The Great Gatsby -The Corruption of the American Dream-how its Essay

The Great Gatsby -The Corruption of the American Dream-how its original idealism has been replaced by materialism and greed - Essay Example It was a reminder of his poverty. Gatsbys parents were poor farmers, whom he had never accepted as his parents. .. He developed out of an idealization of the American Dream... One day, while attending a small Lutheran college in southern Minnesota and feeling dismayed by having to work as a janitor to put himself through school, Gatsby spots the moored yacht of Dan Cody. In an action that changes the young boys life, Cody welcomes him aboard his yacht and introduces him to fine living. Gatsby becomes the protegà ¨ of the wealthy goldminer and lives with him until Cody dies. With some wealth of his own and dreams of more, he goes into the army(Media Adaptations). enhances his chase of the â€Å"golden fleece.† Gatsby is so infatuated with Daisy that he could not see beneath her beauty; â€Å"He found her excitingly desirable.† Jordan tells Nick that; â€Å"the officer looked at Daisy...in a way that every young girl wants to be looked at some time.† He wants her because other men want her. The difference in their social status lured him to her even more. â€Å"He took her because he had no real right to touch her hand.† â€Å"He becomes impressed with her beautiful home and many boyfriends(Media Adaptations). Gatsby truly believes that money is the obstacle between him and Daisy; the truth is Daisy does not love him. She is not capable of loveing. Daisy is fickle, but Gatsby does not see this, he convinces himself that if he gets wealth, Daisy will choose him above her other boyfriends. For Gatsby, the American Dream means wealth and Daisy. Gatsby goes to war comforted by the fact that Daisy is waiting for him. However, Daisy does no such thing, her loyalty goes to the highest bidder, Tom Buchanan. It is obvious that neither Gatsby nor Daisy knows what love really is. Daisys requirement list for a husband has only one item,

Irans Misty Wonders Essay Example for Free

Irans Misty Wonders Essay In Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, both the movie and the book were able to portray the main idea of Marjane Satrapi Marjis life. The main idea being for us to look at how Marji evolved into a grown women with struggles along the way. Throughout both we were able to clearly understand what a difficult childhood she lived and we were able to get a sense of what her life was like back then. Like in many cases, the book informed us of every detail possible in order to get a clearer message across. When it came to the movie, it lacked many details that were included in the book and if you would not have read the book it would cause you to be confused and lost. There are a couple scenes in the movie that seem to just happen, there was no type of development or leading actions involved. There was a specific scene in the movie where Marji and her mother walk past a conversation that her father and neighbors are having, the female neighbor seems to have some type of scar in her cheek but we are not sure what it is and if it even matters. If we take a look at the book we see that the scene is different. Marji and her family briefly talk with their neighbors, a husband and wife, and the husband tells her father â€Å"Look! A bullet almost hit my wife’s cheek,† (44). This was a piece of information that could and should have been briefly added because it gives us a bigger picture of how dangerous their lives were during the revolution. This would only help us, the viewers, have a bigger reaction to the plot. Another example that comes to mind was the absence of certain characters. The family’s maid, Mehri, as well as Marjis good friend, is never mentioned in the movie. This was an important factor because throughout an incident that is described in the book we are able to learn the big issues with social class and in the movie it is something that we miss out on since it is not mentioned at all. The incident was that Mehri falls in love with the neighbor’s son and once Marjis father knows of this he tells Hossein, the neighbors son, that she is a maid therefore Hossein decided to stop seeing her. Marjis Father explains to Marji, â€Å"You must understand that their love was impossible.  Because in this country you must stay withi n your own social class, (37). Many of the characters are also lacked full description, for instance, Mohsen, and Anoosh. From the movie all we hear about Mohsen is that he is found drowned in a bath tub and it leaves many unanswered questions such as why did it happen and who was he. In the book we know that he visited the Satrapi family the same day that Siamak visits but that is never portrayed in the movie. When it comes to Anoosh, in the movie towards the end of the story he is telling Marji, she asks if he has any family, and ends the conversation. On the other hand, in the book he tells Marji â€Å"†¦I married and had two children, two girls†¦Ã¢â‚¬  And we are also able to learn that his marriage did not turn out very well. Although, there were many details missing in the movie that were included in the book, I do not think that it takes away the