Politics of Poverty and Social Welfare Policy Essay

Politics of Poverty and Social Welfare Policy - Essay Example Empowerment of low income earners has to be done so that the poor can be able to access resources that are raw materials for development. The poor lack power to get the desired resources. This situation worsens when the psychological status of these poor people is touched by powerlessness. Poverty makes the means of accumulation of resources through saving impossible to the poor people. This is because the avenues to save require some structures that have a monetary value. Poverty reduces a person’s power to compete for a resource because it influences the thinking and the power of these people (O’Brien and Finn 1). This work will seek to show that the poor can be involved in transforming the situations of their lives even in the current political atmosphere. The poor and the middle class earners are faced with various problems that cause them to join into movement to form a force that can prevail in collective bargaining. The economic recession was heavily felt among t hose who had not organized themselves into groups that could foster poverty alleviation. Low income earners, therefore, realized the difficulty to cause impact at individual levels. Poverty denies the poor opportunities to make choices. As a result, the little they had was subjected to risk of loss when they put it in simple projects. In response to economic recession, the poor resorted to various ways to alleviate their situation. The low income earners’ response to poverty was facilitated by their position in terms of power where they lacked power to influence policy formulation and implementation. The poor are more than the rich in any state and their number can be used as a means to change the policies. The low income earners can be able to secure a place in development in the current political context since they are the best people who know the pressure at which they are subjected in their position. Poor people understand projects that would work for them. This is becaus e in most cases projects by the rich come with levels of sophistication that the poor do not put up with. Through calculated collaborations, low income earners can be able to claim their rights from higher political powers, seek donors to fund projects centered on alleviation of poverty, and seek government intervention in their conditions. According to O’Brien and Finn (22-23), although the poor had responded in various ways to recession, very few of the poor went to seek financial aid from their governments or any financial institution or claimed unemployment or even protested against the government in claim of their rights. The methods most of the low income earners used as a means to respond to recession was by cutting cost, increasing the daily working hours and some went ahead to selling some of their properties (O’Brien and Finn 18). Although grouping and working to collectively bargain for formulation and implementation of policies that are friendly to them is advisable, individual response to poverty alleviation was a means that worked during the recession times. The methods they used in response to increased requirement collectively showed that low income earners have a commanding position in the current political context. In their individualized position, low income earners managed to reduce pressure posed by the increased cost of goods and services during the economic recession. As a politicized group, the low

PESTEL SWOT ADDISON LEE TAXI company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

PESTEL SWOT ADDISON LEE TAXI company - Essay Example The company’s car hire market is a highly competitive business environment where only the highly successful business companies which provide consistent excellent customers services survive. Addison Lee is one such company, which constantly improves operational performance and more work with the existing resources that they own (Hamm 2004). The company has embraced the latest technology in the market in order to attract and provide good customer outreach in most parts of Europe. This paper looks at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the company as well as the political, economic, social-cultural technological, environmental, and legal environment in which the company operates. It has been noted in 2009 that UK is one of the biggest tourist attracting cities in the world. The city of London located in England is the largest city. It has a population of more than 7 million people and receives more than 6 million visitors annually. The country has many historic tourist attraction sites as well as properly established institutions, which forms a model for many other institutions in the world. The political systems in the country as well as the economic systems of business provide a unique environment for businesses to thrive and prosper (Moore 2010). The UK has a traditional of being a capitalist nation, which believes in giving the private sector a chance to develop and grow its portfolio. This is one of the contributing factors to the company’s tremendous growth over the last few years, where the company gained acknowledgement as Europe’s largest taxicab company. In order to attract direct investment in the taxicab business in the country, the country has created an open door policy since the World War 2. One of the main reasons for this motive was to secure financing for modernization with capital liberation as well as provide transport to people who could not be able to acquire their own. The country also provides the needed

