Essay about Respect Over Passion in My Antonia by Willa...

Respect Over Passion in My Antonia Throughout the book My Antonia by Willa Cather, there is a twisting and turning of Sexual and Gender issues. There also tends to be a tension surrounding the different classes between the Black Hawk towns people, and what are called, the hired girls or the people from the country. These distinctive qualities in this novel start being shown in the very beginning or the story where Jims best-friend speaks about the life of Jim and the path with whom he chose to travel. We watch the love of Jim grow farther and farther distant due to the inevitable tensions of classes, sexuality, and gender. In the beginning of the story when Antonia and Jim are still becoming acquainted†¦show more content†¦Jim says after seeing Antonia for the first time in eight months, She had come to us as a child, and now she was a tall, strong girl...She wore the boots her father had so thoughtfully taken off before her shot himself, and his old fur cap.(pg.79) This is what Jim said she looked like. He really accentuates that Antonia was wearing her fathers clothes, masculine of course. Jim says, She kept her sleeves rolled up all day, and her arms a throat were burned as brown as a sailors. Her neck came up strongly out of her shoulders, like the bole of a tree out of the turf. One sees that draught horse neck among the peasant women in all the old countries.(pg.79) The reader begins to see the changes in Antonia as well when she speaks. She starts to talk of things that only men in those days were known to do. For example she says to Jim, Jim, you ask Jake how much he plough ed to-day. I dont want that Jake get more done in one day than me. I want we have very much corn this fall.(pg.79) Jim says that, Tony could talk of nothing but the prices of things, or how much she could lift and endure. She was too proud of her strength.(pg.81) We see the changing of places between Antonia and Jim once again. We see Jim going to school and Antonia staying and doing farm work. This scene represents aShow MoreRelatedNaturalism and Regionalism Defining through American Literature1470 Words   |  6 Pagescharacteristics of a specific region. Bret Harte and Willa Cather are regionalist authors who use the setting to put emphasis in their stories. Furthermore, Mark Twain is a naturalist writer. Twain attempts to use lower class citizens to get across a bigger point. Harte also uses minorities. However, he focuses on how the region changes these poorer citizens. Lastly, Willa Cather and Mark Twain both have their characters in pursuit of something. Cather h as her characters pursue intangible objects whileRead MoreWilla Cather s My Antonia1932 Words   |  8 Pages In her novel My Antonia, Willa Cather, while writing in a sexist time, calls attention to the power of the female in life and society through Antonia, Lena Lingard, Tiny Soderball and Frances Harling and accentuates and celebrates the significance of the matriarchal world by use of Jim Burden as the narrator. Jim holds an enlightened consciousness of the female because, after spending most of his life with these women, he sees how they started with nothing ended with a successful life. In a time

Vonnegut An Outlook On Fate - 1477 Words

Christopher Friedrichs Mr. Carroll English IV AP 10/26/15 Vonnegut: An Outlook on Fate In Kurt Vonnegut’s classic fiction novel, Slaughterhouse Five, we experience the horrors of war through the eyes of fictional character Billy Pilgrim, and their effect on him. Pilgrim, who was a POW in Dresden during the firebombing, is obviously impacted by the war, like many others who experience combat. By channelling his own experiences into Billy Pilgrim, Vonnegut explores his belief in the inevitability of our fate, and the effects of war on the human psyche. Vonnegut blends his own life story with historical fact to create a believable and accessible tale that helps validate his experiences as well as comment on the pointless atrocities man commits against his fellow beings. It is quite obvious that Vonnegut intended to model characters in his novel after real life people, and the events, at least initially, after ones that actually took place. The first narrative voice we hear from in the opening pages of Slaughterhouse Five is a clear indicator of this. Billy begins his tale with, â€Å"All this happened, more or less. The war parts, anyway, are pretty much true...I ve changed all the names.