August Wilson’s Fences Essay Example for Free

August Wilson’s Fences Essay August Wilson’s Fences The immigration of Africans to America as slaves has had a great effect to many things including literature. Despite their experiences in this foreign land, they brought with them a different culture that had not been experienced in the American society. The stories and experiences of African-Americans have seen authors write books and plays being staged with large audiences. This is due to the different but almost similar stories that these people have to tell regarding their journey to America and how difficult it was for them to fit in the society they found. Introduction In 1983, the American playwright August Wilson released a play titled Fences. The play has a setting of the 1950s and it explores the evolving African –American experience with race relations as one of the many themes depicted in this play. The play revolves around a 53-year-old man named Troy who is an African-America. He is struggling to provide for his family and although he is a baseball player his color is a barrier for him being able to join professional baseball thus receiving little money to support his family. This paper seeks to analyze the play and check on why it was given the title Fences (Wilson). Analysis of the play Fences by August Wilson As earlier stated, the play is about a man named Troy. The play shows how Troy is struggling to not only provide for his family but also to fit in a society in which people are judged by their skin color. The theme of race discrimination is portrayed well throughout the play. First, in the 1950s in which the play is set, people of color were seen as those who do not deserve any good thing in the society. They were associated to social crimes and ending up in jail for a crime not committed was a normal phenomenon (Wilson). However, emotional disconnect with the society they lived in and failure to secure a job so as to earn a living was greatly contributing to them ending up being involved in these social crimes. In the play, Troy is shown as a baseball player a game he had learnt and played while in prison. He had ended up in prison for an accidental murder he had committed during a robbery. From this act it is evident that due to his failure of securing a job, Troy had ended up involving himself in robbery so as to earn himself a living but this time it turned out ugly and he ended up in prison. Further, discrimination is seen at work place where some jobs could not be done by an African-American but instead they were reserved for the whites. This is seen when Troy manages to secure a job with a garbage collecting firm and he is heard asking Mr. Rand; who he refers to as the boss, why black men were not allowed to drive garbage trucks. This shows that indeed there was race discrimination at work place where African-Americans could not be bestowed with some responsibilities. The act of being denied an opportunity to drive a garbage truck can be seen as a sarcastic event. It can be viewed in the way that even if garbage collection was being seen as dirty work that could only be done by those who were seen as less fortunate in the society, the fact that driving a garbage truck was seen as â€Å"literary driving a vehicle†, an African-American would not be allowed to drive the truck since they were restricted to do so during that time (Tamura). In addition, the play shows Rose who is Troy’s wife with whom they have a son named Cory, however, Troy has a son Lyon from a previous marriage but he does not leave with him. Gabriel is Troy’s younger brother who has notable psychological damage after he suffered head injuries when he was serving as a soldier. This new development of Gabriela having served as a soldier brings contrast of sentiments of race discrimination and at the same time it can be viewed as one way in which discrimination of people of the color was being cemented. First as a contrast, this play shows how certain jobs were being reserved for whites. Soldiers were people who not only deserved respect from the society but also received a good pay. Therefore, Gabriel’s employment as a soldier, contrasts the theme of discrimination where some jobs such as a being a soldier were being reserved for those the society thought they owed respect to. However, it can be viewed differently in the sense that owing to the tasks, experiences and challenges that faced soldiers in the battle fields, African-American men were seen as the right people for the job. This follows, the understanding that most of those who served in the army died in war or if one was luck to survive they would come home having sustained severe injuries like in the case of Gabriel. This can be seen as a form of discrimination where those who were less regarded in the society were being recruited as soldiers since the society would be seen not to worry even if it lost them (Tamura). The play unfolds on a payday when Troy and his friend Bono are drinking and chatting. His son Lyon comes to him asking to be lent 10 dollars promising to refund the money soon since his girlfriend had secured a job. Troy gives him a hard time but after persuasion from his wife Rose, he finally lends his son the money. From this scenario, one can see that the family is really struggling to survive owing to Lyon’s inability to raise even 10 dollars thus leading him to borrowing from his father. This shows that African-Americans were struggling a lot so as to survive in a society where living standards were high and a society where job opportunities were rare given the much rooted racial discrimination (Wilson). Further, as the play continues, Cory tells his parents of an opportunity for a college football scholarship. Troy vehemently condemns his son’s thought of applying it and they argue. Troy does not want his son to play basket ball since he does not him to experience the racial discrimination he went through during the time he was playing baseball. The man does not