Nike Advertisement Analysis

Advertisements have been used for years to sell products. As long as there have been consumers there have been ads, although in many different media. Different companies or groups release ads to promote a certain product, idea, or brand. Nike is no exception. Nike has been a leading brand in sports for 46 years. They are most known for their athletic shoes, but Nike manufactures all sorts of athletic apparel as well as equipment. Nike publishes many printed advertisements every day. Their ad campaign has been an iconic one, using repetition, a textbook marketing strategy, to create recognition of the brand. Nike ads are very commonly featured with the same basic elements in all of the printed advertisements they publish. These conventions that are constantly repeated are what help consumers to recognize the advertisement as belonging to Nike very quickly. The conventions that remain present in every Nike ad that help to create brand recognition are the consistent graphic elements, the indelible Nike swoosh and the slogan â€Å"Just Do It. † Nike is an iconic brand. They have made a name for themselves in the world of sports as well marketing. Nike has been one of the few brands whom continue to grow explosively even in the currently upturned market (Kapner). They have achieved this through superior brand management. Consumers will pay more money for a product they think is manufactured well. Nike has done a wonderful job at portraying themselves as a superior sports apparel brand. The â€Å"Just Do It† ad campaign is one that has been known for its detached, determined and unsentimental advertisements (Center for Applied Research). Nike seems above the world, having advertisements that do not focus on current events. They rarely focus on the product, as much as the people showcasing them. They are heroic, noble, fierce looking people (Gould). These ads focus on the intense inward focus of a supreme athlete. This superiority that comes through in the ads is what makes us pay attention to Nike in both in regards to marketing as well as sports products. Graphics are a big part of printed advertisements. Many printed advertisements rely on pictures to get the intended message across. Sometimes, very little words are necessary when a good picture is present. Nike frequently uses pictures of individual athletes or an entire team of athletes, usually wearing Nike products, to promote their brand. One ad, for example, shows a shirtless LeBron James against a black background holding a basketball. The Nike swoosh is present followed by words that say, â€Å"Prepare for combat. † Nike is using LeBron, as a star athlete to sell their product. Nike has also always used, and continues to use guilt to sell products. They print ads that show athletes with the intensity that everyone wishes they possess in regards to their sport (Center for Applied Research). For example, one Nike ad, entitled Inner Drive, shows a woman in brightly colored running gear stretching in front of her house before she runs. The house and the car both look neglected. The consumer gets a feeling that this is an intense and dedicated athlete. She ignores her car because she is so dedicated to running. This is the kind of dedication that people respect and want to emulate. Consumers may feel like they are not serious about their sport, or aren’t giving their best effort if they aren’t wearing Nike. Another approach Nike has used for years is to show only a picture of the product they are trying to sell. This is done primarily with athletic shoe advertisements. For years Nike has taken the route of very plain ads, making the shoe the most exciting thing on the page. In the 90s, for example, Nike published a series of ads promoting the new air max line. These ads depicted various kinds of shoes, whether they are running shoes, tennis shoes, or basketball shoes, and that was it. Only the shoes were present on the page, with a sentence or two of text, and a logo coupled with the slogan in the corner. Another more recent ad that has this same format is one that advertises for LeBron James’ sixth pair of basketball shoes. The ad shows a picture of these shoes, and only the words â€Å" The Six. † These two types of graphics elements are some of the key elements that help consumers recognize the Nike brand. Another common theme of the Nike advertisement campaign is their logo, the swoosh. Logos, also called logotypes, are a graphic representation or symbol of a company name, trademark or abbreviation, often uniquely designed for ready recognition (Dictionary. com). Nike uses the swoosh to help consumers associate things like hard work, commitment, and tenacity with their brand (Center for Applied Research). The swoosh can be used just like a signature. This logo appears on products themselves, as well as the advertisements for those products. This way consumers know that a swoosh, and everything it is shown with, means Nike. Every shoe Nike makes and every ad they publish displays a swoosh prominently for everyone to see. It is this consistency that makes the swoosh effective. If the swoosh were only present some of the time it would not be as synonymous with Nike as it is today. Slogans are a key element in brand identity. A slogan is a phrase that a company uses for consumers to easily associate something with that particular brand (Dictionary. om). Nike uses the slogan â€Å"Just Do It† to link advertisements and ideas to their company. This slogan is found on many products and almost all pieces of advertisement. When someone hears â€Å"Just do it† they think of Nike. We have been conditioned to think this way. Some ads depict a blank page showing only the Nike swoosh and the slogan. These simple advertisements ar e an effective way to advertise the products and link the slogan with the logo for further brand recognition. Nike has been a force in the sports universe for 46 years. The 80s and 90s marked the birth of the â€Å"Just Do It† ad campaign. Since then Nike has become a staple of American culture. The products Nike manufactures have changed. They have expanded and grown as a company. However one thing has remained constant over the years. Although Nike has made so many different products, and most people couldn’t recall what was the popular shoe in 1985, most everyone knows The Nike swoosh and the phrase â€Å"Just Do It. † The marketing genius that went into creating the consistent graphics, the swoosh logo, and the popular slogan, â€Å"Just Do It† is the reason why America knows and respects the Nike brand and their products, and will continue to do so for many more years to come.Works CitedCenter for Applied Research. â€Å"Mini-case Study: Nike’s â€Å"Just Do It† Advertising Campaign.† Print. Gould, Thomas. â€Å"Advertising Campaigns: Great Campaigns.† (2006). Web. Kapner, Suzanne. â€Å"With Sneaker Glut at Stores Easing, Nike Is Slowly Getting Back on Its Feet.â €  Los Angeles Times [Los Angeles] 4 July 1998. Print. Nike. Advertisement. 1st Round Athletics. Nike, 2009. Web . Nike. Advertisement. GenXXL. Web. . Nike. Advertisement. The Future of Ads. Web. . Dictionary.com | Find the Meanings and Definitions of Words at Dictionary.com. Web. 3 Dec. 2010. . Nike Advertisement Analysis Advertisements have been used for years to sell products. As long as there have been consumers there have been ads, although in many different media. Different companies or groups release ads to promote a certain product, idea, or brand. Nike is no exception. Nike has been a leading brand in sports for 46 years. They are most known for their athletic shoes, but Nike manufactures all sorts of athletic apparel as well as equipment. Nike publishes many printed advertisements every day. Their ad campaign has been an iconic one, using repetition, a textbook marketing strategy, to create recognition of the brand. Nike ads are very commonly featured with the same basic elements in all of the printed advertisements they publish. These conventions that are constantly repeated are what help consumers to recognize the advertisement as belonging to Nike very quickly. The conventions that remain present in every Nike ad that help to create brand recognition are the consistent graphic elements, the indelible Nike swoosh and the slogan â€Å"Just Do It. † Nike is an iconic brand. They have made a name for themselves in the world of sports as well marketing. Nike has been one of the few brands whom continue to grow explosively even in the currently upturned market (Kapner). They have achieved this through superior brand management. Consumers will pay more money for a product they think is manufactured well. Nike has done a wonderful job at portraying themselves as a superior sports apparel brand. The â€Å"Just Do It† ad campaign is one that has been known for its detached, determined and unsentimental advertisements (Center for Applied Research). Nike seems above the world, having advertisements that do not focus on current events. They rarely focus on the product, as much as the people showcasing them. They are heroic, noble, fierce looking people (Gould). These ads focus on the intense inward focus of a supreme athlete. This superiority that comes through in the ads is what makes us pay attention to Nike in both in regards to marketing as well as sports products. Graphics are a big part of printed advertisements. Many printed advertisements rely on pictures to get the intended message across. Sometimes, very little words are necessary when a good picture is present. Nike frequently uses pictures of individual athletes or an entire team of athletes, usually wearing Nike products, to promote their brand. One ad, for example, shows a shirtless LeBron James against a black background holding a basketball. The Nike swoosh is present followed by words that say, â€Å"Prepare for combat. † Nike is using LeBron, as a star athlete to sell their product. Nike has also always used, and continues to use guilt to sell products. They print ads that show athletes with the intensity that everyone wishes they possess in regards to their sport (Center for Applied Research). For example, one Nike ad, entitled Inner Drive, shows a woman in brightly colored running gear stretching in front of her house before she runs. The house and the car both look neglected. The consumer gets a feeling that this is an intense and dedicated athlete. She ignores her car because she is so dedicated to running. This is the kind of dedication that people respect and want to emulate. Consumers may feel like they are not serious about their sport, or aren’t giving their best effort if they aren’t wearing Nike. Another approach Nike has used for years is to show only a picture of the product they are trying to sell. This is done primarily with athletic shoe advertisements. For years Nike has taken the route of very plain ads, making the shoe the most exciting thing on the page. In the 90s, for example, Nike published a series of ads promoting the new air max line. These ads depicted various kinds of shoes, whether they are running shoes, tennis shoes, or basketball shoes, and that was it. Only the shoes were present on the page, with a sentence or two of text, and a logo coupled with the slogan in the corner. Another more recent ad that has this same format is one that advertises for LeBron James’ sixth pair of basketball shoes. The ad shows a picture of these shoes, and only the words â€Å" The Six. † These two types of graphics elements are some of the key elements that help consumers recognize the Nike brand. Another common theme of the Nike advertisement campaign is their logo, the swoosh. Logos, also called logotypes, are a graphic representation or symbol of a company name, trademark or abbreviation, often uniquely designed for ready recognition (Dictionary. com). Nike uses the swoosh to help consumers associate things like hard work, commitment, and tenacity with their brand (Center for Applied Research). The swoosh can be used just like a signature. This logo appears on products themselves, as well as the advertisements for those products. This way consumers know that a swoosh, and everything it is shown with, means Nike. Every shoe Nike makes and every ad they publish displays a swoosh prominently for everyone to see. It is this consistency that makes the swoosh effective. If the swoosh were only present some of the time it would not be as synonymous with Nike as it is today. Slogans are a key element in brand identity. A slogan is a phrase that a company uses for consumers to easily associate something with that particular brand (Dictionary. om). Nike uses the slogan â€Å"Just Do It† to link advertisements and ideas to their company. This slogan is found on many products and almost all pieces of advertisement. When someone hears â€Å"Just do it† they think of Nike. We have been conditioned to think this way. Some ads depict a blank page showing only the Nike swoosh and the slogan. These simple advertisements ar e an effective way to advertise the products and link the slogan with the logo for further brand recognition. Nike has been a force in the sports universe for 46 years. The 80s and 90s marked the birth of the â€Å"Just Do It† ad campaign. Since then Nike has become a staple of American culture. The products Nike manufactures have changed. They have expanded and grown as a company. However one thing has remained constant over the years. Although Nike has made so many different products, and most people couldn’t recall what was the popular shoe in 1985, most everyone knows The Nike swoosh and the phrase â€Å"Just Do It. † The marketing genius that went into creating the consistent graphics, the swoosh logo, and the popular slogan, â€Å"Just Do It† is the reason why America knows and respects the Nike brand and their products, and will continue to do so for many more years to come.Works CitedCenter for Applied Research. â€Å"Mini-case Study: Nike’s â€Å"Just Do It† Advertising Campaign.† Print. Gould, Thomas. â€Å"Advertising Campaigns: Great Campaigns.† (2006). Web. Kapner, Suzanne. â€Å"With Sneaker Glut at Stores Easing, Nike Is Slowly Getting Back on Its Feet.â €  Los Angeles Times [Los Angeles] 4 July 1998. Print. Nike. Advertisement. 1st Round Athletics. Nike, 2009. Web . Nike. Advertisement. GenXXL. Web. . Nike. Advertisement. The Future of Ads. Web. . Dictionary.com | Find the Meanings and Definitions of Words at Dictionary.com. Web. 3 Dec. 2010. .

