Business to Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Business to Business - Essay Example Amazon.com, the world’s largest online retailer, has developed improved mechanisms for promoting its B2B e-business transactions. This paper will analyze Amazon’s B2B arrangements with other companies and the nature of B2B transactions the company engaged in. In addition to discussing Amazon’s technical architecture that supports its B2B transactions, the paper will also identify the benefits and drawbacks of these transactions. Amazon’s B2B transactions Amazon.com has developed B2B arrangements well with firms across the globe. According to the Forbes writer Kanellos, Amazon is under an ongoing evolution process where the organization is transferring from a consumer retailer to a logistics provider to business houses. Amazon allows third parties (or external marketers) to sell their products by means of its online retail services. Firms can display their inventory information, sell their products, and receive payments online once they created an account i n Amazon.com. In addition, sellers can also make use of Amazon’s Webstore, which would help them take advantages of search engine optimization and backend organization. As Kanellos points out, the volume of products sold by external marketers on Amazon website increased to 36 percent. Amazon follows an interesting B2B model in delivering services to third-party retailers. Traditionally, a store owner or a wholesaler considers the difference between the retail and wholesale price as its profit. In contrast to this conventional business practice, Amazon likes to obtain a commission on its online retail services. Market analysts observe that this business model has greatly assisted the company to advance in B2B marketing. The organization has developed an affiliate program for promoting its products and its online retailers. Businesses can earn income when Amazon products are purchased through clicking those firms’ advertisement link. Publishing is another B2B service off ered by the Amazon. The company launched its self-publishing site in 2011with intent to assist individuals to self-publish their movies, music, and books online and thereby to eliminate intermediary costs. Once an individual obtains a copyright on his products like books or movies, he can use the advertisement and payment solutions provided by the Amazon. The company offers free publishing options and finds its revenues through royalty payments and shopping fees. As Smith opines, the fulfillment program is Amazon’s one of the major advancements in its B2B environment; this program allows organizations to store and ship their products through Amazon’s fulfillment center. Once the Amazon fulfillment center receives the items sent by companies, those items are cataloged into the firm’s system. Under this option, companies can either sell their offerings through Amazon.com or complete the sales process using their own techniques. When items are ordered, Amazon fulfi lls the orders and delivers the products to the end customers directly. Amazon’s back office system assists business houses to track the fulfillment. It is identified that Amazon has B2B relationships with different sizes of businesses ranging from sole traders to corporate giants. As per Amazon’s B2B strategy, new and un-established companies need to commence their operations with personal accounts.  

Having good study skills can improve student Essay

Having good study skills can improve student - Essay Example There are various good studying skills and these skills are of utmost importance as they can lead to provide for betterment in the student with regard to their education. An important studying skill that students should know is that they should choose the most comfortable location for their studies. It is essential that students are easy and relaxed while studying and thus they should choose their spots of studying as per their requirements. An individual should consider his spot according to his own comfort level rather than trying to choose spots where their peers can study well. This is because every individual has his own way of studying and to try to accommodate oneself in a spot where others are comfortable may not be a very suitable option. A perfect example to support this stand is the library. Many students find it easy to study in the library owing to their liking of the studying environment. On the other hand, some students find it very difficult to study in the library as they get distracted by the new people who enter the library or because they feel more comfortable while studying at home. Thus, it is important for a student to choose his specific spot of studying as per his own needs and requirements. ... In this way, the student would be able to stay in pace with the teachings in the class and he would also be able to understand what is required from him during lectures and in his assignments. There are a few students who hesitate to contact their teachers out of fear that their teachers would look down upon them and consider them to inattentive and slow. This is extremely wrong and it further worsens the educational level of an already struggling student. Thus, an important skill of studying is to have a good communication with the instructor. Organization in studying is also a very essential skill that can help students to improve in their studies. Students should not only organize their studying times but they should also organize the way in which they study. Organized schedules allow students to dedicate the required time to their studies. A student should create his timetable by devoting the maximum time to the subjects that he is weak in. In this way, he would be able to concen trate more on his weaknesses and hence improve his performance in those subjects. Apart from creating timetables for studying times, students should organize their study pattern. Haphazard studying leads to more confusion and the students are not able to retain what they study. An easier way is to study the most difficult and important topics and highlight the important points. Very important points that may help at the last minute before an exam can be written down in a notebook for later revision. In this manner, a student can revise his work easily and go through the highlighted sections and the notebook for overviewing the important points. Thus, time organization as well as organizing the study

