M.A. English 4th Sem

The Guide Plot summary Railway Raju (nicknamed) is a disarmingly  corrupt  guide who falls in love with a beautiful dancer, Rosie, the neglected wife of archaeologist  Marco . Marco doesn't approve of Rosie's passion for  dancing. Rosie, encouraged by Raju, decides to follow her dreams and start a dancing career. They start living together and Raju's mother, as she does not approve of their relationship, leaves them. Raju becomes Rosie's stage manager and soon with the help of Raju's  marketing  tactics, Rosie becomes a successful dancer.Raju, however, develops an inflated sense of self-importance and tries to control her. Raju gets involved in a case of  forgery  and gets a two year sentence. After completing the sentence, Raju passes through a village where he is mistaken for a  sadhu  (a spiritual guide). Reluctantly, as he does not want to return in disgrace to  Malgudi, he stays in an abandoned temple. There is a  famine  in the village and Raju is expe cted to keep a  fast  in order to make it rain. With media publicizing his fast, a huge crowd gathers (much to Raju's resentment) to watch him fast.After fasting for several days, he goes to the riverside one morning as part of his daily ritual, where his legs sag down as he feels that the rain is falling in the hills. The ending of the novel leaves unanswered the question of whether he did, or whether the  drought  has really ended. The last line of the novel is ‘Raju said â€Å"Velan, its raining up the hills, I can feel it under my feet. † And with this he saged down'. The last line implies that by now Raju after undergoing so many ups and downs in his life has become a sage and as the drought ends Raju's life also ends.Narayan has beautifully written the last line which means Raju did not die but saged down, meaning Raju within himself had become a sage. Character of Rosie Rosie is one of the main characters in the novel. She is presented in the novel as a b eautiful dancer, of the  Devadasi  type of  temple dancers, and the wife of Marco. Her marriage is like a curse in disguise to her as Marco is totally engrossed in his career and is totally apathetic and unemotional to her. She is very passionate about dancing but her husband does not allow her to dance.She tries to persuade her husband and bears all the insults by him just for the sake of getting his permission to dance. When she is left in  Malgudi  by Marco to live with Raju, she devotes herself completely to dancing. She wakes early in the morning and practices hard for three hours everyday. She is always eager to talk about dance and even tries to teach Raju some of it. She is religious and believes in Goddess  Saraswati  and has a  bronze statue  of  Nataraja, which is an image of  Shiva  as the  cosmic  Lord of  Dance, in her office. She does not believe in   discriminating  between people on the basis of their financial status.When Raju meet s rich and influential people, Rosie does not seem to care much about them. Being herself an artist, she respects the arts and likes to be in the company of artists and other music lovers. Her success does not get to her head even after becoming a very successful professional dancer. Raju becomes upset when Rosie spends a lot of time with different artists rather than with him. He tells her that these artists come to her because they are inferior to her and she replies that she is tired of all these talks of superior and inferior and does not believe in any of these.She is also portrayed as a traditional Indian wife. Her husband is like God to her. Marco calls her dancing skills as street  acrobatics  and compares it to  monkey  dance. Despite all these insults she continues to be his wife. When Marco comes to know about the intimacy between her and Raju he gets very upset and doesn't talk to her and completely ignores her presence. She apologizes to him and keeps on followi ng him like a dog hoping that his mind would change one day but that does not happen. This incident shows her tremendous tolerance power and her optimistic attitude.Even after she becomes very successful in her career and independent of her husband Marco she still has his photograph which conveys that she still considered Marco to be her husband and highlights her traditional Indian wife kind of character. However, she is often referred as ‘The Serpent girl' by Raju's mother, because his mother thinks that she was responsible for the ruined condition of her family and her son. Raju also seems to dislike her at the end of the story and holds her as the culprit. Rosie was also disliked by Raju's friends, Gaffur and Sait due to her intimacy with Raju.What is the summary of the Novel The Guide written By R. K. Narayan? Answer:- Raju is a railway guide who becomes obsessed with Rosie, a neglected wife of an archeologist Marco. Rosie has a passion for dancing which Marco doesn't app rove of. Rosie, encouraged by Raju, decides to follow her dreams and walks out on her husband. Raju becomes her stage manager and soon with the help of Raju's marketing tactics, Rosie becomes a successful dancer. By giving Rosie the opportunity to dance, Raju is also giving her freedom, freedom which Marco has suppressed by refusing to let her dance.Raju, however, develops an inflated sense of self-importance and tries to control Rosie. But a man should not live off a woman. On the other hand, what if she is successful only because of that man? The relationship between Raju and Rosie is strained. Marco reappears and Raju inadvertently gets involved in a case of forgery and gets a two year sentence. After completing the sentence, Raju is passing through a village when he is mistaken for a sadhu (a spiritual guru). Being reluctant to return in disgrace to Malgudi, he decides to play the part of the swami and makes the village temple his home.There is a famine in the village and Swami Raju, like the sadhu in one of his stories that he used to narrate to the villagers, is expected to keep a fast to get the rains. And he does go on a fast. Despite grave danger to his health, he continues to fast until he collapses. ‘Can there be any connection between one man's hunger and the rains? ‘ ‘Is there someone up there and does he listen to you? ‘ He is undergoing a spiritual transformation and the place has become a shrine. ‘Will it rain? ‘ Well, the villagers have faith in him and he has faith in their faith.Despite grave danger to his health, he continues to fast until he collapses. His legs sag down as he feels that the rain is falling in the hills. The ending of the novel leaves unanswered the question of whether he dies, or whether the drought has really ended. The English Teacher The English Teacher  is a 1945 novel written by  R. K. Narayan. This is the third and final part in the series, preceded by  Swami and Friends  ( 1935) and  The Bachelor of Arts  (1937). This novel, dedicated to Narayan's wife Rajam is not only  autobiographical  but also poignant in its intensity of feeling.The story is a series of experiences in the life of Krishna, an English teacher, and his quest towards achieving inner peace and self-development. Plot As an English teacher at Albert Mission College, Krishna has led a mundane and monotonous lifestyle comparable to that of a cow, but this took a turn when his wife, Susila, and their child, Leela, come to live with him. With their welfare on his hands, Krishna learns to be a proper husband and learns how to accept the responsibility of taking care of his family.He felt that his life had comparatively improved, as he understood that there's more meaning to life than to just teaching in the college. However, on the day when they went in search of a new house, Susila contracts typhoid after visiting a dirty lavatory, keeping her in bed for weeks. Throughout the entire course of her illness, Krishna constantly tries to keep an optimistic view about Susila's illness, keeping his hopes up by thinking that her illness would soon be cured. However, Susila eventually succumbs and passes away.Krishna, destroyed by her loss, has suicidal thoughts but gives them up for the sake of his daughter, Leela. He leads his life as a lost and miserable person after her death, but after he receives a letter from a stranger who indicates that Susila has been in contact with him and that she wants to communicate with Krishna, he becomes more collected and cheerful. This leads to Krishna’s journey in search of enlightenment, with the stranger acting as a medium to Susila in the spiritual world.Leela, on the other hand, goes to a preschool where Krishna gets to meet the Headmaster, a profound man who cared for the students in his school and teaches them moral values through his own methods. The Headmaster puts his students as his top priority but he doesnâ€℠¢t care for his own family and children, eventually leaving them on the day predicted by an astrologer as to be when he was going to die, which did not come true. Krishna gets to learn through the Headmaster on the journey to enlightenment; eventually learning to ommunicate to Susila on his own, thus concluding the entire story itself, with the quote that he felt ‘a moment of rare immutable joy'. PLOT Krishna, is spending his married days in a College hostel, living like cattle, far from marital bliss until one afternoon he receives a letter from his father wishing him to settle a home in Malgudi with his wife and child. What follows next is a series of light hearted chatter about Krishna adapting to the domestic responsibility which convert him into a man (from cattle! ). One day, when Krishna and Susila go out to look for a house, Susila falls ill and dies after a spell of typhoid.Krishna’s life is deserted, but he has to keep solace in his bundle of joy, Leela, his d aughter. In the next few months he learns and executes household chores, takes charge of child and goes out to college until one day he receives a letter from his wife Susila!!! Krishna embarks on a journey to attain nirvana to bridge with the spirit of his wife Susila, as per her wish in the letter and future correspondences. Parallel to this the child has grown up enough and starts attending school. The school Headmaster is a man of strong will and has dedicated his whole life for the education of small children.His philosophy attracts Krishna and it’s the incidents in Schoolmaster’s life which help Krishna turn around and attain Nirvana, which he had been trying to achieve since long time. Finally, the child is sent to the grandparents and Krishna resigns from his job as the English teacher. He takes up work in kindergarten and succeeds in uniting with his ‘soul mate’. How? Find out! Apart from Krishna, Susila and Leela, another significant character is Leela’s schoolmaster. He is a revolutionary educationist who wants his pupils to be happy in life.His wife doesn’t respect him and discard his principles and his children live miserably due to this domestic discord. One day, he decides to leave his family for good to fulfill his dream. Its his way of life which helps Krishna in his journey. The high points:  twice while reading this otherwise effortless book, comes two small accounts which are treat for your literary buds. First, the scene where Susila has died and Krishna is sitting all night alongside her corpse and then next day the journey to cremation ground and back is presented in a first class narrative, profoundly touching and flamboyant.It’s  noticeable  that RKN was capable of composing ornate literature but chose to be simple for good. Secondly, in the last chapter, the narrative is dynamic, first with the farewell party scene in college where his colleagues and students are biding Krishna bye bye, and second when he reaches home and is into the state of peace at last. The supernatural plot  in the story is well constituted and angelic. It doesn’t look ‘forced’ because it is well justified and aesthetic. The happenings in Krishna’s life play important role in his journey from a novice learner to a successful master of this science.It’s a joy to read through his experiences which make him a better human being. To simply put,  narration  is ordinary but nonetheless ecstatic. The characters are well sculptured and blend in the story smoothly. It is as lucid for a fifth standard student to comprehend but as intricate for an adult to