“Hills Like White Elephants” Response Research Paper Example

â€Å"Hills Like White Elephants† Response Research Paper Example â€Å"Hills Like White Elephants† Response Paper â€Å"Hills Like White Elephants† Response Paper The setting in Ernest Hemingway’s â€Å"Hills Like White Elephants† is as significant to the story as the dialogue between the two characters. It is clear that the man and his girlfriend, whom he refers to as â€Å"Jig,† are speaking about her having an abortion. The man is certain about his decision and he is trying to convince Jig as gently as possible to get an abortion; Jig has her concerns about it, especially because she doesn’t seem to agree that a child would be such an obstruction in their lives and she seems to be tiring of their lifestyle anyway, seeking something of more substance. She is conflicted about the decision mainly because it could possibly mean losing her man. Jig makes a comment about the hills in the distance looking like white elephants. This visual in itself is not the significant part as much as Jig’s description of it. A white elephant is an essentially useless possession, and one that is excessively expensive to upkeep, that serves no purpose aside from its sentimental value to the owner. The origin of the phrase â€Å"white elephant† in English is derived from the history of the giving of white elephants as gifts in Thailand- these gifts were sometimes used as a kind of Trojan horse, since the white elephant was sacred it could not be used for work but was, however, incredibly expensive to care for. A white elephant given to a nobleman who was not very rich would lead him to financial ruin- and since the animal was sacred, it was an honor to receive one and one was forced to keep it and care for it, no matter what the cost. In English the term came to refer to something that was more trouble than its worth, something that might be seen as being of value to others but that the owner is happy to be rid of. From this common usage of the term came the idea of a â€Å"white elephant sale,† which became synonymous with being able to buy something of apparent value for very little money. Jig referring to the hills as â€Å"white elephants† speaks a great deal about her emotional state and how she feels about the topic they are discussing. She could have described the hills in any number of other ways, so her (perhaps subconsciously) purposeful use of the term â€Å"white elephant† is perhaps also her way of describing her unborn child- or, at least, how her boyfriend feels about her unborn child. This is made even more clear when he fails to laugh at her little tongue-in-cheek observation and she questions him about it, and whether he would laugh again when she said clever things like that if she did what he wanted her to do. This little â€Å"joke† of hers was made for his benefit, though he failed to see her dark humor. Obviously this child of theirs is something he considers to be a burden, and she a blessing: one person’s value is another’s expense. Thus it is their white elephant. The train station is also significant to their story because it is the literal representation of them being figuratively at a crossroads. The express train can continue to whisk them away from one location to the next to the next, as they have been doing for some time (as seen by the number of stickers on their luggage), or they can (figuratively) stay off of the train, or take another path, and enjoy the beauty of what is around them, ceasing the endless running from one place to another. The opposing train tracks are the choices they have to make: one leads them down the same path they’ve been screaming down all along, and the other leads them down an entirely different path, with an entirely different pace and different priorities, but which has a beauty all its own- a beauty that Jig sees but her man does not.

Who makes a better parent Men or women Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Who makes a better parent Men or women - Essay Example the children. Thesis statement: Women make a better parent because they are emotionally attached to their children, but without ignoring their responsibilities. First of all, the importance of parenting in this modern age must be unearthed. Unlike animals, a newborn child is helpless and shows dependency towards its mother. When a calf is born, it can stand up, walk, or even it can run. But it is impossible for a human child. The only thing that it can do is to cry to attract its mother’s attention. So, one can see that the initial stages of a child’s growth and development is strictly limited to the sphere of the intimate care provided by its mother. Gradually, the child attains its adolescent age, teen age, youth and adulthood. During these stages of growth and development, the child’s behavior towards its mother undergoes gradual change, (maybe, negative or positive). In general, girls show attachment toward their mothers and boys try to imitate their fathers (there may be exceptional cases). But the point under discussion is still to be explored. The traditional role of men in families is that of the ‘breadwinner’ or the head of the family structure. Generally, men earn money for the whole family and looks after the other members with due care and responsibility. The image of men in a family is based on responsibility. Besides, men show keen interest to force other members to follow certain disciplinary guidelines. Their role as father and the caretaker of the whole family with responsibility is complex. From a different angle of view, their dual role (both are complex) limits the scope of friendly approach towards children. For instance, they possess an active role in protecting and defending the reputation of the family as a whole. The ‘father image’ is responsible for the deeds of other family members. So, they do have less time to concentrate upon the

