Kingsolvers Butterflies in Flight Behavior - 782 Words

What moves us to inquire about the world we live in; what inspires us to change, and how do we grow intellectually? Knowledge is an accumulation of experiences, which are obtained either conventionally in a school setting, or indiscriminately through life-experiences. Likewise, from these experiences conventional or otherwise, information is then transferred, acquired, and reappropriated. However, within this sequence of events knowledge is at risk of misinterpretation. In those circumstances it is the story, the most ancient forms of communication that is capable of making the unfamiliar appear obvious. Through her story Flight Behaviour, Barbara Kingsolver acts as a teacher, surreptitiously conveying her own opinions on education and the process of learning through the development of her characters. Subsequently, Kingsolver provides a valuable outlook regarding the elements required to engage intellectually; and furthermore her outlook offers creditable insight regarding the proces s of learning. Not merely an anecdotal novel, Kingsolver conveys a fundamental educational paradigm through her narrative. Indeed, engaging intellectually requires both aptitude and enthusiasm, but Kingsolver proposes that education is far more complex than a simple binary. Kingsolver suggests that intellectual engagement is both a process and a maturation of ones ability to reason, which is fundamentally rooted in logic and passion. Narratives offer a framework, which support unfamiliarShow MoreRelatedBarbara Kingsolver s Flight Behavior1421 Words   |  6 PagesBarbara Kingsolver’s novel Flight Behaviour demonstrates that environmental degradation brought on by climate change tends to have a greater impact on people of lower social class. Kingsolver accomplishes this through numerous unique secondary characters. More specifically, Kingsolver illustrates through the Delgado family how industrial development and global warming are triggering devastating environmental catastrophes in less developed countries such as Mexico, and consequently causing mass migrationsRead MoreIn Leslie Marmon Silko’S Ceremony And Barbara Kingsolver’S1561 Words   |  7 PagesIn Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony and Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior, both of the main characters develop a connection with the issues surrounding the state of the environment in the novels that leads to creation of a new character, the character of â€Å"environment†. Both Tayo and Dellarobia discover more about themselves through their relationship with nature and their surroundings, however, Silko manages to convey empathy for the character â€Å"environment† more efficiently when compared to KingsolverRead MoreFlight Behavior1143 Words   |  5 Pages â€Å"title† Barbara Kingsolver’s novel, â€Å"Flight Behavior,† strays from the customary novel average readers are used to. Kingsolver’s education in biology is exposed throughout her novel causing the readers to experience a more scientific perspective on the story. The story takes place inside Dellarobia Turnbow’s mind; a restless farmers wife who got pregnant at seventeen and, as a result, had a shotgun marriage. Her life since then has been a wreck. Her marriage is deteriorating, her farm is failingRead MoreThe Effects Of Climate Change On Canada1398 Words   |  6 Pagesalmost 1.8 times more greenhouse gas emissions than the first (CCPA). This is due to the lower income quintiles not being presented with the opportunity to partake in numerous greenhouse gas producing activities. Many of Barbara Kingsolver’s characters in her novel Flight Behavior, are living within these limits. Dellarobia, for example, is a small town woman who would be classified und er the first or second quintile. During a conversation about using less fossil fuel, with educated urbanite, Leighton

The Handmaids Tale Men Essay - 1607 Words

Women’s Bodies as Political Instruments and Elimination of Sexual Pleasure: Oppression throughout Society In Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaid’s Tale, the idea of women’s bodies as political instruments and elimination of sexual pleasure is explored. The republic of Gilead â€Å"depicts a futuristic society in which a brutal patriarchal regime deprives women of power and subjectivity, enslaving them through a sophisticated, ubiquitous apparatus of surveillance† (Cooper 49). Offred is a girl who lives with her Commander within Gilead. She is surrounded by girls at his house. When one becomes a woman they have had a baby. Any time before they have a baby they are just girls. They are valued only by their ovaries and wombs. They have no freedom and†¦show more content†¦Red also symbolizes blood. The Handmaids still get their period and hope to have it miss on one month in hopes that they are pregnant. Although not all the girls are Handmaids, there are also different classes such as Wives and Martha’s. Each group wears a different color. The wives wear blue and the Martha’s wear green. The wives wear blue is because then other people can notice that they are a wife of a certain commander. Martha’s are envious of the wives so therefore wear green. How Offred got her name is because she is Of Fred, as in Fred is her commander. Therefore, any girl would be Of---- depending on what their commanders’ name is. The Wives are in the room during the ceremony as if they are the ones getting pregnant themselves. Martha’s are the servants in this dystopian society. They are forced to do anything that the Wife or Commander want them to do. There are econowives that are married to a low ranking man. Each woman is separated to make sure they are doing their specific jobs. While Offred is walking outside one realizes that the women can always be recognized of what they are by what they are wearing. â€Å"There are other women with baskets, some in red, some in the dull green of the Marthas†¦ cheap and skimpy, mark the women of the poorer men. Econowives, they’re called. These women are not divided into function. They have to do everything; if they can† (Atwood 24). These colors are from their state and the rules that they have to follow.Show MoreRelatedThe Handmaids Tale Men Essay1666 Words   |  7 PagesWomen’s Bodies as Political Instuments and Elimination of Sex ual Pleasure: Oppression throughout Society In Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaid’s Tale, the idea of women’s bodies as political instruments and elimination of sexual pleasure is explored. The republic of Gilead â€Å"depicts a futuristic society in which a brutal patriarchal regime deprives women of power and subjectivity, enslaving them through a sophisticated, ubiquitous apparatus of surveillance† (Cooper 49). Offred is a â€Å"girl† who livesRead MoreMargaret Atwood s The Handmaid s Tale1345 Words   |  6 PagesMetaphor in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale† by Sonia Chadha compares the treatment of women in society to the treatment of women in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Chadha’s essay leaves her readers in a state of bewilderment after only a few pages. Her disorganized structure and repetitive subjects are only a couple reasons of why this essay is an absolute mess. Chadha’s essay is all over the place and only shows one-side of t he argument. Overall, this essay was poorly written and very repetitveRead MoreEssay on Feminist Ideas in Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale1199 Words   |  5 PagesFeminist Ideas in Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale For this essay, we focused strictly on critics reactions to Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale. For the most part, we found two separate opinions about The Handmaids Tale, concerning feminism. One opinion is that it is a feminist novel, and the opposing opinion that it is not. Feminism: A doctrine advocating social, political, and economic rights for women equal to those of men as recorded in Websters Dictionary. This topic is prevalentRead MoreA Comparison of The Handmaids Tale and Anthem799 Words   |  4 PagesA Comparison of The Handmaids Tale and Anthem The two novels, The Handmaids Tale and Anthem, are both haunting, first person tales of personal hardship in a closed and controlled society. In this essay I will point out many important similarities and differences between the two books, mainly the setting and the similarities between the two societies in which the stories take place, as well as more important differences between the main characters. To start I would like to compare the settingsRead MoreThe Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood Essay2490 Words   |  10 PagesIn the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from,† (Atwood 24). The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Margaret Atwood, is a novel set in the near future where societal roles have severely changed. The most notable change is that concerning women. Whereas, in the past, women have been gaining rights and earning more â€Å"freedom to’s†, the women in the society of The Handmaid’s Tale have â€Å"freedom froms†. They have the freedom from being abused and having sexist phrases yelled atRead Moresociety can be seen as a malevolent force, bringing about the dehumanisation of the individual1511 Words   |  7 Pagesdehumanisation of the individual’ To what extent is this idea shown in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and ‘We’ by comparing the writers presentation of the pressures society brings to bear on the individual. â€Å"A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze.†Ã‚   Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale To understand what is meant by the term ‘dehumanisation’ one must first ascertainRead MoreFreedom to vs. Freedom from1145 Words   |  5 PagesWMST 275 Literature Essay #1 In the Days of Anarchy To live in a country such as the United States of America is considered a privilege. The liberties that American citizens are entitled to, as declared in the Constitution, makes the United States an attractive and envied democracy. It would be improbable to imagine these liberties being stripped from American society. However, Margaret Atwood depicts the United States as a dystopian society in her novel The Handmaid’s Tale. The first societyRead MoreThe Handmaid s Tale By Margaret Atwood1540 Words   |  7 Pages Name: Nicole. Zeng Assignment: Summative written essay Date:11 May, 2015. Teacher: Dr. Strong. Handmaid’s Tale The literary masterpiece The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, is a story not unlike a cold fire; hope peeking through the miserable and meaningless world in which the protagonist gets trapped. The society depicts the discrimination towards femininity, blaming women for their low birth rate and taking away the right from the females to be educated ,forbidding them from readingRead MoreAsd Asdf Oeer2098 Words   |  9 PagesStudy Guides and Literature Essays Editing Services College Application Essays Writing Help Q A Lesson Plans Home : The Handmaids Tale : Study Guide : Summary and Analysis of V: Nap - VI: Household The Handmaids Tale Summary and Analysis by Margaret Atwood Buy PDFBuy Paperback V: Nap - VI: Household Summary This section begins with Offred simply sitting alone, waiting. She had not been prepared for all this stillness, all of this boredom. She thinks about experimentsRead MoreHandmaids Tale - Manipulation of Power Essay1257 Words   |  6 PagesTHE HANDMAID’S TALE Grade 11 English Analytical Essay Words: 1 245 Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is a disturbing novel that displays the presence and manipulation of power. This is displayed throughout the novel and is represented significantly in three ways. As the book takes place in the republic of Gilead, the elite in society are placed above every other individual who are not included in their level. Secondly, men are placed at the top of the chain and they significantly overpower

