The Picture of Dorian Gray as an Imitation of Aestheticism Essay Example

The Picture of Dorian Gray as an Imitation of Aestheticism Paper The Picture of Dorian Gray, the only full-length novel ever written by the legendary playwright Oscar Wilde, is one of the most notorious books of the 19th century. With its overtones of supernaturalism, its refusal to satisfy popular morality, and its portrayal of homoerotic culture, The Picture of Dorian Gray was met with harsh criticism when it wasfirst published in 1890. Many considered the novel dangerously influential, with one offended critic calling it a poisonous book, the atmosphere of which is heavy with the mephitic odors of moral and spiritual putrefaction. Many of the themes and innuendos of homosexuality and moral corruption that Wilde so intricately weaved throughout the book have stirred up countless controversies and scandals. Ultimately, however, although the book seems to be a gothic twisted tale of pain and indifference, as it portrays the decay of the main character, Dorian, into a seedy underworld that is characterized by murder and quite often visits to opium houses, it is really a refinement of aestheticism. Wilde, who was intrinsically involved in the aesthetic movement and is even given credit by Richard Ellman to have been the sole reason for the artistic character of the 1880s (305), wrote the book as a reflection not of the moral decay of the time, but rather of beauty and the influence and importance of art. Ultimately, The Picture of Dorian Gray is perhaps the most comprehensive Aesthetic work of all time managing to portray through its characters, the true wonder of the aesthetic movement. The ways in which aestheticism is so intrinsically reflected throughout The Picture of Dorian Gray can best be recognized by examining the characters and the ways that they react with one another. The Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray is a collection of epigrams that aptly sums up the ideals of the artistic and philosophical movement known as aestheticism. Aestheticism, which found its foot

The Doomed Journey of Panfilo de Narvaez in Florida

The Doomed Journey of Panfilo de Narvaez in Florida Panfilo de Narvaez (1470-1528) was born to an upper-class family in Vallenda, Spain. Although he was older than most Spaniards who sought their fortunes in the New World, he nevertheless was extremely active in the early conquest period. He was an important figure in the conquests of Jamaica and Cuba in the years between 1509 and 1512. He acquired a reputation for ruthlessness; Bartolome de Las Casas, who was a chaplain on the Cuba campaign, recounted horrible tales of massacres and chiefs being burned alive. In Pursuit of Cortes In 1518, the governor of Cuba, Diego Velazquez, had sent the young conquistador Hernan Cortes off to Mexico to begin the conquest of the mainland. Velazquez soon regretted his actions, however, and decided to place someone else in charge. He sent Narvaez, with a large force of more than 1,000 Spanish soldiers, to Mexico to take command of the expedition and send Cortes back to Cuba. Cortes, who was in the process of defeating the Aztec Empire, had to leave the recently subdued capital of Tenochtitlan to return to the coast to fight Narvaez. The Battle of Cempoala On May 28, 1520, the forces of the two conquistadores clashed at Cempoala, near present-day Veracruz, and Cortes won. Many of Narvaez’s soldiers deserted before and after the battle, joining Cortes. Narvaez himself was jailed in the port of Veracruz for the next two years, while Cortes retained control of the expedition and the vast wealth that came with it. A New Expedition Narvaez returned to Spain after being released. Convinced that there were more wealthy empires like the Aztecs to the north, he mounted an expedition that was doomed to become one of the most monumental failures in history. Narvaez got permission from King Charles V of Spain to mount an expedition into Florida. He set sail in April 1527 with five ships and about 600 Spanish soldiers and adventurers. Word of the riches earned by Cortes and his men made finding volunteers easy. In April 1528, the expedition landed in Florida, near present-day Tampa Bay. By then, many of the soldiers had deserted, and only about 300 men remained. Narvaez in Florida Narvaez and his men clumsily made their way inland, attacking every tribe they met. The expedition had brought insufficient supplies and survived by pillaging meager Native American storehouses, which caused violent retaliation. The conditions and lack of food caused many in the company to become ill, and within a few weeks, a third of the members of the expedition were severely incapacitated. The going was tough because Florida was then full of rivers, swamps, and forests. The Spanish were killed and picked off by irate natives, and Narvaez made a series of tactical blunders, including frequently dividing his forces and never seeking allies. The Mission Fails The men were dying, picked off