Christmas Celebration Essay

As Christmas arrives, instead of just opening presents, my family celebrates it by throwing a fun and exciting party. The events we plan are way to thrilling than any ordinary Christmas celebration because it’s our family’s tradition. For example, each year we make American style food and Vietnamese food, open presents under the Christmas tree, eat at the dining table, and sing! Most of my family members could not control their excitement and have broken one of the family’s traditions of opening presents by age. While we do celebrate Christmas like any other family does, we tend to celebrate it differently each year to change it up. Opening presents under the Christmas tree first, helps organize everything from causing chaos. Most of the time it’s our last event because it’s worth the wait, but most of us can’t help and take a peek at ours first. My family open presents uniquely different than other families because we wait for our turns. Our family has a tradition of opening of opening presents from youngest to oldest. We have been following this tradition for as long as I can remember. While, waiting, it’s hard for me to watch because I get extremely impatient, I’m always at the couch watching TV. Next, we heard over to the mall Christmas tree and take a Chinese red envelope filled with money. The envelope contains bills that vary from $1,$5,$10,$20 and $50. This is the most exciting part after opening presents because who wouldn’t want to test out their luck? I have the worst luck when it comes to picking an envelope off the tree. Every year, I always get $1 bills or $5 bills! This changed last year, when I hit the jackpot and won $50! Overall everyone not only receive presents, but goes home with money in their pockets. After opening presents and selecting our red envelopes off the tree, we take family pictures. The first picture is always serious because it has to be perfect. My cousin Michael, and I try our best to hold in our laugher, but we never successfully do. If the first shot isn’t perfect or if we joke around, then we all have to stand there until a perfect picture has been taken. After that we change into our Christmas sweaters and take silly photos. Nobody ever wants to see just serious Christmas photos in the family scrapbook! We take silly pictures to make it a fun and funny experience. Next we head over to the dining table to eat as much food as our hearts desire! Last, we brace ourselves again, for the serious karaoke competition! This is my favorite part of the day because it’s always funny to watch people mess up the lyrics. Each year, the competition gets more and more competitive; people take it way too seriously! My aunt thinks she is better than everyone else, but to our ears, that isn’t true. My aunts and uncles always fight over to see whose turn it is to go next because they love to have fun and show off their skills. When it’s my turn to sing, I remain calm and try my best to get a good score. Singing in chorus in high school for two years really pays off! Anyway, we all compare our scores at the end of the competition to see who wins a gift card to any store of their choice. The thing is, not everyone goes home empty – handed. Everyone wins a gift card too, but those don’t hold as much money as the grand prize. My family’s Christmas celebrations are the best! It’s great to see everyone having fun for once, rather than arguing about problems! I love the aura that everyone gives off with the smiles and laughter in the atmosphere! It’s the only time of the year where everyone can relax without causing any uproar. Overall, my Christmas celebrations are fun moments that I look forward to each year.

