson, having left the Caribbean are asking us to consider what it means to write from the margins. Within their work, both women challenge notions of womens place within society and womens place as a colonized subject in the metropolitan centre. The protagonist, Anna Morgan, in Voyage in the Dark, reflects Rhyss own multi indeterminate, multi conflicted identity. Anna, like Rhys is a white descendent of British colonists and slave traders who occupy a precarious position of being inbetween. Hated by the Blacks for their part in oppressing the slaves and continuing to cling on to that superior social position, they are also regarded by the mother country as the last vestiges of a degenerate part of their own history best forgotten. Moreover, 1930s England, still under the shadow of Victorian moral dicta, continued to judge harshly a young woman without wealth, family, social position and with an odd accent. Throughout the novel Anna is identified with characters who are usually objectified and silenced in canonical works: the chorus girl, the mannequin, the demimondaine.8 Much has been made of her reading of Zolas Nana and indeed there are many parallels between the two characters. Anna, like Nana becomes a prostitute and in the first version of Voyage in the Dark Anna like Nana dies very young. There is of course the obvious anagram of her name but, as Elaine Savory highlights, some interesting revisions by Rhys. Whereas Zola, in Nana, creates a character who brings about the downfall of upper class men not through power but with only the unsophisticated currency of youth and raw female sexuality9 Rhys, in Anna, creates a character who is herself destroyed by men. In Rhyss version the men who use her youth and beauty are for the most part evidently cowardly or downright disreputable: Anna herself begins as naively trusting, passes through a stage of self destructive hopelessness and passivity and ends, in Rhyss preferred, unpublished version, by dying from a botched abortion.10 If we are to see Walter Jeffries as the original European, existing in a world viewed certainly by himself as principally ordered and reasonable then Rhys is, through this character, highlighting the degenerate aspect of using power to commodify and even destroy, thereby subverting the colonizers position in relation to the colonized. Through the character of Anna, Rhys explores those oppositions of Self and Other, male and female, black and white. Even though she outwardly resembles the white European, enabling her, unlike Marson, to blend visually within London, her association with the Caribbean sets her apart as between black and white cultures and as an exotic Other. This ambiguity of Annas position results in slippage. Anna and her family would have been regarded in the West Indies as the white colonizers. In England and in her relationship with Jeffries she becomes the colonized Other. In being read as the colonized subject Anna is continually having to adapt her world view and sense of identity to the perspective being imposed on her. A good example of this is the chorus girlss renaming her as the Hottentot aligning her more with the black African and demonstrating the homogenizing of the colonized peoples by the colonizers. This is similar to Spivaks belief that so intimate a thing as personal and human identity might be determined by the politics of imperialism.11 Interestingly, Hottentot is the former name for the Nama, a nomadic tribe of Southern Africa. A somewhat apt comparison which reflects Annas own nomadic existence as she moves from town to town as a chorus girl and from one bed sit to another. The term Hottentot developed into a derogatory term during the Victorian era and became synonymous firstly with wide hipped, big bottomed African women with oversized genitals and then with the sexuality of a prostitute. Jeffries is fully aware of the implications of the name Hottentot. In response to hearing Annas renaming he says, I hope you call them something worse back.12 Elaine Savory makes a strong connection between Annas renaming and her relationship with Jeffries, her eventual seducer. Whilst not looking at Annas body in an obvious way, eventually the transaction between them is understood fully on his side to be a promise of sexual excitement from a white woman whom he perceives as having an extra thrill presumably from association with racist constructions of black females in his culture.13 Franz Fanon, in his book Black Skin, White Masks perceives these complex colonial relations as being in a state of flux rather than fixed or static. In his introduction to Fanons text, Homi Bhabha highlights this point, stating that the familiar alignment of colonial subjectsBlack/White, Self/Otheris disturbedand the traditional grounds of racial identity are dispersed.14 So it is in the relationship between Jeffries and Anna. In transposing the colonizers stereotypical images of a black woman onto Anna he is disrupting and dispersing those traditional grounds of racial identity. Moreover, Anna is subconsciously enacting a mediated performance, aware of her impact upon him and the implications of her actions, in an attempt to adhere to his preconceptions of her. The relationship cannot be sustained on these fundamentally unstable preconceptions. Anna, both as a female and racial Other is penetrated by Jeffries and