individually and in small groups by native attacks. Supplies had run out, and the expedition had alienated every native tribe it had encountered. With no hope to establish any sort of settlement and with no help coming, Narvaez decided to abort the mission and return to Cuba. He had lost touch with his ships and ordered the construction of four large rafts. The Death of Panfilo de Narvaez It is not known for certain where and when Narvaez died. The last man to see Narvaez alive and tell of it was Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, a junior officer of the expedition. He recounted that in their final conversation, he asked Narvaez for help the men on Narvaezs raft were better fed and stronger than those with Cabeza de Vaca. Narvaez refused, basically saying â€Å"every man for himself,† according to Cabeza de Vaca. The rafts were wrecked in a storm and only 80 men survived the sinking of the rafts; Narvaez was not among them. The Aftermath of the Narvaez Expedition The first major incursion into present-day Florida was a complete fiasco. Of the 300 men who landed with Narvaez, only four ultimately survived. Among them was Cabeza de Vaca, the junior officer who had asked for help but received none. After his raft sunk, Cabeza de Vaca was enslaved by a local tribe for several years somewhere along the Gulf Coast. He managed to escape and meet up with three other survivors, and together the four of them returned overland to Mexico, arriving some eight years after the expedition landed in Florida. The animosity caused by the Narvaez expedition was such that it took the Spanish years to establish a settlement in Florida. Narvaez has gone down in history as one of the most ruthless yet incompetent conquistadors of the colonial era.

Dell Direct and Not-So-Direct Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Dell Direct and Not-So-Direct - Case Study Example As a result Dell began to form alliances with retailers around the world to sell Dell products at their stores. Key Marketing Issues Branding – Dell was able to build a strong brand value in the United States, but the company has not been as effective at marketing its brand in other parts of the world. Dell was forced to change its business model to allow retailers to sell its products at retail outlets worldwide. Brand loyalty – The brand loyalty of the company is weak outside of the United States. Dell should increase its spending in advertising and marketing to solidify the brand value of the business entity. Channels of Distribution – Dell was effective at being the sole channel of distribution for its products for many years. As the business matured the company realized that further business growth required increasing its distribution channels. Retailers – Dell is now using retailers as a permanent strategy to achieve growth in market share. The firm has to identify the top retailers that can bring the company the maximum amount of sales. Wholesalers – Dell is using the wholesaling strategy to penetrate the market for business computers as well as governmental contracts. The firm has to adequately identify the required volume of sales and price per lot to ensure the firm maintains profitability. Personal Case Analysis Dell Computers was one of the biggest success stories in the high tech industry during the 1990’s and early part of the 21st century. The direct selling method was innovative because it allowed the customers the ability to customize their computers. The business model was helping the company achieve higher profit margins, while offering very competitive prices due to the fact that Dell eliminated the intermediaries. The strategy was tremendous, but it had an inert flaw that eventually caught up to the company. The strategy was not effective at attracting international clients. Once Dell reached the ma turity stage the firm had to seek expansion outside the United States. It became cheaper for Dell to outsource the selling function to retailers than to sell directly to customers in foreign countries because the company did not have the marketing expertise to target customers outside the United States. Case Questions 1. Is Dell using intensive, selective or exclusive distribution for its market coverage? Dell is using selective distribution is its market coverage of different parts of the world. The company has identified specific retailers they have targeted as business partners. The company has control over which retailers sell the firm’s products. Some of the retailers Dell has selected for distribution of its products include: Wal-Mart, Carphone Warehouse’s U.K. Stores, Bic Camara Japanese Stores, and Gome’s Chinese Store. 2. How does dell's preference for direct channels affect its decisions about physical distribution? The preference of Dell of selling di rectly to customers positively influenced the entire supply chain of the company. Dell was able to centralize its warehouses in strategic positions in the United States to be able to deliver the final product to its customers as fast as possible. The direct sale approach saved the company money because the firm had a lower obsolesce rate than other competitors. 3. What issues in channel conflict might arise from Dell's current distribution arrangements? The new channel approach Dell is using could cause

