Work and how it has changed in the past 100 years and what effect it Essay

Work and how it has changed in the past 100 years and what effect it has had on resource managers - Essay Example There is email that promises communication without delay, facebook that shows the current status of friends, colleagues and peers, and skype that allows the people to interact with one another without having to visit one another or spend money on calling one another. In the contemporary age, people do not need to pay a dime in order to communicate with one another live 24 / 7 if they pay their internet and electricity bills in time. Skype plays the role of videoconferencing in both the e-businesses as well as the brick and mortar businesses. As the name implies, the human resource department has approach to many candidates who want to be part of the firm. Human resource department is a department that supplies humans to an organization for work just like a mineral resource provides us with minerals. From time to time, as per the need of the hour, human resource department keeps hiring new employees. The employees are hired according to the gaps identified in the existing organization structure, so that it becomes stronger and more effective when the gaps thus identified are filled in. The difference between the work culture that existed 100 years ago and that which exists today is fundamentally that of the difference between a brick and mortar business and an e-business. In the conventional brick and mortar business, candidates are necessarily interviewed before their selection into the organization.

Five Areas of Reading Instruction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Five Areas of Reading Instruction - Essay Example Its teaching includes assisting children to distinguish, separate, and use phonemes with respect to the letters. Phonemic awareness can also be considered as the ability to examine and produce the isolated sounds in expressions, separating or segmenting terms into the sounds of their components and recognizing words that are similar or different in listening. According to the (NICHD) it is explained as the skill to â€Å"focus on and manipulate phonemes in spoken words.† An illustration of phonemic awareness ability is for instance the word cat, which consists of three phonemes or sounds/k/a/t. In order to become skilled at reading a languages that is based on an alphabet, phonemic awareness is essential. As a vital element of comprehending to read and an effective analyst of reading accomplishment, phonemic awareness is a theory that all teachers should recognize and teach skillfully. The sounds that compose up the words that are spoken are known as phonemes. They are not alp habets; in fact they are sounds of speech. For example the alphabet â€Å"b† is not a phoneme actually it is an alphabet that has been selected to symbolize the phoneme /b/. Graphemes are used to denote the phonemes in the written speech. They may be in single letters such as (a, e or n) or in group of alphabets that indicates sounds that are distinct like (th, ck or oo) It can be very beneficial to children as it teaches them progressive ways of learning words that are new to them. In order to learn a new word, developing an association among the visual knowledge concerning the word, its meaning, accent, and other facts that are accumulated in the verbal vocabulary of a child is important. This correlation is what facilitates the person who reads to retrieve information stored in the brain when the word is seen as written. Phonemic awareness is very helpful in makings these associations. â€Å"There are several levels of phonemic awareness that may be demonstrated through d ifferent classroom activities† (Schatschneider, 1991). The three activities that can facilitate learning in this area include, removing the phonemes. Students should be given the task to recognize the word that stays when a phoneme is removed from it. For instance, if we remove /s/ from the word spot, the word that remains is pot. Second activity can be adding the phonemes to a word. The child can add a phoneme and make a new word. For example if we add a /b/ to the word ring we would make a new word bring. The third activity that can assist the students in learning is substituting the phonemes. The child should be assigned the activity to make a new word by substituting one phoneme with another. For example by removing the /b/ from the word bag and substituting it with /r/ makes a new word rag. Moving to the second area phonics, it involves coaching children the connection between distinct sounds (phonemes) and letters and instructing them about the logical and obvious associ ation between words that are written and spoken. The requirement of written language led to the invention of different alphabets. Later on people eventually realized the importance of making spelling coherent with every word as they invented the alphabets to symbolize the sounds of the language they

Aesthetic Labour Within The United Kingdom