conclude. Another  delight  is that the size of the book is just apt. Only 184 pages make it a fast, easy and enjoyable read with no frills & no insignificant blah blah. Untouchable This article is about the Mulk Raj Anand novel. For the John Banville novel, see  The Untouchable (novel).Untouchable  is a  novel  by  Mulk Raj Anand  published in 1935. The novel established Anand as one of India's leading  English  authors. [1]The book was inspired by his aunt's experience when she had a meal with a Muslim person and was treated as an outcast by his family. [2]  The plot of this book, Anand's first, revolves around the argument for eradicating the  caste system. [3]  It depicts a day in the life of Bakha, a young â€Å"sweeper†, who is â€Å"untouchable† due to his work cleaning latrines. Plot Untouchable’ is the story of a single day in the life of 18 year old  untouchable  boy named Bakha, who lives in pre-independence India.Bakha is described as `strong and able-bodied`, full of enthusiasm and dreams varying from to dressing like a ‘Tommie’ (Englishmen) in ‘fashun’ to playing  hockey. However, his limited means and the fact that he belongs to the lowest caste even amongst untouchables, forces him to beg fo r food, to often face humiliation, and to be at the mercy of the whims of other, higher caste, Hindus. The day described in the story is a difficult one for Bakha. Over the course of the day, he is slapped in public for ‘polluting' an upper caste Hindu through an accidental touch and has food thrown at him by another person after he cleans her gutters.His sister is molested by a priest, he is blamed for an injury received by a young boy following a melee after a hockey match, and he is thrown out of his house by his father. In the story, Mulk Raj Anand presents two choices, or ways in which Bakha in particular and untouchables in general can be liberated from the life they are born into. The first choice is that of Christianity, a religion that does not recognize the caste system. The second comes from the teachings of Gandhi who calls for the freeing of Harijans. PrefaceAfter the very long duration of time, I am here to present my exposition of an English Poem â€Å"The Quee n’s Rival†Ã‚   composed by Sarojini Naidu who was a celebrated woman of letters of her times as the great poetess and was also honored with the title of â€Å"The Nightingale of India†. The theme of the poem in exposition is based on a tale from a book â€Å"Arabian Nights’. The original author of the book is unknown, but it is translated in many languages of the world. The book with the title as â€Å"New Arabian Nights’ in English was translated by Robert Louis Stevenson. Andrew Lang also had written the same book in English.In Gujarati also, we can have the said book under the Title â€Å"Arbastaan-ni- Vaato. Over the centuries, the countless editions of the Arabian Nights have been published. The original text of the poem in three parts is as follows: The poem is taken from â€Å"The Golden Threshold†, the first volume of verse published in 1905 by Sarojini Naidu. â€Å"The Queen’s Rival† I QUEEN GULNAAR sat on her ivory bed, Around her countless treasures were spread; Her chamber walls were richly inlaid With agate, porphyry, onyx and jade; The tissues that veiled her delicate breast, Glowed with the hues of a lapwing’s crest;But still she gazed in her mirror and sighed â€Å"O King, my heart is unsatisfied. † King Feroz bent from his ebony seat: â€Å"Is thy least desire unfulfilled, O Sweet? â€Å"Let thy mouth speak and my life be spent To clear the sky of thy discontent. † â€Å"I tire of my beauty, I tire of this Empty splendour and shadow-less bliss; â€Å"With none to envy and none gainsay, No savour or salt hath my dream or day. † Queen Gulnaar sighed like a murmuring rose: â€Å"Give me a rival, O King Feroz. † II King Feroz spoke to his Chief Vizier: â€Å"Lo! ere to-morrow’s dawn be here, â€Å"Send forth my messengers over the sea,To seek seven beautiful brides for me; â€Å"Radiant of feature and regal of mien, Seven handmaids meet for the Persian Queen. † Seven new moon tides at the Vesper call, King Feroz led to Queen Gulnaar’s hall A young queen eyed like the morning star: â€Å"I bring thee a rival, O Queen Gulnaar. † But still she gazed in her mirror and sighed: â€Å"O King, my heart is unsatisfied. † Seven queens shone round her ivory bed, Like seven soft gems on a silken thread, Like seven fair lamps in a royal tower, Like seven bright petals of Beauty’s flower Queen Gulnaar sighed like a murmuring rose â€Å"Where is my rival, O King Feroz? III When spring winds wakened the mountain floods, And kindled the flame of the tulip buds, When bees grew loud and the days grew long, And the peach groves thrilled to the oriole’s song, Queen Gulnaar sat on her ivory bed, Decking with jewels her exquisite head; And still she gazed in her mirror and sighed: â€Å"O King, my heart is unsatisfied. † Queen Gulnsar’s daughter two spring times old, In blue robes bordered with tassels of gold, Ran to her knee like a wildwood fay, And plucked from her hand the mirror away. Quickly she set on her own light curls Her mother’s fillet with fringes of pearls;Quickly she turned with a child’s caprice And pressed on the mirror a swift, glad kiss. Queen Gulnaar laughed like a tremulous rose: â€Å"Here is my rival, O King Feroz. † -Sarojini Naidu Synopsis of the poem: Feroz is the king of Persia. Gulnaar is his queen. In spite of the pompous palace life, the queen is not satisfied at heart. Though she is beautiful, she is longing for her rival. Sighing like a murmuring rose, she asks the king to give a rival to her who can compete with her beauty. On demand of Gulnaar, the king marries seven beautiful brides and asks them to live with Gulnaar as her maid-servants.The seven queens were supposed to be Gulnaar’s rivals, but she continues to gaze in her mirror saying all the times that her heart was not satisfied with all those so cal led rivals. After some years, the queen Gulnaar gives birth to a baby-girl. When the princess becomes two years old, she runs to her knees to the Queen and snatches the mirror away from her hand. Then she wears her mother’s hair-band around her head and presses her swift kiss on mirror. This very innocent gesture of the child makes Gulnaar laugh like a rose trembling on a plant with soft wind.She exclaims with joy, ‘Here is my rival, O King Feroz. † Exposition: When we go through the poem under discussion, we do come to the concluding outcome of our study that Sarojini Naidu was really a natural, proficient and born poetess of her times. The narrations of Gulnaar’s bed, her chamber and her fabric are such attractive with flower of speech that we would like to read those stanzas again and again in spite of the use of difficult words for various gems. The colorful muslin covering her delicate chest is compared with the crest of a bird named lapwing.But, in sp ite of her happiness, she gazed in her mirror and sighed saying, â€Å"O King, my heart is unsatisfied. † While proceeding further, we come across the romantic dialogues spoken by both King Feroz and Queen. Gulnaar as below: â€Å"Is thy least desire unfulfilled, O Sweet? Let thy mouth speak and my life be spent. To clear the sky of thy discontent† said the King. The Queen said, â€Å"I tire of my beauty, I tire of this, Empty splendor and shadow-less bliss; With none to envy and none gainsay (rejoin), and savor (taste) or salt hath my dream or day. † Queen Gulnaar sighed and said, â€Å"Give me a rival, King Feroz†.King Feroz ordered to his chief Vizier to send messengers over the sea to look for seven beautiful brides. The King said that the brides should be of glowing beauty and   be appointed to be in attendance to the Queen. They all stood with such stunning beauty that they looked like a necklace of seven gems of attractive colors on a silken thre ad. In other words to say, the queens looked like seven beautiful lamps in a royal tower and seven bright petals of a most beautiful flower. Yet, Queen Gulnaar sighed and expressed her dissatisfaction saying, â€Å"King Feroz, where is my rival? Against this background, Queen Gulnaar sat on her ivory bed adorning her delicate hair with precious jewels. She gazed in the mirror and sighed, â€Å"O King, my heart is still dissatisfied†. Prior to the concluding part of the poem, the poetess highlights a delicate psychological point that any power, prosperity or beauty if vested in one person becomes the cause of dissatisfaction at long. Rivalry in any field or aspect of life is the most essential factor for mental happiness and satisfaction. Monopoly, at long last, becomes like boredom. Human mind always longs for competition. It is the human nature that wishes that the fficiency, richness, strength, capability or beauty should be challenged by somebody. One should have opportun ity of being tested one’s own worthiness of merits. Here, the Queen Gulnaar is unhappy in absence of any rival in case of her beauty. She was not satisfied with the rivalry of seven queens. When the poem seems advancing to its end, a turning point arises all of a sudden. Gulnaar is then lucky enough to have a powerful competitor. Her competitor is nobody else but her two years old daughter herself. One day, Queen Gulnaar’s two year old daughter was adorned with precious dress.The child, like a fairy in a forest, rushed to the Queen and snatched the mirror away from her hand.. Then the child quickly wore her mother’s hair-band. Suddenly, with a child-like move, she planted happily a kiss on the mirror. Queen Gulnaar laughed like a quivering rose, saying, â€Å"O King Feroz, look, here is my rival†. Summing up, Gulnaar realized that her daughter was the real rival of hers. Then the poem dramatically ends with the reality of life that the parents are always happy when they see their young ones playing and doing various innocent actions and tricks around them.The poetess has successfully presented the psychological point of mothering and motherhood through these sonnet-like three parts of the poem. The Soul’s Prayer In childhood’s pride I said to Thee:‘O Thou, who mad’st me of Thy breath, Speak, Master, and reveal to meThine inmost laws of life and death. ‘Give me to drink each joy and painWhich Thine eternal hand can mete, For my insatiate soul would drainEarth’s utmost bitter, utmost sweet. ‘Spare me no bliss, no pang of strife,Withhold no gift or grief I crave, The intricate lore of love and lifeAnd mystic knowledge of the grave. ’Lord, Thou didst answer stern and low:‘Child, I will hearken to thy prayer, And thy unconquered soul shall knowAll passionate rapture and despair. ‘Thou shalt drink deep of joy and fame,And love shall burn thee like a fire, And pain shall clea nse thee like a flame,To purge the dross from thy desire. ‘So shall thy chastened spirit yearnTo seek from its blind prayer release, And spent and pardoned, sue to learnThe simple secret of My peace. ‘I, bending from my sevenfold height,Will teach thee of My quickening grace, Life is a prism of My light,And Death the shadow of My face. ’ The Soul’s Prayer by Sarojini Naidu: Summary and ExplanationWhat a beautiful prayer. Sarojini Naidu understands that both â€Å"good and bad things† in life are necessary for a satisfactory completion of one soul’s agenda. First the question Everything is perfect exactly as it is. We can’t see the other side because we are not there – but we know that within the frame of time we will get there and be able to see the whole of the mosaic image. At the moment certain things don’t make sense; but that doesn’t deter Naidu to accept life as it is: with the bitter and the sweet. This shows great understanding of how the soul uses the body and the body-brain as mere tools to develop spiritually.The spiritually blind will want to reject the painful parts of life, failing to envisage that the only way the soul can be cleansed of residue or simple unorganized illusory perceptions is to have the calling of pain. Pains serve two important purposes: when knocking at the door they grant vision to our spiritual; as the physical ones can only see the wound and the wound doesn’t always present itself when a crack in the thought system needs to be sealed (cleansed). The second purpose of the â€Å"pain calling† is to remind us, each and every time, that our little plans and designs won’t heal the