Interpersonal Management Skills Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Interpersonal Management Skills - Coursework Example Leaders are expected to understand personalities of the people they lead. Interpersonal intelligence helps a person to deal with their emotions. It enables people to appreciate what they feel. Once a person is able to understand what s/he is going through, s/he is able to make wise decisions. Such a person will in turn appreciate others who are living around him or her. With interpersonal intelligence, one can understand other people and properly respond to their feelings. Responding to others needs is achieved when one fully understands their emotions (Fabian, Not dated). Self management skills enable a person to be positive about other people. In such a case, a leader will take time to address concerns of other people. A good leader will take time to inspire workers through encouragement. This promotes confidence of other people and boosts their morale. People with a proper interpersonal intelligence will relate with others showing a lot of understanding and concern. Management ski lls like these are important because managers encounter many people who have different expectations. Interpersonal intelligence helps a person to get along with others well during interaction. ... This ensures that people are able to live without commotion while they are living together in an organization. Attributes of a person are shaped by intelligence of people if they are able to deal with each other and to control their emotions. Behaviours of people are modulated by their better understanding of their inner feelings. Personal intelligence is manifested in the implementation of thoughts a person has about a situation or a condition. Managers should learn intrapersonal and interpersonal management skills so that they can choose the words they can speak to specified people. These skills are effective because they determine the choice of thoughts to release as actions or words (Fabian, Not dated). Statements from emotional intelligence intrapersonal intelligence that can reflect my strengths are: first, I have emotional resilience; this means that I withstand pressure and stress if they befall me, I regain my strength and continue with life. I am in full control of my feeli ngs. Second, I have personal power, and I am personally effective in control of my behaviour. Through this ability, I can choose what to do and when to do it. My behaviour is manageable because I have ability to avoid what I do not think worthwhile. The third statement of emotional intelligence intrapersonal intelligence I can say about myself is that I am flexible. This helps me to adapt to changes in the environment in which I live in. Sometimes these changes in the environment may not be predicted. This statement is a manifestation that I can respond to changes without struggling to make consultation. For example, at one time I am expected to perform roles as a mother of my children and at some other times I am supposed to behave as a wife to someone. These roles I manage because

Free

Freedom of speech Essay Introduction: The American Flag is slowly being folded into a perfect triangle by soldiers. Bystanders watch as a twenty one gun salute is given to a veteran’s family who gave his life for our country. The family weeps over their lost loved one. This sacred moment in time is one that no one should interrupt. A group out of Kansas known as Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) travels around the country protesting at soldiers’ funerals that the death is God’s punishment to the U. S. for tolerating homosexuality in the country. This so called â€Å"church† is able to hold protests due to constitutional rights and express their freedom of speech; however they should not be allowed to protest at funerals out of respect for the deceased and disturbing the peace. The Westboro Baptist Church is disturbing the public’s peace, but still has the freedom of speech to picket and protest what they please. Funerals should be sacred, and therefore Congress should pass a law placing limits on where it is acceptable to protest. Research Section: The Brief Bio of Pastor Fred Phelps states, in Topeka, Kansas, Fred Phelps founded the Westboro Baptist Church in 1955. Phelps was appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point, but instead enrolled for Bible/Ministerial training at Bob Jones College. Joined by his family and friends, Phelps is still leading the church today. The Westboro Baptist Church is a non – profit organization, and the church considers itself an â€Å"Old School† Baptist Church. The Westboro Church groups are traveling around the country making stops several times a week to protest and picket. â€Å"Targets include schools the group deems to be accepting of homosexuality; Catholic, Lutheran, and other Christian denominations that WBC feels are heretical; and funerals for people murdered or killed in accidents like plane crashes and for American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, a tactic the group started in 2005† (The Anti-Defamation League). Not only directed at soldiers and gays, The Westboro Baptist Church fuels on any tragedy happening in the United States. After the natural disaster of hurricane Sandy, the church protests that it was a sign from God. The Constitution, under the Bill of Rights, protects this groups’ advocacy to protest wherever they wish. The church holds signs saying â€Å"Pope in hell†, â€Å"Thanks God for dead soldiers†, â€Å"God Hates Fags† and anything else to offend the people or groups it is towards. They also wear American flags around their waste and will kick it around on the ground. The community cannot endure the verbal torture any long and this has led to court cases and out breaks. Jonsson states â€Å"While Westboro is usually careful to stay within the law and clear protests with local police, counter protesters have in the past attacked members of the group, even pouring coffee on them and spitting on them.† Argument: The Westboro Church should not be able to disturb the peace and privacy at a funeral nor picket institutions or individuals for supporting homosexuality. The signs they display are disturbing, inappropriate, and offensive. The Westboro Church’s controversial appearances have led to several court cases dealing with places restrictions on the freedom to protest, particularly distance limits on how close you are authorized to protest from a funeral site. One case was brought forward by Albert Snyder, father of Mathew Snyder, a 20 year-old solider killed in Iraq. Ariane de Vogue stated â€Å"The case, one of the most controversial on the court docket, was brought by Albert Snyder, who sued the church, after members picketed the funeral of his son, Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder, who died in Iraq†. The Church has many opinions that should not be said or displayed to the public due to the emotional cause and pain the public has to endure. Having hurt the American citizens, the Westboro Church, under the first amendment, has the freedom of speech. The First Amendment states Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Therefore, this gives the Westboro Baptist Church the right to protest in public while being protected by federal law. The Church groups were standing far enough away from the funeral that the court could not prove the protest was exactly pointed at the Snyder’s son’s burial. Warren Richey stated â€Å"The protesters stood in a cordoned off area approved by police about a thousand feet from the church.† The Supreme Court used the distance the group was away from the burial to say that the protest was not pointed directly at Snyder’s family during the burial. Even though The Westboro Church has the First Amendment protecting them, they are still disturbing the peace and offending the public by protesting. Our freedom of speech is protected by the Constitution which is protected by our soldiers, a freedom Westboro Baptist Church has abused by protesting the very soldiers who fight for this freedom. Holding signs saying â€Å"you’re going to hell†, â€Å"God hates America†, and â€Å"Thank God for IEDs†, are insulting to the public and the country and are affecting Americans everywhere. â€Å"Snyder has called the day his son died ‘the worst day of his life’. His grief was compounded, he said, by being targeting by the church’s demonstrations. ‘It is one thing no family should ever have to go through’†(De Vogue, Ariane). The definition of disturbing the peace is â€Å"A person who fights in a public area, or who brings about the threat of fighting, anyone who is purposefully disruptive of an otherwise peaceful public assembly, one who solicits money while in a public place a person who is drunk, and unruly in a public area, or any group that participates in an unlawful assembly† (For the people). Westboro would fall under anyone who is purposefully disruptive of an otherwise peaceful public assembly. The church is showing poor judgment and an utter disregard for human dignity when they protest at a funeral. Proposal: With all the disturbances that the Westboro Baptist Church has caused, Congress should incorporate litigation to prevent insults to others. Congress must pass a law placing limits on the extent of free speech and the right to protest in regard to memorial services. Given the freedom of speech, Congress cannot prohibit the protestors from displaying signs that are obscene or stating their opinions, but can pass a law stating how far away from the funeral the protests have to be. Williams stated, â€Å"Indeed, in the incident in question, Westboro complied with police requests to stay 1,000 feet from the funeral, and all but the tops of its members’ signs were hidden from mourners’ view†. Congress should take this into consideration and reflect upon veterans and American citizens civil rights. In my opinion, family members should not have to face such obscenities during a period of mourning. The First Amendment does not prevent Westboro Baptist Church from offending the family members and citizens from their perverse signs and protests. Therefore, many civil law suits have not proven effective towards the church under the right of the First Amendment and freedom of speech. Most Americans whose thoughts are negative towards the church’s views choose to hold counter protests in support of veteran’s family members who have been killed in combat (Policinski, 2011). Congress passing the law should help these families during a time of grief to remember their loved one, and not have to see the disgraceful sign of hatred to this country. Conclusion: The First Amendment to the Constitution is a privilege Americans take grand ownership of. However, a group of individuals from the Westboro Baptist Church are taking advantage of this right we all have, pushing the freedom of speech to the point where citizens are questioning its true value. Individuals are starting to come together to counter protest toward Westboro so they will stop insulting those that fight for this country. Policinski stated â€Å"A few weeks ago, in Nashville, Tenn., more than 1,000 counter-protesters turned out in support of family members of a soldier killed in combat, overwhelming the presence of a small Westboro contingent†. The daily lives of Americans should not have to be interrupted by such insanity, and having to see vulgar signs shooting down the citizens and their country, also that their nation’s flag is being tossed around like a rag doll. If we fail to police our own responsibilities as citizens, America will shrink back to the oppressed nation it once was. Congress must push to clarify and define what is protected In the Constitution and end this travesty that is disrupting our peace. Works Cited: â€Å"Disturbing The Peace.† For The People. Morgan and Morgan. 2012. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. Gene, Policinski. Commentary: Inside The First Amendment: Laws Are Not Best Way To Thwart Westboro. Daily Record, The (Baltimore, MD) (n.d.): Legal Collection. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. God Hates Fags. God Hates Fags. GHF, 2012.Web. 27 Nov, 2012. Jonsson, Patrik. â€Å"What recourse now to Westboro Baptist Churchs rude protests?† Christian Science Monitor. 3 Mar. 2011. 1Pg. Academic Search Complete. Web.28 Nov. 2012. Richey, Warren. â€Å"Supreme Court: hurtful speech of Westboro Baptist Church is protected.† Christian Science Monitor. 3 Mar. 2011. 1pg. Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. The Anti-Defamation League. The Anti-Defamation League. ADL, 2012. Web. 19 Nov, 2012. â€Å"The Preamble to The Bill of Rights.† Give me liberty. (N.p.) (n.d.) Web. 27 Nov, 2012. Vogue, De Ariane. â€Å"Supreme Court OK’s Protests at Military Funeral.† ABCnews. 2011. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. Vogue, De Ariane. â€Å"Westboro Baptist Church Comes to the Supreme Court.† ABCnews. 2010. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. Williams, Patricia. License And Liberty. Nation 292.13 (2011): 9. Legal Collection. Web. 28 Nov. 2012.

Narrative on Attending a Speech by Ira Berlin -- Slavery

Narrative It was 2:23 on a Friday afternoon. Normally, at this time, I would have been missing my Computer Science lecture. But by a strange and, dare I call it convenient, twist of fate, the professor?s father died a couple days ago and the class was canceled. Not that it would have made a difference; I was prepared to skip the lecture and attend another given by Ira Berlin, a distinguished Mellon Senior Scholar, entitled Rethinking Slavery: 1800-1861. I walked through the entrance to 213 Gregory Hall, the room in which the lecture was to be given, and entered a completely empty room. To the best of my knowledge, the lecture was supposed to start at 2:30, which puzzled me. I figured that maybe it was rescheduled to a later time, and I?d stick around for a while until I got bored enough to leave. I seized the opportunity to choose my seat wisely. The room was divided into two major groups of seats, oriented in columns. Each column was seven seats wide and 10 seats deep. And there were a few seats lined up along the windows in the back as well, providing an approximate capacity of 150 persons, I estimated. My thought process was that I was here to observe the people more than the lecture. I also analyzed the fact that I don?t like history and concluded that if I sat in front, to see and hear the professor with greater ease, I would either bore myself or I wouldn?t understand. And since both of those were scenarios that ev entually resulted in my narrative being terrible, I decided to try my luck in the back. Two minutes passed before two more entered the room. They were two men, young enough to be students. The first had white skin, and wore a T-Shirt, a cap, and a metallic watch similar... ... made my way out. I had sat is that seat for over 2 hours and 10 minutes. My legs needed stretched, and I had a taste for a Big-Mac. What was the point of that lecture? For me, it was for a grade in Rhetoric 105, but I was probably a minority. It puzzled me that the lecture was open to the public, yet the average Joe, unless I have seriously overestimated my intelligence, would have no idea what Berlin was talking about. I go to lectures and classes in order to learn something, but I learned nothing here. Berlin spent a good 45 minutes bombarding me with new information, but he obviously assumed that the audience already knew things that I didn?t, because I comprehended none of the material. The only conclusion I could make was that, in order to understand what Berlin was saying, you had to already be familiar with the material that Berlin was covering.

