Hamlet Revenge Essays (775 words) - Characters In Hamlet

Hamlet Revenge Plot of Hamlet To kill a king, to avenge a murder, to save a nation, a task put into one man's hands. Hamlet is a man with "too much reason" and not enough action. Sick with love and disgusted by the lust which slowly engulfs his kingdom. He is surrounded by greed and death within a threatened Denmark. In Shakespeare's Hamlet, plot is constructed through various internal conflicts and a tense mood formed by the use of historical setting, psychological characterization, and ominous foreshadowing. The battle between King Fortinbras and King Hamlet is an example presented in the play of historical setting, for it illustrates a past happening which is important for the fundemental understanding of the play. It describes the battle between the two kings for some land, an occurrence in the past which is important to what is happening in the present. Shakespeare uses historical settings to develop conflict in the plot of the play. After the murder of the King Hamlet by Claudius, his brother, the reader is led to believe that young Forinbras will now fight back for the land his father once lost, "Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras, holding a weak supposal of our worth, or thinking by our late dear brother's death our state to be disjoint and out of frame, colleagued with this dream of his advantage, he hath not failed to pester us with message importing the surrender of those lands lost by his father, with all bands of law, to our most valiant brother."(ActI sc.2 lines 17-25) This leads to an atmosphere of suspense and fear of an unknown future. The appearance of the ghost of the late King Hamlet is another example of historical reference for it is used to start building up to an oncoming "conflictuous" development of the plot. Psychological characterization in the play focuses mainly on Hamlet. Shakespeare demonstrates Hamlet's weakness by showing how he can never make descisions and by contrasting him with young Fortinbras. Hamlet is portrayed as someone weak and unstable while Fortinbras, is a strong-willed character, ready to gather his troops and recover his country's pride by getting back the land his father once lost. . In Shakespeare's Hamlet, ominous foreshadowing plays an extremely important role. The play opens at a sentry post before the castle of Elsinore, Denmark, during legendary times. It is midnight and Francisco, a sentry, is at his post awaiting his relief. We are already led to wonder what he is frightened of, but we are soon told, "Horatio says ?tis but our fantasy, and well not let belief take hold of him thouching this draded sight, twice seen of us." (Act I , sc.I, lines 30-33) We are informed that for the past couple of nights two guards have repeatedly seen what is thought to be an apparition of the late King Hamlet of Denmark. Already a sense of mystery permeates the beginning of the plot with the mysterious appearance of the ghost, but as quickly as the ghost comes, it goes. We are left only with one question in our minds, why has the ghost returned from the dead? This question leads us to foreshadow that the ghost has returned to correct a wrong or if it be an evil ghost to cause chaos in Denmark. Another example that might lead us to conclude that something is not right in the state of Denmark is the line said by Marcellus(one of the guards who has seen the ghost), "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark". This line alone leaves the reader with an uncomfortable feeling, wondering what could be wrong and if it is somehow connected to the ghost's return. Another important example of foreshadowing if found in Act I sc. III , when Polonius prohibits his daughter Ophelia to speak to prince Hamlet, "I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth have you so slander any moment leisure as to give words or to talk with the Lord Hamlet." (lines 139-141) Polonius is committing the ultimate mistake found in all the great tragedies, he is prohibiting two lovers to see or speak to one another. If there is any true love between Hamlet and Ophelia the reader can conclude that they will probably try to see one another against Polonius' will. This creates a tense mood to the reader, foreshadowing of an ominous and threatening, future occurrence in the plot. Shakespeare uses diverse literary devices to attain conflict leading to a rather intricate plot. He does not

So You Want to Study Abroad (6 Things to Consider)

So You Want to Study Abroad (6 Things to Consider) So You Want to Study Abroad (6 Things to Consider) More and more people choose to study abroad these days. And why not? You get to travel, meet new people, learn about a different culture and earn a college degree at the same time! But studying abroad requires a bit of preparation, so make sure you’ve considered the following factors†¦ 1. Length of Placement Different placements are available depending on how long you want to spend studying abroad. This ranges from a few weeks or a single semester, to full degree programs for those who want to really throw themselves into an overseas experience! 2. Where to Go This is the big one! Where should you study? Some of the most common places for U.S. students to study are in Europe, but it’s possible to study almost anywhere in the world, with other popular destinations including Canada, Mexico, Japan, China and Australia. As well as your personal interest in wherever you decide to study, practical factors to consider include your familiarity with the language (both of the country and the language of instruction), the lifestyle and culture of the place where you’ll be studying, and the tuition and living costs involved. If you really cant decide, throw a dart at a world map and see where it sticks. [Image: Mason Vanks Maps/wikimedia] 3. The Program Once you know where you want to study and the length of placement you’d prefer, it’s time to start looking at different programs. If you’re simply studying abroad for part of your degree, your best option will usually be to apply for a program run by your college. If you want to study abroad for your entire degree, you’ll have to research your chosen destination and apply as an international student. 4. Funding If you have the money to pay for your studies already, you can skip this one. But many of us with dreams of studying abroad would appreciate a little financial help, so it’s worth researching whether funding is available. 5. Entry Requirements and Qualifications The application process for studying abroad differs from institution to institution, so make sure you check carefully and understand the requirements. This will include having the academic qualifications necessary to study your chosen course, as well as providing a resume, a letter of recommendation and possibly proof that you can speak the language of instruction. Some colleges and universities also set admissions tests. The most important thing is starting the application early enough, as that will give you enough time to organize everything before you’re due to begin your studies! 6. Travel Arrangements The final step, once you’ve been accepted on a course, is to organize the travel. And there’s lots to do before booking your flights, including sorting out a visa, making sure you have a valid passport and working out your living arrangements for once you arrive. As with the entry requirements, the key here is knowing what you need to do before travelling to the country where you’ll be studying, as well as leaving plenty of time to make the arrangements. And then its just a case of Bon voyage!

Article Analysis about Criminal Justice in America Assignment - 4

Article Analysis about Criminal Justice in America - Assignment Example Therefore, inmates suffer in jail prior to pleading guilty making it the fastest way of getting them out, which creates a great problem your our justice system. Chapter 7 and 8 of Criminal Justice in America talk about courts and adjudication and pretrial procedures, respectively. Adjudication refers to the legal process through which a judge or arbiter analyzes argumentation and evidence including legal reasoning presented by opposing groups or litigants to come to a ruling that decides obligations and rights between the parties concerned (Cole et al. 123). Pretrial procedures, on the other hand, refer to the pattern or steps followed to solve civil cases. Similar to the news article, these chapters argue that while a lot of citizens imagine that real action, in criminal courts, takes place during trials, they are wrong. 90% of criminal cases are done away with once the accused pleads guilty instead of taking them through the entire pretrial procedure (Cole et al. 124). Nearly 10 to 20% of all felony defendants do not get a pretrial release since the judge finds them too risky to be released or since they cannot make full bail. Conventionally, bail has comprised of cash or other assets that a defendant deposits to the court so as to be freed from remand. The property or cash serves as an assurance that the accused will come to the trial. However, in my opinion, bail discriminates against poor people. This is because when a judge sets cash bail very high, it causes the pretrial detention of a lot of low†risk defendants who do not have the money to either retain a bonds agent or just post bonds. Another problem if that bail brings up is that it is completely discretionary. Factors considered in bail setting comprise of the defendants earlier criminal record, the significance of the crime, as well as the strength of the government's case.

