Sunday, January 26, 2020

Multi-Campus ICT Equipment Virtualization Architecture

Multi-Campus ICT Equipment Virtualization Architecture Multi-campus ICT equipment virtualization architecture  for cloud and NFV integrated service Abstract- We propose a virtualization architecture for multicampus  information and communication technology (ICT)  equipment with integrated cloud and NFV capabilities. The  aim of this proposal is to migrate most of ICT equipment on  campus premises into cloud and NFV platforms. Adopting this  architecture would make most of ICT services secure and  reliable and their disaster recovery (DR) economically  manageable. We also analyze a cost function and show cost advantages of  this proposed architecture, describe implementation design  issues, and report a preliminary experimentation of NFV DR  transaction. This architecture would encourage academic  institutes to migrate their own ICT systems located on their  premises into a cloud environments. Keywords; NFV, Data Center Migration, Disaster Recovery,  Multi-campus network I. INTRODUCTION There are many academic institutions that have multiple  campuses located in different cities. These institutions need  to provide information and communication technology (ICT)  services, such as E-learning services, equally for all students  on each campus. Usually, information technology (IT)  infrastructures, such as application servers, are deployed at a  main campus, and these servers are accessed by students on  each campus. For this purpose, each local area network  (LAN) on each campus is connected to a main campus LAN  via a virtual private network (VPN) over a wide area  network (WAN). In addition, Internet access service is  provided to all students on the multi-campus environment. To access the Internet, security devices, such as firewalls and  intrusion detection systems (IDSs), are indispensable as they  protect computing resources from malicious cyber activities. With the emergence of virtualization technologies such  as the cloud computing[1] and network functions  virtualization (NFV)[2], [3], we expected that ICT  infrastructures such as compute servers, storage devices, and  network equipment can be moved from campuses to  datacenters (DCs) economically. Some organizations have  begun to move their ICT infrastructures from their own  premises to outside DCs in order to improve security,  stability, and reliability. Also, there are a lot of contributions  to archiving DR capabilities with cloud technologies [4], [5], [6]. Active-passive replication or active-active replication are  expected techniques that archive DR capabilities. In these  replications, a redundant backup system is required  dedicatedly at a secondary site. With migration recovery [4],  these backup resources can be shared among many users.   These studies mainly focus on the application servers. While,  integrated DR capability for ICT infrastructures, both  application and network infrastructures, are still immature.   We propose a multi-campus ICT equipment virtualization  architecture for integrated cloud and NFV capabilities. The  aim of this proposal is to migrate entire ICT infrastructures  on campus premises into cloud and NFV platforms.   Adopting this architecture for multi-campus networks would  improve access link utilization, security device utilization,  network transmission delay, disaster tolerance, and  manageability at the same time.   We also analyze the cost function and show cost  advantages of this proposed architecture.   To evaluate the feasibility of our proposed architecture,  we built a test bed on SINET5 (Science Information  NETwork 5) [7], [8], [9]. We describe the test-bed design,  and preliminary experimentation on reducing the recovery  time of VNF is reported. The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section II  shows background of this work. Section III shows proposed  multi-campus network virtualization architecture. Section IV  shows an evaluation of the proposed architecture in terms of  cost advantages and implementation results. Section V  concludes the paper, and future work is discussed   II. BACKGROUND OF THIS WORK SINET5 is a Japanese academic backbone network for  about 850 research institutes and universities and provide  network services to about 30 million academic users.   SINET5 was wholly constructed and put into operation in  April 2016. SINET5 plays an important role in supporting a  wide range of research fields that need high-performance  connectivity, such as high-energy physics, nuclear fusion  science, astronomy, geodesy, seismology, and computer  science. Figure 1 shows the SINET5 architecture. It provides  points of presence, called SINET-data centers (DCs), and  SINET DCs are deployed in each prefecture in Japan. On  each SINET DC, an internet protocol (IP) router, MPLS-TP  system, and ROADM are deployed. The IP router  accommodates access lines from research institutes and  universities. All Every pairs of internet protocol (IP) routers  are connected by a paier of MPLS-TP paths. These paths  achieves low latency and high reliability. The IP routers and  MPLS-TP systems are connected by a 100-Gbps-based  optical path. Therefore, data can be transmitted from a  SINET DC to another SINET DC in up to 100 Gbps  throughput. In addition, users, who have 100 Gpbs access  lines, can transmit data to other users in up to 100 Gbps  throughput.   Currently, SINET5 provides a direct cloud connection  service. In this service, commercial cloud providers connect  their data centers to the SINET5 with high-speed link such as  10 Gbps link directly. Therefore, academic users can access  cloud computing resources with very low latency and high  bandwidth via SINET5. Thus, academic users can receive  high-performance computer communication between  campuses and cloud computing resources. Today, 17 cloud  service providers are directly connected to SINET5 and more  than 70 universities have been using cloud resources directly  via SINET5. To evaluate virtual technologies such as cloud computing  and NFV technologies, we constructed at test-bed platform  (shown as NFV platform in fig. 1) and will evaluate the  network delay effect for ICT service with this test bed. NFV  platform are constructed at four SINET-DCs on major cities  in Japan: Sapporo, Tokyo, Osaka, and Fukuoka. At each site,  the facilities are composed of computing resources, such as  servers and storages, network resources, such as layer-2  switches, and controllers, such as NFV orchestrator, and  cloud controller. The layer-2 switch is connected to a  SINET5 router at the same site with high speed link,  100Gbps. The cloud controller configures servers and  storages and NFV orchestrator configures the VNFs on NFV  platform. And user can setup and release VPNs between  universities, commercial clouds and NFV platforms  dynamically over SINET with on-demand controller. This  on-demand controller setup the router with NETCONF  interface. Also, this on-demand controller setup the VPN corelated  with NFV platform with REST interface.   