Master and Commander Essay

â€Å"Master and Commander† is the best movie to further my understanding of organizational behavior. In short, â€Å"Master and Commander† is a story about how to use leadership, motivation, power and politics, decision making and creativity to beat the French competitor that seems bigger, faster or stronger than his ship. In the first part of the paper, I would elaborate the point of leadership in this movie. In terms of this, the captain has the power to influence the seamen. As the British crew pursued its opponent, the captain and his team were searching for a calculated strategy that would allow them to defeat the French captain and take the ship as a prize. As it turns out, their strategy was its greatest strength. By applying their knowledge about warfare they were constantly learning about the changing environment, such as the new technology used by the French ship. The British naval officers were able to create an emergent strategy. The captain used the Fiedler leadership model, which matches the leadership style of interacting with the seaman and the degree to which the situation controls and influences the leader. For example, when the captain orders the seamen to fight again the battle, he gives orders to those who are responsible for doing the work. All seamen coordinate together with the captain and follow all the orders of the captain. One proactive aspect of the story was the ability of the captain to embrace knowledge from other disciplines and accordingly act on it. The captain’s friend, who was a doctor, was an accomplished naturalist. And his ideology was that insects disguise themselves well according to the situation around them. Naturally, the captain uses this knowledge to fool the French ship by using potential alternative. Master and Commander are sure to provide lessons in leadership and the captain’s character demonstrated many attributes of quality business leadership. For example, when the seamen place their trust on the captain, they are willing to be vulnerable to his action. In addition with the leadership concept, they learnt how to follow the captain’s instructions, knowing when to engage in the battle, inspiration to pursue achievable stretch goals, the delicate balancing of compassion and leadership of others in the ship, and proper leadership development, mentorship and succession planning. The captain did not follow the rules of leader participation model as he was the sole person  in the decision making process. For example, when he decides to fight against the French ship, his other co-members who had high authority did not agree but he still decided to fight the war. In organizational behavior terms, leadership plays a central part in understanding group behavior. In this movie, the captain shows accurate capability of improving the seamen’s performances. Other concepts used in the movie would be initiating structure, where the captain attempts to organize the battle strategy in order to fight against the French ship and attain their goals. Moreover in the movie some of them did not agree to fight the French ship because it was more sophisticated in terms of technology, but they trusted the captain’s decision. The seamen practice leader member relation concept, where they trust and respect their captain. As mention above, the captain portrays good leadership skills in his approach to manage the ship. Therefore, this would contribute directly in gaining competitive advantage. The seamen would perform better to win the battle and attain the goal of the captain. In terms of organizational behavior, the company would be more productive and the employees would feel satisfied and contented to work under the organization because of the leadership style portrayed by the top management. The other concept observed in the movie is motivation. The captain’s higher authority informed him that his mission should be to destroy the French ship, which till date has not been executed. The captain notices that this will not be an easy task as their ship was damaged from earlier warships. From this point on he becomes obsessed with completing the mission. His main motivation was to stop the ship at any cost and to execute this he drags the crew of ship to attain the obsession. This became his main goal in life. His sole aim now was to stop this ship. Even though he knew that the French ship was larger than his ship, he was still motivated to continue the battle. Apart from that, the captain also portrays management by objective concept in this movie, where he has a specific goal to attain. For example, everyone’s goal in the ship was to fight the French ship and win the battle. Moreover, the captain provides motivation for the seaman in the ship. When one of his lieutenants was looking through the telescope, he noticed two ships approaching but when the captain went to confirm it, he did not see them. The lieutenant would have got discouraged if he had revealed the truth  but he went ahead and complimented him for doing a good job. In the other part of the movie, two of his seaman presents to him the model of the French ship which gives him an idea why the French ship is superior to them. For the job done, he treats the seamen with wine. This is an ideal way of motivating the seaman to perform better in future. Before the war the captain encourages his seaman with his inspirational quote â€Å"discipline will count as much as courage† and â€Å"this ship is our home, this is England†. This inspires and motivates the seaman to combat the French ship. This provides a competitive advantage over and above the other tasks. The captains approach results in complete satisfaction and contentment, which enables the seamen to perform better in the war. Moreover, he motivates the seaman during practice for war and he constantly motivates the seaman throughout the movie. In organizational behavior terms, this increases the productivity of the company and enhances employee performance. The movie shows the effects of power. The captain has legitimate power because he has the formal authority to control, to order and to use resources available on the ship. For example, when the captain orders his seamen, all of them agree and act accordingly to his command. The captain has charismatic power which is really an extension of referent power steaming from his individual personality and interpersonal style. For example, the doctor said that he completely trust’s the captain for his capabilities. Moreover, the entire seaman respects him for his decision and as a charismatic person. The captain once mentioned to his lieutenant that he should not make friends with the seaman but should gain respect from them as he is at an authorative level. This would also make things easier for the captain in command to gain a competitive advantage over the others. Since the captain is the most powerful person on the ship, all seamen would have to follow his command and act according to his needs. In term of organizational behavior, if you want a thing to be done in an organization, power does have an upper hand. Using power in an organization may upset some employees, but this is the one of the ways to attain respect and to give order to the employee. Conflict can be considered as a part of the movie. The first conflict arises  when the captain plans to fight the French ship. During the meeting, the other high authority person in the ship goes against his idea because they feel it is impossible to win against the French ship as it was better equipped than their ship. Conflict arises at this point of time but the captain remains with his plan to fight the French ship. Another conflict in this movie is when the doctor on board asks him to stop at an island because he wanted to see the natural beauty of nature as promised by the captain but he does not agree. The reason being he wanted to continue his journey and stop the French ship. But ultimately both of them land up arguing about the topic. This can be related as task conflict because their goals did not match. In organizational behavior, conflict should be managed in order to gain competitive advantage. Apart from that, managing conflict in work environment is essential. When an employee is satisfied and the work environment is conducive, it would increase the company’s productivity and he or she will have better relationship with other employees in the organization. In this movie the captain used centralized decision making. The term centralization refers to the degree to which decision making is concentrated at a single point in the organization. For instance, the captain had a formal authority and rights in making decisions. He does not consult anyone before making his decision to fight the French ship. From the ethical point of view in decision making, the captain uses utilitarianism where his decision to fight the French ship would benefit him and achieve his goals. Even though some of his fellow people do not agree with him in the earlier part of the movie to fight but later they all supported him and worked together to reach the common goal. In term of organizational behavior, decision making process can be considered as the most important concept. This is because without a proper decision a company will not attain competitive advantage and this will not benefit the company in any ways which will hamper their productivity. â€Å"†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦any organization has to have a sense of where it is going, along with someone to help get it there. Like a ship at sea, all the technology in the world is useless without a firm hand on the tiller and a captain who has a  good sense of direction† (Balancing on a Wire, 1998, p.39). This statement means that the captain should have foresight to manage and control activities towards achieving their goal. In conclusion the captain was in a win-win situation. His primary goal was to defeat his opponents and gain complete control and power over them.

Hormones and Behavior Essay

The endocrine system is the collection of glands that produce hormones. Hormones are chemical substances that act like messenger molecules in the body. They regulate metabolism, growth and development, tissue function, sexual function, reproduction, sleep, and mood, and many other things. These hormones can affect an individual’s behavior in many ways. The Endocrine System is made up of several different endocrine glands the pituitary gland, pineal gland, thyroid gland, and adrenal gland. Each gland secretes different hormones that have many different effects on the body and behavior. The Pituitary gland is called the â€Å"Master Gland†. It is called this because its hormones influence other endocrine glands. Oxytocin is a hormone released by the pituitary gland. This hormone helps in regulating behaviors related to happiness such as sexual activity, social bonding, and helps to reduce stress. Oxytocin also plays a role in pregnancy and labor. The pituitary gland causes contractions in the uterus during labor and stimulates the ducts of the breasts to help eject milk. The Adrenal Gland is located underneath the back of the rib cage on top of the kidneys. The adrenal gland helps do several things such arouse the body, regulates salt balance, adjust the body to stress and affects sexual functioning. Epinephrine is a hormone released by the adrenal gland. This hormone is associated with fear and is what helps arouse the body. Epinephrine is most commonly known as adrenaline. When a person has hormone levels that are too high or too low, that indicates a problem with the endocrine system. It can be a sign of a Hormone disease. Hormone diseases can also occur if the body does not respond to hormones in the appropriate ways. Stress, infection, and changes in the  blood’s fluid and electrolyte balance can also influence hormone levels, according to the National Institutes of Health. The most common endocrine disease in the United States is diabetes. Diabetes is a condition in which the body does not properly process glucose, a simple sugar. This is due to the lack of insulin or, if the body is producing insulin, because the body is not working effectively, according to Dr. Jennifer Loh, chief of the department of endocrinology for Kaiser Permanente in Hawaii. Maintaining a healthy endocrine system helps your body perform many of its vital functions, such as growth, development, reproduction and immunity. The endocrine system may also affect some aspects of personality and behavior. To keep the endocrine system functioning properly, eat healthy and reduce stress. An unhealthy endocrine system can result in thyroid diseases, osteoporosis and a variety of other problems, both large and small. Here’s how to maintain the endocrine system.

Do Video Games Make Violence to Children Essay

Italy has many beautiful and historic cities worth a visit. Travel to cities is best done by train as driving in Italian cities may be very difficult and the extensive Italian train system is inexpensive. Most city centers are well-suited to walking and parts of the city centers may be closed to transportation. Large Italian cities generally have good public transportation, too. Check the distances between cities with our Distance Calculator. 1. Rome – Roma Piazza del Popolo picture by James Martin Rome is the capital of modern Italy. Rome is full of history everywhere you look. It has many ancient monuments, interesting medieval churches, beautiful fountains, museums, and Renaissance palaces. Modern Rome is a bustling and lively city and has some excellent restaurants and nightlife. The Vatican and St. Peter’s are also found in Rome. 2. Venice – Venezia Basilica San Marco  © by Martha Bakerjian, licensed to About.com Venice is a unique city built on water in the middle of a lagoon. Venice is one of Italy’s most beautiful and romantic cities as well as one of the most popular for visitors to Italy. The heart of Venice is Piazza San Marco with its magnificent church. There are many museums, palaces, and churches to visit and wandering along Venice’s canals is interesting. Venice is in the northeast of Italy and historically was a bridge between East and West. 3. Florence – Firenze Ponte Vecchio  © by Martha Bakerjian, licensed to About.com Florence is one of the most important Renaissance architectural and art centers. Its Duomo and Baptistery are magnificent but crowded with tourists as is their large piazza. Florence has several interesting museums with many famous paintings and sculptures. There are also Medici palaces and gardens. Florence is in Tuscany. 4. Milan – Milano Picture of Milan Duomo  ©2006 by James Martin Milan, one of Europe’s richest cities, is known for stylish shops, galleries, and restaurants and has a faster pace of life than most Italian cities. It also has a rich artistic and cultural heritage. Its Duomo, with its beautiful marble facade, is magnificent. La Scala is one of the world’s most famous opera houses. 5. Naples – Napoli Castel dell’Ovo  © James Martin Naples is one of Italy’s most vibrant cities. It lies on the coast south of Rome and is the most important city in southern Italy. Naples has recently undergone some renovation but still retains much of its old character. It holds many historical and artistic treasures. 6. Verona Roman Arena  © Martha Bakerjian, licensed to About.com Verona is known for the story of Romeo and Juliet and for its Roman Arena, the third largest in Italy and the venue for a top opera festival. Verona has a good medieval center, Roman remains, and an interesting castle complex. It’s the fourth most visited city in Italy and well worth a stop on a northern Italy travel itinerary. 7. Turin – Torino Turin Picture  ©2006 by James Martin Turin, host of the 2006 Winter Olympics, is a major cultural hub with excellent museums, elegant shops, and good restaurants. There are also some very nice examples of baroque architecture and historic palaces. Turin has many historic cafes, artisan workshops, and arcades. Turin is in the northwest of Italy, between the Po River and the foothills of the Alps. 8. Bologna Bologna Picture  © James Martin Bologna is known for its beauty, wealth, cuisine, and left-wing politics. Its streets are lined with beautiful arcades, making it a good place to walk even in the rain. It has one of Europe’s oldest universities and a nice medieval center. There are several attractive squares, lined with buildings with nice porticoes. Bologna is the capital of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. 9. Perugia View of Perugia  © by James Martin Perugia is a very cosmopolitan city and home to two universities. It hosts a world-famous jazz festival in the summer and its University for Foreigners is a great place to learn Italian. It’s a walled city on a hilltop with great views over the valley and has several important monuments and a good central square. Its history goes back to the ninth century BC. Perugia is in the center of Italy and is the capital of the region of Umbria. 10. Genoa – Genova Genoa Duomo  © James Martin Genoa, on the northwest coast of Italy, is Italy’s principal seaport. Genoa was a 2004 European Culture Capital; money flowed into the port city made famous by Columbus and now it’s a better place than ever to visit. Genoa has a fascinating aquarium, an interesting port area, and a historic center said to be the largest medieval quarter in Europe, with a wealth of churches, palaces, and museums.

