Group Observation Essay

I chose to observe a sex offenders group at office of an association of licensed professional counselors in Hinesville, Georgia. The group consisted of 9 sex offenders and the counselor, who was a woman, and myself. The group meet in the evening and everyone was present and on time. We sat in a circle, and I was introduced. I had to sign a confidentiality agreement, and the guys signed something stating they didn’t mind my being there. There were no introductions, as everyone knew each other. Group therapy is seen as the most appropriate form of treatment in the United States. The rationale for this is the argument that sex offenders require group therapy because effective confrontation of manipulative behavior can only be done by other individuals who have been through the same dynamic. Groups are seen as necessary and appropriate for all sexual offenders, regardless of their individual personalities and the factors underlying their abusive behavior (Grossman, Martis, & Fichter, 1999). Psychological treatment of sex offenders showed little success until the advent of cognitive-behavioral techniques which have undergone rapid development over the past two decades. CBT was primarily developed through a merging of behavior therapy with cognitive therapy. While rooted in rather different theories, these two traditions found common ground in focusing on the â€Å"here and now†, and on alleviating symptoms. The goal of these treatments is to change sex offenders’ belief systems, eliminate inappropriate behavior, and increase appropriate behavior by modifying reinforcement contingencies so that offensive behavior is no longer reinforced (What is CBT, 2007). CT intervention methods include helping clients learns to identify the negative, automatic thoughts that occur in upsetting situations, to examine their validity, and to replace them with more useful, reality based thinking. The clients are helped to identify and change the elements of their belief system (world view, self-concept) and the cognitive distortions (errors in reasoning like catastrophic thinking) that lead to negative automatic thoughts. This empowers clients by teaching them to consider a variety of alternative explanations for the cause of an event, by helping them restate problems in behavioral terms that give a client some control over it and to create strategies for dealing with fearful possibilities. BT intervention methods include diversion techniques to diminish negative thinking and emotionality, activity scheduling to increase positive emotion and mastery, homework and graded task assignments, which entail incremental steps of increasing difficulty to reach goals, and role play and rehearsal to try out and practice new behaviors and roles to be used in the real world. lients how to use self-monitoring techniques, where the client records information about a target behavior, and stimulus control, the building, modification, or elimination of a stimulus-response connection so that a target response is increased or eliminated (Fraum, 2011). I observed the counselor using these interventions during the group. One of the goals of the group is prevent reoffenses. When the group started the first thing the counselor asked was if any members had and â€Å"Red Flags† during the week. The Red Flag indicates a form of a self- monitoring technique, when the member knows that he is danger situation and must stop the behavior or leave the area. A few members recounted what had happened to them and how they solved the problem. The group was in the working stage. Up for discussion was why a member had failed a mandatory polygragh test; the member disclosed a reaction to the words child pornography. Seven members gave feedback. According to Corey, Corey, &Corey (2010) during the working stage members trusted other members, goals were clear and specific, people feel free to bring themselves into the work of others, there is a willingness to risk disclosing threatening material, feedback is given freely and accepted without defensiveness, members feel hopeful, there is a an awareness of the group process, communication is clear and direct, and the focus is on the here and now. The group displayed these characteristics and more.

Comparison & Contrast Essay

In society it seems that everywhere we look we are surrounded by advertisements whether it is television commercials, billboards or advertisements. Obviously, the main purpose of advertisements is to get the consumer to purchase the product. Print advertisements are an extremely effective way to reach a mass audience because the advertisements are in print, the use of color, text and photography are all key factors in luring the consumers in to buying their product. Advertisements cannot simply attempt to sell the product in question; they must make it appeal to the consumer. It is important that advertisements not only attempt to make the product they are trying to sell clear but also to actually make the advertisement mean something to us, the consumer. The two advertisements that I will be comparing and contrasting are two make-up ads. I picked these two ads because I feel they do a great deal of drawing their consumers in. Mascara is a must have in the make-up world. Most women wear mascara to make their eye â€Å"pop. † Consumers will automatically look at these two ads because of the brand names and how people classify make-up. By knowing that a lot of consumers look at these ads they have to make the ads interesting. Not only will I be comparing and contrasting these two ads but by doing that I will also be telling how they draw consumers in to looking and buying their product. The first ad for mascara came from the magazine Lucky. Lucky is mostly targeted towards young teens and women. This mascara in the advertisement is made by Rimmel London. The use of color is very helpful in this ad because it uses bright vibrant colors that catch your attention. The color of the mascara is black and electric green. Also, the color of the models eyes is very blue which accentuates the true color of the mascara. By making the models eyes such a pretty color it might make people think that if they use this certain mascara it might make their eyes â€Å"pop† like the models does. In the article all the words are written in white and all caps in the background. I think the reasoning behind writing all the words in white is because it is a neutral color and it also stands out. Although the colors really help, keywords also have a great toll in selling a product. By putting â€Å"REV UP THE VOLUME† in big letter it draws your attention. It draws people in that want more volume for their eyelashes. All caps draws your attention and makes you want to read every word on the ad. By putting that if you use the product you will have denser more numerous lashes in 30 days it make consumers want to buy this product and actually see if the product will work. Last but not least is the layout of this ad. Layout really helps make an advertisement. By making the model take up most of the page, your attention goes directly to her. Even without knowing what the ad is about; if you just look at her you can automatically tell it is a mascara ad by her eyelashes. By putting the words around the model you can read them and after every word you read about it helping your eye lashes you can’t help but look back at her eye lashes. The brush of the mascara is out of the bottle so the consumer can see what the brush looks like and how it will form their lashes. The second ad is also found in the Lucky magazine, which means it also mostly targets young teens and women. The mascara in this particular ad is made by Revlon which is a very popular brand of make-up. This company took a very smart approach by getting a celebrity model to endorse this product which is a very beneficial thing. The colors in this ad are more laid back compared to the Rimmel London ad. The use of all black and then making just around the eyes a little lighter automatically draws your attention not just to the model but to her eyes. The words are in white and a very pretty aqua color. These colors stand out very well on the black background. By closing the eyes I believe it shows how long the lashes look. The words are on the top and on the bottom of the page. In my opinion, the reasoning behind this is so that if you start at the top of the page you will read down to the bottom of the page. The mascara top is out of the bottle and shows quality of the brush and just how thick it is and by doing this, Revlon is trying to visually convince the consumer that with this thicker brush, the more luscious your eyelashes can become. After looking at all of the aspects of these two ads, they have a lot of similarities. The first main similarity is that they both came from the magazine Lucky. By putting these ads in the same magazine, these two mascara providers are competing with each other for the teenage and young woman market. On both of the ads the mascaras are in very pretty colors. Although the colors are different they both stand out and make the mascara unique. Keywords of these ads are very alike. All of the very important words are in all caps, big, white, and very noticeable. The layouts of these two ads are almost just alike. Both of the ads have the model in the very middle of the page which is where usually all the main focus of the reader goes. Both of the mascaras are on the bottom right corner of the page which goes well because after the reader has seen this beautiful woman and what this mascara has done for her, the reader looks to the bottom to see just exactly what the mascaras name and appearance is. Even with many similarities, there are still some differences between these two ads. The brands of the mascaras are different, one is Rimmel and the other is Revlon. The use of color is very different in these two ads; Rimmel London used black and electric green where Revlon used black and aqua. In the Rimmel ad the colors are very bright and vibrant colors, while the Revlon ad is very dark and dull. Although the keywords are alike they are very different too. In the Rimmel ad the words are in all caps, no matter how big they are they are still in caps. Some words in the Revlon ad are all caps but then the words that are small are in regular font. After comparing and contrasting these two very marketable mascaras, it is very difficult to pick which one is the clear cut winner. Many people have different styles, so maybe the black and electric green appeals to half of the readers where the black and aqua mascara appeals to the other half. Both of these companies did a very good job in putting their advertisement out there and making their product very attractive and marketable. These companies have been around a long time and know what they’re doing. If that means coming up with competitive ads week in and week out, they’re willing to do whatever it takes to be the top mascara provider in the world.