intention of the book. A message is clearly stated throughout the movie as well as the book. In both resources we are able to see how the main character grows up and how her surroundings, and everything she has experienced, influence the person she became. In my personal opinion I feel as if the book was more appealing than the movie. The movie was short and brief and got to the main points of the story and was still able to get a message across. I feel as if the book was more detailed which made the plot clearer. Every character was described perfectly and every scene made sense and fell into place with the other scenes, so that they could all make sense. The details that are included in the book make the story bring more emotion to the reader for the fact that everything is explained, even the smallest details. The visual style for the movie was the same as the book, both were comics. The movie is all cartoons, which is something that I found interesting. I feel that making it into a cartoon was a smart decision because it makes it so simple and easy to follow. I enjoyed the fact that I was able to understand the movie very well, although it was in French, because many of the scenes were similar to the book. In the end, I think both the book and movie were enjoyable. What helped was that I had read the novel, before watching the movie. The lack of details and description of characters could have easily confused someone. On the bright side, a message was still able to get across through both sources.

Interview with a human resource manager Essay Example for Free

Interview with a human resource manager Essay Many organizations build human resource management section separately so that an expert service is provided to the people and the human resource function performed efficiently. These organizations consider people as their most priceless assets and so they need managers in this section who are efficient, responsible and devoted to the rules and regulations of the respective organization. For this they need a capable person who can cover up the responsibilities excellently and help in further development of the organization. Different organizations have varied expectations from the candidate and the ecruitment is done according to the requirements of the company. It depends upon the size of the company, the physical nature of the products, the size of the staff members, its functions, aims and complexities that decide what exactly is expected from a human resource department. A human resource manager has to keep a balance between the employer and the employees. He has to act as an advocate for both, the organization and the people who work for it. Only one or two decades ago the human resource manager was associated with personnel and administrative division of the company and mostly confined to some aper work. They had to deal with hiring of the employees for different sections of the company, paying them and dealing mostly with their benefits. But today most of the organizations are customer centered and are becoming more adaptable to changes needed for successful marketing strategy. So the responsibilities of today’s human resource manager is to take care of customer satisfaction and make specific changes considering success in marketing along with taking care of the benefits of the employees, payroll and do some paper work as well. The HR manager has to be very attentive and cautious with ny and every change that is taking place in the marketing policy. With the globalization of small and big businesses, it seems that the development of an organization depends quite a lot on the human resource manager and so he is answerable to almost every aspect of marketing and customer satisfaction section. This includes a lot of work pressure, which burdens the professionals a lot. Almost every human resource manager is suffering form this problem and feels the pressure from various directions. They have to discuss the matters and the targets need to be achieved in imited time and above all be updated with the latest in marketing strategy. Those who are interested in regular competition and want to progress fast can try and make human resource manager a career but I feel that with so much of work pressure a man will have to sacrifice a lot in life just to satisfy his ego and earn success and new heights in monetary section. With flexible working hours the manager has to sacrifice various aspects of recreation and relaxation with family and friends. With stress and conflicts in the organization, the human resource manager needs to take care of it before it does any harm to the organization. He needs to be like a team leader and convince the employees with the views of the management and vice versa. Open communication and discussion helps a lot and the manager balances if there is any aggressive attitude in the employees. The only thing that I work out from the interview with a human resource manager is that the job satisfies people who are very ambitious and enthusiastic. It is not that the job or its responsibilities are not reachable. Some managers find it very challenging and like to work in a competitive environment so that the charm of life and work remains there for them.