† (Vonnegut 5). Although it is obviously Billy speaking, Vonnegut is at the same time introducing the events that follow as his experiences, and gives our first hint that Billy’s character is based on himself. If we dig deeper into some of the references he makes, we find that not only doShow MoreRelatedWar Destruction on Combatents in Kurt Vonnegut ´s Slaughterhouse- Five1776 Words   |  7 Pagesforced to fight overseas despite the rough conditions he will face. Billy joins his regiment as â€Å"it [is] in the process of being destroyed by Germans† (Vonnegut 40), and Vonnegut’s description of Billy accentuates his lack of preparation. He is given very little combat training, ill-fitting clothes, and is not even supplied with a firearm (Vonnegut 41). From the beginning, Billy is isolated from the other troops in a way because he is not as well prepared as the others. During a scouting mission afterRead MoreWhat is The Meaning of Free Will in Life Essay1571 Words   |  7 Pages Free will is the idea in which individuals can have the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate, and this idea of free will served as a prevalent theme in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five. Vonnegut illustrates the absurdity of no free will in Pilgrim’s world through the book’s nonlinear structure and unorganized plot. The novel is constructed as a series of inconsistent flashbacks and future incidents through the eyes of the protagonist, Billy Pilgrim. Billy Pilgrim is ableRead MoreSlaughterhouse Five By Kurt Vonnegut979 Words   |  4 PagesSlaughterhouse-five Kurt Vonnegut combines satire, imagery and an anecdotal style to talk about complex issues such as science, religion, sex, socialism, pacifism and tradition. He used his writing to convey messages and warnings to society about these issues. Slaughterhouse-five is one of his most well known novels. In this novel Vonnegut uses fiction to portray shadowy truths about human nature. Billy pilgrim is the main focus of Slaughterhouse-five; through him and other characters Vonnegut portrays his beliefsRead MorePeople Allow Adversity To Rid Them Of Hope. Slaughterhouse-Five1869 Words   |  8 PagesPeople allow adversity to rid them of hope. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut highlights the pitfalls of mankind in their perception of love, death, war, and societal norms through the unusually clear lenses of Billy Pilgrim. Pilgrim’s acceptance towards life relieves him of the weight of the world; however, even Pilgrim is unable to remain indifferent about war. Billy Pilgrim encounter with the Tralfamadorians granted him an extraterrestrial way of thinking. Billy Pilgrim’s profession as anRead More Kurt Vonneguts Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions3313 Words   |  14 Pagesrampages? Perhaps Kurt Vonnegut did. Could it be possible that a writer known more for his pictures of assholes than his knowledge of advanced physics actually centered some of the deepest concepts in his works on the philosophical implications of general relativity and quantum mechanics? Two of his greatest novels, Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions, both seem to hint at the relationship between modern physics and an idea philosophers call determinism. Vonnegut readers might well scratchRead MoreCritical Book Review of Slaughterhouse Five2406 Words   |  10 PagesSlaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut explains his experience of the World War II bombing of Dresden, Germany. Vonneguts creative antiwar novel shows the audience the hardships of the life of a soldier through his writing technique. Slaughterhouse Five is written circularl y, and time travel is ironically the only consistency throughout the book. Vonnegut outlines the life of Billy Pilgrim, whose life and experiences are uncannily similar to those of Vonnegut. In Chapter 1, Kurt Vonnegut non-fictionally describes

Role Of The HRM In Enhancing The Organizational Effectiveness

Question: Discuss about the Role Of The HRM In Enhancing The Organizational Effectiveness And Efficiency. Answer: Introduction For the contemporary business organizations, operating in the present business scenario is much more challenging than it was been a few years ago. This is due to the reason that, for the contemporary business organizations, various factors are there to be considered in order to maintain their organizational effectiveness and to stay ahead in the competition. One of the key factors to be considered by the contemporary business organizations is the effective management of their human resources (Armstrong Taylor, 2014). This is due to the fact that, in the present business state of affairs, the individual skill sets being possessed by the employees in the organization are one key sources for the business organizations to gain competitive advantages in the market. Thus, it is important for the business organizations to effectively manage their internal stakeholders in order to gain the maximum productivity from them. Human resource management plays an important role in managing the empl oyees effectively (Beardwell Thompson, 2014). This essay will discuss about the role of human resource management in enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of the organizations. Various aspects of HRM Human resource management covers or involves various factors or aspects to enhance the effectiveness of the organization as well as its employees (Shahid Azhar, 2013). The key aspects are the staffing, employee compensation and perquisites, providing training to the employees, workplace health and safety and internal