The Use of Images in William Carlos Williams, The Young Housewife Essa

The Use of Images in William Carlos Williams', The Young Housewife As is typical of most Modernist poetry, William Carlos Williams uses very specific images in "The Young Housewife" to reveal not merely a particular circumstance or event, but to also suggest underlying themes and ideas of his subject matter. For example, he gives to the reader various real and imagined images, such her moving about in negligee behind closed doors, or her going about her daily affairs, that are at once very seductive and suggestive of ideas that supercede their appearances. These images especially accentuate the young housewife's naturalness and beauty. However, they are quickly contrasted by a comparison drawn by Williams of the young lady to a fallen leaf-a comparison that initially seems completely bizarre and esoteric. One, in fact, wonders what Williams' purpose is in suddenly changing the mood of the poem to make this comparison. Upon close inspection, however, the comparison actually proves to be less confusing than it appears. In fact, when one considers the nature of a fallen leaf and compares it with various aspects of the young housewife's life, possible explanations begin to arise that clarify Williams' possible intent. Primary to understanding the comparison, is of course, understanding the nature of leaves and more particularly fallen leaves. Universally, leaves are considered to play both a functional and ornamental role for trees. On the functional level, leaves enable photosynthesis and thereby give nourishment to the tree. On the ornamental level, they enrich the appearance of the tree, giving it more color and substance. In fact, leaves are widely considered to be the evidence of a tree's vivacity. La... ... young housewife's sexual nature and beauty is to William and how much emphasis he puts on her captivity in her house, it becomes easier to understand the parallel of her to a fallen leaf. To Williams, the young housewife is like a beautiful leaf that needs to stay connected to its life force in order to maintain its beauty and vitality and even continue to nourish the tree. Otherwise it will inevitably dry up, become colorless and eventually die. Her marriage has separated her from the world and from her life force and will eventually cause her to lose her beauty and pristine nature. It is only a matter of time, in fact, before she becomes one of the leaves that Williams drives over in his car. Works Cited: Williams, William Carlos. â€Å"The Young Housewife.† Anthology of Modern American Poetry. Ed. Cary Nelson. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

The Cycle of Selfhood in Sillitoe Essay -- Literary Analysis

The Cycle of Selfhood in Sillitoe Preface After Alan Sillitoe’s death in 2008, journalist and author Catherine Mayer wrote Sillitoe’s obituary for Time magazine. She begins it with her own assessment of Sillitoe’s work. Mayer asserts that Sillitoe â€Å"possessed a rare ability to identify the lovable qualities in characters his readers might shun in real life† (Mayer). It is true; he did. That ability can, of course, be attributed to talent, hard work and strong writer’s intuition, but it can also be said that perhaps it was easy for Sillitoe to identify those qualities in those characters, because he identified with those characters. One critic goes so far as to say that Sillitoe is â€Å"too close to them for his own good, he abdicates to an outpouring autobiographical compulsion† (Roskies 172). The critic tempers that remark in the next sentence saying that, â€Å"Its virtue†¦is its splendid recreation of hand-to-mouth subsistence living in Nottingham†¦the industrial North as a whole† (Roskies 172) Sillitoe grew up in the same kind of environment as his characters do. Born in 1928 and raised in Radford, a working class suburb in western Nottingham (Daniels and Rycroft 461), Sillitoe was son to Christopher Sillitoe, a tannery laborer—illiterate, frequently out of work and sometimes abusive—and Sylvia Burton Sillitoe, a lace factory worker (Aspden). At 14, Alan Sillitoe left school to work a string of factory jobs, one as a lathe operator at a bicycle factory (Daniels and Rycroft 464), just like Arthur Seaton, the protagonist of Sillitoe’s, â€Å"Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.† Introduction Contemporary working class fiction from the British Isles is fraught with class struggle and it’s a topic that drove much of the work of the Angry ... ...Lessons of the long-distance runner.† The New Criterion (2008): 23-28. Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 Oct. 2011. Daniels, Stephen, and Simon Rycroft. â€Å"Mapping the Modern City: Alan Sillitoe’s Nottingham Novels.† Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 18.4 (1993): 460-480. JSTOR. Web. 13 Oct. 2011. Mayer, Catherine. â€Å"Alan Sillitoe.† Time 10 May 2010: 35. Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 Oct. 2011. Penner, Allen R. â€Å"Human Dignity and Social Anarchy: Sillitoe’s ‘The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner.’† Contemporary Literature 10.2 (1969): 253-265. Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 Oct. 2011. Roskies, D. M. â€Å"Alan Sillitoe’s Anti-Pastoral.† The Journal of Narrative Technique 10.3 (1980): 170-185. Print. Sillitoe, Alan. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. New and Collected Stories. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2003. 1-35. Print.

