Henry VIII †Success or Failure? Essay

Henry the eighth was born in 1491. His father’s good reign meant that Henry succeeded the throne without any problem. He became king in 1509. He was courageous and skilled, also ruthless and savage – one of his first actions was to behead two hated tax collectors. This made him popular. He married Catherine of Aragorn – his brother’s widow. This was against church rules, but the Pope gave special permission. Henry spent all of the money his father had given him on battle against France. This was the battle of Spurs, 1513 – the French spurred their horses and ran away straight away. Meanwhile, Scotland attacked England. Catherine of Aragorn and Henry’s nobles quickly built up an army. A tactical error on the side of the Scots meant that Scotland lost and suffered a political disaster. He also had many friends – one famous one was Thomas Wolsey. Wolsey’s intelligence had meant that he hade gone from rags to riches. Henry made him rich and powerful – many people said that Wolsey was more powerful than Henry. However, when Wolsey asked the Pope not to grant Henry’s divorce, Henry told him to attend a court trial which meant that he would go back to rags. Wolsey died just before the trial. Henry’s divorce is one of the most important religious changes in History. To acquire it, he changed England’s church so that it was separate (but still Catholic) from the Pope – who wouldn’t grant him a divorce. He then simply asked his archbishop to grant him a divorce. This created the Church of England and later meant that England would become Protestant. In order to get a son, he married three times. He then married another three times. He married Catherine of Aragorn, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Katherine Parr. Of these, 2 were beheaded. He decided to shut down the monasteries, possibly due to the fact that they owned 1/4 of England’s land and were very rich – his excuse was that some did a bad job. The 1535 Black Book of the Monasteries was a biased report on how well the monasteries functioned. By 1536, many smaller monasteries had been shut. In Yorkshire, where the monasteries were very good, there was an uprising of 30,000 men. Henry crushed this by lying to the rebels, waiting until they disbanded and then breaking his promise. This meant that by 1540, nearly 400 monasteries and their lands were owned by the king. Henry spent his last years fighting with Spain and France. To determine whether Henry was successful of not, we must first think, what is a successful king? What makes an unsuccessful king? Kings and Queens such as Mary Tudor and King John have often been called failures because they were not popular. At times, Henry was not popular at all – he had a great uprising. Does this mean that he was definitely a failure? Henry did many good and bad things during his reign. He was very ruthless – he executed many people without proper reason. He spent all of his money on wars. He lied and was arrogant and greedy. He also protected England from attacking countries. He changed the church and destroyed the monasteries. His son succeeded the throne without any problem. Henry himself had a bad personality. He did, however, improve the country a lot, keep it safe from opposing countries and keep his Barons and rebels under control. If you look at it one way, Henry had a bad personality, married 6 times and would not have been a very nice person to be with (he executed people without thinking). He was however; a very successful king and England did gain a lot from him. He went to a lot of trouble to prevent political disaster and acquire a male heir. If being a successful king requires a good personality, then Henry was a failure. But if being a good king depends on how many good things he did for his country, he would have been a successful king. Henry did however, do many bad things that some other ‘failure’ monarchs would probably not have done, such as ignore and mistreat his children/wives and fall out with the Catholic Church. In conclusion, Henry VI was a dictator and a failure, but his motives were not all bad and he, although using ruthless measures did succeed in his main aim to secure the throne of England with a male heir. Therefore overall, if the historian studies what he achieved, then he achieved a great deal more than many other monarchs and is therefore a success.

