The Evolution of Peekay in the Power of One free essay sample

The Evolution of Peekay in the Power of One Think back to when you were five years old. Were you sent to a boarding school with kids a couple years older than you? Were you persecuted and bullied for being a â€Å"redneck† or for just being who you were? Chances are, the answer to these questions should be â€Å"no†. However, a small little boy growing up in Africa during the mid-1990s can probably describe every single tortuous day that he went through in this situation. His name is Peekay, and he is the narrator in Bryce Courtenay’s award-winning novel, The Power of One. Peekay describes his life form being a small five-year old boy to a teenager. Along the way, he meets many mentors and friends, such as Hoppie Groenewald, a champion boxer, â€Å"Doc†, a retired professor, and Geel Piet, a boxing coach. With the help of his mentors and friends, Peekay evolves from being an unsure little boy into a mature young man – living life without camouflage, with the ability to overcome adversity and strong faith in the power of one. We will write a custom essay sample on The Evolution of Peekay in the Power of One or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In Book One, Peekay hides behind a wall of camouflage in order to protect him from anything set out to threaten his survival; however, with the help of mentor Hoppie Greonewald, he overcomes his dependence on it. Camouflage, or to conceal something by making it match its surroundings, especially in appearance, is what most high school students try to do while on campus. They try to blend in, and not be the odd person out. Peekay does the exact same thing during the first half of the novel. In his first boarding school, Peekay learns that to stand out is dangerous and disappearing into the masses is the best camouflage. In fact, he becomes quite good at it. â€Å"I had become an expert at camouflage. My precocity allowed me, chameleonlike, to be to each what they required me to be. (Courtenay, 472). Peekay frequently needs to present himself in various guises in order to survive the system. He compares himself to a chameleon that is so adept at camouflage that he can submit his own will to that of everyone else. However, we see Peekay become antsy – he has the desire to become a champion, and he must find a way to camouflage while still a winner. He poses this dilemma in the following statement: My camouflage, begun so many years before under the persecution of the Judge, was now threatening to become the complete man. It was time to slough the mottled and cunningly contrived outer skin and emerge as myself, to face the risk of exposure, to regain the power of one. I had reached the point where to find myself was essential. (472). After years of being subjected to the Judge’s gibes, Peekay finally realizes that it is time that he reveals his true self and face whatever challenges appear along the way. He receives help by stumbling upon Hoppie Greonewald, a train conductor and boxing champion. Hoppie only spends a day with Peekay, but teaches him many important lessons. His idiom, â€Å"First with the head and then with the heart, that’s how a man stays ahead from the start† stays with Peekay throughout his life (103). It is a saying that Peekay uses to defeat his opponents in boxing matches, and it is one that inspires him. Hoppie also gives Peekay something much more important and valuable: the power of one. Peekay notes, â€Å"Even though Hoppie had passed briefly through my life†¦. he had managed to change my life†¦. Hoppie had sensed my need to grow, my need to be assured that the world around me had not been specially arranged to bring about my undoing. He gave me a defense system, and with it he gave me hope. † (103). As a result, Hoppie’s gift of the power of one, along with his quote, gives Peekay the inspiration to defeat his need of camouflage. Throughout the novel, we see Peekay constantly battling adversity, and every time he manages to succeed, he is faced with more challenges. As a five-year old boy in a boarding school, Peekay is intimidated and bullied by the Judge and his friends, and he is subjected to cruel and harsh punishment. However, he does not let this faze him. He decides never to cry, because crying is a sign of weakness. After Peekay abstains from crying after watching his pet chicken and best friend Granpa Chook die, the Judge becomes frustrated. â€Å"Then he