In this POW, we had to play a game called Linear Nim. In this game, we drew 10 lines on a paper, and we had to take turns crossing out 1, 2, or 3 of the marks. The person that crossed out the last mark was the winner. The first task of this POW was to find a winning strategy for this game. After we found this out, we were supposed to make variations to the game, for instance starting with more or less marks, or allowing a player to cross out more or less marks. We were supposed to consider a variety of examples and look for generalizations in strategies. When I first played the game, I didn’t really have any initial strategy in mind.
I just picked numbers at random to choose until getting down to the last few. I thought this game was very simple and easy to understand. One key insight I had was to cross out three marks to get rid of most of the marks. When it came down to the final three or four marks, I had to look carefully at them to see what numbers I could choose before the next person’s turn, so after their turn there would be one, two, or three marks left. For instance, if there were 5 marks left, I could cross out one, and then any number the next person picked would leave me with a number of marks I could cross out with one, two, or three crosses.
This is when I realized the strategy of this game. The strategy I developed for the original game was that to win, you have to cross out a number of marks so that there are four marks left before the next persons turn. If your opponent picks three, there will be one mark left, and you can cross it out and win. If your opponent crosses out two marks, there will be two marks left, and you can cross those out and win. If your opponent crosses out only one mark, there will be three marks left, and you can cross those out and win. If you get down to four marks before the next person’s turn, there is no possible way you can lose.
At least without any variations. My first variation was to change the number of marks to 15. I found that even with 15 marks, or 20 marks, the strategy stays the same if you can cross out a maximum of three marks. You just have to keep on crossing out three for longer until you reach four. You could have 100 marks and the strategy would still be to get down to four at the end before your opponent’s turn. However, this strategy changes when you change the maximum number of marks you can cross out. I played where you could cross out a maximum of 4 marks.
In this one, the strategy was that you had to get down to five marks, because then any number your opponent could choose, you would still be able to cross out the last mark. I didn’t really have any problems with this POW because it was very straightforward. After this, I realized that the strategy depends on the number of marks you can cross off, since when you cross off three marks, you have to get down to four, and when you cross out four marks, you have to get down to five, the strategy could be that you have to get down to whatever your maximum number of crosses is plus 1.
I tested this generalization, playing with 6 and 7 maximum number of marks you could cross out and it always works. I realized this because if you have one more than the maximum number of marks that you can cross out left, there will always be at least one mark left for you to cross out, making it possible for you to cross out the last mark and win. After I realized this part of the strategy, I also realized that the person that goes second will always win. This is because with 10 marks, there are two sets of four, which is the number of marks you need to make your opponent lose.
If you go second, the other person will make one, two, or three marks leaving you “in control” of the remaining marks. I think I would say the difficulty of this POW would be 3 out of 10. The process was not difficult at all; it was just a little bit of a challenge to verbalize why the strategy I was using worked. I think this POW would have been better with if they explained what a generalization was, because at first I was a little bit confused about that, but soon I understood that it was a strategy you could generalize on Linear Nim no matter what variation you were using.
I was also pretty confused about why it mattered if you went first or second, but then I realized about the two sets of four. What I learned from this POW is that it is very good to test your strategy many times to make sure it works, because it might just be a onetime luck thing. You also shouldn’t assume you have the right answer, but check over every aspect of the problem to make sure you have answered everything it asked for. For this POW, I tested my strategy many times, and it worked every time.
Analysis Of Carbet’s Poetry In Point D’orgue
The definition of a culture is convoluted; an amalgam of historical ambiance, traditions, and internalization of subconscious perceptions. Perhaps this complexity is what has made definition of Caribbean culture very challenging. While being governed by European aesthetic norms in a dominated colonized society, Caribbeans in Martinique often struggled to develop a concept of self; striving to free themselves, yet misguided in their approach. What resulted is a series of literary movements; each pertaining to the definition of Caribbean culture.
The authors of these movements developed unique perspectives about racism through the contexts of identity, psychology, linguistics and ideology. One such author is Mary-Magdeline Carbet, whose Point d’orgue, in 1958, showcased her native beliefs towards her Caribbean culture as well as her role of a woman in society through her poetry. Although her perspective in her poetry is vague; there are numerous undertones in her writing which are reflected in later works by Caribbean authors such as Franz Fanon and Jean Bernabe.
Although Carbet does not address all the contexts of Caribbean culture, her ambivalent poetic voice within her poems is one which is indicative and symbolic of dynamic definitions of culture in French Caribbean literature. This study will analyze the contexts of culture referenced in Carbet’s poems using perspectives from later works such as Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks and Bernabe’s “In Praise of Creoleness”. While the later works offers a more refined definition of Caribbean culture, there are subtle allusions to similar ideas within Carbet’s poetry.
