Examine the use of animal imagery in modern short stories and their Essay

Examine the use of animal imagery in modern short stories and their symbolic significance - Essay Example In addition, the degree to which a character is related to the animal in question may have some impact on the characteristics that are brought out in each. A nanny closely related to a busy parakeet might cause both woman and animal to take on stronger characteristics of nagging and cleanliness, for instance. A man closely related with his bulldog might also seem to be watchful, noisy and largely for show. What is interesting about this use of animal imagery in stories is the way in which this relationship develops to bring out specific characteristics in both animal and character. Two stories that provide a great deal of insight into this relationship are Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis and Larissa Lai’s Salt Fish Girl. Although the story takes up less than 100 pages, Franz Kafka’s story Metamorphosis lends itself to a wide variety of interpretations as it uses the image of the cockroach to emphasize attributes of its main character. From its small size to a brief summary of its events, there doesn’t seem to be all that much to the story itself upon first glance. The story follows the experiences of Gregor Samsa after he wakes up one morning to find himself turned into a giant bug in his own bed. As he reveals himself to his family and his employer, it becomes obvious that this change is not meant to be a figurative change on the part of the author, but is also a physical change. Although the family continues to care for him, providing him with food and water and cleaning his room once a day, Gregor becomes more and more detached from them, eventually finding it difficult to keep track of what has been happening around him. His room becomes dirtier, his family becomes less attentive a nd he becomes less concerned with their welfare in connection with his own. As his sister and mother move his personal furniture out of his

Designs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Designs - Essay Example Giles Colborne uses the design of small and commonly used gadgets to explain how simplicity can be used in the design. The example of the bicycle design seemed exciting to me. At first, I thought that any new design of a bicycle, whether simple or complex, should include the gearing system; Giles challenged me when he said that a design of a bicycle can be made simple by removing the gearing system and the front wheel. My excitement was lowered when he said that the design might be simple to the one designing bicycle but complex and difficult to the one using it (Colborne, 2010). His example of design made me learn that I should consider the user anytime I choose to use simplicity in any design. In his explanation on how to use the simplicity he employs four designs of a remote control; these four designs make use of organizing, removing, hiding or displacing strategy. Looking at the four designs, I was fascinated by designs which used organizing, removing and displacing strategies. The organizing strategy is a strategy everyone employs at least once a day; we use it every day to make what we have usable, therefore, this strategy is familiar to everyone. The strategy of organizing does not need extra costs because it uses what is already available (Colborne, 2010); therefore, it is low on costs. In addition, since the components of the gadget have only been rearranged, the user will not have difficulties adjusting to the new design; he or she will only need to master the new positions of the components which are placed in positions that are convenient to the user. The design that uses the strategy of removing is also interesting, there are some things which might not be useful to the user and just as we get rid of things we do not need from our houses, we can also get rid of the components that are no longer useful in a gadget. This design is challenging because of its counterintuitive nature (Colborne, 2010). However, it is quite effective in terms of cost as it does not require extra materials. This design works with different applications; it has been used in designing of products, websites, as well as mobile applications. This design is also user-friendly; the user is not going to have too many components on the gadget, which are not important for the use of the gadget. The design that uses displacing is intriguing; the user does not need to operate all the components using the remote control, some components can be displaced from the remote control to the television screen (Colborne, 2010). With this design, the user has a remote control that is more easy to use because most times the user will be scrolling down the menu and stop worrying of what each button on the remote control means. I realized that this design has been applied in designing the radio changer; the button for selecting whether to play music using CD, FM radio, AUX or USB is only one, and the user scrolls down the menu on the screen to find his or her choice at the m oment. This design makes the user feel as part of the system, and this helps him or her to know the operation of the system, and gives the user satisfaction while operating the gadget. Question 2 Isaacson in his book titled as â€Å"Steve Jobs† presents the biography of a computer revolutionist Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs’ life history is like a summary of good designs in the digital world; it describes the designs pioneered by Steve Jobs and their success, which led to the change of people’s lives and the way they do things. Through Apple, a company he headed, he was able to come up with designs such as Macintosh operating software, ipad, iPod, and iphone; with these designs the world was able to do things in a different way (Isaackson, 2011). Among his designs, iPad, iPod