Strategies for Effective Team Building Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Strategies for Effective Team Building - Essay Example It must be noted at the outset that language barriers, cultural differences, and goal-setting strategies vary across the globe. Assembling a viable team, therefore, must proceed on the basis that these teams will be of an intercultural nature. Local hires with business contacts will be better able to assist in our global growth than outsiders with a lack of local or regional business acumen and connections. Staffing should be a cooperative effort between a human resource manager in the office and a local staffing organization. Potential team members will be screened by the local company and then interviewed at the regional office in more depth. Most of the sales force ought to be individuals from the region with a few senior members of the team to establish and implement the subsequent team-building tools and to oversee the larger operation of the regional office. Once this team is in place, it is necessary to establish and implement a regime of team-building tools which will encourage a set of common goals and reduce potential instances of miscommunication. Intercultural communication remains a significant issue for businesses and non-commercial organizations around the world. It remains a significant issue because miscommunication and related misunderstandings can negatively affect an organization’s pursuit of its objectives (Organizational Cultures, 2000).   The notions of diversity and multicultural teams, in the context of team development, are central considerations.   There are both demonstrated advantages and disadvantages associated with multicultural teams (Stahl, 2005).   The goal ought to be to emphasize the advantages while at the same time making organizational adjustments to better understand the disadvantages and thereby convert them into advantages.

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

Markting - Essay Example The trend for such devices has become so in demand that companies are quick to develop products that will suit what the consumers are looking for in accordance with what is the latest that mobile companies have to offer. Gone are the days when colored-resolution cell phones and camera integrated phones already render people in awe. It is apparent that the popularity of smartphones is taking over the direction of where mobile communication is heading. This technology is getting more and more sophisticated over a short period of time and Nokia must move faster than it ever has before just to be able to catch up. Without a doubt Apple’s iPhone has become the trendsetter in the market for smart-phones. The more recent release of the iPhone4S, though not really an entirely new technology, has gained further success to establish its mark as the formidable standard in the market. With all of the accolades and the brand loyalty that Apple has gained, Nokia has been left behind over th e past few years that they seem to have just woken up only to find they are gasping for air. As founder of research firm Column Ideas Keith Woolcock puts it, â€Å"Nokia has spent the last 10 years facing the wrong way in a fast-moving market† (as cited by Faris, par.7). Drastic times call for drastic measures and to address the predicament it has found itself in, Nokia finds solution by instating a new CEO in Stephen Elop. The market for smartphones is equivalent to the new generation of mobile device consumers which is anchored upon a multidimensional product that is no longer delineated to mere calls and texting functions. These smartphones offer a lot more and its trouble-free connectivity to social internet media has only made it more appealing. From being the top brand for cellular phones, Nokia has dwindled into the background. A study by the International Data Corporation found that Nokia is now trailing behind Samsung and Apple in sales of smartphones. In the United States, Apple’s iPhone continues to dominate as the bestselling smartphone but Samsung takes the lead in global sales in the first quarter of 2012 with a total of 42.2 million units shipped against Apple’s 35.1 million and Nokia’s 11.9 million. While Apple’s numbers shot up by 88.7&, Nokia took a massive blow as it plummeted by more than 50% (Peckham, par.2). SWOT Analysis Strengths Weaknesses Nokia remains to be a global brand It has the resources to launch multiple products simultaneously The forged partnership with Windows gives it a new gateway to resource apps which makes smartphones popular Elop, as new CEO, provides for a fresh perspective to the company Nokia is yet to be identified for smartphones Despite the funding given to product research, they had been lacklustre or downright unsuccessful Some remain apprehensive with Elop as CEO which shows with investors backing out and a walk off by employees in Finland (Faris, par.4). Opportunities Threa ts Android has virtually no other close competitor out in the market for consumers to choose from The partnership with Windows may create enthusiasm for a different kind of smartphones New management translates to new direction for invigorated brand perception The brand appeals to a wider range of consumers which include middle range and even upscale clients Other mobile device companies have already saturated the market while Nokia is yet to be associated with smartphones Consumer acceptance of the new series is considerably slow The Windows operated models are only