The Effect TV Has on Children Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Effect TV Has on Children - Essay Example According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), kids in the United States watch about 4 hours of TV a day. According to the AAP guidelines, children under age 2 should have no "screen time" (TV, DVDs or videotapes, computers, or video games) at all. During the first 2 years, a critical time for brain development, TV can get in the way of exploring, learning, and spending time interacting and playing with parents and others, which help young children, develop the skills they need to grow cognitively, physically, socially, and emotionally. There is no doubt that TV can be an excellent educator and entertainer. But despite its advantages, too much television can be detrimental. Several types of research around the world have shown that children who consistently spend more than 4 hours per day watching TV are more likely to be overweight. In earlier days before the television, children played outdoors more and used their minds to be more creative. Excessive television viewing promotes inactivity. Health experts have long linked excessive TV-watching to obesity - a significant health problem today. While watching TV, children are inactive and tend to snack which contributes to poor nutrition. They're also bombarded with advertising messages that encourage them to eat unhealthy foods such as potato chips and empty-calorie soft drinks that often become preferred snack foods. According to the AAP, children in the United States see 40,000 commercials each year. From junk food and soft drink advertisements, children persuade t heir parents to buy them. This leads to major health problems and is a serious concern around the world (Dowshen and Gavin, 2005).     

No cellphones in class Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

No cellphones in class - Essay Example All schools have given teachers to own and use cell phones to school. However, students owning such gadgets in school are still a contentious issue faced with mixed reactions. The first advantage of students carrying their cell phones to school is for security and safety measure. The students can react to emergencies faster and efficiently by contacting relevant rescue teams. In addition, mobile phones that are internet enabled are essential to students when seeking information related to academic contents. Cell phones, therefore, are a good technology to incorporate in the learning because they enhance research and education. Cell phones are also advantageous to learners in the classroom because they find an opportunity to interact with friends, families and other acquaintances through platforms that promote information sharing (Brady 45). That can be useful only when students use phones outside the classroom context. In addition, cell phones also have both print and non-print media that are useful in enhancing learning. Particularly those that have videos and cameras are essential when learning requires realia and images. Such gadgets, therefore, enhance learning. Mobile phones are distracters during learning sessions. Most students participate in anti-learning activities with their cell phones during the learning process. Some students misuse their cell phones by watching censored materials and videos from the internet. Others students send instant texts, listen to music and illegal videos that draw attention from learning activities. Cell phones that have calculators installed make students lazy because they tend to use such machines to solve even simpler mathematical problems. Consequently, learners become dependent by using machines to solve most of their problems. Although the gadgets were regarded as a luxury possessed by adults, it is presently in the hands of school-going children.

Are Trade Unions still relevant Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Are Trade Unions still relevant - Essay Example While trade unions have ceased being as aggressive as they were in the past, some of them still manage to carry out their mandate today. For instance, during collective bargaining, trade unions are quite useful to respective employees because of the fact that they act as a go between the employee and the employer. A union representative is supposed to be present whenever there is need for collective bargaining. In other words, trade unions and employers are bound by collective agreements which ensure that the needs of respective employees are adequately met. It should also be noted that there are some trade unions within the UK that have been very active in promoting workers' rights. One such example is REACH. (Wadsworth, 2007) This Trade Union largely focuses on the protection of worker's rights when dealing with hazardous substances or chemicals. Through the efforts of such an organisation, it can be seen that trade unions are still needed in the workplace. (Low Pay Commission, 2007) Trade Unions are still relevant in the UK because the latter country interacts with so many others in the world, since these countries have different labour laws, it is necessary to ensure that employee rights are not infringed by those respective individuals. For example, the TUC was very active in fighting against the UK based Primark t-shirt manufacturer. According to the TUC, Primark was sourcing their raw materials from Bangladesh where their supplier was employing sweatshop labour. Through the activities of this trade union, Primark ceased working with that particular supplier thus protecting employees' rights. (Kent, 2007) How Trade Unions have lost their relevance Trade Unions in Britain were quiet useful in the nineteenth Century because at that time, industries were just coming up. There was a need to set up standards in the workplace because the economy had not yet been exposed to such a kind of arrangement. Issues such as establishment of safety rules, fair working hours, and fair wages were top on their agenda because most employers were still curving out trends and patterns. Trade Unions were the voices that ensured worker's rights were duly protected. This is actually the reason why a trade union may defined as an association of workers that is centred on the need to protect worker's rights. Issues such as fair wage were all part of the endeavour to protect their rights. (Bain, P. & Taylor, 2008) It should also be noted that during those times, strikes, lock downs, injuries and blood shedding were a common scenario for trade unions trying to fight for workers' rights. This actually made some of them highly unpopular with employers. Britain's history is characterised by large strikes that literary paralysed certain public systems. One of the greatest achievements made by trade unions at that time was the institution of legal mechanisms for protecting workers' rights. Through their tireless efforts, now managers are answerable to the law upon infringing worker's rights to hampering their freedoms. However, the UK labour system has changed drastically over the past few years. The steel industry, auto industry, rail industry and many others are now characterised by decent working hours. Additionally, enumeration policies have adversely improved in today's production sector. Consequently, trade unions are left with little else to do. Their

Christine Ladd-Franklin Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Christine Ladd-Franklin - Research Paper Example Background Christine Ladd- Franklin was born on 1st December 1847 in Windsor Connecticut. She was the oldest child of her parents Eliphalet and Augusta (Niles) Ladd and was fondly called Kitty. She had a brother, Henry Ladd and a sister Jane Augusta Ladd McCordia. Christine had the opportunity to attend women’s rights lectures from her earlier ages since her mother Augusta, and her aunt Juliet Niles were ardent supporters of women’s rights movements; and these lecture classes made Christine a strong women’s rights supporter and she believed that woman must get equal standards as that of a man in every phase of social life (Furumoto, 1992, p.176). On account of her mother’s death, she was forced to move to Portsmouth where her father’s home was situated. She joined in Wesleyan Academy in order to attend the course for Harvard, which was generally attended by boys. Christine had got the freedom to continue her education at Vassar College although she faced protestations from her family at the earlier stages. During the course of her study at Vassar College, Christine was driven to move to Utica so as to overcome her financial difficulties by earning money from teaching. From Utica, she got the chance to deal with various languages, trigonometry, and botanical specimens and it increased her academic talents. Even during the course of her studies, Christine had continued her women’s right activities with all supports from her father and aunt. She returned to Vassar College to complete her studies, where she met a female astronomy professor, Maria Mitchell. Mitchell motivated Christine to increase her knowledge in mathematics and science and it influenced Christine a lot. She worked as an instructor of mathematics and science in secondary schools in Pennsylvania for nine years after she had completed her graduation course from Vassar College. She applied to Johns Hopkins University for her higher education and got admission on the strength of her earlier works even though she faced certain restrictions from the university. In 1882, Christine married Fabian Franklin who was the younger faculty of John Hopkins math department. Christine published some brilliant papers in American Journal of Mathematics and gradually her interests turned to logic subjects. Although she had completely fulfilled the conditions for the Ph. D, she did not get it until 1926. Christine became famous mainly on the ground of her theory of color vision in which she defined mathematical as well as psychological perspectives for her concept. She accompanied her husband Fabian Franklin when he took a sabbatical to Europe and it helped Christine to continue her research in Professor G. E. Muller’s laboratory without getting affected by restrictions in German universities. After completing her research studies in Muller’s laboratory, she went to Berlin where she was admitted in the Hermann von Helmholtz’s laborator y (Rossiter, 1982, p.43). Christine’s works in different laboratories with different faculties enabled her to contribute a lot in the field of psychology. She presented her theory at International Congress of Psychology held in London in 1892; it gave great fame in the world of psychology. She acted as the associate editor in Baldwin’s Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology for the period of 1901 to 1905. In 1904, Johns Hopkins permitted Christine to lecture one

Portfolio writing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Portfolio writing - Essay Example Dreamy images in my work are portrayed as a paradox between realism and idealism. The realism associated with the harsh and pleasant realities of life and human nature are expressed subliminally and submerged with idealism. These moments of pleasure are dreams, not escapist fantasies, that allows for transition through life’s pitfalls. It perpetuates hope, segregating it from the reality of life’s journey. It gives life meaning and the themes ‘dreams’ and ‘hopes’ articulate the meaning of life in my work. I spent my teen and adolescent years in foreign countries as well as completing my bachelor’s and master’s programs in the UK where I majored in Fine Arts (painting), all the while yearning for Korea. I have always remained nostalgic about Korea and drawn to the spiritual art of the Orient. These passions for Korea and the spiritual art of the Orient greatly influences the work that I produce. Upon returning to Korea, I incorporated the speculative spirit of â€Å"line† commonly used in Oriental art (linear art that frequently characterizes Oriental art) into my painting, photography and installation. Remaining true to this tradition, I also introduced into my work, condensed symbolic expressions which I am endeavouring to apply to medium in a variety of genres. Consistent with this approach, I have utilized experimental expressions of formative art and continue to do so. By taking this approach I have capitalized on a number of different ways to use art medium for creative expressions. I have a preference for stab painting over traditional application of paint to canvas. I also represent images from my memory by virtue of a combination of stab painting and repetitive lines. By taking this approach I am able to reflect a repetitive cycle through the object painted. These painting methods permits a unique connection to the world that I am creating by allowing me to become more intimately connected to the brush. While my

Awards for Excellence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Awards for Excellence - Essay Example This was just a sign of things to come. Expect more from us in the future because new talent gets discovered on a regular basis in our department. Coming to the teaching awards, Mr. Angel Garralda and Ms. Ming Cheung are both accomplished educators with a similar 'learning is a continuous, two-way process', view. They have a refreshingly new approach to teaching, 'a pro-active role for the student in the learning process.' The awards will only add responsibility and enhance their already popular teaching methods. These are given ONLY to people who have made outstanding contributions in their respective teaching disciplines over a period of time. The awards are a proof of the teaching efficiency levels at the EN department. As more and more students from all over the world, show keen interest, to be a part of our culture, we'd expect the students to be ready for an environment that provides both fun and serious learning simultaneously. The range of courses offered by the department ca ters to all the needs across all walks of life. This is the most exciting part of this unique community.