Renaissance vs. Islamic Art Free Essays

string(71) " be one of the best and most influential rulers of the Ottoman empire\." Mirriam Webster defines art as â€Å"the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects†. It is a broad definition, because nothing about art is specific. Art has many different meanings, takes many different forms, and achieves many different things. We will write a custom essay sample on Renaissance vs. Islamic Art or any similar topic only for you Order Now Culture, including religion, greatly influences art. The artistic works of a culture may reflect a lifestyle, language, religion, or belief of said culture. Some would consider the heart of art in our modern world to be Europe, specifically, Italy. This is logical, seeing as how Italy is famous for a time period called the Renaissance which was a vital turning point in the history of art in the world. The Renaissance period of time immediately followed the middle ages. During the middle ages, people had no concept of individuality, and there was no focus on mankind. Instead, the focus narrowly on God, celestial beings, and the afterlife. All things that happened were considered a mystery that only God could understand or be involved in. Because of the reliance on religion, people did not venture into thinking about science or how things really worked. The Renaissance was named as its own time period in order to signify the end of medieval thinking of the middle ages. Important aspects of the Renaissance include secularism and humanism, which were concentrations on human capability and a furthering from the all-encompassing spiritual norms. Art during the Renaissance sought to apply humanistic methods to Christianity. As people began to concentrate less on the ideal and more on what was realistic, they began to paint in a realistic fashion which included portraits, and human figures which were proportionate. What’s more is not only that they were painted realistically, but that average humans would be depicted in art in the first place. Although the Renaissance was secular, and concentrated on humans rather than deities, there are many Italian paintings with religious subjects. Italy didn’t live in a little bubble of scientific, humanistic advancement. While the Renaissance took place, Italian culture was somewhat challenged by Islamic culture when the Ottoman Turks made an attempt to conquer Europe. Ottoman rulers such as Mehmet and Suleiman are, in my opinion, responsible for the spread of Islamic art and culture from Persia to Algeria. As the Ottoman empire grew, its art and culture flourished under the rule of a select few rulers. Although the art grew and flourished, it still had its roots in Islamic faith, meaning it still followed the â€Å"rules† of the Muslim religion. The Ottoman empire’s occupation of South-east Europe and domination of the Mediterranean were tools which unintentionally spread Islamic culture to Europe, Italy included. When a group attempts to colonize an area, they (though sometimes inadvertently) spread their culture to said area. This is usually done through propaganda and artwork. The similarities between Islamic art and art in Renaissance Italy results from the fact that many elements of Islamic art spread to Italy during the spread of the Ottoman Empire into Europe. We can see many purely Islamic elements in European art in the Renaissance time period. To begin with, the Muslims are responsible for bringing glass, ceramics, and pottery to Italy. The development of glass and ceramics began in the Middle East. Using these mediums, they developed techniques such as gazing, gliding, qualities of color, and sparkle in order to add an artistic dimension to every day necessities. When the Muslims invaded Europe and held an Italian city, Italians learned to make ceramics, and then followed the Islamic way of adding sparkle to their glass and gold to their ceramic pieces. The Italians were influenced by, not only the artistic medium itself, but also the decorations on Islamic art. A cardinal characteristic of Islamic art is an inclination towards covering surfaces with patterns composed of vegetal and/or geometric elements. They valued sophisticated patterns and variety such as those found in Islamic artwork. They were fascinated by the intricate patterns, so much so that they began to imitate the designs on their own glass and ceramic artwork. They copied a certain design pattern, which was a sort of scrolling foliage, which they gave the term arabesque. Both Islamic and Renaissance art are greatly influenced by general religion, and even exhibit some of the same elements. Geometric figures in Islamic art are used to make said art perfectly symmetrical in any way possible. Even the arabesque scrolling foliage is more symmetrical and perfect than actual foliage. The geometric shapes in their works, are used to create a sense of superb balance and order, which is representative of Muslim ideals. Similarly, the artwork of the Italian Renaissance used realism to create balance, order, and proportion, which were fundamental ideals of the Renaissance. Aside from the designs and depictions in the artwork, what makes them similar is the way in which the artwork came to exist. The term â€Å"patron of the arts† was widely used during the Renaissance, and described those individuals who possessed the funds needed to aid the artists in creating their art. During the Renaissance, the patrons of the arts were able to use their wealth to achieve power and respect, by creating a work of art that proclaimed their devotion to themselves, their city, and their god. The most famous of the patrons during the Renaissance were the Medici family. During the height of the Renaissance, the Medici in power was known as Lorenzo the Magnificent. He held power in Florence by his involvement in gaining commissions for artists such as Sandro Boticelli and Leonardo da Vinci, who were both famous artists of their time. The Muslim empires had a very similar system. Certain Ottoman rulers are known for their positive contributions to the art and culture of their empire. Their contributions were not making the actual art, but providing the resources for the â€Å"professional† artists to do so. Suleiman the Magnificent is known to be one of the best and most influential rulers of the Ottoman empire. You read "Renaissance vs. Islamic Art" in category "Papers" One reason he earned this title is that art and literature flourished under his rule. His artistic nature (reflected in everything he did), paired with his access to wealth made him an important patron of the arts, helping artists express original Ottoman ideas in a Turkish format. The interest of the patrons determine what kind of artwork gets created and released to the public. Because of this, the artwork of a time period may reflect the thoughts and ideals of the upper class because they were wealthy enough to commission certain works to be done. The patrons were the people responsible for the prospering and growth of art in both time periods, though they existed in slightly different forms. Although the Renaissance art was influenced by Islamic art, and both were influenced by religion and earlier time periods, there are fundamental differences between the two. These differences lie in the way each culture chooses to portray their religion in their art. The axiomatic dissimilarity between the two types of art, as far as paintings and tapestries are concerned, is that there are no physical beings depicted in Islamic art, and the opposite is true for the art of the Italian Renaissance. The reason for this goes back to the individual foundation and central ideas of each perspective religion and, for the Renaissance, the practices influenced by the time period. Renaissance thinking was secular, but Renaissance art was not about excluding religion altogether, it was more about including humanism in the depiction of religious figures and events. One can see the religious elements in works such as The Birth of Venus, painted by Sandro Botticelli in 1486. The nudity of Venus in this work is a suggestion of Eve before â€Å"the Fall† as well as the pure love of Paradise. Once arrived on the planet or â€Å"born†, the love goddess dons earthly, mortal sin, which leads her to become the New Eve, otherwise known as Madonna. The Madonna’s purity is represented by the nude Venus, and she has become a personification of the Christian church. What makes such a work specific to the humanistic aspect of the Renaissance is the ideals captured in it. Venus as the center of the painting represents a celestial being, but is painted very realistically in form, being accurately proportioned. This alone captures the characteristics of humanism, with its focus on realism, and roots in Greek and Roman myths and culture. Muslims do not agree with the way that Christians portray religion through their artwork for their own reasons, so they choose not to do the same in their own artistic practices. Muslims saw an intrinsic flaw in the Christian way and they did not want the message of their God to be confused with the worshipping of the medium, or for anything to be mistaken for idols or idolatry. Therefore they did, and still to this day, do not allow any physical beings in their art, because such art might allow for attention to and worshipping of Mohammed rather than attention to the word of their God. By these interpretations, the Qu’ran is Midieval in the nature of its message in that physical beings have no right to be depicted in artwork because the word of God is all-important. Because of this Muslim view, Islamic art does not possess the same elements as the Christian art from the Renaissance. There are no people at all depicted in Islamic art, but that’s not to say that it still is not religious. A calligraphic panel by one Mustafa Rakim is a perfect example. The background is red, with beautiful gold characters which are arranged so that the outline appears to be that of a man with a turban who is praying. It reads â€Å"God, there is no god but He, the Lord of His prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the Lord of all that has been crated. The aforementioned is exemplary of how Islamic works of art could be religious, but approached in a different fashion than in the Renaissance. There could not be a physical depiction of their god, Muhammad, or a man praying, so instead calligraphy was used in a shape in order to further convey a message. In fact, calligraphy is the highest form of visual art, and the nly spiritually meaningful form of art because of its association with the Qu’ran, which Muslims worship every word of. Christians worshipped Jesus Christ, who was a human being, and simply a messenger of God. For example, atop Carcovado Mountain in Brazil, there is a statue entitled â€Å"Christ the Redeemer†, which offers a panoramic view of Rio De Janeiro. The statue is not only a major tourist attraction, but more of a source of religious solace for all who come to visit it. There are also many Christians who choose to worship at the feet of the aforementioned statue, and others like it. The Muslims think of the Christians as wrong for doing such things as worshipping at a statue of Jesus Christ because in their religion, the prophet Mohammed shan’t be worshipped because of his position as the messenger of their God. The Islamic focus is on the teachings of their God alone, and not on the medium through which they received said teachings. Art with physical depictions of religious figures would also go against the teachings of the Qu’ran, which by some interpretations suggests that Muslims should be against idolatry, meaning they should not believe in the worshipping of a physical object or person as a god. Physical depictions in religious art have also been known to change along with the time period, which could in turn change the mindsets of the followers of the religion. For example, in Christianity, depictions of Jesus Christ contributed to the influence of the church and rulers who associated themselves with and promoted Christianity. During the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, the image of Jesus changed from a humble shepherd to a richly robed and commanding persona—a fitting companion for the emperors whose images were also portrayed in mosaics on the walls of churches. Because the Muslims view the word of their god as all-important, they do not want interpretations of the religion to be further influenced by the time period, as what has happened with the image of Jesus. Art, in any form, has the ability to represent everything about a culture. In my opinion, it has the most impact on how we perceive certain people, religions, and cultures. He who is in control of the art is, in essence, in control of the opinions of future generations. Essentially, comparing the art of two separate cultures is comparing everything from their language and religion to trends and important societal topics. How to cite Renaissance vs. Islamic Art, Papers