back down his argument and following his experience with racial discrimination he is not ready to watch his son go through the same. As a result, Troy even approaches Cory’s coach and tells him that his son will no longer be playing football. Upon discovery of his father’s lies, Cory confronts him and they end up in a fight that causes Cory to be thrown out of the house by his father. This scenario shows the effect that racial discrimination had to Troy’s life. Following him denying his son the opportunity to play college football with an excuse of racial discrimination, one can see that indeed Troy had gone through tough time due to racial discrimination and he was protecting his son. Despite his time of playing baseball and that of his son playing football being different, Troy could hardly believe that racial discrimination could have melted away, thus, the unmoved stand exhibited by him(Wiggins Miller). Consequently, after Cory is kicked out of the house, they no longer get along with his dad. This can be seen during the final act when Troy dies and Cory refuses to attend the funeral due to the long-standing resentment. However, after his mother’s persuasion, Cory attends the funeral to pay respect to the man who had tirelessly struggled to provide for them even if he was hard headed. The rivalry between son and father can be traced back to have been caused by racial discrimination. This is due to the fact that if Troy had not suffered through discrimination, he could not have denied his son to take the college football scholarship and as a result they could not have argued to the extent of later not setting eyes on one another. One can see the indirect effect that racial discrimination had to people’s lives (Wiggins Miller). Further, during Troy’s burial, Cory had just come from the military training. This can be analyzed as a positive step towards fighting racial discrimination. This follows the fact that during his father’s youth days, certain jobs opportunities such as joining the military were mostly given to the whites. Therefore seeing Cory coming out of the military training it is evident that with time, racial discrimination had come to reduce thus allowing African-Americans be able to get job opportunities which earlier being people of color they could not easily get. In addition, throughout the play, Troy is shown as a man who had a different cultural influence or different socialization. First, this can be seen through his son Lyon who was from an earlier marriage. Further, in the play, Rose discovers that his husband has been having an affair with a lady called Alberta and he had made her pregnant. However, Alberta dies during childbirth and Rose accepts to adopt her daughter Raynell whose father Troy dies when she is seven years old. Being an African-American, the act of having more than one wife is not out of the norms owing to African culture with him. However, finding himself in a society where polygamy is viewed as a thing past by time, Troy could not marry Rose while still having the first wife and he could not bring Alberta as another wife thus he ended up having an affair with her other than coming to the light (Sofola).. In the African culture, to which Troy can still find some association, most communities allow polygamous marriages as this is seen as wealth as the man will have many children from these wives. Traditionally, in the African culture having more than one wife was seen as a public sign that a man had more resources that would allow him to marry as many women as he pleased. However, the culture was against adultery and a man would not be allowed to bear children outside marriage unless he would later end up marrying the lady (Sofola).. Therefore, although the African culture among the African-Americans was fading away, its influence continued to affect them for years. Consequently, Troy was a man who had been influenced by this culture but the society which he currently lived in was not in support of the culture. Therefore, this explains his act in life of having a first marriage, then marrying Rose and finally having an affair with Alberta. Troy’s case shows the effect that migration to the West had to African-Americans; it did not only give them a hard time trying to fit in a society where they were less regarded but it also eroded their cultures and presented them with a different and difficult socialization (Sofola). Having analyzed the play, one would seek to answer the question on why it was given the title â€Å"Fences†. First, the theme of racial discrimination can be seen to have portrayed the title Fences. This is seen throughout the play where lines of racial discrimination were used to deny Troy and other African-Americans job opportunities. This judgment on bases of color is a fence in itself since it prevented them from getting good money to support their families. In addition, Troy could not join professional baseball playing due to the ‘fence’ of racial discrimination. However, to Cory, his father is the fence that does not allow him to get the college football scholarship after he refused him on the grounds of racial discrimination. In addition and to the literal meaning, Rose wanted to build a fence and forced Troy to start so that she could protect what is hers in the inside and leave what belongs to the society outside the fence. Conclusion Throughout the play, racial discrimination is shown as the cause of anything that Troy’s family is going through. One can appreciate the writer’s overemphasize on this issue owing to the fact that this play is set in the 1950’s when racial discrimination was still evidently being experienced. The play assists one to understand the effect that racial discrimination had on the lives of African-Americans as well as the influence of Western culture to their socialization and culture. This play will assist in keeping the history of the experience of African-Americans in the American society and it will remain to be a crucial part of literature.

