Fate in Tess of the D’Ubervilles Essay

In Tess of the D’Ubervilles Thomas Hardy creates a sense that fate is guiding each of the characters, often for the worst, to an inevitable end. From the beginning of the novel Tess shows a thorough understanding of her shortcomings and an acceptance that she is destined to lead a difficult life. Hardy uses societal circumstance and fate to create the powerfully tragic story of Tess, her family and her relationships, and how she chooses to play to the hand that she is dealt. From the beginning of the story we understand that Tess is fully aware of her shortcomings in life and that she is destined to walk a path of hardship. When speaking with her brother in the fourth chapter of the book she speaks of this awareness, â€Å"Did you say the stars were worlds, Tess?† â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"All like ours?† â€Å"I don’t know, but I think so. They sometimes seem to be like the apples on our stubbard-tree. Most of them splendid and sound – a few blighted.† â€Å"Which do we live on – a splendid one or a blighted one?† â€Å"A blighted one† (33). Tess’s early understanding of the tragic life she is meant to lead foreshadows the situations waiting for her. For the remainder of the novel, almost every single time something good happens to Tess it is snatched away from her on the next page. In more than one way it seems that fate is conspiring against Tess throughout the novel. Hardy almost completely takes away the characters’ abilities to change their circumstances, imprisoning them by the harsh Victorian societal structure. From the beginning Hardy uses recurring themes to illustrate that Tess’s death has been pre-determined, giving us the notion that whatever path she chooses she will end up where Hardy wants her to. While it could be argued that her choices are the only influence in her life, I feel that from the moment her character was developed her end was virtually decided. Or, at least, this is what Hardy wants us to feel. While she could be considered responsible for her actions, she manages to co me out with the worst in nearly every situation. Her character is destined to drag her down even though she constantly endeavors to be the best she can be, a few examples include: going to the market when her father is too drunk to do so, consequently killing their horse; telling the truth to Angel Clare, despite her mother’s warning not to do so; and many further situations. This is undeniably the reason why, despite the indignation of people who held more conventional views at the time, Hardy called it the story of â€Å"a pure woman.† Tess’s highly developed sense of responsibility, strong conscience, and duty to her family further promotes the idea of a malevolent fate: someone this conscientious should surely have someone or something working against her to come into so much ill fortune. In fact, her conscience and honesty seem to add on to the tragedy of her life. But over and over again Tess is fated to almost supernaturally tragic coincidences. A pivotal example of fate getting in the way of Tess’s happiness occurs when she tries to explain her past to Angel, in particular the incident that happened with Alec before they met at the dairy. She is very sincere and quite adamant in her attempt to tell Alec of the devastating event during which her virginity was taken away from her. But as fate decides, the letter detailing Tess’s past when slipped under the door of Angel’s room also slipped under the rug on his floor. Angel never gets to read the letter and therefore does not know about Tess’s past. Angel and Tess go ahead with their marriage with both of them unaware each other’s pasts, eventually ruining their marriage and leading to Tess’s death. Hardy is very good at dropping hints throughout the novel, which helps to link preceding events with the final outcome. This, in particular, adds to the sense that the character’s fate is predetermined, teasing the reader along the way with often-exaggerated images, symbols or phrases from unsuspecting characters, including Tess herself when she states, â€Å"all this good fortune may be scourged out of me afterwards by a lot of ill. That’s how heaven mostly does† (252). Here Hardy uses Tess to convey a sense of fate with her being painfully aware that good and bad usually go together in some form. She is still blissful, though, and can hardly believe that things could turn as bad as they do in the end, but it is an example of Hardy creating the theme of pre-determined fate in this story. Overall, I feel that Tess’s actions and those of the characters surrounding her constantly affect her, but that Hardy wants us to feel that they are all part of an imminent fate. It is undeniable that this story hinges on many unfortunate coincidences. Throughout the novel there is an overriding presence that imprisons Tess and takes away every opportunity she gets to be truly happy and that disregards the pure nature of her being. Despite constantly striving to do the right thing she never seems to get â€Å"what she deserves but a great deal worse† (211).