Causes of Poverty free essay sample

Causes of poverty can be multifarious, because it can be affected by the variety of factors, for instance, poor people themselves, the policies from the government and the state of the economy. Three authors talk about this problem and explain their opinions about the causes of poverty in their articles. Angela Locke is a writer, poet and creative writing tutor. She writes for the feminist news journal Off Our Backs. She argues about causes for poverty in her article Born Poor and Smart. As a member of the lower class, Locke tells us her mothers story and her own experience in college. Her mother did what the poor usually would not do. She read and asked her children read, so two of her children could go to college. However, Lockes experience in college was not that great. She felt that people put class tag on her all the time. We will write a custom essay sample on Causes of Poverty or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Everything is about class. In her opinion, success is not a personal feeling; instead, it has to be recognized by society. Also, Herbert J. Gans, an American sociologist talks about poverty in his article, The War Against the Poor Instead of Programs to End Poverty. Gans is a professor of sociology at Columbia University. Many of his books and articles are related to poverty such as The Urban Villagers, The Levittowners, People and Plans, More Equality and Middle American Individualism. In his article, Gans talks about the attitudes from American society especially the higher level class and government toward the poor. Firstly, he explains several reasons why poverty persists in America. Secondly, he clears up some misunderstandings that common Americans have of the poor. Finally, he lists the solutions to end poverty Another article named Middle of the Class. from The Economist discusses poverty and class as well. The Economist is a weekly magazine published in England by The Economist Group. This magazine is famous for its international perspective on links between economic issues, current affairs, business, finance, science, technology and the arts. In this article, it mainly focuses on social mobility and poverty. The author believes that the ;;American Dream, which used to inspire all Americans. is not because social mobility in American is not good. The equality of opportunity is facing a huge challenge. He uses plenty of statistics to show us that it is hard to move to a higher class. Then he gives his explanation on why move to a higher level becomes so difficult. Locke, Gans and The Economist all interpret the state of poverty and explain causes for it in order to let readers see the complete issue clearly. However, three of them shares some common ideas and focuses on different points at the same time. First of all, both Gans and The Economist list the economy as a very important factor that contributes to poverty. Gans points out that the world economy is creating huge number of jobless non-professional and semi-professional workers. Also, the outsourcing of labor by many big private companies lessens job opportunities (Gans, 2008, pp. 505). He is trying to explain that poor people lack opportunities to get trained so it is hard for them to have skills to find a well-paid job. Therefore, they become poorer. Poverty will continue. Their children will repeat what they used to do. The Economist shares the similar point of view. The Economist claims in the article that when facing the globalized market economy, intellectual skills play a significant role in a job. This situation pushes people to go to college and get trained (The Economist. 008, pp. 527). Unfortunately, that is what the poor find difficult for them to afford. His idea is touches on education. Locke also has her opinions about education. The Economist mentions that the value of the degree is necessary. Moreover, he emphasizes the importance of a good education. In The Economists view, family will decide if one can go to college or not (The Economist, 2008, pp. 528). As we know, the poor seldom go to college. In contrast the rich people have a different choice. To go to college for them is not only about enough money but also about their habit f the education. In addition, Locke, as someone who comes from the working class, has the same opinion with The Economist. She is an example of someone from the lower class changing her life through education. Her mother studied and let her study. Locke thinks that her mothers reading made her family different from other poor families. However, Gans does not mention something about education in his article. As a sociologist, he pays more attention to government and their policies. In Ganss point of view, the government passes the wrong policies on ending poverty. He highlights that the government gives welfare to middle class instead of the poor, which is wrong, has made some working-class disappeared. (Gans, 2008, pp. 505). Therefore, the government can be counted as one reason for poverty. Even though Locke and the The Economist failed to outline the influence of government, there are still some points talked about by three of them. Stereotypes are the other main reason for poverty, which is agreed upon all of them. However, they express them from views of different classes. Locke and The Economist all talk about it from the poor peoples views. Locke points out that the poor believe that they are not smart and are only good for low-end jobs. They believe that it is not necessary for them to study and get the higher education (Locke, 2008, pp. 502). That means the poor do not realize how essential education is, so they will not change their lives through education. On the other hand, The Economist gives a totally different story. The author believes that class has stopped lower level peoples hard working on improving their social status. The hard working and The American Dream is not true. He thinks that it is hard for you to change your social class even though you might work hard. Meanwhile. Gans show us stereotypes of the rich. The higher level classes believe that the poor are criminals and poverty means moral failure. In addition, welfare and income grant programs will hurt the economy (Gans, 2008, pp. 505-506). Gans thinks that these Stereotypes will make the rich feel afraid of the poor and refuse to help them. That makes the situation worse In conclusion, three authors share similar ideas. They talk about the causes of poverty being tied to the economy, education, the government and stereotypes. Locke thinks that the poor are misled by the stereotypes so they do not work hard and get educated. Gans believes that the Government is wrong about policies, the economy makes the poor lose job and get low paid and stereotypes lead common Americans to feel afraid of the poor. The Economist points out the value of the degree and the fake American Dream. Locke focuses more on the poor themselves while Gans and The Economist talk more about poverty as a society. All of them discuss the cause of poverty in a way that allows the readers to find out what cause troubles and what should we do to solve problem.

Interior Design Essay Example

Interior Design Essay In their article, Interior design education within a human ecological framework, Kaup, Anderson and Honey (2007) argue for an interdisciplinary model of interior design education that would incorporate the study of human ecology. Kaup, Anderson and Honey contend that such an approach would enhance the overall skill set of interior designers, allowing them to provide a greater benefit to businesses, homeowners and communities, while also addressing some of the perceived training gaps in current interior design education. While Kaup, Anderson and Honey (2007) structure their article as an argumentative essay, they rely heavily on a literature-review format to help cement their points. To begin their argument, Kaup, Anderson and Honey define human ecology as the study of human beings, their environments and human-environment interactions from a holistic perspective (p. 45). Human ecology incorporates the science of human behavior study with the art of creating functional design to enha nce how humans thrive in their environments. In short, the authors argue that students who study human ecology as part of their interior design curriculum will be exposed to such diverse fields as anthropology, archeology, architecture, biology, demography and more (p. 46). This would provide a more complete education than most interior design students are currently receiving at U.S. colleges, Kaup, Anderson and Honey contend. According to Kaup, Anderson and Honey (2007), state licensing of interior designers has been increasing steadily since the 1960s, and the Council for Interior Design Accreditation has established minimum standards that accredited colleges must adhere to in the construct and delivery of their programs. Those standards, however, leave colleges a fair degree of latitude in deciding which disciplines to align their programs with. For example, some colleges emphasize the artistic element of interior design,

Examining The Definition Of Mental Stress Social Work Essay Example

Examining The Definition Of Mental Stress Social Work Essay Example Examining The Definition Of Mental Stress Social Work Essay Examining The Definition Of Mental Stress Social Work Essay Oppression is the exercising of authorization or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unfair mode. It can besides be defined as an act or case of suppressing, the province of being oppressed, and the feeling of being to a great extent burdened, mentally or physically, by problems, inauspicious conditions, and anxiousness. ( Merriam Webster, 2010 ) Oppression comes into drama when one individual or group has the power in surplus of another. It relates to the systematic seting down of people and their sentiments, behaviors and life styles utilizing negative exercising of power. It can be seen at both single and institutional degree, for illustration domestic force is single subjugation and the subjugation of the mentally ailment is subjugation at the institutional degree. There is no distinct definition of societal exclusion, nevertheless it is closely linked to constructs of societal want, poorness and inequality. Social exclusion is about going detached from the chances and normal ways of life of mainstream society apparently with small or no manner of of all time make fulling the spread. Social exclusion has been defined as a chronic scarceness of chances, entree to basic services of quality, labor markets and recognition, equal substructure, and the judicial system. ( IADP, 2003 ) This significance that societal exclusion affects an person s chance to derive stable employment, nice lodging, adequate wellness attention, quality instruction and safe and unafraid life conditions every bit good as their intervention by the legal and condemnable justness systems. The most of import feature of societal exclusion is that these jobs are all linked and normally reenforce each other, which combined can make a complex and barbarous rhythm. The complex job of societal exclusion appears to be intensified and more terrible for persons that belong to multiple excluded groups. The stigma and favoritism which users of mental wellness services face on a day-to-day footing make them amongst the most socially excluded groups in our society. In ancient Greece the term stigma referred originally to marks, cut or burned into the organic structure, to publicize and expose something unusual or bad about the moral position of the carrier. Although people with mental wellness jobs do non bear stigmata, they are marked out in society as other and are socially excluded from take parting in a scope of activities and establishments. Smith ( 2005 ) noted that the overview of the history of official responses to mental emphasis included the term moonstruck and demomstrated that, the differentiation was seldom made between mental capacity and mental unwellness in many of the legislative enterprises and policy arguments. Even though the first refuge for imbeciles in England was established in the mid 1840s, the 1890 Lunacy Act covered mental hurt and larning troubles. Section 341 of the statute law stated that the term moonstruck meant an imbecile or individual of unsound head. Mental hurt refers to a broad scope of experiences, from comparatively mild and ephemeral provinces to more chronic and terrible conditions. Changes defines mental hurt as a disturbing or unpleasant mental or emotional province, such as fright, anxiousness, depression, confusion, mood-swings, unusual thoughts, your senses playing fast ones on you etc, ( frequently bring forthing physical symptoms or behaviors ) frequently impairing your ability to get by with daily life. The huge scope of mental wellness jobs includes anxiousness, generalised depression, eating upsets, postpartum depression, dementedness, phobic disorder, obsessional compulsive upset, schizophrenic disorder, bipolar and personality upsets. Alongside these jobs others without a mental wellness diagnosing may confront neurotic symptoms such as kiping jobs, weariness, crossness, concern, deficiency of concentration and forgetfulness. All of which are categorised under mental hurt. Mental wellness jobs are common and wid ely misunderstood ; one grownup in six suffers from mental wellness jobs of changing badness which include a broad spectrum of conditions from anxiousness to psychotic upsets such as schizophrenic disorder. ( Cabinet Office, 2003 ) Changes website claim that one in four people suffer from mental hurt at some point in their and many more will be indirectly affected as their friends and loved 1s suffer. Once mental wellness jobs develop they can frequently hold a negative impact on employability, lodging, household income, chances to entree services and societal resources, which potentially lead to severe economic want and societal isolation, and see a broad scope of types of exclusion which can impact an person s quality of life, increase their societal exclusion and besides contribute to mental wellness. Public attitudes to mental wellness jobs surface in many different ways. They are evident in the linguistic communication people use to depict mental unwellness and in their reactions to those sing mental hurt. All societies have struggled with the impact of mental unwellness and rejection and turning away of mentally sick people are common. Even when the mad have been accorded a topographic point of honor as in civilization that believe mentally sick people have been touched by the Great Spirit, they have remained outside the group and have been feared ( Sussman, 1997 ) For many mental unwellness is an unmentionable topic, this can forestall people from seeking aid when faced with a mental wellness job. Negative attitudes are apparent in the favoritism users of mental wellness services face. Users frequently encounter troubles on affairs of employment and under the Mental Health Act 1983 may hold basic human rights denied. Peoples enduring from mental wellness jobs are frequently subjected to verbal and physical maltreatment. Over the old ten old ages at that place has been really small addition in the sum of grownups with neurotic or physic upsets peculiarly in the work force. This is in contrast to the important additions in the employment rate for the general population and for people with physical disablements. Datas about handicapped people from the labor Force Survey show that 628,000 grownups of working age in Great Britain respect mental unwellness as their chief disablement. Merely 21 per cent of these grownups are in employment, which is the lowest rate for any group with disablements. Consequences from the study An acclivitous battle shows that people with mental wellness jobs are double disadvantaged both by their unwellness and their poorness. They face important hurdlings in seeking to return to employment with many expecting favoritism and ignorance. Mind shows that merely 13 per cent out of people with mental wellness jobs are in employment compared with approximately a 3rd of people wit h long-run wellness job. A study completed by heads, non sticks and rocks, studies that a 3rd of the people with mental wellness jobs said they had been dismissed or forced to vacate from occupations, 69 per cent of people had been put off using for occupations for fright of unjust intervention and 38 per cent had been harassed intimidated or teased at work because of the psychiatric history. The little Numberss of people with mental wellness jobs who do work see their income as low. ( Read A ; Baker 1996 ) The effects of long-run unemployment and deficiency of chances to work travel beyond deficiency of money. It can non merely impact both physical and mental wellness but the loss of accomplishments and contacts can do it much harder to acquire back into the work force. In many ways people with mental wellness jobs are associated with the usage of street drugs, intoxicant and substance maltreatment, and they face the most unsympathetic public attitude because people see their jobs as self-inflicted, because of their status or dependence they become stateless or unemployed and the barbarous rhythm discussed antecedently has begun. Labels can do subjugation and favoritism. However, there is a demand to label a individual to enable them to have a service, but does the stigma attached to these labels encourage societal stereotyping? Goffman ( 1961 ) suggested that labelling creates aberrance or abnormalcy because the single adjusts his behavior to that label. ( Cited in Thomas and Wood 2003, pg 25 ) Mind s inquiry study Making Accepting Communities ( Dunn, 1999 ) has been described as the largest of all time UK enquiry into societal exclusion and mental wellness service users. It appears to take a social theoretical account of disablement position and while it discusses societal exclusion, the key job it highlights is favoritism. The enquiry panel received strong and consistent grounds of the favoritism people experience as a direct consequence of their mental wellness jobs and the study argues that this favoritism, the particularly in occupations and instruction, makes mental wellness service users vulnerable to utmost exclusion from virtually every facet of society. This state of affairs is seen to be exacerbated by sensational coverage in the mass media and the enquiry besides raised concerns about the impact of the new mental wellness measure, which may farther escalate exclusion by concentrating on public safety and compulsory intervention in the community. In add-on, the enquiry found that mental wellness services themselves bear some duty for making and perpetuating exclusion, partially because a psychiatric diagnosing frequently marks the start of societal exclusion, and because psychiatric services can be experienced as ghettoised and stigmatizing. As a consequence of the strength of their findings sing favoritism, the study s writer argues that any definition of societal exclusion that focuses entirely on the labor market is misplaced and partial and, every bit, any effort to turn to mental wellness jobs that does non take into history the stuff fortunes of service users will be critically undermined. While policy enterprises should concentrate on turn toing the hapless stuff fortunes of service users, the study maintains that they should besides work towards making greater societal coherence or societal inclusion. The first concerns the relationship between advancing inclusion and cut downing exclusion . ( APU/UCLAN Research Team 2005 ) The service users whom either at nowadays or in the yesteryear have suffered some kind of mental hurt want this exclusion to alter. They want to get the better of these barriers and have the same rights as those in mainstream society. One group in the state has fewer rights than the remainder of us. No 1 listens to what they say, they are mocked in harsh, ugly linguistic communication and some ca nt even vote. They can be discriminated against at work and locked up even when they have committed no offense. Comedians joke about them, headline authors demonise them and now the Government is set to gnaw their autonomy yet farther. They are the mentally sick, and their choler is turning driving what could go Britain s following great motion for civil rights. ( Freedland, 1998 ) Within the mental wellness country there are a assortment of user/survivor groups, some independent and some instigated by service-led user engagement enterprises. The independent groups constitute the user/survivor motion , although in pattern there is considerable convergence between groups of different position. The present twenty-four hours U.K. motion began in the early 1970s and constitutes political organising among those with ( frequently negative ) experiences of being a psychiatric patient or user of mental wellness services ( Rogers and Pilgrim, 1991, Campbell, 1999 ; Crossley, 1999 ) . Its political relations centre about opposition to, and overcoming of, subjugation and marginalization for mental wellness service users, and a challenge to the sensed position of the diagnosed mentally sick in society ( Campbell, 1999: 195 ) . Although embracing a scope of ideological point of views ( Wallcraft, 2003 ) , user/survivor action is characterised by a opposition to the medi calisation of hurt ( Campbell, 1999 ) and penchant for service responses closer to put ways of associating ( e.g. talking interventions ) ( Pilgrim and Rogers, 1997: 38, 43 ) . Holistic apprehensions and a recovery paradigm are frequently advocated ( Wallcraft, 2003 ) . Politicizing oneself by fall ining with other subsisters in political actions is an first-class counterpoison to the impotence that psychopathology induces in its topics. Becoming active in the battle against psychopathology ( and other signifiers of unfairness ) is a good option to the weakness psychopathology encourages.A ( Jeffrey Masson 1989 ) The struggle against psychopathology that Jeffrey Masson describes has a long history. Equally long as there have been psychiatric establishments at that place has been a motion against the unfairnesss suffered within them. ( Mind )