A Comparison of Marxist and Functionalist Understanding of the Role of

A Comparison of Marxist and Functionalist Understanding of the Role of Education in Society Functionalist theories assume the different parts of a society each have their own role to play (their own "function"), and work together smoothly in order to form a harmonious whole (macro). The metaphor often used to describe functionalism is that it views society as a body, with the different socialisation agents —government, media, religion, the family, etc., and, of course, education—being like the different organs in a body, each contributing in a different way to keeping the entire body healthy. Functionalism assumes that the various institutions of a society always operate so as to support that society as it is. If they didn’t, the society would perish; therefore, functionalism believes, it’s safe to assume that they do in any society one may encounter, for otherwise the society would no longer be here for us to study. Functionalism is based on value consensus which provides stability and functional prerequisites. In Marxism it is based on capitalism. In capitalism, the minority class, the bourgeoisie or capitalist employers who own the means of production make their profits by exploiting the labour of the majority, the proletariat. As a result, work under capitalism is alienating, unsatisfying, poorly paid and something over which workers have no control over. This creates the potential for class conflict. The functions of education, in functionalisms perspective, for society as a whole are to meet the shared goals (value consensus) of society. Where as Marxists see education is based on class division and capitalis... ... the system helps the transmission of society’s value consensus; prepare the young for adult roles, the selection of young people in terms of talents and abilities for appropriate roles in adult life. The provision of knowledge, skills and training necessary for effective participation in the labour force. Which in essence is based a pun meritocracy, equal opportunities, sifting and sorting people in society, having the right skills for the job and value consensus. Where as in Marxism it has a huge impact on people with power ideologies. And creates feudalism which then initially leads to capitalism which in quintessence creates class conflict. The biggest difference over all is that Functionalism wants societies to be harmonically were in Marxism it could never be achieved if everything was to be equal.

Examine the Key Factors Influencing

Examine the key factors influencing inclusive teaching and learning Inclusive teaching means recognising, accommodating and meeting the learning needs of all students, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, religion, disability or sexual orientation. This starts with acknowledging that students are members of diverse communities, have a range of individual learning needs, and deserve equal opportunity to access the learning experience. Applying inclusive learning is increasingly important in our diverse society and education should reflect, promote and facilitate this. For example, there are more and more disabled people entering education nowadays than there used to be: an inclusive environment must ensure that they are equally valued and accepted and that their efforts to learn are recognised and judged without bias. Traditional teaching holds that students with diverse needs be placed in the general education setting only once they can meet traditional academic expectations.Inclusive education, on the other hand, celebrate people’s diversity and brings all students together in one classroom, regardless of their strengths or weaknesses in any area, and seeks to maximize the potential of all of them by encouraging and using their different backgrounds and knowledge to broaden the learning experience. In order to create an effective inclusive learning environment we must overcome barriers that might stop lea rners getting the best from their learning experience. Barriers to learning are problems or situations that  prevent learners from accessing programs,  going to class, concentrating and learning. Intrinsic barriers of learning are located within the learner, hence of an intrinsic nature, and can be physical, sensory, physiological or intellectual. For example not knowing, or not being comfortable with, the rest of the class could constitute a barrier. Icebreakers could be used in this instance to encourage learners to talk to us, to each other and to the group as a whole. Similarly climate setters can be used to promote learning related to session objectives; this is particularly important as people can be intimidated in a situation where they are asked to come up with ideas. Intrinsic barriers of learning are located within the learner, hence of an intrinsic nature, and can be physical, sensory, physiological or intellectual. For example not knowing, or not being comfortable with, the rest of the class could constitute a barrier. Icebreakers could be used in this instance to encourage learners to talk to us, to each other and to the group as a whole. Similarly climate setters can be used to promote learning related to session objectives; this is particularly important as people can be intimidated in a situation where they are asked to come up with ideas.Hence the tutor needs to create an environment where students feel comfortable to express themselves. Learners may also face extrinsic barriers, related to the environment they live, work and study in. Issues with family relationships, social support, employment and financial matters provide some such examples. It’s very important to motivate learners in order for them to get the most out of their classes. To motivate a learner we must first understand what motivates them and teach to their particular strengths and weaknesses.Sometimes we may have to match teaching approaches to their learning styles and provide support to those who need it. Other times we may have to use energizers to challenge the class or refocus learners’ attention, e. g. after a long period of concentration or after a break. Also, encouraging friendly competition could provide motivational challenges for all of them. Most of all, we need to give them constructive feedback to encourage personal improvement. One theory we can be refer to for motivational purposes is Maslow’s pyramid of needs.According to his pyramid we must feel that we are satisfied with our physiological needs before we can think of getting a roof. Having the feeling of being secure motivates us to seek love. Once we have accomplished the need for belongingness then we seek a better future which motivates us to set goals an d achieve something honourable in life. Once we have accomplished a settled life with love and respect, we might then look to reach our full potential. To ensure all students gain the most from their learning, consideration must be based on the particular learning style and objectives for each individual.An initial assessment of the students can be carried out for this purpose and then use a mixture of two or more styles and a range of different approaches to meet the needs of individuals and groups. Typical teaching methods fall into three categories: * Teacher-led: this is where the tutor transmits ideas, information and skills via lectures or presentations; * Participative: this involves interaction which allows knowledge and experience to be shared between the teacher and the learners; * Learner centred: this is where learners explore and discover by themselves, either on their own or in small collaborative groups.Benjamin Bloom provided the theory of Taxonomy to help tutors cho ose the appropriate teaching method. He made a classification of learning objectives that educators set for students in order to create a more holistic form of education. Bloom’s Taxonomy divides educational objectives into Cognitive, Affective and Psycho Motor domains. Skills in the cognitive domain revolve around knowledge, comprehension and critical thinking on a particular topic; traditional education tends to emphasize the skills in this domain and uses methods like lectures, small group work and problem solving tasks.Skills in the affective domain describe the way people react emotionally and their awareness to other people’s joy or pain; teaching methods in this domain might include discussion, case studies, role play and simulation. Finally, skills in the psychomotor domain describe the ability to physically manipulate a tool or instrument; typical teaching methods in this domain will include demonstration, individual practice and coaching. A tutor must also de vise a programme of strategies to cater for the specific needs of their own specialism. This relates to the arrangements we make to get the class discuss particular aspects of the subject.Depending on specialism we can have discussions in pairs or in small groups. If the class is not too big we can also get the whole group work together and bounce ideas off each other. We could also take this one step further and consider if the class could benefit from group project work rather than individual project work. In that respect, Bruce Tuckman's theory on stages of group development comes to our aid in understanding and assessing students in a group effort. This theory has gained a great deal of popularity and suggested that for a group to achieve maximum effectiveness it needs to move through four stages.These are: * Forming: at this first stage the team is new and the members are unfamiliar with each other. Each seeks group acceptance with caution, and conflict is avoided. * Storming:   at this stage different ideas compete for consideration and the he team addresses issues such as what problems they are really supposed to solve. Team members open up to each other and confront each other's ideas and perspectives. * Norming: here the team manages to agree on common goals and comes to a mutual plan for achieving them.Some may have to give up their own ideas and agree with others in order to make the team function. * Performing: by this stage members are motivated and knowledgeable and the team functions as a unit in order to achieve agreed goals. Many long-standing teams go through these cycles many times as they react to changing circumstances. For example, a change in leadership may cause the team to revert to  storming  as the new people challenge the existing norms and dynamics of the team. Another important aspect of inclusive learning is the resources we use.It’s vital that these are carefully selected so as to reflect and meet the needs of all l earners. If resources fail to do this they will create barriers to learning and disadvantage some individuals in the group. There is a wide range of resources that can be used but here is a selection that may meet learners’ needs: * Powerpoint: this is a vital resource when delivering information and, if used in the correct manner, can appeal to all learning styles. For example they can provide the basis for teaching other activities and can be left up at all time to remind students of their aims and objectives. Picture Cards: these are good visual resource and can support the topic being taught. They are particularly useful in multicultural environments and can be adapted easily in order to make them inclusive. * Films: appeal to all learning styles and abilities as they create a relaxed environment and can offer real life situations that can't be created in the classroom setting. Films also have a way of explaining different points of view in an alternative way. Moreover, t hey can act as an assessment method to check the learners have understood what has been shown. Case Studies: this is a powerful resource that stimulates learners to understand and critique how a subject is applied in the real world. * Quiz: this is a fun and interactive resource that can be tailored to different learning styles and ability levels. Other examples of resources include handouts and books to study and discuss theoretical aspects of the subject; computers, software and hi-tech equipment for hands-on experience of ICT subjects; and of course writing boards and flip charts to create on-the-spot diagrams and workflows and to have the whole class participate and interact.We also need to provide opportunities for learners to practice their literacy, language, numeracy and ICT skills. This can be achieved by embedding functional skills. Functional skills are practical skills in English, information ; communication technology, and mathematics. Allowing for these transferable sk ills to be included in our teaching will enable individuals to work confidently, effectively and independently in life. For example, facilitating contribution to discussions and working in groups will enable learners to develop literacy skills which they will then be able to use in their everyday lives.Also, coursework assessments and reflective learning logs constitute effective method of encouraging learners to use written skills. Also, we can encourage Maths skills by using for example number games, and ICT skills by including computer-led teaching and assessments. In organizing a class it’s increasingly important to establish ground rules with learners in order to adhere to minimum necessary conditions for getting learning work done in the class and promote respect for each other.The setting down of ground rules at the start of the course gives structure and guidance to the group ensuring that the people’s beliefs and wants are taken into account and the course can run productively within the set rules. Though there is no definitive list for all classes it is an essential exercise to think through what we want on the list. Typical ground rules may  include items like arriving on time, respecting health and safety regulations, switching off mobile phones, respecting other people's contributions and not interrupting fellow-students.Usually, ground rules are teacher imposed but learners can make valuable contributions and sometimes there can be room for negotiation. Obviously, the majority of the ground rules cannot be negotiated but getting the learners to aid in the setting of the rules puts the ounce on them to adhere to them more. Moreover, it will make them aware of what will happen should the rules be broken. We also need to create assessment opportunities that meet the needs of learners. Assessment is the process of appraising the learner’s understanding of the subject and also of recording their knowledge, skills and attitudes.I t can focus on individual learners or a group of learners as a whole. It is always best to start any course with an assessment of the students’ prior knowledge so that the tutor can start their teaching at the correct level and can ensure an inclusive teaching method where every learner’s needs are met. There are many methods of assessment depending on specialism. For example in assessing foreign language learning we can use multiple choice exercises, written answers, essay writing, class test, listening and speaking activities, to name but a few.When assessing learners we need to give constructive feedback in order to spur and motivate them to hone their skills. It’s important to tell them when they are doing something well and why, as this will serve as encouragement. However, constructive feedback doesn’t just mean positive feedback. We can give negative feedback too as long as we clearly state what could be improved and why. This means talking first a bout what a learner has done well, then going on to discussing points for improvement and then ending on another positive note.Using this strategy students are motivated by their achievements and evaluate the negative aspect of their feedback in a constructive way to better themselves. ——————————————– [ 1 ]. Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation [ 2 ]. Bloom, B. S. , Engelhart, M. D. , Furst, E. J. , Hill, W. H. , & Krathwohl, D. R. (1956) Taxonomy of educational objectives: the classification of educational goals; Handbook I: Cognitive Domain New York, Longmans, Green [ 3 ]. Tuckman, Bruce (1965). â€Å"Developmental sequence in small groups†.