root of the problem.In a chaotic world  God is  needed at the root; the soil surpassing any logic within our human limited comprehension of the workings of Truth and Knowledge. We have been made of God’s breath, so our very essence goes further than resem bling His. We are his breath and like it, when it is expired (exhalation) we experience human life as it presents itself now; when inspired (inhalation) we make an attempt to go back home through the death of the body. Each breath represents a state in our being, death the beginning of our spiritual life, birth the end of it.Human birth and death imply a simple reversal: spiritual death and birth. The never-ending moment and movement of inspiration and expiration are very much stated in the words  of the song â€Å"The Windmills of your Mind†: Round, like a circle in a spiralLike a wheel within a wheel. Never ending or beginning,  On an ever spinning wheel Sarojini writes this poem with the voice of a child and it is impressive to see someone so eager to go back to God (to wake up). By asking God to withhold nothing (â€Å"Withhold no gift or grief I crave†) she is delighted because the soul might not have to come back to deal with vagabond issues.The knowledge of the grave is mystic (â€Å"And mystic knowledge of the grave†) because we simply don’t know. What happens at the grave goes beyond our ordinary senses; we can’t experience it while in this body. Neither do we remember how it was nor what it was before human birth, something needed if we are to work on our toxic character defects with a full blown amount of fairness. Purity doesn’t come at a low price; we must endure the difficulties we chose for this life as souls and live with the consequences of our choices and actions – choices and actions that define us as we go along.Then God answers God grants Sarojini her wish, and this is interesting because it is what differentiates the boys from the men. The boys cry because God â€Å"brings† suffering to the world. The men understand that suffering is only part of the game. Life is just another â€Å"genre† of the Spinning or Cosmic Wheel. This particular version of â€Å"us† is play ed out with drama as well as through time intervals, obvious script techniques needed for our development as central characters. For the â€Å"arch† to take place, ups and downs are necessary.A good shaping of this arch determined by our behavior will make the play more or less dynamic but that doesn’t take away the overall theme: spiritual growth expanding into an inevitable awakening. ‘Thou shalt drink deep of joy and fame,And love shall burn thee like a fire, And pain shall cleanse thee like a flame,To purge the dross from thy desire. These are part of the inevitabilities required for the awakening. First we need to go through the experience of  desiring  joy, fame, love. The problems are not in these very things (joy, fame, love), but in the desire we feel for them.Desire pushes us into manipulation, which comes at the price of expectation, which ends in resentment when outcomes are not met. The line fails to be linear and the ups and downs manifesting fr om our erroneous perception carry pain along the way. Desire, then, is not desirable. It always implies suffering as well as other dirty little tricks like judgment and punishment. We might have to go through the pain many, many lives. But eventually the lesson is learned – pain â€Å"cleanses us like a flame, purging the dross from our desire†. The Spirit’s yearn, a seeking cry, comes not from us but from God Himself!God cries for us, His children, begging us to come home. The release is a call to the waking up that takes place when blind prayer turns into a sighted realization:  we never actually needed to learn through pain, and there was never anything to fear. Mystic mystery is a simple secret, nothing more. It’s God’s peace. The last verse discloses a loving God; a God that bends with care to teach His children that where the sun has never shone there is also light, His light. Shadow and Light are just like birth and death, like night and d ay, like inhaling and exhaling. Pain and joy are just part of the windmills of your mind.And the Mind – deep and calm in its Real state – when filtered through the body is just a memory of something else. Biography of Kamala Das Kamala Surayya / Suraiyya formerly known as Kamala Das , (also known as Kamala Madhavikutty, pen name was Madhavikutty) was a major Indian English poet and litterateur and at the same time a leading Malayalam author from Kerala, India. Her popularity in Kerala is based chiefly on her short stories and autobiography, while her oeuvre in English, written under the name Kamala Das, is noted for the fiery poems and explicit autobiography.Her open and honest treatment of female sexuality, free from any sense of guilt, infused her writing with power, but also marked her as an iconoclast in her generation. On 31 May 2009, aged 75, she died at a hospital in Pune, but has earned considerable respect in recent years. Early Life Kamala Das was born in Pun nayurkulam, Thrissur District in Kerala, on March 31, 1934, to V. M. Nair, a former managing editor of the widely-circulated Malayalam daily Mathrubhumi, and Nalappatt Balamani Amma, a renowned Malayali poetess.She spent her childhood between Calcutta, where her father was employed as a senior officer in the Walford Transport Company that sold Bentley and Rolls Royce automobiles, and the Nalappatt ancestral home in Punnayurkulam. Like her mother, Kamala Das also excelled in writing. Her love of poetry began at an early age through the influence of her great uncle, Nalappatt Narayana Menon, a prominent writer. At the age of 15, she got married to bank officer Madhava Das, who encouraged her writing interests, and she started writing and publishing both in English and in Malayalam.Calcutta in the 1960s was a tumultous time for the arts, and Kamala Das was one of the many voices that came up and started appearing in cult anthologies along with a generation of Indian English poets. Lite rary Career She was noted for her many Malayalam short stories as well as many poems written in English. Das was also a syndicated columnist. She once claimed that â€Å"poetry does not sell in this country [India]†, but her forthright columns, which sounded off on everything from women's issues and child care to politics, were popular.Das' first book of poetry, Summer In Calcutta was a breath of fresh air in Indian English poetry. She wrote chiefly of love, its betrayal, and the consequent anguish. Ms. Das abandoned the certainties offered by an archaic, and somewhat sterile, aestheticism for an independence of mind and body at a time when Indian poets were still governed by â€Å"19th-century diction, sentiment and romanticised love. † Her second book of poetry, The descendants was even more explicit, urging women to: â€Å"Gift him what makes you woman, the scent of Long hair, the musk of sweat between the breasts.The warm shock of menstrual blood, and all your End less female hungers †¦ † – The Looking Glass This directness of her voice led to comparisons with Marguerite Duras and Sylvia Plath At the age of 42, she published a daring autobiography, My Story; it was originally written in Malayalam and later she translated it into English. Later she admitted that much of the autobiography had fictional elements. Kamala Das wrote on a diverse range of topics, often disparate- from the story of a poor old servant, about the sexual disposition of upper middle class women living near a metropolitan city or in the middle of the ghetto.Some of her better-known stories include Pakshiyude Manam, Neypayasam, Thanuppu, and Chandana Marangal. She wrote a few novels, out of which Neermathalam Pootha Kalam, which was received favourably by the reading public as well as the critics, stands out. She travelled extensively to read poetry to Germany's University of Duisburg-Essen, University of Bonn and University of Duisburg universities, Adel aide Writer's Festival , Frankfurt Book Fair, University of Kingston, Jamaica, Singapore, and South Bank Festival (London), Concordia University (Montreal, Canada), etc.Her works are available in French, Spanish, Russian, German and Japanese. She has also held positions as Vice chairperson in Kerala Sahitya Academy, chairperson in Kerala forestry Board, President of the Kerala Children's Film Society, editor of Poet magazine and Poetry editor of Illustrated Weekly of India. Although occasionally seen as an attention-grabber in her early years, she is now seen as one of the most formative influences on Indian English poetry. In 2009, The Times called her â€Å"the mother of modern English Indian poetry†. Conversion to IslamShe was born in a conservative Hindu Nair (Nallappattu) family having royal ancestry, After being asked by her lover Sadiq Ali, an Islamic scholar and a Muslim League MP, she embraced Islam in 1999 at the age of 65 and assumed the name Kamala Surayya. After converting, she wrote: â€Å"Life has changed for me since Nov. 14 when a young man named Sadiq Ali walked in to meet me. He is 38 and has a beautiful smile. Afterwards he began to woo me on the phone from Abu Dhabi and Dubai, reciting Urdu couplets and telling me of what he would do to me after our marriage. I took my nurse Mini and went to his place in my car.I stayed with him for three days. There was a sunlit river, some trees, and a lot of laughter. He asked me to become a Muslim which I did on my return home. † Her conversion was rather controversial, among social and literary circles, with The Hindu calling it part of her â€Å"histrionics†. She said she liked being behind the protective veil of the purdah. Later, she felt it was not worth it to change one's religion and said â€Å"I fell in love with a Muslim after my husband's death. He was kind and generous in the beginning. But I now feel one shouldn't change one's religion. It is not worth it. â€Å". Pol iticsThough never politically active before, she launched a national political party, Lok Seva Party, aiming asylum to orphaned mothers and promotion of secularism. In 1984 she unsuccessfully contested in the Indian Parliament elections. Personal Life Kamala Das had three sons – M D Nalapat, Chinnen Das and Jayasurya Das. Madhav Das Nalapat, the eldest, is married to Princess Lakshmi Bayi (daughter of M. R. Ry. Sri Chembrol Raja Raja Varma Avargal) from the Travancore Royal House. He holds the UNESCO Peace Chair and Professor of geopolitics at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education. He was formerly a resident editor of the Times of India.She had a sexual relationship with Sadiq Ali, an Islamic scholar who was much younger in age. She herself describes her visit to Sadiq Ali's home as follows: â€Å"I was almost asleep when Sadiq Ali climbed in beside me, holding me, breathing softly, whispering endearments, kissing my face, breasts †¦ and when he entered me, it was the first time I had ever experienced what it was like to feel a man from the inside. † Womanhood in her Poetry Das' uncanny honesty extends to her exploration of womanhood and love. In her poem â€Å"An Introduction† from Summer in Calcutta, the narrator says, â€Å"I am every/ Woman who seeks love† (de Souza 10).Though Amar Dwivedi criticizes Das for this â€Å"self imposed and not natural† universality, this feeling of oneness permeates her poetry (303). In Das' eyes, womanhood involves certain collective experiences. Indian women, however, do not discuss these experiences in deference to social mores. Das consistently refuses to accept their silence. Feelings of longing and loss are not confined to a private misery. They are invited into the public sphere and acknowledged. Das seems to insist they are normal and have been felt by women across time.In â€Å"The Maggots† from the collection, The Descendants, Das corroborates just how old the sufferin gs of women are. She frames the pain of lost love with ancient Hindu myths (de Souza 13). On their last night together, Krishna asks Radha if she is disturbed by his kisses. Radha says, â€Å"No, not at all, but thought, What is/ It to the corpse if the maggots nip? † (de Souza 6-7). Radha's pain is searing, and her silence is given voice by Das. Furthermore, by making a powerful goddess prey to such thoughts, it serves as a validation for ordinary women to have