Information and Communications Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Information and Communications - Essay Example Given that language, music, and images constitute the major forms of symbolic expression, they assume special significance in the sphere of culture. Both processes, media globalization and cultural imperialism, are closely connected with cultural globalization which means expansion of cultural flows across the globe. At the beginning of the 21st century, global media interferes all parts of the world promoting and popularizing western life style and ideas. The exploding network of cultural interconnections and interdependencies in the last decades has led some commentators to suggest that cultural practices lie at the very heart of contemporary globalization (Lee 2002). Yet, cultural globalization did not start with the worldwide dissemination of rock 'n' roll, Coca-Cola, or football. Expansive civilizational exchanges are much older than modernity. Still, the volume and extent of cultural transmissions in the contemporary period have far exceeded those of earlier eras. Facilitated by the Internet and other new technologies, TV shows and mindless advertisements, these corporations increasingly shape people's identities and the structure of desires around the world (Tomlinson 88). During the last two decades, a small group of very large TNCs have come to dominate the global market for entertainme nt, news, television, and film. In 2000, only ten media conglomerates - AT&T, Sony, AOL/Time Warner, Bertelsmann, Liberty Media, Vivendi Universal, Viacom, General Electric, Disney, and News Corporation - accounted for more than two-thirds of the $250-275 billion in annual worldwide revenues generated by the communications industry (Tomlinson 54). In general, cultural imperialism means promotion and spreading of one culture into another. "Cultural imperialism has been conceptualized variously as a strategy on the part of dominant countries, a local policy on the part of receiving countries, and an effect on the people and practices in the latter. Dominant nations have clear strategies concerning the export of cultural products" (Crabtree and Malhotra 364). As recently as 15 years ago, not one of the giant corporations that dominate what Benjamin Barber has appropriately called the 'infotainment telesector' existed in its present form as a media company. In 2001, nearly all of these corporations ranked among the largest 300 non-financial firms in the world. Today, most media analysts concede that the emergence of a global commercial-media market amounts to the creation of a global oligopoly similar to that of the oil and automotive industries in the early part of the 20th century (Tomlinson 74). The crucial cultural innovators of earlier decades - small, independent record labels, radio stations, movie theatres, newspapers, and book publishers - have become virtually extinct as they found themselves incapable of competing with the media giants. The negative consequences of this shotgun marriage of finance and culture are obvious. TV programs turn into global 'gossip markets', presenting viewers and readers of all ages with the vacuous details of the private lives of American celebrities like Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Kobe Bryant. Evidence suggests that people all over the world - but especially

Health and Nutrition Worksheet Essay Example for Free

Health and Nutrition Worksheet Essay Use Ch. 1, 2, 3 of Visualizing Nutrition, supplemental course materials, the University Library, the Internet, or other resources to answer the following questions. Your response to each question should be 75 to 100 words. 1.What is nutrition? Why is nutrition essential to our daily lives? For me nutrition would be eating the right types of food in order to maintain your body healthy. Nutrition is very essential to our daily lives because without proper nutrition our bodies would be fully functional. Either you would be tired or weak everyday no matter how much sleep you get or how long youre at the gym for, again without the proper nutrition’s your body wouldn’t be fully functional. 2.What is the connection between nutrition and health? The connection between nutrition and health is that no matter what you do, everything starts with a foundation. In a house the â€Å"basement† would be the foundation, the part that’s holding the house up. But with our health, proper nutrition would be our foundation to a healthy lifestyle. 3.What is the relationship between poor nutrition and disease? The relationship between poor nutrition and disease is that with poor nutrition you are going to be more prone to catching a disease because your body is going to be weak and isn’t going to stand a chance against a virus. 