Caedmon Essay

Karolay Olaya The Ecclesiastical Essay English IV 27 September 2012 How does Caedmon qualify as histoy: Caedmon's story qualify as history because his amazing poetry and verses changed how we see and express christianity. Have you ever felt like you don't fit in for a reason? Well Caedmon was like that. He was a stable-hand at the monastery of Whitby in the seventh century. The Anglo-saxons loved singing; indeed, it was very common for men to gather for an evening and share tales through a song.Everyone was expected to contribute. Caedmon; however, he would slip away because he was either too shy to sing or he just didn't have nothing to share. According to the church historian Bede, who was born about seven years before Caedmon died, Caedmon slipped out of the hall one night to tend the animals while the others sang. Afterward, he fell asleep. A man spoke to him in a vision, saying, â€Å"Caedmon, sing me something. Caedmon replied that he could not sing. That was why he was out he re, not in the hall. â€Å"Yet you could sing,† said the man, and suggested Caedmon sing â€Å"the beginning of all things. † In his dream, Caedmon began to sing his great Hymn of Creation, â€Å"Now let us praise the guardian of the heavenly kingdom, the power of the Creator and the counsel of His mind, the works of the Father of glory: how He, the eternal Lord, originated every marvel†.When Caedmon awoke, he found he remembered the verses perfectly and was able to sing them. The monks were convinced he had been given a gift by God. Whitby's famous abbess, Hild (Hilda) convinced Caedmon to become a monk. His songs and poetry changed Christianity today because now people sing and praise to the lord through music which is an amazing to do and everything because of Caedmon.

Maoism in China Essay

Generally, the Communist system in the Soviet Union and in China are practically identical politically, economically, with the reciprocal purges ect†¦ However, Mao Tse-Tung and Stalin did not see eye to eye on many things and Maoism is considered today by most people to be a more developed stage of Marxism-Leninism. This is because of the historical and cultural background of China and because of her geographical position and climate which affects society. Contrary to Russia, Communism developed in the countryside instead of in the cities. Thus it was a peasants’ revolution rather than, as predicted by Karl Marx, a workers’ revolution. The cities in China were at the beginning, anti-Communist. The Chinese absorption of Marxism was highly selective. China took from Marxism those aspects which best suited the Chinese situation rather than force the Chinese situation to fit an overachieving ideology. Thus Marxism was to be the servant of the Chinese Revolution. Mao Tse-Tung believed that adherence to pure Marxist theory would be suicidal and concluded that proletarian revolution based upon the urban areas was impossible in China since 80 percent of the people were peasants. Due to the warmer climate and more fertile land, peasantry was more popular in China. This pragmatic solution led to the Revolution starting in the rural areas. The most important difference between Stalin and Mao is the comprehension of the word ‘proletariat’. The Russians believed it meant, as Marx had, the industrial workers while the Chinese, by lack of sufficient workers, understood it as the peasantry. The Great Leap Forward where everyone was put to work was another Maoist characteristic. For 100 days each year, the peasants were not working in the fields so Mao set them up to work in the off-season harvest after 1957. Millions of men and women were put to work in winter, digging irrigation ditches and canals, preparing railroads and laying track. Then the â€Å"backyard furnace† was invented and 600 000 small steel establishments were set up.  The object was to overtake Britain in steel production. However, when the peasants left their land to work on the industrial projects, the lands suffered. So more changes were made. In some communes, men and women were separated to increase their productivity by cutting down socialising. On February 27th 1957, Mao was feeling very positive about all that he had done so he decided to loosen the straps on the Chinese people. He introduced the ‘hundred flowers’ campaign where he encouraged arts, sciences and â€Å"a flourishing socialist culture in our land. Different forms and styles in art should develop freely†. It seemed he was encouraging free thought and criticism of the system. After only six weeks though, Mao’s open invitation brought a real storm of furious criticism from the intellectual community who believed the chairman was sincere. This infuriated Mao who was expecting positive feedback and in April 1957 a rectification campaign had begun to eliminate the ‘triple evils’: â€Å"subjectivism, sectarianism, and bureaucratism†. The party members and Mao believed to be above criticism so a purge of intellectuals began. The Cultural Revolution is perhaps the greatest difference between Stalinism and Maoism and was entirely set up by Mao Tse-Tung. He has been called insane many times for the crazy extent which the Cultural Revolution took and for the lasting and devastating effects it continues to have. Mao favoured the word, â€Å"destruction† when he promoted the Cultural Revolution; he preached that he had to destroy an old system of production, an old ideology and old customs first. He thought that once the ideology had been established, productivity would follow in a revolution. â€Å"Although the bourgeoisie has been overthrown, it is still trying to use the old ideas, culture, customs and habits of the exploiting classes to corrupt the masses, capture their minds and endeavour to stage a comeback. The proletariat must do the exact opposite: it must deal merciless blows and meet head-on every challenge of the bourgeoisie in the ideological field and use the new ideas, culture, customs and habits of the proletariat to change the mental outlook of the whole of society. At present, our objective is to struggle against and overthrow those persons in authority who are taking the  capitalist road, to criticize and repudiate the reactionary bourgeois academic authorities’ and the ideology of the bourgeoisie and all other exploiting classes and to transform education, literature and art and all other parts of the superstructure not in correspondence with the socialist economic base, so as to facilitate the consolidation and development of the socialist sy stem.† Fifteen years after the success of the Revolution, Mao saw his new society as troubled, he had destroyed the old ruling class, but had established two new ones: the intelligentsia and the bureaucracy. Mao had turned against the intelligentsia after the ‘hundred flowers’ campaign but had not finished destroying them. When he saw the Soviet Union’s new aristocracy with their dachas and limousines, he set out to destroy the establishment he had created. Always one to manipulate the masses, he turned towards the youth for a new society by creating the Red Guard, an army of children. They were sanctioned by the highest authority, Mao himself and were bent on destruction. In essence, the children destroyed anything which did not appeal to them, although the initial target was to destroy the ‘four olds’: ideas, culture, customs and habits. They travelled in bands for mutual protection and inspiration, destroyed stores and restaurants and attacked however they desired. The Red Guards were divided by family background: poor peasants against well-to-do peasants, peasants against workers, and the children of army officers. The next step of the Cultural Revolution came in January 1967 when Mao replaced the officials all over China by young people with no experience and no common sense. Then universities, middle schools and primary schools closed down. This was called the period of the terror. The only young people to receive an education were the children of intellectuals who were taught by relatives and parents. Mao tried to destroy the education process which was disastrous for China as specialist, technicians ect†¦ were indispensable for the development of a country, and in this case, they were dismantled. However, he changed his mind in 1978 and sent in the People’s Liberation Army to desman the Red Guard. Mao’s theory of constant revolution to avoid the forming of classes is the major separation with Leninism and Marxism. It was under these conditions that the most earthshaking political event and the largest mass mobilization the Earth has ever seen took place. This is how Chairman Mao defined its objectives: â€Å"The current Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is absolutely necessary and most timely for consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat, preventing capitalist restoration and building socialism.† Mao’s Communism focuses especially on the particular interest for China and this by rejecting foreign intervention. The only use for foreign involvement is to insure Chinese security, economy†¦ He believes in Chinese Communism first, and not in World Communism. However, China supports people threatened by oppression which explains their expansion policy. Indeed, China has expanded her territory by invading the Tibet, fighting Korea. China has refused economic aid, except for trade with the Soviet Union which represented only 2 percent of Chinese investments. China developed its own brand of Communism to suit its needs and similarly to Stalinism, was dictated by only one man, who had the power to decide anything he desired.

Macro forces analysis within an international market Essay

Macro forces analysis within an international market - Essay Example n customers realize that the product gives them the satisfaction that they need, they will be buying the product from the producer or supplier since it meets their needs and wants. Generally, this paper will analyze the macro environment factors within an international market for investors who are willing to start a fruit juice processing company in the United States. The paper will also provide a research on the macro environment factors in the US and will give recommendations to the investor whether to invest or not. In the analysis of the macro environment of the fruit juice processing industry use of PESTEL analysis framework to scan the environment in United States will be of great advantage. One of the factors that the investors should consider is the technological factor. The investors should consider looking at the technological inventions in the United States which will help in the processing of the fruit juices. The more advancement in technology, the more the production hence high returns due to the mass production of products that are availed to the consumers. According to the CIA (20), World Fact Book, United States is a country that has undergone a very rapid technology advancement since colonialism. It has made many inventions which have brought a transformation in the fruit juice production industry. The investors should consider placing their business in United States because of its technological advancement. Another factor that the investors should consider is the economic status in the United States. Economic factor will influence the consumer buying power and investors should understand the economic trend of United States because of positioning the business. During inflation, the prices rise and the customer’s income is not sufficient to sustain them hence low demand for goods. United States is a country that is economically stable and has no problems of unemployment. Where there is employment opportunities there are reduced cases of poor

MPH599 - Culminating Project Mod 2 SLP Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

MPH599 - Culminating Project Mod 2 SLP - Essay Example Childhood obesity: prevention practices of nurse practitioners, is a study conducted in 2006 by Larson, Mandy Ecole, and Ann Williams. The purpose of the study was to describe the prevention practices of nurse practitioners regarding childhood obesity. He compared the practices of nurse practitioners to those of prevention guidelines. It identified relationships between prevention practices and demographic variables. A convenience sample was used of the patients of 199 family nurse practitioners. These nurse practitioners were from the intermountain area. Participants in the study completed a questionnaire based on guidelines and risk factors for childhood obesity as well as childhood diabetes. The conclusion was that family nurse practitioners in family practice or general practice were not consistently using the BMI for age index to increase the screening for childhood for diabetes. However it was found that they were teaching parents and promoting health food choices and physical activity in these families. The other conclusion that was found was that there are major barriers to him implementing childhood obesity prevention strategies which include parental attitudes, the American lifestyle, and the lack of resources for both the nurse practitioner in the family the results of this study have large implications of children developing child type II diabetes. Many of the practices today are family practices today are run by family nurse practitioners and they must be up to the ability to know what the latest and greatest is in preventing diabetes in children Is there a need for screening for type II diabetes in seventh grade? This is a study done by Whitaker, Davis, and Bower,(2004). The purpose was to determine if screening for type II diabetes in the seventh grade population is unwarranted practice. A diabetes questionnaire was sent home to each participants parent or guardian, the

Discovering Professional Resources Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Discovering Professional Resources - Essay Example Amy Vogt maintains that in education there is no status quo, she bases her assessment on the past and present state of educational flux, she says, â€Å"There is no status quo. Education has been in a state of change for decades. We jeopardize our competitiveness not by failing to ‘accelerate’ or to ‘take bold steps’, but 4 by forgetting what we are actually good at: creativity, collaboration, entrepreneurship, innovation and creating global citizens. What we should be doing as we approach the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary School Act is focusing on children in poverty and how best to help them† (Vogt 2007) Association of Supervisors for Curriculum Development, has an IDEAS section in this publication which stresses the importance of everyone being on the same page. If not on the same page, then (figuratively) in the same building, which makes it easier to communicate ideas and gather consensus on matters which are either pressing on a local front, and can ultimately have regional or national implications. Roland S. Barth in his article â€Å"Improving Relationships Within the Schoolhouse†, offers the number one concept on team building, when he speaks to Adult interaction he offers, â€Å"In parallel play, educators work in isolation from one another. Adversarial relationships can involve open combat, the more subtle withholding of information, and competition for scarce resources and recognition... congenial relationships are personal and friendly, and lay the groundwork for the most exclusive and desirable relationships---collegiality.

