Death of a Salesman Essay AP English III

Death of a Salesman Essay Wily Loan is a symbolic icon of the failing America. He is representing a typical chaser of the American dream in the sass's. He experiences a tragedy in his life where he was trying to find his place in his own life with his sons leaving, growing old, and an escalating sense of stubbornness. Wily was Just one of many Americans that experienced a great tragedy during this time which was a reason that led up to the great depression in 1929. This makes a symbolic icon of the failing America during this time.Wily Loan had a life most people admired while his sons were still in high school. He had a Job and was very happy at that time. His son Biff was the high school quarterback and was very good at his position. This made Wily extremely proud and hoped he would see his son go off to play football at the college level. He was very content with his life at this point and this symbolizes the booming American economy before the Great Depression. Wily soon got too caught up in the idea of the American Dream, to be hard working and honest among other things.He soon began to get greedy in the idea of the American Dream along with other things that went wrong. His pride soon escalated and prevailed in the worst way. Biff reveals to Wily that he has failed his senior math class and will not have enough credits to graduate high school. This incident highlights and really reveals Willis stubbornness for he Just thinks Biff could just go to summer school and get the credits he needed to graduate. It was not that simple as Wily soon learned. Biff then tells his father he is going to go to an interview or an important high paying Job and Wily is very excited for him to get the Job.Biff ends up not going to the interview because he felt he was not able to get the Job. As he tries to tell his father what happened, Willis stubbornness again shows as he would not even let Biff explain what had happened. Wily keeps talking and interrupting his son saying t hings as if he got the Job. This causes very high tension between the two and leads to a huge argument at the end of the play that indirectly leads to Wily killing himself. Another incident that escalates to the tragedy that occurs in the play is when Biff catches Wily cheating on his wife.Biff is heartbroken, in shock, and angry all at once and leaves the scene leaving Wily questioning what has become of him and started to realize his life was not what it used to be, but his stubbornness still prevailed. At the end of the play the whole family meets together at their house. A significant argument breaks out mostly between Biff and Wily about how stubborn and blind he really is. Wily ends up telling Biff to get out of his house and Biff says he never wants to come back. The argument was the deciding factor hat led up to Wily getting in his car and killing himself.In the end, Willis stubbornness and pride led to things such as the arguments between him and Biff, him getting fired and refusing to take another Job out of pride, and lack of realization that he was slowly setting the stage for his own demise. Wily was Just another lower middle class American stuck in the idea of the American Dream. Along with many other Americans during the time, he symbolized the failing America of the Great Depression of the sass's and even the digressing American economy of today.

Desert Places

Desert Places by Robert Frost Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast In a field I looked into going past, And the ground almost covered smooth in snow, But a few weeds and stubble showing last. The woods around it have it – it is theirs. All animals are smothered in their lairs. I am too absent-spirited to count; The loneliness includes me unawares. And lonely as it is, that loneliness Will be more lonely ere it will be less – A blanker whiteness of benighted snow With no expression, nothing to express.They cannot scare me with their empty spaces Between stars where no human race is. I have it in me so much nearer home To scare myself with my own desert places In the poem â€Å"Desert Places† by Robert Frost, The speaker is a lonely man who is not feeling a sense of belonging within himself. Also winter does not offer to help the lonely man. Instead it assists his feelings of loneliness. â€Å"And the ground almost covered smooth in snow† (line 3). As line three indicates, the speaker is watching an empty field being covered by more and more snow.This connotes concealing the beauty of the field. The snow imagery communicates the feelings of disappointing winter and emptiness. The observation of loneliness in winter and isolation from the world is nothing compare to the feelings of loneliness and emptiness within. This meaning is effectively communicated by the poem’s imagery and by the denotation and connotation of the words Frost has chosen. In the first stanza, the setting is developed with the use of words ‘night’ and ‘snow’ and they both carry negative connotation.Snow is employed throughout the poem to show the lack of identity; it also has characteristics of cold and formless white sheet. This observations show an image of snow falling fast, destroying the beauty of the field and covering up everything that is living. Similarly the ‘night’ has a negative connotation of darkne ss, the blackness and visionless that signals the depression and loneliness that the speaker is feeling. The concept of ‘falling fast’ both words which are mentioned twice in the first line of the first stanza, suggests descending uncontrollable and unstoppable.All four words create images that describe the mood of the speaker’s inescapable depression as result of the ‘ground covered smooth in the snow’ (3) and the feeling of emptiness within. In the second stanza the word ‘theirs’ denotes belonging; explaining the woods have something to feel a part of. The speaker still feels lonely. Also the word ‘smothered’ denotes suffocation and blockage. Although the animals are ‘smothered’ by the snow and feel helpless and alone, they are smothered in ‘their lairs’.The last line of the second stanza is really important because the word ‘loneliness’ is mentioned for the first time in the poem. Th e world ‘loneliness’ denotes without company and isolated. In line seven, the speaker is ‘too absent-spirited to count,’ he is sadly alone. In the eighth line ‘the loneliness includes me unaware,’ the speaker notices unexpectedly he too is included in the ‘loneliness. ’ It is not just the animals and the empty field covered with snow the speaker is blaming of being lonely but also himself as well.The speaker loses enthusiasm. In the third stanza, It is the most straightforward and haunting stanza of the poem because it practically induces ‘loneliness’ into the reader. ‘Lonely’ and ‘loneliness’ are mentioned three times in this stanza. ‘Will be more lonely ere it will be less—’ (10) The speaker admits that the weather and more so him feeling lonely will only get worse before it gets better. The word ‘blanker’ and ‘benighted’ are used in this stanza to give imagery of how empty and lonesome the persona is feeling.In line twelve, the imagery of depression and absence of identity is furthermore supported when the speaker compares himself to the snow to say ‘With no expression, nothing to express’ (12) mentioning his lack of identity and him falling into loneliness. The fourth and last stanza is where the speaker is most confident. The word ‘scare’ is mentioned twice in this stanza and it denotes fear. In the first line of the fourth stanza the speaker says he worries no more of empty and lonely spaces. The word ‘star’ denotes space, but it also connotes to an example of loneliness ‘where no human race is. (14) The speaker does not coward anymore of lonely empty spaces, he does not need empty fields covered with formless snow and space filled with loneliness to scare him; it’s already inside of him. The last line of the poem ‘To scare myself with my own desert places,â€⠄¢ (16) contain an image which displays Frost’s thought that fear comes from within oneself rather than without. No matter how you view or understand this poem ‘Desert places’ by Robert Frost; we can all agree that imagery, connotation, and denotation play an important role in explaining the poem’s total meaning.

