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Sample of critique/ response/ reflection paper:


Sample: 1

Title: Critique on The Treatment of Women in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll's House

Abstract

This essay investigates “the treatment of women in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll's House (1879). Ibsen is considered one of the greatest supporters of the feminist approach. His almost every literary piece depicts nothing but the right of women. Untrue system of marriage, women fighting for their freedom and stressing the individuality of women which Henrik Ibsen’s has shown in his play “A Doll's House”. The article, entitled “concept of Feminism in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll's House” reflects the light on female subjugation, dilemma, marginalization, psychological trauma, subordination, and the suffrage of women. After analyzing this play profoundly, we have favored discussion that Ibsen’s A Doll’s House is based on a feminist perspective focusing on women’s problems.

Introduction

Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) is a big name among the most significant modern dramatists of the 19th century. He instantly realizes the social problems which were arising because of the women's marginalization in his age. His literary works expose the social, cultural, and psychological conflicts by women in everyday life such as we see in the case of Nora in his play A Doll's House. No doubt, he was a great dramatist but he was more famous because of his revolutionary ideas and deep philosophical approaches which leave a profound impact on the development of English literature in general and particularly in drama throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

For centuries and even until now the phenomenon of women’s problem and their struggle for their rights still exist in different societies in different forms. History is full of evidence that women have been portrait inferior, and worthless, always are subordinated and discriminated by the man. The man considered superior and ruler and women seemed the only followers in society. It happens because our social system has been trapped in the patriarchal system which is considered the biggest hurdle for women to get the equality. Somewhere, many societies still believe that man is better than women. In short, women face many problems in different aspects of life such as Ibsen has exposed through the character of Nora in his play the A Doll’s House. so, for that concern, we have introduced with feminism which emphasizes the solution of women's problems with their struggles.

In this particular drama, Ibsen is emphasized on the problem of women’s position in society as he has portrayed through the character of Nora. So, the main theme in this play is a responsibility to achieve individual rights in society as Nora tried to achieve. “What duties do you mean? Nora: my duties towards myself” (DHIII, 68). Nora, a wife, or a mother, as a woman, is treated like a doll by his husband in the play. This essay will explore Henrik Ibsen's treat of women and the concept of feminism in the doll’s house.

Discussion

The main theme of the drama A Doll's House is based on the issue of women. Ibsen emphasizes women’s status and their treatment in society. Critical appreciation of the text of the play A Doll’s house show that there was a lack of respect and a lack of true love for a wife in nineteenth-century society. In A Doll’s House, we deal with the rigid morality of Helmer husband of the Nora, which depresses the individuality of the woman herself as Nora sacrifices herself thoroughly for his sake. It seems that she is living in such a society that might be run by masculine laws with no emotions. Nora says “we have never sat down in earnest together to try and get at the bottom of anything” (DHIII, 66). This line is considered one of the key sentences which concern with Feminist approach that expresses Nora’s heart frustration. The character of Nora has been portrayed as a second-hand creature where its basic human right has been ignored. Through this character, Ibsen’ described the system of a patriarchal society that is controlled by men’s rules, which directly approach the concept of feminism.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), another prominent literary figure, remarks in the Quintessence of Ibsenism, “The Norwegian Ibsen’s significance takes place because of deep concern social-political discussion (such as feminism) into the drama through the agency of unwomanly woman”. Ibsen has consistently presented the social issue “Feminism” in his almost all work such as his famous play “Hedda Gabler” which approaches nothing but feminism. Similarly, in Doll’s House (1879, DH), he introduces us to social problems assigned to women in a male-oriented society.

Few centuries ago, Western countries and North America was considered the male dominating countries. They even have the whole male society in which the household things are also carried by the men they didn’t pay attention to give the right to females. The same situation can be seen in the drama written by Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll's House (1879). HELMER: "Bought, did you say? All these things? Has my little spendthrift been wasting money again?" (1.11). this dialog showed that he is angry and doesn’t even want to give the right to save and spend money. But in the reality, Nora was saving money to return the loan which she took for the treatment of his husband. In reality, the author wants to show the sacrifices of the women and want to give their rights to make them more polished and respectable.