with the exchange of money is commodified. Without independent means Anna becomes that purchasable girl who is at the mercy of and eventually becomes dependent upon the upper middle class Jeffries. The relationship between these two characters reflects Rhyss own location in the world where the West Indies was at the time still a commodity of the British Empire. In another analysis of the colonial stereotype, Homi Bhabha challenges the limiting and traditional reliance of the stereotype as offering, at any one time, a secure point of identification on the part of the individual,15 in this case Jeffries and Hester. Bhabha does not argue that the colonizers stereotyping of the colonized Other is as a result of his security in his own identity or conception of himself but more to do with the colonizers own identity and authority which is in fact destabilized by contradictory responses to the Other. In order to maintain a powerful position it is important, according to Bhabha, for the colonizer to identify the colonized with the image he has already fixed in his mind. This image can be ambiguous as the colonized subject can be simultaneously familiar under the penetrable gaze of the all seeing, all powerful colonial gaze and be incomprehensible like the inscrutable Oriental. The colonized can be both savageand yet the most obedient and dignified of servants; he is the embodiment of rampant sexuality and yet innocent as a child; he is mystical, primitive, simpleminded and yet the most worldly and accomplished liar , and the manipulator of social forces.16 In short, for Bhabha, the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized is riddled with contradictions and inconsistencies which, when imposed upon the colonized Other, cause a crisis of identity. So it is with Anna. Jeffries upon first meeting with the very young Anna can see that she is as innocent as a child and is most obedient sexually, but by her association with the Caribbean and the Hottentot as I have previously explored, she is subsequently attributed with being the embodiment of rampant sexuality resulting in his taking of her virginity, abandoning her to prostitution but also leading to as Veronica Clegg observes a loss of temporal referents17 Annas stepmother, Hester, also attempts to impose an identity upon Anna which not only conflicts with Annas own sense of identity but is also based around stereotypical perceptions. . Hester, whose voice represents a repressive English colonial law18 believes that Annas fathers troubles resulted from his having lost touch with everybody in England19 and that these severing of ties with the Imperial motherland is a signal to her that he was failing,20 losing his identity, reduced to the level of the black inhabitants of the island. This idea of contamination and racial reduction is explored by Paul B. Rich who explains that there was a belief in the early twentieth century that white people in the tropics risked in the absence of continual cultural contacts with their temperate northern culture, being reduced to the level of those black races with whom they had made their unnatural home.21 In Hesters eyes this apparent loss of identity is also experienced by Anna. She continually criticizes her speech, her relationship with Francine the black servant, and also insinuates degenerative behaviour on the part of her family, particularly Uncle Bo. Hesters views reflect the growing disapproval in England at that time, of relationships between white people and the black population in the West Indies. Inter-racial relationships were discouraged for fear of contamination of the white Self. In voicing her disapproval of Annas friendship with Francine along with her continual use of the racist and derogatory term nigger, Hester is alluding to the fact that, in her opinion, Anna, especially through her speech, has indeed been contaminated and reduced racially and that Annas association with Francine thwarts her attempts to reconnect her with the colonizers cultural contacts. Hester rails that she finds it impossible to get you [Anna] away from the servants. That awful sing-song voice you had! Exactly like a nigger you talkedand still do. Exactly like that dreadful girl Francine. When you were jabbering away together in the pantry I never could tell which of you was speaking.22 Hesters constant criticism only serves to undermine Annas real identity and dislocate her further from the Caribbean world she once inhabited and the alienating London world she is now experiencing. Her accent sets her apart, drifting between two worlds. Annas difficulties in negotiating these two worlds is a result of the return of the diasporic to the metropolitan centre where the perplexity of the living is most acutely experienced.23 This can certainly be seen in her response to the weather which, according to Bhabha, invokes the most changeable and imminent signs of national difference24 The novel opens with; It was as if a curtain had fallen, hiding everything I had ever known. It was almost like being born again. The colours were different, the smells different, the feeling things gave you right down inside yourself was different. Not just the difference between heat and cold; light, darkness; purple, grey. But a difference in the way I was frightened and the way I was happy. I didnt like London at first. I couldnt get