Daddy Long Legs Essay

Jerusha Abbott was brought up at the John Grier Home, an old-fashioned orphanage. The children were wholly dependent on charity and had to wear other people’s cast-off clothes. Jerusha’s unusual first name was selected by the matron off a gravestone (she hates it and uses â€Å"Judy† instead), while her surname was selected out of the phone book. At the age of 18, she has finished her education and is at loose ends, still working in the dormitories at the institution where she was brought up. One day, after the asylum’s trustees have made their monthly visit, Judy is informed by the asylum’s dour matron that one of the trustees has offered to pay her way through college. He has spoken to her former teachers and thinks she has potential to become an excellent writer. He will pay her tuition and also give her a generous monthly allowance. Judy must write him a monthly letter, because he believes that letter-writing is important to the development of a writer. However, she will never know his identity; she must address the letters to Mr. John Smith, and he will never reply. Jerusha catches a glimpse of the shadow of her benefactor from the back, and knows he is a tall long-legged man. Because of this, she jokingly calls him Daddy-Long-Legs. She attends a â€Å"girls’ college,† but the name and location are never identified. Men from Princeton University are frequently mentioned as dates, so it might be assumed that her college is one of the Seven Sisters. It was certainly on the East Coast. She illustrates her letters with childlike line drawings, also created by Jean Webster. The book chronicles Jerusha’s educational, personal, and social growth. One of the first things she does at college is to change her name to â€Å"Judy. † She designs a rigorous reading program for herself and struggles to gain the basic cultural knowledge to which she, growing up in the bleak environment of the orphan asylum, was never exposed. At the end of the book, the identity of ‘Daddy-Long-Legs’ is revealed.

Life Inside Prisons

In recent years increased attention has been paid to the custodial institution in terms of general sociological theory rather than in terms of social problems, notably with reference to aspects of prison life commonly identified in the relevant literature as the â€Å"inmate culture,† the â€Å"prisoner community,† or the â€Å"inmate social system† (Wortley 26). What is life in prison like? Most of the 250 or so million Americans have little idea what life behind bars is all about. Even though some of us may know someone who is doing time, or who works inside prison walls, a realistic picture of prison life is absent for most people.Much of what we think we know is based on television or motion picture depictions of prisons. This system of social relationships – its underlying norms, attitudes, and beliefs – as found in the American prison, and a general but truer portrayal of prison life will be examined in this paper. After summarizing the salien t features of prisoners as presented in the sociological literature of the last two decades, we comment briefly on the major theoretical approach that has been used in discussing prison life. Then we consider a theory of the structure and functioning of the inmate social system, primarily in terms of inmate values.The â€Å"penitentiary† has existed in America since 1790 and the Walnut Street Jail in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Wortley 52). Although our country has witnessed numerous reforms since the early nineteenth century, prison as punishment has remained a mainstay of corrections in the United States. State departments of corrections vary considerably in how many facilities they operate, depending primarily on the size of the inmate population but also on the willingness of taxpayers to subsidize additional prisons. They vary as well as to the size, type, and location of those facilities and in the number of staff assigned to each prison.A typical day in prison, then, i s spent trying to keep oneself in line and as busy as allowable (or as chosen to be) in prison. In addition, activities for the day include moving from place to place and being counted and accounted for. Inmates are moved in systematic, orderly, and predictable ways from their housing areas to mess hall, showers, education programs or work assignments, and back again several times, to be counted. The major activity for prisoners is usually a morning (two hours) and an afternoon (two hours) program, such as attending GED classes.Work assignments are usually also considered â€Å"programs† and can involve work as a porter doing maintenance, a cook or kitchen worker, or a clerk of some type, plumbing or electrical work in the prison, or in prison industry work, making license plates or furniture. Some job assignments are better than others, either in terms of pay (ranging from $.15 to $4.00 an hour), the challenge it affords (law clerk versus porter), the housing that accompanie s it (such as honor block for model inmates), or the particular perks that go along with it (working outside in fresh air) (Wortley 45). Other activities to keep inmates busy and out of trouble may include visitation (on set days/hours), recreation, religious services, tutoring, and so on.The routine of prison is occasionally interrupted by disruptions of various sorts and violence. When we think of prison violence we tend to think of riots, but full-scale riots are relatively rare events. For example, there were five riots throughout the over 1,500 state and federal prisons in 1995. Some are planned and instrumental (a means to an end) and controlled by a small group of inmates (such as Attica, New York), while others have been spontaneous, expressive, and deadly (such as Santa Fe, New Mexico).Evidence indicates that incarceration adversely affects some prisoners while others adapt relatively well. Research shows that most inmates, however, cannot escape feeling some impact of impr isonment. While individuals enter prison with a range of coping abilities, those with the most difficulty in adjustment tend to be individuals who have lived a marginal lifestyle prior to prison and those with the least successful experience coping with life. Those inmates most susceptible to coping problems in prison are those who (a) have unstable family, living, work, and/or education histories, (b) are single, young, and male, and (c) have histories of chronic substance abuse or psychological difficulties or who have otherwise had significant problems with other major aspects of life. Individual factors, prison environmental forces, and a history of low-level coping, both inside and outside prison, interact to determine the degree of adaptive or maladaptive responses to the prison experience.Despite the number and diversity of prison populations, observers of such groups have reported only one strikingly pervasive value system. This value system of prisoners commonly takes the f orm of an explicit code, in which brief normative imperatives are held forth as guides for the behavior of the inmate in his relations with fellow prisoners and custodians. The maxims are usually asserted with great vehemence by the inmate population, and violations call forth a diversity of sanctions ranging from ostracism to physical violence.Examination of many descriptions of prison life suggests that the chief tenets of the inmate code can be classified roughly into five major groups:1. There are those maxims that caution: Don't interfere with inmate interests, which center of course in serving the least possible time and enjoying the greatest possible number of pleasures and privileges while in prison. The most inflexible directive in this category is concerned with betrayal of a fellow captive to the institutional officials. In general, no qualification or mitigating circumstance is recognized; and no grievance against another inmate – even though it is justified in th e eyes of the inmate population – is to be taken to officials for settlement. Other specifics include: Don't be nosey; don't have a loose lip; keep off a man's back; don't put a guy on the spot. In brief and positively put: Be loyal to your class – the cons. Prisoners must present a unified front against their guards no matter how much this may cost in terms of personal sacrifice.2. There are explicit injunctions to refrain from quarrels or arguments with fellow prisoners: Don't lose your head. Emphasis is placed on the curtailment of affect; emotional frictions are to be minimized and the irritants of daily life ignored. Maxims often heard include: Play it cool and do your own time. There are important distinctions in this category, depending on whether the prisoner has been subjected to legitimate provocation; but in general a definite value is placed on curbing feuds and grudges.3. Prisoners assert that inmates should not take advantage of one another by means of fo rce, fraud, or chicanery: Don't exploit inmates. This sums up several directives: Don't break your word; don't steal from the cons; don't sell favors; don't be a racketeer; don't welsh on debts. More positively, it is argued that inmates should share scarce goods in a balanced reciprocity of â€Å"gifts† or â€Å"favors,† rather than sell to the highest bidder or selfishly monopolize any amenities: Be right.4. There are rules that have as their central theme the maintenance of self: Don't weaken. Dignity and the ability to withstand frustration or threatening situations without complaining or resorting to subservience are widely acclaimed. The prisoner should be able to â€Å"take it† and to maintain his integrity in the face of privation. When confronted with wrongfully aggressive behavior, whether of inmates or officials, the prisoner should show courage. Although starting a fight runs counter to the inmate code, retreating from a fight started by someone else is equally reprehensible. Some of these maxims are: Don't whine; don't cop out (cry guilty); don't such around. Prescriptively put: Be tough; be a man.5. Prisoners express a variety of maxims that forbid according prestige or respect to the custodians or the world for which they stand: Don't be a sucker. Guards are hacks or screws and are to be treated with constant suspicion and distrust. In any situation of conflict between officials and prisoners, the former are automatically to be considered in the wrong. Furthermore, inmates should not allow themselves to become committed to the values of hard work and submission to duly constituted authority – values prescribed (if not followed) by screws – for thus an inmate would become a sucker in a world where the law-abiding are usually hypocrites and the true path to success lies in forming a â€Å"connection.† The positive maxim is: Be sharp.In the literature on the mores of imprisoned criminals there is no claim t hat these values are asserted with equal intensity by every member of a prison population; all social systems exhibit disagreements and differing emphases with respect to the values publicly professed by their members (Wortley 37). But observers of the prison are largely agreed that the inmate code is outstanding both for the passion with which it is propounded and the almost universal allegiance verbally accorded it.In the light of this inmate code or system of inmate norms, we can begin to understand the patterns of inmate behavior so frequently reported; for conformity to, or deviation from, the inmate code is the major basis for classifying and describing the social structures of prisoners. Social groups are apt to characterize individuals in terms of crucial â€Å"axes of life† (lines of interests, problems, and concerns faced by the groups) and then to attach distinctive names to the resulting roles or types. This process may be discerned in the society of prisoners and its argot for the patterns of behavior or social roles exhibited by inmates; and in these roles the outlines of the prison community as a system of action may be seen.An inmate who violates the norm proscribing the betrayal of a fellow prisoner is labeled â€Å"a rat† or â€Å"a squealer† in the vocabulary of the inmate world, and his deviance elicits universal scorn and hatred. Prisoners who exhibit highly aggressive behavior, who quarrel easily and fight without cause, are often referred to as â€Å"toughs†. The individual who uses violence deliberately as a means to gain his ends is called â€Å"a gorilla†; a prisoner so designated is one who has established a satrapy based on coercion in clear contravention of the rule against exploitation by force.The term â€Å"merchant†, or â€Å"peddler†, is applied to the inmate who exploits his fellow captives not by force but by manipulation and trickery, and who typically sells or trades goods t hat are in short supply. If a prisoner shows himself unable to withstand the general rigors of existence in the custodial institution, he may be referred to as a weakling or â€Å"a weak sister†. If, more specifically, an inmate is unable to endure prolonged deprivation of heterosexual relationships and consequently enters into a homosexual liaison, he will be labeled â€Å"a wolf† or â€Å"a fag†, depending on whether his role is an active or a passive one.A â€Å"right guy† is always loyal to his fellow prisoners. He never lets you down no matter how rough things get. He keeps his promises; he's dependable and trustworthy. He isn't nosey about your business and doesn't shoot off his mouth about his own. He doesn't act stuck-up, but he doesn't fall all over himself to make friends either – he has a certain dignity. The right guy never interferes with other inmates who are conniving against the officials.From the studies describing the life of men in prison, two major facts emerge: (1) Inmates give strong verbal support to a system of values that has group cohesion or inmate solidarity as its basic theme. Directly or indirectly, prisoners uphold the ideal of a system of social interaction in which individuals are bound together by ties of mutual aid, loyalty, affection, and respect, and are united firmly in their opposition to the enemy out-group.The man who exemplifies this ideal is accorded high prestige. The opposite of a cohesive inmate social system – a state in which each individual seeks his own advantage without reference to the claims of solidarity – is vociferously condemned. (2) The actual behavior of prisoners ranges from full adherence to the norms of the inmate world to deviance of various types. These behavioral patterns, recognized and labeled by prisoners in the pungent argot of the dispossessed, form a collection of social roles which, with their interrelationships, constitute the inmate social system.Works CitedWortley, Richard. Situational Prison Control: Crime Prevention in Correctional Institutions. Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Malinche Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Malinche - Research Paper Example According to Hampton,1 Malinche was born to chief Oluta, who was a member of the royal house of the Aztecs in 1502. 2 Her father died when she was still very young. According to the culture of her people, she was the sole heir of her father’s wealth and position as the chief. This, however, never happened. Malinche’s mother remarried and had a son with her stepfather. Her mother and stepfather then formulated a plan and sold her to slave traders, for her son to remain the sole heir of the throne. In her plan, Malinche’s mother took advantage of the death of one of her slave’s daughters. She blackmailed this slave and ended up burying the slave’s daughter as Malinche. 3 The slave was told to remain silent, or be sent away with the merchants who were buying slaves. 4 Not all sources concur on Malinche’s origin. However, it has been established by Joan Hershafield that she was a Nahuatl with the original name of Malimalli. Her province of birth was Coazacualco. According to the author, stories of Malinche’s slave life that led her to Cortes are contradictory. On the one hand, Lee Stacy presents Malinche as a member of the royal house of the Aztecs and the legal heir of her father’s throne as do sources in the previous paragraph. However, on the other hand, Hamptons contradicts that information, blackmails the family relations of Malinche, and argues that she was the daughter of a slave. The translation process was long-drawn-out, involving the Spanish, Mayan, and Nahuatl languages. When Cortes wanted to communicate with Nahuatl speakers, among whom were the influential Mexica or Aztec people, he would first tell Jeronimo de Aguilar, who would then translate into Mayan for La Malinche, who then further translated Cortes’ statement to the Nahuatl speakers, those reply was communicated by the reverse process. Due to this three-way interaction, the Nahuatl-speakers called her Malintzin. The Spanish upon he aring the natives calling her Malintzin, tried calling her the same, but their mispronounced version was Malinche. 5 Hampton tells us that La Malinche’s father placed a golden necklace around the little girl’s neck and said, â€Å"That this necklace will be the sign forever that shows you are a member of the Royal Aztec house, and your name is Malintzin.† 6 The Mexican citizens considered Malinche a traitor because she was Cortes’ mistress and was his translator. When she was baptized, she adopted a new name because she had no choice. Having been sold by her own mother into slavery, she had no choice but to obey the ways of slavery. Slavery led her into Cortes hands. Castillo, Bernal, Janet Burke and Humphrey tell us that Malinche that she was under captivity in Maya before being offered to Cortes as a war trophy by the Maya people. 7 Cortes wanted to conquer Mexico no matter what. It was one of his targets. Malinche,  therefore should, not be blamed fo r some other person’s political and personal interests. Appreciation should be given to Malinche for making negotiations possible. 8 Levesque suggests that Malinche willingly offered herself to Cortes, making her a betrayer to Mexico. 9 She is considered a representation of Mexico’s Eve, man’s first other and Christian history’