A life in the day of…

It's 7am and once again the annoying repetitive sound of the alarm on my phone rings again. As I still have my eyes closed, I feel around the floor for my phone to stop the alarm. After ten seconds I find the cancel button, the alarm is still ringing in my ears. Eventually I open my eyes to find nothing but darkness. I feel as dead as Kurt Cobain. I stumble to the door and pull down the cold handle. As I open the door, I hear the sound of the T. V downstairs. I sit on the top step of the steep stairs knowing if I were to try and walk I would most probably fall. When I reach the bottom I see my Dad lying on the sofa looking half-dead watching the T. V. I say ‘good morning,' he replies with a simple grunt. I walk out the kitchen, look out of the window, the sun shines so brightly, I can't see a thing. To wake myself up, I stumble into the bathroom as if I am drunk to take a shower. As soon as I get into the shower I started to feel awake. I am enjoying a quiet, relaxing shower when all of a sudden my twelve year old sister pushes the bathroom door open so hard that it hits the sink. The noise of that is so loud that it makes me jump a mile. I shout at her so loudly the house began to rumble. Around 7:30 I depart from my shower. I run upstairs very quickly as I only have a towel loosely wrapped around my waist. After that I put my school uniform on, my white polo shirt, black trousers and my black sweater. I pick up my big black bag which I had packed last night and once again walk downstairs to the chaos of everyone getting ready for work or school. I can see the steam coming out of my parent's head from the stress and rush of the morning. I pick up a shining, shark, silver knife from the kitchen and a loaf of bread from the kitchen and make myself a nutella sandwich. Its 8:15 and I have the long walk of approximately twenty metres to get to my bus stop, also known as a video shop. As I walk my shoe's make a loud sound like a horse walking. After five minutes of talking about girls and music the ‘Red Submarine' bus arrives. Yet again we have the same cheery driver with a chin ring, six earrings and a nose stud. All eighteen of us at the bus stop run onto the bus like a herd of galloping rhinos. I jump onto a seat with Sean and Adam near the door of the bus. We drive up the hill towards the nest bus stop at a maximum of three mph. Once all fellow pupils have been picked up in Maesycoed, the ‘fag bags' start puffing away upstairs. I complain to the driver about the smell of the fags but he does nothing. After twenty minutes of torture the bus finally arrives at Coedylan Prison, late as ever and yet again, we are the last people into school. I pull the cold silver metal of the front entrance doors of the prison. As I try to rush to get to registration, I am trapped by somebody walking as slow as a slug. At last my path has been unblocked and then I have to walk up the step staircase to get to the year ten registration corridor. I arrive at my registration room just in time for the register. I sit down and wait for my name to be called on the register. ‘Amy, Sophie, Ian†¦.. ‘ until eventually my name is called. Miss Hambling is a very laid back teacher who will let the class do what we want as long as the register is done. After the register, the class talks until the end of registration. At 9:05 I leave my reg to head for the first joyful lesson of the day, English with the teacher tat has clever ideas on how to wake her up in the morning. Miss Angell's cat jumps on her bladder so that she has to wake up to go the toilet and so that she would feed the cat. During the lesson, Christian usually uses his annoying repetitive noisy behaviour to do something to me and the rest of the class laugh. The rest of the lesson I finish writing up my essay. At 9:55 the repetitive, noisy, silver bell rings for second lesson. I am relieved because my arm is starting to ache but also disappointed because I like English. Second lesson, I can't even walk into the room and I already hear ‘Stand behind your chairs'. And then ‘Sit down; heading is quadratic equations, underline it with a ruler. ‘ As the lesson progresses, the tiredness creeps up on everyone. Page upon page being written on. Graphs to be drawn on blue squared paper. I feel as if my arm is about to drop off. Waiting and waiting for the magic words ‘pack away'. At 10:55, finally, the magic words have been said as well as a yell of, ‘Stand behind your chairs! ‘ As the chairs get pushed along the dusty floor the most high pitched noise I ever heard is being made and it is making the hairs on the back of my neck stick out. Five minutes later, ‘First row†¦ Second row'. Finally break time. The joy of chatting about girls and rock music and getting kicked in the shins or slapped by Kerry Adams. This takes place in a small area cramped with munchkins and lanky people. The sound of people rattling their money as if they're Bill Gates waiting to go to the refreshment machines. I stand near the door and when I saw someone just about to open the door I pushed Brian Mackinnon against it. While Brian is moaning in pain everybody else is laughing. This happened continually until the end of break when the bell rings for third lesson. Biology, the best lesson of the day. Go in sit down for five minutes chatting and ‘gyping' Abi Hughes. After that short time, ‘Timmy' starts reading out of a book and then the class has to write it out. Everyone calls him Timmy because some of the teachers do. After that short, boring waste of time, ‘Timmy' starts to draw something on the white board which he always calls a blackboard because he is still living in the past. During the next ten minutes we have to copy down the picture and then we can talk. When we started talking Pringles got told off for ‘gyping' Abi and Bedgood gets told off for trying to bite Pringles' ear. This is still happening and its nearly time for the bell when, ‘We've got time, so we'll copy down this equation'. I sigh but copy down the equation, once I finished I pack away just as the bell is ringing. At 11:55 I arrive at my I. C. T lesson with Mrs Plant. Walk in, sit down and turn on my usual computer on while a couple of people are having races and spinning around on the blue swivel chairs. Trying to move through the middle of them is like avoiding being fired at or trying not to fall into shell holes on a battle field. Finally Mrs Plant has arrived and the war is caught in action and both sides warned for the rest of the lesson. Obviously, I laugh. Mrs Plant calls everyone to the middle of the classroom where there are several tables. I slid along the floor like a car on ice on a Winters morning. Mrs Plant begins to explain the lesson, I have to finish designing my disco tickets and print them out. ‘Gavin' says Mrs Plant, the fear rose up in me, ‘Could you do me a favour', as those words are spoken I made a sigh of relief. ‘Please go to the staff corridor and into the staffroom to get laser for the printer. I walk to the staff corridor without a question until, ‘What are you doing down here? ‘ It was one of the secretaries. I explained what I am attempting to do so she goes to get it and told me not to go down the staff corridor again but to ask at the office next time. I nod my head and then walk off through the long, dusty corridor holding a big box in both hands. I walk into class and am greeted with a ‘thank you. ‘ I walk to my computer and load up ‘Microsoft Word' and the file ‘Disco tickets. ‘ Within the space of ten minutes, a voice from the other end of the classroom yells, ‘Gavin my friend, come help me