Affirmative Action Essay -- Discrimination Race Racism Essays

Affirmative Action Because economic, social, gender and racial inequalities exist within the American population, it is in the best interest of its people and government to take action to amend these problems. Since the U.S has a capitalistic based economy, there is little that the government can do to completely end all inequalities. However, it can try to remedy racial and gender discrimination. The most realistic and supported program is Affirmative Action, which has many key issues: does the government have the right to enforce â€Å"reverse discrimination† or is it right to take race or gender into account for purposes of diversity and equality when evaluating college or job applications? The United States has a history of treating minorities, women and immigrants like 2nd-class citizens while favoring affluent white males (Schrag). In 1857, the Scott vs. Sanford decision stated that blacks have â€Å"no rights which the white man is bound to respect† (Davis). However, changes were made in the legal treatment of women and minorities with the 1866 Civil Rights Act that guaranteed every citizen â€Å"the same right to make and enforce contracts†¦as enjoyed by white citizens† (Sykes) and the 14th Amendment, which â€Å"grants citizenship to everyone born in the US, forbids states from denying ‘life, liberty, or property’ without due process of law, and guarantees equal protection under the laws† (DCLU). Despite such legislation, a major setback took place in the 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson court decision upholding that â€Å"separate but equal† accommodations were constitutional (DCLU). Because of this forced inequality, many et hnicities were kept out of upper levels of American businesses and educational institutions (Hudson). The mid-20th cent... ...parently credible} The Hopwood Aftermath. University of Texas. 1 May 1997. . {unrestricted; print via internet; reputable} Wydick, Bruce. â€Å"Affirmative Action in college admissions: Examining labor market effects of four alternative policies.† Contemporary Economic Policy. 20.1 (Jan 2003): 12-25. {primary scholarly; print via internet; reputable} US Census Bureau. â€Å"Poverty Rates by Race and Hispanic Origin: 2001 and 2002.† {unrestricted; print via internet; reputable} US Census Bureau. â€Å"Table 1: Income in the United States: 2002† pg. 3. {unrestricted; print via internet; reputable} US Census Bureau. â€Å"Table 2: Median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers by occupation and sex, 1983 and 2002 annual averages.† {unrestricted; print via internet; reputable} Affirmative Action Essay -- Discrimination Race Racism Essays Affirmative Action Because economic, social, gender and racial inequalities exist within the American population, it is in the best interest of its people and government to take action to amend these problems. Since the U.S has a capitalistic based economy, there is little that the government can do to completely end all inequalities. However, it can try to remedy racial and gender discrimination. The most realistic and supported program is Affirmative Action, which has many key issues: does the government have the right to enforce â€Å"reverse discrimination† or is it right to take race or gender into account for purposes of diversity and equality when evaluating college or job applications? The United States has a history of treating minorities, women and immigrants like 2nd-class citizens while favoring affluent white males (Schrag). In 1857, the Scott vs. Sanford decision stated that blacks have â€Å"no rights which the white man is bound to respect† (Davis). However, changes were made in the legal treatment of women and minorities with the 1866 Civil Rights Act that guaranteed every citizen â€Å"the same right to make and enforce contracts†¦as enjoyed by white citizens† (Sykes) and the 14th Amendment, which â€Å"grants citizenship to everyone born in the US, forbids states from denying ‘life, liberty, or property’ without due process of law, and guarantees equal protection under the laws† (DCLU). Despite such legislation, a major setback took place in the 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson court decision upholding that â€Å"separate but equal† accommodations were constitutional (DCLU). Because of this forced inequality, many et hnicities were kept out of upper levels of American businesses and educational institutions (Hudson). The mid-20th cent... ...parently credible} The Hopwood Aftermath. University of Texas. 1 May 1997. . {unrestricted; print via internet; reputable} Wydick, Bruce. â€Å"Affirmative Action in college admissions: Examining labor market effects of four alternative policies.† Contemporary Economic Policy. 20.1 (Jan 2003): 12-25. {primary scholarly; print via internet; reputable} US Census Bureau. â€Å"Poverty Rates by Race and Hispanic Origin: 2001 and 2002.† {unrestricted; print via internet; reputable} US Census Bureau. â€Å"Table 1: Income in the United States: 2002† pg. 3. {unrestricted; print via internet; reputable} US Census Bureau. â€Å"Table 2: Median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers by occupation and sex, 1983 and 2002 annual averages.† {unrestricted; print via internet; reputable}

