Alfred Hitchcocks Rear Window Essay - 1050 Words

Alfred Hitchcocks Rear Window In Rear Window, Alfred Hitchcock took a plot-driven short story and transformed it into a character-driven movie. Although differences must exist between text and film, because of the limitations and advantages of the different media, Hitchcock has done more than translate a word-based story into a visual movie. Aside from adding enough details to fill a two-hour movie, Hitchcock has done much to change the perspective of the story, as well as the main character. The novel’s Hal Jeffries, a seemingly hard-boiled and not overly intellectual man contrasts sharply with the photojournalist J.B. Jeffries of the movie. The addition of supporting characters, such as Lisa, diminishes somewhat the†¦show more content†¦Hitchcock uses several devices to help the reader identify more with the character of Jeff. While he obviously desires to be some kind of hero, both in the story and the movie, he as prevented from doing so in both by the restriction of his moveme nt. The story never explains fully the reason Jeffries is bound to his room, merely saying â€Å"my movements were strictly limited†¦I could get from the window to the bed, and from the bed to the window† (5). In the film, Jeff has broken his leg while photographing a car crash. The specificity of the injury not only justifies Jeff’s immobility, but also gives him a more masculine edge, by his actions while being injured. The Jeffries character in the short story appears to be a lone sort of character. He lives alone, with little contact with the outside world. His only human interaction, aside from the imagined connection provided by his watching his neighbors, occurs with Sam, a paid servant. While his suspicions of his neighbor do force him to contact a detective, his thoughts before he calls the detective reveal his isolationist tendencies: â€Å"I didn’t want to be involved any more than I had to. Or at all, if possible† (16). Boyne’s excited response to Jeff’s call shows how long he has been isolated, although the cause of Jeff’s withdrawal, goes, like so much else in the story, unexplained. In the movie, Hitchcock lessens theShow MoreRelated Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window Essay1177 Words   |  5 PagesAlfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window In Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, L.B. Jeffries, played by Jimmy Stewart, becomes completely obsessed with spending all of his waking hours watching his neighbors from his wheelchair. He even uses a camera to better his view and thus enhances his role as both a spectator and a voyeur. This contributes to the creation of a movie being played right outside Jeffries’ window. In this â€Å"movie within the movie† his neighbors’ lives become the subject for the plot. EachRead MoreAlfred Hitchcocks Rear Window: Sound Essay1413 Words   |  6 Pagesbe an aural sense but a visual sense as well and director Alfred Hitchcock knew this and applied it in his movie Rear Window. When Alfred Hitchcock fans refer to his style, they are usually referring to Hitchcocks camera magic and editing. When I think about Hitchcock the first thing that comes to mind is his use of sound effects, language, and music to create suspense or a sense of understanding. In the film Rear Window, there are many occasions where Hitchcock uses sound in orderRead MoreTechniques used in Alfred Hitchcocks The Rear Window1579 Words   |  4 PagesMarta Alfred Hitchcock was an amazing director and his films have lived on and are still thriving today due to the techniques he used in his films and the way he created them. He was known for taking the least probable scenarios and turning them into a masterpiece just by playing with light and form or angles. Some of these films are Psycho, Perfect Crime, The Man Who Knew Too Much and Rear Window. At first it was quite difficult to pinpoint a particular film to choose as he used brilliant techniquesRead MoreGender Roles In Alfred Hitchcocks Rear Window And Strangers On A Train1232 Words   |  5 Pagesevident in our everyday lives for quite sometime. Women are often portrayed as sexual objects, or delicate individuals; a body with no brain or strength. These traits are easily found within many novels and movies- old and new. In Alfred Hitchcock’s films, Rear Window and Strangers on a Train, Hitchcock begins his films representing women with the same characteristics as stated above . They are very stylish, attractive and presented as second-class individuals to males. But after examining these twoRead MoreEssay on Alfred Hitchcocks Control Of What We See in Rear Window990 Words   |  4 PagesAlfred Hitchcocks Control Of What We See in Rear Window Alfred Hitchcock controls what we see in the film by firstly controlling what the camera shows, he adds small details to the film to provide reasons for various events happening, he also uses each of the characters to convey a message to the public, includes some short but effective shots of some of the characters to stir certain feelings within the audience, uses light humour and sometimes uses only visual aidsRead MoreEssay about Alfred Hitchcocks Rear Window and the Crime Fiction Genre2515 Words   |  11 PagesAlfred Hitchcocks Rear Window continues and expands on traditional themes of the Detective Fiction Genre. In 1841, Murder in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe broke the traditional character constraints of the Crime Fiction Genre, by introducing a new type of lead detective figure. The ideal detective figure encompassed traits of superiority, intelligence, wit and a keen sense for observation. The lead detective figure is a sophisticated character that is not bound to the constrictions and limitationsRead MoreThe Narrative Techniques Used by Hitchcock in Rear Window Essay887 Words   |  4 PagesThe Narrative Techniques Used by Hitchcock in Rear Window L.B. Jeffries is a high-class magazine photographer for what seems to be a worldwide publication. In Alfred Hitchcocks Rear Window, he is a temporarily wheelchair-bound man and his voyeuristic side appears later on in the film. Rear Window depicts a 20th century New York in which fraudsters, murderers and salesmen all live alongside each other. The story describes a man who broke his leg during a photographyRead MoreThe Master Of Suspense And Alfred Hitchcock1389 Words   |  6 Pagesall have two attributes in common; the tactful use of suspense and Alfred Hitchcock. Each person in the list above has, at one point, named Alfred Hitchcock as an influence for their works (IMDb). Hitchcock has been known as, â€Å"the master of suspense,† throughout his career and it shows, not only in the movies that he directed personally, but in the movies of the other directors and producers who aspire to compare to him. Hitchcock’s auteur, or reoccurring themes within movies that can be traced backRead MoreAnalysis Of Alfred Hitchcock s Use Of Mis En Scene1312 Words   |  6 Pagesbathroom break. Mis-en scene simply refers to the setting and surrounding of an event within film. This element of a film is another way for a director to add more detail to an important scene, or to simply enhance an atmospheric understanding. Alfred Hitchcock’s use of mis-en scene within a film accompanies his rich portrayal of suspense, avidly depicted throughout the majority of his films. Mis-en scene incorporates a large number of features including costume design, actors, lighting, props, colourRead MoreVisual Pleasure And Narrative Cinema933 Words   |  4 Pagesdirector Alfred Hitchcock’s film Rear Window for how he portrayed woman in the film. Alfred Hitchcock’s movie correlates to Mulvey’s ideas which support her theories of scopophilia and voyeurism in cinema, she believed that the film exploits the male gaze and how it antagonises woman in an anti-feminism manner. In the film, the main actor is restricted in his apartment due to his broken leg from his latest assigned project. He spends most of his time watching his neighbours from his window and later

Juvenile Rats - 948 Words

The hypothesize that females are protected from developing neurodevelopmental disorders. That is because of their sex hormones, estrogen provides a great neuroprotection, done by suppressing the neuro-excitotoxicity induced by glutamate. Research article by Etidal Al-Suwailem, Sex differences in the glutamate signaling pathway in juvenile rats goes into the discussion and understanding of how sex gender is represented in autism. The authors conducted research in this area to understand why the female is at lower risk than a male when it comes to the development of neurodevelopmental disorders. With the attempt to understand the differences in glutamate signaling as an etiological mechanism in autism. This research was performed with 15†¦show more content†¦Also, Glu/GABA and Glu/Glt 1 ratios were lower in the female rat than in the male. GLN/GS ratio was also low in females (p=0.021) than in male. What had become an outlier making the researchers see something different wa s when the GLN/GAD =67 was higher in the female rat than in the male. Though GLN was not different in neither the concentration of GS in the brain cells went up by p = 0.019 in the female compared to the male. Even though that was shown higher it didn’t change the hypothesis keeping it still that the female rats will show less effectiveness to obtain the characteristic to obtain neurological development of autism as fast as the male rat. Throughout the experiment though finding the things that support their hypothesis the researchers also came to several others. The researchers came to an understanding that Gln is not active with in the sense it cannot activate the receptors in Glu. This was brought up because of Glu and Gln being enzymes of GS which is found to be very active within the brain especially in the neurons. Sex hormones play such a big role in the process of growing from a juvenile to an adult. With that said estrogen plays a major role along with progesterone as they are ovarian hormones and they begin to start the development within the brain and continue throughout a persons life. That is something I did not know and it is very interesting because some studies show that the brain gets fullyShow MoreRelatedUnderstanding Stress During Puberty937 Words   |  4 Pages In this experiment, the author’s focused on understanding stress during puberty and the sex-specific differences of the effects on humans through rat models. As we go through puberty, both male and females have increased levels of sex steroid hormones. In females this causes levels of cortisol to increase, as well as the probability of developing a mood disorder relating to stress. Past studies have shown that this is because of the plasticity of the hypothalamic-pituitary- adrenal axis (HPA)Read MoreAnti Communist Rhetoric And American Patriotism1605 Words   |  7 PagesTrotsky and even baring a likeness to him) and even later on in the issue having Posion Ivan stereotypically shouting â€Å"I’ll have you pickled in Vodka† . They are also both illustrated as extremely ugly and subhuman in the dirt crawling out of a hole like rats with Fighting American above him; this is a common theme with these comics with the illustrators clearly doing this, to show Americ an superiority whilst mocking communism. In Captain America #76 this is reinforced in the first storyline, with the cameramanRead MoreImplications And Consequences Of The HFH Diet716 Words   |  3 Pagesfrom animal research where direct manipulation of dietary intake allows for establishment of causal relationships. For instance, rats fed on a HFHS diet experienced rapid and persistent impairments in spatial memory performance but had little difficulties completing object recognition task in the same environments (Tran Westbrook, 2015). Similarly, it was reported that rats performed significantly worse on spatial memory task following consumption of a HFHS diet, but were not different from chow-fedRead MoreFrederic Skinner s Influence On The Mind Of Reward And Punishment1067 Words   |  5 Pageson rats to observe a particular behavior. During these experiments Skinner identified three types of responses that followed a behavior: Neutral operant s, Reinforces and punishments. Ne utral operant s are the responses that occur that neither increases or decreases a behavior from happening. Reinforces are responses that occur where the behavior can be repeated. There are both positive and negative reinforces. During Skinner s experiment, positive reinforcement was used on a hungry rat. TheRead MoreCase Brief Essay1205 Words   |  5 PagesCarroll Middle School, spoke on the telephone and decided to kill their homeroom teacher, Janice Geiger. They agreed that Coffman would bring rat poison to school the following days so that it could be placed in Geigers drink. After that , they would steal Geigers car and drive to the Smoky Mountains. On the morning of January 6, Coffman placed a packet of rat poison in her purse and board the school bus. Coffman told another student, Christy Hernandez, of the plan and show her the poison. HernandezRead MoreCase Brief1210 Words   |  5 PagesCarroll Middle School, spoke on the telephone and decided to kill their homeroom teacher, Janice Geiger. They agreed that Coffman would bring rat poison to school the following days so that it could be placed in Geiger s drink. After that , they would steal Geiger s car and drive to the Smoky Mountains. O n the morning of January 6, Coffman placed a packet of rat poison in her purse and board the school bus. Coffman told another student, Christy Hernandez, of the plan and show her the poison. HernandezRead MoreParental Stress And Child Development1292 Words   |  6 Pagesresearchers by Brydges, Nichola M. (2012) used a cognitive bias test, also use a traditional measurement of anxiety, to look into the effects of juvenile stress (JS) on adulthood behavior. The participants subjects were 24 males and 24 females Lister Hooded rats, bred from 11 adult rats. The animal were the house with the same sex, same litter cages. The rats were identified by a permanent marker around the tail. The result of this study showed that the control animals were very heavier than JS animalsRead MoreThe Film Mind Of A Rampage Killer1475 Words   |  6 Pagesby genetics, to psychologists studying maternal care and attachment during infancy. For example, the documentary presents the discussion of research studying rats which suggests that baby rats that were frequently licked by their mother grew up to be calmer and gentler. Yet, if their mother was more distant in the babies’ infancy, the rats were observed as having higher blood pressure and higher levels of stress when in stressful situations. The researchers also suggest that this phenomenon is notRead MoreIdiopathic Generalized Epilepsy Essay1355 Words   |  6 Pagesanimal model. Since absence seizures are the prototypical form of idiopathic seizures in juveniles, I would start with a rat model called the Genetic Absence Epilepsy in Rats from Strasbourg (GAERS) or the WAG/Rij strain of rats (22). If I had to choose between the two, I would focus on the WAG/Rij strain to start. This model has clinical and electroencephalographic signs characterizing absences in both rats and humans (23). In both species, there is a decrease in responsiveness during the pres enceRead MoreAnalysis Of The Movie Salvatore Gravano 1316 Words   |  6 Pagesthat the bullying ceased. Unfortunately, for Gravano he took the violence to another level when he aimed it at the principle and was expelled from the school. He was then forced to attend a school equipped for juvenile delinquents. At the age of sixteen he dropped out of the school for juvenile delinquents because he had decided that he did not want to work for wealth. Adopting this new way of life, not working for wealth, Gravano allied himself with a street gang in Bensonhurst called the Rampers

