Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Homosexuality in Hitchcock’s “Rope”

Discuss the representation of homosexuality in Sigmund Fraud's â€Å"The Sexual Aberrations† and Alfred Hitchcock Rope.. Based on the true murder case of Leopold and Loeb, Alfred Hitchcock Rope (1948) depicts the tale of two intelligent young men and there attempts to execute the perfect murder. With the entire film taking place in one apartment, we watch as Brandon Shaw and Phillip Morgan strangle there friend David, hide his body in a trunk, and proceed to have a party, all the while with the corpse hidden in plain sight.In this essay, I will address the issue of homosexuality within the text, a hero which, due to the strict nature of the times, is only hinted at within the movie. To do this, I will use Fraud's essay on The Sexual Aberrations (1905) and provide parallels between the two texts. In particular I will focus on Fraud's discussion of degeneration, sadism, masochism and finally fetishism. What is interesting when discussing homosexuality within this text, especiall y when viewed in context of what was believed to be sexually normal at the time, is whether the two murderers sexuality actually has any bearing on the crime itself.Or, more to he point, (and particularly when viewed with relevance to Fraud's Aberrations) is it the sexuality, or society's view on the sexuality that led Shaw and Morgan to the conclusion of murder? Freud, when discussing the term â€Å"degenerate†, disregards any preconceived beliefs of a link between it and homosexuality. He argues that a simple digression from normality does not qualify a person as degenerate (I. E morally corrupt).Therefore, an invert, or person of a homosexual inclination is not, at least as a result of their natural sexuality, a person of degenerate nature. To Freud, generation is as much a possibility within heterosexuals as homosexuals. The deviation from normality, in itself, has no bearing on it. â€Å"That the inverted are not degenerates in this qualified sense can be seen from the following facts:01. The inversion is found among persons who otherwise show no marked deviation from the normal. 2.It is found also among persons whose capabilities are not disturbed, who on the contrary are distinguished by especially high intellectual development†¦ † (Freud, The Sexual Aberrations, 1905) So, having established that the chances of degeneration are equal across the playing for field for all people of raying sexuality, are our two protagonists degenerate? The domineering force of Brandon Shaw would seem to fit nicely into Fraud's second category of being â€Å"distinguished by especially high intellectual development†¦ And, despite the guilt that slowly riddles itself into Phillips slightly cold demeanor, there is no hiding the obvious pleasure both gained from the planning and executing of their â€Å"perfect murder†. This pleasure would appear to be twofold; firstly in the physical act of the strangulation (note the phallic-like weapon of ch oice, changed from the original blunt hisses used by Leopold and Loeb), and secondly in the intellectual challenge and sense of superiority gained from committing and then hiding the act.These divergences lend themselves towards the category of sadism. From the offset, the authoritarian manner is quickly proven to be the driving force in the relationship; a fact that he relishes, and Philip excepts. This is exemplary of a sadomasochistic partnership. The Online Oxford dictionary defines sadism as, â€Å"the tendency to derive pleasure, especially sexual gratification, from inflicting pain, suffering, or humiliation on others† (http://expectoration's. Mom/definition/sadism? =sadism), and is, according to Freud, almost inseparable from its counterpart, masochism, the desire to be controlled and dominated by another. His belief that the two behaviors are often found coexisting within the same person, is explored in our two main characters. Firstly, we have Brandon, our sadist. I ntelligent, forceful and imperious, his real-life counterpart Richard Loeb was believed to be the driving force behind the Bobby Franks murder of 1924, as would seem to be the case in Hitchcock Rope.All these actions, in sequence, would seem to mirror and metaphors the generic sexual act: a physical encounter (again, note the symbol of the flaccid, phallic-like rope), a climax, slighted by Davit's final scream, and the moment of close, silent reflection between the two. What is key however, is the addition of one final action that Brandon and Phillip undergo before speaking and breaking their erotic spell: the hiding of the body, the evidence of their of their sexual deviations.They have replaced the act of sex, forbidden by concepts of social normality, with the act of murder, and, Just as they would have had to hide their physical relationship from the world, they hide the body. â€Å"The body's in the trunk and the sex is in the closet, yet both are hidden in plain sight† (Bourne, Review of Rope). This brings me back to the original question of whether it is the sexuality, or society's view of the sexuality that resulted in the murder.We have already established through Fraud's discussion of degeneration that moral corruption is not an inherent characteristic of have also acknowledged the fact that Brandon is, without a doubt, a sadist. I believe to properly interpret the actions of Brandon and Phillip, we must further investigate the strange link between aggression and eroticism seen in the opening scene.As mentioned before, homosexuality at the time, or any other form of deviation from the tankard male-female relationship, was socially feared and condemned as immoral and wrong. Freud, in his Civilization and its Discontents (1929) discusses the difficulties that arise with such discrimination, â€Å"As regards the sexually mature individual, the choice of an object is restricted to the opposite sex, and most extra- genital satisfactions are forbid den as perversions.The requirement, demonstrated in these prohibitions, that there shall be a single kind of sexual life for everyone, disregards the dissimilarities, whether innate or acquired, in the sexual constitution f human beings; it cuts Off fair number of them from sexual enjoyment, and so becomes a source of serious injustice† (Freud, Civilization and its Discontents, p. 549). It is this sense of injustice and frustration, both mental and physical that could potentially lead the invert into a state of degeneration.For Brandon and Phillip, their pent up sexual frustrations, symbolized in the limp rope, must be directed down a different avenue, unbalancing the mental process and disturbing the function of the libido. For both, this resulted in a release of sadistic aggression. â€Å"The sexuality of cost men shows a taint of aggression, it is a propensity to subdue, the biological significance of which lies in the necessity of overcoming the resistance of the sexual o bject by actions other than mere courting.Sadism would then correspond to an aggressive component of the sexual impulse which has become independent and exaggerated and has been brought to the foreground by displacement† (Freud, The Sexual Aberrations, 1905) But where Brandon would appear to be firmly planted in the category of ‘sadist', Phillip, confirming Fraud's previously mentioned belief of masochism nearly always accompanying sadism, is far more the sadomasochist. While obviously gaining Just as much pleasure from the violence as Brandon, Phillip doesn't seem to gain any such satisfaction from the sense of intellectual superiority that his partner does.While retaining his fascination with aggression and strangulation, (â€Å"You're quite a good chicken strangler as I recall†¦ (Rupert to Phillip, Rope, 1948), Phillip would appear content being dominated by Brandy's charm and force. When asked by Brandon about who else they might have killed instead of David, P hillip replies, â€Å"You perhaps, you frighten me, you always have, from that very iris day in prep school†¦ Part of your charm I suppose. † (Phillip, Rope, 1948).Even the smallest detail of having to ask for a drink gives evidence towards the obvious power- relationship between the two, and Leeds us to the conclusion that Phillip gains as much pleasure from his own dominance and suffering as he does from doing the same to others. Sadism is associated with activity, and masochism with passivity, of which both traits can be seen in Phillip, and only one in Brandon. â€Å"A sadist is simultaneously a masochist, though either the active or the passive side of the reversion may be more strongly developed and thus represent his preponderate sexual activity. (Freud, The Sexual Aberrations, 1905). And, in true masochistic fashion, Phillips twisted desire to be tortured (as far as the film is concerned only mentally) is matched only by Brandy's desire to play the torturer. The constant their guests, not only exercises his sense of intellectual supremacy over his guests, but also his power over the nervy Phillip. Brandon Shaw: Mrs.. Wilson, champagne! Kenneth: Oh, it isn't someone's birthday is it? Brandon Shaw: Don't look so worried, Kenneth. It's, uh, really almost the opposite. (Rope, 1948) These endless quips leave Phillip a helpless victim, suffering mentally, a fact which Brandon is clearly aware of and excited by. So strong is Phillips psychological discomfort, that, when the oblivious Mrs.. Wilson mistakenly greets Kenneth as David, Phillip squeezes and breaks his glass. The lingering of the camera on Phillips now bloody hand, and his slow, almost fascinated expression as he observes the bleeding wound, hints at the fixation he has with pain; a further, subtle, reference to his masochistic nature.Although on the surface, Brandon and Phillip seem entirely efferent in demeanor, there are definite traits that both characters share. I have already men tioned the fact that Freud argues the belief that sadism and masochism can often be found coexisting in the same person, and that this fact is confirmed with Phillips character, (his role in the murder, and his history of strangling the chickens), giving the two men a shared obsession with sadism. However, the more obvious similarity is in their fixation on the rope itself.While the main Freudian concept seen in Morgan and Shah's murder is that of sadomasochism, the concept of ethicist is also a possible tool of understanding within the text. What is interesting to note, and what draws attention to the object as much as its use as the title for the film, is Hitchcock decision to change the original murder weapon from a blunt chisel, to a rope. The symbol of their sexual frustrations, it also becomes a point of fixation for the two men.Freud when discussing fetishism as, † cases in which for the normal sexual object is substituted another which is related to it but which is tot ally unfit for the normal sexual aim†¦ The substitution for the sexual object is in mineral a part of the body but little adapted for sexual purposes, such as the foot, or hair, or an inanimate object which is in demonstrable relation with the sexual person, and mostly with the sexuality of the same† (Freud, The Sexual Aberrations, 1905).While the possibility of the rope being a a thing of fetishistic obsession for the two men could be argued, I believe the symbolism behind the object overrides this theory. I believe it is more the act of strangulation and murder that excites the two men, and that the rope itself merely acts as a symbolic image of their unfulfilled desires, and there need to hide those desires. Phillip Morgan: I was sure she'd notice it Brandon Shaw: Notice what? Phillip Morgan: The rope of course.Brandon we've got to hide it. Brandon Shaw: It's only a piece of rope Phillip, an ordinary household article, why hide it? It belongs in the kitchen drawer. (Ro pe, 1948) infamous for it's long, unbroken shots, thoughtful and witty dialogue and brooding sense of tension. However it is only when viewed with relevance to Freudian ideas of sexual inversion and perversion that the text takes on an entirely new level of intellectual depth. Fraud's essay on The Sexual Aberrations (1905) and Hatcheck'sRope (1948), would appear to be complimentary of each other in concepts of sexual aggression and sadomasochistic relationships, with each giving power and thought to concepts found in the other. It is my opinion, that this new level of understanding gained through Fraud's writings, elevates this movie to higher class which maintains its impact almost 60 years after it was originally filmed. Mark Bourne, Rope, http://www. DVD]urinal. Com/reviews/r/rope. SHTML Civilization and its Discontents, Freud 1929 http://www. Bartlett. Mom/278/1 . HTML http://expectoration's. Com/definition/sadism? Q=sadism t is the balance between the libidinal forces of the in dividual and the requirements of society, as represented through the superego, which constitutes a state of normalcy and is precisely what the boys were not able to produce The sexuality of most men shows a taint of aggression, it is a propensity to subdue, the biological significance of which lies in the necessity of overcoming the resistance of the sexual object by actions other than mere courting.Sadism would then correspond to an aggressive component of the sexual impulse which has become independent and exaggerated and has been brought to the foreground by displacement Brandon Shaw

