Saturday, October 5, 2019

Explain the significance of property in Lockes theory of natural Essay

Explain the significance of property in Lockes theory of natural rights - Essay Example Locke states specifically that â€Å"mens lives, liberties and estates, I call by the general name property†3. So here, it is apparent that Locke defines property in a way that is quite unique and distinct from the mainstream definition we are accustomed to. Again, Locke states that â€Å"by property, I must be understood here as in other places to mean that property which men have in their persons as well as goods†4. Locke repeats the wider definition of property which seem to define property in relation to the estates and goods a person owns as well as a persons life as a living person. Looking at Lockes definition of property in the macrocosmic sense, it is apparent that he was arguing that once a person has a life, he has a property. This property is of a value even if the person does not own any property. Locke puts forward several cases and arguments that supports his points in England of his era. Most of these arguments are rooted in Biblical principles and precepts and it weaves into the wider society by building a hedge around the human lives to ensure that people get good and fair treatment wherever they find themselves. Locke argues that human beings have been given rights by God to take dominion over the earth and exercise control over the natural environment and the lesser creatures5. This is supported by the Bible in Genesis. Locke therefore states that â€Å"man should live and abide for some time upon the face of the earth†6. This therefore means that every individual on the earth has some rights to control some portion of the earth because it was an in inherent and inalienable right given to Adam by God. This therefore means that every human being is by extension, a representative of God who seeks to honour the purpose for which Adam was created: to take dominion and guard over the natural environment. Although God gave dominion to Adam, this was held exclusively by all human beings

Friday, October 4, 2019

Finance and accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Finance and accounting - Essay Example As a result, auditors in this case are required to review the accounting information in order to determine how well the business is doing. It requires proper financial statements which provide a clear insight on the economic health of these accounting companies. Generally, it gives an insight on the company’s soundness in the short and long term. As a result, financial analysts, investors and also the members of the public are in a position to try and gauge a company’s competitiveness in the market place. KPMG in accounting business is trying to strengthen its legal function in trying to ensure that our structure, processes, and policies meet the highest levels of the accounting profession. Challenges that accounting companies face Bad debts: In his presentation, Judge Holmes, for example in the year 2011, the financial markets witnessed negative vibes mostly on the currency markets after their investors shunned risky assets which eventually led to the low yielding asse ts. This was witnessed by one German representative who said that the European mounting debt crisis could not be easily cured during that month since its leaders had to meet and discuss how to prevent the debt crisis from even getting worse (Skinner 97) Unemployment is still another challenge in Europe which is mostly affecting the accounting companies at the moment. ... (Skinner 99) The Greek debts have also increased and this has also affected the European countries. When it comes to the U.S. economy, without funds and investments, there are no ways the country can survive in this economy since unemployment rates has risen to shocking numbers and as a result, the economic uncertainties have led to political pressure and lack of leadership (Skinner 109) How to solve these problems According to Holmes, in trying to solve these challenges, a survey can be done whereby the businesses can be broken into six sections which are; the current firm condition and its prospects for its growth, the company’s growth strategies as well as its tactics, the businesses challenges and its threats, the profitability management, the existing client retention and the company’s profit margin. Through this survey, the companies can drive growth in the coming decades, for example by selling most of their existing services to both current and also the new clie nts. Accounting specialists (professionals) are also more needed, because it is with the help of the accounting specialists that most of the accounting companies will be in a position to reduce all these debts hence leading to their growth. Strong internal accounting/audit is also highly needed in trying to curb these problems. The accounting companies need to hire both the external and the internal auditors with auditing experience, as it is with the help of these auditors that the company can review accounting information to determine how well the business is doing. Risk management methodology is also a measure which can be applied to control these accounting business challenges. This methodology involves the use of certain rules that are used to drive action in a particular business. Many

Thursday, October 3, 2019

The Syrian conflict through the theories of constructivism and realism Essay Example for Free

