Difficult Task Force Essay

Josà © has been appointed chair of a steering task force to design the primary product line for a new joint venture between companies from Japan, the United States, and South America. The new joint venture company will make, sell, and service pet caskets (coffins) for the burial of beloved pets, mostly dogs and cats. One month earlier, each company had assigned personnel to the task force: From the Japanese company, Furuay Masahiko from Yokohama, assistant to the president of the Japanese company; Hamada Isao from Tokyo, director of marketing from its technology group; and Noto Takeshi from Tokyo, assistant director of its financial management department. From the United States company, Thomas Boone from Chicago, the top purchasing manager from its lumber and forest lands group; Richard Maret from Buffalo, the codirector of the company’s information systems group; and Billy Bob â€Å"Tex† Johnson from Arizona, the former CEO, now retired and a consultant for the compan y. From the South American company, Mariana Preus from Argentina, the head of product design for that company’s specialty animal products group; Hector Bonilla from their Mexico City division, an expert in automated systems design for wood products; and Mauricio Gomes, in charge of design and construction for the plant, which will be located in southern Chile to take advantage of the vast forest there. These members were chosen for their expertise in various areas and were taking valuable time away from their normal assignments to participate in the joint venture. As chair of the task force, Josà © had scheduled an initial meeting for 10:00 A.M. Josà © started the meeting by reviewing the history of the development of the joint venture and how the three company presidents had decided to create it. Then, Josà © reviewed the market for the new high-end, designer pet coffins, stressing that this task force was to develop the initial design parameters for the new product to meet increasing demand around the world. He then opened the meeting for comments and suggestions. Mariana Preus spoke first: â€Å"In my opinion, the current designs that we have  in production in our Argentina plant are just fine. They are topnotch designs, using the latest technology for processing. They use the best woods available and they should sell great. I don’t see why we have to design a whole new product line.† Noto Takeshi agreed and urged the committee to recommend that the current designs were good enough and should be immediately incorporated into the plans for the new manufacturing plant. Josà © interrupted the discussion: â€Å"Look, the council of presidents put this joint venture together to completely revolutionize the product and its manufacture based on solid evidence and industry data. We are to redesign the product and its manufacturing systems. That is our job, so let’s get started.† Josà © knew that the presidents had considered using existing designs but had rejected the idea because the designs were too old and not easil y manufacturable at costs low enough to make a significant impact on the market. He told the group this and reminded them that the purpose of the committee was to design a new product. The members then began discussing possible new design elements, but the discussion always returned to the benefits of using the existing designs. Finally, Tex spoke up: â€Å"I think we ought to do what Mariana suggested earlier. It makes no sense to me to design new caskets when the existing designs are good enough to do the job.† The others nodded their heads in agreement. Josà © again reminded them of the task force’s purpose and said such a recommendation would not be well received by the council of presidents. Nevertheless, the group insisted that Josà © write a memo to the council of presidents with the recommendation to use existing designs and to begin immediately to design the plant and the manufacturing system. The meeting adjourned and the members headed to the golf course at 10:45 A.M. Josà © returned to his computer and started to write the memo, but he knew it would anger the presidents. He hoped he would not be held responsible for the actions of the task force, even though he was its chair. He wondered what had gone wrong and what he could have done to prevent it. Case Questions Which characteristics of group behavior discussed in the chapter can you identify in this case? How did the diverse nature of the group affect the committee’s actions? If you were in Jose’s position, what would you have done differently? What would you do now?

The market segmentation

Market segmentation is the process of identifying markets and then dividing those markets into groups.   The groups consist of characteristics that are similar and they have similar product needs.   The groups can consist of people or organizations.A market consists of people or organizations that have similar needs of a product, have the ability, willingness and authority to buy products.   There are two types of markets the consumer market and the organizational or business market.   The purpose of the consumer market is to supply goods and services to the customers for their own benefit and not for sale.   The organizational or business markets are markets that are business oriented such as the products in the markets are usually sold thus the businessmen sell them for a profit.The reason behind the dividing the market is to identify groups of customers who have similar tastes and preferences, to understand the customers behavior so that the right kind of goods are deliv ered to them and to ensure that the right marketing strategies are identified so as to ensure that the different preferences chosen to satisfy the needs of the customers If a product can be from a particular company   whose cost of advertising is low thus   it can be   in a position to boost sales of a company   since the cost of maintaining it is low and their returns can increase with time..Successful market segmentation is one that has the following characteristics: segment members that are internally the same and externally different or heterogeneous.The market can be segmented based on whether it is a consumer market or an industry or business market. In the customer market the basis of segmentation is based on variables such as the geographical, demographic, and psychographic and the behavioristic variables. The psychographic segmentation is a segmentation that is used to describe the customers in terms of their activities, opinions, emotions, values, motivations and l ifestyles.These enables the producers of the products to know which product are beneficial to the customers in terms of their preferences and tastes.   The application of this segmentation enables the manufactures to improve on their mode of developing their products, brand positioning, targeting and advertising so that the sales volume of the product can increase and this can result in greater returns for the company.The demographic segmentation involves classifying people who come from the same geographic boundaries and those who possess the same goals for example in a banking industry the introduction of automatic teller machines can enhance efficiency in the business because it can enable the customers to access cash quickly and to enable them complete transactions promptly since the machine is located in a place where customers are many hence the service delivery process is efficient for this customers.Geographical segmentation refers to dividing segments based on their regio n of the world, country size and density of the area. In the rural areas we have products such as the farming equipment and material because they are mostly used there while the urban centers consists of products that have been produced and manufactured and are ready for consumption since the residents there do not have land to cultivate products for consumption for themselves and for their children.The market can be segmented in the industrial market using the following variables: Location, company type and the behavioral characteristics.In case of the location variable the businessmen consider this factor seriously because the distance between where the source of the product is made and the market can be too big such that the cost of transportation can be too high for the businessmen to afford and thus render the market to be unprofitable thus this issue should be addressed so that it can be eliminated in the future.   .In case of company type segment the customers can be classi fied according to the company size, industry, decision-making and the purchase criteria.   The customers can prefer a commodity based on how well the product has been in the market and whether the industry in which it is produced is known because customers tend to accept a product, which has been in the market for a long time. (Steenkamp and Ter Hofstede 2002)The behavioral characteristics in the industrial market are: usage rate means the frequency in which a product is consumed if it is high it means that its demand is high thus it supply is likely to be high for example goods such as the consumable’s such as salt ,sugar there is a likelihood of being demand many times because people cannot stay without them,   buying status that is customers who regularly consume a product   can make the target market to perform effectively because of their consistency in purchasing their products.The procedure of purchasing the product is also determined such as the sealed bids or n egotiated procedure.   In the sealed bid procedures customers purchase a product based on the price tags of the product this type of segmentation is important to consider since it enables the produce to always have adequate stock of the product so as to avoid stock outs.The criteria that are used in identifying a market segment is that it must be identifiable that is a customer must be in a position to recognize the segment that is appropriate for them since customers tend to consume a product on the basis of how they have the product in the market and its quality.   It must be accessible that is the segment must be within the reach of the customers thus the communication and distribution channels must be improved so that the product reaches the customers within the given period of time that the marketers must advertise their products so that customers can be made aware of the existence of the product..The segments must be substantial that is they must be large enough so that th e resources that are used to avail them to the customers are cost effective that is the cost of product should not be too costly that is the cost of product should not be too large as compared to the revenue that is derived from them. The marketing needs must be unique so that they can be in position to capture a wider market so that customer can be able to change to the new brand in the market and thus increase the sales volume.   The segments must be stable so that the cost of maintaining the product is not too high than the returns that are derived from it.Industrial market segmentation is a segmentation that is used in guiding the industrial and business customers in their decision-making strategies.   The goal of these segmentation is to identify the customers in terms of whether they are potential customers so that their behavior can be identified so as to enable the marketers to identify the important issues that affect them directly .The factors that can affect them are: the prices, programs or solutions that can enable the company to increase their returns within a given period of time.( Haas, R.W. and Wotruba, T.R. 1983).Targeting refers to process of identifying segments that need to be addressed.   The companies tend to choose some segments and to downplay other segment because their aim is to look for segments that produce as much returns to the company as possible.   The target market involves people such as the end user companies’ procurement managers, company houses contracting companies and the external sales agents.Target audience involves individuals that influence the purchasing decision but they do not buy the product such individuals involves design engineers, architects, project managers, and the operational managers. The target markets can be identified by looking at customers who have similar needs so that the produces can channel their efforts to products that are beneficial to the customers and they suit their tastes a nd preferences.Positioning involves advertising the product value to customers so as to increase the products sales volume. Positions are described using various variables and using parameters that are essential to a customer.   The customers position a product in relation to the brand or product that is within their reach.   Thus it is important for the marketers to conduct a research about how the customers rate different products and their marketing variables so that they can increase their sales volume. The markers need to improve on their marketing variables so that they can improve on their marketing strategies because the customers can determine the success of the business.   The marketers should set up strategies which are geared to having a portfolio that can ensure that their product compete with.Positioning involves how people perceive a product that is in the market.   The products or services provide a map that enables the marketers to identify which characteris tics can be compared and contrasted to another product that is competing with it so as to put in place mechanisms that will enable them to compete effectively with their rivals.Market segmentation is therefore necessary because it enables markets of different sizes to compete effectively since markets are divided based on their segments thus the small companies can be able to compete with the bigger companies since their scale of production is limited due to their size and the shelves where goods are displayed can not be in a position to accommodate all kinds of goods unlike the big companies whose economies of scale is high due to their size.REFERENCESApproaches†, (1980) Marketing Science Institute, Working Paper #80-105 Cambridge,Mass.Haas, R.W. and Wotruba, T.R. (1983). Marketing Management: Concepts, PracticeAnd Cases. Pleno, Texas: Business Publications, Inc.Kotler, P. (1976) Marketing Management (3rd. Ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.McKenna, R. (1988) â€Å"Marketing in the Age of Diversity†, Harvard Business Review,Vol 66, September-October.Pine, J. (1993) â€Å"Mass Customizing Products and Services†, Planning Review, Vol 22, July-August,Steenkamp and Ter Hofstede (2002)†International Market Segmentation issues andPerspectives†, Intern’s of Market Research Vol19, 185-285Wedel, Michael and Wagner A.Kamakura (2000) Market Segmentation Conceptual andMethodological Foundations Amsterdam: Kluwer

