Hard Times †Charles Dickens Essay -- English Literature

Hard Times – Charles Dickens ‘Discuss the theme of education in Hard Times’ Charles Dickens was a great author of the 19th Century and his books are recognised and loved nation wide. Many people understand the meaning to his books, as they are not just plain fiction. In the novel Hard Times Dickens intensely criticises the British system of education and how it has evolved over the years: the 19th Century philosophy of ‘Utilitarianism’. Dickens believed this system was a failure, as it changed children’s minds and morals, and it is this novel that he attempts to show the horrors that this system has created. A principle was formed by Jeremy Bentham, the eighteenth century philosopher, calculating ‘the greatest good for the greatest number’. This theory explained that self-interest was the primary motivating force behind all human conduct; people strived for pleasure and tried in vain to avoid pain. Bentham advocated a system of calculation known as ‘moral arithmetic’. This was used whenever a decision had to be made about a particular choice of action, be it an individual deed or a law affecting million. The equation was a simple one: pleasure vs. pain. If all the factors fell in the direction of pleasure for the greatest number then the appropriate course of action was adopted. However, it failed to take account of the happiness and well-being of those who did not belong to the greatest number. It also presumed that every human being on earth prized nothing but material values. The catastrophes that this pathetic philosophy caused are explored and criticised by Dickens in the novel Hard Times. The philosophy also emphasised the practical usefulness of things. This meant that art, imagination, pl... ...ildren’s education. The grim pursuit of facts is contrasted with the colourful and rich life of the imagination as experienced by the circus folk. When one of them is subjected to the rigours of Gradgrind’s educational philosophy her human nature naturally rejects the attacks made on it: Sissy Jupe leans nothing from the artificially imposed educative processes familiar in the Gradgrind household. Nut, as we see later in the novel, her own essential goodness is instrumental in educating those suffering from the inadequacies of the Gradgrind philosophy. The children are denied the natural pursuits of childhood such as play, fantasy, fun and entertainment. They are ‘dead’ as children and are forced, by Gradgrind’s system, to become unnatural children. They are therefore without essential qualities needed in adulthood and as of this they become in humane.

Analyzing Competition Essay

As 2001 comes to a close, Sa Sa contemplates what else can be done to improve profitability and keep on growing. 1. What were the reasons for Sa Sa’s early success? SA SA was creating value for its customers by providing them with quality products at a fair price. Sa Sa was first of its kind to pioneer the concept of discount store for the cosmetics (create and control). It . did is fast in the initial stages of the business (compete) by making the stores bigger and better from 40 sqft in 1978 to 750 sqft in 1985 to 10 stores in mid 1990s. Sa Sa was able to provide value to its customer by keeping the purchase prices low by using â€Å"parallel importation† and passed saving to the customers. One of the other important factor was Sa Sa listened to its customer demand (which products to stock). Sa Sa allowed the customer to touch and feel the cosmetics products that drove the demand. We also see Sa Sa’s strategy to deter the new entrants by holding onto old location. They controlled the inventory depending on the sales rate and the shelf life of the products. Sa Sa uniquely combined the combined the cosmetics product knowledge to advice the customer and provided the products at lower cost in comfortable environment, thus creating value for the customer for the first time that no one has done before. This is Resource Based View, outcome of which gave Sa Sa a competitive advantage. Sa Sa developed the Core competency: Rare: Sa Sa’s core compentancy was rare until it disclosed it in IPO Valuable –yes customers found it valuable and made Sa Sa an household name. The sales people were one of the best trained in the industry but were poached by the competition. In early days the Sa Sa operated as a family-run culture, help retain them but afte the IPO, when Sa Sa changed strategy to be creating value for the Shareholdershard to imitate: it was not hard to imitate as evidenced by the whole slew of competitier copied once known. non-substitutable-yes, there were various product segments/tiers; Sa Sa focusedtop brand names Core Products Business Units End products Porters 5 forces: Industry Rivalry: Concentration: Diversity of the Competitors Product Differentiation Excess Capacity Exit Barriers Cost Conditions Supplier Power Threat Of Entry Buyer Power Threat of substitute What changes have occurred in the stores since Sa Sa’s early success? (Not including the strategic issues outlined in Figure A. ) Sa Sa was able to offer the cosmetics at a cheaper prices than competitors combined with the sales team able to help the customers with personal needs and using customer insights to buy/stock the inventories, Sa Sa had built unique value for the customers. Since the IPO, many new competitors (bonjour and rainbow) have entered the market. They are able to copy the core competency that was first developed by Sa Sa. Additionally very well known drugstores (Watson’s and Manning’s), have started offering the cosmetics! Both have used the existing infrastructure and corporate capital resource to position themselves as significant players with 13% annual growth rate. Many departmental stores have tried to differentiate themselves by providing all products from a brand and by offering free beauty advice in the stores. Some have tried to target the Who are Sa Sa’s key competitors? What implications does your assessment have for the decisions that Simon Kwok is facing about the future of Sa Sa? What were the key success factors behind Sa Sa’s story? What do you see as the major challenges and structural threats faced by Sa Sa? Market research. Review the market research data contained in the case. What are the key insights that you can learn from the findings? Assess the strategic initiatives that Sa Sa undertook recently. What are the positives & negatives. How is Sa Sa perceived by consumers? What should Sa Sa do next? Whom to target? How should the company position itself against the likes of Bonjour? Other strategic moves?

