Woman in Mind by Alan Ayckbourn Essay Example for Free

Woman in Mind by Alan Ayckbourn Essay How does Ayckbourn present the contrast between Susans fantasy family and her real family in Woman in Mind. Explore the importance of this contrast to the plays central theme. In Woman in Mind Ayckbourn uses Susans creation of an idealistic fantasy family and more importantly the contrast of this perfection with her reality to help portray Susans emotional breakdown to the audience. The role of the fantasy family in this play is to emphasise the unhappiness and emotional turmoil in Susan real world as they generally appear at a point where Susan is in a particularly distressing situation with her real family. One of the ways in which Ayckbourn presents the contrast between the two families is with the use of the differing appearances. For example when the audience meets the fantasy family for the first time they are presented as (tall, good looking, athletic), and Lucys clothing is (fresh, summery, rather timeless). This is a complete contrast to the way in which the real family is presented (an unattractive picture, entirely lacking the lightness and ease of her earlier family). Immediately Ayckbourn has shown the fantasy family to be more ideal and suitable for Susan which hints that Susan is not at ease in reality , even though there has not yet been much insight into the causes of Susans breakdown. The setting of Woman in Mind is also essential in the presentation of the contrasting families although it is important for the audience to remember that the play is seen from an entirely subjective viewpoint and that although two settings are implied only one is actually the reality. Ayckbourn uses the lighting and sound effects to accenuate the contrast between the two worlds. For example the stage direction at the beginning of the play suggests the setting to be a (small, tidy, surburban garden) but when members of her fantasy family appear the use of lighting ( The garden grows inperceptibly bigger and lighter) accompanies the changes which Susan herself suggests herb garden, lake and tennis courts. The setting is vital as it shows the fantasy family to be more upper class and perhaps this helps Susan to feel more worthy in her life. The use of simpler contrasts such as food and drink also helps Ayckbourn to display the contrast between the two families and he achieves this with the use of props. For example, Susan is offered champagne and gourmet meals by her fantasy family whereas, in reality she is given the less sophisticated sherry and must put up with Muriels dreadful Earl grey omelette. The actions of Susan show how much more she prefers her fantasy family, which is shown by the stage directions, for example (leaving her sherry glass on the card tableshe comes across her glass of champagne and drinks it). The contrast between the two families is also presented through the use of language. An example of this is the way in which the fantasy family use nicknames for each other, for example Big Sis, Susie which helps to show the happy, friendly relationship they have. The tone of voice is completely different however in her reality situations. For example when Gerald defends Muriel in saying that Susan should be more sympathetic towards her because of her present and past sufferings Susan is extremely sarcastic Sorry, sorry, sorry. The fantasy family is also presented as having completely different attitudes towards Susan and Ayckbourn has used this along with the other techniques to emphasise her emotional turmoil. For example her fantasy family are extremely grateful for her and appreciate her Were all going to have to take extra special care of you Were just all so proud of you. The contrast between the two families is important in showing the insecurities Susan has in her life and her fantasy family is a representation of her dreams which for Susan become confused with reality. One of the main reasons for Susans emotional breakdown is her feeling of not being loved which is mainly a result of her distant unloving relationship with Gerald. Gerald and Susan have conflicting opinions even about small unimportant things for example, they have different opinions over the bush in their garden. Gerald calls it a dead bush whereas Susan claims : Its not dead I planted it yesterday. Gerald is also very unsympathetic towards Susans turmoil, for example when Susan says she is not very happy, Geralds unhelpful viewpoint is well who is? These days. Very few. Gerald seems too interested in the book he is writing which is an important factor in Susans breakdown. The lack of a physical side in their relationship leads Susan into the arms of her imaginary lover Andy, whilst in reality she has burnt Geralds history of the parish All sixty pages blazing away. More importantly Gerald seems very unaware of the change in his relationship with Susan. For example when Susan tells Gerald she does not love him anymore, Geralds response is Im not aware my feelings towards you have altered that much which gives a clear insight into the lack of closeness in their relationship to the audience. Susans emotional breakdown is also caused by her relationship with Rick which Ayckbourn presents as one without the usual mother-son communication. Although Susan seems to be quite light-hearted and sarcastic over the fact that their son does not talk to them All of us miming to each other over the table she is however, very aware and upset at the lack of closeness between them. For example, when Gerald explains to her that Rick wants all of his furniture to be sold Susan replies Well have nothing left of him at all. This display of sudden distress to the audience emphasises strongly the emotional stress Susan is experiencing. A different side to Susan is seen when Rick tells her of his marriage to Tess and explains that he does not want the family to meet her, and Susan believes it is because of Gerald Why? Because of your father?. This shows the distance in her relationship with Rick and Susan becomes distraught when she discovers that Rick has always considered her to be an unfit mother I dont want to hurt you anymore, Mum, but God help any daughter who had you as a mother. This is a complete contrast in Susans fantasy life however, because she does infact have a very close relationship with her fantasy daughter Lucy. An example of the difference between her two children is that whereas Rick was very reluctant to tell Susan about his marriage, Lucy is very eager theres something I desperately want to tell you. Ayckbourn has also used the role of an interfering sister-in-law to enhance the worthlessness Susan is feeling. Muriel constantly insists on providing meals and drinks and criticises Susan always where Gerald can hear. An example of this is when Muriel puts Earl Grey tea in an omelette and says to Susan I do wish youd label things, Susan. Its a very inconvenient kitchen to work in , it really is. All of these aspects in Susans reality lead her to having low self-esteem and the questioning of her role. An example of this is when Susan claims that the thrill of being a housewife has gone I used to be a wife. I used to be a mother. And I loved itThe thrill has gone which is a complete contrast to her fantasy world which shows that she clearly wants to be able to employ staff (Murieldressed in very formal maids black bombazine) . The fantasy family are summoned to help her cope and their words are Susans real thoughts which become forced into reality and help Susan to say what she is really feeling. For example, when Bill comes outside to persuade Susan to eat lunch with them Tony and Lucy tell him to drop dead, these are Susans thoughts articulated by the characters and lead Susan herself to say the same Oh, Bill, do drop dead. Susan does have , at that stage still have some control over her life as she is able to banish her fantasy family whenever she wants. The complete contrast in families is extremely important in showing Susans emotional breakdown because the fantasy family has been perfected down to every last detail in Susans mind and shows the ideal life Susan would love to lead. However because of the idealism the fantasy family provides Susan becomes less and less able to control her own creation. This is shown in act two where her fantasy life and reality become mixed and she has entered a world of madness created by herself (What we see are images remembered by her from films she has seen, books she has read, TV she has watched). By this stage in her breakdown Gerald seems to know the fantasy family and talks to them in the light-hearted language that they used with Susan earlier Tony, you old rascal. Whereas it was only in reality that Susan felt ignored which forced her into an imaginary world where she was loved and treasured, now it seems that neither of her families are taking notice of her: LOOK AT ME AT ONCE, DO YOU HEAR? ALL OF YOU!!!. This is the final point in Susans breakdown.

