Apple: Competitive Strategies and Government Policies Essay

Abstracts For every profit oriented industry to survive in the globalize market; they must employed competition strategies that suit their operations and also keep in mind their competitors and target set to be achieved. This makes every company feel the pressure to be successful and to maintain leading the industry. This pressure plays significant role in the survival of industry in the competitive market. The effect of pressure faced by industries can either positive for the leading industry or negative when overpowered by rivals. Apple has gone into the technological mobile devices industry with a blast and imparted apprehension into contenders inside the same business. In spite of the fact that Apple costs their items/products at a higher offering value, their products are regularly alluded to as first class and worth the additional expense. The expense of Apple’s stock, which was seen as a shortcoming to competitors, has demonstrated to help support in their prosperity Introduction Competition and Mergers As market become globalizes and new companies enter the competitive market, there is always a desire to be one of the leading manufacturers in the field of production for both the entrants and the existing companies. Apple is one of the companies that strive to be excellent in the field of its manufacture products. Being a multi-billion dollar industry in technology that has over 30 years of experience that can teach any new business how to be successful. Moreover, Apple has gained from past missteps like valuing an item too high furthermore constraining the color of a product to one color. Case in point, when the IPod first turned out in the mid 2000’s it was valued at $999.99 one penny shy of one thousand dollars. The IPod was valued as of right now on the grounds that they needed to appear like a select product. The ruin to their new product was that it  just adjusted with Apple PCs confining the adaptability of the select product Apple can show another new entrants organization about globalization, in light of the fact that they are a worldwide business that has made billions of dollars and will keep on making billions. Apple conceives brand new ideas by making their products quicker and with more limit than contenders. Likewise, Apple has a tendency to be the first to make an item before contenders. The IPad was a unique making of Apple that was in front of contenders. After the arrival of the IPad contenders took after with their own particular structure called the tablet. Apple has yet to converge with another organization and ought to never need to do as such. Apple makes the greater part of their items themselves and has ended up being a standout amongst the best organizations in the innovation business. However Apple has purchased a rate of Beats which is organization that creates e arphones for music gadgets. One accepts that Apple purchased a rate of Beats in light of the fact that they needed to differentiate their portfolio Government Policies and Regulations The business electronic gadget industry is convoluted. Concerning matter of laws, regulations, duties, and government regulations, various variables apply. With such a significant industry, different relationship at the neighborhood, state, and even government level collaborate to administer the business. Additionally, impressively more affiliations exist that are secretly run help to control the business. As a rule, when referencing systems and regulations, the Commercial Electronic gadget Industry is subject to different sorts of administrative laws and regulations. These laws may fuse the laws that relate to security. You moreover have a couple of governments that deal with the neighborhood substance, charges and tolls; they may constrain duties or other exchange obstructions too. At the point when there are new institutions or any sorts of changes to existing authorizations it can bring about those in the business electronic gadgets industry needing to take care of an additional expense. Reliably administrators are getting the chance to be stricter with the laws and regulations administering the business electronic gadgets industry. The present and expected government policies and regulations fusing expenses and regulations set up to convey issues related to externalities. By and  large the administration arrangements towards the environment and expenses, has control measures for regulation and enactment. Through your organization, the plans are planned to accomplish more profitable use of the advantages that are made open to the clients. To propel a substitution between the advantages that is present and gives a spark from the organization procedure. While the assembly decreases to present natural evaluations so the present costs are regarding natures with the understanding of the essential issue in setting obligations for the state. â€Å"Our commitment to customer privacy doesn’t stop because of a government information request†(Apple, 2015). Government information requesting is a result of cooperating in the advanced age. Apple has trust in being as clear and straightforward as the law allows about what information is requested from the affiliation. Moreover, Apple has never worked with any governing body office from any country to make a â€Å"roundabout access† in any of their products. Apple has similarly never allowed any administration access to their servers, and communicates that they never will. Global Competition and Management Decisions Apple, Inc.’s change from the organization it was grinding a way’s initiation to the organization it is in the present day is an aftereffect of numerous vital administration choices. These choices help them focus on shopper needs while expanding piece of the pie. As showed by showcasing magazine (2010), â€Å"Apple has built up itself as a family unit name in a business sector where innovation is continually advancing, and customers energetically anticipate the following huge thing† (p. 18). Notwithstanding the expanded rivalry in the versatile correspondence and individualized computing industry, Apple has kept up its position as the business leaders. While Apple keeps on endeavoring to give inventive items to customers, contenders compass to surpass Apple’s achievement in the business. Carare (2013) expressed that mobile phone makers get generally high benefits. Indeed, even under these circumstances, a few business visionaries make utilization of out of line exercises to draw in clients, which brings about benefit. Apple picks to use reasonable exchange practices even while contenders have the capacity to duplicate their items accordingly  lessening Apple’s preference over competition. Apple products are outlined in California, however keeping in mind the end goal to keep up their competitive edge; they lessen generation costs by having their items collected in production lines the world over. While this could open them up to liabilities in regards to uncalled for work rehearses, Apple lives up to expectations nearly with its suppliers to guarantee moral strategies as to remote specialists. Around the world Apple workers are united in bringing correspondence, human rights, and admiration for the earth to the most profound layers of our inventory network†. Preparing projects mean to instruct and engage laborers while trying to energize security of our common assets Jeff Williams, Senior Vice President of Operations at Apple, (2015). Local Competition Apple has a wide range of difficulties in the distinctive competitive markets particularly with their local competition. A major test is the Research and Development which they generally need to remain focused of to appear as something else all through their operation. There will dependably be bugs that they will need to alter yet they must keep focused of it. Another test for Apple is that with a specific end goal to remain focused of their position with Windows Operating System around the globe and being even more extensive spread contrasted with the mackintosh operating system. Windows operating system is on MacBook’s and I-Mac(Desktops) of Apple, they need to move in the direction of across the board accessibility of Macintosh, it is free from infection not at all like Windows where consistently some or alternate infection is found making issues in equipment and programming. Advancements in the Windows platform, incorporating those included in Windows 98 and Windows NT, or those normal to be incorporated in new forms of Windows to be presented later on, have added elements to the Windows stage/platform that make the contrasts between the Mac OS and Microsoft’s Windows operating systems less significant. Mac has and is at present taking and will keep on making moves to react to the focused weights being set on its PC deals as an aftereffect of the late advancements in the Windows operating system. Apple’s future combined working results and monetary condition are all that much reliant on the capacity to continue to create changes to the Macintosh stage to keep up saw utilitarian  preferences over competing stages. As clients become globalized, they constrain companies to consider globalizing their plan of action. A contender like Apple who globalizes promptly can have an extraordinary chance to make financial aspects of scale and scoop and the upper point of preference. The game changers picked up by an early participant into a business sector. With regards to developing markets, Apple does and will represent a danger now and later on inside of the group of their rivals. Conclusion Apple has demonstrated during the time to surpass with meeting all commitments through legitimate maters, exceeding expectations inside their industry, opposing mergers, and emerging to local competition. Macintosh is an effective organization that has stood out with the arrival of items like the IPad, IPod, and IPhones. Apple is by all account not the only organization that exists inside of the versatile innovation industry, yet Apple has made a point to be one of the top contenders inside the business. The fate of Apple is hinting at no easing off in their triumphs References Apple. (2011, Aug 10). Marketing 18. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/887273428?accountid=458 Apple, Inc. (2015). The 2015 Progress Report. Retrieved from: https://www.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/progress-report/ Carare, P. M. (2013). Unfair competition: Samsung versus apple. International Journal of Innovations in Business, 2(3), 293-297. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1438426517?accountid=458

Desperate remedies Essay

They say, desperate situations need desperate remedies. The leaders of the feminist movement think on these lines. Several feminist groups sprouted all over the world, and used the word equality like a fighting soldier uses the sword. 70s and 80s saw this kind of upheaval in the society. In countries like USA, it appeared as though every household had a spokesperson for the cause of women. Atwood was a prominent part of this movement. Being a hardcore individualist, she did not join any group, but remained as the one-woman army. In USA, Feminist movements advanced like waters during the high tide, but all of a sudden, they met with several roadblocks like, the defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment, the election of Ronald Reagan as President, the assertion of religious rights etc. The fear of possible defeat in their cherished objectives alarmed the leaders of the feminist movement and the specter of the dawn of a new era of victimization seemed to be on the cards. Next, utter confusion prevailed among the feminist groups with regard to sexuality and pornography. The most forward thinking of the women said everything was fair, others cried a halt to such demeaning trends. Serious disagreements among the votaries of the common cause surfaced New alignments took shape like the one between the anti-porn zealots and the religious groups. The issue of protection of â€Å"good† women surfaced. Islamic women had heir own problems with the outward show of body curves. Many women reacted with repulsion for the writings and descriptions in Atwood’s novel. Satire is the strong point of the novel, but it carries the bitter taste with it. It hurts and wounds. This approach makes you condemn her, and she fails to win appreciation of many. Her biblical references look as if the Satan is quoting the Bible. Yet, the cause of women is dear to her and she pricks and penetrates the hearts of the readers, both men and women, in style. One feels extremely sorry for the characters she has created, the psychological labyrinth she has weaved, and the way she has depicted how two women are happy for a wrong cause. In patriarchal Hebrew era, it is the accepted social norm for a man to have sex and produce children by his slave servants, more so when his wife is infertile†¦and how a infertile woman embraces the fertile maidservant as she gives birth, with the bonus of legal transfer of rights on the baby to the woman who can not conceive. The establishment of a totalitarian theocratic state, the rigid dress codes for women, the themes of women subjugation and the related descriptions kindle the fire of revenge in women to raise the voice and fight against the tyrannical social norms. The hostility Atwood faces is not for the basic cause for which she fights, but for the anti-religious content and sexual references. The story is told from the viewpoint of Offred, a Handmaid. She is a patronymic which describes her unique and rigid functions in the Republic of Gilead. As one reads the entire story, even in the wildest imagination one feels that the sequence of events detailed and described can not be true. But Atwood has succeeded in her basic objective. To make women hate the society for which the rules are drafted by men, how men protect their dominant interests- and sex is the most dominant of them. To protect the interest, rules are framed, reframed, twisted and violated, all by men without any consideration for the feelings of women. The Handmaid in the novel with whom she is ordered to have sex, must be thinking to murder him, as he does the sexual act in the most inhuman and debasing manner like a robot. She has none to defend her and can not utter a word of protest. This is worst than hanging an innocent individual without trial, just because the King wishes so. The legal wife supports and co-operates in the act. Does she also do it willingly and with happiness? Some brutal force and the set of rigid rules of governing the society must be guiding her actions as well. She too is a helpless victim, though the privileged one. Look at the way how Offred describes the ceremony relating to producing the desired child. â€Å"My red skirt is hitched up to my waist though no higher. Below it the Commander is fucking. What he is fucking is the lower part of my body. I do not say making love, because this is not what he’s doing. Copulating too would be inaccurate, because it would imply two people and only one is involved. Nor does rape cover it: nothing is going on here that I haven’t signed up for. † (Atwood, pg. 116) The height of perversion goes to such an extent that once a Handmaid is pregnant, she is venerated by her peers and by the Wives. After her baby is born, it is given to the Wife of her Commander, and she is reassigned to another household. The plight of the women is more critical than the characters in George Orwell’s â€Å"Animal Farm. †

