The Glass Menagerie Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

The Glass Menagerie - Essay Example The Glass Menagerie is â€Å"his most intimate and personal play† , and this intimacy allows the audience to enter some of the more vulnerable sides of what may be argued to be Williams’s own character through Laura. We see the delicacy of her mind in the most intimate detail, and come away from the play understanding our own vulnerabilities better. Laura is crippled in two ways: physically and emotionally. The weight of her psychological problems is embodied by her physical condition, which never allows the audience to forget what miseries the world may bring to an individual. One might contrast the effect of her crippled self on her with that of Shakespeare’s Richard III . He loathes the world and seeks vengeance upon it because of what fate has dealt to him, she reveals an almost martyr-like compassion towards others because of her misfortune. Thus she sheds genuine tears of sadness over Tom’s unhappiness, as is revealed by Amanda in Scene 4. She is a stark contrast to the embittered selfishness of most of the characters. Williams uses an effective dramatic technique to make her even more mysterious: he gives her the fewest lines and yet much of the plot seems to revolve around her. As one online source puts it, â€Å"she is the axis around which the plot turns, and the most prominent symbols – blue roses, the glass unicorn, the entire glass menagerie – all in some sense represent her.† Laura may the fulcrum around which the other characters revolve, but she is also deeply involved in their lives. Laura is used by other characters to valorize their own feelings, or to recapture aspects of their personality that they think they have lost. For example, Amanda contrasts herself with Laura’s poor physical state in order to exemplify the joyous glamour of her own youth and to suggest that she can also somehow rekindle that youth through Laura. Echoes of Miss Havisham

Oxfam Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Oxfam - Term Paper Example This paper will seek to explore the mission, role, and impact of Oxfam as an international NGO while also providing an overall critique of the organization. Oxfam as an organization was founded in 1942 in Britain. The organization was originally named as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief at its inception. At its beginning, the group tasked itself with campaigns to send food supplies to starving children and women through an allied naval blockade in enemy occupied Greece during the 2nd world war (Brand 32). In 1995, the organization underwent a transformation to become known as Oxfam International. Oxfam International represented a group of independent NGO’s that came together to work for a greater impact on the global stage to reduce injustice and poverty. Presently, there are 17 member organizations that form the Oxfam international confederation. These member organizations are based in the United States, Belgium, Australia, France, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Grea t Britain, Mexico, Hong Kong, Japan, Italy, Ireland, India, Spain, New Zealand and Quebec. The organization’s secretariat is based in Oxford, United Kingdom (Oxfam). The organization also runs advocacy offices in Washington DC, New York, Brasilia, Geneva, and Brussels. The mission of Oxfam International is to work with many various local partner organizations as well as people living in poverty who strive towards exercising their human rights, asserting their dignity as full citizens and taking control of their lives.