Sunday, May 17, 2020

I.Prisoner’S Dilemma As A 2 X 2 Matrix. (X1, X1)(X2, X3).

I. Prisoner’s Dilemma as a 2 x 2 Matrix (x1, x1) (x2, x3) (x3, x2) (x4, x4) A1 (C) A2 (D) B1 (C) B2 (D) Figure 1. Prisoner 1’s Dilemma as a 2 x 2 Matrix, Figure 1 shows the Prisoner s Dilemma as a 2 x 2 Matrix subject to the following conditions: a) 2 (x1) is greater than x2 + x3 is greater than 2 (x4) b) x3 is greater than x1 c) x3 is greater than x2 d) x4 is greater than x2. C and D represent strategies in which players would cooperate or defect. What this means is that for both players, strategy 2 dominates strategy 1 (A2 dominates A1 for the row player and B2 dominates 31 for the column player). However, the choice (A2, B2) results in a payoff (x4) to each player smaller than†¦show more content†¦South Korea s order of preference among the choices are: 1. unification under a democratic system, 2. peaceful unification 3. the status quo, 4. unification under a communist system. What can be said about these four outcomes as they apply to the Prisoner s Dilemma? First, neither North nor South Korea sees the status quo as the worst choice. Second, each side sees the opponents most desired outcome as its worst possible outcome. Third, each side prefers a peaceful unification to the status quo. And lastly, neither side prefers a peaceful unification to its own best choice. The result of this is, as in the matrix in Figure 1 the preferred choice is the dominating strategy for both North (B2 dominating B1) and South (A2 dominating A1). Specifically, North Korea prefers a communist settlement of unification to either the status quo or a peaceful unification. South Korea prefers a democratic settlement to either the status que or a peaceful unification. Thus, the dilemma that faces both sides is: since neither side can have its own best choice, they settle for the status quo. This is done in spite of the fact that the possibility of a peace ful settlement to unification is exists (a peaceful unification) that might be better for both sides than their own optimal choice. Neither side can choose collective interest over self-interest because they are forced to assume that the other will follow the

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Role of Offreds Room in a Handmaids Tale Essay - 1486 Words

In the novel A Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood uses different descriptions of Offred’s room to illustrate the government’s control over her and her role in the society. She uses the room to allude to her situation almost because she is unable to explicitly state her discontent with her current conditions. Firstly, the author uses many similes, symbols and short sentence structures to emphasise the oppression and the totality of the control that the government has over Offred. She uses different objects in the room to symbolise Offred’s situation. While exploring her room, the narrator notices that â€Å"on the white ceiling†¦ [there is] a blank space, plastered over, like the place in a face where the eye has been taken out.† (9) She†¦show more content†¦As she describes the house, she remarks that â€Å"time here is measured by bells, as once in nunneries. As in a nunnery too, there are few mirrors.† (10) Offred lives similarl y to a nun in the sense that she is restricted physically and mentally: there are few things that she is allowed to do, she is deprived of the most basic freedom. However, it is ironic that she should compare her setting to a nunnery because her job, namely to undergo the ceremony, would be regarded as a profanity and sacrilege. The narrator also notices that â€Å"there isn’t much music in [the] house† (74) Music is a form of expression; it is a means by which one can express their feelings and emotions. A lack of music is thus a lack of expression. The narrator emphasises this by using a short simple declarative sentence: â€Å"there isn’t much music in the house†. This plain sentence itself, as opposed to being elaborative, stresses the oppression resulting from the lack of freedom to communicate. The author expresses Offred’s lack of personal identity through the use of repetitions. When observing her room, the narrator asks if â€Å"each of [ the handmaids] has the same print, the same chair [and] the same white curtains.