Love Jones Review Essay

The consummate ladies man, Darius’ silky smooth presentation romises more sell than substance. And Nina’s recently Jilted heart isn’t looking for anymore of love’s kind of trouble. love Jones begins with Nina and her good girlfriend Josie Nichols (Lisa Nicole Carson) packing up what’s left of Nina’s disappointing relationship. Fearful that the scars left from this failed romance may be too deep for her to heal, Josie takes her to a night-time poetry-slam at the Sanctuary, where she encounters Darius for the first time. The Sanctuary is the local haven where poetry is the prime draw, and a favorite night spot for Darius and his friends Savon Garrison (Isaiah Washington), Eddie Coles Leonard Roberts), Sheila Downes (Bernadette Clark, and Hollywood (Bill Bellamy). â€Å"The romance dies between couples,† we overhear Darius telling his friends from his intellectual set, â€Å"because theyVe (people) given up on the possibility of it. † In an awkward introduction at the bar, Nina catches Darius off-guard and, uncharacteristically, he fumbles and spills his drink on her. He recovers minutes later when called to the stage to recite one of his poems. He makes the most of the moment by calling his sensuous creation â€Å"A Blues for Nina. † Flattered but embarrassed, she informs him in front of his friends that there are opics for poetry other than sex. When he asks her to name one, she writes the word â€Å"love† on his hand. Everyone is impressed; particularly Darius. Darius runs into Nina at a record store managed by his friend, Sheila. She is there because she has Just been fired from her Job as a photographer’s assistant and desperately needs to hear the Isley Brothers. When Darius approaches her, she acts as thought she vaguely remembers his name. Darius seizes the opportunity though, by playing her a tender rendition of â€Å"Parker’s Mood. † While Nina remains unreceptive at that point, she finally buckles and agrees to a date when Darius ppears, unannounced at her door presenting the very CD she had been looking for at the record store. He bribed Sheila so he could get her address and phone number off of the check she used to pay for a CD. His persistence pays off when a romantic statement â€Å"l Just want to come up and talk† leads to a passionate night at her apartment. The next morning, Darius and Nina confide in their respective friends Savon and Josie that, in spite of the incredible sex, â€Å"It ain’t no love thing,† they â€Å"Just kickin’ it. † Unfortunately, these two individuals aren’t exactly the best advisors they could have ound – Josie is way down on men and lives her life vicariously through Nina, and Savon is mired in the problems of his eight-year marriage (his wife left him and took their son). But Darius is getting interested. He even reveals to Nina the sacred location of â€Å"the Batcave† (his apartment), where some interesting foreplay ensues when she whips out her camera and tells Darius to take off his clothes. The romance advances. Then, out of the blue, Marvin Cox (Khalil Kain), Nina’s former fianc ©e, shows up asking her for a second chance. At Josie’s suggestion, Nina uses the offer to test Darius: Will he be Jealous, or coolly let her go? Darius pretends not to care, of course, and Nina moves to New York to see if she should resume her relationship with Marvin. Inevitably, Marvin and Nina’s differences are irreconcilable, and Nina returns the engagement ring and then heads back to Chicago. Hoping to reconnect with Darius, Nina and Josie go to the Sanctuary, to no avail. Darius has settled down with a new girlfriend, Lisa Oacqueline Fleming). Enter, Hollywood, whose friendly competition with Darius enables him to sense a prime opportunity for one-upmanship. Wood stops by the portrait studio where Nina now works to â€Å"cheer her up. † Tensions run high when Wood brings Nina to Sheila’s house for a party that he knows Darius will be attending. Nina, feeling like a pawn in a bad game of male egos, asks Wood to take her home. He refuses and Darius comes to her rescue. It’s their first meeting since she went to New York. She confesses she still has feeling for him, and he assures her that Lisa means nothing to him. Swooning, they make up and head for a date at the famous Blackstone Hotel. There, legendary Chicago DJ Herb Kent is hosting a â€Å"steppers† ball, featuring the inimitable dance style popular in Chicago. On the floor, Nina and Darius become a eam again. The fire is relit as they complete the evening with a wet, but romantic walk around Buckingham Fountain. Nina starts to inherit habits from Darius and vica versa. She starts smoking and develops a love