used to the cold.25 And later upon arriving in England with Hester she describes it as being divided into squares like pocket-handkerchiefs; a small tidy look it had, everywhere fenced off from everywhere else 26and then in London where the dark houses all alike frowning down one after another27 Throughout the novel Anna continually experiences feelings of being enclosed. Many of the bedsits are restricting and box-like. On one occasion she remarks that this damned rooms getting smaller and smallerAnd about the rows of houses outside gimcrack, rotten-looking and all exactly alike.28 The many small rooms between which Anna moves emphasize her disempowerment through enclosed spaces. These spaces, in turn, serve as metaphors for the consequences in voyaging into the metropolitan centre. She is at once shut inside these small monotonous rooms and shut out from that world which has sought to colonize her. It is perhaps ironic that the further she moves into the centre of the city, ending up as she does on Bi rd Street, just off Oxford Street , the more she is shut out and marginalized by that imperialist society. Her memories of the West Indies are in sharp contrast to her impressions of England. The images of home are always warm, vivid and exotic, Thinking of the walls of the Old Estate House, still standing, with moss on them. That was the garden. One ruined room for roses, one for orchids, one for ferns. And the honeysuckle all along the steep flight of steps.29 When comparing the two worlds she remarks to herself that the colours are red, purple, blue , gold, all shades of green. The colours here are black, grey, dim-green, pale blue, the white of peoples faces like woodlice. 30 Her memory of home is experienced sensuously as she recalls the sights and smells: Market Street smelt of the wind but the narrow street smelt of niggers and wood smoke and salt fishcakes fried in lard and the sound of the black women as they call out, salt fishcakes, all sweet an charmin, all sweet an charmin.'31 Anna attempts to convey this richness to Jeffries. His failure to appreciate the beauty she describes merely underlines the differences between the two. He expresses a preference for cold places remarking that The tropics would be altogether too lush.32 Jeffriess reaction to the West Indies in fact reflects the colonizers view that the ruined room for roses and orchids portray a disorder, a garden of Eden complete with its implications of moral decay and as Bhabha states, a tropical chaos that was deemed despotic and ungovernable and therefore worthy of the civilizing mission.33 Annas association with this world sets her up, in Walters eyes, as a figure representing a secret depravity promising forbidden desires. Anna, like the West Indies is something to be overpowered, enslaved and colonized, where the colonizer seeks to strip their identity and impose their own beliefs and desires. It is significant, therefore, that following this scene Anna loses her virginity to Jeffries and recalls the memory of the mulatto slave girl, Maillotte Boyd, aged 18, whose record Anna once found on an old slave list at Constance.34 Like Maillotte Boyd, Anna is now merely a commodity and Jeffries has no intention of ever seeing her as an equal. Her purity, in his eyes isnt worth preserving as he already considers her the contaminated Other. By his actions he succeeds in maintaining that patriarchal imperialism which relies on institutional forms of racial and national separateness. Anna, as a twentieth century white Creole, is no freer than the nineteenth century mulatto slave. Just as Maillotte Boyd is, as racially mixed, suspended between two races, so Anna as a white Creole is suspended between two cultures, leaving her dislocated. Annas voyage into the imperialist metropolis leads to boundaries and codes of behaviour, language and dress being constantly imposed upon her. She is aware for example of the importance of clothes as a means of controlling her social standing and also her standing as a woman. Through her dress Anna almost becomes that elegant white lady, mimicking Londons female high society. For Jeffries, Anna represents the menace of mimicry, which , according to Bhabha is a difference which is almost nothing but not quite and which turns to menace- a difference that is total but not quite.35 This mimicry serves to empower Anna as it ultimately destabilises the essentialism of colonialist ideology, resulting in Jeffries imposing upon Anna the identity of the West Indian Other This in turn leads to feelings of loss, alienation and dislocation, a rejection of being white and a desire to be black. I always wanted to be black. I was happy because Francine was there.Being black is warm and gay, being white is cold and sad.36 Annas association with Hester meant that she hated being white. Being white and getting like Hester, old and sad and everything.37 Yet the warmth she expresses in her memories of Francine are always tempered by her realisation that Francine disliked her because I [Anna] was white.38 Her feelings of being between cultures and feeling dislocated are never fully resolved. Annas voyage in the dark, reflects Rhyss own sense of exile and marginality as a white West Indian woman. Teresa OConnor remarks that Rhys, herself caught between places, cultures, classes and races, never able to identify clearly