Review and critically analyze 2 related articles Essay

Review and critically analyze 2 related articles - Essay Example Interviews were conducted and relevant documents were gathered by the researcher on finding out the school leaders’ role on recognizing, promoting, and utilizing the school immigrants’ diverse cultural backgrounds. The result of the study shows that majority of the school leaders recognize the diversity but does not do well in the promotion and utilization of such. With that, the researcher recommended several action steps on how to increase the promotion and utilization of the foreign immigrants’ diversity and how they can be incorporated into their school programs, both in the academe and in the extra-curricular activities. The second study was entitled â€Å"The Impact of a Multicultural Training Program on Adolescents’ Understanding of Cultural Awareness† (Wynn, Hart, Wilburn, Weaver, Wilburn, n.d.). Its objective was to determine if a particular pro-diversity program had significant impact to its participants. The study used a quantitative approach where it invited a particular group of teen students who will be participants of the program and another group who will not be part of the pro-diversity program. The study aims to find out if the program will have positive impact on the awareness and respect of adolescent teens to people of different backgrounds. Similar survey sheets were filled out by both groups before and after the program. The results were gathered and analyzed. It showed significant increase of diversity awareness to the group who attended the program as compared to the group who were not part of the program. Statistical methods were used to support the significance of the results. Both studies were oriented towards the road to promotion of cultural diversity but the impact of their results differs. The first study, which utilized the qualitative approach, enabled the researcher to conclude that there is a significant need to address the lack of diversity promotion in schools and was able to

Summary of Gender Quality and Race Relations Essay

Summary of Gender Quality and Race Relations - Essay Example nous people, or women start to win significant seats, legislative dynamics transform since newcomers may require scarce political resources that certain class of people controls. For instance, in case of a political party, the incumbents have incentives to limit the newcomers from accessing the resources because they want to protect their personal interests. In turn, the new group is locked out of the legislative process in the sense that they are not fully incorporated. The authors assert that newcomer groups like women are denied full representation via different means. For instance, traditionally dominant group use chamber-level constraints to frustrate the newcomers in the sense that they are challenged to get seats proportionally to their numbers in the house or chamber. Other methods traditional dominant groups use to sideline women in legislature include control over committee assignments where the party leaders decide who fills the seat, legislative experience, party ideology , individual-level and party-level constraint, and structure of the committee system. In this paper, the authors discuss the existence of inequality in Latin America. The authors argue that the traditional question of the discipline regarding the distribution of power and resources still haunts the continent. This is because the question of who gets what and why has never been answered. The authors assert that in Latin American the allocation and distribution of services, goods, and basic opportunities is unequal since some few individual control the resources. The authors have discovered that the inequality that exists in Latin America is a problem created by the continents leaders since top 5% of the Latin American income ladder gets twice the comparable share of their OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) partners while the bottom gets half of what they would in those same countries. In turn, this distributive model has led to marginalization of some

Target Private Label Brand Analysis Essay Example for Free

Target Private Label Brand Analysis Essay In this assignment we analyzed Target’s private labels. Target has both value and premium private brands. Target uses â€Å"Up Up† for its value private label products and â€Å"Archer Farms† for its premium private label food products. The three product categories that we picked are household products, health products, and food products. The first household product that we picked is Target’s Up Up body wash. The Up Up’s Delicate Exfoliating Body Wash is compared to the national brand Dove Exfoliating Body Wash. They both are 24 oz and have the same package size and color. The Up Up is $3.24 whereas Dove is $5.49 which is 69% more expensive than the Up Up body wash. In terms of packing, the Up Up body wash has the same packing as the Dove body wash. They are very identical to each other and have the same shape and color. The Up Up body wash is placed on the upper right shelf where other body wash products are placed. In addition, the private brand is placed on the same shelf, but to the right side of the national brand. Next, we picked Target’s Up Up hand soap. The Up Up’s Moisturizing Hand Soap Aloe Vera is compared to Softsoap Soothing Aloe Vera hand soap. They both are 64 oz, have the same package and color. The Up Up