Gender Relations in Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart Essay

Gender Relations in Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart In Chinua Achebes novel Things Fall Apart, the Ibo peoples patriarchal society has a strict system of behavioral customs according to gender. These customs strongly restrict the freedom of Ibo women and help to reinforce generation after generation the notion that Ibo men are superior to the women of their tribe. Among the people of this society, the condition of weakness is strongly associated with the state of being female. The worst insult that a man can receive is to be called a woman. The novels main character, Okonkwo, is often obsessed with proving his strength as a man because he seeks to escape the reputation of his father who was considered by his fellow†¦show more content†¦He often wish[es] she [Ezinma] were a boy.(122) For his son, he wanted Nwoye to grow into a tough young man capable of ruling his... household. (37) The failure of his son to live up to Okonkwos expectations for him are another factor in Okonkwos own innate need to be exceptionally masculine. The division between male and female goes beyond even individual persons in Ibo society to be applied to both physical and moral acts. Certain jobs are reserved only for women whereas only men can perform other tasks. When Ezinma asks to bring a chair to her father, he forbids it because that is a boys job.(32) Women harvest certain crops which are not worthy of wasting the valuable time and strength of men. Crimes committed with deliberate malicious intent are classified as male in contrast to merely accidental female crimes. When Okonkwo killed a clansman, he had committed the female [crime], because it had been inadvertent.(87) As with the majority of other male / female relations in Ibo culture, sexual relations are marked by a noticeable sense of male domination. It is the man who initiates the sexual activity while the female is supposed to appear passive and uninterested in participating in these acts. The men even mock the womens passiveness in sexual roles by a song: If I hold her hand She says, Dont touch! If I hold her foot She says, Dont touch! But when I hold her waist beadsShow MoreRelatedChinua Achebe s Things Fall Apart1325 Words   |  6 PagesAbdulhameed AlHababi Western Civilization 2 December 2, 2014 Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe Thing Fall Apart, first published in 1958, is Chinua Achebe’s first and most acclaimed novel. Achebe illustrates an approving rendering of Nigerian and African tribal life prior to and subsequent to colonialism. Achebe presents various aspects of a native African community, including war, women mistreatment, violence and conflict, while maintaining a balanceRead MoreAnalysis Of Dragon s Village, Things Fall Apart, And Man Of The People1460 Words   |  6 Pagesbe found in the novels; Dragon’s Village, Things Fall Apart, and Man of the People surrounding China and Africa. Along with Deepa Mehta’s period films, Earth and Water and Iciar Bollain’s juxtaposition piece, Even the Rain that emphasize the circumstances that occurred in India and Bolivia. A master at providing alternative context to Africa and concepts of decolonization, Chinua Achebe wrote a great amount of literary work, including, Things Fall Apart (1956) and A Man of the People (1966). TheRead MoreMost Of Society Views Food In A Singular Manner, That Is,1312 Words   |  6 PagesSingh’s â€Å"The Wog†, Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, and Ngitji’s â€Å"The Possum Woman†. I will use these works to demonstrate the role of food and drink in the societies presented and explore the broader cultural implications that food and drink have around the world. In Khushwant Singh’s â€Å"The Wog†, the author uses food and drink to highlight the differences between a newly married couple while simultaneously displaying the impact that food customs can have on cultural relations. Mr. Sen marriesRead MoreAnimal Farm Paradox Analysis1013 Words   |  5 Pagesgrammatical components in order to give the writing a sense of balance (Parallelism). It typically applies repetition within the sentence, supplying an aspect of rhythm or flow to the piece, which can be utilized by the author to emphasize certain things (Parallelism). Function: The primary function of parallelism is to supply sentences with balance and rhythm, giving the sentence a steady flow (Parallelism). The steady flow created through repetition in parallelism can serve to help the author emphasizeRead MoreChinua Achebe s Things Fall Apart1462 Words   |  6 PagesThings Fall Apart is a 1958 novel and literary work by Chinua Achebe, a Nigerian Author. The novel depicts the rural life in small Nigerian fictional village just before the white missionaries and colonizers landed into Nigeria. In the novel, Achebe explores the challenges that the local ‘Umuofia’ faced due to a sudden cultural imposition from the Europeans. The novel is also a representative of the wider picture of African cultures and the socio-economic changes that characterized the colonial eraRead MoreColonialism, Gender, Poverty, Exploitation, Domination, and Hegemony as Rendered in the Novels Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and Cracking India by Bapsi Sidhwa. 