Susan B. Anthony Essay Example for Free

Susan B. Anthony Essay It is impossible to believe there was a time that women did not have an input on anything in this world. Women did not have a say in anything in the 1800’s, they were just people that did whatever â€Å"man† told them to do without any questions asked. There are a lot of powerful people in history that stood up for what they felt was important, like women’s rights. Women by the name of Susan B. Anthony wanted to have change in this world for women that wanted to be a part of society. Born on February 15, 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts on a farm house, Anthony was one of eight children in a house with a father who was strict and was very much in the civil rights movement. At a young age she would go through something that most women today will never understand. She was taken of district school by her father when he found out that she could not get educated in mathematics because of the fact she was a â€Å" girl â€Å" ( was later sent to a boarding school in Philadelphia ). Since she did not go to public school her father decided to home school her and her sisters. Her father taught her and her sisters to be independent and self-discipline. Anthony was expected to help her mother with domestic chores. Anthony’s dad owned his own cotton-mill where he had his wife and family help maintain the mill endless cooking, cleaning, and washing, Anthony’s job was to bake 21 loaves of bread a day. As a teenager she was already being an activist, collecting anti -slavery ballots and having abolitionist meetings at her home. â€Å"She learned early on that making the right choice was more important than making a popular choice â€Å". (One woman’s voice) Anthony’s father is the one person who influenced her to become the person who she was, with discipline and structure she became an independent women. She was a girl that had a goal and a plan to accomplish that goal with the help of her father motto of â€Å"all work no play â€Å". Trying to get your point across and having people agree with what you’re saying can be the most difficult things to do when there is no one in your corner. Anthony worked at a school where she was making one-fifth of what a man would make in a weekly pay so she protested for the inequality and she was let go of her job. This was an issue to her and made her want to take a stand. Anthony could not take anymore of being put down by society because of her gender, she never gave up what she thought was right she kept pushing and stayed motivated. Anthony encouraged a lot of women to become teachers to get away from doing household chores. She began to focus on the temperance movement speech, she felt that the banning alcohol was the only way for the ending of the abuse women and children suffered at the hands of husbands and fathers who drank a lot of alcohol. She was doing everything in her power to make women’s voices be heard, she realized the only way she can let her vo ice be heard is to win the right to participate in the political process. She setup a series of state and national conventions for women suffrage and door-to-door campaign to collect signatures for a petition that will give women the right to vote and own their own property. For her to be women that are trying to change the way women are treated the press attacked her, but she and other women like her refuse to depend on a man. She found her opportunity around voting time when she was reading a newspaper that in the amendments it never said women could never vote, when she saw that she went in the barber shop and read the amendment to the men and they let her go in and vote with her sisters. She knew what she was doing was wrong, but she did not care about the consequences behind it. Anthony and all the women that voted that day were arrested for civil disobedience. With anything you do that is wrong there comes consequences and sometimes things happen to challenge you, to see how much you really want it. Anthony belief in women’s rights had consequences that came with it. She did not care about what happen to her because she felt what she was doing for women was rights. Anthony has had some long term and short term consequences, a long term consequence has been that she had to go most of her life not being able to live it the way she wanted to live it because women were not allowed to dress the way they wanted to, work, vote, or own their own property. To live somewhere that you have no control of anything but your chores is a  horrible way to live. Anthony’s short term consequence was when she was a kid and had to work like an adult, barley having a childhood â€Å" all work no play â€Å", even though it is a consequence not having a childhood she was very focused and matured at a young age. Another short term consequence wa s that Anthony went to jail for voting. She knew voting was wrong but she knew that if she did it would cause controversy and a lot of other women will follow in her footsteps and peruse being an independent women that does everything on their own with no help needed. Without women like Anthony we would have no change in this world, people like her who stand up for important issues like the one of women’s rights will forever be looked at in history for making a difference for women everywhere. She has shown that with hard work and dedication anything is possible and that women can provide and live on their own just as well as men, Anthony will always be looked at in a positive light and thanked by all the hard working women across the world. â€Å" Susan B. Anthony.† Contemporary Heroes and Heroines. Vol. 3 Detroit: Gale, 1998. Biography in Context. Web. 21 Mar, 2014. â€Å"Women’s Suffrage.† Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. History. War. Detroit: Gale, 2009. Student resouece in context. Web. 26 Mar, 2014 â€Å" Susan B. Anthony.† Historic World Leaders. Gale, 1994. Biography in context. Web. 20 Mar, 2014 Murtati, John. â€Å" None Violent Action: History of women’s movement.† Everyman: A mens Journal. 30 Sep, 2002: pg 16. eLibrary. Web. 26 Mar, 2014 Matthews, Glenna..Anthony, Susan Brownell. Oxford University press, 2000. eLibrary. Web. 21 Mar, 2014.