is $3.69 while Softsoap is $4.49 which is 22% is more expensive than Target’s private brand. In terms of packaging, the Up Up hand soap has the same packaging as Softsoap hand soap. They both look the same and have a similar package size, shape and color. The Up Up hand soap is placed on the center bottom shelf and is placed to the right of Dove body wash. From the health products we picked Target’s Up Up Probiotic Dietary Supplement. The Up Up’s Probiotic Dietary Supplement is compared to Align Probiotic Dietary Supplement. They both have 26 tablets 4 week supply. The Up Up tablets costs $16.79 where the Align is $28.89 which is 72% more expensive than the Up Up probiotic tablets. In terms of packaging the Up $ Up Probiotic tablets have the same package size and shape as the Align Probiotic tablets, but the Up Up has a blue packaging color. The Up Up tablets are placed on the bottom right corner of the shelf. The national brand Align is to the left of Target’s private label. From the food products we chose Target’s premium private label Archer Farms. Target only has premium private label for its food products. The Archers Farms’ Organic Skim Milk is compared to Horizon Organic Fat-Free Milk. They both are 1.89 L and have the same package size but have different package color. The Archer Farms’ organic milk is $3.59 whereas the Horizon’s organic milk is $3.99. Here we see that the national brand is only 11% more expensive than the premium private brand. In terms of packaging the Archer Farms’ milk has the same package size and shape to the Horizon’s milk but conveys a premium image. Archer Farms’ milk is placed on the middle shelf and on the center of the shelf for milk products. The national brand Horizon is to the left side of Archer Farms premium private brand.

Religious Experience And Its Kinds Religion Essay

Religious Experience And Its Kinds Religion Essay First of all what is a religion. According to Immanuel Kant Religion is the recognition of all duties as divine commands, not as sanctions, i.e. arbitrary and contingent ordinances of a foreign will, but as essential laws of any free will as such . Another popular definition is by Karl Marx Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopaedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point dhonneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement, and its universal basis of consolation and justification. I can go on and on, there are countless definitions of religion. My personal definition of religion is that it is a state of mind in which an individual feels a need to be subject to a superior being, and therefore makes these beliefs as a way of his or her everyday life. They are several types of religion Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hindu, Buddhism, etc. But the major types of religion are Christianity and Islam. Every religion is believed to have p eople who have had a spiritual or religious experience. All these religions have some popular figures that have had an encounter with a supernatural being and have told the story of this encounter which has turned their lifes around for the better. They believe that this experience is scared, For example they are other popular examples of these experiences, in islam the Great Prophet Muhammad was said to be in a cave on Jabal al-Nour, when he received his first revelation from Allah (Quran 96). Arjuna was in a chariot on a battlefield, when Krishna revealed his divinity to him. Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, was bathing in a river when he was taken into the presence of God, and shown that there was one divine reality behind the cosmos (Guru Granth Sahib p.1). This examples show that religious experiences are very scared in religion, and play a very important role in a religious individuals everyday life. There are different ways to look at religious experiences; we can look at its universality, Diversity and its importance to religion. Universality: Its is a universal phenomenon, which is anyone at any point in time could experience, for example in the bible when Moses was out tending to his father-in-laws sheep, when he suddenly saw a burning bush from which God spoke to him (Exodus 3:1-4), he had his experience while tending to animals, which shows it could happen at any point in time in our everyday lives. From research and studies its been proved that spiritual or religious experiences has always been in our society. Diversity: There are different types of religious experiences; just the same way there are different types of people and different types of religion, but at the same time they are also some similarities which makes religious experiences very unique and rare in our society. Importance: To religion, religious experience is has so many importance, it is sometimes a life changing experience for example in the bible when Saul was on his way to Damascus to arrest the Christians, Jesus appeared to him in form of a bright light which blinded him for 3 days (Acts (9:1-11). After the experience he changed his name to Paul and joined the Christian community. Apart from being a life changer , religious experiences also alters a persons mentality, the way he or she views life, fellow human beings and the environment. During my research I saw that there could be two versions of religious experiences namely the weak version and the strong version; in 1896 William James in his The Will to Believe describes the versions as the strong