Marx and Nietzsche Free Essays

In these paragraphs Marx takes into consideration the first ‘illusion of German Ideology’ and questions it validity. German philosophy based its premises about human consciousness on idealism whereas Marx develops it from the material existence of humans.   He says that ‘[t]he premises from which we begin are not arbitrary ones, not dogmas, but real premises†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ (Marx, p. We will write a custom essay sample on Marx and Nietzsche or any similar topic only for you Order Now 311), these premises are based on â€Å"the real individuals, their activity and the material conditions under which they live† (p. 311) whereas German premises does not originate from human existence but is a production of mental exercise. Marxian method is historical materialism but it does not mean that it is not based on premises but unlike German premises, it is based on real life. So Marx says; ‘In direct contrast to German philosophy which descends from heaven to earth, here we ascend from earth to heaven. That is to say, we do not set out from what men say, imagine, conceive, nor from men as narrated, thought of, imagined, conceived, in order to arrive at men in the flesh. We set out from real, active men, and on the basis of their real life-process we demonstrate the development of the ideological reflexes and echoes of this life-process.’ (Marx, p. 315) Marx is of the view that primarily human beings are productive as they must develop a system of production to comply with their means of subsistence and only hence they can satisfy their material needs. This necessity generates a chain reaction i.e. new needs and new production. And these productive forces and processes develop the social existence of human being. So it is the material life that determines the social life of humans. So materialism directs the social and hence the human consciousness. â€Å"Consciousness is, therefore, from the very beginning a social product, and remains so as long as men exist at all.† (Marx, p. 317) According to Nietzsche, Greek Tragedy was evolved from the traditional chorus that was innovative and original drama evolved from Greek ritualism.—Nietzsche refutes   Aristotelian theory pertaining to origin of Greek tragedy and rests his premises on the theory of Schiller. Schiller theory is of the view that chorus is a living wall that has enveloped the Greek tragedy in order to detach itself from the real world and its realities. And thus it has retained its poetic autonomy and saved itself from naturalism. â€Å"The satyr, as the dionysian chorist, lives in a religiously acknowledged reality under the sanction of myth and cult.† (Nietzsche, p. 322) Chorus, an epitome of myth and cult of religions becomes the basic of Greek Tragedy in opposition to naturalism prevailing in the contemporary intellectual world. The tragedy chorus replicates this natural occurrence in an artistic way. Nietzsche illustrates that tragedy as an art form is valuable for humanity. In contrast to Schopenhauer, Nietzsche demonstrates that tragedy as the art form of corporeal recognition and approval of pathos and miseries of life and exulting in these harsh realities adoration of pre-destination. Apollonian and Dionysian differences on Tragedy stem from their intellectual differentiations and practical manifestation of this form of art. Nietzsche is of the view that tragedy is endangered when music is discarded. To Nietzsche, Apollonian music was â€Å"Doric architecture in sonic mode† but Dionysian music was of supreme kind with poignant power of sound and melodious current. Nietzsche further points out the differences between the Dionysos and Socrates thematic expression. Overall, Nietzsche considers tragedy as beautiful fusion and manifestation of Dionysian astuteness and Apollonian art. How to cite Marx and Nietzsche, Essay examples

Neurological Assessment Principles of Diagnosis and Treatment

Question: Discuss about theNeurological Assessment for Principles of Diagnosis and Treatment. Answer: A head injury can take serious turn in the matter of minutes if adequate care and precautions are not take at the right time (Marlini, 2016). In the case scenario opted for the particular assignment two young woman Samantha and Donna were playing soccer when suddenly the ball hit Samantha in the head and she fell with the impact. Clearly she was hurt but she brushed it off for the time being and carried on with her daily activities. However it has to be considered that in case of any head nothing is nominal and Samantha should have visited the clinic immediately to get her head checked by a professional health care worker (McMahon et al., 2013). However as the day progressed the pain in her head got worse to a point and it showed in her behavioral attributes. Hence her friend donna noticing her discomfort took her to the doctor. For this particular case study the assessment technique opted is the PQRST standard nursing assessment technique. Now PQRST technique is the standard technique used for the pain assessment worldwide and is the most clinical reasonable and logical assessment technique in the field of health care (Lundberg, 2014). The PQRST approach starts with a preliminary provoking session where the patient is probed to start the communication about the health related the patient is having. It progresses with communicating with the patient to elicit information about the quality of the pain. The next in line is extracting information of the exact region of the pain and followed by checking the severity of the pain by the assistance any pain rating scale in use (Lundberg, 2014). The last part of this assessment technique is enquiring the patent for how long he or she has felt the pain and if it has changed in intensity along that course of time. The PQRST method of pain assessment is so popular all across the globe is because of the precise and step by step actions it involves. I elicits genuine and to the point information from the patient about the origin, quality, region, severity and time period for the pain the patient is experiencing (Gilron, Baron Jensen, 2015). It serves as the basic ground on which the prognosis and the treatment of the patent will be founded. However in case of a neurological pain assessment the simple and basic PQRST method of assessment is not enough (Freeman et al., 2014). In case of a patient who took a direct hit to head the consciousness of the patent needs to be checked. As the injury to the brain tissues can happen with the smallest of hits and can manifest into a serious health problem. Followed by that the level of lethargy in the paten should be assessed, to ensure along with the motor skills and movement abilities (Andina, 2016). In a brain injury repercussions can include impaired movement skills and immense fatigue that is indicative of brain tissue trauma. Apart from that the patient should be assessed for any state of stupor or confusion as these symptoms are also indicative if internal tissue damage that demands immediate medical attention (Andina, 2016). I Patient: Samantha, age: late teens Attender: Maria, Designation: registered nurse S I am calling about the ankle injury that patient named Samantha has underwent and needs an x ray to be performed immediately to check for any broken bones or ligament tear. B Patient Samantha was involved in a cheerleading practice when while trying out a stunt and then fell on her ankle ad hurt it badly. She felt her ankle roll while she fell and feels her ankle bone is either broken or bruised. She experiences pain whenever she puts pressure on that ankle. A I have assessed her pain by the assistance of PQRST assessment technique through which it was discovered that the severity of her pain to be 4 or 5 according to her and given her medication to reduce the swelling along with walking support. R I assume her injury to be an ankle sprain however an X ray is in order to rule out any chances for broken or bruised bones or ligament tear. Other than that make sure that the patient is given a pain medication to reduce her pain as well. Reference List: Andina, I. D. (2016). Improving Studentsreading Comprehension Ability In Narrative Text Through Pqrst Technique Of Eight Graders At Mts Negeri Jambewangi Academic year 2015/2016. Freeman, R., Baron, R., Bouhassira, D., Cabrera, J., Emir, B. (2014). Sensory profiles of patients with neuropathic pain based on the neuropathic pain symptoms and signs.PAIN,155(2), 367-376. Gilron, I., Baron, R., Jensen, T. (2015, April). Neuropathic pain: principles of diagnosis and treatment. InMayo Clinic Proceedings(Vol. 90, No. 4, pp. 532-545). Elsevier. Lundberg, K. L. (2014). What are internal medicine residents missing? A communication needs assessment of outpatient clinical encounters.Patient education and counseling,96(3), 376-380. Marlini, C. (2016). Developing Pqrst (Preview, Question, Read, Summarize And Test) Strategy-Based Intensive Reading Instructional Materials For The Students In Grade Iv Of Elementary School. McMahon, S. B., Koltzenburg, M., Tracey, I., Turk, D. (2013).Wall Melzack's textbook of pain. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Human Resourse Management free essay sample

