Forest Gump Essay

Gump, motion picture chronicling the adventures of Forrest Gump, a kind, but slow-witted man who has a knack for being in the right place at the right time. Released in 1994, the film won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Film Editing, and Best Visual Effects. Tom Hanks earned an Academy Award for portraying Gump as a sweet, simple, straightforward man with incredible luck. Gump happens upon many pivotal moments of American history during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s—for example, he teaches Elvis Presley how to dance and he witnesses the Watergate burglary. Gump also makes a million dollars, runs across the United States, and falls in love with the girl next door. Director Robert Zemeckis Sergeant Forrest Gump Sr. (born June 6, 1944 also known as Forrest Gump in Greenbow, Alabama) is a fictional character who first appears in the 1986 eponymous novel by Winston Groom. Forrest Gump also appeared on screen in the 1994 film of the same name directed by Robert Zemeckis. Gump was portrayed as a child by Michael Conner Humphreys and portrayed as an adult by Tom Hanks, who won an Academy Award for the role. The portrayal of Forrest in the novel is notably different from the portrayal in the film. He later reappears in the 1995 novel Gump and Co. In 2008, Forrest Gump was named the 20th greatest movie character of all time by Empire Magazine. Introduction â€Å"The world will never be the same once you’ve seen it through the eyes of†¦ † Forrest Gump: a film chronicling the life of a mentally challenged man present during three of the most distinctive and dynamic decades in American history. While on the surface lies a heartwarming and inspirational story, the underlying narrative tends to explore progression of American society while depoliticizing history. Throughout the film Forrest is directly involved in major events of the 60s, 70s, and 80s, yet he never shows any initiative of his own. What is the filmmaker trying to insinuate? Contents ? 1. Life 1. Early Years 2. College 3. In The Army 4. Washington, D. C. 5. Ping-Pong 6. Shrimping Boat Captain 7. Home in Alabama 8. Running 9. Back To Present ? 2. Different from the Novel ? 3. Sociological Analysis ? 4. Awards ? 5. Trivia ? 6. Quotes ? 7. Question and Answer Event ? 8. Conclusion ? 9. References [pic]Life 1. 1 Early Years Gump was born near the fictional small town of Greenbow, Alabama, on June 6, 1944 (the same day that the Allied forces began Operation Overlord). His father was absent during his life, his mother saying he was â€Å"on vacation†. His mother named him after Nathan Bedford Forrest, a noted Confederate general in the American Civil War and the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan who is supposedly related to Gump. She intended his name to be a reminder that â€Å"sometimes we all do things that, well, just don’t make no sense. † Forrest was born with strong legs, but a crooked spine. He was forced to wear leg braces which made walking difficult and running near impossible. He also had a relatively low I. Q. of 75 which nearly prevented him from being accepted into public school (his mother managed to get the principal to reconsider by allowing him to sleep with her). Despite his physical and mental challenges, Forrest’s mother told him not to let anyone tell him he was different, telling him â€Å"stupid is as stupid does†. Forrest and his mother lived in a large house just outside the town of Greenbow. They made money by renting out rooms to travellers. One of their guests was a young Elvis Presley. Forrest liked dancing to his music and his leg braces gave him a peculiar dancing style that would supposedly inspire the young Elvis’ famous â€Å"hip dancing† after he became famous. On the bus ride to school, Forrest met Jenny Curran and was instantly taken with her. â€Å"I had never seen anything so beautiful in my life,† he would later say of her, â€Å"She was like an angel. † The two became close friends, often playing around a large nearby tree. Jenny was one of the few people besides his mother to accept Forrest as he was, helping him learn to read and standing up to bullies who harassed him. However, Jenny’s home life was not nearly as happy as Forrest’s: her mother had died when she was five and her father was an abusive alcoholic who molested his children (until Jenny was taken away to live with her grandmother), and Forrest’s friendship offered her an escape. One day, a group of bullies were throwing fallen fruit at Forrest and chasing him on their bikes. Jenny told Forrest to just run away. As Forrest struggled to run, his leg braces broke apart. Once he was free of them, Forrest was able to run incredibly fast. Forrest would never wear leg braces again and was able to run everywhere he wanted to after that. 1. 2 College Forrest and Jenny remained close friends all the way through high school, though he remained a target for bullies. One day, while running from some bullies, he interrupted the local high school’s football practice by running across the field faster than all the players. This feat caught the attention of Alabama Crimson Tide head football coach Paul â€Å"Bear† Bryant, who was at the practice scouting football players. After his incredible running ability impressed the coach, Forrest received a football scholarship to the University of Alabama, where his speed helped them win several games. He was later named to the All-American team and got to meet President John F. Kennedy at the White House. When asked by the President how he felt, Forrest (having drunk about fifteen Dr Peppers) gave an honest answer of â€Å"I gotta pee†. Forrest was also present at the University when it was desegregated and observed Governor George Wallace denouncing the desegregation. While several citizens jeered the black students entering the campus, Forrest, not entirely understanding the situation, simply walked up to a black woman and handed her a book she dropped, saying simply â€Å"Ma’am? You dropped your book†¦ ma’am? † before following her and the others into school. 1. 