ratrinisa

[ratrinisa]

ANALYSIS OF THE MAN HE KILLED BY THOMAS HARDY

by Annisa Nur Ratri Oktavianti

A. Synopsis and Interpretation

Thomas Hardy wrote the poem "The Man He Killed" in 1902. The events of the Boer War in South Africa are notably regarded to have served as inspiration for the poem, which emphasizes the senselessness and wasted tragedy of human conflict. The poem educates the readers on death, battle, and warfare. Thomas Hardy especially depicted a conflict between two combatant men in his writing. In a dramatic monologue, the speaker of the poem describes having to kill a soldier with whom he had come face to face during combat.

The narrator pondered in the first stanza how they may have become friends if they were not on the battlefield. They stood on the same ground yet they had to fight for each other’s country. Line 3 – 4 implied the meaning that the narrator intended to share his hospitality to the man.

The second stanza sets up a contrast with the first. He had expressed a desire to be close to the man in the previous stanza, but instead, as they were both staring at each other, the narrator shot and killed the man. “Ranged as infantry” means that the narrator and the man were forced to be “ranged” or “distant” because of the war.

Although it was clear that the narrator did not want to confess it, he attempted to persuade himself in this stanza of reasons why he should kill the man. The word “because” that repeated two times implied the meaning that the narrator was hesitating and doubting his decision. The phrases "Of course" and "That's clear enough" are obviously ironic because the hostility is not something that happens by default, the narrator did not find the claim to be "clear," and the narrator's pretense of assurance is dispelled by his admission that begins with "although..."

The fourth stanza implied a meaning of regret. This can be seen on the many use of  stop sign “—”.The soldier's decision to enlist was somewhat impulsive ("Off-hand like") and partially motivated by a need for money because he was out of a job and had already liquidated his things. No other cause existed for him to enlist. The last stanza concludes the poem about the cruelty and stupidity of a war. The narrator finally realized there are no good reason for a war.

B. British Society

Celtic Society

A class of nobles at the top of Celtic society was ruled by a monarch or chieftain. The artisans, of which metalworkers were the most significant, were situated beneath them. Then the farmers arrived, who helped with food production and supported the chief in battle. Tribes were formed from the Celts. They were divided politically and engaged in a lot of fighting.

Roman British Society

Upper-class Celts assimilated the Roman way of life following the Roman Conquest. They constructed villas that were based after Roman structures and benefited from amenities like mosaics and even a system of central heating known as a hypocaust. Rich Romans also adorned their homes with murals, which are paintings on the wall. They had glass panels for windows.

Roman rule, however, probably didn't make much of a difference to the majority of the poor Celts, particularly in northern and southwestern England. For them, life continued largely the same as before. Their residences remained basic huts.

English Society in the Middle Ages

Society in the Middle Ages was structured like a pyramid. The king was located at the summit of the pyramid. The barons, or tenants-in-chief, stood beneath him. They were given land by the monarch in exchange for providing a certain number of warriors to battle on a certain number of days each year. A loyalty oath to the monarch was also required of them, and they were made his vassals as a result. Knights received land from the barons. They were required to battle for a certain number of days each year in exchange.

The king exercised divine right to reign during the Middle Ages. In other words, many thought that defying him was wrong because God had appointed him to be king. That, however, did not put an end to uprisings.

English Society in the 16th Century

Tudor society was split into four main categories. The nobility at the top owned enormous amounts of land. The gentry and wealthy merchants were below them. Yeomen and tradesmen were classed below the gentry. Tenant farmers who rented their property from the wealthy were below the yeomen. Paying workers were also present.

English Society in the 17th Century

During the 17th century, merchants' standing rose. Merchants gained greater respect as a result of the public's realization that trade was a vital component of the nation's riches. Rich landowners, however, maintained positions of influence and authority in politics.

English Society in the 18th Century

There were around 6 1/2 million people living in Britain at the beginning of the 18th century. By the end of the 18th century, it had expanded quickly, reaching nearly 9 million people.

English Society in the 19th Century

Britain was an oligarchy at the beginning of the 19th century. In national elections, only a tiny minority of men (and no women) were permitted to cast ballots. When more men were granted the right to vote in 1832, the situation started to alter. Additionally, districts were redrew, and some industrial towns were given their first-ever representation. In 1867 and 1884, the franchise was once more expanded. The secret ballot was first used in 1872.

However, at least 80% of people in the 19th century belonged to the working class. You needed to employ at least one servant in order to be categorized as middle class. Most domestic helpers were women. Because men received larger compensation, male servants were more expensive. Throughout the century, women were primarily employed in "service."

Poverty in the 19th Century

More than 25% of people were living at or below the subsistence level at the end of the 19th century. According to surveys, 10% of people were extremely destitute and unable to pay for even the most basic essentials, such adequate nutritional food. 15% to 20% of people only had enough money to get by (assuming they didn't lose their jobs or have to take time off work due to illness). You had to check into the workhouse if you had no income at all

C. Analysis

Thomas Hardy wrote the poem “The Man He Killed to express his disapproval about the Boer War. As a liberal, Hardy and his wife, Emma, did not agree with the Boer War. The War made Hardy hesitated to trust British Empire and he wanted to know what made them agreed to decided to start a war. Hardy could not understand why English wanted to take over the gold and diamond mines in South Africa.