Compensation surveys provide snap-shots of competitors’ pay practices. Survey information provides the reference points for establishing pay level policies. In this chapter we also learn statistical analysis of compensation surveys, integrating the internal job structure with external market pay rates, compensation policies and strategic mandates. These practices require compensation professionals sound judgments for making recommendations that fit well with competitive strategies. Careful thought about the meaning underlying the facts and statistics is the key to successfully building market-competitive pay systems. Introduction Market competitive pay systems play an important part in attracting and keeping the most qualified employees. Based on market and compensation surveys, compensation professionals build a market competitive compensation system. Strategic analysis is used which is an examination of the external market context and internal factors of a company. External market context is the â€Å"industry profile, information about competitors, and long-term growth prospects†. Internal factors consist of the â€Å"company’s financial condition, their functional capabilities†. We will write a custom essay sample on Human Resourse Management or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page A strategic analysis lets professionals see where they stand against other professionals. Compensation surveys collect and analyze competitor’s information, mainly focused on wages and salary practices. Benefits are also surveyed because a company’s benefit package is a key part of an employee’s salary package. Compensation surveys play an important part because they are used to get a good view of competitions wage practices which can help a company attract and keep an employee. Pay rate differences for jobs and the differences in employee contributions are represented by pay structures. An existing analysis of your current compensation system should be a starting point and balancing internal equity to the external market considered, if appropriate. Determining what your compensation philosophy and how to align with your business strategy and goals will guide the type of compensation design such as a pure market approach, a blended approach or perhaps a broad banding approach to enhance or totally update your current compensation system. The Basics of Market competitive pay system Market-competitive pay systems represent companies compensation policy should be developed to fit in with the competitive advantage of a company. It has a role in attracting and retaining the most qualified employees. A well designed pay system should promote the attainment of competitive strategies. But paying more than necessary can undermine low cost strategies as it is an undue burden. It also restricts the company’s ability to invest in other strategic activities. Hence companies that pursue differentiation strategy must strike a balance between offering sufficiently high salaries to attract and retain talented people and providing sufficient resources to enable them to be productively creative. Major activities for market competitive pay system Compensation professionals create market competitive pay system based on four activities those are as follows: ? Conducting strategic system. ? Assessing competitors’ pay practices with compensation surveys ? Integrating the internal job structure with external market pay rates and ? Determining compensation policies. Strategic analysis: Strategic analysis entails an examination of a company’s external market context and internal factors. External factors could include industry profile, information about competitors, growth prospects (short and long-term). Internal factors encompass financial conditions, marketing capabilities, available human resources etc. Compensation surveys: Entails collection and subsequent analysis of competitors’ compensation data. Compensation surveys traditionally focused on wage and salary practices. These days all benefits, allowances, perks etc. are collected and analyzed as these are key elements in market competitive pay systems. Surveys enable companies to obtain realistic view of competitors’ pay practices. In the absence of surveys professionals would have to use guess work to build market competitive pay systems leading to wrong guesses resulting in noncompetitive pay. Data is usually collected on base pay levels, incentive award structures and mix and levels of discretionary benefits. Integrating the internal job structure with external market pay rate: Compensation professionals integrate the internal job structural with the external market pay rates identified through compensation surveys. This integration result in pay rates that reflect both the company’s and the external market’s valuations of job. Most often compensation professionals rely on regression analysis, a statistical method, to achieve this integration. Compensation policies: Compensation professionals recommend pay policies that fit with their companies standing a competitive strategy. Compensation professionals must strike a balance between managing costs and attracting and retaining the best qualified employees. Top management ultimately makes compensation policy decisions after careful consideration of compensation professional’s interpretation of the data. Compensation surveys: Preliminary Consideration There are two important preliminary consideration compensation professionals take under advisement before investing time and money into compensation surveys: ? What companies hope to gain from compensation surveys ? Custom development versus use of an existing compensation surveys. Compensation surveys: Strategic Consideration Defining the relevant labor market: The relevant labor market represents the fields of potentially qualified candidates for particular jobs. Relevant markets are defined on the basis of occupational classification, geography and product or service market competitors. Companies collect compensation survey data from the appropriate relevant labor market. Choosing Benchmark Jobs: Benchmark jobs are key to conducting effective job evaluation as they play an important role in compensation surveys. HR professional determine pay levels for jobs based on typical market pay rates for similar jobs. Benchmark jobs have four characteristics those are: ? The contents are well known, stable over time, and agreed upon by employees involved. ? The jobs are common across different employers. ? The jobs represent the entire range of jobs that are being evaluated within a company. ? These jobs are generally accepted in the labor market for the purpose of setting pay levels. Integrating internal job structures with external market pay rates The compensation professionals use job evaluation methods to establish internally consistent job structure. Companies value jobs that possess higher degrees of compensable factors (10 years of experience) than jobs with fewer degrees of compensable factors (1 year of experience). These valuation differences ultimately should correspond to pay differences based on compensation survey data. It is important that companies set pay rates by using market pay rates as reference points as paying well below or well above the typical market rates can create competitive disadvantage for companies. Determination of compensation policy Normally companies can choose from three pay level policies: Market lead: The market lead policy distinguishes a company from the competitors by compensating employees more highly than most competitors. Pay levels are above market pay lines. It is clearly most appropriate for company that pursue differentiation strategies. Market lag: This also distinguishes a company but by compensating employees less than competitors. Pay levels fall below the market pay line. This policy appears to fit well with lowest-cost strategies because companies realize cost saving by paying lower than the market pay line. Market match policy: The market match policy most closely follows the typical market pay rates as companies pay as per the market pay. Pay rates fall along the market pay lines. The market match policy represent a safe approach for companies because they generally are spending no more or less on compensation than competitors. This policy does not fit with the lowest-cost strategy for obvious reasons. It does fit better with differentiation strategies.

The Rise and Fall of the Automat

The Rise and Fall of the Automat It all sounds so futuristic: a restaurant without waiters, without workers behind the counter, without any visible employees whatsoever, where you simply feed your money into a glass-enclosed kiosk, remove a steaming plate of freshly made food, and carry it to your table. Welcome to  Horn Hardart, circa 1950, a restaurant chain that once boasted 40 locations in New York City and dozens more across the U.S., at a now-distant time when automats served hundreds of thousands of urban customers every day. The Origin of the Automat The automat is often considered to be an exclusively American phenomenon, but in fact, the worlds first restaurant of this kind opened in Berlin, Germany in 1895. Named Quisisana- after a company that also manufactured food-vending machinery- this high-tech eatery established itself in other northern European cities, and Quisisana soon licensed its technology to Joseph Horn and Frank Hardart, who opened the first American automat in Philadelphia in 1902. An Appealing Formula As with so many other societal trends, it was in turn-of-the-century New York that automats really took off. The first New York Horn Hardart opened in 1912, and soon the chain had hit on an appealing formula: customers exchanged dollar bills for handfuls of nickels (from attractive women behind glass booths, wearing rubber tips on their fingers), then fed their change into vending machines, turned the knobs, and extracted plates of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and cherry pie, among hundreds of other menu items. Dining was communal and cafeteria-style, to the extent that Horn Hardart automats were considered a valuable corrective to the snobbery of so many New York City restaurants. Fresh-Brewed Coffee for a Nickel a Cup Its not widely known today, but Horn Hardart was also the first New York restaurant chain to offer its customers fresh-brewed coffee, for a nickel a cup. Employees were instructed to discard any pots that had been sitting for more than twenty minutes, a level of quality control that inspired Irving Berlin to compose the song Lets Have Another Cup of Coffee (which quickly became Horn Hardarts official jingle). There wasnt much (if any) choice, but in terms of reliability, Horn Hardart could be considered the 1950s equivalent of Starbucks. Behind the Scenes Given all the  high-tech accouterments and lack of visible personnel, Horn Hardart customers could be forgiven for thinking that their food had been prepared and handled by robots. Of course, that wasnt the case, and an argument can be made that automats succeeded at the expense of their hard-working employees. The managers of these restaurants still had to hire human beings to cook, convey food to the vending machines, and wash the silverware and dishesbut since all this activity went on behind the scenes, they got away with paying below-par wages and forcing employees to work overtime. In August of 1937, the AFL-CIO picketed Horn Hardarts across the city, protesting the chains unfair labor practices. In its heyday, Horn Hardart  succeeded partly because its eponymous founders refused to rest on their laurels. Joseph Horn and Frank Hardart ordered any food uneaten at the end of the day to be delivered to cut-price, day-old outlets, and also circulated a hefty, leather-bound rule book that instructed employees on the proper cooking and handling of hundreds of menu items. Horn and Hardart (the founders, not the restaurant) also constantly tinkered with their formula, assembling as often as possible at a sample table where they and their chief executives voted thumbs up or thumbs down on new menu items. Fading in Popularity by the 1970s By the 1970s, automats like Horn Hardart were fading in popularity, and the culprits were easy to identify. First, fast-food chains like McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken offered much more limited menus, but a more identifiable taste, and they also enjoyed the benefits of lower labor and food costs. Second, urban workers were less inclined to punctuate their days with leisurely lunches, complete with appetizer, main course, and dessert, and preferred to grab lighter meals on the fly; one imagines that the fiscal crisis in 1970s New York also encouraged more people to bring their meals to the office from home. Finally Went out of Business in 1991 By the end of the decade, Horn Hardart gave in to the inevitable and converted most of its New York City locations into Burger King franchises; the last Horn Hardart, on Third Avenue and 42nd Street, finally went out of business in 1991. Today, the only place you can see what Horn Hardart looked like  is in the Smithsonian Institution, which harbors a 35-foot-long chunk of the original 1902 restaurant, and this chains surviving vending machines are said to languish in a warehouse in upstate New York. Rebirth of the Concept No good idea ever truly disappears, though. Eatsa, which opened in San Francisco in 2015, seems unlike Horn Hardart in every way conceivable: every item on the menu is made with quinoa, and ordering is done via an iPad, after a brief interaction with a virtual maà ®tre d. But the basic concept is the same: with no human interaction at all, a customer can watch as her meal almost magically materializes in a small cubby flashing her name. In the food industry, it seems, the more things change, the more they stay the same!

Ethical theories Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Ethical theories - Research Paper Example Ethical theories Deontological theory is one of the best known principles of ethics. It’s sometimes referred to as â€Å"ethic of reciprocity† (Pollock, 2010). Simply put, the theory requires that â€Å"do to others as would have them do to you.† Found in many religious doctrines it’s the best and most concise general principle of ethics. On the other hand, teleological theory is an outcome based theory. The theory states that an action is not motivated by the motive, but the end that is either good or bad (Pollock, 2010). Therefore, if an action causes a satisfactory good result, it is considered to be ethical in this theory, and the motive of such an action is considered independent of the end result. The two theories are similar in that they both advocate for ethics of value to one another with the natural morality law of advocating good for others, as one would like to be treated by others. Having the knowledge and skills in these two theories would enhance ethics of virtue and morality when dealing with others. Each action by an individual is evaluated according to the term of the utility principle (Kay, 1997). This would facilitate actions that are ethical and moral that would result to promote the greatest good for others. The professional ethical dilemma I have experienced involved lying to the manager concerning a workmate that had gone to carry out his personal business. The manager questioned his whereabouts and I had to lie that he had gone for some medical checkup, and was not in a good state to go for leave permission from the manager.

