Why Do Cities Develop at Different Rates?

Why Do Cities Develop at Different Rates? Why do cities and regions develop at different rates and with different trajectories, and  how can planning and development policy address issues of uneven development? â€Å"Development trajectories are not straight forward for local governments to solve† (Hall and Hesse, 2013), there are many reasons why cities and regions develop at different rates and trajectories. This essay aims to explore some of the theories behind uneven development trajectories such as is the world becoming flat and time – space compression or alternatively the fact uneven development does occur with competitiveness and knowledge industry. Secondly this essay will then explain some possible planning strategies and policies that address the issues of uneven development such as land ownership, zoning and bottom up governance. Uneven development occurs across the world and there are many different reasons for different rates growth. some theorists however believe development is relatively even, Friedman (2005) describes the world as becoming flat, this is due to the technological advancements which have resulted in a globalised economy and â€Å"the development of a common global culture† (Held, 2004:88). The location of a company is no longer important; you can be successful anywhere in the world without having to move this is due to the ‘Borderless economy created by technological improvements’ (Sander, 2005). Friedman describes this by stating ‘when the world is flat you can innovate without having to emigrate’ (Friedman, 2005). Friedman’s view has been shared by other economists who describe the levelling effect on the economy to be even in many ways (Florida, 2005:48). Even though borderless economies can improve regions and cities across the world Mander and Ba rker (2002) question whether this development positively affects everyone by stating that â€Å"Economic globalisation makes things worse for poor people not better† (Mander and Baker, 2002:2). Harvey (1989) also shared similar views to Friedman through the idea of time-space compression as a cause to the flattening of the world. Time space Compression is described by Harvey as time and space forced to alter due to technological advancements and capitalism which has â€Å"sped up the pace of life† (Harvey, 1989:240). It creates â€Å"a significant acceleration of social, particularly capitalist, dynamics due to a new global communications network† (Stalder, 2006), Time-space compression simply referrers to the â€Å"Increased velocity of the circulation of goods, people and information† (Thrift and May, 2001:106). It overcomes spatial barriers and opens up new markets through high speed communication, something that Leamer (2007) explains as being an important factor to creating even development. Good communication and technologies enables good knowledge transfer and therefore no need for agglomeration resulting in development that is spread equally. Opposing the above arguments there is the argument that development occurs at uneven trajectories. Florida (2005) describes how there has been explosive growth in population numbers within cities, â€Å"now in some advanced countries three out of four people live in urban areas† (Florida, 2005:48). He explains that this has caused development across the world to be ‘spikey’ due to the world being †full of clusters where location matters, most notably in cities† (Feiock et al., 2008). Florida describes the idea of a ‘creative class’ as a reason why many people migrate to cities as increasing development is seen in these areas. Florida (2002) describes successful regions and cities as attracting the ‘creative class’, these people consist of â€Å"young, upwardly and geographically mobile professionals†. And many are often associated as being ‘bohemians’ and creative people (Stolarick and Florida, 2006), this is described by Millander et al. (2014) as a â€Å"creative milieu†. These people are attracted to the idea of community, the â€Å"attraction and retention of these individuals becomes a centrepiece of economic growth† (Feiock et al., 2008). The clustering of creative classes in cities and areas of technological advancement leaves uneven distribution of knowledge across a nation (Mellander et al., 2014) which often leads to regions having different development trajectories. Nagle (1995:14) Cited from Myrdal (1955) explains the concept of cumulative causation through a core- periphery model, this presents the â€Å"unfolding of events as a consequence of the multiplier effect† (Mayhew, 2009) Regional advantages attract