He rode a bicycle miles and miles over to Southampthon to take a look at departing ships of English troops in 1899 when the war started. English had it worse in the early phase of the war. Thus, he wrote many poems to express his condolence for that situation.

The Boer war started in October 1899. It was a war between British Army and Boers in South Africa. The war's objective was to unite the Boer republics of the Orange Free State and the South African Republic (commonly known as the Transvaal) with the British South African provinces of Cape Colony and Natal. It was the Britain’s desire and the Boers, Farmers who speak Afrikaans, did not approve it. The Boers’s desire was to keep and protect their land. Fortunately in 1880-1881 the Transvaal Boers won the war against the British.

In 1886, the Uitlanders (Outlanders), an enormous number of English-speakers by the Afrikaners were interested by gold discovery in the South African Republic (SAR). The boers saw them as danger and a threat. As an uprising attempt, the Uitlanders attemped The James Raid in 1896. The James Raid was led by Dr. Leander Starr Jameson with his British South Africa Company troops. The Boer and British administrations' ties continued to deteriorat as the result of the uprising. Paul Kruger won the presidental election in 1898 due to the Boer’s dislikes about The Jameson Raid. President Kruger was even less willing to give the Uitlanders political sway. The Britain did not attempt to reach a peaceful resolution hence, in 9 October, the SAR launched an ultimatum to demand withdrawal of all of British troops around their country. It was an obvious reason that the British disapprove the ultimatum. In 12 October, the troops attacked Cape Colony and Natal. The war eventually reached its end on 1902. The Boers agreed to accept British sovereignty in exchange for some degree of self-government under the terms of the Treaty of Vereeniging on 31 May, 1902. In 1910, the Union of South Africa completed its integration of the Boer republics.

The Boer war was the first modern war to ever exist yet it was also traditional. Many variations of technologies were involved in the war such as air balloons, trains, engines, and horses. Aside from modern technologies and innovations, the role of cavalry was necessary in the Britain troops. The British troops did not allow mercy as they subdue the Boers by using British troops’ railway. Animals like horse had critical conditions due to lack of food and health.

The war impacted heavily on both side of troops. Many people died and lose their house, even had financial loss. Variations of issue emerged because of this war.

Social Issue

The Boer War caused both sides to lose many lives and death rate raised increasingly. 75.000 troops of British Army were sent to war at first for Natal invasion. The British was unfortunate enough to lose 22.000 men of their troops from the war. Not only death because of the war, 13.000 people lost their lives due to disease. The same fate occured to the Boers. 27.000 lives were lost and even worse, the victims were dominatetd by young children. Another 20.000 black and ‘colored’ Africans died in concentration camps.

Boer women and children, and other black families were interned as a result of British military sweeps to clean the veld, which sparked debate from the beginning at the concentration camps of Boer War. The deaseas, measles, increased high mortality. This resulted in a lot of resentment, but the history of the camps has never been thoroughly examined.

Political Issue

The war led the disconteted South Africa race groups from 1910 since the war ended. The Afrikanerdom was divided – the bitterreinders vs the hands-uppers, and the joiners specifically. The bitterreinders were were humiliated and resentful.

The black people were not in the same thoughts with the British authorities which gave the image of political equality and rights of social to the black people. This resulted in the forming of policital organisation for example, South African Native National Congress (SAANNC) on 8 January, 1912. SAANC was formed due to black people suspiciousness of white people. The black people often dragged into conflict with the white people later on.

South Africa’s connection with other countries was also impacted which led to sports banning, pressure of economics, and the imposition of a mandatory United Nations arms embargo in November 1997.

British Army lost 450.000 contingents from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and India.

Psychological Issue

Lot of people dealt with their post-war trauma. Some Afrikaners kept their hatered, bitterness, frustration, and fear for many years. Years passed by, but the trauma still went on in some cases. A great fear of foreigneers (non-Afrikaneres) still dominanted them eventhough many years passed by. This trauma occured for at least 59 years since the end of Boer War. At the same time, people among races began to differentiate and formed an alienation towards them.

Economical Issue

The amount of money spent in this war has a very large amount that was around £210 million (over £25 billion today). This large amount of money was the cost of having many many troops, and the mobilized resources. The result of sickness and insufficient medical care accounted for two thirds of the deaths. British Empire and British goverment were supplying that many cost for British Army and yet, they lost.

In addition to the large amount of money, buildings, public facilities, and animals were heavily impacted by The Boer War. British troops were unable to subsist off the soil like their adversaries caused lots of damage such as burning farms, railway sabotage, and devastation in the countryside. In other hand, the Boers also blown up a railway bridge at Kroonstadt in 1901.

D. Conclusion

This poem entitled “The Man He Killed” is about a man hesitation and guilty from killing the other man. This poem described about the uselessness and foolishness of a war. Furthermore, it is also about how war brings out the worst in people and what teribble things it can lead and cause.Thomas Hardy wanted to draw attentions to the plight of the poor men who were forced into this war. He wanted to help give a voice to those who were suffering and got injusticed. The Boer War influenced in the making of the poem. It was a political conflict about land, ownership, and resources. The Boer War heavily impacted both side of troops, the British and the Boers (Afrikans). Many issues were found after analysing this war. Death became major social issue in this war due to getting killed in a war or caught in a desease. Political issue emerged from the lack of trust from black people with white people. South Africa were banned in almost every aspect by the other country. The Britain lost many contigents due to the war. In addition, many people were affected physically and mentally. Many Afrikans felt hateful towards the Britain and some cases revealed that Afrikans also got post-war trauma. Over £25 billion of money were sacrificied as an important source of foods, aids, animals, camps, and technologies. Public infrastructures were affected from the Boer War such as burning farms, railway sabotage, and devastation in the countryside.