for poetry. In return, he develops an eye for photography. But soon after their reconciliation everything starts to crumble. Nina finds Lisa’s telephone number around Darius’ apartment, and he gets the occasional Sam call that takes him out of the room. The issue of distrust rears its ugly head. Darius tries to smooth things over by whipping out her camera and telling her to take her clothes off, as she id in an earlier scene. But it is too late. â€Å"Come get your things from my apartment†¦ why would you be with someone you don’t trust? † The scene ends with Nina returning the key. Because of a Job offer from Vibe magazine in New York, Nina decides to move. Josie, serving as a reluctant Cupid, intercedes by telling Darius of Nina’s plans. He takes the cue and makes a gallant but futile effort to talk to Nina before she leaves. A year later, his book has been published, her career is off and running and Nina has been sent to Chicago to shot a Michael Jordan layout. Looking in vain for Darius t the Sanctuary, Nina takes the stage to recite a poem of her own. Startled, Darius turns and listens to her recital, which is about love remembered. â€Å"Funny what you can do in front of a room full of people,† she says, â€Å"and can’t do in front of one person. † The movie ends with Nina leaving the Sanctuary and seeing Darius outside. Darius starts off by saying, â€Å"Longtime no see. I enjoyed your poem. Nina, there have been mistakes on both sides and I apologize for my part. I want to put the past in the past. â€Å"Once again your timing couldn’t be worse†¦ you always want what you want hen you want it†¦ why is everything so urgent†, Nina says. â€Å"Nina, this here, right now, at this very moment, is all that matters to me. I love you and that’s urgent like a mother fucker. † love Jones shows that love can be inconvenient. It encourages everyone to approach love the way Nina and Darius do – scared, awkward, and even sometimes alone. There’s the obligatory handful of tragic misunderstandings, prideful arguments, over-orchestrated sex scenes, and betrayal and reconciliation’s. ove Jones steps back, allowing its characters to closely examine what is happening to them. They analyze their own instincts; wonder about each other’s feelings and even plot little traps to reveal the other’s true intentions Nina and Darius relationship is built upon the use of some key things: sex and sexual invitations, pick-up lines and relationship openers, music and poetry, the actions of all the movies characters, friends being confidants and advisors, and the use of â€Å"Baxter’s techniques† to acquire information about the relationship play vital roles. Their relationship proves that the movement in and out of the interaction stages is not set in stone. The stages conform to your situation. Nina and Darius seem to ollow this type of pattern: initiating, experimenting, intensifying, terminating, experimenting, intensifying, integrating, bonding, stagnating, terminating, and initiating. They are also struggle with the roles society has laid out for women and men. And are both trying to fgure out how to â€Å"play’ without â€Å"getting played†. They’re both secretly wondering how you get beyond playing and move on to the love. When you’re in your twenties, as Nina and Darius were, loving someone outside your friends and family can seem like a task for Mother Theresa. We twenty- somethings have been unleashed from our parents and the chances to experience exual encounters of all sorts are numerous. But flirting and playing is one thing. Building relationships with the human objects of our desires is a challenge that many of us fail at miserably. At one point in the movie, Darius asks his married friend Savon if he believes in the concept of soulmates. Savon’s response is that it depends on what day you ask him. You’re with who you’re with, he says. Love and marriage are pretty much what you make of them. love Jones doesn’t fully answer the soulmate question. In the end, we are only promised that Nina and Darius will be together as long as their belief in he possibility of romance lasts. eeting in a bar, the reluctant coupling, the Jealously and conflict, even a mad rush by one lover to stop the other from leaving on a train. love Jones showed me that there is Just no way around it: Love between a man and a woman is hard work. A conscious effort to relate to the opposite sex is what’s needed if we’re going to get the satisfaction we crave from that someone special. Our twenties can be about a lot more than simply getting our groove on. We can build lives with people while we are enjoy ing the fresh experiences we are having in our youth.