Jane Eyre: Feminist Hero

Jane Eyre: Feminist Hero Submissive, domestic, good-tempered, quiet, agreeable and mild; these are all words that could be used to describe the ideal Victorian woman. Sexism and discrimination put up roadblocks and didn’t allow much room for educational growth for women. Education and job opportunities were limited and left most women with marriage, particularly to a wealthy man, as their best option for security. Jane Eyre broke the mold of the common Victorian woman; she was determined, stubborn, and would not be swayed from doing what she believed to be right and just. She worked her way up from orphan, to governess, to wife of a wealthy man – all without compromising her integrity, her moral standards or her pride. In a time where women had little to no say over how they lived their lives, Jane was doing just the opposite and taking control over her own destiny. It all begun when Jane left Gateshead as a young girl. She escaped her cruel aunt and cousins and ventured out on her own, leaving a semi-comfortable living situation and the familiar in pursuit of bettering herself with an education. As a result of Jane receiving an education, she was able to further her independence by taking a job as a governess at Thornfield. Though the profession of governess was considered low class and seen as little more than a servant, Jane took the opportunity. Again, Jane left the comfort of familiarity and moved on to do what she believed best. As a governess, Jane was able to make her own wages and, though she was living in someone else’s home and worked for Mr. Rochester, she wasn’t taking charity from anyone; she was working for her keep (Bronte 140). Jane was a very passionate person and, despite the social norm being that women held their tongues in front of men, Jane spoke her opinions boldly, especially to Mr. Rochester. Jane didn’t feel that stifling her voice was fair, and she refused to do it. Jane explained her views on the women of the day in the following passage: Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as en would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex (Bronte 130). When Mr. Rochester told Jane that he was going to be marrying Miss Ingram, Jane’s true feelings for Rochester came to the surface and she insisted on leaving Thornfield. ‘Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you? Do you think I am an automation? -a machine without feelings? and can you bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips and my drop of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soul and heartless? You think wrong! – I have as much soul as you, – and full as much heart †¦ I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh; — it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal, — as we are’ (Bronte 296)! Jane couldn’t stay at Thornfield as anything other than his significant other. She couldn’t stand the idea of watching him with someone other than her. On the day of Rochester and Jane’s wedding, the truth about Rochester’s marital status was discovered and after learning about Bertha, Jane left Thornfield and â€Å"fled from temptation† (Bronte 372). If she had stayed at Thornfield with Rochester, she would have become his mistress, and despite loving Rochester with all of her heart and wanting to be with him, she ran, knowing that being his mistress would be morally wrong. Jane couldn’t be Rochester’s mistress, even though most women would have accepted the opportunity to be with Mr. Rochester, even if only as his mistress, because it meant security, wealth, comfort, and love. Rochester put Jane’s strength and determination to the test when he begged her to stay (Bronte 371). As much as he pleaded with her, she couldn’t and wouldn’t lower herself to living a life of sin, so instead, she bravely and independently ventured out on her own with no money, no job, and no plan. Jane was constantly fighting to overcome the obstacles that stood in her way: a repressive family, a low social class standing, no wealth, and sexism. She overcame Mr. Brocklehurst’s oppression, refused St. John’s proposal, knowing that it was wrong to marry him, and only married Mr. Rochester after she received her uncle’s inheritance. As a result of inheriting the money, Jane became Rochester’s financial and social equal. Mr. Rochester was also blind at the time of their marriage, which meant that the typical roles had been reversed; the male was dependent on the female, rather than the female being dependent on the male. Rochester looked to Jane to be his eyes and to take care of him (Bronte 515). Jane didn’t do what was easy; she did what was right, moral, and what she knew to be best not only for her, but for everyone. Despite the ways of the era and the way that women were perceived, Jane wanted to be independent and strong. She spoke her mind and gave her opinion despite most people not wanting to hear it. Jane Eyre has brought inspiration to many women throughout history with her strength and independence and will continue to do so for many generations to come.