References :

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-0542.2008.00562.x

Author's Note :

Here goes the last post of my college assignments. Well that was quick lmaoo.

I hope I can graduate soon and get out of my thesis :"(

Until we meet again. Goodbye

[ratrinisa]

IDENTIFYING THE FOUR LINGUISTIC DEVICES IN FORGIVING MY FATHER

by Annisa Nur Ratri Oktavianti

A. Introduction of New Criticism

New criticism is a development from “traditional” criticism. It can be said that new criticism is a new way of looking at literature. New criticism was created in the 1920s and later on dominates literary criticism from the late 1930s into the 1960s. New criticism was originally created in the United States. In 1941, John Crowe Ransom’s The New Criticism gave this movement its name. The name New Criticism is still used until these days. Besides new criticism, there is also New Critics. New Critics are a group of American poets and critics.

New Criticism focus is the work itself. New Critics doesn’t refuse the readers’ thought about the author nor the work, but they believed that the work has a special place in new criticism. The readers opinion or thought and the author is not the main topic in new criticism. Why does the work become the most important topic of this theory? It is because to expose its unity. Every aspect or element are crucial. They work together to create a certain theme of the work. “Close reading”, a phrase popularized by New Critics, can reveal the complexity of the work.

To do an analysis of a work by using this theory we have to begin by reading closely. By reading closely, we can find the figures of speech, point of view, diction, imagery, recurrent ideas or events, etc. Then, carefully analyse the work. Remember to search for the four linguistic devices : ambiguity, irony, paradox, and tension. A mediocre work sometimes contains complexity but its not a unified work. A mediocre work sometimes is a unified work but has a little complexity. Secondly, look for the idea that unifies the work. We can resolve the ambiguities by doing this. Next, find details or any images that (will) support this resolution or decision.

B. Introduction to The Work

The creator of the work “Forgiving My Father”, Lucile Clifton was born on June 27th, 1936. She grew up in Depew, New York. Clifton attended college at Howard University (1953-1955) and graduated from State University of New York College (2955). Later in 1958 she married Fred James Clifton.

The poem “Forgiving My Father” is a lyrical poem. A lyrical poem is a poem that is written based of the poet’s feeling and thought regarding any aspects that he/she choose to write about. This poem tells the reader about a girl who did not want to forgive her father in the beginning. In the end of the poem however, the girl had forgive her father. Clifton wrote this poem based of her own past experience. Clifton wrote about the mistakes that her father had done in the past and how it affected her and her family. Her father had failed to be a good father that was supposed to give protection and security to Clifton and her mother. In the poem, Clifton used the words “lecher” and “liar” to illustrate her father’s wrongdoings.

C. Discussion

Ambiguity

Ambiguity or doubt is a condition where a person is in a dilemmatic position, choosing A and B which is filled with doubts. To some extent ambiguity makes a person a dual character, which allows him to act as accommodating as chameleon philosophy. However, in essence, someone who is ambiguous will find it difficult to determine an attitude or action.

We can see the ambiguity of this poem in the third stanza. In the fifth line “what am i doing here collecting?”, the daughter (the speaker) asks herself what is she doing here collecting debt to her father. She doubt her father. The daughter knew, even if she keeps begging to pay the debt to her father, her father would never pay the debt. She is having an internal conflict with herself whatever she should keep asking her father to pay the debt or she should leave her father.

Irony

There are three types of irony in literature: verbal irony, dramatic irony, and situational irony. The embodiment of the three types of irony is indeed as reflected in the terms, but in essence they are both irony, a condition that contains oppositional discrepancies between expectations and reality, between what exists and should exist, and so on.

The third and fourth line in second stanza reflected irony “i wish you were rich so i could take it all” “and give the lady what she was due”. The daughter wished her father was rich so she could her mother’s hospital fee because her mother was sick. But it was too late because her mother already passed away and her father still doesn’t have any money. Even if her father was a rich man, he wouldn’t give the money to her nor her mother because in the same stanza, in the fifth line “but you were the only son of a needy father”, the father would give his money to his needy father.

Paradox

Paradox is a condition that reflects the opposite of what is expected. People are forbidden to step on the grass in the garden, in fact they deliberately trample on it. On cigarette packs there is always an inscription that smoking is very dangerous for health, but a lot of people actually smoke. In cinemas it says "Adults only" for certain films, however, many middle school age children watch the films. Most people want to be rich, but not a few monks or Sufis even ask to be a bit poor so they are not too attached to the world.

In the first stanza, the first and second line “it is friday. we have come” “to the paying of the bills”, the daughter reminds her father that today (on the poem), Friday is the due day to pay all bills so the father have to pay the bill on Friday. But after that on the fourth line “like a ghost, asking for more time”, her father on the contrary asking for more time to her daughter. He said that because he didn’t have any money. Next line “but today is payday, payday old man”, the daughter insists her father to pay the bills right now because Friday is the due date. She is angry and frustated at the action of her father. Eventhough she keep insisting her father, her father would not want to pay the bills.