Admission Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 10

Admission - Essay Example As students, we were regularly tasked with coming up with project in groups of five or thereof, these tasks equipped me with the ability to tolerate and work with people of different natures and principles contrary to mine. The tasks also gave me valuable knowledge on how to ensure maximum productivity in groups and meet deadlines. I can actively employ these skills in my professional life where I am tasked with working with my colleagues. I can also use the skills to ensure that deadlines are met to ensure maximum productivity My undergraduate studies gave me valuable lessons on leadership. The coursework contained tenets on business management and how to ensure business success (Norman 35) .In the classroom I learnt how to lead and handle crisis situations. As a project leader, I gained valuable knowledge on how to motivate my group members to ensure maximum productivity. I also learnt how to cope with uncooperative members. The leadership skills would prove invaluable to public service especially if given a managerial position. The ability to motivate my colleagues in situations where an institution is making losses would be necessary. It would also help me to maintain the morale of the employees. My experience as a volunteer with the World Health Organization was pivotal in my learning experience. Among the many students who volunteered during the 2004 cholera outbreak, only a few of us remained by the end of the containment period (Geudens 36). This experience taught me the value of commitment to set goals and agendas. I learnt that without commitment, one would not achieve the desired results. This skillset would be useful in my public service especially as pertains quality service delivery. Commitment to my duties will be important in the achievement of institutional goals and objectives. My six months training as a cadet in the military taught me how to cope with

Luther the movie Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Luther the movie - Essay Example ement; "I live in terror of judgment, have you ever dared to think that God is not just threatening us with the fires of hell.† Martin can be viewed to be repulsing God. When you compare this to â€Å"The Recital of the Deceased Egyptian† Martin will be seen as repulsing God because the situation is so strict and that makes it almost impossible for one not to sin. "I have not repulsed the God in his manifestations, I am pure, I am pure, I am pure," is a complex statement for any human being. But Luther tries to live and attain these abnormal standards and that is the main reason he has to live in a Hinduism way of life. He has to live and be fully devoted to God as it is the primary goal. Martin is also obliged to follow the ways of salvation which are clearly shown throughout the movie. The first way is that of good works and is seen when Martin gives back the money the money that had been paid for indulgences to the mother of the girl that could not walk. He tells her that paying indulgences is not the right way to get to God. The way of salvation through knowledge is seen when Martin becomes a preacher and decides to teach differently. When Martin translates the Bible into German language, he was portraying the way of devotion. This was crucial as he was dedicated to letting the people making sure that people had a chance to understand religion by reading the Bible and know what they were getting into. When Martin teaches a young girl how to learn to walk again he was practicing the physical discipline way (Chaffee 36). It is hard to imagine any social being that is pure. Though Martin is seen as a hero by many people who believe that he was a reformer and the greatest one that the religion has ever had, some people see him as one who wrestled with God. In the beginning, we see a tormented Luther that is willing to become a monk if only he is saved d by the heavens from a thunderstorm. We see him wishing there were no God and longed to a God that he that is

Company law Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Company law - Case Study Example tors of Made in Wales (MIW) of refusing to buy the land only for them to allow Lisa to buy the land and then resell it to the firm at a much high profit margin, the officers are liable and the firm as a whole was liable. However, considering that the person who is suing the firm one of the shareholders, the liability in this case will not be on the firm but the directors. However, since Derek was not directly involved and he had not been attending board meetings, he may be exempt from this. Derek was not officially aware of this transaction and therefore from a legal point of view, he is not at default. Part (b) of section 82 also outlines that a person guilty of such an offence is can be prosecuted and given the punishment hat is in line with his or her offence. However, it also provides that for continued contravention, a daily default fine may apply. However, even though Derek had not attended any meeting, and was not involved in the transactions that led to MIW being in trouble, he still bears some responsibility as a director. In Re Hydrodam (Corby) Ltd [1994] 2 BCLC 180, the court made a decision, which showed what a shadow director is. This could be useful a court of law to implicate him. Section 197 outlines that for a company to give loans it requires members approval (Van Duzer, 2007). Subsection 1 of this section outlines that company may not (a) make a loan to a director or (b) give a collateral or provide security for a loan given to any of its directors director by any person or party. The section however gives an exception such as when such a transaction when the shareholders of the company have given an approval by a resolution. Section 209 however outlines that for money-lending companies, such an approval does not have to be there as long as the loan is through the correct procedure that would be in place when giving a loan to any other customer. In such a case, the do require would not be getting the loan or the security to a loan as a director

