Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Daddy By Sylvia Plath Essays - Sylvia Plath, Daddy, Ted Hughes

Daddy By Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath reveals herself in her confessional poem Daddy. She uses strong imagery and powerful speech to show her attitudes towards her late father, Otto Plath and her husband, Ted Hughes, who also hurt her in the end. Her tone implies a strong hatred and disgust for the relationships with both men. The poem was written in 1963 which happened to be the same year that she committed suicide. Plath had a history of troubled times and attempted suicide. Plath describes her relationship and feelings of guilt, fear, and pain her father=s death caused her. Plath used imagery heavily in her poem to show her emotions. She casts her father into different parts throughout the poem. Plath=s images of her father are compared to God, a Nazi, the Devil, and a vampire. All of these images are powerful on their own but by being put together they are almighty and frightening. In the beginning the speaker=s childhood memories of her father are God-like to her. Her father wasn`t God, but just Aa bag of God(8). He must have been very powerful and impressive to her. She continues to describe her father as a Ghastly statue with one gray toe (9), showing that her father was overwhelming and as if he was only a copy of a person, fake and cold. Her father was unattainable since he died while Plath was still a young child. She felt tired of dealing with her abandonment issues and was ready to get rid of the controlling memory of her deceased father. One can see this in the beginning of the poem, You do not do, you do not do Any more, black shoe In which I have lived like a foot (1-3). Plath is fighting to exorcise the memory of her father once and all. Then Plath goes on to describe her father as a Nazi and places herself in the role of the Jew. This helps explain how she feels that she is a victim. There isn't any strong wording to suggest that Otto Plath was a ?real= Nazi. This was a symbolic realtionship of oppressor and oppressed. She illustrated how different they were. She also identified with her Agypsy ancestress=, showing that she was far away from the acceptable Nazi image. Plath uses contrasting imagery with the references to swastika and the idea of a Jew, which the Star of David is the first image to appear in the mind=s eye. She related with the Jews in concentration camps. This shows how she felt trapped and confined. Even the German language was harsh to her ears, AAnd the language obscene (30). Everything that her father was, was something that she couldn`t relate with. Then she later goes on to cast her father as the Devil. AA cleft in your chin instead of your foot / But no less of a devil for that, no [emailprotected] (53-54). Plath uses a comparison between her father and the devil to emphasis her attitudes toward him. The supposed characteristic of a devil=s cleft hove is possessed by the father but not in his foot. Thought Plath is convinced that it does not make her father any less of a devil. Her last monestrous image she gives her father is that of a vampire. This is the point in the poem which Plath revels her husband=s character more. In the beginning of the second half of ADaddy,@ it is hard to pinpoint which man she is referring to. She does not actually announce the husband until line 64 I made a model of you, A man in black with a Meinkampf look And a love of the rack and the screw. And I said I do, I do.(64-67) It was after Plath=s suicide attempt that she married Ted Hughes. You can see that in line 58 through 64. She explains how she attempted suicide and then knew what she was going to do. She married a man just like her father, a type of surrogate for her deceased father. Maybe it was an attempt to bring her father back or maybe it was something she did to try to cope with the unfinished feelings she had dealing with his early death. In line 67 she says AI do, I [emailprotected], implying that she was not just marriage Ted Hughes but also marring the memory of her father. The poem can almost be roughly divided in half. The first 8 stanzas can be easily related to her