Life Imitates Art, Movies Imitate Life Essay

Imagine a world where clothes were non-existent, and it did not matter if your outfit was the current flair, or if your shoes were the latest style. Our culture would halfway cease to exist. The western culture puts so much emphasis on fashion, our lives begin to move and mold themselves around it. Fashion is like art on the body, and making a masterpiece out of what you wear. â€Å"From the materials employed in clothing manufacture to the process by which our garments are made to the social values that dictate what we â€Å"should† look like, fashion has surrounded us and consumed us for generations. (Shmoop Editorial Team 2008) A perfect example of popular culture can be revealed in American Fashion. This is impeccably displayed in the motion picture, based on the novel written by Lauren Weisberger, produced by Wendy Finerman, The Devil Wears Prada. The basic plot of the movie and novel is about a plain jane, just out of college, smart, not fashion savvy, woman (Andrea Sachs) who applies for a job as junior assistant to the editor-in-chief (Miranda Priestly), at a fashion icon magazine â€Å"Runway†, in New York and gets it. She is told repeatedly â€Å"a million girls would die for [her] job† (Finerman, 2006) and if she lasts a year, she will be able to get a job at any magazine. Andrea, in her own way is a counterculture of the people at Runway magazine in the movie. She deviates from the norm of the fashion and mainstream subculture. She tolerates their demanding ways, and demeaning comments of her diet and style, until she breaks and gives in and asks for help. She is given a makeover, by the art director, Nigel, and her new style and job begin to strain her relationship with her boyfriend and her friends. The few scenes that depict her break down and her makeover, is when people begin to notice her, and treat her better once she is wearing the latest fashion. Her hair was cut and styled, she started to watch what she ate, and shaped herself into a fashionista. She began to adapt to their standards, and dressing. She sticks with the job and increasingly spends more time working, whilst climbing the career ladder. This is set perfectly with our commercial culture and the ideology of humans and how our world works. Andrea was a non-conformist in the beginning and frowned upon because she did not wear the latest fall fashion. Once she started to wear the clothes, and shoes, she became well liked. She ultimately conformed to the fashion world. While at a benefit, Andrea ends up being Miranda’s saving grace and is offered to take the other assistants (Emily) spot to Paris. Andrea refused at first, in fear of hurting Emily’s feelings, and is forced to give in because if she does not go, Miranda will terminate her. Before leaving for Paris she takes a break from the relationship with her boyfriend. During her trip to Paris, she has relations with another writer she had met through her work and finds out about a plot to ruin her editor-in-chief. She tries to warn her and ends up finding out Miranda knew the whole time. Miranda ends up fixing her situation by double-crossing her art director, Nigel, and giving a job promised to him to someone else to save her job. Andrea is floored and cannot believe Miranda would do that to her friend. Miranda points out to Andrea that she already did, she did it to Emily. Right there Andrea quits, and leaves it all behind. Once Andrea returned to New York, she reunites with her boyfriend. In the conclusion, she is at a job interview when she is told her previous employer stated â€Å"she was by far her biggest disappointment, but that he would be an idiot not to hire her. † (Finerman, 2006) Throughout the entire movie Andrea is immersed in the fashion world. In the beginning of the movie there is a scene where the art director, Nigel, gives Andrea a pair of black, sling back stilettos. She at first refuses and says â€Å"I don’t think I need these. Miranda hired me, she knows what I look like. He responds â€Å"Do you? † (Finerman, 2006) This one scene indicates a perfect example of ideology. Nigel is setting the social order, because it is the norm of which the people in their occupation wear. I believe it is best stated by Shmoop University, â€Å"From our underwear to our Levi’s to our sneakers, what we wear has, for centuries, spoken volumes about who we are, what we do, and what we want. Whether Americans have dressed to make a political statement, to assert their class status, or simply to be irreverent, every style has carried a certain social meaning. (Shmoop Editorial Team 2008) The entire movie is immersed in popular culture and culturalism. In every scene there is examples of mass culture, commercial culture. It can even be said that ethical egoism is also expressed in the film. Ethical egoism, in short, is the view that perhaps not all persons seek their own self-interest but all should do so (Lee Archie and John G Archie, 2003). This is best represented when Miranda betrays Nigel in the end, in order to retain her job. She may not have had ill intentions and most likely did not want to make that decision, but in the end for her own self-interest, she made someone else sacrifice for her. The film reflects attitudes of our American Society. It depicts how simple a dress can make and transform a woman. Another movie and television series that is popular and uses fashion to influence, is â€Å"Sex in the City. † The show would emphasize certain brands, names, and styles and it caused a massive explosion of commercial paraphernalia. It clearly articulates how fashion matters in our day to day lives. Some people would like to disagree, but we even base our terms and language on fashion. â€Å"Terms like â€Å"white collar† and â€Å"blue collar† connote not just a line of work but a person’s class status, and remind us that we tend to make assumptions about a person’s income, line of work, and social position based on the way he or she dresses. † (Shmoop Editorial Team 2008) Regardless of your gender, sexuality, race, religion, pop culture exists in your life more than you know.

Politics and Society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Politics and Society - Essay Example From 1753 through 1801, William Pitt came up with the right bestowed on the prime minister to request other ministries to reign and establish it. The only record up to year 1916 evidencing the decisions of the cabinet was a letter done by the Prime Minister to be sent to the Monarch. Some of the posts that were created in year 1916 were the secretary of the cabinet and the secretariat of the cabinet. (number10.gov.uk, 2011) Peele in his book says that in 2004, the system of government in Britain was that of cabinet. This system has all the political as well as executive leadership being provided by the cabinet. This cabinet is made up of few senior ministers who are heads of various main departments. The head of the cabinet is the Prime Minister. The position of premiership is devoid of formal powers, but is usually above the other ministers in superiority. The power bestowed to the Prime Minister is, thus, legitimate in the collective government. Therefore, the Prime Minister is jus t but the ministers’ team leader. This government in entirety is the one responsible for all the decisions reached in parliamentary proceedings. Despite the fact that Macmillan in 1957 to 1963 suggested how a cabinet type of governance should be, the current cabinet system in the UK is altogether different. Changes are evident in many levels of the system, with the prominence of premiership being a source of power imbalance in the cabinet. (Peele, 2004 p127) The most senior of the positions in the cabinet are usually filled by the appointments made by the Prime Minister subsequent to an election. All persons holding the positions in the cabinet of the UK are usually serving members of parliament. The senior most positions in the cabinet are Foreign Secretary, Deputy Prime Minister, Exchequer’s Chancellor and the Home Secretary. The holders of the office are usually announced immediately after every general election’s result. This is mostly after one or two days afterwards the appointments of minor positions in the cabinet are made public knowledge. (historylearningsite.co.uk, 2011) In Britain, coalitions approach of governance have happened severally and arrangements as well as pacts alike. Coalitions are usually established to bring resolutions to predicaments. Some of these predicaments arise from crisis nationally like the popular Great Wars in the 1900s, while some of the crisis that call for coalition governments are economic (for instance, the 1930s National Government). Other crises that bring about a coalition government are political like the 1970s’ which was formed due to a small majority by the labour party. (Oaten, 2007 p11) A coalition government is defined as simply a system of governance where a government is made up of at least two parliamentary parties. This type of governance is not common in systems where there is a plural system of election and two-party systems. It is a common occurrence in proportional represen tation systems of governance, though. There are also special circumstances that require for this type of governance like where after an election, none of the contesting parties makes plural votes in a convincing manner or even scenarios needing a united purpose nationally. Parties

Marketing Mix Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Marketing Mix - Assignment Example The Le Bistrot Pierre restaurant chain provides a wide array of dishes to be presented to its customers. It is found that the restaurant provides a wide range of dishes on appetizers ranging from vegetable to non-vegetable dishes. For instance, the vegetable dishes consist of items like tomato preparations, onion soups and mushroom dishes. In the non-vegetarian section the restaurant in the appetizer front presents its customers with items like snail dipped in garlic butter. (Pierre’s Bistro, 2010) The restaurant is widely known not only for its flavored dishes but also for its economical price ranges. It is observed that the restaurant provides two to three courses of lunch at highly affordable rates. The rates charged for the lunch sessions at the restaurant vary between ten to twelve pounds only making it highly attractive from the customer’s side. The customers can even order for a glass of wine before commencing on the lunch at a humble rate of fifteen pounds. (Le Bistrot Pierre, n.d.; Le Bistrot Pierre: Restaurant Views, n.d.; Le Bistrot, 2010). In regards to its distribution parameters the restaurant chain Le Bistrot Pierre has opened up its eight unit in Harrogate, a township in Yorkshire. It is also planning to open up with its ninth arm sometime later this year. The restaurant chain Le Bistrot Pierre claims that its newly opened arm would help attract huge footfalls for the presence of a bar cum dining space. It also states that it is promoting a space for the balcony purpose also in the restaurant. The restaurant chain has other operating units spread along different key areas of United Kingdom. They include areas like Nottingham, Leicester, Derby, Leamington Spa, Stratford-upon-Avon and Sheffield. (Chomka, 2010) The restaurant outlet of Le Bistrot Pierre situated at Leamington Spa is in the center of many shopping outlets and

