The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver essays

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver essays There seems to be a buzz going around about Barbara Kingsolver's indifference towards men. Much of that, though, is generated by one of her first novels, The Bean Trees. It does ring true, for this particular story, that only one man out of many plays a laudable part. But that novel fails to represent Kingsolver's entire spectrum of stories. Another one of her just as successful novels, Animal Dreams, highlights a major male character, and a few others, with a positive sheen. The two novels, so similar in the way of a woman's self-journey, are also quite different when it comes to outlooks on men. The reason Taylor Greer, the main character in The Bean Trees, leaves her hometown is because there is nothing for her there. Mainly, she has seen pretty much every woman in the town "get hogtied to a future as a tobacco farmer's wife", or some equal/worse fate. The men in her life, including her father, have instilled a bad feeling in Taylor, either by being lazy and boring, leaving their spouses, or even beating the women who "love" them. By the time the cute northern high school teacher comes along, Taylor isn't even "moony" over him and he would be the one to like. So as a young girl, she learns not to be easily impressed by members of the male species. As the novel rumbles along her path of discovery, it refuses to introduce any positive men except for Estevan, the unattainable. It only brings in more reasons to dislike them, actually, with Taylor's best friend left heartbroken by her husband, and with Taylor's success in a virtually all-female close-knit circle of friends. Nothing in this novel suggests a positive feeling towards men. A couple of years after The Bean Trees, Kingsolver introduced a new novel called Animal Dreams. This one goes against any "male-bashing" that readers may have picked up from her previous work. In fact, it uses a man to help the main character, Codi, feel most at home with herself and her town. ...

Free Essays on The Effect On Corporate Agriculture Of Controversies About Biotechnology

â€Å"Agriculture has been transformed into a globally interconnected system that has gone through three revolutionary phases, from the domestication of plants and animals to the latest developments in industrial innovation and biotechnology (Knox and Marston 327). With biotech crops creating new levels of production unseen before by farmers, new productivity has created new profit for the growing corporate agricultural businesses like Archer Daniels Midland Corporation. But Biotechnology has somewhat backfired for businesses like ADM which supplies genetically modified crops and products here in America and to overseas markets like Europe. Europe now is concerned about the dangers of biotech on the environment and human health. ADM and other agribusinesses are feeling the pressure of overseas markets that are against genetically modified crops. ADM stated, "As a key link in the food supply system, we must produce products that our customers will purchase† (Tait, N). Since cap italist businesses must follow the demands of the consumers in order to keep making profits, ADM has been forced to put away there ideals about biotechnology and focus on supplying overseas markets with products that they will purchase. With companies like ADM now paying more money for crops from regular seeds, farmers feel as though they have been taken for a ride by these big agricultural companies since they have had to pay more money for the new herbicide and pest-resistant seeds (Hsu, K). â€Å"The farm has moved from being the centerpiece of agriculture to become but one part of an integrated multilevel industrial process including production, storage, processing, distribution, marketing, and retaining† (Knox and Marston 342). Agriculture has become more than planting and harvesting. It is now a food assembly line where each scale, from the private farm, to the commercial business, to the global market, is part of the food chain. â€Å"The industrialization of a... Free Essays on The Effect On Corporate Agriculture Of Controversies About Biotechnology Free Essays on The Effect On Corporate Agriculture Of Controversies About Biotechnology â€Å"Agriculture has been transformed into a globally interconnected system that has gone through three revolutionary phases, from the domestication of plants and animals to the latest developments in industrial innovation and biotechnology (Knox and Marston 327). With biotech crops creating new levels of production unseen before by farmers, new productivity has created new profit for the growing corporate agricultural businesses like Archer Daniels Midland Corporation. But Biotechnology has somewhat backfired for businesses like ADM which supplies genetically modified crops and products here in America and to overseas markets like Europe. Europe now is concerned about the dangers of biotech on the environment and human health. ADM and other agribusinesses are feeling the pressure of overseas markets that are against genetically modified crops. ADM stated, "As a key link in the food supply system, we must produce products that our customers will purchase† (Tait, N). Since cap italist businesses must follow the demands of the consumers in order to keep making profits, ADM has been forced to put away there ideals about biotechnology and focus on supplying overseas markets with products that they will purchase. With companies like ADM now paying more money for crops from regular seeds, farmers feel as though they have been taken for a ride by these big agricultural companies since they have had to pay more money for the new herbicide and pest-resistant seeds (Hsu, K). â€Å"The farm has moved from being the centerpiece of agriculture to become but one part of an integrated multilevel industrial process including production, storage, processing, distribution, marketing, and retaining† (Knox and Marston 342). Agriculture has become more than planting and harvesting. It is now a food assembly line where each scale, from the private farm, to the commercial business, to the global market, is part of the food chain. â€Å"The industrialization of a...

London's Fashion Today, From Primark to the club kids Essay

London's Fashion Today, From Primark to the club kids - Essay Example The essay "London's Fashion Today, From Primark to the club kids" discovers the London's fashion nowadays. On the one hand it is promoting healthy living, the other addicted to harmful habits. An important development today, small producers have been targeted at specific groups, and therefore base their production depending on needs of the groups.Fashion is the result of multifaceted interaction affect the mood of the masses of people. And the creation of models is often only show, because it is not demanded by society. And if to consider the notion of fashion, it is nothing like that by a majority. Thus the greatest success in the fashion of traditional "is the one who offers a range, not beyond the commonly accepted. Fashion innovators, or those who are promoting the new items in the estate are people who on their example show how to look like any new in the real world and the real person. Fashion is a major factor in the evolution of not only the costume, but a modern society in g eneral. To study the phenomenon of fashion as a special human culture began at the end of the XVIII century, interpreting it as an aesthetic phenomenon, due primarily to the changing aesthetic ideals and taste in art and costume. But to understand the true essence of the phenomenon of  «fashion », to reveal the underlying mechanisms of emergence and operation of society provided an opportunity for a sociological approach to the study of fashion. Researchers of fashion at the end of XIX-XX centuries considered fashion primarily.