Aesthetic Labour Within The United Kingdom Within recent years it has been found emotions play a large part in todays work place, with the same now being said in regards to aesthetic labour. Postrell (2003) even suggests that we are on verge of entering an aesthetic economy, bring forth an era of appearance and feel. With the fundamental feature of this economy predominately being employees appearance developing the notion that style is strategy, Postrell also suggests that the look of employees can also determine the ambience of a room as much as the furnishings or decor. Aesthetic labour itself is a modern term in regards to recruiting staff whom look the part (Witz et al, 2003). The concept of aesthetic labour was developed based on employers impression that parts of the service industries were portrayed as the style labour market this includes the following service areas; bars, hotels, events and retailers, who require aesthetic skills in addition to social and technical skills from employees (Nickson et al, 2004, p.3). Todays research shows that within the UK, service jobs now accommodate around three-quarters of all jobs, with them predominantly coming from the retail and hospitality sectors. With a 17 percent growth between 1979 and 2003 within these sectors alone it can be seen from current examination of employers trends that the selections of employees with self presentation skills have a higher preference than experience or technical skills. For example a current survey of one hundred human resource experts within the United States of America accountable for employing hospitality industry employees publicized that their top two criterias were pride in appearance and a good attitude (Martin and Grove, 2002), the hospitality training foundation (2001) also confirmed that these top criterias are also shared by the industries within the UK. Once again both within the UK and USA it has been found that once employees have been employed their appearance continues to influence and help them, with sug gestion that service, profession and pay are all subjective to employees appearance. Within the UK this is most prominent in the service sector however it can be seen in most areas (Harper, 2000). Nick et al (2004, p.3) argues that aesthetics within interactive service work is also becoming a major input however this trend has not yet been confirmed by policy markers. Other authors also suggest that the aesthetics within interactive service work is extremely significant with trends coming from interrelationships as well as from human and non human elements that are found with the workplace itself. In which aestheticization process can present them through fundamental actor network theory, these are transitions of redevelopment identifying how systems come together to act as a whole (Deepdyve Beta 2010). In particular in many customer facing jobs a large amount of importance is placed on a persons characteristics to a degree in which employers specifically look for people who are passionate, stylish, confident, tasty, clever, successful and well travelled (Warhurst and Nickson, 2001, p.14). It is essentially that all employees portray the right image for the company, irrespective of the skills they possess. Grugulis et al (2004) argues that many managers may try to control how their employees feel and look, as well as how they behave, so that they can expose the correct emotions, aesthetics and productivity needed within a specific working environment. Moulding employees appearance is a very well known process used by employers to maintain a business like image; this includes the use of uniforms and dress codes. In a recent survey it was found eighty percent of organisations surveyed enforced a uniform policy or dress code, principally to keep up a corporate image. Due to employee ap pearance and aesthetic appeal being considered an essential part of any companies branding or competitive approach (Grugulis et al, (2004). In addition another survey within the UK based around the retail sector detailed that ninety percent of employers rated appearance as a crucial recruitment and selection process, with sixty one percent of them subsequently offering training in dress sense and style (Nickson et al, 2005). This is also true for emotional labour, Hochschild (1983, p.7) explains how emotions manages the feelings of employees to create the right visual appearance from their facial and body expressions. However other authors have observed that image is theoretically becoming stopped due to the lack of up to date research and debate (Witz et al 2003). It has been thought that aesthetic labour is opening a new kind of discrimination based around people being turned down or employed for different jobs solely because of their looks. Oaff (2003, p.7) stated if your gender and your race havent kept you off the short list, your physical appearance still might. Aesthetic labour has also been seen to have neglect on gender, with an acknowledgment of body work within the service industry (Adkins 2000). Adkin reports that there is a large attention placed on gender and sexuality within the origins of the aesthetic components of labour. Many authors feel there is a thin line between sexuality and gender within a job role. For example research has shown within the service industry there is a 63 to 37 percent female to male split and within the hospitality sector there is a 59 to 41 percent female to male split. Kerfoot and Korcznski (2005, p.388) identifies that the majority of service jobs have female based employees whose jobs are linked to low wages and less to none job prospects. From this it has also been found when advertising for jobs many companies purposely gender stereotype their adverts to list soft skills that are exclusively feminine based. The gender stereotyping of jobs also links to the thought that customers in particular males prefer the female touch that is brought to the initial meeting. Aesthetic labour has led to large social changes within the majority of sectors leading to an increase in seasonal, part time and temporary job openings, allowing a high level of younger workers to gain experience especially those within the tourism industry. The main reason for this is younger people are often aesthetically closer to consumers customers. Baum (2008, p.81) explains this by saying the sector seeks to attract employees who..