Leadership in The Once and Future King :: Once and Future King Essays

The Once and Future King  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Leadership In The Once and Future King T.H. White conveys his personal thoughts on leadership through the help of Merlin, and Wart's transformations. Through each transformation Wart experiences different forms of power, each being a part of a whole idea on how a leader should act.   He must piece together these ideas for the definitive way he should rule as king.   In order to teach Wart,   Merlin transforms him into several different forms, a fish, hawk, ant, goose and a badger.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   "‘I wish I was a fish,' said the Wart." (p.45) At that, Wart's first transformation plunged him and Merlin into the castle's moat. They proceeded to meet the largest fish in the moat, who is the ruler. This fish took what he wanted because of his size. In a speech about power, he told Wart "Might is right," and might of the body is greater than might of the mind. Because of the way the fish-king ruled, his subjects obeyed him out of fear for their lives. Wart experienced this firsthand when the fish-king told   him to leave. He had grown bored of Wart, and if Wart didn't leave he would've eaten him. The king used   his size as his claim to power, therefore his subjects followed   him out of fear.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In Wart's next transformation into a hawk   he soared into the castle's mews. All the birds in the mews had a military rank. Their leader was an old falcon, who was kept for show. The birds who ranked below the falcon, held her in highest regard because of her age. She applied her power over the other birds with no concern for their lives. In one instance, Wart is ordered to stand next to the cage of a crazy hawk who almost killed him. On the other hand, her age brought   respect.   The falcon was much older than the others because she had   not been released once she outlived her usefulness as a huntress.   Her age and attitude allowed her to maintain a powerful grip over all the birds she ruled through fear and respect.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Next, Wart was transformed into an ant and posted within an ant colony. There was a single leader of the ants, and she was the only thinking individually in the whole nest.

