Harley Davidson’s Just-in-Time Essay

This case is about the Just-in-Time (JIT) implementation at Harley-Davidson Motor Company. After World War II, they faced  with  competition from Japanese companies, which were able to produce better quality motorcycles at comparatively lower cost. Harley-Davidson found that there were three most important practices of Japanese companies, which differentiated their production process from that of others: JIT manufacturing, employee involvement, and statistical process control. Harley-Davidson adopted those three principles and formulated different strategies to make this move possible and to make its manufacturing processes as efficient as that of its Japanese counterparts. The company finally succeeded in achieving its goals of reducing the cost of production, improving quality, and increasing its market share. With the company again getting into hard times, this case presents how it was trying to focus on â€Å"continuous improvement† in a bid to bring itself back into profits. Question #1: Why has continuous improvement been so successful at Harley Davidson? Continuous improvement is ongoing effort to improve products, services or processes. These efforts can seek â€Å"incremental† improvement over time or â€Å"breakthrough† improvement all at once. Under continuous improvement, a task or series of tasks were identified as the problem area in the business process, manufacturing operations, and product development where improvement could be made. Harley-Davidson required the active participation and commitment of its employees to help in eliminating unnecessary steps and complexity for the process and to bring more flexibility into the system. Continuous improvement helped the company identify savings opportunities and put those mechanisms into places, also improved the quality standards and the reduced the waste in the forms of cost, time and defects. Therefore with a year, all Harley-Davidson’s manufacturing operations were being converted to JIT: components and sub-assemblies were â€Å"pulled† through the production system in response to final demand. Question #2: Considering the road ahead, what specific actions can Harley Davidson take that will move them toward their goals? Harley Davidson could keep doing â€Å"continuous improvement. Take a closer look at its operations in a bid to get its cost structure right and manage shipments consistent with the expected slowing of consumer spending. For continuous improvement, it’s begins with identify the current process and take a vote on which process would most benefit from improvement, then map out the existing process using a project board like A3 report. After fully understand the process, identify areas of opportunity surrounding the mapped process, to do this teams should analyze the current process and scrutinize areas that may be streamlined. Finally, the team will decide on a new process. In order to reduce excess capacity or costs and gain efficiencies, the company has consolidated some of its production facilities, and parts, accessories and general merchandise distribution operations to improve its overall process. The company also made it a high priority to manage supply in line with demand. In addition, the company started restructuring its production process to reduce complexity and create the flexibility to produce multiple product families on the same assembly line every day at the beginning of 2009.

Judaism and Passover

* This essay will describe Passover a Jewish Holy Days. This essay will discuss the time of the year of the holy day(s), the historic origin of the holy day(s), and the religious practices associated with the day(s). This essay will also identify the theological or cultural differences that may lead to differences in the observance of the holy day by the various branches of Judaism. * Passover is a Jewish holidays, best known maybe because Christian history, the Last Supper was said to be a Passover meal. The last and greatest of the plagues is the death of the first-born sons of the Egyptians.The Israelite’s son weren’t killed because they have followed Yahweh’s warning and have marked the doors of their homes with the blood of a substitute – a sacrificial lamb (Exod. 12:13). Because God has â€Å"passed over† Egypt, the event is thereafter called the Passover or Pesach, and its yearly memorial has become one of the major Jewish festivals. Passover begins on the 15th day of Nissan (Nissan is 30 days between March-April). Passover is the first of the three major holidays (Passover, Shavu’ot and Sukkot) with both historical and agricultural significance.Historically Passover observes the Exodus from Egypt after many years as slave to the Egyptians, as told in Exodus. Agricultural receives little attention, it is the beginning of the harvest season in Israel. The weeklong holiday of Passover starts on the first lunar month and may have originally begun as a renewal springtime nature day. It recalls the Hebrew’s escape from Egypt slavery. Placing lamb blood from the Passover meal, as told in Book of Exodus, over the doors of the Hebrews, keeps the angel of death from killing their first born sons and the power of God â€Å"passed over† Egypt.The Passover Meal is a memorial meal, the Seder or order, at which Jews eat several symbolic foods (bread, a meal, salad of nuts and fruits). The bread, a thin flat bread called matzah, does not have yeast. Matzah shows how there was no time for bread to rise in the Hebrews’ rush to leave Egypt. This is also refer to as chametz (leaven; sounds like â€Å"hum it's† with that Scottish â€Å"ch†), it symbolizes a way of removing the â€Å"puffiness, arrogance, pride† from their souls. Chametz includes anything made from the five major grains (wheat, rye, barley, oats, and spelt) that have not been completely cooked within 18 minutes after coming into contact with water† (Judaism 101). A shank bone of lamb or other animal is in the meal, symbolizing the sacrificial lamb. A salad of nuts and fruits, or haroseth, symbolizes the mortar used by the Hebrews in their forced labor. To remember the suffering of the Hebrews during their oppression, diners dip parsley in saltwater and eat bitter herbs. During the meal the story of Moses, and the Israelites is retold.A place and cup of wine is set up at the table for the prophet E lijah, â€Å"actions representing the hope that he will return to earth to announce the coming of the Messiah. A delicious meal follows the ritual part of the supper. Today many Jews invite non-Jews to share in their Seder and celebration of Jewish customs† (Molloy (2010)). The text of the Passover seder is written in a book called the Haggadah. â€Å"Orthodox Jews of Ashkenazic background also avoid rice, corn, peanuts, and legumes (beans) as if they were chametz.All of these items are commonly used to make bread, thus use of them was prohibited to avoid any confusion. Such additional items are referred to as kitniyot† (Judaism 101). * In conclusion this essay described Passover. The essay discussed the time of the year of the holy day(s), the historic origin of the holy day(s), and the religious practices associated with the day(s). This essay also identified the theological or cultural differences that may lead to differences in the observance of the holy day by the various branches of Judaism.

Comparison of Two Religions Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Comparison of Two Religions - Research Paper Example Buddhism originated in northeast Asia under the influence of an ancient Buddha known as Gautama Siddhartha who lived in the 5th century B.C. Siddhartha came up with Buddha teachings that enabled an individual to attain high levels of enlightenment. At this level, the individual completely detaches from the body through the process of meditations thereby alleviating worldly sufferings. Buddhism has undergone metamorphosis leading to divisions in the ancient traditions of Buddhism. The divisions include Vajrayana that represents the diamond vehicle, Theravada that symbolizes the doctrines from the elders and Mahayana that represents the great vehicle (Wilke, 2011). Hinduism entails numerous religious practices but the most prevalent practices include Hatha yoga, Ayurveda, and the Kundalini yoga. Hatha yoga is the process of meditating in order to attain self-awareness (Cush & York, 2008). Hatha yoga provides the oldest form of Hinduism that enabled individuals to achieve their objectives in life through the process of profound concentration. Ayurveda constitute the ancient traditions of Hindu whereby individuals received treatment and healing. In the contemporary societies, many individual have incorporated the practice into their religious practices especially in the West. Kundalini yoga enables an individual to unlock the psychic energy that exists at the root of the spine allowing it to diffuse to the upper parts of the spine, hence a heightened level of relaxation (Cush & York, 2008). Having undergone radical changes in its traditions, Buddhism retains specific ancient religious practices that incudes meditations, Mudras, and prayer wheels. Meditation is common in various sub sects of the religion. To achieve ultimate goals through meditations an individual engages in rigorous concentration. This helps the individual to attain detachment thereby developing ones reality.

Promotion & Information Systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Promotion & Information Systems - Essay Example The use of social networks and location based services have opened a door on the privacy of individuals that can be exploited by advertisers, but also by those who have ideas that can use that information for criminal purposes. Location based services are designed to provide information based on tracking the location of the user through the use of the cell phone. Several services can be provided through location based services, including turn-by-turn navigation or finding someone or something. GPS navigation allows the user to have a moment by moment update of how to achieve finding a location. Using location based services to find a specific need, such as asking the application to find the nearest business that provides a certain product or service, allows for quicker mobility and access to businesses. The technology is engaged as the user’s location is stored through a location provider object which is then configured to the specification of the builder of the application in order to react in a way that creates a benefit for the application that is being created (Fitzek & Charaf, 2009, p. 199). The use of the website Twitter has been designed to provide a short description of what is being done by the user so that followers can know what they are doing at any given moment. Foursquare, however, has developed the use of business and services and the reporting of that use so that networks of friends are updated regularly into a game that rewards users with badges and sometimes free goods and services from businesses based on the reported use of those businesses through the website combined with the application on the smart phone. According to Levinson & Gibson, (2010) using the gathered information about a competitor and its patrons can provide a business with the ability to contact those patrons and provide a special Twitter coupon in order to divert users of one business to your own competing business.