What Makes You What You Are

Personality: What makes you the way you are? – Science News – The Independent At some point in your life, you've probably filled in a personality questionnaire (â€Å"Do you see yourself as†¦.? â€Å"), and wondered as you ticked the boxes if there can really be any validity to such a simplistic way of assessing people. Surely the scores just reflect your mood on the day, or what you want the investigator to think. Surely everyone gives the same answer, which is â€Å"it depends†.Or even if the scores measure something, surely it is how the person sees themselves, rather than how they actually are. In a new book, I examine what the extent of the science underlying personality psychology really is. The answer is: more than you would think. While it has always been popular in business and pop psychology, and within academic psychology, personality research has been a poor relation to the parts of the discipline with experiments and hard objective measures. H owever, this is changing fast.The field of personality is undergoing a renaissance. The reasons for the renaissance are several. Academics now have some really good long-term studies of the same individuals, and it turns out that those brief, simplistic, pencil-and-paper questionnaires have surprisingly useful properties. They produce a wide range of selfdescriptions. The responses are fairly repeatable over intervals of many years. They also correlate quite well with ratings of the person given by their spouse, friends or colleagues.Much more importantly, though, the responses turn out to predict objective events. For example, in a famous cohort of gifted Californian children recruited in the 1920s, and who are elderly or deceased now, personality â€Å"scores† – numerical representations of answers to questions – are significant predictors of life expectancy. In another long-term study, this time of American married couples, the quality and duration of the mar riage is predicted by the personality scores of both parties prior to marriage.There are many other examples, with personality scores predicting substance addiction, problem gambling, and the onset of psychological illnesses. Of course the prediction is a statistical one – you can assign odds, not make oracular pronouncements – but this is how it always is in psychology. Humans are such complex systems that you are happy to explain a portion of the variation in outcomes, and never expect to explain it all. In recent years there has been renewed interest in personality assessment. This has been greatly aided by the fact that there is now a consensus on what the key variables are.Its early development, the field was greatly hampered by every investigator having his or her own scales, often using different names and measures for what turned out to be the same thing, or indeed the same names for what turned out to be different things. But over the last 20 years, many studi es in several different cultures have shown that much of the systematic variation in personality can be reduced to scores along five dimensions (the â€Å"Big Five†): Extraversion, Neuroticism, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Openness. It's important to stress that these are all continuous dimensions.That is, there are no discrete important to stress that these are all continuous dimensions. That is, there are no discrete â€Å"types† of person. Personality dimensions are like height or weight, which vary continuously, not like being a left- or a right-hand writer. Your score on one dimension is independent of your scores on all the others, so there is an almost infinite diversity of different overall profiles possible. If developments within psychology have facilitated the renaissance of personality studies, it is at the interface with biology where the exciting developments are beginning to come.Neuroscientists have shown, mainly using the increasingly sophisti cated brain imaging techniques that are now available, that those simple pencil-and-paper personality scores correlate significantly with the size or neurophysiological reactivity of specific regions of the brain. Moreover, these turn out to be the very regions that other types of evidence (evidence from brain damage, for example) would lead us to expect would be involved in that particular area of psychological function. Geneticists, too, are getting involved in personality research.It has recently become apparent that more of the human genome differs from individual to individual, even within our rather genetically homogenous species, than was previously thought. We know this inter alia from the complete sequence of Dr Craig Venter's genome, which was published earlier this month. About 0. 