Biochemistry Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Biochemistry - Assignment Example Glutamate transmits quick and precise signal in the primary significant sensory and motor tracts. It also makes numerous connections between various parts of the cerebral cortex that forms the network responsible for high mental functioning (Broda 66). Gamma- Aminobutyric acid (GABA) is an amino acid synthesized from glutamate by an enzyme known as the glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD). The dominant inhibitory transmitter exists in almost all parts of the nervous system. In addition,GABA acts as a presynaptic inhibitory transmitter in many circumstances.GABA plays a key role in the development of the nervous system, and it occurs in the early stages even before the establishment of the synapses. Once the synapses begin to occur, GABA plays a role as an excitatory transmitter as it depolarizes the postsynaptic neuron. Therefore, GABA is likely to be the first excitatory transmitter that shape neuronal networks before glutamate took over as the key excitatory transmitter (Dishman, O’Connor, &Tomporowski

How Financial and Non Financial Metrics can be used for quantify the Essay - 1

How Financial and Non Financial Metrics can be used for quantify the effectiveness of marketing campaign (Marketing Analytics) - Essay Example Verhoef and Leeflang (2009) assert the idea of financial metrics and state that influence of marketing department in the organisation is positively associated with the financial performance of the firm. Importance and role of the financial metrics for the effectiveness of the marketing campaign can be clearly assessed from the B&K Distributors. The company integrated marketing and communication tool for building its access to the potential customers. The use of the financial measures revealed clear future potential. For example, the growth potential was estimated to increase at 6% as compared to the inflation rate of 3%. Similarly, increased fixed cost for the IT system integration was also justified with 1% as compared to the 3% of the other channels investment (Jeffery and Anfield, 2006). Hence, in the similar format the cost of the entire project is assessed against the revenue and cost savings. This empirical evidence provides sound basis for the decision making in alignment with the main objective of the business which revolves around profitability. However, the net and actual increase in return is not defined after discounting the investment against factors such as the cost o f capital which is 12% and has considerable impact on the return inflows. This makes the investment and the claimed benefits questionable. Also the marketing activities with long term objective are also required to reflect on other parameters such as increase in customer loyalty and image of the company etc. It is important to notice the measure to enhance the image of the company by signing contract with leading fast food chain did not fetch to B&K significant business from independent franchisees. The new plan of IT integration and respective financial metrics and growth projections are again silent on impact on above mentioned parameters. In no contradiction to this fact

Metamorphosis A Novella By Franz Kafka English Literature Essay

Metamorphosis A Novella By Franz Kafka English Literature Essay Metamorphosis is a novella by Franz Kafka and deals with the travelling salesman Gregor Samsa, who is the familys sole earner, waking up one morning finding himself transformed into a bug. In the following Kafka describes how Gregors position within the family as well as the family itself change. The story is divided into three parts. Each of them ends with Gregor attempting to break out off his room but being refused and hurt by his family. The first part begins with Gregor awaking and finding himself transformed into a bug. Curiously he is rather worried about being late for work than about being not human anymore. Even on the first page evidence for Todorovs theme of The Self can be found. This Theme deals with his interest in the self and the world around this self in relation to the fantastic and the supernatural. The reader does not know if Gregor really transformed into a bug. This ambiguity, according to Todorov, is the reason for the reader hesitating between different possible explanations of events, the realistic and the supernatural. When the reader decides whether an event was real or imaginary, the story is either uncanny or marvelous.  [1]  Metamorphosis therefore is rather a marvelous narrative considering that the reader is not explicitly told why Gregor has transformed into a bug. To Todorov every word in the novella is a description of the fantastic universe and that there is no reality or truth outside this language used.  [2]  When Kafka writes that It was no dream  [3]  and that his family cannot understand him anymore because his voice altered,  [4]  this is evidence enough for Todorov to accept that Gregor really transformed into a bug. Furthermore he argues that Metamorphoses constitute a transgression of the separation between matter and mind  [5]  and that transition from mind to matter [] become possible.  [6]  Gregor is very unhappy with his life working very hard to gain acceptance and having no time for having a relationship. Feeling like a bug eventually transformed him into a bug. Todorov also wrote about the theme of The Other dealing with the relation of man and his desire and repressed desires. This is a very interesting theme which can be found in Metamorphosis as well. Right on the first page we learn about Gregor having a picture of a lady in a fur hat and stole [] bolding in the direction of the onlooker a heavy fur muff into which she had thrust the whole of her forearm.  [7]  Freud argues that fur is used as a fetich on account of its association with the hairness of the mons veneris.  [8]  Gregor has to work very hard to earn enough money for the whole family. Therefore he has no time to have a relationship. According to Freud, sexual desire is an impulse that is made analougous to the impulse of taking nourishment, and to hunger.  [9]  Gregor repressed this desire for a long time and it has to be satisfied. When Gregor does not come to work the chief clerk comes to his house to see him. Gregor manages to open the door but his family and the chief clerk are frightened. His father tries to force him to go back and eventually kicks and he is thrown back into his room. The second part shows explicitly Gregors relationship to his family and how this changes. His sister is looking after him twice a day and cleans his room regularly.  [10]  Gregor loves his sister and even planned to send her to expensive school.  [11]  He is always pleased about when she enters the room and feels sad about not being able to thank her for what she does for him.  [12]  He knows that she sickens at him but still does not hesitate to feed him.  [13]  She even brings him a range of food to choose from when she recognizes that he has not drunk the milk.  [14]  In this scene Grete enters the room, how Gregor describes, almost completely dressed  [15]  to him this must be a detail, important enough to mention. Due to his sexual repressed desire he even seems to see his sister as possible sexual object. Freud argues that an excessive need for affection a boy may [cling] for the infantile attraction for [] sisters which has been repressed in puberty.  [16]   At the end of part two it is the sister who argues that Gregors furniture should be removed which hits him very hard knowing them to be the only things that made him not feel like he was not human anymore. Nevertheless he is certain that his sister only wants to create space in his room to give him the chance to crawl.  [17]  Still he wants to save the picture of the lady as very last relation to his personhood and so he crawled hurriedly up to it and pressed himself against the glass, which stuck to him and impartet a pleasant coolness to his hot belly.  [18]  This underlines that his sexual desire is strong and that this is the most important thing to him. According to Todorov, there is no longer any frontier between the object [] and the observer.  [19]  It makes no difference to Gregor that this is no real woman but only a picture. When his sister enters the room her eyes encountered those of Gregor, up on the wall.  [20]  Here again, Gregor relates his sexual desire to his sister in a very obvious way. Gregor desperately protects this picture and, by that, frightens his family again. His father shies apples at him until one of them pierced his back and Gregor collapses with pain. In the third part Kafka describes how Gregor is now able to listen to his family through the open door to the living room. All family members have a job now but they still have money problems which force them to let room to tenants. When his sister plays the violin one night, Gregor, drawn by the music, decides to crawl closer to her.  [21]  He recognizes that, apart from him, no one really appreciates her play.  [22]  He crawls even closer meet her gaze.  [23]  Todorov argues that sexual desire gains an exceptional mastery over hero.  [24]  Although Gregor knows that there are people around who are not supposed to see him, he cannot resist getting closer to her. In the following Gregor describes explicitly how he desires his sister, he sensed a way to the unknown sustenance he longed for. He was determined to go right up to his sister, to pluck at her skirt and so let her know she was to come into his room.  [25]  He wants her to sit next to him and to be with him until he dies.  [26]  Furthermore he wants to kiss her on the throat.  [27]  He obviously desires his own sister and has sexual phantasies of her. According to Todorov, the literature of the fantastic illustrates several transformations of desire.  [28]  Most of them belonged to a social form of the uncanny.  [29]  So does incest. Gregors sexual desire takes over and he cannot think of anything else but to be close to his sister. When the tenants spot him when he crawls closer to Grete they immediately move out. Now Grete is really angry, locks him into his room and claims that they have to get rid of Gregor  [30]  who dies the next day. His family is rather relieved than in mourning about his death. They plan to move into a cheaper flat and to marry Grete. Now I am going to compare Kafkas novella to Brother and Sister, a fairytale by the Brothers Grimm. The story deals with the lives of two siblings, running away from home because they are mistreated by an old witch who is their stepmother. The action can be divided into three parts, as well. In the first part the children depart from home. Meanwhile their stepmother has cast[ed] her spells over all the streams in the forest.  [31]  Eventually brother gets thirsty and wants to drink from a stream but sister can hold him off doing so because she can hear it murmuring: Who drinks of me will be a tiger!.  [32]  Although the brother is very thirsty he does not drink. When they come to the next stream, brother is eager to drink but sister can hold him off again, hearing it murmuring: Who drinks me will be a wolf!.  [33]  At the next stream she can hear that brother is going to be a roe, if he drinks the water but she cannot stop him who is already drinking and immediately falls on the grass transformed into a little Roebuck.  [34]   The transformation in this fairytale is, unlike Gregors transformation, introduced by two streams until brother eventually cannot resist any longer. Gregors transformation, in contrast, is not introduced at all. The whole novella starts with this transformation that, due to that point, lacks of surprise in comparison to the fairytale. Furthermore the fairytale is definitely a marvelous one. The reader accepts the fantastic, the fact that the witch can curse all streams, which makes her, as Todorov calls it, a supernatural being,  [35]  having power over human destiny,  [36]  and the fact that brother transforms into a deer, as part of the world. Hence both of Todorovs supernatural elements can be found in this story. Brother and sister are very sad about the situation but sister promises: Never mind, dear little fawn, I will never forsake you, and she [takes] off her golden garter and tie[s] it round the Roes neck.  [37]  Then she fastens a rope to the collar. This shows the symbolic connection between the two siblings. She promises never to leave him and even connects himself to him. They have a very close relationship which is expressed even in the first sentence, Brother took sister by the hand.  [38]  This indicates that brother desires his sister in a way Gregor desires Grete. He wants so be near her and he needs her to look after him and to be with him. Gregor and brother both depend on their sisters. They now live in a small house in the forest and if brother had but kept his natural form, really it would have been a most delightful kind of life.  [39]  This explicitly tells the reader that they would have lived together like couples do. Here the second part begins. The king has a hunt through the wood. When the deer hears about that it wants to join and after begging his sister she lets him go. The hunt lasts three days and the hunters are eager to shoot the beautiful deer which can always run away though it gets hurt once. On the last day the king follows the deer to the house and finds sister. He asks her who has grown to a lovely maiden  [40]  to marry her. She answers: Oh yes! [] But you must let my Roe come, too. I could not possibly forsake it.  [41]  Sister even takes brother into her marriage with the king and keeps her promise. Here the last part begins. The stepmother watches all this with envy and when sister gives birth to a baby, the witch traps her by leading her into the bathroom and locking the door. She and her hideous daughter make a blazing hot fire under the bath, so that the lovely young Queen might be suffocated.  [42]  Then she lays her daughter in the queens bed and makes her look alike her. The king never notices. Every night the real queens ghost comes to see after her baby and the deer. When she decides to come only for three more nights, the nurse, who watches her every night, tells the king. In the last night of her visit the king cries out that she has to be his wife. She answers: Yes, I am your dear wife! and in the same moment she was restored to life, and was as fresh and well and rosy as ever.  [43]  The witch and her daughter are put to death and the spell was taken off the little Roe, and he was restored to his natural shape.  [44]   These are two transformations. The queen in restored to life by the kings love and the brother is retransformed into a human being by the witchs death. The fairytales last sentence is again evidence for the assumption that brother desires his sister, and so brother and sister lived happily ever after.  [45]  Sister obviously does not share her live with her husband, the king whose love restored her, but with her brother. This seems to be the only way for them to be happy. To sum it all up, Metamorphosis and Brother and Sister doubtlessly deal with transformations and are fantastic narratives in Todorovs sense. Especially the fairytale applies to that having the witch as a fantastic character who controls human destiny. Dealing with the theme of sexual desire, Metamorphosis conforms to that more explicitly although there are several textual evidences in Brother and Sister that indicate an incestuous relationship between the siblings, too. (2207 words)