The Syrian conflict through the theories of constructivism and realism Essay This essay aims to delineate and elucidate the Syrian conflict through the theories of constructivism and realism. Particular attention will be paid to the origin of the Syrian Civil War, along with the major actors involved in this regional, and now international, conflict. â€Å"The people want to topple the regime!† was the anti-government graffiti on the wall of a local school in Daraa city painted by a group of Syrian children on March 2011. Those children were arrested and tortured by the local security authorities (Diehl, 2012: 7). This act eventually led to an anti-governmental uprising due to the outrageous reaction of the community over children’s mistreatment after incarceration by the local security authorities. The uprising demanded the release of children, justice, freedom as well as equality for all people. At the core, these peaceful demonstrations were considered to be against the sectarian and family dictatorship because the political power was mainly held by the Alawite elite (Diehl, 2012). In response to these demonstrations, the Syrian government planned to enforce security forces for the protestors to suppress them. The deadly aggression used by the government to oppose dissent led to protests across the country calling for the president to resign. Violence soon escalated as the government battled hundreds of rebel brigades. This rebellion further turned into a full-fledged civil war between the Free Syrian army and the Syrian regime (Thompson, 2016). The main allegation that the Syrian r egime associated with the protestors was that they were Islamic Al- Qaeda’s extremist terrorist gangs who were supported and funded by the various countries such as Turkey, Qatar, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia as well as the United States of America which they try to seek peace with Israel (Sommier, 2014). Similarly, the same Syrian regime who was supported by Russia, China and Iran, was present in the front fire line with Israel (Fisher, 2012). Since then, the regional and international intervention has proven to be a key factor in the power struggle as the government and opposition have received financial, political and military support. This has directly intensified the fighting and allowed it to continue; Syria is effectively being used as a proxy battlefield (Wimmen and Asseburg, 2012). The death toll as recorded and presented by the Syrian center for policy research approximately totaled at 470,000 as a result of ongoing conflict until February 2016. Due to the intensification and spread of fighting, a dire humanitarian crisis was evident since 4.8 million people tried to take refuge abroad and 6.1 million people were internally displaced as per the records of UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. It has also been reported by the Syrian Network for Human Rights that since 2011, more than 117,000 people have been either disappeared or detained by the governmental forces. In the detention, ill-treatment and torture are two rampant things that have also resulted in the death of thousands of people in detention. In addition to all the crisis events going on, ISIS (Islamic State) made more complications by the widespread and systematic violations. This was achieved by ISIS through targeting civilians with artillery, kidnappings, executions, using child ren as soldiers, and torture (Human Rights Watch, 2016).