Today there are many universities which has multiple  campus deployed over wide area. In this multi-campus  university, many VPNs (VLANs), ex hundreds of VPNs, are  desired to be configured over SINET to extend inter-campus  LAN. In order to satisfy this demand, SINET starts new  VPN services, called virtual campus LAN service. With this  service, layer 2 domains of multi-campus can be connected  as like as layer 2 switch using preconfigured VLAN rages   (ex. 1000-2000). III. PROPOSED MULTI-CAMPUS ICT EQUIPMENT  VIRTUALIZATION ARCHITECTURE In this section, the proposed architecture is described.   The architecture consists of two parts. First, we describe the  network architecture and clarify the issues with it. Next, a  NFV/cloud control architecture is described.   A. Proposed multi-campus network architecture   Multi-campus network architecture is shown in Figure 2.   There are two legacy network architectures and a proposed  network architecture. In legacy network architecture 1 (LA1),  Internet traffic for multiple campuses is delivered to a main  campus (shown as a green line) and checked by security  devices. After that, the internet traffic is distributed to each  campus (shown as a blue line). ICT Applications, such as Elearning  services, are deployed in a main campus and access  traffic to ICT application is carried by VPN over SINET  (shown as a blue line). In legacy network architecture 2  (LA2), the Internet access is different from LA1. The  Internet access is directly delivered to each campus and  checked by security devices deployed at each campus. In the  proposed architecture (PA), the main ICT application is  moved from a main campus to an external NFV/cloud DC.   Thus, students on both main and sub-campuses can access  ICT applications via VPN over SINET. Also, internet traffic  traverses via virtual network functions (VNFs), such as  virtual routers and virtual security devices, located at  NFV/cloud DCs. Internet traffic is checked in virtual security  devices and delivered to each main/sub-campus via VPN  over SINET. There are pros and cons between these architectures.   Here, they are compared across five points: access link  utilization, security device utilization, network transmission  delay, disaster tolerance, and manageability.   (1) Access link utilization The cost of an access link from sub-campus to WAN is  same in LA1, LA2 and PA. While, the cost of an access link  from a main campus to WAN of LA1 is larger than LA2 and PA because redundant traffic traverses through the link.   While, in PA, an additional access link from a NFV/cloud  DC to WAN is required. Thus, evaluating the total access link  cost is important. In this evaluation, it is assumed that  additional access links from NFV/cloud DCs to WAN are  shared among multiple academic institutions who use the  NFV/cloud platform and that the cost will be evaluated  taking this sharing into account. (2) Security device utilization LA1 and PA is more efficient than LA2 because Internet traffic is concentrated in LA1 and PA and a statistically multiplexed traffic effect is expected.  In addition to it, in PA, the amount of physical  computing resources can be suppressed because virtual  security devices share physical computing resources among  multiple users. Therefore, the cost of virtual security devices  for each user will be reduced. (3) Network transmission delay Network delay due to Internet traffic with LA1 is longer  than that with LA2 and PA because Internet traffic to subcampuses  is detoured and transits at the main campus in LA1,  however, in LA2, network delay of Internet to sub-campuses  is directly delivered from an Internet exchange point on a  WAN to the sub-campus, so delay is suppressed. In PA,  network delay can be suppressed because the NFV and cloud  data center can be selected and located near an Internet  access gateway on WAN. While, the network delay for ICT application services  will be longer in PA than it in LA1 and LA2. Therefore, the  effect of a longer network delay on the quality of IT  application services has to be evaluated.   (4) Disaster tolerance   Regarding Internet service, LA1 is less disaster tolerant  than LA2. In LA1, when a disaster occurs around the main  campus and the network functions of the campus go down,  students on the other sub-campuses cannot access the  internet at this time. Regarding IT application service, IT services cannot be  accessed by students when a disaster occurs around the main  campus or data center. While, in PA, NFV/cloud DC is  located in an environment robust against earthquakes and  flooding. Thus, robustness is improved compared with LA1  and LA2. Today, systems capable of disaster recovery (DR) are  mandatory for academic institutions. Therefore, service  disaster recovery functionality is required. In PA, back up  ICT infrastructures located at a secondary data center can be  shared with another user. Thus, no dedicated redundant  resources are required in steady state operation, so the  resource cost can be reduced. However, if VM migration  cannot be fast enough to continue services, active-passive or  active-passive replication have to be adopted. Therefore,  reducing recovery time is required to adapt migration  recovery to archive DR manageability more economically   (5) Manageability LA1 and PA is easier to manage than LA2. Because  security devices are concentrated at a site (a main campus or  NFV/cloud data center), the number of devices can be  reduced and improving manageability.   There are three issues to consider when adopting the PA.   Evaluating the access link cost of an NFV/cloud  data center. Evaluating the network delay effect for ICT services.   Evaluating the migration period for migration  recovery replication. B. NFV and cloud control architecture  For the following two reasons, there is strong demand to  use legacy ICT systems continuously. Thus, legacy ICT  systems have to be moved to NFV/cloud DCs as virtual  application servers and virtual network functions. One reason  is that institutions have developed their own legacy ICT  systems on their own premises with vender specific features.   The second reason is that an institutions work flows are not  easily changed, and the same usability for end users is  required. Therefore, their legacy ICT infrastructures  deployed on a campus premises should be continuously used  in the NFV/cloud environment. In the proposed multicampus  architecture, these application servers and network  functions are controlled by using per-user orchestrators.   