2223 Words   |  9 PagesUniversity Press Chinua Achebe Writing Culture: Representations of Gender and Tradition in Things Fall Apart Osei-Nyame, Godwin Kwadwo, 1967- Research in African Literatures, Volume 30, Number 2, Summer 1999, pp. 148-164 Subject Headings: Achebe, Chinua. Things fall apart. Culture in literature. Masculinity in literature. In lieu of an abstract, here is a preview of the article. Wherever something stands, there something else will stand. —Igbo saying While Achebes early novels haveRead MoreSuccesses and Failures of Patriarchy in Colonialism2853 Words   |  12 PagesIn â€Å"The Tempest†, â€Å"Translations† and â€Å"Things Fall Apart†, the theme of patriarchy is explored in different settings; the colonisation of the Irish in â€Å"Translations†, an unnamed island in â€Å"The Tempest† and the Igbo tribe in â€Å"Things Fall Apart†. Prospero is a familial patriarch, shown through his dominant control of Miranda, such as ‘the very minute bids thee ope thine ear. Obey and be attentive’ . Hugh’s control of Manus is familial, as is Okonkwo’s control of his wives and children. Prospero’s controlRead MoreOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 Pagesglobalization, both of which can be seen as hallmarks of the opening decades of the twentieth century. This intermingling of the forces and processes that were arguably essential components 2 †¢ INTRODUCTION of two epochs we routinely set apart as centuries suggests the need for flexibility in demarcating phases of world history, and for determining beginnings and endings that accord with major shifts in political and socioeconomic circumstances and dynamics rather than standard but arbitrary

Radical Inclusion And Gonzalez Of The Bible - 1649 Words

RADICAL INCLUSION AND GONZALEZ â€Å"Jesus is divine and human, and his divinity and humanity are so united that it is impossible to separate them†. Jesus has two natures, God and Man. There is a divine nature and a human nature. He was God before He was born in the flesh and after His human birth he continued to be God. He did things on earth that no one else could do. All the healings and miracles he performed no one had ever seen done before. I think that’s where he then claims divinity and became equal with God, which I think led to his death and him being labeled a heretic. The New Testament seems to believe that Jesus was a human but without sin. Most of the stories in the Bible are when Jesus was human. He was born of a woman and†¦show more content†¦Sin is a transgression of the law, going against God. Sin is an action as well as a condition, a way of being. One cannot condemn another in regards to sin, we all sin. Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to cast a stone at her, John 8:7. One form of transgression is how LGBTQ people are treated because of who they love. Another being how the government is treating immigrants today. I don’t believe that one sin is any bigger or worse than the other. As for sin being inherited I would tend to think it is. We are born of parents we didn’t choose. My mother for example was a heroin addict, which in turn equaled me being born into sin as I was addicted at birth. So I would have to say yes I was born into sin, inherited from my mother. There is also personal sin. These are committed every day from little white lies, to coveting something our neighbor has to murder. The thing about having a relationship with God is we can be forgiven. We are supposedly freed from hell and the penalty of death but we also should be able to resist the temptation to sin because the Holy Spirit resides in us. God was crucified for our sins and by faith we have been redeemed. We don’t need to die again. Growing up in the Church of God in Christ, I learned that I was to always be concerned about my own personal salvation. Meaning to me at that time that I needed to make sure that I did what it took toShow MoreRelatedPauls Contribution to Christianity1449 Words   |  6 Pagesas Barnabas, John Mark and Silas. For these believers, mission was simply a way of life. As one of these missionaries, Paul spread the gospel throughout Israel, Greece, Italy, and Turkey, much of the Mediterranean and even, some claim, to Spain [Gonzà ¡lez 1984]. Christianity’s prevalence in Europe is probably due to Paul’s journeys. While missionaries were common in Paul’s time, writing letters to churches was rare. Paul is remembered most as the writer of many epistles, which contributed to theRead MoreThe Doctrine Of The Trinity9485 Words   |  38 PagesTheology† Sang Hyun Lee 444-455 (11 pp.) Week 8:B JONATHAN EDWARDS â€Å"The Trinity