please. It is Charlotte who I then helped, after completing the task, Susan asks the same thing so I help her also. I go back to my computer and begin to work as fast as light. At 12:38 I complete the work and ask Mrs Plant to put the laser in the printer so I am able to print out my work. As the bell goes the tickets are just printing. I put them into my file and leave for the canteen. Through the overcrowded, noisy corridors of Coedylan, I eventually reach the canteen and sit with the usual people on the right hand side of the canteen. I am surrounded by Adam and Gregg who are trying to steal my chocolate bars from my lunch box with the green lid. As I quickly eat my food, the canteen becomes more and more crowded and the lines become much longer. I finish my lunch and head back to the Bytezone. I throw my bag on the pile of bags already on the floor and walk over to my friend Grant but then I get surrounded by Kerry and her ‘clang' who are wearing their pyjamas to raise money for charity. At that hideous sight, I began to cry and fall to the ground. I am then asked if I want to go for a walk around the school. When I get to the back it is horrific, people spitting, smoking, I can't help but laugh at their stupidity. As we carry on walking we get to the basketball court where people from year eleven play football. While walking around the edge of the court, Grant is nearly hit on the head with a football. As we walk back into the Bytezone the machines just turned off and somebody's money has got stuck in thee chocolate machine. I go to talk to Kerry's ‘clang' half of them are sitting on the tables. It sounds like Pontypridd Park pool in the Summer with everyone talking or screaming. Grant and I swap phones so we can look at each others messages and all of a sudden a hand appears by the side of me and tries to steal Grants phone so she could have a look. I look at my watch and realise that the bell is about to go so I get my bag and wait for the bell to go at the bottom of the stairs. The bell goes and all of a sudden everyone starts running up the stairs. I walk into my registration classroom followed by other members of my disruptive reg class. As soon as Miss Hambling walks into the room she starts to call the register as there is not much time in afternoon reg. After about ten names she has to stop because Scott has disrupted her as usual. After another ten names, Miss Hambling is disrupted again but this time by the annoying Johnny. The register is being finished just as the bell goes. Now, the quick run through the corridor so I don't get caught up in the jam, but when I got to the bottom of the stairs, I am caught right in the middle of it. Luckily I am not caught up for long and I am first into the classroom. I go to my usual seat on the back row and get my Physics book out of my big, heavy bag and also my pencil case. As I am doing this the rest of the class stumbles through the door. Pringles and Adam both sit either side of me like always and Pringles asks me for a pen yet again. For Physics I have Mr Thomas, he's ‘kool,' he always let's have a joke in lessons. He tells the class to get their homework out so that we can mark it. This takes up fifteen minutes of the lesson. Now, Mr Thomas is telling everyone to go sit around the back desks so that we can watch a experiment. It is a steam train that is run by the water boiling with one exception, it's not working properly. As the lesson is progressing, time is going quite fast. As Mr Thomas is talking, the bells ringing. We all go to get our bags and now we can leave. Now, I have German, probably the best lesson of the day. I walk into the ‘Sunshine room,' which is what Mrs Hewitt calls it because apparently the sun always shines in that room. Today is going to be the second time that I will meet the German student Christiana. As soon as everyone is settled, Mrs Hewitt tells my half of the class to go to another room with Christiana for her to teach us for the first half of the lesson. I walk across the corridor and into a empty room where Christiana then put a map on the OHP. On this we have to say how to get to a building from a certain place. This went on for the first half of the lesson until we changed with the other half of the class. I walk back to the ‘Sunshine room' where Mrs Hewitt is waiting for us. As we are all sat down and quiet she starts to explain about a trip to ‘Kiln' for the Christmas markets. Now, we are moving to translating role-plays from English to German. They are both about directions which is quite fun. Before I knew it the bell had gone, so everyone packed up and now we are all rushing to our ‘sheds' so that we don't have to stand up. The mad rush in the corridors is like a running track at the Olympics. I run onto the red ‘shamrock shed' and sit downstairs for a change. I have made a good choice because the driver walked upstairs and gave everyone a warning for something. When the driver got back downstairs, he sat in his seat and he shut the big glass doors with green handles and off we go at the maximum speed of three mph and four mph down hill. Adam puts his CD player on and lets me listen to one of the earphones. We are listening to Kerrang 4, which is the best album ever created. I finally arrive at my bus stop, at the end of my street, at last I am off that excuse for a vehicle. I open the door of my house and before I can even say ‘Hello' my cousin has his arms around me and he's telling me about his day in school, but now I am feeling tired, so all I want to do is sleep. I turn on the T. V to the ‘Storm,' it's a modern rock radio station. My favourite D. J is on at the moment, he is ‘Deano. ‘ I have sat down for five minutes and the phone is ringing already. It's Adam asking me if I want to go to ‘Ponty. ‘ I can't be bothered but I will because thankfully I have no homework. I walk up the stairs and open my big brown bedroom door and to my surprise my clothes are already out ready for me to wear. I put on my dark blue baggy jeans and my black Nirvana ‘hoodie' with a picture of Kurt Cobain on the back of it. I walk back downstairs, say goodbye to my cousin and my Nan. I am going to the end of my long street which has a pub, a Chinese and a video shop where Adam is waiting. On the way we talk about how much fun the Sum 41 concert is going to be. We arrive in Ponty and head for Woolworths. In Woolworths we look at the rock albums and singles. Ten minutes I get a little bored and even more tired now. At 4:45 we leave Woolworths and head for the swings in the park. While walking through I see our friends Becky, Amy, Stacie and Nathalie and we go to the swings with them. We talk about rock music over and over and how much we hate pop music. Its 6:30 so the park is about to close. The silence of nobody around is relaxing but then the peace is disturbed by the sound of our baggy jeans dragging on the floor. When we reach Ponty, Adam and I depart from the girls and head for our homes in the pitch black apart from a few flickering street light. I keep looking around to make sure nobody is following us. I am now home. ‘Hello fellow family members' I say with a chirpy voice. I then walk towards the bathroom so I can brush my teeth before I go to bed. I walk into the lounge. ‘I'm off to bed now. ‘ It's only 9:00 but I'm extremely tired. I think about how cool it would be if I could become a very talented rock star like Kurt Cobain. I would call my band†¦ ‘Yawn! ‘ A Life In The Day Of†¦ At around 7: ooam on yet another dull and monotonous school day, my alarm rings. The shrill ear-piercing sounds and death-dance of my mobile phone attempts