with one or the other, gives the same marginality to her heroines, so that they reflect the unique experience of dislocation of the white Creole woman.39 The language used to express feelings of exile and loneliness, destitution and dislocation is both sparse and economic. It is neither decorative nor contrived, devoid of sentiment or without seeking sympathy. In commenting upon an essay written by Rhys discussing gender politics, Gregg writes that It is important to note her [Rhyss] belief that writing has a subversive potential. Resistancecan be carried out through writing that exposes and opposes the political and social arrangements.40 Helen Carr, in her exploration of Rhyss language believes that: Rhys in her fictions unpicks and mocks the language by which the powerful keep control, while at the same time shifting, bending, re-inventing ways of using language to open up fresh possibilities of being.41 Una Marson, another Caribbean to voyage into the metropolis, also experienced loneliness, isolation and a struggle with the complexity of identity. Like Rhys, Marson fought with these feelings throughout her life, resulting in long periods of depression. Her belief in womens need for pride in their cultural heritage established Marson as the earliest female poet of significance to emerge in West Indian literature.42 She not only challenged received notions of womens place in society but also raised questions about the relationship of the colonized subject to the mother country43 There was a considerable amount of poetry emerging out of the West Indies around this time but most of it was dismissed as being not truly West Indian,44 the reason for this being partly because many of the writers were English but also because many of the styles used by these writers mimicked colonial forms. Many of Marsons early poetry reflects this mimicry showing a reliance upon the Romantics of the English poetic tradition, particularly Shelley, Wordsworth and Byron. The poem Spring in England reveals this indebtedness to the Romantics, including as it does a stanza where, having observed the arrival of Spring in London, the poet asks: And what are daffodils, daffodils Daffodils that Wordsworth praised? I asked. Wait for Spring, Wait for the Spring, the birds replied. I waited for Spring, and lo they came, A host of shining daffodils Beside the lake beneath the trees (The Moth p6)45 Clearly there are echoes of Wordsworths Daffodils throughout the stanza, reflecting the drive by colonialism through education to eradicate the West Indian selfhood. Yet for Marson this harnessing of English culture not only posed few problems but indeed was, I would argue, a necessary step in her voyage of self discovery. As seen with Rhys, mimicry was a subversive threat to colonial ideology, especially through language. Homi Bhabhas notion of mimicry seeks to explore those ambivalences of such destabilizing colonial and post-colonial exchanges. The menace of mimicry is its double vision which in disclosing the ambivalence of colonial discourse also disrupts its authority. The ambivalence of colonial authority repeatedly turns from mimicry a difference which is almost nothing but not quite to menace a difference that is almost total but not quite. And in that other scene of colonial power, where history turns to farce and presence to a part can be seen the twin figures of narcissism and paranoia that repeat furiously, uncontrollably.46 Bhabhas essay in recognising the power, the play and the dynamics between the colonizer and the colonized offers an alternative to the pessimistic view held by V.S. Naipaul who believed that West Indian culture was doomed to mimicry, unable to create anything original. Marsons mimicry of the Romantics could be seen as a preparation to enter the colonizers metropolis, and to attempt to assimilate into the colonizers world. In making that voyage to the metropolis, Una Marson succeeds in taking that step from the copy to the original. By remaining in Jamaica Marson risked remaining in an environment too rigidly ingrained by colonial prescriptions. Una Marsons voyage into the heart of the Empire, however, resulted in intense disappointment. For the first time, Marson experienced open racism and according to Jarrett-McCauley The truth was that Una dreaded going out because people stared at her, men were curious but their gaze insulted her, even small children with short dimpled legs called her NiggerShe was a black foreigner seen only as strange and unwanted. This was the Fact of Blackness which Fanon was to analyse in Black Skins, White Masks(1952), that inescapable, heightening level of consciousness which comes from being dissected by white eyes. 47 Unlike Rhys, Marson was finding it impossible to blend visually within London. Consciousness of her colour made Marson conscious of her marginality. This consciousness led her seriously to question the values of the mother country. Marsons work moved from mimicry to anti-patriarchal discourse, seen in her poem Politeness where she responds to the William Blake poem Little Black Boy with: They tell us That our skin is black But our hearts are white We tell them That their skin is white But their hearts are black (Tropic Reveries p 44) The poem demonstrates Marsons growing resentment at being alienated by the colonial power. There is an uncertainty in her