Tension

Tension is a condition in which a person experiences inner and/or social tension. In the plot, this condition is described just before the climax and approaching the resolution. A character, because of being crushed by various crises, experiences a tremendous inner upheaval. At the end of this tension there is usually a resolution to the problems it faces.

In this poem, her father keeps neglecting his responsiblity to pay the bills. That makes the daughter so frustated. In the end she realized that her negative feelings towards her father has to end someday eventually, and that day is the day when her father died. She had to forget the past and look at the present and future.

D. Conclusion

The ambiguity of this poem is the daughter knew, even if she keeps begging to pay the debt to her father, her father would never pay the debt. She is having an internal conflict with herself wheter she should keep asking her father to pay the debt or she should leave her father.

After that the irony in the poem is the daughter wished her father was rich so she could her mother’s hospital fee because her mother was sick. But it was too late because her mother already passed away and her father still doesn’t have any money. Even if her father was a rich man, he wouldn’t give the money to her nor her mother because in the same stanza, in the fifth line “but you were the only son of a needy father”, the father would give his money to his needy father.

Third, the paradox is the daughter reminds her father that today (on the poem), Friday is the due day to pay all bills so the father have to pay the bill on Friday. But her father on the contrary asking for more time to her daughter. He said that because he didn’t have any money. The daughter insists her father to pay the bills right now because Friday is the due date. She is angry and frustated at the action of her father. Eventhough she keep insisting her father, her father would not want to pay the bills.

Lastly, the tension in this poem is her father keeps neglecting his responsibility to pay the bills. That makes the daughter so frustrated. In the end she realized that her negative feelings towards her father has to end someday eventually, and that day is the day when her father died. She had to forget the past and look at the present and future.

References :

New Criticism

Critical World - A Selective Tour

https://api.taylorfrancis.com/content/books/mono/download?identifierName=doi&ident ifierValue=10.4324/9780203446447&type=googlepdf

https://www.bisd303.org/cms/lib/WA01001636/Centricity/Domain/1342/AP%20Eng% 20Lit%20Formalist%20Criticism.docx

Author's Note :

Ninth post. Only one more :D. At this point, I don't know what I have to say in this note haha.

Wish me luck :3

[ratrinisa]

Hegemony in The Maypole of Merry Mount

by Annisa Nur Ratri Oktavianti

A. Introduction

Cultural studies is a study that focuses on many different elements such as political economy, communication, sociology, social theory, literary theory, cultural anthroplogy, philosophy, art history/criticism, etc. The focus of cultural studies is how certain event or phenomenon connects to an ideology, nationality, ethnicity, social class and gender.

Hegemony takes place when the lower society, including the proletariat, has accept and imitate the way of life, way of thinking, and views of elite groups who dominate and exploit them. Hegemony according to Gramsci's notion is a consensus organization in which submission obtained through the mastery of the ideology of the hegemonic class.

The Maypole of Merry Mount is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthrone. The story is opened by a wedding of Edgar and Edith who are a Mary Mounters. The Merry Mounters who were having a party suddenly were attacked by The Puritans. Drastic atmosphere changed from joy to gloomy. Puritan leader, John Endicott, cut down the Maypole. The Puritans punished The Merry Mounters by whipping, cutting their ears, and even shot one person.

B. Discussion

Merry Mount is described as a joyful people and they like to feel pleasure. Merry Mount like to have fun. Meanwhile Puritan is described as strict people. They do not like seeing Merry Mount having fun.

“And with his keen sword Endicott assaulted the hallowed Maypole. Nor long did it resist his arm. It groaned with a dismal sound. it showered leaves and rosebuds upon the remorseless enthusiast. and finally, with all its green boughs and ribbons and flowers, symbolic of departed pleasures, down fell the banner staff of Merry Mount. As it sank, tradition says, the evening sky grew darker, and the woods threw forth a more sombre shadow.”

From the previous text, Endicott made his first move by cutting down the pole. After that, he told the other Puritan to punish The Merry Mount because of the sin they had done. This was done because The Merry Mount had break Puritan's religious rules. The Merry Mount had no choice but to surrender to them. This shows the hegemony in the story, the dominance of Puritans.

C. Conclusion

It can be concluded from the analysis that there are in fact a theory of hegemony in this story. The differences of power can be seen through the two parties, Merry Mount and Puritan. Puritan has dominant power while Merry Mount has subdominant power. The Puritans, who’s religiously strict attacked The Merry Mount because of the sin they had done such as drinking, and sex parties. Puritans cut down the pole and punish Merry Mount. Merry Mount obey the punishment and give up.

References :

https://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides8/TheMaypole.html

Author's Note :

Finally my eight post :"D. Now only two left so wish me luck lol.

Bye-byee!

[ratrinisa]

REPENTANCE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH TAHARAH

by Annisa Nur Ratri Oktavianti

Humans were created not only to meet worldly needs. Humans must also meet spiritual needs. As Muslims, we are obliged to always remember Allah SWT. From childhood we have always been reminded to always pray, put our trust in Him, and always ask Him for forgiveness. We can do this by worship (prayer). Prayers are performed in a state of purity, which means we must be clean from all kinds of uncleanness and hadas.