Bag of Bones CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

At first the door wouldn't open. The knob turned under my hand so I knew it wasn't locked, but the rain seemed to have swelled the wood . . . or had something been shoved up against it? I drew back, crouched a little, and hit the door with my shoulder. This time there was some slight give. It was her. Sara. Standing on the other side of the door and trying to hold it shut against me. How could she do that? How, in God's name? She was a fucking ghost! I thought of the BAMM CONSTRUCTION pickup . . . and as if thought were conjuration I could almost see it out there at the end of Lane Forty-two, parked by the highway. The old ladies' sedan was behind it, and three or four other cars were now behind them. All of them with their windshield wipers flopping back and forth, their headlights cutting feeble cones through the downpour. They were lined up on the shoulder like cars at a yard sale. There was no yard sale here, only the old-timers sitting silently in their cars. Old-timers who were in the zone just like I was. Old-timers sending in the vibe. She was drawing on them. Stealing from them. She'd done the same with Devore and me too, of course. Many of the manifestations I'd experienced since coming back had likely been created from my own psychic energy. It was amusing when you thought of it. Or maybe ‘terrifying' was the word I was actually looking for. ‘Jo, help me,' I said in the pouring rain. Lightning flashed, turning the torrents a bright brief silver. ‘If you ever loved me, help me now.' I drew back and hit the door again. This time there was no resistance at all and I went hurtling in, catching my shin on the jamb and falling to my knees. I held onto the lantern, though. There was a moment of silence. In it I felt forces and presences gathering themselves. In that moment nothing seemed to move, although behind me, in the woods Jo had loved to ramble with me or without me the rain continued to fall and the wind continued to howl, a merciless gardener pruning its way through the trees that were dead and almost dead, doing the work of ten gentler years in one turbulent hour. Then the door slammed shut and it began. I saw everything in the glow of the flashlight, which I had turned on without even realizing it, but at first I didn't know exactly what I was seeing, other than the destruction by poltergeist of my wife's beloved crafts and treasures. The framed afghan square tore itself off the wall and flew from one side of the studio to the other, the black oak frame breaking apart. The heads popped off the dolls poking out of the baby collages like champagne corks at a party. The hanging light-globe shattered, showering me with fragments of glass. A wind began to blow a cold one and was quickly joined and whirled into a cyclone by one which was warmer, almost hot. They rolled past me as if in imitation of the larger storm outside. The Sara Laughs head on the bookcase, the one which appeared to be constructed of toothpicks and lollipop sticks, exploded in a cloud of wood-splinters. The kayak paddle leaning against the wall rose into the air, rowed furiously at nothing, then launched itself at me like a spear. I threw myself flat on the green rag rug to avoid it, and felt bits of broken glass from the shattered light-globe cut into the palm of my hand as I came down. I felt something else, as well a ridge of something beneath the rug. The paddle hit the far wall hard enough to split into two pieces. Now the banjo my wife had never been able to master rose in the air, revolved twice, and played a bright rattle of notes that were out of tune but nonetheless unmistakable wish I was in the land of cotton, old times there are not forgotten. The phrase ended with a vicious BLUNK! that broke all five strings. The banjo whirled itself a third time, its bright steel fittings reflecting fishscale runs of light on the study walls, and then beat itself to death against the floor, the drum shattering and the tuning pegs snapping off like teeth. The sound of moving air began to how do I express this? to focus somehow, until it wasn't the sound of air but the sound of voices panting, unearthly voices full of fury. They would have screamed if they'd had vocal cords to scream with. Dusty air swirled up in the beam of my flashlight, making helix shapes that danced together, then reeled apart again. For just a moment I heard Sara's snarling, smoke-broken voice: ‘Git out, bitch! You git on out! This ain't none of yours ‘ And then a curious insubstantial thud, as if air had collided with air. This was followed by a rushing wind-tunnel shriek that I recognized: I'd heard it in the middle of the night. Jo was screaming. Sara was hurting her, Sara was punishing her for presuming to interfere, and Jo was screaming. ‘No!' I shouted, getting to my feet. ‘Leave her alone! Leave her be!' I advanced into the room, swinging the lantern in front of my face as if I could beat her away with it. Stoppered bottles stormed past me some contained dried flowers, some carefully sectioned mushrooms, some woods-herbs. They shattered against the far wall with a brittle xylophone sound. None of them struck me; it was as if an unseen hand guided them away. Then Jo's rolltop desk rose into the air. It must have weighed at least four hundred pounds with its drawers loaded as they were, but it floated like a feather, nodding first one way and then dipping the other in the opposing currents of air. Jo screamed again, this time in anger rather than pain, and I staggered backward against the closed door with a feeling that I had been scooped hollow. Sara wasn't the only one who could steal the energy of the living, it appeared. White semeny stuff ectoplasm, I guess spilled from the desk's pigeonholes in a dozen little streams, and the desk suddenly launched itself across the room. It flew almost too fast to follow with the eye. Anyone standing in front of it would have been smashed flat There was a head-splitting shriek of protest and agony Sara this time, I knew it was and then the desk struck the wall, breaking through it and letting in the rain and the wind. The rolltop snapped loose of its slot and hung like a jointed tongue. All the drawers shot out. Spools of thread, skeins of yarn, little flora/fauna identification books and woods guides, thimbles, notebooks, knitting needles, dried-up Magic Markers Jo's early remains, Ki might have called them. They flew everywhere l ike bones and bits of hair cruelly scattered from a disinterred coffin. ‘Stop it,' I croaked. ‘Stop it, both of you. That's enough.' But there was no need to tell them. Except for the furious beat of the storm, I was alone in the ruins of my wife's studio. The battle was over. At least for the time being. I knelt and doubled up the green rag rug, carefully folding into it as much of the shattered glass from the light as I could. Beneath it was a trapdoor giving on a triangular storage area created by the slope of the land as it dropped toward the lake. The ridge I'd felt was one of the trap's hinges. I had known about this area and had meant to check it for the owls. Then things began to happen and I'd forgotten. There was a recessed ring in the trapdoor. I grabbed it, ready for more resistance, but it swung up easily. The smell that wafted up froze me in my tracks. Not damp decay, at least not at first, but Red Jo's favorite perfume. It hung around me for a moment and then it was gone. What replaced it was the smell of rain, roots, and wet earth. Not pleasant, but I had smelled far worse down by the lake near that damned birch tree. I shone my light down three steep steps. I could see a squat shape that turned out to be an old toilet I could vaguely remember Bill and Kenny Auster putting it under here back in 1990 or '91. There were steel boxes filing cabinet drawers, actually wrapped in plastic and stacked up on pallets. Old records and papers. An eight-track tape player wrapped in a plastic bag. An old VCR next to it, in another one. And over in the corner I sat down, hung my legs over, and felt something touch the ankle I had turned in the lake. I shone my light between my knees and for one moment saw a young black kid. Not the one drowned in the lake, though this one was older and quite a lot bigger. Twelve, maybe fourteen. The drowned boy had been no more than eight. This one bared his teeth at me and hissed like a cat. There were no pupils in his eyes; like those of the boy in the lake, his eyes were entirely white, like the eyes of a statue. And he was shaking his head. Don't come down here, white man. Let the dead rest in peace. ‘But you're not at peace,' I said, and shone the light full on him. I had a momentary glimpse of a truly hideous thing. I could see through him, but I could also see into him: the rotting remains of his tongue in his mouth, his eyes in their sockets, his brain simmering like a spoiled egg in its case of skull. Then he was gone, and there was nothing but one of those swirling dust-helixes. I went down, holding the lantern raised. Below it, nests of shadows rocked and seemed to reach upward. The storage area (it was really no more than a glorified crawlspace) had been floored with wooden pallets, just to keep stuff off the ground. Now water ran beneath these in a steady river, and enough of the earth had eroded to make even crawling unsteady work. The smell of perfume was entirely gone. What had replaced it was a nasty riverbottom smell and unlikely given the conditions, I know, but it was there the faint, sullen smell of ash and fire. I saw what I'd come for almost at once. Jo's mail-order owls, the ones she had taken delivery of herself in November of 1993, were in the northeast corner, where there were only about two feet between the sloped pallet flooring and the underside of the studio. Gorry, but they looked real, Bill had said, and Gorry if he wasn't right: in the bright glow of the lantern they looked like birds first swaddled, then suffocated in clear plastic. Their eyes were bright wedding rings circling wide black pupils. Their plastic feathers were painted the dark green of pine nee-dies, their bellies a shade of dirty orange-white. I crawled toward them over the squelching, shifting pallets, the glow of the lantern bobbing back and forth between them, trying not to wonder if that boy was behind me, creeping in pursuit. When I got to the owls, I raised my head without thinking and thudded it against the insulation which ran beneath the studio floor. Thump once for yes, twice for no, asshole, I thought. I hooked my fingers into the plastic which wrapped the owls and pulled them toward me. I wanted to be out of here. The sensation of water running just beneath me was strange and unpleasant. So was the smell of fire, which seemed stronger now in spite of the damp. Suppose the studio was burning? Suppose Sara had somehow set it alight? I'd roast down here even while the storm's muddy runoff was soaking my legs and belly. One of the owls stood on a plastic base, I saw the better to set him on your deck or stoop to scare the crows, my dear but the base the other should have been attached to was missing. I backed toward the trapdoor, holding the lantern in one hand and dragging the plastic sack of owls in the other, wincing each time thunder cannonaded over my head. I'd only gotten a little way when the damp tape holding the plastic gave way. The owl missing its base tilted slowly toward me, its black-gold eyes staring raptly into my own. A swirl of air. A faint, comforting whiff of Red perfume. I pulled the owl out by the hornlike tufts growing from its forehead and turned it upside down. Where it had once been attached to its plastic base there were now only two pegs with a hollow space between them. Inside the hole was a small tin box that I recognized even before I reached into the owl's belly and chivvied it out. I shone the lantern on its front, knowing what I'd see: JO'S NOTIONS, written in old-fashioned gilt script. She had found the box in an antiques barn somewhere. I looked at it, my heart beating hard. Thunder boomed overhead. The trapdoor stood open, but I had forgotten about going up. I had forgotten about everything but the tin box I held in my hand, a box roughly the size of a cigar box but not quite as deep. I spread my hand over the cover and pulled it off. There was a strew of folded papers lying on top of a pair of steno books, the wirebound ones I keep around for notes and character lists. These had been rubber-banded together. On top of everything else was a shiny black square. Until I picked it up and held it close to the side of the lantern, I didn't realize it was a photo negative. Ghostly, reversed and faintly orange, I saw Jo in her gray two-piece bathing suit. She was standing on the swimming float with her hands behind her head. ‘Jo,' I said, and then couldn't say anything else. My throat had closed up with tears. I held the negative for a moment, not wanting to lose contact with it, then put it back in the box with the papers and steno books. This stuff was why she had come to Sara in July of 1994; to gather it up and hide it as well as she could. She had taken the owls off the deck (Frank had heard the door out there bang) and had carried them out here. I could almost see her prying the base off one owl and stuffing the tin box up its plastic wazoo, wrapping both of them in plastic, then dragging them down here, all while her brother sat smoking Marlboros and feeling the vibrations. The bad vibrations. I doubted if I would ever know all the reasons why she'd done it, or what her frame of mind had been . . . but she had almost certainly believed I'd find my own way down here eventually. Why else had she left the negative? The loose papers were mostly photocopied press clippings from the Castle Rock Call and from the Weekly News, the paper which had apparently preceded the Call. The dates were marked on each in my wife's neat, firm hand. The oldest clipping was from 1865, and was headed ANOTHER HOME SAFE. The returnee was one Jared Devore, age thirty-two. Suddenly I understood one of the things that had puzzled me: the generations which didn't seem to match up. A Sara Tidwell song came to mind as I crouched there on the pallets with my lantern shining down on that old-timey type. It was the ditty that went The old folks do it and the young folks, too / And the old folks show the young folks just what to do . . . By the time Sara and the Red-Tops showed up in Castle County and settled on what became known as Tidwell's Meadow, Jared Devore would have been sixty-seven or -eight. Old but still hale. A veteran of the Civil War. The sort of older man younger men might look up to. And Sara's song was right the old folks show the young folks just what to do. What exactly had they done? The clippings about Sara and the Red-Tops didn't tell. I only skimmed