Learning Process Essay

â€Å"Learning to write is a complex process, both individual and social, that takes place over time with continued practice and informed guidance,† is a very complex quote. There is so much meaning and context to this one quote, that can really get the writer thinking. As for myself, I agree with this quote quite a lot but still to a certain extent. Everyone has their own mindset, but for me I do agree that learning to write is a complex process, individual and only sometimes social, and definitely does take place over time with continued practice and informed guidance (proof shows that). To start off with ‘learning is a complex process,’ as for this part of the quote I totally agree. At times, I can spend hours, sometimes days, just thinking about how to start my essay, research paper, etc. Then once you finally find your thesis and actually do begin, the complexity still doesn’t end. You have to continue to find more details, analysis, background, and a lot of other things for whatever you might be writing. One example of a complex paper I wrote in this English 10 class would have to be our first essay, â€Å"My Sacred Grounds.† I can clearly remember that it took me forever to start, to find a life experience to talk about and then to have to add details. The whole paper probably took me over a course of three to four days to just write the first draft. For the next part of the quote I only agreed to an extent of..‘learning to write is both individual and social.’ Like I said before, everyone’s writing process depends on themselves, but as for me I feel that most of the writing process is just individual and only social when you need it to be. Such as, when I write, I write without any help and its an all independent process, but then again at the same time its social because I write for my professors, get help from different sets of people at times like peers, the writing center, and sometimes even my professors. Lastly, once again I agree completely with the last part of the quote that learning is a process ‘that takes place over time with continued practice and informed guidance.† To just learn how to write basics it takes us, as students, years to learn. We have to go through elementary, middle, and then finally high school with the basics of learning how to write until finally in college we are slowly let go and taught to continue to learn by ourselves. Even then the learning process never truly ends, especially not for writers, you learn as you write for the rest of your life. Also, just as the quote says we learn with ‘informed guidance’ meaning most of the time someone is there to check our work like our peers or professors. Overall, writing truly is a very complex process and this quote sums it up really well!

Microeconomics Coursework Essay Essay

Critically evaluate and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Customer Boycotts. Compare and contrast either Coca Cola or Bacardi with another consumer boycott of your choice and discuss appropriate microeconomic theoretical models. Firstly to understand this question we need to understand what a customer or consumer boycott actually is. Well it is normally called by an organisation or a group of individuals, asking consumers not to buy a specific product, or the products of a specific company, in order to exert commercial pressure. This is usually done to get the company to change behaviour, to cease an activity or to adopt a more ethical practice. For this essay I am going to discuss many advantages and disadvantages of consumer boycotts and also I have decided to compare and contrast coca cola with the Nestle boycott. There are various ways to make a boycott efficient. To be efficient a reduction of 1-2% of turnaround of a company (or product) is seen as the critical mass needed. (27 Mar 2003, Demanding consumer [online]. Available at:). Boycotts can be successful, for example, in 1986 Rainforest Action Network launched a boycott of Burger King. This was because of Burger King importing beef from tropical rainforest countries because it was cheap. But the rainforests were getting destroyed in order to provide pasture for cattle. As a result of the boycott, Burger Kings sales dropped by 12%. In response, Burger King cancelled thirty-five million dollars worth of beef contracts in Central America and announced that the company would stop importing rainforest beef. Boycott calls are at times controversial because they may be called by groups from the political side or for activities that people don’t specifically disagree. Boycott efforts can include protests against everything from  investing in a politically undesirable country to discouragement of the eating or drinking of products from certain companies or countries. Boycotts are not always effective and only a limited percentage of countries consumers will participate in one. While many people are sympathetic to the reason behind a boycott, not enough people join in. One of the main reasons is that people do not see their actions as having any results. This may be partly due to only concentrating on what happens to the primary target of a boycott. But there are also secondary effects which I will talk about later. There are many advantages to consumer boycotts that I will discuss now. Obviously the main advantage is when the boycotts work, as said above with the boycott of burger king, and the company consequently changes its ways. But more often than not boycotts rarely change the companies ways or at least so that the consumer knows about it. One advantage is that boycotts are a way that consumers can use their power for positive social change. Boycotts can be effective because when successful they will result in increased public scrutiny of the company. This in turn will cause concerns inside the company about lost profits from the loss in consumer interest and companies are always concerned about their financial position. Another advantage is that a boycott can hold a company accountable for any policies that negatively affect the environment or people. This is an advantage because a company could be ignoring