almost vainly to bring me back from oblivion. So loud that in the process of waking me up this wakes the rest of the house as well, (this will later make me the victim of taunts, mocking and severe punch-ups between my three older brothers and†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ me). I am usually forced out of bed, like a caterpillar breaking away from its cocoon, or tormented until I come round with the use of such agonizing instruments or procedures as the wet flannel or the glass of water over my head. After my torment and persecution, I stagger across the room with eyes still glazed over from around 8 hours of glorious sleep and, with an omnipotent thud, strike my hazily strike my ongoing alarm clock and watch it fall to the ground. With my eyes still twitching, gradually opening to the sight of raw sunlight gleaming through my curtains that have been rudely opened by my insensitive mother, I eventually make it to the bathroom and, because of our feeble, pathetic and broken shower, decide to run a bath. Cleanliness and external appearance is of great importance to me and a lot of other people coming through in this new generation. So, I put on my uniform. This is the one thing I enjoy about school as there is no deciding of what to wear, will it look good does it go with these shoes, just one set of clothes that can never go wrong. I then stumble downstairs, as unfit as I am, still stiff and taut from yesterday's game of football. Then with my ravenous and short-tempered self, attack the fridge like a man possessed, clutching the nearest and often tastiest piece of food, even if it is the remnants of last nights Chinese take-away. Once my journey to the fridge is complete (this usually takes around 10 minutes due to my laziness, and the time taken pondering over whether or not I can be bothered to get up out of my seat), I embark on the stairs, which to me at this time in the morning seem to be like a colossal mountain of sea green carpet. And, once at the top, I realise that in fact, due to the irony of my life, my toothbrush and paste have been tidied and taken downstairs by my once again insensitive mother, whose answer is repeatedly â€Å"well who else is going to do the tidying then. † Thankfully, after all this there are little immature quarrels over who gets to use the bathroom first as my brother who is still studying leaves the house later than me, because of his career as a professional footballer (oh how I do envy him, as he is able to take his time in the morning and yet still gets to play football for a living. Finally, I am ready to leave and the sacrifice made just for a lift to school involves a promise to do more chores or household tasks later in the day, yet I still end up being late due to the slowness of my mother and sister, whose life just seems to revolve around the â€Å"Tweenies! (How I do envy her). In more peaceful moments I often contemplate whether the extra ten minutes lie-in compensates for the un-enjoyable rush I have to endure everyday, but that 10 minutes is an eternity to me. And comments from my mother like â€Å"you need to get more organised†, â€Å"your brother was never like this†, and the old favourite – â€Å"your father and I used to walk 10 miles just to get to school†¦ and in our bare feet†, only seek to annoy me. After the complex procedure of getting everybody in the car, the journey commences at about 8:15am and the complete journey involves my younger sister crying for â€Å"the cheeky girls† and me in the front arguing my right to either revise or select my choice of radio station, if not against my sister, then my mother. It is the usual battle of Galaxy fm v Radio 4. As I arrive at school, my mother's somewhat futile attempts to park the car and later assault me, by trying to kiss me on the cheek amuse my friends as they pass. Once at school I immediately drop my bags and proceed to the metro station, an unofficial youth club, to meet my friends. However this all seems rather tedious until the Central High girls arrive and the sight of a mini-skirt makes the wait completely worthwhile. The day monotonously goes by, with each lesson inevitably uninteresting in its own way, until the joy of the long-awaited tuck-shop is appreciated, with its selection of fine sweets and hot, steaming succulent sandwiches, each as good as each other. As the lessons persist towards lunchtime, the hunger and tension draw near and the shiftiness and eagerness of the pupils become more apparent in the last five minutes of the lesson time and as the impatience and intolerance become more increase, people begin gradually and stealthily to shuffle books into their bags and look at their watches, too disgusted at the effrontery of the French teacher for keeping the class five minutes longer to discuss the application of the ultimately pointless past tense. Then, three loud rings signal lunch time and the class is promptly dispatched. At lunchtime, I usually enjoy a game of football, which ends up in me being late for lunch and lessons and becoming extremely sweaty. However, I believe in continually playing football in order to improve and become fitter, so that I can hopefully someday follow in my brother's footsteps in becoming a professional footballer, as this is what I enjoy doing most of all. I do also enjoy school however as long as I am not behind in work (this usually stops me from playing football at lunchtimes as I continually have something on my mind). I enjoy economics and am fascinated by the world of business and media, thus possibly leading me to a future career in either of these. Yet as lunchtime dawns upon us, the sun is exposed and my day is suddenly all the better for it, compared to the dreary, depressing clouds and bleak weather in the morning as I am still waking up. In the afternoon, once again the lessons slowly progress and once again the shuffling and shiftiness return towards the end of the day, all to save an extra five to ten minutes. At the end of the day, if I am not playing football, I head home and by around 5:30pm I can be started on my homework, so long as my mother nags at me enough. At home we have a very hectic household and I sometimes find it difficult to concentrate on just one thing, such as trying to attempt my maths homework when there is the constant ringing of the phone or my brother forever chatting to his girlfriend. There is also my sister wanting someone to play with her, the noise of the computer and the television. And, due to my other brother's strange profession of being a busker, he is forever making absurd things for his show, for example hammering nails into a bed of nails. Even though it always seems that as soon as I get started, my mother or father is calling for dinnertime and lamenting the fact that the family never eats together enough and so I never get started. But I always try to complete my homework's, even if it means staying up past midnight. However I do get to take my breaks, when my mother is busy, I sneak into the games room for a quick fifteen minutes on my play station, or sometimes just downstairs to watch television, with the repeated arguments every night over who gets to choose what programme to watch, with the forever ongoing debate or war over The Simpsons v The Discovery Channel. At long last I reach bedtime. As I return to the bliss of my furry, comfortable and warm bed, like a baby crawling back to its womb. Exhausted from going to bed too late after playing on the play station for too long and planning to go to bed early tomorrow night, I drift off to sleep, but we all know it will never happen, don't we?

