A Comparison of Beloved and Don Quixote Essay example -- comparison co

On reading Beloved by Toni Morrison and Don Quixote by Kathy Acker, there seem to be quite a few similarities in themes and characters contained in these texts, the most prevalent of which seems to be of love and language as a path to freedom. We see in Acker’s Don Quixote the abortion she must have before she embarks on a quest for true freedom, which is to love. Similarly, in Morrison’s Beloved, there is a kind abortion, the killing of Beloved by Sethe, which results in and from the freedom that real love provides. And in both texts, the characters are looking for answers and solutions in these "word-shapes" called language. In Acker’s Don Quixote, the abortion with which the novel opens is a precondition for surrendering the "constructed self." For Acker, the woman in position on the abortion table over whom a team of doctors and nurses work represents, in an ultimate sense, woman as a constructed object. The only hope is somehow to take control, to subvert the constructed identity on order to name oneself: "She had to name herself. When a doctor sticks a steel catheter into you while you’re lying on your back and you to; finally, blessedly, you let go of your mind. Letting go of your mind is dying. She needed a new life. She had to be named" (Don Quixote 9-10). And she must name herself for a man – become a man – before the nobility and the dangers of her ordeals will be esteemed. She is to be a knight on a noble quest to love "someone other than herself" and thus to right all wrongs and to be truly free. In another of Acker’s works she writes: "Having an abortion was obviously just like getting fucked. If we closed our eyes and spread our legs, we’d be taken care of. They stripped us of our clothes. Gave us white sheets... ... the end of the text by a community getting in touch with a "language of their own," while Acker’s protagonist is subverting texts to find or create something this "primal." Don Quixote is far more easily paired with the ghost of Beloved. They both are searching for a language they can use and understand and know with the "word-shapes" that they are given. They are both on quests to find love and freedom that are not a product of "slavery." They both are in search of a name, an identity, that is not a product of an "abortion." They are both childlike yet adult, trying to understand. And neither of them are asking for, or offering, forgiveness. Works Cited: Cervantes, Miguel De. Don Quixote. Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. Ed Mack, Maynard et al. WW Norton and Co. New York, NY. 1992. Morrison, Toni. Beloved. New York, Penguin Books USA Inc, 1988.

Philippine Presidential Elections 2016 Essay

The 2016 presidential election is one of the most talked about topic of today. To date, just more than a year from now we will again be having our new set of national leaders. It is again the time when we can use our power to vote and elect the deserving person that will eventually rule our country. The scheduled date will be on a Monday, 9th day of March, 2016. As we all know, the incumbent president Benigno Aquino III is barred from seeking re-election pursuant to 1987 Philippine Constitution. Therefore, this election will determine the 16th President of the Philippines. In recent months, we have heard so many big names that can potentially be our next Philippine president. Two of the most prominent Filipino politicians has officially declared their candidacy over presidency, both with strong will and competitiveness. Without any surprise, the current Vice President Jejomar â€Å"Jojo† Binay of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), our first guy on the list, confirmed his plans of running as president during an interview back in September 2011. The longest-serving Makati City Mayor, now the Vice President of the Philippines not only created a strong political dynasty but he also realizes his colossal visions. While VP Binay effortlessly made it to the list of possible and feasible presidential candidate, our next guy, a potical rival of the former, and the current Senate Majority Leader, Sir Alan Peter Cayetano, needed to closely monitor surveys to make sure he’s still in the running and viewed by the Filipinos as a viable candidate, according to a source familiar to Cayetano. The 43-year-old Senator from the Nacionalista Party (NP) is serious about running that he has to put together a team to work on campaign preparations. In a March 2013 interview on Morning’s @ ANC he said â€Å"I want to be the president of this country. I think I can do something great for God and his people.† Among other politicians who would possibly run, one is Sen. Ferdinand â€Å"Bongbong† Marcos Jr. of Nacionalista Party.

