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Compare and contrast the ways in which the writers present the theme of isolation to construct the characters of Rochester, Jane and Antoinette in “Jane Eyre” and “Wide Sargasso Sea”.

The theme of isolation is utilised in English literature to shape the principal characters and provide a particular vision on some crucial aspects of their identities. The aim of this essay is to compare and contrast the ways, in which Charlotte Bronte and Jean Rhys interpret the theme of isolation to construct such characters as Rochester and Jane from the novel Jane Eyre and Antoinette from Wide Sargasso Sea. In these literary works the ideas of isolation are presented as a direct result of characters’ loneliness that they have experienced since early childhood, thus the writers apply both to social and inner isolation. The reality, in which these people live, is so harsh that they isolate themselves from the rest of the world. Such alienation is a complex psychological disorder that influences the formation of characters’ identities. Isolation results in the expulsion of a person from all social affairs and interactions, preventing him/her to become a full member of society. Although Jean Rhys utilises the similar idea of isolation as Bronte’s narration, she provides her own interpretation of this issue. Contrary to Bronte, the writer considers that madness of a woman is not innate, but rather is a consequence of the injured self that is formed in a person because of isolation and oppression. In this regard, isolation is perceived by characters as a certain rescue that seems to save them for a time being, but, in fact, it gradually destroys these protagonists. The fact is that the identity of a person is created through certain social and cultural interactions with people, but isolation deprives him/her of acquiring the completeness of identity.

Jane Eyre and Antoinette Cosway, the principal female characters of Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea, are portrayed as entirely isolated personalities who, despite the different background and different living conditions, experience similar loneliness and despair. Jane is a little orphan who is treated cruelly by her aunt and who is isolated from the rest of the household. When Jane is sent into Lowood Institution, her isolation is aggravated; she is transformed into a reserved and serious woman with low self-esteem and lack of hopes. Similar to Jane, Antoinette’s isolation starts at home and continues in the nunnery, influencing her identity. She spends almost all time in the room and close people regard her as mad, although she acts in a rather normal way. But, contrary to Jane, such prolonged isolation results in more complex psychological destruction and further madness of Antoinette . As she claims at the beginning of the narration, no one came near us. I got used to a solitary life (Rhys 18). No one notices her and her family; instead people betray her trust and hopes. Antoinette’s isolation in childhood shapes her personality, negatively influencing her adult life and relations with people. This vulnerable and emotionally destroyed woman lives in her own created world, and when Rochester, a person whom she loves, alienates from her, she can no longer endure this isolation. Antoinette seeks love and attention, but her own husband fails to understand her.

Rhys reveals that Rochester’s isolation can’t be explained by his severity; instead he is portrayed as a destroyed personality who is forced to marry a person chosen by his family and who has to live in a place alien to him. Antoinette regards Rochester’s alienation as his inability to accept something that is different from his well-ordered life and habits. As a result of Rochester’s alienation, his attitude to Antoinette is sometimes negative, and gradually, she is transformed into a mad female, like her own mother, but Rhys opposes to the view that Antoinette inherits this madness from her mother. Instead, throughout the narration she stresses on the fact that isolation inevitably brings a woman to this psychological disorder. Antoinette’s mind is split and she flees into the past, isolating herself not only from the outside world, but also from her present life. Such isolation appears to be really dangerous for such a sensitive woman, and, as Coral Howells puts it, Antoinette’s moment of authenticity is also the moment of her destruction (121). In pursuit of escaping this isolation, Antoinette commits a suicide.

Thus, Antoinette fails to eliminate the negative emotions and feelings that are evoked by her loneliness and isolation. Although Jane Eyre also experiences anger and scorn towards her relatives, she manages to destroy these emotions. Unlike Antoinette, this young woman who feels isolation since childhood meets a person who experiences the same loneliness, and falls in love with him. This powerful feeling saves her from despair and finally destroys her isolation, she no longer wants to alienate from people, and especially from Rochester. The relations between Jane and Rochester differ from the relations between Rochester and Antoinette; in the case of Bronte’s narration both characters destroy their isolation and find necessary strength in each other, they are identical in many ways and are unable to live apart. As Jane claims, I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities or even of mortal flesh; – it is my spirit that addresses your spirit equal, – as we are! (Bronte 238). Rochester’s wives have really traumatic past that is aggravated by their isolation, but they respond differently to it. Although Jane loses her parents and is constantly ignored by society, her isolation helps her to develop some skills that provide her with necessary strength and allow her to overcome negative feelings. She becomes a mature young woman who possesses own viewpoints and who is able to evoke powerful feelings in another person. Jane expresses her dreams and loneliness in her beautiful drawings that allow her to successfully cope with her isolation. When Jane learns about Rochester’s wife, she decides to isolate herself from him, but finally she feels that he needs her and returns to him. Being an orphan, Jane understands that she has nobody to rely on, and she learns to rely only on herself. Contrary to Jane, Antoinette lives with her mother at the beginning, but she is alienated from her, because her mother is attached only to her brother, and when she loses him, she is destroyed.

As a naive and lonely girl, Antoinette finds comfort in her isolation, but deep inside she strives for attention and love. When she marries Rochester, she believes and trusts him, considering that he is her closest person. But when his attitude towards her changes, she isolates herself from him, destroying their relations. According to Schapiro, Both characters are furious at being unrealised by the other (99). Unlike Jane who becomes mature in Lowood School, Antoinette remains a little child who is greatly depended on other people and who is unable to act independently. In this regard, Antoinette’s madness aggravates alienation of Rochester who isolates himself even more after his unsuccessful marriage. Rochester finds it impossible to love a woman who is imposed on him, and when he starts to name her Bertha, he reveals his isolation from her. When Rochester meets Jane, he is attracted to her from the very start, but he finds it difficult to trust a woman again. He makes constant attempts to alienate from her, but he is unable to escape his feelings. Therefore, Antoinette’s isolation from reality and from close people slightly differs from isolation of Jane and Rochester. Their isolation is of different nature, they are socially isolated human beings. This especially concerns Jane who is distinctly alienated from society throughout the narration. When she marries Rochester, a member of the upper class, she still distances herself from others. Contrary to Antoinette who sometimes applies to provoking behaviour to attract attention of people towards her, Jane limits her relations to some close people. But unlike Antoinette, she doesn’t isolate herself from reality, trying to overcome the difficulties with her powerful spirit and moral principles.

Perhaps, Jane’s social isolation is explained by the fact that this young woman is unable to accept society that has constantly pushed her away. In childhood, instead of playing with children, Jane sits in the room in Gateshead listening to the sound of the piano or harp played below the jingling of glass the broken hum of conversation (Bronte 21).She is prohibited to enter the drawing room; only these sounds unite Jane with the world. Such isolation deprives Jane of any social interactions with other children or adults, resulting in her loneliness. As Jane claims, long did the hours seem while I awaited the departure of the company, and listened for the sound of Bessie’s step on the stairs (Bronte 22). Bessie is the only person in this house who helps Jane to endure her complex position. Further in the school Jane meets Helen Burns and Miss Temple, the persons who have greatly influenced the character’s identity. Due to their close relations, Jane starts to feel warmth, love and sympathy, gradually destroying her negative feelings. Unlike Jane, Antoinette doesn’t have such people in her life, thus her isolation and loneliness result in the tragic end. While Jane finally finds her identity, Antoinette’s alienation complicates her relations with people. As Schapiro puts it, Rhys’s novel explores a psychological condition of profound isolation and self-division (84).

Antoinette’s lack of identity makes her rather helpless. Jane is simply isolated from society, but Antoinette is destroyed by society, because she is depended on people that reject her. As a result of her isolation, Antoinette is unable to understand her true self or form definite principles. Such inner tension deprives the female character of normal life and reveals a complex position of a woman in a patriarchal world. Although Jane is portrayed in the similar social context, she manages to overcome these biases and make other people respect her. She possesses more strength and restraint than Antoinette, that’s why Jane’s isolation doesn’t destroy her, as she finds her identity. But Antoinette’s inability to acquire identity deprives her of normal life and happiness. She is constantly utilised as an object, but is never accepted as a woman with willpower and strength. Thus, Antoinette’s madness is a tragic sequel of her isolation. When she marries Rochester, she makes an attempt to overcome this isolation, but as Rhys claims, You can pretend for a long time, but one day it all falls away and you are alone (130).

Analysing the ways in which the writers present the theme of isolation to construct the characters of Rochester, Jane and Antoinette from Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea, the essay suggests that Bronte and Rhys provide both similar and different interpretations of this issue. Jane and Antoinette are brought up in the similar environment and are constantly isolated from society. It is in this isolation that these young women find necessary solace from the cruel reality, but, though this isolation seems rescued for a while, it finally negatively influences the characters’ identity. Due to the fact that isolation of these characters is of different nature, their destinies are also different. Jane is socially isolated throughout the narration, but she manages to find her identity and overcome negative feelings, and, although she is still alienated from the rest of society, she is very close with some people who love her. Antoinette is not only socially isolated, but she is also mentally isolated from reality. Contrary to Jane, she fails to acquire her identity; as a result, isolation and loneliness finally destroy her mind and make her commit a suicide. The lack of social relations and solitude of Antoinette deprive her of the possibility to recognise her true self. Her sensitive nature wants attention and love, but when she fails to receive them, she creates an unreal world, isolating herself even from her husband. Rochester is also isolated from society and from Antoinette, but his isolation is connected with his inability to accept an imposed marriage and everything that is different from his well-ordered existence. Rochester’s attempts to isolate himself from Jane reveal that he is afraid of powerful feelings; as his marriage with one woman fails, he alienates from other females as well. Besides, Rochester is fully ignored by his own family, thus all three principal characters are isolated in one way or another, either from society or from reality.

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To Explore the Ways in Which Toni Morrison Portrays Negative Representations of her Female Characters and How She Goes Further to Challenge These Representations in Relation to Black Feminist Thought

Introduction

Toni Morrison is considered to be one of the most popular and most important authors of the 20th Century, especially considering that much of her literary work has actively challenged the stereotypes that have been imposed on African American women throughout history. The characters in her novels are beautifully crafted in order to allow the reader to explore their journeys and the way in which they are presented, thus questioning the perspective of history that has been created. However, many of the stereotypes have undoubtedly stuck in the African American conscious and so it is necessary to initially perpetuate women in those images prior to examining exactly how to expel those stereotypes for good. According to Ghaly, “Rethinking the traditional perspectives on identity and its relation to culture, [Morrison] eschew binary logic to explore multiple forms and root causes of social marginality.” As such, with this in mind, this essay will examine the African American female self in its stereotypical form within Morrison’s work and how it is constructed in relation to black feminist thought. This will be done with a view to concluding that Morrison undoubtedly goes some way to dispelling such negative representations and furthers the achievements of black feminism thought in the process. The book used for examination will be Sula (1973).

Black Feminist Thought and Negative Stereotypes

Patricia Hill Collins is one of the foremost scholars concerning the way in which African American women have been portrayed since the 19th Century, offering analysis as to how and why many black authors, intellectuals and prominent figures have been able to challenge stereotypes over the years. She stated that: “Black women intellectuals have laid a vital analytical foundation for a distinctive standpoint on self, community, and society and, in doing so, created a multifaceted, African-American women’s intellectual tradition.” Collins’s argument is indeed correct in that numerous authors have provided a firm analysis of the race’s female self through the eyes of the individual rather than the dominant white perspective. In highlighting this, Collins has also identified numerous themes, or “…six distinguishing features that characterize Black feminist thought may provide the common ground that it so sorely needed both among African-American women, and between African American women and all others whose collective knowledge or thought has a single purpose.” Those six areas that provide common ground and thus a common feminine experience are work and family, controlling matriarchs, self-definition, sexual politics, love relationships, motherhood and activism. Although these six areas provide common ground and thus can also form a collective identity of African American womanhood, they also provide the foundation of negative representations.

Dubey states that “…the black writer must replace negative stereotypes with positive images.” However, the use of the term “replace” gives the impression that negative stereotypes should be ignored rather than examined and developed in order to expel them, ensuring that female characters are allowed to evolve into positive images. Conversely, Collins advocates empowerment via experience and consciousness and that implies exorcising negative representations by exploring them thoroughly in order to humanise the black female experience. Morrison subscribes to this particular perspective, as her characters prove. However, it is necessary to explore the characters in Sula in order to assess whether or not she goes further to challenging representations in relation to black feminist thought or not.

The Whore and the Good Wife

Morrison offers two specific characterisations of the negative stereotypes that had traditionally been foisted on African American women – the whore and the good wife. The former is of course a means of describing Sula and the latter her “good” counterpart, Nel. The relationship between the two serves as one of the “black women’s friendships” that Collins states are vital to expelling negative representations. However, before examining the relationship between the two, it is important to examine the stereotypes they present individually. Sula is the promiscuous black woman that steps neatly into the role of whore at first glance as a result of her attitude towards sex and thus womanhood: “To Sula, sex is disconnected from emotion, a disembodied act of the body that allows her to feel a sorrow unattainable through any other means.” Although this highlights the aspect of the negative stereotype that suggests that black women are promiscuous by nature, it also hints at a far deeper significance that the act itself adopts for Sula, thus challenging the traditional representation. This is reinforced in the description of her upbringing that is offered by Morrison. Her mother “…taught Sula that sex was pleasant and frequent, but otherwise unremarkable.” As such, the stereotype presented by the character is effectively created by a maternal liberal attitude towards sex rather than it being an innate destructive quality that she was born with, as the traditional stereotype suggests. This directly challenges the stereotype by humanising the figure of the whore and thus also dispels the negativity associated with it, regardless of how taboo the subject of promiscuity may be.

