Robert Rauschenberg's tactics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Robert Rauschenberg's tactics - Essay Example Abstract expressionism refers to the art movement that emerged and gained impetus after the Second World War. It was considered as the first most important US movement towards the achievement of a global influence and power. The movement was aimed at positioning New York at the heart of the western world art; a position that was previously held by Paris. At the time that Abstract expressionism was gaining popularity in the 1950s, art in the form of combined manufactured goods was also on the rise. Artists had started to bring about changes in their art, inculcating household items and items of daily use into artwork. This type of art is seen in the works of Robert Rauschenberg, more specifically in his combines. His combines were the classic precursors of the Pop Art movement that Rauschenberg became interested in after the 1950s. Rauschenberg was an artist who entered art at the time Abstract expressionism was in its heyday after the Second World War. However, he came to reject that form of art. Leo Steinberg refers to Rauschenberg's art as a flatbed image surface since his art came to compromise of ethnic and cultural pictorial representations and related objects. Such a form of imagery and art were in an open conflict with the previous forms of art practiced earlier which fell under the category of modernism and modernism. Rauschenberg was known for making use of found pictures in his work but he juxtaposed these images with real objects. His artwork is regarded as Neo-Dada.... His combines were the classic precursors of the Pop Art movement that Rauschenberg became interested in after the 1950s. Rauschenberg was an artist who entered art at the time Abstract expressionism was in its heyday after the Second World War. However he came to reject that form of art. Leo Steinberg refers to Rauschenberg's art as a flatbed image surface since his art came to compromise of ethnic and cultural pictorial representations and related objects. Such a form of imagery and art were in an open conflict with the previous forms of art practiced earlier which fell under the category of modernism and premodernism. Rauschenberg was known for making use of found pictures in his work but he juxtaposed these images with real objects. His artwork is regarded as Neo-Dada since it incorporates found elements as well as real objects. The found elements were initially used by artists such as Marcel Duchamp and Kurt Schwitters. Rauschenberg was motivated by the works of Schwitters and it was this inspiration that drove him to walk around neighborhoods, looking for objects to incorporate into his paintings. He was of the point of view that his combines should at least be as attention-grabbing as events occurring outside the window are. The reason for such an assertion was that he felt that since he was making use of real objects in his paintings and collages, the artwork would resemble the real world more once it is completed. Rauschenberg worked with collages extensively and he built upon them and diversified the elements that could be incorporated into them by the process of silkscreening photographs.3 This opened a vista of opportunities and choices for him. He used pictures

The Halot, Elizabeth-Jane and Their Gender Roles Essay Example for Free

The Halot, Elizabeth-Jane and Their Gender Roles Essay â€Å"Dont be the girl who fell. Be the girl who got back up.†-Jeanette Stanley. The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy introduces the readers to Elizabeth-Jane and Lucetta, two girls of both different means personalities. The comparison by Thomas Hardy of Elizabeth-Jane and Lucetta reveals two different sides of the gender barriers that faced young women in the 1800’s. This comparison shows that Hardy is an early feminist. This is shown through examining each girl’s respective personality, their friendship, how each handles it, and the gender role side that each are portraying. Elizabeth-Jane is the book’s heroine. She is the daughter of Susan and Henchard. Elizabeth- Jane is quiet and shy. Elizabeth-Jane also cares a large amount about doing what’s proper. She worries about her friend Lucetta’s reputation, and how to fix it. Elizabeth- Jane is an all-out good person. She seeks to better herself by studying, â€Å"Knowledge-the result of great natural incite- she did not lack; learning, accomplishments-those, alas, she had not† (Hardy 82). Elizabeth-Jane