relations between the employees and the upper level management. Thus, human resource management covers a holistic approach for the business organizations. It helps the organization in selecting right employees and providing him effective training and enhancing their skills and maintaining of effective workplace environment to enhance the rate of job satisfaction of the employees through their work life. The following sections will elaborate and critically discuss about the various aspects of human resource management. Staffing Staffing includes the selection of right employees for the right job at the right time and place. Recruitment and selection is one of the key aspects of human resource management due to the reason that, the competitive advantages along with the effectiveness of the organizations will get enhanced only when the employees having right set of skill are being employed for the right job profile (Shields et al., 2015). Moreover, the process of recruitment and selection should be effective in order to employ the new employees in the organization according to the need and requirement of the organization. According to Chaneta (2014), initiation of effective process of recruitment and selection will help the organization in having the rightly skilled employees in every job positions, which will in turn equip the organization to face any business challenge. Moreover, according to the author, initiation of effective process of recruitment and selection will help the organization to reduce the issues being generated from the newly appointed employees. This will get reduced due to the fact that, the employees with the help of the effective process of recruitment and selection will be employed after effectively matching with the requirement and organizational aspects. Thus, according to the author, the probability of arising of issues from the newly appointed employees will be lowered. Employee compensation and perquisites On the other hand, providing employee compensation and perquisites helps the organization to motivate the employees in their workplace. According to Bryant and Allen (2013), providing suitable compensation and benefits to the employees will help the organization to retain the top performing employees in the organization along with attracting new potential talents. Moreover, according to the authors, providing the suitable compensation to the employees will help to enhance the level of motivation and involvement of the employees in their workplace. Thus, providence of suitable compensation and benefits to the employees will have positive impression among the employees along with enhancing their organizational commitment. Thus, with the creation of positive impression among the employees regarding the welfare benefits being initiated by the organization, the employees will be more motivated in their workplace. It will help the organization to gain more productivity from them. Moreover, it is also be discussed by the authors that, increase in the job satisfaction of the employees will reduce the chance of employee issues in the organization (Lazaroiu, 2015). This is due to the reason that, enhancement in the level of job satisfaction among the employees will reduce the chance of any grievance among the employees. Workplace health and safety Another key aspect of human resource management is maintaining the workplace health and safety. The more effective will be the working environment for the employees in the organization, the more will be their level of motivation and satisfaction of the employees. According to Murrell (2012), maintaining the effective working environment in the organization will enable the employees to have the higher degree of job satisfaction and motivation to accomplish better job goals. Thus, according to the author, maintaining the effective working environment will help to increase the productivity of the employees along with having the higher retention rate. Moreover, according to the author, workplace health and safety involves creating of effective working environment and providing various health and safety benefits to the employees in case of any unwarranted incidents (Friend Kohn, 2014). Thus, if the employees are being offered health and hygiene working environment, then they will also feel motivated to enhance their productivity and effectiveness in their workplace. Initiation of training and skill development program Another important aspect of human resource management is the providence of training and skill development programs for the employees. Providing effective and suitable training to the employees will help the organization to enhance the skills of the employees according to the change in the business scenario. Thus, the employees will be more equipped and trained to face the organizational challenges. As stated by Sung and Choi (2014), there are various benefits of providing employee training and development due to the reason that, the overall effectiveness of the employees will get enhanced. According to the authors, the more