(deliver) aesthetic labour(so are in) much closer proximity with their customers. These types of people are known as style workers, they are those who physically and emotionally match their working environment and therefore closely identify with the products, being able to understand their customers needs and wants. In a previous Singaporean context a process was referred to in which service workers are highly brand conscious, Gurrier et al (1998, p.34) states the modern young Singaporean is disinclined to work in service unless the image of the pro duct accords with their own sense of fashion. Working in Gucci means that the product becomes part of her own accessory range. Within todays hospitality sector it is easy to see the vast social different between the employee and consumer it is understandable why employers employ the correct type of people for their organisations that matches their emotion and the aesthetic requirements. The term aesthetic labour first appeared in 1999 when Chris Warhurst and a team at the University of Strathclyde compared the term to an older medieval Italian term called sprezzatura. This has since become a fundamentally piece of research in terms of human resource management or hrm. With people such as Mulford et al (1998, p.1585) making claims that the attractiveness of people is dependent on their opportunities to develop socially and cooperate with others. Making it is easy to see where the pressures of recruitment and retention of employees based on their image has affected hrm. The idea of aesthetic labour may cause conflict within the sense that ethnical problems may arise if someone is employed solely on how they look. This has since developed tension based on what people feel management ought to or should do. The ethics of aesthetic compare this to management viewing us up against a framework allowing them to judge right and wrong. The ethics and morality of aesthetic has been address by many authors for example it is suggested that the business background produces its own unique moral standard (Nash 1990, p.5). However Fisher and Lovell (2006, p.42) feel that ethics is based around doing well, in which wrongs are prevented or masked if done. With a variety of different views in the air, for hrm the challenge to retain professionalism is key due to the thought and actions of aesthetics causing pain and worry to their organisations employees. Emotional labour has a direct link to aesthetics the term emotional labour was first identified by Hochschild in 1983 and is used to depict the actions of service workers that goes beyond their usual physical and mental roles. In which the employees show actual worry for the customers needs. Examples of this include customer facing roles in which employees use the term service with a smile, they help solve complaints and change the customers mood. Hochschild (1983) uses the term management of feeling to create a publicly facial and bodily display. The use of emotional labour is a good practice especially used in the face of angry or unhappy customers when employees may need to hide their really emotions. It has been found that organisation have since place a large amount of strategic orientation on this, so that employees know how to handle themselves not only in front of customers but also other employees and internal customers. It is easy to see how emotional skills will also place any potential employee further up the recruitment ladder. Having both emotional and aesthetic skills will help employers complete their aim to have oven ready employees which are ready to go straight into the job with little training. This strategy is extremely useful in minimising costs, but employing these types of people based solely on these particular skills also places knowledge by the employer that the characteristic of the employee cannot be necessarily trained. Looking directly within the service based sectors the importance of aesthetics as well as self presentation skills is effortlessly demonstrated. However the problems caused is also very noticeable. Although many businesses strive to maintain competitive advantage, the evidence from many forms of research places this dependency on the new style driven niche in which many managements attempts of controlling their employees expands beyond the usual aspects. Nevertheless the positives and the potential of aesthetics on an employee to customer based ratio evidently are flourishing, unlike that of the employer to employee ratio within any organisation which is under strain with new forms of discrimination being found. Although academic skills are clearly not a major part of any recruitment or selection processes, the aesthetic skills are now becoming a requirement do help the utilisation of any organisation. Furthermore it can be seen the large difference between aestheticised labour and a esthetic labour, in which employees have preserved certain characteristics and appearance to both maintain and secure their employment. With reference to a employees specific wage being dependent on the employees gender/sexuality or image there is little evidence to completely agree with this however it can be seen that employees do receive other kinds of payback in the form of benefits such free clothing or make overs. It can also be found that the emotional skills work particularly well along side aesthesis, helping organisations gain oven ready customers who will fulfil the companies needs to place the employee straight into the heart of the business. At present self presentation skills is not currently predominant in the learning market, due to the shortage of approval by the policy makers. This may be because of the concerns of moulding employees appearance or because they are unsure how to integrate it into the training agendas. Whichever it may be it is easy to see the impact it will and is already having on organisations human resource management team, as there are so many different points of views on the right and wrong ways to go about aesthetics when recruiting and maintaining employees.

