The kite runner Essay Example for Free

The kite runner Essay Leesh bear Friendship with a Kite The desire for friendship comes quickly. Friendship does not. Aristotle In The Kite Runner, the theme of friendship is probably one on the most obvious themes to spot. The book is centered around the friendships made, and how the friendships will test their true loyalty and sometimes even their lives. According to Mark Vernon friendship is a complex thing. He says this; A heavy burden is placed on friendship. We turn to friends for our happiness. Some say they trust friends more than family. And there are those who want to marry their best friend a very novel idea. Then, in the networked age, we believe, or hope, that friendship is elastic enough to connect us across the web of complex lives, and strong enough not to snap. But is it? For whilst friendship offers much, few ask about its perils and limitations, as well as its promise. This relates to The Kite Runner almost perfectly. As it would tor any book dealing with the hardships and tests ot friendship, but somehow this one seems to fit best with this novel. one of the characters who reflects a lot on friendship Is Amir. Amir not focusing so much on his friendship, but the question of friendship completely, how two people of ifferent races, one accepted by society and the other outcast can be friends. But In none of his stories did Baba ever refer to All as his friend. The curious thing was, I never thought of Hassan and me as friends either. Not in the usual sense anyhow Because history isnt easy to overcome. Neither is religion. In the end, I was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara, I was Sunni and he was Shia and nothing was ever going to change that. Nothing. When Hassan talks about friendship or more so reflects on it, he comes from more of a third party outsider point of view. He never really goes into detail, but the author ets us know he is caring and forgiving. Hassan writes letters to Amir filled with warmth and nostalgia for their time in Kabul. Somehow, Hassan never thinks to hold a grudge against Amir. Its unthinkable its simply not part of the makeup of this character. (shmoop. com) Even th ough they come trom different back rounds the tact that they are Ilke brothers Is really nice to see. Though the time they live In their friendship Is considered bad, they pursue It anyways. Many trials their friendship faced, yet they continued to keep eachother close. Then, when Amir attempts to fit Into society he leaves Hassan behind. Someone who he was so close to for so long. Too late we learn, a man must hold his friend unjudged, accepted, trusted to the end Oohn Boyle OReilly). Hassan was the one who helped Amir choose the path of his future career. Amir had taken advantage of the friendship between Hassan and him. He made fun of him whenever he had the chance, but Hassan never took it to heart and still perceived Amir as his best friend. One day while he read to Hassan, Amir made up the ending of the story and Hassan loved it. He said, That was the best story youVe read me in a 1 OF2 Hassan was both physically and mentally stronger than Amir. According to Baba, Amirs father, there was something wrong with Amir since his birth. Amir never stood up for himself and he was different for the fact that he liked poetry, something that Baba believed was not normal for a young boy. One day while Hassan and Amir were walking towards their tree, they came upon Assef and his friends. Assef was the son of one of Babas friends, an airline pilot. He was known for his brass knuckles and wanted to start an argument with Hassan and Amir. Right before he was going to hurt them, Hassan grabbed his slingshot and aimed it right at Assefs left eye. He let the boys go but said he was going to get revenge. This part of the story foreshadowed an event that occurred later in the story in which Amir and Hassans lives were changed forever.

Management Case Study: Coca Cola Company

Management Case Study: Coca Cola Company Cola-Cola Company Roadmap starts with their mission, which is long-term. It declares their function as a company and serves as the standard against which their weight of action and decisions. The mission of Coca-Cola Company is to refresh the world, to inspire moments of optimism and happiness, to create value and make a difference. Vision Vision serves as the framework for Coca-Cola Company Roadmap and guides every part of the business by describing what they need to achieve in order to continue achieving sustainable quality growth. People, be a large place to work where people are encouraged to be the best they can be. Portfolio, bring to the world a portfolio of excellence beverage brands that expect and persuade peoples desires and needs. Partners, nurture a winning network of customers and suppliers, together they create communal, enduring value. Plane, be a responsible resident that makes a special by helping build and support sustainable communities. Profit, maximize long-term return to shareholder while being aware of their general responsibilities. Productivity, be a highly successful, bend and fast moving organisation. Coca-Cola products Coca-Cola companies have a very narrow products range which are Coca-cola, Sprite and Fanta. Those products are sold in the market with a difference size of bottles which are 250ml, 300ml, 1liter and 1.5liter pet. Working as a Global Team Coca-Cola companies built around two core assets, its brands and its people. Thats what makes working at Coca-Cola so special. They believe that work is a place that the employer need go every day. It should be a place of exploration, creativity, professional growth and interpersonal relationships. Its about being inspired and motivated to achieve extraordinary things. They want people to take pride in their work and in building brands others love. After all, its the combined talents, skills, knowledge, experience and passion of our people that make us who we are. Coca-Cola Company has 92,800 associates around the world live and works in the markets. They serve more than 87 percent of them outside the United State. In the geographically diverse environment, they learn from each market and share those learns quickly. As a result, Coca-Cola Company culture is ever more collaborative. From beverage concept and development to merchandising, Coca-Cola associates are sharing concept across departments and markets in new ways. Consequently, Coca-Cola associates are increasing enthusiastic about their work and inspired to turn plans into action. With a portfolio of more than 3,300 list of product, from diet and regular sparkling beverages to still beverages such as 100 percent fruit juices and fruit drinks, waters, sports and energy drinks, teas and coffees, and milk-and soy-based beverages, Coca-Cola Company variety spans the globe. Management Function PLANNING Definition Planning is the process of setting goals, developing strategic, outlining tasks and then deciding how best to accomplish them. As a result of the planning process, everyone in the organization knows what should be done, who should do it, and how it should be done. It is a detailed programmed regarding future course of action. Plan also a blueprint specifying the resource allocations, schedules, and other actions necessary for attaining goals. It defining goals and then determining the activities and resources required to achieve them. Planning can be difference of type, an organisation can classify some of the important types of plans which are the financial and non financial plans, formal and informal plans, specific and routine plans, strategic and functional plans, long range and short range plans and the last administrative and operational plans. Planning function is important to the managers, managers need to plan so that the worker activities are consistent with the organisatio n goals and the correct type and amount of resources also can be acquired. A planning function requires information, judgment and decision making. Theories According to Dror (1974), he says that planning is the process of preparing a set of decision for action in future, directed at achieving goals. According to Professor Stoner (1997), he says that planning is of establishing objectives and appropriate courses of action before taking action. According to Archibugi (2008), say that planning is a method of making rational decision; a method that is, to some extent, common to many areas. Real Practice For a Coca-Cola company, planning is very important to them because according to Joel Ross and Michael Kami theory, they think that an organisation without the strategy planning is like a ship without a rudder, going around the circle. Its like a tramp that is no place to go to. Strategic planning, implementation and formulation are the core management function. One of the biggest factors for determining whether the organisation performs up to its potential or not is the extent to which the management team performs, the strategy making and strategic implementing function. Coca-Cola organisation thinks that only the good strategic and good implementations are the most trustworthy proof of good management. A strategic plan is the bridge of the future, which an organisation uses to lead from what it is to what it envisions it can become. Planning also can be a future course of action. Planning is concerning itself with look forward into the future and determining the vision, mission and objective of the project or program. Vision is that provides the overall frame of reference within which mission statements are written and goals selected. It also is the desired future state of organization. According to Peter F. Drucker, objectives are essential in all the key areas where performance and results directly contribute to the growth and survival of a business. The vision of the Coca-Cola organisation is to become the best and the biggest anchor bottler in the world. They mission are to refresh the world, to create value and make a difference everywhere they engage. In the Coca-Cola organisation, most of the goals setting and planning activities