3 In the Army At his college graduation in 1967, Forrest was approached by an army recruiter who asked if he’d given any thought to his future. Soon after, Forrest would join the United States Army. On the bus Forrest met Benjamin Buford Blue, a young black man from Bayou La Batre, Alabama, who went by the nickname â€Å"Bubba†. Bubba told Forrest about his family history of cooking shrimp and how he had planned to buy his own shrimping boat after getting out of the army. Forrest did well in the army as he followed orders well without distraction; for example, he set a new company record for assembling his M14 rifle with his drill sergeant, who regularly singled him out as an example for the recruits, replying he would be a general. Meanwhile, Jenny had been kicked out of school for posing in Playboy and had gotten work singing in the nude at a strip club in Memphis, Tennessee. Forrest went up to visit her one night and beat up some patrons who were harassing her. Forrest tells Jenny that he loves her, but Jenny replies that he â€Å"[doesn’t] know what love is. † Jenny is angry but later becomes concerned when he tells her he was being deployed to Vietnam. Jenny tells him not to try being brave if he was ever in trouble and to just run away instead. While in Vietnam, and assigned to company A, 2/47th Infantry, 3rd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division Forrest and Bubba meet their platoon leader Lieutenant Dan Taylor, whom Forrest would refer to as â€Å"Lieutenant Dan†. While on patrol, Bubba proposed that he and Forrest go into the shrimping business together after their time in the army was finished. Forrest agreed. After several uneventful months, their platoon was ambushed by the Viet Cong and several soldiers were wounded and killed. In the confusion, Forrest initially was ordered to retreat, and was separated from the rest of his platoon, but after becoming concerned for Bubba, he ran back to look for him. Instead, Forrest found Lieutenant Dan and several other wounded soldiers and carried them to safety before looking for Bubba. Forrest finally found Bubba badly wounded and managed to carry him away from the combat area before it was hit with napalm from an air strike. His last words were â€Å"I wanna go home. † Sadly, Bubba died of his wounds soon after. Forrest himself was shot in the buttocks during the firefight and recovered in an army hospital. Lieutenant Dan was in the bed next to his, having lost his legs because of his injuries. Lieutenant Dan was angry at Forrest for cheating him out of his destiny to die in battle with honor (as several of his ancestors had) and rendering him crippled. . 4 Washington, D. C. Forrest later receives the Medal of Honor for his bravery in Vietnam. When being awarded, President Lyndon B. Johnson asked where he was hit and when Forrest told him he whispers in his ear he’d like to see it, so Forrest, despite knowing there were people watching, drops his pants right there to show him. Shortly thereafter, Forrest went out sightseeing in Washington, D. C. and accidentally found himself among a group of veterans attending an anti-war rally led by Abbie Hoffman. While at the rally, he was reunited with Jenny, who had since become a hippie. Forrest was less enamored with her new boyfriend Wesley, the president of the SDS at Berkeley, and beat up Wesley after he saw him hit Jenny during an argument at a Black Panther Party gathering. Forrest and Jenny stayed up all night while Jenny told Forrest of her travels. Before they went their separate ways again in the morning, Forrest gave Jenny the Medal of Honor he earned in Vietnam. 1. 5 Ping-Pong While in the hospital, Forrest had taken up ping-pong. Rather than returning to Vietnam, Forrest was assigned to the Special Services, entertaining wounded veterans with his ping-pong skills. He would later travel to the People’s Republic of China during the Ping Pong Diplomacy period. When he returned in 1971, he was a national hero, â€Å"famouser than even Captain Kangaroo† and was invited by Dick Cavett on The Dick Cavett Show. John Lennon was also a guest on the show at the time and hearing Forrest talk about the Chinese having â€Å"no possessions† and â€Å"no religion too,† inspired him to write the song â€Å"Imagine. Soon after, Forrest was briefly reunited with Lieutenant Dan, now a bitter alcoholic, confined to a wheelchair, having lost his faith in God. Lieutenant Dan was also dismayed that Forrest, whom he declared as â€Å"an imbecile who embarrassed himself on television,† was given the Medal of Honor. When Forrest told him of his and Bubba’s plan to go into the shrimping busines s, Lieutenant Dan only laughed and joked that if Forrest was ever a shrimping boat captain, he would be Forrest’s first mate. Upon visiting President Richard Nixon he was invited by the President to stay at the Watergate Hotel complex. He was awakened by flashlights in the offices opposite his room. Believing the tenants to be having difficulty with a fusebox, Forrest calls Frank Wills at the security office to notify the maintenance crew, inadvertently initiating the Watergate scandal, which leads to President Nixon’s resignation. Shortly after this, Forrest was honorably discharged from the army with the rank of Sergeant and returned home to Alabama. 1. 6 Shrimping Boat Captain Upon his return Forrest finds the house filled with memorabilia capitalizing on his fame as a ping-pong player in China. At his mother’s insistence, Forrest made $25,000 endorsing a brand of ping-pong paddles and used most of the money to travel to Bubba’s home town of Bayou La Batre and purchase a boat. When someone pointed out it was bad luck to have a boat without a name, Forrest names his boat after Jenny (whom, unbeknownst to him, had descended into a life of drugs and sexual promiscuity at this point and even contemplated suicide over her choices). Sometime later, Forrest was visited by Lieutenant Dan, who as a man of his word, had come to be Forrest’s first mate, just as he said he would do on New Year’s Eve. For several weeks, the two had no luck catching shrimp. Things changed, however, when the area was hit by Hurricane Carmen. Forrest’s boat was the only one left standing and they found themselves with a monopoly of shrimp. Under the name Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, they soon became very wealthy. Lieutenant Dan, having faced his demons during the storm, thanked Forrest for saving his life in Vietnam, and Forrest assumes that Dan (without actually saying so) made peace with God. 1. 