similar feelings. Eroticism in her PoetryCoupled with her exploration of women's needs is an attention to eroticism. The longing to lose one's self in passionate love is discussed in â€Å"The Looking Glass† from The Descendants. The narrator of the poem urges women to give their man â€Å"what makes you women† (de Souza 15). The things which society suggests are dirty or taboo are the very things which the women are supposed to give. The â€Å"musk of sweat between breasts/ The warm shock of menstrual blood† should not be hidden from one's beloved. In the narrator's eyes, love should be defined by this type of unconditional honesty.A woman should â€Å"Stand nude before the glass with him,† and allow her lover to see her exactly as she is. Likewise, the woman should appreciate even the â€Å"fond details† of her lover, such as â€Å"the jerky way he/ Urinates†. Even if the woman may have to live â€Å"Without him† someday, the narrator does not seem to favor bridling one's passions to protect one's self. A restrained love seems to be no love at all; only a total immersion in love can do justice to this experience. Much like the creators of ancient Tantric art, Das makes no attempt to hide the sensuality of the human form; her work seems to elebrate its joyous potential while acknowledging its concurrent dangers. Feminism Das once said, â€Å"I always wanted love, and if you don't get it within your home, you stray a little†(Warrior intervi ew). Though some might label Das as â€Å"a feminist† for her candor in dealing with women's needs and desires, Das â€Å"has never tried to identify herself with any particular version of feminist activism† (Raveendran 52). Das' views can be characterized as â€Å"a gut response,† a reaction that, like her poetry, is unfettered by other's notions of right and wrong.Nonetheless, poet Eunice de Souza claims that Das has â€Å"mapped out the terrain for post-colonial women in social and linguistic terms†. Das has ventured into areas unclaimed by society and provided a point of reference for her colleagues. She has transcended the role of a poet and simply embraced the role of a very honest woman. Death On 31 May 2009, aged 75, she died at a hospital in Pune. Her body was flown to her home state of Kerala. She was buried at the Palayam Juma Masjid at Thiruvanathapuram with full state honour. Awards and other RecognitionsKamala Das has received many awards fo r her literary contribution, including: Nominated and shortlisted for Nobel Prize in 1984. Asian Poetry Prize-1998 Kent Award for English Writing from Asian Countries-1999 Asian World Prize-2000 Ezhuthachan Award-2009 Sahitya Academy Award-2003 Vayalar Award2001 Kerala Sahitya Academy Award-2005 Muttathu Varkey Award She was a longtime friend of Canadian writer Merrily Weisbord, who published a memoir of their friendship, The Love Queen of Malabar, in 2010. Kamala Das's Works: English 1964: The Sirens (Asian Poetry Prize winner) 965: Summer in Calcutta (poetry; Kent's Award winner) 1967: The Descendants (poetry) 1973: The Old Playhouse and Other Poems (poetry) 1976: My Story (autobiography) 1977: Alphabet of Lust (novel) 1985: The Anamalai Poems (poetry) 1992: Padmavati the Harlot and Other Stories (collection of short stories) 1996: Only the Soul Knows How to Sing (poetry) 2001: Yaa Allah (collection of poems) 1979: Tonight,This Savage Rite (with Pritish Nandy) 1999: My Mother At S ixty-six (Poem) Malayalam 1964: Pakshiyude Manam (short stories) 1966: Naricheerukal Parakkumbol (short stories) 968: Thanuppu (short story, Sahitya Academi award) 1982: Ente Katha (autobiography) 1987: Balyakala Smaranakal (Childhood Memories) 1989: Varshangalkku Mumbu (Years Before) 1990: Palayan (novel) 1991: Neypayasam (short story) 1992: Dayarikkurippukal (novel) 1994: Neermathalam Pootha Kalam (novel, Vayalar Award) 1996: Chekkerunna Pakshikal (short stories) 1998: Nashtapetta Neelambari (short stories) 2005: Chandana Marangal (Novel) 2005: Madhavikkuttiyude Unmakkadhakal (short stories)2x 2005: Vandikkalakal (novel) 1999: My Mother At Sixty-six (Poem) Kamala Das's â€Å"The Sunshine Cat†They did this to her, the men who know her, the man She loved, who loved her not enough, being selfish And a coward, the husband who neither loved nor Used her, but was a ruthless watcher, and the band Of cynics she turned to, clinging to their chests where New hair sprouted like great- winged moths, burrowing her Face into their smells and their young lusts to forget To forget, oh, to forget, and, they said, each of Them, I do not love, I cannot love, it is not In my nature to love, but I can be kind to you. They let her slide from pegs of sanity into A bed made soft with tears, and she lay there weeping,For sleep had lost its use. I shall build walls with tears, She said, walls to shut me in. Her husband shut her In, every morning, locked her in a room of books With a streak of sunshine lying near the door like A yellow cat to keep her company, but soon Winter came, and one day while locking her in, he Noticed that the cat of sunshine was only a Line, a half-thin line, and in the evening when He returned to take her out, she was a cold and Half dead woman, now of no use at all to men Summary In the poem â€Å"The Sunshine Cat†, the poetess rants over the disillusionment in her yearning for love.The ones who took advantage of her emotional instability are t ermed as ‘men' in general This so-called community inevitably included her husband too. He turned out to be a mere objective observer without any emotional attachment. Being selfish he did not exhibit the slightest display of love. And, being cowardly he did not dare to give in sexually to her, for it would mark the relegation of his ego:his perspective of masculinity.. He was a relentless onlooker to the extent of being insensitive for he watched her encounters with other men like a carnival affair.This is why Kamala Das employs the word ‘band'. She â€Å"clinged† on to this band of â€Å"cynics†. The word â€Å"cling† is very significant, as one clings out of desperation, as in clinging onto dear life. A cynic is a person who believes that only selfishness motivates human actions. Her live revolved around these egocentric people. Nevertheless, she â€Å"burrows' herself in the chest of these men. Note the word â€Å"burrow† is generally use d with reference to mongooses or rats that dig holes to hide themselves of for security. For the poetess, this was a temporary refuge to render herself secure as long as it lasted.The hair on their chests were like â€Å"great-winged moths† that came like parasites between them. The lovers were younger than herself and told her that they could not love her, but could be ‘kind' to her. The word ‘kind' is utilized to connote condescension: a patronizing attitude on part of these superior lovers. In Girish Karnad's â€Å"Nagamandala†, Appanna locks Rani in the house, as he leaves for work. In the case of the poetess in the prescribed poem,the husband jails her in a room full of books. However, Kamala Das does not crave for intellectual company, but emotional companionship.She seeks solace in the streak of sunlight beneath the door. This is her ray of hope:her Sunshine Cat: the sunny impulse in her. Nevertheless, as her life approached its winter, her husband n otices her while locking her ,one day,that this streak had reduced to a thin line. The evening made him realize that she had mellowed down,partly due to age and partly owing to her despondency. The fire in her (evocative of the Sunshine Cat) had died away. Hence, she was of no use to any man; as though the sole purpose of the woman in a man's life is for sexual gratification. A Hot Noon in MalabarThis is a noon of Beggers with whinning Voices, a noon for men who came from hills With parrots in a cage and fortune-cards, All stained with time, for brown Kurava girls With old eyes, who read palm in light singsong Voices, for bangle-sellers who spread On the cool black floor those red and green and blue Bangles, all covered with the dust of roads, Miles, grow cracks on the heels, so that when they Clambered up our porch, the noise was grating, Strange†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ This is a noon for strangers who part The window-drapes and peer in, their hot eyes Brimming with the sun, not seein g a thing in Shadowy rooms and turn away and lookSo yearningly at the brick-ledged well. This Is a noon for strangers with mistrust in Their eyes, dark, silent ones who rarely speak At all, so that when they speak, their voices Run wild, like jungle-voices. Yes, this is A noon for wild men, wild thoughts, wild love. To Be here, far away, is torture. Wild feet Stirring up the dust, this hot noon, at my Home in Malabar, and I so far away American Literature Biography of Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) Henry David Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817, in Concord, Massachusetts. He would live the majority of his life in that same town and die there in 1862.His father, a pencil manufacturer named John Thoreau, and mother Cynthia Dunbar Thoreau christened him David Henry but always called him Henry. As an adult, Thoreau began to give his name as Henry David but never had it legally changed. The Thoreaus had three other children in addition to Henry – Helen, five years older than Henry , John, Jr. , two years older, and Sophia, two years younger. In 1821, the family moved to Boston, where they lived until 1823, when they returned to Concord. Thoreau later recalled a visit the family made to Walden Pond from Boston when he was four years old.When he was sixteen, Thoreau entered Harvard College, his grandfather's alma mater. His schooling was paid for by the money his father made as a pencil manufacturer, combined with contributions from his elder siblings salaries from their teaching jobs. While at college, Thoreau studied Latin and Greek grammar and composition, and took classes in a wide variety of subjects, including mathematics, English, history, philosophy, and four different modern languages. He also made great use of the Harvard library holdings before graduating in 1837. After graduating, Thoreau accepted a job as a schoolteacher in Concord.His refusal to beat his students led to his dismissal from the position after only two weeks. That same year, Thoreau began keeping the journal in which he would write for the rest of his life and became friends with Concord residents Ralph Waldo Emerson and William Ellery Channing, and became a follower of Transcendentalism. Emerson provided a letter of reference for young Thoreau, when he traveled to Maine in search of a teaching position at a private school. Unable to find a job in Maine, Thoreau returned to Concord and opened a school with his brother John.Concord Academy differed from other schools in its lack of corporal punishment and encouragement of learning by doing ? as by scientific experiments and nature walks. The school was successful in attracting students but lasted only three years. When John became sick, Henry decided not to continue the school alone. He later worked as a handyman at odd jobs throughout Concord and assisted in the family's pencil manufacture business. During this time, both Henry and John fell in love with and proposed to a young woman named Ellen Seawall, whose younger brother Edward was a student at their school.Her father's disapproval of Thoreau's Transcendentalism led her to refuse his proposal. They sent her to New York to end the romance, and she there met and married Joseph Osgood, though she remained friends with the Thoreaus throughout her life, maintaining a correspondence with Sophia Thoreau and having Henry as a guest in her home. Thoreau lived at the Emerson house for a time during 1841, working as a handyman. He had a romance with Mary Russell, a young woman who stayed with the Emersons during the summers of 1840 and 1841.He wrote her a love poem in 1841 but never proposed, and she eventually married Marston Watson, a friend of Thoreau's from Harvard. In 1842, Thoreau's brother John became ill with lockjaw, the result of a small untreated wound. John died in Henry's arms, and Henry developed a sympathetic illness, exhibiting some of the symptoms of lockjaw, for several months. The following year, Thoreau made his most extensi ve break from Concord when he moved in with Emerson's brother's