desire to both belong and to challenge, echoing Rhys in her sense of cultural unbelonging. Those anti-patriarchal feelings are present once more in her poem Nigger where she communicates the anger she feels at being abused and marginalized as the racial Other. They call me Nigger Those little white urchins, They laughed and shouted As I passed along the street, They flung it at me: Nigger! Nigger! Nigger! She retorts to this abuse furiously with: You who feel that you are sprung Of earths first blood, your eyes Are blinded now with arrogance. With ruthlessness you seared My peoples flesh and now you still Would crush their very soul Add fierce insult to vilest injury.48 In its repetition of the shocking term Nigger, Marson is confronting the white colonialists use of the word to exert power over and oppress the colonized. The violence of its use reflects the violence of their shared history where Of those who drove the Negroes / To their death in days of slavery, regard Coloured folk aslow and base.49 In highlighting this history of violence, oppression and slavery, Marson is attempting to invert this oppression and dislodge the notion of white supremacy, whilst attempting to negotiate a position from West Indian to African and in doing so, fashion an identity. By writing the poem in the first person singular and moving from They to You when addressing the white colonizers, Marson succeeds in centralizing herself and reversing the binary system of Self and Other. Nigger marks Marsons sharpened perspective on issues such as racism and identity. Her voyage into the metropolitan centre triggers those emergent identifications and new social movements[being]played out.50 It was a time in Marsons life where she was made to feel inadequate, lonely and humiliated but it also roused her to resist the corrosive force of her oppressive world.51 Nigger reveals this sense of belonging and not belonging felt by Marson, of being part of the empire but never part of the Motherland, yet it simultaneously challenges the very essentialism in which the colonial Self is rooted. Moreover, the hostility she experiences in many ways acknowledges the success of Marsons performance as a hybrid. Marsons frustration and anger was compounded by the fact that in being middle class and educated she possibly saw herself as a notch above the poor, black working class women from the old communities in Cardiff, Liverpool and London52 Marson explores this question of how middle class West Indians negotiate being educated and yet marginalized and even considered inferior in her play London Calling. The play, based on the experiences of colonial students in London charts the story of a group of expatriates who, upon being invited to the house of an aristocratic English family, dress up in outlandish native costume and speak in broken English. The play, a comedy, takes a light hearted look at the stereotypical images held by the British, at the same time countering the myth of black inferiority. There is, in the play, a curious twist as the students from Novoko are presented as black versions of the British in their dress and behaviour, mimic men and yet they themselves attempt to mimic their own folk culture. They are eventually discovered by one of the family, Larkspur, who then proposes marriage to Rita, one of the Novokans. The play ends with Rita declining Larkspurs proposal in favour of Alton, another Novokan. This rejection of Larkspur places Rita in a powerful position. Rita is no longer the undesirable Other, she has resisted the oppressive world of the colonialists and placed herself as the centralised Self. Rita is Marsons fantasy where the black woman is recognised as beautiful and an equal. Marsons activities in the League of Coloured Nations gave her purpose, direction and the opportunity to advance her political education whilst introducing her to the Pan African movement a sort of boomerang from the horrors of slavery and colonialism, to which Una, like many of her generation, was being steadily drawn.53 Marsons work around this time reflects a desire to reclaim and restore that Other cultural tradition, a difficult task as the Caribbean was not an homogeneous agency and it was not easy to establish a pre-colonial culture. The ethnic mix was large and hybrid making the notion of Caribbeanness less easy to define. The Pan-African movement provided links with an alternative body to European colonialism and offered Marson a platform to renegotiate and redefine her idea of Caribbeaness and race, an option not offered to Rhys. Having established a sense of being a black person in a white imperialist centre, she now needed to make sense of being a black woman within this paternalistic centre. The poem Little Brown Girl attempts just this, constructing a dialogue of sorts between a white Londoner, whose gender is unclear, and a little brown girl. The poem begins with a series of questions put to the child: Little brown girl Why do you wander alone About the streets Of the great city Of London? Why do you start and wince When white folk stare at you Dont you think they wonder Why a little brown girl Should roam about their city Their white, white city? (The Moth, p11) The questioning of the little brown girls presence in London suggests a linguistic imperialism. It may be construed as the speaker challenging her right to be