How My Cousin Manuel Brought Home A Wife :: essays papers

How My Cousin Manuel Brought Home A Wife Manuel Arguilla and Charlson Ong’s stories may have an almost similar title, with each of the main characters bringing home a wife who is different from the local people. However, the newer version addresses a much more serious issue. In Charlson Ong’s â€Å"How My Cousin Manuel Brought Home A Wife†, the writer used contrast of characters(particularly Consuelo and Mei Lu) and contemporary language to show that even in the modern age, racial discrimination still exists and destroys one’s happiness. Hearing about his son’s return with a Brazilian wife, Mei Lu is devastated. Her agony clearly worsens to the extreme upon seeing her daughter-in-law: Consuelo, a huge and black woman whom she describes as â€Å"bigger than the great wall and blacker than the pit of her kettle†. â€Å"She might learn to live with the fact of a foreign daughter-in-law, Spanish-speaking and all. But Consuelo? The woman simply failed to strike me as being in the universe of possibilities Aunt Mei Lu could imagine.† It is made clear by the writer in these lines that a foreign daughter-in-law of a skin color other than black would be bearable for Mei Lu. Mother says Carlos should not have brought Consuelo to the house. But did they not send Carlos to the airport to bring the couple back home? Apparently, they were expecting a white Brazilian. At 70 and being â€Å"from an age where the word beauty conjured a fairness often described as being edible and where petite, teen-age, virgin brides were tucked neatly into fragile sedan chairs fit for babes†, Mei Lu can not accept the fact of having Consuelo, who has just the opposite qualities, as the wife of her only son. She regards Consuelo as subhuman. This she reveals by her wailing: â€Å"You call that a daughter-in-law?† Furthermore, she associates Consuelo’s black skin color with evil. Eventhough she has not spoken a word to Consuelo, except for the words â€Å"O kui† she called to her face, Mei Lu automatically as sumes that she tried to kill Manuel, who was actually saved through Consuelo’s psychic abilities, and is only after Manuel’s money, which is not as much as Mei Lu thinks at all.

Wellness programs try to Be welcoming

AH, July: an ideal time of year for morning runs, long swims, family bike rides and picnic tables laden with seasonal produce. In short, it’s healthy time.  Unfortunately, it’s also health care time — when managers must contend with rising health insurance premiums as they plan next year’s budget.  What is a cost-conscious manager to do? The answer of the moment is to provide a wellness program, promoting healthy behavior year-round.According to a survey by the Hay Group, a consulting firm, more than half of all large companies offer some combination of services like nutrition education, weight management assistance, health risk assessments, and help with quitting smoking; more than a quarter offer things like fitness coaching and discounts on health club memberships.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"I was basically out of the business for the better part of the decade,† said Michael Carter, a vice president at Hay responsible for employee health management consulting. â€Å"Now everybody’s my new best friend.†On the surface, it is hard to see anything wrong with urging employees to tone up and trim down. A fitter work force is a happier work force, and less costly, too.  But wellness programs can be minefields. Some employees may resent the programs, viewing them as examples of father-knows-best intrusiveness. At least one program has even formed the background for a lawsuit.The biggest challenge of wellness programs is to reach the employees who would get the most out of them. Gym rats will always take advantage of benefits like discounted health club memberships — but they would probably work out anyway, and discounts may not be enough for those who are seriously overweight or out of shape.  Personalized incentives like fitness coaching and nutrition counseling are often a better way to reach employees in the middle group who just need a little encouragement. It is also crucial to make accommodations for disabled emplo yees.And the tone taken is crucial: who wants the boss telling you to eat your spinach? A program that feels coercive will probably never be as popular as one with positive incentives, like cheaper health insurance.  Employees respond best to wellness programs that are presented as a form of organizational change, rather than as a top-down imposition of new requirements, according to a study of 243 employees by Ellen Ernst Kossek, a professor of human resource management and organizational behavior at Michigan State University, and two colleagues.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"It shouldn’t be, ‘Here’s this program,’ † she said. â€Å"It should be linked to ‘How do we make a workplace that’s healthy for everyone.’ †Ã‚  Scotts Miracle-Gro has one of the most extensive wellness programs on offer. Services include personalized fitness coaching and a $5 million wellness center at its headquarters in Marysville, Ohio, with a gym and medical facili ties. The company also has a policy against hiring workers who smoke, where state law permits.Participation in Scotts’ wellness programs is high — but the company has also seen an unexpected side effect from its efforts.  Last year, Scott Rodrigues filed suit against the company in Massachusetts, saying that Scotts fired him after a drug test found nicotine in his system and that the company’s antismoking policy violated his civil rights.  Harvey Schwartz, Mr. Rodrigues’s lawyer, said the case was also an example of benefits discrimination, where a company dismisses an employee to avoid high benefits costs.  In a motion to dismiss the case, which is pending, Scotts said that Mr. Rodrigues had not actually been hired but had been offered a job on the condition that he pass a drug screen, including a test for nicotine.â€Å"When you look at controlling costs,† said Su Lok, a Scotts spokeswoman, smoking â€Å"is something that employers are rea lly taking a stand on.† The company had no comment on the specific case because it is ongoing.  Union Pacific Railroad has had a smoother ride with its longstanding wellness program. The proportion of health insurance claims related to lifestyle has dropped by 11 percentage points over 11 years, said Marcy Zauha, the company’s director for health and safety.Union Pacific, based in Omaha, offers some companywide wellness benefits, including health risk assessments and stop-smoking plans. But much of the program, including regional walking contests and group weight-loss efforts, is administered locally. Managers’ health promotion initiatives are included in their annual reviews.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"We’ve tried to build health into our existing culture,† Ms. Zauha said.Fiserv, a financial services technology company based in Brookfield Wis., created a wellness program in 2005 to better recruit and retain employees.  Fiserv employees who fill out a health risk assessment receive a sizable discount on their monthly health insurance premium. There are also companywide fitness challenges: in a recent eight-week walking contest, participants were issued pedometers, and anyone who walked 7,000 steps a day received a prize.Teams have to been known to question whether their rivals really log the number of steps claimed. But that was fine with Linda Schuessler, manager of wellness promotion.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"As long as they’re engaged,† Ms. Schuessler said, â€Å"we don’t really mind those concerns.†(this is the copyofth article from NY Times,http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/business/yourmoney/22mgmt.html?ex=1186113600&en=ded5f6bb661041b0&ei=5070#)Journal AssignmentThe concept at hand is about how managers and company heads would make the most out of their companies by introducing a healthy lifestyle to their employees. It is evident that today, health care costs are so high that rising health insurance premiums would surely be in the way of budgeting for the company (Holland). Obviously, these company heads and managers should not jeopardize the health of their employees, that they should provide the necessary things for their wellness. But surely, this would cost them that it wouldn’t be that easy to pull out strings and fix the budget. That is why these managers should resort to a way that would be more cost effective and keep them from harms way of these health care costs.The article discusses how managers and company heads employ human resource management in order to do away with the costly expenses of health care and health insurances that they provide to the employees. But this doesn’t mean that they neglect the health of these working people. It is true that these people are very important to the company, that these companies need them in order to be productive, which is why it is important that their every need will be given to them or will be addressed.What these company leaders and managers do is that they make sure that these employees are healthy so that they can avert the spending that they’ll have to give when any of these gets sick or has health problems. In order not to shoulder the burden of health care and health insurance premiums, they offered to keep them fit in their own ways.In order to do so, these companies offer basically every health guidance and services that they can offer to the employees. These includes educating them regarding nutrition and proper diet, weight management assistance, health risk assessments and checkups, fitness coaching and giving out memberships for fitness groups and health clubs. Through this, the company themselves are able to ensure that their employees are fit and are far from harms way, thus saving them the costs of health care for these people. Thus, the companies’ budgets will not be greatly affected.If you would relate this approach in human resource management, you could see that this is more on the incentive aspect, wherein you provide your employees something that would keep them going to work. For those who are concerned with their health and well-being, they would surely grab the opportunity of free health club memberships and nutrition education. This is positive for the company, since the employees themselves are the ones who initiate in keeping themselves healthy. Remember, the main concern of the company in this issue is how they can do away with the extra costs of health care and health insurance premiums for their employees.Regarding the effectiveness of this approach, the article states that there are already several large-scale companies who adopted this system. They have their own health clubs and offer free membership to their employees. They say that these greatly helps them in cutting costs, thus the allotted budget for healthcare would be saved. There are still some who are not that much into health stuffs, people who think that nutrition education is l ike intruding with their lives. These people are those who would most likely have health risks and should be given enough consideration in order to engage them in these health programs.Human resource management surely entails various levels of dealing with the people you are handling. This includes how you handle them, and the ways on how you are able to manage them, making them do what they’re suppose to do. This is where healthcare comes in, wherein their safety and well being is not only their concern, but should also be the company’s priority. When their wellness goes down, the company goes down as well, in terms of both manpower and monetary aspects.Reference:Holland, K. (2007). Wellness Programs Try to Be Welcoming, Too. The New York Times. Published July 22, 2007. Retrieved August 1, 2007, from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/business/yourmoney/22mgmt.html?ex=1186113600&en=ded5f6bb661041b0&ei=5070# Wellness Programs Try to Be Welcoming AH, July: an ideal time of year for morning runs, long swims, family bike rides and picnic tables laden with seasonal produce. In short, it’s healthy time.Unfortunately, it’s also health care time — when managers must contend with rising health insurance premiums as they plan next year’s budget.What is a cost-conscious manager to do? The answer of the moment is to provide a wellness program, promoting healthy behavior year-round.According to a survey by the Hay Group, a consulting firm, more than half of all large companies offer some combination of services like nutrition education, weight management assistance, health risk assessments, and help with quitting smoking; more than a quarter offer things like fitness coaching and discounts on health club memberships.â€Å"I was basically out of the business for the better part of the decade,† said Michael Carter, a vice president at Hay responsible for employee health management consulting. â€Å"Now everybody’s my new best friend.†On the surface, it is hard to see anything wrong with urging employees to tone up and trim down. A fitter work force is a happier work force, and less costly, too.But wellness programs can be minefields. Some employees may resent the programs, viewing them as examples of father-knows-best intrusiveness. At least one program has even formed the background for a lawsuit.The biggest challenge of wellness programs is to reach the employees who would get the most out of them. Gym rats will always take advantage of benefits like discounted health club memberships — but they would probably work out anyway, and discounts may not be enough for those who are seriously overweight or out of shape.Personalized incentives like fitness coaching and nutrition counseling are often a better way to reach employees in the middle group who just need a little encouragement. It is also crucial to make accommodations for disabled employees.And the tone ta ken is crucial: who wants the boss telling you to eat your spinach? A program that feels coercive will probably never be as popular as one with positive incentives, like cheaper health insurance.Employees respond best to wellness programs that are presented as a form of organizational change, rather than as a top-down imposition of new requirements, according to a study of 243 employees by Ellen Ernst Kossek, a professor of human resource management and organizational behavior at Michigan State University, and two colleagues.â€Å"It shouldn’t be, ‘Here’s this program,’ † she said. â€Å"It should be linked to ‘How do we make a workplace that’s healthy for everyone.’ †Scotts Miracle-Gro has one of the most extensive wellness programs on offer. Services include personalized fitness coaching and a $5 million wellness center at its headquarters in Marysville, Ohio, with a gym and medical facilities. The company also has a pol icy against hiring workers who smoke, where state law permits.Participation in Scotts’ wellness programs is high — but the company has also seen an unexpected side effect from its efforts.Last year, Scott Rodrigues filed suit against the company in Massachusetts, saying that Scotts fired him after a drug test found nicotine in his system and that the company’s antismoking policy violated his civil rights.Harvey Schwartz, Mr. Rodrigues’s lawyer, said the case was also an example of benefits discrimination, where a company dismisses an employee to avoid high benefits costs.In a motion to dismiss the case, which is pending, Scotts said that Mr. Rodrigues had not actually been hired but had been offered a job on the condition that he pass a drug screen, including a test for nicotine.â€Å"When you look at controlling costs,† said Su Lok, a Scotts spokeswoman, smoking â€Å"is something that employers are really taking a stand on.† The company ha d no comment on the specific case because it is ongoing.Union Pacific Railroad has had a smoother ride with its longstanding wellness program. The proportion of health insurance claims related to lifestyle has dropped by 11 percentage points over 11 years, said Marcy Zauha, the company’s director for health and safety.Union Pacific, based in Omaha, offers some companywide wellness benefits, including health risk assessments and stop-smoking plans. But much of the program, including regional walking contests and group weight-loss efforts, is administered locally. Managers’ health promotion initiatives are included in their annual reviews.â€Å"We’ve tried to build health into our existing culture,† Ms. Zauha said.Fiserv, a financial services technology company based in Brookfield Wis., created a wellness program in 2005 to better recruit and retain employees.Fiserv employees who fill out a health risk assessment receive a sizable discount on their monthly health insurance premium. There are also companywide fitness challenges: in a recent eight-week walking contest, participants were issued pedometers, and anyone who walked 7,000 steps a day received a prize.Teams have to been known to question whether their rivals really log the number of steps claimed. But that was fine with Linda Schuessler, manager of wellness promotion.â€Å"As long as they’re engaged,† Ms. Schuessler said, â€Å"we don’t really mind those concerns.†(this is the copy of the article from NY Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/business/yourmoney/22mgmt.html?ex=1186113600&en=ded5f6bb661041b0&ei=5070#)Journal AssignmentThe concept at hand is about how managers and company heads would make the most out of their companies by introducing a healthy lifestyle to their employees. It is evident that today, health care costs are so high that rising health insurance premiums would surely be in the way of budgeting for the company (Holland). O bviously, these company heads and managers should not jeopardize the health of their employees, that they should provide the necessary things for their wellness. But surely, this would cost them that it wouldn’t be that easy to pull out strings and fix the budget. That is why these managers should resort to a way that would be more cost effective and keep them from harms way of these health care costs.The article discusses how managers and company heads employ human resource management in order to do away with the costly expenses of health care and health insurances that they provide to the employees. But this doesn’t mean that they neglect the health of these working people. It is true that these people are very important to the company, that these companies need them in order to be productive, which is why it is important that their every need will be given to them or will be addressed. What these company leaders and managers do is that they make sure that these empl oyees are healthy so that they can avert the spending that they’ll have to give when any of these gets sick or has health problems. In order not to shoulder the burden of health care and health insurance premiums, they offered to keep them fit in their own ways.In order to do so, these companies offer basically every health guidance and services that they can offer to the employees. These includes educating them regarding nutrition and proper diet, weight management assistance, health risk assessments and checkups, fitness coaching and giving out memberships for fitness groups and health clubs. Through this, the company themselves are able to ensure that their employees are fit and are far from harms way, thus saving them the costs of health care for these people. Thus, the companies’ budgets will not be greatly affected.If you would relate this approach in human resource management, you could see that this is more on the incentive aspect, wherein you provide your empl oyees something that would keep them going to work. For those who are concerned with their health and well-being, they would surely grab the opportunity of free health club memberships and nutrition education. This is positive for the company, since the employees themselves are the ones who initiate in keeping themselves healthy. Remember, the main concern of the company in this issue is how they can do away with the extra costs of health care and health insurance premiums for their employees.  Regarding the effectiveness of this approach, the article states that there are already several large-scale companies who adopted this system. They have their own health clubs and offer free membership to their employees. They say that these greatly helps them in cutting costs, thus the allotted budget for healthcare would be saved. There are still some who are not that much into health stuffs, people who think that nutrition education is like intruding with their lives. These people are th ose who would most likely have health risks and should be given enough consideration in order to engage them in these health programs.Human resource management surely entails various levels of dealing with the people you are handling. This includes how you handle them, and the ways on how you are able to manage them, making them do what they’re suppose to do. This is where healthcare comes in, wherein their safety and well being is not only their concern, but should also be the company’s priority. When their wellness goes down, the company goes down as well, in terms of both manpower and monetary aspects.Reference:Holland, K. (2007). Wellness Programs Try to Be Welcoming, Too. The New York Times. Published July 22, 2007. Retrieved August 1, 2007, from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/business/yourmoney/22mgmt.html?ex=1186113600&en=ded5f6bb661041b0&ei=5070#