Siemens AG Global Development Strategy

Siemens AG Global Development Strategy In order to understand Siemens International RD current situation and thoroughly come up with alternatives and recommendations to solve possible issues that may arise, it is first crucial to analyze the companys strategy and rationale for International RD. There are several factors and reasons that led Siemens to pursue and International RD strategy, opposed to a domestic one. The first one is the obvious labor shortages that would take place was Siemens to perform its research and development in its Munich headquarters. It is quite obvious that centralizing all RD activities in Munich would result in a critical shortage of the ICNs 1500 employees allocated to the headquarters. Secondly, customers in the telecommunications industry usually require extremely customized solutions for their businesses. Thus, it is of the utmost importance that product customization is performed with the quickest response to customer needs possible. Thus, the regional allocation of engineers, technicians, etc., into Regional Development Centers (RDCs) plays a crucial role in the fulfillment of this task. Finally, the global spread of RD units would theoretically provide the company the possibility of taking advantage of exploiting time zone differences, and thus perform an around-the-clock development strategy. However, this concept has proven to be utopian due the interdependence between overseas counterparts consequent of the extremely high coordination needed for the development of this type of leading edge technologies. 1.2. STRUCTURE OF RDCs At the date of the case, Siemens ICN had 6 major overseas RDCs in the following countries: Austria, India, USA, Belgium, Slovenia and Portugal. These centers are related to the Munich headquarters through a HUB-Model, in which RD activities are mostly concentrated in and controlled by the Headquarters, whereas product customization takes place in RDCs. Firstly, the number of person-years and capital invested are two strictly correlated variables in the companys development effort. This is trivial since the amount cash spent in a certain projects is an increasing function of the working years invested by the employees in the development of these projects (salary vs. work). Secondly, labor cost advantage is also a crucial matter in any business. Thus, as can be seen in the table above, the U.S. employees take the first place as most expensive wage earners, whereas the Indian take the place as the cheapest. In this specific case, India presents a great advantage for Siemens ICN or any other technology development company, since there is a good tradeoff between low cost and high expertise in this field. Thirdly, employee turnover is an issue the company sometimes has to deal with. The ambition (and sometimes greed combined with low company loyalty) of employees makes them often migrate to other companies where better salary conditions are offered. This results in a very high employee turnover and difficult allocation of workers to medium/long-term projects. Finally, coordination costs between the Headquarters and RDCs are also of the highest relevance. Since we are talking about countries many times geographically separated by dozens of thousands of kilometers, it becomes extremely hard to articulate and coordinate work between the counterparts. However, not only the geographic and time zone distance influence increase these costs, but also the cultural distance between them, since this implies more time and money spent in trying to reduce it through frequent trips, workshops, etc. 1.3. BOCA RATON RDC In Boca Raton, Florida, U.S.A., is located Siemens second largest overseas RDC. This facility is majorly centered in the development of the Electronic Switching System Digital (EWSD), and functions as many of the companys other RDCs: Munich Headquarters provide the project-base for each EWSD release to Boca Raton, which customizes it to the U.S. markets unique industry standards. Moreover, this RDC benefitted from the accumulation of enough knowledge to acquire the increasing independency from the Headquarters to manage more complex system projects the development of the U.S. customer-required Remote Switching Unit (RSU) is a good example of this. However, despite strong bonds and mutual admiration were developed amidst the counterparts during the development of the RSU, still some critical issues concerning working culture arose: the German culture of building road maps to guide the project development (think first, act later) was completely the opposite of what Americans used to do (act first, think later). Despite there is the rationale of keeping up to competitor technological developments and customer need adaptation for the Americans to perform their work in such a way which would denote a certain degree of home-base augmentation there is an obvious lack of home-base exploitation from the company, since the Germans are not effectively embedding their working culture in their American subsidiary. 