Black House Chapter Twenty-six

26 WE HAVE HAD our little conversation about slippage, and it's too late in the game to belabor the point more than a little, but wouldn't you say that most houses are an attempt to hold slippage back? To impose at least the illusion of normality and sanity on the world? Think of Libertyville, with its corny but endearing street names Camelot and Avalon and Maid Marian Way. And think of that sweet little honey of a home in Libertyville where Fred, Judy, and Tyler Marshall once lived together. What else would you call 16 Robin Hood Lane but an ode to the everyday, a paean to the prosaic? We could say the same thing about Dale Gilbertson's home, or Jack's, or Henry's, couldn't we? Most of the homes in the vicinity of French Landing, really. The destructive hurricane that has blown through the town doesn't change the fact that the homes stand as brave bulwarks against slippage, as noble as they are humble. They are places of sanity. Black House like Shirley Jackson's Hill House, like the turn-of-the-century monstrosity in Seattle known as Rose Red is not sane. It is not entirely of this world. It's hard to look at from the outside the eyes play continual tricks but if one can hold it steady for a few seconds, one sees a three-story dwelling of perfectly ordinary size. The color is unusual, yes that dead black exterior, even the windows swabbed black and it has a crouching, leaning aspect that would raise uneasy thoughts about its structural integrity, but if one could appraise it with the glammer of those other worlds stripped away, it would look almost as ordinary as Fred and Judy's place . . . if not so well maintained. Inside, however, it is different. Inside, Black House is large. Black House is, in fact, almost infinite. Certainly it is no place to get lost, although from time to time people have hoboes and the occasional unfortunate runaway child, as well as Charles Burnside/Carl Bierstone's victims and relics here and there mark their passing: bits of clothing, pitiful scratchings on the walls of gigantic rooms with strange dimensions, the occasional heap of bones. Here and there the visitor may see a skull, such as the ones that washed up on the banks of the Hanover River during Fritz Haarman's reign of terror in the early 1920s. This is not a place where you want to get lost. Let us pass through rooms and nooks and corridors and crannies, safe in the knowledge that we can return to the outside world, the sane anti-slippage world, anytime we want (and yet we are still uneasy as we pass down flights of stairs that seem all but endless and along corridors that dwindle to a point in the distance). We hear an eternal low humming and the faint clash of weird machinery. We hear the idiot whistle of a constant wind either outside or on the floors above and below us. Sometimes we hear a faint, houndly barking that is undoubtedly the abbalah's devil dog, the one that did for poor old Mouse. Sometimes we hear the sardonic caw of a crow and understand that Gorg is here, too somewhere. We pass through rooms of ruin and rooms that are still furnished with a pale and rotten grandeur. Many of these are surely bigger than the whole house in which they hide. And eventually we come to a humble sitting room furnished with an elderly horsehair sofa and chairs of fading red velvet. There is a smell of noisome cooking in the air. (Somewhere close by is a kitchen we must never visit . . . not, that is, if we ever wish to sleep without nightmares again.) The electrical fixtures in here are at least seventy years old. How can that be, we ask, if Black House was built in the 1970s? The answer is simple: much of Black House most of Black House has been here much longer. The draperies in this room are heavy and faded. Except for the yellowed news clippings that have been taped to the ugly green wallpaper, it is a room that would not be out of place on the ground floor of the Nelson Hotel. It's a place that is simultaneously sinister and oddly banal, a fitting mirror for the imag ination of the old monster who has gone to earth here, who lies sleeping on the horsehair sofa with the front of his shirt turning a sinister red. Black House is not his, although in his pathological grandiosity he believes differently (and Mr. Munshun has not disabused him of this belief ). This one room, however, is. The clippings around him tell us all we need to know of Charles â€Å"Chummy† Burnside's lethal fascinations. YES, I ATE HER, FISH DECLARES: New York Herald Tribune BILLY GAFFNEY PLAYMATE AVERS â€Å"IT WAS THE GRAY MAN TOOK BILLY, IT WAS THE BOGEYMAN†: New York World Telegram GRACE BUDD HORROR CONTINUES: FISH CONFESSES!: Long Island Star FISH ADMITS â€Å"ROASTING, EATING† WM GAFFNEY: New York American FRITZ HAARMAN, SO-CALLED â€Å"BUTCHER OF HANOVER,† EXECUTED FOR MURDER OF 24: New York World WEREWOLF DECLARES: â€Å"I WAS DRIVEN BY LOVE, NOT LUST.† HAARMAN DIES UNREPENTANT: The Guardian CANNIBAL OF HANOVER'S LAST LETTER: â€Å"YOU CANNOT KILL ME, I SHALL BE AMONG YOU FOR ETERNITY†: New York World Wendell Green would love this stuff, would he not? And there are more. God help us, there are so many more. Even Jeffrey Dahmer is here, declaring I WANTED ZOMBIES. The figure on the couch begins to groan and stir. â€Å"Way-gup, Burny!† This seems to come from thin air, not his mouth . . . although his lips move, like those of a second-rate ventriloquist. Burny groans. His head turns to the left. â€Å"No . . . need to sleep. Everything . . . hurts.† The head turns to the right in a gesture of negation and Mr. Munshun speaks again. â€Å"Way-gup, dey vill be gummink. You must move der buu-uoy.† The head switches back the other way. Sleeping, Burny thinks Mr. Munshun is still safe inside his head. He has forgotten things are different here in Black House. Foolish Burny, now nearing the end of his usefulness! But not quite there yet. â€Å"Can't . . . lea' me ‘lone . . . stomach hurts . . . the blind man . . . fucking blind man hurt my stomach . . .† But the head turns back the other way and the voice speaks again from the air beside Burny's right ear. Burny fights it, not wanting to wake and face the full ferocious impact of the pain. The blind man has hurt him much worse than he thought at the time, in the heat of the moment. Burny insists to the nagging voice that the boy is safe where he is, that they'll never find him even if they can gain access to Black House, that they will become lost in its unknown depth of rooms and hallways and wander until they first go mad and then die. Mr. Munshun, however, knows that one of them is different from any of the others who have happened on this place. Jack Sawyer is acquainted with the infinite, and that makes him a problem. The boy must be taken out the back way and into End-World, into the very shadow of Din-tah, the great furnace. Mr. Munshun tells Burny that he may still be able to have some of the boy before turning him over to the abbalah, but not here. Too dangerous. Sorry. Burny continues to protest, but this is a battle he will not win, and we know it. Already the stale, cooked-meat air of the room has begun to shift and swirl as the owner of the voice arrives. We see first a whirlpool of black, then a splotch of red an ascot and then the beginnings of an impossibly long white face, which is dominated by a single black shark's eye. This is the real Mr. Munshun, the creature who can only live in Burny's head outside of Black House and its enchanted environs. Soon he will be entirely here, he will pull Burny into wakefulness (torture him into wakefulness, if necessary), and he will put Burny to use while there is still use to be gotten from him. For Mr. Munshun cannot move Ty from his cell in the Black House. Once he is in End-World Burny's Sheol things will be different. At last Burny's eyes open. His gnarled hands, which have spilled so much blood, now reach down to feel the dampness of his own blood seeping through his shirt. He looks, sees what has bloomed there, and lets out a scream of horror and cowardice. It does not strike him as just that, after murdering so many children, he should have been mortally wounded by a blind man; it strikes him as hideous, unfair. For the first time he is visited by an extremely unpleasant idea: What if there's more to pay for the things he has done over the course of his long career? He has seen End-World; he has seen Conger Road, which winds through it to Din-tah. The blasted, burning landscape surrounding Conger Road is like hell, and surely An-tak, the Big Combination, is hell itself. What if such a place waits for him? What if There's a horrible, paralyzing pain in his guts. Mr. Munshun, now almost fully materialized, has reached out and twisted one smoky, not-quite-transparent hand in the wound Henry inflicted with his switchblade knife. Burny squeals. Tears run down the old child-murderer's cheeks. â€Å"Don't hurt me!† â€Å"Zen do ass I zay.† â€Å"I can't,† Burny snivels. â€Å"I'm dying. Look at all the blood! Do you think I can get past something like this? I'm eighty-five fucking years old!† â€Å"Duff brayyg, Burn-Burn . . . but dere are zose on z'osser zide who could hill you off your wunds.† Mr. Munshun, like Black House itself, is hard to look at. He shivers in and out of focus. Sometimes that hideously long face (it obscures most of his body, like the bloated head of a caricature on some newspaper's op-ed page) has two eyes, sometimes just one. Sometimes there seem to be tufted snarls of orange hair leaping up from his distended skull, and sometimes Mr. Munshun appears to be as bald as Yul Brynner. Only the red lips and the fangy pointed teeth that lurk inside them remain fairly constant. Burny eyes his accomplice with a degree of hope. His hands, meanwhile, continue to explore his stomach, which is now hard and bloated with lumps. He suspects the lumps are clots. Oh, that someone should have hurt him so badly! That wasn't supposed to happen! That was never supposed to happen! He was supposed to be protected! He was supposed to â€Å"It iss not even peeyond ze realm of bossibility,† Mr. Munshun says, â€Å"zat ze yearz could be rawled avey vrum you jusst as ze stunn vas rawled avey from ze mouse of Cheezus Chrizze's doom.† â€Å"To be young again,† Burny says, and exhales a low, harsh sigh. His breath stinks of blood and spoilage. â€Å"Yes, I'd like that.† â€Å"Of gorse! And soch zings are bossible,† Mr. Munshun says, nodding his grotesquely unstable face. â€Å"Soch gifts are ze abbalah's to giff. But zey are not bromised, Charles, my liddle munching munchkin. But I can make you one bromise.† The creature in the black evening suit and red ascot leaps forward with dreadful agility. His long-fingered hand darts again into Chummy Burnside's shirt, this time clenches into a fist, and produces a pain beyond any the old monster has ever dreamed of in his own life . . . although he has inflicted this and more on the innocent. Mr. Munshun's reeking countenance pushes up to Burny's. The single eye glares. â€Å"Do you feel dat, Burny? Do you, you mizz-er-a-ble old bag of dirt and zorrow? Ho-ho, ha-ha, of gorse you do! It iss your in-destines I haff in my hand! Und if you do not mooff now, schweinhund, I vill rip dem from your bledding body, ho-ho, ha-ha, und vrap dem arund your neg! You vill die knowing you are choking on your own gudz! A trick I learned from Fritz himzelf, Fritz Haarman, who vas so yunk und loff-ly! Now! Vat do you say? Vill you brink him, or vill you choke?† â€Å"I'll bring him!† Burny screams. â€Å"I'll bring him, only stop, stop, you're tearing me apart!† â€Å"Brink him to ze station. Ze station, Burn-Burn. Dis one iz nodd for ze radhulls, de fogzhulls not for ze Com-bin-ay-shun. No bledding foodzies for Dyler; he works for his abbalah vid dis.† A long finger tipped with a brutal black nail goes to the huge forehead and taps it above the eyes (for the moment Burny sees two of them, and then the second is once more gone). â€Å"Understand?† â€Å"Yes! Yes!† His guts are on fire. And still the hand in his shirt twists and twists. The terrible highway of Mr. Munshun's face hangs before him. â€Å"Ze station where you brought the other sbecial ones.† â€Å"YES!† Mr. Munshun lets go. He steps back. Mercifully for Burny, he is beginning to grow insubstantial again, to discorporate. Yellowed clippings swim into view not behind him but through him. Yet the single eye hangs in the air above the paling blotch of the ascot. â€Å"Mayg zure he vears za cab. Ziss one ezbeshully must wear za cab.† Burnside nods eagerly. He still smells faintly of My Sin perfume. â€Å"The cap, yes, I have the cap.† â€Å"Be gare-ful, Burny. You are old und hurt. Ze bouy is young und desberate. Flitt of foot. If you let him get avey â€Å" In spite of the pain, Burny smiles. One of the children getting away from him! Even one of the special ones! What an idea! â€Å"Don't worry,† he says. â€Å"Just . . . if you speak to him . . . to Abbalah-doon . . . tell him I'm not past it yet. If he makes me better, he won't regret it. And if he makes me young again, I'll bring him a thousand young. A thousand Breakers.† Fading and fading. Now Mr. Munshun is again just a glow, a milky disturbance on the air of Burny's sitting room deep in the house he abandoned only when he realized he really did need someone to take care of him in his sunset years. â€Å"Bring him just dis vun, Burn-Burn. Bring him just dis vun, und you vill be revarded.† Mr. Munshun is gone. Burny stands and bends over the horsehair sofa. Doing it squeezes his belly, and the resulting pain makes him scream, but he doesn't stop. He reaches into the darkness and pulls out a battered black leather sack. He grasps its top and leaves the room, limping and clutching at his bleeding, distended belly. And what of Tyler Marshall, who has existed through most of these many pages as little more than a rumor? How badly has he been hurt? How frightened is he? Has he managed to retain his sanity? As to his physical condition, he's got a concussion, but that's already healing. The Fisherman has otherwise done no more than stroke his arm and his buttocks (a creepy touch that made Tyler think of the witch in â€Å"Hansel and Gretel†). Mentally . . . would you be shocked to hear that, while Mr. Munshun is goading Burny onward, Fred and Judy's boy is happy? He is. He is happy. And why not? He's at Miller Park. The Milwaukee Brewers have confounded all the pundits this year, all the doomsayers who proclaimed they'd be in the cellar by July Fourth. Well, it's still relatively early, but the Fourth has come and gone and the Brew Crew has returned to Miller tied for first place with Cincinnati. They are in the hunt, in large part due to the bat of Richie Sexson, who came over to Milwaukee from the Cleveland Indians and who has been â€Å"really pickin' taters,† in the pungent terminology of George Rathbun. They are in the hunt, and Ty is at the game! EXCELLENT! Not only is he there, he's got a front-row seat. Next to him big, sweating, red-faced, a Kingsland beer in one hand and another tucked away beneath his seat for emergencies is the Gorgeous George himself, bellowing at the top of his leather lungs. Jeromy Burnitz of the Crew has just been called out at first on a bang-bang play, and while there can be no doubt that the Cincinnati shortstop handled the ball well and got rid of it fast, there can also be no doubt (at least not in George Rathbun's mind) that Burnitz was safe! He rises in the twilight, his sweaty bald pate glowing beneath a sweetly lavender sky, a foamy rill of beer rolling up one cocked forearm, his blue eyes twinkling (you can tell he sees a lot with those eyes, just about everything), and Ty waits for it, they all wait for it, and here it is, that avatar of summer in the Coulee Country, that wonderful bray that means everything is okay, terror has been denied, a nd slippage has been canceled. â€Å"COME ON, UMP, GIVE US A BREAK! GIVE US A FREEEEAKIN' BRAYYYYK! EVEN A BLIND MAN COULD SEE HE WAS SAFE!