Global Warming as a Political Conspiracy

Global Warming as a Political Conspiracy Global warming and climate change have been a topic long debated, especially in the political realm. Several conspiracy theories have developed over time that surround the topic, mainly formulated by those that deny the existence of global warming and climate change. These conspiracy theories have gained a following and have evolved over time through several modes of dissemination, and continue to be debunked using the facts shared by climate researchers. The theory of human induced global warming was proposed by Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius in the late nineteenth century (Graham, 2000). He stated that he believed that emissions from industrial processes might cause alterations in the Earths climate. Since this proposal, scientists have argued over the issue. Later, Dr. S. Fred Singer, an atmospheric and space physicist, spoke out against the theory of human induced global warming and climate change (Interview Dr. S. Fred Singer n.d.). He stated that the process was completely natural and that humans would be able to find a way to adapt to the changes. He sparked a new wave of climate change denial in the mass media. Several theories have been formed suggesting that global warming and climate change are not a real threat. These include that scientists are hiding or altering climate date to push their agendas, climate scientists are using alarmism for their own economic gain, that global warming is a hoax invented by the Chinese to help them outcompete United States manufacturing, that climate change is an elaborate scam against tax payers, and that the theory of climate change itself is an invention of activists, university researchers, and profiteers for their own economic gain. Typically, these theories center around politics and the political and/or economic agendas of scientists and climate change believers. All of these theories have been shared by their adherents through various outlets, including books, newspaper articles, and other internet sources including social media and partisan news websites. Most adherents of the global warming conspiracy are conservatives or lean more toward right wing political association. However, the opinions of these adherents are not shared by a majority of scientists. In fact, multiple studies have shown that approximately ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree that the current trends in global temperature are due to human activities (Scientific consensus: Ea rths climate is warming, 2016). In November 2009, it was discovered that over a thousand emails and documents were stolen and/or leaked from the University of East Anglias Climatic Research Unit, or CRU (Carrington, 2011). The correspondence was published online, and this caused the public to question science and scientists. This scandal was termed Climategate. This scandal gave climate change deniers the opportunity to give evidence to their claims surrounding the phenomenon. Climategate involved CRU staff that were in correspondence with other leading climate scientists around the world. Phil Jones, the head of the CRU, was one of the staff members principally under investigation for his correspondence. The CRU typically specializes in utilizing past thermometer data and other data sets to aid in reconstructing more accurate and precise records of Earths temperature from the past. This scandal was particularly upsetting to the public because it posed questions surrounding access to scientific data and the scienti fic research review process. Scientific research requires that data be checked by various researchers to see if the results are similar. This requires access to any and all raw data, but in the case of the CRUs temperature data, not all of it was publicly available. Since their data sets had been put together over a long period of time by utilizing several different resources, the scientists working at the CRU were hesitant to share their temperature data with people that they thought were not going to use the information responsibly. During the peer review process of several other papers, it appeared as though the email correspondence between these scientists also served as a way for them to figure out how to stop other papers from being published. Those papers appeared to critical of the CRUs research. There were four separate investigations that looked into the issues surrounding Climategate. The House of Commons science and technology select committee was the first to report the ir investigations. They questioned Phil Jones and other CRU workers in person and ultimately concluded that the CRUs reputation was intact but that they had data access issues that needed to be resolved, which fell on the University (Carrington, 2011). Another report concluded that making the data that was used by the CRU public was the responsibility of the scientists that collected it, not necessarily the responsibility of the scientists that were reconstructing it. The biggest investigation was done by the university, which found that the scientists had not altered results or silenced anyone who disagreed with them, but that scientists needed to be more open about their research. The final investigation was conducted by Norfolk police where they tried to determine how the emails became public in the first place. As far as the content in the emails is concerned, there was nothing that was found that would indicate that scientists were hiding things or attempting to keep other scie ntists from being published. While