Functionalist And Marxist Perspective On Religion Essay

Also known as the social conflict approach, critique of capitalism. According to Marx, in a capitalist society, religion plays a critical role in maintaining an unequal society, in which certain groups of people have more resources and power than other groups of people. For Marx, Ideology is a belief system that changes people’s perception of reality in ways that serves the interest of the ruling class. He argues that the class that control economic production also controls the production and distribution of ideas in society, through institutions such as churches, education system etc. In Marx’s view religion operates as an ideological weapon used by the ruling class to justify the suffering of the poor as something inevitable and God-given. The Marxist perspective, persist that religion operate as a drug to dull the pain of exploitation, because religion is a distorted view of the world, it can offer no solution to earthly misery. Instead, it promises rewards in the afterlife that creates an illusion of happiness which distracts attention from the true source of suffering, namely capitalism. Marx argued that the ruling class used religion as a tool to keep the less powerful proletariat pacified. He argued that religion was able to do this by promising rewards in the afterlife, instead of in this life. Marx was calling for the proletariat to  discard religion and its deceit about other worldly events, only then would this class of people be able to rise up against the ruling class and gain control of the means of production and only then would they achieve real rewards. Here we can see the social-conflict approach to religious highlights how religion, as a phenomenon of human behaviour functions to maintain social inequality by providing a worldview that justifies oppression. Because Marx was committed to criticizing the prevailing organization of society during his time, he took a particular stance towards religion. He believed that this was a tool of social control used to maintain an unequal society and that it should be abolished. Functionalist perspective on religion (Emile Durkheim) Durkheim outline that all religion share three elements: 1. Beliefs are held by a follower. 2. Practices and Rituals. 3. Moral community. The functionalist perspective states that religion is universal, there are functions that it fulfils for society. It satisfies individual needs and religion give people a sense of identity. These functions are: 1. It provide social unity to help maintain social solidarity through shared rituals and believes. 2. Social control to enforce religious-based morals and norms to help maintain conformity and control in society. 3. Religion offers meaning and purpose to answer question of existence. Durkheim argued that religion acted as a source of solidarity and identification for the individuals within a society. Religion provided a meaning for life, it provided authority figures, and most importantly for Durkheim, it reinforced the morals and social norms held collectively by all within a society. Functionalist saw it as a critical part of the social system, as it provides social control, cohesion, and purpose for people, as well as another means of communication and gathering for individuals to interact and reaffirm social norms. Secondly, Functionalist approach identifies certain elements of religious beliefs that are common across different cultures. A belief in a supernatural realm is not necessary or common among religions, but the separation of different aspects of life, physical things, and certain  behaviors into two categories: 1. Sacred – Objects and behaviors that are considered part of the spiritual or religious world. Knowable through extraordinary experiences. 2. Profane – Everything else in the world that do not have a religious function or hold religious meaning. Knowable through normal empirical observation. Functionalists believe that religion is an agency of socialization, and the role of socialization religion plays is that of cultural learning. It believes that society represents an external limitation as norms and values regulate and limit our behaviour. Both Marxism and Functionalism theories take the macro world view and that elements of human culture must be understood in terms of their relationship to a larger structure. It studies the frameworks of society and how society shaped our behaviour. Marx’s theory of religion needs to be seen in the context of his general view of society, capitalism dominates the working class. Whereas functionalism sees religion as a unifying force and a feature all societies. Marxism sees religion as a feature only of class – divided society.

