Fifth Business Essay

Robertson Davies wrote a novel that explores the psychological issues of the human condition and this novel is called Fifth Business. The characters in this novel often create false images and in several points throughout Fifth Business they deal with experiences and incidents in unique ways. One of the human species greatest abilities is the ability to mask emotions, thoughts and actions by lying and concealing the reality of a situation. In this classic novel, there is a constant battle between appearance and reality in most, if not in all of the characters involved. Boy Staunton and Dunstan Ramsay seem to be very close friends, but they have always had a secret rivalry in their relationship that consists of jealousy and differences. Dunstan Ramsay hides how he really feels towards Diana Marfleet, and Leola Cruikshank hides who she really is to fit the standards set for her by her husband Boy Staunton. The battle between appearances and reality is shown on a number of different occasions in Fifth Business. For example, this battle surfaces between two of the main characters, Dunstan Ramsay and Boy Staunton. The relationship between these two is a very complex one. They appear to be both friends and enemies to each other. From the very beginning of their friendship when they were young boys, Boy is always trying to make Dunny feel less than what he is. Boy had more of an attachment to materialistic objects compared to Dunny and although Dunny never has an intention of competing with Boy, Boy sees Dunstan as a rival. On the other hand, Dunny shows how unimportant materialistic objects really are to him. I though twenty-four dollars was plenty for a ready made suit, and four dollars a criminal price for a pair of shoes. I changed my shirt twice a week and my underwear once. I had not yet developed any expensive tastes and seen nothing wrong with a good boarding-house. † (Davies, 111) But as they grow up and Boy becomes a successful business man, he helps Dunstan with his financial investments by giving him advice and own personal knowledge. â€Å"I was filled with a sour scorn that I now know was nothing but envy, but then I mistook for philosophy. I didn’t really want the clothes, I didn’t really want the girl or the booze, but it scalded me to see him enjoying them, and I hobbled away grumbling to myself like Diogenes. † (Davies, 113) Boy spent his energy on making sure he was always above Dunny and Dunny secretly envied boy despite the exterior of friends they gave off to the world. Furthermore, when looking at Diana and Dunstan’s relationship, the reader finds yet another example of the battle between appearances and reality. Dunstan makes it appear that he is in love with Diana, when in reality, he is not. Not only does he make it appear that he is in love with her, but he also shows just how easily someone is able to hide the truth – separating reality from appearances. Diana wants a life with Dunstan. She is ready and willing to settle down with him and start a family and because they were going to bed together, Diana was under the impression that Dunny felt the same way she did. Dunny does nothing to make her think that he does not have the same romantic feelings as she does and because of this appearances collide with reality. That did not include Diana. She seemed to assume that it did, and perhaps I was unfair to her in not checking her assumptions as soon as I became aware of them. But, to be frank, I liked having her in love with me; it fed my spirit, which was a low ebb. I liked going to bed with her, and as she liked it too I thought it was a fair exchange. † (Davies, 81) Dunny even admits that he became aware of her feelings and her thoughts and failed to tell h er the truth for his own selfish reasons. He states that he liked having Diana in love with him to boost his own self-esteem and he also admits he hid his true feelings because he liked going to bed with her. Dunny’s defense for his decision is his age. â€Å"I was too young to be truthful about such a matter† (Davies, 83) Thus, this relationship shown in Fifth Business shows that the ability to hide reality with a different appearance is easily attainable. Another example of this battle between appearance and reality is shown in the constant self-identity fight going on within Leola Cruikshank. In this situation, Leola is pressured to change who she is to fit to the extremely high social standards of her husband, Boy Staunton. Boy is constantly tearing his wife down by behaviour such as dressing Leola differently, making her learn a new language and changing her small town girl persona to that of a high society woman. â€Å"She did not see why she should become stuck up and talk as she had never talked before, and behave in ways that were unnatural to her. † (Davies, 144) Reality is fighting appearance in this situation. The reality of the situation in Boy and Leola’s early years of marriage is that Leola was just being herself, and Boy made it clear that that was not good enough. Before Boy shaped her into someone different, Leola’s real, natural personality made a regular appearance. â€Å"If Boy let her shop alone she always came back with what he called ‘another Mary Pickford rig-out’, and if he took her shopping in Paris the session often ended with tears, because he sided with the clever shopwoman against his indecisive wife, who always forgot her painfully acquired French as soon as she was confronted with a living French creature. (Davies, 144) Leola cannot handle the pressures of trying to please her husband by being somebody who she is not. Leola ends up crying and slowly starting to hate her life and herself for not being able to maintain her high social reputation. She is unable to maintain the appearance Boy had created for her and reality is shown after Leola ’s suicide. The theme of appearances versus reality rises in Fifth Business quite often. This conflict is shown through Dunny and Boy’s relationship, as they seem like friends, but on the interior they have secret rivalries against each other. It is also shown when Dunny fakes his feelings for Diana and lastly, it is shown in Leola’s act to be the perfect trophy wife when in reality, she is not. The characters in Fifth Busniess often create false images and pretenses seperating the appearance of a situation from what they actually are in reality and because of that, Robertson Davies novel Fifth Business shows a great contrast between appearances and reality.