Theodore Roosevelt and his contribution to America Research Paper

Theodore Roosevelt and his contribution to America - Research Paper Example He used these enhancements to make serious and positive changes to the US. He focused upon some of the most important questions concerning the power of the government and the individuals within a nation. Body US was experiencing heavy amount of economic growth and was being regarded as the wealthiest nation when Roosevelt replaced McKinley as president. US were leading throughout the world in the production of iron, coal steel and timber when Roosevelt came into action. During that era US even experienced growth in the rate of population and exports. The growth experienced by US was beneficial but equally disastrous as this growth brought poverty, increase in child labor, unpleasant working conditions and unequal distribution of wealth. Roosevelt was of the opinion that government should intervene and limit the freedom enjoyed by private enterprises. Due to this he started regulating private businesses by making several changes to the laws and constitution, some of these changes in laws includes: the drug act, laws regarding the safety and inspection of working conditions in industries and the Pure Food Act (D'Silva 262). Although these changes were not appreciated by the business communi ty during that time period but today the importance of these changes are recognized by the citizens of US. Roosevelt was clearly of the opinion that one aspect of the society that should be directed and supervised by the government was the economy of a country. The laws and regulations added to the constitution by the president have aided the society in bringing Private Corporations such as Enron and Microsoft to justice. During the period of 1912, he tried for the third term as president under the Progressive Political party, during this session he coined and promoted some of the various changes to constitution that were later enacted under president Franklin, these changes included the stock market regulation, minimum wage clause and the Social security clause. Roosevelt played the role of an activist not only in America but throughout the world as he promoted the role of the United States as world power. During the period of 1898 US was at war with the Spanish nations and soon co nquered them, after the war US became responsible for supervising territories such as Cuba and Puerto Rico (O'Toole 300). President Roosevelt was a part of the war as an American solider and later he supported and made the American citizens realize that US was a global power. He was even a promoter of democracy as he promoted the Marshall Plan which was enacted after his death. The legacies of the president were a gift to the world and to the future of US, he was in love with the natural beauty, he liked to experience adventures such as hiking and climbing and he was the first president of US to make the issues experienced by environment as a issue to be countered by the government. He was persuaded by the Sierra Club and the chief of the US forests to take the issue of protecting the environment to the federal level as the issue could not be countered on the state level (O'Toole 240). His love for preserving the environment and his love for nature made him create policies in order o protect the

Administrator Challenges Essay Example for Free

Administrator Challenges Essay In modern society there are many challenges to police work. They can be very overwhelming but many grant satisfaction. It takes a special individual to be a police officer and perform the duties that are required by law for them to do. This paper will look at the satisfactions and challenges of police work on a day to day basis. One challenge that police officers face daily is the stress that accompanies the job. Many officers face very stressful and intense situations that need to be handled carefully. A police officer may face a crowd that is rioting and looting and is greatly outnumbered. He or she faces the risk of being overrun and this can be detrimental to their emotions. They may be in fear of their life because crowds feed off of each other and can become very aggressive and violent. In some instances the officer will face gunfire and this puts the officer in a life or death situation. See more: Foot Binding In China essay If the officer has to kill the subject then the officer may face Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and this can affect their performance of their daily duties and their personal lives. According to (Gersons, 1989) shooting incidents are a rare phenomenon in low violence police work; however, when a shooting incident occurs, the psychological impact for the officers involved may take the form of severe PTSD (Stewart,2011). There are programs that help individuals to cope with PTSD and can get help from The National Institute for Mental Health. Another challenge that our police officers face on a daily basis is the relations they have with the citizens of the community. Many members of society see the police officers as the enemy or are out to get them. This cannot be further from the truth. The officers need to know how to  communicate with the people in stressful situations. Most people do not realize that officers are called to show up at a residence and it may be the worst day of that individual’s life. Police officers communicate with people from a wide variety of backgrounds, attitudes, and preconceptions (2008). One skill an officer uses at one call may not work at another call. The officer must adapt and control the situation and use his or her training to get the facts and information from the bystanders or the victim(s). With all the challenges and stressors that come with policing there are also satisfactions that come with the job. Officers serve and protect the public. They patrol the streets to ensure the community is safe from would be offenders or to apprehend the ones that have already committed crimes. They take individuals of the streets that are a danger to society. They help people that may have a flat tire, domestic disputes, or have had their home broken in to. The officers feel satisfied when they capture the suspect and when they help people in need. When the officers are recognized for their good work they are satisfied with their job and may become more motivated to improve their performance on the job. Many strive to climb the ranks and with each promotion come more satisfaction. A career in law enforcement in itself is a satisfaction that many people do not get. Many officers do not do the job for the pay but rather the rewards that come with the job in serving and helping the community. Certain officers find it very rewarding when they can help a juvenile down the right path and to possibly mentor others from making life changing mistakes. Officers need to stay positive in their work and duties to ensure job satisfaction because it can affect the work they perform and also affect community relations as to how they see the police. Thus, poor performance can impact police-community relations by adversely affecting public attitudes toward the police (Buzawa, Austin, Bannon, 1994). In the routine of having a positive work attitude and environment it creates less stress levels and fewer symptoms of stress that can lead to absenteeism, burnout, and alcoholism. There are many reasons why people do not want to become part of the law enforcement community but there are a lot of reasons and rewards why other people feel they are being called to serve and protect. Officers face many  challenges every day from life threatening to resolving domestic disputes. They forever have a family in blue and will always share each other’s pain and satisfactions. Reference Buzawa, S. E. (1984). Determining patrol officer job satisfaction: The role of selected demographic and job-specific attitudes. Criminology, 22, 61-81. Gutahun, S., Sims, B., Hummer, D. (2008). Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment Among Probation and Parole Officers: A Case Study. PoliceOne, (). Police Communication: Why Does it Matter?. (June 2008). Retrieved from http://www.natcom.org/CommCurrentsArticle.aspx?id=886 Stewart, S. (2011, March). Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the Effect on Law Enforcement. Camp Robinson Police Department,

Environmental protection Essay Example for Free

Environmental protection Essay Environmental protection has become a major concern for society. Admittedly, with the rapid development of economy, our environment is faced with new challenges. People increasingly attach importance to the protection. So it has been common that teachers and students discuss environmental protection in class. City planners take environmental problems into consideration as well. Factories are no exception. They begin to try reducing pollution to meet the needs of environmental protection instead of the short-term interest. The main reasons are listed as follows: firstly, the serious air and water pollution affects everyone. In addition, only by making joint efforts to protect our environment can cities survive. Last but not least, businesses to make a profit pay more attention to environmental protection for their interest in the long run. From the picture above, we can see even the communication between parents and son rely on the Internet. With the rapid development of advanced science and technology, people increasingly make full use of the Internet to communicate with each other instead of face-to-face contact. As far as I am concerned, electronic communication only partly replace face-to-face contact. Admittedly, the Internet’s being put into use widely is the inevitable result of social development. It is indispensable to our daily communication. In addition, there is no denying that the electronic communication does save plenty of time for us, we can communicate easily beyond the limit of time and place. But every cion has its two sides. People are meeting increasingly on the Internet, on television screens. Undoubtedly, it is not beneficial to the deepen the emotions and between people. We cannot express our feelings fully without face-to-face contact as well. Some body language like a hug of comfort or a kiss of love will never be express through the electronic communication. Therefore, though the electronic communication bring convenience to us, to some degree, electronic communication can never replace face-to-face contact. My View on Traffic Accidents In recent years, plenty of news about people injured or killed by cars on roads can be heard , which shows us that traffic accidents have been risen. But why are there so many such terrible events? As far as I am concerned, to begin with, it is the result of more cars are running on the roads with the development of economy. Increasing accidents follow the increasing cars. In addition, there is no denying that the road conditions sometimes cant meet  the requirement of cars. But I think the most important one point is the lack of the safety awareness. And when being drunk, most people insist driving .As we all know, quite a lot of traffic accidents are due to the drivers who drive cars after drinking. Drunk drivers mind is vague, and they cant control themselves and the car well, so they can easily get into trouble out of consciousness.