Marketing Logitech Essay Example

Marketing Logitech Essay Example Marketing Logitech Essay Marketing Logitech Essay This will assist in ensuring security of files, give reservations, check body temperature as well act as a digital photo display. The packing will Include a USB cord to charge the mouse, a pair of AAA batteries to power it up, an instruction manual and a carrying case. 3. Augmented Product A warranty of one year comes with the device, which will replace the mouse in case of malfunction and also provide free maintenance for another 6 months since. Price: We will be pricing the Super Mouse at AS 150 In the Singapore region. This will account for the production, distribution, marketing as well as the RD costs incurred. Cost based pricing strategy is used here keeping in mind that cost of reduction is S$ 100 and targeted profit margin is 50%. Place: we will be using the selective strategy to distribute our product. Stores like Mustang Centre, Best, Courts, Challenger, Audio House and other Electronic shops have been contracted to strategically place our product in their shops in a way that customers notice it. We will be using our well-established distribution lines to ensure there is enough stock In each of the stores. Apart from this the company will be holding a gamers meet where teenage gamers will be given the opportunity to test out the mouse on a more practical environment. This will create awareness as well as a recreational opportunity for the prospective customers. Promotion: we wall De using two moments AT ten Promotion mix to promote our product: 1 . Advertising The main source of our promotion will be advertising which will mean setting up banners and posters in important social gathering places like Orchard, Somerset, Dhobi Aught and Warburton MR. stations and connected malls. We have also contracted buildings to air our advertisements on their big screens so that commuters using buses and personal vehicles also will be made aware of the product. 2. Sales Promotion As mentioned earlier in the Place Mix, we will be conducting a social gamers meet where we will be providing a 10% off on the mouse for those who participate. We will also make available gift vouchers, which can be purchased at the meet. Implementation This product will launch in October of 2013 giving time for pre-launch advertising and production.