Ambivalence And Its Imagery In Heart

Ambivalence And Its Imagery In Heart There have been various discourses about a literary world of Joseph Conrad who has been called as one of the great pioneers in 20th English literature. Since he was a Polish author and wrote in English, his vocabulary, grammar and syntax was accepted as unusual and new at that time. Not only these multilingual aspects of him but his personal experience in French, England and Congo as a seaman before a writer deeply affected his many various works such as Almayers Folly, An Outcast of the Islands, Lord Jim, Nostromo, The Secret Agent, The Duel, Victory, The Shadow Line, and The Rover, Heart of Darkness. Moreover, it is important to find the fact that he wrote in the heyday of the British Empire to have a great grasp of his literary world. He wandered European countries and colonies of Europe and then settled in England. As a cosmopolitan as well as a man who always crossed the borderline between a country and a country, his issues of identity fully reflected his works and those issues and his racial and political attitude has often been controversial until now. Of a variety of controversies surrounding Conrads works, the most famous thing was provoked by the Nigerian writer, Chinua Achebe. In his essay, An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrads Heart of Darkness', he regarded that Joseph Conrad was a thoroughgoing racist (260) for reason that Africa itself was a foil to Europe, as a place of negations at once remote and vaguely familiar, in comparison with which Europes own state of spiritual grace will be manifest(261). Conrad, he says, portrays Africa as the other world, the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization(253), which makes Achebe say that Conrad took an antipathy against black people. The issue of racism in Conrads novels aroused controversy and it is ongoing now and it was absolutely inevitable considering how political and social situations he lived were. However, we should know that his unique descriptive style was remarked and differentiated from other established authors in England in that his ability to express incomprehensible and mysterious things was outstanding and which contributed to make his works the subject of the controversy and consistently to cause disputes on his certain viewpoint among many scholars who tried to find out it. Furthermore, he formed a diversity of lively discussions with race, social hierarchy and gender awareness as well as his distinct writing style and his complicated narrative structure. He also opened the arena of philosophical and historical arguments beyond literary criticism. Likewise, of the good number of strong points in his pieces, the reason his work, Heart of Darkness is meaningful for us living the present is that this novel surprisingly epitomizes ambivalence which means coexistence of two conflicting values or feelings. To explain, the world we are living is not fixed and secure. As the barriers between countries collapse and the world gets globalized, it is hard to hold a center point we can depend upon and we are in the uncertain situation that threatens our own distinctive identity. Accordingly, if we can try to indirectly understand Conrads ambivalent perspective in such a confused situation, it definitely helps us live our insecure lives. In this paper, I will deal with how Conrads ambivalent feelings and thinking about the wilderness, the African people and the white society was described in Heart of Darkness and look into what an effective imagery he used in embodying it literarily by using visual imagery, auditory imagery and layered narrative. Ambivalence in Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad tries to explore the inner side of a man by providing him with an array of different experiences in an exotic setting in Heart of Darkness. In Joseph Conrads psychological realism, Hyo-won Kim claims that Conrad often depicts psychological shocks and split personality that a protagonist suffers in tension of conflict between modern western civilization and primitive wilderness oxymoronically, an obscure unconsciousness and wonderful world of sub-consciousness of human from a skeptical perspective.(27) These conflicts between unconsciousness, consciousness and manifestation of sub-consciousness are showed in his description of the wilderness, the African people and the white society. 2.1 Ambivalent Description of the Wilderness In Heart of Darkness, the wilderness has two conflicting aspects. One is an object to be conquered by the superior European countries. Another is a sort of spiritual, supernatural existence not to be conquered by human being who is doomed to dead someday. It means that the first aspect is a reflected result of a desire of self-expansion and the second one relates to a desire for protecting oneself who is aware of finiteness of a life. For starters, as Chinua Achebe pointed out, Africa in Heart of Darkness functions as just a backdrop or setting that the protagonist, Marlow enlarged his world view.(60) What is important here is that Conrad overlooked the fact that Africa was also a place that many African people live an ordinary lives like white people do in Europe. He erased the culture and history of Africa and made it an abstract image like a sort of concept, fantasy or idea of European people. It gives European people a chance to make an arbitrary interpretation regardless of a fact, which shows how white European people has perceived and dealt with Africa with a feeling of superiority. For example, we can see this in the comparison between the Thames and the river Congo in the first part. And indeed nothing is easier for a man who has, as the phrase goes, followed the sea with reverence and affection, than to evoke the great spirit of the past upon the lower reaches of the Thames. (Heart of Darkness 2) What greatness had not floated on the ebb of that river into the mystery of an unknown earth! . . . The dreams of men, the seed of commonwealths, the germs of empires. (HD 3) The Thames is described as a starting point of mans intelligence, civilization and refinement. European people have reverence and affection to the Thames because it has the great spirit of the past and symbolizes the dreams of men. Accordingly, it reminds them of their greatness and their great past history. On the contrary, as the antithesis of the Thames, the river Congo is portrayed as the mystery of an unknown earth. (HD 3) The use of definitive word deprives Africa of its historical, cultural and political characteristics and covers the whole thing of Africa under the name of the mystery. The assumption is a tool to make European people invade and exercise a force on Africa as they want. That is, the white people go to Africa to satisfy their curiosity and affirm their assumption seeing only what they want to see there. It reveals transcendental desire of the white people in that they expand their geographical area and then are trying to see what they could not see. However, the white, Marlow who determines to go to Africa with ambitious mind is overwhelmed by the wilderness, which makes him feel like keeping himself away from the truth of things, within the toil of a mournful and senseless delusion.