Investigation Techniques Of A Homicide Essay -- essays research papers

Investigation Techniques of A Homicide   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The O. J. Simpson double murder trial is perhaps the most publicized case this decade. However, before the police can arrest Simpson and prosecute him, they must investigate. The investigation techniques LAPD used are used all over the world. CRIME SCENE   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Patrol officers received a disturbance call at Nicole Simpson's residence. They arrived on scene and discovered two bodies. They looked around to see if the suspect is anywhere around then they checked to determine the two subjects were dead. The officers immediately contacted the detectives on duty and supervisors and then secured the area to ensure no contamination to the scene. The officers' duties included making sure that no unauthorized people may enter the scene. They also have to protect all possible evidences left by the suspect.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the Simpson case, the officers did not do a very good job at securing the scene. They had allowed unauthorized officers the go through the scene, thus causing some contamination to the crime scene. This error had allowed the defense to attack the creditability of the police department. CAUSE AND TIME OF DEATH When the officers first arrived the scene, they saw two people lying in a pool of blood. The officers did not know if they were dead and if they were, how and when. After the medical examiner looked at the bodies and the wounds on the victims, he concluded that they were stabbed to death. The time of death was a bit harder to determine. Death caused some changes to the bodies. The investigator looked at the changes and was able to estimate a time of death.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Some of the changes the examiners look for are: lost of body temperature, rigor mortis, and postmortem lividity. The body temperature will start to decrease after death. The body will also start to stiffen after death, this is call rigor mortis. Rigor mortis usually starts to set in two to four hours after death. Time of death can be estimated by the stiffness of the body. Another way to estimate the time of death is postmortem lividity. When the body ceased to function, gravity pulls the blood down and settled at the lowest points of the body. Postmortem lividity may appear on the body between half hour to four hours after death. The determination of t... ...ered more evidences to link Simpson to the murders. All the testimonies showed that Simpson had actually planned the crime. He even had an alibi which was shaky. Simpson also had a history of spousal abuse. All the evidences pointed unfavorably toward O. J. Simpson. The elements of the crime the police needed were established and Simpson was formally Charged. DNA There were no fingerprints at the crime scene. However, there were some blood which belonged to neither victims'. Thanks to modern technology, scientists can detect differences in people's DNA. DNA is the genetic fingerprint of a person. The principal of DNA identification is the same as fingerprints, no two persons can have the same composition. During the Simpson trial, the admissibility of DNA evidence was highly debated. The O. J. Simpson trial had ended for a year now. O. J. was cleared of murdering his former wife and her friend. The police is still investigating this case. The LAPD made some mistakes which allowed the defense to attack the creditability of the police. This showed the importance of protecting the crime scene. Other than these mistakes, the LAPD conducted a almost text book perfect investigation. t

How Does Steinbeck Create the Theme of Insecurity in the Novel?

Write about: †¢Why some characters feel insecure †¢How language contributes to a sense of the characters’ insecurity †¢How the settings contribute to a sense of insecurity †¢Other features which create a sense of insecurity You must: Explore how Steinbeck creates a sense of insecurity through the presentation of insecure characters, eg through: Lennie, Crooks and Curley’s wife †¢Look at language/settings, eg the situation of Curley’s wife and how she feels about Curley and her life on the ranch, and her appearance †¢Show how Steinbeck uses language/settings to create insecurity, eg how language is used to show Lennie’s insecurity about George †¢End by evaluating how the different elements work together †¢ In 45 minutes, three characters are enough to consider. Choose settings to look at in some detail, eg the pool in the valley where the novel begins and ends; the harness room (chapter 4) which is where Crooks lives; the Great Barn (chapter 5) where Lennie kills Curley’s wife. Comment on the language Steinbeck uses to describe characters and settings. †¢ The movement from harmony to discord appears in most of the settings in the book. Look at the opening description on page 18. This peaceful world of nature is disturbed by the arrival of George and Lennie. Make your point and use evidence/quotation to support it. Lennie is described as a ‘bear’. This image establishes his essential nature – the combination of brute strength and animal-like innocence. An appropriate image which emphasises his tendency to hold onto things in a ‘bear-hug’. Steinbeck suggests a great deal about Lennie by describing his movements. †¢ Now go on to look at what we learn about Lennie; George is ill at ease with Lennie’s behaviour as he helps him to rehearse how he should