Terrorism Preparedness & Response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Terrorism Preparedness & Response - Essay Example Cargo departments will To disrupt organisations further, suspects will be put under surveillance and an intelligence force, whose focus is on detection of terrorist crime and law enforcement will infiltrate all areas of US society- from the workplace to community organizations- to seek information and reveal terrorist activities. As stated in The White House Paper, 'Prevent and Disrupt Terrorist Attacks' ,"Law enforcement officials, therefore, must continue to identify and address sources of violent extremism in the Homeland" (1) The authorities will also gain control over terrorist funding and financing- freezing accounts and retrieving terrorist-linked funds. 2) Deny WMD to Rogue States and Terrorist Allies Who Seek to Use Them. States, and terrorist allies, that are viewed as a threat to global peace will be denied WMD with the implementation of the 'Proliferation Security Initiative'. As terrorism is a worldwide problem, nations must act in unity. Under the initiative, over seventy nations are joining forces to prevent the cargo of any shipments which may be connected with weapons of mass destruction. This covers all means of transporting weapon related goods. Again, screening and detection of dangerous cargo is paramount. This international unified network will disrupt transportation of WMD. Key areas to be vigilant over importation and exportation of goods are Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Afghanistan, amongst others. 3) Deny Terrorists the S... As stated in The White House Paper, 'Prevent and Disrupt Terrorist Attacks' ,"Law enforcement officials, therefore, must continue to identify and address sources of violent extremism in the Homeland" (1) The authorities will also gain control over terrorist funding and financing- freezing accounts and retrieving terrorist-linked funds. 2) Deny WMD to Rogue States and Terrorist Allies Who Seek to Use Them. States, and terrorist allies, that are viewed as a threat to global peace will be denied WMD with the implementation of the 'Proliferation Security Initiative'. As terrorism is a worldwide problem, nations must act in unity. Under the initiative, over seventy nations are joining forces to prevent the cargo of any shipments which may be connected with weapons of mass destruction. This covers all means of transporting weapon related goods. Again, screening and detection of dangerous cargo is paramount. This international unified network will disrupt transportation of WMD. Key areas to be vigilant over importation and exportation of goods are Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Afghanistan, amongst others. 3) Deny Terrorists the Support and Sanctuary of Rogue States. Firstly, we must communicate with each state. Some will be reluctant to comply yet may be persuaded to renounce the sponsorship of terrorism. Others states will be willing to work with the US. 3. Fragile states may be strengthened and enabled by an agreement with the US to stop their support of terrorists. The aim will also be to change terrorist states into allies. Where terrorists may seek sanctuary, we will also seek and destroy. Our intelligence forces will be searching and eliminating any terrorist sanctuary. These same forces will infiltrate terrorist groups and destroy the

Griselda Blanco de Trujillo The Godmother of Drug Trafficking Essay

Griselda Blanco de Trujillo The Godmother of Drug Trafficking - Essay Example Griselda Blanco is one such personality who emerged and established her in the underworld so strongly that she was given the title of Godmother. It throws light on the fact that women are becoming increasingly involved in criminal activities, most importantly drug trafficking. This paper summarizes the rise and fall of Griselda Blanco. In the spring of 1975 Griselda Blanco’s Learjet arrived at the Bogota airport from Miami. As soon as the jet touched down, the runway was flocked by a cavalcade of black Limousines carrying fully armed enforcers. Blanco, the five feet tall, oval faced 32-year-old who weighed 165 pounds, was instantly escorted by her crew towards a famous night club in the Columbian capital. She was visiting her husband, Alberto Bravo, who was her confidante and her partner in crime. Together, they formed a cartel that â€Å"moved hundreds of kilos of cocaine in the US, and employed nearly 1,500 dealers â€Å"(Brown 95). That fateful day Griselda was a woman on a mission, which was to confront her husband for his wrong doings and corruption involving millions. Safely tucked inside her boot was a loaded pistol which left little doubt about her intentions. Bravo was eagerly waiting for her to assume nothing about her sudden visit to the drug-trafficking hub of America, i.e., Colombia. As they came in person, her rage alarmed him and the six guards who surrounded him. Nothing could stop this woman from the vengeance she nestled in her heart for her husband, who was the king of cocaine smuggling in Colombia. Bullets were fired from both the groups killing several guards. Bravo was killed on the spot by Griselda, who targeted his head and fired without thinking twice that this was her husband whom she wanted to eliminate. With just one careful shot, Griselda became the legendary godmother of the drug mafia in America. Griselda Blanco, the woman with a cleft chin, was hardly passable as a drug dealer, let alone the drug lord. However, this was indeed a fact that she became the undisputed queen of underworld mafia, and was the most feared one due to her ruthless tactics and aggressive approach. The surprising factor is that she was also a mysterious figure to the law enforcement agencies, and her complete criminal records were only revealed through her own kept diaries. Guy Gugliotta and Jeff Leen wrote that â€Å"in 1977 DEA agents in Medellin discovered the bookkeeping records of Griselda Blanco and began to learn of the ties between the traffickers they pursued† (Gugliotta and Leen 28). Blanco was born in a poor family on February 15, 1943 in the slums of Cartagena Columbia (Brown 96). She had a childhood and spent most of her early years in the barrio (Riano-Alcala 42). She became a prostitute at the young age of eleven to get rid of her turbulent life and abusive mother. As she belonged to the land of crime †Columbia," she was involved in various criminal acts like pocket picking, abducting children from wealthy families, robbing and shooting people for money since the age of eleven (Brown 96). Bob Polombo, US DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) agent said that â€Å"I just think it was inherent to Griselda Blanco. This goes back to her life, the way she was brought up. She was just a violent person† (Brown 96).   The period from 1960 to 1980 was a bountiful time for drug dealing all over

Raze-Raise Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Raze-Raise - Essay Example This structure made of human hair, acrylic, wood and latex rubber gives the viewer the opportunity to create individual meaning. Hen one stands close to this piece of art, there are sound bites coming from the loop. Page was able to record the imaginative process when making the exhibit. Page also recorded sounds from different gay night clubs found in Denver. The recording reverberates throughout the gallery producing an ambience of loneliness in a crowd. The blend of art, destiny and subject combination in the raze raise piece of art attracts a feeling that it is not easy to replicate. A real photograph explains everything from its appearance though it also needs some written explanation. Jeff Page was born in Denver and acquired his BFA in Interdisciplinary studies from the San Fransisco Art Institute. Page’s art work creation revolves around sculptural mixed media work and 2DD, according to Hamel (1). His works are created using collage, watercolor, acrylic and different eccentric materials. One of the reasons behind his success in art is the ability to braid concepts, material and intuition together. His areas of interest just as depicted in raze raise include the body, nature, psychology and gender. The terms raze and raise are both antonyms and homophones, meaning words opposite in meaning and yet pronounced similarly. Page’s work, including raze and raise usually center on the twofold bonding and differences especially between nature and human body. He normally explores his ideas using experimental procedure of creating unrelated materials frequently sticking them together and then tearing them separately. This procedure physically and visually unites the two materials thus generating a unified â€Å"skin.† For raze raise art exhibition, Page gathered audio from queer settings, pieces of wood, redundant hair, a chain of poured latex skins, boards to form a structure, a chain of pelts, mass of beards ,and pulses of sound. All these,

The Youthquake of the 1960s resulted in the launch of many magazines Essay

The Youthquake of the 1960s resulted in the launch of many magazines aimed at young women - Essay Example This decade was stated as â€Å"both the best of times and the worst of times†. One of the transformational highlights that took place during this decade was a cultural revolution and transformation for of the women. The feminist trends were introduced during the sixties and the subsequent decades were affected by the feminism that came forward during the sixties. Women were following the new culture of feminism which reflected in their workplace decisions, marriage decisions, child-bearing issues and freedom of choice in their personal lives (Walsh 2010). The 1960s was a decade of change and revolutionary changes throughout the fashion trends with emerging new ideas and images, the reflection of which is still depicted through today’s fashion. The significant aspect of the 1960s was that the main focus of the fashion industry was the young population as previously only the wealthy and mature elite class was aimed at by the fashion designers and industry. This new and e volutionary trend in the fashion world led to a â€Å"Youthquake† of the 1960’s which was highlighted and communicated with the masses through a plethora of magazines such as Spare Rib, Cosmopolitan or New Woman. ... The result was a striking increase in the births of baby in America and Britain. This â€Å"baby boom† was higher in America with the birth of 75 million babies between 1946 and 1964 (Farber & Bailey 2001). The post-war economy in Britain also experienced an optimistic rise after the boom period. According to the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan in 1957, â€Å"Most of our people have never had it so good† (1957: Britons ‘have never had it so good’ 2005). Britain’s economy also experienced a powerful boost due to the baby boom after the World War. These babies when reached their teens, they were a part of the post-war period and had grown in well-educated and favourable environments. These baby boomers were rebellious and did not agree with the conservative and conventional ideas of their parents. The American history observed these baby boomers to emerge as people of power and intellect such as the U.S. president George Bush and Bill Clinton. The teenagers ruled the 1960s with their rebellious yet fresh and young ideas. Not just the politics or the media, the youth culture was also depicted in the fashion and it is most likely that even after retirement pensioners will be seen in T-shirts rather than tweed suits! (60s Season: baby boom 2012). The young population formed a major part of the consumer population and they gave a new shape to both the market place and their own new lifestyles (Farber & Bailey 2001). The age of the baby boomers was characterized by the youth population brought up in an atmosphere of optimism and prosperity which ultimately affected their goals, aims, trends and future behaviours as well. The 1960s was characterized by new fashion trends which depicted in the attires and different clothing styles

Persuasive Speech Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Persuasive Speech - Essay Example Body Paragraph 2: Alcohol related road accidents are increasing government’s financial burden. According to Blincoe the total economic cost experienced by the nation of America due to drinking and driving incidents is $277 billion and this cost includes expenses in shape of medical bills, expenses paid for repairing damaged property and even legal expenses (Blincoe, 2014). The CDC reports that during the year of 2009, more than 10000 deaths were caused due to vehicles that were being steered by individuals who were drunk (Cdc.gov, 2012). My name is (first & last name) and I am here to persuade you to install breathalyzers in your cars. The term breathalyzer is used to refer to a digital device which has been specifically designed to identify the level of alcohol in an individual’s blood at one point in time. Traditionally these devices have only been used by police officers in order to identify drivers who have consumed alcohol and are driving on the road. These devices come in all shapes and sizes and are available at competitive prices. The issue with drinking and driving is that drinking alcohol results in impairment of various significant driving skills of a drive. Each year a high number of the people who die due to road accidents are involved in a crash where the person sitting behind the wheels is drunk. Due to this the burden on the gov ernment is increasing in shape of safeguarding the lives of their citizens and the financial costs that the government has to pay for each incident. The emotional and financial costs are not only paid by the government, the emotional cost is even bared by the individuals involved in the accident and their families. Breathalyzers should be installed in the car of every individual because drinking and driving reduces the ability to drive, road accidents caused due to driving under influence increases the cost of the government and it even