† The crowd on the first-base side goes wild at the sound of that cry, none wilder than the fourteen or so people sitting behind the banner reading MILLER PARK WELCOMES GEORGE RATHBUN AND THE WINNERS OF THIS YEAR'S KDCU BREWER BASH. Ty is jumping up and down, laughing, waving his Brew Crew hat. What makes this doubly boss is that he thought he forgot to enter the contest this year. He guesses his father (or perhaps his mother) entered it for him . . . and he won! Not the grand prize, which was getting to be the Brew Crew's batboy for the entire Cincinnati series, but what he got (besides this excellent seat with the other winners, that is) is, in his opinion, even better. Of course Richie Sexson isn't Mark McGwire nobody can hit the tar out of the ball like Big Mac but Sexson has been awesome for the Brewers this year, just awesome, and Tyler Marshall has won Someone is shaking his foot. Ty attempts to pull away, not wanting to lose this dream (this most excellent refuge from the horror that has befallen him), but the hand is relentless. It shakes. It shakes and shakes. â€Å"Way-gup,† a voice snarls, and the dream begins to darken. George Rathbun turns to Ty, and the boy sees an amazing thing: the eyes that were such a shrewd, sharp blue only a few seconds ago have gone dull and milky. Cripe, he's blind, Ty thinks. George Rathbun really is a â€Å"Way-gup,† the growling voice says. It's closer now. In a moment the dream will wink out entirely. Before it does, George speaks to him. The voice is quiet, totally unlike the sportscaster's usual brash bellow. â€Å"Help's on the way,† he says. â€Å"So be cool, you little cat. Be â€Å" â€Å"Way-GUP, you shit!† The grip on his ankle is crushing, paralyzing. With a cry of protest, Ty opens his eyes. This is how he rejoins the world, and our tale. He remembers where he is immediately. It's a cell with reddish-gray iron bars halfway along a stone corridor lit with cobwebby electric bulbs. There's a dish of some sort of stew in one corner. In the other is a bucket in which he is supposed to pee (or take a dump if he has to so far he hasn't, thank goodness). The only other thing in the room is a raggedy old futon from which Burny has just dragged him. â€Å"All right,† Burny says. â€Å"Awake at last. That's good. Now get up. On your feet, asswipe. I don't have time to fuck with you.† Tyler gets up. A wave of dizziness rolls through him and he puts his hand to the top of his head. There is a spongy, crusted place there. Touching it sends a bolt of pain all the way down to his jaws, which clench. But it also drives the dizziness away. He looks at his hand. There are flakes of scab and dried blood on his palm. That's where he hit me with his damned rock. Any harder, and I would have been playing a harp. But the old man has been hurt somehow, too. His shirt is covered with blood; his wrinkled ogre's face is waxy and pallid. Behind him, the cell door is open. Ty measures the distance to the hallway, hoping he's not being too obvious about it. But Burny has been in this game a long time. He has had more than one liddle one dry to esscabe on hiz bledding foodzies, oh ho. He reaches into his bag and brings out a black gadget with a pistol grip and a stainless steel nozzle at the tip. â€Å"Know what this is, Tyler?† Burny asks. â€Å"Taser,† Ty says. â€Å"Isn't it?† Burny grins, revealing the stumps of his teeth. â€Å"Smart boy! A TV-watching boy, I'll be bound. It's a Taser, yes. But a special type it'll drop a cow at thirty yards. Understand? You try to run, boy, I'll bring you down like a ton of bricks. Come out here.† Ty steps out of the cell. He has no idea where this horrible old man means to take him, but there's a certain relief just in being free of the cell. The futon was the worst. He knows, somehow, that he hasn't been the only kid to cry himself to sleep on it with an aching heart and an aching, lumpy head, nor the tenth. Nor, probably, the fiftieth. â€Å"Turn to your left.† Ty does. Now the old man is behind him. A moment later, he feels the bony fingers grip the right cheek of his bottom. It's not the first time the old man has done this (each time it happens he's reminded again of the witch in â€Å"Hansel and Gretel,† asking the lost children to stick their arms out of their cage), but this time his touch is different. Weaker. Die soon, Ty thinks, and the thought its cold collectedness is very, very Judy. Die soon, old man, so I don't have to. â€Å"This one is mine,† the old man says . . . but he sounds out of breath, no longer quite sure of himself. â€Å"I'll bake half, fry the rest. With bacon.† â€Å"I don't think you'll be able to eat much,† Ty says, surprised at the calmness of his own voice. â€Å"Looks like somebody ventilated your stomach pretty g â€Å" There is a crackling, accompanied by a hideous, jittery burning sensation in his left shoulder. Ty screams and staggers against the wall across the corridor from his cell, trying to clutch the wounded place, trying not to cry, trying to hold on to just a little of his beautiful dream about being at the game with George Rathbun and the other KDCU Brewer Bash winners. He knows he actually did forget to enter this year, but in dreams such things don't matter. That's what's so beautiful about them. Oh, but it hurts so bad. And despite all his efforts all the Judy Marshall in him the tears begin to flow. â€Å"You want another un?† the old man gasps. He sounds both sick and hysterical, and even a kid Ty's age knows that's a dangerous combination. â€Å"You want another un, just for good luck?† â€Å"No,† Ty gasps. â€Å"Don't zap me again, please don't.† â€Å"Then start walkin'! And no more smart goddamn remarks!† Ty starts to walk. Somewhere he can hear water dripping. Somewhere, very faint, he can hear the laughing caw of a crow probably the same one that tricked him, and how he'd like to have Ebbie's .22 and blow its evil shiny black feathers off. The outside world seems light-years away. But George Rathbun told him help was on the way, and sometimes the things you heard in dreams came true. His very own mother told him that once, and long before she started to go all wonky in the head, too. They come to a stairway that seems to circle down forever. Up from the depths comes a smell of sulfur and a roast of heat. Faintly he can hear what might be screams and moans. The clank of machinery is louder. There are ominous creaking sounds that might be belts and chains. Ty pauses, thinking the old guy won't zap him again unless he absolutely has to. Because Ty might fall down this long circular staircase. Might hit the place on his head the old guy already clipped with the rock, or break his neck, or tumble right off the side. And the old guy wants him alive, at least for now. Ty doesn't know why, but he knows this intuition is true. â€Å"Where are we going, mister?† â€Å"You'll find out,† Burny says in his tight, out-of-breath voice. â€Å"And if you think I don't dare zap you while we're on the stairs, my little friend, you're very mistaken. Now get walking.† Tyler Marshall starts down the stairs, descending past vast galleries and balconies, around and down, around and down. Sometimes the air smells of putrid cabbage. Sometimes it smells of burned candles. Sometimes of wet rot. He counts a hundred and fifty steps, then stops counting. His thighs are burning. Behind him, the old man is gasping, and twice he stumbles, cursing and holding the ancient banister. Fall, old man, Ty chants inside his head. Fall and die, fall and die. But at last they are at the bottom. They arrive in a circular room with a dirty glass ceiling. Above them, gray sky hangs down like a filthy bag. There are plants oozing out of broken pots, sending greedy feelers across a floor of broken orange bricks. Ahead of them, two doors French doors, Ty thinks they are called stand open. Beyond them is a crumbling patio surrounded by ancient trees. Some are palms. Some the ones with the hanging, ropy vines might be banyans. Others he doesn't know. One thing he's sure of: they are no longer in Wisconsin. Standing on the patio is an object he knows very well. Something from his own world. Tyler Marshall's eyes well up again at the sight of it, which is almost like the sight of a face from home in a hopelessly foreign place. â€Å"Stop, monkey-boy.† The old man sounds out of breath. â€Å"Turn around.† When Tyler does, he's pleased to see that the blotch on the old man's shirt has spread even farther. Fingers of blood now stretch all the way to his shoulders, and the waistband of his baggy old blue jeans has gone a muddy black. But the hand holding the Taser is rock-steady. God damn you, Tyler thinks. God damn you to hell. The old man has put his bag on a little table. He simply stands where he is for a moment, getting his breath. Then he rummages in the bag (something in there utters a faint metallic clink) and brings out a soft brown cap. It's the kind guys like Sean Connery sometimes wear in the movies. The old man holds it out. â€Å"Put it on. And if you try to grab my hand, I'll zap you.† Tyler takes the cap. His fingers, expecting the texture of suede, are surprised by something metallic, almost like tinfoil. He feels an unpleasant buzzing in his hand, like a mild version of the Taser's jolt. He looks at the old man pleadingly. â€Å"Do I have to?† Burny raises the Taser and bares his teeth in a silent grin. Reluctantly, Ty puts the cap on. This time the buzzing fills his head. For a moment he can't think . . . and then the feeling passes, leaving him with an odd sense of weakness in his muscles and a throbbing at his temples. â€Å"Special boys need special toys,† Burny says, and it comes out sbecial boyz, sbecial toyz. As always, Mr. Munshun's ridiculous accent has rubbed off a little, thickening that touch of South Chicago Henry detected on the 911 tape. â€Å"Now we can go out.† Because with the cap on, I'm safe, Ty thinks, but the idea breaks up and drifts away almost as soon as it comes. He tries to think of his middle name and realizes he can't. He tries to think of the bad crow's name and can't get that, either was it something like Corgi? No, that's a kind of dog. The cap is messing him up, he realizes, and that's what it's supposed to do. Now they pass through the open doors and onto the patio. The air is redolent with the smell of the trees and bushes that surround the back side of Black House, a smell that is heavy and cloying. Fleshy, somehow. The gray sky seems almost low enough to touch. Ty can smell sulfur and something bitter and electric and juicy. The sound of machinery is much louder out here. The thing Ty recognized sitting on the broken bricks is an E-Z-Go golf cart. The Tiger Woods model. â€Å"My dad sells these,† Ty says. â€Å"At Goltz's, where he works.† â€Å"Where do you think it came from, asswipe? Get in. Behind the wheel.† Ty looks at him, amazed. His blue eyes, perhaps thanks to the effects of the cap, have grown bloodshot and rather confused. â€Å"I'm not old enough to drive.† â€Å"Oh, you'll be fine. A baby could drive this baby. Behind the wheel.† Ty does as he is told. In truth, he has driven one of these in the lot at Goltz's, with his father sitting watchfully beside him in the passenger seat. Now the hideous old man is easing himself into that same place, groaning and holding his perforated midsection. The Taser is in the other hand, however, and the steel tip remains pointed at Ty. The key is in the ignition. Ty turns it. There's a click from the battery beneath them. The dashboard light reading CHARGE glows bright green. Now all he has to do is push the accelerator pedal. And steer, of course. â€Å"Good so far,† the old man says. He takes his right hand off his middle and points with a bloodstained finger. Ty sees a path of discolored gravel once, before the trees and underbrush encroached, it was probably a driveway leading away from the house. â€Å"Now go. And go slow. Speed and I'll zap you. Try to crash us and I'll break your wrist for you. Then you can drive one-handed.† Ty pushes down on the accelerator. The golf cart jerks forward. The old man lurches, curses, and waves the Taser threateningly. â€Å"It would be easier if I could take off the cap,† Ty says. â€Å"Please, I'm pretty sure that if you'd just let me â€Å" â€Å"No! Cap stays! Drive!† Ty pushes down gently on the accelerator. The E-Z-Go rolls across the patio, its brand-new rubber tires crunching on broken shards of brick. There's a bump as they leave the pavement and go rolling up the driveway. Heavy fronds they feel damp, sweaty brush Tyler's arms. He cringes. The golf cart swerves. Burny jabs the Taser at the boy, snarling. â€Å"Next time you get the juice! It's a promise!† A snake goes writhing across the overgrown gravel up ahead, and Ty utters a little scream through his clenched teeth. He doesn't like snakes, didn't even want to touch the harmless little corn snake Mrs. Locher brought to school, and this thing is the size of a python, with ruby eyes and fangs that prop its mouth open in a perpetual snarl. â€Å"Go! Drive!† The Taser, waving in his face. The cap, buzzing faintly in his ears. Behind his ears. The drive curves to the left. Some sort of tree burdened with what look like tentacles leans over them. The tips of the tentacles tickle across Ty's shoulders and the goose-prickled, hair-on-end nape of his neck. Ourr boyy . . . He hears this in his head in spite of the cap. It's faint, it's distant, but it's there. Ourrrrr boyyyyy . . . yesssss . . . ourrrrs . . . Burny is grinning. â€Å"Hear 'em, don'tcha? They like you. So do I. We're all friends here, don't you see?† The grin becomes a grimace. He clutches his bloody middle again. â€Å"Goddamned blind old fool!† he gasps. Then, suddenly, the trees are gone. The golf cart rolls out onto a sullen, crumbling plain. The bushes dwindle and Ty sees that farther along they give way entirely to a crumbled, rocky scree: hills rise and fall beneath that sullen gray sky. A few birds of enormous size wheel lazily. A shaggy, slump-shouldered creature staggers down a narrow defile and is gone from sight before Ty can see exactly what it is . . . not that he wanted to. The thud and pound of machinery is stronger, shaking the earth. The crump of pile drivers; the clash of ancient gears; the squall of cogs. Tyler can feel the golf cart's steering wheel thrumming in his hands. Ahead of them the driveway ends in a wide road of beaten earth. Along the far side of it is a wall of round white stones. â€Å"That thing you hear, that's the Crimson King's power plant,† Burny says. He speaks with pride, but there is more than a tinge of fear beneath it. â€Å"The Big Combination. A million children have died on its belts, and a zillion more to come, for all I know. But that's not for you, Tyler. You might have a future after all. First, though, I'll have my piece of you. Yes indeed.† His blood-streaked hand reaches out and caresses the top of Ty's buttock. â€Å"A good agent's entitled to ten percent. Even an old buzzard like me knows that.† The hand draws back. Good thing. Ty has been on the verge of screaming, holding the sound back only by thinking of sitting at Miller Park with good old George Rathbun. If I'd really entered the Brewer Bash, he thinks, none of this would have happened. But he thinks that may not actually be true. Some things are meant to be, that's all. Meant. He just hopes that what this horrible old creature wants is not one of them. â€Å"Turn left,† Burny grunts, settling back. â€Å"Three miles. Give or take.† And, as Tyler makes the turn, he realizes the ribbons of mist rising from the ground aren't mist at all. They're ribbons of smoke. â€Å"Sheol,† Burny says, as if reading his mind. â€Å"And this is the only way through it Conger Road. Get off it and there are things out there that'd pull you to pieces just to hear you scream. My friend told me where to take you, but there might be just a leedle change of plan.† His pain-wracked face takes on a sulky cast. Ty thinks it makes him look extraordinarily stupid. â€Å"He hurt me. Pulled my guts. I don't trust him.† And, in a horrible child's singsong: â€Å"Carl Bierstone don't trust Mr. Munshun! Not no more! Not no more!† Ty says nothing. He concentrates on keeping the golf cart in the middle of Conger Road. He risks one look back, but the house, in its ephemeral wallow of tropical greenery, is gone, blocked from view by the first of the eroded hills. â€Å"He'll have what's his, but I'll have what's mine. Do you hear me, boy?† When Ty says nothing, Burny brandishes the Taser. â€Å"Do you hear me, you asswipe monkey?† â€Å"Yeah,† Ty says. â€Å"Yeah, sure.† Why don't you die? God, if You're there, why don't You just reach down and put Your finger on his rotten heart and stop it from beating? When Burny speaks again, his voice is sly. â€Å"You looked at the wall on t'other side, but I don't think you looked close enough. Better take another gander.† Tyler looks past the slumped old man. For a moment he doesn't understand . . . and then he does. The big white stones stretching endlessly away along the far side of Conger Road aren't stones at all. They're skulls. What is this place? Oh God, how he wants his mother! How he wants to go home! Beginning to cry again, his brain numbed and buzzing beneath the cap that looks like cloth but isn't, Ty pilots the golf cart deeper and deeper into the furnace-lands. Into Sheol. Rescue help of any kind has never seemed so far away.