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Essay Example for Free

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Essay It is an unquestionable fact that the world of communication has immeasurable changed since Kenneth Burke first developed his theories and philosophies on this topic in the first half of the 20th century. Nevertheless, Burke’s views and thoughts can still be integrated with the theory of cinema as well as face-to-face communication and other forms of literature and art. Thus, as one critic once said, perhaps Burke will not be remembered so much for what he said but how others took his ideas and brought them forward into other realms of communication. In the 1920s, Burke began writing for the literary magazine The Dial, which included renderings of modernist art and his debates with individuals such as Malcolm Cowley on Dadaism and the Surrealists. His work the Symbolic marks an important time in his thinking when he advocated â€Å"art for arts sake† or the doctrine that aesthetic values are completely separate from political, religious, or economic ones. Burke’s earliest essays dealt with the formal aspects of imagery and the rhythms of language. He believed that reality was a construction of our interpretation of the symbols around us. Much of what we mean by reality has been built up for us through nothing but our symbol systems . . . Take away our books and what little do we know about history, biography, even something so â€Å"down to earth† as the relative position of the seas and continents. What is our â€Å"reality† for today†¦ but all this clutter of symbols about the past combined with whatever things we know mainly through maps, magazine, newspapers and the like about the present†¦And however important to us is the tiny sliver of reality each of us has experienced firsthand, the whole overall picture is but a construct of our symbol systems. (1966, p. 5) Thus, words are symbols, or utterances, produced by humans, alone, to signify those things that they represent. Despite the fact if they are written or verbal, words are a deliberate act for the expressed purpose of expression. A house can be described word-by-word without showing what the house actually looks like. However, because words are symbols, they can never be what they represent. The word â€Å"house† will not be a house. Words are heuristic and can be identified and understood by the person’s own mind and meaning. When a word is identifiable it becomes a representation of what it depicts. Dictionaries can help, but they alter meaning with those who read them. According to Burke, words have an unusual power. As for the relation between ‘identification’ and ‘persuasion’: we might well keep it in mind that a speaker persuades an audience by the use of stylistic identifications; his act of persuasion may be for the purpose of causing the audience to identify itself with the speaker’s interests; and the draws on identification of interests to establish a rapport between himself and his audience. (1966, p. 301-302) Burke was thus instrumental in advancing the whole understanding of rhetoric, with such aspects of his analysis as the pentad of drama, the role of identification, and the ratios or relationships among critical components. His pentad was comprised of the act (what occurs by the delivery of the rhetorical piece), the scene (the situational setup or the context of the discourse), the agent (the person being asked to complete the action), the agency (the tools used to complete the action), and the purpose (the goal of the action). If one analyzes the components of the pentad and their relationships to each other, Burke believed, one would be able to discern the motives underpinning that rhetorical act But we must acknowledge that photographs and, even more so, film are much more complex. When someone sees a visual representation, it can mean myriad of ideas, emotions at once. This visual representation mimics, in fact the viewer’s own perception of life and allows them a greater depth of understanding, or at the very least a sense of understanding, into the subject. In the 1940s, Burke expanded his interest in the visual culture and the function of art, film and television. He often used visual metaphors to explain key concepts, such as identification, representative anecdotes, the pentad, and terministic screens. In his introduction to A Grammar of Motives, Burke covered his theory of the pentad in relationship to a Museum of Modern Art in New York photographic exhibit with photos of war ships and an: aerial photograph of two launches, proceeding side by side on a tranquil sea. Their wakes crossed and recrossed each other in an almost infinite variety of lines. Yet despite the intricateness of the tracery, the picture gave an impression of great simplicity, because one could quickly perceive the generating principle of its design. Such, ideally, is the case with our pentad of terms, used as generating principle. It should provide us with a kind of simplicity that can be developed into considerable complexity, and yet can be discovered beneath its elaborations. (1945, xvi) As noted in â€Å"War and Cultural Life† (1942), he was emotionally impacted by the photos and affirmed that â€Å"one gets a very strong feeling that the war, vast as it is, is part of a still vaster configuration. † (p. 409). Burke felt that the photos â€Å"call(ed) forth a certain philosophic or ‘meditative’ attitude toward the war quite as it also gives nourishment to a strong sense of our national power† (p. 408). He was so taken, in fact, by the photos that he noted â€Å"it would be a very good service both to the strength of our patriotism and to its quality if this exhibit could be shown throughout the United States. † (p. 408) In the Therministic Screen: Rhetorical Perspectives on Film (2001), David Blakesely relied on Burke’s communication theory to look at cinema and the concept of the theory of film. Given all the theories that exist about film, Blakesely notes that there need not be one theory â€Å"to be elevated to disciplinary reverence,† but rather the question is â€Å"how best to use the terministic resources theory make available† (pg. 2). The title of the book comes from Burke’s phrase â€Å"terministic screen† in Language and Symbolic Action (1966), where his main assertion is that â€Å"not only does the nature of our terms affect the nature of our observations, in the sense that the terms direct the attention to one field rather than to another. Also, many of the ‘observations’ are but implications of the particular terminology in terms of which the observations are made† (pg. 46). In other words, as extrapolated from Burke, film rhetoric, or the visual and verbal symbols that weave film experience, directs the viewers’ attention in unlimited ways, but always towards the goal of fostering identification and the complexity that involves. Similarly, film theory, says Blakesley, which is the lens through which and with which one generates perspective on film as art and rhetoric, acts as a terministic screen that filters what does and does not constitute and legitimize interpretation and, thus, meaning (pg. 3). In his essay about Burke (2001), Andrew King emphasizes that Burke’s theories and assertions were not about ideology or political systems but about the over-rhetoricized world. He insists that according to Burke, even with the invention of writing, humans entered the world of virtual reality and building symbol systems. And, ever since, mankind has been piling symbol upon symbol and setting system over and against system. Simultaneously, with this ever-advanced technology, humans are cutting themselves off further and further from nature and the consequences of their actions. â€Å"Technology delays the consequences of our assaults on our nature and symbolic systems mask our failures until it is too late. Nature is recalcitrant and it will have its revenge, but not until it is too late for us to repair the results. † (para. 17)