Sunday, November 24, 2019

Best Analysis Love and Relationships in The Great Gatsby

Best Analysis Love and Relationships in The Great Gatsby SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Love, desire, and sex are a major motivators for nearly every character in The Great Gatsby. However, none of Gatsby’s five major relationships is depicted as healthy or stable. So what can we make of this? Is Fitzgerald arguing that love itself is unstable, or is it just that experiencing love and desire the way the characters do is problematic? Gatsby’s portrayal of love and desire is complex. So we will explore and analyze each of Gatsby’s five major relationships: Daisy/Tom, George/Myrtle, Gatsby/Daisy, Tom/Myrtle, and Jordan/Nick. We will also note how eachrelationship develops through the story, thepower dynamics involved, and what each particular relationship seems to say about Fitzgerald’s depiction of love. We will also include analysis of important quotes for each of the five major couples. Finally, we will go over some common essay questions about love, desire, and relationships to help you with class assignments. Keep reading for the ultimate guide to love in the time of Gatsby! Roadmap Analyzing the characters via the major relationships (including key quotes) Marriages Tom/Daisy George/Myrtle Relationships/Affairs Daisy/Gatsby Tom/Myrtle Nick/Jordan Common Essay Prompts/Discussion Topics Quick Note on Our Citations Our citation format in this guide is (chapter.paragraph). We're using this system since there are many editions of Gatsby, so using page numbers would only work for students with our copy of the book. To find a quotation we cite via chapter and paragraph in your book, you can either eyeball it (Paragraph 1-50: beginning of chapter; 50-100: middle of chapter; 100-on: end of chapter), or use the search function if you're using an online or eReader version of the text. Analyzing The Great GatsbyRelationships We will discuss the romantic pairings in the novel first through the lens of marriage. Then we will turn our attention to relationships that occur outside of marriage. Marriage 1:Daisy and Tom Buchanan Tom and Daisy Buchanan were married in 1919, three years before the start of the novel.They both come from incredibly wealthy families, and live on fashionable East Egg, marking them as members of the â€Å"old money† class. Daisy and Tom MarriageDescription As Jordan relates in a flashback, Daisy almost changed her mind about marrying Tom after receiving a letter from Gatsby (an earlier relationship of hers, discussed below), but eventually went through with the ceremony â€Å"without so much as a shiver† (4.142). Daisy appeared quite in love when they first got married, but the realities of the marriage, including Tom’s multiple affairs, have worn on her. Tom even cheated on her soon after their honeymoon, according to Jordan: â€Å"It was touching to see them together- it made you laugh in a hushed, fascinated way. That was in August. A week after I left Santa Barbara Tom ran into a wagon on the Ventura road one night and ripped a front wheel off his car. The girl who was with him got into the papers too because her arm was broken- she was one of the chambermaids in the Santa Barbara Hotel† (1.143). So what makes the Buchanans tick? Why has their marriage survived multiple affairs and even a hit-and-run? Find out through our analysis of key quotes from the novel. Daisy and Tom Marriage Quotes Why they came east I don't know. They had spent a year in France, for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together. (1.17) Nick introduces Tom and Daisy as restless, rich, and as a singular unit: they. Despite all of the revelations about the affairs and other unhappiness in their marriage, and the events of the novel, it’s important to note our first and last descriptions of Tom and Daisy describe them as a close, if bored, couple. In fact, Nick only doubles down on this observation later in Chapter 1. Well, she was less than an hour old and Tom was God knows where. I woke up out of the ether with an utterly abandoned feeling and asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl. She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept. 'All right,' I said, 'I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool." "You see I think everything's terrible anyhow," she went on in a convinced way. "Everybody thinks so- the most advanced people. And I know. I've been everywhere and seen everything and done everything." Her eyes flashed around her in a defiant way, rather like Tom's, and she laughed with thrilling scorn. "Sophisticated- God, I'm sophisticated!" "The instant her voice broke off, ceasing to compel my attention, my belief, I felt the basic insincerity of what she had said. It made me uneasy, as though the whole evening had been a trick of some sort to exact a contributory emotion from me. I waited, and sure enough, in a moment she looked at me with an absolute smirk on her lovely face as if she had asserted her membership in a rather distinguished secret society to which she and Tom belonged." (1.8-120) In this passage, Daisy pulls Nick aside in Chapter 1 and claims, despite her outward happiness and luxurious lifestyle, she’s quite depressed by her current situation. At first, it seems Daisy is revealing the cracks in her marriage – Tom was â€Å"God knows where† at the birth of their daughter, Pammy – as well as a general malaise about society in general (â€Å"everything’s terrible anyhow†). However, right after this confession, Nick doubts her sincerity. And indeed, she follows up her apparently serious complaint with â€Å"an absolute smirk.† What’s going on here? Well, Nick goes on to observe that the smirk â€Å"asserted her membership in a rather distinguished secret society to which she and Tom belonged.† In other words, despite Daisy’s performance, she seems content to remain with Tom, part of the â€Å"secret society† of the ultra-rich. So the question is: can anyone – or anything – lift Daisy out of her complacency? "I never loved him," she said, with perceptible reluctance. "Not at Kapiolani?" demanded Tom suddenly. "No." From the ballroom beneath, muffled and suffocating chords were drifting up on hot waves of air. "Not that day I carried you down from the Punch Bowl to keep your shoes dry?" There was a husky tenderness in his tone. ". . . Daisy?" (7.258-62) Over the course of the novel, both Tom and Daisy enter or continue affairs, pulling away from each other instead of confronting the problems in their marriage. However, Gatsby forces them to confront their feelings in the Plaza Hotel when he demands Daisy say she never loved Tom. Although she gets the words out, she immediately rescinds them – â€Å"I did love [Tom] once but I loved you too!† – after Tom questions her. Here, Tom – usually presented as a swaggering, brutish, and unkind – breaks down, speaking with â€Å"husky tenderness† and recalling some of the few happy moments in his and Daisy’s marriage. This is a key moment because it shows despite the dysfunction of their marriage, Tom and Daisy seem to both seek solace in happy early memories. Between those few happy memories and the fact that they both come from the same social class, their marriage ends up weathering multiple affairs. Daisy and Tom were sitting opposite each other at the kitchen table with a plate of cold fried chicken between them and two bottles of ale. He was talking intently across the table at her and in his earnestness his hand had fallen upon and covered her own. Once in a while she looked up at him and nodded in agreement. They weren't happy, and neither of them had touched the chicken or the ale- and yet they weren't unhappy either. There was an unmistakable air of natural intimacy about the picture and anybody would have said that they were conspiring together. (7.409-10) They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made. . . . (9.146) By the end of the novel, after Daisy’s murder of Myrtle as well as Gatsby’s death, she and Tom are firmly back together, â€Å"conspiring† and â€Å"careless† once again, despite the deaths of their lovers. As Nick notes, they â€Å"weren’t happy†¦and yet they weren’t unhappy either.† Their marriage is important to both of them, since it reassures their status as old money aristocracy and brings stability to their lives. So the novel ends with them once again described as a unit, a â€Å"they,† perhaps even more strongly bonded since they’ve survived not only another round of affairs but murder, as well. Daisy and Tom MarriageAnalysis Neither Myrtle’s infatuation with Tom or Gatsby’s deep longing for Daisy can drive a wedge between the couple. Despite the lying, cheating, and murdering that occurs during the summer, Tom and Daisy end the novel just like they began it: careless, restless, and yet, firmly united. The stubborn closeness of Tom and Daisy’s marriage, despite Daisy’s exaggerated unhappiness and Tom’s philandering, reinforces the dominance of the old money class over the world of Gatsby. Despite so many troubles, for Tom and Daisy, their marriage guarantees their continued membership in the exclusive world of the old money rich. In other words, class is a much stronger bond than love in the novel. Tom and Daisy somehow end the novel with a stronger marriage! Want to get better grades and test scores? We can help. PrepScholar Tutors is the world's best tutoring service. We combine world-class expert tutors with our proprietary teaching techniques. Our students have gotten A's on thousands of classes, perfect 5's on AP tests, and ludicrously high SAT Subject Test scores. Whether you need help with science, math, English, social science, or more, we've got you covered. Get better grades today with PrepScholar Tutors. Marriage 2: Myrtle and George Wilson In contrast to Tom and Daisy, Myrtle and George were married 12 years before the start of the novel. You might think that since they’ve been married for four times as long, their marriage is more stable. In fact, in contrast from Tom and Daisy’s unified front, Myrtle and George’s marriage appears fractured from the beginning. Myrtle and George Marriage Description Although Myrtle was taken with George at first, she overestimated his money and â€Å"breeding† and found herself married to a mechanic and living over a garage in Queens, a situation she’s apparently unhappy with (2.2). However, divorce was uncommon in the 1920s, and furthermore, the working-class Myrtle doesn’t have access to wealthy family members or any other real options, so she stays married – perhaps because George is quite devoted and even in some ways subservient to her. A few months before the beginning of the novel in 1922, she begins an affair with Tom Buchanan, her first affair (2.7). She sees the affair as a way out of her marriage, but Tom sees her as just another disposable mistress, leaving her desperate and vulnerable once George finds out about the affair. Myrtle and George MarriageQuotes I heard footsteps on a stairs and in a moment the thickish figure of a woman blocked out the light from the office door. She was in the middle thirties, and faintly stout, but she carried her surplus flesh sensuously as some women can. Her face, above a spotted dress of dark blue crepe-de-chine, contained no facet or gleam of beauty but there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smouldering. She smiled slowly and walking through her husband as if he were a ghost shook hands with Tom, looking him flush in the eye. Then she wet her lips and without turning around spoke to her husband in a soft, coarse voice: "Get some chairs, why don't you, so somebody can sit down." "Oh, sure," agreed Wilson hurriedly and went toward the little office, mingling immediately with the cement color of the walls. A white ashen dust veiled his dark suit and his pale hair as it veiled everything in the vicinity- except his wife, who moved close to Tom. (2.15-17) As we discuss in our article on the symbolic valley of ashes, George is coated by the dust of despairand thus seems mired in the hopelessness and depression of that bleak place, while Myrtle is alluring and full of vitality. Her first action is to order her husband to get chairs, and the second is to move away from him, closer to Tom. In contrast to Tom and Daisy, who are initially presented as a unit, our first introduction to George and Myrtle shows them fractured, with vastly different personalities and motivations. We get the sense right away that their marriage is in trouble, and conflict between the two is imminent. "I married him because I thought he was a gentleman," she said finally. "I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn't fit to lick my shoe." "You were crazy about him for a while," said Catherine. "Crazy about him!" cried Myrtle incredulously. "Who said I was crazy about him? I never was any more crazy about him than I was about that man there." (2.2-4) Here we get a bit of back-story about George and Myrtle’s marriage: like Daisy, Myrtle was crazy about her husband at first but the marriage has since soured. But while Daisy doesn’t have any real desire to leave Tom, here we see Myrtle eager to leave, and very dismissive of her husband. Myrtle seems to suggest that even having her husband wait on her is unacceptable – it’s clear she thinks she is finally headed for bigger and better things. Generally he was one of these worn-out men: when he wasn't working he sat on a chair in the doorway and stared at the people and the cars that passed along the road. When any one spoke to him he invariably laughed in an agreeable, colorless way. He was his wife's man and not his own. (7.312) Again, in contrast to the strangely unshakeable partnership of Tom and Daisy, the co-conspirators, Michaelis (briefly taking over narrator duties) observes that George â€Å"was his wife’s man,† â€Å"worn out.† Obviously, this situation gets turned on its head when George locks Myrtle up when he discovers the affair, but Michaelis’s observation speaks to instability in the Wilson’s marriage, in which each fights for control over the other. Rather than face the world as a unified front, the Wilsons each struggle for dominance within the marriage. "Beat me!" he heard her cry. "Throw me down and beat me, you dirty little coward!" A moment later she rushed out into the dusk, waving her hands and shouting; before he could move from his door the business was over. (7.314-5) We don’t know what happened in the fight before this crucial moment, but we do know George locked Myrtle in a room once he figured out she was having an affair. So despite the outward appearance of being ruled by his wife, he does, in fact, have the ability to physically control her. However, he apparently doesn’t hit her, the way Tom does, and Myrtle taunts him for it – perhaps insinuating he’s less a man than Tom. This outbreak of both physical violence (George locking up Myrtle) and emotional abuse (probably on both sides) fulfills the earlier sense of the marriage being headed for conflict. Still, it’s disturbing to witness the last few minutes of this fractured, unstable partnership. Myrtle and George MarriageAnalysis While Tom and Daisy’s marriage ends up being oddly stable thanks to their money, despite multiple affairs, Myrtle and George’s marriage goes from strained to violent after just one. In other words, Tom and Daisy can patch things up over and over by retreating into their status and money, while Myrtle and George don’t have that luxury. While George wants to retreat out west, he doesn’t have the money, leaving him and Myrtle in Queens and vulnerable to the dangerous antics of the other characters. The instability of their marriage thus seems to come from the instability of their financial situation, as well as the fact that Myrtle is more ambitious than George. Fitzgerald seems to be arguing that anyone who is not wealthy is much more vulnerable to tragedy and strife. As a song sung in Chapter 5 goes, â€Å"The rich get richer and the poor get- children† – the rich get richer and the poor can’t escape their poverty, or tragedy (5.150). The contrasting marriages of the Buchanans and the Wilsons help illustrate the novel’s critique of the wealthy, old-money class. Myrtle and George are a very slow burn that eventually explodes. Relationship 1: Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby The relationship at the very heart of The Great Gatsby is, of course, Gatsby and Daisy, or more specifically, Gatsby’s tragic love of (or obsession with) Daisy, a love that drives the novel’s plot. So how did this ill-fated love story begin? Daisy and Gatsby Relationship Description Five years before the start of the novel, Jay Gatsby (who had learned from Dan Cody how to act like one of thewealthy) was stationed in Louisville before goingto fight in WWI. In Louisville, he met Daisy Fay, a beautiful young heiress (10 years his junior), who tookhim for someone of her social class. Gatsby maintained the lie, which allowed their relationship to progress. Gatsby fell in love with Daisy and the wealth she represents, and she with him (though apparently not to the same excessive extent), but he had to leave for the war and by the time he returned to the US in 1919, Daisy has married Tom Buchanan. Determined to get her back, Gatsby falls in with Meyer Wolfshiem, a gangster, and gets into bootlegging and other criminal enterprises to make enough money to finally be able to provide for her. By the beginning of the novel, he is ready to try and win her back over, ignoring the fact she has been married to Tom for three years and has a child. So does this genius plan turn out the way Gatsby hopes? Can he repeat the past? Not exactly. Daisy and Gatsby RelationshipQuotes "You must know Gatsby." "Gatsby?" demanded Daisy. "What Gatsby?" (1.60-1) In the first chapter, we get a few mentions and glimpses of Gatsby, but one of the most interesting is Daisy immediately perking up at his name. She obviously still remembers him and perhaps even thinks about him, but her surprise suggests that she thinks he’s long gone, buried deep in her past. This is in sharp contrast to the image we get of Gatsby himself at the end