are handling by the top management. The top manager had set three objectives for the Coca-Cola organisation. The objectives of Coca-Cola can be classified as the strategic goals, tactical goals and operational goals. Strategic goals are statements of what an organisation wish to achieve over the period of the strategic plan likes over the next years, next five years. The strategic goals are considered when company is thinking of the long-term objectives. This strategic goal is set up by the top management with consultation by the parent company head quartered at Singapore. The top managers have to make sure that they are in line with the changing environment that they have to review in the annual meeting every year. This goals is to make sure that Coca-Cola company can continue provide the quality products to the valuable customers, to project an outstanding corporate and try to satisfy the customer through extra ordinary service and an excellent service along with the complete tactical and operational support. The managers also need to select and retain in professional people for the organisation. Another, the tactical goals which are define the outcomes t hat major divisions and departments must achieve for organization to reach its overall goals. The top managers of the Coca-Cola Company on an annual basis devise these goals together with the consultation of the lower level employees. After that, each departmental director have to subdivide the annual tasks on the quarterly or monthly basis to have a proper check to make sure that these objectives are achieved mainly through the marketing after the annual tasks is given. For this year, managers need to ensure that Coca-Cola can increase the revenue by 20% of the compared last year and increase the total retail customer around 10%. They also have to increase the market share by 5% and 30% of the reactivate the discounts of customers. Last, the operational goals which is that the managers set to ensure that each employees can achieve their own goals and told what are expected of them and then they are evaluated on the basis of certain rules and regulations followed evenly by theÂà ‚  company. This operational goals may arise some issue which is some fresh salesman cannot reach their goals so the managers need to ensure that the salesmen can find the new customer, retain existing one and bring back the discontinued accounts by giving them some training. In addition, planning is vital in making management decisions. Decision making is the study of identifying and choosing alternatives based on the values and preferences of the decision maker and it is the process of sufficiently reducing uncertainty and doubt about alternatives to allow a reasonable choice to be made from among them. A bad decision making will have a bad result so a good manager must good in decision making, they have to must sure that every decision they make is good for the organisation. The decision making process in the Coca-Cola company is centralized. There are six step in the decision making of the Coca-Cola company which are recognize need to make decision, generate alternatives, assess the alternatives, choose among alternatives, implement choose and last the learn from feedback. In Coca-Cola company, decision which always takes by the top manager can related to the packaging positioning, trade discounts, advertisement, price reductions and distribution. So as a conclusion of planning, planning is the first tool of the four functions in the management process. It is rightly said Well plan is half done. Compare to the theory and real practice, both of them are concerning with the future action which is how to achieve the organisations goals with those objectives that are setting up by the managers. The difference between a successful and unsuccessful manager lies within the planning procedure. So for me, a successful manager should have a planning skill for achieve the organisations goals. ORGANISING Definition Organising is one of the four managerial functions which focus on allocating and arranging human and non-human resources so that the plans can be carried out successfully. It also means constructing an organisational structure that is compatible for the accomplishment of the agreed purposes, lines of authority, and responsibility defined, and a system of rules and procedures which lead the performance of subordinates lay down. Organising is how the plan will be carried out so the goal is achieve. Once a plan is planned, the next step in the progression is to agree on which individuals will need to be include, who will be in charge, who will keep individuals held responsible, and what resources will be necessitate, who will be in charge for getting those resources, who will keep an eye on the progress? Those phases are all part of the organising process in the project. Hence, organising is next to planning because once the plan is planned, the next natural move in the progressions is to get organised so the plan comes to fruition. Organising is also the talent of receiving people who do not work for you to realise things. As a conclusion, organising refers to the categorising of activities and possessions in a reasonable way. Theories According to Chester I. Barnard (1886-1961), the acceptance theory of authority, which states that people have free will and can choose whether to follow management orders. An order is acceptable if the subordinate understand it, is able to comply with it, and views it as appropriate given goals of the organisation. According to Chester I. Barnard (1888-1961), organization allows people to achieve what they could not achieve as individuals. REAL PRACTISE Base on the basis functional approach, Coca-Cola Company is divided into different departments in the real practice. Individuals who possess the same on the basis of common skills and work activities are grouped together. This method helps the company in attaining the economies of scale through high excellence of problem solving and lesser needs of guidance of the subordinates. Coca-Cola Company is leaded by the General Manager. There are a total of five mainly departments at Coca-Cola Company which are Production department, Industrial Relation department, Sales and Marketing department, Human Resources department, and Finance and Accounting department. Each department has their own functions and responsibility toward the company. Production department is in charge for the overall production of the Coca-Cola Company. Industrial Relations department is in charge for handling with problems connected to the operational surroundings of the staff and the matter linked to the labor unions . Sales and Marketing department is accountable for the producing the goods obtainable in the market and to deal with the problems associated to the advertisements of the goods. Human Resources department is in charge for looking the proficient pool of workers, choosing the professionals and make them pleased so that they should remain faithful to the company. Finance department deals with overall costing and pricing of the goods. They also deal with the trade in correlated concern of the company. Accounting department lend a hand to the sales department in making bill of lading and payroll entries. Example hierarchy of Departmentalisation for Coca-Cola Company: Figure : The departments under the General Manager of Coca-Cola Company. Coca-Cola Company each executive is made in charge for only a specific role that he or she expertise as the work specialisation is important. Each salesman is encountering different type of individuals as there is no tediousness or repetitiveness. The job is tough and promotions are based on performance. The executive of Coca-Cola Company receives report from the Salesman. These Sales Managers are in charge for the performances of the salesmen which they need to provide them timely comment. Assistances are requiring to be provided by Sales Manager at any time and it is a problem connected to the performance of the staff. The administrators keep an eye on an on-going basis toward these salesmen which serves as an efficient managing mechanism. The staffs have a lot of power, liability and information relative to the job that they are responsibility Nevertheless, every part of the information and authority relative to the work is provided by their individual supervisors. These procedure s are the similar in the other subdivisions as well. Figure Coca-Cola Company each executive is made held responsible for the actions of his or her underlings. An accurate advices and assistance is given at time to time to attain the purpose by the particular executives. Every supervisor is responsible for motivating their juniors so as to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the staffs apart from the delegation. Human Resources department lend a hand staff so they could recognise their potential and uses various technique to encourage them. In return, they offer the most excellent to their supervisor. Thus boost their performance, excellence of work and consumer satisfaction. The span of control is the amount of staff who report directly to a prearranged Coca-Cola Company supervisor. It is most excellent to have a minimum of 3 staff and a maximum of 5 staff reporting to their supervisor. This low pattern is as a result of the actuality that the organisation is a perpendicular and there are various individuals having different works t o do so. When there are more than 5 individuals, it is hard to be managed. Hence when there is an utmost of 5 people, the possessions and staffs still can be supervise in an effective manner. To the extent that resources allocation is concerned, the executives of each department in the Coca-Cola Company have the power to exploit the organisational assets whenever the assets are required for the purposes of their department. Special permission has to be approved by other superintendents if these assets belong to other superintendent. These resources may be capital, work force or other. When there are required positions in Coca-Cola Company and not on reserve basis, employment