7 Home in Alabama Forrest returned home to Greenbow when he learned his mother was dying of cancer. After her death, Forrest stays and leaves his shrimping industry in the hands of Lieutenant Dan and retired to mowing and cutting grass and lawns, as he apparently enjoys doing it. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Dan participated in a substantial investment into what Forrest says to be â€Å"some kind of fruit company. † In reality, the company was the fledgling Apple Computer, and it is implied that their investment largely kick-started Apple’s rise and success. With the money he got from the Apple Computer investment, Forrest spent them on renovating the church he frequents, establishing a medical center at Bubba’s hometown and gave Bubba’s family his share of the investment money that is enough for them to never work again. Jenny returns to Greenbow and moves in with Forrest. The two spend time together and Forrest later describes it as â€Å"the happiest time of my life†. One night, Forrest asks Jenny to marry him, but she turns him down, saying â€Å"You don’t want to marry me. † Forrest replies with, â€Å"I’m not a smart man, but I know what love is. After this exchange, Jenny comes to Forrest’s bedroom, tells him she loves him, and the two make love. Jenny hails a cab very early the next morning and leaves, unbeknownst to him before he wakes up. 1. 8 Running Forrest’s newfound loneliness leads him to take a run â€Å"for no particular reason. † At first, he decides to run to the end of the road, then across town, then across the county, then all the way to the Mississippi border. Eventually, he criss-crosses the country several times over a span of three years. Forrest attracts media coverage, and eventually, dozens of followers. During the run, he inspires the phrase â€Å"Shit Happens† to a bumper-sticker salesman after stepping in a pile of dog droppings. He also uses a yellow t-shirt provided to him by a designer to wipe off his face after being splattered by mud. In the process, he forms the iconic â€Å"Smiley face† logo and tells the man to â€Å"Have a nice day. † One day, while running in the Western United States, Forrest decides he’s tired and stops. He immediately turns around and walks back to Alabama. His followers are dumbfounded at his sudden decision. Meanwhile, Jenny has taken a job as a waitress in Savannah, Georgia and sees news coverage of Forrest’s run on television. 1. 9 Back to the Present Back to the present (the â€Å"present† in the film being around 1981, as seen from a car and on a bus, and televised footage of Ronald Reagan’s assassination attempt), Forrest tells his latest companion on the bench, an elderly woman, he’d recently received a letter from Jenny asking him to come see her. When he tells her the address and directions he’d been given, she tells him it’s only a few blocks away, and he hurries over on foot. Forrest and Jenny are happy to see each other. Before they can do much catching up however, Forrest is introduced to Jenny’s young son, a bright young boy whom she named Forrest after his father. Forrest at first thinks she met another man named Forrest, until she explains â€Å"You’re his daddy, Forrest. † Forrest’s fearful inquiry as to Little Forrest’s intelligence leads Jenny to quickly assert that he is completely normal. Forrest learns that Jenny is sick from a virus (implied to be HIV). He invites her and Little Forrest to come home and stay with him. She asks him to marry her and he accepts. Forrest and Jenny’s wedding is a quiet, intimate ceremony attended only by a handful of family and friends. Among the attendees is Lieutenant Dan, who has titanium prosthetic legs, with his Vietnamese fiancee Susan. It is the only time Jenny and Dan meet. Forrest, Jenny, and Little Forrest have a few happy months together as a family before Jenny dies on Saturday March 22, 1982 (which was actually a Monday). Forrest has her buried under the tree where they played as children, and then buys her childhood home (where her ather had mistreated her) and has it bulldozed. Though he misses Jenny terribly, Forrest becomes a good father to Little Forrest. Visiting Jenny’s grave one day, he reflects on the idea of fate and destiny, wondering if Lt. Dan was right about people having their own destiny, or if his Mother was right about description of life as floating around accidentally like on a breeze. He eventually decides â€Å"maybe it ’s both, maybe both are happening at the same time. † Forrest is last seen outside his home, seeing Little Forrest off on his bus ride to school, telling his son he loves him. . Differences from the novel The portrayal of Forrest in the original novel is notably different to how he was portrayed in the film. Largely, in the novel Forrest is shown to be somewhat cynical and abrasive, while in the film he is a more placid and naive person. He is also described as being an autistic savant and has extraordinary talent in numerical calculation. Changes from the novel to the film include: the deaths of Forrest’s mother; and Jenny, neither of whom died in the original book. The novel also provides additional back-story on his father. It is revealed that his father was a dockworker, who worked for United Fruit Company. He was killed when a crate of bananas being loaded off a boat fell on top of him, crushing him to death. Forrest goes on a number of different adventures including being an astronaut, playing the harmonica in a band called the Cracked Eggs, becoming a professional wrestler (â€Å"The Dunce†) and running for the United States Senate (with the campaign slogan â€Å"I Got to Pee†). 