let out a howl, a mixture of anger and anguish. ‘ Why don’t you cry?. ’ he sobbed and started to kick blindly at me. † (50). This is the first of many challenges that Peekay overcomes. Showing the Judge that he will not cry takes guts and willpower. Later in the novel, Peekay exacts his revenge on the Judge by knocking him unconscious and inscribing his name on the Judge’s body. Another challenge that Peekay overcomes is his rejection by Oxford, a prestigious college, for a scholarship. This seems to surprise everybody, especially after Peekay had done great in the interview and scored high on the entrance test. The people around me became accustomed to me winning. It was a habit that they shared, an indulgence they took for granted. I could see they were shocked and bitterly disappointed that, their having done their part, I had somehow failed them. Miss Bornstein and Mrs. Boxall were distraught beyond belief, having quickly convinced themselves of some kind of plot. 466-467) Peekay does not let this bring him down. Instead of accepting other scholarship offers, he decides to take a year off and work in the mines of Northern Rhodesia. He becomes a â€Å"grizzly man†, or a person who works with explosives along with having to be on watch for long periods of time. Peekay uses his boxing skills to excel at being a grizzly man. Peekay is a strong-willed boy, and he will not let adversity bring him down. Whether it is being bullied by kids at school, or not getting a scholarship to Oxford, he finds a way to fight through the pain and sorrow. Peekay develops more and more natural instincts to overcome adversity as the novel continues. The power of one is something that Peekay uses throughout the novel as inspiration and guidance. The belief of the power of one is perhaps the prominent theme in this novel. Peekay refers to it time and time again. He receives the power of one from Hoppie, a champion boxer who spends a day with Peekay. â€Å"He had given me the power of one – one idea, one heart, one mind, one plan, one determination† (103). Peekay develops the power of one to help him focus on his future goals, endure current hardships, and influence those around him. This holds true in the end of the novel, where Peekay and the Judge coincidentally meet again in a bar. After a fight, which he wins, Peekay exits the bar, and stands alone outside. He then narrates the last paragraph of the novel, in a calm and collected tone. I walked slowly toward the western-style salon doors and then out of the Crud Bar. Outside, high above me, a full moon, pale as skimmed milk, floated in a day sky. I felt clean, all the bone-beaked loneliness birds banished, their rocky nests turned to river stones. Cool, clear water bubbled over them, streams in the desert. 513) Peekay spends the last moments of the novel by himself, demonstrating the power of one one idea, one heart, one mind, one plan, one determination. He completes his payback on the Judge using the ideas that he had learned from his many mentors. Using Hoppie’s idiom, â€Å"First with the head and then with the heart† (103), and Doc’s many teachings of life and the mind, Peekay gain s a psychological advantage on the Judge. He plans his moves out perfectly, using combinations of boxing moves such as the â€Å"Geel Piet Eight† and a â€Å"Solly Goldman Thirteen† to finish the Judge off. Finally, he uses determination and the willpower to never give up and finish the fight. The power of one, a well-documented idiom throughout the novel, is embraced by Peekay as an inspiration and guidance through times of hardship and adversity. Peekay, once an insecure, troubled adolescent, grows into a confident, poised, young adult living without a guise, triumphing over challenges and difficulties, and believing in the power of one. He overcomes his dependency on camouflage thanks to the help of Hoppie Greonewald, and he defeats adversity and hard times by grinding it out and making instinctive decisions that ease his troubles. Finally, he uses the power of one as the goal for his life, which he eventually achieves at the end of the novel. Peekay’s transition from a timid boy into a mature young man is a true inspiration to many young adults today. Peekay coins the phrase, â€Å"Never give up† with his â€Å"don’t quit† attitude and his knack of getting back up when life knocks him down. He not only survives, but becomes a champion and a leader by using the belief of the power of one.