The Prefrontal Cortex And Antisocial Behaviour Psychology Essay

The Prefrontal Cortex And Antisocial Behaviour Psychology Essay Todays society, where antisocial behaviour is seen in children and adults, seems to exhibit a greater need to understand its underlying causes. Ones ability to act in an appropriate manner in a given social context is quite unique to humans; along with the ability to reason and make conscious decisions. Therefore, it seems to suggest that such civilised behaviours are dictated by an area of the brain seen in only the most developed. Research into antisocial behaviour implicates the prefrontal cortex; an area of the frontal lobe involved in decision-making and the ability to inhibit undesirable social responses. The research to be discussed in this essay looks at how prefrontal cortex dysfunction affects judgement and how this, in turn, contributes to the decision to behave antisocially. History is littered with cases of individuals whose behaviour changes drastically as the result of brain damage, however, these only represent patients in which brain functioning develops normally. Anderson, Bechara, Damasio, Tranel and Damasio (1999) presented the case of two individuals in which normal brain development was prevented by damage caused primarily to the prefrontal cortex before the age of sixteen months. This study involved a comparison between adult and early-onset patients to assess the differences caused by the repressed development of the prefrontal cortex. Findings show that the two different categories of patients were very similar in social impairments but the distinction can be seen in the fact that early-onset patients lacked the social and moral reasoning of the adults, hence suggesting that development of social and moral principles had been affected. This implies that the prefrontal cortex is involved in the ability to make socially acceptable and moral de cisions which are then applied in making appropriate behavioural responses. Much research in this area makes use of diagnosed Psychopathic individuals (condition characterised by extreme antisocial behaviour towards others). Yang and Raine (2009) conducted a meta-analysis of 43 cases of varying ranges of antisocial behaviour- including psychopaths. Not only do the findings support the involvement of the prefrontal cortex in antisocial behaviour- increased antisocial behaviour is linked to reduced function of several prefrontal regions- but they propose some localisation of antisocial aspects in specific sub-regions of the cortex. They hypothesised that activity reduction in areas such as the orbitofrontal region are affiliated with emotional impairments and decision-making deficits, whereas, dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex dysfunction is more associated with characteristic impulsivity. Furthermore, brain imaging has highlighted orbitofrontal involvement in the reliving of one particular emotion known to underlie behavioural decisions: guilt (Wagner, NDiaye, Ethofer and Vuilleumier, 2011). Yang and Raines (2009) theory seems to explain how prefrontal damage can account for a variety of behavioural aspects that fall under the umbrella term of antisocial. Psychopathy has also been linked to discrepancies in the process of moral judgement by way of amygdala and orbitofrontal/ventromedial prefrontal cortex (Blair, 2007). Blair (2007) theorises that the reduction in care-based morality seen in psychopaths can be explained in terms of dysfunction of the amygdala and ventromedial l prefrontal cortex as these are involved in learning and reinforcement; in that aversive reinforcement prevents a person making immoral decisions. However, dysfunction in those with psychopathic tendencies means that such forms of learning do not occur and so they become unable to make moral decisions: leading to immoral behaviours. Verification is provided by Marsh, Finger, Fowler, Jurkowitz, Schechter, Yu, Pine and Blair (2011) who conducted brain imaging studies on patients with psychopathic traits whilst getting them to participate in a moral task. Although, by their own admission, the moral task was fairly minor, the results show that participants had reduce d activity between the orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala during task completion (Marsh et al, 2011). This seemingly supports Blair (2007) in linking deficiencies of the two brain regions to moral judgment and psychopathic behaviour. Damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex has further been linked to moral decision making in terms of beliefs about harmful intent behind certain behaviours. Young, Bechera, Tranel, Damasio, Hauser and Damasio (2010) conducted a study on patients with bilateral damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in which they manipulated scenarios to depict varying degrees of harm: (intentional harm, deliberate-unsuccessful harm). They found that relative to healthy controls, participants judged accidental harms more severely than unsuccessful yet intentional harm. According to Young et al. (2010) participants came to this conclusion by neglecting negative behavioural intent and focusing only on the outcomes. Hence, it seems that damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, impairs an individuals ability to make moral decisions regarding behavioural intent. This has powerful implications: perhaps antisocial behaviour displayed in those with prefrontal dysfunction is born out of the ina bility to recognise the harmful intent behind their actions, especially if the outcome is something they perceive as desirable. In conclusion, the role of prefrontal cortex dysfunction in antisocial behaviour is corroborated in extensive research which suggests its involvement is not limited to one specific aspect of the behaviour, nor one particular brain sub-region. This appears to make the argument more comprehensive than if such complex behaviour was specified to one region alone. The prefrontal cortex seems to be involved in the motivation behind behaviours and the judgements that affect behavioural decisions. Therefore, dysfunction of the area leads to immoral decision making which causes the individuals to behave in ways that can be classed as antisocial (such as those behaviours shown by psychopaths). Particular involvement seems to be of the orbitofrontal region in influencing moral and emotional decisions into undesirable behavioural outcomes. Furthermore, connectional dysfunction of the area with other brain areas has been linked to learning processes involved in morality (Blair, 2007). This seems to explain the inability to learn what is considered morally right and wrong: shown in those with damage obtained in infancy (Anderson, Bechara, Damasio, Tranel and Damasio, 1999). Whatever its role, vast research support for prefrontal cortex dysfunction in antisocial behaviour somewhat validates its involvement and may question the extent to which an individual can be held accountable for such actions- which could have societal repercussions.