However, the stereotype of the whore, which Sula is designed to both embody and challenge within the book, is not only challenged via the use of the her back story but also via her attitude towards sex: “For Sula, sex becomes a means to assert herself and to defy social convention. She seduces her best friend’s husband and is accused of the worst degradation of all: sleeping with white men.” As Collins highlights, African American women were traditionally used by white men and objectified as a result. However, in the case of Sula the roles are reversed. She actively uses men to feel alive, to explore who she is and to form her own self-identity that does not depend on conforming to the social expectations that were imposed on African American women at that point in time. Sula is therefore not a whore but instead a woman simply searching for her place in the world, thus rendering her race incidental. Finding that sex put her “…in a position of surrender, feeling her own abiding strength and limitless power”, Sula explores her true self by rejecting the accepted boundaries of sex and forming her own expectations of life: “Single-handedly, she rejects the values of the margin to which she belongs, a margin that mirrors the centre in that it represses any stirrings of discontent.”Sula’s discontent is tangible and thus renders the stereotype of the whore a societal construction that is designed to oppress rather than a viable label with which it is possible to brand her. Morrison therefore uses the themes established by Collins in order to examine the negative representation of the whore and pushes back the boundaries that had previously been imposed with little understanding of what drove the women perceived as promiscuous. Even though the entire community condemned Sula, including her best friend Nel, the judgement is subtly passed by Morrison on them for not embracing the collective conscious rather than Sula herself.

The whore is not the only negative representation of the African American woman that black feminist thought has acknowledged and tried to dispel. The timid good wife who absolves her husband of all fault is another. The role is filled by Nel in Sula: “Nel, Sula’s complementary “other,” is presented as the prim and proper child who grows up to be a selfless wife and mother who unquestioningly conforms to the stereotypes of womanhood. She is everything that Sula was supposed to become but did not and would not.” She is subordinate to Jude, her husband, keeps house, remains faithful and never goes against her man in any way. In essence, she releases her own identity in order to assume that of her husband, thus meaning that she has no identity and so cannot be said to be living her life on her own terms as Sula is. The two girls contrast greatly but Morrison ensures that they share one element of their lives – that their characters and thus representations are not inevitable but instilled. Just as Sula’s promiscuity is encouraged, so is Nel’s role of the good wife: “Under Helene’s hand the girl became obedient and polite. Any enthusiasms that little Nel showed were calmed by the mother until she drove her daughter’s imagination underground.” She was forced to relinquish her identity and only ever retained it when around Sula, with whom she shares a sisterhood that Collins advocates as being essential in dispelling stereotypes. However, that sisterhood is negated by the conscience of the good wife: “And Nel creates a scapegoat in Sula to absolve Jude of deliberate acts of moral evil, marital infidelity and familial desertion, which destroy their marriage. Nel abnegates Jude’s potential for evil.”. The wife overtakes the sisterhood, thus subverting the notion of community once again. However, although the good wife stereotype is adhered to initially, Morrison later challenges it via a process of self realisation, self determination and the discovery of an autonomous identity. The realisation comes as Nel rejects the stereotype.

Marriage is consistently perceived as damaging by Morrison. She states the following in relation to the institution and its effect on women like Nel, the good wife: “Those with husbands had folded themselves into starched coffins, their sides bursting with other people’s skinned dreams and bony regrets” In doing so, she highlights the importance of other elements of life through the eyes of Nel and Sula with particular emphasis on friendship. However, it is Sula who initially realises the value of friendship in black womanhood: “She had been looking all along for a friend, and it took her a while to discover that a lover was not a comrade and could never be – for a woman.” This is somewhat ironic given the fact that she threw that friendship away by sleeping with Nel’s husband. However, Sula dies without having been given Nel’s forgiveness. It is not until after her death that Nel realises the true nature of friendship between African American women, as per Collins’s examination of black feminist thought and Morrison’s will to push the women further in order to dispel stereotypes: “It is only after Sula’s death and burial that Nel realizes that it has been Sula – not Jude – whom Nel has missed through the years.” In short, according to Morrison, it is the love of the sisterhood that is necessary to survive and nurture an identity instead of the institution of marriage. This undoubtedly rejects the stereotypes of the whore and the good wife because it negates the role of men in general, thus empowering women to forge their own destinies. This is undoubtedly an evolution of black feminist thought rather than in keeping with it.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Morrison uses her characterisations of Sula and Nel in order to thoroughly examine the viability of African American female stereotypes and effectively offers enough proof as to why they must be challenged and dispelled. They not only mask the true nature of what it means to be a woman but also set her alone when in fact the collective conscious defies the imposition of any such stereotype. Collins’s theory as to the nature of African American womanhood via black feminist thought provides an excellent foundation for understanding Morrison’s work, but she goes above and beyond the values and factors offered by Collins in order to ensure that the novel undoubtedly goes some way to dispelling such negative representations and furthers the achievements of black feminism thought in the process. In Sula and Nel, the whore and the good wife are undoubtedly negated in favour of friendship, identity and true black womanhood.

Bibliography

Beaulieu, Elizabeth Ann, 2006. Writing African American Women: An Encyclopedia of Literature by and About Women of Color. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group.
Collins, Patricia Hill, 2000. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. 2nd Edition. London: Routledge.
Davis, Anita Price, 1998. Toni Morrison’s Sula. Piscataway, NJ: Research & Education Association.
Dubey, Madhu, 1994. Black Women Novelists and the Nationalist Aesthetic. Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press.
Eckard, Paula G., 2002. Maternal Body and Voice in Toni Morrison, Bobbie Ann Mason, and Lee Smith. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press.
Ghaly, Salwa, 2004. Evil Encounters with “Other” in Tayeb Salih and Toni Morrison: The Case of Mustafa Saeed and Sula Peace. In Richard Paul Hamilton & Margaret Sonser Breen eds. The Thing of Darkness: Perspectives on Evil and Human Wickedness. Amsterdam: Rodopi, pp. 21-36.
Jennings, La Vinia Delois, 2008. Toni Morrison and the Idea of Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Morrison, Toni, 1987. Sula. New York: Penguin Books.

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Explore the relationship between fiction and metaphysics and/or ethics in D. H. Lawrence’s short story “The White Stocking”

D.H. Lawrence was well known, arguably notorious, for advocating the doctrine of romantic vitalism both in his life and in his writings. Originally a scientific term, the Oxford English Dictionary defines romantic vitalism as “The doctrine or theory that the origin and phenomena of life are due to or produced by a vital principle, as distinct from a purely chemical or physical force” (Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 1999, p1603). Lawrence’s championing of the philosophy persisted right up until his death in 1930: indeed, as Daniel Fuchs comments, “The voice of romantic vitalism speaks with intransigent integrity in Lawrence to the last” (Fuchs, 2011, p156). In the early twentieth century, romantic vitalism, as Lawrence conceived of it, championed the view that people’s intellectual development had taken precedence over their spiritual and emotional development.

This brief essay will examine how the metaphysical concept of romantic vitalism is explored through the treatment of human love and human weakness within the institution or marriage, and how individuals should behave towards one another within D.H.Lawrence’s early short story “The White Stocking”. “The White Stocking” is a narrative about desire and more specifically about repressed desire: as the very title of the story implies, it is about the idea of repression of sex and sexuality as being injurious to the spiritual and mental well being of the subject. It explores in tangential form a conflict between the physical nature of the body on the one hand, and the external pressures of social convention and an unexpressed, yet omniscient Christian morality which is supposed to govern people’s external conduct.

At surface level, the story is about the relationship between a married couple, in this instance the Whistons- Ted and Elsie- and about a husband and wife at the beginning of another working day, yet the narrative voice foregrounds a potent dichotomy or duality which associates warmth and sensuality with femininity, and more particularly the female body, and conversely coldness and reason with masculinity. Yet, one must acknowledge that ‘The White Stocking’ is a story in which the physical atmosphere and physical objects are invested with a powerful symbolism for characters that convey meanings and resonances that they themselves are not yet aware of, but the process of the story is to show how they gain deeper awareness of these resonances, and their implications for their identities and their relationships with each other.

Right from the very outset, it is heavily implied that Mrs Whiston as a character is (in the eyes of her husband, at least) imbued with a powerful sensuousness and an openness to nature and the natural world:

They had been married two years. But still, when she had gone out of the room, he felt as if all his light and warmth were taken away, he became aware of the raw, cold morning. So he rose himself, wondering casually what had roused her so early. Usually she lay in bed as late as she could. (Lawrence, 2006, p49)

Mrs Whiston has an innate warmth in spite of the coldness of their physical surroundings and of the cold English climate, and it is inferred, in spite of the repression of Christian civilisation that expresses itself through the conventional institution of marriage, as the authorial voice seems to imply. This sensuality and easiness with her body is portrayed as almost descending into a form of sluttish behaviour: in the eyes of her husband, the reader is told that “She looked like an untidy minx, but she was quick and handy enough.” (Lawrence, 2006, p50) The impression that is conveyed is not that of a respectable marriage and a respectable Christian household, but rather of a couple who have perhaps just engaged in frenetic sexual intercourse with each other.

Mrs Whiston/Elsie is presented as a character who is much more open to the possibilities of living within the moment and awareness of the sensuous and sexual possibilities that existence can offer one. The story speaks of how she is ‘interested only in her envelopes this morning’ (Lawrence, 2006, p50). Throughout the story she is repeatedly connected with physicality and with physical objects, as exemplified by the lengthy attention paid to her receipt of the Valentine’s gifts and more specifically, her lengthy interaction with the story’s title object: the eponymous white stocking itself.

Lace as a fabric is associated with physical feeling, with the body and with the skin. Indeed, the story mentions how Elsie/ Mrs Whiston was employed as ‘a warehouse girl in Adam’s lace factory before she was married’ (Lawrence, 2006, p56). Her role within a lace/hosiery factory defines her position and her identity in life prior to marriage: within the context of the story, the idea of fabrics, of lace and in particular, the idea of the white stocking seems to invoke the idea of freedom, independence and an elevated social status, as implied by Elsie’s strange yet eager embrace of the physical clothing and the pearl ear-rings that she presumes she has received as a Valentine’s present from her former suitor.

Examining the incident in closer detail, Elsie’s emotional reaction to each of the gifts that she receives is individually noteworthy: she basically rejects the cartoon Valentine that she receives, more or less, because it offends her romantic and possibly aspirational nature. She is then described as smiling ‘pleasantly’(Lawrence, 2006, p51) at the white silk handkerchief that she receives in the white cardboard box, which contains ‘her initial, worked in heliotrope, fully displayed’(Lawrence, 2006, p51). The third gift, the eponymous white stocking contains a very pleasant surprise in its toe. The authorial voice talks of how she lifts ‘a pair of pearl ear-rings from the small box’ (Lawrence, 2006, p51) and goes ‘to the mirror…looking at herself sideways in the glass. Curiously concentrated and intent she seemed as she fingered the lobes of her ears, her head bent on her side.’(Lawrence, 2006, p51) The message that accompanies the gift that ‘Pearls may be fair, but thou art fairer. Wear these for me, and I’ll love the wearer’ (Lawrence, 2006, p51) and the fact that Elsie has not received these items from her husband, suggests that either she has been and remains an object of romantic infatuation.

As we subsequently learn, Elsie suspects that the pearl ear-rings are a gift from the rich lace manufacturer, Sam Adams, who was previously her employer and, it seems, a suitor who vainly tried to woo her. Suddenly a whole back story opens up, in which a vivid physical portrait of Adams as a lonely bachelor with a ‘fondness for the girls’ (Lawrence, 2006, p56) emerges, and for whom Elsie is the main target of his amorous affections. He is described as wearing ‘a red carnation’ (Lawrence, 2006, p56) in his buttonhole in order ‘to impress her’. (Lawrence, 2006, p56)

Why the intense focus on the details of the Valentine’s gifts? For a start, they appear to symbolise Elsie’s apparent ascent in the world and the sense that the reader gets of a desire on her part to ensure an improvement in her social status and the sense of social identity as being somehow fluid, and no longer fixed. As we learn towards the end of the first story, Whiston has risen in the world, having left Sam Adams’ employ and struck out on his own as a commercial traveller. The irony is that Elsie has apparently rejected the higher social status and greater financial and material security that would have come through marriage to Sam Adams, her former employer, and has followed her heart and her romantic nature and married Ted Whiston instead. Whiston is described in the story as being more physically attractive and more restrained in manner than Adams: the latter is ‘too loud for [Elsie’s] good taste (Lawrence, 2006, p56) whereas the former is described as being ‘a shapely young fellow of twenty-eight, sleepy now and easy with well-being (Lawrence, 2006, p50) The story’s narrative structure shifts towards engagement with the romantic triangle between Elsie, Whiston and Adams. Within the triangle Elsie believes that her beauty and her attractiveness to Adams give her a power over her husband through his rage and jealousy at Adams’ unabated courtship.

The triangular relationship is expressed through the story of the Christmas party: Elsie dances with Adams and seems to revel in the physicality of dancing with him. Indeed, the experience is described as being ‘an intoxication to her’, (Lawrence, 2006, p60) and we see how much she shapes her own identity through her own enjoyment of physical and erotic contact with others. At the same time, her husband’s ontology and identity are defined in terms opposite to her own which ostensibly reject the erotic and which enforce boundaries of contact and affection. Ted Whiston instructs his wife to shun close contact with Adams, telling her that: “You don’t want to be too free with Sam Adams…You know what he is”,(Lawrence, 2006, p63) and yet a mixture of pride, anger and reticence prevent him from explaining to Elsie why she should reject Adams’ attentions.