A Brief Look at the Origin of English Idioms

Idioms appear in every language and their meaning is often confusing. Because the meaning of the whole group of words taken together has little to do with the meanings of the words taken one by one. In order to understand a language, one must know what idioms in that language mean. If we want to figure out the meaning of an idiom literally, word by word, we will get befuddled as we have to know its â€Å"hidden meaning†. Most of the idioms do not coincide with their direct meanings but hundreds of years ago they actually did.If we search into the origin of the idioms, we can obtain a great deal of information about that nation’s culture, history and even policy. Idioms come from different sources, from the Bible to horse racing, from ancient fables to modern slang. Sometimes famous authors such as Homer, Geoffrey Chaucer, or William Shakespeare made them up to add spark to their writings. Some idioms came from Native-American customs and others from African-American spe ech. Several popular idioms began as folksy sayings used in particular regions of the country and spoken in local dialects.However, the name of the first author or speaker who used particular expressions is not often obvious. Some idioms go back in time to the ancient Greeks and Romans, thousands of years ago. For instance, Achilles’ heel- the meaning is the weakness, fault or vulnerable spot in one’s strong character. But the origin of this idiom goes back to the times when Greek poet Homer wrote his famous work â€Å"Iliad†. In the â€Å"Iliad† the famous story about the Trojan War Achilles was a great hero and warrior. However, he had one weak spot, the heel of one foot.When he was a baby, his mother wanted to be certain that her son could never be harmed, so he dipped little Achilles upside-down in the magical river Styx. Wherever the water touched his body, he became invulnerable. But since she was holding him by his heel, that part of him never got wet. Years later Achilles was killed in the Trojan War by the enemy who shot a poisoned arrow into his heel. Nowadays, this idiom is still used to show one’s weakness. For example, I like reading historical books, but science fiction is my Achilles’ heel.There is also another example of the idiom which originates from the most famous poem by English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge â€Å"The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner†, written in 1798. Albatross around your neck- the meaning is a very difficult burden you can’t get rid of. In the poem a young sailor shoots a large seabird called albatross. In those days that was considered very lucky. A lot of bad things happen to the ship, and the crew blames the young sailor. They hang the dead bird around his neck.From that time, this idiom is used to speak about a burden or a reminder of something you did that was wrong. Wherever I go, my sister follows me. She is an albatross around my neck. We can find a lot more exa mples of idioms which have very interesting origin and give us new information of that time customs. For instance, Wear your heart on your sleeve-the meaning is to show one’s emotions and feelings openly. William Shakespeare used this expression in his famous tragedy â€Å"Othello† around the year 1600. In those days, it was the custom for a young lady to tie a ribbon around the arm of her boyfriend.The boy then wore this favour on his sleeve, one of the visible parts of his clothing, to display the feelings of his heart for the entire world to see. Today, it is used not only to show love, but also another emotion too. Everyone in our office knows that Mel doesn’t get along with the boss, because he wears his heart on his sleeve. Another such example is, pull the wool over your eyes-the meaning is to fool, deceive, or trick someone. In 19th century Europe many men wore wigs made of wool. In British courts today, some lawyers and judges still wear them.If you pul led the wig over the person’s eyes, he or she couldn’t still see what was happening and could easily be tricked. It was said that if a clever lawyer fooled a judge, he was pulling the wool over the judge’s eyes. Now, we use this expression to describe any act of cheating or trickery. Jacob was trying to pull the wool over his mother’s eyes by saying he was working at the library with his friends. Some idioms have originated from political actions and their origin can give us information about certain historical events. For example, Read the riot-the meaning is to severely scold or warn someone.In 1714 the British Parliament passed what was called the Riot Act. It said if twelve or more people gathered â€Å"illegally, riotously, and tumultuously,† a magistrate could command them to break up and leave just by reading the opening words of the Riot Act. If they didn’t leave within an hour, they were guilty of breaking the law and were given a s evere punishment. As the years went by, â€Å"reading someone the riot act† came to mean warning a person in the strongest possible terms of severe punishment if he or she did not stop a certain activity.When students came to class unprepared, the teacher read her the riot act. Another example is Dime a dozen-the meaning is very common and inexpensive; easy to get and available anywhere. In 1786 US Congress officially named the ten-cent coin a â€Å"dime†. The dime soon became a popular coin. Millions were minted and everyone had them. Since they were so cheap and so common, the phrase â€Å"a dime a dozen† became a natural way to describe any everyday thing that was easy to get and of small value.And â€Å"dime† and â€Å"dozen† begin with the same letter, which makes the saying catchy through alliteration. I thought those books were rare, but they were a dime a dozen. All above mentioned examples show us that idioms teach us not only the language but also give us information about customs and traditions of a certain time. When we learn idioms, we should also take into consideration not only their meaning, but also their origin. Learning the origin of idioms will help us read and speak with new understanding.

Clean And Renewable Energy Is The Future Essay - 1998 Words

Deep Patel Mr. Hasty AP English 4 December 2016 Clean and Renewable Energy is the Future There are multitudes of problems with fossil fuels, but one is that they are nonrenewable. We will be out of natural gas in about 50 years and oil between 2025-2070 (Senior). Most of our world is currently dependent on fossil fuels, and this is an alarming fact. For example, recently there was a gas shortage in Fort Mill, S.C. and it was hard to find gas for multiple days. This fairly small shortage causes panic in the society. Now imagine if this problem extended throughout the world, and there was no end to this crisis. This is what will happen if effective renewable energy is not adopted as the primary source of energy in the U.S.. Logic and simple economics tells us that as our supplies of fossil fuels begin to dwindle, demand will rise leading to an increase in price. Also, oil pipelines often run through various countries, which can lead to an energy crisis in times of political issues (Senior). For example, there is a lot of oil in the Middle East currently, and OPEC often controls these oil prices. As a result, OPEC can change the price of oil for the U.S. and our allies, effectively crippling our economies. Another issue is that coal, a popular source of energy, is labor intensive and expensive to mine (Senior). I think that if we begin to use more coal as a substitute for fuels like natural gas and oil, then energy prices will rise because of the fact that coalShow MoreRelatedThe Future Industry in Energy: Dropping the Concept of Nuclear Energy1209 Words   |  5 PagesThe Future Industry in Energy: Dropping the Concept of Nuclear Energy At the start of the mid 1950’s, the world was introduced to a new, alternative source of power that would revolutionize the energy industry; this power became known as nuclear energy. 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