Symbolism of Education in Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi

Symbolism of Education in Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi Pinocchio is a childrens story, and the primary purpose of most childrens stories are to be taking some kind of educational responsibility. For many of us the story will exist only in our mind and imagination, nevertheless it is helpful, when reading a childrens story, to have in mind the practical problems faced by the producers or the characters trying to interpret the story. Certainly the plot of Pinocchio is exciting and full of education. We would not, of course, expect education to be the dominating theme of a childrens story which seeks to explore how a child like Pinnochio grows up rather than merely to excite the spectator. Yet some educational scenarios are important dramatically in Pinocchio and it is not artificially contrived. Thus it seems that Carlo Collodi, the author of Pinocchio tend to offer clues towards his ideas of the puzzling aspect of childrens educational processes. It is brought about by the natural behaviour of characters, and often by the unpredictability of Pinocchio. This essay is going to explore whether Carlo Collodi wants to promote or critique educational processes through Pinocchio. The story begins with master Anthony finds a piece of wood which is able to speak, laugh and cry, then he gives this piece of magic wood to his friend Old Joe, who always longs for a piece of wood that can be turned to a fabulous puppet. It is noticeable here, that why Collodi has to introduce two men relate to Pinocchio as he could have had only Old Joe himself alone finds the wood and uses the piece of wood to create Pinocchio? And if we look back to the moment when Master Anthony encounters Old Joe, these two old fellows even fights twice for some funny reasons! Perhaps Collodi would like to remind us of the impact of family background can have on a child: Pinocchio is born in a single parent family. Being parents is a job hard enough, but I reckon doing it alone just doubles the difficulty. The phenomenon of single parent family is not as common in Collodis time as it is in our time now, but possibly Collodi might have already noticed the effect a single parent family may bring o n a child. Then the story continues with sort of chaos, when the puppet Pinocchio runs away from home after he is just completed and given a name. This naughty (or even worse rebellious) personality of Pinocchio marks his fortune and the relative education he is going to accept as the story unfolds. Unlike any infant or new born kids that symbolize pureness and naivety, Pinocchio seems to be very distinctive because of his wildness and naughtiness. The scenario of Pinocchio runs away also leads to poor Old Joes life in jail for a few days, yet it is worth noticing that Old Joe does not condemn Pinocchio for his wildness. Perhaps it is because the miserable experience Pinocchio has while Old Joe is in jail distracts his attention. It is what normally happens when parents see their children get hurt even it is their own accounts. Possibly Collodi is not criticizing if it is right or wrong, yet according to Old Joes attitude towards Pinocchio more or less indicate Collodis acquiesce i n parent spoiling their children. Pinocchios naughtiness and wildness leads his father Old Joe to think about letting Pinocchio go to school. But Old Joe makes up his mind too soon, in despite of considering the possibility and availability. At this point Collodi shows his mastery of creating touching and emotional scenario: Poor Old Joe sells his cape to buy Pinocchio an alphabet book. As a father, no doubt that he wishes his child could learn to be a sensible and amenable child. Nevertheless it appears this kind of orthodox education process does not work on Pinocchio. Thus one may argue, is going to school the only way to teach children to behave properly and be sensible? It is reasonable to speculate that Collodis answer is likely to be: No! Because in fact even until the end of the story when Pinocchio eventually becomes a real boy and behaves appropriately, school is something never has any obvious positive effect on him.   Though going to school is a daily requirement in his life, however he is in constant m ental battle whether to go or not. There is just too much temptation ahead of him, such as puppet play, the land of toy, etc. In order to watch the puppet play he sells his book which costs his father the only cape and he takes the risk of not becoming a real boy to go to the land of toy, where he and his ‘friend Candle-Wick turned donkeys. His desire of becoming a real boy is so strong, yet his remarks are always inconsistent with what he promises. In a way Pinocchio stands for ordinary immature children, who need proper guide and appropriate help from the adults. However the images of ‘adults are pretty grim throughout the whole story, apart from his father Old Joe, the talking cricket and the Fairy. Considering those adults from the beginning: the careless police who puts Old Joe into jail; the puppeteer Swallowfire almost makes Pinocchio a great contribution to his dinner (but he could be positive as he shows his mercy by giving Pinocchio 5 gold coins); the fox and cat swindles Pinocchios money, etc. I do not think Collodi is being cynical but surely he shows his concerns of the social environment, in which children grow up. What shall we expect from children when they are growing up in a society which is full of dishonesty, lies and incredibility? Furthermore, it is funny that we hardly see any glimpse of Old Joe as the action progresses. As Pinocchios only family, Old Joe is bound to teach Pinocchio things like how t o tell right from wrong or how to avoid mixing with wrong people. Whereas until Old Joe joins the reunions with Pinocchio inside fish, he scarcely appears and his role is ironically fulfilled by the talking cricket and the Fairy. In this crucial stage of growing up, it is quite a pity there is hardly any trace of Old Joe. Despite his wildness and rebelliousness, Pinocchio does not seem to be a precocious child and he gives an impression of genuine simplicity and naivety, particularly when it looks as if everything is so convincible to him. Nevertheless there is one thing is highly noticeable, that is he is unable to tell any lie. Of course it is the way the Fairy helps him to always tell the truth and learn to be honest, but is it not too cruel for a child, when he must be totally honest otherwise his nose gets longer as punishment? It seems the world have no mercy on him, because his destiny is to be an honest man. When the story comes to the end, Pinocchio finally becomes a real virtuous boy, but the price for it, I am afraid, is a bit too high, as he makes his dream come true by overcoming too many troubles like a yoke which is too heavy for a child to bear. Moreover, even though he is merely a puppet, he has the human traits. He shows true warmth and love towards his father Old Joe and the Fairy. In conclusion, of course the whole story of Pinocchio is rather an example of the kind of presence of mind with which educational stories are wont to amaze the children and thus successfully becoming a real boy is a tribute to Pinocchios tireless effort to behave properly and learn to be a virtuous boy, however the progress of his grow-up is riveting. Yet with the examples of traditional education processes presented by the author in the story, and his occasional critiques on the society in which children are brought up, the confrontation remains as we dare not assert if Carlo Collodi himself is promoting or criticizing educational processes. Thus it is reasonable to argue, that the balance between promoting and criticizing educational processes is well maintained by Collodi. Bibliography Collodi, C., (1996). The Adventure of Pinocchio. trans. A.L.Lucas. Oxford: Oxford University Press Stewart Steinberg, S., (2007). The Pinocchio Effect: on making Italians 1860 1920. Chicago: University of Chicago Press Zipes, J.D., (2007). When dreams came true: classical fairy tales and their tradition. New York: Routledge