of the Chapter, reaching actively across the bay to Daisy’s house (1.152). While Daisy views Gatsby as a memory, Daisy is Gatsby’s past, present, and future. It’s clear even in Chapter 1 that Gatsby’s love for Daisy is much more intense than her love for him. "Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay." Then it had not been merely the stars to which he had aspired on that June night. He came alive to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendor. (4.151-2) In Chapter 4, we learn Daisy and Gatsby’s story from Jordan: specifically, how they dated in Louisville but it ended when Gatsby went to the front. She also explains how Daisy threatened to call off her marriage to Tom after receiving a letter from Gatsby, but of course ended up marrying him anyway (4.140). Here we also learn that Gatsby’s primary motivation is to get Daisy back, while Daisy is of course in the dark about all of this. This sets the stage for their affair being on unequal footing: while each has love and affection for the other, Gatsby has thought of little else but Daisy for five years while Daisy has created a whole other life for herself. "We haven't met for many years," said Daisy, her voice as matter-of-fact as it could ever be. "Five years next November." (5.69-70) Daisy and Gatsby finally reunite in Chapter 5, the book’s mid-point. The entire chapter is obviously important for understanding the Daisy/Gatsby relationship, since we actually see them interact for the first time.But this initial dialogue is fascinating, because we see that Daisy's memories of Gatsby are more abstract and clouded, while Gatsby has been so obsessed with her he knows the exact month they parted and has clearly been counting down the days until their reunion. They were sitting at either end of the couch looking at each other as if some question had been asked or was in the air, and every vestige of embarrassment was gone. Daisy's face was smeared with tears and when I came in she jumped up and began wiping at it with her handkerchief before a mirror. But there was a change in Gatsby that was simply confounding. He literally glowed; without a word or a gesture of exultation a new well-being radiated from him and filled the little room. (5.87) After the initially awkward re-introduction, Nick leaves Daisy and Gatsby alone and comes back to find them talking candidly and emotionally. Gatsby has transformed – he is radiant and glowing. In contrast, we don’t see Daisy as radically transformed except for her tears. Although our narrator, Nick, pays much closer attention to Gatsby than Daisy, these different reactions suggest Gatsby is much more intensely invested in the relationship. "They're such beautiful shirts," she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. "It makes me sad because I've never seen such- such beautiful shirts before." (5.8). Gatsby gets the chance to show off his mansion and enormous wealthy to Daisy, and she breaks down after a very conspicuous display of Gatsby’s wealth, through his many-colored shirts. In Daisy’s tears, you might sense a bit of guilt – that Gatsby attained so much just for her – or perhaps regret, that she might have been able to be with him had she had the strength to walk away from her marriage with Tom. Still, unlike Gatsby, whose motivations are laid bare, it’s hard to know what Daisy is thinking and how invested she is in their relationship, despite how openly emotional she is during this reunion. Perhaps she’s just overcome with emotion due to reliving the emotions of their first encounters. His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy's white face came up to his own. He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips' touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete. (6.134) In flashback, we hear about Daisy and Gatsby’s first kiss, through Gatsby’s point of view. We see explicitly in this scene that, for Gatsby, Daisy has come to represent all of his larger hopes and dreams about wealth and a better life – she is literally the incarnation of his dreams. There is no analogous passage on Daisy’s behalf, because we actually don’t know that much of Daisy’s inner life, or certainly not much compared to Gatsby. So we see, again, the relationship is very uneven – Gatsby has literally poured his heart and soul into it, while Daisy, though she obviously has love and affection for Gatsby, hasn’t idolized him in the same way. It becomes clear here that Daisy – who is human and fallible – can never live up to Gatsby’s huge projection of her. "Oh, you want too much!" she cried to Gatsby. "I love you now- isn't that enough? I can't help what's past." She began to sob helplessly. "I did love him once- but I loved you too." Gatsby's eyes opened and closed. "You loved me too?" he repeated. (7.264-66) Here we finally get a glimpse at Daisy’s real feelings – she loved Gatsby, but also Tom, and to her those were equal loves. She hasn’t put that initial love with Gatsby on a pedestal the way Gatsby has. Gatsby’s obsession with her appears shockingly one-sided at this point, and it’s clear to the reader she will not leave Tom for him. You can also see why this confession is such a blow to Gatsby: he’s been dreaming about Daisy for years and sees her as his one true love, while she can’t even rank her love for Gatsby above her love for Tom. "Was Daisy driving?" "Yes," he said after a moment, "but of course I'll say I was." (7.397-8) Despite Daisy’s rejection of Gatsby back at the Plaza Hotel, he refuses to believe that it was real and is sure that he can still get her back. His devotion is so intense he doesn’t think twice about covering for her and taking the blame for Myrtle’s death. In fact, his obsession is so strong he barely seems to register that there’s been a death, or to feel any guilt at all. This moment further underscores how much Daisy means to Gatsby, and how comparatively little he means to her. She was the first "nice" girl he had ever known. In various unrevealed capacities he had come in contact with such people but always with indiscernible barbed wire between. He found her excitingly desirable. He went to her house, at first with other officers from Camp Taylor, then alone. It amazed him- he had never been in such a beautiful house before. But what gave it an air of breathless intensity was that Daisy lived there- it was as casual a thing to her as his tent out at camp was to him. There was a ripe mystery about it, a hint of bedrooms upstairs more beautiful and cool than other bedrooms, of gay and radiant activities taking place through its corridors and of romances that were not musty and laid away already in lavender but fresh and breathing and redolent of this year's shining motor cars and of dances whose flowers were scarcely withered. It excited him too that many men had already loved Daisy- it increased her value in his eyes. He felt their presence all about the h ouse, pervading the air with the shades and echoes of still vibrant emotions. (8.10, emphasis added) In Chapter 8, when we get the rest of Gatsby’s backstory, we learn more about what drew him to Daisy – her wealth, and specifically the world that opened up to Gatsby as he got to know her. Interestingly, we also learn that her â€Å"value increased† in Gatsby’s eyes when it became clear that many other men had also loved her. We see then how Daisy got all tied up in Gatsby’s ambitions for a better, wealthier life. You also know, as a reader, that Daisy obviously is human and fallible and can never realistically live up to Gatsby’s inflated images of her and what she represents to him. So in these last pages, before Gatsby’s death as we learn the rest of Gatsby’s story, we sense that his obsessive longing for Daisy was as much about his longing for another, better life, than it was about a single woman. Gatsby and Daisy RelationshipAnalysis Daisy and Gatsby’s relationship is definitely lopsided. There is an uneven degree oflove on both sides (Gatsby seems much more obsessively in love with Daisy than Daisy is with him). We also have difficulty decipheringboth sides of the relationship, since we know far more about Gatsby, his past, and his internal life than about Daisy. Because of this, it’s hard to criticize Daisy for not choosing Gatsby over Tom – as an actual, flesh-and-blood person, she never could have fulfilled Gatsby’s rose-tinted memory of her and all she represents. Furthermore, during her brief introduction into Gatsby’s world in Chapter 6, she seemed pretty unhappy. â€Å"She was appalled by West Egg, this unprecedented "place" that Broadway had begotten upon a Long Island fishing village- appalled by its raw vigor that chafed under the old euphemisms and by the too obtrusive fate that herded its inhabitants along a short cut from nothing to nothing. She saw something awful in the very simplicity she failed to understand† (6.96). So could Daisy have really been happy if she ran off with Gatsby? Unlikely. Many people tie Gatsby’s obsessive pursuit of Daisy to the American Dreamitself – the dream is as alluring as Daisy but as ultimately elusive and even deadly. Their relationship is also a meditation on change – as much as Gatsby wants to repeat the past, he can’t. Daisy has moved on and he can never return to that beautiful, perfect moment when he kissed her for the first time and wedded all her hopes and dreams to her. Gatsby's problem is seeing time as circular rather than linear. Relationship 2: Tom Buchananand Myrtle Wilson In contrast to Gatsby and Daisy’s long history, the novel’s other affair began much more recently: Tom and Myrtle start their relationship a few months before the novel opens. Tom and Myrtle Relationship Description Myrtle sees the affair as romantic and a ticket out of her marriage, while Tom sees it as just another affair, and Myrtle as one of a string of mistresses. The pair has undeniable physical chemistry and attraction to each other, perhaps more than any other pairing in the book. Perhaps due to Myrtle’s tragic and unexpected death, Tom does display some emotional attachment to her, which complicates a reading of him as a purely antagonistic figure – or of their relationship as purely physical. So what drives this affair? What does it reveal about Tom and Myrtle? Let’s find out. Tom and Myrtle RelationshipQuotes "I think it's cute," said Mrs. Wilson enthusiastically. "How much is it?" "That dog?" He looked at it admiringly. "That dog will cost you ten dollars." The airedale- undoubtedly there was an airedale concerned in it somewhere though its feet were startlingly white- changed hands and settled down into Mrs. Wilson's lap, where she fondled the weather-proof coat with rapture. "Is it a boy or a girl?" she asked delicately. "That dog? That dog's a boy." "It's a bitch," said Tom decisively. "Here's your money. Go and buy ten more dogs with it." (2.38-43) This passage is great because it neatly displays Tom and Myrtle’s different attitudes toward the affair. Myrtle thinks that Tom is spoiling her specifically, and that he cares about her more than he really does – after all, he stops to buy her a dog just because she says it’s cute and insists she wants one on a whim. But to Tom, the money isn’t a big deal. He casually throws away the 10 dollars, aware he’s being scammed but notcaring, since he has so much money at his disposal. He also insists that he knows more than the dog seller and Myrtle, showing how he looks down at people below his own class – but Myrtle misses this because she’s infatuated with both the new puppy and Tom himself. Myrtle pulled her chair close to mine, and suddenly her warm breath poured over me the story of her first meeting with Tom. "It was on the two little seats facing each other that are always the last ones left on the train. I was going up to New York to see my sister and spend the night. He had on a dress suit and patent leather shoes and I couldn't keep my eyes off him but every time he looked at me I had to pretend to be looking at the advertisement over his head. When we came into the station he was next to me and his white shirt-front pressed against my arm- and so I told him I'd have to call a policeman, but he knew I lied. I was so excited that when I got into a taxi with him I didn't hardly know I wasn't getting into a subway train. All I kept thinking about, over and over, was 'You can't live forever, you can't live forever.' " (2.9-20) Myrtle, twelve years into a marriage she’s unhappy in, sees her affair with Tom as a romantic escape. She tells the story of how she and Tom met like it’s the beginning of a love story. In reality, it’s pretty creepy – Tom sees a woman he finds attractive on a train and immediately goes and presses up to her like and convinces her to go sleep with him immediately. Not exactly the stuff of classic romance! Combined with the fact Myrtle believes Daisy’s Catholicism (a lie) is what keeps her and Tom apart, you see that despite Myrtle’s pretensions of worldliness, she actually knows very little about Tom or the upper classes, and is a poor judge of character. She is an easy person for Tom to take advantage of. Some time toward midnight Tom Buchanan and Mrs. Wilson stood face to face discussing in impassioned voices whether Mrs. Wilson had any right to mention Daisy's name. "Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!" shouted Mrs. Wilson. "I'll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai- - " Making a short deft movement Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand. (2.124-6) In case the reader was still wondering that perhaps Myrtle’s take on the relationship had some basis in truth, this is a cold hard dose of reality. Tom’s vicioustreatment of Myrtle reminds the reader of his brutality and the fact that, to him, Myrtle is just another affair, and he would never in a million years leave Daisy for her. Despite the violence of this scene, the affair continues. Myrtle is either so desperate to escape her marriage or so self-deluded about what Tom thinks of her (or both) that she stays with Tom after this ugly scene. There is no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind, and as we drove away Tom was feeling the hot whips of panic. His wife and his mistress, until an hour ago secure and inviolate, were slipping precipitately from his control. (7.164) Chapter 2 gives us lots of insight into Myrtle’s character and how she sees her affair with Tom. But other than Tom’s physical attraction to Myrtle, we don’t get as clear of a view of his motivations until later on. In Chapter 7, Tom panics once he finds out George knows about his wife’s affair. We learn here that control is incredibly important to Tom – control of his wife, control of his mistress, and control of society more generally (see his rant in Chapter 1 about the â€Å"Rise of the Colored Empires†). So just as he passionately rants and raves against the â€Å"colored races,† he also gets panicked and angry when he sees that he is losing control both over Myrtle and Daisy. This speaks to Tom’s entitlement – both as a wealthy person, as a man, and as a white person – and shows how his relationship with Myrtle is just another display of power. It has very little to do with his feelings for Myrtle herself. So as the relationship begins to slip from his fingers, he panics – not because he’s scared of losing Myrtle, but because he’s scared of losing a possession. "And if you think I didn't have my share of suffering- look here, when I went to give up that flat and saw that damn box of dog biscuits sitting there on the sideboard I sat down and cried like a baby. By God it was awful- - " (9.145) Despite Tom’s abhorrent behavior throughout the novel, at the very end, Nick leaves us with an image of Tom confessing to crying over Myrtle. This complicates the reader’s desire to see Tom as a straightforward villain. This confession of emotion certainly doesn’t redeem Tom, but it does prevent you from seeing him as a complete monster. Tom and Myrtle RelationshipAnalysis Just as George and Myrtle’s marriage serves as a foil to Tom and Daisy’s, Tom and Myrtle’s affair is a foil for Daisy and Gatsby’s. While Daisy and Gatsby have history, Tom and Myrtle got together recently. And while their relationship seems to be driven by physical attraction, Gatsby is attracted to Daisy’s wealth and status. The tragic end to this affair, as well as Daisy and Gatsby’s, reinforces the idea that class is an enormous, insurmountable barrier, and that when people try to circumvent the barrier by dating across classes, they end up endangering themselves. Tom and Myrtle’s affair also speaks to the unfair advantages that Tom has as a wealthy, white man. Even though for a moment he felt himself losing control over his life, he quickly got it back and was able to hide in his money while Gatsby, Myrtle, and George all ended up dead thanks to their connection to the Buchanans. In short, Tom and Myrtle’s relationship allows Fitzgerald to sharply critique the world of the wealthy, old-money class in 1920s New York. By showing Tom’s affair with a working-class woman, Nick reveals Tom’s ugliest behavior as well as the cruelty of class divisions during the roaring twenties. Tom's subtlety in dealing with Myrtle. Want to get better grades and test scores? We can help. PrepScholar Tutors is the world's best tutoring service. We combine world-class expert tutors with our proprietary teaching techniques. Our students have gotten A's on thousands of classes, perfect 5's on AP tests, and ludicrously high SAT Subject Test scores. Whether you need help with science, math, English, social science, or more, we've got you covered. Get better grades today with PrepScholar Tutors. Relationship 3: Nick Carraway and Jordan Baker We’ve covered the novel’s two married couples – the Buchanans and the Wilsons – as well as the affairs of three out of four of those married parties. But there is one more relationship in the novel, one that is a bit disconnected to the others. I’m talking, of course, about Nick and Jordan. Nick and Jordan Relationship Description Nick and Jordan are the only couple without any prior contact before the novel begins (aside from Nick apparently seeing