In 1879, when the Norwegian’s female showed their helplessness and bear full condition of not having the power to use money by their our purpose and even they were not allowed to take a loan from the banks and other people without the consents of husbands and guardian, on that era Nora took loan for the treatment of his husband. This statement showed that the women have the power to do anything she wants but she only cannot perform duties due to over authoritative of males in society. So the author focuses on the equal rights of females. By the poor and injustice environment of the Nora helps the author to right the main theme of the drama. Nora also faces another injustice and illegal activity when she is harassed and blackmailed by Krogstad, who wants to use Nora just for his purpose. KROGSTAD: "I shall only preserve it—keep it in my possession. No one who is not concerned in the matter shall have the slightest hint of it." (2.263) This dialogue is showing that Nora is disturbed and Krogstad rather than blackmailing here he wants to gain his seat on the bank and the clarification of his character too. Due to these poor conditions, women should have equal rights and should be treated equally to be not pressed in the society and by the males anymore.

Larsen and passim quoted that when the play was in writing position, in that period the women of that society have only two types of jobs. One was to produce children and the second was to develop them. Few women had jobs but they were paid very low. The divorce or e rate was high because divorce was easy and cheap but only one aspect was needed which was the agreement of the couple. But in this play, the husband of Nora doesn’t give him the right to divorce so that she doesn’t want to live with him anymore. So, she decided and left him without his consent and permission but society didn’t accept her decision and left her alone. These types of phenomena still exist in our society but the role of feminism should work more on the rights of females to make them more protective and stronger.

Helmer (2017) stated that a marital contract is just a trick and deception. There “'marriage is to stress the aspects of society and personal dishonesty that hinder personal development.” In the play, the husband of Nora just wants authority and didn’t take any responsibility for her. He called her by different bad names which disrespect Nora (p. 81). This type of irresponsibility and dishonesty should be treated at the legal and social level and should be encouraged by feminism by giving them equal rights, which was also the target of the author of the play.

Conclusion

This research paper on Ibsen’s A Doll’s House has examined the approach of Feminism by quoting the views of certain critics along with examples and quotes from the play. On the behalf of above all discussion, one can conclude that there are a significant number of elements in the play that approach the concept of feminism. So, the main subject which Ibsen has portrayed in the play is women’s rights. It moralizes that every woman should find out herself and stand for her individuality to recognize the truth about herself as Nora did at the end of the play. Thus, Ibsen approaches the philosophy that females are equal to men. Females should know their value and worth and should work with the many by holding the same rights, respect, and move in society. Society cannot be satisfied and can maintain properly when their women are disrespected. Finally, after analyzing this play profoundly we can say Ibsen’s A Doll’s House is based on a feminist perspective focusing on women’s problems.

References

Halmar (2017) feminism in generic ibsen’s a dolls' house: the University of Diyala, Number extension 221– volume one - 2017 AD, 1438 AH

Bertens, Hans. 1995. Literary Theory: The Basic. Great Britain: Routledge.

Gamble, Sarah. 2006. The Routledge Companion to Feminism and Postfeminism (1st Ed). London: Taylor & Francis e-Library.

Ibsen, Henrik. 2009. A Doll’s House. Pennsylvania: A Penn State Electronic Classic Series Publication.

Marzuki. 2008. Kajian Awal Tentang Teori-Teori Gender. Yogyakarta.

Mills, Sara. 2005. Feminist Stylistics. London: Taylor & Francis e-Library.

Moleong, Lexy. 2010. Metodologi Penelitian Kualitatif (Revised Ed.). Bandung: PT. Remaja Rosdakarya.

Morris, Pam. 1999. Literature and Feminism: An Introduction (3rd Ed). UK: Blackwell Publisher.

Neuman, W. Lawrence. 2007. Basic of Social Research. Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Second Ed. Boston: Pearson Education Inc.

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Ritchie, Jane., and Jane Lewis (Eds.) 2003. Qualitative Research Practice: A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Tong, Rosemarie Putnam. 2009. Feminist Thought A More Comprehensive Introduction. USA: Westview Press.

Wahyuni, Sari. 2012. Qualitative Research Method: Theory and Practice. Jakarta: Salemba Empat.

Wolfreys, Julian., Ruth Robbins, Kenneth Womack 2006. Key Concepts in Literary Theory (2nd Ed.). Finland: WS Bookwell.