Marketing Plan Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Marketing Plan - Assignment Example mers across the nation to create their respective online profiles, search for games they are interested in and place a bid for purchasing games from other users. This transactional relationship could be based upon 1) paying the full price of the video game or 2) exchanging video games without the payment of additional costs. The premise of Game Change Inc.’s platform is based upon the notion of acting as an intermediary between two entities (the buyer and the seller) for assisting and facilitating the completion of the transaction and shipping the product to the respective buyer. Moreover, the product idea is also based upon reviving the concept of C2C online purchasing by designing a platform which exclusively serves the Canadian market that is recognized as being the third largest nation in terms of the development of video games (Entertainment Software Association of Canada, 2013). According to Kotler and Armstrong (1991), the tool of SWOT analysis can be applied with respect to the company for the purposes of conducting an effective assessment of the market in which it operates. The identification of the organization’s internal and external matters through the execution of this model can allow the company to have a better view of how it develop its strength to significantly benefit from opportunities while, eliminating the noted threats through the minimization of weaknesses. The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the company can therefore be recognized as follows: The strengths of Game Change Inc. are incorporated in the flexible pricing plans which are being offered by the service as unlike the organization’s competitors, the company is focusing upon offering full payment and exchange plans. Secondly, it must also be recognized that unlike its primary competitors Kijiji, eBay and Amazon, Game Change is an exclusive and dedicated gaming platform which strives to enhance the gamers’ overall purchase experience. Therefore, the company

Project Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 4

Project Management - Essay Example It has been defined as â€Å"the achievement of project objectives through people and involving the organisation, planning and control of resources assigned to the project† (Harrison & Lock, 2004, p. 6). However, one can trace the ideology or roots of project management to the earliest human civilisations. The Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Roman Colosseum, and others are few examples from ancient civilisations where these early project managers, mostly, officials of the kingdom and the monarchy, handled projects according to the practices of that time (Loosemore, 2003, p. 352). Today, project management has emerged as an indispensable aspect of modern business management due to changing work environment and dynamics of the modern day business era. In this competitive business world of the 21st century, individuals within an organisation are expected to perform their formal job responsibilities, as well as many projects that go hand in hand with their position and duties (Walker, 2007, p. 183). Thus, there was a need for innovation within the business world, which resulted in a matrix organisational structure, one that is still being used in various leading businesses around the world. The principle of this structure is to create harmony between demands of project managers and line managers (Frigenti & Comninos, 2002, p. 25). Much of the literature regarding project management discusses three main constraints faced by project managers; time, cost and quality, which are often referred to as the â€Å"iron triangle† principle. The role of the project manager is to create a balance between these three factors in any project. This paper attempts to discuss the application of these constraints on the project of construction of Hindhead Tunnel that began in the first month of 2007 and ended in the summer of 2011. Furthermore, the paper will briefly discuss aspects of managing risks, managing costs and managing hu man resources, which are the three main factors that contribute to success of the projects out of the nine elements contained in the project management body of knowledge (Lewis, 2010, p. 169). Discussion Considering the importance and scope of this project, it was imperative for the project managers to ensure that they make the right trade-off between the constraints of cost, quality, and time. Quite understandably, if the project managers had focused all of their attention on reducing costs and meeting the deadlines, they would have compromised much of the quality or performance factors, something that is not acceptable when it comes to constructing a high profile tunnel, which would be used by millions of people every month (Meredith & Mantel, 2008, p. 49). In the same manner, too much focus on reducing costs and meeting the quality standards would have eventually led to the situation where the project would have failed to meet deadlines since it would need more time to use the re sources effectively and efficiently. Lastly, the project managers could have lost sight of their budget if they had start placing too much importance on meeting deadlines and maintaining the quality (Walker, 2007, p. 183). They would have to hire more experienced and skilled workers at higher pays to motivate them to work harder, quicker and better, something that would compound the costs associated with the project (Wysocki, 2011, p. 74). Thus, as these

Cochlear implants and the debate within the deaf community. Arguing Research Paper

Cochlear implants and the debate within the deaf community. Arguing that cochlear implants have been beneficial for the deaf community - Research Paper Example The external components of the implant contains a microphone that is to be worn behind the ear of the patient, attached to a magnetic transmitter, which is attached to the earpiece and a sound processor. Once the implantation is complete, an audiologist uses a computer to set the speech processor for the patient. The audiologist sets the processor and programmes it to the appropriate levels of auditory stimulation between sound received from environment and brain nerve cells (Cochlear 1; Ouellette 1248). Once the processor is set, the microphone receives sounds from the environment and sends it to the speech processor, which then performs computation, and transforms the sound to electrical codes and digital format. The digital codes are sent to the outer ear component as coded signals bypassing the ear hairs. The magnetic transformer behind the ear then takes these codes, transforms them to electrodes arrays, and interfaces them to the cochlea. Then the internal device in the cochlea takes these arrays and stimulates the auditory nerves fibers that are connected to the brain, whereby the arrays are sent by the auditory nerve of the person to the brain for interpretation (Cochlear 1). This paper seeks to establish that cochlear implants technology is beneficial to the deaf community despite their opposition to the implants during their inception. In order to alleviate fears of the deaf community there have been improvements in cochlea implants technology over time and hence increased rate of success to patients who have undergone the procedure. Ideally, the procedure is meant to be applied to infants born deaf or those who have developed deafness in their early days. This is because cognitive development of a child into their senses and environment occurs between the ages of 0-3 years. Hence, if the procedure is undertaken during this