Operation of ACAP Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Operation of ACAP - Essay Example One of the key intentions of the company is to remain consistent in what they are doing. The company started its operation 40 years back with the aim of offering different type of connections and services to the economically weaker section of the society and uplift their position. Strengthening the economical condition of the individuals and their families is one of the key requirements of the firm. The organization offers a range of social services to the community. The services are generally provided to the people through their offices in Cohoes and Albany. Furthermore, the organization also offers its services from the early childhood development classrooms. The mission of the company is to work in partnership with the communities and families so as to empower people and achieve financial stability and lead a quality life. As the establishment continues to spread its wings in different places on earth, it also continues to diversify and expand the services of the firm. Despite num erous changes the establishment has remained consistent in its mission and vision statement. This makes ACAP an exceptionally safe and accessible place for the individuals to find a better way of life and a jubilant place for the employees where they can excel. Some of the key services provided by the establishment are as follows: - ACAP provides comprehensive and centralized support services to the local people who are in need of it. ACAP brings together all community support systems that include nonprofit, governmental and corporate sector so as to offer benefits to each of its customers independently. ACAP constantly reports a computable impact on poverty in the neighboring communities. The establishment involves the community as well as the customers for the overall development of the society. ACAP also provides employment opportunities to a number of people and along with that it offers competitive wage and comprehensive benefits. Most importantly, it also offers career growth opportunities to the employees (â€Å"About Us†). Services Offered by the Firm The organization is best known for providing a wide range of services to the individuals and communities. Apart from directly offering services, it also initiates a number of other programs so as to create awareness among the target population. Some of the evident ones are child care services, early childhood education services, food pantry services, community action services, career services, housing and energy services and tax assistance services. However, this essay will only focus on the early childhood education services. Albany Community Action Partnership (ACAP) offers a number of options for the early child education in and around the Albany County. Each of the early childhood programs that are operated by ACAP maintains a strict adherence to the licensing regulations. This is instituted by NYS Department of Education and NYS Office of Children and Family Services. Furthermore, these progra ms not only meet the guidelines of the federal government, but often reach beyond the requirement of law so as to ensure comprehensive care and quality of the Albany County children and families. Some of the services offered by the company in the context of Early Childhood Education also include to and fro transportation to the education centers. The current locations through which the organization operates are Berne-Knox-Westerlo, Cohoes, Albany

Racist Skinhead Subculture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Racist Skinhead Subculture - Essay Example The racial skinhead subculture is similar to neo-Nazi ideologies in the sense that aggression is mainly targeted to certain racial groups. In this case scenario, the most hated are often Jews, since the skinheads view them as the ones who have taken all the economic privileges in the country. They also abhor blacks and other races, whom they consider as inferior races to the white race. Over the past three decades, the racist skinhead subculture has continually evolved to be more sophisticated in the way it uses the internet to spread its propaganda. Though various extremist skinhead activities were weakened after 9/11 attacks in the US due to another of issues such as arrest of some leaders and death of another (Sinderbrand, 2004:38), since 2004, and over the past five years most of the groups have been regrouping, getting integrated and increasingly carrying out race motivated attacks on people (Anti Defamation League, 2012a:1). Since such groups often surge during times of economic distress and seek to put blames on various racial groups for taking away all jobs in the economy, I contend that it is probably due to the recent economic recession that most of these racist skinheads have regrouped. It is due to this reason that this paper finds it important to study the intricacies of the brand community of the skinhead subculture, and specifically the racist skinhea ds.... It is due to this reason that this paper finds it important to study the intricacies of the brand community of the skinhead subculture, and specifically the racist skinheads. The study will use subculture theory to understand why the skinhead group is a subculture and to tease out specific elements and themes concerning a specific example of racist skinhead: Hammerskin Nation. It will also analyze empirical studies as to attributes of this group in order to understand their practice. To this end, the key research questions will be what the main characteristics of the brand Hammerskin Nation are, why they have these characteristics and why they are a subculture based on clear themes concerning their movements that have been teased out and highlighted theoretical attributes. Literature review Historical perspective of the racial Skinhead The start of the skinhead head movement can be traced in the UK back in the 1950s and the 1960s. During this time several young people defined themsel ves separately by adopting a high stylish lifestyle bordered on mainly styles adopted by the British rock bands, US R$B, as well as movie stars. Brown (2004: 175) observes these earlier young people known as mods, who were less inclined to violence, became known for their devotion to music, fashion, scooters and their general consumerism. Since not all of the fashion trendy adhering to mod subculture could afford to have the latest trends in fashion, the group split off into two, the well off referred to as the smooth mods and the working class mods who could less afford the fashion trends. Nordstrom and Robben (1995:87) show that due to this the hard mods preferred to be sported in suspenders, boots and straight legged jeans. The hard mods mainly enjoyed he hard rock,

Who Are Guilt for School Shootings Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Who Are Guilt for School Shootings - Essay Example Bullying can happen at school and also in the social media; it is perpetrated on sites such as Facebook or Twitter. The victim feels tortured and humiliated. The bullies are often school or classmates who have the intent of embarrassing or humiliating their colleagues. They do so by posting hatred messages about their victims on the internet. When that happens, the victim undergoes severe emotional pain. To make the matter worse, the victim finds it hard to remove such hatred messages from the internet. As a result, they feel the whole world knows about what has been said about them. Adults take little notice of such messages and their impacts. Thus, the perpetrators seek ways of revenging. They finally resort to attacking their bullies by shooting to end the pain inflicted on them.School shootings take place because the perpetrators do not value life. Their perspective of life is entirely distorted by their beliefs. In most cases, they face challenges in initiating social relationsh ips. For example, some of them do not have good friends. However, they desire to be sociable, but they encounter difficulties in initiating or sustaining social relationships. The potential friends may not want to associate with them. Peer groups also distance themselves from them. As a result, they feel isolated. At home or school, the parents or teachers may fail to notice the social isolation faced by such students. Thus, there will be no one to provide immediate solutions or strategies of overcoming the isolation. Therefore, the isolated students look for ways of punishing people around them.School shootings occur because the perpetrators have mental problems. Some perpetrators with anxiety feel that the world is against them. They tend to develop the fear of the unknown. They have the feeling that they are powerless and unable to change what happens in their lives. Other perpetrators with mania have impaired reasoning about the things that happen around them. They have the feel ing that other people hate them. They also have a fear of failing in everything they do particularly at school. Thus, they feel the only option at their disposal is to lash out at others to show or make them feel a similar pain.