1.4. INDIA RDC One of the major problems prevailing in Siemenss international RD process is the different working styles and culture clashes between its local and overseas developers. The contrast is most evident in Bangalore RD center where the Indians are working with their senior partners from Germany. While the Germans expect the Indians in Bangalore to show more interest in working with vast machines rather than to pursue entrepreneurial jobs during the process, the Indians hope the Germans could cancel some of their pre-arranged vacations and give them a hand in some critical points of time. Moreover, as with the Germans feeling uncomfortable about discussing wages issues in public, which is often the conversational topic of the Indian employees, the Indians regard it as being impolite to say No or speak up ones mind in a big meeting, which is required by the German seniors to necessitate the decision making process. This fact is dangerous in a sense that the Germans do not really know whether the Indians developers would be able to perform a specific task as they never say No to the Germans request. In the end, the Indians may end up wasting their time and resources as the tasks are beyond their capabilities. More adversely, miscommunication between Munich and Bangalore and between Germans and Indians, in a smaller scale, often occurs due to the Indian personnels avoidance of blunt request for further clarification in the first place. As a result, the Germans always find it necessary to have face-to-face interaction with Indian engineers in order to re-confirm everything is on the right track. Overall, most of the issues mentioned above stem from the difference in personalities of people from different nationalities. If no action is made to alleviate such discrepancy and to seek the most basic understanding ground among cross-cultural employees, Siemens would continue to incur unnecessary management costs. With this remaining cultural and communicational problems, headquarter in Munich played mainly an administration role. As the customers of Siemens ICN are most of the time Germans or least westerner, RDC in India had a position as an RDC for exporting, which means they follow the directions what is given from headquarter. RDC in India had limited chances to communicate with their customer directly. On Munich side, they had to explain, and had to give the specification to Bangalore. However, they couldnt have enough communication for subtle changes from customers or organization matters such as budget cuts, changes of managers in Germany. Should some changes from Germany, the managers in Munich correspond between India and Germany. It increased the possibilities of missing out on some specifications or misunderstanding between customer and RDC. RD center in India had to sometimes postpone their work due to those confusions. Although the actually RD site is in Bangalore, Munich took the role to integrate and test the entire system which is based on the subprojects developed by Indians. They soon faced difficulties to do that job because they didnt actually perform RD but the developers in Bangalore. Furthermore the subprojects are far more independent than they expected. It causes high inefficiency level that the RDC in India should work again and to find the problems for the system. As these RDC and headquarter are thousand kilometers far away to each other, they need additional care for cooperation and communication. As they should work together across Bangalore and Munich for After-service of their products, the remaining inefficiency of headquarter and RDC in India need sufficient attention. In addition to, gradual loss of cost advantages in international labor force was another problem and India was the standout country. Firstly, high turnover rate among Indian programmers caused high costs to Siemens. For instance, Bangalore programmers were even asking salary information of the German workers. Secondly, time to train a new recruit was long while the employment turnover rate was increasing. One reason was that Indian programmers were trained on inexpensive personal computers so that they relied heavily on German guidance for working on large systems. Thirdly, other competitors were emerging as first choice for local labor force in India. Siemens was considered as one of the best employers to work for in Bangalore in the past but other competitors such as Cisco and Lucent showed up and the competition to hire talented workers made Siemens to slipped from front-runner status to a middle-ranking. Lastly, wage increasing trend in Bangalore had undermined the cost advantage of this RD center to Siemens. The wage for developers in Bangalore increased roughly 25% every year. Siemens had lack of separate team to handle customers complicated technique request. Hard problems were often had to be referred to major RD centers, by which the personnel would be pulled from the RD team and away from their current projects just to solve the problem lead to delay in product release and inefficiency. In addition, there was a strong threat by internet industry. By the mid-1990s, voice transmission via Internet is faster and cheaper. If the internet companies can improve its reliability and quality for phone making, they would dominate the entire communication industry. Furthermore, Siemens had some difficulties in maintaining quality and workforce motivation at its American RDC as the company had experimented with the use of strongly defined project teams for each release of a product. We did a personal analysis for Siemens comparing with competitors and found out that Siemens was spending too little money for the RD during 1995 to 1999 compare to major competitors and industry average which is TELEPHONE TELEGRAPH APPARATUS. As you can refer to the figure3, Siemens RD intensity was 0.0078 that was not only lower than Nokia and Ericsson but also way below the industry average level which was 0.73. 