A Small Scale Sample Survey Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

A Small Scale Sample Survey - Coursework Example In addition, the study wants to determine how important computers are for students of Coventry University. Coventry University has extensive computer facilities and services. This study wants to find out whether or not students are able to take advantage of the facilities and services of Coventry University. More importantly, this study also wants to know whether or not students are satisfied with the facilities and services of Coventry University’s computer center. Sampling strategy and sample size The sample size of 30 was pre-determined by the requirements of the assignment. The sampling strategy used was purposive sampling. This type of sampling strategy allows researchers to find respondents that would serve the particular purpose of the study (Anderson, Sweeney, & Williams, 2009). For this particular investigation, the researchers gave the questionnaire to 30 university students who passed by the campus cafeteria. Questionnaire design The questionnaire makes use of 10 qu estions that aim to assess the behavior of computer usage of students of Coventry University. In order to determine the relevant demographic characteristics of the respondents, the questionnaire required that respondents’ sex and academic level be noted down. ... Computers are used for a number of reasons and in order to find out what were the purposes of Coventry University students for using computers, up to three multiple answers were accepted for question 6. The amount of time and the frequency of use of computers by Coventry University students were explored in questions 7 and 8, respectively. Finally, the importance of computers for Coventry University students and their satisfaction with the university’s computer services and facilities were assessed in questions 9 and 10, respectively, Analysis and presentation of findings In order to find the behavior of computer usage of students at Coventry University, the data gathered was collated, summarized, and analyzed. Results of the analysis are given below. Table 1 shows the frequency and percentage distribution of respondents grouped by sex and academic level. The figures indicate that there were a total of 14 (46.7%) male respondents and 16 (53.3%) female respondents. Moreover, 22 (73.3%) of the respondents are at the Undergraduate level of their studies while 8 (26.7%) of the respondents are at the Post-graduate level of their studies. Figures from Table 1 also indicate that 90% of the respondents have their own computer (n = 27) while 10% do not have their own computer (n = 3), all of whom are undergraduate students, with 1 male and 2 females. Table 1. Frequency and percentage distribution of respondents by sex and level (N = 30) Sex Level With Own Computer Does not own computer Total Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Male Undergraduate 9 30.0 1 3.3 10 33.3 Post-graduate 4 13.3 0 0.0 4 13.3 Total 13 43.3 1 3.3 14 46.7 Female

Impacts of toursim on locals Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Impacts of toursim on locals - Essay Example The Social Exchange Theory (SET) seeks to explore the â€Å"exchange of resources between individual and groups in an interaction† where â€Å"actors supply one another with valued resources† (Ap 1992, p. 668, cited in Andriotis 2009, para. 3). The theory, an eclectic approach that includes psychology, sociology and economics, studies tourism under a social psychological and sociological lens (Yutyunyong 2009). An individual will engage in exchange when: a) there is value to the reward, b) it is perceived that the exchange will result to a valued reward, and c) the perceived cost is not more than the perceived reward (Skidmore 1975, cited in Jennings & Nickerson 2006). Under SET, inhabitants of a place tend to â€Å"have a positive attitude to tourism as long as the perceived benefits exceed the perceived costs† (Yutyunyong 2009, p. 2). SET purports that a person seeks reward and avoid punishment, thus, he acts with expectation of profit in mind (Yutyunyong 2009) . People participate in the exchange as it promises enhancement of economic life of the people (Yutyunyong 2009). Inhabitants uphold tourism in the area when the benefit they receive from tourism exceeds the negative effects (Yutyunyong 2009). Under this theory, relationship among individuals is formed with an underlying cost and benefit objective (Yutyunyong 2009). Thus, if an individual sees that the cost would be more than the perceived benefit, the individual will abandon the relationship (Yutyunyong 2009). The relationship is equitable when the cost is equal to the benefit (Yutyunyong 2009), the notion of equity which Emerson (1962, cited in Yutyunyong 2009) believes to be main concern of the theory. The theory seeks to understand the exchange of resources between individuals in the process of interaction wherein the object of the exchange possess a value that is measurable, with mutual transference of cost and benefit on both parties (Ap, 1992; Madrigal, 1995, cited in

Case Study Situation Go Fast Essay Example for Free

Case Study Situation Go Fast Essay Situation Go Fast is a motorcycle manufacturer in the southern United States. Though sales have been steady, profits have declined because of increasing operational costs. The Board of Directors felt a fresh look at the operations side was needed. They developed a 5-year plan to increase operating efficiency and set out to find someone to lead the effort. Four months ago, GO FAST found what they saw as â€Å"the person† to be the new operations director and develop a new operational plan to reduce costs. Jill Jones had an outstanding reputation as operations director for a manufacturer of a closely related product. While she was located in a different state and was happy with her current job and lifestyle, she found the 5-year plan exciting. Besides, the offer was too tempting to refuse. Jill was offered the position, including a substantial increase in salary and benefits. She accepted the job, sold her home, and purchased a home near her new job. Her husband runs an in-home business and her children had adapted well to the new community and schools. She did not have a written contract, but was promised a great future with GO FAST and was given a salary of $90,000 per year. With the economic downturn, sales for this past year were the lowest in five years. The company needs to make drastic cost reductions or it could face bankruptcy. All senior managers agreed to a 25% pay cut. Several other high-paid positions will be eliminated. Among them is Jill Jones’ operations director position. Published by DECA Related Materials. Copyright  © by DECA Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced for resale without written permission from the publisher. Printed in the United States of America. YOUR CHALLENGE The CFO has been asked by the board of directors to investigate GO FAST’S obligation to Jill Jones. You have been assigned the task of doing research. The board of directors assumes their agreement with Mrs. Jones is â€Å"terminable-at-will† based on the law in the state, and therefore GO FAST has no obligation to her. You will prepare recommendations to be presented to the chief financial officer (CFO). Since the decision is ultimately up to the CFO, your presentation should include, at a minimum: 1. How you expect Jill would react to the board’s hard-line approach. 2. Possible ways to deal with Mrs. Jones’ situation, including the positives and negatives of each. 3. Of these, you are to advise the CFO on the best course of action, and how to present it to Jill. While the financial challenges of the company are not a secret, Jill does not yet know that her position has been targeted for elimination. Your presentation to the CFO will begin in one hour. As part of your research you have pulled a copy of The Fair Debt Collections Practices Act, as well as cases related to this issue (see reference information provided). The information in THIS section is the result of research done specifically for this case situation, and has been given to you to help you prepare your recommendations within the allotted time. The judges will also receive this information, in addition to the Case Study Situation and Your Challenge as presented. BACKGROUND INFORMATION The following information provides background related to this situation. State Employment Law Under state law, employment generally is considered to be at will, terminable by either party at any time. This means that an employer may terminate an employee with or without just cause, in the absence of an agreement limiting the employee’s discharge to just cause or specifying the term of the employment. Even where an employer makes assurances seeming to mean job permanence, such assurances are generally considered mere statements of policy indicating only at-will employment. However, state courts have also held that employee personnel manual provisions, if they meet the requirements for formation of a unilateral contract, may become enforceable as part of a contract of employment. An agreement which includes a promise from one party but not from the other is called a unilateral contract. A unilateral contract is, for example, where an employer promises to pay a certain wage if an employee does a certain task for a certain period of time. The employee’s performance of that task for that time makes him or her entitled to the promised wages. The promise of employment on particular terms of unspecified duration, if presented in the form of an offer and accepted by the employee, will create a binding unilateral contract. These types of actions are referred to as â€Å"promissory estoppel† actions and they provide an exception to the employment-at-will doctrine. In order to constitute a contract, the employer’s personnel policy as set out in the personnel policy handbook must be more than a general statement of policy and must provide reasonably definite terms for a fact finder to interpret and apply in determining whether there has been a breach of the contract arising from that handbook. General statements of policy by an employer do not meet the contractual requirements of an offer. Employees frequently couple claims that certain oral representations constitute an enforceable agreement with assertions that certain actions by the employer create an implied contract to terminate only for good cause. For example, employees often contend that an employer has established a custom and practice such that employees are permitted to continue employment until retirement unless discharged for good and sufficient cause. Such an allegation does not meet the requirement of a definite offer. Similarly, an employer’s commendations and approval of the employee’s performance do not alter the employee’s at-will status. Severance pay is not required by legislation. Where it is provided by an employer or labor agreement, it must not be administrated in a discriminatory manner. Where it is provided, severance pay is considered wages in this state. The method of payment of severance pay may delay the employee’s eligibility for unemployment compensation benefits. Promissory Estoppel The state Supreme Court recognized that, despite the absence of a contract in fact, courts may imply the existence of a contract in law by utilizing the principle of promissory estoppel. The doctrine of promissory estoppel is applicable when: 1. A promise has been made; 2. The promissory reasonably expected to induce action of a definite and substantial character by the promise; 3. The promise in fact induces such action; 4. The circumstances require the enforcement of the promise in order to avoid injustice. An estoppel may arise from a promise of future performance. The doctrine of promissory estoppel is based in a promise which the promisor should reasonably expect to induce action of forbearance of a definite and substantial character on the part of the promise and which induces such action or forbearance and is binding if injustice can be avoided only by enforcement of the promise. Under the theory of promissory estoppel, liability on a contract may ensue even if the detriment incurred by one party is not bargained for where it can be shown that the promisor should reasonably have expected its promise to induce another’s detrimental action. The impairment-of-contract clause in the state’s constitution applies to an implied-in-law obligation created by promissory estoppel. The effect of promissory estoppel is to imply a contract in law where none exists in fact. When a promise is enforced pursuant to the doctrine of promissory estoppel, the remedy granted for the breach may be limited as justice requires; relief may be limited to damages measured by the promise’s reliance. RELATED CASE PRECEDENTS INFORMATION The following information is designed to provide samples of cases that may influence decisions made related to the case situation. The participants must decide what, if any, relevance these Related Case Precedents have on this Case Study Situation. Grouse v. Plan, Inc. (1981) The doctrine of promissory estoppel was applied by the court to grant damages to a pharmacist who accepted a job offer, resigned his current job and declined another job offer in reliance on this offer, but was â€Å"terminated† from his new job before he even had a chance to start it. Plan Inc knew that to accept its offer Grouse would have to resign his employment. Grouse promptly gave notice and informed Plan Inc that he had done so when specifically asked by them. Under these circumstances it would be unjust not to hold Plan Inc to its promise. Gorham v. Optical (1995) Former employee was entitled to reliance damages based on theory of promissory estoppel, where he quit his previous job and declined any renegotiations with previous employer in reliance on promise of new job, and on his first day of employment went through hostile reinterview process that led to his immediate termination. Lewis v. Assurance Society (1986) A promise of employment on particular terms of unspecified duration, if presented in form of an offer and accepted by employee, will create a binding unilateral contract. Pine River v. Mettille (1983) Generally speaking, promise of employment on particular terms of unspecified duration, if in form of an offer, and if accepted by employee, may create binding unilateral contract; offer must be definite in form and must be communicated to the offeree. Goodkind v. University (1988) Whether a proposal by employer is meant to be an offer for a unilateral contract is determined by the outward manifestations of the parties, not by their subjective intentions, and employer’s general statements of policy do not meet the contractual requirements for an offer. Gunderson v. Professionals, Inc. (2001) To overcome the presumption that employment is at will, an employee typically must establish clear and unequivocal language by the employer evidencing an intent to provide job security. General statements about job security, company policy, or an employer’s desire to retain an employee indefinitely are insufficient to overcome the presumption that employment is at will. Spanier v. Bank (1993) Terminated employee failed to show any evidence of offer for long-term employment in definite form so as to be entitled to recover for employer’s breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing as result of his termination, where employee’s claims were based on subjective belief and his own inferences that employer’s commitment to commercial lending business would provide him job security and employer’s statements about developing this new area of business did not constitute long-term employment offer.