version contends that religious experiences are evidence for the existence of God or other supernatural beings for everyone, whereas the weak version holds that they are only evidence for such things for the experiencer. According to my class note there are different kinds of religious experience which are namely regenerative, charismatic, and mystical. Regenerative religious: is one in which the experiencer undergoes a life transformation a conversion. Elsewhere this kind of experience is expressed as experiencing religion, experiencing salvation, or being delivered from evil. Through such experiences, individuals often find their lives to be changed, filled with meaning and newness, and full of love, joy, and hope. Along with conversion and salvation, another facet of the regenerative experience is moral transformation. In this case, prior to the experience, the individual may feel a sense of sin, guilt, or the inability to do what he or she knows to be morally appropriate. Upon having the regenerative religious experience, she senses that sin and guilt have been removed and a new vision of goodness is seen and sought after; a new or renewed emphasis on moral duties ensues in ones life. Such example of such an experience could be found in the bible when Moses was out tending to his father-in-laws sheep, when he suddenly saw a bur ning bush from which God spoke to him (Exodus 3:1-4). This experience of the burning bush (conversation we God) changed his life and made him the man we all know him as. Charismatic experience: This is a type of experience in which special abilities, gifts, or blessings are manifested. Prophecy, divinely inspired revelation or interpretation. Although prophecy is perhaps most commonly associated with Judaism and Christianity, it is found throughout the religions of the world, both ancient and modern. In its narrower sense, the term prophet (Greek: prophutus, interpreter, expounder [of divine will]) refers to an inspired person who believes that he has been sent by his god with a message to tell. In a broader sense, the word can refer to anybody who utters the will of a deity, often ascertained through visions, dreams, or the casting of lots; the will of the deity also may be spoken in a liturgical setting. The nature of prophecy is twofold: either inspired (by visions or revelatory auditions) or acquired (by learning certain techniques). In many cases both aspects are present. The goal of learning certain prophetic techniques is to reach an ecstatic state in which revelations can be received. That state might be reached through the use of music, dancing, drums, violent bodily movement, and self-laceration. The ecstatic prophet is regarded as being filled with the divine spirit, and in this state the deity speaks through him. Ecstatic oracles, therefore, are generally delivered by the prophet in the first-person singular pronoun and are spoken in a short, rhythmic style. Mystical experience: which, as described by James, includes four distinct characteristics: 1) Ineffability: the experience cannot be adequately described, if at all. 2) Noetic quality: the experiencer believes that she has learned something important from the experience. 3) Transiency: the experience is temporary and the experiencer soon returns to a normal state of mind. 4) Passivity: the experience occurs without conscious decision or control and it cannot be brought to happen at will. Some people claim to have experienced God in such an intense way, that they have literally been in the presence of God. Some people also believe they have become one with God at certain times. People who claim to have such experiences are often called Mystics. It is common for Mystics to use a variety of spiritual techniques, such as meditation, to come into the presence of God in this special way. Mystical experiences take different forms, but a common theme among many of them is identity or union with God in Western religion, or with Absolute Reality Brahman or nirvana or the dao in Eastern religion. A description of a mystical experience within the Advaita VedÄ nta school of Hinduism is given by Shankara. In my research I found more kinds of religious experience, first. Numinous: The German thinker Rudolf Otto (1869-1937) argues that there is one common factor to all religious experience, independent of the cultural background. In his book The Idea of the Holy (1923) he identifies this factor as the numinous. According to him the numinous has two aspects namely mysterium tremendum he explains this as having the tendency to put fear into the host, and the second is mysterium fascinas this has the opposite, which is the tendency to fascinate and attract. The numinous experience is said to describe the feeling that God is very different and superior to us. Rudolf Otto sees the numinous as the only kind religious experience. He states: There is no religion in which it [the numinous] does not live as the real innermost core and without it no religion would be worthy of the name (Otto: 1972) Miracles: This is usually said to happen when God acts in a special way in the world, which go against the laws of nature. In the bible Jesus the son of God exhibited lots of miracle; the bible says miracles could happen through any medium. And the bible also says that God works in mysterious ways. So therefore miracles as far as religion is consigned are very significant especially in Christianity. Ecstasy: this is the kind of experience