has this passion to learn more that the reader does come to admire about her. She is not too concerned about finding a man to marry. Elizabeth- Jane seems content to just learn and be alone. However, when it comes to Elizabeth-Jane and men, the reader see an entirely new side of her. When Lucetta effectively replaces her in Farfrae’s mind, she just lets it go and goes on with her life. Yes she’s miffed for about five seconds but in the end she just leaves and moves on. It is this fact that makes it hard to root for Elizabeth-Jane in the end. On the entirely other side the reader encounters Lucetta. Lucetta is Elizabeth-Jane’s only friend in the world. She is vain and petty. Lucetta is Henchard’s former lover. She was young and naive. She blabbed her mouth everywhere and with the help of Michael Henchard ruined her reputation. This left her in ruin and she wrote a ton of love notes to him. All of this happens because he promises to marry her. The most important thing to know about Lucetta is that she is a manipulator. She will cry in order to get what she wants from men. In this regard she is brilliant and the reader looks upon her with both disgust and admiration. The reader see’s Lucetta for one of her more human qualities as follows, â€Å"‘Bring me a looking glass. How do I appear to people?’ She asks languidly. ‘Well- a little worn’, answered Elizabeth-Jane† (161). Lucetta is well aware that once her beauty is gone, she will never be able to find another man to marry her. She also knows that she has two choices if she wants to remain proper, she can stay single because she has been ruined or she can marry again and hope that her past never comes back to haunt her. This then leads the reader to the realization that she will not only do anything to get a man but s he also will do anything to keep her scandal in the past. This includes stepping on her friend in order to accomplish this. This form of her personality is not surprising, given the time period. Now there’s the friendship between Elizabeth-Jane and Lucetta. This unlikely friendship starts out in a grave yard, specifically at Elizabeth-Jane’s mothers grave. Both of these young women are there for very different reasons; Elizabeth-Jane is having a pity party because Henchard was mean to her, and Lucetta is finding out if Susan is really dead because she is still after Henchard at this point in the book. From this meeting Elizabeth-Jane gets both a friend and a new place to live. As this friendship grows, it becomes clear how differently both of these young women approach friendship. Elizabeth-Jane listens to Lucetta vent about her affair, â€Å" ‘This person- a lady- once admired a man much- very much’, she said tentatively. ‘Ah’, said Elizabeth-Jane† (160). Elizabeth-Jane doesn’t judge her; she listens to her and tries to help Lucetta. On the other hand, Lucetta doesn’t act like a good friend, at least not by the readers parameters. She does try however, â€Å"My husband is downstairs. He will live here till a more suitable house is ready for us; and I have told him that I want you to stay with me just as before† (200). Lucetta is so wrapped up in herself, and the fact that she found a way to remain respectable that she doesn’t realize just how terrible that statement really is in regards to Elizabeth-Jane. She figures that all she had to do to remain a good friend to Elizabeth-Jane is make sure she still has somewhere to live. That by the reader’s definition is not a good friend. This leads the readers to the gender role sides each; Elizabeth-Jane and Lucetta are on. Elizabeth-Jane is the modern women according to Hardy. She wants to learn and become more intelligent. Elizabeth-Jane also by the end of the book becomes independent and able to take care of herself and Henchard. The readers see this independence when she says, â€Å"Father-I will not leave you alone like this! She cried. May I live with you, and tend upon you as I used to do? I do not mind your being poor. I would have agreed to come this morning, nut you did not ask me† (278). Elizabeth-Jane doesn’t ask her father if she can come with him, she tells him that she’s coming with him. Over the book she has gained enough gumption that she no longer cares what Henchard wants, Elizabeth-Jane only cares about what he needs. It is for this fact that the readers can classify Hardy as an early day Feminist. He portrays Elizabeth-Jane as the only character with any redeemable characteristics. She grows over the course of the books, when the person