Cultural impact of Macdonalds Essay

McDonald is more than a restaurant; it had known to be a prominent symbol of American standard in fast food industries. And for this company to penetrate the Arab market where they’re a huge gap in cultures, it must have to do some necessary adjustments. Even though McDonald have a strong value of its name as a brand, it wont be easy to for a foreign company to gain the confidence of a country with a strong different believe and well established culture. You see not the all restaurant could sell their products in Middle East because of this situation. It is this culture of Middle East people that had set standard and limitation of what to eat and not. Arab people are very strict when it comes to this matter and everything should be according to their laws and religion. The concept of selling product exclusively for a particular region is an effective way to reach out their potential market. For example, the introduction of Mcarabia sandwich in the Middle East. There are two versions of this sandwich, the McArabia Grilled Chicken and Grilled Kofta, which is both, prepared only using ingredients that are acceptable with the Arab Religion. This is very important part of reaching out the Arab market. Just by naming it as â€Å"McArabia† makes the Arab people feel how they are being valued by McDonald restaurant. It reflects the sincere commitments of McDonalds to reach out the market of the gulf regions. Thus, it gained a warm acceptance with Arab market and it has shown with record of successful sales of the company. With the success of McDonald, it brought out a new interest to its Arab Market. It taught its customers how they could they could enjoy American products and still stick with their culture. However, this leads to into some modernization, which I believe is now acceptable with Arab leaders. For as long as there religion is always on top of consideration, changes are welcome to Arab market. Maybe this is the reason why there’s a lot establishment and products being produce in accordance with the â€Å"hajal† standard.a