The American Revolution and Independence Day Celebration

The American Revolution and Independence Day Celebration Introduction Every Fourth of July, all Americans celebrate the Declaration of independence. Marina in his article â€Å"Only a third of Americans supported the American Revolution† wonders what exactly is celebrated on this day, especially when one considers the fact that the US is usually involved in bringing democracy in the world. He argues that he does not really understand why a country such as the US pretends to be democratic in the world when the American Revolution, in itself, was not a democratic movement.Advertising We will write a custom article sample on The American Revolution and Independence Day Celebration specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This article will help us understand the American Revolution and determine whether Americans have a reason to celebrate Independency Day every Fourth of July or not, whether all American supported the war, and whether the Revolution taints American image in its democratic inter ventions in the world. The American Revolution The American Revolution witnessed the first of many wars that ended European control of both South and North America. Many of us American celebrate the Independency Day believing that all Americans fought or supported the war to independence. This article shows that actually not every American supported the revolutionary war, or in other words, not all Americans sided with fellow Americans in the war. The author Marina shows that not all Americans favored the war. This was mostly pronounced in areas occupied by mixed races and those that had not been affected by the war. Two specific regions stood out, these were the two loyal colonies to Britain, Quebec and Florida. Records show that there were fifteen British colonies in America, meaning that thirteen colonies didn’t like the way the British was ruling with the exception of Florida and Quebec. It is also shown that many Native Americans sided with the British because the coloni al power promised to protect their land from the American settlers. One notable Native American who supported the British was Joseph Brant who worked with the British as their translator and fought alongside them in the war.[1] The author claimed that a letter written by John Adams during the war indicated that only a third of Americans supported the revolution, a third did not support it, and the other third were either neutral or indifferent to the revolution. The author further shows that the British also had the same view, a fact the compelled them to venture into the interior with the hope that they would find British loyalists there. They strongly believed that just a few rebellious Americans wanted independence from them. This letter has been held to be true by many intellectuals in America for many years. However, Marina says that a close look at the letter shows that its writer was emphatic about the neutral part, which, he said were lukewarm to the French and the British. He therefore concludes that the Revolutionary war was not just a war for independence, but it also determined the type of nation that would be formed out of the war.[2]Advertising Looking for article on history? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More For us to understand better the American Revolution, Marina splits it into three phases. The first was the debate over the freedoms or liberties of Americans after the war. The second phase he called it the issue of independence and the ensuing war to win it. The last phase was the eventual formation of an American nation. This last phase was not achieved until after the civil war. He has also shown us that majority of the Americans were against the Stamp Act of 1765. This Act led to the British occupation of Boston, an act that led to the 1770 Boston Massacre, the 1773 tea party and many opposition acts. For a while the British thought that end of protests meant victory on the ir part, but this was just the opposite because American militias were busy organizing themselves in the villages. They eventually waged war which ended British rule in America.[3] This author has tried to answer the question as to whether all Americans supported the revolutionary war by showing that only a third of Americans supported the war. He has not conclusively tackled this issue; instead he ends by promising that this will be the subject of another article. The question on whether Americans should celebrate Independence Day or not has not been answered. He also leaves us in suspense regarding America’s intervention in the democratic process in the world. He only briefly mentions that America’s independence war was not democratic. He also alludes to it when he mentions that the British thought that the end of protests meant victory to them, just as what happened to America and the issue in the Middle East. Marina has only given us part of what happened, he has n ot resolved the issues he started with, in other words, he has just given open-ended answers that need more research to better understand what really occurred.[4] Conclusion Although, this article does not answer all the questions, it has at least raised my curiosity about the American history, whether everyone supported it, whether we should celebrate Independence Day, and whether we should be the one advocating for democracy in the world. This gives me reason to read more for a better clarification of these issues. Bibliography History, Wiz. â€Å"Native Americans and the American Revolution.† History wiz, 2008. Web. Marina, William. â€Å"Only 1/3rd of Americans Supported the American Revolution?† History News Network, 2004. Web.Advertising We will write a custom article sample on The American Revolution and Independence Day Celebration specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Footnotes History Wiz, â€Å"Native Americans and the American Revolution.† (History Wiz, 2008) Marina William, â€Å"Only 1/3rd of Americans Supported the American Revolution?† (History News Network, 2004) Marina William, â€Å"Only 1/3rd of Americans Supported the American Revolution?† (History News Network, 2004) Marina William, â€Å"Only 1/3rd of Americans Supported the American Revolution?† (History News Network, 2004)

Antimicrobial Peptides (AMPs) for Antibiotics