in the city, establishing her as the nameless, black Other. Her feeling of difference is emphasized in the repetition of the word white on the final line of the second stanza. The third stanza plays out an interesting reversal in notions of blackness. The speaker asks why she has left the little sunlit land / where we sometimes go / to rest and get brown54 alluding to the desire of white skinned people to tan which for the white colonialist signifies wealth, for the black Other being inferior and uneducated. From here there is a subtle shift of speaker and London is seen through the eyes of the little brown girl. Her perception of the city is distinctly unattractive where There are no laughing faces, / people frown if one really laughs and: Theres nothing picturesque To be seen in the streets, Nothing but people clad In Coats, Coats, Coats, (The Moth, p11) If the poem began with the strangeness of the brown girl to the white gaze, here it teases out those feelings of alienation felt by the little brown girl at being in such a cold, drab place, so different from her own home. Once more Marson creates a reversal in the stereotype as she seeks to objectify white people observing that the folks are all white -/ White, white, white, / And they all seem the same.55 In homogenizing the colonizers, the hybridity of the West Indians are then celebrated in the many varied skin tones of black and bronze and brown which are themselves homogenized by the label Black. The vibrancy, colour and friendliness of back home where the folks are Parading the city wearing Bright attractive bandanas contrasts with the previous stanza of the dour images of London. The dialogue is handed back to the white speaker who attempts to establish the origins of the little black girl but succeeds in once more re-establishing the homogeneic white gaze indicated in the speakers inability to distinguish between many distinct nations : And from whence are you Little brown girl? I guess Africa, or India, Ah no, from some island In the West Indies But isnt that India All the same? (The Moth, p13) More than anything the poem conveys that sense of isolation felt by the little brown girl in the city. She never answers the white speaker directly and is positioned in the middle of the poem, again centralizing the colonized. In asking the question Would you like to be white/Little brown girl? there is a sense of the colonizer attempting to manipulate and dominate the colonized, to Europeanise, ultimately leading to mimicry. Yet the questioner responds himself with I dont think you would / For you toss your head / As though you are proud / To be brown. 56 Marson, here, signals a move away from being a mimic man seeking to challenge that whole Eurocentric paternalistic world and centralise the black women, the most marginalized figure in society. The themes central to Little Brown Girls themes echo Rhyss own negative reactions to London seen in the opening page of Voyage in the Dark. Like Rhys, Marson succeeds in capturing that colour and warmth of the West Indies contrasting greatly with the misery of London, experienced by both and which reinforce that racial and national separateness. Those differences prove for both to be irreconcilable, making it impossible for both Rhys and Marson to integrate, leaving both women dislocated from the metropolis. Little Black Girl serves as a useful reminder that many immigrants were women. This encounter between the city and a woman (in Marsons case, a black woman) echoes Annas encounter in Voyage in the Dark albeit as a prostitute. Both walk the streets of the city and as women-as-walkers encounter the metropolis, negotiating its spaces. Denise deCaires Narian suggests that certainly Marson could be considered as a flaneuse.57 Neither Rhys nor Marson, however have the confident panache of the flaneuse and neither fulfil the requirements of flanerie originally set out by Baudelaire. The flaneur, he asserted, saw the crowd as his domain, His passion and his profession is to merge with the crowd.58 The flaneur and therefore the flaneuse is engaged in strolling and looking but most importantly merging with the crowd. For Marson this is impossible as she is a black woman in a white city. Moreover, Baudelaire expands upon the idea of the flaneur as having the ability to be away from home and yet to feel at home anywhere, to be at the centre of the world, and yet to be unseen of the world.59 Again this is problematic for both Marson and Rhys as their wanderings around the metropolis seek only to reinforce those feelings of Otherness, isolation and marginality. For Marson these feelings of alienation gained her the reputation of being a true loner who didnt exactly seek out company60 leading to a heightened level of bodily consciousness which comes from being dissected by white eyes.61 In her struggle with being marginalized as a black women always at the mercy of the white metropolitan gaze, Marson was always aware of that Europeanised sense of beauty being white. This idea of beauty was so entrenched, even within the black community that they themselves set beauty against the paleness of their own skin. The importance of popularly disseminated images is tackled in Cinema Eyes where a black mother in addressing her daughter attempts to challenge the idea that Europeans still provide the aesthetic reference