investment creating a core region of development, â€Å"Skilled workers investment, new technology and developments gravitate from periphery regions to the core† (Nagle 1995:14. Demand for goods comes from the periphery areas creating the backwash effect. Finally knowledge overflow and increased demand may create growth in periphery areas; this is known as the spread effect. A Perfect example of this is the silicon valley in California, here a business cluster of innovation and knowledge has resulted in enhanced competition and clustering, creating a core development region and at the same time has periphery regions. The rate of development of a nation often refers to the nation as a whole; this is arguably out dated as â€Å"nations-states were created to meet the needs of a much earlier historical period† (Hashimoto, 2013). Due to a the borderless economy that has been created as a result of globalisation it’s now suggested that nations states should be converted to regional-states, â€Å"regional-states are natural economic zones which are drawn by the deft invisible hand of the global market† (Ohmea, 1995) High levels of innovation create clusters of technology industries forcing greater competitiveness. Porter (2008) describes the importance of competitiveness in determining development trajectories of a certain region as Competitiveness is global as well as regional. â€Å"Competiveness of a region or nation has been a primary focus for governments wishing to seek investment and create jobs† (Porter, 2008), this is due to the potential development it can attract. Porter’s ‘competitive advantage diamond model’ displays the economic benefits clustering can bring to regions through a range of factors contributing to competitiveness (porter, 1990). The model is used to analyse the competiveness through four factors, for example customer characteristics etc. (Walker, 2004:177). â€Å"Improving competitiveness is central to raising the underlying rate of growth of the economy and enhancing living standards† (Shafaeddin, 2012), this therefore suggests that regions and cities which experience more competitiveness are likely to have greater development trajectories. Huggins and Izushi (2011) explain how Porters model can be used to create a competitive advantage; it is this advantage that arguably creates different rates of development in cities and regions. Competitiveness is vital for economic growth however Prasnikar (2006:325) explains it can sometimes lead to unsustainable development and therefore companies must maintain corporate social responsibility. Huggins and Thompson (2010) development index is a way of measuring competitiveness, â€Å"competitiveness involves the upgrading and economic development of all places together, rather than the improvement of one place at the expense of another† (Huggins and Thompson, 2010:4). This can be used by governments to monitor and assess the development of regions. Development rates can differ due to the amount of inward investment a region attracts. Opposing Harvey and Friedman, globalization has arguably been a main cause of uneven development as it â€Å"has been governed in ways that are undemocratic and have been disadvantageous to developing countries† (Stigltz, 2002). It is therefore vital that correct planning and development policies are put in place to ensure cities and regions can develop as one sustainably. It’s important to note that countries promoting the best policies in addressing uneven development use a â€Å"wide range of actors, key participants and influences†¦ which are in almost all cases built upon public – private partnership† (Huggins and Izushi, 2007:118). There are several specific development policies that can be put into place in order to address issues associated with uneven development. â€Å"Good development policy is context specific† (World Bank, 2003:9), this means a policies effectiveness may vary between regions and cities and therefore policies chosen must address specific issues of the region. Globalisation has given way to multinational corporations having large amounts of power due to their size and global reach, â€Å"multinationals and governments competing for control over operations during market expansion† (Luo, 2002:73). As a result many multinationals can gain leverage over governments. As rates of development vary due to context, development should therefore be controlled regionally resulting in differing policy and development plans. The use of governments â€Å"top-down, Centralising, ‘one size fits all’† (Bradbury, 2008:132) polices contradicts the importance of context specif ic