Their Eyes Were Watching God Joe Starks Analysis

Their Eyes Were Watching God Joe Starks Analysis The character of Joe Starks in the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God written by Zora Neil Hurston is Janies second husband and an entrepreneur who is very charismatic and well off financially. However, Starks is a bit overzealous in his ambition. There isnt a lot of communication between him and Janie, or anyone else for that matter, and he has a huge a superiority complex, which leads to an uncontrollable jealousy over his most prize possession, Janie. Starks has envisioned himself as a big man in the novel. During the course of the story, Starks, in the beginning, is seen as a charming man, with a big dream and good intentions, ends up becoming the most powerful man in town, who is somewhat disliked because of spending practices and actions. Starks is somewhat seen as an imitator of the white man on top and the people of Eatonville resent him for it. When Starks is first mentioned in the novel, Starks a well dressed man, not usually seen in the parts Janie was from, he was dressed nice and looking good for the world to see, Janie sees Starks coming down the road. He wasnt just another passerby, he sees Janie, this beautiful girl on the road and he heads right for her, shes the one thats what he wants (Hurston 27). The character Joe Starks is an example of a man who knows what he wants in life, though he seems kind, and generous in nature, it is all a faà §ade. Starks is a selfish person, playing a role of a big man who sees himself above others. Through his strong sense of confidence, charismatic personality, and his financial background, Starks is able to gain the power and influence that he seeks within the town of Eatonville. He uses Janie his wife, as a symbol of personal success. She in his eyes is more of a trophy than someone he loves. Mr. Starks shallowly believes that with all his money and power should he be entitled t o a beautiful wife. From the moment that Starks meets Janie, he promises her the world. He guarantees all kinds of nice and exotic of things to her, not because he genuinely likes the girl, but because Starks sees something that he would like to have, and in order for him to get it, he has to promise the world to take Janie away from Logan Killicks, to whom she was currently married. There wasnt really a distinction between the two men, well besides physical appearance and age. They were two men wanting the same thing. The use of Janie as a way to progress in life, for Killicks, it was to work the land, to make it more valuable in the promise to turn it over to Janie. To Starks she would be a symbol of his power and success. Their Eyes is a lyrical novel that correlates the need of her first two husbands for ownership of progressively larger physical space (and the gaudy accoutrements of upward mobility) (Gates 197). Starks eventually succeeds in taking Janie away from Logan. After that she came to where Joe Starks was waiting for her with a hired rig. He was very solemn and helped her to the seat beside him. With him on it, it sat like some high, ruling chair (Hurston 32). In leaving with Mr. Starks, Janie assumes a role in a higher class, among the people who sit in a high, ruling chair. The same people whom Starks wishes or believes himself to be in. With running off and marrying Starks, Janie has moved up a notch in social standing. It was not because of her education or talents, but because shes beautiful and thats exactly what Starks wanted, a trophy. Starks does what he promised to do with Janie, which is buy her all these nice things and introduce her to a life of riches and luxury. On the train the next day, Joe didnt make many  speeches with rhymes to her, but he bought her the best things the butcher had, like apples and a glass lantern full of candies. Mostly he talked about plans for the town when he got thereà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Janie took a lot of looks at him and she was proud of what she saw. Kind of portly like rich white folks. Strange trains, and people and places didnt scare him neither (Hurston 34). Mr. Starks reveals his intentions or feelings that he already is in a higher class by flaunting his wealth. He buys Janie different kinds of things like fancy clothes and treats like apples and a glass lantern full of candies. Buying Janie all these fancy things is his way of trying to endear himself to her, as well as showing off the type of social class that he comes from. By buying his way into Janies life, Starks s ees to believe that rhymes and speeches are a poor mans way of romancing the woman. But through money and gifts as a form of romance, would be more of a higher class thing to do. Starks comes to Eatonville as a type of vivid dreamer, he has big plans for this little town of shacks and dirt. He brings his money, charisma, and a beautiful young bride to a developing town. The town starts off really small, too small for the town Starks had envisioned. No one really has thought about adding acreage to the town, or let alone about expanding. So here goes Mr. Joe Starks, the self-believed savior of this fledgling little burg. He guarantees the towns people a better place to live. So Starks, being the big man he envisions himself to be, goes right up to the white landowner and comes back with a deed to for the 200 acres the town needed. With the first task of Starks agenda finished, he gets everyone to go to work. So thats where the meeting was held with Tony Taylor  acting as chairman and Jody doing all the talking. A day was named for roads and they all agreed to bring axes and things like that and chop out two roads running each way. That applied