Sociological research methods questionnaires Essays

Sociological research methods questionnaires Essays Sociological research methods questionnaires Paper Sociological research methods questionnaires Paper Using questionnaires is favoured by positivists as they produce results that can be easily generalised, are highly reliable and largely representable of the studied subjects. This also means that interpretivists dislike this method as the results are not personal and have very little depth to them. There are strengths and weaknesses to both arguments. An advantage of questionnaires is that they are cheap and fast to produce, this means that they can be produced on mass to produce more reliable results. Answers in questionnaires are easily comparable with standardised and close ended questions and could produce representative, qualitative data that is also easily replicable. This means that sociologists are able to make links and comparisons in society in different areas and during different time periods. If a large number of questionnaires are sent out they should produce representative results with a better chance of being truly accurate. Connor and Dewson send out nearly 4000 surveys to 14 higher education institutes around the country which resulted in a large sample size. This method is also favoured more for purposed of educational attitudes than others such as participant observations, which is used to study small groups and produce valid qualitative data. A researcher’s hypothesis should be proven or proven wrong with the results of the questionnaire but this may lead the researcher to produce leading questions, the parent, in this instance, may then try to please or attempt to second guess the researchers aims, leading to further invalid results. Statements can then be produced from the questionnaires which will either prove or disprove the hypothesis, and a ‘cause-and-effect’ relationship can be gathered from relevant information and variables. Questionnaires also raise very few ethical problems even though they ask sensitive and intrusive questions as people are generally under no pressure to answer them and can skip questions if they choose to. This method produces unbiased results making them objective. Practical problems include a low response rate as not all those that the survey is sent to will respond and end it back as they may think it is pointless, however the response rate is likely to be higher when considering questionnaires linked to education as most parents will assume that filling in the forms will benefit their child, as stated in item A, especially if the forms are from the school. However, this information is confidential, making it harder for a sociologist to acquire a reasonable and accurate sampling frame. Also, parents may lie or answer incorrectly due to ‘right answerism’ when completing the questionnaire as they don’t want to be seen to be bad parents. It would be easier for them to lie by postal questionnaire, however if the questionnaire was done face to face their body language could be analysed. The response rate may also be raised if there is an incentive offered such as a prize or money. Questionnaires are also quite inflexible as if closed questions are used they are set for all potential respondents. This means that if they do not understand the question or wish to add more information they will be unable to do so. In other methods such as unstructured interviews any area can be explored in-depth as it is much more flexible, the weakness to this method is that irrelevant issues which take up time. Questionnaires also only give a small snap shop of the whole picture and so may not consider outside factors that affect a pupil such as their peer group, ethnicity or class. Therefore, this may not represent all parents’ attitudes to their children’s schooling as a whole as the picture is not totally valid. Sociologists that take an interpretivist approach such as Aaron Cicourel (1968) argue that questionnaires are too detached and so lack validity. They would argue that only methods that allow the researcher to get close to the subjects they are studying should be used so that the researcher can relate and understand the answers more clearly. Without this contact it can be argued that may be misunderstanding that cannot be clarified as there is no way of knowing if the researcher and respondent are interpreting the questions in the same way. In conclusion, questionnaires are a good way to get quick results at a low cost and can produce reliable, quantitative results if the right questions are asked. However, other methods should also be used as well as questionnaires to get a clearer and more precise picture of how parents’ attitudes are towards their child’s education.

Serial Murder essays

Serial Murder essays On the night of January 23rd, 1978, a 21 year-old woman was found murdered. The killer, in no way connected to the victim, had torn all clothes from the woman's body and had ripped open her lower abdomen. A huge knife wound gaped from breast to navel , some inner organs had been cut out. Several body parts were missing. There were some stab wounds in the left breast. The killer had put animal excrement into the victim's mouth. To all appearances he had caught blood in a yogurt tub and drunk it (uni- saarland.de/fak5/ezw/abteil/motiv/paper/murder_engl.htm) Murder, the uglier side of our society, never seems to want to go away. Sometimes the crime is almost automatic: Rejected love, laid off employees, revenge, drugs, and sheer hatred. The suspect is apprehended, the motives are identified, and the case is shelved away amongst the myriads of others almost as quickly as it was discovered. Alas, what do you do when paths are blocked off, roads are closed down, and common sense seems to have taken a break? What do you do when murder doesnt make sense? What becomes of the preceding case? One of the increasingly popular and rapidly growing fields of study in the general realm of analysis is criminology; the study of crimes, criminals, and their behaviors. Although criminology as a whole, is too vast an area to try and understand in the limited time that we have, the study of serial killers, as branch of this field, is a concentrated area of focus. During the course of time, there have been various theories as to explain the real causes, as well as solutions, to the unfortunate problem of serial murder. Killing at random, with no obvious purpose or motive, has in turn, become one of the deadliest cancers of any civilized society. As sort of a principle foundation of ideas, criminologists have determined several conclusions that they believe refers to all serial killers. The fi...