will be performed. The employment begins whenever a superintendent wants a salesperson. Foremost, it will send to be agreed by the General Manager of Coca-Cola Company before sending it to Human Resource department, HR. Example of the recruitment process: Human Resources department will verify from their Ex-Employers about the behavior and the cause of leaving. If the candidate is selected Education requirements and Screening Of the Personnel Available job are make public within Coca-Cola Company Human Resources department look for its data bank Selection is based on several decisive factors for various titles Aptitude test Example, for salesman Candidate is asked to turn up for an interview Candidate is asked for any references, which can make. If no suitable candidates for a specific profession If no suitable candidates, then publicise in the newspaper Coca-Cola Company If pass the aptitude test Carried out by the sales and Human Resources department Easy mathematics and common knowledge is tested. Familiar with how of English is also essential As a conclusion, an organising is the second function in the managerial functions. When the organization is well organised, it can be said that it is in the best conditions. Compare to the theory and real practice, state that the acceptance theory of authority which states that people have free will and can choose whether to follow management orders. In the real practice, people tend to follow instruction from the person who is higher ranking than them as they do not like to make their own decisions. The other theory stated that the organization allow people to achieve what they would not achieve as individual. However in real practice, people tend to work own their own as they do not wish to share the same authority with other and to prove that they are capable of doing it individually. LEADING Definition Leading means the process of influencing others to engage in work behaviors that would lead to the achievement of goals. It can be said, it is the third function in management. This function has a unique characteristic as compared to other functions, employing the humanistic perspective but require less systematic process for analysis as other functions. A leader must lead his subordinates to achieve goals more efficiency. Due to business environment, leaders are constantly on the change. Today, a manager must be able to make a quick and more accurate decision, either in consensus building or teamwork environment. Leadership is a complex process in which a person influences others to accomplish a mission, task, and objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. Leadership also can be defined as the ability to influence a group towards the achievement of goals. To lead subordinates successfully, the manager must provide directions and leaders hip to his staffs, to perform the essential task within the required time frame, and with the most efficient use of resources. Leadership theory are include trait theory (leadership idea that try to identify characteristic that differentiated from non- leaders), behavioral theory (identified behaviors that differentiated effective leaders from ineffective leaders) and contingency theory (leaders should be flexible and adjust to change in the environment). In behavioral theory, it include autocratic, democratic and laissez- faire. Theories According to Keith (2002), Leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen. According to Tom De Marco (2002), Leadership needs to be distinguished from posturing. According to Bateman-Snell (2004), Leading is the management function that involves the managers efforts to stimulate high performance by employees. Real Practice In Coca-Cola Company, other than the three of management functions, leading is important. The organization places the general manager on the top of the hierarchy. The general manager takes the responsibility of deciding major administrative decisions in accordance to the companys policy and operations. He will not be involved in the operations aspect directly. Departmental managers are tasked with leading and paving the direction for their subordinates. These leaders concentrate on two main parts of the operations. First, being co-ordination with each other in the operations, so as to increase the business volume. Second, employees are encouraged to give new ideas on increasing customer satisfaction. According to Herbert Spencer , that the time times produce the person and not the other way around. Coca-Cola believes they are practicing a democratic and laissez- faire style of leadership which are behavioral theory, through delegation and participation of employees. Since the sales a nd marketing team are dependent on one another, the team management concept is applied. The managers are very supportive of the practice of having subordinates treated in a fair and good manner. Employees are treated as part of the family. By encouraging them to participate in group discussions, using open communication system, employees are not left out in decision makings. So it can let employees always relax whether they are in work and also let them feeling that they are not just employees only come for work. They will feel comfortable as they are friend or a member of family either with superior or workmate. There have an highly open environment. Subordinates can show their opinion and feeling to the manager. Managers also will encourage employees participate to the decision- making so they will become participative so can make use for the group discussion. According to Victor Vroom, in collaboration with Phillip Yetton (1973) and later with Arthur Jago (1988) developed a taxonomy for describing leadership situation, taxonomy that wan use in a normative decision mo del where leadership styles were connected to situational variables, defining which approach was more suitable to which situation. Monetary and non-monetary rewards are used to entice a higher participation, especially from the lower level employees. The company gives high priority to motivate employees, adopting the policy of promoting employees within the company, based on performance, rather than recruiting a new staff. Achievable objectives and targets are set, which enables most employees to achieve and perform well. Paying wages that are higher than the industrys standard is also a part of the motivation plan. There are also various in-house campaigns and competition to stir up employees motivation. Motivated employees, gives important and timely feedbacks, like job or personal problems, which managers could help to solve. To further motivate employees, the company places importance to the working environment and goals achieved. The employees will get the commission if they se ll the products in bulk. The commission is base on the performance basis of subordinated. So, subordinates not only will get the salary but also commission. This can support and motivate employees to work hard and achieve the goals successfully more efficiency. This way is very objective and are perceives achievable by most of employees. Beside that the competition between employees can motivate them, other than this compensation plan also is a motivating factor as paying more than the industry average. A good working environment and a challenging milestone are a most important factor in employees motivation. Managers play a vital role to solve any problems of subordinates whether is job related or personal problem. According to Robert Blake and Jane Mouton in 1941, the five different leadership style of managerial grid model is based on the leaders concern for people and their concern for goal achievement. They also will give employees timely feedback about their unsatisfied. In th e function of leading, communication is a major factor in human relationship. With the contingency theory, the manager will be flexible and adjust to change according to situation. Information sharing among employees is highly encouraged. Top management seeks input and feedback from lower ranking employees, before implementing new company policies. The general manager is accessible to all employees at any time, if they have any grievances or suggestions. Communications between departments can be done formally or informally. The company uses grapevine to get employees view about the management. At Coca-Cola, the top management ensures the culture of the organization, which has its values formally documented and communicated to all employees, is adhered to. To ensure the successful implementation of the rules and values, the top management adopts the lead by example approach, when administering the policies. Employees behavior is reviewed periodically. So, as conclusion for leading, leadership is organizing a group of people to achieve a common goal. To achieve the goal, leadership of manager are important to leading subordinates to exert high level effort for successful. Controlling Definition Every manager whether in small or big firm needs managerial skills to lead the company. The important managerial skills have four important skills which is planning, organizing, leading and controlling or managing. All these skills are related to each other. Without this four skills manager are not being able to lead the employees in order to achieve organization vision, mission and goal. Controlling is once of the important as the organization will not substined without it. Manager need controlling to encourages others employee to be creative, innovative and aware toward their jobs, beside that managers identify any opportunities for change and development to upgrade the quality of employees and also their product, before it drives change the manager scopes and plan it carefully. Other than that manager used controlling to manages other employees through the change process to make sure it run smoothly, manager also must takes account of all stakeholder issues that happen to them to make a clear understanding and try to avoid from occurs problem. Controlling is one of the activities involve in management, controlling also one of the managerial skills. Controlling is the