Chaucers Canterbury Tales - Comparing the Millers Tale and the Reeves Tale :: comparison compare contrast essays

Comparing the Miller's Tale and the Reeve's Tale  Ã‚      In the conclusion between the Miller's Tale and the Reeve's Tale, the Reeve's Tale is far more insulting and malicious and convincingly closer to the true definition of quiting, then the Miller's Tale. The Reeve's Tale defines what trickery and evildoing and cuckolding is. The Miller's Tale is more of a tale dealing with a form of black 'humor and slapstick comedy, rather than a succession of put-downs which occurred in the Reeve's Tale.   Ã‚  Ã‚   In the Miller's Tale, we see many insults directed towards bow ignorant the man was in choosing the right wife for marriage. He picks out an eighteen year old bombshell, named Allison and John, the carpenter, who marries her says:   Ã‚  Ã‚   This carpenter had married a new wife Not long before, and loved her more than life. She was a girl of eighteen years of age. Jealous he was and kept her in the cage, For he was old and she was wild and young; He thought himself quite likely to be stung.   Not only are their ages apart, but they share no similarities in their lifestyles, pointing to the fact that he is a dimwitted fool. (MiLT 89)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The other quiting of the Reeve in the Miller's Tale is when, once   again, the carpenter is portrayed as a dullard by being totally oblivious to the situation; Allison, his wife, and a man named Nicholas, a man known locally for making love in secret, (which was his talent), are trying to have sexual laissons behind John's back. (MiLT 91). They get John to believe that a great flood, worse than Noah's is coming, and will destroy all of them. This fool by believeing this tale and following them with the preparations protects himself, even though no flood of any sort arises. This is the ultimat act of stupidity! The Reeve's Tale about the Miller is a perfect example of evil and trickery at it's best. The part being that in the end, the trickster becomes tricked over and over againt but the tables turn and the Miller is the real loser having lost his stolen flour and to add insult to injury, he finds out that his wife and daughter have been cuckolded especially after all the jargon about the following:   Ã‚  Ã‚   In order to have Simpkins his relation, The nuns had given her an education.