Antimicrobial Peptides (AMPs) for Antibiotics Dhayalini Yoginthran Antibiotic resistance is something that has been growing in the world, some might even say that we are entering or have already entered a post antibiotic world. It is currently one of the superior concerns in the 21 st century, especially in regards to pathogenic microorganisms. Throughout the years, research had allowed for the development of first line antibiotics that were efficacious against infections plaguing the population. Due to resistance build up towards first line agents, second line agents were then used to treat infections, which usually have a broad spectrum in treatment. In some cases pathogens have also acquired resistance towards multiple drugs, one such example would be Staphylococcus aureus (Zainnudin and Dale, 1990) . Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are substances produced by animals, bacteria and plants. They are also known as host defence peptides and are a part of the non-specific immune system. Differences between eukaryotes and pro karyotes show the potential of targeted therapy with the use of AMPs . They are dynamic and are of broad spectrum and have shown plausible evidence that they may be used as a new therapeutic agent. AMPs are quite small, have various sequences and lengths. They are also known to be cationic and amphipathic (Hultmark, 2003). They have shown considerable bactericidal activity against both Gram positive and Gram negative strains of bacteria, Mycobacterium tuberculosis , malignant cells as well as viruses that are enveloped (Reddy et al., 2004). AMPs work by the interaction with the membrane of the potential pathogen thus leads to the perturbation of said membrane. The peptide is then inserted into the bilayer of the membrane that causes the displacement of the lipids. The perturbation and the displacement actions render it easy for the peptide to be translocation into the intracellular target of the pathogen. AMPs are usually derived from coding sequences in a gene, databases of known AMPs have been curated to hold information of AMPs as well as to provide tools to predict possible AMPs that are found in genomes (Fjell et al., 2007). The Antimicrobial Peptide database (APD) is one of the major resource for antimicrobial peptide sequences that have been curated. AMPs from various phylogenetic kingdoms are available, making the prediction of models based on qualitative and quantitative activity easier. In order to bring the development of AMPs into light, certain objectives are to be met. An AMP must be active against the pathogen in which it is targeted against and must have a high therapeutic index. In order to look for a suitable AMP that can act as a broad spectrum antibiotic. A method will be explained to show the screening process to look for one such AMP. The method would be to employ template based studies. A template AMP will be used to look for peptides that have better antimicrobial activity and also is reduced in toxicity by altering amino acid sequence s. In order to elucidate positions of amino acids that are important in antimicrobial activity, a single amino acid in the peptide will be changed, and hence the changes will be studied. Template AMPs that could be used for this would be lactoferrin or magainin. The variety of peptides are designed based on the amphiphilicity and charge of the AMPs and their role in antimicrobial activity. It will be possible to synthesis peptides using a high throughput approach of arrays that is done together with a speedy luminescence assay to portray bactericidal activity. This would lead to us being able to perform a complete substitution method to study the amino acid changes in the desired peptide. Several substitution studies that have been performed have shown that the activity shown by the substituted amino acids differ with regards to the template AMP utilised (Schneider et al., 1995). A linguistic model shall be used to pinpoint patterns in natural peptides (Loose et al., 2006). It is po ssible that the novel peptide that is constructed based on this will show superiority against models that are generated based on the random shuffling of amino acid sequences. Functionally important patterns of amino acids will be found using this linguistic model. In a previous study conducted by Loose et al (2006), 4 out of 40 designed peptides showcased activity against E. coli and B. cereus at an acceptable concentration.

The Ethical View of Utilitarianism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 9

The Ethical View of Utilitarianism - Essay Example Utilitarianism is the ethical view that every action is either right/wrong on the basis of the impact that it will create, more specifically if it will produce the greatest good for the greatest number of people.   Deontology, on the other hand, is the ethical view that at least some actions will be right/wrong regardless of the consequences that they produce. Both theories follow different directs and have their own constraints and thresholds. The constraint of deontologists follows from their view that there may be circumstances in which one would be prohibited from taking an action even though it might trigger greatest amount of human happiness. In Engineer Bill’s case, from deontologist’s point of view, Sarah should be saved even though saving Sarah might mean killing a hundred other people in the train. However a utilitarian would opt for saving the train. (Rainbow) In Janitor Joe’s case unless Joe himself volunteers to give his body parts, it will be ethically wrong to forcefully kill him just to save others. In Engineer Bill’s case both Sarah and train were unexpectedly put under circumstances where Bill is left no other option but to choose. Here in Janitor Joe’s case other options can also be looked into and it makes no sense to impose death on someone even if it is at the cost of so many others. In the case of evil Hobo, Bill must save Sara. This is because Sarah has been deliberately framed into such a situation where she is being catapulted towards death. In this case, while utilitarianism may save the life of many but morally and ethically deontologists perspective holds more weight. The threshold for the deontologist is a limit over the amount of harm that the moral allows him to make while threshold for the utilitarian limits him on the amount of harm he can cause. Every situation is different and sometimes the mo ral action needs to be carefully weighed. In each of the aforementioned situation the context in which a particular ethical action followed was very important.