Fate or destiny is it possible to control that which we have no Essay

Fate or destiny is it possible to control that which we have no control of - Essay Example For instance, death and birth are unavoidable. Similarly, there are several other occurrences in life that seem inevitable. Destiny plays an important role in our daily lives. Each and every event in our lives is governed by our destiny. With regards to destiny, we are truly in control of ourselves and we are responsible for our decisions. However, there are some things that are beyond our control, this is what can be regarded as fate. In the larger scheme of things, we feel free as we are human being are able do what they want. If we make the correct decisions in life and act accordingly, no one will prevent us from achieving what we really want. The cultural, divine and psychological forces that can be a hindrance to a person’s destiny but if he or she remains focused he will be able to control his fate. Men struggle and work to attain specific ends, but later realize that there is a power that is beyond their control, which frustrates their efforts. As men age, they accept the power of destiny and its effect on the world around them. Great men such as philosophers and poets also submitted to this power and witnessed as it seemed to favor the favorites and strike its victims. This essay will explore the story by William Faulkner â€Å"Barn Burning† and â€Å"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner† by Samuel Coleridge to show that a person is able to control his destiny but has no control over his fate. This power of destiny is represented by the greatest poets including William Faulkner in his work, â€Å"Barn Burning†. Most dramatists often depict heroes as knowledgeable of their destiny and attempting to escape from it. However, by trying to escape from their destiny, a series of consequences result. The consequences bring about their some challenges. Therefore, poets assert that a man cannot avert his or her destiny, whether he knows the destiny or not. Every unconscious or conscious act of the man is one step towards his or her destin y. In the â€Å"Barn Burning†, Abner, is said to â€Å"have an old habit which he had not been permitted to choose for himself† (Faulkner 56). Therefore, this argument can show that a person is not able to change his destiny regardless of the challenges he faces. This clearly shows that the boy has control over his destiny but does not have any control over his fate. It seems there was a supernatural power that dictated his behavior or habit. It is thus impossible for Abner or any other person to control his fate but he has control over his destiny. The forces of fate are also presented in â€Å"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner† by Samuel Coleridge show that there are things beyond our control. For example, the poem talks of death as an incident that is beyond man’s control. It is impossible for an individual to have knowledge of when or how they are going to die. Also, once death is to occur, no one can stop it. The reverse is also true in that, if one is not destined to die, then no one can cause the ultimate death of that person. In part IV of the poem, the persona says â€Å"alone, alone, all, all alone†¦the many men, so beautiful, and they all dead did lie† (Coleridge 89). This point clearly shows that death is fate and no human individual is able to control it. However, if one is able to avoid death through living a good free from any dangers you will live much longer. The author was destined

How can a manager motivate a workforce and what are the major benefits Essay

How can a manager motivate a workforce and what are the major benefits of this to a company support your answer with examples - Essay Example The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the effects of motivation in the workplace. The employees responsible for maintaining a workforce motivated are the managerial staff. The manager is also accountable for the overall performance of the workforce and the company as a whole. There are different techniques that managers can utilize to motivate the staff. A technique that can be used to motivate workers is reinforcement. Reinforcement is the administration of a consequence as a result of a behavior (Schermerhorn, et al.). The use of reinforcement can help increase the persistence of a worker. Two conditioning theories associated with reinforcement are classical conditioning and operating conditioning. Classical conditioning is a form of learning that takes place due the presence of stimuli that manipulates behavior. Giving a dog a steak after an action is an example of classical conditioning. In human beings an example of stimuli at work is seeing the boss smile. Operan t conditioning differs from classical conditioning in that it manipulates the consequences. Managers can use positive reinforcement to increase the likelihood of an employee repeating a behavior. An employee can also be influenced not to commit certain behaviors by imposing negative reinforcement consequences such as punishment. Content theories of motivation deal with an attempt to satisfy individual needs. A popular content theory that managers can use to motivate the staff is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is composed of a pyramid of five needs. The five needs of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs are physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization (Cherry). The physiological need deals with the need for biological maintenance including food, water, and substance. A manager can ensure this need is met by giving the workers a lunch hour, two fifteen minutes breaks during the shift, and as many bathroom breaks as needed. Safety has to do with the need for security and protection. Hiring a security guard to secure the work premises is a way to comply with the worker’s security need. The social need is associated with love, affection and sense of belongingness. A manager can help comply with the social need in a company by fostering a work environment of collaboration and teamwork. The esteem need deals with the need for respect, prestige, recognition, competence, and mastery. A good manager can comply with this need by promoting from within and by creating a code of ethics at the firm. Self-actualization is the highest order need of the pyramid. This need is associated with desire for fulfillment and to be able to expand and use a person’s abilities. Managers can help fulfill that need by offering training and development opportunities to its employees. A process theory of motivation that can help managers inspire their workers is equity theory. According to equity theory an individual’ s motivation level is correlated to his perception of equity, fairness and justice practiced by the management (Managementstudyguide). When an employee feels there is an injustice in his level of pay in comparison with other employees with the same level of experience and job position the worker will react adversely to the situation. The perceived injustice will cause the employee to lose motivation and perform poorly. A manager can comply with the implications of equity theory by working with the human resource department to analyze the salary scales of

Marketing - Fictisious Prodcut repositioning Essay

Marketing - Fictisious Prodcut repositioning - Essay Example They sell their product through retailers and other distributing outlets and they have a strategic position in chocolate gift baskets for special occasions. Product repositioning is another key area in marketing. Repositioning relate to the change of the image of product and also targets other buyers. Repositioning is also involves changing the market segment from one to another. Godiva chocolate manufactures change their product position to tween market segment. Currently they are targeting products in general consumers. Their product lines include coffee and cocoa biscuits and other branded chocolates, and their key marketing strategy focused on gift chocolate baskets meant for special occasions. Re positioning in tween market segment in the USA is a very strategic and competitive decision. It is one of the high potential marketing areas mainly intended consumers from aged between 8-12 years. â€Å"The ‘tween’ market represents a whole new marketing challenge -- and opportunity -- for retailers and marketers. Defined by Associate Professor Cele Otnes as "kids ages 8-12," the tween market has approximately $14 billion in annual spending power.† (The â€Å"tween† Market, College of Business Communication Features). Product positioning will depends mainly on consumer’s behavior and perception. Market survey is an important tool before repositioning to identify and determine customer’s needs and wants. The target customers for Godiva chocolates are primarily children in the age group of 8-12 years. They have to consider a proper strategy to reach at their customers, through a strategic market survey to ascertain the reaction of customers as well as main chocolate retailers to determine the final design of the product and its physical attributes like color, size, shape, packaging, brand name etc. It also needs to be ascertained as to what quantity

What are the essential differences between Prometheus(as he is Essay

What are the essential differences between Prometheus(as he is portrayed by Hesiod) and Loki as he appears in Scandinavian myth - Essay Example On the other hand, Loki was malevolent since his intentions were purely to cause suffering to others (Schnurbein, 112). Prometheus was a god of fire, who stole fire and gave it to mankind, an aspect that then brought civilization that was against the will of his family gods, because the god Zeus wanted to obliterate the human race but his plans were destroyed by Prometheus. Therefore, Prometheus was subjected to eternal punishment where the eagle would feed on his liver daily, â€Å"not only for stealing fire, but also for destroying Zeuss plan (Peretti, 194). Loki however applied his intellect in a totally different way. His mischievous intellect even enabled him to sneak his way up to becoming a god when he was not even deserving, and through his malice, he became â€Å"responsible, though indirectly, for the death of deaths of other gods† (Schnurbein, 117). There is little evidence to suggest even that Loki ever stole fire, but there is much evidence to the effect that his malicious ways brought a stir amongst the gods, and he was finally sentenced to punishment which he really deserved. The other essential difference between Prometheus and Loki is in relation to overall effects of their actions. Prometheus overall consequences were beneficial, but Loki’s overall consequences were destructive (Lamberton, 41). This is because; Loki was a selfish and egocentric god, who did not stop at anything to ensure that he succeed in his mischievous ways. Loki sided with his family against the other gods, and he set himself on a path of causing destruction to the other gods, even though little evidence exists to suggest that he deserved to be a god. He pursued his mischievous plans to the end, and saw the destruction that he intended to happen accomplished. Thus, even after being sentenced to imprisonment, his mischief did not end there. He was supported by his wife

Strategies Of Teaching In Indian Higher Education Research Paper

Strategies Of Teaching In Indian Higher Education - Research Paper Example The scarcity in terms of infrastructure, education standards and some vital factors has instigated the door to be unlatched for the foreign universities. The Cardiff University (UK) in particular has been considered as the frame of reference in view of the spectacular learning ambiance. Cardiff University is not only known for the outstanding ranking in the UK but also for the global reputation in the research field and teaching. Having vast experience in the Cardiff University, it is really a wonderful opportunity on my part to deliver some worth mentioning narration of the education on the steadfast role. MBA by far is the most intriguing and lucrative post graduation course in recent years. It would really be an injustice to compare it with the other academic and professional course. The popularity that it has gained is enormous but definitely not valueless as it strives to blend just the right mix of the professional attitude in the future to be managers. MBA course tends to conv erge towards the professional atmosphere after the studies by enforcing the practical implementation of theoretical knowledge. It integrates the essence of the Cardiff Business School in Vidya Vikas University to reinforce a very strong global foundation for the business school in Indian territory. Part One starts with the evolution of the education system in India. This basically gives a brief history of Indian education system gradually transcending to the higher education system. Then the dissertation deals with the evolution of the global context with special reference to the US and UK education scenario, as the Church played a critical role in the development of education abroad.