Portfolio Management Statistics Project Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Portfolio Management - Statistics Project Example The stock returns values experience wide variance due to the fluctuation in portfolio weights across the period. From the set of 28 stocks, the time series was filtered on the criteria of performance to retain the 11 stocks shown in the time series as the most efficient portfolio. The process of refining the investment involved ignoring the portfolio with low weights and retaining the high weight portfolio. The selection aimed at picking 3 stocks with the best returns to represent the high efficiency required in the pool decision. The high efficiency stocks were found to be IBM and MMM. The decision was made on the values based on the original currency returns. The time series for the refined investment pool carries the following stock: The major reason for reducing the number of stocks in the refined investment is that many assets have caused a wide variation of the portfolio weights and return on investment (Tobin 1958, p. 65). The analysis sets up individual each of the assets independently to as to classify them as either risky assets or risk free assets using the correlation projections. The refinement judges the investment by their return, hence; it operates with the few selected manageable stocks to reduce the portfolio size by ignoring the low return stocks. The tangent portfolio was constructed using the Matlab program. The program uses the data entries from the covariance matrix with the new weights of portfolios. The mean return values and the optimal portfolio variances are shown with the least variance portfolio return averaging approximately 14.6%. After making the entry of the matrix, the exercise is repeated for the reduction of the variance to show the restricted efficient frontier as shown in figure 6 below. The assumption made in the construction of the frontier is that investment can run on negative portfolio weights, even though the current weights are positive. The

A Comparison between Walgreens and Wal-Mart Term Paper

A Comparison between Walgreens and Wal-Mart - Term Paper Example Both companies started off with core objectives of providing efficient services with regard to effective delivery of services in the drug retail sector. With time, both companies have grown to reputable companies with regard various service delivery practices related to the retailing industry. There exists a thin line with regard to the existence of service advantages of the services offered by both companies. Thus, in comparing and contrasting both companies, an individual requires the necessary content for effective realization of the service advantages. In addition, the employment of various analytic tools such as Porters’ 5 forces would provide the desired distinguishing edge. Founded by Charles R. Walgreen in 1901, Walgreens has grown to be one of the largest drug retailing companies in the U.S. according to its official website; the company currently boasts of over 8000 locations across the nation. This represents a significant expansion of the company from its headquart ers in Chicago, Illinois. Thus, the company provides services with regard to pharmacy, health and wellness. The company’s provision of these services is championed by the employment of various drugs stores and health service divisions in the country. Walgreens owes its origin to the establishment of small drug store in Chicago, Illinois in the early XX century. By the 1920s, the company’s stores had incurred a tremendous growth. ... Thus, according to the company’s official website, the company operates various departmental and warehouse stores around the world. The company has grown to be the leading retailer globally and the third largest public corporation. With more than 2 million employees around the world, the company boasts of the largest employee base in the in the globe. Headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, Wal-Mart owes its origin to the discounting ventures of its founder, Sam Walton. Walton employed the use of various discounted stores in the promotion of increased sales. Thus, Walton opened his first discounted store in Arkansas in 1962 which represented the birth of Wal-Mart Company. The company has, thus, rapidly expanded to become one of the leading companies in the world with regard to the retail industry. Comparative Analysis of both Wal-Mart and Walgreens Both Wal-Mart and Walgreen companies have engaged in cut-throat competition practices with regard to the dominance of the drug ret ail industry. However, it is necessary to note that upon the inception of Wal-Mart in 1962, Walgreens had been in operation for over 50 years. Thus, in order to gain rapid market share and competitive advantage with regard to Walgreens, Wal-Mart had to employ strategic competitive measures. Thus, Wal-Mart employed strategy that was centered on improving livelihoods. Enhancing people’s lives, thus, formed Wal-Mart’s mission (Amendola, 2012). This was accomplished through helping people to save money. Sam, Wal-Mart’s founder, wanted to improve people’s lives by lowering the high cost of living. Through the establishment of various strategies in Wal-Mart, Sam succeeded in creating a suitable platform for

Why Do We Travel Essay Example for Free

Why Do We Travel Essay I think the reason why we travel is to see experience other countries, new cultures, modern and old cities and historic towns. It’s always exciting to discover and explore new things such as, different ways of life, to meet different people, to try different food, to listen to different musicals. I also think that we travel because we want to escape from our daily routine and to find something more peaceful such as going to a beach, diving or taking a trip into the jungle. One of the best things about traveling is that you’re able to experience a feeling that’s not familiar with any other feelings. It is when you discover something new and you feel that you could stay here for the rest of your life. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn and experience more about the world. Many people are interested in photography and they visit other countries to take photos of landscapes such as the ocean, mountains, the sun rising, waterfalls and corals and much more. I think the reason why we take photos is that, photos help us remembering our lost memories or if we’re having a stressful day, the photos can help us find quietness in ourselves. The reason that makes traveling such a special thing is that you learn new things all the time. We get fascinated by the native language and culture. I think we want to experience the same feeling we get as when we watch a movie from an exotic place. We want that unforgettable journey that we will never forget. Just like in the movie â€Å"The Beach†. A group of young people goes to a special beach where everything is beautiful and peaceful. And you won’t get stressed and you won’t get disturbed by loud music like you do in overcrowded tourists. In the movie it has great consequences for the last newcomers that there can only be a certain number of people on the Island. I think it is sad when nature is destroyed by tourists but I would find another way to limit the numbers of tourists. Last summer, I was on a vacation to Italy with my family. It was definitely an exciting and an experiencing vacation but I also got inspired by their culture and their way of living. It wasn’t the unforgettable trip but it was a special trip because it was an important moment of my life and I could share it with my family.

Peace Corps Services Essay Example for Free

Peace Corps Services Essay Fulfillment in life is best attained when one contributed to meeting others’ needs, create time to understand their challenges and take decisive actions towards alleviating their sufferings. One can not also rule out the indispensability of peace if achieving this goal. Indeed, Peace Corps service presents major physical, emotional and intellectual challenges aimed at contributing to community development and invariably the stability of a nation. This stands as a major ideal of the Peace Corps Volunteers and I am keenly interested in such. More than interest, I am passionate about it. The ideals of the Peace Corps Volunteers are noble and they make a complete man; by this, I mean they contribute tremendously to the corporate citizenship status of an individual. In this vein, the individual sows seeds of good tidings to less opportune lives. A good corporate citizen engages in programs and activities based on the principle of individual impact on society aside continuous government plans. This is a major reason why I want to serve as a volunteer; the team is a credible platform to affect lives positively. Besides, I believe in that disputes and unrest can be avoided by effective communication and sheer understanding. This evidently requires tact and skills. Being a volunteer, I would have the privilege of engaging actively in activities that promote peace and harmony; this would sharpen my own communication skills and make me a better emotional intelligent individual. I see it as an avenue through which I can explore communication skills and improve on them, for the good of the colony. It also creates a large forum for me to learn others cultures, expands my schema and I can begin to appreciate life from a larger perspective. As a health care provider, serving as a volunteer is an excellent extension of my duties to the rest of opportunity outside the hospital walls. I have served in a number of religious and social volunteer work and these experiences have left an indelible mark on my heart. I can not stop but I must keep the flag on with the Peace Corps Volunteers as its ideals are compatible with my life’s goals.