7 Simple Ways To Improve Your Email Open Rates

7 Simple Ways To Improve Your Email Open Rates Do you know what your email open rates are? Think about it: youve put the work into the email youre sending. Wouldnt it be nice if people actually opened it and read it? According to Campaign Monitor, a  20 40% open rate for email is typical, depending upon who your audience is.  Higher open rates are associated with religious or sports content (dedicated followers), while e-commerce and marketing tend to hover around 20%. If your emails are less than the average 20% email open rates, what can you do to bring that up and get more eyeballs reading your email content? 1. Treat Subject Lines Like Headlines Creating the subject lines of your email follows similar rules as making great headlines. Like a blog post headline, your email subject line bears most of the responsibility of getting your email open rates up where they should be. Good subject lines have a few characteristics: 1. No trickery.  Your subject line should tell your reader what theyll read, and not use subterfuge to trick them into opening an email. Remember the boy who cried wolf? That kind of email subject line will only work once, if they dont unsubscribe. 2. No yelling.  It should go without saying that using all caps in your subject line is a poor idea. However, both title case and sentence case can work magic. Title case works when you are using a shorter subject line which has headline-like quality (e.g. The 5 Most Important Email Tips Ever). Sentence case works when you have a longer or more conversational subject line (e.g. Have you made these 3 blogging mistakes?) 3. Numbers do work. Using numbers in your headline has shown to increase reader engagement. The same can be said for your email subject lines. Dont shy away from a subject that contains a number. 4. Some words dont work. There are words you should avoid using, even if you arent using them in a scam way. Spam filters are already working overtime to protect inboxes. You dont want to give them something to work with on your emails. There are also words that spam filters leave alone, but so do your human readers. For these,  MailChimp identifies their three worst offenders as Help, Percent Off, and Reminder. Spammers have unfortunately desensitized a lot of readers; be sure you dont sound anything like spam. 5. Hit the ideal length. The general rule of thumb is that your subject line should be around 50 characters. Thats not to say 40 wont work, or that 65 is a bad idea. The key is that you must be aware some email programs might cut characters off and if you have your most important word at the end of a long subject you might lose them. Keep important words at the beginning if you have a longer subject line. 6. Story wins. Whenever possible, approach your subject line as a story. In other words, pique your readers curiosity in your email and get their emotions (fear, humor, curiosity, anger, joy, gain, logic) involved; anything that suggests there is more to be read gets readers to open your email. Our Latest Newsletter is much less interesting than Have You Missed The Biggest News Yet? Sometimes a statement-type subject line is necessary, but do try to ping emotions in the subject line when possible. 2. A/B Test Your Subject Lines We regularly test the subject line of our weekly Content Marketing Update. We do this to find out which subject line will get the most opens and perform the best for a limited number of random users before sending it out to our entire list. In the example below, using A/B testing, our sample group helped us select the most successful headline of the two wed come up with, and increased our open rate by an estimated 70%. Version A carried the subject line of Are You A Content Hacker? which forced the reader to ask themselves a question they likely didnt know the answer to, since it is a new term. They clicked to find out. Its similar to the quizzes we get sucked into in magazines or online; were curious to find out who and what we are. Version B carried the subject line of How To Make A Living Blogging which is a helpful topic with a very specific audience of those who actually wanted to make their living blogging. A/B test your email subject and let your readers tell you what works best.I was the one creating the email, and I thought that Version B would be the more popular option. After all, there seems to be a spate of people concerned about making a living and our list was likely filled with people who wanted to do it with writing and blogging. But I was mistaken. Our list has a broad readership, with many of them serving in professional content marketing and social media marketing capacities. They were less interested in making a living blogging than they were to find out about what a content hacker might be.  The email with Are You A Content Hacker was the winner of our A/B test, and it sent out to our entire list with good success. A/B is based on the very simple idea of having two ideas, and letting your audience tell you which one they like. Most email providers, such as MailChimp and AWeber, offer A/B testing that makes it simple to test your subject lines. 3. Consider The First Sentence Its easy to forget that some email programs show the first few words of the first sentence in the inbox. My Gmail doesnt show me the first sentence and I forget that other email software, such as Sparrow and Outlook, does. Why should that matter? Because some of your readers are going to use both the subject line and the first line to give an indication on whether its worth opening or not. The first line of your email will show in some email software. In the example above, you can see that our recent Content Marketing Update email, in this view, had a truncated subject line and the first sentence had to help sell it. How many bloggers use email software that places a notice at the top that says the reader can click here if the email does not appear correctly? The first words of your email should help sell the email, not take care of maintenance.  This particular situation is the case for my personal blogs RSS-driven email, and that means the great headlines I might come up with are followed by a mundane message that suggests theres a chance my email wont look correctly and might not be worth the hassle. Thats not very enticing.  Maybe it doesnt hurt, if your headline is unbelievably superb, but it certainly doesnt help. Think of the opening line of your email like the next level headline. Do what you can with your template so that the first words are valuable. Change your email template to reflect something that feeds the curiosity that the subject line started. 4. Make Email Personally From You The from portion of your email is a way to humanize your email. When we send out our weekly email, we send it from Garrett, not from . Why? Our emails are by people, from people, for people. They arent from vague brands, apps, or objects with a possible nefarious agenda against humans. People connect with people, not with inanimate objects.