Assignment for my course International Accounting and Consultancy Essay

Assignment for my course International Accounting and Consultancy. Writer MUST be ON TIME. Writer needs to send me somethinganything on the 13thMarch UK tim - Essay Example The IFRS make the entities achieve this purpose by enabling them to provide segment wise information. However the entities do not incur any excessive cost for such reporting; they are able to make only at a little extra cost. IFRS 8 arises from the IASB's comparison of International Accounting Standard 14 (IAS 14) 'Segment Reporting' with the US standard SFAS 131 'Disclosures about segments of an Enterprise and Related Information'. IFRS 8 replaces IAS 14 and aligns Segment reporting with the requirement of SFAS 131. This paper envisages a critical analysis of the impact and usage of the introduction of IFRS 8 and the extent to which this standard aids in achieving the convergence between national accounting standards and IFRS to deliver high-quality solutions. that files, or is in the process of filing, its (consolidated) financial statements with a securities commission or other regulatory organisation for the purpose of issuing any class of instruments in a public market. However, when both separate and consolidated financial statements for the parent are presented in a single financial report, segment information need be presented only on the basis of the consolidated financial statements. (Deloitte Paper) International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) based in London represented and funded by major accounting firms, industrial companies, financial institutions, central banks and other international and professional organizations throughout the world is committed in developing, in the public interest, a single set of high quality global accounting standards that require transparent and comparable information in general purpose financial statements. According to the IASB Paper on IFRS 8 (2006), the prime objective of the IASB is to achieve the convergence of accounting standards in all the countries around the world. With this objective in view, the IASB and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) in the United States have undertaken a joint short term project with the objective of reducing the difference between the IFRSs and US GAAP that are capable of resolution in a relatively shorter period of time. The other consideration was that the differences to be addressed must be outside the major projects. With a view to adopting high quality financial reporting solutions, both the Boards considered the standards prescribed by them recently and evolved the new standard as the best combination of existing standards. In order to decide on the new IFRS 8 standard the IASB compared the IAS 14 Segment Reporting and SFAS 131 Disclosures about Segments of an Enterprise Related Information. It is worth noting that the IAS 14 was adopted substantially from the earlier standard issued by the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) in the year 1997. Hence the main reason for the issue of a revised standard in IFRS 8 is to increase the convergence of different standards as well as to present the best of the standards available in respect of Segment Reporting. 4.0

Dinner with the Experts :: Personal Narrative Online Dating Essays

Dinner with the Experts Beep. Beep. â€Å"Okay, now what was that timer for?† I said to myself. â€Å"Oh, it’s the steak!† Once the tray was safely on the table, I took off my oven-mitts and crept towards the door to peak in and spy on my guests. The dinner party invitation said to arrive at six o’clock, but I was not surprised to open my door to Ellen and Sherrie at 5:15. They rang the doorbell at least a dozen times in the thirty seconds it took me to get to the door. I found two middle aged women decked out in trendy clothes, the sort a teenager might wear. Ellen had a bright yellow headband on, and Sherrie’s hair was died a fiery red. The kitchen door made a creaking sound as I shut it to return to my cooking, but I was not concerned that they would see me looking in on them. I knew those two would never hear the little noise over their own gabbing. A few weekends ago I saw a segment on online dating on NBC. Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider, who co-authored The Rules For Online Dating, spoke with David and Liz, a couple whom had just started dating thanks to online dating services. Prior to seeing the show, I thought that online dating was ridiculous and only for desperate people. David and Liz though, seemed perfectly normal, and from what I gathered, the online dating scene is quickly gaining popularity (Ellen Fein and†¦). I just did not know what to think about it all. Is online dating a good thing? Is it safe compared to real life? I decided to invite all four of them (Ellen, Sherrie, David, and Liz) over for dinner the next week to talk about online dating and if and how it worked. Even after sending out my invitations though, all I could think about was online dating, and I just could not seem to make up my mind as to whether it was a good idea or not. I spent time researching the topic and I came across two more experts on online dating that I wanted to invite to dinner as well. Both Kelly Starling and Andrea Svoboda seemed to be fairly laid back (judging by their writings) people, so I had decided to invite them to dinner also (even though it was short notice).