Changing Business Environment Globalisation

This study has highlighted the function and the approaches of Bharti Airtel. In this connection, this study has described the comparison between the approaches of Bharti Airtel with the other European telecom MNEs. This would be helpful to understand the European MNEs system. On the other hand, this study has provided and described the unique model, what is used by Bharti Airtel to emerge in the European MNEs. According to Botha, Kourie & Snyman (2014), it can be mentioned that Bahrti Airtel is a leading global telecommunications organisations. It operates in 20 countries of Asia and Africa. Bharti Airtel has collaboration with 16 global telecom organisations. As per the statement of Pettigrew (2013), it can be mentioned that recently Bharti Airtel has announced to launch the Europe India Gateway (EIG) cable system. This will be helpful to make a greater connection between two countries such as India and Europe. In addition, it can be added that Bharti Airtel has invested approximately $700 million. In this purpose, it can be mentioned that the EIG connection is very powerful and has a capacity of 3.84 terabits per second. Craig & Campbell (2012) mentioned that EIG stretches from Mumbai, India to London, United Kingdom. The EIG connection passes through the countries like UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Egypt, Monaco, Gibraltar and then Portugal. Therefore, it will be highly benefitted to the Indian and the British to communicate with these countries. Hamilton & Webster (2015) mentioned that the cable connection has spreaded approximately by 15000 km. On the other hand, Wetherly & Otter (2014) argued that other European telecom organisations has aimed to develop a synchronized regulatory framework for the purpose of electronic communications network as well as electronic services through the entire European Union. Therefore, it can be clearly mentioned that European telecom organisations have tried to focus to the development of their services. In this purpose, they tried to improve their quality of signal and networks (Airtel.in.2016) Although, Bharati Airtel has also aimed to improve their connectivity, this telecom organisation is willing to launch new and attractive service, so that the consumers get attracted with their services. As per the statement of Babatunde & Adebisi (2012), Bharti Airtel is the third largest mobile telecommunication within the world. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the business strategies of this telecom organisation. Base on the modern research, it can be noticed that people are looking for greater connectivity in turn of affordable prices. Moreover, the consumers are also willing to get attractive offers from the telecommunication. Therefore, it can be stated that if the telecom organisation offer the customers lucrative offers in turn of affordable prices, the revenue earning by the organisation would be increased. In this connection, Savrul, Incekara & Sener (2014) opined that Bharti Airtel has aimed to increase the market share profitability. This would accelerate the non mobile businesses. The vision of this telecom organisation is to enhance the lives of the consumers. This would effectively win the consumers preferences through exceptional experience. This study is helpful to discuss how Bharti Airtel can achieve their business objectives and make the business successful. Achieve through go-to-market excellence  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Increase the data penetration with intuitive pricing and innovation. Achieve through brilliant network experience  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the words of Botha, Kourie & Snyman (2014), it can be mentioned that the consumer frustration can be eliminated by increasing the quality of the service.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   On the other hand, consumer satisfaction level can be improved by increasing the granular planning communication.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Bharti Airtel aimed to reduce the per unit cost MB by leveraging multiple technologies. Achieve with the valuable consumers  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Develop the technology by encouraging the consumption and up gradation  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Accelerate the business to business communication by improving the experience  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Reduce the entire cost structure of the call rates and other data packs. The organisation has been suffering from low call drops.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Bharti Airtel has focused to the network redesigning  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the point of Pettigrew (2013), it can be stated that the organisational culture of this telecom organisation is greater.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The management of the organisation always supervise the performance of the employees. This would be benefitted to increase the productivity of the organisation. Therefore, the customers will be satisfied. In this section, this study has tried to highlight the impact of the rise of emerging economy of Bharti Airtel for globalisation. According to Craig & Campbell (2012), it can be mentioned that Bharti Airtel acquired Zain Africa BV for $10.7 billion. Zain Africa is one of the top leading telecommunication organisations in Africa. In the year of 2010, the acquisition of Bharti Airtel was rules by the 70% stake in the Bangladesh’s Warid Telecom International. Secondly, Bharti Airtel has a significant global presence on the board of directors from 1997. In this connection, it can be added that British telecom has approximately 44% stake in the account of Bharti Airtel. This had effectively increased the collaboration between these two mentioned telecom organisations. Hamilton & Webster (2015) opined that globalisation had a positive impact on the business. Lastly, it can be added that SingTel holds a greater amount of stake in the account of Bharti Airtel. SingTel has invested app roximately US$ 292 million in Bharti Airtel. Therefore, it can be inferred that the financial performance would be increased. This also proved that globalisation could positively increase the organisation’s financial statement. This study is important to understand the business strategy of Bharti Airtel. This study has provided the comparison between the Bharti Airtel’s approach and the other European MNEs. On the other hand, this study has discussed the model, what Bharti Airtel has used in their business process. Moreover, the impact of this business approach for globalisation has also mentioned in this context. About Bharti Airtel - Strategy, Financial Snapshot, Structure, Awards. (2016).  Airtel.in. Retrieved 20 December 2016, from https://www.airtel.in/about-bharti/equity/ Babatunde, B. O., & Adebisi, A. O. (2012). Strategic environmental scanning and organization performance in a competitive business environment.  Economic Insights-Trends & Challenges,  64(1), 24-34. Botha, A., Kourie, D., & Snyman, R. (2014).  Coping with continuous change in the business environment: knowledge management and knowledge management technology. Elsevier. Craig, T., & Campbell, D. (2012).  Organisations and the business environment. Hamilton, L., & Webster, P. (2015).  The international business environment. Oxford University Press, USA. Pettigrew, A. (2013).  The Awakening Giant (Routledge Revivals): Continuity and Change in Imperial Chemical Industries. Routledge. Popescu, G. H. (2013). Macroeconomics, Effective Leadership, and the Global Business Environment.  Contemporary Readings in Law and Social Justice, (2), 170-176. Savrul, M., Incekara, A., & Sener, S. (2014). The Potential of E-commerce for SMEs in a Globalizing Business Environment.  Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences,  150, 35-45. Wetherly, P., & Otter, D. (2014).  The business environment: themes and issues in a globalizing world. Oxford University Press. .com strives towards providing exceptional essay help at an affordable price. Students, from various parts of Australia, prefer our servicers because we provide high-quality essay assistance at a pocket-friendly price. We receive numerous requests 'help me do my essay ' or 'can someone write my essay' from students every day. We efficiently fulfill those requests and provide students needed essay writing help art an affordable price.    Explain why firms’ marginal cost curves become upward sloping after a certain level of output has been reached. test While for the margina... Question: Discuss about the professional developers comprehend software?    Answer: I have been working in the USA Technologies for nine months now, and it ... Question: Describe about the Rethinking Oil Nationalism?    Answer: 1. The engineering discipline that I have chosen is Mechanical Engineering and I have se... Question: Explain about the Advertising for An integrated marketing communication perspective?    Answer: Introduction: Social media has become the part of... You are required to write a researched argument essay that convinces persuades the reader of your position / stance. 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Sustainable Talent Management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 2

Sustainable Talent Management - Research Paper Example The performance management comprises of various steps that are to be followed by the organization for the successful implantation of the performance management process. The first step involves the performance planning which a process of communication between the employee and supervisor to set up the effective planning for the performance. It also comprises of the expectation set related to the employee performance (Sadikoglu & Zehir, 2010). The next step that is to be followed is that of coaching that involves a two-way discussion focusing on the performance of the employees and recognizing the areas that can be improved to have a better performance of the workforce. The third step involves the multiple sources of feedback that the managers can gather from the customers that would be helpful for the improvement of the employee performance. Research suggests that there are various sources of the feedback can be collected such as from customers as well as self-evaluation. The fourth st ep involves the performance review that the organization can conduct based on the goals set by the organization and the development needs that can ensure better performance of the employees.  The performance management comprises of various steps that are to be followed by the organization for the successful implantation of the performance management process. The first step involves the performance planning which a process of communication between the employee and supervisor to set up the effective planning for the performance.

Critically examine the text from,(Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Essay

Critically examine the text from,(Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon, Pan) and show how it articulates concepts of gender, race and class - Essay Example The falcon turns out to be fake and the criminals are pinned by Sam Spade who have been bent on acquiring justice for his murdered partner whose wife he was having an affair with. This paper aims to provide an in-depth analysis regarding gender and class relations present in the composition if there are any. This is in line with the view that literary works mirrors society even if unconsciously. What does the text say about the people then? How did they interact with one another? What was the role of women, men and those in between? These are the questions that would be guiding the discussions. Information regarding gender issues are presented first before the analysis of the text for every gender, class and race presented. However, we would almost be dealing with gender issues because this is what isprominent in the work. This is done so you, the reader, could better appreciate the discussion involving the literary work. I would like to inform the reader to adapt a more critical view as most of the concepts here presented may seem to be far fetched. I have tried my best to argue my ideas and it would up to you whether they hold substance. In ages past, the woman was only deemed fit for household chores and the raising of children. They had no right to vote and share their views on matters concerning the family and the community nor were they allowed to vote or decide their marriages. Even today, some societies have meticulously preserved tradition on the status of Adam’s partner. To serve as objects of desire and weakness – that was their role. Nonetheless, there have been significant changes on the way society regards women. Various reforms have been made to the point that they now enjoy most of the liberties of men giving rise to the term â€Å"women empowerment†. Feminism comprises a number of social, cultural and political movements, theories and moral philosophies that are concerned with

W5-Data Security Policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

W5-Data Security Policy - Essay Example Modern technology poses modern confronts to the protection of entity privacy which existing (Laudon & Laudon, 1999). Privacy is the declaration of individuals to be theft alone, free from observation or intrusion from other individuals of organizations as well as the state. Declarations to privacy are also caught up at the place of work. Information technology and system pressure individual declarations to privacy by making the incursion of privacy inexpensive, cost-effective, and efficient (Laudon & Laudon, 1999). Organizational information security strategies, measures, and standards are entirely significant reflections. Organization has to properly file and put into practice a successful information safety plan. Every category of such information safety serves a diverse function. The W5-Data Security Policy incorporates following main points regarding the organizational data (W5-data security Policy, 2009) Security risk: The data and information security risk can be illustrated as the intensity of affect on organization activities (comprising operational jobs, illustrations, or status), organization possessions, or individuals ensuing from the procedure of an business information arrangement offers the possible influence of a hazard and the probability of that intimidation occurring (Rebecca, 2007). The above section has presented the possible hazard situation is business. Such situation can lead to lot of possible information exploitation cases. Like that any worker can take information regarding any customer and blackmail him for some reason. That will make some bad image of the company information management. Lot of customers will hesitate to provide their information or even do no come to that company. This will case a serious business problem. Data security procedures illustrate how to put into practice the data security strategy. Actions articulate the gradually comprehensive events essential to effectively fulfill a job that chains the