The Co Operative Bank Commerce Essay

The Co Operative Bank Commerce Essay The co operative bank is the oldest democratic and ethical bank of UK . For over 150 years the bank has been a democratic bank , never losing its edge on its democratic stature . It would be very interesting to know about the work culture of such a big democratic bank . The co operative bank is also a secular bank . The employees not just consist of catholics but also people from other religions . For example the treasury of the co operative bank is Rajesh Bhatia who is a hindu . So people from diverse religions are working together to form one big bank that is co operative bank . The bank tries to maintain a very friendly environment for its employees . All the employees are given a chance to suggest their views but there is a process in which these views are analysed . This process takes place in stages . If some worker has any new idea then hw will tell it to the manager . The manager will first look into the idea then he will analyse it and decide the category of the idea . W hether the idea is related to Mars or retailing or the general insurance . After categorising the idea the manager will then send it to the head of that respective area . They take a look at that idea and in turn send it to the acting CEO . The CEO will forward it to the board of directors and then the decision will be taken . All important decisions are taken in this same manner or stages . It might take a little time but the process is a full proof procedure . The workers never refer to the manager as Sir . They always call him by his name . The employees feel very good working in the co operative bank . The co operative bank has been rated as one of Britains top employers 2012 by http://www.britainstopemployers.co.uk . A lot of aspects have been considered in this research before coming to the conclusion that this bank has outstanding working conditions . The outstanding working conditions include commitment to social goals , ability to mix profits with principles , rejuvenatin g a much loved brand , pioneering fair trade sales in UK and commitment to ethical finance . Britains top employers 2012 first made close assessments with the HR division of The co operative bank . Here all the critical areas of the HR department were assessed such as primary benefits , secondary benefits , working conditions , training and career opportunities . A review is then taken . The review is thoroughly taken from the answers of actual participants only and then ratings are given . The co operative bank achieved positive ratings and reviews in almost all the sectors of assessments . Source: Rabobank WORKING STARTEGY Even though The co operative bank is an ethical bank but they do charge interests . Because every organization needs funds to keep working . One great advantage of the The co operative group is that they are not just operating in banks but also in food retails , housing , farming and education . So the profits from all the sectors are utilized thoroughly and they try to distribute it equally . Last year profits of around 50 million pounds were earned and about 40% of the profits were distributed to members , staff and community groups . One of the important business strategies of The co operative bank is providing memberships . Membership is what makes The co operative bank different from other businesses because The co operative bank is run by its members and the bank gives a chance to its members to say how the company needs to be run . When one becomes a member then he will get a membership card . So everytime a member buys something from The co operative then they can use t heir membership card . By doing this they earn points . Twice a year , the points that the member has earned are turned into cash and given to him as a share of the profits . It is very easy to become a member and there are lots of deals , discounts and money saving offers for the members to enjoy . Not only can one choose from the outstanding financial products of The co operative bank but by simply doing the day to day banking as a member , he can increase his share of profits as well. On current accounts , for every 10 pounds held on an average in a co operative bank , one can earn 1 point . For mortgages , for every 40 pounds outstanding on a Co operative bank or Britannia mortgage , one can earn 1 point . For loans , for every 10 pounds outstanding on a Co operative bank or smile loan , one can earn 1 point . For Savings accounts , every 20 pounds held in a Co operative bank , smile or Britannia savings account , one can earn 1 point . For Car/home/pet insurance , for hol ding an annual Co operative insurance policy , one can earn upto 250 points . For credit card , every 10 pounds held on or borrowed on Co operative bank or smile credit cards , one can earn 1 point . According to http://www.co-operativebank.co.uk , one of the most important and profitable startegies for The co operative bank was to merge with Britannia on 1st August 2009 . This merger aimed at providing better profit for the share holders and also creating new employment opportunities . This new business was successful in achieving more than 70 billion pounds of assets , nine million customers , more than 12,000 employees , more than 300 branches and 20 corporate banking centres . The Co operative now comprises of The co operative bank including smile and The Britannia business , The co operative insurance and The co operative investments . ANALYSIS Let us do a SWOT analysis on The co operative bank . According to David Jobber , a SWOT analysis is a structured approach to evaluating the strategic position of a business by identifying its strengths , weaknesses , opportunities and threats . Strengths According to the article The Co-operative : How to measure its strength , The co operative has an advantage of the internet bank Smile. This Smile has become a very successful form of internet banking in the recent years . It has increased the demand of The co operative bank very much . Smile is a very famous and efficient provider of pensions and insurance . The profits of The co operative banks boomed to 73.4 million pounds in the first half of 2008 . According to http://www.co-operative.coop , the core banking platforms of the bank has been upgraded by introducing some of the most modern computing systems which are very fast and efficient . So this has also improved customer servicing effectively and thus increased customer satisfaction and improving their experience . During the merger with Britannia branded branches , these technological improvements gave customers near four fold increase in outlets to conduct their banking . Weaknesses According to The Cooperative Banking Model: Performance and Opportunities by Hans Groeneveld , now a days the members find it difficult to manage the organisation due to the increased complexity of the organisation in which the management group consists of dedicated professionals . It has also been found out that the membership process makes the decision making very slow and also prevents innovation and adjustments to new developments . (Hans Groeneveld , 2011) Opportunities The co operative bank provides opportunities to further ones career and also to build one from the scratch . The bank provides job opportunities at its head office in Manchester and also at other branches . The company is maintaining a separate portal for registration for jobs . The bank also provides a lot of credit facilities to the customers if they want to start a new venture . Threats The evolution of large scale foreign and unknown markets could endanger the traditional heart of The co operative bank . Recently The co operative bank has started taking a lot of risks involving high profit investments . In one of the move of the bank , it announced plans to transfer work out of North Staffordshire . This move would almost leave jobs of 65 employees under threat . Apparently this move is being made for greater financial control and tougher regulatory requirements. STRENGTHS 1 High customer satisfaction 2 Rising market shares , dense branch networks 3 Stable profits , high rating , low funding costs 4 Relatively unaffected by credit crisis 5 Contribution to stability and diversity in financial systems WEAKNESSES 1 Become more complex 2 Difficult to manage due to complexity 3 Membership process makes decision making slow 4 Slow innovation OPPORTUNITIES 1 Further ones career 2 Help in new venture 3 Financial advice 4 Good credit facilities THREATS 1 threats from large scale foreign and unknown markets 2 Increase in risks by The co operative bank 3 The move to leave out North Staffordshire Now let us look at some macroenvironmental aspects of The co operative bank . These include political , economic , ecological , social and technological aspects . Political As it has been explained in the hierarchy of The co operative bank , it is a democratic bank . Economic The co operative bank has been one of the most successful banks of uk in recent times . It has tried to maintain its economy throughout . This can be found out by comparing their financial performance between 2010 and 2011 as per http://www.co-operative.coop/corporate/Press/Press-releases/Headline-news/Results-2011/ Financial performance 2011 2010 % change Gross sales  £13.3bn  £13.1bn +1.0% Group operating profit  £585m    £582m +0.5% Profit before tax and member payments (equivalent to the pre-tax profit of a plc)  £373m  £396m -5.8% Net borrowings  £1.49bn  £1.44bn +3.3% Ecological According to A co-operative green economy by Pat Conaty , protecting the environment is one of the very important aspects of The co operative . These include reducing the gross green house gas emissions by 35 % by 2017 , producing around 25% of electricity using renewable sources of energy , setting up a head office that will set new standards in sustainable design , construction and operation . Thus they are also concerned with the safety of the environment . Social Inspite of so much competition and other foreign forces , concerne have been made to maintain the ethical standards of The co operative bank . The bank has been quiet successful in this approach . The fact that it won so many accolades proves it . Some of the awards that it won in 2011 include winner of the Observers Ethical Business Award; first place in Business in the Communitys Climate Change Award and Platinum Plus in their Corporate Responsibility Index; a leading ranking in the Sunday Times Best Green Companies List; and winner of The Financial Times award for Europes Most Sustainable Bank. Technological The bank went through massive technological renovation recently and has upgraded itself with all new systems . The banks call centre has been very efficient in helping the people with difficulties . Smile has been one of the top internet banking .

Arthur Millers The Crucible Essay -- Essay on The Crucible

Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible' The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, is a tragic story of injustice suffered by an innocent community who are subjected to the hypocritical, prideful judges of their trial. These Judges use their power to eliminate evidence of their mistakes and return their community to puritanical ways. The leaders of Salem are not concerned with seeking the truth and justice, but with maintaining their authority and reputations; this objective leads them to consistently rejecting truth, against all logic and evidence of their senses. The symbols of truth portrayed throughout the play are exhibited through a handful of innocent hearted characters in the book such as Elizabeth Proctor. Her virtues of dignity and honesty are evident in the ways she calmly argues against Danforth and Hale’s accusations hat she is somehow involved in witchcraft. Although she nearly contradicts herself as a symbol of truthfulness when she lies about John’s adultery; it is very admirable to try to protect her husband, and she understands later when he recants. This is an example of her ability to grasp the wider issues of morality. Rebecca Nurse is the epitome of morality a woman known to have great wisdom and compassion. Her moral character is evident in her adamant refusal to not sign a confession. When Rebecca is brought into the room where John Proctor is about to sign a confession her aura of morality and sensibility moves him to take a stand for integrity and follow...

Double Standards between Men and Women Essay -- divorce laws, gender di

Some double standards that i’ve witnessed would be between men and women. Men are perceived to be stronger than women mentally and physically. Women are usually seen as victims and men are seen as the bad guy. A lot of women love to play the victim and point the finger at the men. A lot of women will run and try to defend women to help them play the victim role even further. Women are not victims and should be held accountable for their actions. In a relationship, a woman can go out to get a cup of coffee with a male friend, but if a male was caught doing that exact thing he would be accused of cheating. This is all caused by stereotypes. A stereotype is a classification of a group of people. It is not always accurate. At a young age men are taught that boys don’t cry and not to talk about their feelings causing them to bottle up, while women are free to do the opposite. Many women are sensitive, but not all of them. There are some very tough women in this world who aren’t afraid to speak their mind and don’t take every little thing to heart. Another thing men are...

