Comparison between the serpent in the Old Testament and the one in Gilgamesh

English Literature crossing boundaries in the Gothic Essays

English Literature crossing boundaries in the Gothic Essays English Literature crossing boundaries in the Gothic Essay English Literature crossing boundaries in the Gothic Essay Essay Topic: Literature Much Gothic writing is preoccupied with the punishment of transgression. By comparing Frankenstein with at least one other Gothic work you have studied, discuss ways in which writers of the Gothic tradition explore the consequences of crossing boundaries From the outset, it is very pertinent to note the use of the word consequences in this question. Indeed, crossing boundaries can be perfectly benign and harmless. Also worth considering is the fact that crossing boundaries can either be treated in a geographical (and literal) sense simply a person or object moving from one designated area to another (e. . Waltons expedition to the Arctic) or, instead, as a personal crossing of a figurative boundary (e. g. the Creatures negative change in attitude towards the world). Let us first look at this point of emotional shifts. With regards to consequence Mary Shelleys Frankenstein (1831) offers a strong insight of the Creatures descent into malignity (this word is interestingly repeated throughout the text). The Creature crosses this theoretical introspective boundary essentially as a result of social exclusion. Yet, it is not simply emotional punishment for the Creature per se. Victor also feels the effects of the Creatures decline having provided the impetus behind his animosity and malignant mindset. Victor feels equally culpable for the deaths of those who are close to him Elizabeth, William, Justine, Henry etc. He symbolically aborts his Creature by effectively casting him aside. Victor giving life, of course, can obviously be linked to the idea that Victor succeeds in usurping the role of the mother (one might treat this as transgression to go beyond or overstep the limit1 of gender role). Furthermore, what this reciprocated punishment also offers us is support for the notion that the two characters are in fact the same person (it has frequently been suggested that the Creature maintains the role of a double or doppelgi nger to Victor). Bram Stokers Dracula (1897) as well offers fertile ground for this essay. The men of the novel do also cross a metaphorical emotional boundary in the final chapters of the text. It is a poignantly-governed change, essentially being brought upon them as a consequence of the horrific transformation (indeed transgression) of Lucy Westenra into an un-Dead. Of course, this is combined with an apparent requirement to put an end to Count Draculas malice regardless. This, then, leads us onto the notion of crossing literal geographical boundaries. The men are required to travel from West to East. This issue is touched on elsewhere in the Gothic the East effectively treated as barbarous, evil, uncivilised etc. in distinct contrast with its antithesis: the good, industrialised, sophisticated West. They venture to Transylvania in an exploit to finish off the Count once and for all. It is in fact successful (bar the death of Quincy Morris). These two examples do certainly outline how the two types of crossing literal/geographical and metaphorical/emotional are comparable. We may, however, look at one other issue; namely whether or not there is a distinction between heroic (and indeed prudent) crossings, and weak (imprudent) crossings. Victor Frankenstein is, on the whole, a weak character (who in turn makes a series of misjudgements). This form of characterisation may indeed be a device utilised by Shelley to rationalise the negative outcome of the novel. In contrast, the men of Dracula are gallant, heroic, level-headed etc. ho, compliant to this rule, ultimately generate a positive outcome. Turning back to Frankenstein, we might look at one of these cases of imprudence; namely both Victors and Waltons strive for knowledge (one mans life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of knowledge which I sought). Samuel Taylor Coleridges Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798) also concerns an ominous expedition, in a similar manner to Walton. They attempt to reach new heights; to essentially break the rules (the boundaries of mans extents) to transgress. This does, in fact, strike synonymy with the subject in the novels title (The Modern Prometheus). The Greek Titan, Prometheus, transgressed beyond an acceptable boundary steeling the secret of fire from the Gods. Interestingly enough, Prometheus punishment consisted of having a great eagle eat his liver every day whilst it continually replaced itself. The strife for knowledge and the Prometheus allegory can be linked with Victors crossing of a geographical boundary. Shelley presents him as moving away from the archetypal family life to proceed with his endeavours in the university town of Ingolstadt. This is, of course, where the Creature is created. One might say that the Creature and the consequences that arise from his creation are nothing more than a result of Victors crossing of the social boundary into the adventurous and hectic life of the Ingolstadt academic. Shelleys message, it would seem, is that were one to cross boundaries feebly without prudence or reason; or to transgress to punch above ones weight we would be indeed be punished as a consequence. Stokers Dracula, in turn, shows us how a prudent or gallant crossing can elicit a positive outcome. The nature of character entails the nature of consequence. Moving on, William Beckfords Vathek (1786) contains an interesting sequence in which the Princess Nouronihar ventures into an unknown region attracted by a glowing ball of light. Instead of punishment, however, Beckford offers us the juxtaposition of fear, uncertainty and uneasiness with a sense of grandeur and affluence. It is, nevertheless, a rather mysterious scene. Unbeknownst to what was about to come, the Princess overhears: For what monarch are these torched kindled, this bath prepared, and these habilments second voice answered, They are for the charming daughter of the emir Fakreddin Now, it is debatable whether or not we can consider this to be punishment. It is certainly weird and uncanny and would most definitely elicit a sense of uneasiness in Beckfords character. It is a very eccentric and bizarre outcome of a crossing; the reference to the Princess makes us contemplate that the most pertinent issue is not in fact her crossing of the literal geographic boundary, but instead a boundary from the knowing to unknowing. It is as though the Princess has forgotten aspects of her life like she has moved from a state of full consciousness to amnesia. Regardless of such interpretations, these strange storylines do certainly succeed in providing the Gothic with its enticing quality. To summarise, then, the range of consequences as a result of crossing boundaries, as well as interpretations of the intrinsic meaning of this, are far reaching. There are metaphorical, emotional crossings of boundaries, which may, or may not, be compatible with literal, geographical crossings. In addition, it would appear to be the case that the consequences positive or negative of such endeavours are seemingly contingent on the nature of said crossing whether it is heroic or feeble, prudent or imprudent. The scene from Vathek simply succeeds in demonstrating the ambiguity of the Gothic. The mysterious and strange manifestations of it demonstrate fully how the genre can both confuse and fascinate the reader.

