Musical Essay Online For Free - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 8 Words: 2391 Downloads: 5 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Music Essay Type Essay any type Did you like this example? The nature of musical communication and the framework of thought, feeling and behaviour within which this communication takes place. Musical communication is commonly associated with place or location; for instance a piece of music will often bring about a flood of memories recalling the place the piece was heard, perhaps the people in whose company the time listening to the piece was spent and certainly the mood of the piece. A piano recital is the cultural event we will focus on, using specific examples of piano recitals held around the world, drawing on reports about those recitals from performers and audience alike. The framework of thought, feeling and behaviour which takes place at a piano recital is different from any other cultural environment, primarily because it the most special and intimate of instruments, one which connects the player with the listener in intimate and unmediated communication, in a pure communicative act. The piano is an instrument which evokes extraordinary passion, requires considerable dedication and patience, together with skill and flair to bring about a perfect percussiv e performance. There are a number of key players in a piano recital, not least the composer who communicates his art to the pianist and onwards, through the instrument, to an audience. The composer is the translator of musical ideas into a symbolic form, usually the twelve semi-tone scale on a musical stave. The standard Western musical notation is a treble clef and a bass clef. Each note can be between lines or on a line and the piece is given a time signature denoting the rhythm of the music. Other symbols signify changes in tone, pace, volume and feeling. The behaviour of the player is also communicated from the composer to the pianist using symbols, including Italianate adjectives, although with more modern piano pieces the Italianate is often replaced with words from the composers usual vocabulary. Examples include piano, meaning quiet and forte, meaning loud. The nature of this communication is symbolic, or in the words of Roland Barthes, the literary critic, semiot ic Barthes (Barthes 1977) views semiology as underlying all communication, an empire of the signs that extends over film and photography, music criticism and reading and writing as historically situated activities. He identifies two natures of music: There are two musics (at least so I have always thought): the music one listens to, the music one plays. These two musics are totally different arts, each with its own history, its own sociology, its own aesthetics, its own erotic; the same composer can be minor if you listen to him, tremendous if you play him (even badly) such as Schumann. (Barthes 1977, p. 149) We will employ this distinction between passive and active to our discussion of the piano recital, where passive music is the music we listen to and active music is the music we play. Schumann is the composer we will focus on when discussing the cultural event that is the piano recital. Robert Schumann was a significant figure in German musical romanticism. (Jensen 2001) Schumann specialised in writing lyrical piano music and songs, but also composed notable orchestral choral and chamber works. He literary output was motivated by his love of literature which informed his musical criticism and composition. He was forced to abandon his career as a pianist after critically damaging, with a strengthening device, a finger on his right hand. Schumann wrote piano works that were a linking of short sections, such as Kreisleriana and Carnaval. Linked together, these sections paid extreme attention to detail, forming an interlocking composition. A talented music journalist, he was editor on one of the most significant journals of his day, Die Neue Zeitschrift fà ¼r Musik. In 1840 he wrote over a hundred songs, a year that became known as his year of song, including the song cycles Dichterliebe and Liederkreise. Schumann suffered from depression and mental instability as a result of syphilis and died in an asylum. Schumann believed tha t musical communication was under attack from virtuoso players who had little thought or feeling for music. His mission statement was given in his journal Die Neue Zeitschrift fà ¼r Musik, which, perhaps in spite of its name suggesting new music, promoted music proven by history music which had withstood the test of time. His era saw the rise of piano virtuosity from players who wanted to become celebrities in their own right without recognition of whose music it was they played, going so far as to compose pieces without thought about the framework of the musical communication, preferring technical complexities over clearly communicated music. Their ignorance of the thought, feeling and behaviour of composers, said Schumann, was philistine. He thus founded the Davids bà ¼ndler, or League of David, named after the biblical King David, who composed music, wrote poetry and slew the Philistines. Barthes speaks of piano recitals as an active form of music that has declined in practice to almost extinction where the piano has been forsaken for the guitar recital: The music one plays has disappeared; initially the province of the idle (aristocratic) class, it lapsed into an insipid social rite with the coming of the democracy of the bourgeoisie (the piano, the young lady, the drawing room, the nocturne) and then faded out altogether (who plays the piano today?). To find practical music in the West, one has now to look to another public, another repertoire, another instrument (the young generation, vocal music, the guitar). (Barthes1977, p. 149) Barthes interest in the piano recital as a cultural event for a particular social grouping, the bourgeoisie, is part of his semiotic history, analysable through the distinction between active and passive: Two roles appeared in succession, first that of the performer, the interpreter to whom the bourgeois public (though still able itself to play a little the whole history of the piano) delegat ed its playing, then that of the (passive) amateur, who listens to music without being able to play (the gramophone takes the place of the piano). (Barthes 1977, p. 163) We muster cognise that Barthes is writing from a French point of view and that his critique of the piano recital as bourgeois is not necessarily relevant to our discussion of the piano recital as an event instructive for an analysis of the nature of musical communication, although it does give some behavioural insights of the social roles of the performer and the audience at a cultural event, despite its over-politicisation of the framework within communication occurs. There is something more peculiar about Barthes role in the study of culture, namely that whenever a term is difficult to define, translators forget their native English tongue, as in this example, again discussing the piano: The melody succumbed to its salon image, this being a little the ridiculous form of its class origin. Mass go od music (records, radio) has left it behind, preferring either the more pathetic orchestra (success of Mahler) or less bourgeois instruments than the piano (harpsichord, trumpet). (Barthes 1977, p. 187) This is not biased criticism: the death of the French language is acknowledged by Barthes himself, therefore it seems right for us to acknowledge his language together with his semiotics as being nothing more than an exercise in textual ambiguity and irony. (Barthes 1977, pp. 187 188) The melody is not significant for the history of the piano recital and is perhaps more relevant to another form of musical communication, such as the voice, however. From Barthes we do have one definable framework within which musical communication takes place: the political. What Barthes shows is that the nature of music is to some degree governed by the environment in which it takes place, namely the background and political situations of the participants, who in the case of the piano rec ital are, according to Barthes, middle class. As a descriptive fact, the piano player and the passive audience will behave according to certain middle class conventions or thought or feeling, though what such middle class behaviour might be is not discussed by Barthes, who confines himself to semiological vagueness. How is culture to be evaluated ? According to its origin? Bourgeois. Its finality? Bourgeois again. According to dialectics? Although bourgeois, this does contain progressive elements; every one of them bourgeoisified. There are some who finally prefer to give up the problem, to dismiss all culture. (Barthes1977, p. 211). If piano recitals are to be dismissed as culture, then we would be obliged to reject Barthesian discourse as overly polemicized, concerned overly with the political and insufficiently with the communicative, because the music of the piano is not bourgeois. Far from it, as Schumann argued, the piano is an instrument through which thoug ht, feeling and behaviour can be transmitted; and although Schumann was not completely apolitical, his compositions must be musical first and foremost. Musical events such as a piano recital have a specific format. Firstly the audience is seated in front of stage upon which there is a piano. The stage marks the boundary between the active musician and the listeners, who with their programmes know the pieces that will be played, before the recital starts. Secondly, the pieces (whether they are by Schumann or another composer) are performed. Finally, the passive element joins the active element during applause, concluding the event. Musical communication can take the form of quoting ideas from previous musical compositions in new ones. Schumann borrowed from Beethoven, Clara Wieck, and other composers. For the cultural event that is the piano recital, this is the nature of musical communication, because it is history and allows us to place Schumann, or other composers of p iano music, in historical context. Continuing with the example of Robert Schumann, we can say that Schumann borrowed from Beethoven because he came afterwards. Schumann built upon the musical framework left behind by Beethoven in the piano recitals Schumann attended, so much so that he could incorporate Beethovenian thoughts, feelings and behaviour into his own compositions. Amore prosaic framework of musical communication is the biographical context of Robert Schumanns life. Schumann was born in 1810 and died at the age of 46, in1856. He was a major figure in German musical romanticism, amongst the leading composers of his day, whose communications are highly regarded. The descriptive term of the time was Neu-Romantisch, or Neo-Romantic, the earlier Romanticism being associated with composers of Beethovens period. We should not try to define the meanings of feeling, thought or behaviour within a discussion of German Romanticism. The movement is its own framework, with Schum ann at its editorial front, writing for the Davids bà ¼ndler. Piano music is its own form of musical communication. The music played at a recital is not only a communication from the composer to the audience; it is also a communication of the ideas behind the music, such as in Schumanns case from Beethoven, to the audience. An educated audience will be able to hear these audible messages. The programme notes may even identify an idea to the audience explicitly, for instance in a performance of Carnaval, where the final section is March of the Davids bà ¼ndler against the Philistines. Similarly there is a quotation of a musical theme, also in Carnaval, called Papillons. (Jensen 2001, p. 83) The mood of the piece Carnaval is quixotic, a description that may also be used of Schumanns nature, because he loved to incorporate cryptic communication within his compositions. For instance, Schumann received the idea for the musical mottos that serve as the basis of Carnaval from the name of the home town, Asch, of a female correspondent. (Jensen 2001, p. 119) There are three combinations of Asch possible, in musical notation: S, C, H, A; AS,C, H; A, S, C, H. All but two of the twenty-one compositions that make up Carnaval use the latter two, which from the German musical system transcribe to the notes A flat, C, B, or A, E flat, C, B. Schumann decided to call the mottos Sphinxes. (Jensen 2001, p. 150) Each of the pieces comprises a musical representation of a masked ball during carnival season. Jensen describes Schumanns behaviour laconically and contradictorily: It says much about Schumanns naivete that he was convinced the sphinxes in themselves would create something of a sensation and sales of the work as if there were widespread interest in such musical games. But for much of his life Schumann was fascinated by puzzles and ciphers, particularly if they could be applied to music. His interest in ciphers was one that was common to not a fe w writers andarti1sts associated with German Romanticism; Friedrich Schlegel, for example, described art as inner hieroglyphic writing. (Jensen 2001, p. 151, citing Dieckmann 1955, p. 311) We should recognise this relationship between codified musical communication and German Romanticism. It was shared by other writers: Schumanns interest in cipher, number symbolism, and musical/word puzzles is frequently encountered in his writings. [] Such an approach permitted him to add both mystery and extra musical significance to his works. [] An entire section of Aesthetics is devoted to the creation of secrets and hidden identities, all for the delight of the unravelling of little knots for the reader. (Jensen 2001,pp. 152 153, citing Richter 1973, p. 195) In conclusion, a framework of communication, we have shown, can be semiological, cryptic and political. Barthes semiological analysis of a piano recital tends towards the political, with his disdain for the bourgeoi s influencing his dislike of the politics of those attending piano recitals. If Schumann is played at a piano recital, there are semiological frameworks of musical communication derived from Schumanns interest in musical code. What is certain is that the historical context for each, the composer and the cultural analyst equally, is of paramount importance Without musical communication with Beethoven, Schubert would not have composed vastly different piano pieces, not to mention the pieces he composed for other instruments; and without a French social milieu Barthes might have had more tolerance for the piano recital as an excellent cultural event through which to investigate the nature of musical communication. As an event, the piano recital will generate a flood of memories for the active player and the passive audience, whose mood will be affected by the communication of thought, feeling and behaviour of the composer and by the music. Therefore historical is probably the bes t discussion of the specific type of cultural event that is the piano recital, because the music is historical, as is the event, and the environment. Don’t waste time! 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Annotated Bibliography On Gsm Systems - 795 Words