process of regulating activities to achieve organizational goals. Theories Control consists of verifying whether everything occurs in conformity with the plan adopted, the instructions issued, and principles established. Its object is to point out weaknesses and errors in order to rectify them and prevent recurrence. (Henri Fayol 1916) Control is checking current performance against pre-determined standards contained in the plans, with a view to ensure adequate progress and satisfactory performance. (EFL Breach) Controlling is the measurement and correction of performance in order to make sure that enterprise objectives and the plans devised to attain them are accomplished. (Harold Koontz) Management is the profession of control. (Stafford Beer 1970) Real Practice Controlling is done through the evaluation, which is based on the very objective basis. Some criteria are fixed in advance, if these criteria are not met when the employees are asked and evaluated for the reasons and corrective actions are taken by the respective managers. All this is control by manager to make the process run without problem. Different departments have different criteria, different reporting and controlling systems. The reporting, evaluation and control system of sales departments is Sales Persons reporting system and Sales Persons Evaluation System. Controlling is important to manager because manager used it to check the error and made a correction so the deviation standard can be achieved. This managerial skills is been using by the well known beverage soft drink which is the Coca-cola company. Sales Persons reporting system is where the employees give a daily report of his done activities to market developer of his area, sales person also are free to ask for any kind of assistance from the market developer to help him doing the activities. Every sales person will be giving a punch card which will record his arrival and departure time. They also will be given a route card which he must fill out to make sure the details about the time spent of visit the outlet, times during the traveling and it include the names of the loaders and salesperson time in and out of the vehicle. This will make the progress running smoothly and managers are able to control. Apart from this the manager also will inform about the next days order to be loaded in the truck to be deliver, this also will tell the manager the sum of sales by the sales person according to the brand and the size of the product. Sales person evaluation system is which the company help to promote their employees to the higher level of the firm. The evaluation also help to increase salesperson motivation to work hard and get the promotion or the monetary rewards which is given not only to the best seller but it also has been given to the best market developer and also the best sales manager of the year. Performance is measured on the basis of the achievement of the target which is set and communicated at the beginning of the year to each of sales manager, quarter to every each market developer and to each sales person on every month. This performance is evaluated according to the basis of performance development plan, it also development plan to the sales person on the call slips, route call, call completion, effective and productive call, attendance, growth in sales, market development and the punctuality of the salesman. As for the coca-cola company, the manager do organizational performance appraisal on the process which generate valid information about employee work effectiveness for the purpose of making informed human resource decisions. Organization must evaluate employee performance for a number of reasons. First, the employees need to understand the behavioral requirement of the job. Other than that employees work is evaluated for its contributions to company goals. Employees also need to know where they stand with the organization in terms of their performance, they also motivate to do a good job is increased by the performance appraisal system. Valid information about performance levels of employees should be used to make decisions about salary increased, bonuses and training needs. Beside that employees need a clear understanding of what the firm expects from them in terms of performance. The Coca-Cola Company realizes that a good appraisal system makes organizational processes more effecti ve because managers can use the performance appraisal system as a motivational tool. An effective appraisal system creates many opportunity for managers to interact with their subordinates about team performance measures, cycle times, company goals, service quality, and employees career aspiration. If there is no formal and objective performance appraisal system, employees may believe that the firm is unconcerned with treating them fairly, this is why the managerial skills is much important to manager to lead the company and it would not be complete if the manager do not practice all the skills indeed for the company future. Few managers would question the firms need to assess the performance behaviour of its employee. The proces

Portrayal Of Women In Advertisements Media Essay

Portrayal Of Women In Advertisements Media Essay This Article was written by Jacob M. Duker and Lewis R.Tucker, Jr. in 1977. In this article the discussion is based on the portrayal of women in advertising. The article basically says that the negative impact of women through advertisement showing them as housewives or sex objects have become a major source of concern for the women. The National Organization of Women (NOW) complained in 1971 that the women were still portrayed as domestic adjuncts, demeaned housekeepers, dependent on men, submissive, sex objects and unintelligent. According to the article the research that was conducted by Courtney and Lockeretz, sexton and haberman on advertisements and print advertisements concluded on the note that women were not portrayed accurately meaning that the advertisements do no show the actual role occupied by women in a Society and the image of women reflected in ads is quite narrow. Now only the proportions of sex-object role portrayals have decreased significantly whereas the others have not. However the role of women in advertisements has improved quite a lot since the old times as they are not portrayed as the stereotyped women as they were portrayed before. But still the fact is that more advertisements are made on women being as sex objects, or house wives. As the hypothesis statement of this article states that there is no difference in the perception of advertisements portraying women in the role of mother, sex objects, housewife, or glamour girl between female subjects who show strong and those who show weak orientations toward the womens liberation movement. In order to explain this relationship quantitative research was conducted in which College students were used exclusively because they are the ones who are most likely to adopt current popular opinion towards both womens lib and sex role portrayal in advertisements. Moreover it relies on the use of actual advertisements. Ads were pretested to insure that they did reflect the identified feminist issues. The pretests involved discussion of the ads with 30 female under-graduates to identify ads whose literal (as opposed to symbolic) messages were understood and which did project the image of women respectively as mother, sex object, glamour girl, housewife, working mother, modern woman, and professional, respectively. The following advertisements were chosen. 1. Mother feeding baby with a new disposable bottle (mother). 2. Beautiful female positioned by a line of cosmetics explicitly emphasizing sexiness (sex object). 3. Beautiful female being featured as a center of attention because o f her beautiful hair, the result of using a well-known creme rinse (glamour girl). 4. Several housewives taking part in a testimonial for a new pressure-type drain opener (housewife). 5. A cereal ad featuring a mother with a young daughter discussing the importance of pursuing a career while being able to look out for the welfare of the family (working mother). 6. Beautiful female positioned in a hair coloring ad as an independent individual free to pursue anything without worry (modern woman). 7. Biographical profile of a female orchestra conductor indicating the brand of Scotch whiskey she preferred (professional). The advertisements was shown to 104 females between the ages of 18 and 21 who represented the student body of a northeastern university. The sample is biased toward younger, educated individuals. Coming to the Results only for advertisement 2, which portrayed a female as a sex object, did they obtained chi square value of 4.122 begin to approach significance. For all ot her role representations, the chi square values reflecting differences among groups did not exceed 1.76. These findings are especially striking because they involve the reactions of the two conceptually predetermined polar groups, the traditionalists and the pro feminists. Of further interest is the finding that the three groups of respondents showed no significant differences in both their positive and their negative reactions. The two polar groups both liked the portrayals in advertisements 2, 3, 4, and 7, both disliked the portrayals in advertisement 1, and groups were divided relatively evenly toward those in advertisements 5 and 6. This study has established an important conclusion with regard to profeminism and its relationship to reactions to roles for women (portrayal of women) in advertisements. We know now that having pro-feminist opinions does not change the roles being assigned to women in advertisements. So the dependent variable in this article will be perception of ad vertisements portraying women and the independent variable will be strong and those who show weak orientations toward the womens liberation movement. Womens Role Portrayal Preferences in Advertisements: An Empirical Study This Article is written by Lawrence H. Wortzel and John M. Frisbie in Oct, 1974. This article is based on the two published studies which did research