that she is compared with dies a very stereotypical death for a woman in the 1800’s. Lucetta is a complicated individual. The reader has a love hate relationship with her when it comes to the side she’s on for gender roles. Lucetta does embody the perfect 18th century women. She understands that she has to fix the scandal that rocked her life. Lucetta also understands that she needs to get a man to marry her and keep him with her no matter what. One of the ways she guarantees this is, â€Å"He knew his wife was with child†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (266). Lucetta gets pregnant. The thinking behind this is that Farfrae can’t leave her pregnant and still keep his business and reputation intact. This is a classical move for her, which fits within the gender role that has been set up for her. Lucetta also uses varying forms of manipulation on people throughout the book. The first of such is, â€Å"’you’re probably aware of my arrangement with your daughter, and have doubtless laughed at the-what shall I call it- practical joke†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢Ã¢â‚¬  (139). with this simple statement Lucetta is doing her best to lure Henchard over to her house. She knows that things are bad between him and Elizabeth-Jane, and saw an opportunity to make a move to right her ruined reputation. Lucetta is quite good at making people do what she wants. This fact is more telling than any of the other things she does in the entire book of how this young girl was raised. The other part of Lucetta proving that she is the perfect 18th century young women is what she does when she thinks her secret is getting out. She does as follows, â€Å"She stood motionless for one second—then fell heavily to the floor† (260). Instead of dealing with the fact that her scandal had come back to haunt her, Lucetta simply falls to the floor. This is a normal reaction to things like this for young women in the=is time period. It was expected of them. The men had decided that women were so fragile that they couldn’t really handle much. In the end Lucetta dies from a severe miscarriage. This could have been helped if Lucetta had just faced her scandal and lived with the consequences. Hardy used Lucetta to show the readers just where lying, manipulation and running away from things get them. Lucetta is a well-used character when it comes to understanding the complex gender roles of the 18000’s. In conclusion the reader can learn a lot about gender barriers from reading Hardy’s novel. It is the comparison of Elizabeth-Jane and Lucetta that gives the reader a clear look into exactly what they faced in regards to gender barriers. It is this specific comparison that opens the reader’s eyes to the fact that hardy is an early day feminist. The reader can see this the clearest when reading about Elizabeth-Jane. She is shy and simple in the beginning of the book, by the end however she is strong and independent. Elizabeth-Jane does go through a transformation into the bright young women that Hardy is trying to demonstrate. Then the reader has Lucetta, she is petty and simple minded. Lucetta is also the perfect 18th century young women. She has been raised to use the gender barriers to her advantage. Lucetta faints when things don’t go her way, she manipulates men into doing what she wants till she doesn’t want them anymore, and she keeps secrets and lies no matter what. In the end she gets what she deserves, Lucetta dies having a miscarriage. She faints and panics when it looks like her scandal is going to be revealed to her husband and the entire town. Once she faints, she starts to miscarry and ends up dying because of it. This fact is Hardy telling the readers that if you lie and manipulate people than you will lose in the end. The comparison of these two young women makes it clear how hardy felt toward women. He thought that women were worth a second look; they could learn and be smart. They didn’t have to just be a piece of arm candy for men to parade around whenever they wanted to. To embody this he portrays Elizabeth-Jane as the modern young women and Lucetta as the stereotypical 18th century young women. Throughout the book the readers root for both Lucetta and Elizabeth-Jane. By the end of this book however they are rooting for Elizabeth-Jane to come out on top and are secretly glad that Lucetta has died. The good news is that in the end Elizabeth-Jane is the girl who fell by she is also the girl who got back up and became something better than before.