and the Bible† in The Supreme Harmony of All by Amy Plantinga Pauw 19-55 (36 pp.) Week 8:C JONATHAN EDWARDS â€Å"Discourse on the Trinity† by Jonathan Edwards in Writings on the Trinity, Grace, and Faith Ed. by Sang Hyun Lee 113-144 (31 pp.) Week 9:A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES – Latin America The Trinity: Global Perspectives Maà ±ana, Justo L. Gonzalez 267-275 (8 pp.) 292-304 (6 pp.) 101-116 (15 pp.) Week 9:B GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES –Read MoreStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 Pagesbehavior of people at work. In addition, you’ll gain insights into specific people skills that you workforce diversity The concept that organizations are becoming more heterogeneous in terms of gender, age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and inclusion of other diverse groups. Source: ITAR - TASS / Anton Tushin / Newscom The Ritz Carlton Hotel Company is recognized worldwide as the gold standard of the hospitality industry. Its motto—â€Å"We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen†Ã¢â‚¬â€is

The Da Vinci Code Chapter 73-77 Free Essays

CHAPTER 73 Bourget Airfield’s night shift air traffic controller had been dozing before a blank radar screen when the captain of the Judicial Police practically broke down his door. â€Å"Teabing’s jet,† Bezu Fache blared, marching into the small tower,† where did it go?† The controller’s initial response was a babbling, lame attempt to protect the privacy of their British client – one of the airfield’s most respected customers. It failed miserably. We will write a custom essay sample on The Da Vinci Code Chapter 73-77 or any similar topic only for you Order Now â€Å"Okay,† Fache said,† I am placing you under arrest for permitting a private plane to take off without registering a flight plan.† Fache motioned to another officer, who approached with handcuffs, and the traffic controller felt a surge of terror. He thought of the newspaper articles debating whether the nation’s police captain was a hero or a menace. That question had just been answered. â€Å"Wait!† the controller heard himself whimper at the sight of the handcuffs. â€Å"I can tell you this much. Sir Leigh Teabing makes frequent trips to London for medical treatments. He has a hangar at Biggin Hill Executive Airport in Kent. On the outskirts of London.† Fache waved off the man with the cuffs. â€Å"Is Biggin Hill his destination tonight?† â€Å"I don’t know,† the controller said honestly. â€Å"The plane left on its usual tack, and his last radar contact suggested the United Kingdom. Biggin Hill is an extremely likely guess.† â€Å"Did he have others onboard?† â€Å"I swear, sir, there is no way for me to know that. Our clients can drive directly to their hangars, and load as they please. Who is onboard is the responsibility of the customs officials at the receiving airport.† Fache checked his watch and gazed out at the scattering of jets parked in front of the terminal. â€Å"If they’re going to Biggin Hill, how long until they land?† The controller fumbled through his records. â€Å"It’s a short flight. His plane could be on the ground by†¦ around six-thirty. Fifteen minutes from now.† Fache frowned and turned to one of his men. â€Å"Get a transport up here. I’m going to London. And get me the Kent local police. Not British MI5. I want this quiet. Kent local.Tell them I want Teabing’s plane to be permitted to land. Then I want it surrounded on the tarmac. Nobody deplanes until I get there.† CHAPTER 74 â€Å"You’re quiet,† Langdon said, gazing across the Hawker’s cabin at Sophie. â€Å"Just tired,† she replied. â€Å"And the poem. I don’t know.† Langdon was feeling the same way. The hum of the engines and the gentle rocking of the plane were hypnotic, and his head still throbbed where he’d been hit by the monk. Teabing was still in the back of the plane, and Langdon decided to take advantage of the moment alone with Sophie to tell her something that had been on his mind. â€Å"I think I know part of the reason why your grandfather conspired to put us together. I think there’s something he wanted me to explain to you.† â€Å"The history of the Holy Grail and Mary Magdalene isn’t enough?† Langdon felt uncertain how to proceed. â€Å"The rift between you. The reason you haven’t spoken to him in ten years. I think maybe he was hoping I could somehow make that right by explaining what drove you apart.† Sophie squirmed in her seat. â€Å"I haven’t told you what drove us apart.† Langdon eyed her carefully. â€Å"You witnessed a sex rite. Didn’t you?† Sophie recoiled. â€Å"How do you know that?† â€Å"Sophie, you told me you witnessed something that convinced you your grandfather was in a secret society. And whatever you saw upset you enough that you haven’t spoken to him since. I know a fair amount about secret societies. It doesn’t take the brains of Da Vinci to guess what you saw.† Sophie stared. â€Å"Was it in the spring?† Langdon asked. â€Å"Sometime around the equinox? Mid-March?