Young People Television News and Citizenship Literature review

Young People Television News and Citizenship - Literature review Example He made an attempt to study the formulation and development of identities of young informants. He argued that it is possible to investigate the pop culture and media’s significance in the society if an ethnographic research model is employed in the research which is linked with the daily social processes and interaction of the personnel included in the study. Dover (2007) suggested a couple of very useful research methods to study the symbolic- and use-value of pop culture and media with respect to various teen consumers. The research model goes far beyond the link between text and consumer. In his research, Harindranath (2006) constructed a theoretical framework in order to study the media audiences with respect to their involvement in the deliberative democracy. The researcher argued that in order to start the democratic dialogue and exchange of views regarding the public spheres, it is imperative that the concepts of â€Å"mediated knowledge and representation and inequali ty of access to symbolic resources and cultural capital† (Harindranath, 2006) are explored. Buckingham (2002) refers to past research to identify the difficulties encountered by young people while interpreting news along with their perceptions of the way of representation of primary sociopolitical problems in the news. Buckingham (2007) argued that the political understanding needs to be evaluated in context of the modern societies.

Effects of e-Business on Project Mgt, Supply Chain Mgt, Retailing, Term Paper

Effects of e-Business on Project Mgt, Supply Chain Mgt, Retailing, Entertainment & Manufacturing - Term Paper Example On the other hand, technological advancement led by this globalisation strives to offer a sustainable competition advantage to gain upper hand position in the market. In this regard, e-commerce and e-business are the most significant technological boon for the entire business world. e-Business and e-commerce are linked together as Parazoglou commented that e-commerce is a form of e-business. E-commerce generally deals with buying and selling products through internet; whereas, e-business is â€Å"more generic term† and it encompasses entire business transactions like B2B, B2C, and B2G etc (Parazoglou, p.2). This paper will attempt to present effects of e-business on multiple areas of business including project management, supply chain, retailing, entertainment and manufacturing. The discussions mainly focus on pros and cons of e-business on the stated areas. 2. Effects of e-Business on Project management Project management is a set of activities aiming to achieve specific proj ect objective by proper â€Å"planning, scheduling and controlling† (Lewis, p.7). ... on technology (ICT) is an integral part e-business, through a number application multiple projects are conducted for achieving better accuracy within timeframe. The entire process of project management can be executed through a web based platform. 2.1. Advantages A web based project management backed by e-business are better in many ways that the traditional desktop of manual based systems. Dikbas and Scherer have identified a number of benefits of e-business for project management and these are listed below. It leads to improve the communication system in process of project management. It reduces the RFI (request for information) by enhancing the accessibility of necessary and relevant information. It is also helpful in shortening project’s overall life-cycle period. It enhances the ownership concept through high quality accountability and transparency. It helps to maintain records by proper documentation (Dikbas and Scherer, p.439). 2.2. Disadvantages Along with major advant ages, implantation of e-business also leads to developed certain challenges and drawbacks. It must be realised that use of technology have its certain weaknesses and hence, the web based project management backed by e-business also suffers from the same. Some of these weaknesses are stated below. The dependency of web connections like internet, intranet etc increased heavily and non-availability of such infrastructure are greater threat to success of a project. There are possibilities that due to issues in web- browsers, recurring payments increased. There are greater risks to loss of data due to failure of application due to technical errors. It also requires higher capital investment which becomes major weakness for small organisations. 3. Effects of e-Business on Supply chain management Govil

