Athol Fugard And Realism Theatre English Literature Essay

Athol Fugard And Realism Theatre English Literature Essay Athol Fugard is regarded as one of South Africas greatest realist playwrights. His works often dealt with topics that were seen as controversial and taboo in their time. He was someone who was not afraid to push boundaries and fight against the norm of society. He believed that one could make more impact if they stood up for what they believed in rather than accepting the life they were given. Some of his plays were known to be semi-autobiographical and depicted glimpses of his own life. Athol Fugard was very successful not only because his works were published from the 1960s all the way through to the 1980s, but also because he wrote plays which mass audiences enjoyed watching. His plays were most famous as realist drama which reflected society at the time. He was evidently unhappy with the socio-political situation of his country and found that the only way he could protest was through his writing which realistically showed the prejudices of society at the time. The harshness of Apartheid is shown through most of his plays in order to shed light on the terrible times African people faced. Realism theatre is the opposite of Romanticism. It is a form of theatre which depicts reality and can portray political events with certain opinions. This perfectly describes Athol Fugards style. Fugard used realism to protest against the government and found it to be a way in which he could stand up against what he believed to be morally wrong. He used emotive portrayals of everyday situations to make audiences think about their own society. It held a mirror up to the South African society at the time and the government did not want one playwrights ideas infecting the minds of the so called inferior races, namely the Black and Indian people. Master Harold and the boys is one of Fugards best works which was set in South Africa during the Apartheid era. It was originally banned by the South African government, led by the National Party (NP), because it shuns the racism and hatred of everyday apartheid society. The characters of the play are typical of South Africans at the time with the black servant being unable to speak proper English, the young white boys father who is suffering from an addiction to alcohol and the African acceptance of allowing a white master to treat them as inferior and inflict pain on them without any reasoning. The two main themes shown throughout this play are anger and hatred. Sam, the one African servant, who has been a long suffering victim of these prejudices, has attempted to transcend the hatred and anger. He acts as a surrogate father to Hally by teaching him valuable life lessons, imparting wisdom on the boy and by doing small, kind acts like building a kite for him, all while Hallys father drank himself into a stupor. Hallys father became an alcoholic after he lost a leg in the 2nd World War. The policies of the South African government in the mid 1950s allowed for a certain amount of hatred and anger between whites and blacks. As shown in this play when Hally finds out his tyrant of a father will be returning from the hospital he decides to humiliate the servants, Sam and Willie, by forcing them to call him Master Harold and then continues by unleashing years of suppressed pain and anger onto his two African friends. The play is left open ended to allow the audiences thoughts and imagination, on what could possibly happen, run wild. The play played an important role in showing the audience all things wrong with their lives. It showed the white people that acting as if they were a superior race would get them nowhere in the future. It showed the African people how they should no longer allow the whites to take such immense control over them and how self-determination would need to be created in order to move away from this ultimate control the white race had. Fugard knew that by writing a play such as this, his audience would be able to relate to all the current affairs in South Africa. The 2nd World War had just ended and this links up with Hallys father having just fought in the war. Apartheid was playing a major part in many individuals lives as all people were now classified into specific races and then divided into their own categories. From this classification, the idea of superiority vs. inferiority quickly grew. Another famous play written by Fugard is Blood Knot. This play shows us how classification into different race groups were almost tear families apart. The two brothers live together in a one room shack in a rundown, coloured area of Port Elizabeth. Although Morris and Zachariah are of classified into different race classes they continue to support each other through the hard times they have to endure. Zachariah is illiterate but when he decides to start sending letters to a female pen-pal, he dictates his letters while his brother Morris writes them. The theme of illiteracy vs. literacy in this play shows the audience that people with a darker skin are less likely to be educated than people with that of a lighter skin. This has the long term effects of Zachariah never being able to apply for a proper job, or learn how to read and write later on in life. Morris is so worried that the police will find out they have written letters to a white woman that he wants to burn all evidence imm ediately. This just shows how terrified the African people were of the White people, and because of what? Their skin colour? When Ethel decides to visit them in Port Elizabeth, Zachariah is so excited but is worried she will not like him for being black and decides to send his fairer skinned half brother, Morris, in his place. When Ethel decides to marry and rather refrain from visiting Zachariah, he is deeply hurt. Morris helps his brother through this as if there were no race barriers dividing them. This was yet another play of Athol Fugards which was banned by the government. The two actors who performed this were both arrested and new censorship laws were quickly implemented which stated that racially mixed casts and audiences were strictly prohibited. The government soon began on a rampage with the introduction of new policies in order to show the African people who was in control. This play was to left hanging, there was no real conclusion as Athol Fugard would prefer to have his audience think for quite some time after watching such a show. The play is set in a rundown, coloured area of Port Elizabeth where these two men live in a one room shack. They have barely any money and after Zachariah spends their life savings on a new suit for his brother, Morris is worried about how they will continue to buy food and other basis goods without any money. Aspects such as this are able to impact the audience and show people how different others lives really are. Whether a Black man or a White man was watching this play, in one way or another they would both be able to take something from this. Their minds would be open to Fugards ideas about inferior and superior races, and how they are just ways of the government allowing the control over the South African people. Fugards plays have not only caused people to think outside of the box, but have also allowed us as the audience to see what life was really like during Apartheid times. We are able to look at the dictator aspects the South African government brought into play and how they used the idea of superior vs. inferior races to place themselves on the top of the social hierarchy. Fugard is able to open our eyes to what our country was once like and is constantly reminding us of what we should try to never return to, a place of segregation, unnecessary hatred and constant abuse against people of a different race. No race is better than any other and Athol makes this clear throughout each and every one of his remarkable plays.

