Sonnet 16 - John Milton Essay Example for Free

Sonnet 16 John Milton Essay John Milton is considered to be the most significant English author after William Shakespeare. Although his chief work is â€Å"Paradise Lost†, he also wrote other wonderful poems, prose, as well as sonnets, in which he tackles a number of subjects which range from religious to political. Rarely is one piece of writing limited to one or the other of those fields. Among all the sonnets, Sonnet 16 is special because it refers to Milton’s blindness. It was written soon after the poet became blind and starts with a mood of discouragement and grief â€Å"When I consider how my light is spent†¦Ã¢â‚¬  but ends in a note of resignation for the situation occurred: â€Å"They also serve who only stand and waite. † The sonnet has four main themes. One of theme is limitation. Milton believes that his blindness will leave him with few chances to use his creative skills as he once did. Without his sight, writing poetry becomes more difficult for him. It is perhaps not accidental that similar limitations affected other personalities, such as Beethoven, who, as composer, lost his hearing, Michelangelo, who as an artist lost also his sight, or Jorge Luis Borges, whose blindness didn’t prevent him from writing. The next theme is light, strongly related with the theme of limitation. Light represents what can be perceived with the eyes, but it also has the meaning of spiritual light. The poet expresses his frustration at being prevented from serving God the way he desires to. In Milton’s opinion, a poet is useless when he loses his sight. Though, his burning desire to serve God urges him to write more than ever. Milton understands that if he buries his talent to use it at a later date, it might become hidden forever, and the poet will be cast into God’s darkness. Milton’s message is that although his life has not expired, his life of poetry has vanished. The other themes present in Sonnet 16 are duty and submission. The poet feels that it is his duty to make use of other talents, other than poetry and he wonders if God allows him to do that. The answers to his questions come from â€Å"Patience†, who tells him that God has many who hurry to do his bidding, and does not really need man’s work. What is really valued is the ability to bear God’s mild yoke [†¦]. Milton makes the reader understand that, according to Christian faith, rather than being an obstacle to fulfill God’s work, the loss of vision is part of this work, but only on the condition that the impaired person understands to live patiently with his impairment. It is a lesson Milton himself learnt, since he wrote â€Å"Paradise Lost† after becoming blind. Milton had a deep knowledge of Scripture (that is how he was able to write Paradise Lost), and in this poem, you can see the influence of his faith. The central meaning of the poem revolves around what Milton is about to complain to God: â€Å"Doth God exact day-labour, light denyd†. The word â€Å"day-labourer† in Milton’s opinion is a suggestion that the labourer works only in the daylight, in the presence of light, therefore the poet does not know whether God would accept a labourer for whom the light is denied. The complaint is asked â€Å"fondly† (which means foolishly, unwisely), but even so, the poet is prevented from stating it by Patience (personified by Milton), who explains to the poet what the nature of God is. God is absolute and does not need man’s work. Who best / bear his mild yoke means the people who are most respectful to Gods will. However, God judges humans on whether they labor for Him to the best of their ability. Therefore, even if one person becomes severely disabled, he remains worthy in the sight of God. For, as Milton