5 per cent of the genetic information in his maternallyinherited genome is different from his paternally-inherited one. Variant sequences affect nearly half his genes, and it is likely that in m any cases those variants will have some functional effect on body, brain or behaviour.In a few cases, we even know which genetic variants have effects on personality. There is a gene that encodes a receptor molecule for the neurotransmitter dopamine, and which contains a repeating sequence whose length varies from person to person. A number of studies have found that the length of this sequence correlates with self-reported extraversion and reward-seeking behaviour. In another gene, the serotonin transporter, individuals with one variant are more likely to develop depressive symptoms in response to stressful life events than bearers of the other version.In a few years, we may be in the position of actually understanding the molecular bases of the differences in nature that we observe between healthy humans. (But note that genetic effects will not turn out to be the whole story; only around half of the variation in personality looks like being heritable, with the rest probably shaped by early environmental exposures and other developmental processes. ) The other group of researchers getting interested in personality is evolutionists. Personalitylike variation has been found in organisms as diverse as fish, mammals and birds.Indeed, Darwin's whole theory of evolution rests on the observation that individuals vary from one another. Without such variation there can be no natural selection and no evolutionary change. The question for evolutionists is why you would find variation persisting in populations, when selection always reduces diversity in favour of the optimal type. In fact, it turns out that there are often multiple optima, even within a single habitat, with individuals of one type doing well under certain conditions, while faring less well than their competitors under others. Thus, nder certain conditions, while faring less well than their competitors under others. Thus, selection rarely narrows the population to uniformity because individuals with diffe rent qualities flourish in different contexts. I rather like this as a guiding framework for thinking about personality in modern humans. Rather than imagining that there is some personality profile that is uniformly good to have, let's assume that all have their strengths and all have their pitfalls. Indeed, the failure of any one profile to dominate the human population attests to their roughly equal fitness in the long run.So, whatever your score on the Big Five, the point is not to try to change it, or fight it. The point is to establish which niche within the complex ecology that is modern society will be a good one for you to ply your trade in, and which of the diverse dangers (social isolation, addiction, depression†¦ ) that lurk in our both beneficent and hazardous habitat are the ones against which you should be most vigilant. This is where self-knowledge comes in, and taking the personality test overleaf can be part of that. Scoring your personality won't tell you any thing you don't know.It's based on how you see yourself, so logically it couldn't. But it can reveal to you how you compare to other people, and can also tap you into a wealth of accumulated psychological knowledge about the strengths and liabilities that other people similar to you have experienced. This is what the questionnaire and the interpretation overleaf are designed to do. Daniel Nettle is the author of Personality: What Makes You the Way You Are (? 12. 99), published by Oxford University Press. To order a copy for the special price of ? 11. 