Analysis of John Crossan :: essays research papers

Crossan asserts that the human body is a microcosm for the body politic, citing anthropologist Mary Douglas who states, â€Å"the body is a symbol of society† (77). This means that interactions between individuals serve as the basis for the macrocosm. Individuals are confined systems with distinct boundaries that are continuously guarding against outside threats. On the macrocosmic level, the ancient Roman patronal system offered severe consequences to those who fell outside or violated social boundaries. Chapter 4 entitled â€Å"In the Beginning is the Body† recognizes Jesus as a direct risk to society because of his adherence to open commensality and radical egalitarianism. But, despite the differences that estrange Roman society from Jesus’ community, the two groups are linked upon one important commonality.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Leadership power in ancient Roman society was maintained through a careful arrangement of social boundaries. These protective boundaries were symbolized by an explicit separation of the clean and unclean or the â€Å"us† and â€Å"them†. This ideology was initiated at the individual level by establishing the human body as a confined system that required certain standards in order to remain â€Å"clean† and acceptable. Rules or â€Å"margins† regarding eating, drinking, and socializing between classes were strictly followed because one’s home and table were the groundwork for empowering ancient Rome (68). When margins are no longer clear, the fibers that collate a national culture begin to tear at the seams. On the macrocosmic level, ancient Roman society employed a patronal system, which was upheld by a sense of moral duty that extended through the hierarchical ranks down to the most destitute (97). This system demanded adherence to social norms and severely punished individuals who did not preserve these boundaries. For example, the leper was often characterized as one of the most unclean and despised figures of society. Crossan suggests that the leper is not a danger as a result of his medical condition, but rather because of the â€Å"symbolic contamination† that threatened to compromise the identity of society (79). The leper was perceived as unclean because his disease rendered him different than â€Å"normal† people. On the other hand, Jesus advocated open commensality, which is the acceptance of all people equally. Jesus refused to treat the leper as an ostracized member of society and welcomed him into the Kingdom of God. This act of bringing the marginalized back into the community infuriated Rome, but spread Jesus’ reputation as a â€Å"healer†.

Informative Article About Bullying Essay

Have you ever heard about Amanda Todd, a 15 years old Canadian girl who took her life away, on October 2012, because of cyber bullying. Before her suicide, Amada decided to post a video telling her story about how she was blackmailed, physical and psychological abused. Bullying is a social problematic and a global issue which touches most of the population, because it does not only happen at schools, you can also be witness of this in companies, or any other community. The website Bullying. rg defines bullying as â€Å"a learned behavior. It is when a person or group tries to hurt or control another person in a harmful way. † Rosa Castillo (2013), teacher of a public school in Bogota, Colombia, said that â€Å"bullying is an action which lasts on kid for a long time, and this is one of the reasons why students start a low performance on schools†. According to stopbullying. gov, the types of bullying included, verbal bullying, is tell bad things to someone (name-calling, teasing); social bullying, involves damage somebody? reputation (embarrass a person in public, spread a gossip, leaves somebody aside); and the last type is physical bullying, hurts somebody? s objects or body (punching, break of stuff). Furthermore, the increases of technology uses on young population and the lack of parents control about it, is making easier to develop a field of bullying on the web. This type of bullying is known as ciberbullying, which take place at using the electronic device and social networks. Read more:  Essay on the person you admire the most This kind of bullying is a little bit harder with the victims, as it could happen 7/24 (7 days a week and 24 hour a day), also ciberbullying spread fast all on the web, reaching all the person? s contacts. A lot of kids believe, that making others feel less than he, would make him better. The truth is some of this kids has an issue that thy want to hide from the others, that? s why, they use bullying as a defense mechanism. Another possible answer for the behavior is they want to call the attention of someone (parent, group of friend). On the other hand, is important the role of parents or big sister/brother, because most of the times these are the one kids admire and want to follow. Teacher Rosa, explain that the kids more likely to being bullied are the ones who are considered weak. And the bullies are those who are more popular around the group or are strong. Some people consider that bullying is a stage of the childhood and it will have an ending. Last statement is totally false, bullying is a problematic and it has to receive treatment. Bullies and bullied, both will have a short and long term consequences. But the victimizers are more likely to experience the consequences in long term. The bullies are more susceptible to get involve in dangerous activities (vandalize, physical fights, abuse of alcohol or/and drugs), and also they are more likely to experience bullying as his behavior does not fit in the environment of work. The psychologist Dan Olweus, of Norway, found on his study that about 60% of schools students in Scandinavian countries who were bullies had one or more incidents of being convicted of a crime by the time they were 24 years old. On the other hand, the victims might experience the consequences from the first time of bullying, such as low self-esteem, anxiety, sleep difficulties, missing classes, and so on. One of the most worried consequences is that the victims could become violent, toward themselves or with the community, as the bullied would want revenge of all the public embarrassed he had passed. As we can see on the newspaper and all over the news, in the last years, the number of bullycides (is a term used to describe suicide as the result of bullying) of young people increasing alarmingly in the entire world.