Effects Of Cyber Bullying Criminology Essay

Effects Of Cyber Bullying Criminology Essay Cyber bullying is known to have some similar effects on victims as traditional bullying. Long term exposure to cyber bullying could lead to a decrease of a persons self-concept, an increased depression/anxiety level and more absence from school (Hines, 2011). Over the years the cyber bullying has received a lot of attention from the media and administration in school settings. Although existing research suggests that new form of bullying have similar negative effects as traditional bullying, additional research is needed to determine the extent of the effects it has on the victims (Hass, 2001). According to Kiriakidis and Kavoura (2010), 42.5% of victims surveyed said they were frustrated after being cyber bullied, 27% said they felt sad, 40% said they felt angry, 26.5% said they were affected at home and 22.1% of victims said it affected them at school (Hass, 2001). Cyber bullying also make some victims feel hopeless and scared to go to school. A number of victims who get cyber bull ied do nothing about it. It pushed some to stay offline more often and other reported it to their parents and siblings. The emotional damage of cyber bullying can be very severe and in some cases it makes victims to isolate themselves due to fear of being bullied again. Over 16,000 students miss school on a daily basis due to fear of bullies, and this diminishes their ability to learn at school (Mason, 2008). There have been cases where victims of cyber bullying have been besieged by chronic illness, suicidal thoughts, eating diasorders and some even ran away from home (Mason, 2008). The negative effects suffered from constant exposure to cyberbullying during school years may result in long term/chronic effects after the school years. Young adults who were former victims of cyber bullying tend to have poorer self esteem and show signs of depression when compared to peers who werent victimized (Mason, 2008). Research suggested that persistent cyber bullying at an early age leaves a n umber of scars that could be carried into adulthood. Hence, it is necessary to control/legislate cyber bullying at schools to help prevent the long and short term negative effects it could have on victims. The actual bullies may also suffer from some chronic negative effects that are related to cyber bullying. For instance, a number of adults who betrothed in anti-social activities later on in life were found to be bullies at school while younger (Mason, 2008). Accoding to Mason (2008), a survey revealed that sixty percent of boys who were bullies between grade six to grade nine have been convicted of one or more crimes by the age of twenty four, compared to twenty three percent of those who werent bullies between grade six to grade nine. Given the facts stated above, it is evident that both victims and buliies are at risk of developmental problems that could carry on into early adulthood and beyond (Mason, 2008). Some existing research on the effects of cyberbullying rely on correlational research which lack standardized measures of measuring the distress that stems from cyber bullying. Therefore, it is important for a more standardized measure to be implemented in future research (Hines, 2011). Age and Gender Differences According to Mason (2008), Girls (58%) are more likely to be the targets of online harassment than boys (42%). Also girls were found to more likely experience distressing harassment than boys (68% compares to 32%). However, 50% of the bullies or harassers were males while only 35% were females. This finding is in contrast with a another study by Kowalski et al. (2005) that found that girls are twice as likely as boys to be victims and culprits of cyber bullying (Mason, 2008). Two different studies by Olweus (1993) found that females are more likely to experience social bullying than males who are more susceptible to physical and direct forms of bullying (Hines, 2011). Health and Human Development sustained a survey that contained a sample of 15,686 students. The results indicated that girls reported to be victims of verbal bullying such as sexual comments and rumours more often than boys (Hines, 2011). Patronizing an individuals speech or looks was common among both sexes, along with negative comments about their race or religion (Hines, 2011). Cyber bullying is perceived to be more harmful to girls than it is to boys because adolescent girls perceive their social status to be of higher importance to their self-concept than adolescent boys do. Studies also reveal that the amount of girls that report bullying is higher than the amount of boys (Hines, 2011). Existing laws/bills Regulating Cyber bullying In criminal Law, Cyber bullying can be addressed under Defamatory Libel or Harassment. Defamatory Libel is considered a crime under the criminal code (section 300 of criminal code) and is punishable for up to five years in prison (Canadian Bar Association, (CBA), 2012). It occurs when a matter is published without lawful justification and it is likely to injure the reputation of another person, exposing them to hate and ridicule. Harassment is considered a crime under the criminal code and can be punished for up to 10 years in prison (CBA, 2012). Harassment occurs when something a person says or does create fear for his or her safety and/or the safety of others. There are cases where the suspect might not have intentions of harassing others but if someone else feels threatened by their actions they could be charged. Back in 2009, The Canadian Liberal government introduced bill C-273 which made it to the second hearing but was not passed into a law. This will be further discussed late r on in the paper. In regards to cyber bullying, there are only two Canadian provinces have developed statues that addresses school bullying. Which are: The Ontario Education Act and the Manitoba Public school Act Part III (Stanton Beran, 2009). Other provinces in Canada address issues related to bullying under their Workplace Acts. Even though it is not specifically designed for schools, these workplace acts do have legislations that govern or pertains to school bullying (Stanton Beran, 2009). Education Act (Ontario) The Ontario Education Act speaks to misbehaviours that may presumably include bullying under section 306 (1), 306 (2) and 306 (3) (Stanton Beran, 2009). Section 306 (1) instructs on mandatory suspension of individuals who commits one of six infractions while at school or while participating in school related activities. These infractions include expressing a threat to inflict serious bodily harm on other individuals, engaging in an act of vandalism that damages school properties, swearing at people in position of authority or a teacher, or partaking in another activity, under policy of the board, is one that calls for a mandatory suspension. Section 306 (2) describes the duration of mandatory suspensions, which could range from one to twenty days. Section 306 (3) outlines that teachers may suspend such individual or refer the issue to the principal (Stanton Beran, 2009). Other section of the Ontario Education Act also touches on appropriate code of conduct while on school premises. Section 301 (2) discusses six main goals of the Code of Conduct. One goal is to ensure that all school members, especially those in authority positions, are treated with respect and dignity. The second goal is to promote responsible citizenship by encouraging appropriate participation in the civic life of school community. The third goal is to maintain an environment where conflict and differences will be addressed in a manner that is characterized by civility and respect. The fourth goal is to encourage the use non-violent means to resolve conflicts. The fifth goal is to promote the safety of the school members. Lastly, the sixth goal discourages the use of illegal drugs and alcohol (Education Act, section 301(2)) (Stanton Beran, 2009). Public School Act Part III (Manitoba) The Manitoba Public School Act Part III has three different sections that are specific or relate to anti bullying policies. The first section is section 47.1 (1), codes of conduct and Emergency response plans. This section instructs school principals in alliance with school advisory committees to establish a code of conduct for pupils/staffs and an emergency response plan which is reviewed annually at bare minimum. Section 47.1 (2) further stated that the Code of Conduct should include five components. Frist, it must include a statement that pupils and the staffs will behave in a respectable manner and comply with the code (Stanton Beran, 2009). Secondly, it must include a statement indicating that bullying, or abusing any person orally, physically, psychologically, sexually, in writing or by other means is unacceptable. Additionally, unreasonable discrimination on the basis of any characteristic set out in Subsection 9(2) of the Human rights code, as well as possessing, using or be ing under influence of Alcohol or illegal drugs at school is unacceptable (Stanton Beran, 2009). The third component of the Code of Conduct requires that a statement regarding the intolerance of weapon possession and gang involvement should be included. The fourth component is a statement indicating pupils and staffs will abide by school policies and also adhere to appropriate use of electronic materials and the internet, including prohibition of accessing, uploading and/or distributing materials that the school has determined to be unacceptable. The fifth and last component of the code of conduct is a statement outlining the disciplinary consequences, with as much details as reasonably possible, of violating the code and it must also outline the process of appealing the disciplinary decisions. Furthermore, the code of conduct must meet all other regulatory requirements that are prescribed under The Education Administration Act (Stanton Beran, 2009). Section 47.1(3), content of em ergency of response plans, outlines the responsibility of schools to respond to threats that might be posed to them. The three sections list above indirectly touched upon the inappropriateness of bullying at schools by requiring a code of conducts, stating its content and finally, managing emergencies (Stanton Beran, 2009). The Ontario Ministry of Education recently proposed changes to the Education act in attempted to stop cyber bullies from posting online attacks against fellow students and teachers (Stanton Beran, 2009). The minister of education, Kathleen Wayne, explained in a press conference at Queens Park that cyber bullying has been added to the list of offences in the Education Act (Stanton Beran, 2009). The amendments as proposed will implement reconciliatory programs to help re-integrate students back into the classrooms, and that there will be strong consequences for inappropriate behaviours. With the new amendment to the act, the zero tolerance provisions of the act will be eliminated. The elimination resulted from a complaint by the Ontario Human Rights Commission on behalf of students, claiming that the zero tolerance policy was having disproportionate impacts on students with disability and minority students. Even though the government has proposed such changes to the Education Act, Se ction 306(1) discussed above is still in place and applicable on the court of law. Hence, students can still receive mandatory suspension if they choose to violate the Code of Conduct as stated in the Act. During the press conference, the Minister of Education made it known that the government of Ontario allocates approximately over 20 million dollars a year to provide programs for expelled and suspended students. The funds were provided by the government to help develop training programs for both vice principals and principals to effectively discipline students in a non-punitive manner, with the intention of decreasing the amount of expulsion and suspensions. These amendments seem to recognize that punishments such as, expulsion and suspension do not deal with the source of cyber bullying. Therefore, more resources may be allocated in an attempt to resolve/control cyber bullying (Stanton Beran, 2009). In other provinces like Quebec and Saskatchewan, The Occupational Health and Safety Act speak to work place bullying but it can be extended to school jurisdictions. In Quebec, the Act classified bullying as psychological harassment. This can be defined as aggravating behaviour in the form of verbal comments, hostile or unwanted, actions or gestures that affect an employees psychological or physical integrity and that could result in harmful work environment for employees (Stanton Beran, 2009). This act can be to bullying incidents at school because schools are also considered as occupational environments. In Saskatchewan, the Occupational Health and safety act was amended 2006 /2007, to include section 2(1b) which speaks to harassment. The amendment re-defined harass as any inappropriate conduct, action, comment, display or gesture by a person that either (I) race, colour, sex, creed, marital status, disability, family status, physical size or weight, nationality, ancestry, age, and place of origin, or (II) adversely affects workers psychological and/or physical well-being that the person knows or ought to know would cause intimidation or humiliation of the worker, or (III) Constitute a threat to the safety and health of other workers (Bill 66, 2007) (Stanton Beran, 2009). Based on these amendments, it can be inferred that bullies who affect the psychological or physical well-being of other students or teachers by humiliating or intimidate them can be punished under the law or found guilty of a criminal offense (Stanton Beran, 2009). Thus the Occupational Health and Safety Act in Quebec and Saskatchewan can be applicable to individuals who engage in bullying at school. Other provinces in Canada such as Alberta have specified safety and respect measures outlined in their school Act. Bylaws governing bullying According to Stanton and Beran (2009), Edmonton and Regina are the only two big cities in Canada with Bylaws that fines individuals for engaging in bullying. The town council of Rocky Mountain House recently passed an anti-bullying bylaw that targets youths, bystanders and adults (Stanton Beran, 2009). Edmonton (Alberta) was the first big city in Canada to give authority to police officers to fine bullies a minimum of $250. Bylaw fines varies depending on the municipality and jurisdiction. The fines can range from 125 dollars in North Battleford to 1000 dollars for second offence in Rocky Mountain House (Stanton Beran, 2009). According to the bylaws, bullying is perceived as behavious that threaten and intimidate others. The bylaws were implemented to prevent individuals from engaging in bullying and other harmful behaviours (like assault, harrassment and gand violence). Those who support the bylaws argue that the ability to fine those who intimidate, threathen or humiliate others will deter them and possibly make them abstain from the behaviour. In Regina, the Anti-Bullying and Public fighting bylaw is quite different from the bylaws in Edomonton. It outlines that bullying someone else in a public place or written through electronic devices is illegal. Moreover, recording videos or taking pictures of people fighting and posting online for the public to see is illegal. Bylaw fines in Regina is higher than in Edmonton; it ranges from $100 to $2000. The fines/tickets are issued to parents if the perpetrator is between the ages of 12 and 16. The Anti-Bullying and Public Fighting Bylaw is applicable to bullying incidents in both the community and online (cyber bullying), and as well as to physical fights (Stanton Beran, 2009). This bylaw was implemented to help reduce bullying and the tolerance level for such behaviours. Bylaws give recognition to to psychological and emotional suffering of victims. The thought of having to pay a fine might also serves as a dete rrent for some bullies (Stanton Beran, 2009). Interventions of Cyber bullying In recent years researchers and policy makers have come up with a number of interventions and prevention methods for cyber bullying but some of these proposed interventions are not fully effective or have failed to deter the behaviour (cyber bullying). As such, bullying prevention programs that are incorporated into school curriculums specifically address cyber bullying instead of only traditional bullying. Moreover, Parents and educators should intervene in bullying incidents, because a failure to do so may negatively affect students ability to be successful and happy at school and at home (Hines, 2011). People in position of authority should work in a program/solution that provides the ability to block and monitor slanderous and malicious instant messages and filter online networking comments before they are posted. It should intelligently find threats, categorize them and take the appropriate action as pre-defined by the school or district policy. The program/solution should ensur e that web protection is extended beyond anti-malware, URL filtering, and anti-spam, with integrated ability to scan all outbound and inbound contents and attachments by using granular content controls, such as objectionable content filtering (Hines, 2011). By filtering out or blocking harmful messages or comments, schools can reduce cyber bullying. It is important that the technology being used allows for clear definition and enforcement of acceptable content policies. Slanderous and harmful contents should be rerouted or quarantined. The best solution should be a unified one that enables access control to some websites, provide notification of policy violations, provide consolidated reporting for holistic visibility of cyber bullying actions, monitor webmail traffic, block offensive contents from being uploaded to websites, monitor email usage, and help identify the breaches through which students may try to bypass the system (Hines, 2011). It is evident that incorporation of cybe r bullying laws is failing to keep up with the pace at which incidence of cyber bullying is rising. One may ask, if there are any precautionary methods that could be implemented to protect children before becoming victims of cyber bullying.