the problem but with a consumer boycott more and more people will find out about the problem and may also decide to join in. The negative coverage that will arise from media coverage of the boycott may become a big problem for the company in the long run, since competitors may gain a relative advantage. An example of this is that after the boycott of French wines in Denmark had calmed down, the French wines had lost 20 percent market share. Also there was a bigger problem, because the general impression was that consumers could be persuaded to switch back to French  wines. But many supermarket shelves had been reorganised in order to give more space to Italian and Spanish wines, and this was considered a more serious problem. (Can Consumer boycotts work, 2002 [online]. Available at: I mentioned briefly earlier something called a primary effect, well this would be where the target organisation changes its practice. Many targets are however reluctant to change as the result of hostile pressure, and even if changes are made they may try to hide the fact that the consumer action had any effect. There is also the fact that most boycotts are small by comparison to the overall sales, so a target can ride out a boycott. Thus the primary effects may be small and many boycotts may be judged not to have succeeded. So this could be seen as a disadvantage. But the secondary effects are an advantage and are the effects that are not connected to the target. They are effects on other organisations that are not in conflict and can therefore change without the public knowing. Secondary effects can be changes to regulations, lasting change in industry practices, allowing substantial growth entrance of ethical players into the market or effects on decisions of similar organisations to the target. (Why Secondary Effects, [online]. Available at: An example of secondary effects is if someone refuses to buy Nescafe (the coffee brand from Nestle) then he may choose to buy a brand from a much smaller company. The positive effect to this smaller company is much larger than the negative effect to Nestle. The new company may find out that many people are switching to it on ethical grounds and position itself in the market to take advantage of this by, for example, publishing a code of conduct. Having switched brand once this person will have less brand loyalty and a newly formed company will know this by market research and will know they have a better chance of success in the coffee sector. (Why Secondary Effects, [online]. Available at: The boycott campaigns can also be important in developing political consciousness and can be one of the few non violent means to create political pressure. Another advantage is the exposure of the company and with less people buying their products the consumers will be looking at  buying substitute goods and therefore the demand for these will increase and therefore the supply will also increase. Consumer boycotts will increase competition in the market and firms will reduce their prices as a result to compete and also to gain the extra consumers that have less brand loyalty. The firms profits will also reduce and the smaller firms will gain more of the market share. There are also disadvantages to boycotts though. One of these could be a large reduction in jobs, â€Å"Boycotting Nestle products won’t help the poor farmers who sell to the company†, the head of Oxfam said. (Charlotte Denny, 2002. Retreat by Nestle on Ethiopia’s $6 debt [online]. The Guardian. Available at: ) They can have an adverse impact on individuals and communities which become innocent victims of the economic damage that boycotts can cause. Obviously there are disadvantages for the company as the reputation of the company will be harmed as a result of the impact of consumer boycotts, this isn’t good for it as it would need to lower its prices because the demand will become less. This is shown below As the demand falls so does the equilibrium price (Pe1 to Pe2). Another disadvantage to the company is that the company budgets will get ruined and will need to be analysed and changed. Also the gross domestic product of the host country could fall which is a disadvantage. In extreme cases there could be a loss of multinational specialisation and technology in a third world country as the company may not do their business their. There could be a loss of consumer choice if the product ceases after a boycott. Boycotts like that of advertising of cigarettes can cost businesses their survival, as in motor racing as half the advertising used to come from cigarette companies. Now a lot struggle to get the advertising money needed. There can also occasionally be some violence resulting from the boycotts and also resentment. Another disadvantage for consumers would be that some people would argue that all publicity is good publicity. Now I will compare and contrast the consumer boycott of coca cola with the consumer boycott of Nestle. Coca cola is the worlds fastest selling non-alcoholic beverage and the consumer boycott of it started on the 22nd July 2003. The reason behind the boycott is because they are accused of complicity in the assassination of 8 Sinaltrainal trade union leaders in Colombia since 1990. Sinaltrainal is a trade union and it organisers workers in the food and drink sector. Many other of the leaders have been imprisoned, tortured, forcibly displaced and exiled. Coca Cola deny any responsibility for these murders. They say that 100’s of union leaders are killed every year in Columbia. However many of the murders were made inside Coca Cola plants while negotiating agreements. Coca cola management were reported in the national press as meeting and contracting members of the AUC death squads to â€Å"sort out their labour problems†. (Boycott Coca Cola, [online]. Available at: Since 1977, Nestle has been the subject of an international boycott for its deceptive promotion of artificial baby milk as a superior alternative to mother’s milk. Artificial baby milk can harm babies because it does not contain the natural anti bodies which a mother’s milk provides, and because it is extremely