Perception of the Elderly in Modern Society

Perception of the Elderly in Modern Society Aging is the normal process of time-related change which begins with birth and continues until death. These changes include how a person feels and functions with respect to physical or mental competences. It is important for individuals to increase their knowledge and understanding of aging so as to prevent ageist behaviours, discrimination and maltreatment of the elders in our societies today. The public’s perception of older adults is very unpleasant and can implant fear into individuals who are approaching the retirement age. This pessimistic view of being old not only makes younger peoples evolution into older age one of misery, but this despondency is mentally projected out towards the elders of our society (HubPages, 2012). This essay therefore, examines the factors that may perhaps be accountable for the perception of the elderly in societies today, theoretical perspective, effects of ageism on the elderly and suggestions that can change society’s negative perspe ctive toward aging and to promote positive images. Constantly babies are being born around the world, as well as persons moving into retirement. According to Michelle Barnhart, Researcher, Oregon State University, on a day to day basis approximately 10,000 individuals in the United States turns 65 years old and this is an indication that it is time for them to retire. Most developed countries have generally accepted the chronological age of 65 years as the definition of an ‘older person’ (WHO, 2009). Apart from chronological age, an individual’s age can be determined by examining biological, psychological and socio-cultural processes (Cohen, 2002). The elderly population seems to be increasing significantly, due to the fact that more and more people are attaining the retirement age (65 years) and are living longer. In societies today the elderly is seen as less valuable since their individualism, self-reliance, and independence would have been altered. This is due to the fact that with the aging process there is a possibility that one may experience some form of health complications or chronic disease, as a result of the physical changes taking place in the body. Elders are frequently faced with stereotyping where individuals repeatedly perpetuate bogus information and negative images and characteristics concerning them. Some elderly are perceived in a positive light from time to time because they are actively involved in the community, loyal, sociable, and warm. Nonetheless the negative perceptions are more dominant, for instance; older people are often stereotyped as being unhealthy or always sick, decreased psychological functioning, unappealing, sexless, negative personality traits, miserable, lonesome and excluded from society. Stereotypes may be as a result of an individual’s negat ive personal experience, myths shared throughout the ages, and a general lack of current information. Older adults are labeled with negative statements such as; wrinkled, cranky, crotchety, inattentive, forgetful, fragile, feeble, stuck in the past, past their prime, or a burden on society. There are a lot of factors that may be responsible for the modern day perception of the elderly. An individual’s age, gender, level of knowledge, interaction with old adults and how frequent, cultural influences, modernization and the media are all factors that may influence how the elderly is perceived by members of society. Additionally, there are a lot of misconceptions about older adults since most people are not knowledgeable about aging. These misconceptions include: most older adults cannot live independently, chronologic age determines oldness, most elderly persons have diminished intellectual capacity or are senile, all older people are content and serene, all older persons are resistant to change and older adults cannot be productive or active. The functionalist theory looked at how the different parts of society work together in order for it to function smoothly. With respect to the elderly, functionalists believe that the elders are one of society’s fundamental groups. However, the disengagement theory states that withdrawal from society is a normal behaviour portrayed by the aging individual. This is so because the elderly experiences a reduction in both their physical and mental level of functioning, hence they expects at some point in time they will die, resulting in withdrawal from individuals and society (Cummings and Henry 1961). Additionally, theactivity theory seeks to explain that activity levels and social involvement are key aspects in replacing what was lost and went on further to say it is the key to happiness (Havinghurst 1961; Neugarten 1964; Havinghurst, Neugarten, and Tobin 1968). To expound, it is said that the happiness of an elderly depends on how active and involved he or she is, the more activ e, the happier they will be. Lastly, thecontinuity theory explains that the elderly who remain active and involved during their elder years do so by making particular choices in order to preserve stability internally and externally. This is an attempt to maintain social equilibrium and stability by making future decisions on the basis of already developed social roles (Atchley 1971; Atchley 1989). Conflict theorists’ stated that society is essentially unstable in view of the fact that it shows favour to the more powerful and wealthy individuals while marginalizing everyone else. There is always a competition for power and limited resources among social groups; hence the elderly population struggles with other groups resulting in conflicts. Conflicts are evident in Trinidad and Tobago with respect to the senior citizens pension; at age 65 all individuals qualify for the $3,000.00 pension, while on the other hand those who are entitled to a National Insurance Pensions qualifies for a smaller percentage of the senior citizens pension. The Modernization theorydeveloped by Sociologists Donald Cowgill and Lowell Holmes proposes that industrialization and modernization are the main reason why the elderly looses power and influence in society (Cowgill and Holmes 1972). Sociologist Donald Cowgill’s states in his theory that there is a relationship between ageing and modernization; older men and women in less technologically advanced societies tend to yield more economic and social power than those in more industrialized countries (Cowgill 1986). Prior to industrialization, it was seen where the younger generation cared for the elderly in their society due to the strong social bound they had. Nowadays, it is evident that in various households the number of family members is under five (5); extended families are replaced by nuclear families. Individualism have become a characteristic of our civilization despite the traditionally collectivist nature of some cultures because of changes associated with all modern soci eties. In an individualistic industrial society, caring for an elderly relative is seen as a voluntary obligation that may be ignored without fear of social censure (Openstax College, 2012). However, research shows that even though modernization and industrialization lead to socio-cultural changes, the importance of family and respecting and valuing the elderly in certain cultures may be limited but still remains a priority. David Hackett Fischer (1977), an American historian, like modernization theorists he also believes that the status of older people has declined over time. However, he further stated that, before modernization and industrialization could take place in the United States the decline in the elderly being powerful had already began. According to the Encyclopedia of Aging (2002), Fischer further argued that between 1800’s and 1900’s the cultural transformation took place when citizens became interested in the principles of independence and egalitarianism. These behaviours