Identity within “In Praise of Creoleness” is defined as “an interior attitude-better, a vigilance, or even better a sort of mental envelope” (Bernabe et al. 886). This definition proceeds with a distinct contrast to an “exteriority”, which represents a “quasity-complete acquisition of another identity”. In this respect, Bernabe delves into the concepts of identity from a cognitive and from an environmental perspective. This is associated with one which is foreign to the Caribbeans, emulating the French.
The distinct polarities of the “interior” and the “exterior” is described as “magnetized from opposite directions” to show that the divergence of Caribbean culture from the European traditions is required to attain true identity; which the authors refer to as “Creolism” (Bernabe et al. 887). This interpretation of identity is also reflected in Carbet’s “Would I Deny? ”. Within this work, Carbet has a strong sense of identification with her heritage. She expresses this through a set of rhetorical questions at the end of each stanza, affirming the characteristics of her homeland.
She describes physical characteristics which are reminiscent about her heritage such as “the whip of the wind”, the “smell”, the “blue velvet of the air” and the “rustling of the palms” (Hurley 58). Descriptions of “exteriority” of the island without expressing her emotional reactions to her homeland display a physical separation of the author from her homeland. The author also further describes French atmospheres such as the “sky of pale loves”. However, she confesses to herself that she has a certain “nostalgia”, which ultimately complicates her love for her island and thus her identity (59-60).
This poem presents the contrast of the exterior and the interior which Bernabe described as the determinant of confusion in the Caribbean identity. In “Would I Deny? ”, Carbet expresses this idea by representing alienation as a physical separation from her own identity. In the final two stanzas, the poet’s description of her Native land changes to one of underlying concern: “You want our laughter, our songs / Poignant or not, to give rhythm to your life” (59). She rejects the island, as her identity for her own fear of being rejected herself.
This is characteristic of Bernabe’s descriptions on the Creole identity, where feelings of alienation lead to a defensive, somewhat guilty feeling when Caribbean people attempt to embrace their own identity (Bernabe). Another pivotal concept in defining Caribbean culture is the underlying psyche of Caribbeans. In Black Skin, White Masks, Franz Fanon analyzes the effects of a racist oppressive society on the psyche of a black man. Using personal anecdotes, Fanon presents an analysis to show that oppressive cultures, such as colonizing nations, often lead to repressed psychological health, such as the inferiority complex.
Caribbean people, amongst a French culture, often assimilated to the dominant ideological and linguistics in society, in an attempt to gain acceptance, “to speak means above to assume a culture, to support the weight of a civilization” (Fanon 17). However, Fanon also shows that assimilation often leads to a cognitive dissonance, when Black people are unable to identify with the “white masks” which they are wearing to gain acceptance. He discusses the “black-white relation” as a difference in direction “of dual narcissism and the motivations which inspire [them]” (9-10).
He presents an example which he shows the different interpretations of a Tarzan movie within the black and white psyche. The black man identifies with Tarzan, fighting oppression, while white man identifies the black man as one of the savages. This difference in potential internalization within the two races represents the distinction which Fanon believes, that all blacks need to realize in order to escape inferiority. In Carbet’s “Would I Deny? ” the poet faces a “dual narcissism” which Fanon described in the black psyche.
Although, she praises her homeland, her vulnerability from alienation, leads to a “masked” fear of rejection within her subconscious, leading to a psychological separation from her intimate relationship with her native land (Hurley 59). Likewise, in “Transplant”, Carbet alludes to Fanon’s “black-white relation” showing incompatibility of a black heart to a white man. The psychological dissimilation of the black psyche with the white masks which Fanon referred to in his novel is represented in the poem through the rejection of the transplant (Hurley 97). To transplant a negro heart into all those/ Whose disgrace it is not to have one. ” (98). The physical rejection represents a moral rejection of the black man to the white attitudes. This rejection marks an awakening and a sense of retribution for the black man (Ormerod). Gender associations within the Caribbean culture definition were also strongly associated with concept of colonization. Predecessors of Bernabe such as Eduoard Glissant and Edward Said argued that colonized cultures were often “feminized” by developing the inferior culture as “submissive, pleasure-giving, accommodating and, ultimately, screwed” (de Lauretis 54).
This association was based on a position of a heterosexual male, whose ideology was that feminine characteristics represented weakness and vulnerability. This sort of ideology asserts two arguments: the inferiority of women and the inferiority of subordinate cultures by being described as feminine. However, Patrick Chamoiseau often refuted these “masculine” concepts through the development of strong feminine characters in his fictional works. Female characters are often “forceful subjects of social and political action” (Ormerod).