Minorities in the Media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Minorities in the Media - Essay Example The act of seeking out revenge by harming an entire classification of people simply because they have been stereotyped is a major depiction of ignorance and responsible for a vicious cycle of hatred to formulate. This is where the movie American History X comes in. The purpose of the story is to realize that racial hatred does not accomplish anything except create more hate. The director and writer of this movie accomplish their purpose through character development, the targeted audience, and cinematography. Character development best helps to accomplish the purpose of the movie. The most developed characters in this film are Derek and Danny. Derek’s character is full of racial hatred and plays as a leader of a neo-Nazi group in Venice Beach, California at the beginning of the movie. â€Å"Based on this traumatic incident and an underlying climate of subtle racism, the elder son, Derek, focuses his rage on the minority community and becomes a racist agitator† (McKenna, 1999). Derek preaches to young skinheads about his beliefs of the American society and how minority groups are corrupting the society and wasting taxpayer’s money. Derek shows great hate towards minority groups mostly because of the fact that his father had been murdered by a black man. American History X is clearly a film dealing with the social topic of racism. The most interesting aspect of this movie is the way in which the subject unfolds. First of all, it is quiet obvious how difficult a subject that racism is to portray and effectively depict. However American History X presents the subject without any qualms and a unique clarity. Secondly the film’s main figurehead for racism, which is portrayed by Derek Vinyard (Edward Norton), is not an unintelligent redneck racist as most films usually portray anyone adopting such notions to be, but he is in fact a intelligent, eloquent, charming and bright man despite the fact that he clearly holds ideals which are terribl y wrong and confused. Finally, the film also shows that it is not only the white, neo-nazi racists who are fools for being involved in situations like these and adopt a lifestyle central on these stereotypes, but it is all those who hold hatred in their hearts. Through these methods, the film beautifully instills this idea upon the viewer, in an extremely compelling way, that hatred and racism will destroy a person and those who are closest to them. The intense realism that the movie portrays as far as the execution of the incidents is concerned is most impressive with no holds expelled of the intense racial hatred. As we go back to the starting of the movie when Derek figures that some black guys were trying to steal or wreck his truck he immediately grabs a gun, and shoots one of them, wounds another, and fires at the third as he gets away. It was then that one of the most brutal scenes in film history is shown in the way Derek forces the wounded man to put his face on the curb an d kicks the back of his head, smashing the mans skull. It is this scene that is such a perfect example of cumulative causation. This is because it depicts the endless circle of hate between both parties involved. For example, the young black men were acting out this way simply because they had been disgraced by the white male in the local basketball game; therefore, they go up to damage the white males care, which in turn leads to Derek shooting the young black men. This is a vicious circle with no seeming end. The strength that

Services Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Services Marketing - Essay Example Besides, the industry continues to grow in leaps and bounds to a point that currently about one and a half of start ups are service oriented. One major stimulant to this growth is the long term economic growth of a majority of these economies which has led to particular emphasis on financial services, travel, entertainment, and personal care. These sectors form the bulk of service industry and the fact that far more businesses are starting on the same levels implying that there is eminent need for improved marketing concepts. These factors, as well as continued lifestyle changes, are coming as continuous pressures on the service industries. These are aspects and elements that Shostack had foreseen in the writing of his article breaking free from product marketing. At the time, product marketing was dominant as most industries and companies were bent on producing tangible products. In fact, any company which bordered on services was forced to adapt product marketing approaches. This w as bound to fail with time as consumers would, with time, adopt preferences and approaches that would clearly differentiate product and service aspects. At the time, marketers considered the difference between products and services as purely bordering on tangibility. However, Shostack sought to disagree with this assertion holding that there were multiple other factors which differentiated service marketing from product marketing. In this study, we implore on Shostack’s view on use of tangibility as the distinguishing factor. Beyond this, the study will look at modern assertions on the differences between product and service marketing. To further understand service marketing as different from product marketing this study will also look at two other contemporary studies and their positions as well assertions. First, we examine the views of Ruskin Brown as detailed in his book titled marketing your service business. Just as Shostack asserts, service marketing cannot be adopted to fit product marketing. Rather, there is need to develop new concepts which consider the various differences between products and services. Brown states that even though it might be possible to consider the marketing mix for a service as detailed under the 4Ps of products, there is great need to expand the mix in a way that it allows a more meticulous analysis of the ingredients essential for successful service marketing. The author further asserts that most businesses fail to attain their goals as they lack understanding of the workings of the various elements of the extended mix. This imminently means that they fail to come up with required action to address these factors. To this end, Brown provides a detailed analysis of the elements of extended mix that would offer businesses an opportunity to redress their failures. Failures are identified by Shostack as emanating from the uninformed treatment of services as products. Brown insists on the extended mix which incorporates such elements as process, people, physical evidence, time, and resource. Process relates to the fact that services are performed and consumed concurrently. They are neither created nor do they posses any shelf life. Rather, service is an experience and, therefore, the core of the process is to handle the

EGT3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

EGT3 - Essay Example This type of economic regulation may prevent competition in the market. Industrial Regulation has an impact on various entities. For national firms which operate in a monopolistic or oligopolistic market, regulation is a boon. Regulation helps in the development and growth of these industries. An example could be companies working in oil and power sector. Regulation is also beneficial for small and mid size industries which would find it tough to survive in the absence of regulations because of intense global competition and the realization of economies of scale by big international firms. An example is small and mid-size firms in Textile manufacturing. Industrial Regulation has negative impacts on multi-national firms who want to expand their businesses internationally but are constrained due to regulation. An example is regulation on FDI in retail in several sectors. Regulation is also harmful for consumer as a whole in certain sectors where competition would actually reduce prices. However, in sectors mentioned above such as drugs and ammunition, regulation is useful for society as a whole. (Joskow,Rose). Social Regulation implies the restrictions imposed by the government in order to prevent or prohibit harmful corporate behaviour such as environmental pollution and occupational health hazards or to promote desirable behavioral patterns. Social regulation has an impact on almost everybody. This includes the corporate, end-consumers, shareholders and the environment. The corporate have to adhere to certain standards to be in business which have attached costs in the short run. The end-consumers are positively affected as social regulation leads to a better holistic environment. A monopoly is a form of market in which almost all the sales in the market go to a single firm. A natural monopoly is a situation constrained by technology or costs in which it is optimal for the entire production to be done by a single firm.

Case study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Case study - Essay Example Also, the tradition associated with a wine being a family wine with 238 years of history and being the third oldest wine maker in Germany brings charm to the product which could be its advantage over its competitors in the market. Johann is capitalizing on this by holding events in their estate to ensure customer retention. b. Weakness – expensive. Quality comes at a price and this makes the company hesitate to expand its reach in the market because of the cost associated not only in producing the wine, but also in marketing it (a tour in US costs EUR 5,000). c. Opportunities – the liberalization of the wine market provides an opportunity for Fitz-Ritter to expand to other markets abroad that would widen its market and customer base. d. Threat – new entrants in the market from the New World offering comparable taste at a lower price serves as a very potent threat to Fitz-Ritter. PESTEL a. Political – EU is protective of the German wine manufacturer where i t subsidizes the industry. The residue of the George Marshall fund serves as financing assistance to wine manufacturers such as Fitz-Ritter which could help ease the financing of its expansion should the company decide to expand its operation. b. Economic – competitors are flooding the EU market with comparable wines at a lower price which is devastating to the industry. c. Social – there is growing market for the Fitz-Ritter’s wines especially for middle class who would like to partake the wine to have the feeling of being in the upper class. d. Technological – Johann is embarking on the training of his employees to upgrade their technological capability to further improve their wine making. e. Environmental – acreage for growing grapes in Germany has already been allocated. Its implication makes the wine industry less competitive because it meant they have to squeeze more wine from the grape to lower the price which has a devastating effect on qu ality. f. Legal – EU government is on Germany’s wine makers side being protective of the industry from the foreign competition. Fitz-Ritter’s strategy is basically to promote the quality of the product by stressing its history and tradition; that it is a product of craftsmanship not by industrial process. This way, Johann is able to have a niche in the market. 2) What is Fitz- Ritter’s competitive advantage? How did the company manage to survive in a highly competitive wine business? To better determine Fitz-Ritter’s competitive advantage, it would be helpful to consider Porter’s Five Forces of competition to see how it fared in the highly competitive wine business. a. Threat of New Entrants – players from the New World are indeed a threat. They have comparable wines with lower prices. b. Determinants of Supplier Power – Fitz-Ritter grows their own grape and makes their own wine and such, suppliers has very little leverage on t he company. c. Rivalry Among Existing Firms – there may be rivalry among the old wine makers in Germany and EU but the rivalry is not considered to be disastrous to the industry. The threat of rivalry is being brought by new players from the New World instead of the old wine makers. d. Determinants of Buyer Power – Fitz-Ritter use exclusive distributor in the United States whom they can trust and Johann’s mother help in the promotional aspect of the product by giving the product’s comparative advantage which is tradition, quality and history a face whom the customers can

Consumers are Passive Victims Manipulated Into Buying Commodities They Essay

Consumers are Passive Victims Manipulated Into Buying Commodities They Cannot Resist - Essay Example This essay discusses and investigates the topic on why the purchasing habits of the consumers are heavily dependent on certain market parameters. Consumer power in the current marketing system is always a controversial one. Majority of the consumers all over the world are passive elements rather than active elements as far market is concerned. In fashion industry, the passive nature of the consumers is more evident. This essay refers to several examples such as: people normally take inspirations from celebrities while they take purchasing decisions in fashion industry. Products endorsed by the celebrities are moving rapidly towards the market than the products which do not have any such backing. In other words, the researcher states that people are blindly trusting the words of the celebrities and product manufacturers and they are not bothering much to research more about the authenticity of the offers put forward by the advertisers and marketers. However, no two individuals are ali ke: either physically or mentally and therefore it is not necessary that a product suited to one person may be suited to another person. To conclude the research, the author suggests his opinion on the topic that modern customers are not ready to accept such claims and they try to boost their image with the help of expensive products that were successfully advertised by celebreties. Long story short, majority of the current consumers are passive in nature while they take their purchasing decisions.