Figure 3 shows the proposed control architecture. Each  institution deploys their ICT system on IaaS services. VMs  are created and deleted through the application interface  (API), which is provided by IaaS providers. Each institution  sets up an NFV orchestrator, application orchestrator, and  management orchestrator on VMs. Both active and standby  orchestrators are run in primary and secondary data centers,  respectively, and both active and standby orchestrators check  the aliveness of each other. The NFV orchestrator creates the  VMs and installs the virtual network functions, such as  routers and virtual firewalls, and configures them. The  application orchestrator installs the applications on VMs and  sets them up. The management orchestrator registers these  applications and virtual network functions to monitoring  tools and saves the logs outputted from the IT service  applications and network functions. When an active data center suffers from disaster and the  active orchestrators go down, the standby orchestrators  detect that the active orchestrators are down. They start  establishing the virtual network functions and application  and management functions. After that, the VPN is connected  to the secondary data center being co-operated with the VPN  controller of WAN. In this architecture, each institution can select NFV  orchestrators that support a users legacy systems.   IV. EVALUATION OF PROPOSED NETWORK ARCHITECTURE This section details an evaluation of the access link cost  of proposed network architecture. Also, the test-bed  configuration is introduced, and an evaluation of the  migration period for migration recovery is shown.   A. Access link cost of NFV/cloud data center  In this sub-section, an evaluation of the access link cost  of PA compared with LA1 is described.   First, the network cost is defined as follows.   There is an institution, u, that has a main campus and nu  sub-campuses. The traffic amount of institution u is defined as follows  different sites can be connected between a user site and cloud  sites by a SINET VPLS (Fig. 7). This VPLS can be dynamically established by a portal that uses the REST  interface for the on-demand controller. For upper-layer  services such as Web-based services, virtual network  appliances, such as virtual routers, virtual firewalls, and  virtual load balancers, are created in servers through the  NFV orchestrater. DR capabilities for NFV orchestrator is  under deployment. C. Migiration period for disaster recovery   We evaluated the VNF recovering process for disaster  recovery. In this process, there are four steps.   Step 1: Host OS installation Step 2: VNF image copy Step 3: VNF configuration copy Step 4: VNF process activation This process is started from the host OS installation because  there are VNFs that are tightly coupled with the host OS and  hypervisor. There are several kinds and versions of host OS,  so the host OS can be changed to suite to the VNF. After  host OS installation, VNF images are copied into the created  VMs. Then, the VNF configuration parameters are adjusted  to the attributions of the secondary data center environment  (for example, VLAN-ID and IP address), and the  configuration parameters are installed into VNF. After that,  VNF is activated. In our test environment, a virtual router can be recovered  from the primary data center to the secondary data center,  and the total duration of recovery is about 6 min. Each  duration of Steps 1-4 is 3 min 13 sec, 3 min 19 sec, 11 sec,  and 17 sec, respectively. To shorten the recovery time, currently, the standby VNF  is able to be pre-setup and activated. If the same  configuration can be applied in the secondary data center  network environment, snapshot recovering is also available.  In this case, Step 1 is eliminated, and Steps 2 and 3 are  replaced by copying a snap shot of an active VNF image,  which takes about 30 sec. In this case, the recovering time is  about 30 sec. V. CONCLUSION Our method using cloud and NFV functions can achieve  DR with less cost. We proposed a multi-campus equipment  virtualization architecture for cloud and NFV integrated  service. The aim of this proposal is to migrate entire ICT  infrastructures on campus premises into cloud and NFV  platforms. This architecture would encourage academic  institutions to migrate their own developed ICT systems located on their premises into a cloud environment. Adopting  this architecture would make entire ICT systems secure and  reliable, and the DR of ICT services could be economically  manageable. In addition, we also analyzed the cost function, and  showed a cost advantages of this proposed architecture  described implementation design issues, and reported a  preliminary experimentation of the NFV DR transaction/

Saturday, January 18, 2020

Blood Brothers

The past few weeks I have been reading the play Blood Brothers written by Willy Russell. It is the story of twin brothers who are separated at birth. Wealthy Mrs Lyons, who is not able to have her own children, blackmails her maid, Mrs Johnstone into giving her one of her new born twins. Mrs Lyons says all Miss Johnston’s other children well benefit, as the Johnston’s have little money. The women agree that it should be their secret and no one else will ever know the truth. The play explores many themes, some being, superstition, friendship and social class.This essay will discuss the changes in the relationship between Edward and Mickey, while also looking at the conveyed themes. The first time Edward and Mickey meet is when they are seven. â€Å"My best friend always had sweets to share. † Mickey is describing Eddie as his â€Å"best friend. † When the brothers first met Edward shared sweets with Mickey, this small gesture started their friendship. If Ed ward had not shared his sweets the brothers might have never became friends. When they find out that they were born on the same day Mickey asks Eddie to become his ‘blood brother'.The boys both made a small cut on their hand, then linked the cuts together, making the blood from the boys join. Both mothers find out about their friendship and are fast in telling their sons to break it up. Edward tells Mickey, ‘My mum says I haven’t got to play with you’ Mickey replies ‘Well, my mum says I haven’t to play with you’. Both mothers are trying to get the twins to stop communicating. By this time the brothers are good friends and blood brothers. Against their mothers wishes the brothers continue to have a friendship until Mrs Lyons even decides to persuade her husband to move the family away.Soon after, the Johnston’s are moved to a house in the country – unknown to them it’s the same area in which the Lyons moved to. The br others meet again in a field at the age of 14, not knowing who the other is. After the move the Johnston’s life has improved, Mickey still has a crush on Linda but doesn’t know how to ask her out. This is another part of fate, they live close by and were both excluded from school at the same time. The twins go to the cinema together, then they finally realise who the other is and meet up with Linda.Mrs Lyons spots Mrs Johnston and tries to kill her. The boys friendship is still strong but the time gap has left a toll. Edward’s vocabulary is not as posh/strong. Also the contrast in backgrounds shows. Mickey smokes, while Edward doesn’t. Edward lives in a ’posh’ area Mickey lives in the estate. Also Edward attends a private school while Mickey goes to the county school. The next time Edward and Mickey meet is when they are 18. ‘If I was Mickey I would have asked you years ago. ’ Edward is jealous of the