Repentance comes from the word tāba-yatūbu-taubatan-fahuwa-tāibun which means 'ada or raja'a (return). According to the term, repentance means returning to the right path. Meanwhile, according to Ibn Qayyim Rahimatumullah, repentance is detachment from all forms that are hated by Allah SWT both physically and mentally towards what Allah SWT loves both physically and mentally. From these three conclusions, we can conclude that what is meant by repentance is leaving something bad and carrying out the commands of Allah SWT. The word taharah comes from Arabic which means holy or clean. According to the term, taharah is purification from hadas, both from small and large hadas, as well as purification from uncleanness which includes the body, clothes, places, and objects that are carried or found in our bodies.

Repentance means leaving something bad and carrying out the commands of Allah SWT. Repentance is done by praying repentance. This prayer is sunnah, which means it is not obligatory to do it. While taharah means purification from hadas, both from small and large hadas, as well as purification from uncleanness which includes the body, clothes, places, and objects that are carried or contained in our bodies.

Prayers are performed in a state of purity. Thus if we want to carry out the taharah prayer we must make ablution. Ablution is also included in taharah. Wudhu is done to remove small hadas when going to pray (repentance).

It can be concluded that repentance means leaving something bad and carrying out the commands of Allah SWT. Repentance is done by praying repentance. Taharah means purification from hadas, both small and large hadas, and purification from uncleanness which includes the body, clothes, places, and objects that are carried or found in our bodies.

References :

http://103.20.188.221/index.php/alfath/article/view/901/721

http://digilib.uinsgd.ac.id/10488/1/paper%20taharah%20kedua%20pdf%202.pdf

Author's Note :

And there goes my seventh post, that means only three left. Come one you can do this! I mean who else can I depend my life to beside myself right?

Goodbye!!

[ratrinisa]

Expectation vs Reality After Got Into College

by Annisa Nur Ratri Oktavianti

When I was first got into college, I was very nervous. The reason why I got nervous was because at that time I did not know how the life in college was like. The night before the first day got into college I was overthinking it. I thought to myself, how teaching and learning activities like in college? How can I communicate with my classmates in this pandemic? And how should I dress up for live class?. I feel like I wanted to laugh when remembering that. It turns out that the college was not as scary as I imagined.

To begin with, let’s answer the first question. “How teaching and learning like in college?”. My answer is simple. It is fun. When I fist attended live class through zoom and gmeet I thought it’s going to be awkward and dry, but when I joined the live class everyone was very friendly and kind. The lecturer was also very king and understanding. Why I said that? Because they knew that that day was the very first time me and my classmates got into college, so they introduced themselves first then they asked us to introduce us. When each one of us already introduced ourselves, they usually asked us things related to our names, family, hometown, etc.

Now let’s answer the next question which that is “how can I communicate with my classmates in this pandemic?”. The answer is by WhatsApp grup and chats. We communicate through that application when there are assignments given by the lecturers. We also disscused our group assignments by creating WhatsApp group. We also use Zoom or Google Meet sometime if needed. Before going into college, I thought about this for days because in my opinion creating relationship between classmates is very important because we can ask them about our college assignments and we can ask about things related to college as well.

   The last question is “how should I dress up for online class?”. Now let me answer that question honestly. When I attended an online class for the first time, I spent times longer to dressed up so that I can look good on camera. I used make up too such as powder, eyebrows, lip tint and blush on. I kept doing that for almost a week for just live classes. Then there was a day when I woke up late and there was no time for me to dress up nicely and wear make up. So instead doing that, I just washed my face and after that I joined the live classes. This had been my habit since then until now. For your information, in the application called Zoom, there are make up effect that us can use so we would still look good though we just woke up.

To sum it, college life is not as scary as I imagined. It is fun and we can get new experiences in college. We get to know new people. Got a new technology knowledge through using Zoom, Google Meet and College websites.

Author's Note :

This is my sixth post and there're still four left. When I checked on my college account, I haven't pay my bills yet lmao. That's it for this post, byee!

[ratrinisa]

Opinion on School Bullying and Its Impacts on Children

by Annisa Nur Ratri Oktavianti

Going to school is a must for children and teens nowadays. As we know, school is an important place for children before going to a higher education level such as university. There are mainly three steps of school that children must take. Those are elementary school, junior high school, and lastly high school. Actually there is one kind of school that has a lower lever that elementary school, and that is kindergarten school or pre-elementary school. Some, maybe many people don’t send their son and daughter to kindergarten school because kindergarten is only teaches children the basic things like manners and the very basic material of school subject.

School is fun and we can get lot of lesson there. Most children find it ok going to school, but some not. There are many reason actually why some children do not like going to school such as economy problem, family problem, problem in the school, or maybe they just do not like goint to school. On this essay, I want to discuss about one spesific problem that some children might or might not have experience it. We are going to talk about school bullying. I am sure 100% that all of us have already know what bullying is. Bullying is an action that involved one or more people into harrasing someone or people. School bullying means that bullying action that are done in also during school activites. I might have said that school bullying are done in the school but in fact, many of it also happens outside the school. The bullies usually also use social media platform to perform their action. The worst thing about school bullying is it can happen to anyone for not a short period of time. You must be wondering, why would anyone be able to do such a vicious thing. Well, there are many reasons such as the person who did that wants to feel like a queen or king, they do not want a person or people be on upper level than them, their parents have power over their school. Actually there are still many reasons that can triggered school bullying, but in my opinion it is because of jealousy. Jealous because they are good looking, jealous because they (the victim) get better grades than them (the bullies), jealous because of the victims popularity, etc. Whatever the reason, school bullying is very wrong because the victim will remember that for the rest of their lives.