effective will be the training facilities for the employees, the more will be their ability to face the organizational challenges. Moreover, they have also stated that initiation of employee training and skill development will help the employees to diversify their skill sets. Thus, this will further help the organization to have the access of the diverse skill sets being possessed by their employees. This will also help them in gaining competitive advantages in the market. The rate of motivation of the employees will also get increased with the help of skill development and training programs due to the reason that the employees will have more expertise and knowledge to counter issues, which will be generated in their job profiles (Ji et al., 2012). However, it is being also stated by the authors that in initiation of the training programs of the employees, organizations will have to incur cost. But effective implementation and designing the training programs will help to gain positive outcome from the incurred cost. Effective internal relations The last aspect of human resource management is maintaining the effective and positive relationship between the upper level management and the employees. This is due to the reason that, the more effective will be the relationship between the upper and middle level hierarchy levels, the more will be the effectiveness of the organizational procedures. According to the opinion being given by Awadh and Alyahya (2013), human resource management helps the organizations to enhance the effectiveness of their internal culture in order to maintain a positive relationship between the internal stakeholders. According to the authors, the more effective will be the relationship between the internal stakeholders, the more will be the organizational effectiveness. This is due to the reason that, according to the authors, due to the presence of effective relationship among the internal stakeholders, the employees will be more motivated to share their grievances and feedback to their superiors and the communication of the upper level managers will also be effectively reach to the employees. Thus, the employees will also be more aware about the organizational requirement and vision. Conclusion Thus, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that, human resources management is one of the key concept that should be considered by the contemporary business organizations in order to enhance their internal effectiveness. Various aspects of human resource management are being discussed in this essay. It is being seen in the discussion that, human resource management covers vast and diverse organizational areas, which helps the organizations in having a holistic approach in enhancing the organizational effectiveness. Critical analysis is being done in this essay to evaluate the effectiveness of various aspects of the human resource management. From the critical evaluation, it can be concluded that, all the aspects of the human resource management are interrelated and are complementary to one another. Effective implementation of all the aspects of human resource management will help the organization to enhance their effectiveness of the internal stakeholders along with gaining competitive advantages in the market. Reference Armstrong, M., Taylor, S. (2014).Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers. Awadh, A. M., Alyahya, M. S. (2013). Impact of organizational culture on employee performance.International Review of Management and Business Research,2(1), 168. Beardwell, J., Thompson, A. (2014).Human resource management: a contemporary approach. Pearson Education. Bryant, P. C., Allen, D. G. (2013). Compensation, benefits and employee turnover: HR strategies for retaining top talent.Compensation Benefits Review,45(3), 171-175. Chaneta, I. (2014). Recruitment and Selection.International Journal of Management, IT and Engineering,4(2), 289. Friend, M. A., Kohn, J. P. (2014).Fundamentals of occupational safety and health. Bernan Press. Ji, L., Huang, J., Liu, Z., Zhu, H., Cai, Z. (2012). The effects of employee training on the relationship between environmental attitude and firms' performance in sustainable development.The International Journal of Human Resource Management,23(14), 2995-3008. Lazaroiu, G. (2015). Employee Motivation and Job Performance.Linguistic and Philosophical Investigations,14, 97. Murrell, K. (2012).Ergonomics: Man in his working environment. Springer Science Business Media. Shahid, A., Azhar, S. M. (2013). Gaining employee commitment: Linking to organizational effectiveness.Journal of Management Research,5(1), 250. Shields, J., Brown, M., Kaine, S., Dolle-Samuel, C., North-Samardzic, A., McLean, P., ... Plimmer, G. (2015).Managing Employee Performance Reward: Concepts, Practices, Strategies. Cambridge University Press. Sung, S. Y., Choi, J. N. (2014). Do organizations spend wisely on employees? Effects of training and development investments on learning and innovation in organizations.Journal of organizational behavior,35(3), 393-412.