Electronic Sources:

Alhada, Habib. 2011. “Makalah Gender dan Kajian tentang Perempuan”. Available . Retrieved on November, 1st 2012.

“The Gender Wage Gap”. Available

. Retrieved on November, 28th 2012.

Lambert, Tim. 2009. “Life in the 19th Century”. Available < http://www.localhistories.org/19thcent.html>. Retrieved on May, 11st 2011.

------------------- 2009. “Women in the 19th Century”. Available . Retrieved on May, 11st 2011.

Purnama, Indra T. 2010. “Pemikiran John Stuart Mill”. Available <http://triindrapurnama.blogspot.com/2010/12/Pemikiran- John- StuartMill.html>. Retrieved on March, 4th 2013.

Randall, R. Vernellia. 2011. “Gender Discrimination & III Treament of Children”.

Available

<http://academic.udayton.edu/ra... na04.htm>. Retrieved on November 28th 2012.

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Sample 2:

Title: 
A Critique of a Research of the Relationship between Napping and Abstraction in Language-Learning Infants

Abstract

Rebecca and her colleagues (2006) experimented on the topic of Naps Promote Abstraction in Language-Learning Infants. The researcher claims that after sleep the memory and learning process effectively increases. An experimental study was designed on the children who were in the speech and language learning stage. Participants were 15 months old male and female children. Different types of words were used with the first 3 and last 3 words of a thing without making their sense and meaning. There were two groups of participants. One group of children was allowed to sleep at their usual time and the other was a control group that cannot sleep after listening to the recorded sound by an instrument. Results indicated that the group who did not allow sleeping has poor memory and children who sleep before memorization and memorize after sleep show great learning ability and memory in language.

Introduction

Stickgold and Walker (2005) claimed that the learning process of humans increases after the nap. It boosts the features of intelligence and overview. It brings clear results which can be seen in numerical form. A lot of researches found on the nap system of children but few only know and have knowledge about the blessings of sleep and their effect on intellectual abilities. Some of the researches are based on the sleep and after sleep role and their effect on the intellectual growth of children (Gertner et al., 2002). This pattern is also associated with the mental growth of the other organisms.

In this study, all of these researchers explain that sleep has a crucial role in human life and plays an important function in memory and learning. These were the researches of children and in adult researches, the nap has an important role in learning by seeing like the nap of twenty-four hours (Mednick, Nakayama, & Stickgold, 2003). Nonetheless. It is lacking in the present literature that there are little pieces of evidence of adult’s sleep and their rule in learning and memory. Researchers should study the main topic by doing the comparison of before and after sleep effects of individuals. The sleep of young people is considered a booster for intelligence and reforms intellectual abilities (Walker et al., 2003).

Summary

This study explains and talks about several experiments which proves the main argument of the of study. The children whose age was fifteen months were taken for the experiment, these children have low numbers of language signs but they can learn rapidly which was assessed by their other sensational process (Gerken, 2005). They provide the material to the children in a specific manner. By these manners, they become familiar and learn the words. By this method, children start learning rapidly (Go´mez & Gerken, 2000; Saffran, 2003). The specific sequence was made of words by showing their first three and last three letters. They made two categories of the groups. And each group has to listen to two types of sets of language and have to make the association among them. Both of these series were not related to each other. The first group of sounds has words like ‘people started and its final word is ‘juice, on the other hand, the second list of words starting with (pel predicted rud, and vot predicted jic). They revealed that if the children have sleep time before and after learning then the process of gaining the things become more clear and stays strong.

In the present study, the population was selected little children who have the age of 15 months which means that the population was taken who was in process of learning the language skills. Children belong to an easily approachable society. Forty-eight children were taken at the start of the experiment. Which were further divided into three groups for conducting the study and applying all the plans. Their groups were names as sleep group, without sleep group and the last one was treated as the control group. Participants in the group of no sleep were not taken away by sleep but they were set up at that time when the sleep was not expected. On the other hand, the children who belong to the sleep group were designed at that time when the sleep occurs in the middle of the experiment’s condition. The third group which was treating as the control group was used to remove and minimize the chances of learning that is it caused by sleep.