Designing Petrol Tanker Using Thin Shell Theory Assignment

Designing Petrol Tanker Using Thin Shell Theory - Assignment Example Using your answer to part a, determine a suitable material and its thickness for the cylinder using thin walled cylinder theory to calculate the hoop and longitudinal stresses. Regulators and fittings the pipe systems of the fluid tanker system are to be well-matched with the pipes to which they are linked with reference to their strength. According to the calculations, plastic is the most effective material for providing operation at the utmost working stress the architects of the tanker will experience in service (Nash, 1998, p. 80). Such material is exposed to a hydrostatic test in the company of an inspector at the pursuing value of weight: PH = 1,5P Where PH is equivalent to test pressure (bar) P = design pressure (bar) as definite in P1.2.7. For steel tubes and essential fixtures for temperatures exceeding 300 °C, the test pressure is to be calculated through the application of the subsequent formula. Nevertheless, it is not compulsory that it surpasses 2P: T 100 H K K P =1,5 P Where K100 is equivalent to acceptable pressure at 100 °C KT = tolerable pressure at the plan temperature (Nash, 1998, p. 80). The worth of the trial pressure might be decreased, with the support of the ordering society, to 1,5P so as to evade extreme pressure in a method of curvatures and T-pieces. The suitable material and thickness using the thin walled cylinder theory is determined through yield that occurs when utmost pressure variation, or cut pressure is experienced. This stress arrives at the worth matching the yield in simple tension (Hoefakker, 2001, p. 151). This theory has been discovered to be in excellent accordance with investigational findings for this particular case, and it’s yielding material. The hoop and longitudinal stresses will be determined by the pressure by the steady yield,, that the ductile material endures in tension, and there is no strain toughening. The longitudinal pressure in the pie systems is either zero or lies mathematically amid the hoop and radial pressure. From this situation, the stress will have to pursue the utmost stress variation, which is calculated by the hoop and radial stresses. If the tanker’s container with sealed ends has an external diameter D and a wall thickness t = 0.1D. The hoop and longitudinal stresses engaged in applying thin wall cylinder theory will make up for the determined worth of peripheral pressure and the supreme shear pressure in the container (Tangential stress  ± 9.75%: max. shear stress  ± 11.1%) (Hoefakker, 2001, p. 151). c. In addition to the stresses caused by the petrol, the vehicle utilizes the tank as a stressed member to provide torsional stiffness to the vehicle. As such the tank carries a torque of 63,000Nm. Using complex stress theory, calculate the maximum principle stress and the plane that this acts on. Confirm that your material and thickness choice for the tank is still suitable. The complex stress assumption reviews majority of the data from this ca se as Sines. Nevertheless, a slightly varied paradigm in the cylinder of the liquid tanker might experience similar pressure due to its parabolic form and outline (Nash,

Health promotion Report Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Health promotion Report - Research Paper Example From the study results, there was an increased knowledge on the risk illnesses associated with smoking, benefits associated and ways of quitting smoking thus the intervention proved to be effective. A health promotion intervention is a process that enables individuals to increase control over and improve their health care condition. It is an initiated strategy that has an aim of influencing, informing and assisting both organizations and people to accept responsibility and be more active in health matters that influence their physical and mental health issues (Mills et al. 2007, 47). It entails education, political and economic related programs that are designed to support behavioral changes as well as environmental changes in an effort of enhancing the individual’s health status. It is important for individuals to take responsibility for their health, and a health-promoting program enhances this by challenging people to change their individual lifestyles in an effort of mitigating the effects of change. It is also crucial for individuals to preserve their minds and hearts as physical health is as important as mental health to enhance the growth of a healthy population t hat is better enhanced through education and sensitization. A health promotion intervention is thus important to help in health promotion (Saunders et al. 2005, 139). An intervention program is an action set that has a coherent objective of bringing change, or it is aimed at producing identifiable outcomes. This entails policies, single strategy projects and programs. Health promotion interventions are aimed at protecting, promoting as well as preventing unhealthy living in communities and societies (Warren, et, al 2011, 2). They differ from the clinical interventions that are aimed at treating illness on the ill-affected individuals. However, before conducting a health promotion program, it is essential to get the reason as to why individuals make decisions that they do in regards to

Truth Is Far from Stereotypes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 21

Truth Is Far from Stereotypes - Essay Example Based on some personal or sometimes even generally accepted opinions, we may often get mistaken making the first opinion about another person. This, hence, causes prejudice and that is unfair towards the people living nearby, for any kind of prejudice is an unsupported by facts subjective belief. A similar situation has happened to me. It was several years ago when I first visited Puerto Rico. Preparing for the trip I was somewhat unsure of what to expect. I thought a completely new and, consequently, a strange and hostile environment was waiting for me. This impression was enhanced by my idea that I would be a stranger, a foreigner among the natives. At that time I was seeing Puerto Rico as a completely different world, absolutely different from what I’m used to in the ordinary day-to-day life. I guess such expectations and thoughts were the results of my unawareness of the major cultural and national traits of the land’s population. I, actually, knew nearly nothing about them, and probably that is why I was so unsure of what to expect. On the other hand, I believe no matter how much information you can get from the media, your real-life impressions will be much different from everything you learned in theory. So, I got to my destination.  

3-5 minute speech outline (any topic) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

3-5 minute speech outline (any topic) - Essay Example This increases efficiency and saves on time in business transactions (USTR, 2010). In 2007, SMEs contributed $480 billion value of goods and services sold in the foreign market (USTR, 2010). This amounted to approximately 41% of the total exports that year (USTR, 2010). SMES account for nearly 40% of the export related jobs in the US (USTR, 2010). This further shows the importance of SMEs in trade and the economy. There are trade barriers that adversely affect performance of SMES. First, there are discriminatory policies with regards to SMEs. For instance, they may lack the financial resources and expertise to compete in international markets. Second, SMEs are faced by higher taxes as they contribute largely to the manufacturing industry (USTR, 2010). Third, they encounter challenges in standards and certification through licensing and inadequate property protection. In a nutshell, SMEs play a vital role in domestic and foreign trade. The government should therefore review the policies governing them to promote their growth and development for greater benefit of intensified

Grignard arylation Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Grignard arylation - Lab Report Example In this reaction, the C=O bond the ketones is attacked by the Grignard reagent to yield an alkoxide ion. The alkoxide ion formed is then protonated by H+ to form alcohol and MgBrOH (McMurry): A 50-mL round-bottomed flask containing 20 mmol of magnesium turnings and a stirbar was flame dried. A rubber stopper was affixed to the flask after it had cooled and then assembled with an addition funnel from the oven before it had cooled. Grease was applied to the glass-to-glass joints to prevent them from freezing as the parts cooled. The addition funnel was charged with a solution of phenyl bromide (20 mmol) in anhydrous ether (15 mL). 1 mL of the solution formed was then added into the flask and stirred until the reaction started. Once the reaction had begun, the rest of the phenyl bromide solution was dripped in over several minutes, at a rate that maintained a gentle reflux. Following the addition, the reaction was allowed to proceed for 20 minutes. During this period, heat was added to maintain the reflux. The Grignard reagent was allowed to cool. A solution of cyclopentanone (13 mmol) in anhydrous ether (10 mL) was added through the addition funnel while stirring. The reaction mixture was worked-up as follows: a sufficient amount of 3M HCl was added to acidify the reaction mixture. The aqueous layer that formed was extracted with CH2Cl2. While swirling, the combined organic layers were washed with 10 mL of 10% aqueous sodium bisulfite and 10 mL of brine. The organic layer was dried and the solvent obtained evaporated over a steambath. The residue obtained was stored in a shell-vial with a well-fitting cap. The workup was repeated by my partner; however, he used 20 mL of 10% aqueous NH4Cl in place of 3M HCl. In the second week of the laboratory session, the evaporation residue was transferred into a flask, after which it was vacuum distilled into a tarred flask. The product obtained was then characterized by

Young People and the Vote Essay Example for Free

Young People and the Vote Essay Since the end of the Watergate Era in the mid-1970s, voter participation among those ages 18-30 had been on the decline. (To Be Young and Voting, 2008) However, in the past fifteen years, a reversal of that trend appears to be occurring. Beginning in the Clinton Era, youth participation in the political process has been on the rise. (To Be Young and Voting, 2008) Several reasons have been put forth for the rise in youth participation in the voting process. Of the various reasons purported, the one that makes the most sense is an increased dissatisfaction about the status-quo among younger people. (To Be Young and Voting, 2008) That is, in more recent years, there is a perception among young people that the country is going in the wrong direction. Evidence indicates a dramatic increase in the interest level of people under the age of thirty in the presidential elections. (Shaw, 2008) Part of the reason behind this is simple. The candidates themselves have been younger. 1992 found the first baby-boomer candidate for a major party, who was only in his 50s at the time of his election. In 2008, Barak Obama is even younger, at 47. Both of these candidates have made concerted efforts to reach the younger demographic. Clinton in 1992 played the saxophone on MTV as part of a get-out-the-vote campaign. Obama has been making similar efforts by appearing on popular TV entertainment shows, such as Letterman, The Daily Show and others. His opponent, John McCain, also appears quite often on these shows, which indicates that both parties recognize the potential voting strength of the younger demographic. Both campaigns have attempted to use the Internet to attract younger voters. (Nagourney Thee, 2008 The first significant organization effort in history on the internet was initiated by the Obama campaign. (Nagourney Thee, 2008Both candidates make use of websites, e-mail, and viral posting more now than in any time in history. It has been suggested that the candidates’ use of sharing sites such as You-Tube, and social networking sites such as Face Book and My Space have proven to be instrumental in garnering interest among younger voters. In addition to events and activities aimed at younger voters, the major candidates have embraced themes that resonate with the younger demographic. .(The Youth Vote, 2008) Both major candidates have embraced â€Å"Change† as a central theme. This coincides with a consistent trend among young voters, who tend to support a difference in the status-quo. .(The Youth Vote, 2008) As with most Americans, younger voters have expressed dissatisfaction with the direction of the country, with nearly half of respondents to a recent poll indicating that the nation was a better place to live in the 1990s than it is now. The popularity of both the sitting President, and the current Congress are at historical lows. .(The Youth Vote, 2008) Troubles with the economy, gas prices, and dissatisfaction with the war in Iraq have fed the notion of the need for change. (Shaw, 2008) The â€Å"change† theme seems to coincide with some of the more divisive issues in both traditional and modern partisan politics. .(The Youth Vote, 2008) According to polls, younger people are trending to the Democratic Party, indicating that the Democrats are doing a superior job convincing young people that they are the party of change. (Nagourney Thee, 2008)An increasing number of young people are socially liberal, with liberal viewpoints on gay marriage, immigration and government programs. (Dionne, 2008) Combined with the perception that the current administration has been doing a poor job on fundamentals such as the economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, younger people are beginning to flock to the Democratic Party in large numbers. (Dionne, 2008) The character of the various candidates in this election has also sparked interest among younger voters. At various times since the primary season, the major parties have offered: The first viable African American, a female who is the spouse of a former president, a Mormon, and a Former POW. All of these are firsts in major elections in the United States. The â€Å"Final Four† has generated quite a bit of youth interest, as well. Sen. McCain’s choice of running mate, Alaskan governor Sarah Palin, was the focus very recently of much attention owing to her youth, style of speaking, and the ability of a very popular actress, Tina Fey, to do a spot-on impression of her. A popular former cast-member of Saturday Night Live, Fey has injected a large political element into a variety show that has long appealed to younger viewers. There has been a marked contrast between the two presidential candidates with respect to age. John McCain, at 72 years of age, is the oldest candidate ever to run for president on a major party ticket, while Barak Obama is among the youngest at 47. The Democrats have made a considerable effort to portray Sen. McCain as out of touch, noting, among other things, his admitted inability to use the internet. (Nagourney Thee, 2008 Overall, youth participation in the political process in this election cycle has increased for numerous reasons. The primary underlying reason for this increase is a pervasive dissatisfaction with the direction of the country politically, socially, and economically. This, combined with a concentrated effort by both parties to mobilize younger voters, use of internet, and the age contrast of the candidates have combined to produce what may be the largest turnout of voters 18-30 since the voting age was lowered in 1972. References Dionne, E. J. (2008) â€Å"The Year the Youth Vote Arrives†. The Washington Post. July 25th, 2008. Nagourney, A. Thee, M (2007) â€Å"Young Americans are leaning Left, New Poll Finds†. The New York Times. June 27th, 2007. Shaw, M. (2008) â€Å"Talking Politics. † The Wilson Daily Times. Feb 9th, 2008 â€Å"The Youth Vote† (2008) The Washington Times. June 4th, 2008. â€Å"To Be Young and Voting† (2008) The Christian Science Monitor. May 5th, 2008.