4.What does it mean to eat a balanced diet? Why is food choice important for good nutrition? For me a balanced diet would be eating the right types and amounts of foods and drinks to help your body get the right amount of nutrition it needs, this means that if your body needs just 1 cup of wheat and 2 cups of fruits then that’s what you’re getting, not more or not less. Food choice is important for good nutrition because if you don’t get the right food that will satisfy your â€Å"pyramid† then you’re going to have too  much of one thing and not enough of the other which will lead to an unbalanced diet. 5.Why is physical activity important to a person’s health? What changes, if any, should you make to ensure you get enough physical activity? Physical activity is important because it can improve your health and reduce the risk you developing certain kind of diseases. Also by being active it will also help you stay fit and prolong your life rather than just being at home and being a couch potato which will hurt you a lot, because I am in the military I believe that I am already fit, sometimes I even think I’m getting too much physical activity, we workout 5 days a week and 4 out of the 5 days we work out in the morning and afternoon. 6.What influences your food choices? Why? What influences the food I pick would be a variety of things such as how it smells, looks, taste and most of all my culture. Im Puerto Rican so I was brought up eating rice and beans for me food wasnt food unless rice and beans were included. But around ten years old I moved to New York where its multicultural so thats where I started tasting all different kinds of food such as Italian, Dominican, and real Chinese food, and realized that in order for something to be food rice and beans didnt have to be included. What also influences the food I pick depends on my son, me and my wife wont usually cook something that he doesnt like but hes so picky at times that we just make something healthy for all of us and he wont eat it, I would have to feed it to him in order for him to eat it. 7.What is the difference between digesting protein and carbohydrates? Which would make you feel fuller longer? Why? The difference between digesting protein and digesting carbohydrates is that proteins are digested into amino acids while carbohydrates are digested into simple sugars. Also carbohydrates are converted into glucose which are then stored in the body and Proteins are broken down into amino acids which then are used to build and repair body tissues. I believe that protein will make you feel fuller because you don’t have to eat as much in order to satisfy your hunger. 8.How does today’s society affect our nutritional habits? Our society today affects our nutritional habits tremendously It’s so hard to control our food portion because of the food industries in the United States. Right now for example we could go down the street to McDonalds and order a Big Mac meal. Now the Big Mac alone has about 550 calories but then they give you some fries with the Big Mac and a fountain drink. Now if you were brought up like how I was, which was your mother or father yelling at you and telling you, you need to eat everything on my plate, then of course you are going to inherit those habits and youre going to be eating everything they give you, and that of course unhealthy. Youre going to be eating a lot more than what you’re supposed to, making us gain weight and even have health issues. 9.How are nutrients used to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP)? Adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, acts as a source of fuel within your cells. Formed from a series of chemical reactions, carbohydrates, proteins and fats can all be converted into ATP following digestion. One type of food that provides a source of ATP is meat and fish. These foods contain several animal cells, with each cell containing preformed ATP. The nutrients found within meats and fish may also provide a source of ATP within your body. Upon consumption, the fatty acids and proteins in meats and fish are digested and absorbed. If your body requires an immediate source of energy, these nutrients are used to make ATP within your own cells, helping to fuel your body. 10.Consider your personal dietary habits. What are some modifications you might make to promote good health? My personal dietary habits are eating only two meals a day and just drink water or powerade throughout the rest of the day. Which I know now that is a terrible idea, skipping meals isn’t good for us. In them two meals I eat a day, since I’m always at the gym I eat a lot of meat to intake a lot of protein, and with the meat I would eat about 1.5 cups of rice and .5 cups of beans, which is diffidently not maintaining a balanced diet at all. Some modifications I might make to promote good health would be to not skip meals, and maintain a balanced diet, not too much and not too less.