Don Juan As Byron Introspective Essay example -- essays research paper

The works of George Gordon, Lord Byron have long been controversial, nearly as controversial as his lifestyle. Gordon Byron was born with a clubfoot and his sensitivity to it haunted his life and his works. Despite being a very handsome child, a fragile self-esteem made Byron extremely sensitive to criticism, of himself or of his poetry and he tended to make enemies rather quickly. The young Byron was often unhappy and lonely any many of his works seem to be a sort of introspective therapy. Throughout his writings and life history there is much evidence to suggest that his poetry was greatly influenced by his mental instability. In many ways, Byron seems to use his work as an escape from a difficult reality. The lengthy poem Don Juan offers an especially intimate glimpse of Byron’s psyche.In order to understand the depth of Byron’s psychological troubles and their influence on his poetry, it is important to examine Byron’s heritage and his upbringing. Young George Gordon inherited the title of Lord Byron at the age of six. This him a rank in society and a bit of wealth to go along with it. Byron’s heritage is a colorful one. His paternal line includes the â€Å"Wicked Lord†, "Mad Jack and â€Å"Foul Weather Jack (Grosskurth 6).† The family propensity for eccentric behavior was acerbated by young George Gordon’s upbringing.When Byron was just three his financially irresponsible father died, leaving the family with a heavy burden of debt. Byron’s mother then proudly moved from the meager lodging in Aberdeen, Scotland to England. Young Byron fell in love with the ghostly halls and spacious grounds of Newstead Abbey, which had been presented to the Byron’s by Henry VIII, had received little care since. He and his mother lived in the run down estate for a while. While in England he was sent to a â€Å"public† school in Nottingham where he was doctored by a quack named Lavender who subjected the boy to a torturous and ineffective treatment for his clubfoot (Bloom 45). During this time, young Byron was left in the care of his nurse May Grey. He was subjected to her drunken tantrums, beatings, neglect, and sexual liberties (Grosskurth 28). This abuse was not stopped early enough to protect the boy from psychological injury. Byron confesses to his sister that â€Å"My passions were developed very early- so early that few would believe me (Grosskurth 40).† Byron also suffered... .... Even the naivetà © of young Juan is strikingly similar to the shy young George Gordon.In Don Juan, Byron says â€Å"I want a hero† and he adopts a one from the past. He alters the legend of Don Juan to fit his own needs because he cannot find a modern hero that fits the bill. Don Juan’s character a direct personification of the poet who has grown older and wiser that his young subject. The author is reflected instead in the many details of the epic drawn from the author’s own experiences. Although Don Juan’s narrator is not purely Byron’s voice, it does seem to speak for him. The poet expresses himself through his interpretation of the story and by using the voice of the narrator to speak for him. Byron’s narrator is always present in the poem, commenting and showing off, making quite certain that the he is not being ignored. His voice permeates Don Juan and he appears to be reflecting much of his own life in his creation. Perhaps Byron used this enormous poem as a catharsis for his trouble emotions; perhaps this is the reason that Don Juan was never finished. It was extended throughout the remainder of the poet’s life. The poem, like Byron’s psychological healing was never finished.

Cola Wars Continue: Coke vs. Pepsi in the 1990s Essay

Question 1 The concentration producing industry has one buyer and through its value chain. Instead, costs for advertising, promotion, market research, and bottler relations were significant. On the other hand, bottling industry is the mid-way player in the soft drink industry. There are two suppliers and one buyer involved in its value chain (Exhibit 1). Whether two industries are profitable depends on soft drink consumption, which had increased for more than 20 years and plateaued in the 1990s. The economics of the CP and bottling is very different from each other in terms of number and size of rivals, and the scope of competitive rivalry. There are two giants competing head to head on the CP industry, smaller national producers, such as Seven-Up and Dr Pepper, are relatively trivial. There are a lot of players of same size in the bottling industry. Unlike the furious competition between Pepsi and Coke, no sense of competition can be felt in bottling industry. Reasons are that, first, Pepsi and Coke control the majority of bottlers in 1990s; second, intrabrand competition is restricted by the franchise agreement, which is protected by ‘Soft Drink Interbrand Competition Act’. From the view of capital requirement, it is easier for others to enter the CP industry than to enter the bottling industry, since comparing to $30-$50 million dollars requirement to establish a bottling plant covering only one 80th of ability to serve the entire US market, the requirement for one CP plant