Immune Response Against HIV Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Immune Response Against HIV - Research Paper Example The immune system is a defense mechanism of a body. This research paper desribes how the immune system works against the invasion and threats of viruses, bacteria and other microscopic organisms recognized as non-self. A good example of a virus that the immune system fights against and is a main focus of this research paper, is HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), which is responsible for causation of AIDS. This research paper gives detailed discussion on the topic and describes a few stages of the fighting against viruses process. During the 1st stage, the phagocytes try to engulf and destroy the non-organic enemies that they detect in the body. Stage II of the fight against viruses takes place after the CD4 have received information concerning foreign invaders in the body. During this stage, the CD4 divides and send signals that activate other components required in the defense system. Terminology of CD4, phagocytes and non-organic are also explained in this research paper. In concl usion, the immune system protects the body from foreigners such as viruses and bacteria. HIV virus is known of invading a human cell and making it a factory for viruses. Its destruction of the HIV virus in the body involves different stages. Phagocytes are involved in destruction of non-organic materials in the body. The macrophages then aid in presenting the information on the virus on their surfaces. The CD-4 then uses the information presented on the surface of the macrophages to activate many soldiers such as killer T-cells.

Topic of the paper will focus on a criminal case that has been Essay - 1

Topic of the paper will focus on a criminal case that has been adjudicated by the United States Supreme Court and has implications on the criminal justice system - Essay Example The court thus proceeded to assign him one by the name of Kirk McAllister who was a veteran defense lawyer. As the case proceeded, however, Scott Peterson later stated that he would be able to afford a private attorney after all and hired the services of Mark Geragos who had handled other high profile cases similar to his (Crier & Thompson, 2005). The judge appointed to the case later on moved the trial from Modesto, California where the crime had been committed to Redwood City in the year 2004 due an increase in hostility towards the defendant (Scott Peterson). The judge felt that due to this hostility, the judge felt that Scott would not be able to receive a fair trial in Modesto as individuals in that region had already perceived him as guilty and it would have been impossible to get a non bias jury in that area (Beratlis et al, 2007). The hostility was due to the type of coverage that the case received from the media. (Bird, 2005) The news had already portrayed Scott Peterson as an inhumane individual who was accountable for the death of an innocent woman and an unborn child. They covered the story as if the defendant was guilty, and the process of the trial was just a preliminary to the inevitable end result of a guilty verdict. In order to ensure that Scott Peterson would be able to get a fair trial, the judged moved the case to another area away from Modesto, where the residents felt bereaved as they had lost one of their own. It should b noted, however, that the coverage of the country was country wide, and thus it cannot be said how much the move changed matters in terms of the defendants portrayal (Beratlis et al, 2007). The main witness of the prosecution also hired her own attorney who played a big role as a sympathizer to the prosecution as she was not bound by the gag order that prohibited the others who were involved

Case study Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 7

Case study - Assignment Example However, the author also notices that there are situations that fixing may not be a good option, when the employee shows disinterest in the duties and underperforms, this may affect the other employees performances and the department or company’s position (46). In this case, firing is the better option. An effective employment termination plan should include these three key things. First, the plan should have a way that prevents the employee from seeking delay or postponement of the process by seeking help from the authority above the immediate manager or to other departments (52). This is avoided by having the communication about the termination received and supported by the supervisors above you and other departments such as human resource approval. Secondly, the plan should include activities immediately to secure the companys assets that were under the employee (53). This is done through change of passwords, repossession of rights and materials and escorting of the terminated employee to make sure he or she leaves the compound as fast as possible. The third requirement of the plan is to have administrative support and presence in the termination process (55). This helps to have a witness and to indicate that the decision has been made with the involvement of all the administrat ion. Underperformance in any business is costly and brings the company down in an effort to reach their goals. This is the main reason the managers should always monitor the employees’ performance and make decisions related to fixing or firing employees. Some employees however may try to rationalize their underperformance. First, the underperforming employees may appear to follow the example of another employee who underperforms and the company or the manager does nothing about it (46). They, therefore, feel that the level of performance demonstrated by this employee is acceptable. Secondly, the employees may use the

Metabolism and Stress Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Metabolism and Stress - Assignment Example Adrenalin acts on fat cells thereby converting them to glucose for energy. Cortisol also increases amount of glucose in blood. Both these functions are at peak during stress conditions. Therefore, prolonged stressed conditions lead to excess release of energy and glucose. If the stress is not physical then this energy is not used, which eventually gets converted to fat and is deposited within the body. Excess fat also causes obesity and other metabolic dysfunctions, which in turn impact the mental status of the individual. These symptoms precede depression, anxiety disorder and eating disorders (Tafet, 2001). Metabolic dysfunction caused due to stress leads to higher glucose levels in the body, and the normal body may not be able to metabolize high levels of glucose through the available insulin in the body. This eventually leads to insulin resistance, causing diabetes. High levels of adrenalin and cortisol are also associated with thyroid dysfunction which is responsible for the metabolic functions of various other organs and glands. Combating these issues requires mobilization of the constantly produced glucose and energy in case of chronic stress. This requires physical activity in the form of exercise, meditation or other regulative physical activity which help in expending the excess glucose and fat produced as a result of increased adrenal activity in stressed conditions (Haskell et al,

Alfred hitcock and how his movies are still socially releavant today Essay

Alfred hitcock and how his movies are still socially releavant today - Essay Example Alicia Huberman in Notorious and Lisa Fremont in Rear Window were characteristically intelligent and assertive women who rarely submitted to the domineering status of men. Feminism In Beyond the Gaze: Visual Fascination and the Feminine Image in Silent Hitchcock, Jessica Brent uses two Hitchcock films, Vertigo (1958) and Rear Window (1954), to exemplify her feminist theory that these films are designed to satisfy male desire. They are tailored to the fantasies and fears of the male viewer, who bears an intrinsic desire to see the female fetishized and controlled. These two films support the feminist thesis that classic film negates the view of the female spectator. This is because they confine the viewer’s interpretation of events in the film to the hero’s perspective and vision of events. They focus on the man’s point of view throughout the story. Consequently, the spectator is left with no option but to identify with the perspective of the male protagonist. Oft en, this male protagonist has a domineering control over a female object. Rear Window’s Lisa Fremont is obsessed with dress and style and is consequently reduced to an image of visual perfection. Jeff is the male figure who exerts a bossy control over the passive Lisa. His profession of photojournalism places him in pole position to descend into the act of voyeurism. Compounded with his enforced inactivity, this behavior puts him in a fantasy position for a patriarchal audience. The character of Norman Bates in Psycho (1960) serves as an indicator of the images that individuals of both genders are likely to view in Hitchcock’s films, which serve as images of ambiguous sexuality that have the potential of destabilizing the protagonist’s gender identity and that of viewers alike. The mother – daughter relationship is a balanced theme in Psycho. However, in Hitchcock’s films from Rebecca onwards, this vital feminine relationship is not portrayed from a gender neutral perspective. As a result, it evokes a critical threat to the protagonist’s and viewers’ gender identity, and serves as one of the main â€Å"problems† in Hitchcock’s films. For example, Madeleine, the heroine in Vertigo, is so thoroughly possessed by her grandmother Carlotta Valdez, that she loses her individuality (Brent, 78 – 81). In other films of Hitchcock, a mother-in-law plays the role of a mother figure. In addition, she has such a striking resemblance to the heroine that the implication which comes out is that of a mother – daughter relationship. For example, in the movie Notorious, both Alicia and her mother-in-law have foreign accents and blonde hair. There is also a striking resemblance between Mitch’s mother and Melanie Daniels in The Birds. Moreover, Hitchcock adapts a point of view that induces the spectator to naturally identify with the mother figure (Tay, 276). Hitchcock’s movies helped to acce lerate the spread of feminism in modern society. Feminist movements have undertaken widespread campaigns for women’s rights throughout the world. These campaigns have raised the status of women in society by achieving equal pay for women, women’s suffrage, the right to own property, and reproductive rights for women among many others. Voyeurism Hitchcock incorporates aspects of voyeurism in nearly all his movies. However, one film in particular explores this concept more than any of the others. This is Rear Window, which epitomes the convergence of voyeurism, visual pleasure,