Most Important Symbols in The Great Gatsby, Analyzed

Most Important Symbols in The Great Gatsby, Analyzed SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Have you ever come across an object or an image in a book that was really over-described? That the author seemed way too over-invested in? Most of the time, that feeling is a hint that what you've encountered is a symbol! The Great Gatsby features many objects and images that pop up exactly like this. But how do you interpret Great Gatsby symbols once you've found them? And how can you find symbols that don't have as much signposting around them? In this article, I'll take you through an explanation of what symbols are, how to locate them, and how to write about them. I'll also point you to in-depth articles about each of the most important symbols in The Great Gatsby. Roadmap to This Article What are symbols and why do authors use them? How do you find symbols in a work of fiction? Tips and advice for writing essays about symbols Links to our detailed, in-depth discussions about the key symbols in The Great Gatsby Quick Note on Our Citations Our citation format in this guide is (chapter.paragraph). We're using this system since there are many editions of Gatsby, so using page numbers would only work for students with our copy of the book. To find a quotation we cite via chapter and paragraph in your book, you can either eyeball it (Paragraph 1-50: beginning of chapter; 50-100: middle of chapter; 100-on: end of chapter), or use the search function if you're using an online or eReader version of the text. What Is a Symbol? Think about your own life. You probably save mementos from travel, or meaningful events, because they represent the experience or your connection a person rather than simply because they are airplane tickets or dried flowers. Just like these mementos are symbols of your feelings, memories, or hopes, so a symbol in a work of literature is something concrete that stands for an abstract idea. In other words, it's when an object, a character, or a place doesn't just represent that type of object, but also evokes a feeling or a concept. This means that symbols have several layers of meaning, most of which are often hidden at first. What you are doing when you interpret a symbol is going above and beyond the object's literal definition to see a deeper, less obvious meaning. Remember, symbols do not always have the same meaning or interpretation, so a particular symbol's significance varies depending on context between different works, or even within the same work. Symbols vs. Motifs A symbol isn't the same thing as a motif. A symbol occurs once or a few times, but a motif runs through the whole work. A symbol tends to be something concrete that represents or stands for an abstract idea or concept, but a motif's meaning typically comes from the different ways and situations in which it recurs. For example, in The Great Gatsby, one important symbol is the green light on Daisy's dock, which is a concrete object that also represents the abstract concepts of yearning and the American Dream. Those same themes are also connected to one of the novel's many motifs- Gatsby's verbal tic of calling everyone "old sport." This phrase isn't a symbol, but its oddness point to the not-quite-successful way Gatsby is trying to act like the social elite. That being said, you could always make the case that a particularly resonant instance of a motif is in itself a symbol of some idea! In literary analysis, to the maker of the best argument go the spoils. Symbols vs. Themes A symbol isn't the same thing as a theme. Symbols are objects that carry a literal and one or several figurative meanings, while themes are central ideas that can usually be summed up in a word or a phrase. Symbols help explain themes, demonstrate varying versions of a theme, or build emotional richness into the way a theme works in the book you're reading. For example, one theme in The Great Gatsby is "morality and ethics." But we can't know what the novel wants us to think about morality or ethics until we notice that the only symbolic representation of a higher moral power in the book is the inanimate billboard of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg. This symbol represents a lack of moral oversight in the world of the novel. This crown: a symbol of monarchy? Of imperial oppression? Of unbearable ostentatiousness? Depends on the context. Why Do Authors Use Symbols? At its core, a symbol is a literary device that enhances fiction by building richness and adding color, depth, and realism. Rather than having the author have to explain everything in a heavy-handed way, symbols allow readers to discover connections between characters, bits of plot, and different settings on their own. Authors also use symbolism to tie certain things that may initially seem unimportant to overarching themes, or to connect disparate objects or places to unify a work- all without having to be didactic or moralizing. For example, in The Great Gatsby, the symbol of the valley of ashes connects West and East Egg to the