Observing Toddlers Essay Example for Free

Observing Toddlers Essay Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There are a number of places where toddlers could be observed unobtrusively—at the park, the playground, the mall, and the daycare center. For the purpose of this study, however, I chose to go to the park and observe parents and their toddlers play together. This way, I could easily observe unobtrusively as people would think I was simply there to write or to write down my thoughts.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Another benefit that the park has to offer is the lack of formal structures and relationships such as those found at daycare centers. At the park, parents and toddlers could interact easily and in a relax manner. That way, the true nature of the relationship between the parents and the toddlers will be easily observed and analyzed and the understanding of the interactions between parents and children will be better understood. This paper then seeks to look at such a relationship by presenting direct observations from families and toddlers that visit the park in our community. I had a small notebook with me and it is where I wrote down my observations, as well as the communication that went on between the parents and the children.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     The toddlers that I observed were approximately between 16 to 30 months old and appeared to be pampered by care by their parents. One the toddlers belong to an Asian-American racial stock while the other one to an American family. Although the parents brought strollers with them, the toddlers were walking and occasionally carried by their parents. Both of the families of the toddlers seem to belong to the middle class. Notably, the second toddler belongs to a mother without a father. Although the author could not exactly know whether she is a single parent or not, at least based on the observation at the park, the mother does not have any other company in visiting the park.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Both toddlers appear to be enamored with their surroundings. They do notice the colors in the park and usually exclaim in delight when they see a butterfly or a bird. Apparently, they are already starting to recognize some of the features of the environment and their understanding of what they are is already being formed in the minds of the young kids. Toddler 1 The first toddler I observed is male. He displayed curiosity in his surroundings. While they were walking in the park, to the way where the family will sit down for an afternoon snack, the toddler was picking up sticks and leaves on the ground. He raised them to his eyes and offered them to his parents. The mother accepted the offer from the toddler and said that it was a leaf. She explained further that the leaf grows on the branch, which the toddler dutifully picked up and offered to her mother again. When the mother pronounced â€Å"leaf† and â€Å"branch†, the toddler also spoke up and attempted to pronounce the same words. A child is very much curious and interested in his surroundings. As part of his cognitive development, he notices the shapes, colors, and different sensations and wonders he encounter in his world. Even at such a young age, he is also being initiated into the process of socialization where he learns the views of his parents and of the larger society where he is located (Turner, 1991). The child, according to Piaget’s theory actively uses his senses to explore his environment and learn about them. Through the use of his senses, he is able to discern relationships among the actions he take and the behavior of the objects that he is viewing (Turner, 1991). Both the component of nature and nurture are at work in this seemingly simple process that the child is going through. He uses his eyes, his ears, his nose, and his whole body to discover the world and learn how it works. His efforts, because they are yet insufficient, are supplemented by his parents, more particularly by his mother, who tells him the names of objects and how they are being referred to in the world. Through the explanation of the mother about the nature of the relationship between leaves and branches, the child is then able to look at the relationship of different objects in his environment albeit in an incomplete fashion. The explanation of the mother regarding the relationship of leaves and branches may not be sufficient for the child to understand the relationship because most of the knowledge of a child advances through his actions and his interpretation about the consequences of the actions he make (Franz White, 1985). Notably, the toddler was now engaging in eye-to-eye contact with his parents and occasionally asks them for what he wants. His father brought out a ball that the toddler apparently loved playing with. The father and the child started playing with the ball—they played catch, and sometimes they would race together to get the ball first. The toddler was delighted with such play with his father. Although this is the case, the child would also look at his mother and he asked her to come and join them. This is consistent with the theory of Erikson, which holds that the child’s relationship with his mother is perhaps the most important one during this stage of development (Franz White, 1985). The child continued to play with the ball and when he saw other children in the park, he also went to them and offered to play the ball with them. Apparently, toddler one has good socialization skills to the point that he can mingle with other kids even when his parents are around. This points to the good relationship that the child is enjoying with his parents. Both his parents encouraged him to play with other children and watched him with other kids. True enough, when the child has strong relationships with his parents, he tends to be more socially responsive and socially amiable. In accordance with Psychosocial theorists, the child is displaying good emotional and social skills because his own relationship with his parents are also good and secure. Otherwise, he might become a recluse and refuse the company of people (Charlesworth, 2003). When Toddler one was playing ball with another child, there was an instance in which the other child managed to grab the ball more quickly than toddler one, so what he did was to forcibly claim the ball from his playmate and withheld it from the latter. Through this, the other child looked as if he was about to cry. It is at this moment that the mother of Toddler one intervened. The mother reasoned out firmly with the toddler in regards to sharing toys so that others would also learn how to share. The tone of the mother appeared to be negotiating instead of imposing. This display of authority on the part of the mother is remarkable and shows the secure connection between her and the child (Charlesworth, 2003). Toddler Two When I felt that I have sufficiently observed toddler one, I decided to turn my attention to another toddler playing with a dog not very far from the first toddler. The only companion of the toddler in the park is his mother and their Labrador. I had the impression, although this is difficult to verify, that the mother was a single parent. The mother was silently looking after her child who was playing with the Labrador. Apart from the toy truck and the Frisbee that the child had, there were no other toys that the mother had for the child. The mother appeared to be preoccupied with her own thoughts. When toddler was not busy with his toy truck, he would play with the Frisbee and the dogs with the strength and the capability that he has. The dog seems to act as a guard to the toddler. He does not socialize with other kids very much and he appears content to play by himself. The toddler, it seems is spending most of the time by himself. Although at first glance, this may seem to be a display of autonomy, yet in closer examination of the child, he does not enjoy the benefits that interaction with other kids and with his parent brings. These circumstances will therefore bring forth negative consequences in the development of the social skills of the child and he might find it difficult to relate with other people when he grows up (Keenan, 2002). When the child attempts to play farther from his mother, the latter would come after him and tell him not to move around too much. The mother actually uses her authority over the child to forbid him from going somewhere else. Apparently, the mother wants to keep the child in her sight most of the time. This kind of attitude might breed negative feelings in the child and will contribute to the insecurity of their relationship. Since the relationship of the child with his mother is of utmost importance (Charlesworth, 2003), then his cognitive, emotional and social development will suffer as a consequence. The child also develops a kind of mistrust in the outside world and he will not view the outside world as a safe place. Instead, he might develop the attitude that he always needs his mother to look after him. Erikson warned against this over-protectiveness of parents as it prohibits children to explore and become curious of their environment. Hence, instead of developing self-confidence and self-esteem, toddler two will instead feel shame and doubt (Franz White, 1985). Toddler two cried when his mother forbade him to wander into the park. When the child cried, the mother responded by being firmer and she almost shouted to toddler two to stop. Instead of stopping, however, toddler cried even louder and displayed tantrums. At this time, the mother punished toddler two by spanking him three times. After several minutes, toddler two stopped crying and remained where he was instead. This display of authority may become inimical to the overall development of the child over the long run as the initiative and the natural curiosity of the child will be dampened and what he will remember most will be the fear associated with the parent’s discipline (Charlesworth, 2003). Toddler two recovered from the spanking after several minutes by turning his attention to the dog and his Frisbee. By distracting himself, he forgot about the incident and started to enjoy himself again. His mother, however, still issued a warning for him â€Å"not to move out of her sight.† According to Erikson, if the urge of the child to explore is removed, then the result would be a lower level of self-esteem on the part of the child (Franz White, 1985). Toddler two is very much attached to her mother, however, he is not sufficiently developing autonomy. Through the reprimands and the stern warnings of his mother, he becomes dependent on his mother and unable to explore his environment and his surroundings. Over the course of time as he discovers the world further, he may not have sufficient curiosity and initiative to move away from the familiar and instead, he would keep in sight of whoever is looking after him. Conclusion   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Observing the two toddlers was a good experience for me. It was as if the concepts and theories discussed by Piaget and Erikson were coming to life. Indeed the role of the parents is very crucial in ensuring that a child receives the appropriate socialization and training even while he is young. The strength of the attachment of a child with his parents is very important for him to develop the necessary skills for socialization and in relating with others in his environment. If the relationship of a child with his parents is good as demonstrated by the first toddler I observed, then the child will greatly benefit from it. If, however, the nature of the relationship borders on the dysfunctional, then the socialization skills of the child will be negatively affected. As he grows up, he will have struggles in relating with different kinds of people in his environment.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   By observing toddlers, numerous lessons can be gleaned and the nature of the relationship between child and parents will be assessed. Accordingly, intervention strategies could be arrived at so that the child will not suffer needlessly. Furthermore, parents, and everyone dealing with children, should be sensitive to the different levels of development of the child as demonstrated by Piaget and Erikson. By doing so, perhaps the manner of bringing up of children will be better and over the long run, the society will become a better one because of the good rearing of the children. Reference Charlesworth, R. (2003). Understanding Child Development: For Adults Who Work With Young Children. New York: Thomson Delmar Learning. Franz, C. E. White, K. M. (1985). Individuation and attachment in personality development: Extending Eriksons theory. Journal of Personality, 53 (2), 224-256. Keenan, T. (2002). An Introduction to Child Development. London: Sage Publications. Turner, P. J. (1991). Relations between Attachment, Gender, and Behavior with Peers in Preschool. Child Development, 62 (6), 1475-1488.