to everyb ody except Tony and Coker. They could carpenter, so Jody hired them to go to work on his store bright and soon the next morning. Jody himself would be busy driving around from town to town telling people about Eatonville and drumming up citizens to move there (Hurston 40-1). Mr. Starks is the one who initiates the new building projects and construction of roads, hiring people to work for him, and giving himself the position of a spokesperson. After all, he was the one who bought all the land and the one with the plan itself. Who would argue with the man who come to Eatonville and change it for the better? Having attracted all the attention of the towns people, Joe calls a town meeting and gets himself elected as the mayor of Eatonville. Starks strong sense of self-confidence, execution of his plan for the town, and money, lead to control, and a sense dominance and power over the town. Starks shows off his new wealth and power in a strong resemblance of wealthy southern white man. Use the layout of the town for example. Starkss house sits almost in the middle of town, around his house sit in the rest of the people of the towns homes, but is far less as nice. Take for instance that new house of his. It had  two stories with porches, with banisters and such things. The rest of the town looked like servants quarters surrounding the big house. (Hurston 47). Starks spends his money on extravagant items like fancy spittoons for himself and even his wife. This type of free spending makes the citizens of Eatonville jealous and resent him for it. Before Starks moved into Eatonville, the people had never even thought of or had a reason to think of themselves in a different way, or even as low class, because they were all the same. The people of Eatonville before Starks came were all the same race and poor. Starks brought social differences and a type of class warfare to town, and now everyone else can see what theyre missing out on. It sort of made the rest of them feel that they had been taken advantage of. Like things had been kept from them. Maybe more things in the world besides spitting pots had been hid from them, when they wasnt told no better than to spit in tomato cans It was bad enough for white people, but when one of your own color could be so different it put you on a wonder. It was like seeing your sister turn into a gator. A familiar strangeness. You keep seeing your sister in the gator and the gator in your sister and youd rather not. There was no doubt that the town respected him and even admired him in a way. But any man who walks in the way of power and property is bound to meet hate (Hurston 47).   Starks whole life entails this high sense of esteem that his manhood brings. He has formed this feeling of entitlement because of what he brings to the table. He feels that with what he has done to the town he has a right to power, wealth, and authority. Starks considers himself justified because he was the one basically in charge of building up the town that only he should be the one to run it. He gets to decide what goes on there and whose opinion counts. He runs the town with somewhat of a first of tyranny and the people of Eatonville are often grumbling and comparing him to memories of the old white slave owners and rightfully so. Starks resembles the white man on top in many ways. He is well-fed appearance, dressed in the finest clothes, like the well-to-do white people at the time. He believes himself to be above the townspeople, they are lower than him. Even in the case of his wife Janie. He did not marry her for love. It was all for show. In his marriage to Janie rep resented his control of the people, the town, as the mayor, and the most of the money in town. The only love expressed by Starks, was the love for Joe Starks. He was the big man around town, everything else in his mind, was just symbol in the testament of greatness that is Joe Starks.

Empirical Articles Summary Essay

Empirical research is a study that is based on experimentation or observation. This kind of research gathers evidences coming from collective experience in the field. It is often conducted in order to answer a specific question or to test a hypothesis or an educated guess. Moreover, it is different from other types of research because it goes beyond simply reporting an observation but rather it enhanced the understanding of a theory’s relevance to the real environment (Manor College, 2006). An analysis of two articles involving empirical research would aid in further understanding the nature of this kind of study. The Illusion of Transparency in Negotiations The Illusion of Transparency in Negotiations is studied by three researchers namely: Leaf Van Boven, Thomas Gilovich, and Victoria Husted Medvec. This empirical research aims to examined the question of whether negotiators are susceptible to having an â€Å"illusion of transparency. † Illusion of transparency is the belief that ones’ private thoughts and feelings are obvious or known by their negotiating partners than what is really happening. Basically, it is the idea wherein the negotiator overestimates their negotiating partner’s knowledge of their preference. The discussion also looks at how such idea could affect negotiations, on whether it impedes the negotiators’ success. The qualitative method of empirical research was utilized in order test the educated guess made in this study. They experimented by using a controlled group composed of participants that have to make preferential choices about various cases and situations. These participants have to negotiate among each other based upon the instructions given by the researchers. The results of the experiment where interpreted by utilizing the t-test method. The t-test is conducted in order to see the statistical relationship of these groups of data. The findings show that in Study One, negotiators overestimated their negotiating partners’ ability to identify their preferences. Upon the utilization of the t-test, results show that percentage from the early negotiation was not statistically reliable. It was during the post negotiation that this result was obtained because the data shows that 3. 