† (12) This line points out the possibility that everything that handmaids use is standardized. The repetition of the word â€Å"same† highlights this. It also emphasises that Offred’s individuality is taken away. The government strengthens its control over the handmaids and otherShow MoreRelatedThe Handmaid s Tale By Margaret Atwood1667 Words   |  7 Pagesrhetorical devices and figurative language, that he or she is using. The Handmaid’s Tale, which is written by Margaret Atwood, is the novel that the author uses several different devices and techniques to convey her attitude and her points of view by running the story with a narrator Offred, whose social status in the Republic of Gilead is Handmaid and who is belongings of the Commander. Atwood creates her novel The Handmaid’s Tale to be more powerful tones by using imagery to make a visibleness, hyperboleRead MoreA sd Asdf Oeer2098 Words   |  9 PagesStudy Guides and Literature Essays Editing Services College Application Essays Writing Help Q A Lesson Plans Home : The Handmaids Tale : Study Guide : Summary and Analysis of V: Nap - VI: Household The Handmaids Tale Summary and Analysis by Margaret Atwood Buy PDFBuy Paperback V: Nap - VI: Household Summary This section begins with Offred simply sitting alone, waiting. She had not been prepared for all this stillness, all of this boredom. She thinks about experimentsRead More The Importance of the Narrator of The Handmaids Tale Essay988 Words   |  4 Pages The Importance of the Narrator of The Handmaids Tale nbsp; nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; The creation of Offred, the passive narrator of Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale, was intentional.nbsp; The personality of the narrator in this novel is almost as important as the task bestowed upon her.nbsp; Atwood chooses an average women, appreciative of past times, who lacks imagination and fervor, to contrast the typical feminist, represented in this novel by her mother andRead MoreEssay on Feminist Ideas in Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale1199 Words   |  5 PagesFeminist Ideas in Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale For this essay, we focused strictly on critics reactions to Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale. For the most part, we found two separate opinions about The Handmaids Tale, concerning feminism. One opinion is that it is a feminist novel, and the opposing opinion that it is not. Feminism: A doctrine advocating social, political, and economic rights for women equal to those of men as recorded in Websters Dictionary. This topic is prevalentRead MoreThe Handmaid s Tale By Margaret Atwood1357 Words   |  6 Pagesrights on the ground of the equality of the sexes† (Oxford dictionary). In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood explores feminism through the themes of women’s bodies as political tools, the dynamics of rape culture and the society of complacency. Margaret Atwood was born in 1939, at the beginning of WWII, growing up in a time of fear. In the autumn of 1984, when she began writing The Handmaid’s Tale, she was living in West Berlin. The Berlin Wall had not yet fallen and in her travels â€Å"behindRead MoreMargaret Atwood s The Handmaid s Tale1537 Words   |  7 Pagesauthor of both Lady Oracle and The Handmaid’s Tale. Both of these novels follow the conventions of the oppression of women. Lady Oracle is the narrative in which Joan Foster, the first-person narrator, tells the story of her life. Spanning the time period of the early 1940s through 1970s, Joan’s story describes her growing up in Toronto, becoming an author of gothic romances, marrying and faking her suicide to escape the complicated turmoil of her life. The Handmaid’s Tale takes place in a city what usedRead MoreThe Handmaid s Tale By Margaret Atwood1548 Words   |  7 PagesIn Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, The theme of gender, sexuality, and desire reigns throughout the novel as it follows the life of Offred and other characters. Attwood begins the novel with Offred, a first person narrator who feels as if she is misplaced when she is describing her sleeping scenery at the decaying school gymnasium. The narrator, Offred, explains how for her job she is assigned to a married Commander’s house where she is obligated to have sex with him on a daily basis, so thatRead MoreAnalysis Of The Book The Crucible 1598 Words   |  7 Pagesphrase Offred finds hidden in the corner of room: â€Å"Nolite te bastardes carborundorum† (58), becomes her motivation, her starting point to quietly rebel against the oppression of Gilead. Although she does not know the English translation of the phrase—â€Å"Don’t let the bastards grind you down† (216)—the secret nature of this hidden writing is victory enough against the oppression of Gilead. With the discovery of thi s secret phrase, there is a subtle shift in Offred’s character; no longer does the society completelyRead MoreEssay on Feminism in Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale1096 Words   |  5 PagesFeminism in Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale In The Handmaids Tale, Margaret Atwood explores the role that women play in society and the consequences of a countryà ­s value system. She reveals that values held in the United States are a threat to the livelihood and status of women. As one critic writes, â€Å"the author has concluded that present social trends are dangerous to individual welfare† (Prescott 151).   