industrial poverty that the rich Long Islanders would rather simply ignore. Finally, symbols create a more active and engaging reading experience for you! Hunting for symbols and interpreting their meaning makes you think, and it also makes you have a much more visceral, emotional reaction to the abstract ideas central to the book. In the case of The Great Gatsby, watching Gatsby reach in vain for the green light makes us feel his yearning much more than if the author had simply written, "Gatsby wanted to reunite with Daisy." How Do You Find Symbols? Mostly likely, your assignment will pick out specific symbols for you to analyze. However, often teachers ask you to find and explore a symbol of your own choosing. So how do you know what's just a thing and what is imbued with a deeper meaning? Symbols Are Everywhere First, you have to realize that almost anything can be a symbol. Place. Often a setting isn't simply a location where events happen. Sometimes it's also a shorthand, evocative way of representing a particular set of people or their ideas. For example, in The Great Gatsby, Myrtle's Manhattan apartment isn't simply a place for her to host parties, but it also stands for her ambition and aspiration to leave her working-class life behind. More globally, it stands for the vulgar approximation of the upper class that the East Egg crowd scorns and mocks. Object. This is probably the most common type of symbol- a thing that carries meaning over and above its inherent thing-ness. In this novel, almost every object described at any length can be seen a symbol. Think, for instance, of the ridiculously expensive pearl necklace Tom gives Daisy before their wedding. He means it to be symbolic of his love for her, but it is also clearly a symbol of the way he uses his wealth to control other people (something he will later do with Myrtle). More globally, it symbolizes the rich using their money to get their way. Action. Sometimes, a character's actions, gestures, ways of speaking, or behaviors are themselves symbolic, representing an idea about that character alone, or about a group of similar people. One of Gatsby's most telling gestures is the outstretched arm pose he does several times in the book (like at the end of Chapter 1 or in the beginning of Chapter 8). One of Gatsby's most defining characteristics is his striving drive to attain Daisy's love and a position in the upper class- basically, a life that's just out of reach. His habitual gesture of reaching for the ungraspable symbolizes this trait. Person. Infrequently, a character can also function as a symbol of a greater idea. This is literary device is hard to pull off, because making a person into a symbol tends to take away at least some of their individuality and personhood. This is exactly what happens in The Great Gatsby, where Daisy is at once herself (lover to Gatsby, cousin to Nick, wife to Tom, mother to Pammy), and also a symbol of the American Dream and its flaws. Is adjusting a cufflink: a symbol of impeccable taste? Prissy fussiness? Anxiety? Depends on who is doing it and why. Universally Meaningful Symbols Some symbols are culturally universal. That means that in almost every place, these objects will have layers of meaning built into them. So feel free to interpret these universally meaningful symbols in any work you come across! Here are some examples: Colors. Most civilizations imbue colors with meaning, although that meaning is by no means always the same either from one culture to another, or even within the same culture. For instance, think about the way we perceive the color red. It can sometimes represent a warning (red means stop), but at other times, it's a symbol of love and passion (red roses mean romance). In our case, The Great Gatsby places lots of significance on the color green, for example, which is associated both with hope and with sickness and death. Celestial Bodies. The moon, the sun, stars- these are all potential symbols. They don't play as prominent a role in The Great Gatsby as they do in some other books, but you can still find a lot of significance in the way the moon tends to illuminate the truth. It's particularly evident in Chapters 8 and 9, when the moon makes Gatsby look like a criminal to Nick after Myrtle's murder, and when Nick imagines East Egg as a creepy El Greco painting or as the lush shore Dutch sailors would have seen. Plants, Nature, Weather Events, or Bodies of Water. If it's naturally-occurring, and if it intersects with the characters in any way, chances are it can be read as a symbol of something. Weather, in particular, plays a key function in this novel, especially when in extreme situations, like when Gatsby and Daisy's reunion is almost ruined by a downpour, or when the tense confrontation in the Plaza Hotel is made even more excruciating by the unrelenting heat. In each case, the weather can be interpreted as a symbol for the characters' emotions. Body Parts. It's not surprising that humans find other humans' bodies to be of particular significance. Whenever a book pays a lot of attention to hands, eyes, lips, or