Bag of Bones CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

I was finally able to get into the zone, but couldn't do anything once I got there. I keep a steno pad handy for notes character lists, page references, date chronologies and I doodled in there a little bit, but the sheet of paper in the IBM remained blank. There was no thundering heartbeat, no throbbing eyes or difficulty breathing no panic attack, in other words but there was no story, either. Andy Drake, John Shackleford, Ray Garraty, the beautiful Regina Whiting . . . they stood with their backs turned, refusing to speak or move. The manuscript was sitting in its accustomed place on the left side of the typewriter, the pages held down with a pretty chunk of quartz I'd found on the lane, but nothing was happening. Zilch. I recognized an irony here, perhaps even a moral. For years I had fled the problems of the real world, escaping into various Narnias of my imagination. Now the real world had filled up with bewildering thickets, there were things with teeth in some of them, and the wardrobe was locked against me. Kyra, I had printed, putting her name inside a scalloped shape that was supposed to be a cabbage rose. Below it I had drawn a piece of bread with a beret tipped rakishly on the top crust. Noonan's conception of French toast. The letters L.B. surrounded with curlicues. A shirt with a rudimentary duck on it. Beside this I had printed QUACK QUACK. Below QUACK QUACK I had written Ought to fly away ‘Bon Voyage.' At another spot on the sheet I had written Dean, Auster, and Devore. They were the ones who had seemed the most there, the most dangerous. Because they had descendants? But surely all seven of those jacks must, mustn't they? In those days most families were whoppers. And where had I been? I had asked, but Devore hadn't wanted to say. It didn't feel any more like a dream at nine-thirty on a sullenly hot Sunday morning. Which left exactly what? Visions? Time-travel? And if there was a purpose to such travel, what was it? What was the message, and who was trying to send it? I remembered clearly what I'd said just before passing from the dream in which I had sleepwalked out to Jo's studio and brought back my typewriter: I don't believe these lies. Nor would I now. Until I could see at least some of the truth, it might be safer to believe nothing at all. At the top of the sheet upon which I was doodling, in heavily stroked letters, I printed the word DANGER!, then circled it. From the circle I drew an arrow to Kyra's name. From her name I drew an arrow to Ought to fly away ‘Bon Voyage' and added MATTIE. Below the bread wearing the beret I drew a little telephone. Above it I put a cartoon balloon with R-R-RINGG! in it. As I finished this, the cordless phone rang. It was sitting on the deck rail. I circled MATTIE and picked up the phone. ‘Mike?' She sounded excited. Happy. Relieved. ‘Yeah,' I said. ‘How are you?' ‘Great!' she said, and I circled L.B. on my pad. ‘Lindy Briggs called ten minutes ago I just got off the phone with her. Mike, she's giving me my job back! Isn't that wonderful?' Sure. And wonderful how it would keep her in town. I crossed out Ought to fly away ‘Bon Voyage,' knowing that Mattie wouldn't go. Not now. And how could I ask her to? I thought again If only I knew a little more . . . ‘Mike? Are you ‘ ‘It's very wonderful,' I said. In my mind's eye I could see her standing in the kitchen, drawing the kinked telephone cord through her fingers, her legs long and coltish below her denim shorts. I could see the shirt she was wearing, a white tee with a yellow duck paddling across the front. ‘I hope Lindy had the good grace to sound ashamed of herself.' I circled the tee-shirt I'd drawn. ‘She did. And she was frank enough to kind of . . . well, disarm me. She said the Whitmore woman talked to her early last week. Was very frank and to the point, Lindy said. I was to be let go immediately. If that happened, the money, computer equipment, and software Devore funnelled into the library would keep coming. If it didn't, the flow of goods and money would stop immediately. She said she had to balance the good of the community against what she knew was wrong . . . she said it was one of the toughest decisions she ever had to make . . . ‘ ‘Uh-huh.' On the pad my hand moved of its own volition like a planchette gliding over a Ouija board, printing the words PLEASE CAN'T I PLEASE. ‘There's probably some truth in it, but Mattie . . . how much do you suppose Lindy makes?' ‘I don't know.' ‘I bet it's more than any three other small-town librarians in the state of Maine combined.' In the background I heard Ki: ‘Can I talk, Mattie? Can I talk to Mike? Please can't I please?' ‘In a minute, hon.' Then, to me: ‘Maybe. All I know is that I have my job back, and I'm willing to let bygones be bygones.' On the page, I drew a book. Then I drew a series of interlocked circles between it and the duck tee-shirt. ‘Ki wants to talk to you,' Mattie said, laughing. ‘She says the two of you went to the Fryeburg Fair last night.' ‘Whoa, you mean I had a date with a pretty girl and slept through it?' ‘Seems that way. Are you ready for her?' ‘Ready.' ‘Okay, here comes the chatterbox.' There was a rustling as the phone changed hands, then Ki was there. ‘I taggled you at the Fair, Mike! I taggled my own quartermack!' ‘Did you?' I asked ‘That was quite a dream, wasn't it, Ki?' There was a long silence at the other end. I could imagine Mattie wondering what had happened to her telephone chatterbox. At last Ki said in a hesitating voice: ‘You there too.' Tiu. ‘We saw the snake-dance ladies . . . the pole with the bell on top . . . we went in the spookyhouse . . . you fell down in the barrel! It wasn't a dream . . . was it?' I could have convinced her that it was, but all at once that seemed like a bad idea, one that was dangerous in its own way. I said: ‘You had on a pretty hat and a pretty dress.' ‘Yeah!' Ki sounded enormously relieved. ‘And you had on ‘ ‘Kyra, stop. Listen to me.' She stopped at once. ‘It's better if you don't talk about that dream too much, I think. To your mom or to anyone except me.' ‘Except you.' ‘Yes. And the same with the refrigerator people. Okay?' ‘Okay. Mike, there was a lady in Mattie's clothes.' ‘I know,' I said. It was all right for her to talk, I was sure of it, but I asked anyway: ‘Where's Mattie now?' ‘Waterin the flowers. We got lots of flowers, a billion at least. I have to clean up the table. It's a chore. I don't mind, though. I like chores. We had French toast. We always do on Sundays. It's yummy, ‘specially with strawberry syrup.' ‘I know,' I said, drawing an arrow to the piece of bread wearing the beret. ‘French toast is great. Ki, did you tell your mom about the lady in her dress?' ‘No. I thought it might scare her.' She dropped her voice. ‘Here she comes!' ‘That's all right . . . but we've got a secret, right?' ‘Yes.' ‘Now can I talk to Mattie again?' ‘Okay.' Her voice moved off a little. ‘Mommy-bommy, Mike wants to talk to you.' Then she came back. ‘Will you bizzit us today? We could go on another picnic.' ‘I can't today, Ki. I have to work.' ‘Mattie never works on Sunday.' ‘Well, when I'm writing a book, I write every day. I have to, or else I'll forget the story. Maybe we'll have a picnic on Tuesday, though. A barbecue picnic at your house.' ‘Is it long 'til Tuesday?' ‘Not too long. Day after tomorrow.' ‘Is it long to write a book?' ‘Medium-long.' I could hear Mattie telling Ki to give her the phone. ‘I will, just one more second. Mike?' ‘I'm here, Ki.' ‘I love you.' I was both touched and terrified. For a moment I was sure my throat was going to lock up the way my chest used to when I tried to write. Then it cleared and I said, ‘Love you, too, Ki.' ‘Here's Mattie.' Again there was the rustly sound of the telephone changing hands, then Mattie said: ‘Did that refresh your recollection of your date with my daughter, sir?' ‘Well,' I said, ‘it certainly refreshed hers.' There was a link between Mattie and me, but it didn't extend to this I was sure of it. She was laughing. I loved the way she sounded this morning and I didn't want to bring her down . . . but I didn't want her mistaking the white line in the middle of the road for the crossmock, either. ‘Mattie, you still need to be careful, okay? Just because Lindy Briggs offered you your old job back doesn't mean everyone in town is suddenly your friend.' ‘I understand that,' she said. I thought again about asking if she'd consider taking Ki up to Derry for awhile they could live in my house, stay for the duration of the summer if that was what it took for things to return to normal down here. Except she wouldn't do it. When it came to accepting my offer of high-priced New York legal talent, she'd had no choice. About this she did. Or thought she did, and how could I change her mind? I had no logic, no connected facts; all I had was a vague dark shape, like something lying beneath nine inches of snowblind ice. ‘I want you to be careful of two men in particular,' I said. ‘One is Bill Dean. The other is Kenny Auster. He's the one ‘ ‘ with the big dog who wears the neckerchief. He ‘ ‘That's Booberry!' Ki called from the middle distance. ‘Booberry licked my facie!' ‘Go out and play, hon,' Mattie said. ‘I'm clearun the table.' ‘You can finish later. Go on outside now.' There was a pause as she watched Ki go out the door, taking Strickland with her. Although the kid had left the trailer, Mattie still spoke in the lowered tone of someone who doesn't want to be overheard. ‘Are you trying to scare me?' ‘No,' I said, drawing repeated circles around the word DANGER. ‘But I want you to be careful. Bill and Kenny may have been on Devore's team, like Footman and Osgood. Don't ask me why I think that might be, because I have no satisfactory answer. It's only a feeling, but since I got back on the TR, my feelings are different.' ‘What do you mean?' ‘Are you wearing a tee-shirt with a duck on it?' ‘How do you know that? Did Ki tell you?' ‘Did she take the little stuffed dog from her Happy Meal out with her just now?' A long pause. At last she said ‘My God' in a voice so Low I could hardly hear it. Then again: ‘How ‘ ‘I don't know how. I don't know if you're still in a . . . a bad situation, either, or why you might be, but I feel that you are. That you both are.' I could have said more, but I was afraid she'd think I'd gone entirely off the rails. ‘He's dead!' she burst out. ‘That old man is dead! Why can't he leave us alone?' ‘Maybe he has. Maybe I'm wrong about all this. But there's no harm in being careful, is there?' ‘No,' she said. ‘Usually that's true.' ‘Usually?' ‘Why don't you come and see me, Mike? Maybe we could go to the Fair together.' ‘Maybe this fall we will. All three of us.' ‘I'd like that.' ‘In the meantime, I'm thinking about the key.' ‘Thinking is half your problem, Mike,' she said, and laughed again. Ruefully, I thought. And I saw what she meant. What she didn't seem to understand was that feeling was the other half. It's a sling, and in the end I think it rocks most of us to death. I worked for a while,' then carried the IBM back into the house and left the manuscript on top. I was done with it, at least for the time being. No more looking for the way back through the wardrobe; no more Andy Drake and John Shackleford until this was over. And, as I dressed in long pants and a button-up shirt for the first time in what felt like weeks, it occurred to me that perhaps something some force had been trying to sedate me with the story I was telling. With the ability to work again. It made sense; work had always been my drug of choice, even better than booze or the Mellaril I still kept in the bathroom medicine cabinet. Or maybe work was only the delivery system, the hypo with all the dreamy dreams inside it. Maybe the real drug was the zone. Being in the zone. Feeling it, you sometimes hear the basketball players say. I was in the zone and I was really feeling it. I grabbed the keys to the Chevrolet off the counter and looked at the fridge as I did. The magnets were circled again. In the middle was a message I'd seen before, one that was now instantly understandable, thanks to the extra Magnabet letters: help her ‘I'm doing my best,' I said, and went out. Three miles north on Route 68 by then you're on the part of it which used to be known as Castle Rock Road-there's a greenhouse with a shop in front of it. Slips ‘n Greens, it's called, and Jo used to spend a fair amount of time there, buying gardening supplies or just noodling with the two women who ran the place. One of them was Helen Auster, Kenny's wife. I pulled in there at around ten o'clock that Sunday morning (it was open, of course; during tourist season almost every Maine shopkeeper turns heathen) and parked next to a Beamer with New York plates. I paused long enough to hear the weather forecast on the radio continued hot and humid for another forty-eight hours at least and then got out. A woman wearing a bathing suit, a skort, and a giant yellow sunhat emerged from the shop with a bag of peat moss cradled in her arms. She gave me a little smile. I returned it with eighteen per cent interest. She was from New York, and that meant she wasn't a Martian. The shop was even hotter and' damper than the white morning outside. Lila Proulx, the co-owner, was on the phone. There was a little fan beside the cash register and she was standing directly in front of it, flapping the front of her sleeveless blouse. She saw me and twiddled her fingers in a wave. I twiddled mine back, feeling like someone else. Work or no work, I was still zoning. Still feeling it. I walked around the shop, picking up a few things almost at random, watching Lila out of the corner of my eye and waiting for her to get off the phone so I could talk to her . . . and all the time my own private hyperdrive was humming softly away. At last she hung up and I came to the counter. ‘Michael Noonan, what a sight for sore eyes you are!' she said, and began ringing up my purchases. ‘I was awfully sorry to hear about Johanna. Got to get that right up front. Jo was a pet.' ‘Thanks, Lila.' ‘Welcome. Don't need to say any more about it, but with a thing like that it's best to put it right up front. I've always believed it, always will believe it. Right up front. Going to do a little gardening, are you?' Gointer do a little ga'adnin, aaa you? ‘If it ever cools off.' ‘Ayuh! Isn't it wicked?' She flapped the top of her blouse again to show me how wicked it was, then pointed at one of my purchases. ‘Want this one in a special bag? Always safe, never sorry, that's my motto.' I nodded, then looked at the little blackboard tilted against the counter. FRESH BLUBERRYS, the chalked message read. THE CROPS IS IN! ‘I'll have a pint of berries, too,' I said. ‘As long as they're not Friday's. I can do better than Friday.' She nodded vigorously, as if to say she knew damned well I could. ‘These were on the bush yest'y. That fresh enough for you?' ‘Good as gold,' I said. ‘Blueberry's the name of Kenny's dog, isn't it?' ‘Ain't he a funny one? God, I love a big dog, if he's behaved.' She turned, got a pint of berries from her little fridge, and put them in another bag for me. ‘Where's Helen?' I asked. ‘Day off?.' ‘Not her,' Lila said. ‘If she's in town, you can't get her out of this place ‘less you beat her with a stick. She and Kenny and the kids went down Taxachusetts. Them and her brother's family club together and get a seaside cottage two weeks every summer. They all went. Old Blueberry, he'll chase seagulls until he drops.' She laughed it was a loud and hearty one. It made me think of Sara Tidwell. Or maybe it was the way Lila looked at me as she did it. There was no laughter in her eyes. They were small and considering, coldly curious. Would you for Christ's sake quit it? I told myself. They can't all be in on it together, Mike! Couldn't they, though? There is such a thing as town consciousness anyone who doubts it has never been to a New England town meeting. Where there's a consciousness, is there not likely to be a subconscious? And if Kyra and I were doing the old mind-meld thing, could not other people in TR-90 also be doing it, perhaps without even knowing it? We all shared the same air and land; we shared the lake and the aquifer which lay below everything, buried water tasting of rock and minerals. We shared The Street as well, that place where good pups and vile dogs could walk side-by-side. As I started out with my purchases in a cloth carry-handle bag, Lila said: ‘What a shame about Royce Merrill. Did you hear?' ‘No,' I said. ‘Fell down his cellar stairs yest'y evening. What a man his age was doing going down such a steep flight of steps is beyond me, but I suppose once you get to his age, you have your own reasons for doing things.' Is he dead? I started to ask, then rephrased. It wasn't the way the question was expressed on the TR. ‘Did he pass?' ‘Not yet. Motton Rescue took him to Castle County General. He's in a coma.' Comber, she said it. ‘They don't think he'll ever wake up, poor fella. There's a piece of history that'll die with him.' ‘I suppose that's true.' Good riddance, I thought. ‘Does