Effect of the Selfie on Society and the Individual

Effect of the Selfie on Society and the Individual â€Å"Selfie†: A Study on How It Changes Everything INTRODUCTION Selfie has been all over the newsfeeds and home pages in social networking websites. In fact, it has been a part of other people’s daily routine. For them, to take a selfie is completely necessary. Every second there is a selfie that is updated with a unique caption and tons of hash tags that are not really related to the whole picture. The question is why are people so hooked with taking selfies? Right now, there are more than 80 million photos in Instagram that falls under #selfie. According to Lev Manovich, a computer science professor at the Graduate Center, 61.6% of selfies came from women while 36.7% came from men (Stinson, 2014). Selfie has become a big hit and a world phenomenon. Not surprisingly, it has been added to the Oxford Dictionaries and it was even their word of the year. Social Media has been responsible for making selfie popular especially among teenagers. Since famous celebrities and other TV personalities have social media accounts, other teenagers tend to see how they strike a pose and get million likes. Teenagers would probably be interested in taking selfies too because they’re idols are doing it. But for some, it is their way of expressing their self and to test how they really look. Unfortunately, some use it to seek attention and to show off what they have and what they’re doing. Selfie is sometimes meant to attract other users to follow you or add you as a friend. There are many things to unravel behind every selfie that people took. It is imperative to know these things since everyone is all affected by it. Physically and psychologically, there is a need for people to know the effects and the reasons why everybody are all into taking â€Å"Selfie†. Duck face, peace sign, wacky poses, mirror and candid shots, all of these are associated with the word â€Å"Selfie†. As it goes viral, People’s social lives and the way they perceive things are now different unlike before. They tend to draw too much attention on what people will say than what they think of their selves. Having a selfie is important. From what you see in a single photo taken from your camera will actually determine your views about yourself and how you will construct your social being. The problem is that everybody takes this thing seriously. People spend most of our time taking photos of their selves, thinking for the right pose, filters to be used and caption to be put. Sometimes, they do this not for them but for the people who are going to l0ook in the photo. It might be simple but not everyone can see the effects of it in people’s lives. The Psychological effects of selfie have been very serious especially for the teenagers. Now, they don’t just base their looks on what is reflected on the mirror but also what is captured in the camera. Their self-esteem is just developed when they see likes and positive feedbacks from their online friends and followers. Values and social ethics are completely affected. In some case, people go beyond their limit and do things that are improper to get the attention of other users. There are some selfies that unpleasant, malicious and irrelevant and it has a great impact on people who would probably see it. What the researcher wants to stress in this paper is the positive and negative impacts of selfie in our society, economy and to everyone’s life. It will reveal the invisible ideas and realizations about selfie. The development of technology and how it strengthened the popularity of selfie will also be discussed. This may also help on finding the real answer why people result to selfie addiction that can still be prevented with a very helpful solution. In our present time, when everything is modern and innovated, how a person takes a selfie really matters. Everyone is very eager to cultivate their time and effort to maintain their online image to the public. As people change their attitude towards selfie, more problems arise not only in their personal lives but also in the whole society. In this paper, there are three major objectives, and these are: To identify the positive and negative impacts of selfie to society, economy and to personal lives. To determine how the advancement of modern technology contributed to the popularity of selfie. To distinguish the advantage and disadvantages of selfie in viewing yourself and other people’s opinion. BODY The Good, Bad, and the Unforeseen Consequences of Selfie Obsession Activate your front camera in your smart phone, choose for the best angle that will make your cheekbones more defined, eyes look bigger and skin whiter, and then click. That’s how easy you can take a selfie. Now, there are 80 million photos on Instagram that has been hash tagged as selfie. 91% of it came from the teenagers. Not surprisingly, celebrities like Miley Cyrus, Rihanna and Demi Lovato are total selfie addicts. You are not alone. According to Pamela Rutledge, Ph.D.,faculty director of the media psychology program at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, the reason why selfie is popular is that it celebrates normal and average people. There are many more photographs available now of real people than models(Rutledge, 2013). Posting selfies is an empowering act for another reason. Basically, it allows you to control your image online. Let us all be real, the most common selfie is the one where you look cute, partially because its a quick way to get positive comments about your appearance. That could be one explanation for total selfie overload, when you upload 10 selfies at a time. According to Dr. Weber, theres more to it than that. She says: In my experience, girls who repeatedly post selfies struggle with low self-esteem† (Weber, 2013). Overall, opinions vary on whether selfie culture is lame or legitimate, which means its up to you to shape the future of the habit. Better ask yourself: Are my selfies for fun, or do I need the comments? If you fall under category two, Dr. Rutledge recommends shifting your perspective. That could mean cutting selfies out entirely or just scaling back and making them more fun. Everything you share on social media reveals something about you, and you are in control. Its Not You, Its Me: The Science behind the Selfie Why is selfie so popular? The advancement of social media has led to the rise of selfies. Of course, the development and innovation of modern technology has a great impact in building the popularity of selfie. However, the ease of use is not the only reason millions of people are very much into selfie and why they give so much of their time updating random post of their face. According to some theorists, selfies are popular because they allow us to actively control the image we project. They are a way to communicate that both the selfie-taker and his or her life is awesome, sexy, thoughtful, interesting, social and many more. We take selfies when we are feeling glamorous and well-dressed, or when we want to show off what we’re doing. Sometimes, a selfie is meant to attract the attention of a certain someone whom the selfie-taker knows to be following them on social media accounts. WHY IT MATTERS In today’s modern world, it is indeed natural to eagerly want some control over our online performance. But are prolific selfie creatures going beyond their limitations? In this paper, the researcher intends to use several communication theories that will support information from the whole study. These theories will vividly define some concepts related to the study. . Symbolic Interactionism has a strong relation with Selfie. With Symbolic interactionism, reality is seen as social, developed interaction with others. Like Symbolic interactionism, people’s social life is the center of Selfie. You take selfie to interact with other users and to know more about their personal lives. Both the theory and selfie believed thatphysical reality does indeed exist by an individuals social definitions, and that social definitions do develop in part or relation to something â€Å"real.† If you take a Selfie and it has a great outcome, you will easily believe that is the â€Å"real† you even if you have completely enhanced the photo with filters and stuff. Thus, what you believe is real will be strengthened due to positive comments and feedbacks of social media users. Once you have seen that there are more than 100 likes in your selfie, you will adopt the idea you have got in social interaction with people and eventually relate it in your real life. In connection with Symbolic interactionism, the concept of the Looking-glass self by Charles Horton Colley is also related to selfie. The term refers to people determining their self-concepts based on their knowledge of how others perceive them. Looking back at the impact of selfie in gaining self-esteem and confidence, people who are into selfie will pretty much value what other people will say about them than what they think of themselves. Comments pertaining on how good you look in your selfie truly matters. In the contrary, once you have received negative feedbacks, you will start to hesitate on posting another one and cultivate so much of your time to take a selfie that will definitely please the people who will see it. Turning to the negative side of it, when people receive either good or bad comments, the term â€Å"selfie-syndrome† comes out. A person becomes narcissistic and starts to update photos every single minute to give themselves assurance and satisfaction. Seeing popular celebrities post selfies in social networiking websites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram has a great impact on other user’s way of thinking. Like Magic Bullet Theory, Selfie is like a bullet fired into the user’s head. Recently, everyone saw the viral Oscar selfie of Ellen DeGeneres with the top actors and actresses of Hollywood including Angelina Jolie, Bradley Cooper, Brad Pitt, Meryl Streep and others. Because of that, other social media users started to imitate and use the photo for memes. The said photo garnered 2 million retweets and beat the photo of President Obama and first lady, Michelle Obama Honestly, when a photo gets really popular and hits the trending spot, people will overreact and they will also have their selfies taken like the photo they have seen. Especially for Filipinos, they always want to have their own version for them to be recognized on the internet too. See, the impact of a single photo will make everyone crazy. Since the social media also supply us information, people tend to believe on messages when everyone is talking about it in the social media. Without knowing the real story behind it, the message keeps on going to another person until it reaches the whole social media community. That also happened before selfie gets viral. The Magic Bullet Theory has an important relevance to this study because this explains how selfie become popular and a world-wide hit. Because of their relation, people will easily understand the impact of a single selfie post. Because Western countries are ahead in innovating and developing their technology, there is a huge difference on the way they look and react to things. Their civilization is completely different that they are the ones who influence and open other countries to new and modern technology. Thus, this results to oppression of the workers due to mass production from different countries, without the end-users having the idea that this kind of thing is already happening. The rise of smartphones has something to do with both the theory and the study. It has significance for both of them that generalize the impacts of this it to the users. As you can see, smartphones has everything you need and one of the most used smartphone feature is the front camera. For buyers, it is one of the reasons why you buy a smartphone especially if its front camera is 2 megapixel and higher. In that case, users become more interested of it and they will take photos of themselves and develop techniques that will make their social appearance pleasing and attractive. Furthermore, applications like Facebook and Instagram are technology’s gift for social media enthusiasts. Unfortunately, not everyone is aware that Facebook bought Instagram for 1 billion dollars and that only means that it is for â€Å"big business and â€Å"money† only. As the features continually change and improved, more and more users are very fond of taking selfies knowing that they will easily garner likes and comments from other users. The more people use social networking sites, more and more money are going to the capitalist and we end up getting controlled by them. Not only Facebook and Instagram has great influence on selfie-takers but also Photography Applications like Camera 360, VSCO Cam and the like. These applications are so popular because it let users to control and enhance their image. There are over 100 filters available that you can put in your selfie photo and it will transform into a model. But, there is more. You can also put your pictures in frames and collages to add several selfies at a single photo. Truly, the advancement in modern technology has affected our way of life. Technology will never be inevitable due to its purpose and use. But, is it really the use of technology that matters the most? Technology should help improve human being’s skills, values and way of living not by tolerating their laziness and controlling things in their life. However, it only depends on them whether to be controlled and manipulated by technology or technology to be controlled and manipulated by people. CONCLUSION The advancement of modern technology contributed a lot to the rise and popularity of selfie. Because of the innovation of smartphones, there are many key features that attracted the user’s interest. In selfie, the most commonly used smartphone feature is the front camera for it enables you to strike a pose freely because you see yourself in the screen. That’s why, people were able to achieve the angle and position they want. Another thing is you can edit your selfie with photography applications like Camera 360 and the like. Now, you can control and digitally enhance the photo on the way you want it to be. Also, do not forget that social networking websites like Instagram and Facebook contributed a lot on the â€Å"selfie phenomenon† because it is where you post your selfie and gain comments and likes from the other users. The problem with selfie is that users cultivate so much of their time, effort and even money to maintain their pleasing and attractive online image. It has a big impact on both the society and the economy. The economy might rise due to this but the society will have a radical change. On viewing one’s self, selfie can make a huge change. You may possibly develop your self-esteem and confidence through likes and positive comments. The problem is, what you think of yourself does not matter and you start doing things that other people will like. It might lead to selfie addiction and narcissism. One should be able to be satisfied on what he/she looks inside and out. You should not base your whole personality on your social media image. Determine the real you in the real world not in your Facebook profile. Selfies are a way to document things about yourself, in that case you should be able to depict what is real about you. Selfie enables you to express yourself and to update other people on what is happening in your life. It is not about how people recognize you and how you impress them, it is more on telling what you really feel in just a single photo. Don’t let this thing control you, instead, use it to develop yourself and your personality. References Feenberg, A. (1991). Critical theory of technology . California: Oxford University Press. Flusser, V. (2000).Towards a philosophy of photography. Minnesota: Reaktion Books. Lowery, S. DeFleur, M. (1995). Milestones in mass communication research: Media effects. (3rd edition). White Plains, NY: Longman. Rogers, M. (2013, December 6). Its not you, its me: The science behind the selfie. Retrieved from http://greatist.com/happiness/the-psychology-behind-selfies Rutledge, P. (2013). The influence of media. Los Angeles : ProQuest, UMI Dissertation Publishing. Slavin , L. (2014, December 4). The evolution of selfie culture: Self-expression, narcissism, or objectification?. Retrieved from http://feminspire.com/the-evolution-of-selfie-culture-self-expression-narcissism-or-objectification/ Weber , J. (2013). Psychology today. New York: Rowman Littlefield Publishers. Zanders, J. (2013, November 27). Towards a philosophy of the selfie. Retrieved from http://philoselfie.tumblr.com/