were influenced mainly by the standards of the French Revolution. These new cultural values are accountable for the lower statuses of elders in the US and by extension Western societies today. For this reason, our elderly are no longer treated with the respect compared to log ago and this is where ageism is seen and ageist behaviours being demonstrated towards the older individuals in society. Ageism generates unnecessary fear, waste, illness, and misery (Palmore, 2004); hence it has an impact on both society and culture, even though most individuals are not aware of it. Ageism and ageist attitudes is one of the factors that can contribute to elder abuse by creating a fertile environment in which the abuse can develop, leading to age discrimination, and devaluing and disempowering older people. The elderly themselves feels less valuable to society because of society’s perception of them. The youth centric culture in which we live describes us as lacking compassion for the elderly, the affinity to â€Å"shoot† our weak and wounded, us versus them mentally and the impression that ones value is based on what one can add to society (Holman, 2010). In Western culture, more so the United States, they are obsessed with the youths of their country. On the other hand, other cultures will respect and even worship older individuals for their wisdom. Tan et al. (2004) ar gued that a sample of younger people in China held more positive attitudes towards all categories of older people when compared with findings from studies in the US, Singapore and Trinidad. In general, society considers the children to be the future generation and they are worth fighting for. However, they will think twice when it comes to fighting for the elderly because in their view they have already lived their lives and are no longer as valuable to society. The role of the media in supporting ageism is that it mostly celebrates and encourages the younger individuals, which perpetuates ageist images and stereotypes. Children are more susceptible to the penalty of negative media images and introduction to stereotypical portrayals of the elderly can alter their views of the actuality of aging and the elders in our society. This would definitely affect the way the youth intermingle with the elders. Television, print media (books, newspapers, magazines, and advertisements) are all considered a major and insidious cause of influence on the public’s perceptions of older people and ageing. In the media the elderly often represents and portray the roles of older characters, which reflect ageing stereotypes. Television especially, plays a momentous role in influential public outlook on the elderly, and it is often held responsible for bringing about negative stereotypes of ageing. Television characters can both deliberately and automatically create standards of social comparison and role models for viewers (Kessler et al. 2004). Aging is often associated with balding, graying or thinning hair, and wrinkling of the skin. The media in trying to sell their product or service often reflect ageism by depicting the physical changes and unattractiveness of the elderly resulting in older people being stereotyped as ugly. Physical appearance, mainly facial features do play an important role when it comes to defining a person as old. However, the youths tend to find it hard in accepting that these changes must take place with the aging process. The television is viewed by almost everyone in society and it is a fact that older people are often underrepresented. It is concluded that the media is a relevant approach for showcasing stereotypes of how older people and how ageing is portrayed. In Trinidad and Tobago the Government have tried implementing support systems for its elderly population such as senior citizens pension ($3,000.00 monthly), which increases with the change in Government. Additionally, public assistance and disability grants are available to not only the elderly but all those in need. The elderly who have not yet reached the age of 65 to qualify for the pension and is at a disadvantage due to illness or complications caused by the aging process can benefit from these grants. Also, bus passes are available to all senior citizens (age 65 and above) where the elderly can travel for free on board any Public Transportation Service Corporation (PTSC) Buses throughout Trinidad and Tobago. Added to this, they are entitled to travel for free on the Port Authority Inter Island Ferry Service. From my observation, most of the elderly population do welcome the initiative and take advantage of these services offered to them. However, a few of them refuse to accept the bus pass and free boat ride as they see it as a form stereotyping. I do understand their point of view as to why they prefer to have their age kept a secret; this is due to the society in which we live where the elderly often faces ageism and ageist behaviours from the younger citizens. In light this; it is my opinion that not enough is being done to ensure that the senior citizen population has a bright and enjoyable future. The perceptions the public hold of older people can impact on the elderly in employment, education, health services, and the overall treatment of older adults. These perceptions are determined and influenced by many different factors such as: modernization and industrialization of society; age; gender; lack of knowledge and misconceptions, as well as the media. It is seen that perceptions of the elderly can impact their lives positively but mostly negatively. On the positive side, the access to social and employment opportunities, as well as access to health services is evident. On the other hand, negatively it resulted in stereotypical behaviours and ageism, which further lead to social exclusion and isolation of the elderly, as well as elder abuse. It is also evident that ageism can definitely lead to marginalization and degradation of the elderly in our societies today. The World Health Organization states that with the growth of the elderly population there is an increase in many new social, political, and economic challenges (WHO 2002). I believe that the government must intervene and develop strategies and implement policies or laws to ensure that older people are treated fairly and with respect. For example, there is a family obligation towards the care of older people enshrined in law in China with punishments for adult children who fail to support a dependent parent, Tan et al. (2004). This will guarantee that the elders can and do live a better quality of life because at the end of the day they would have contributed to the society in which we now live. I recommend that groups or campaigns be set up so as to ensure the elders in our societies are valued and respected by providing, caring and protecting them from ageism and elder abuse. This will further promote how the elderly have contributed to society and developed new initiatives in which they can add more valuable contributions to society. In these groups ageing educational programmes should be implemented and geared towards all age groups of society, more so to those groups that portray negative attitudes towards older people, for example; the youths and men. These programmes should also branch over to schools in our society, both primary and secondary so as to target children and adolescents with respect to ageism seeing that it is not innate but is developed over time. Additionally, education programmes could also be implemented in the community; for example health centers, community centers, and youth groups to specifically target those areas where the general public’s attitudes towards ageing and older people are most negative including attitudes towards older people’s health, body image, sexuality, mental ability, personality and social involvement. The first step is education to address their lack of knowledge and then to bring about awareness of the elders contribution to society so as to ensure they are well respected and accepted by members of society. These community educational programmes should consist of some older people so as to ensure elders feels valued and acknowledged rather than isolated or socially excluded. Involvement in these community activities will also allow for enhancement of their quality of life. Contact with these elderly people would definitely address all the misconceptions and stereotypes and establish successful to improve the perceptions of older people and ageing. REFERENCES Atchley, R.C. (1971). Retirement and Leisure Participation: Continuity or Crisis?The Gerontologist11:13–17. Atchley, R.C. (1989). A Continuity Theory of Normal Aging.The Gerontologist29:183–190. Cohen, H.L. (2002). Developing media literacy skills to challenge television’s portrayal of older women. Educational Gerontology, 28, 599-620. Cowgill, D.O. and L.D. Holmes, eds. (1972).Aging and Modernization. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. Cumming, E. and Henry, E. (1961).Growing Old.New York: Basic. Havinghurst, R., Neugarten, B., and Tobin, S. (1968). â€Å"Patterns of Aging.† Pp. 161–172 inMiddle Age and Aging, edited by B. Neugarten. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press Holman, K. (2010). 5 reasons why people devalue the elderly . Retrieved from http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2010/05/5-reasons-why-people-devalue-elderly.html HubPages. (2012). We are the elderly of the future. Retrieved from http://seeker7.hubpages.com/hub/Caring-For-and-Supporting-Elderly-Parents Kessler, E.M., Rakoczy, K. Staudinger, U.M. (2004). The portrayal of older people in prime time television series: The match with gerontological evidence. Ageing Society, 24, 531-552. Openstax College. (2013). Theoretical perspectives on aging. Retrieved from http://cnx.org/content/m42973/latest/ Palmore, E. (2004). Research note: Ageism in Canada and the United States. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 19, 41-46. Street, Debra; Parham, Lori. Status of Older People: Modernization.Encyclopedia of Aging. 2002. Retrieved March 30, 2014 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3402200387.html Tan, P.P., Zhang, N.H. Fan, L. (2004) Students attitudes toward the elderly in the Peoples Republic of China. Educational Gerontology, 30(4), 305-314. World Health Organisation (WHO) (2009) Definition of an older or elderly person. Retrieved from: http://www.who.int/healthinfo/survey/ageingdefnolder/en/index.html World Health Organization (WHO) (2002) Active ageing A policy framework. A contribution of the World Health Organization to the Second United Nations World Assembly on Ageing, Madrid, Spain, pp. 1–59. Retrieved from: http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2002/WHO_NMH_NPH_02.8.pdf 1

Chaucers Canterbury Tales - The Modern and Mediaeval Merchants Tale :: The Merchants Tale

The Modern and Mediaeval Merchant's Tale  Ã‚   "The Merchant's Prologue and Tale" is mainly concerned with the infidelity of May while she is married to Januarie. Infidelity is undoubtedly a popular topic for discussion in modern times and is often the subject of magazine or television stories. Despite the concern with marriage and the status of men and women within such a relationship keeping the story applicable to the audience even more than 600 years later, there are many elements of the Prologue and Tale which root them in a mediaeval context. The reasons to marry and the opinions cited show the attitudes of the mediaeval period as do the references to mythological figures such as "Ymeneus, that god of wedding is". Symbolising how the mediaeval and modern aspects of the Tale can be easily combined is the story of Pluto and Proserpina. Although Pluto captures his wife, she is able to spend much of the year away from Hades. This is symbolic of the greater liberty that many women can enjoy in the modern world. Opposing this modern link is the relationship between Januarie and May which is shown to have followed mediaeval tradition to a greater extent concerning the actual marriage and the mercantile nature in which it is brought about. Rather than the freedom for Proserpina agreed between herself and Pluto, Januarie desires a wife of "warm wex" that he can control, ultimately causing May to betray him. Januarie's reasons for marrying are seen as improper both in the mediaeval and modern contexts. He wishes to be married simply because he is old and society seems to say that he should. There is no consideration of love, only of lust as he declares, "I wol noon oold wyf han in no manere". A mediaeval audience would have been aware that an emphasis on carnal pleasure was displeasing to God, while this would be less of an issue to a modern audience. As marriage was considered by the mediaeval audience to be an embodiment of Christ's devotion to the Church, the theme of infidelity would be apparent to the modern audience, but without the ironic details obvious to the earlier audience. In addition to this, the simple fact that Januarie's friends are prepared to find "to whom [he] may be wedded hastily", rather than let Januarie look for himself roots the Tale in a mediaeval context as such an idea is almost inconceivable in the year 2000.

Native American Policy :: American America History

Native American Policy In the 30 years after the Civil War, although government policy towards Native Americans intended to shift from forced separation to integration into American society, attempts to "Americanize" Indians only hastened the death of their culture and presence in the America. The intent in the policy, after the end of aggression, was to integrate Native Americans into American society. Many attempts at this were made, ranging from offering citizenship to granting lands to Indians. All of these attempts were in vain, however, because the result of this policies is much the same as would be the result of continued agression. Beginning in the 1860s and lasting until the late 1780s, government policy towards Native Americans was aggressive and expressed zero tolerance for their presence in the West. In the last 1850s, tribal leaders and Americans were briefly able to compromise on living situations and land arrangements. Noncompliance by Americans, however, resumed conflict. The beginning of what would be called the "Indian Wars" started in Minnesota in 1862. Sioux, angered by the loss of much of their land, killed 5 white Americans. What resulted was over 1,000 deaths, of white and Native Americans. From that point on, American policy was to force Indians off of their land. American troops would force Indian tribe leaders to accept treaties taking their land from them. Protests or resistance by the Indians would result in fighting. On occasion, military troops would even lash out against peaceful Indians. Their aggression became out of control. Indian policy gradually shifted from this aggressive mindset to a more peaceable and soft line policy. The Indian Wars ended in 1980 with the Battle of Wounded Knee. The battle resulted in over 200 deaths, but also, almost officially, marked a change in Indian policy. Although the change had subtly began before then, policies then became more kind. The Peace Commission created the reservation policy, although this was created 27 years before the Battle at Wounded Knee. The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 was the greatest of reform efforts. The Act provided the granting of landholding to individual Native Americans, replacing communal tribal holdings. Another policy, the Burke Act of 1906, allowed Indians to become citizens if they left their tribes. Citizenship was eventually granted to all Native Americans in the 1920s. Although the intentions of Indian policy shifted, the outcomes of these policies still helped to suppress Native Americans and their culture.