expensive, causing many mothers to mix it with too much water resulting in mal-nutrition. Also, in many places the water used to dilute it is not portable. Once a mother starts giving her baby the formula, her own supply of milk dries up. Nestle provides free packages of formula in hospitals with the result that many babies never ever even get a chance to start nursing. In 1988 the boycott was re-launched when it was discovered that the company did not abide by its promise to follow the World Health Organisation’s International Code of Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes. (A Consistent Corporate Criminal, [online]. Available at: ). There have been massive impacts on Nestle because of the boycott. In 1984 the boycott forced Nestle to agree to abide by the World Health Organisation’s International Code of Marketing of breast Milk Substitutes. But now it was discovered that the company has not abided by its promise so the boycott was re-launched. Also in one afternoon 8,500 people emailed Oxfam to complain about Nestle, this was the fastest response Oxfam says it has had to a campaign. (Charlotte Denny, 2002. Retreat by Nestle on Ethiopia’s $6 debt [online]. The Guardian. Available at: ). Coca cola is in the non-alcoholic beverage market whereas Nestle is one of the world’s largest food manufacturers; it is also though same as coca cola in the beverage market. With a consumer boycott against both of these two companies, this means that the demand for both of their products will decrease as a result, causing an increase in the demand for substitute goods, like Pepsi instead of Coca Cola. Also because there is a shift in the demand curve this leads to a movement along the supply curve so the price of the goods, coca cola or a nestle brand will go up from P1 to P2 and the quantity in equilibrium falls from Q1 to Q2. This is a supply and demand graph for what has happened with coca cola and Nestle because of the consumer boycott against them. This is a supply and demand graph for what happens to the demand for a substitute good like Pepsi for coca cola because of the boycott. If a company has a strong consumer loyalty then a boycott would be unlikely to have much of an effect on the number of people who choose to join in and not purchase their products, however if a company has failed to build up a strong consumer loyalty then consumers will find it easy to decide to no longer purchase their product and will purchase the competitors products. Why have both Coca Cola and Nestle continued to upset consumer groups when  they could easily change there policies and consequently have the boycotts against them lifted. The answer to this is that the company must be getting more financial gain from what ever is upsetting the consumer groups than the loss of revenue that the boycotts have brought about. Both Nestle and Coca Cola are oligopoly markets because there are just a few firms that share a large proportion of the industry. Both of the markets of Nestle and Coca Cola are differentiated, because they both produce many types of the product. Coca Cola and Nestle are the same as much of the competition between such oligopolists is in terms of the marketing of their particular brand. There are barriers to entry into both markets, these could be product differentiation and brand loyalty, where there are differentiated products where the consumer associates the product with the brand, and it will be very difficult for a new firm to break into that market. The problem would be being able to produce a product sufficiently attractive to consumers who are loyal to the familiar brand. (John Sloman, 2003. Economics. Fifth edition. (s.l.): Pearson Education). Another barrier could be lower costs for an established firm. The companies are likely to have specialised production and marketing skills. They are more likely to be aware of the most efficient techniques and the most reliable and/or cheapest suppliers. They are also likely to have access to cheaper finance, therefore operating on a lower cost curve. New firms would find it hard to compete and be likely to lose any price wars. Aggressive tactics or intimidation could also be used. (John Sloman, 2003. Economics. Fifth edition. (s.l.): Pearson Education). Because Nestle and coca cola are in the oligopoly markets they both are affected by their rivals actions and vice versa. Because of this the firms could wish to collude and act as though they are a monopoly so they could jointly maximise their profits, or the firms could try and compete with their rivals to gain a bigger share of industry profits. Because Coca Cola and Nestle are both the leading firms in their industries, tacit collusion could form where they set the prices for their markets. Oligopolists will not engage in price cutting, excessive advertising or  other forms of competition. By doing this profits will be maintained in the long run. If oligopoly firms compete, profits are low and consumers benefit. If there were a rise in price of Coca Cola or a Nestle product e.g. Nescafe, then this would lead to a large fall in the quantity demanded. This is because consumers would buy alternative substitute goods like Pepsi or another coffee brand. The reason is because both coca cola and Nestle products are elastic products. After looking at both the advantages and disadvantages of consumer boycotts, I have found out that even though the firms lose consumer loyalty, lose revenue and get public scrutiny the firms must be coming out on top and are gaining financially, otherwise they would change their ways. This is probably why Nestle maybe did start to abide by the World Health Organisation’s International Code of Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes, then realized how much revenue they were losing so changed back even knowing they were likely to have the boycott brought back aswell because they must be gaining financially, but this is only my opinion. Also the other businesses in the market that whilst their competitors are having their products boycotted can take advantage and increase their own financial position and customer base.