initiatives as policy are likely to prove ineffective in some regions. It is therefore suggested that bottom-up planning is introduced; this is more effective as it offers bespoke polies relevant to the characteristics of a region. Das (2005) Explains this will devolve power to regions and cities increasing democracy, as a result this should enhance conditions for sustainable development. A great example where Bottom up planning is being put into action is in England where the introduction of neighbourhood plans though the localism act of 2011 has made way for planning that is more deliverable and realistic in achieving sustainable development (Chetwyn, 2013). Land ownership within development planning is also vital for sustainable development, it’s important that correct development and planning policy is created to ensure arbitrate land use conflicts between social, economic, and spatial use are dealt with (Linchfield, 1980:8). This is specifically important in developing counties where often land rights are distributed unfairly and leave land owners sceptical as to whether or not they will be able to retain their land. By granting Land ownership this creates enterprise, motivation and promotes innovation (Lipton, 2009:2), the uncertainty of land rights can often stall development as investment is reduced which Fatas and Mihov (2009:7) described as one of 4 factors contributing to the economic development of regions. Government intervention plays an important role in the creation of successful development policies; another way of improving the rate of development across a region sustainably is to introduce taxes on land. Shirazi a nd Shah (1991:140) suggest that this will provide additional revenues to central governments allowing them to invest in infrastructure which would attract investment, â€Å"good infrastructure attracts investment by connecting firms to their customers and suppliers† (OECD, 2006:59). In Tanzania and many African nations have seen success form land ownership, it has â€Å"spurred economic growth and improved shared prosperity for the countrys population† (All Africa, 2013) The use of successful development plans is essential in addressing uneven development. There are several aspects such and bottom-up planning already discussed that can contribute to reducing uneven development. Land use zoning is another strategy that is efficient in addressing uneven development. Zoning plans are designed by the government and decide â€Å"what kind of buildings can be built and where in the community they can be built† (Euchner and McGovern, 2003:155). The use of zoning separates different land uses that could perhaps conflict such as â€Å"residential, business and industrial uses† (Soule, 2006:30). It controls new sustainable development that doesn’t affect any existing development. Zoning is able to create even development as it regulates where certain types of development can take place, this can replace previous systems where â€Å"restrictive land use policies have discouraged new companies and new job creation (Baily and Kirkegaard, 200 4:8). By using a zoning scheme â€Å"specific beneficial incentives can be offered in return for specific contributions by the developer† (Silberstein and Maser, 2000:35). This would attract investment to areas of a region as well as improving infrastructure and creating jobs, encourage the creative classes to locate to these areas resulting in more even development. The United States of America has seen â€Å"Great success of Euclidean zoning† (Soule, 2007:27), zoning can be found as the foundation of many American development plans such as Chicago. With population numbers rising and a globalising economy; development is set to increase, it therefor vital sustainable planning policies are operating. This essay has displayed some possible reasons for why cities and regions might develop at different rates though theorist such as Florida (2005) and porter (2008), they suggest that Creative classes and competitiveness create uneven development. Friedman (2005) and Harvey (1989) argue against this idea of development being ‘spikey’ and suggest due to globalisation and a borderless economy; location is not important allowing development to take place at the same rate. Planning and development policy can play an influential role in addressing uneven development as well as maintaining sustainable development. This essay has displayed several effective policy schemes such as Bottom-up governance, land rights, taxation and land use zoning that have proved effective in tackling uneven development. In conclusion uneven develop ment is