Friday, September 6, 2019
Girl Scout Essay Example for Free
Girl Scout Essay Juliette Gordon Low or Daisy was the founder of Girl Scouts, with the help of Sir Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Boy Scouts of America. Baden-Powell had learned that girls wanted to join the scouts, but he was too busy with running the Boy Scouts. He asked Low if she would like to be part of the Girl Guides movement, forming the first group of Girl Guides in Scotland in 1911. In 1912 Low returned to the United States, forming a group in Savannah, Georgia in 1912. In 1915, the Girl Guides became the Girl Scouts and Low became the first president. She stayed active until the time of her death. Her birthday, October 31, is celebrated by the Girl Scouts as Founders Day. Robert Baden-Powell Low was lived in Scotland when she met Sir Robert Baden-Powell at a party, where Low entertained him with stories of travel.[1] Upon further conversation, they learned that they shared a love of sculpting; Low had sculpted members of her family, including her father and one of her cousins.[1] Baden-Powell had started the Boy Scout movement, with a growing membership of boys throughout Great Britain, the United States, France, and Germany.[1] ] Girl Guides Baden-Powellââ¬â¢s sister Agnes had created a group for girls called Girl Guides.[1]:26 Low was interested in this movement, and created a troop in 1911 in Scotland.[1]:26 She taught them many of the skills she had learned from her grandmother, including first aid and cooking.[1]:28 On a trip back to the United States, both Low and Baden-Powell discussed the possibility of creating a Girl Guides group.[1]:28 Upon her return to her home in Savannah, she telephoned her cousin and urged her to rush over, announcing Iââ¬â¢ve got something for the girls of Savannah, and all America, and all the world, weââ¬â¢re going to start it tonight![1]
Kraft Foods Essay Example for Free
Kraft Foods Essay They offer delicious foods and beverages for every lifestyle on the go. While exploring the website of Kraft seems to define their product mix as foods that are geared more towards the people on the go. I would define their product mix as health/wellness foods, quick fix meals, snacks and beverages as well as offering a Premium line of foods. In their health/wellness foods they offer products in a ââ¬Å"lightâ⬠form such as things like Philadelphia light cream cheese and reduce fat cookies. For meals on the go or quick fix meals Kraft have designed meals like the Kraft Mac Cheese Cups, frozen meals and sandwich kits. They offer a wide variety of snack foods including everyoneââ¬â¢s favorite cookie Oreoââ¬â¢s and Splendips. The Premium line that Kraft offers includes foods like DiGornio Pizza and Oscar Myer bacon. Kraft offers 8 product lines with over 50 different brands. Kraftââ¬â¢s product mix is the offering of their premium foods, such as DiGornao Ultimate Pizza which is made as a higher quality pizza then the standard. Tombstone Mexican Style Pizza is offered as a convenience food as a favorite food of teenage boys. It was designed for the ease of cooking a easy, quick, healthy meal. Tang is real fruit goodness of oranges. Everyone will surely love its sweet, refreshing flavor plus the added nutrition it gives. It is also instant drink mix offering the convenience food again. South Beach Diet foods are part of their healthy yet, convenience foods. The line offers alternatives to other popular diet fads. South Beach Diet foods play on wholegrain and the correct or right fats like canola oil and olive oil. In this line they also offer bars for a fast way to fill a craving during the day.