Tackling Fraud in the Workplace

Tackling Fraud in the Workplace Subject Who to trust? Tackling Employee Fraud   Chapter 1: Introduction With globalization and the increasing use of technology, the problem of fraud and its great complexity has become an enormous concern for the businesses. The businesses not only attack by unknown distance fraudsters but it suffers from insider fraudsters too. This study will outline the internal employee fraud, its measurements and controls within the businesses. The fraudsters, that they can be operators, managers, directors or even owners of the businesses. Insiders fraud became mutual and businesses are alarmed identifying methods to reduce the workplace fraud. Even though fraud cannot be eliminated completely as because of its nature, Brooks, Button and Frimpong (2009) stated that understanding lack of awareness of deception tactics, techniques and calculating fraud will help decrease its amount. There are some approaches to prevent fraud activities to decrease its influences, detect fraud risks and cope with them. However, are these approaches enough to stop fraudulent activitie s within the businesses? This research will examine broad range of secondary data that sources retrieved from both government and private sector organisations, financial and anti-fraud organisations publications with the purpose of measure the existing condition of tackling with the workplace fraud, trends and, it will search for possible developments that might result in a decrease amount of dishonest activities and loss to build an better confidence and trust within the organizations. Background Stoy Hayward (2008) underlined that the main risk to organizations was not from outside fraudsters, but from employees and managers, calculated for 46% of deception cases and loss of companies  £541 million. This formed %77 of the total of fraud (Hayward, 2008 cited by Smith, 2011). CIFAS study claimed that employee fraud has been even more increasing concern lately. In 2015, members of CIFAS recorded and identified more workplace fraud cases than ever before. More than 320,000 instances were identified and the figure increased more by 16% than the figures for 2014. (CIFAS, 2016) In this perspective, regardless sizes of companies, there is a need to understand workplace fraud and raise a question why and how it occurs who more likely to commit this crime and finally what can be done to reduce the amount of workplace fraud cases. Workplace fraud is equally problematic and expensive to reveal, even once it is realised. For that reason, organisations must to stop fraud activities at the first place before its occurrence. However the question is how to do this? Better understanding of workplace fraud and employees might help to reduce these high level of workplace fraudulent activities. Research aims Research objectives (3 or 4) The broad aims of this research are to enhance the understanding, assessing the nature of workplace fraud and organisational measures to address the problem. It will be addressed with reference to three specific objectives. To explore the nature of insider fraud in the workplace (Chapter 3 title) First objective seeks to establish the nature and scale of insider fraud, its definition, and identifying types of workplace fraud and understanding perpetrators mind and behaviours, examining what is already known. To assess how effectively organisations are addressing the problem (Chapter 4 title) Second objective is to assess how effectively organisations are addressing the problem. It will also look into types of measurement and their strengths and weakness addressed with reference to the literature in order to examine what improvements could be implemented. To make recommendations on how organisations can be better equipped to manage the challenge of insider fraud. (Chapter 5 title How organisations manage to fight insider fraud) Third objective is concerning to make recommendations on how organisations counter fraud capability can be better equipped to manage the challenge of insider fraud. Chapter 2: First thematic chapter related to 1st objective The nature of insider fraud in the workplace Introduction This chapter outline the nature and scale of insider fraud, its definition, and identifying types of workplace fraud and understanding perpetrators mind and behaviours, examining what is already known. What is fraud? There is no global definition of fraud. Numerous definitions of fraud can be found in the legal and professional literature on the subject. However all of them contain the common notion of fraud being either theft by deception, or trickery. Thus, Stephen (1996): Although the words fraud and corruption are often used interchangeably, a strict distinction between the two will be maintained in this paper and the focus will solely be on fraud. I believe that it is important to make this distinction and not to collapse the distinction between the two related phenomena. The reason for making this distinction is that corruption is associated with the misuse of public positions and consequently mostly associated with the public sector and public officials. As a result of these connotations corruption can be painted as something that affects only the public sector and public officials. By collapsing the distinction between fraud and corruption, fraud is equally being portrayed as something that mainly affects the public sector and public officials. This, however, is not the case. Fraud is a phenomenon that can occur in both the public and private sectors. It further is not a phenomenon in which only public officials are involved, but any employee or even outsiders can be perpetrators of fraud. Furthermore, corruption implies third-party involvement, while fraud does not necessarily imply third-party involvement. In the case of corruption employees violate their duty to their principals by colluding with a third party. Instead of fulfilling their obligations to their principals they abuse their positions by either accepting or demanding a bribe offered by or demanded of a third party. This is not the case in fraud. Here employees or even persons from outside the organization can commit fraud on their own initiative. Because there is not necessarily third-party involvement in fraud, it is much more difficult to detect. Third-party involvement always provides an immediate source of information that someone abused his or her position as employee. Exactly because fraud lacks this third- party involvement, it is more difficult to detect it and consequently a different approach is required to identify and combat it. Fraud within organ izations can be defined as intentional deception by concealing or misrepresenting information that harms the financial interest of another person(s) and benefits the financial interests of the perpetrator.  This differs from corruption, which can be defined as inducement by improper means to violate ones duty towards ones principal resulting in harm to the interest of another party and in financial benefit for the perpetrator. Because corruption has the element of inducement by a third party, it is often associated with bribery. 2. Understanding Fraud In order to fight fraud it is imperative first to gain a proper understanding of the phenomenon. Important work in this regard was done by Coleman.* In his book. The criminal elite: the sociology of white-collar crime, he contends that there always are three dimensions to fraud-motive, opportunity, and a lack of feelings of guilt. A brief discussion of each of the three dimensions follows. 2.1. Motive In order to commit fraud one must have a sufficiently strong motivation for doing it. The aspirant fraudster is aware that s/he is about to commit an illegal deed that might result in penalties of some sort (e.g. dismissal, fines, and imprisonment). They thus should have a sufficiently strong motive for perpetrating fraud despite the fact that they know it is illegal and despite the fact that they know it might result in them being punished for doing it. 2.2. Opportunity Opportunity for fraud is, according to Coleman, enhanced by three factors. First, the person must be in a position of trust or must have access to persons in positions of trust. Second, the person must have knowledge of the control systems of the company in order to be able to beat them. Third, the person should have access to the assets of the company. The combination of these three factors creates the opportunity for committing fraud. 2.3. Lack of feelings of guilt Colemans third condition for fraud is that the perpetrator should not be deterred from his/her actions by feelings of guilt. Given the unique characteristic of fraud, viz., that most perpetrators commit fraud repeatedly, it is evident that a lack of feelings of guilt is a typical feature of fraud. In order to free themselves of such feelings of guilt, perpetrators of fraud should find some form of excuse or rationalization to rid themselves of feelings of guilt that might result from deliberately indulging in illegal acts of fraud. In business terms, fraud is sometimes difficult to define as it extends, for example, from conduct as trivial as an employee having an extended lunch break without permission, to large scale misappropriation of funds by a company accountant involving many millions of dollars. Having an understanding of how fraud is defined, is thus able to help organisations decide how best to respond to individual cases when they arise as sometimes an incident could more appropriately be dealt with as a personnel management issue rather than an issue that require a direct legal response. Coleman, J. W. 1989. The criminal elite. The sociology of white-collar crime. New York: St. Martin. The 2010 Report to the Nations on Occupational Fraud and Abuse takes a comprehensive look at workplace schemes, their perpetrators, how the crimes were ultimately detected and their estimated cost. The report is based on data compiled from a study of 1,843 cases of occupational fraud that occurred worldwide between January 2008 and December 2009. All information was provided by the Certified Fraud Examiners who investigated the cases. The study examines a wide range of misconduct by employees, managers and executives. Occupational fraud schemes can be as simple as pilferage of company supplies or as complex as sophisticated financial statement frauds, the report says. For the first time, the ACFE expanded the study to include cases from countries outside the U.S. The findings include feedback from 106 countries, with more than 40% of the cases happening outside the U.S. The charts and graphs featured here, which are global in scope unless otherwise indicated, are Just a slice of the overall results

Essay --

The Government provides goods and services Benefits based charges are aligned with the benefits received principle under the equity lens of sound revenue policy which asserts that those who benefit from a public service should bear a prorated share of the cost of the service. There are three types of benefits based charges including user fees, user charges and monopoly. User fees give permission to do something with regulatory function such as a license or permit. These represent fees for permissions to do something or take some action; hunting, own a business, serve alcohol, rive. The fee have a regulator function; the privilege to provide a good or service or to operate something. User charges are prices governments charge for specific services or privileges to pay for all or part of the cost of providing those services. The principle reason that user fees makes great economic sense is because if consumers believed that public services and facilities were â€Å"free† â₠¬â€œ that is, that more can be produced at no cost to the consumer (when in fact additional amounts do entail a production cost) – consumers will be induced to demand more than the efficient amount of those services or facilities. The third is a Monopoly. A monopoly exists if the production of a good or service exhibits increasing returns to scale, so that the long run average cost continually decreases as output increases. This usually arises when capital or fixed costs are large relative to variable costs. As the fixed cost is spread over a larger and larger output, the decreasing average fixed cost (combined with relatively small marginal costs) causes an average total cost to decrease as well. Average total cost always decreases as output rises and marginal cost is... ... collected efficiently as well. Property taxes are paid during income tax fillings and through the mail. As well as income taxes being deducted automatically from income checks and during annual income tax filings. The current tax collection system works effectively and efficiently. With the combination of sales tax, income tax and property tax working along side one another ensure that The effects of sales tax on the property tax and on government spending Sometimes adopting a sales tax is justified by reducing the property tax, but some say that the sales tax only increases government speding. Impact of local sales tax on the distribution of tax burdens Another concern about the imposition of a local sales tax is that it shifts a greater share of the local tax burden onto households, especially renters and reduces the burden borne by the business sector Essay -- The Government provides goods and services Benefits based charges are aligned with the benefits received principle under the equity lens of sound revenue policy which asserts that those who benefit from a public service should bear a prorated share of the cost of the service. There are three types of benefits based charges including user fees, user charges and monopoly. User fees give permission to do something with regulatory function such as a license or permit. These represent fees for permissions to do something or take some action; hunting, own a business, serve alcohol, rive. The fee have a regulator function; the privilege to provide a good or service or to operate something. User charges are prices governments charge for specific services or privileges to pay for all or part of the cost of providing those services. The principle reason that user fees makes great economic sense is because if consumers believed that public services and facilities were â€Å"free† â₠¬â€œ that is, that more can be produced at no cost to the consumer (when in fact additional amounts do entail a production cost) – consumers will be induced to demand more than the efficient amount of those services or facilities. The third is a Monopoly. A monopoly exists if the production of a good or service exhibits increasing returns to scale, so that the long run average cost continually decreases as output increases. This usually arises when capital or fixed costs are large relative to variable costs. As the fixed cost is spread over a larger and larger output, the decreasing average fixed cost (combined with relatively small marginal costs) causes an average total cost to decrease as well. Average total cost always decreases as output rises and marginal cost is... ... collected efficiently as well. Property taxes are paid during income tax fillings and through the mail. As well as income taxes being deducted automatically from income checks and during annual income tax filings. The current tax collection system works effectively and efficiently. With the combination of sales tax, income tax and property tax working along side one another ensure that The effects of sales tax on the property tax and on government spending Sometimes adopting a sales tax is justified by reducing the property tax, but some say that the sales tax only increases government speding. Impact of local sales tax on the distribution of tax burdens Another concern about the imposition of a local sales tax is that it shifts a greater share of the local tax burden onto households, especially renters and reduces the burden borne by the business sector

Letter of Advice Essay

A. Interpersonal communication is a process composed of multiple elements and skill and practice are required to be an effective communicator. II. Evaluate appropriate levels of self disclosure in relationships. A. Taking risks is the only way we can learn, feel, grow, and have meaningful relationships. 1. Self-disclosure has many advantages in building interpersonal relationships. 2. As a relationship progresses, people begin to reveal more details about themselves and their lives to the other person. B. Self-disclosure is an important requirement for friendships as well as intimate relationships. 1. Self-disclosure allows you to reduce uncertainty about each other and to predict how costly or how rewarding future interactions with another person will be. C. Self disclosure to another person, in a sense you are placing a border on him or her to share information with you to approximately the same degree. III. Define emotional intelligence and its role ineffective interpersonal relationships. A. Emotions as the body’s reactions to certain stimuli. 1. Feelings arise when we add thought and interpretation to these physical reactions. 2. Emotions are neither good nor bad, neither right nor wrong; they are simply part of being human. IV. Describing strategies for managing interpersonal conflicts. A. Conflict can be described as angry disagreement. B. When conflict erupts, emotions are involved, and the relationships can be threatened if the conflict is not resolved amicably. C. Conflict can be dangerous because it has a tendency to grow and worsen, but it can also have important benefits that can strengthen a relationship and might even be desirable. V. Communication is Personalized A. This personalized communication streamlines the messages between people in the relationship. However, it serves another purpose as well; it can create an intimate bond between them that no one else shares, and much like a secret that they share; it can help to strengthen the connections between the individuals. VI. Interpersonal Communications A. Interpersonal communication is a lifelong study that requires ongoing  practice for everyone. B. Five essential aspects of interpersonal communication are listening skills, people skills, emotional intelligence, appropriate skill selection, and communicating ethically.