point.62 The speaker urges her eighteen year old daughter to avoid the cinema fearing that it might reinforce the idea that white is beautiful causing the girl to lose sight of her own beauty: Come, I will let you go When black beauties Are chosen for the screen; That you may know Your own sweet beauty And not the white loveliness Of others for envy. (The Moth, p88) By growing up with a cinema mind the mother has allowed herself to be at the mercy of those tools used by the colonizer to marginalize and indoctrinate, promoting their own superiority. Once again the mimic man re-emerges when black women reject their own in seeking an ideal man. No kinky haired man for me, / No black face, no black children for me.63 This rather melodramatic narrative within the poem tells of the mothers fair husband shooting her first suitor whom she had initially rejected for being too dark, and then committing suicide. The shooting scene, a re enactment of a gun fight in a western, presents the cinema as a racist and degenerate institution. By the end of the poem, the speaker acknowledges her mistake in rejecting the first lover and finds a sense of self, previously denied by the saturation of cinematic images. In shaking off the colonizers indoctrination, which seeks to marginalize her, she addresses the question posed by Franz Fanon which is to what extent authentic love will remain unattainable before one has purged oneself of that feeling of inferiority?64 Black invisibility in the cinema results in white ideology being forced upon a black body and essentially commodifying it and it is this which Marson seeks to deconstruct. Another poem which tackles the reconstruction of female identity is Black is Fancy, where the speaker compares her reflection in the mirror with a picture Of a beautiful white lady.65 The mirror serves to reclaim the idea of black as being beautiful and a rediscovery of self: Since Aunt Lisa gave me This nice looking glass I begin to feel proud Of my own self (The Moth, p75) The speaker eventually removes the picture of the white woman suggesting that black worth and beauty can only really exist in the absence of white colonialism. The poem ends in a victory of sorts as she declares that John, her lover has rejected the pale skin in favour of His black ivory girl.66 Kinky Haired Blues represents Marsons quest for a more effective and authentic poetic voice in its use of African American speech.. The poem explores the rhythms and musical influences found in Harlem and gathering momentum about this time. Kinky Haired Blues like Cinema Eyes and Black is Fancy criticizes the oppressive beauty regime of white colonialism which seeks to disfigure and marginalize the black woman. The poem opens with the speaker attempting to find a beauty shop: Gwine find a beauty shop Cause I aint a belle Gwine find a beauty shop Cause I aint a lovely belle. The boys pass me by They say Is not so swell (The Moth, p91) The speaker seeks to Europeanise her black features in an attempt to make herself more attractive. Male indifference experienced in the metropolis forces the speaker to see herself as an aberration, thrusting her onto the margins of a society which is continually projecting the idea that white is right. The beauty shop contains all the trappings of the colonizers idea of beauty, ironed hair and bleached skin. Yet she is caught between being left to die on de shelf 67 if she doesnt change herself, or eradicating her ethnic features and therefore her inner self if she does. By using blues within the poetry she is able to communicate this misery felt within her, that male perceptions of beauty projected by the colonizers dictate that she must distort her own natural beauty in order to fit in and conform. The poem highlights the struggle Marson experiences in trying to preserve her selfhood against such oppressive cultural forces. Marson defiantly attempts to stand against this patriarchal order. She proudly announces that I like me black face / And me kinky hair. Inspite of this brave stand Marson eventually succumbs and admits that she is gwine press me hair / And bleach me skin. She, like Rhys can only resist internally to the colonialists ideals imposed on them. As writers voyaging into the metropolis both Rhys and Marson share in their writing a pervasive sense of isolation where, from the location of London, their particular voices and concerns are, at the time, not recognised. Both writers, from this isolated position on the periphery of the centre. explore issues of womanhood, race and identity,. Marsons experiences bring about an acute awareness of her difference and Otherness as a Black woman. Her work is a defiant voice against this marginalisation and isolation. She was, as Jarrett MaCauley claims the first Black feminist to speak out against racism and sexism in Britain.68 She was a pioneer in a growing literary culture which was to become the new postcolonial order. Rhys, by contrast, a white West Indian from Dominica was experiencing a declining white minority status against a growing black population, itself an isolating factor both at home and within the metropolis. Kenneth Ramchard suggests that the work of white West Indian writers is characterized by a sense of embattlement: Adapted from Fanon we might use the phrase terrified consciousness to suggest the White minoritys sensations