Rites of Passage Essay -- essays papers

Rites of Passage Every day someone enters into a rite of passage whether it be by starting school, a new job, marriage, a confirmation or communion rites of passage are common place. Two totally different cultures have totally different rituals and rites of passage. The Apache would most definitely have incredibly unique rituals compared to rural Maine and the catholic cultures therein. The best way to see the differences is to compare the two different cultures. Each ritual occurs in a holy place, the Apache on ritual grounds and the Confirmation rights at a specific congregation. The person who is about to participate in confirmation has gone to months of classes to prepare for this day, CCD it is titled and it is typically on a Sunday night at this particular congregation. The Apache girl has been well prepared as well, running and doing specific training exercises so that she will be ready for the grueling Sunrise Dance. In both societies the participant undergoes this ritual specifically because their parents and elders tell them to. They are too young to defy their parents or elders and submit basically because of the special knowledge that will somehow change them and prepare them for adulthood. The Apache girl has a godmother and godfather, which has no relation to her per say (blood relation), they are chosen based on their status in their society and they become a sort of guiding light for this girl during her Dance and adulthood all the way to when she is old and gray. The confirmation child has to choose his â€Å"sponsor† who is typically a relative or someone very special to him. This person also has a big part in the confirmation, guiding the child and being a big support center for the child. The reason for the Apache girl to start her Sunrise Dance is because of her first womanly cycle. She has a grueling task ahead of her when the Dance begins. She has a week of ritual ahead and much strenuous tasks. Her family, before participating must have about 10,000 dollars so that they can afford the gifts, food, etc. During the ritual the girl has absolutely no baths and isn’t allowed to touch herself except with a stick. She isn’t allowed to drink except with a straw. She is also allowed very little sleep during the week of her specific dance. During a specific part of the ritual her grandmother massages her body, which signifies a strong... ...er sees the end of the ritual as a rebirth. Both societies, the Apache and the Catholic culture definitely view this as a rebirth. The Apache seems more special because of the individuality that ensues with the Sunrise Dance. Confirmation is a rebirth into adulthood, but not alone, you are supported by all your classmates and friends. The reason that any young child submits to authority, other than fear, is because they know and realize that they can achieve great knowledge by listening to them and abiding by their practices. Because, look where it got them, at least to the age they are! Ritual changes people for better or worse, either way a change has been made and you aren’t the same after the ritual ends. The Apache girl has something she can tell her grandkids about, she has a vivid incredible memory that will never leave her. The confirmed has a memory too, a family time that brings people together, and we all know we love family time regardless of what occurs within we are happy to see that aunt uncle, and cousin we haven’t seen in so long. Rituals are times that should bring people together and change them for the better, as well as prepare them for the long roads ahead.