Fundamentals of Land Law Essay †Striking a Balance

Fundamentals of Land Law Essay – Striking a Balance Free Online Research Papers Fundamentals of Land Law Essay Striking a Balance Land law exists today to balance and regulate the rights of both purchaser and vendor upon a transfer of land. Before the flood of 1925 legislation affecting land transactions, purchasers of legal title took subject to many unpredictable and undiscoverable interests, disproportionately burdening them with extensive and expensive obligations and rendering vendors’ interests paramount. The comprehensive reforms encapsulated in the Land Registration Acts (LRA) of 1925 and 2002 overhauled the oft-criticised system of land transfer, affording both parties a more secure basis for the transfer of land. The major impetus behind the Acts was to achieve parity with the mirror principle of conveyancing, attaining a â€Å"truly transparent, accurate and comprehensive† Land Register, reflecting the wealth of interests in relation to titles in land and placing parties on more equal footing. Unfortunately, the 1925 Act failed to eradicate all ‘cracks in the mirror’, instead preserving the relevance of certain interests which may ‘override’ registration. These ‘overriding’ interests burden registered land by operating on a superior plane to other registrable interests, binding purchasers outright and disproportionately empowering the overriding interest-holder. Although the majority of overriding interests provided by the 1925 Act are largely uncontentious, controversy has surrounded the overriding status of interests belonging to persons ‘in actual occupation’ of the land . To this end, LRA 1925, s.70(1)(g) protects an interest in land where its owner is in actual occupation on the land. The open-ended nature of this provision has not unexpectedly been the subject of extensive litigation. Although the Law Commission initially felt compelled to recommend the abolition of all overriding interests, the sentiment was that in order to protect occupiers who cannot reasonably be expected to protect their rights through registration, this sub-category and its accompanying controversy should be retained . Lord Denning’s justification was to protect occupiers from â€Å"having their rights lost in the welter of registration† . The LRA 2002 has thus upheld overriding status of interests of persons in ‘actual occupation’, albeit curbing and clarifying the parameters within which the rights of occupiers can impinge upon purchasers . Now enshrined in LRA 2002, Schedule 3, paragraph 2, overriding interests of those in ‘actual occupation’ subsist as a glaring ‘crack’ in the mirror principle, despite the elucidation and qualification now provided. Analysis of the issues surrounding overriding interests and ‘actual occupationâ €™ is necessary to determine whether balance has been, or will ever be, achieved between purchasers and those in ‘actual occupation’. Within the ambit of Schedule 3, paragraph 2, occupancy itself is not overriding, but rather the interest the occupier has in the land he occupies has the potential to become overriding. Actual occupation, therefore, â€Å"is merely the trigger which activates the statutory protection† of the interest. The types of interest falling within its scope are not clarified, and judicial uncertainty has reflected this lack of clarity. The initial belief under the 1925 Act was that only proprietary rights in the full sense – enduring and capable of being transmitted – can override . In Ainsworth , Russell LJ said that a right for the purposes of s.70(1)(g) must â€Å"have the quality of being capable of enduring through different ownerships of the land† , thus relegating a beneficial interest under a trust to a minor interest which only registration will protect. Their Lordships drew a distinction between personalty and proprietary rights, the latter of which could only be eligible for overriding status. However, judicial uncertainty persisted in the aftermath of Ainsworth, with judges adopting â€Å"markedly differing attitudes to the rights in s.70† . Such a miscellany of interests as a right to rectify , a tenant’s right to buy under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 and an unpaid vendor’s lien were all held to fall within the ambit of s.70(1)(g), rendering reconciliation difficult with the notion that only strictly proprietary interests will suffice. Nevertheless, Schedule 3, paragraph 2 upholds application only to proprietary rights due to its clarification that the interest must be one â€Å"affecting the estate† . Following a move during the Bill’s debate to extend the categories of beneficiaries in actual occupation , the boundaries of Ainsworth are not immovable, and in the wake of the seminal case of Boland , beneficial interests under a trust are permitted overriding interests. In the latter case, a wife had an unregistered beneficial interest in the family home which her husband was the registered proprietary owner of. When the husband was unable to repay the mortgage loan, the House of Lords held that the wife’s beneficial interest was sufficient to amount to a proprietary interest in the land . Other successful interests include equitable leases and tenancies , estate contracts as options to purchase , and rights arising out of estoppel . It is accepted that an occupier’s interest must be fully enforceable and unencumbered at the date of the disposition of the land in order to be imbued with overriding status. In Mendelsohn , a mother had knowledge of a building society’s mortgage to her son for part of the purchase price of a property she also paid part of, and then she argued that she had an overriding interest due to her actual occupation. The Court of Appeal held that her knowledge of the mortgage equated to implied consent to being subject to the mortgage, thus estopping her claim by virtue of her silent representation . This had embellished the intrinsic quality of her right, thus precluding reliance upon ‘actual occupation’ to make it overriding. The concept of overreaching in a trust scenario renders an interest, which would otherwise be overriding, lost and unable to be empowered by ‘actual occupation’. Originally enshrined in s.2 Law of Property Act 1925, overreaching applies where there are two or more trustees in land. Upon disposition of the land, the beneficiaries’ interests are overreached and the sale monies go directly to the trustees, essentially detaching the beneficiaries’ interests from the estate. Although overreaching failed in Boland due to there being only one trustee, in Flegg overreaching occurred where a husband and wife were trustees in a house that they shared with the wife’s parents, who were beneficiaries under the trust. When the house was sold, the beneficiaries’ interests were overreached and the proceeds went to the trustees. As Lord Templeman surmised, â€Å"actual occupation is not an interest in itself† . The effect of overreaching is that purcha sers’ rights are subject to â€Å"the waywardness of actual occupation† if purchase is made from less than two trustees, thus placing purchasers in the precarious position of taking subject to beneficiaries’ rights upon transfer from one trustee. The ambit of ‘actual occupation’ envisaged by the Acts has been contentious since its inception in LRA 1925, resulting in a catalogue of jurisprudence concerning how exactly to ascertain actual occupation. Under s.70(1)(g), a purchaser was bound pro tanto, rendering occupiers’ interests overriding whether discoverable by a purchaser or not . Although the draft Land Registration Bill preceding the 2002 Act included a partial definition of actual occupation as being â€Å"physically present there†, the 2002 Act did not incorporate this provision, so actual occupation remains largely undefined . Had this provision been included, it would have given credence to Boland, where their Lordships made an uncompromising set of judgments observing actual occupation to comprise â€Å"ordinary words of plain English† and to constitute â€Å"a plain factual situation† . These judgments suggest that ‘actual occupation’ requires no â€Å"entitle ment in law† and that concepts of notice are irrelevant to actual occupation , thus bestowing occupiers with the ability to trump purchasers through the simple fact of occupation. LRA 2002 provides that an occupier cannot claim an overriding interest where the purchaser had â€Å"actual knowledge† of the occupation or where occupation â€Å"would not have been obvious on a reasonably careful inspection of the land† . This has introduced a notice-based test, radically altering the nature of establishing actual occupation and rebalancing purchaser and occupier. Purchases of unregistered land operate on the doctrine of notice, and although Lord Wilberforce compared notice to actual occupation in Boland , he rejected the notion that it should be applied similarly, upholding the ‘absolutist’ factual test . However, the ‘constitutionalist’ view, considering notice as a context in which to interpret actual occupation, has come to the fore. Constitutionalism originates from the rule in Hunt v Luck , that occupation gives notice of the occupier’s rights, and the actual occupation rule was drafted to reflect this, albeit n ot giving effect to the full doctrine of constructive notice. The two approaches represent the conflicting interests of occupier and purchaser. The tension between the approaches is evident in Rosset , where Purchas LJ said that the individual’s overriding interest depended upon both physical presence and whether â€Å"appropriate inquiries made by the bank [would] have elicited the fact of her interest† . Although actual occupation fails to give credence to the full doctrine of notice, Mustill LJ said that â€Å"even if constructive notice no longer applies in this field, the old law still gives a flavour to the new† . Rosset created a tentative balance between the approaches to actual occupation, leaving the conflict unresolved until the inception of the LRA 2002. Nevertheless, a notice-based test of occupation can be elicited from Schedule 3, paragraph 2, serving to burden both purchaser and occupier. For purchasers, a burden is imposed to inquire of persons in actual occupation â€Å"what rights he or she has in the land† . This duty is unsatisfied via simple inquiry of the vendor, as â€Å"reliance on the untrue ipse dixit of the [vendor] will not suffice† ; inquiry must be made of actual occupiers to take free of their interests. The notice approach also burdens occupiers, however, as failure to disclose interests when inquired revokes the right to receive overriding status . Although this redresses the balance between occupier and purchaser, it may be unreasonable to bind occupiers to surrender interests in the contingency that, as Dixon submits, â€Å"the right-holder knows that the consequences of disclosure will be the loss of the family home† . It is clear then, that the contemporary approach taken to determining questions of actual occupation under Schedule 3, paragraph 2 â€Å"expresses a decisive and unquestioned policy choice in favour of purchasers† . In establishing the intricacies of actual occupation, the abundance of litigation under the 1925 Act provides guidance. Although occupation must be intentional and ongoing, it is not precluded by â€Å"a temporary and fortuitous absence† . In Chhokar v Chhokar , a woman giving birth remained in actual occupation of her home during her confinement in hospital. However, a pattern of substantial absence will prove fatal to a claim of actual occupation . Discontinuous occupation owing to regular and routine absences also fails to preclude actual occupation, as in Tizard a homeowner was in actual occupation of her house despite living at her sister’s house for two nights per week. This lack of constancy allows occupiers enforceability of their interests without adhering to stringent standards of occupation. Judicial opinions are divergent regarding an individual occupying land through an agent. In Caswell, a stepfather could not claim actual occupation through his stepdaughter staying in the property as his agent. However, in Rosset , the presence of builders working on the house was sufficient for the owner employing them to be in actual occupation. Conversely in Lloyd v Dugdale , an individual could not claim an overriding interest if occupation was effected through a company owned by that individual . This instils in interest-holders the requirement to be the party in actual occupation for their interest to be overriding. Preparatory acts prior to taking occupation are insufficient in procuring actual occupation, as laying carpets and installing furniture in Cann failed to amount to actual occupation. Cann additionally clarified the stage at which individuals must be in actual occupation as being at the moment the transfer is executed, rather than the moment of registration. This is now supported by LRA 2002, which expressly states that interest and occupation must subsist â€Å"at the time of the disposition† . This precludes individuals from occupying land post-purchase but pre-registration and claiming overriding interests against purchasers, thus holding purchasers’ interests above those of occupiers. It is now established that certain persons are excluded absolutely from actual occupation. A wife was once thought to be a mere â€Å"shadow† of her husband’s occupation, and although discredited in Boland, the same concept was adopted in Robinson to define children, even if beneficial owners under a trust, as being in â€Å"shadows of occupation of their parent† . The rationale for this was that no enquiry could be made of children, especially those of tender years , which has been roundly criticised as â€Å"curiously at odds with reality† . The Robinson judgment undoubtedly favours the interests of purchasers, by completely refusing to acknowledge a potential source of overriding interest. Where an individual owns rights over an area greater than he is in actual occupation of, Ferrishurst v Wallcite offers guidance. In that case, an option to purchase the lease of land greater than the area in actual occupation was held to be overriding. This decision heavily burdened purchasers and extended overriding interests for occupiers, and as an attempt to rebalance the relationship, the LRA 2002 has reversed this decision, providing that any interest protected by occupation is restricted to the land which is actually occupied . As Dixon concludes, â€Å"the legal extent of the interest that overrides is to be co-terminus with the extent of the actual occupation† . The protections afforded to both occupier and purchaser have made for an edgy equilibrium throughout the evolution of overriding interests in relation to actual occupation, but always the law has struggled to balance the disparities in this relationship. Although purchasers have historically faced hardship in overcoming the â€Å"intermediate, or hybrid, class† of overriding interests wielded by occupiers, their position has been improved somewhat by the evolution of both statutory and common law. However, the interests of the two parties have yet to achieve legal equivalence. The very existence of overriding interests has been labelled as â€Å"disquieting† for purchasers, not least because indemnity cannot be awarded to a purchaser trapped by such an interest . This has placed purchasers on an uphill struggle to have their interests judicially and statutorily recognised and accorded significance that endures today. Solace lies at the advent of compulsory e-conveyancing, promoted heavily by the 2002 Act, which envisages synchronicity of disposition and registration in land transfers . This development will render many equitable interests unprotected unless registered, despite being currently overriding upon actual occupation. Schedule 3, paragraph 2 will then be restricted only to the protection of those occupiers’ interests which arise informally, through resulting or constructive trusts or through estoppel , effectively narrowing an occupier’s ability to override registration. The underlying and pervading expectation that overriding interests will eventually be drawn onto the Land Register through positive registration will ultimately abolish the subsistence of occupiers’ unregistered and overriding interests upon a transfer of registered land which so adversely affects purchasers. Bibliography Gray Gray, Core Texts: Land Law (4th edn, 2005, OUP) Green Cursley, Land Law (5th edn, 2004, Palgrave Macmillan) Martin, EA (ed.), Dictionary of Law (2003, OUP) Smith, R, Property Law: Cases and Materials (2nd edn, 2003, Longman) Thomas, M, Blackstone’s Statutes on Property Law 2005-2006 (13th edn, 2005, OUP) Thompson, M, Modern Land Law (2nd edn, 2003, OUP) Bogusz, B, â€Å"Bringing Land Registration into the Twenty-First Century – The Land Registration Act 2002† MLR 2002, 65(4), 556-567 Dixon, M, â€Å"The Reform of Property Law and the Land Registration Act 2002: A Risk Assessment† Conv. 2003, Mar/Apr, 136-156 Kenny, P H, â€Å"Children Are Spare Ribs† Conv. 1997, Mar/Apr, 84-85 Pascoe, S, â€Å"Triumph for Overriding Interests† Conv. 1999, Mar/Apr, 144-149 Smith, R J, â€Å"Overriding Interests and Wives† (1979) 95 LQR 501 Sparkes, P, â€Å"The Discoverability of Occupiers of Registered Land† Conv. 1989, Sep/Oct, 342-354 Tee, L, â€Å"The Rights of Every Person in Actual Occupation: An Enquiry into section 70(1)(g) of the Land Registration Act 1925† (1998) 57 CLJ 328 â€Å"Remedies: No Overriding Interest† P.L.B. 2002, 22(7), 52 Law Commission, Land Registration for the Twenty-First Century (1998) Law Com No 254 Joint Law Commission and HM Land Registry Report (2001) Law Com 271 Boone, K (2004), Actual Occupation. Retrieved on 19th November 2005 from the World Wide Web: http://law.web-tomorrow.com/twiki/bin/view/Main/ActualOccupation Research Papers on Fundamentals of Land Law Essay - Striking a BalanceRelationship between Media Coverage and Social andBringing Democracy to Africa19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraWhere Wild and West MeetCanaanite Influence on the Early Israelite ReligionUnreasonable Searches and SeizuresInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesThe Project Managment Office SystemIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in CapitalCapital Punishment

