Miss Maudie & Aunt Alex Essay -- English Literature Essays

Miss Maudie & Aunt Alex The Maycomb ladies provide an excellent example of racial prejudice, and a failure to see what it is like in someone else’s skin. They believe they are doing well by making money for missions, failing to see the hardship on their own doorsteps. Aunt Alexandra is very important to the novel, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ as she is a representative of these viewpoints, disapproving of Calpurnia and disassociating herself from the black community entirely. Miss Maudie however is the counterpoint to Aunt Alexandra. Maudie offers Scout a female role model, whereas Aunt Alexandra tries to make Scout more ladylike, to fit in with her position in life. Aunt Alexandra plays the greatest role in reinforcing class distinctions within the Finch family. As she believes that because the Finch family comes from a long line of landowners, who have been in the county for generations, they deserve greater respect than other people do and therefore must behave according to their status. However her prejudice alienates her from the tolerant Finches, but she fits in well with the rest of Maycomb. Aunt Alexandra has strict and traditional ideas of how society works and the role for a Southern woman within it, which she tries to enforce upon Scout at the beginning to this novel. ‘When I said I could do nothing in a dress, she said I wasn’t supposed to be doing things that required pants.’ Scout immediately takes a dislike to Aunt Alexandra when she criticises her about her overalls. Aunt Alexandra fits in well with the neighbours in Maycomb, but not with the children, as she demands different standards of behaviour from what they are used to. Aunt Alexandra does create an impact during her stay when trying to influence the children during their crucial years of growing up. Atticus is worried that he is not doing his best for his children and is torn between being courteous to his sister and raising Jem and Scout as he sees fit. ‘Your aunt has asked me to try and impress upon you and Jean Louise that you are not from run-of-the-mill people,’ ‘She asked me to tell you†¦.’ Atticus doesn’t really want to do this but realises it’s important to his sister, Jem and Scout can sense this as he keeps saying ‘She asked me to tell you†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ Aunt Alexandra plays a major role in Jem and Scout’s understanding of Atticus’s teachings on racial discrimination and prejudice. S... ... in the last few chapters when Jem and Scout are attacked. Aunt Alexandra redeems herself and realises the importance of the children’s well being and not their status, she becomes a changed women in both the reader’s and Scout’s eyes. ‘Are you all right, darling?’ she asked over and over as she worked me free. The reader also sees a definite change to Auntie when she hands Scout her overalls, ‘the garments she most despised.’ She blames herself for the attack and shows care and tenderness in the final crisis. Both Miss Maudie and Aunt Alexandra are important role models to Scout and Jem at the end of this novel. Especially Aunt Alexandra as she shows the children that there is hope in Maycomb for people to alter their ways and views like she’s started to achieve in the last few chapters to this book. Jem and Scout don’t have a mother figure in their lives but Miss Maudie acts as a feminine role model, helping Atticus to guide them towards the right understanding of life. From this analysis of the two characters Miss Maudie and Aunt Alexandra, it is very clear that they both care very much for the welfare of the children although they go about showing it in very different ways.