The Introduction of Buddhism to Ancient China Research Paper

The Introduction of Buddhism to Ancient China - Research Paper Example That was how the religion began, and it has since moved and spread to all parts of the world although it is more concentrated in Asia. Buddhist believes in fundamental principles in which they operate. They include understanding universality of suffering, abandoning the desire in controlling things and causing suffering, making visible supreme truth and liberation of nirvana achieved through eliminating suffering as well as bringing the truth of eightfold ariya path that leads to the ending of suffering (IDCNJ Para. 2-4). It is the fundamental principles that this religion stood for that made it gunner more followers world wide. It was found in India, and latter found it way out to China and other parts of Asia. Therefore, this paper will discuss how Buddhism spread from India where it originated all the way to China and examine its impacts in the life of Chinese. History of Buddhism Movement to China Buddhism is mostly concentrated in the central Asia where its founder came from. Bu ddhism spread to central Asia under Ashoka. Different kinds of Buddhism got different influences from other religions, for instance Mahayana Buddhism was influenced by Iranian religions. On the hand, it had much appeal to the Chinese across the social spectrum. This made it gain more adherents to Chinese leading to the growth of Buddhist monastic movement. It attracted both men and women and had a tremendous impact on the Chinese arts. Despite its widespread in China, not everyone was a receptive to Buddhist teachings (Holt Para. 4). Most traditional account attributes that Buddhism was introduced in China in the reign of Han Dynasty (206 BCE -220 CE). This came after an emperor dreamed of flying golden man was thought to be Buddha. Although there are many evidences that Buddhism reached China during Han Dynasty, it did not have much influence or flourish until 220-589 CE during the time of six dynasties. After the fall of Han Dynasties, Buddhism emphasized on personal salvation and rejection of worldly ties which leading to its popularity. Most of the Chinese Buddhism has their beliefs pegged on Indian Buddhists beliefs which missionaries, traders, and diplomats who had traveled through the silk roads got (Saylor Para. 9). The golden age of Chinese Buddhism happened at the time of Tang Dynasty of 618-907. Buddhism was very popular among many societies at all levels. Despite many Tang emperors being Daoist, most of them favored Buddhism, and they were patrons to the temples and monasteries which Tang government controlled (Welter 63). Because of this, temples and Buddhist monasteries grew by acquiring more land. At Tehtiem of Tang Dynasty, many scholars also made several pilgrimages to India, and they returned with Buddhist texts making several Buddhist schools systemize large corpus of Buddhist texts as well as teachings. Due to social and economic factors in 845, Emperor Wuzong (840-846) resorted to persecuting Buddhists as many of their temples and shrines were destroyed and nuns and monks forced to start living a normal life (McKay Chapter 6). It is evidenced that Buddhism came to spread to China at the time of Tang Dynasty (618-649) due to the culture which they embraced. For instance, Tang culture led to the unification of south and north Asia hence creating conditions for revitalizing Chinese culture. There was consistent flow of people from outside China as they came with new ideas,

The Regime Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Regime Theory - Essay Example One of the major contributions of the economic theory of the international regime and cooperation has been an elucidation of what the absence of a central authority in international affairs implies for the scope and depth of cooperation (Keohane and Martin 1995). Cooperation and conflicts are key concepts employed in economic theory and power in the international regime. Keohane defines cooperation as a process that necessitates that the acts of different persons or entities that are not in prevailing agreement be got into compliance with each other through the negotiation process (Keohane, n.d.). Conflict refers to the confrontation and clash over divergent interests. The difference between conflict and cooperation is the lack of harmony between and among nations, with the chief difference being whether the actors are willing to change their behavior to each other. Economic cooperation in economic regime occurs when the strategies in reality pursued by one administration are also ad opted by another state with the aim of promoting trade. Economic regime operates under several assumptions. One of the assumptions is that economic regime is utilitarian as it takes that all aspects of decision making may be captured by utility pertinent costs and benefits and that actors maximize a utility function. Secondly, economic regime assumes actors in the international system are rational thinkers, who take into account all available information.   The third assumption is that economic regime takes.... For an international regime to be said to exist, the rules and norms must be operative, so as to specify the impact of international regimes. International regimes are almost similar to global organizations and global treaties (Neumayer, nd). Nevertheless, international regimes are theoretical institutions that are not material occurrences, not like global organizations that have material existence with budgets and personnel staff (Mayer and Rittberger 1997). International regimes have rules that act as international treaties and inherent customs, as well. International regime does not change with the changes in decision making and rules. Rather, the change in decision making criteria signifies a change within an international regime. Nonetheless, a change in the international regime itself happens when principles and norms change (Keohane, n.d.). Differences between economic regime and security regime The regime theory has for a long time addressed on how cooperation can be achieved and sustained in a world that is divided into independent national states. Regime theory has addressed the aspect of cooperation with regards to the environment, economics, security and finance. One of the major contributions of the economic theory of the international regime and cooperation has been an elucidation of what the absence of a central authority in international affairs implies for the scope and depth of cooperation (Keohane and Martin 1995). Cooperation and conflicts are key concepts employed in economic theory and power in the international regime. Keohane defines cooperation as a process that necessitates that the acts of different persons or entities that are not in prevailing agreement be got into