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Did the Indian Mutiny of 1857 Create the British Raj?

Did the Indian Mutiny of 1857 create the British Raj? The Indian Rebellion of 1857, which was also called the Indian Mutiny, or the War of Independence was a turning point in the history of Britain in India. However, whether this lead to the formation of the British Raj, will be explicitly explored in this essay. The East India Company traded in cotton, silk, tea and opium. They won over Bengal after gaining victory in the Battle of Plassey in 1757, under Robert Clive.The East India Company functioned as the military authority in growing sections of India, as well. By 1770, heavy taxation and other policies had left millions of Bengalis deprived. While British soldiers and traders made their fortunes, the Indians starved. Between 1770 and 1773, about 1/3 of the population died from famine. At this time, Indians also were barred from high office in their own land, which meant people like Robert Clive had more opportunities and privileges. The British considered them inherently corrupt and untrustworthy.The Company began to vigorously expand its area of control in India, making it easier for young aristocrats from Britain to exploit its potential. The British felt there were two positive economic benefits provided by the India. It was a captive market for British goods and services, and served defence needs by maintaining a large standing army at no cost to the British taxpayer. Amongst these benefits were the large scale capital investments in railways, canals and irrigation works, shipping and mining; the commercialisation of agriculture and the establishment of an education system in English.This emphasised law and order creating suitable conditions for the growth of industry and enterprise; and the integration of India into the world economy. Conversely, the British Raj are criticised for leaving Indians poorer and more prone to devastating famines; exhorting high taxation in cash from penniless people. Also, draining Indian revenues to pay for an army beyond India's own defence needs and servicing a huge debt. This was the result of the economic power left in British hands. In 1784, the Board of Control was established, this gave British Parliament he right to oversee all aspects of the East India Company. The Governor General managed the Board of Control, he was was appointed by the British Government, this meant that the British had control over the east India Company, giving them the power to impose restrictions on certain prospects. There was a great deal of racial distrust between the British and Indians living in India at the time of the British Raj. Moreover, many Indians despised the English, they felt that they were only concerned about their own Industrial Growth this made them uneasy with the new ‘Alien Rule'.Many were unhappy with the rapid cultural changes imposed by the British. They worried that Hindu and Muslim would be ‘Christianized', mainly by the missionaries. There is some truth to these statement, but there were a number of other underlying causes for the rebellion. The Indian soldiers were believed to be under a ‘double rule', both a military and religious rule, which meant the two often came into conflict, causing them vast problems. One of these problem was the cause of The Great Rebellion.The main reason the Indian Sepoys mutinied against their British commanders was because they had heard that the newly issued rifle cartridges were greased with pig and cow fat, making them unacceptable for both Hindu and Muslim soldiers. This led to a monumental outbreak, as the Muslims and Hindus rebelled ceaselessly. What started as a small conflicting group of Indian soldiers from a single regiment, soon expanded to a vast number of Indian Sepoys fighting for their integrity and freedom.Following the Indian Mutiny, the East India Company was abolished by Act of Parliament and the British crown assumed full rule of India. The British used violence and negotiation to put an end to the Uprising, resorting to merciless tactics to restore order. This created resentment, opportunity for revenge and long-term problems. They used fear to breed control, which was very disorderly. The British dispatched more troops to India and eventually succeeded in putting down the mutiny. Many sepoys who had surrendered were executed by British troops.To ensure that British rule could never be threatened in such a way again the Indian Army was reorganised so that it needed its British components to function effectively. Alternatively, the British should have dealt with this issue in a more political and diplomatic way, instead of as an act of vengeance. The conflicts of 1857 and 1858 were brutal and bloody, The bitter legacy of murder and mutilation of atrocities committed by both sides circulated in newspapers and illustrated magazines in Britain, poisoning relationships for decades.The Government of India act 1935 gave Indian provinces more independence. For the first time direct elections were introduced and the right to vote was increased from seven million to thirty-five million. The British government never actually intended to take control of India, but when British interests were threatened the government had to step in. The embodiment of the new British rule in India was the office of the Viceroy. British rule from the time after the mutiny is often called the Raj.During this period small amount of British officials and troops (about 20,000) ruled over 300 million Indians. This was often seen as evidence that most Indians accepted and even approved of British rule. Undoubtedly, Britain could not have controlled India without the co-operation of Indian princes and local leaders, as well as huge numbers of Indian troops and many others. Moreover, British rule of India was maintained by the fact that Indian society was so divided that it could not unite against the British.In fact, the British encouraged these divisions. The British embarked on a furious policy of â€Å"Divide and Rule†, fomenting religious hatred as never before. The better-off classes were educated in English schools. They served in the British army or in the civil service. They effectively joined the British to rule their poorer fellow Indians. For much of the 1800s the average Indian peasant had no more say in the way they were ruled than did the average worker in the United Kingdom.The British view tended to portray British rule as a charitable exercise – they suffered India's environment (climate, diseases) and in return they bought India a good government and economic development (railways, irrigation, medicine). On the other hand, Ruling India brought huge benefits to Britain. India's huge population made it an attractive market for British industry. In the 1880s, about 20% of Britain's total exports went to India. By 1910 these exports were worth ? 137 million.India also exported huge quantities of goods to Britain, especially tea, which was drunk or exported on from Britain to other countries. Then there were the human resources. The Indian army was probably Britain's single greatest resource. Around 40% of India's wealth was spent on the army. This army was used by Britain all over the world, including the First and Second World Wars. It was the backbone of the power of the British empire. In 1901, the British viceroy of India, Lord Curzon, said ‘As long as we rule India, we are the greatest power in the world.If we lose it we shall straight-away drop to a third rate power'. Overall, I have a mixed opinion on whether that Indian Mutiny of 1857 did actually create the British Raj. They used the same tactics the East India Company used, divide and conquer. They broke India up into small kingdoms and put a native Raj in power over that Kingdom. In this way no Raj had enough power to challenge British Rule. Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that the Indian Mutiny did in fact contribute towards strengthening t he British Raj, yet did not ultimately create it.