Essay --

cting the country, the Philippines do have the potential to become a developed country. An issue that is affecting the country’s progress towards development is education. The Philippines is the only remaining Asian nation in the world putting the 10-year cycle of basic education in effect. The Department of Education was pushing for the implementation of the K-12 program to finally take effect in the Philippines. Seventy percent of the country’s unemployed citizens are high school graduates. To improve the education of the people in the Philippines, President Benigno Aquino has formally signed the law extending the basic education curriculum in the country (Al Nisr Publishing LLC). The President signed the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2012, or the K to 12 Basic Education Program, a scheme that took at least five years to finally implement (Al Nisr Publishing LLC). Aquino believe that the K to 12 program will make way for a brighter future for young Filipinos by equipping them with basic education up to international standards. Another issue affecting the country’s progress towards becoming a developed country is the natural disasters within the country. The most recent typhoon that has taken place in the Philippines, Typhoon Haiyan, is said to have killed more than 10,000 people. However, there have been other natural disasters that have also left startling devastation in the Philippines prior. There has been at least ten other natural disasters in the last decade that have also left high death tolls. For example, on December 3, 2012, Typhoon Bopha smashed into the main southern island of Mindanao, Philippines. The region suffered roughly 1,900 people dead or missing. Another example of this was on February 17, 2006 when an e... ...r in the Philippines, but sea levels have also risen by half an inch in the past ten to twenty years, faster than the worldwide average (The Washington Post). In 2009, some of the world's developed countries pledged $30 billion in climate aid, which would rise over time. However, a recent report from Oxfam found that most developed countries have yet to make any concrete plans to follow through (The Washington Post). Another issue in the Philippines is malnutrition and hunger. Malnutrition among children has not changed much over the past 10 years, making it very unlikely for the country to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of eliminating poverty and extreme hunger by 2015 (Inquirer). Families who do not get the 100 percent dietary energy requirement even increased from 57 percent of the population in 2003 to 66.9 percent in 2008, the survey said (Inquirer).

Fat Tax Essay

This report proposes that these costs and problems need to be addressed, and one avenue through which they can be is a junk food tax. This report proposes that there be a federal tax placed on junk food purchases, similar to the taxes placed on gasoline and tobacco products. This tax would dissuade people from purchasing unhealthy food items. At the same time it would help the nation offset some of the financial costs that obesity has generated. The proposition is not a fix-all, but it is a good start. Taxation of Junk Food, A Proposition to Battle the Obesity Epidemic in America Obesity is a condition that can be found in nearly every social class, geographic location, and age group in our society today. Every year there are more people who fit this profile; more people who are obese. While many view this condition as merely a cosmetic one, the truth is that there are serious consequences to being overweight. Some of these consequences include: the health risks such as diabetes and heart disease, early death because of those conditions, economic impacts due to lower productivity, astronomical health care costs, and numerous social problems that arise due to the lethargy and early mortality of obese parents and the inactivity of overweight children. These issues are significant, and need to be addressed in order to solve the problem. First, the causes of obesity must be understood, so that adequate solutions can be generated. Then solutions need to be created and put into effect such that the causes of the epidemic will be addressed at a minimal social cost. The information in this report shows that a large portion of those who suffer from obesity can attribute a large portion of their weight to junk food. This food is high in calories and low in nutritional value. This report also shows that many of these people choose to consume these products due to its convenience and relative low cost. I propose that in order to address this cause, and decrease consumption of junk food due to convenience and low cost, a federal tax should be levied against all foods that fit the profile of a junk food. I propose that this action would decrease economy purchases of less nutritious foods, and encourage consumers to consume more healthy diet options based on economic feasibility. Â  The Obesity Epidemic The issue of obesity is one that is complex and widespread. In order to understand the scope and implications of this condition, one must first understand what it is, and who it affects. Not everyone who is overweight is obese. Scott Ingram describes the difference between obesity and overweight as overweight being anyone who weighs more than the someone in the normal range for how old and tall they are, while in order for a person to be labeled obese, they must have enough body fat to put them 20 percent higher or more than their ideal weight (Ingram, 2005, p. 23). In other words, if a person’s ideal weight for their height and age is 140 pounds, and they weigh 150 pounds, they are overweight; but if they weigh over 168 pounds they are obese. This difference is important, as it indicates exactly how much overweight obese people are. They are all more than 20 percent over their target weight, which is significant enough to cause the problems that are being discussed in this report. The health and social issues caused by the state rest of the population that have not reached the 20 percent mark, but are still overweight are not even considered in this report. However, these issues will be positively affected by this proposal as well. It is also important to note that this problem is not isolated to a specific group of individuals, although there are groups that are higher risk than others.

Richard Hamilton

Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing? From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Just What Is It that Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing? ) Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing? ArtistRichard Hamilton Year1956 TypeCollage Dimensions26 cm ? 24. 8 cm (10. 25 in ? 9. 75 in) LocationKunsthalle Tubingen, Tubingen Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing? is a collage by English artist Richard Hamilton. [1][2] It measures 10. 25 in (260 mm) ? 9. 75 in (248 mm).The work is now in the collection of the Kunsthalle Tubingen, Tubingen, Germany. It was the first work of pop art to achieve iconic status. [2] Contents [hide] 1 History 2 Sources 3 Authorship 4 Notes and references [edit]History Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing? was created in 1956 for the catalogue of the exhibition This Is Tomorrow in London, England in which it was reproduced in black and white. In addition, the piece was used in posters for the exhibit. [3] Hamilton and his friends John McHale and John Voelcker had collaborated to create the room that became the best-known part of the exhibition.Hamilton subsequently created several works in which he reworked the subject and composition of the pop art collage, including a 1992 version featuring a female bodybuilder. [edit]Sources The collage consists of images taken mainly from American magazines. The principal template was an image of a modern sitting-room in an advertisement in Ladies Home Journal for Armstrong Floors, which describes the â€Å"modern fashion in floors†. The title is also taken from copy in the advert, which states â€Å"Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?Open planning of course – and a bold use of color. † The body builder is Irvin ‘Zabo' Koszewski, winner of Mr L. A. in 1954. The photograph is taken from Tomorrow's Man magazine, Se ptember 1954. The artist Jo Baer, who posed for erotic magazines in her youth, has stated that she is the burlesque woman on the sofa, but the magazine from which the picture is taken has not been identified. The staircase is taken from an advertisement for Hoover's new model â€Å"Constellation†,and it was sourced from the same issue of Ladies Home Journal, June 1955, as the Armstrong Floors ad.The picture of the cover of Young Romance was from an advertisement for the magazine included in its sister-publication Young Love (no 15, 1950). The TV is a Stromberg-Carlson, taken from a 1955 advert. Hamilton asserted that the rug was a blow-up from a photograph depicting a crowd on the Whitley Bay beach. The image of planet Earth at the top was cut from Life Magazine (Sept 1955). [4] The original reference image for the collage from Life Magazine supplied to Hamilton is in the John McHale archives at Yale University. It was one of the first images to be laid down in the collage. 4 ] The Victorian man in the portrait has not been identified. The periodical on the chair is a copy of The Journal of Commerce, founded by telegraph pioneer Samuel F. B. Morse. [4] The tape recorder is a British-made Boosey & Hawkes â€Å"Reporter†, but the source of the image has not been identified. The view through the window is a widely reproduced photograph of the exterior of a cinema in 1927 showing the premiere of the early â€Å"talkie† film, The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson; the actual original source of the image has not yet been found. edit]Authorship In 2006, artist John McHale's son, John McHale Jr. , said that his father claimed he was the creator of the image, having provided the original measured design and iconic material for the collage, including the magazines from which much of the collage was assembled. [5] McHale said that the source material was his, sent to Hamilton from Yale University, where McHale was studying, and that Hamilton's role was s imply â€Å"mechanical† cutting out and pasting according to McHale's design. In response, Hamilton said this was â€Å"absurd.The collage has been widely reproduced over the last fifty years and my authorship was never, to my knowledge, contested by John McHale Sr. when he was alive. â€Å"[6] Hamilton said that McHale provided him with a rough layout for six pages for the This is Tomorrow exhibition catalogue, but he only used two of them, and the other pages, including this collage, were created by himself; the American magazines that provided the images were from the collection of Magda and Frank Cordell, and the images were cut out by Hamilton's wife, Terry O'Reilly, and Magda Cordell. 6] Magda Cordell has said that â€Å"some of the material for that collage came from John McHale's files†, while other items came from American magazines brought back by her (from a visit to McHale at Yale), and that the piece was â€Å"put together† by Hamilton. [7] A 2007 article by John-Paul Stonard asserts Hamilton's authorship of the collage, providing an exposition of the sources used by Hamilton and the circumstances

Ellyday by Helen Oyeyemi

Ellyday is about two siblings, Sophie and Elly. The story takes place in Elly’s bedroom one cold Sunday morning, four days before Christmas. Sophie walked into Elly’s bedroom, because she was worried about her sister Elly, who is really skinny and she wanted to talk with her. While Sophie tried to figure out, how to ask Elly to pull her jumper up, Elly wanted to listen to a CD. Elly wouldn’t pull her jumper up and said to Sophie that she was only going to get angry.Then they discussed Elly’s weight and appearance and Elly said that she thought Sophie’s problem is in fact, that Elly is now as skinny as Sophie. After that Elly started to cry hideous and sank to the floor. Sophie told Elly that she can’t see properly how she can think it’s worth it, but Elly just answered that Sophie didn’t really care and that she saw it happening. Sophie also told Elly that she was actually sick and needed help and that it would be wise to talk t o someone. At this moment Elly listened to her sister and asked her when it’s okay to die.Sophie got shocked and realized that she didn’t know this person anymore. Elly elaborate on her question about if it was okay to die before you’ve ever kissed a boy, or ever been loved, or anything like that. While Sophie was going to explain that it was not okay to die, she just stopped speaking and stared brimming overwhelmed, because Elly had pulled up her jumper. Sophie and Elly are teenagers and I think that Sophie is the oldest of them. Elly has an eating disorder and is very skinny and looks like a scarecrow. She has fluffy brown hair and leaking, dead brown eyes.She’s mostly a silent girl, but when Sophie talks directly about Elly’s thinness, she goes into self-defense. Elly had no control over her words and stumble hesitates over every word that came out from her mouth. It’s painful for Elly to speak clearly and rounded, without a slur. She had pale skin tone and shaking hands due to her thinness. She wears baggy clothes and stuff like that so people can’t see how thin she is. Elly was fat before and has a serious psychological problem. She doesn’t feel well inside and asks questions like how it’s okay to die and when it will be a shame.It seems like that Elly feels she’s failed her sister, because she said to Sophie that she had seen what was happening with Elly and that she didn’t care. Elly struggled to stand up, talk and things like that. She’s very weak but unshakable, and wouldn’t pull her jumper up for her sister. But in the end of the story Sophie gets a surprise. Sophie is the big sister, and she feels a responsibility over Elly. She’s very worried about Elly but also very straightforward in the language. She forced herself to sound irritable over Elly, as she had so many times before when they were younger.She threatened to stop speaking to Elly if she didn ’t do what Sophie said. Sophie behaves like a bossy kind, like who always told Elly what to do, to protect her little sister. I don’t like the end of the story; because we don’t know what happened after Elly pulled her jumper up. We don’t know h ow Sophie reacted and why Elly had talked about when it was okay to die. I would do everything in my power to prevent anything from happening to my friends. Weather it was drugs, drinking, eating disorders or over eating. I wouldn’t leave them. What are friends for? Friendship for me isn’t just about having fun.It’s about taking the good and bad with each other. If I were a teenager I would probably get advice from some older wiser person who is more experienced in life. From there I would hope the best for them and let them know they have my support if they need me, because sometimes it’s not about to tell them what to do and such it’s more about support. Of course you have to t ell them that what they’re doing isn’t good and helping, but not being bossy. Keep in mind they didn’t always do this to themselves by no reason, so figure out the reason and then help them through it.