Business Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Business - Coursework Example There are two reasons why I think this is so. The first reason is that despite the crisis, I believe in RBS’ future. The bank has maintained its professional and constructive approach to business. The management seems to have been able to steer the bank out of trouble and there are reports that very soon RBS will opt out of the Government’s Asset Protection Scheme. The bank’s underlying business is stable and profitable while the bad debt ratios have been falling. The second reason is that the bank is working with a redefined strategy to regain customer trust and building itself on even more solid foundation. The global economic scenario is changing but I can see that the bank is maintaining its consistency – the consistency to adapt and offer the best to clients and investors. Joining the GBM markets programme at this stage would allow me to be part of this evolution and contribute to its success in near and long term future. Why do you believe RBS is the Right Place for you? Please use this section to outline what you know about RBS and what makes it an attractive workplace for you. (2048 characters / 250 words max) I love challenges. However, it would be naive to imagine that being ready to face challenges is enough without learning from the experiences of others. I believe RBS is the right place for me because its culture is built around cooperation, challenge, learning, and respect. The GBM Programme offers me the opportunity to learn with my peers and gain from the guidance of experienced colleagues. RBS, in my opinion, offers the best learning opportunities in the industry and the culture is intellectually stimulating. The well structured GBM Programme will offer me a full round exposure to the entire spectrum of products and services in the market. These include trading, sales, currency and interest rates, foreign markets, derivatives, risk, and analysis. This is a great learning opportunity that I would love to show excellen ce in. RBS seems to promote proactive workers and those who love to take the lead in creating solutions for the bank or its clients. This would be the ideal setting for me and I would also have the opportunity to work with the best and the brightest in the industry. Being a person who loves to interact with people, the GBM Markets Programme is the best place for me. I would get the opportunity to work with my colleagues, many of whom I understand come from various locations and cultures, and develop common shared successes. At this point, I feel I would be good in the sales segment of the business. What strengths and experience do you have that make you the Right Person for the GBM Markets Programme? Please use this section to describe your strengths and any experience that you have that makes you the Right Person for the GBM Markets Programme. (2048 characters / 250 words max) I mentioned earlier that I love challenges. RBS would be perfect for me as it requires someone who is able to work in a dynamic market, changing situations, and newer challenges all the time. It also requires that the person is capable of sensing a situation, apply knowledge creatively, make projections, and come up with a win-win solution for both the client and RBS. I strongly feel I have the personal qualities to fit that role. I also understand that one cannot individually offer all dimensions of a product. I am a team player and

The artistic relationship between Edgar Degas and Mary Cassatt Essay - 1

The artistic relationship between Edgar Degas and Mary Cassatt - Essay Example It was due to her burning passion for art that prompted her to persuade her father to allow her to go to Europe and start her painting career. It was during one of his visits to the salon that Degas saw a painting by Cassatt. Later when they met, he introduced her to the group of artists called The French Impressionists. From this point, an artistic as well as a personal relationship developed between the two artists. Various critics and observers as well as close friends point out that Cassatt’s work was an inspiration of Degas, while Degas relied on her for postures and critics1. To find out the relationship between the two artists, this paper will analyze some of the works by the two artists as well as critic’s thoughts and ideas about their relationship. At the start of her career in France, Cassatt greatly admired the works of Degas and several other artists from the impressionists group. She was mostly impressed by the modernity and the colorfulness of the picture . The freedom and independence in which the artists did their painting captivated her. When their relationship flourished, Degas helped her not only adopt the fresh colors that were central to the new impressionism, but also the light effects that created the picture of modernity paintings. Moreover, Degas’s use of Japanese woodcuts and etchings molded Cassatt to a great printmaker as she constantly borrowed the art from him, making her an equal innovator just like him. Although Degas was classified as an impressionist, he never adopted the color fleck characterized by the impressionists. Instead, he was a classical artist, who was inspected by the wars and their tombs, which he expressed through paintings. On her part, Cassatt’s work was a blend of modernity and classics, especially the manner in which she looked at things, passionately and with compassion2. The impressionists were a group of artists who used color and light to paint that saw the revolution of the mod ern form of painting among the people, a departure from the traditional way of painting. Initially, it was developed by artists from Paris who did not embrace the idea of following painting standards set by the government. They did not have to present their work to the salon in front of a judge who would determine whether they met the standards or not3. Mostly, they painted about modernity and the issues facing the society around them, without the usual allure of traditionalism in the paintings. Critics point out that before she met these artists, Cassatt was experiencing a hard time with her painting career as she used to express it openly. Two of her paintings had been rejected by the judge, which left her devastated and desperate. In what appeared to have been the revolution of her career was her meeting with Degas. She acknowledged that she felt alive when she made the discovery of the impressionists. The two artists were drawn closer by similar ideologies that they shared, espe cially their resentment for the salon and love for modern paintings. The sharing of a common artistic sensibilities and interests by the two artists propelled the growth and development of their working relationship that lasted for forty years. They both shared a similar background, as they all came from upper-class of the rich. Due to this, their works portrayed a form of resemblance and similarity in their thinking and settings. In addition to paintings of each other, some of which