he have children?' ‘No. There have been Merrills on the TR for two hundred years; one died at Cemetery Ridge. But all the old families are dying out now. You have a nice day, Mike.' She smiled. Her eyes remained flat and considering. I got into my Chevy, put the bag with my purchases in it on the passenger seat, then simply sat for a moment, letting the air conditioner pour cool air on my face and neck. Kenny Auster was in Taxachusetts. That was good. A step in the right direction. But there was still my caretaker. ‘Bill's not here,' Yvette said. She stood in the door, blocking it as well as she could (you can only do so much in that regard when you're five-three and weigh roughly a hundred pounds), studying me with the gimlet gaze of a nightclub bouncer denying re-entry to a drunk who's been tossed out on his ear once already. I was on the porch of the neat-as-ever-you-saw Cape Cod which stands at the top of Peabody Hill and looks all the way across New Hampshire and into Vermont's back yard. Bill's equipment sheds were lined up to the left of the house, all of them painted the same shade of gray, each with its own sign: DEAN CARETAKING, No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3. Parked in front of No. 2 was Bill's Dodge Ram. I looked at it, then back at Yvette. Her lips tightened a little more. Another notch and I figured they'd be gone entirely. ‘He went to North Conway with Butch Wiggins,' she said. ‘They went in Butch's truck. To get ‘ ‘No need lying for me, dear heart,' Bill said from behind her. It was still over an hour shy of noon, and on the Lord's Day to boot, but I had never heard a man who sounded more tired. He clumped down the hall, and as he came out of its shadows and into the light the sun was finally burning through the murk I saw that Bill now looked his age. Every year of it, and maybe ten more to grow on. He was wearing his usual khaki shirt and pants Bill Dean would be a Dickies man until the day he died but his shoulders looked slumped, almost sprained, a-s if he'd spent a week lugging buckets that were too heavy for him. The falling-away of his face had finally begun, an indefinable something that makes the eyes look too big, the jaw too prominent, the mouth a bit loose. He looked old. There were no children to carry on the family line of work, either; all the old families were dying out, Lila Proulx had said. And maybe that was a good thing. ‘Bill ‘ she began, but he raised one of his big hands to stop her. The callused fingertips shook a little. ‘Go in the kitchen a dight,' he told her. ‘I need to talk to my compadre here. ‘T'won't take long.' Yvette looked at him, and when she looked back at me, she had indeed reached zero lip-surface. There was just a black line where they had been, like a mark dashed off with a pencil. I saw with woeful clarity that she hated me. ‘Don't you tire him out,' she said to me. ‘He hasn't been sleepin. It's the heat.' She walked back down the hall, all stiff back and high shoulders, disappearing into shadows that were probably cool. It always seems to be cool in the houses of old people, have you noticed? Bill came out onto the porch and put his big hands into the pockets of his pants without offering to shake with me. ‘I ain't got nothin to say to you. You and me's quits.' ‘Why, Bill? Why are we quits?' He looked west, where the hills stepped into the burning summer haze, disappearing in it before they could become mountains, and said nothing. ‘I'm trying to help that young woman.' He gave me a look from the corners of his eyes that I could read well enough. ‘Ahuh. Help y'self right into her pants. I see men come up from New York and New Jersey with their young girls. Summer weekends, ski weekends, it don't matter. Men who go with girls that age always look the same, got their tongues run out even when their mouths are shut. Now you look the same.' I felt both angry and embarrassed, but I resisted the urge to chase him in that direction. That was what he wanted. ‘What happened here?' I asked him. ‘What did your fathers and grandfathers and great-grandfathers do to Sara Tidwell and her family? You didn't just move them on, did you?' ‘Didn't have to,' Bill said, looking past me at the hills. His eyes were moist almost to the point of tears, but his jaw was set and hard. ‘They moved on themselves. Never was a nigger who didn't have an itchy foot, my dad used to say.' ‘Who set the trap that killed Son Tidwell's boy? Was it your father, Bill? Was it Fred?' His eyes moved; his jaw never did. ‘I dunno what you're talking about.' ‘I hear him crying in my house. Do you know what it's like to hear a dead child crying in your house? Some bastard trapped him like a weasel and I hear him crying in my fucking house!' ‘You're going to need a new caretaker,' Bill said. ‘I can't do for you no more. Don't want to. What I want is for you to get off my porch.' ‘What's happening? Help me, for Christ's sake.' ‘I'll help you with the toe of my shoe if you don't get going on your own.' I looked at him a moment longer, taking in the wet eyes and the set jaw, his divided nature written on his face. ‘I lost my wife, you old bastard,' I said. ‘A woman you claimed to love.' Now his jaw moved at last. He looked at me with surprise and injury. ‘That didn't happen here,' he said. ‘That didn't have anything to do with here. She might've been off the TR because . . . well, she might've had her reasons to be off the TR . . . but she just had a stroke. Would have happened anywhere. Anywhere.' ‘I don't believe that. I don't think you do, either. Something followed her to Derry, maybe because she was pregnant . . . ‘ Bill's eyes widened. I gave him a chance to say something, but he didn't take it. ‘ . . . or maybe just because she knew too much.' ‘She had a stroke.' Bill's voice wasn't quite even. ‘I read the obituary myself. She had a damn stroke.' ‘What did she find out? Talk to me, Bill. Please.' There was a long pause. Until it was over I allowed myself the luxury of thinking I might actually be getting through to him. ‘I've only got one more thing to say to you, Mike stand back. For the sake of your immortal soul, stand back and let things run their course. They will whether you do or don't. This river has almost come to the sea; it won't be dammed by the likes of you. Stand back. For the love of Christ.' Do you care about your soul, Mr. Noonan? God's butterfly caught in a cocoon of flesh that will soon stink like mine? Bill turned and walked to his door, the heels of his workboots clodding on the painted boards. ‘Stay away from Mattie and Ki,' I said. ‘If you so much as go near that trailer ‘ He turned back, and the hazy sunshine glinted on the tracks below his eyes. He took a bandanna from his back pocket and wiped his cheeks. ‘I ain't stirrin from this house. I wish to God I'd never come back from my vacation in the first place, but I did mostly on your account, Mike. Those two down on Wasp Hill have nothing to fear from me. No, not from me.' He went inside and closed the door. I stood there looking at it, feeling unreal surely I could not have had such a deadly conversation with Bill Dean, could I? Bill who had reproached me for not letting folks down here share and perhaps ease my grief for Jo, Bill who had welcomed me back so warmly? Then I heard a clack sound. He might not have locked his door while he was at home in his entire life, but he had locked it now. The clack was very clear in the breathless July air. It told me everything I had to know about my long friendship with Bill Dean. I turned and walked back to my car, my head down. Nor did I turn when I heard a window run up behind me. ‘Don't you ever come back here, you town bastard!' Yvette Dean cried across the sweltering dooryard. ‘You've broken his heart! Don't you ever come back! Don't you ever! Don't you ever!' ‘Please,' Mrs. M. said. ‘Don't ask me any more questions, Mike. I can't afford to get in Bill Dean's bad books, any more'n my ma could afford to get into Normal Auster's or Fred Dean's.' I shifted the phone to my other ear. ‘All I want to know is ‘ ‘In this part of the world caretakers pretty well run the whole show. If they say to a summer fella that he should hire this carpenter or that ‘lectrician, why, that's who the summer fella hires. Or if a caretaker says this one should be fired because he ain't proving reliable, he is fired. Or she. Because what goes once for plumbers and landscapers and ‘lectricians has always gone twice for housekeepers. If you want to be recommended and stay recommended you have to keep on the sunny side of people like Fred and Bill Dean, or Normal and Kenny Auster. Don't you see?' She was almost pleading. ‘When Bill found out I told you about what Normal Auster did to Kerry, oooo he was so mad at me.' ‘Kenny Auster's brother the one Normal drowned under the pump his name was Kerry?' ‘Ahuh. I've known a lot of folks name their kids alike, think it's cute. Why, I went to school with a brother and sister named Roland and Rolanda Therriault, I think Roland's in Manchester now, and Rolanda married that boy from ‘ ‘Brenda, just answer one question. I'll never tell. Please?' I waited, my breath held, for the click that would come when she put her telephone back in its cradle. Instead, she spoke three words in a soft, almost regretful voice. ‘What is it?' ‘Who was Carla Dean?' I waited through another long pause, my hand playing with the ribbon that had come off Ki's turn-of-the-century straw hat. ‘You dassn't tell anyone I told you anything,' she said at last. ‘I won't.' ‘Carla was Bill's twin sister. She died sixty-five years ago, during the time of the fires.' The fires Bill claimed had been set by Ki's grandfather his going-away present to the TR. ‘I don't know just how it happened. Bill never talks about it. If you tell him I told you, I'll never make another bed in the TR. He'll see to it.' Then, in a hopeless voice, she said: ‘He may know anyway.' Based on my own experiences and surmises, I guessed she might be right about that. But even if she was, she'd have a check from me every month for the rest of her working life. I had no intention of telling her that over the telephone, though it would scald her Yankee soul. Instead I thanked her, assured her again of my discretion, and hung up. I sat at the table for a moment, staring blankly at Bunter, then said: ‘Who's here?' No answer. ‘Come on,' I said. ‘Don't be shy. Let's go nineteen or ninety-two down. Barring that, let's talk.' Still no answer. Not so much as a shiver of the bell around the stuffed moose's neck. I spied the scribble of notes I'd made while talking to Jo's brother and drew them toward me. I had put Kia, Kyra, Kito, and Carla in a box. Now I scribbled out the bottom line of that box and added the name Kerry to the list. I've known a lot of folks name their kids alike, Mrs. M. had said. They think it's cute. I didn't think it was cute; I thought it was creepy. It occurred to me that at least two of these soundalikes had drowned Kerry Auster under a pump, Kia Noonan in her mother's dying body when she wasn't much bigger than a sunflower seed. And I had seen the ghost of a third drowned child in the lake. Kito? Was that one Kito? Or was Kito the one who had died of blood-poisoning? They name their kids alike, they think it's cute. How many soundalike kids had there been to start with? How many were left? I thought the answer to the first question didn't matter, and that I knew the answer to the second one already. This river has almost come to the sea, Bill had said. Carla, Kerry, Kito, Kia . . . all gone. Only Kyra Devore was left. I got up so fast and hard that I knocked over my chair. The clatter in the silence made me cry out. I was leaving, and right now. No more telephone calls, no more playing Andy Drake, Private Detective, no more depositions or half-assed wooings of the lady fair. I should have followed my instincts and gotten the fuck out of Dodge that first night. Well, I'd go now, just get in the Chevy and haul ass for Der Bunter's bell jangled furiously. I turned and saw it bouncing around his neck as if batted to and fro by a hand I couldn't see. The sliding door giving on the deck began to fly open and clap shut like something hooked to a pulley. The book of Tough Stuff crossword puzzles on the end-table and the DSS program guide blew open, their pages riffling. There was a series of rattling thuds across the floor, as if something enormous were crawling rapidly toward me, pounding its fists as it came. A draft not cold but warm, like the rush of air produced by a subway train on a summer night buffeted past me. In it I heard a strange voice which seemed to be saying Bye-BY, bye-BY, bye-BY, as if wishing me a good trip home. Then, as it dawned on me that the voice was actually saying Ki-Ki, Ki-Ki, Ki-Ki, something struck me and knocked me violently forward. It felt like a large soft fist. I buckled over the table, clawing at it to stay up, overturning the lazy susan with the salt and pepper shakers on it, the napkin holder, the little vase Mrs. M. had filled with daisies. The vase rolled off the table and shattered. The kitchen TV blared on, some politician talking about how inflation was on the march again. The CD player started up, drowning out the politician; it was the Rolling Stones doing a cover of Sara Tidwell's ‘I Regret You, Baby.' Upstairs, one smoke alarm went off, then another, then a third. They were joined a moment later by the warble-whoop of the Chevy's car a larm. The whole world was cacophony. Something hot and pillowy seized my wrist. My hand shot forward like a piston and slammed down on the steno pad. I watched as it pawed clumsily to a blank page, then seized the pencil which lay nearby. I gripped it like a dagger and then something wrote with it, not guiding my hand but raping it. The hand moved slowly at first, almost blindly, then picked up speed until it was flying, almost tearing through the sheet: I had almost reached the bottom of the page when the cold descended again, that outer cold that was like sleet in January, chilling my skin and crackling the snot in my nose and sending two shuddery puffs of white air from my mouth. My hand clenched and the pencil snapped in two. Behind me, Bunter's bell rang out one final furious convulsion before falling silent. Also from behind me came a peculiar double pop, like the sound of champagne corks being drawn. Then it was over. Whatever it had been or however many they had been, it was finished. I was alone again. I turned off the CD player just as Mick and Keith moved on to a white-boy version of Howling Wolf, then ran upstairs and pushed the reset buttons on the smoke-detectors. I leaned out the window of the big guest bedroom while I was up there, aimed the fob of my keyring down at the Chevrolet, and pushed the button on it. The alarm quit. With the worst of the noise gone I could hear the TV cackling away in the kitchen. I went down, killed it, then froze with my hand still on the OFF button, looking at Jo's annoying waggy-cat clock. Its tail had finally stopped switching, and its big plastic eyes lay on the floor. They had popped right out of its head. I went down to the Village Cafe for supper, snagging the last Sunday Telegram from the rack (COMPUTER MOGUL DEVORE DIES IN WESTERN MAINE TOWN WHERE HE GREW UP, the headline read) before sitting down at the counter. The accompanying photo was a studio shot of Devore that looked about thirty years old. He was smiling. Most people do that quite naturally. On Devore's face it looked like a learned skill. I ordered the beans that were left over from Buddy Jellison's Saturday-night beanhole supper. My father wasn't much for aphorisms in my family dispensing nuggets of wisdom was Mom's job but as Daddy warmed up the Saturday-night yelloweyes in the oven on Sunday afternoon, he would invariably say that beans and beef stew were better the second day. I guess it stuck. The only other piece of fatherly wisdom I can remember receiving was that you should always wash your hands after you took a shit in a bus station. While I was reading the story on Devore, Audrey came over and told me that Royce Merrill had passed without recovering consciousness. The funeral would be Tuesday afternoon at Grace Baptist, she said. Most of the town would be there, many folks just to see Ila Meserve awarded the Boston Post cane. Did I think I'd get over? No, I said, probably not. I thought it prudent not to add that I'd likely be attending a victory party at Mattie Devore's while Royce's funeral was going on down the road. The usual late-Sunday-afternoon flow of customers came and went while I ate, people ordering burgers, people ordering beans, people ordering chicken salad sandwiches, people buying sixpacks. Some were from the TR, some from away. I didn't notice many of them, and no one spoke to me. I have no idea who left the napkin on my newspaper, but when I put down the A section and turned to find the sports, there it was. I picked it up, meaning only to put it aside, and saw what was written on the back in big dark letters: GET OFF THE TR. I never found out who left it there. I guess it could have been any of them.