them, anyway, but the overall tone shook me, just the same. I'd describe it as unfailing genial contempt. The Red-Tops were ‘our Southern blackbirds' and ‘our rhythmic darkies.' They were ‘full of dusky good-nature.' Sara herself was ‘a marvelous figure of a Negro woman with broad nose, full lips, and noble brow' who ‘fascinated men-folk and women-folk alike with her animal high spirits, flashing smile, and raucous laugh.' They were, God keep us and save us, reviews. Good ones, if you didn't mind being called full of dusky good-nature. I shuffled through them quickly, looking for anything about the circumstances under which ‘our Southern blackbirds' had left. I found nothing. What I found instead was a clipping from the Call marked July 19th (go down nineteen, I thought), 1933. The headline read VETERAN GUIDE, CARETAKER, CANNOT SAVE DAUGHTER. According to the story, Fred Dean had been fighting the wildfires in the eastern part of the TR with two hundred other men when the wind had suddenly changed, menacing the north end of the lake, which had previously been considered safe. At that time a great many local people had kept fishing and hunting camps up there (this much I knew myself). The community had had a general store and an actual name, Halo Bay. Fred's wife, Hilda, was there with the Dean twins, William and Carla, age three, while her husband was off eating smoke. A good many other wives and kids were in Halo Bay, as well. The fires had come fast when the wind changed, the paper said ‘like marching explosions.' They jumped the only firebreak the men had left in that direction and headed for the far end of the lake. At Halo Bay there were no men to take charge, and apparently no women able or willing to do so. They panicked instead, racing to load their cars with children and camp possessions, clogging the one road out with their vehicles. Eventually one of the old cars or trucks broke down and as the fires roared closer, running through woods that hadn't seen rain since late April, the women who'd waited found their way out blocked. The volunteer firefighters came to the rescue in time, but when Fred Dean got to his wife, one of a party of women trying to push a balky stalled Ford coupe out of the road, he made a terrible discovery. Billy lay on the floor in the back of the car, fast asleep, but Carla was missing. Hilda had gotten them both in, all right they had been on the back seat, holding hands just as they always did. But at some point, after her brother had crawled onto the floor and dozed off and while Hilda was stuffing a few last items into the trunk, Carla must have remembered a toy or a doll and returned to the cottage to get it. While she was doing that, her mother had gotten into their old Desoto and driven away without rechecking the babies. Carla Dean was either still in the cottage at Halo Bay or making her way up the road on foot. Either way the fires would run her down. The road was too narrow to get a vehicle turned around and too blocked to get one of those pointed in the right direction through the crush. So Fred Dean, hero that he was, set off on the run toward the smoke-blackened horizon, where bright ribbons of orange had already begun to shine through. The wind-driven fire had crowned and raced to meet him like a lover. I knelt on the pallets, reading this by the glow of my lantern, and all at once the smell of fire and burning intensified. I coughed . . . and then the cough was choked off by the iron taste of water in my mouth and throat. Once again, this time kneeling in the storage area beneath my wife's studio, I felt as if I were drowning. Once again I leaned forward and retched up nothing but a little spit. I turned and saw the lake. The loons were screaming on its hazy surface, making their way toward me in a line, beating their wings against the water as they came. The blue of the sky had been blotted out. The air smelled of charcoal and gunpowder. Ash had begun to sift down from the sky. The eastern verge of Dark Score was in flames, and I could hear occasional muffled reports as hollow trees exploded. They sounded like depth charges. I looked down, wanting to break free of this vision, knowing that in another moment or two it wouldn't be anything so distant as a vision but as real as the trip Kyra and I had made to the Fryeburg Fair. Instead of a plastic owl with gold-ringed eyes, I was looking at a child with bright blue ones. She was sitting on a picnic table, holding out her chubby arms and crying. I saw her as clearly as I saw my own face in the mirror each morning when I shaved. I saw she was about Kyra's age but much plumper, and her hair is black instead of blonde. Her hair is the shade her brother's will remain until it finally begins to go gray in the impossibly distant summer of 1998, a year she will never see unless someone gets her out of this hell. She wears a white dress and red knee-stockings and she holds her arms out to me, calling Daddy, Daddy. I start toward her and then there is a blast of organized heat that tears me apart for a moment I am the ghost here, I realize, and Fred Dean has just run right through me. Daddy, she cries, but to him, not me. Daddy! and she hugs him, unmindful of the soot smearing her white silk dress and her chubby face as he kisses her and more soot begins to fall and the loons beat their way in toward shore, seeming to weep in shrill lamentation. Daddy the fire is coming! she cries as he scoops her into his arms. I know, be brave, he says. We're gonna be all right, sugarplum, but you have to be brave. The fire isn't just coming,' it has come. The entire east end of Halo Bay is inflames and now they're moving this way, eating one by one the little cabins where the men like to lay up drunk in hunting season and ice-fishing season. Behind Al LeRoux's, the washing Marguerite hung out that morning is in flames, pants and dresses and underwear burning on lines which are themselves strings of fire. Leaves and bark shower down,' a burning ember touches Carla's neck and she shrieks with pain. Fred slaps it away as he carries her down the slope of land to the water. Don't do it! I scream. I know all this is beyond my power to change, but I scream at him anyway, try to change it anyway. Fight it! For Christ's sake, fight it! Daddy, who is that man? Carla asks, and points at me as the green-shingled roof of the Dean place catches fire. Fred glances toward where she is pointing, and in his face I see a spasm of guilt. He knows what he's doing, that's the terrible thing way down deep he knows exactly what he is doing here at Halo Bay where The Street ends. He knows and he's afraid that someone will witness his work. But he sees nothing. Or does he? There is a momentary doubtful widening of the eyes as if he does spy something a dancing helix of air, perhaps. Or does feel me? Is that it? Does he feel a momentary cold draft in all this heat? One that feels like protesting hands, hands that would restrain if they only had substance? Then he looks away,' then he is wading into the water beside the Deans' stub of a dock. Fred! I scream. For God's sake, man, look at her! Do you think your wife put her in a white silk dress by accident? Is that anyone's idea of a play-dress? Daddy, why are we going in the water? she asks. To get away from the fire, sugarplum. Daddy, I can't swim! You won't have to, he replies, and what a chill I feel at that! Because it's no lie she won't have to swim, not now, not ever. And at least Fred's way will be more merciful than Normal Auster's when Normal's turn comes more merciful than the squalling handpump, the gallons of freezing water. Her white dress floats around her like a lily. Her red stockings shimmer in the water. She hugs his neck tightly and now they are among the fleeing loons,' the loons spank the water with their powerful wings, churning up curds of jam and staring at the man and the girl with their distraught red eyes. The air is heavy with smoke and the sky is gone. I stagger after them, wading I can feel the cold of the water, although I don't splash and leave no wake. The eastern and northern edges of the lake are both on fire now there is a burning crescent around us as Fred Dean wades deeper with his daughter, carrying her as if to some baptismal rite. And still he tells himself he is trying to save her, only to save her, just as all her life Hilda will tell herself that the child just wandered back to the cottage to look for a toy, that she was not left behind on purpose, left in her white dress and red stockings to be found by her father, who once did something unspeakable. This is the past, th is is the Land of Ago, and here the sins of the fathers are visited on the children, even unto the seventh generation, which is not yet. He takes her deeper and she begins to scream. Her screams mingle with the screams of the loons until he stops the sound with a kiss upon her terrified mouth. ‘Love you, Daddy loves his sugarplum,' he says, and then lowers her. It is to be a full-immersion baptism, then, except there is no shorebank choir singing ‘Shall We Gather at the River' and no one shouting Hallelujah! and he is not letting her come back up. She struggles furiously in the white bloom of her sacrificial dress, and after a moment he cannot bear to watch her,' he looks across the lake instead, to the west where the fire hasn't yet touched (and never will), to the west where skies are still blue. Ash sifts around him like black rain and the tears pour out of his eyes and as she struggles furiously beneath his hands, trying to free herself from his drowning grip, he tells himself It was an accident, just a terrible accident, I took her out in the lake because it was the only place I could take her, the on ly place left, and she panicked, she started to struggle, she was all wet and all slippery and I lost my good hold on her and then I lost any hold on her and then I forget I'm a ghost. I scream ‘Kia! Hold on, Ki!' and dive. I reach her, I see her terrified face, her bulging blue eyes, her rosebud of a mouth which is trailing a silver line of bubbles toward the surface where Fred stands in water up to his neck, holding her down while he tells himself over and over that he was trying to save her, it was the only way, he was trying to save her, it was the only way. I reach for her, again and again I reach for her, my child, my daughter, my Kia (they are all Kia, the boys as well as the girls, all my daughter), and each time my arms go through her. Worse oh, far worse is that now she is reaching for ‘me', her dappled arms floating out, begging for rescue. Her groping hands melt through mine. I cannot touch, because now I am the ghost. I am the ghost and as her struggles weaken I realize that I can't I can't oh I couldn't breathe I was drowning. I doubled over, opened my mouth, and this time a great spew of lake-water came out, soaking the plastic owl which lay on the pallet by my knees. I hugged the JO'S NOTIONS box to my chest, not wanting the contents to get wet, and the movement triggered another retch. This time cold water poured from my nose as well as my mouth. I dragged in a deep breath, then coughed it out. ‘This has got to end,' I said, but of course this was the end, one way or the other. Because Kyra was last. I climbed up the steps to the studio and sat on the littered floor to get my breath. Outside, the thunder boomed and the rain fell, but I thought the storm had passed its peak of fury. Or maybe I only hoped. I rested with my legs hanging down through the trap there were no more ghosts here to touch my ankles, I don't know how I knew that but I did and stripped off the rubber bands holding the steno notebooks together. I opened the first one, paged through it, and saw it was almost filled with Jo's handwriting and a number of folded typed sheets (Courier type, of course), single-spaced: the fruit of all those clandestine trips down to the TR during 1993 and 1994. Fragmentary notes, for the most part, and transcriptions of tapes which might still be down below me in the storage space somewhere. Tucked away with the VCR or the eight-track player, perhaps. But I didn't need them. When the time came if the time came I was sure I'd find most of the story here. What had happened, who had done it, how it was covered up. Right now I didn't care. Right now I only wanted to make sure that Kyra was safe and stayed safe. There was only one way to do that. Lye stille. I attempted to slip the rubber bands around the steno books again, and the one I hadn't looked at slipped out of my wet hand and fell to the floor. A torn slip of green paper fell out. I picked it up and saw this: For a moment I came out of that strange and heightened awareness I'd been living in; the world fell back into its accustomed dimensions. But the colors were all too strong, somehow, objects too emphatically present. I felt like a battlefield soldier suddenly illuminated by a ghastly white flare, one that shows everything. My father's people had come from The Neck, I had been right about that much; my great-grandfather according to this was James Noonan, and he had never shit in the same pit as Jared Devore. Max Devore had either been lying when he said that to Mattie . . . or misinformed . . . or simply confused, the way folks often get confused when they reach their eighties. Even a fellow like Devore, who had stayed mostly sharp, wouldn't have been exempt from the occasional nick in his edge. And he hadn't been that far off at that. Because, according to this little scratch of a chart, my great-grandfather had had an older sister, Bridget. And Bridget had married Benton Auster. My finger dropped down a line, to Harry Auster. Born of Benton and Bridget Noonan Auster in the year 1885. ‘Christ Jesus,' I whispered. ‘Kenny Auster's grandfather was my granduncle. And he was one of them. Whatever they did, Harry Auster was one of them. That's the connection.' I thought of Kyra with sudden sharp terror. She had been up at the house by herself for nearly an hour. How could I have been so stupid? Anyone could have come in while I was under the studio. Sara could have used anyone to I realized that wasn't true. The murderers and the child victims had all been linked by blood, and now that blood had thinned, that river had almost reached the sea. There was Bill Dean, but he was staying well away from Sara Laughs. There was Kenny Auster, but Kenny had taken himself and his family off to Taxachusetts. And Ki's closest blood relations mother, father, grandfather were all dead. Only I was left. Only I was blood. Only I could do it. Unless I bolted back up to the house as fast as I could, slipping and sliding my way along the soaked path, desperate to make sure she was all right. I didn't think Sara could hurt Kyra herself, no matter how much of that old-timer vibe she had to draw on . . . but what if I was wrong? What if I was wrong?