At the heart of the story, the titular white stocking comes to represent the rift in the marriage between Ted and Elsie, and yet to symbolise how Elsie draws out the passion and an unexpected redemptive quality in Ted’s character. When they are walking back from the Christmas party after the incident in which Elsie mistakenly dropped the white stocking, it is Elsie’s apparent remorse and regret which leaves her tearful and vulnerable, and which evokes in Ted a need to forgive, and in a moment of sudden epiphany to realise that he cares for and loves her very deeply indeed:

And he held her very safe, and his heart was white-hot with love for her. His mind was amazed. He could only hold her against his chest that was white-hot with love and belief in her. So she was restored at last. (Lawrence, 2006, p66)

In essence, the Christmas party establishes a pattern of behaviour within the marital relationship whereby Elsie’s continued attraction to Adams both provokes her husband’s violent jealousy to the point where he almost lashes out at her in piques of violence. Yet, if one looks at the relationship and the subsequent marriage between Ted and Elsie, it becomes the way in which her social identity is subsequently defined, and in which she finds a peculiar sense of security:

Inside of marriage she found her liberty. She was rid of the responsibility of herself. Her husband must look after that. She was free to get what she could out of her time. (Lawrence, 2006, p66-7)

This leads us towards consideration of the treatment of marriage within the narrative. At its heart it explores issues of trust, forgiveness and fidelity within marriage, and how well the social institution of marriage can withstand possible betrayal and compromise. The third great epiphany of the story centres on Elsie’s admission to her husband that the pearl ear-rings are not the first present that she has received from Sam Adams. This time, Ted Whiston is unable to restrain himself and hits his wife with a savage force:

Then, quick as lightning, the back of his hand struck her with a crash across the mouth, and she was flung back blinded against the wall (Lawrence, 2006, p71)

One might assume that the modern twenty-first century reader would be shocked and horrified by this expression of violence, and by Whiston’s apparent brutality towards his wife, yet this moment of aggression and physical injury seems to have the paradoxical effect of bringing Ted and Elsie closer together in a sudden and surprising moment of tenderness and compassion. It is almost as if Lawrence is implying that tenderness, cruelty and violence cannot exist apart from one another in marriage, being almost in a form of mutual symbiosis.

In conclusion, this might be a very useful way of describing ‘The White Stocking’ because it is very much a story about relationships and human connections are mutually, helplessly dependent upon each other, and this is how the relationship progresses between Ted and Elsie.

Reference List

Concise Oxford English Dictionary (1999): Oxford UP, Oxford

Fuchs, D. The Limits of Ferocity: Sexual Aggression & Modern Literary Rebellion. (2011): Duke University Press, Durham NC

Lawrence, D.H. Selected Stories. (2007): Penguin, London

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The theme of masculinity suggests itself as an obvious area of focus with Hemingway’s collection In Our Time, as these short stories and vignettes are explicitly concerned with men, male activities, male professions and traditionally masculine areas of human experience such as war, hunting and fighting. The collection is notable for its focus on male characters, most notably figures such as Nick Adams, and for the relative absence of women (indeed, Hemingway titled another of his short story collections Men Without Women). Where women do feature, it is often in a secondary or passive role, with the male characters in the story wielding power in the text and also providing the perspective of Hemingway’s narration. This essay will argue that masculinity is a central theme in In Our Time, and moreover that much of the tension within the texts comes from the conflict between characters’ self-perceptions of their own masculinity and the reality of their masculine behaviour. Defining what masculinity means, both for themselves and in the context of other characters’ perceptions of them, is a central concern of Hemingway’s male protagonists in this collection, as in his oeuvre more generally (Fore, 2007).

In the early story ‘The Indian Camp’ and the vignette Chapter II, Hemingway presents women from the perspective of men: they are associated with children in general and with childbirth in particular. Notably, women are not given a voice in either of these stories; instead, they are seen from the perspective of men. As passive individuals whose primary role is to give birth, women in In Our Time are figured as secondary. Their lack of masculinity means a lack of driving force in the text, which instead comes from male characters, male actions, and male interactions. Hemingway championed, in his fiction as well as in his life, the notion of the competent, masculine male; his motto on this subject was the masculine notion of ‘grace under pressure’ (Durham, 1976). The ability to perform a task or job well is one that Hemingway values in his life and fiction, and in In Our Time we see this confident, competent male type embodied by Nick Adams’ father the doctor. In the story ‘The Indian Camp,’ his visit to the camp is predicated on the notion that he is an extremely competent doctor, able as he notes to perform a caesarian with a jack knife and stitch it up afterwards. In this same story, the doctor can be contrasted with the Indian father who kills himself, thereby dichotomising the able male and the unable male and introducing another of Hemingway’s key themes: namely, suicide. That suicide in the text is no less gendered than professional competence is made evident in the exchange between Nick and his father which follows their leaving the Indian Camp:

“Do many men kill themselves, Daddy?”
“Not very many, Nick.”
“Do many women?”
“Hardly ever.”
“Don’t they ever?”
“Oh, yes. They do sometimes.” (Hemingway, 1925, n.p.)

The differences in the behaviour of men and women take on an almost anthropological quality in the gendered presentation of character in In Our Time. Men are explicitly figured as active, aggressive and macho in contrast to women’s passivity. Whilst Hemingway of course nuances his presentation to include different types of men, and to suggest that there is more than one way of being masculine, there are recurrent themes which can be said to centre around the idea of violence. Men in the stories measure themselves and each other in terms of acts of violence. In the story ‘The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife,’ masculinity is presented as a form of awareness of one’s own capacity to commit acts of violence. Dick Boulton’s very felicity as a male seems to depend on the accuracy of his awareness of his own masculinity: ‘Dick Boulton looked at the doctor. Dick was a big man. He knew how big a man he was. He liked to get into fights. He was happy’ (Hemingway, 1925, n.p.). Violence, recognition of one’s capacity to commit violence, and comfort in one’s own power as a male, are here presented as key features of felicitous masculinity. By contrast, those male characters who are unhappy and who commit acts of violence against themselves (alcoholism, more literally suicide) are ones whose self-perceptions of their own masculinity do not accord with the reality, leading to what some critics have identified as the ‘crisis of masculinity’ in Hemingway’s fiction (Hatten, 1993). The very title of the story ‘The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife’ contrasts the male and the female characters as Hemingway sees them: the Doctor is impulsive, angered, and takes the more cynical interpretation of his adversary’s actions; by contrast, his wife is presented as pious, forgiving, and somewhat naive in her reading of human motives. However, she is able to calm the doctor down and he goes outside to see Nick. Tellingly, however, Nick decides to go off with his father at the end of the story rather than go inside to see his mother. He tells his father he knows where there are black squirrels, and they set off to take part in that most male of activities: hunting. Ultimately, female piety and compassion only temper the masculine urges and drives in the story; it is masculinity which pervades as a theme, and violence – or the potential for violence – which is restored by the story’s close.

Hemingway’s presentation of masculinity must therefore be contrasted with his notions of femininity, and it can be noted that both are presented in terms of types. In In Our Time, the greatest type division is between men and women; within these divisions, there are sub-categories. Thus the short story ‘Mr and Mrs Eliot’ presents the dichotomy of the male and female in its title, and then proceeds in the story itself to break down this division further into different types. At no point, however, is it questioned that there are certain characteristics which can be considered exclusively or predominantly feminine, and those that can be considered masculine. Femininity and masculinity are not abstract notions but rather the locus of concrete differences in the text. Thus Mrs Eliot is presented in terms of stereotypes concerning her gender and geographical origins: ‘Like all Southern women Mrs. Elliot disintegrated very quickly under sea sickness, travelling at night, and getting up too early in the morning’ (Hemingway, 1925, n.p.). This sentence is not a qualified presentation of an individual, but a stereotyping of all females from the South of the United States. This is typical of the way in which gender, masculinity and femininity, are presented in the texts: there are clear archetypes for human characteristics, and characters are presented as conforming to them or deviating from them. Implicit in the short story ‘Mr and Mrs Eliot’ is a critique of the ways in which Mr Eliot departs from the ideal of masculinity presented in the collection more generally: he is a poet, he drinks white wine, he has not been with many women and he tries, unsuccessfully, to have a baby with his wife. Ultimately, he is emasculated and usurped from the marital bed and his role as a masculine impregnator of women: ‘Mrs. Elliot and the girl friend now slept together in the big mediaeval bed. They had many a good cry together’ (Hemingway, 1925, n.p.). Instead, the bed becomes the site not of any female (lesbian) eroticism but instead of female communication and empathy: the women cry there together. This is presented as an antithesis to the idea of idealised masculinity, in which actions speak louder than words. In such a context, Mr Eliot’s being a poet, and dedicating his nights to writing verse and drinking white wine instead of more becoming masculine pursuits, can here be read in a critical light as a satire on the ‘modern’ man who departs from the traditional notion of masculinity as embodied in the collection by figures such as Nick Adams and his father.

The story which perhaps most clearly presents the idealised model of masculinity, and the key notion of the potential difference between men’s perceptions of themselves and the reality of their masculinity, is ‘Big Two-Hearted River.’ Here, Nick Adams is presented as happily in an elemental, masculine state. Men are happy in Hemingway when they are doing an activity well, and here Nick Adams is presented as engaged in fishing the river, a feeling which he enjoys and an experience which he knows well. Hemingway explicitly presents this activity in physical terms; masculine behaviour is notable in the collection for being physically impressive and physically demanding, and the impression is of behaviour which is rewarding for men to the extent that it is physically draining. Thus Nick is happy in proportion to the degree to which he exerts himself: ‘The road climbed steadily. It was hard work walking up-hill. His muscles ached and the day was hot, but Nick felt happy’ (Hemingway, 1925, n.p.). The pleasure of physical exertion is a defining theme of masculinity in this collection as well as in Hemingway’s writing more generally (Fore, 2007); it is seen in the context of a number of typically male activities, from fishing as in this story through to war, bullfighting and shooting (Vernon, 2002). The story also presents a key Hemingway theme in the context of masculinity: namely, male bonding and the ways in which men negotiate their own masculinity together. Much has been made of homoeroticism and suppressed homosexualities in Hemingway’s work as well as in his life (Blackmore, 1998; Cohen, 1995; Elliott, 1993; Fantina, 2004), but what is more obviously present here is the notion that masculinity is something which is negotiated between men, indirectly rather than directly. Thus Nick Adams measures his own masculinity alongside his old friend Hopkins, who is now presumably dead, drinking a tribute coffee to the man whom he bonded with and against whom he measured some elements of his own masculinity:

Not the first cup. It should be straight Hopkins all the way. Hop deserved that. He was a very serious coffee drinker. He was the most serious man Nick had ever known. Not heavy, serious. That was a long time ago. (Hemingway, 1925, n.p.)

Significantly, this male bonding is something which is negotiated indirectly, with intervening time and space coming between Nick and Hopkins. Even more significantly, Hemingway presents this masculine bonding indirectly, through the free indirect discourse of Nick’s thoughts and reminiscences. This device allows Hemingway to present masculinity indirectly, and to emphasise in the nostalgia and pathos of this longer story the loss and pain that the masculine world of war creates (Clifford, 1994). Nick is not presented as having any direct contact with Hopkins, there is no quoting or speech, but instead Nick and the reader are obliged to experience this process of masculine connection from a distance, at a remove.

To conclude, it is evident that masculinity is an extremely important theme in In Our Time. In particular, it allows for a dichotomy to be present in the texts between males as active, violent and powerful on the one hand, and women as passive, responsive and objectified on the other. Women are the subject of the male gaze, which is always seeking to define itself in terms of idealised masculinity. However, men also turn their gazes on themselves and each other, and it can be noted in conclusion that a central source of narrative tension in the text is the conflict between characters’ perceptions of their masculinity and the reality. This comes to the fore in relationship problems with women, but also in acts of violence and conflict between males, where the need to assert one’s masculinity comes at the expense of denying another man the opportunity to fully exert his. The pathos of this disconnect between idealised masculinity and the harsh reality of many of his male characters’ existences is what gives to Hemingway’s collection In Our Time its unmistakably elegiac tone.

References

Blackmore, D. (1998). ” In New York it’d mean I was a…”: Masculinity anxiety and period discourses of sexuality in The Sun Also Rises. The Hemingway Review, 18(1), 49.

Clifford, S. P. (1994). Hemingway’s Fragmentary Novel: Readers Writing the Hero in In Our Time. The Hemingway Review, 13, 12-23.

Cohen, P. F. (1995). ” I won’t kiss you… I’ll send your English girl”: homoerotic desire in’A Farewell to Arms.’. The Hemingway Review, 15(1), 42-54.

Durham, P. (1976). Ernest Hemingway’s Grace under Pressure: The Western Code. The Pacific Historical Review, 425-432.

Elliott, I. (1993). A farewell to arms and Hemingway’s crisis of masculine values. Lit: Literature Interpretation Theory, 4(4), 291-304.

Fantina, R. (2004). Hemingway’s Masochism, Sodomy, and the Dominant Woman. The Hemingway Review, 23(1), 84-105.

Fore, D. (2007). Life Unworthy of Life?: Masculinity, Disability, and Guilt in The Sun Also Rises. The Hemingway Review, 26(2), 74-88.

Hatten, C. (1993). The Crisis of Masculinity, Reified Desire, and Catherine Barkley in” A Farewell to Arms”. Journal of the History of Sexuality, 4(1), 76-98.

Hemingway, E. (1925) In Our Time. New York: Simon and Schuster. Available online at scribd.com [accessed 3rd March 2016] at: https://www.scribd.com/read/236832081/In-Our-Time.

Vernon, A. (2002). War, Gender, and Ernest Hemingway. The Hemingway Review, 22(1), 34-55.

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THE REPRESENTATION OF BLACK CULTURE IN BELOVED BY TONI MORRISON

African-American author Toni Morrison’s book, Beloved, describes a black culture born out of a dehumanising period of slavery just after the Civil War. Culture is a means of how a group collectively believe, act, and interact on a daily basis. Those who have studied her work refer to Morrison’s narrative tales as “literature…that addresses the sacred and as an allegorical representation of black experience” (Baker-Fletcher 1993: 2). Although African Americans had a difficult time establishing their own culture during the period of slavery when they were considered less than human, Morrison believes that black culture has been built on the horrors of the past and it is this history that has shaped contemporary black culture in a positive way. Through the use of linguistic devices, her representation of black women, imagery and symbolic features, and the theme of interracial relations, Morrison illustrates that black culture that is resilient, vibrant, independent, and determined.