Overview of Germanys Culture

Overview of Germanys Culture Germany Germany is one of the most beautiful country in the world. It is located in the central Europe. Nearly 82 million people live in Germany. It is one of the most populated country in the world, especially in Europe. Many of Germans came from Russia and other countries. There are many foreigners inhabit Germany like Serbs, Italian, Greek and Turkish people. German is considered one of the most progressive and dynamic country in the world. Berlin is the capital of Germany. It is located in the northeastern place of the country. Berlin is the fantastic and biggest city in Germany. German language is the major language in Germany. Around 95 percent of people in Germany speaks German. The flag of Germany consists of three color. Theses colors are black, red, and gold. Black, red, and gold colors represent big role in the history of Germany. The colors of Germany adopted in 1949. The president Germany is the head state of the country. The president in German is elected and valid for the presidency for five years. Frank-Walter Steeinmerier is in the head of the state Germany. Germany is governed under the democratic constitution of 1949. This democratic constitution became the constitution in 1990. The president in Germany has little effect on government. Germany has one currency. Euro is the currency in German. One Euro in Germany equals 3.853 QAR. There are many interesting festival in Germany like Christmas and New Years. There are many holidays in Germany. The first day in Germany in May, is called the national day of Germany. There are many touristic attractions in Germany. Munish city is one of the beautiful city in Germany. Many people in the world visit it daily. Parks, forests, gardens and many other beautiful sights covered the city. Cologne city also one of the attraction city in the world. It is considered the fourth biggest city in Germany. About thirty museums are founded in Cologne. Every year more than 6 million tourists visit the city because it have a unique position. German is famous for fashion. It is the site of many fashions such as Mercedes, Benz and clothing. Many new fashion made first in Germany. There are many clothes fashion produced in Germany and exported many clothes to other country. People in Germany go and celebrate together in carnival season at the Oktoberfest and wine festivals. Germany is one of the biggest importer and exporter country. The goods and services are the most exporter in Germany. We cant forget the best mechanical engineering, vehicles and mobiles are produced in Germany. Most goods that Germany imports come from Netherlands and China. Medical, iron of steel products, paper, medical, medical equipment and other chemical goods are the most German imports from Netherland and China. There are many famous persons in all field in Germany.   Albert Einstein is the famous person in Germany. He is considered the father of physics. We cant forget the famouse player football in Germany who was called Gerd Muller. He was born in 1945. He was the best player football in Germany. Anne Frank is the famous writer in Germany. She was born in 1929. She wrote many notes about war in 1947.Hans Bellmer is the best artist in Germany. In Germany, Music is the source of entertainment for a long time. There are many musicians in Germany like Jackson Browne and Robert Schumann. There are many sports in Germany but the most popular sports in Germany are football and tennis. There are many tapes of dancing in Germany. In the 18th century, the dance waltz is the oldest type dancing in German. For the literature aspect in Germany, literature was responsible of sharing history and politics in Germany. References Country reports. (2017, Feb 15). Germany Facts and Culture. Retrieved from Countryreports.org: http://www.countryreports.org/country/Germany.htm Flippo, H. (2016, Aug 14). german.about.com. Retrieved from German-Holidays-and-Celebrations: http://german.about.com/od/culture/fl/German-Holidays-and-Celebrations.htm Hennig, B. (2010, Oct 3). The Population of Germany. Retrieved from Viewsoftheworld.net: http://www.viewsoftheworld.net/?p=914 Reference. (2017, Feb 15). What is Germany famous for? Retrieved from Reference.com: https://www.reference.com/geography/germany-famous-2e5931f83cc5f742?qo=contentSimilarQuestions The Famous People. (15, Feb 2017). Famous Germans. Retrieved from The famous people.com: http://www.thefamouspeople.com/germany.php

Cultural Diversity in the Workplace Essay

Cultural Diversity in the Workplace Essay Introduction: The worlds increasing globalization requires more interaction among people from diverse cultures, beliefs, and backgrounds than ever before. People no longer live and work in an insular marketplace; they are now part of a worldwide economy with competition coming from nearly every continent. For this reason, profit and non-profit organizations need diversity to become more creative and open to change. Maximizing and capitalizing on workplace diversity has become an important issue for management today. Human Resource management is on managing people within the employer-employee relationship. This involves the productive use of people in achieving the organizations strategic objectives and the satisfaction of individual employee needs. Where its objective is to measure target to be achieved within a certain time frame. Diversity management is management initiated, rather than required by law. This involved in integrating non-traditional employees (such as women and minorities) into the workforce and using their diversity to the organizations competitive advantage, as well as considering other workforce diversity characteristics that need to be addressed to ensure fair and effective utilization of employees. (Raymond J. Stone, 2008)Diversity in management includes: Cultural diversity is the variety of human societies or cultures in a specific region, or in the world as a whole. (The term is also sometimes used to refer to multiculturalism within an organization. Management of cultural diversity has been suggested as the human resource strategy enabling the effective management of the workforce diversity created by demographical changes generally in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. Retrieved from Oya Aytemiz Seymen(2006), according to Fleury (1999) explains cultural diversity management as an organizational answer or reaction to the need for competitiveness and to the increasing variety of the workforce. In the same resource, it has been stated that management of cultural diversity implies a holistic focus in order to create an organizational environment that allows all the employees to reach their full potential in pursuing the organizational goals. Gender diversity means the proportion of males to females in the workplace. It is a more even distribution or is the employee pool composed of mostly males or mostly females. This can have an effect on how people interact and behave with one another in the workplace and would impact culture and social environment. Similarly other demographics such as population, racial characteristics and such all contribute to the work environment. According to Kochan et al., 2003, organizations are finding that racial and gender diversity, if managed well, may even enhance performance(retrieved from Luis L. Martins and Charles K. Parsons,2007). Researchers have proposed that a greater organizational emphasis on gender diversity management programs will have a positive effect on organizational attractiveness among women, as women are the intended beneficiaries of the programs (Luis L. Martins and Charles K. Parsons,2007) Age diversity means the proportion of aged people work in the workplace. Age diversity was also positively correlated with health disordersbut only in groups working on routine decision-making tasks. Gender composition also had a significant effect on group performance, such that groups with a high proportion of female employees performed worse and reported more health disorders than did gender-diverse teams. As expected, effects of gender composition were most pronounced in large groups. Effects of age diversity were found when controlling for gender diversity and vice versa. Thus, age and gender diversity seem to play a unique role in performance and well-being. The moderating role of task complexity for both effects of age diversity and the moderating role of group size for both effects of gender diversity further suggest that the impact of these 2 variables depends on different group processes.( Ju ¨rgen Wegge and Carla Roth, Barbara Neubach and Klaus-Helmut Schmidt Ruth Kanfe r , 2008) Religious diversity is an important component of cultural diversity, which educators are now taking seriously in their pedagogies. However, cultural diversity and religious diversity are often evaluated quite differently. In our society now, there is at least a polite and superficial consensus that cultural diversity is here to stay and may enrich life. Minimally, people realize that cultural, ethnic, and class chauvinism create problems and are inappropriate, though they may be difficult to overcome. Regarding religious diversity, quite a different evaluation is often employed. Many people value the feeling that their religion is indeed superior to others and regard such religious chauvinism as a necessary component of religious commitment, or even a virtue to be cultivated among the faithful. In their official theologies, most religions have dealt with religious diversity only in a cursory or inadequate fashion. Frequently, religions have encouraged mutual hostility by teaching tha t foreign religions are not only different, but also demonic, or at least inferior. (Rita M. Gross(1999) retrieved from http://www.crosscurrents.org/gross.htm) Body: Benefits of Workplace Diversity An organizations success and competitiveness depends upon its ability to embrace diversity and realize the benefits. When organizations actively assess their handling of workplace diversity issues, develop and implement diversity plans, multiple benefits are reported such as: Increased adaptability Organizations employing a diverse workforce can supply a greater variety of solutions to problems in service, sourcing, and allocation of resources. Employees from diverse backgrounds bring individual talents and experiences in suggesting ideas that are flexible in adapting to fluctuating markets and customer demands. Broader service range A diverse collection of skills and experiences (e.g. languages, cultural understanding) allows a company to provide service to customers on a global basis. Variety of viewpoints A diverse workforce that feels comfortable communicating varying points of view provides a larger pool of ideas and experiences. The organization can draw from that pool to meet business strategy needs and the needs of customers more effectively. More effective execution Companies that encourage workplace diversity inspire all of their employees to perform to their highest ability. Company-wide strategies can then be executed; resulting in higher productivity, profit, and return on investment. Challenges of Workplace Diversity Taking full advantage of the benefits of diversity in the workplace is not without its challenges. Some of those challenges are: Communication Perceptual, cultural and language barriers need to be overcome for diversity programs to succeed. Ineffective communication of key objectives results in confusion, lack of teamwork, and low morale. Resistance to change There are always employees who will refuse to accept the fact that the social and cultural makeup of their workplace is changing. The weve always done it this way mentality silences new ideas and inhibits progress. Implementation of diversity in the workplace policies This can be the overriding challenge to all diversity advocates. Armed with the results of employee assessments and research data, they must build and implement a customized strategy to maximize the effects of workplace diversity for their particular organization. Successful Management of Diversity in the Workplace Diversity training alone is not sufficient for your organizations diversity management plan. A strategy must be created and implemented to create a culture of diversity that permeates every department and function of the organization. (Retrieved from http://www.diversityworking.com/employerZone/diversityManagement/?id=9) In preparing an organization to accept diversity, it is more important to change the corporate culture or to change structure of the organization. Organization Culture Basically, organizational culture is the personality of the organization. Culture is comprised of the assumptions, values, norms and tangible signs (artefacts) of organization members and their behaviours. Members of an organization soon come to sense the particular culture of an organization. Culture is one of those terms thats difficult to express distinctly, but everyone knows it when they sense it. For example, the culture of a large, for-profit corporation is quite different than that of a hospital which is quite different that that of a university. You can tell the culture of an organization by looking at the arrangement of furniture, what they brag about, what members wear, etc. similar to what you can use to get a feeling about someones personality. Corporate culture can be looked at as a system. Inputs include feedback from, e.g., society, professions, laws, stories, heroes, values on competition or service, etc. The process is based on our assumptions, values and norms, e.g., our values on money, time, facilities, space and people. Outputs or effects of our culture are, e.g., organizational behaviours, technologies, strategies, image, products, services, appearance, etc. (Retrieved from http://managementhelp.org/org_thry/culture/culture.htm) Identification with an organization is a fixed sense of ones role in relation to the organization. When organizational members identify with their workplace, they define themselves in terms of the organization; they internalize its mission, ideology, and values and they adopt its customary ways of doing things. Eventually the member may see him or herself as an exemplar or microcosm of the organization. Organizational identification, in other words, suggests a feeling of oneness with the organization. Diversity makes open organizational culture more rich, and insights and innovation more applicable to a wide range of contexts. High levels of identification with an organization can limit diversity by reducing communication competencies in the area of social perception skills, including the ability to pick up on the subtleties of social situations and adapt to them. This skill is essential in a cross cultural context. High levels of identification among employees can also produce a la ck of organizational flexibility and creativity, over-conformity to organizational dictates, and tyrannical behaviour on the part of leaders. Highly-identified individuals could experience a lack of risk taking, loss of an independent self, and burnout. Redding indicates that a focus on high-performance goals in a context of trust and openness make it easier for employees to manage the ambiguity of gaining their sense of identity from shared visions rather than from a physical structure. Knowledge of self and openness in relation to shared goals create a safety zone in which people feel free to explore new ideas and new ways of approaching problem solving. (Retrieved from http://workplacewellness.blogspot.com/2005/08/identity-development-and.html) Organizational Structure Diversity is often viewed as a training program, limited to a human resources initiative focused on race and gender and separate from organizational change efforts. However, as the article describes, the definition of diversity is much broader, encompassing primary, secondary, and tertiary dimensions that go beyond race and gender. The aim of diversity is to allow all individuals to contribute fully to the success of the organization. Thus, integrating diversity and organizational change efforts can enhance the success of most types of organizational change. Organization development theory and principles can also add significantly to the outcomes of diversity initiatives through the effective use of contracts, assessments, action research methodology, and other critical components. In the current competitive world, diversity and organization development must be partners in successful organizational change efforts. (Ginger Lapid-Bogda, Ph.D., 1998) The Contribution of diversity to organizational Integrating diversity and organizational change efforts can enhance the success of most types of organizational change. All major organizational change involves a cultural change, and a diversity effort is cultural change at its core. It requires an organization to search its collective soul and focus on essential aspects of its culture: seminal values; organizational demands for conformity in thought, interpersonal style, and action; power structure and power dynamics; employee participation; and inclusion/exclusion issues, to name a few. Cultural Differences In addition, most organizational changes involve diversity components. An organizational redesign, for example, may combine functions that have previously been separate, such as marketing and manufacturing. Certainly, marketing and manufacturing have two distinct cultures and a successful redesign needs to pay attention to those cultural issues involved. Diversity offers both the perspective and the technology to deal with these intercultural issues, whether they are triggered by redesigns, mergers, or global expansions. When an organization is redesigned, some of its subsystems discover they have to transact a new form of business with new, unfamiliar partners. Naturally, they assume that their established styles of doing business, their traditional practices, priorities, values, and methods, will be perfectly acceptable, perfectly functional. Thus, marketing is surprised when this assumption turns out to be invalid for manufacturing. Marketing assumes that its new partner, manufact uring, simply has not appreciated the benefits of changing and adapting to marketings traditional way of doing business. Thus, organizational redesign invariably leads to organizational conflict. A diversity perspective adds insight to the identification of and techniques for the management of such issues. Conflict, by definition, means that differences exist. These differences may be based on style, role, values, priorities, power, mental models and patterns of thinking, or culture. The diversity perspective of valuing and utilizing differences offers a positive framework from which to manage conflict. (Ginger Lapid-Bogda, Ph.D., 1998) Team Effectiveness Team effectiveness has even clearer diversity connections. For a team to develop and be effective, its members must find productive ways to both elicit and manage individual and subgroup differences. In any group development model, there is always some version of a storming stage fairly early in a groups development. The group must navigate this troublesome phase successfully to evolve toward more productive phases of development. Successful navigation cannot occur if differences are submerged or conformity is forced upon diverse members. To be effective means to acknowledge differences and to utilize them creatively to gain the teams objectives. (Ginger Lapid-Bogda, Ph.D., 1998) Organizational Cultural Shift In the case of a complex organization change (for example, going from a production-driven to a marketing-driven focus or moving toward Total Quality), a fundamental shift in organizational culture must occur. A cultural change of this magnitude and complexity poses a major challenge for most organizations because of the ambiguity involved and the enormity of the task. An understanding of diversity enables organizations to find ways not to insist on conformity in a major change process, but to encourage employees to contribute, to take a fresh look, and to continuously evolve. (Ginger Lapid-Bogda, Ph.D., 1998) Diversity oriented HRM policies It is the responsibility of the HR manager to facilitate the organizations ability to use staff efficiency and effectively to achieve strategic business objectives. The HR manager is also responsible for ensuring that all employees are rewarded fairly and equitably for their contributions to the organizations. Fair and equitable rewards not only includes wages and salaries, but also opportunities for training and career development and the provision of a work environment in which all workers are treated with respect. Ensuring that all employees are treated fairly and equitably is not only a matter of legal and ethical responsibility, but also recognises that employees who perceive that they are receiving unfair or inequitable treatment may be less committees to the organization and thus may be less productive. The HR manager can achieve these outcomes by: Identifying the significant difference in their organizations workforce and in the labour market from which they draw employees. Exploring the potential advantages to be gained from hiring persons from particular groups. Identifying relevant diversity factors existing in the present workforce. Developing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating staff management practice that facilitate the ability of each employee to contribute effectively to the organization and to be rewarded appropriately. It is also the professional and business responsibility of the HR manager to establish audit measure that identify and quantify the advantage gained from diversity employment practice and that minimise the costs of diversity employment. (Raymond J. Stone, 2008)Diversity in management includes: Conclusion A diverse workforce is a reflection of a changing world and marketplace. Diverse work teams bring high value to the organizations. Respecting individual differences will benefit the workplace by creating a competitive edge and increasing work productivity. Diversity management benefits associates by creating a fair and safe environment where everyone has access to opportunities and challenges. Management tools in a diverse workforce should be used to educate everyone about diversity and its issues, including laws and regulations. Most workplaces are made up of diverse cultures, so organizations need to learn how to adopt to be successful practices. References: Stone, Raymond J., (2008). Human resource management, 6th edition Seymen, Oya Aytemiz., (2006). The cultural diversity phenomenon in organisations and different approaches for effective cultural diversity management: a literary review Martins, Luis L., Parsons, Charles K., (2007). Effects of Gender Diversity Management on Perceptions of Organizational Attractiveness: The Role of Individual Differences in Attitudes and Beliefs Wegge, Ju ¨rgen., Roth, Carla., Neubach, Barbara., Schmidt, Klaus-Helmut., Kanfer, Ruth., (2008). Age and Gender Diversity as Determinants of Performance and Health in a Public Organization: The Role of Task Complexity and Group Size M. Gross, Rita., (1999). Religious Diversity: Some Implications for Monotheism, retrieved from http://www.crosscurrents.org/gross.htm Lapid-Bogda, Ginger, Ph.D., (1998). Diversity and Organizational Change, retrieved from http://www.bogda.com/articles/DiversityandOrgChange.pdf http://www.diversityworking.com/employerZone/diversityManagement/?id=9 http://managementhelp.org/org_thry/culture/culture.htm http://workplacewellness.blogspot.com/2005/08/identity-development-and.htm