They also sleep before and after the experiment but like other groups, they did not have a large group of language and words. Here some participants left the experiment due to the poor conditions and were not participating which disturbed the overall environment of the experiment. So remaining were 8 females and 8 males which were treated by the comparison of the experimental group. The experimental group has 15 people which also left due to some reasons.

Sleep was planned or experiment was conducted on the individuals on that time when there is sleep time and students have to complete the first phase of listening to the words and after awaking and passing the four hours, they gave test which means that they told to the examiner what they have memorized with a specific way. Every individual who cannot learn something cannot participate in the experiment anymore. In this way, the 8 participants from the no sleep group were excluded as per the requirements of the experiment. If the participants sleep in the first phase of listening to the words, they are also considered excluded. Some of the parents interrupted the experiment so the participant also left the study. Similarly, due to the sensitivity of the experiment and the poor availability of the children, all the children were assessed only in one day.

There was a form of the language tool kit in which pel-X-jic and vot- X-rud are found in one group and other groups A, and pel-X-rud and not-X-jic were found in the second group. As there were two types of terms in the group so that two types of lists were used for the children. For the experimental group these words like wadim, kicey, puser, fengle, coomo, loga, gople, taspu, hiftam, deecha, vamey, skiger, benez, gensim, feenam, laeljeen, chila, Roosa, plates, blip, missing, celeb, bilbo, and waffle were used. For the control group wadim, kicey, and user were used. Some children can learn list A and some of them can learn the list b.

All the sounds were produced by the tape recorder in the female sound version. List of group a and list of group b were produced in clear pronunciations. There were little pauses in their words. The participants who have sleep and who did not have sleep show 24 words with accuracy. And they listen to these 48 words 5 times relatedness.

This experiment was conducted in the home of the participants. Each participant was treated at their home. The experimenter put a MiniMItter Act watch with a memory chip to record the activities of the child. Actigraphy is now considered a reliable source of recording the napping activities of the individuals (Carskadon, 1995). Parents were found to check the other activities of the children in the sleep to make the log record to compare them later. But less discrepancy can be seen in the records. Sounds were listened to by the participants at their houses for 15 minutes in the place where the child plays easily through the tape recorder in a female version. After this procedure, every participant was measure by the specific method of head turn technique (Kemler et al. (1995). The child was assessed right after the 4 years and he was assessed by sitting in the lap of the mother. On both sides of the face, some lights were in an off mood. When the audio speaks the lights become move slightly this caught the attention of the individual. The individual listens and responds to the sounds by sitting in her or his mother's lap and speakers took his sound and computer system to s record their activities and behavior. There is also an observer who looks by the outside of the liberatory. Similarly, the whole procedure was applied to all the participants and everything was recorded and maintained for further study.

Discussion

I agree with the findings of the study that there was no difference seen in the participants in language and gender. All the demographical data was equally divided and results were accordingly. The participant who has the no sleep period showed that they have the knowledge of the familiar words which they have listened and they don’t focus on the unfamiliar words which they have not heard before. On the other hand, the individuals who have a sleep period show abstraction which means that they learn new words and memories and have some significant relationship of firstly listen and secondly listened words. We come to know that the first trial period was large as compared to the second time when the sounds were presented to the participants. This means that sleep has a greater effect on learning. But there was no significant difference among the sounds which were already heard by the children and which they heard the first time. Overall results indicated that the group who did not allow sleeping has poor memory and children who sleep before memorization and memorize after sleep show great learning ability and memory in language.

I have found that experimental studies have high control so possibly some results could be exaggerated or underestimated. In the same way, in the study design, artificial liberatory settings were arranged which can confuse the children and their poor attention can be a cause of the environment.

Many errors like extraneous variables have not to be included and accepted in the study due to the highly organized and expensive study was conducted. Furthermore, it cannot be generalized to all the populations due to environmental, cultural, and familial limitations.

Although the permission was taken by the parents there was an interruption of the parents and the poor behavior of the children makes the study difficult. Same as We also come to know through experiments that many participants left the study within the study which has a bad impact. Also, Child was assessed only one time, maybe that time they face some internal issues which the researcher cannot assess easily.

Suggestions: My point of view on the study

According to me, the experiment should be conducted at reliable places where the children can enjoy the experiment process so that we can get the best result of the research. I believe the findings of this research cannot be implanted in children who have an inconsistent pattern of sleep. So, this area should be explored: more aspects of language and speech should be explored.