3. Sociological analysis An understanding of Forrest’s background in an important and characterizing element in the film. Disadvantaged by a terrible spine condition and a low IQ, Forrest struggles through childhood in small-minded Greenbow, Alabama. Due to his mental disabilities, Forrest becomes the victim of academic discrimination, which his mother fights desperately to resolve. â€Å"He might be a bit on the slow side, but my boy Forrest is going to get the same opportunities as everyone else,† she stated to the principal of Greenbow County Central School. â€Å"He’s not going to some special school to learn to how to re-tread tires. † (Gump 1995) Forrest’s mother was determined. Taking advantage of this, the principal coerced Forrest’s mother into trading a sexual favor for enrollment in school. In addition to these unsettling events, Forrest finds himself tormented and isolated by neighborhood children and townspeople who seem incapable of treating him with anything but reproach and disdain. Forrest was also an active part of many important events, including protests lead by George Wallace against desegregation, the Vietnam War, the Ping Pong Diplomacy period, anti-war activism lead by Abbie Hoffman, Black Panther Party meetings, and the Watergate scandal. It would be reasonable to say that being part of such important events and would make him vulnerable to the social forces of the times, yet his lack of critical thought as a result of low intelligence seemed to indicate the complete opposite– he remained wholly oblivious and ignorant of their significance. During George Wallace’s â€Å"Stand in the Schoolhouse Door† protest, Forrest stands curiously in the background, more interested in his surroundings rather than the actual protest. During the Vietnam War, Forrest never questions the morality or the agenda of the U. S. government, and receives the Congressional Medal of Honor for his efforts. His entire experience during the Vietnam War can be summed up into one conversation between him and the Drill Sergeant: â€Å"Gump! What’s your sole purpose in this Army? † â€Å"To do whatever you tell me, Drill Sergeant! † (Gump 1995) Still, the most dismaying portion of impassive responses glorified in this film can be contributed to Forrest’s careless involvement in the anti-Vietnam War rally lead by Abbie Hoffman. He was entirely clueless as to the purpose of the anti-war movements. His view of Abbie Hoffman’s role? â€Å"There was this man, giving a little talk†¦ And every time he said the â€Å"F† word, people, for some reason, well, they’d cheer. † Though the focus of the film is directed towards Forrest Gump, the effects of social forces are most often expressed and implied through Jenny Curran. Forrest’s generally unobservant nature contrasts harshly with Jenny’s forthright and independent character. Without Jenny, we would have a collectively unrealistic and uncertain portrayal of many occurrences that contributed to the structure of today’s society. Unlike Forrest, Jenny was consciously and intentionally involved in the counterculture movements of the 60’s, as she is seen trailing the countryside with fellow â€Å"hippies,† participating in anti-war movements, and secretly involving herself in Black Panther Party meetings. Before Jenny sets off on what turns out to be downward spiral towards debasement, she speaks to Forrest of her motives. â€Å"†¦ I want to reach people on a personal level. I want to be able to say things, just one-to-one. † (Gump 1995) However, Jenny’s plans for a better society are brought to a staggering halt when Jenny develops a fatal disease stemming from precarious drug use. 4. Awards Academy Award for Best Picture (1994) Academy Award for Best Actor (1994): Tom Hanks Academy Award for Best Director (1994): Robert Zemeckis Academy Award for Best Screenplay—Based on Material Previously Published (1994): Eric Roth Academy Award for Best Film Editing (1994): Arthur Schmidt Academy Award for Best Visual Effects (1994): Ken Ralston, George Murphy, Stephen Rosenbaum, Allen Hall Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture—Drama (1995) Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Actor—Drama (1995): Tom Hanks Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Director (1995): Robert Zemeckis 5. Trivia In this movie, every still photograph of Forrest Gump shows him with his eyes closed. 6. Quotes Forrest Gump (explaining his run across the United States):â€Å"I just felt like running. † Forrest Gump: â€Å"My mama always said, life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get. † 7. Question and answer event (The delightfully sarcastic humor of film critics David Edelstein helps narrate this question ad answer about this movie. ) Here is another big one that didn’t (surprisingly) make your list: Forrest Gump. This one did make it close to the top ten, didn’t it? A: Well, I certainly agree with you about Titanic, and after my less than positive review in Slate, I had 500 pieces of hate e-mail (mostly from teenage girls and much of it unprintable here) to prove it. But while I found Titanic mostly square and dumb (not badly acted, though—DiCaprio and Winslet are marvelous romantic leads), it’s almost never pernicious. The movies I wrote about are ones I found not just overrated, but objectionably, infuriatingly overrated. Which brings us to Forrest Gump. Yes, it came close to making my top ten most hateful. I have little patience for the conceit of the radiant simpleton, and even less when the radiant simpleton is positioned as morally superior in every way to, say, anti-Vietnam War activists. But Gump was just well made (and weird) enough to keep me in my seat. Let’s put it at number eleven. 8. Conclusion Although Tom Hanks (Star in Forrest Gump) affirms that the film was â€Å"non-political and thus non-judgmental,† the previous examples show implications otherwise. Though the film does take a stand against disability discrimination by shedding some light on the difficulties that accompany being handicap during a callous time in American history, it’s motives were generally ambiguous and unclear. Based on the filmmakers unattractive outlook on counterculturalism, his lack of discretion when touching on issues like desegregation and independence, as well as his insensitive approach to the deaths of activists, we can arrive at the following conclusion: the harrowing experiences exposed in this film can be easily discarded as something warranted only by devoted individuals who attempt to foster humanity. 9. References