Visions and Dreams in James Welch’s Fools Crow :: James Welch Fools Crow Essays

Visions and Dreams in James Welch’s Fools Crow In the novel Fools Crow, by James Welch, several characters have visions and dreams. The dreams are so realistic that they are a vision of what's to come in the future. A lot of the visions and dreams become a message or some type of warning to the people so that they are aware of thing that are going to happen. Many of these dreams that the characters have affect them positively or in a disastrous way leading to misfortune. The first dream is a dream that White-Man's Dog known as "Fools Crow," has while he is on the first raid against the Crows. He dreamt of a lodge within an enemy camp containing young naked girls. As one of the girls approached him, he began to awake. After his awaking, he felt that in his dream he wanted to approach the girl but knew that there was danger in her direction. He kept thinking that he should tell Yellow Kidney, their leader, of this dream but his father had told him that it was not wise to speak of your dreams to others. After the raid, Yellow Kidney did not return with the others. Several months later he returned to their homestead and began to tell of what had happened to him. He had entered the enemy camp and discovered the lodge of young naked girls. The girls were infected with the white scabs disease; he had sexual contact with one of them and almost died. White Man's Dog felt horrible and blamed himself for what happened to Yellow Kidney. He thought to himself "Wh y hadn't he told Yellow Kidney of his dream? Such a dream would have been a sign of bad medicine and they might have turned back" (76). The second dream is a dream that Mik-api, the medicine man, has about the raven. The raven was a bird that had heard a cry of a four-legged creature named the wolverine. The wolverine had crossed through one of the Crow's caged traps and could not escape. When the raven tried to free the wolverine, he was not of strength to succeed. He told Mik-api in his dream that he knew of White Man's Dog and the strength he pertained. "It will take such a man to release our four-legged brother" (52). Mik-api told White Man's Dog of this dream and he agreed to find the wolverine and set him free.

John Stewarat Mills On Liberty and the Subjection of Women Essay

John Stewarat Mill's On Liberty and the Subjection of Women Born in 1806, John Stewart Mill was an English philosopher who highly prized the Utilitarian belief system, or the doctrine of seeking the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people. Among his various political treatises, On Liberty and The Subjection of Women are excellent applications of his convictions in individualism and negative government. Though the subjects of each work differ to an extent, both are written in a dialogue format, and the general principles postulated in On Liberty can be easily applied to the second work. Essentially, Mill seeks to assert the importance of certain personal rights and freedoms, moral beliefs, and the integrity of the individual. The Subjection of Women incorporates concepts from On Liberty and defines them via concrete application to a real social problem. The crucial idea supported throughout On Liberty is stated by Mill in Chapter 1: â€Å"That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant† (9). This statement encapsulates Mill’s view that government should serve a negative role, or rather, interfere in the lives of the people only for the prevention of harm. Further, this assumes to an extent that the individual has some degree of common sense, morality, or knowledge of how to care for one ’s self. In The Subjection of Woman, Mill stretches this ideal to women to explain the irrationality behind the government’s relegation of women to second-class citizens against their will. Mill’s opponents assert that women are known to be inferior, both ... ...shment of friendship through deliberation, so too will the inclusion of women into intellectual society color and expand the depth of knowledge. â€Å"Women’s thoughts are thus as useful in giving reality to those of thinking men, as men’s thoughts in giving width and largess to those of women† (Women 63). In essence, Mill asserts that â€Å"true wisdom† only comes from those who â€Å"hear what can be said about [a subject] by persons of every opinion, and study all modes in which it can be looked at by every character of mind† (On Liberty 19). Therefore, The Subjection of Women expounds this notion by explaining the fallacy and potential dangers of ignoring the feminine potential. Throughout both works, his views are consistent toward preserving the individual, encouraging free thinking, and progressing society to a point past social prejudices and negative presuppositions.