Relative Price And Performance Relationship

Relative Price And Performance Relationship 2.1 INTRODUCTION In essence, the job of a strategist is to understand and cope with competition. Often, managers define competition too narrowly, as if it occurred only among todays direct competitors. Lall, (2001, p. 6) stated that competitiveness in industrial activities means developing relative efficiency along with sustainable growth Moreover, agribusiness competitiveness has been defined as The sustained ability to profitably gain and maintain market share(Martin, Westgren, van Duren, 1991, p. 1456) or, in a more consumer-oriented way, as the ability of a firm or industry segment to offer products and services that meet or exceed the customer value currently or potentially offered by the products and services of rivals, substitutes, and possible market entrants (Kennedy, Harrison, Kalaitzandonakes, Peterson, Rindfuss, 1997). Yet, according to Michael E. Porter, the Harvard Business School professor, competition for profit goes beyond established industry rivals to include four other competitive forces as well as customers, suppliers, potential entrants and substitute products. Furthermore, the model of Five Competitive Forces was developed by Michael E. Porter in his book Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analysing Industries and Competitors in 1980. It draws upon Industrial Organisation (IO) to develop five forces that determine the competitive intensity and therefore attractiveness of a market. Attractiveness in the context of business environment refers to the overall industry profitability. An unattractive industry is one in which the combination of these five forces acts to drive down the overall profitability. A very unattractive industry would be one approaching pure competition, in which available profits for all firms are driven down to zero. The character, mix, and subtleties of competitive forces are never the same from one industry to another. A powerful and widely used tool for systematically diagnosing the principal competitive pressures in the hydroponics market and assessing the strength and importance of each is the five-forces model of competition.(see figure) Moreover, three of Porters five forces refer to competition from external sources. The remainders are internal threats. Therefore, it is important to use Porters five forces in conjunction with SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) and PEST Analysis (Political, Economical, Social and Technological). Porters Five Forces 2.2.1 Threat of new entrants One of the defining characteristics of competitive advantage is the industrys barrier to entry. It is very expensive for new firms to enter an industry where there is high barrier of entry. Furthermore, profitable markets that yield high returns will attract new firms. In this situation, these new entrants could change major determinants to the market environment (e.g. market shares, prices, customer loyalty) at any time. In the 1993 reprint of the first edition of Bain (1956, pp. 53-166), three main factors are considered as entry barriers: economies of scale, product differentiation advantages, and absolute cost advantages. Moreover, as more firms enter the market, you will see rivalry increase and profitability will fall to the point where there is no incentive for firms to enter the industry. Likewise, the threat of the new entrants will depend on the extent to which there are barriers to entry. These are typically: Economies of scale According to Kislev et al, it is generally accepted that agricultural production is characterized by increasing returns to scale. If economies of scale exist, it represents a high barrier of entry. Firms within the industry will have achieved these economies and if we enter this industry we will have to match their scale size of production in order to compete with them. Thus according to Michael Porter, since EOS does not exist in a tangible way, we need to prove their existence first before trying to compete with the existing firms. Capital requirements This refers to how much money should the firms have to tie up to keep the doors open. This is also a barrier to entry as if firms have to tie up large amounts of capital for daily operations; this will deter smaller firms from entering. Dr. Pieter A.Schippers said that hydroponics requires high-cost installations marketing gourmet vegetables at ritzy prices. According to AREU, the capital investment for hydroponics in Mauritius is up to three million rupees. Brand identity According to Erin Ferree ,Brand identity is the combination of consistent visual elements that are used in your marketing materials. A basic brand identity kit consists of a logo, business card, letterhead, and envelope. It can be extended to include a Web site Where there is brand identity there is high barrier to entry and regarding the hydroponics market in Mauritius, there are no such barriers in the field of hydroponics as it is a newly grown market. Access to Distribution The new entrant must, of course, secure distribution of its product or service. A new food item, for example, must displace others from the supermarket shelf via price breaks, promotions, intense selling efforts, or some other means. The more limited the wholesale or retail channels are and the more that existing competitors have tied them up, the tougher entry into an industry will be. Sometimes access to distribution is so high a barrier that new entrants must bypass distribution channels altogether or create their own. Switching cost Switching costs are fixed costs that buyers face when they change suppliers. Such costs may arise because a buyer who switches vendors must, for example, alter product specifications, retrain employees to use a new product, or modify processes or information systems. The larger the switching costs, the harder it will be for an entrant to gain customers. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is an example of a product with very high switching costs. Once a company has installed SAPs ERP system, for example, the costs of moving to a new vendor are astronomical because of embedded data, the fact that internal processes have been adapted to SAP, major retraining needs, and the mission-critical nature of the application. 2.2.2 Bargaining Power of suppliers The term suppliers comprises all sources for inputs that are needed in order to provide goods or services and bargaining power is the ability to influence the setting of prices. Therefore, bargaining power of suppliers will identify the extent to which your suppliers can choose to raise prices, reduce quality or reduce service without consequence. The more concentrated and controlled the supply, the more power it wields against the market. Monopolistic or quasi-monopolistic suppliers will use their power to extract better terms (higher profit margins or) at the expense of the market. Moreover, in a competitive market, no one supplier can set the prices. Likewise, suppliers can group to wield more bargaining power. The conditions making suppliers, as a group, powerful tend to mirror those making the buyers powerful are as follows: Differentiation of inputs A primary goal of the theory of product differentiation is the determination of market structure and conduct of firms that can choose the specifications of their products besides choosing output and price. Traditional models of product differentiation and marketing have focused on products that are defined by one characteristic only. ( See Hotelling (1929), Vickrey (1964), DAspremont, Gabszewicz and Thisse (1979), Salop (1979), Economides (1984), Anderson, de Palma, and Thisse (1992), among others in economics and Hauser and Shugan (1983), Moorthy (1988) and Kumar and Sudarshan (1988) in marketing.) Threat of forward integration The traditional market foreclosure theory, which was accepted in leading court cases in 1950s-70s, viewed vertical merger as harming competition by denying competitors access to either a supplier or a buyer. (Arrow, K., Vertical Integration and Communication, Bell Journal of Economics, 1975, 6, 173-183.) The critics argue that the theory is logically flawed, and a vertically integrated firm cannot benefit from excluding its rivals (e.g., Bork, 1978; and Posner, 1976). The paper by Salop and Sche ¤man (1987) forms the basis for this argument, and Ordover, Saloner, and Salop (1990, hereinafter OSS) is perhaps the best-known paper that pioneered the equilibrium approach to the analysis of vertical mergers. In this paper, I shall argue that the new theories on vertical mergers have ignored an important point, namely that vertical integration not only changes the integrated firms incentive to supply inputs to its downstream rivals, but it may also change the rivals incentives to purchase inputs from alternative suppliers. Once this is realized,an equilibrium theory of vertical mergers can be developed without some of the controversial assumptions made in the literature, and this theory can provide a framework in which the competitive effects of vertical mergers are measured and compared. The basic insight of my analysis is that vertical integration creates multimarket interaction between the integrated firm and its downstream rivals. A rival may recognize that if it purchases inputs from the integrated firm, the integrated firm may have less incentive to cut prices in the downstream market, which will benefit the rival. Therefore, vertical integration can change the incentive of a downst ream rival in selecting its input supplier, making it a strategic instead of a passive buyer in the input market. Supplier concentration relative to industry concentration Trade theory predicts that if trade costs go down or if productivity rises exogenously in a pool of potential suppliers with heterogeneous productivity levels, the number of suppliers will enlarge (Helpman, Melitz and Rubinstein 2008).An exogenous taste for variety, or a desire to limit monopoly positions, would also lead to a larger number of suppliers, although these forces are static. In the presence of heterogenous quality, however, the dynamics of diversification/concentration can be different. Access of labour According to Bertram,G. (1986), he assumes that output is governed by a well-behaved, continuous, constant returns to scale, aggregate production function involving two factor inputs, capital and labour.( Bertram, G. (1986), Sustainable development in Pacific micro-economies, World Development, Vol. 14 No. 7, pp. 809-22.) Importance of volume of supplier According to Hahn et al., 1990; Humphreys et al., 2004; Krause, 1997; Krause et al., 1998; Li et al., 2007; Watts and Hahn, 1993, buyer-supplier relationships are becoming increasingly important as buyers realize that their success is often tied to the capabilities and performance of suppliers. Many organizations engage in supplier development to assist suppliers in improving supply chain performance and capabilities. Bargaining power of buyer According to Inderst (2007), buyer power is the ability of buyers to obtain advantageous terms of trade from their suppliers. Monopsonistic or quasi- monopsonistic buyers will use their power to extract better terms at the expense of the market. In a truly competitive market, no one buyer can set the prices. Instead they are set by supply and demand. Prices are set by supply and demand and the market reaches the Pareto-optimal point where the highest possible number of buyers are satisfied at a price that still allow for the supplier to be profitable. Porter states that a buyer group is powerful if it: purchases large volumes relative to seller sales; learns low profits; the products it purchases from the industry represent a significant fraction of the buyers costs or purchases; the products are standard or undifferentiated and face few switching costs; the industrys product is unimportant to the quality of the buyers products or services; buyers pose a credible threat of backward integration; The buyer has full information. Additionally, with the bargaining power, buyers can impose on suppliers and thus can choose their suppliers. According to Ghodsypour and OBrien, (1998); Weber et al., (2000) and Dahel, (2003), this can be done by using the linear programming models. Moreover, the multi-objective programming model developed by Weber and Ellram (1993) can helps buyer to select a pool of suppliers and determine the purchasing units to be allocated among the suppliers. Buyer switching cost Buyer-supplier relationships play a key role in the success of a supply chain (Chen and Paulraj, 2004; Lin et al., 2001; Storey and Emberson, 2006); however, organizations often face the problem of choosing appropriate suppliers (Pagell and Sheu, 2001; Chen and Paulraj, 2004; Wadhwa et al., 2006; Phusavat et al., 2007). The problem of choosing suppliers so that profits can be maximized has become increasingly vital to an enterprises survival due to keen competition in the micro-profit era (Giunipero et al., 2006). Numerous studies have addressed the issue of the buyer-supplier relationship in supply chain management. One stream of research examines related variables, such as cooperation, satisfaction, trust, and commitment, which make the supply chain relationship successful (Byrd and Davidson, 2003; Fynes et al., 2005; Malhotra et al., 2005). Another stream focuses on the criteria for choosing suppliers, such as quality, on-time delivery, and costs (Chen and Paulraj, 2004; Blackhurs t et al., 2005; Gunasekaran and Kobu, 2006; Phusavat and Kanchana, 2008). Among these criteria, costs have received the most attention because they are considered the key factor in choosing suppliers (Noordewier et al., 1990; Kalwani and Narayandas, 1995; Dahlstrom and Nygaard, 1999; Zhao and Yang, 2007). Buyer information Another reason why buyers were in such a strong bargaining position was because they had full information about demand, actual market prices, and even manufacturer costs. The buyers comparative information was often better than what was available to manufacturers, and thus with such full information, retailers were able to ensure that they received the most favourable prices offered to others, and were able to oppose suppliers claims that their viability would be threatened if prices were reduced. Owing to all of the above reasons, one can see that the bargaining power of the Australian food retailers was so great in the early 1980s that they were perhaps in a unique position of strength even in a global sense. The current barriers for purchasing organic products mainly relates to price, availability, and consumer awareness. Moreover, offering customers and obtaining greater value added by creating, developing, and maintaining lasting customer-supplier relationships (Rexha,2000; Van der Haar et al., 2001), such that both parties benefit (Gro ¨nroos, 2000; Kothandaraman and Wilson, 2001; Sharma et al., 2001; Walter et al., 2001; Leek et al., 2003), is considered fundamental for guaranteeing the success and survival of companies in the market. Suppliers adapt to the customers needs in order to