Rizal: Bayaning Third World

At the part where in Rizal almost burn the manuscript of Noli Me Tangere made me think that it was a symbol of him letting go of what he strongly believed in connection to him not involved with â€Å"Himagsikan†. He became hopeless and I think he became afraid of death, probably, However, since he continued the publishing of Noli Me Tangere, I believe, he gained back his strong convictions regarding our democracy and showed his nationalism and patriotism. I thought what I know about Rizal was enough to understand his life, works and writing but having finished this independent film widened my understanding not only for Rizal’s positive sides but also for his flaws. Jose Rizal being a national hero considering his great influence not only in the Philippines but to other countries he had gone also with his works, the great impact he left with our history as a country and culture as its citizen, his weight to some indigenous religions also has his own flaws and faults because he is also a human being capable of doing those things. Less people know Rizal’s â€Å"dark side†Ã¢â‚¬â€ controversies, I myself was one of those before I watched this film. We were focused on his good side, his achievements and contributions for the betterment of our country but having the chance to know his flaws which until now haunts him, we must understand him and not condone the fact that he was still a human being. Rizal really don’t want to be a hero, he just wanted to prove his great passion and love for our country. Indeed, Rizal chose to die because it was one way to give weight to his beliefs and philosophy. We all have our own Rizal. We have different perceptions and understanding regarding his life, works and writings. As for me, though he is not as â€Å"perfect† as a national hero should be, I still salute and look up to him for his immense contributions and grand legacy which is applicable until now. Despite his imperfection, it didn’t lessen his heroism. In fact, his controversies made his life more interesting and it only made him more famous not only during his time but now and in the future generations. I didn’t get surprised that many critiqued his life but for me he is still the rd world hero of all time. How can we become Rizal in our own little ways? By following simple rules and regulations and by paying the right tax. There are a lot more and it is up to you to think of whatever way it suites you. Let us be a modern-day Rizal to continue his legacy for the future generation. Bayaning Third World is a film of substance. It is very appealing and is highly recommended for other stu dents studying Rizal. It is effective for my learning. Even if our 1-peso coin is in constant devaluing, Rizal still remain number one in our hearts.

Should Women be Allowed in Combat Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Should Women be Allowed in Combat - Essay Example First thing to consider is that there is around 13% of the military population is comprised by women (Willens 1996). Before women reached this population inside the military, there have been limitations on their integration to the military from 32000 which is very minimal (Willens 1996). Although certain situations like the World War II and other conflicts that have occurred between countries provided certain conditions that allowed several numbers of women in the military (Willens 1996). Women have provided significant contributions in the logistical matters, medical operations and the like in the military operations (Jelinek 2011). This contribution of women in the military is clear. This can be considered a feminist move in this case and this is a manifestation for women trying to get equality and representation in the military field wherein gender politics is a very intriguing matter (Butler 1990, p. 1). This act of women to be involved in the military is a major move that challe nges the patriarchal conventions that have existed in the society since the establishment of societies and having undergone development as seen in the world nowadays (Rosenbluth 2008, p. 2). ... dered in its fullest scope, then the case of inclusion of gays and lesbian is a selective equality and not a full consideration of ensuring equality in its fullest scope. Also, the fact that women are not included in the military highlights the persistence of military to live out the traditional norms that surround gender. (Rosenbluth 2008, p. 4).This is the very condition even if feminist movements have demanded that women should be integrated in the military. Paradoxically, the condition of democracy conforming to equality becomes an illusion in the way women are allowed only into certain condition inside the military. The problem here is that women, despite of the certain efforts of the government to recognize their efforts in the military like the Women’s Armed Integration Service Act, is not fully recognize according to the gender neutral premises in military selection and promotion (Willens 1996). Even if the dominance of the democratic political thought that recognizes equality in its fullest scope, lawmakers who are carefully assessing on the matter, employs a very different standard that limits the presence of women in the military. One thing is that women’s welfare be prioritized (Jelenik 2011). Their safety is being considered since even if women are allowed to be in military, they are not allowed to engage the conflict on the front line (Jelenik 2011). At the same time, there is already a consideration towards women of being war prisoners wherein the trauma that might go through will be excruciating on their part, making them dysfunctional (Willens 1996). Also, the presence of women in the military is already a good notion to consider since their integration has been achieved (Jelenik 2011). There are already existing mechanisms like the military

HD-DVD vs. BLU-RAY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

HD-DVD vs. BLU-RAY - Essay Example Weaknesses are happening on a couple of fronts. On the content development front, the DVD authoring front, we continue to see extreme price pressure in authoring services. The price of DVD authoring software has come down. The fact that more and more people are doing it puts incredible pressure on the production community to develop a quality product that is certifiable over all of the various players, delivers the same experience to the customer, and builds and maintains margins in their production services. (Sweeting, 2004, p7-46) On the other side, when we look at the next generation high definition DVD disc, which will certainly be all the rage in 2006, a weakness there is how soon the consumer will embrace this technology, particularly if there are two formats. As we all know, DVD was the most successful consumer product ever launched, but if you look at it now, most people have DVD players and are very content with the experience that they get in watching DVDs in their home. How quickly will they want to purchase a more expensive DVD player to play high definition material is something everyone is grappling with right now. (Capps, 2005) It is likely that moving forward the next wave [of opportunity] will fall to special interest categories and even corporate video--outreach and recruiting applications. Certainly, the opportunities for DVD in 2006 are tremendous. Beyond the applications in the corporate, marketing and outreach programs, we'll see special niche DVDs having greater acceptance. Then, of course, we have the whole next-generation issue, which hopefully will come to the forefront in 2006. The threat, especially for high definition, will definitely be how quickly the consumer will embrace that technology, particularly if there are two competing formats. You'll also have, on another front, a continuing piracy concern. That will bring pressure on studios and on the production community to figure out ways to safeguard the transmission of the information and the actual content on the DVD. We will see more movies being released more quickly to DVD. We will see the continued growth of TV programming and music on DVD, We will see the emerging market of 'special interest' DVDs [from educational, travel, marketing, outreach, recruiting, etc.]. And of course we will see the next generation of DVDs, in high definition.Blu Ray will win the high definition DVD arms race, but my guess is that it will take some time for the 75 percent of households who already own a standard definition DVD player to slowly warm up to parting with the cash to upgrade. In all likelihood the adoption wi ll be much slower than standard DVD. The entire industry is holding off until March to launch both formats [DVD HD and Blu Ray]. So we won't be able to see until March of this year how well the fall of this year will be. Also, how fast will HD disc formats be adopted by consumers It took four years for consumers to adopt DVD; will it take six years to get them over to HD We don't really know. (Laser Focus World, 2004. p11-11) A cross-industry debate over the next-generation high-definition optical-disk format turned uglier after Microsoft and Intel publicly backed the HD-DVD standard over its Blu-ray rival. Moving beyond the turf war talk of whether PCs or consumer electronics will rule the digital living room, the HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray battle