5. GSM MODULE A. Introduction This is a plug and play GSM Modem with a simple to serial interface. It is use for sending SMS, Calling (Answer and decline calls), and other GSM operations that are controlled by simple AT commands from micro controllers and computers. Highly popular SIM300 module is used for all operations. It comes with a standard RS232 interface for easy interface of modem to micro controllers and computers. The modem consists of external circuitry like the power regulation, external antenna, SIM Holder, etc.. needed for experimenting with the SIM300 module. B. Features †¢ Uses most popular SIM300 GSM module . †¢ Provided with Standard serial RS-232 interface for easy connection with computers and other devices . †¢ Provided with Serial TTL interface for easy and direct interface to microcontrollers. †¢ Power on/off control, RING and Network LEDs for easy debugging. †¢ On-board 3V Lithium Battery holder with appropriate circuitry for providing backup for the modules’ internal RTC. †¢ Used for GSM based Voice communications, Data/Fax, SMS,GPRS and TCP/IP stack . †¢ For controlling Standard AT commands can be used . †¢ Provided with On-board wire antenna for better reception. †¢ External antenna can also be added through an SMA connector. †¢ Adjustable serial baud rate from 1200 to 115200 bps and 9600 bps by default is allowed. †¢ Less power consumption of 0.25A during normal operations and around 1A during transmission. Operating Voltage: 7 – 15VShow MoreRelatedManaging and Organizing for Innovation in Service Firms a Literature Review with Annotated Bibliography30787 Words   |  124 Pagesfirms A literature review with annotated bibliography annika schilling andreas Werr stockholm school of economics Title: Managing and Organizing for Innovation in Service Firms. A literature review with annotated bibliography Author: Annika Schilling Andreas Werr - Stockholm School of Economics Series: VINNOVA Report VR 2009:06 ISBN: 978-91-85959-47-1 ISSN: 1650-3104 Published: Februari 2009 Publisher: VINNOVA - Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems / Verket fà ¶r Innovationssystem

Centre of Arts Essay Example For Students

Centre of Arts Essay Analysis Company Analysis The goal for The Center of Arts is to provide a hands-on experience for Brock students, high school students, and community users as an educational and cultural resource. It also has a goal of successfully attracting thousands Of visitors annually to Brock university. While at The Center of Arts, it focuses on stimulating the cultural interest in the arts Within the Niagara Region through its live performances and professional entertainment. One of the centers strengths is that it has been successful in attracting thousands Of visitors annually to Brock University. An abundant social network of loyal customers brings with it a strong market. As a result the Center, receives reduced artistic fees because of volume booking. The weakness for the center is that of those loyal customers, not all of them buy tickets in advance. Ticket sales are disappointingly low for the first performance, Halo. Customer Analysis The decision process in this particular case is to make a decision on what alternatives to choose about the ticket sales, discounts, and giveaways. A decision and/or solution to the reaction of how prepaid customers tee about the given alternatives are also the topic of discussions. While we could offer discounts to Gold and Platinum members who did not purchased tickets, complaints and dissatisfaction with members who already booked and prepaid is an issue. In todays sociably there are issues with every alternative you try. IV. Selected Marketing Strategy The strategy was selected because it appeals to an extensive range of target markets or The descriptive and vivid brochure attracts readers attention through an excellent Distribution channel. This major promotional item for The Centre of Arts, Halo in particular, is a visual brochure which makes appealing to the distribution channels. These channels include the enters Gold and Platinum members, the centers database, internal mail, local hotels, libraries, and is continuously being distributed at the box office throughout the performing season. Direct mail is also a contributor through one of the channels which allow the marketing strategy to grab the attention of all audiences in the target markets. This strategy is also aimed at inclusive and well established distributors who Will enjoy spreading word-of-mouth to colleagues, or acquaintances. An enthusiastic entertaining experience would greatly be motivation to spread word-of-mouth. The location of this theatrical reference, Halo and many more takes place at Brock university. The university allows a seating of 538 people to attend these cultural performances. Market Development occurs in the days before Halo is to be performed through alternatives and options to fill the seats, The alternative is to give free tickets to volunteers or people who recently made some contribution to Brock University community.

Sometimes you have to dance with the devil to get out of hell. free essay sample

I stood in front of the mirror yet again. Slowly applying the skin colored concealer over the purple circle surrounding my eye. I wondered if I could hide it to avoid the questions, to protect my boyfriend, the predator. I had spent all of seventh grade chasing my crush. He was the first boy I swore to be in love with. The only person I would do anything for. I wanted him with a passion. I thought about him night and day. I started conversations about him. I even planned my routes in between classes, just to get a passing glance at him. My whole life revolved around him, and to put a grin on your face, yes I did get the man I wanted; I was his first girlfriend, first kiss, and first time. Yes, that would be the perfect fairy tale story, if that was what this was about, but no, this is not about the butterflies I felt when we were together or about how we magically fell in love. We will write a custom essay sample on Sometimes you have to dance with the devil to get out of hell. or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This is about how I was his first, first victim. I will never forget the first time. The first time a hand was laid on me with force. A hand whose job was to cause pain, and create harm. The first time my boyfriend, who I loved and gave everything to, hit me. It was another ordinary day at Bleyl middle school. I had met up with Chris in between classes, wrote him notes during, and ate lunch with him. We were the known couple. Everyone knew of our love. It was â€Å"Us† â€Å"them† or â€Å"we†. This particular day it was time to leave seventh period. I was of course the first to cross the threshold leaving the class. I rushed to our meeting spot as always. As I turn the corner I was shocked to see him there first. A wide grin swept across my face. It left as fast as it had appeared when Chris took my hand into his and lead me towards the gym without a spoken word. â€Å"Where are we going babe?† only silence filled the air as he kept leading me. â€Å"Is something wrong?† we descended the stairs leading into the gym. He kept walking, pulling us behind the bleachers. I was excited to be alone, yet worried, as he still remained silent. I was standing back against the wall. Suddenly I was aware of his weight slowly adding onto mine. Once more I called out. â€Å"Babe†¦Ã¢â‚¬  I was answered. â€Å"Did you think I wouldn’t find out, that word didn’t get around?† I was silent unsure of his words meaning. â€Å"I know you kissed him.† Shocked I stood still, racking my brain for anything that made sense. I had no idea what he meant. â€Å"Kissed who? You’re the only one I kiss.† â€Å"You can’t lie anymore, I know the truth.† His eyes suddenly lost the light brown hue I loved; darkness seemed to take over. I was suddenly aware of the rustle of shoes from those rushing to class. I could hear the minute hand moving on the clock above. We were out of sight and alone. Then I felt the stinging. My cheek was fiery hot. All I saw was the slowing of Chris’s hand after it made contact with my face. I watched as his face again became familiar. The features of my lover returned. The pain began to subside and Chris grew frantic muttering words that ran over each other trying to get them out. Then I heard â€Å"It will never happen again.† Somehow I ended up in my next class on time, trying to calculate how all that happened in five minutes. As time bore on we didn’t mention it, like an unspoken agreement. Yet the knowledge of the memory remained. We continued our routine, seeing each other every chance we got, but our routine took a powerful spice. He became my punisher, judging my wrong doings and providing a sentencing. He had choked me, bruised, crashed, and on a special occasion dragged me across a field by my hair. I had grown accustom to it, it happened everyday for two years. Chris never missed a chance, weather it be at school, my house, or his. The pain was unreal but I believed it was a trade-off. A mere opportunity cost for love. I was no longer an individual. I was one of sixty percent of women who have been abused in a relationship. Forty percent of women have reported being in an abusive relationship, while twenty four percent have never reported their ab use. As quoted from National Resource Center on Domestic Violence. Love binds many things. Love bound me into torture. I never left chris. One day he just never showed up and I learned he transferred schools. His Number was changed and he left to live with his dad. The last time I saw him was when he walked away and I laid sprawled across the floor unable to move. I may have never left him. I wouldn’t have gotten out. Who knows if I would had died or suffered my entire life. There are a millon what ifs, but I do know I survived. I survived and was molded into who I am today. I am a headstrong, driven, indepent women. I can not claim I am no lnger a statistic because I am. I’m one of ninety percent of survivors. I know the importance of life. To cheerish freedom and my opportunities. I know to put my needs first, but I know how to do this while being a team player. This experience did not ruin me, it molded me into one hell of a strong human being. I do not want people s pitty. I want the opportunity to make something of myself, to share my knowledge. I am who I am today because I can get through anything. I still stand in front of my mirror. No longer to hide my bruises, but to show my scars. I have tattooed a purple ribbion in my skin. A symbol of domestic abuse survivor. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I am strong.