Citing particular examples, discuss how far pop music can be Essay

Citing particular examples, discuss how far pop music can be considered textual poachers (Henry jerkins) - Essay Example Apparently, a topic that attempts to capture the dynamics of any culture within the context of social icons and the mentality of their followers, could not adequately incorporate and interact with the controversies thereon as textual poachers does with pop music. Originally, Henry Jerkins did a lot of studies surrounding television entertainment with shows and movie series as the centre of interest for many fans. The provocative interaction that the television fan base makes with the ideal universe created by the shows that they faithfully follow blind them such that they fail to conceptualize the idealism involved in the productions. The author states that this creates a culture that tries to fit in the idealism provoked by the entertainment culture (Jenkins, 1992, p277). In a similar manner, the pop music industry can be assessed for a possibility of a similar idealism generated within the music setting and consequential spilling over to the real life of the fans to the extent that they â€Å"live† the idealism. In an attempt to explain the role of fans in the generation of new idealistic cultures, Jenkins (1992, p23) reports that fans find it fashionable and defensive to relate to a certain mass following of an entertainment platform. Further in the description of the behaviour of the fan group, the author reports that the identity and associating with the common following accords the group a manipulative force that enables it to form a culture. Producers of the original text from which the apparent poaching happens voice their displeasure by referring to the fans as cultural dupes or even senseless customers of the literary piece. Works of art that are presented to the audience commonly through the media are initially meant to be just entertainment content; but the audience blow off the balance between the text intention and imaginations not intended by the producer. There is an eventual loss of the art intention