Perils of Indifference Analysis

Is Ignorance Bliss? Elie Wiesel was victim to one of the most tragic and horrific incidents of the twentieth century, the Holocaust. He was one of few lucky ones who escaped the camps alive, while his family was part of millions who were not so lucky. Years after that, he became a journalist and eventually was convinced to finally write about his experiences with the Holocaust. The result became one of his most famously publicized works.The book, Night (English translation version), only represented the beginning of a flourishing career as a political activist and novelist. He came to the United States and continued writing about his life and political ideologies, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for works that diligently argued for ending oppression, hatred, and racism. Such themes are the underlying basis of his message in his speech The Perils of Indifference.The horrors he faced as a boy forged the man that would go on to write all of these magnificent works; the neg lect and ignorance of those events that occurred during the Holocaust influenced and inspired him to warn people of the dangerous woes of indifference. Lecturing an audience for any extended period of time is never an ideal way to convey one’s message effectively. As an experienced and successful novelist, Wiesel was well aware that if he wanted to get people to really understand what he meant when he said â€Å"Indifference, after all, is more dangerous than anger or hatred. , he couldn’t just talk at his audience, he had to ask questions to engage them. However, questions don’t have to require answers, and in a speech as passionate and carefully articulated as this one, a Q & A every thirty seconds would drown out his point among all of the redundant tangents the conversation could take off in. Instead, Wiesel took the approach of using the figurative devices of asking rhetorical questions and setting up allusions to make his argument relatable, understandabl e, reliable, and most importantly: agreeable.The use of rhetorical questions in this speech differs from what many people use on a day to day basis -usually to promote sarcasm or imply one must be immensely dense to not understand a point. Here, Wiesel uses the device to get his audience to participate in his argument as well as hear it. By asking themselves the very questions he asks, audiences are apt to reach the very conclusions that Wiesel’s has. Two types of rhetorical questions used by Wiesel most often are either unanswerable or suggestive. For example, â€Å"How is one to explain their indifference? or â€Å"Why didn’t he [FDR] allow these refugees [Jews] to disembark [back to the Nazis]? † are unanswerable. Questions that don’t have an answer allow for people to make their own assumptions. If guidelines have been set prior to these questions, an audiences’ conclusions are likely to further support his argument. To this day, no one knows what influenced FDR to make certain decisions, but based on Wiesel’s persistent argument, it can be presumed that indifference played a major role in some of FDR’s decisions.Another type of rhetorical question that Wiesel used were â€Å"suggestive† questions. There were many instances were Wiesel would insert long chains of rhetorical questions one right after the other. Though risky or even overwhelming, these questions made the direction of his argument easier to control. On the first page when he asks about indifference, he enters this chain of rhetorical questions: â€Å"What are its courses and inescapable consequences? Is it a philosophy? Is a philosophy of indifference conceivable?Can one possibly view indifference as a virtue? Is it necessary at times to practice it simply to keep one’s sanity, live normally, enjoy a fine meal and a glass of wine, as the world around us experiences harrowing upheavals? †. The first rhetorical question is r esponded to with his next idea: Is it a philosophy? He assumes it is, then from there the idea of indifference is inferred as ubiquitous. The pattern of assuming each questions with a new question continues.Rhetorical questions that are suggestive enhance Wiesel’s position, and this injection forces the audience to come to Wiesel’s conclusion, while still feeling as though the conclusion is their own. Allusion is another literary device used to Wiesel’s advantage in this argument. Wiesel uses allusions to make his rhetorical questions as effective as possible. Initially, if Wiesel was to go on and on about indifference in general, the audience might be less engaged. However, Wiesel inserts multiple types of allusions to make his point relatable to the lives f his audience. For instance, when he talks about how â€Å"It is so much easier to look away from the victims† when referencing â€Å"behind the black gates of Auschwitz† and â€Å"the most tr agic of all prisoners†, since the Holocaust is a universally accepted tragedy, indifference is related to that event, and is therefore conceived as a trait with demonic properties. By establishing the allusion that reinforces how terrible the Holocaust was, the rhetorical question regarding why FDR did not take more action became much more influential.Additionally, Wiesel incorporated more vague references, such as a â€Å"political prisoner in his cell, the hungry children, the homeless refugees-†. Wiesel infers that ignoring such tragedies and remaining unresponsive is both evil and indifferent. Then by displaying indifference in many kinds of scenarios, going to this extent allows Wiesel to create effectiveness with his allusions. His goal is to have the audience establish their own connections and inferences, which he does through creating relative allusions, then asking relevant rhetorical questions.Of course there were other literary elements in this speech that m ade Wiesel’s argument all that more effective. His use of powerful diction -such as â€Å"betray†, â€Å"abandon†, â€Å"suffering† â€Å"anger†- all promotes the same intense and powerful tone, and he sporadicly uses anaphora to extend the passion in his message such as instances where he says â€Å"You fight it, You denounce it. You disarm it. † or â€Å"They no longer felt pain, hunger thirst. They feared nothing. They felt nothing. They were dead and did not know it. †. Lastly, Wiesel interjects himself into the speech in the beginning as he recounts himself as a small boy in the midst of a struggle.Then once more at the end, he retells that brief anecdote, and uses the idea of his childhood still accompanying him as a metaphor for how events that had transpired during his childhood: How the past he has carried with him to this day and is what has made him into the novelist the audience sees before them. Wiesel certainly makes it clear through his prominent uses of rhetorical questions and allusion that indifference creates a threat to the humanity everyone possesses somewhere within, and uses examples of his time in Auschwitz as an example of what damaging and painful effects indifference can inflict upon others.Even when he says, â€Å"Do we hear their pleas? Do we feel their pain, their agony? Every minute one of them dies of diseases, violence, famine. Some of them -so many of them- could be saved. † However, Wiesel doesn’t let the indifference that affected his childhood so heavily deny who he is, and what he cares about. That is why he is able to make many more speeches, construct many more arguments, and make many more advancements of movements, that can be just as effective as this speech. He does it so flawlessly with his ability to combine the fervency derived from his past and the skills he has obtained throughout his career as a great novelist.