Richord Cory Essays - Richard Cory, Cory, Nirvana, Kurt Cobain

Richord Cory The lifestyle of fame and fortune is not always what it seems to be. It may seem that the big houses, the fancy cars, or even the men or women that seem unattainable lead to happiness. That is not always true though. In 1994, Kurt Cobain the lead singer of a popular band called Nirvana committed suicide. Kurt was on the top of the world and nothing was going to bring him down. He had money, fame, and even a loving family, but he still found a reason to kill himself. In Edwin Arlington Robinsons poem Richard Cory the some exact thing happened. All the towns people liked Richard Cory, he was well educated, a perfect gentleman when he talked to people, and he was extremely rich. Just because a person has better things than we do does not mean that they are always happier. Money and possessions does not give people happiness in their life, but it does give them misery and sadness. Richard Cory was well liked by the towns people not only because he was rich and smart, but also he was a gentleman from sole to crown, clean favored, and imperially slim (1. 3-4). Whenever Richard Cory went somewhere the people around him felt his presence. He was always nicely English Essays

French Compound Tenses and Moods

French Compound Tenses and Moods Conjugations for the different French verb tenses and moods can be divided into two categories: simple and compound. Simple tenses and moods have only one part (e.g., je vais) whereas compound tenses and moods have two (je suis allà ©). This lesson will explain everything you need to know about the more complicated compound conjugations.But first, a chart: the simple tense or mood on the left is used to conjugate the auxiliary verb for the compound tense or mood on the right, as demonstrated with the verb avoir (to have). Simple Compound Present tu as (you have) Pass compos tu as eu (you have had) Imperfect tu avais (you were having) Pluperfect tu avais eu (you had had) Pass simple tu eus (you had) Past anterior tu eus eu (you had had) Future tu auras (you will have) Future perfect tu auras eu (you will have had) Conditional tu aurais (you would have) Conditional perfect tu aurais eu (you would have had) Subjunctive tu aies (you have) Past subjunctive tu aies eu (you had) Imperfect subjunctive tu eusses (you were having) Pluperfect subjunctive tu eusses eu (you had had) Imperative (tu) aie ([you] have) Past imperative (tu) aie eu ([you] have had) Present participle ayant (having) Perfect participle ayant eu (having had) Infinitive avoir (to have) Past infinitive avoir eu (to have had) Please note that I have provided (English translations) to give you an idea about the differences in meaning, but there may be other possibilities. For detailed information about each tense and mood, click the links to read the lesson. You might also find this lesson helpful:  Translating French verbs into English. See other  French verbs  conjugated into all the tenses and moods: Simple Compound aller aller avoir avoir tre tre prendre prendre There are four things you need to know about French compound tenses and moods in order to conjugate and use them correctly. 1. Two-part conjugations Compound tenses/moods are always made up of two parts: the conjugated  auxiliary verb  (either  avoir  or  Ãƒ ªtre) and the  past participle. French verbs are classified by their auxiliary verb, and use it for all compound moods/tenses. That is,  avoir  verbs use  avoir  in all of the compound tenses/moods, and  Ãƒ ªtre  verbs use  Ãƒ ªtre  in all the compound tenses/moods.In the chart on page 1, the tense/mood in the first column is the conjugation used for the auxiliary verb of the compound tense/mood listed in the second column.For example,  aller  is an  Ãƒ ªtre  verb. So the present tense of  Ãƒ ªtre,  Il est, is the conjugation used for the passà © composà © of  aller:  Il est allà ©Ã‚  (He went).Manger  is an  avoir  verb. The future of  avoir,  Nous aurons, is the conjugation for the future perfect,  Nous aurons mangà ©Ã‚  (We will have eaten).   2. Agreement There are two different types of agreement with compound tenses and moods, depending on whether youre dealing with  Ãƒ ªtre  verbs or  avoir  verbs.Être verbs:  In all compound tenses/moods, the past participle of  Ãƒ ªtre  verbs  has to agree with the subject of the sentence in gender and number.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il est allà ©.  Ã‚  Ã‚  He went.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Elle à ©tait allà ©e.  Ã‚  Ã‚  She had gone.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ils seront allà ©s.  Ã‚  Ã‚  They will have gone.  Ã‚  Ã‚  ...quelles soient allà ©es.  Ã‚  Ã‚  ...that they went.Avoir verbs:  The past participle of  avoir  verbs that are  preceded by a  direct object  must agree with the direct object*  Ã‚  Ã‚  Les livres que tu as commandà ©s sont ici.  Ã‚  Ã‚  The books that you ordered are here.  Ã‚  Ã‚  La pomme ? Je laurai mangà ©e.  Ã‚  Ã‚  The apple? I will have eaten it.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Mes sÅ“urs... vous les aviez vues ?  Ã‚  Ã‚  My sisters... had you seen them?*Except for  ve rbs of perception  and the  causative.When the  direct object follows  the  avoir  verb, there is no agreement.  Ã‚  Ã‚  As-tu commandà © des livres  ?  Ã‚  Ã‚  Did you order some books?  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jaurai mangà © la pomme.  Ã‚  Ã‚  I will have eaten the apple.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Aviez-vous vu mes sÅ“urs ?  Ã‚  Ã‚  Had you seen my sisters?There is  no agreement with  indirect objects.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Je leur ai parlà ©.  Ã‚  Ã‚  I talked to them.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il nous a tà ©là ©phonà ©.  Ã‚  Ã‚  He called us.Learn more about agreement   3. Word order: Pronouns Object, reflexive, and adverbial pronouns  always precede the auxiliary verb in compound tenses/moods:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Je te lai donnà ©.  Ã‚  Ã‚  I gave it to you.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il lavait fait.  Ã‚  Ã‚  He had done it.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Nous y serons allà ©s.  Ã‚  Ã‚  We will have gone there.   4. Word order: Negation Negative structures  almost always surround the auxiliary verb**   Ã‚  Ã‚  Je nai pas à ©tudià ©.  Ã‚  Ã‚  I didnt study.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Nous naurions jamais su.  Ã‚  Ã‚  We would have never known.**Exceptions:  Ã‚  Ã‚  a)  In the  past infinitive, both parts of the negation precede the auxiliary verb:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jespà ¨re ne pas avoir perdu.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I hope I didnt lose.  Ã‚  Ã‚  b)  Personne,  aucun, and  nulle part  follow the past participle:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Je nai vu personne.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I didnt see anyone.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Je ne lai trouvà © nulle part.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I couldnt find it anywhere.   34. Word order with pronouns and negation When the sentence includes a pronoun and negation, the pronoun is placed in front of the auxiliary verb, and then the negative structure surrounds that pair:Subject   ne   pronoun(s) auxiliary verb negative word past participle.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Nous ny serions jamais allà ©s.  Ã‚  Ã‚  We would never have gone there.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Je ne te lai pas donnà ©.  Ã‚  Ã‚  I didnt give it to you.For detailed information about the conjugations and uses of the individual compound tenses/moods, follow the links in the summary table on page 1. Other two-verb constructions In addition to compound conjugations (auxiliary verb past participle), French has other two-verb forms, what I call dual-verb constructions. These consist of a semi-auxiliary verb plus an infinitive, and the rules regarding agreement and word order are somewhat different -  learn more. For more information about how all the different French tenses and moods fit together, take a look at our  French verb timeline.

Enterprise Resource Planning- Business Process Reengineering Essay

Enterprise Resource Planning- Business Process Reengineering - Essay Example Organizational goals and the ability to meet them are vital and can be made possible only when the collective force of the employees are aligned to the goals of the organization. Businesses have found that the key to successfully completing and accomplishing projects is often through the development of teams. No employee functions by himself. Teams are an imperative part of an organization and therefore teamwork on part of the workforce becomes essential. Teamwork has become an essential element for the success and survival of a business. The team manager is often entrusted with the responsibility of delivering results on behalf of the team and it is therefore no surprise that organisation look for teamwork as an important skill when recruiting MBA's. A productive team has players that share common goals, a common vision and have some level of interdependence that requires both verbal and physical interaction. They may come together for a number of different reasons, to achieve a sales target, to formulate a marketing campaign or brainstorm ideas for a new product etc. Their goals are united by the single cause of achieving the optimum performance and experience success. The destination may vary, but the means by which one gets there is the same - teamwork. Teamwork makes every individual accountable for the result. ... yles come together, their point of view of a particular issue is varied, making it more interesting and encompassing and gives a wider and deeper perspective to the issue at hand. It entails better decision making amongst the group. While teamwork promotes the ability to respect another person's opinion, it also builds the capability to counter it constructively when it may not be exactly compatible with the rest of the team. True collaboration, however, is more difficult to achieve. This is because although the team performs exceedingly well, there will always be certain members of the team who portray themselves as major contributors to get a greater share of the credit. Each individual is swayed by the fact that in real life, individuality is rewarded more often than team participation. All appraisals and raises are tailored more towards individual performances rather than teams. Hence, this sets up a competitive streak in the employees. It must be accepted that some competition among employees is helpful because it keeps workers interested in their jobs. It also motivates them to work a little bit harder than their coworkers, and induces their performance towards excelling. It is not without troubles when it reaches severely elevated levels. It is often hard to sit back and watch someone else take the credit. When a job or promotion is at stake, competition may reach unacceptable levels in the workplace. With the highly competitive culture being prevalent in the current day scenario, employees are often moved into the competing mode naturally. Competitiveness among employees largely is promoted by the organization culture. Managers may pitch employees against each other and challenge their coworkers just to get that extra work out of them. Showing employee