2. RECOMMENDATIONS 2.1. INCREASE OF AUTONOMY The lack of autonomy granted by Munich to overseas RD centers, in general, and Bangalore center, in particular, largely contributed to the inefficient coordination and worsened the existing culture clash in Siemens. To make corrective actions, Munich should give more empowerment to their international RD centers in regard to such downstream activities as interaction with customers. In specific, by directly talking to customers, the Indian team would have a better understanding of customers specification requirement and expectation as well as an increased sense of belonging to the job they are performing. It is prudent enough if small customers are first assigned to Bangalore center in order to test and evaluate its ability to simultaneously produce and handle with customers. This is also opportunities for Indian developers to accumulate their experience so that they can deal with bigger projects on their own in the future without much of Munichs scrutiny. For instance, Siemens could consider developing RDC in India as their Asian RD center, so that the Indian developers can read the Asian customers needs with their geographical advantages to Asia and at the same time, they can perform their requirements independently from headquarter in Germany. In addition, it is advisable for Munich to integrate and test the system in the place the subsystems are originally generated. For example, German supervisor from Munich should travel to Bangalore to conduct the integration and testing rather than send the sub-products back to and fly Indian developers to Munich. The reason is that in Bangalore, German managers can easily get their needed information from the Indian staffs, who directly participated in the task performance, in case there are any problems during the integration and test process. This practice helps eliminate the need for and cost of long-distance communication, let alone miscommunication which may arise due to language differences. More importantly, by conducting the product integration and testing in Bangalore, the Indian staff would have a feeling that their contribution is worthwhile as they can keep track of their spiritual product until it is completed and delivered to customers flawlessly. As a result, it would not hurt the Indians self-esteem while improving their sense of responsibility and belonging toward the company as they take control of what they produce. Moreover, adoption of Delphi approach in important board meetings among multicultural staffs would preclude their shyness and encourage all people to speak up their minds in an acceptable way to all the cultures. Even though the Delphi approach is time consuming and require everyone to meet face-to-face, it proves as the good solution in short term while Indian heads felt it wrong to reject other peoples ideas in a big meeting. In the long run, so as to bridge the cultural gap, Siemens should take on more approaches. In terms of communication matter, if the managers from Germany are qualified as international experts especially for Indian culture, they could deeply understand Indians communicational way. This can efficiently deliver customers need to Bangalore and also maximize the performance in India. Such an international cross over can also implemented other way around. For instance, Indians who have experience with Germans or least Westerner could understand their supervisors and customers need more exactly. These Indian international experts could bring also the ideas and project status in sense what their western-customers and co-worker need. This autonomy grant to Siemens Bangalore RD unit or, if necessary and proven to be a successful measure, to other units would possibly result, in the long-term, in a change of the companys structure from a HUB Model to a Network Model, in which the global control of RD activities would be split between the companys global competence centers, both at home and host countries, with a bi-directional technological knowledge flow. 2.2. IMPLEMENTATION TO REDUCE CULTURAL DISTANCE In order to improve their cross cultural understanding, here are some recommendations to get them having the idea of how their counterpart functions. Firstly, to have cultural workshops by international experts or even their co-workers from India, so that they can understand and know each others culture better, leads to lower possibility of occurrence of misunderstanding and miscommunication between Indian and German workers. Secondly, Siemens could provide Global sporting activities or family gathering in different countries. By having gathering events, employees can easily develop team spirits and become friends, reduce their cultural distance to each other after all. For instance, Hyundai Motor Company first had difficulties with managing and controlling the multicultural employees within the company because there was huge cultural distance between them. To deal with this problem, for instance, they started a global 33 basketball tournament across their local offices and it increases their profitability by having good relationship with each other (Korean and foreign counterparts) beyond the cultural backgrounds. During the matches, employees could feel that they share the same goal and they can well co-operate each other, regardless of their different nationality. 