The Respiratory System essays

The Respiratory System essays The human respiratory system is a complex system involving the coordination of organs with different structural, functional and defensive mechanisms. The high costs and the high fatality rates associated with chronic respiratory disorders require some serious rethinking in our approach to managing the problem. It transpires that the maxim prevention is better than cure is very apt in the management of respiratory disorders. Smoking is identified as the single most important cause for most of the serious respiratory problems including COPD and lung cancer, and hence abstaining from smoking eliminates the risk for the onset of several serious respiratory disorders. The human respiratory system is a well-developed and complex system involving many different organs such as the nasal cavity, pharynx, trachea and the lungs. Though the actual physiological function of breathing begins only at birth, the development of the respiratory tract, the diaphragm and the lungs occur much earlier in the embryonic stage. Structural and functional changes continue from infancy to adulthood and into old age, as the respiratory system matures with age. There are various diseases of the respiratory system such as asthma, tuberculosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema, lung cancer, etc. While Asthma is a genetic disease, Tuberculosis, lung cancer, etc, are acquired pulmonary diseases. Life style and environmental factors are important in contributing to and increasing the susceptibility to respiratory disorders. The following discussion includes a brief overview of the structural development of the human respiratory system followed by an o verview of COPD and Tuberculosis, two of the prevalent diseases of the respiratory system, and their impact on occupational performance. The development of the Respiratory System The development of the respiratory system starts after the fourth week of gestation. The respirat...

The Future of Matrimony †Sociology Research Paper

The Future of Matrimony – Sociology Research Paper Free Online Research Papers The Future of Matrimony Sociology Research Paper â€Å"†¦to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health, to love and to cherish till death do us part’†¦.† Wedding bells are ringing. The big day is finally here. As the soon-to-be husband and wife, bound together by love, prepare to walk down the aisle, they truly believe that this would be their first and only wedding. The two couples are bounded together by love, hope, expectations, and dreams that inspire almost all marriages. Lovers that enter marriage envision dreams of what their new life will bring them. The thought of marriage not working, never crossed their mind. They both believed marriage would be â€Å"till death do us part† and that their significant other will be there for one another through thick and thin. Unfortunately, for many young lovers who got married early, this does not hold true. Back in the 1950s, women had no choice but to marry. Women were forced to wed in order to achieve some form of economic stability – while simultaneously embarking on a lifetime of subservient bondage. Because women were viewed as inferior to men, they were to always remain at home. A woman’s main function was to produce offspring and manage household chores while their husbands tended to public affairs. This made marriage not so different from slavery and prostitution. In those days, wives were expected to be subservient to their husbands, leaving little room for romance and love to develop, even simple acts of affection was not necessary. Instead, the husbands would turn to prostitutes and concubines to satisfy their sexual needs, while the sole purpose of having sex at home was to just produce babies. Men wanted to create a legacy. At its most fundamental level, marriage was created for the purpose of raising children. Today, many of these pragmatic motivation s no longer apply. A man no longer expects a wife to devote herself full-time to his care and upkeep, and a woman no longer needs a man to pay her way. By the twentieth century, when capitalism firmly took hold and people no longer had to marry to secure their financial future, marriage changed. Divorce rates largely rose alongside the rise of capitalism, as growth and opportunity gave individuals the ability to survive financially outside the household economy. By 1924, one in seven marriages ended in a divorce. Divorce, something that was once unheard of, was now hailed as fresh alternative for the troubled women who were financially dependent and trapped. For battered women, and for the loveless couples, divorce was considered to be a healthy, rejuvenating response to marriages that were often viewed as â€Å"sick, lifeless or dead.† Divorce was believed to set them free, and finally make them happy again. It was â€Å"okay† to divorce, to be free, to listen to your heart and do what you need to for the sake of your own personal happiness because you deserve it. With the widespread introduction of the Pill, the sexual revolution, the feminist movements, plus the freedoms celebrated by the â€Å"Me Generation†, it demonstrated to women in their twenties that they did not have to marry, that is, marriage was unnecessary for a life of a happiness. Although the average age of women entering marriage has not significantly changed over the past one hundred years, what have changed though, are the attitudes surrounding marriage. In 1890 women had few options, they were forced to enter into marriage in their twenties, but today, with the benefits formed by the women’s movement and with the economy advancing, women now not only have the choice to marry but also not to nonetheless. Modern day women now have the freedom to want whatever it is they choose to want because it is their God-given right as opposed to being forced. For both sexes even, men and women today marry because they can and want – not because they must. A 1977 New York magazine â€Å"Early to Wed,† explains why young women and men today overwhelmingly believe in marriage and in marrying relatively young. One popular theory suggested that we are witnessing a search for stability in an era of instability (Sarah Bernard, â€Å"Early to Wed,† New York, 16 June 1997, P.38). â€Å"In the United States, the twenties are the picture-perfect decade for saying I do. The farther you stray from that magic era, the more freakish you start to feel. An article in a 1998 issue of the Journal of Family Issues confirms that being unmarried in your thirties can be bad for you state of mind because you feel like an outcast.†(Megan Fitzmorris McCafferty, â€Å"When Should You Marry,† Cosmopolitan, August 1999, p.238) But the younger you marry, the more likely you are to divorce. People are getting divorced as quickly as they are getting married. A 2001 survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that one in five first-marriage divorces occur within the first five years (Matthew D. Bramlett and William D. Mosher, â€Å"First Marriage Dissolution, Divorce and Remarriage: United States,† advance data, 31 May 2001, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). 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If accounting is to retain any credibility-and without credibility it Essay