occurring; it is possible to tackle uneven development though successful policy however it must be remembered that many regions develop at different rates. Many of these are located in less economically developed countries which lack effectiveness in delivering successful policy. As a result its vital that these countries have the support form supra-national bodies such as The United Nations and World Bank in order to achieve development that addresses uneven development and is sustainable for future generations. Bibliography All Africa (2013) [ONLINE] http://allafrica.com/stories/201312300059.html (Assessed 22/1/14). Bailey, M, Kirkegaard, J (2004) â€Å"Transforming the European Economy†, The Institute for International Economics. Bradbury, J (2008) â€Å"Devolution, Regionalism and Regional Development: The UK Experience†, Routledge. Chetwyn, D. (2013) â€Å"Quick guide to neighbourhood plans†, Urban Vision Enterprise CIC. Das, P, S. (2005) â€Å"Decentralized Planning and Participatory Rural Development†, Concept Publishing Company. Euchner,C, McGovern, S (2003) â€Å"Urban Policy Reconsidered: Dialogues on the Problems and Prospects of American Cities. Fatas, A, Mihov, J (2009) â€Å"The 4 I’s of Economic Growth†, INSEAD. Feiock, R, C, Moon, M, J Park, H, J (2008) â€Å"Is the world â€Å"flat† or â€Å"spiky†? Rethinking the governance implications of globalization for economic development†, Public Administration Review. Florida, R (2005) â€Å"The world in numbers: the world is spikey†, The Atlantic Monthly October Edition. Florida, R (2002) â€Å"The Rise of the Creative Class: And How Its Transforming Work, Leisure, Community, and Everyday Life†, Basic Books. Friedman T, L (2005) â€Å"The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century†, Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Hall, P, V, Hesse, M (2013) â€Å"Cities, Regions and Flows†, Routledge. Harvey Hashimoto, H (2004) â€Å"Prospects for a Regional Human Rights Mechanism in East Asia†, Routledge. Held, D (2004) â€Å"A Globalizing World?: Culture, Economics, Politics†, Routledge. Huggins, R and Izushi, H (2011) â€Å"Competition, Competitive Advantage, and Clusters: The Ideas of Michael Porter†, Oxford University Press. Huggins, R and Izushi, H (2007) â€Å"Competing for Knowledge: Creating, Connecting and Growing†, Routledge. Huggins and Thompson (2010) â€Å"UK Competitiveness Index 2010†, University of Wales Institute of Cardiff. Leamer Linchfeild, N (1980) â€Å"Settlement Planning and Development: A Strategy for Land Policy†, University of British Columbia. Lipton, M (2009) â€Å"Land Reform in Developing Countries: Property Rights and Property Wrongs†, Routledge. Luo, Y (2002) â€Å"Multinational Enterprises in Emerging Markets† Copenhagen Business School Press. Mander, J, Baker, D (2002) â€Å"Does Globalisation help the poor†, Special report, International Forum on Globalisation Mayhew, S (2009) â€Å"A Dictionary of Geography†, Oxford University Press. Mellander, C, Florida, R, Asheim, B, T, Gertler, M (2014) â€Å"The Creative Class Goes Global†, Routledge. Nagle,G (1995) â€Å"Development and Underdevelopment†, Nelson. Ohmae, K (1995) â€Å"The end of the nation state: The rise of the regional economy†, New York Free Press. OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) (2006) â€Å"Policy Framework for Investment†, OECD Publishing. Porter, M, E (2008) â€Å"On Competition†, Harvard Business School Publishing. Porter, M, E (1990) â€Å"The Competitive Advantage of Nations†, MacMillan. Prasnikar, J (2006) â€Å"Competitiveness, Social Responsibility and Economic Growth†, Nova Science Publishers. Silberstein, J, Maser, C (2000) â€Å"Land-Use Planning for Sustainable Development†, CRC Press. Shirazi, J Shah, A (1991) â€Å"Tax Policy in Developing Countries†, The World Bank, Vol 19. Soule, D (2007) â€Å"Remaking American Communities: A Reference Guide to Urban Sprawl† Greenwood Press. Soule, D (2006) â€Å"Urban Sprawl: A Comprehensive Reference Guide†, Greenwood Press. Sander Shafaeddin, M (2012) â€Å"Competitiveness and Development: Myth and Realities†, Anthem Press. Stalder, F (2006) â€Å"Manuel Castells: The Theory of the Network Society†, Polity press. Stiglitz, J, E (2002) â€Å"Globalisms Discontents†, American Prospect. Stolarick, K, Florida, R (2006) †Creativity connections and innovation a study of linkages in the Montreal region†, Environment and planning, Vol 38 pp 1799-1817. Thrift, N May, J (2001) â€Å"Timespace: Geographies of Temporality†, Routledge. World Bank (2004) †2003 Annual Review of Development Effectiveness: The Effectiveness of Bank support for policy reform†, World Bank Operations Evaluation Department.