with a nation-wide capacity is only $5-$10 million dollars. In addition, brand loyalty is low in the CP industry since consumers are sensitive to price and there is little switching cost. There are many substitutes for soft drinks, such as tea, beer, and milk. There is no substitutes existing in the bottling industry, and no customer loyalty and switching costs for bottlers since they could only use packages authorized by the franchiser, which means no distributors can tell the difference of the same brand provided by two bottlers, and easily switch among different bottlers. Cost and financial structures of a CP and a bottler illustrate that high cost of sales is one of the major reasons behind the relative low profitability of the bottling industry. The ratio of cost of sales over net sales is 40% higher than that of CP. One possible reason is that bottlers heavily depend on CPs, and thus, CPs use bottlers to diversify expenses. Another reason is that bottlers hold much more inventory than CPs do since bottlers receive soft drink concentrates according to its processing capacity, while they sell products based on selling capability. Also, bottlers have plant and equipment that are ten times more than that of CPs, and a good will that is roughly 45 times more, which means that bottlers have to deduct more depreciation from gross profit than CPs do. One of the reasons why bottlers are backward integrated by CPs is that, as the Cola-war heating up, small bottlers were no longer able to handle CPs’ goals and thus they would not be chosen as Pepsi and Coke’s partners. Most of them were merged or driven out of the market by larger ones adopting the DSD method, which is the only delivery category that provides a positive net profit per unit. Other driving forces for Pepsi and Coke to integrate bottlers are that, by doing this, they can narrow down the number of packagers they deal with, lower costs of negotiation with bottlers, and set up barriers to find buyers for other smaller national CPs. Question 2 Bargaining power of buyers is the weakest competitive force for CPs. On the other hand, the strongest competitive force for the bottling industry is bargaining power of suppliers because of the interactional relationship between the two industries in question. Both of the two industries would like to weak each other’s bargaining power, however, CPs take the initiative in the negotiation. First, it is CPs who build franchise networks. CPs understand how the bottling process works, while the bottlers don’t know how to run a soft drink brand. Second, CPs negotiate with bottlers’ other suppliers to secure reliable supply, faster  delivery, and low price. Also, franchise agreement between CPs and bottlers has been becoming more favorable to CPs. So it is safe to say that bottlers have been affiliated to CPs to a deeper degree than CPs to bottlers. Finally, the bottling industry does not have giants who are able to penetrate into the CP industry. On the other hand, the CP industry has Pepsi and Coke to integrate bottlers. Threat of new entrants is the second weakest force for the CP industry. One of the major reasons is that it is difficult to access a bottler since like Pepsi and Coke are taking control of most of the packagers. Another reason is, although capital required to establish a soft drink concentrate plant with the capacity of serving the entire US market is low, costs for advertising, promotion, market research and bottler relations are a heavy burden and specialized know-how, such as brand management, is a natural barrier to penetrators. However, the fact that customers’ loyalty is becoming weaker makes the force not as weak as bargaining power of buyers. The bargaining power of suppliers to CPs also seems weak in the case since, as the advent of diet soft drinks, the expiration of the patent to aspartame, and oversupply of aluminum on the world market, suppliers to CPs are losing bargaining power. However, there is no detail of suppliers industry given to provide us with confidence to say that it is the weakest force. Threat of substitutes, and competitive rivalry among the incumbents are relatively weak for the CP industry. Comparing to its substitutes, such as beer, milk, and bottled water, soft drink is and will continue to be performing outstandingly (Exhibit 2). Type of competition in the CP industry is duopoly, two giants, Pepsi and Coke are competing with each other head to head. Other CPs are confined to a market share that is lower than 30%. The unsystematic competition makes competitive rivalry less intense when consider the industry as a whole. Threat to new entrants for bottling industry is weak since, unlike the CP industry, bottling industry has a high capital requirement, from $30 to $50  million, to build a plant of five lines with one 85th to one 80th of the national volume. There is even no profit margin for small bottlers because they are not big enough to be engaged in the DSD to make a positive profit. Bargaining power of buyers is the third weakest force for the bottling industry. To bottlers, they receive volumes of concentrates at the level of their processing capacity; while at the other end of value chain, number