2.4. REDUCTION OF EMPLOYEE TURNOVER RATE Even though India had one of the worlds three largest engineering workforces, companies still engaged in a fight for talent. It was so, because the labor market is a global one, so a lot of companies would recruit software engineers to both work in their Indian units, but also to work elsewhere, as Indian talent was highly regarded in this field. Also, both national and international companies had substantial operations in Bangalore, Indias computational technology center, to benefit from the talent pool and the low cost labor, so companies often adopted aggressive strategies to attract the best and the brightest. Siemens had long established in India and was had a formidable reputation, being regarded as one the best employers to work for by young Indians. However, this was changing with the increasing competition for engineers by companies such as Lucent and Cisco, and as Siemens provide a great experience and learning curve, recruiters would often go after the companys engineers, and would pay a premium to have them switch companies, making the annual turnover rate in India, 35%, the highest in the company. Also, there was culture clash between the Germans and the Indians in Siemens, as Indians showed to be somewhat impatient and looking to move projects more often than what was planned by the German management. Also, Indians preferred leading-edge projects in the fields of mobile telecommunications and internet protocols, rather than what was being assigned to them, which was quality testing and integration tasks, which were more repetitive and less stimulating. The Germans also showed lac k of knowledge with regards to the Indian way of working, because the Indian output was not always reliable, as they kept changing approaches and they would rather fix problems right on the spot and not document them for future knowledge and improvement, and this was against the German mindset. All these issues helped keep the turnover rate high, and Siemens had to look for solutions to this problem. It seems that, to keep engineers happy, and as they were to open to discuss wages everywhere, Siemens would have to offer better wages, at least to their most talented employees. Perhaps the best way to do so, and to keep the incentive of increasing performance whenever possible, would be to keep the base salary where it is and offer performance based bonuses and also, stock options plans. There could be a 2 tier performance based bonus scheme, with both a short term component to it, and a longer term one that would only be awarded if the employee stayed in the company for a certain number of years and kept his/her performance level, to ensure that the motivation was always high and that the proper incentive mechanisms were in place. Regarding the stock options, this would also ensure the long term loyalty to the company and the incentive to adopt both a short and long term approach on a daily basis. These suggestions bring up the need to have measure of performance, as objective as possible. Working hours are not the best measure of productivity as anyone can stay longer and that could promote inefficiency, poor time management and a decrease in output. Criteria such as on time delivery of projects, inexistence of errors, reliability and integration of systems, after sales service and overall customer satisfaction (measured by both formal and informal feedback on all levels of interaction) could provide better ways to reward performance. Also, employees with out-of-the-box thinking, extraordinary contribution to projects, engineers that developed innovative systems and ways to overcome issues and provide a better and more efficient services to the customer, could be rewarded, both financially and non-financially. To boost motivation, and in lign with the previous recommendation, top performers could be given a certain amount of time on a daily or weekly basis to develop side projects for the company on their initiative, in order to feel more stimulated and rea lly adding value to the company and the clients. Also, besides the health, housing and vehicle benefits already in place, there could be an effort to transform the offices into more friendly working environments, in an attempt to adopt some of Googles employee motivation strategies, so that employees feel more motivation, loyalty and corporate citizenship that will ultimately lead to better output and satisfied clients. 3. FURTHER MANAGERIAL ISSUES Despite we hope and expect the recommendations given to have a positive impact in the Siemens International RD operations, there are some issues that may arise from these measures, though. If we think about the increase in autonomy granted to the Indian RDC, for instance, there is a dangerous threat in which the company may incur, is this measure to be taken. It is quite obvious that the more autonomous a person or an entity becomes from an upper body, the more tendency it has to deal with any different situation in its own way, either it is solving organizational problems, negotiating with suppliers or dealing with customers. Thus, due to the cultural differences that are felt between Indians and Germans, this is a situation very likely to happen. Consequently, and without wanting to state this is what would eventually happen for sure, this autonomy grant might result in a deviation from the companys way of operating from the Indians. The final outcome of such a deviation could be catastrophic for Siemens, since it could jeopardize a whole corporate culture and way of doing business, blurring the companys image to stakeholders eyes. Thus, as it was stated before, this process should be gradual and always under headquarters supervision. Finally, another issue that might arise from our recommendations is the loss of labor cost-advantage in India. Even though we are perfectly aware that, in one way or another, wage levels will necessarily increase in India in the next years especially in the technological field, due to the increasing demand for expertise in this area, as well as for the countrys overall economic development it is undeniable that this incentive program would increase Siemens expenditure in workforce and, consequently, mean the loss of the cost-advantage the company had by employing experts in the field at a lower price.