Dropping Out Of High School - 1696 Words

The issue of dropping out of high school were discussed as early as 1927 in literatures according to (Christle, Jolivette, and Nelson 2007). During that era, dropout was called â€Å"school- leaving† and was considered to be a psychological problem based on interest and attitudes. Young people were considered as restless and needing the freedom to explore new interests. If schools did not meet their needs, there was the likelihood that these teenagers will drop out (Christle, Jolivette, and Nelson, 2007). Today, dropping out of high school early is a major problem for both young people and the society. Recent reviews and empirical evidence have shown that there is no simple cause of early school leaving, but it seems to relate to factors such as personal factors, social factors, academic achievement, and school factors (Barton ,2006). The motive of this study is to address the key predictors that cause young people to leave high school early without completing their education in Dallas, Texas. A phenomenological approach using surveys will be conducted to determine young people’s perception and assumption of leaving high school early without completing their education. It is ultimately the goal of this research investigation to examine findings of this study to help provide intervention strategies that will keep young people in school. INTRODUCTION According to Barton (2006), over a million of youngShow MoreRelatedDropping Out Of High School3487 Words   |  14 Pages(1998), high school dropouts were discussed in literature as early as 1927. At that time dropout was called â€Å"school- leaving† and was considered to be a psychological problem based on interest and attitudes (Fuller, 1927). Beginning in the 1920s, teenagers were viewed as restless and needing the freedom to explore new interests. 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But as I know as a student and as a student who has graduated, it is not only the students fault. There are many outside factors and influences that lead to the students dropping out. The term â€Å"drop out† is referringRead MoreCreating A Better Communication Within Parents, Students And Teachers1639 Words   |  7 PagesEveryone looks forward to being in high school. Fours years you can be wild, careless, and adventuring into adult hood. The years you have class with the same people, know everyones name within the school, and not sure what your future is going to hold. Over the years there have been a decreasing amount of high school students. But there has been a increase in High school dropouts. Comparing the freshman class to the senior class at any school you will notice a dramatic decrease in students. Due