Beauty in Architecture

Art has been around for so long that it has become an integral part of a human being's life. A thorough observation of all forms of art speaks of one common significance – art as the so-called â€Å"universal expression of the soul. † The ancient carvings in an Egyptian cave, the soothing melody of a harp, the beautiful words of a poet, and the abstract objects in a painting all define art as timeless, pure, and perfect. But how far can a universal language serve mankind? Can an old fine-tuned guitar or a gold-textured jug stand as a man's ally in his lifetime?It is somewhat ironic to admit to ourselves that we have gotten so used to the notion that the most beautiful will never be the most useful. One form of art though that has stood apart from this irony is architecture. In its most basic explanation, architecture is both a combination of a work of art and science to build and erect buildings. For a builder and designer called the architect, architecture is a monumen tal task. First, because it is an art that speaks of a meaning; and second, because its completion will serve more than man's desire for beautiful things.Architecture stands so unique from the rest of all artistic forms. A building will stand tall and proud for the entire world to see long after the beauty of the most expensive painting loses its appeal for the eyes. Architecture has a dynamic role to play and to sustain. One vivid example of its difference from all arts is a home. Inside a house are walls with paintings in every corner, an elegant piano in the living room being played by well-trained hands, and a long hallway lined with slender China vases about a foot tall.Overtime as the family living inside the house grew up and changed physically and mentally, so are their treatment for all these pieces of art. The hands that once played the piano may later find other interests to pursue, one or two of the vases gets broken into pieces because of carelessness or accidents, and the paintings may one day be moved to another room where no one can eventually look at it. A helpless and unhappy ways for these arts to retire. But not for the house.Children go to school, attend college, and get married but they always come back to the house that have been there since their birth. A few repairs here and there over the years, fresh interior and exterior paints, and an installation of new household technologies may be a part of the family’s growth but the house remains a house. A shelter and a fortress for mankind. It has protected the family from vicious storms and heavy rains, from the terrible heat of summer, from the freezing temperatures of winter. Above all, it has become a symbol of the family’s traditions and cultures.It no longer portrays a spacious neat place where children, parents, relatives, and friends can gather around comfortably. It has grown into something the inhabitants can be proud of because its structures and textures have been t ransformed into a representation of status, wealth, achievements, educational degrees, and even religion. This is only a brief and simple example of the importance of architecture in an ordinary life. Moving on to a broader and global view of the existence of architecture, we find buildings and establishments housing larger groups of people.From the family who lived in the house with occasional visits from friends and relatives, we shifted our eyes towards the cathedral or mosque in the city that symbolizes its flock of followers that goes in and out to worship and pray. There is also the hospital that is structured to accommodate as many sick patients as possible and the palace or mansion that epitomizes the actions and behaviors of a certain type of government and ruler. Bridges made of wood or steel provide a passage for fast and accessible transportation.The St. Basilica of St. Peter in Vatican became the seat of Catholicism in the world. Buckingham Palace symbolizes the royalty as the reigning ruler of Great Britain and the White House the powerful effects of a nation’s unity. The Chrysler Building exemplifies a wealthy businessman’s passion for automotives. Not only does architecture speaks of religion, government, and education, it also evokes feelings. The Great Walls of China was both a protection and defense from enemies in ancient Chinese times.Taj Mahal was a man’s undying profession of love for his wife and The Statue of Liberty was a gift of one nation to another. Architecture is more than an expression of our joys, anguish, rage, victories, and problems. Architecture must follow a strict set of guidelines before expressing man’s varying emotions. Tradition and culture lead the guidelines and principles in erecting and building. A man must design and create in accordance to the period or backdrop a piece belongs. Through architecture, the community and its inhabitants can speak to another generation their beliefs, righ ts, and traditions.When a building, a bridge, or a church has served its function, when we have declared architecture as more lasting than the rest of the arts, and when we have given the establishments too much credit for serving us loyally, we seek and desire for something more from them. As we evolved mentally and emotionally, we develop dissatisfaction for simplicity, plainness, and