any other part of the body, there are bound to be layers of meaning behind it. In this novel, bodies are very important symbols of how characters are perceived. Whether it's Myrtle's gruesomely graphic corpse which speaks to the many ways her body is mistreated, or Daisy's siren-like voice, which points to the way Gatsby sees her more as a mythically desirable prize than as a real live person, body parts are meaningful. Discrete and Original Symbols Many symbols aren't ones that have universal associations, but are instead more idiosyncratic and book-specific. Here are some tips for how to locate these less obvious Great Gatsby symbols. Lingering Description. Pay close attention to places or objects that are described at length, especially if the novel comes back to them multiple times, or if their description has a key element that slips its boundaries and starts being applied to other things. For example, in The Great Gatsby, the valley of ashes is a strange, dusty, gray place that is never referred to by its real place name (Queens), or some made-up town name (like West Egg and East Egg), but is instead given this Biblically-inflected nickname. Not only that, but the dust and ash that cover everything in this place are also said to coat the people that live there- so much so that even when George leaves his garage, he is still described as "ashen" (8.110). Incongruity. Anything that is either completely out of place in its surroundings, or is creepy, confusing, mysterious, or discomfiting in some way is probably a symbol. For example, the billboard with the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg clearly unnerves everyone who looks at it. And it's totally out of place: it's the only colorful object in the gray valley of ashes, and it's advertising something that is no longer being sold. Character Obsession. Anything that one of the main characters is fixated on is probably a symbol. In our case, Gatsby's unyielding focus on the green light at the end of Daisy's dock clearly marks this as no ordinary shore marker for night sailing. Why is that chair not like the others? What does symbolize by standing out? Tips and Advice for Writing About Symbols Most of your assignments will ask you to analyze a symbol and explore its significance in the novel. So how do you do this well? There are two different types of essay you can build. How to Write an Essay Built Around Close-Readings This kind of essay is a great way to show your engagement with the text. Because you'll stay so close to what is on the page, you'll be protected from making your essay too broad, generalized, and unsupported by evidence. How do you write this kind of essay? When you're planning your essay, look for each instance of the symbol you'll be discussing. One good way to do this is to use an online, searchable version of the text here (like this one or this one), and search for keywords associated with your symbol. Remember to first read the book all the way through to know what you're looking for, and to try several versions of your keyword when searching. When you're writing your essay: First, build out from the instances of the symbol you found. Discuss the symbol's meaning in each context, paying close attention to the author's word choice, sentence structure, and any literary devices like similes or metaphors. How does the symbol stay the same with each appearance? How does it change between appearances? What does this change or lack or change demonstrate? Second, link the symbol to its larger meaning within the novel through these choices the author made about the way the symbol is described. What theme or themes is this symbol is connected to? What does it represent for the characters associated with it? How can you tell? How to Write an Essay Built Around an Argument This type of essay is great if you're making a statement about why a symbol is the way that it is, or why it's being used to represent what it represents. You can use it to show your understanding of the book as a whole. How do you write this kind of essay? First, follow the same planning steps as the close-reading essay above. Then: Make an argument. It's not enough to just describe the symbol and explain its possible meanings. Instead, you have to make sure that you're making some kind of point about why/how the symbol works. How do you know if you're making an argument and not just saying the obvious? If you can imagine someone arguing the opposite of what you're saying, then you've got an argument on your hands. Work from the text out. You'll still need to do a certain amount of close reading to nail this essay, so start small by analyzing chunks of the text where the symbol pops up, and then broadening your points out to the rest of the book. This way, your argument will be strengthened by textual evidence rather than seeming to come out of nowhere Don't overthink it. For example, it's fine to argue that the green light on Daisy's dock stands for delusional optimism- but it definitely doesn't stand for environmental degradation. Watch out for stretching your symbol analysis