family on Staten Island as a tutor for his children, hoping that he could succeed as a writer closer to the New York publishing industry.Upon returning home in December of 1843, Thoreau began to write an account of canoe trip he had taken with John in 1839. That book would become A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, combining poetry, historical background, and philosophical reflections with the narrative of the trip. Realizing he needed fewer distractions in order to concentrate on his writing, Thoreau decided to simplify his life by building and living in a cabin by the banks of Walden Pond, about a mile and a half from the center of Concord. On July 4, 1845, the day before the anniversary of his brother's death,Thoreau moved into the cabin he had begun constructing during the spring. He stayed there for two years, sometimes traveling into Concord for supplies and eating with his family about once a week. Friend s and family also visited him at his cabin, where he spent nearly every night. In 1846, he made the first of three trips to Maine that would become the basis for a later series of essays entitled The Maine Woods. It was while Thoreau lived at Walden that he spent a night in the Concord jail that became the basis for the famous essay now known as â€Å"Civil Disobedience. Thoreau had not paid his poll tax to the town for several years because he opposed the use of town revenues to finance the US war with Mexico and enforcement of slavery laws. The town constable, when arresting him, offered to pay the tax himself but Thoreau refused and spent a night in jail. The tax was paid that very night, most likely by Thoreau's aunt Maria Thoreau, but Thoreau was not released until the morning. In 1848, Thoreau gave a speech to the Concord Lyceum that would be adapted to be the essay â€Å"Resistance to Civil Government,† published in 1849.In 1847, Thoreau spent the fall living at the E merson household, looking after the family while Emerson was in England. After that, he returned to his parents' home where he remained for the rest of his life. The curiosity of Concord residents regarding the reasons for the two years Thoreau spent living in a cabin in the woods led him to give a series of lectures in 1847 about his life at Walden. During this time, he also completed a preliminary drafts of both Walden and A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. The latter book was published by James Munroe & Co. n 1848. Thoreau had agreed to pay for any copies of the book which were not sold; ultimately few were sold, and he lost $275 on the deal. Between 1847 and 1854, Thoreau continually redrafted and revised Walden. Ticknor and Field published an edition of 2,000 copies in 1854. Reviews were predominantly positive, and 1,700 copies sold during the following year. Though Thoreau attempted to arrange a nation-wide lecture tour, only one city made an offer, and Thoreau limite d his lectures to the Concord area. Also in 1854, Thoreau gave a speech on â€Å"Slavery in Massachusetts. Though he was not a member of any abolitionist societies, because he opposed the notion of societies, he was fervently opposed to slavery. Five years later, he gave an impassioned â€Å"Plea for Captain John Brown,† defending the morality of Brown's violent uprising at Harper's Ferry and condemning the US government for supporting slavery. Another speech that year was called â€Å"The Last Days of John Brown. † Both demonstrated that Thoreau had proceeded from passive resistance to the institution of slavery to support for armed rebellion as a means of ending the unjust institution.During 1851 and 1855, Thoreau suffered bouts of tuberculosis, whose symptoms he felt even as he continued to lecture. Thoreau spent the remainder of his life concentrating heavily on detailed, scientific naturalistic writing. His Maine journals were published in Atlantic Monthly in 185 8. James Russell Lowell, with whom Thoreau had long had a contentious relationship, was the editor of the publication and deleted a sentence from the essays, considering it blasphemous; in response, Thoreau refused to speak to him for the rest of his life.Ticknor and Fields, the publishers of Walden, purchased the magazine in 1859, and in 1861, James Fields suggested 250-book reprinting of Walden. He also agreed to republish the unsold copies of A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. Thoreau had become quite ill with tuberculosis in 1861. On April 12, Fields visited Thoreau in Concord to take hold of the unsold copies of his book for republication. A year later, on May 6, 1862, Thoreau died at the age of 44. A month later, the reprintings of his two books were finally published.Essays published about Thoreau after his death, written by Lowell and Emerson, emphasized Thoreau's ascetic, Spartan qualities without giving adequate weight to his philosophical contributions. Thus, Tho reau was not well-appreciated during the nineteenth-century and was often seen as a lesser imitator of Emerson. Only beginning in the 1890s, after critical evaluation of his writings, did Thoreau come to be appreciated for his literary merit. In the twentieth-century, he has come to be seen as one of he most significant nineteenth-century American writers. Civil Disobedience Summary Thoreau opens his essay with the motto â€Å"That government is best which governs least. † His distrust of government stems from the tendency of the latter to be â€Å"perverted and abused† before the people can actually express their will through it. A case in point is the Mexican war (1846-1848, which extended slavery into new US territories), orchestrated by a small elite of individuals who have manipulated government to their advantage against popular will.Government inherently lends itself to oppressive and corrupt uses since it enables a few men to impose their moral will on the majo rity and to profit economically from their own position of authority. Thoreau views government as a fundamental hindrance to the creative enterprise of the people it purports to represent. He cites as a prime example the regulation of trade and commerce, and its negative effect on the forces of the free market. A man has an obligation to act according to the dictates of his conscience, even if the latter goes against majority opinion, the presiding leadership, or the laws of society.In cases where the government supports unjust or immoral laws, Thoreau's notion of service to one's country paradoxically takes the form of resistance against it. Resistance is the highest form of patriotism because it demonstrates a desire not to subvert government but to build a better one in the long term. Along these lines, Thoreau does not advocate a wholesale rejection of government, but resistance to those specific features deemed to be unjust or immoral. In the American tradition, men have a reco gnized and cherished right of revolution, from which Thoreau derives the concept of civil disobedience.A man disgraces himself by associating with a government that treats even some of its citizens unjustly, even if he is not the direct victim of its injustice. Thoreau takes issue with William Paley, an English theologian and philosopher, who argues that any movement of resistance to government must balance the enormity of the grievance to be redressed and the â€Å"probability and expense† of redressing it. It may not be convenient to resist, and the personal costs may be greater than the injustice to be remedied; however, Thoreau firmly asserts the primacy of individual conscience over collective pragmatism.Thoreau turns to the issue of effecting change through democratic means. The position of the majority, however legitimate in the context of a democracy, is not tantamount to a moral position. Thoreau believes that the real obstacle to reform lies with those who disapprov e of the measures of government while tacitly lending it their practical allegiance. At the very least, if an unjust government is not to be directly resisted, a man of true conviction should cease to lend it his indirect support in the form of taxes.Thoreau acknowledges that it is realistically impossible to deprive the government of tax dollars for the specific policies that one wishes to oppose. Still, complete payment of his taxes would be tantamount to expressing complete allegiance to the State. Thoreau calls on his fellow citizens to withdraw their support from the government of Massachusetts and risk being thrown in prison for their resistance. Forced to keep all men in prison or abolish slavery, the State would quickly exhaust its resources and choose the latter course of action.For Thoreau, out of these acts of conscience flow â€Å"a man's real manhood and immortality. † Money is a generally corrupting force because it binds men to the institutions and the governme nt responsible for unjust practices and policies, such as the enslavement of black Americans and the pursuit of war with Mexico. Thoreau sees a paradoxically inverse relationship between money and freedom. The poor man has the greatest liberty to resist because he depends the least on the government for his own welfare and protection. After refusing to pay the poll tax for six years, Thoreau is thrown into jail for one night.While in prison, Thoreau realizes that the only advantage of the State is â€Å"superior physical strength. † Otherwise, it is completely devoid of moral or intellectual authority, and even with its brute force, cannot compel him to think a certain way. Why submit other people to one's own moral standard? Thoreau meditates at length on this question. While seeing his neighbors as essentially well-intentioned and in some respects undeserving of any moral contempt for their apparent indifference to the State's injustice, Thoreau nonetheless concludes that h e has a human relation to his neighbors, and through them, millions of other men.He does not expect his neighbors to conform to his own beliefs, nor does he endeavor to change the nature of men. On the other hand, he refuses to tolerate the status quo. Despite his stance of civil disobedience on the questions of slavery and the Mexican war, Thoreau claims to have great respect and admiration for the ideals of American government and its institutions. Thoreau goes so far as to state that his first instinct has always been conformity.Statesmen, legislators, politicians–in short, any part of the machinery of state bureaucracy–are unable to scrutinize the government that lends them their authority. Thoreau values their contributions to society, their pragmatism and their diplomacy, but feels that only someone outside of government can speak the Truth about it. The purest sources of truth are, in Thoreau's view, the Constitution and the Bible. Not surprisingly, Thoreau hold s in low esteem the entire political class, which he considers incapable of devising the most basic forms of legislation.In his last paragraph, Thoreau comes full circle to discussing the authority and reach of government, which derives from the â€Å"sanction and consent of the governed. † Democracy is not the last step in the evolution of government, as there is still greater room for the State to recognize the freedom and rights of the individual. Thoreau concludes on an utopic note, saying such a State is one he has imagined â€Å"but not yet anywhere seen. † Civil Disobedience Themes The right to resistance Thoreau affirms the absolute right of individuals to withdraw their support rom a government whose policies are immoral or unjust. He takes issue with the brand of moral philosophy that weighs the possible consequences of civil disobedience against the seriousness of the injustice. The methods of resistance Thoreau condones in his essay are pacifist and rely pr incipally on economic pressure; for example, withholding taxes in order to drain the State of its resources and hence its ability to continue its unjust policies. The ultimate goal of civil disobedience is not to undermine democracy but to reinforce its core values of liberty and respect for the individual.Individual conscience and morality Only an individual can have and exercise a conscience. By definition, both the State and corporations are impersonal, amoral entities that are nonetheless composed of individuals. â€Å"It has been truly said, that a corporation has no