What is Art? Essay -- Essays Papers

What is Art1 Art can mean many different things to many different people and was one of the earliest ways in which man has expressed him or herself to others, whether it was through cave drawings or hieroglyphics. It does not begin or end with just drawing or painting, items typically considered art, or the many other recognized facets of art including architecture, drama, literature, sculpting, and music. The writing of Beowulf, one of the earliest known written prose, or the Greek plays which have influenced drama since their inception, are considered some of the greatest forms of art in history. Art can allow us pleasure just simply through the process of creating. Art can allow us to express ourselves to give us better insight into our own feelings. Art can, in contrast, allow us to stir emotions from within the viewer, occasionally leaving the viewer with an awakened or refreshed outlook. Some may only consider a work as art if it requires a particular skill from the artist, however, ar t can actually be viewed as simply another form of communication. No matter what form this expression takes, whether dance, poetry or the painted canvas, people have reasons for pursuing the need to create. Dance, as a form of art, allows the person or persons to express themselves through the movements of their bodies, whether the dancing takes place on a stage, in a theater, or on the floor of a dance club. This non-verbal art form can allow a dancer to express stories and s...

What Happened to Ward and June Cleaver Essay -- essays research papers

What Happened to Ward and June Cleaver? Single parent homes, broken families, and divorce are rampant in today’s society. Marriage is no longer the revered union that it once was. Divorce is clearly on the rise since the days of yesteryear that depicted happy families in the favorable image of Ward and June Cleaver. Unlike the June Cleaver’s of days gone by, the women of today now busily juggle careers, family and household responsibilities, and play the role of â€Å"soccer mom† among many other things. Now that June is swept away with her many responsibilities, together with her earning capacity, reduces her need to rely on Ward ultimately making it easier, and more likely, that their children, Wally and Beaver will become the unfortunate products of a broken home and divorce. Rather than dealing with so many divorces and trying to battle the issue of broken homes from the back end where the damage is irreparable, why not attempt preventative measures instead? According to the Council on Families In America, â€Å"for the average American, the probability that a marriage taking place today will end in divorce or permanent separation is calculated to be a staggering 60% and more than half of divorcing couples have children under the age of 18. The odds that a child today will witness the divorce of their parents, is twice as great as a generation ago, with as many as half of all children likely to experience a parental divorce before they leave home.† Many states, now concerned with the rise in numbers of broken homes and divorce rates, have decided to take measures to reduce this epidemic by implementing mandatory waiting periods when obtaining a marriage license, and mandating programs and educational seminars similar to post-divorce programs now enforced by almost every court systems across the nation. The controversy, however, lies in the argument from critics that restricting couples from marriage or imposing fines or penalties is unjust. Jennifer Daw, a therapist with the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy quoted an article from USA Today wherein opponents argued that, â€Å"divorce regulations or restrictions would create messier divorces, not prevent them and tougher restrictions on divorce could endanger women in abusive marriages.† People were once required to negotiate in divorce. The â€Å"No Fault Divorce† has changed that and takes the ground... ..., healthier, everlasting relationships fostered by good-old fashioned communication? Works Cited Council on Families in America. "Divorce Harms Society." Marriage and Divorce. Eds. Tamara L. Roleff and Mary E. Williams. Current Controversies Series. Greenhaven Press, 1997. Excerpted from â€Å"Marriage in America: A Report to the Nation by the Council on Families in America,† March 1995. Rpt. by permission of the Institute for Family Values. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Thompson Gale. 15 June 2005 . Daw, Jennifer. â€Å"Saving Marriages: How to do it?† American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. 16 June 2005. 16 June 2005 . McManus, Mike. â€Å"Modesto’s Valentine: Divorce Rate Plunges 47.6%† Marriage Savers. 2001. 8 July 2005 . Plunkett, Robert L. â€Å"Divorce Laws Should Be Reformed.† Marriage and Divorce. Eds. Tamara L. Roleff and Mary E. Williams. Current Controversies Series. Greenhaven Press, 1997. From Robert L. Plunkett, "Vow for Now," National Review, May 29, 1995; (c) 1995 by National Review, New York, NY. Rpt. by permission. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Thompson Gale. 15 June 2005 .

Reversals :: essays papers

Reversals "Youth is wasted on the young." And "if I only knew then what I know now!" In my teen years I couldn't be bothered with trying to understand those cryptic phrases; didn't I already know everything I needed to know? I never dreamed that the decisions I made in my relatively youthful years would have such an impact on my future. I always felt that I would never look back upon my life and say "I wish I had taken more time in considering my choices." But I have found myself doing just that. If I were able to rewrite history, I would pick a different career when I reenlisted in the Army, I would seek out opportunities to enhance my future job options, and finally, I would have done better while in high school. To begin with, it's understandable that I wouldn't know what I was getting into when I first enlisted into the Army. But when the time came for me to reenlist, I knew to research my options better than what I really did. Instead of choosing a new career in the Medic Corps like I knew I should, I elected to keep the same job. Given a second chance, I would choose to be an X-ray Specialist. After I graduated my class, I would take the Florida State certification exam so I could become licensed to work in Florida; by the time I completed my second enlistment, I would have developed very marketable job experience. Secondly, I would have gone to college more while I was in the service. As I've just begun the long walk toward my goal of a Bachelors Degree in Criminal Justice, I can't help but kick myself for not starting sooner. The military pays for seventy-five percent of a college course; after paying my tuition last term, I realized just what a great deal that really was. I also would have taken all the medical correspondence courses that the Army offers. While the courses aren't of much practical use, the points earned for the completion of each course helps greatly when trying to get promoted to Sargent. Instead of just coasting, waiting for opportunity to come knocking, I would go out and tackle that elusive rascal by the ankles. Finally, if I could do it again, I would do better in high school. As a teenager, I was tired of school; I felt I already knew everything I needed to know to carry with my life.