of shock and disorientation as a smouldering Black population is released into an awareness of power.69 It is this terrified consciousness which contributes to the struggle experienced by Anna in Voyage in the Dark . Located simultaneously both inside and outside West Indian socio cultural history, her journey to the mother country seeks only to exacerbate these feelings of in-betweenness and to suffer feelings of dislocation and alienation. Both writers, therefore, in their voyage into the metropolis endure different kinds of anxieties in their sense of unbelonging to either or both cultural worlds. Both use their writing to speak for the marginal, the hegemonic, the dispossessed, the colonized silenced female voice situated as they were within the cold, oppressive, hierarchical colonial metropolis attempting to impose an oppressive identity upon the exiled women. 1 George Lamming The Pleasures of Exile (London: Alison, 1960) p15 2 Palmer Adisa De Language Reflect Dem Ethos in The Winds of Change: The Transforming Voices of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars ed. By Adele S. Newson and Linda Strong Leek. (New York: Peter Lang 1998 p23) 3 The Winds of Change: The Transforming Voices of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars ed By Adele S. Newson and Linda Strong-Leek. (New York: Peter Lang 1998 p6) 4 V.S. Naipaul New York Review of Books 1992. Quoted in Helen Carr Jean Rhys (Plymouth: Northcote House Publishers Ltd., 1996) p15 5 Helen Carr Jean Rhys (Plymouth: Northcote House Publishers Ltd., 1996) p. xiv 6 Delia Jarrett-MaCauley The Life of Una Marson (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998) p51 7 Edward W. Said Representations of the Intellectual (London: Vintage 1994) p49 8 Molly Hite The Other Side of the Story: Structures and Strategies of Contemporary Feminist Narrative Quoted in Joy Castro Jean Rhys in The Review of Contemporary Fiction Vol. 20, 2000. www.highbeam.com/library/doc.3.asp p6.Accessed 1 December 2005. 9 Elaine Savory Jean Rhys p92 10 Elaine Savory Jean Rhys p93 11 Gayatri Spivak Three Womens Text and a Critique of Imperialism in Henry Louis Jr. Gates Race, Writing and Difference (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987) p269 12Jean Rhys Voyage in the Dark (London: Penguin Books 1969) 13 Elaine Savoury Jean Rhys (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1998) p 95 14 Homi Bhabha Remembering Fanon, forward to Franz Fanon s Black Skin, White Masks (London: Pluto, 1986) p ix 15 Homi Bhabha The Other Question Location of Culture (London: Routledge 1994)p69 16 Ibid p69 17 Veronica Marie Gregg Jean Rhyss Historical Imagination: Reading and Writing the Creole (North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press, 1995) p115 18 Sue Thomas The Worlding of Jean Rhys ( Westport: Greenwood Press 1999) p106 19 Jean Rhys Voyage in the Dark p53 20 Ibid 21 Paul B. Rich Race and Empire in British Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986) p19 22 Voyage in the Dark p56 23 Ibid p320 24 Homi Bhabha DissemInation: Time, Narrative and the margins of the Modern Nation The Location of Culture p319 25 Voyage in the Dark p7 26 Ibid p15 27 Ibid p16 28 Ibid p26 29 Ibid p45 30 Ibid p47 31 Ibid p7 32 Ibid p46 33 Homi Bhabha The Location of Culture p319 34 Voyage in the Dark p45 35 Homi Bhabha Location of Culture p85 36 Ibid p27 37 Ibid p62 38 Ibid p62 39 Teresa OConnor The Meaning of the West Indian Experience for Jean Rhys (PhD dissertation, New York University, 1985)cited in Caribbean Woman Writers; Essays from the first International Conference. p19 40 Taken from Rhyss non fictional analysis of Gender Politics. Veronica Gregg, Jean Rhyss Historical Imagination p47 41 Helen Carr Jean Rhys, (Plymouth: Northcote House Publishers Ltd, 1996) p 77 42 Lloyd W. Brown, West Indian Poetry (London: Heineman, 1978) p 38 43 Denise deCaires Contemporary Caribbean Womens Poetry: Making style (London: Routledge, 2002) p 2 44 Ibid p4 45 Una Marson The Moth and the Star, (Kingston, Jamaica: Published by the Author, 1937) p24 46 Homi Bhabha The Location of Culture, (London: Routledge, 1994) pp85-92 47 Delia Jarrett-MaCauley The Life of Una Marson pp 49, 50 48 The Routledge Reader in Caribbean Literature ed. Alison Donnell and Sarah Lawson Welsh (London: Routledge, 1996) p140-141 49 Ibid 50 Homi Bhabha Location of Culture p 320 51 Jarrett-MaCauley The Life of Una Marson p51 52 Ibid p51 53 Ibid p54 54 Una Marson Little Brown Girl, The Moth and the Star. (Jamaica: The Gleaner. 1937) p11 55 Ibid 56 Ibid p13 57 deCaires Narain puts forward an interesting link between Marson and Sam Selvons The Lonely Londoners highlighting external identity in her book Contemporary Caribbean Womens Poetry p 21 58 Baudelaire The Painter and the Modern Life cited in Keith Tester The Flaneur (New York: Routledge, 1994), p 2 59 Ibid p3 60 Jarrett-MaCauley, p53 61 Ibid p50 62 Laurence A. Brainer An Introduction to West Indian Poetry (Cambridge: CUP, 1998), p154 63 Una Marson Cinema Eyes The Moth and the Star. (Jamaica: The Gleaner.1937) p87 64 Franz Fanon Black Skins, White Masks (London: Pluto, 1986), p4 65 Una Marson Black is Fancy The Moth and the Star p75 66 Ibid p76 67 Una Marson Kinky Hair Blues The Moth and the Star p91 68 Jarret MaCauley pvii 69 Kenneth Ramchard The West Indian Novel and its Background (London: Faber, 1870), p225