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

There are a heterogeneous group of degenerative diseases that involve destruction of the large motor neurons of the brain. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is one. The motor effects of this disease can be devastating. The usual course is a progression to death within 3 to 4 years. In the United Kingdom, ALS is often known as motor neuron disease. ALS is a progressive neuromuscular disease that weakens and eventually destroys motor neurons that connect the brain with the skeletal muscles.NIEHS grantee Serge Przedborski of Columbia University has pioneered the investigation of the molecular mechanisms leading to the death of neurons that occurs in ALS and Parkinson disease. ALS, the most common adult-onset paralytic disease, is most commonly diagnosed in middle age, and affects men more often than women. Patients gradually lose the ability to speak, swallow, and move voluntarily. Sensory function and intellectual ability are unaffected, and death usually results from loss of respira tory function.The disease affects all racial, socioeconomic, and ethnic groups, and the life expectancy of ALS patients is usually three to five years after diagnosis. ALS results in progressive damage to the pyramidal motor system. There is a degeneration of both the upper and lower motor neurons leading to muscle weakness, atrophy, and losts of function. In most cases there is no loss of sensation, and intellect and sphincter control are preserved. The damage is typically bilateral, and although usually rapid in progression, the disease may on occasion proceed slowly, or stabilize after a period of progression. The reported incidence is about 0.4 to 1. 8/100,000 (Tandan & Bradley, 1986) and prevalence estimates range from 4 to 7/100,000. The mean age of onset lies between 55 and 60 and the disease is more common in males than females (2:1; Hudson, 1981). Death is usually preceded by progressive respiratory failure. The cause of ALS is unknown. In about 5% to 10% of cases the disea se is familial; in most of these cases the mode of inheritance is autosomal dominant. The disease also occurs amongst the Chamorros on the island of Guam at a much higher rate than elsewhere, suggesting an environmental toxin can cause the disease (Rowland, 1987).However, the majority of cases arise sporadically. Cognitive Deficits Clinicians working with ALS patients generally conclude that the disease does not cause dementia. Although there are cases of ALS where dementia does present, this can be attributed to the concurrent effects of DAT (Caroscio, 1986). Testing ALS patients with intellectual scales has produced mixed results. Poloni, Capitani, Mazzini, and Ceroni (1986) found no difference on the WAIS between 21 ALS subjects and 21 comparison subjects with nondementing neurological conditions.In two other studies (Gallassi, Montagna, Ciardulli, Lorusso, Mussuto, & Stracciari, 1985; Iwaski, Kinoshita, Ikeda, Takamiya, & Shiojima, 1990) intellectual deterioration in ALS patient s was found when the test results were compared to those of healthy controls. It remains to be determined whether these cognitive changes occurred as a result of ALS, or whether the differences were due to the nonspecific effects of hospitalization and treatment. ALS is not generally regarded as a dementing disorder. Psychosocial ConsequencesThe individual with ALS faces major problems in communication because of dysarthria, a reduction in mobility, pain from muscle atrophy, and the knowledge that the disease will progress to incapacity and death. Motor dysfunctions occur in the absence of cognitive decline and so patients retain the capacity for awareness of their disabilities. The nature of the disorder is likely to provoke an emotional response. The onset of the disease provides an illustration of the working of psychosocial stress model outlined in the next chapter. Although ALS patients confront the disorder with courage (B.S. Gould, 1980), the debilitation caused by the diseas e challenges the capacity to adjust in even the most resolute individual. Luloff (1986) describes the demands and emotional sequelae of the disease as follows: Loss of resources — physical, psychological, social, and economic — evokes grief and depression. As the patient anticipates experiences or experiences failures in mastering problems and challenges of everyday life, he develops feelings of helplessness†¦. Helplessness and failure, real or anticipated, lead to decrease of self-esteem, sense of worth, dignity and confidence.Anger becomes mixed with fear and accentuated by limitations in ability to master everyday problems, in achieving relief from tension, and in providing oneself with gratifying experiences. Anger is often directed against oneself for being damaged, helpless, and worthless, and a failure. . . . Anger is also directed against other persons, and at natural processes which appear to be increasingly harsh and threatening as the individual becomes progressively impaired and weaker. (p. 268) Although anecdotal reports of depressive and emotional reactions are common in the literature, few studies have examined emotionality in ALS systematically.Houpt, B. S. Gould, and Norris (1977) found that the incidence of depression in ALS was comparable to that in cancer patients. About 65% of the ALS patients scored in the nil-mild range on the BDI, 32. 5% were moderately depressed, and 2. 5% were severely depressed. Other reactions to ALS have been cited in clinical reports including denial (Tandan & Bradley, 1985), guilt (Luloff, 1986), and diminished self-esteem (Ringel, 1987). Emotional lability and inappropriateness have also been reported on occasion (Gallagher, 1989). These symptoms have been attributed to damage to brainstem nuclei.Controlled investigations of psychiatric symptoms suggest these are not a consequence of ALS (Houpt et al. , 1977; Peters, Wedell, & Mulder, 1977). Families and caregivers are likely also to feel dist ressed by the onset and progress of the disease. The physical deficits reduce the patient's mobility and communication, leading to greater dependence on the family for emotional and functional support. The demands involved in caring for the ALS sufferer at home can result in the caregiver feeling alone, housebound, and unappreciated. Financial concerns and preexisting family conflict may accentuate these problems (Ringel, 1987).For spousal caregivers there are many changes in role to be contemplated. Finally it is important to recognize that many people with ALS adapt to their illness in a creative, positive, and stoical manner. In an insightful commentary, B. S. Gould (1980) described how many ALS patients project a positive aspect to the people around them. Although this may mask a deeper and realistic concern or fear, the use of some degree of denial may represent an adaptive response to the disease. In his view, the role of the counselor may be to provide a supportive environmen t in which this despair may be acknowledged:The ALS patients in our series frequently maintained a strategy of partial denial throughout their illness, but in a most healthy fashion. Reality was not denied as much as redefined; the most distressing immutable aspects of the disease were not part of ordinary conscious functioning, and hope was maintained. Under safe conditions that allowed reflection and ventilation, however, the second-order denial was easily overridden; distressing awareness was allowed to enter the consciousness in a controlled fashion, and considerable dysphoric tension was discharged.Treatment Highlights In view of the fact that by far there is no treatment for ALS and there is no known cure. Current theraphy consists of a daily dose of an experimental drug. For this reason, it is still best to count on the available resources for the treatment of ALS. The drug myotrophin will be injected twice a day, alternating left abdomen, right abdomen, left thigh, right thi gh to reduce scarring, as well as regular visits from occupational and physical therapists. Neither drug is really thought to do much, but they are all there is right now.The physical therapy controls the rate of atrophy and minimizes edema in the extremities. It is also helpful to ingest huge amounts of vitamins. Three thousand milligrams a day of vitamin C and 800 milligrams of vitamin E, both of which are thought to be especially important in protecting the outer nerve cell sheath. Sublingual B12, antioxidants, CoQ10 and other dietary supplements are also thought to slow the disease’s progression. Ventilation is Still on Top From the patients’ perspectives, there are certain issues on the use of mechanical ventilation for the treatment of ALS.These may include the examination of the process of and factors involved in decision making by people severely disabled by the disease by the time they face the choice of whether to use the support of mechanical ventilation. Mo reover, issues that should also be addressed will include patients’ impact on family, the decision as related to level of disability, and the ventilation availability through a nasal mask. Research format will include several general questions along with a demographic information questionnaire.These general questions will focus on obtaining information about the process of the participant in their consideration of the use of mechanical ventilation, their current decision on the use of mechanical ventilation, the influence of others, and their decision’s commitment. Interviews will also be utilized for the participants so that they will be rated according to their function in the areas of speech, swallowing, lower and upper extremities with the use of ALS Severity Scale as designed by Hillel et al.(1989). The scale allows for rapid, ordinal measurement of the aforementioned areas. Each symptomatic area is rated from 1 to 10, with 10 indicating normal functioning and 1 r eflecting the most severe disablement. A total score of 40 would denote normal functioning in all four areas. Since several participants were unaware of available ventilatory options, the physician on the research team individually met with the participants who had not already gained knowledge concerning ventilatory methods.During these meetings, the physician imparted basic information on the following: the disease process that leads to respiratory insufficiency, simple measures such as positioning in alleviating respiratory distress, the capability to discontinue use of assisted ventilation, availability of palliative measures in end-stage ALS, care needs of people with the use of mechanical ventilation (such as suctioning of excess secretions; management of the ventilator itself, including arrangement for regular maintenance; and possible necessity of a caregiver 24 hours a day), and types of mechanical ventilation.The two basic methods of mechanical ventilation are a nasal mask and a tracheostomy. A tracheostomy is a surgical opening into the trachea to which a ventilator hose is connected. The nasal mask method is noninvasive and involves wearing a plastic mask apparatus over the nose, held in place by a strap around the back of the head. The mask can be awkward and uncomfortable and may slip out of place at night. Limitations In view of the reason that only a limited time was allowed for completion of the work, fiscal and temporal constraints were in effect, thus limiting the size of the subject sample.The principal author was also the clinical social worker for the participants. The principal author's familiarity with the participants may have influenced the selection process and the responses of the participants. Patients who had no means of communication were not approached to take part in the study. Participant population was unequally distributed by gender, as there were 11 men and two women, and by race, as all were white. All participants had a co mparable baseline knowledge of ventilatory methods.Four participants were atypical of classical ALS in that they had been diagnosed as having the disease for between nine and 23 years. A significant portion of the interviews with those participants already using mechanical ventilation was retrospective and based on recall. Not all participants answered all questions, and not all questions were applicable to all participants. Results may not be replicable with a different or larger sample. Conclusions Both past and present researches have failed on their quest for the cure or treatment of ALS.While this is apparently true, there are nevertheless several treatments that are found to be promising and responsive to patients. Individually, a specific approach may not be effective enough for treating ALS but a collaboration and combination of all known and practiced treatments is proved to be helpful. By now, this is the least that we can do for treating ALS while attempts are made in fin ding a cure for this certain incurable disease. References Caroscio J. (Ed. ). (1986). Amyotraphic lateral sclerosis: A guide to patient care. New York: Thieme.Gallagher J. P. (1989). Pathologic laughter and crying in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: A search for their origin. Acia Neurologica Scandinavica. 80, 114-117. Gallassi R. , Montagna P. , Ciardulli C. , Lorusso S. , Mussuto V. , & Stracciari A. (1985). Cognitive impairment in motor neuron disease. Acta Neurologica Scandinavica. 71, 480-484. Gould, B. S. (1980). Psychiatric aspects. In D. W. Mulder (Ed. ), The diagnosis and treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (pp. 157-168). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Hillel, A. D. , Miller, R. M., Yorkston, K. , McDonald, E. , Norris, E H. , & Konikow, N. (1989). Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Severity Scale. Neuroepidemiology. 8, 142-150. Houpt J. L. , Gould B. S. , & Norris F. H. (1977). â€Å"Psychological characteristics of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis†. Psyc hosomatic Medicine. 39, 299-303. Hudson A. J. (1981). â€Å"Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and its association with dementia, Parkinsonism, and other neurological disorders: A review†. Brain. 104, 217-247. Iwasaki Y. , Kinoshita M. , Ikeda K. , Takamiya K. , & Shiojima Y. (1990).â€Å"Cognitive impairment in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and its relation to motor disabilities†. Acta Neurologica Scandinavica. 81, 141-143. Luloff P. B. (1986). â€Å"Reactions of patients, family, and staff in dealing with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis†. In J. Caroscio (Ed. ), Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: A guide to patient care (pp. 266-271). New York: Thieme Publishers. Peters P. K. , Wedell M. S. , & Mulder P. W. (1977). â€Å"Is there a characteristic personality profile in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis? † Archives of Neurology. 35, 321-322. Poloni M. , Capitani E.Mazzini L. , & Ceroni M. (1986). â€Å"Neuropsychological meas ures in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and t heir relationship with CT-scan assessed cerebral atrophy†. Acta Neurologica Scandinavica. 74, 257-260. Ringel S. P. (1987). Neuromuscular disorders. New York: Raven. Rowland L. P. (1987). â€Å"Motor neuron diseases and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: Research progress†. Trends in Neurosciences. 10, 393-397. Tandan R. , & Bradley W. G. (1985). â€Å"Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: Part 1. Clinical features, pathology, and ethical issues in management†. Annals of Neurology. 18, 271-280