Discuss the impact of volcano-induced climate change in Earth's Term Paper

Discuss the impact of volcano-induced climate change in Earth's history - Term Paper Example This paper discusses how volcanic activities have caused climate change, and the resulting impact on earth’s history. How Volcanoes induce climate change Although large scale volcanic eruptions last only a few days, the effect of these eruptions on climate on the Earth can last for several years. At first, scientists believed that the dust emitted from volcanic eruptions blocked the solar radiation from reaching earth thereby leading to cooling of the earth. However, measurements later indicated that most of this ejected dust returns back to earth within six months of the volcanic eruption. The stratospheric data suggests that during large explosive volcanic eruptions, large quantities of greenhouse gases (CO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) gas are also expunged into the atmosphere. SO2 reacts with the water vapor in the stratosphere and converts to sulfate aerosols, which are sub-micron droplets containing 75% sulfuric acid. These aerosols form a dense optically bright haze layer. Typically, they stay in the stratosphere for 2-4 years. Now, the large quantities of greenhouse gases released by volcanoes trap the heat radiated off the surface of the earth and form a sort of insulation around the planet. Further, the volcanic aerosol clouds scatter a significant amount of incoming Sun’s radiation back to space. This effect is known as â€Å"radiative forcing† that can last for up to 2-3 years following a volcanic eruption. Due to these two combined effects, the Earth experiences a change in climate pattern (NASA, 2011). Evidence of climate change due to volcanic eruptions Observational evidence has also shown that volcanic eruptions and lowering of global temperatures are correlated. Four of the largest eruptions in the recent past have been associated with significant lowering of average global/regional temperatures (DGSDU, 2011) - the eruptions of Laki, Iceland in 1783, Mt Tambora, Indonesia in 1815, Krakatu, Indonesia in 1883, and two large vol canic eruptions occurred within a gap of one month in 1991 – one in Philippines (Pinatubo) and Chile (Mt Hudson) in 1991. Over the next two years, the mean world temperature was observed to have dropped by about 1 °C. Research on the recent eruption of Eyjafjallajokull, Iceland in 2010 showed that the effect of volcanoes on climate change could have been previously underestimated by 7 to 8 orders of magnitude (Boulon, Sellegri, Hervo, & Laj, 2011). This leads us to believe that there could have been a significant effect of volcano-induced climate change that significantly impacted the earth history. Impact on earth history The volcanic activity as we see today is only a small proportion of the level of volcanic activity of the historical past when large scale volcanic eruptions were much more common, long lasting, and frequent. Thus, the volcano induced climate change could possibly even have led to major changes in earth’s history. For example, approximately 70,000 years ago, a large scale volcanic eruption of Mt Toba, Sumatra may have caused a terribly cold winter leading to the coldest 1000 years of the Last Ice Age (Michigan Tech, 2011). Sev Kender conducted research on the middle Miocene period (16 to 11.5 million years ago) and found that super-volcanic eruptions may have caused terribly cold win

To the Lighthouse Essay Example for Free

To the Lighthouse Essay Style for the writer as well as for the painter is a question not of technique, but of vision, says French writer Marcel Proust in his book Le Temps Retrouve. Proust belongs to the league of early 20th century writers who rebelled against the structures of Classicism on prose by employing revolutionary styles in the narrative. Critics of Virginia Woolf trace her influence to Proust, among other figures who share her distinct conception of reality and experience albeit the fact that there was no direct correspondence between the two writers. Virginia Woolf is a very individualistic and visionary writer (Friedman, 1955). The apparent similarity between her theory of reality and experience and that of the popular claims of some of her contemporaries can only be accounted for by the fact that Woolf draws much from the zeitgeist. The idea of stream of consciousness, for instance, is not unique to her as Bergson, who authored ‘durational flux’, proposes the same idea that time is a continuous flux which is the theoretical basis for stream of consciousness (Friedman, 1955). Nonetheless, her work remained distinctly hers specifically in terms of her style. It is because for Woolf the creation and fulfillment of a vision rather than a practice of technique matters most. Her bearing as a writer naturally followed her vision, her philosophy on life, reality and truth. In her body of work, she demonstrated what Proust claims to be the fountainhead of style. A very critical essayist, Woolf was very vocal about her vision. In her essay, Modern Fiction, published in 1925, she voices out her opinion on the issue of spiritualism versus materialism by critiquing her contemporary English authors H. G. Wells, Arnold Bennett and John Galsworthy. She coined the label ‘Materialists’ from their apparent lack of vision, their concern for trivial, temporal things, which to her escapes Life. She regarded their craft with respect but it was the objective to which their efforts were directed that she strongly opposed. She emphasizes the capturing of the spirit (or, as she put it, â€Å"life or truth or reality, whatever we call it†) to be the essence of art. The absence thereof incites the question whether that piece of literature is worthwhile and enduring. Woolf believes the preoccupation with trivialities is a manifest submission to the tyranny of the classics, the tradition and the canon. This would mean stagnation and death. Woolf puts it better when she writes: â€Å"Movement and change are the essence of our being. Rigidity is death, conformity is death† (Woolf, â€Å"The Common Reader†). Described as essentially a â€Å"lyrical novel†, To the Lighthouse reflects the totality of Woolf’s vision of capturing the evanescence of life into prose (Mayoux 214). Critics of the novel refer to its non-prose qualities, i. e. its deviation from the conventions of unity of time, characterization and linear plot development, to describe novel which has a very thin plot. Williams (204) writes that the novel is more akin to poetry than prose because it attempts to ‘[make] the moment something permanent. † According to him, this is a province of poets, musicians and painters and not of novelists (Williams 204). Interestingly, one of the characters in the novel, Lily Briscoe, is an actual painter and her character gives insight into the workings of the novel. The external plot of the novel is unusually thin for its length. Bennett aptly constructs the summary: â€Å"a group of people plan to sail in a small boat to a lighthouse. At the end some of them reach the lighthouse in a small boat†(200). The novel is divided in three chapters. The first chapter, The Window, begins in summer at a vacation house by the sea, owned by Mr. and Mrs.Ramsay. On that occasion, their family along with a few friends gathered in the house for a party prepared by Mrs. Ramsay. Mrs. Ramsay’s son insists on going to the lighthouse, but Mr. Ramsay disappoints him by announcing that the weather would not permit them. The rest of chapter describes the dinner interspersed with the thoughts of each character. The second chapter, Time Passes, is a description of the house and the memory imprinted in it after the characters introduced in the first chapter went their separate ways. The chapter is devoid of character action except for the incidental visitation of the house cleaners. In the second chapter, Mrs. Ramsay’s death is announced. The third chapter, The Lighthouse, happens years after the first chapter. Mr. Ramsay, together with his children and two of their guests, including Lily Briscoe, revisits the summer house. Lily contemplates the completion of her painting as Mr. Ramsay leads his children on a boat ride to the lighthouse. The novel ends as Lily completes her work.