Violence in the Media Essay -- Papers

Violence in the Media America has become the most violent nation in the industrialized world. The many violent images seen in movies and on television on a daily basis, though not the only cause, are a strong contributing factor. There are those that feel the point-of-view from which the audience views the violence varies directly with the way the scene affects them. A film's perspective determines the audience's reaction. In "slasher" films, for example, the point of view shifts between the attacker and the victim. So the audience feels the terror of the victim and the lust of the victimizer. If the viewer shares the experience with the victim they feel helplessness, fear, and also the rage that comes with being attacked. However, when the viewer is allowed to share the experience of the attacker the perspective is different, they get the sense of power and being in control. In many sexual assault scenes the camera focuses on the victim's face, which puts the viewer in the position of the rapist. What is of concern is that many Americans want to identify with the powerful attacker. It can be argued whether or not this is a direct cause of imitative violence but it, with out a doubt, offers viewers the vicarious experience of violence related to sex. (Censorship, 1985) Television does not make people commit crimes, but it provides the ideas, social sanction, and often the instruction that encourages anti-social behavior according to Madeline Levine, psychologist. (Viewing Violence, 1996) Dr. Jib Fowles, a researcher from the University of Houston would disagree. He testified to the U.S. Congress that TV violence was a good way to relieve tension. Dr. Radecki strongly disagreed saying that "Fowles has never done a si... ...itable role models for them. Bibliography: Croteau, David and William Hoynes. 1997. Media/Society: Industries, . Images, and Audiences. London: Pine Forge Press. Dudley, William,ed. 1999. Media Violence: Opposing Viewpoints. San . Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc. Fiske, John. 1989. Understanding Popular Culture. New York: Routledge. Holland, Keating. 1999. "Violence in the Media Should be Regulated." . CNN Poll. http://www.ultranet.com/crowleyn/ccnnpoll.html Levine, Madeline. 1996. Viewing Violence. New York: Double Day. O'Neill, Terry. 1985. Censorship: Opposing Viewpoints. St. Paul, MO: Green Haven Press, Inc. University of California at Los Angeles. Television Monitoring Report. . http://www.cep.org/tvviolence.html