Child of Divorce Essay

Divorce is becoming a norm in the society nowadays. This refers to the complete termination of marriage between the couple who demands for it. Through the dissolution of the bonds of matrimony, both parties are allowed to marry again (Gallagher, 1996). However, opposing views are prevailing regarding divorce. For those who are in favor of it, divorce can be regarded as the only legitimate remedy when happiness and affection are no longer provided in the marriage (Scanzoni 1965). For those who are against it, divorce causes psychological problems and damage to social cohesion (Diefenbach, 2007). Divorce is not just the story of the couple parting ways but it is more of a story of the children who are products of a divorced marriage. â€Å"Human children need parents longer than any other species and are totally dependent on parents for food, shelter, and protection for the first several years of life. This dependency spawns a fear of abandonment. In divorce, one of the parents leaves. When one parent leaves, the children feel rejected. The loss children feel at divorce is similar to that experienced when a parent dies. Divorce might actually be harder on children because it lacks the concrete cause and finality of death (Bryner, 2001). † This causes most of the children of divorce to be more aggressive, impulsive and develop antisocial behavior compared to children from intact families (Hetherington, 1999). Others also exhibit lower academic performance (Kelly, 1998). However, some children manage to develop without these deleterious effects of divorce. As a matter of fact, these children are found to have less stereotyped sex behavior, greater maturity and greater independence (Emery, 1995). The developmental stage of the child when the divorce of his parents occurs is predictive of the child’s behavior and reaction towards the situation. An infant or a toddler will not react at all to his parents’ divorce because he can’t still comprehend the situation. However, a preschooler will tend to blame himself as the culprit of his parents’ divorce. Because he feels guilty and fears that the remaining parent may also leave him, he becomes more possessive of his parent (Roseby, 1998). For a young school-aged child, the divorce of his parents gives him a sense of responsibility. He feels that he should bring his parents together again and think of strategies that will make his parents interact in any way (Lansky, 1996). On the other hand, older school-aged children tend to blame one parent and take the side of the other parent. They become anxious and worrisome of the situation which makes them prone to illnesses such as headaches, sleeping disorders, chest pains, diabetes and asthma (Kimball, 1994). The reaction is more deleterious with adolescents who entirely mask their reactions. They switch to other outlets such as peers, sex, alcohol and drugs because they hate being bothered by their parents’ lives (Thompson, 1998). I have a friend named Diane. Fourteen years ago, her parents separated by divorce. Back then, she was only turning three and didn’t know anything about the chaotic situation between her parents. She was left to the custody of her mother while her father was just obliged by the court to provide some financial assistance. Everything went well with this arrangement until she entered primary school where she had greater monetary needs. Unfortunately, her father had another family and was compelled to reduce the money sent to her. This was the reason why her mother was obligated to work in order to support her. Because her mother became busy in her work, Diane was always left with her grandmother whenever she was off from school. It was only through her grandmother that everything regarding her family became clear. She hated the fact that her own mother concealed their broken family from her and would always say that her father is just working in a far away place. She realized that she will never have his father back and that her fantasies of having a complete family would never be real. That time, she began to skip classes in school and whenever she would attend a lecture, she never participates in the recitation. She also failed our exams. I was really worried about the big change in her behavior because she used to be the top student of our class. I just learned about her family problem when she never attended classes for a week and her mother came to our school looking for her. One of our classmates revealed that Diane eloped with her boyfriend. I can’t forget the face of Diane’s mother crying and blaming herself for what had happened to her daughter. After that, I never saw Diane again. The last news I heard about her was that she is living with her mother again. She broke up with her boyfriend but gave birth to a baby boy, who, like her, is a child of divorce. Diane’s story is just one of the millions of stories which we can get from the life of a child from a broken family. In her case, the effects of divorce were appalling because of the lack of effective communication. It would have been better if both her parents explained to her the situation and the reasons why they should have divorce. When Diane learned that her parents were already divorced, she was very frustrated because she fantasized of having a complete family when her father returns from work. She also felt betrayal because her mother never told her what’s real. These extreme negative emotions changed her attitude and made her rebel against the situation. Also, Diane’s mother was very preoccupied in her work that’s why she was not able to keep an eye on the performance of her daughter in school. If only she did, maybe she was able to help Diane solve her emotional problems at an early stage. After all, divorce can really cause a big scar but it doesn’t really have to. References: Bryner, C. L. (2001). Children of Divorce. Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine Practice;14:201–10. Diefenbach, H. and Opp, K. D. (2007). When and Why Do People Think There Should Be a Divorce? http://rss. sagepub. com/cgi/content/abstract/19/4/485. Emery, R. E. and Coiro, M. J. (1995). Divorce: consequences for children. Pediatric Review;16:306 –10. Gallagher, M. (1996). The Abolition of Marriage. Regnery Publishing. Hetherington, E. M. and Stanley-Hagan M. (1999). The adjustment of children with divorced parents: a risk andresiliency perspective. Journal of Child Psychology; 40:129–40. Kelly, J. B. (1998). Marital conflict, divorce, and children’s adjustment. Child Adolescent Psychiatry;7:259 –71. Kimball, G. (1994). How to survive your parents’ divorce: kids’ advice to kids. Chico, California: Equality Press. Lansky, V. (1996). Divorce book for parents helping your child cope with divorce and its aftermath. Minnetonka, MN: Book Peddlers. Roseby, V. and Johnston J. R. (1998). Common developmental threats in high-conflict divorcing families. Child Adolescent Psychiatry;7:295–309. Scanzoni, J. (1965). A Reinquiry into Marital Disorganization. Journal of Marriage and the Family 27: 483–91. Thompson, P. (1998). Adolescents from families of divorce: vulnerability to physiological and psychological disturbances. Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Service;36(3):34 –9.