of cases they can sell depends on bottlers’ marketing capability. To retailers, they don’t have switch costs since Pepsi Cola from bottler ‘A’ is the same as that from bottler ‘B’. However, continual brand availability and maintenance is crucial to CPs, they don’t want to see that too much inventory held by packagers erode relationship with each other. So, CPs have to help bottlers work on marketing and how to deal with retailers. Threat of substitutes, and competitive rivalry among the incumbents are the weakest. First, there are no substitutes for packages. Second, there is no competition among bottlers in that not only is intrabrand competition restricted, but also competition among brands are concerned by CPs since the bottlers are heavily controlled by concentrate suppliers nowadays. Question 3 The reason why the Cola-War does not escalate out of control is that both of Pepsi and Coke understand the importance of keeping its rival alive. Strategically, they are vital to each other’s maintenance. There are three possible results of the Cola-war, monopoly, duopoly, and near prefect competition. All players in this industry are dreaming to be the king of monopoly. However, under current situation, it is difficult to defeat each other without harming themselves for both of Pepsi and Coke. Launching plans and actions aiming at eliminating its competitor will probably result in the third result, near prefect competition, in which the industry would only have players bearing the same size as nowadays Seven-Up and Dr Pepper. Obviously, duopoly is the best and easiest choice for the big two. First, as risk avoiders, they can maintain current size and dominant position in the market, keep small national brands at an inferior level. Second, they can keep business environment nearly unchanged. The duopoly situation has been lasting for more than two decades. It is the one they are familiar to. No matter whoever is driven out of business or both of them lose the dominant position, they have to re-evaluate the industry and re-plan their strategic plan. Third, they can lower the possibility of making mistakes by observing what each other are doing. Based on above reasons, Pepsi and Coke choose not to wage a war that is out of control. Methods Coke and Pepsi adopt to keep the war within ‘bounds’ are focusing on key success factors, following each other’s actions selectively, and realizing gap in international market. There are three KSFs in this industry, brand differentiation, relationship with packagers, and developing new beverages. Focusing on KSFs enable both of Pepsi and Coke stay in the right track leading to higher level competition of duopoly. Following each other’s actions selectively prevents them from distracting to dangerous actions. They both followed closely each other’s actions based on KSFs, such as launching marketing plans, vertical integrating bottlers, and develop new products. They also distinguish bad actions from good ones. For instance, Pepsi gave its employees one-day brake when it received the information that Coke decided to change its Coca-Cola’s formula. Pepsi has admitted that Coke is much stronger on international market. It is very important that it uses ‘guerilla warfare’ in selected international market instead a frontal attack with Coke everywhere, which would entrap Pepsi in the quicksands of international market. Question 4 Over the last century, firms specialized in tobacco, food, and restaurant, such as Philip Morris, Hicks & Haas, Triarc, R.J. Reynolds, and Cadbury Schweppes, tried to penetrate into the soft drink industry through purchasing small national CPs like Dr Pepper, Seven-Up, and Royal Crown Cola, however, few of them survived. Reasons for this fact fell with the faulty strategic planning process. Those who entered but do not end up with success failed to recognize three key success factors in this industry in the beginning, building brand recognition, developing packaging networks, and changing distribution channels. First, Pepsi successfully competed with Coke through adopting brand differentiation. In responding to Pepsi’s attack, Coke spent even more money on advertising, which gained two companies world wide fame, heated up the war between them, and shaped their capacity to remain as top players. However, other CPs did not cash in on the brand differentiation strategy, which can be illustrated by a compare of dollar amount spending on advertising by brand in the US. (Exhibit 3) Second, there was no evidence that small national CPs tried to secure packagers to build their bottling network. Instead, they had to resort to bottlers owned by Pepsi and Coke, while small bottlers do not have the capacity to handle national distribution. Costs for new entrants to maintain bottler relations or organize small bottlers are so high that may eat up gross profit. Finally, as discount retailers such as Wal-Mart and K mart prospered during the 1990s, CPs are facing pressures on lowering their wholesale price. Besides, it seems only Pepsi and Coke were involved in Door-Store Delivery method, CPs that sell products to private label and warehouse would be facing less distributors due to negative net profit/unit.