The novel is set in the near future in Gilead, formerly the U.S., at a time whenRead MoreThe Characters of Women in The Handmaids Tale and The Bell Jar1504 Words   |  7 Pages Women in The Handmaids Tale and The Bell Jar nbsp; Sylvia Plaths renowned autobiographical legend The Bell Jar and Margaret Atwoods fictional masterpiece The handmaids tale are the two emotional feminist stories, which basically involve the womens struggle. Narrated with a touching tone and filled with an intense feminist voice, both novels explore the conflict of their respective protagonists in a male dominated society. In spite of several extraordinary similarities in terms

Critical Essay- “a Piece of Cake” free essay sample

At the start of this book, before Cupcake has her first encounter with drugs-the consumption of alcohol-the reader is told about the moments leading up to her finding her mother dead. Cupcake also adds in snippets of information about her family and lifestyle as she was growing up which give the reader more background information and helps create more of a â€Å"relationship† between them and Cupcake . These first eight pages of the book are the only times the reader gets a glimpse of Cupcake ’s true â€Å"normal† self before her life starts a downward spiral. Unlike what Cupcake becomes when she is â€Å"using†, as a child she is friendly and willing to socialise with other people, â€Å"I was going round to Daddy’s house to play with Kelly, the daughter of his lady friend†, illustrating that she is doing it out of choice, i. e. without being forced to, which suggests that she is happy to have friends and enjoys the company. Like any other child of her age Cupcake is naive, but she soon becomes a lot more knowledgeable on â€Å"streetwise† matters. For example, â€Å"Daddy did have a lady friend, Lori-but to me, she was just that: his friend. , tells us that before she started living on the streets, due to drug abuse, she was unaware of the different kinds of relationships grown ups, and indeed teenagers, can be a part of. Along with these positive characteristics Cupcake had as a young girl, she nevertheless had low self-esteem about her own appearance. The statement â€Å"when I passed the dresser I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror, boy was I ugly. †, clearly states that she was self conscious and awkward about her appearance. The children at her school would tease her as well, â€Å"Vette, Vette, looks just like my pet†, which must have lowered her self-esteem even more. Just like any other child, bullying made Cupcake feel unwanted and ugly. This is just the top layer of Cupcakes hatred towards her appearance, as the whilst writing the book she says a lot more degrading things about herself. From the moment Cupcake’s mother unexpectedly dies, her life goes downhill fast. In her foster home, she is abused by a 25-year old man: he gives her her first drink of alcohol and he then rapes her; this first taste of alcohol, at the age of eleven, is where her drug abuse begins. The statements â€Å"whatever it was, I liked it instantly. † and â€Å"the more I drank, the happier I got. indicate that she enjoyed it immediately, making her forget about her problems which is why she gets into drugs in the first place. â€Å"it made me not feel. I liked not feeling. †. As Cupcakes life continues without her mother, she learns a lot more about the harsh world her mother never spoke of and develops strong opinions on what life is about. Throug hout the book she meets prostitutes, pimps, turns ‘tricks’ sells herself, steals and fights as part of a gang. These criminalities all make Cupcake realise that what she, as a young girl growing up in suburbia, thought about society was completely false. This is illustrated by â€Å"the lessons were clear: men only want you for sex; sex means money; money bought necessities like food, shelter, booze and drugs; drugs and booze make life- and the sex- not so bad. †. From this opinion it is easy to realise what Cupcake values as most important in life; money, drugs and booze. She doesnt care how she gets them she just has to get them. It also shows that Cupcake thinks she understands, what life is about, and therefore has lost all naivety due to being thrown into the world that comes with using drugs. Throughout the book the drugs make Cupcake