(HD 12) With a sense of awe and fear of the wilderness, he thinks that it blurs perception of reality. It can be interpreted that Marlow unconsciously knows that he is an invader who comes to Africa with a sense of European superiority and in front of the wilderness he feels unconsciously his insignificance, his mortality when he sees the infinite coast that always looks the same. In other words, the wilderness is memento mori to him. We can see that he is aware of the fact unconsciously by the following quotation. We called at some more places with farcical names, where the merry dance of death and trade goes on in a still and earthy atmosphere as of an overheated catacomb; all along the formless coast bordered by dangerous surf, as if Nature herself had tried to ward off intruders; in and out of rivers, streams of death in life. (HD 13) At the same time, he feels uneasy with the idea that the wilderness destroys him and leads him to death. It derives from a sense of guilt about the general European mind that considers nature as a target of conquest and suppression. The expression he uses such as intruders and death in life mirrors his subconscious horror well. 2.2 Ambivalent Description of African People African people, in common with the wilderness, are described differently reflecting Conrads ambivalent mind. Like the wilderness, African people are barbarous and thus an object of subjugation, modernization and detribalization with reason and enlightenment which is a solid foundation for Western imperialism. In contrast, he finds that human beings are always helpless against the force of nature and he sometimes identifies African people with nature. As a result, he also experiences supernatural power from them in harmony with nature. Additionally, what is important here is that he feels a sense of kinship as the same human being. To begin with, Conrad likens African people to black ants, naked beast and he does not forget to refer their skin color which is black. Sometimes, he eliminates their form or their presence by telling them simply black shadows or shades. In An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrads Heart of Darkness, Achebe says that in the place of speech African people made a violent babble of uncouth sounds and exchanged short grunting phrases even among themselves.(57) Likewise, African people has no great difference from beasts in this novel and even reminds us of devil coming from Hell. catch im, he snapped with a bloodshot widening of his eyes and a flash of sharp teeth -catchim. Giveim to us. To you, eh? I asked; what would you do with them? Eatim! he said curtly. . . . (HD 42) His attitude that separates himself from African people by emphasizing their inhumane aspects suggests how he perceives African people. That is, he just seems to want to confirm that he was a more superior, privileged white person. As a result, his purpose of exploration is not based on enlargement of worldview or self-expansion. He just has a sense of pity for the ignorant natives with the superiority of European culture. However, as we discussed in the ambivalent description of the wilderness, there also exists ambivalence about some of the African people. Similarly, Conrad gives supernatural spirit and power to an African woman who is some kind of mistress to Mr. Kurtz. She was savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent; there was something ominous and stately in her deliberate progress. And in the hush that had fallen suddenly upon the whole sorrowful land, the immense wilderness, the colossal body of the fecund and mysterious life seemed to look at her, pensive, as though it had been looking at the image of its own tenebrous and passionate soul. (HD 66) Her appearance leads us to think of a possessed shaman who connects this world and the next. A shaman mediates between the world and the next and manages affairs of human that usual people cannot know and do. In this sense, she is a superior existence to Marlow and that is what Conrad suggests. In addition, in Joseph Conrads Ambivalent Criticism of Imperialism, Sang-kee Park explains that this woman in harmony with the background of nature expresses the vital force that European people do not possess. Park also indicates that there is a stark contrast between richness and vigor of the African woman and paleness of the Mr. Kurtzs fiancà ©e.(17) From Achebes claim that Conrad lavishes a whole page quite unexpectedly on the African woman (56), we know Conrads intention showing that Marlow is attracted by her fecundity and full vitality. It means that Marlow is struck as small mortal human being before the woman who symbolizes infinity or a perpetual life. Two kinds of African people I explained above are in the opposite sides and represent Marlows ambivalent feelings of African people. Meanwhile, there is another man who lies between the extremes, who is Marlows African helmsman. He drops down with a spear in his heart and gives his white master a look in final moment. And the intimate profundity of that look he gave me when he received his hurt remains to this day in my memory like a claim of distant kinship affirmed in a supreme moment. (HD 54) After his death, he realizes that a subtle bond between Marlow and his helmsman is broken. A significant point is that he notices a sense of fellowship after death because it suggests that in a matter of life and death human being are equal regardless of race, national identity and power. Furthermore, there are some African people on the verge of starvation who startle Marlow by the fact that they do not eat European people despite of hunger. Marlow finds out that cannibalism is no more than their custom; they also have self- restraint opposed to beasts. Consequently, these direct experiences weaken a deep-rooted previous prejudice or a sense of superiority in Marlow and expand his civilized identity in European cultural context to a cosmopolitans perception. In the Images of the Superior man and the mean man in Heart of Darkness, Cheol-soo Kim says that Conrad pursues Marlow to do self-expansion as a protagonist in the open world by overcoming self-centered viewpoint and escaping himself from a narrow worldview and to recover relationship with others. (7) Additionally, it implies criticism of western culture that constructs self-centered empire as a result of oppressing others. As we examine, the description of the African people in Heart of Darkness has two differen