Wet Seal :: essays research papers fc

Wet Seal started as a bikini shack in Newport Beach, CA in 1962. By the mid 1980’s they were known for offering trendy clothes to the most fashionable customers in Orange County. Wet Seal sold the right merchandise at the right time, and by 1995 they had enough capitol to buy 237 Contempo Casual stores from the Neiman Marcus Group.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When Wet Seal went public in 1996 they realized they needed a marketplace for 20-35 year old females with a more contemporary look. With that thought, then CEO, Kathy Bronstein, created Arden B. The venue was named after her daughter. Also in 2001, Wet Seal Inc., felt the need for a venue just for the â€Å"tween market,† girls five to 12 years old. They bought out 18 Zutopia store units from Gymboree, Inc. The store also expanded in 2001 by buying a majority of the Contempo Casual stores, and later merged web sites with Contempo Casuals that created one of the largest junior driven sites in the country.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As like every retail organization, Wet Seal Inc., has seen the best and worst during their years in business. With the 9/11 tragedy and other natural disasters, the nation’s economy had seen better days. Wet Seal Inc. stuck it out with Kathy Bronstein behind the wheel, and in late 2001 sales increased into the double digits, and stock was up 61% for the year. A vendor partner stated, â€Å" She’s one of the greatest merchants I know in the industry...she lives, eats, and breathes this junior business.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After two years of plummeting sales, and comments that they’ve â€Å"lost touch with the thrifty, fashion obsessed teens,† Wet Seal Inc. hired a new chief executive, Peter Whitford.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Peter Whitford was the former president of Walt Disney’s Disney Store operations. He also brought a talented team with him that included fashion designer, Victor Alfaro, and a teen-marketing expert, Anne Kallin Zehren. To get good output for their new line, Zehren came up with an idea to hire 11 stylizers to speak freely about Wet Seal fashions. â€Å"We’re having fashionable teens help us out,† Zehren states, and also adding that she hoped to recruit 50 stylizers by the end of the year. The stylizers are supposed to appear in ads, and add more appeal to the new clothing line.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Marketing experts agreed with the idea of hiring every day girls as fashion muses, but they also stated that Wet Seal has to be really committed to this new idea.

Chinua Achebe vs. Margret Atwood Essay

Compare the ways that vultures are portrayed and used in the poems by Margaret Atwood and Chinua Achebe. By Jessica Tilbrook. Chinua Achebe and Margret Atwood grew up in two very different environments. They were born almost a decade apart, yet they both managed to construct two very meaningful poems about vultures. Achebe was born in Nigeria in 1930. In 1967 the region of Biafra broke away from Nigeria. Achebe became a devoted supporter of Biafra independence and served as ambassador for the people of the nation. But to get this point there was a 3 year war of independence ravage. Chinua Achebe witnesses some horrific scenes. He saw babies, children and adults starving to there death. He saw his own people from Biafra killing others from Nigeria. He saw how loving people have the capacity to be evil and vice versa according to Achebe’s version on the poem ‘vultures’. Chinua Achebe believed that any good work of art should have a purpose. Achebe’s vultures defiantly had a purpose, as it shows how even evil, vile creatures like vultures have the capacity to love. Throughout Achebe’s poem there is a negative feel. From the very start of the poem it is unpleasant and quite graphic in the description of the vultures. In the poem it occasionally refers to ‘love’ as one of the vultures ‘inclines affectionately. ‘ This suggests that even vile creatures can have the capacity to love. Chinua Achebe uses many techniques throughout his poem vultures. The structure of the poem has no rhyming scheme or lines of the same lengths. The lines are written short, probably on purpose as you can then appreciate the horror, by reading it slower, creating tension. Achebe’s poem isn’t really in Stanza’s it is more split into four sections; this is probably done to keep the flow of evil and ideas running through the poem. There is also a lack of punctuation throughout the poem, this could have been done on purpose to keep the poem flowing, like the sections. Chinua Achebe choose to right in past tense for the description of the vultures, as it’s easier to understand what vultures are like whereas the Belsen Commandant is described in the present tense. This might of been done to remind us that evil is all around us now, and everyone has the capacity to be evil. The word strange on its own, at the beginning of the second section makes us pause, and think about what’s actually going to be strange, which makes you think about the whole section. Throughout Achebe’s poem there is a lot of imagery a good example of this is ‘Belsen Commandant’ – a mass murderer and his children calling him Daddy, not father. This is probably done so you can visualise how the children have no idea of what there father has actually done, and they are treating him like normal. This is quite emotional to read, as you can imagine this really happening. Another example of Achebe’s imagery is the metaphors he uses to describe death and horror. In the first section it says ‘vulture perching high on broken bones of a dead tree’. This makes the atmosphere more intense, and builds up the tension from the very beginning. There is some alliteration in the poem, but there are not many references to sound. I think Achebe wants to concentrate on more visual images rather than sound effects to suggest his ideas. I liked Achebe’s version of the poem vultures. It had a very meaningful purpose, which is what Achebe wanted to achieve. He wanted to use vultures as a ‘vehicle’ to get people to understand that even the most loving of people have the capacity to be evil. I think he used vultures as a very successful vehicle at getting his point across. I also think that this poem is ambiguous on one hand, you could say that even the cruellest of creatures show even the tiniest amount of love, but on the other hand, that even the most loving creatures have potential to be even the slightest bit evil. The second poem called vultures was written my Margret Atwood. She was born in Ottawa, Ontario in 1939. She was a daughter of a forest entomologist, and spent part of her early years in the bush of North Quebec. Atwood is the joint honorary president of the rare bird club of birdlife international. The main message of this poem is how life comes of death. So basically the cycle of life, and even from the most horrific things in life, can bring something extraordinary out of it. Throughout Atwood’s poems there are references to death, such as ‘hung’ and ‘bones’. This does not give a good vibe to the poem. Atwood uses several metaphors throughout. ‘Then they’re hyenas, raucous around the kill, flapping their black umbrellas. ‘ This is two metaphors in one sentence. She describes the vultures as hyenas which is not only a good comparison but good use of imagery. Also Atwood says the vultures were flapping their black umbrellas this makes them out to seem huge evil animals. The structure of Atwood’s poem is done very well, as she occasionally puts odd words on a separate line to make you think about the poem in more depth. The poem is sort of in stanza’s but there isn’t maybe, which helps the poem keep flowing. All of the lines in the poem are roughly the same length, apart from the occasional odd word. I think it makes the poem easier to read, and get the rhyme flowing at the right pace. Margret Atwood uses a variety of meaningful and powerful words. For example ‘carnage’ ‘violate’ ‘gluttonous’ all these words have a negative impact on vultures. As they are explaining why and how they are vile creates. But some people might say that the way vultures act is completely natural. This is because it is natural for them to eat, which means killing other animals, to feed themselves and there family. Which shows this poem is also quite ambiguous. There aren’t many references to sound throughout Atwood’s version of Vultures. But she does say vultures snigger at funerals. And sniggering refers to sound. This also implies vultures are vile creature, as it is inappropriate to horribly giggle at a funeral. I think that Margret Atwood successfully used vultures as a good vehicle to show how life comes out of death, even in the most horrible circumstances. I thought both Chinua Achebe and Margret Atwood’s poems both had very different meanings, but both shows contrasts between humans and vultures. In my opinion Chinua Achebe’s version of vultures was the best used vehicle to get his point across. As he point his point across very well, and he achieved his purpose ‘that any good work of art should have a purpose. ‘ So I think Chinua Achebe’s poem just slightly had an edge over Margret Atwood’s because of Achebe’s aims for his poem.