Huckleberry Finn: A Good Role Model :: essays research papers

Huckleberry Finn: A Good Role Model "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" gives a visual look at the time in which the author Samuel Clemens lived. He explains how he felt about his life through the eyes of a young boy named Huckleberry Finn. Huckleberry Finn has many adventures that teach him life lessons we can learn from today. Although there are differing opinions on whether Huck Finn is a good role model for today's young people, I will explain why I think he is. Huck is a good role model for several reasons. First, he believes that slavery is wrong. He believes in treating people equally regardless of color. When Huck sees the widow's runaway slave Jim on Jackson's Island, he has mixed emotions about what he should say and do. He feels badly that the widow is going to sell Jim and separate him from his family. Huck decides against better reasoning to help Jim escape down the Mississippi River to Cairo. Another example of good role modeling is Huck's faithfulness to those he loves and cares for. Huck lies to protect Jim on several occasions. Lying is not the best thing, but to Huckleberry, the truth is not always a black and white issue. He is faithful to his friends and chooses friendship instead. He knows that Jim's family needs him. In today's language, Huckleberry's reaction to Jim's situation would reflect what Spock of Star Trek says, â€Å"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.† An illustration of another positive side of Huck shows us that he has a good and true heart, and the best intentions even though they may not turn out right. For example, the widow tells Huck to pray for the dinner they are having. Huck's interpretation is, â€Å"God thank you for the meal and if you get the chance, please let me catch a big catfish.† The widow tells Huck that he shouldn't pray for material things. Huck disagrees because his Sunday School teacher teaches him to pray to God for what you want, and it will be granted. The widow tells him that the teacher is talking about spiritual things. He still disagrees, and is sent to his room. Even though his intentions are the best, he still comes up short; but he keeps on trying. Finally, Huckleberry Finn thinks life is precious and shouldn't be wasted. This is the most important lesson he can teach today's young people. He and Jim find themselves in a situation as they are floating down the Mississippi River in the fog.

Gatsby Automobile Essay Essay

There are many different themes, images, and symbols in Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby that render great importance to the development of the story. One particular image and symbol seen throughout Fitzgerald’s novel that acts as a major contributor to the plot is the automobile. The image of the automobile can be seen in relation with any of the characters in the novel who involve themselves in with driving an automobile or even simply talking about an automobile. Two characters in the novel that Fitzgerald uses to portray the images and symbols of the automobile are Tom Buchannan and Jay Gatsby. These two automobile owners are created into the strongest conductors of Fitzgerald’s imagery and symbolism throughout the novel. The automobile can be seen as representing a few different types of images and symbols. A possible symbol of the automobile may stand for the respective automobile owner’s status in society. Almost all automobiles in the nineteen-twenties were black and just about as plain as could be. These black automobiles were owned by all those who could just barely afford an automobile, to those who were average, middle class people, to the extremely wealthy who could easily afford three or four automobiles. What makes this piece of history so important is the fact that Fitzgerald gives both Tom and Gatsby brightly colored automobiles. The personalities of these two characters effortlessly magnifies the showiness and in Gatsby’s case, gaudiness. Gatsby’s absolutely obnoxious Rolls Royce is â€Å"a rich cream color, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hat-boxes and supper-boxes and tool-boxes, and terraced with a labyrinth of windshields that mirrored a dozen suns. † No one in the nineteen-twenties had such an untasteful looking automobile that Gatsby. One obvious and straightforward possible explanation for Gatsby’s hideous automobile is that he wants to show off his wealth, status, and â€Å"success† in his many trades. Another not so obvious reason for this hideous yellow automobile could be an image produced by Fitzgerald to try to illustrate Gatsby’s need to reach out and grasp Daisy’s attention. Unfortunately, because Gatsby was formerly a much lower class man, living on a farm out west with his family, his wealth and riches cannot buy him any class or style. A very similar situation can be seen with Tom Buchannan and his automobiles. He too, is very showy and flashy in his actions to show the world his possessions. Tom, like Gatsby, has an unusual colored car. This blue automobile is a symbol of wealth, status, and riches, just like Gatsby, but it can represent another image. Every single time Tom heads over to Wilson’s Garage for some gas or to see Myrtle, Wilson asks Tom about purchasing his old automobile. Tom plainly and seemingly without thinking puts the topic off to the side as if it wasn’t important and he didn’t want to talk about it. Sadly for Wilson, the automobile in a sense symbolizes Myrtle. Tom pushes the car aside as if it didn’t matter much at all to him, just like he uses Myrtle and makes all those empty promises to her about trying to divorce Daisy and being together forever. The images and symbols throughout The Great Gatsby create many dimensions to such a superb plot and character development. These amazing images set up by Fitzgerald give the novel a complete feel of full development. Fitzgerald ties in all the different elements of the story by using the one simple entity of the automobile.

Five Force Model For Woodland

Nike Brief HistoryNike has one mission statement: To carry out the legacy of innovative thinking left by the founding members by developing products that enable athletes of all abilities to maximize their potential while beating competition and creating value for shareholders. Nikes headquarters are located in Beaverton, Oregon in Portland and the company operates in more than 160 countries all over the world with more than 30,000 employees across all six continents (Nike 2011). Nike TodayNike today is the largest manufacturer of athletic footwear, clothing and equipment globally by sales with 2011 revenues of more than US $23billion ahead of closest rivals Adidas, Puma, K-Swiss and Under Armour which it competes with in the sportswear market. Nike has been steadily increasing its market share of the sportswear market from an initial 3.7% in 2006 to 4.6% in 2011, even though this declined in 2009. Many analysts expect this market share to reach about 6.3% by 2017. The company also ex pects to make big gains from the London 2012 Olympics for its footwear division (MSN money 2012) Figure 1: Nike Apparel Market ShareFigure 2: Nike Footwear Market ShareHowever even though Nike is expected to attain big gains from the London 2012 Olympics, its competitors are not sitting still and letting Nike take any such gains. Adidas, which is one of main rivals of Nike, has invested more than  £100million in the Olympics to not only boost its profile, but also close the market share gap with Nike. Adidas has already posted better sales and profit results in 2012 compared to Nike. In fact, Adidas, also the second largest apparel manufacturer in the world after Nike, has been outperforming Nike since 2006 (Torry 2012). Below, we will do an industry analysis using Porters 5 Forces of Competition Framework to help us understand the various variables influencing competition and profitability for Nike within the sectors in which it is competing.Porter’s Five Forces of Competi tion Framework According to Grant (2005), there are many features of an industry in which a company competes that determines the level of competition it will face and the profits it will get. The most famous classification was done by Michael Porter, known as Porters Five Forces framework which can help a company determine its potential profits by looking at five sources of competitive pressure. The five sources of competition are 1) competition from entrants 2) competition from substitutes 3) competition from established rivals 4) bargaining power of suppliers and 5) bargaining power of buyers. Threat of entry/Barriers to entryThe threat of entry is highest in the apparel market due to the relatively lower costs of manufacturing apparel compared to the footwear market where the biggest threat posed is basically from current rivals already established in the market e.g Adidas and Puma, who although behind in market share, are currently implementing strategies that are helping them c lose the gap on Nike. Adidas has especially been gaining ground on Nike boosted by its strong presence in sponsoring the European soccer tournament where it sponsored eventual winners Spain (Torry 2012). According to Marketing Weekly News (2012), Adidas is also planning on moving into the more fashion-aligned market of teenagers which could see it improve global market share.NEO, a fast fashion adidas sub-brand aimed at teenagers is Adidas’ attempts to enter new apparel segments that will even pit it against the likes of H&M and Zara in an effort to gain market share and squeeze more profits out of mature industries. Another threat of entry is posed by Under Armour Inc. an established company in the athletic sportswear in the USA which in 2009 decided to enter the U.S athletic footwear market creating competition in a market which had been dominated by a few players like Nike and Adidas.Recently the US sports brand has started entering markets which have been traditionally fo ught over by Nike and Adidas. For example, Under Armour is using its sponsorship of Tottenham Hotspur in an â€Å"aggressive† digital marketing drive which it views as part of a wider strategy to steal market share from Nike and Adidas in the apparel category in Europe. This is the firms first foray into professional football, which have been areas where Nike and Adidas traditionally dominated and performed well in but are now  having to brace for new competition from Under Armour (Sebastian 2012).Threat of substitutesSubstitutes in the footwear category can include any other types of shoes that consumers can choose to serve similar purposes. Substitutes here therefore include the likes of sandals, which can act as substitutes, even though they may not fulfill exact same purpose. It is difficult to think of other substitutes that can fulfill the same purpose as athletic shoes from the footwear industry since this an industry that has something very specific to offer to a ta rgeted market. This means that it is not meant to appeal to the general population and everybody.Thus consumers who are looking for shoes to run in will not look for boots as substitutes simply because boots are cheaper substitutes. This is due to the specialization of running shoes that makes substitutes hard to come by. But while athletic footwear has little substitutes, sportswear apparel can have substitutes that include normal everyday clothing which can be used for athletic purposes if necessary. For example, some consumers may choose to wear tight fitting t shirts to exercise in instead of using Nikes sportswear, making normal clothing from high street brands substitutes. Rivalry between firms (Industry structure)Adidas: Although Adidas is currently not able to outcompete Nike in terms of sales and market share, it has been outperforming Nike and gaining market share since 2006 while Nike has been losing market share since 1998 when it still had more than 47 percent of the ma rket, which has been cut back to 32 percent (MSN money 2011). Adidas is also still the second biggest competitor to Nike competing for market share and has plans in the pipeline that it is trying to implement in order to grow.One of them is heavy sponsorship of football tournaments all over the globe since football has the highest fan support with more than 2billion people who follow it, with Basketball behind it with 1.2 billion followers. One such plan has been paying off when Spain, the team it sponsored at the 2012 Euro championships, won the tournament in style (Torry 2012). Puma: Puma is another rival to Nike that has been having a bad time with financial figures not going according to expectation. Although the firm has been sponsoring some very famous names (it sponsored  the Italian football team who reached the final of Euro 2012), while Usain Bolt wore the firm’s kit when he competed in the 100m at the London 2012 Olympic Games, Puma has served up a profit warning . It said that net earnings for the first quarter of 2012 were expected to be 13 percent below the 115m Euros reported during the same period last year.Puma is also expect to take a EURO 100m restructuring charge showing that the firm is doing not as well as expected so Nike has little worry from this rival. According to the Financial Times (2012), the main problem with Puma does not lie on the sporting field but in the stands. Puma's recovery over the past decade was driven mainly by its popularity with fashion-conscious youngsters. So it is not helping Puma that many youth are unemployed in the Eurozone. Puma generates more than 45 per cent of sales from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, so the fall in spending power has been hurting it badly, as does rising competition in the sports lifestyle market. The company is also hurt by its dependence on shoes, which account for about half of sales. Under Armour: As stated previously, Under Armour has been the one company that has gaine d the most from any slip ups from both Nike, Adidas and Puma as it has been going strong for the last few years.Power of SuppliersThe footwear market is one of those industry categories where the demand is always there. Retailers have to buy whatever the big brands like Nike make whether they like it or not therefore this also means that suppliers like Nike and Adidas have a lot of power compared to other industries. One of the biggest factors that contribute to this is the fact shoes such as Nikes are made very cheaply but sold at very expensive prices making them very desirable for retailers, which gives suppliers like Nike power. It is one of reasons why Nike has always been famous for sweatshop prices (Forbes 2012)Power of BuyersHighly Competitive market due to market saturation and slowdown in the sales industry worldwide, buyers more intellectual, have specific wants and needs and know where to get discounts and deals. As seen with the problems in the Eurozone experiencing hig h rates of unemployment as seen with the problems with Puma, many consumers have more discretion to choose what to buy and  what not to buy as the world economies suffer.ConclusionNow that we have looked at Nike and the competitive pressures it faces in the industry as it tries to make profits and stay competitive, it is upto the company to find ways around some of these pressures, fully analysing what is driving the industry in general. Michael Porter did offer some suggestions to companies trying to sustain a competitive advantage with three strategies which were focus, cost leadership or differentiation (Grant 2005). So depending on which strategy Nike chooses, it could choose to innovate better shoes by investing in R&D, focus on marketing or simply reduce prices to become the lost cost leader in its industry like Walmart.

