No topic Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

No topic - Research Paper Example The higher nature of Prakriti includes things that are regarded as life force which hold all living things on earth. Therefore, it stresses that all the living things emerges from prakriti’s two fold levels. All living things melts in a universal Prakriti at the end of their lives while at the start of creation, God breathes new life in them and they live again. The Purusha on the other hand, is responsible for creating all living or existing communities and the entire creation both in motion and stagnant. The Prakriti represents the mind and the body with all their components while Purusha represents the inside witness ego or spirit which is the clean conscience that lives beyond human mind and senses (Giles 82). Further, it is significant to note that the purusha represents the collective cosmic male whose endurance leads in the evidence of world and life. By enduring the hardships and pains, it forms the basis for one to liberate or free himself from evils of this world. The idea of purusha is well entrenched in the Vedas specifically the purushasukta which explains how the world’s were formed and how beings were given power to live in accordance to natural laws. Further, it illustrates that the social order of the worlds was build from the purusha. The purusha exists in two types; the perishable and the imperishable. In this case, the body is perceived as perishable while the soul is seen as the imperishable. An important note is that the Supreme Being does not comprise any of these features because he is beyond Prakriti. The supreme being posses the highest qualities and is above the inner self, sustains and protects the world he created by guiding them in right path. The Prakriti takes care of the dual sense and illusion of living things. Therefore, all major transformations occur because of Prakriti. Via the connection with the ‘gunas’ it binds the inner soul to the sense of objects and hence leads to birth of

La Belle Dame sans Merci By John Keats Essay Example for Free

La Belle Dame sans Merci By John Keats Essay La Belle Dame sans Merci is a poem written by John Keats who was a romantic poet. The first three stanzas of this poem are spoken by the narrator who is talking to the poet, asking him why hes wondering by himself and looks so sad. He addresses the poet as wretched Wight roaming outside, all alone. The narrator whos out in the countryside talks about the night and the surroundings what its like presently. There are no sedges or birds in the trees. Everything seems to be complete as the harvests are done which marks the end of the year and the fact that there are no leaves tells us it is autumn too which is a time of the year when it seems as though all forms of life have come to an end. Out of curiosity he asks the poet what is wrong with him. The rest of the poem is the poets reply. The poet tells us that he saw an extremely beautiful lady somewhere as in the line I met a lady in the meads, full beautiful, a fairys child. The poet further describes the lady. He says that she was so beautiful and graceful that she couldnt have been a human. With such long hair and the grace as she had, she had to be a fairys child though her eyes seemed to be wild or disturbed. The poet makes her sit on his horse and in her presence, sees nothing else as in the line I set her on my pacing steed and nothing else saw all day long. She sings a song of such music and melody thats its definitely not human. A place where there seemed to be no sound of birds is now enchanted by music. The music is not ordinary music or song but that of a fairies and the immortal as in the line for sideways would she lean and sing a fairys song. The fairy in this poem represents the poetic inspiration which inspires poets and artists to write and compose. Without this they feel that they are good as dead. The poetic inspiration casts poets into a delightful mood out of which they are able to compose their poetry. It changes a poets life when it enters it by brightening it up and leaves it in a nasty way. Just the way poetic inspiration can change the life of a poet when it enters the previous picture of dull and lifelessness also brightens up when the lady is mentioned. In the third to fifth stanza the poet describes the experience in the presence of the lady and the poetic inspiration which are alike. The poet under the spell composes poetry with words as though decorating the fairy that seems to enjoy him poetry [decoration] very much and urges him to continue. He seems to be enjoying all the sensual pleasures which are of taste, sight, music, fragrance and touch. In the lines she found me roots of relish sweet and honey wild and manna dew, the words relish sweet, honey wild, and manna dew, symbolize or express rather, the pleasures experienced by the poet while writing poetry. In the next stanza we find key words which tell us something about the lady. In the lines and there she gazed and sighed deep and there I shut her wild sad eyes so kissed to sleep, the words sighed deep and wild sad eyes tell us that the lady is not happy about something and that she too is troubled over something. The lady who happens to be a fairy, one that belongs to the world of the immortal cannot stay with a person for long. This is because she is from a different world and so after a period of time she must desert the person no matter what and this is what has caused her grief. Even the best of men this world can offer, kings and warriors are no math and she must leave them all. In the same way, the poetic inspiration cannot stay with one person for a long time. It must move on and go to other people and inspire them to compose as well. In the next stanza we see how the poet tries to enjoy his few moments of ecstasy at the most and dream even if its on the cold hill side. The poet knows that he too, like those before him will be deserted. In the next stanza he describes his dream, or rather nightmare in which he sees the people who have already been deserted by the lady and become severely ill their life to them was as good as death. Without the fairy that they loved, they had nothing to live for. In the same sense the poetic inspiration allows poets to do what they love to do i.e. write poetry but once that is taken away, so is their ability of composing and they loose interest in life. The men are left with starved lips and pale faces with nothing worth living for. And when the poet wakes up, he find himself in the same situation and all alone on the cold hill side. And so the poet tells the narrator that he had been deserted by the one he loved most and it didnt really matter what time of the year it was because his life was as good as death.

