War and Peace Essay: The Importance of Sonya -- War Peace

The Importance of Sonya in War and Peace Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace speculates deeply about history, religious life and human brotherhood. Most readers focus on the characters of Natasha, Prince Andrew, and Pierre. Another character named Sonya, who is an orphaned cousin, is staying with the Rostov family. Sonya is overshadowed by the other characters, however, she is vital to the rounding out of the other characters in the novel. The people she loves most take her life of commitment and sacrifice for granted. The reader is thus also inclined to give little emphasis to her role in their lives and in the novel as a whole. As someone who has essentially nothing, Sonya is willing to give everything she has to those she loves. She gives of herself willingly and thanklessly. This life of sacrifice truly embodies Sonya's generous character. This genuine nature of her character allows her to reveal so much about those with whom she interacts throughout the novel. With Sonya's seeming "simplicity" in the background, Tolstoy fully develops the characters of Natasha and Nicholas. He uses Sonya as a contrast for his heroine, Natasha, and also as a chart of growth for Natasha's brother, Nicholas. Tolstoy even uses Sonya as a contrast to Princess Mary. Here, if one looks deeper, one will find that there is very little contrast at all between the two women. Most importantly, Sonya is an illustration of society's effects on a poor selfless young girl who puts her needs below those of all others. Tolstoy employs Sonya's character in a variety of situations. Without Sonya, a great deal of his novel's depth and richness would be lost. Sonya is first introduced as Count Rostov's fifteen-year-old niece who ... ... all. Just as the characters in the novel never really appreciate all that Sonya does for them, the reader puts very little emphasis on all that Sonya does to enhance the entire novel. Sonya serves as a truly reflective mirror to Natasha who "never needed to sacrifice herself, but made others sacrifice themselves for her and yet was beloved by everybody"(903). Sonya's presence also helps the growth of Nicholas and reveals a great deal about the society in which she lives. The importance of Sonya's character to War and Peace is immense, yet overshadowed by characters deemed more "important" than she. Sonya tends to be put in the background of this novel as she is put in the background of the lives of those whom she loves. Without her Leo Tolstoy's novel would greatly diminished. Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, Book of the Month Club, Inc., New York.

How magazines position their audience Essay

Most life style magazines position their audience by adopting a particular mode of address which is aimed to create a relationship between the magazine and it’s audience, for example the front cover of FHM (September 2003) includes the following cover lines: ‘Dress better than Becks’ ‘Mess with her head’ and ‘Biggest ever world sex survey’. These cover lines speak to the audience, which in this case would be men, by saying if you buy this magazine we will show you how to dress better than one of England’s top footballers. It identifies with the single male and how to get revenge on your ex it also invites them to be a part of the biggest ever sex survey, this reinforces the bond between the magazine and its audience and makes them feel a part of an exclusive club. The front cover of FHM (September 2003) attempts to hook its male audience by using an image, which represents female sexuality. The picture of a female celebrity in a provocative pose wearing just her underwear takes up most of the page. It is used to grab its audience’s attention on the basis of male and female attraction. The fact that it’s a celebrity means it’s not just anyone, its someone famous and the use of her first name means it is a more informal approach and helps the audience to feel closer to this sexy female. FHM is in competition with emap’s Loaded and GQ, which means that their front cover has to stand out above all the rest. FHM uses the exclusive photo shoot of Samia and the Biggest ever world sex survey to promote their magazine as better than any other. The ‘Exclusive’ shoot of Samia means this has not been done for any other magazine, just for the readers of FHM. The FHM title has been partially covered up by the main image, which suggests that the magazine is well established and no longer needs to show its full identity. The front cover of FHM has typical generic conventions of a male lifestyle magazine, such as the image of a sexy female, it mentions Becks and fashion which has intertextual links with football and has major sexual connotations with the promise of soft porn (Samia’s sexy shoot). It also includes inside stories on females and sex (girls on the sofa discuss cocks). The red writing adds to the sexy image as red is symbolic of love, lust and sex and it also helps the magazine to stand out. The FHM magazine fulfils the needs of diversion as it gives its audience the chance to escape from their daily routine through reading about more light-hearted matters such as sex, women and cars. It also fulfils the needs of personal relationships by offering companionship as it identifies with its male audience and helps them to feel a part of an exclusive social group. By using the cover lines Best of British, Mess With Her Head and the mention of Arnie (Arnold Schwarzenegger) it gives the audience personal identity and reinforces the norms and values of masculinity and manpower (Mc Quail, Blumer and Brown 1972). Male lifestyle magazines can be seen as stereotypical of men and male values. Using the front cover of FHM (September 2003) as an example, it suggests that men are only interested in sex, nude women, football and male dominance as most of the page is taken up by the half naked image of a woman. The features mentioned on the front cover are mainly to do with sex, cars and getting revenge on women. The FHM title is made up of the colours of the British flag and the caption Best of British. This can be seen as patriotic which also implies male dominance as Britain is a patriarchal society (male dominated) and therefore reinforces the idea of manpower. Male lifestyle magazines can also be seen to portray a bias ideology of women as most of the women in their magazines are very pretty, thin and sexy which assumes that all men who read these magazines are attracted to this type of woman. This is not always true of all men and therefore gives a false impression of the male expectations of women. This representation of women is also not necessarily the true reality of what most women look like and could be seen to pressurise women and men conform to this stereotypical expectation of the perfect woman. This would depend on how the specific audience of these magazines position themselves in relation to the text and whether they took the preferred reading and accepted this to be normal, negotiated what they thought and interpreted it how they chose to or opposed the reading totally and therefore this type of magazine may not appeal to them. (Stuart Hall).