Book Review on 'The Modern Firm' Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Book Review on 'The Modern Firm' - Essay Example Thus, these insights can be more readily applied to any developing business firm to achieve the desired level of success. According to the Economist, The Modern Firm is the "..best business book of the year...deserves to be a classic...Nobody, it can now be said, is fully fit to run a modern firm until they have read "The Modern Firm. " (The Economist, 16th December, 2004). Times also agrees with Economist calling the book â€Å"interesting† that is not so in many business literatures. Objective The book’s objective is to explicate some of the core concepts in organizational economics in a language accessible also for the lay people (Fredrick Tell, November 2006). The Wave of Change In this book a strong conceptual framework has been developed to analyze the interrelation between business environment, competitive strategy and organizational design features. According to Fredrick Tell, the essential problem that Roberts discusses is how features of strategy and organizat ion can be modified by a â€Å"designer† so as to achieve higher level of performance in relation to the firm’s context. Industries from all the corners of the globe are introducing new and modern designs for their organizations. They are going in for better and innovative architecture. They are changing their processes and routines. Thus, we find that the total corporate culture is undergoing a dramatic transformation in a bid to maximize their profit. However, all these changes are contributing towards a great upheaval that promises to reconstruct the entire organization. Hence, we can see that the values and beliefs of any organization are greatly transformed with the passage of time. The changes do not stop at the infrastructure level but move on to the power making authorities too. Hence, newer governing bodies are being formed within the organizations that affect the overall decision taking authority. The organizational charts are being redrawn while the manpower is shrunk and made as diverse as possible. Outsourcing is also coming up as a cost effective and simple solution that solves much of the productivity problems. The mechanism to reward and motivate people is being revamped. The information system is also being redesigned to include latest technologies. Hence, the entire organization is suffering a facelift to present the business in a healthier and better way. Compulsory Changes John Robert argues in favor of these changes as he says that they are compulsory for the growth of the industries. He says that these changes would affect the organization in a better way and accelerate the companies’ performance and growth. However, the writer cautions that the change should not be done to the cost of the basic profit formula. The industries that are already successful and showing great monetary returns should continue to embrace that winning formula while affecting the required overall change. The Determinants of Performance Accordi ng to the writer, the performance has three determinants- Strategy, Organization and Environment. Strategy: What merchandise is suitable for which market? Organization: It consists of a collection of workers and the way they are grouped. Environment: Customers, competitors, technology, regulatory and regal context, various social, demographic and political features, and so on. When all three determinants work in accordance with each other then the performance level is maximized that result in a greater level of achievement. PARC PARC is Roberts’

Oil Drilling and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Essay

Oil Drilling and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - Essay Example al Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Updated Assessment, states that the coastal plain region harboring the 1.5 million-acre 1002 Area is "the largest unexplored, potential productive onshore basin in the United States." The oil industry has long argued in favor of the drilling for oil in the ANWR, but the idea was unpopular for decades among many members of the public and the U.S. government and no drilling was permitted. (Botkin and Keller, 2003) Analysis of Benefits and Costs As with all industrial developments especially in oil projects, issues actually revolve on just two opposing forces: environmental and social impacts. We are aware that ecological importance has become a major issue that must be included in our ventures due to the fact that we can not tolerate pollution anymore. However, most job generating and welfare increasing measures are only possible with the introduction of business that may have environmental repercussions. This dilemma is further highlighted by the ANWR issue. In this section, we take a look at the arguments in favor and not in favor of drilling in the ANWR. Arguments in Favor of Drilling a) The United States need s the oil and it will help us to be more independent on imported oil In the introduction, it was mentioned that oil prices rose dramatically in the United States due to problems in supply and legislation. However, this was actually just the fourth oil shock since 1973. The first one occurred when the Arab oil embargo of 1973-1974 occurred. Arab oil producing countries cut back productions and imposed an oil embargo on shipments forcing Americans to wait in lines to receive limited amounts of gasoline. Prices of oil more than doubled. The second occurred in 1978 with the overthrow of the Shah of Iran which... After having known both sides of a coin, we are now in a position to state our recommendation. In many industrial issues, a point where both sides supposedly found equal footing has been made. Suffice it to say, the developments pushed thru. In this study, however, we cannot find such point because in the developments where they were able to find one, immediate and long term environmental degradation became prominent. For sure, developments will bring about wealth and increased economic activity and we certainly do not want our country to be dictated by other countries. However, hard science and numerous experiences have proven that the development can negatively affect the wilderness as what had happened to Prudhoe Bay. Once development starts, there will be no stopping companies and those who benefits from it from finding a way to skip all those legal limitations. The development is actually a black hole problem where development results to further developments which results to fur ther expansion and so on and so forth. Congress voted not to drill in 2002. I agree with them. It is not that I do not want Alaskans to prosper. It is because there are technologies available already which are cleaner and greener. Alternative energy sources such as solar, geothermal and wind power are proving themselves to be business friendly and sufficient for customer demand.