Thursday, September 5, 2019
Causes and effects of fluctuation in oil price
Causes and effects of fluctuation in oil price This report discusses about the most essential energy resource and the core in economics that is oil. Since it is now used in a variety of ways to operate any machines for everyday life especially automobiles, its needs and wants has been grown rapidly. However, such unsustainable and finite amount of oil now does tremendous matters to global economics. When it was not fully used for running machines, people in history used for constructions and medicines. However, with its discovery of many usable ways such as lighting, the wants of oil has been rocketed. After many years have been used oil for running machines and other fields, economists found that oil price is actually affected by some crucial reasons and events occurred. Following this, it explains with examples about how such natural disasters, wars, recession, and oil crisis can cause the oil price changed. Also, it talks about effects as what would happen to politics and economics after the fluctuation in oil price. Since the re is high in demand of oil and limited supply, the price of oil is very high. Also, environmentalists claim that even it has replaced coal successfully in running machines and automobiles, it still emissions harmful pollutant to nature. Therefore, many researchers have been made a research for an alternative energy source to oil. Actually, there are many renewable energy sources found to use as alternative energy to oil after it is depleted, but it still has to study more on it due to new technology required to be usable. Hence, there are many arguments about whether we should keep oil as main energy source or change it to new energy source to lessen the current oil price and care about remaining amount of crude oil even it costs a lot. We infer that the oil price fluctuation can make significant changes economically, socially, and politically. We also think that searching for alternative energy sources can help the environment and maintain more stable economy. 1.0 Introduction The oil, which is used for everyday life, is just as important as water and air. Oil is used not only for running automobiles and producing electricity but also producing plastics, clothes, and electrical goods as well. Thus, we could say oil is a fundamental material to produce goods we need in everyday life. This research paper will mainly discuss oil and recognize how the money in exchange for oil, in other words, the oil money affects global economy. Also, we will see how other economists think about viable alternatives to oil in future. 2.0 History of Oil use Oil has been known as one of the most significant and essential energy sources used and progressed for numerous purposes since thousands of years. Despite modern major oil use is to run automobiles such as cars, buses, trucks, and ships, ancient people used in many other ways. According to history, ancient people used pure oil not only as a material for binding materials and as a sealant for waterproofing various surfaces but also as worked materials to pave asphalt on walls and roads. With its numerous effects has brought economic growth, the world started to recognize the importance of oil use. It was also discovered that the Chinese were the first knew the importance use of oil and to discover underground oil and drew from the wells in order to use for lighting around 500 B.C. Ever since that time many countries has begun to find oil wells around the world due to the important roles for the use of oil (BERA The Oil Gas Industry). Moreover, oil development has been quite active s ince long time ago. For example, Poland was the first country in the world trade the oil that was in 1853, and then comes Romania in 1857. In North America, the first commercial was in 1858. In 1959 Titusville was very famous for its oil well production of twenty five barrels a day. The U.S started to produce millions and millions of barrels during the past 50 years after the first production. For example; 2000 barrels in 1859 after 40 years 57 million barrels were produced in a year and still increasing until now. (Wilson, 2010) 3.0 Causes of fluctuation in oil price Knowing the reasons for oil price fluctuation is very important; since knowing such information can help the investor to invest at the right without any risk. It is very perplexing to know the exact cause of fluctuation in oil price; however, we will highlight the main causes and effects of phenomenon. 3.1.0 Causes There are four main causes change oil price; hurricane Katrina, middle-east wars, recessions, and oil crisis in the 1970s. 3.1.1 Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina in 2005 caused the oil production in the Southern Gulf Coast in the U.S to stop completely, and due to the demand and to the lag of oil production; the price of oil barrels increased suddenly to $70 per a barrel. The prices declined when the U.S government decided to release 30 million oil barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) (Editorial Dept, 2009). 3.1.2 Middle East wars The wars happened in the Middle East between Iraq and Afghanistan in July, 2008 caused the prices of oil to increase to more than $136 per barrel. The Middle East is known that it is one of the richest regions of oil. Therefore, due to the high prices of oil at that time, the demand for oil dramatically decreased; people started to demand less and save money. Due to this low demand, the prices of oil started to return back to normal (Editorial Dept, 2009). 