69 (with free P) call Independent Books Direct on 0870 079 8897, or visit www. ndependentbooksdirect. co. uk What kind of personality are you? Take this test to discover the truth Introducing the big five Once you have completed the questionnaire and added up your scores, you should have an indication of whether you score low, medium-low, medium-high, or high on each of the Big Five dimensions of human personality. But what do these sco res mean? Here, I explore the Big Five to examine their effects on our lives. Extraversion This is a familiar concept. High-scorers are fun-seeking and cheerful, but they are not necessarily immediate hedonists; they are often ambitious and hard-working.They are also sexually adventurous and love to be the centre of attention. Low-scorers are not necessarily shy so much as aloof; they can take or leave success, praise and pleasure. The best way to think about this dimension is in terms of response to reward. Society offers certain incentives; money, power, fame, attention, sex, thrills, and so on, and some people certain incentives; money, power, fame, attention, sex, thrills, and so on, and some people pursue them full-out, while others have a more muted response and thus won't work so hard to capture them.The strengths of high-scorers: energy, charisma, drive, the ability to make things happen. The weaknesses: a tendency to get bored, restlessness, infidelity, risky decisions. Str engths of lowscorers: detachment, pursuit of intrinsic goals, prudence, fidelity. The weaknesses: not thrusting themselves forward, not having fun, a flat emotional tone. There is no value-judgement about which of these is better from the point of view of a potential employer or spouse, but is certainly worth being aware of the likely pitfalls and most suitable habitats for your particular level of Extraversion.Conscientiousness Conscientiousness measures how good people are at setting themselves goals and sticking to them. High-scorers are disciplined, efficient and systematic. They can resist temptation and stick to priorities they have set themselves. In most modern occupations, and particularly those where you have to manage your own time and priorities, fairly high Conscientiousness is advantageous. Low-scorers are more likely to get distracted from tasks, renege on plans, and succumb to weaknesses of the will. Indeed, low Conscientiousness is a risk factor for developing addic tions of all kinds.Being high in Conscientiousness is not always an unalloyed benefit, though. Sometimes it is indeed important to stick to plans. But at other times it is important to be able to change them on a sixpence. Very high scorers are perceived as grim, pedantic, unspontaneous, even miserly. There is even a name for excessive Conscientiousness – obsessive-compulsive personality disorder – and this is a very socially disabling condition. There are many human activities, including, crucially, social relationships, where it is essential to be able to respond in the moment to your environment as it changes.Highly conscientious people are rigid, often sticking to tasks and plans even when the point of them has been overtaken by events, or when the needs of others around them require spontaneous reorganising of priorities. Thus, if you are very low in Conscientiousness, for the sake of your career, your health, and your wellbeing, you may need to work effortfully a t seeing your plans through, and being selfdisciplined. If you are a very high scorer, you may need to learn to be more spontaneous and intuitive, again for the benefits that this will bring in terms of flexibility and improved social relationships.Neuroticism I would like to dispel the notion that Neuroticism is always a bad thing, a kind of pathology, and that the best level of Neuroticism to have is a very low one. The evidence for the prosecution: yes, high-scorers live their lives under the Damoclean swords of depression, anxiety, stress, and disappointment. Whatever the world says about them, they are often uncomfortable in their inner lives, and go through life either with bouts of difficult times, or with a constant vague feeling that something is not quite right.However, if we think logically, negative emotions, such as worry, are always going to be there for a reason. One would not want to be entirely without worry. It would be as damaging to life decisions as the inabilit y to feel physical pain is to peripheral physiology. High Neuroticism scorers can bring to bear enormous powers of deep thought, detailed analysis, novel insight. They care about the details that others can't be bothered to follow up. Under some circumstances they do well academically. If you are a high-scorer, you may well be a member of a thinking profession such as an academic or a writer.High Neuroticism scorers, then, have hidden advantages. The challenge for them is to find ways to deal with the negative sequels of their personality. Some people respond well to cognitivebehavioural therapy, some to meditation, many to exercise. Low-scorers, too, have disadvantages. You probably don't suffer much in life, which is good, but maybe you are not thoughtful enough. Maybe you let details go, and don't think deeply enough about future drawbacks or problems. Maybe you are too carefree or rose-spectacled to see every potentiality. Agreeableness Agreeableness is a dimension of empathy to wards others.High-scorers