satisfy them. This adaptation can encourage the customer to behave opportunistically (Brown et al., 2000; Wathne and Heide, 2000). But if the supplier is able to adapt, and satisfy customer needs better than its competitors, enduring relationships can develop between both agents. Brand identity of buyer According to Aaker, (1991, 1996), brand identity is a message about a brand that a firm seeks to communicate with. This communication is undertaken via the product, the brand name, symbols and logos, historical roots, the brands creator, and advertising (Kapferer, 1998 Some organisations base their competitive advantage on physical assets such as a manufacturing facility, some on their employees, and some on their distribution networks (Kotler, 2000). Many others, however, seek to attain a competitive advantage from intangible assets such as their reputation or the brands that they own (Beverland, 2005; Keller, 1993; Low and Blois, 2002). Yet, research to date on branding in business and industrial marketing has been limited (Beverland et al., 2006; Low and Blois, 2002; Mudambi et al., 1997; Nilson, 1998). Price sensitivity Porter (1985) has defined two primary types of competitive strategy that can provide a source of competitive advantage: differentiation and low cost strategy. The low cost strategy, which may enable a price leader position, can lead to price wars and is therefore risky for all digital products and services, including retail banking. Ultimately only one company can be the price leader, thus all other companies should contemplate alternative strategies. Likewise, marketers and researchers are familiar with the concept of price elasticity, which describes changes in the quantity of demand for a product associated with changes in price of the product. If demand is elastic, changes in price level have a proportionally greater impact on demand. Inelastic demand describes the case where changes in price have little effect on demand. The concept of price elasticity describes the aggregate response of a market segment to price levels. Price sensitivity is an individual difference variable describing how individual consumers react to price levels and changes in price levels. A consumer high in price sensitivity will manifest much less demand as price goes up (or higher demand as price goes down), and consumers low in price sensitivity will not react as strongly to a price change. Standardize products A large majority of respondents believed that many retailers considered most food products to be fairly standard, and thus, as they could most often find alternative suppliers, they played one manufacturing company against another. It was the respondents view that such tactics also extended towards substituting house brands and generics for brand names, and these aspects will be considered later. Thus, unless a manufacturer had very strong end-user demand for its brand (e.g. Vegemite, Milo, Pal), it found that its product was capable of being substituted unless it succumbed to retailer pressure. Threat of substitute products All firms in an industry are competing, in a broad sense, with industries producing substitute products. The impact of substitutes affected certain segments of the food industry more than others, the obvious examples being the yellow fats segment (butter versus margarine), the sweeteners segment (sugar versus sugar substitutes) and the pet foods segment (canned versus dry). The food industry as a whole is, in fact, competing with other substitute expense categories such as entertainment and personal items. While expenditure on food will never fall below an essential base level. Research done by Ogilvy and Mather (1983) seems to suggest that more people cut back on food during the early 1980s, in order to cope with inflation, than on other expense categories. The following factors are being considered when analyzing the threat of substitute products: Buyer propensity to substitute For sellers, it is crucial to win a buyers trust, then nurture it over the course of a relationship. Trust enables the buyer to economize cognitive and emotional energy and rely on a seller before extensive information can be gathered (Luhmann, 1979; Jones and George, 1998; Yamagishi, 2002; Mayer et al., 1995). As trust matures, the buyer identifies with (Lewicki and Bunker, 1995) and feels affection and devotion for the seller (McAllister, 1995). Trust is therefore strongly linked to buyer commitment (Moorman et al., 1992) and loyalty (Morgan and Hunt, 1994). A sellers violation of trust occurs when the buyer perceives evidence that the seller failed to meet the buyers confident expectations (Tomlinson et al., 2004). Relative price/performance relationship of substitutes Shapiro (1992) argues that institutional investors, who normally trade in large quantities, are concerned with the opportunity costs involved in undertaking these large trades. Many suppliers, in turn, face a growing trend towards commoditization of products (Rangan and Bowman, 1992) and search for new ways of differentiating themselves through improved customer interactions (Vandenbosch and Dawar, 2002). From an academic perspective, there is a rich and growing body of research focusing on buyer-supplier relationships in business markets (Ulaga, 2001). More broadly, researchers have coined the term relationship quality which is typically assessed through some combination of commitment, satisfaction and trust (Crosby et al., 1990; Dorsch et al., 1998; Hewett et al., 2002). According to Wilson (1995, p. 337) trust is a fundamental relationship model building block and as such is included in most relationship models. In addition to trust, Morgan and Hunt (1994) identified commitment as another key-mediating variable of relationship marketing. Furthermore in their commitment-trust theory of relationship marketing, Morgan and Hunt (1994) establish trust as a key-mediating variable that is central to relational exchanges. Moreover, customer satisfaction is widely accepted among researchers as a strong predictor for behavioural variables such as repurchase intentions, word-of-mouth, or loyalty (Ravald and Gro ¨nroos, 1996; Liljander and Strandvik, 1995). Satisfaction research is mainly influenced by the disconfirmation paradigm (Parasuraman et al., 1988). Competitive Rivalry The rivalry amongst existing firms analysis will help you to understand the risk that your competitors may compete for market position and if their competitive tactics are likely to be effective. Furthermore, you will find that your competitors may compete for market position using tactics such as pricing competition, advertising as well as increasing customer service. To analyze industry rivalry in your industry, you will need to consider the following factors: Diversity among competitors The first point of departure is found in Miles et al.(1993)and Miles and Snow (1986) proposition that strategy in diversity and structure is normal in any industry, that it is good for and industry and furthermore that various configurations of strategy and structure may be equally effective in producing high performance. Industry growth rate When hydroponics industry is in a growth phase there will be room for the industry to grow, as a result there will be a low risk of competitor rivalry. Thompson et al., (2008) stated that rivalry becomes stronger if demand growth is slow. Exit barriers Powell (1995) incorporated entry barriers and industry rivalry in his research and found a significant correlation of firm performance with entry barriers (r  ¼ 0:29; p , 0:05) and industry rivalry (r  ¼ 20:32; p , 0:05). These results indicate the higher the entry barriers, the lower the threat of new entrants and the better the opportunities for improved performance; and similarly, the higher the industry rivalry, the tougher the industry competition which would mean the lower the firm performance. A critique of Porters model There are, however, several limitations to Porters framework, such as: It tends to over-stress macro analysis, i.e. at the industry level, as opposed to the analysis of more specific product-market segments at a micro level. It oversimplifies industry value chains: for example, invariably buyers may need to be both segmented and also differentiated between channels, intermediate buyers and end consumers. It fails to link directly to possible management action: for example, where companies have apparently low influence over any of the five forces, how can they set about dealing with them? It tends to encourage the mind-set of an industry as a specific entity with ongoing boundaries. This is perhaps less appropriate now where industry boundaries appear to be far more fluid. It appears to be self-contained, thus not being specifically related, for example, to PEST factors, or the dynamics of growth in a particular market. It is couched in economic terminology, which may be perceived to be too much jargon from a practising managers perspective and indeed, it could be argued that it is over-branded. SWOT Analysis SWOT analysis, which is originally introduced in 1969 by Harvard researchers (e.g. Learned et al., 1991), calls for an external assessment of the opportunities and threats that exist in a firms environment and an internal assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the organisation. The SWOT framework became popular during the 1970s because of its inherent assumption that managers can plan the alignment of a firms resources with its environment. Subsequently, during the decade of the 1980s, Porters (1980) introduction of the industrial organization paradigm with his five forces models gave primacy to a firms external environment, overshadowing the popularity of SWOT. More recently, at the start of the twenty-first century, SWOT is alive and well as the recommended framework for case analysis in many of the leading strategic management and marketing texts (Hitt et al., 2000; Anderson and Vince, 2002). However, despite its wide and enduring popularity, SWOT has remained an theoretica l framework, of limited prescriptive power for practice and minor significance for research (Dess, 1999). Generally, firms are asked to develop strategies to guide the organisation to ward opportunities that may be exploited using strengths of the organisation, push the organisation away from threats in the environment, maintain existing strengths and improve organisational weaknesses. Recently, Duncan, Ginter and Swayne (1998) suggested a four step model for assessing internal strengths and weaknesses. Their four steps include surveying, categorising, investigation, and evaluating. The tables below show the Strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of hydroponics in Mauritius. STENGTHS WEAKNESSES Growing demand for vegetables, both consumer and business markets. Environment-friendly practices favoured. Provide employment. Flexible in production. Poorly structured distribution channels. Finance: such project requires huge investments. Insufficient use of technology: growers in Mauritius cannot afford to adopt latest technology such as those used in Australia and USA due to high costs. Equipment and other materials have to be imported. Lack of trained trainers. OPPORTUNITIES THREATS Favoured business environment- laws and legislations have been modified so as to propel small business. Examples are the introduction of the Municipal Fee, replacing the Trade Licence, Special Tax Holiday Scheme, cancellation of customs duty on several products and Empowerment Programme. Incentives offered to registered enterprises by SEHDA, National Computer Board and so on. Examples are awards to the best business plans, business counselling and facilitation. Increasing cost of doing business. High inflation rate causing depreciation of the Mauritian Rupees. Favourable prices of the substitutes. PEST Analysis PEST (or political, economic, social and technological factors) is the most commonly used tool for environmental analysis (Beamish, 1996) and is possibly the second most widely known strategy technique after SWOT analysis. Political/ Legal Environment: in most countries, the government provides much needed support to those who want to invest in hydroponics technology. Examples are tax relieves on equipment, free counselling, training, incentives to set up small businesses, loan facilities and so on. Regarding the Economic Environment, these issues should be considered: Income is a major influencer of consumer purchasing power. For instance, a fall in income caused by an increase in the rate of inflation may result in a fall in purchasing power. Consumers may buy more of the organic vegetables, which are cheaper than the hydroponics vegetables. The reverse is also true. Changing consumer spending patterns influence the demand for hydroponics produce. It has been noted that there is an increasing tendency for consumers to spend more and more on leisure activities, transportation, medical-care and education rather than food. But with the new budget made by the finance minister, we can expect that the spending on education will decrease and ultimately result to and increase in food or other activities also. Social/ cultural Environment: a study by the NZ Vegetable Growers Federation (www.vegetables.co.nz) , found that nearly 40% of people who purchase organic food do so because they believe it is pesticide-free. Technological Environment: growers of hydroponics produce who do not adopt the best practice technology will be disadvantaged and gradually lose access to all but low margin residual markets. However, there is a profound gap between PEST and SWOT analysis, and this is only partly met by Porters five forces. A linking technique is that of Grundys growth drivers (Grundy, 2004). See the diagram below. Grundy gives an example of growth driver analysis, helping us to represent the forces that, directly or indirectly, cause or inhibit market growth over a particular time period. However, an important feature to note here is that it is part of a system. The system captures, in an onion model format, the key domains that need to be thought through, within the overall competitive climate, beginning with: _ PEST factors _ growth drivers _ Porters five competitive forces _ competitive position. These layers of the onion are highly interdependent, which might be a very useful phenomenon for managers to learn about and to apply. For example, where the PEST factors are generally hospitable, growth is encouraged and the full impact of the five competitive forces may not be felt and may thus be latent. However, where the PEST factors become inhospitable, this will clearly dampen the growth drivers, and if the growth drivers within a particular market are themselves tightening, for example due to life-cycle effects, then this will put a disproportionate and adverse pressure on Porters five forces, particularly in the bargaining power of buyers, and also upon rivalry. Furthermore, a high growth environment may encourage entrants and a low one will discourage these. The result can lead to a collapse in confidence and in prices unless there are lots of exits.