feelings Linda has for Mick ey.He knows Mickey feels the same for Linda and puts his ‘best friends’ feelings over his own and persuades him to ask her out. While Edward is away at University Linda falls pregnant and Mickey looses his job. This pushes Edwards life further away from Mickey’s. Edward socialises and is in further education. Mickey is on the dole with a pregnant wife, he’s a lot more pressured than Edward. When Edward returns Mickey doesn’t have any money, ‘The Christmas Party’s gonna be on me. ’ Mickey had promised to take Edward out for a treat.Edward said he would pay, but if anything, this put more pressure on Mickey and it pushed him into participating in a ‘hold up’ with his brother, Sammy. The job goes all wrong, Sammy shoots someone and they both end up in jail. While in jail Mickey is put into a depression and ends up on antidepressant drugs. ‘I get depressed an’ I need to take these cos they make me better. â €™ Edward helps Mickey and Linda get a house and gets Mickey a job. This puts a strain on Mickey and Linda, Mickey feels he is a failure as his wife had to get help off a friend. ‘I’m not stupid, Linda. You sorted it out.You an’ Councillor Eddie Lyons. ’ He thinks Linda and Edward are having an affair. Mickey gets a gun and goes to confront Edward. ‘I’ve been thinkin’ again, Eddie. You an’ Linda were friends when she first got pregnant, weren’t y’? Does my child belong to you as well as everythin’ else? ’ The police enter, and try to convince Mickey to drop the gun. Mrs Johnstone enters, and pleads with Mickey to not shoot. She blurts out that they are brothers, and that she couldn’t afford to keep them both. Mickey’s jealousy is shown, ‘Why didn’t you give me away!I could have been †¦ I could have been him! At this point Mickey’s gun goes off accidentally, th e police open fire. Both brothers are dead. In conclusion the relationship between Edward and Mickey has its up’s and downs. At first they are close friends and are then separated, at fourteen they meet up again and are coincidentally separated once more. By the age of eighteen Mickey realises the differences and is betrayed by Edward. In the end realisation hits the brothers as they are told the truth, a childish pact was for real. The overall message is that although everyone has secrets, if they really matter they will be found out. Blood Brothers Blood Brothers is a musical by Willy Russell which was written and first performed in 1981. The musical is about twin brothers, separated at birth, with one kept in a low-class family and the other adopted into a wealthy family. The characters of Mrs Johnston and Mrs Lyons, the mothers, are total opposites. Mrs Johnston is a struggling, single mother of seven, with another two on the way, whereas Mrs Lyons is a privileged, yet childless, married woman. One of the main themes of the musical is superstition for example; the song ‘shoes upon the table’ is all about superstition.Another big theme of the musical is fate. Eddie and Mickey meet almost as if they are meant to, and instantly take a liking to one another. When they lose contact, they meet again, proving they are supposed to be a pair. Also the narrator plays the role of the devil and he sings the song lyrics ‘you know the devil’s got your number’ and that is implying that no matter what, fate i s going to happen wherever the characters are living or whatever they are doing. The last theme to the musical is social class, the whole way through the musical we are being reminded about how different these characters are to each other.Willy Russell shows this by their clothes, accent or speech. The opening scene started with a funeral we saw some men dressed in black suits putting two bodies into coffins (Mickey and Eddie) however the gauze curtain was still not raised. This seemed like the past and present of the story, as this first scene was the inevitable end. I think that was effective because it immediately gets your attention and you become eager to know what’s going on. Mickey and Eddie lay side by side both dead. The narrator then tells us the story of what happened. This is cross-cutting as it shows a different time period then returns to the current one.When we are first introduced to Mrs Johnston, she is a single mother ever since her husband left her for a yo unger woman. She is not dressed in the best of clothes as she does not have much money and her job is cleaning Mrs. Lyons house. Mrs. Johnston is a low–class Liverpudlian, who is extremely hard working. Mrs Johnston is shown as a woman in her thirties but a very worn out woman because of the stress of work and her children. Mrs Johnston stutters at times because of her being under pressure, like when Mrs Lyons is persuading her to give away one of the twins.And by Mrs. Johnston stuttering it shows she is unsure and pressured into something she doesn’t want to do. Willy Russell presents Mrs Johnston to the audience as a decent woman, who gives lots of love to her children, but she can’t give them more than that because she hasn’t got a well-paid job and she is working as Mrs Lyons’ house maid, which takes a lot of her time, which could be spent with her children instead. That is why Mickey and his siblings are left to learn about life themselves on the streets. That makes the audience sympathise with the poor people.She shows that to the audience after she learns she is going to have twins by saying: â€Å"With one more baby we could have managed. But not with two. The Welfare have already been on to me. They say I’m incapable of controllin’ the kids I’ve already got. They say I should put some of them into care† so because she loves her children and wants to keep them she makes the sacrifice of giving Eddie to Mrs. Lyons with hope that he will have a better life then what she could give him. Even though she regrets giving Eddie to Mrs. Lyons her superstitions stops her from telling anyone about what she has done out of the fear of killing her own children.Mrs Lyons contrasts really strongly against Mrs Johnston. At first, Mrs Lyons is shown as a bright person in her thirties, unlike the stressed Mrs Johnston who is the same age. Mrs Lyons is an upper middle-class woman. She is dressed very smartly as she has the money to have nice clothes. Mrs. Lyons is a very patronising woman, who is forceful and pressurising. Mrs Lyons uses negative views about extra children so that Mrs Johnston will have to give away one of the twins to her. She doesn’t do this in an aggressive way, but in a dangerously sweet way. So that Mrs.Johnston doesn’t feel like she can cope any more. Willy Russell also shows Mrs. Lyons to be self-centred as Mrs Lyons is willing to take a child away from its mother, so that she can save herself. Mrs Lyons is a very sly and devious woman, as she uses superstition against Mrs Johnston, so that she can keep one of the twins. Her facial expressions are very stern and persuading and her body language comes across very confident as she knows that’s she is manipulating Mrs. Johnston. The Narrator is also a very important part to the musical; he acts as