Religious Congregational Website Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

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Students should be able to understand and explain the main theories of organizational management and leadership and their application - Essay Example Management comprised of the following functions namely planning, organising, directing, staffing, co-ordinating, reporting and budgeting (Thenmozhi, n.d.). The X-Y theory was first conceptualised by Douglas McGregor, an American social psychologist, in the year of 1960. It refers the statutory and simple rules of managing people. There are two theories X and Y. In X theory, the nature of the persons are lazy. Mostly they dislike work and try to avoid it therefore most of the employees are subject to negative reinforcement and threatened by it. Such persons avoid responsibility and prefer to be directed. The exactly opposite picture can be shown in Theory Y. Here, people accept and seek responsibility. To achieve the organisational objective people usually apply self control and direction. Even, they are also rewarded for their commitment (Business Ball, n.d.). William Ouchi had developed Z theory in 1981. Basically this theory is referred to as ‘Japanese’ management style. This theory advocates the combination of theory Y along with the modern Japanese management. It indicates a large amount of freedom and trust with worker and it has been assumed that workers have a strong interest and loyalty (Business Ball, n.d.). A series of studies had been conducted at the Western Electronic Hawthorn Works from 1927 to 1932. Here, the professor Elton Mayo had experienced the impact of work conditions in the employees’ productivity. He had started this through examining the environmental and physical influence of the work place and then he moved towards the psychological aspects and its impact on the employee motivation. The outcome of the study exhibits that the employee productivity is fuelled by the psychological stimulus. It can be applied in the practical life also. Suppose, a management trainee has joined in an organisation and the management provide him training, separate work code etc. Thus, silently the

Citizen Kane Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Citizen Kane - Essay Example The key aspect of Kane's character contribution to the tragedy plot lies in his character flaw. This is of pivotal significance in the plot propagation as it triggers the cause and effect set of events that will evoke pity and fear in the audience. Kane’s tragic flaw lies in his failure to grow and mature into a responsible man. The elements of his flaw are embodied in his failure to manipulate his charm and panache to materialise into something feasible in his quest for happiness. His flaw is also heightened in his selfishness reflected in his insatiable desire for women. He collects wives, possessions and animals in his pleasure dome but never gets the satisfaction that he longs for. The protagonist character flaw is one fundamental of the Aristotelian philosophy of tragedy.This aspect on Kane is well enunciated by Peter J Pullicino ( Critically Appraise Citizen Kane as Cinema:2008 ). â€Å"Even a cursory summary of the fragments leads us to an imposing list of contradictio ns: Kane is the dashing hero and a grotesque tyrant, an idealist and a cynic, and egotist and a defender of the common man, a child who never grew up, and a man who never had a childhood†¦".

Business plan for a new entrepreneurial business Research Paper

Business plan for a new entrepreneurial business - Research Paper Example The target segment is mostly the old people who need to take medicine at the right time and at the right amount. The product AutoMed will serve that purpose by alerting the patient to take the medicine at the required time. The plan gives a brief overview of the company’s product offerings as well as the industry analysis and market analysis. Company description Company history The company, Digital Medical Instruments is a US based company was the brain child of few experts in the field of medical sciences. Founded in the year 2009, the company was quick to identify the growing needs and pains of the consumers in terms of healthcare solutions. Coming together in the form of a team, the team of experts wanted to provide value for money end user products related to the medical field, which will provide greater benefits to the patients and their family members, thereby helping them to derive a greater value for the money spent on purchasing medicine and medical services in times of global financial slowdown. Mission statement The Mission objectives for the company is to cater to the growing the needs of the customers for individualized healthcare products at affordable prices, while promoting quality for the products The vision of the company is to be the most preferred vendor for providing of healthcare based products and services to the individual clients within a span 6 years, from now. Products and services The product offering of the company is AutoMed. AutoMed is a highly technologically advanced modern day healthcare equipment for the end users. AutoMed’s main purpose is to cater to the needs of the sick and old patients, who prefer to stay independent despite their health related weaknesses. In order to prevent them from skipping their medications at prescribed intervals and to cut the costs of maintaining a healthcare person to look after their medication needs, the AutoMed will remind the patients by alerting them to take the prescribed med icines with the exact dosages. This device will also enable the family members of the patients to have a peaceful day at work, with the assurance that the device will alert their dear ones to take the prescribed medicines at the right time. Current status The company is planning to venture into the consumer market by attempting to tap the demand arising out of personal needs of the patients on a regular basis in the domestic front. Legal Status & Ownership The company is formed by a team of highly motivated, entrepreneurial team of medical experts who have the much needed skills and relative business acumen to understand the needs of the consumers in a better way, when it comes to managing physical healthcare in the

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The Role Of Playing for Children Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Role Of Playing for Children - Essay Example There were 15 guys and we all had to have one game plan rather than each of us wanting different things. Although we were young and didn’t want to follow orders from one person we knew that it was the right thing to do. We had a leader and knew that respecting him was important to our success as a group. If we each chose our own path and didn’t listen to our coach we would fail and therefore let down a group of 14 guys who all listened to the coach. We didn’t always agree with our coach or think he was making the best decisions but we had to trust that he knew what he was doing and making the best decisions for our team. There was no room for joking around when we were practicing and this taught us to be mature and serious when we had goals to accomplish. We also believed in each other and our potential if we practiced hard and went over plays until they seemed to run as smoothly as possible. We put in extra time after dark to make sure that when we played in the big game Friday night we wouldn’t mess up that play. Down the road, in a work environment, there will be a boss who wants you to be a team player and be willing to put in the extra time, just like that football team. Just from playing football in high school there was a value instilled in me to play a team and know who leads and to respect that person. You cannot always take charge and run everything but in time if you do a good job in your position you have the opportunity to move up into higher positions. I fully believe that having kids in sports will help them to succeed later in life. Prompt 2: There is obviously debate on whether children receive better care if their parents work during the day or not and how this attention or lack of attention changes the child. A child may react in different ways to getting more attention and may get to be more involved with their parents staying at home with them.  Ã‚  

BEIT 336 (Formal Report) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

BEIT 336 (Formal Report) - Essay Example BEIT 336 (Formal Report) As the array of available flexibility options broadens, contemporary companies are under immense pressure to evaluate how each scheduling program affects their performance in terms of employee performance, as well as, managers’ and supervisors’ perception or acceptance of the program. Understanding the association between flexible scheduling of work and consequent organizational performance is imperative in selecting the most appropriate flexible working technique. Such comprehension is also pertinent to development of flexible working policies that would, in turn, guarantee optimization of projected benefits like increase in employees’ productivity, elevation of morale, reduction of absenteeism and decline in turnover. In addition, understanding this relationship would go a long way towards challenging or confirming assumptions made in regard to flexible work hours and in quantifying the current state of an organization to determine its readiness for implementat ion of a flexible work schedule. Most importantly, outcomes of the employee and organizational performance measurement have implications vital to the future development of flexible work programs in a company. If there is a positive connection between flexible working and employee performance, as illustrated in this research, companies can utilize the information to facilitate change in working culture and plan more effective schedules in the future.