In Defense of Chatrooms Essay -- Technology Internet Computers Papers

In Defense of Chatrooms With the advent of the Internet, fewer people are using the telephone or postal system as media of interactive communication exchanges due to their specific uses and limitations. While the former does not allow one to chat with several others from all over the world simultaneously and at a reasonable cost, the latter is handicapped by its time-consuming nature. Replacing the two mediums is a fast and rising newcomer, chatrooms, which offer an unprecedented opportunity to interact effectively, cheaply and widely, with multiple individuals at a time and in faraway places too. Chatrooms are definitely not meant as a utopia and in fact, they can be a serious menace when people exploit them through verbal, psychological abuse or worse, physical abuse. Despite the dangers which can be minimized through self-discipline and parental guidance, chatrooms are suitable places for developing the self socially, mentally and culturally, as well as shaping the character traits of the self. Being social creatures, "we are born into social environments (to) discover and explore the world through social discourse, (to) come to know ourselves through interpersonal experience" (Leitenberg, 325). Such basic requirements are met when one chats online by typing rather than by talking, for example, through Internet Relay Chat (IRC), which attracts people from "Finland, Australia, South Africa, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Iceland... and that is only a sampling of some of the geographical areas represented on the Net" (Reiner & Blanton, xvi). The diversity in the nationalities, ages, occupations and personalities of IRC users tends to give the self a global orientation since one is able to navigate to other countries an... ...Harold. Handbook of social and evaluation anxiety (New York: Plenum Press), 1990 Pyra, Marianne. Using Internet Relay Chat (USA: Que Corporation), 1995 Reiner, Diane & Keith Blanton. Person to person on the Internet (London: Academic Press Limited), 1997. Reuters, AP. "Victims of Net stalkers cry for help", The Straits Times (world), March 30th 2000, p 6. Sia, Cheong Yew. "What is your child up to in cyberspace?" http://web3.asia1.com.sg/archive/st/1/opin/opin2_0428.html Tapscott, D. Growing up digital: The rise of the net generation (New York: Mc Graw-Hill), 1997. Weiss, Ann E. Virtual Reality: A door to cyberspace (Canada: Fitzhenry & Whiteside Ltd), 1996. Whittle, David B. Cyberspace: The Human Dimension (New York: WH Freeman & Co), 1996. Wong, Karen. "Jail for chatline pimp", The Straits Times (prime news), March 23rd 2000, p 2. In Defense of Chatrooms Essay -- Technology Internet Computers Papers In Defense of Chatrooms With the advent of the Internet, fewer people are using the telephone or postal system as media of interactive communication exchanges due to their specific uses and limitations. While the former does not allow one to chat with several others from all over the world simultaneously and at a reasonable cost, the latter is handicapped by its time-consuming nature. Replacing the two mediums is a fast and rising newcomer, chatrooms, which offer an unprecedented opportunity to interact effectively, cheaply and widely, with multiple individuals at a time and in faraway places too. Chatrooms are definitely not meant as a utopia and in fact, they can be a serious menace when people exploit them through verbal, psychological abuse or worse, physical abuse. Despite the dangers which can be minimized through self-discipline and parental guidance, chatrooms are suitable places for developing the self socially, mentally and culturally, as well as shaping the character traits of the self. Being social creatures, "we are born into social environments (to) discover and explore the world through social discourse, (to) come to know ourselves through interpersonal experience" (Leitenberg, 325). Such basic requirements are met when one chats online by typing rather than by talking, for example, through Internet Relay Chat (IRC), which attracts people from "Finland, Australia, South Africa, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Iceland... and that is only a sampling of some of the geographical areas represented on the Net" (Reiner & Blanton, xvi). The diversity in the nationalities, ages, occupations and personalities of IRC users tends to give the self a global orientation since one is able to navigate to other countries an... ...Harold. Handbook of social and evaluation anxiety (New York: Plenum Press), 1990 Pyra, Marianne. Using Internet Relay Chat (USA: Que Corporation), 1995 Reiner, Diane & Keith Blanton. Person to person on the Internet (London: Academic Press Limited), 1997. Reuters, AP. "Victims of Net stalkers cry for help", The Straits Times (world), March 30th 2000, p 6. Sia, Cheong Yew. "What is your child up to in cyberspace?" http://web3.asia1.com.sg/archive/st/1/opin/opin2_0428.html Tapscott, D. Growing up digital: The rise of the net generation (New York: Mc Graw-Hill), 1997. Weiss, Ann E. Virtual Reality: A door to cyberspace (Canada: Fitzhenry & Whiteside Ltd), 1996. Whittle, David B. Cyberspace: The Human Dimension (New York: WH Freeman & Co), 1996. Wong, Karen. "Jail for chatline pimp", The Straits Times (prime news), March 23rd 2000, p 2.