Published in 1987, Beloved is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel that recounts how those who survived slavery healed themselves and reflects on the period of slavery in “a manner in which it can be digested, in a manner in which the memory is not destructive” (Morey 1988: 2). It is this rememory as Morrison calls it that helps those considered “others” become individuals. Set in Ohio, the book focuses on Sethe; Sethe’s surviving daughter, Denver; Sethe’s mother-in-law, Baby Suggs; and the ghost of Sethe’s dead daughter, Beloved. Throughout the book, “Morrison communicates an unforgettable sense of the strength, terror and devastation that is part of the black community, whilst skilfully portraying the unalterable connections between spiritual and physical life” (Morey 1988: 1093).

One linguistic device used throughout the novel is the use of songs. Slaves use songs as a way to pass down stories but also to help them maintain a sense of inner strength. Morrison “shows how song defines and affirms slave “personhood” in a world where slave humanity is constantly challenged and denied” (Capuano 2003: 1). Rather than thinking of song in a negative fashion, “it chronicles her characters’ endurance and ability to survive during and after these periods of physical brutality and psychological abuse” that they experienced during slavery (Capuano 2003: 2). This illustrates how black culture has resilience and an ability to overcome hardship. Singing is an essential aspect of the characters’ lives alongside food, sleep, and shelter. As the novel related, if Paul D could “walk, eat, sleep, [and] sing,” he could survive and “asked for no more” (Morrison 1987: 41). While others may not understand the jargon used in the songs, those singing it and other slaves hearing those songs know what it means, and this is a way to strike some independence and distinct culture for themselves during a period where it is uncommon to think of blacks as even human (Capuano 2003: 4). This community of song enables those within black culture to become stronger. It is “the collective sharing of that information heals the individual — and the collective” (Morey 1988: 1039). In revisiting Morrison’s overall theme of turning traumatic memories into a positive force, the songs are a cathartic process used to take this memory, which is “vital for revisioning communal and social transformation that is healing” (Baker-Fletch 1993: 4). It is the singing of the women that help exorcise the ghost of Beloved and enable Sethe to break free as if she has been baptized (Morrison 1987: 308). The novel describes Sethe as “running into the faces of the people out there, joining them and leaving Beloved behind” (Morrison 1987: 309).

In addition to songs as a linguistic device, Morrison constantly returns to the word, “rememory” and “disremember” rather than using words, such as “remember” or “forget.” Morrison uses rememory to show how Sethe constantly keeps the past in her present existence because she cannot forget what happened and lives with the ghost of her guilty conscience and moral dilemma for murdering her daughter and living through slavery. For example, Sethe explains how she struggles with the past:

It’s so hard for me to believe in [time]. Some things go. Pass on. Some things just stay. I used to think it was my rememory. . . . But it’s not. Places, places are still there. If a house burns down, it’s gone, but the place-the picture of it-stays, and not just in my rememory, but out there, in the world” (Morrison 1987: 36).

Morrison’s creation of her own terms related to how the black culture has to continually deal with its past as though it is a metal neck chain that they cannot unlock. Throughout the book, it seems as though this struggle with rememory is constant for Sethe rather than looking forward to a more opportunistic future: “But [Sethe’s] brain was not interested in the future. Loaded with the past and hungry for more, it left her no room to imagine, let alone plan for, the next day” (Morrison 1987: 70). The other characters in the novel attempt to help Sethe loosen the binds of the past. One of the women in town wants to help Sethe exorcise the ghost of Beloved because she “didn’t like the idea of past errors taking possession of the present” because “the past was something to leave behind” (Morrison 1987: 302).

As part of the black culture, black women represent the pillars of strength within that community as protectors and healers. They are the glue that holds everything together when the world is falling apart around them. Many of the characters have been torn from their families because of the slave traders splitting up families and selling them as slaves to various white masters. Together, they share a history of suffering and an urge to heal and become whole people again. In isolation, black women formed bonds to survive and empower each other to withstand the atrocities of slavery. There is also a sense of the sisterhood still found in African American culture today as the women in the community band together to exercise the ghost of Beloved from Sethe’s house. It is this camaraderie that helps Sethe heal as an individual and strengthens the black community. In contrast, Paul D and Beloved clash because Beloved sees this male presence as a threat as does her sister, Denver. Both Beloved and Denver want their mother to themselves, furthering the idea that black women stick together while black men are seen as untrustworthy. Paul D does not like Beloved either because he feels isolated from the bond that the women share. However, he lets Beloved seduce him, thereby proving to Sethe and Denver that men cannot be trusted.

In terms of imagery, the ghost of Beloved represents the idea that both Sethe and black culture are haunted by a horrible past but being able to live with that spectre in a positive way instead of dreading and fearing their slavery past. As one character states: “Anything dead coming back to life hurts” (Morrison 1987: 35). Beloved also is what is known in African American literatures as the “trickster.” According to one writer, “the trickster, whose fluidity and rule breaking define and maintain culture, embodies a central paradox in Morrison’s work: that of balancing the urge to maintain and foster cultural tradition and the equally powerful urge to rebel” (Smith 1997: 112). Beloved, as a trickster, is playing with Sethe by stirring up the past rather than continuing to repress it. In some ways, Sethe is still enslaved because she cannot remove the shackles of what happened in the past, including her decision to murder her daughter. Beloved works her magic by getting Sethe to re-examine how the past should be dealt with in the present.

Beloved’s presence is like a re-birth for Sethe to acknowledge the past while moving forward a stronger, wiser woman for what happened to her and the rest of the black community. The ghost of Beloved really becomes an outward representation of the inward retrospective Sethe is taking of her life so far. While other characters in the novel experience a situation of an alternative self that helps them recover from the past, it is only Sethe that goes through the process under the most extreme conditions.

In positioning the black culture as part of society as a whole, Morrison also explores interracial relations in the novel. During and after slavery, relations between black and white cultures are “harsh” (Angelo 1989: 1). The relationship between the two cultures is based on the idea of exclusion and lack of tolerance for others. All the black characters have suffered horrific experiences at the hands of white people. Sethe had been raped while Paul D was imprisoned and Stamp Paid lost his wife. Sethe kills her own daughter, Beloved, because she does not want her to have to be treated to the harshness of life that whites have brought on black people. Between the whites and blacks, it is a relationship of take until there was nothing left of the black person:

That anybody white could take your whole self for anything that came to mind. Not just work, kill or maim you, but dirty you. Dirty you so bad you couldn’t like yourself anymore. Dirty you so bad you forgot who you were and couldn’t think it up. . . . The best thing [Sethe] was, was her children. Whites might dirty her all right, but not her best thing (Morrison 1987: 251)

For Sethe, it is easier to lose her daughter to death than it is for her to see Beloved suffer in this world. It did not seem right to live in a world where they were nameless and faceless to white society. Morrison describes this state as being “dismembered and unaccounted for”(Morrison 1987: 323).

In writing about the black culture rising from the ashes of a horrific period in history, Morrison makes the point that individuality and community are what bind African Americans together. In an interview about her novel, she said: “The book was not about the institution — Slavery with a capital S. It was about these anonymous people called slaves. What they do to keep on, how they make a life, what they’re willing to risk, however long it lasts, in order to relate to one another” (Angelo 1989: 3). While Morrison shows that black people are the same as white people because they are all human beings, the black culture has struggled with an identity and a purpose after white people had taken that away during slavery. Beloved is about an awakening to the ability to be individuals again and feel empowered after shaking the ghost of a dehumanizing history. Each character – man and woman – within the black community of Beloved go through a process of denial and then self-awareness. A sense of community and sisterhood along with the tight bonds of family that cannot be broken even by physical distance are what help Sethe and the black culture overcome the trauma and sorrow of the past.

REFERENCES

Angelo, B. (22 May 1989). “The Pain of Being Black.” Time. Available at: http://www.time.com/time/community/pulitzerinterview.html.

Baker-Fletcher, K. (April 1993). “Tar Baby and Womanist Theology.” Theology Today. Available at: http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/apr1993/v50-1-article3.htm.

Capuano, P.J. (2003). “Truth in Timbre: Morrison’s Extension of Slave Narrative Songs in Beloved.” African American Review.

Morey, A.J. (16 November 1988). “Toni Morrison and the Color of Life.” Christian Century, 1039.

Morrison, T. (1987). Beloved. New York: Vintage Books.

Smith, Jeanne Rosier. (1997). “Chapter Four—Tar and Feathers: Community and the Outcast in Toni Morrison’s Trickster Novels.” Writing Tricksters: Mythic Gambols in American Ethnic Fiction. Berkeley: University of California Press.

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Discuss whether the use of English in non-ENL countries can be seen as a neutral, a harmful or a beneficial activity.

English, which is often referred to as ‘the language of the planet’ is spoken by more than 750 million people worldwide. This global phenomenon, if not spoken by millions as a mother tongue is spoken by many as a second language or taught in educational institutions as a foreign language.

The diversity of its speakers has sparked considerable amount of interest, along with the types of English used in many countries. Alongside an immense number of speakers of a single language come the various types of speaker: those who’s English is a mother tongue, those of whom whose English is a second language, and those for whom it is a foreign language. This analysis attempts to establish whether the use of English in non – native speaking countries have adverse or positive effects.

Only a few centuries ago did English exist as a form of dialects spoken by the lower middle classes in the province of Britain. Dominated by the prestige languages of Latin and French, the language of the pre-English period (-c AD 450) was Celtic, a language spoken by those living in Britain and surrounding areas. When the Romans first invaded Britain, a number of Celtic – speaking peoples inhabited Britain, even though Latin was the official language of the province.

According to the source Women in Roman Britain, ‘By the end of the first century AD the increasingly cosmopolitan flavour of the urban population will have resulted in many languages being heard in Britain with the consequence that a knowledge of Latin would have been essential for efficient communication between people who could have originated as far afield as Scotland, Africa or Turkey’ (Allason-Jones, 1989, p174). Residents who would have migrated from such countries inevitably needed a mutual form of communication in order to keep activities such as trade going.

During the pre-English period, the vast number of occurring mixed and interracial marriages would have resulted in the inevitable introduction of foreign languages into Britain. This thus establishes Britain as a multilingual community, having contact with other parts of the world. Since Latin, a language which had been a lingua franca in Britain had by this time, been challenged by the increasing number of inhabitants speaking English, it had to leave in order to find a new position, since people were still using it but were also using Celtic.

At this time, Latin, which wasn’t an official language of Britain had now been established as a language of communication by those residing in England and those migrating to England, and was now seen as a useful source of promoting and providing the existence of beneficial activities such as administration and trade. The use of Latin had by then been the dominant language of government and administration. How the use of such a universal and phenomenal language such as English had been established can only be discovered if its origins are traced.

The earliest piece of writing in English is said to be a carving found in Norwich dating from AD 400. This runic script is said to resemble the Latin or Greek alphabet, and was used in various Germanic languages, bought to England by those residing in mainland Europe. *The influence of Latin on the English Language is very high, even though Latin is a somewhat ‘archaic’ language, only now taught in prestige schools such as Eton College.

1066 was a year of deterioration not just in terms of radical political changes but in major linguistics. Often viewed as ‘a milestone on the road to civilization’, it also played a major part in the development of Modern English. During this precarious time when the entire Normandy dynasty had been gained by the King of France, regular contacts with the French court bought with it colossal changes in the main method of communication.

This conflict ‘brought about a period of close contact and often bitter rivalry’ between the English and the French which in some respects has lasted into the present century. Ideas about ‘Englishness’ often reflect whatever is considered to be ‘not French’ (p121). The consequence of this invasion has caused the English Language to contain many derivations of French, referred to as the language of ‘honour’, ‘chivalry’ and ‘justice’. During the period of the French invasion many English residents knew very little, if not, any of the English language.

Other linguistic changes which inevitably rose as a result of the Norman Conquest concerned the language of Law. This would have been written in Britain’s prestigious language, Latin, which was at the time highly associated with the aristocracy. This resulted in English being a minority written language. Put in simpler terms, the Norman Conquest occurred at the detriment of the English Language used in Britain, which was almost reduced to a minor language or even a mere dialect spoken within England.

Other effects of the Norman Conquest on the English Language included the vocabulary. Many French words were adopted into the English Language which explains the vast majority French lexicon in the English vocabulary we are used to today. Baldwin, who in his speech thinly veils his distaste for the French language adopted into English quoted (that the) ‘salvation’ for Britain (and indeed for the whole world) lay not in French-derived polysyllables such as proletariat but in monosyllables such as ‘faith’. ‘Hope’ ‘love’ and ‘work’ (Crowley, 1989 p255).

Here, he not only (possibly subconsciously) describes English as being a somewhat simple and basic language, but he compares it to French, a language which exhibits power and prestige. In line with the effects of French lexicon within the English language, century’s later English provinces, namely Canada now have both English and French as an official language. The French language, in Quebec especially remains under threat, even though it is used to teach in schools its significance is deteriorating and the constant debate whether to use it in schools or whether English taught in schools can have detrimental effects; if students who are taught both languages becomes proficient in only one of the official languages, the quality of their written or spoken English or French is likely to decline.

In France however, since English has no official status, it is exempt from the pressures Canada faces to exert the significance of learning both languages in schools. As French is taught as a foreign language in England, English is likewise taught as a foreign language in French schools, in order that no-one lacks the knowledge of a language vital for international communication, and therefore increase the number of people proficient in either official language.

An example of the use of English in countries where English is not a native language being a beneficial, almost crucial activity lies within the necessities of air traffic control. Granted, there are many standard English’s, each one being exclusive to its respective country, however if one peculiar, even creolized version remains misunderstood in such a situation, the results could be dire. In such circumstances, even though the existence of many standardized English’s could create confusion, a vast knowledge of a universal Standard English is crucial.