Corporate Entrepreneurship Essay

Background: US Broadcasting Industry: The US media industry was the second largest market around world at $255.1 billion and was forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 2.3 percent till 2017. Within the media industry, broadcasting and TV was the largest category with a market of $142.6 billion. The industry players were competing mainly with one another for viewership to drive advertising revenue which was the primary source of profits. The traditional advertising driven business model started to shift due to a few trends. First of all, there were more ways for broadcasting advertisers to reach customers. The progressive consumerization of technologies such as social media tools had contributed to this trend. Secondly, new technology products made it possible for users to skip advertising. Thirdly, the content creation was getting localized and the audience was fragmenting. Fourthly, more television advertising was purchased through consolidated conglomerates which had various resources with better insights about their target audiences. Lastly, the switch from analogue to digital TV broadcasting not only led to multicasting with more channels but also made the industry more favorable for new entrants. In general, the technologies were putting so much pressures on the traditional business of this industry. Latinos in the US: There were also unique factors for this largest minority group in US. Firstly, the Latinos were growing at 8 times the rate of the non-Latino population and contributed to nearly 17% of US total population. Other than that, the per capita income of US Latinos were higher than any of the BRIC and households and was growing at a faster rate than the number of total households in US. Thirdly, Latinos were on the path of â€Å"acculturation† and they were leading dual lives. However, the Latinos formed only 6% of the total marketing pie as an audience and there did exist a huge gap. As a result, Latino market had truly become the most potential market segment for various industries. Entravision, Luminar and the Big Data: Entravision, which had 56 TV stations and 49 radio stations in most popular Latino markets across US in 2013, was the largest independent public media company focused principally on the US Latino audience. Regards all the strong corporate performances and growths, Franklin Rios and Walter Ulloa, the founding chairman of Entravision, had agreed on to set up an analytics division called Luminar in Entravision. The main objective of Luminar was to act as the first mover which would leverage Big Data analytics at Entravision to offer exceptional marketing and advertising products as well as lead Entravision to transform from a media company into an information and analytics company. Situation: Rios understood the impacts both the technological trends and the Latino demographic trends had made to the US broadcasting industry. He understood that the traditional market research tools had limitations which would not help him to further extract insights from the US Latino market and the search for alternatives led him to the Big Data. His Big Data initiative was strongly supported by Ulloa as he believed that leveraging Big Data at Entravision could not only help them to fully understand the Latino market to extract its huge potential values but also serves as a new element of corporate strategy to lead Entravision to stand out from its traditional media industry competitors. As a result, Rios and Ulloa decided to establish Luminar as the Big Data analytic division at Entravision. At the same time, Ulloa’s own interest in the launch of Luminar we driven by these 4 objectives: Entravision should transform from a media company into an information and analytics company. Laminar would be the centerpiece of such a transformation of Entravision. The new data driven approach of Luminar would complement the traditional survey driven approach of Entravision. Luminar would in the long run to be a new revenue stream for Entravision. As the first mover in the space without any competitor in sight, Luminar and Entravision had gained strategic advantages over their competitors. Using the Socio-technical framework to further understand Luminar and Entravision’s positions under the Big Data environment, it is important to consider Entravision and Luminaries respectively and then collectively to evaluate how closely they align with each other: Entravision: Structure: A listed company, multiple broadcasting stations, with traditional corporate function units such as Finance, Marketing, R&D, Sales and etc. People: Nearly 1,000 employees, familiar with the old industry norms, believe qualitative data was more important than quantitative data. IT: Majorly TV and Radio, mobile, digital, web, other interactive media Process: All kinds of traditional ways of delivering values to customers, community involvement, local content creation. Luminar: Structure: New corporate entrepreneurship, division of Entravision, President Rios reporting directly to Ulloa, initial investments all from parent company People: Exposed to technologies and innovations, data driven, IT: Huge amount of data from various sources, Hortonworks, MapReduce, high performance data analysis platform Process: New revenue streams, data analytics, using various algorithms From the above Socio-technical framework analysis, there were huge differences between Entravision and Luminar in terms of structure, people, IT and process. Also, this distinct misalignment could seed potential roadblocks for Luminar’s future growth. Problems: Rios was truly facing some problems before the launch of Luminar. First of all, the growth target set by Ulloa for Luminar to generate 10% of the revenues of Entravision in 5 years was achievable but was too aggressive and pressuring. He was confident that with no competitors in the market Luminar could reach this target, however, he did need more time to sort out other problems. Secondly, unbalanced interests lead him to question about the  effectiveness of Luminar’s structure fit into Entravision as a fully embedded division. Moreover, there was no proper performance measurement system existing at that moment for Luminar to build up the credibility both internally and externally. Furthermore, although Luminar could approach internally or externally, there was still no clear direction for Luminar regarding how to leverage Big Data analytics at Entravision. Lastly, Rios was also worried about how he could sustain a first mover advantage for Luminar and the business model could not easily been imitated by competitors. Based on all the issues Rios were concerning, the fundamental problem should lied on that there were no internal buy-in at Entravision because people were skeptical about Luminar. Therefore, how to successfully securing internal buy-in became extremely critical to Luminar’s sustainable long term growth. Analysis: Obviously, for Entravision, it had stable business and constant growth for years. At the same time, the strong demographic trend of Latino group was bringing more and more opportunities for future business of Entravision. Furthermore, the traditional marketing method based on qualitative data were still believed to be reliable. As a result, there was no evidence of any burning platform at Entravision and thus no urgency for any organizational change. The socio-technical framework analysis in the situation part also shows that there were distinct misalignments between Luminar and Entravision regarding the 4 organizational aspects including structure, people, IT and processes. These misalignments indicates that it could be really hard for Entravision people to understand, accept and then support what Luminar was about to