Grandpas Mind :: Dialogue Essays

Grandpa's Mind As I pulled into my parents' driveway, I realized how loud the radio was. I turned it down, peeled my legs off the blue vinyl seat, and lugged my pile of laundry up to the front door. The doorknob wouldn't turn and I still hadn't gotten around to making myself a duplicate key. I rang the bell and waited. Nothing. Leaving my basket of dirty clothes on the steps, I tramped through the bushes in front of the living room window. Pep was across the room sitting in his usual chair and reading the paper. He was a familiar sight in his plaid flannel shirt, striped clip-on bow tie, and tweed cabby hat. I knocked on the window. He turned around, startled, and focused his eyes on me. I smiled and waved at him, but he just stared at me. I gestured toward the front door. His face had that hollow look, but something made him get up and let me in. "Hi, Pep." I kissed him on the cheek. He made way for me and my laundry. "Hello, how are you?" I headed for the washing machine. Pep trailed closely behind. "Kevin and Clare aren't home, but they should be here soon. Do you want to wait for them?" "Yah, I'll be here." I began separating whites from darks. "Do you want anything to eat? There's meat and bread in the ice box and some cookies in there." "No thanks." "I don't know where Kevin and Clare are. They took Katie out somewhere. Do you know Katie?" I paused. Here we go. This was going to be one of those conversations. I should just say, "Why, yes, I know Katie." But perhaps if I venture a bit further, something might jog his memory and we wouldn't have to go through the whole routine. Dad says that Pep has a tape recorder in his brain, and bits and pieces keep getting erased. I decided to give it a shot.

My Adventure in Greece :: Personal Narrative Place

My Adventure in Greece I topped the hill, and looked back down the narrow, winding street, winded. My grandparents were still straggling up. I told my uncle that we should wait for them, and he agreed, reluctantly. He was used to the steep slopes and uneven sidewalks of the Athenian back streets, and didn't quite realize that visitors found them more than a little challenging -- especially after exploring the Acropolis most of the day. I should have been tired; I'd been climbing all day, since around eight that morning, and we were just finishing the forty-five minute, up-hill-and-down-dale walk back to the American School of Archeology. Despite a nightly average of five hours of sleep over the last week or so, I felt like I could go on forever. There was so much to see and discover -- new things to try, ancient ones to visit -- and only a few more days of this amazing vacation left! My grandparents caught up, and we continued, leap-frog fashion, up the remaining streets to our destination. When we did reach my uncle's room in the American School, I had time to realize that I was more tired than I had wanted to admit. Why was it that I could do so much here, in Greece, when at home I'd be exhausted and begging to rest after finishing just half of the climbing that I was doing every day now? What was the difference? I refused to believe that the food, full of olive oil as it was, could change my stamina this drastically. Nor was it the hot climate. Still, here I was climbing forty-five grade -- and greater -- inclines in ninety degree heat when, under the same conditions in Wilkes-Barre, I would be hiding from high temperatures in the nice, cool basement and avoiding all activity. I thought back to the Acropolis and the view of Athens sprawled at my feet, of the great, symetrical Parthenon, and the graceful Keryatids of the Erectheon. I remembered the tiny temple of Isis on the desert-like island of Delos, and high, windy Ancient Thira on Santorini. Yes, seeing, visitin g, touching those ancient masterpeices was thrilling, but even walking down -- or up -- the dustiest, most winding street in Athens was a treasured experience in itself. But the streets in Athens were paved with asphalt just like the roads in Dallas or Exeter.