Bipolar Opposition Essays

Bipolar Opposition Essays Bipolar Opposition Paper Bipolar Opposition Paper Bipolar Oppositions as stated by Betty Brown with regards to the deconstructions that are done by Cixous and Derrida are products of culture that are primarily based on conceptual contrasts. They are pair of terms that have been historically connected with Western culture. The members of the pair are regarded and believed as absolutes: the one is being valued and the other is devalued. Some of the bipolar oppositions that are mentioned by Brown are: male/female, good/evil, self/other, heaven/hell, culture/nature, and mind/body. Cixous bipolar oppositions that are revealed in the text are: activity/passivity, sun/moon, culture/nature, day/night, father/mother, head/heart, intelligible/sensitive, logos/pathos. The bipolar opposition that she has discussed that is not in the text is the query with regards to sexual difference which is traditionally anchored with activity/passivity. She juxtaposes the ideological interpretation of Freud’s theses as to what makes a woman an imperfect man and Jones’ â€Å"femininity is an autonomous ‘essence’. † Cixous bipolar opposition is apparent in Peter Paul Rubens’ The Judgment of Paris in a sense that Ruben’s artwork illustrates Phallocentrism, the root of all sexual-difference opposition. Cixous notions coincide with John Berger’s perspective that â€Å"the ideal spectator is always assumed to be male and the image of the woman is designed to flatter him†. The painting portrays the judgment done by Paris as to who is the most beautiful among the three women. It showcases the historical and cultural boundary where men are enclosed as the ones who possess power. With regards to that, women, as shaped by ideological apparatuses, are inferior to men; it definitely conveys its origin to Phallocentrism.

3 More Cases of Unnecessary Punctuation

3 More Cases of Unnecessary Punctuation 3 More Cases of Unnecessary Punctuation 3 More Cases of Unnecessary Punctuation By Mark Nichol In each sentence below, the presence of one punctuation mark- or, in the case of the first example, a team of two complementary marks- introduces a flaw in the syntactical structure of the statement. Discussion and revision of the problematic sentences follow each example. 1. He would replace conservative, Justice Antonin Scalia, who died last month, leaving behind a bitter election-year fight over the future of the court. Because the phrase â€Å"Justice Antonin Scalia† is essential to this sentence- the statement would not be grammatically valid if it were omitted- it cannot be treated as a parenthetical. Here, conservative is simply a description of the person named. But also, because conservative and justice can combine to describe the person, the latter word joins the former one as a generic descriptor and should no longer be treated as a job title: â€Å"He would replace conservative justice Antonin Scalia, who died last month, leaving behind a bitter election-year fight over the future of the court.† (This rule applies to any similar shift in function, as in â€Å"former president George W. Bush† as compared to â€Å"President George W. Bush.†) 2. In the book, Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, the authors assert that a company sustains itself by setting audacious goals that require the commitment of its personnel to work outside their comfort zone. Unless the book has been previously referred to, this sentence treats the title as if it refers to the one existing book. Again, without the parenthetical information, the statement is flawed because, in this case, it does not identify the book in question: â€Å"In the book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, the authors assert that a company sustains itself by setting audacious goals that require the commitment of its personnel to work outside their comfort zone.† 3. These factors pertain to such drivers as: the enterprise’s capabilities; competitor capabilities, behaviors and actions; and customer preferences and bargaining power. The colon interrupts the syntactical flow of this sentence: â€Å"These factors pertain to such drivers as the enterprise’s capabilities; competitor capabilities, behaviors and actions; and customer preferences and bargaining power.† (It would be correct if the sentence began â€Å"These factors pertain to such drivers as the following.† In this case, the colon, placed after following, would properly punctuate a complete statement that sets up what follows the colon.) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Punctuation category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:50 Synonyms for â€Å"Leader†"Latter," not "Ladder"Wood vs. Wooden

Finance 4.5 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Finance 4.5 - Essay Example The bond prices are different from part (a) and (b) in the question because interest rate is lowered. Bond prices are inversely proportional to interest rates therefore; as interest rate lowers, bond prices hike. This would eventually lead to lower yield. Therefore; in the above given scenario, the interest rates were lowered which caused the bond prices to rise. No, the bonds should not be called. The bonds should only be called if interest rates drop below coupon rate. This will give you the opportunity to call in your previous debt at a lower rate and then reissue debt at a lower interest rate if needed. The second scale will increase profits at a greater pace than scale one after q=3125 units. As the fixed cost is limited, and variable cost per unit is less therefore; the overall cost would be less than scale one. This means that even if the break even sales are  in the original cost function, the company would not face negative cash flow if it surpasses 142856 levels of sale because majority of the cost is of depreciation which is a non cash expense. Even though the company shows negative profits but that would not mean negative cash flow unless the level of sale is above 142561

An outline marketing plan for the next year for Atlantic Quench 303 Essay

An outline marketing plan for the next year for Atlantic Quench 303 - Essay Example Atlantic Quench operates in the fruit juice segment with the objective of maintain and attracting more consumers through offering them greater range of benefits present in their manufactured fruit juice products. The company has suffered from the decrease of market value and sales volume. The paper analyses the existing fruit juice markets of the US and the UK so as to conduct a marketing plan for growth for Atlantic Quench in next year. Atlantic Quench Cranberries Incorporated (AQC) is one of the premier fruit juice manufacturing companies operating in the U.S. AQC has been established as an agricultural co-operative. The company was formed almost 80 years back by the cranberry farmers from New Jersey and Massachusetts. Farmers from Florida joined the co-operative in the year 1974. Currently AQC is owned by 46 grapefruit and 630 cranberry farmers. The company has achieved great success in the UK. However, the fast growing health concerns amongst consumers in the UK and the US has brought challenges for the company as the market value and sales volume (Mintel, 2014). However, the consistently rising demand for low sugar content fruit juice drinks is seen to be a good chance for the business of AQC and similar fruit juice manufacturing firms, in a highly positive manner (Corbett, 2013). The current paper focuses to analyze the existing conditions and the characteristics of the UK fruit juice market. Accordingly the paper aims to recognize the opportunities and challenges existing in the market for Atlantic Quench so that the company can develop strategic plans for marketing their products and recognise suitable positioning opportunities. After implementing these strategies of this marketing plan, the sales of the company is expected to increase by 4.5% and the profit margin will be maintain at 12% - 14%. The company has remained successful at achieving 7% growth annually since the last four years. Almost 26% rise

Work, People and Productivity Mgt Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Work, People and Productivity Mgt - Essay Example These include; Preoccupation with failure, sensitivity to operations, reluctance to simplify interpretations, deference to expertise and commitment to resilience. People in HRO work in recognition of the high risk environments and occupations. In order to enhance productivity and reliability the HRO must carry out self-assessment and evaluation. These characteristics provide a guide to the thinking and mindfulness in the organization (Weick & Sutcliffe, 2001). It is important to recognize that policies and manuals in an organization constantly change; the HRO should be mindful and be sensitive to the complexity of the systems and environment of the HRO. The HRO should quickly work to identify and anomalies and problems and quickly eliminate potential problems. As an HRO it is important to always be aware and have updated information on the state of the systems and processes in the organization. This is key to identifying possible problems and preventing them (Weick & Sutcliffe, 2001). It is important that the HRO offer concrete and detailed explanation and documentation of processes in the organization. Simple explanations to processes and activities are not ideal for proper diagnosis of problems in the organization. This eliminates the problem of not knowing what’s going on in the organization until it’s too late. Concise and clear explanations of processes improve reliability and productivity of the organization (Weick & Sutcliffe, 2001). Failures and errors are bound to occur in any HRO, it is the roles of the HRO to identify, predict and eliminate possible catastrophes rather react to them. An HRO constantly keeps in mind that they might have omitted something that might put the organization at risk. This should be viewed as opportunities to improve current systems by determining weaknesses, examining

My response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

My response - Essay Example It is a reflection of numerous economic indicators, offering an overall measure of the economic growth, competitiveness, and the living standards that are dominant in an economy. It is labor productivity which explains the basics needed to understand econmic growth and social development (Freeman). Increase in labor productivity is said to increase the standard of living in an economy. When productivity increases, the price of products and services decreases which in turns increases domestic as well as foreign consumption for those particular products and services. To meet this increase in demand, overall production increases which utilizes more use of equipment and a greater demand for workforce. Hence, employment increases, real wages of the working class grow and the overall economy flourishes (Galarneau and Dumas). The first 3 paragraphs of the article ‘One Pay Gap Shrinks, Another Grows’ basically tells about how income distribution has not been equal. It is said that the major argument is not whether men have done better than women or vice versa. It is true that women are winning the race of obtaining college diplomas and male high school dropouts are at the top of those suffering the repercussions of the poor job situation. However, it is not only the education system that needs to be revised for better income distribution. The question that matters and need to be answered is ‘why the median worker hasn’t earned more’. There certainly has been an increase in overall wages, but this increase is very moderate. It is also believed that productivity is good but not at par with growth 1947-1963. According to the sources, the bottom 80% of the people would have had $670 billion more of what they have now if the growth rate would had been constant from 60s. This means that the growth rate is perfectly fine but the income has not been distributed equally.

Two creation story Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Two creation story - Essay Example ristian creation stories proves that the former deals with the philosophical aspect of life and the latter deals with the practical aspect of life, and the both can help human beings to view life in today’s society from a different but positive angle of view. As pointed out, the creation stories related to Hinduism deals with the philosophical side of life. To be specific, the Hindu idea is interconnected with the belief that human beings belong to pure consciousness. This pure consciousness is beyond creation and is not destroyable. On the other side, the Christian creation story is based upon a single text, named as Holy Bible. To be specific, the creation narrative (say, the Genesis) is the fundamental principle of Christian creation theory. But the Hindu creation story is based on the belief that all living things share the same pure consciousness. Jim Ollhoff stated that, â€Å"In Indian mythology, some gods come to earth in the form of people, animals, or even other gods† (4). If an individual is not ready to go beyond the limits of the material world, that individual will be forced to undergo rebirth. So, individuals must try to break this cyclic process and they can attain the pure consciousness/eternal freedom or ‘M oksa’. In the Bible, the God’s direct role is pointed out as the base of creation of the world as a whole. For instance, the God took around six days to create everything. In the end, the God decided to create human beings as an experiment. David Adams Leeming stated that, â€Å"It contains the creation myth that forms the basis of the Judeo-Christian tradition† (126). This sort of creation myth-based upon six days-is seen among different religious groups. On the other side, the Hindu creation story does not decline the fact that the Earth was created before millions or billions of years ago. Besides, Hindu creation story is based upon the God’s role in creating human beings and other living things. Similarly, Hindu mythology is of

My response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

My response - Essay Example It is a reflection of numerous economic indicators, offering an overall measure of the economic growth, competitiveness, and the living standards that are dominant in an economy. It is labor productivity which explains the basics needed to understand econmic growth and social development (Freeman). Increase in labor productivity is said to increase the standard of living in an economy. When productivity increases, the price of products and services decreases which in turns increases domestic as well as foreign consumption for those particular products and services. To meet this increase in demand, overall production increases which utilizes more use of equipment and a greater demand for workforce. Hence, employment increases, real wages of the working class grow and the overall economy flourishes (Galarneau and Dumas). The first 3 paragraphs of the article ‘One Pay Gap Shrinks, Another Grows’ basically tells about how income distribution has not been equal. It is said that the major argument is not whether men have done better than women or vice versa. It is true that women are winning the race of obtaining college diplomas and male high school dropouts are at the top of those suffering the repercussions of the poor job situation. However, it is not only the education system that needs to be revised for better income distribution. The question that matters and need to be answered is ‘why the median worker hasn’t earned more’. There certainly has been an increase in overall wages, but this increase is very moderate. It is also believed that productivity is good but not at par with growth 1947-1963. According to the sources, the bottom 80% of the people would have had $670 billion more of what they have now if the growth rate would had been constant from 60s. This means that the growth rate is perfectly fine but the income has not been distributed equally.