Atheism †my personal response Essay

I can’t see how one can claim that atheism is a religion, it is impossible by the very definition. Agnostic would be more apt. A quote from a letter sent to Ruth Crowley seems fitting; â€Å"Calling Atheism a religion is like calling bald a hair colour.† It simply cannot be done. I don’t think religion doesn’t have a place in today’s society, I just think that in many cases we would be better off without it. As far as I’m concerned Jesus is just the word of choice, substitute it for any name. It works just like any superstition. While religion at its fundamental core might have some important values, there is simply no need for the complimentary ideals that churches teach. Yes it may be an onerous expectation that schools teach it, but minus parents, they seem the next logical choice. I think it goes without saying, also, that schools and religion should be kept as separate as religion and politics should be. Art has never been, and likely ne ver will be, my forte. Beyond being aesthetically pleasing, for the most part; I see a limited shelf-life for art, as anything more then that, in modern times and would happily go so far as to question its purpose beyond the aesthetic in the past. As to this notion of the afterlife, I hate to say it, but it makes me want to laugh. It is easy to see how the myth evolved. People are reluctant to accept that someone or even something (A pet) they knew and loved is gone. Bernard Shaw sums up the reality of the matter: â€Å"The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.† While you may have learnt skills and acquired knowledge that you have used. From my perspective, in a correct world, religion should be separated to such a degree that those who choose not to partake in it will have no occasion to have to do so. Why must a legal marriage be accompanied with a religious ceremony? Why not have a separate civil union? Allowing for the legalisation of gay unions and also for a separate â€Å"marriage† which is purely religious and confined to the actual places of worship, churches. I can’t fathom this concept of semi belief in religion, and, as of yet, no one has been able to explain it to me in such a way that I can even accept it as a logical belief. Simply, you either believe or you don’t, I can’t see how you can fall in between. If you were to say you were unsure as to which religion then I can concede that. But to simply use religion as a mental appeasement for your actions, I cannot grasp. The capacity for religions to inspire violence between each other is one of the fundamental issues I have with religion. They are at the core reasoning, or at least a participant, of almost every conflict in the recorded history of our existence on this planet. On the idea of butterfly’s being a work of god I think Douglas Adams truly epitomised my beliefs when he said; â€Å"Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?† To end, I can’t but help to agree once more with Douglas Adams when he said; â€Å"I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting. But it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously.† Sorry for the doubly long response.

INTERNATIONAL MARKETING Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

INTERNATIONAL MARKETING - Essay Example The paper also analyses the significance of the food industry and major factors forming and regulating the industry and the environment under which it experiences its gradual but continuous growth. The present study also makes SWOT analysis of the topic under study keeping in view cultural factors and global phenomenon within which the industry observes significant boost during the last century. The future trends and dimensions of the industry have also come in the fold of present study. International marketing refers to the carrying out and management of marketing activities in more than one country. In other words the term refers to the commercial transactions of the product of a company in international market for the consumers of other states along with the country where the product is being manufactured. The world has been transformed into the global village in the contemporary age where the activities in one part of the world are monitored and taken into account in all other parts of the globe too with keen interest. These activities have introduced new trends and dimensions in the changing market scenario. The companies also present their products for the consumers abroad by launching comprehensive campaigns regarding marketing and advertising to introduce before them the benefits these products contain. Western nations and especially the United States rely on thousands of independent enterprises to convert resources into desired goods and services. Moreover, these enterprises provide most of the initiative for improving and adapting the flow of goods and services to new wants. (Newman & Logan, 1976:1) Hence marketing research and plans have become essential parts of strategic analysis. ABC Food Company is one of the famous food brands of the USA, which has grown in an environment of perfect competition. The USA is famous for holding world-class food brands including McDonalds, KFC, HFC,

The Prison System Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

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The future of the entertainment and media industry in the USA Essay

The future of the entertainment and media industry in the USA - Essay Example Nothing can match up to the difference the media has created in our lives and with time it can only get better. Talking about the future of the media, it is vivid how large the impact is going to be with every step towards perfection of evolution and advancement in technology, every day, every month and every year. â€Å"The media is a clever businessman and a better speaker than any politician† and to reach to the mass ensuring success it has come up with reality shows on almost every channel that keeps the mass glued to their television sets. The news hour debates keep the elderly in the family busy after work, the sitcoms and reality events keep the youth engrossed and why won’t they if it’s a good platform to portray your talent and feel the taste of success being in the limelight in reality shows like the American Idol. The future of the media can only get better as aforementioned and there’s no reason why it shouldn’t. My aim would be to add t o the profits while bringing in something new to this wonderful industry. There is much scope for experimentation and evolution in this particular industry.