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â€Å"Got any sixes?† â€Å"For the third time, Isaac, no. I don’t have any sixes.† â€Å"How am I s'posed to know? You've picked a new card every round so far!† â€Å"And I’ve got more pairs with those cards than you’ve got brain cells, apparently!† â€Å"Oi, stuff it!† Two grown men. We are two grown men fighting over a game of Go Fish. Fighting. Over Go Fish. A child’s game. What has this world come to? â€Å"Well, what are you waiting for? Pick a card from the soddin' pile already.† â€Å"..You didn't say 'go fish', you egg.† I am this close to tossing him right out of this train car. â€Å"Go fish,† I deadpanned. He grins happily, as though he's won some kind of battle, and draws another card from the pile between us as I roll my eyes. He's such a child. A twenty seven year old child. How did I get stuck with him again? I watched the man in front of me with mild amusement and slight disdain. Granted, he were ten or so feet away from me, so I couldn't exactly make out much about him himself. His clothing, on the other hand, was another story and boy did it tell one. His tan, long coat was tattered, if a bit dirty. He had on a cap and a scarf; the cap the same tan as his coat and the scarf, a gray. His slacks were also tan and obviously well-worn. From where I stood, he looked to be wearing pair of brown Oxfords. Spiffy. He also had on an, apparently, charming smile - if the woman at the apple stand who gave him two apples free of charge was anything to go by. Okay, that just wasn't fair. Two apples!? I rolled my eyes and scuffed the tip of my own black Oxfords into the pavement, then quickly regretted it. I shoved my hands into my slacks' pockets; sighed as I looked down and kicked around a stone. I was down to my last dollar and really did not... ...?† â€Å"It's your turn.† Isaac glanced up at me – half concerned, half annoyed. â€Å"Oh, right then.† I take a look at my cards: two, four, seven, six – heh, two – oh. I guess I didn’t catch that pair before. I set the pair down beside me, pick up two more cards, and ponder if I should tell Isaac about the six I actually have. Nah. â€Å"Got any sevens?† I eventually ask. I can tell by the way he sighs and rolls his eyes that he does, in fact, have a seven and he just gave my my fourth pair: so far I have twos, nines, sevens, and eights. â€Å"You know, you're kind of shabby at this game.† I said after a moment. â€Å"Stuff it, you twit!† â€Å"Truly and utterly horrible..† â€Å"This is the last time I try to bring some enjoyment into our lives.† â€Å"Aw, Isaac, are you telling me you don't enjoy my company anymore?† â€Å"That's exactly what I'm telling you.† â€Å"I'm wounded.† â€Å"Good.†