The Lexical Approach And Collocations

The Lexical Approach And Collocations Collocations are words which if combined together, sound right to native English speakers. Eg: Fast food. Any other combination may sound wrong and unnatural. Eg: quick food. Collocations are not words which we put together. They co-occur naturally. Collocation is the way in which words co-occur in natural text in statistically significant ways. (Lewis, Teaching Collocation 2000:132). For Thornbury, collocation is a continuum that moves from compound words (second-hand), through lexical chunks (bits and pieces), including idioms (out of the blue) and phrasal verbs (do up), to collocations of more or less fixedness (set a new world record) (Thornbury S. 2002, How to teach vocabulary, Longman). Collocations have different strengths: Weak and Strong collocations. Weak collocations involve words which can co-occur with many other words. E.g: Red shirt. They can apply the colour red to many other words eg: red car, red door. Strong collocations have words which almost never occur separately such as the collocation: spick and span and rancid butter. There are also Unique collocations e.g, shrug shoulders. These are unique because the verb (shrug) is not used with any other noun. Medium-strength collocations: Hold a conversation, a minor operation. Hill argued that medium-strength collocations are most important for the ESL classroom. (Lewis, M., 2000: 63) Thornbury widens the definition of collocation, saying that collocation is not a frozen relationship and two collocates may even be separated from each other, eg: lay off: The company is laying more workers off. Lewis and other writers divide collocations into two types: grammatical collocation and lexical collocation. (Lewis2000) Grammatical Collocation: Eg: step into In the example above, a verb collocates with a preposition. Therefore grammatical collocations are lexical words such as an adjective, verb or noun (in our case step), which are combined with a grammatical word (preposition into). Lexical Collocation: Eg: black coffee Lexical collocations are items where two lexical words regularly and naturally occur together. Bahns (ELTJ 47/1 1993) stated that although some lexical collocations are quite direct and obvious in their meaning, others are not. In our example, black coffee clearly indicates that there is no milk in the coffee but Bahns states that collocations which are not direct eg: lay off are the ones which cause the most problems to non-native speakers since their meaning are hidden. The importance of collocations in L2 learning: Many agree that collocations are important in language learning. James Carl (1998) stated that using collocations correctly contributes greatly to ones idiomaticity and nativelikeness. 6 Lewis stated that fluency is based on the acquisition of a large store of fixed or semi-fixed prefabricated items. 7 Sonaiya (1988) went even further, saying that lexical errors are more serious because effective communication depends on the choice of words. 8 Collocations, are found in most of what we say, hear, read or write. All of these fixed expressions are stored and memorised; ready to be used when needed. If we want to retrieve these ready-to-use phrases, lexical items must be aqcuired first by being exposed to, hearing and reading them for a number of times. In theory, good quality input might lead to good quality retrieval. This in return will help learners to be more fluent because they can recognise multi-word units rather than word by word. A lexical item, which is any item that functions as a single meaning unit, regardless of its different derived forms, or of the number of words that make it, has an important role in learning a language. (Thornbury, An A-Z of ELT (Oxford: Macmillan, 2006), pg120). The importance of collocations in L2 learning was a concept that the Lexical Approach had proposed. The Lexical Approach and collocations: The lexical approach encourages learners to identify and learn collocations as lexical items rather than individual words. For example: catch a cold, is seen as a single unit of meaning (or multi-word unit) and not as three individual words with three individual meanings. According to Schmidt (CUP,2000), having words in lexical phrases rather than individually, reflects the way the mind stores and chunks language to make it easier to process. The lexical approach influenced the way we perceive lexis, the way we teach it and how we encourage learners to learn it . Vocabulary choice in language, is not haphazard but predictable. Lewis gives an example of drinking, telling us that the speaker may use the verb have. The listener can predict several words which collocate with it: tea, coffee,orange juice etc. But on the other hand, the listener does not predict words like shampoo. 9 One of the beliefs behind the Lexical Approach is that language is not made up of only traditional vocabulary and grammar but prefabricated multi-word chunks. In other words, language consists of grammaticalized lexis and not lexicalized grammar. Rather than having a syllabus which is only grammar based, the lexical approach emphasises that lexis should be at the centre of language learning. The lexical approach posits that an essential part of acquiring language is to comprehend and produce lexical chunks. These chunks help learners to make patterns of language traditionally thought of as grammar (Lewis,The Lexical Approach 1993, p. 95). _____________________________________________________________________________________ 6James, Carl. (1998). Errors in language learning and use. London: Longman. 7 Lewis, M. (1997). Implementing the lexical approach. Hove: Language Teaching Publications. 8 Sonaiya, C. (1988). The lexicon in second language acquisition: A lexical approach to error analysis. PhD Thesis. Cornell University. 9, 10 Lewis, Michael, Teaching Collocation (Hove: Language Teaching Publications, 2000) pg5 Different types of Collocation: Taken from Howert (1996), Carter(1987) and Mc.Carthy ODell(2005), here are types of collocations: Free Combination The verbs can collocate with many words to form different meanings. Example: make: I will make it clear from the beginning (make something clear) I will make him happy (make happy) In this case, they may consist of modal verbs such as make,do, have, get,take + any type of word. Restricted Combination These collocations are typically nouns, adjectives or verbs which go to together with particular words. Using other words with them make them sound incorrect to the native speaker. (i) Adjective + noun: E.g: Her condition was a major problem. (ii) Adverb + verb: E.g: He cheekily replied: I dont care! (iii) Verb + noun: E.g: Weve decided to move house. (iv) Noun + verb: E.g: The brakes screeched as he tried to stop the car. (v) Noun + noun: Usually these collocations have the pattern a.of E.g: She was holding a #basket of eggs. Delexicalised Verbs: Every language has basic verbs which are frequently used. The English language is no exception and we can find various frequent verbs (Svartvik and Ekedahl 1995) (The Verb in Contemporary English: Theory and Description, CUP 1995): Do Make Have Take Go Get E.g: It is interesting to note that these high frequency verbs in the examples are often used as Delexicalised Verbs. These delexicalised verbs have meaning when combined with other words. In other words de-lexicalised verbs have little meaning alone but if joined together with other words, they can generate a wider variety of new meanings: Eg: do your best make room have lunch take a shower go for a walk get dressed Delexicalised verbs make do What is interesting about these two verbs is that, Mc.Carthy ODell (2005:6) describe these two verbs as everyday verbs and dedicate a whole page on make and do. This clearly shows that they are very high frequency verbs in English and they probably cause a lot of confusion to learners as well! In their books index, both verbs have more than 60 different collocates each. The verbs make and do in fact like many high frequency verbs, enters into numerous collocations and idioms. Language Chunking: Make your bed! is a chunking of two words: Verb+Noun (Make + bed). This delexicalised verb is a language chunk which is a pre-fabricated language item in a formulaic way, which is then stored as a single lexical unit (and not two individual units). By storing as a single lexical unit, it is believed to quicken the mental processing of the speaker when speaking, reading and when acquiring language. The reason why it quickens this mental processing when producing language is because rather than having to connect individual word units together one by one (do and bed), the speaker can retrieve the chunk needed at one go and reduce mental processing time. Language chunking therefore is believed to help language fluency by combining other chunks to create longer ready-to-use phrases. I tend to agree with this core belief of the Lexical Approach because when I give a phrase to learners such as: Make a list of things or Remember to do your homework learners seem to retrieve and use these given ready-to-use phrases correctly to create their own sentences and meanings. Once learners understand the meaning behind the phrase, they store it in their mental lexicon. If used regularly, there is a high possibility it will help fluencycy and reduce mental processing time when speaking. Problems learners have with delexicalised verbs: Although they come naturally to native speakers, collocations formed with delexicalised verbs can be rather tricky. Some of the main problems that low level learners experience are as follows: (go to 11. Coll pg4) (12.Coll pg4) They have never been exposed to or made aware of collocations in their learning experiences. Learners often have problems with these verbs because they try to find a general meaning. They often struggle to find the right collocation, often translating possible equivalents from their own language. E.g: make a photo. Learners find it difficult to memorize collocations because they are arbitrary. Teachers are partly to blame because as Carter and McCarthy point out, vocabulary study has been neglected by linguists, applied linguists and language teachers'(1988: 1). Therefore teachers need to present collocations such as delexicalised verbs to learners to help them become more and more familiar with the different uses of make and do for example. In fact, McCarthy tells us that in vocabulary teaching there is a high importance of collocation (1990:12). The way collocation teaching is neglected in ESL classroom and the insufficient input of the target language may be a reason why learners lack a knowledge of collocation. One reason why teachers do not give such importance to collocation is because they feel safer when they teach grammar because they feel they know the rules and can explain them. Collocations are arbitrary and this leads us to the second problem: Collocations are arbitrary and are decided by convention instead of rules. Many learners have been exposed to learning languages in a systematic way i.e there is an explanation, rules and reasoning behind each grammar point eg: the first conditional: [ if + present simple], [will + infinitive]. Because they are used to learning languages in a grammatical way, learners find it difficult to accept that some words collocate while others do not and that there is no reason for this other than it is what native speakers say. Many learners ask me Why cant I say make a photo instead of take a photo? I used to feel rather unprofessional having to say because thats the way it is. Now I say: because take goes together with a photo make does not. That is the way language is naturally and natively spoken as I have already commented in section A. In fact, McCarthy said that knowledge of collocational appropriacy is part of native speakers competence. (McCarthy, M.1990Vocabulary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.1990:13). Therefore, being aware of collocations and accepting them as a window to the natural way of speaking the language is essential in learning a language. One has to admit that some are not so easy to learn. In fact, Benson (1985) clearly stated that collocations are arbitrary and non-predictable, so much so that even native speakers sometimes have to double check before deciding if a word collocates with a particular word or not. When learners are confronted with collocations like to make a mistake, learners resort to translation from L1 to understand why we use make and not do as in many other languages. However this leads to misuse of the collocation or creation of word combinations which are non-existant in English. Eg: My Italian learners sometimes say do a mistake because in their language they only have one verb, fare, which resembles make or do. Literally translated, fare una torta is do a cake from Italian to English. Lexical verbs such as make or do require memorising whole lists of words that can collocate with them. I sympathise with learners, who have to face many complicated and difficult lexicalised verbs, which have meaning differences in various contexts. Furthermore, combinations of delexicalised words are less likely to explain clearly what they mean in translation and thus are more error-prone in learner language (Lewis 1993, Nesselhauf 2005). When my learners tell me: its impossible to learn all of these phrases by heart!, I have to admit that I understand them. Collocation books like McCarthy ODells English Collocations In Use (CUP:2005), present the delexicalised verbs make and do in a way that makes a learner feel that he/she has to learn the phrases by heart. A similiar example of such a list is one below: To make an apology To do your homework To make a cake To do the dishes To make breakfast To do the laundry To make your bed To do your best To make a list To do your nails and hair To make a mistake To do the ironing, washing, cooking, etc. To make plans To do a job Learners need ways to remember the meanings of the lexicalised verbs as the ones above. It is difficult enough trying to think of grammar needed, word syntax, vocabulary and so on when trying to construct a sentence in L2 learning, let alone trying to remember and above all retrieve the right collocation needed. Problems learners have with delexicalised verbs: Making learners aware of delexicalised verbs: By helping learners to notice collocation, they can acquire vocabulary building skills eg: ability to list and categorize lexis. It also encourages them to become autonomous learners. One way of helping learners develop the habit of paying attention to chunks, rather than just individual words, when reading is by helping them make informed guesses about what word goes with do or make. Inside Out Elementary (Macmillan:16) presents a day in the life ofà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ a man and a woman. Having guessed who does what, learners read the text to check if they guessed correctly. The text includes a lot of collocations with make or do. Learners then are asked to form common expressions with make or do from the text: The most homework the beds The shopping dinner The washing up the most noise Learners have a speaking practice with make or do by saying who does or makes what in the house, using the same prompts given in the above exercise. Eg: My mother does the shopping and we make our beds etc Trying to make sense of make and do: Although it is not easy to learn collocations of make and do, McCarthy ODell in English Collocations in Use (CUP2005: 18) present us with some of the most common phrases with these two delexicalised verbs. In fact they call them Everyday verbs. It includes a list of collocations of make and do and an example on the side. Eg: Collocation Example Make an excuse Im too tired to go out tonight. Lets make an excuse and stay home! Do your hair Im not ready! I havent done my hair yet! To practice them, I would cut out the collocations and examples into separate strips. In pairs, learners would then have to try to put the example and collocation together, by trying to make sense of them. Once they have been corrected in class, I would give them a questionnaire from Collocations in Use (pg19). Having been exposed to the collocations needed in the previous activity, they have to fill in the question with either do or make, answer it and then go round and ask the questions to their classmates. Trying to find the right collocation to use: To help learners practice and be a bit more confident in their use of collocations, I like to use an activity which Lewis proposed in Teaching Collocation (Hove:112). Basically learners have to put in the missing verb in the collocations. This will help them to minimize their mistakes as our Italians made: I do a mistake. ..a mistake 2. .your homework a statement your hair an observation what you have to do Alternatively, I can give the activity some context by giving learners the activity found on page 100 in Language to go Intermediate. Here learners have to complete the text using make or do. This will help them to see how the collocation is used in a context. Helping them to remember the collocations: To recall what theyve learnt, learners need remember what theyve learnt. Thornbury 3 states that learning is remembering, which clearly shows how important memory is in learning a language. The same principle applies to collocations. One way of helping learners to remember the collocations is by revising them as much as possible . one particular activity that I like to use to recycle collocations that were met in class is Run n Grab. I divide learners into teams and I read out the end of the collocation eg: an apology. I write down Do and Make on the board. Learners have to run to the board to circle which one they think goes with the ending of my collocation. Whoever gets most points wins. Conclusion: Personally, I feel that the lexical approach has taught me a lot about vocabulary. Rather than seeing vocabulary as individual items, I can now help my learners with vocabulary by using chunks. In this case, collocations which are in themselves chunks, are essential in language learning. By frequently exposing, raising -consciousness and helping them to memorize collocations, I feel that I am appreciating more the importance of lexis in language learning.

Democracy Essay example -- essays research papers fc

In some nations, if you asked the people what they are most proud of about their own country, they might tell you about art, or architecture, great literary works, or the natural beauty of the land. But here in America, one of the things we are most proud of is our system of government. Being a democracy. The freedom to chose our own leaders. It’s ironic that the thing we are most proud of is not strictly true. We are not a direct democracy, in pure form, as Richard Parker points out. We are a Republic. What is the difference? To give a silly example from every day life, say you have a group of five people and it’s lunchtime. Where will they go for lunch? Well this IS America, and we do so love our democracy, so the group will vote. Who wants to go to McDonald’s? Three hands go up. The majority rules, the group goes to McDonald’s. This is our ideal, but it is not technically the way it works in politics. A more realistic version? Who wants to go to McDona ld’s? Three hands go up. However, John is the official representative of the group, and he thinks The Tofu House is a better choice for the group. The Tofu House it is. Richard Parker suggests that it is time to reevaluate our system of indirect democracy, and move towards a system of mass participation of the people and voting directly without the discretion of a â€Å"middle-man†, such as the Electoral College, ultimately weighing in with more power than the majority’s vote. Our textbook points out, the Electoral College was created at the same time as the Constitution, and at that time, there may have been some practical reasons for creating it. There was no competent form of mass media, and therefore no way for the general public to gain information about candidates from other states. Without knowledge of any other candidates but those from their own states, it would have been very hard for any candidate to win a national majority of votes. Times have changed, and the American public is much better equip to seek out and receive information. Our Electoral College System, however, remains largely outdated. Although it is popularly un derstood that members of the Electoral College will vote for the candidate the majority of those they are to be representing voted for, â€Å"penalties for faithless electors are practically nonexistent, and occasionally electors have opted not to vote for the candidate to whom they we... ...ith the people themselves. When the people lead, the politicians follow, and with Direct Democracy the politicians pay attention. Perhaps it is time to start exercising our authority, not just by voting in another indirect election, but by creating a process which allows, and even mandates the people to directly participate knowing that the ultimate outcome is based on how they feel, not how their representative feels. If the majority rules on McDonald’s, then that is what they shall have. Works Cited: Parker, Richard D. â€Å"Power to the Voters.† The Enduring Debate: Classic and Contemporary readings in American Politics- 3rd Edition. Ed. David Cannon, John Coleman, and Kenneth Mayer. New York, NY; W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2003. 309-317. Pomper, Gerald M. â€Å"Parliamentary Government in the United States?† The Enduring Debate: Classic and Contemporary readings in American Politics- 3rd Edition. Ed. David Cannon, John Coleman, and Kenneth Mayer. New York, NY; W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2003. 363-374. O’connor, Karen and Larry J. Sabato. Ed. Essentials of American Government: Continuity and Change, 2004 Edition. United States; Pearson Education, Inc, 2004. 424-426.