Organizational Behavior & Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Organizational Behavior & Leadership - Essay Example This paper explains three different leadership styles from the examples of three different leaders. Leadership style in Executive-A Executive-A seems to be transformational in his leadership quality since he has brought tremendous change in the success story of the company through his strategic activities. Not only his colleagues talk about him as ambitious, but also media and others find his efforts as the cornerstone of the success that the company achieved. A transformational leader influences his subordinates through better behavioral traits, high-valued personality characters, better manners in dealing with others etc and these very evident from his attempts to shying away from the attention of media and others and thus giving the credit of success to others. McShane and Von Glinow (2004, p. 430) noted that transformational leadership explains how leaders change teams or organizations by creating, structuring, modeling and communicating a specific vision for the organization to the people involved. Executive-A has created a vision of greater success and improved organizational performance and for that purpose, he worked hard and ensured that he is successful in achieving the targets. He created a vision, communicated that vision to his people, built commitment to the vision and modeled the vision and therefore he is more seemingly a transformational leader. According to the view of Robbins and Judge (2011, p. 390), this leader inspired their followers to exceed their self-interest for the benefits of the organization and for the achievement of organizational goals and these leaders posses an extra ordinary effect on their followers. Transactional leadership of Executive- B Leader-B was very transactional in the way he managed and run the business. A transactional leader is one who focuses on interpersonal interactions between the leader and subordinates as he clarifies the leadership roles and assess the task-related requirements of his followers (Buelens, Kreitner and Kinicki, 2002, p. 464). Within the organizational setting, Leader-B’s personal and professional qualities have impacted the overall performance of both the employees and the organizational at large since he followed clear chain of command and offered better rewards based on various levels of performance which in turn improved employee performance. As Robbins and Judge (2011, p. 391) pointed, a transactional leader contracts exchanging of rewards for efforts and offers rewards to employee if they attain specific levels of performance. These leaders also watch and search for deviations from rules and standards and then taking actions to correct the deviations. This is the way a transactional leader influences his subordinates and affects the corporation as well as the performance of employees. McShane and Von Glinow (2004, p. 248) are of the opinion that transactional leadership helps organizations achieve the current objectives very effectively such as by linking job performance to valued rewards. Employees will be offered rewards for attaining a specific target of performance. Once leader-B assigns a task to any of his subordinates, he strongly believes that the subordinate is fully responsible for that specific task. Charismatic Leadership style of Executive-C The leadership qualities and personality attributes in leader-C show that he is charismatic in his leadership aspects. A charismatic leader is one who emphasizes symbolic leader behavior, visionary and inspiration messages, showing greater positive

Establishing a Business Continuity Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Establishing a Business Continuity Plan - Essay Example The prioritizations of the services or the products that are initially identified are based on the lower delivery levels and higher time period of the services. In order to conclude the significant ranking related to the services the information is needed for the determination of a distracted impact on the service delivery, loss of revenue, additional expenses and intangible losses. 1.3  Classifying Business Impacts for Interruptions or IncidentsThe disruption impact on significant services or the products helps in the verification of how long functions of an organization can work without services or products. It is essential for the business continuity to find out the time period before major impact on the unavailability product is experienced.1.4  Business Impact Analysis (BIA)The function of the BIA is to recognize the authorization and the significant services or products of the business. In addition, the identification of the internal as well as the external disruption and t he priority services or products ranking for the fast or continuous delivery of the products is identified and controlled by the BIA.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   1.5  Classify DependenciesThe delivery of services depends upon internal and external dependencies of significant services or products. The internal dependencies comprise of availability of staff, information, equipment, applications, transport, human resource, security and information technology (IT) support services. On the other hand, external dependencies consist of contractor, management facilities.

When does sexual identity begin Research Proposal

When does sexual identity begin - Research Proposal Example As puberty ensues, the human body and mind goes through a developmental quagmire that most adults will admit they barely survived. In adulthood, a human has, hopefully, navigated all of these influences to create their sexual identity. Hormonal influence in the womb can influence the sexual identity of a child. Testosterone levels have been proven to influence girls by the level to which the behave more feminine or masculine in their childhood. A study done by Melissa Hines, Charles Brook and Gerard S. Conway at City University in conjunction with Bristol University, discovered that girls exposed to higher levels of androgens, testosterone in the womb While this information was not relevant to boys in this test, this does indicate that the various hormones levels of a mother can have influence on the development of the child. As these type of studies progress, more information will come to light helping to identify the medical influences that help to create the fully developed adult sexual identity. Of course, the danger in this type of research is the possibility of allowing parents to try and use these influences to medically manipulate a fetus to a more â€Å"desirable† outcome. Sexual identity can be defined by two criteria. The first criteria is the simple (or at least usually simple) association made by physical characteristics. Ones sexual identity is first based on the physical gender characteristics that were evident at birth. A child is born with female genitals and is then immediately socialized as a female. The same is true for a male. This socialization is the first battlefield on which a child will stand. Comments will come from toddlers in American society such as ’ I won’t wear that - it’s pink! Pink is for girls!’ or ’I want a doll for Christmas because I want to be a mommy when I grow up.’. In an article

Driving to Colma Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Driving to Colma - Assignment Example On the same point, when the father was seek it is recommended for him to call his friends to see how is feeling concerning the sickness. This is depicted when he calls Jim a friend. On top of that, the invited Japanese come with food. The narrator and the father have a strong relationship when it comes to driving. The father is always dictating the narrator on how to drive and show her directions like a little child. It pisses of the narrator making her to hate the instructions she receives from the father. On top of that the father is very concerning with the welfare of the daughter and he always likes to be driven by the narrator. The two are close friend and a father and daughter respectively. They narrator has the bond of love to her father just like the father to daughter relationship. The narrator loves the car of her father and she always loves driving her to important places like hospital. With the partying gift, the father loves his daughter till he buys her (the narrator) a present. The narrator always loves a quiet life and she does not need anyone to dictate her. She always never liked her father to dictate her and show her directions that are unnecessary. She also loves her father by the fact that she massages her using fists. Each and every time the father gets sick, she always gets worried. All this is proved from the drive where the narrator loves to hold the keys and take her father to a drive. On the other side, the father cares the life of his daughter. She takes her daughter oversees to study and always wants her to be close to him. By allowing her to be driving him, it is a sign of a father daughter love.

The assessment cycle Essay Example for Free

The assessment cycle Essay The assessment cycle is the on-going process of assessment. Each stage involves initial assessment, assessment planning, assessment activity, assessment decision, feedback and progress review. Initial assessment will take place to gather sufficient information about the learner’s current level of competence. This will establish a starting point so that the learner can see how much he or she will achieve during the course. It will enable the tutor to effectively plan to meet the individual learner’s needs and will help to review the learners progress and achievements as well as determine future learning needs and preferred ways of learning. Assessment planning is making decisions on what outcomes of learning should be, what methods and resources will be used, how the learning and assessment will take place and in the appropriate time scale. You should ensure that the planned evidence collection and assessment opportunities cover the national standard. All training and assessment must be appropriate for the needs of each learner. When the learning programme or assessment process is put into practise, it is considered the assessment activity. The results of learning are assessed, formatively and summatively. Performance evidence is gathered. This could be products of the learners work like documents produced as part of an activity or a test. It could also be practical evidence with the learner demonstrating competence. Assessment decision and feedback should always be given to learners regarding their performance. The feedback should include whether the evidence provided meets the national standard. It is important that the learner agrees with the assessment decision. The assessment should meet the specific outcomes and criteria identified in the assessment planning and should be at the appropriate level for the qualification. All evidence must be judged as valid, authentic, consistent and sufficient. A review of progress will keep learners up to date on how they are doing on the course. It is a constructive process that gives participants the opportunity to identify achievements and discuss problems and potential issues. The review process also provides an opportunity to set realistic milestones for the remainder of candidature, to ensure completion within the permitted timeframe. Initial assessment is assessing the learner’s current level of competence. This will establish a baseline so that the learner can see progress. It also offers the tutor the opportunity to plan to the learner’s ability, needs and learning style. Assessment planning takes forward the initial assessment and utilises information gathered to design an appropriate course of learning. This will be appropriate for national standards and set to a level that the learner can take advantage of. Assessment activity is when the learning programme is put into practise. Results of the learning are assessed and evidence is gathered. This will be a mixture of documentation and practical evidence demonstrating competency. Assessment decision is the stage to which the feedback and assessment decision is given. There, the learner will be informed whether evidence meets the national standards and carefully explained so that the learner understands the decision. This will follow the process initially planned. Progress reviews take place in several inspection contexts. Essentially they are a point in time when all parties involved in training take a step back and look at the progress being made by a learner towards completing their individual learning plan. They also involve setting targets to further complete the plan.

Walt Disney Essay Example for Free

Walt Disney Essay Walt Disney started out as The Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio on October 16 1923. It was founded by Walt Disney and older brother Roy O Disney as equal partners. However, they were cheated by the distributor to the rights of their cartoons. In December 1929 Walt Disney Productions, Walt Disney Enterprises, Liled Realty and Investment Company and Disney Film Recording Company took over the Disney brothers’ partnership. In December 26, 1939 the company moved from Burbank California to Hyperion Studio, LA. Walt Disney Music Company was formed on October 1 1949. On July 17 1955, the first Disney Park known as Disneyland opened for audience in Anaheim California. Walt Disney World Resort and two hotels are opened near Orlando Florida on 1 October 1971. Walt Disney World Village later renamed Disney Village Market place opens on March 22 1975. The first international Disney theme park, Tokyo Disneyland opens on April 15 1983 in Japan. The few days later on April 18 1983 Disney Channel began broadcasting. In February of 1986, Walt Disney Productions was renamed The Walt Disney Company. The company expanded its business into Disney Interactive and opened Disney online in September 1995. In February 1996 Disney. com is launched on the World Wide Web and the Disney Institute is opened at Walt Disney World. On March 16 2002, Walt Disney Studios is opened in Paris. In September of 2005 Hong Kong Disneyland is opened. Marvel entertainments join the Disney family on December 31 2009. The company completes its Lucasfilm Ltd and with it the legendary Star Wars franchise. There are 5 major business segments in the Walt Disney Company. The media networks is made up of a variety of different channels such as ESPN, Abc Family, Disney Channel Worldwide, and many more. They also have Parks and Resorts which started with the opening of Disneyland in 1955. Walt Disney resorts have now grown into the leading provider for family travel and leisure. The Walt Disney Studios is the foundation on which the entire company was built. It still offers quality movies and has acquired a large array of different studios such as Marvel Studios, Touchstone Pictures, Pixar Animation Studios and many more. Disney Interactive is aimed for children and families. It uses technology and imagination to provide entertainment across all digital media platforms. Lastly, there is Disney Consumer Products that extends the brand to merchandise such as apparel, toys, home decor. The Disney Store debuted in 1987 and has grown widely since then with stores operating in North America, Europe and Japan.