Malaysian Pharmaceutical Retail Industry Objective

Malaysian Pharmaceutical Retail Industry Objective The report aims to provide an overview retail pharmacy industry and evaluate factors that propel and restrain the market, government policies, sales trends, potential growth and market outlook. Challenges related to the pharmaceutical retail sector will be outlined and assessed, and insights into marketing plans being deployed to tap into available market opportunities in Malaysia will also be discussed. Malaysias retail pharmacy : an overview Malaysia comes in at fifth in healthcare expenditure when compared to select Asian nations, and is growing at approximately 13% annually (Frost Sullivan 2008). The total national expenditure on healthcare in 2009 exceeded USD 7 billion, and is projected to surpass USD 10 billion by 2020. Retail pharmacy sector presently however contributes only to 17% of the total expenditure only due to restrictions pertaining to government policies, profession workforce, and population perception. The retail pharmacy sector traditionally can be described using organization size and product/service mix criteria. Sole units are comprised primarily of independent pharmacies, usually owned by pharmacists. Multiple-unit pharmacy organizations, or chains, can be divided into small chain and large chain (e.g. 30 or more units). In addition to organization size, the retail pharmacy sector can be characterized by the product/service mix of the organizations, though there is some blurring of this distinction. Some traditional categories include, supermarket (e.g. AEON), and, beauty and healthcare stores (e.g. Guardian, Watsons). Pure drug store is virtually non-existent in the Malaysian retail pharmacy sector as a result of no dispensing separation between the pharmacists and medical practitioners whereby pharmaceutical products can be sold and dispensed by medical practitioners as well. Consequently, this policy, have and still negatively impacting the pharmacy profession practice and retail viability of pure drug store in Malaysia. Therefore, current retail pharmacies generally offer both pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical product/services to maintain viable in Malaysian market. The major participants in the Malaysian retail pharmacy scene are multinational corporations such as GCH Retail (M) Sdn Bhd and Watsons Personal Care Store, local companies such as Caring Pharmacy and Trustz Pharmacy, and a plethora of small independently operated pharmacies. In 2009, the multinationals, GCHs Guardian and Watsons collectively dominated 54% of the total market share whilst 46% was divided among local retail pharmacies as shown above (Euromonitor 2010). Generally experienced in dealing with large industries, these multinational corporations compared to the domestic counterparts, have the experties in handling processing, packaging, logistics, inventory management etc. In addition, they have the advantages of economies of scale, retailing of in-house brand, increase in market profit and share, and wider discount parameter for retail healthcare products. chapter 1 External and internal factors influencing retailers marketing strategies In this bearish economy, retailing in Malaysia recorded a downtempo in current value growth (CVG) in 2009 compared to previous year but still at a positive pace (Euromonitor 2010). GDP forecast was reevaluated in May 2009 from 4% to 5% decline for 2009 in light of deteriorating international economic outlook (Euromonitor 2010). While consumer confidence dwindled, discretionary spending was reduced but appeared willing to spend a little bit more during promotional period or turned to cheaper alternatives such as mid-priced/economical in-house brands or generic medications. With ongoing urbanization trend, higher education levels and better living standards generated greater enthusiasm among post recession shopperconsumers regarding self-medication. This further strengthened the importance of retail pharmacies as consumers were able to acquire OTC healthcare, nutritional products and prescription drugs from retail pharmacies. Overall trend of the retail pharmacy sector is gearing towards the sales of generics and OTCs in times of recession. Price of generics are generally lower, 27%-90%, compared to branded/innovator products (Shafie Hassali 2008). Therefore a more cost friendlier option for consumers whilst profit margins of generics are higher than branded/innovator products, which is favorable to retailers a win-win solution. However, sales of non-prescription products such as OTCs, TCMs, vitamins and supplements are still the main contributor to the retail pharmacys revenue at 79%. These products similarly are seeing growth in sales fueled by gains in cough, cold and allergy remedies, amid global slowdown since 2008. Having said so, retailers still employ different marketing strategies to distinguish themselves from existing competitors and attempt to reposition themselves as market leaders some successful while some struggled. Strategies pertaining to each of the different type of organizations will be further discussed as follow: Strategies employed by multinational corporation The multinationals (i.e Guardian, Watsons) have taken a broad spectrum approach by attempting to diversify from traditional dispensing services common to the concept of a pharmacy, into other other market segments regarding to general healthcare and beauty solution to penetrate into wider consumer segments during the time of recession. The retailers responded by engaging in regular promotions and extended sales period to encourage spending and offering a combination of both pharmaceutical services with beauty care. Rapid expansion strategies undertaken by leading chained retailers resulted in a substantial escalation in the chained store numbers in the nation. 2009 saw a slight improvement in the average selling space per outlet of beauty and health specialist retailers. More retailers began opening stores in shopping malls which were larger than their standalone establishments. Most beauty and health specialist retailers launch their retail chains in Klang Valley. This is largely due to greater purchasing power among urban consumers. Nonetheless, more beauty and health specialist retailers are expanding outside Klang Valley in order to serve the rising population and growing purchasing power of consumers in East Malaysia and secondary states. Launching of budget in-house brand is to cover a wider range of consumer segment. Guardian: target market, product and services, promotion GCH Retail (M) Sdn Bhd is a wholly-owned subsidiary of a Hong Kong based Dairy Farm International Holdings Ltd, listed on the Hang Seng Stock Exchange. Dairy Farm International Holdings Ltd is 78% owned by the Jardine Matheson Group, which is listed on the FTSE Stock Exchange in addition to secondary listings on the Singapore Straits and Bermuda Stock Exchanges (Euromonitor 2010). In Malaysia, the company is involved in the operation of Guardian pharmacy, Cold Storage supermarket and Giant hypermarket outlets. In 2009, as a result of its aggressive outlet expansion, with 20 new Guardian outlets, and proactive promotion including daily specials boosted the companys pharmaceutical market share to 35% Figure 2.0, occupying the largest cut of the retail pharmacy market segment. GCH Retails Guardian brand is leading the pack because the retail format is gradually becoming popular in Malaysia. For instance, Guardian spearheaded the concept of modern retail pharmacy by providing professional consultation and service by registered pharmacists, plus holistic health and personal care solution. GCH Retails in-house brand offers quality products at affordable prices because the companys in-house products are manufactured and sourced locally. Moreover, the company, targeting all consumer segment, from low to high income earners, was very aggressive in promoting its home brand products in terms of advertising and promotions, while also developing its product ranges. For instance, Guardian dedicated half a page or full-page advertisements in their in-store brochures or leaflets for their in-house brand products. GCH Retails share of in-house brand products has been growing steadily largely due to developing brand recognition as well as the wider range of items available. In response to the Malaysian governments support initiatives designed to spur small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia, it is expected that the company will continue to source new products for its in-house brand lines. External and internal factors analysis External Internal Threats Economic slowdown Decentralized marketing function: inconsistent brand image Weaknesses Retracted consumer spending Increased rivalry between competitors Opportunities Import/Export: Malaysian Ringgit vs Hong Kong Dollar Good management: able to respond to market change Strength Change in consumers spending pattern Both external and internal factors influence how the company decides to operate. The external factors will be the same for all the market players. Watsons personal care store: target market, product and services, promotion Watsons Personal Care Stores (WPCS) is a subsidiary of the AS Watson Group which is wholly owned by the Hong Kong based Hutchison Whampoa Ltd listed on the Hang Seng Stock Exchange main board and has been in Malaysia since 1994. Being the largest beauty and health retail chain in Asia, in Malaysia, with 211 outlets nationwide following the successful merger and acquisition of Apex Pharmacy Sdn Bhd in Jun 2005, WPCS is one of the most accomplished personal care chain stores (Euromonitor 2010). In 2009, albeit with pharmaceutical value share of 19% Figure 2.0, due to increasing number of beauty and health specialist retailers, WPCS remained the largest community pharmacy retail chain in Malaysia. Having said so, continuous marketing efforts and promotions such as television advertisements, complimentary beauty and health information to consumers, and storewide 20% discount campaign, helped restrain its fall in value share. WPCS offers competitively priced and quality in-house brand products. Its in-house brand lines consist of a larger proportion of cosmetics and toiletries, disposable paper products, OTC healthcare products, bottled water and electrical items, is mainly designed for mass consumers, especially the budget end of the market. The company has been very active in pushing its in-house brand. For example, it has dedicated more shelf space in-store for its inhouse brand items. Coupled with growing brand recognition, as well as a wider range of products, the companys share of in-house brand has grown steadily. External and internal factors analysis External Internal Threats Economic slowdown Over expansion resulting in dissipated consumer services Weaknesses Retracted consumer spending Increased rivalry between competitors Opportunities Import/Export: Malaysian Ringgit vs Hong Kong Dollar Extensive outlet coverage nationwide Strength Change in consumers spending pattern Strategies employed by smaller pharmacy Marketing model of smaller pharmacies focus on establishing good rapport with its customer base and to provide individually customized pharmaceutical services for their clients to cater on the needs of selected consumer segments. The smaller retailers responded by provided extended hour services for the convenience of consumers after working hours access to pharmaceutical items and advice. Loyalty marketing is introduced to maintain or expand their customer base in light of even more competitive environment. A loyalty program may be specific to an individual retailer, or an independent coalition scheme involving a few partners. The latter model is gaining popularity in Malaysia and is established in Europe, Australia and Canada. Specialized services exclusive to pharmacy such as pre-packed dosettes medications to ensure better compliance to medicine, insulin dose adjustments for uncontrolled diabetes management and methadone replacement therapy for heroin dependent patient, cater to unique patients segment that is gradually increasing. Caring pharmacy: target market, product and services, promotion Caring Pharmacy Sdn Bhd is a group of pharmacies under one banner collectively shares the same supply and inventory management similar to that of chain stores, however each outlets are independently owned and operated by pharmacists. Caring Group currently have 46 registered pharmacists operating 40 outlets in Klang valley. Therefore giving the Group the highest number of pharmacist to outlet ratio among retail pharmacy operators in Malaysia. With market share of 12% in 2009 Figure 2.0, Caring is emerging fast as one of the most established local community retail pharmacy. Providing extended hour services from the early hours up to midnight proved to be a potent strategy in establishing its market share as it provides time flexibility to consumers. Caring offers professional consultation by registered pharmacists on uncomplicated ailments and medication management solutions such as pre-packed medications similar to the multi dose Webster-Pak ® for the consumers convenience. The group has been actively promoting its pharmacist consultation service. For instance, public awareness talks by pharmacists on health topics such as hypertension, diabetes, weight-management etc. are frequently organized. Launched in 2006, the first pharmacy reward program as a points accumulation and gift redemption card with Malaysias premier multi-party loyalty program BonusLink, enabled Caring to establish closer contact with their regular clients. External and internal factors analysis External Internal Threats Economic slowdown Too focused on domestic/localization growth Weaknesses Retracted consumer spending Increased rivalry between competitors Opportunities Change in consumers spending pattern Good corporate core value: pharmacist service for all consumer segments Strength chapter 2 Strategic recommendation for the retail pharmacy industry The Malaysian as well as the global economy continued to see tough times in 2009. Despite an unemployment rate that was on the rise and consumer spending falling, consumers remained largely loyal to established pharmacy names when it comes to fulfilling their healthcare needs. Some consumers also switched to self-medication in times of minor ailments as a bid to go back to work for fear that they might lose their jobs in the recession. Retail pharmacies are seeing an increase in consumer sales contribution of 0.2% for 2009 against 2008. This was largely due to the expansion of outlets such as Watsons which attracted consumer interest for its one-stop shopping. In 2007, the population in Malaysia was reported to be just over 27 million which, according to United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. By 2015, its projected that Malaysias population will reach more than 30.7 million. Currently, the country has relatively young population, with nearly 60% Malaysians below the age of 30 in 2007. Regardless, the population is steadily aging, with the median age of the population increasing from 22.5 years in 1995 to 24.6 years in 2007. The aging population in Malaysia, usually earning more than their younger counterparts and are usually relatively established in terms of family and home and more aware of their health status, is expected to drive consumer healthcare expenditure. Consumer of this category is expected to drive increased demand for medical and health-related products and services, including pharmaceuticals and OTC drugs, vitamins and dietary supplements, health drinks and medical equipment. On the other hand, its projected that still over one-half of the Malaysian population will be under 30 years-old in 2015 so, while there will be some new emphasis on products for older consumers, younger consumers will remain a potent force, exercising significant purchasing power and driving continuing demand for the wide range of youth oriented products. This category of consumers are becoming more health conscious, recent survey that 80% of fast moving consumer goods shoppers now think about their health more than they did before. Hence, this will spur demand for core healthcare products and influence sales in tangential sectors such as food and beverages, and healthcare services. Offer Mix : Product portfolio adjustment and pricing tactic Product portfolio adjustment As living costs, including healthcare costs, are expected to rise, consumers will be more endeavous to try out economical in-house brand products and self-medicate, respectively. Additionally, more consumers understand the helpfulness of vitamins and dietary supplements as preventative measures against environment, diet and age-related ailments such as joint and back pain, immune systems, osteoporosis and lack of balance nutritional values. The relatively fast growth rate of consumer healthcare sales was not equally spread among in-house brand lines. It should be noted that not all categories saw higher in-house brand growth, as some were mostly dependent on growth by branded products. Within consumer healthcare, in-house brand product line is expected to grow in wound treatment products such as sticking plasters and topical germicidal/antiseptic Figure 3.0, especially in the midst of an economic slowdown and an influenza A (H1N1) outbreak, respectively. Coupled with strict registration requirements in Malaysia for all medicines, either branded or generics, in-house brand is unlikely to perform well in consumer healthcare categories such as oral analgesics, cough, cold and allergy (hay fever) remedies or digestive remedies as consumers remained largely loyal to established brands mainly because these brands are long-time trusted names that consumers find most effective or have simply grown accustomed to purchasing. However, consumers will increasingly demand convenient and effective products so as to meet their increasingly stressful and busy lifestyles. Therefore, easy to apply or easy to use products such as Nexcare Acne Patch and Gaviscon Liquid Sachets are expected to attract consumer interest, especially among the younger generation of the population. Retailers will need to expand their consumer healthcare product ranges in order to maintain competitive in the market. However, retailers should focus on producing lower-cost and in-house branded products such as topical analgesics, antipruritics, other wound treatments, vitamins and dietary supplements, that enjoy strong demand among consumers. Pricing tactic Consumers will be shopping around for the best deals. It is not necessary for retailers to cut list prices, but may offer more short termed price promotions, lower quantity threshold discounts, provide credit to long-standing customers, and more aggressively price smaller pack sizes. In tough times, price cuts attract more consumer support than promotions such as mail in offers and sweepstakes. Promotion mix : conventional advertising and online marketing Despite the growth of electronic communications, printed newsletter and television still play an important role in Malaysians daily life and their pursuit of information and entertainment. As shown in Figure 4.0, printed adspend dominated 54% followed by television adspend at 37% of the total adspend respectively for the year 2009. Major newspapers include three English-language dailies, two Malay-language dailies, five Chinese-language dailies, and two Tamil-language dailies. The Malaysian has a wide range of magazines covering lifestyle, fashion, business, and special interest topics such as fishing, motoring, health and wellness and childcare. Magazines in Malaysia are usually published on a fortnight or monthly basis and are available via subscription, at retail outlets, convenience shops and small grocery stores. The internet has had a significant impact on Malaysia over the past several years. The number of internet users grew from nearly five million users in 2000 to more than 12 million users in 2007, reflecting growth of 144%. Just as significantly, the household penetration rate of personal computers in Malaysia increased from 13.5% in 1995 to 34.7% in 2007. Tethered with such growth, online adspend recorded 72% spike growth from 2007-2009, and is expected to continue capturing readership share at the expense of printed media, in-line with household penetration rate of internet-enabled computers increases in Malaysia. Mobile advertising will be in vogue as internet handheld devices gains market penetration, particularly among the younger population. Advertising platforms such as Apples iAd is a prime example of cutting-edge mobile advertising where advertisements are not just informative but interactive as well. Advertisements of this kind, can be updated real time by retailers with short-term sales promotion similar to Malaysia Airlines Lunch-hour flight deals or provide interactive online shopping experience, will revolutionize conventional concept of promotional advertising. Hence, internet will have an impact on how retailers attempt to reach Malaysian consumers and, in a less significant but nevertheless growing way presently on how Malaysians shop. However, as in most countries, online advertising and internet retailing is expected to increase. conclusion Consumers in Malaysia are changing their healthcare shopping behavior in various ways at times of recession. While many opted for other more economical retailers, there are some who remained loyal to their preferred retailers while reducing the number of trips and spending. They are more comfortable in seeking out deals and using coupons, and will purchase both in-house brands or branded products whichever provides the best value. Definition of value is also changing. Previously, value is often perceived as quality and options, but during recession this is synonymous with price, while moving out of recession, value will mean that consumers get what they want at the best possible price. Pharmacy retailers can capitalize on consumers needs by providing increased personalized marketing and shopping experience. Consumers are shifting towards meaningful and unique shopping experience, particularly in purchasing healthcare items. Consumer in control Present consumers know are clear of what they want and many will go the distance in search of the best offers, some consumers, due to their lifestyle fluidity simply require products that satisfy their needs. Mobile shopping will be the next frontier for retailers to venture into as on-the-go consumers who emphasize on shopping convenience and speed of transactions. Pharmacy retailers can tap into this market and formulate marketing plans unique to loyal mobile shoppers. Conventional in-store consumers are bombarded with too much product information creating confusion and delaying purchases. Retailers and manufacturers should collaborate to satisfy consumers needs such as using attractive colors and creating simplistic product packaging to facilitate consumers search for healthcare products. Retailers diversify and re-brand to stay relevant Pharmacy retailers diversifying into in-house product line will need to factor in consumers shopping preference on established branded healthcare products when formulating in-house product marketing plans. Many consumers maintained loyalty to established brands due to familiarity to a product or confident with its effectiveness. However, in-house branded product line such as wound care, vitamin and supplements are projected to grow due to regional disease outbreak and economic downtempo. New and improve in-house product lines with convenience in mind such as topical analgesics and sachet digestive remedies will appeal to consumers particularly the younger customers. Retailers may need to revamp certain product lines with new design, improve in-house brand offers and a compelling ad-campaign, to appeal to younger consumers. Future of retail pharmacy Retail pharmacy landscape is shifting largely attributed to economic changes, the growth of online retailing and more recently mobile commerce. With increasing use of smart handheld devices in Malaysia, mobile advertising and commerce is projected to grow substantially. Retailers will have to employ a multi-channel marketing approach. Online retailing will provide a platform for retailers disseminate unique and targeted product offers for consumers to research, plan their shopping trips and ultimately attract consumers into stores. Once in store, consumers will look for premium service coupled with simplified shopping experience in terms of product availability and ease of locating the products. Now more than ever consumers becoming more sophisticated and informed in making choices. They desire to know the origin of the product, what they are made of and how their lives can be improved with them. In general, future consumer wants a simplified, personalized and meaningful shopping exp erience with a focus on value.