behave when they arrive at the ranch the following day. Comment on what causes Lennie’s insecurity. We soon see that Lennie is totally dependent on George, unable to cope in the world on his own. His innocence and ignorance of the world and other people lead him into trouble. As a result, Lennie is the main source of conflict in the novel, though as George tells us, he â€Å"never done it in meanness. † Lennie’s obsession for ‘petting’ shows that he has deep-rooted emotional needs which he himself does not understand, but which nevertheless have to be satisfied. There is a dreadful progression in his victims from dead mouse to dead girl. We are told something of the reasons why George and Lennie are on their way to a new job and what life is like for itinerant workers during the Great Depression in America in the 1930s †¢ George sometimes appears cruel in his treatment of Lennie when he tells him he could have a better life without him,(page 29) but we soon realise that this?is a form of control and that in fact, George actually enjoys their companionship and his responsibility, because the alternative life of the lonely migrant worker has little to recommend it. However,Lennie’ sinterpretationofGeorge’ swordsisalways literalandhe fears that George will abandon him if he does a ‘bad thing’. It is this that makes him feel insecure. †¢To reassure himself that they have a future together, to feel secure, Lennie frequently asks George to ‘tell about the rabbits’. Comment on the significance of the ‘dream farm’ (p. 31) â€Å"Guys like us, that work on ranches , are the loneliest guys in the world†¦. † †¢Lennie enjoys George’s story just as a child enjoys a familiar fairy story. But it represents far more to both men. The ‘heaven’ as Crooks later calls it, becomes not only their dream, but also that of Candy, Crooks and Curley’s wife. †¢ In chapter 4, Steinbeck brings together the most vulnerable and insecure characters in the novel. Show how and why this is dramatically effective; the chapter ends as it begins; it prepares us for the novel’s final tragedy; achieving the ‘dream’ is impossible – â€Å"Nobody never gets to heaven. † the potential for happiness is dashed each time. †¢ Look in detail at Crooks and the setting of the harness room, where he lives. Note that Steinbeck’s portrayal of Crooks is sympathetic. He emphasises his experience of silent suffering, because of his crooked back but also because of the racism he is subjected to because he is black. It is his enforced segregation from the other workers, which causes his insecurity. Look at how Steinbeck’s description of the setting gives us an insight into Crooks’s character (p. 98,99) as well as his use of language, â€Å"he had thin, pain-tightened lips†. He is a victim of oppressive violence and prejudice and has learned to cope with it by withdrawing into himself. He is ‘proud and aloof’as a defence against the cruel treatment he receives from the other men because he is black. In this chapter, Lennie acts as a catalyst. It is through him that Crooks and Curley’s wife reveal their insecurities. In spite of Crooks’ experience which has taught him that â€Å"nobody never gets to heaven†, he too gets caught up in Lennie’s dream of owning land and having a future, but Cur ley’s wife’s cruelty in reminding him of her racial superiority, â€Å"Well, you keep your place then, Nigger. † (p. 113) when he asks her to leave, leaves him feeling humiliated. He realises that in this world of white supremacy, there will never be any security for him. He will never escape from his life of suffering, â€Å"What she says is true. † †¢ Curley’s wife is never named in the novel. She is perceived as Curley’s possession, referred to as Curley’s wife. Her husband married her because she is ‘purty’ and naively she married him because she must have believed that the security of marriage would bring her happiness. Instead, she finds herself in a world of men who do not treat her as an individual, but see her as a sex- object, or a piece of ‘jail bait’. Desperate for companionship, she approaches the men in a provocative way. Find examples of Steinbeck’s description of her. Experience has taught her that men are only interested in her looks. A victim of sexual prejudice, she herself enjoys being cruel to the men in section 4. Angry at being left alone while her husband has gone to spend the evening with prostitutes, she tells them, â€Å"An’ what am I doin’? Standin’ here talking to a bunch of bindle stiffs-a nigger an’ a dum-dum †¦. † Like Crooks, who takes the opportunity to vent his pent up anger on someone weaker than himself when he tries to frighten Lennie into believing that George has deserted him, she gets pleasure in watching others suffer. †¢ Now look at chapter 5. The setting is the Great Barn, where Lennie has just accidentally killed his puppy. Curley’s wife confides in Lennie just as Crooks did. This results in her death and the start of the man-hunt for Lennie. Steinbeck evocatively creates a warm and lazy atmosphere through visual detail supported by onomatopeia, â€Å"The hay came down like a mountain slope to the other end of the barn†¦ † // â€Å"There was the buzz of flies in the air, the lazy afternoon humming. † This is disrupted by the violence of the killing of Curley’s wife. †¢ Look at p. 124. Curley’s wife speaks to Lennie ‘in a passion of communication’. She relishes the opportunity to talk to someone. In a form of soliloquy, she talks about the life she dreamed of and confesses, â€Å"I don’t like Curley. † On page 129, Steinbeck’s writing technique resembles