The Source of Creativity in Writers

We laymen have always been intensely curious to know like the Cardinal who put a similar question to Ariosto – from what sources that strange being, the creative writer, draws his material, and how he manages to make such an impression on us with it and to arouse in us emotions of which, perhaps, we had not even thought ourselves capable.Our interest is only heightened the more by the fact that, if we ask him, the writer himself gives us no explanation, or none that is satisfactory; and it is not at all weakened by our knowledge that not even the clearest insight into the determinants of his choice of material and into the nature of the art of creating imaginative form will ever help to make creative writers of us. If we could at least discover in ourselves or in people like ourselves an activity which was in some way akin to creative writing!An examination of it would then give us a hope of obtaining the beginnings of an explanation of the creative work of writers. And, indee d, there is some prospect of this being possible. After all, creative writers themselves like to lessen the distance between their kind and the common run of humanity; they so often assure us that every man is a poet at heart and that the last poet will not perish till the last man does. Should we not look for the first traces of imaginative activity as early as in childhood The child’s best-loved and most intense occupation is with his play or games.Might we not say that every child at play behaves like a creative writer, in that he creates a world of his own, or, rather, re-arranges the things of his world in a new way which pleases him? It would be wrong to think he does not take that world seriously; on the contrary, he takes his play very seriously and he expends large amounts of emotion on it. The opposite of play is not what is serious but what is real. In spite of all the emotion with which he cathects his world of play, the child distinguishes it quite well from real ity; and he likes to link his imagined objects and situations to the tangible and visible things of the real world.This linking is all that differentiates the child’s ‘play’ from ‘phantasying’. The creative writer does the same as the child at play. He creates a world of phantasy which he takes very seriously – that is, which he invests with large amounts of emotion while separating it sharply from reality. Language has preserved this relationship between children’s play and poetic creation. It gives [in German] the name of ‘Spiel’ [‘play’] to those forms of imaginative writing which require to be linked to tangible objects and which are capable of representation.It speaks of a ‘Lustspiel’ or ‘Trauerspiel’ [‘comedy’ or ‘tragedy’: literally, ‘pleasure play’ or ‘mourning play’] and describes those who carry out the representation as â⠂¬ËœSchauspieler’ [‘players’: literally ‘show-players’]. The unreality of the writer’s imaginative world, however, has very important consequences for the technique of his art; for many things which, if they were real, could give no enjoyment, can do so in the play of phantasy, and many excitements which, in themselves, are actually distressing, can become a source of pleasure for the hearers and spectators at the performance of a writer’s work.There is another consideration for the sake of which we will dwell a moment longer on this contrast between reality and play. When the child has grown up and has ceased to play, and after he has been labouring for decades to envisage the realities of life with proper seriousness, he may one day find himself in a mental situation which once more undoes the contrast between play and reality.As an adult he can look back on the intense seriousness with which he once carried on his games in childhood; and, by equating his ostensibly serious occupations of to-day with his childhood games, he can throw off the too heavy burden imposed on him by life and win the high yield of pleasure afforded by humour. As people grow up, then, they cease to play, and they seem to give up the yield of pleasure which they gained from playing. But whoever understands the human mind knows that hardly anything is harder for a man than to give up a pleasure which he has once experienced.Actually, we can never give anything up; we only exchange one thing for another. What appears to be a renunciation is really the formation of a substitute or surrogate. In the same way, the growing child, when he stops playing, gives up nothing but the link with real objects; instead playing, he now phantasies. He builds castles in the air and creates what are called day- dreams. I believe that most people construct phantasies at times in their lives. This is a fact which has long been overlooked and whose importance ha s therefore not been sufficiently appreciated.People’s phantasies are less easy to observe than the play of children. The child, it is true, plays by himself or forms a closed psychical system with other children for the purposes of a game; but even though he may not play his game in front of the grown-ups, he does not, on the other hand, conceal it from them. The adult, on the contrary, is ashamed of his phantasies and hides them from other people. He cherishes his phantasies as his most intimate possessions, and as a rule he would rather confess his misdeeds than tell anyone his phantasies.It may come about that for that reason he believes he is the only person who invents such phantasies and has no idea that creations of this kind are widespread among other people. This difference in the behaviour of a person who plays and a person who phantasies is accounted for by the motives of these two activities, which are nevertheless adjuncts to each other. A child’s play is determined by wishes: in point of fact by a single wish-one that helps in his upbringing – the wish to be big and grown up. He is always playing at being ‘grown up’, and in his games he imitates what he knows about the lives of his elders.He has no reason to conceal this wish. With the adult, the case is different. On the one hand, he knows that he is expected not to go on playing or phantasying any longer, but to act in the real world; on the other hand, some of the wishes which give rise to his phantasies are of a kind which it is essential to conceal. Thus he is ashamed of his phantasies as being childish and as being unpermissible. But, you will ask, if people make such a mystery of their phantasying, how is it that we know such a lot about it?Well, there is a class of human beings upon whom, not a god, indeed, but a stern goddess – Necessity – has allotted the task of telling what they suffer and what things give them happiness. These are the victims of nervous illness, who are obliged to tell their phantasies, among other things, to the doctor by whom they expect to be cured by mental treatment. This is our best source of knowledge, and we have since found good reason to suppose that our patients tell us nothing that we might not also hear from healthy people. Let us now make ourselves acquainted with a few of the characteristics of phantasying.We may lay it down that a happy person never phantasies, only an unsatisfied one. The motive forces of phantasies are unsatisfied wishes, and every single phantasy is the fulfilment of a wish, a correction of unsatisfying reality. These motivating wishes vary according to the sex, character and circumstances of the person who is having the phantasy; but they fall naturally into two main groups. They are either ambitious wishes, which serve to elevate the subject’s personality; or they are erotic ones. In young women the erotic wishes predominate almost exclusively, for the ir ambition is as a rule absorbed by erotic trends.In young men egoistic and ambitious wishes come to the fore clearly enough alongside of erotic ones. But we will not lay stress on the opposition between the two trends; we would rather emphasize the fact that they are often united. Just as, in many altar- pieces, the portrait of the donor is to be seen in a corner of the picture, so, in the majority of ambitious phantasies, we can discover in some corner or other the lady for whom the creator of the phantasy performs all his heroic deeds and at whose feet all his triumphs are laid.Here, as you see, there are strong enough motives for concealment; the well-brought-up young woman is only allowed a minimum of erotic desire, and the young man has to learn to suppress the excess of self-regard which he brings with him from the spoilt days of his childhood, so that he may find his place in a society which is full of other individuals making equally strong demands. We must not suppose tha t the products of this imaginative activity – the various phantasies, castles in the air and day-dreams – are stereotyped or unalterable.On the contrary, they fit themselves in to the subject’s shifting impressions of life, change with every change in his situation, and receive from every fresh active impression what might be called a ‘date-mark’. The relation of a phantasy to time is in general very important. We may say that it hovers, as it were, between three times – the three moments of time which our ideation involves. Mental work is linked to some current impression, some provoking occasion in the present which has been able to arouse one of the subject’s major wishes.From there it harks back to a memory of an earlier experience (usually an infantile one) in which this wish was fulfilled; and it now creates a situation relating to the future which represents a fulfilment of the wish. What it thus creates is a day-dream or phanta sy, which carries about it traces of its origin from the occasion which provoked it and from the memory. Thus past, present and future are strung together, as it were, on the thread of the wish that runs through them. A very ordinary example may serve to make what I have said clear.Let us take the case of a poor orphan boy to whom you have given the address of some employer where he may perhaps find a job. On his way there he may indulge in a day-dream appropriate to the situation from which it arises. The content of his phantasy will perhaps be something like this. He is given a job, finds favour with his new employer, makes himself indispensable in the business, is taken into his employer’s family, marries the charming young daughter of the house, and then himself becomes a director of the business, first as his employer’s partner and then as his successor.In this phantasy, the dreamer has regained what he possessed in his happy childhood – the protecting hous e, the loving parents and the first objects of his affectionate feelings. You will see from this example the way in which the wish makes use of an occasion in the present to construct, on the pattern of the past, a picture of the future. There is a great deal more that could be said about phantasies; but I will only allude as briefly as possible to certain points.If phantasies become over-luxuriant and over-powerful, the conditions are laid for an onset of neurosis or psychosis. Phantasies, moreover, are the immediate mental precursors of the distressing symptoms complained of by our patients. Here a broad by-path branches off into pathology. I cannot pass over the relation of phantasies to dreams. Our dreams at night are nothing else than phantasies like these, as we can demonstrate from the interpretation of dreams.Language, in its unrivalled wisdom, long ago decided the question of the essential nature of dreams by giving the name of ‘day-dreams’ to the airy creation s of phantasy. If the meaning of our dreams usually remains obscure to us in spite of this pointer, it is because of the circumstance that at night there also arise in us wishes of which we are ashamed; these we must conceal from ourselves, and they have consequently been repressed, pushed into the unconscious.Repressed wishes of this sort and their derivatives are only allowed to come to expression in a very distorted form. When scientific work had succeeded in elucidating this factor of dream-distortion, it was no longer difficult to recognize that night-dreams are wish-fulfilments in just the same way as day-dreams – the phantasies which we all know so well.  ¹ Cf. Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams (1900a).So much for phantasies. And now for the creative writer. May we really attempt to compare the imaginative writer with the ‘dreamer in broad daylight’, and his creations with day-dreams? Here we must begin by making an initial distinction. We must separat e writers who, like the ancient authors of epics and tragedies, take over their material ready-made, from writers who seem to originate their own material.We will keep to the latter kind, and, for the purposes of our comparison, we will choose not the writers most highly esteemed by the critics, but the less pretentious authors of novels, romances and short stories, who nevertheless have the widest and most eager circle of readers of both sexes. One feature above all cannot fail to strike us about the creations of these story-writers: each of them has a hero who is the centre of interest, for whom the writer tries to win our sympathy by every possible means and whom he seems to place under the protection of a special Providence.If, at the end of one chapter of my story, I leave the hero unconscious and bleeding from severe wounds, I am sure to find him at the beginning of the next being carefully nursed and on the way to recovery; and if the first volume closes with the ship he is i n going down in a storm at sea, I am certain, at the opening of the second volume, to read of his miraculous rescue – a rescue without which the story could not proceed.The feeling of security with which I follow the hero through his perilous adventures is the same as the feeling with which a hero in real life throws himself into the water to save a drowning man or exposes himself to the enemy’s fire in order to storm a battery. It is the true heroic feeling, which one of our best writers has expressed in an inimitable phrase: ‘Nothing can happen to me! ’ It seems to me, however, that through this revealing characteristic of invulnerability we can immediately recognize His Majesty the Ego, the hero alike of every day-dream and of every story.Other typical features of these egocentric stories point to the same kinship. The fact that all the women in the novel invariably fall in love with the hero can hardly be looked on as a portrayal of reality, but it is easily understood as a necessary constituent of a day-dream. The same is true of the fact that the other characters in the story are sharply divided into good and bad, in defiance of the variety of human characters that are to be observed in real life.The ‘good’ ones are the helpers, while the ‘bad’ ones are the enemies and rivals, of the ego which has become the hero of the story. We are perfectly aware that very many imaginative writings are far removed from the model of the naà ¯ve day-dream; and yet I cannot suppress the suspicion that even the most extreme deviations from that model could be linked with it through an uninterrupted series of transitional cases. It has struck me that in many of what are known as ‘psychological’ novels only one person – once again the hero – is described from within.The author sits inside his mind, as it were, and looks at the other characters from outside. The psychological novel in general no doubt owes its special nature to the inclination of the modern writer to split up his ego, by self- observation, into many part-egos, and, in consequence, to personify the conflicting currents of his own mental life in several heroes. Certain novels, which might be described as ‘eccentric’, seem to stand in quite special contrast to the type of the day-dream.In these, the person who is introduced as the hero plays only a very small active part; he sees the actions and sufferings of other people pass before him like a spectator. Many of Zola’s later works belong to this category. But I must point out that the psychological analysis of individuals who are not creative writers, and who diverge in some respects from the so-called norm, has shown us analogous variations of the day-dream, in which the ego contents itself with the role of spectator.If our comparison of the imaginative writer with the day-dreamer, and of poetical creation with the day-dream, is to be of any value, it must, above all, show itself in some way or other fruitful. Let us, for instance, try to apply to these authors’ works the thesis we laid down earlier concerning the relation between phantasy and the three periods of time and the wish which runs through them; and, with its help, let us try to study the connections that exist between the life of the writer and his works.No one has known, as a rule, what expectations to frame in approaching this problem; and often the connection has been thought of in much too simple terms. In the light of the insight we have gained from phantasies, we ought to expect the following state of affairs. A strong experience in the present awakens in the creative writer a memory of an earlier experience (usually belonging to his childhood) from which there now proceeds a wish which finds its fulfilment in the creative work.The work itself exhibits elements of the recent provoking occasion as well as of the old memory. Do not be alarmed at the complexity of this formula. I suspect that in fact it will prove to be too exiguous a pattern. Nevertheless, it may contain a first approach to the true state of affairs; and, from some experiments I have made, I am inclined to think that this way of looking at creative writings may turn out not unfruitful.You will not forget that the  stress it lays on childhood memories in the writer’s life – a stress which may perhaps seem puzzling – is ultimately derived from the assumption that a piece of creative writing, like a day-dream, is a continuation of, and a substitute for, what was once the play of childhood. We must not neglect, however, to go back to the kind of imaginative works which we have to recognize, not as original creations, but as the re-fashioning of ready- made and familiar material.Even here, the writer keeps a certain amount of independence, which can express itself in the choice of material and in changes in it which are often quite ext ensive. In so far as the material is already at hand, however, it is derived from the popular treasure-house of myths, legends and fairy tales. The study of constructions of folk-psychology such as these is far from being complete, but it is extremely probable that myths, for instance, are distorted vestiges of the wishful phantasies of whole nations, the secular dreams of youthful humanity.You will say that, although I have put the creative writer first in the title of my paper, I have told you far less about him than about phantasies. I am aware of that, and I must try to excuse it by pointing to the present state of our knowledge. All I have been able to do is to throw out some encouragements and suggestions which, starting from the study of phantasies, lead on to the problem of the writer’s choice of his literary material.As for the other problem – by what means the creative writer achieves the emotional effects in us that are aroused by his creations – we h ave as yet not touched on it at all. But I should like at least to point out to you the path that leads from our discussion of phantasies to the problems of poetical effects. You will remember how I have said that the day-dreamer carefully conceals his phantasies from other people because he feels he has reasons for being ashamed of them. I should now add that even if he were to communicate them to us he could give us no pleasure by his disclosures.Such phantasies, when we learn them, repel us or at least leave us cold. But when a creative writer presents his plays to us or tells us what we are inclined to take to be his personal day dreams, we experience a great pleasure, and one which probably arises from the confluence of many sources. How the writer accomplishes this is his innermost secret; the essential ars poetica lies in the technique of overcoming the feeling of repulsion in us which is undoubtedly connected with the barriers that rise  between each single ego and the oth ers.We can guess two of the methods used by this technique. The writer softens the character of his egoistic day-dreams by altering and disguising it, and he bribes us by the purely formal – that is, aesthetic – yield of pleasure which he offers us in the presentation of his phantasies. We give the name of an incentive bonus, or a fore-pleasure, to a yield of pleasure such as this, which is offered to us so as to make possible the release of still greater pleasure arising from deeper psychical sources.In my opinion, all the aesthetic pleasure which a creative writer affords us has the character of a fore-pleasure of this kind, and our actual enjoyment of an imaginative work proceeds from a liberation of tensions in our minds. It may even be that not a little of this effect is due to the writer’s enabling us thenceforward to enjoy our own day-dreams without self-reproach or shame. This brings us to the threshold of new, interesting and complicated enquiries; but also, at least for the moment, to the end of our discussion. The Source of Creativity in Writers We laymen have always been intensely curious to know like the Cardinal who put a similar question to Ariosto – from what sources that strange being, the creative writer, draws his material, and how he manages to make such an impression on us with it and to arouse in us emotions of which, perhaps, we had not even thought ourselves capable.Our interest is only heightened the more by the fact that, if we ask him, the writer himself gives us no explanation, or none that is satisfactory; and it is not at all weakened by our knowledge that not even the clearest insight into the determinants of his choice of material and into the nature of the art of creating imaginative form will ever help to make creative writers of us. If we could at least discover in ourselves or in people like ourselves an activity which was in some way akin to creative writing!An examination of it would then give us a hope of obtaining the beginnings of an explanation of the creative work of writers. And, indee d, there is some prospect of this being possible. After all, creative writers themselves like to lessen the distance between their kind and the common run of humanity; they so often assure us that every man is a poet at heart and that the last poet will not perish till the last man does. Should we not look for the first traces of imaginative activity as early as in childhood The child’s best-loved and most intense occupation is with his play or games.Might we not say that every child at play behaves like a creative writer, in that he creates a world of his own, or, rather, re-arranges the things of his world in a new way which pleases him? It would be wrong to think he does not take that world seriously; on the contrary, he takes his play very seriously and he expends large amounts of emotion on it. The opposite of play is not what is serious but what is real. In spite of all the emotion with which he cathects his world of play, the child distinguishes it quite well from real ity; and he likes to link his imagined objects and situations to the tangible and visible things of the real world.This linking is all that differentiates the child’s ‘play’ from ‘phantasying’. The creative writer does the same as the child at play. He creates a world of phantasy which he takes very seriously – that is, which he invests with large amounts of emotion while separating it sharply from reality. Language has preserved this relationship between children’s play and poetic creation. It gives [in German] the name of ‘Spiel’ [‘play’] to those forms of imaginative writing which require to be linked to tangible objects and which are capable of representation.It speaks of a ‘Lustspiel’ or ‘Trauerspiel’ [‘comedy’ or ‘tragedy’: literally, ‘pleasure play’ or ‘mourning play’] and describes those who carry out the representation as â⠂¬ËœSchauspieler’ [‘players’: literally ‘show-players’]. The unreality of the writer’s imaginative world, however, has very important consequences for the technique of his art; for many things which, if they were real, could give no enjoyment, can do so in the play of phantasy, and many excitements which, in themselves, are actually distressing, can become a source of pleasure for the hearers and spectators at the performance of a writer’s work.There is another consideration for the sake of which we will dwell a moment longer on this contrast between reality and play. When the child has grown up and has ceased to play, and after he has been labouring for decades to envisage the realities of life with proper seriousness, he may one day find himself in a mental situation which once more undoes the contrast between play and reality.As an adult he can look back on the intense seriousness with which he once carried on his games in childhood; and, by equating his ostensibly serious occupations of to-day with his childhood games, he can throw off the too heavy burden imposed on him by life and win the high yield of pleasure afforded by humour. As people grow up, then, they cease to play, and they seem to give up the yield of pleasure which they gained from playing. But whoever understands the human mind knows that hardly anything is harder for a man than to give up a pleasure which he has once experienced.Actually, we can never give anything up; we only exchange one thing for another. What appears to be a renunciation is really the formation of a substitute or surrogate. In the same way, the growing child, when he stops playing, gives up nothing but the link with real objects; instead playing, he now phantasies. He builds castles in the air and creates what are called day- dreams. I believe that most people construct phantasies at times in their lives. This is a fact which has long been overlooked and whose importance ha s therefore not been sufficiently appreciated.People’s phantasies are less easy to observe than the play of children. The child, it is true, plays by himself or forms a closed psychical system with other children for the purposes of a game; but even though he may not play his game in front of the grown-ups, he does not, on the other hand, conceal it from them. The adult, on the contrary, is ashamed of his phantasies and hides them from other people. He cherishes his phantasies as his most intimate possessions, and as a rule he would rather confess his misdeeds than tell anyone his phantasies.It may come about that for that reason he believes he is the only person who invents such phantasies and has no idea that creations of this kind are widespread among other people. This difference in the behaviour of a person who plays and a person who phantasies is accounted for by the motives of these two activities, which are nevertheless adjuncts to each other. A child’s play is determined by wishes: in point of fact by a single wish-one that helps in his upbringing – the wish to be big and grown up. He is always playing at being ‘grown up’, and in his games he imitates what he knows about the lives of his elders.He has no reason to conceal this wish. With the adult, the case is different. On the one hand, he knows that he is expected not to go on playing or phantasying any longer, but to act in the real world; on the other hand, some of the wishes which give rise to his phantasies are of a kind which it is essential to conceal. Thus he is ashamed of his phantasies as being childish and as being unpermissible. But, you will ask, if people make such a mystery of their phantasying, how is it that we know such a lot about it?Well, there is a class of human beings upon whom, not a god, indeed, but a stern goddess – Necessity – has allotted the task of telling what they suffer and what things give them happiness. These are the victims of nervous illness, who are obliged to tell their phantasies, among other things, to the doctor by whom they expect to be cured by mental treatment. This is our best source of knowledge, and we have since found good reason to suppose that our patients tell us nothing that we might not also hear from healthy people. Let us now make ourselves acquainted with a few of the characteristics of phantasying.We