Shakespeare’s Influence on English Literature Essay Example

Shakespeare’s Influence on English Literature Paper Shakespeare’s influence on English literature has been unsurpassed. His influence did not confine itself to the intricate detailing of his stories alone, but extended to all aspects of storytelling, namely mellifluous prose, evolved characterization and varied settings.  All of these contributed in making his stories memorable and through primarily these three elements together with the sheer variety and breadth of his storylines, he continues to exercise a dominant influence on English literature and captivate and enthrall. Beyond anything, his life is an example of complete dedication to his craft. His life is marked by a focused devotion to English literature and language through his Tragedies, Comedies and Histories, cumulatively known as the First Folio, Second, Third and Fourth Folios. Whatever is known of Shakespeare is drawn primarily from two sources, his literary texts and remnants of church and legal records from which one can trace the significant aspects of his life, though much of it is conjecture. Shakespeare’s mother, Mary, was the daughter of Robert Arden of Stratford. John, his father, was a leather merchant whose life witnessed tumultuous financial highs and lows. There is a probability that Shakespeare attended grammar school during his early years, though his parents were in all probability illiterate. At the age of eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, who was eight years older than him. We will write a custom essay sample on Shakespeare’s Influence on English Literature specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Shakespeare’s Influence on English Literature specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Shakespeare’s Influence on English Literature specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Till 1592, no other record alludes to his life. In 1592, Robert Greene referred to Shakespeare when he wrote in Greene’s Groatsworth of Wit bought with a Million of Repentance about â€Å"an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger’s heart wrapped in a player’s hide, supposes he is as well as able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you; and being an absolute Johan-nes fac totum, is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country† (Alexander, xvi). This remark only serves to reiterate that Shakespeare had gained significant recognition through his plays by 1592 and inspired sufficient rivalry in literary circles though Greene’s is the only known enmity. Even this remark is a travesty of Shakespeare’s own lines from Henry VI, Part Three; â€Å"O tiger’s heart wrapped in a woman’s hide† Johannes fac totum referred to here means the jack of all trades. This observation was partly correct, for Shakespeare was multifaceted. Apart from being a writer, and starring in his own plays, he was also associated with a theatrical group comprising of Richard Burbage, a noted stage performer and they were known after their patron as Lord Chamberlain’s Men and after King James succeeded Queen Elizabeth, they were known as â€Å"the King’s Men†. It was to this company that Shakespeare directed his unswerving attention by composing all his plays solely for their enactment. In 1593-94, Shakespeare, to much critical acclaim, published his poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucerne. Shakespeare was diffident about the publication of his plays and took no interest in their printing, being interested only in their faithful and dramatical reproduction. This is responsible for the problems in establishing the accuracy of his texts and in dating them. Shakespeare’s first tragedy was Titus Adronicus, (C. 1592-94) in which Ovid’s influence was profound though it did not gain much prominence because of its implicit violence. It has, of late, been revived. During this period, he wrote Henry VI (c. 1588) and Richard III (c. 1593), Henry V (c. 1599). Richard II and Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 were also composed during this time. According to the Lexicon, the principal Comedies written during this time were Love’s Labour Lost, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It and Twelfth Night. He devoted himself principally to Tragedy after 1599. These include- Julius Caeser, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus. There were some plays that were difficult to categorize such as Troilus and Cressida, All’s Well That Ends Well and Measure for Measure. The end of his writing career was marked by four plays- Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, The Tempest and Pericles. Shakespeare’s supremacy was not confined to English literature alone but extended to the English language as well. The strength of Shakespeare’s influence can be ascribed to his riveting and compelling storylines, his evolved characterization and the mellifluous language. Through his plays, he for the first time in English literature created believable, expressive characters. He delved into the psyche of his protagonists and imbued them with life. What perhaps makes these characters lasting and unforgettable is that they are neither wholly evil nor wholly good, but real. Hamlet fascinates readers with his complexity. Emotional and daring, lackadaisical about revenge and shades of insanity are traits that render him complex. Othello, initially portrayed as courageous and proud, reveals that he is in fact flawed, like all of Shakespeare’s characters, when his implicit trust in Iago betrays him to act upon his jealousy