on the role that women portrayal in print advertising. The Courtney and Lockeretz study concluded that the women are right on the part where they say that full views of their roles in a society are not shown. They are always shown as housewives or some fashion object or the most common as sex objects. These roles do not define a women and role they play or have to play in a society. The other case study by Wagner and Banos indicates that there has been a large amount of improvement in showing womens role as a working member of a society. However they did not do much research on the effectiveness of the advertisement meaning that what kind of advertisement do women find more appealing or does the advertisement showing women in a working role make the product more better or desirable compared to the advertisements in which women were sho wn as sex or fashion object. Therefore this research has two hypothesis statements, one, when a women appears in an advertisement the desirability of the product advertised to women exposed to the ads will be enhanced if that woman is portrayed in a career or neutral role, rather than a sex object, family, or fashion object role. Two, those women who most strongly agree with the tenets of women liberation Movement will most strongly consider a products desirability enhanced when a woman appearing in the ad is portrayed in a career or neutral role, rather than a sex object, family, or fashion object role. The traditional role of women was however not rejected. In this experiment, subjects were asked to design print ads by matching pictures of products with pictures of women. Two portfolios were prepared: one consisting of pictures of products, the other containing pictures of women. The product portfolio consisted of pictures of three products in each of seven product categories: small appliances, large appliances, womens grooming products, womens personal products, household products, foods, and mens grooming and personal products. The specific product categories were selected to provide diversity while remaining within the boundaries of plausibility; each product category is one in which the picture of a woman in an advertisement would not be unexpected. Any product that consistently used advertising that portrayed a woman in a particular role was rejected to minimize possible bias due to conditioning. The portfolio of womens pictures consisted of five pictures depicting women in ea ch of the five roles-neutral, family, career, sex object, and fashion object-for a total of 25 pictures in all. The two portfolios were presented to a convenience sample of 100 young (ages 21 to 35) women. While the sample of young women was not drawn randomly, every effort was made to insure that a distribution of demographic characteristics would be achieved. The results indicated no consistent preference for specific female roles that always enhance product desirability and that cut across product categories. Coming to the result we must see that the women participating in this experiment appear to have chosen their preferred role-background on the basis of the specific product class with which they were con-fronted. For products that are usually used by households or families, the family role-back-ground was preferred. Preference for the family role-background was marginal for small appliances and strong for large appliances and food. For products that women use alone the neutra l or career role-backgrounds were prefer-red, although the traditional fashion role was still acceptable. There is no product for which a sex-object role was considered the most enhancing role portrayal. After doing several research and experiment the article concludes by saying that women are indeed very happy when they are portrayed as traditional homemaker, fashion or sex objects. Women did find their liberation in ad to be portrayed by a housewife role. The reason they prefer these role portrayals they chose could be that advertisement has played a big part in making women accept the traditional role portrayals in ads in advertisements. So the dependent variable in this article will be desirability of the product and the independent variable will be exposed to the ads and woman portrayed in a career or neutral role. Amanda B. Bower (Autumn, 2001)Highly Attractive Model in Advertising and the Women who Loathe Them: The implications of Negative Affect for Spokesperson Effectiveness This Article is written by Amanda B. Bower in 2001. In this article the author tries to explain the impact that good looking models in advertisements, have on the self esteem of the women. As we know that the use of Attractive Models in advertising has become very popular in the world today but the effect is yet to be measure. Some women may have negative effects by comparing themselves to the attractive model and may think less of themselves. The purpose of the research was to find out that if the highly attractive images of women in advertising can persuade and if they have a positive or negative impact on the women living in a society. The physical Attractiveness plays a very important role as women want to compare themselves with the images of perfection, flawlessness, skinniness and beauty depicted in advertising. Would the one comparing herself would have an effect on her self-esteem and have a negative effect on the spokes person effectiveness. The results of the study showed that the people who compared themselves to the spokes person actually had a negative reaction and the effectiveness of the spokes person was reduced. This tells us that that there although there may be negative relation between negative effect and spokesperson efficiency but still the negative relation has to be more high for model derogation to take place. The patterns suggest an interesting limited condition. For Methodology 38 undergraduates were chosen and were given 5 photos of models to select from who would look better using the treadmill. The photos that were given were chosen from more than 100 photos of models from different magazines and none of them were from advertisements. While conducting the first study it was kept in mind that HAM would be the ones with who majority would like to compare themselves so to simplify the findings, a second study was performed. It was decided to take such a product that would emphasize more on the malleable part of womans physical appear ance. This was done in order to see if the negative effect still existed when the body was not strongly emphasized on as it was done in the first case study. Regarding first study results strong evidence was shown that the comparers report relatively high levels of comparison with the model, whereas non-comparers report relatively low levels of comparison. Comparers had more negative feelings and found the models to be more attractive than the non-comparers. Results regarding Study 2 where One hundred eleven women participated indicated that the mean beauty evaluation (10.88) was again at approximately the midpoint of the scale and was not significantly different from the HAM beauty in the first study. This suggests again that the subjects view the model as representing the average beautiful model presented in advertising. The purpose of this study was see whether the highly attractive models had an ability to persuade and also if HAMs had an positive or negative effect on women. Re sults showed that more importance is given to Spokesperson expertise and evaluation of product in a advertisement in product evaluation and intentions. So the dependent variable in this article will be self esteem and the independent variable will be advertising, and physical Attractiveness. Images of Women in Advertisements: Effects on Attitudes Related to Sexual Aggression This Article is written by Kyra Lanis and Katherine Covell in 1998. In this Article they have tried to make a point that portrayal of women by media can influence sexual attitudes and beliefs. As we all know that Advertising has a very strong power of persuading and manipulating. Bretl and Canto(1988) estimated and found out that a average american is exposed to over 37,000 advertisements each year. Certain Role Portrayals have been played by women in advertisements but according to this article very little attention has been given to the portrayal of sexuality of women in advertisements. So basically the purpose of this article and research is to see the effects of advertisements when women are presented in sexually provocative or a non-traditional manner. According to the article the stereotypic portrayal has an impact on attitudes of women as they become more conscious and have social anxiety meaning they start to believe that they have to be like the stereotypic women displayed i n advertisements as the others might start judging them if they act differently. Secondly their desire and motivation to achieve anything becomes very low and their interest in politics participation decreases and this all because of the impact of stereotypic portrayed of women in advertisements.. For the experiment 90 participants were taken out of which 45 were males and the other 45 were females and they were all undergraduate students from university of Toronto. There were 2 studies on which participants had to participate. First study was to make own judgments about some advertisements and a second study in which they had to assist with the normalization of a questionnaire being made by a researcher. The results showed that control advertisements were rated as more appealing than the sex objects and progressive advertisements. The research further concludes by saying that although in some places women are also being depicted in wide range of social and occupational roles but th ere has been a vast increase in the sexually exploitive use of women in advertisements. So the dependent variable in this article will be sexual attitudes and beliefs whereas the independent variable will be portrayal of women and advertising. A Longitudinal View of Womens Role Portrayal In Television Advertising The Article has been written by Marjorie Caballero and Paul J. Solomon