a shadow of the other characters. Firstly he was like the host.He constantly kept appearing and kep t the performance flowing. It seemed as if he had the remote to slow things down and also to speed things up when he wanted. He wore a smart black suit which gave him a high profile. His voice was used quite well because he adjusted it to make it loud and directive as a narrator should have but it also had a bit of power in it. During the performance he popped up here and there just to clarify things for the audience. The Narrator is there as a reminder of Mrs Johnston and Mrs Lyons’ agreement. The other characters don’t acknowledge him which shows he is of a ghostly nature.The Narrator raises suspicion and builds up tension between the characters. The Narrator also has no emotions and he comes across as a very cold person which makes the audience feel as if he is like a devil type figure. Although he is a devil like figure, he is a neutral character because he doesn’t choose sides and we don’t know anything about him, other than he knows the fate of each character. The Narrator is trying to tell Mrs Johnston and Mrs Lyons that their pact won’t work, because the truth will be known. He uses repetition and rhyme, so that his lines are more catchy and memorable.The character of Mickey was portrayed really well as the person playing this role was showing great child like movements such as pulling his jumper over his knees and also by the way he was speaking. The way Mickey was speaking came across very child like as he was doing a lot of rhyming and simple sentences. Mickey also plays childhood games, like mounted Police and Indians, and runs around with a toy gun. When Mickey was playing his cowboy like games he pretended to have a horse between his legs and he galloped around the stage like a child would do.As Mickey got older he showed he was acting more mature and he understood that life wasn’t going to be easy for him and he needed to work for things unlike Eddie who had everything sorted out for him. When Mickey has got out of prison he is really unsteady and has to take pills to calm himself even though he doesn’t need the pills, he just thinks he does. But when Mickey takes the pills, Willy Russell uses stage directions to give the characters emotion with their physical movement, so when Mickey takes the pills the lights come up on Mickey.We see him go to take his pill, we see him struggle not to take it’’ Russell does this to get the audience to feel sad and sympathetic for Mickey. So in this scene the lighting is really dim, which reflects on Mickey’s thought processes which are slow and aged. You can see from this scene that prison has aged Mickey beyond doubt. Mickey used movement and his voice to really portray Mickey’s vulnerability. Mickey’s movements were slow and it seemed like every step he took was agony. His speech was slow, and his voice was extremely quiet.He walked hunched over, as if trying to protect himself from an unknown fear. Edd ie is the complete opposite to Mickey as he was raised in a wealthy family and he shows this in his body language because he stands up straight, speaks politely and is never rude. When Eddie first meets Mickey, Mickey speaks in common English and uses slang around Eddie and he finds it amazing because he has never heard any one talk like that. Eddie seems to have grown up very fast because at the age of seven, he is already very polite and well spoken. His parents have influenced him because he is like a miniature adult.Throughout the whole of the musical Mrs. Johnston sings about Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn Monroe is a very clever icon to use throughout the musical. This is because using her as a reference sets us in the correct time period. She is also a good symbol, because she has links to many of the themes in the play including death, addiction and beauty. All the scenes were set in the same location; and the set design remained the same for the whole performance, even when the ba ckdrop changed however, the insides of houses, occasionally descended from the ceiling to show the insides of each home.One the right side of the stage was a wall which had graffiti on it and that represented the lower class type of area that Mickey and Mrs. Johnston would live in. Class difference is displayed very clearly in Blood Brothers, in particular the difference in wealth between the two families. Eddie's parents ensure that he has a comfortable upbringing and is able to study at university and receive a qualification, resulting in a highly paid job. This is completely different to Mickey.He comes from a poor family which meant that he was stuck in a dead end job in a factory. â€Å"I bleeding hated it, standing there all day never doing anything apart from putting cardboard boxes together. † This reflects Mickey's frustration and highlights the lack of opportunities open to him, which adds to the dramatic effect of the musical because it prepares us for trouble in t he future. A good example of dramatic irony in the musical is when Eddie and Mickey decide that as they are such good friends they will become blood brothers. Hey, we were born on the same day. That means we can be blood brothers. † The audience knows that they were actually brothers so that creates dramatic irony. I really enjoyed the musical Blood Brothers and it helped me understand the class difference which is displayed very clearly in the difference in wealth between the two families. I also liked the way the actors never came out of role when bringing in props e. g. chairs, tables and carpets. I also loved how the lighting would make a very serious point feel more real and intense. Blood Brothers The past few weeks I have been reading the play Blood Brothers written by Willy Russell. It is the story of twin brothers who are separated at birth. Wealthy Mrs Lyons, who is not able to have her own children, blackmails her maid, Mrs Johnstone into giving her one of her new born twins. Mrs Lyons says all Miss Johnston’s other children well benefit, as the Johnston’s have little money. The women agree that it should be their secret and no one else will ever know the truth. The play explores many themes, some being, superstition, friendship and social class.This essay will discuss the changes in the relationship between Edward and Mickey, while also looking at the conveyed themes. The first time Edward and Mickey meet is when they are seven. â€Å"My best friend always had sweets to share. † Mickey is describing Eddie as his â€Å"best friend. † When the brothers first met Edward shared sweets with Mickey, this small gesture started their friendship. If Ed ward had not shared his sweets the brothers might have never became friends. When they find out that they were born on the same day Mickey asks Eddie to become his ‘blood brother'.The boys both made a small cut on their hand, then linked the cuts together, making the blood from the boys join. Both mothers find out about their friendship and are fast in telling their sons to break it up. Edward tells Mickey, ‘My mum says I haven’t