Swot Analysis of Jollibee Foods Corporation

Introduction Jollibee Foods Corporation Company Background Tony Tan Cacktiong founder of Jollibee Foods Corporation tells a story about the success story of his company. There are many other stories about Tan and Jollibee that many people didn’t know about, and that would have remained unknown, If Tan hadn’t bested successful entrepreneurs from 30 other countries to win the â€Å"World entrepreneur of the year† Award in Montecarlo, Monaco, on May 28, 2004. Tan had always been low-key and media-shy.He was quiet happy to let his lieutenants do the talking for him to the press, actually – but his winning the award from the accounting firm Ernst & Young had forced him to agree to so many newspaper, magazine, and TV interviews later to tell them the story about the Jollibee story. After all it was he who won the award – not any of his lieutenants. Still, if Tan had always been reticent about telling the Jollibee story beyond his immediate circle of frien ds and acquaintances, he had been equally reticent-if not more so-about revealing his personal history to the outside world. This reticence comes from humility.Unlike many corporate leaders who trace their lineage to wealthy Chinese clans, and who had studied in the more prestigious schools, Tan had comparably very humble beginnings, with his family exactly mirroring the stark circumstances in which the early Chinese immigrants found themselves in Manila. His father had been an immigrant cook in Binondo’s Seng Guan Buddhist Temple on Narra Street before he opened a small Chinese restaurant in Davao City, where Tan and his siblings helped clean tables and get water to customers. It was his experience in his father’s restaurant that set Tan and his siblings on the road to entrepreneurship.In 1975, when he was set to graduate as a chemical engineer at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, Tan and his family pooled P350, 000 to open 2 Magnolia ice cream parlors: Cubao I ce Cream House near the Coronet Theater, in the middle-class shopping area of Quezon city, and Quiapo Ice Cream House under the Quezon Bridge in Quiapo, Manila. The siblings themselves manned the cash registers and served as waiters. After two years, the siblings began serving chicken and hamburger sandwhiches, and in 1978, when they already had six ice cream parlors, they decided to convert their stores into hamburger restaurants and called the chain Jollibee.By that time McDonald’s entered the market in 1982, Tan was already entertaining dreams of growing the business outside the Philippines, and was neither interested in getting a McDonald’s franchise nor afraid of competing with the U. S. giant. Tan found McDonald’s very good at everything, but he thought it would not find favor with the customers because it served bland food (though McDonald’s has since started serving chicken, spaghetti and other great tasting value meals).McDonalds didn’t kn ow the culture like the Tan’s did, and they used that knowledge to advantage to thrive and eventually become the Philippines’ top fast-food chain. Paulino cheng, a Jollibee franchisee in Greenhills, San Juan, says the fast food chain owes it success to its great tasting food and its advertising campaigns extolling the brand and its mascot as part of the Filipino pop culture. Indeed, with affiliates Chowking, Greenwhich and Delifrance, the Jollibee group now counts over a thousand outlets here and abroad, 50, 000 employees and about P30 billion to 50 billion annual sales.Tan’s success in transforming Jollibee into a Filipino icon has led many entrepreneurs to dream about following in his footsteps, and analysts to heap praise on his entrepreneurial and people skills. Ernst & Young’s chairman, James S. Turley, has called his story â€Å"a truly inspirational one. † Howard Stevenson, professor of entrepreneurship at the Harvard Business School, descri bes Jollibee as a success story â€Å"based on solid foundations, not a meteor that will burn itself out. Says Lance Gokongwei, president of JG Summit Holdings: The success of Jollibee can be attributed to good leadership, vision and corporate culture. Company Logo Company’s Trademark Jollibee is known for its trademark: â€Å"BEEDA AND SARAP! † Proposed Picture Capital According to Mr. Chaze the service manager of Jollibee Foods Corporation at Dasmarinas Central Mall as I’ve made an interview with him, he said that before you enter this kind of business you have to consider so many facts to be able to have a business franchise like this.First you should have the enough capital of franchising this company raging from 30 million to 50 million pesos. Second fact is that, the company will take a look at your proposed location or best to say that they will make an ocular inspection on where you plan to put up the business to check out if it will have a great amount of customer, and the last one and the most important fact to consider is that the company will take a look at your income or budget and to your other properties to see if it will fit or will be able to raise or support the franchise when crisis came.The 4 P’s of the Business Product As history tells about Jollibee, It was once an ice cream parlor before, until the time that Tan and his family came to see the opportunity to come up with new products to serve. On 1977, they began selling chicken and hamburger sandwiches, and in 1978 the family of Tan decided to convert their 6 ice cream parlors into hamburger restaurants. As time came by, after all the successful years of Jollibee, In this new generation, they were widely known for their best selling products the â€Å"chicken joy†, and the Jollibee’s hamburger which is also known as the â€Å"Yumburger†.Tony Tan Cacktiong used his knowledge of Filipino taste and culture to turn Jollibee into a true Filipi no icon. Place One of the important factors to consider before you can have this kind of business is the place or location, before you can say that this spot is best for the location of your franchise you should ask these question, â€Å"who are the target customers in this site? †, â€Å"what are the possible threats in this location? †, â€Å"Who are the competitors in this area? †, â€Å"Is the place suitable for the kind of business I will establish?Or vice versa†, If you are able to answer all of these presiding questions then you are now on your road to survival in establishing a business. Of course in minding your four P’s, the place is the most critical among the four. You have to consider everything. According to Mr. Chaze, you have to make sure that the place where your business franchise will be built should be in a very crowdy place. Given the examples are near the schools, malls, market place, subdivisions and etc. Price Franchisees ar e given the right to use the franchiser’s trademark in franchising.Then franchisers are providing full support to franchisees in terms of staff training, research and development, advertising and promotion. However, franchisees follow strict standards and run their outlets by the book. So in terms of pricing, franchisees needs to abide the rules and regulations in price setting according to the book of rules of the company. If the company changes their price on the products, so will the franchisees be. Overall, the prices in all Jollibee stores are based on the main office of the company. PromotionIn terms of promotion, the Jollibee foods corporation promotes their products through advertising in TV commercials and radio stations, Sponsorship, tarpaulins, and promo’s like tipid cards. If they have new offers in purchasing their product, they made it through personal or suggestive selling. Like their latest offer now the â€Å"happy plus card†, this card is a rel oadable card wherein you can buy their product without paying cash. You can also earn points for rewards. The bigger points you have, the bigger reward you may get. SWOT Strengths of the company 7-Eleven convenience storeCompany History The 7-eleven chain of stores started when an ice dock operator in Dallas, Texas began selling bread, milk and eggs to customers on Sundays and evenings-when grocery stores were closed- apart from the ice blocks they bought to keep in their boxes at home. The idea for the convenience store chain began in 1927 at the Southland Ice Company in Dallas, Texas. 7-elevens first outlet was known as tote’m stores because the customers â€Å"toted† away their purchases (some even lugged Alaskan totem poles in front The name 7-eleven originated in 1946; when the stores were open from 7a. . to 11 p. m. It wasn’t long before 7-eleven stores were open 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Company logo Company Trademark 7-eleven is known for it†™s gulp and Slurpee products. It is open 24/7. Capital In getting a franchise of a 7-eleven store, you should have at least a starting capital of 5 million to 10 million, this is only for the name of the company. For the stocks, you should have an another million for sustaining the needs of your store in order to meet also the needs of the customers.