script writing for film, â€Å"And the meanness and the plannings and the discontent and the ache for attention were all gone from her face. † Death has restored her to a natural state of innocence and the visual detail of the description in its softness contrasts with earlier harsh descriptions of her, where Steinbeck suggests that her body language is intended to attract the men’s attention, â€Å"†¦. eaned against the door frame so that her body was thrown forward. † In death she is relieved of the loneliness and insecurity, which led her to dream and to search for attention. †¢ With her death, Lennie’s insecurity returns, â€Å"I done a real bad thing,†¦ George’ll be mad†¦ † †¢By ending the novel where it began, Steinbeck brings the action of the book full circle which gives a feeling of completeness to the story. Once again, the last chapter opens with a description of the setting. Lennie has returned to the brush, where George has instructed him to go. Steinbeck focuses on the beauty of the natural world, but this time hints at the violence in nature as a heron swoops down on a water snake â€Å"and plucked it out by the head,† †¢The insecurity felt by these characters is a result of overt discrimination against race, gender and mental disability. Lack of understanding causes their suffering. Both Lennie and Curley’s wife die and Steinbeck suggests this is the only way to end their suffering. Crooks is doomed to a life of suffering and insecurity. Through these characters, Steinbeck paints a bleak picture of the lives of migrant workers at this time.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Essay

A critic has written that a family at the centre of the party â€Å"is clothed with the atmosphere of the south as with a garment. † How important is the setting of â€Å"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof† to the play’s dramatic impact? You may consider: – The bed sitting room of the stage set – The wider, geographical setting of the Mississippi Delta – The values of the play of the society revealed in the play In my opinion, the setting of the play is vital to the level of dramatic impact for a number of reasons. The main themes behind â€Å"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof† are represented and shown through the setting of the play. For example, the whole play is situated around the bedroom sitting area to put forward a key theme of the play: sexuality. If the setting wasn’t relevant to themes of the play, the audience would find it difficult to fully understand key elements of the play that Tennessee Williams was trying to put across. The bed sitting room in which the play is based around belongs to Brick and Maggie, two main characters. The irony of this being that bedrooms are assumed to be private and personal, yet it’s the most invaded room in the house. A prime example being when Big Mama, Brick’s mother enters the bedroom, commenting on how she â€Å"hates locked doors in a house†¦ † Maggie’s responds lightly by stating that â€Å"†¦ people have got to have some moments of privacy,† only to receive the invasive and ignorant reply â€Å"No, ma’am, not in my house. † Even as early as Act One, we witness the couple’s privacy being denied. The bed sitting room is also where many secrets of the family are eavesdropped on and later revealed. Again, as early as the start of Act One, Maggie reveals that â€Å"The walls in this place have ears,† clearly, it’s not only Big Mama being prying into the couple’s affairs. It’s also greatly ironic that the scorching heat outside is completely conflicting to the â€Å"heat† inside Maggie and Brick’s bedroom. It becomes increasingly apparent as the play develops that there are blatant problems facing the couple’s sexual relationship, again emphasising the recurring themes of sexuality, homosexuality and mendacity. The fact that the play is based around the bedroom of Brick and Maggie also helps the audience gain a better understanding of their characters, especially Brick’s. Not once throughout the entire script does Brick approach another character; it’s always the other characters that approach him. This shows the audience how reserved Brick is and how he likes to keep himself to himself, despite him being in such high demand with his fellow family members. These qualities of Brick are vital in the understanding of the play’s plot. The geographical setting of the play also greatly affects the dramatic impact. The play is set in the irritatingly hot Mississippi Delta, symbolising both the argumentative tension between characters such as Mae and Maggie and also the sexual tension between characters like Maggie and Brick. The plantation itself is relevant to meanings behind the play and its dramatic impact. Being built on very fertile land, the plantation shows the irony of Maggie’s great desire to become pregnant, contrasting with Mae who has six, irritating children. It also reinforces that the family are staying on Big Daddy’s property. Big Daddy has the power over both his wife and his sons, for it’s his decision as to who will inherit the land. â€Å"I’ll tell you what they’re up to, boy of mine! – They’re up to cutting you out of your father’s estate†¦ † The question of which son gains Big Daddy’s estate occurs regularly, causing conflict between the two couples. Whilst enhancing dramatic impact, it also represents the themes of mendacity and money. The history of the plantation itself relates strongly to the theme of homosexuality. Two homosexual men (Peter Ochello and Jack Straw) used to own and live on the plantation whilst