Through outsourcing and strategic alliances

At the beginning of 1992, the computer hardware industry had become completely vulnerable to commoditization. This resulted in a vicious price war which took market share away from premium priced brands like Apple.As a result, the company had to formulate new strategies in order to build and maintain a competitive edge. In this respect, Apple stood in a unique position because its level of vertical and horizontal integration was matched only by IBM’s and IBM was competing in a different market.One of the strategies that the management undertook was to open its system to other standards and expand market share that way. This strategy was implemented through outsourcing and strategic alliances.Through outsourcing and strategic alliances, the company was able to not only minimize costs but also to differentiate its product line in order to widen its market appeal. However, as mentioned before, Apple stood in a unique position to exercise a considerable level of impact on the indu stry whether competing with a closed system or an open-ended one.Porter’s five forces before opening the systemWhen Apple had first started selling its computers, the threat of new entrants had been minimal because the company was implementing a proprietary technology. However when IBM entered the industry with its open-ended systems, most manufacturers could manufacture clones at a fraction of the cost.This increased the threat of new entrants. Because the threat of new entrants was high, the threat of substitute products was also high. In this context, Apple began to lose market share because even though it was generating considerable value through packaging hardware and software together, the fact that it manufactured all the components in-house meant that the company was forced to sell its products at a premium price.This was a severe disadvantage for the company as competitors could offer the same level of features in their products at a fraction of the cost. Because of the high threat of new entrants and substitute products, the threat of competition was also very high.The competitive strategies that major players in the industry were implementing at the time were based on both hardware and software. In this respect, Apple’s graphical user interface had gained considerable market share because of its ease of use. However Microsoft had also been developing the Windows operating system which had competing features and which had the additional advantage of greater market penetration.Competitive strategies in the computer hardware industry in the mid 80s started to focus more on software as hardware was becoming increasingly commoditized. This meant that the only way for hardware manufacturers to develop a unique selling proposition was to package more software features into the hardware.The hardware manufacturers could not incorporate the Apple operating system because it was not compatible with any hardware specifications other than those man ufactured at Apple. This resulted in increased market penetration for Microsoft’s operating system. However because Apple was developing a proprietary technology, it could not take advantage of the fast growing size of the market. As a result, the company was forced to confine its marketing and selling operations to the existing clients.However the availability of low priced competitor products meant that Apple was losing even its existing customers to the clone manufacturers. In this respect, the most profitable customer group was that consisting of corporate clients. However this segment of the market was price sensitive and therefore prioritized cost considerations ahead of other product features.This was the reason why Apple had been experiencing decreasing returns at the beginning of the 90’s. In spite of the nature of its organization structure which enabled it to offer complete solutions, Apple began to suffer a distinct disadvantage from its high prices.The fac t that there was a high threat of new entrants and substitute products resulted in a high threat of bargaining power from the customers. Clone manufacturers like Dell did not have to engage in extensive research and development activities in order to manufacture new products. Instead they manufactured products based on standards pioneered by IBM.As a result, cost of production was considerably lower for these companies than they were for companies like IBM and Apple which had to conduct capital-intensive research and development activities periodically in order to bring out new product lines. With Dell for example, the competitive advantage lay in its unique distribution structure which cut costs further. This enabled clone manufacturers to offer a wide variety of product offerings, in the process facilitating a considerable level of bargaining power for the buyers.The bargaining power of suppliers was medium because most hardware manufacturers tended to maintain a joint venture fra mework in developing their products.For example, IBM had a partnership with Intel for sourcing the latter’s microprocessors. This partnership meant that manufacturers and their suppliers did not have to negotiate prices every time they developed a new standard. Therefore the industry was favourably positioned in terms of the bargaining power of suppliers for those manufacturers who maintained open standards.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Summary