do. Securing internal buy-in Entravision was really critical to Luminar. First of all, as its entrepreneur division, Entravision would be committing funds for the laun ch of the Big Data initiative and its growth. The funds would be provided to Luminar on annual basis. Thus, if the internal buy-in was not in place, Luminar’s funds for growth would not be guaranteed regardless the performance of Luminar. Secondly, one of the major objectives for establishing Luminar was to make it as a central part of corporate strategy to transform Entravision from a traditional media company  to an information and analytics company. Rios and Ulloa had to admit that this was also an attempt to change the underlying corporate culture of Entravision and culture change has been considered as the most challenging part for any organization change. Without internal buy-in, the transformation efforts would quickly fade out without changing the DNA of Entravision. Thirdly, the new data driven approach of Luminar was expected to be complemented with the traditional survey driven approach of Entravision. Without internal support from Entravision R&D department, Luminar would not be able to come up with more int egrated and systematic solutions to its customer and offer its customer with better and insightful marketing solutions to target at the US Latino group. In addition, Luminar relied strongly on the partnership with Entravision. Entravision’s market experiences as well as customer relationships could provide Luminar with a very resourceful platform to start their sales. If Luminar could not secure internal buy-in from department such as Marketing, Luminar would not be able to leverage this resourceful platform to make itself as a new revenue stream for Entravision. When we look back at the minor problems in the previous section that Rios was trying to figure out, it seems that most of them were resulted from the major issue that there were no internal buy-in in place. For example, Rios was wondering what kind of structural fit Luminar should be, what caused this was exactly the different interests from internal stakeholders. If they all the internal stakeholders were supporting Luminar, the anticipated structural fit for Luminar to be a strategic division in Entravision should be the win-win solution. Other than that, Rios’ concern on performance milestones was also caused by the lack of internal buy-in because Rios needed to lead Luminar to achieve those milestones to establish credibility with not only with customers but also with employees of Entravision. Decision Criteria: 1: Financial stability The first criteria for evaluating the best option is financial stability. Although Luminar was different from traditional type of startup companies which were always looking for sources of funds, Luminar still faced  pressures from losing support from Ulloa and Entravision. If there was not any feasible substitution for funds available for Luminar, Luminar should try to ensure the current committed funds from Entravision. 2: Remove resistances from R&D, finance and sales department Internal resists came primarily from the three sources which are R&D, finance and sales departments. The winning option should effectively remove the roadblocks from all of these 3 departments. Luminar absolutely needed corporations from these 3 departments to support its long term growth. The R&D would be providing human and technical resources for Luminar to develop the Big Data analytic solutions. The finance department would be responsible for funding Luminar and measuring its performance. Sales department would help Luminar approach its new products and solutions to Entravision’s existing customers as well as any new potential customers. 3: Sustain long term culture change This criteria requires the option to be able to sustain long term culture change inside Entravision. Basically, the option could further help the Entravision employee understand what Big Data is and what kind of benefits Big Data could bring to them. If the Entravision employees started to realize the solutions based on quantitative data is better than the traditional norms based on the qualitative data, they would start to accept Big Data and Luminar and finally start to change the culture. 4: Potence of creating business synergies and new revenue streams. This criteria is used to evaluate if the options have potential to create business synergies and new revenue streams. The Luminar was not even started so everything was still unknown. As a result, one of the easiest ways to secure internal buy-in would be showing that the option had potential to create business synergies and new revenue streams. The above 4 criteria are listed according to their priorities. Criteria 1 must be satisfied as it is critical to all new business adventure. Criteria 2 also needs to be satisfied because unable to remove those major resistances could directly result in failing the process of securing  internal buy-in. Criteria 3 also needs to be satisfied as it could further strengthen the internal buy-in by eventually encoding the data analytics into Entravision’s DNA. The last criteria is also important as satisfying it could deliver Entravision with even higher level of confidence in Luminar. Options: Since Luminar was not even started, the proposed options here are basically strategic proposals that Rios could present to Ulloa and the board of directors to show how he could possibly secure the internal buy-in. 1: Luminar as an independent startup company and acts as a strategic partner with Entravision For this option, Rios would propose that Luminar to become a separate company and maintain an arm’s-length with Entravision. As an independent startup company, Luminar would acquire its own resources such as R&D, HR, Operation, Marketing and Sales. With initial funds from Entravision, Luminar could go out and seek more venture capitals for its build up and future development. At the same time, the company can focus on its own corporate vision and objectives without worrying about any resistances from Entravision. As a strategic partner with Entravision, Luminar could still take advantage from Entravision’s resourceful platform. For this option, since Luminar did not have any prototype available and with only the ideas in Rios’ mind, it could be really hard for Luminar to seek external venture capitals. In the meantime, securing funds from Entravision executives would also become harder as it is no longer a part of Entravision. As a result, this option has very high risk in securing the financial stability and could not satisfy the first criteria. Luminar would no longer act as a change agent in Entravision if it becomes independent. Thus this option would also not meet criteria 3. Although this option strongly satisfying criteria 2, it still can be easily opted out as it does not meet the most important criteria 1 and 3. 