too far from what the text is telling you. Do these paintbrushes symbolize creativity? Sure. A wealth of resources? Maybe. Industrialist waste? Probably not. Analyzing The Great Gatsby Symbols This novel is very rich, symbol-wise. For in-depth discussion of the most important object symbols, check out our articles on: The green light on Daisy's dock The valley of ashes The eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Some characters (primarily the women) are often treated as symbols as well. For more on how that works, read our guides to: Daisy Buchanan Myrtle Wilson The Bottom Line A symbol in a work of literature is something concrete that stands for an abstract idea. A symbol isn't the same thing as a motif, since a motif's meaning typically comes from the different ways and situations in which it recurs. A symbol isn't the same thing as a theme, which is a central idea that can usually be summed up in a word or a phrase. Authors use symbols to help explain themes, demonstrate varying versions of a theme, or build emotional richness into the way a theme works in the book you're reading. Almost anything can be a symbol: a place, an object, an action, or even a person. Some symbols are culturally universal, like colors, celestial bodies, plants and nature, or parts of the body. Many symbols are book-specific symbols. You can find them by paying attention to any objects that are described at length, are out of place in its surroundings, are creepy, confusing, mysterious, or discomfiting in some way, or are obsessed over by one or more characters. Most of your assignments will ask you to analyze a symbol and explore its significance in the novel. You can either write an essay built around close-readings, analyzing how the different ways a symbol is described in the novel connects it to a specific theme. Or you can write an essay built around an argument, where you prove a particular interpretation of a symbol in the book. What's Next? Learn how to write about the themes in The Great Gatsby that symbols are usually linked to. Explore the differences between symbols and motifs further in our overview of The Great Gatsby's motifs. Brush up on the context of these symbols with our summary of The Great Gatsby. Get help on other assignments by reading our guides on analyzing or comparing and contrasting characters and learning how to identify personification, imagery, tone words, and rhetorical devices. Need help building your vocabulary to analyze other works of literature? We teach you all the literary devices you must know, the literary elements that appear in every story and first/second/third person POV here. If you're analyzing poetry (or Shakespeare), you'll also want to check out our articles on iambic pentameter and assonance. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points? We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Project Management and Research Methods Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5250 words

Project Management and Research Methods - Essay Example The report in Part A would explain the marketing plan introduced by the new official for Telkom Kenya, which would help the company reverse its sales within a span of 2 years. It also throws light on the various strategies that can further help the company park more clients in future. Finally, at the end of Part A the report briefs a project plan summarizing the marketing campaign for the company. Part B explains the effectiveness of the market research. It also throws light on the reasons for decline of Telkom Kenya’s business and frame policies with the help of which the firm may expand in future. At the end before concluding with the recommendations, the report emphasises the various facets of the mobile phone industry. Contents Introduction 4 Part A: Marketing Campaign 5 One year Marketing plan of Telkom Kenya 5 Plan for the Marketing Campaign 5 SMART Objectives 6 Segmentation and Targeting 7 Marketing Strategies 8 Positioning 10 Further Improvements 11 12 Project Plan 14 Part 2: Market Research 15 Reasons for Decline of Telkom Kenya’s Business 15 Market Research Effectiveness 17 Alternative strategies for Future 19 Technological Solutions 19 Product Offerings 21 Mobile Phone Industry 23 Conclusions and Recommendations 23 Reference List 25 Bibliography 26 Introduction The report tries to throw light on the communication sector of Kenya, the largest economy in the African continent. The postal services in Kenya from 1948 to 1977 were provided by the organization of East African Posts and Telecommunications Corporation. However, the country launched its own monopolistic communication firm KPTC when the East African Posts and Telecommunications Corporation’s business was ceased. In 1990 the policies of the Kenyan government changed according to the new reforms made by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). One of such reforms required the separation of postal and telecommunication services in Kenya. KPTC was supposed to win over an IMF loa n opportunity if its business was privatized. However, IMF did not sanction