Mystery stories Essay

I studied three short stories, â€Å"the Red Room, â€Å"the Signalman† and â€Å"the Speckled Band†. The stories are all linked together as they all have a sense of mystery, however they all have a different emphasis. â€Å"The Speckled Band† is a detective, murder mystery story yet the other two are ghost stories. All of the stories were written before 1914. It was around this time that people had gained a fascination with the criminal mind; they liked the idea of the clumsy criminal being outsmarted and captured by the genius detective. The Victorians also had a liking for the workings of the mind/psychoanalysis â€Å"set against the interest in the spirit world and the supernatural†. When they were first used, the railways represented glamour and mystique, and were the most advanced mode of transport. At the time of the Victorians they had an interest in scientific advances, so you had the conflict between this interest and the interest in the spiritual world, for example, in â€Å"the Red Room† – the old people believed in ghosts, however the man did not, the author did this in a way to provide conflict, as arguments could be brought up from both sides. In general, all mystery stories have a feeling of â€Å"safe fear†, meaning we can relate to the characters and the feeling of tension, this is created as the author involves the reader in the story by including questions or puzzles for them to solve, making them feel as though they are involved in the story. However, the readers feel safe in the knowledge that this is just a story, if they at any time feel threatened they can put the book down and return to reality. â€Å"The Speckled Band† is a story written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and was first published (along with the other eleven books out of the first collection) in 1892. It is a murder mystery story and the plot line, to me, is simple – someone dies, Holmes is called in, he notices clues that the reader reads but doesn’t notice the significance until the end of the story (when all is explained), eventually Holmes reveals who the criminal is and how exactly he solved the mystery before the police (Scotland yard) solved it and therefore once again made himself to look like a genius detective. The theme of mystery starts at the beginning of the story, when a miss Helen Stoner reveals her problem and how she believed it happened. Holmes makes sure the reader knows he is a genius detective by pointing out little insignificant things that nobody else would look for. Such as, how Miss Helen Stoner arrived to his office that day (he noticed the return train ticket in the left hand palm of her glove, and noticed that the left arm of her jacket was â€Å"splattered in no less than seven places with mud† and there was â€Å"no vehicle, save the dog-cart which throws up mud in that way†). From this, the reader puts their faith in Holmes and recognise the skill he has, from this they’ll just know he’s the one who will figure out the mystery behind the complex problem he ids faced with. This could ruin the story, depending on your view of what a good mystery story is, as there’s no open ending. Once you have read the story once you will never be able to read it in the same way again, the mystery disappears. However, it is for this reason that people also like reading these stories. They can admire Holmes’ brilliance and enjoy having the story explained to them. Tension is built up in the story as Helen Stoner explains her suspicions that her stepfather â€Å"who is known to have a violent streak† is the killer and his motive for the attack means that she herself could be in danger. The reader can distinguish this and fear for her safety. The narrator in the story is Watson, Holmes’ sidekick. When the reader compares him to Holmes he seems â€Å"dull-witted†, he makes Holmes look good, and is often in the same mental state of confusion as the reader when the clues are there in front of us, waiting to be pieced together like a jigsaw. It is for this reason the reader feels that they can relate to Watson and â€Å"accept Holmes’ superiority†. The reader can see the two (Holmes and Watson) have a close relationship as Holmes felt the need to â€Å"knock Watson up† especially to see the new client (miss Helen Stoner), he knew Watson wouldn’t want to miss out on this opportunity â€Å"should it prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to follow it from the outset†. The setting for this particular story is very detailed, as I would have to be to describe the significant clues, for example, the ventilator, the (dummy) bell rope, the whistle, the saucer of milk, and the metallic â€Å"clanging† of the safe. Despite all the clues there were only two main settings, the Manor house in which Miss Helen Stoner lived and the crime took place, and Holmes’ house, which is famously known as 221B Baker Street. â€Å"The Signalman† is a ghost story. Its author is Charles Dickens and the date it was written is unknown to me. There’s no one technique, which Dickens uses to create tension. It is created from the beginning with the mere settings of the story producing a feeling of unease. The signalman lives in isolation at the tunnel entrance to a railway cutting. The was in which the narrator (who is nameless) has to call â€Å"Is