Broken Spears

The Broken Spears â€Å"The Broken Spears† is a collection of many accounts of the destruction of Mexico by Cortes and the conquistadors in their invasion. The motive behind this conquest was Cortes’ desire to bring a fortune of gold, spices, and land that can be claimed, back to Spain. Although these desires were admirable, they were sought after at the expense of the Aztecs and consequently changed an entire civilization, due to an initial drive for power, control, land, and money. Cortez along with the Spaniards ultimately destroys the Aztecs in their quest for fortune and fame. The accounts are based on the Aztec’s perception of the invasion and include the revolt of the Aztec people that lead to the terror and the end of the Aztec civilization. The Spaniards first entrance into Tenochtitlan The novel begins with the description of a series of omens or premonitions, observed ten years prior, that was believed to be essential warnings of the coming invasion. The omens arouse many fearful and terrifying reactions. At the time, the meanings were unclear to the Natives. According to the text, â€Å"Montezuma consulted various seers and magicians to learn whether the omens meant an approaching war or some other crisis†, however the magicians could not advise him. Not soon after, according to the second chapter, there were reports that â€Å"the mountains bore a strange people who have very light skin. They all have long beards, and their hair comes only to their ears. † After much contemplation, Montezuma sent five messengers to greet the strangers and to bring them gifts believing that they might be Quetzalcoatl (God of learning and the wind) and other divinities returning to Mexico as they promised. 2:13)Montezuma gave specific instructions as to how to present the messengers and gifts to the strangers. The natives showed reverence to the strangers at their arrival by â€Å"touching the ground before him with their lips†. (25) However, Cortez in return gave orders to chain them by their necks and feet. When the messengers retur n, they inform Montezuma of the various firearms, animals, foods, and resources the Spaniard possessed, and he was astonished and terrified by their report. Montezuma’s attempts to keep the Spaniard away from the Tenochtitlan included everything from sending out magicians and warlocks hoping that they could harm the Spaniards with their magic, to sending out captives to be sacrificed in their presence. With each failed attempt to prevent the Spaniards from entering Tenochtitlan, came the rising fears of the â€Å"inevitable†. As the Spaniard began to inquire about Montezuma, he contemplated fleeing and escaping the â€Å"gods†. Due to Montezuma’s failed attempts, Cortez and the Spaniards decided to begin marching In-land, in their arrival to Tlaxcala and Cholula. One could argue that the invasion of these cities was due to the defiance and the fact that they would not surrender to Cortez’s control. During the march Cortez gained a larger army and allies. Once Cortez and the Spaniards reached the entrance of Tenochtitlan their march was complete. Montezuma then prepared to greet Cortez. According to the text, â€Å"He presented many gifts to the Captain and his commanders, those who had come to make war. He showered gifts upon them and hung flowers around their necks; he gave them necklaces of flowers and bands of flowers to adorn their breasts; he set garlands of flowers upon their heads. Then he hung the gold necklaces around their necks and gave them presents of every sort as gifts of welcome. † Not mentioned in the Broken Spears however, according to the Diaz document, Cortez offered Montezuma his right hand but Montezuma refused it. It also states that Cortez went to place fine a necklace on Montezuma’s neck, but his nephews stopped and refused him. The Spaniards seemed to portray a non confrontational notion, as if they arrived with pure intentions. The document’s perspective seems to contradict those of The Broken Spears. The document describes the Aztec’s conversion to Christianity as a peaceful one. It also states that Montezuma pronounces that â€Å"I am in debt and will give all I poses,† revealing that Montezuma willingly gave of his possessions and land. However, according to The Broken Spears, the Aztecs were tortured and terrorized. The Expulsion from Tenochtitlan (Spring 1520) After imprisoning Montezuma, the Spaniards begin to terrorize the city, causing commotion and inflicting fear into the natives. The terrorism that was taking place caused an uprising battles and massacres to take place. One example of the harshness inflicted on the Aztecs was the events that took place at a Fiesta. The Spaniard invaded the Fiesta, murdering many Aztecs and revealing the Spaniards did not abide by the Aztec rules or expectations of war. They were said to be reckless and extremely brutal, without respect or compassion. Preceding the surprise attack at the Fiesta, other attacks and retaliations arouse, such as the Night of Sorrow. The Aztecs no longer desired to follow Montezuma’s initial orders for non retaliation. They decided to take up arms and fight against the Spanish. In the attack at the Fiesta, they fought with broken spears and attacked with javelins and arrows. However the Aztecs came to the realization that enough blood was shed. Montezuma’s body was discovered and it was unclear as to his cause of death. Since the Aztec no longer catered to the Spaniards by providing them with food, shelter and supplies, Cortez realizes that they must leave the land. They planned to retreat at night, however the retreat was discovered. According to the text, â€Å"They attacked as the Spaniards were fleeing down the Tlacopan (now Tacuba) causeway, and the rout was so disastrous that it has been known ever since as â€Å"la noche triste,† the Night of Sorrows. Those who escaped the disaster found refuge in the nearby village of Teocalhueyacan, where they were welcomed as friends; but three-fourths of the army had perished in the retreat and in the siege that preceded it. The Aztecs benefited greatly from the fleeing of Spaniards. They gathered things that the Spaniard abandoned and claimed it for themselves. They collected weapons that had been left behind or had fallen into the canal-the cannons, swords, spears, bows and arrows-along with all the steel helmets, coats of mail and breast- plates, and the shields of metal, wood and hide. They recovered the gold ingots, the gold disks, the tubes of gold dust and the collars with their gold pe ndants. The violent recapture of Tenochtitlan (1521) The Aztecs were convinced that the Spaniard would never return. They began to rebuild the city and the temples, and celebrated in a victorious manner. They choose a new King for the city; however it was not long that the Aztecs lived in tranquility. A horrible plague of smallpox quickly spread. The plague spread during the thirteenth month and lasted for seventy days, striking everywhere in the city. It was difficult for some to walk or even move. Many died from the disease, some died of hunger because they were incapable of searching for food. The text describes that the first cases were reported in Cuatlan. By the time the danger was recognized, the plague was so well established that nothing could halt it, and eventually it spread all the way to Chalco. Then its cruelty diminished considerably, though there were isolated cases for many months after. The Spaniards returned without mercy. This time however they had more forces, and resources, and better technology. Although the Aztecs had a previous disposition, they retaliated, being aware this time, of some of the Spaniards tactics. For example, discovered that the shots from the cannons always flew in a straight line, they no longer ran away in the line of fire. They ran to the right or left or in zigzags, not in front of the guns. After a great deal of battles and much bloodshed. The Aztecs eventually surrendered to the Spaniards. The Aztecs culture and civilization was eventually eradicated after the Spaniard burned the temples and destroyed their empires. In comparing the readings of The Broken Spears to some document excerpts, a large disparity is found. There were many actions that the Aztec’s took, that to some were considered barbaric. For instance, in The Conquest of New Spain, Diaz describes the Aztecs to be somewhat savage like. He mentioned that they would â€Å"tear out the palpitation heart, with the blood, they present as idols† and they would eat â€Å"arms and thighs at their ceremonial banquets†. However, The Broken Spears describes these actions as sacred sacrifices that were signs of respect and honor. These reasons alone prove why separate accounts help understand history. There is a saying that states: â€Å"There are two sides to every story. † The Broken Spears would be considered the other side