Literary Analysis of The True Story of Hansel and Gretel Essay

Set in Poland during the German occupation, â€Å"The True Story of Hansel and Gretel† is told as a fairy tale, utilizing many of the elements that are common to fairy tales. This book reflects the Grimm brothers’ fairy tale, â€Å"Hansel and Gretel.† However, in Murphy’s parable, Hansel and Gretel are two Jewish children who are abandoned by their father and stepmother in order to save them from the Nazis. Setting the tale in Nazi Germany creates an atmosphere of fear and anxiety, and establishes a set of circumstances in which it is possible for people to act in ways that would be unacceptable under other circumstances. The stepmother is a good example of this. She is the force in the family – it is she who decides that everyone in the family will have a better chance of survival, if they split up – the children going off alone together and the parents going in another direction. Unlike the portrayal of the stepmother in the Grimm fairy tale, this stepmother is not wicked. She is strong willed and determined, but not evil, although she is protecting herself and her husband by abandoning the children. Using the stepmother as the villain is common in fairy tales, according to Stone in her article â€Å"Things Walt Disney Didn’t Tell Us.† She suggests that the woman of the family is nearly always chosen for the part of the villain. But in Murphy’s story, the stepmother’s actions, while they may appear villainous at the outset, may be construed as heroic in the end, because she only abandons the children in order to save them. She also cares deeply about the children’s welfare, enough that she loses her life as a result of attempting to find them. In this instance, Murphy is reminding us that the horrors of the time were so great th... ...s not asked to use logic and hence the emotional impact of the story is more direct and perhaps more potent. This book left me with a deeper sense of the horrors experienced by the Polish people, especially the Jews and the gypsies, at the hands of the Germans, while illustrating the combination of hope and incredible resilience that kept them going. Works Cited Murphy, Louise, (2013). The Real Story of Hansel and Gretel. Penguin Books. Stone, Kay (1975). Things Walt Disney Never Told Us. The Journal of American Folklore, Vol 88, No 347, Women and Folklore pp42-50, University of Illinois Press. Hansjorg, Hohr, (2000). Dynamic Aspects of Fairy Tales: social and emotional competence through fairy tales. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, Vol 44, No 1, Department of Education, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Critical Analysis Essay Essay