The development of English pidgins and creoles in effect also gives way to confusion as it clouds out the need for a ‘politically correct’ language. The slave trade had an inevitably immense effect on the development of English, as it paved the way for the use of vernaculars such as Black English and black pidgins and creoles. These dialects, in effect are not understood by many and if such a language is seeped into schools it could become deeply ingrained within a students’ vocabulary, thus hindering a students’ ability to speak, and even understand politically correct English.

It is thus necessary to question the term ‘politically correct’ language? Double negatives to the native speaker of English, is seen almost as a taboo in English writing. Its use not only portrays the writer or speaker as uneducated, but the use of such insolent English by a native speaker would regard such a person as illiterate. Other definitions of political correctness refer to the use of non – sexist or racist language, language used in such a way which is not seen to favour a certain age group, class distinction or creed.

According to the English born sociolinguist Anthea Fraser Gupta, political correctness as exemplified by ‘the deliberate use of non-sexist language’ is quite unusual. In fact, it is so rare that I and other colleagues have had the experience of having our non – sexist original changed into a sexist printed version by editors.’ (Gupta, 1994, p2). For example, if an adult male calls another adult male ‘boy’ because he is in a position of authority, this could be seen as highly demeaning, as this perfectly reflects the days of the slave trade when taskmasters referred to their slaves as ‘boy’, alongside other demeaning terms such as ‘dog’ and ‘nigger’.

When I asked a university student if being called ‘boy’ by one who came from a country where such terms were unheard of, his reaction was one of dismay, not to mention being highly insulted. Such deviations from social norms could prove to cause conflict, as this type of English usage in countries such as Angola, France and similar non ENL lands may prove to be a difficulty.

In countries such as China where English has no official status, there has been an increased amount of interest in the English Language. ‘In 1959, everyone was carrying a book of the thoughts of Chairman Mao; today, everyone is carrying a book of ‘elementary English’ (p31) This unprecedented growth in the interest of the English language in a country titled the undisputed home of technology, science and rapid invention makes it a harmful activity in terms of linguistics but a beneficial one in terms of world trade, production and communication.

An influx Chinese people wanting to learn English poses the question: How good is the quality of English used in such non ENL countries? In the Chinese product catalogue IBI Household, the descriptions used to describe its respective goods in small captions are written in English which is considered to be very poor to ENL speakers; for example, a product called Space Creator, an organizer used to store household goods is said to be ”The plastic organizer will help you to storage wisely”, instead of ‘This plastic organizer will help you to store your items wisely; Another example being a Car Air Ozonizer which ‘Remove smoke, eliminate air particulate from this compact air ozonizer.

These items are described in a childlike manner, not to mention that they hardly make sense. As a result, if such habits become ingrained in an English learner’s vocabulary, they may become incomprehensible to someone whose first language is English but more importantly, it may become very difficult to root these habits out. This is thus an example of how the use of the English in non ENL countries can be seen as a harmful activity its only reason for its use is likely to be that of English is seen as fashionable.

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Literature Review

The aim of this literature review is to assess current research on the impact of salinity of pore water on the engineering properties of the soil, including shear strength and classification of the soil, ideally using Atterburg limits. The review focuses on the study of different soils and the impact of salinity on the engineering properties of the soil, addressing the types of experiments, the procedures in setting up the samples and the tests conducted as this will provide background information for the tests conducted in this dissertation. The literature review also examines the results of these tests as this will be useful for comparison of data during the analysis stage of this dissertation.

Engineering Properties of Soil

According to Ajam et al. (2015, p.350) the engineering characteristics of fine-grained soils, particularly clayey soils are influenced by a range of factors including density, porosity, and structure, as well as the history of tension and granulation, type of clayey minerals and plastic property. The engineering characteristics are also influenced by the type of minerals and the volume of these minerals in the pore water. This suggests that any change in these characteristics will lead to a corresponding change in the physical and mechanical characteristics of the soil. Engineering properties such as density, shear strength and the plasticity of soil are important as these properties affect the structural performance of the soil particularly under foundations and in other civil engineering applications. In basic engineering theory on soil mechanics, it is commonly assumed that the pore water and solid particles are chemically inert, in other words there is no chemical interaction between the different phases. However, Ajam et al. (2015, p.350) point out that the surface of clayey mineral particles is negatively charged which means that electrochemical forces exist between the solid, liquid and dissolved phases which influences the mechanical behaviour of clayey soil. In addition, it is known that the quantity and nature of electro-chemical forces depends on the type of anion and cation in exchange phase and the impact of this interaction on the cation exchange capacity. Ajalloeian et al. (2013, p.1419) make the point that the properties of water used in construction activities such as mixing concrete is governed by regulations and international standards, however there are fewer standards, governing the properties of water used in works associated with soil for example in the construction of earthen dams. Yet there is evidence to suggest that some minerals such as salt can affect the mechanical properties of soil. Bouksila et al. (2008, p. 254) suggest that the impact of the saline on the soil is dependent on the solubility of the soil. Suganya and Sivapullaiah (2015, p.913) argue that the behaviour of the soil is dependent on the microstructure which in turn can be influenced by the water content and the chemical content of that water. Lolaev et al. (1997, p.215) suggests that the temperature of the soil and the chemical content of the salt can influence the bonds between particles within the micro-structure which in turn affects the engineering properties of the soil. Chaney and Demars (1985, p.219) point out that salt in pore can affect soil behaviour particularly in leaching which in a slope can lead to a landslide.

Salinity and Microstructure

The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the change in shear strength in the sample soil by considering the effect of values 0%, 10%, 20%, 30% and 100% of pore water salinity and it is therefore prudent to examine similar studies, to determine the types of tests conducted and the results of those tests as this can then be used in assessing the outcomes of the dissertation research. According to Santamarina (2003, p.25) soils are particulate materials which means that the behaviour of soils is determined by the forces particles experience, including forces due to boundary loads which are transmitted through the skeleton of the soil and particle-level forces such as gravitational and buoyant forces as well as hydrodynamic forces. Soil particles are also influenced by contact level forces such as capillary, electrical and cementation reactive forces. It is the balance between these forces that determine soil behaviour and very often laboratory testing can be used to understand and predict this behaviour. Sassa et al. (2007, p.143) makes the point, for example that the shear strength of mudstone is dependent on the chemistry of the mineral and their reaction with saline. It is clear therefore that there is a link between saline pore water and the engineering performance of soils, however it can be difficult to predict and simulate this behaviour.

Tiwari et al. (2005, p.1445) suggest that an inward diffusion of the salt into clay can lead to an increase in the mean aggregate radius, which changes the structural component of the soil into what can be described as “irregular aggregation”. In soils that have more than 10% clay content the use of a saline pore water fluid can affect the physicochemical structure of the soil, affecting changes strength and compressibility of the material. For example, Kenney (1967, 1977) cited by Tiwari et al. (2005, p.1445) showed that increasing the NaCl concentration in pore fluid could lead to an increase of up to 200% in residual shear strength. Gratchev and Sassa (2013)

One of the difficulties with understanding the impact of salt on soil behaviour is that according to Chaney and Demars (1985, p.219) it is difficult to match the salinity in the field with laboratory testing because of the interstitial nature of pore-water salinity.

Research on Saline Pore Fluid and Soil

According to a study conducted by Nagase et al. (2006, p.209) the concentration of salt (NaCl) in the pore fluid affects the mechanical properties of soil as evidenced by the fact that during a recent earthquake in Japan, the saline concentration of the soil decreased due to leaching and there was a corresponding decrease in the cyclic strength of soil. Messad and Moussai (2016, p.301) studied the impact of saline on sabkha soils which are typically low strength and high compressible materials in which it is difficult to design and construct foundations. In this study the effect of salts on water content and Atterberg limits of the sabkha soil was conducted with tests using distilled water and natural sabkha brine along with saline solutions with different salt concentrations. The results revealed that the liquid and plastic limits decrease with pore fluid salinity when using conventional water content. However, it was also noted that liquid limit and plastic limit increase when the fluid content method is used.

van Paassen and Gareau (2004, p.327) also studied the effect of pore water salinity on shear strength and compressibility of remoulded clay. The study sought to compare the results with marine clay from the Caspian Sea which has a known lower shear strength than anticipated as well as a higher moisture content. This clay also has lower pre-consolidation pressures than the calculated in-situ effective stress which indicated under-consolidation. The results of the study revealed that increasing pore water salinity, led to a decrease in the moisture content of normally consolidated clays and the remoulded shear strength corresponded to these moisture content changes. The compressive behaviour of the clay is explained using the modified effective stress concept which takes account of the pore pressure and effective pressure as well as the electrochemical repulsive and attractive forces between the clay particles. van Paassen and Gareau (2004, p.327) found that the laboratory tests on the remoulded clays revealed the opposite results to those obtained by taking the measurements in the natural soils, which is attributed to the effects of soil structure and preconsolidation pressure. In addition, the results showed that the measured pre-consolidation pressure depends largely on the salinity of the permeating fluid and it was concluded that it is possible to approximate pre-consolidation pressure close to the known geological stress in marine clays with high pore fluid salinity, using a brine solution that closely resembles the pore fluid chemistry.

Yan and Chang (2015, p.153) studied the effects of pore fluid salinity on the shear strength and earth pressure coefficient at rest (K0) of three fine-grained soils including kaolin, bentonite and a marine clay. The K0 coefficient and the critical state friction angle (I•’) were determined using triaxial stress path testing on remoulded normally consolidated samples. The Atterberg limit test and sedimentation test revealed that the inter-particle force and soil structure of bentonite were affected by the salinity, whereas the other materials were insensitive to the pore fluid salinity, as shown in Figures 1 to 3. In this study Yan and Chang (2015, p.154) estimated the value of K0 using empirical formulas such as Jaky’s formula and Atterberg limits. It was found that Jaky’s formula satisfactorily predicted K0 for kaolin in all conditions with consistent underestimates for marine clay. In contrast prediction using the Atterberg limits failed in all cases, especially for the particularly for bentonite at low salinity.

Figure 1 Triaxial stress path of testing bentonite with different salt contents (Yan and Chang 2015, p. 156, Figure 4)

Figure 2 Triaxial stress path of testing of kaolin with different salt contents (Yan and Chang 2015, p. 156, Figure 3)

Figure 3 Triaxial stress path of testing of marine clay with different salt contents (Yan and Chang 2015, p. 156, Figure 5)

The laboratory tests found that the pore fluid salinity has little impact on the value of K0 and I•’ in the kaolin samples and the marine clay. However, it was also found that an increase in pore fluid salinity has a corresponding significant increase in I•’ for the bentonite and a decrease in the K0. These findings were attributed to the microstructure of the minerals in the materials (Yan and Chang 2015, p.157).

Zhang et al. (2013, p. 69) conducted tests on undrained shear behaviour of loess that was saturated with different concentrations of sodium chloride solution. The aim of the tests was to investigate the effects of NaCl concentration in pore water and desalinisation on the shear behaviour of the samples in undrained conditions. The samples of loess were taken from the ground surface in China and were saturated by de-aired, distilled water with different concentrations of NaCl. Each sample was then subjected to shear in undrained conditions. The samples were then remoulded and re-set into a shear box and re-saturated by passing through de-aired, distilled water and essentially desalinised, and subjected to shear testing, again in undrained conditions. The results of both sets of tests were compared and it was found that variation of NaCl concentration in the pore water affects the shear behaviour of saturated loess, with increases in peak shear strength and steady-state strength corresponding to increases in NaCl concentration until a peak value after which shear decreases with increases in NaCl concentration. It was also noted that the effects were reversible as the peak shear strength and steady-state strength of the desalinised samples recovered to those found in the original sample.

Ajalloeian et al. (2013, p.1422) conducted a study to assess the impact of salt water on the behavioural parameters of fine-grained soil. The tests started by determining the basic characteristics of the soil and water samples, followed by laboratory tests including Atterberg limits, standard compaction and consolidation tests as well as direct shear testing and dispersion tests including the pinhole test and chemical method. The soil sample was graded in compliance with ASTM D 4318 on soil passing no. 100 sieve, consisting of 37% gravel and sand, 35% silt and 28% clay. An XRD analysis of the material revealed that the fine grains of soil consist mainly of quartz, calcite and dolomite with some gypsum and 5% of the clay mineral montmorillonite.

The samples of this fine soil were subjected to three different type of water with varying salt content, namely distilled water, half saline and fully saline water. Atterberg Limits. The tests were performed according to ASTM D 4318 on soil passing no. 100 sieve. For half saline and saline water, this test was performed at 0, 24 and 48 hours after soil and water exposure. The compaction test was used to impact of the type of water on optimum moisture content and maximum dry density. The test was carried out according to ASTM D698-70 on soil passing no. 5 sieve with the saline test carried out at 24 hours and 48 hours after soil and water exposure. consolidation test was performed according to ASTM D2435 on soil passing no. 60 sieve and the process involved compacting a sample at optimum moisture content in a 20mm thick consolidation ring with a 70 mm diameter. The mould was left under loading equipment and a load of 1 kPa was applied on it and the sample was immersed for 24 hours. Then the sample was loaded with the stresses of 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2 and 2.5 kg/cm2. In the direct shear test, performed according to ASTM D3080 on soil passing no. 5 sieve the soil was compacted at optimum water content in 10 x 10mm mould apparatus at stresses of 0.5, 1 and 2 kg/cm2 and shearing velocity was 0.35 mm/min. “Before shearing at each stress, the sample was immersed and consolidated during 24 hours under the same stress” (Ajalloeian et al. 2013, p.1421).