t aspects which are hatred (abomination) as others and affection (fascination) as the same human being. This citation shows that clearly. Land in a swamp, march through the woods, and in some inland post feel the savagery, the utter savagery, had closed round him, all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the heart of wild men. Theres no initiation either into such mysteries. He has to live in the midst of the incomprehensible, which is also detestable. And it has a fascination, too, that goes to work upon him. The fascination of the abomination-you know. (HD 106) Through those proceedings, Marlow seems to approach the truth of a life. However, Conrad never resolves the ambivalence in Marlow even at the ending of this novel. Depending upon the story, we can just assume that a series of experience would enrich Marlows life but cannot conclude what truth is because Conrad sticks to his distinctive oblique writing style. Ambivalent Description of White Society Achebe asserts that the Thames too has been one of the dark places of the earth but conquered its darkness, of course, and is now in daylight and at peace. Then he tells that Conrad divides the river Congo and the Thames into bestiality and civilization. (253) However, description of white society is not always positive even though description about greatness of the Thames is splendid. White society in this novel is seemingly refined and elegant but his underlying idea of it sometimes seems to be inexorable and uncomfortable. We would catch his skeptical tone about white society representing civilization, culture, politics and economy. We can see this in the following scene that Marlow arrives in a city to sign a contract to be a seaman. A narrow and deserted street in deep shadow, high houses, innumerable windows with venetian blinds, a dead silence, grass sprouting between the stones, imposing carriage archways right and left, immense double doors standing ponderously ajar. I slipped through one of these cracks, went up a swept and ungarnished staircase, as arid as a desert, and opened the first door I came to. Two women, one fat and the other slim, sat on straw-bottomed chairs, knitting black wool. (HD 8) As Marlow says that the city makes him think of a whited sepulcher, the image of city is different from what we usually regard crowded and dynamic. His description of the city is prosaic, coercive. Plus, when we recall that a whited sepulcher implies confinement, death and hypocrisy, we can presume his unconscious feelings of the city. Park also says that Belgium, a capital of European imperialism, is showed a whited sepulcher referred in Matthew 23. This expression is originally a figure of speech used by Jesus Christ to criticize a faqih laying stress on formal ostentation and hypocrisy of Pharisee. He claims that the inside of a whited sepulcher is full of death and smuttiness even though the outside of it is beautiful and coated cleanly. (274) Likewise, Conrad portrays Belgium as a place death and hypocrisy which is the center of imperialism. The image of the city gives us a feeling like a phantom town where no human lives and displays that civilization gets rid of vitality of hu man life. We also cannot overlook two women knitting black wool because an act of knitting closely relates to humans impending doom when we recall Charles Dickenss A Tale of Two Cities, in which Madame Defarge knits with the steadfastness of Fate' (HD 103) Thus, the descriptions of the Thames and the city have ambivalence in that each represents light and darkness, peace and death. Additionally, there are many white people in Heart of Darkness. As a foreigner in Congo, Marlow encounters two types of white people. As Marlow decides to go to Congo out of his curiosity and passion, he meets the same kind of people who have inquiring mind or curiosity about life. Marlow first meets a doctor who wants to measure Marlows head saying that I always ask leave, in the interests of science, to measure the crania of those going out there.(HD 10) He is the man who dedicates to a progress of science and believes that he can do it. I have a little theory which you Messieurs who go out there must help me to prove. This is my share in the advantages my country shall reap from the possession of such a magnificent dependency. The mere wealth I leave to others. (HD 10) His remark shows that he does not care of personal economic benefit but he cares of the advance of science and the advantage of empire. The old doctor has a sense of duty, dream and lofty ideal to make new discovery. Marlow then sees a white man under a hat like a cart-wheel beckoning persistently with his whole arm (HD 55) at the river-bank. He is a young Russian man and has looked after Mr. Kurtz. Marlow envies him and he is captivated by his spirit of adventure. If the absolutely pure, uncalculating, unpractical spirit of adventure had ever ruled a human being, it ruled this be-patched youth. I almost envied him the possession of this modest and clear flame. It seemed to have consumed all thought of self so completely, that, even while he was talking to you, you forgot that it was he-the man before your eyes-who had gone through these things. (HD 59) The reason Marlow is enchanted by him is the fact that the Russian man keeps his pure mind and hope even though he is in savage and crude situation contrary to himself who is disappointed by secular white people and fearful barbarism. Meanwhile, the other description is completely different from them. The previous captain before Marlow is murdered by African people. There was misunderstanding about two black hens between the man and African people, in the process, he tried to show self-respect and finally beat the chief with hammer. In A Comparative Study of Narrative Structure on Heart of Darkness Apocalypse Now: Modernism vs. Postmodernism, Mi-Sook Um indicates that he is a precursor of Mr. Kurtz in that he goes to the Africa with a torch to realize noble ideals that enlightens barbarians. (5) In the jungle, Marlow faces impulsiveness and violence of white society when an opportunity offered at last to meet his predecessor, the grass growing through his ribs was tall enough to hide his bones.