Exemplary Leader Philosophy Paper Essay

I never aspired to be an ethical leader before this class. It is not that I acted unethically, but that I never understood the importance of being an ethical leader. As a child, I was constantly changing my mind about what I was going to be when I grew up, but never once did â€Å"ethical† cross my mind. It seems as though this is a common theme among human beings, that we see success through the masculine lens of materialism and consumerism. Being able to acquire the newest, biggest, most innovative thing is what motivates us from a very young age. This is not something to be necessarily ashamed about, because at one point or another, everyone acts out of self-interest and solely for self-advancement. The thing that has to change, however, is the amount of fully-grown adults who still act out of self interest, and more specifically, adults in leadership roles, managing corporations, institutions, cities, states, and countries, that pull their team in the right direction for themselves, and not necessarily for the organization. This class has taught me who I am, both as an individual and as a part of a cohesive team, who I can be, thanks to the concepts and thought-provoking readings and lectures, and how I can get there by utilizing these concepts and strategies. Throughout the course of this semester, I have been able to continue producing the same amount of success as I have in the past, but I have been able to do it the â€Å"right† way. By identifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to those opportunities of my personality and character, I have been able to identify my true self. This identification process is the first step toward becoming an ethical and moral example for peers, subordinates, and even superiors, both in a professional sense and in a personal sense. â€Å"History shows that where ethics and economics come in conflict, victory is always with economics. Vested interests have never been known to have willingly divested themselves unless there was sufficient force to compel them.† – B. R. Ambedkar This quote, spoken by Indian scholar B. R. Ambedkar, shows the belief in the common phrase, â€Å"business ethics is an oxymoron.† It is this mentality that began the self-fulfilling prophecy that business leaders use as an excuse for unethical behavior. The â€Å"slippery slope† of ethical breakdowns, as Badaracco calls it, begins with a mentality that justifies the diversion of ethics and economics. Throughout the rest of this exploration of the current self, the prospective self, and the presentation of a development plan, I will disprove this mentality. Current Self In order to effectively assess one’s ethical and moral fortitude, one must objectively identify his strengths and weaknesses relative to being an exemplary ethical leader. Furthermore, one must then address each individual aspect of his personality, including character traits, values, and integrity through relative ethical concepts and principles. By executing this process, one can truly learn about oneself and identify the necessary steps to becoming the possible self, or leader he wants to become. The process of identifying your own strengths and weaknesses can be difficult, especially in terms of being completely unbiased and objective. The key to successfully doing this is in relying on factual evidence that supports each strength and weakness. To be considered either, however, there must be a certain consistency in terms of actions as well as intent, which proves the validity of each strength or weakness. During my self-exploration, I thought back to some of my first memories in order to serve as a foundation for my moral potency and character, and to see how my experiences have shaped my personality, both positively and negatively. This process has given me perspective and helped me attain the knowledge necessary to complete an objective report of my own personality, values, skills, characteristics, and motivations. Without this process, I would have been subject to a common decision making fallacy that was taught in my organizational behavior class, known as the tendency to use information at hand, which describes a person’s inclination to make a decision based on readily-available information, rather than fact-based evidence. In this case, the â€Å"readily-available information† would be anecdotes and experiences that â€Å"stick out† in my memory. These examples are not necessarily wrong to use, but basing my process on them wholly would provide data inconsistent with my true personality. Since I can remember, I have always been a fierce competitor. This is shown through my spirited drive to achieve that has permeated my entire life, from academics, to extracurricular activities, to athletics. This competitiveness has both positive and negative effects on my leadership abilities, because I am driven and motivated to achieve goals, but can prove dangerous in team situations where group consensus is necessary. The competitive nature that is ingrained in my personality can lead to a concept called â€Å"me-ism†, described by Badaracco in chapter 4, which explains the phenomenon of being so goal-oriented that you lose sight of the effects that your actions have on other people. This concept can also relate to Badaracco’s inattentional blindness and motivated blindness, which describe occurrences in which one’s personal goals or lack of careful observation override that person’s ability to sense an ethical dilemma. My competitive nature has led to many successes in my life, including winning the New York under-18 state hockey championship, becoming the first non-senior to be an alternate captain on the Wake Forest club ice hockey team, and of course being accepted into this business school. These examples are all evidence of my competitive nature, and describe my desire to lead and win simultaneously. The concept of the future is tremendously fascinating to me. In another BEM class that I took this semester, we did a personality assessment that included over one hundred twenty questions and returned your five biggest personality strengths, and â€Å"futurism† was one of mine. I truly enjoy thinking about the future because of its uncertainty. I feel so much potential and possibility for myself, which is strengthened by my competitiveness. My ability to constantly think about the future while still keeping my â€Å"feet on the ground† and completing my assignments in the present is one of my most powerful strengths. My futurism keeps me on track toward achieving my personal and organizational goals. Becoming a transformational leader begins with the futurist outlook combined with a strong moral potency, which is the combination of three moral factors: moral ownership, moral courage, and moral efficacy. Moral potency, when combined with futurism, provides a leader with a strong moral and ethical foundation on which to base decisions, as well as the ability to envision the potential of a given organization. By acting in this way, a leader can start a chain reaction called the contagion effect, which is the phenomenon that occurs by promoting a transparent, ethical, and fair environment, starting from the C-level executives and â€Å"infecting† every employee underneath. The aforementioned strengths of mine, a strong competitive nature and a futuristic outlook provide me with an ethically-ambiguous foundation, meaning that both highly ethical and highly unethical leaders sport these qualities, and the actions that I make within the next few years will decide on which end of the spectrum I fall. In order for me to ensure that I do not start down the slippery slope of unethical decisions, I must be conscious of the fact that each decision I make has ethical implications, and I also must be weary of my weaknesses that could lead me down the wrong path. Acknowledging one’s weaknesses is critical to the process of defining your current self. As the saying goes, â€Å"nobody’s perfect,† and the only way to minimize the mistakes you make throughout your life is to accept the fact that you do have weaknesses, and to analyze what they are, why you have them, how you act on them, and how to correct them. My competitive drive has led me to have a strong desire to please authority figures, which is a major weakness of my personality, not in the sense that