in 1984. In this article by Adrian Furnham and Nadine Bitar, growing awareness of womens role in society has been told meaning that women are now participating more in the labor force and that is changing the image of women and now people are again evaluating womens contribution in a society. This role of women also has had many criticisms and some revolve around the stereotypical sex-role portrayal of women in the mass media. Here, the hypothesis of this article would be that the marketers and society have begun to accept the changing role of women. The article also tells that according to the findings Women were portrayed more in decorative roles and in the home compared to men. And even if they were shown doing work in advertisements, the jobs that they had in the advertisements were traditional female Occupations and there was rarely a time when women were portrayed as professionals or authorities. The image we assume of a women by watching advertisements are of a young beautiful girl found in her home or kitchen and whenever she has any problems she is looking for some male influence to solve her problems. She is a sex-object and her job is take care of the male. For the research a quantitative methodology was followed, total of 2095 and 1872 commercials were reviewed and analyzed in 1977 and 1980 respectively. The Commercials were analyzed according to the following variable which was channel, time of day, ad distribution, characters women appear with, age, product category, role played by women and voice over. According to report trends by Schneider and Schneider showed that the changing roles being shown in the advertisements are being accepted by the society. So the dependent variable in this article will be belief and the independent variable will be awareness. The Impact of Women in Advertisements on Attitudes Towards Women This article is written by Natalie J. MacKay and Katherine Covell in 1997. In this Article, a link is trying to be shown between images of women in advertisements and sexual attitudes. The continuous showing of these kind of advertisements undermine womens striving for equality. Media has played a huge part in our culture. According to the article the people really do have perception that gender role and traits of men and women shown in advertisements is how they actually live in real world where men are shown as the one with the authority and the ones dominating on women whereas women are shown as the ones who only worry about their body image and are sex objects and are answerable to the men. According to the hypothesis that is males are most likely to be affected by advertisement type toward sexual aggression whereas females are not received partial support. According to Livingstone and Green all this portrayal advertisement is creating negative attitudes. The article further says that over the past 5 decades the portrayals in advertisement has changed. Earlier women were shown as objects of sexual gratification, house makers, spouses and mothers. But now as women have started to enter the workforce, the image of women have begun to transform. Now women have started becoming the main characters in advertisements where they are portrayed as working in market place and in progressive occupations and are shown as equal to their male counterparts. The positive change has changed the image of women of only being sex objects. But the opposing portrayals of women have started to confuse people about womens role in society because people still believed in the stereotyped women that were shown in previous advertisements. For Methodology 46 female and 46 middle class undergraduate students were selected from rural University College. Only Print Ad vertisement had been used. Before starting the study 150 colored advertisements from different magazines were rated by a senior psychology class. Rating was based on general appeal and the extent to which they met the criteria of exemplifying sex image. Out of the 150 advertisements there were 35 advertisements which were rated consistently as appealing and exemplifying sex image. These 35 advertisements were then shown to different undergraduate psychology class who did not take part in the main study. After there rating the final 20 advertisements were selected in which there was one set of 10 sex image and one set of 10 progressive image. After this the study took place and each participant was tested individually. They had to rate the picture on scale of 5 on the basis of use of color, graphical design, amount of product information presented, spatial layout and most importantly general appeal rating. The results Showed that Progressive Advertisements were rated more appealing t han the sex image advertisements. So we can conclude by saying that advertisements in which women have been shown in productive roles and are not shown as the typical stereotypical labels attached to them have been given unfavorable ratings. Perhaps it is because women are now being considered less feminine as they were shown earlier. So the dependent variable in this article will be attitudes and the independent variable will be portrayal advertisement. The Portrayal of Womens Images in Magazine Advertisements: Goffmans Gender Analysis Revisited This Article has been written by Mee-Eun Kang in 1997. The purpose of this article was to show the changes in the image of women in magazine advertisements since Goffmans 1979 study. According to the findings indicated in the article the images of women seen in 1991 advertisements is pretty much the same compared to the images found in 1979 advertisements. But however change was found in the stereotypical portrayal of women. The magazine of 1991 showed more body display than those from 1979. The hypothesis of this study is as follows: The print advertisements in 1991 samples will show less frequent gender displays in terms of function ranking, ritualization of subordination, relative size, feminine touch, licensed withdrawal, body display, and independence (self-assertiveness) than those of 1979. According to gender behavior told by Goffman relationship, playing the instructing role and main telephonic conversations are no longer shown in modern magazine advertisements. Moreover the article says that now the advertisements target more specific audiences. Other than that the Print Advertisement has almost remained the same but the huge change has been seen in the TV Advertisements and that is due to cultural alterations. The purpose of TV advertisements is to maximize demand of a product and using women in a sexist tone in advertisements has had more collective implications and according of Goffman if the media play their part correctly the people watching these advertisements are forced to believe that the way in which women are depicted in advertisements is indeed the way women live in reality. For methodology magazine advertisement was the unit of analysis. Print Advertisements were taken from 1979 and 1991 womens popular magazines. A Total of 504 magazine advertisements we re selected for this study in which 252 were from 1979 magazine and the other 252 were from 1991 magazine. The forms of gender display that were measured while comparing these advertisements were Feminine Touch, Relative Size, Function Ranking, Body Display, Self Assertiveness, Ritualization of Subordination and Licensed Withdrawal. The results showed that the there was not much change in the extent of sexism in magazines and the hypothesis is unsupported. Therefore it is concluded by saying that the portrayal of women in advertisements has not changed much since 1979. Still the same stereotyped images of women are being shown in magazine. So the dependent variable in this article will be perception of audiences and the independent variable will be advertisement and cultural alteration. The Elastic Body Image: The Effect of Television Advertising and Programming on Body Image This Article has been written by Myers, P.N., Biocca in 1992. In this article it has been told that the stereotypes of women shown in advertisements where women are being portrayed as being the sex object and the ones with perfect body has started creating so many problems for the young generations girls. The girls have actually been so demotivated and disturbed by the stereotypes that they have started having eating disorders which has started to bring so many health issues for them. The hypothesis statement in this article is whether the ideal body shown in advertisements and print advertisements play a key role in making women believe that body size is not perfect?. Therefore the Independent Variable in this article will be Ideal Body Programming and Body Commercials which affect the females thinking towards their body images and mood. According to Downs and Harrison work, viewers receive 5260 attractiveness messages per year out of which 1850 messages deal directly with beauty. Two researches with sample size of 1000 and 446 were conducted towards the perceived body image. All the participants were mid or late teens. The results showed that body images were misperceived. The last part of experimentation will be based on elastic body image referring to rickety self image. For that image following Hypothesis has been formed H1: Conflict will take place between internalized body ideal body and objective body shape because of exposure to body image advertising and programming. The conflict will lead to depression, self loathing, rejection and anxiety. For this a study took place where 76 college students in the age range of 15 to 24 took part to test the hypothesis. 