there any path by which I can come down to you? † shows the reader just how isolated he is, as there is no obvious way of getting down, so there mustn’t be any necessity to make a path way. His surprise at receiving this visitor is one of suspicion and generates more tension, â€Å"his attitude was one of such expectation and watchfulness† that explains to the reader he is ready for something to happen, he is ready to run away, and this is causing the reader to think that something is going to happen and the build up to that causes anxiety. The way in which the signalman â€Å"directs a cautious look to the light† forms apprehension as the reader is still expecting something to happen. This is completely the opposite to the Sherlock Holmes story (â€Å"the Speckled Band†) as in that the author wanted to be relaxed and comfortable with the story so far before he described the mystery through Miss Helen Stoner. He produced this feeling of comfort by having a nice room with comfortable chairs, food and a nice warm fire. Also Holmes and Watson didn’t give the impression that they were scared of their visitor, which is what is happening in â€Å"the Signalman†. As the storyline deepens the reader is still told little about the signalman’s background to the reader, this helped form a more satisfactory atmosphere, as they all knew about her). The story does have its similarities to â€Å"the Speckled Band† however, as they give their explanations for what happened using a more scientific mind than a spiritual one. The narrator in â€Å"the Signalman† tries to show the signalman that the â€Å"someone else†, who he has seen before him, was nothing but a figment of his imagination – he looks for rational explanations as he is sceptical about the idea of ghosts, and the reader can identify with this, just as the reader could identify with the narrator in the Sherlock Holmes stories (Watson). The difference in â€Å"the Signalman† being that the reader is unsure of this narrator, they don’t know why he’s there or why he’s taking such an interest in the signalman himself. He’s therefore a mystery figure himself. As the plot thickens the reader is told the signalman has seen the â€Å"spectre† twice before, and each time there was a disaster that followed it. Therefore the â€Å"pattern of three† suggests that the third time the ghost appears there will be a disaster. It is this that keeps the reader interested; it makes the reader want to keep reading on the find out why the â€Å"spectre† appears. Dicken’s deliberately leaves unanswered questions until the end to maintain the readers curiosity. However the story has a twist at the end of it, the ghost is warning the signalman of his own death. The two stories are also similar in the way that they both have all questions answered fully at the end, so again, as with â€Å"the Speckled Band† the readers of â€Å"the Signalman† will not be able to read the story in the same way again, they know the outcome, there’s no mystery. â€Å"The Red Room† was written by H. G Wells and the date it was written, like â€Å"the Signalman†, is unknown to me. The story is like â€Å"the Signalman† meaning, it is another ghost story, and it is similar to â€Å"the Speckled Band† as it has a simple plot – a man (narrator) sets out to prove there is nothing superstitious about a â€Å"forbidden† room, in which a young Duke died, whilst in the room he suffers from several superstitious events and ends up being knocked out, he still refuses to believe in ghosts though. It is set in a castle, a very stereotypical setting to host a ghost story. Fear and suspicion about the room is created by descriptions (which are very important in mystery stories) of the surrounding and the other characters. In this case it’s the three old people who believe in a ghost occupies the â€Å"red room†, claiming, â€Å"There’s many a thing to see, and sorrow for†. The oddity of these old people itself causes some sense of abnormality, with such descriptions as â€Å"the man with the withered arm†, â€Å"the old woman sat staring into the fire, her pale eyes wide open† and â€Å"the man with the eye-shade (who couldn’t cease to cough and splutter)†. To have these three characters in a castle with descriptions including â€Å"oak-panelling† (old, dark, heavy), â€Å"alcoves†, â€Å"candles† (dim lighting, shadows), and â€Å"statues and heavy furniture† (in stereotypical ghost stories the statues come â€Å"alive† and join in the chase for the victim). â€Å"The Red Room† is now similar to â€Å"the Speckled Band† in the sense that the surroundings of suspicious events are in an enclosed space, as it’s inside, there’s less likely chance of escape if being chased, if this happens the reader will feel more on edge. The reader shares their views with the narrator in the beginning. The narrator is down-to-earth and doesn’t believe in a supernatural force occupying the room; he argues â€Å"eight-and-twenty years I have lived, and never a ghost I have seen, as yet† this story is similar to â€Å"the Signalman† as the story focuses on the narrator trying to show the other characters that ghosts aren’t real, and then in the end, in both stories, the narrator is proven wrong. â€Å"The Red Room† is the complete opposite to â€Å"the Speckled Band† and â€Å"the Signalman† in the way that it doesn’t answer all the