Drama Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Drama - Essay Example In this paper I will argue how on many occasions in Oedipus the King, Oedipus and other prominent characters make such comments which emphasize varying levels of power each of them is awarded with. Facts and discussion presented in this essay are basically meant to illuminate the reality of the claim that though Oedipus is presented as the absolute ruler of the city of Thebes by Sophocles, he is actually overtaken or even thwarted at some points in moments of hotheadedness by other influential characters who in a discreet way have more polished sociopolitical and spiritual understanding. It is evident that Oedipus has at least sufficiently more power than his wife (or mother) Jocasta because no amount of pleading or persuasion from her inflicts any effect on him and he maintains an inexorable, persistent, and adamant attitude about hearing the truth from Tiresias who is the oracle of God Apollo. Jocasta does not have enough power which could make her stand up resolutely against Oedip us in order to stop him from going to Tiresias upon listening from Creon that the plague existed in the city because the murderer of Laius remained in the city. Their spiritual ideologies also set in contrast to each other because unlike Oedipus who is moved after being condemned by Tiresias, Jocasta bluntly expresses that he should not worry in the least because all prophets are flawed or phony which is something very controversial or notorious to be said about the spiritual or religious matters for those times. Also, the political power that Oedipus has surpasses that of Jocasta’s because even though she tries to talk him into not punishing Creon on any account, he refuses to second guess his decisions and goes on to banish his royal colleague (Creon) from Thebes because he says, â€Å"my one-time friend Creon attacks me secretly for wealth and power† (li. 452, Bartel). The title of king and the associated power is desired by Creon even more than Oedipus and he comes across as a shrewder politician with more reasonable social vision than King Oedipus who is often hotheaded, frenzied, and exposed unlike the secretive, calm, and manipulative attitude of Creon. But, that does not mean that Oedipus does not get his share of miseries or defeats in the play only because is the sole ruler of the city who could not be intimidated by anyone else. Tiresias, for example, is one character who is not at all influenced or scared by the political power of Oedipus. When Oedipus accuses Tiresias that â€Å"you are blind in mind and ears/as well as in your eyes† (li. 370-5, Goldhill 219) after listening from him that the plague existed in the city because of himself, the oracle without considering the fact that he is in the presence of a king replies pointblank, â€Å"you are a poor wretch to pile upon me insults which everyone soon will heap upon you† (li. 370-5, Goldhill 219). He also fearlessly tells Oedipus that â€Å"although you are the rule r, we have equal power to speak. I am not a slave to you, but I serve Apollo. You insult my blindness, but you, who are not blind, cannot see your own suffering† (li. 410, Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus). The powerful functions of the Chorus or Choragos are also very prominent in Oedipus Rex. The Chorus have sufficient power over Oedipus in that they try to contribute wisdom by telling him to stay clam like a smart ruler and stay away from seeking trouble. The Chorus have

Extreme Sports Essay Example for Free

Extreme Sports Essay It is quite common these days for sport players in many countries to get injured during they are playing sports. People reckon this phenomenon is especially true when people play some relatively more violent and extreme sports. Although those sports court the excitement and challenge the utmost of human being which certainly cannot be brought by other common sport, but, still some conservative people advocate to ban this kind of sport. Those people who assert to ban dangerous sport in publics, the first thing they have to do is to define what sorts of sports are dangerous. Clearly, people divide the sport according to their tendency to lead people injury. But dilemma has occurred here. We all know that there is no definite safe or dangerous sports. Even the safest sports , you can name it, be it running or swimming, they all can induce danger or even pose a threat to peoples life. Sport player may involve in incidents or they can be drowned, this is not limited to those who are unable to swimming, but also evident among those who are good at swimming, they may die because of exhaustion or careless or even be attacked by shark when they swimming in sea. So, the so called safe sports do take peoples lives. Opposing, if in a extreme sport such as skiing, if the player have been correctly educated and trained, with proper protective equipment and play with cautions, then the danger will minimize to the least, even safer than the so called safe sports. To sum up, there is not really dangerous sports if we have put necessary protective equipment, or the proper training and the education has been set in. meanwhile, even the non-dangerous sport also brings bad results if we are careless. So, probably, no sport is really dangerous, the real danger is careless and unsecure equipment. Thus, governments’ role here is not to ban the dangerous sport, but to provide the proper guide to let the player enjoy the sport and in the mean time knows how to play safely.

The Rise of Trump and the Mainstreaming of White Nationalism

The Rise of Trump and the Mainstreaming of White Nationalism Tweet Storm: The Rise of Trump and the Mainstreaming of White Nationalism The opening event for The College of New Jerseys Womens History Month 2017 was a talk given by Dr. Jessie Daniels titled Tweet Storm: The Rise of Trump, the Mainstreaming of White Nationalism, the Real Threat to Building Just and Sustainable Communities. The talk took place in The College of New Jerseys Library Atrium on March 8, 2017 and began with Dr. Janet Gray introducing Daniels by detailing her impressive academic history. Dr. Daniels is a professor of sociology at Hunter College and at the Graduate Center at CUNY who specializes in critical social psychology. She is internationally recognized as an expert in the expression of racism on the internet and the author of two books, White Lies and Cyber Racism, which were the basis of her talk. Daniels opened her talk by first recognizing that the material she would be covering, while important, could be triggering to some members of the audience and promised to not have the anti-semitic and racist imagery on display for longer than necessary. She then goes on to explain how she views white nationalism as a serious, growing threat to developing just and sustainable communities and that she will be discussing these ideas in the context of the most recent U.S. election. Daniels uses her two books, which were accidently written on either side of the internet (Daniels), to examine the growth and change in the white supremacy movement and system in the United States due to the drastic increase in availability of the internet in the late 1990s. White Lies focuses on white supremacists printed publications (Daniels) and is a quantitative analysis of 400 publications from five different white supremacist organizations (Daniels). From her analysis, Daniels first argues that white su premacy is gendered both in regards to the supposed positive attributes of whites and the supposed negative attributes of non-whites. Her second argument is that the rhetoric of white supremacy is similar to the popular political rhetoric around race in general. While this may be extremely apparent to us today, when White Lies was published in 1997 these observations and analysis were novel both in academia and in social justice communities. In her second book, Cyber Racism, Daniels revisits the five groups explored in White Lies to see if had they made this transition; did they make it across the internet on to doing white supremacy digitally (Daniels). She did a quantitative content analysis of Stormfrontà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦andà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦a quasi-experimental in-depth interview designà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦based on web usability studies (Daniels). One of her major findings is white supremacists use of cloaked sites, which she defines as sites that intentionally disguised authorship in order to conceal a political agenda (Daniels), and that racism is changing due to the digital revolution. While this is not surprising, her second finding that students are willing to consider information given on these cloaked sites if asked but are usually deterred by the unprofessional look to the sites is terrifying in its implications. Daniels argues that the goal of white supremacists is to challenge these moral and political victories, like the abolition of slavery, to say lets debate that again (Daniels). This gives white supremacy legitimacy as a reasonable position to hold that can be debated and has caused the United States to be a haven for white supremacy. Our class has spent a significant amount of time talking about white privilege especially in connection to current events such as the Womens March last January and the continuing rise in police brutality against people of color. I believe Daniels second book Cyber Racism and its conclusions could have added another dimension to those discussions since we did not explicitly touch on white supremacy in any of them. Daniels argument that racism has drastically changed due to the digital revolution directly connects to my short presentation on Native Feminism on our second day of class. During that presentation, I included a quote from Sydne Rain which included the line The tone-deafness of all these angry white supremacists around me. Their lack of care.. The use of white supremacists in the quote portrays the new white supremacy described by Daniels in her second book. White supremacy is now much more cloaked than it has been in the past which has led to many average people holding bel iefs that are characterized as white supremacists beliefs. Rain touches upon several realities directly caused by historic and current white supremacy but the average person would not label many of these realities as white supremacy because they only recognize the pre-internet version of the system. This talk also spoke to a topic we have only briefly covered in class but will go more in-depth with in the near future: cyber feminism. Cyber feminism was coined in the 1990s as a way to describe how feminists were critiquing, theorizing about, and using the internet for feminist work. Daniels directly, but probably not purposely, addressed this idea when discussing the revolution of the internet: Then one day I went to bed and when I woke up everyone had the internet. While Daniels never mentions cyber feminism in her talk, her description of how she became interesting in using the internet as a tool for research on racism, white supremacy, and how the internet affected the effect of white supremacy on young adults was essentially the definition of cyber feminism. I believe this talk will inform the classroom discussion on cyber feminism when we reach the topic especially since at least half the class attended the talk. Overall, I found the talk to be informative and enjoyable and the speaker to be conscientious and willing to address complex issues that do not have easy answers. I was glad Daniels took the first few minutes of her talk to recognize that the images she would be showing could be triggering for some members of the audience and to promise to only have them on the screen for as long as she needed. The fact that she took time to do this and followed through on her promise, especially in reference to the anti-semitic images with the recent attacks and threats on Jewish communities, told me she was extremely conscientious and aware of what she was presenting. It was during the questioning part of the event after the talk where she showed how willing she was to address complex issues. I asked a rather difficult question about where she thinks the future of white supremacy is going, both in the short and long term, and how she thinks changing demographics of the United States would affect th is. She did not dismiss my question and answered it to the best of her ability in my opinion. Daniels argument about how students analyze online sources, especially cloaked sites, has been one of the largest take-aways for me. On a personal level, I wonder if I am guilty of dismissing a cloaked site simply due to graphics and if I would recognize these sites for what they are if they did have more professional designs. On a professional level as a teacher, I wonder how my students are interacting with these cloaked sites. Ultimately, this event left me concerned and wondering how I could address these topics with my own students. Work Cited Daniels, Jessica. Tweet Storm: The Rise of Trump, the Mainstreaming of White Nationalism, the Real Threat to Building Just and Sustainable Communities. Womens History Month 2017, The College of New Jersey, 8 March 2017, The College of New Jersey Library, Ewing, NJ, Lecture. hokte (sydnerain). And it makes me so, so fucking angry to type this. The tone-deafness of all these angry white supremacists around me. Their lack of care. 22 January 2017, 8:45 PM. Tweet.

Aqutic Life :: essays research papers

Plants are critical to other life on this planet because they form the basis of all food webs. Most plants are autotrophic, creating their own food using water, carbon dioxide, and light through a process called photosynthesis. Some of the earliest fossils found have been aged at 3.8 billion years. These fossil deposits show evidence of photosynthesis, so plants, or the plant-like ancestors of plants, have lived on this planet longer that most other groups of organisms. At one time, anything that was green and that wasn’t an animal was considered to be a plant. Now, what were once considered â€Å"plants† are divided into several kingdoms: Protista, Fungi, and Plantae. Most aquatic plants occur in the kingdoms Plantae and Protista. It is believed that the earth was originally an aggregation of dust and swirling gases about 4.5 billion years ago. The earliest fossil life forms are 3.8 billion years old and contain simple prokaryotic (without a membrane-bound nucleus) cells. The atmosphere at that time was mostly nitrogen gas, with large portions of carbon dioxide and water vapour. Since life evolved in this atmosphere, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen (major elements of nitrogen gas, carbon dioxide and water) make up 98% of the organic materials in living organisms. There was no oxygen in the early atmosphere, so all life existed in an anaerobic environment. Since no human was alive to document the events of the early earth, much of our information has been pieced together from studies of the fossil record. It is now believed that the earth 4.0 billion years ago was a very tumultuous place; there were violent electrical storms, radioactive substances emitting large quantities of energy, and molten rock and boiling water erupting from beneath the earth’s surface. These forces broke apart the simple gases in the atmosphere, causing them to reorganize into more complex molecules. Ultraviolet light bombarded the surface of the earth, breaking apart the complex molecules and forming new ones. These complex compounds were washed out of the atmosphere by driving rains and subsequently collected in the oceans. Many organic molecules tend to clump together, so the early oceans probably had aggregations of organic molecules that looked like droplets of oil in water. These clusters of molecules may have been the ancestors of primitive cells. They may also have been the source of energy for early life forms; primitive cells could have used these complex compounds to satisfy their energy requirements.