Content analysis - have gun will travel Research Paper

Content analysis - have gun will travel - Research Paper Example The stories were both hero myths and tales of American perseverance and fortitude. The Western hero represented a male ideal that could only have existed in a lawless world, but who represented the organized powers of the American government which was invulnerable to enemies both foreign and domestic. The gun as a source of power was also representative of the technological superiority of American industrialization (Tucker & Tucker, 2008). The United States had undergone great strife during the time that the Western genre was in its height. The image of the Western hero proposed a foundation of historic strength through which the American self concept was reinforced. The following paper will look at the nature of the Western as it related to the national civic imagery through which patriotic pride was built and sustained. The radio program that had been inspired by the television program was a textual promotion of the symbols that appeared on the television program, the might of the American righteousness promoted without regard to authority or law. The radio program Have Gun, Will Travel was popular because of how the American mythologies were built as reflection of the philosophical foundation upon which the American myths have been perpetuated. In the 1920s the radio was the center of the first burst of information consumption in the United States. Both news and entertainment could come directly into the homes of the masses, creating a world that was just beginning to grow smaller merely through access. Ware (2009) writes of several different perspectives on the effects of the radio. Some believed that the radio worked as a medium through which to perpetuate stereotypes, the concept of cultural differences boiled down to indicators through which to identify everyone within a culture. There was also the fear that it would act to flatten the nation, geographical

Tourism Industry Essay Example for Free

Tourism Industry Essay Tourism has become one of the worlds main industries; both developing and extremely developed countries are now taking closer look. Tourism give a lot of foreign exchange to the country, its provides jobs directly in the same field (Tourism Industry) and indirectly in supporting industries for example, agriculture industry, guide to the development of main and important services, for example, roads, airports , and in the same time its opens the country to the outside world. Tourism In Oman Oman one of the tourism country, that have all possibilities to make tourism industry one of the major income to the country, all this due to some reasons. In order to take the advantages of tourism co field completely, its very important to develop it, and to do the same a huge and proper development plane are needed, this is the main role of Ministry of Tourism in the sultanate (Ministry of Tourism 2010). Oman to be a tourism country there many reasons behind that, the first reason Oman has special and popular destination between the countries because of its natural attractions such as its deserts, mountains, wadis, and beaches. The second reason is its clean and green. The third reason is its nice festivals in Muscat and Salalah, Muscat Festival has different activities for example sports, music, dance, exhibitions, stage performances and childrens activities and different participants from different countries around the world. Salalah is the forth reason, because it wonderful place especially in the uotom season, this season is a unique season. Oman is also popular for its wide range of special tourist activities such as water sports, rock climbing, sand skiing in the desert, walking, cave exploration, bull fighting, dolphin shows, fishing charters and camel races. The country also features hundreds of forts and castles, which are among several cultural landmarks that give the country its unique character and age-old attraction ( Ministry of Information 2010). Important of tourism for the country due to different and great reasons , tourism industry is the spine of any countrys economic position , It provides foreign exchange earning to that particular country, It generates new employment chances to the people, in the other hand tourism raises the living conditions of the nation of that particular country, the infrastructure development is the very important and the main advantage of tourism industry, the Cultural exchange is also possible only through tourism, protection of our heritage also one of these reason that makes tourism important for each county. From other side, important of tourism are very deep in many issues it have influence on tourists religious viewpoint, Seeing place which is some religious root (Al Shaqsi 2008) Importance of tourism doesn’t stop in any point its larger than what we expect, Perhaps the most important reason is the fact of the multiplier effect, which is: How many times money spent by a tourist circulate through the economy of the country. An example for the above could be as follows: A tourist spends his money in the hotel by dry-cleaning his cloths, eating in the restaurant †¦ etc. This money spent will increase revenues of the dry-cleaner and the restaurant owner, both will spend more on their supplies for their shop and for personal needs, which means that other businesses are going to benefit due to their increased profits by the tourist †¦and so on. the whole above reasons that shows the importance of tourisum for any devlopment country, it can be sumaraize in three main reasons that tourisum important for the sultanate : 1. the development of the countys infrastructure; 2. attract visitors and to provide them with a memorable visit that will lead to a positive word of mouth and a chance of re-visiting the country again. This also could be thought of from an employment angle, as the infrastructure needs buildings, services, and transportation means and ways, all which means increase in the number of jobs for the locals. 3. Another important factor for the importance of tourism is attracting foreign investors to invest in the country by showing them high potentials and an acceptable infrastructure to their businesses, all of the above which will lead to the increase of countrys GDP which means the development of the country as a whole (Ministry of Tourism 2010). Conclusion Oman a tourism place that attract huge number of visitors that affect different main aspects in the country, in the other hand tourism industry become one of the most important industries in the world. There are lots of reasons behind the important of tourism for the sultanate. Ministry of Tourism participating in all important events related to tourism in the world this effect positively to the devlopment of tourism in Oman and in the other hand its define Oman in other side of the world so, it will be known by the other countries.

The human digestive system

The human digestive system The human digestive system is responsible for the intake, breakdown, absorption and finally removal of nutrients and energy needed for the functioning of the human body. It performs these duties by allowing nutrients and energy in the form of food to enter the body, and then removing the materials needed from the food, then absorbing the materials into the body, as well as sending these materials to the place that theyre needed, and finally removing the leftover materials from the body. The system consists of the primary organs; the mouth, the esophagus, the stomach, the small intestine, the large intestine, the rectum, and the anus, as well as the secondary organs; the liver, the salivary glands, the gallbladder and the pancreas. The mouth is responsible for the immediate intake of food, and is partially responsible for digestion, through the process of mastication, which is the chewing of food. Food enters the body through the mouth, where it is than chewed to soften and partially breakdown the food. Saliva from the salivary glands also aides in the preliminary breakdown of foods, because of the chemicals and enzymes contained in saliva. Once the food is sufficiently broken down, it is swallowed and brought to the next organ in the digestive system, the esophagus. The Role of the esophagus is simply to allow the partially broken down food to travel from the mouth to the stomach. Its role in digestion is minimal, but it is still considered one of the major organs in the system. At the joining point of the esophagus and the stomach, called the cardiac sphincter, is the blocker that prevents gastric acid from exiting the stomach and damaging the mouth or the esophagus itself. When the Cardiac sphincter fails its job, the gastric acid seeps into the esophagus, causing damage to the interior of the esophagus, as well as the painful sensation known as heartburn. The stomach is a muscular, hollow organ in the human digestive system, and is one of the primary sites of digestion. It is filled with gastric acid, a powerful acid that breaks down food with relative ease, digesting most foods in about 4 or 5 hours. The stomach contains three glands, which are used to either aid in the digestion of food, or protection of the stomach from its own digestive materials. The three types of glands are the pyloric gland, the cardiac gland and the gastric gland. The pyloric gland is responsible for secreting gastrin, a hormone which stimulates the production of gastric acid. The gastrin activates the gastric glands, which start secreting gastric acid. The cardiac glands are the centers of mucus secretion in the stomach. This mucus is used to protect the lining of the stomach. A common problem associated with the stomach is peptic ulcers, a type of ulcer formed by a disturbance in the regulation of the hormone gastrin, which causes to much gastric acid to be produced, which causes damage to the mucus membrane and the stomach lining. After food has been digested enough, it moves out of the stomach and into the small intestine. Another round of digestion occurs in the small intestine, even more than in the stomach. Absorption also begins to occur at this stage in the digestive system. The small intestine is broken down into three parts, the duodenum, the jejunum, and the ileum. The duodenum is the first part of the small intestine, and it is responsible for most of the food digested in the small intestine. The duodenum also regulates the rate of emptying of the stomach via hormonal pathways. The next part of the small intestine is the jejunum, which is the longest portion of the small intestine, but it is also responsible for very little digestion, but is primarily responsible for the first round of absorption, where it takes most of the nutrients out of the food matter. The final portion of the small intestine is the ileum, which is where the final bit of absorption in the small intestine takes place. Once the now digested material finishes its path through the small intestine, it enters the large intestin e. The large intestines primary purpose is to remove most of the water from the now indigestible mass, and move it to the anus, where it will be removed from the body. The large intestine is made up of the cecum, the rectum and the colon. The cecum is not very large in humans, and is barely existent at all. It serves a much higher purpose in herbivores, where it digests tough leaves with the help of symbiotic bacteria. In humans this is not necessary, so it has become very unimportant. The colon is where the water is taken from the digested food matter. The rectum is where the waste is temporarily stored before it is excreted from the body, which takes place in the anus. The secondary organs in the digestive system are also vital to the survival of a human, but they take a more passive role in digestion. The liver plays a major role in digestion and has a number of functions, including glycogen storage, decomposition of red blood cells, plasma protein synthesis, hormone production, and detoxification. It lies below the diaphragm in the thoracic region of the abdomen. It produces some of the systems bile the rest is produced by the gallbladder, an alkaline compound which aids in digestion. It also performs and regulates a wide variety of high-volume biochemical reactions requiring highly specialized tissues, including the synthesis and breakdown of small and complex molecules, many of which are necessary for normal vital functions.