Excel Igcse Computer Studies Glossary Essay

Actuator – It is a device that can be operated by signals from a computer or control system causing physical movement. (E.g. devices for opening windows in a computer controlled ventilation system) Algorithm – It is a sequence of instructions designed to perform a particular task and it is independent of any programming language. It includes precise details about the operations to be performed and in what order. (E.g. pseudo-code or program flow chart) Batch processing – It is a processing that doesn’t start until all the data are collected without any needs of human interaction. It uses computer during overnight. (E.g. payroll system, billing, cheque processing) CAD (Computer Aided Design) – It is the use of computer system that allows engineers and architects to design new projects by producing drawings. (E.g. designing new cars) Command-line interface – It is a set of commands instructed by the user in order to communicate with the computer and get the requirements sorted out. Compiler – It is a program that converts high-level language into machine language and converts whole program before execution. Cookies – It is a text which the user receives when in access to the internet website and gets automatically downloaded onto the user’s computer and further develops to infect a computer. (E.g. it can be blocked when the user rejects it by setting its restriction on the web page) Data integrity – It refers to the accuracy of data. Data-logging – It is an automatic capturing and storing of data readings from sensors over a period of time. (E.g. weather forecasting) De-skilling – It is replacing a semi-skilled labour with a micro-processing control system. Dry run – It is working through a program or a section of a program manually. This is useful for locating errors, particularly run time errors. E-commerce – It is an electronic commerce that allows buying and selling goods and services through the internet/computer networks. Either B2B or B2C, they still serve their products. (E.g. on-line shopping, Internet/online banking) H.J.Hong Encryption – It is a way of preventing data files that contain sensitive  information from being used if they’re stolen. Expert system – It is an application of artificial intelligence (AI) to a particular area of activity where traditional human expert knowledge and experience are made available through a computer package. (E.g. medical diagnosis) Generic software – It is a type of software that can perform many different related tasks. Intranet – It is a communication system, providing similar services to the internet solely within a particular company or organization. It makes it possible to share documents, databases and applications, using the same protocol as the internet. (E.g. more secure data) Logic gates – They are the components used in making logic circuits. Each gate has 1 or more inputs and produces a single output that depends upon the input(s). Simulation – It is a study of the behaviour of a system by using a model. (E.g. flight simulator) Structure diagram – It is a means of representing the design of a program or system and it demonstrates what happens at a program level Top-down design – It is the technic of breaking down a problem into subtasks that are sufficiently simple enough to be written as a self-contained module or procedure. (E.g. allows several programmers to work on the same large task, each module can be tested/debugged separately) Validation – It is a check on the data input and detects any data that is unreasonable and unacceptable. Video-conferencing – It is a form of an electronic communication through Internet for people who are geographically separated to transmit audio and video data. (E.g. meetings held at different locations) Virtual reality – It is a computer simulation that uses special interactive devices such as data gloves to create an artificial environment. (E.g. viewing newly constructed houses/pilot training) Virus – It is a program which replicates itself and damages files or data. (E.g. it alters the data on the infected computer without the user knowing it)

The Bicentennial Man

I would consider Andrew Martin that he became truly a human being. I think that Andrew has fulfilled the characteristics and personalities of a human being. These abilities are things that can only be observed in human, and these abilities are what makes human unique from other creatures. These abilities include consciousness, free will, emotions, feelings, mortality, and other things were all developed and possessed by Andrew. Although Andrew was made up of steels, it is not only the physical features that make us a human being. What more important is our inner features that make us human being; what a person thinks and expressing his actions determine his being. It is by expressing human freedom through his/her will that affirms his/her humanity. Andrew was able to learn and grows that made him fully understand what it is like being a human. It also portray that the used of â€Å"I† by Andrew that I think makes him truly a human being, it is because like what I’ve said he was able to assert his self and we all know that it is only human being who is capable of asserting oneself. In addition with that, it is Andrew’s will that defines his meaningfulness in becoming a human being. But we should also remember not to take for granted on our will; we must be responsible with everything we do, just like what Mr. Martin told Andrew after giving his freedom â€Å"you wish for freedom, you must accept the consequences†. It was Andrew’s will to obtain freedom and he must be responsible with it and accept the consequences.

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Social Contract Theory

The term social contract represents implied agreements by which people form democracy’s and maintain a social order. This means that the individuals give up some of their rights to a government in order to receive security and social order. The social contract theory rationalizes why it is in one’s best interest to willingly give up their natural rights in order to acquire the many benefits provided by a social structure. I will argue that the social contract theory justifies the concept that state authority must be derived from the consent of the governed and that the covenant of the governed rationalizes political authority, therefore Hobbes argument is more convincing. Throughout the essay I will be discussing the rationale for the†¦show more content†¦But in the real world necessities are in limited supply, so as we compete for the same things, which then we quickly come to view other individuals as enemies. We equally want goods that are limited. The secon d problem then is that, once we acquire those goods such as food, we immediately become worrisome of people wanting to steal it from us, therefore we hurt them so they are no longer capable of that. Hobbes argues that in a state of nature there are no morals meaning individuals can do whatever they want. We simply cannot flourish to our best ability within the state of nature which leads us to the Social Contract Theory. In order to live to our best ability out society requires a unified social order, which requires rules. To escape the state of nature, there has to be a way to come together. Humans have selfish tendencies and are unable to live in social societies without rules and laws. In order to get the benefits of social living, we have to agree to follow some kind of moral guidelines under the threat of punishment from the government. This is where the social contract becomes the main foundation for our moral accountability towards one another. 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