her photo once in a magazine and hearing about her attempt to cheat). Jordan is a friend of Daisy’s who is staying with her, and Nick meets Jordan when he goes to have dinner with the Buchanans. We can observe their relationship most closely in Chapters 3 and 4, as Nick gets closer to Jordandespite needing to break off his relationship back home first. However, their relationship takes a back seat in the middle and end of the novel as the drama of Daisy’s affair with Gatsby, and Tom’s with Myrtle, plays out. So by the end of the novel, Nick sees Jordan is just as self-centered and immoral as Tom and Daisy, and his earlier infatuation fades to disgust. She, in turn, calls him out for not being as honest and careful as he presents himself as. So what’s the story with Nick and Jordan? Why include their relationship at all? Let’s dig into what sparks the relationship and the insights they give us into the other characters. Nick and Jordan RelationshipQuotes I enjoyed looking at her. She was a slender, small-breasted girl, with an erect carriage which she accentuated by throwing her body backward at the shoulders like a young cadet. Her grey sun-strained eyes looked back at me with polite reciprocal curiosity out of a wan, charming discontented face. It occurred to me now that I had seen her, or a picture of her, somewhere before. (1.57) As Nick eyes Jordan in Chapter 1, we see his immediate physical attraction to her, though it’s not as potent as Tom’s to Myrtle. And similarly to Gatsby’s attraction to Daisy being to her money and voice, Nick is pulled in by Jordan’s posture, her â€Å"wan, charming discontented face† – her attitude and status are more alluring than her looks alone. So Nick’s attraction to Jordan gives us a bit of insight both in how Tom sees Myrtle and how Gatsby sees Daisy. "Good night, Mr. Carraway. See you anon." "Of course you will," confirmed Daisy. "In fact I think I'll arrange a marriage. Come over often, Nick, and I'll sort of- oh- fling you together. You know- lock you up accidentally in linen closets and push you out to sea in a boat, and all that sort of thing- - " (1.131-2) Throughout the novel, we see Nick avoiding getting caught up in relationships – the woman he mentions back home, the woman he dates briefly in his office, Myrtle’s sister – though he doesn’t protest to being â€Å"flung together† with Jordan. Perhaps this is because Jordan would be a step up for Nick in terms of money and class, which speaks to Nick’s ambition and class-consciousness, despite the way he paints himself as an everyman. Furthermore, unlike these other women, Jordan isn’t clingy – she lets Nick come to her. Nick sees attracted to how detached and cool she is. "You're a rotten driver," I protested. "Either you ought to be more careful or you oughtn't to drive at all." "I am careful." "No, you're not." "Well, other people are," she said lightly. "What's that got to do with it?" "They'll keep out of my way," she insisted. "It takes two to make an accident." "Suppose you met somebody just as careless as yourself." "I hope I never will," she answered. "I hate careless people. That's why I like you." Her grey, sun-strained eyes stared straight ahead, but she had deliberately shifted our relations, and for a moment I thought I loved her. (3.162-70) Here, Nick is attracted to Jordan’s blasà © attitude and her confidence that others will avoid her careless behavior – an attitude she can afford because of her money. In other words, Nick seems fascinated by the world of the super-wealthy and the privilege it grants its members. So just as Gatsby falls in love with Daisy and her wealthy status, Nick also seems attracted to Jordan for similar reasons. However, this conversation not only foreshadows the tragic car accident later in the novel, but it also hints at what Nick will come to find repulsive about Jordan: her callous disregard for everyone but herself. It was dark now, and as we dipped under a little bridge I put my arm around Jordan's golden shoulder and drew her toward me and asked her to dinner. Suddenly I wasn't thinking of Daisy and Gatsby any more but of this clean, hard, limited person who dealt in universal skepticism and who leaned back jauntily just within the circle of my arm. A phrase began to beat in my ears with a sort of heady excitement: "There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired." (4.164) Nick, again with Jordan, seems exhilarated to be with someone who is a step above him in terms of social class, exhilarated to be a â€Å"pursuing† person, rather than just busy or tired. Seeing the usually level-headed Nick this enthralled gives us some insight into Gatsby’s infatuation with Daisy, and also allows us to glimpse Nick-the-person, rather than Nick-the-narrator. And again, we get a sense of what attracts him to Jordan – her clean, hard, limited self, her skepticism, and jaunty attitude. It’s interesting to see these qualities become repulsive to Nick just a few chapters later. Just before noon the phone woke me and I started up with sweat breaking out on my forehead. It was Jordan Baker; she often called me up at this hour because the uncertainty of her own movements between hotels and clubs and private houses made her hard to find in any other way. Usually her voice came over the wire as something fresh and cool as if a divot from a green golf links had come sailing in at the office window but this morning it seemed harsh and dry. "I've left Daisy's house," she said. "I'm at Hempstead and I'm going down to Southampton this afternoon." Probably it had been tactful to leave Daisy's house, but the act annoyed me and her next remark made me rigid. "You weren't so nice to me last night." "How could it have mattered then?" (8.49-53) Later in the novel, after Myrtle’s tragic death, Jordan’s casual, devil-may-care attitude is no longer cute – in fact, Nick finds it disgusting. How can Jordan care so little about the fact that someone died, and instead be most concerned with Nick acting cold and distant right after the accident? In this brief phone conversation, we thus see Nick’s infatuation with Jordan ending, replaced with the realization that Jordan’s casual attitude is indicative of everything Nick hates about the rich, old money group. So by extension, Nick’s relationship with Jordan represents how his feelings about the wealthy have evolved – at first he was drawn in by their cool, detached attitudes, but eventually found himself repulsed by their carelessness and cruelty. She was dressed to play golf and I remember thinking she looked like a good illustration, her chin raised a little, jauntily, her hair the color of an autumn leaf, her face the same brown tint as the fingerless glove on her knee. When I had finished she told me without comment that she was engaged to another man. I doubted that though there were several she could have married at a nod of her head but I pretended to be surprised. For just a minute I wondered if I wasn't making a mistake, then I thought it all over again quickly and got up to say goodbye. "Nevertheless you did throw me over," said Jordan suddenly. "You threw me over on the telephone. I don't give a damn about you now but it was a new experience for me and I felt a little dizzy for a while." We shook hands. "Oh, and do you remember- " she added, "- - a conversation we had once about driving a car?" "Why- not exactly." "You said a bad driver was only safe until she met another bad driver? Well, I met another bad driver, didn't I? I mean it was careless of me to make such a wrong guess. I thought you were rather an honest, straightforward person. I thought it was your secret pride." "I'm thirty," I said. "I'm five years too old to lie to myself and call it honor." (9.129-135) In their official break-up, Jordan calls out Nick for claiming to be honest and straightforward but in fact being prone to lying himself. So even as Nick is disappointed in Jordan’s behavior, Jordan is disappointed to find just another â€Å"bad driver† in Nick, and both seem to mutually agree they would never work as a couple. It’s interesting to see Nick called out for dishonest behavior for once. For all of his judging of others, he’s clearly not a paragon of virtue, and Jordan clearly recognizes that. This break-up is also interesting because it’s the only time we see a relationship end because the two members choose to walk away from each other – all the other failed relationships (Daisy/Gatsby, Tom/Myrtle, Myrtle/George) ended because one or both members died. So perhaps there is a safe way out of a bad relationship in Gatsby – to walk away early, even if it’s difficult and you’re still â€Å"half in love† with the other person (9.136). If only Gatsby could have realized the same thing. Nick and Jordan RelationshipAnalysis Nick and Jordan’s relationship is interesting, because it’s the only straightforward dating we see in the novel (it’s neithera marriage nor an illicit affair), and it doesn’t serve as an obvious foil to the other relationships. But it does echo Daisy and Gatsby’s relationship, in that a poorer man desires a richer girl, and for that reason gives us additional insight into Gatsby’s love for Daisy. But it also quietly echoes Tom’s relationship with Myrtle, since we Nick seems physically drawn to Jordan as well. The relationship also is one of the ways we get insight into Nick. For instance, he only really admits to his situation with the woman back at home when he’s talking about being attracted to Jordan. â€Å"I'd been writing letters once a week and signing them: "Love, Nick," and all I could think of was how, when that certain girl played tennis, a faint mustache of perspiration appeared on her upper lip. Nevertheless there was a vague understanding that had to be tactfully broken off before I was free† (3.170). Through Jordan, we actually see Nick experience exhilaration and love and attraction. Finally, through his relationship with Jordan, we can easily see Nick’s evolving attitude toward the wealthy elite. While he allows himself to be charmed at first by this fast-moving, wealthy, and careless world, he eventually becomes disgusted by the utter lack of morality or compassion for others. It's shocking that calmly saying goodbye is a rarity in this world. More often? Breakup by violent death. Discussion and Essay Topics on Love inThe Great Gatsby These are a few typical essay topics surrounding issues of love, desire, and relationships you should be prepared to write about. Some of them give you the opportunity to zoom in on just one couple, while others have you analyze the relationships in the book more generally. As always, it will be important to close-read, find key lines to use as evidence, and argue your point with a clearly-organized essay. (You can read more of our essay writing tips in our Character Analysis article.) So let’s take a look at a few common love and relationships prompts to see this analysis in action! Is there any couple in The Great Gatsby that has true love? For any essay topic that asks if characters in a book represent some kind of virtue (whether that’s true love, honesty, morality, or anything else), you should start by coming up with a definition of the value. For example, in this case, you should give a definition of â€Å"true love,† since how you define true love will affect who you choose and how you make your argument. For example, if you argue that true love comes down to stability, you could potentially argue Tom and Daisy have true love, since they actually remain together, unlike any of the other couples. But if you argue true love is based on strong emotion, you might say Gatsby’s love for Daisy is the truest. So however you define true love, make sure to clearly state that definition, since it will shape your argument! Remember it’s also possible in a prompt like this to argue that no one in the book has true love. You would still start by defining true love, but then you would explain why each of the major couples does not have real love, and perhaps briefly explain what element each couple is missing. Is The Great Gatsby a love story or a satire? Some essays have you zoom way out and consider what The Great Gatsby’s overall genre (or type) is. The most common argument is that, while Gatsby is a tragic love story on the surface (the love of Gatsby and Daisy), it’s really more of a satire of wealthy New York society, or a broader critique of the American Dream. This is because the themes of money, society and class, and the American Dreamare pretty constant, while the relationships are more of a vehicle to examine those themes. To argue which genre Gatsby is (whether you say â€Å"it’s more of a love story† or â€Å"it’s more of a satire†), define your chosen genre and explain why Gatsby fits the definition. Make sure to include some evidence from the novel’s final chapter, no matter what you argue. Endings are important, so make sure you link Gatsby’s ending to the genre you believe it is. For example, if you’re arguing â€Å"Gatsby is a love story,† you could emphasize the more hopeful, optimistic parts of Nick’s final lines. But if you argue â€Å"Gatsby is satire,† you would look at the sad, harsh details of the final chapter – Gatsby’s sparsely-attended funeral, the crude word scrawled against his back steps, etc. Also, be sure to check out our post on the novel's ending for more analysis. Is what Gatsby feels for Daisy love, obsession, affection, or accumulation/objectification? What is Fitzgerald’s message here? A really common essay topic/topic of discussion is the question of Gatsby’s love for Daisy (and sometimes, Daisy’s love for Gatsby): is it real, is it a symbol for something else, and what does it reveal about both Daisy and Gatsby’s characters? As we discussed above, Gatsby’s love for Daisy is definitely more intense than Daisy’s love for Gatsby, and furthermore, Gatsby’s love for Daisy seems tied up in an obsession with her wealth and the status she represents. From there, it’s up to you how you argue how you see Gatsby’s love for Daisy – whether it’s primarily an obsession with wealth, whether Daisy is just an object to be collected, or whether you think Gatsby actually loves Daisy the person, not just Daisy the golden girl. Analyze the nature of male-female relationships in the novel. This is a zoomed-out prompt that wants you to talk about the nature of relationships in general in the novel. Still, even though we have clearly identified the five major relationships, it might be complicated for you to try and talk about every single one in depth in just one essay. Instead, it will be more manageable for you to use evidence from two to three of the couples to make your point. You could explore how the relationships expose that America is in fact a classist society. After all,the only relationship that lasts (Tom and Daisy’s) lasts because of the security of being in the same class, while the others fail either due to cross-class dating or one member (Myrtle) desperately trying to break out of her given class. You could also talk about how the power dynamics within the relationships vary wildly, but only the couple that seems to have a stable relationship is also described as â€Å"conspiratorial† and often as a â€Å"they† – that is, Tom and Daisy Buchanan. So perhaps Fitzgerald does envision a sort of lasting partnership being possible, if certain conditions (like both members being happy with the amount of money in the marriage) are met. This prompt and ones like it give you a lot of freedom, but make sure not to bite off more than you chew! What’s Next? Wondering how else you can pair these characters in an essay? Check out our article on comparing and contrasting the most common character pairings in The Great Gatsby. Why is money so crucial in the world of the novel? Read more about money and materialism in Gatsbyto find out. Need to get the events of the book straight? Check out our chapter summaries to get a handle on the various parties, liaisons, flashbacks, and deaths. Get started with our book summary here! Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Bend it like a Man of Chosun Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Bend it like a Man of Chosun - Essay Example The main perspective on which the author argued that the racial and ethnic inferiority complexes of the Korean people from the western world can be overcome or healed with their participation in in sports like football in which they feel at the top of the world which came with the victory of Korea in Berlin Olympics, 1936. In support of his statement he stated that in the year 2002 World Cup, when Korea reached the Semifinals, their victory in the game again brought to unify the nation again and provided a great opportunity to cure the ethnic inferiority of its people. The author provided the evidence of the newspaper Dong-A Ilbo, which published the photograph of Sohn with Japanese Flag and removed his Uniform of the Korean country. He proved the strength of the mass media that is newspaper in Korea in developing the sense of Nationalism. Although the victory of Sohn ended the very first stage of sport nation in Korea, its people very clearly understood the importance of sports competition in international level which brought them pride for their country. The author has a strong positive viewpoint about how a sport can initiate nationalistic behavior in a country and it is very true till now a days. During the time of sport activities the people try to view the country as one and try to figure the all the positive aspects about the country while almost forgot the other factors. Author mentioned different evidence to prove his point in the document which makes it very rich in establishing the facts. The main problem we can notice in the document that the author only emphasized on only a single factor that is sport. Sport can only initiate the nationalism in its people but it is up to the people who will continue to it or not. As in the document we can find that after 1936 there is no mention of any other incidence till 2002. A single thing can never eradicate the inferiority sense from the minds of the people and it can it will be temporary. Yes I am