some incriminating phrases were used in the emails, such as trick and hiding the decline, the emails give no indication that climate scientists were trying to keep information from the public (Debunking Misinformation About Stolen Climate Emails, n.d.). The term trick in these emails, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, refers to a technique that was being used by the climate researchers while pooling data together (Debunking Misinformation About Stolen Climate Emails, n.d.). They decided that comparing temperature data that was collected from thermometers to that collected from tree rings would give other scientists and researchers the opportunity to better understand climate prior to the widespread use of thermometers to record global temperature data. Combining these data sets would allow older data to be interpreted more accurately. Hiding the decline refers to the omission of data that was collected from some trees in Siberia after 1960 because there were some trees that acted as outliers (Debunking Misinformation About Stolen Climate Emails, n.d.). Some trees had thinner rings than the researchers expected as compared to the actual thermometer data, and scientists are still trying to figure out why these trees specifically are outliers in this data set. Overall, there was no conclusive evidence of a violation of scientific integrity by researchers at the CRU. Climate alarmism is the use of scare tactics by believers in climate change to convince people to take action and make changes to slow the effects of climate change on the human population. Some examples of these tactics include reporting lists of things that could go extinct thanks to climate change and trying to convince people that without changing habits, we could lose the ability to eat certain foods or do certain things (Williams, 2016). There are some conspiracy theories surrounding the use of these tactics. There is a theory that claims that climate scientists are using this alarmism as a way to make money (Black, 2014). Theorists believe that climate scientists are prolonging the life of the ruse because the grant money that they get to pursue the science is somehow making them rich. However, there is no evidence to support these claims. There is evidence to support claims that climate change in costing money, but not on the research itself. Extreme weather events associated with climate change have already cost millions of dollars on infrastructure. This includes taking precautionary measures against rising sea level. If anything, scientists have worked hard to inform the public about the impending negative effects of global warming and climate change, giving governments the tools they need to implement legislation assisting in reducing these effects. In 2012, Donald Trump tweeted that he believed that China is using the concept of global warming to reduce and/or eliminate manufacturing competition in the United States (Wong, 2016). He has since said that it was a joke and that he just believes that it is just a very, very expensive form of tax and that China couldnt care less about what carbon wastes they put into the environment (Jacobson, 2016). Trumps claims about China have caused the country to come forward to explain that they plan to continue trying to put an end to the negative effects of climate change, no matter what (Wong, 2016). This seems to be a role reversal for the United States and China, and China may need to take on a leadership role in worldwide efforts to slow the effects of global warming and climate change. Despite saying that he was joking, Trump has continued to question the existence of global warming several times since he posted this tweet, and even claimed that colder weather patterns forced people be hind the hoax to coin the phrase climate change as a way to be more inclusive of all changes in temperature (Scherer, 2016). Some conspiracy theorists have shared beliefs that global warming is a tax scam that is costing taxpayers over $1.5 trillion a year. In his speech published to Breitbart News, James Delingpole explains how global warming is negatively affecting taxpayers (2016). He first calls global warming an industry, saying that the money we spend on the global warming industry is roughly the amount we spend every year on the online shopping industry (Delingpole, 2016). He goes on to say that the difference between online shopping and global warming is that the former provides people with something that they want, while the latter is a con. If the government were to stop funding the global warming industry through grants and taxpayer subsidies, then it would be worth almost nothing, according to Delingpole. He uses wind farms as an example, saying that theyre expensive, hazardous, and environmentally unfriendly because they kill birds and bats and utilize rare earth metals from China (Delingpole, 2016). Later in his speech, he asks his audience if they truly want to live in a world where those that work hard for their money have it taken from them to be spent on frivolities like the global warming industry, and then he says that this use of funds is causing harm in other ways as well. These include his beliefs that teaching climate science in schools is a sort of brainwashing of schoolchildren and that the misallocation of resources is similar to that of Communist countries (Delingpole, 2016). Steve Bannon and Breitbart News have claimed that global warming is actually invented by activists, scientists, and climate researchers to gain economic and government power (Lavelle, 2016). Bannon