We are supposed to think about gender differences and these should be found in the research. Same as It would be explored more on cultural biases.

A comparative study should be conducted on the children with the trial of no sleep to make the comparison of the other group members. Add to this, repeated measure design should be used to make the measurements more accurate.

More Intellectual abilities should be considered along with memory and learning. Along with that, the age range should be increase as the children learn more attractive and meaningful things as compare to nonmeaning data.

Conclusion

An experimental study was conducted on fifteen months old children to check the Relationship between Napping and Abstraction in Language-Learning Infants. The whole procedure of one day was conducted in the houses of children before their sleep time and after sleep. Participants were also assessed in liberatory settings by putting lights and computer systems to assess them. Indicated that the group who did not allow sleeping has poor memory and children who sleep before memorization and show results after sleep show great learning ability and memory in language. Although it was a unique study and is a beneficial exploration in the field of psychology still are some limitations and suggestions to improve the study and make things more profound for future leaner and researchers.

Reference

Gómez, R. L., Bootzin, R. R., & Nadel, L. (2006). Naps Promote Abstraction in Language-Learning Infants. Psychological Science, 17(8), 670–674.

Saffran, J. (2003). Statistical language learning: Mechanisms and constraints. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 12, 110– 114

Walker, M., Brakefield, T., Hobson, J., & Stickgold, R. (2003). Dissoand language acquisition. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4, 178– ciable stages of human memory consolidation and reconsolidation..

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Sample 3:

Title: Leadership Next, Mary Barra CEO General Motors.



                                                   Introduction

It is the responsibility of an entrepreneur to think differently in order to be successful but without ignoring the high risk of being wrong. Here you chary, you think differently; you have to be confident. Mary Barra is one of the world’s most popular executive of General Motors. Barra believes, if someone is going to be an entrepreneur,/he is going to do something that he loves the most as might there are some dark days.                                 

                                                     Discussion

       Marry Barra represents a new style of leading. This reflection paper is on Marry Barra about her strong public statement over the George Floyd killing. She speaks in words emanated from the heart that she personally felt very sad about all and feels the need for action, and needed to do more, with a sense of urgency.”

       Statics stated that it was an emerging and difficult time for the auto industry when Marry Bara becomes the CEO of General Motors. It was considered that Marry will face the no-win situation, or what we call in professional terms the ‘glass cliff’, but she proved all supposed wrong and claimed herself a fixture on Fortune and counted her name in the list of the Most Powerful Women in the business world as a great leader. She has earned $21.9 million in 2018 by investing billions in the electric vehicle, rideshare services (Maven), and self-driving care since 2014.

       Half of the podcast consists of Geoff Colvin’s praise words for Marry. I agree to his words as according to him the change she has formed in the GM’s culture is astonished, and we can portray her as a valuable example for any leader who is looking for the good luck of their company. She expresses her views that a leader should be a good listener and instead of directly opposing or disagreeing with her/his team s/he should channel everyone’s energy to make some fairly obvious decisions.

                                   Contemplation from the podcast

        She keeps it honest and keeps it simple: The thing I like most is her remarkably honest being with GM staff. She always has had only one mission “No crappier car “towards all engineers and designers. Honesty is really the best policy in any deal and plays critical roles for organizations short term and long-term success. I like the idea of Mary that she considers trust as the most important strategy that creates interaction between managers and employees.

       She always makes it about the company and the customer: Barra was focused on her present with all attention and her full success was directly related to GM. As she said, “My all effort is always about winning customers one at a time.” That’s factual, for a CEO it’s obligatory to work by heart.

       She uses kinetic energy to mobilize people: She is smart enough to mobilize people with the use of kinetic energy. She never disagreeing with her team but let them do their own obvious decisions so that they become fully responsible and accountable for their deeds.

                                             conclusion

        Marry is ride or die when it comes to General Motors as she started working for GM for the college tuition fees at the age of 18 and in 2014 Bara’s appointed as chief executive with a lifelong career. Good management is about providing resources to employees to accomplish their tasks and use the power of motivation to mobilize their employees. This is what Marry Bara has talked about in that particular podcast.