Apple Marketing Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Apple Marketing Analysis - Essay Example 1). Price; Apple being in a business that deals with technology and the advances that come with technology requires that it keeps up to date. But how will Apple keep up to date with changing technology and not escalate up its prices? As a marketing strategy, Apple has come up with pricing games which it has used to maintain a competitive edge in the business. To begin with, Apple has implemented the use of decoys. These are commodities presented in advance of the real commodity and their aim is to capture the attention of the consumer hence compelling the consumer to purchase commodities from Apple. An example is the iPod going for $399 yet Apple displays others being traded for $199 yet they do not exist, compelling the customer to purchase the $399 iPod (Kunz, 2010, p. 1). The other price marketing strategy utilized by Apple Company is the use of a reference range to market its commodities. This is aimed at showing the consumer the previous higher price and the current lower price that Apple is willing to sell the commodity. An example is that Apple can present an IPod at $100 and state it as 50% down from the previous $200. The consumer will find the current deal being offered by Apple better than the previous price and hence purchase the product from Apple instead of its competitors (Kunz, 2010, p. 1). Moreover, Apple uses bundle price as a marketing strategy as pertains to its prices. An example is a TV from Apple Company. It will be purchased for as low as $100, to play the TV, the customer will need to pay Apple through the purchase of a stereo, video and spares to use the TV (Kunz, 2010, p. 1). Product; Apple Company products change with the technological advancements since Apple Company has to keep at par with its competitors and provide the consumers with the latest technology. The current products which have been produced by Apple include: Apple TV, iPod, iPad, iPhone, iWork, iLife, Mac OS X, and iOS (Kunz, 2010, p. 1). Place; this entails the market niche of the company and especially where the company has its largest market share. Being based in the United State, Apple Company has expanded to involve other continents in the distribution of its products. It has been able to capture market in Africa, Asia, and America and also in the Middle East Europe. It has about 200 stores in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, in bid to achieve its objective of supplying technologically enhanced commodities to the global community (Kunz, 2010, p. 1). Promotion; Marketing is anchored in promotion of a Company’s products and services to its consumers. Apple Company has gone a great mile in promoting its products which it accomplishes by the use of advertising in the electronic medium. As earlier foretold in the goal of Apple Company, it works in collaboration with the consumer prior to the launching of a product like emphasized in the decoy pricing. This is aimed at stimulating the consumers to expect a new product from Apple Company (Kunz, 2010, p. 1). A11. Stakeholders Analysis Stakeholders in marketing strategy illustrate the entities to which the organization is accountable to as pertains to its performance: customer, competitors, company, and community (Abila, 2010, p. 1). Company; Apple Company is a multinational Company in the United States that was founded on 01, April 1976. It is a company that specializes in the provision of technologically enhanced facilities to the global community. This is through the introduction of software, hardware, digital