Braking History Essay

In a little over a hundred years since the automobile took hold of people’s imagination, technologies designed to make them accelerate faster and reach higher speeds have evolved with a fury. The brakes that were used to decelerate vehicles just over a hundred years ago (when cars were first invented) has evolved from plain wooden blocks to discs that are monitored by Anti-lock Brake Systems and Electronic Braking Distribution systems. The earliest braking system that used by vehicles consisted of nothing more than a block of wood and a lever system. The wood brake system worked fine in conjunction with early vehicles that were equipped with steel rimmed wheels. However, when the Michelin brothers started to replace steel rimmed wheels with rubber tires on most vehicles towards late 1890s, the wood block braking system just does not create enough friction with rubber. Since the need for a new method of braking was necessary in order to replace the old wood block braking system, inventors scrambled for new ideas. The French manufacturer Louis Renault took crude concepts of inventors before him and developed method: The drum based braking system. Basically, the system involved a single flexible stainless-steel band, wrapped around a drum on the rear axle. When the driver engaged the brake, the band would apply pressure to the drum and car to come to a stop. However, the drum braking system did have a number of problems. Since the drum brakes were external, the exposer caused a very rapid wear-out of the system and had to be replaced often. The band itself would sometimes unwrap on hills and proved to be very unsafe for the driver and passengers. Even though people came up with ideas to internally place the brakes, the era of mechanically-activated brakes was coming to an end. In 1918, A four-wheel hydraulic-brake system was invented by Malcolm Loughead. This system used fluids to transfer the force on the pressed pedal to the pistons and then to the brake shoes. In other words, it was the enhanced drum based system added with power support. The system quickly became popular due to the fact that it is much easier to operate and more effective than mechanical systems. Thus, it was adapted quickly by most of the automotive world. As the vehicles evolved to be heavier and faster, heat distribution started to become a major problem for the drum hydraulic-brake system due to increased friction. Disc brake system that was made from iron was invented to solve the problem. In order to stop the car, the brake pads are squeezed by a calliper which is pressured by the hydraulic, and then the discs are squeezed by the braking pads. Lining was placed on the braking pads to reduce the noise when the metal came in contact. This was as far as the braking system went in terms of mechanics. However, additional features such as the ABS (Anti-Lock Brakes), EBS (Electronic Braking system), and EBD (Electronic Braking Distribution) were implemented to further enhance the performance and safety of brakes. Since the industry was constantly seeking for replacements and innovations, achieving â€Å"the Minimum Winning Game† (MWG) is extremely important in not only the auto industry, but any high-technology ventures in general. By definition, the â€Å"Minimum Winning Game† is: Defining the first major market opportunity that is limited enough to provide a clear target for technology and product development efforts in the short-to-medium term, and sufficiently large that successfully pursuing it provides a foundation for long-term corporate development. Defining the â€Å"Minimum Winning Game† of any new breaking system is a difficult yet critical responsibility of management to keep the new innovation focused and able to learn from its ongoing efforts in the face of rapidly evolving technological and market uncertainties. Balancing a combination of the three drivers is essential in achieving the â€Å"Minimum Winning Game†. The drivers are: technology development, product development, and strategy development. Effectively pursuing these drivers will contribute positively, but allowing one to become the sole driver is likely to derail the venture from the path toward its Minimum Winning Game. Since braking technology is in such high-tech environments the pace of change is extreme. Instilling strategic discipline early on can prevent the new innovation of brakes to fall into the â€Å"Field of Dreams† trap: building the technology and it will become useful, while simultaneously increase the chances of its success.

The Origin Of The Egyptian Religion - 1113 Words

Horus is one of the oldest and most meaningful deities in agent Egyptian religion. He was worshiped through the late predynastic period and through the Greco Roman times. From as far back as we know the Egyptians believed that Osiris was of divine origin, that he suffered death and mutilation at the hands of evil, and after a great struggle with these powers he rose again, that he then became the king of the underworld and judge of the dead, and because he had conquered death the honorable also might conquer death (Horus of Edfu). There is so much that we have learned about Horus, from who he was before he was a God, to who he symbolizes, and the different ways of representation. Horus’s mother was the Goddess Isis and his father was Osiris. Isis fled from Set to give birth to Horus safely, knowing Set would want to kill Horus as he already killed Osiris. Horus then became Set’s enemy, eventually defeating Set, thus avenging his father and assuming the rule. Horus emerg ed as a local god in many places and with different names. Some of the names were Harmakhis â€Å"Horus in the Horizon†, Harpocrates â€Å"Horus the Child† and, Harsiesis â€Å"Horus, Son of Isis (Horus, Encyclopedia). Horus became the universal name for many different gods associated with falcons. From the 1st dynasty onward, Horus and the god Set were presented as perpetual antagonists who were reconciled in the harmony of Upper and Lower Egypt. Featured as a royal man with the head of a falcon or hawk, Horus often holdsShow MoreRelatedAnalysis of Moses and Monotheism by Sigmund Freud Essay817 Words   |  4 Pagestook up residency with his family so that they could escape Nazi harassment against Jewish people in Austria; this is the area that Freud felt safe. Sigmund Freud was Jewish, and he opposed anti-Semitism. Freud was refused promotions because of his religion. Freud’s anti- Semitic generation of this time would not pay interest to his ideas. 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