The impacts of school bullying is very big for children. The first impact that is most likely to happen is their mental. Children who have experienced school bullying tend to hide their negative feeling that occured on every school day from their parents. The reason is because they do not want their parents worried about them. Also they are scared of the person or the people who bullies them so they don’t want their parents to found about it. Because of that, they will surpress their negative emotion then let it out when there are no more people around them. This will eventually bring up a new habit. Bad habit. Going to school – getting bullied – hold their emotion – comes home – cries. From this bad habit they can be depressed, have insomnia, anxiety disorder, or worst, they might end up dying on their bedroom or their bathroom because of suicide.

Next impact would be on the children’s school grade. Because of school bullying they can not focus on almost everything. All they think about is “How can I be free again?” “Why did this happen to me?” “I’m useless, worthless”. Slowly, their grade will become worse.

Last but not least, school bullying makes the victim (children) always feel afraid of many things in the school. Especially if the bullies are in the same class as the victim. When the victim are called by the teacher to get to the front of the class, they tend to look at the floor because they are afraid of what will the bullies do to them. Usually the bullies will laughs at them, or they will point the victim after that subject ends. The victims also cannot go anywhere at peace in the school area. The toilet is a vital place. Usually no one goes to the toilet at school because it is very quiet in there. Yet, this situation is very great for the bullies to bully their victim because they can do it without people noticing them.

So shortly, school bullying is an action of bullying that happens in the school. It can also happen outside of the school area if the person are using the media platform to bully the victim. There are many reason that can trigger this action, but mainly it is because of jealousy. Some impacts can be felt after school bullying, they are : impact on the children’s mental, impact on their school grade, and impact on their emotion (anxiety).

Author's Note :

Hi! It's been awhile since I've posted something. College life has been kind of tough this semester and there are much things to do.

I want to underline one thing that these are purely my opinion. If you have any thing(s) to be disagreed of, please do let me know.

Thank you and have a good day ^^

[ratrinisa]

Why Getting Enough Sleep is Important For Our Bodies

by Annisa Nur Ratri Oktavianti

Sleep is one of the important need in our lives beside eating, drinking, and excercising. It is a crucial activites for our bodies. Physiologically, sleep is defined as a state our bodies enter into during which brain wave activity changes and our nervous system is less reactive to external stimuli. But our sleep is not constant throughout the night.

“Your brain is actually very active during sleep doing important things — it’s not just resting,” says Carl W. Bazil, MD, PhD, the Caitlin Tynan Doyle Profesor of Neurology at Columbia University Medical Center. “And if you don’t get sleep you don’t function on a number of levels the way you should”. This means that sleeping can improve our brain function better.

There is a study in 2004 involving 48 healthy adults to sleep for 6 hours or less for two weeks. What is the result? They can’t focus easily and it became worse during those two weeks. They became weak and sleep deprived, almost the same as a person who had been awake for two nights of no sleep.

After hearing that, surely we want to improve our sleeping time better right?

There are many reasons why getting enough sleep is important, but I’m just going to tell you two reasons of it.

Poor sleeping makes us moody. Matthew Walker, of University of California Berkeley’s Sleep and Neuroimaging Laboratory said that “Without sleep, the brain had reverted back to more primitive patterns of activity — in that it was unable to put emotional experiences into context and produced controlled, appropriate responses,”. A study in 2007 has proven this. Twenty-six healthy participants age 18–30 years were assigned to either a sleep-deprivation group or sleep-control group. As a result, they experienced non-optimal decision-making when they are on work as well as emotional irrationality.

Not getting sleep can literally make you sick. Studies have shown that individuals are more likely to catch a cold virus when you’re sleep deprived. Participants were 153 healthy men and women, ages 21–55 for 14 consecutive days. The results, of the 153 subjects, 135 (88.24%) were infected; 54 (35.29%) developed a cold defined as infection and the objective cold criterion and 66 (43.14%) developed a cold defined as infection and the subjective (Jackson) criterion.

From these explanation earlier, we can conclude that getting enough sleep is very important for our bodies because we can avoid sleep deprive, unstable emotion, and sickness.

References :

Author's Note :

Well hello, we meet again. This is the fourth post and that means only 6 left. Hopefully I will complete my assignments right on time.

Until then, see you later :D

[ratrinisa]

REASONS WHY PLAYING MOBILE GAMES IS A WAY OF LEARNING DIFFERENT SKILLS

by Annisa Nur Ratri Oktavianti

Nowadays, people are accessing the internet easily. They can access the internet from their home, shopping mall, workplaces, cafe, even from a remote area. Accessing the internet can be done if they have an internet connection or else they cannot access it. Many people use internet for all kinds of stuff such as working, shopping, communicating, entertainment purpose, etc. Because of that, internet users come from different range of age. From kids until elders, you can find many kinds of people through the internet. Not only humans that use it, you could also find animals on the internet. Obviously animals do not understand how to use internet, but their owner or keeper does.