apathetic and antisocial â€Å"I never really bothered with the girls at work- as long as they stayed out of my business, that was good enough for me. † thus telling us that she was not interested in having friends or telling people about her life and general â€Å"chit chat†. This is a change from how she was at the beginning, always going round to Kellys house to play. Just as the use of alcohol and drugs does with any other person, they give Cupcake new-found confidence. The first time she has alcohol she says â€Å"I didnt feel so, dark, black and ugly†. When she has weed and alcohol she says â€Å"with them I could do anything†. Cupcake’s new confidence is not a good thing though, as she has the confidence to do and say things she would never do and say whilst sober. Her mind tells her that it is okay to be blunt and rude to people, that she is better than everybody else, that she is gorgeous, and that she can do anything she wants. This, however, is not true. When she is disrespectful to people she gets herself into a lot of trouble. Unable to stop before it is too late, things often escalate and she ends up getting kicked out of clubs, leading to more dangerous situations as she is alone late at night whilst under the influence. She is also unable to see what a mess she has become. Using drugs completely obscures her vision of reality and gives her a false sense of greatness and self esteem. It is not until towards the end of the book that she sees herself â€Å"properly† for the first time. â€Å"I saw myself, I mean I really saw myself; my arms like toothpicks and my legs as thin as rails. † â€Å"I hadnt brushed my teeth or washed my ass. Hadnt combed my hair or changed my clothes. All I’d been doing was turning tricks, getting high and living- no existing†. It is from this moment that Cupcake decides she needs to quit, not just wants to quit. She take the step of signing up for rehab. She has been so wrapped up in doing everything she can to feed her addiction and has had a false outlook of herself that she has been overlooking her appearance, or refusing to see what other people see. As stated before, the drugs give her a false image of herself. Whilst on the rehab programme, Cupcake goes through even more changes to her attitude. Although she can never get her innocence or naivety back she can however, become a polite and friendly person once again. She does not want to become unconfident again so she has to learn to love herself. Her mentor, Venitia, works through different exercises with Cupcake to help her achieve her ambitions to become a better person. First, she makes Cupcake apologise to everyone she can about how she has offended them. At first Cupcake does not want to do this, she says she is â€Å"embarrassed†, so Venitia says to her â€Å"Oh, now you’re concerned about how you look? You werent concerned when you were throwing shit and acting a damn fool! . Through Venitias help Cupcake slowly comes to terms with how much of a rude and volatile person she was. Cupcake’s proclamation â€Å"From that day forward, I’ve never acted like that again no more physical violence I just didnt like the way belligerent behaviour made me feel. I didn’t like remembering my igno rant conduct. More importantly, I hated making amends. † states that as soon as Cupcake started to think more closely about how she acted she is shocked and wants to change. The next exercise Venitia makes Cupcake do is to write down everything she loves about herself on post-it notes. At first Cupcake does not know what to write â€Å"I responded that I couldn’t think of a single positive thing to say about myself. †. This tells us that now Cupcake is sober she is back to being her old unconfident self. As soon as Cupcake gets into the swing of the exercise they end up using â€Å"two pads of post-its. †. In contrast, this points to what she really thinks about it, there is a lot more about herself that she likes. In conclusion, at the start of the book, when Cupcake was a little girl and did not â€Å"use† she was innocent, naive, pleasant, and unconfident. All that changed when she was hurled into a harsh world without a mother and had to rely on drugs to give her the happiness and confidence she craved. In the middle of the book she loses her innocence, becomes aware of reality; facing a world of horrors we could only imagine, rude, vulgar and vicious and having a false confidence which was supplied only by alcohol and drugs. During the end of the book as Cupcake is â€Å"cleaning up† she learns to be respectful towards others, even if they do something which she doesnt like, be confident without the use artificial factors, and most importantly she learns to love herself for who she is.