Love: How Is It?

Amrita Sarkar English 1B 19th September 2012 Love: How Is It? Life has lots of emotions: happiness, sorrow, guilt, frustration, love, and so on. Love is the one emotion which brings in huge changes in our lives and a different kind of emotion begins with it. How can we describe it? Describing love is very hard because in every phase of life, characterization of love can be varied. In childhood, through romantic films and stories, we started to get feeling that love is passionate and when people will be going through it, life would be full of happiness.In adulthood, people’s perception about love might change. Those who are fantasizing about love realized that it is not only about physical attraction but also about relationship, responsibilities and companionship. When ages grow, some people become optimistic about love, some become pessimistic and some of them are on a way to rediscover love. Definition of love can be changed not only with one’s maturity level but also with his/her cultural values.In Raymond Carver story – ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Love’ – the main protagonists Mel and Terri, and Jhumpa Lahiri’s creation – ‘Going Ashore’ – soon to be married couple, Hema and Navin, had enough knowledge about love but they could not still fully realize it. So, they are on their ways to discover the essence of love. Mel-Terrie and Hema-Navin, all four are mature persons. Individually they all previously experienced love. In ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Love’, Carver described that Mel and Terri had unsuccessful marriages in the past. Terri’s marriage with Ed was abusive.But Terri claimed that Ed was possessive but loving husband. As a proof, she said about Ed, â€Å"He beat me up one night. He dragged me around the living room by my ankle†. Even with this aggressive behavior toward her, Ed â€Å"†¦ kept saying ‘I love you, I lov e you, you bitch’† (Carver 722). On the other hand, Mel and Marjorie also had a bad marriage. After they ended their relationship, there was no feeling left other than hatred toward each other. Mel expressed his feeling by saying, â€Å"There was a time when I thought I loved my first wife more than life itself. But now I hate her guts†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Carver 725).In ‘Going Ashore’, Navin also went through short-term relationship in the past. But his fiance, Hema, was in a strong, long-lasting relationship with Jullian. Hema was dedicated to the relationship for a decade, but Jullian failed to give her a secure life. Hema’s insecurity about her position in Jullian’s life and her urge for stability were the reasons to end their relationship. She declared to Jullian, â€Å"I’m engaged to be married† (Lahiri 626). After rocky relationship in the past, now everybody is in a new phase of life, but it seems two couples could not connect with each other.Hema and Navin, like many other Indian couples, were going to get married on their parents’ will. Hema was brought-up in western culture. She could not make her mind to marry Navin by such an old approach. She was self-conflicted and her conflict was evident in this quotation, â€Å"she refused to think of it as an arranged marriage, but knew in her heart that that was what it was† (Lahiri 625). She did not bother to wear engagement ring. When people asked her about it she promptly answered, â€Å"I don’t have one. † (Lahiri 634).Hema and Navin’s marriage looked as if they were with each other just for search of stability and companionship in life. Heme was unsure about their marriage even when Navin was planning for their honeymoon and future. Taking decisions about future are required involvement of both partners. They two were so unknown to each other that they could not read each other’s mind. Carver, on the other hand, described Mel as a cardiologist by occupation but he was clueless and emotionless about love. Mel and Terri were married for five years, but they had not been discovered essence of love and companionship.Mel thought that â€Å"real love was nothing less than spiritual love† (Carver 722). He also considered that if â€Å"something happened† to his partner, then â€Å"the other person, would grieve for a while, you know, but then the surviving party would go out and love again,  have someone else soon enough† (Carver 725). In contrast, Terri was fantasizing about her past and wanted to convince other that her ex-marriage was also blissful and passionate. She portrayed Ed’s aggression as love and said to others that, â€Å"†¦ he loved me† but â€Å"In his own way