(HD 7) The Companys chief accountant shows well how western modernization and capitalism covers violent act of crime and a system isolates human from touches of humanity. I met a white man, in such an unexpected elegance of get-up that in the first moment I took him for assort of vision. I saw a high starched collar, white cuffs, a light alpaca jacket, snowy trousers, a clear necktie, and varnished boots. No hat. Hair parted, brushed, oiled, under a green-lined parasol held in a big white hand. He was amazing, and had a penholder behind his ear. (HD 17) Um explains that the chief accountant neglects African peoples groans with starvation and disease and do his work hard, which shows snobbery in that he regards African people as an obstacle in doing his job. (5) His books, which were in apple-pie order (HD 17) means his irrationality because this achievement can be made under exploitation and sacrifice of African people. Marlow calls it achievement and accomplishment. Nevertheless, Marlows remark that his appearance was certainly that of a hairdressers dummy; but in the great demoralization of the land he kept up his appearance (HD 17) unconsciously suggests ugly aspect of humanity and in that sense; the accountant is like a hollow man who have no hearts. In other words, the accountant signifies both extreme moderation, self-control and pitilessness, cruelty. The rest of white people are blind to personal gains and corrupted. That is inside and outside of western European imperialism and we can grasp that it reflects the contradictio n of European ideals from his ambivalent description of the white people. Imagery of Ambivalence There are some effective imageries of ambivalence in Heart of Darkness. To convey his theme symbolically, Conrad often uses visual imagery such as white and black, light and darkness, auditory imagery such as frenzy and silence and unique narrative structure. 3.1 Visual Imagery It is easy to compare Heart of Darkness with an aesthetic architecture because the structure of the story is systematically composed with the beginning, the middle and the end charged of various symbols. The beginning part as embryo of the story starts description of a steamboat. The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest. The sea-reach of the Thames stretched before us like the beginning of an interminable waterway.(HD 1) We can easily bring out a mans exploration against nature or a mans quest into the abyss of the soul with a regard to a boat and the river. Accordingly, the term interminable means invisible reverse of ones soul and the hidden inside of life. In The Mythic Structure of Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness, Hyun, Young-Min also explains that Marlows journey into the mystery of an unknown earth thus symbolizes not only mans venture into his past history but also a quest into the abyss of human soul. (14) Likewise, Con rad tries to show inexpressible or incomprehensible things to us by detailed expression like this with these symbols. Conrad often also uses visual contrast such as white and black, light and darkness. The image of whiteness in the story appears in a white sepulcher, ivory and light and white people and the bald head of Kurtz. In the case of light and white people in the beginning part, light and whiteness are a symbol of enlightenment that eliminates darkness representing evil and barbarism but it reveals the other side as the story goes. Park, Sun-Hwa, in To make you see through the Symbols in Joseph Conrads Lord Jim, says that Marlow thinks that the natives are murderer or barbarians with wickedness, aggressiveness and violence before he goes to Congo but he realizes that the natives have strong vitality and are living harmoniously with nature. On the contrary, white people who are exploiting them and make them starve are indeed barbarians. Thus, whiteness suggests hypocrisy of civilized people, and black is the power of life force. (9) We can know these symbols of whiteness in the description of the accountant wearing white clothes and ivory representing of humans self-centeredness, vanity and depravity of human nature. (9) To be specific, Hyun, Young-Min explains that thus this light is suggestive of the whiteness of civilization which blights and impoverishes the black savages relentlessly instead of playing a role of the torch to enlighten them. This light is symbolic of the spiritual emptiness of a white man indicated in Kurtz. The blinding symbolism of European civilization is well expressed in Kurtzs painting of a woman, draped and blindfolded, carrying a lighted torch(HD 25) (12) When we regard destructive nature of fire (torch or light), we can find out that it has ambivalent imagery. The image of black and darkness is referred in the skin color of African people, two women knitting black wool in Brussels, Mr. Kurtz and the wilderness. It is associated with death, horror and emptiness in soul. At first, darkness of the wilderness means both horror and a sense of awe for Marlow because he feels fear of infinite power of nature. Black people are also a target to be improved, humanized to need enlightenment (light). However, as he sees the terrible scenes of imperialism which are suffering beings, a variety of kinds of corruption and Mr. Kurtz who is a devil incarnate, the meaning of darkness comes to change into dark side of civilization and European imperialistic people with profoundly dark souls. That is, he is shocked by the fact that Chaos or Hell expressed as darkness is not in the wilderness, but the world of civilization, culture he lives in. Accordingly, such an ugly truth enlightens Marlow, which could be regarded as being in Hell or Chaos because the truth shakes his world supporting his previous conception and conviction. In the same vein, it closely relates to Marlows significant remark on dying Mr. Kurtz that His was an impenetrable darkness. (HD 75) and Mr. Kurtzs final remark, The horror! The horror! (HD 76) 3.2 Auditory Imagery Especially, Conrad overthrows auditory imagery as regards to the core theme of the story and shows the process that Marlows thinking changes. Silence in the Thames shows peaceful and orderly world that conquered all of the confusion and disorder before. On the contrary, silence in the river Congo is a threat to Marlow because it makes him feel a sense of guilt by giving him time to reflect on himself. And outside, the silent wilderness surrounding this cleared speck on the earth struck me as something great and invincible, like evil or truth, waiting patiently for the passing away of this fantastic invasion. (HD 23) This is because he subconsciously realizes that the reason he is here does not be resulted from simple curiosity and pure passion of exploration. As a result, he feels that he is not different from white people that he gets totally disenchanted. I became in an instant as much of a pretence as the rest of the bewitched pilgrims.