This section contains a summary of the article â€Å"What Cost Chris Dussold His Dream Job?† In his introduction, Bartlett explains how Mr.Dussold was a professor at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and was fired for â€Å"copying another professor’s teaching statement.† But further explains that Mr.Dussold says â€Å"that was not the real reason he was fired† and that â€Å"Now Mr.Dussold is on a crusade to restore his reputation†¦Ã¢â‚¬  he goes on to explain how Mr.Dussold lands the dream job he wanted which was going smoothly until one day when a rumor started. Mr.Dussold tries many ways to make the rumor stop happening and assure everyone it is not true. Bartlett tells you about how the university does investigations on the rumor and what Mr.Dussold does to try and clear his name. Describing later on how the investigation ended and explain why Dussold ends up suing the college for false termination. Arguments See more: how to write a critical analysis outline The main purpose of this article written by Bartlett is to help prove the innocence of Mr.Dussold and give the side of Dussold’s story behind the rumor made against him. Trying to make an ethical argument Bartlett tells how Dussold’s reputation is put into question. According to the article Bartlett describes how Dussold had gone to Southern Illinois as a student and had offers from other colleges to work there but took the job at SIUE because â€Å"It felt like coming home.† In fact he said â€Å"‘I used to tell them I would take this job for nothing,’† and how many of his students and colleagues enjoyed working with him. Dussold tried to steer clear of arguments with others and then out of nowhere a rumor is started the ruins his character as a teacher. Bartlett also elucidates that Dussold whole life started changing after this rumor had been started. The author states that Dussold who was once an outgoing professor but once the rumor started, allegations were made about  him which led him to start questioning everyone and everything around him â€Å"Every interaction now carried a question mark: Who believes the rumor?†¦Were there more?† Each day these questions were rattling around in his head, not knowing the answer to any of them. Eventually he starts going into his own shell trying to not cause any more problems in his life â€Å"The once-outgoing professor started keeping to himself.† The rumors started making Dussold stressed showing us an emotional argument. Author Style Bartlett starts out describing how Dussold has told this story many times, saying how he was fired, how he was escorted and how he felt hopeless. â€Å"But even after two years and numerous retellings, the emotion still sneaks up on him.† But does not give the full story away making you curious and wanting to read more. He also goes on to mention that he was fired for â€Å"plagiarism† but he felt that, that was not the true reason. Dussold believes the reason is because a rumor that had start but was not true, and vouched to clear his name. â€Å"No matter what you think of Mr. Dussold†¦you can’t dent his zeal: He is a man on a mission.† Though Bartlett tells you this information he still leaves out the main details like what the rumor is or how Mr. Dussold is going to prove his side of the story making this an intriguing contradiction. Bartlett writes this story in order of the events that had happened besides his brief explanation in the introduction. In the first passage of this article Bartlett explains how Dussold used to be a student at SIUE and was ecstatic when he was offered a job there â€Å"’I used to tell them I’d take this job for nothing,’† going on to say how he and his colleagues as well as his students were getting along well and his life was going good. Later on you find out about how Dussold’s life has been turned upside down due to a rumor starting accusing him of having sexual activities with a student that was in one of his after school clubs, †Every interaction now carried a question mark,†. Eventually you learn that Dussold get the dean involved who does his own investigation and later on fires but not for the rumor, but because of plagiarism of another professors work. Dussold turns back around after getting fired and sues them because he believes he was truly fired because of the rumor, and how he now has a new job and a college not far from SIUE, â€Å"He remains convinced that it was the rumor-and the fear that he  would sue-that led to his firing. And he believes he can prove that in court.† Response This story was unconvincing due to the fact that Bartlett says Dussold claims to be fired because the rumor was started. Then Bartlett just explains everything surrounding the rumor and never exaggerates on the actual reason he got fired, which was plagiarism. It is also unbelievable since it says Ms. Peyla, the student from the rumor, decided at one point to just go on with the rumor and report that it was true. Not many people would willingly just agree with a rumor that is potentially life ruining if it were not true. This article could have been more convincing if other professors or students had been included in the story. This would have helped because the more witnesses the more proof of what really happened and that usually would help in deciding if a person is guilty or not judging from an article about their situation.