Venus essays

Venus essays Venus is one of the brightest objects in the sky, so it is clearly visible to the naked eye. It can be tricky to see because it is always near the Sun. So it rises and sets with the Sun each day. Venus rotates "backwards," so the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east. Ancient civilizations believed they were actually two different objects, so they called the one, which rose the Morning Star, and the one, which sets the Evening Star. Astronomers figured out that it was one object. Venus formed about 4 Billion years ago. At the conclusion of forming, it continued to be hit with leftover material. Venus warmed from the inside and separated into layers. Since Venus is so close to the sun, the atmosphere formed differently than Earths. Venus is known as earths sister planet. In some ways they are very similar. Venus is a little smaller than Earth (95% of Earths diameter and 80% Earths mass). Both have few craters indicating young surfaces. From the similarities, it was thought that below its dense clouds, Venus might be very earth like and might even have life. However, with more detailed study, Venus is different than Earth in many ways. Venus has a slow rotational period, single plate surface, lack of a satellite, extremely weak magnetic field, lack of water, high surface temperature, and dense atmosphere. These are the differences but we still have a lot to learn about our Sister Planet. The interior of Venus is probably similar to Earths interior. Venus, like Earth, is one of the terrestrial planets and is made of rock and metal. It probably has a partly molten metallic core, a rocky mantle, and a crust. The surface of Venus consists of 2 large continents which are Ishtar Terra, found near the north pole of Venus and Aphrodite Terra, found near the equator of Venus. It has mountain ranges, and a few large islands. There are craters that show, liquid once f ...

History of Air Transport and Airport

History of Air Transport and Airport Introduction Transport economics mainly focus on the movement of goods and people over time and space. There are different modes of transport used to transport goods and people from one region to another. These include road transport, air transport, rail transport, sea and air transport.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on History of Air Transport and Airport specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More All these modes have their advantages and disadvantages and the choice of one mode of transport depends on several factors such as speed, costs, convenience, and many other factors. In transport economics, the cost of transport is very important since it plays an important role in facilitation of trade. This topic analyses transport economics specifically on the area of air transport. History of Air Transport Among all the other modes of transport, air transport was among the last modes to be developed. Before the developmen t of air transport, the other modes of transport such as road and sea transport, which were developed many years ago, were used. In the ancient times before the discovery of modern modes of transport, people used to walk by foot from place to another implying that, even for people to exchange goods and services, they had to walk by foot from one market place to another. This mode of exchange was very cumbersome for many reasons. First, it was time consuming; secondly, the quantity of goods to be transported was very little and this phenomenon made it difficult to trade and the transport was so inconvenient. However, as the time went by, different modes of transport were developed which reduced the cost of transport. For instance, roads were developed and trucks could be used to transport goods from one region to another. Rail and water transport were developed and goods could now be transported over long distances. Development of rail and water transport made it possible for traders to exchange their goods from country or continent to another and this facilitated more trade and reduced costs of transportation. However, the development of these three modes of transport (road, rail, and sea) transport did not solve the problem of transport completely. A mode of transport that was faster and more convenient was required. This need led to the development of air transport in the early twentieth century.Advertising Looking for research paper on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Through innovation of airplane, trade was taken to another new level where goods could now be exchanged at faster rate than before. Air transport made it possible to transport goods and people from one region to another within few minutes. Perishable goods, which could not be exchanged before due to their nature, could now be transported from one region to another. Movement of goods and people was enhanced i n all parts of the globe. The cost of transport was also reduced in a large proportion by the development of the air transport. Since then, air transport has been developing with discovery of more advanced aircrafts, which has made transport of goods and people faster and more convenient. Development of Airport Discovery of aircrafts facilitated development of airports that act as the hubs of air transport. Airports have developed over the years as more advanced airplanes are developed. Airports have been developed in all the countries in the world. In developed countries, there are numerous airports in almost all the major towns to facilitate transportations of goods and services from one region to another. Global cities such as London, New York, Paris and many others that serve as the centre of international trade have developed large and modern airports over the last years to enhance transportation of people and goods in all the regions of the world. Airlines from different compa nies use these major airports as their centre to all the other routes in the world. Air transport and economic development The development of air transport over the years has transformed trade through increased movement of goods and passengers. Due to speed and convenience of the air transport, many businesses people carrying out international and domestic trade have opted for this mode of transport despite its high charges. According to Daley, air transport has made a positive contribution to the economy over the time (210). The graph below shows the relationship between economic growth and the volume of goods and passengers using air transport from 1950 to 2008. Source: The Geography of Transport SystemsAdvertising We will write a custom research paper sample on History of Air Transport and Airport specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Between 1950 and 2008, airfreight and air passengers’ traffic was growing faster than the worl d economic growth rate. This can be attributed to the capability of the air transport to reduce time and space which attracted more goods and people to this mode. Around 1960, there was congestion in the air transport traffic and air transport companies were looking for airplanes that could carry more passengers and goods. In 1970s, there was revolution in the air industry after development of large capacity airplanes, which could carry larger capacity and charge low prices. This increased global economic growth. As Xiaowen, Tae and Anming note, increased competition and efficiency has also increased demand of air transport (p.24). Thus, economic growth and air transport are closely related and development of air transport has increased global economic growth. Airport security Though the development of air transport has transformed world trade, it has come along with negatives effects that have seriously affected the lives of people. These negative effects include environmental poll ution, air accidents, increased illegal trafficking of goods and people among other problems. Over the past years, the issue of insecurity has become a major global challenge due to increased cases of crimes in aircraft and airports. Due to increased volume of people using air transport, airports have become potential targets for crimes such as terrorism and other kinds of crimes. Airport provides a large crowd that is concentrated on a small area, which makes it highly susceptible to terrorism attacks. Large global airlines are also targeted due to their carrying capacity of their aircraft. The 9/11 terrorist attack at the World Trade Centre headquarters in New York in 2002 represents one of the recent terrorism attack on aircrafts. Due to increased cases of terrorism attacks and especially after the 9/11 attack, airport, and aircraft security has become a very sensitive issue in the whole world. Strict measures have been put in air transport to prevent such occurrences in future. Lord indicates that, risk assessment in the airport security is necessary in all the airports (1). According to United States Government Accountability Office (GAO), report security scrutiny should also be done even in foreign airports and aircraft to prevent cases of terrorism (111). Techniques and various methods have been adopted in airports in the world to ensure that aircrafts and airports are protected from any potential attack. New techniques have been developed to screen both people and goods in the airport in the search for bombs and other explosives.Advertising Looking for research paper on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Daley, Ben. â€Å"Is air transport an effective tool for sustainable development?† Sustainable Development journal 17.4 (2009): 210-219. Lord, Stephen. â€Å"A National Strategy and Other Actions Would Strengthen TSAs Efforts to Secure Commercial Airport Perimeters and Access Controls.† GAO Reports, 2009: 1-97. The geography of transport systems. Air Transportation Growth (Passengers and Freight) and Economic Growth, 2011. Web. https://transportgeography.org/ United States Government Accountability Office. â€Å"Aviation Security: Foreign Airport Assessments and Air Carrier Inspections Help Enhance Security, but Oversight of These Efforts Can Be Strengthened: GAO-07-729.† GAO Reports, 2007: 96-124. Xiaowen, Fu, Tae, Hoon, and Anming, Zhang. â€Å"Air Transport Liberalization and Its Impacts on Airline Competition and Air Passenger Traffic.† Transportation Journal 49.4 (2011):24-41.

Urbanized film by Gary Hustwit 'summary' Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Urbanized film by Gary Hustwit 'summary' - Essay Example The importance of maintaining a proper balance between the natural beauty and the construction of infrastructure is also highlighted in the movie. Urbanized explains the fact that the movement of people to cities has highly increased over the years. It presents the viewer with the fact that by the year 2050, 75 percent of the people of the world would be residing in cities. This reveals the drastic increase in comparison to the year 2010 where it was seen that 50 percent of the world’s population was in cities. With the presentation of the statistics, the maker of the movie tries to explain the importance of the proper construction and maintenance of cities as most of the world’s population would be residing in them. The movie presents the fact that good and effective constructions programs in the cities can help the people living in the city overcome their miseries and live in a better environment. The movie shows the viewer the different cities across the globe to explain the importance of proper construction and architectural strategies for the maintenance of cities. It takes the viewer to the poor, unhygienic conditions of cities like Mumbai in India to show the poor slum conditions prevailing in the cities and very low standards of sanitation and public health as up to 600 people need to use a one washroom. On the other hand, Huswit takes us to Santiego in Chile where proper planning by Alejandro Aravena who is an architect by profession has led to the designing of a housing scheme for people who are non-affording so that they have a better standard of living. He contrasts and compares different cities to indicate the impact that proper planning and construction can have on the living stand ards of the people. Gary Huswit uses his movie â€Å"Urbanized† to explain to the audiences that proper architectural designing, good schemes as well maintenance of sanitation and infrastructure is central to the proper running of a

Personal Statement for MSc Finance application Essay

Personal Statement for MSc Finance application - Essay Example My interest in the field of finance is of dual nature; I not only enjoy working out the objective aspect, i.e. the calculations and analysis of financial data but am also drawn to the beauty of its application phase. I am fascinated by the way accounting principles when applied benefit a business task and enhances it in all respects. I see the process of running a business or industry like solving a jigsaw puzzle, with four components; the accounts piece, the financing piece, the marketing piece and the management piece. They are all part of one, bigger scheme. I find beauty and joy in compiling all these components; and feel a strong sense of fulfilment when these pieces are fully combined to give an enhanced end product- the complete picture. During my internships and other work experience, I have had the chance to taste different business related aspects: I have gained some experience in marketing, accounts, management and financial analysis. All these experiences have led me to b elieve that finance is the area that is of greater interest to me, since foundations of any business are embedded in its finance department. If there is capital and strong financial analysis the shortcomings can be pinpointed and management can then be moulded so as to yield desired results. I have been an academically above average student throughout my studies and have participated in various co curricular activities at school and college level. Being a person who is gifted in leadership qualities, I have led various fund raising campaigns during my college years. One of my note-worthy participatory activities in this regard is that of the fund raising campaign for members of student’s career development association. This was led by me and with assistance of other members of the society; we managed to raise more funds than the target sum. As a student, I have had some opportunities (though limited) to practically apply the theory being taught. In doing so I felt a need to h ave more command over the financing element which is why I have chosen to attain a post graduate degree in finance. Here is an incident form my life which I would like to share: When I was working as an internee with the marketing department at ‘New Thought’ in China, I was assigned the task of conducting some primary and secondary research in order to assist the business partners in determining the best strategy to achieve their goals. While I was gathering and analysing this data, I realized that even the marketing side is dependent on the accounting principles. What I did was to identify the gaps in information based on accounting and finance and recommended them to incorporate finances based marketing strategies into their existing marketing strategies. This incident further strengthened my aspirations to attain a post graduate degree in finance. I learnt that finance background gives a person the power to better understand business dynamics and places the person in a better position to solve other business related issues including management and even marketing. I also have a deep interest in the world economy and have attained ample knowledge about the stake-hold share market. I believe that raising capital is an art; an enjoyable but complicated task to do; and one needs to have sound knowledge of finance in order to do so. Accounting provides investors and businessmen with multiple techniques to manage record and communicate