William Shakespeares Henry IV Essay -- Shakespeare Henry IV 4 Essays

William Shakespeare's Henry IV In Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part 2, the brilliant playwright introduces us to several complex and intricate themes, clever language, and a fascinating cast of multifaceted characters, including the thief Jack Falstaff, who may be as wise as his belly is big, and the young Prince Hal, who conceals his shrewd mind and physical prowess beneath a soiled reputation for â€Å"unthrifty† behavior. Perhaps the most dynamic character of the play is Hotspur, or Henry Percy, the idealistic rebel warrior, and Hal’s rival for power, glory, and the throne. Although the public perceives him to be just an intense, hotheaded he-man, Hotspur actually has many different dimensions to his personality. Hotspur shows, particularly in his interactions with his wife, Lady Percy, that his attitude toward the roles of masculinity and femininity differ from the public’s expectations of him, and his expression of certain feminine characteristics proves that he is not solely the manl y-man warrior he is thought to be. The first impressions of Hotspur in the play support his macho reputation well. King Henry himself speaks favorably of Percy, calling him â€Å"the theme of honor’s tongue† (I.i.81) and in comparing Hotspur with the King’s own son Hal he expresses his wish that â€Å"some night-tripping fairy had exchang’d / In cradle-clothes our children where they lay / And call’d mine Percy, his Plantagenet!† (I.i.86). We learn that Hotspur is valiant, and skillful in war: he has recently captured several important hostages. He is also full of pride, and is not afraid to stand up to the King in requesting the freedom of his brother-in-law, Mortimer. Conversely, we also see that Hotspur is apt to fall prey to his i... ...nvied by many, and as Lady Percy says in this play’s sequel, Henry IV Part 2, after his death, â€Å"He was indeed the glass / Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves† (Part 2, I.iii.21-22). However, it is clear now that Hotspur is not exactly the ultimate 15th century manly-man: he is prone to â€Å"woman’s moods† such as irrational and hurried thoughts, he engages in hissy fits, and his relationship with his wife is one of balanced teasing and tenderness rather than superficiality and traditional male/female inequality. Albeit being a talented soldier and a challenging opponent, Hotspur is capable of exposing his feminine qualities in situations such as those with his wife. Hotspur is one of the most complex characters in this play, and the fact that he can balance his masculine image with typically feminine traits proves that he truly is the most dynamic character. William Shakespeare's Henry IV Essay -- Shakespeare Henry IV 4 Essays William Shakespeare's Henry IV In Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part 2, the brilliant playwright introduces us to several complex and intricate themes, clever language, and a fascinating cast of multifaceted characters, including the thief Jack Falstaff, who may be as wise as his belly is big, and the young Prince Hal, who conceals his shrewd mind and physical prowess beneath a soiled reputation for â€Å"unthrifty† behavior. Perhaps the most dynamic character of the play is Hotspur, or Henry Percy, the idealistic rebel warrior, and Hal’s rival for power, glory, and the throne. Although the public perceives him to be just an intense, hotheaded he-man, Hotspur actually has many different dimensions to his personality. Hotspur shows, particularly in his interactions with his wife, Lady Percy, that his attitude toward the roles of masculinity and femininity differ from the public’s expectations of him, and his expression of certain feminine characteristics proves that he is not solely the manl y-man warrior he is thought to be. The first impressions of Hotspur in the play support his macho reputation well. King Henry himself speaks favorably of Percy, calling him â€Å"the theme of honor’s tongue† (I.i.81) and in comparing Hotspur with the King’s own son Hal he expresses his wish that â€Å"some night-tripping fairy had exchang’d / In cradle-clothes our children where they lay / And call’d mine Percy, his Plantagenet!† (I.i.86). We learn that Hotspur is valiant, and skillful in war: he has recently captured several important hostages. He is also full of pride, and is not afraid to stand up to the King in requesting the freedom of his brother-in-law, Mortimer. Conversely, we also see that Hotspur is apt to fall prey to his i... ...nvied by many, and as Lady Percy says in this play’s sequel, Henry IV Part 2, after his death, â€Å"He was indeed the glass / Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves† (Part 2, I.iii.21-22). However, it is clear now that Hotspur is not exactly the ultimate 15th century manly-man: he is prone to â€Å"woman’s moods† such as irrational and hurried thoughts, he engages in hissy fits, and his relationship with his wife is one of balanced teasing and tenderness rather than superficiality and traditional male/female inequality. Albeit being a talented soldier and a challenging opponent, Hotspur is capable of exposing his feminine qualities in situations such as those with his wife. Hotspur is one of the most complex characters in this play, and the fact that he can balance his masculine image with typically feminine traits proves that he truly is the most dynamic character.