Red Lotus and Thousand ;One Nights

Syree Davis Eng. 203 Nov. 1 2012 Ms. tody The Red Lotus of Chastity and The Thousand and One Nights The females in The Red Lotus of Chastity and The Thousand and One Nights struggled against ideas of chastity that were created by a male dominated society. They had to over come the cultural ideals of what women should be and do. Devasmita and Shahrazad both decided to take matters into their own hands and not fall to male authority or their tricks. The themes of these novels are the feminine empowerment, loyalty and devotion.The women of these novels showed feminine empowerment. Although they had obstacles that could have over come them they still stood against them and showed that females can be strong and independent too. Devasmita was struggling with being away from her husband while trying to be tricked into doing the merchants' sons but she showed feminine empowerment by deciding to trick them and make them be punished. This proved that females could also have power to do things and weren't just to be around to clean, cook and do what their husbands wanted.Shahrazad is the definition of feminine empowerment she stood against male authority the whole novel and didn't step down. Her role in The Thousand and One Nights was to teach the king a lesson, this showed her will to go against authority to teach a male a lesson. These females were devoted to what they wanted to do and wouldn't stop. Shahrazad was devoted to teaching the king a lesson and no male could stop her. She was self educated and strong willed, she pursued to learn about poets and other authors and people of high stature.Devasmita was devoted to her king and would not break for anyone after receiving the red lotus which was symbolic for feminine qualities and things that related to the heart (love, passion and sex) she finally agreed to let him go on his trip. This was love because she knew she would be jealous of the distance between the two and the events that had happened with another man tha t was cheating. She remained steady and devoted to her king though despite the tricks and the men trying to pursue her. This was a stand for the females making it known hey could think for themselves and could make up there own minds and also hold down a household without a male figure. Loyalty also connects with the devotion they shared to do what they had to do because without them being loyal there was no need to have devotion. Loyalty was another characteristic that the females shared and displayed in these novels. They were loyal to their goals and didn't stray away from them. Devasmita and Shahrazad being females in their time ran by in a male society was rough. They were expected to do whatever they were told especially in the household.When they would not do what the males wanted, it was a shock for a female to do this. Being loyal in those times were hard and for them to show they had the power to do that displayed their strong will. Once again the themes of these novels ar e the feminine empowerment, loyalty and devotion. These all are thought to be things that females do well, but when put against an all male society they are faced with obstacles. They overcome the temptation and stay on the right path or stay focused on their goals. Although Shahrazad was a little different story line that Devasmita she also faced obstacles.She was trying to teach the king a lesson and didn't listen to male authority. She thought herself and was self motivated, her goal was set and didnt stray away from it. She was devoted and loyal to her goal to teach the society a lesson. Devasmita was a wife that was in love with her husband so much that she grew jealous of him being so far away. Jealousy rose from the story's of another man cheating in the temple. She finally decided to let him go once receiving the red lotus that symbolized feminine empowerment, and female characteristic.This gave her the ability to let him leave and stay loyal and devoted to him. Although the merchants son's were put up to no good and make her cheat on her husband she would not. She kept up the household and even was intelligent enough to find out their true intentions and even was able to bring their plans to light. These females strong willed and very smart. Although society was based on males points of views they didn't let this discourage them they still decided to teach themselves and prove they were strong enough.The chastity was not just not the virgin or sexual aspect but the overall devotion, having the power to say no and fight (feminine empowerment) and being loyal. All these contributed to the conflict of the novels which was the females overpowering the male society and deciding not to listen. This was a big step for the females especially in a all male society that was built up by males. In the end they overcame what cultural ideals were of females and did this by not listen to the male society and that they were more than just to be in the house working b ut could be educated and in some situations could out wit the males in their society.This gave them the power to do what they wanted not only were they intelligent they were independent. Even with a man in their lives they could still think on their own and even make decisions. Devasmita could have easily been persuaded to do things if she was not so devoted and wanted to be loyal. Shahrazad could have just been a normal female that is ideal to usual cultural ideals but she decided to educate herself on things that interested her and even plotted to teach the king a lesson.