Theory and Praxis in Aristotle and Heidegger :: Aristotle heidegger Essays

Theory and Praxis in Aristotle and Heidegger ABSTRACT: The discussion of Heidegger's â€Å"destructive retrieve† of Aristotle has been intensified in recent years by the publication of Heidegger's courses in the years surrounding his magnum opus. Heidegger's explicit commentary on Aristotle in these courses permits one to read Being and Time with Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and Metaphysics. My paper analyzes a network of differences between the two thinkers, focusing on the relationship between theory and praxis. From Aristotle to Heidegger, there is: (1) a shift from the priority of actuality to the priority of possibility. This shift, I argue, is itself the metaphysical ground of: (2) a shift from the priority of theory to the priority of praxis. This shift is seen most clearly in the way in which (3) Heidegger's notion of Theorie is a modification of his poà ­esis. The temporal ground of the reversal is seen in (4) Heidegger's notion of transcendence towards the world, and not towards an eternal being. Heidegger's "destructive retrieve" of Aristotle is getting more attention recently, as the courses he gave in the years surrounding the appearance of Being and Time are gradually becoming available. Heidegger's explicit commentary on Aristotle in many of these courses permits one to read Being and Time as a work written in conversation with the Greek master. Contrasting Being and Time with Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics and Metaphysics, my paper analyzes a network of relations and differences between the two thinkers, focussing on the relationship between theory and praxis. Between Aristotle and Heidegger, there is 1) a shift from the priority of actuality in Aristotle, to the priority of possibility in Heidegger. This shift, I argue, is itself the metaphysical ground of 2) a shift from the priority of theory in the one thinker to the priority of praxis in the other. This shift is seen most clearly in the way in which 3) Heidegger's notion of Theorie is a modification of a more original poà ­Ãƒ ©sis. The temporal ground of the reversal is seen in 4) Heidegger's notion of transcendence towards the world, and not towards an eternal being. I. From Aristotle's Actuality to Heidegger's Possibility For Heidegger, possibility precedes actuality: though human beings have a factical structure, the way that we interpret the world is on the basis of possibility. For Aristotle, however, actuality is prior to potentiality (Meta: 1049b 4ff). Now Aristotle's notion of physical potentiality and what Heidegger calls possibility are not identical.

Dreaming Better Dreams Essay

There is no doubt everyone has dream. It is an experience that occurs during sleep. However, dreams are not only all about sleeping experience. We have dreams in life and these dreams are the things that we aspire to have, the status that we want to establish, or the kind of life that we long to have in the future. Thus, at times we are daydreaming that we are there, about to fulfill our dreams. In Mark twain’s The Mysterious Stranger Satan was mentioned as ghost standing at the behind the food processor and admiring a person’s lawn-mowing skills. It was not clear whether it was a dream but dream sometimes appears as one’s night mare. In the ensuing conversation between Satan and the person, Satan says â€Å"dream other dreams, and better† (120). Here, it was not clear whether Satan was advising the person to have a better ambition in life or he was just inciting a person to think of something beyond what he can do in order to make sin. But what ever is Satan’s intension, there is a truth in his statement. One should really have dreams life, a better dream. Dreams as some psychologist say are simply product of our imagination. They say, when we are asleep, our sub-conscious mind becomes active which us to dream dreams. No one likes bad dreams, but everyone enjoys good dreams. In dream, we can do anything that is impossible in real life and when we are awakened we regret that it was only a dream. The truth is we can dream a better dream that is not merely product of our subconscious mind when we are asleep. Our dreams can turn to reality if we could overcome anything that limits us. Our dreams can be fulfilled if we let all our strength, courage, strength, wisdom, and all our best efforts to pull together for a single purpose, achieving our better dreams in life. An ill Time to Laugh In the Bible, particularly in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, the writer states that â€Å"there is a time for everything in this life. There is â€Å"a time to be born and a time to die†, â€Å"a time to weep and a time to laugh. † This is true even today for most us. There is a proper time for everything. In the second prompt, the context tells us that â€Å"Satan laughs at Theodor and at Theodor’s sheepish neighbor who all throw stones at the hanged woman†(109). The scenario led us to think of something dreadful. We do not exactly why the woman was hanged perhaps she was caught in adultery, or that she was a witch but it looks like neighbors were against her who all throw stones at her while she was hanging dead. The only person conscientious of what is going on perhaps is Theodor. Theodor said to Satan, â€Å"It was ill time to laugh, for free and scoffing ways†¦brought him under suspicion. † Satan protested in this statement saying, â€Å"There spoke the race† â€Å"always ready it hasn’t got †¦ you have perception of humor, nothing more; a multitude of you possess that. This multitude sees the comic side of a thousand low-grade and trivial things-broad in-congruities, mainly: grotesqueries, absurdities, evokers of the horse-laugh† (109). There is something we can learn from this statement. Many people see only the comic side of the things around them or of the people they met and laugh at them. We tend to be evokers of the horse-laugh rather than objective in our judgment of anything that we see on others. Most of the time, we laugh at people even when it is an ill time to laugh. Perhaps, our problem is that we could hardly see when the right time to laugh on other people is. The best thing perhaps for us to avoid becoming evokers of horse-laugh is to always bear in mind the biblical statement, â€Å"there is a time weep and a time to die. † Reference Twain, Mark â€Å"The Mysterious Strangers†

Compare the Ways in which John Steinbeck and Thomas Hardy Explore the Theme of Loneliness Essay