The LEGO History

Today we will be talking about how the Lego company has started out and how it has gotten this far. Back in 1891 I don't think anyone would have thought it would be what it is today. We will be going back to the day that it started and getting in depth about what happened and how the group has grown to be this big today and what the machines are that the legos go threw. We will be getting into the history that most people don't know and uncovering it. The prices of original legos will be shown, the average cost of each lego produced and how much money they make off an average set of legos. The Lego Company begin in the workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen in 1891, the group had a carpenter from Billund, Denmark. Who began making wood toys in 1932. In 1934, his company had made their name Lego. In 1947 the Lego group downed their making in wood toys and started to manufacture Legos. Which today is a major company with a net worth of 5.9 billion dollars. The name Lego is a mixture of two Danish words leg and godt, which meant play well. It is their name and ideal. In the past 80 years the company has moved from a small workshop to a massive company producing tons of Legos each day the exact number each day is 36,000 each minute. The average cost of one lego is 10.4 cents. Most of the smaller sets of lego buildings cost around 8 dollars and the more difficult ones are anywhere between 40 dollars and 70 dollars. The lego company started using plastic after many fires happen from the wood and plastic came available after World War Two, so the group decided to try it out and got a plastic molding injection machine. One of the first toys made with the plastic was a truck that could be taken apart and put back together and the company hit it big on that one. The plastic products weren't taken serious like the metal or wood ones because the customers where so use to metal and wood that they were scared to try something new but Lego advertised and advertised and their toys where mainly directed toward pre-school kids. they never really hit it big in the beginning, it took time and persistence to get their toys made right. They officially got rid of the wooden blocks after one of their last plants burned down. The lego group had such a great outcome at the end if 19th century and still do because they have such a high quality product compared to all the other manufacturing company's for toys. The group started to grow because they made the product safer for the kids, the group made the plastic with non-toxic plastic. The group Lego made it non-toxic because Lego wanted his product to be safe for the little kids handling his toys. In the beginning he started out with around four hundred and fifty workers and it grew over time as Lego grew. Now days the Lego group has around approximately fourteen thousand workers world wide. I have watched many videos of Lego reviews and every single one I have ever watched I have never seen a negative review

Are Electronic Medical Records a Cure for Health Care?

Case Summary Healthcare is a major topic in the media, and how it affecting people all over the country. The government has implemented laws and policies to ensure that individuals can receive the proper medical attention, and has made healthcare affordable for American that are not able to pay out of pocket for services provided. This action by the government has caused a surplus in patients seen by healthcare providers, which in return has increase the paperwork associated with business practices.As a result, providers are implementing systems such as Electronic Medical Records to ensure that patient records are accurate and accessible for multiple providers for proper diagnosis. Electronic Medical Records (EMR) systems are systems that provide â€Å"information about one’s life-long health condition and health care behavior which are on the basis of electric management. The records contained in the system have been constructed to take the place of paper medical records as the main information sources in medical care† (Chen, Wang, & Zhang, 2010).As in any system, developers must understand how to integrate information to ensure that the system in capable function properly, and providing users with information requested by incorporating business intelligence into the implementation process. Business Intelligence (BI) enables developers to clearly state what is needed throughout the entire organization, and simplifies the implementation process during implementation deployment and administration. Implementing and integrating EMR systems is costly, but it is necessary for healthcare providers to adopt systems as this to ensure accuracy, errorless information. . ) What management, organization, and technology factors are responsible for the difficulties in building electronic medical records systems? Explain your answer As technology rapidly emerges, businesses are required to adopt new practices to maintain and streamline processes. Electronic medi cal records systems have surfaced to eliminate inefficiency, errors and cut enormous spending. Organizations must strategically implement and interact with agencies outside of its walls to integrate EMR systems into it infrastructure.Healthcare management, insurance agencies, the government and technology advances have all played a major role in the delay of the creation of a global EMR system. The Government’s involvement in the implementation of EMR system is critical. In 2009, $19 billion was granted through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to encourage doctors and hospitals to install and use electronic health records (EHR’s) which is a fundamental