and kill Desdemona. Shylock in The Merchant Of Venice sins as much as he is sinned against, as much a hero as a villain. It has been argued that Shakespeare’s characters stoop to melodrama, but one has to remember that he was, above all a consummate dramatist. It has been said that a compulsive and insightful reading of all of his plays serves to make one a better judge of human character, its motivations, conflicts, passions and fallacies. (â€Å"Bartleby†). His thoroughness in the execution of his characters served to inspire generations of writers. In fact, Herman Melville’s main antagonist in Moby Dick, Captain Ahab, is believed to be a classic Shakespearean character, whose downfall and doom are brought about by his own weakness. According to Wikipedia, Shakespeare’s resonant prose also reverberates through time, through the writing of Charles Dickens, on whom Shakespeare’s influence was profound, and William Faulkner. He also helped develop the English language. English, before the times of Shakespeare was impulsive and unstructured. Shakespeare enhanced the beauty of the language by adding to its vocabulary and gave it depth by the beauty of his prose. Many of the phrases that his characters used have become common parlance. He freed the English language. Successive generations have interpreted and reinterpreted Shakespeare’s plays and will continue to do so for posterity. The vividness of his imagination helped unify the thought and action of his characters and gave them force and passion, so much so that these characters inspire hatred and love, but never indifference. In Othello, for instance, it is the language which defines the play. Othello’s prose is mellifluous in the true sense of the term, so much so that a critic on remarking about the language of Othello has called it â€Å"Othello’s music†. (â€Å"Geocities†). However, the language of Othello gradually breaks down, as consumed by jealousy his character slowly disintegrates. In the Act I, Scene III, Othello states â€Å"And little of this great world can I speak/ More than pertains to feats of broil and battle† (Shakespeare, 1118). The Duke also expresses his opinion that Othello would also win his daughter’s heart. Othello also says â€Å"Yet I’ll not shed her blood/nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow† (Shakespeare, 1149), As his character becomes darker, his language crumbles, he stoops to words to communicate instead of sentences, â€Å"Killing myself, to die upon a kiss† (Shakespeare, 1153). This was one of the first plays in which the language evocatively moves in tandem with the plot. Another way in which Othello was revolutionary was that the main protagonist was one of the first or colored black heroes in the history of English literature. Inspite of his race and also despite the fact that he was a foreigner in conventional Venice; he rises to a position of influence and marries a white woman, a circumstance unthought-of during Elizabethan times. Othello also has to overcome considerable racial discrimination. Shakespeare imbues Othello with all heroic and noble characteristics, save for one tragic flaw, jealousy. With this Othello’s fate was sealed. He became the embodiment of the ‘perfect tragic hero’ in English literature. Also unique among Shakespearean tragedies, Othello was mostly a tragedy of character, while all the other Shakespearean tragedies were set amongst political backdrops, Othello was propelled and instigated by his self doubt, jealousy and by the diabolical wickedness in the character of Iago. The language, the setting, the characterization and the taut plot makes Othello the most heartrending and memorable of Shakespeare’s tragedies. This power to captivate and enthrall readers through delving into Othello’s psyche helped redefine psychological realism. With only three principal characters, Othello, Desdemona and Iago, it is also one of Shakespeare’s most centered plays in which the action concentrates around these three characters. Again, for Romeo and Juliet, the primary element of the play that resonates through time is the language. Romeo says â€Å"Love is a smoke rais’d with the fume of sighs† (Shakespeare, 904). This is more poetry than prose. The characters, besides using poetry in speech, also use metaphors, oxymorons, allegories and paradoxes. Shakepeare also uses sonnets in the scenes between Romeo and Juliet to express their depth of love to each other. In these scenes, the language imbues their emotions with a rich texture. There are also a lot of action words used. It is this poetry of language that was to have a tremendous influence on the romantic poetry of Keats and also of Coleridge. Thomas Carlyle has this to say about Shakespeare’s influence on literature This King Shakespeare does he not shine, in crowned sovereignty, over us all, as the noblest, gentlest, yet strongest of rallying-signs; indestructible; really more valuable in that point of view than any other means or appliance whatsoever? We can fancy him as radiant aloft over all Nations of Englishmen, thousand years hence. From Paramatta, from New York, wheresoever, under what sort of Parish-Constable soever, English men and women are, they will say to one another, ‘Yes, this Shakespeare is ours; we produced him, we speak and think by him; we are of one blood and kind with him. (Bernard Levin. From The Story of English. Robert McCrum, William Cran and Robert MacNeil. Viking: 1986)† (â€Å"Shakespeare Online†). Thus, Shakespeare’s impact on literature is lasting. The range of his genius defies imagination. It will continue to stir future generations till eternity.