has said that government bills and other legislation that combat climate change are madness (Lavelle, 2016). At one point, Breitbart News actually suggested that a group of Marxists had taken control of the Vatican after Pope Francis urged people to work toward stopping climate change and protecting the environment. Bannon blames capitalism for causing so many issues with alternative energy, saying that members of private businesses have been receiving government subsidies for investing in or utilizing forms of alternative energy. However, subsidies for fossil fuels are actually higher than those for alternative energy sources. Fossil fuel subsidies are currently totaling at almost $500 billion, which is more than four times the amount spent on subsidies for renewable energy sources. Breit bart News has also claimed that the recent signing of the Paris climate agreement is a threat to U.S. sovereignty because it was created to evade the U.S. Constitutions requirement that treaties must be ratified by a two-thirds majority of the Senate (Pollak, 2015). There are several ways in which the issues surrounding global warming and climate change have arisen in pop culture and society, other than typical arguments on social media and rants from partisan news sources. Al Gores documentary An Inconvenient Truth highlights the impacts that humans are having on average global temperature rise, which is having devastating effects on the planet. Leonardo DiCaprio released his own documentary on climate change in late 2016 in which he discusses the ways in which humans have affected global climate, and also the ways that humans can help to resolve the issue. Coined by Science Friday, the cli-fi genre is a genre of movies, books, and even some music that utilize climate change as an integral part of the plot. Some examples of the movies from this genre include The Matrix and A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (Echter, 2016). The long debated topic of global warming and climate change has sparked the creation of several conspiracy theories. These theories have been disseminated by conservatives or right-wing groups that deny the science behind climate change, or believe that liberal or left-wing groups are using the science to push their agendas. While many of these theories have been debunked, people continue to believe that the government is wasting tax money on research, most likely because of a constant distrust in government. References Black, D. (2014, May 20). Vast global warming conspiracy exposed: Column. Retrieved February 20, 2017, from http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/05/20/climate-change-blame-effects-column/9325981/ Carrington, D. (2011, November 22). QA: Climategate Retrieved February 20, 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/jul/07/climate-emails-question-answer Debunking Misinformation About Stolen Climate Emails in the Climategate Manufactured Controversy. (n.d.). Retrieved February 20, 2017, from http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/solutions/fight-misinformation/debunking-misinformation-stolen-emails-climategate.html#.WK28DfkrLIV Delingpole, J. (2016, March 28). Climate Change: The Greatest-Ever Conspiracy Against The Taxpayer. Retrieved February 20, 2017, from http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/03/28/climate-change-the-biggest-conspiracy-against-the-taxpayer-in-history/ Echter, B. (2016, April 8). 16 Pieces of Pop Culture About Climate Change, From Atwood to Spielberg to the Pixies. Retrieved February 20, 2017, from http://www.sciencefriday.com/articles/16-pieces-of-pop-culture-about-climate-change-from-atwood-to-spielberg-to-the-pixies/ Graham, S. (2000, January 18). Svante Arrhenius. Retrieved February 20, 2017, from http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Arrhenius/ Interview Dr. S. Fred Singer. (n.d.). Retrieved February 20, 2017, from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/warming/debate/singer.html Jacobson, L. (2016, June 3). Did Trump say climate change was a Chinese hoax? Retrieved February 20, 2017, from http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jun/03/hillary-clinton/yes-donald-trump-did-call-climate-change-chinese-h/ Lavelle, M. (2016, November 16). Steve Bannons amazing trip from climate conspiracy theorist to a Trump White House post. Retrieved February 20, 2017, from https://insideclimatenews.org/news/16112016/steve-bannon-trump-white-house-climate-conspiracy Pollak, J. (2015, December 13). Climate Change Deal Is a Threat to U.S. Sovereignty. Retrieved February 20, 2017, from http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/12/13/climate-change-deal-is-a-threat-to-u-s-sovereignty/ Scherer, J. (2016, November 17). China tells Trump climate change is not a Chinese hoax. Retrieved February 20, 2017, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/11/17/china-tells-trump-climate-change-is-not-a-chinese-hoax/?utm_term=.8ac0a22e8a55 Scientific consensus: Earths climate is warming. (2016, July 29). Retrieved February 20, 2017, from https://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/ Williams, T., Ph.D. (2016, November 7). The Real Politics of Fear? Climate Alarmism. Retrieved February 20, 2017, from http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/11/07/real-politics-fear-climate-alarmism/ Wong, E. (2016, November 18). Trump Has Called Climate Change a Chinese Hoax. Beijing Says It Is Anything But. Retrieved February 20, 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/19/world/asia/china-trump-climate-change.html?_r=0