The Gift Tax Essay -- Accounting

The Gift Tax   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One of the taxes that we went over in class was gift taxes. This is a tax that is implied when property, personal items, or money with a value of over 10,000 dollars is given from one person to another. There are a few exceptions to this law such as giving to non-prophit organizations or the donation is going towards an education or tuition. I feel that this is a good tax to have because it will keep greedy people from transferring their money around to evade paying taxes on it.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Gift tax is will make sure that all citizens pay their fair amount of taxes which is decided by their income. This tax is collected and responsible to the donor. This person must file a gift - tax return with the Internal Revenue Service. There are little ways to ex...

Existentialism & Fight Club Essay

?From an existentialism point of view, there is no right or wrong choice, since one gives an action value by the virtue of choosing it. Choices can only be judged on how involved the decision maker is when making it. Judging by this standard, the narrator is justified in killing Tyler, since he fully became involved in choosing to both accept and reject Tyler’s values by that action. â€Å"Existentialism’s first move is to make every man aware of what he is and to make the full responsibility of his existence rest on him. † In my essay, I shall first discuss how shooting Tyler is crucial in allowing the narrator to achieve the first move in embracing existentialism. He acts as the catalyst for the narrator to make the first move in existentialism: being aware of what he is by acknowledging all his primal instincts and assuming responsibility for his existence. Tyler does so through his acts of escalating violence and atrocity to provoke the narrator to confront both who he is and his responsibilities, culminating finally in his own death. I shall also discuss the theme of consumerism as portrayed in the movie, and how the decision of shooting Tyler relates to the narrator’s interpretation of this theme. The narrator had been hesitant to assume full responsibility for his existence at the start of the movie. He dislikes his present circumstances- he is jaded with his current job and lacks a clear purpose, as illustrated by the quote †A single serving package, a single serving†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Once he consumes the single serving, he is done. He makes a fleeting impression in someone else’s life before he fades from their memory. He feels his existence is meaningless because he has no connections with anyone. He is not content with the present state he is in, but makes no active effort to consciously define his own existence. He shows bad faith in this respect, because he deceives himself into believing that he lacks complete freedom of involvement in making this decision. He is a coward by Sartre’s definition: â€Å"Those who hide their complete freedom from themselves out of a spirit of seriousness or by means of deterministic excuses. † He possesses the desire to redefine his existence by rebelling against the values in society, but this conflicts with his conscious mind (the ego), which restraints him from doing anything socially unacceptable. His conscious mind hides these unacceptable desires in the subconscious mind, coming up with excuses that prevent the narrator from fulfilling these desires. Eventually, the repressed energy from these unconscious desires resulted in the fracturing of the ego itself- into two conscious minds, hence resulting in the manifestation of Tyler. Tyler represents everything that the narrator subconsciously wishes to be. He is the personification of the ID itself, representing the narrator’s repressed death instincts (our innate instinct for survival), aggression instincts (instincts for violence), and the libido. Before he meets Tyler, the narrator is defines his existence though furniture he purchases and assembles from IKEA. He attempts to make himself into a being-in-itself, believing his perfect state of existence can be reached by purchasing that last piece of furniture he needs. When the narrator’s house was bombed, annihilating the means by which he defines his existence, the narrator felt as though his existence itself was erased. â€Å"Every stick of furniture in there was my life. † Tyler teaches him not to rely on material goods but to define his existence by his actions. The fight club thus became the new means through which the narrator could define himself through acts of fighting. The narrator learns to revel in violence and physical pain as a means of defining his existence and to transcend the physical limits of the body. He achieves the first step of self-awareness by satisfying his primal instincts for aggression. His first epiphany occurs when he realizes Tyler is himself. In a sense, he realized that he (as Tyler) is free and capable of inventing and creating himself as whom he chooses to be. This is an important step because he now wants to assume responsibility for his existence. His second epiphany occurs when he shoots Tyler, and thus himself. On the first level, the narrator acknowledges his death instincts by confronting his fear of pain and death. He accepts Tyler’s ideas of experiencing death so as to be fully conscious of his physical existence. When he shoots Tyler, he does so with the awareness that he is shooting himself. This is the final step he needs to take in order to be fully aware of what he is. On the second level, by rejecting Tyler’s nihilistic ideas of destroying institutions and value systems, he chooses what values to stand for and thus creates his own purpose for himself. â€Å"In choosing his ethics, Man makes himself. † He also translates the belief in these values into the actual action of shooting Tyler, thus defining his existence through actual action. On the third level, by shooting Tyler, he assumes responsibility for all of Man, not just himself. He assumes responsibility for Man because he invents what Man should be: one who does not act in an uncaring and destructive manner towards others. On the fourth level, shooting Tyler allows the narrator to be defined in a way he wishes to be defined in the eyes of the â€Å"other†. Shooting Tyler is