3.1.3 Recession Recession caused the oil prices to change in two ways. First, the recession caused the employees to work lesser, and some even started to work from their homes; therefore, they are not demanding often for oil (e.g. transportation). Hence, the prices of oil decreased due to the low demand. Secondly, the demand for other products (e.g. electronics) decreased due to recession. The manufacturing countries which supply these products started to supply less since they started to lose proifit, so less shipment of products occurred less use of oil and this caused the prices of oil to decline (Editorial Dept, 2009). 3.1.4 Oil crisis in the 1970s The prices of oil in the Middle East were low, most of the developed countries such as the U.S decided to rely more on importing the oil. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decided to limit their production of oil in order to make the higher oil price (Wright Boorsw, 2011). 3.2.0 Effects There are two effects showing what would be likely results of politics and economics after the changes in oil price. 3.2.1 Political effects Because of the negative effects of oil price fluctuation in the United States, the citizens decided to vote for Barack Obama in the 2008 elections. (Crenshaw, Maniam Subramaniam, 2010). 3.2.2 Economical effects There is a relationship between oil price fluctuating and income rate. For example, when the price oil increase, the income rate of the labors decrease in order for the industry to make up for the loss and make profit. Also, when the prices of oil increased, some storeowners couldnt pay for the gas deliveries and they had to shut down their businesses. Not to mention the increase of shipping fees, transportation, and food prices (Crenshaw, Maniam, Subramaniam, 2010). 4.0 Alternative energy sources to Fossil Fuels Countries around the world are reconsidering other energy sources to oil due to its increasing prices, polluting waste and the remaining amount left of it. Oil is formed over millions of years from the remains of animals and plants, covered with a layer of sand and silt. Crude oil and petroleum are also known as rock oil, developed by heat and pressure on the layers. Today oil is used to fuel vehicles, heat houses, and make numerous products ranging from medicines to plastics. However, a great pitfall of oil is the emission of harmful gases when burnt. Before the age of oil, coal was the dominating fuel, as stated by BBC (Alternatives to oil, 2000).Not only was it a reliable provider of electricity, it [was] also an essential fuel for steel and cement production, and other industrial activities (World Coal Association, N.D). However, it lost its popularity due to the fact that a large amount of poisonous gases, like carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide are produced in its burning process, contributing negatively to the change in climate. Moreover, nuclear power is said to be friendly regarding the global warming. For example, the United Arab Emirates has been depending on oil for a very long period as a main income generator. However, the emirates are trying their best to stimulate other inflows from tourism, manufacturing and plans for research and development of new energy programs since they know that oil would eventually run out one day. According to the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC), the development of nuclear power plants in Abu Dhabi will help serving the growth in energy needs in the future. On the other hand, some countries fear to take the risk of having nuclear plants because of the rising rate of tragic accidents. The recent leakage of nuclear and radioactive substances in Japan, due to the 8.9 Richter scale earthquakes, is an example. Technology innovations are creating a path to the usage of new, more environmentally sociable fossil fuels. Renewable fuels include hydro-electric energy, solar energy, biomass energy, wind energy and hydrogen. Renewable fuels promote countries to use nature and a high technological plan to produce power. In Norway for instance, hydro-electric power is used to the fullest as reported by BBC (Alternatives to oil, 2000). Wind and wave power are another promising fuels. Solar power is coming on by leaps and bounds. There are already photo-voltaic cells which will provide power on a cloudy à ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã ¦ winters day, or even by moonlight (Alternatives to oil, 2000). However, the hesitation and reluctance of countries to use such power sources falls under the aspect of price. A lot of money will be required to build wind turbine, solar panels, and hydrogen in conversion of technologies. All in all, there is a wide variety of alternatives to oil, however the users should evaluate the benefits and drawbacks for each power source and the effects generated to the society from the global view. 5.0 Conclusion To sum up, our world consists of variety of sources. Oil is one of the most important sources that are used in todays life, yet it is a non-renewable source. Therefore, looking for alternatives for oil can help stabilize economy and environment. Furthermore, due to some environmental and humanistic behaviors, oil prices began to increase and decline; this affected the world in many ways economically, politically, and socially.