Organic food Essay

We have all heard the phrase â€Å"What you don’t know won’t hurt you† and it has undoubtedly applied to many situations in our lives that we are still unaware of. We like to toss around this phrase without worrying too much about what it implies because that is the whole point of the phrase, not to worry. When it comes to what we are putting into our bodies, though, what we do not know can indeed hurt us immensely. In the United States, we have grown accustomed to not thinking much about what we are consuming. The main factors we look for in food are taste and price. We live in a consumer society where money rules our nation, it rules our lives, and it rules us. Money has become the main focus for every decision we make, but when it comes to something as important as our health, should we look at a few other factors? With societies concerns focusing on wealth and profit, there is no surprise that the food industry finds the cheapest ways to produce the most food. Consequently, this produces many negative effects on aspects of our lives such as our health and the environment. When choosing what foods to consume, we should begin to pay more attention to factors other than the price tag. The food industry obviously plays a big role in this epidemic of processed food, but they are not the only ones to blame. Yes they are the ones taking advantage of our ignorance by mass-producing cheap food that they know we will not think twice about, but the ignorance is our fault. Author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan, describes the current foundation of the food industry, â€Å"Our food system depends on consumers’ not knowing much about it beyond the price disclosed by the checkout scanner. Cheapness and ignorance are mutually reinforcing† (Pollan 245). Pollan is correct in his assumption that most Americans do not know much about their food besides how much it cost. Most of them are not even aware that they do not know what is in their food. They subconsciously assume that chicken is chicken and cheese is cheese, but unfortunately that is hardly ever the case. Many people choose to live along these guidelines of â€Å"ignorance is bliss† by not paying attention to the horror stories of the food industry; they turn their heads from documentaries on animal treatment and plug their ears at the mention of the real ingredients of their precious snacks. As long as the food they are eating tastes good and did not cost a lot of money, they are content with not knowing how unhealthy it might be. Pollan further explains another reason people buy the cheapest available food: It makes good economic sense that people with limited money to spend on food would spend it on the cheapest calories they can find, especially when the cheapest calories—fats and sugars—are precisely the ones offering the biggest neurobiological rewards. (Pollan 108) People with lower incomes are confined to buying cheap food, typically the most processed and unhealthy food, because with their limited funds they cannot afford to care about the quality of what they are eating. They buy what is cheapest because that is all they can get. As long as they have food in their stomachs, they do not complain or worry too much about the side affects. Eating food that may not be very healthy definitely outweighs the alternative of eating nothing and starving. Americans are ignorant of the food that they purchase either because they choose not to educate themselves or because they really have no choice. Either way, they are missing out on other possibilities of obtaining food that have many advantages. Not knowing what our food is made of also prevents us from knowing what alternative food options are available to us. Because we see no problems with our current food choices, we see no reason to discover new ones. The processed food at the supermarket is all we know because it is the most convenient and affordable from of nourishment we can obtain. Pollan’s book includes the testimony of someone who buys food from a local, organic farmer, â€Å"†¦for me it’s all about the taste, which is just so different—this is a chickinier chicken. Art’s chickens just taste cleaner, like the chicken I remember when I was a kid† (Pollan 252). The food available from local farmers is not only better for our health and the environment but it also tastes better. We have grown accustomed to the artificially flavored food we buy from grocery stores and do not realize that the food we eat could taste better and more natural. The locally grown food tastes healthier and more natural because that is precisely what it is. The artificially engineered taste of chicken in a common chicken nugget is not what a chicken should taste like. Besides enhanced taste, buying from local farmers offers many other benefits as well. An organic farmer interviewed in The Omnivore’s Dilemma explains some more benefits of buying locally, With our food all of the costs are figured into the price. Society is not bearing the cost of water pollution, of antibiotic resistance, of food-borne illnesses, of crop subsidies, of subsidized oil and water—of all the hidden costs to the environment and the taxpayer that make cheap food seem cheap. (Pollan 243) One of the main reasons why people do not want to look into these alternative methods of eating is because they are more expensive. People overlook these opportunities because the organic food appears overpriced, but when you evaluate all these factors it might not be as overpriced as you might think. Yes the food is more expensive but it stands true that you get what you pay for. When paying more, you are receiving a whole lot more that benefits your health, community, and environment. The extra money that would be spent on food, you might save on your medical bills and taxes. Locally produced food is healthier for you and it carries a much less chance of containing disease and illness. Another bonus of buying from local farms: there is less pollution created than in the factories and slaughterhouses of the globalized food industry. If people became aware of alternative food options and the benefits associated with them, they would be more inclined to pay better attention to what they are buying. This would not only improve ones personal health, but also the environment. Although money remains a very important role in deciding what we purchase, it would benefit us to consider a few other aspects of the food that we buy. Paying attention to details such as what goes into the food, where it is produced, and how it is produced would lead us to make healthier decisions. More often than not, a satisfying answer to these questions will not be found in the food at our local supermarkets, but rather a local farmer. Buying from these farmers would mean supporting a healthy environment and body. Their production methods are healthier and much more environmentally friendly than any factories in a big-name food industry. While it may seem that this is a simple choice, many Americans will continue to ignore these truths. When it comes down to it, money rules everything and it will take a lot more than the promise of better health for people to overlook a price tag. They say ignorance is bliss, but when that ignorance leads to decisions that contaminate our bodies and our environment, the bliss will be short lived.

The Movie Erin Brocovich Directed By Steven Soderbergh

The film ‘Erin Brocovich’ , directed by Steven Soderbergh is a movie narrative based off of true life events. The biographical film, follows the life of a single mother, who is financially unstable by the name of Erin Brocovinch. Erin works as a law firm and her ultimate goal is to uncover and expose a company that is practicing dangerous and unethical behavior. The movie touches on many unethical issues and focuses on negative corporate social responsibility. Stakeholders that are associated with the main company P.G E (Pacific Gas and Electric Company) in the film are the residents of Hinkley California, P.G E employees and the government. Both the residents of Hinkley and employees of P.G E are immediate external stakeholders of the company. They are consumers of the electricity that the company produces. Residents were greatly affected by the companies’ unethical behavior. P.G E was convicted of using a dangerous chemical called ‘Chromium IV’. The chemical was used with water to cool down the companies’ machinery and to prevent erosion. After using the mixture of water and chromium the company deliberately disposed of the excess water into neighboring ponds. This action resulted in polluted water, and a contaminated water supply for the residents of Hinkley. 600 people within the community suffered from negative medical side-effects from the consumption of the contaminated water. This water crisis also impacted the community in more way than one, local