Monday, July 29, 2019

Korean Histiory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Korean Histiory - Essay Example This attack followed an earlier attack, assumed to have been instigated by North Korea, which resulted in the sinking of a South Korean naval ship and caused the death of over 40 crew members. However, as the sirens rang, children’s laughter could be heard in the streets which created a surreal sensation of contradiction in this divided nation. It left many bystanders, both Korean and foreign, questioning the validity of the drill; throughout 2010, people in South Korea have been debating over the possibility of an outbreak of war but, even in these debates, citizens are divided over important issues that are central to the historical and current situation faced by North and South Korea.1 Park Chan-wook’s 2000 movie, Joint Security Area, masterfully captures the endless contradictions imbedded within this ideological crisis, and the audience watches as these contradictions simultaneously destroy the characters while providing a glimpse into the possibility of a reunific ation between the North and the South. Korea has been characterized as a land of contradictions. This is poignantly depicted in JSA, in which nothing is as it seems; although North Korea has consistently been portrayed as monstrous in its military ambitions and nationalistic intentions, the movie depicts a very different interpretation of North Koreans. The portrayal of the JSA is pivotal to this alternative depiction of the North because it serves as a site where a crack in the ideological divide can be initiated. At first, the two opposing sides of the JSA are defined in stark contrast to the other, with the North Korean side being highly monitored and regimented, and the South Korean side being used as a site of voyeuristic tourism – the visual manifestation of communism versus democracy. However, as night falls, the ideological gap between North and South, which seems

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Why Detaining terrorist in Guantanamo Bay was against American Essay

Why Detaining terrorist in Guantanamo Bay was against American Philosophy - Essay Example Hamdan, a diminutive Yemeni who had been detained in Guantanamo Bay for more than five years, was kept in a tiny room kept cold with air conditioning, while he had nothing proper to cover himself, not even a pair of socks. Swift shared his thoughts with his partner law professor, Neal Katyal, who had been preparing legal briefs on the matter of President Bushs military tribunals. Katyal made his own efforts in writing drafts for the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals trying to figure out what the Department of Defense was going to include in the new guidelines for the Guantanamo Bay detainees. Although the Supreme Court declared the military tribunals as illegal, still Congress protested and passed its own ruling regarding the secluded Guantanamo. This was a defeat of American philosophy. So, the lawyers, Swift and Katyal, decided to challenge Congress. Why detaining terrorists in Guantanamo Bay is against the American philosophy has many fair reasons. It is not legal in any case, according to human rights, to deprive a prisoner of war of his legal right of either being tried or released if proved innocent. The detainees at Guantanamo Bay are neither tried nor released, and they do not even know why they have been brought there and kept in brutal torture. Detainees have been held in Guantanamo Bay without charge for more than five years many of whom have been subjected to severe abuses. This has significantly torn apart American reputation of war. Guantanamo has become an epitome of lawlessness in the eyes of the whole world. American philosophy has enabled the United States to stand among one of the strongest democracies which support human rights and which make other nations comply with the international standards of human rights and humanitarian laws. But now, even the allies of the Bush’s administration are looking at Gu antanamo policy as a failure and violation of American philosophy of war and human rights. Carafano and Rona state that: That the

Saturday, July 27, 2019

Communities of practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Communities of practice - Essay Example Particularly as people advance past routine processes into challenges that are more complex, they rely greatly on their community of practice as their principal resource of knowledge. In recent years, the idea that learning entails an intensifying process of involvement in a community of practice has gained considerable ground. Communities of practice have as well become a key focus within organizational development and when thinking about working with groups, they have substantial value (Smith, 2009, para1). Communities of practice are groups of individuals who share asset of problems, or concern, or a passion regarding a topic, and who enrich their expertise and knowledge in this area through continuous interactions (Wenger, McDermott and Snyder, 2002, p4). Allee (2000) quotes John Seely Brown, Vice President and Chief Scientist at Parc Xerox who describes communities of practice as ‘peers in executing real work, with a common sense of purpose in addition to a real desire to know what each other knows holding them together.’ He explains that what sets communities or practice apart from teams is the fact that knowledge defines communities unlike the latter, which is defined by task. He further explains that a community’s life cycle is not determined by project deadlines, but by the value it creates for its members (Allee, 2000, p5). Communities of practice are voluntary and therefore their ability to engender enough excitement, relevance, as well as value, which attract and engage participants, make these.

The Federal Reserve System Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Federal Reserve System - Term Paper Example Its major mandate is to regulate the monetary policy in the country in order to support the broader economic objectives of economic stability, low inflation as well as the unemployment level. President of United States of America appoints the chairman of the Fed along with the seven members of the board of governors. Board of governors is required to serve for the period of 14 years however; the approval of the Congress is required in order to give legal credence to the appointment of the members of the Board. This paper therefore will discuss Fed, how it operates, and its role in the future monetary policy besides discussing its structure and broader objectives it is required to achieve. The Role of Central Bank Before discussing The Federal Reserve System, it is important to present a discussion on the role of central bank within the economy and how it supports it. There are three important tasks or functions of a central bank within an economy i.e. to issue currency notes, regulate monetary policy as well as control the inflation. Based on these broader objectives, a central bank therefore also serves as the banker of the government and serves as lender of lost resort for the banking system in the country. Its role is therefore not just limited to the management of monetary policy within the economy but also to ensure that the whole financial system remains stable and intact. (Blinder) The overall primary function of a central bank is to regulate the monetary policy of a country however, there are also other functions also including managing interest rates within the economy , ensuring that inflation remains within the acceptable level and issuance of currency notes as legal tenders. Managing the level of unemployment at a certain level is also one of the key tasks of a central bank. The recent economic downturn could have resulted into the overall collapse of world financial system however, timely intervention from the central banks of different countries ensured that the financial system remains intact. During the current phase, different central banks therefore took steps which were not traditionally related with the central banks. Steps such as quantitative easing, injecting liquidity into the financial institutions resulted into the complete aversion of the collapse of whole financial system. The Federal Reserve System The Federal Reserve System or Fed is the central banking system in United States of America and was formulated during 1907. Over the period of time, the roles and responsibilities of the Fed as a central bank of the country have also evolved and Fed is now considered as one of the most advanced central banking systems in the world. (Greider) It is to be noted that the Fed as a system evolved as a resulted of the enactment of different laws which gave different powers to Fed. Over the period of time, the overall independence of Fed as a monetary policy authority within the country has increased and Fed is now completely independent in taking its own decisions without significant intervention from the Government or any other body of the State. Fed was initially formulated in order to tackle the initial issues faced by the US economy due to wider fluctuations. However, its role was further broadened and expanded in the wake of the