Compare and Contrast Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 6

Compare and Contrast - Essay Example In this light, we will find out the background, culture and beliefs of the artists who created the following two specimens of artifacts: The Venus of Willendorf, created during the Paleolithic era, and The Neolithic Plastered Skull of the Neolithic era. The Venus of Willendorf was discovered in 1908 in an Aurignician loess deposit above the Danube River near Willendorf, Austria.by the archaeologist Josef Szombathy. Currently in Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna, this tiny statue (only 11.1 cm in length) is sculpted from a fine porous oolitic limestone unavailable in the region. It is assumed that this is done with flint tools done in a foreign land (Witcombe, 2003). In the case of the Neolithic Plastered Skulls, the artifacts were discovered during the Amman-Zarqua highway construction in the 1970's in Ain Ghazai near Amman, Jordan. Gary Roliefson excavated the site to prevent its potential destruction from the urbanization of the site. Plaster used in covering walls and floors of structures in Ain Ghazal are the materials utilized in creating the relics. Also, in this place, plaster is also intended for the treatment of the skulls of the dead (Feldman, 2006). When it comes to the location of the relics' discovery, the Venus of Willendorf is located in a place where the materials, fine porous oolitic limestone, of the image are ... In this period, nurturing arable lands for agricultural purposes has already been the common practice. The tendency of people at those times is to commune with each other and to grow plants and livestock for food. Both the artifacts' materials are from minerals coming from the ground (limestone and plaster). However the difference in the manner in creating them shows the diversity of the level of technology in these two periods in human prehistoric eras. The sculptor in the Paleolithic carved the Venus of Willendorf out of limestone with flint tools in its natural and processed state. The creator of the Neolithic Plastered Skulls, on the other hand, had already acquired sufficient knowledge to produce a mixture of mud plaster and lime plaster (Rollefson, 1998). In terms of the features of the two artifacts it is interesting to note that the Venus of Willendorf exaggerates the features of the figure while the Neolithic Plastered Skulls displays human features realistically. Perhaps the most notable distinction between the plastered skulls in Jordan from the Venus of Willendorf is the latter's absence of genitalia. By this distinction alone, we can see the intention of the artists in creating these prehistoric artistic opuses. The distinction of the features of these relics presents the interesting contrast of the reason of their creation of these priceless antique art forms. Though the real intention of creating them are still to be known, archaeologists have developed certain logical and possible theories based on the features of the artworks. With regards to the Venus of Willendorf some archaeologists advocates the theory that it has religious significance. For them it is a relic that the Paleolithic tribe who created it considers a

Louisa May Alcott Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Louisa May Alcott - Essay Example Perhaps feminists can constructively criticize a book they grew up reading. Simone de Beauvoir and Gertrude Stein both read the book as young girls and found much to admire in the character of Jo (Baker, 2006; Friedell, 2005). If the reader ignores the ending where Jo burns her manuscripts, there is much that a feminist could admire about the strength and focus of her character. There is much, also, to admire in the real-life Louisa Alcott, who became a masculine stereotype as breadwinner for her real life family. According to Friedell (2005), Alcott worked 14 hour days at her writing, spent her earnings on her parents and younger sister, and cared for various nieces and nephews when her other sisters died. By the age of 40, Alcott declared proudly that her family was out of debt and finally free, but she still continued to produce writing to support the family. When she contracted mercury poisoning serving as a nurse during the Civil War, Alcott became addicted to morphine and still continued to work. She didn’t even enjoy writing Little Women. While she was usually willing to change stories and novels to please her editors, refused to marry Jo off to Laurie, but gave in to the general idea of marriage, saying in her journals she did not want Jo to end up like herself, worked to the bone with no time to enjoy anything, and alone. It is interesting that the character of Laurie was probably patterned after a real-life romance between Alcott and Ladislas Wisniewski (Sands-O’Connor, 2001). Most of the characters in this novel were patterned after someone Alcott knew, and her journals and letters are vague as to whether there was a real romance between Ladislas and Louisa, or whether she simply fictionalized that, too. The feminists speculate whether Alcott was bisexual or lesbian, and a romance with Wisniewski never blossomed in public. The book Little Woman and the character of Jo certainly start out as

Biology (medical botany) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Biology (medical botany) - Essay Example Several findings and implications of the same are established in this study. It concluded that an inhibition was exhibited in the migration of the endothelial cells of the human umbilical cord, in vitro, due to the use of both drugs. Subsequently, the researchers noted that the result of the migration as synergistically inhibited was due to the combination of the two drugs; thus, implying that the drugs were synergestically related. In another perspective, the drugs indicated independent action modes given that artesunate, in XTT assay, repressed HUVEC growth, while captopril in XTT array did not in the entire range of the dose. In establishing the quail egg CAN assay, the study established that a significant reduction in the surface area of the vascular chorioallantoic membranes was noted. The artesunate is shown to have an impact on the growth and structure of the blood cells as witnessed in the veins of the eggs that did not turn red. However, the formation of the blood vessels was inhibited by both drugs, significantly, as compared to the DMSO, which was the negative control. In another finding that analysed the branching of the blood vessels in quail CAM assay, measurements made revealed that the branches fractions and lengths in quail eggs treated by both artesunate and captopril significantly differed from the DMSO with the P Consequently, in testing for the synergism between the captopril and artesunate in vivo, the IC50 values for both drugs were determined for single doses. The effect of this was that a substance that was not affected by the drug, its obtained vascular area was to be 50% of the negative control. If lower than 50%, then the substances acted antagonistically, while if higher than 50%, then the substances acted synergistically. In