University College

David John Lodge was born on January 28, 1935, in London’s lower-middle-class East End, the only son of a musician father and a staunchly Catholic mother. The family’s straitened economic situation, his conservative Catholic upbringing, and the dangers of wartime London left their mark on young David. He began his first novel (unpublished) at eighteen while still a student at University College, London, where he received his B. A. in English (with first honors) in 1955 and an M. A. in 1959.Between times Lodge performed what was then an obligatory National Service (1955-1957). Although the two years were in a sense wasted, his stint in the army did give him time to complete his first published novel, The Picturegoers , and material for his second, Ginger, You’re Barmy , as well as the impetus to continue his studies.In 1959 he married to Mary Frances Jacob; they had three children. After a year working as an assistant at the British Council, Lodge joined the facul ty at the University of Birmingham, where he completed his Ph. D. in 1969; he eventually attained the position of full professor of modern English literature in 1976. The mid-1960’s proved an especially important period in Lodge’s personal and professional life.He became close friends with fellow critic and novelist Malcolm Bradbury (then also at Birmingham), under whose influence Lodge wrote his first comic novel, The British Museum Is Falling Down , for which the publisher, not so comically, forgot to distribute review copies; he was awarded a Harkness Commonwealth Fellowship to study and travel in the United States for a year (1964-1965); he published his first critical study, the influential The Language of Fiction (1966); and he learned that his third child, Christopher, suffered from Down syndrome (a biographical fact that manifests itself obliquely at the end of Out of the Shelter and more overtly in one of the plots of How Far Can You Go? ).Lodge’s secon d trip to the United States, this time as visiting professor of English at the University of California at Berkeley in 1969, during the height of the Free Speech Movement and political unrest, played its part in the conceiving and writing of his second comic novel, Changing Places , as did the critical essays he was then writing and would later collect in The Novelist at the Crossroads (1971) and Working with Structuralism (1981). The cash award that went along with the Whitbread Prize for his next novel, How Far Can You Go? , enabled Lodge to reduce his teaching duties to half-year and to devote himself more fully to his writing.He transformed his participation in the Modern Language Association’s 1978 conference in New York, the 1979 James Joyce Symposium in Zurich, and a three-week world tour of conferences and British Council speaking engagements into his most commercially successful book, Small World , later adapted for British television. His reputation growing and his financial situation brightening, Lodge donated all royalties from his next book, Write On: Occasional Essays, ’65-’85 (1986), to CARE (Cottage and Rural Enterprises), which maintains communities for mentally handicapped adults. In 1987 he took advantage of early retirement (part of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s austerity plan for British universities) so that he could work full time as a writer. Lodge soon published Paradise News (1991) and Therapy (1995).He also published two collections of essays, After Bakhtin: Essays on Fiction and Criticism (1990) The Art of Fiction (1992), and a comedic play, The Writing Game (1991). Especially popular for his academic novels, Lodge enjoyed an increasingly strong critical reception in the 1990’s. The Writing Game was adapted for television in 1996, and Lodge was named a Fellow of Goldsmith’s College in London in 1992. In 1996 he published The Practice of Writing , a collection of seventeen essays on the creative process. In this text he treats fiction writers who have influenced him, from James Joyce to Anthony Burgess, and comments on the contemporary novelist and the world of publishing; the main focus, however, is on adapting his own work, as well as the work of Charles Dickens and Harold Pinter, for television.Lodge remained a supporter of CARE and other organizations supporting the mentally handicapped (the subject of mental handicaps appears briefly in Therapy in a reference to the central character’s sister’s dedication to a mentally handicapped son). He retained the title of Honorary Professor of Modern English Literature at the University of Birmingham. In addition to interests in television, theater, and film, Lodge maintained an interest in tennis that is sometimes reflected in the novels. Literary Forms Mediating between theory and practice, David Lodge has proved himself one of England’s ablest and most interesting literary critics. Among his influ ential critical books are The Language of Fiction (1966) and The Novelist at the Crossroads (1971).In addition to his novels and criticism, he has written short stories, television screenplays of some of his novels, and (in collaboration with Malcolm Bradbury and Jim Duckett) several satirical revues. Achievements As a novelist Lodge has made his mark in three seemingly distinct yet, in Lodge’s case, surprisingly congruent areas: as a writer of Catholic novels, of â€Å"campus fiction,† and of works that somehow manage to be at once realist and postmodern. The publication of Changing Places in 1975 and Small World nine years later brought Lodge to the attention of a much larger (especially American) audience. Changing Places won both the Yorkshire Post and Hawthornden prizes, How Far Can You Go?received the Whitbread Award, and Nice Work was shortlisted for Great Britain’s prestigious Booker Prize. Literary Analysis In order to understand David Lodge’s no vels, it is necessary to place them in the context of postwar British literature—the â€Å"Movement† writers and â€Å"angry young men† of the 1950’s, whose attacks on the English class system had an obvious appeal to the author of The Picturegoers , the English Catholic novel and â€Å"campus novel† traditions, and finally the postmodernism to which British fiction (it is often claimed) has proved especially resistant. In addition, Lodge’s novels are significantly and doubly autobiographical. They draw not only on important events in the author’s life, but also on his work as a literary critic.In The Language of Fiction Lodge defends the aesthetic validity and continuing viabilty of realist writing on the basis of linguistic mastery rather than fidelity to life, and in The Novelist at the Crossroads he rejects Robert Scholes’s bifurcation of contemporary fiction into fabulistic and journalistic modes, positing the â€Å"probl ematic novel† in which the novelist innovatively builds his hesitation as to which mode to adopt into the novel. Lodge’s own novels are profoundly pluralistic yet manifest the author’s clear sense of aesthetic, social, and personal limitations as well as his awareness of working both within and against certain traditions and forms. The Picturegoers Set in a lower-middle-class area of London much like the one in which Lodge grew up, The Picturegoers is an interesting and even ambitious work marred by melodramatic excesses. As the plural of its title implies, The Picturegoers deals with a fairly large number of more or less main characters.Lodge’s title also is indicative of his narrative method: abrupt cinematic shifts between the different plots, use of a similarly shifting focalizing technique, and a stylizing of the narrative discourse in order to reflect features of an individual character’s verbal thought patterns. Of the seven main characters, Mark Underwood is the most important. A lapsed Catholic and aspiring writer, he arrives in London, rents a room in the home of a conservative Catholic family, the Mallorys, and falls in love with the daughter, Clare, formerly a Catholic novitiate. The affair will change them: Clare will become sexually awakened and then skeptical when Mark abandons her for the Catholicism from which she has begun to distance herself.Interestingly, his return to the Church seems selfish and insincere, an ironic sign not of his redemption but of his bad faith. Ginger, You’re Barmy Dismissed by its author as a work of â€Å"missed possibilities† and an â€Å"act of revenge† against Great Britain’s National Service, Ginger, You’re Barmy continues Lodge’s dual exploration of narrative technique and moral matters and largely succeeds on the basis of the solution Lodge found for the technical problem which the writing of the novel posed: how to write a novel about the tedium of military life without making the novel itself tedious to read. Lodge solved the problem by choosing to concentrate the action and double his narrator-protagonist Jonathan Browne’s story.Lodge focuses the story on the first few weeks of basic training, particularly Jonathan’s relationship with the altruistic and highly, though conservatively, principled Mike Brady, a poorly educated Irish Catholic, who soon runs afoul of the military authorities; on the accidental death or perhaps suicide of Percy Higgins; and on Jonathan’s last days before being mustered out two years later. Lodge then frames this already-doubled story with the tale of Jonathan’s telling, or writing, of these events three years later, with Jonathan now married (to Mike’s former girlfriend), having spent the past three years awaiting Mike’s release from prison. The novel’s frame structure suggests that Jonathan has improved morally from the self-centered agnostic he was to the selfless friend he has become, but his telling problematizes the issue of his development.Between Mike’s naive faith and Jonathan’s intellectual self-consciousness and perhaps self-serving confession there opens up an abyss of uncertainty for the reader. The British Museum Is Falling Down This moral questioning takes a very different form in Lodge’s next novel. The British Museum Is Falling Down is a parodic pastiche about a day in the highly literary and (sexually) very Catholic life of Adam Appleby, a twenty-five-year- old graduate student trying to complete his dissertation before his stipend is depleted and his growing family overwhelms his slender financial resources. Desperate but by no means in despair, Adam begins to confuse literature and life as each event in the wildly improbable series that makes up his day unfolds in its own uniquely parodied style.The parodies are fun but also have a semiserious purpose, the undermining of al l forms of authority, religious as well as literary. Parodic in form, The British Museum Is Falling Down is comic in intent in that Lodge wrote it in the expectation of change in the church’s position on birth control. The failure of this expectation would lead Lodge fifteen years later to turn the comedy inside out in his darker novel, How Far Can You Go? Out of the Shelter Published after The British Museum Is Falling Down but conceived earlier, Out of the Shelter is a more serious but also less successful novel. Modeled on a trip Lodge made to Germany when he was sixteen, Out of the Shelter attempts to combine the Bildungsroman and the Jamesian international novel.In three parts of increasing length, the novel traces the life of Timothy Young from his earliest years in the London blitz to the four weeks he spends in Heidelberg in the early 1950’s with his sister, who works for the American army of occupation. With the help of those he meets, Timothy begins the proce ss of coming out of the shelter of home, conservative Catholicism, unambitious lower-middle-class parents, provincial, impoverished England, and sexual immaturity into a world of abundance as well as ambiguity. Lodge’s Joycean stylization of Timothy’s maturing outlook proves much less successful than his portrayal of Timothy’s life as a series of transitions in which the desire for freedom is offset by a desire for shelter, the desire to participate by the desire to observe.Even in the epilogue, Timothy, now thirty, married, and in the United States on a study grant, finds himself dissatisfied (even though he has clearly done better than any of the novel’s other characters) and afraid of the future. Changing Places Lodge translates that fear into a quite different key in Changing