Big Daddy worked there. With no family to pass the land onto, they handed it over to their loyal employee, Big Daddy. Knowing the history behind the place, the audience almost expects the theme of homosexuality to occur once again and indeed it does, this time with Brick and his friend Skipper. The South itself is also relevant to the play’s dramatic impact and putting it into context. With knowledge of the Civil War, slavery and enormous amounts of racism that took place in the South which was to some extent still very much present in the time the play was set, the audience is able to gain a better understanding of smaller characters and their relevance. Language is used for example that today would be considered racist such as when it says â€Å"A negro voice answers. † The black servants are mere voices in the play because of the script’s context. The South’s battle to cling onto slavery is reflected in the characters when some try desperately to cling onto their past. For example when Brick tells Big Daddy â€Å"†¦ Skipper and I went into pro-football after we left ‘Ole Miss’ because we were scared to grow up†¦ † The family values in which the play is set on is responsible for a lot of dramatic impact. Mae and Gooper’s lack of family values and determination to do whatever it takes to inherit Big Daddy’s plantation contrasts wonderfully with Big Mama’s determination for everybody to get along with one another, â€Å"We must all love each other†¦ † The great contrast allows the audience to delve, even further into the themes of money and family. It’s shown through the play’s entirety that money values only destroy families. The sexual values of the time were to have lots of babies as May and Maggie show us. May is constantly competing with Maggie, using the fact that she’s childless to win arguments, â€Å"Maggie , honey, if you had children of you own you’d know how funny that is†¦ † Maggie also feels the need to lie at the very end of the play by telling her family that she’s pregnant. The homosexual value of the play is quite relevant as Brick finds refuge in his bedroom and by drinking large amounts of alcohol to escape his homosexual feelings. Both women being expected to have lots of children and Brick having to turn to drink in an attempt to block out unwanted feelings are due to the time that the play was set and what was expected in society. The religious values of the play are to reflect Williams’ own feelings on the matter, creating great dramatic impact at the same time. Reverent Tucher, the family’s local reverent doesn’t even take religion seriously. He says â€Å"Did you all know that Halsey Bank’s widow put air-conditioning in the church†¦ † The reverend’s main worries are of money and his personal comfort in the church which contradicts everything Christianity stands for. Williams illustrates the characters of Brick and Big Daddy as being intelligent men, with lots of general knowledge and common sense. Therefore when he makes it apparent that neither of them believes in religion, he’s making a very controversial statement, especially among the outwardly religious society of 1950s Southern America. To conclude, the overall setting of the play has proven to affect the plot of the play, hidden symbolism, qualities of the characters and the key themes behind the play. Without specific references to the setting, the amount of dramatic impact would be absolutely minimal, probably resulting in the audience not fully understanding the points that Williams most wanted to stress and losing interest in the play altogether. So yes, the setting of the play is imperative to the play’s dramatic impact.

Jasper Johns essays

Jasper Johns essays Born on May 15, 1930 in Augusta Georgia, Jasper Johns is one of the most renowned American pop artists of his era. He spent much of his early life stationed in Japan with the United States Army. Later, he became a student at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Johns first major piece was a painting he did in 1954 entitled Flag (Jasper Johns 1). It is simply a reproduction of the American flag on canvas. Much of his early work was of plain, flat symbols. He did so because he found that he did not have to design them...they were things the mind already knows. That gave [him] room to work on other levels (Crichton 1). The painting to be discussed in this paper is one of his simple works as mentioned above. It is entitled Target with Four Faces, and it was completed in 1955. Target with Four Faces is mainly a design piece. It is made up of sharp curves and lines. Most of the lines are thick, others are horizontal as well. The circles of the target in the lower half are practically perfect around. He uses several shapes in his work, including rectangles and squares (in the plaster faces up top) and circles (in the target). The color group used in Target with Four Faces is that of the triadic group, specifically the primary colors. The target and the background are made up of solid reds, yellows, and blues. Various surfaces can be found in Jasper Johns piece. The canvas used gives it somewhat of a rough texture, while the wood towards the top give it a smooth texture. The only objects seen in this work other than the main target are the plaster faces lined up at the top of the canvas. Other than those, there really are no other objects. With the basic facts represented, the next thing to look at is the design of Target with Four Faces. Since it is a simple piece, it has symmetrical balance for the most part. The four faces at the top are symmetrical, a ...