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Reflection on skills Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Reflection on skills - Essay Example Humans gain different types of skills and knowledge in their courses of life experiences and formal learning. What is most important is what remains and is retained for purposes of applying it in the workplace. This essay is an explanation of the skills and knowledge I have acquired before and currently as a human resource student in our university class and an application of all these in workplace. An important knowledge I have acquired in the university is an understanding of leadership dynamics in the context of an organisation. Many other things in an organisation undergo change over time and so are the organisation’s leadership expected to change. Â  The shift from being static to dynamic/changeable is motivated by the need to achieve better performance whereas the push for better performance in many organisations is driven by the existing competition. This calls for the delivery of very quality services or production of quality products. This objective is normally well achieved through continuous innovation and creativity in the organisation. Agbor (2008) explains that leaders in organisations are sources and catalysts to innovation and creativity. An organisation’s leadership can be able to drive creativity by encouraging and managing diversity. This means the leaders should initiate a change in the organisation’s culture. According to Zaccaro (2001), the leadership structure of an organisation should be one that can support and sustain innovation process in the organisation. This means that necessary changes should be made to this structure. According to Zaccaro (2001), the factor of time is very important for leaders and this means leaders of an organisation have to choose wisely their time-orientation. This decision is very important considering the limited resource in many organisations. For example, long-term leadership perspectives are aimed at long term prosperity. Short-term orientation is important when aiming at immediate results and pay-offs. This usually becomes a good option if the organisation operates under social systems that are complex and insecure. However, leadership dynamics requires that organisation’s leaders should be able to adapt to the two perspectives because one perspective exploits the resources of the organisation. As an assistant manager, I was able to use time orientation skill in making long-term and short term decisions in the shoe company in response to existing organisation’s needs. I had to make a consideration of the available resources. According to Dyer (1999) competencies refer to context-specific behaviours that define success in a particular setting. I have come to acquire knowledge on diverse professional and personal HR competencies through this course. These competencies are grouped into core, role-specific and role leadership and management competencies, and personal attributes. The core HR professional competencies include compliance, stewardship, coaching and consulting , customer focus, technology expertise, talent, vendor and knowledge management, virtual teamwork, employee advocacy and , assessment and measuring skills (Brockbank and Ulrich, 2003). Â   According to Ramlall, (2006), personal attributes/competencies include result orientation, continuous leadership, commitment, and honesty and integrity. Leadership and management competencies include vision alignment, strategic thinking, resource management, networking, process excellence, teamwork, goal setting and performance development (Brockbank and Ulrich, 2003). Â  As an administrator in a beer factory, I utilised the HR competencies I had acquired during my past learning and online research to respond to customer needs. I did this in a way that adds value to the organisation while developing significant customer satisfaction. I also made sure that I handled employee issues in a way that it kept or increased their motivation no matter the situation. I am also knowl edgeable on the importance of practical and creative thinking skills in relation to HR. HR require