Market research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Market research - Essay Example One of the easier methods of new product development is brand extensions. In 1980, the company launched cornflakes in the UK market. Buoyed by its huge success, it has been regularly expanding this market through the strategy of brand extensions. Crunchy Nut clusters launched in 2003 was followed by Crunchy Nut Bites which hit the market in 2008. All these brands have been hugely successful for Kellogg’s. This paper traces the success story of Kellogg’s. It outlines the importance of marketing research, provides for a critique on the four-stage research process at the company and also presents the salient findings from marketing research undertaken for the Crunchy Nut Bites and the new Coco Pops brand. 2.0 Introduction Kellogg’s is a world leader in the cereal market. With nearly 500 successful brands in its portfolio, it believes in a domineering market presence through the all-important strategy of innovation complemented by marketing clout. Truly, a transnatio nal corporation, it has manufacturing facilities in 18 countries which enables it to cater, far and wide, to over 180 countries, globally. Kellogg’s introduced Crunchy Nut Cornflakes in the UK market in 1980. Over the next two decades, this brand generated huge sales of around ?68 million. In 2003, Crunchy Nut Clusters, a product extension, was launched in two varieties – Milk Chocolate Curls and Honey and Nut. This strategy was highly successful as it enabled Kellogg’s to garner annual revenues of ?21 million. Riding on this success, in 2008, Crunchy Nut Bites, arrived in the market. Achieving a record of nearly ?7 million in its very first year of full sales, the newest launch was also a major hit. The most critical factor in the success of Kellogg’s new product initiative is its elaborate, marketing research. Research is, unfailingly, undertaken for every single step of the way right from idea generation to market commercialization. Primary as well as Secondary research is carried out. Both forms of research, namely, qualitative and quantitative research is given due importance. A unique four-stage approach commencing with discovery and leading onto selection of the best product idea, is followed by transforming the idea into a complete new product and concludes with a forecast of sales for the new product. This comprehensive research framework has stood the company is very good stead, over the years. It enables it to maintain constant interaction with the most important stakeholder of any organization, irrespective of form, nature and size, the consumer. This consumer-marketer interaction and interface enables Kellogg’s to regularly tap the consumer’s pulse and identify their wants and needs. This mode of consumer empowerment translates into strong consumer advocacy of the Kellogg’s brand and goes beyond customer satisfaction leading to consumer delight. Consequently, consumer retention becomes easier and ne w customer attraction is also facilitated through product promotions and other marketing efforts. In days of reduced market research spending (Quelch 2009), its reliance and stress on the need and efficacy of marketing research, has paved the way for a sustained competitive advantage (Porter 1965), for Kellogg’s. 3.0 Contents Innovation refers to creation or introduction of something new. Though innovation and creativity is used synonymously, innovation is greater than

Human resource management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 6

Human resource management - Essay Example 2011, 1). Empirical research has supported the theory by proving that the most impressive performance result when an organization sets clear and specific goals. Effective goals should also be measurable, accurate, and time-bound (Kessler, I. 2012, 66). Clear goals ensure that employees attain a conspicuous sense of direction in their duties. Goals motivate employees to perform at stipulated levels (Perkins,S. and White, G. 2011, 109). It is essential for both the organization and the employees to have distinct strategies about performance targets. This is because employees should work with goals that directly affect their departments. In this view, an organization pays an employee according to how one meets given goals. An employee that satisfactorily meets set goals possess a higher bargaining power in demanding for more pay. In turn, an organization faces the task of synchronizing incentives with the nature of number of goals that an employee is supposed to meet (Heery, E. 1996, 55 ). On the other hand, the expectancy theory holds that an individual acts in a certain way because one chooses a given behavior out of a set of behaviors (Marsden, D. 2004, 17). Such a behavior results into the desired performance. This theory evaluates performance as an outcome of an employee’s ability and motivation to choose one type of behavior over the other (Pendleton, A. 2001, 88). Three factors play a crucial role in shaping this form of motivational behavior. To begin with, an employee makes a psychological link between effort and behaviors (Thompson, M. 2009, 131). In addition, the concept of instrumentality links behavior and outcome. Outcome, in this sense, is perceived as pay. Lastly, valence relates to how a person attaches value to an expected incentive (Marchington, M., & Wilkinson, A. 2008, 124). In the share and ownership scheme theory, the

Close-Reading Xala Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Close-Reading Xala - Essay Example Close-Reading Xala Sembene has used his life to reveal the period of transition in Africa shedding light upon the corruption and greed that persisted in the African society. The story commences from the success of El Hadji and ends at the note where he is humiliated owing to his own acts and wrongdoings. El Hadji lived a life of pride and attained financial successes even through wrong means to fulfill his greed. He lived a lavish life and had two wives named Adja Awa Astou and Oumi N’Doye respectively. But he decided to marry a third woman, N'Gone and this was a matter of pride for him as he believed this symbolized his manhood and his capability of fulfilling the demands of three wives both physically and financially. His first two wives are not very happy with this decision but to uphold the African traditions of submissiveness for women, they obey his command and attend his wedding ceremony. El Hadji is very happy with his marriage but his marriage proves to be the commencement of his downfa ll. He is unable to consummate his marriage owing to the loss of potency on the first of his marriage. On the path of attaining the cure for his problem, he loses his wealth and he is deserted by his wives as well except for Awa. He is looked down upon by his colleagues who also leave him and continue with their financial projects. It is later that El Hadji finds out that he lost his potency owing to â€Å"xala† which was a curse of impotency that was spelled on him by a beggar as he had been unfair and had unjustly taken over the piece of land of the beggar. The only way that remained for him to regain his manhood was by taking off his clothes and by being spit by all the beggars. The author has interwoven the happenings in the life of El Hadji to reflect upon the wrongdoings in the African society. El Hadjis first wife is a traditional African woman who sticks by him till the end. She is submissive and follows the commands of her husband. Her character reveals the strength of an African woman who is patient and loyal. She converses with her husband in Wolof revealing that she wills to uphold the tradition of the African society. Their daughter Rama is used by the writer to portray the new generation of Africa who knew that they had fought their way out of colonialism and had to work towards upholding their culture and traditions. She was a strong character who argued with his father against his wrongdoings and atrocities. She also talked with her father in Wolof and did not wish to utilize the French traditions and products until and unless needed. It is seen that despite of her disapproval for her father’s acts, she still loved her father which is revealed when she stands by him and converses with the police officer when the beggars at their house for the ritual of spitting El Hadji for regaining his manhood. She also cries on seeing her father being disgraced. Africa was in a transitional phase and Oumi who is El Hadji’s second wife sy mbolizes as a character that is stuck between the French and the African traditions. Oumi is not patient and devoted like Awa. She highly disapproves of El Hadji’s third marriage. She was not completely over the French period of colonialism and preferred using their language and dressing. She adopted a more western style and her character denoted the existence of the French remnants in the African society. Oumi is materialistic and leaves El Hadji during his period of downfall and

FIFA World Cup Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

FIFA World Cup - Essay Example The global supervision body chose Uruguay as the host state for celebrating the FIFA competition for men. However, it is only the year 1942 and 1946 whereby the FIFA was not held because of the WWII. Although Sir Thomas Trophy is at times recognized as the First World Trophy; the 1930 World Cup is one of the certified football competition recognized as the First World Cup. The earlier host countries for FIFA World Cup were given to those countries that participated in the FIFA congress, but choosing the location had disruptive issues. Although the first international football team was played first in the year 1872, in Glasgow, Jules Rimet came with the ideas of FIFA World Cup in 1928; hence marked the first written international football tournament. The historical background for World Cup can be traced back in 1928 when Jules Rimet, the president of FIFA decided to establish the global football competition for men. Although the first international football team was played first in the year 1872, in Glasgow, Jules Rimet came with the ideas of FIFA World Cup, hence marked the first written international football match (FIFA World Cup, 2013). The first FIFA began in Uruguay, which was chosen as the host nation; thus, the final competition of only thirteen teams played for the final World Cup. The world Cup has qualified effectively since the first edition of the international football events. This international football team has significantly attracted many nations; thus, there are currently 32 teams in the final tournament. These squads have proceeded by a two-year qualifying method that involves almost 200 teams from across the globe. Scotland and England became the earliest national football teams to participate in the worldwide football tournament that occurred in Glasgow, in the year 1872. However, the events rarely took place outside the Great Britain during this period. The

Ethical Code of Conduct Thesis Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Ethical Code of Conduct - Thesis Example Ways to Implement the Ethical Code of Conduct 10 Consequences of Violation of Code of Ethics 11 Conclusion 12 References 14 Introduction With the technological innovations and advancements in the other sectors of the world, health has become one of the primary and significant sources of concern for an individual in the twenty first century. This is due to the reason that health enormities are escalating with the globalization that the world is experiencing in the contemporary world. However, with the emergence and development of the health care organizations, much awareness has come under creation for an individual. These health care organizations are key responsible for diagnosing, and treating the diseases, illness, injury or other physical and psychological harm that a person may encounter during his life. The health care serves as a promoter and upholds the healthiness, fitness, and wellbeing of the entire populace around the world as its fundamental purpose. Moreover, the key highlighting point of health care profession is to sustain, improve, and enhance the quality of life on whole of the general population. However, several code of ethical conduct needs to come under implementation for those in governance, management, and professional staff of the health care organizations. ... the ethical code of conduct also provides with the principles or the guidelines that can be set as a foundation for resolving the ethical dilemmas that can come under occurrence. In other words, ethical codes are the core values that grants the related people with the necessary actions that needs to come under performance in normal circumstances as well as when a conflict occurs. Value for people, reliability, commitment, devotion, and excellence should be the foundation stones while setting up an ethical code of conduct (Pera &  Tonder, 2005). One of the health care organizations that will come under discussion is Acute Care hospital, which is a subdivision of secondary health care. Here, the professional staff provides the patients with short-term care or support. However, the patients come under treatment for their serious illness, severe injury or during the recovery from surgery (Green, 2009). Facility Background Acute care facility comes under the division of secondary health care where immediate care comes under provision for the patients suffering from trauma, serious injuries or illness, or recovery from surgery. It is a care provided on a short-term basis, where the hospital facilities send the patients to their home or other medical treatment centers such as rehabilitation center, nursing home and few others when they see stableness in the health conditions of the patients. In addition, the patients come under treatment by the team of health care professionals ranging from medical to surgical areas of expertise. â€Å"Hospitals, emergency departments, dialysis centers, clinical laboratories, urgent care centers and few long-term-care hospitals and facilities are all types of acute care facilities that come under offering† (Green, 2009). Emergency or urgent