(HD 27) Therefore, since the act of soul-searching leads him to see the hidden truth under the surface, he fears of silence in the wilderness that gives a chance of self-examination and makes him know his self-deception. You know I hate, detest, and cant bear a lie, not because I am straighter than the rest of us, but simply because it appals me. There is a taint of death, a flavor of mortality in lies, which is exactly what I hate and detest in the world what I want to forget. (HD 27) In terms of frenzy or noise from wilderness, he considers it primitive for the reason that African people are all savage and barbarous at first. Nevertheless, he becomes confused as he sees the brutal scenes of imperialism, so eventually he starts feeling that it is fury of nature. Perhaps on some quiet night the tremor of far-off drums, sinking, swelling, a tremor vast, faint; a sound weird, appealing, suggestive, and wild and perhaps with as profound a meaning as the sound of bells in a Christian country. (HD 19) Free from a private individual, he thinks that invaders coming to Africa are receiving punishment for Europe-centered mind which conquers and exploits nature and only pursues ones benefit. Compared to a bell in a Christian country, it shakes the earth because the sound of nature relates to the conscience in humans mind. As for the final burst of Kurtz, it is the moment of change from Marlows previous abstract ideal idea to realization of reality. He always listens about Mr. Kurtz from the general manager, the accountant and the Russian man in the station. The stories about Kurtz are just full of words like God. He was just a word for me.(HD 27) Finally he listens to his voice though. It means the distance between our idea or expectation and the real situations. Although His expectation to meet Kurtz realizes, he finds out Kurtz degrades beyond his control and reason. However, we should remember that this story is also handed down by the listeners, who are Marlow and anonymous speaker. Accordingly, it shows that there is always room for reinterpretation, distortion and beatification. I did not see the man in the name any more than you do. Do you see him? Do you see the story? Do you see the anything? It seems to me I am trying to tell you a dream making a vain attempt, because no relation of a dream can convey the dream-sensation, that commingling of absurdity, surprise, and bewilderment in a tremor of struggling revolt, that notion of being captured by the incredible which is of the very essence of dreams. . . . (HD 27) Finally, when we consider that voice instantly disappears as soon as it emanates, we can understand that it is analogy of our mortal life. No matter how we try to approach the truth, it is demanding to have a clear sense of it. In addition, the meaning of such an act or the truth is likely to get discolored because we are living in a limited time. All we can do is interminable effort as if we walk in complete darkness. 3.3 Imagery of Narrative Above all, when we read the beginning part of the story, it does not seem to be interested in the very corner story as if glow brings out of a haze.(HD 3) A detailed portrayal of landscape discourages us to read and catch it because diffuse sentences and overflowing adjectives overwhelm us. Therefore, we cannot get the idea because even making a picture in our head reaches a limit even though visual details should extend the range of perception. Interestingly, though, that is how to Conrad displays his idea, which is a symbolic setting. That is, he takes advantage of the fact that we cannot comprehend feelings and situations at that time because those moments already passed and even we pick a story up from others. The point is that it is inevitable that there are gaps between idea and reality, the real situation and experience that we think and rearrange by our feeling and thinking. For example, it applies to Marlows journey because he goes to Congo with yearning for exploration but he becomes disillusioned. It shows that his ideal idea is betrayed by reality. Furthermore, since Marlow depicts his past experience, his depiction might have been changed by his subjective analysis. Kurtzs story is also conveyed by Marlows perspective. In addition, an anonymous speaker is telling Marlows story, which means that opinions of the anonymous speaker are projected in the story. In this sense, in Vision, Illusion, and Misinterpretation in Conrads Under Western Eyes, Jong-Seok Kim indicates that of special importance is the fact that the problem of illusion is not restricted to the novels protagonist and narrator alone; it is also true of the novels other main characters. For them, the world is like a blank page on which they project their own ideas, hopes, prejudices, and des

Cold Reality of Workhouses Depicted in Dickens’ novel Oliver Twist :: Oliver Twist Essays

Cold Reality of Workhouses Depicted in Dickens’ novel Oliver Twist   Ã‚  Imagine abruptly woken to the harsh sounds of demanding yelling and screaming only to find yourself still shivering from the lack of hole-filled sheets that they call blankets.   Feeling fatigued from another sleepless night and faintly from the malnutrition, you eagerly await your habitual serving of gruel for breakfast.   Extremely weak from the meager portion, the never-ending day begins as you are led to do various different chores throughout the day.   This is the life in a workhouse.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Workhouses â€Å"were places where poor homeless people worked and in return they were fed and housed.   In 1834 The Poor Law Amendment Act was introduced which wanted to make the workhouse more of a deterrent to idleness as it was believed that people were poor because they were idle and needed to be punished.   So people in workhouses were deliberately treated harshly and the workhouses were more like prisons† (Internet source – Charles Dickens 1812-1870).   Charles Dickens realistically portrayed the horrible conditions of the 19th century workhouses in his novel Oliver Twist.   Dickens attempted to improve the workhouse conditions and as a result, his novel helped influence changes in the problem.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Dickens’ novel shows people how things really were in the workhouses during the 19th century.   A child of the parish â€Å" had contrived to exist upon the smallest possible portion of the weakest possible food, it did perversely happen in eight and a half cases out of ten, either that it sickened from want and cold, or fell into the fire from neglect, or got half-smothered by accident; in any one of which cases, the miserable little being was usually summoned into another world† (Twist p.5).   Here Dickens shows how children were starved, neglected, inappropriately dressed, and mistreated.   His statement also claims that many of the times, the children died in a result to the poor environment.   The encyclopedia provides a more general explanation as it simply states that the â€Å"conditions in the workhouses were deliberately harsh and degrading† (The New Encyclopedia Britannica Vol.12 p.755).     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Another passage in the novel describes how one of the children of the parish was treated when not to their liking.   A boy named Oliver received â€Å"a tap on the head [from the cane of the parish beadle] to wake him up: and another on the back to make him lively† (Twist p.