it is bad to desire recognition and achievement, but it frequently leads to Machiavellian, â€Å"ends justify the means† justifications of morally questionable actions. One of Badaracco’s ethical breakdowns, which he discusses in chapter five, the overvaluation of outcomes, directly relates to this personality trait. Two years ago I interned for a brokerage firm on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, and my boss was a task-oriented, results-driven leader, a common type in the financial sector. He demanded that the team of four interns provide a daily projection of trade volume based on an algorithm and spreadsheets dating back to the early 1990’s. After being reprimanded by our boss for presenting him with unfavorable figures, we began to slightly alter the bottom line to get his approval. In this situation, we made a major ethical mistake by overvaluing the results. With the knowledge I have gained from this class, I would have analyzed the decision to alter the numbers using the categorical imperative, and in this situation, especially in the financial sector, it would be a very bad thing if my actions became universal norms. Fortunately, the trade projections were strictly internal, and I found out later in the internship that my boss would assign this project to new interns as a way of â€Å"breaking them in† and showing them the harshness of the business world. This desire to please has affected my leadership skills mostly within the context of leading peers, because, when combined with my competitive nature, I realize that there are few things that I will not consider doing to get ahead, which will ostracize me from my peers and create a divide within the group, decreasing my ability to influence others around me. Another weakness of mine is my tendency to overuse legitimate power when it is given to me. Legitimate power, which is defined as power bestowed upon someone over others, can come as a promotion, as it did in my case, when I was voted captain of my varsity hockey team in high school. This promotion gave me nominal power over my teammates off of the rink, but it was enough to leverage and coerce them to follow my orders. Trevino and Nelson outline the psychology I used to justify this behavior in chapter five, in their discussion of informal organizational cultural systems. The norms usually override formal rules, according to Trevino and Nelson. â€Å"†¦Despite formal rules, regulations, codes, and credos, informal norms are frequently the most influential behavior guides and clues to the culture†. The rationalization that â€Å"it’s the way we do things around here† was understood by my teammates, because the captain before me was the same way. It is this lack of moral potency to realize the unethical behavior and act on my personal values that makes this a weakness of mine. In the heat of the moment, it is hard to stop yourself and think about ethical philosophy, but necessary to promote the organizational culture that is conducive and necessary to running a hockey team. This self-exploration has provided me with a sound basis to analyze myself and prepare to make the jump into the business world with a strong moral compass and the ability to create a working plan to become the exemplary leader that I wish to be. However, first I must decide and articulate exactly what kind of leader that is. Possible Self The second step in becoming an exemplary ethical leader is to identify your possible self, that is, the leader that you wish to become at some point in the future. This can be done in a multi-step process, first by identifying exemplary leaders that serve as role models or mentors to you, and then by analyzing their leadership qualities and determining which of those you wish to attain. It is undeniable that every ethical leader chooses to lead with character and integrity, two of the most important characteristics necessary to manage an organization, but just how do you define character? According to Professor Sean Hannah, character is defined by three aspects: moral discipline, moral attachment or attainment, and moral autonomy. The combination of these facets provides a solid basis for the quantification of leadership characteristics. Moral discipline outlines the ability to act in alignment with your personal values, while moral attachment or attainment refers to one’s ability to hold true to your values over time, and moral autonomy is the ability to formulate moral decisions based on your values and decision-making skills, without the influence of outside factors. Both character and integrity play instrumental roles in the development of ethical leaders, as well as in their ability to become role models for lower-level employees. My most recent role model for ethical leadership is Dean Reinemund, because he has been extremely successful as a leader in two vastly different industries, which shows that he has the skills necessary to lead, regardless of the situational context. During his guest lecture in our class, Dean Reinemund spoke about his â€Å"Four C’s of Leadership.† I believe that these four characteristics are immensely important to become a transformational leader with a vision that inspires employees to work at the highest level possible. The first â€Å"C† is character, which Mr. Reinemund describes as having your internal compass point to â€Å"true north†. Having the character to act in correlation with personal and organizational values in the face of adversity is an extremely admirable quality, and is something that I wish to have in my possible self. Mr. Reinemund’s third â€Å"C† is the one that resonated with me the most, particularly because it is the only aspect of his leadership philosophy that cannot be readily learned. Commitment, Reinemund says, is the passionate, internal drive to succeed, and it is something that is ingrained in your personality. Although you can motivate yourself through other, extrinsic means, the â€Å"warrior’s ambition† that Mr. Reinemund describes is a burning internal passion for the work that is being done. This is another facet of an exemplary leader that cannot be left out. Badaracco writes about Aristotle’s â€Å"Golden Mean† in terms of leadership by describing the balance between having a high concern for oneself and having a high concern for others. By attaining this equilibrium, leaders can act ethically and morally to provide the greatest good for the greatest number of people. This philosophy also relates to Badaracco’s four spheres of commitments that leaders have to navigate during each and every decision they make. Managing the four spheres is an integral part of being an exemplary leader and must be included in my definition of an exemplary leader. The last piece of leadership that I would like to emulate as an exemplary leader is the characteristics of a quiet leader. Modesty, self-restraint, patience, and careful, incremental moves can right, or even prevent, moral wrongdoings without blowing the issue out of proportion. The public displays of heroism, as coined by Badaracco, depicted in movies and television are usually extremely unnecessary and their emotionalism and lack of careful planning undercuts their credibility, while simultaneously decreasing the amount of empathy received from the listener. Being a quiet leader means doing the right thing, especially when nobody is looking, and that is why I admire such a quality and desire to be the quiet leader who allows his exemplary actions speak for him. Action Plan The third and final step to becoming an exemplary ethical leader is to formulate and execute an actionable leadership development plan, which outlines the steps necessary to transform the current self into the desired possible self. By identifying my strengths and weaknesses, and then identifying the ideal leader that I want to become, I can precisely calculate the discrepancy between the two, and what specific steps I need to take in order to become the exemplary leader I want to be. By using course concepts and relating them to my current self, I have come up with the following steps for my action plan: 1. Do not underestimate the weight of any one decision, no matter how seemingly insignificant it may be 2. Follow Badaracco’s steps to becoming a quiet leader 3. Apply Trevino & Nelson’s 8 steps to recognized ethical dilemmas 4. Read and reflect on the