Unhappy Ending I think that the outcome of Ambrose Bierce’s story, â€Å"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,† was credible because Bierce hints that Peyton Farquhar, the main character, is dead throughout his journey. If the reader pays close attention to the story, it becomes obvious that the escape is imagined and he is actually going to be hanged. The first piece of evidence that Farquhar is hallucinating is how unaware he is of his own struggle to free himself underwater.Farquhar states that â€Å"he was not conscious of an effort, but a sharp pain in his wrist [told] him that he was trying to free his hands† suggesting that he isn’t actually aware of his own attempts at escape (Bierce 493). Some may argue that Farquhar wasn’t aware of his effort because he had an adrenaline rush, but the injuries are too close to the injuries of a hanging to be ignored. The second piece of evidence that Farquhar didn’t escape is the pain in his neck and h ead.As he is fighting to get free, Farquhar describes how â€Å"his neck ached horribly; [and] his brain was on fire† (Bierce 494). A person struggling at the end of a hanging rope would experience the same pain. He simply imagines breaking free as he dies, but in reality, the intense pain is caused from the noose tightening and eventually choking Farquhar. His freedom swim is clearly a dying dream. The third piece of evidence that proves that Farquhar imagined his freedom is the unbelievable detailed description of nature.There is no sort of adrenaline rush that could show the â€Å"prismatic colors in all the dewdrops upon a million blades of grass† just for Farquhar (Bierce 494). It is more probable that Farquhar imagined his escape right as he strangled to death. In conclusion, the ending of â€Å"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge† was credible and powerful because it hints to the reader that Farquhar doesn’t survive and merely dreams of the beautiful escape from his horrible fate.

The Haitian revolution Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Haitian revolution - Research Paper Example The population at that time consisted of whites, mixed race, and blacks. Since Haiti was under the control of the French government, it took all the profits from the farms. The Haitian revolution rose in 1791, at this time, the slaves wanted to become free citizens. The entire population in Haiti desired change at the time (Ott 15). Oppression by their colonizers was becoming unbearable. In addition, they needed to have their rights. At about the same time, the French government was undergoing the French revolution that gave Haitians the inspiration to fight for their rights. The French revolution involved a rebellion of the locals who wanted an end to the oppressive monarchy system (Bryan 41). They demanded their rights as citizens. The population of Haiti in the colonial era consisted of distinct classes of people. There were French white divided into two classes. Some were planters and therefore very rich. These owned plantations in Haiti and were masters to some slaves (Geggus 23). Other whites were middle class and were majorly artisans and shopkeepers. These were the petit Blancs. A different group resulted from the intermarriage between the whites and the blacks and these were the free colored individuals. This group owned slaves and discriminated them more. They were full of prejudice against the pure blacks, associated themselves with the whites, and were the mulattos. Some of them were wealthier as they could own farms. Either they earned their freedom or their fathers granted it out of mercy. They supported slavery strongly and contributed to the highest mistreatment of slaves. The other population comprised of the slaves. There were two classes of slaves namely; domestic and field slaves. The field s laves experienced the worst treatment and were the first ones to rebel. The domestic slaves were not harshly treated and therefore not too ready to fight for their rights. Other slaves could not hold onto slavery any longer and therefore escaped.