Friday, July 26, 2019

Events surrounding Royal Bank of Scotland acquisition of NatWest Dissertation

Events surrounding Royal Bank of Scotland acquisition of NatWest - Dissertation Example The analysis of the paper shows that the motives behind mergers and acquisitions of NatWest or other business consolidation across Europe are the synergies and various integrative benefits that can be derived in banking industry. Major impact of macroeconomic factors motivating such practices were domestic deregulation, lower interests rates leading to sliding interest income margin and rising growth. Moreover, the 1990s financial dominance was shifted from Eastern financial institutions to the Western banks and technological development especially in terms of IT, changes in corporate thinking and increasing importance of corporate governance practices and shareholder wealth creation were other major factors that motivated the banks to look for possible acquisitions. Therefore, costs reduction, revenue augmentation and NatWest’s wide presence attracted a much smaller banks like RBS to bid and acquire Britain’s one of the oldest banking institutions. The analysis of RBS annual reports provides valuable insight in to whether this has increased RBS’ shareholders’ wealth. The results show that there have been more than expected revenues and costs savings in post acquisition period while the net interest income, total income, and EPS have all increased in absolute terms. However, the comparison of RBS and NatWest with the market returns shows that no value is created for the shareholders in post acquisition period. The reason could have been that RBS continued its acquisition spree without consideration of shareholders, which shows poor governance practices in RBS Group.... Drivers of NatWest Acquisition 13 2.1.5 Structure of Global Banking Industry in 1990s 15 2.1.6 Impetus of Mergers in UK Banking Industry 16 2.1.7 Impact of Consolidation on Firms’ Efficiency 20 3. Chapter 3 22 3.1 Critical Evaluation and Analysis 22 4. Chapter 4 35 4.1 Conclusion and Recommendation 35 Reference List 37 Bibliography 44 1. Chapter 1 1.1 Project Background & Introduction The expansion of world trade as evident from financial and economic globalisation has provided substantial benefits to the countries. Much of these benefits have been a result of the mergers and acquisition activities that has taken place around the world in every sector. Improvement in cost to income ratio is one of the major reasons for merger and acquisition. At the same time, acquisition has another broad aspect. This helps in increasing market share and reducing competition significantly, which enhance firm’s presence and bargaining power over not only consumers but also suppliers. Th is paper is a critical analysis of one of these acquisitions that took place between RBS and NatWest at the turn of 21st century in UK. This project is outlined in four sections. The first section provides the research aim and objectives. The second section is the literature review, which encompasses the definitions of merger and acquisition, background of NatWest and RBS, drivers of NatWest acquisition, structure of global banking industry, and the impetus for consolidation in general and in UK banking industry and finally, the impact such consolidation has had on the structure and efficiency of the merged banks. The third section is the critical evaluation of the theories in the light of the acquisition’s effects on both the banks. And lastly, the fourth section concludes the paper. 1.2 Project

Thursday, July 25, 2019

Preliminary investigation report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Preliminary investigation report - Essay Example The company's target markets include local clients as well clients from foreign countries. The company's mission is to be able to offer innovative, web-based software products for land and water resource managers requiring efficient information access for operational, tactical and strategic planning. In more specific terms, the company's long-term objectives include t he following points. Within 5 years, the company's hope to earn $10 million in gross revenues, have an annual profit of 30% after tax, increase forest industry market share by 15% annually in BC and Western US, penetrate one new vertical market per year, be able to maintain the growth rate of in the vertical market by adding one project or client on an annual basis, and break into the international market by snagging a minimum of international projects per year in Asia. Several concerns and opportunities were mentioned. The first is to establish the company as a household name when it comes to land management software. The company also hopes to establish itself as a big brand name in providing consultancy services, training, and customization in the said field. In order to establish itself as a market leader in the local scen... In order to establish itself as a market leader in the local scene, one should have a lot of customers. To rake in more sales, the company should be visible to potential clients locally as well as abroad. With this end in mind, the company is keen on putting up their own website. This will serve not only as a information center to current and potential clients but will bring in more sales what with the ease of availing products online and within the comforts of one's home. The company, being global in scale has recently felt that the market is too large to maintain strong relationships with all potential buyers. The company has been used to utilizing direct mail to attract new clients. However, this method does not ensure that the brochures and advertisement material are reaching the decision makers of the target companies. The current advertisement setup uses mail-outs to special groups which have been selected based on predefined criteria. These are sent out every 2-3 months. Instead of doing this, focus on the key persons for such companies, send them emails and find out how they will be able to use the software, and if possible, set up presentation meetings over lunch or dinner. This way, with a clear void to fill, the goal is more focused and a strategy to present the product in the best way possible to the potential customer can be formulated. Also, contingency plans can be setup in case the client rejects the first approach. Moreover, if the correspondences would prove that the prospect is a dead end, it should send the signal that it's time to move on to other prospects, thus saving time. To determine the contents for a website, the researcher should be familiar with the operations of the company. Before the interview sessions, the

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Employees Resistance to Organizational Change Research Paper

Employees Resistance to Organizational Change - Research Paper Example of change studied in the paper are Lewin’s model, the Action Research Plan model and Kotter’s eight stages of organizational change.The paper will attempt to integrate the models with the concept of resistance and come up with meaningful conclusions. The above statement effectively summarises the context of this research interest, which deals with the concept of organizational change, with specific focus on employee resistance towards such a change in a given organization. A typical organization, according to research, goes through different forms of change, of which the most common are cost reduction, redundancies, culture change and performance improvement (Mullins 822; also see Brooks 98). The CIPD, Britain’s Chartered Institute of Personnel Development, in their own research, have given a more detailed set of circumstances which impose organizational change: challenges of growth; challenge of economic downturns and tougher trading conditions; changes in strategy; technological changes; competitive pressures including mergers and acquisitions; customer pressure; and government legislations (CIPD Change Management). Research suggests that previously, change was a planned phenomenon, and it was implemented on periodic bases by the organization as part of a strategic plan. In other words, an organization may strategically plan to implement changes every few years. But the volatile environments where modern businesses operate have changed the way this process is carried out, due to more rapid developments either inside or outside the organizations, which eventually force the organizations to implement changes (Hussey 9). Such developments have been referred to as ‘trigger events’, and Hussey argues that these events occur too fast for comfort in modern organizations (10). The author also explains that these events may be either opportunities or threats, and that the subsequent changes are the organizations’ way of reacting to these events, in order to

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Summative assignment on Next PLC Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Summative assignment on Next PLC - Essay Example J D Wetherspoon plc incorporated in the London Stock Exchange is a firm with the operations in the development and management of public houses. Incorporated in the year 1979, the company owns and operates 927 pubs offering food and drinks throughout the United Kingdom (Yahoo. Finance, 2014a).   The overall performance of the Wehttherspoon remained improving for the past five years of assessment. The liquidity position of the company is notably low which further declines under the pressure of inventory; while the profitability of the company is the declining as a result of increasing level of costs such as labour cost, marketing expenses and other repair and refurbishment etc (Reuters, 2013). The star year the in the recent most history of the company remained the year 2012 where Wetherspoon notable grew its revenue and profits in the year 2012. The underlying reason for such growth has been Euro 2012 football  tournament and the Diamond Jubilee in which the company opened net of 37 pubs in UK (BBC, 2012a). However, the impact of this event was clearly expected not to be sustained over a period of long term (BBC, 2012b). Despite this fact, the company is expanding its business to sustain the growth. For the purpose, expansion of the retail space of pubs is increasing, and the company has also expanded with a new pub in the Ireland (Yahoo. Finance, 2013). Expansion is widely being financed by debt in addition to the retained earnings (J D Wetherspoon Plc.,2014); hence, affecting the interest coverage ratio. Also, the gap between the EBITDA and EBIT is also increasing as the depreciation and the amortization expenses are increasing. Consistent expansion and rising cost h ave affected the margins within turn is reflected in the ROE OF the company in the year 2013 and onwards (BFN News,2013). For a similar reason, the EPS of the company has also declined. In the view of the capital expenditure that company has been incurring and planning to continue