† Sophie looked out the window. â€Å"I was on spring break from university. I came home a few days early.† â€Å"You want to tell me about it?† â€Å"I’d rather not.† She turned suddenly back to Langdon, her eyes welling with emotion. â€Å"I don’t know what I saw.† â€Å"Were both men and women present?† After a beat, she nodded.† Dressed in white and black?† She wiped her eyes and then nodded, seeming to open up a little. â€Å"The women were in white gossamer gowns†¦ with golden shoes. They held golden orbs. The men wore black tunics and black shoes.† Langdon strained to hide his emotion, and yet he could not believe what he was hearing. Sophie Neveu had unwittingly witnessed a two-thousand-year-old sacred ceremony. â€Å"Masks?† he asked, keeping his voice calm. â€Å"Androgynous masks?† â€Å"Yes. Everyone. Identical masks. White on the women. Black on the men.† Langdon had read descriptions of this ceremony and understood its mystic roots. â€Å"It’s called Hieros Gamos,† he said softly. â€Å"It dates back more than two thousand years. Egyptian priests and priestesses performed it regularly to celebrate the reproductive power of the female,† He paused, leaning toward her. â€Å"And if you witnessed Hieros Gamos without being properly prepared to understand its meaning, I imagine it would be pretty shocking.† Sophie said nothing. â€Å"Hieros Gamos is Greek,† he continued. â€Å"It means sacred marriage.† â€Å"The ritual I saw was no marriage.† â€Å"Marriage as in union, Sophie.† â€Å"You mean as in sex.† â€Å"No.† â€Å"No?† she said, her olive eyes testing him. Langdon backpedaled. â€Å"Well†¦ yes, in a manner of speaking, but not as we understand it today.† He explained that although what she saw probably looked like a sex ritual, Hieros Gamos had nothing to do with eroticism. It was a spiritual act. Historically, intercourse was the act through which male and female experienced God. The ancients believed that the male was spiritually incomplete until he had carnal knowledge of the sacred feminine. Physical union with the female remained the sole means through which man could become spiritually complete and ultimately achieve gnosis – knowledge of the divine. Since the days of Isis, sex rites had been considered man’s only bridge from earth to heaven. â€Å"By communing with woman,† Langdon said,† man could achieve a climactic instant when his mind went totally blank and he could see God.† Sophie looked skeptical. â€Å"Orgasm as prayer?† Langdon gave a noncommittal shrug, although Sophie was essentially correct. Physiologically speaking, the male climax was accompanied by a split second entirely devoid of thought. A brief mental vacuum. A moment of clarity during which God could be glimpsed. Meditation gurus achieved similar states of thoughtlessness without sex and often described Nirvana as a never- ending spiritual orgasm. â€Å"Sophie,† Langdon said quietly,† it’s important to remember that the ancients’ view of sex was entirely opposite from ours today. Sex begot new life – the ultimate miracle – and miracles could be performed only by a god. The ability of the woman to produce life from her womb made her sacred. A god. Intercourse was the revered union of the two halves of the human spirit – male and female – through which the male could find spiritual wholeness and communion with God. What you saw was not about sex, it was about spirituality. The Hieros Gamos ritual is not a perversion. It’s a deeply sacrosanct ceremony.† His words seemed to strike a nerve. Sophie had been remarkably poised all evening, but now, for the first time, Langdon saw the aura of composure beginning to crack. Tears materialized in her eyes again, and she dabbed them away with her sleeve. He gave her a moment. Admittedly, the concept of sex as a pathway to God was mind-boggling at first. Langdon’s Jewish students always looked flabbergasted when he first told them that the early Jewish tradition involved ritualistic sex. In the Temple, no less.Early Jews believed that the Holy of Holies in Solomon’s Temple housed not only God but also His powerful female equal, Shekinah. Men seeking spiritual wholeness came to the Temple to visit priestesses – or hierodules – with whom they made love and experienced the divine through physical union. The Jewish tetragrammaton YHWH – the sacred name of God – in fact derived from Jehovah, an androgynous physical union between the masculine Jah and the pre-Hebraic name for Eve, Havah. â€Å"For the early Church,† Langdon explained in a soft voice,† mankind’s use of sex to commune directly with God posed a serious threat to the Catholic power base. It left the Church out of the loop, undermining their self-proclaimed status as the sole conduit to God. For obvious reasons, they worked hard to demonize sex and recast it as a disgusting and sinful act. Other major religions did the same.