The two books have one clear element in common. The two authors, Steinbeck and Hardy, give us a great outlook on loneliness in its many forms. They communicate their ideas and thoughts to us in a very similar manner, despite being from very different times and walks of life. Of Mice and Men, is set and was written during the Great Depression of the United States of America in the early 1930’s, in the Salinas Valley of California, tells us the story of George Milton and Lennie Small. The two migrant workers, bound together by an unusual and sure friendship, are in pursuit together of the â€Å"Great† American Dream – their dream. They will have their own land, be their own masters and no longer have to answer to anyone, and finally live in peace. On the other hand we have The Withered Arm, set in the early 19th Century as one of Hardy’s Wessex Tales, where he lived all his life. Hardy tells us the tale of a young woman, Gertrude Lodge, as she begins her new life. However, things are not what they should have been as Gertrude is afflicted with an unknown blight, her happiness both threatened and later destroyed. She is not completely alone – her plight is intertwined with that of Rhoda Brook, who carries a great pain in her heart and a great power, or perhaps a curse, that not even she realises. The two texts are each set in the same rural environment as that of their authors, both bringing us the tale of so many people struggling through their lives as best they can. In Of Mice and Men we see that every man, and woman, has their own dreams, their own obsessions to pine away for, to imagine and envisage when they are so often so lonely – each has their own thoughts, their method, of escapism from the reality they live in. The Withered Arm, again, in a different manner shows characters angry, obsessed, with lives they could have had and the possibilities that they have lost or had taken away from them. Each are victims of circumstance, each yearn for lives that are no longer theirs, each for a chance now gone. In each difficulty we can see a parallel, and in both books we can see characters sharing the same basic challenges to overcome, and obstacles in their path. Both show us some of the many facets and characteristics of loneliness and trouble in this world – no matter how little they look for difficulty and dilemmas, people will always manage to find them, no matter how hard they strive against it. â€Å"The best laid schemes o’ mice and men Gang aft agley [Often go wrong] And leave us nought but pain For promised joy† Robert Burns As Of Mice and Men begins, we are shown the two migrant farm workers, George and Lennie, on their way to a new job, a new start, â€Å"bucking† barley at a Californian ranch; fleeing much undue upset in their last town, mostly thanks, despite his original intentions, to Lennie. It is late evening and they both spend the night by the Salinas River before continuing on to their new place of work the next morning. It is here that we first discover some of the main personality differences, and conflicts, between the two characters, and learn of their aspirations and their future. We immediately see much of their natures and that of their friendship as Lennie â€Å"flung himself down and drank from the surface of the green pool†¦snorting into the water like a horse.† Lennie dives headlong, dunking his head into the murky waters of the Salinas like an animal, all for a drink of water; George restrains him, attempting to keep him in line and to keep him safe. George and Lennie have struggled their way through life together, as an inseparable pair, not like all the other hopefuls out there, â€Å"Because I got you an’ you got me† – together they might just get somewhere. The way this particular phrase is repeated so much tells us a lot about their friendship and how they both so desperately need it to survive. â€Å"The first man was small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp, strong features†¦every part of him was defined.† We see George as the sharp and able leader who gives Lennie his direction, blunt and bitter when it comes to his frustrations. All too often feeling taunted by the world, his life, and the problems they each throw at him – no matter how hard he tries and how much he accounts for it. Despite his quick temper and scathing reprisals, he holds a great care and affection for his travel-partner and the companionship he brings him – much more than is at first apparent. George feels responsible for Lennie, he has been Lennie’s guardian ever since the passing-away of his Aunt Clara, and no matter how hard he tries he always, and always will, feel that Lennie’s troubles, Lennie’s mistakes and faults are his own and that which he must resolve and reconcile – however much they may cause him yet more problems of his own. George feels a great loneliness inside, believing in his heart himself to be as worthless as every other like him, and as a result of this he gains his purpose – to become somebody, and he knows that is something he and Lennie must do and can only do together. Without Lennie he would be nothing, no more than every other man like him – alone and without hope. â€Å"Behind him walked his opposite, a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, with wide, sloping shoulders†¦he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws†¦his arms did not swing but hung loosely at his sides.† Lennie, we can already see if very different to George, a slow simpleton, likened to an animal on two counts now, expressing his simple personality and impulsive nature. It is thanks to the pair’s great bond and need that we see Lennie as such a vital character in the book, for George is not the only man to whom Lennie brings a purpose, it is around him that so much of the story unfolds and revolves about. Despite the simplicity in his manner and unsure path throughout the story, Lennie brings certainty to all those around him. They are drawn to the raw and basic companionship that his presence brings – he is both consort and confidant for all their thoughts and feelings. He neither understands nor takes in much of what they say but, rather than wasting their breath, it seems even more a boon unto them. Lennie is like a wandering sheep and it is George that gives him his direction and his purpose, and as he takes his lead from George, Lennie in turn gains his own shape and dream. Lennie’s simple, cumbersome shape walks always in George’s shadow, always behind him wherever he may go, no matter what. For Lennie life is as simple as he is – it is that which seems to create so many problems for them both, in turn presenting the answers to so many others, and it is this which gives Lennie such a lasting effect on all those around him. The two are together in the pursuit of their own dreams, each finding both a purpose and the means in the other. George dreams of his own land, his own life, and it is much the same for Lennie, on his own basic level. Lennie wishes to care for his own creatures, his rabbits. He loves to hear every word of them that he can get, and George loves to tell them to him – so obsessed and incensed are they with merely the thought of what lies ahead for them with the success of their great plan. This form of â€Å"dreaming† and hoping that many of the characters of this story holds shows how everyone of them wishes to escape from the present world that they live in, where society demands everything of them when they have nothing to hold as their own, and nothing to give. Together these two continue their journey, their unique bond always apparent as they cross upon the lives of many others, all showing the properties of loneliness and all for different reasons, giving us an outlook on how so many in this world are alone and isolated, and how what George and Lennie have is so valuable. â€Å"Ain’t many guys travel together†¦maybe everyone in the whole damn world is scared of each other.† The pressure of the â€Å"American Dream† and the demands of that society’s doctrines and social structure to achieve are imposed upon everyone and anyone and this is why it becomes such a great feature and driving force behind so much of the loneliness of this book. Every common man goes to America to succeed and achieve something, but society inflicts quite the opposite upon them – projecting, forcing upon them, an image of how people should think and most certainly be resulting in loneliness and isolation, a dissatisfaction of themselves and those around them and the ongoing fear of amounting to absolutely nothing. It is ironic that this very society which sets out to have everyone achieve and succeed does quite the opposite, causing so many problems along the way. The nature of the â€Å"American Dream† that so many in this story hold in their minds is that very thing which isolates every one of them from each other, and dooms them to failure. Upon arriving at the ranch, they are met by an old man named Candy and his now old and scrawny dog. It is Candy who explains to them the ways of the ranch, first showing them around and then, as the story progresses, introducing the personalities of the other ranch hands to them. We learn much about Candy himself and who he is, seeing in the second chapter Candy caught listening in on George and Lennie’s words together, as George attempts to keep Lennie in check and keep him safe. Candy was listening simply to feel as a part of their conversation, to feel involved in something, for Candy craves conversation in any form, so alone does he feel. It can be seen that now for so much of his life Candy has been separated from the other men, isolated from all others. Since Candy lost his hand in an accident upon the farm he has been unable to work with the others, condemned to the menial tasks and solitary life during the day, and now thanks to his advancing years he is even more isolated. His only companion throughout all this time has been his pet dog, a source of consternation for the other men as it nears the end of its days, its presence being an eyesore to them all and odour a cause of much dismay. The animal had been his companion since its birth, and now old and suffering from rheumatism, the men convince Candy to allow them to put it out of its misery for him. As Candy grudgingly agrees, against a great sadness, he loses his oldest and closest friend, and again he feels truly alone. Having no one, he attaches himself to Lennie and George and to the dream they both share and makes himself a part of it, willing to offer all he has, his life’s work and savings, for it to be so. However, as that dream is again jeopardised, perhaps fatally, he still wishes to carry on and fulfil the dream – for it is all he has left. It this desperation of Candy’s to make his new dream, their dream, become so, that yet another man becomes tied up in the illusion and the hope that it brings. Crooks is a fellow worker upon the ranch, a stable buck, working to repair saddles, tools and to look after the horses, unable to do other work since he was crippled, kicked in the back by one of the horses he was working with. We have never heard much of Crooks, only chance phrases from the other men, snatches of comments in the middle of a conversation; he is not often talked about, and never talked to – Crooks is a Negro. We do not see him for the majority of the book for he is never with the other men, always separated from everyone, simply because of the discrimination, the ignorance and the prejudices of that time. As the only Negro in the area, he is completely alone, without anyone but himself for so much of his life, but it was not always so. Crooks used to have someone – he used to live with his family, they owned a farm, he was with his brothers, his parents – his family, and he was counted as someone; now he isn’t even counted. The â€Å"American Dream† tells us of equality, of everyone having a chance to attain their dreams, to have something to hold, be proud of and call their own – in America everyone and anyone can have just this and be somebody unless, of course, if they are black. â€Å"This is just a nigger talkin’†¦so it don’t mean nothing, see?† This contradiction and hypocrisy intermittent throughout the dream is that which causes Crooks to be just who he is – alone and isolated, helpless and unable to anything about it. When Lennie wanders into Crooks’ living area simply looking for company as the other men are all away in the town, Crooks shows outrage and indignation that a white man would presume it his right to simply walk into his room without leave. However, Lennie’s innocence wins through, despite Crooks’ irritation, â€Å"Crooks scowled, but Lennie’s disarming smile defeated him.† As Crooks begins to talk to Lennie, and discover the nature of his relationship with George, we see his jealousy that another man could have someone so easy to talk to, such a simple and easy friendship. Such is his bitterness and jealousy over the pair’s companionship that Crooks goes on to taunt and tease Lennie with the possibility that George is injured and is no longer going to be there. He tells Lennie that he too is alone and must look after himself and continue life knowing he had someone, had something, and lost it as Crooks did. Crooks wants Lennie to feel what his pain is every day, every hour, and make someone else feel how he does – and, in doing so, make himself feel less alone. â€Å"A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody†¦a guy gets lonely and he gets sick†. As Lennie’s anger flares up, we see that perhaps Crooks isn’t so malicious after all, for he placates Lennie – he wants him to stay, despite him being a white man, one who took his life away from him, an enemy. So alone is he that any company will do, black or white – it doesn’t matter any more; and so â€Å"It was difficult for Crooks to conceal his pleasure with anger,† as Candy joins Lennie. He only has himself and what little company that he can find; he has been separated from others, alone for so long, simply because of the colour of his skin, so isolated thanks to an ignorant and naive prejudice, so much for a dream – when Crooks came to America he found an ongoing nightmare. There should be equality, and this is what America shouted aloud to the world – everyone in America has a dream to live out, and everyone who comes to America has a chance. However, this is not the case for Crooks – despite what people claimed, despite what the â€Å"American Dream† told them, he has nothing but material possessions, and to him they re nothing. Reading books is his only source of company, but â€Å"Books ain’t no good. A guy needs somebody – to be near him.† When Crooks first learns of their dream, not quite as they intended for it was their dream and nobody else’s’, he scoffs for has heard this kind of a story all before – he has seen hundreds of other hopefuls come through the ranch and continue on into nothing. He tells them this mockingly, and also to end their hopes for they too are going nowhere. However, as Candy justifies their hopes in defence, he subsides for he sees the possibilities himself, gets caught up in the trio’s aspirations and dreams, as Candy did, and pleads to be taken along, to join them – simply to be somewhere with others who might accept him for who he is and not for what. Crooks begins to open up, he finally believes himself to be an equal and to be counted, and he has been given back both his hope and a real chance. However, things are not to be as they hoped as the wife of Curley, the boss’ son, enters. As always the men are wary and bid her leave and in response her bitter temper rises. Crooks stands up to her, thinking outside his place in his newfound happiness, and she drills into him, makes him again realise just who he is, how little all he says and thinks is valued and how much power she holds over him. For a moment Crooks had become a man again and believed in his own freedom, but Curley’s wife put an end to that, to his open thought and his belief in all his hopes of being his own man again. â€Å"Crooks stared hopelessly at her, sat down†¦and drew into himself†¦Crooks had reduced himself to nothing, no personality, no ego†¦Everything that might be hurt drawn in†¦into the indomitable pride of the Negro.† Crooks the Negro presumed to think himself on the same level as Curley’s wife, to cap all the isolation and rejection from every other person on the ranch. So enraged is she that we see the malicious and bitter side of her nature born out of the oppression, the distress and torment of countless similar situations where no one ever listens, where she is always alone. She gives him no quarter as her scathing, bitter anger lashes into him. This conflict amongst and between the oppressed and repressed – first between Candy and Crooks, Crooks believing their dream to be as hopeless as all the rest, so demoralised has he become thanks to the life that American society has put him through, and then between Crooks and Curley’s wife, simply leads them in a circle, and right back to square one. Both are without freedom and hold little control over their own rights, and still they are brought into conflict by the ways in which society portrays the world and treats each of them, one putting the other’s hopes and liberty again into doubt, painting a wholly despondent and bleak future -all the more separated from each other, all the more isolated and alone. Curley’s wife always appears as a woman up to no good, spoken of hurriedly in whispered conversations. She is always out looking for trouble with the other men, always holding apparent bad intentions as she flaunts herself in a vain attempt to attract them to her, willing to do anything for companionship, and as a result getting quite the opposite. George had always recognised her danger, but Lennie is blind to every bit of it. However, we begin to see that she isn’t up to such wickedness as we are first led to believe, and her bitter tongue is simply born of a life of loneliness. The men always shy away from her fearing blackmail from a work mate or Curley’s wrath if they were to dare the stigma and go against the rules of society, and become friendly with another man’s wife. This fear of the bosses’ authority and their abuse of it is yet another barrier that stands between ever establishing some true ideals of equality. She has been alone and isolated by everyone for so long, not even her husband listens to her, simply telling her what he wants to say and never waiting for a response. Lennie, never vigilant nor wary for he has no reason to be, is the first person that hasn’t looked at her with fear in his eyes, for he is different; she has tried everything and seems doomed to failure – everyone is repulsed, everyone resists her, everyone bar Lennie, and she latches onto him because of this. One day she catches him on his own and without George always looking over his shoulder. He is like an open book to her, and instantly accepts her for exactly what she is. She delights in finally finding someone who is such a perfect companion, who no longer draws back away from her in fear, but talks to her as he would anyone else. Despite what is first apparent, she simply wants to be with someone who listens. We learn that she once had a life, once had a chance and could have been somebody, been somewhere and just perhaps have got somewhere in life, but had it taken away from her through no fault of her own, but the unjust and unreasonable actions of another – her own mother. To escape that, to escape a dead end and lonely life where one that should be so close to her takes her chances and dreams away from her, she married Curley and inadvertently runs into something much worse. She had a dream, found a chance and lost it thanks to a situation entirely out of her control, and things only go down hill from there. She is alone unable to do anything to escape the life that she now leads, no one is willing to talk to her, she is confined to the ranch and no longer has any chance of happiness, or simply of finding a friend. Yet again, a pursuer of the â€Å"American Dream† finds quite the opposite. She revels in Lennie’s companionship, temporarily feeling as if she were no longer alone in the world as Crooks did, and so tells him things that she has told no other, opening herself to him and finding that he accepts all that she says without doubt or uncertainty. However, as she learns of Lennie’s love for the touch and feel of soft things, she lets him closer without restraint or forethought, lets him touch and hold her hair. As she draws away in worry that her hair (and subsequently her looks) are being dishevelled, the one thing she believes herself to truly hold is mishandled, and so she pulls away, expressing her distress. Lennie panics and does the only thing that his simple mind can think of – resist, and so he grips hold of her tighter, unwilling to let go, he is confused and frightened and understands nought of what is happening. He fears that if George were to find out that he had made someone unhappy and done wrong by them he would abandon and discard him, fearing disapproval if his actions were ever discovered; and so he clamps his hand over her mouth, hoping that none would hear the noise. He grips even tighter as she struggles all the more desperately in the pain that his awesome strength is causing her, and he jerks and shakes her body in response, in an attempt to silence her. In this he succeeds, but to an extent that he never intended – he unwittingly breaks her neck. Yet again Lennie has caused great harm without ever realising it possible, and this time the outcome is greatly worse. She was always alone, always without somebody, even those closest to her appear to have wished against her happiness; John Steinbeck signifies this to us by never naming Curley’s wife – she was never important to the person, and the people, that she should have been. As soon as she finds someone that was conceivably different, perhaps wasn’t like all the others, she takes it all too far too soon, without thinking of the consequences. As a result she loses everything. The story ends in the pursuit of Lennie, George goes after him with the other men for he cannot let them get to him first and it is here that we are reminded of Candy’s words upon his own companion, his pet dog, â€Å"I ought to of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn’t have let no stranger shoot my dog.