In Chronicle of the Seven Sorrows, Marquerite Jupiter, the female protagonist is associated with “sexual and personal autonomy” (de Lauretis 55). The descriptions of predatory males within his novels also represent the idea that colonization was a concept which was considered to be “masculine”. In his manifesto, “In praise of Creoleness”, the lack of descriptions of a clear sexuality, male or female, in defining Creoleness represents his indifference towards gender as a characteristic of Caribbean culture.
Rather, he focuses on the concept of a “whole-world”, one which unites races, ethnicities, and gender to create a stable Caribbean identity (Bernabe et al. 888). The strength of feminism as a symbol of Caribbean freedom from colonization, and sexual oppression in Chamoiseau’s works is also present within Carbet’s poetry. Although she expresses numerous connections with the Caribbean, she also presents responses to personal experiences as a woman, which represent her ideology towards gender in the Caribbean society.
In “Torment”, Carbet celebrates the “painful pleasure of a sexual encounter,” one which represents her intense associations with feminism (Hurley 67). She presents a feminine perspective with ambigious sexual partners to represent diversity in the feminine sexuality, one which is free from racial, political and social constraints. These sensual descriptions are shown by using elements such as “flowers of joy,” and represents freedom through celebration of “a burning delightful torment” (68).
This uninhibited description shows great bravery on behalf of the poet, and an evolution from descriptions of women in a Western tradition in Romanticism where women were considered to be suffered and repressed (69). From an ideological standpoint, sexual freedom described in the poem is one which is indicative of Carbet’s description of feminism in Caribbean culture of the late twentieth century. The feminism which Carbet alludes to has a dual meaning: the freedom of oppressed cultures like her native land, and the freedom of women from a sexually-biased society.
Her perceptions of women foreshadow the thoughts of writers such as Chamoiseau, who viewed Caribbean culture as unisexual. Linguistics is another component of cultural definition which has been present in Caribbean literature. In Black Skin, White Masks, Fanon argues that language is a tool of power and objectification of the black identity. This concept was further exemplified in “In Praise of Creoleness” when Bernabe defined the Caribbean culture through the concept of Creoleness.
Linguistics in Caribbean literature has been interpreted numerous times, often from the lack of a constant identity. In 1939, Aime Cesaire denounced French cultural dominance and emphasized the African diaspora, often referred to as “negritude” (Ormerod). However, to Caribbean intellectuals of later generations, Africans only represented a common oppressed people. However, their customs, religions and national origin were different from that of Caribbeans. Post-negritude generations found, that linguistically, the views of Cesaire were too restricted.
To Edouard Glissant, an influential Martinican writer, the “Caribbean consciousness needed a change in direction” (Ormerod). He argued that the racial affiliation with Africa was not able to compensate for the idea of “Antillante” (Caribbeanness). Influenced by this notion, Martinicans such as Bernabe , Chamoiseau and Raphael Confiant developed a literary movement through the definition of Creoleness. Their description of Antillante, focused on culture through a discrete definition of language.
In “In praise of Creoleness” they criticized negritism for “worsening [this] identity instability” by a “fascination of foreign things” which further alienated Caribbeans into “self-withdrawal, mimetism,” leading to further alienation (Bernabe et al. 889). The essential definition of Caribbean identity required an “interior vision”. This involves the conversion of “raciological distinctions” described by negritude to one which encompassed “a new cultural design”, which is representative of the diverse cultural aspects of Caribbean history.
The Creole language, which is ascribed to as a multiracial Caribbean language by Bernabe, was the vehicle which these authors used to define the Caribbean culture. In Carbet’s poems, this perception of Caribbean culture through a language description is absent. Perhaps this omission to any linguistic references represented Carbet’s own ambivalence towards Caribbean language. Although she alludes to references of French language as well as those which are native to her own heritage, she does not make the “primordial soup”, which Bernabe describes the Creole language to be.
The conjunction of these necessary languages, which was asserted by writers of the late 20th century is undefined in her work. Her focus, rather, is to show that incongruity, from a linguistic perspective, is one which needed definition in order to develop a stable Caribbean identity. Caribbean culture has long been analyzed from various contexts. Although, the definition of a culture is not restricted to identity, psychology, ideology, and linguistics, these contexts provide a basis for analytical methods to describe the evolution of cultural definitions.
In Carbet’s Point d’orgue, these contexts are addressed to delve into some of the difficulties of defining Caribbean culture. Within her poetry, there are subtle allusions to problems which limited Caribbeans from freeing themselves from an oppressed environment of the Europeans. Although, she omits linguistics in her analysis of Caribbean culture, she presents valuable insight into a perspective from one with an unknown identity. Her descriptions of exteriorities of her heritage represent the struggles of Caribbeans to define their own identity.