† Sophie was silent, but Langdon sensed she was starting to understand her grandfather better. Ironically, Langdon had made this same point in a class lecture earlier this semester. â€Å"Is it surprising we feel conflicted about sex?† he asked his students. â€Å"Our ancient heritage and our very physiologies tell us sex is natural – a cherished route to spiritual fulfillment – and yet modern religion decries it as shameful, teaching us to fear our sexual desire as the hand of the devil.† Langdon decided not to shock his students with the fact that more than a dozen secret societies around the world – many of them quite influential – still practiced sex rites and kept the ancient traditions alive. Tom Cruise’s character in the film Eyes Wide Shut discovered this the hard way when he sneaked into a private gathering of ultraelite Manhattanites only to find himself witnessing Hieros Gamos. Sadly, the filmmakers had gotten most of the specifics wrong, but the basic gist was there – a secret society communing to celebrate the magic of sexual union. â€Å"Professor Langdon?† A male student in back raised his hand, sounding hopeful. â€Å"Are you saying that instead of going to chapel, we should have more sex?† Langdon chuckled, not about to take the bait. From what he’d heard about Harvard parties, these kids were having more than enough sex. â€Å"Gentlemen,† he said, knowing he was on tender ground,† might I offer a suggestion for all of you. Without being so bold as to condone premarital sex, and without being so naive as to think you’re all chaste angels, I will give you this bit of advice about your sex lives.† All the men in the audience leaned forward, listening intently. â€Å"The next time you find yourself with a woman, look in your heart and see if you cannot approach sex as a mystical, spiritual act. Challenge yourself to find that spark of divinity that man can only achieve through union with the sacred feminine.† The women smiled knowingly, nodding. The men exchanged dubious giggles and off-color jokes. Langdon sighed. College men were still boys. Sophie’s forehead felt cold as she pressed it against the plane’s window and stared blankly into the void, trying to process what Langdon had just told her. She felt a new regret well within her. Ten years.She pictured the stacks of unopened letters her grandfather had sent her. I will tell Robert everything.Without turning from the window, Sophie began to speak. Quietly. Fearfully. As she began to recount what had happened that night, she felt herself drifting back†¦ alighting in the woods outside her grandfather’s Normandy chateau†¦ searching the deserted house in confusion†¦ hearing the voices below her†¦ and then finding the hidden door. She inched down the stone staircase, one step at a time, into that basement grotto. She could taste the earthy air. Cool and light. It was March. In the shadows of her hiding place on the staircase, she watched as the strangers swayed and chanted by flickering orange candles. I’m dreaming, Sophie told herself. This is a dream. What else could this be? The women and men were staggered, black, white, black, white. The women’s beautiful gossamer gowns billowed as they raised in their right hands golden orbs and called out in unison,† I was withyou in the beginning, in the dawn of all that is holy, I bore you from the womb before the start of day.† The women lowered their orbs, and everyone rocked back and forth as if in a trance. They were revering something in the center of the circle. What are they looking at? The voices accelerated now. Louder. Faster. â€Å"The woman whom you behold is love!† The women called, raising their orbs again. The men responded,† She has her dwelling in eternity!† The chanting grew steady again. Accelerating. Thundering now. Faster. The participants stepped inward and knelt. In that instant, Sophie could finally see what they were all watching. On a low, ornate altar in the center of the circle lay a man. He was naked, positioned on his back, and wearing a black mask. Sophie instantly recognized his body and the birthmark on his shoulder. She almost cried out. Grand-pere! This image alone would have shocked Sophie beyond belief, and yet there was more. Straddling her grandfather was a naked woman wearing a white mask, her luxuriant silver hair flowing out behind it. Her body was plump, far from perfect, and she was gyrating in rhythm to the chanting – making love to Sophie’s grandfather. Sophie wanted to turn and run, but she couldn’t. The stone walls of the grotto imprisoned her as the chanting rose to a fever pitch. The circle of participants seemed almost to be singing now, the noise rising in crescendo to a frenzy. With a sudden roar, the entire room seemed to erupt in climax. Sophie could not breathe. She suddenly realized she was quietly sobbing. She turned and staggered silently up the stairs, out of the house, and drove trembling back to Paris. CHAPTER 75 The chartered turboprop was just passing over the twinkling lights of Monaco when Aringarosa hung up on Fache for the second time. He reached for the airsickness bag again but felt too drained even to be sick. Just let it be over! Fache’s newest update seemed unfathomable, and yet almost nothing tonight made sense anymore. What is going on? Everything had spiraled wildly out of control. What have I gotten Silas into? What have I gotten myself into! On shaky legs, Aringarosa walked to the cockpit. â€Å"I need to change destinations.