Film Analysis Of Double Indemnity Film Studies Essay

Film Analysis Of Double Indemnity Film Studies Essay From the moment they met, it was murder! This is the legendary tag line for Billy Wilders most incisive film noir, Double Indemnity, even though in 1944, when it was first released in New York on September 11, critics called it a melodrama, a elongated dose of premeditated suspense, with a pragmatism evocative of earlier period French films [poetic realism of the 1930s], with characters as rough, solid and inflexible as steel. Even though James M. Cain is accredited as the original novel and Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder contribute to screenplay credit, the film is in fact based on the case of Ruth Snyder, a criminal murderess who breathed her last breath in the electric chair on January 13, 1928. Supported by Miklos Rozsas throbbing film score and John Seitzs expressionistic black-and-white camera work, Wilder had no valid idea he was filming in a technique called noir; he found out about this many years later, to his great astonishment. In Double Indemnity, Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), a to some extent cute but dim insurance agent, becomes prey to the charms of a flirtatious blonde, Phyllis Dietrieckson. (Barbara Stanwyck), an anklet-sporting femme fatale/housewife. She plots to kill her husband in a railroad mishap that would bring her a double indemnity insurance imbursement. What makes this film a wonderful case in point of the culture and style of film noir is that, as stated by the movie production convention of the period, jealousy becomes a part of Walters relationship with Phyllis after he does the crime. Thinking she has an additional, much younger admirer, he murders her in a rage of jealousy, then in all probability bleeds to death from a shot fired by the perishing Phyllis, having first relegated the complete story of the film in a two-hour flashback. (In the new novel, Walter and Phyllis go off jointly on a journey, happily back together.) in accordance with with the crime doesnt pay principles of the era, Billy Wilder even added a shot of Neff dying in the San Quentin gas chamber, but thought the film looked better with the film concluding as Neff hears the wails of police and/or ambulance sirens approaching. Double Indemnity is the most excellent example of a noir film to date: rough as sandpaper, with acerbic, wrenching dialogue and practical sets. Watch Walter and Phyllis as they get together in a luminous white southern California superstore, sporting dark glasses, not shopping or still watching each other while plotting up plans for a homicide. And those magnificent lines: Yes, I killed him for money and for a woman. I didnt get the money and I didnt get the woman. Pretty, isnt it?, There was no way in the world I may perhaps have known that murder occasionally can smell like honeysuckle, or I couldnt hear my footsteps. It was the walk of a dead man,. Double Indemnity moreover has a homoerotic bond between Walter Neff and Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), the claims examiner who believes Phyllis, but not Walter, of the crime. Wilder underplayed the father-son relationship in addition to the police routine constituent that could have made his film a detective tale more willingly than a twisty noir, which is what it in actuality is. Wilder took the focal point off Robinsons role and cultivated his viewpoint, in disparity to the many detective films of the age that instigated in novels of Raymond Chandler, his co-conspirator. By modeling Double Indemnity into a homicidal melodrama with sexual insinuations, Wilder produced a rational crime accomplishment. The Book and The Film Wilders film and Cains novel even supposing it does not credit the book as its source. Body Heat can be expressed as a masquerading or unacknowledged remake, a film that repeats basic story units from the Cain novel (and Wilder adaptation) but changes the details of its name, location, period, character names and the those like it. For want of a screen credit recognizing the source property, the remake becomes a hypothetical construct or role of the films production and response. Imperative here is Cains standing, and the untimely 1980s revitalization of notice in Cains work, nevertheless more important is Double Indemnitys advantaged place in the noir principle. A small number would refute that Double Indemnity is a perfect film noir and one of the most significant movies in Hollywood history. It was an unconventional film, challenging almost a decade of Production Code battles to Cains literature. Frank Krutnik in the same way declares that Double Indemnity was traditionally signif icant in the growth of the 1940s erotic crime thriller, setting up through its depiction of the Cain tale a model for the story structures of following film noirs. Lately, Brian De Palma (whose reverence to Alfred Hitchcock are well known) has paid compliment to film noir, by the opening scene in Femme Fatale (2002) with the title character, Laure Ash (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos), mirrored in a hotel room television screen as she gazes at the Barbara Stanwyck model in Double Indemnity. These instances of Double Indemnitys repute and standing in film history help make clear why critics such as Leitch openly match up Body Heat to Wilders version, but do not take heed to Double Indemnity had previously been more honestly remade as a lesser-known movie for television, intended for by Jack Smight in 1973. Double Indemnity starts with Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), bleeding from a bullet wound, stumbling into his office in the Pacific Insurance Building. Neff talks into his dictaphone and his narrative of an unholy love and an just about perfect crime unfurls in flashback. Neff is an insurance salesman who becomes entangled with the beautiful and treacherous Phyllis. Phyllis encourages Walter not only to lend a hand her take out a $100,000 life insurance policy on her spouse, but also to assist her in murdering him. Jointly they simulate Dietrichsons inadvertent death in order to meet the criteria for the double indemnity, but things go awry when Neffs manager, Barton Keyes, starts to infer murder. Neff starts an acquaintance with Phylliss step-daughter Lola, who suspects that Phyllis has started going out with her (Lolas) previous boyfriend Nino Zachetti. Believing he has been deceived, Neff plots a plan to murder Phyllis and trap Zachetti. In an argument in the gloomy, Dietrichson sit ting room, Walter slays Phyllis, but not before she gravely stabs him. Towards the end, the narrative turns back to the current day where the dying Walter is reassured by the paternal Keyes. Even though Wilders Double Indemnity is frequently thought of as the original alongside which Kasdans noir remake is weighed up, Body Heat can more generally be seen as a remaking of Cains composition (or no less than those works by which he is best kept in mind). Some critics go as far as to dispute that Double Indemnity was a case of auto-citation, produced by [Cain] in full familiarity of the fact that he was paying his own homage to [The] Postman: Both tell fundamentally a similar story: an all too obedient male is enchanted by a physically powerful and scheming lady. With her inspiring it and with him ironing out of the details, the disloyal couple carry out a perfect murder of the womans husband. Afterward, when they are practically free, providence (or irony) swipes them with its gigantic lumbering paw and they are given their just desserts but for different reasons. Such an association makes possible for one to recognize noir essentials for example the hard-boiled conversation and portrayal of bare (and graphic) animal covetousness that are universal to both The Postman and Double Indemnity. For example, Body Heat is considered for dialogue for example Neds You shouldnt wear that body, and Mattys Youre not too smart, are you? I like that in a man. On the other hand, at an even higher plane of generalization, it can be said that Body Heat at the same time refers to and remakes the noir genre to which its intertexts belong. Film Noir For a moment or two, both the problem movies and the semi documentary crime thrillers made it appear that Italian neorealism had established a habitat in an anxious, if prosperous, America. One of the preeminent things that is taking place in Hollywood is the propensity to move out of the placeto support imaginary pictures on information and, more significantly, to shoot them not in decorated studio sets but in authentic places. But an additional assortment of postwar American film, one which was dependent on the restricted environment of the studio on top of bona fide locations for its representation of the sordid underbelly of American life, soon became apparent. This was film noir (more exactly, black film), invented and named by French critics in 1946 when, experiencing American motion pictures for the first time ever since 1940, they alleged a weird and wonderful new mood of cynicism, dimness, and depression in definite crime films and melodramas. They came up with the term from the Serie Noire detective pulp fiction books then all the rage in France, many of which were renditions of works by members of the hard-boiled genre of American crime authorsDashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and James M. Cain (afterward coupled by Mickey Spillane, Horace McCoy, and Jim Thompson)whose books were also recurrently tailored in films noir. In the vein of the novels, these films were set apart by a subdued atmosphere and realistic violence, and they presented postwar American cynicism to the extent of nihilism by presuming the total and hopeless corruption of society and of everyone in it. Billy Wilders acidic Double Indemnity (1944), which shocked Hollywood in the year of its release and was just about banned by the authorities, may be considered as the archetype for film noir, even though some critics trace the origins back to such rough but significantly less pessimistic films as This Gun for Hire, High Sierra, The Maltese Falcon, and Stranger on the Third Floor. Mo dified by Wilder and Raymond Chandler from a James M. Cain novel, Double Indemnity is the squalid story of a Los Angeles insurance agent (Fred MacMurray) sexually ensnared by a clients wife into killing off her husband for his death reimbursement; it has been declared a film without a solitary trace of compassion or love. Without a doubt, these are characters remarkably missing from all films noir, as conceivably they seemed not present from the postwar America which created them. Like Double Indemnity, these films succeeded upon the unembellished interpretation of greed, desire, and unkindness because their fundamental theme was the profundity of human immorality and the absolutely unheroic character of human beingslessons that were almost not taught but without doubt re-emphasized by the one of its kind horrors of World War II. Nearly everyone of the dark films of the late forties take the structure of crime melodramas for the reason that (as Dostoevsky and Dickens recognize) the devices of crime and criminal detection afford an ideal metaphor for dishonesty that cuts across conformist moral classes. These films are frequently set in southern Californiathe geographical archetype for a social order in which the breach between anticipation and reality is determined through mass hallucination. The cent ral characters are regularly unfeeling antiheroes who chase their foundation designs or basically drift aimlessly from side to side in sinister night worlds of the metropolitan American harsh world, but they are even more frequently decent people trapped in traps set for them by a crooked social order. In this concluding sense, film noir was immeasurably a cinema of moral nervousness of the kind experienced at various times in postwar Eastern Europe, most lately in Poland at the pinnacle of the Solidarity groupi.e., a cinema about the environments of life enforced on truthful people in a untruthful, self-deluding society. The moral unsteadiness of this world was rendered into a visual style by the expert noir cinematographers John Alton, Nicholas Musuraca, John F. Seitz, Lee Garmes, Tony Gaudio, Sol Polito, Ernest Haller, Lucien Ballard, and James Wong Howe. These technical masters turned into moral vagueness obviously real through what has been called anti conventional cinematography. The method incorporated the all-encompassing use of wide-angle lenses, allowing even more and greater depth of field but causing animated deformation in close-ups; inconspicuous lighting and night-for-night filming (that is, essentially shooting night scenes at nighttime more willingly than in bright daylight with dark filters), both of which produce ruthless contrasts between the light and dark spheres of the frame, with dark outweighing, to match the moral disorder of the world; and pointed, unnatural set-ups. If all of this spears to be suggestive of the artificial studio modus operandi of German Expressionism, it ou ght to, for the reason thatlike the Universal horror phase of the thirtiesfilm noir was fashioned to a large degree by German and Eastern European migrs, a lot of of whom had gained their basic training at UFA in the twenties and near the beginning of the thirties. The noir directors Lang, Siodmak, Wilder, Preminger, Brahm, Litvak, Ophls, Dieterle, Sirk, Ulmer, and Bernhardt; the director-cinematographer Rudolph Mat; the cinematographers Karl Freund and John Alton; and the musicians Franz Waxman and Max Steiner had all been linked with or inclined by the UFA studio technique. On the other hand, given its subject matter, film noir could barely break out of the general pragmatic predisposition of the postwar cinema, and noir directors recurrently shot outside shots on location. Such wartime modernizations as slighter camera dollies and moveable power packs, higher speed lenses and additionally sensitive, fine-grain film rolls cut down the logistics of position shooting and aided to generate for film noir a nearly standardized visual method. For this motive, it has become trendy to discuss film noir as a category (some consider it is a genre) of idealistic or expressive pragmatism; but its inheritance includes such a wide variety of cultural influencesGerman Expressionism and shock exploitation, American gangster movies from the thirties, Sternbergian exoticism and self-indulgence, the graceful pragmatism of Carn, the case-hardened institution of American fiction, the forties cultural significance and fame of Freud, postwar American disenchantment (particula rly a sagacity of sexual betrayal amongst GIs coming back home) and the flourish of cinematic practicality it created, cold war mistrust, and for sure, Citizen Kane that it is probably better to typify it as a cycle to a certain extent than to draw up the boundaries too rigidly. Double Indemnity (1944), d. Billy Wilder, Paramount, 107min., bw, sc. Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler from the novel by James M. Cain, ph. John Seitz, m. Miklos Rozsa, v. MCA.