Katherine Mansfield’s “Miss Brill” Essay

Katherine Mansfield’s short story â€Å"Miss Brill† is an great example of how a writer can use various literary techniques to lead the reader to a better understanding of Miss Brill the character. Instead of merely stating the message of the story, Mansfield used various literary techniques to allow the reader to draw his own conclusions about the character. Using these literary aspects to reveal a truth about a character to the reader is often referred to as characterization. Four of the most easily recognized literary techniques used in Mansfield’s â€Å"Miss Brill† are her use of symbolism, setting, allusion, and points of view used by different characters in her story. Symbolism plays a very large part in understanding Miss Brill the character. This can easily be seen by the relationship between Miss Brill and her â€Å"alter-ego†, the fur. A symbol is â€Å"a person, object or event that suggests more than its literal meaning.† In other words, it is something that has two levels of meaning: on the literal level it is what it is, for example, Miss Brill’s fur is just a fur. It can also represent a more â€Å"hidden† meaning such as the fur being a symbol for Miss Brill herself. Miss Brill lives for the days that she spends in the park, this can be seen when she rubs â€Å"the life back into [her fur’s] dim little eyes†. This quote reveal that the trips to the park help to â€Å"rub† life back into Miss Brill. The condition of the furs eyes also imply that Miss Brill is not as full of life as he once might have been, but as long as she can see the beauty and worth still in her fur, she can retain her sense of worth. Mansfield uses the bond between Miss Brill and the fur the show how deeply she needs to belong. For example, throughout the story when Miss Brill is happy the fur is also happy, and when the fur is insulted then Miss Brill is also insulted. Perhaps the best example of this bond is when Miss Brill is sitting in her cupboard-like room and puts her fur away, and thinks that she hears â€Å"something crying†. Rather than facing the sadness and disappointment of the day, she attributes her sadness to the fur. The setting of â€Å"Miss Brill† is an important feature of the story because Miss Brill defines herself in relation to the setting. As she walks about the park, she feels more and more in tune with her setting, as she notices that  all of the people at the park, including herself, are actors in a weekly play. Her sense of herself in relation to the setting changes drastically, of course, when she overhears the young couple ridiculing her. As the story opens, she is upbeat and happy watching the other people in the park. After the young couple mock her, we see the sadness as she walks slowly back to her apartment, her â€Å"cupboard†. Mansfield also uses allusion to reinforce the theme of the story. We first see Miss Brills allusions to a cupboard as she describes the other elderly people in the park. She seems to sympathize with them because they are not a part of this grand play like she is. After being confronted by the young couple, Miss Brill realizes that she also lives in a â€Å"room like a cupboard†. This allusion Mansfield gives to Miss Brill’s room is valuable because of two reasons. She first used the term â€Å"cupboard† to describe the homes of the â€Å"funny old people† in the park every Sunday. It does not occur to Miss Brill that she is also one of these â€Å"funny old people† , however, Mansfield tells the audience that she is indeed one of these â€Å"funny old people† when she describes Miss Brill’s room to the reader. The used of the term â€Å"cupboard† is also important because it demonstrates the effect setting can have on the readers opinion to the characters true nature. The quote referring to Miss Brills cupboard room, also gives the reader a look at the point of view that Miss Brill has. When Miss Brill is happy her room is not so bad, however, when she is depressed then her point of view is that she is like those â€Å"funny old people† that she notices in the park every Sunday. In â€Å"Miss Brill,† the limited omniscient point of view allows the reader to see that Miss Brill remains unchanged when the story ends. The point of view is based strictly on what Miss Brill sees and feels, without being biased by her rose-colored view of life. Upon arriving at the park, Miss Brill begins to take in the details of her surroundings. She seem to cling to the best qualities of her surroundings – there were far more people than last Sunday, the band sounded louder and gayer, and the conductor was wearing a new coat. As she sits in her â€Å"special seat† she is disappointed that the odd man and seated next to her. She had become â€Å"quite an expert at listening as though she didn’t listen†. She views her eavesdropping as active participation in  conversations surrounding her. Although she continues to watch the others in the crowd in and awe and fascination, she views the elderly people in the crowd quite differently. She calls them â€Å"odd, silent and nearly all old†¦and they looked as though they had just come from dark little rooms or even – even cupboards†. Trying to keep her mid of the elderly people, Miss Brill convinces herself of her importance in this grand play and that â€Å"no doubt, somebody would have noticed is she hadn’t been there†. When the young couple seated beside her begin to talk, Miss Brill listens intently to their conversation. It is then that she hears them talk of her the way she has been viewing the other elderly people throughout the afternoon. â€Å"Why does she come here at all – who wants her†? The omniscient point of view allows the reader to view this conversation as it actually occurred, not as Miss Brill would have no doubt changed it in her mind. When she returns home â€Å"to her room like a cupboard† without getting her usual slice of honey cake, we see that she scene at the park has affected her. Yet, she is not changed by it. When she puts away the fur, â€Å"she thinks she hears something crying†. As a defense mechanism, she attributes her grief and pain to the fur, making it possible to carry on in her fantasy world. Mansfield’s â€Å"Miss Brill† is an excellent example of how a reader can gain an understanding of a character through characterization. The reader is allowed to understand and interpret the story utilizing their own methods. Mansfield uses the literary methods of symbolism, setting, and points of view to enable the reader to understand the story and this get the greater meaning. Bibliography â€Å"A Short Story: Katherine Mansfield’s Miss Brill†. http://www.op.org/domcentral/study/ashley/arts/arts404.htm Mansfield, Katherine. â€Å"Miss Brill.† Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 7th ed. New York: 1999. 33-37. â€Å"Symbolism†. http://www.kysu.edu/artsscience/LLP/211/symbolsm.htm