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
database design :: essays research papers
Database Design Scenario Currently a school uses a non-computerised database system to store the following information about its students: roll class, surname, first name, guardian's name, address, student's date of birth, gender, sport house, emergency-contact telephone number, mailing name, list of subjects offered, and subjects in which the student is enrolled. The system takes up a large amount of space, has many duplicated entries some of these with mistakes and it is time consuming to search. The school intends to introduce a relational-database management system to overcome these problems. Current school data storage and retrieval system (the pre-computer database system) ââ¬Å¾h School staff, teachers and office staff are the users of the database. ââ¬Å¾h Database used to track all details of students in the school. ââ¬Å¾h Large amounts of data are stored. An individual record is required for each student. ââ¬Å¾h Lots of duplication exists as details of subjects offered by the school are duplicated on individual student records. ââ¬Å¾h Data is organised in alphabetical order on student names within years. ââ¬Å¾h Data is stored in a number of filing cabinets. Advantages ââ¬Å¾h quick to find details of a student if year and surname are known ââ¬Å¾h data is stored in a central secure location ââ¬Å¾h original source material is stored in the student file. Disadvantages ââ¬Å¾h slow to find details of students when surname and year are not known ââ¬Å¾h data storage takes up a lot of room ââ¬Å¾h minimal number of staff can access records at one time ââ¬Å¾h data is duplicated. Stages of development of the computerised relational database system The new computerised relational database system will be developed in the following stages: ââ¬Å¾h analysis ââ¬Å¾h design ââ¬Å¾h implementation ââ¬Å¾h maintenance Analysis In this stage the current system is analysed to determine the functions it performs and those that it is unable to perform. Direct and indirect users of the new system are interviewed to determine what they require from the new system. The inputs to the new system, the processes it is to perform and the outputs from the system are clearly defined. A recommendation is made about the type of new system that will be required to meet the identified needs. During the analysis stage, the following is determined: ââ¬Å¾h current storage space of student records needs to decrease ââ¬Å¾h an easily update-able backup of student records is required, ââ¬Å¾h one staff member is to be responsible for the administration of the system, ââ¬Å¾h unnecessary duplication of data is to be avoided, ââ¬Å¾h all teaching staff, office staff and the Principal need to have access to the database simultaneously - read access only is required
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Spreadsheet report - intended for a science teacher teaching a Year 10 :: Computer Science
Spreadsheet report - intended for a science teacher teaching a Year 10 class in a secondary school. He is having difficulty managing all of the data concerning the marks and attendance of class 10X2. Spreadsheet Report The spreadsheet is intended for a science teacher teaching a Year 10 class in a secondary school. He is having difficulty managing all of the data concerning the marks and attendance of class 10X2. He would like to know if a computer could aid him to process the data from module tests that are being taken this year. He would like to know whether the pupils are on target or not, the grades gained from the tests, the total marks and grades, and the average, minimum and maximum marks and grades. He would also like the computer to help him to keep track attendance. He would like to know the total attendance of the members of his class. When complete, the spreadsheet will automatically calculate the grade of each module test, and display whether the pupil is working at heir level. It will also calculate the total marks and average grade of each pupil, and for the entire class. This will be shown on one sheet, whilst on another, the total number of attendances and the total attendance as a percentage over a whole term will be shown. This will be useful for the teacher so as he can monitor his pupils and help those who are under performing easily. In order to do this, I needed to plan out the spreadsheet. I worked out what sheets and tables I needed, and figured out which functions and formulae I would be using to calculate with. I planned to have two sheets, Tests and Attendance. The Tests sheet contains three tables. The first is the Results table and it contains the results of the science module tests. The pupil's surname and forename are located in the first two columns, and their expected mark in the third column. The data relating to each separate test is located in three adjacent columns, with a merged cell above tying them together. There are four of these next to each other, one for each module. The first column in the group of three is called Marks, and this contains the actual score from each test. The next column is called Grade and this shows the grade corresponding to the mark. This grade is obtained from the second table, called Points, which contains the points and grading system. Using the VLOOKUP function does this. The cell references here must be absolutes. The third and final column is called Attainment.