Francisco Franco Essay -- essays research papers

Francisco Franco Francisco Franco was the dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975, including the time of WW2. Perhaps he was better known as â€Å"El Caudillo,† translated into English as The Leader. He was born and raised in Spain. He was a very brilliant military general who led Nationalist rebels in defeating the Spanish government during the Spanish Civil War. Although he was viewed as a Fascist Dictator, he strongly opposed communism. He was an extremely important figure in the course of world history.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teodulo Franco Bahamonde, Francisco Franco as he was known, was born on December 4, 1892 at the coastal city of El Ferrel in the region known as Galicia in Northwestern Spain. He was close to his mother during his childhood. His father, older brother, and the four generations before him were naval officers. However, the Naval Academy was full so Franco went into the Army. He enrolled into Infantry Academy at Toledo when he was 14 and graduated three years later.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Franco quickly climbed the ranks of the Spanish Army. He gained a reputation of being a disciplined, honest, and dedicated soldier who was strictly professional. He was promoted to first lieutenant of an elite regiment when he was only 20 years old. He became the youngest captain in the Spanish Army in 1915 at the unprecedented age of 22. He then became second in command to General Jose Millan Astray of the Spanish Foreign Legion in ...

adoption :: essays research papers

adoption adoption, act by which the legal relation of parent and child is created. Adoption was recognized by Roman law but not by common law. Statutes first introduced adoption into U.S. law in the mid-19th cent., and today it is allowed in all states of the United States and in Great Britain. Adoption is generally a judicial proceeding, requiring a hearing before a judge. Adoption statutes usually provide that the consent of the parents or guardian of the child—and that of the child, if above a certain age—must be obtained. An adopted child generally assumes the rights and duties of a natural legitimate child. Similarly, the rights and duties accompanying natural parenthood generally accompany adoptive parenthood (e.g., the right of custody and the obligation of support). The natural parents have no right to control an adopted child, nor have they any duties toward it, but in some states the child does not lose the right to inherit from them. In many cases children are adopted by relatives. Many states now permit adoption by unmarried adults; some allow adoption by homosexual couples. Most adoptions are of the same race. Transracial adoptions are controversial, pitting issues of culture and heritage against the need of a child for a stable parent-child relationship as early in life as possible, regardless of race. The Multiethnic Placement Act (1994) made it illegal for U.S. states to hold up adoptions solely in order to match racial or ethnic background of the child. In adoption by unrelated adults, the courts have traditionally attempted to ease adjustment to the adoptive family and protect the privacy of the (often unwed) mother by maintaining secrecy regarding the child's birth parents. Since the 1970s, however, a growing number of adopted children have attempted to identify their birth parents, and â€Å"open adoption,† in which adoptive and birth parents maintain a relationship, has become more accepted. Questions of parental rights and where these stand vis-à  -vis the rights and best interests of the child have also been highlighted in cases in which the courts tranferred custody of adopted or fostered children to birth parents who had previously given them up. Many children are adopted through public or private agencies, but a growing number are adopted through private placement, in which the prospective adoptive parents advertise for or are otherwise put into contact with a birth mother, usually with the help of a lawyer who is familiar with the process and the legal requirements of the individual states.

Changing Role of Women

Since the end of world war two, in 1945, Australian society has witnessed many dramatic changes in the rights and freedoms of women. Women, who had been encouraged to take on men’s jobs during the war were expected to vacate these positions and return to their traditional vocation in â€Å"home making†. Throughout the 1950’s and early 1960’s women were expected to either stay at home or work in underpaid â€Å"women’s jobs†. Women’s wages were significantly less in comparison to the wages awarded to men who performed the same task. The Commonwealth Arbitration Court ruled in 1949, that a women’s basic wage should be set at 75% of the male rate. This was the practice throughout the 1950’s when there was a large growth in the textiles, clothing, footwear and food processing industries depending on the cheap labor that women provided. The view that a woman’s place was in the home was reflected in and shaped by the Australian education system. The emphasis of the limited schooling available to girls was in the home sciences . i. e. cooking and sewing. The lack of educational opportunities for women only reinforced sex role stereotyping and gave women little chance to achieve their potential. The introduction of the oral contraceptive pill in 1961 gave women the chance to achieve their potential. It gave them the freedom to choose when and if to bear a child. It provided women with the opportunity to concentrate on furthering their working careers, where available, thus leaving the domestic housewife image behind. It provided women with power over their bodies for the first time; they were in control of their sexual relationships. Thus, by the end of the 1960’s, women were actively seeking greater rights and freedoms in society and in the workplace. Demonstrations and protests were a feature of this movement, known as the woman’s liberationist movement (today referred to as feminism). The female liberationists aimed to overturn the notions of female inferiority and male dominance in Australian society. Their dream was to free women from the restraints society placed upon them; to challenge the status quo. Zelda D’Aprano was one Australian woman who formed the Woman’s Action Committee in 1969. She chained herself to the doors of the Commonwealth Building in Melbourne demanding equal pay for both sexes. Germaine Greer was also an outspoken liberationist whose book â€Å"The Female Eunuch†, 1970 , challenged the thinking of conservative male dominated society. There was a diverse range of women’s liberationist groups formed to campaign for specific issues revolving around three main areas: equal pay, discrimination in the workplace and equality of opportunity in the workplace and society. Specific issues included: †¢Child Care †¢Equal pay for women †¢Family Planning †¢Divorce †¢Discrimination in the workforce and from lending institutions The causes, clear arguments and outspoken activism of these groups attracted much media attention and faced resistance from traditional and conservative sections of society. For example church leaders were outraged when women’s liberationists called for legalized abortion. Equality in the workplace has been and still is an important issue. In theory, the federal Equal Pay Case of 1969, determined that women receive â€Å"the same wage as men for the same work†; but this principal would not apply where the work was essentially or usually performed by women. By 1972, the Liberal government continued the debate, suggesting in Cabinet that wage rates should take into consideration â€Å"training, skills and other attributes required for the satisfactory performance of the work†. See Source A, which is a copy of a Cabinet document, dated 24 October 1972, demonstrating this stance of the Liberal government in relation to calls for Equal Pay. By December 1972, the Labor Government had come to power and it promised to implement the Equal Pay for Equal Value principle in female dominated industries; though such a principal has proven difficult to implement. Equal opportunity has been and still is another important issue. In 1972, the Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL) was founded. WEL sought out politicians views on woman’s issues. It has had a major role in lobbying and influencing governments to pass laws friendly to woman in areas such as woman’s health and child care. See Source B, a photograph of a demonstration in Sydney in 1979, in which WEL activists are advocating for Medicare funding for abortions. By the beginning of the 1980’s, the fruits of the labor of the women’s movement could be seen in many of Australia’s legal reforms: †¢The family law act 1975 had established the principle of No Fault Divorce; removing the social stigma associated with woman and divorce. †¢The anti discrimination act 1977(NSW) which made it illegal to discriminate on terms of gender, marital status or pregnancy Sex Discrimination Act 1984 a commonwealth act banning discrimination against woman. †¢The Affirmative action act 1986 that was later replaced in 1999 by the equal opportunity for woman in the workplace act. By the end of the 1990’s most woman believed that their struggles for equal rights and freedoms with men in society had been won, but that is not necessarily the case. While women’s rights may have been enshrined in law, it is women’s freedoms in society that have yet to be fully realized.