Meanwhile, her psychological separation from her heritage represents the subconscious feelings of inferiority which many Caribbeans also faced after generations of European dominance. Likewise, her ideological emphasis on feminine empowerment is symbolic of colonial freedom. While her tone is ambivalent throughout her poetry, her subtle anecdotes reflect ideas which are foreshadowed in later literary works written by Fanon in Black Skin, White Masks and by Bernabe in “In Praise of Creoleness”.
Works Cited
Bernabe, Jean, Patrick Chamoiseau, Raphael Confiant, and Mohamed B. T. Khyar. “In Praise of Creoleness. ” Callaloo 13. 4 (1990): 886-909. Johns Hopkins University Press. Web. 17 Aug. 2009. <http://www. jstor. org/stable/2931390>. De Lauretis, Teresa. “Difference Embodied: Reflections on Black Skin, White Masks. ” Parallax 08. 02 (2002): 54-68. Academic Search Complete. Web. 21 Feb. 2011. Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin, White Masks. New York: Grove, 2008. Print. Hurley, Anthony E. “2 Marie-Magdeleine CARBET. ” Through a Black Veil: Readings in French Caribbean Poetry.
Africa World. 45-120. Blackboard. Web. 21 Feb. 2011. <http://blackboard. stonybrook. edu/bbcswebdav/xid-98377_1>. Milne, Lorna. “Sex, Gender and the Right to Write: Patrick Chamoiseau and the Erotics of Colonialism. ” Edinburg University Press: 59-75. Edinburg University. Web. 28 Feb. 2011. Ormerod, Beverly. “The Martinican Concept of “creoleness”: A Multiracial Redefinition of Culture. ” Mots Pluriels 7 (1998). University of Western Australia, 1998. Web. 21 Feb. 2011. <http://motspluriels. arts. uwa. edu. au/MotsPluriels/MP798bo. html>.
The Importance Of Tree Planting
Let’s face it; we could not exist as we do if there were no trees. A mature leafy tree produces as much oxygen in a season as 10 people inhale in a year. What many people don’t realize is the forest also acts as a giant filter that cleans the air we breath. 2. Trees Clean the Soil The term phytoremediation is a fancy word for the absorption of dangerous chemicals and other pollutants that have entered the soil. Trees can either store harmful pollutants or actually change the pollutant into less harmful forms. Trees filter sewage and farm chemicals, reduce the effects of animal wastes, clean roadside spills and clean water runoff into streams.
Trees Control Noise Pollution Trees muffle urban noise almost as effectively as stone walls. Trees, planted at strategic points in a neighborhood or around your house, can abate major noises from freeways and airports. 4. Trees Slow Storm Water Runoff Flash flooding can be dramatically reduced by a forest or by planting trees. One Colorado blue spruce, either planted or growing wild, can intercept more than 1000 gallons of water annually when fully grown. Underground water-holding aquifers are recharged with this slowing down of water runoff.
5. Trees Are Carbon Sinks. To produce its food, a tree absorbs and locks away carbon dioxide in the wood, roots and leaves. Carbon dioxide is a global warming suspect. A forest is a carbon storage area or a “sink” that can lock up as much carbon as it produces. This locking-up process “stores” carbon as wood and not as an available “greenhouse” gas. 6. Trees Clean the Air Trees help cleanse the air by intercepting airborne particles, reducing heat, and absorbing such pollutants as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. Trees remove this air pollution by lowering air temperature, through respiration, and by retaining particulates.
7. Trees Shade and Cool Shade resulting in cooling is what a tree is best known for. Shade from trees reduces the need for air conditioning in summer. In winter, trees break the force of winter winds, lowering heating costs. Studies have shown that parts of cities without cooling shade from trees can literally be “heat islands” with temperatures as much as 12 degrees Fahrenheit higher than surrounding areas. 8. Trees Act as Windbreaks During windy and cold seasons, trees located on the windward side act as windbreaks. A windbreak can lower home heating bills up to 30% and have a significant effect on reducing snow drifts.
A reduction in wind can also reduce the drying effect on soil and vegetation behind the windbreak and help keep precious topsoil in place. 9. Trees Fight Soil Erosion Erosion control has always started with tree and grass planting projects. Tree roots bind the soil and their leaves break the force of wind and rain on soil. Trees fight soil erosion, conserve rainwater and reduce water runoff and sediment deposit after storms. 10. Trees Increase Property Values Real estate values increase when trees beautify a property or neighborhood. Trees can increase the property value of your home by 15% or more.