Effective Leadership Traits Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Effective Leadership Traits - Assignment Example The leaders should avoid panicking even though the situation does not work according to their expectations. Effective leaders should always work hard to assure their teams that everything is in control and that challenges always expected, but the most imperative thing is to focus on the main goal of the organization (Wart, 2012). The workers imitate their leaders; therefore, calm leaders will make workers calm and keep them working for better performance. Â  According to Wart (2012), effective leaders should be committed to performing their duties such as motivating their team and leading by example. A responsible leader sets the organizational goals and communicates them to their team. They build the capacity of the workers to pursue those goals by providing them with appropriate resources and motivating the workers to pursue organizational goals. Responsible leaders mobilize the organizational resources for the achievement of organizational goals and helping the workers to develop their careers and achieve self-fulfillment (Morse et. al., 2007). Therefore, effective leaders should have concern for both the organization and the workers by ensuring they grow together. Â  A leader is someone who has a vision of what the organization intends to achieve within a specified period both in the long-run and in short-term (Wart, 2012). There is a vacuum of knowledge between the leader and his or her team until that leader shares the vision with the team members. Effective leaders should be able to disseminate the knowledge they have to their team in a clear and concisely in order to enable them to move in the same direction.

Ethical and Moral Principles in a Business Environment Essay

Ethical and Moral Principles in a Business Environment - Essay Example Wal – Mart is one of the biggest retailers in the world and stands at the first position in the list of the fortune 500 companies. Wal-Mart has been in the industry since 1962. Wal-Mart has wide operations spread across 14 markets, 7390 Wal – Mart stores. The company employees over 2 million associates. It is the largest employer in the US. The company was started with a vision of becoming the world leaders in retailing. Over the past years, the company has been able to gain the position of the world’s largest retail company and is thrice as big as its closest competitor. The company’s mission has always been to provide the customers with best products and services at reasonable prices. The company’s main values and beliefs are – respecting individuals, service to the customers and striving for excellence. The company’s signature for almost five decades has been Everyday low prices.The company has been said to keep a watch on the repor ters and critics as well. This is not a good idea as it cannot repair the reputation of the plaguing company. Wal Mart has a serious health issue and the thug-like tactics only create a bigger scope for the critics of the company. The company has been known to take a lot of interest in the spy toys and the criticism of their business is not well received by the company. The company has also led up the extent of recording the calls of the employees to spy on them. The company has highlighted that this is mainly in the case of extreme cases.