maybe†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Carver 722).It seems very strange when two people were in bonding like marriage but they talked about their ex, how much they loved them, scope of future new rela tionship, and their failure to understand one another. These incidents indicated that how much they were detached to each other. Bonding between them was very fragile. In most relationships across the globe, one element is very common – male dominance. The stories about these two couples were also not different. Both characters, Mel and Navin, were highly educated. They were financially stronger than their spouses and were controlling their relationships.In a party at their place with friends, when Mel said to Terri to â€Å"Just shut up for once in your life†, it expressed his supremacy in their marriage. Mel verbally abused Terri in front of guests, but she did not protest. In the ‘Going Ashore’, Navin was also controlling in taking mutual decisions. He was contemplating for a baby all by himself and cancelled their honeymoon plan at Goa. During those plans, he did not care to know about Hema’s wishes. From portrayal of characters and incidents, w e got an idea that in Mel-Terri’s relationship, Terri was more dependent on her spouse.She was still abused verbally by Mel. But Hema, a PhD scholar and a lecturer at Wellesley College, was more independent. She had total control over her life. Her decade-long relationship with Jullian makes her stronger. At the age thirty seven, when biological clock was ticking away, her parents wanted to see her get settled and she also wished for it. Hema belonged to Indian society where arrange marriage is very common. So, she agreed to go for her marriage by her parents’ choice. From Carver’s description, we did not get any indication about Terri’s education background and job status.Mel’s attitude toward her showed that her character was weaker than Hema. Jhumpa Lahiri’s â€Å"Going Ashore† portrayed its characters whose origin was in India but they were immigrants to America and adopted western culture. In India, people have different values t han we find in America. Indian culture believes that person should sacrifice for relation. People in India are motivated to reform themselves to strengthen relationship and to respect it lifelong. Hema and Navin were getting married by knowing each other only for few months. In between her wedding with Navin, Hema was attracted to Kausik at Rome.Their bonding was great but they did not commit to each other because of family values. Family was very important to Hema – that was why she asked her parents to find a suitable groom for her. Thus, Hema’s parents found Navin for her and she also believed that Navin was probably a suitable guy for her too. In Indian culture, marriage is an institute which also creates bonding between two families. Hema and Navin were taking risk to know each other and to spend their lives together by getting married for the sake of their families.In contrast, Mel-Terri was started dating when Terri’s was still married to Ed. And Mel ende d his marriage with Marjorie, despite the fact that they had two children. Their family bonding was very feeble. Mel had not even understood value of selfless love and stable relationship. When two people were deeply in love with each other, he thought this emotion was hilarious and phony. Through the representation of ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Love’, we feel pessimistic about love but ‘Going Ashore’ is hopeful about new beginning.Jhumpa Lahiri and Raymond Carver also give us different views of love that changes with cultural background. In American culture, people give emphasis to their sentiments rather than family values. Lahiri shows us different angle of relationship. But both stories show us that dominance toward women is present in every part of globe and in every form of relationship. After reading these stories, we get different views of love, from which I realized that we should respect our partner and care for their thoughts.We, also , should give them equal space for healthy and better future relationship. Both the stories, ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Love’ and ‘Going Ashore’, show us new direction and help us to review our bonding with near and dear ones. Works Cited Carver, Raymond. â€Å"What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. † Making Literature Matter. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2012. 721-30. Print. Lahiri, Jumpa. â€Å"Going Ashore. † Making Literature Matter. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2012. 622-46. Print.