My Teacher is my Muse Essay -- narrative, descriptive

So I took the class because there was nothing else offered that semester that seemed even remotely interesting. My choices were slim. I mean it was Advanced Latin for Geeks, Bowling for Advanced Dorks, or this: The Creative Self. Even though I had always looked upon poetry as a non-serious art, a flaky girly thing to do, I had done my fair share of writing, mostly put into teenage angst ridden song lyrics, but still, how different could this be--I could probably just use my old songs and hand them in as new poetry. It was senior year in High School, and frankly, I was sick of being part of this innovative new humanities based school where everyone was almost too bright for me. I just wanted at least on easy class, and this sounded like the key to a class where I wouldn’t have to think too much. Instead, it turned me into one of those creative writing whores I had always made fun of. It was solely her doing, Ms. R, the orange headed teacher that became my mentor, my muse, my su bject. From the second she walked in, she began to inspire me. She shuffled with her papers in a way that made us all wonder whether it was pure disorganization or classical genius. Her hair aflame spirals of pure citrus fruit, her long flowery skirt welcoming every bored teen aged eye; she woke me up. The woman woke me up from the longest sleep I had ever had. R, R, Ms. R. I remember her icy blue eyes and how she almost flew up at times when she got really excited about some poem or character sketch. She walked in and immediately asked us what we thought about poetry, about fiction, about the world, about ourselves, about love and sex and how we wanted to express that to the world. And so for a first assignment, she asked us to write about something we lo... ...ld not write. And this has been the case since high school. When I have an stimulating teacher, one who praises me, who lets me be open, I excel. When I not taking writing classes, my writing is poor, stagnant, void of any originality. And let’s take this past year while I was working on Wall Street (can you say the coldest place on earth when it comes to the arts or even real human compassion, let alone inspiration?)--I wrote about 3 pages all year, all consisting of complete crap. But this past week alone, first week of grad classes, I’ve written more, and maybe not better yet, but at least more, than I have this entire past year. Now does this make me a dependent writer. A writer that cannot function without a muse? That will be my next exploration..... Can I survive as a writer without a Ms. R by my side, breathing literary genius into my otherwise ordinary words?