120 advertisements were selected out of which 60 were BIC and the other 60 were NIC. The advertisement had to be rated for body image oriented ones and neutral image oriented ones. The advertisement which had highest scores in both category were selected and then video was made including the highest scoring commercials of both categorys and were watched by the subjects. The hypothesis was true to some amount because BIC did have a distorting effect but in way contradictory to the hypothesis. The mood change before and after the tapes were played were measured by The Multiple Affect Adjective Check List (MAACL). Body image distortion was measured through a Body Image Detection Device (BIDD) was used to measure Body image distortion. The statistics were then used by the researchers to conclude the result on mood and body image through ANOVA and ANCOVA. Waltz,T. (November 24, 2004). The Effects of Magazines on the Self-Esteem and Portrayal of Stereotypes in Teenagers The Article has been written by Waltz T. on November 24, 2004. The article basically says that the Stereotypes shown in magazine and the print advertisements shown have had a huge impact on the self confidence and representation of girls in the real world as they feel less of themselves now and have been demoralized and demotivated after seeing such Print advertisements. The independent variable will be the stereotypes depicted in the advertisements whereas the dependent variable will be self esteem and self image. The Survey conducted at Mason High School in November 2004 was done to see if Magazines had any positive or negative effect on both genders and whether they believed that the gender portrayed in magazine were realistic or not and also to see if according to them the stereotypes were being enforced in magazine. The Female survey showed that the most read magazine among girls ranging in age from 15 to 18 years was Seventeen with 50%, 47% read Cosmopolitan, 21% read YM and 21 % read other magazines. 41% of the survey takers took the tips that are offered in the magazine and 35% of the women believed to have a positive change in their lives. Only 9% felt that Seventeen, Cosmopolitan, YM and other magazines portrayed gender correctly whereas 79% felt stereotypes were being enforced by the variety of magazines. The Male surveys also had some interesting results. Age range was between 15 to 18. It was found out 31% of men that were surveyed read teenager magazines with maxim read by most at 23%, 4% read Esquire, 0% read Razor and 12% other magazines. Shockingly 19% of the males admitted that they read girl magazines. Only 8% men used the tips offered in the magazine. 19% of men had a positive change. 12% felt that gender was portrayed realistically and 50% believed that stereotypes were enforced in magazines. The author concludes by saying that magazines are the main reason for stereotypes having negative effects on teenagers nowadays and and giving them wro ng version of the world and the people living in it. The article is related to the research as talks about the impact of print advertisements and how they have had effect on teenagers. Joellen W. Hawkins and Cynthia S. Aber(1993) Women in Advertisements in Medical Journals This Article has been written by Joellen W.Hawkins and Cynthia S. Aber in 1993. In this article it is written that according to studies conducted by Prather and Fidell there is more chance of women being in advertisements where they have to be pictured as needing psychoactive drugs, whereas there is more chance that men are depicted in advertisements for non-psychoactive drugs. Moreover the article says that all this is done because it is believed that women problems are related to emotional symptoms whereas men suffer problems, pressure and anxiety due to work pressure they get from their offices. The evidence of gender differences is also apparent in the wording of ads. Mens problems are told in advertisement in a clean and direct manner whereas womens problems are told in a humorous way because people assume that women really have no tension and pressures except to look good and maintain their body figures. A study was designed in order to see that what are the images of women as providers and consumers of health care that are portrayed in picture advertisements in medical journals and specially to see if there was any difference in the images of portraying men and women in picture advertisements. In Methodology 209 picture advertisements were taken from general and clinical medical journals and all pictures which portrayed women as either providers or consumer were included in the selected picture advertisements. Out of the 209 advertisements 76 were found to appear more than once, 43 appeared twice, 12 three times, 7 four times, 13 between 5 to 10 times and one ad appeared 17 times. The advertisements shown are very gender stereotyped showing women as disorientated and needing medication for sleep or depression, women as passive and men as active, men as authority figures and women as their patients, men as workers and women as sex objects or virgin. The article is concluded by saying that the number of labor force of women working has increased over the p ast two decades but a examination of medical advertisements made it clear that women are still not being shown the way they really are in reality. In this article the independent variable is image of women as psychoactive drugs and the dependent variable is the problems it creates among women. The article is related to the research as it tells the effects of advertisement on people according to the gender.

Human Values and Ethics - What Science Cannot Discover, Mankind Cannot Know :: Philosophy Essays

Human Valuse and Ethics - What Science Cannot Discover, Mankind Cannot Know Those who maintain the insufficiency of science, as we have seen in the last two chapters, appeal to the fact that science has nothing to say about "values." This I admit; but when it is inferred that ethics contains truths which cannot be proved or disproved by science, I disagree. The matter is one on which it is not altogether easy to think clearly, and my own views on it are quite different from what they were thirty years ago. But it is necessary to be clear about it if we are to appraise such arguments as those in support of Cosmic Purpose. As there is no consensus of opinion about ethics, it must be understood that what follows is my personal belief, not the dictum of science. The study of ethics, traditionally, consists of two parts, one concerned with moral rules, the other with what is good on its own account. Rules of conduct, many of which have a ritual origin, play a great part in the lives of savages and primitive peoples. It is forbidden to eat out of the chief's dish, or to seethe the kid in its mother's milk; it is commanded to offer sacrifices to the gods, which, at a certain stage of development, are thought most acceptable if they are human beings. Other moral rules, such as the prohibition of murder and theft, have a more obvious social utility, and survive the decay of the primitive theological systems with which they were originally associated. But as men grow more reflective there is a tendency to lay less stress on rules and more on states of mind. This comes from two sources - philosophy and mystical religion. We are all familiar with passages in the prophets and the gospels, in which purity of heart is set above meticulous observance of the Law; and St. Paul's famous praise of charity, or love, teaches the same principle. The same thing will be found in all great mystics, Christian and non-Christian: what they values is a state of mind, out of which, as they hold, right conduct must ensue; rules seem to them external, and insufficiently adaptable to circumstances. One of the ways in which the need of appealing to external rules of conduct has been avoided has been the belief in "conscience," which has been especially important in Protestant ethics.

Early European Exploration Essay -- European History

Early European Exploration European explorers first landed on the shores of what would later become North America more than 500 years ago. Not long after the first explorers had entered the "New World" they found out that they were not alone on this new frontier. Their neighbors in this new land were the Native Americans who had been there for centuries, virtually unaware of life outside the continent. Thus began an inconsistent and often times unstable relationship between the European settlers and the North American Indians. Two nations who had particularly interesting relationships with the Native Americans were the British and the French, both of whom took different approaches to their relations with the Indians economically as well as culturally. Neither nation had complete trust for the Indians, nor did the Indians ever completely trust the men who arrived on "floating islands with many tall trees". Nonetheless, they did interact with one another in their daily lives. Both economically and culturally the French and British went about their interactions with the Native Americans differently. Through first hand writings and documents as well as observations by historians, it is evident that the British and French interacted with the Indians of North America in different ways. In the early beginnings of exploration, both the British and French had relatively good relationships with the Indians because of the economic success that came with simple cooperation. The fur trade with the Native Americans quickly proved successful because of the outrageously high prices it could be sold for in Europe. Years later the economic goals shifted and so did relations with the Native Americans. The French, headed by Samuel de Champlain, ... ...ntually evolved, as the colonies grew, into the highly-conflicted relationships between the two groups in later decades and centuries. Both the nations of France and Britain invested countless amounts of time, money and men into the colonization of the new world. And because of this, both France and Britain did receive the benefits that North America had to offer. In both cases, had the American Indians simply not been there when the first explorers arrived, the history of this continent, and this nation would have been drastically different. The ways the British and the French went about living on the same lands as the Native Americans were so different that they can, in some ways, be considered opposite. Even so they both proved successful in settling land and forming the beginnings of what later would become the present-day nations of Canada and the United States.