Left to Tell Essay

Immaculee Ilibagiza was a college student in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide in which nearly one million people died. Her story is a remarkable testimony to the power of God’s grace to strengthen us during times of trial and to live the teaching of the Gospel in the face of overwhelming evil. Her story is told in the novel Left to Tell, published in 2006. In Rwanda, there were three tribes, and each citizen belonged to one of the tribes. These tribes were the Hutu, which were the majority, Tutsi, which were the minority, and an extremely small number of Twa, which was a pygmy-like tribe of forest dwellers. Immaculee and her family belonged to the Tutsi tribe, and because of this they were under great threat. The Hutu tribe wanted to kill every single Tutsi in Rwanda, and this was the cause of the genocide in 1994. The Tutsi tribe was taller, lighter-skinned and has narrower noses, and Hutus were shorter, darker, and have broad noses, and each person had an identity card which labeled what tribe they were in. This is how the Hutus chose their victims, by their identity card or their looks. Not only was Immaculee under death threat, but she was also being treated unfairly by her peers. She was an extremely smart girl, and because of her being a Tutsi, she was not able to get a scholarship to college. Before the genocide came into full effect, there were many reports on the radio warning the Tutsis of killings to come. One day, Damascene, one of Immaculee’s three brothers, told his family that he actually saw the killers, but they refused to believe him. They started to get nervous when President Habyarimana, the president of Rwanda, was killed. His plane was shot out of the sky, and this event sparked the beginning of the genocide. The more severe the radio reports were, the more nervous Immaculee and family got. Immaculee tried not to show her fear, because if she did, she would not be able to stay strong through this event. Many neighbors gathered around her home because her father, Leonard, was a very respectable man in the neighborhood. One day, fifty Interahamwe armed with knives and machetes attacked the Tutsis outside of the Ilibagiza home. Leonard gathered more than one hundred Tutsi men together and rushed toward the killers. They tossed stones at them and scared them away. After this, Immaculee’s father gave her a red and white rosary and told her to keep it always, and she did. The killers came back a second time, but this time no one joined Leonard to fight back. After this event, it was known that it was not safe, and Immaculee could not stay at her home. Immaculee and Augustine, a friend who was staying with the Ilibagiza family, were soon on their way to the home of family friend and local pastor, Pastor Murinzi. There, she was forced to hide in a small bathroom with seven other women, and there she had many spiritual experiences. While Immaculee was hiding in the bathroom, she could hear the killers and other people talking about what was going on. Immaculee still did not know whether or not her family was alive. She cursed the killers, and hoped that they got treated as they were treating her fellow Tutsis. Because of this feeling, Immaculee could not have a feeling of calmness, and she was very angry. She prayed, but the devil was telling her that praying would not work, when she has so much hatred in her heart, and is wishing such horrible things on the killers. In a dream, Jesus appeared to her, and told her to forgive the killers and to stay calm and he would protect her. She did as Jesus said, and forgave the killers, and she was one of the few whose life was spared during the genocide. Some people do not pray, and do not have God in their lives. These are the people that contribute to the evil and destruction of the world. The killers of the 1994 genocide were definitely evil, and they were being tempted by the devil to do such evil acts. Lies were made up just so they could kill Leonard, and the rest of the Ilibagiza family, who were very well respected in the town. Some people do not think over their actions, and do not make the distinction between what is right and wrong. Some people just listen to other people because they are scared, so they do evil things, just because someone told them to. Unfortunately, I do believe that something this terrible may happen in our own country. In the last decade, some evil things have happened in America, such as the planes hitting the World Trade Center on 9/11 and the plane hitting the Pentagon, in the same day. Islamic people performed both of these evil acts. Most Americans have hatred for these people, and some especially because loved ones died in the World Trade Center. Since then, there have been bomb scares, and the hatred has just been building up. If another tragedy occurs, Americans will most likely rebel, and want these people extinguished from the country, whether they look innocent or not, just for the sake of the country. It is much better to forgive, than to hate and hold grudges. By forgiving, you are following in Jesus’ path and becoming a better person. By hating and seeking revenge, you will harbor hatred in your heart and be an extremely angry person for always thinking of ways to get revenge. I have learned that by forgiving, instead of hating, your prayers will be answered quicker. By following in the footsteps of Jesus, forgiving all who have harmed you, you will be a happier person, and by God being an important part of your life, you will have a good life. I will most definitely live differently after reading this book. Nothing in my life has ever compared to anything that Immaculee went through, and I should be extremely grateful for that. I will try to forgive all who have done wrong to me, and although it may not be easy, I know that God is there guiding me every step of the way.