Internet use today is very diverse and one of them is playing games. Oxford Dictionary described game as an activity that you do to have fun, often one that has rules and that you can win or lose; the equipment for a game. Many older generations don’t understand the purpose or the positive side about playing games. Many of them said that playing games is just a waste of time and do not have any important value in our lives. Well, I disagree with that opinion. Life are quite hard these days, for example my brother who is in a junior highschool are studying at least 8 hours at his school. He goes to school on 6 AM then goes home on 3 PM. After he got home you know what he do next? Yes, he’s playing games on his phone. He wanted to have fun and relax. Several studies had shown that playing games could help a person reduces stress. Barlett and Roheder (2009) conducted a study about video game. The study includes comparison of video games content. They found out that game, Conflict Desert Storm, which have a realistic and violent content increased heart rate. On the other hand, Hard Hitter Tennis, which do not have any sort of violent content, decreased heart rate. Other studies that are conducted by Panee and Ballard (2002); Anderson (2004); Bartlett et al. (2009); Hasan et al. (2013) shows that fighting or shooting games increased heart rates, blood pressure, respiration rate, and heart rate variability decrease while non-action games proven to do the opposite.

Now, when we are talking about games there are many kinds of games such as video games, mobile games, board games, and many more. Playing these games may seems easy at first but once you play it, it is kind of difficult especially if you are a person who rarely play games. Dunette (1976) said that skill is the required capacity to carry out several tasks which are the development of the results of training and experience gained. If you are a game player or lover like me, you already knew that we need certain skills and teamwork to play a game. The more skills that the player has and mastered, the more chance of winning. There are many skills that you will eventually learn when you are playing games such as startegic skill, communication skill, language skill, and many more.

Fistly, let’s dicuss about strategic skill. The example of games that required strategic or planning skill are board games and card games such as chess, UNO card, monopoly game, etc. The games that I mentioned earlier are avalaible online. Let’s specifically look at UNO card. UNO is worldwidely known card games with 2 players or more to play it. Every player has one turn and each of the players are given cards which are definetly different from one another. There will be a card to put in the middle of players and the players have to stack their cards above other cards, but they could only stack their cards if their cards have the same number and symbols or the same color as the previous one. They could also stack the plus cards (+2, +4). If the player do not have the correct card to stack, they have to take a new card. The player with the quickest one to have zero card have done or they could leave the game. UNO is the perfect example that needs strategic skill to play it because it requires a startegic skill. In UNO, players must be careful no to put the wrong card in the wrong time. If they put all plus cards in the early game, they might become the last player to finish the game. Why is that? All players have limited number of cards right? And not all of them might not get lucky with their card. So, if the player get good cards or jackpot, they should save them and use them in the right timing. The right timing might be different for every player, but for myself, the right time to use it are when you want to make a player pick another cards so that they would finish the game longer or use the jackpot cards if you only have that cards.

Second skill that you could is communication skill. According to Soewarno (1980) communication is a mutual process interact or have a mutual understanding relationship between human beings. Verbal communication is communication that only uses words orally or writing. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang also known as MLBB, is a mobile games that needs five people to work out for winning a single game. The five people usually given different roles like jungler, mid laner (mages), gold laner (marksmen), exp laner (fighter or assasin), and a roamer (supports and tanks) to help each lane. The jungler’s job is to make sure that he keeps the gold of their team is saved and mostly jungler gets the most kills. The marksmen needs to be on the gold lane becuse their equipment are expensive and they those equipment quickly. Next, fighter and assasin usually go for exp lane because they need to have their ults (3rd skill) ready as soon as possible. The reason is because ults deals massive damage. Lastly, roamers are free to go to any lanes that needs their help. From my experience, roamers usually help marksmen in early games because in early games, marksmen could not do massive damage and their HP is still low. The game have provided teams interactions in the game so they do not have to experience communication difficulty. There are two kinds of interaction that players could use, they are microphone and quick chat. If you want to focus more on the game and don’t want to press another button, then you can choose the option microphone. By using microphone, you can communicate by talking verbally to your teammates. But you must know that other people may be don’t have the courage to open their microphone too, so it’s like one way communication. Another option is the quick chat. If you do not enough courage to open your microphone you could use quick chat. In quick chat, reaction or instruction communication have been provided such as “Beware of ambush!”; “I’ll take the buff”; “Need assistant!”; and others. The problem if you are using quick chats, is that not all that you wanted to say to your teammates are available. If you want to say something specific to your teammates or enemies, you have to type it directly and that takes longer time. Now from the explanations above, we can conclude that if you play this game, you might eventually learn communications skills. Because they are five players in one team and each have different roles, then they need to have good communication. If a player died and there aren’t any teammates to defend that lane, the the dead player could send instruction to their teammates “Request to backup”. Another example is when you realize that the enemies are attacking the turtle or lord, you could send instruction to your teammates like “Enemy is taking the turtle” and “Enemy is taking the lord”. That way, our teammates know players can prevented the enemies from taking the turtle and lord.

The last skill that you could learn through playing games is language skill. Often, language barrier is one trouble if we play game in a worldwide server or if you join a worldwide tournament. An RPG game that is popular these days, Genshin Impact, is a good example of learning language skill. This game has different global servers such as Asia Server, Europe Server, America Server, and China Server. The game has two different mode, solo mode and co-op mode. In co-op mode, up to three players could join your world. They most likely to use English to communicate with player through chats. Another example of learning language skill in this game are the dub and the game language itself. There are four dubs available and they are English dub; Japanese Dub; Chinese Dub; and Korean Dub. If you play this game you will consciously or unconsciously learn those language because you hear it many times when playing quests and events.

Playing games is not always a bad thing. We can use mobile games as one of our learning media. Through mobile games, people will learn new skill such as strategic skills, communication skills, language skills, and many more. Learning through mobile games is convinient, accessible everywhere and anywhere, plus you could playgames any time you want. Strategic skills can be learned when playing games such as card games and board games. After that, the game example that could help you learning communication skill is Mobile Legends: Bang Bang or MLBB. Last but not least, you could learn language skill through playing an RPG game called Genshin Impact.