got to play with you’ Mickey replies ‘Well, my mum says I haven’t to play with you’. Both mothers are trying to get the twins to stop communicating. By this time the brothers are good friends and blood brothers. Against their mothers wishes the brothers continue to have a friendship until Mrs Lyons even decides to persuade her husband to move the family away.Soon after, the Johnston’s are moved to a house in the country – unknown to them it’s the same area in which the Lyons moved to. The br others meet again in a field at the age of 14, not knowing who the other is. After the move the Johnston’s life has improved, Mickey still has a crush on Linda but doesn’t know how to ask her out. This is another part of fate, they live close by and were both excluded from school at the same time. The twins go to the cinema together, then they finally realise who the other is and meet up with Linda.Mrs Lyons spots Mrs Johnston and tries to kill her. The boys friendship is still strong but the time gap has left a toll. Edward’s vocabulary is not as posh/strong. Also the contrast in backgrounds shows. Mickey smokes, while Edward doesn’t. Edward lives in a ’posh’ area Mickey lives in the estate. Also Edward attends a private school while Mickey goes to the county school. The next time Edward and Mickey meet is when they are 18. ‘If I was Mickey I would have asked you years ago. ’ Edward is jealous of the feelings Linda has for Mick ey.He knows Mickey feels the same for Linda and puts his ‘best friends’ feelings over his own and persuades him to ask her out. While Edward is away at University Linda falls pregnant and Mickey looses his job. This pushes Edwards life further away from Mickey’s. Edward socialises and is in further education. Mickey is on the dole with a pregnant wife, he’s a lot more pressured than Edward. When Edward returns Mickey doesn’t have any money, ‘The Christmas Party’s gonna be on me. ’ Mickey had promised to take Edward out for a treat.Edward said he would pay, but if anything, this put more pressure on Mickey and it pushed him into participating in a ‘hold up’ with his brother, Sammy. The job goes all wrong, Sammy shoots someone and they both end up in jail. While in jail Mickey is put into a depression and ends up on antidepressant drugs. ‘I get depressed an’ I need to take these cos they make me better. â €™ Edward helps Mickey and Linda get a house and gets Mickey a job. This puts a strain on Mickey and Linda, Mickey feels he is a failure as his wife had to get help off a friend. ‘I’m not stupid, Linda. You sorted it out.You an’ Councillor Eddie Lyons. ’ He thinks Linda and Edward are having an affair. Mickey gets a gun and goes to confront Edward. ‘I’ve been thinkin’ again, Eddie. You an’ Linda were friends when she first got pregnant, weren’t y’? Does my child belong to you as well as everythin’ else? ’ The police enter, and try to convince Mickey to drop the gun. Mrs Johnstone enters, and pleads with Mickey to not shoot. She blurts out that they are brothers, and that she couldn’t afford to keep them both. Mickey’s jealousy is shown, ‘Why didn’t you give me away!I could have been †¦ I could have been him! At this point Mickey’s gun goes off accidentally, th e police open fire. Both brothers are dead. In conclusion the relationship between Edward and Mickey has its up’s and downs. At first they are close friends and are then separated, at fourteen they meet up again and are coincidentally separated once more. By the age of eighteen Mickey realises the differences and is betrayed by Edward. In the end realisation hits the brothers as they are told the truth, a childish pact was for real. The overall message is that although everyone has secrets, if they really matter they will be found out. Blood Brothers Blood Brothers is a musical by Willy Russell which was written and first performed in 1981. The musical is about twin brothers, separated at birth, with one kept in a low-class family and the other adopted into a wealthy family. The characters of Mrs Johnston and Mrs Lyons, the mothers, are total opposites. Mrs Johnston is a struggling, single mother of seven, with another two on the way, whereas Mrs Lyons is a privileged, yet childless, married woman. One of the main themes of the musical is superstition for example; the song ‘shoes upon the table’ is all about superstition.Another big theme of the musical is fate. Eddie and Mickey meet almost as if they are meant to, and instantly take a liking to one another. When they lose contact, they meet again, proving they are supposed to be a pair. Also the narrator plays the role of the devil and he sings the song lyrics ‘you know the devil’s got your number’ and that is implying that no matter what, fate i s going to happen wherever the characters are living or whatever they are doing. The last theme to the musical is social class, the whole way through the musical we are being reminded about how different these characters are to each other.Willy Russell shows this by their clothes, accent or speech. The opening scene started with a funeral we saw some men dressed in black suits putting two bodies into coffins (Mickey and Eddie) however the gauze curtain was still not raised. This seemed like the past and present of the story, as this first scene was the inevitable end. I think that was effective because it immediately gets your attention and you become eager to know what’s going on. Mickey and Eddie lay side by side both dead. The narrator then tells us the story of what happened. This is cross-cutting as it shows a different time period then returns to the current one.When we are first introduced to Mrs Johnston, she is a single mother ever since her husband left her for a yo unger woman. She is not dressed in the best of clothes as she does not have much money and her job is cleaning Mrs. Lyons house. Mrs. Johnston is a low–class Liverpudlian, who is extremely hard working. Mrs Johnston is shown as a woman in her thirties but a very worn out woman because of the stress of work and her children. Mrs Johnston stutters at times because of her being under pressure, like when Mrs Lyons is persuading her to give away one of the twins.And by Mrs. Johnston stuttering it shows she is unsure and pressured into something she doesn’t want to do. Willy Russell presents Mrs Johnston to the audience as a decent woman, who gives lots of love to her children, but she can’t give them more than that because she hasn’t got a well-paid job and she is working as Mrs Lyons’ house maid, which takes a lot of her time, which could be spent with her children instead. That is why Mickey and his siblings are left to learn about life themselves on the streets. That makes the audience sympathise with the poor people.She shows that to the audience after she learns she is going to have twins by saying: â€Å"With one more baby we could have managed. But not with two. The Welfare have already been on to me. They say I’m incapable of controllin’ the kids I’ve already got. They say I should put some of them into care† so because she loves her children and wants to keep them she