questions at the end of the story, the narrator from â€Å"the Red Room† doesn’t want to accept that he did infact fall victim to supernatural forces, he claimed he â€Å"witnessed something worse than a ghost – experienced the worst of all things to haunt poor mortal man†¦ fear†. All of these stories have similarities and differences; they also fit the pattern of mystery stories. All the stories â€Å"plunge into action† very early on into the story, and are focused, mainly, on one or two of the key points with very few characters over a relatively short space of time. The description is vital on building tension in the story; all of the stories I studied described the surroundings well enough to form this feeling. I like â€Å"The Red Room† out of the three I chose to read, I liked it primarily due to the fact that it wasn’t answered fully, the story was left open for my mind to come up with possible solutions. I would be able to read it again, and not have the main essence of a mystery story, mystery, taken out of it, like I believe happened in â€Å"The Speckled Band† and â€Å"The Signalman† and â€Å"The Red Room† you are unknown†¦ anonymous. You can find it easier to put the story down and walk away, but in â€Å"The Speckled Band† Watson (the narrator) is needed, you feel the need to continue reading because Sherlock Homes himself asked you to be with him on the investigation (â€Å"your presence might be invaluable†) you feel as though you have betrayed him if you walk away from the story. And though I don’t like detective stories, I found this one the most fascinating out of the ones I studied for that reason.

Recruitment and training at Starbucks

Induction training is a process where a business teaches its new employees how the business works. One benefit of this is that it is a good way to provide the new staff with the general information of the business, such as health & safety, security, personnel and the departmental systems. This improves the employees' understanding of the business, which can increase motivation in the business. Another benefit is that the new employees can contribute to the business more quickly, as they would already know how the business works, and what their role is in the business. The level of experience required for a store manager would be greater than it would be for the barista position. The barista position could be a first job for people, so it would be better for them to fill in an application form, as they would have no previous jobs on their application form. It also means that Starbucks gets only the information that they wanted, as they are put on the application form. If the applicant has no major qualifications that would be put on a CV, then they would be able to go on the educational program that Starbucks provides if they get the job. For example, underqualified baristas could go on the ‘learning to lead' program, so that they can potentially reach manager level at Starbucks if they do internal recruitment. The reason that people applying for a barista would have to go to the Starbucks store to get an application form is that each store has its own manager or team that would deal with recruiting new staff. Recruiting a new manager is different because the Head Office would deal with that, as they might assign the applicant to a store, which is why they can apply online. When Starbucks decides to recruit a manager, the job description would have more information than one for a barista. Shortlisting would also be a bigger task when choosing a manager, because if the same number of people applied for baristas as they did for managers, there would most likely be fewer positions for managers. This means that the number of applicants has to be cut down more during shortlisting and the best way to do that would be to make the job specification as detailed as possible. The Internet is better for advertising jobs, as it can be updated faster. When the job description and person specification are completed, they might have to be sent to a newspaper, and they might have to wait until the next day before the advertisement would be put in. There would also been a fee that they would have to pay when they want to put a poster up or if they want to put an advert in a newspaper. The cheapest way to do post vacancies would be to post it on their own website. It would also make it possible for people to apply for the position online. Starbucks could have a questionnaire that can be filled in online which could replace some of the assessments that would be done in person. This could be cheaper, as it would mean less time would have to be spent at an assessment centre. A route that might get more views would be to post the vacancies on an employment website. If many people go to this website, they will see the vacancy along with other companies' vacancies. Alt hough this will cost money, it may only involve paying a small fee every time someone clicks on the link for the job description. For a barista, the training needed for them would be more basic than it would be for the manager position. A new manager would be expected to have some previous experience, if not from Starbucks, then from somewhere else. If this is the first time they have been a manager, then they would have to learn skills that will suit the job. This