Effects of the Recession on the Housing Market

Effects of the Recession on the Housing Market Introduction This part of the dissertation seeks to understand and investigate the cause of the current global recession and how it has affected the housing market in the UK. Housing Market Trends After the housing markets spectacular collapse in the 1990s, the UK housing market staged a significant revival. According to the HBOS index, the average house price stood at about  £163,000 in 2005, approximately double the  £82,000 it would have been worth in 2000. Cameron (2005) suggests that house prices surpassed their 1989 peak, relative to average household incomes. The other traditional measure of affordability, the ratio of interest payments to income, is not so overstretched, but only if capital repayments and unsecured debt are ignored. In addition, the strength of the housing market reflects the exceptional economic performance of the economy in 2005, which in turn is partially due to the sensible independent monetary policies pursued by the Bank of England Cameron (2005). As a result, it is suggested that Britain dealt with the world economic slowdown of 2001-2003 a great deal better than the majority of chief economies, producing six per cent growth. This vigorous expansion cannot completely describe the strength of the house price boom. Consequently, numerous economists have argued that there is a bubble in the British housing market, in common with a number of other countries, such as Spain, Australia, Canada, Sweden, and parts of the USA. FIGURE 1 Figure 1 shows the ratio of average house prices to average earnings, a key measure of affordability, for Great Britain and three major regions up to 2004 which is before the economic recession struck. As is visible, there is a positive contrast of cyclical behaviour in each series, with a surprising rise since 1999. According to the HBOS index, prices rose by only 1.3% over the nine months from July 2004 to April 2005. One of the main causes of this poor rise was due to the fact that many households were affected by the increases of the Bank of England base rate. Moreover, the increasing lack of demand within first time buyers, together with decreased numbers of house sales and low request rates for mortgages, implies that house prices have become separated from their underpinnings. The Nature of the Housing Market Housing markets are unusual for a number of reasons Housing markets are peculiar for a number of reasons. First, houses take time to build, so when demand rises, supply can only respond with a considerable lag. Indeed, to all intents, the short-run supply of housing is fixed. Second, houses are an asset that pays an implicit income (that is, the amount of rent that the owner saves by owning a house), so the value of the house should reflect expectations about future rents. But more importantly, since house-ownership in the UK is so widespread, a house is most householdsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ most important asset and since prices can go down as well as up, households are thereby exposed to a considerable amount of risk (almost half a million households had their homes repossessed in the 1990s). Unfortunately, it is not really possible to offset this risk since nobody offers insurance against a fall in prices. The Global economic recession It seems to have been agreed that the financial crisis which formed the birth of the current global economic recession was formed in the millennia of 2000 as a result of several factors which influenced increased housing sales and increased mortgage lending. [Sakbani (2009), Turalay (2009), Sel (2009)] One of the main factors which influenced the financial crisis was the boom in the housing market which was the result of increased supply of housing which persuaded financial institutions to increase and extend mortgages at attractive rates which mortgages borrowers could not afford to pay back. At the time of increased mortgage lending, the mortgage lenders had liquid assets that where at a level never seen before and this encouraged them to invest their assets into higher earning assets. This boom gave mortgage lenders an opportunity to double their portfolio of mortgage lending in respect of the past 10 years and mortgages reached some 50 per cent of their total lending assets after 2001 (Sakbani, 2009). The second factor which influenced housing sales was the record low-interest rates which were put in place by major banks to attract would be house buyers into purchasing mortgages at very low interest rates and other influences was the deregulation of financial institutions, there was a attitude throughout the major central banks of self regulation and with the increased financial innovations, major banks tended to regulate themselves. The final major factor was the disappearance of inflation fear as banks began to grow and increase portfolios, their self confidence began also to grow and any fears which were previously held started to disappear and this therefore relaxed their customer vigilance (Sakbani, 2008). As the demand for housing rose in the last decade and a half, this reached a record high in all major countries including the UK and USA. In the USA in particular, housing units sold in 2005 reached a peak of 1,283,000 as compared to an average of 609,000 in 1995-2000. More than 6 million units were sold in the five years up to 2006 (US Economic Forecast, 2009). The affects of this, increased the wealth and amount of disposable income available to households which in turn, increased the growth of the US economy up to 2007. It is recognised however, that this increase in economies and housing sales would not have taken place if there was a reduction in the availability of cheap mortgages being made available in the USA and UK up to 2005 and the substantial increase of low interest rates (IMF, 2008). The major banks began to operate under reduced regulation and with the global financial markets know in full swing, this increased the housing boom in the UK as some mortgages contained grace periods of up to three years and minimal down payments where required and with the introduction of low-interest rates, only fuelled the housing boom. Furthermore, these mortgages that where being taken out by borrowers would have originally been considered as non-credit worthy or, at very least, borrowers who incurred debts beyond their capacity to pay back (Ronald, 2008). As the banks began to run these debts, they ensured that the higher the risk, the higher should be the lending rate which therefore gave rise to the subprime mortgage market; this is a market whose borrowers may have difficulty maintaining the repayment schedule. Proponents of subprime lending maintain that the practice extends credit to people who would otherwise not have access to the credit market. As Professor Rosen of Princeton University explained, The main thing that innovations in the mortgage market have done over the past 30 years is to let in the excluded: the young, the discriminated against, the people without a lot of money in the bank to use for a down payment.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? It has now been agreed that this would have only ended in one way, this being collapse of the housing market and financial institutions. As borrowers started to run out of finances to repay their mortgages and defaults began to increase, the rate of increase in housing prices started to fall and could not compete with the rate of debt which therefore meant that borrowers could not refinance their loans or sell their houses at large profits [(The) Economist (2008), Sakbani (2008), Elise (2008)]. One way this could have been prevented is that if banks had extended their mortgage loans under the old conditions of mortgage lending, they would have had to hold them on their books and eventually would have run out of funds. But starting in the late 1980s, financial innovations made it possible for mortgage lenders to unload their loans to pools, which can transform these personalised, non-negotiable obligations into derivative securities guaranteed by the mortgages (Sakbani, 2008). After the crisis erupted, the International Monetary Fund (IMF, 2008) estimated the size of these securities at more than $945 billion, while Goldman Sachs put them at more than $1.0 trillion. In September 2008, the IMF revised its estimate to $1.4 trillion ((The) Economist, 2008). On January 28, 2009 the IMF once more revised its estimate to $2.2 trillion. All these estimates therefore prove that, nobody had any idea of the amount of the non-performing assets. Sakbani (2008) tends to suggest that there were many culprits that where directly related to the financial crisis of 2008 which include: the greedy banks and other financial institutions with their irresponsible and uninformed behaviour, the equally greedy borrowers, the absence of regulations covering all the financial institutions involved and not just banks, the lacunae of vigilant supervision at both the states and federal levels, the non-regulated and non-transparent character of the financial innovations, the failure of the rating agencies to do their job and finally the loose monetary policy of the Greenspan era in the years 2001-2004. Mr Greenspan, testifying on October 23, 2008 before a Congressional Committee, admitted his error in believing that investment managers would exercise prudence in their operations and accepted that the regulatory system was loose and fundamentally obsolete. Since the beginning of the economic recession, there has been a high reduction in new housing starts after a reduced number of sales. Berkeley Homes for example, reported sales down by 50% in the summer of 2008, also with housebuildersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ shares falling to low levels, there is major financing problems which continue to suffer. Housing Developments Policy Turalay (2008) appears to suggest that at the beginning of the downturn, the position of the UK housing market did not appear to be that bad as it was expected that there would be a gradual slow down in housing sales and then a fairly rapid recovery process which would not adversely affect the economy, however, this did not prove to be the case and no-one could have predicted what actually happened. Although UK economist Andrew Oswald, famously declared in November 2002; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“I think we are about to go through the great housing crash of 2003 to 2005. . . . I advise you to sell your house, and move into rented accommodation Panic will then set inà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?(Pickard, 2005, p. 9). When comparing the period of July-October 2007 with July-October 2008, evidence suggests that a fall in average sale prices of around 14 per cent (Land Registry, 2008). It has been noted by Pryce Sprigings (2008) that measuring price change is hampered by the fact that selling times have risen substantially and indices are therefore not comparing like with like à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" ideally one would like to compare, for example, the acerage price of houses that sold within a month on the market in 2007 with average prices of houses that sold within a month on the market in 2008. Evidence also suggests that transaction volumes have fallen dramatically from around 111,000 sales per month in England and Wales between July and October 2007 to 45,000 sales per month between July and October 2008, which is a fall of 60 per cent (Land Registry, 2008). Other data sources also reported this fall including Halifax, Nationwide, Land Registry and Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). Some locations are showing even greater falls, with city centre flat and apartment markets appearing to be particularly vulnerable. During Oswaldà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s prediction, real average house prices rose at one of the steepest rates recorded in modern times, by nearly a quarter in real terms, from  £140,593 in 2003 quarter 1, to  £173,412 in 2006 quarter 1, based on nationwide real mix adjusted house prices see Figure 1 below, and continued to rise for a further two years until quarter 4 of 2007. Figure 1 Real House Prices There appears to have been significant early interventions from the government and the Bank of England to keep both the housing market and the wider economy on course. Consecutive cuts to base rates, addition of  £50bn of liquidity into the finance markets by the Bank of England to alleviate the credit crunch, and  £2.7bn fiscal improvement to balance low-income households for the withdrawal of the 10p tax rate. It was expected that these would all combine to form an apparently positive reinforcement, however this would prove not to be the case as in March 2008, initial indications emerged of a somewhat more speedy slowdown in the housing sector was about to develop. The RICS housing market survey of that month specified that surveyor attitude with regard to house prices had weakened to the lowest point since the survey began in 1978 and the ratio of completed sales in the previous three months to the stock of unsold property on the market fell to 0.224, the lowest since September 1996 (RICS UK Economic Brief, 2008). With mortgage approvals falling by 44 per cent in the same year (2008), this resulted in a significant fall in housing demand which led to banks being unwilling to offer new loans on houses. Although there is no surprise that the housing market has took a downturn and because this has happened before, there are no unexpected events occurring, Pryce and Sprigings tend to suggest that the speed and severity of the decline has been unusual. They go on to express that this leads us to naturally question whether our policies, our regulatory frameworks, our collective approach to housing and cultural obsession with house prices, have in some way exacerbated this particular manifestation of that cycle by sustaining the upswing well beyond mean trend and perhaps resulting an unnecessarily sever and rapid downturn (Pryce and Sprigings, 2008). These questions however are not wholly of interest to housing professionals as links between residential property and the broader market as well recognised. An example of this is stated by Goodhart and Hofmann (2008, p.180), where they find; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“a significant multidirectional link between house prices, monetary variables, and the macroeconomy with the effects of money and credit amplified when house prices are boomingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. It is agreed by Maclennan and Pryce that housing impacts on the real economy via the construction, financial, estate agency and legal sector and through housing equity financed consumption, all of which are sensitive to housing market fluctuations, and all have become increasingly inter-linked across nations as a result of the globalisation of capital and labour (Maclennan and Pryce, 1996). It is also in agreement with numerous authors, Malpass in particular, that housing also impacts on welfare; not only through homelessness caused by repossessions (i.e. owner occupiers and renters affected by landlord default) at a time of crisis, but increasingly through equity release funding of education support (including accommodation) at the start of life and elderly care at the end. (Malpass, 2005). Another article which backs Malpassà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ suggestion is the announcement of the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) which has confirmed the closing of Local Authority New Build (LANB) as a national programme. This is a result of the Treasury announcing that it was cutting  £220 million from HCAà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s budget, this follows on from the cut to the May budget of  £230 million. The new builds where seen as a solution to ease the housing crisis of the UK since the recession and to add to Malpassà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ argument, Baroness Hanham stated in the House of Lords; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“There will be casualties; I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t have any doubt that there will be casualtiesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? Furthermore to this statement, Labours Lord McKenzie warned à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“It will force many to move or end up homeless and create ghettos of the poorà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. Unfortunately, the literature and policy debates on the nature and consequences of housing markets have evolved rather dichotomously. As Maclennan (2008, p. 424) observed; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Many nations are now involved in two housing discussions, namely à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“homelessness and affordabilityà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"house price booms, bubbles and bustsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢. The first theme has largely been the domain of social policy ministries, lobbies and researchers (Carter and Polevychok, 2004).The second has absorbed the macroeconomic policy community, including central banks, finance ministries, financial institutions and some academic economists, who are concerned about à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“stabilityà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. Affordability and stability are often discussed as if they are unrelated, not just in the press, but also within policymaking circles.