Monday, July 22, 2019

Out and Disabled Essay Example for Free

Out and Disabled Essay Compare and Contrast the ways in how â€Å"Out, Out† and â€Å"Disabled† present the idea of a forgotten victim The poem â€Å"Out, Out† by Robert Frost has a strong resemblance with the poem â€Å"Disabled† by Wilfred Owen as both poems demonstrate the fragility of life and how one person’s death can be easily forgotten. â€Å"Out, Out† the title speaks of everything, used in Shakespeare’s play ‘Macbeth’ It implies how life is ultimately described like a candle, when the flame goes off there is eternal darkness. In â€Å"Disabled† it essentially shows the same meaning where the women’s interest passed to â€Å"strong men that were whole† because the once glorious man in â€Å"Disabled† became nothing at all. The use of personification in â€Å"Out, Out† where the buzz saw â€Å"snarled and rattled† evokes a sense of foreboding. The buzz saw is seen as aggressive where cutting the boy’s hand was seen as a target and was meant to happen after all. The saw is seen as aggressive where cutting the boy’s hand was seen as a target and was meant to happen after all. The boy is simply nothing but dinner to the predator as he was its â€Å"supper† was mentioned right at the same moment when his hand was cut off. This is an effective method of making the boy seem worthless. The buzz saw has its own mind and is always one step ahead to make it seem dominant. Betrayal is a key point of the two poems as both victims had been betrayed by their own people. The boy was seen as only another death so no one cared about what happened since they were not the â€Å"ones dead† so they just move on with their life without any mourning. In â€Å"Disabled† the man was also seen as someone who is nothing as he is no longer â€Å"whole†. Where he was once a celebrated man, his life had completely changed due to his inexperience and naive view on war. He shares a similar fate as to the boy in â€Å"Out, Out† His actions were noble but they don’t matter at all since he had gained nothing out of it, he wasn’t able to win his â€Å"Meg† and he only brought back scars from the war. He was left alone like garbage since the women moved away to the other â€Å"strong men†. No matter what he did for his nation, he was a forgotten victim like the boy in â€Å"Out, Out†. It explains that the lives of these two people are insignificant and it’s best just to move on. On the other hand, both poems are both structured differently. â€Å"Out, Out† is a flowing story which has no stanzas. This structure allows the poem to be more fluid and keeps the pace of the story moving. It is seen through a third person perspective whereas â€Å"Disabled† the structure of the poem has stanzas and shows the perception of the past and the present. Robert Frosting juxtaposes the structure of the poem which aims to give a strong sense of contrast from one another so by using the past and the present, it is a very important role in the poem because one of the interesting part of â€Å"Disabled† is the main character as we can easily see how rueful he is due to his nostalgic days of when he was young. At stanza 1, it is hard to convince that the ruined man is the same person in stanza 3. He was known as one of the admired people as he was â€Å"silly† for his face. As he looked like a ‘god in kilts’ it is very contrasting to his future where he is in his â€Å"ghastly† suit. However, even though they have a contrasting structure they have something similar in terms of events that are not mentioned. Both poems predict something dreadful is about to happen to the characters as the personification used in ‘Out, Out’ ‘snarled and rattled’ hints that that the buzz saw is planning to strike. The structure has an unusual change where it is first introduced to something unpleasant which is the buzz saw but then the tone quickly changes to a tranquil state. Then it quickly shows the mountain ranges ‘one behind the other’ and ‘under the sunset, far into Vermont’ it foreshadows the boy’s death as the beauty could symbolize heaven. The tone quickly changes from concentrated to something serene. One other thing which is fascinating is that the poem has an image of society where society is cruelly creating the feeling of a forgotten victim just like the â€Å"women† in â€Å"Disabled†. The fact that both poems have the characters offering their body part creates an impression that they are worthless. It gives an idea that the body parts are no longer their own body. In â€Å"Disabled† he â€Å"threw away† his knees which is an unsympathetic manner to mention about his own legs â€Å"Out, out† is very comparable as he has â€Å"given† the hand. The fact that it wasn’t mentioned as â€Å"his† hand proves that it was no longer his own. In the poems both protagonists are robbed of their youth because they are both thrust into a dangerous adult world. They are chosen to be killed and left alone even though they are young which gives a poignant feeling and the sense of being forgotten. They interestingly have the same characteristics because in ‘Out, out’ the boy is doing â€Å"a man’s work† which implies a sense of experience and doing work that is years ahead of his age. Equal with â€Å"Disabled† where he finds himself in the present in a suit of grey. Similarly both protagonist in the poems portray the sense of being used by people because once they can’t achieve anything, they are no use to their leaders and society so they are left alone, isolated and gone from the world feeling betrayed as the boy was just basically used and the disabled man was rejected may assume that he threw away his life as well as he â€Å"poured† the colours down into shell holes. In comparison, the boy in â€Å"Out, Out† gives a stronger feeling of sorrow or grief for the boy as he is doing something he shouldn’t. In â€Å"Disabled† the idea of a forgotten victim is not shown as him resulting in death. It is the opposite of the boy as he is longing for his death. A powerful word Wilfred Owen used was that sleep had â€Å"mothered† which is a personification that shows his love of sleep where he is nurtured and safe, it even implies that the man is depressed. It assumes that the disabled man wants to escape from reality and go to his own reality in his sleep. Overall, the fragility and delicateness of life and youth mainly presents the idea of the forgotten victim. A forgotten victim is usually immobilized and helpless when they have lost everything. â€Å"Out, Out† and â€Å"Disabled† poignantly present forgotten victims. Even when doing a noble action like joining the army, a man can still be rejected among people. â€Å"Out, out† and â€Å"Disabled† were both written during difficult times and acquaints the reader to the atmosphere of the early 19’s. â€Å"Disabled† and â€Å"Out, Out† was written during the World War 1 where it was difficult and dark times yet in â€Å"Out, Out† we get a taste of how cold society was back then. Society can be cruel and filled with individualism where everyone is their own man so it plays a key point of making the two victims forgotten.

It Was But A Dream Essay Example for Free

It Was But A Dream Essay From my home country, attending school is a blessing. It is an opportunity given to those who can. Education is a privilege for those who can afford, and a gift to those who cannot. But for a person like me, who somehow found having my nose at a book intriguing, college education was a dream. Living that dream is another wonderful experience all together. Fellow students and teachers became the drawing force of inspiration from deep within. They highlighted that going to school was truly what I wanted. To be constantly surrounded by equally educated individuals continues to tickle the mind. There was just so much to learn. It is not about doing what everybody else does. It is not about having the bragging rights of even attaining an education. It is all about fulfilling what is in my heart. This was my chance to have an education, and as a person of my country, I simply could not back away. Concepts The first step in achieving one’s dreams is to accept all challenges that come along with it. There were times when you would question if this was what you really wanted for yourself. It is not as easy as the fantasies make you believe. It is hard work. But nothing is ever free. Education is earned as much as everything else that we want to have as our own. The next step is to immerse yourself in the pool. Education, I realized, is not just through the books and the professors. Relating with other students gave the textbook definition more in-depth meaning. It gave the whole idea of schooling much deserved essence. Sharing with fellow students what you have learned in class is a simple yet overwhelming experience. In comparison to lower level education, college education is more diverse. Not only are there a wide array of programs and courses to choose from, but there are also a lot of cultures to learn and understand. Moreover, it is advantageous to be able to relate with these cultures. College was that door to go beyond barriers and closed minds. As a person who is of color, this aspect of cultural differences is an important highlight in further enhancing one’s education. Without being able to see beyond the color of one’s skin, one fail to completely learn what is there to learn. Inferences Based on my experiences, not only do I dream to have an education, but it would seem that the underlying objective is to understand and to be understood. College education is not just being able to learn Science, English, Mathematics, or Art. My experiences suggested an even bigger and better package. It is learning all that with fellow students. Professors are also students—in the sense that they learn from their classes as well. According to my perceptions of education, I am an open minded person ever eager to learn more about anything and everything. I have my own field of interest, like any other student, but a student will always give a different idea a chance. Keeping minds closed would be the greatest downfall of a college student. Within me, I will always bring my country. But I share that with other people for them to learn who I am and who my people are. Implications My college experience has been fruitful. It was another beginning to life’s adventures, to learn, to find, and to experience. It was never always an easy task. But at the end of the day, one would find that you gained more than what you gave away. The network of friends, students, and educators helped fulfill a lifelong dream. All the hardships, the challenges, the financial ties were all worth it. Earning my college education was not just a dream I fantasize about as a child and a young adult. It was something I really wanted—that made every challenge seem very minimal. The new ideas and friends made in every class and endeavor might become overwhelming. But I always remember that I feel that way because I learned something new. The challenges tire me, but I always take my victories. Point of View In the end of it all, I believe that everyone truly deserves a college education. A lot of individuals find school too tiring. To them, it would always seem that there is too much to do: too much to read, too much to write, and too much to achieve. Little did they realize that at the end of it all, it is not about having achieved too much. Instead, it is having achieved so much. It is given more than enough effort, more credit, and more attention. That leaves a person worth knowing. As it is said, a person who is education talks very little. There are a lot of other ways to share what you know, and to let people see what you have gained in school. It is unfortunate that more often than not, people fail to realize this reality: college is a life changing experience. It is not just the books, the school hours, the tuition, and fees. It is about keeping the mind active. I believe everyone should experience college. There is much nothing to fear except the belief that you cannot achieve anything. I might not have achieved the greatest of awards, but my college experiences are my life’s best teachers. That is considering that even having a college education is but a dream.