30 is statistically reliable as it is greater than the significance level of p < . 05. Study Two, proved that negotiators who were trying to show rather than hide their preferences to other negotiators tended to overestimate those preferences’ transparency. The data supported this finding. Based on the first round of voting, negotiators overestimated the number of their corresponding partners’ ability to see the importance of a particular issue to them. These differences were all reliable because they all resulted to ts > 2. 30. During the final round of voting, it was concluded that negotiators overestimated their fellow negotiators ability to identify their top important issues. This is proven by the statistically reliable results of the t-test, which are all t > 2. 25. Study Three, proves that negotiators showed an illusion of transparency. This is supported by data that shows negotiators overestimated their partners’ ability to find out they preferred the most by 20 percent, which is statistically reliable. They also overestimated the probability that their partners’ would identify their least preferential choice. Data supported this findings by 25 percent, which is statistically reliable at t = 4. 34. Moreover, the study also find out that control participants showed a â€Å"curse of knowledge† because they overestimated the probability that their negotiating partner would identify correctly their counterpart’s preferences. It is statistically proven by ts = 2. 58 and 4. 49. The empirical study made by the researchers about illusion of transparency in relation to negotiation is very interesting because it gives an idea of what goes around inside the minds of these negotiators while they bargain and compromise among each other. The researchers were also able to devised a method where this idea could actually be applied and tested on situations that actually take place in the real environment. The three studies that they conducted where able to tests their hypothesis and the utilization of the t-test method is also appropriate in measuring the participants outlook on their counterpart’s preferences. However, further study needs to be conducted in order understand the other dimensions of illusion transparency like its impact in the negotiating process and its outcomes. Strategic behavioral mimicry facilitates negotiation outcomes The researchers, namely William Maddux, Elizabeth Mullen, and Adam D. Galinsky investigated in this empirical research the hypothesis that the outcomes of negotiations can be facilitated with strategic behavioral mimicry. This means that a negotiator who follows or imitates the actions of his counterpart could greatly affect what would take place in the negotiation. Since negotiation is an interpersonal activity wherein it is largely dependent upon the negotiator’s ability to influence, persuade, and interact effectively with one’s opponent, it becomes possible that the idea of behavioral mimicry is applicable in this kind of interaction. The Quantitative method is used in this research that is composed of two sets of studies. The researchers measured the viability of their hypothesis by conducting an experiment using a controlled group of individuals. These participants were asked to perform certain activities based upon the instructions of the researchers. Study one, tested the hypothesis through an employment negotiation with numerous issues. On the other hand, study two focused on the ability of mimicry to influence a negotiator’s ability to find out the underlying compatible interests of ones’ negotiating partner. The data gathered was interpreted by using ANNOVA. In study one, the researchers’ examined the joint gain obtained by the negotiators through summing the individual scores of the negotiators in each dyad and then forwarded it to a one-way ANNOVA. Results show an essential effect for mimicking condition on joint gain, which is supported by F(2, 49) = 4. 02, p = . 02, n2p =. 14. They also found out that the more negotiators’ mimicked their opponents, the more points the parties’ obtained. Moreover, the increase in joint gain is also tested in terms of individual benefits for each party. The findings proved that recruiter individual gain showed a significant effect for mimicking condition at F(2, 28) = 4. 45, p = . 017, n2p = . 15. They also found out that increase in joint gain for both parties also resulted in an increase in individual gain by whichever of the two parties did the mimicking. However, mean comparisons exemplified that the idea of â€Å"being mimicked† had no adverse effect to one’s individual gain. In study two, the researchers’ examined the percentage of deals that was obtained in dyads wherein the buyer mimicked as compared with dyads where the buyer did not mimic. Results show that ten out of fifteen dyads or 67 percent, in which a buyer mimicked achieved a deal unlike when a buyer made a deal but did not mimic, which is only two out of sixteen dyads. Moreover, the researchers also performed a binary logistic regression analysis. The results obtained from this experiment indicated that the amount of mimicking was an essential factor in determining whether a deal was reached with this data, Ratio = 1. 047, Wald test = 6. 36, p = . 