makes the sacrifice of giving Eddie to Mrs. Lyons with hope that he will have a better life then what she could give him. Even though she regrets giving Eddie to Mrs. Lyons her superstitions stops her from telling anyone about what she has done out of the fear of killing her own children.Mrs Lyons contrasts really strongly against Mrs Johnston. At first, Mrs Lyons is shown as a bright person in her thirties, unlike the stressed Mrs Johnston who is the same age. Mrs Lyons is an upper middle-class woman. She is dressed very smartly as she has the money to have nice clothes. Mrs. Lyons is a very patronising woman, who is forceful and pressurising. Mrs Lyons uses negative views about extra children so that Mrs Johnston will have to give away one of the twins to her. She doesn’t do this in an aggressive way, but in a dangerously sweet way. So that Mrs.Johnston doesn’t feel like she can cope any more. Willy Russell also shows Mrs. Lyons to be self-centred as Mrs Lyons is willing to take a child away from its mother, so that she can save herself. Mrs Lyons is a very sly and devious woman, as she uses superstition against Mrs Johnston, so that she can keep one of the twins. Her facial expressions are very stern and persuading and her body language comes across very confident as she knows that’s she is manipulating Mrs. Johnston. The Narrator is also a very important part to the musical; he acts as a shadow of the other characters. Firstly he was like the host.He constantly kept appearing and kep t the performance flowing. It seemed as if he had the remote to slow things down and also to speed things up when he wanted. He wore a smart black suit which gave him a high profile. His voice was used quite well because he adjusted it to make it loud and directive as a narrator should have but it also had a bit of power in it. During the performance he popped up here and there just to clarify things for the audience. The Narrator is there as a reminder of Mrs Johnston and Mrs Lyons’ agreement. The other characters don’t acknowledge him which shows he is of a ghostly nature.The Narrator raises suspicion and builds up tension between the characters. The Narrator also has no emotions and he comes across as a very cold person which makes the audience feel as if he is like a devil type figure. Although he is a devil like figure, he is a neutral character because he doesn’t choose sides and we don’t know anything about him, other than he knows the fate of each character. The Narrator is trying to tell Mrs Johnston and Mrs Lyons that their pact won’t work, because the truth will be known. He uses repetition and rhyme, so that his lines are more catchy and memorable.The character of Mickey was portrayed really well as the person playing this role was showing great child like movements such as pulling his jumper over his knees and also by the way he was speaking. The way Mickey was speaking came across very child like as he was doing a lot of rhyming and simple sentences. Mickey also plays childhood games, like mounted Police and Indians, and runs around with a toy gun. When Mickey was playing his cowboy like games he pretended to have a horse between his legs and he galloped around the stage like a child would do.As Mickey got older he showed he was acting more mature and he understood that life wasn’t going to be easy for him and he needed to work for things unlike Eddie who had everything sorted out for him. When Mickey has got out of prison he is really unsteady and has to take pills to calm himself even though he doesn’t need the pills, he just thinks he does. But when Mickey takes the pills, Willy Russell uses stage directions to give the characters emotion with their physical movement, so when Mickey takes the pills the lights come up on Mickey.We see him go to take his pill, we see him struggle not to take it’’ Russell does this to get the audience to feel sad and sympathetic for Mickey. So in this scene the lighting is really dim, which reflects on Mickey’s thought processes which are slow and aged. You can see from this scene that prison has aged Mickey beyond doubt. Mickey used movement and his voice to really portray Mickey’s vulnerability. Mickey’s movements were slow and it seemed like every step he took was agony. His speech was slow, and his voice was extremely quiet.He walked hunched over, as if trying to protect himself from an unknown fear. Edd ie is the complete opposite to Mickey as he was raised in a wealthy family and he shows this in his body language because he stands up straight, speaks politely and is never rude. When Eddie first meets Mickey, Mickey speaks in common English and uses slang around Eddie and he finds it amazing because he has never heard any one talk like that. Eddie seems to have grown up very fast because at the age of seven, he is already very polite and well spoken. His parents have influenced him because he is like a miniature adult.Throughout the whole of the musical Mrs. Johnston sings about Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn Monroe is a very clever icon to use throughout the musical. This is because using her as a reference sets us in the correct time period. She is also a good symbol, because she has links to many of the themes in the play including death, addiction and beauty. All the scenes were set in the same location; and the set design remained the same for the whole performance, even when the ba ckdrop changed however, the insides of houses, occasionally descended from the ceiling to show the insides of each home.One the right side of the stage was a wall which had graffiti on it and that represented the lower class type of area that Mickey and Mrs. Johnston would live in. Class difference is displayed very clearly in Blood Brothers, in particular the difference in wealth between the two families. Eddie's parents ensure that he has a comfortable upbringing and is able to study at university and receive a qualification, resulting in a highly paid job. This is completely different to Mickey.He comes from a poor family which meant that he was stuck in a dead end job in a factory. â€Å"I bleeding hated it, standing there all day never doing anything apart from putting cardboard boxes together. † This reflects Mickey's frustration and highlights the lack of opportunities open to him, which adds to the dramatic effect of the musical because it prepares us for trouble in t he future. A good example of dramatic irony in the musical is when Eddie and Mickey decide that as they are such good friends they will become blood brothers. Hey, we were born on the same day. That means we can be blood brothers. † The audience knows that they were actually brothers so that creates dramatic irony. I really enjoyed the musical Blood Brothers and it helped me understand the class difference which is displayed very clearly in the difference in wealth between the two families. I also liked the way the actors never came out of role when bringing in props e. g. chairs, tables and carpets. I also loved how the lighting would make a very serious point feel more real and intense.