Chapter & Readings R Essay Example for Free

Chapter Readings R Essay Chapter 9 readings this week is about experiments. The learning objectives in this chapter are the used for experimentation, advantages and disadvantages of the experiment method, seven steps of a well-planned experiment, internal and external validity with experiment research designs, and the three types of experiment designs and the variations of each. In chapter 9 experiments is defined as the studies involving intervention by the researcher beyond that required for measurement (McGraw-Hill Company). One of the advantages of experiments is that it comes the closest than any primary data collection to accomplish its goal. One of the foremost advantages is the ability of the researcher to manipulate the independent variable. The second advantage of the experiment is the contamination of extraneous variables being controlled way more effectively in other designs. This allows researchers to isolate the variable and evaluate the impact. The third is the convenience and cost experimentation that are superior to other methods (McGraw-Hill Company). The benefit of this is that it allows experiment opportunities in scheduling data collection and the flexibility in adjusting the variables. The disadvantages are the artificiality of the laboratory of the experimental method. Second are the samples of nonprobability can pose problems despite the random assignment. Conducting a well-executed experiment must have a complete series of activities in order to have a successful experiment. In chapter 9 Exhibit9-1 it gives researchers seven activities that a researcher must accomplished in order to have a successful research. Exhibit 9-1 1. Seven relevant variables. 2. Specify the treatment levels. 3. Control the experiment environment. 4. Choose the experimental design. 5. Select and assign the subjects. 6. Pilot test, revise, and test. 7. Analyze the data. Researchers are task to translate an amorphous problem that is being question or the hypothesis that is best state of the objectives the research (McGraw-Hill Company. The book mentioned that hypothesis is a relational state because it describes a relationship between two or more variables (McGraw-Hill Company). It also be operationalized, a term we used earlier in discussing how concepts are transformed into variables to make them measurable and subject to testing (McGraw-Hill Company). Researches challenges are: 1. Select variables that are the best operational representations of the original concepts. 2. Determine how many variables to test. 3. Select or design appropriate measures for them (McGraw-Hill Company). Controlling the experimental environment variables may appear in differences in age, gender, race, dress, communications competence, and many other characteristic (McGraw-Hill Company). Environmental Control is defined as holding contrast the physical environment of the experiment (McGraw-Hill Company). Other forms of experiment are the control of the subjects. Subjects that are that have no knowledge that they are receiving experimental treatment are said to be blind. Double blind is when the experimenters do not know of the treatment of the experiment group or the control group. Experiment design is unique in the experiment method. As it serves as a positional and statistical plan to designate its relationship between the experimental treatments and experimenters observations (McGraw-Hill Company). When conducting an experiment the researchers apply their knowledge in order to select the design that is best suited for the goals research. When analyzing data if must have adequate planning. Researchers have several measurements and instrument options with experiments (McGraw-Hill Company). Observational techniques and coding schemes. Paper-and-pencil tests. Self-report instruments with open-ended or closed questions. Scaling techniques Physiological measures (McGraw-Hill Company). Even though there are different types of validity the two major varieties that are considered are internal validity and external validity. Internal Validity among its many threats seven are consider: History Maturation Testing Instrumentation Selection Statistical regression Experimental mortality External validity among its threats the following are its interactive possibilities: Reactivity of testing on X. Interaction of Selections and X. Other reactive factors. References Author Donald R. Cooper, Pamela S, Schindler. 2011 McGraw-Hill Comapny

Principles of Supervision Essay Example for Free

Principles of Supervision Essay As part of this course, you will be required to take field notes for the field portion of the class which I will grade at the end of the semester. These field notes should be taken as if you were a naturalist describing the biology/ecology of a newly-discovered environment. An example of what I expect: Date: October 22, 2011 Location: Fort DeSoto Time: 09:30 – 09:45 Conditions: Heavy rain and wind, occasional lightning, severe flooding due to extremely high tides Walking on the trail at the welcome center where the water was waist deep. At the southern red cedar tree I noticed a bull shark feeding on a brown pelican, at which time I turned around and went home. Species identified (for species you identify, sketches are often helpful, maybe even indicate whether or not you took a picture. I STRONGLY suggest you take notes on any diagnostic characters we talk about): Southern red cedar – 20 feet tall, with scaly, needle-like leaves, bluish berries, and brown, shredded bark Brown pelican – large, brown bird, with a long, broad beak and a white head Bull shark – 5 feet long, very deep-bodied (large girth), blunt nose Obviously I don’t anticipate that you will encounter a scene such as this, but similar detail is required. Notes should be taken both in class and during your out-of-class excursions. Include drawings of plants/animals, key identifying features, terms we discuss etc. These notes will be extremely beneficial when studying for your field exam as well as preparing your collections. NOTE: field notes do not need to be typed, but I must be able to clearly read your writing. Also, a simple list of species we encounter will not be sufficient. To receive full credit, at a minimum you must have a set of field notes for every field trip we take. Should you miss a field trip, it is your responsibility to make up the trip on your own.