Broken April Essay

Broken April was written by Ismail Kadare, the novel takes place in the mountainous regions of Albania during the 1920’s. The Kanun is an ancient set of rules that controls the daily lives of the people in the mountains. Such as Gjorg a 26 year old mountaineer, who is pressured by his family to seek vengeance for the death of his older brother. A newspaper writer Bessian and his wife Diana Vorpsi are from the city who are very intimate newlyweds having their honeymoon in the mountains. Kadare uses the lack or there of physical proximity to imply the strong detaching power of human relationships made by the Kanun. As illustrated by Bessian’s obsession of the Kanun causing a rejection of Diana, which is later mirrored when she develops her own obsession with it making that Bessian develops a fear of the Kanun. When Diana and Bessian were first introduced, Kadare displays a more intimate connection between them but, Bessian’s thought of the blood code is making their relationship lurking into separation. While Bessian and Diana were riding in the carriage, Bessian, â€Å"holding his wife’s hand† and at the same time â€Å"moved his head† (61) towards the window of the carriage while watching the mountains. His â€Å"holding† signifies Bessian’s dominating control of their relationship shown by the inequality of their grip. Bessian is illustrated as a dominating character because society and the blood code make it that women are inferior, by implying that Diana’s voice is worthless to Bessian. The method is also exemplified by â€Å"his wife†, which alludes to her unknown identity therefore making her seem like and unimportant character. The physical proximity still exists as a warm and tender relationship between Diana and Bessian but, Bessian’s unconscious interest in the Kanun is destroying on his focus of Diana, during their honeymoon. Diana and Bessian were approaching the tower to stay the night, and they get into an argument and Bessian â€Å"shook his dead for a moment† (84) suggesting a disapproval of Diana’s immature behavior by her smiling and their connection in the relationship. The words â€Å"moment† and â€Å"flicker† describing Diana’s quick and lively personality foreshadows Bessian developing a greater aggression towards Diana because of the blood code. Meanwhile, â€Å"match† symbolizes a destructive spark causing a powerful evil fire, foreshadowing a huge physical disconnection between them. The foreshadowing of their relationship and Bessian’s dominance leads to Diana’s opinions slowly supporting the Kanun more. After their introduction, Diana and Bessian decide to go to the tower of Orosh. During their journey and stay, Diana begins to steadily detach from Bessian and begins to become a slave to the Kanun’s seductiveness. As Diana and Bessian were planning to go to Wolf’s Pass, they were discussing about the boundary marking’s ceremony at Wolf’s Pass while inside the carriage. Diana put her head â€Å"right† (98), against the window. The physical action of her head â€Å"right† against the window suggests that she is trying to escape the discussion of the Kanun and the honeymoon because she is trying to resist the negative energy of the Kanun. Also the other meaning of the word right, signifying correctness, suggests how she is attempting to go the correct way, from the inside her of heart, away from the blood code. Additionally during the discussion Diana exclaimed, â€Å"How many opportunities to die! † when speaking to Bessian indirectly but directly to the window. The action of speaking to the window reveals a rising tension of Diana being able to express her feelings to Bessian, eventually making her feel worthless. Diana’s opinion of, â€Å"how many ways to die†, is used to compare Diana’s pale, cold, piercing opinion, compared to Bessian’s warm, passionate, intrigue of the Kanun alludes to the vast differences of their ideas and that Diana is developing a slight amusement to death. While Diana and Bessian were talking to Ali Binak, Bessian looked at his wife questioningly, as if he was saying to her, â€Å"What has come over you? (101), Bessian is starting to fear the Kanun because it is taking over Diana’s jovial sprit and replaced with a weak aggressive one. Additionally he is feeling insecure because he is not capable of giving her protection and security of a husband, therefore causing him to fear the Kanun and society it. Bessian said he saw, a â€Å"fleeting† light in her eyes. The light symbolizes purity and by it â€Å"fleeting† from her eyes shows that Bessian doesn’t know Diana’s true emotions anymore as he did before by looking into her eyes. With their opinions bringing tension between them, Diana eventually becomes engulfed in the Kanun but still seeks an escape leading to the regrets of Bessian bringing Diana on the trip. Around the end of the book in chapter six and seven, Bessian has developed a fear of the Kanun because it has generated a dark-empty look in Diana’s eyes. His fear was later developed into a feeling of remorse that Diana has become under the Kanun’s power. Diana and Bessian were in the carriage right after she saw Gjorg for the first time. Bessian â€Å"moved his head and kissed her timidly† (169), â€Å"Moved† throughout the book signifies a distant separation but Bessian is attempting to closely mend their relationship, by â€Å"kissing† her to show the affection he didn’t before. But he is â€Å"timid† because he is afraid of her new character from the Kanun and is questioning the existence of old Diana coming back. After Bessian attempts kissing Diana, Bessian fell asleep while Diana has her back turned to him as Kadare describes her action as, â€Å"timid, as if her back was towards a stranger† (181). With her back turned towards Bessian and her face towards the fire exemplifies that Diana is moving more towards a strong destructive as symbolized by the fire, the Kanun. The word â€Å"stranger† shows that Bessian is no longer important to Diana and that the roles of dominance have switched. Diana and Bessian were walking in Upper White Water they were having an intimate moment until they started talking about the tower of refuge, Diana â€Å"turned her head towards the kulla† (186). Diana’s action of turning her head exemplifies submission to the Kanun and her love for Gjorg. Meanwhile she is completely indifferent to Bessian and making an unconscious plan of going into the tower. When they were traveling back home to the city Bessian became regretful of bringing Diana and thought, â€Å"What the devil was I thinking? † (207), the question shows a majority of Bessian’s attitude towards the Kanun. Depending on how the question is read his emotions can be viewed as regret, sorrow, anger, fear, or hopelessness of completely losing Diana to the mountains. â€Å"Devil† is used as a symbol of evil perhaps referring to the evil separating power of the Kanun. In conclusion, Kadare uses physical proximity to emphasize the destructive power of human relationships made by the Kanun. In the beginning Bessian was in power because the man is seen that way in society and in the Kanun, but his obsession foreshadows Diana and Bessian’s separation. Second, Diana is trying to escape the power of the Kanun but is later completely submerged in its power. Lastly, the trip to the mountains was eventually regretted because the Kanun completely changed their intimate relationship because Diana and Bessian because it they were outsiders going into an unknown power.