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? Researchers can now endeavour to bridge this gap in housing discussions. By using the analogy of sowing and reaping, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reapà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ (Galations 6:7, King James Version). It can be highlighted how scrupulous aspects of the existing recession should require policy makers and researchers to reflect on the failures of policy that have arisen as a result of the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“fragmented nature of housing thinking within modern governmentsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? (Maclennan, 2008). Pryce and Sprigings propose that the great correction that is currently underway is a consequence, not only of transcendent global forces, but also significantly of UK policy decisions on financial liberalisation and housing. And if we are reaping what we have sown in domestic policy, who are the winners and losers, and what are the implications for how we evaluate UK post-war policy? It has been made clear that such issues are underpinned by major policy, theoretical, and empirical questions that will most probably be debated at length in the future. What Pryce and Sprigings have done, is highlighted the issues and hope that highlighting these issues will offer some key pointers as to how the future debate should be structured and what might be done to ensure a more integrated approach to modernising UK housing policies. It is argued that successive governments i.e. Conservative Party and Labour Party have promoted homeownership since the end of the Second World War and its benefits it brings financially to the lease holder if they are the occupier as one of the White Papers show from 1953, which states; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“One object of future housing policy will be to continue to promote, by all possible means, the building of new houses for owner occupation. Of all forms of saving this is one of the best. Of all forms of ownership this is one of the most satisfying to the individual and the most beneficial to the nationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? (1953White Paper, Houses: The Next Step). Gradually homeownership became deeply embedded in the UK psyche as the tenure of aspiration (Ronald, 2008). However, people then become aware that homeownership may not be best suited for everyone and this is a point that is raised by Sprigings (2008) where he identified that by encouraging low-income households into homeownership, we are subjecting them to the worst of its costs and risks while the market may restrict for them the potential of its benefits. This idea was also backed up by Pickard (2005) where he stated that housing is believed to be a great long-term investment on average, but for the deprived areas, and for the poorest households, homeownership may simply not produce the promised benefits. Housing developments and the global recession can be seen as interlinked with certain groups of society and those in less secure jobs as people on low income will bear the biggest brunt of the recession as low income workers and people in less secure jobs are more than likely to face financial difficulties when it comes to mortgage repayments as they are likely to lose their jobs or see rising inflation and rising interest rates and therefore low income households are likely to leave homeownership at the worst point because they are facing the biggest impact of the recession and also when the market begins to resume to normality again, low-income households may find it harder to re-enter the housing market when house prices are low because there is a proven correlation between credit being made available and housing prices and low-income households may not be able to obtain credit when house prices are still low therefore not enabling them to enter the housing market when it seems mo st beneficial. The CML also back up this idea as figures for October 2008 show that, the value of loans has decreased to 83 per cent of the value of the property therefore, as it has been established that long term dividends on housing can be superior, low-income households will find it difficult to witness these dividends as they will be exiting the housing market when it begins to deteriorate and trying to enter the housing market when it is difficult to obtain credit. Pryce (2008) seems to perceive that the promotion of homeownership by successive UK governments and therefore the rapid increase of owner occupation may have inadvertently produced a money pump working in the opposite direction. Another theory which Pryce (2008) identifies is the fact that low-income and particularly ethnic groups are less likely to enjoy the benefits of inter-generational housing welfare transfer. Keister (2003) also backs up the second theory of Pryce (2008) by identifying that children from larger families accumulate less wealth than do those from smaller families and that siblings dilute parentsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ finite financial resources and non material resources. Sibship size also reduced that likelihood of receiving a trust account or an inheritance and decreases home and stock ownership. Buy-to-Let Mortgages Buy-to-Let mortgages where developed in 1995 and where designed as a new financial product in the UK which enabled individuals to purchase a mortgage on a property for the purpose of letting the property out to future tenants. The benefits from these mortgages can include a stable income from rental receipts, as well as an accumulation of wealth if house prices go up. However one of the main factors of risk with taking out a buy-to-let mortgage is leverage speculation where the landlord purchases a property expecting to sell the house at a later date for a higher price or that rental income will exceed the repayment amounts of the initial loan. Buy-to-Let mortgages have became extremely popular with apprentice investors as this type of mortgage attracts middle income people to start to develop into small-scale landlords as a means of investing for their retirement. The volume of these loans grew rapidly in value as shown in Figure 2. Figure 2 BTL loan Pryce (2008) expresses concern at the fact that 90 per cent of total BTL advances since 1999 have been taken out during periods of above-trend house prices, and  £74 billion of BTL mortgages, which is more than half of the total BTL advances since 1999, were issues at the very peak of the housing boom. This can be seen in Figure 3. Fig 3 It is therefore in agreement that, a significant proportion of BTL loans are at risk because there is consensus that the value of securities will fall below the outstanding mortgage debts. This consensus is backed-up by the fact that repossessions on BTL properties as a per cent of all BTL mortgages almost doubled in the space of 18 months from the second half of 2005 to the first half of 2007 before the first round of gloomy house price results were released in late 2007. Latest CML data also reinforces this claim as they show a large increase in BTL accounts over three months in arrears at the third quarter of 2008 having trebled in number in 12 months to around 18,000. (Pryce and Sprigings 2008). If home owners begin to default on their loans then the impact could be significant not only for lenders, but for particular sectors of the housing market as 80 per cent of BTL properties are terraced of flats and these account for almost a third of the entire UK private rented stock (Sprigings, 2008). One of the key features of the BTL which there is much agreement on is the impact it seems to have had on new housing supply with flats coming to dominate supply, particularly in city markets. (Taylor 2008, Sprigings 2008). Fig 4 Effects of the Recession on the Housing Market Effects of the Recession on the Housing Market Introduction This part of the dissertation seeks to understand and investigate the cause of the current global recession and how it has affected the housing market in the UK. Housing Market Trends After the housing markets spectacular collapse in the 1990s, the UK housing market staged a significant revival. According to the HBOS index, the average house price stood at about  £163,000 in 2005, approximately double the  £82,000 it would have been worth in 2000. Cameron (2005) suggests that house prices surpassed their 1989 peak, relative to average household incomes. The other traditional measure of affordability, the ratio of interest payments to income, is not so overstretched, but only if capital repayments and unsecured debt are ignored. In addition, the strength of the housing market reflects the exceptional economic performance of the economy in 2005, which in turn is partially due to the sensible independent monetary policies pursued by the Bank of England Cameron (2005). As a result, it is suggested that Britain dealt with the world economic slowdown of 2001-2003 a great deal better than the majority of chief economies, producing six per cent growth. This vigorous expansion cannot completely describe the strength of the house price boom. Consequently, numerous economists have argued that there is a bubble in the British housing market, in common with a number of other countries, such as Spain, Australia, Canada, Sweden, and parts of the USA. FIGURE 1 Figure 1 shows the ratio of average house prices to average earnings, a key measure of affordability, for Great Britain and three major regions up to 2004 which is before the economic recession struck. As is visible, there is a positive contrast of cyclical behaviour in each series, with a surprising rise since 1999. According to the HBOS index, prices rose by only 1.3% over the nine months from July 2004 to April 2005. One of the main causes of this poor rise was due to the fact that many households were affected by the increases of the Bank of England base rate. Moreover, the increasing lack of demand within first time buyers, together with decreased numbers of house sales and low request rates for mortgages, implies that house prices have become separated from their underpinnings. The Nature of the Housing Market Housing markets are unusual for a number of reasons Housing markets are peculiar for a number of reasons. First, houses take time to build, so when demand rises, supply can only respond with a considerable lag. Indeed, to all intents, the short-run supply of housing is fixed. Second, houses are an asset that pays an implicit income (that is, the amount of rent that the owner saves by owning a house), so the value of the house should reflect expectations about future rents. But more importantly, since house-ownership in the UK is so widespread, a house is most householdsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ most important asset and since prices can go down as well as up, households are thereby exposed to a considerable amount of risk (almost half a million households had their homes repossessed in the 1990s). Unfortunately, it is not really possible to offset this risk since nobody offers insurance against a fall in prices. The Global economic recession It seems to have been agreed that the financial crisis which formed the birth of the current global economic recession was formed in the millennia of 2000 as a result of several factors which influenced increased housing sales and increased mortgage lending. [Sakbani (2009), Turalay (2009), Sel (2009)] One of the main factors which influenced the financial crisis was the boom in the housing market which was the result of increased supply of housing which persuaded financial institutions to increase and extend mortgages at attractive rates which mortgages borrowers could not afford to pay back. At the time of increased mortgage lending, the mortgage lenders had liquid assets that where at a level never seen before and this encouraged them to invest their assets into higher earning assets. This boom gave mortgage lenders an opportunity to double their portfolio of mortgage lending in respect of the past 10 years and mortgages reached some 50 per cent of their total lending assets after 2001 (Sakbani, 2009). The second factor which influenced housing sales was the record low-interest rates which were put in place by major banks to attract would be house buyers into purchasing mortgages at very low interest rates and other influences was the deregulation of financial institutions, there was a attitude throughout the major central banks of self regulation and with the increased financial innovations, major banks tended to regulate themselves. The final major factor was the disappearance of inflation fear as banks began to grow and increase portfolios, their self confidence began also to grow and any fears which were previously held started to disappear and this therefore relaxed their customer vigilance (Sakbani, 2008). As the demand for housing rose in the last decade and a half, this reached a record high in all major countries including the UK and USA. In the USA in particular, housing units sold in 2005 reached a peak of 1,283,000 as compared to an average of 609,000 in 1995-2000. More than 6 million units were sold in the five years up to 2006 (US Economic Forecast, 2009). The affects of this, increased the wealth and amount of disposable income available to households which in turn, increased the growth of the US economy up to 2007. It is recognised however, that this increase in economies and housing sales would not have taken place if there was a reduction in the availability of cheap mortgages being made available in the USA and UK up to 2005 and the substantial increase of low interest rates (IMF, 2008). The major banks began to operate under reduced regulation and with the global financial markets know in full swing, this increased the housing boom in the UK as some mortgages contained grace periods of up to three years and minimal down payments where required and with the introduction of low-interest rates, only fuelled the housing boom. Furthermore, these mortgages that where being taken out by borrowers would have originally been considered as non-credit worthy or, at very least, borrowers who incurred debts beyond their capacity to pay back (Ronald, 2008). As the banks began to run these debts, they ensured that the higher the risk, the higher should be the lending rate which therefore gave rise to the subprime mortgage market; this is a market whose borrowers may have difficulty maintaining the repayment schedule. Proponents of subprime lending maintain that the practice extends credit to people who would otherwise not have access to the credit market. As Professor Rosen of Princeton University explained, The main thing that innovations in the mortgage market have done over the past 30 years is to let in the excluded: the young, the discriminated against, the people without a lot of money in the bank to use for a down payment.