the loan to KPTC because of the rising amount of corruption in the operations of the Kenyan government. Finally the board of directors were terminated from KPTC by the government in 1999, before IMF officials came over in the country. It was at this juncture that the monopoly privatized company of KPTC in Kenya broken up into three companies. Among these three organizations, Telkom Kenya was the company involving in providing telecommunication services. Postal services were delivered by Postal Corporation of Kenya and Communications Commission in Kenya was a separate nationwide authoritarian body created in the company. The report will primarily discuss about the business issues of Telkom Kenya. This company primarily engaged in providing landline phone services in Kenya. The various internet providers in Kenya operate on the infrastructure created and maintained by the company of Telkom Kenya. The company h as invested a sum of $1.5 billion in Kenya recently to expand the infrastructural facilities for mobile telecommunication in Kenya. However, it has become a matter of concern that the market shares of the company is falling over time. The company has accounted a 42.5% fall in its income, till the mid quarter of 2013 from the last year. It was also accounted by the analysts that the companies share in the market of

Increase in Economic Growth does not Necessarily Lead to an Increase Essay

Increase in Economic Growth does not Necessarily Lead to an Increase in Human Well-Being - Essay Example There are many definitions to the term economic growth; however, economists agree that economic growth refers to the growth in goods and services that a country produces over a period of time; this growth is measured in gross domestic product (GDP) (La Grandville, 2011, p536). GDP includes the goods and services that a country produces, that is to mean the personal expenditure of the people in the country added to the government expenditure and the net exports, which is the value of exports minus imports (Contanza, Hart, Posner and Talberth, 2009, 3). There have been various concerns by economists of how well GDP measures the well-being of individuals in a country with most of them arguing for differentiation between economic growth and economic well-being. This paper will therefore analyse critically the claim that an increase in levels of economic growth does not necessarily translate to increase in the well-being of individuals. The idea of well being of an individual can be eithe r objective or subjective. In the objective well-being, individuals use material goods that are measurable such as buying a new house or car among other material gains. However, economic growth is not usually associated with improved material well being because some of the factors that cause the economic growth also cause negative impacts in the society such as exploitation, environmental degradation or unequal spread of the wealth. GDP as a measure of well being of individuals’ measure the value of intermediate goods, which are not enjoyed by people rather they are used to produce other goods and services. In addition, the exclusion of military expenditure from GDP since there is no measurable output undermines the improvement in the quality of life that people enjoy due to military operations to secure the boarders of a country hence reducing criminal activities (D’acci, 2011, 49). The subjective well being of is the state of happiness that is usually brought about b y the enjoyment of the material wealth. In most of the instances, the subjective well-being, which is the psychological utility of the good that an individual has, is used to measure the variations in the objective well being of the individual. Research has found out that in some instances even with improves material wealth of a country, the happiness levels do not improve , however this claim has been refuted as in most instances the wealthier a country becomes the happier the residents are as wealth leads to increased levels of expressed happiness (Oswald ,1997, 1815). In addition, the levels of happiness that an increase in material wealth brings are usually attached to the social expectations and aspirations. Therefore even if economic growth increased the material wealth of an individual, the economic standards benchmark will rise, the individual will therefore remain at the same position or be worse off relative to the new economic standards and expectations which in return do es not making him any happier. In addition, the increase in employment that is brought about by economic growth does not necessarily lead to increased well being of an individual (Kenny, 1999, 6). Research conducted by the international labour organisation has showed that over 40% of workers are classified as poor, this happens when the employment increases without accompanying increase in productivity of each worker, it has been confirmed in East Asian countries such as Vietnam where increased levels of productivity among employees have led to reduction in poverty levels in the country. The idea that economic growth d