Bell Jar Analysis

Sylvia Plath’s semi-autobiographical novel â€Å"The Bell Jar† employs many of the same confessional techniques and themes of her poetic work. While the novel is confessional, it is also provides sociological commentary (and insight) into the processes of medical treatment and the social ostracization and victimization of the mentally ill.A basic technique used in the novel, by Plath, is to present a seemingly â€Å"normal† world and then, by way of internal monologue and character development, allow the reader to glimpse a highly studied and carefully described portrayal of the way that mental illness impacts both society and the individual.By expressing a personal encounter with metal illness, Plath, through the character of Esther, presents a ‘case study† in clinical depression and bipolar disorder without resorting to clinical diagnoses or psychological language or theories. Instead, her literary interpretation of mental illness functions to expan d the clinical understanding of mental disorders by providing cognitive insight into the experienced phenomena of mental illness.The opening line of the novel: â€Å"It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer the electrocuted the Rosenbergs† (Plath, 1) reveals the novel’s essential theme and conflict: that of the individual who stands â€Å"outside looking in† with regard to their society: it is a theme of psychological rather than physical exile, though Esther identifies, via the powerful verb â€Å"electrocuted,† with the physical suffering of the Rosenbergs who were tried and executed for espionage and treason.Because the central conflict in â€Å"the Bell Jar† is internal, Plath constructs a dynamic and multi-faceted character whose preoccupations range from fashion, to dating, to the themes of great literature and to the essential meanings of life and death. Throughout the novel more is shown than told; that is, Plath refrains from divulging in formation about Esther directly; instead, she constructs scenes which transmit the internal character conflicts through symbolism and metaphor. A clinical diagnosis of Esther's mental illness can be made by deeply exploring the literary techniques of the novel.The novel's plot is relatively simple: a young, ambitious, and very talented woman wins a summer internship as a big-time New York magazine. While in New York, the young woman, Esther, suffers a series of unpleasant and often dangerous situations, begins to feel sense of hypocrisy and unhappiness in herself and in the world of glamour-publishing and seems to rebel against this hypocrisy (and sexism) by quitting her internship and throwing her expensive wardrobe out of her hotel window.Then, after returning to the suburbs to live with her mother, and failing to begin both her hoped-for novel and her college thesis, Esther begins to act increasingly erratically and self-destructively, severing her relationships and losing touch with her own creativity and ambition, until she is referred to a psychiatrist. Esther, however, is not psychologically unstable due to weakness or deformation: this is clear from the novel’s portrayal of her as a bright and shining and talented â€Å"golden girl† who wins poetry prizes and scholarships and is dating a medical student and writing term papers on Joyce.After being treated with electroshock therapy, Esther's condition and crisis become more and more severe until she attempts suicide, is â€Å"saved,† and sent to a mental hospital where she again receives electroshock therapy. The novel fails to provide any concrete resolution to Esther's crisis, and in doing so, avoids making any determination about the benefits of Esther's clinical diagnoses and treatment.However, the emotional arc of the narrative can certainly be said to move toward the positivistic and there are potentialities and capacities that are reinstated into Esther's character after her treatment. To fully understand the process of Esther's breakdown (and apply a clinical diagnosis), the reader must read deeply into the novel and consider deeply the relationships of the characters and the cross-ties adn relationships which fluctuate, not to the rhythms of a traditional novel's story-arc, but to the weird rhythms of Esther's own mental illness.In fact, the narrative is structured very similarly to a poem in that metaphorical and symbolic expression convey the essential dynamics of the story's themes at a far more attenuated level than the conventional storytelling elements of plot, conflict, and resolution. Of the latter, Plath conspicuously avoids classical execution; for example, â€Å"The Bell Jar† posits no clear antagonist, no externalized central conflict, and refrains from set-closure at its climax. This is a way by which the clinical diagnosis of Esther's diagnosis can be made.Her initial relationships portrayed in the novel include a â€Å"mentorâ⠂¬  in New York, the editor Jaycee, an â€Å"older sister† friend named Doreen, a fiancee named Buddy, and a literary mentor and benefactress named Philomena Guinea who was is a wealthy, famous novelist. Each of the relationships reflects an aspect of the healthy personality: ambitious, creative, socially engaged, and creative. Also, Esther's erotic drive, while never posited in the novel as â€Å"resolvable† decreases until she is able to view sex as only an oppressive act against women.As Esther's plight worsens, each of the relationships is severed. The clinical diagnosis which seems most applicable to Esther Greenwood would be that of clinical depression and a bipolar personality. Interestingly enough, bipolar disorder is often associated with creative minds and artists. read at one level, â€Å"The Bell Jar† describes the plight of the artistic mind in modern society as well as the plight of the artistic mind gripped by clinical mental illness.The key to s eparating where the individualist, the artist and rebel lies in Esther Greenwood and where the â€Å"madwoman,† the victim of a clinical mental illness lies is to apply rigorous methodology to the explication of the novel as a piece of literature. One such scene, which is representative of this technique used throughout â€Å"The Bell Jar,† is the scene when Esther, having traveled to new York upon winning an internship at a famous fashion magazine, throws her expensive wardrobe out of her hotel window.