Social Activism and Taiwan Sunflower Movement Essay - 4

Social Activism and Taiwan Sunflower Movement - Essay Example The movement also served to advance Taiwan democracy by allowing the country’s citizen to decide on issues affecting them. The movement revitalized the civil society of Taiwan and renewed the hope of Taiwan nationalities that had lost their hope. In addition, it united other Activists to a common cause who previously fought each other. Another indication of success was the fact that the sunflower movement became the primary focus of various international academic conferences. The issue of the protest kept on recurring in a number of activism discussion. It was argued that it effects would likely outlive its presence in the mainstream media (â€Å"Was Taiwan's Sunflower Movement Successful?†). Student protesters who incited the masses to occupy the Taiwan legislature led the movement. In addition, 54 civic groups and a number of Non-Governmental Organization took part in the protest Thousands of Taiwanese showed their support and, as a result, it made headlines in the major news outlet. The movement was nothing like the Arab spring or other regime change movement. The students did not demand a regime change; they only asked the politicians to respect the public opinion. The public was against the government efforts to increase the ties with China. The movement was characterized by ideological speeches from various student leaders. The movement was named a sunflower movement by the Taiwanese media. The sun symbolizes people’s hopes for brighter days devoid of China economic influence in Taiwan. The tolerance showed by the Taiwanese police towards the protest was commendable as long as it remained a peaceful protest. The social media and the international media were a buzz with the activities of the protest. Songs, banners, vigils, and protest also characterized the Sunflower movement. The student protestors marched through the streets carrying banners and chanting Occupy Parliament. Following the student  occupation of the Taiwan parliament, riot police evicted them out forcefully.  

Mobile Technology Essay Example for Free

Mobile Technology Essay Mobile technology is the technology used for cellular communication. Mobile code division multiple access (CDMA) technology has evolved rapidly over the past few years. Since the start of this millennium, a standard mobile device has gone from being no more than a simple two-way pager to being a mobile phone, GPS navigation device, an embedded web browser and instant messaging client, and a handheld game console. Many experts argue that the future of computer technology rests in mobile computing with wireless networking. Mobile computing by way of tablet computers are becoming more popular. The most popular tablet at the moment is the iPad, by Apple. Tablets are available on the 3G and 4G networks. Contents 1 4G networking 2 Operating systems 3 Channel hogging and file sharing 4 Future of smartphone 5 External links 6 References 4G networking One of the most important features in the [4G] mobile networks is the domination of high-speed packet transmissions or burst traffic in the channels. The same codes used in the 2G-3G networks will be applied to future 4G mobile or wireless networks, the detection of very short bursts will be a serious problem due to their very poor partial correlation properties. Recent study has indicated that traditional multi-layer network architecture based on the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model may not be well suited for 4G mobile network, where transactions of short packets will be the major part of the traffic in the channels. As the packets from different mobiles carry completely different channel characteristics, the receiver should execute all necessary algorithms, such as channel estimation, interactions with all upper layers and so on, within a very short time to make the detections of each packet flawless and even to reduce the clutter of traffic. Operating systems Many types of mobile operating systems (OS) are available for smartphones, including: Android, BlackBerry OS, webOS, iOS, Symbian, Windows Mobile Professional (touch screen), Windows Mobile Standard (non-touch screen), and Bada. Among the most popular are the Apple iPhone, and the newest Android. Android is a mobile operating system (OS) developed by Google. Android is the first completely open source mobile OS, meaning that it is free to any cell phone carrier. The Apple iPhone, which has several OSs like the 3G and 3G S, is the most popular smart phone at this time, because of its customizable OS which you can use to download applications (apps) made by Apple like games, GPS, Utilities, and other tools. Any user can also create their own Apps and publish them to Apples App Store. The Palm Pre using webOS has functionality over the Internet and can support Internet-based programming languages such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), HTML, and JavaScript. The Research In Motion (RIM) BlackBerry is a smartphone with a multimedia player and third-party software installation. The Windows Mobile Professional Smartphones (Pocket PC or Windows Mobile PDA) are like that of a personal digital assistant (PDA) and have touchscreen abilities. The Windows Mobile Standard does not have a touch screen but uses a trackball, touchpad, rockers, etc. The original smartphone OS is Symbian, with a rich history and the largest marketshare until 2011. Although no single Symbian device has sold as many units as the iPhone, Nokia and other manufacturers (currently including Sony Ericsson and Samsung, and previously Motorola) release a wide variety of Symbian models each year which gave Symbian the greatest marketshare. Channel hogging and file sharing There will be a hit to file sharing, the normal web surfer would want to look at a new web page every minute or so at 100 kbs a page loads quickly. Because of the changes to the security of wireless networks users will be unable to do huge file transfers because service providers want to reduce channel use. ATT claimed that they would ban any of their users that they caught using peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing applications on their 3G network. It then became apparent that it would keep any of their users from using their iTunes programs. The users would then be forced to find a Wi-Fi hotspot to be able to download files. The limits of wireless networking will not be cured by 4G, as there are too many fundamental differences between wireless networking and other means of Internet access. If wireless vendors do not realize these differences and bandwidth limits, future wireless customers will find themselves disappointed and the market may suffer setback. Future of smartphone The next generation of smartphones are going to be context-aware, taking advantage of the growing availability of embedded physical sensors and data exchange abilities. One of the main features applying to this is that the phones will start keeping track of your personal data, but adapt to anticipate the information you will need based on your intentions. There will be all-new applications coming out with the new phones, one of which is an X-Ray device that reveals information about any location at which you point your phone. One thing companies are developing software to take advantage of more accurate location-sensing data. How they described it was as wanting to make the phone a virtual mouse able to click the real world. An example of this is where you can point the phones camera while having the live feed open and it will show text with the building and saving the location of the building for use in the future. Along with the future of a smart phone comes the future of another device. Omnitouch is a device in which applications can be viewed and used on your hand, arm, wall, desk, or any other everyday surface. The device uses a sensor touch interface, which enables the user to access all the functions through the use of finger touch. It was developed at Carnegie Mellon University. This device uses a projector and camera that is worn on the persons shoulder, with no controls other than the users fingers. Acknowledgment I have taken efforts in this project. However, it would not have been possible without the kind support and help of many individuals and organizations. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all of them. I am highly indebted to (Name of your Organization Guide) for their guidance and constant supervision as well as for providing necessary information regarding the project also for their support in completing the project. I would like to express my gratitude towards my parents member of (Organization Name)for their kind co-operation and encouragement which help me in completion of this project. I would like to express my special gratitude and thanks to industry persons for giving me such attention and time. My thanks and appreciations also go to my colleague in developing the project and people who have willingly helped me out with their abilities.