Experiential Knowledge versus Intellectual Knowledge Essay Example for Free

Experiential Knowledge versus Intellectual Knowledge Essay The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has for a long time stirred the issue on the tug between experiential knowledge (the sort of knowledge that is gained in the â€Å"streets† and practiced mostly by Huck) and intellectual knowledge (the kind of knowledge being taught in schools and by people like Widow Douglas and Miss Watson). The issue can most of the time be phrased as that between being logical and following the practical consequences of one’s logic as opposed to following the dictates of society. This is a theme that was developed early on in the book and extends up to the end. Huck, for example, defies society and chooses his own logic in Chapter 1 when he told Widow Douglas that he would prefer to go to hell since this would mean a change of scenery and being with Tom. It is known for a fact that â€Å"heaven† should be the de facto choice of destination for everyone. To choose to go to hell, with our without reasons for wanting to do so, plainly means going against what is conventional. Time and again, Huck has dealt with the part of his conscience that told him that keeping and cuddling Jim, a â€Å"property† of Miss Watson versus his natural sympathy for the man (Bennett 3). These and many other instances in Huckleberry Finn illustrate the clash between the obviously wrong societal teaching that racism and slavery is good and having sympathy and compassion for the slaves as bad versus the instinctive knowledge that sympathy and compassion towards a slave is worthwhile. In this paper, this clash between experiential knowledge, i. e. , knowledge gained by oneself through the exercise of personal logical induction and deduction gathered through experience, and intellectual knowledge, i. e. , knowledge gained through different societal instruments, shall be dealt with. More specifically, this paper shall address the issue of which of these two â€Å"knowledges† has more importance. Being an issue that is of no light matter, this paper would need to look beyond Huckleberry Finn for aid. As such, Philosophy, Ethics, and Education seem to be the most promising areas of knowledge that address the issue. Hence, this paper shall look in these directions to settle the issue. Specifically, this paper shall have the following parts: on wisdom and knowledge as personal or societal; morality as inauthentic or authentic; and educations as geared towards making the person â€Å"fully† come out versus education as socialization. The paper shall end with a conclusion. Wisdom as Personal or Societal Philosophy has dealt with the question on the source of wisdom a number of times and through different thinkers. Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle are known to deal extensively about this issue, and as such, their philosophies shall be utilized. Since Aquinas is known for extensively working on Aristotle’s works, merging the works of these two thinkers shall not pose any problems. Before anything, it would be best to first give a definition of wisdom. At least in the Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition, wisdom is a kind of knowledge that is â€Å"of paramount importance in directing human existence towards its purpose or end† (Artigas 17). It is that kind of knowledge that aids man to be a better human being, not only by providing particular knowledge, but most specially a universal knowledge that speaks of the human being’s nature, purpose and end. In the end, wisdom ought to lead to the human being’s happiness, happiness defined as a life that is flourishing. All these ideas seem to be abstract, so it would be best to concretize a bit. At least for Aristotle, living a life that is full of human flourishing means living a virtuous life in a community that allows for the continuous development of the individual. According to the Aristotelian philosopher Martha Nussbaum, this refers to a life wherein virtues, human relations, reason and other physical capabilities are allowed to flourish by the society (Nussbaum 76-78). More concretely, this means experiencing real friendship, practicing justice, exercising prudence and a host of many other virtues that Aristotle spoke of in the Nicomachean Ethics in a society that value and nurture these. It is allowing a person to have meaningful relations, to engage in activities that nourish one’s â€Å"senses, imagination, and thought,† to have bodily health, to engage in play, to have autonomous control over one’s environment and so on (Nussbaum 76-78). So far, it seems that wisdom ought to be acquired for the benefit of the individual that would most probably emanate into the good of society. That is well and good, nevertheless, we still have not answered the question as to how wisdom itself is acquired. In this respect, Aquinas has an answer. Thomas Aquinas is known for the Natural Law Theory. The theory states that â€Å"man is born with the natural facility to know the basic truths or principles or the moral order as ‘the good is to be done and promoted and the evil to be avoided’† (Panizo 56). In this respect wisdom, i. e. , knowledge about what is good and what is to be avoided that ought to lead to happiness and human flourishing, is not only something that man is capable of; in fact, man is born with this natural facility. Human beings are born with the disposition to want what is good and to avoid what is evil. Thinking about it, this medieval theory seems to make a lot of sense. Is it not true that no human being ever does something which for her/him is plainly without good or any sort of benefit? Even actions that may be considered as evil by many still have some sort of perverted â€Å"goodness† in it. Actions such as murder, drug trafficking, etcetera, still give â€Å"pleasure† to those who engage in them. But, does this mean that these actions are morally good? Aquinas would not agree. He would say that though nature has granted man the capacity to know what is good and evil and to want good over evil, still, error may happen. Error occurs once the basic principle, â€Å"good is to be done and sought after, evil is to be avoided† (Aquinas 197) is applied. In fact, there is a hierarchy of difficulty when it comes to the application of this basic principle, the most difficult application of it called â€Å"remote conclusions† are described as â€Å"not easily drawn by ordinary people, for they involve education in theology and philosophy, and deep reflection† (Panizo 59). These involve judgments on issues like euthanasia, divorce, abortion, etcetera. We have reached a point then when natural wisdom, i. e. , wisdom depending on reason alone, becomes insufficient. Life is so full of instances when â€Å"remote conclusions† are needed and called for. The sad thing is, this knowledge is hard to come by and a human being is left with no option but to listen to the dialogues of the people in the academe. For Aquinas and Aristotle, experiential knowledge is not enough. It could only get us so far. This then brings us to the discussion of the place of â€Å"intellectual knowledge† in Philosophy. According to Aristotle, human beings need a role model to live a flourishing life. An excellent person is considered the standard for most of us who are still aiming for human flourishing, for a life of virtue. An excellent person is defined as he/she whose wishes â€Å"will be what is wished in reality† (Aristotle 65), i. e. , the wishes of the excellent person is that which is truly good for the human being. An excellent person is the exact opposite of the base person to whom â€Å"pleasure would seem to cause deception since it appears good when it is not† (Aristotle 65). Thus, modeling is Aristotle’s system of knowing what is worth imitating and what is not. To add to this, it must be recalled that for Aristotle (as with the other Greek thinkers), education has an indispensable role in bringing an individual to perfection. This is the very reason why the Academy and the Lyceum were established. In these schools, individuals from different cities merge to further their knowledge, to share each other’s knowledge and in this sense socializing each other. Hence, at least in Aristotle and Aquinas’ philosophy, though natural wisdom or experiential knowledge may be the starting point, this is not enough. Intellectual knowledge is still necessary since remote conclusions are always called for to ultimately be happy and live a flourishing life. Authentic and Inauthentic Morality Beyond the epistemology of Aristotle and Aquinas is the perspective that morality or ethics may be inauthentic or authentic. This is the very idea of Michael Moga in the book, Toward Authentic Morality. According to Moga, one’s sense of right and wrong can either be wholly dependent on one’s culture (i. e. , inauthentic morality) or it could come from one’s personal choice (i. e. , authentic morality). This is the very same clash between the self and the society that we have been talking about. According to Moga, most people ascribe to inauthentic morality. This is the sort of morality that gives in to social pressure, that kind of pressure that forces us to act and think in a particular way without exactly knowing why such an action or thought should be considered moral. We would not have to go very far to understand inauthentic morality. Most adolescents and teenagers are susceptible to peer pressure when it comes to many facets of their lives. The very persistence of racism and discrimination speak of a poorly reasoned morality that rest on social acceptance. In fact, Moga sets out the characteristics of inauthentic morality. The following are the characteristics of this type of morality. Inauthentic morality is characterized by being based on certain rules and values affirmed by culture; it is universal in its application, i. e. , it is valid for everyone; they impact individuals as set of morality that is external, i. e. , the source of morality is something outside the self; these laws are anonymous; the individual is haunted by fear and shame; the moral obligation is something that comes from authority; and it is fluctuating in influence (Moga 35-39). This is the sort of morality experienced by the typical teenager who follows his/her group’s choices. Such an individual follows rules not her own, a set of rules she may find difficult to follow since it is something external, nevertheless the breaking of such group rules result to fear and shame. This teenager considers the lead of the group as the one vested with authority to enforce such rules. Though this morality is most stark among teenagers, adults may very well be living this sort of morality. We would only have to look around shopping malls to see how many adults go with the flow without thinking why. Supposedly at the other extreme is authentic morality. This morality results from one’s personal decision to accept a set of values and morals after necessary reflection. Again, this sort of morality has characteristics: it is personally chosen and accepted; it is based on a rational appreciation; it is not based on fear or shame; morality as an expression of one’s freedom; and it is based on what one personally cares for, i. e. the very principles that one values (Moga 39-41). This is the sort of morality of individuals who have taken enough time to think over his/her morals. This would be represented by an individual who does an action and could very likely explain and be personally involved in the very principle of one’s actions. This would be the individual whose sense of morality is not dependent on â€Å"what others will say† but rather on a clear set of personally chosen moral principles. Though individuals must all aim for authentic morality, Moga insists that both moralities are important. In the first place, all human beings undergo the inauthentic morality stage where parents become the sole authority from whom morality emanate. Nevertheless, we should not stay this way. After being exposed to different sets of moralities, it is the individual’s responsibility to think and chose which of these moralities shall be made personal. Thus, at least in the Ethical perspective, the social and the personal ought to go together, though in the end, the social should be for the personal. Conclusion We have seen that at least in Philosophy and Ethics, there really is no real clash between the personal and the social, between intellectual knowledge and experiential knowledge. Clashes happen in Philosophy when error exists in the mind and nothing is done to correct the error. This error may of course exist not only with individuals but also in groups such as those in the academe. Nevertheless, we have clearly stated above that intellectual knowledge is there not to ram down society on the throats of individuals but rather to further perfect experiential knowledge for the sake of human flourishing. The same may be said in the field of ethics. Both authentic and inauthentic moralities are there and both have uses in society. Nevertheless, in the end, inauthentic morality ought to be the material source of inputs for the eventual authentic morality of a person. Morality only becomes stagnant when there is no interaction between the inauthentic and authentic. To answer the question which of the two knowledges is more important, we could qualifiedly say that both are important as long as there is minimal error and that the ultimate purpose is human flourishing.