My Antonia Essay: Role of Women -- My Antonia Essays

Role of   Women in My Antonia   The role of the women in My Antonia as the showcased laborers and workers in the new community does not, certainly, alleviate the questions of patriarchal influence offered in the discussions of gender. Certainly, the fact that à ntonia is deprived of the education she longs for and yet cannot have, because it is she who is responsible for her family's success--"'School is all right for little boys. I help make this land one good farm'" (94)--cannot be seen as entirely good, if we agree that "the value of education is among the greatest of all human values" (Woolf 45); and in spite of her protests to the contrary, the bitter recognition of exclusion brings à ntonia to tears. However, recognizing the women's relationship to the development of national culture does suggest some alternative readings to the conclusions often reached, even as à ntonia's sacrifice of her own education does not exclude the contribution she makes to American culture, as we shall see.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Recognition of nation-construction effects our reading of the play of gender in the text. One such instance is in the case of narrative authority, which has frequently been cited as Jim's patriarchal subsuming of à ntonia, as we have seen. While Jim appends the "my" to his transcription of à ntonia's history, however, it is worth reiterating that à ntonia is never, in fact, Jim's; rather, his possessive "My" reflects a failed attempt at possession, as his amorous advances were firmly rebuffed and as the adult à ntonia never seeks his assistance or support. At the same time, that the tale is proffered via an anonymous female narrator further undermines Jim's narrative authority, for his masculine presumption to speak for à ntonia undergoes... ...hts the unconstructedness of the American frontier and the central role of women in forging a community, and by extension in negotiating a fledgling national consciousness. Through the subversion of Jim Burden's narrative authority and a disrespect for gender delineations, Cather emphasizes the constructedness of patriarchal norms, highlighting their irrelevance to successful cultural consciousness. Finally, through à ntonia's final assumption of a nurturing role, she assumes not a passive feminine identification or a sudden retreat into traditional female roles. Rather, à ntonia becomes emblematic of the women who forged the frontier community in their own image, infusing it with their own ethnicities and resisting the hegemonizing impulse of the tangle of norms we now know as the American nation. Works Cited: Cather, Willa. My Antonia. Boston: Houghton, 1977.

Colonialism and the Heart of Darkness Essay examples -- Essays Papers

Colonialism and the Heart of Darkness Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, is a work that strongly attacks colonialism and its affects not only upon the native population but also upon the colonizers invading the land. Conrad experienced being colonized as a young boy in a Poland under Russian occupation. He also witnessed the affects of colonialism upon a colonizer while he commanded a river steamer in the Dutch Congo. He relays these experiences through the eyes of his character Marlow who is a riverboat captain as well. The attacks upon colonialism come in three classes: directly, ironically, and metaphorically. Conrad attacks colonialism directly throughout the book. Obvious and scathing statements are made telling of the horrors of colonialism. One example is Marlow and his description of the Roman colonization of ancient Britain: They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind†¦. The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much (Conrad 140). Through this statement Conrad attacks the vicious and selfish nature that colonialism infests upon colonizers. Another direct attack is Marlows description of the natives. They faced hardships and atrocities, many of whic...