Friday, January 10, 2020

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Thursday, January 2, 2020

John Steinbeck s Of Mice And Men - 2167 Words

The Great Depression affected many Americans throughout the 1930s. Many people had no source of income and had no other choice but to travel and find new jobs. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, George Milton and Lennie Small wander through California in search of a new job that would help them make enough money to live their American dream on â€Å"the fatta the lan’†(Steinbeck 14). George and Lennie’s hard work and determination is not enough for them to live their dream. Lennie has a mental disability that slows the two friends down from living their dream; they have to run from job to job because of Lennie’s unintentional actions. Steinbeck incorporates multiple literary devices in his fictional novel. He introduces the setting very early in the novel, as it is very confined. Steinbeck uses the third person point of view, both the limited and omniscient, throughout the entire novel. He introduces dynamic, round characters and static, flat characters, through the course of the novel, which significantly affect the plot and theme. Steinbeck implements the three types of irony: situational, verbal, and dramatic. The ironic situations lead to both external and internal conflicts among the characters. Steinbeck also maintains a sympathetic, honest tone and simple diction. He includes similes, metaphors, and personification. Steinbeck also utilizes foreshadowing and symbolism, both being major devices in Of Mice and Men. John Steinbeck is considered among the best, mostShow MoreRelatedJohn Steinbeck s Of Mice And Men1248 Words   |  5 PagesIn Steinbeck s novel Of Mice and Men, He uses imagery many times to create a realistic setting and plot. Steinbeck’s depiction of migrant workers and their daily complications during the depression are objectively precise due to his use of imagery with idioms, dreams, nature, loneliness and animal imagery. The main theme of the book transpires to be loneliness and fate. While George and Lennie, the main characters have a synergetic relationship, fate steps in and does away with their dreams, whichRead MoreJohn Steinbeck s Of Mice And Men897 Words   |  4 Pagesthat we possess. Many people feel certain emotions based on events that have taken place in their lifetime or how they were raised throughout their childhood. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, he portrays the feelings of isolation and loneliness in three different characters. George’s isolation is illustrated in Steinbeck’s, Of Mice and Men. George expresses many hard feelings towards Lennie at the opening of this story. â€Å"‘...you’re a lot of trouble,’ said George. ‘I could get along so easy and soRead MoreJohn Steinbeck s Of Mice And Men1243 Words   |  5 Pagesis what John Steinbeck achieves by portraying this through the characters in his novella Of Mice and Men. The main characters are affected by loneliness in their own different way throughout the novella. rf The loneliness is maintained by the challenges that the characters have to face, and they sustain those challenges of being inhumane towards each other. Crook, a figure in the story who experiences discrimination encounters the challenge of race, due to the book’s setting in the 1930’s duringRead MoreJohn Steinbeck s Of Mice And Men1080 Words   |  5 Pagesâ€Å"I want you to stay with me Lennie. Jesus Christ, somebody’d shoot you for a coyote if you was by yourself.† The novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck shows the relationship between two migrant workers in the 1930s, George and Lennie, along with the other members on the new ranch that they began working on. Georgie and Lennie dreamed of following the American Dream and owning their own patch of land and the novel revolves around the dream and the obstacles that stand in their way. Lennie, a strongRead MoreJohn Steinbeck s Of Mice And Men1286 Words   |  6 PagesThe realistic fiction novella O f Mice And Men by John Steinbeck explains the journey of two migrant farm workers. Lennie and George are forced to overcome the Dust Bowl and The Great Depression around 1938. This makes jobs even harder to come by because everyone wanted one. Lennie and George were kicked out of Weed and they now work at a ranch in Soledad. At the new farm the friendship between Lennie and George becomes harder to maintain. The people on the farm are all different shapes, sizes, andRead MoreJohn Steinbeck s Of Mice And Men1360 Words   |  6 Pagesfeeling, thinking and acting in everyday life. In the story Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, a duo of farmers, George and Lennie, search for work wherever they can. Their dream of having a farm of their own is coming into reach, while George has to wield Lennie away from the temptation of Curley’s wife and the reality of what Lennie can do. John Steinbeck uses characterization to illustrate the nature of human existence. Steinbeck portrays George as a man who tries to help, and helps others soRead MoreJohn Steinbeck s Of Mice And Men1448 Words   |  6 Pages In the novella, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck discusses the idea of loneliness and how people who work at the ranch have no family and no future in lives. He indicates that all people at the ranch are lonely, but he specifically uses a few characters to highlight their state of being lonely and more miserable than the others. He emphasizes the loneliness of ranch life during the Great Depression, and shows how people are willing to try and find friendship in order to escape from the state ofRead MoreJohn Steinbeck s Of Mice And Men1205 Words   |  5 Pagesand the time period of John Steinbeck s novella, Of Mice and Men, exemplifies the idea that people from minorities are held back from achieving their version of the ‘American Dream’. This goes to prove not everyone will overcome the overbearing tidal waves of their hardship s, which makes the American Dream nothing more than a dream to them. Crooks, the black stable hand, faces discrimination due to his skin color as this unfortunately was common in the 1930’s. John Steinbeck uses Crooks’ situationRead MoreJohn Steinbeck s Of Mice And Men968 Words   |  4 PagesSolidifying the theme of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the protagonist George expresses his significant loneliness despite a strong kinship with his friend Lennie, â€Å"’I ain’t got no people†¦ I seen the guys that go around the ranches alone. That ain’t no good’† (41). Published in 1937, amidst the horrific turmoil of the Great Depression, Steinbeck’s novella struck a sensitive chord with readers. Set in the heart of California’s Central Valley, this story follows two men, George and Lennie, as theyRead MoreJohn Steinbeck s Of Mice And Men1387 Words   |  6 Pageslanguage. Soledad is also town in which Of Mice Men takes place. The entire novel displays the idea of solitude. Alon g with the presence of loneliness in this story, John Steinbeck also ties in the idea of companionship through the everyday lives of individuals. The correlation of loneliness and companionship in the lives of these characters, along with the diversion of lifestyles consistently shows. Of all the many themes of the book, Of Mice and Men, the most important theme is the theme of loneliness