where by the experiencers spirit lives the body, to go and communicate with the higher beings. This kind of religious experience is very similar to that which a shaman experiences. Enthusiasm: This the kind of experience whereby a scared power or being enters into the body or mind of a person and uses the body to manifest supernatural features such as miracles, etc and also uses the person to communicate its message to the world. The person who is used is called a medium. This kind of religious experience reminds me of the term we used in class Avatara the similarity is that the being enters in to a human body. Now lets look at how the science worldviews and translates religious experiences, according to in class video shown by my instructor science has explains religious experience as an epilepsy of the temporal lobe which causes the host to enter a trance and could make him or her believe that they just had an encounter with a supernatural being. It also showed that electronic devices could also cause an individual with a sensitive brain to hallucinate making them see and believe in things that are not actually there. According to the neurotheologist Andrew B. Newberg, neurological processes which are driven by the repetitive, rhythmic stimulation which is typical of human ritual, and which contributes to the delivery of transcendental feelings of connection to a universal unity. However, that physical stimulation alone is not sufficient to generate transcendental unitive experiences. For this to occur they say there must be a blending of the rhythmic stimulation with ideas. Once this occ urs à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ritual turns a meaningful idea into a visceral experience. Moreover they say that humans are compelled to act out myths by the biological operations of the brain due to what they call the inbuilt tendency of the brain to turn thoughts into actions. The scientists have been able to also show that religion and its beliefs are natural, that man always feels the need to believe in something, a higher and superior being. So therefore science explains religious experiences in another way and gives us all another point of view. In conclusion Religion experience from my point of view and experience is that they are real, they are actually cases where a being has manifested itself to a human being and also there cases where people have lied about these experiences, which has also put doubt the minds of some people that religious experiences do not exist, but because of my beliefs as a practicing Christian i believe that God could communicate with human beings thru different mediums. Work Citied. http://www.thatreligiousstudieswebsite.com/Religious_Studies/Phil_of_Rel/God/religious_experience_intro.php http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_experience http://atheism.about.com/od/argumentsforgod/a/religexperience.htm The Holy Bible (Authorized King James Version) Comparative religion slides

John Steinbeck :: essays research papers

John Steinbeck was born in February 27, 1902 in Salinas, California. Salinas was an agricultural valley in California. His father was the county treasurer and his mother was a schoolteacher. This is where his education began from a mother that encouraged him to read. The community was a comfortable environment for him to live in because of the encouragement of independence and initiative. His parents didn’t want him to be a writer. They wanted him to have a true profession as a lawyer. His early interest in reading led him through school, with his main interest in science. At age 15 he decided to become a writer, influenced by an English teacher, and faintly remembered by schoolmates for spending so much time in his room writing. After graduating from high school, he went to Stanford University in 1920. While he was there for five he contributed to the school paper by writing poems and comics. He took courses in science and writing, but never received a degree. In 1925, when h e left Stanford, he became a marine biologist. He moved to New York in 1925 to work as a reporter for a newspaper. Always being a non-conformist, he was fired from the newspaper for writing opinions instead of facts. This started the many jobs he would be a part of in his lifetime. Some of these jobs include an apprentice hod carrier, an apprentice printer, a working chemist, caretaker of Lake Tahoe Estate, surveyor in Big Sur County, and a fruit picker. He also worked other more physically labored jobs, such as a rancher, road worker, deck hand, cotton picker, and bricklayer. While involved in these jobs, he made many close friends that he came to admire because of their "cant and hypocrisy" which he applauded and whom all of these people soon were characters in his novels. Many of these experiences were the "helpers" to his many novels. His fruit picking and Great Depression led him to write The Grapes of Wrath, his best known and most ambitious of his works. A lso, he wrote Of Mice and Men, which was formed from his job as a hired hand on the many farms he worked. Many things affected his writing of the time period of which he wrote. Things like the Great Depression, World War 2, and the Vietnam War are the major influences. World War 2 was when he was working for the federal government as a writer, so his works focused on greed and materialism in the beings of modern civilization, Cannery Row and The Wayward Bus are two good examples of this idea.