Wednesday, October 2, 2019

1850-1860 :: Essays Papers

1850-1860 The decade of the 1850’s bought about an era of change for American citizens, which included economic revolutions and a rise in agriculture and manufacturing. This was largely due to a revolution in transportation. In 1851, a 483-mile Erie Railroad was completed which linked the Hudson River to Lake Erie (Brown 88). 1852 transformed the history of the Chicago railroad with the construction of Illinois Central. This proved to be very profitable. In fact, an 1852 report to Congress concluded "a farmer would save a large amount of money by shipping his goods by railroad, rather than by steamboat or ordinary roads" ("The City Transformed" 14). Trains raised the standards for the U.S. because it enabled people in our economy to transport cotton and wheat to European markets. Trains were able to ship material faster to different harbors, which helped the shipping industry. During this time, however, slavery and child labor were very common. Consistent with economic expansion, the na tion also began to expand communications. People had access to a mailing system, a daily newspaper and the use of the telegraph. However, most of the people in the country were unable to use these resources. For example, only 10 percent of the nation could afford the paper (Brown 51). These changes were not only facing America, but spread globally throughout this decade. Influential world events took place during these years. Many kings and emperors were replaced, and wars between foreign countries began. In 1851 President Louis Napoleon led a coup d’etat in France. Only one year later he proclaimed the Second Empire in France, and Louis Napoleon was named Napoleon III on December 2, 1852. During this time, Herbert Spencer, Karl Marx, and Auguste Comte wrote works on social class structure. In 1859, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (Brown 8). Religion was also an important issue during this time period. Catholic Bishops began to accept titles in Europe, and religious organizations began to form. Landscape painting was the major art movement during this period. Most of the paintings were depictions of the wilderness, but they also portrayed ideas such as mortality. Between the periods of 1850 to1870, a new era of artists introduced a greater sense of realism rather than the romantic style used by their precursors (Brown 27). Their work was more detailed because they used a style called luminism. This style relied heavily on the effects of light, the atmosphere and scenery (Brown 27).

Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Essay --

Ganguly, Rajat, and Ray Taras. Understanding Ethnic Conflict: The International Dimension. New York: Longman, 1998. Print. This book offers interesting insight on the role nationalism plays in the cause of violence ethnic conflict. It does this by looking at the overlapping aspects of nationalism, conflict, social cleavages, and the reaction of the international community. They also take and explain three main approaches to ethnic identities: primordialist, instrumentalist, and constructivist. They then explain how the mobilization and polarizing of groups ultimately led to conflict and the goals of their perspective political movements. Samarasinghe, V. "‘A Theme Revisited’? the Impact of the Ethnic Conflict on Women and Politics." JOURNAL OF WOMEN POLITICS & POLICY 33.4 (2012): 345-64. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. This article focuses role and impact ethnic conflicts have on the shaping of a nations ideology towards women of the ethnic majority. It looks at the case of ethnic civil war in Sri Lanka, and more specifically that of Sinhalese women. The research done in this article was primarily conducted through field work and field surveys of educated urban women. The work concludes that the ethnic conflict enforced the areas â€Å"ethno-religious identity† as well as creating a space for its inclusion in the nation’s political arena. Okoye, Festus (ed ). Victims: Impact of Religious and Ethnic Conflicts on Women and Children in Northern Nigeria., 2000. Print. 12 Feb. 2014. This book looks at how conflict in Nigeria has impacted women and children. It looks at the social, political, and cultural impacts of such violence at entire generations of Nigerian people. It looks at the the potential future impact on the countries development,... ... challenge the patriarchal hierarchy of society† where women and girls were subordinate to their male counterparts. Therefore, this article reflects on how gender is impact in post-conflict interventions. Lives Blown Apart: Crimes against Women in Times of Conflict, Stop Violence against Women. London: Amnesty International, International Secretariat, 2004. Print. This book looks at specific cases of violence and questions not only why these acts happened, but what can be done to prevent further violence. The book maintains that government and media play a role in both creating and ending such atrocities. It explores the ways in which sexual acts of violence impact women and their society at large. The book seeks to explain how the long-lasting impact of such events play an active part in the rebuilding of society, and how this impacts all levels of the culture.