value of a college education Essay example -- essays research papers

Value Of A College Education According to Lundberg (2003), â€Å"adult students are one of the most rapidly growing segments of today’s college student population, making up approximately 40% of all college students† (665). Having a college education is an important tool that contributes to several aspects of a person’s life. The areas that are impacted the most would be the professional and personal areas. It is important to learn the value of a college education in order to take advantage of what you learn and how to productively apply it in your personal and professional life. Having a college education is something that can always be looked at as a positive achievement that feels good and looks good on a resume. Earning a college degree can provide a lifetime of rewards and unlike most other consumer purchases such as a car, will only appreciate in value, not depreciate. Professional Aspects According to Vocational Training News (2003), despite the current economic climate, college students say having technology skills will greatly increase their employment potential (6). The job market is constantly changing each year. Jobs are now more competitive and having a college degree seems to be a necessity for most which is why having a college degree at least shows that an individual is knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and has worked hard to accomplish a specific goal. Having a college degree also gives more opportunity to apply for jobs of interest. Larger Salary A college degree also allows for the opportunity to earn a larger salary. Having a degree also gives a person more confidence when negotiating salaries. Knowing that a company cannot use the excuse of not having a degree against you is a great benefit. Even though the cost of a college education is outrageous, the benefits of having a degree far surpass those costs. Loans can be paid back but it is very difficult to make a substantial amount of money without a degree. This reminds me of a saying that I once heard though I cannot recall who said it. "If you think the price of education is expensive, try the price of ignorance. You pay for ignorance everyday for the rest of your life."- Anonymous Respect and Admiration Everyone would like something to show from the hard work they put into earning their deg... ...ngs to different areas of a person’s life. In my case, I will have developed the skills and values necessary to be an asset to my company and elsewhere in the business world. I will now not be looked upon as just an â€Å"entry level† worker. More opportunities will be available for jobs that are of particular interest to me and as stated before, the opportunity for a higher salary will exist. By continuing my education, I will have achieved a great accomplishment and know that all of my hard work and determination has finally paid off. The value of a college education is priceless. Earning a degree can only make the future more desirable. In conclusion, I need to take it upon myself to further my education right now, without interruption, no matter what the obstacles may be. References (2003, December). Teens say tech knowledge increases potential jobs. Vocational Training News, 34, (12), 6. Retrieved December 21, 2003, from EBSCO database. Lundberg, C.A., (2003, November/December). The influence of time-limitations, faculty, and peer relationships on adult student learning. Journal of Higher Education, 74, (6), 665. Retrieved December 21, 2003, from EBSCO database.