Current Trends in Business Communication

Technology advancements over the recent years have made communication possible in different ways. Communication in the business world today can range anywhere from e-mails, personal digital assistants, text messaging, instant messaging, and through the use of web-cams, just to name a few. These different communication tools allow employees to communicate both internally and externally in a timely and more efficient manner. The current trends in communication within the healthcare industry make it easier for health care professionals to perform their daily tasks, and provide patients with more quality care. The Role of Business Communication in My Workplace Communication is extremely important in my line of work as a nurse. Without good effective communication skills between the various healthcare professionals involved in a patients care and between the healthcare professionals and the patient, the quality of care would or could be grossly impacted. As a nurse, communication takes place in many different forms, whether it is through notes, e-mail, phone, Internet, software used by the facility, or face-to-face communication. Typical internal day-to-day communication activities in my job include checking my work list on the software application that the healthcare facilities use to communicate between the chains of healthcare facilities within the region. The work list may have orders from the doctor to perform certain tasks such as phoning in a prescription to the pharmacy or updating a medication list for a patient. Another type of internal communication that takes place in my day-to-day activities besides oral communication, software communication, and phone communication, is written communication through the use of text messaging. There are times when the doctor will be out of the office and unable to talk directly to a patient or myself and will instead send text messages to my cell phone. Text messaging is not necessarily a daily occurrence but is used regularly. External day-to-day communication that my job requires me to use may include verbal or oral communication with patients either by the use of phone or face-to-face. It is also common to send written material with the patients or to the patients at their home address. Communication with pharmaceutical representatives via e-mail is also common. There may be questions about medications for example, which are not emergent and completely acceptable to send via e-mail to the representative. Text messaging is not an acceptable means of external communication and is never used. The use of the Internet and software has a huge impact on my ability to perform daily activities in a timely manner. Without the ease of communicating electronically simple activities could take could take much more time to complete. Current software has made it easy to re-order prescriptions for patients by just looking up a patient and renewing past prescriptions and sending them to the specific pharmacy that they use. This makes it not only easier for the doctor and the nurse but also for the pharmacist. Also there are times when it is necessary to get ahold of the doctor who could be in a meeting through the use of text messages. This allows important questions to be answered right away instead waiting until the meeting is over. Trends within the Healthcare Industry. Technology has had a big impact in the healthcare industry. My workplace will be going paperless in September of this year. Doctors are preparing for this by making sure that all patient information listed in patient charts such as medication lists and diagnoses’ are put into the system. All internal communication between different facilities will be done through the use of software or by phone. No patient results will be sent through fax or through mail. According to LexisNexis, â€Å"Obama sees the investment in electronic records as a way to improve quality and lower costs. Different Message Types Resulting From Current Trends According to Articlesbase (n. d. ), â€Å"The different message types that result from these current trends are either personal or impersonal. † The different message types resulting from these current communication trends are in the form of e-mails, text messaging, various software, Internet communicatio n, face-to-face video conferencing, instant messaging, and social networking sites such as Twitter or Facebook. Conclusion The current trends in business communication have been greatly influenced by the advancements in technology. The Internet, cell phones, MP3 players, personal digital assistants, social networking sites, and video conferencing among others, has allowed business communication to take place in many forms and from all over the world with ease. These current trends have made it easier for healthcare professionals to communicate more efficiently internally and externally and allow day-to-day activities to get accomplished more quickly than in the past. References: Articlesbase.  (n.d.).  Business Communication: Business Trends and Message Types.  Retrieved from http://www.articlesbase.com/networking-articles/business-communication-business- -trends-and-message-types-4133734.html ASQ.  (n.d.).  Going Paperless Pays Off for Healthcare Industry .  Retrieved from http://asq.org/qualitynews/qnt/execute/displaySetup?newsID=5661