Relationship Between Customer Satisfaction And Loyalty Business Essay

Relationship Between Customer Satisfaction And Loyalty Business Essay Customer loyalty is an emotional rather than a rational thing. It is typically based on customer interest in maintaining a relationship with one organization. Often, customer interest is created and maintained through one or more positive experiences which lead to a relationship. Relationship is built on trust the most important thing to remember about trust is that without it, one have no relationship. This applies to all human situations, not just the customer service environment, for customers to continue long business with one and ones organization, trust has to be earned, and it does not happen overnight. Only through continued positive efforts on the part of everyone in organization can anyone demonstrate to customers that one can be worthy of their trust and thereby positively affect customer retention. Through actions and deeds, one must deliver quality products, services, and information that satisfy the needs of ones customers. Even when one wins trust, it is very fragile. And inappropriate one, a missed appointment, failure to follow through on a promise, a lie, of misleading statements to a customer are just some of the ways one can destroy trust quickly. (Robert W. Lucas, 2005, p.318) Customer satisfaction In general, satisfaction is a persons feelings of pleasure or disappointment resulting from comparing products perceived performance (or outcome) in relation to his or her expectations. If the performance falls short of expectations, the customer is dissatisfied, if the performance matches the expectations, the customer is satisfied, if the performance exceeds expectations, and the customer is highly satisfied or delighted. Relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty The link between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty is not proportional suppose customer satisfaction is rated on a scale from one to five, at a very low level of customer satisfaction (level one), customers are likely to abandon the company and even bad mouth it. At levels two to four, customers are fairly satisfied but still find it easy to switch when a better offer comes along, at level five, the customer is very likely to repurchase and even spread good work of mouth about the company. High satisfaction or delight creates an emotional bond with the brand of company, not just a rational preference. For example, Xeroxs senor management found out that its completely satisfied customers are six times more likely to repurchase Xerox products over the following 18 months than its very satisfied customers. (Philip Kotler, Keven Lane Keller, 2003 p.60) Up to Level four there is a chance of customer to leave the brand but from level five customer satisfactions is proportional to the customer loyalty The disloyalty at current rates would stunt the corporate performance by 25 to 50 percent, and sometimes even more, by contrast, the business enterprises that concentrate on finding and retaining good customers, productive employees and supportive investors still continue to generate superior results the loyalty factor remains one of the day elements in the success of a business enterprise. In fact, the principles of loyalty and business strategy. Loyalty Effect In simple terms, loyalty is best defined as a state of mind, a set of attitude, beliefs, and desires. Most of the companies benefit from the customers loyal behavior, which is an end-result of the positive state of mind shown by the business enterprises in serving their customers. To make customer loyal to the product company should focus on some significant things. Consumers can be divided into steps of a ladder. More marketing effort should be given for the people on the top step of the ladder. These kinds of peoples are who are more likely to spend huge money for the product. (Shahjahan, 2004, p.125) Profitability of the Loyal Customer Several reasons could be pointed out to show why the loyal customers repurchase a high proportion of their needs from the same source are much more profitable. Lower costs of service The loyal customers are easier and cheaper to service. Since they are familiar with the products and services, because they would not have as many questions are less likely to make mistakes, and would have adjusted their behaviour to simplify their relations with the supplier. Increased purchases: The loyal customer tend to buy more as the time progresses, either because they learn about part of the product line of they give a higher proportion of their spending to the favoured source. Less price Sensitivity: They tend to become fewer prices sensitive and may pay a premium. Al the relationship strengthens over time, they are less susceptible to the competitors appeal, and since they are satisfied by what they are receiving from the enterprise, they are prepared to pay more. Favorable word of mouth: Finally, the loyal buyers are more likely to pass on favourable recommendations to others who also tend to be higher quality prospects. This helps in reducing the high costs of new customer acquisition. Sustainable Advantages: Another reason for the rising interest in the market relationship is the durability factor involved in a committed relationship. In fact the proper chemistry of positive relationship is hard to understand copy or displace, this is a persuasive argument, in cases where the product-based advantages are short-lived and new competitors are posing challenges on all sides. Furthermore, with network technologies that could enable the addressability, interactivity and demand chain coordination, business firms are currently better equipped with both the motive and means for moving closer to their customers. (Shahjahan, 2004, p.126) Degree of Loyalty The degree of customer loyalty varies among three levels (Shahjahan, 2004) Overview of Nestlà © company Nestlà © is the worlds largest food and beverage company, founded and headed puartered in vevey, Switzerland. It employs in excess of 250,000 has almost 500 factories situated in around 90 countries and its products are on sale everywhere. It has contract with many co-manufactures, some of whom wouk exclusively for Nestlà ©. In recent years, Nestlà © has focused on becoming a nutrition, health and wellness company through its existing brands and knew acquisitions. The Nestlà © brand portfolio covers practically all food and beverage categories, milk and dairy products, nutrition (infant, healthcare, perfomadnce and weigaht management), ice cream, breakfast cereals, coffee and beverage, culinary products (prepare dishes, cooking aids, sauces, etc.) chocolate, confectionery, pet care, and bottled water. Many brands have category leadership, both globally and in local markets. The best known global brands include Nescafe, Nesta Maggi,Buitoni Purina, and, of course Nestlà © itself. In 2007, Nestlà ©s revenues exceeded 107 billion Swiss France (about 100 billion USD at prevailing exchange rates) Nestlà © is run as a decentralized group of companies which foster and rely on organizational learning within the Group. Headquarters provides leadership, guidance, and consultancy to the regional and local organizations. Central competence units identify opportunities within market and Business and assist local management in improving business performance. Supply chain management Organization Corporate operation- Supply Chain is one of the corporate functional units hosted at Headquarters and is responsible for Global Supply Chain Strategy Governance Best Practices Compliance Market Assistance and Guidance, and Reporting Standards and Guidance, and Reporting Standards and Guidance (http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=L8nLFFt5G1MCpg=PA180lpg=PA181ots=8_SlcjIvPDdq=Nestlà ©+companies+chain+management+system#v=onepageqf=false) Contribution to the society as a part of corporate Social Responsibility As the part of corporate social responsibility Nestlà © took parts in the sixth Womens Forum Global Meeting on October 21, 2010 and deliver their opinion to the discussion and exchanged ideas on important social and economic issue. Participation in many Seminar On world Development Issue Nestlà © took part both the sponsorship and various debates, brainstorm meeting and session highlighting on this years theme change; make it happen. On combat against malnutrition On Thursday, October 15.  Paul Bulcke, Nestlà © CEO, deliver a keynote speech about how to combat malnutrition during changing in Global health. On how to become successful in green revolution to ensure food security Nestlà © also took place another brainstorming session highlighting on how can Africa succeed in its green revolution against the challenges of food security on the continent. What are the potential obstacles, political, social, environmental and ethical, and how can these be overcome? On how to decrease gender discrimination Nestlà © also participated in the forum and highlighted about gender balance in order to promote the environment, culture and leadership to facilitate a balanced gender mix. of activities Nestlà © tried to transfer that their objective of doing business is not only create value for the shareholder but also for society at large. Presenting new pump: Nestlà © presented a new water pump to the community of Deputekro in Cà ´te dIvoire to ensure safe drinking water to the community. On September 18 in the Deputekro village 40 kilometers from the countrys capital Yamoussoukro Nestlà © donate this. Previously the villagers had to collect clean water from two hours journey distance but now around 400 members can collect this from around their area. Providing huge amount of coca seeds During the crop season of coca in this year Nestlà © has given premium of 300 tonnes of good quality coca. Nestlà © keep on donating to the organizations work for people nutrition and safe drinking water. As the part of this activity they donate 1.5 million to the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) over the next three years in order to improve access to clean water in plantations and basic sanitation in rural schools. (http://www.Nestlà ©.com/MediaCenter/NewsandFeatures/AllNewsFeatures/New-water-pump-in-Cote-dIvoire-to-sustain-The-Cocoa-Plan.htmheath) Good Food, Good Life is main strategy of Nestlà © Nestlà © strategy directs its Nutrition, Heath, and wellness. Their motive is to make aware people about their healthy choices of food and beverage.(http://www.Nestlà ©.com/NutritionHealthAndWellness/Introduction/NutritionHealthAndWellness.htm) Nestlà ©s goal is not only make consumer life more pleasurable by providing tasty food but also make their life healthy by providing nutritious food. Reference Book Philip Kotler and Keven Lane keller (2003) Marketing Management, 11th Edition, Pearson education publication, India, p60-p88 Robert, W.Lucas (2005) customer service, 3rd Edition, Mc Graw Hill Irwin, India, p318-p322 Shahjahan (2004) Relationship Marketing, Tata McGraw Hill 2nd Edition, p125-p135 Building customer satisfaction, value and retention Internet http://www.nestle.com/ (20 October 2010) Women Welfare (17 October 2010) http://www.nestle.com/MediaCenter/NewsandFeatures/AllNewsFeatures/Nestle-presence-at-the-2010-Womens-Forum-Deauville.htm Giving water plan as a corporate social responsibility(12 October 2010) http://www.nestle.com/MediaCenter/NewsandFeatures/AllNewsFeatures/New-water-pump-in-Cote-dIvoire-to-sustain-The-Cocoa-Plan.htm Heath (20 April 2010) http://www.nestle.com/InvestorRelations/Events/AllEvents/NHS.htm Nestle nutrition and health (22 October 2010) http://www.nestle.com/NutritionHealthAndWellness/Introduction/NutritionHealthAndWellness.htm Research and development (20 October 2010) http://www.nestle.com/NestleResearch/NestleResearchHome.htm Supply chain management (17 April 2010 ) http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=L8nLFFt5G1MCpg=PA180lpg=PA181ots=8_SlcjIvPDdq=Nestle+companies+chain+management+system#v=onepageqf=false

Silence in a Classroom :: Learning Teach Teachers Papers

Silence in a Classroom How can silence be put to use in a feminist classroom? What are the positive ways to cultivate silence, ways which empower, rather than shut down? Audre Lorde has been widely quoted on the negative impacts of silence on women. She uses the term "silence" as an active verb; those with power have historically silenced others.But I am interested in the other implications for silence, namely, using silence as a tool:for discovery, creation, and real critical thinking.Our culture is afraid of silence.We bombard ourselves with cell phones, television and radio. Often the assumption is that if someone is not talking, it must be a "bad" thing.As teachers, we replicate this model in our classrooms.We feel that students must really be getting something out of our classes when they talk about what they are learning.But does talking always insure that a student has really processed the material and made it her own? Or is talking in class often another form of performing for the teacher? Particularly in a writing class, where students are practicing putting words down on the page, cultivating a silent space seems imperative.My belief is that the more students are encouraged to write rather than talk in the composition classroom, the more they will trust their stance as authors of their own pieces.Silence can be an opening into the untapped places where deep, explorative writing is created.Peter Elbow writes about "felt sense," the way we can feel whether or not our intentions are being expressed in our writing by "listening" to our bodies: The foundation of verbal meaning often lies in the silence of what is felt nonverbally and bodily.When writing goes well, it is often because we periodically pause and say, 'Is this what I mean to be saying?'It's amazing that we can answer that question:that we can tell whether a given set of words corresponds to an intention.The source of the answer is the feelings and the body-consulted in silence.When writing goes badly, it is often because we don't make these pauses for quiet consultations with felt sense. (Everyone Can Write 176) Many of our students are just learning to "trust" themselves as writers.Most haven't had the opportunity in high school to explore what writing can do for their thinking; they have been taught that "writing" is a product produced for a teacher.Student-centered pedagogy seeks to de-center teacher authority, and has moved away from traditional methods such as the lecture format to more group discussion.

Red Wine Varietals :: essays research papers

Red Wine Varietals These choices of red wines represent the five most common varieties sold in restaurants today. These wines were chosen to give a broad overview of different grape varieties as well as different countries, from an introductory point of view. Each wine in it self has significant characteristics, such as, different varieties of fruit, tannins, colors, finishes, and bodies. Each of these different wines have been paired with a different food (served appetizer fashion) slightly complimenting its body of essence. Each food was chosen because of its unique flavor, whether it be strong or delicate, not to over power the wine, but to add something to it. Most wines do not stand-alone well, like a Cabernet for example. This French Bordeaux grape variety tends to be full bodied with a long finish, and thus is typically blended in a Bordeaux style. AOC doctrine dictates that a Cabernet-Sauvignon contain at least 75% Cabernet, the finishing couvie is up to the Estwte (or whom ever the harvester m ight be) but is commonly blended with Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petite Verdot, or a Malbec. A lighter flavored, yet full bodied featured on our wine list is the Australian Shiraz. This grape variety is a descendant of the French Syrah, found in the northern Rhone region of France. Characteristically high in alcohol and full bodied, the Shiraz is of the same vine, just spelled differently. Working our way around the globe we find ourselves in Tuscany, Italy. Chianti, over the years, has developed a tarnished image of being a cheap table wine. Most of us have melted candles at one time or another, in a Chianti bottle covered in a reed woven basket. There are three types of quality levels of Chianti, the lowest being Chianti, a step up would be Chianti Classico (from inner Chianti), and the highest Chianti Classico Riserva (from classico region, aged three years). Chianti is a commonly blended using Sangiouese (50-80% for body and character), Canaiolo (10-30% for a fruity flavor). Some times the addition of Trebbiano and Malvasia (10-30%) is added to soften the wine. As the wines continue to soften we find ourselves back in the Bordeaux region of France. The Merlot is a somewhat lighter colored grape, as compared to the Cabernet, is not as heavy, and tends to be somewhat fruitier. When discussing red wines of Bordeaux, there are three quality levels we must examine, proprietary, regional, and chateau.