Thoughts about climate change Essay Example for Free

Thoughts about climate change Essay The world has over the last century gone through big changes. This does not only concern the changes in technology but also how countries nowadays are able to interact with each other. The new technology have mad it possible to transfer and spread information faster than ever before. These changes have lead to huge possibilities when it comes to researches, to do researches that earlier have not been doable. For example when it comes to knowledge about illnesses and health. Earlier people died from deceases that the healthcare today has the knowledge to cure. This is only one thing out of many improvements that has been going on over the past years. Because of this development is had made me think about how little we knew before and how much we know now. Today it is possible to measure and gain knowledge about almost anything. Such as weather, water stream, temperature changes, rainfall and much more. It is possible to se changes that occur on the planet. This makes me think and be concerned about what does really happen on planet earth? This question and thoughts that have been brought up makes me interested to learn and get a bigger perspective about â€Å"changing climate†. Questions regarding our climate have in the past years been up for discussion on several channels. It is possible to read about climate in the news sometimes you can here about it on the television or even hear it on broadcasts. This has made people more aware than before and also made an increased interest in how different factors affects the climate of the planet. This is a good thing cause personally I think that there are many things that need to change. Especially when it comes to the affects on climate. To start making changes everyone, all countries must work together. This is where I can se the first problem. For example when it comes to Global warming. Researches have seen several changes occurring over the past years and they are telling the world by giving out analyses and results in order to make people aware. They have seen changes that have never happened before  and they want to do something about it. The respond from countries and societies is not what it should be. My thoughts are that people live and grow up in different cultures, what someone thinks is important may someone else think is unimportant. For some people survival is a challenge and for others how to succeed at work is another. People have their own priorities and values and to make everyone agree and think the same can be hard. This is one of the reasons that make me wanting to study and learn about climate. For me climate change is something I can se happen but not while we live. Looking at issues concerning climate brings me one big question that I think of whish is â€Å"how other people think†. It is interesting so se and learn about climate and to get a perspective of how different everyone looks at it. While growing up nature and thinking about the climate has always been something I have been surrounded by. In Sweden where I am from nature is important and so is the climate. Early in school we were introduced and gained knowledge about different things concerning nature and the climate. What we decided to about our knowledge is another thing. I have always been fascinated in extreme weather and climate as long as I can remember. This is another reason for why this course about climate is something that interests me. Depending on where we are located on earth the nature and weather will be different so will the species of animals. But in the end we are on the same planet. Consequences from climate change that are likely to happen will probably not be in our favour it will instead force us to change our ways of living. The outcome from climate change could also be so damaging that even if we start preventing climate change now it could be too late. Climate change is something really complex and it makes it even more fascinating. How are scientists supposed to argue and make people change? What needs to be said or done until people realizes that climate change is an important topic to actually pay attention to. Will people start to care when water level rise or when they actually can se they difference in the climate? Some people think that climate change is a growing problem and some people does not even consider it as a problem. These are things that make this subject so remarkable. How come people look at it so differently when it is  something that will affect everyone in the end? For me environmental questions and climate change feels really important. I am studying business and my major is enterprising and business development. Because of that I want to learn even more about climate, to bring that knowledge into my future work. Since today’s competition and importance of being efficient is massive I would say it is even more important to actually have an environmental perspective. Enterprises have lately been developing fast, increasing profits, but one question I would like to ask is if they think of their impact on the environment? This question goes further to consumers to people? Do they understand their behaviour and what they do to the nature when travelling, when buying things? There are so many things that we people do that actually have an impact on the environment and climate, and we think of it too little if not at all. My assumptions is that people hide, people stop carrying because no one really tells them to care about climate change. There is much more that can be done and I want to be a part of that. This is one of the reasons for why I am studying â€Å"making sense of climate change†. I want to be aware, I want to learn and I want to gain knowledge that makes me able to change people’s perspective. In the end I want to be that person who makes a difference not only for myself but also for everybody.