UK Political System Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

UK Political System - Essay Example Fifth, there is a two-party system which keeps the party in power continually on its guard lest the Opposition should make political capital out of just one of its tumbles on policy; sixth and last, there is a culture of democracy that preceded formal establishment of democratic institutions. Parenthetically, checks and balances are a lot more than mere separation of powers: the essence of the latter is autonomy for every branch, which can only ensure that one branch of the government does not poach on the particular preserves of endeavour of any other. But checks and balances ensure that no branch of the Constitution lets another overreach its powers. For example, parliament makes laws and the judiciary interprets them in the light of the Constitution, even though in the case of Duport Steel versus Sirs in 1980 the judges said "it is parliament's opinion on these matters that is paramount". Interestingly, under the British Constitution judges cannot be removed from office except by impeachment which has been very rare. Also, the executive is discouraged from criticising judicial decision. The US President is often called the world's most powerful functionary. However, the federal structure of the USA curbs his powers. That, at least in theory, is not the case with the British Prime Minister. The powers of Congress and the Supreme Court balance those that a President might exercise; the US Constitution lays down what the President can and cannot do, and the codified document can be changed only by the Supreme Court. Such constraints do not obtain in the UK; the general powers exercised by a British Prime Minister include that to appoint, reshuffle or dismiss Cabinet ministers, create peers in the House of Lords, give out honours, appoint ambassadors, top civil servants, bishops and judges, determine government business and Cabinet discussions and agendas, withhold information from parliament deemed necessary, use the media via a lobby system, terminate the life of a government and call a general election. Thus, the British Prime Minister would appear to have abundant powers. . The Prime Minister's position as leader of the majority party in the House of Commons, together with his position as head of government, thus combining legislative and executive powers, apparently amount to immense accretion of power. Additionally, many of the Prime Minister's powers derive from the prerogative powers of the Monarch. These extensive powers are wielded independently of parliament, and effectively give every Prime Minister the powers of a head of State, which include being in charge of the armed forces and security services, negotiating treaties. All this suggests that the Prime Minister can act like a virtual autocrat. Constraints However, this is not so, as there are constraints on his/her powers. For instance, he/she cannot afford to be seen to surround himself/herself with "nodding donkeys", as a political commentator put it. The party he/she leads will not