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? It has now been agreed that this would have only ended in one way, this being collapse of the housing market and financial institutions. As borrowers started to run out of finances to repay their mortgages and defaults began to increase, the rate of increase in housing prices started to fall and could not compete with the rate of debt which therefore meant that borrowers could not refinance their loans or sell their houses at large profits [(The) Economist (2008), Sakbani (2008), Elise (2008)]. One way this could have been prevented is that if banks had extended their mortgage loans under the old conditions of mortgage lending, they would have had to hold them on their books and eventually would have run out of funds. But starting in the late 1980s, financial innovations made it possible for mortgage lenders to unload their loans to pools, which can transform these personalised, non-negotiable obligations into derivative securities guaranteed by the mortgages (Sakbani, 2008). After the crisis erupted, the International Monetary Fund (IMF, 2008) estimated the size of these securities at more than $945 billion, while Goldman Sachs put them at more than $1.0 trillion. In September 2008, the IMF revised its estimate to $1.4 trillion ((The) Economist, 2008). On January 28, 2009 the IMF once more revised its estimate to $2.2 trillion. All these estimates therefore prove that, nobody had any idea of the amount of the non-performing assets. Sakbani (2008) tends to suggest that there were many culprits that where directly related to the financial crisis of 2008 which include: the greedy banks and other financial institutions with their irresponsible and uninformed behaviour, the equally greedy borrowers, the absence of regulations covering all the financial institutions involved and not just banks, the lacunae of vigilant supervision at both the states and federal levels, the non-regulated and non-transparent character of the financial innovations, the failure of the rating agencies to do their job and finally the loose monetary policy of the Greenspan era in the years 2001-2004. Mr Greenspan, testifying on October 23, 2008 before a Congressional Committee, admitted his error in believing that investment managers would exercise prudence in their operations and accepted that the regulatory system was loose and fundamentally obsolete. Since the beginning of the economic recession, there has been a high reduction in new housing starts after a reduced number of sales. Berkeley Homes for example, reported sales down by 50% in the summer of 2008, also with housebuildersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ shares falling to low levels, there is major financing problems which continue to suffer. Housing Developments Policy Turalay (2008) appears to suggest that at the beginning of the downturn, the position of the UK housing market did not appear to be that bad as it was expected that there would be a gradual slow down in housing sales and then a fairly rapid recovery process which would not adversely affect the economy, however, this did not prove to be the case and no-one could have predicted what actually happened. Although UK economist Andrew Oswald, famously declared in November 2002; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“I think we are about to go through the great housing crash of 2003 to 2005. . . . I advise you to sell your house, and move into rented accommodation Panic will then set inà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?(Pickard, 2005, p. 9). When comparing the period of July-October 2007 with July-October 2008, evidence suggests that a fall in average sale prices of around 14 per cent (Land Registry, 2008). It has been noted by Pryce Sprigings (2008) that measuring price change is hampered by the fact that selling times have risen substantially and indices are therefore not comparing like with like à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" ideally one would like to compare, for example, the acerage price of houses that sold within a month on the market in 2007 with average prices of houses that sold within a month on the market in 2008. Evidence also suggests that transaction volumes have fallen dramatically from around 111,000 sales per month in England and Wales between July and October 2007 to 45,000 sales per month between July and October 2008, which is a fall of 60 per cent (Land Registry, 2008). Other data sources also reported this fall including Halifax, Nationwide, Land Registry and Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). Some locations are showing even greater falls, with city centre flat and apartment markets appearing to be particularly vulnerable. During Oswaldà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s prediction, real average house prices rose at one of the steepest rates recorded in modern times, by nearly a quarter in real terms, from  £140,593 in 2003 quarter 1, to  £173,412 in 2006 quarter 1, based on nationwide real mix adjusted house prices see Figure 1 below, and continued to rise for a further two years until quarter 4 of 2007. Figure 1 Real House Prices There appears to have been significant early interventions from the government and the Bank of England to keep both the housing market and the wider economy on course. Consecutive cuts to base rates, addition of  £50bn of liquidity into the finance markets by the Bank of England to alleviate the credit crunch, and  £2.7bn fiscal improvement to balance low-income households for the withdrawal of the 10p tax rate. It was expected that these would all combine to form an apparently positive reinforcement, however this would prove not to be the case as in March 2008, initial indications emerged of a somewhat more speedy slowdown in the housing sector was about to develop. The RICS housing market survey of that month specified that surveyor attitude with regard to house prices had weakened to the lowest point since the survey began in 1978 and the ratio of completed sales in the previous three months to the stock of unsold property on the market fell to 0.224, the lowest since September 1996 (RICS UK Economic Brief, 2008). With mortgage approvals falling by 44 per cent in the same year (2008), this resulted in a significant fall in housing demand which led to banks being unwilling to offer new loans on houses. Although there is no surprise that the housing market has took a downturn and because this has happened before, there are no unexpected events occurring, Pryce and Sprigings tend to suggest that the speed and severity of the decline has been unusual. They go on to express that this leads us to naturally question whether our policies, our regulatory frameworks, our collective approach to housing and cultural obsession with house prices, have in some way exacerbated this particular manifestation of that cycle by sustaining the upswing well beyond mean trend and perhaps resulting an unnecessarily sever and rapid downturn (Pryce and Sprigings, 2008). These questions however are not wholly of interest to housing professionals as links between residential property and the broader market as well recognised. An example of this is stated by Goodhart and Hofmann (2008, p.180), where they find; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“a significant multidirectional link between house prices, monetary variables, and the macroeconomy with the effects of money and credit amplified when house prices are boomingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. It is agreed by Maclennan and Pryce that housing impacts on the real economy via the construction, financial, estate agency and legal sector and through housing equity financed consumption, all of which are sensitive to housing market fluctuations, and all have become increasingly inter-linked across nations as a result of the globalisation of capital and labour (Maclennan and Pryce, 1996). It is also in agreement with numerous authors, Malpass in particular, that housing also impacts on welfare; not only through homelessness caused by repossessions (i.e. owner occupiers and renters affected by landlord default) at a time of crisis, but increasingly through equity release funding of education support (including accommodation) at the start of life and elderly care at the end. (Malpass, 2005). Another article which backs Malpassà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ suggestion is the announcement of the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) which has confirmed the closing of Local Authority New Build (LANB) as a national programme. This is a result of the Treasury announcing that it was cutting  £220 million from HCAà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s budget, this follows on from the cut to the May budget of  £230 million. The new builds where seen as a solution to ease the housing crisis of the UK since the recession and to add to Malpassà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ argument, Baroness Hanham stated in the House of Lords; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“There will be casualties; I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t have any doubt that there will be casualtiesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? Furthermore to this statement, Labours Lord McKenzie warned à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“It will force many to move or end up homeless and create ghettos of the poorà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. Unfortunately, the literature and policy debates on the nature and consequences of housing markets have evolved rather dichotomously. As Maclennan (2008, p. 424) observed; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Many nations are now involved in two housing discussions, namely à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“homelessness and affordabilityà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"house price booms, bubbles and bustsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢. The first theme has largely been the domain of social policy ministries, lobbies and researchers (Carter and Polevychok, 2004).The second has absorbed the macroeconomic policy community, including central banks, finance ministries, financial institutions and some academic economists, who are concerned about à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“stabilityà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. Affordability and stability are often discussed as if they are unrelated, not just in the press, but also within policymaking circles.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? Researchers can now endeavour to bridge this gap in housing discussions. By using the analogy of sowing and reaping, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reapà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ (Galations 6:7, King James Version). It can be highlighted how scrupulous aspects of the existing recession should require policy makers and researchers to reflect on the failures of policy that have arisen as a result of the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“fragmented nature of housing thinking within modern governmentsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? (Maclennan, 2008). Pryce and Sprigings propose that the great correction that is currently underway is a consequence, not only of transcendent global forces, but also significantly of UK policy decisions on financial liberalisation and housing. And if we are reaping what we have sown in domestic policy, who are the winners and losers, and what are the implications for how we evaluate UK post-war policy? It has been made clear that such issues are underpinned by major policy, theoretical, and empirical questions that will most probably be debated at length in the future. What Pryce and Sprigings have done, is highlighted the issues and hope that highlighting these issues will offer some key pointers as to how the future debate should be structured and what might be done to ensure a more integrated approach to modernising UK housing policies. It is argued that successive governments i.e. Conservative Party and Labour Party have promoted homeownership since the end of the Second World War and its benefits it brings financially to the lease holder if they are the occupier as one of the White Papers show from 1953, which states; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“One object of future housing policy will be to continue to promote, by all possible means, the building of new houses for owner occupation. Of all forms of saving this is one of the best. Of all forms of ownership this is one of the most satisfying to the individual and the most beneficial to the nationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? (1953White Paper, Houses: The Next Step). Gradually homeownership became deeply embedded in the UK psyche as the tenure of aspiration (Ronald, 2008). However, people then become aware that homeownership may not be best suited for everyone and this is a point that is raised by Sprigings (2008) where he identified that by encouraging low-income households into homeownership, we are subjecting them to the worst of its costs and risks while the market may restrict for them the potential of its benefits. This idea was also backed up by Pickard (2005) where he stated that housing is believed to be a great long-term investment on average, but for the deprived areas, and for the poorest households, homeownership may simply not produce the promised benefits. Housing developments and the global recession can be seen as interlinked with certain groups of society and those in less secure jobs as people on low income will bear the biggest brunt of the recession as low income workers and people in less secure jobs are more than likely to face financial difficulties when it comes to mortgage repayments as they are likely to lose their jobs or see rising inflation and rising interest rates and therefore low income households are likely to leave homeownership at the worst point because they are facing the biggest impact of the recession and also when the market begins to resume to normality again, low-income households may find it harder to re-enter the housing market when house prices are low because there is a proven correlation between credit being made available and housing prices and low-income households may not be able to obtain credit when house prices are still low therefore not enabling them to enter the housing market when it seems mo st beneficial. The CML also back up this idea as figures for October 2008 show that, the value of loans has decreased to 83 per cent of the value of the property therefore, as it has been established that long term dividends on housing can be superior, low-income households will find it difficult to witness these dividends as they will be exiting the housing market when it begins to deteriorate and trying to enter the housing market when it is difficult to obtain credit. Pryce (2008) seems to perceive that the promotion of homeownership by successive UK governments and therefore the rapid increase of owner occupation may have inadvertently produced a money pump working in the opposite direction. Another theory which Pryce (2008) identifies is the fact that low-income and particularly ethnic groups are less likely to enjoy the benefits of inter-generational housing welfare transfer. Keister (2003) also backs up the second theory of Pryce (2008) by identifying that children from larger families accumulate less wealth than do those from smaller families and that siblings dilute parentsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ finite financial resources and non material resources. Sibship size also reduced that likelihood of receiving a trust account or an inheritance and decreases home and stock ownership. Buy-to-Let Mortgages Buy-to-Let mortgages where developed in 1995 and where designed as a new financial product in the UK which enabled individuals to purchase a mortgage on a property for the purpose of letting the property out to future tenants. The benefits from these mortgages can include a stable income from rental receipts, as well as an accumulation of wealth if house prices go up. However one of the main factors of risk with taking out a buy-to-let mortgage is leverage speculation where the landlord purchases a property expecting to sell the house at a later date for a higher price or that rental income will exceed the repayment amounts of the initial loan. Buy-to-Let mortgages have became extremely popular with apprentice investors as this type of mortgage attracts middle income people to start to develop into small-scale landlords as a means of investing for their retirement. The volume of these loans grew rapidly in value as shown in Figure 2. Figure 2 BTL loan Pryce (2008) expresses concern at the fact that 90 per cent of total BTL advances since 1999 have been taken out during periods of above-trend house prices, and  £74 billion of BTL mortgages, which is more than half of the total BTL advances since 1999, were issues at the very peak of the housing boom. This can be seen in Figure 3. Fig 3 It is therefore in agreement that, a significant proportion of BTL loans are at risk because there is consensus that the value of securities will fall below the outstanding mortgage debts. This consensus is backed-up by the fact that repossessions on BTL properties as a per cent of all BTL mortgages almost doubled in the space of 18 months from the second half of 2005 to the first half of 2007 before the first round of gloomy house price results were released in late 2007. Latest CML data also reinforces this claim as they show a large increase in BTL accounts over three months in arrears at the third quarter of 2008 having trebled in number in 12 months to around 18,000. (Pryce and Sprigings 2008). If home owners begin to default on their loans then the impact could be significant not only for lenders, but for particular sectors of the housing market as 80 per cent of BTL properties are terraced of flats and these account for almost a third of the entire UK private rented stock (Sprigings, 2008). One of the key features of the BTL which there is much agreement on is the impact it seems to have had on new housing supply with flats coming to dominate supply, particularly in city markets. (Taylor 2008, Sprigings 2008). Fig 4