How can TQM be Applied to Entrepreneurship Essay Example for Free

How can TQM be Applied to Entrepreneurship Essay Total Quality Management Defined Total Quality management refers to a management process and array of disciplines that are harmonized to ensure that the organization constantly meets and exceeds customer requirements. TQM connects all divisions, departments and levels of the organization. Good management organizes all of its strategy and operations around customer requirements and builds a culture with high employee participation. TQM companies are focused on the methodical management of data of all processes and practices to remove waste and follow constant improvement. Entrepreneurship Defined Entrepreneurship is defined as the process of creating something new with value by devoting the required time and effort, assuming the associated financial, psychic, and social risks, and receiving the resulting rewards of financial and personal satisfaction and independence. (Hisrich et al, 2005) TQM Application to Entrepreneurship: An Introduction Nowadays entrepreneurs are concerned about total quality management. This involves the pursuit of total customer satisfaction, constant improvement of products and the full involvement of every employee. As Total Quality Management has shown to be a useful process for improving organizational performance, its value can only be guaranteed through a wide-ranging and well  ¬thought-out execution process.   An initial step in TQM implementation is to evaluate the organizations existing reality: relevant prerequisites have to do with the organizations history, its present requirements, swift events leading to TQM, and the existing employee quality of working life. If the existing reality does not include important prerequisites, TQM implementation should be postponed until the organization is in a state in which TQM is likely to thrive. If an organization has a history of efficient receptiveness to the environment, and if it has been able to effectively change the way it functions when needed, TQM will be easier to apply. If an organization has been traditionally imprudent and has no skill at improving its operating systems, there will be both employee uncertainty and a lack of skilled change agents. If this condition exists, a broad program of management and leadership development may be established. A management audit (Sugarman, 1988) is a good evaluation tool to see current levels of organizational functioning and areas in need of change. An organization should be in essence healthy before beginning TQM. If it has major problems such as a very unsteady funding base, poor administrative systems, lack of managerial skill, or poor employee morale, TQM would not be fitting. All the same, a particular level of stress is perhaps desirable to start TQM: people need to feel a need for a change. Kanter (1983) focus on this phenomenon by describing building blocks which are present in efficient organizational change. These forces include departures from tradition, an emergency or galvanizing incident, strategic decisions, individual prime movers, and action vehicles. Departures from tradition are activities, generally at lower levels of the organization, which happens when entrepreneurs move outside the normal ways of operating to solve a problem. A predicament, if it is not too disabling, can also help create a sense of necessity which can activate people to act. In the case of TQM, this may be a funding cut or threat, or demands from consumers or other stakeholders for enhanced quality of service. After a crisis, a leader may get involved strategically by expressing a new vision of the future to help the organization deal with it. A plan to execute TQM may be such a strategic decision. Such a leader may then become a prime mover, who takes charge in advocating the new idea and showing others how it will help them get where they want to go. Lastly, action vehicles are needed: mechanisms or structures to facilitate the change to happen and become institutionalized. TQM Visionary Leadership Leadership is an important element in successful implementation of sweeping change. The leader shows the need and sets the vision, outlining the basic purpose, objectives, and factors or requirements of TQM. The leader needs to take a long-term outlook, and must be able to inspire others to stick with the process during early stages when resistance and obstacles may seem overwhelming. The favored leadership style would be a participative one, so that staff may be involved in the design of the particular system elements. Once that strategic direction has been established, a participative style may be used on implementation details. Before this decision, obviously, the manger should study TQM, talk to others who have used it, and possibly attend a preliminary training session. This is important in order for the manager to precisely assess the fit between TQM and his style. This will be necessary in establishing an organizational culture which is in agreement with TQM, promoting and strengthening continuous quality improvement (Cohen and Brand, 1993, 118). Conclusions To sum up, first assess requirements and the existing state of the organization to make sure the need for change is clear and that TQM is a proper strategy. Leadership styles and organizational culture must be congruent with TQM.   Entrepreneurs will need to keep their commitment, keep the process visible, provide necessary support, and hold people responsible for results. Use input from stakeholder as possible; and maximize employee involvement in design of the system.   TQM should be principle motivated. It can be a powerful technique for giving a free rein to employee ingenuity and potential, reducing bureaucracy and costs, and improving service to clients and the community. References Cohen, S. Brand, R. (1993), Total Quality Management in Government. San Francisco: Jossey ¬Bass, Inc. Hisrich, R. D., M. P. Peters and D. A. Shepherd, 2005, Entrepreneurship, 6th Edition, New York: McGraw-Hill. Kanter, R. (1983), The Change Masters. New York: Simon Schuster. Sugarman, B. (1988), The Well Managed Human Service Organization: Criteria for a Management Audit, Administration in Social Work. 12(2), 17 ¬27.