Form, Content, and Subject Matter

Form, Content, and Subject Matter GENZ 220Z-Art Critique Paper Shelby M. Dykes In this paper, I will discuss the form, content, and subject matter of three different paintings. Each of the paintings represents the following: representational painting, abstract painting, and a portrait. The paintings I have chosen are: Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks 1942, Wassily Kodinsky’s Colour Studies: Squares and Concentrentic Circles 1913, and Pablo Picasso’s Self-Portrait 1907. Representational paintings show clear objects or events and have a clear subject matter in the painting.The subject matter is quite evident in Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks. The subject matter is the dominating, brightly lit diner. The diner is proportionately large. It is built on mostly straight lines, both vertical and horizontal. With the exception of the curve located at the intersection of the two streets. The line of the ceiling of the diner and the line of the green window ledge intersect wit h the vertical lines depicted by the window frame. The interaction of the horizontal and vertical lines seems to be an essential element in the painting.It produces a pronounced angularity in shape. The overall shape is a rectangle. This is seen with the windows of the diner, as well as, the vertical rectangle in the building in the background. I notice a triangle formed by the silver light on the background building’s window. The lines formed by the diner window seem to trap the people inside the ominous diner. The dramatic uses of light colors against dark colors add variety to the painting and give the painting the feeling of depth. The darkness seen outside the window really gives a feeling of impending doom to the customers inside.Outside, there is no one seen walking the street. The yellows painted show the electric light from inside the diner. This achieved by the high value of the yellow. The low value of green is evident in the building in the background. The brillia nt streak of green along the window sill is a great example of green at its saturation. The building is proportionately larger than the patrons sitting inside. The diner gives a feeling of doom and loneliness; this is the content. It seems as if Hopper wants us to see the people dining, but he does not emphasize the human element in the painting.It is strange that the window does not show a reflection of the viewer looking into it. The man sitting at the corner of the counter is dark and looks sinister. Is he a â€Å"bad guy? † Even the coffee pot behind the counter seems proportionately larger than the people. The coffee pot dominates the size of the people. I don’t see a door in the diner, are the customers â€Å"trapped? † the painting brings the suggestion of â€Å"once upon time. † Edward Hopper’s, Nighthawks, is a clear example of a representational painting.Although I think other participants would agree that the diner is the subject matter and the form is clear, would a viewer agree with the ominous, scary feeling that I feel makes up the content? Wassily Kandisky’s, Colour Studies: Squares and Concentric Circles is the painting I have chosen to demonstrate abstract painting. Abstract art does not have a recognizable subject matter. Instead the color, form, line, and even texture are clearly the subject. It is completely non-representational; the content is the feeling evoked by the color and form, etc.This painting represents something that is not visual. It represents a sound, emotion, or experience. Upon looking at this painting, I can see that Kandinsky used careful planning in the painting of what at first seems like â€Å"just circles. † The painting is making my eye look at the contrast of the color and the contrast of the shapes. The composition is made up of twelve sections of relatively equal portioned circles that are inside of squared-off into divisional angles. The square shape consumes all the space of the overlapping colors created by the circles.The painting has perfect balance, movement, rhythm, proportion, variety, and unity! Even texture is achieved by the circular lines and brush strokes. I can almost picture Kandinsky’s brush moving around the painting in quick, swooping motions. The linear design of the painting is clear with the vertical and horizontal, fine lines painted as squares. Without a doubt, the â€Å"all-at –onceness† of the painting is created by the color. Kandinsky used such a wide range of color techniques that when I close my eyes upon viewing the painting, the image is still present.The colors are bright primary and secondary colors mixed with more earthy hues. The two overlapping circles on the bottom left are made evident by the low value of the green mixing with the saturated red to create almost a black. The contrast created by the black and yellow square touching is eye-catching. The gradation in the upper left square is evident by the continuous changes from the swirl surrounding the circle. It changes from yellow to green, then to blue and back to yellow! Can you feel the excitement in my description?This is what the painting makes me feel while participating. Despite the sectioned off circles and squares, the painting demonstrates unity. That is, the painting forms togetherness, despite contrasts of details and regions. The color also helps define the depth. As depth was clearly seen in Nighthawks, the depth of Colour Studie is not as readily evident. Look at the bottom left square. The circle seems somewhat flat. Now view the upper left square. It gives the feeling of protrusion. It seems as if the circle is popping out of the square.On the other hand, the circle located in the upper right square seems like it is sunken into a spiral. This is achieved by Kandinsky’s ability to use different hues at minimal and maximum values around each circle. The bottom left circle seems like it is lacking depth due to the constant use of the saturated red and no visible contrasting colors swirling around it. The abstract art, Colour Studies: Squares and Concentric Circles, creates an intense feeling of â€Å"here and now. † That is an element that is often lacking in the representational paintings.The portrait painting I have selected is Pablo Picasso’s, Self-Portrait 1907. This is another example of abstract, even though it has a clear subject matter. The subject matter of course, is the man depicted in the painting, Pablo Picasso. The paining however, clearly demonstrates excellent use of line, texture, and color. All are seen in a very simple, non-confusing form. The painting looks like something I could have created, or even something found in a â€Å"coloring book. † The lines are so apparent that it looks like an outline could have been made and almost filled in with color.If I had to make an assumption, I would think that Picasso started the painti ng with eyes. The â€Å"all-at-onceness† of this painting is achieved by the hugely proportionate eyes and bold lines surrounding them. The distinct, awakeness of the eyes seems evident with the bold lines and brown hue in the pupils. Why are his eyes so much larger than the rest of the painting? I actually don’t think that in true relation to the facial features they are larger. The nose is distinct, as well as the ears, but the eyes still seem largely dominating.The lines that make up the nose and cheekbones are vertical and create an up and down movement with the eye. However, the up and down movement is over-shadowed by the horizontal movement the bold eyebrow line creates. Also over-shadowing is the circular bold lines of the eyes and eye lid creases. The lines making up the mouth are so much smaller. The color of the lips closely resembles the same hue of the surrounding skin itself. Did Picasso want us to see his eyes more blatantly or is that just the way he sa w himself, awake and aware? The lines painted also seem to be apparently painted with direct diagonal strokes.The line making up the forehead seems to come to a point of the jaw and cheek bone if it were extended. The diagonal lines in the collar of the shirt create shapes and give dimension without the use of heavy shading, which is so apparent in representational pieces. There is some slight shading on his right lapelle. This is created by variations in the value of the pale green color and darker olive green color created. I also notice the vertical symmetry achieved by the straight line from the nose, to the upper lip, and continued down to the straight line in the shirt.These vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines all come together to give the painting balance. Texture may be seen in the brush strokes of the hair. Each stroke seems uniquely defined with a bit of space left between them to give the impression of the hair stranded â€Å"clumping† together on the forehead . Texture is also seen is the redness created in the skin surrounding the nose. The skin appears to be rougher in touch in the areas. Texture in the painting is created on both the right and left of the jaw in the orange background.The viewer’s right side seems to have less paint giving it a high value of orange. The viewer’s left side of the painting seems like more paint was used to create a low value of the orange. The color used creates that of warm feelings. The earth tones seen are orange, brown, peach, and pale green. Look at the value of color in the ear. You can see where white was added to the lobe of the ear in comparison to the distinct peach found in the inner ear. The pink added above the eye brow is also seen under the eye, on the side of the nose, and under the tough jaw line.This does give the perception of depth in the facial features. The portrait of Picasso is clear in content. He evokes feelings of awareness, even though he appears to be wearing so mething similar to that of a â€Å"Halloween mask. † The portrait is distinctly abstract, although clear subject matter is defined. In conclusion, the three works of art chosen represent three different types of paintings. All have distinct content, even though the subject matter is not always apparent. This shows that both subject matter and form will help the viewer participate in the art work to determine the content.

The 3M Success Story

From sandpaper to bioelectronic ears, 3M has come a long way. 3M is a prime example of how employees can turn a dying business into a multibillion-dollar company. 3M encourages employees to create new products and explore new ideas. This management tactic allows 3M to produce over 60,000 new products each year, successfully keeping up with our constantly changing, fast-paced economy. In the last 99 years it has been in business 3M, has become a well known as a worldwide business. Employing more than 90,000 employees, it made $19 billion in sales in the year 2000. 52% of which were made outside the USA. It has seventeen technology centers worldwide, with manufacturing sites in thirty-nine countries. 3M makes the difficulty of globalization seem like a piece of chocolate cake. 3M†s success is based on its 90,000 intrapreneurs. It recognized that employees were not merely simple workers, but talented entrepreneurs who needed only to be encouraged and appreciated. A business can keep its entrepreneurial spirit alive by, first and foremost, encouraging its employees to be innovative. It should also provide incentives like money, raises, vacations, promotions, etc. Businesses need to show appreciation and make its employees feel like they are valuable assets to the company. Employees are a company†s gold mine. They are a company†s most important stakeholders. They can make or break a business. A business needs only to please its employees and in turn, these gold minds will gleam and become great entrepreneurs. Though entrepreneurship is valuable, can a too diverse production cause a stumbling block for a company? If a business does not have the capital to support multiple products, it is not encourage able. Yet it should not put a total halt on new ideas and products, but create closely related products instead to begin with. 3M did not jump from sandpaper manufacturing to creating programmable disks. They started off with regular sandpaper then created environmentally safe waterproof sandpaper. However, if a company has the capital to produce new things and support new ideas, it is highly advisable to be involved in diverse industries. A company needs to keep up with the times. Product and service demands change with time. If a company only knows one business and is not widely diverse, it has higher chances of failure. Will diverse industries prevent a corporation from having expertise in all the areas? How could it not have experts? The employees are the inventors! After creating new ideas and products a company should always follow up on its products from production through marketing. This is very important in order to detect any signs of defects and safety issues quickly. This will also keep the company aware of how their product is doing out on the market and what they can do to improve their products. It will also give the company an insight into what the market wants. Now that we have a grasp on the importance of intrapreneuring, could 3M survive without it? I don†t know. How often do you buy sandpaper?