Seraglio: An analysis

Seraglio: An analysis ‘Seraglio centers on a fundamental mystery: the complexities of a husband and wifes relationship. The barrier that they experience between them is further emphasized through being from two different cultures, which is portrayed as almost being from two different worlds, ‘close but not touching, like two continents, each with its own customs and history, between which there is no bridge. It is evident that Swift sets this barrier from the start as his interesting choice of title refers to a room where the women are kept secluded from the men. The narration is in first person singular and is enhanced by the main protagonist the husband. The exotic setting which the characters are indulged in, contrasts deeply with the dark events that have the taken place in their lives; the husbands affair, his wifes miscarriage, the misfortune of not being able to have children in the future and the ways in which they try to mentally escape from these woes. Cosmic irony is common in Swifts work as his characters are hardly ever happy, and when they are, the feeling is almost alien to them. ‘Seraglio seems to defy the common story structure as there is no solution to the predicaments the characters face. The husband as a flat character means he has no function other than to provide us with the narrative, which is useful to us as readers when interpreting the essentials of the story. Swifts preservation of names and detail of the characters lives evokes further curiosity in the reader, proposing a desire for us to learn more about the characters. In comparison, if we look at swift himself, the Telegraph states ‘No contemporary author is such a closed book, indicating that his characters may be mirroring himself. In contrast to the lack in detail of the characters, Swift is quite descriptive when illustrating the city, possibly to indulge the readers attention further into the story. When it comes to the husbands personal life such as his current marriage, he makes more use of narrative passages, leaving the reader to dig in further for clues about the couple. It is as if Swift uses these narrative passages as a device for the author to piece certain things together, including the sensitivity of the couples relationship and the feelings associated. In ‘A Family Man, Pritchett narrates in third person whilst introducing to us the main protagonist Berenice, a woman who is involved in a ‘piquant affair with William Cork. We sense that it is on the verge of being discovered when Florence (Mrs. Cork) enters the story, ‘a large ponderous woman who immediately grips the readers attention due to this presentation of her. Initially, the reader is drawn to her size, but later it is who she really is that keeps us drawn to her further. Pritchett also injects curiosity into the story when describing how one character is towards the other, in this case, Berenice with Florence as the reader is stepping into her shoes and experiencing what she feels and how she reacts. The author uses her as a tool to aid us in interpreting this, as we are placed only in her shoes. Pritchett makes this easier for us as we read of Berenices character from a third person limited point of view. The tension is soon created when Florence reveals herself to be Mrs. Cork, the wife of William Cork, and continues to mount throughout the story as we observe how the two characters react with each other. Pritchett presents to us the two women meeting for the first time, at first humble towards each other but eventually confrontational, ‘Is that what he has been stuffing you up with? I know what you and he are up to. Florence is indefinite about the affair, however the reader knows completely well that it occurred, indicating elements of dramatic irony within the story. However, we are also left in the dark as much as Florence is when it comes to knowing the precise details of the affair (for example when it started), creating further suspense and mystery. Berenice is a dynamic character, in that she lies to Florence and changes her story to get around the difficult situation she finds herself in. We see another side to her, especially as Pritchett states in the beginning, ‘She had been brought up by Quakers and thought it wrong to tell or act a lie. This affirmation completely contradicts what she does later, creating a complex in her character. She encounters conflict and transforms as a result of it. On the other hand, Florence serves as a flat character as there are no multidimensional traits in her personality. Also, she is readily recognized as the adulterers wife, making her a stock character. Evidently, Prichett may have placed her there to bring out the multidimensional traits in Benerice. The other flat character in the story is Mrs. Brewster, whos involvement in the novel is minimal, but her importance is great. It is through her words that we view (for the first time) another outlook on Benerice. After thinking Benerice would have learnt her lesson in regard to nearly getting caught by Mrs. Cork, Benerice visits another couple and we see elements of a flirty nature through Mrs. Brewsters view of her, ‘She ought to get married†¦I wish she wouldnt swoosh her hair around like that. Through this ironic ending, Pritchett is almost alluding to a possible recurrence of another affair with a married man (Mrs. Brewsters husband?), which presents the reader with a whole new series of events to look forward to. ‘The Prophets Hair portrays a family from the valley of Kashmir who are broken by a strand of the Muslim prophet Mohammeds hair. This story is full of overtones, regarding the effects of religion on others, and the way in which corruption is associated with money. Ultimately, Rushdie highlights two strong forces within our society: money and religion, and how they conflict with each other. In the end, the hair itself raises this point through the way it affects each character; the materialistic Hashim family and Sheikh Sin the thief who craves jewels, who all perish eventually. The opening of the story is filled with overtones of religion and money, which are emphasized from the start as we learn that Hashim is a ‘money-lender and ‘not a godly man. From the beginning we are informed that Hashim sees value in nothing else but money. Also, on discovering the religious trinket, Hashim immediately thinks of ‘American millionaires who buy stolen paintings and hide them away, which may suggest one of his thought processes of wanting to sell the phial in future. Hashim is a dynamic character and Rushdie demonstrates extreme contrasts and complexities in his character: the protagonist starts off as an atheist then transforms into (what he thinks) a deeply religious individual (even though he continues to beat others and has sinned to his wife), imposing strict religious acts onto his family. His character also becomes dislikeable to the audience after the effects of the Prophets hair. On discovering the find, he does not do the honorable thing of returning it to the shine. The reader expects this as we learnt in the beginning that ‘he set great store by ‘living honorably in the world, however, his actions were not honorable and resemble that of a thief. In contrast to Hashim, Atta is a flat character in that he does not undergo any change throughout the course of the story. Rushdie may have used him as a device to enhance the plot as he is at one point involved in removing the religious trinket from the home, and also represents the familys wealth in the opening scene. He also wakes up Hashim in the end, causing a series of unfortunate events to unfold.Huma is one of the main protagonists alongside her father, who also enhances the plot (perhaps more than Atta) as she introduces Sheikh Sin to the situation. She evokes pathos in the reader, and we can empathize with her more than Atta, as she is victimized by her father for no reason, whereas in the beginning Atta lands himself in trouble when looking for a thief, which the reader may interpret as foolish behavior. Other round characters include Sheikh Sin and his wife. She is a round character as she evokes interest in the reader in regards to how she got her vision back when her husband was killed.Rushdies use of symbolism is extensive throughout the story. I believe the religious trinket may symbolize the two elements of corruption involved in our society, folded into one. The phial has a monetary value whilst the hair contains great spiritual value. To attain the prophets hair is selfish and wrong, but the monetary value of the phial is greatly desired by all, possibly symbolizing that these two elements are not compatible with each other. Fiona Richards from the University of Leeds also states, ‘It illustrates the extent to which the icons meaning is determined by the context in which it is placed, and its ability to subvert and destabilize the limits placed upon its meaning by such a framing. Rushdie also prepares the reader with the series of events that are to occur, ‘the glassy contentment of that house hold, of that life of porcelain delicacy and alabaster sensibilities, was to be shattered beyond all hope of repair, indulging the readers interest further. Rushdie also induces cultural references through his use of words from the Kashmiri language, such as ‘kukri knives and ‘shikara. This gives the reader an insight into the culture by revealing to us different Kashmiri words. He is slightly expanding our knowledge of the Kashmiri culture here. ‘The Prophets Hair ends ironically, as the religious trinket aids poor Sheikh Sins wife and disabled children but destroys the wealthy Hashim and his family. In the end, it only worked for those who truly needed it. Weldons Weekend presents the habitual and normality of a standard middle class family, and the pressures that the main protagonist Martha faces. Weldon, who is a feminist also challenges conventional feminism here. The story is illustrated from an omniscient point of view, as Martha and at times Martins thoughts are revealed to the reader. The author portrays Martha as a perfect, loyal and hard-working wife, but her efforts are unappreciated by her dominating husband Martin, who she tries hard to please but (sometimes) gets stern looks from him. As the story follows, it is evident that Marthas daily struggle of being the perfect mother to her kids, keeping life organized and maintaining Martins satisfaction has had an effect on her mind state, to an extent that her thoughts have been tormented by fear and paranoia, ‘You dont want his secretary providing a passion you neglected to develop. Do you? The presence of Katie (Collins new wife after Janet) may also trigger Marthas paranoia as she represents what Martin could have after Martha. In her desperation to please Martin, Martha also changes her thoughts and ways to match that of Martins, ‘No such thing as an accident. Accidents are Freudian slips: they are wilful, bad tempered things. Although it appears as Martha is speaking, this is actually something Martin may have conditioned her to think. Her own thoughts have transformed to reflect Martins. The story contains heavy themes of gender stereotype and gender inequality. Weldon alludes to this when talking about the cars; Martin has a posh ‘sports car whilst Martha drives ‘an old estate car. Also, the reader can notice that Martin tends to do the ‘manly jobs such as driving and lighting the fire, whereas Martha cooks and cleans. Predominately, Martin is the dominant force in the story and Martha is the secondary force, who is threatened. Martha is also associated with further negative connotations, such as complaining too much, being paranoid and dull, and at times slow. This could represent the modern attitudes of housewives as they dont work but stay at home all day. This idea is further emphasized when we see elements of quoted dialogue from Martin. He mainly speaks in imperatives to her, ‘You shouldnt have bought it so ripe, Martha ‘Be honest now!This creates tension in the reader as one may get tired of hearing demand after demand. This also enables us to experience the restlessness Martha may feel. Martha contrasts to Katie, who is childlike in stature and also in manner, as Martha cannot trust her in the kitchen. She can also be viewed as being more independent than Katie, as Katie is ‘in [her] mid thirties with nothing at all to her name, neither husband, nor children, nor property. However, in the story it is almost as if Martha feels threatened by Katie because Martin states that she is ‘exciting and ‘wonderful and has restored Collins youth. Weldon cleverly reveals to the reader Collin and Janets past relationship to symbolize what could occur if Martin was not satisfied with Martha; he could find someone like Katie who is more extrovert and relaxed, and who could ‘bring out the youth in him. We learn that Janet was also ‘dull and quieter than her husband just as Martha is.The ending can be viewed as either being pessimistic or optimistic. Is it that Jenny has motherhood, marriage and friendship to look forward to? Or are these the things that she will find hard to embrace? In the end, Weldon leaves the reader to assume their own opinions. The story of Philomela is told in first person narrative, and it is Philomelas sister Procne who narrates the story. This contradicts the readers expectations as the title is ‘Philomela, so initially, we expect the story to be from from her point of view. Procne narrates in a cold and firm tone throughout the story, which creates more pathos without any extra detail being needed to create this mood.The reader cannot help but notice comparisons with Ovids tale of Philomela as it is a much more detailed version, providing an elaborate account of Philomelas suffering. On the other hand Tennant has cleverly condensed her version of the story, leaving the reader to conjure up thoughts about what might have happened themselves. On killing her son, the reader can still empathise with Procne when she states, ‘Years and years will pass, and these minutes will still be longer than them all. Every hour will be made up out of them. Although she keeps an unemotional tone during this scene, Tennant still informs the reader that this tragedy will never escape her mind, engaging our sympathies with her. Tennants use of symbolism is reflected through the birds in the story, ‘I moped, like the birds my children bring back when they go out for a walk. Procne associates herself with these birds, and this association may allude to the women of that era who werent allowed to speak out, who didnt have a voice. The absence of Philomela has led the grief-stricken Procne to isolate herself, and it is the sound of birds that is the only thing which keeps her content, ‘It was summer, and birds were singing in the thicket of olives. This could perhaps forshadow the events that are to occur, as the birds are the only thing which give her hope and also represent the voiceless women, particularly Philomela who will give her the power to avenge later. Procne turns from a grief-stricken sister to a murderer and an avenger. These complexities in her character cause her to be a dynamic one. Philomela is also a dynamic character as she encounters conflict and is changed by it. She also introduces and enhances the plot. She evokes the anger and hostility needed towards her husband in order to carry out the revenge, ‘She reached my side and took my hand so I could rise with new strength. On the other hand, Tereus is a flat character because he has no other function other than to serve as a villain in the story, who offers to take Philomela to Thrace but then rapes her.Isyth is a flat character as he has no major involvement in the story apart from being served on a plate to his father and used as part of revenge. Procne constantly describes Philomelas physical features, ‘I watched her all the time- for signs of happiness, or discontent, or simply to see what her eyes would say to me. Her eyes which speak their own language provide the reader with an insight into how she feels, as this is the only way we can understand her. References Books Bradbury, Malcom (1988), The Penguin Book of Modern British Short Stories, Penguin Books Internet Sources Malcom, David (2003), Understanding Graham Swift [Online] University of South Carolina http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=EttQoAGfCcsCpg=RA1-PA72lpg=RA1-PA72dq=criticism+on+seraglio+by+graham+swiftsource=blots=s3rfxl9fbvsig=3LdeVZlPHVfNg2 02fSIWzw2dHchl=enei=lWWJS4P2H4n60wSF0p3UCwsa=Xoi=book_resultct=resultresnum=4ved=0CA4Q6AEwAw#v=onepageq=f=false[Accessed: 25/02/10] KCS,(2007) Analysis: Rushdies The Prophets Hair [Online] http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/226858/analysis_rushdies_the_prophets_hair.html[Accessed: 10/01/10] Richards, Fiona The Desecrated Shrine: Movable Icons and Literary Irreverence in Salman Rushdies ‘The Prophets Hair [Online] University of Leeds http://www.soas.ac.uk/soaslit/issue2/RICHARDS.PDF[Accessed: 25/02/10] Marks, Tracey (2000), Philomela in Ovids Metamorphoses [Online] Ancient Sites Communityonline discussions on Greek and Roman mythologyhttp://www.webwinds.com/thalassa/philomela.htm[Accessed: 25/02/10] Gradua Networks (1995-2009) A Family Man by V.S. Pritchett: How the writer makes the story interesting and entertaining [Online]http://www.cheathouse.com/essay/essay_view.php?p_essay_id=103107#ixzz0gmm2K9D7http://www.cheathouse.com/essay/essay_view.php?p_essay_id=103107[Accessed: 18/12/09]