Conflict Resolutions, Cultrual Differences Essay Example for Free

Conflict Resolutions, Cultrual Differences Essay The American way of dealing with conflict, according to the article, is arguing. This might not be the best way, and its definitely not the only way. The article serves the purpose of exploring the cultural differences in how others deal with conflict. It provides alternatives and different ideas in how to resolve conflicts, as oppose to arguing. Arguing is a method of dealing with conflict. In the argument culture nearly everything is framed as a battle or game in which winning or losing is the main concern. The pillars of argument rest on this win-lose idea. Argument is expressed through polarized, two sided, debates and battles. The result elicits a winner and a resolved conflict. This method is commonly used in the Western culture in general, and in the United States in particular. It is also used by individuals of Eastern European background, Jewish tradition, and in some Indian cultures. Joanna Repczynski, for example, had an experience in her visit to France. Her host kept initiating a heated intellectual debate over dinner. When Joanna agreed, another argument would be on its way. Another example is Andrea Talarico. When her Italian-American family argues, their voices would raise and objects would be thrown in an intense discussion. Another example is the Japanese woman who is married to a Frenchman. The Frenchman started arguments with his wife. Finally when she argued back, he was overjoyed rather than getting upset. The advantages of arguments are various. In the case of Joanna and her host, the host felt as if arguing would keep things interesting. Agreement was just to boring. Andrea sees advantages to her Italian-American familys style: We always know how each other feels at all times. This is a sign of her familys closeness. The Frenchman was overjoyed that his wife argued back because it was a sign of showing interest and showing respect for each others intelligence. To him disagreement was a sign of a good relationship. There are disadvantages of arguments. It can be upsetting and it can turn violent. The Japanese women found it so upsetting and Andreas family threw objects. For people who arent used to the argument culture,  arguing can come off to be a surprise, confusion, or alarm and be very offensive. The disadvantaged result of an argument or debate is that there is always a loser. Another method of resolving conflict is ritual vituperation. This method works by the means of screaming insults and song lashing. It was created by traditional societies; the rules are culturally agreed upon, which gives this method a ritual context. It is used by Women in Gapun, Papua New Guinea and in traditional Nigerian villages. Women in Gapun Papua New Guinea, when angered by husbands, relatives, or fellow villagers, can erupt in a kros, shouting insults and obscenities loudly enough to be heard all around. The shouter waits near or in her home and waits for her offender to go far enough away. The villagers, then, watch up close as the women shouts. In Nigeria, a very similar method is used, song lashing. It consists of familiar proverbs or original verses that implies insults. Like kros, onlookers also watch. Its different in the way that the target is referred to indirectly. An advantage of this way of managing conflict is that it provides outlets so aggression can be expressed. Its their way of relieving anger. The advantages stem from its ritualized, structured rules. The onlookers role is to prevent any physical violence. The onlookers provide the speaker with the satisfaction of listening. The speaker provides the onlookers with entertainment. Effective song-lashers are admired for their verbal skill. The target is relived of any direct abuse. There are two major disadvantages to this method. The conflict doesnt get resolved and the children in the surrounding area are subjected to this inappropriate verbal aggression. An alternative to the idea of winning or losing is victors without vanquished. This method of dealing with conflict is to honor the winners as well as the losers. There is more emphasis on harmony rather than winner take all. This method is used in the Asian culture and has a historical  significance in Japan. An example of this method is the 1868 Asian revolution. The two sides of the conflict were the supporters of the Western government model and the old, Chinese model. The people who had fought for the old regimen were not punished but invited to join the new government (and most did). The Western supporters won, but the supporters of the traditional, Chinese model maintained their respect and dignity; they were allowed to remain in existence. The main advantage of this method is that the loser gets recognition, retaining a large measure of respect. According to Ben-Ami Shillony, an anthropologist, this method helped Japan avoid disastrous internecine ethnic and religious strife. The advantage of this method is that it resolves conflicts without disastrous escalation. The disadvantage of this method is that social pressure to maintain harmony can actually cause conflict. The actions of people on conflicting sides are altered by the interference of harmony. For example, a person in disagreement with another might want to take action, but the emphasis on harmony might yield that action, which can cause frustration or even anger. Another disadvantage is that in a society that emphasis harmonic competition, competition tends to become more fiercer than in a society where competition is normal. Another way of dealing with conflict is by the use of intermediaries, third parties. This method rests on the idea that community pressure takes the place of direct conflict. This reflects an emphasis on harmony and interdependence. The conflicting sides are dependent on a mediator, or peacemakers to resolve a conflict. This method can be formally ritualized, or informal. This method is used in Asian societies and in many Pacific cultures. An informal example of this method is the use of matchmakers or marriage brokers. Another example is when neighbors pressure a son or a daughter-in-law to stop neglecting a parent or parent-in-law. There are no ritualized rules in these examples, only third parties that take the place  of direct confrontation. The use third parties can be ritualized or formal. For example, the use of standard structures or rules and hierarchical relations to maintain harmony. In the Solomon Islands, faamananataanga is the way that conflicts can be resolved. The event is held over a family dinner, speaking is serious and formal, and the most senior person is the peacemaker, all making this ritualized. In Tannan, a South Pacific island, Conflicts among villagers or between villages are discussed publicly by groups of adult men at special meetings that last all day. The people present are the go-betweens and the most senior people hold hierarchy positions within the group. Rather than resolving the conflict, these meetings are a way of taking part in a joint journey that results in consensus flowing from the interaction of all. They accomplish harmony of the minds and general understanding out of group effort. Another example is the Fijian Indians. They set up committees, third parties, which interview the opponents before a formal meeting called pancayat. The Japanese use a similar method called nemawashi. It rests on the idea that there are two wrongs and now it is right. Neither opponent is blamed as being the only wrong and seriously at fault. An advantage of intermediaries is that they offer the needed apology without the principal losing face and can absorb rejections without taking them personally. In the case of the matchmaker, the groom avoids the risk of rejection from the potential bride. The groom is then saving face, keeping his dignity and pride. Another advantage of using intermediaries is that the third party offers motivation. The third parties also play a role in maintaining peace and help to avoid potential violence. The idea of pancayat and nemawashi seems a much better way of gathering information than forcing people to speak in a high-pressure public event. The committees take the pressure off of the opponents. A disadvantage of using intermediaries is that the third party is placed in potentially unhealthy and inappropriate circumstances. The third parties are subjected to others conflicts, anger and possible violence. The third parties have a chance to get hurt. The cultures that use intermediaries form a dependence on them to handle their disputes. Even some psychologists tend to regard handling your own conflicts is a sign of maturity. The use of third parties can be a sign of interdependence and immaturity. Another idea of resolving conflict is ritualized fighting. The fighting has specific rules and culturally inclinations. This method is the expression of opposition. The opponents do not gage in physical contact, only express it. It is used in Bali, Indonesia and in Tori, Ireland. In Bali, Indonesia ritualized cock fighting is a fundamental way of dealing with conflict. In Tori, Ireland neighborhood street fights are ritualized ways of dealing with conflict. The rules are not in the sense that the players could recount them. They are just normal and taken for granted. The fighters come out in public and threaten each other. Everything about the fight was structured so that the two men could seem eager to exchange blows without ever landing one. No one gets hurt because no physical contact is actually exchanged. Finally, the mothers, or a female relative, of the fighters would break it up. She would implore the fighter to come home and stop fighting. An advantage of this method is that no one gets hurt. The fighters could rely on their kin to restrain them, preventing them from hurting each other. The onlookers, especially the kin take the role of stopping any physical contact. Another advantage is that the fighters provide the audience with entertainment and excitement for both participants and onlookers. The fight also provides outlets for the fighters and a way they can show their manhood and get more respect. These ritualized customs reinforce social bonds and alliances. The interactive part and support of the society helps to bond them closer together. A disadvantage to this method is that if the kin of one, or both, fighters are not present during the fight, physical contact might occur and someone can get hurt. Another disadvantage is that some of the onlookers may be children. The children are then subjected to cursing and threatening. They might look up to the manly fighters and want to mimic them. A major disadvantage of this method is that the conflict does not get resolved. Comparing the argument culture to ritualized methods of dealing with conflict, it seems that arguing overemphasizes winning, loosing and war and sports metaphors. Too much concentration on polarized views and not enough  on harmony that discourages confrontation. The cultural, ritualized rules provide that culture with boundaries, values, and controlled ways to manage conflict. We cannot simply adopt the rituals of another culture, but thinking about them can give us pause and perhaps even ideas for devising our new ways to mange conflict. The article provides insight on many ideas how to manage conflict. These new ideas can influence an individual, perhaps myself, to manage conflict more constructively.