Sexuality Essay -- Social Issues, Sexual Abuse, Sexual Assault

Sexuality is defined in many ways, for the sake of this papers clarity sexuality will be defined as, sexual feelings and interactions that are defining features of romantic intimacy. (Fering 2009) Child sexual abuse (CSA) is defined in the International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences as "any [sexual] action that is inflicted upon or must be tolerated by a child against their own will or any [sexual] action about which the child cannot make a decision due to their physical, emotional, mental, and verbal inferiority." Statistics for the prevalence of CSA range from anywhere from 15 to 25 percent of women to 5 to 10 percent of men according to Deegener. (2002) However, these percentages are based on retrospective studies and are founded on reports from victims that disclose their abuse. The book â€Å"Stolen Tomorrows† by Steven Levenkron states, "The National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center reports that only 16 percent of adolescent and adult rapes are brought to light. The reports of childhood, toddler and even infant sexual assault are of course much lower..." the consequences that follow the victims of CSA for the rest of their lives are usually so severe that even if only five percent of the population reported abuse it would still be a relevant issue. Childhood sexual abuse affects the development of sexuality, creates problems in developing intimacy and leads to many mood and anxiety disorders that follow victims for the rest of their lives. When a child is forced or coerced into sexual relations, not only is their present, their childhood, taken from them but their future is also affected. The effects of CSA are varied and depend on the age at onset of abuse, use of physical force, level ... ...l self-esteem." (Noll 2003 pg. 138) CSA has very adverse impacts on devolving healthy intimate romantic relationships. Some victims of CSA decide to abstain from sexual activity altogether (Noll 2003) or feel a low sexual drive or feel guilt when aroused (Levenkron 2007) â€Å"CSA survivors have more difficulties in their adult relationships, reporting insecure attachment, lower levels of sexual and relationship satisfaction, and more marital dissolution. Two cases in â€Å"Stolen Tomorrows† of this are Gina and Olivia. Olivia’s marriage suffered, and ended in divorce, because of her total disinterest in sex. She had no sexual desire at all and lacked the ability to be aroused, which was a result of the sexual abuse her father had put her through. In order to cope with the abuse she developed a â€Å"mental novocain† that disconnected her from feeling anything â€Å"down there†.

marriage under fire :: essays research papers

Marriage under Fire We must remember what marriage is for and why God has given it the design he did. Marriage is to be between a man and a woman. This goes back to the beginning of time and why God created woman in the first place; â€Å"to provide a helpful mate for Adam; it was not good that man should be alone† (Genesis 1:18, 20-23). So we see that marriage was God's idea, not men. Knowing this, why in the world would we as Americans give that right to homosexual couples? Marriage is a blessing the God gave to man. In society today, many individuals have forgotten the importance of marriage. People have the tendencies to marry anyone at anytime because they do not see the significance of marriage and God. America was founded by God and his beliefs. The United States screams God everywhere from currency to the Pledge of Allegiance. Thus meaning, why would the United States, a place of God, allow something morally wrong and sinful? Some would argue that homosexual marriage is a step in the righ t direction for human rights. They believe it is an act of freedom. This is wrong because homosexual matrimony is everything God stands against. Citizens today do not have the right to try and add or delete any scriptures in the Bible to help themselves. God made the Bible to guide people in the right direction. People need to read the bible in order to understand the word, not to change it. Accepting homosexual marriage would only hurt America. It is a major threat to the structure of families. The country should not take lightly the meaning of marriage and on a higher note try and take it away. â€Å"Marriage is like a brand new car: once you take that car off of the car lot the value of it depreciates. Giving homosexuals the right to marry would depreciate the value of marriage and the pride it once carried will be no more. Not only does it do that, but more importantly it goes against God! We must preserve our values and morality for generations to come, for those children being born today and next year.† The marriage between two people of the same sex is against Gods beliefs, a threat to the structure of families and a sin to mankind. With dedication and perseverance people who oppose gay marriages can succeed in ending the debate of making it legal.

Differences between Chinese and American food culture Essay

The histories, boundaries, population, religions, politics, folks, economy of America and China are not the same, so the food culture of the two countries are not the same. Chinese culture starts from 1,700,000 years ago. When someone says something about Chinese food culture, they must praise the color, taste, smell, shape of the Chinese dish and the types of the dish. Most of people in China are used to have rice and wheat as their daily main food resource. Meat is not the major food for us. Chinese people always believe that rice, wheat, vegetable, fruit are the best for our health. In contrast, meat would give more troubles to our health, for example, heart attack, high blood pressure, and etc. It is because the population pressure, we should have the rice and wheat for the main food, we do not have enough meat to eat. We eat vegetable to help pharynx the main food, for the main food is not delicious, the function of vegetable in china is like salt. Chinese cook should decorate the food, so the food which is not delicious becomes more delicious and wonderful. Because of handicraft industry in china is develop, the technology of processing the food is the second to none in the world. These are the characters of Chinese food culture. The technology of processing the food in China is very develop, a lot of food that the foreigner thought is unable to eat can be made when you see it, your appetite will develop at once. We eat every thing if possible. we do not have any taboo. The writings about aid the famine are a lot, so we can know which potherb can be eaten when the famine comes. Dining is the first require in China, we thought eating food is a happy thing. We can not eat full and dress warm in the past years, so eating has the special position in Chinese lives. American people mostly have meat as their food resource. The most important is that they mostly have beef, chicken, shrimp, turkey, instead of pork and lamb. The food style gives American people much more energy than we have. They are much stronger than us. That is the fact! For meat is delicious in nature, American do not need to decorate their food, it limits the development of the cook. When they are rich, they use the dining tools to represent their rich. They do not purse eat because it is easy content for them, they purse love instead. Americans do not daintily the details of the food, it is not excessive too, it is in a popular style, it is voluntary the whole day. In restaurants, you can easily find hamburger, steak, ribs with a little rice and a piece of bread, because their live style are so fast. The styles that Chinese and Americans eat are very different too. In China, any dinner party has a form that everyone sits around the table. We use round table in the banquet, it means solidify, manner and having the common habits. The delicious dinner is placed in middle of the table. People toast for each other and take vegetables to others. It shows the respects and comity among people in front of the fantastic thing. Although this kind of eat method has obvious shortages in sanitation, it matches the common thought â€Å"reunion† of our race. In American dinners, though the food and wine are important, actually that is a setoff. The purpose of the party is making friends. They make friends by chat with their neighbor. It also represents Americans personality and respect. When Americans have meals, they do not allow people make a noise, they do not allow take vegetables for others, do not allow smoking, do not allow compelling others drinking wine, do not allow take off clothes in public, do not allow discuss sickening. If you have finished food in a restaurant, you should leave a ten per cent tip for lunch, fifteen per cent for dinner. The tip should be calculated on the basis of the total before the addition of tax. The method we drink tea is the quintessence of our country, it has a long standing. When we drink tea, we emphasize clear and elegant. We daintily the matching of the tea and tea cups. There are many kinds of tea cups in China. Chinese rarely hold on tea party, if there are some, the hosts themselves pour tea for the guests. Chinese like drinking tea instead of drinking coffee. But Americans like drinking coffee, they also drink tea, they hold tea parties sometimes. The conversation is the core of the party. The tea party is a place where can train the diplomat. The dining tools between the two countries are different. Chinese use chopsticks. The thin and long chopsticks cannot be used to cut food, so we usually use our teeth to act as knives. We hold our food, meat or vegetable, with the chopsticks, send them to the mouths, bite off a part of it and remain the other part on the chopsticks. That’s the usual way we eat. We are also used to hold up our bowls when having rice or soup. The etiquette in the America requests that when eating, bowls and plates cannot leave the tables. Food should be cut by knives to fit into the mouths. Of course your mouth cannot touch the plates or bowls. So the regular process is like this. You cut your steak on the plate with fork and knife, send the meat cube into the mouth with fork and nothing will be returned back but the fork alone.

Numbermatching.com business strategy

Advertising is an impersonal selling and communication method which makes use of various types of media to reach the target public in short time. Advertising aims at gaining exposure, creating awareness, changing attitudes of target customers in favor of sponsors product and services and also at effecting sales and improving corporate image. Media Selection for No. 1 match Media planning includes decisions relating to which media should be used and when and how often should advertisements be placed in the selected media. The basic purpose of media planning is to optimize the communication reach to the relevant audience within the available budget. Effective and efficient adverting rests on decisions based on collecting data from appropriate internal and external sources. a)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Press (including all types of newspapers and magazines): wider circulation, limited life, good for mass communication and reminder message. b)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Direct Mail: Restricted circulation, flexible usage, private in nature, high impact. c)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Outdoor (including hoardings, posters, neon signs): local circulation, durable, reminder media. d)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Radio: Wide reach, cuts through illiteracy barriers, quick reminder messages possible. e)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Television: Combines both Audio and Visual, limited reach, high degree of viewers involvement, suitable for product demonstration. f)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Miscellaneous (such as exhibition/fairs): Local reach, good product demonstration, impactful response. Promotion: It is through Budget, theme, media, timing. If major resources are to be committed, plan for measurement of promotional effectiveness should be include feedback from the market place, marketing research. Like products and prices, customization of advertising and promotion are very much possible in cyber marketing. Besides customization, the customer is contacted when he is giving full attention to the website. In fact, when a customer views any site he has done so after deliberate and conscious effort and choice. This increases his commitment to the message that he is viewing on the internet. It generates a hierarchy of impacts like creation of awareness, interest, desire and action on the consumer. Internet has been found to be amenable to finer tuning for most of these impacts. As a result, it is possible to better transport the customer from one level of impact to the next higher one and do so more quickly. The combination of this factor with the feature of individualization makes the output very powerful. Direct Marketing All corporate marketing activities have to be necessarily carried out in such a way that they lead to generation of surplus funds. Market segmentation helps in optimising the marketing mix for a segment. The output of a segmentation analysis is a profile of customer target group focusing on details that will best help to develop product, promotional, pricing and distribution strategies. The set of benefits sought to build the configuration of benefits sought and then select benefits in our offering that will constitute a critical advantage to act as the buying inducement. Segmentation of a market is not an arbitrary process, but neither is there a unique set of segments to be discovered. The two approaches, top down and bottom up (logical division and offering) which are used for breaking up. Public Relations measuring the degree of success of a public relations campaign or improving the response of personnel in numbermatch.com Measuring performance against standards Measurement of performance against standards should ideally be a forward-looking or on proactive basis with a view to detecting deviations in advance of their occurrences, and should be avoided by appropriate corrective action ‘in advance’. The project manger can often predict probable perceive much ahead of schedule, it should be uncovered as early as possible. References Philip Kotler (2002), 11th ed., â€Å"Marketing Management†, PHI-New Delhi