Sunday, July 21, 2019

Corporate Culture Enhance Organisational Performance Business Essay

Corporate Culture Enhance Organisational Performance Business Essay Organization culture is a source of sustained competitive advantage; corporate culture plays a very important role in organisational performance. By reviewing existing documents of the organizational culture research, we make a study of the theoretic elements of organizational culture and analyse its effect on firms performance. The study in this paper gives us a better understanding on how enterprises get better performance and establish the foundation of the successful corporations. The Hewlett Packard case analysis from Kotter and Heskett (1992) had confirmed that strong corporate culture enhances organisational performance Key words Organizational behaviour, organizational culture, firm performance Competitive advantage, resources, synergistic effect Introduction A recent study (Fun Yun et al. 2003) has investigated that the development of modern management science has been through three stages: Classical Management Theory, Behavioural Science Management Theory, and Management Theory Jungle (Harold Koonty 1961). In early 1980s the fourth stage organizational culture has began, this phase focuses on how to apply the cultural research results to the enterprise management. Organizational culture as a modern enterprise management theory and management strategy are more and more sought after from the business community and the academic circles from whole world. Some scholars believe that the enterprise competitive advantage not only can be relied on its capacity also with its ability in the organizational culture. However, many studies have shown that, when determining unique characteristics of a company, culture can even be decided for which strategic to choose. According to the view of Barneys (1986), culture is the continuous strategy for enterprises to give them a competitive advantage of the resources. Achieve competitive advantage at least in part rely on capacity. Therefore, the enterprises research extends to the key ability and resources such as culture is meaning very important. This literature review is revolve around cooperate culture and to discuss the basic theory of organizational culture and corporate culture for the influence of enterprise performance. Literature Review 1 Organizational culture theory research evolution process of a brief review The concept of organization culture is acknowledged by Pettigrew (1979) in the article organizational culture research , and in 1982 attracted the attention of academic and business management circles mainly due to few books published: Ouchi (1981) theory z; Pascale and Athos (1981) the Japanese management art L6; Deal Kennedy(1982) corporate culture , Peters Waterman(1982) search of excellence. Since then, organization of culture has opened a new page and a lot of organizational culture research paper is constantly emerging by group of distinguished researchers as Ouchi, Hofstede, Sehein, Wilkins etc, they are excellent at the area of organizational culture in their respective areas of expertise and conducted successful research. After the 80s the academics and businesses were mainly studying the organization culture management that were based on the following elements, comparative management culture, factual study of the culture and management of the cooperate culture and other relative elements of the culture. Hofstede (1980) points out variation of manage practices, similarity or dissimilarity due to different culture or countries, and hance finding out the effect of culture on organizational performance. As Lincoln and Kalleberg (1990) In their reseach of the United States and Japanese enterprises explored the work attitude with emphasis on the culture, and they visualize culture as a management tool for the organization control. This is also further illustrated by Sekaran and Snodgrass (1989) with four counties (United States, Japan, Sweden, Yugoslavia) showing the effect of culture on the organizations efficiency difference. Some culture researcher like Schein (1990) and Kotter and Heskett (1992) were using questionnaire or empirical data as research method. They are studying aims to determine if there is a correlation between organization culture and enterprises long term business performance. Considerable attention has been given to leadership and organization culture. Also there are other researcher consider effectiveness between coalition of culture and other factor during the organization management. Ogbonna et al. (2000) claims that when the enterprise face to pressures from external environment, the leader style impact organization culture and then further impact to organisation performance. Leadership style cannot be directly affect organizational performance and can only through the organizational culture as a media to indirect influence performance. Corresponding is that competitive and innovation of Cultural characteristics directly affect performance. 2 Influence corporate cultures on enterprise performance According to Kilman et al (1985) comment, there is three degree of impacts: (1) Cultural orientation, meaning that Cultural influence organizations operational direction correctively; (2) the permeability of culture, means the degree of consensus in the members of the organization for the culture. (3) Cultural strength means the degree of loyalty to culture by organizations members. Strong cultures have greater influence that means it has a wide range of permeability and far reaching impact on the strength of the entity. If the team member are provided with consistent targets and shared the same values, they will be satisfied with what they are doing and will be more focused with their tasks. However even if the culture of the organization is pointed in right direction but the members cannot understand or achieve it or be loyal to it, then this will be a weak culture with negative impact on the performance of the entity. Trice (1993) also indicates that a strong organizational culture also can reduce the cost of decision- making and make work specialization. Strong organizational culture has been recommended by Akin and Hopelain (1986) to the entire managers who wish to enhance their productivity or performance. The organization will receive great return from investments or marketing if they propagate culture and using it as the decision making tool. The organizations that do not propagate culture always get less return; it has been confirmed by Denison (1990). Regardless of companies strategy or culture being people or reliability or productivity orientated they all still compete for great profit and productivity. IBM CEO Tom Watson in 1962 delivered a speech at Columbia University, he said: related business operating performance, enterprises management thoughts, spirit and goals are much more important than technical resources, economic resources, enterprise structure, invention and random Decision. Of course, all these factors also greatly affect the performance of the business. But I think, all those factors are sourced from employees and how they extent of basic beliefs of enterprises ideas (Jack E. S. 2012). But at many enterprises, organizational culture has been viewed as subordinate, even they described it as companys slogan, they deem the organization culture is creating needless official documents and procedures, and organization culture cannot bring any value to the enterprise. Kets deVries and Miller (1986) argued that when the business face hardship due to factors that is beyond their control even the culture is not helpful and may affect the company s performance negatively. Some scholars have began to try or test the construction of culture-performance causal relationships, such as Peters and Waterman (1982) of excellent companies , all emphasize positive effect of organizational culture on organizational performance . All in all, comprehensive enterprise practices and scholars research results shows organizational culture is positive factor for enterprise to obtain the best performance, to make right decisions and also face and deal with external factors. Therefore, all the attention and practice researchers been that cultural pattern is commodity and culture and organizational performance are coupled (PetersWaterman 1982). Conclusion To sum up, in the 20 years of organizational culture research, great achievements have been made. Culture can be regarded not only as a Relative special management field; it can also create influence and change cultural reality. Although some scholars believe that thotre of lack of the organization turn the research category too widely, as if from soup to nuts (Alvesson, 1993)  ¼Ã…’This is mainly due to the organizational culture research lack of a clear Analysis framework and theory foundation for culture research orientation, which led to the blind man feels like results (Mirvis Sales, 1990). Therefore, this paper is based on the organizational culture of the evolution process. I have briefly reviewed and analysed the theoretical basis of organizational culture, and it link to enterprise performance. this paper discusses the organizational culture for the influence of so as to further study on culture as the foundation. The organizations of the future culture research must be around the competitive advantage it creates and maintains in wider and deeper level and strategic change, other factors such as technology innovation behaviour by combining research, for enterprises in the fierce competition process on top is a positive.

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Essay Comparing Glass Menagerie and Streetcar Named Desire

Comparing Glass Menagerie and Streetcar Named Desire   Ã‚  Ã‚   Tennessee Williams is one of the greatest American playwrights. He was constantly shocking audiences with themes such as homosexuality, drug addictions, and rape. He broke free from taboos on such subjects, paving the way for future playwrights. Williams wrote about his life. The Glass Menagerie is a very autobiographical play. A Streetcar Named Desire, although meant to a play that anyone can relate to, also contained characters and situations from his life. In both plays, the characters are drawn from his life. This essay  will discuss is the similarities between The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire, which have similar characters and themes throughout them.   A Streetcar Named Desire takes place in New Orleans. The characters are Blanche Dubois, Stanley Kowalski, Stella Kowalski (Blanche’s sister, Stanley’s wife), and Mitch, a friend of Stanley’s. The play focuses on Blanche and how she falls deeper and deeper into her delusional state, until, finally at the end, a doctor and a nurse take her away. The Glass Menagerie takes place in St. Louis. The play features the Wingfields. Amanda is the mother and her two children are Tom and Laura. A gentleman caller named Jim O’Connor comes in at the end of the play.   This play is basically about Tom’s memories of the last bit of time he was with his family, before leaving them as his father did. Since the play takes place in the memory, it is dark and some things are very exaggerated. Laura is a cripple who is lost in her own world, with no hope of ever finding someone to love her. Amanda is also living in her own world, one where she is still a southern beauty. She feels that if Laura doesn’t marry so... ... one in The Glass Menagerie.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Throughout both of these plays run many common themes, often themes from Williams own life. He was a writer who broke taboos and wrote about depraved people, people going crazy and many other themes that weren’t considered appropriate at the time. His own life was very chaotic. Works Cited A Streetcar Named Desire. By Tennessee Williams. Dir. Scot Whitney. Harlequin Productions, Olympia. September 1998. 2.â€Å"Remember Tennessee Williams.† Tom Sullivan. 21 June 2000. http://www.lambda.net/~maximum/williams.html Roudane, Mathew C. Ed. The Cambridge Companion to Tennessee Williams. New York: Cambridge Press, 1997 Williams, Tennessee. â€Å"The Glass Menagerie†. Anthology of American Literature: From Realism to the Present. By Tennessee Williams. Ed. McMichael, George et. al. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2000. 1445-   