Technological Advances and their Effects on Media of Art

Some people find comfort in being involved in art. For them, their creations are the product of self-expressions that have no other better way of being expressed than through art. Some feel that they connect to the world or to their surroundings and arouse feelings through art. There may be some people whose passions center on art. For whatever reasons, art has become one of the areas where changes took place. Particularly, the media of art changed through the many technological advances that were introduced into the public. Art can be defined in many ways.There were traditional and contemporary definitions of art (Adajian). Generally, art refers to creative human endeavors. It also refers to any product of a creative impulse. Although it usually refers to visual arts, art also includes music, plastic arts, performing arts, and decorative arts. Moreover, art has many forms, including music, sculpture, painting, literature, performance art, drawing, and architecture. With the changing times and new technologies, art has included other forms such as conceptual art, computer art, photography, comics, video art, and film (WordIQ).All of these forms of art evolved as the world slowly became modernized. Recent technological advances have also placed great burden on some of the traditional media of art such as pencil and canvas. Many people think that along with hi-tech devices such as computer and camera, the use of pencil, coloring materials, ink or paint would become obsolete. Other technological advances that affected the media of art will be discussed as follows. The Quantel Paintbox The Quantel paintbox, which was launched in 1981, is a computer system which aids in manipulating video and in creating graphics.Through Quantel paintbox, the production of television graphics was further developed and improved. Quantel paintbox can now be run on workstations, unlike before when only hardware can run it. Moreover, professionals use Quantel paintbox up to this day for TV production. It was used extensively in creating artwork for the â€Å"Painting With Light,† which was a 1986 BBC series. Additionally, the Quantel was used in Arte, a European Network which created original TV designs. There were also new designs made for Quantel, namely: the Paintbox, Paintbox gQ, and QPaintbox (BroadcastEngineering).Computer Computer impacted the media of art in such a way that no traditional art media is needed to create art. For instance, with just the mouse, an artist can create cartoons and visual effects, unlike before when artists really must use pencil and paper. Artists before used materials for creating a film and sometimes these materials were unstable. For instance, images were placed in cels, or sheets of clear plastic. To avoid creating brushstrokes, colors must be manually painted from the back of the cel.Artists also used substances such as cellulose nitrate and cellulose acetate during the early 1900s. But today, artists are spared from using materials that decompose (Worth). Moreover, the ease of using computer and saving the works in it is an advantage that traditional medium cannot compete with. An artist can make use of visual or special effects with just a few clicks. A lyricist can write his songs in the computer. There is even software which allows the recording of songs. The invention of the computer has encouraged artists to use it for art purposes.Animation Software We see it on movies. From The Lion King to Bolt. There are even movies where humans and cartoon characters were incorporated as though the world of humans and that of the cartoons are one. Thanks to animation softwares that are of much help, everything can be possible today. The implementation of animation softwares among artists has also affected the media of art in major ways. With these softwares, it is much easier for artists to make animations. However, traditional media of art is still used.For instance, an artist creates a storyboard us ing pencil before the output can be fed into the computer for further changes or improvements. In another instance, character designs are created first by animators or artists. Then these designs would be produced on Model Sheets (or photographic stats) before distribution to the other artists (Worth). Camera Camera was first invented in 1841 by Joseph Nicephore Niepce. It has evolved from the machine that only takes images from the dark to the high-tech ones today (ShotAddict). With the invention of the camera, photography became the â€Å"in† thing.As time passed by, many more persons added features to the first camera. There was the invention of film, and now there are digital cameras which do not use films. It is also much easier to print out pictures taken by a digital camera. With the appearance of digicams, the traditional cameras slowly become obsolete, although there are still some artist which prefer using ones that they can manipulate Paints From the paints that we re used on canvas, now there are paints that can be used for clothing, foils, and specialty papers.With these paints, artists can turn any flat surface into printable surface. These paints have affected paint as a traditional medium of art because now paints are not only limited to paper or canvas (ArtMedia). With the fast paced world, art has been under a lot of changes, particularly in its media. Pencils, markers, paints and the other materials that were used before were now substituted with more hi-tech materials such as computer, camera, and animation softwares. However, despite the technological advances, art has always been there and man continually seek art.

Explore the significance of the past in the play “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” by Eugene O’Neill Essay