My Blueprint of Professional and Personal Growth

This paper is my analytic theorem to my Blueprint of Professional and Personal Growth from the course â€Å"Managing People & Promoting Collaboration†. It gives a brief breakdown of my path to become a manager I aspire to be, how my relationship with my family, partner and work can be a root of my happiness and how sure I maintain my personal integrity of ethics and morales within my work environment.An executive summary is presented to show how the course educated me in a more systematic way and how it helped me identify my strengths and weakness as a manager, how I can build a functional team, managing team and teams in virtual environment, building a team charter and etc†¦ Furthermore, in detail is one goal I added to my previous goals I identified in the previous course â€Å"Dynamic Leadership†, that I plan to achieve in my personal and professional development.Executive SummaryThroughout this course, Managing People & Promoting Collboration has educated and e nlightened me in four aspects – how to manage people, how to build a successful team, how to select a strategy to use in supporting a positive work environment and creating & sustaining culture in organization. Managing people can be natural as well as an acquired skill. Due to human nature that is ever changing and evolving, management also in order to be effective must also be evolving and be able to accommodate dynamicity. As this course exposed me to so many different concepts, theories and strategies in building a functional team, team work and fostering collaboration.I was able to identify my strength and weakness as a team leader which actually can aid as well as can hamper my ability to manage. Thought-provoking topics we covered during the eight (8) weeks ranging from finding an effective  manager; ensuring effective communication in organizations; handling difficult conversations; motivating others & personal motivation and purpose; strategies required to motivate team members; giving effective feedback; forming a team & selecting members; building a team charter; building functional teams; managing diverse teams and teams in a virtual environment; my role as an effective collaborator; ethical challeneges and legal risks of being a manager; creating a sustainable organization; strategies, theories and concepts on promoting a positive work environment and being a manager that’s a dynamic leader.Two elements that improved my understanding of managing people and fostering collaboration is effective communication and vulnerability based trust. The key to effective communication within team members is the context of the information. â€Å"Team members, therefore, must be aware of what, where, and when to communicate information to achieve effective and efficient outcomes† (McComb, 2012). Furthermore a team with a creative behavior creates an environment that could compel them to work with determination. Being able to make a difficul t task look like a fun game, the ability to challenge each other’s ideas in order for a new idea to arise and to be innovative.â€Å"When teams engage in creative behavior, their activities are focused on generating novel and useful ideas and solutions† (Colquitt, Lepine, Wesson, 2013). Also having energetic persona within the team keeps the team in rhythm and enables the team members to make spontaneous decisions – energetic persons have the natural powers of conviction and are able to communicate to others their point of view openly and with acuity. Most importantly, building vulnerability based trust according to Lencioni, â€Å"This means that members of a cohesive, functional team must learn to comfortably and quickly acknowledge, without provocation, their mistakes, weaknesses, failures, and needs for help.They must also readily recognize the strengths of others, even when those strengths exceed their own† (Lencioni, 2003). Such a trust enables the team to work with each other recognizing and admitting their strengths and weakness and they accept each other’s challenge as a lesson or an experience to their skills and not as an offence. Learning to be humble and show humility with each other will lead to successful team collaboration. This will enable the team to accept others point of view with keenness and also allow them to face any hindrances and challenges with  diplomacy.Moreover, this course assisted me in learning how to create a team charter in which it has showed me my strength and weakness. A Team Charter helps â€Å"team members recognize their complementary skills, their common purpose, common goals, and mutual accountability† (Byrd & Luthy, 2010, p. 14). It made me understand how to be prepared for any arising conflicts and how to manage it. †Conflict management works best when the parties involved in a disagreement are equipped to managing it themselves† (Weiss & Hughes, 2005). I also learnt the importance of feedback and feed forward. â€Å"Feedforward helps people envision and focus on a positive future, not a failed past† (Goldsmith, 2002). How it puts the employees in a check list in order to spot where they are wrong and perform better.â€Å"Effective feedback helps the coachee see the gap between intended performance and actual performance† (Payne, V. 2007). The requirements needed to excel and improve in their workforce. †Employees can provide useful input on the effective of procedures and processes and as well as input to managers on their leadership effectiveness† (Goldsmith, 2002). I believe that I can be more impactful to organizations due to my improved understanding by the way I can improve team building and team work as well as forster collaboration among collegues. I would also be able to be impactful as a manager who is able to lead, a leader who is able to communicate effectively, and one who can motivate others, a good manager that has an inspiring values following with ethics and morales at work and with the team memebrs; most importantly I can be a leader who can manage people and resources of an organization effectivtely and efficiently.â€Å"Some of the most critical decisions a manager makes involve personal values- how much emphasis to place on the immediate interests of the customer or the long-term interests of the company† (Posner, 2009). The understanding of effective communication has changed the way I view the job of a manager and the way I can practice collaboration in the organization because it has made me realize that the manager is not just a post or position but a responsibility taken upon oneself to utilize resources in an organization and to make sure that every individual under his control is aware and equipped with all the necessary information and that communication flows to and fro management to employees and between employees in oder to keep all parties involved in tune with organization’s objectives and targets.My goals to be successful and finish with my MBA in  the nearest future has grown even more stronger and this course has exposed me to the possibility of using other people to achieve these goals by learning from them and openining myself to opinions of others. Taking advices as well as giving advices to others that have problems and learning from the results. In other words, this course taught me how to feed forward effectively. â€Å"Management is doing things right; Leadership is doing the right things.† â€Å"Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It improves responsibility.† – Peter DruckerLive, Learn & Loveâ€Å"The worm on the hook for the fish† – I stated this in my previous post as my motivational theme. The desire to achieve the goal and knowing what needs to be done to achieve that goal. The truth is I don’t know if I would be happy in my career, but I do enjoy and d o know that I want to be happy in any field I choose to be in and give a hundread percent to achieveing things expected of me. Being a manager must start with me being able to first manage myself, because if I can not take charge of things around me that are available to me and motivate myself to be the best I can be with the resources at my disposal then it would definitely be unnatural to manage others.And I can be that manager I aspire to be by gradually practicing and building on myself and then applying it to with others. I have to show others that I can lead and manage and that I believe in myself- by coaching and teaching them through what I have learnt and through my experiences. I must say it is an uneasy task to lead and manage especially when it comes to a diversity workforce of gender, qualifications, ethnicities and etc†¦ But I like the challenege as it gves me joy and eagerness into gaining more experience, learning openly without fear of making mistakes and enabl e me to make the right decisions. No relationship is perfect, I argue with my spouse and family at times and yet they are the one’s I seek advices and support from. I love them and they love me and we want to keep loving each other and pushing each other to attain the best things we want to acheive in life and more.My father taught me that family comes first and there is no joy if there is no family bond. Nothing is perfect and what makes the thrill of the bond to be unbreakable is all those arguments and laughter after that. What makes me sure that I can be happy with my partner and family is  because first and foremost, I want to be happy and remain that way with what I have. Though there would be differences and clashes at times because no one and nothing is perfect, I know that we can always try to make each other content and importantly, as long as we keep trying, that’s really want counts.Regardless of the fact that I may not be able to see or have enough time for my partner and my family am just glad that technology beats it all in bringing me close to them through phone calls, emails, skype and other applications. I for one can not please or make everyone happy, but to sustain my relationship with my family, partner and work I try as much as possible to separate my professional life from my personal life and also as I give my full time to my work I also have to give sometime for my personal matters. When it comes to intergrity, personal morales and ethics, I have come to realize that when in Rome, behave as the Romans would at the same time having standarnds and limits to what you can accept from others that are not ethically accepted by you is important.In business it is no new thing to get dirty for the greater good of the organization like to lobby or tell white lies; like hyping in other to make the organization have a favorable postion but at the same time safety, health and respect should never be compromised. I would as a leader work for the interest of the organization and push on to hit its projected targets but would pull the plug when its target are harmful and could end up bringing more loss then profit to the myself, the organization and its employees. Moreover, instilling humility and fairness is an important factor of my values in giving me a firm stand of integrity.Of course as a leader of a hospitality company I do make aware to my staff about policies and rules in order to control any unforeseen unethical behavior. Strategies that I am using at the moment in my organization as well as my personal life is firstly to communicate effectively – from the article of â€Å"Difficult Conversations† by Christensen, K 2011; feedforwad instead of feedback; the five (5) basic conditions to maintain an effective team by Coutu & Beschloss, 2009; building trust – vulnerability based trust by Lencioni, 2003 and the 4Rs of motivation by Maccoby,M 2010.The shared practices within the forum, he lped me to be more analytical and logic. Reading from my peers their diverse experience and goals, not only  powered me to achieve more, open other types of companies, listen more, better creative ideas, but most importantly they give me the â€Å"determination† in achieving them without fear and be prepared to face predicted challenges. My passion driven for the purpose; as the previous course â€Å"Dynamic Leadership† has taught me the dynamic styles of leadership due to dynamic personalities a leader have to encounter when leading others. This combined with Managing people & promoting collboation have broadened my goals and how I would develop my action plan.Action PlansDuring the shared practices and articles read during the eight (8) weeks of the course â€Å"Managing People & Promoting Collaboration† and the previous course â€Å"Dynamic Leadership†, I was able to build an action plan that I was taught from my previously. This has helped me see th ings more clearly and able to establish a clear game-plan and clarify my goals as a leader. Moreover, I was able to draw out many short and long term goals and have them prioritized. From the action plan that I have set, it is much easier to ride the wave of my success. As it is a stimulating elemenet that drives my passion for the purpose as I excel in my performance and also help others excel in theirs. Below is a new goal added to my list of the other goals I have planned previously.New Goal : My new goal is to improve my ability to motivate myself as well as others. My aim is to understand the personality traits of each employee and how they interact together; by identifying their strengths and weakness and coaching them if the need be. Motivation internal and external is a great factor that fuels the urge to achieve the unachievable. â€Å" Men and women want to do a good job, a creative job and if they are provided the proper environment, they will do so.† – Bill Hewlett – Co-founder, Hewlett-PackardObejctive 1: Self MotivationMilestones: a. Set mini goals or mini targets. This will aid me achieve a fraction of the major goal I have set. So this will actually help me feel like I am accomplishing something and I am moving forward in a bid to attain the entire target. Milestones: b. Positive mental attitude & enthusiasm to work. By avoiding negative feelings and persistently focus on the positive and eyes on the target. By talking to inspiring people or listening to new ideas. Being enthusiastic in finishing the mission; maintaining a healthy work and life balance. Obejctive 2: Motivating OthersMilestones: a. Mountain of vote of confidence. By making them aware that I am confident in the team members ability in getting the work done. Keeping things in perspective. According to Christensen article, Frederick Herzberg stated â€Å"the powerful motivator in our lives isn’t money, it’s the opoortunity to learn, grow in respo nsibilities, contribute to others and be recognized for achievements† (Christensen, 2010) Milestones: b. Recognition for those who portray exemplary attitudes in aiding the team, achieve its goals as well as also a collective reward for the teams success.Below is my previous goals I have listed in my previous course â€Å"Dynamic Leadership†. Goal 1 : My first goal as I mentioned in the post of week 7, is to successfully improve and expand the hotel industry that I am leading. My aim is to attract more customers and offer quality services. My calculated time frame for this is between 2 to 3 years.Obejctive 1: To do this I have to achieve my MBA within 2 years. Milestones: a. Implementation of new approaches and different leadership styles.Although with these time set objectives, there are other points that   will stay for a long term such as building team work that involves   shared goals, productivity and problem solving. b. Professional training: A period of 6 mon ths period will be   offered for advanced staff training to a more higher professional   level. With this knowledge I would be able to help guide the   people I lead, share with them my experiences and foremost   improve myself personally and professionally. Obejctive 2: Improve many features within the hotel industry which will take 6 to 9 months. Milestones: a. Establishing flexibility to access: Such as improve the  quality of   services, improve the advertisement criteria by subscribing to   different online booking websites like www.booking .com or   Expedia and also spreading of flyers to the airport and other public   vicinity – cafeterias, malls or supermarkets. b. Enlargement of infrastructure or amenities by increasing more   rooms and provide other facilities such as business center, spa and   gym which this will take approximately a year or so to put that into   settlement.Goal 2 : Obtain another MBA degree in Marketing to be achieved in th e commencement of the 3rd to 5th years. Obtaining more degrees may open doors to so many opportunities such as becoming more effective, more strategic, more developed, more crtitical thinking and be able to progress more strengthing my pillars in the realm of my business.Obejctive 1: To do this I have make a thorough research on the subject. Milestones: a. This is a milestone itself to plan to have another MBA degree in Marketing. I would do researches on the subject through the   internet or library or articles And also seek vices from my   academic advisor. b. Seek opinions and advices from family, friends, peers, colleagues   at work and most importantly from my academic advisor. More   prominently to know how this MBA, if pursued how it could be a   transition to effectively prepare for a career progression or a career direction.Obejctive 2: Time Management & Finances Milestones: a. Being that I am already pursuing an MBA degree I have to virtually draw a schedule betw een work, family , MBA – Project Management , Upcoming MBA – Marketing and myself. It is   essential that I don’t cram myself up and know if there is a   possibility I could pursue it comfortably. In the case if I did I would end up being workaholic plus MBA-holic. b. Financing my education wont be that much of a problem, being there is so many possibilities that I could fund my MBA. By   loaning from my income, family help maybe but may not be   needed, bank loan or a financial aid if applicableGoal 3 : Finally my last and ultimately crucial goal is to develop and enhance myself. After taking the Personal Values Survey, I was able to identify my eakness and would like to transform it into strength.Obejctive 1: Improve my communication skills with people from diverse cultures and backgrounds. Milestones: a. Improvement of communication skills, strengthening my   presentation as well as the way I carry myself in the business world   as well as in the society. b. Improve my ability to get information to and fro, people of diverse  culture and background in a clear, accurate and concise manner that would enable my messages to be clear and easy to understand. As in straight to the point, simple and understandable.Obejctive 2: To be more courageous Milestones: a. Build my courage esteem to venture into opportunities, ask questions and have a stand in decision making. b. To instill the valor to follow what I believe. As well as having a  personal and professional evaluation of things. Moreover I want to   have the courage to believe in my judgements and my intuition on business and other important decisions.As implied above, by achieving the goals and others I am planning for, I see and believe that these will help me advance to the next higher level and more professional. There is this quote that I stumbled across which resonated to me, â€Å"The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.† – Vince Lombardi. I couldn’t agree less to this quote, because your team portrays you and vice versa, therefore in order to be an exemplary leader  for your people to look up to, one would have to be a genuine leader who is wise, modest, trustworthy and fair; to be supportive, to allow them the initiative, to involve them and to be true.I am aware of all the possible obstacles that could delay me and cause hindrance but I believe if you want to achieve something you will have to be well prepared to face the challenges ahead. Therefore, from the knowledge I have gained from this course, Managing People & Promoting Collaboration, not only it has heightened my beliefes but also give me the power to advance to another level I was not expecting to heed. My dad said, â€Å"Nothing comes easy†¦ To dream and to talk is free†¦ To achieve it requires your utmost effort and preparedness†.Therefore, I am de termined with trust and belief that together with my team I will achieve my goal with full passion and nothing is going to hold me back. A good relevant quote that shares the same point, â€Å"There’s nothing anyone can do to prevent you from reaching your potential; the challenge is for you to identify your dream, develop the skills to get there, and exhibit character and leadership. Then you need to have the courage to periodically reassess, make adjustments, and pursue a course that reflects who you truly are† (Kaplan, 2008).