Sustainability framework on Apple and Samsung Essay

Sustainability framework on Apple and Samsung - Essay Example Recognition of organizations embracing environment sustainable frameworks is because climate change has become a significant issue in the society (Hart, 1997). A sustainable framework consists of Clean technology, sustainability vision, Pollution prevention and Product Stewardship (Hart, 1997). This paper will analyze two companies in the same industry in regards to their efforts to reduce environmental pollution. The analysis will be on Apple and Samsung companies. In addition, the paper will compare the sustainability framework suggested by Hart to the framework implemented by these two companies. Samsung has been viewed as a leader in this particular industry. Since the creation of Samsung, a lot has been put in place to reduce environmental pollution. Samsung is a telecommunications company with a variety of products on its brand. Its major products are mobile phones, computers and other electronics. The company has a significant global market with target market across the globe. 70 % of all nations across the globe boast of at least one major Samsung outlet (Magureanu, 2013). For this reason, the production level of the business entity is significant considering the level of demand on its products. With a large production level, the levels of emissions in the practice are also high. For this reason, this organization has set strategies to reduce their emissions to the environment. This is the ability of an organization to use technology that is environmental friendly. In addition, an organization should be able to develop approaches to technology that are environmental friendly. Samsung is developing technology that considers suitability to the environment (Magureanu, 2013). Comparing old and new products by Samsung, there are significant differences in the hazardous nature of the product. In an argument by Hart (1997) Samsung products are less radioactive even when

War on Drugs and War on Terrorism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 7500 words

War on Drugs and War on Terrorism - Essay Example examples of this interplay between illicit drug trade and terrorism.3 This interplay between the illicit drug trade and terrorism poses both a direct and indirect to national security in the sense that the drugs are traded in the U.S. and therefore indirectly funds terrorism activities both abroad and at home. Moreover, terrorism and the illicit drug trade pose distinct threats to US national security and global security as whole. The US has a vested interest in global security as it can compromise the safety of Americans abroad and can eventually have both direct and indirect consequences for homeland security. This research examines the interplay between US anti-drug and terrorism policies. This will be accomplished by exploring and evaluating both policies, their strategies and the rationale for both policies. In 1986 drugs were officially deemed a national security threat. President Ronald Reagan’ National Security Decision Directive of April, 1986 declared that drugs had the potential to destabilize democracies, deplete both the morality and health of the U.S.’s society and could â€Å"adversely affect the economy.†4 On the evening of September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush in an address to the nation spoke of a â€Å"war against terrorism†.5 The US war on terrorism is predicted on an urgent need to defend and protect the US, â€Å"the American people, and their livelihoods†.6 Regardless of the separate and distinct threat to national security, there is increasing evidence that drug trafficking and terrorism are intricately linked. For instance, the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) issued a report in 2003 claiming that out of the 36 foreign terrorist groups in the US as listed by the U.S. State Department, 14 were engaged in drug trafficking activities.7 It is therefore hardly surprising that the DEA would advocate that both the war on drugs and the war on terrorism be combined.8 The DEA is not the only source identifying a link between

Competition-MicroEconomics Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Competition-MicroEconomics - Term Paper Example A large number of firms, product differentiation and easy entry and exit are the main characteristics of monopolistic competition. Competition is one of the important market forces. There are mainly two types of competition exist: price competition and non-price competition. Price competition is mainly experienced in a highly competitive market where perfect competition takes place. On the other hand, non-price competition occurs mostly in monopolistic market situations in which competing firms offer different attractive offers and special discounts with an aim of attracting and retaining customers. Competition provides an environment in which not only buyers benefit but also sellers enjoy normal profits. For the buyers, competition is a source to obtain reasonable but competitive prices for goods and services and they do not need pay additional charges for the goods and services. This mostly occurs in perfectly competitive market in which buyers have perfect information about the goods and services and homogenous products are sold. Monopoly is form of market structure in which there is only a single seller who controls the entire supply of goods or services. Monopolistic competition is a combination of both perfect competition and monopoly. In which, there are certain characteristics of both monopoly and perfect competition remain functional. In the following parts of the paper, first definition of competition has been provided and it is followed by types of competition. After defining each type of competition, a conclusion part has been included to sum up the paper. Firms observe two types of competition: price competition and non-price competition. The firms compete with each other to attract and retain customers. For this purpose, they adopt different competition strategies to entertain their business objectives. Diminishing the price of their product below the price of competitors is one way to increase

Research Method-The Problem of Online Shopping Essay

Research Method-The Problem of Online Shopping - Essay Example With online shopping, less time is spent in queues and travels, less money is used in traveling to the stores, chances for pilferage are abated and the geographical barriers between the consumer and the retailer are significantly attenuated. Nevertheless, it is a fact that any human construct is inherently flawed, its merits and many benefits notwithstanding. Online shopping having been contrived by man is not an exception. It is against this backdrop that some of the shortcomings of online shopping are to be discussed forthwith. Problem statement Serious problems accost online shopping, despite its many advantages. The need to tackle these problems is necessitated by the desire to make online shopping more efficient and more secure. The import of this is that it is only upon these problems being discussed, that online shopping can be made more secure, efficient and more user-friendly. There can never be the provision of a viable and sustainable solution without the identification an d discussion of co-occurring problems. The flipside of this is that the failure to discuss these problems is bound to leave online shoppers susceptible to security breaches and general and systems malfunctions. Background and rationale This study is sustained against the backdrop of online shopping’s popularity which continues to suffuse almost all trading blocks. At the moment, online trading or shopping is steadily growing, just as Shah (2012) points out that it has grown from 0.4% in the first quarter of 2012 to 3.9% in the third quarter of 2011. With this growing popularity, the need to strengthen online shopping against its pitfalls remains paramount. Likewise, there can be no strengthening of online shopping without the accurate identification of the loopholes that characterise online shopping. This means that the main intention of this study is not to merely discount online shopping on the account of its weakness. On the contrary, the necessity of this study is precipi tated by the need to ultimately seal the problems of online shopping by identifying the same problems first. Literature review According to a research study that Weiyin-Hong, James and Kar-Yan (2005) conducted and discussed in the Journal of Management Information Systems, the chief problem of online shopping is fraud and security concerns. Some of the problems that border on security matters include identity theft, preponderance of spyware and faulty products. Courtesy of the research study in the Journal of Management Information Systems, Weiyin-Hong, James and Kar-Yan (2005) established that the problem of insecurity is compounded by another sub-problem which is the inability to physically inspect online merchandise before the transaction. The same problem is further aggravated by the merchant’s inability to detect fraudulent purchases. Fraudulent purchases are made with stolen cards, or fraudulent circumventing systems that regulate online purchases. Conversely, clients h ave also had to contend with security shortfalls when participating in online shopping. One of the security breaches that online shoppers have to deal with is phishing. Phishing happens in an instance where online shoppers are duped into thinking that they are dealing with a genuine or reputable dealer. Thus, these online shoppers proceed to feed their private

Reflaction paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Reflaction paper - Essay Example I will ask them about what they feel and think about this exchange of roles. Though many in China have been influenced heavily by western influences, the traditional structures of the family have remained intact along with the norms and culture. The traditional and modern Chinese families are the same in values and morals. The roles, statuses, culture and values remain the same despite rapidly changing technology, innovation. The Chinese still maintain very clear-cut roles, rights, values and moms for men and women. Though a few things have changed such as the freedom to choose one’s spouse, the same cultural values and taboos apply. The family values are still a heavy focus and are cherished, honored and respected. This is true in the modern, urban and rural environments. I do not see anything different in the western definition of wife from Judy Syfers â€Å"Why I want a wife†; description of the Chinese’s wife and the kind of wife she is describing in the west. Though Judy writes to complain and bemoan the â€Å"wife† in the we st it is atypical of the Chinese wife’s reality whether she lives in the west or in China. â€Å"I want a wife who will take care of all the social details of my life† (p.61) is universal. The expectations on gender roles are very conservative in Chinese culture. The relationship between a boy and a girl is expected to lead to marriage and is therefore expected to follow the rules of marriage. If a boy goes out to dinner with a girl then he is expected to pay for the dinner and not doing so will make him loose â€Å"face" and social status. This makes a person to be regarded as a poor dating candidate and so it was very hard for my boyfriend to accept for me to pay for the meal. I have never paid for my own meals in my life form my own savings. The money that I use for buying things is from my father and so even if he is not

A German Retailing Icon Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

A German Retailing Icon - Essay Example These strategies are strongly in line with the company’s goal to provide offerings at lower cost but with high quality standard. The reason why customers should buy the products of Aldi is due to the firm’s success in instilling products into the market at a lower cost but with high quality standard. This is just a way of saying that at a lower cost, Aldi does not compromise the quality of its products. This can be the company’s competitive edge and it adds value to its value particularly for those customers who are after of good quality at a reasonable price. Aldi’s lines of offerings are viewed cheaper but of high quality and this perception has significantly created specific value to particular customers. 2. How are different components of Aldi’s retail strategy aligned with one another? Answer As mentioned in the case, Aldi tries to apply limited assortment for its merchandise and it particularly adheres to principle that the increase of item actually increases expenditure (Aldi: A German Retailing Icon 3). Product pricing for Aldi’s offerings is said to be 20 to 30 percent below those of regular supermarkets (3-4). Its basic design for store and open display adhere to one of its core principles, simplicity at a minimal cost (2). The communication of its products is said to apply minimal ads through its flyers and website (3-4). Its location is particularly located off land which is its own so as to ensure minimizing cost (4). Its service is through fast check out through cash and there is inclusion of entertaining returns at high speed (5). The case of Aldi simply shows that in maintaining overall cost leadership as its competitive strategy, there is a need to actually control the costs that have to be incurred in the operation. It is clear that in order for Aldi t o come up with lower cost but not to sacrifice quality of service and product offering, there is a need to consider minimizing costs that are not actually creating significant impact on product quality. This is how in particular the different components of Aldi’s strategy are aligned with each other. 3. Explain the key internal and external reasons why the company has been so successful over the past decades. Answer Aldi’s success over the past decades is due to its successful entry in the market. Part of this successful entry is its proper aligning of the different components in its retail strategy. As an effect, Aldi is creating competitive strategy which is remarkably in line with overall cost leadership. This in particular has created value not just to the company but to the customers who are after of cheaper products but with high quality. Thus, this enables the company to come up with products that are highly differentiated when it comes to price and quality. The extent of this is the achievement of specific market focus which is a market segment that over time, Aldi is willing to serve with its line of offerings. Over the course of time, this develops customer loyalty as one of Aldi’s external factors for success. This customer loyalty is a sustainable competitive advantage of the company and through this; the company has remarkably gained high buying power which means that it can further demand for low price. In return, this added to the capacity of the company to maintain its competitive edge when it comes to overall cost leadership. As it can be observed, the combined effects of both external and internal factors for Aldi’