Guilt in Macbeth Essay -- Macbeth essays

Guilt in Macbeth      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There is a large burden of guilt carried by Lady Macbeth and Macbeth in Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth. Let's look at this situation closely in the following essay.    Fanny Kemble in "Lady Macbeth" asserts that Lady Macbeth was unconscious of her guilt, which nevertheless killed her:    A very able article, published some years ago in the National Review, on the character of Lady Macbeth, insists much upon an opinion that she died of remorse, as some palliation of her crimes, and mitigation of our detestation of them. That she died of wickedness would be, I think, a juster verdict. Remorse is consciousness of guilt . . . and that I think Lady Macbeth never had; though the unrecognized pressure of her great guilt killed her. (116-17)    In "Memoranda: Remarks on the Character of Lady Macbeth," Sarah Siddons mentions the guilt and ambition of Lady Macbeth and their effect:    [Re "I have given suck" (1.7.54ff.)] Even here, horrific as she is, she shews herself made by ambition, but not by nature, a perfectly savage creature. The very use of such a tender allusion in the midst of her dreadful language, persuades one unequivocally that she has really felt the maternal yearnings of a mother towards her babe, and that she considered this action the most enormous that ever required the strength of human nerves for its perpetration. Her language to Macbeth is the most potently eloquent that guilt could use.   (56)    Clark and Wright in their Introduction to The Complete Works of William Shakespeare explain how guilt impacts Lady Macbeth:    Having sustained her weaker husband, her own strength gives way; and in sleep, when her will cannot control her thoughts, she is ... ...1957.    Frye, Northrop. Fools of Time: Studies in Shakespearean Tragedy. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 1967.    Kemble, Fanny. "Lady Macbeth." Macmillan's Magazine, 17 (February 1868), p. 354-61. Rpt. in Women Reading Shakespeare 1660-1900. Ann Thompson and Sasha Roberts, eds. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1997.    Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. http://chemicool.com/Shakespeare/macbeth/full.html, no lin.    Siddons, Sarah. "Memoranda: Remarks on the Character of Lady Macbeth." The Life of Mrs. Siddons. Thomas Campbell. London: Effingham Wilson, 1834. Rpt. in Women Reading Shakespeare 1660-1900. Ann Thompson and Sasha Roberts, eds. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1997.    Wilson, H. S. On the Design of Shakespearean Tragedy. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 1957.

Ratatouille Sound Film Analysis Essay

In all types of film, especially with animation, the images that are created on screen visually engage the audience to the world of the film, yet in order to fully experience all that the film has to offer, the visual aspects are only half of the importance. Sound design makes up that other half of the cinematic experience, and engages senses other than the visual in order to immerse the audience into the film. In Brad Bird’s animated film Ratatouille (2007), sound designer Randy Thom creates a rich sonic world for a film that’s plot is based around a rat who experiences the same senses that humans do. Since a rat usually seems to have no similarities to humans, Thom makes sure to use sound to emphasize Remy and how in his perspective, he is able to relate to the humans, but in the human’s perspective, Remy is still just a rat. Thom’s use of sound in animated film is unique and allows the spectator through the correct use of sound, the ability to perceive the Remy’s exceptional senses of smell and taste, which is are the two most key aspects of cooking in real life and in the film. The sound design combined with the incredible animation of Ratatouille (2007) allows the audience to sensually experience the film as if they were right there in the chaotic kitchen, and feel the authenticity of the location in the culinary capital of the world, Paris. In animated film, especially with Disney and Pixar films, characters that’s are animals are often given human-like features and abilities. In Ratatouille (2007), Remy the rat has the incredible senses of smell and taste, which allow him to fulfill his dream of becoming a chef. This is an idea that is quite contradictory to real life, so director Brad Bird and sound designer Randy Thom do an amazing job of balancing it out by making Remy seem more human like in his perspective, and more like a rat in the human’s perspective. For example, when introduced to Remy, he is the narrator, and we hear is voice as a non-diegetic sound, which allows us to think we are in the mind of Remy. His voice is a man’s voice, and we can assume that he has the full capacity of understanding everything just as a human would. While speaking amongst other rats, the sounds he makes are very similar to that of a human, and he even stands on two feet like one. Yet when we are seeing Remy in the kitchen, and see him  just