The Origin and Growth of the Italian Mafia essays

The Origin and Growth of the Italian Mafia essays The Origin and Expansion of the Italian Mafia Mafia. The word that continues to make many quake in fear at the mere mention of it. The Mafia is the longest lasting structured crime organization, it's origins dating back to the 1200's. In those early years the Mafia had just consisted of a few strong men trying to make a buck. Since its initial introduction to Italy, and particularly in Sicily, the Mafia has since fostered and grown into a worldwide crime organization. The origin of the word "mafia" is quite vague. Some experts claim that it came into existence as early as the ninth century, when Arab forces invaded and conquered Sicily. Their Arab rulers oppressed the peasants and many fled to the hills. In Arabic the word "mafia" means refuge. Sicily was subsequently invaded by the Normans in the eleventh century, the French in the twelfth century, the Spanish in the thirteenth century, and suffered from invasions by other nationalities as well. To combat these oppressive invaders, the refugees formed a secret society based on the Sicilian heritage of a sense of family. The organization had a strong hierarchical structure, led by the family heads called "dons." They in turn reported to the "don of dons", who lived in Palermo, the capital of Sicily. All Mafia members, from the lowest ranking informant to the most powerful don obeyed the rule of "Omerta", not revealing any Mafia dealings to the authorities, even about the enemy. Anyone who v iolated Omerta was killed. (History of the Mafia, www.wallwin.org) Others maintain that the word originated during the French invasion when the natives took up the cry, "Morte Alla Francia Italia Anela" (Death to the French is Italy's Cry), or MAFIA, (History of the Mafia, www.wallwin.org) while still others claim the word developed during Sicily's feudal period, when local strongmen were sent to collect the landlord's rents from his tenants (Sicily: Italy Apart...

The Legacy and Works of Lu Xun

The Legacy and Works of Lu Xun Lu Xun (é ² Ã¨ ¿â€¦) was the pen name of Zhou Shuren (å‘ ¨Ã¦  â€˜Ã¤ º º), one of China’s most famous fiction authors, poets, and essayists. He is considered by many to be the father of modern Chinese literature because he was the first serious author to write using modern colloquial language. Lu Xun  died on October 19, 1936, but his works have remained prominent over the years in Chinese culture. Early Life Born on September 25,  1881, in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, Lu Xun was born into a wealthy and well-educated family. However, his grandfather was caught and nearly executed for bribery when Lu Xun was still a child, which sent his family tumbling down the social ladder. This fall from grace and the way once-friendly neighbors treated his family after they had lost their status had a profound effect on the young Lu Xun. When traditional Chinese remedies failed to save his fathers life from an illness, most likely tuberculosis, Lu Xun vowed to study Western medicine and become a doctor. His studies took him to Japan, where one day after class he saw a slide of a Chinese prisoner being executed by Japanese soldiers while other Chinese people were gathered around happily taking in the spectacle. Appalled at his countrymen’s apparent callousness, Lu Xun abandoned his study of medicine and vowed to take up writing with the idea that was no point in curing diseases in Chinese people’s bodies if there was a more fundamental problem in their minds that needed curing. Socio-Political Beliefs The beginning of Lu Xun’s writing career coincided with the beginning of the May 4th Movement, a social and political movement of mostly young intellectuals who were determined to modernize China by importing and adapting Western ideas, literary theories, and medical practices. Through his writing, which was extremely critical of Chinese tradition and strongly advocated modernization, Lu Xun became one of the leaders of this movement. Impact on the Communist Party Lu Xun’s work has been embraced and to a certain extent co-opted by  China’s Communist Party. Mao Zedong held him in very high esteem, although Mao also worked hard to prevent people from taking Lu Xun’s sharp-tongued critical approach when it came to writing about the Party. Lu Xun himself died well before the communist revolution and it’s difficult to say what he would have thought of it. National and International Influence Widely recognized as one of China’s best and most influential authors, Lu Xun remains strikingly relevant to modern China. His socially-critical work is still widely read and discussed in China and references to his stories, characters, and essays abound in everyday speech as well as academia. Many Chinese people can quote from several of his stories verbatim, as they are still taught as part of China’s national curriculum. His work also continues to influence modern Chinese authors  and writers around the world.  Nobel-prize-winning author KenzaburÃ…  Ã…Å'e  reportedly called him the greatest writer Asia produced in the twentieth century. Noted Works His first short story, â€Å"A Madman’s Diary†, made a huge splash in China’s literary world when it was published in 1918 for its clever use of colloquial language juxtaposed with the stilted, hard-to-read classical language that â€Å"serious† authors were meant to write in at the time. The story also turned heads for its extremely critical take on Chinas dependence on tradition, which Lu Xun uses metaphors to compare to cannibalism. A short, satirical novella called â€Å"The True Story of Ah-Q† was published a few years later. In this work, Lu Xun condemns the Chinese psyche through the titular character Ah-Q, a bumbling peasant who constantly considers himself superior to others even as he is relentlessly humiliated and ultimately executed by them. This characterization was on-the-nose enough that the phrase â€Å"the Ah-Q spirit† remains widely used even today, nearly 100 years after the story was first published. Although his early short fiction is among his most memorable work, Lu Xun was a prolific writer and he produced a wide variety of pieces including a large number of translations of Western works, many significant critical essays, and even a number of poems. Though he only lived to be 55, his complete collected works  fill 20 volumes and weigh over 60 pounds. Selected Translated Works The two works mentioned above,  A Madman’s Diary† (ç‹‚ä º ºÃ¦â€" ¥Ã¨ ® °)  and â€Å"The True Story of Ah-Q† (é˜ ¿Qæ ­ £Ã¤ ¼  )  are available to read as translated works.   Other translated works include  The New Year’s Sacrifice,  a powerful short story about women’s rights and, more broadly, the dangers of complacency. Also available is  My Old Home,  a more reflective tale about memory and the ways in which we relate to the past.