† George finally catches up with Lennie at their meeting point where they stayed that first night before making their way onto the ranch. Lennie has been plagued by images and hallucinations from his past and his imagination, so distraught has he become over doing something so wrong and upsetting George in such a huge way, without ever intending to he managed to take away every hope the two had of achieving their dream all thanks to the pressure put upon him to do right by everyone, make no mistakes and allow none to hear of the rest, which leads to him causing more problems than ever before. George has Lennie imagine their dream once more, for that was always how Lennie was happiest – imagining his future, escaping from the present. It is in this moment that George puts the gun to the back of Lennie’s head, and, fighting off his shaking hand, pulls down upon the trigger. He never wanted to, but he had to – this was the only possible choice George could have made for the ultimately innocent Lennie, nothing he could do would have been easier, or better, for Lennie. George in doing so loses his one and only companion, every hope he ever had of being somebody and every hope of those around him that became a part of their dream – all in that instant every hope was lost. Such is the despair that Candy finds it difficult to let go, he wants to continue the dream and to finish it, despite all which has happened, but he knows that is never possible now. Lennie was the one that held everything, everyone, together and gave them all hope and a chance, and now he was gone. The Withered Arm tells us a story of the ordeal of Rhoda Brook, her son, Farmer Lodge and his newly married wife, Gertrude, as Thomas Hardy chooses to constantly switch your attention, not concentrating on single character’s loneliness and hardships, but that of four. We first meet Rhoda Brook working in the cow sheds, a milkmaid, and we instantly recognise how emotionally isolated and detached from others she is. As the other characters about her chat among themselves she chooses to remain apart, and uninvolved, from them all. We see how alone and different from the other simple farm hands she is, â€Å"He hasn’t spoken to her for years,† whilst they talk about her and the notorious love affair she had with the Farmer Lodge – and his recent marriage to a young lady not from nearby, but the city. She is one apart from the rest, not like them, and no longer does she care or worry over their words and thoughts of her. She remains impassive throughout the conversation and the others comments about her, â€Å"She knew she had slyly been called a witch.† Her physical loneliness and separation, probably much out of choice, is also elaborated upon as â€Å"She milked slightly apart from the rest,† as well as through the description of where she has chosen to live, â€Å"their course lay apart from the rest†. The truth about Rhoda and Farmer Lodge’s affair, now many years in the past, is widely known in the area. Long ago they were together and for unexplained reasons she was abandoned – perhaps upon the realisation of Rhoda’s pregnancy. The very thing meant to bring a couple closer together and bring with it happiness and companionship may have brought completely the opposite for Rhoda. However, Farmer Lodge has developed very materialistic views, adhering and conforming to those of the society he lives in. Rhoda was below his class, below him, and he could never have been seen in a permanent relationship with her because of that – society would never have accepted him. Another possible reason is that of Rhoda’s advancing years and waning beauty – her age is closer to that of Lodge’s and so his materialism again pushes him away from her as he chooses to marry a young and still beautiful girl not long out of her teen.This is what he feels he must have – the best. With the arrival of Gertrude Lodge the final brick is laid in the wall standing between Rhoda and her happiness, between her and Lodge and both of them and their son. We recognise instantly that Gertrude is neither country-born nor country-bred, and knows little of her new life and what lies ahead. From the beginning she is almost completely alone – she is a young lady, highborn, and not long out of her teens, lady-like and beautiful, and there are none like her that she can communicate with. Gertrude worries much over others’ opinions of her, as she desires so much to be readily accepted into her new community. However, things are not to be all she could hope for, as she soon realises how alone she is to be as society separates her from the majority of those around her, thanks to the strict taboos on cross-class relationships and of a lady socialising with those of the lower class. When Rhoda learns of Gertrude’s arrival she has her son discover ever detail and feature of the girl, sizing her up and comparing herself to Gertrude in her jealousy, for she believes that it should be she, not Gertrude, that Farmer Lodge should have married and is bitterly angry that he refuses to acknowledge their son and even what they both had between each other as anything but insignificant and irrelevant. The son that Rhoda and Lodge both had together is yet another great example of the loneliness that this story portrays as his mother’s loneliness and emotional feelings merely add to that of his own. Hardy chooses to give him no name, as did Steinbeck with Curley’s wife, emphasising how unimportant and worthless he is in the eyes of those that he should mean so much to. His father rejects him outright – barely ever acknowledging his presence, â€Å"He took no outward notice of the boy whatsoever,† and when he does it is only as an inferior and one of no consequence as the boy is described as â€Å"Just one of the neighbourhood.† Even his own mother, with whom he has lived for all his years, is unconcerned with him, so obsessed and incensed with her own dilemma that she simply uses him as ammunition, and justification, of her right over others to Lodge. He is used as a spy upon Gertrude and Lodge by his mother, if not that then he is always at work upon one household duty or another, and despite all that he does none of it seems to satisfy his mother. He is barely ever given any affection at all, seemingly only useful for errands and chores that Rhoda cannot bring herself to do. Despite her anger over Farmer Lodge’s total lack of acceptance of their son, she too does much the same, and never realises the frustrations that he hides underneath as a result of this all, â€Å"His mother not observing that he was cutting a notch with his pocket knife into the beech-backed chair.† The son has no father figure to follow, but certainly not a good example, and his mother tries to set him one no better – she doesn’t even make the effort. Rhoda develops an obsession with Gertrude whom she has neither met nor even seen. Such is her fixation that one night she is visited in a troubled dream by an image, the distorted and repulsive impression of Gertrude that Rhoda has built up in her mind through her bitter jealousy. â€Å"The figure thrust forward its left hand mockingly, so as to make the wedding ring it wore glitter in Rhoda’s eyes.† This thing that Rhoda believes Gertrude to be taunts her, thrusting the proof of her marriage to Farmer Lodge before her very eyes – the thing that Rhoda herself so covets and desires for herself. As the creature draws closer, Rhoda grips its arm in fright and hurls it to the floor. One day Gertrude visits Rhoda in her small house upon the hill, and Rhoda sees her for what she really is. Gertrude, in her loneliness in Lodge’s great manor house, comes to Rhoda for companionship, and in her she finds a friend. At first Rhoda is unresponsive, but slowly she begins to come round, to see through all the lies she has told herself all too often in her resentment at being alone. However, all is not to be so perfectly resolved, as we learn of Gertrude’s arm – the strange marks, like as that of fingers’, upon the flesh and over time they gradually worsen and deteriorate. â€Å"It looks almost like finger marks†¦as if some witch, or the devil himself, had taken a hold of me there, and blasted the flesh.† Gertrude’s other sorrow becomes apparent as she too has realised the faith that the farmer puts into face value and beauty – for she believes that he will begin to love her less if the arm does not heal as it should. As a result, over time, Gertrude begins to preoccupy herself and obsess about her arm as Rhoda did over Farmer Lodge and it continues to worsen. No one understands its nature, no one knows of a cure and Gertrude, stricken with worry and concern, turns again to Rhoda, following perhaps a maid’s, or a worker’s, advice, and the irony in this is how many would believe Rhoda to be the guilty party, the witch, cursing upon Gertrude and that she of all people would know her adversary best. Rhoda meanwhile says nothing upon the matter of the arm, merely inquiring upon it, hoping that it might recover. For Rhoda neither understands what effect she has had upon Gertrude, nor knows how she caused it – much of the time she vainly tells herself that it is nothing but a coincidence. All the same, Rhoda apprehensively leads Gertrude across the hills and fields one day to Conjuror Trendle, a man renowned for powers that other people believe in more than he. â€Å"He affected not to believe largely in his own powers and when warts that had been shown him for the cure miraculously disappear†¦he would say lightly, ‘Oh I only drink a glass of grog upon ’em†¦perhaps its all chance’, and immediately turn the subject.† Trendle lives many miles apart from other men, separated by their views and taboos of that society upon witchcraft and anything related. He has been cast away by their prejudices all because he has a talent that they neither possess nor understand, and they fear him for this. He merely uses what he has to help people as best he can, getting nothing but fear and aversion in return, and this he does for Gertrude too. Despite the rumours and whispers that people speak behind his back, he does what he knows to be best all the same – rejecting the constraints of society for his own freedom, and in turn having much of it taken away. He shows to Gertrude the image of an enemy, the only one capable of causing such a blight, and Rhoda’s fears are to be realised as, despite Gertrude never telling her who the image she saw was, she never spoke to Rhoda again, never mentioned the arm and never called around her house, simply looking for a companion, again – for now her unsee n assailant had a face, that of Rhoda. Over a very short period their friendship began to break down very quickly, almost instantly as realisation had dawned upon Gertrude, and so she never saw anything of Rhoda, or her son, again for many years and eventually the two both slipped out of the community and were never seen again – they were forced out by the fears of others, by Rhoda’s desires of things that were no longer hers to covet and by the entire community, for none really cared. Gertrude was now truly alone and without a single companion- her husband no longer even looked at her, such was his revulsion of the withering of her arm and displeasure at the fact that she had not even managed to produce him an heir in all their time together. Gertrude’s beauty was waning as the full anguish of the arm and being so alone in the world assailed her. She became obsessed with the arm and the search for cures, attempting every crackpot remedy that she could find in her maddened struggle – but none ever worked or had any effect. Driven into desperation by her husband’s and society’s demands for young ladies to be beautiful and perfect always, for Gertrude fears the rejection of her husband as Rhoda was rejected many years ago. In many ways this despair and incensed search for a cure drove even larger a void between Gertrude and her husband, for in the end it was both she and the arm driving him away, so obsessed did she become – much thanks to the pressures and expectations of the world around her. Again she goes to visit Trendle in the vain hope that perhaps he will be able to cure her at last, however, this time she makes the journey alone – showing just how much more lonely and separated from others she has become. Upon arriving she sees Trendle, now an old man and barely able to even leave his house – he has lost even that little bit of freedom that life had allowed him and has absolutely no one but himself to rely on, and no one to be there when he dies. In his last days, Trendle tells her simply what had to be done – he was too old to help now, she would have to cope alone with this task as always, but he could point her in the right direction. She agrees to all that he tells her, whatever it may be, such is her desire to again be beautiful for her husband again and to allow her to again conform to the views of those around her – much the opposite choice to that of Conjuror Trendle. Gertrude must touch the body of an executed man just cut down from a hanging – not dead for more than an instant so as to turn the blood of Gertrude and cure the withering of the arm. Finally, after many weeks wait the chance arrives and Gertrude’s prayers, driven to wishing upon the death of a fellow man, are answered and she strikes up a deal with the old, isolated hangman, separated from others by the nature of his trade, who was not wholly unused to requests of her sort. The condemned that is to become Gertrude’s saviour is a young man, charged of arson – the burning down of an old warehouse. The young man was apparently simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, but an example had to be made to satisfy the people. On the allotted night, Gertrude goes to the hangman as planned, and he then leads her to the open casket and she pulls back the covering and touches the figure beneath. To her horror she sees it to be Rhoda’s own son – the son of Farmer Lodge. Gertrude backs off in dismay and turns to discover both Rhoda and Lodge standing behind her. Rhoda shouts in anger and pushes Gertrude away from them both, for even now she still stands between the Farmer Lodge and their son once again – as always Gertrude comes between Rhoda and Lodge, always in the way of Rhoda’s hopes, desires and always keeping her completely alone. Gertrude screams in fear and falls to the floor, for the shock and extreme stress, together with the draining nature of the arm finally get the best of her, for she has died. Her blood had been turned, but all too far. Here the story concludes, as Rhoda moves farther away and separates herself from the local community entirely yet again, totally alone thanks to her own bitterness. Even after her son is lost still nobody goes to pay their respects or offer their company – she becomes even more alone than ever, all thanks to her own negligence. Farmer Lodge is also alone now, perhaps as he deserved, for his uncaring and selfish ways led to the grief of many and his dishonesty to the death of his wife for he broke his marriage vows that he made before God – â€Å"In sickness and in health.† His wife is dead and his son is lost forever and with him any chance of ever having an heir to all his estate. In his despair Lodge sells all his farm and land and moves away – only now do we realise how truly alone he has become, and all thanks to him, his materialism and conforming to what society dictates as to how he should live his life. He offers Rhoda an annual income, as an attempt at a final reconciliation but she never accepts it and none see her again. He loses everything and is doomed to die alone, leaving us later to discover that he has left all that is his to a reformatory for boys, showing how he did have thoughts and feelings regarding his son, but never had the strength to show them which is perhaps his greatest sin. Both Lodge and Rhoda isolated themselves from others and both are now even lonelier as a result of this. Gertrude’s vanity may have played a part in her own undoing, represented by the extremes to which she was willing to go as she even wished for the death of a fellow man, guilty or innocent alike, but it was Lodge, and those around her, that drove her to such desperation and in the end she dies alone, above all emotionally, as her husband stands apart from her with Rhoda. The young son meanwhile, brought to his end by Gertrude’s desperate wishing is always portrayed in Hardy’s novel as the innocent throughout, trapped between his two parents never being truly loved or cared for – always alone and always innocent. Towards the end we assume that perhaps he has got involved in a youth gang. This leads to his later arrest at the crime scene showing that no father figure and role model at all would have perhaps been better than that of a bad and unloving one who rejects him outright, he may have been innocent but he never had anyone who would stand up for him. This rejection by his father and ignorant negligence on his mother’s part leads to his tragic death, similar to that of Candy’s wife – who also remains unnamed as they are never important to those that they should be, leaving both of them completely alone and hopeless. The unfortunate tragedy that we see at the end of each novel is but one of the many similarities between these two novels. As we begin, each story features two central characters, George and Lennie, Rhoda and Gertrude, around which the story unfolds. As they live their lives we are introduced to many others, each with their own individual problems and dilemmas besetting them. These unlikely friendships between our central characters ultimately end in a tragedy, first with one unknowingly causing great problems for the other and finally one must put the other out of their misery, and at the same time condemn themselves to loneliness and hopelessness yet again. In Of Mice and Men we see at the root of everyones’ problems the desperation to achieve and become somebody – to find the American Dream. The society in which they have lived tells them that they are nothing without achievement, and they all agree for much of their sadness originates from this feeling of worthlessness. In George and Lennie’s case it drives them onwards, in search of their dream, but the others do not have the friendship that they each possess and have no hope of getting anywhere. Candy is old, crippled, with no hope of being able to work for something anymore and no hope of ever actually finding a companion as everyone deserts him each day. Crooks has nobody, he lost everything thanks to American society and the fact that the dream doesn’t work if you are black, he is hopeless for all time. Curley’s wife, a seemingly dangerous character of this story is isolated for just that. She has nobody bar her husband, who neither loves her nor listens, separated from others by both him and other peoples’ fear of the stigma that would ensure should they become her friend. She had her one chance at achieving something taken away from her many years ago. For Lennie the necessity to conform and do right by people is too much for him – he can never understand and in the end this leads to his death. His fear of disapproval forces him to take a life without ever intending to. It is upon George’s shoulders to end the story, for there is only one possibility – he must end all his hopes, condemn himself to being alone with his guilt, every chance that they had together and those around them found upon their arrival for he must take Lennie’s life to save him from misery. This pressure from American society and the unbending rules on what people should and shouldn’t be causes so much dissatisfaction and unrest, leaving everyone feeling hopeless and alone, that they have been brought up to believe. They thought they had a chance, and they found nothing. The Withered Arm, on the other hand, is set in a world of tradition, of British society and its harsh social structure. In everyone’s mind there is desperation to conform to the rules and agree that unless you are upper class, or in the case of the women – married, you are no one. Rhoda isolates herself from all others in her desperation to become someone, Farmer Lodge’s wife, and be counted and in doing so sentences herself to a life of loneliness, and starts much more for many others. For Gertrude there is a desperation to be what the materialistic views of those around her tell her to be, and in her search for this she ends up isolating her self even more than before. The young son, who nobody ever really looks to care for, there is isolation of a different kind and through no fault of his own. His parents never truly acknowledge him as their son and this ultimately ends in his tragic death. For Farmer Lodge, it is his materialistic conformism that causes many problems, and he isolates himself from all others in this story until the end, where it is he and Rhoda left and doomed to each be utterly alone for their sins.