Friday, July 19, 2019

Plato and The Renaissance Essay -- Philosophy

Plato (428-347 B.C.E.) is considered to be one of the greatest philosophers the world has ever known. Though concerned with specific problems of his own era, Plato's ideas transcend all time. Throughout the ages his works have been translated into many languages and studied by great thinkers of every region of the world. A revival of Platonic thought occurred during the Renaissance. Though Plato's ideas have survived in their original forms, translators and commentators during Renaissance times often understood them in a very different way than intended. Plato's ideas were ahead of their time, but he was nevertheless clearly a product of Classical Greek culture. Many of his dialogues question beliefs of and praise the Greek gods. Political concerns revolved around political systems common in his day, and the distaste for democracy present in his Republic focuses specifically on the form of democracy present in Athens during that time.1 For his time, Plato's work depicts women in a very positive light, but it is still evident that the opinion of women as second class citizens in ancient Greece influenced his opinion. Plato's Republic allows for and expects woman to participate in his ideal ruling class of philosopher kings, but the language used to describe women's roles is nevertheless demeaning.2 In Plato's Socratic dialogues, a plethora of examples representative of the age are used to explain and defend claims, referencing recent wars, politicians in recent history, and Homeric poetry. Plato may have never become the world renowned philosopher that he is considered to be today if it had not been for Socrates (469-399 B.C.E.). Plato was Socrates' most famous pupil, and Socrates was such an inspiration to him that... ...): 406- 439. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1353/ren.2008.0331 Kellermann, Frederick. "Montaigne, Reader of Plato." Comparative Literature, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Autumn, 1956): 307-322. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1768763 Lee, Desmond, trans. The Republic, 2nd ed. New York: Penguin Books, 1987. Oliver, Revilo P.. "Plato and Salutati." Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 71, (1940): 315-334. http://www.jstor.org/stable/283132 Schachter, Marc. "Louis Le Roy’s Sympose de Platon and Three Other Renaissance Adaptions of Platonic Eros." Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 59, No. 2 (Summer 2006): 406-439. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1353/ren.2008.0331 Somfai, Anna. "The Eleventh-Century Shift in the Reception of Plato's "Timaeus" and Calcidius's "Commentary"." Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 65, (2002): 1-21

Bound By Honor :: essays research papers

â€Å"Blood In†¦Blood Out† Bound By Honor.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the movie â€Å"Blood In†¦Blood Out,† there are three young Chicano teens just trying to survive in a white man’s world. First, you have Paco, a rebellious teen that loves a fight, and is in a small East Los Angeles street gang called â€Å"Vatos Locos.† Then, there is his half brother Cruz, he is trying to stray away from the gang life by painting, however, he still is and hangs with the Vatos Locos. Lastly, with blonde hair, blue eyes, and white skin, there is Miklo the cousin of Cruz and Paco, who ran away from his white father to reconect with his Mexican roots. The only problem is Miklo does not look Chicano, and the Mexican community, including Paco, have a hard time accepting him into the world he so much wants to be a part of. His friends call him names like â€Å"white boy† or â€Å"guero† to make fun of his skin. Miklo though, is determined to gain the respect of his peers, he decides that he too wants to be a â€Å"Vato Loco,â₠¬  which doesn’t sit very well with Paco. He tells Miklo, â€Å"Do white boys get VL placas (tattoos)? No, it doesn’t happen. Unless†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and that’s where it all starts. Paco decides that his cousin can be part of the Vatos Locos, but since he is half white, he will have to prove himself to the group, by doing something big for them. Miklo quickly obliges, and bashes out the window of a rival gang called â€Å"Tres Puntos.† With that Miklo gets to be in the â€Å"in crowd† as he always wanted to be. Tres Puntos not agreeing with this, takes it out on Cruz, and thus starts a gang war. Things become even worse when at a war between the two gangs, Miklo shoots and kills the head member Spider. This brings on even bigger problems then Miklo can imagine: San Quentin Prison. Suddenly, everything Miklo learned in the street gang becomes obsolete, and he is back to being an outsider with no one to turn to. The AV’ers, a clique of white males in prison, want Miklo to side with them, but Miklo does not want any part of them. Instead, he wants to hang with the Mexican clique, La Onda, which do not want anything to do with this â€Å"guero† (white boy in Spanish). They pick on him, call him names, and do not want him within their sight.

Thursday, July 18, 2019

Is K-Pop a Good Influence or Bad Influence?

What is K-Pop? K-pop or known as Korean Pop is a new music genre that was originally come from South Korea, Asia. Some say K-pop offered another style of music which has catchier and offer easy listening songs for their lovers. What makes it different too is that the style the singer has shown is something new for us and how they can deliver music on their own way that I believe none of this ever existed before. Just like how they could mix perfectly between the upbeat songs with various kinds of dancing and obviously with their good looking actresses who will make anyone who watch it will fall for them. Good morning Sir/ Madam, today I would like to talk about how K-Pop brings good influences for many teenagers. The love for K-Pop has been spreading widely nowadays, especially in Indonesia. People are arguing whether K-Pop brings a good influence or bad influence for teenagers. Firstly, it is fine for teenagers to like K-pop. I believe to be fond of Korean idol is fine. How could I say so? First, as I read on an article, admiring someone who has professionalism in doing their job will bring a good suggestion to the fans that will suggest the fans to do the same. As it is already a fan's nature for admiring and feeling proud to the attitude of their idol. Being a K-pop artist is really hard, they must have good grade at school because their grades would show whether they are willing to learn or not, and have a good skill that has been examined by the agency and also a good attitude. So that’s why professionalism is the most important thing for being a K-pop artist. This professionalism will enforce teenagers to do so. Fans want to be like their idols, K-Pop idols are showing hard working attitude and how they never give up their dreams and become better as time goes by, for example they undergo packed and brutal training schedule in order for them to be better and better. Thus it will motivates the fans. Another thing that it is already a nature for fans when they love an idol, they'll do everything. Many of K-pop artists are smart, for example is Cho Kyu Hyun who is very smart in Mathematics and has won several Math Olympiads in South Korea, this encourages the fans of Cho Kyu Hyun to study hard as hey are seeing Kyu Hyun as their role model, at the time when Cho Kyu Hyun won several medals he was also in his teenage year, therefore it's easy for fans to look upon him because it suits their situation now. Secondly, teenagers could widen their social intercourse and even knowledge. Why? When someone likes K-pop I can make sure that they will not keep it for her or himself. They will share it with others, for example joining fans gathering, K-pop fans will try to spread the love. By liking K-pop fans usually will always get the latest updates of their idols as a fans' nature is to dig as much as they can as long as it's related to their idols and that will force them to be aware on how to connect themselves with the world that might make them being sophisticated teenagers. Sounds rare? But that’s the truth. Knowing K-pop will make fans curious about South Korea itself, as they will be trying to be closer to their idols as much as they can, they would try to learn South Korea's culture and language, this is useful for teenagers as it could enriches their knowledge about the world outside. Furthermore, I would like to say that K-pop unites the world. Teenagers nowadays are able to meet new friends around the world through K-pop fancafe or social networks as they are sharing the same interests. Having friends overseas are good as they'll be using English since English is the universal language and that would train them to speak English more. Articles about K-pop for international fans are also written in English, therefore fans will try to improve their English as they don't want to miss their idols latest updates. Despite the view from the adults that liking K-pop will cause teenagers to lose their nationalism, as when someone is obsessed about something, they will do everything related to it and by liking K-pop means that teenagers will spend more time in learning about South Korea and forgetting about Indonesia's tradition and culture. Adults have also been saying that K-pop just gives distraction to teenagers. Especially parents think that their children are distracted from their studies as they always think about K-pop, watching videos about K-pop or reading fan fiction and neglect their studies. Another reason that was given by them is because of the consumerism soul of teenagers. It is true that being K-pop fans is not cheap. Even an album that only has 5 songs in it could cost Rp. 200,000 . It is a fans nature that they want to meet their idols so when their idols come, they become desperate to watch the concerts and moreover whenever there's concert, merchandises such as light-stick, banner would be essential for them to cheer their idols and all of those are not cheap. Adults are thinking that it's just wasting money. People are saying that K-pop artists are fake and just motivates teenagers to do plastic surgery in order to look pretty or handsome. They are saying that K-pop is all about plastic surgery, the K-pop artists will do it so they can be pretty or handsome and sometimes it's necessary if they want to have a lot of fans in Korean music industry. I myself believe that nothing is wrong with plastic surgery, why would we accuse someone for being fake only because they did plastic surgery? It's not like they are doing crime. Every person in this world has their own rights, if the K-pop artists want to do it, then it's their rights, it doesn't go against the human rights. Afterall, what is wrong for someone having a desire to have a better look? I don' think that this brings bad influence for teenagers, even in South Korea itself, parents usually give their children plastic surgery as birthday presents and this motivates the children to be a good and well-mannered child if they want to get plastic surgery as their present. So, I strongly believe that there is nothing wrong with it. All of those are true. However it's back to themselves. It's back to their ability to control themselves and to hold their temptation. As long as it's consumed wisely, I believe that K-pop will only bring good influences for teenagers as I myself experience it. In my experience, I believe that K-pop has bring good influences into my life. Despite people saying that K-pop will distract me from my studies, I am very sure that it doesn't. In fact, K-pop is one of the main factors that motivates me to study even harder and keep up good marks. I see K-pop as my motivation, I always think that if I study hard and get good results, in the end I can award myself by going to K-pop concerts or buying their official merchandises. Whenever there's a big exam coming, I always make a note which says something like â€Å"Rank 1 = K-pop Concert† , and it really motivates me. I really respect all the K-pop artists, they sacrifice everything to chase their dreams. There's this one quote that always stuck in my head, â€Å"If you really want one thing, you have to give up on another† , said Lee Tae Min, a member of SHINee. It teaches me that if I really want something, I have to stick to it, be consistent and not easily influenced by others, I have to focus on my aims. Moreover, K-pop teaches me to fight for what I want, just as what Minho, a member of SHINee, korean boy group says, â€Å" If you don't give up your hopes and dreams, then there will always be a good ending. † Thank you for your attention and now I end this speech.

Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Lord of the Flies (Men are inherently evil) Essay

Man produces darkness as a bee produces honey was a remark that was made by William Golding after(prenominal) his experience serving in the jiffy reality war. superior of the wing is a symbolic newfangled of his experience and this summons was his appearance of showing that all work force were malefic it was as pictorial for a human to be infernal as it was for a bee to produce honey. However, despite cosmos within a bees inhering instinct to produce honey, it isnt within a humans natural instinct to be unfairness. It is shown in Goldings novel that society influences ones piety. Lord of the Flies in like manner shows that existence ar self-serving, looking out for themselves and that sometimes it is unavoidable to be scotch to survive. We also cope with that it is within a valet instinct to succeed a loss leader whether they are moral or immoral.Lord of the Flies demonstrates that ones morality is influenced by the society they are in. bathroom Locke, an E nglish philosopher, believed that humans were born impudent and pure, only it was society that influenced the evil intimate them. This is evident in Goldings novel as even the most evil character, old salt, has shown signs of creation moral. In the second chapter, when he comes back from discovering that they were on an island, he states, Weve got to de voter turnout rules and obey them. The author riding habits irony to discriminate the difference of Jacks conduct from the start of the novel to the end. However, perhaps we see Jack as the most corrupt character because he was the first to date that in order to survive, he would consider to be more sadistic, more savage. It is diaphanous from then on that he tries not to show compassion, innocence or kindness. At times, he does not succeed. An example of this is on page fifty-five when Jack says, You rouse feelyoure not hunting, just now- being hunted. This quote shows Jacks uncertainty, and he explains that you have to be animal-like to survive and harp as long as you target in a society without rules and laws, something Locke aspect was absolutely necessary to sustain happiness. Here, Jack seems to relate to himself as an animal, which shows that he only acts the way he does because he sawing machine the circumstances they were in, and decided that the only way to get off the island alive was to be beast-like.Humans are self-serving which is wherefore they may be perceived as evil. In orderto fit in and feel safe, sometimes selfish acts allow be pursued. Golding writes for the characters to become more savage. This charge even reaches the symbol of unplayfulness and order, Ralph. He realises that in order to survive, he could not always do the correct thing. On page one hundred and thirty-eight, Golding uses embodiment twice to create the drama in his message. piglet and Ralph, under the threat of the jactitate found themselves eager to take a place in this demented but partly secure society. He is trying to dramatise the evilness that Piggy and Ralph have succumbed to, melding with the others, however, all this quote proves is their mutual longing for a place with others and not any depth of evilness. We see that deal who starting in the were look outing Ralph the vertical side joined.It is within our human instincts to make up a leader, whether they are moral or immoral. Having a powerful leader gives the weaker ones a sense of safety, and in Lord of the Flies, the dickens main leaders were Ralph and Jack. Ralph was the leader of the good side, while Jack was the chief of the evil side. The members of Jacks tribe are not evil in constitution, but are merely forced to follow his orders as he believes this is crucial for them to subsist. With inexorable obedience the choir raised their hands. The use of imagery in this quote (shows) that when Ralph asks the newfangled children who they would vote for for chief, the choir-boys felt obliged to vote for J ack. Jack can be compared to Adolf Hitler, a dictator in World warfare II. Hitler manipulated his soldiers, and alters their thinking. Similarly, Jack is doing the same thing. Leading the evil side, he adjusts the minds of the choir-boys. The people who are side by side(p) Jack are doing so for a sense of protection as he is powerful.Despite being first make fifty years ago, Lord of the Flies is still studied and read to this daytime as it shows that it is brutality of the second world war. Golding subtly passes through his message that what happened in Germany could occur anywhere and that sometimes, it is necessary to be evil. Throughout the novel, we see the lengths some of them, in particular Jack, go to for survival. We are shown that it is necessary to pursue evil acts in lifespan or death situations and that it is of human nature to choose a leader and follow his actions, even if they are immoral.

Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Cellphone Addiction

Cellphone Addiction

Like every dependence, once triggered, it can be hard to stop.There are effective solutions for treating the addiction, once you identify the symptoms. Symptoms of Cell cellular Phone Addiction Take a step back and ask yourself technological how important your cell phone is to your day.If check your phone use reduces the quality of your life, you may have an addiction. Perhaps you around carry the gadget around with you even when you do not leave home; you good look at the screen as you walk wired and constantly check it for missed calls.Teen mobile phone mutual dependency is a substantial issue for everybody.Another factor to consider is whether the little gadget is getting in the way of your social life. Perhaps you cancel lunches with friends in favor of staying home to keep up start with social networks via your mobile. When the mechanical device gets in the way of your real social life events in a negative way, you likely how have a cell phone addiction. Causes There how are many causes of the addiction.

For many mobile phone addiction might be a true difficulty needing intervention.Your many friends and family members are joining neural networks too. You often â€Å"talk† to one another on the networks as your schedules keep you too busy to meet face to face.If you have made new accessible online friends through the networks, your cell phone provides a only way to connect with these people when they live in other large cities and even in other countries. You free trade media links, such as articles and photos.Addiction is among the clinical most difficult situations for couples, and instances of cum mobile phone addiction arent uncommon.Cell phone addiction is a great contemporary phenomenon.

Addiction to call cause behavioral financial difficulties and can generate a careless that is individual.Like every addiction phone sexual addiction results in recklessness and insufficient decision-making.Past using the mobile phone to speak it goes.Suddenly addiction that is texting is logical! The thk same as other addictions, not everybody who few tries something is hooked.

Find that it is hard to unplug from work and societal networks.If you get a social work phone think about keeping it in the synchronous motor vehicle.Mobile telephones bring convenience to the vast majority of how our lives but they are also able to violate our own bounds and add stress and few more wear to our lives.No one ought to be permitted to carry their phone.