If accounting is to retain any credibility-and without credibility it is worthless - its guiding light must be neutrality in - Essay Example The aims of financial account have a very major influence on the way institutions operate, on certain rules and regulations of accounting and accounting practices conducted at the corporate level. The two main goals of accounting policy is to firstly focus upon the importance of accounting systems for the private sector and secondly it is to be utilized by the government sector. Different countries place different level of importance on accounting. There are two kinds of users of accounting and accounting systems, these include the macro and the micro level users. The main difference between these users is the intention of using accounting information, this means that macro level users use it for different purposes and micro level users use it for different purposes (MA, 1997, p.198). Those who are referred to as macro level users include government agencies that uses accounting information for the purpose of economic planning and development. Those who are referred to as micro users are the ones who provide the capital and are given utmost importance in society. Body The two different users and the way they use accounting in different manners is quite evident in the role played by accounting in capital markets. For example in areas such as US and Canada, the system of accounting in these nations is micro user level and the broader aim of the accounting policy is to provide financial statements that are unbiased and fair (Flesher, 2010, p.66). When the emphasis is paid to providing fair and truthful accounting information, the organizations within these nations are expected to disclose their financial transactions in a reliable and credible manner. Transaction conducted by the organizations that follow the micro user level accountancy aims at achieving economic substance rather than conforming to rules and regulations set by the country. Nations that follow the macro user level accountancy system do not operate while aim at achieving fairness in providing accou nting details and information. Traditionally the main aim of accounting has been to safeguard the loss of assets that take place in a secretive manner. This aim of accountancy was obtained by reporting less than the actually amount of assets owned and profit made by an organization. At the domestic level capital markets, the aim of accountancy is to achieve optimum level corporate governance. At the domestic level, those nations that follow micro user accounting systems, the main role of accounts and accountants is to provide reliable accounting information in order to evaluate the performance of the management. Management’s performance is measured through several means and the main way proposed is to how well they keep track of the organizations earning, dividends and cash flows. The main aim of the management is to increase the profit of the organization and for this they end up producing biased accounting reports and due to this there is a need to provide, unbiased and neu tral accounting reports to decrease the conflict between the management and the owners of the business (Wolk, 2001, p.217). There have been ample amount of debate surrounding the impact of accounting on a businesses profits and well being, this have increase the possibility that certain methods of accountancy can be utilized to obtained desired aims and objectives. The aims and objectives that can be obtained include increasing competitiveness of

Idealism versus Naturalism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Idealism versus Naturalism - Essay Example Gombrich argues that in pursuit of idealism for self-interests, the artists omitted any feature to they did not like to produce ‘†¦an idealized statue that usually lack character and vigour’ (103). Moreover, their desire to portray the true, the good, and the beauty of a real a man - ideal humanistic outlook – resulted in a quite ‘symmetrical, well-built and beautiful statue.' Due to the flawed figures of idealism, Greek artists adopted the naturalist perspective that represents the human form in its natural appearance or realistic look. The proponents of naturalism argue that the idealistic idea was only to add aesthetic value to drawings and sculptures and avoid reality. For instance, in Hermes with Dionysus, Praxiteles portrays the natural gesture of a hairy, wise, loving, caring and anxious man with human quality carrying a playful child (Gombrich 102). Moreover, he curved a younger non-stiff body leaning on a post for balance while maintaining elegance and smooth surfaces. These are realistic features that contrast the idealistic principle of calm and ever-smiling man to reflect an ideal situation of harmony and happiness. Moreover, the height of 3.5 feet tall of the idealistic approach fails to reflect the proper size of a human, 6.9 feet as depicted by Praxiteles. Despite these differences, one similarity of the two approaches is the Contrapposto where the right leg is bent while stepping forward and the left hip elevated to support body weight.

Firm's Operating Cycle vs Cash Conversion Cycle Essay

Firm's Operating Cycle vs Cash Conversion Cycle - Essay Example duration of the cycle by adding together each of these elements.† An greater operating cycle implies that the business will need more working capital and with high working capital will lead to high inventory-carrying cost, this is inclusive of interest payments, thus the firm has greater opportunity cost because it is incapable to invest its funds in high fund investments projects. It is thus advisable to have low operating cycles because there will be more completed cycles in a year, this will lead the business to make greater gross and net profits annually. This is the time (number of days) interval between the time a firm purchases an inventory until the inventory is sold and cash is received from the buyer (accounts recoverable). In other words it is the total time taken by a firm or a business to covert purchases into cash from consumers of the product. Cash conversion process gives imminent into the financial stability of a company, this is because it gives time period during which assets are committed to business processes and therefore are not available to invest to achieve even greater returns. The little the time period to collect cash from sales made in credit the better for the firm, this is because; for a shorter cycle gives the business quick asses to cash, the cash can be used by the business to purchase additional stock or may be used to pay debt to suppliers of the firm. It is therefore of great significance for a firm to have systems that facilitates shorter conversation cycles. This is achieved by speeding the customers to pay up their debts while the firm slows down payments to its suppliers. Cash conversation cycle can also be negatively used by large organization that have a huge market command share whereby they change the payment days to supplies anyhow. The model that a firm’s management adopts is very crucial for achievement of the firm’s final profits. When an organization allows short interval of its operating cycle it means

Stand paper on the Priority Development Assistance fund Essay Example for Free

Stand paper on the Priority Development Assistance fund Essay The Priority Development Assistance Fund or PDAF also known as â€Å"Pork barrel† is a discretionary fund allocated for the purpose of providing projects which will promote the development of the different districts of the country. It is released through the General Appropriations Act (GAA) of the congress which will serve as the National Budget of the Government. The amount allocated for PDAF in the fiscal year 2013 totaled for 24.7 billion pesos with each member of the House of Representatives receiving 70 million pesos and members of the Senate with 200 million each. This fund traces its roots from the Countrywide Development Fund of the Administration of Pres. Corazon Aquino. During the Ramos Administration, it is said that the funds were used by the President to sustain his control in the congress. The result of this was the growing criticisms against the release of such funds. When President Joseph Estrada stepped-up as the president, he promised the abolishment of this funds. To show their sincerity, the congress abolished the CDF but was virtually revived with the name of Priority Development Assistance Fund.1 This year, the public was outraged by the discovery of the 10 Billion Pork Barrel scam which was allegedly done through the initiative of Mrs. Janet Lim-Napoles. This crime exposed by Benhur Luy was described by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago as the â€Å"Crime of the Millennium†. B. Stand: As an advocate of progress, I am not in favor for the abolition of PDAF or Pork barrel. Considering its legality, the existence of this fund is undisputable because the Supreme Court, the highest court of the land, already ruled in favor for the existence of this fund. That was held in the Case of LAMP vs. DBM, and following the principle of Stare Decisis, we should follow the decision of the court which already adjudged the matter at hand. Furthermore, many citizens, especially the indigent and the people from poor provinces and municipalities are benefiting from such fund. Moreover, the abolishment of this fund would disintegrate the projects needed by the people. C. Recommendation: In line with the Status Quo and the arguments I stated in my stand, I am recommending for the Non-abolishment of this funds. Furthermore, Guidelines for such funds are already provided in the constitution2 and the Department of Budget and Management3. Moreover, strict implementation of such guidelines is needed to guarantee the safeguard of this fund from corruption.