Summary of Slaughter House Five :: Novels Literature Slaughter House Five Essays

Summary of Slaughter House Five Chapter One: The first chapter serves as an introduction in which Vonnegut directly addresses the reader, pointing out that the book is based on events that really occurred. He experienced first-hand the destruction of Dresden, during WWII, an event that he has never been able to put out of his mind. For twenty-three years, he has wanted to write about it. Vonnegut's attitude towards war becomes clear in this first chapter. He sees it as a totally futile occurrence, but he is resigned to the fact that war will always exist. He feels that wars have taught people insensitivity towards death. He cites the detached attitude of a woman writer as she relayed the news of a young veteran's dying. He finds such a nonchalant, uncaring attitude repulsive in any human being. Vonnegut then points out the irony in the fact that war tries to fight violence with more violence. He also questions the American government's treatment of violence as a "top secret" affair that is not to be discussed. I took this as interesting it’s just the first chapter and yet the author is pointing out and beating you with multifaceted issues that he will hopefully find solutions to towards the end of the novel. The character displayed as the author of the story tells of how he writes it and the events which lead to publication. In one instance he meets with a fellow veteran, Bernard O’Hare. When faced with his wife, Mary O'Hare's anger about war, Vonnegut assures her that his book will not glorify violence. Her main concern is the death of "babies" who will grow up and die in war. Along with his assurance to her, he also considers calling the book, "The Children's Crusade." The author has tried to pass on his knowledge of the futility of destruction to his children. He wants the younger generation to understand what the older ones have always failed to. Mary seems bizarre but I understand her purpose and that is to set out the mindset that the book wants the reader to adhere. There is a lot of precautions Vonnegut is making before he even preludes the story. Vonnegut revisits Dresden with O'Hare, and this, along with the completion of this book, is of great importance to him. With these two things he has managed to free himself of his obsession.

Comparing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X :: Comparison Compare Contrast Essays

Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X grew up in different environments. King was raised in a comfortable middle-class family where education was stressed. On the other hand, Malcolm X came from and underprivileged home. He was a self-taught man who received little schooling and rose to greatness on his own intelligence and determination. Martin Luther King was born into a family whose name in Atlanta was well established. Despite segregation, Martin Luther King's parents ensured that their child was secure and happy. Malcolm X was born on May 19, 1925 and was raised in a completely different atmosphere than King, an atmosphere of fear and anger where the seeds of bitterness were planted. The burning of his house by the Klu Klux Klan resulted in the murder of his father. His mother later suffered a nervous breakdown and his family was split up. He was haunted by this early nightmare for most of his life. From then on, he was driven by hatred and a desire for revenge. The early backgrounds of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King were largely responsible for the distinct different responses to American racism. Both men ultimately became towering icons of contemporary African-American culture and had a great influence on black Americans. However, King had a more positive attitude than Malcolm X, believing that through peaceful demonstrations and arguments, blacks will be able to someday achieve full equality with whites. Malcolm X's despair about life was reflected in his angry, pessimistic belief that e quality is impossible because whites have no moral conscience. King basically adopted on an integrationalist philosophy, whereby he felt that blacks and whites should be united and live together in peace. Malcolm X, however, promoted nationalist and separatist doctrines. For most of his life, he believed that only through revolution and force could blacks attain their rightful place in society. Both X and King spread their message through powerful, hard-hitting speeches. Nevertheless, their intentions were delivered in different styles and purposes. "King was basically a peaceful leader who urged non-violence to his followers. He travelled about the country giving speeches that inspired black and white listeners to work together for racial harmony." (pg. 135, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Freedom Movement) Malcolm X, for the most part, believed that non-violence and integration was a trick by the whites to keep blacks in their places. He was furious at white racism and encouraged h is followers through his speeches to rise up and protest against their white enemies.

