An Analysis of Capitalist Realism in “Mister Squishy”

Introduction The origin of realism can be traced to the 19th century as a literary movement committed to the portrayal of life with fidelity. It rejected the classicism and romanticism. However, realism has been criticized as an exceptionally elastic term, often ambivalent and equivocal … a term which many feel we could do without. However, every generation’s mode of realism is a mirror to their conceptualization of the realities of that age. Therefore, while the 19th century realist authors were more closely attuned to the term literary realism, in which authors made a deliberate attempt to deviate from earlier forms of literary modes, the aftermath of the industrial revolution and concerns for the sprawling urban poor planted the seeds of social realism. Additionally, naturalism arose from the dominant scientific thoughts on biological and environmental determinism (Taghizadeh, 2014). In the 20th century, psychological realism, reminiscent in the works of Joyce Carol Oates and Henry James, took center stage as well as the dirty realism of Hemingway. The garden of realism has since birthed the sensational realism of James Eyre, irrealism of Frantz Kafka, magic realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, hyperrealism (consumerist/capitalist realism) of Don de Lillo and David Foster Wallace, and…

Causal Analysis Article Critique

In Jo and Harjoto’s (2012) article The Causal Effect of Corporate Governance on Corporate Social Responsibility, the authors argue that there exists a causal relationship between corporate governance (CG) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) outputs. The study finds that a lag of CSR has no effect on CG variables. However, the lag of CG variables positively effects a company’s engagement in CSR (or CSR output). Firm characteristics were appropriately controlled for, and the study was grounded in two theories, stakeholder theory and agency theory, which are often applied to international business, international relations, and international politics. The central causal argument proposed by Jo and Harjoto (2012) is that CG causes companies to either engage or not engage in CSR practices and, therefore, influences their CSR outputs. There is a positive correlation between these two variables, indicating that, in companies where CG members are more concerned with ethical behaviors and obligations to the community, CSR measures and practices are greater. Conversely, in organizations where CG members are less concerned with these community and social priorities and obligations, CSR measures and practices decrease in number and impact. Ferejohn (2004) describes this as a structural explanation because it possesses “some underlying causal processes…

Essay on Feminism Thoughts

Answer 1 Sylvia Plath is arguably one of the best feminist writers that ever existed during her time. Having grown up in a society where women’s feelings were shelved and not appreciated, she writes her text The Bell Jar to illustrate the inequalities that were evident in her society between men and women. In the text, she shows how Esther Greenwood attempts to take her own life as a result of the pressure that the society was exerting on women as opposed to men. Sylvia talks about the feminist issues of power, the quest for identity, and the demands of nurturing that rest upon the shoulders of the woman as per the dictations of the society. In The Bell Jar, though the protagonist Esther is depicted as a high achiever, she was not able to fulfill her dreams as she was not accepted for the writing program. As a result, Esther contemplates taking her life to escape from society’s expectations of what women should become (Sylvia 50). With her powerful work, Sylvia touches on the sexual double standards that are expected of the woman. Esther is fascinated by the roles placed by society on women and the attitudes that the…

Essay on Different Types of Organizations

Introduction The vast diversity of organizations create significant difficulties for their classification. Organizations that, at first glance, can be attributed to one group by one criterion, can vary significantly in another. For a manager or a person engaged in research in the field of management, the typology of organizations plays the role of a guidebook that helps to create a particular image of the surrounding reality. Given the interaction with the external environment, organizations can be mechanistic and organic. The application of the term mechanistic to an organization is used to show that the system is designed like a machine mechanism intended for production operations (Buhler, 2011). The term organic gives the organization the quality of a living organism, free from the shortcomings of a mechanistic structure. The mechanistic type of control structure is characterized by the use of formal rules and procedures, centralization of decision making, narrowly defined correspondence in work, and a rigid hierarchy of power. The disadvantages of the mechanical structure relate to the lack of flexibility, excess controllability, excessive centralization, and the formation of irrational information flows (Buhler, 2011). The organic type, in contrast to the mechanistic, is a decentralized organization of management, which is characterized…