† The pilot glanced over his shoulder and laughed. â€Å"You’re joking, right?† â€Å"No. I have to get to London immediately.† â€Å"Father, this is a charter flight, not a taxi.† â€Å"I will pay you extra, of course. How much? London is only one hour farther north and requires almost no change of direction, so – â€Å" â€Å"It’s not a question of money, Father, there are other issues.† â€Å"Ten thousand euro. Right now.† The pilot turned, his eyes wide with shock. â€Å"How much? What kind of priest carries that kind of cash?† Aringarosa walked back to his black briefcase, opened it, and removed one of the bearer bonds. He handed it to the pilot. â€Å"What is this?† the pilot demanded. â€Å"A ten-thousand-euro bearer bond drawn on the Vatican Bank.† The pilot looked dubious.† It’s the same as cash.† â€Å"Only cash is cash,† the pilot said, handing the bond back. Aringarosa felt weak as he steadied himself against the cockpit door. â€Å"This is a matter of life or death. You must help me. I need to get to London.† The pilot eyed the bishop’s gold ring. â€Å"Real diamonds?† Aringarosa looked at the ring. â€Å"I could not possibly part with this.† The pilot shrugged, turning and focusing back out the windshield. Aringarosa felt a deepening sadness. He looked at the ring. Everything it represented was about to be lost to the bishop anyway. After a long moment, he slid the ring from his finger and placed it gently on the instrument panel. Aringarosa slunk out of the cockpit and sat back down. Fifteen seconds later, he could feel the pilot banking a few more degrees to the north. Even so, Aringarosa’s moment of glory was in shambles. It had all begun as a holy cause. A brilliantly crafted scheme. Now, like a house of cards, it was collapsing in on itself†¦ and the end was nowhere in sight. CHAPTER 76 Langdon could see Sophie was still shaken from recounting her experience of Hieros Gamos. For his part, Langdon was amazed to have heard it. Not only had Sophie witnessed the full-blown ritual, but her own grandfather had been the celebrant†¦ the Grand Master of the Priory of Sion. It was heady company. Da Vinci, Botticelli, Isaac Newton, Victor Hugo, Jean Cocteau†¦JacquesSauniere. â€Å"I don’t know what else I can tell you,† Langdon said softly. Sophie’s eyes were a deep green now, tearful. â€Å"He raised me like his own daughter.† Langdon now recognized the emotion that had been growing in her eyes as they spoke. It was remorse. Distant and deep. Sophie Neveu had shunned her grandfather and was now seeing him in an entirely different light. Outside, the dawn was coming fast, its crimson aura gathering off the starboard. The earth was still black beneath them. â€Å"Victuals, my dears?† Teabing rejoined them with a flourish, presenting several cans of Coke and a box of old crackers. He apologized profusely for the limited fare as he doled out the goods. â€Å"Our friend the monk isn’t talking yet,† he chimed, â€Å"but give him time.† He bit into a cracker and eyed the poem. â€Å"So, my lovely, any headway?† He looked at Sophie. â€Å"What is your grandfather trying to tell us here? Where the devil is this headstone? This headstone praised by Templars.† Sophie shook her head and remained silent. While Teabing again dug into the verse, Langdon popped a Coke and turned to the window, his thoughts awash with images of secret rituals and unbroken codes. A headstone praised by Templarsis the key.He took a long sip from the can. A headstone praised by Templars.The cola was warm. The dissolving veil of night seemed to evaporate quickly, and as Langdon watched the transformation, he saw a shimmering ocean stretch out beneath them. The English Channel.It wouldn’t be long now. Langdon willed the light of day to bring with it a second kind of illumination, but the lighter it became outside, the further he felt from the truth. He heard the rhythms of iambic pentameter and chanting, Hieros Gamos and sacred rites, resonating with the rumble of the jet. A headstone praised by Templars. The plane was over land again when a flash of enlightenment struck him. Langdon set down his empty can of Coke hard. â€Å"You won’t believe this,† he said, turning to the others. â€Å"The Templar headstone – I figured it out.† Teabing’s eyes turned to saucers. â€Å"You know where the headstone is?† Langdon smiled. â€Å"Not where it is. What it is.† Sophie leaned in to hear. â€Å"I think the headstone references a literal stone head,†Langdon explained, savoring the familiar excitement of academic breakthrough. â€Å"Not a grave marker.† â€Å"A stone head?† Teabing demanded. Sophie looked equally confused.