Analysis of The Outcasts of Poker Flat by John Oakhurst :: The Outcasts of Poker Flat John Oakhurst Essays

Analysis of The Outcasts of Poker Flat by John Oakhurst John Oakhurst is the main character in â€Å"The Outcasts of Poker Flat†. John is an outstanding person and has some phenomenal traits. Such as that he is unusually calm, courageous, and modest. John has shown numerous times in â€Å"The Outcasts of Poker Flat†, that he is an extraordinarily calm person. One time in which Mr. Oakhurst showed extreme calmness is when the men come to take him away, and he just took what is coming. That to me shows extreme calmness. Another time when John Oakhurst shoes his trait of calmness is when he has to walk on foot back to Poker Flat to save Piney. John just said that he would try, and off he went. No worries or second thoughts about it. Those two things to me, show that John Oakhurst is a extremely calm person. John, the gambler, is an extremely courageous person. He has proven this by a number of actions in this story. First of all he shows tons of courage by not getting scared when the travelers and him get snowed in. If it where me I probably would have run off like Uncle Billy did. Another example of when Mr. Oakhurst showed courage was when he kicked Uncle Billy to stop him from laughing. Most people would have just told him to stop laughing. But not Mr. Oakhurst, he just gave him a swift kick in the stomach. That to me shows the utmost courage in the world. Another one of John’s traits is that he is overwhelmingly modest. Mr. Oakhurst’s modesty is proven numerous times in this short story by Brett Harte. One of those times is when John puts the death card on the tree, he doesn’t boast about dying while trying to save a life. He simply states that he ran out of luck on a certain day. Another time in which John displayed modesty is when he never boasts of winning all that money during card games.

Characterization in John Updike’s A&P Essay

John Updike’s short story, A&P, is recounted from the point of view of its nineteen year old narrator, Sammy. Sammy’s character is particularly significant in the story. While the work has received several different interpretations, the focus of the story is clearly the lesson that the narrator learns in the course of events. The use of narration and description are especially revealing for Sammy’s personality. The story is told in the Present Tense and the style is appropriate for oral rather than written presentation. The descriptions, which focus on the appearance and gestures of the three girls in bathing suits who walk into the supermarket, are also significant as they monitor Sammy’s reactions. Thus, through the raw style used for narration and description, the story reveals Sammy’s subjective perception of the events, his youthful, romantic infatuation with the three girls and his desperate, chivalric but useless act. Sammy, who works on the cash register of a supermarket, is dazed by the appearance of three young girls, dressed in bathing suits. This is immediately apparent in the opening line of the story: â€Å"In walks these three girls in nothing but bathing suits† (Updike 187). The beginning of narration already reveals the impact that the image of the three girls has on the young boy. Significantly, Updike preserves the ungrammaticalities that Sammy makes in his speech. This technique has the effect of characterizing the narrator as a young, unsophisticated, middle-class boy. The whole of the story is dedicated to Sammy’s careful, detailed observation and description of the three girls and to his own, chivalric act, which concludes the story. The description of the three girls is in itself revealing for Sammy’s character. The focus is on the narrator’s eye, as he follows the girls from his place at the register, as they appear and disappear behind the aisles of the supermarket. He is both surprised and delighted at their appearance and their beauty. His eye is first caught by the chubby girl, wearing a green two-piece bathing suit and then by the brunette girl. Ultimately however, his focus remains with the third girl, that he calls Queenie. As the name he gives her shows, she is his favorite of the three and, in his view, the most beautiful one. Thus, the description is made exclusively from the narrator’s subjective point of view and registers faithfully his own reactions and impressions. What is significant moreover is the way in which Sammy perceives the girls on the whole. If the other characters in the story are either judgmental of the girls’ impropriety or else sexually attracted to them, Sammy is fascinated with the girls. According to his idealized perception, they are mythological or exotic creatures that belong to another world. He is so struck by their nude appearance and their natural beauty that he feels they are unlike everything else he has seen before. The setting of the story is particularly important in this respect. As Sammy himself emphasizes, the supermarket affords only dull views, unremarkable or ugly people. In Sammy’s view, there is a striking contrast between these unwonted customers wearing only bathing suits and the regular clients of the supermarket. Thus, when the girls approach with their single purchase, they hesitate between Sammy and one of his colleagues on another register. Sammy’s description of the old couple that goes up to Stokesie is very significant: â€Å"†¦Stokesie with his usual luck draws an old party in baggy gray pants who stumbles up with four giant cans of pineapple juice (what do these bums do with all that pineapple juice’ I’ve often asked myself)†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Updike 193). The couple is dressed in â€Å"baggy, gray pants†, contrasting deeply with the girls’ colorful bathing suits and their young bodies. Also, Sammy is puzzled by the old couple’s purchases and obviously perceives them as ridiculous. On the other hand, he is not struck by the girls’ attire in an unpleasant way. When he notices one of his coworkers looking at the three girls in an improper way, Sammy feels that this is unjust and he even feels sorry for them: â€Å"All that was left for us to see was old McMahon patting his mouth and looking after them sizing up their joints. Poor kids, I began to feel sorry for them, they couldn’t help it† (Updike 195). There are other examples in the description that emphasize Sammy’s own perception of the girls. For instance, he is absolutely struck by the way in which Queenie wears her suit, with the straps down: â€Å"She had on a kind of dirty-pink – – beige maybe, I don’t know — bathing suit with a little nubble all over it and, what got me, the straps were down† (Updike 188). The fact that the girl wears the straps of her bathing suit down is delightful for Sammy. Moreover, the fact that he is sometimes clumsy in his description, not knowing, for example, what the exact color of Queenie’s suit is, also speaks of Sammy’s character as a young boy who is not extremely pertinent in fashion matters. Also, when the manager reprimands Queenie and her companions, Sammy sees the pickled herring jar reflected in the blue eyes of the girl. Again, the way in which Sammy observes and describes the situation shows him to be a romantic character, who regards the girls as representatives of an exotic, mythological world. Furthermore, Sammy’s romanticism is obvious in the way in which he contrasts the girls with the other shoppers. For him, the others are blind to the beauty of the three siren girls: â€Å"You could see them, when Queenie’s white shoulders dawned on them, kind of jerk, or hop, or hiccup, but their eyes snapped back to their own baskets and on they pushed. I bet you could set off dynamite in an A & P and the people would by and large keep reaching and checking oatmeal off their lists†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Updike 192). The others do not perceive the girls as Sammy does and are not struck by their aesthetic quality. Queenie’s white shoulders, bare and indicative of purity, are the symbol of the natural, uncensored by social rules world of the beach, whereas the consumers are symbols of the automatic drives of production and consumption of the capitalist society. Sammy sees the other shoppers for what they are – not individuals, but the components of a system, a mere herd, their personalities limited to the very automatic gestures and directions imposed by the shopping list. In his descriptions, Sammy sets the girls well apart from the ordinary, mechanical and artificial world of the supermarket. As critics have emphasized, the story’s symbolism clearly points to Sammy as a romantic hero who becomes lured by the beauty of the sirens: â€Å"Updike pokes gentle fun at Sammy because he succumbs to the girls who are cast in the roles of the legendary Sirens–the mythological temptresses who lured unwary males to their destruction† (Blodgett 103). Sammy portrays the girls as being in sharp contrast with the common world, which is represented by the materialist preoccupations in the supermarket. As he stands dazed by the appearance of the girls, he significantly makes a mistake on the register, ringing the same box of crackers twice. The mistake further emphasizes Sammy’s abstraction into the fairytale, mythological world the three girls belong to. His final gesture of quitting his job in order to defend the girls is also significant: he refuses any connection to the pragmatic, insensitive world of the supermarket, which remains careless in front of the girls’ beauty. Their exoticism is further underlined by the fact that the city is far from the ocean that the girls’ image represents so well: â€Å"It’s not as if we’re on the Cape; we’re north of Boston and there’s people in this town haven’t seen the ocean for twenty years† (Updike 189). For Sammy, the girls are sirens who conquer him with their beauty and who also prove to have a fatal influence over his destiny in the end. Thus, Sammy’s narrative and descriptive style points to his personality and his views on the events he participates in. He embodies the young, inexperienced youth who becomes infatuated with a beautiful, exotic girl. As Wells points out, Sammy is not aware of his sexual attraction to the girls and idealizes it, transforming it into a gesture of honor and chivalry: â€Å"A&P is told after the fact by a young man now much the wiser, presumably, for his frustrating infatuation with a beautiful but inaccessible girl whose allure excites him into confusing his sexual impulses for those of honor and chivalry† (Wells 129). In the end however, Sammy learns a hard lesson. His romantic view, resembling that of Don Quixote, makes him quit his job and adopt the role of the unacknowledged hero: â€Å"The girls, and who’d blame them, are in a hurry to get out, so I say ‘I quit’ to Lengel quick enough for them to hear, hoping they’ll stop and watch me, their unsuspected hero†(Updike 194). However, like Don Quixote, Sammy obviously mistakes the girls’ potential for sexual appeal for something more. Instead of the glory he expects as a hero, he is left with the uncertainty of a future without a job. The girls, like fairies, vanish into thin air and the supermarket world remains as grey as before, with its usual inhabitants: â€Å"I look around for my girls, but they’re gone, of course. There wasn’t anybody but some young married screaming with her children about some candy they didn’t get by the door of a powder-blue Falcon station wagon† (Updike 196). Sammy is therefore the embodiment of an idealist, inexperienced young man, who seems to believe that the three girls belong to another world. Through the use of narrative and description, Updike renders a vivid portrait of the narrator of A&P. Thus, the narrator speaks in his own language, using his own particular style. Moreover, his observation and description of the three girls and of the events is very significant, as it reveals him to be an idealist young man, with unreasonable expectations of what the surrounding reality should look like. Works Cited: Blodgett, Harriet. Imagery in the Works of John Updike. New York: Heldref, 2003. Updike, John. â€Å"A&P. † Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories. New York: Knopf, 1962. 187-96. Wells, Walter. â€Å"John Updike’s ‘A&P’: A Return Visit to Araby. † Studies in Short Fiction. 30. 2 (1993): 127-33.