as one of the people on the kitchen would, the sounds change. The â€Å"pitter-patter† sound of his tiny rat feet is heightened in volume, and each footstep is clearer than before. This emphasis on his footsteps reminds the viewer that while in Remy’s mind he sounds and thinks like a human would, through the perspective of a human in the film, he is still just a scurrying rat. Another example is when Alfredo Linguini is ordered to dispose of the rat, we see Remy and Linguini’s first interaction alone and without any other humans to judge Remy’s ability to understand humans. Through Linguini’s perspective, Remy can hear and understand what he is saying, but he cannot respond with words, only with nods, squeaks, quivering whiskers, and quiet sniffles. These diegetic sounds can be heard clearly even though they are soft and dainty, just like the footsteps. The sniffles are especially important because they represent Remy’s heightened senses, which become an entirely different aspect of the film that is given meaning through sound. In the world of cuisine and cooking, the two senses most frequently used and appreciated are smell a nd taste. The combination of the two can create amazing culinary experiences, and make a meal more than just eating, but a complete sensual experience. One of Thom’s main goals throughout the film was to manipulate pitch, volume, and timbre in order to give the characters their own senses that can reflect from the screen to the audience where they can feel as if they are experiencing the same scents and tastes that Remy is. Just as discussed before, when oberserving Remy in his element of cooking and creating delicious food combinations, the sounds he makes are not only louder and more amplified, but clearer. For example, in the opening scenes of the film, Remy is trying to find food that is good enough quality for his senses unlike the rest of his rat companions who will seem to eat anything that is not covered in poison. He stumbles upon a piece of cheese, and his attention is immediately focused on the smell. His nose become such an iconic symbol in the film, and the sniffing of foods is so well-defined that the audience is able to imagine exactly what that piece of cheese smells like. Since smell has sounds that can be or iented with the nose and sniffling, its is less complicated than trying to portray taste, which has little sound affect since it is completely individual and unique to each person. In order to get the audience to be able to feel the experience of what Remy tastes, director Brad Bird hired artist Michael  Gagne as the Taste Visualization Designer to create a series of animated vignettes that would accompany sound as Remy tastes certain foods. The visuals he created displayed colorful animated graphics for the taste of cheese and strawberry, and then a mixture of the two tastes. The visuals work very well with the two foods, but can only do so much when it comes to stimulating the audience’s senses. The rest of the work comes to Randy Thom and the rest of his sound design team to create sounds that will perfectly accompany the graphics to create a complete sense of taste. Thom uses different segments of music that seems to work perfectly with each food. When Remy takes the bite of cheese, smooth, creamy-like music plays, yet with the strawberry a louder more vivacious tune is heard. Then as Remy takes a bite of each at the same time, a firework of sounds occurs to compare to Remy’s taste bud explosion. This blend of graphics and music creates a sensual experience that leave the audience imagining exactly what Remy tastes. When thinking of Paris, France, common words to come to most minds are fancy, sophisticated, and romantic. Since these words are such a huge part of the vibe of the city, Randy Thom wanted to make sure that the sounds of the film really gave the audience the authenticity of the setting, and reflect the character of Paris. Aside from authentic French accents in many of the main character’s voices, especially the chef’s, Thom incorporates orchestrated music that would be heard in the city, and even background mumbling of actual French speaking people. In the background of most parts of the restaurant, Thom had murmurings of people actually speaking French and having real conversation to make the background noise more authentic to the setting. Along with the setting of the film, most fancy five-star restaurants the vibe most guests want to feel is calm and sophisticated. This is the opposite of what is usually going on behind the scenes in the restaurant’s kitchen. The kitchen is where the magic happens, and where the culinary art form comes to life. The tools that create the food are just as important as the ingredients, and the act of cooking requires many tools and utensils. In the film, Thom really emphasizes the sounds of these utensils, which makes the cooking easy to accept as real since the sounds are so accurate to a real life kitchen. The clinking of pots and pans is especially noticeable in the kitchen, and the pitch is a lot higher than other noises in the kitchen. The pots, pans, and