crucial towards removing the existence of Project Mayhem. He does not want Marla to find out about Project Mayhem because he will then lose his connections with her. It is important to the narrator to have a close relationship with Marla. Firstly, she is the only surviving real human being he has a close relationship with in the movie. Secondly, Marla, playing the role of the â€Å"other†, allows him to seek out knowledge about his existence and she is the condition for his existence. By shooting Tyler, he prevents the loss of this â€Å"other† that is crucial for his existence. Important themes discussed in the movie include consumerism. To be specific, it shows how the modern consumerist society affects Man’s determination of his existence. In Sartre’s words, how a change in the â€Å"a priori limits which outline man’s fundamental situation in the universe† affects Man’s determination of his existence with respect to these limits. According to Sartre, all configurations â€Å"either appear as attempts to pass beyond them or recede from them or deny them or adapt to them†. Consumerism imposes limits on Man to work and to consume, because only if Man works can he consume, and he can consume only if he works. He is emasculated because he is unable to fulfill his natural role as a hunter-gatherer as dictated to him by biology. Man is limited or restricted in the sense he is unable to fulfill his primitive instincts. As seen in the movie, Tyler tries to pass beyond these limits by destroying symbols of consumerism, such as credit card companies, so as to â€Å"return to Ground Zero†. Since many people define their existence by numbers in their bank accounts, destroying the bank records will erase their previous existence and allow them to create their existence anew, much like how the narrator’s apartment was bombed so that he could create his new existence through Fight Club. Tyler’s ultimate goal seems to be changing the limits by which people define their existence by. He envisions the destruction of modern civilization, and a regression back to a more primitive hunter gatherer state. â€Å"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the same canyon forests around the ruins of Rock feller Centre†. In the world he envisions, the new limits by which people will define themselves with respect to are undoubtedly physical strength and prowess. On the other hand, the narrator, like so many of us today, adapts to these limits by embracing consumerism as indoctrinated into him by society through advertisements. He avidly purchases IKEA furniture and defines his existence by these material goods. In Tyler’s words, he works jobs he hates so he can buy shit he doesn’t need. He assumes that his furniture uniquely defines him as a person, from the â€Å"glass bowls with imperfections made by the simple and honest people of wherever† to â€Å"his yin-yang coffee table†, while missing the irony that IKEA is a chain-store that mass produces furniture. He is no other different from many other consumers of IKEA who believe that their furniture is unique on virtue of it being selected by them. At the end of the movie, the narrator realizes he needs to strike a balance between the two opposing configurations, one that is in the pre-consciousness state, afraid to confront his freedom, and the other that embraces existentialism and freedom to the point of reckless destruction. Shooting Tyler thus allows him to reunite his opposing configurations and strike a middle balance. Marla is an example of how a person recedes from limits that outline the human condition. She does not know what values to choose to define her existence. As a result, she adopts a nihilistic attitude and attempts to hit rock-bottom by trying to court death. Lastly, another important theme in the movie is that of mental pain. Many characters in the movie experience mental pain because they are unable to reject the â€Å"being in itself† others force upon them. Thus, they cannot achieve a true state of â€Å"being for itself† This is because we â€Å"perceive others as a condition of our own existence†, as how Sartre puts it. According to Sartre, once we realize we exist, we realize the existence of others who are free to define us according to how they view us. We are objectified in the eyes of others because others view us as a â€Å"being in itself†. We lose our freedom through their perception of us. Only we looking back and viewing others as objects can we regain our freedom. Bob is viewed as a man who has lost his masculinity. He accepts this â€Å"being in itself†, believing that he is condemned to this fixed and unchanging physical body. Thus, he suffers mental pain because he does not reject the attempts of â€Å"being in itself† others force upon him by realizing his freedom to create his own existence. The narrator similarly suffers from accepting the â€Å"being in itself† society forces upon him- as a member of society whose purpose is to work, to consume and to obey his superiors. His ideal self-image is that of a strong and ruthless primal human being. However, he dares not embrace his freedom to reject this â€Å"being for itself† and work towards the transcendent goal of his ideal self-image. Thus, his mental pain caused Tyler to manifest, who violently abuses the narrator to symbolize the mental pain the narrator is experiencing. Tyler tries to push the narrator to be fully aware of his unconscious desires, and to assume responsibility for his freedom. Only when he confronts this mental pain (Tyler’s physical abuse) can he reject â€Å"being for itself† and achieve true â€Å"being-for-itself†, the state where he is constantly and freely choosing his future. His decision to shoot Tyler was justified-because he is freely choosing to reject Tyler’s destructive ideas, and to transcend his initial transcendent goal of becoming Tyler. In conclusion, the movie has strong themes of existentialism running through it. The act of shooting Tyler was justified because it signifies the first step of existentialism for the narrator- he becomes fully aware of what he is, and assumes full responsibility of his existence. It also shows how human beings may choose to define themselves with respect to the limits of the world they exist in. Lastly, shooting Tyler allows the narrator to confront his mental pain and reach the true state of â€Å"being for itself†.