Garlic as a Natural Pesticide | Experiment

Garlic as a Natural Pesticide | Experiment This experiment was designed to investigate and compare the effectiveness of garlic as the natural larvicide and Abate as the chemical larvicide against mosquito larvae. The effectiveness of the larvicides was determined by the time taken for all the mosquito larvae to be killed. The mosquito larvae were placed in separate plastic cups containing garlic extract and Abate respectively. They were monitored at fixed time intervals and the time taken for all the mosquito larvae to die was recorded. The experiment was repeated with different concentrations of garlic extract and Abate. A two-way ANOVA statistical test showed that Abate is more effective against mosquito larvae at 5% significance level compared to garlic, corresponding to the experimental hypothesis. Research and Rationale Mosquitoes originate from the family Culicidae.13 Like many other insects, they go through a life cycle from egg to larva, pupa and finally adult. They are generally well-known as blood-sucking insects to human and they are responsible for many fatal diseases such as dengue, malaria and yellow fever. Some commonly known genera are Aedes, Culex and Anopheles. Usually, mosquitoes breed in stagnant water like ponds, marshes and swamps and they thrive in warm climates.9 In order to control mosquitoes, chemical larvicides are used. One commonly used larvicide, Abate is applied to stagnant water to kill larvae of a wide range of pathogen-carrying vectors (mosquitoes) to hinder their development into adult mosquitoes.2 Consequently, this prevents disease-carrying mosquitoes from hatching and transmitting the pathogens to human via bites. Although the active ingredient of Abate, temephos is said to be effective against mosquito larvae (affects the nervous system by inhibiting cholinesterase enzyme), it has its downsides. Research has shown that certain mosquito species (Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti) have developed resistance for Abate.4 In addition, rats exposed to temephus showed organic phosphorus poisoning while some fish are vulnerable to temephus. Temephus also harm inverterbates such as shrimps and crabs. Accumulation of temephus may also cause drastic impacts on cholinesterase activity involved in nerve signal transmission.6 Plant extracts such as those of garlic are potential alternatives to Abate. Crushing garlic releases thiosulfinates which convert into diallyl disulfide and diallyl trisulfide if mixed with water.10 These two products formed are effective against mosquito larvae. Trials conducted in Bombay have shown that several species of mosquito larvae are susceptible to garlic extracts. Allicin helps to curb malaria by preventing the formation of circumsporozoite protein (CSP) of Plasmodium sporozoites to infect host cells.10 They are effective, safe, environmental-friendly and economical. The objective of this experiment was to investigate and compare the effectiveness of garlic as the natural larvicide and Abate as the chemical larvicide against mosquito larvae. The results from this experiment indicate that the spread of pathogen-causing diseases by mosquitoes can be curbed by using natural substances such as garlic as well as chemical larvicide like Abate. Garlic is a potential alternative to Abate as it is effective, easily available and eco-friendly. Although it might not be as fast-acting as chemical larvicides, garlic has none of the downsides of Abate such as accumulating in the environment and killing other invertebrates. Thus, more research is being conducted to investigate the efficiency of garlic as a larvicide. Statistical Analysis Two-way ANOVA test was used to analyse the data to show whether there is a significant difference between the two larvicides. The Columns P-Value (8.58E-24) is less than the significance level (ÃŽ ± = 0.05). There is a significance difference between the larvicidal properties of Abate and garlic. Abate is a stronger larvicide than garlic. Therefore, the experimental hypothesis is accepted and the null hypothesis is rejected. From the analysis also, the calculated Sample P-value (3.62E-22) is less than the significance level tested as well (ÃŽ ± = 0.05). This shows that there are statistically significant differences between different concentrations of garlic and Abate. The Interaction P-Value (3.01E-19) indicates that there was a statistical significant interaction between the larvicides and the concentrations used. Higher concentrations of both larvicides are more effective against the mosquito larvae compared to lower concentrations. The two-way ANOVA test revealed that Abate is a stronger larvicide than garlic. The Columns P-value is less than the significance value (ÃŽ ± = 0.05), which indicated that Abate and garlic are significantly different in terms of larvicidal properties. This supports the experimental hypothesis that the effectiveness of Abate is greater than that of garlic. Table 4 shows that for all Abate concentrations, the mean time taken for all the mosquito larvae to die are shorter compared to that of garlic. For both larvicides, as their concentrations increased, the mean time decreased. From the data in Table 4, it can be evaluated that there is a bigger percentage difference in the mean time taken between garlic and Abate for the first two concentrations (about 75%). For 3%, 4% and 5% concentrations, the percentage differences in mean time range from 54% to 58%. This is illustrated in Figure 1. It clearly suggested that Abate is much more effective than garlic. Abate is a chemical larvicide while garlic is a natural larvicide. Both contain the active substances which are capable to kill mosquito larvae. Within 24 hours, all mosquito larvae would have died in Abate as well as garlic solutions. It was therefore not practical to calculate the number of live mosquito larvae after 24 hours. Hence, the time taken for the mosquito larvae to die was used as a measure of the substances effectiveness. The shorter the time taken, the more effective the compound is. Dead larvae can be identified by touching them with the tip of a rod or dropper. They cannot be induced to move. Abate contains temephos which is an organophosphate compound.11 It is able to inhibit acetylcholinesterase enzyme which is required to stop a nerve impulse after it has crossed the synapse. As a result, there is a continuous stimulation of the nerve, resulting in tremors and uncoordinated movement.11 Garlic, when crushed and mixed with water, will convert thiosulfinates to diallyl disulfide and diallyl trisulfide,10 both which are organosulfur compounds. They are effective against mosquito larvae. The experiment showed that Abate is a more effective larvicide compared to garlic. Both organophosphorus and organosulfur compounds worked against mosquito larvae. This explains that during the trial experiment, after allowing both solutions to sit for 24 hours, all mosquito larvae died. Nevertheless, the experimental results showed that Abate which contains organophosphorus compounds took a shorter time to kill all the mosquito larvae compared to garlic (organosulfur compound), implying that organophosphorus compounds are more effective against mosquito larvae. However, this may also be due to the purity of the active substances. The industrially-produced Abate contain pure temephos, whereas allicin found in garlic is impure. For an active ingredient to work effectively, it has to be extracted and processed to give optimum results. Although results showed that Abate is a more effective larvicide, it should be noted that Abate is harmful to certain animals such as mice and fish, as well as to some invertebrates. Abate is also liable to accumulate within the natural environment, posing risks to human health. Garlic is an option to replace Abate as it is easily obtainable, cheap and does not pose harm to the environment. Nevertheless, garlic takes a longer time to kill mosquito larvae compared to Abate. Time is a crucial factor when dealing with disease-carrying mosquitoes such as Aedes aegypti. Therefore, although garlic might be effective against mosquito larvae, it may not be practical to use such a time-consuming substance to alleviate the problem with mosquito larvae. Evaluation To increase the accuracy, the base of the garlic, together with its skin was removed before the garlic cloves were weighed using an electronic balance. The garlic cloves were pounded lightly using a mortar and pestle to prevent heat from destroying the chemical contents of garlic, which might decrease the effectiveness of garlic. Disposable droppers were used to avoid contamination of substances being tested and in the container used to collect mosquito larvae. Besides, plastic cups were used instead of laboratory glassware in order to prevent contamination as well. Each cup was closed with a perforated cover to ensure that air flows into the cup. The cup was covered as a precaution to prevent the introduction of any mosquito into the environment in case any larvae managed to complete its life cycle. Results from the trials showed that all mosquito larvae were killed by the larvicides within 24 hours. Therefore, if the number of live mosquito larvae were noted after 24 hours, there would not be any significant differences. As an alternative, the time taken for the mosquito larvae to be killed was measured. It was also impossible to run a stopwatch to measure the time as it would be difficult to estimate when to stop it. Instead, the mosquito larvae were observed every five minutes and any dead larva was noted. Hence, the time measured was estimation as it would be hard to check on the larvae every minute for hours. To increase the precision of results, the experiment was repeated twice to obtain an average time. It was also impossible to differentiate the types of mosquito larvae. Different larvae species might have different response towards larvicide. However, in this experiment, they were assumed to be of the same species. The larvae were also of different days old. Larvicides might have different effects on larvae of different days old. Besides, the solutions might not contain the exact concentration which was supposed to be tested. This is because garlic juice might not be able to be extracted and dissolve in distilled water completely. Abate granules also did not dissolve completely in distilled water. An ethical issue that may be questioned is the accidental introduction of mosquitoes into the environment. In this experiment, mosquito larvae are collected from ponds, which are mosquito breeding grounds. These mosquito larvae are actually prevented from turning into adult mosquitoes, which may transmit certain diseases. Larvae collected are placed in a covered container and are monitored to prevent accidental introduction of mosquitoes in case any larva managed to complete its life cycle. This investigation could be modified by grinding the garlic cloves and dissolve it in ethanol to form garlic solution of a particular concentration. This would increase the reliability of the results. Besides, mosquito larvae of the same species could be used to ensure that the effects of larvicides on that particular type of mosquito larvae only are determined. This reduces the probability of results occurring by chance. Mosquito larvae of a specific species could be cultured rather than collecting them from a pond. The number of mosquito larvae could also have been increased to obtain a more reliable result. Conclusion Chemical larvicide, Abate is significantly more effective than garlic in killing mosquito larvae. This was determined by the notably shorter time taken by Abate to kill all the mosquito larvae than shown by garlic. Source Evaluation Source 2 contains information on agricultural products such as vector control by BASF, the worlds leading chemical company and a corporate group. Hence, it is trustable and reliable. Source 4 is a journal, so contains sound scientific information. It contains a research note written by authors from several research universities. Therefore, it should be trustable and reliable. Source 6 is a data sheet on temephos, the active ingredient in Abate. The data sheet is provided by IPCS INCHEM, cooperation between International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS) and the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCHOS). IPCS INCHEM compiles information regarding management of chemicals and their risks based on data from World Health Organization (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Therefore, this source is reliable and not biased. Sources 8 and 13 are published books. Therefore, they are credible sources with reliable contents written by notable experts in the respective fields. Source 10 is a trustable review as it is written by credible experts in the particular area. Source 12 is a reliable and credible governmental website by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in regulating pesticides; therefore, all facts and information provided are updated. Source 14 is guidelines for laboratory and field testing of mosquito larvicides by World Health Organization, so should contain sound scientific information.