Nissan: Culture and Earlier Cg Uses

CM J41 Strategy Execution [pic] 1. 0 Resume: The case is about the turnaround of Nissan in the year 1999 to 2002. Nissan experienced great finances looses for the past seven out of eight years which resulted in a 22 billion $ debt and an outdated product portfolio with little liquid capital for new product development. In just 12 months the new COO, Carlos Ghosn (CG), succeeded in turning Nissan into profitability with a new and more performance oriented corporate culture. 2. Evaluation of Carlos Ghosn’s approach to turning Nissan around: The overall evaluation of CG is full of success which, I think, is duo to his personal background, his philosophies of management and a little bit of luck. CG has a multicultural background and has proven himself having capacity for global leadership. In his career he has learned to manage large operations under adverse condition on four different continents and speaks five languages. He has a very open and pragmatic approach towards his surr oundings, with this in mind his specialty is improving cost efficiencies, and this has earned him the nickname â€Å"Le Cost-Killer†.CG philosophies of management consist of three principals. These are transparency, execution and communication which all are essential to give employees structure and direction. His leadership style is characterized by him being achievement orientated, participative, supportive and directive leader. Furthermore a unique quality and vital factor for CG success is in my opinion was his implementation of the Cross Functional Teams (CFT) and his approach to cultural conflict, which he sees as an opportunity to create rapid innovation, if paced and channelled correctly. In the above mentioned I state, that CGs approach was a success.In the following four aspects I will try to prove this, by stressing out different arguments from the case combined with relevant theory. 2. 1 Resistance to change: People do not resist change but specific things. (Notes lec. 5) Over 50 % of all change initiatives in organizations fail to succeed and when this occurs, leaders often blame resistance. They assume that if only people would stop complaining and get on board, all would be fine (Ford et al. , 2009). But resistance is, in fact, a form of feedback, often provided by people who know more about day-to-day operations than you do.It can therefore be turned into a vibrant conversation that gives your change effort a higher profile (Ford et al. , 2009). This could be one of the reasons to why CG set up the CFT. Dismissing the feedback deprives you of potentially valuable information, costs you goodwill, and jeopardizes important relationships. If you learn to embrace resistance, you can use it as a resource and find your way to a better solution (Ford et al. , 2009). Resistance, properly understood as feedback, can be an important resource in improving the quality and clarity of the objectives and strategies at the heart of a change proposal.And, properly used, it can enhance the prospects for successful implementation (Ford et al. , 2009). Looking at the theory applied and the case, I believe that the resistance to change that CG faced was inevitable. As I see it one of the main reasons for resistances was due to the culture background, however there were several of underlying causes that could create a tension and resistance to change at Nissan. One is a more general conflict that arises when trying to move people, who do not find movement necessary.Another resistance point could be the urge for protecting ones career development, which before the intervention of CG was based on promotion on seniority basis and a zero mistake culture, which resulted in general a lack of innovation, a slow decision making and risk adverse mentality. To this CG responded with a change in the career development structure at Nissan, so that the highest achievers got the highest rewards and promotion was based on performance, leading to higher performance, willingness to make mistakes and create an innovation platform.Although these initiatives where not without resistance, because of the promotion of some younger leader over older, long serving employees which was in opposition to Japanese culture norms, CG took the same approach as with cultural differences and saw growth opportunities instead of problems for the young managers since they where challenged in their authority, which gave them growth experiences. As an overall when it comes to turning a company around as drastically as was needed for Nissan it is bound to create some resistance, and that CG new and was prepared for.Such a big change makes the future uncertain for many employees and the uncertainty is something many naturally try to avoid, and thereby instinctively becomes resistant. This Combined with a strong Japanese traditions, an organizational culture that has hindered innovation, adaptability and accountability, and last but not least a Japanese gov ernment that historically always have bailed out troubled employees, thereby creating no reason for action, and a feeling of no urgency, only made the resistance worse.All this being said, I am convinced that CG handed the resistance to change ideally. He didn’t as Ford el al. points out hold any possible reason for failure on resistance, and thereby risking overlooking opportunities to strengthen operational outcomes. 2. 2 Organizational culture: A part of the organizational culture at Nissan was the sub optimization with focus only on each individuals own department with little regard for understanding the company as a whole. This including other aspects of the organizational culture resulted in CG detecting a series of problems.From management side, the most fundamental ones was the lack of vision and ignoring customer voices. Furthermore he identified problems with, lack of clear profit orientation, lack of sense of urgency, no shared vision, insufficient focus on custome r and too much focus on competitors and lack of cross functional implementations. As a consequence of these findings CG organized nine CFTs for tackling Nissan’s cultural problems, and allowing the company to develop a new corporate culture from the best elements of Japan`s national culture.Working together in the CFTs helped managers think in new ways (innovation) and challenge the existing practices (efficiency). CG explained to employees at all levels of the company that they them selves possessed solutions to Nissan’s problems, giving them a sense of responsibility and ownership in turning Nissan around. It was neither top-down nor bottom-up. It was both â€Å"top-down and bottom-up. † CG could just have formulated solutions by himself and ordered them to be implemented by senior managers, but he believed in the managers and employees in Nissan, nd he was good at showing them this. As mentioned in 2. 