012 proving it. Therefore, the greater the number of participants mimicking their opponents, the greater the possibility of these people getting the deal. The mediating role of trust was also examined. The researchers utilized the Sobel’s test in order to validate that the mediational effect of trust was essential to negotiation. Results show z = 1. 99, p = . 047, which could conclude that mimicry affects the process of deal making and this was mediated through trust. The study about the role of mimicry in negotiation is an example of a contemporary approach to this subject. Previously, mimicry was simply tested through actions whether a participant would mimic someone who dropped a pen. In this case, however, it becomes more essential because it included the way people analyzed situation in order to make their corresponding decisions. The researchers were able to properly interpret the data as they performed numerous tests as well as various methods in order to assure the validity of its results. Further study would also be beneficial in testing the efficacy of mimicry in negotiation that does not only involve a single issue. Testing mimicry to distributive issues or those zero-sum situations could be a good way to enhance this study. Empirical research indeed has a huge contribution to the pursuit of knowledge. It is through this kind of research that vague concepts could be clearly understood. This gives a reality-based application of ideas that makes a simple study essential in the everyday lives of people. References Van Boven, L. , Gilovich, T. , & Husted Medvec, V. (2003). Research Reports: The Illusion of Transparency in Negotiations. Negotiation Journal. Plenum Publishing Corporation. Maddux, W. W. , Mullen, E, & Galinsky, A. D. (2007). Chameleon bake bigger pies and take Bigger pieces: Strategic mimicry facilitates negotiation outcomes. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Retrieved June 10, 2008, from www. sciencedirect. com.

An Ethical Glance At Human Euthanasia - 3061 Words

An Ethical Glance at Human Euthanasia In recent history not many topics have stirred up as strong or divided opinions as that of Human Euthanasia. This is partly due to the fact that our medical technology is far superior then even just a few decades ago. Modern day human beings, especially Americans, have the benefit of living far longer lives than our predecessors. People with terminal illnesses formerly doomed immediately are able to live for longer periods of time, the elderly receive better care and are able to be kept alive longer then they would be able to survive naturally, and people who would normally perish while in comas or a persistent vegetative state are able to be kept alive through the technology we have all come to marvel at and appreciate. While the new technologies and breakthroughs in medical care are of course a testament to the hard work and diligence of brilliant minds they have spawned questions that are as perplexing as the aforementioned technology is amazi ng. I intend to discuss some of these questions here and although I am not a scholar in this field and my opinions are humble I ask only that you respect them for what they are. When looking at an issue such as Human Euthanasia it is important to understand some of the basic terminology used by news and media outlets as well as experts in the field who are on either side fighting for or against euthanasia. One of the major arguments bases around bio or medical ethics. According to Wikipedia,Show MoreRelatedFor Euthanasia Persuasive Essay1663 Words   |  7 Pagespain and suffering. Euthanasia is a word that most people avoid because it is very controversial. But why? Euthanasia is a way of ending the prolonging of suffering, while leaving life in peace. 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The War Of The American Revolution - 2393 Words

The American Revolution was a political cataclysm between the Monarchy of Great Britain and the thirteen North American colonies. The revolution lasted from 1765 to 1883, however, the armed conflict did not initiate until 19 April 1775, which became what is known as the American Revolutionary War, or the American War of Independence. The revolution was subsequently evoked by the outcomes of the Seven Years’ War (1754-1763) and the Treaty of Paris (1763), followed by a series of taxes and laws enforced by British Parliament on the American colonies to primarily raise revenue and to suppress political subversion of the British Monarch. Consequently, the colonial rebellion escalated after the defiance of British government and the repudiation of the laws and taxes inflicted, eventually leading to explicit warfare after the overthrow of British authority and armed encounters against British forces. The Revolution would become an international dilemma, but it ultimately would lead to the recognition of America’s independence and the downfall of the First British Empire. The roots of the American Revolution were heavily impacted by the Seven Years’ War that occurred two years prior to the beginning of the revolution in 1765, to which 20,000 American colonist served alongside Great Britain. The colonist particularly fought in the North American theatre of the conflict titled the â€Å"French and Indian War†, name made in reference to the French and Native American combatants of theShow MoreRelatedThe War Of The American Revolution1207 Words   |  5 PagesNo conflict in American history is as well-known then the American Revolutionary war. War between the colonies and Great Britain began in April of 1775 and, in a years’ time, the conflict will grow into one of the most arduous wars ever fought. 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