The Matrix

Buddhism: In-Class Essay Assignment Choose one (1) of the following seven (7) options and compose a 5 paragraph in-class essay of approximately 3-4 pages in length. Please double space and use both sides of the page. Option 1: Morpheus and the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar are often viewed as examples of Arhats and Bodhisattvas. Do you think this is an accurate portrayal? Explain your answer using three criteria. Option 2: Individual choices are highlighted throughout the movie and are an example of the Buddhist goal to eliminate ignorance.Choose three characters in the movie and discuss the choices that they were faced with and how these choices illustrate key Buddhist concepts. Option 3: Names are highlighted throughout the film and are used to further explain religious concepts as well as deepen the plot. Choose three names from the movie and explain the religious concepts that they are illustrating. Option 4: While The Matrix borrows heavily from Buddhist philosophy certain elements of the film seem out of place in that they directly contradict Buddhist ideas. Write an essay that highlights three of these elements and explain how they contradict the beliefs of Buddhism.Option 5: Throughout the movie, Neo/Mr. Thomas Anderson is often cast in a saviour role. Explain how Neo/Mr. Thomas Anderson is similar to and/or different from various saviour figures in the religions we have studied (i. e. Siddhartha Guatama, The Buddha, Jesus, Vishnu/Krishna etc. ). Option 6: Which branch of Buddhism (Mahayana, Theravada or Vajrayana) seems to have inspired this film? Explain your answer using three different arguments. Option 7: Create your own question. Write out the question in clear language and have it approved by your teacher before you begin answering. The Matrix Recently, we have discussed how we know. Hilary Putnam, American philosopher, developed a thought experiment which has become so popular that it is the basis of blockbuster film The Matrix. In short, the thought experiment calls one to imagine that your brain and the nerves connecting it to your senses has been severed or disconnected. The brain would actually no longer be in your body it would be placed a vat filled with nutritional fluid to keep your brain alive and functioning. The sensory inputs in your brains are now connected to the outputs of a giant super computer.A man sits at this computer and inputs data, and this data is processed in your brain as if it came from your senses. Consequently, your brain would only know the information which was entered and would not know it was really sitting in a laboratory somewhere. Many philosophers have dealt with the issue of perceiving and knowing reality including Plato and Descartes. A dialogue will now commence in order to compare and contrast The Matrix with the writings of these two well-known philosophers.Additionally, perception versus reality, and is ignorance really bliss will be mentioned as these issues came up in the movie and both writings. There are numerous similarities and differences between The Matrix and the writings of Plato and Descartes. First a brief description of each piece will be discussed and then the similarities and differences. In The Matrix the main character Neo, is a computer hacker who meets a group of rebels lead by Morpheus. The mission of this group is to get the world to realize the human race is lying unconscious in giant machines that are keeping their bodies alive.Just like the Putnam thought experiment, their brains are all connected to a super computer on which a simulation of the world is running. Humans are unconsciously living out virtual lives in this computer simulation and are not aware of anything but the simulation. After joining Morpheus’ group of disse nters Neo realizes not everyone can handle the truth and a member of the group, Cypher betrays his comrades so he can once again live in the computer simulation. In the Plato cave allegory piece, there is a dialogue taking place between Socrates and Plato’s brother Glaucon.Here, Socrates describes a scenario in which men are held captive as prisoners in a cave from childhood. The men have their legs and head fettered so that they can only look straight ahead at the cave wall. For their whole lives they have seen shadows on the wall, objects passing by and all they could do is guess what the objects were. Then, Socrates asks Glaucon to imagine that one of these men was released. Ultimately, they deduce that the freed man would pity the other prisoners because he was able to experience things as they actually were and did not have to imagine what everything was.The reality was far more precious than his imagination. The third writing comes from Meditation I from Meditations on First Philosophy by Rene Descartes who offers some reasons to doubt his senses. In this piece, Descartes has resolved to forget everything he thinks he knows. He reasons that if he can doubt the basic principles upon which his opinions are founded then he can doubt all his previous opinions collectively. Most of the opinions he has believed to be most true came from his senses which are only sometimes reliable.Ultimately he realizes from habit or custom or just laziness that it is almost impossible to change his way of thinking so he just pretends these opinions are false so as to combat his long-held beliefs. There are many similarities between The Matrix and the cave allegory piece by Plato. Most prevalent is the idea of perception versus reality which is illustrated in both works. In The Matrix the perception is that humans are living real lives. Every day they get up, go to work, and come home. They are just normal people living.The reality however is that humans are unconscious , in machines that keep their bodies alive while their brains are all connected to the matrix which is simulating real life. The perception is completely false. Similarly, in the cave allegory the prisoners’ perception of objects passing the cave wall in the form of shadows is false. In reality, they are only guessing the true nature of the shadows and never really know what the objects are until one prisoner is freed and allowed to experience things as they really are.Although the perception is all the prisoners have when they are fettered, the truth is as the freed prisoner  experienced much better than any imagined object. When free, the prisoner could look at the sun and feel its warmth on his skin something the other prisoners could not imagine. Reality was so much better than the perception that at the end the free man pitied the other prisoners because of this fact. Neo taking the red pill and the prisoner being freed from the cave are moments that have the same impa ct. For the first time these individuals have the chance to truly experience all that was hidden. The differences between these two pieces were not as pronounced but still apparent.In The Matrix, Neo was given the option of taking the red pill or the blue pill. He had a choice to learn the truth about the world he was living in or to go back to his life in ignorance. Neo decided to live in reality and thus his life was forever changed. In the cave allegory the prisoner did not have a choice. He was imprisoned since childhood and thus forced to live in ignorance. It was only when his captors decided to free him was he able to experience what life really is beyond the perception of the cave. The Matrix and Meditation I by Descartes had a few similarities.The most striking similarity between the two is that both Neo and Descartes did not want to conform their way of thinking with that of the whole. A change happened and they questioned all they knew to be true. In each instance, a choi ce was made and this lead to an enlightenment of sorts. Neo had a feeling that something was not right about his life and chose to live outside of the norm. In the same way, Descartes knew his opinions and beliefs left room for doubt so he questioned the foundation on which he knew what he thought was true.Both men questioned long-held beliefs as a way to determine if what they knew to be true actually was. The major difference between the movie and Descartes’ piece is the permanency of the change that occurred in Neo and Descartes. Neo was changed forever when he decided to live in the true real world. In the movie once Neo discovered who he really was nothing would be the same for anyone, including those living in the matrix. At the end of Meditation I, Descartes was unsure if he would be able to maintain his new way of thinking and would  try to pretend that all his opinions are false.Ultimately, there is a chance he will go back to his old way of thinking but this does not happen in Neo’s situation. There is no chance Neo will go back since his change was more than a change in his thought processes like the change described by Descartes. As a result of these works, questions naturally arise about perception and reality. For example, how do we know the world we are experiencing is real? Can we ever really be sure that we are not living in a matrix right now?Unless someone comes along and shows us different we are geared to believe the things we perceive with our senses are real and the world we live in is real. In the end, we may discover that life is itself a dream and when we die we will wake up to this realization. There is no true way to know if we are living in some sort of matrix unless we are made aware of something else as Neo was. Another question, which is better, the harshness of reality or the â€Å"ignorance is bliss† comes about because of Cypher’s betrayal in The Matrix. Ignorance is defined â€Å"as a lack of k nowledge, understanding, or education,† Merriam-Webster.Merriam-Webster, n. d. Web. Bliss means to be completely happy and thus the saying ‘ignorance is bliss† means if one lacks knowledge they are completely happy. It is much better to escape the cave and live in a world just as it is the good with the perceived bad. If a person is ignorant they do not have the means to make an informed decision and thus are at a disadvantage. It is my position that the harshness of reality is best for the human race as a whole because it gives us all the opportunity to make life what we want it to be and not what some computer imagines for us.Having the option there is no choice to make. I want to live my most authentic life why live if I cannot co-create my own masterpiece. There are people who would like to live in ignorance like Cypher, but then you are choosing to end up just like him dead. In conclusion, these works all generate thought into reality and perception. The ultim ate truth for anyone is that knowing comes from a desire to know. As long as you live you have a choice to make as Neo did to live in ignorance or knowing anything is possible. The Matrix Buddhism: In-Class Essay Assignment Choose one (1) of the following seven (7) options and compose a 5 paragraph in-class essay of approximately 3-4 pages in length. Please double space and use both sides of the page. Option 1: Morpheus and the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar are often viewed as examples of Arhats and Bodhisattvas. Do you think this is an accurate portrayal? Explain your answer using three criteria. Option 2: Individual choices are highlighted throughout the movie and are an example of the Buddhist goal to eliminate ignorance.Choose three characters in the movie and discuss the choices that they were faced with and how these choices illustrate key Buddhist concepts. Option 3: Names are highlighted throughout the film and are used to further explain religious concepts as well as deepen the plot. Choose three names from the movie and explain the religious concepts that they are illustrating. Option 4: While The Matrix borrows heavily from Buddhist philosophy certain elements of the film seem out of place in that they directly contradict Buddhist ideas. Write an essay that highlights three of these elements and explain how they contradict the beliefs of Buddhism.Option 5: Throughout the movie, Neo/Mr. Thomas Anderson is often cast in a saviour role. Explain how Neo/Mr. Thomas Anderson is similar to and/or different from various saviour figures in the religions we have studied (i. e. Siddhartha Guatama, The Buddha, Jesus, Vishnu/Krishna etc. ). Option 6: Which branch of Buddhism (Mahayana, Theravada or Vajrayana) seems to have inspired this film? Explain your answer using three different arguments. Option 7: Create your own question. Write out the question in clear language and have it approved by your teacher before you begin answering.