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Business Strategy Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 3

Business Strategy - Assignment Example These analyses have assisted the report to evaluate the critical success factors of the organisation. It has also assisted to design various strategic recommendations for the organisation such as STP strategy, Horizontal and Vertical integration and Ansoff’s Matrix. These strategies have been illustrated to suggest the future activities of the organisation to acquire a strong position in the different market segments of Singapore. Value based pricing and cost plus pricing strategies have been recommended for the new as well as existing product line of the organisation. These strategies will assist the organisation to attract new consumers towards their products and services to improve their global market growth. The report is focused on analysing the strategic position of Quirky Inc. to recommend a competitive positioning for the organisation in the Singapore market. In the first stage the analysis of the current strategic position of the organisation will emphasise the internal as well as external environmental analysis of the organisation. This analysis will allow the assessment of key driving forces and critical success factors of the organisation. In the next stage the report will evaluate various strategic options for expanding the business in the Singapore market. It will also provide valuable recommendations to assist the proper execution of the strategies. Quirky Inc. was founded by Ben Kaufman in 2009 and it’s currently situated only in New York. It is a crowd sourcing company specialized in formulating the innovative ideas of the population. The organisation not only encourages inventors to submit their innovative ideas they also assist them to develop new product as per those ideas. The website of the organisation also allows people to sell their innovative range of products. The organisation has strong partnership with various digital retail outlets for instances, Best Buy