According to Ajalloeian et al. (2013, p.1424), the results showed that plastic limits with distilled, half saline and saline water are 21.31, 20.43 and 20.12 respectively. Salinity has little effect on the plastic limit however this depends on the moisture content of the soil which could affect the interaction between soil and solute in water. But in liquid limit, in which soil moisture is higher, the effect of salinity will be more. The liquid limit has decreased 5 and 17 percent with half saline and saline water respectively. Mahasneh (2004) cited by Ajalloeian et al. (2013, p.1425) attributed the decrease in liquid limit and plastic index by using saline water of Dead Sea to substitution of water molecules by salts that led to the decrease of the double layer thickness and water content and subsequently it stiffened the soil. Ajalloeian et al. (2013, p.1424) also cites Mansour et al, (2008) who indicate that the presence of high valence exchangeable cations in Dead Sea brine decrease the repulsive forces in the soil microstructure thus influencing soil behaviour. This means that the Vander Waals attractive forces are dominant, which increases the capillary stress between particles boundaries. Ultimately this reduces the available surface for interaction with water as shown in the Atterberg limits. In the present study, the lower part of changes of Atterberg limits are attributed to decrease in the double layer thickness and most of the changes can be attributed to sediment salt in the soil pores, because the XRD analysis showed montmorillonit content in the soil was approximately 5%. On the other hand, salt crystals were seen in the soil after drying it. The plastic index also decreased along with the liquid limit because of the increase in salinity of the pore water fluid.

The results showed that the Atterberg limits, compression index and swelling index as well as the coefficient of volume compressibility (mv) and coefficient of compressibility (av) decreased as water salinity increased. In addition, it was clear that the coefficient of consolidation and shear strength parameters increased with increase water salinity. These impacts were attributed to the increasing attractive force between soil particles, which establishes a bond between them, forming salt crystals in pores soil and effectively acting as a cement. Despite the fact that the concentration of saline water is 50 times more than that of half saline water, the difference between soil properties is not noticeable and it appears that the variations on the soil properties decreases as water salinity increases. However, the study also found that excessive concentration of water tends to cause cations to combine with anions to form salts before they can influence the clay minerals. This means that an increase in concentration of water does not have significant impact on the behaviour of the soil. The consolidation tests showed that soil behaviour with all three types of water is similar at high pressure, attributed to the fact that inter-particles bonds are broken at high pressures.

In another study, Otoko (2014, pp.9-10) investigated the impact of saline water from the Atlantic shore on three type of soil including a clay, clayey sand and base course material. Prior to testing 10kg of each of these soil types were dried at 100oC, sieved to establish grading in accordance with ASTM D421 and ASTM D422, as shown in Figure 4 and stored at room temperature.

Figure 4 Particle Size Distribution of clay, clayey sand and base course samples (Otoko 2014, p.10, Figure 2)

An analysis of the physical properties of the above soils indicate that the clay sample has the highest specific gravity of 2.75, with the base course sample having the lowest value of 2.50. The moisture content was also measured and ranged from 15% to 29% for the clay soil, 13% to 15% for the clayey sand sample and 11% to 14% for base course (Otoko 2014, p. 14).

A series of six samples were prepared using 3kg of each of the materials; one mixed with tap water and the other with saline water from the Atlantic Ocean salty for each type of soil. Compaction tests were then carried out to establish optimum moisture content and dry unit weight in accordance with ASTM D698 – 78, ASTM and AASHTO T180 – 90, with results shown in Figures 5 to 7.

Figure 5 Compaction Curves for Clay soil using tap water and Atlantic Ocean saline water (Otoko 204, p. 11, Figure 3)

Figure 6 Compaction Curves for Clay sand using tap water and Atlantic Ocean saline water (Otoko 204, p. 11, Figure 4)

Figure 7 Compaction Curves for Base course sample using tap water and Atlantic Ocean saline water (Otoko 2014, p. 12, Figure 5)

These figures indicate that the maximum dry unit weights of the clay were 20.9, with the clayey sand and the base course material having dry unit weights of 22.5 and 19.5kN/m3 respectively when mixed with tap water. The maximum dry unit weight for the clay decreased from 20.9kN/m3 to 17.5kN/m3 when the material was mixed with saline water. However, it was noted that there was an increase in the maximum dry unit weight for both clayey sand and base course from 19.5kN/m3 to 20.5kN/m3 and from 22.5kN/m3 to 23.2kN/m3 respectively. This is attributed to changes in the intermolecular structure, where in the clay sample the saline induced repulsive force between the salt molecules and the clay intermolecular structure, which increased the intermolecular distances and void ratios in the sample whereas the increase in the dry unit weight of the base course is attributed to a chemical reaction between the salt molecules and soil particles, thus hardening the material and increasing the dry unit weight (Otoko 2014, p.14).

A further 100g of the materials were mixed with tap water and Atlantic Ocean saline water for the Atterberg’s Limits test. Six paste specimens were prepared to determine the Atterberg limit of the soils. The results of these tests showed that each of the soils tended to stiffen with decreased Atterberg limits for the samples with salt water as shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Effect of Saline water on Atterberg limits and compactions (Otoko 204, p. 13, Table 1)

The samples were also subjected to unconfined compression testing that had been compacted to optimum water content and placed in a cylindrical shaped mould measuring 112.5mm height and 50.0mm diameter as specified in ASTMD 2166 – 85. The results of these tests are shown in Figures 8 to 10 (Otoko 2014, p.11).

Figure 8 Stress strain relationship for Clay soil with tap water and Atlantic Ocean saline water (Otoko 2014, p.13, Figure 6)

Figure 9 Stress strain relationship for Clay sand sample with tap water and Atlantic Ocean saline water (Otoko 2014, p.13, Figure 7)

Figure 10 Stress strain relationship for Base course with tap water and Atlantic Ocean saline water (Otoko 2014, p.13, Figure 6)

In the above figures, the relationship between the unconfined shear strength and strain from three soil types using tap and salty water show that the clay soil sample and the clayey sand sample have higher unconfined compressive strength for the saline state. This is attributed to the fact that the clay soil has “multi layers of gibbsite and silica sheets with hydrogen bonding linking these sheets” which become closer under axial compression, which increases resistance to compression and leads to higher shear strength (Otoko 2014, p.14). In contrast, the structure of base course contains compacted calcium oxide molecule, which as shown in Figure 10, fails “more rapidly than clay”, with the saline water enhancing the shear strength of the base course, largely because of the conversion of the calcium oxides and hydroxide into calcium chloride, which can resist higher values of shear (Otoko 2014, p.15).

A study conducted by Gratchev et al. (2007, p.349), into the cyclic behaviour of bentonite-sand mixtures that were treated with salt, found that the “cyclic shear strength at lower concentrations of salt was greater than that obtained at higher salt concentrations”. Gratchev and Sassa (2013, p.1817) studied the cyclic behaviour of soil under different physico-chemical conditions by conducting a series of undrained cyclic stress-controlled ring-shear tests on a natural soil permeated with solutions of NaCl, sodium hydroxide (NaOH), and sulfuric acid (H2SO4) to examine the cyclic behaviour of soil with different pore fluids. The study concluded that an increase in NaCl concentration from 1 meq/L to 11 meq/L leads to a corresponding decrease in the shear resistance of soil to cyclic loading. In addition, it was found that the soil environment affects the behaviour of the soil, for example in acidic and alkaline environments, it was found that the cyclic shear strength of soil decreases compared to specimens with distilled water. The changes in the cyclic behaviour of soil with different pore fluids are attributed to changes in the diffuse double layer of clay, whereby large concentrations of NaCl, NaOH, and H2SO4 can decrease the thickness of the diffuse double layer, thus producing soil structures that are less resistant to cyclic loading (Gratchev & Sassa 2013, p.1820).

Summary of Literature Review

The engineering characteristics of fine-grained soils, particularly clayey soils are influenced by factors such as density and porosity, structure, type of minerals and plastic properties. Any change in these characteristics will ultimately change the physical and mechanical characteristics of the soil. The addition of salt to pore water can affect the behaviour of the soil by influencing the electrochemical forces exist between the solid, liquid and dissolved phases. It is acknowledged that it is possible to conduct laboratory tests to understand the impact of saline pore water fluid on soil behaviour although it is difficult to mirror actual site conditions. A number of different research experiments were investigated, which revealed that:

the concentration of salt (NaCl) in the pore fluid affects the mechanical properties of soil.
the impact depends on the type of soil; for example, the impact of saline pore water on low strength, highly compressible soils, such as sabkha, increases the liquid limit and plastic limit.
increasing pore water salinity in some soils can decrease in the moisture content of normally consolidated clays and the remoulded shear strength, whereas variations of salt content in materials such as loess increases the peak shear strength and steady-state strength.
in some soils, such as kaolin, the Atterberg limits and compression index, as well as the swelling index and the coefficient of volume compressibility decreased, as water salinity increased.
shear strength parameters increase with increased water salinity, attributed to the increasing attractive force between soil particles, which establishes a bond between them, forming salt crystals in pores soil and effectively acting as a cement.
in cyclic behaviour of soil under different physico-chemical conditions an increase in NaCl concentration leads to a corresponding decrease in the shear resistance of soil to cyclic loading.
the soil environment affects the behaviour of the soil, for example in acidic and alkaline environments, cyclic shear strength of soil decreases compared to specimens with distilled water.
References

Ajam, M., Sabour, M.R. and Dezvareh, G.A., 2015. Study of water salinity effect on geotechnical behavior of soil structure using response surface method (RSM), (Case study: Gotvand Dam). Ciencia & Natura, 37, pp.350-359.

Ajalloeian, R., Mansouri, H. and Sadeghpour, A.H.,2013. Effect of Saline Water on Geotechnical Properties of Fine-grained Soil. Electronic Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, 18, pp.1419-1436.

Bouksila, F., Perrson, M., Berndtsson, R. and Bahrii, A.,2008. Soil water content and salinity determination using different dielectric methods in saline gypsiferous soil. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 53:1, 253-265.

Chaney, R.C. and Demars, K.R., 1985. Strength Testing of Marine Sediments: Laboratory and In-situ Measurements: a Symposium Sponsored by ASTM Committee D-18 on Soil and Rock, San Diego, CA, 26-27 Jan. 1984, Issue 883. New York: ASTM International

Gratchev, I., Sassa, K., Osipov, V., Fukuoka, H., and Wang, G., 2007. Undrained cyclic behavior of bentonite-sand mixtures and factors affecting it.” Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering. 25(3), pp. 349–367

Gratchev, I.B. and Sassa, K., 2013. Cyclic shear strength of soil with different pore fluids. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 139(10), pp.1817-1821.

Lolaev, A.B., Shklyarov, N.D. and Lyalina, O.A., 1997. Effects of salts on physical and mechanical properties of frozen soils. Engineering Geology and the Environment In Marinos, G. (ed.) Engineering Geology and the Environment, Volume 1. Boca Raton: CRC Press, pp.215-220.

Messad, A. and Moussai, B., 2016. Effect of water salinity on Atterberg limits of El-Hodna sabkha soil. Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment, 75(1), pp.301-309.

Nagase, H., Shimizu, K., Hiro-oka, A., Tanoue, Y., and Saitoh, Y.,2006. Earthquake-induced residual deformation of Ariake clay deposits with leaching. Soil Dynamics Earthquake Engineering, 26(2–4), pp. 209–220.

Otoko, G.R., 2014. The Effect of Salt Water on the Physical Properties, Compaction Characteristics and Unconfined Compressive Strength of a Clay, Clayey Sand and Base Course. European International Journal of Science and Technology 3(2), pp.9-17.

Santamarina, J.C., 2003. Soil behavior at the microscale: particle forces. Geotechnical Special Publication, pp.25-56.

Sassa, K., Fukuoka, H., Wang, F. and Wang, G., 2007. Progress in Landslide Science. London: Springer Science.

Suganya, K. and Sivapullaiah, P.V., 2015. Effect of changing water content on the properties of Kuttanad soil. Geotechnical and Geological Engineering,33(4), pp.913-921.

Tiwari, B., Tuladhar, G.R. and Marui, H., 2005. Variation in residual shear strength of the soil with the salinity of pore fluid. Journal of geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering, 131(12), pp.1445-1456.

van Paassen, L.A. and Gareau, L.F., 2004. Effect of pore fluid salinity on compressibility and shear strength development of clayey soils. In Engineering Geology for Infrastructure Planning in Europe. Berlin Heidelberg: Berlin, pp. 327-340.

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Zhang, F., Wang, G., Kamai, T., Chen, W., Zhang, D. and Yang, J., 2013. Undrained shear behavior of loess saturated with different concentrations of sodium chloride solution. Engineering Geology, 155, pp.69-79.

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Critically analyse and evaluate the impact of aviation on society

Introduction

The aviation industryhas dramatically changed the world we live in and has had a huge impact on almost all societies around the world. Since the first flight of the ‘Kity Hawk’ in 1903, aviation has developed at a surprising rate and has become a major component of the developed countries and their respective economies. This essay will discuss the impact of aviation on the society, along with the evaluating its positive and negative influences on the mankind. Furthermore, this essay will discuss the environmental, social and economic impact of aviation in conjunction with its contribution on globalisation.

Transformation from a local industry to global economic beneficiary

Even well into the twentieth century, most people only ever travelled short distances; it was only the rich people who enjoyed the luxury of traveling great distances in short time. However, the advent of commercial aviation has opened the doors for the less privileged as well, and now a larger number of people can travel to greater distances in the shortest possible time (Airbus, 2008). With the expansion of the commercial aviation sector, it is increasinglybecoming a cheape rmeans of travelling. Inrecent decades, the phenomenon of budget airlines has enabled many morepeople to fly (Whitelegg, 2008). Furthermore, the aviation sector has also provided the grounds forthe global tourism industry to develop. The modern tourism industry is unthinkable without aviation. This is because, nowadays, it is a common practice amongst people to travel by air quite frequently for business or pleasure.Thus, increased tourismhelps in generating more and more job opportunities, which in turn improves the global economy.

One of the most prominent impacts of aviation is that it has revolutionised the way in which goods and people are moved around the world (Pew, 2009). Earlier, transportation was a hassle as it was time consuming. With aviation, people now have a securer and faster alternative to travel or transport their goods. The other major benefit of aviation is its profound impact on the economy (Pew, 2009). It has also facilitated the development of industries and businesses,resulting in a great boost in economic activities and trade (Pew, 2009).