utensils  are such an impo rtant part of the kitchen, and allow the spectator to relate to the sounds by noticing how many different meals are cooked at once in the kitchen. In an interview with Randy Thom, he explains that almost all of the sounds from the kitchen were composed from scratch by his design team and were individually created by recording the real life actions in the kitchen and putting them into the animation. Another aspect of the kitchen that seems to be especially emphasized through sound is the blending of foods, especially liquids. Thom differentiates between the sound effects of a pot of just plain water and a pot of creamy soup. The pot of water, when Remy falls into it, the sound is at first a loud splash, and then a very clear and fluid underwater noise. Yet when Remy is cooking his own special soup, he puts together multiple ingredients, dropping them into the boiling pot of broth. The sound of dense objects hitting the soup is so accurate and sounds more like a â€Å"plop† rather than a splash. While the sound of mixed ingredients may seem insignificant to the films overall affect, these sounds allow the audience to under stand the consistency of the food and imagine the texture that goes with it. Once again, the senses are being put to use without even noticing it, which Thom really put effort into doing with this film since the whole plot is based around food. In an interview with Randy Thom, he explained that while most people assume that image is created and then sound is later added to spruce it up, he finds that to be a myth worth busting. He feels that sound is just as important of a component as image, and if anything adds more life to the film than image does. Sound allows the audience to relate to the sounds they hear in the film to the sounds they hear in real life. These connections make it easier for the spectator to understand the emotions and themes being laid out and therefore they can better understand the film as a whole. With a film such as Ratatouille (2007), it seems difficult for the audience to relate to a rat who can cook, so Brad Bird and Randy Thom worked together to create a masterpiece that can continue to display the incredible animation yet through sound allow the audience to relate to not just the emotions, but the senses from the film. Through creative construction and extremely close attention to detail, the sound design of Ratatouille (2007) will leave viewers in a rich experience that will literally leave their mouths watering. Annotated Bibliography Barsam, Richard, and Dave Monahan. Looking at Movies; an Introduction to Film. Third Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2010. 368-407. Print. Barsam and Monahan cover all aspects of the world of sound design from the purpose of sound in film to how it is created, and to how it affects the audience. When spectators are experiencing a film, if engaged properly, they use both senses of hearing and vision to perceive what is happening on the screen. Without one or the other, the film lacks proper perception from the audience, which is the whole point of the film. Barsam and Monahan spend a great amount of effort explaining the basic concept of sound in film, and analyze the different characteristics that audio has. Sound is an especially complex field because it decorates the images on screen, and heightens the experience visually through audio. The process of sound design consists of carefully choosing and recording sounds, editing those sounds, and then masterfully mixing them so that they can perfectly synchronize with what is visually seen on the screen. The main types of sound that the audience will experience during a film are vocal sounds and dialogue, sounds from the environment and world of the film (also known as diegetic sounds), music, and silence, which is actually the lack of sound yet still adds so much meaning and emotion to an on screen image. Sound in film intensifies the image and in most cases allows the audience to relate to the world of the film and be aware of both space and time within the means of the world of the film. Simple alterations in sounds from the pitch, amplitude, or volume of the noise can completely change or alter the audience’s perception of what is happening in the film. By the end of Barsam and Monahan’s chapter about sound design, the reader can understand most all aspects of sound in film, and how each characteristic is taken into account when being put into a film in order to fully allow the spectator to experience the film both on a visual and audible level. Sider, Larry. â€Å"If you wish to see, listen; The role of sound design.