† Leigh,† Langdon said, turning,† during the Inquisition, the Church accused the Knights Templar of all kinds of heresies, right?† â€Å"Correct. They fabricated all kinds of charges. Sodomy, urination on the cross, devil worship, quite a list.† â€Å"And on that list was the worship of false idols, right? Specifically, the Church accused the Templars of secretly performing rituals in which they prayed to a carved stone head†¦ the pagan god – â€Å" â€Å"Baphomet!† Teabing blurted. â€Å"My heavens, Robert, you’re right! A headstone praised by Templars!† Langdon quickly explained to Sophie that Baphomet was a pagan fertility god associated with the creative force of reproduction. Baphomet’s head was represented as that of a ram or goat, a common symbol of procreation and fecundity. The Templars honored Baphomet by encircling a stone replica of his head and chanting prayers. â€Å"Baphomet,† Teabing tittered. â€Å"The ceremony honored the creative magic of sexual union, but Pope Clement convinced everyone that Baphomet’s head was in fact that of the devil. The Pope used the head of Baphomet as the linchpin in his case against the Templars.† Langdon concurred. The modern belief in a horned devil known as Satan could be traced back to Baphomet and the Church’s attempts to recast the horned fertility god as a symbol of evil. The Church had obviously succeeded, although not entirely. Traditional American Thanksgiving tables still bore pagan, horned fertility symbols. The cornucopia or† horn of plenty† was a tribute to Baphomet’s fertility and dated back to Zeus being suckled by a goat whose horn broke off and magically filled with fruit. Baphomet also appeared in group photographs when some joker raised two fingers behind a friend’s head in the V-symbol of horns; certainly few of the pranksters realized their mocking gesture was in fact advertising their victim’s robust sperm count. â€Å"Yes, yes,† Teabing was saying excitedly. â€Å"Baphomet must be what the poem is referring to. A headstone praised by Templars.† â€Å"Okay,† Sophie said, â€Å"but if Baphomet is the headstone praised by Templars, then we have a new dilemma.† She pointed to the dials on the cryptex. â€Å"Baphomet has eight letters. We only have room for five.† Teabing grinned broadly. â€Å"My dear, this is where the Atbash Cipher comes into play† CHAPTER 77 Langdon was impressed. Teabing had just finished writing out the entire twenty-two-letter Hebrew alphabet – alef-beit – from memory. Granted, he’d used Roman equivalents rather than Hebrew characters, but even so, he was now reading through them with flawless pronunciation. A B G D H V Z Ch T Y K L M N S O P Tz Q R Sh Th â€Å"Alef, Beit, Gimel, Dalet, Hei, Vav, Zayin, Chet, Tet, Yud, Kaf, Lamed, Mem, Nun, Samech, Ayin, Pei, Tzadik, Kuf, Reish, Shin, and Tav.† Teabing dramatically mopped his brow and plowed on. â€Å"In formal Hebrew spelling, the vowel sounds are not written. Therefore, when we write the word Baphomet using the Hebrew alphabet, it will lose its three vowels in translation, leaving us – â€Å" â€Å"Five letters,† Sophie blurted. Teabing nodded and began writing again. â€Å"Okay, here is the proper spelling of Baphomet inHebrew letters. I’ll sketch in the missing vowels for clarity’s sake. B a P V o M e Th â€Å"Remember, of course,† he added,† that Hebrew is normally written in the opposite direction, but we can just as easily use Atbash this way. Next, all we have to do is create our substitution scheme by rewriting the entire alphabet in reverse order opposite the original alphabet.† â€Å"There’s an easier way,† Sophie said, taking the pen from Teabing. â€Å"It works for all reflectional substitution ciphers, including the Atbash. A little trick I learned at the Royal Holloway.† Sophie wrote the first half of the alphabet from left to right, and then, beneath it, wrote the second half, right to left. â€Å"Cryptanalysts call it the fold-over. Half as complicated. Twice as clean.† A B G D H V Z Ch T Y K Th Sh R Q Tz P O S N M L Teabing eyed her handiwork and chuckled. â€Å"Right you are. Glad to see those boys at the Holloway are doing their job.† Looking at Sophie’s substitution matrix, Langdon felt a rising thrill that he imagined must have rivaled the thrill felt by early scholars when they first used the Atbash Cipher to decrypt the now famous Mystery of Sheshach.For years, religious scholars had been baffled by biblical references to a city called Sheshach.The city did not appear on any map nor in any other documents, and yet it was mentioned repeatedly in the Book of Jeremiah – the king of Sheshach, the city of Sheshach, the people of Sheshach. Finally, a scholar applied the Atbash Cipher to the word, and his results were mind-numbing. The cipher revealed that Sheshach was in fact a code word for another very well-known city. The decryption process was simple. Sheshach, in Hebrew, was spelled: Sh-Sh-K. Sh-Sh-K, when placed in the substitution matrix, became B-B-L. B-B-L, in Hebrew, spelled Babel. The mysterious city of Sheshach was revealed as the city of Babel, and a frenzy of biblical examination ensued. Within weeks, several more Atbash code words were uncovered in the Old Testament, unveiling myriad hidden meanings that scholars had no idea were there. â€Å"We’re getting close,† Langdon whispered, unable to control his excitement. â€Å"Inches, Robert,† Teabing said. He glanced over at Sophie and smiled. â€Å"You ready?