References :

Author's Note :

Hello guys, it's me again. You already know the drill yes? I'm posting again to complete my Journalism assignment. This is the third post so maybe I still need seven more posts to complete it. Heck yeah I know college life is pretty tough but that's what life is about right? We have to take the hard way first so we can enjoy the easy way later. By the way, I hope you are having a great day!

See ya!!

[ratrinisa]

Cultural Representations in the Movie Spirited Away (2001)

by Annisa Nur Ratri Oktavianti

A. Synopsis of Spirited Away (2001)

Spirited Away is a Japanese animated movie by Studio Ghibli. The movie was released on 2001. Spirited Away is a movie about a girl named Chihiro who was trapped in the spirit world because of her parents recklessness. The movie begins with Chihiro and his parents trip. They were going to move to a new home. Chihiro was not happy by that. You can tell that she was upset and did not care about the trip. Soon, they saw their new house on top hill and her father insisted to go through the woods. He stopped the car upon seeing an old red tunnel. Chihiro’s father was telling his wife and his daughter to go into the tunnel. Chihiro wasn’t so sure at first but she followed them anyway. Behind the tunnel, an amazing scenery was seen. They kept walking until they found a food stall. The father and the mother was starving because of the delicous looking foods there. They did not hesitate to eat the foods. Meanwhile Chihiro was scared and suspicious of that. She decided to went for a stroll and that was when she met Haku, a medium length hair boy. Haku told her to go away from this place and he told her that this place is not safe for humans. Chihiro who was confused, ran as fast as she could to approach her parents. When she got there, she was very shocked to see that her parents had been turned into pigs. Chihiro then ran in despair but she was stopped to see the path she walked before was turned to a river. Haku then helped Chihiro to save her parents. He told her to find a job in the onsen (Japanese hot spring). After many tries she finally got hired as the person who cleans the hot spring. Long story short, Chihiro experinced many new things that she was never done before, and finally she was able to bring back her parents into humans again. Haku promised Chihiro that they will meet again someday. He told her to go back and told her to never looks back. Her and her family got back to their car safely. They continued their trip after that.

B. Cultural Products

There are 3 cultural products in this movie. The first one is the onsen. Onsen itself are Japanese hotspring. Then the next cultural product is food. After Haku brought Chihiro to saw her parents, he gave her onigiri so that she felt more relaxed and happier. Onigiri is common Japanese food. It is a rice ball that is usually shaped like triangle with different variant of flavor and fillings such as tuna mayo, cheese, chicken, beef, etc. The third product is their clother. They wore Haori, Hakama, Tabi and Zori.

C. Cultural Values

The onsen opens when night comes and closes when morning comes. From the analysis, I found out that when the characters are working, they did not allowed to say anything bad to their costumers. They always have to prioritize their costumer also their needs. This can be seen in the scene where there was a costumer who came in a filthy apperance. The costumer smelled so bad that the workers fainted and the foods turned black because of the dirty air from the costumer. When the costumer came in, Chihiro was covering her nose but Yubaaba, the owner of the onsen told her that it was kind of rude. After that, when the costumer was in the onsen, they asked Chihiro to clean them by pulling human trash that was stuck in the mud on their body. Yubaaba the told every workers there to helped Chihiro to clean the costumer.

D. Cultural Attitudes

After watching this movie, I noticed that there are few examples of prejudice. In this movie, humans are treated badly by other spirit and Yubaaba. The first example is the parents were turned into pigs. Next is when Chihiro asked Yubaaba for a job, Yubaaba said to her that she was weak and can’t do anything. Lastly, when Haku was hurt and weak, she wanted to dispose him by throwing him to a deep dark hole.

E. Opinion About Cultural Depiction in Spirited Away (2001)

Based on the analysis, the cultural depiction does not fit how peeple act and behave because this movie is about spirit and human interaction so it doesn’t fit.

Author's Note :

Hi again! I'm posting this essay for my Journalism assignments. Hufft only 8 left, I can do this!!

I'm very sorry if I made mistakes in this essay.

Thank you ^.^!

[ratrinisa]

Genshin Impact as an Example of Popular Culture

by Annisa Nur Ratri Oktavianti

Genshin Impact is a fantasy open-world environment and action based combat system using elemental magic, character switching, and gacha monetization system for players to obtain new characters, weapon and other resources. The game can only be played online and features a limited multiplayer mode allowing up to four players in a world.

Genshin Impact had overtook Minecraft as the largest Discord server on the platform. In 2020, its server reached 733,911 members.

As a high profile game, Genshin Impact has an immense opportunity to expose its players to different cultures and their intricacies. For example, Chinese culture is potrayed by Liyue (one of the nations in the game) and Liyue characters.

According to a survey article posted on Hoyolab, the average time players spent in a day to play Genshin Impact is one until two hours.

In 2020, Genshin Impact alone had generated $140 million in sales from mobile devices since its launch in late September 2020 according to Sensor Tower data. Its biggest market is Japan, then China.

References :

Author's Note :

Hello everyone! I'm submitting this for my Journalism assignments so if there are any incorrect and missed facts or data please let me know and I apologize for that. Thank you, and I hope happiness and love always surround you. Byee :D