Health Care Usa vs. France

Comparison of the Health Care Systems: France and the United States| Yet in 1948 the United Nations proclaimed that, â€Å"everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of oneself and one's family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care. † We should understand that health care should be considered a human right, rather than an economical benefit. However, there are two hundred countries in the World and many of them still lack an adequate health care system. Throughout the World health, except the U. S. , care systems tend to follow general patterns.There are four basic models: Beveridge, Bismarck, the National health insurance, and the out-of-pocket. The Beveridge model named after the founder of British health care system William Beveridge. According to McCanne (2010), the majority of hospitals and clinics are owned by government. In this model the government is a sole payer, which controls the costs of medical expenses. T herefore, there is the tendency for low cost per capita. The second model of health care named after a founder of European welfare Otto von Bismarck. The major principle of this system based on the insurance plans, which financed jointly by employers and employees.Moreover, the insurance plans are non-profit and cover everyone. The government tightly regulates and controls the health system, that allows to keep low medical costs. The third model is a the National health insurance model. It uses private sector of health providers, but payments come from a government based insurance, to which every citizen must pay. The National health insurance controls and keeps low prices for medical services, and tend to be cheaper and simpler administratively. The last and most disorganized health system follows the out-of-pocket model.The major principle of that system based on the money and basically people with money can get the medical assistance, whereas poor get sicker or die. According to the World health report (2000) released by World Health Organization, France is the country that provides the best health care. The same report states, â€Å"The U. S. health system spends a higher portion of its gross domestic product than any other country but ranks 37 out of 191 countries according to its performance. † The question is, why equally strong, politically and economically, countries have such significant difference of health care performance?Certainly, one of the major dissimilarity of the systems is the difference of health care models. The French health system rigorously follows only one, as most of European countries, the Bismarck's model. At first glance it seems to be very similar to the American; both countries widely use an insurance system, where employers and employee are both responsible for an insurance payment. However, in contrast to USA, the biggest fundamental difference between the two systems is that the Bismarck-type health insurance plans ha ve to cover everybody, and they do not make a profit.Opposite to France, the United States of America does not follow any of the models of health care. American health care system have elements of all of the models. When it comes to treating veterans, it becomes a government owned and controlled system, as Beveridge model. For Medicare dependant Americans and population over the age of 65, our health care system uses the model of National Health Insurance, otherwise known as universal health system, which tends to be cheaper and simpler. The health care system of a working population, who gets insurance through the employer, is more aligned with the Bismarck model.Finally, for those fifteen percent of Americans, who do not have any health care insurance the current system becomes an Out-of-Pocket Model, which is primarily used in Third World countries. Most of health care industries in the World, in order to be efficient, try to meet only three of the models, but very important basi cs: costs, quality and access. All those major elements of a health care system have a complex and often challenging nature; they often interlace with each other, what leads to a conglomerate of hard solvable health care issues.For example, the quality of care is tightly bounded to the cost of therapeutic and diagnostic procedures. Consequently, the high cost of health care puts access restrictions for certain populations. Therefore, one of the major health industry concerns is access to quality and affordable health care. The French health care system combines universal coverage with a public–private mix of hospital and ambulatory care, higher levels of resources, and a higher volume of service provision than in the United States (Rodwin, 1993) As shown in Table 1, France has a higher physicians' density per population than USA.Moreover, there is a significant difference, of more than 50%, between physicians of general practice and more disparity in more specialized practice s. It demonstrates that French health care is based on more generalized medicine, than the US, where high costly specialty medicine is common practice. Table 1, Health Care Resources: France and United States, 1997–2000. American Journal of Public Health 2003 Resources| France| US| Active physicians per 1000 population| 3. 3 | 2. 8| Active physicians in private, office-based practice per 1000 population| 1. 9| 1. | General/family practice, %| 53. 3| 22. 5| Obstetricians, pediatricians, and internists, %| 7. 5| 35. 6| Other specialists, %| 39. 2| 41. 0| Non-physician personnel per acute hospital bed| 1. 9 | 5. 7 | Total inpatient hospital beds per 1000 population| 8. 5| 3. 7| Short-stay hospital beds per 1000 population| 4. 0| 3. 0| Share of public beds, %| 64. 2| 19. 2| Share of private beds, %| 35. 8| 80. 8| Proprietary beds as percentage of private beds, %| 56| 12| Nonprofit beds as percentage of private beds, %| 44| 88| Share of proprietary beds, %| 27| 10. 7| France and t he U. S. ace a crises of unprecedented scope. Both countries possess large and growing elderly populations that threaten to push the pace of health care price increases even higher than their already faster-than-inflation rates. (Dutton, 2011) However, France has wide access to comprehensive health services for a population that is, on average, older than that of the United States (Rodwin, 1993). France and the United States, relies on both private insurance and government insurance. In both countries, working populations generally receive their insurance through their employer. However, French health care s based on the National Health Insurance and there is no uninsured population. French national insurance covers about 70 percent of the medical bills, the rest of the 30 percents is paid by private insurance companies, which are typically provided and paid by employer. Furthermore, contradictory to the common American opinion, that universal health care system does not allow one t o choose doctors, hospitals and clinics, French people are not restricted in their choice of medical professionals and institutions, and they freely navigate themselves from doctor to doctor (Imai, Jacobzone, Lenain, 2000).In contrast to that, certain American HMOs allow their members to visit doctors strictly in their systems. The other tremendous distinction of the French health care system is that there is no discrimination of people with preexisting conditions. Moreover, individuals with preexisting conditions have a priority and receive more coverage; patients with long-standing diseases, such as mental illness, cancer, diabetes, obtain 100 percent governmental support for all medical expenses, including surgeries, therapy and pharmaceutical agents (Imai et. al. , 2000).At a final point, most of American's health budget oriented on the end of life diseases, which as a rule, heavily involve costly sophisticated technology and procedures, that enormously brings operating cost up. At the same time USA still neglects major successful health care steps such as disease prevention and public health education. This perhaps explains, in spite of impressive achievements in the biomedical science and technology the US do not have a better health care performance. References Dutton,V. P. (2011). Health care in France and the United States: Learning from each other. Imai, Y. Jacobzone, S. , Lenain, P. (2000). The changing health system in France. France: Economics department, organization for economic cooperation and development. p. 268. McCanne, D. (2010). Health Care Systems – Four Basic Models. Physicians for a National Health Program, p. 1 Rodwin V, Sandier S. 2003; Health care under French national health insurance. 12(3):113–131. American Journal of Public Health 2003 The universal declaration of human rights. Article 25. (1948) World Health Organization, (2000). The world health report 2000 – World Health Organization Assesses the World's H ealth Systems.