â€Å"The wind made an effort, but failed, and a batlike shadow sank toward the roof garden of the opposite penthouse† (Plath, 90). Such compressed and highly symbolic language forwards both character development (Esther is mentally unstable) as well as foreshadowing with the bat representing death and Esther’s ultimate plunge into attempted suicide. There is no gaiety in the scene, which if in evidence would suggest a triumphant rejection of the superficia lities described in the novel about the fashion-district of New York and Esther’s experiences there.Instead, a sens of doom pervades, along with a sense of self-destruction and psychological instability: â€Å"Piece by piece, I fed my wardrobe to the night wind, and flutteringly, like a loved one’s ashes, the gray scraps were ferried off, to settle here, there, exactly where I would never know, in the dark hart of New York. † (Plath 91). This single scene stands as emblematic of Esther’s (and Plath’s) essential plight: that of the bipolar personality and the track toward attempted suicide.The scene also represents the symptomatic progression of full-blown bipolar personality disorder which is characterized by depressive episodes and suicidal obsessions. The combination of high-achievement, goal-setting, ambition, creativity, task-setting, and personal expression with an equally profound sense of purposelessness, meaninglessness, lack of energy, lac k of sex drive, and plummeting self identity and a plummeting sense of self-esteem are compressed brilliantly into the above-described scene. By explicating the symbolism deeply, the bipolar disorder is easily uncovered.The feelings Esther has of not being able to connect with her life, of not comprehending her society or valuing her interpersonal relationships are aspects of the acute depressive crisis which marks the depressive â€Å"extreme† of the bipolar disorder. The novel describes how an acute depressive episode can lead to suicide even when treatment is being administered. The treatment which would seem most applicable for Esther Greenwood by modern diagnostic processes is not that which is provided for her in the novel: electroshock therapy.Rather, what is indicated is that Esther should be treated with psycho therapy, primarily, with perhaps the inclusion of certain, limited medication. The inclusion of family-centered therapy, social rhythm therapy, and cognitive therapy along with medication would provide the best hope for Esther's clinical recovery. However, the process of metal disorder described in the novel is mush wider, much more comprehensive than even modern therapies would seem to be an adequate redress for — although even a slight improvement in prognosis would probably have saved Esther from suicide.In order to restore and strengthen hern creative gifts and reinstate her standing in society, the clinical treatments might at least give Esther an impetus toward a healthy rather than self-destructive life. So carefully designed is Esther’s portrayal in â€Å"The Bell Jar,† that the reader stands an ever-increasing chance of identifying as deeply with Esther’s plight as Esther herself seems to identify with the plight of the Rosenbergs.In other words, the last thing which is intimated in the novel is that Esther bears any personal responsibility for her mental illness or the social stigmas that are attache d to it. In fact, I personally do not belive that there was anything Esther could have done or should have done to â€Å"prevent† her collapse. From rape to institutionalized chauvinism and the â€Å"saint-whore† syndrome, Esther experiences a multitude of the sociological injuries borne against women in America.She also, as a poet, stands for the sociological persecution of artists and the cultural misunderstanding of their sensitivities. Throughout the novel, Esther’s internal dialogue and descriptions of situations stands in bold contrast to the mundane and often mean or ignorant dialogue and observations of the novel’s minor characters. In addition to these deeper, more socially and politically inspired themes, â€Å" The Bell Jar† captures intimate details of middle-class adolescence: the struggle to succeed, the position often social outcast, and the cruelties and injustices of love and eroticism.This is why The Bell Jar is such an important novel: because it places an intimately personal, yet universal, protagonist in the grip of what modern psychology and modern psychiatry understand as a clinical mental illness. Rather than approach the topic clinically, Plath approaches the theme poetically and confessionally and draws the reader into a closes identification with Esther Greenwood. The result is that the alert reader, even one who is familiar with the clinical processes of bipolar disorder, will recognize a personal plight beneath the level which is clinically descriptive.The reader's identification with Esther then takes the form of first hope, then skepticism, about the clinical treatments (and practitioners) which are engaged ostensibly in working for Esther's recovery. Whether one reads the central theme of The Bell Jar as one of individuality and the alienation from modern society or as a literary portrayal of a clinically defined mental disorder, the conclusion that individuals who suffer from mental illness ar e both victimized and stigmatized in modern society is clear.My personal feeling is that Esther Greenwood is far more of a universal character than many would like to belive and that her portrayal in The Bell Jar indicates both the destructive influence of mental illness and the destructive influence of modern society which is revealed to be both widespread and institutionalized. References Plath, Sylvia The Bell Jar Bantam Books New York NY 1971.