2: Luminar as a strategic division and focus on leveraging Big Data externally For this option, Luminar would keep the current structure fit to be a strategic division of Entravision. At the same time, Luminar would  focus on leveraging Big Data externally by targeting with external customers. Rios already had initiatives in mind and he planned to develop three specific products based on Big Data at Luminar. The first product would be Analytics which could interpret data to help clients target their customers better. The second product would be a service that could â€Å"cookie-tize† offline transactions data to merge with online data and altogether to enable clients to expand the scope of their digital market. The third product could improve the accuracy of social media to provide customers with more fine-grind market insights. Rios would initially use the three new products to aim at blue chip marketers and advertisers who were Entravision customers and provide them with competitive advantages. For this option, as long as Luminar could generate topline performance, Entravision would continue to invest in Luminar. As a result, this option satisfy criteria 1 as it keeps Entravision as the best investor to keep financial stability. Luminar’s focus on external customers might not effectively remove the resistance from its R&D department. However, by targeting at the blue chip key customers, any successful sales closure could turn the marketing team from resistance to support. Regarding the financial department, as long as the revenue starts to come in, CFO and the financial folks would start to believe in Luminar. Thus, for the second criteria, this option could partially satisfy it. For the third criteria, as most of Entravision employees were still not able to see the benefits that Big Data could bring to them and with remaining major resistance from R&D department, this option could not effectively sustain the long term culture change. For the criteria 4, this option successfully satisfy it as it would definitely create new revenue streams for Entravision. 3: Further leveraging Big Data at Entravision through internal innovations. This option is basically built on the top of option 2 and Lumina would further leveraging Big Data internally. Luminar would still focus strongly on the existing external customers and developing those 3 products for offering. Other than that, Luminar would design and develop tools and solutions specifically tailored to internal departments. For example, Luminar could develop Big Data initiatives to help finance department to tracking real time cash flows as well as forecasting budgets. For HR  department, solutions could be created for helping them in team building and performance evaluation. For sales department, Big Data could also help them in inventory management, forecasting, relationship management, closing deals and etc. Regarding the R&D department, Luminar could also offer solutions which were basically better than what they were having. Meanwhile, Luminar could work with R&D department to achieve predictive analytics in the future. For this option, it would boost the corporate performance through both internal and external initiatives. It could definitely satisfy criteria 1. For criteria 2, this option further indicates what Luminar and Big Data could bring to those 3 departments. With both the external performance and internal benefits, the 3 departments would likely to start buy-in and thus this criteria is also satisfied. For the third criteria, this option allows Lumina to distinguish most number of early adopters throughout the corporation and they could simply help with spreading the DNA out to rest of the corporation to sustain the long term culture change. For the last criteria, this option is truly able to show that Luminar would be potential to create business synergies by offering various internal initiatives and new revenue streams through those 3 mentioned products targeting external customers. By comparing all of the above options, approaching the third option seems the most favorable as it satisfy all of the four criteria. When Rios was about to propose this option to Ulloa and the board of directors, they would be confident that Luminar could successfully remove the resistances and secure sufficient internal buy-in. Plan: Short term: 6 months to 1 year For the short term, Rios should clearly propose the winning option to Ulloa and rest of the board of directors. He needed to explain the proposal with great details which would help the directors to carry forward his ideas and messages down to each department of Entravision. The next thing Rios should do was to officially establish Luminar and start seeking for the resources to build up his team. The DNA of the Entravision was not analytical, thus,  it would be better to attract resources from outside of Entravision. At the same time, Luminar should target at hiring analytic resources with strong Latino background as they know how to generate better insights from the Latino market. By end of the 6th month, Luminar should have the core team successfully built. After that, Luminar should start the data acquisition tasks. The process he envisioned involved building a database of US adults and a subset of Latino adults in US. Then, Luminar would extract data from social media tools such as blogs, tweets and YouTube. Together, this would generate, from preliminary reckoning, about 125 terabyte of living, breathing data which could be analyzed in real time. Going forward, the data would be ingested into Hortonworks along with algorithms such as MapReduce and Luminar customized ones to profile consumer types with a high degree of precision. This fundamental technical platform for Big Data analytic should be established and tested to be reliable by end of year 1. Medium term: 1 year -3 years Starting this period, Luminar should invite representatives from each internal department and work together on the development of both external customer facing products as well as the internal customer facing products. Those representatives should be people welcome to any change and they would also be responsible for acting as the change agents for their corresponding departments. Those 3 products targeting at external customers should receive higher priority. By end of mid of year 2, the prototypes of the 3 products should be ready for test. Sales team should working closely with Luminar and get involved in the product development process. The reason why promoting sales team involvement is that it would offer enough information and training for them to change their messages to pitch customers. And by end of year 2, the final delivery of these 3 products should be ready for any potential business opportunity to generating revenue. After the external products were developed, Luminar would shift their efforts to focus on developing those internal products. Those representatives from each department should be involved within the development process and feed update back to their own departments. By end of the mid of year 3, prototypes for internal products should be ready for testing and initial training. By end of the year 3, the final internal products should be in production and full  scale of training should be in place. Organizational change effort could be started parallelly in this period with the product development. Successful transformational change must have supports from the c-level, as a result, Rios should work with Ulloa to secure buy-in within board of directors and executives to support the organization culture change. Kotter’s 8 steps could be used to direct the change process. By end of this period, Luminar should be able to successfully secure large scale internal buy-in and would offer them a health and sustainable environment for future growth. Long term: 3 – 5 years In this long term period, with further adoption of internal products within various departments, analytical DNA should started to spread over through word of mouth, performance dashboards and etc. The culture change process should also benefit from the above achievement. For Luminar, its primary objectives in this term would be maintain and improve both the external and internal products. At the same time, Luminar would focus on revenue growth and work hard to achieve that 10 percent of total revenues of Entravision by end of the fifth year. If Luminar turned out to be a successful corporate entrepreneurship adventure, Entravision should make Luminar as an example in the future to leverage another corporate entrepreneurship to facing any future revolutionary industry change.