† She nodded.† Okay, Baphomet in Hebrew without the vowels reads: B-P-V-M-Th.Now we simply apply your Atbash substitution matrix to translate the letters into our five-letter password.† Langdon’s heart pounded. B-P-V-M-Th.The sun was pouring through the windows now. He looked at Sophie’s substitution matrix and slowly began to make the conversion. B is Sh†¦P is V†¦ Teabing was grinning like a schoolboy at Christmas. â€Å"And the Atbash Cipher reveals†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He stopped short. â€Å"Good God!† His face went white. Langdon’s head snapped up. â€Å"What’s wrong?† Sophie demanded. â€Å"You won’t believe this.† Teabing glanced at Sophie. â€Å"Especially you.† â€Å"What do you mean?† she said.† This is†¦ ingenious,† he whispered. â€Å"Utterly ingenious!† Teabing wrote again on the paper. â€Å"Drumroll, please. Here is your password.† He showed them what he had written. Sh-V-P-Y-A Sophie scowled. â€Å"What is it?† Langdon didn’t recognize it either. Teabing’s voice seemed to tremble with awe. â€Å"This, my friend, is actually an ancient word of wisdom.† Langdon read the letters again. An ancient word of wisdom frees this scroll.An instant later he got it. He had never seen this coming. â€Å"An ancient word of wisdom!† Teabing was laughing. â€Å"Quite literally!† Sophie looked at the word and then at the dial. Immediately she realized Langdon and Teabing had failed to see a serious glitch. â€Å"Hold on! This can’t be the password,† she argued. â€Å"The cryptex doesn’t have an Sh on the dial. It uses a traditional Roman alphabet.† â€Å"Read the word,† Langdon urged. â€Å"Keep in mind two things. In Hebrew, the symbol for the sound Sh can also be pronounced as S, depending on the accent. Just as the letter P can be pronounced F.† SVFYA? she thought, puzzled. â€Å"Genius!† Teabing added. â€Å"The letter Vav is often a placeholder for the vowel sound O!† Sophie again looked at the letters, attempting to sound them out.† S†¦ o†¦ f†¦ y†¦ a.† She heard the sound of her voice, and could not believe what she had just said. â€Å"Sophia? This spells Sophia?† Langdon was nodding enthusiastically. â€Å"Yes! Sophia literally means wisdom in Greek. The root of your name, Sophie, is literally a ‘word of wisdom.'† Sophie suddenly missed her grandfather immensely. He encrypted the Priory keystone with my name.A knot caught in her throat. It all seemed so perfect. But as she turned her gaze to the five lettered dials on the cryptex, she realized a problem still existed. â€Å"But wait†¦ the word Sophia has six letters.† Teabing’s smile never faded. â€Å"Look at the poem again. Your grandfather wrote, ‘An ancient word of wisdom.’ â€Å"Yes?† Teabing winked. â€Å"In ancient Greek, wisdom is spelled S-O-F-I-A.† How to cite The Da Vinci Code Chapter 73-77, Essay examples

Behavior and Social Cognitive Approaches to Forming Habits free essay sample

Behavior and Social/Cognitive Approaches to Forming Habits Nikia Williams PYS/250 03/31/2011 Mr. David Wolske Abstract Behavior and Social/Cognitive Approaches to Forming Habits Prayer is a behavior that has existed for many generations in my family. My grandmother and mother prayed nightly, before meals, and in the event of any unpleasant situations, which created the habit of praying for me. Praying is a form releasing for me. Releasing and relinquishing every part of my life to God who I pray to. Praying to God allows me to remove worry and doubt from my life under most conditions. In the times I chose not to pray, it permits the various mishaps to weigh me down, preventing me from living with the intentions of being loving to everyone I come in contact with. The times I chose not to pray are not done purposely, and usually occur when I focus on my surroundings and forget that I am to pray at all times. We will write a custom essay sample on Behavior and Social Cognitive Approaches to Forming Habits or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Behavioral personality theory suggest the reason I perform this ritual of prayer, is because for many years I observed this act and its practice formed a habit much like learning to speak English is learned through watching others use of it. Behavioral personality theory suggests that any observable behavior impacts learning†¦ Social/cognitive theory suggests that I formed this habit because it is linked to my social environment. Also in social/cognitive theory it is believed that habits are formed when there in interactions of the environment with personal beliefs.