The transport of freight by air has also increased greatlyin the recent decades. The goods that are being manufactured in one country are now easily transported in shorter periods of time to another country (FAA, 2005). For example a product made in Manchester can now be shipped anywhere in the world, in no time. The growth of air freight hasalsocreated many opportunities for businesses- it has allowed them to export to markets that were previously not preferred due to the long distances and the subsequent costsincurred (FAA, 2005). Air freight has led to a boost in trade all over the world andhas greatly improvedthe economy of underdeveloped countries. It has also contributed to the growing globalisationof economic activities. This is the reason behind the increasing interdependency of world economies.It has also led to an increase in the productivity of various industries (Gazzard, 2009) which again, helps in the generation of wealth, subsequently benefitting the members of the society (Whitelegg, 2008).

The following sections will present some of the specific major benefits of the aviation industry which derive from the improvements it has made to transport and industry noted above.
A Source of FDI

A highly prominent feature of the modern economy is that, large multinational companies are now investing around the world. This is known as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The importance of FDI is recognised by many governments and is one of the leading drivers of the world economy (PTI, 2012).The opportunity created by the aviation industry has greatly facilitated the rise of FDI (Globenet, 2007). Thus,multinational companies usually have a preference of locating their investments near international airports (Whitelegg, 2008).

Employment opportunities

‘Aviation is a fast growing sector of the economy’(Whitelegg, 2008). The aviation industry, despiteitstechnological advances, is still very labour-intensive. A number of international airlines have developed their offices in various cities, providing full-fledged services of transportation. Thus, it has a pivotal role in the growth of the local economies in that it provides job opportunities to a large number of people (Whitelegg, 2008).

Levies

Many governments invest heavily in airports in order to help the aviation industry (Whitelegg, 2008). Apart from benefitting the local people, this sector also pays taxes, which are in turn spent by the government in the provision of services ranging from education to health (Bridges, 2012). The aviation industry is also heavily subsidised by governments in the form of direct subsidies and tax breaks.The fuel that the various airlinesuse is also subsidised through tax breaks. Governments subsidise the aviation industry in the belief that it helps to generate economic growth (Holliday et. al, 2002). While this may be the case in a few situations,the money used by governments to subsidise the aviation industry could be better spent on other infrastructure projects as well. However, the investment needed to create jobs in the aviation industry is very high and this same investment couldbe successful in producing even more jobs if invested in other areas of the economy.

Globalisation

Perhaps the most important trend in the modern world is globalisation. It is the increasing inter-connectedness of the world on an economic, social, political and cultural level. It has made the world smaller, and now some haveevenspoken of a ‘Global Village’ (Hopkins, 2002). The aviation industry has played a crucial role in the process of globalisation. Aviation has helped societies come closer. With the development of aviation, peoplecan travel more freely. This has helped to promote migration and the exchange of ideas— two very important factors ofglobalisation which will be discussed in the following two sections (IATA, 2008).

Source of Non-Monetary & Intangible benefits

People from different parts of the world, with different views and ideas, now traverse across the world. It has for example, allowed people to study and work in places far away from their native places. It has allowed people from different regions to come together and attend conferences and meetings. This easy movement of people brings new ideas and thoughts into an existing environment and culture. The exchange of ideas is very important, as it facilitates the creation of a more liberal and open society, and it is no longer possible for a society to stop entering those ideas into the society. Rather, it is exposed to the beliefs, values and cultures of other societies as well(Hopkins, 2002, p. 13). Aviation has opened up the world and possibly made societies more tolerant of differences and minorities.

Migration opportunities

With aviation,travel has become cheaper and easier (Kirby, 2008). This has greatly increased migration throughout the world. The modern world has witnessed unprecedented levels of migration. Migration has always been asignificantfeature of human life. People have always travelled long distances in the search for security and resources (Hopkins, 2002). Mass migration is a controversial issue. Many believe that an influx of usually younger and skilled people into a society is of real economic benefit (Kirby, 2008). Their energy and knowledge allows an economy to be more productive and efficient. Many businesses seek highly qualified migrants and it is widely believed that the ageing societies of Western Europe need immigrants in order to maintain their living standards (Crouch, 2004).Migration greatly increases the wealth of a nation as it can bring knowledgeable people which adds to the talent base and human capital of a country. However, migration also brings with it problems such as shortage of housing, and mass migration may produce tensions between immigrants and natives (IATA, 2007). The modern aviation industry has just fuelled this practice even more. This has had huge consequences for society. Many western societies are now of a cosmopolitan nature. They are now home to very many nationalities and ethnic groups who have brought with them their culture and way of life.

Disadvantages of Aviation

Along with the great number of benefits,the aviation industry also brings some inconveniences, in the way that it creates a negative impact on the environment (Lehrer, 2001). The aviation industry generally has a local and a global impact upon the environment (Bridger, 2013). According to Panner (et. al, 2001), the rapid economic development of the globe in recent decades, has led to the degradation of the environment. It has led to worries over the rapid depletion of scarce natural resources, pollution and global warming (Penner et. al, 2001). These environmental challenges are perhaps the most important issues facing modern societies. The planes and airports have adversely impacted upon local environments and the quality of life of those who live in these environments (Lehrer, 2001). There is usually traffic congestion around airports.Aviation has madelife very difficult for some localities in society, especially those located near busy airports as there is the problem of noise pollution. The adverse effects of noise pollution upon individuals have been recognised by the World Health Organisation in recentyears (Whitelegg, 2008). The noise pollution caused by aircraft taking off and landing at airports has been proven to have a negative longterm health impact on people.

Furthermore, modern aircrafts generate greenhouse gases likecarbon. These greenhouse gases have been proven to have a highly degrading impact upon the environment (Weele, 1999). Green house gases stay in the atmosphere and lead to global warming. Global warming in turn leads to climate change and this in the long term could have cataclysmic consequences for humanity (Weele, 1999). It could lead to the seas rising, drought and an increase in the frequency of extreme weather. The aviation industry has been proven to be a major emitter of greenhouse gases, which could lead to the catastrophe of global warming (Bridger, 2013).

However, it must be noted that the impact of the aviation industry on the environment has been disputed. In recent years the aviation industry has tried to appear to be environmentally friendly (Bridger, 2013). It has issued reports and surveys which seek to prove that aviation is not as harmful to the environment, contrary to what many believe (EC, 2014). On balance, however, the evidence suggests that the aviation industry is a major polluter of greenhouse gases and therefore is a major contributor to climate change (Hepworth &Ducatel, 1992).

Conclusion

Aviation has helped transform many societies around the globe. It has had a huge impact upon every society. While many of the changes have been good, some have been negative. Aviation has, by and large, helped to drive the global economy by allowing the free movement of goods and people (Hopkins, 2002). It has also changed modern societies by facilitating mass migration. The modern world has been shaped by aviation. However, the environmental impact of aviation can not be ignored. The local environmental impact of aviation is certainly harmful to those who live near airports (Whitelegg, 2008). However, aviation’s potential to damage the global environment is of major concern. As a major greenhouse gas emitter, aviation is contributing to the process of global warming, which could have disastrous consequences for humanity.

While the aviation sector has,overall, been a real benefit for societies around the world, there needs to be somemajor changes- it must be genuinely environmentally friendly. There may also be a need to re-think the economic benefits of aviation to society, to take into account the environmental costs of the industry to society. The industry needs to be part of an overall plan for global sustainable development that includes development that does not harm the environment or lead toany sort of negative climate change. This sector should, without delay, look into its shortcomings and try and look for constructive solutions, before it becomes too late.

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Reading List/Bibliography

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Bridger, Rose (2013) The Plane Truth: Aviations real impact on people and the environment. Pluto Press: New York.

Bridges. (2012). Washington-Brussels Tension Grows Over Aviation Emissions Levy. Available: http://www.ictsd.org/bridges-news/bridges/news/washington-brussels-tension-grows-over-aviation-emissions-levy. Last accessed 10th Aug 2014.

Crouch, Tom (2004) Wings: a history of aviation from kites to the space age. W.W. Norton: London.

Capoccitti, S., Khare, A., & Mildenberger, U. (2010). Aviation Industry – Mitigating Climate Change Impacts through Technology and Policy. Aviation Industry – Mitigating Climate Change Impacts through Technology and Policy, 5(2). Retrieved August 10, 2014, from http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?pid=S0718-27242010000200006&script=sci_arttext

European Commision. (2014). Reducing emissions from aviation.Available: http://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/transport/aviation/index_en.htm. Last accessed 10th Aug 2014.

FAA. (2014). Emissions and Dispersion Modeling System (EDMS). Available: http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/apl/research/models/edms_model/. Last accessed 10th Aug 2014.

Gazzard, J. (2009). Bio-fuelled or Bio-fooled?Aviation and the Environment.Aviation Environment Federation.http://www.aef.org.uk/uploads/Bio_fuelled_or_bio_fooled_article__2_.pdf [Accessed August 10, 2014]

Greenair (2008). International Aviation Emissions Now Firmly On the Post-Kyoto Climate Talks Agenda (April 10). GreenAir Online.com News. http://www.greenaironline.com/news.php?viewStory=146 [Accessed August 10, 2014]

Greenshies (no date).Climate Change – Aviation Emissions an Ignored but Fast Growing Problem. http://www.aef.org.uk/downloads/Factsheetclimate.pdf [Accessed August 10, 2014]

Hepworth, M. and Ducatel, K. (1992) Transport and the Information Age. London: Bellhaven.

Hopkins, A.G. (ed.). (2002) Globalisation in World History.London:Pimlico House.

Holliday, J. C., Schmidheiny, S., & Watts, P. (2002).Walking the Talk – The Business Case or Sustainable Development. Sheffield, UK: Greenleaf Publishing Ltd.

IATA (2007). IATA calls for a Zero Emissions Future. IATA Press Release No. 21 (June 4). IATA Pressroom. Vancouver. http://www.iata.org/pressroom/pr/2007-06-04-02.htm [Accessed February 16, 2009]

Kirby, A. (2008). CCCC Kick The Habit a UN Guide to Climate Neutrality. UNEMG UNEP/GRID-Arendal. http://www.greeningtheblue.org/sites/default/files/KickTheHabit_en_lr.pdf [Accessed August 10, 2014]

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Energy Labelling of Buildings and The Implementation of The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD).

1.0: Introduction

Energy Efficiency has become a critical element in the growth of the developed economies in the west. This is mainly because of the fact that the energy consumed by the developed countries is comparatively higher to those of their developing counterparts that are equally industrialised. Since the efficiency of the energy consumption is the critical element that attributes to the performance, the need for energy efficiency of civil structures especially buildings (public and industrial) is imperative. Mei ren et al (2003) argues that the energy performance has become a performance measure for the extent to which the developed nations are utilizing the energy efficiently. This makes it clear that a critical analysis on the energy performance of the civil structures (i.e.) buildings is essential in order to justify the validity of the energy performance bill that is expected be passed as legislation in2006. The research conducted through this dissertation is aimed to accomplish whether or not the energy labelling of buildings is viable and the extent to which it can support the implementation of the Energy performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD).

The energy consumption in the UK is not only identified as the primary element for the implementation of the Energy performance of Buildings Directive but also to address the requirements of the KYOTO protocol. The treaty signed by the member nations of the United Nations has increased the need for the energy efficiency as well as reduce the emission of CHG or greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Since the treaty measures the reduction in emission as a percentage reduction to the original set emission level, it is necessary to implement a legislative act that can provide energy efficiency as well as meet the demands of the KYOTO protocol.

In this report a comprehensive analysis on the energy efficiency in buildings both domestic and non-domestics presented to the reader and the implications of enforcing the Energy performance of Buildings Directive in 2006. The dissertation also aims to provide a comprehensive analysis on the potential in achieving the energy efficiency within the buildings of the European Union member states and identify the course of addressing the KYOTO protocol.

2.0: Aim and Objectives

2.1: Aim

The aim of this report is to critically analyse whether the Energy Labelling of buildings in the UK is a viable option for measuring their energy performance in order to implement Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD).

2.2: Objectives

The aim of this report is accomplished through embracing the research upon the following objectives

To conduct a literature review on the need for energy efficiency and role of developed nations in the implementation of Energy Performance of Buildings Directive.

To analyse the stand of European Union on the implementation of the EPBD.

To conduct secondary research through case study analysis on the energy efficiency of domestic and on-domestic buildings in the UK.

To critically analyse the suitability of the Energy performance of Buildings Directive implementation based upon the results derived from the case study analysis.

To comment upon the Energy performance of Buildings Directive actualisation as a legislative act based upon the results and discussions conducted in the research.

3:0 Justifications for the choice of research

Energy efficiency is increasingly demanded in order to meet the rising demand for energy resources. The fact that the energy resources are depleting rapidly makes it critical for the member states of the European Union to efficiently utilise the energy in order to gain sustainable growth in the economy.

It was identified that one of the major consumers of energy in the European Union member states are the buildings. This is mainly because of the increase in the globalization and the population explosion due to the immigration of foreign nationals to European countries. This has increased the number of buildings drastically in the European Union member states thus increasing the energy consumption as well. Hence it is essential to sketch out a method of accomplishing energy efficiency so as to reduce the energy consumption as well as the emission of CHG into the atmosphere causing greenhouse effect. This initiative of the European Union is the major reason for focusing on energy performance measurement in buildings rather than other sectors like the industries or the transportation.

The fact that the reduction of the pollutants emitted into the atmosphere by the buildings when controlled can meet the target for the KYOTO protocol as well as accomplish energy savings is another justification for the choice of the research topic.

Apart from the aforementioned, another interesting feature demonstrated by the buildings that the energy consumption is predominantly due to the improper temperature management has further created the room for investigation into the flaws of the construction design (or plan) which can be fixed to accomplish energy efficiency.

The fact that the energy savings and the energy efficiency in the domestic and non-domestic buildings will reduce the energy prices thus benefiting the consumers in the general public is one of the major elements for the choice of the research topic.