component of EMR systems (MacKinnon & Wasserman, 2009). Without government funding, it would be merely impossible for organizations to implement and adopt ERM systems.Expensive systems are usually frowned upon by organizations, for that reason the government must intervene to ensure improved speed and a ccuracy of data sharing, reporting, and planning. Healthcare providers are becoming overbooked and the paperwork is overwhelming. Adopting technology is necessary in the healthcare profession to handle daily workloads. The cost of implementing systems to fit the needs of the organization is the leading factor that causes providers to resist the integration and incorporation of EMR systems. IT developers are also high involved in the implementation of systems for hospitals and healthcare providers.Investing in the EMR system is costly, but the failure to implement EMR systems is often contributed to developers ignoring stakeholders’ needs in the hospital (Su, Fulcher, Win, Chiu, & Chiu, 2008). 2. ) What stages of system building will be the most difficult when creating electronic medical record systems? Explain your answer With advances in technology, organization must continually upgrade current systems to ensure that the system’s capabilities are functional. One of th e most difficult stages in the implementing of EMR system is the sharing of information between different systems.One of the essential purposes of an EMR system is to collaborate and store patient information that can be accessed by multiple providers. Utilizing what is known as an electronic patient records system or (ERP) is an electronic structure for the maintenance of information about the health condition and the care received by someone all his/her life (Vilar & Boudoux, 2002) . Some institutions that implement systems using ERP could actually face problems due to HIPPA laws when making information available to other sources. Being able to provide information nationally could cause major problems for organizations utilizing as well.Providers have issues with privacy with information be easily accessible. Protection of information is vital, and developer must be able to control access and information that is provided through EMR systems. Christa Teston in her article, Investig ating usability and â€Å"meaningful use† of electronic medical records, â€Å"A wide-ranging survey of healthcare providers and patients resulted in negative attitudes from a rather substantial minority of participants about the secondary use of de-identified health information† (Teston, 2012). 3. Describe the application of business process management to the design of an electronic medical record system Within an EMR system, careful database management is needed to store relative and historical information. EMR systems implementations â€Å"require a significant investment in money and time, as well as process change and training, all of which carry a great deal of risk for the organization† (MacKinnon & Wasserman, 2009). The implementation of any system requires strategic planning and proactive approaches to management, and business processes.There are design-related issues that many developers struggle with during the implementation process such as privacy, efficiency, accounting, and noise from data (Teston, 2012). EMR sharing system unified data structure enables the complete exchange of medical information within the hospital encompassed by a particular region. The organizational structure of hospitals can be directly mapped to share electronic medical record system, to simplify the management of permissions.For that purpose, developer must strategically plan to implement a strong security measure for the system. Security implementation within the EMR system requires users such as providers, staff, and manager, to all obtain a registered certificate that enables access to the system (Chen, Wang, & Zhang, 2010). 4. ) Describe the importance of business intelligence and analytics capabilities in the design of an electronic medical record system Understanding technology and the needs of the users plays a vital role in implementing any system.Proactively implementing systems that is readily able to adapt to future technology upgrades re quires developers to have intensive knowledge of the industry practices and technology evolvement. Business Intelligence (BI) is used to describe applications and technologies that are collaborated to provide access to analyze data and information about an enterprise, in order assist with business decisions (Wu, Barash, & Bartolini, 2007). Data warehousing is one application that is used in the implementation of an EMR system, and is also considered traditional form of business intelligence.The main goal of BI is to â€Å"provide a single vision for an entire organization; to simplify system implementation, deployment, and administration; and to deliver strategic, tactical, and operational knowledge and actionable insight† (Wu, Barash, & Bartolini, 2007). Reference Chen, Q. , Wang, Z. , & Zhang, W. (2010). Security Design for Electronic Medical Record. Intenational Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science, (pp. 1-4). doi:10. 1109/ICBECS. 2010. 5462307 MacKinn on, W. , & Wasserman, M. (2009). Implementing electronic medical record systems. 2nd Hawaii Intenational Conference on System Science (pp. 50-53). Waikoloa: IEEE Computer Society. doi:10. 1109/HICSS. 2009. 349 Su, Y. -Y. , Fulcher, J. , Win, K. T. , Chiu, H. -C. , & Chiu, G. -F. (2008). Evaluating the implementation of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Systems. IEEE 8th International Conference on Computer and Information Technology Workshops, (pp. 589-594). doi:10. 1109/CIT. 2008. Workshops. 45 Teston, C. (2012). Investigating Usability and â€Å"Meaningful Use† of Electronic. 30th ACM international conference on Design of communication, (pp. 27-232). New York. doi:10. 1145/2379057. 2379101 Vilar, G. , & Boudoux, C. (2002). The Medical Information Management System (SIGIM) – Elaboration of an Electronic Patient Record -. Proceedings of the Second Joint EMBSBMES Conference, (pp. 1954-1956). Houstin. doi:10. 1109/IEMBS. 2002. 1053112 Wu, L. , Barash, G. , & Bartolini, C. (2007). A Service-oriented Architecture for Business Intelligence. IEEE International Conference on Service-Oriented Computing and Applications, (pp. 279-285). doi:10. 1109/SOCA. 2007. 6