Shanghai Baby

Shanghai Baby is the first novel written by Chinese writer Wei Hui, a feminist and a resident of Shanghai who was 26 years old at the time when the book was published. Perhaps the enormous similarity between of the age, gender and city of residence of the writer to those of the lead female character is the reason for the popular belief that the book is an autobiography instead of what it really is, i. e. a work of fiction. The novel was first released in China in 1999 and went on to be in the top selling 5 novels of the year in Shanghai.Much to the chagrin of the liberated Western media, the top selling book was deemed pornographic in nature by Beijing Press and Publication and was banned all over China. The novel is a first person narrative about a twenty five year old woman, who lives in Shanghai, China, works as a waitress in a cafe to earn money, aspires to write a novel and become a writer and dreams about becoming rich and famous. Her real name is Nikki, but she is known among her friends as Coco, after her idol Coco Chanel.While working at the cafe, Coco meets Tian Tian, an artist, in addition to being a hedonist, a nihilist as well as being impotent. They fall into an intimate relationship and Coco although disappointed by his impotency, believes she can stay happy with the love of her life, until she meets Mark, a German business man who is everything that Tian Tian is not. Tian Tian is a sad pleasure seeker, haunted by a painful past, unnerved by a sinister future and is also in love with Coco. Mark is a rich, attractive male who can give Coco all that which she finds lacking in Tian Tian and more.Coco is a self indulgent, narcissistic, often annoying woman who is unable to resist the lure of pure sexual lust in the face of true love for a less than capable lover and becomes sexually involved with Mark. At this point it seems that the book predictably becomes an expression of the author’s erotic fantasies as she explains in detail Coco’s relationship with Mark. The entire tale is spun against the backdrop of the cosmopolitan city of Shanghai, in the midst of drugs, alcohol, nightclubs and bars.From one perspective, the book is a woman’s struggle between love and sexual pleasure. It is also, as proclaimed by many, an analysis of the darker side of the night life of Shanghai. However, most importantly, the book should be noted for its deep rooted symbolism: Tian Tian is the representation of typical Chinese men who are famous for their sexual incompetence and Mark is that of the stereotyped Caucasian male, sex starved and hungry for oriental females.All this is ironically wrapped in the materiality of brand names and wealth as characters are defined more in terms of where they live, what they wear and how much they own. Superficial at first glance, but in fact dripping with literary symbolism, the book reflects the author’s lack of confidence in the male species of human beings, whether native or foreig n as both men in Coco’s life become unavailable leaving her shattered by the end of the story. Works Cited Sheng, John. Afterthoughts on the Banning of â€Å"Shanghai Baby†.Retrieved on January 22, 2007 from: http://www. oycf. org/Perspectives/8_103100/afterthoughts_on_the_banning_of. htm Cole, S. (2001). A Non-Review With Current Events Tossed In. Retrieved on January 22, 2007 from: http://www. freewilliamsburg. com/november_2001/books. html Chloe E. , Slidell, LA. Book Review. Retrieved on January 22, 2007 from: http://teenink. com/Past/2003/October/17075. html CathCart, M. (2001). Shanghai Baby. Retrieved on January 22, 2007 from: http://www. abc. net. au/rn/arts/atoday/stories/s337449. htm

The Negative Effects of a Cellphone

When the first cellular phone was invented, its uses only went as far as a phone call. As time and technology advanced, so did the development of the cell phone. A basic phone today can make calls, take photos and videos and even function as a GPS. But with the advantages comes the disadvantages. The increased use of cell phones has had a negative influence on society. For example, the use of cellphones has limited socializing, the demand and costs have affected consumers negatively and they have also been a common factor in many car accidents, including fatalities. The dependency of cellphones has had a negative social effect.The cell phone is probably one of the most commonly owned devices in America. â€Å"75% of all American teens ages 12-17 own a cell phone, and 66% use their phones to send or receive text messages. † (Madden and Lenhart 2) The cell phone has become the primary source of communication for many people. The simplicity of typing a message, or making a phone call rather than relaying that message in person has resulted in a disconnect from society for many people. â€Å"Reliance on a relatively quick and cheap form of interaction means that we might dispense with the longer and more ponderous process of a personal visit. (Ling 185). So, although you may communicate more often through cellphones, the physical part of a relationship is neglected. As a result of depending on cellphones as a main source of communication one may, in a sense, forfeit a substantial portion of a much needed social life. Moreover, socializing is an acquired ability, an ability that is significant in the growth and maturation of children and teens. The over use of cellphones can impede one from fully exercising these abilities. A large number of people own and use cellphones regularly. So much so that it has become a societal norm.Almost every place one may go cell phones are practically expected of them. For example, at some doctors’ offices they offer a free texting service to remind a patient of any appointment that he or she may have. Many clothing and grocery stores offer coupons and sales alerts that can be sent directly to a mobile device. But the problem comes when not everyone can afford to keep up with what society has labeled to be â€Å"the norm. † There are many people who cannot afford to buy a phone let alone afford a phone bill every month. The cost for cellular service is xpensive and always increasing. According to a survey, â€Å"Of the 1,400 readers who responded, 80 noted their bill was between $190 and $210. On average, that group had 3. 1 phones, meaning the cost is about $65 per phone. People with bills near $250 paid $67 per phone† (Sullivan). As a result, a number of people reported that they felt the need budget and cut back in order to afford a phone bill. Unfortunately, society essentially requires people to have a cell phone, even with cut backs and budgeting, having a cell phone is not fi nancially realistic for everyone.The use of cellphones has shown to be very dangerous to drivers and their passengers. This is mainly due to the increase in texting and driving as well as the amount of phone calls made while behind the wheel. According to Madden and Lenhart, 52% of cell phone owning teens ages 16-17 say they have talked on a cell phone while driving. That translates into 43% of all American teens ages 16-17 (2). With such a high percentage of distracted drivers, the likelihood of accidents, with and without fatalities has also increased. In 2008 alone, there were 5,870 fatalities and an estimated 515,000 people were injured in police reported crashes in which at least one form of driver distraction was reported† (Madden and Lenhart 3). Every time a driver decides to use a cell phone while operating a vehicle, they are not only putting their lives in danger, but also the lives of their passengers, pedestrians, and other drivers. Since the invention of the cell phone, its uses and capabilities have become a part of an everyday American life, an everyday life which cell phones has impacted society negatively.With an increased dependency on the cell phone, society and its growth have experienced major setbacks. Socialization, personal financials, and automotive drivers have all been effected in negative ways. This is mainly because the cell phone has evolved and is now made to do nearly anything one may think of. So although the cellphone was intended to help with one’s everyday life, what seems like a good idea at first may not affect society positively in the long run.