† Journal of Media Practice 4.1 (2003): 5-15. Through in depth analysis and argument, Sider creates an article that  explains the great importance of sound in film, and how when combined with visual elements, allows the spectator to fully engage and understand the film on a deeper level than just watching a screen. Sider explains how the industry, technology, and use of sound in film had changed from when the â€Å"sound designer† was created in the 1960’s by Walter Murch. Back then, sound was simply an added affect to film, whereas now sound completely creates another dimension to cinema. Sound and music make the image on screen multi-faceted and add not only emotion, but completely changes the picture just by adding an audio. On the other side of sound design, Sider shows the difficulties with creating sound in film. The sound designer not only has to know and understand the sounds in which we all hear, but they must completely understand the sounds from the world of the film they are working on. Knowing every diegetic and non-diegetic sound of the film’s story is complex yet engages the spectator more than they will ever realize. The job of the sound designer is not just to control and input dialogue into a film, but control and create every sound effect and somehow integrate it into the life of the film, not the other way around. Sider effectively explains how complex the job of a sound designer has become, and how their work engages the viewer on a new level, and gives the image life. Thom, Randy. Interviewed by Jake Riehle. â€Å"Ratatouille-Exclusive Interview with Sound Designer Randy Thom†. Designing Sound; Art and Technique of Sound Design. 26 June 2007. Web. 2011. Sound editor and mixer Jake Reihle interviews the well known sound designer Randy Thom to learn about his recent work on the animated film, Ratatouille (2007). Thom specializes in sound design within animated films, and in recent years won the Academy Award for best sound editing in the Pixar animated film The Incredibles(2004). Riehle asks Thom what aspects of sound design in animated film differ from live-action films, and the heightened amount of detail to sound is what Thom described as a main difference. In Ratatouille (2007) specifically, there are so many details within the sounds that all together create a different affect than expected. For example, when the wind is blowing through the underground sewer pipes, each wind sound is different, but together the sounds created a musical essence that worked extremely well with the mood of Ratatouille himself, and gave life to the rigid and cold  nature of the underground world that the rats live in. Another major difference between animated sound and live on-screen sound is the pace and rate at which Thom does his work. In the early stages of work, he notices that animated films tend to lack music and sound effects and focus more upon dialogue to set up the story, but Thom likes to make space to add music in a useful way in which the effects and music add to the dialogue, not take away from the dialogue. Reihle also goes into the stages in which Thom likes to mix and edit his sound effects, and how the budgeting of animated films differs from live action films. An interesting fact, Thom began his career at Skywalker Sound by writing a personal essay to Walker Murch, the man who is said to have invented the â€Å"sound designer†. Reihle’s interview with the sound designer Randy Thom gives very useful information on comparing and analyzing the differences of sound design within animated films and live-action films. Thom, Randy. â€Å"Designing A Movie For Sound†. Learning Space Dedicated to the Art and Analyses of Film Sound Design. 1999. Web. 2011 Academy Award winning sound designer Randy Thom provides readers with an article about the subject he knows best, sound in film. He defines exactly what sound design is, describes what it really is that he does, and crushes myths and ideas that many people have about film sound designers. Thom argues that what most people think passes as â€Å"great sound† in film is loud, boisterous noises, which is definitely not always, and rarely true through the opinion of a sound designer. Thom believes that truly great sounds in film are well orchestrated and are integrated into the film as a whole, rather than just into specific scenes and moments during the film. This creates a better sense of continuity and fluidity within the sounds of the film. Thom feels that rather than create a film and then hire a talented team to fabricate certain sounds, the film should be designed and created with the sounds in mind. The story, images and sound should be created and built simultaneously so that the sound contributions can affect the other aspects of the film and add even more continuity. Every aspect of film, even the cinematography, affects how sound works, and its purpose. From extreme close-ups to dutch angles and moving cameras, sound has a different role in every shot, whether it is music, dialogue, background noise, or even  silence. The author also describes in detail each step of how sound designers, composers, and sound editors go about creating their work within each stage of the production process including pre-production and post-production. Randy Thom is an extremely well-known film sound designer, and his personal insight into the world of sound design is eye opening and fresh. He explains the ideas of sound in film on both a basic and deep level while questioning many ideas and myths that are believed about the sound design world today.