Concord Bookshop Paper Essay

The evidence of change has never been more apparent then as witnessed in the health care industry at present time. Both internal and external influences are serving to create a rapidly evolving health care marketplace that requires health care organizations to not only recognize change but be willing to incorporate a learning culture that is proactive to continuous change (Spector, 2010). The successful implementation of change is highly dependent upon how change is introduced, applied, and supported that enables old processes to be dismissed, new ideas are introduced, and a new vision that includes desired changes is accepted by all employees that it will influence (Spector, 2010). The owners of the Concord Bookshop viewed change as a stand-alone process for improving their business or the introduction of a business solution (Spector, 2010). The real application of change has to do with involving people to change a process, technology, or even organizational wide change modalities. Instead, the owners and board directed change and assumed that if it was mandated then change would be automatic (Spector, 2010). Communication A critical phase that was overlooked by Concord Bookshop is communication planning. Analytical assessments and the recognition of what changes are needed is a valid starting point, but if these changes are not communicated effectively then changes will be met with great resistance and confusion by employees, vendors, and most importantly customers (Spector, 2010). Awareness must be communicated that identifies the reason for change and the downside if change is not implemented (Spector, 2010). This awareness depends on ensuring that the communication applied is specifically designed for the audience it is intended. Communication of change will be delivered differently to front-line employees than it would be to upper management and  still different to vendors and customers. The owners of the Concord Bookshop communicated only to inform that change has taken place without giving anyone a chance to understand why change is needed in the first place. Sponsorship A buy-in by those most capable of implementing change is vital to ensuring a high level of change management and successful change (Spector, 2010). This is not the same as supporting change but instead is the active role of senior business leaders in involved in active participation that results in evidence of change. Management acting as agents of change can lead from the front and help identify problems, communicate, and create positive change environments. This is also an avenue to ensure the vision and direction of change is maintained throughout the change process (Spector, 2010). Resistance No matter how well the communication and sponsorship of change implementation processes is applied; there is always a level of resistance. This resistance must be managed in a proactive and timely manner (Spector, 2010). Change agents, teams, and leaders must recognize change resistance and apply proper processes and tools to support change implementation in all phases of change in an organization. The Concord Bookshop did not consider employee resistance to change and went as far as to disregard communication stating the reasons for resistance. A business that view employees as a liability and a cost, fail to see employees as human capital and assets. This view is counter to how vendors and customers view them (Spector, 2010). The Concord Bookshop represents an excellent example of how not to attempt change. If employees would have been included in the early stages of analysis to define the change required, they would have created a proactive change management environment (Spector, 2010). Instead, the surprise of change that was perpetuated upon the employees was met with across the board resistance, bewilderment, anger, and derision that resulted in the loss of many highly qualified employees and management. These factors created a  failure of change management where the loss of employees and resulting customers would cost the company far more than if they had taken the time to implement change management process correctly to begin with (Spector, 2010). References Spector, B. (2010). Implementing organizational change: Theory into practice (2nd ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Compare the Ways in which John Steinbeck and Thomas Hardy Explore the Theme of Loneliness Essay