are often found in caring professions such as nursing and counselling.. They have larger-than-average social networks, and their relationships with others are harmonious. They don't get into fights and are generally slow to anger. By contrast, the very lowest-scorers are sociopaths; they callously use others for their own ends. So far so good. It is better to be well-liked than to be a sociopath. However, in many fields, high Agreeableness reduces occupational attainment. Nice guys really do finish last, and moreover, plenty of our leaders have something of the sociopath about them.Successful artists and executives, though, tend to be rather low in Agreeableness. This means that the high Agreeableness scorer may not be prepared to be hard-headed. You may stay in relationships that do you no good out of empathy for the others involved. Agreeableness is the most sexually-patterned of the Big Five, with – no prizes for guessing – women scoring mo re highly on average than men. This adds an interesting new perspective on the paucity of women in positions of power. Many of them find it difficult to be callous enough.Should we be encouraging them to be more callous, or trying to change what we reward? Openness Openness is a dimension of imagination. High-scorers make mental associations that go beyond what is given to the senses, or what is logically deducible. They are keen on poetry and the arts, and often have metaphysical or esoteric ideas. Nobody wants to be called unimaginative, but when you stop and think about it, it is not evident Nobody wants to be called unimaginative, but when you stop and think about it, it is not evident that being imaginative in this sense is necessarily useful in life.Low-scorers can be very intelligent and capable, though they will be oriented towards the practical and the soluble. High-scorers will be more able and willing to venture into the domains of the aesthetic. However, they can also de velop eccentric, paranormal or even delusional beliefs, and fail to solve simply resolvable practical problems. Neither a high nor a low score is inherently desirable; it is simple a matter of harnessing the strengths that you have. www. independent. co. uk ht:/w. needn. ou/essinepro tp/wwidpnetc. knw/cec/es nlt-htmksyutewyyuae426. tl aiywa-ae-o-h-a-o-r-069hm ht:/o. lfg tp/gog/fS

The Inventions During the Industrial Revolution - 879 Words

The Theme of our Almanac is Science and Technology so my Historical Analysis will be based off of the Science and Technology of the Industrial Revolution. My historical analysis will be about the inventions during the Industrial Revolution. The three I will be focusing on: The Water Frame, The Improved Steam Engine and the Sewing Machine. All three of those inventions all offer some sort of Problem, Progress and Promise to the Industrial Revolution. I will be analyzing those three things. One of the first inventions during the Industrial Revolution is the Water Frame. It was invented by Richard Arkwright in 1769. The purpose of the water frame was a new source of energy. The water frame was to spin cotton much more efficiently. They†¦show more content†¦The steam supply is cut off, then the cold water is sprayed into the cylinder and then the piston moves back down. James Watt the improver of the Early Steam Engine was born in Greenock on the 18th of January 1736. In 1775 he vastly improved the original concept of the steam engine. Watt and his partner Matthew Boulton set up a factory. The steam engine works like so: the heat was converted into mechanical energy. The way that Watt created the changes to the steam engine is adding two cylinders. The piston is at the bottom for the cylinder. The steam creates pressure which forces the piston upwards. The stream is then cut off just like it was before when Newcomen invented it. Then a pipe that leads to the sec ond cylinder which is the condenser, is then opened and cools down the stream. Then it creates the negative pressure which forces the piston to come back down. Then the steam engine doesn’t have to cool down if we are using this process. The problem with the Steam engines was the use of them in the factories. If you look at in with a negative mindset you will notice that the people who were once doing the things that were replaced by the steam engine are no longer doing their job. There are people who are unable to be working because a new machine has come in and taken the job that once belonged to them. There was also problems with the fact that it only helped with pumps and nothing else. Then James Watt created the doubleShow MoreRelatedThe Invention Of The First Industrial Revolution1391 Words   |  6 PagesThe First Industrial Revolution Envision living in a society dominated by factories that just recently transformed from arable land and farms. Imagine constantly hearing about brand new inventions and ideas that were deemed impossible only a few years ago. Visualize working long hours in cramped factories, in exchange for low pay and contagious diseases. For some people that lived during the age of industrialization, this was their reality of life. 