Places. Here Lodge’s genius for combining opposites becomes fully evident as the serious Timothy Young gives way to the hapless English liberal-humanist Philip Swallow, wh o leaves the shelter of the University of Rummidge for the expansive pleasures of the State University of Euphoria in Plotinus (Berkeley). Swallow is half of Lodge’s faculty and narrative exchange program; the other is Morris Zapp, also forty, an academic Norman Mailer, arrogant and ambitious.Cartoonish as his characters—or rather caricatures—may be, Lodge makes them and their complementary as well as parallel misadventures in foreign parts humanly interesting. The real energy of Changing Places lies, however, in the intersecting plots and styles of this â€Å"duplex† novel. The first two chapters, â€Å"Flying† and â€Å"Settling,† get the novel off to a self-consciously omniscient but otherwise conventional start. â€Å"Corresponding,† however, switches to the epistolary mode, and â€Å"Reading† furthers the action (and the virtuosic display) by offering a series of newspaper items, press releases, flysheets, and the like. â €Å"Changing† reverts to conventional narration (but in a highly stylized way), and â€Å"Ending† takes the form of a filmscript.Set at a time of political activism and literary innovation, Changing Places is clearly a â€Å"problematic novel† written by a â€Å"novelist at the crossroads,† aware of the means at his disposal but unwilling to privilege any one over any or all of the others. How Far Can You Go? Lodge puts the postmodern plays of Changing Places to a more overtly serious purpose in How Far Can You Go? It is a work more insistently referential than any of Lodge’s other novels but also paradoxically more self-questioning: a fiction about the verifiably real world that nevertheless radically insists upon its own status as fiction. The novel switches back and forth between the sometimes discrete, yet always ultimately related stories of its ten main characters as freely as it does between the mimetic levels of the story and its narration. The parts make up an interconnected yet highly discontinuous whole, tracing the lives of its ten characters from 1952 (when nine are university students and members of a Catholic study group led by the tenth, Father Brierly) through the religious, sexual, and sociopolitical changes of the 1960’s and 1970’s to the deaths of two popes, the installation of the conservative John Paul II, and the writing of the novel How Far Can You Go? in 1978. The authorial narrator’s attitude toward his characters is at once distant and familiar, condescending and compassionate. Their religious doubts and moral questions strike the reader as quaintly naive, the result of a narrowly Catholic upbringing. Yet the lives of reader and characters as well as authorial narrator are also strangely parallel in that (to borrow Lodge’s own metaphor) each is involved in a game of Snakes and Ladders, moving narratively, psychologically, socially, and religiously ahead one moment, only to fall suddenly behind the next.The characters stumble into sexual maturity, marry, have children, have affairs, get divorced, declare their homosexuality, suffer illnesses, breakdowns, and crises of faith, convert to other religions, and join to form Catholics for an Open Church. All the while the authorial narrator of this most postmodern of post- Vatican II novels proceeds with self-conscious caution, possessed of his own set of doubts, as he moves toward the open novel. Exploring various lives, plots, voices, and styles, Lodge’s artfully wrought yet ultimately provisional narrative keeps circling back to the question that troubles his characters: â€Å"How far can you go? † in the search for what is vital in the living of a life and the writing (or reading) of a novel. Small WorldLodge goes still further, geographically as well as narratively speaking, in his next novel. A campus fiction for the age of the â€Å"global campus,† Small World begins at a decided ly provincial meeting in Rummidge in 1978 and ends at a mammoth Modern Language Association conference in New York one year later, with numerous international stops in between as Lodge recycles characters and invents a host of intersecting stories (or narrative flight paths). The pace is frenetic and thematically exhaustive but, for the delighted reader, never exhausting. The basic plot upon which Lodge plays his add-on variations begins when Persse McGarrigle—poet and â€Å"conference virgin†Ã¢â‚¬â€meets the elusive Angelica Pabst.As Angelica pursues literary theory at a number of international conferences, Persse pursues her, occasionally glimpsing her sister, a pornographic actress, Lily Papps, whom he mistakes for Angelica. Meanwhile, characters from earlier Lodge novels reappear to engage in affairs and rivalries, all in the international academic milieu. A parody of (among other things) the medieval quest, Lodge’s highly allusive novel proves at once ente rtaining and instructive as it combines literary modes, transforms the traditional novel’s world of characters into semiotics’ world of signs, and turns the tables on contemporary literary theory’s celebrated demystifications by demystifying it. At novel’s end, Lodge makes a guest appearance, and Persse makes an exit, in pursuit of another object of his chaste desire.The quest continues, but that narrative fact does not mean that the novel necessarily endorses the kind of extreme open-endedness or inconclusiveness that characterizes certain contemporary literary theories. Rather, the novel seems to side with the reconstructed Morris Zapp, who has lost his faith in deconstruction, claiming that although the deferral of meaning may be endless, the individual is not: â€Å"Death is the one concept you can’t deconstruct. Work back from there and you end up with the old idea of an autonomous self. † Nice Work Zapp’s reduced expectations ty pify Lodge’s eighth novel, Nice Work , set almost entirely in Rummidge but also—as in How Far Can You Go? —evidencing his interest in bringing purely literary and academic matters to bear on larger social issues.The essential doubleness of this geographically circumscribed novel manifests itself in a series of contrasts: between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, literature and life, the Industrial Midlands and Margaret Thatcher’s economically thriving (but morally bankrupt) London, male and female, and the novel’s two main characters. Vic Wilcox, age forty-six, managing director of a family-named but conglomerate-owned foundry, rather ironically embodies the male qualities his name implies. Robyn Penrose is everything Vic Wilcox is not: young, attractive, intellectual, cosmopolitan, idealistic, politically aware, sexually liberated, as androgynous as her name, and, as temporary lecturer in women’s studies and the nineteenth century nov el, ill-paid. The differences between the two are evident even in the narrative language, as Lodge takes pains to unobtrusively adjust discourse to character.The sections devoted to Vic, â€Å"a phallic sort of bloke,† are appropriately straightforward, whereas those dealing with Robyn, a character who â€Å"doesn’t believe in character,† reflect her high degree of self-awareness. In order to bring the two characters and their quite different worlds together, Lodge invents an Industry Year Shadow Scheme that involves Robyn’s following Vic around one workday per week for a semester. Both are at first reluctant participants. Displeasure slowly turns into dialogue, and dialogue eventually leads to bed, with sexual roles reversed. Along the way Lodge smuggles in a considerable amount of literary theory as Vic and Robyn enter each other’s worlds and words: the phallo and logocentric literalmindedness of the one coming up against the feminist-semiotic aw areness of the other.Each comes to understand, even appreciate, the other. Lodge does not stop there. His ending is implausible, in fact flatly unconvincing, but deliberately so—a parody of the only solutions that, as Robyn points out to her students, the Victorian novelists were able or willing to offer to â€Å"the problems of industrial capitalism: a legacy, a marriage, emigration or death. † Robyn will receive two proposals of marriage, a lucrative job offer, and an inheritance that will enable her to finance the small company Vic, recently fired, will found and direct and also enable her to stay on at Rummidge to try to make her utopian dream of an educated, classless English society a reality.The impossibly happy ending suggests just how slim her chances for success are, but the very existence of Lodge’s novel seems to undermine this irony, leaving Nice Work and its reader on the border between aspiration and limitation, belief and skepticism, the romance of how things should be and the reality, or realism, of how things are—a border area that is one of the hallmarks of Lodge’s fiction. Paradise News Paradise News centers on the quest motif and the conflicts of a postmodern English Catholic. Bernard Walsh, a â€Å"sceptical theologican,† was formerly a priest but now teaches theology at the University of Rummidge. Summoned, along with his father, to see his aunt, who left England after World War II and is now dying in Hawaii, Walsh signs up for a package tour to save money. The rumpled son and his curmudgeon father join a comic assortment of honeymooners, disgruntled families, and other eccentrics; Lodge calls an airport scene â€Å"carnivalesque.† When the father breaks his leg on the first morning, Bernard must negotiate to bring his father and his aunt together so that his aunt can finally reveal and overcome the sexual abuse she suffered in childhood. Bernard’s journey to Hawaii becomes a journe y of discovery in his sexual initiation with Yolande, who gently leads him to know himself and his body. A major theme, as the title suggests, is â€Å"paradise. † Hawaii is the false paradise—paradise lost, fallen, or packaged by the tourist industry—yet a beautiful, natural backdrop is there, however worn and sullied. Paradise emerges from within the individuals who learn to talk to one another. The â€Å"news† from paradise includes Bernard’s long letter to himself, which he secretly delivers to Yolande, and letters home from members of the tour group.As with Lodge’s other novels, prominent themes are desire and repression in English Catholic families and a naive academic’s quest for self. In a complex tangle of human vignettes, Bernard moves from innocence and repression to an awakening of both body and spirit—an existential journey that is both comic and poignant. Therapy Therapy centers on another spiritual and existentia l quest. Lawrence (Tubby) Passmore, successful writer of television comedies, is troubled by knee pains and by anxiety that leads him, after reading the works of Soren Kierkegaard, to consider himself the â€Å"unhappiest man. † Seeking psychotherapy, aromatherapy, massage therapy, and acupuncture, Tubby moves through a haze of guilt and anxiety.When his wife of thirty years asks for a divorce, he seeks solace with a series of women, with each quest ending in comic failure. Obsessed with Kierkegaard’s unrequited love, Tubby launches a quest for the sweetheart whom he feels he wronged in adolescence. Lodge’s concern with the blurring of literary forms is evident in Tubby’s preoccupation with writing in his journal, sometimes writing Browningesque monologues for other characters. Opening with an epigraph from Graham Greene asserting that writing itself is â€Å"therapy,† Lodge takes Tubby through a quest for self through writing that coincides with a literal pilgrimage when he joins his former sweetheart, Maureen, on a hiking pilgrimage in Spain.When Tubby at last finds Maureen, her recollections of their teenage romance minimize his guilt, and his troubles seem trivial in comparison with her losing a son and surviving breast cancer. At the end, Tubby is planning a trip (a pilgrimage) to Kierkegaard’s home with Maureen and her husband. Tubby’s real therapy has been self-discovery through writing in his journal; other therapies and journeys have failed. Intertwined with existential angst, Tubby’s physical and psychological journeys are both comic and sad, with an underlying sense of the power of human goodness and the need to overcome repressions. Findings and discussion Conclusion References