Analysis of Alternative Tourism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Analysis of Alternative Tourism - Essay Example These tourists want to gain more profound experiences in the countries of their destinations. In such a way, tourists are able to get acquainted with the authentic experiences of source cultures and be involved in the culturally-marked activities of the local communities. Very often alternative tourism is criticized for a major focus of tourism developers on financial gains and not cultural interchange between the tourists and the local communities (Shilling 2007; Tappe, 2011). Further on the paper is focused on alternative tourism, mass tourism, and sustainable tourism. Mass tourism, alternative tourism, and sustainable tourism There is a need to create sustainable places for tourism and it requires the cooperation of tourism developers and community developers. Alternative tourism is more specific than mass tourism due to an abundance of cultural traditions and customs, which are available for tourists. In the mass tourism the visitors are looking for the sun, the sea and sand. The refore, they do not have culturally-specific needs and they need only to have rest. The key concepts of mass tourism are focused on the reduction of direct participation and communication with the locals. Tourism developers are interested in the promotion of interaction between tourists and locals, which is absent in mass tourism. For this purpose place development is required and it should be noted that money expenditures should be invested in this aspect of tourism. Alternative visitors, as a rule, prefer spending their money in local districts and not in the greater region. In order to correlate the needs of alternative visitors and the interests of the local communities, it should be mentioned that careful planning is in need (Crabbe, 2010). Tourism developers of alternative tourism usually consist of families, friends, and representatives of the communities, who are caring about the environment. The concept of alternative tourism is usually used by tourism developers or governm ental representatives. Ordinary tourists would hardly use this term. Natural environments or marine protected areas are of great importance for alternative tourists. Cultural interchange, participation in local traditions and customs are very important for visitors, especially when they come to underdeveloped regions. Pros and cons of alternative tourism, Unfortunately, alternative tourism can be intimidating for natural wildlife, disturb water quality, threaten communities, and disrupt local culture. Therefore, the major challenge of tourism is that it can destroy the resources, on the basis of which it is created. Consequently, both tourism developers and local communities should keep in mind their mutual coexistence and mutual help in the name of alternative tourism promotion and development. Tours of special interest belong to the sphere of alternative tourism. There is an evident shift in the field of tourism from Fordism to the more specific scale of modes of production and co nsumption. Nevertheless, very often alternative tourism prevails over mass tourism. In case tourism is in the hands of the indigenous population, it can lead to their marginalization. â€Å"Sustainable tourism† may be often considered by tourism developers as â€Å"hijacked by many to give moral rectitude and ‘green’ credentials to tourist activities†.  Ã‚  