External Macro Environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

External Macro Environment - Essay Example These factors influences a business through causing some major influences on it like competition, changing the interest rates payable by a business on loans and other debts that it, owes, changes in the cultural tastes and preferences of the society, as well as a change in the government regulations, regarding the conduct of such businesses (Porter, 1998 p33). Thus, the external macro environment of a business refers to all the political, social, economic and the technological events, occurrences and trends, which impacts on a business or its market. These factors affect the business indirectly, but the business can only respond to these factors through adopting changes and strategies that will be favorable for its operation, amidst these factors. Therefore, the decision making of a business has to rely on such factors, since they highly determine the success or failure of a business. However, the macro environment creates both favorable and unfavorable environment for the business t o operate on, thus a business has to take advantage of the favorable ones, while strategizing on how to handle the negative influences of this environment. There are various ways in which these external environment factors affect a business and consequently its HR function. Owing to the changes in the business environment that requires that the business costs must be reduced to the lowest possible level, so that the profits earned by the business can reach the expected targets, the HR function of any business has to strategies appropriately towards lowering such costs (Kendon, 190 p13). Notable of these factors that have a great impact on the HR function of a business are the technological and the social factors. Under the social factors, there are such elements as the educational levels, the diversity of the work place employees as well as religion influences. On the technological front, there are elements such as technological changes, improved knowledge and communication channels , and the moral factors (Adams, 1990 p28). There are major changes that have occurred in the HR function, within organizations in the recent past years. These changes are geared towards the decentralization of the HR function within organizations to create a less centralized HR department (Porter, 1998 p45). As a result, the HR functions have been shared within the organization to include other segments and departments of the organization, and thus change the concentration of all the HR activities from the HR department to the other functional department within an organization. This sharing of the HR functions have gone a long way in reducing the costs associated with the depart within organizations, in that the manpower required in this department as well as other tools and equipment has been reduced, by having such functions being undertaken in other segments of the organization (Kendon, 190 p22). The advancement in technology has made this transfer of HR functions to other depart ments and organizational segments possible. Recent social changes have also created several challenges to the HR functions, forcing it to be integrated into the business strategies, to overcome such challenges. The changes that have occurred in the HR function within the last 10 years include, shared services, where, those working under the shared services segment of the organizati

Managing Change - L.J Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Managing Change - L.J - Essay Example Hayes explains that the major objective of change is to bring about a sustained efficiency in resource usage in achieving company objectives. Much of Hayes views of managing change are little more than an application of common sense and good management practice. He further states that if managers take a systematic approach to implement change, they can be more successful in taking colleagues with them and achieving their objectives. He identifies four factors for success when implementing change within one organization, which are: The senior management in an organization must demonstrate the need for change so as the line managers and junior employees can emulate. Commitment to change is very essential and must also be demonstrated by the top managers. Hayes feels that for this change to succeed and achieve the desired goals management should be consistent with what they aspire to achieve that is "they should walk and talk" but if the top leadership is not consistent with ideas, those who are supposed to implement the change will not be motivated. Since leadership is getting others to do what you want them to do because they want to do it. Pressure for change should be a driving force, the leadership must identify the need for change, make the decisions to proceed with change and... Hayes believes that for success in managing change regardless of where the original pressure for change came from, senior management commitment and drive for change is essential if momentum is to be maintained for effective implementation. The rest of the organization will need to be convinced of the need and the case for change. Everyone in an organization including the chairman, chief executive officer and other employees must be collectively behind the sought changes in the organization. The senior management must be seen to be fully supportive by what they do and say both privately and publicly. If, However, senior management "talk-the-talk" by failing to back up their statements with action and continuous commitment. Hayes believes that the progress towards the sought change will soon stall. In addition if the senior management fails to remain fully supportive of the project other conflicting or new priorities will emerge and the momentums can be lost. The senior management should be signed up to the change and communicate it to the other staff. The other staff should be given an opportunity to feed in their contribution and feel that they have joint ownership of the change being implemented. A Clear Shared Vision For change to be effective, it needs to be implemented at all levels and should be in the culture of the organization. The management must understand what motivates other employees in order to keep them together and motivated. Since change is a major cause of stress amongst the workforce and staff usually responds differently they need to be motivated to support the changes that are to be implemented. Staff, their managers and senior mangers are all