may lay it down that a happy person never phantasies, only an unsatisfied one. The motive forces of phantasies are unsatisfied wishes, and every single phantasy is the fulfilment of a wish, a correction of unsatisfying reality. These motivating wishes vary according to the sex, character and circumstances of the person who is having the phantasy; but they fall naturally into two main groups. They are either ambitious wishes, which serve to elevate the subject’s personality; or they are erotic ones. In young women the erotic wishes predominate almost exclusively, for the ir ambition is as a rule absorbed by erotic trends.In young men egoistic and ambitious wishes come to the fore clearly enough alongside of erotic ones. But we will not lay stress on the opposition between the two trends; we would rather emphasize the fact that they are often united. Just as, in many altar- pieces, the portrait of the donor is to be seen in a corner of the picture, so, in the majority of ambitious phantasies, we can discover in some corner or other the lady for whom the creator of the phantasy performs all his heroic deeds and at whose feet all his triumphs are laid.Here, as you see, there are strong enough motives for concealment; the well-brought-up young woman is only allowed a minimum of erotic desire, and the young man has to learn to suppress the excess of self-regard which he brings with him from the spoilt days of his childhood, so that he may find his place in a society which is full of other individuals making equally strong demands. We must not suppose tha t the products of this imaginative activity – the various phantasies, castles in the air and day-dreams – are stereotyped or unalterable.On the contrary, they fit themselves in to the subject’s shifting impressions of life, change with every change in his situation, and receive from every fresh active impression what might be called a ‘date-mark’. The relation of a phantasy to time is in general very important. We may say that it hovers, as it were, between three times – the three moments of time which our ideation involves. Mental work is linked to some current impression, some provoking occasion in the present which has been able to arouse one of the subject’s major wishes.From there it harks back to a memory of an earlier experience (usually an infantile one) in which this wish was fulfilled; and it now creates a situation relating to the future which represents a fulfilment of the wish. What it thus creates is a day-dream or phanta sy, which carries about it traces of its origin from the occasion which provoked it and from the memory. Thus past, present and future are strung together, as it were, on the thread of the wish that runs through them. A very ordinary example may serve to make what I have said clear.Let us take the case of a poor orphan boy to whom you have given the address of some employer where he may perhaps find a job. On his way there he may indulge in a day-dream appropriate to the situation from which it arises. The content of his phantasy will perhaps be something like this. He is given a job, finds favour with his new employer, makes himself indispensable in the business, is taken into his employer’s family, marries the charming young daughter of the house, and then himself becomes a director of the business, first as his employer’s partner and then as his successor.In this phantasy, the dreamer has regained what he possessed in his happy childhood – the protecting hous e, the loving parents and the first objects of his affectionate feelings. You will see from this example the way in which the wish makes use of an occasion in the present to construct, on the pattern of the past, a picture of the future. There is a great deal more that could be said about phantasies; but I will only allude as briefly as possible to certain points.If phantasies become over-luxuriant and over-powerful, the conditions are laid for an onset of neurosis or psychosis. Phantasies, moreover, are the immediate mental precursors of the distressing symptoms complained of by our patients. Here a broad by-path branches off into pathology. I cannot pass over the relation of phantasies to dreams. Our dreams at night are nothing else than phantasies like these, as we can demonstrate from the interpretation of dreams.? Language, in its unrivalled wisdom, long ago decided the question of the essential nature of dreams by giving the name of ‘day-dreams’ to the airy creati ons of phantasy. If the meaning of our dreams usually remains obscure to us in spite of this pointer, it is because of the circumstance that at night there also arise in us wishes of which we are ashamed; these we must conceal from ourselves, and they have consequently been repressed, pushed into the unconscious.Repressed wishes of this sort and their derivatives are only allowed to come to expression in a very distorted form. When scientific work had succeeded in elucidating this factor of dream-distortion, it was no longer difficult to recognize that night-dreams are wish-fulfilments in just the same way as day-dreams – the phantasies which we all know so well. ? Cf. Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams (1900a).So much for phantasies. And now for the creative writer. May we really attempt to compare the imaginative writer with the ‘dreamer in broad daylight’, and his creations with day-dreams? Here we must begin by making an initial distinction. We must separate writers who, like the ancient authors of epics and tragedies, take over their material ready-made, from writers who seem to originate their own material.We will keep to the latter kind, and, for the purposes of our comparison, we will choose not the writers most highly esteemed by the critics, but the less pretentious authors of novels, romances and short stories, who nevertheless have the widest and most eager circle of readers of both sexes. One feature above all cannot fail to strike us about the creations of these story-writers: each of them has a hero who is the centre of interest, for whom the writer tries to win our sympathy by every possible means and whom he seems to place under the protection of a special Providence.If, at the end of one chapter of my story, I leave the hero unconscious and bleeding from severe wounds, I am sure to find him at the beginning of the next being carefully nursed and on the way to recovery; and if the first volume closes with the ship he is in going down in a storm at sea, I am certain, at the opening of the second volume, to read of his miraculous rescue – a rescue without which the story could not proceed.The feeling of security with which I follow the hero through his perilous adventures is the same as the feeling with which a hero in real life throws himself into the water to save a drowning man or exposes himself to the enemy’s fire in order to storm a battery. It is the true heroic feeling, which one of our best writers has expressed in an inimitable phrase: ‘Nothing can happen to me! ’ It seems to me, however, that through this revealing characteristic of invulnerability we can immediately recognize His Majesty the Ego, the hero alike of every day-dream and of every story.Other typical features of these egocentric stories point to the same kinship. The fact that all the women in the novel invariably fall in love with the hero can hardly be looked on as a portrayal of reality, but it is e asily understood as a necessary constituent of a day-dream. The same is true of the fact that the other characters in the story are sharply divided into good and bad, in defiance of the variety of human characters that are to be observed in real life.The ‘good’ ones are the helpers, while the ‘bad’ ones are the enemies and rivals, of the ego which has become the hero of the story. We are perfectly aware that very many imaginative writings are far removed from the model of the naive day-dream; and yet I cannot suppress the suspicion that even the most extreme deviations from that model could be linked with it through an uninterrupted series of transitional cases. It has struck me that in many of what are known as ‘psychological’ novels only one person – once again the hero – is described from within.The author sits inside his mind, as it were, and looks at the other characters from outside. The psychological novel in general no dou bt owes its special nature to the inclination of the modern writer to split up his ego, by self- observation, into many part-egos, and, in consequence, to personify the conflicting currents of his own mental life in several heroes. Certain novels, which might be described as ‘eccentric’, seem to stand in quite special contrast to the type of the day-dream.In these, the person who is introduced as the hero plays only a very small active part; he sees the actions and sufferings of other people pass before him like a spectator. Many of Zola’s later works belong to this category. But I must point out that the psychological analysis of individuals who are not creative writers, and who diverge in some respects from the so-called norm, has shown us analogous variations of the day-dream, in which the ego contents itself with the role of spectator.If our comparison of the imaginative writer with the day-dreamer, and of poetical creation with the day-dream, is to be of any value, it must, above all, show itself in some way or other fruitful. Let us, for instance, try to apply to these authors’ works the thesis we laid down earlier concerning the relation between phantasy and the three periods of time and the wish which runs through them; and, with its help, let us try to study the connections that exist between the life of the writer and his works.No one has known, as a rule, what expectations to frame in approaching this problem; and often the connection has been thought of in much too simple terms. In the light of the insight we have gained from phantasies, we ought to expect the following state of affairs. A strong experience in the present awakens in the creative writer a memory of an earlier experience (usually belonging to his childhood) from which there now proceeds a wish which finds its fulfilment in the creative work.The work itself exhibits elements of the recent provoking occasion as well as of the old memory. Do not be alarmed at the complexity of this formula. I suspect that in fact it will prove to be too exiguous a pattern. Nevertheless, it may contain a first approach to the true state of affairs; and, from some experiments I have made, I am inclined to think that this way of looking at creative writings may turn out not unfruitful.You will not forget that the  stress it lays on childhood memories in the writer’s life – a stress which may perhaps seem puzzling – is ultimately derived from the assumption that a piece of creative writing, like a day-dream, is a continuation of, and a substitute for, what was once the play of childhood. We must not neglect, however, to go back to the kind of imaginative works which we have to recognize, not as original creations, but as the re-fashioning of ready- made and familiar material.Even here, the writer keeps a certain amount of independence, which can express itself in the choice of material and in changes in it which are often quite extensi ve. In so far as the material is already at hand, however, it is derived from the popular treasure-house of myths, legends and fairy tales. The study of constructions of folk-psychology such as these is far from being complete, but it is extremely probable that myths, for instance, are distorted vestiges of the wishful phantasies of whole nations, the secular dreams of youthful humanity.You will say that, although I have put the creative writer first in the title of my paper, I have told you far less about him than about phantasies. I am aware of that, and I must try to excuse it by pointing to the present state of our knowledge. All I have been able to do is to throw out some encouragements and suggestions which, starting from the study of phantasies, lead on to the problem of the writer’s choice of his literary material.As for the other problem – by what means the creative writer achieves the emotional effects in us that are aroused by his creations – we have as yet not touched on it at all. But I should like at least to point out to you the path that leads from our discussion of phantasies to the problems of poetical effects. You will remember how I have said that the day-dreamer carefully conceals his phantasies from other people because he feels he has reasons for being ashamed of them. I should now add that even if he were to communicate them to us he could give us no pleasure by his disclosures.Such phantasies, when we learn them, repel us or at least leave us cold. But when a creative writer presents his plays to us or tells us what we are inclined to take to be his personal day dreams, we experience a great pleasure, and one which probably arises from the confluence of many sources. How the writer accomplishes this is his innermost secret; the essential ars poetica lies in the technique of overcoming the feeling of repulsion in us which is undoubtedly connected with the barriers that rise  between each single ego and the others. We can guess two of the methods used by this technique. The writer softens the character of his egoistic day-dreams by altering and disguising it, and he bribes us by the purely formal – that is, aesthetic – yield of pleasure which he offers us in the presentation of his phantasies. We give the name of an incentive bonus, or a fore-pleasure, to a yield of pleasure such as this, which is offered to us so as to make possible the release of still greater pleasure arising from deeper psychical sources.In my opinion, all the aesthetic pleasure which a creative writer affords us has the character of a fore-pleasure of this kind, and our actual enjoyment of an imaginative work proceeds from a liberation of tensions in our minds. It may even be that not a little of this effect is due to the writer’s enabling us thenceforward to enjoy our own day-dreams without self-reproach or shame. This brings us to the threshold of new, interesting and complicated enquiries; but also , at least for the moment, to the end of our discussion.