mediocrity. We use our common senses to start discerning that which is not plain, simple, and mediocre and the greatest tool for this task is our philosophy.And what better way to apply philosophy in architecture than to criticize a structure for its beauty or ugliness. Once we have applied this philosophy, we discover how sad our evolution has become. As our societies change forth into what we call a modernized world, our â€Å"modern† minds would dispose or discard slowly and gradually the old ways and traditions. There is no longer that appreciation for the artistic sides of things. They ha ve been dismissed as impractical, costly, and useless, turning everything we create into mere thresholds of function (McElwee, 1996).With this realization we go back to our dissatisfactions. Plainness and ugliness cannot stay visible forever, we consciously decide. It is no longer enough for a church to be just a place of worship. It has to speak through its design, color, and texture the religion of the people. To build a bridge is not only to nail pieces of woods and steel together and cover them up with solid cement. It has to be shaped in elegance and style. Monuments are not only a plain sculpture of a legend’s bust or body. It could be a palace or a beautiful arched tower. A business establishment is not merely a tall building.Its concept of design could be stemmed from a businessman’s view of a successful life. Even a house or an apartment is not at all roofs on our heads and walls on our sides. It could be an outstanding structure among its surroundings. This i s a tremendous challenge for architecture. It has to serve its basic purpose and function, and at the same time pass the critical judgment of philosophy, in this case, the philosophy of art and beauty called aesthetics. Of course there are always exceptions from the judgments and scrutiny. Poverty and economic instability are one.In modern America, the poorest has to live in dilapidated housings where shelter is the only option to survive the cold and the heat. The lower-class struggle everyday to earn a penny for food and clothing. An idea to build a beautiful and spacious home is too bleak to consider. Some might just dwell under the bridges or lie down on the side of the streets. However, modernization has almost found itself among the groups of the poor. It has created, too, a concept that a structure that serves a role other than functionality is simply preposterous. Style, color, and beauty are not among the plans of the design.They are costly and time-consuming for the owner. Architects are distressingly left with no choice but to build a cheap establishment that takes fewer amounts of time and effort. The concept of architecture has solely described the kind of life a man has with technologies around him. There is no longer a place for art and beauty in a vehicle and mobile revolution. A house or an apartment in this period is no longer designed with curves, arches, and elegance, but with dull straight lines that accommodate enough appliances and technologies the dwellers have in their life.Aesthetics can help our modern minds get back to the original fundamentals of architecture: that beauty is included together with function and structure (Gatto, 2002). There is so much more in architecture than anything found in a painting on a wall, a sculpture of a goddess, a song of an opera, and a rhyme in a poem. But one should never forget that architecture, too, could stand beside these forms of art and be functional and beautiful at the same time. What then are the criteria for beauty? Do we build houses, towers, and bridges the way we paint a picture or write a song?In a way, we do but, along with the history it represents, there are aesthetic values to consider. There has to be art and science in architecture. It is the aesthetic value of a piece of architecture that separates distinctly its function and purpose from the beauty and art in its form. It involves a calculative thinking of a mathematician and an expressive feeling of an artist. Beauty in architecture competes with beauty in nature. While nature has been the most beautiful and timeless piece of art ever created, architecture, too, has a responsibility to play as nature to man.A construction of an object has to make the nature in the background looked more beautiful and appealing. It does not destroy or diminish the surrounding to where it stood. Considering the background was a barren piece of land, the object doesn’t make the whole picture look uglier, boring, and dry. It has to stand out as a distinction from the place, like a garden in a dessert or a lighthouse in a terrible storm. And of course, its beauty has to sustain its purpose. To design and to build is also to preserve its function and appeal.It takes a specialty and an education to criticize a piece of architecture according to its beauty. According to Scruton, as cited in A Weekly Dose of Architecture website (2006), calling a painting or music beautiful is different from calling architecture beautiful. Only the keenest of eyes equipped with aesthetic knowledge can understand architecture’s details of structure, function and beauty. Beautiful for man is what he perceives as pleasurable to his senses. The colors of a painting, the sound of music, and the grace of a ballerina