Suspense Tension And Mystery In Red Room English Literature Essay

Suspense Tension And Mystery In Red Room English Literature Essay Normally when you think of horror stories you think of stories with characters like Werewolves and Dracula in them. Edgar Allen Poe and H G Wells have broken the stereotype with these short stories, by telling different tales about the way people act when they are disturbed mentally. I dont think this point is really very correctà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Stoker was writing at roughly the same time as Poe and Wellsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦write perhaps? Wells explored the theme of an initially non-believer in the supernatural with The Red Room and in The Tell Tale Heart and The Black Cat, Poe explores the human conscience. I have enjoyed all three of these stories because of the story themes as well as the way in which the high tension is created with a hint of the supernatural in both. All three of these short stories are written with the main character as the narrator but The Red Room is interesting because the main character is actually the innocent (although fairly arrogant) victim, rather than the m urderer in Poes stories. There are several similar themes that run through these stories and the main themes in the The Tell Tale Heart and The Black Cat are that of mentally disturbed people being put into situations that bring out the worst in them and makes them and the reader very uncomfortable. The main theme in the The Tell Tale Heart and The Black Cat is the consequences of murder and how human nature can be viewed at its worse and how this can make a person become obsessed and, in the end, quite mad. In The Red Room, the reader also feels uncomfortable for a different reason and that is by feeling scared, especially due to the fact that the main character doesnt believe that there are ghosts before he enters a spooky castle and then this slowly changes when he enters and his arrogance melts away due to strange happenings. The main theme of The Red Room is arrogance and this is built up to make the readers want the lead character to encounter a supernatural encounter (the story starts with the line I can assure you said I, that it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me). I suspect that Wells describes the main character in such a way to make him sound pompous and arrogant so that the reader wants the main character to get his just desserts. In all three stories, the main characters as narrator are portrayed as unpleasant individuals, although to be fair the character in the Red Room is only arrogant, he doesnt actually kill anyone! The discomfort for the reader starts at right at the beginning of all of these stories and right away the reader is in the middle of a story that has already started (a bit like walking into a play or a film where youve missed the beginning). Get rid of everything in blue, and replace with as they start in media res. For example, the narrator is speaking right away in The Tell Tale Heart and at first he sounds quite calm and rationale and then this slowly builds in to a bit a bit of a rant by a madman (as the narrator says himself, You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing). All three stories have a gothic and dark feel to them; both of the Edgar Allen Poe stories have the main characters behaving in a most peculiar way due to them having a troubled lives or backgrounds. In The Tell Tale Heart, the main character is disturbed about an old mans eye and as the culture at the time was such that people felt that if an individual had a deformity it meant that the individual was evil. The ma in character thinks that the mans bad eye contained an evil sprit and becomes obsessed by the thought of his evil eye is meant for him. The theme is similar for The Black Cat- this short story has as its main character a guilt ridden person who gives himself up due to his overbearing guilty conscience. Interestingly, the deformed or disabled images come through in The Red Room with the two old men being described as having a withered arm, being supported by a single crutch and in the main anything old, disfigured or ugly would have the implication of being sinister or creepy and this is a similar to theme to yet another story of the time, The Picture of Dorian Gray, whereby the main characters evil and wicked deeds are not shown on his actual face, but shown on a portrait that he keeps in his attic. Ermà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦this is a bit of a Victorian thingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦it would be better to say that the Victorians believed in physiognomy, which is demonstrated in The Picture of Dorian G ray (give example) and The Red Room, as you explained above. The main character in The Black Cat is a guilt ridden psychopath who in the beginning of the story is acting as if every thing was alright (I was noted for the docility and humanity of my disposition), but at the end, becomes so obsessed with a white and then a black cat that he ruins everything in his life, including the murder of his wife. In the descent to madness, he says that the fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer. In both of Poes stories, there is an underlying theme implying that the police are a bit stupid and could not figure out who has carried out such a simple crime. I dont see any truth in this pointà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦both protagonists in Poes stories went to great lengths to conceal the bodies indeed, this is shown in the stories. Therefore, one might excuse the police, It is also interesting to note that short stories like this were the only form of popular entertainment at this time, due to there not being any TV. Ahem, this point, although c orrect, is hindered by your suggestion that popular entertainment is TV. You may wish to say something more like there was not a comparable range of media for popular entertainment, of which TV is included. Whilst there would not be such high literacy rates then as there are now with a lot of poor or working class children having to leave school at the earliest opportunity in order to earn a wage, literacy rates were improving and more people were able to read and these authors were becoming more popular. Look up Education Reform Acts of the nineteenth century. The Tell Tale Heart has a very sudden tension building moment, with the atmosphere switching from very calm to sudden excitement and you can feel the adrenalin pumping in the killers body when the narrator / main character saying that he is going to kill the old man. Poe uses quick, short sentences : It grew quicker and quicker, and louder and louder every instant. The old mans terror must have been extreme! It grew louder, I say, louder every moment! and this helps build the tension. The story opens with the main character as the narrator of the story and trying to justify why he had to destroy the eye. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees I made up my mind to take the life of the old man. He also tries to make it clear that he is not mad by stating you fancy me mad-mad men know nothing. This indicates to me [to you? What an absurd ideaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦as I explained in one of your other essays, you and I have no place in an academic essay. Get. Rid. Phrase i n the passive insteadà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦this may be indicating] that the author is trying to show that the character is quite arrogant and that the character wants us to think that he is fighting evil and the fact of him being able to think of ways to defeat it .He is saying that mad people are not well educated [Im sorry? Nietzsche, one of the cleverest men to have lived, was mad. I myself am hardly the sanest of people (OCD, anorexia, perfectionism, anxiety, emotional instability) and am simultaneously well educated. In a more contextual manner, it is clear (especially in The Black Cat) that the mad men are clever], and the fact that any sane person would have acted the same way as he did. At the end of the short story, when the police come round to the house, the heart beat that the narrator hears becomes quicker and quicker (but the noise arose over all and continually increased. It grew louder -louder -louder!). This is supposed [supposed? Why isnt it? I think you could have better phrased thisà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦This represents the guilt buildingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.] to represent the guilt building up in the main characters head; it also represents the supernatural element found in each of Poes stories. The heart beat can also be seen as the old mans spirit or soul calling out to the police, to make sure that the main character / murderer is caught. In this story Poe has played on the fact of the character imaging that he is hearing the heart beat because the police can not hear it. The final sentence, Villains! I shrieked, dissemble no more! I admit the deed! -tear up the planks! here, here! -It is the beating of his hideous heart!, I think, has a really tortured ring to it and the reader almost feels sorry for the madness of the narrator. The Black Cat also has a very similar plot device in building up tension; everything appears to be calm and alright with the main character explaining his situation (just like The Tell Tale Heart), For the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief. The writer also builds up the tension when he explains that he was always described as My tenderness of heart was even so conspicuous as to make me the jest of my companions. I was especially fond of animals, and was indulged by my parents with a great variety of pets. Also, the fact that I married early, and was happy to find in my wife a disposition not uncongenial with my own. Makes us believe that he is a normal happy man and we would be shocked to discover anything bad about him. However, this suddenly changes when he recalls that one evening when he returned home drunk, he took from my waistcoat-pocket a pen-knife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberatel y cut one of its eyes from the socket! He actually deliberately cuts out an eye from his pet cat. This leads us to believe that the main character is actually mad and has something wrong with him. The tension reaches its height when the main character not only tries to kill another cat, but actually kills his wife by burying the axe in her brain. She fell dead upon the spot, without a groan. Now we know that he is actually a madman and especially as the torment of what he has done leads him to showing the police the corpse of his wife through his conscience playing on his mind and him finally knocking down the wall and exposing the body. Another strong tension point is when the cat reappears and has the gallows shaved into its fur. For both of the stories the main characters feelings do not change until the end, when the mad man in The Tell Tale Heart is ridden with guilt and the mad man in The Black Cat feels that he has to clear himself of the deeds he has committed. This is shown by the quote today I would unburden my soul. I think that the author of The Tell Tale Heart lets the reader think that the main character is very clever because he allows him to use a lot of intelligent language, as well as allowing him to use a lot of argumentative language as though he is desperately trying to plead his case. Ah ha! Youre being inconsistentà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦the protagonist of this story is as mad if not madder than the protagonist of TBC, but this one is clever and educated? See my earlier point. For example, when he says, I think it was his eye! Yes his eye! This is to try and shift the blame and make the reader feel that the main character is trying to persuade them that he had no choice and that the reader would have done the same in the circumstances. Saying, Yes his eye is intended to show that he had figured out a motive for killing the old man and that in fact that he must have been provoked in the first instance. I think that the main character comes across as being very insecure because he is always try ing to explain or justify why he acted why he did, and is also trying to persuade the reader that he is not mad and that he is in fact a good person. This is shown because he always explains his actions after detailing what he did in the story. I loved the old man I had no desire for his gold. This can be understood in one of two ways by the reader; firstly, the reader can see him as being absolutely mad or secondly, he could be seen as someone who was disturbed and who needed help and sympathy. By saying that he loved the old man shows that he didnt want to kill the old man and the fact that his obsession with the evil eye made him do it or that the man isnt the problem, its his eye. Interestingly, all of the other characters in The Tell Tale Heart do not really play a major part in the story and this is also true of The Black Cat the only other character is the wife because she gets murdered by the main character. This builds up a lot of tension when he does this due to the wife did not commit any offence to the man it was just the man wanted to kill. This is true to a certain extent in The Red Room, although the other characters do add to the story telling. The use of language in the two Poe short stories is very complex, which could make the readers think that, if the characters are speaking after they have committed such evil deeds, this would lead us to believe that they would be some kind of evil genius, which would be a popular stereotype of the time. Give an exampleà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦I think Professor Moriarty would be a good choice. The stories are written in common literary language of the nineteenth century. For example, in The Tell Tale Heart the author uses language such as he had never wronged me, never given me an insult. This shows that he is well educated and well spoken and I think, as the reader, clear at getting his views and descriptions across. In The Black Cat, the language and the dialect is the same, with the use of fairly old words and or quotes such as conspicuous and unburden my soul. I use the word conspicuous with shocking frequencyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦say the style is old, not the words. As far as I remember, there ar e no archaic words in TBC or TTH. These are fairly old linguistic terms and a man who uses them must be well educated. But this point makes no sense. Old, indeed. And if a modern man were to use them one could consider his reading list to be classic literature, indeed. Howeverà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦if the man in question is oldà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦hes just speaking? And reading contemporary literatureà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦like if you were to speak how Stephenie Meyer or Terry Pratchett does. This can show us that he is well educated in his plans and schemes. Its fair to say that the characters both use complex language, and that this demonstrates their intelligence. Equally, in The Red Room, the dialect used by the narrator is fairly complex, Eight-and-twenty years, said I, I have lived, and never a ghost have I seen as yet and the dialect of the others shows that they are poorer and of a lower class; the old woman replies Ay, she broke in; and eight-and-twenty years you have lived and never seen the li kes of this house, I reckon. All three of these stories were written and read by Victorians to entertain them, you can tell this by the amount of old words that have been put into these stories and the syntax. Obsession, the link to madness and ghost stories in general, were very popular and highly entertaining because of the links to the supernatural world. It was as entertaining to so many Victorians due to the fact of Victorians being more prone to belief in the supernatural as institutions that relied on belief over reason, most notably the Church, were more popular in this time than currently. There was also a very moral point of view with these stories by showing that evil deeds will always be found out and if people do any bad deeds then they will avenged by the dead persons spirit or by the power of God. Another message within The Black Cat was the moral message that the evils of alcohol can destroy a good man and make him into some kind of monster (But my disease grew upon me for what disease is like Alcohol!), which the Temperance (or anti-alcohol) Societies that were popular at that time would have found a good, moral message. The Tell Tale Heart and The Black Cat have very similar themes as each other; however they have very different themes to The Red Room. The common theme between all of these stories is that they are all connected to the supernatural. The common themes of the The Tell Tale Heart and The Black Cat are firstly that the main character is an evil person but that that person narrates the story and tries to convince the reader of his sanity and that what he did was justifiable and indeed right. Secondly, both stories have the common theme that the main characters have not got a valid reason for the crime they committed the motive is all in their heads and it is simply the creepy differences which disturbed them both to kill. Thirdly, both murderers get caught and therefore do not get away with the crime they committed. This also leads the reader to the moral that crime never pays no matter if youre ridden with guilt or even if youre over confident you will still get caught. The main messag e of The Tell Tale Heart is the fact that a guilty conscience will always give you away in the end, even if in theory you are not actually caught by police or anyone else, you will give yourself away. The tension in the stories is built up by the use of narrative and short, quick paced sentences that reflect the mood of the three main characters. I think that the heart beat at the end of The Tell Tale Heart is very effective at mimicking the build-up of guilt in the main characters mind and it is not clear whether he can actually hear the dead mans heart beating (the supernatural side of the story) or if it is actually his own heart beating so fast because he is becoming increasingly tense and nervous about the dreadful deed that he has committed (the moral side of the story). In The Black Cat, again the lead character hears what he believes to be the muffled cries of his dead wife but as fate would have it, it is the actual cries of a live cat (by a cry, at first muffled and broken, like the sobbing of a child, and then quickly swelling into one long, loud, and continuous scream, utterly anomalous and inhuman a howl a wailing shriek, half of horror and half of triumph, such as mi ght have arisen only out of hell ). The Red Room has the lead character talking to himself to try and control his fear This wont do! said I, and first one and then another candle on the mantelshelf followed. Whats up? I cried, with a queer high note getting into my voice somehow. At that the candle on the wardrobe went out, and the one I had relit in the alcove followed. Of the three stories, I think that The Black Cat is the scariest because it has such a normal everyday husband and general nice man becoming an axe-wielding maniac, but ultimately being found out through guilt.