Ethical Impacts of the Internet on Children and Teenagers Essay Example for Free

Ethical Impacts of the Internet on Children and Teenagers Essay As the use of internet dominates every activity in the global market, its use in homes and schools has exponentially grown raising concern on its ethical effect on children and teenagers. The nature of the youngsters’ use of internet has generated heat and anxiety among the general public as the society calls for ethical and moral guidelines that would protect children and teenagers from negative effect of the internet. This paper proposes a research that will identify the effect of internet use among the young people as the academic and policy importance concerning the opportunities and dangers of internet use continue to be raised. The paper identifies these opportunities and dangers as it proposes the methodology and limitations for the research paper. 2. 0 Introduction 2. 1 Background Internet which slowly started as a network for military officers in the cold war eventually became an important tool in the academic corridors and today the former â€Å"Arpanet† has greatly grown to become the primary platform for communication and interaction for different communities around the world. As the Internet traffic hit millions of users each day the communication technology continue to grow to allow for infinite information access and instant interaction by users, a fact that has brought about a social paradigm shift in the way societies used to live in the earlier days. This technology has particularly been embraced by children and teenagers as a way of learning, socializing and leisure. In the developed countries and many other regions around the word, internet access has ceased to being a trademark for the privileged members of the society as its use in the workplace, education institutions and leisure places continue to grow exponentially. As the use of computers and internet become more and more entrenched in our day to day routine practices, it has become a basic feature not only in the offices but also at our homes. The presence of internet at our homes has opened up a â€Å"super highway† to children and teenagers who are being referred to as the â€Å"digital generation† that incidentally predisposes them to overwhelming information and social sites that may contribute heavily in shaping their behavioural patterns. Whereas internet offers a perfect educational platform for the young people, it is also seen largely as a risk factor that could expose them to adult sites, make them more addicted and dependant on the internet and eventually instil anti-social behaviour in some of them. While this issue demands a critical stance given the consequences it has on the future generation, very little independent researches has been conducted to inform the policy makers and end the growing public anxiety. In most of the researches conducted in the recent past only a few have focused on the social consequences of the internet among the children and teenagers. The households with children or/and teenagers that have access to the internet is however more common than those without (Wigley and Clacke, 2000). 2. 2 Research Objectives The main objective of the proposed research project is to explore the impact of the internet on children and teenagers based on the expected social, cognitive and behavioural patterns in the society. The research project will aim at identifying issues that deviate from the laid down expectations both at school, home and in the society which find their root from the internet. 2. 3 Research Question The proposed paper will focus on answering the following primary question; †¢ What are the ethical impact on the use of internet among the children and teenagers? To effectively explore the primary research question the following secondary questions will be analyzed? †¢ What are the children/teenagers perceptions towards internet? †¢ What are the perceptions of the parents whose children are using internet at home or/and school? †¢ What are the important contrasts in internet activities from what is expected to what is actually practised? †¢ What are the possible impacts of these struggles between the theoretical and practical internet activities on children/teenagers’ social development? 2. 4 Research Significance A study conducted in the UK by Wigley and Clacke (2000), revealed that among the young people aged between 7 and 16 years, 75% of them have used the internet as compared to only 38% from the adult population. This explains that in the contemporary society the young are actually the pioneers of the internet culture. For a long time children and teenagers have also been regarded as a special homogenous object in other studies a fact that has made this category of population marginalised and often left out in researches on the internet. Even in the midst of growing researches on e-commerce and e-democracy very little efforts are focusing on the expanding online market driven by the young people. For these reasons children and teenagers are often left out in technological advancement as the market analysis is evaluated. As the social effects of internet on the young people become obvious in most societies it is becoming more difficult to ignore the subject and therefore many empirical projects on children and teenagers use of the internet are coming up. This makes it appropriate moment in which the research agenda on this category of population must be given priority. 3. 0 Literature Review 3. 1 Nature of Internet Usage Recent surveys reveal that children and teenagers attach high value to the usage of internet to gather information, entertainment leisure and as a medium of communication. According to Valkenburg and Soeters (2001), 73% of the children and teenagers use internet as an education tool, 59% use it for E-mails, 38% to play games, 32% for chatting with friends and 31% use internet as a hobby and an area of interest. The internet has already revolutionized the social patterns of our younger population drastically changing the earlier forms of communication and interaction among the peers. A research conducted by Valkenburg and Soeters (2001), indicates that among most households internet has continued to elicit mixed reaction between the parents and their young ones as it is considered to easily lead the young toward the wrong direction if mismanaged or taken for granted. While the parents praise the internet for its role in availing most of the information that their children would need in pursuit of their education, the children consider the opportunity more as a source of entertainment that gives them a break from the other â€Å"old fashioned† entertainment sources. The tug of war between the parents and children demonstrates an obvious digital generation gap in which children and teenagers who normally acquire and understand new internet skills faster than their parents get transformed into â€Å"family tutors†. The expertise in computer and internet skills among the children gives them a symbolic advantage over their parents that can easily be mis-used in pushing their interests that could not necessarily be approved by their parents. The current researches on the social context in which internet is focusing more in identifying ways and means in which children and teenagers are changing their homes into centres for content production, entertainment and leisure. This fact has in essence brought about new approaches in children’s activities as questions linger on whether learning has become more fun, playing is turning more and more educational and whether online chatting is part of civic participation or a way of withdrawal from the general society. This kind of researches therefore calls for the need to analyse the online content that is most preferred by children and teenagers. This raises a challenge given the large volume of online contents from which one can choose from and the fact that the hypertext content can be actualized by the user. This has in effect discouraged most of the researchers carrying out studies on the impact of internet on children and teenagers. Most of the researches today are however guided by the policy issues that are endeavouring in trying to balance the benefits that the internet offers to the young population against the harm that may be associated with some of the sites. Therefore the key agenda is on how the society in general should ethically conceptualize and balance the benefits and the dangers of the internet on the children and teenagers within there spheres of influence.