A Chronology of the Stone Age

The Stone Age in human prehistory also referred to as the Paleolithic Period, is the period between about 2.7 million and 10,000 years ago. Youll see different dates for the starting and ending dates of the Paleolithic periods, in part because were still learning about these ancient occurrences. The Paleolithic is the time when our species Homo sapiens,  developed into the human beings of today. The people who study the past of humans are called archaeologists. Archaeologists study the recent past of our planet and the evolution of physical human beings and their behaviors. Those archaeologists who study the very earliest human beings specialize in the Paleolithic; scientists who study the periods prior to the Paleolithic are paleontologists. The Paleolithic period begins in Africa with the earliest human-like behaviors of crude stone tool manufacture about 2.7 million years ago  and ends with the development of fully modern human hunting and gathering societies. Domestication of plants and animals marks the beginning of modern human society. Leaving Africa After decades of debate, the majority of scientists are now convinced that our earliest human ancestors evolved in Africa. In Europe, where humans finally arrived after about a million years in Africa, the Paleolithic was marked by a cycle of glacial and interglacial periods, during which time glaciers grew and shrank, covering massive portions of land and forcing a cycle of human depopulation and recolonization. Today scholars divide the Paleolithic into three categories, called Lower Paleolithic, Middle Paleolithic, and Upper Paleolithic in Europe and Asia; and Early Stone Age, Middle Stone Age and Later Stone Age in Africa. Lower Paleolithic (or Early Stone Age) about 2.7 million-300,000 years ago In Africa, where the earliest humans arose, the Early Stone Age begins some 2.7 million years ago, with the earliest stone tools recognized to date in the Olduvai Gorge of East Africa. These tools were simple fist-sized cores and whole flakes created by two ancient hominids (human ancestors), Paranthropus boisei and Homo habilis. The earliest hominids left Africa about 1.7 million years ago, arriving at sites such as Dmanisi in Georgia, where hominids (probably Homo erectus)  made stone tools suggestive of those from Africa. Human ancestors, as a group, are called  hominids. The species that evolved in the Lower Paleolithic include  Australopithecus,   Homo habilis,   Homo erectus,   and  Homo ergaster, among others.   Middle Paleolithic/Middle Stone Age (about 300,000-45,000 Years Ago) The Middle Paleolithic period (ca 300,000 to 45,000 years ago) witnessed the evolution of Neanderthals and the first anatomically and eventually behaviorally modern Homo sapiens. All of the living members of our species, Homo sapiens, are descended from a single population in Africa. During the Middle Paleolithic, H. sapiens first left from northern Africa to colonize the Levant between about 100,000-90,000 years ago, but those colonies failed. The earliest successful and permanent Homo sapiens occupations outside of Africa date to about 60,000 years ago. Achieving what scholars call behavioral modernity was a long, slow process, but some of the first glimmers arose in the Middle Paleolithic, such as the development of sophisticated stone tools, caring for the elderly, hunting and gathering, and some amount of symbolic or ritual behavior. Upper Paleolithic (Late Stone Age) 45,000-10,000 Years Ago By the Upper Paleolithic (45,000-10,000 years ago), the Neanderthals were in decline, and by 30,000 years ago, they were gone. Modern humans spread all over the planet, reaching the Sahul (Australia) about 50,000 years ago, mainland Asia about 28,000 years ago, and finally the Americas, about 16,000 years ago. The Upper Paleolithic is characterized by fully modern behaviors such as cave art, hunting a range of techniques including bows and arrows, and making a wide range of tools in stone, bone, ivory, and antler. Sources: Bar-Yosef O. 2008. ASIA, WEST - Palaeolithic Cultures. In: Pearsall DM, editor. Encyclopedia of Archaeology. New York: Academic Press. p 865-875. Close AE, and Minichillo T. 2007. ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORDS - Global Expansion 300,000-8000 years ago, Africa. In: Elias SA, editor. Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science. Oxford: Elsevier. p 99-107. Harris JWK, Braun DR, and Pante M. 2007. ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORDS - 2.7 MYR-300,000 years ago in Africa In: Elias SA, editor. Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science. Oxford: Elsevier. p 63-72. Marciniak A. 2008. EUROPE, CENTRAL AND EASTERN. In: Pearsall DM, editor. Encyclopedia of Archaeology. New York: Academic Press. p 1199-1210. McNabb J. 2007. ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORDS - 1.9 MYR-300,000 years ago in Europe In: Elias SA, editor. Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science. Oxford: Elsevier. p 89-98. Petraglia MD, and Dennell R. 2007. ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORDS - Global Expansion 300,000-8000 years ago, Asia In: Elias SA, editor. Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science. Oxford: Elsevier. p 107-118. Shen C. 2008. ASIA, EAST - China, Paleolithic Cultures. In: Pearsall DM, editor. Encyclopedia of Archaeology. New York: Academic Press. p 570-597.