Human Right Violations

Human Right Violations Although the world is going through a process named "globalization" , in which countries integrate themselves economically and politically, the social aspect is often relegated. Consequently, unemployment and poverty are two of the infinite side effects of these times. As well as this, in some nations, people are victims of human rights violations. "Their rights"  are clearly defined and described in the UN (United Nations), an organism created in the middle of the twentieth century.China is a perfect example to support this idea. The biggest country in the globe, as regards population, is affected by several human rights violations. This nation is changing its economy from a rigid socialist model, in which the state and the government were protagonists, to capitalism, allowing the development of the private sector. This policy is and will be beneficial for China's economic growth but, what will happen if nobody concerns about human rights? China prohibits freedom of speech, ex pression, association and religion.China, Shibangou Bridge underpass, Fuling, Yan...Moreover, China maintains a one-party state that tolerates no organised opposition. Authorities have the ability to influence the judicial power, promoting the arrest, detention and torture of political and religious activists and the restriction of religious and spiritual practices.China's engagement with the International community has resulted in meaningful improvements in the lives of hundreds of millions of Chinese. It is important to state that the most repressive periods in recent Chinese history occurred in times of international isolation. Exposure to the outside world has brought to the Chinese people social mobility and personal liberties. Therefore, people in china have a greater choice of employment, education and improved access to information. Moreover, despite repression of religious groups not recognised by the government, memberships in churches continue to grow. In addition to this, media and Internet showed Chinese people some international...

Ib World Lit the Doctors Wife and Kokoro Essay Example

Ib World Lit the Doctors Wife and Kokoro Essay Example Ib World Lit the Doctors Wife and Kokoro Paper Ib World Lit the Doctors Wife and Kokoro Paper This merely my outline write it yourself! How the Motif of Death creates the Somber Mood I. Through the recurring motif of death the author creates a somber mood A. The Doctor’s Wife by Sawako Ariyoshi B. Kokoro by Natsume Soseki II. Using an unaffected tone the author reveals deaths that are important to the novel. A. â€Å"On a night so cold that the herb garden was covered in frost the woman gasped her last breath. K, at the time, was too preoccupied with her own nausea as she sat by Otsugi’s bed in prayer. And her mother-in-law departed from this world without learning of her pregnancy† (Ariyoshi 149). 1. Otsugi as the antagonist is a main character in the novel, and even though she and Kae’s relationship is basically the main focus of the novel her death is mentioned an unaffected or nonchalant way as though her death plays no importance to the rest of the novel. B. â€Å"I was not yet twenty when I lost both of my parents. I think that my wife once mentioned to you that they died of the same disease. Also, if I remember correctly, she told you, much to your surprise, that they died almost at the same time† (Soseki 129) 1. Even though Sensei’s parents are very minor characters alone their death is the beginning of the downward spiral that Sensei’s life follows. Sensei is speaking of his parents, the people who raised him and the unaffected tone the author uses when bring up their death brings Sensei’s misanthropic nature full circle. He is so close to his death that bringing up loved ones has no effect on the tone. C. In both novels deaths that cause major shifts in the plot of the story are undertaken with distant and unaffected tones that mislead the reader into thinking that their deaths are unimportant. When in reality the deaths that are mentioned in such an unimportant manner are very important in developing the novel. III. Through the motif of death characters become unified. A. â€Å"â€Å"No one can share the suffering of a mother who must out live her own child except another mother who has had the same misfortune,† she cried, her tears rolling freely over Otsugi’s shoulder† (Ariyoshi 141). . Kae and Otsugi’s imperfect mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationship is the catalyst for The Doctor’s Wife and throughout Kae’s life in the home they have been quietly feuding for Seishu’s attention, but through the common bond of them each losing a child they take comfort in their common bond in an attempt to fill the empty space their loss has left behind. B. â€Å"â€Å"It’s just his mood,† she once said. â€Å"He is just depressed. † She seemed to think that my father was depressed because of the Emperor’s illness. I could not agree with her†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬Å" When the newspaper announcing the Emperor’s Death arrived, my father said: â€Å"Oh! Oh! † And then â€Å"Oh. His Majesty is gone at last. I too†¦Ã¢â‚¬  My father fell silent† (Soseki 91). 1. The student’s father was most likely born into the Meiji era and most likely with the similarities between his own sickness and the Emperor’s he has built a bond in his mind, through with their fates appear parallel. This bond is apparent to even the student’s mother who believes that her husband is depressed because of the Emperor. Due to this bond the father has created in his mind he feels that when the Emperor died that it is he who should be next and he comes close to expressing that, when he falls silent to how tender the subject of his own death is to his family. C. Through the illusion of death the characters who otherwise would not share a bond due to their specific relationships, or lack thereof, are linked through death. IV. In light of joyous occasions the motif of death if used to â€Å"ground† the reader to the story A. â€Å"Seishu’s sister had her throat choked by the hematoma and died quietly, without a voice, one month before his glorious triumph. She was forty-two and remained lucid until the end† (167 Ariyoshi). 1. Seishu finally has come within arm’s reach of his goal, this should be a happy and joyous moment, but Seishu’s sister is choked to death her illness. This event creates a drastic change in the mood when one thinks of how Seishu is so close to curing the other woman of her cancer, but his own kin he is helpless and can do nothing but watch her wither away and die. B. â€Å" But that night, K killed himself. Even now, I cannot recall the scene without horror. I do not know what strange forces were at work that night†¦. † (Soseki 228). . Sensei is engaged to be married to Ojusan and even though this a bit of a sore subject due to K, he is finally going to confront K about it which should lift the mood with the fact that Sensei is going to take responsibility for his actions, but before Sensei can talk to him K kills himself that night, destroying all hope of them fixing their problems. C. Joyous occasion created in the story are quickly dashed by the somber mood associated with the death of a character. This shows how the authir seems determined to carry the somber mood throughout the book even during the joyous moments. V. Through the recurring motif of death the author creates a somber mood A. The in The Doctor’s Wife is to contrast the climax or resolution of the book where Seishu performs the first successful breast cancer surgery. Through the motif of death the author creates a conflict as clear as night and day to amplify the resolution. 1. The reader is kept on a constant roller coaster with the deaths throughout the book and the distant tone the author uses throught the third person point of view that is used. The distant tone makes the story seem more like the work of fiction it is and down plays the historical aspect of the book. B. The purpose of Kokoro to tell of a tragic fictional story of a misanthropic natured man. Using the first person 1. The reader of the book often feel that they can relate to both the character of the student and of Sensei. The student is young and naive he often only thinks inwardly, he feel doesn’t realize his negate attitude that he has with his father until it is too late. The author can also relate to the character of Sensei because Sensei is a loner character which is emphasized in the first person point of view.