Organizational Behavior Synthesis paper - 1419 Words

Organizational Behavior The study of people at work is generally referred to as the study of organizational behavior. This chapter will start by defining the term organizational behavior and briefly reviewing its origins. Organizational behavior is the systematic study of the actions and attitudes that people exhibit within organizations. Each person regularly uses intuition or our gut feelings in trying to explain phenomena. For example, a friend catches a cold and we’re quick to remind him that he didn’t take his vitamins. The field of organizational behavior seeks to replace intuitive explanations such as this example with systematic study. The objective, of course, is to draw more accurate conclusions (Wilson 1994). What†¦show more content†¦In order to change behavior, one needs to accept that any behavior is rational and logical to the person exhibiting it because his or her goals may differ from others. If an organization is able to predict which reward systems is most effective in motivating the employees, then one can explain the reasons for this effectiveness and describe how managers can enforce effective reward systems. Our everyday lives are about predictions. Predicting the behavior in an organization is usually wondering when people will make ethical decisions, create innovative products, or engage in sexual harassment (Johns 1996). The behavior in our organizations licenses us the prediction of its future circumstance. Predictions are not always accurate, however. The field of organizational behavior offers a Scientific foundation (Johns 1996). That helps upgrade predictions of these events. But, being able to predict these organization behaviors do not guarantee a hundred percent that he can explain the reason why this particular behavior had developed. 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