Mydin Hypermarket Essay

How MYDIN grew from a small grocery shop till a Multi-Billion Ringgit Retail Chain MYDIN business activity is in retailing and wholesaling. The products range from food line, household, soft-lines and hard-lines items. Hard-line products include hardware, electrical, stationery, porcelain and toys. Whilst soft-line comprises of textiles and fabrics products. Food line includes confectionery, drinks and beverages, delicatessen and dairy products. In their early years of operations, MYDIN’s focus has always been in the non-food sector until they bought over the first supermarket in Selayang in 1997. Each of the branches has their own business category, based on the capacity of goods traded. The category comprises hypermarket, emporium, minimarket, convenience shop, franchise store and bazaar. Currently, MYDIN operates more than 90 outlets nationwide inclusive of 16 hypermarkets, 16 emporiums, 3 bazaars, 48 minimarkets (MyMydin), 8 convenience shops (MyMart) and 6 franchise outlets (Mydin Mart). Each of the hypermarkets is located in MYDIN Mall. Above all, MYDIN operates its business based on ‘Halal’ concepts and stresses on honesty, sincerity and good discipline in all aspects of its business. Company Vision MYDIN is the world’s leading distributor of competitive â€Å"Halal† goods and services Company Mission We aim to be the leading wholesale and retail company by providing the best value, wide assortment of goods and continuous excellence based on our business formula Source: http://www.mydin.com.my/mydin/about-mydin

The Effect of Starch on the Activity of Amylase with Ph Variable

The Effect of Starch on the Activity of Amylase with pH Variable Lab Report, Fall 2011 East Tennessee State University Department of Biological Sciences By: Shelby Brackett Date Performed: October 10, 2011 Lab Instructor: Joseph Kusi Biology 1111, Section 018 Abstract Enzymes are very important in chemical reactions. They are used to speed up the reaction taking place. They act by binding to a specific substrate and form an enzyme-substrate complex that may put stress on chemical bonds of that substrate. In this experiment, we used the amylase as our enzyme and starch as our specific substrate.We then used a calorimeter to measure the absorbance of our samples with the variable of pH over set periods of time. Our results indicated that at three different pH levels, the absorbance level of our samples was not the same for each one. This proved my original hypothesis to be incorrect, as I was surprised to find that the last pH buffer had no effect on the absorbance. The first two pH bu ffers supported my hypothesis, however. The levels of our samples kept decreasing over time. As with every experiment, it should be repeated several times to make sure your results are accurate.Introduction Most chemical reactions must be catalyzed (sped up) by protein molecules called enzymes. Enzymes are biological catalysts that facilitate specific chemical reactions. Enzymes are three-dimensional globular proteins that fit snugly around the molecules they act on. This fit facilitates chemical reactions by stressing particular chemical bonds. The three-dimensional shape enables it to stabilize a temporary association between substrates-the molecules that will undergo the reaction. The enzyme also lowers the activation energy required for new bonds to form.The reaction thus proceeds much more quickly than it would without the enzyme. (Mason, 2011). The energy of activation is the energy needed to get the substrate to its transition state. KI (potassium iodide) is used to detect th e presence of starch when conducting these experiments. Another thing to consider when talking about enzymes is optimal conditions. These are a set of environmental conditions at which the enzyme works at its highest rate. Some of these environmental variables are pH, temperature, and salinity.Changes in pH may not only affect the shape of an enzyme but it may also change the shape or charge properties of the substrate so that either the substrate cannot bind to the active site or it cannot undergo catalysis. (The Effect of pH on Enzyme Activity, 2004). Increasing the temperature of an uncatalyzed reaction increases its rate because the additional heat increases random molecular movement. This motion can add stress to molecular bonds and affect the activation energy of a reaction. (Mason, 2011). When a substrate molecule is trying to bind to the active site, presence of salt could alter the rate of the reaction.In our experiment, we used the protein amylase. Amylase  is an enzyme that breaks down starch, converting it into sugar. Amylase  is found in human saliva, where it begins a chemical process in digestion with the hydrolysis of starch. It is also found in the pancreas. (Brady, 2003). We used the substrate starch with the variable, pH, to measure the absorbance of our samples using a calorimeter. My hypothesis was that at each different pH buffer, there would be more and more absorbance over time. Materials/Methods To execute this experiment, we did the following steps. First, you pipet 8ml of 0. % starch solution and 6ml of water into 3 test tubes and label them L, M, and H. Next, you add 1ml of pH4 buffer to L test tube; 1ml of pH7 buffer to test tube M; and 1ml of pH10 buffer to test tube H. Then pipet 2ml of water and add 3 drops of KI into 16 different test tubes (5 each behind the test tubes L, M, and H) and label them L? , M? , H? †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦L? , M? , and H? and keep the remaining one for zeroing the calorimeter(reagent blank). Next remove 1ml of solution from L, M, and H to the test tubes L? , M? , and H? respectively. Measure their absorbance and record the values.Make sure to zero the calorimeter before every measurement. Next, pipet 1ml of amylase solution to L, M, and H (mix) and wait for 1 minute interval. Then, remove 1ml of L, M, and H into L? , M? , and H? respectively (mix) and measure the absorbance of the samples and record the values. Repeat this last step for the rest of the samples for the same time interval. Results The table and graph below represent the absorbance levels that we obtained from our experiment. Table 1 Time of measurement| Reaction 1 L (pH4)| Reaction 2M (pH7)| Reaction 3H (pH10)| Time: 0| 2. 0| 0. 85| 2. 00| 1| 1. 71| 0. 53| 2. 00| 2| 1. 46| 0. 06| 2. 00| 3| 1. 42| 0. 05| 2. 00| 4| 0. 97| 0. 00| 2. 00| Graph 1 Graph 2 Graph 3 Discussion In conclusion, the results from this experiment failed to support my hypothesis. My original hypothesis stated that at each different pH b uffer, there would be more and more absorbance over time. Our results show that at pH4 buffer the absorbance increased by causing our readings to go down at a steady pace. From starting at Time 0, the end reading was at 0. 97. This particular reaction supported my hypothesis.The next reaction with pH7 buffer also supported my hypothesis. There was also more absorbance over time intervals. Our numbers decreased but this time, at a faster pace. There was a jump from 0. 53 to 0. 06. This would cause me to believe that at pH7, this would be the optimal condition for enzyme activity for amylase. In the last reaction, I was surprised to find that there was no change at all. The pH10 buffer had no effect with the absorbance of our amylase-starch sample. This particular reaction failed to support my original hypothesis.So, in conclusion, using the enzyme amylase and the substrate, starch, we found that the effect of pH on this solution caused a steady absorbance for pH4, a fast absorbance a t pH7-which caused me to believe this is optimal pH, and no absorbance at pH10. Bibliography Brady, Matt. What is Amylase? 2003. 22 October 2011 . Mason, Kenneth A. , Jonathan B. Losos and Susan R. Singer. Biology. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2011. The Effect of pH on Enzyme Activity. 2004. 22 October 2011 .

My Favorite Detective Story Essay

In my free time the most I like to do is reading books. Because with reading, it doesn’t matter is it a short story or a novel in several volumes, you can know something new about life. I enjoy reading different books but the most I like detectives and fantastic stories. My favorite detective story is Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie featuring the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. I first read it when I was 12 and it a little shocked me and left a great impression. The first I have always admired the talent of Agatha Christie, she is my favorite writer in detective genre, the mastery with which she described the story is incredible, the ending was completely unpredictable. And as always Hercule Poirot was simply inimitable. So what is story about? The Murder on the Orient Express. Mr. Ratchett was killed. Mr. Poirot accidentally discovers a note by means of which he learns that the murder of Ratchet directly connected with shocked all the world murder little Daisy Armstrong. Real name of Ratchett was Cassetti. Five years earlier, Cassetti kidnapped three-year-old Daisy Armstrong. Though the Armstrong family paid a large ransom, Cassetti murdered the little girl and fled the country with the money. Daisy’s mother, Sonia, was pregnant when she heard of Daisy’s death. The shock sent her into premature labour, and both she and the baby died. Her husband, Colonel Armstrong, shot himself out of grief. Cassetti’s guilt was proved. But despite this he could flee the country and escape further prosecution for the crime. Although the fact that all passengers have their alibis and witnesses proving innocence each of them Poirot because of its lively mind and experience reveals that crime. Hercule Poirot assembles all passengers and offers them 2 possible explanations of Ratchett’s murder. The first explanation is that a stranger – some gangster enemy of Ratchett – murdered Ratchett for reasons unknown, and escaped unnoticed. And the second – Ratchett was killed by all passengers because all of them were related to Armstrongs. He proposed to Bouc, the Head of the Orient Express, to choose the correct. Fully in sympathy with the Armstrong family, and feeling nothing but disgust for the victim, Bouc pronounces the first explanation is correct.