At the very start of Long Day’s Journey Into Night, O’Neill sets the scene for the theme of the past being integral to the play directly with the dedication to the love and tenderness of his wife – â€Å"†¦ which gave me the faith in love that enabled me to face my dead at last and write this play – write it with deep pity and understanding and forgiveness for all of the four haunted Tyrones.† This admittance that the play was written as a sort of autobiography, a partial re- telling of O’Neill’s personal history, means that it seems almost intrinsically connected to the past right from the beginning, the intimation from the author being that he wrote it as a form of catharsis in order to deal with the real events from his own life. Consequently the theme of the past is introduced before even the first Act has begun. The idea that he is ‘facing his dead’ is a particularly apt one as at the time of writing the play, the people upon whom its characters are based – O’Neill’s family – had all passed away some years before. His father, mother and elder brother Jamie are all portrayed in the same roles in the play as they had in real life, and with similar histories. The only alteration is that instead of the middle son being named Edmund, O’Neill changes the baby’s name to his own, and calls it Eugene, having the fictional Edmund take the place of himself within the family. The main way in which the characters seem constantly to trap themselves in the past is through their constant blaming of the present upon past events. There is nothing in the present to which they do not attribute any blame, and none of them in any way seem to blame themselves for what has happened to them, preferring instead to blame each other. Consequently none of their conversations can be held without somehow referring to the past, as it is the past upon which they have built their relationships with each other. The relationship between Tyrone and Jamie for example is one in which Jamie blames Tyrone for his miserliness with his money, which he believes is what led to his mother’s addiction to morphine, and her recent unhappiness which caused her to return to the drug. Tyrone blames his son for being an â€Å"evil-minded loafer†, and says thats’notes he is responsible both for making nothing of his own life, and also for leading Edmund astray. In fact, the blame for these character defects does not lie within Tyrone or Jamie as personalities, but rather with the circumstances which caused these traits. For Jamie, his alcoholism and cynicism are largely to do with his discovery of his mother’s drug addiction when he was younger – it is made clear that prior to this discovery, Jamie was talented and enthusiastic, excelling at school and clearly liked by many people. He himself admits that the event had a large bearing on his life in just the same way that he has resorted to alcohol in order to purge himself of the same sort of knowledge about Edmund – â€Å"Christ, I’d never dreamed before that any women but whores took dope! And then this stuff of you getting consumption. It’s got me licked†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . Jamie’s cynicism clearly did not exist before he discovered that his mother used morphine, or at least not to the same degree, the fact that he’d ‘never dreamed’ of the idea effective in suggesting how completely distant it was from his mind – and therefore how different his mind must have been from its present s tate of suspicion. The circumstance precipitating Tyrone’s miserliness were similarly ones which he himself did not contrive – when he was only ten years old, his father abandoned the family and Tyrone was forced to go and find work, living a large part of his life in poverty. It is this which has made him so conservative with his money, and reluctant to expend more than is absolutely necessary, preferring to invest it in property, which he believes is the best way to keep it safe. The power of money over him is made particularly clear when the audience are told that, despite his obvious love of acting, he chose financial success over furthering his career, thereby ruining his chances of achieving his ultimate goals. This culture of blame without moving on from it, or attempting to understand the source of it is one of the key factors in preventing the family from escaping from their past – rather every event in the present is related back to some previous action or accusation, without any hope of ever resolving it. This is encapsulated in Mary’s comment â€Å"It’s wrong to blame your brother. He can’t help being what the past has made him. Any more than your father can. Or you. Or I.† – the idea that the whole family has been moulded by past events and cannots’notes move on from them permeates every conversation, as they each hold the other somehow responsible for what has occurred – and because they believe that they themselves should not be blamed for what they did, none of them will accept their portion of the responsibility, nor learn from what has happened. Throughout the play we see the same basic errors happening time and time again – the nature of the tendency of each character to continually place blame for the present on something which another did in the past means that the occurrences of the past are constantly being bought forward into the present, and because no character will accept their blame, there seems to be no way to move forward into a future which is not largely concerned with what has happened before. What this ultimately leads to is a past which is largely cyclical. As no character will relinquish their grip on the past and what has happened before, by accepting blame from it, or learning from it, the same problems and occurrences repeat themselves. For example, Mary resumes taking her morphine, just as she had done before, and despite seeing the same signs leading up to it as before, the family, with the exception of Jamie, remain blind to it for some time. Tyrone is continually cheated out of money by McGuire, whose questionable skills as a property realtor hardly ever yield any profit to Tyrone himself – and yet he does not learn from his past either, and continues to do the same thing at no gain to himself. Their sheer inability to take anything from the past, or to leave it alone, means that nothing in the play is occurring for the first time – in a way, everything about the present in which the Tyrones are living is also the past. A quote from Mary – â€Å"The past is the present, isn’t it? It’s the future, too†¦Ã¢â‚¬  – is particularly fitting to explain the way in which they are living. The structure of the novel echoes this confusion of times – the play occurs all in the space of one day, and yet it deals with the problems both of the future and of the forty or so years previous. This idea that everything is simply a recurrence of something which has happened before -and what will continue to happen for the rest of time- is analogous to the title, in that everything could simply have happened in one â€Å"Long Day†, with the past, present and future simply merging into one twenty-four hour time periods’notes Living one’s life trapped in a repeating cycle of the past is not particularly conducive to being happy, as there is no real hope to look forward to when you are simply repeating the same things over and over again- as Jamie says, â€Å"†¦ weary roads is right. Get you nowhere fast. That’s where I’ve got-nowhere. Where everyone lands in the end, even if most of the suckers won’t admit it†, and so all of the characters have devised their own way of ‘escaping’, which controls the way in which they act throughout the play. For Jamie, the feeling that he hasn’t actually achieved anything because he has never been able to move on is something that he only finally admits to when drunk, but which reveals the sense of hopelessness he feels from being stuck in a loop. Slightly later in the play he confides to Edmund â€Å"I’d begun to hope, if she’d beaten the game, I could, too†¦Ã¢â‚¬  – his hope that his mother had shrugged off her addiction, and that the future would no longer be a repetition of the past had been very important to him, as it offered a way out. However, that hope disappeared, and he resorted back to his usual escape of drinking alcohol, which is what he does for most of the duration of the play. Tyrone also drinks in order to escape the past, although unlike Jamie he also attempts to escape the repetition of the past by denying the fact that it is being repeated – he refuses to recognise Mary’s symptoms until they are undeniably obvious, preferring to believe her lies rather than admit to what is going on. In that respect, he is unlike Jamie, whose cynicism prevents him from being able to overlook things as he chooses. Mary, however, does not attempt to escape the past in the same way that Jamie and Tyrone do, but prefers, though the use of morphine, to escape the present and return to the happiest phase of her life, during the early years of her marriage to Tyrone and her time at the convent, playing the piano. Reminders of the present, such as her hands, which have become unsightly due to rheumatoid arthritis, appal her, and as the play progresses and the morphine takes her over more and more, she regresses further and further back into the past. Her reaction to this re-living of the past is to attempt to return to her favoured part of it. Edmund’s attempt to escape the past is most notable in that at one point, he actually did succeed – during his time sailing, he says that he â€Å"became drunk withs’notes the beauty and the singing rhythm of it, and for a moment I lost myself – actually lost my life. I was set free!†. The idea that he became ‘drunk’ with it alludes to Tyrone and Jamie’s drunken attempts to escape the past, although where they used alcohol, it seems that he used nature – he continues to refer to other occasions when he has felt free in a similar way, and all of them took place in a natural setting. For an audience, this liberation and sense of the natural world starkly contrasts with the three rooms and claustrophobic conversation in which the play is set, and so it is an excellent way to illustrate the total freedom which Edmund has attained. Edmund attempts to recreate this sensation by trying to express it through the use of poetry – however, he says that he will never truly be able to express it how he would like to, saying that even what he just said was just ‘stammering’. â€Å"Stammering is the native eloquence of us fog people†, is the way in which Edmund describes his inability to describe the feeling – this reference to fog people is particularly interesting as throughout the play, the fog is almost a symbol of the past. As the day wears on, the fog returns to cloud over the landscape around them, and so Mary’s illness returns to cloud over the present and send her further back into the past. This pathetic fallacy of the weather responding to Mary’s haziness in her own mind is also effective in creating the sense of claustrophobia which comes from being trapped in the same circumstances over and over again – just as the fog can be very claustrophobic and hide everything else from view, so the past traps the family in and prevents them from seeing the present clearly. Edmund also suggests in that quote that the whole family are ‘native’ fog people – almost that there is something about the way in which they live which they cannot help, but which they are genetically programmed to do. This is curious because it is perhaps the most impartial opinion expressed by one of the characters, and entirely without blame on any one of them. This perceptiveness of Edmund and the ability to reflect ‘from a distance’ on what is going on is perhaps due to the fact that he is acting as the author’s representation of himself. Another role of the past in the play is that it motivates the creation of an atmosphere of censorship and non-admittance. The audience is slow to find out s’notes about the exact nature of Mary’s illness, for example, because the characters do not want to talk about the worse aspects of what happened before, and so as a topic of conversation it is forbidden by unvoiced consent until eventually Jamie faces up to the fact that she seems to be returning to her old condition. This state of affairs seems to have come about as a form of resistance – as if by not speaking about something, they will somehow avoid it happening again and be able to continue as normal. Similarly Mary and Edmund attempt to pretend, to varying degrees, that his illness is other than it is – Mary by calling it a cold and dismissing it, and Edmund to a lesser extent by calling it Malaria, which is more easily cursed, and continuing to drink as if he were not at risk of damaging his healt h. It is clear that the family refuse to talk about quite a number of incidents and feelings – things which only really come out when they are under the effect of either alcohol or morphine – such as the death of Eugene and Mary’s incident on the dock in her nightgown, because such events unlock emotions and feelings which they have hidden in order to protect each other. Mary doesn’t talk about how she blames Jamie for giving Eugene the measles, or how she blames Edmund for her drug addiction when she is in her right state of mind, because she realises that those aspects of the past are too hurtful. Tyrone attempts to prevent her from continuing to speak of them when she does begin, in case one of the boys should hear. Although the past is virtually all that is discussed, there are certain sections of it which the family attempt to bury behind them. The main occurrence of the play is the return of Mary’s ‘illness’ – her return to taking morphine, and other than this very little else actually physically happens to any of the characters during the play. That her illness is actually characterised by a return to the past is particularly important as regards the past as a theme behind the play. It is quite clear to the audience that what Mary is experiencing – this return to her past – is an actual physical illness, and that something is definitely wrong with her mind. This leads to the consideration that the whole family’s return to the past could also be deemed an ‘illness’, and without the presence of Mary’s actual illness it would not be as easy to see that the frame of mind in which the Tyrones live is somehow unhealthy. Mary’s s’notes regression into her past also serves to reveal a great deal of truths about the other characters in the play and what had happened to them before, as well as a number of the deeper-held secrets which the family usually did not discuss, such as Eugene’s death and where the blame for it lies. That the rest of the family seem ashamed that Mary would make such an accusation and blame it on her mental instability, when they are perfectly happy to blame and accuse each other all the time is rather ironic, and so Mary’s illness serves to highlight the problems with the rest of the family and the way in which they function. In terms of the message of the play, and what the audience take away with them, it seems that the past is also of significance, in that the play is something of a warning as to what the consequences might be if people never moved on. Of course, it is therefore quite appropriate that O’Neill wrote it as a part of his own moving on, and his own way of putting the past behind him. The ending of the play is almost anticlimactic in that it just finishes, with no conclusion or rounding-off of the story – simply that the end of the day has been reached, and this too mirrors the idea that there is no end and therefore no past when the past is relived as if it is the present and the future, too. Of all the themes in the play, the past is by far the most significant of them all, not least because the author wrote it as a semi-autobiographical work. It is the driving force behind the way the characters act, the way they interact and the way in which the atmosphere deteriorates from a rather hopeful one at the beginning of the play into one rather devoid of hope at the end, as the ‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night’ is completed, with Mary fully under the influence of the morphine and the other characters having apparently given up on her salvation and also their own conversation. The feeling of being trapped in the past – what O’Neill was attempting to get rid of by ‘facing his dead’ and writing it all down as a work of fiction – dominates the atmosphere of the play, without which the power of the piece would be lost.

A Mother’s Legacy In Mary Shelley’s Mathilda Essay

Abstract Mary Wollstonecraft and her daughter Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley are two writers whose ideas are likely to be similar. Shelley admits that she is influenced by her mother. Therefore, the purpose of this essay is to find out and to identify the ideas presented in Wollstonecraft’s essay on women’s rights A Vindication for the Rights of Woman (1792) and see if they are incorporated into Shelley’s novella Mathilda (1819). My analysis of A Vindication for the Rights of Woman shows that Wollstonecraft’s main ideas are that limited education, the subjugation of women by the family, female dependency on men and romantic thinking are the source for women’s inferiority. This essay identifies and examines these ideas in the light of some secondary material and tries to suggest that they are visible as themes in Shelley’s Mathilda. In Mathilda, these ideas are visible as themes throughout the novel. The tragedy that befalls the characters illustrates the immoral and self-destructive tendencies which women obtain when being subject to these conditions. On the other hand, Shelley does not emphasize a lack of education and offers an additional point of view where Wollstonecraft’s views on motherhood are criticized. The conclusion drawn is that Wollstonecraft’s ideas must have had an influence on Shelley as the fate of the characters is an illustration of the society that is criticized in A Vindication for the Rights of Woman and its destruction. However, Shelley does not agree on ideas with the subject of upbringing and goes against a few of her mother’s main points, namely the role of mothers and the pre-eminence of education. They mostly have a consensus as most ideas that are present in one work are present in the other but Shelley has rebelled against some of her mother’s notions.

Only God has the right to interfere in our genes

In this piece of coursework, I am going to write about Genetic engineering. I am going to discuss about the statement â€Å"Only God has the right to interfere with our genes†. I am going to Genes are made up of DNA. DNA is a substance which conveys messages through out the body. The message includes structure and functioning of cells. DNA is also known as chromosome (Many people are affected by genetics disease which may cause disability or early death). The genes are composed of DNA and are carried on the chromosomes. Genes direct the production of all the molecules that form the structures that of a cell. Genes determine the inherited characteristics that distinguish one individual from another. Each human has an estimated 90,000 genes. I think interfering with someone genes is totally wrong because its like deciding who will be what, like if doctors select someone as 99.99% footballer, then there will be no way he can beated by others. Some Muslims believe that Doctors are playing God because they are deciding our genes. They are deciding our colour, style, attitude etc. I think this is totally wrong because God made us and only he has the right to make changes in us. Allah Almighty says: (See ye not how Allah hath made serviceable unto you whatsoever is in the skies and whatsoever is in the earth and hath loaded you with His favors both without and within? Yet of mankind is he who disputeth concerning Allah, without knowledge or guidance or a Scripture giving light.) (Luqman 31: 20) which means doctors shouldn't interfere with God decisions. Whereas Some Muslims would say it's ok to interfere with genes to help someone because the Quran and hadith teach that Muslims should do all they can to cure disease? Discovering the genetic make-up of humans and using those discoveries to Improve human life is a part of what God wants humans to do as vice-gerents of his creation. It is no difference from researching into drugs which can be used to improve human life. There is a different between creating cells and creating people. Creating people by science rather than sex would be wrong. Because it would be taking over God's role in the creation of life, but creating cells is working with God. Some Christians mainly liberal Protestants, believe that genetic engineering is a good thing which should be supported by churches because Jesus told people to cure the disease and they believe that Jesus was also a healer whereas Some Christian will disagree with their view because they believe that they believe that jesus was also a healer whereas, Some Christians will disagree with their view because they believe that there is a different between creating cells and creating people. Creating people by rather than sex would be wrong because it would be wrong because it would be taking over God's role in the creation of life, but creating cells is working with God. Roman Catholics disagree with the use of embryos because they think life begins at the moment of conception whether in a womb or a glass dish. They believe killing an embryo is killing human is banned by the bible and the church.