The two books have one clear element in common. The two authors, Steinbeck and Hardy, give us a great outlook on loneliness in its many forms. They communicate their ideas and thoughts to us in a very similar manner, despite being from very different times and walks of life. Of Mice and Men, is set and was written during the Great Depression of the United States of America in the early 1930’s, in the Salinas Valley of California, tells us the story of George Milton and Lennie Small. The two migrant workers, bound together by an unusual and sure friendship, are in pursuit together of the â€Å"Great† American Dream – their dream. They will have their own land, be their own masters and no longer have to answer to anyone, and finally live in peace. On the other hand we have The Withered Arm, set in the early 19th Century as one of Hardy’s Wessex Tales, where he lived all his life. Hardy tells us the tale of a young woman, Gertrude Lodge, as she begins her new life. However, things are not what they should have been as Gertrude is afflicted with an unknown blight, her happiness both threatened and later destroyed. She is not completely alone – her plight is intertwined with that of Rhoda Brook, who carries a great pain in her heart and a great power, or perhaps a curse, that not even she realises. The two texts are each set in the same rural environment as that of their authors, both bringing us the tale of so many people struggling through their lives as best they can. In Of Mice and Men we see that every man, and woman, has their own dreams, their own obsessions to pine away for, to imagine and envisage when they are so often so lonely – each has their own thoughts, their method, of escapism from the reality they live in. The Withered Arm, again, in a different manner shows characters angry, obsessed, with lives they could have had and the possibilities that they have lost or had taken away from them. Each are victims of circumstance, each yearn for lives that are no longer theirs, each for a chance now gone. In each difficulty we can see a parallel, and in both books we can see characters sharing the same basic challenges to overcome, and obstacles in their path. Both show us some of the many facets and characteristics of loneliness and trouble in this world – no matter how little they look for difficulty and dilemmas, people will always manage to find them, no matter how hard they strive against it. â€Å"The best laid schemes o’ mice and men Gang aft agley [Often go wrong] And leave us nought but pain For promised joy† Robert Burns As Of Mice and Men begins, we are shown the two migrant farm workers, George and Lennie, on their way to a new job, a new start, â€Å"bucking† barley at a Californian ranch; fleeing much undue upset in their last town, mostly thanks, despite his original intentions, to Lennie. It is late evening and they both spend the night by the Salinas River before continuing on to their new place of work the next morning. It is here that we first discover some of the main personality differences, and conflicts, between the two characters, and learn of their aspirations and their future. We immediately see much of their natures and that of their friendship as Lennie â€Å"flung himself down and drank from the surface of the green pool†¦snorting into the water like a horse.† Lennie dives headlong, dunking his head into the murky waters of the Salinas like an animal, all for a drink of water; George restrains him, attempting to keep him in line and to keep him safe. George and Lennie have struggled their way through life together, as an inseparable pair, not like all the other hopefuls out there, â€Å"Because I got you an’ you got me† – together they might just get somewhere. The way this particular phrase is repeated so much tells us a lot about their friendship and how they both so desperately need it to survive. â€Å"The first man was small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp, strong features†¦every part of him was defined.† We see George as the sharp and able leader who gives Lennie his direction, blunt and bitter when it comes to his frustrations. All too often feeling taunted by the world, his life, and the problems they each throw at him – no matter how hard he tries and how much he accounts for it. Despite his quick temper and scathing reprisals, he holds a great care and affection for his travel-partner and the companionship he brings him – much more than is at first apparent. George feels responsible for Lennie, he has been Lennie’s guardian ever since the passing-away of his Aunt Clara, and no matter how hard he tries he always, and always will, feel that Lennie’s troubles, Lennie’s mistakes and faults are his own and that which he must resolve and reconcile – however much they may cause him yet more problems of his own. George feels a great loneliness inside, believing in his heart himself to be as worthless as every other like him, and as a result of this he gains his purpose – to become somebody, and he knows that is something he and Lennie must do and can only do together. Without Lennie he would be nothing, no more than every other man like him – alone and without hope. â€Å"Behind him walked his opposite, a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, with wide, sloping shoulders†¦he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws†¦his arms did not swing but hung loosely at his sides.† Lennie, we can already see if very different to George, a slow simpleton, likened to an animal on two counts now, expressing his simple personality and impulsive nature. It is thanks to the pair’s great bond and need that we see Lennie as such a vital character in the book, for George is not the only man to whom Lennie brings a purpose, it is around him that so much of the story unfolds and revolves about. Despite the simplicity in his manner and unsure path throughout the story, Lennie brings certainty to all those around him. They are drawn to the raw and basic companionship that his presence brings – he is both consort and confidant for all their thoughts and feelings. He neither understands nor takes in much of what they say but, rather than wasting their breath, it seems even more a boon unto them. Lennie is like a wandering sheep and it is George that gives him his direction and his purpose, and as he takes his lead from George, Lennie in turn gains his own shape and dream. Lennie’s simple, cumbersome shape walks always in George’s shadow, always behind him wherever he may go, no matter what. For Lennie life is as simple as he is – it is that which seems to create so many problems for them both, in turn presenting the answers to so many others, and it is this which gives Lennie such a lasting effect on all those around him. The two are together in the pursuit of their own dreams, each finding both a purpose and the means in the other. George dreams of his own land, his own life, and it is much the same for Lennie, on his own basic level. Lennie wishes to care for his own creatures, his rabbits. He loves to hear every word of them that he can get, and George loves to tell them to him – so obsessed and incensed are they with merely the thought of what lies ahead for them with the success of their great plan. This form of â€Å"dreaming† and hoping that many of the characters of this story holds shows how everyone of them wishes to escape from the present world that they live in, where society demands everything of them when they have nothing to hold as their own, and nothing to give. Together these two continue their journey, their unique bond always apparent as they cross upon the lives of many others, all showing the properties of loneliness and all for different reasons, giving us an outlook on how so many in this world are alone and isolated, and how what George and Lennie have is so valuable. â€Å"Ain’t many guys travel together†¦maybe everyone in the whole damn world is scared of each other.† The pressure of the â€Å"American Dream† and the demands of that society’s doctrines and social structure to achieve are imposed upon everyone and anyone and this is why it becomes such a great feature and driving force behind so much of the loneliness of this book. Every common man goes to America to succeed and achieve something, but society inflicts quite the opposite upon them – projecting, forcing upon them, an image of how people should think and most certainly be resulting in loneliness and isolation, a dissatisfaction of themselves and those around them and the ongoing fear of amounting to absolutely nothing. It is ironic that this very society which sets out to have everyone achieve and succeed does quite the opposite, causing so many problems along the way. The nature of the â€Å"American Dream† that so many in this story hold in their minds is that very thing which isolates every one of them from each other, and dooms them to failure. Upon arriving at the ranch, they are met by an old man named Candy and his now old and scrawny dog. It is Candy who explains to them the ways of the ranch, first showing them around and then, as the story progresses, introducing the personalities of the other ranch hands to them. We learn much about Candy himself and who he is, seeing in the second chapter Candy caught listening in on George and Lennie’s words together, as George attempts to keep Lennie in check and keep him safe. Candy was listening simply to feel as a part of their conversation, to feel involved in something, for Candy craves conversation in any form, so alone does he feel. It can be seen that now for so much of his life Candy has been separated from the other men, isolated from all others. Since Candy lost his hand in an accident upon the farm he has been unable to work with the others, condemned to the menial tasks and solitary life during the day, and now thanks to his advancing years he is even more isolated. His only companion throughout all this time has been his pet dog, a source of consternation for the other men as it nears the end of its days, its presence being an eyesore to them all and odour a cause of much dismay. The animal had been his companion since its birth, and now old and suffering from rheumatism, the men convince Candy to allow them to put it out of its misery for him. As Candy grudgingly agrees, against a great sadness, he loses his oldest and closest friend, and again he feels truly alone. Having no one, he attaches himself to Lennie and George and to the dream they both share and makes himself a part of it, willing to offer all he has, his life’s work and savings, for it to be so. However, as that dream is again jeopardised, perhaps fatally, he still wishes to carry on and fulfil the dream – for it is all he has left. It this desperation of Candy’s to make his new dream, their dream, become so, that yet another man becomes tied up in the illusion and the hope that it brings. Crooks is a fellow worker upon the ranch, a stable buck, working to repair saddles, tools and to look after the horses, unable to do other work since he was crippled, kicked in the back by one of the horses he was working with. We have never heard much of Crooks, only chance phrases from the other men, snatches of comments in the middle of a conversation; he is not often talked about, and never talked to – Crooks is a Negro. We do not see him for the majority of the book for he is never with the other men, always separated from everyone, simply because of the discrimination, the ignorance and the prejudices of that time. As the only Negro in the area, he is completely alone, without anyone but himself for so much of his life, but it was not always so. Crooks used to have someone – he used to live with his family, they owned a farm, he was with his brothers, his parents – his family, and he was counted as someone; now he isn’t even counted. The â€Å"American Dream† tells us of equality, of everyone having a chance to attain their dreams, to have something to hold, be proud of and call their own – in America everyone and anyone can have just this and be somebody unless, of course, if they are black. â€Å"This is just a nigger talkin’†¦so it don’t mean nothing, see?† This contradiction and hypocrisy intermittent throughout the dream is that which causes Crooks to be just who he is – alone and isolated, helpless and unable to anything about it. When Lennie wanders into Crooks’ living area simply looking for company as the other men are all away in the town, Crooks shows outrage and indignation that a white man would presume it his right to simply walk into his room without leave. However, Lennie’s innocence wins through, despite Crooks’ irritation, â€Å"Crooks scowled, but Lennie’s disarming smile defeated him.† As Crooks begins to talk to Lennie, and discover the nature of his relationship with George, we see his jealousy that another man could have someone so easy to talk to, such a simple and easy friendship. Such is his bitterness and jealousy over the pair’s companionship that Crooks goes on to taunt and tease Lennie with the possibility that George is injured and is no longer going to be there. He tells Lennie that he too is alone and must look after himself and continue life knowing he had someone, had something, and lost it as Crooks did. Crooks wants Lennie to feel what his pain is every day, every hour, and make someone else feel how he does – and, in doing so, make himself feel less alone. â€Å"A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody†¦a guy gets lonely and he gets sick†. As Lennie’s anger flares up, we see that perhaps Crooks isn’t so malicious after all, for he placates Lennie – he wants him to stay, despite him being a white man, one who took his life away from him, an enemy. So alone is he that any company will do, black or white – it doesn’t matter any more; and so â€Å"It was difficult for Crooks to conceal his pleasure with anger,† as Candy joins Lennie. He only has himself and what little company that he can find; he has been separated from others, alone for so long, simply because of the colour of his skin, so isolated thanks to an ignorant and naive prejudice, so much for a dream – when Crooks came to America he found an ongoing nightmare. There should be equality, and this is what America shouted aloud to the world – everyone in America has a dream to live out, and everyone who comes to America has a chance. However, this is not the case for Crooks – despite what people claimed, despite what the â€Å"American Dream† told them, he has nothing but material possessions, and to him they re nothing. Reading books is his only source of company, but â€Å"Books ain’t no good. A guy needs somebody – to be near him.† When Crooks first learns of their dream, not quite as they intended for it was their dream and nobody else’s’, he scoffs for has heard this kind of a story all before – he has seen hundreds of other hopefuls come through the ranch and continue on into nothing. He tells them this mockingly, and also to end their hopes for they too are going nowhere. However, as Candy justifies their hopes in defence, he subsides for he sees the possibilities himself, gets caught up in the trio’s aspirations and dreams, as Candy did, and pleads to be taken along, to join them – simply to be somewhere with others who might accept him for who he is and not for what. Crooks begins to open up, he finally believes himself to be an equal and to be counted, and he has been given back both his hope and a real chance. However, things are not to be as they hoped as the wife of Curley, the boss’ son, enters. As always the men are wary and bid her leave and in response her bitter temper rises. Crooks stands up to her, thinking outside his place in his newfound happiness, and she drills into him, makes him again realise just who he is, how little all he says and thinks is valued and how much power she holds over him. For a moment Crooks had become a man again and believed in his own freedom, but Curley’s wife put an end to that, to his open thought and his belief in all his hopes of being his own man again. â€Å"Crooks stared hopelessly at her, sat down†¦and drew into himself†¦Crooks had reduced himself to nothing, no personality, no ego†¦Everything that might be hurt drawn in†¦into the indomitable pride of the Negro.† Crooks the Negro presumed to think himself on the same level as Curley’s wife, to cap all the isolation and rejection from every other person on the ranch. So enraged is she that we see the malicious and bitter side of her nature born out of the oppression, the distress and torment of countless similar situations where no one ever listens, where she is always alone. She gives him no quarter as her scathing, bitter anger lashes into him. This conflict amongst and between the oppressed and repressed – first between Candy and Crooks, Crooks believing their dream to be as hopeless as all the rest, so demoralised has he become thanks to the life that American society has put him through, and then between Crooks and Curley’s wife, simply leads them in a circle, and right back to square one. Both are without freedom and hold little control over their own rights, and still they are brought into conflict by the ways in which society portrays the world and treats each of them, one putting the other’s hopes and liberty again into doubt, painting a wholly despondent and bleak future -all the more separated from each other, all the more isolated and alone. Curley’s wife always appears as a woman up to no good, spoken of hurriedly in whispered conversations. She is always out looking for trouble with the other men, always holding apparent bad intentions as she flaunts herself in a vain attempt to attract them to her, willing to do anything for companionship, and as a result getting quite the opposite. George had always recognised her danger, but Lennie is blind to every bit of it. However, we begin to see that she isn’t up to such wickedness as we are first led to believe, and her bitter tongue is simply born of a life of loneliness. The men always shy away from her fearing blackmail from a work mate or Curley’s wrath if they were to dare the stigma and go against the rules of society, and become friendly with another man’s wife. This fear of the bosses’ authority and their abuse of it is yet another barrier that stands between ever establishing some true ideals of equality. She has been alone and isolated by everyone for so long, not even her husband listens to her, simply telling her what he wants to say and never waiting for a response. Lennie, never vigilant nor wary for he has no reason to be, is the first person that hasn’t looked at her with fear in his eyes, for he is different; she has tried everything and seems doomed to failure – everyone is repulsed, everyone resists her, everyone bar Lennie, and she latches onto him because of this. One day she catches him on his own and without George always looking over his shoulder. He is like an open book to her, and instantly accepts her for exactly what she is. She delights in finally finding someone who is such a perfect companion, who no longer draws back away from her in fear, but talks to her as he would anyone else. Despite what is first apparent, she simply wants to be with someone who listens. We learn that she once had a life, once had a chance and could have been somebody, been somewhere and just perhaps have got somewhere in life, but had it taken away from her through no fault of her own, but the unjust and unreasonable actions of another – her own mother. To escape that, to escape a dead end and lonely life where one that should be so close to her takes her chances and dreams away from her, she married Curley and inadvertently runs into something much worse. She had a dream, found a chance and lost it thanks to a situation entirely out of her control, and things only go down hill from there. She is alone unable to do anything to escape the life that she now leads, no one is willing to talk to her, she is confined to the ranch and no longer has any chance of happiness, or simply of finding a friend. Yet again, a pursuer of the â€Å"American Dream† finds quite the opposite. She revels in Lennie’s companionship, temporarily feeling as if she were no longer alone in the world as Crooks did, and so tells him things that she has told no other, opening herself to him and finding that he accepts all that she says without doubt or uncertainty. However, as she learns of Lennie’s love for the touch and feel of soft things, she lets him closer without restraint or forethought, lets him touch and hold her hair. As she draws away in worry that her hair (and subsequently her looks) are being dishevelled, the one thing she believes herself to truly hold is mishandled, and so she pulls away, expressing her distress. Lennie panics and does the only thing that his simple mind can think of – resist, and so he grips hold of her tighter, unwilling to let go, he is confused and frightened and understands nought of what is happening. He fears that if George were to find out that he had made someone unhappy and done wrong by them he would abandon and discard him, fearing disapproval if his actions were ever discovered; and so he clamps his hand over her mouth, hoping that none would hear the noise. He grips even tighter as she struggles all the more desperately in the pain that his awesome strength is causing her, and he jerks and shakes her body in response, in an attempt to silence her. In this he succeeds, but to an extent that he never intended – he unwittingly breaks her neck. Yet again Lennie has caused great harm without ever realising it possible, and this time the outcome is greatly worse. She was always alone, always without somebody, even those closest to her appear to have wished against her happiness; John Steinbeck signifies this to us by never naming Curley’s wife – she was never important to the person, and the people, that she should have been. As soon as she finds someone that was conceivably different, perhaps wasn’t like all the others, she takes it all too far too soon, without thinking of the consequences. As a result she loses everything. The story ends in the pursuit of Lennie, George goes after him with the other men for he cannot let them get to him first and it is here that we are reminded of Candy’s words upon his own companion, his pet dog, â€Å"I ought to of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn’t have let no stranger shoot my dog.