Toni Morrison Essay - 1278 Words

Toni Morrison The issue of abandonment and the will that it takes to survive the hardship of it is a reoccurring theme in Toni Morrison’s writing. Tar Baby, Sula and Paradise all deal with the issue of abandonment and how it relates to the characters in her stories. â€Å"Through her fiction, Toni Morrison intends to present problems, not their answers† (Moon). Her stated aim is to show quot;how to survive whole in a world where we are all of us, in some measure, victims of something.quot; (Morrison) Morrisons broad vision extends beyond the individual to one that explores self-discovery in relation to a quot;shared history.quot; In order to dramatize the destructive effects of this kind of dependency, she intentionally exaggerates to†¦show more content†¦This idea of abandoning the black culture is the main theme in her novel, Tar Baby. quot;Tar Baby is also a name, like quot;nigger,quot; that white people call black children, black girls, as I recall†¦. At one time, a tar pit was a holy place, at least an important place, because tar was used to build things†¦. It held together things like Moses little boat and the pyramids. For me, the tar baby came to mean the black woman who can hold things together.quot; (quot;An Interviewquot; 255) Toni Morrisons Tar Baby (1982), is a novel about contentions and conflicts based on learned biases and prejudices. These biases exist on a race level, gender level, and a class level. The central conflict, however, is the conflict within the main character, Jadine. This conflict, as Andrew W. A. LaVallee has suggested, is the conflict of the quot;race traitor.quot; It is the conflict of a woman who has discarded her heritage and culture and adopted another trying to reconcile herself to the quot;night womenquot; who want to bring back quot;the prodigal daughter.quot; Jadines reaction to Son is the most revealing-she is the quot;racial traitor.quot; Andrew W. A. 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There is no real way to understand this bond unless someone has personally been a mother. TheRead MoreThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison1720 Words   |  7 PagesBluest Eye, Toni Morrison, criticizes the danger of race discrimination f or any kinds of situations with no exception. The purpose of the paper is explain how pervasive and destructive social racism was bound to happen in American society. The intended audiences are not only black people, but also other races had suffered racism until now. I could find out and concentrate on the most notable symbols which are whiteness, blue eyes and the characterization while reading the novel. Toni Morrison was onRead MoreThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison1587 Words   |  7 Pagessaid, â€Å"We were born to die and we die to live.† Toni Morrison correlates to Nelson’s quote in her Nobel Lecture of 1993, â€Å"We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.† In Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye, she uses language to examine the concepts of racism, lack of self-identity, gender roles, and socioeconomic hardships as they factor into a misinterpretation of the American Dream. Morrison illustrates problems that these issues provoke throughRead MoreThe Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison1095 Words   |  5 PagesSocial class is a major theme in the book The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. Toni Morrison is saying that there are dysfunctional families in every social class, though people only think of it in the lower class. Toni Morrison was also stating that people also use social class to separate themselves from others and apart from race; social class is one thing Pauline and Geraldine admire.Claudia, Pecola, and Frieda are affected by not only their own social status, but others social status too - for exampleRead MoreToni Morrison and Historical Memory5014 Words   |  21 Pagesamnesia of minority history cannot be tolerated. Toni Morrison is a minority writer has risen to the challenge of preventing national amnesia through educating African-Americans by remembering their past and rewriting their history. In her trilogy, Beloved, Jazz and Paradise, and in her other works, Morrison has succeeded in creating literature for African-Americans that enables them to remember their history from slavery to the present. Toni Morrison has been called Americas national author andRead MoreThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison956 Words   |  4 PagesBluest Eye by Toni Morrison, does not necessarily involve slavery directly, but rather examines the aftermath by delving into African-American self-hatred. Nearly all of the main characters in The Bluest Eye who are African American are dominated by the endless culturally-imposed concepts of white beauty and cleanness to an extent where the characters have a destructive way of latently acting out their own feelings of self-hatred on others, especially other African-Americans. Toni Morrison’s novel