Human Cloning: Science or Madness? Essay -- Argumentative Persuasive T

Human Cloning: Science or Madness?      Ã‚  Ã‚   Despite evidence that nearly all cloned animals are plagued by significant genetic abnormalities, two scientist groups have announced their plans to impregnate women with cloned embryos, each proposing to create the world's first cloned human being.    Clones are created by injecting genetic material from a single cell of one person is into an egg cell that has had its genes removed. The cell is then stimulated to act like a fertilized egg and divide, becoming an embryo. Once the embryo reaches an appropriate stage it is then implanted into a woman's womb, and the resulting baby would be like an identical twin to the donor.    Since the cloning of the sheep named Dolly in 1997, scientists have been working hard to create cloned human embryos for research and reproduction. During a hearing on human cloning, Panayiotis Zavos, a Kentucky based reproductive expert, told scientists, "The research must go on." Zavos is working with Italian fertility specialist Severino Antinori, who gained headline news in 1994 when he enabled a 62-year old woman to have a baby. Along with the Zavos and Antinori team are the scientists with Clonaid, an extraterrestrial Raelian movement based in Canada who claims cloning our bodies is the next step towards everlasting life.       Dr. Bridgette Boisselier is a Raelian Bishop and director of the human cloning project at Clonaid. The Raelian movement claims humanity was created by "space scientists," and "once we can clone exact replicas of ourselves, the next step will be to transfer our memory and personality into our newly cloned brains, which will allow us to truly live forever. Since we will be able to remember all our past, we wil... ...t proponents of human cloning claim this technology will help couples with infertility problems. Bragdon v. Abbot, 118 S.Ct. 2196 (1998), is cited as evidence that infertility is a disability and reproduction is a major life activity that is a fundamental human right. Human cloning advocates argue the development of a technology that can give an infertile and childless couple the right to reproduce, have a healthy biological child of their own, completing their biological "life cycle," is a constitutional right that should not be outlawed.    Works Cited: National Institutes of Health, NIH Update on Existing Human Embryonic Stem Cells, August 2001 The Associated Press, Votes Kill Efforts to Use Embryos for Research, August 2001 The White House: Office of the the Press Secretary, White House Fact Sheet Embryonic Stem Cell Research, August 2001   

Explaining the Goal of Financial Management and the Role of Ethics Essay

It has always been the goal of the financial managers to maximize the wealth of the shareholders of the firm. That is to say, we maximize the potential benefits that the firm’s stakeholders get by increasing the value of the firm in which these shareholders have taken the risk of investing to. According to Ingram (1992), the worth of a company is dependent on the capacity of the assets to produce cash flows over a period of time. This means that if the firm is able to generate a positive net cash flow including a reasonable dividend to its owners, then it said that value is created. Firms face two kinds of profits. They are accounting profits and economic profits. Maximizing accounting profits normally refers to the general corporate goal of maximizing profits as maximizing economic profits generally refers to maximizing the shareholder’s wealth. Ingram (1992) has distinguished them by defining accounting profits as the income accumulated after the overall cost is deducted from the overall revenue before the payment to shareholders is considered and economic profits as the income accumulated after compensating for the factors of production such as capital, labor and others. Moreover, she differentiated the two by saying that accounting profit does not consider all the factors of production as economic profit does and that it also does not consider compensating the shareholders for taking the risk in investing in the firm. Maximizing wealth does not consequently mean that the firm has to face an unethical decision making. It is still up to the firm as to how it will perform this task. As according to Goizueta (1997), everyone in the company would be better of if it plans for a long-term goal rather than a short-term goal. Through this, the firm can still plan on how it will maximize the wealth and at the same time be consistent with ethical standards.

Blood Brothers Evaluation Essay

In June 2004, myself and the rest of my GSCE Drama group travelled to London to watch a performance of the play ‘Blood Brothers’ by Willy Russell. Having studied the play in great detail four weeks previous to that day, we eagerly awaited seeing the play on stage. A workshop with the narrator beforehand gave us an insight to what it was like to be a member of the cast and helped us further in relating to the characters themselves. I shall now evaluate the performance I saw discussing the medium and elements of drama used in the play, and themes and symbols noted throughout. The play began with a still image placed behind a gauze curtain. The still image was that of the death scene between the two brothers at the end of the play, and the image was distorted slightly by red and blue ripples of light that were shined on the curtain itself. These ripples of light can be thought of on many levels and can represent many different things. When I thought about it the first thing that came to my mind was the saying ‘looking through the ripples of time’ which, in effect, was what we were doing. We were looking through the curtain and the ripples, and looking through time – seeing an event that had not yet come to pass. The still image was constructed by each actor in turn walking on stage and taking up their positions, this was effective in building up tension in the audience as we were left wondering what the final picture would look like. Once the actors had taken up their positions, the gauze curtain lifted so we could see the image properly, and then having waited a while the actors left the stage, one by one, in much the same way they entered. The narrator, however, did not leave the stage and proceeded to deliver his lines, explaining the image we had just seen. The beginning of the play, in contrast to the ending, built up an atmosphere of mystery and tension. The ending was much more of a sudden burst of shock. The begging of this play is not unlike that of the famous play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Both plays begin with the end, as it were, with the opening lines telling us the events in the play and, indeed, the way it ends. This line describes how Romeo and Juliet’s fate was ‘written in the stars’, as if it were their destiny. This theme is very significant in both plays. The ending of the play was very tense, due to a number of factors, and the climax to the final gunshots was successfully moving. The way that the policemen entered through the audience gave the play a much more real feel to it. The audience went from sitting and observing something, to being involved in it, and suddenly the audience found themselves right in the middle of all the action. This was a very effective technique to use, as it meant that the audience could relate more to what was happening. Mickey’s body language built tension. They way he shifted his weight, constantly, from one foot to the other and his in-ability to find any words to say, showed his conflicted emotions and also made the audience feel nervous and anxious. After this sudden build up in tension, it seemed from the audience’s point of view that the ending was clear. Both men, now knowing who they truly were would accept things and get on with their lives, living happily ever after. Even knowing what the end would, in fact, be, the thought still crossed my mind and when the gunshots went off, it was so unexpected that it took some time to realise exactly what had taken place. This scene was extremely well portrayed, as it really made the audience feel what the characters were feeling and the fact that the audience just did not expect what was to come made it even more effective still. In the play the narrator played a very important part. It was he who took on the role of fate and destiny. Throughout the play it seemed, on occasion, that it was he who was controlling the events that were taking place. For example in the scene where the mothers made their pact the production showed it was the narrator who introduced the idea of the bible. It was he who passed it to Mrs. Lyons, had he not done this then she may never of thought of the idea. This is not unlike that of a Greek chorus. In the olden times a chorus was used to narrate plays and the leader of this would often interact with the characters on stage. The mere presence of the narrator was incredibly foreboding as his body language and facial expressions were very sinister throughout the play. The fact that the narrator never left the stage also added to the feeling that he was controlling the story and watching over everything that happened. Symbolism played a huge part in the play, so much so that it would take days to interpret it all. Props were used well as symbols throughout the play. A significant prop that was used in the play was the locket Mrs Johnstone gave to Eddie to remember her and Mickey as she thought they were never going to meet again. This prop consequently had the opposite effect. Another prop was the sweets Edward gave to Mickey as a gesture of friendship. This showed the audience that Edward was a character who used his personal belongings that he thought little of, to make friends. A prop that was used in different ways throughout the play was a gun. This prop went through the stages of firstly being a child’s finger, then to an air gun and finally to a real gun. Another thing in the play that progressed as the play went on was the ages of the characters, the children especially. One thing that the director chose to do was to keep the same actors all the way through. There was not a 7year old playing the part of Mickey at 7. Nor was there a 14year old playing the part of Mickey as an adolescent. The actors stayed the same meaning they had to adapt to portraying children of different ages. This was done superbly and the actors really did pull off the transitions from child to adult. The different ages were shown mostly by change in costume, however the actors had to adopt a certain balance between maturity and naivety. When they were young, the latter was more prominent but the characters were forced to grow up too soon and maturity took over. This was clear in the way the actors came across on stage. Another very symbolic part of the play was the pact itself, made by the brothers. Making the pact meant spilling their blood – sealing their fate or merely tempting it – it is hard to tell. Much of the symbolism seen in the production was not always that which was written in the script. For example in the production, as I have already mentioned, the narrator handed the bible to Mrs. Lyons, this was not written anywhere in the script in fact in the script, the narrator enters after the pact has been made. It was the director’s choice to have this happen, and I believe it was a very good choice as it really brought across the narrator’s role as fate/destiny in the play. The director of the production I saw, made many more slight changes to the script, each one emphasised the role of destiny and fate more, and overall achieving the desired effect of leading the audience to believe we were being told the story, rather than seeing it as it happened. The play was set in eighties Liverpool and addressed many social and cultural aspects of that time. Class was an obvious issue in the play, separating the two families and the two brothers. This separation was shown by the costumes worn, the way the characters spoke and the set used. Eddie’s smart school uniform was in complete contrast to that of Mickey’s baggy jumpers and scuffed up muddy shoes. The production showed the two houses quite separately with two different backgrounds that would be lowered down whenever a scene was taking place inside a house. The Lyon household consisted of a background of pale flowery wallpaper, a large window, one or two pictures on the walls, and nice furniture. The Johnstone house, however, portrayed an over-crowded, small and very cluttered kitchen, with very brightly coloured wallpaper that looked many years old, as bits were damp, scribbled on, or had been picked off of the wall. This difference in the way the two houses looked showed how the two families were of very separate classes. The Lyons were able to afford a large house, nice sofa and wallpaper still attached to the wall, however the Johnstones could not afford any of these things. Unemployment was a big problem in these times and this issue arose in the play, at one point we saw Mickey waiting to collect the dole with his brother. This was shown in the performance by lots of ‘For sale’ signs descending to position themselves outside the houses, including that of the Johnstone’s. We also saw a change in the attitude of the characters there was a feeling of depression coming from the stage as the characters came to terms with their situations. The way unemployment was portrayed in the play was very effective it made the audience feel sorry for the characters, for Mickey’s poor upbringing and also for Eddie, as his sheltered lifestyle left him very naive and vulnerable when eventually he was thrown into the ‘real world’. In conclusion I feel that the play was incredibly successful in stuffing itself full of as many hidden meanings, symbols, themes and feelings as it possibly could. The way that the play took on another dimension, as it were, involving the audience to such a great level was incredible, heightening emotions and making itself memorable to say the least. Overall a very successful play that used the medium and elements of drama to its advantage in the greatest way possible.