Person Centred Approach to Dementia and Geriatric Care

Person Centred Approach to Dementia and Geriatric Care Ranny Roi P.Gaco Abstract This paper examines the different principles involved in the person centred approach to dementia and other common geriatric health condition’s care. It will also tackle the differences against institution perspective approach and bio-medical perspective with respect to the person-centred approach in managing care. This assessment will also be discussing range of techniques used to meet the fluctuating abilities and needs of individuals that are very common to degenerative geriatric health conditions, as well as its impacts to equality and cultural diversity in meeting these issues in public health. This paper will also examine the government’s initiatives and programs available to meet the demands in caring with these types of elderly conditions. Introduction Caring comes in different ways as well as techniques in how to be able to provide the best way to our loved ones. While there are institutions who provide the best care for our loved ones, it is often being neglected that the very heart of caring is not just merely providing the basic care that the clients need but also with the quality of care that we are giving to them. Validations of the quality of care are often not being examine and should be given an emphasis especially that the abilities of the elderly with dementia are deteriorating, it is hard for them to feedback the way we are treating them or should the approach of care is the appropriate one they are actually needing. Question 1 Individuality We all know that whatever care we are doing, we need to considering the aspect of individuality with respect in caring with people with dementia and other geriatric conditions. In doing so, we can render a care that is suitable to the individual as we all know that every one is unique and so do with respect to caring attitude. Health workers should be conscious and must bear in mind that everyone has the right to be treated with individual needs in relation to person-centred approached that recognises the value, uniqueness of each person, understanding the world from the perspective of the service user, and providing a social environment to every individual under our care. Rights Every person is born with each right that no one can take away and must be respected. In dealing with elderly suffering from dementia, these rights are not being taken away and must be respected and are carried out to its highest standards. The health care provider’s role is to assess the patient’s cognitive function in order to plan what should be given to the patient especially that dementia is a condition that is interlinked with different medical conditions. Every time that someone is getting a care, this aspect of principles is being carried out in outmost consideration. Choice Choice is connected to individual’s right that whoever receives treatment and care should be given a choice in a way that will be helpful in managing his care. It is also the patient’s choice in instances that a further treatment is being withdrawn or further care shall be ignored. This should be explained properly to them and if cognitive functionality is impaired, the patient has the right to nominate a representative that will decide what suits best for the patient. This is commonly being delegated to the next of kin of the patient or whomever the patient assigns. Privacy This principle does apply to everyone and in every industry and so does with respect in managing care to those who are undergoing degenerative diseases. Privacy is being carried out such us the prognosis of the patients and shall not be divulge to anyone except to those who are only part of the team. Even medical research does not automatically be allowed to invade each patient’s medical documents without the consent of the patient. Normally, each institution does have their own ethics committee in dealing with privacy concerns as well as policies in releasing documents that is legally binding between the service provider and the customer. In dealing with procedures that is needed for the patient to undergo, an informed consent must be secured first, provided that the patient will understand the procedure and how beneficial to the client. Independence The goal of the care will not be a success if not with the help of the patients themselves. Optimum wellness can only be achieved if the patient cooperates and does a wide range of independence that will lead to a healing process. Most care facilities are applying this principle not because it will make job easier but it is also part of the treatment process. If there are difficulties along the way physically or intellectually, the healthcare team should find ways to these difficulties. The team should assess whether the patient can do task alone without struggle or it is advisable to seek full support in everyday living. Caregiver role plays an important role in the managing of care and should know how to assess in providing social independence and simple tasks to do. Dignity Every patient who is suffering dementia should be able to receive care with dignity. Anyone can attest that by putting yourself in the shoes of the patient. You should be able to assess if that is the treatment that is right to you. In that sense you, you can feel if you are receiving the treatment that you deserve. In applying to a person-centred approach of care, we must ensure that they are engaging in activities that they really like so that they will value their life even better. Respect This principle of care encompasses all other principles in such a way that every aspect or care should be based mainly on respect to the service user. Everyone has a unique character that should be respected. In dealing with elderly, make sure that their privacy is still being considered. In that way, they can still feel that despite their condition, that basic right of them are not being taken away from them. It is believe that when you want to be respected, you should know how to give respect as well. In applying it to person-centred, we must ensure that each individual has their own unique characteristic that we need to take note of, so that when we are providing care to them, they are able to appreciate our help. We must take note that it is the client’s welfare that we are serving and we should consider their uniqueness in order to provide a harmonious caring relationship. Autonomy This aspect of care should be given emphasis in its individual approach as every client has different ways in adapting to their current condition and to their new environment especially when they are being taken cared of outside their own home. Elderly especially those who are having early stage of dementia are in denial stage to the point that they are very eager in taking back their autonomy in managing their own health as well as their own way of living. This aspect of care must be taken seriously in a way that they don’t feel that their basic rights are not being taken away from them. It should be remembered by everyone involved in the care that patients should still be directly involve in the course of their treatment or rehabilitation. Creating a controlling environment against the patient will only delay the treatment course. In such cases that patients no longer capable of taking care of their own health, the nominated representative must be available that should not c ompromise the loved one quality of care. Question 2 Institution perspective This type of non-person-centred approach of care does not focus on the individual aspect of care but rather on its physical, social, and spiritual of the individual. The concept of care is focused on the general aspect of group of clients in the institution. It may be compared to an aspect of care wherein the care is based on the needs of the patients in general. The institution delivers the service to the client in a broader aspect. Examples of this are the set of diet to be served to a certain conditions are the same set of food. While some patient doesn’t want to eat a certain set that is generally being served to them, the institution do not adjust in the individual request of the patient except on the list of menus they can choose from. Though this should be applied mostly in every institution, in caring with dementia, this concept of care is not popular as the focused to their care should be more person-centred due to the needs of more personal and intimate care to be ab le to give an effective mode of treatment of care. So for the example regarding diet for a certain group of dementia patients in a facility, most likely that they will be demanding a different set from the one that is commonly being serve to them, it is equally important to note to the facility management to give in to some little request of the patients like extra egg or cup of tea instead of milk. Caring dementia clients needs to be more personal because of the uniqueness of the manifestations to every individual. Bio-Medical Perspective This perspective of care focuses on the medical aspect of treating the condition of dementia patients. It is equally important in the aspect of care because the medical team specifically in the field of research are in continuous pursuit of looking for treatment of the conditions associated with dementia patients. It is therefore important to the team to focus on the diagnosis and the course of care and treatment and constant documentation of the patients’ condition regardless of its connection of care to other care approach as the care of this is more on the scientific aspect of care and does not rely on the interdependence with other members of the care team. Question 3 Reality-orientation Approach This type of technique has been long use by different health care personnel not only in the care of people with dementia but as well as to other condition that affects the cognitive and reality function of the person. It involves with visual aides and basic knowledge orientation like asking about current events and today’s date. This approach is an interaction between the staff and the client. We know that patients with dementia are having trouble remembering recent events, that is why doing this approach is much needed and must be done more often. The staff can also ask the client some basic current events that the client should be able to remember if the memory is still fresh like the current Prime Minister of New Zealand. Asking the current date is equally important to prevent the client from memory deterioration. Most facilities should be able to post visible visual aids that are easy for the elderly to read like a big calendar to common areas where they can see it more of ten. The team can also innovate in doing it so in a way that it appears to be more fun and enjoyable to the clients. It can be done in a form of games where group of patients are gathered together and a facilitator ask them series of questions that involves reality orientation. In this way, they will feel it as a form of game without creating pressure to anyone being asked. It can be done in schedule as a way of socialising with others as well. Personal interaction can be done as much as possible. That is why all the health care workers should be able to learn these skills and be able to integrate it to their everyday interactions with the patients. Validation Approach Emotional aspect of the patients should always be considered in caring them. By doing a validation approach, they will allow the clients to voice out their concerns in contrast to what is actually you are observing. Care providers can do it by observing the patients emotional state and by asking them what they are currently feeling. By doing this, the patient will feel that their current emotional state are being considered and will uphold their integrity and purpose to live. Though this technique often seems to be complicated to care givers, but this approach seems to be the most important to the clients by just merely listening to them you will be able to ease what they are feeling. Assistive Technologies Nowadays healthcare institutions are dependent on the use of assistive technologies in carrying out their daily tasks in taking care of the patients. These technologies are very much helpful in managing the care of the patients like use of wheelchair, hoist, walker and others. Wheelchair is one of the most common equipment being used by elderly who are having difficulty in walking. It is important to note that as the age progresses they are becoming dependent to these equipment. Improper use of it will also lead to an accident that will add to the health problems of the elderly. Proper training to all including the staff is essential and as well as those caregiver who are under the direct care of the client. The patients should also be evaluated as often as possible if ever there is a need of other equipments to aid the care or there is a progress in order to provide more independence as much as possible. Reminiscence Techniques This technique is very common to those who are suffering Alzheimer’s disease. This is very effective if the one who are giving the care is a relative or someone who have been around with the client for a long time because the goal of reminiscing old good events are those that being shared by the client and the carer. In this way, the patient may relive an old fond memory that may enhance the ability to regain lost memory. By doing so, the client’s self-esteem is being established again that will give them a sense of life integrity. Holistic Approach This approach is very effective and should always be integrated in every care because it will encompasses all aspect of care by looking at the patient’s condition not only by their physiological needs but also their emotional, social, spiritual and psychological needs. By meeting each aspect of the individual’s needs, the client’s wellbeing is being uplifted and the caring process is broader that they can feel that their needs are being attended. Question 4 Public Health and Health Promotion In public health, there has been an effort to create a harmonious environment when it comes to equality, and cultural diversity as far as provision of the person-centred approach to individual is concerned. It is the goal of the private sector in partnership with the government to create a program that will be beneficial to elderly with dementia and across diversified cultural differences. They have even made it as a priority for dementia in all of its community involvement and awareness of the condition. In the health promotion aspect, the government had listed down six activities for those who have dementia. It includes minimising discrimination, where it should not be in any care, by promoting it, people suffering from this condition will be able to integrate in the community and have a graceful aging. Secondly, they focused on enhancing person-centred approach that every client with dementia should be able to receive this type of approach, as this would be more effective to elder clients. Thirdly, they promote activities that reduces stoke so the facilities must involve all the clients in a more active lifestyle and activities despite the challenges that the patients are having. Fourth is the reduction of incidence of fall as this is very common to elderly. Safety measures have been promoted and being practice to lessen the incidence among the clients. Their mental health is also important that is why is should be given a priority by assessing their mental wellbeing, and lastly, they encourage health and activity in older life in order to prevent these common conditions affecting elderly people. By engaging them to more active task while aging, they lessen the tendency of developing common geriatric conditions (National Service Framework, Department of Health, 2001). Question 5 The goal of these health sector standards and codes of practice, and other standards in applying to a person-centred approach for individuals with dementia and other common geriatric health conditions is to be a guideline in practicing the care to this group of client. Since most of them they are unable to promote their rights as a consumer, these codes will be a guidelines for us and will be a moral etiquette checker if the provider are doing what is supposed to be done. Conclusion Since people with dementia may tend to be uneasy and disorganise due to the complexity of their condition, person-centred approach in managing their care should be inculcated in the health care team. Though it may be independent from institution perspective of care as well as to bio-medical perspective, the core of the care should be running in a person-centred approach since all we care after all is what the clients will feel when we are at their side and we are talking to them. While their abilities to communicate and recognise simple task is fluctuating, we should always be ready to guide them and relive what is missing in them so that they can continue living a life worth living. Recommendation Due to the fluctuating health condition of people with dementia and other common geriatric health conditions, the following recommendation are made concerning continuous staff training, public engagement and stakeholders support. Continuous staff training Staff and caregivers alike should be able to receive the latest information in giving care that would be focused on the person-centred approach, because it is commonly being neglected due to the outlying medical concerns of the client, this important aspect of care is often being taken for granted. The facilities should conduct at least once a year or as soon as there are latest innovation towards caring has been released. Public Engagement Though this is more common in an aging population like New Zealand, it is often neglected by the citizens due to various commitments they are dealing from a day to day. Engaging the family more often will be beneficial not only to the care facilities but also to the client who lacks attention from their own family. Stakeholders support It will not be successful without the support of everyone who are involve in the care. There should be a harmony in carrying out the goal of having a more patient focused care. Nonetheless, it is everyone’s responsibility as a providers to be the best that they can be for the benefit of the clients with dementia to achieve optimum health. Bibliography Electronic source http://www.health.govt.nz (National Service Framework, Department of Health, 2001).

Women Characters in My Antonia and Giants in the Earth :: Willa Cather O.E. Rolvaag

Women Characters in My Antonia and Giants in the Earth Many women characters appear in fiction who have been damaged by or disintegrate under the stresses of life. Just as in life, however, many fictional characters survive, adapt, and triumph; these characters may never be recognized within a larger world, but they are vitally important to other characters and are the objects of deep love and respect. Creating this woman in fiction can often be difficult, because the writer must present a whole character, not one trivialized by sentimentality or stereotyped by convention. Willa Cather in My Antonia and O.E. Rolvaag in Giants in the Earth have developed such characters. As Michael Peterman points out, Antonia is "a celebration of vitality and of human potential within the context of natural and mortal limitations" and teaches us to "value the irrepressible, genuinely generous, life enhancing aspects of human nature" (98). Antonia also shares these characteristics to a large degree with another fictional character, Rolvaag's Sorine from Giants. Both women emerge as people of great strength, women who are touchstones for those around them. Before considering the similarities, it might be well to review the apparent differences between Sorine and Antonia. In the first place, there are differences in their style. Sorine appears to be a conventional, Old World peasant woman fulfilling conventional roles: devoted mother and loyal wife, helping her husband achieve his dream. Furthermore, we see her only as a mature woman. In contrast, because we follow Antonia's development to maturity and centeredness, we see sides of her life which we can only speculate about in comparing her to Sorine. For example, Antonia works first as a boy might in her family's fields. Then she is brought into town to learn more "proper" roles--housekeeping skills. In town she gives herself to the social pleasures denied her thus far in life and eventually falls prey to the blandishments of an unprincipled charmer. When that relationship ends disastrously, she makes a new life for herself, marrying and happily raising a large family. At this point she is clearly important, not only to the narrator, Jim Burden, but also to many others. Life's path may have been different for her than for Sorine, but its destination was the same: the esteem, admiration, and love of those she held dear .