An Analysis of a favourite Grace Nichols Poem Fear Essays

An Analysis of a favourite Grace Nichols Poem Fear Essays An Analysis of a favourite Grace Nichols Poem Fear Paper An Analysis of a favourite Grace Nichols Poem Fear Paper Essay Topic: poem As the essay title states I am going to analyse a Poem written by Grace Nichols. Grace was born in Georgetown, Guyana, when finished school she went to university and then had several jobs before moving to England in 1977. Nichols then wrote poems mainly about racially sensitive topics, motherhood and sexuality. The poem, which I shall analyse, is called Fear. The main storyline in this poem is that a woman is worried and fears for her child living in England. I think this poem has a deeper meaning, basically about black people trying to adapt or not accepting the fact that they have to adapt to the way in which white people live. The writer of this poem sees it as blacks against whites, she feels very uncomfortable living in England, and maybe she feels out of place? Out numbered? In this poem there is much racial tension as she does not see the population to be as one, as equals. She uses words like our culture, and your own. This clearly shows that she sees white coloured people as being different to blacks. I think that she sees the world population split into two black people against the rest of the world. In fear there is a big culture clash and this is what Grace Nichols wants us to think about. The culture clash is the main theme running through this poem. In the first two lines of this poem our culture rub skin and against your own, we can see here that the technique used is enjambment. In these two lines we see the first signs of a tension felt by Grace Nichols between the two cultures. We know this because of several words, firstly our here we can see that Grace is sectioning her culture off, to make it us against them. Then on the next line we see against, this highlights a sense of difference, so in a different country and not around her own people. The word your suggests that she thinks she is not included in the white community or she is on the outside. From these first two lines of the poem we can see that Grace feels great tension between the two cultures and we know she feels that she is not one of us. The theme does not just occur in fear but also occurs in the other poems in which Grace Nichols has written. In two old black men on a Leicester square park bench, we also see this culture clash, these men feel unwanted in England and so lament about there homeland making themselves think that London is such a bad place to live and that the Caribbean is more like heaven. To want to go back to the Caribbean so much they must feel that blacks are unwanted and are not treat as equals. The theme in fear continues throughout the poem because we can see it in the last two lines as well as the first two, I think my childs too loving and for this fear here again we see that the technique used is enjambment and the effect that this has is that it makes us think about the two lines as one. We see a culture clash in these two lines, again, because of specific words, which have been used. Firstly my, when she uses this word, we see that she is sectioning herself of from anybody else. Everyone loves their child very much but I think that Grace Nichols thinks that her love for her child is better than anyone elses. When she says too loving I get the feeling that she has replaced the word loving from good, she thinks because she is black and living in England her life is so much more difficult than an average white coloured persons life, and therefore her child should not need to go through what she has been through. She thinks her child is too good to live in England because the majority of the population are not black and therefore her baby will not be accepted and treat as an equal in this country. I will now analyse the mood and atmosphere in this poem, and try to show the feelings of the reader. In fear I feel that the mood is very uncomfortable because we are reading about someone who is not content with everyday life of living in England. As we are English citizens who are reading this poem, we obviously do not agree with what Grace Nichols thinks and because we are content with the everyday life of living in England this I think therefore makes the mood and atmosphere very uncomfortable. Another way in which this poem could be said as being uncomfortable is in the way Grace Nichols feels. It is obvious she is uncomfortable with the fact that she is living in England and this therefore makes the mood and atmosphere of the poem uncomfortable. Ask, are you going back sometime? This quote is one, which shows the atmosphere and mood, it does this by almost suggesting she is not wanted. Grace Nichols feels as if this question is what us white people are always thinking, as if we feel that she doesnt belong here which shows a sense of being uncomfortable. When the reader reads this poem they are almost forced not to agree or accept the point that Grace Nichols is putting across. She is basically saying that blacks are not accepted in England, which would therefore make us racist. When the reader realizes what Grace is saying, we think she is prejudice because she thinks all whites dont accept blacks, she does not know all white people and so therefore is prejudging many of us. When reading this I am sure many readers feel anger. The reason for this is that many readers will feel Grace is prejudice. And here? Here this quote in particular may make readers feel anger and the reason for this is that Grace dismisses the thought of London straight away. She has just described her homeland and in the next stanza she does not bother to compare it to London. Here is repeated to create the effect of dismissing the thought of London and that she obviously doesnt have much positive to say about the city. So therefore when readers from this city or country read this line they may feel great anger towards the writer, as she cannot say one decent thing about London. In the next section of this essay I am going to try to analyse how the poem is written and the way in which the language is used. To do this I shall pick out interesting words and phrases from the poem and describe what effect they have on the poem. When reading this poem several times, one of the most noticeable lines is home is where the heart lies this is very interesting because it could have two different meanings. In this line Grace has been very clever and left spaces to emphasise the word lies. This word could mean one of two things, lies as in where the heart rests or lies as in not telling the truth. If taken as where the heart rests then the author is conveying a sense of homesickness. If taken in the sense that at home the heart doesnt tell the truth then we know that Grace is feeling no homesickness at all. Personally I think the author is feeling homesickness and so when writing this line meant it to be where the heart can rest. Obviously the heart never rests, otherwise the author would be dead but in this line the word heart is a metaphor and stands for feelings, emotions and soul. In relating this line back to the whole poem I feel that because of the authors homesickness, this could be a reason why she has such a dislike for England, she misses her homeland too much and England just cant match up to the place where she feels most comfortable. This technique of writing a line in which can be taken as two different meanings does not just occur in this poem. In other poems that Grace Nichols has wrote we see her leaving the reader with several options to think about. For example in the poem childhood the line half stunned I watched is a line in which could be taken as two different meanings. From earlier lines in the poem we know that a little girl is watching a fish being killed, but when coming to this particular line is it the fish which is half stunned or is it the little girl who is half stunned? So here we can see that Grace obviously finds this technique effective in her writing and uses it in more than just one poem. Another line in which I found to be intriguing was You say youre civilised, in this line I get the impression that a bit of sarcasm is used. When writing this line does Grace Nichols mean she has seen no sign of civilisation yet from the English people or does she mean that we are civilised people but that isnt enough for her, she wants something more than civilisation. On the word You emphasis has been used by using a capital letter, this maybe suggests that she is directing this phrase at a particular person and if this is correct it suggests anger towards this person. If anger is shown to somebody then does this not mean that the narrator isnt being civilised? Someone might even say she has contradicted herself in this line. I think that when Grace Nichols wrote this line she was almost asking a question of the white community. When telling us we say that we say we are civilised she is wondering where this civilisation is because she feels like she is not treat as an equal in England. Almost challenging the white people to come out and prove that they are civilised and prove that Grace Nicholss opinion of England and her opinion of white people in England is wrong. When looking at the four lines in the fifth stanza we can see that Grace is talking and reminiscing about her homeland. I come from a backyard Where the sun reaches down Mangoes fall to the ground In the first two lines here we see the technique of enjambment. In this first line I come from a backyard in using the word I she wants us to feel sorry for her. This line is fairly easy to understand and is just saying that she has never really had a luxurious life and has always been from a poor family with little money. This is probably one of the reasons why she moved to England, she would be able to receive more income. When linking this line with the second line where the sun reaches down we can see that by using the technique of enjambment, another language technique is used. This is personification, and this is because Grace is trying to show that the sun reaches down into her backyard. So therefore the sun is picking her country above all others, so she thinks her country is special. As well as personification this line is also a metaphor because the sun does not actually reach down. I think Grace likes to see herself as a special person from a special country because on the next line there is more use of personification. mangoes fall to the ground in this line Grace is showing the reader that the idea of exotic fruits pick this country out as the sun did. Her country is special because they get excess amounts of mangoes and other countries get no exotic fruit falling to their ground at all. In these three lines in which I have just analysed we can see that Grace is very proud of her country and thinks that it is special. The structure of these three lines is also important when reading the poem. Grace firstly tells us that her country is poor so we therefore will feel sorry for her; she then says that the sun picks this country above all others to be hot and then she lets us know that exotic fruits drop on the ground of this particular country. These three lines are structured this way because if the first line was not first then the technique of enjambment could not be used and if this technique was not used then we would not look at the second line as being personification. So if these two techniques were not used in this section of the poem then these lines would have less significance and not have a deeper meaning, so we can conclude that this poem writing was good because she used the words that she had in the best possible way. I find this poem to be very interesting and intriguing and this is the main reason why I chose to do my essay on it. There are many interesting lines which have a deeper meaning that what is wrote on the surface, for example home is where the heart lies, in this line I saw much opportunity to expand on what Grace is trying to say, there is a much more deeper, sensitive meaning to this line. To have an opinion on this poem I think that you would have had to maybe spend some of your childhood living in Grace Nichols homeland because at least then you might understand where she is coming from in some lines. For example I think my child is too loving for this fear what fear? I understand that she is worried that her child will not be accepted in England but she says it as if all white people are going to murder black people the second they step outside, when we and her both know that this is not true. This is why I find it hard to have an opinion on the poem because if maybe I had grown up with Grace in this wonderful special country that she describes, then I might understand a bit more about this so called fear that she has. I chose this poem above the rest because as I stated before I saw many lines with deeper meanings and I feel it was a more personal poem than the rest. The feelings in this poem are real feelings that someone feels and I wanted to try and find out why she felt this way. I now have a better understanding of her feelings. This poem was my favourite because I felt it had more meaning than the others and a more interesting way of expressing the authors feelings.