Learn the Endings of Fifth Declension Latin Nouns

Latin is an inflected language, meaning that words are modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, number, gender, or case. Many inflected languages make a distinction between the modification of verbs versus other parts of speech. The inflection of verbs, for instance, is also called conjugation, whereas the inflection of nouns, adjectives, and pronouns is known as declension. Latin nouns possess gender, case, and number (i.e., singular and plural). While the declensions generally delineate number and case, gender does have its place in the language, particularly with the neuter nouns. The Latin language has five declensions, each of which is based on the stem. The first declension is considered the –a stem, the second the –o stem, the third is consonantal, the fourth the –u stem, and the fifth the –e stem. Every noun in Latin follows on of these five declensions. Here we will look at the declension of Latin nouns, specifically the fifth declension. Fifth Declension of Latin Nouns The fifth declension nouns in Latin are sometimes called -e stem nouns. The nouns of this declension are few but common. Like the first declension, fifth declension nouns are typically feminine, which a few exceptions. For instance, the word for day (dies) can be either masculine or feminine in the singular, but in the plural, it is masculine.  Meridies, the Latin word for mid-day, is also masculine. Otherwise, the fifth declension nouns are all feminine (all 50 or so of them). The forms of fifth declension are easily taken for third declension forms. But mistaking an accusative plural fifth declension noun for an accusative plural third declension noun, for instance, as long as you have the gender right, should cause no trouble in translation. Most Fifth Declension Nouns in Nominative Singular End in -IES The Rudiments of Latin and English Grammar,  by Alexander Adam (1820) characterizes fifth declension Latin nouns as follows: All nouns of the fifth declension end in ies, except three; fides, faith; spes, hope; res, a thing; and all nouns in ies are of the fifth, except these four; abies, a firtree; aries, a ram; paries, a wall; and quies, rest; which are of the third declension. The Fifth Declension Endings The endings of the masculine or feminine fifth declension are as follows:   Case Singular Plural NOM. -es -es GEN. -ei -erum DAT. -ei -ebus ACC. -em -es ABL. -e -ebus Let’s take a look at these fifth declension endings in action using the Latin word dies, -ei,  f. or m., day. Case Singular Plural NOM. dies dies GEN. diei dierum DAT. diei or die diebus ACC. diem dies ABL. die diebus Here are some other fifth declension nouns for practice: effigies, effigiei, f., effigyfides, fidei, f., faithres, rei, f., thingspes, spei, f., hope. For more information and resources, explore a paradigm of an additional fifth declension noun,  Ã‚  f.  (thinness), complete with macrons and umlauts.