† George finally catches up with Lennie at their meeting point where they stayed that first night before making their way onto the ranch. Lennie has been plagued by images and hallucinations from his past and his imagination, so distraught has he become over doing something so wrong and upsetting George in such a huge way, without ever intending to he managed to take away every hope the two had of achieving their dream all thanks to the pressure put upon him to do right by everyone, make no mistakes and allow none to hear of the rest, which leads to him causing more problems than ever before. George has Lennie imagine their dream once more, for that was always how Lennie was happiest – imagining his future, escaping from the present. It is in this moment that George puts the gun to the back of Lennie’s head, and, fighting off his shaking hand, pulls down upon the trigger. He never wanted to, but he had to – this was the only possible choice George could have made for the ultimately innocent Lennie, nothing he could do would have been easier, or better, for Lennie. George in doing so loses his one and only companion, every hope he ever had of being somebody and every hope of those around him that became a part of their dream – all in that instant every hope was lost. Such is the despair that Candy finds it difficult to let go, he wants to continue the dream and to finish it, despite all which has happened, but he knows that is never possible now. Lennie was the one that held everything, everyone, together and gave them all hope and a chance, and now he was gone. The Withered Arm tells us a story of the ordeal of Rhoda Brook, her son, Farmer Lodge and his newly married wife, Gertrude, as Thomas Hardy chooses to constantly switch your attention, not concentrating on single character’s loneliness and hardships, but that of four. We first meet Rhoda Brook working in the cow sheds, a milkmaid, and we instantly recognise how emotionally isolated and detached from others she is. As the other characters about her chat among themselves she chooses to remain apart, and uninvolved, from them all. We see how alone and different from the other simple farm hands she is, â€Å"He hasn’t spoken to her for years,† whilst they talk about her and the notorious love affair she had with the Farmer Lodge – and his recent marriage to a young lady not from nearby, but the city. She is one apart from the rest, not like them, and no longer does she care or worry over their words and thoughts of her. She remains impassive throughout the conversation and the others comments about her, â€Å"She knew she had slyly been called a witch.† Her physical loneliness and separation, probably much out of choice, is also elaborated upon as â€Å"She milked slightly apart from the rest,† as well as through the description of where she has chosen to live, â€Å"their course lay apart from the rest†. The truth about Rhoda and Farmer Lodge’s affair, now many years in the past, is widely known in the area. Long ago they were together and for unexplained reasons she was abandoned – perhaps upon the realisation of Rhoda’s pregnancy. The very thing meant to bring a couple closer together and bring with it happiness and companionship may have brought completely the opposite for Rhoda. However, Farmer Lodge has developed very materialistic views, adhering and conforming to those of the society he lives in. Rhoda was below his class, below him, and he could never have been seen in a permanent relationship with her because of that – society would never have accepted him. Another possible reason is that of Rhoda’s advancing years and waning beauty – her age is closer to that of Lodge’s and so his materialism again pushes him away from her as he chooses to marry a young and still beautiful girl not long out of her teen.This is what he feels he must have – the best. With the arrival of Gertrude Lodge the final brick is laid in the wall standing between Rhoda and her happiness, between her and Lodge and both of them and their son. We recognise instantly that Gertrude is neither country-born nor country-bred, and knows little of her new life and what lies ahead. From the beginning she is almost completely alone – she is a young lady, highborn, and not long out of her teens, lady-like and beautiful, and there are none like her that she can communicate with. Gertrude worries much over others’ opinions of her, as she desires so much to be readily accepted into her new community. However, things are not to be all she could hope for, as she soon realises how alone she is to be as society separates her from the majority of those around her, thanks to the strict taboos on cross-class relationships and of a lady socialising with those of the lower class. When Rhoda learns of Gertrude’s arrival she has her son discover ever detail and feature of the girl, sizing her up and comparing herself to Gertrude in her jealousy, for she believes that it should be she, not Gertrude, that Farmer Lodge should have married and is bitterly angry that he refuses to acknowledge their son and even what they both had between each other as anything but insignificant and irrelevant. The son that Rhoda and Lodge both had together is yet another great example of the loneliness that this story portrays as his mother’s loneliness and emotional feelings merely add to that of his own. Hardy chooses to give him no name, as did Steinbeck with Curley’s wife, emphasising how unimportant and worthless he is in the eyes of those that he should mean so much to. His father rejects him outright – barely ever acknowledging his presence, â€Å"He took no outward notice of the boy whatsoever,† and when he does it is only as an inferior and one of no consequence as the boy is described as â€Å"Just one of the neighbourhood.† Even his own mother, with whom he has lived for all his years, is unconcerned with him, so obsessed and incensed with her own dilemma that she simply uses him as ammunition, and justification, of her right over others to Lodge. He is used as a spy upon Gertrude and Lodge by his mother, if not that then he is always at work upon one household duty or another, and despite all that he does none of it seems to satisfy his mother. He is barely ever given any affection at all, seemingly only useful for errands and chores that Rhoda cannot bring herself to do. Despite her anger over Farmer Lodge’s total lack of acceptance of their son, she too does much the same, and never realises the frustrations that he hides underneath as a result of this all, â€Å"His mother not observing that he was cutting a notch with his pocket knife into the beech-backed chair.† The son has no father figure to follow, but certainly not a good example, and his mother tries to set him one no better – she doesn’t even make the effort. Rhoda develops an obsession with Gertrude whom she has neither met nor even seen. Such is her fixation that one night she is visited in a troubled dream by an image, the distorted and repulsive impression of Gertrude that Rhoda has built up in her mind through her bitter jealousy. â€Å"The figure thrust forward its left hand mockingly, so as to make the wedding ring it wore glitter in Rhoda’s eyes.† This thing that Rhoda believes Gertrude to be taunts her, thrusting the proof of her marriage to Farmer Lodge before her very eyes – the thing that Rhoda herself so covets and desires for herself. As the creature draws closer, Rhoda grips its arm in fright and hurls it to the floor. One day Gertrude visits Rhoda in her small house upon the hill, and Rhoda sees her for what she really is. Gertrude, in her loneliness in Lodge’s great manor house, comes to Rhoda for companionship, and in her she finds a friend. At first Rhoda is unresponsive, but slowly she begins to come round, to see through all the lies she has told herself all too often in her resentment at being alone. However, all is not to be so perfectly resolved, as we learn of Gertrude’s arm – the strange marks, like as that of fingers’, upon the flesh and over time they gradually worsen and deteriorate. â€Å"It looks almost like finger marks†¦as if some witch, or the devil himself, had taken a hold of me there, and blasted the flesh.† Gertrude’s other sorrow becomes apparent as she too has realised the faith that the farmer puts into face value and beauty – for she believes that he will begin to love her less if the arm does not heal as it should. As a result, over time, Gertrude begins to preoccupy herself and obsess about her arm as Rhoda did over Farmer Lodge and it continues to worsen. No one understands its nature, no one knows of a cure and Gertrude, stricken with worry and concern, turns again to Rhoda, following perhaps a maid’s, or a worker’s, advice, and the irony in this is how many would believe Rhoda to be the guilty party, the witch, cursing upon Gertrude and that she of all people would know her adversary best. Rhoda meanwhile says nothing upon the matter of the arm, merely inquiring upon it, hoping that it might recover. For Rhoda neither understands what effect she has had upon Gertrude, nor knows how she caused it – much of the time she vainly tells herself that it is nothing but a coincidence. All the same, Rhoda apprehensively leads Gertrude across the hills and fields one day to Conjuror Trendle, a man renowned for powers that other people believe in more than he. â€Å"He affected not to believe largely in his own powers and when warts that had been shown him for the cure miraculously disappear†¦he would say lightly, ‘Oh I only drink a glass of grog upon ’em†¦perhaps its all chance’, and immediately turn the subject.† Trendle lives many miles apart from other men, separated by their views and taboos of that society upon witchcraft and anything related. He has been cast away by their prejudices all because he has a talent that they neither possess nor understand, and they fear him for this. He merely uses what he has to help people as best he can, getting nothing but fear and aversion in return, and this he does for Gertrude too. Despite the rumours and whispers that people speak behind his back, he does what he knows to be best all the same – rejecting the constraints of society for his own freedom, and in turn having much of it taken away. He shows to Gertrude the image of an enemy, the only one capable of causing such a blight, and Rhoda’s fears are to be realised as, despite Gertrude never telling her who the image she saw was, she never spoke to Rhoda again, never mentioned the arm and never called around her house, simply looking for a companion, again – for now her unsee n assailant had a face, that of Rhoda. Over a very short period their friendship began to break down very quickly, almost instantly as realisation had dawned upon Gertrude, and so she never saw anything of Rhoda, or her son, again for many years and eventually the two both slipped out of the community and were never seen again – they were forced out by the fears of others, by Rhoda’s desires of things that were no longer hers to covet and by the entire community, for none really cared. Gertrude was now truly alone and without a single companion- her husband no longer even looked at her, such was his revulsion of the withering of her arm and displeasure at the fact that she had not even managed to produce him an heir in all their time together. Gertrude’s beauty was waning as the full anguish of the arm and being so alone in the world assailed her. She became obsessed with the arm and the search for cures, attempting every crackpot remedy that she could find in her maddened struggle – but none ever worked or had any effect. Driven into desperation by her husband’s and society’s demands for young ladies to be beautiful and perfect always, for Gertrude fears the rejection of her husband as Rhoda was rejected many years ago. In many ways this despair and incensed search for a cure drove even larger a void between Gertrude and her husband, for in the end it was both she and the arm driving him away, so obsessed did she become – much thanks to the pressures and expectations of the world around her. Again she goes to visit Trendle in the vain hope that perhaps he will be able to cure her at last, however, this time she makes the journey alone – showing just how much more lonely and separated from others she has become. Upon arriving she sees Trendle, now an old man and barely able to even leave his house – he has lost even that little bit of freedom that life had allowed him and has absolutely no one but himself to rely on, and no one to be there when he dies. In his last days, Trendle tells her simply what had to be done – he was too old to help now, she would have to cope alone with this task as always, but he could point her in the right direction. She agrees to all that he tells her, whatever it may be, such is her desire to again be beautiful for her husband again and to allow her to again conform to the views of those around her – much the opposite choice to that of Conjuror Trendle. Gertrude must touch the body of an executed man just cut down from a hanging – not dead for more than an instant so as to turn the blood of Gertrude and cure the withering of the arm. Finally, after many weeks wait the chance arrives and Gertrude’s prayers, driven to wishing upon the death of a fellow man, are answered and she strikes up a deal with the old, isolated hangman, separated from others by the nature of his trade, who was not wholly unused to requests of her sort. The condemned that is to become Gertrude’s saviour is a young man, charged of arson – the burning down of an old warehouse. The young man was apparently simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, but an example had to be made to satisfy the people. On the allotted night, Gertrude goes to the hangman as planned, and he then leads her to the open casket and she pulls back the covering and touches the figure beneath. To her horror she sees it to be Rhoda’s own son – the son of Farmer Lodge. Gertrude backs off in dismay and turns to discover both Rhoda and Lodge standing behind her. Rhoda shouts in anger and pushes Gertrude away from them both, for even now she still stands between the Farmer Lodge and their son once again – as always Gertrude comes between Rhoda and Lodge, always in the way of Rhoda’s hopes, desires and always keeping her completely alone. Gertrude screams in fear and falls to the floor, for the shock and extreme stress, together with the draining nature of the arm finally get the best of her, for she has died. Her blood had been turned, but all too far. Here the story concludes, as Rhoda moves farther away and separates herself from the local community entirely yet again, totally alone thanks to her own bitterness. Even after her son is lost still nobody goes to pay their respects or offer their company – she becomes even more alone than ever, all thanks to her own negligence. Farmer Lodge is also alone now, perhaps as he deserved, for his uncaring and selfish ways led to the grief of many and his dishonesty to the death of his wife for he broke his marriage vows that he made before God – â€Å"In sickness and in health.† His wife is dead and his son is lost forever and with him any chance of ever having an heir to all his estate. In his despair Lodge sells all his farm and land and moves away – only now do we realise how truly alone he has become, and all thanks to him, his materialism and conforming to what society dictates as to how he should live his life. He offers Rhoda an annual income, as an attempt at a final reconciliation but she never accepts it and none see her again. He loses everything and is doomed to die alone, leaving us later to discover that he has left all that is his to a reformatory for boys, showing how he did have thoughts and feelings regarding his son, but never had the strength to show them which is perhaps his greatest sin. Both Lodge and Rhoda isolated themselves from others and both are now even lonelier as a result of this. Gertrude’s vanity may have played a part in her own undoing, represented by the extremes to which she was willing to go as she even wished for the death of a fellow man, guilty or innocent alike, but it was Lodge, and those around her, that drove her to such desperation and in the end she dies alone, above all emotionally, as her husband stands apart from her with Rhoda. The young son meanwhile, brought to his end by Gertrude’s desperate wishing is always portrayed in Hardy’s novel as the innocent throughout, trapped between his two parents never being truly loved or cared for – always alone and always innocent. Towards the end we assume that perhaps he has got involved in a youth gang. This leads to his later arrest at the crime scene showing that no father figure and role model at all would have perhaps been better than that of a bad and unloving one who rejects him outright, he may have been innocent but he never had anyone who would stand up for him. This rejection by his father and ignorant negligence on his mother’s part leads to his tragic death, similar to that of Candy’s wife – who also remains unnamed as they are never important to those that they should be, leaving both of them completely alone and hopeless. The unfortunate tragedy that we see at the end of each novel is but one of the many similarities between these two novels. As we begin, each story features two central characters, George and Lennie, Rhoda and Gertrude, around which the story unfolds. As they live their lives we are introduced to many others, each with their own individual problems and dilemmas besetting them. These unlikely friendships between our central characters ultimately end in a tragedy, first with one unknowingly causing great problems for the other and finally one must put the other out of their misery, and at the same time condemn themselves to loneliness and hopelessness yet again. In Of Mice and Men we see at the root of everyones’ problems the desperation to achieve and become somebody – to find the American Dream. The society in which they have lived tells them that they are nothing without achievement, and they all agree for much of their sadness originates from this feeling of worthlessness. In George and Lennie’s case it drives them onwards, in search of their dream, but the others do not have the friendship that they each possess and have no hope of getting anywhere. Candy is old, crippled, with no hope of being able to work for something anymore and no hope of ever actually finding a companion as everyone deserts him each day. Crooks has nobody, he lost everything thanks to American society and the fact that the dream doesn’t work if you are black, he is hopeless for all time. Curley’s wife, a seemingly dangerous character of this story is isolated for just that. She has nobody bar her husband, who neither loves her nor listens, separated from others by both him and other peoples’ fear of the stigma that would ensure should they become her friend. She had her one chance at achieving something taken away from her many years ago. For Lennie the necessity to conform and do right by people is too much for him – he can never understand and in the end this leads to his death. His fear of disapproval forces him to take a life without ever intending to. It is upon George’s shoulders to end the story, for there is only one possibility – he must end all his hopes, condemn himself to being alone with his guilt, every chance that they had together and those around them found upon their arrival for he must take Lennie’s life to save him from misery. This pressure from American society and the unbending rules on what people should and shouldn’t be causes so much dissatisfaction and unrest, leaving everyone feeling hopeless and alone, that they have been brought up to believe. They thought they had a chance, and they found nothing. The Withered Arm, on the other hand, is set in a world of tradition, of British society and its harsh social structure. In everyone’s mind there is desperation to conform to the rules and agree that unless you are upper class, or in the case of the women – married, you are no one. Rhoda isolates herself from all others in her desperation to become someone, Farmer Lodge’s wife, and be counted and in doing so sentences herself to a life of loneliness, and starts much more for many others. For Gertrude there is a desperation to be what the materialistic views of those around her tell her to be, and in her search for this she ends up isolating her self even more than before. The young son, who nobody ever really looks to care for, there is isolation of a different kind and through no fault of his own. His parents never truly acknowledge him as their son and this ultimately ends in his tragic death. For Farmer Lodge, it is his materialistic conformism that causes many problems, and he isolates himself from all others in this story until the end, where it is he and Rhoda left and doomed to each be utterly alone for their sins.