Free Essays on The Colonial States

Thomas Jefferson wrote of Virginia, â€Å"This country†¦consists of plain, honest, and rational neighbors,†¦hospitable and friendly.† Relations between blacks and whites have not been much more pleasant. Most children attend schools made up almost entirely of children of their own race. Many Virginians are trying their best to make the races get along. The population consists of 220,000 Asians and 193,000 Hispanics. A little more than one-fifth of the Virginians are black. The first Scots came to Virginia as indentured servants. More Scots came in the eighteenth-century. Then there were the Jews and the Jewish cemetery of Beth Shalome was inaugurated in 1791. The Jewish population in Richmond led lives quite similar to their non-Jewish neighbors. Slaves were owned. The average Virginia farm has about 150 acres and tenancy is around 17%. Almost half of Virginia’s farm income is derived from livestock and poultry and their products. Massachusetts ranks thirteenth among the states in population, claiming 6,016,425 people according to the 1990 census. Massachusetts is the most densely populated, heavily urbanized state in the nation. More than half of all Bay States are Roman Catholics, most of them of Irish, Italian or eastern-European descent. Among the religion, Massachusetts is the second-most heavily Catholic State in the nation. The people of Massachusetts have an enduring respect for tradition, taking pride in their state’s key role in America’s history. Today, on the very streets where colonists once walked, men and women work at the forefront of modern technology. As the people reach for their future, they cherish their ties to the past and keep their traditions alive. A story long ago about cows still walks on the Boston Common, a reminder to a new generation of children of how their state began than three centuries ago. Covering 8,284 square miles, Massachusetts ranks forty-fifth in size among the... Free Essays on The Colonial States Free Essays on The Colonial States Thomas Jefferson wrote of Virginia, â€Å"This country†¦consists of plain, honest, and rational neighbors,†¦hospitable and friendly.† Relations between blacks and whites have not been much more pleasant. Most children attend schools made up almost entirely of children of their own race. Many Virginians are trying their best to make the races get along. The population consists of 220,000 Asians and 193,000 Hispanics. A little more than one-fifth of the Virginians are black. The first Scots came to Virginia as indentured servants. More Scots came in the eighteenth-century. Then there were the Jews and the Jewish cemetery of Beth Shalome was inaugurated in 1791. The Jewish population in Richmond led lives quite similar to their non-Jewish neighbors. Slaves were owned. The average Virginia farm has about 150 acres and tenancy is around 17%. Almost half of Virginia’s farm income is derived from livestock and poultry and their products. Massachusetts ranks thirteenth among the states in population, claiming 6,016,425 people according to the 1990 census. Massachusetts is the most densely populated, heavily urbanized state in the nation. More than half of all Bay States are Roman Catholics, most of them of Irish, Italian or eastern-European descent. Among the religion, Massachusetts is the second-most heavily Catholic State in the nation. The people of Massachusetts have an enduring respect for tradition, taking pride in their state’s key role in America’s history. Today, on the very streets where colonists once walked, men and women work at the forefront of modern technology. As the people reach for their future, they cherish their ties to the past and keep their traditions alive. A story long ago about cows still walks on the Boston Common, a reminder to a new generation of children of how their state began than three centuries ago. Covering 8,284 square miles, Massachusetts ranks forty-fifth in size among the...

Interview Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 6

Interview - Essay Example They dated for a few months before getting married the following year. Miss B. and Bill were married for fifty-two years and had one son together. However, her husband later became sick and passed away due to colon cancer. Miss B. claimed that after Bill’s death, she became lonely, stressed, and confused. After his death, she decided to move back to Hartford to live closer to her son and family in Connecticut. Miss B. is now living alone in an apartment building in West Hartford. She claimed that the people in this apartment building have accepted her into their family; therefore, she does not feel lonely anymore and is absolutely pleased with the new relationships she has built in West Hartford. Miss B. and her husband had only one son, who lives in Hagganum, Connecticut, about thirty-one miles from West Hartford. Her son works at Bradley International Airport, and he and his family (his wife and son) visit her three times a week. They also talk on the phone every day, and she can call him anytime she wants. Miss B. is Jewish; therefore, they celebrate many Jewish traditions, including birthdays and religious holidays. Their celebrations often include organizing a dinner and inviting friends and family to their home. Miss B. was not able to complete high school. She attended a public school called Weaver High in Hartford, which was close to her home, but was forced to drop out during her sophomore year due to financial constraints. Subsequently, she complained that almost everyone in her family has either a bachelor or masters degree, with the exception of her. She said, â€Å"I always feel bad that I did not go college.† Miss B. said that when she was teenager, she had always wanted to be an office secretary, which is why she made an effort to get a good education. Later, she was employed by Aetna Insurance Company as an office clerk and worked her way up to becoming a secretary. She said it was a great

Women Liberation Is Still a Fiction Research Paper

Women Liberation Is Still a Fiction - Research Paper Example Women are considered more responsible and hence even the domestic front has to be looked after by women of the houses. The paper argues on the fact that women liberation is still a fiction. The indicators which give the impression of women liberation are in fact illusions. Most of the offices in the world today give the statistics of women employees. The figure is encouraging. Ii indicates that so many women have come out from the domestic front and are engaging themselves in the economic activities. In reality, the picture is completely different. It is true that women participate in economic activities but how much they are a part of the economy remains a big question. In most cases, women work as hard as men rather more than men but her contribution is not seen as a worthy one in society. The belief is such that her income is mainly for satisfying unimportant desires and hence do not have an importance that is equal to that of a man. Women today put on bold attire. This is because they are liberated from the clutches of conservatism. Through their dress, they try to show the world that they can express their desires in modern society. Unfortunately, it does not remain so easy for women. A study has proved that men were of the opinion that women should pay attention to the kind of dresses that they wear. They should not put on something which will catch the attention of men because that may cause rape and other sexual offences. (Campbell and Norris, 39). â€Å"Only through eradication of outward ornament can women atone for the vices of their sex†. (Coon, 32). Through this, it can be understood that the existing belief was that female sexuality was a vice and it can only be controlled if women control their appearances. It was expected that the proper norm for women was to put on drab dresses in order to prevent sexual exploitation.