catches the eyes, the ears, and the sensations.It is man’s most basic instinct of his judgment of beauty. That which delights and pleases him is beautiful. That which irritates and disgusts him i s ugly. What makes certain things labeled as the opposite of beauty? A look at the surface of beautiful objects evokes timeless joy and appreciation. But to understand why it has delighted us takes a thorough observation and scrutiny of our eyes and minds. Beauty is an association and combination of the aspects of art – color, structure, shapes, texture, etc.A right combination of colors, a perfect variation of lines and angles, and a precise proportion of each shape constitute a very attractive model of beauty. As mentioned earlier, man’s mentality evolves and changes. Our judgment for beauty deepens together with our intellect. Our feelings towards pieces of architecture vary overtime depending on the type of piece. We may have an understanding tolerance for a house or a store lacking in repairs but we don’t give considerations to a government hall, a church, or a huge commercial building to become less than what they were originally created for.There are cert ain levels of judgment applied to different degrees of art. An architecture that houses, sustains, and encompasses a great number of dwellers requires greater attention and care for beauty and its preservations. Judgment is not only based in evolving intellects and mentality. So, too, can our emotions and beliefs towards certain things affect our taste for beauty. Religious biases, political dissents, racial and intellectual discriminations among other things provide a pre-conceived notion of how we view and react to things and objects.The grandeur of the Vatican may look commanding and dominant for others who see Catholicism as not entirely the perfect religion around. The White House may disgust other countries because of the government’s overbearing tactics in war. Even the handsomely restored Germany may forever be treated with dread and despise by the Jews affected by the nightmares of the holocaust. This is what the great German philosopher Immanuel Kant pointed out (In ternet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2006). Man simply has this idea inside his head about a certain object. Through these ideas he forms his judgment and reactions to it.So when the object has been made visible in front of his eyes, he already discerns it as beautiful or ugly. There is none of the hard work done in a careful assessment and scrutiny of every tiny detail. According to Kant, there are at least four factors to consider in making a judgment of beauty. A man has to experience joy and delight in something he sees as beautiful. The perfect blend of colors in a rainbow makes him smile that is why he calls it beautiful. Our judgment has to agree with almost everyone else, in fact with the whole universe, making the object universal.The object has to have a role to play other than for display and viewing and creation simply has to serve its purpose that it has been designed for. In Kant’s Critique of Judgment, he emphasized the importance of an experience of observing be auty before judgments as to how and why it is called beautiful are being set up. In Christopher Alexander’s Nature of Order, Book 1: The Phenomenon of Life, he pictures the present generation of architecture as lacking in life (Mehaffy, n. d. ). He blamed architects for the sluggish attitude in designing and constructing buildings.Architects have developed a similar attitude with the people, that in a technology-ruled and fast-paced world we lived in, we neglect to put details in architecture that breathes life. According to him, life is the most fundamental foundation of a structure. Life is breathing and moving. Architecture should be based on this and not on the robotic and mechanistic way our technologies convey. In our modern scientific way, the use of art has slowly been diminishing. Before it happens completely, let us bear in mind that without beauty in it is like a lonely statue of a hero standing out in a cold hard rain.The statue has no life and it no longer feels cold or heat. But architecture is an essential part of our life. So its essence and foundation must breathe life. We must take comfort not only for the roof it provides above our heads but also for the pride it makes us feel because of its beauty. Architecture is both a responsibility and a privilege to provide and attract. It has to welcome and not to frighten anyone away. It has to project a remembrance of its existence and not to kill all the memories forever. Even an old uninhabited castle’s haunted feeling depicts the lives of the powerful family who once lived there.But in our time today, the ugly unoccupied building gives us the shivers not because of the memories left there but of the hideous structure of the place. Architecture should never lose its beauty. After all, its ability to be the symbol of both science and art is what sets it apart. A house, a church, a store, a town hall, and a community that is devoid in beauty lack the true essence and purpose of life â €“ creation. If we are indeed too practical, busy, and perhaps too frugal to incorporate art with our dwellings, then we are better off to live in cold hard unshapely caves. Works Cited