Summary of IS Roles Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Summary of IS Roles - Research Paper Example The CIO plays a vital role of virtual information organizer therefore it needs to coordinate the sources regarding information service providers in order to widespread these services throughout the organization. The CIO has to deal with a number of issues as compared to other managers because as the Chief Information Systems Strategist a major responsibility evolves constantly along with corporate information necessities of information technology. The role of Chief Information Officer (CIO) is divided into two parts according to organizational requirements. The primary role is to enhance accountability regarding particular executive manager formation for the organizations procedures needs. The final creation of the CIO includes the positions that need to facilitate the closing â€Å"gap† among organization and IT strategies that are considered as the core measures for business concerns. The alliance between Information Technology and business not only provides limitless advant ages but it is also necessary for organizations survival in competitive environment. Moreover, the benefits of IT in every field have been accepted globally therefore, it is also beneficial for the fast IT implementation in less cost. The IS organizations plays a vital role in understanding the potential of IT. ... The primary architecture incorporates Data centers, networking, systems, database, servers, storage devices and desktop workstations. Moreover, secondary architecture incorporates email configuration and application administration deployed on desktops. The core applications play a critical role in running the organization’s business for example as Entity Resource Planning and Core banking Applications in a Banking System, Crew Management information System in any Airline are integrated in Enterprise Applications. The Business Intelligence products can be purchased from any Business Intelligence vendor. They will provide executive services in order to build a outsource platform for better services. The Data Centers can be relocating along with third party according to your needs and can obtain an Infrastructure Services from any company to manage the applications. If we consider that the CIO has outsourced all the IT functions, what will the staff do then from 9am to 5 pm? This is not considered a good idea, as the procurement group is in coordination at all times. There is a variety of advanced approaches in the field of IT applications. The application can be obtained via development in-house, outsource or lease or any mixture of these two. For instance, website can be developed in-house of any company by utilizing HTML, JAVA or other web programming languages available. The core reason for the IT applications acquisition is to provide an effective and efficient support to any organization and their businesses procedures. In order to start the process of acquisition, the detailed related to the whole procedure must be defined previously (Information Resources Management Association, International Conference & Khosrowpour, 2001). In addition, the

Stock Rate of Return Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Stock Rate of Return - Essay Example In other words, SRR = Capital gain + Dividend yield. It is actually the benefits reaped by an investor relative to the cost of the initial investment. On the other hand, Return On Common Equity (ROCE) relates to the net income before dividend payments on preference shares etc. It is the rate of return on investment for the company's common shareholders. A firm’s ROCE reveals the profit it generates with the invested money of shareholders. The ROCE is also useful for comparing the profitability of a company to that of other firms. The Stock Rate of Returns and the Return On Common Equity are related to each other in the following ways. (i) Can determine (ROCE) by subtracting preferred dividends from net income and subtracting preferred equity from shareholders' equity, given: ROCE = Net Income - Preferred Dividends / Common Equity, where as the other (Capital gain + Dividend yield) gave the (SRR). (ii) Return on stocks may also be calculated by dividing net income by average sh areholders' equity. (iii) Investors may also calculate the change in ROE for a period, first by using shareholders' equity at the start of the period as the denominator and then using shareholders' equity at the end of the period as the denominator.... irical evidence reported by Penman suggests that, in the 1980-1997 period, median ROCE for NYSE and AMEX firms were on average much lower than Rates of Return on the S&P500. Putting aside the periods from 1990 to 1992 when value's heavily weighted sector declined owing to the S&L crisis, the 51% premium of growth shares is historically low at present versus the 56% average since 1980. Excluding data from the "tech bubble" period when growth P/Es were in excess of two times value multiples; it is still left with a historical average premium of 48%, close to the current value. Recessions tend to begin at the start of the decade, e.g., 1980, 1990, and 2000/01. They last for 18 to 24 months before giving way to a strong recovery that lasts for about two years until the Federal Reserve starts to raise interest rates in order to dampen inflation fears. Usually, mid-cycle and mid-decade, the economy cools and the rate of growth is cut in half as was the case in 1984/85 and 1994/95. If histo ry repeats itself in 2005, the economy will move at a slower pace owing to higher interest rates and energy prices. (1)What is an accounting analysis (2)How does one assess the quality of a firm's accounting and trade on the basis of an accounting analysis (3)What evidence is there of empirical returns to accounting analysis in the context of IPOs Accounting analysis describes the extent to which the use of different accounting methods affects reported results like financial statements of a business. Different financial statements including Trading, Profit and Loss Accounts, Income and expenditure Accounts, Balance sheets etc are recorded with entries for valuation. Thus the accounting analysis could be other wise termed as the financial statement analysis. Accounting analysis

Respect Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Respect - Essay Example However, this is counterproductive since when they work in fear, employees will spend more time worrying about their job security and produce mediocre results. Americans feel pressured by their employers and hardly have time to spend with their families and friends, long working hours as well as stressful conditions are hazardous to their health (Waldman). Ironically, it has been scientifically proven that workers who take time off and whose bosses treat them in a friendly and respectful manner are likely to be highly motivated therefore more productive than insecure employees who expend too much time trying to keeping avoiding trouble. A vacation is the ideal time for employees develop innovative ideas by temporarily escaping monotony of the office routine and in the long-term, an employer can reap substantial benefits form letting their staff relaxes every now and then. Waldman explains the situation further by examining the issue of drug testing; he claims that employers who teste d their staff for drugs were often less productive than those who did not (Waldman). While drug tests may sometimes be necessary, they are often seen as a violation of one’s privacy and even when one has not used drugs being tested evidenced that their employer does not trust them. Consequently, the more poorly treated workers are, the less productive they become, primarily because they lose their intrinsic motivation and only work as a means of avoiding trouble or getting fired (Martins). Conversely, employees who are treated with respect are intrinsically motivated and they are driven by results since they do not feel threatened or insecure so they can give the job their full attention, in addition since they get enough time to relax they will be more innovative and productive. Personally, I agree that the respect showed to employees by their employers is directly proportional to their productivity and vice versa. After high school, I worked for a while as a cashier in a fa st food restaurant in my town, it did not take me long to realize that the floor supervisor was a brutal inconsiderate individual to whom the employees were only as good as the last satisfied customer. On my second day, I observed him yell at a busboy who had dropped a glass and he told him if he broke another one, he should not bother to clean it up because he would be fired, this was in full sight and view of the lunchtime crowd. For the rest of the day, the young man was jumpy and irritable and he missed several orders and I heard him speak rudely to a customer, fortunately, the supervisor did not hear about it since he would have probably fired him on the spot. I had assumed it was an isolated case but I later came to realize that harassing employees was the norm at the restaurant; the turnover rate was very high as someone quite almost every week. As the cashier, I soon discovered that one of the reasons productivity was low was that we were training a new employee every other week and as such, we had an inexperienced waiter on the floor that would naturally be slow on their feet. However, as soon as they had become skilled enough to take multiple orders and speed things up, someone would quit and once again, we would have a deficiency and another slot to fill. If the workers had

Different key factors that influence the failure of projects Essay

Different key factors that influence the failure of projects - Essay Example Industries view project failures as either a pathological state to be avoided or a logical problem of goal definition (Lindahl & Rehn, 2007). This paper will focus on the different key factors that influence the failure of projects especially on the field of information technology (IT). It will discuss the different stages in the project lifecycle and the possible areas of failures in each stage. Furthermore, the paper will tackle the concept of risk management and its benefits in a successful project development as well as in preventing failures. A successful risk management system incorporated in a project will create a programme for handling probable causes of project failures. IT projects fail when it does not meet one or more of its criteria for success. The criteria for successful IT projects are delivery on time, completion on or under budget, and satisfaction of user requirements. Only a few projects achieve all three (Grossman, 2003). In summary, failure can be defined as a system which does not perform as expected, not operational at a specified time and cannot be used in the way expected. There are four key factors that can be associated with project failures. These are design, data, cost and operations. A poor design phase can result in a system that does not match customer expectation, or fails to capture the basic business requirements. The data factor may include inaccurate, inconsistent, not available or incomplete information and records. The cost factor involves the operational costs to implement and run the system that far exceeds the identified business benefit. A survey showed that 35% of all major information systems projects are over budget, termed "runaways", such as the Stock Exchange Taurus Project and the London Ambulance Service (Flowers, 1996). Project Lifecycle The project lifecycle defines the beginning and the end of a project. It is a collection of generally sequential and sometimes overlapping project phases whose name and number are determined by the management and control needs of the organisation (Project Management Institute, Inc, 2008). It also determines which transitional actions are included and which are not in every stage of the project from beginning to end. It can be used to link the project to the ongoing operations of the organisation. (Choudhuri, 2005) The first phase of the lifecycle is the initiating process which involves those processes performed to define a new project by obtaining the authorization needed to start the project. The second phase is the planning process which includes those processes required in establishing the scope of the project, refining the objectives, and defining the course of action in order to attain the objectives of the project. The third phase is the executing process which encompasses those processes performed to complete the work defined and to satisfy project specifications. The fourth phase is the monitoring and controlling process which includes those processes required to track, review, and regulate the progress and performance of the project. The last phase is the closing process which considers those processes performed to finalise all activities to formally close the project. (Project Management Institute, Inc, 2008) Causes of Project Failures In every phase of the project