Literary analysis of “A Good Man is Hard To Find” Essay

In the short story A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Conner, the reader is taken on a journey and tags along with a self-centered family as they explore the sights of the rural south while en route to their destination, a family vacation in Florida. As they travel the dusty road, O’Connor (2012) takes them from heaven, â€Å"all at once, they would be on a hill, looking down over the blue tops of trees for miles around,† (p. 139) and spirals them down to hell â€Å"then the next minute, they would be in a red depression with the dust coated trees looking down on them,† (p. 139) where they meet their sudden and unexpected demise. Through it all, O’Connor spins a violent, dark and dismal tale, utilizing symbolism, allusions, irony and psychological aspects to effectively convey her theme of good versus evil, and reminds us that good does not always win. O’Connor (2012) starts us in an unnamed city, with a family of six as they discuss their upcoming vacation to Florida. The husband, Bailey, is succinct and short with his words. His wife and mother, both remain unnamed in the story but have quite contrasting personalities. Bailey’s mother, the grandmother, is self-centered and often manipulative. His wife, the children’s mother, is quiet and meek as she cares for her youngest child, the baby. His 2 older children, John Wesley and June Star, are outspoken and disrespectful, and their rude behavior goes unpunished. They travel the back roads of Georgia together as the grandmother tells tales of the past and points out uninteresting sights, which fall on the deaf ears of her family. The family stops for lunch at a roadside diner, and the reader gets a further glimpse into their everyday interaction, and for a moment, things actually seem hopeful for the dysfunctional family. After their meal, the family continues on to their destination, and the grandmother and children manipulate Baily into taking a detour to visit an old, mysterious estate that the grandmother once visited in her younger years. A sudden and  embarrassing thought of the grandmother leads to a car accident where miraculously, nobody sustains any serious injury. A moment of hope in rescue turns dismal as their rescuer turns out to an escaped killer, the Misfit, who eventually kills the family. The grandmother, who in more ways than one is responsible for the family’s untimely end, has a moment of grace in her last moment and dies with a smile on her face (p. 134-146). O’Connor’s story is filled with symbolism and allusion, in order to further convey her dark theme of death and ideas surrounding it. An example of such symbolism is when the family is passing the town of Toombsboro. O’Connor (2012) writes â€Å"outside of Toombsboro she woke up and recalled an old plantation that she had visited in this neighborhood once when she was a young lady† (p. 138). The name of the town, Toombsboro plays on the word tomb, which represents death. This alludes to the reader that death may be in the family’s future. O’Connor continues with the symbolism after the family has crashed, and their hope for rescue comes in the form of a hearse. The family sees a car slowly driving towards them, lumbering along the twists and turns of the road they had just traveled. As it appears in front of them, O’Connor (2012) writes â€Å"it was a big black battered hearse-like automobile† (p.140). Again, the image of a hearse, which is used to transport the dead, brings the idea of death to the mind of the reader, and further alludes to the death that the family is about to encounter. O’Connor (2012) furthers her death allusions and symbolism when she writes â€Å"the Misfit pointed the toe of his shoe into the ground and made a little hole and then covered it up again† (p. 142). The Misfit in this case, is digging a hole and then covering it back up, symbolizing the digging of a grave, and then filling the grave back in. O’Connor’s use of symbols of death advance her theme and add to the dark tone of the story. O’Connor also uses a number of psychological aspects to further relate her characters to her readers. As O’Connor starts the story, all members of the family appear in one way or another to be self-centered, which relates to the psychoanalysis term of the â€Å"Id,† which are the unconscious desires of the character and the gratification of those desires. In one passage, the grandmother speaks to the children of an old southern gentleman she once  knew, Mr. Teagarden. O’Connor (2012) writes â€Å"she would have done well to marry Mr. Teagarden because he†¦ had bought Coca-Cola stock when it first came out and that he had died†¦ a very wealthy man† (p.137). This comment by the grandmother hints on her unconscious materialistic desires about money, and is even shameful enough to impart this negative personal quality onto her grandchildren. Moreover, this quality is seen in the children when O’Connor writes about June Star as she speaks about the roadside diner where they have stopped. June Star says â€Å"I wouldn’t live in a broken-down place like this for a million bucks† (O’Connor, 2012, p. 137). June Star is showing her materialistic desires when she states that she has no care to live in anything but luxury, even for a large sum of money. Further in the story, the children throw a tantrum, even resorting to violent tactics, in order to get their way and visit the old estate where hidden valuables are rumored to be stashed. O’Conner (2012) writes: â€Å"The children began to yell and scream that they wanted to see the house with the secret panel. John Wesley kicked the back of the front seat and June Star hung over her mother’s shoulder and whined desperately into her ear†¦ The baby began to scream and John Wesley kicked the back of the seat so hard that his father could feel the blows in his kidney† (p.139). Again, O’Connor illustrates the Id of the children as they seek gratification of their desires, which is to get the hidden valuables. This shows the materialistic values that the young children hold. O’Connor’s use of psychoanalytic ideas helps further convey her theme and tone to the reader. O’Connor also employs a number of examples of irony in her story to better involve the reader. The grandmother states â€Å"I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn’t answer to my conscious if I did† (O’Connor, 2012, p. 134). This statement, while foreshadowing to a certain degree, turns ironic at the end of the story, as it is the grandmother that detours the family down the dirt road, where they ultimately come into contact with the Misfit, and are killed. It is also ironic in that the grandmother does have to answer to her conscious, and O’Connor (2012) describes the grandmother, after being shot by the Misfit, as having â€Å"her face smiling up at the cloudless sky† (p. 145), showing that the grandmother died at peace. Again, this is ironic in that the  grandmother was directly responsible for her children and grandchildren’s deaths, yet she died at peace with the world. O’Connor’s use of irony throughout the story is an excellent way to further her overall tone, and engage the reader deeper into the story. O’Connor’s story brings the reader into the realm of death by her use of symbolism, irony, and psychoanalysis. Her use of symbols and allusions of death, seeking gratification for personal desires, and the idea that the characters meet an ironic death, all build a solid base in which to convey her theme that living a good, pure and wholesome life may spare you from evil. The character’s may feel on top of the world as they travel down the dusty, winding road of life, but ultimately die, due to their selfish ways, in a reddened, deep ditch, at the edge of a dark woods. References O’Connor, F. (2012). A Good Man Is Hard to Find. In P. Schakel, & J. Ridl, Approaching literature: Reading, thinking, writing (3rd ed., pp. 134-146). Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s.