Marc Antony’s Soliloquy: An Analysis

My transformation of the Shakespearean text employs many different grammatical features to create an effective, modern version of Marc Antony’s soliloquy. Features such as nominalisation, paragraphing and abstract noun groups are a few of the features used. My transformation is suitable for modern audiences, using both language and people that today’s society is familiar with. My transformed version of the soliloquy uses many grammatical techniques and features to make it as interesting and grammatically correct as possible, whilst making it a piece of writing that people today are used to reading and/or hearing. Nominalisation is an important grammatical feature, which allows you to increase the levels of linguistic complexity as the text becomes more abstract, through leaving out the action of the nominalised verb. Words like ability, possibly and determination are all examples of nominalisation, and give more meaning into a sentence without needing to make the sentence longer than necessary. Overall, this gives the text as a whole more depth and meaning. The paragraphing used sets out the different ideas being introduced into the text, organising them into different paragraphs where all the ideas flow together. Sentence structures tie together the text, ensuring that ideas flow and it is more interesting for the reader. Using different sentence types, like compound and complex, mixes up the text a bit and keeps readers engaged as they continue to read the text. Obviously, people are more likely to continue to read something if they are interested in it, and I wanted my speech to engage readers and listeners. Clause combinations help to set out and organise ideas nicely, using different types of sentences to again create interest. I have used abstract noun groups to involve the listeners in the text, letting them connect with the speech through them using their pre-conceived ideas of what the words mean. Abstract nouns, being things that you can’t actually see or touch, means that listeners have to substitute in what their meaning of the word is, therefore making them think about the text more. I wanted my speech to make people think, and the use of abstract nouns helps to achieve that. Abstract noun groups such as ‘kind-hearted and generous, strong willed and fair’ are examples of this. When I first started the modern version, I had in my mind a clear image of what I wanted it to be like. With using the different techniques and features, I believe I’ve reached my idea of what I wanted. One of the hardest things that I was faced with when I started to re-write the soliloquy was who to write about, and who’s perspective to write from. After a lot of thought, I finally decided on Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair. I thought that it would be a good fit, for numerous reasons. Both Caesar and Thatcher were controversial people. Both had their lovers and their haters, and there was never really an in between. They were both major political figures of their time, and had large effects on their society during their rein. Not only did I feel they shared many similarities, but I’ve always been interested in Thatcher. It seems that both Caesar and Thatcher were very strong-willed, and knew exactly what they wanted. In Antony’s speech, he was mainly paying tribute to Caesar, and I knew that a figure such as Tony Blair would do the same for Thatcher. Having both speeches set at a funeral made sure that similarities were kept, same as the references to ‘after a person dies, the bad is remembered and the good forgotten’. Whilst I tried as much as I could to modernise the text, I tried to keep it quite formal. This is obviously because the speech is being performed by an ex-Prime Minister at another ex-Prime Minister’s funeral, which is quite the formal occasion. In the Shakespearean version, Antony talks about how Brutus says that Caesar is an honourable man, but he believes differently. In my version, Blair speaks about how many people often loathed Thatcher. In this, I have both similarities and differences. The language I have used is more modern, employing slang and generally newer ways of speaking. Overall, I’m very happy with my transformation of the Shakespearean text. The different grammatical features used has made the soliloquy very effective. My version is suitable for modern readers, and follows the basic storyline the original soliloquy uses.