BP Oil Spill Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

BP Oil Spill - Research Paper Example The commissioners have shown their concern that if the oil washes up to the coast then the tourism industry will get destroyed and the city will have to suffer financial crisis. The Federal Government must introduce certain laws and policies that are in concern with the issue of oil spills. The company responsible for the oil spill must be held responsible of all the damage and destruction that has been resulted due to the oil spill. The financial loss that has been occurred due to the oil spill must be taken by the company who caused it. An oil spill cause a lot of damage to the marine and aquatic life and if this oil spill reaches the coast it destroys the beauty of the coast and causes great harm to the tourism industry of that country. The company should be made to pay the amount equal to the total loss that the country will have to suffer as a result of this. When an oil spill reaches the coast the fine sand, huts, other shops, malls, parks, walking tracks, etc. all are affected; this results in a great loss for the country. An oil spill does not instantly reach the coast; it takes almost a few days for an oil spill to spread out and reach the coast. However, the number of days it takes for the oil to reach the coast depends upon where the oil spillage has started. Once it comes to the knowledge of the city manager or commissioner that an oil spill is on its way to their coast they must take precautionary measures like vacate the beach, remove stalls and huts and those bodies that are not fixed so that they do not become the victim of oil spillage. The oil and gas company responsible for the spillage must be made responsible to pay the full cost of the spillage and for the restoration of the environment to its natural state. As well as the company would have to pay full compensation to those whose businesses have been affected by this disaster. A fine must also be imposed on the oil and

Criminology & Criminal Justice BSc Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6000 words

Criminology & Criminal Justice BSc - Essay Example The ultimate result of this frustration will lead to withdrawal of co-operation by the victim (Department of Justice 2009, p. 4). Therefore, the co-operation is necessary for the effectiveness of criminal justice system to ensure that it will lead to punishing the offender. Ensuring the credentials of the victim as genuine, does not necessarily mean, will usurp the rights of defendants as enshrined in the fundamental rights. In 1994 rights of victims were neglected badly. This is not the first time in the history of UK when the Liberty has called for greater objectives. According to Zedner (2007), a study reveals no conflict between the rights of defendants and the rights of victims (p. 265). Fair and just trials are the essence of criminal justice system. In order to ensure fair prosecution and to avoid miscarriage of justice, it is incumbent upon the law enforcers to protect the rights of defendants. Review of the European Convention on Human Rights indicates limited protection for victims. It is the duty of the police to provide protection to individuals in general and youngsters in specific from breaching of personal integrity. Failure to protect the victim, the authorities concerned will be held responsible as per law (Zedner 2007, p. 274). It would be in the fitness of things if victims should have more rights than those reflected in the Convention. The charter of victim first come to surface in the year 1990 and revised in the year 1996 clearly defined the fundamental rights of every victim of crime (Shapland 2000, p. 82). By all means, it can be considered a revolutionary step in the legal history of the United Kingdom. The existing Charter fulfils the expectation of a victim. According to Shapland (2000), in case of dissatisfaction, it permits the victim to lodge his or her complaint to an appropriate authority (p 83). Of course, the Charter of Victim is a well thought out document to address the issues and the difficulties faced by the

PC Spec word project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

PC Spec word project - Essay Example Having considered the requirements of the Director, it is proposed to buy high end computers that have separate graphics and memory cards from the motherboard. Standard office computer utilizes the embedded GPU and RAM which is not adequate to perform video and graphics editing. Also, softwares such as Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Premiere have system requirements that necessitate computers with high end specs. If the company have the budget to buy branded computers that meets the following requirement such as Dell Precision T3610 series, then it should go ahead and purchase those. If the company however is strapped on cash, it can assemble its own computer by buying the parts that can perform the tasks required by the Director. Manage and protect the system, data, and information while working on the Internet including scanning all incoming emails, email attachments, and files downloaded from Web-based sources; firewall, virus and spyware (security) protection; and checking websites for phishing and fraudulent activities. Audio Editing Software Review 2014 | Best Sound Editing Software | Audio Editor Software - TopTenREVIEWS. (n.d.).  TopTenREVIEWS. Retrieved June 21, 2014, from

Biographical Information Essay Example for Free

Biographical Information Essay Regarded by contemporary and recent critics as one of the most notable female poets in Western literature, Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote Aurora Leigh at the height of her literary career, and the poem is deemed her masterwork in terms of poetics and narrative. Part autobiography and part social criticism, the poem traces the life of an Englishwoman and poet, Aurora Leigh, and is frequently cited as a proto-feminist treatise for its portrayal of difficulties arising for female characters from traditional values and practices of English society. Brownings innovative use of genre, self-reference, and feminine perspective make Aurora Leigh a landmark of nineteenth-century literature. Biographical Information Browning had planned to write a novel in blank verse as early as 1845, and had proposed that the subject would be a critical narrative of ordinary English life. At the time of Aurora Leighs publication in 1857, Browning, supported by her friendship and eventual marriage to Robert Browning in September of 1846, had recovered from a long period of poor health, family catastrophes, and isolation. In 1850, Sonnets from the Portuguese, written during her courtship with Browning, had been published to popular acclaim, and her reputation as a poet, especially of sentimental works, had grown. A son, Robert Wiedemann Barrett Browning, had been born to the couple in 1849, and this seems to have rejuvenated Brownings artistic endeavors. The Brownings began to travel extensively and became involved in politics on the Continent; Barrett Browning subsequently expressed in Aurora Leigh a concern with social issues, particularly the rights of women and the poor, and revealed her familiarity with European and classical literature as well. Aurora Leigh, published in 1857, was the most successful of Brownings works from a commercial standpoint: the book had gone through nineteen editions by 1885. Plot and Major Characters A novel in verse, as Coventry Patmore called it, Aurora Leigh follows the life of its heroine through her birth and childhood in Italy, intellectual development, literary career, and personal relationships. At a young age, Aurora Leigh resists the conventional and complacent English values imposed on her by a maiden aunt who cares for her after the death of her parents, and she discovers the pleasures of literature. Her early creative compositions stir her ambitions to support herself through a poetic career, and in time she becomes moderately successful in London literary circles. In the process of accomplishing this, Aurora rejects a marriage proposal from her cousin Romney Leigh, a wealthy philanthropist and owner of the family estate, who soon rescues a young woman named Marian Erle from poverty. The growing attachment between Romney and Marian is severed, however, by the unscrupulous Lady Waldemar, who is herself in love with Romney. Lady Waldemar contributes to Marians disappearance from London and her reappearance in a Paris brothel, where Marian is sexually assaulted and bears a child. Aurora, on her way to Italy, recognizes Marian in Paris and takes her and her child to Florence. When Romneys socialist Utopian community disastrously fails, he acknowledges the emptiness and hypocrisy of conventional methods of philanthropy, and travels to Florence. After a series of misunderstandings in which Aurora believes Romney has already wed Lady Waldemar, Romney once again asks Aurora to marry him. This she does, recognizing that art needs to be aided by love and partnership in the process of self-realization. Major Themes Browning addressed several major social issues in the narrative of Aurora Leigh—the relationship between art and individual self-fulfillment, the issue of class politics, and the issue of gender roles. The work suggests that individual freedom, regardless of class or gender, allows for inner development and the cultivation of creativity and inspiration. However, the novel-poem shows sensitivity to other aspects of the creative process, such as the background to the production of any artistic work and the source of creativity in turmoil and conflict. Furthermore, Aurora Leigh intricately weaves the political implications of Brownings own strong individualism and her emphasis on the actualization of ones lifes work into Aurora Leighs struggle to find her place, as a woman poet, in the traditional social order found in the poem. In addition, the work focuses on the institutionalized sexism and classicism of the Victorian age, and directs its severest criticism at conventional philanthropy as hypocritical and paternalistic. Also, Aurora Leigh depicts, through the character of Marian Erle, the horrific consequences of the abuse and neglect suffered by the poor—particularly poor women. The subplot of Marian and her child also censures the Victorian tendency to reject those who have been sexually attacked, and argues for greater concern for and treatment of the innocent victims. Critical Reception Despite its tremendous popular success, Aurora Leigh received mixed reactions from contemporary critics. Many, in addition to calling it immoral, found fault with its characterization, plot, and language; others, however, found the work proof of Brownings poetic genius. The poem was largely neglected by subsequent critics until the early 1930s, when Virginia Woolf s enthusiastic article on the poem was published. The emergence of feminist criticism helped spark renewed interest in the work, although Aurora Leigh is not unanimously accepted as a precursor to modern feminism. Commenting on the poems conclusion in particular, many feminist critics have regarded Auroras acceptance of marriage as the beginning of her loss of independence. Others have found in the ending a radical deviation from traditional nineteenth-century thought—instead of losing her independence through marriage, Aurora gains a rewarding and satisfying life through the blending of her artistic achievement with the love and partnership of another. According to several twentieth-century critics, this innovation is echoed in Brownings style: although contemporary reviewers criticized her unconventional poetic tendencies, more recent scholars consider her style to be innovative. Altogether, Aurora Leigh illuminates both Brownings artistic strengths and her weaknesses: she is praised for her ability to express passionate emotion, yet she is criticized for choosing such an abstract topic for Aurora Leigh as her highest convictions upon Life and Art. She is commended for her lyrical tone and innovative use of imagery, yet she is criticized for her verbose style, improbable plot, and unrealistic characters. In light of fervent endorsements of the poem by such literary figures as Emily Dickinson and Virginia Woolf, Aurora Leigh is generally judged to be a masterwork with noticeable flaws and remains highly significant to contemporary literary historians and critics.