Friday, November 15, 2019

Contemporary Issues In Human Resource Management Commerce Essay

Contemporary Issues In Human Resource Management Commerce Essay The impact of the recession upon human resource management activities of HM activities The paper provides an overview on Hennes Mauritz (HM), analyzing the industry environment and the position in the retail market. The paper also explores the impact of the recession upon the human resource management activities, based on publicly available details of HM, which has been analyzed and presented within the context of the perspective. Introduction The retail industry is usually a very dynamic, and a fast changing sector in the market. It represents one of the main sectors in the UK economy, in terms of employment, transactions and turnover, so that as a consequence, it is a highly competitive and a sophisticated industry. Thompson(2002) argues that economic conditions are an important element in the industry and he states that they may affect the way, weather easy or difficult, a business runs the activity successfully and profitable .Furthermore he claims that economic conditions may affect both capital availability, cost and demand. Companies in the fashion sector have to keep all the time the attention on monitoring the market, and should try to identify any new trends as soon as possible and, above all, they have to keep up with the customers increasing expectations, needs and changing tastes. As the paper shows above, the analysis will be on the HennesMauritz fashion business which is considered one of the worlds favourite and preferred designers of clothes and accessories for man, women, teenagers and babies. In addition, HM its also known not only for the fashion cosmetics and accessories but also because of the quality of the clothes ,using sustainable materials like organic cotton, wool and organic denim, all being environmental friendly ( HM website(1), viewed 20 October 2010). According to the Datamonitor (2010, p.4) HM is a large clothing retailer with its operations primarily set in Europe, North America, and Asia, owning in 2009 1,988 stores worldwide and reaching sales of 119 billion Sweden Kronor. (HM website (2), viewed 20 October 2010). The companys main office is based in Stockholm, Sweden and employs almost 76,000 workers out of which more than 53,476 are on full time employment as of November 2009. HMs strategic approach is to offer designer clothes to general population at affordable prices, the company working with such brand names as Stella McCartney, Karl Lagerfeld, Roberto Cavalli and Lanvin (Capell Beucke 2005, p. 16; Kroll 2004, p. 71; Zimmerman 2009, p. D1; WWD 2010, p. 2). RECESSION IN RETAIL SECTOR Nowadays almost all kinds of industries are willing to maintain their competitive position in the market during the recession period. Most of the challenges that the retail market faces are related to the economic and the financial aspects. The fashion industry faced unfavourable situation due to the reduction of the money spent on clothes, but also due to the change in consumers behaviour. According to Kambil (2009) recession should last less than 2 years, and managers should take full advantage of this in order to rethink and renew their strategies and their competitive positions in the UK retail market. The UK retail market was just one of the industries hit by the global economic downturn, as shoppers were forced to limit their spending and consumer confidence was shaken by the failure of important retail giants like Woolworth. With the retail market getting back on its feet in 2010 particularly the online sales segment, where UK web sales grew by 18% in August 2010 (BBC website, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11034030 ), compared with the same month a year earlier one of the most pressing concerns is whether there will be long-term effects on consumer confidence or spending. The retail industry has been an excellent contributor to the UKs economy. According to the British Retail Consortium, the retail sector is one of the second largest employers in the UK, employing 11% of the UK workforce, some 2.9 million people as of March 2009. Historical evidences depict that the UKs economic development has been dominantly fuelled by the successes in the fashion industry especially because of the existence of 286,680 retail outlets in the UK (British Retail Consortium website). Over all these years, industrial success in textiles and fashion goods component have been significant and can be attributed to the continuous change and improvements in the lifestyle of the shoppers and the increasing value being placed to such products. Consumers constantly experimented different looks, styles, fabrics and ideas and their interest in fashion accessories has been stimulated by high media exposure, which have been growing over the last few years. This assiduous rise in the consumer spending on fashion products led to practically unchallenged growth in the industry. Despite the crisis in this sector of the economy, some of the organizations managed to grow their market share. According to Kambil (2008) companies need to focus their attention on the market share and in addition they had to launch new products and adjust the existing ones in order to improve their relations with the customers. Using HM as a company example, they tried to beat the effects of the downturn, by launching designer clothes in partnership with well-know designers like Jimmy Choo, Roberto Cavalli and Lanvin this November (HM website, viewed 21 October 2010). Moreover the economic recession has affected many HR Processes and they needed to be adapted to the new economic environment and furthermore they had to be ready to face the new reality. The impact of the recession is not the same and many HR Processes can continue their regular operation without any adjustment. Even if recession has affected many fashion organisations, closing stores or slashing prices, one of the big retailers operating on the UK market, HM ,was keeping quite well, in addition they were opening stores, entering new markets, and adding new brands (Spiegel website, April 9 2008, ). Another major effect of the recession in the retail industry is the staff redundancies. According to The Telegraph website there is an important downsizing in this sector, which may affect retail organisations in many ways. The article shows that at the beginning of 2009 economists were announcing massive staff reductions between 100,000 and 135,000 jobs due to the severity of the slowdown. Moreover the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development predicted at that time more than 600,000 jobs will be lost and many companies will be forced to freeze their workforces pay. Sales have been also suffering by the economic downturn, reporting a volume of retail sales lower with 0.1% than October last year (National Statistics Online website, http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=256). Among the factors that should be taken into consideration is the current economic growth rate in the nation. This directly refers to an economys rise in value of services or goods produced. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in the case of United Kingdom, the economic growth rate in 2010 grew by 1.1% in the second quarter of the year (BBC website, National Statistics Online website, http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=256 ). Another economic factor that may influence retail business in the fashion industry is the inflation. According to the BBC newspaper, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), inflation increased to 3.2% in October from 3.1% per cent in the previous month (BBC newspaper, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11784775, Appendix A) . SWOT Analysis of HM According to Armstrong (2004) SWOT is defined as (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) and is a popular framework for developing a marketing strategy. SWOT analysis is basically done to find out if they have sufficient resources to cover their weakness and still achieve their objective. Strength Hennes Mauritz AB build its strengths by operating through complementary retail channels stores, Internet, and printed catalogues. According to Datamonitor (2010) one of the significant strength of HM Company is the request for its products which rise up the inventory turnover and enables low price cut. Customer express their preference for HM product especially clothes because of its quality at the best price but also because of the stores which are refreshed and reordered daily with new garments products. Moreover, collaboration with designer like Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, Roberto Cavalli and Lanvin this November, which are very well know worldwide, will improve the desire for their garments ,but also will accelerate sales growth ( Business week website, viewed 19 October 2010) . Another major strength of HM is the presence on different markets such as Europe, North America and Asia with almost 2000 stores (HM website (4), viewed 20 October 2010). This fact is a positive aspect for the company because they can diversify their risk, but also be sustainably- financially, socially and environmentally (CSR Report 2009). Weaknesses One of the most important and noticeable weakness that HM encounters is the segment that the fashion company targets. HM designs clothes for young customers offering them the HM Divided and HM L.O.G.G collections. Second fact that can be taken into consideration as a weaknesses is the shoppers base which is influenced by the macro economic environment in a negative way (Datamonitor 2010).The article claims that HM focus on the young segment of the market, which is one of the worst hit by the recession, with 21% rate of unemployment for teenagers under age of 25. Opportunities First of all, one of the most important opportunities that HM faces is the e-commerce. According to Datamonitor (2010) HM online sales grew by 22% with 4.7% of the total retail online sales in Europe. Moreover the online sales within more 17 European Countries (such as France, UK, Germany) are estimated to grow by 11% each year over the next five years. Even if the recession affected the retail industry, Hennes Mauritz opened in 2009 250 stores worldwide with 25 more than they planned. (HM website (3), viewed 21 October 2010) Second of all, the expansion plans 2010-1011 for HM intend to reach a 10-15 % each year. The Company tries to focus on markets like Asia where the sales double over, China Japan and South Korea. (Financial times website October 20, 2010). Another opportunity that HM takes full advantage of is the use of organic cotton which classified the company in the top twelve global brands and retailer using organic cotton. Threats Threats of the company are also related to the economic recession because shoppers spend less money on clothes. Over the year 2010 employment were expected to become worse, peaking towards the end of the year at approximately 10.3% and consumers were expected to apply for benefits. Second major threat for the organisation is the VAT which has been reduced in the UK in 2008 by 15% and in January 2010 has been changed again do 17.5%. Apart of this change the cost for cotton has been modified as well with almost 60-75 % by the end of 2009 and with 20-30% during 2010 (Datamonitor 2010 , http://web.ebscohost.com/bsi/pdf?vid=20hid=7sid=4b01c02d-b8cf-414f-b787-7f93a0b69865%40sessionmgr113 ). Human Resource Management in a recession The retail sector is one of the most hit by the global economic recession, so that managers should handle the effects of recession as professionally as possible in a downturn. But since when human resource management is dealing with the implementation of the strategies and policies relating to the management of individuals, the department become one of the most responsible to bring the organisation on the right track during recession time. According to Kambil (2008) there are some important steps that a business should follow in order to maintain their competitive position on the market. Some of these vital steps are the improvement of prices in order to grow margins, the increase of the financial and operational efficiency, but also the concentration on the market share. According to Armstrong (2009, p.5) the purpose of the human resource management is to make sure that an organisation is able to perform well through its staff, but also to increase the efficiency and the capability of the business. Furthermore, it also helps the business to reach it goals by using the resources available to their best use. One of the first processes affected by a recession is the recruitment selection policies which have been massively affected by the recession. Newell and Shackleton (2000) argues that recruitment and selection process involves making anticipation about what will happen, so that decisions are made about who is the most suitable person for a certain job that can increase the performance of an organisation. Now managers and recruitment agencies are being extra careful who they bring in, and they prefer to rethink and implement new strategies in order to improve their relations with the customers. In addition, companies are even more demanding than before, making sure that they recruit the best candidate that can bring real value to the company. Another significant effect on human resource management which impact an organization in recession time is the cost cutting. Retailers are conscious about the situation of the business and try to do everything to maintain their competitive position on the market. They started to cut working hours, holidays, labour costs, and travel expenses and they dont offer long-term benefits anymore. According to Retail Week website (http://www.retail-week.com/cost-cutting-the-lean-machine/1923604.article ) organizations needed to reduce its cost not only to their store level, but also to their head offices. The career and development process have been also affected by the recession, so that managers offer limited trainings to their staff. Selecting and training employees with great potential, contribute to the increase of the sales and organisations performance. It also leads to a more structured career path which ensures that staff has the necessary skills to improve the quality of services and products of a company. Introducing flexible working arrangements and part-paid sabbaticals is another effect of the recession that has a significant impact on an organisation impact on an organization. Managers prefer to make these changes, rather than implementing redundancy programmes, because it allows them to manage every cost. This measure eliminates the need of hiring extra staff for busy periods such as Christmas or Easter holidays. The operations are also suffering due to the recession, because managers develop different channels which imply lower labour costs, such as online sales. A number of retailers found more innovative ways to deal with cost cutting by introducing 9 day fortnights, reducing daily hours and offering unpaid sabbaticals, so we also saw an uplift in the request for interim specialists to renegotiate these new practices. Conclusion The middle of 2008 saw huge changes for the UK retail industry, with the sector suffering a very intense downturn and several well-known brands were disappearing from the high streets. But on the other hand there have been retailers that improved their performance during the recession. As seen above, HM is one of them, reaching a SEK 118,697 million turnover, and about 76,000 employments. The human resource management is one of the sectors that have been also affected by the economic downturn. According to Armstrong (2000) Human resource management is a construct largely invented by academics and popularised by consultants. So that many retailers took decisive actions, like concentrating and simplifying their operations by reducing staff numbers and costs, both through natural wastage and implementing redundancy programmes and flexible working hours. Furthermore, there is now evidence of significant change in the retail sector. In line with the drop-off in demand for goods not being as bad as had initially been feared, retailers are now re-evaluating and rethinking their HR strategies. In conclusion, the paper demonstrates that the current economic conditions have provided the opportunity for the UK retail industry to learn and deal better with HRM structures and recession, adding to what had already been in progress before the economic downturn, which in turn shows an opportunity to make the business stronger, successfully and profitable. Moreover, there is a lack of standard qualifications across retail sector which is also unfavourable.   Government policy in this area is ineffectual and needs to be improved as soon as possible.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Macbeths Images and Imagery Essay -- Free Essay Writer

Macbeth's Imagery      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  William Shakespeare in the tragedy Macbeth very skillfully uses imagery to support other aspects of the drama, especially the theme. In this essay let us examine the imagery, including literary critical comment.    Roger Warren comments in Shakespeare Survey 30 , regarding Trervor Nunn's direction of Macbeth at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1974-75, on opposing imagery used to support the opposing notions of purity and black magic:    Much of the approach and detail was carried over, particularly the clash between religious purity and black magic. Purity was embodied by Duncan, very infirm (in 1974 he was blind), dressed in white and accompanied by church organ music, set against the black magic of the witches, who even chanted 'Double, double to the Dies Irae. (283)    L.C. Knights in the essay "Macbeth" explains the supporting role which imagery plays in Macbeth's descent into darkness:    To listen to the witches, it is suggested, is like eating "the insane root, That takes the reason prisoner" (I.iii.84-5); for Macbeth, in the moment of temptation, "function," or intellectual activity, is "smother'd in surmise"; and everywhere the imagery of darkness suggests not only the absence or withdrawal of light but - "light thickens" - the presence of something positively oppressive and impeding.   (101)    In Fools of Time: Studies in Shakespearean Tragedy, Northrop Frye shows how the playwright uses imagery to reinforce the theme:    This theme is at its clearest where we are most in sympathy with the nemesis. Thus at the end of Macbeth, after the proclamation "the time is free," and of promises to make reparations of Macbeth's tyranny "Which would be planted newly with... ...es and Noble, 1970.    Frye, Northrop. Fools of Time: Studies in Shakespearean Tragedy. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 1967.    Kermode, Frank. "Macbeth." The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1972.    Knights, L.C. "Macbeth." Shakespeare: The Tragedies. A Collectiion of Critical Essays. Alfred Harbage, ed. Englewwod Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1964.    Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. http://chemicool.com/Shakespeare/macbeth/full.html, no lin.    Warren, Roger. Shakespeare Survey 30.   N.p.: n.p., 1977. Pp. 177-78. Rpt. in Shakespeare in the Theatre: An Anthology of Criticism. Stanley Wells, ed. England: Oxford University Press, 2000.    Wilson, H. S. On the Design of Shakespearean Tragedy. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 1957.   