4: Research methodology

The research method adopted in this project is secondary research methodology where the research is based upon the information gathered from white papers and journals. The research is accomplished through the use market reports and journals on the construction industry and energy performance journals. Some of the popular resources of information for the research are listed below:

Chartered institute of building services Engineers

Key Note Ltd

Data monitor Inc

Journal of facilities management

Facilities journal

Building Services Engineering Research & Technology

Journals and white papers from various other resources are also utilised in the research process to accomplish qualitative research in the form of case study analysis.

The research comprises of two separate case study one focusing on each domestic buildings and non-domestic buildings. The case studies are presented separately in order to establish the subtle differences between the two categories of the buildings in the European Union that fall under the jurisdiction of Energy performance of Buildings Directive.

5: Justification for secondary research

Primary research in this topic involves fieldwork for a long period of time up to several months. This requires investment of both time and money for securing the accurate measurements of the emission, level of energy consumption and the air temperature management level. Since the project is conducted on an academic basis the research is performed using the secondary research information rather than conducting primary research.

Furthermore, the fact that the energy performance measurement for the emission and civil measurements of the buildings involve legal requirements to be satisfied prior to presenting in the report, the research is confined to the secondary information which can be referenced whilst conducting the research.

6: Scope of the research

The scope of this research is confined with the energy performance of the buildings in the Europe. The literature review presents the overview on the buildings across Europe whilst the research in the case study is confined only the UK buildings. This is mainly because of the lack of resources on buildings in other nations and the lack of time to analyse any information if gathered.

7: Summary

Energy labelling of the buildings was considered as a critical factor in the energy performance of the buildings and the overall nation among the developed countries since the late years of the twentieth century. The fact that the energy efficiency programs can reduce the energy consumption in the developed nations that are consuming more energy as stated before has made it imperative to accomplish the energy labelling procedure. G. J. Levermore (2002)has stated that the energy labelling of the buildings in developed nations will not only help reduce the energy consumption but also pave the path for achieving an energy efficient economy.

It is also interesting to note that the promotion of the energy labelling policies not only involves one country but also requires critical information on the energy consumption and the labelling methods adhered by other developed nations. In order to maintain a standard in the European Union the EPBD bill is put forth that lays a common standard to be adopted throughout the European Union.

The research in this report focuses upon the benefits of accomplishing the energy efficiency in order to meet the targets for the KYOTO protocol and the Energy performance of Buildings Directive. The report provides a comprehensive analysis on the energy efficiency of the domestic and non-domestic buildings thus accomplishing a totality in the research.

Furthermore, in this report a critical overview of the standards proposed and their implementation in the existing buildings is analysed qualitatively and constructive recommendations are provided to assist the decision makers. The discussion on the Energy performance of Buildings Directive and the recommendations are aimed to provide key issues identified in the research to the decision makers in order to effectively implement the Energy performance of Buildings Directive.

This work was produced by one of our professional writers as a learning aid to help you with your studies

Date authored: 23 ^rd August, 2014.

The invention of the transistor in mid twentieth century gave birth to modern day electronics. Rapid advancements in semiconductor and fabrication technologies allowed the exponential growth of electronic components especially in the last two decades. Electronics with new functionalities have started to emerge in all aspects of human life. Silicon and other material (organic and inorganic) technologies have enabled electronics to be realised on extremely smaller scales. Apart from smaller scales, these technologies also allow dense packing, durability, simpler integration, flexibility and low weight for electronics. These characteristics have rapidly pushed the trend of pervasive and ubiquitous electronics (Maliniak, 2002).

Pervasive Electronics is very much related to consumer electronics. The invention of and later improvement in silicon transistor technology reduced the size and cost of electronic devices such as televisions, video recorders, computers, mobile phones, etc. In the last fifty years, television sets and video recorders have become house-hold devices and more recently computers and mobile phones. These devices could only be realised with the help of improved and cheaper electronic fabrication processes. This resulted in the lower cost and smaller size of devices, making them affordable for the people. Rapid penetration of these electronics followed after that and this allowed these devices to become pervasive in nature. The major motivations behind all these improvements were necessity, entertainment, information access, health care, business development and better and easier life (Stern, 2012; Grant, 2011). Now the trend is towards introducing new and radical functionalities.

Pervasive electronic systems consist of active and passive electronics devices. Active devices mainly include different sensors. Theses sensors are mostly electronic devices which respond to changes in the ambient environment, user commands, human gestures, etc. These devices are more like input devices. The passive devices are usually actuators. These actuators are electronic devices that respond to the information or command send to them by the controller or user. A complete electronic system consists of both of these. The electronic system ends up being a complex integration of sensors and actuators, designed for particular or diverse functionalities or applications.

The functionalities and applications of modern pervasive electronics include smart and intelligent clothing, flexible displays, smart health monitoring and diagnostic systems, smart phones, wearable computing devices, energy storage and generation, smart bio-compatible devices, etc (Axisa, et al., 2005; Min & Cruz, 2012; Gallozzi, 2012).

One of the earlier pervasive electronic systems was the television set. The transistor allowed better, smaller and cheaper electrical switching systems. This helped the television set to become a household commodity in the 1950s and 1960s. Later, the advancements in display technologies and better circuitry made television sets much cheaper, lighter and compact. This resulted in an exponential growth in the number of television sets and display screens. Present day television sets are mostly LCD (Liquid crystal display) based. The old initial cathode ray tubes are almost history while other available display technologies including Plasma Displays, LED (Light Emitting Diode) displays, OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) displays, projection displays and rear projection displays are emerging rapidly as alternative electronic technologies. (Goldberg, n.d.; Fischetti, 2001)

One interesting technology is the flexible OLED. Flexible electronic displays have been developed recently and they can be used as electronic newspapers, portable TV screens, cloaking, etc. Extensive research is underway in this regard and numerous designs and modifications using different materials have been proposed. Organic materials are the more preferred choice of researchers as they allow more flexibility when compared to inorganic materials. Different substrates has been developed modifying existing printing and fabrication technologies. Inkjet printing has been extensively researched for printing electronic circuitry on these substrates (Berggren, et al., 2007). New materials such as Graphene have also been used in developing flexible electronic systems. Graphene is a two dimensional metal which provides ideal flexibility for such applications. Competing materials such as Indium Tin Oxide have emerged but constantly increasing cost along with complex methods for material synthesis have multiplied the demand for Graphene. On the other hand, conventional semiconductor materials do not have the required physical properties as Graphene and therefore, cannot be easily used as a material for flexible electronics. Although, some methods for modifying the physical properties of conventional semiconductor materials are reported in the research literature but still they are unable to match the success of materials like Graphene and Indium Tin Oxide in the domain of flexible electronics (Hamers, 2001; Y. Sun, 2007; Forrest, 2004; Nathan, et al., 2012).

Video recording and playing equipment is another example of a pervasive electronic system. It started with recording on tape. The initial devices were electromechanical devices. Later the tape took the form of a cassette. The recorders became smaller in size and the VCR (video cassette recorder) became the big thing in the 1980s and 1990s. The technology was later replaced by the DVD and DVR recorders. The tape was replaced by a digital disc and the mechanical parts in the systems were reduced to a few components. Blue Ray and Laser based recording technology emerged after the DVD technologies. These devices were compact and were easily able to interface with the existing display technologies which resulted in a massive impact on the popularity of these devices. They were cheap, compact and easily attached with the television sets or projectors, which led to the creation of personalised entertainment systems. The current trend is towards the 3D holographic and optical storage of videos (Gallozzi, 2012).

The discussion of pervasive electronics is incomplete without reference to personal computers. Computer started as a bulky machine almost equal in size to a small home, consuming enough power to run a small town and had very slow computation speeds. In the two to three decades, this machine has been transformed to the size of a wrist watch and even smaller. The contributions of people like Steve Jobs and companies like IBM, Apple, Intel, Samsung, HP, etc. cannot be ignored in making computers – a personal and pervasive electronic device. The prices have then decreased from millions of dollars to a few hundred dollars. It was estimated in year 2001 that more than 125 million personal computers were sold compared to approximately 48,000 computers in 1977 and that there will be more than 2.5 billion personal computer units by the end of 2014 (Kanellos, 2002; Lunden, 2014).

Audio technology has also improved with the advancement in electronics. Instead of huge and bulky audio systems like gramophones and phonographs, electrical and magnetic recording and sound playing systems emerged. These systems were much smaller, cheaper, compact and less energy consuming. In the last few decades the size of audio playing and recording systems has reduced drastically. The initial tape recorder and player systems, although not the size of gramophones or phonographs, were still lacking portability. First came portable electronic cassette players (e.g. Walkman by Sony) and today people are using electronic Pods and MP3 players (e.g. iPod by Apple) that are not bigger than a wrist watch (Beal, 2010; Boehret, 2012). Apart from the size, they have the ability to store thousands of songs and a battery life of almost a week. These Pods have been very popular for almost a decade now but the recent surveys and reports have shown a decline in the sales of these devices because of the emergence of smart phones, Pads and tablets (Hollister, 2014).

The success of wireless cellular phones, smart computing tablets and the emergence of internet technology is another significant chapter in the story of pervasive electronics.

Early telephones were wired and bulky electromechanical devices. Wires caused major portability issues for the phones. The first wireless mobile phone appeared in 1973 developed by Motorola and the flood gates for wireless handset technologies were opened after that. The improvement in radio frequency transmission technologies (GSM, CDMA, etc) and emergence of cellular networks led to the development of better and improved wireless handsets. This again happened because of the advancement in electronic technologies. These sets were initially simple wireless electronic devices which can be easily carried around and had calling and call receiving facilities but in the last decade only, the size reduced and the functionalities provided by the handsets increased drastically. The decrease in cost along with massive manufacturing allowed the people to have multiple handsets with them having different features. Companies like Samsung, Apple, Nokia, LG, and Motorola have a major contribution in the development and commercialisation of these handsets. Reports suggest that Samsung and Apple respectively shared about 31% and 15.6% of the world’s mobile phone sales in 2013 only (Egham, 2014).

The handsets and mobile phones of 1970s and 1980s have improved drastically with introduction of many different features and applications that now they are termed as “smart phones”. Apart from the voice calling facilities of their predecessors, these “smart phones” provide numerous other facilities to their users. These facilities include multimedia entertainment, embedded computing, internet connectivity, GPS tracking and navigation, messaging, audio/video recording and playback capabilities, etc. These functionalities are all embedded on a single electronic board inside the “smart phones” which only became possible because of improved integrated circuits and micro-fabrication techniques. This makes these devices inherently electronic in nature.

Computing Tablets or Smart Tablets are hand held computing devices. These are equipped with sensors, microphones, accelerometers, cameras, high resolution and touch enabled display screens, processors, memories and batteries in a single module. They have capability of a phone and a computer at the same time. The last decade has seen tremendous growth in the concept of such electronic devices. One of the first such devices was developed by AT&T in 1991. Many such tablets were later developed by different companies but the trend setting device was iPad developed by Apple Computers and released in 2010. In last four years, many companies have jumped into the tablet computer industry. Samsung, Asus, HP, Microsoft, Google and Lenovo are the major manufacturers of tablets. These tablets have introduced a revolutionised reading by providing the readers a new interaction experience. High resolution, capacitive and touch enabled screens enjoyed great success among book and newspaper readers. Amazon’s “Kindle Fire” and Barnes & Noble’s “NOOK” are great examples such electronic devices, with sales reaching more than 5 million units in 2010. These devices are highly portable, efficient, powerful, compact, multi-purpose and cheap. This is why they are having a huge amount of success among the people around the globe. They are now extensively employed in the third world countries for education and learning purposes. It is estimated that by the end of year 2015 the overall number of tablets sold throughout the world will be more than the number of personal computers which is currently estimated to be around 2.5 billion units as mentioned earlier. (Chen, 2012; Lunden, 2014)

The “smart phones” and “smart tablets” lose the “smart” word without the availability of the internet. The internet technology developed out of US defense research and later commercialised in 1990s. The age of internet exploded in 2000s and we are currently living in that age. Internet provides connectivity to billions of computer across the world where they are connected and can share and access information via “world wide web”. Internet also owes its success to the electronic components involved in it. Computers, communication networks, communication infrastructure, data storage centers, etc. all have electronics involved with them. These things cannot exist without electronics. It is primarily because of the constant improvement in electronics that internet is capable of withstanding connectivity of the 6 billion people across the world.

The latest trends and research for the pervasive electronics have been driven by the advancements in flexible electronics. Flexible electronic materials and substrates have renewed the interest in new bio-medical, health care devices and numerous other areas. Electronic devices with shapes conforming biological surfaces have been realised (Nathan, et al., 2012). Electronic systems replicating human senses have been demonstrated by the researchers. Electronic Tongue (taste sensors) and Nose (smell sensor) has been reported in the literature. (Buratti, et al., 2011) Similarly, bionic versions of human eye have been realised by researchers in many different manners exploiting the advancements in electronics. (Min & Cruz, 2012). The flexible electronics has started to revolutionise health care by providing non-invasive monitoring and diagnostics. It has also enabled the researchers and scientists to interact, control and integrate with living organs and organisms (Hamers, 2001).

One of the emerging trends in pervasive electronics is towards developing intelligent clothing, wearable computing and autonomous homes. Availability of many electronic technologies such as telecommunications, micro-fabrication, low power design, new textiles and sensors have made it possible to develop human friendly materials to enhance comfort and security. Researchers are developing clothes and textiles equipped with smart sensors and electronics for non-invasive monitoring of patients. Apart from the monitoring aspect, these clothing are also designed to be environment friendly, to provide health care facilities and illness protection. (Axisa, et al., 2005)

Electronic devices have penetrated in every aspect of modern day human life. Today these electronic devices are used everywhere from our homes, offices, medical centers, schools, government institutions and even for travelling around. Importance of these devices is realised when a device gets damaged. Electronics have now become a part of everyday human life bringing many advantages and disadvantages with it, but, as a whole it is impossible to realise modern world without these electronic devices.

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