Social Class and Education Essay

Social Class and Education Essay Education is a significant institution in our society as it serves to fulfil many functions and provide opportunities for children. One important role that education plays is carrying out the process of secondary socialization where the education system teaches children the norms and values of society in a way that the family cannot. Education performs certain functions such as providing children with skills needed for work, learning about religious and moral beliefs, national languages and also about the history of the nation. Therefore it can be seen that education performs an important role in childrens lives by socializing them into the future members of society and teaching them about the values of success and achievement which enables them to be open to many opportunities in society (Fulcher Scott, 2007). However education combined with social class can create inequalities for children in their lives and this study of inequality within education remains a key area of study in the sociology of education and is also of great importance in shaping educational policies in Britain. Research has shown that inequalities in the education system do still exist in Britain where it has been shown that the higher a persons social class the higher the levels of achievement an individual is more likely to achieve. It is these types of findings which have led to a large array of study about educational inequalities and why they still persist in Britains education system. These inequalities can affect children from lower classes and their life chances through a variety of ways such as through micro and macro causes in society which will be analysed in turn (Haralambos Holborn, 2007) Macro Causes We will first look at the various macro causes in the wider structures of society which causes educational inequalities for children. These include material deprivation. 1. Material Deprivation This theory highlights the importance of material goods and resources needed for educational achievement. Material deprivation has been defined as including ‘poverty, overcrowding, ill health in parents,child neglect and lack of basic amenities in the home and neighbourhood (Silver,1980,p40). It is these factors which seem to affect children from working class backgrounds due to low incomes in the family which prevents them from achieving at school as they lack the basic resources such as books, correct diet and study space in the home needed to succeed in their studies. Also as many of these lower working class families are seen to be in poverty as evidence shows that a high percentage of children participate in part time employment after school hours to improve their situation at home and to relieve some of the financial pressure off their parents . This leads to children aiming to cope with earning money through paid work but also finding the time to study for their school w ork and gain qualifications (Heaton Lawson,1996). Furthermore Halsey Heath and Ridge (1980)examined reasons for inequalities existing in education for the working class and found that middle class children were more likely to go to school and continue on to higher education than the working class and this was partly due to lack of money and income in these households causing differential educational achievement compared to children from affluent backgrounds. However they did argue that material factors was not the only primary factor causing underachievement as children from materially deprived backgrounds have succeeded, they believed that cultural factors such as parental attitudes and encouragement played a key role in childrens educational attainment at school ( Abercombie, Warde Deem,2001). We will now look at how cultural factors can have an impact in creating inequalities for children. 2. Cultural Deprivation Cultural deprivation has been defined ‘as a situation in which parents provide a child with little in the way of linguistic stimulation and take minimal interest in their education and when they have limited opportunity for play or other experiences which are helpful to their intellectual development- in short when their environment is barren and unstimulating ( Silver,1980,p40). This theory recognises that instead of material factors causing inequalities it is the cultural factors in fact that causes working class children to perform differently in schools compared to their middle class peers. It is argued that working class children are disadvantaged because working class subculture fails to transmit the correct norms, values and skills needed for high achievement in education (Fulcher Scott,2007,p323). Also low value is placed is placed on educational achievement and working class subculture focuses on immediate gratification where they are encouraged to leave school early and earn money rather than opting for deferred gratification which middle class adopt where education is seen as a path for success later on in life where they can enjoy the benefits of having a high paid job and high statuses (Henslin, 1996,p 190). J W B Douglas study of ‘ The home and the school (1962) supports the cultural deprivation theory. Douglas conducted a longitudinal study in 1962 of 5,362 British children and followed their educational careers up to the age of 16. He divided the students into different social class groupings and found that there was different variations in educational achievement between students who had similar academic ability but came from different social classes. He found that within the ‘high ability group the majority of the lower working class children left school in the fifth year compared to only 10 percent from the upper middle class. Douglas argued that the single most important factor causing these differences in achievement between middle and working class children is the level of parental interest and encouragement for their childrens education. He argues that working class parents showed little interest in childrens progress at school whereas middleclass parents encouraged children to do well at school, continue in further education and also paid more attention to their childrens progress through frequent meeting s with teachers. However overall although we can see that parental interest can effect childrens attainment it cannot be viewed as the only factor in explaining class differences in educational achievement. Blackstone Mortimore (1994) argued that working class parents were unable to attend parents meetings due to demands of their manual jobs and also working class parents try to encourage their children in education but they lack the certain social skills that middle class parents occupy in order for their children to gain advantages from the school system. So therefore it is important to note that many other factors play a role in creating inequalities for working class children and also that many culturally deprived behaviours could also be due to a lack of money (Haralambos Holborn, 2006, p737-739).

AT&T Essay -- essays research papers

The dominant economic traits of this industry start with having an enormous amount of capital required for staying competitive. One is also required to spend lots of money on research and development, as the telecommunications industry seems to be the vision of the future. More and more companies like AT&T are trying very hard to combine their network services of phone line, video and data transfer, high speed internet access, and television cable via one line in the consumers homes. With a successful combination of the above stated services AT&T is hoping to be the industry leader in the near future.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In today’s telecommunication market there is a lot of competition by industry giants such as Sprint, MCI, and AOL, but simultaneously the very high cost involved with entering and competing in this industry also makes it very unattractive for new entrants. These are just some of the big names who are planning to and are presently providing parts of the pipe dream that AT&T seems to seek. In this industry it is very important to have customer awareness of the line of products you carry. Most of the public hears the name AT&T or Sprint or MCI and they think telephone bills but many consumers do not realize that these companies have expanded their field of services from cellular phones to wireless web services. The reason mainly being the lack of marketing, and direct consumer advertising provided by these firms on the other line of p...