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Kant: Human, Animals, and Empathy Essay

Immanuel Kant remains one of the most influential thinkers in history. Part of Kant’s appeal is his ability to provide incredibly unique insights into the human condition. One of the more interesting works by Kant was his writing that looked into human interrelations with animals. From his examinations, Kant essentially shows that how humans treat animals is indicative of how they will treat other people. This ties very heavily into the notion that the human-animal relationship is linked heavily with empathy. Kant makes a very sobering point in his analysis of human relationships with animals. Much of Kant’s analysis is realistic and this realistic insight notes the darker side of human nature. Kant understands that not all human/animal relationships are harmonious. The sad fact remains that there are those who are cruel to animals. Many sociopathic individuals display enormous cruelty to animals. Granted, the number of those individuals is limited in comparison to those who have harmonious relationships. But, these individuals do exists. There numbers – while low – are still significant enough that there are laws on the books designed to punish their cruel behavior. Kant understands this because he looks at the relationship from a common sense perspective. After all, how could a person who tortures animals show empathy towards humans? A lack of empathy against any living this is indicative that the person possesses NO empathy. Kant also points out that a child who possesses such cruel behavior will likely develop into a cruel adult. That is the path such a malformed development of relationships will lead the child when he/she blossoms into adulthood. Of course, not all of Kant’s writing deals with the negative aspects that can come to light when examining the relationship between humans and animals. The inverse is also presented as well. That is, the good qualities of a person become visible when examining how a person treats their loving animals. A person who cares for a dog when it is sick, gives it food when it is hungry, and provides shelter when the animal needs protection is clearly a person who understand the concept of giving to those in need. Such actions will eventually re-emerge in their relationships with other humans. Now, does that mean that simply because a dog owner is angelic with his pet that the owner will be devoid of cruelty towards others? No, of course not; such an assessment would be absurd. However, if a person does treat an animal with kindness and respect then empathy is present. Simply put, all good treatment of animals is synonymous with empathy. You can not have one without the other. Granted, the actual volume of empathy may vary. That is, a person may show empathy towards family and friends but may possess aberrant or destructive traits as well. A person who loves his family selflessly may also possess racial animosity. However, if one were to look at reducing or eliminating racial animosity (or any other personality aberrancy), a person with a capacity for empathy will be more than likely to repent as opposed to a sociopath who lacks empathy. Keep in mind, empathy is not a minimal â€Å"touchy-feely† emotion. Empathy goes to the core of who we are and what we are capable of. That is why it is critical to understand how beings react to others since this gives an insight into their empathic nature. A clear examination of human-animal relationships provides this insight. Or, at least, this is the hope.

Friday, November 8, 2019

The Annual Inflation Rate essays

The Annual Inflation Rate essays Just about everything we do as a nation lends to the annual inflation rate. In this article, though, I have chosen four of the most important variables that influence inflation the most. Inflation is the sustained increase in prices, or in other words, a steady decline in the buying power of the dollar. I have come up with an equation that includes the following variables: the unemployment rate, the federal funds interest rate, per capita income, and new home sales. These variables consistently have shown a relationship to the inflation rate and aggregately may help to explain the cause of inflation. The first variable I chose was the unemployment rate. This is the annual average of persons 15 years of age or older, actively seeking and available for work, but unemployed. (BLS). The relationship between unemployment and inflation provides evidence of a short-run trade-off between the two variables known as the short-run Phillips curve (BLS). The relationship suggests that by accepting higher inflation levels, the Fed can use monetary policy to stimulate the economy and temporarily reduce unemployment. When prices go up, the wages are affected also. This occurs because if no adjustments are made, then the same wages will buy less goods and services, which affects consumer spending. Less spending means less profits, which ends in layoffs and higher unemployment. The flip side reveals the effect of unemployment on inflation. The hypothesis for this variable is that as the unemployment rate decreases, the annual inflation rate will increase. The reasoning here is that if more people are employed and have money, there is more spending, more demand, and therefore prices will rise. The second variable I chose was the federal funds interest rate. Federal funds are the Feds channel of affecting the economy through the banks. The Fed aims to maintain a steady economy with steady growth and stabl ...

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Hunger Scandanavian Essay

Hunger Scandanavian Essay Hunger Scandanavian Essay Koosha Samani 1126241 Scand 150 Jan Sjavik 6/5/13 I have qualified for W-Credit. Hunger For my final paper, I chose to write about one of my favorite assigned books in the course; Hunger by Knut Hamsun. This novel was fascinating to me because of the way Hamsun charts the ups, downs, frustrations, and struggles of an unstable, yet intelligent mind. The narrator of the story (nameless) is an intellectual man living in Norway; he is poor and constantly starving. In order to make the miniscule amount of money that he does, he sells articles to pedestrians. Although he has rare moments of optimism, most of the time he is without hope. The story or purpose of the novel is the experience the narrator endures through his high and low moments, and his struggle to keep moving forward in life. I believe that the author’s purpose is to portray the beauty and hope in a struggle. Throughout the novel, the same scenario keeps repeating itself over and over again. The narrator is starving, the conditions of his life worsen, however; he always ends up getting enough money and food to remain alive. It is an on-going cycle where things seem to be okay for a brief moment, and then his condition goes back to worsening and so on and so forth. The depressive mind is an internal struggle, where hope forms, adopts an idea, latches on to that idea, builds encouragement, and then get brought back down to an unforgiving reality. As a reader, it’s like come on things need to start getting better already, and it becomes tiresome to see the narrator fall back down, however, we still keep that hope inside of use that he will rise. As moments of optimism appear, viewing the situation seems a little bit brighter. Then something else is triggered, more obstacles arise, and then the struggle continues again. One of the major themes in the novel is the narrator’s attitude towards his everyday life. The narrator has a lot of time on his hands each day, and the only necessity to keep him self alive is to give each of his days a sense of purpose. Besides his writing, the narrator’s main goal is to persevere and get by. Due to the fact that he barely has any money, the narrator goes through each day trying to write, moving from bench to bench, and scheming for ways to obtain food to help to his hunger. Because he has so much free time, the narrator has a lot of time to think, which in turn makes the novel predominantly about what goes on inside of his head; his mental state. Throughout the story, the narrator’s experiences come down to the little things he comes across. At a point in the novel, the narrator uses the noises and lights from cars in traffic to uplift his spirits, only to be devastated by seeing a limping man. To rid himself of the old man, the narrator app roaches him and discovers that he is a beggar. Without any money to offer, he quickly runs to the store, sells his waistcoat, and then offers the beggar some of the money from the sale. This example is just one of many instances where the narrator gives away money even though he is starving. This ties back in to the narrator’s mental state in which he receives bits of hope, and then his optimism instantly gets crushed by an event that hurts his heart. An expression such as this shown by the narrator portrays his intellectual mind and kind heart combined with his chemically imbalanced brain that disallows him to strive in the world that he is living in. To my estimation, the narrator operates under a deep sense of pride and kindness mixed in with twisted logic and a sense of uncertainty about his living situation. Many examples show that the narrator quickly gets irritated, and puts the situation into his own hands and gives when he really has nothing to give (example: old man). In his mind, his actions are rationalized that it is his responsibility to fix a situation because he owes it to everybody else. His proud attitude puts him in situations where he becomes

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson - Essay Example As the President he worked on reversals of a number of Federalist policies like the removal of the excise tax on whiskey, the cut back on military budget and reduction of the national debt, secured repeal of the Naturalization Act, and also worked on getting the Alien and Sedition Act to expire and pardoned anyone affected by it (Wright, 2008). Alexander Hamilton on the other hand was born very simple however he grew to become a very strong and recognised figure in the powerful central government. He as well joined the Cabinet as the secretary of the treasury when Washington became the first President in 1789. He has proved to be very productive and has secured in the creation of the national bank and dealing with the government debts (DiLorenzo, 2008). Although he had been very helpful to the country and proved to be a very successful leader, he was in a scandal of adulterous affairs which led him to be public ridiculed. Both these leaders were equally good politically and with the amount they provided to the public, however Alexander Hamilton was the only one who was faced with a lot of public ridicule. Later Alexander needed to choose between two political opponents for the presidency and this is when the two, Hamilton and Jefferson worked on the same side to win over Adam Burr, who was considered to be unprincipled. Both Hamilton as well as Jefferson were to extremely principled and focused (Wright,

Friday, November 1, 2019

Choose the topic based on the description Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Choose the topic based on the description - Essay Example The official website of the project emphasizes on the economic opportunity that the project can bring about. It says the British Columbians, Albertans, Canadians, aboriginals, communities and landowners are benefited from it. It provides with education and training opportunities and also improves the safety and integrity of gas transport and operations in the country (Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeilines, n.d). An in-depth analysis will show that the claims made by the government and the company behind the pipeline are nowhere near facts. A vast portion in the proposed route of the pipeline is passing through the traditional lands of many aboriginal groups like Yinka Dene. This also turns out as a menace for the natural habitat of wild salmon. Enbridge is trying to tackle the situation by offering a 10 percent equity stake for aboriginal groups in 80 kilometres of the line. But this can only be regarded as a business minded approach to secure the first nations’ support. Such an offering cannot make up for the loss that the proposed project can bring about. Robyn Allan, an economist and CEO of former Insurance Corporation of BC, in a report specifies that the proposed pipeline can adversely affect non-oil industries. Continual increments in oil prices are inevitable for the success of the project, and therefore it will be a blow for the common man in the country. Family purchasing power will decline; production cost in oil based industries will increase, and the eventual outcome will be abatement in GDP. Enbridge’s history in installation and maintenance of gas pipelines is not worth in giving it a ‘trustworthy’ label. Many NGOs (as cited in Financial Post, 2012) point out incidents of gas leakages and oil spills in pipelines built by them; and 190,000 litres of oil spilled in Wisconsin in July, 2012. As per reports (Financial Post, 2012), there was a 230,000