Thomas Hope's influence on interiors and furnishings in the early Term Paper

Thomas Hope's influence on interiors and furnishings in the early 19th-century - Term Paper Example The freedom and capability to discover and pursue one’s interest is of great factor to any aspiring artists, like Thomas Hope, a young man who was blessed with a family banking fortune at his disposal that aided in his travels around the early civilisations of the world. At a tender age of 18, Hope, through a letter in 1804 addressed to Frances Annesly, already expressed his interest on the arts. â€Å"Egyptian architecture I went to investigate on the banks of the Nile, Grecian on the shores of Ionia, Sicily and the Peloponnesus. Four different times I visited Italy to render familiar to me all the shades of the infinitely varied styles of building peculiar to that interesting country†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Nolan, 2011, P 2) Thomas wrote, which showed his immense interest on the field of his personal choice. Discussion Despite the fortune brought about by the banking industry on the Hope family that originated from Scotland and settlers of Holland, Thomas did not show interest in his inherited trade but instead focused on his â€Å"favourite hobby† (Nolan, 2011, P 2) travelling as a student of cultures. Prior to establishing himself in Portland Place, London, Hope stayed in Istanbul to explore the Istanbul/Constantinople lifestyle embodied on their arts and cultures, and produced about 350 drawings of observations of the rich and powerful in that area (Nolan, 2011). In the purchase of the Adam House in Portland, he established himself in London as a scholarly art collector, interior designer, and patron of artists and craftsmen, of which he had been called â€Å"the Furniture† man although some of those who used the term meant to ridicule him. Despite the criticism, he continued to sketch designs for furniture with accompanied texts to advance historically-based knowledge of design as embodied in his several books: Household Furniture and Interior Decoration (1807); Costumes of the Ancients (1809); Designs of Modern Costumes (1812); and the posthumous An Historical Essay on Architecture (1835) (Nolan, 2011). He also wrote a fictitious romance Anastacius. His travels were also coupled with careful scrutiny of the images in those localities he set foot on, as well as studying of the arts and culture of his host place. Prior to Napoleon’s expedition in 1798, Hope already went as far as Near and Middle East, and Europe. His knowledge o f the collections in the Vatican and the Capitoline Museums also contributed to his vivid designs. He also studied architecture and design whilst collecting antiquities that were housed in Duchess. He also sketched many detailed artefacts seen in his travels including landscapes, mosques, palaces, interiors, friezes, reliefs, and other details that stole his fancy (Kelly, nd). His interest in Egyptian art and architecture cannot be undermined. Egyptian forms and decoration was seen as contributed in part by the neo-classicism of his period as well as early European interest in the region (Kelly, nd). It has been suggested that in Hope’s interest of the arts, he came across the work of Dominique Vivant Denon, book Voyag dans la Basee et la Haute Egypte (1802) that detailed his experiences in Egypt as an aide of Napoleon Bonaparte. This book has been seen of great influence to Thomas Hope’s design of furniture (Honour, ___ ) of which it was suggested that â€Å"Hope sei zed on Denon’s Voyage, which very conveniently appeared during the Peace of Amiens, and scanned its plates for illustrations of Egyptian furniture. He sought to reproduce the chairs, couches and beds to be descried in the hieroglyphic paintings and carvings,† (Honour, 1817, p 19). It was observed, however, by Kelly (n.d.) that Hope actually acknowledged Denon as one of his four inspirations in the decorative motifs in his furniture

Department of Transportation in the U.S Research Paper

Department of Transportation in the U.S - Research Paper Example Department of Transportation in the U.S The US has a vast transport system that consists of modern transport infrastructures that include roads, railways, and ports. DOT offices are located in New Jersey Ave, SE Washington  District Of Columbia (DOT, 2012). This paper investigates the department of transportation on issues related to regulations and policy development. The paper also analyzes challenges and opportunities that define DOT operations. Purpose of the Agency The agency seeks to promote safety, efficiency, and convenience in transportation, in order to meet the interests of the Americans. Moreover, the agency promotes implementation of policies that concerns transport infrastructures and safety. The agency’s establishment was based on an economic agenda that sought to revitalize the US economy. According to Pucher, & Lewis (2000), the agency is an instrumental force in restructuring other economic factors such as land planning, energy conservation, utilization of scarce resources and urban planning. The agency also maintains equality in distribution of national resources, which characterize a free economy. In addition, DOT helps to create equal opportunity for all Americans through efficient transport system. The safety aspect enlisted in the agencies agenda also promotes economic prosperity. This is because the agency’s core agenda is to eliminate inconveniences associated with transport that often leads to losses (Bookman, 2010). According to Bookman (2010), the agency is consumer oriented. This is because the agency sought to promote the interests of ordinary Americans by promoting free flow of consumer goods. Evidently, the agency also has key interest energy and environmental conservation. The aim of the agency was to promote economic development through the creation of efficient transport infrastructures. These agendas are bound to misuse by businesses and individuals who are concerned with profits and gains. This created the need for regulations, which is the basis o f the agency’s operations. Indeed, the private sector views the agency as arm of the government established to oversees or promote transport regulations. DOT has various regulation options that were established to impose sanity in the transport sector. Regulation options promoted by the agency include driver regulations, vehicle regulations, company regulations, and alcohol and drug regulations (Bookman, 2010). Driver’s regulations ensure that drivers and the staff driving on American roads meet technical requirements. The regulations concerns licensing of drivers based on their qualification. The regulations also stipulate conditions under which a driver’s license may be revoked. On the other hand, vehicles regulatory options stipulates standard of vehicles used on American roads. Moreover, the regulations coincide with environmental conservation policies stipulated in DOT’s agenda. The alcohol and drug regulation outlines substance that should not be us ed by drivers. Alcohol and drug regulations promote compliance to drugs and substance regulations among drivers. The choice of these regulations is subject to review and amendment by the senate. DOT reviews the regulations to ensure that they meet the economic and social needs of the country. DOT’s executive board seems to have selected the most efficient regulations. This is because the regulations target road users and vehicles used American roads. Such regulations avoid redundancy and ensure accountability among road users. The regulations also utilize available resources in the sense that they consider drivers and vehicles as the basis for regulations policies. Although these regulations have been