The Roles of Tonal and Segmental Information in Mandarin Spoken

Assignment 1 – Article Summary In their article, â€Å"the roles of tonal and segmental information in Mandarin spoken word recognition: an eyetracking study†, Malins and Joanisse investigate how suprasegmental features affect on-line auditory word perception. Current speech perception models have fallen short in accounting for suprasegmental features because all have been based on Indo-European languages. In this study, Malins and Joanisse extend the potential of suprasegmental features by examining the role of tone in auditory word recognition.Preliminary studies on which Malins and Joanisse based their study show that features of stress alone could not account for word constraint activation. One of the reasons that stress was a poor candidate for word constraint during lexical priming tasks was that they were situated within polysyllabic structures. Tone features, on the other hand, are situated within monosyllabic structures. Listeners of tonal languages are require d to make distinctions based on these features alone. In addition, these preliminary studies showed that tonal information was processed after segmental information.However, these propositions were brought into question as Liu and Samuel (2007) discovered that most of the preliminary studies in speech perception did not utilize contextual constraints. More recent studies seem to show that tonal features are more effective in constraining word activation when in a sentential context and segmental features more effective in word constraint in a lack of contextual information. Malins and Joanisse set out to examine the role of tonal features in Mandarin word recognition by employing the visual world paradigm.This would allow the use of eye tracking which would measure the on-line auditory processing among four competitor categories – segmental, cohort, rhyme and tonal. The segmental category shared all phonemic features except for tones, the cohort shared all but word final phon emes, the rhyme differed in onset consonant, and the tonal shared only tone. The following was hypothesized: tonal and segmental information would be accessed at very similar points in time and share equal potential for word recognition constraint.Additionally, rhyme competitors would be viewed more than unrelated items and that tonal categories would produce little interference effect with target items. Twenty-four native Mandarin speakers were chosen as participants in this study. The mean age was 28, although seven were excluded from the study due to excessive use of peripheral vision (lack of eye movement data). Experimental stimuli comprised of 27 monosyllabic Mandarin words. The unrelated distractor tones were comprised of phonologically unrelated segments.A picture array was shown on screen for 1. 5s followed by a . 5 second transition at which point the central fixation point appeared. Participants focused on the fixation point while selecting the correct target picture for the spoken utterance. When the auditory stimulus was provided, the time course was measured through observing eye movements. If there were significant interference between tone and segment, then processing times would be increased therefore suggesting comparable roles in constraining word activation.The pictures in the array provided conceptual constraint. This ensured that sub-lexical access was being observed. This visual word picture matching task was used to create an environment that demanded lexical access using conceptual constraint. This method would supplement the hypothesis by leading participants to utilize tonal information. In the tasks, the act of pressing a button demanded lexical access and the four competitor pictures provided the conceptual constraint. There were 280 experimental trials.The experimental setting was kept monolingual as to eliminate the potential for confounding effects of bilingual interference. The results of this study show that the competition be tween target words and competitors was greatest for the segmental and cohort categories. This is crucial because the segmental category diverged from the cohort in tonal information only and the cohort category diverged in segmental information. This supports the hypothesis that both tonal and segmental information show an equal role in word recognition.Furthermore, the time course information for both cohort and segmental categories were similar. This seemed to indicate that segmental and tonal information are both accessed at the same time. There were no data supporting the claim that rhyme competitors would be looked at more than the distractors. This went against the second hypothesis and was likely a result of a discontinuity between rhyming features in Mandarin compared to English. This study could help improve existing models of speech perception by providing a firmer basis for tonal processing in auditory word recognition.This might raise the question of how tonal informatio n should be represented in a speech perception model. Ye and Connine (1999) have proposed the use of ‘tonemes’ since they act as contrastive units that can be categorically perceived like their segmental counterparts. Through summarizing, I have come to a better understanding of how this study would influence the TRACE model. Particularly, how different levels of word representations are shaped by spreading activation — tonemes possibly being the newest.By accounting for suprasegmental features, a speech perception model would be much more robust and functional. One particular thought that has arisen as a result of this study is how tone recognition contrasts between the modalities of speech vs. music. Do they share overlapping neurological locations and functions? Also of interest is whether individuals with amusia (tone deafness) are able to utilize tones as contrastive units in a language? References Liu, S. , & Samuel, A. G. (2007).The role of Mandarin lexica l tones in lexical access under different contextual conditions. Language and Cognitive Processes, 22(4), 566–594. Malins, G. M. & Joanisse, M. F. (2010). The roles of tonal and segmental information in Mandarin spoken word recognition: an eyetracking study. Journal of Memory and Language, 62(4), 407-420. Ye, Y. , & Connine, C. M. (1999). Processing spoken Chinese: The role of tone information. Language and Cognitive Processes Special Issue: Processing East Asian Languages, 14(5–6), 609–630.

Art Media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Art Media - Essay Example Mexican born in 1981, is digitizing archive images while at the same time creating a form of the extensive index of the associated words that eventually â€Å"mirrors† the image into the database (Inaki, 2003). The experience of interacting with this form of artwork is marvelous and very interesting. It is very interesting and enticing to learn that archive images can be subject to integrate with some words that mirror this archive images into the database. In my opinion, the purpose of this piece of art of work is to convert the past or traditional art into modern forms that would be able to attract the attention of the modern generations while at the same time be able to preserve the same archives in digital forms that would last for many years to come. Additionally, this form of digital interactive art purposes at accommodating numerous images in small space those viewers will be able to view conveniently without necessarily moving from one viewing room to the next viewing room. There is a lot that connects this form of digital artwork to the contemporary life. At first, the aspect of which archive images that could be viewed in the form of the traditional display were subject to integrate into the modern forms of digital storage connects to the contemporary life. It makes the entire process of viewing much simpler and easier through the aid of graphic designs and programming. An example of which this digital artwork compares directly to other activities one might perform on the internet in that there is a possibility of matching text and images. Additionally, it is possible to locate many images through the internet source, which compares similarly to this form of digital art whereby a set of core images are subject to locate existing in a single source of database. One thing that differentiates this site from other sources of the internet is that the images and wording contained in such databases tell of the historic activities or historic archives. Other

Compar three individuals in the McCarthy Hearing to three individuals Research Paper

Compar three individuals in the McCarthy Hearing to three individuals in The Crucible - Research Paper Example The Crucible explores the fight of one man with his ethics, and his ultimate refinement, drawing parallels with the McCarthy Hearing through characters like John Proctor  and Judge Danforth. Miller gives a warning at the beginning of this play that The Crucible is not history but it is dependent on the storys historical events. This play presents two periods of the American history. The main period of this play lies in the 17th century, particularly during Salem Witch trials according to Burnet (57). Running parallel to these ancient events in the history of the United States are those that occurred in Miller’s own time on which the author figuratively comments. The author used this play to condemn the 1950s’ McCarthyism and the RED SCARE. He states that history repeats itself and thus there is the need to recognize it and in this case he repeats himself. He claims that McCarthyism was beyond the contemporary day witch hunt. Miller cautiously uses the historical information to form the basis for the play. The play uses the language of modern the 17th century religious customs, which he often employs, expresses the carefulness of his historical examine into the traditions of this period. Miller was interested in political matters, including socialism which had developed after the WW II after Russia’s socialist government became an important world power. The McCarthy hearing subcommittee was renamed after Senator Joseph McCarthy. Senator McCarthy went into the limelight of national interest in February 1950 with a speech delivered at Wheeling, West Virginia as suggested by Collins (97). At this time, McCarthy was in the final days of his first term as a senator and was in need of an immense issue to strengthen his run for the second term. A week before he gave his speech, China had fallen to the communist side and the USSR had developed an atomic bomb which was aimed at

Shawshank Redemption Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Shawshank Redemption - Essay Example In Shawshank Redemption, the major themes revolve around the power of intelligence, the power of friendship and the power of hope. In the movie, Shawshank redemption, one could appreciate how the power of intelligence becomes portrayed. The character Andy on arrival to Shawshank prison, asked his friend Red to help him procure a rock hammer, polishing cloth and a large poster of Rita Hayworth. Nobody actually knew the importance of these 3 things until one day when Andy made an escape to Mexico after boring a hole through the prison walls. In addition, it is via Andy’s intelligence after helping the prison guard with family and financial issues while working at the prison’s license plate factory that he managed to secure a job as a person who did their paper work. Just from that simple act of intelligence, Andy managed to secure a status where he became protected from the notorious prison gang called Sisters that used to molest him. In addition, through his intelligence , he manages to secure a place as the prison’s librarian and expands it more in a century. Through his association with the guards, he managed to do money laundering business ran by Norton. Andy therefore gained much reputation in prison and ultimately became the people’s hero as he escaped prison, leading to Norton giving up on the search and resigning. Intelligence has been demonstrated in many prison movies, for instance Prison Break. In Prison break for instance, the main character, Michael Scofield uses his wit in order to get his brother out of prison. Prison break is majorly a season that depicts how intelligence could be of great value in evading problematic situations. The character Andy could be likened to Michael Scofield in Prison Break as both used intelligence to break out of prison. In relation to the theme, in my past experience, I have been saved a lot by depicting some act of intelligence and highly appreciate its use in real life. In Shawshank Redemp tion, power of friendship remains a theme that gets depicted entirely in the film. Andy on arrival at Shawshank made friends with Red. It is via the friendship that Andy managed to secure the very items that his used in plotting his escape. Andy asked Red to secure for him a rock hammer, polishing cloth and a poster of Rita Hayworth. If not for being friends, Red would not have secured these items for Andy. In addition, Red always was present to talk and console Andy after being mishandled by the gang called Sisters. It is while working at the prison’s license plate factory, that Andy made a deal that saw his friends get 3 beers while working at that place. In addition, in gaining favor from the prison guards and Norton, Andy managed to have his friends protected too from the gangs that used to torment in mates. As a sign and gratitude to true friendship, Andy had earlier on told Red about the money and the key in the mountain rocks near the prison that eventually led Reds to joining him in Mexico. Red on being released some few years after Andy’s escape, one day went to the area where he was told he would find a key, but got more than he had hoped for, a true friend asking Red to join him in Mexico. The movie ends with Red being overjoyed about meeting his prison and lifelong prison. In relation to Prison Break, Michael Scofield, cared and treated his brother as a