Tennesee Williams

All writer use to one degree or another elements of their life to help formulate their characters and stories, but Tennessee Williams seems to draw more from his personal experiences than most. After reading â€Å"The Resemblance Between a Violin Case and a Coffin† and doing some background research on the author it becomes quite clear that he wrote this story as a reflection of his life. The similarities between the narrator/boy in the story and Tennessee himself are quite obvious, as well as other characters and members of his family.There are many specific aspects of Tennessee’s life that make â€Å"The Resemblance Between a Violin Case and a Coffin† a story that he is uniquely if not exclusively able to write. The first and most obvious similarity between Tennessee and the story is that the main character of the story is a boy, but not only a boy, a boy who is starting to discover that he is attracted to men and may be a homosexual. This is obviously an area that Tennessee can relate to because he too was gay.But that single factor does not make the author unique in being able to write the story. What makes Tennessee specifically qualified to write the story is the time and place that he experienced the realities of being a boy discovering his sexuality. Tennessee was born in the deep south of Columbus, Mississippi on March 26, 1911. This time in history is known for being intolerant of homosexuality, and if there was one region that stood out the most for this intolerance it would be the south.Even today Mississippi is considered one of the least tolerant states being ranked 38th on The Daily Beast’s ranking of most tolerant states(thedailybeast. com). In fact Mississippi was one of the states that continued to practice sodomy laws until 2003 when the supreme court ruled it unconstitutional (thetaskforce. org). Growing up gay in the American south at this time would be riddled with hardships that few other places could match.For example Tennessee probably felt an obligation to hide his sexuality or suffer dire consequences. This would most likely result in awkward and strained relationships with members of the same sex. This can be seen in the story whenever the boy runs into Richard, â€Å"When he turned to me and held his enormous hand out, I did a thing so grotesque that I could never afterward be near him without a blistering sense of shame. Instead of taking the hand I ducked away from him. †(Kenison, 318).This shows an insight into the life of a young Tennessee that feared being exposed if he were to talk to a boy he was attracted to. Another example in the story of the struggles of the author can be seen when the boy says, â€Å"How on earth did I explain to myself, at that time, the fascination of his physical being without, at the same time, confessing to myself that I was a little monster? †(Kenison, 319). This shows the authors denial of his sexuality and his view at the time that it was monstrous to be gay.Another area of resemblance between â€Å"The Resemblance Between a Violin Case and a Coffin† and Tennessee’s life is the similarities between characters in the story and member of his family, specifically his mother and sister. In â€Å"The Glass Menagerie† as well as many other of his works, Williams is suspected to base one of the character on his sister, â€Å"Amanda's daughter seems modeled on Rose Williams: the fragile Laura who retreats from reality to play with glass figurines. (amswers. com). Williams’s sister developed schizophrenia at some point in life which undoubtedly left a mark on Tennessee. The fragile nature in sister characters is seen as well in â€Å"The Resemblance Between a Violin Case and a Coffin†, â€Å"when my sister got up later than usual with an odd look, not as if she had been crying, although perhaps she had, but as though she had received some painful or frightening surprise†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Kenison, 312).This fragility in her character in not only violin but his other stories shows the unique relationship between Tennessee and his ill sister. That relationship resulted in very specific character traits in some of his prominent female characters. Tennessee’s mother was also used as an influence in many of the characters in Tennessee’s works. Williams viewed his mother as a prototypical southern belle, constantly trying to climb the social ladder.He saw her as snobbish, neurotic, and hysterical and portrayed her that way with the characters she influenced. One such example in violin is when the boy compares the mother character to his aunt. â€Å"Though my mother would certainly never make verbal acknowledgement of my aunts superiority in matters of taste and definitions of quality, it was nevertheless apparent that she approached Knoxville and my father’s younger sister in something very close to fear and trembling. † (Kenison, 315).This d isplay of neurotic fear over refined social skills exemplifies the mother character in violin and through association the authors actual mother. Tennessee Williams story â€Å"The Resemblance Between a Violin Case and a Coffin†, in my opinion is a good story that reveals a great deal about the author himself. Through analyzing this story I acquired a much deeper and richer knowledge of Tennessee Williams than I have of many other authors. This is interesting considering I never even heard of him before reading the story.To conclude what I learned about Williams I would say that he was able to write violin because of the specific circumstances that he lived and persevered through, as well as the impression his mother and sister left him. Him being gay during the early 1900’s in the American south led him to write a story that offered an insight to a very different reality than my own that I would never had been aware of otherwise. For that widening of my horizons, I am thankful.