Consumer Behaviour: Apple Iphone4 Users Vs Samsung

Consumer Behaviour: Apple Iphone4 Users Vs Samsung Samsung started off in the year 1938 by Byung-Chull Lee as a small company that started their exporting business in Korea They had exporting of fish, vegetables and fruit to China. It wasnt long before Samsung made their presence in flour mills as well as confectionary machines. After many years of striving there company decided for as a cooperation company in the year 1951. It was then they rapidly grew placing foot in various diversified businesses from heavy, chemical and petrochemical industries in 1958 which then led them to enter into Electronics in 1969. Samsung has now transformed into a one of the Leaders today in the Digital Electronics industry. They have Headquarter in the Samsung Town a town in Seoul, South Korea. Samsung had majorly influenced in the South Korean market and effected the various sectors i.e from economic growth, politics, media as well as the culture. Samsung is responsible for almost 20% of South Koreas exports and revenues. They have grabbed a sort of monopoly place in the South Korean companies. Samsung has set a benchmark in international businesses today and is considered as a role model. Apple Inc. was formed in the year 1976 by Steve Jobs, Ronald Wayne and Steve Wozniak. They began business selling computers, Apple I personal computer kit. Apple is an American based company that has focussed there entire business in the designing, manufacturing and selling various electronic devices, computer software and personal computers. There headquarters is in a suburban city called Cupertino located in California. The company deals in the Macintosh line of computers which are the initial successful hardware products, the iPod, iPhone, iPad. Apple operating system the Mac OS X operating system; the iTunes media browser; iLife is the suite required for multimedia and creativity software. Apple recently considered as one of the prime company in view of market capitalization, and the leading company in terms of technology in the world. Apple was stated as the admired company that was published by Fortune magazine 2011. The state of the art design and innovation in features was what made Apple to reach heights even without much of investments into advertisements, Apple had achieved a top solo grade in the consumer electronics industry which completely boosted its brand image to heights never attained by any other.. This gained them a devoted customer base that are die heart Apple brand, especially in the USA. Product Overview Samsung Galaxy S2 Apple iPhone 4S SIZE Dimensions 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.5 mm 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3 mm Weight 116 g 140 g DISPLAY Type Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors LED-backlit IPS TFT, capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors Size 480 x 800 pixels, 4.3 inches (~217 ppi pixel density) 640 x 960 pixels, 3.5 inches (~330 ppi pixel density) Gorilla Glass display Scratch-resistant oleophobic surface TouchWiz UI v4.0 Multi-touch input method Multi-touch input method Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate Three-axis gyro sensor Touch-sensitive controls Proximity sensor for auto turn-off Proximity sensor for auto turn-off Gyroscope sensor Internal 16GB/32GB storage, 1 GB RAM 16/32/64 GB storage, 512 MB RAM Card slot microSD, up to 32GB, 8 GB included, buy memory No CAMERA Primary 8 MP, 32642448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash 8 MP, 32642448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash Features Geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, image stabilization Touch focus, geo-tagging, face detection, HDR Video Yes, [emailprotected] Yes, [emailprotected], LED video light, video stabilization, geo-tagging Secondary Yes, 2 MP Yes, VGA FEATURES OS Android OS, v2.3 (Gingerbread), planned upgrade to v4.0 iOS 5 Chipset Exynos Apple A5 CPU Dual-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A9 Dual-core 1 GHz Cortex-A9 GPU Mali-400MP PowerVR SGX543MP2 Radio Stereo FM radio with RDS No GPS Yes, with A-GPS support Yes, with A-GPS support and GLONASS Java Yes, via Java MIDP emulator No Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic MicroSIM card support only NFC support (optional) Scratch-resistant glass back panel TV-out (via MHL A/V link) Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic SNS integration Siri natural language commands and dictation Digital compass iCloud cloud service BATTERY Standard battery, Li-Ion 1650 mAh Standard battery, Li-Po 1432 mAh Stand-by Up to 710 h (2G) / Up to 610 h (3G) Up to 200 h (2G) / Up to 200 h (3G) Talk time Up to 18 h 20 min (2G) / Up to 8 h 40 min (3G) Up to 14 h (2G) / Up to 8 h (3G) Market and Competitor Analysis During Q2 of 2011 they had sales of 428.7 million units in the international sales of mobile devices to end users. A direct 16.5 percent increase from the second quarter of the previous year 2010 according to Gartner Inc. as shown in Table 1.1. Smartphones sales were up 74 percent year-on-year and accounted for 25 percent of overall sales in the second quarter of 2011, up from 17 percent in the second quarter of 2010. Consumers in developed markets are purchases midrange Android smartphones over feature phones, mainly seen due to carriers and manufacturers promotions. 1(Gatner) Since we are focussing on the smart-phone segment, we have considered companies such as Nokia, Samsung, Apple RIM. Nokia is still leads in market share in the overall industry. But we can see that in smartphone segment the sales is low due to the highly competitive market that reduced the customer demand towards Symbian. Samsung, attained a rapid growth in the Smartphone segment during the recent years. Galaxy-S2 sold about nearly 10milion units by end of November. The strong performance in smartphones helped in achieving a good crunch of market share to become the third best vendor in this segment. Apple, iphone 4S received a overwhelming response from the consumers as it had 4 million pre- orders. The growth mainly came from 42 new carriers and 15 New countries in Q2 2011. Total Apple sales coverage is in around 100 countries. RIM, market share in smart phone declined by 12% by Q2 2011. It had lost its position No.5 in the international mobile device to a Chinese vendor called ZTE. Among all the smart-phone segments our major focus is between iphone (4/4S) and Samsung Galaxy S2. From the below table of SWOT analysis it is seen that both have a threat of intense competition and highly developed market. Apple iphone(4/4S) is having a advantage of first mover. Samsung Galaxy S2 is considered to be a price-value product which is its major strength but lacks the Brand value in comparison to the Apple iphone. Samsung Galaxy S2 Strengths Price-value product Good Distribution channels Variety in Product Line for all segments 4G is available in S2 Rich User Interface Wide Screen, Gorilla glass Weakness Looks not impressive Lacks Brand value Opportunities Google Support Independent Hardware Unit New status symbol Threats Intense competition Highly Developed Market Apple iphone 4 Strengths First Mover Style/ Brand Rich User Interface User Base Hype Opportunities Existing Applications Loyal customer base Distribute itune content Siri Market Positioning Apple has already established a place in the minds of the people that it is a very high value product and is portrayed as a sign of perfection. Apple iphone quickly jumped the starting phase and straight away went to growth by their rising sales, growing number of competitors and strong awareness. This is made possible only by understanding the unrealized needs, design and ability to operate with any computer operating system. After the launch of iphone a new era of touch was created that made the other competitors to launch similar kind of product in this segment. Samsung being one of the major player introduced Corby which became a hit among the value consumers, and then in order to gain market share of the high end consumers they launched the Galaxy series. Targeting the females Samsung had launched Galaxy S2 in Pink colour which also gained a lot of new customers for them. In Q2 Q3 Apple had a sale of 38million worldwide whereas then Samsung had a sale of 10 million in the same quarters. Company Focussed Competition Focussed Pushes the Boundaries Leader: Apple Challenger: Samsung Stays within the Boundaries Niche: Lava/Spice Follower: LG/Motorola/HTC Apple: Prelaunch Strategy Public Relations Blogs Sneak Peak on RD info Buzz Viral marketing Launch Strategy Print Media TV Outdoor Media Social Media Apple.com Post Launch Strategy Carrier handled advertisement Apple.com Independent review websites Digital Campaigns Samsung also have push pull strategy for the product launches and promotion of the products. Compare to Apple, Samsung creates buzz among the consumers by showcasing their products in trade shows exhibitions. Samsung also launches the teaser videos and print media information to promote the product before the launch. In Dubai there are no banners or print media advertisements for Apple, however there are many banners available for Galaxy S2 at different places. Samsung have many official You Tube channels for the different geographic locations. To compete with Apple in USA Samsung launched an official signup page for Galaxy S2 where potential buyers can login to understand the various features of the phone and chat with the official customer support centre. As a challenger strategy Samsung is into aggressive advertisement against the Apple with series of new advertisement especially for US market in which they have shown the new technology innovation of 4G which is currently not su pported by any iPhone. For Samsung: Prelaunch Strategy Public Relations Exhibitions Trade shows Teaser Videos Print Media You Tube Videos Launch Strategy Print Media You Tube Videos Intense TV Advertising Outdoor Media Social Media Samsung.com Post Launch Strategy Banners Promoters Dealer Advertisements Offers Independent review websites Trade shows/Exhibitions Pricing Strategy iPhone is available in three different versions of Phone memory: 16GB, 32GB, 64GB whereas Samsung is only available in 16GB only. Both are available in Locked and unlocked versions. Locked versions are normally available in 2years contract in USA (ATtT), UAE (Etisalat du), India (Airtel Aircel). The below table gives the pricing of the two smart-phone giants in three different regions: In terms of pricing Apple has come up with many following strategies: To reach out to the Maximum consumers they have launched locked and unlocked versions with significant price differences in some countries. Their pricing differs depending on country to country in Asian countries they have positioned as a Luxury product. Prices are higher than their competitors because of people perceive them as the state of the art technology. Apple has fixed pricing strategy, changes in pricing occurs only when a newer version of the product is launched. In terms of pricing Samsung has come up with many following strategies: To reach out to the Maximum consumers they have launched locked and unlocked versions with significant price differences in some countries. Samsung provides a normal pricing structure irrespective of the geographical location. Samsung maintains prices at a competitive price with their competitors. Samsung is now gradually reducing prices in order to maximize sales and attract new customers to improve their market penetration. Consumer Behaviour Methodology We have conducted the consumer behaviour survey by framing a questionnaire and distributed it to the users of iPhone Samsung Galaxy S2 in DIAC(Dubai International Academic city). We have considered a sample size of 40 constituting of 20 Samsung Galaxy S2 users and 20 Apple iPhone 4 users(as iPhone 4S has not been officially launched in Dubai yet). With the feedback we have received through our survey we are conducting our statistical analysis and the results are as given below: The two main objectives of this survey was to understand the decision process of the consumer before purchasing the phone. The 2nd objective is to measure the level of consumer satisfaction among the two smartphone users. Product Attributes influencing the decision making in buying the phone: The three basic attributes which came as an important factor after analyzing the data are Brand value, Performance Features/Specifications. Brand Value is very important among the consumers of both Galaxy S2 iPhone4. It has been seen in our survey 59% were Apple users who got more influenced by Apple Brand to purchase their phone compared to Samsung that is 41%. Performance is an extremely important factor for both iPhone as well as Galaxy users. As shown in the piechart the S2 users were more influenced by performance of the phone as this one of the attribute that led them to prefer Samsung smartphones to the iPhone. Features/Specifications is an extremely important influential factor for purchasing phone for the users of iPhone and Galaxy S2. For Galaxy S2 it is inferred that 54% users were influenced by this to purchase the phone compared to iPhone which is just 46%. Medium of Attributes that led to this decision: This is to understand the various medium which has played a important role to facilitate the decision process. In both Samsung Galaxy S2 and iPhone4 word of mouth and advertising played a crucial role where as industrial publications and trade show events were not that impactful. As seen in the pie chart Samsung has 64% and iPhone 4 has just 36%. Being a challenger Galaxy S2 and shown above having high influence for its performance and specifications word of mouth has become an important factor. Samsung has been more influential with its advertisements compared to Apple as seen in the chart towards the left. They used Teaser videos and was more aggressive in their Advertising strategy for Galaxy S2. Inferences of the product through Advertisements: There were certain attributes shown in the Ad for the two products. After watching the Ads consumers had perceived that these attributes, Product is of High Quality, Brand Awareness, Were the Claims made believable are important than other attributes. Inspite of the aggressive advertisements strategy that Samsung had shown, Apple still managed to portray their product as a High Quality product from very few of their official advertisements. As we have seen the Brand value is a high influential factor while purchasing iPhone. This must have been generated through brand awareness in which advertisement is one of the factors. As we have seen from the Unique selling proposition, Apple had always shown advertisements stressing more upon their Applications. This claim made by them is more believable, as seen from the pie chart. Customers who relied on Internet Research for their Decision of their Phone It is seen from the people we surveyed that there are high number of people who use Internet to understand the overall specifications of the phone. From this we can infer that Internet is a major factor for making their decision for the product. From the results we derived its been seen that Review websites played a major role in the customers who bought Samsung Galaxy S2 whereas You Tube and Company websites were most influenced in the buying process of iPhone4 users. Its quite clear from the chart that most of these two smartphone users have experienced the phone prior to purchase. From the bar chart we interpret that the highest number of people using the Samsung Galaxy S2 got inspired by using their friends phone which led them to the purchase of the same. However, in the case of iPhone both friends phone and company showroom both play a vital role. As the major dealers like Sharaf DG and Jumbo they have a exclusive section for iPhone. Its clear from the bar charts that majority of iPhone users are all Die-Heart fans whereas Galaxy S2 users are all Inspired users who experienced the phone and then decided to have it. In this we can see that Apple has a strong Brand Loyal customer Base. Now we arrived to the final phase of our survey where we measure the customer satisfaction post purchase of the Phone From the Survey we inferred that majority of the users in both the brand smartphones are very` satisfied and agreeing that the phone is fun and easy to use. However, the iPhone4 had a higher count in the number of people who found it more fun and easy. We inferred from the pie chart that majority of the users of Galaxy S2 as well as iPhone4 were Very satisfied about the Quality made of the phone. However, the iPhone4 had a higher count in the number of people who had said has a better quality make of the case. The majority of consumers were very satisfied with the features which were suiting there need in both the smart phone as we can see from the graph. However, the Galaxy S2 had a higher count in the number of people who had the opinion that it suited their needs. The internet experience is having more satisfied consumer for iphone compare to Samsung galaxy S2. Nonetheless majority of the mobile users were very satisfied about their Internet access experience. When it comes to application majority of the two phone users were very satisfied with what their phone provided them. But then when we compare between the two phones we see that iPhone4 had more number of people who were very satisfied with their online Application store as they have an app for almost anything. Both the phone users had majority users who were very satisfied with the photo and video clarity their phone had, but comparing between the two phones its seen in the piechart, iPhone has more very satisfied customers in respect to Photo and camera clarity. Sound Performance was ranked very satisfied for both the phone user in majority, Galaxy S2 has more very satisfied customers compared to iPhone4 as we can see from the pie chart. Clearly from the bar chart its visible that iPhone users are not happy with the Battery Backup the phone provides, whereas for Galaxy S2 its having an uneven distribution so what we understand is the phone gives different battery backup depending on the purpose of what the user does the most. SWOT Analysis on basis of Consumer Behaviour Survey On the basis of our consumer behaviour survey we have redefined our SWOT Analysis Apple iPhone 4 Strengths First Mover Brand of High Quality Awareness Loyal User Base Photo Video Clarity Application store Use Internet Access Experience Weakness Limited Distribution channels Less Advertisement Less Word of Mouth Opportunities Existing Applications Loyal customer base Threats Gorilla Attack Intense competition Highly Developed Market Samsung Galaxy S2 Strengths Feature/Specification Performance Good Distribution channels Sound Performance Suiting Customer Needs Battery Backup Satisfaction Opportunities Word of Mouth Advertisement Recommendations For Samsung Samsung should focus on brand building strategies. Samsung should tactically plan and rectify, to create a feeling among the customers that Galaxy S2 is a reliable product of high quality. That company needs to focus on to influence people to opt their product in the coming future through internet and social media. For Apple Apple should focus more on advertisements. Apple should make their product available by opening more company stores. Apple should focus on the product availability on the global scale after the product launch. Conclusion It is seen from our studies that this industry is having a strong competitive scenario and technologically innovative segment. Due to its high aggressive nature there is a constant change in the innovation of the products within less span of time. In both the product Galaxy S2 iPhone4 having an edge over each other in some or the other attributes for e.g. Apple is known for its brand value where as Samsung is known for its performance. Samsung being a challenger is more aggressive towards its marketing strategy and in recent times they have started Gorilla attacks especially in American European Markets. Compare to Apple Samsung have wide range of distribution across worldwide which is their major strength. The major strength for Apple is its large loyal customer base without any effective marketing they are able to maintain it. There is a belief that the challenger may soon will become the leader in this segment but as we have seen in past that Apple has always brought innovation in their product and with this they have gain first mover advantage and able to capture high market share. So in future we believe that there will be a fierce competition in the smart phone segment not only between these two companies but with other companies coming in the picture to gain significant market share.