Monday, September 2, 2019
The Spark of World War I :: essays research papers
à à à à à The conflicting national interests in western and eastern Europe drove the major countries to form protective coalitions, even with nations that had once been bitter enemies. Smaller countries were forced to choose sides, and by 1914, Europe was separated into two heavily armed camps. Any spark would have been enough to ignite the war everyone expected. à à à à à That spark was touched off in Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In an attempt to ease tensions between Austria-Hungary and people in the Balkans, the Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife made a ceremonial trip to Sarajevo. à à à à à Ferdinand was in line to be the next emperor of the Austria-Hungarian Empire. The Archduke had made enemies in the neighboring kingdom of Serbia because he once favored the reorganization of the empire to create a third kingdom of Croatia. At the same time, Serbia was attempting to expand its power by bringing all of the ethnic Serbs under its dominion, so it had designs on Croatian territory as well. à à à à à As Ferdinandââ¬â¢s caravan of open cars made its way through Sarajevo, it was attacked by a group of bomb-throwing terrorists who hoped to assassinate Ferdinand. Their grenade missed the Archduke but killed others in the caravan. Terrified, the Archdukeââ¬â¢s driver tried to escape by turning the carriage around and racing towards the train depot. In an ironic twist of fait, he got lost and entered a street where nineteen-year-old Gravilo Princip, a young Serbian nationalist, was hiding. Princip was part of the terrorist group, and he quickly realized a second opportunity to kill the Archduke was a hand. He pulled out a pistol and began to fire, hitting Sophie, who had tried to shield her husband.
Sunday, September 1, 2019
American Beauty Film Critique Essay
There are few films that achieve the high level of quality exhibited by that of the 1990 beautiful tragedy, American Beauty. The film is a true masterpiece in both content and how this content is delivered to the viewers. It excels at being an enlightening and relevant drama about American life, and never fails to keep the audience entertained by providing many instances of well-placed humor. Every scene is filmed including metaphoric elements that not only show great stylistic and aesthetics, but also create a mood and feeling for the theme of the movie. American Beauty, directed by Sam Mendes, is a film that is set in suburban America, in a normal neighbourhood, following the everyday life of the central protagonist, Lester Burnham, who is living the typical ââ¬ËAmerican Dreamââ¬â¢. He appears to have a great job, big house, loving wife and daughter and even a white picket fence. However, all is not as it seems as appearance can often be deceiving; if we just ââ¬Å"look closerâ⬠, we as audience members soon see that he realises both his wife, over bearing and controlling Carolyn and jaded teenage daughter, Jane think that, in the words of Jane, he is ââ¬Å"this gigantic loserâ⬠and theyââ¬â¢re right. The character of Lester is initially portrayed as a depressed, sad and lonely forty-year-old man, deprived of freedom and struggling to find anything worth living for. However as the film progresses Lesterââ¬â¢s persona as a character is dramatically developed with the introduction of an equally intriguing character, Angela Hayes. Everything changes for Lester the night he is forced by his wife to his daughters school to see her perform as a cheerleader. There on the floor, engrossed in a pompon routin, parading and dancing around the court, he sees his ââ¬Ëangelââ¬â¢: Angela his daughterââ¬â¢s high-school classmate. Angela fulfills the stereotypical idea of what beauty physical beauty is. She is thin, blonde, big blue-eyed and immediately catches Lesterââ¬â¢s attention; Angela is not Lesterââ¬â¢s highway to bliss, but she is at least a catalyst for his freedom (Ebert, 1999). His thoughts, and the dissatisfaction they stimulate, blast him free from years of emotional torture and bring him right back to his youth. It is from this moment on that Lester transforms into a spontaneous hormone-driven teenage boy, who smokes marihuana, works out, and uits his job all in order to impress his Angel-a. American Beauty uses Angela as the image of Lesterââ¬â¢s broader want; that being his underlying desire for freedom and evidentially beauty. However, she symbolizes the