Valley and Ridge Aquifer System Essay

Hydrologic Setting of the Area Valley and ridge aquifer system extends from Southwest region of Pennsylvania to Northeast region of Virginia. The aquifer system is the major water supply for the regions. Its hydrologic settings are formed mainly due to limestone that is exposed in the core of anticline of valley and ridge aquifer. These regions receive heavy rainfall of as high as 43 inches on average annually, which provides 13 inches of water to the aquifer system, and through a proper mechanism, the rainfall can result in the recharge of the aquifer. Valley and ridge aquifer system is composed of layered Paleozoic sedimentary strata that are folded and deformed by a series of tectonic collisions during about 200 million years ago. The collisions cause fracture that has high permeability and contains holes, which allows the rapid recharge of aquifer system by rainwater. The water runoffs to less permeable regions such as shales and sandstone and is collected as groundwater above the limestone at the valley edge (Swain, Mesko, & Hollyday, 2004). The water collected in the aquifer is closely linked to surface water bodies, such as lake, river, and wetlands. This relationship is, however, affected by the position of…

How to Ensure Quality Sleeping Essay

Lack of sleep severely affects physical abilities of the human organism and may cause many health issues. In the contemporary world, people tend to obtain not enough energy from sleeping, which leads to stress, disorders, mental instability, and other physiological problems. Therefore, to ensure sleep, it is necessary to plan the time rationally, maintain regular rest time, and exercise before going to bed. Since today people spend too much time on technologies willing to engage in everything they presume is necessary to accomplish their goals, insufficient sleep might become a daily issue. Without a strictly scheduled sleeping time, people are not able to focus on work or studying, which implicates a lack of performance. “There are multiple overlapping areas of performance that are substantially affected by inadequate sleep, including speed, endurance, strength, attention, executive function, and learning” (Simpson, Gibbs, and Matheson 267). In particular, insufficient sleep today will undoubtedly result in distraction during the studying process tomorrow, which may affect my grade.

Media and Culture Essay

America’s Got Talent (AGT) show is watched not only in the United States but all over the world. For 5 straight summers, 12 out of the 13 years that AGT has been aired, the program has been the most watched to only losing the top spot only once to the first season of the Under the Dome series (Fitzgerald 2018). Based on the Nielsen L+ playback rating, the American Got Talent show makes the top 10 and takes the first spot of the most TV shows watched during the summer (Fitzgerald 2018). The fact that no other show, including the populous American Idol, means that AGT has remained at the top for 12 consecutive seasons similar to has further substantiated the dominance of the program (Fitzgerald 2018). An analysis of AGT in relation to the circuit of culture and the identification of a range of issues of the show provides a basis for appreciating the program as a form of widely accepted culture all over the world. The government of the United States regulates the production of airing of the AGT talent program. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) rates and regulates films and shows in the United States…

Argumentative Essay about Money and Happiness

A common assumption in the media and everywhere else is that being rich means that one is happy. The debate on money and happiness has been going on for a while. There is a belief that the more money one has, the more comfortable he/she becomes. With money, one can buy the basic needs. Though money can satisfy our physical needs, we need to understand that happiness is not material. Instead, satisfaction is a more profound natural feeling that comes out of a person and is not necessarily dependent on money. What we need to understand, therefore, is that money does not bring happiness as many people would imagine. For long, people have not understood that money can only help a person in making individual choices. Having large amounts of money does not necessarily lead to happiness. The belief that being rich is having a lot of money is often misconstrued (Badiou 75). Given a chance, it is evident that most people are likely to choose riches. However, we should ask ourselves if money can make others to love us. The desire of human beings is the need to love and be loved in return. It is the feeling that…

Is Being a Dreamer More Important than Making Practical Decisions?

In the Early stages of life, dreaming is inevitable; almost everyone in their childhood has something they want to be in life as well as the kind of life they would want to lead. At that point in time, it appears as though the dreams will come to pass without a proper guideline on how the dreams or goals set to be achieved then will come to pass. Dreaming of success or a great future may proceed to adulthood and in this case, dreamers know exactly what they want to achieve, be it owning a Lamborghini or living in the most expensive mansion. Unfortunately, these dreams in most instances never come to pass. Practical decision-makers may have been dreamers in childhood but as they grow up hard realities get them in line. Such people make decisions based on realities, they also work towards their futures based on the practicalities of life, if one line of thought seems to lead them nowhere they change course.

Aggression Caused by Video Games Essay

Video games have become one of the most recurrent themes amongst the youth especially. More than 150 million Americans play video games, which is a significant percentage. Video games are largely associated with causing aggression as they have immense power of influencing minds. Over the last couple of centuries, video games have drastically diversified. There are several different themes of video games that have become popular. One of the most popular themes is based on violence. Several video games are built on underlying themes of wars and violence. Consequentially, they become the causal factors which strategically cause violent thoughts and behavioral patterns amongst people. This is one of the major factors which can be considered as creating dysfunction in society.