characteristics of an Authentic Leader every day 5. Establish a strong support group to help assist my decision making and provide comprehensive unbiased feedback These five steps, if followed correctly, will create the optimal environment to foster my development as an exemplary leader. My action plan is conducive to the type of leader that I want to be, because it focuses on further improving my strengths, and transforming my weaknesses into strengths by utilizing concepts and strategies learned in class. The first step is the most important one, because due to my competitive nature, I have a tendency to rush decisions in order to complete tasks more efficiently, but in the long run, especially in the professional world, I must be able to recognize the ethicality of each decision I make. By analyzing every decision I make from now on, whether it is my choice of shampoo or a multi-million dollar contract, I will be able to acknowledge the ethical repercussions of each alternative. My second step is to follow Badaracco’s steps to becoming a quiet leader, particularly the second rule, which says to â€Å"pick your battles†, and outlines the concept of political capital. Leadership is not defined by how many times you â€Å"blow the whistle†, but how much of an impact you had when you did decide to take a stand. Consequentially, I must make ethical decisions like Machiavelli’s fox rather than the lion. By building political capital and using it wisely, the respect that colleagues, superiors, and employees show you will increase, and therefore your ability to influence them will also increase, which will allow you to lead with confidence. Trevino & Nelson’s 8-Steps to ethical decision making are extremely important, because they provide a framework for which to analyze and come to a conclusion about any decision. The â€Å"action† piece of this step is simple: I have handwritten the steps on a small piece of paper and put it in my wallet, so that I can refer to it in any situation. By slowing down and analyzing each choice I make in terms of these 8 steps, I’ll be able to consistently make the best decision possible, which will instill confidence in my peers as well as show potential to my superiors. On the reverse side of my wallet-sized 8 steps, I have written the characteristics of an Authentic Leader, because I believe that simply being a quiet leader is not sufficient. Being a quiet leader is a great way to get things done, but in the long term may result with my leadership becoming â€Å"silent† leadership, wherein my peers and employees cannot easily see how I analyze ethical dilemmas and may start to infer that I rely on bottom-line statistics only. This is where the slippery slope begins, and my fourth step will counteract the possibility of being perceived as ethically neutral. My final step is to create a support group of people from different parts of my life, including peers such as friends and classmates, superiors (teachers and coaches), and subordinates such as the younger players on my hockey team. By establishing this group, I will be able to ask them to give me feedback on my projected personality. The first four steps of my action plan are important to my development as a leader, however they will be meaningless if what people perceive about me is different than what I want. Moreover, a support group will help me integrate my different lives, as Dean Reinemund spoke about in his lecture, by teaching me that in order to be perceived as an exemplary leader, I must have complete alignment between my espoused personal values and my in-use values in every aspect of my life. Solely having an action plan, however, will not give me the results I desire, which is why I must set both short and long term goals for myself in my journey to becoming an ethical leader. Short-term goals are imperative to maintaining my improvement in leadership skills, because without consistent feedback, it is impossible to gauge one’s progress. The support group I establish will provide me with that feedback. Specifically, I will create a point-based survey and ask each person in my support group to complete it. By doing this, I will have quantitative results at the end of each month to see which areas of my personality need improvement. By setting short-term goals, my competitive nature will enhance my desire to improve, until I reach my long-term goals. Perhaps the most challenging task of this assignment was to envision the evolution of my personality from a college student to a business leader, because I did not know exactly how to set long-term goals. After thinking it through, I believe that the most pertinent long-term goal that I can set is to reflect on my life as a leader, and have no decisions that I regret making. This seems vague, but it must be in order to work. By achieving short-term monthly goals, I will achieve my long-term goal as a result, which is the express purpose of short-term goals. If I can look back on my life as a leader when I retire, and I can honestly say that there is not a single decision that I made or failed to make that resulted in an unethical consequence, I will consider myself a success. Conclusion Throughout the course of this assignment, as well as the class as a whole, I have been exposed to completely new ways of analyzing situations and have been able to integrate those concepts and strategies into my daily life. By creating this action plan for the development of my character and leadership skills; I have begun the preparation necessary to successfully lead in the business world, which is an incredibly valuable head start on students in other business schools around the country. B. R. Ambedkar’s pessimistic quote regarding the ethics versus economics dynamic that I used earlier in the paper was a perfect way for me to gauge the effectiveness of my action plan. I believe that through the analysis of my current self, the reflection and projection of my possible self, and the creation of my leadership development plan, I have been able to disprove the mentality that â€Å"business ethics is an oxymoron† and begin to strengthen the mentality that â€Å"ethics is good business, and good business is ethical.† References 1. Sean Hannah, class lectures and PowerPoint presentations, 8/29/2012-12/4/2012 2. Hannah & Avolio, Moral Potency: Building the Capacity for Character-Based Leadership 3. Trevino & Nelson, Managing Business Ethics 4. Badaracco, Defining Moments 5. George, Sims, McLean, & Mayer, Discovering Your Authentic Leadership 6. Badaracco, We Don’t Need Another Hero 7. Reinemund, class lecture 10/4/2012 View as multi-pages

Cannes Film Festival and A.k.a Mr. Bean

A. K. A Mr. Bean Youth nowadays focuses on gathering information about some popular celebrities and among those , Bean is the most searched one. This man needs no introduction; rather a smile surprisingly appears on one’s face after a glimpse of him comes in anyone’s mind. The actor behind this hilarious series is Rowan Atkinson  and this person is the writer of a major part of the same Surprised!! , you better be, because it’s the truth. Bean seldom murmurs and the mainly physical humor is educed from his interactions with other people and his astonishing solutions to the situations. Teddy is kind of Mr. Bean’s life partner. The teddy is dark brown, affixed abnormally button eyes and sausage-shaped limbs. Despite of the fact that the teddy is defunct, Mr. Bean pretends it to be alive. Buying him a Christmas present or trying not to wake it in the mornings are some examples of the same. Now talking about Mr. Bean’s car, it was a British Leyland  Mini  1000 of applejack green color. The locking system of the car was immensely innovative and how Mr. Bean parks his car was noticeable. The famous chair incident was a running joke throughout the series. Apart from the television and an animated cartoon series, a couple of movies were also adapted, namely â€Å"Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie† in 1997 and â€Å"Mr. Beans Holiday† in 2007. The film follows Bean on a crucial journey across  France  for a holiday which after a number of hardships ends up in a screening of his video diary at the  Cannes Film Festival. Various questions are still unanswered about Rowan Atkinson  death. Hope he is alive and will again make the world rolling on the floor†¦laughing!!