potential underlying superficiality of physical beauty that is slowly revealed towards the end of the film. The film portrays many of the hidden problems within the white picket fence American dream along with addressing the problems many Americans have with feeling free and accepting their own identity. The film shows the vastly different worlds that people can live in whilst still living on the same street, and the disorder and frenzy that lies veiled in a society that we all try to portray as being as perfect as possible. In doing so, American Beauty reveals that the only way to calm the chaos is to find beauty in everything. To ââ¬Å"look closerâ⬠is a must for truly understanding and identifying with the continuous bombardment of symbolism that is constantly being illustrated in this film. American Beauty portrays such themes as the falseness in lust, power and appearance and that we need to remind our selves ââ¬Å"â⬠¦of all the beauty there is in the worldâ⬠, as beauty is a matter of opinion. Beauty however, is the most significant and explored theme in American Beauty. Another prevailing theme is the notion of the characters journey and transformation throughout the film. Lesterââ¬â¢s journey can almost be compared to one from childhood from adulthood, figuratively speaking as evidentially, he steps into a mature, paternal phase where he takes responsibility and finds meaning in life, as an adult. Many techniques were used to portray these themes and influence audiences opinions of characters and events, including film techniques of cinematography, soundtrack as well as such visual techniques of symbolism, colour and contrast and both aesthetic and stylistic elements. American Beauty is a complex film that relies so heavily on mis-en-scene and cinematography to portray its message. In particular this is showcased during one scene that truly puts the ââ¬ËAmerican Beautyââ¬â¢ into perspective; the opening scene or as it is often referred to as, the ââ¬Å"High Point Sceneâ⬠. The film explores the concepts of what true beauty really is and as suggested in the title of the film, the American Dream and how far this ââ¬Ëdreamââ¬â¢ really goes and what it actually means; this is explored further from the films tagline ââ¬Å"look closerâ⬠; to think about perceived desire and to analyze more what these wants are. Through the exploration of the opening scene and a study of how the cinematography, mise en scene and sound foreshadows plot points in the rest of the film, the underlying messages and symbolism will be uncovered. The movie opens with a grainy shot of Jane Burnham reclining on a bed, complaining about her father. The scene begins with what is referred to as a flash forward, in cinematic terms. The line ââ¬Å"Someone really should just put him out of his miseryâ⬠is a hint towards the mid life crisis that the father Lester is currently going through and the ways in which she is aware of the pain he is dealing with, not knowing what he truly wants. Through the mise en scene and cinematography displayed throughout the scene, the audience is enabled to receive a glimpse into the events that have just occurred. Through the use of a lesser quality picture, shaky footage and dimmed lighting the audience is able to identify with the fact that the imagery being presented has that of a ââ¬Ëhome movieââ¬â¢ feel. The utilization of ââ¬Ëraw footageââ¬â¢ within this drama genre of film gives the audience a sense of reality towards the character, hence making the dialogue seem more legitimate and believable. The addition of a pause into the characters dialogue helps to support and express the sense of ââ¬Ërealityââ¬â¢ further, as it is as if she is really thinking about what she is saying. The rather ambiguous approach to the delivering of the line ââ¬Å"You want me to kill him for you? â⬠helps to draw attention to Janeââ¬â¢s reaction as apposed to the interviewers own intensions. This poses both Jane Burnham, the daughter and the unidentified interviewer as suspects to her fatherââ¬â¢s upcoming murder. However the abstruse approach from the interviewer combined with the daughters reply is foreshadowing what is to come later in the film, as each character related to the father is set up to be the possible murderer of his death. By using the body language as a primary tool for communication, the reply of ââ¬Å"Yeah, would youâ⬠to the previous statement, suggests that she is almost daring the interviewer to kill him. This is expressed through