means that they would use the Management Practice training course in the ‘learning to lead' program, or the ‘business and communication' program run by the Starbucks Support Centre. Both of these would be off-the-job training. New baristas would have more on-the-job training, which would mean that they learn the skills from people that already work at the selected Starbucks. It also gives them a first hand experience of how the business works. Unfortunately, if the trainer has any bad habits in the business or takes any shortcuts, they could be passed onto the new staff he is training. If a barista does not have many qualifications, or does not have many business skills, then they can also go on some of the courses offered by the SSC, such as the computer skills course or the conflict resolution course if they hope to become a manager at some point in the future. If there are people who work in Starbucks who have a major interest in coffee, they might go on the ‘coffee education' course, so that they can find out more about coffee. This would be useful for managers, as it means that they will understand their project better. In addition, if a customer wanted to know more about the coffee they are using, they would be able to ask the staff and get some information from them.

Intergovernmental Immunities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Intergovernmental Immunities - Essay Example At the macro level, we have the national government while at the micro-level, we have the state or provincial governments. These levels of government co-exist with â€Å"an established division of governmental powers; legislative, executive and judicial.†1 Federal governments hinge on the idea involving â€Å"territorial divisions of authority, typically entrenched in the constitution which neither a sub-unit nor the center can alter unilaterally† (Follesdall 2003). This form of government is different and should be distinguished properly with the decentralized authority in unitary states where the central government has direct authority to revoked at will legislation governing the government. â€Å"What a legislature can do under a unitary system of government may be denied to either the central or regional governments and, sometimes as s  92 of our Constitution2 shows, to both the central and regional governments.†3 As Dicey pointed out, "The object for which a federal state is formed involves a division of authority between the national government and the separate States. 4 According to Dicey, the ceding of the some of the powers States to the national government created so many limitations upon the authority of the States. However, he also noted that such ceding of powers does not carry with it the right of the national government to â€Å"have the opportunity of encroaching upon the rights retained by the States.†5 It is, therefore, an acknowledged fact that the parameters of the powers given to the national government and those, which are retained by the States, should be subjected to â€Å"rigorous definition."  Nonetheless, separation of powers as what is espoused by the principles of federalism does not necessarily purport a total abdication of powers where there is total and complete immunity of intergovernmental sectors and its instrumentalities.  

The contemporary Legal landscape in the IT industry Essay

The contemporary Legal landscape in the IT industry - Essay Example For example, use of home made applications mobile applications is not clearly defined thus it’s a challenge. The contemporary ethical environment in the IT industry The main normative approaches to ethics – compare and contrast the main approaches that we have looked at virtue, consequentialist and deontological According to the BCS code of conduct, a professional should be conversant with the ethical issues and the legislations governing their profession. They must observe ethical the codes of conduct to be able to remain morally right. This is deontological ethics. Contemporary ethical dilemmas – how are recent developments in IT creating challenges for ethical behaviour? Can IT be used to make people and or organisation behaviour more ethical? If possible give some specific real-world examples taken from the guest speakers or your reading. The growth of IT has posed serious challenges to the ethical values in the society. The development in IT has brought about several lee ways for breaching ethical codes of conduct. Through development of software with unethical contents. For instance, the development of YouTube made it easy to access pornographic videos. YouTube does not as for age or require any authorization before you are allowed to watch a video(Gattiker, 2004). This makes it easy for even people below adulthood to view the contents that are not in compliance with ethical issues. However, IT can also be used to enhance ethics in our society. This is possible through creation of software that requires authentication and authorisation before someone is allowed to access an application. These applications can be embedded in both commercial and open source applications so that whenever someone uses, the ethical codes are taken into account. Technical aspects of security entail the security management. These are the parties that stand for the daily operation of IT