Which system will work best for the United States, a carbon cap and Essay

Which system will work best for the United States, a carbon cap and trade system or a straight carbon tax - Essay Example To achieve this, two paths have been proposed, cap-and-trade system and straight carbon tax. Cap and trade system provide limits on the use of fossils, it will require that industries and other main sources of greenhouse emission buy permits from the government so as to be allowed to emit the gases, in those permits they will have to establish the market. Those in support of this method argues that, it will set the limit on the amount of greenhouse gases being emitted, secondly, it is more flexible, it is fair since it will reward companies who try to reduce emission and punish those not reducing emission (Salmon 2007). The second proposed path is straight carbon tax. This gives an outright tax on fossil fuels. With this, the cost of tax is set according to the damage associated with every unit of pollution and cost equivalent to the amount of controlling pollution. Emitting a lot of greenhouse gases means paying more. Those in support of this method argues that, it is simple since it will force the people look for alternative source of energy, secondly, it is enforceable b oth in economic and political environment, and lastly, the method is transparent. The advantage of cap and trade system over straight carbon is that, it has attracted a lot of interest and attention from political, public, and industrialist. The political leaders it has attracted include president Obama, main congress leaders, and environmental crusaders. The industrialists that have attracted include General Electric leadership, Shell oil management, and Duke Energy executives (Salmon 2007). The congress key leaders have vowed to pass cap-and-trade law before the end of the year. The straight carbon tax debate was trashed out by the congress and industrial crusaders went against it claiming that it will be used by the reach and it is like the rich is buying the environment to pollute at their own pleasure. The second strength of

Apple Operations Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Apple Operations - Term Paper Example The company has a wide range of products such as desktop computers, laptops, mobiles and different application software. Along with its subsidiaries the company develops and markets various portable applications as well. Some of the bestseller items of the company include portable music players, mobile communication devices and several other digital gadgets. Buzzwords such as I-pod, I-phone and I-pad are all creations of Apple. The company also has a strong presence in the field of software. The software segment includes operating systems such as Mac OS and other utility and productivity applications like Quick time player, I-work and logic studio among others (Apple Store, n.d.). The company has a global presence and owns more than 370 stores. It has a workforce of 20,000 people. Apple mainly distributes its product through whole sellers, retailers and Apple owned exclusive stores. Hewlett Packard, Dell, Google and Research in Motion Limited are the direct competitors of the company (NASDAQ, 2012). However companies such as Lenovo, Compaq, Toshiba and Hitachi are also considered as the circumlocutory competitors of the company. The aim of the report is to offer the domestic operations of the company. Also the report will stress on the global operational strategy of the company. In the operational strategies the report will offers insights about the way Apple markets its products. Finally the report will conclude by revealing the differences between the domestic operations and the global operations of the company. Domestic Operations of Apple Operations management can be regarded as the process in which human, material and financial inputs are transformed into output of products, service or other utilities (Pride, Hughes & Kapoor, 2006, p.279). However the actual creation of the product takes place in the mid half of the process and is referred to as manufacturing, production or the operations (Finch, 2008, p.164). In addition to that material management or logistics controls the transfer of raw materials through the process of value chain. The distribution on the other hand deals with the delivery of goods to the end customers. Finally the after sales provided by the company are known as support. Figure 1 (Source: McCubbrey, 2010) Value Chain of Apple The value chain of the company is discussed below:- Inbound Logistics Most of the essential components which are required for manufacturing Apple’s products are available from several sources. However some of the essential materials are obtained from single sources. In order to cite an instance IBM is the only supplier of G5 processor, which is being used in the products of PowerMac, while Motorola is the only supplier of G4 processor to the company. Operations The company has highly innovative products (O’Grady, 2008, p.xii). Hence the materials also need to be of high quality. Now as the raw materials are obtained the final assembly of the products is carried out in the manufacturing and assembling plants of Apple. Sacramento and Cork are the two places where the operations take place. Nevertheless the operations are also carried out by external vendors in places such as Netherlands, Korea, China and Taiwan among others (Day, 2010). In the portable category the products are assembled in Japan, China and Taiwan. Therefore from the findings it is clear that Apple only manufacture few of its products in USA and most of them assembled by third party vendors.