the dominant changing of levels when she sits up, almost creating a shift in power, and looks down and straight into the camera, but at the same time also insinuates some sarcasm on her part. The audience learns in the very first lines of the movie that Janeââ¬â¢s dad, Lester, is not the father that she wants. The opening credits roll, and the shot switches to an aerial view of a neighborhood. The exact location is not specified, and that is very intentional. It is important that this not be a critique of a specific area, but of American culture as a whole. The scene begins with an aerial shot of a suburb, with Lester Burnham introducing the audience to his life and informing them that ââ¬Å"In less than a year, Iââ¬â¢ll be dead,â⬠and ââ¬Å"in a way, Iââ¬â¢m dead already. â⬠This dialogue is heightened through the following shots of Lester lying alone on a bed in a very dull coloured room, thus signifying the meaninglessness life in which he is leading. The utilization of an aerial shot here creates the idea that the world is looking down on him. The dominant use of bright lighting also indicates that it is the morning, however through the use of shadowing casted over Lester, it expressed to the audience that he is still in ââ¬Ëthe darkââ¬â¢; he is yet to be enlightened. Visual techniques are a constant feature in American Beauty, including the use of colour, contrast and symbolism. The primary recurring prop that is introduced at the beginning of the film is a rose, in which the audience first sees in a close up before Lesterââ¬â¢s wife Carolyn Burnham picks it up. The first shot of the rose seems out of place, beginning with the flower filling the frame and then moving down to focus on the thorns before Carolynââ¬â¢s clippers cut it. The rose symbolizes the impotence of not only the love life between Lester and Carolyn but the idea of the American Dream. This shot not only draws attention to the rose as a recurring object in the film, but it also serves as a metaphor for the Burnhams: on the outside they appear perfect, like the flower, but underneath they are rotten and broken (represented by the thorns). In this shot the character of Carolyn is also introduced and is instantly perceived as a cold, workaholic who is obsessive about how they (the family) is presented. This portrayal is demonstrated through the line ââ¬Å"See the way the handle on those pruning shears matches her gardening clogs? Thatââ¬â¢s not an accidentâ⬠, thus showing the audience what level she will go to, to maintain order and control. What is also noticeable about this shot is the mise en scene, in particular the red roses, white picket fences and the blue painting on the house. These colours in specific represent the American flag and therefore the American dream. These objects are most perceived to be included within the American dream as well as stereotypical figure of Carolyn, the suburban housewife. This ideology however, creates contrast with the cinematography. Many scenes are metaphoric in how they are shot, and what is in the frame symbolizes a higher, deeper meaning. This is demonstrated when, Lester looking out the window of his house at his wife, and the blinds on the window represent jail cell bars. Even the blocks of text on his computer screen at work, (shown later in the film) represent jail cell bars. Lester is ââ¬Å"in jailâ⬠because his life at this point is so empty and missing substance. This cinematography technique often used in film nior is utilized to convey the emotions of disassociation and distance which in this case, is the way in which Lester feels towards his wife; he is no longer associated with her. American Beautyâ⬠is more than a biting satire on suburban life. This somewhat contrived story is meant to be an allegory. Alan Ballââ¬â¢s richly textured screenplay, brilliantly executed stylistic and aesthetic elements such as cinematography, mise en scene and symbols are effectively demonstrated throughout this masterpiece of a film. Every single shot is so carefully taken and layered with such vast significance that it is a marvel to behold. ââ¬Å"Look closer,â⬠the filmââ¬â¢s tag line tells us. Look closer at the beautiful things we yearn for and spend our life chasing. There isnââ¬â¢t a single example of a film done better. Not only is the content top-notch, but the technical aspects of the movie are excellent as well. American Beauty truly demonstrates the power of film.
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