A Midsummers Nights Dream by William Shakespeare Essay -- Papers

A Midsummer's Nights Dream by William Shakespeare William Shakespeare wrote a midsummer's night dream in 1595. He wrote this comedy to celebrate the marriage of a noble man. An important guest at the wedding was Elizabeth 1st. The play describes the adventures of two sets of lovers as they pass through the forest outside Athens, they are misused by immortals Oberon the fairy king and puck his messenger. To get revenge on his wife Titania, Oberon misuses Bottom a labourer. The love tangles are all resolved at the end of the play when love rules all end married and happy. Shakespeare wishes his audience to enjoy the falling in and out of love of the characters. His message is that true love never runs smoothly. The theme of love is involved with all of the characters from the quarrel of Oberon and Titania, to the play Pyramus and Thisbe performed by the labourers for the wedding celebrations of Theseus and Hippolyta. Oberon has power over all the elements. He can change weather and seasons. "These are the forgeries of jealousyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ But with thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sportà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ The seasons alterà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ The spring, the summer, the childing autumn, angry winter, changeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦" This speech of titanias shows us that the seasons and all the growth of nature are changed because of their jealousy arguments and disagreements. This is because Oberon and Titania are king and queen of immortals and have control over them and all nature. Their argument causes evil to occur. Later in the play when they are reconciled they bring blessing to the mortal world. He therefore decided to teach his wife a lesson when she refuses to .. ...eron's "bed and company" we see how determined Oberon is to have the little Indian boy, his wife refuses. While angry with his wife Oberon feels sorry for Helena when he hears Demetrias treats her badly. How strange that Oberon intends to use the flower juice on his own wife to misuse and embarrass her. The swing of the emotion is typical to mood swings through the play. It is Oberon that controls the lives of the other characters and brings changes of mood and atmosphere. It is he who moves he story to a happy end. When Titania agreed to give Oberon the little Indian boy he takes the juice of her eyes. The lover's muddles are sorted out and they are happy. This is a very different Oberon from which we see at the start of the play, he is a much better person. In the same way he acts like a spoilt child.

Medea shows that seeking revenge undermines any hope of justice Essay

The brutal course of revenge which Medea exacts on Jason may suggest that in the pursuit of revenge, one render any prospect of attaining justice to be void. However in an indirect way, Medea’s course of revenge which implicates the lives of innocents, exerts a punishment on her. Ultimately, the fact that Medea is not directly subjected to a punishment for her extreme course of her revenge is attributable to her ancestry – she is the grand-daughter of the Sun-God. This nullifies any suggestion that seeking revenge overthrows the likelihood of justice, as Medea’s divine circumstances are an anomaly. Thereby, this outcome of her ploy of revenge is not representative of the outcome which an identical course of revenge would yield for an ordinary citizen in Ancient Greece. On a superficial and simplistic level, the success of Medea’s course of revenge suggests that justice has been attained, as we witness the rightful downfall of Jason. Jason’s betrayal of Medea in the form of his abandonment, results in the breaking of the oath he pledged to Medea and the Gods. Thus, in adherence to the notion of divine justice, that the Gods will exact justice on those who commit unnatural deeds, Jason deserves a calamitous punishment for the breaking of this oath to the Gods and Medea, who â€Å"never did him wrong†. Through achieving revenge on Jason in the most effective manner possible, via murdering their children and his wife, Medea inflicts this just punishment on Jason. However, on a more profound level, Medea’s immoderate course of revenge instills within the audience a sense that her course of revenge has been essentially counter-productive to achieving true justice. In her pursuit of revenge, Medea murders her innocent children, indicating that she has committed an indisputably barbaric injustice, while seeking to exert justice on Jason. To a lesser extent, this also applies to Glauce and Creon. Although they have been involved in Jason’s abandonment of Medea through implicitly condoning it, Medea’s murder of these two is also unwarranted and unjustifiable. Yet, despite committing these gross injustices, the play concludes without any direct form of divine justice being exerted on Medea. To the contrary, Medea receives assistance in fleeing Corinth. To a certain extent justice is indirectly inflicted on Medea for her excessive course of revenge, pertaining particularly to the murders of her children. It noticeable intensifies Medea’s plight, suggesting that a punishment is derived on Medea. Prior to committing these barbaric deeds, Medea recognises that they will cause her to â€Å"endure guilt, however horrible.† Medea’s desire for the continued presence of her children shows that she maintains a compassionate nature towards her children, affirming that Medea’s murder of her children will be to the detriment of her enduring quality of life. This is confirmed by Medea’s complete agreement with Jason’s view that the murders of their children cause Medea â€Å"to suffer too, my loss is yours [Medea’s] no less. â€Å"Medea’s association with the gods by her ancestry, refutes the widespread applicability of the notion that revenge cannot succeed in terms of forming true justice. Medea is the grand-daughter of the Sun-God. This is shown most emphatically in the manner in which Medea murders Glauce. Medea perpetrates the murder of Glauce through engulfing her in flames. Similarly, she exhibits an affiliation with the god Zeus, and the god of the underworld, â€Å"Queen Hecate †¦ my chosen accomplish.† This affiliation is pivotal to why a punishment is not directly exerted on Medea by the gods for the injustices she commits whilst perpetrating her ploy for revenge on Jason. Thus, informing us that for an ordinary citizen in Ancient Greece, such an unscathed outcome would not be possible. It forces us to realise that the outcome of Medea does not conclusively show that seeking revenge through immoderate means leads to a failure to achieve true justice. In many ways, Medea’s departure from Corinth within a chariot provided by the Gods, despite the callous deeds she has committed in exacting revenge on Jason, suggests that the pursuit of revenge occurs at the expense of the formation of genuine justice. However, we must be cautious to accept this misguided suggestion, due to Medea’s rare circumstance of divine attributes, which enables her to be vindicated by the Gods for her merciless deeds perpetrated whilst exerting justice on Jason. References:Euripides, Medea