Lasers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Lasers - Essay Example 13). â€Å"The invention of the laser was one of the groundbreaking scientific achievements of the twentieth century† (Lang and Barbero vii). This technology resulted in the development of new systems of communication, optical devices, space exploration, digital devices, and the mastery of nuclear energy. Lasers are oscillators functioning at optical frequencies producing monochromatic, coherent, and highly collimated intense beams of light. The frequencies of operation lie within a spectrum of far infrared to the vacuum ultraviolet or soft X-ray region (Lang and Barbero xii). This process occurs â€Å"when a beam of light passes through a specially prepared medium and intiates or stimulates the atoms within that medium to emit light† (Silfvast 1). Light is emitted from a source such as a flash lamp or diode, and the light is amplified in the lasing media which may be a gas, liquid, or solid. â€Å"The light travels between two mirrors; one of the mirrors is 100% reflective, while the other is partially translucent† (Dajnowski et al. 13). Light repeatedly passes through the lasing media until it gains the required energy level, at which point it exits through the partially reflective, translucent mirror, state Dajnowski et al. (13). The light is released in exactly the same direction and same wavelength as that of the original beam. Thus, lasers are devices that â€Å"amplify or increase the intensity of light to produce a highly directional, high-intensity beam that typically has a very pure frequency or wavelength† (Silfvast 1). The components of a typical laser device include an amplifying or gain medium, a pumping source to channel energy into the device, and an optical cavity or mirror arrangement for reflecting the beam of light back and forth through the amplifying medium for further increase and intensification. â€Å"A useful laser beam is obtained by allowing a small portion of the light to escape by passing through one of the mirrors that is

The role of affirmative action in society Research Paper

The role of affirmative action in society - Research Paper Example The main reason this topic has been chosen is that we live in very diverse societies and are faced with a very wide range of people every single day. With the increasing change of roles of households and the increasing recessions in place, there is a clear need to understand in depth the steps that are taken to positively represent the women and minorities. Body: Impact of Affirmative Action on Society Considering the beneficiaries of the Affirmative Action it is evident that the cause is very noble. Yes, it is true that the law was introduced and passed for the safety and need of many people in need. However considering the people involved and the amount of damage that it has on the society, there have been a number of doubts that have surfaced. The law has also stirred up a number of questions and has built up a number of doubts about the accuracy of the law. Kate Johns has in a very effective manner explained the same. She explains the case of Martin Luther King who had focused on what the person is worth in terms of skills, behavior and performance rather than on the color of the skin. As quoted by Johns, â€Å"Don't judge a man by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character† (Johns). ... ople are actually being judged by their skin color and being place in jobs and higher places of learning due to their skin color, and their ethnic background† (Johns). This is the concept there several white victims of affirmative action and those from majority groups now refer to as reverse discrimination. Most affirmative action policies have always operated on the assumption of that the group that is on the receiving end of the policies is at an advantage. There are members of this group who are not necessarily under such circumstances. It is hard to believe but there are researchers who have argued that these policies, including those that are founded on racial principles, targets and goals at times have a serious impact on the majority race too. Lately, there have been several instances of white men complaining of reduced opportunities as a result of affirmative action policies that favor women and because of those that favor the minority races. This phenomenon goes by sev eral names and has been employed by a number of groups that criticize the philosophies on which affirmative action policies have been founded. While at the initial stages, the affirmative action policies or frameworks work in a positive way. This is because at this stage, they introduce the terms and define the boundaries for which to sell the concept and idea of gender and racial preferences, goals and targets. However, they ultimately turn their heads and start biting the class of people who had been believed to be strongly protected or favored by the system. It is essential to note that impact of the affirmative action is not completely negative in society and the actual intension of the law is clearly a good one. As explained by Mitchell W. Pearlman and Gregory Daniels, Affirmative action

How did the rise of the corporation affect the United States What Essay

How did the rise of the corporation affect the United States What factors helped corporations form, and - Essay Example The strategy gave rise to big businesses that led to fewer people controlling the market. The presence of machines for agriculture made the United States pioneer in productions of agricultural products. The rise of the corporations transformed the United States because its economy matured (Sauvant, Mendoza & Irmak, 2008). During this time, there was a rapid expansion of big business and the rise of national labor unions. Despite all positive effects, the rise of the corporations led to the rise of wars against Americans and the removal of indigenous people from their early homes. The rise of corporations led to the growth of the population in urban centers. It also enhanced the proportion of immigrants. The most affected individuals lived in the urban centers due to the need to expand agricultural fields (Sauvant, Mendoza & Irmak,