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All those listed makes the Industrial Revolution seem great however it was not all too pleasant and many people from children to adults lost their lives due to this technology boom, over population also happen due to this revolution as well. Thankfully most of the awful things the Industrial Revolution createdRead MoreThe Industrial Revolution Of The Middle East1071 Words   |  5 Pagesdesire was not ignored in America nor England during the Industrial Revolution, but, rather, was seen by many as an opportune investment during a time of extraordinarily progressive innovation. With this in mind the Industrial Revolution became heavily involved with the advancement of weaponry, forever changing the face of war unlike any era before it. The industrial revolution was a time of great change for both Europe and America. Inventions during this time (such as the cotton gin, the steam engineRead MoreThe Industrial Revolution in the Great Britain of the 1800s1205 Words   |  5 Pagestrue revolution that had an effect in all aspects of life since the invention of fire. It possessed necessary prerequisites, such as formidable population size, bountiful coal and iron deposits, and the demand of such a revolution, to gain a head start over the rest of the world. The confluence of such factors culminated in a perfect storm, a storm that destined humanity to become more than an average species. The Industrial Revolution in the Great Britain in the 1800s was not just a revolution inRead MoreExtraordinary Impact of Inventions of the Industrial Revolution674 Words   |  3 Pages â€Å"The Industrial Revolution was another of those extraordinary jumps forward in the story of civilization†. This quote by Stephen Gardiner pretty much summarizes a long, laborious period of time into a single 15-word quote. Urbanization, industrialization, and contamination, all formed part of this significant period of time in European history. Nevertheless, one aspect that better symbolized the Industrial Revolution was the sudden surge of new inventions and machinery that begun during the IndustrialRead MorePros And Cons Of The Industrial Revolution858 Words   |  4 PagesIndustrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was a movement that began in the 1870’s and lasted until 1840. The movement originated in Great Britain but soon began to be widespread across the world. The industrial revolution was a time of great change and advancements; it allowed people to progress and do things more efficiently. Although there were some disadvantages that came with the revolution; the world would not have progressed the way it did without this progression of machinery. Read MoreEssay on The Industrial Revolution1366 Words   |  6 PagesThe Industrial Revolution Introduction to the Revolution The Industrial revolution was a time of drastic change marked by the general introduction of power-driven machinery. This change generally helped life, but it had its disadvantages as well. Pollution, such as Carbon Dioxide levels in the atmosphere rose, working conditions declined, and the number of women and children working increased. The government, the arts, literature, music, architecture and mans way of looking at life allRead MoreImpact Of The Industrial Revolution On The United States1013 Words   |  5 PagesThe Industrial Revolution brought about an overwhelming amount of economic change to the United States. The first Industrial Revolution started in Great Britain and in Europe in the latter part of the eighteenth century and, it then spread to the United States and Germany. The Industrial Revolution itself refers to a change from hand and home production to machine and factory (Kelly). During this time period, America was growing in knowledge. The industrialization o f America involved three greatRead MoreIndustrialization Of The Industrial Revolution Essay999 Words   |  4 PagesMorgan. The Industrial Revolution completely restructured the old America into a completely different place in which we now live in. These changes brought about railroads, manufacturing cities, and population growth; this also brought new inventions such as electricity and steel itself. Although it had some positive impacts, it also introduced new problems such as the dramatic difference between the rich and the poor. Overall, it led to the change from agriculture to machinery. The Industrial Revolution