Department of Maritime and Logistics Management-Voyage Planning Essay

Department of Maritime and Logistics Management-Voyage Planning Assignment - Essay Example It is not specified whether or not the ship will be able to carry a cargo on its way to either Manila or Shanghai in order to take either of the two jobs available. Conventional logic dictates that whenever a ship makes an oceanic voyage, it is more efficient for the ship to contain a cargo rather than simply travel empty. If at all possible, any cargo vessel should attempt to carry cargo of some sort even if its ultimate objective is to arrive at a different port city to undertake a more valuable cargo. Without knowledge of whether or not the vessel can undertake a cargo on its way to either of the major ports, then this analysis will presume that there is no cargo known it to be available for this ship when it arrives in Hong Kong. Therefore, if a situation arises where the cargo vessel must travel empty then the links of an empty voyage should be minimized. Therefore, it is more logical in this instance to travel from Hong Kong to Manilla due to the simple fact that the distance t he ship will have to travel without a cargo will be minimized, as opposed to a trip from Hong Kong to Shanghai, a greater overall distance in nautical miles. Moreover, a shorter journey would enable the ship to undertake the paying job faster. What this analysis must determine is whether or not the expense and profit potential of option one would outweigh the benefits of option two in the long run. If there is a potential for greater profit at the end of the final voyage, it must be great enough to outweigh the potential for lost time and the expense of traveling to either destination without cargo. The amount of the respective cargoes the ship can hold must also be considered based upon the available price. For steel, each unit will be packaged as .91 m? per tonne as opposed to 1.20 for the timber. So for the same amount of weight, a greater volume of steel can be loaded onto the ship. In addition to the weight over volume difference between the two commodities, the price for steel is also higher. By calculating cubic meters, it has been found that the same weight of steel will take up just slightly more than three fourths the volume of the same weight in timber. Under these circumstances, it is necessary to make determinations concerning the most useful cargo carrying strategy for the ship in question. Additional information that would aid in this determination is whether or not the Nunki is specialized for one cargo or the other. All ships have weight and volume limitations, the ship specialized for a particular cargo but loaded up with a different commodity with an unusual stowage factor may find itself in the situation of being unable to fully utilize its entire volume by carrying the cargo in question. The same weight in steel represents just over 75% of the same volume in timber, and this must be factored into price calculations. With the net tonnage of 18,800, we must still subtract from that 400 tons of dead weight (including freshwater and constants) leaving 18,400 tonnes remaining. Under ideal conditions, and traveling an identical distance it would be more logical to carry the steel cargo, unless specialized factors in ship construction would further reduce the available volume if steel were not the originally intended cargo of the vessel. But in this case, the different destinations will represent differences in the time and route of the two possible voyages. Calculations: Net Tonnage 18,800 0.91 / 1.2 = 0.75 Steel 24.50 per

Civil engineeringredevelopment of ratho stationedighburgh Essay

Civil engineeringredevelopment of ratho stationedighburgh - Essay Example Further, the redevelopment project of Ratho station would also be very helpful as it would be capable to support wider choice of tram services and also helps the occupants in the neighbourhood residential area (Edinburgh, n.d.). The entire landscape of the region is expected to be developed by upholding the rich heritage and natural assets in the region (Edinburgh, n.d). Further, necessary precautions are also given to ensure the occupational safety and health of passengers and the employees in the station. Maximum utilization of renewable energy and also using natural means to give maximum comfort conditions would be the core elements in the architectural plan. Providing the right orientation to enhance the heat gain, passive cooling means to reduce the load on HVAC systems are the few essential interventions planned in this exercise. Providing adequate open spaces that would create more comfort for the passengers are the other key concerns addressed in the planning process. The redevelopment project shall also communicate the philosophy of protection of ancient monuments and buildings besides conservation measures adopted at the heritage locations. BREEAM standards would be followed closely in an effort t o promote the sustainable re-development process of the station. In addition the Ratho station shall act as the focal point of generating local employment. Guidelines of BREEAM. BREEAM guidelines gives the proper direction for the sustainable development initiatives that could be adopted in the design of energy efficient and environmentally safe infrastructure components. The major emphasis given is in the design of cycle ways and pedestrian tracks. Strengthening public transport systems with less dependence on private transport are the important options for providing better living conditions. They also take proper attention for effective implementation of the proposed the travel plans like special cycle ride ways. The important design considerations that need to be incorporated in the design of station facilities are as follows As the energy conservation is one the top most priorities in the redevelopment process, all the lighting systems used would be of the high efficiency lighting systems or low energy consuming units. Further, all the signals and related units too would be converted or replaced in these lines. Conversion of the railway station at Ratho into as an energy producing station , such that station is capable of generating its own power is one of the design objectives. The piezoelectric systems that use the mechanical energy from the movement of gate to generate voltage could be implemented. The successful implementation of such type of systems are claimed by East Japan railway Company. Based on the volume of the passengers expected at the Ratho station it is estimated that atleast 1000kW per second could be generated from Ratho station (Schwartz, 2008). The use of energy efficient LED lamps could be used to indicate the tram arrivals at the station which could lead to considerable reduction in the electric bill (Irani,2006). Further, using systems that minimizes the water consumption by implementing water reuse systems to conserve the water used for