0 he believed that if one just dictated changes from above , the effort could backfire, undermining morale and productivity. The CFTs was a way to minor the resistance to change and involve and motivate middle managers who had detailed information about the company’s daily business and had the potential to come up with solutions to the company’s problems. Even before taking over the position as COO, he had industry analysts against him, whom anticipated a culture clash between the French leadership style and his new Japanese employees.This could also have affected some employee attitude towards CG in a negative way beforehand. Besides this I am convinced that many parts of the Nissan organization did not feel very good about having CG changing things as drastically as he did. A labeling from the media as a gaijin, a foreigner and a reduction of 21,000 jobs, will inevitably create an uncertainty and therefore opponents among both lower level employees as well as higher in the hierarchy.Also the new employee advancement strategy , which challenged the traditional career advancement, created some negative emotions towards CG among the older, longer serving employees, since they were no longer automatically granted with a career advancement for long time service in the company. Furthermore, layoff of several of managers who did not meet targets regardless of circumstances and the demotion of Vice President of Sales and Marketing in Japan presumably created resistance and discontent.But I do believe that CG was successful in enlisting most of the organizations support over a fairly short period of time, though his leadership style, where his visibility and openness to taking recommendations & opinions of Nissan people seriously. Another reason is the respect for leadership that is inherent in most Japanese. This made his approach to leadership even more effective. Also the delegation of responsibilities to the CFTs helped getting the support of middle and lower levels, so he could focus his attention on top ma nagement. 2. 3 National culture:The national culture has without a doubt played a large part in the outcome of CG’s attempt to turn Nissan around. On one hand it hindered change because of the sense of security the government created and its rigid approach to decision making and career advancement. On the other hand the respect for leadership made it easier for him and his CFTs to have an impact on the organization. The cultural differences between CG and the Nissan organization was profound because he had never been exposed to Japanese culture before, but his approach to the culture ensured that he was fully aware of the issues that could arise.He stated that he wanted to discover Japan by being in Japan with Japanese people. That shows his humble and respectful approach to their culture, which I think benefited him allot and which I in the following will show some examples of. The respectful approach to the Japanese culture forced e. g. CG to pay extra attention on the empo werment of employees. As mentioned, Japanese business culture is characterized by a search for conscientiousness, corporation, group harmony, and an avoidance of mistakes. This all leads to a delay of decision making and a lack of responsibility.The introduction of CFTs was in my opinion a strategic stroke of genius because it was partly an attempt to break with the inconveniences of Japanese culture without harassing the fundamentals and partly because people in the CFTs got a bird’s eye perspective of the company and it gave them a sense of ownership and responsibility, which was necessary to turn things around. Cultural conflict could, in my opinion, easily be a root to resistance to change but as mentioned earlier CG uses and see cultural conflict as something positive if handled correctly, which also is in line with both Ford et al. and Dent et al. iew of how resistance to change should be handled (Ford et al. , 2009) (Dent et al. , 1999). By introducing the CFTs CG also avoided the failure that many companies often do in the execution of their strategy, which is going directly to the structural reorganization. Instead he focused on some of the most powerful drivers of effectiveness – decision rights and information flows (Nielson et al, 2008). The CFTs had in their ability of being cross functional all the information they needed to take the right decisions and by encouraging the members to come forth with their ideas and take risks the effectiveness of the CFTs was even greater.CG also changed the traditional Japanese compensation system to a more Western approach with possibility for employee advancements based on performance instead of seniority. This greatly empowered the talented employees, who was much needed in the turnaround but was also a source of conflict between young leader and older, longer-serving employees. But again CG saw a possible conflict as a positive thing. â€Å"†¦these tests of authority were growth experience s for young managers†.This shows again his personal ability to turn challenges into something good and productive. 2. 4 Luck and timing: There is no doubt that CG was lucky. His timing was impeccable as the bankruptcy of Yamaichi happened when he took office as COO in Nissan. The misfortune of the major financial house in Japan helped open the eyes of the employees in Nissan. The employees realized that lifetime employment was no longer a reality and that they had to do their own part to secure the company’s future and thus their own jobs.CG, to his credit, used the Yamaichi example whenever he could to continue to motivate his employees, repeating that their fate would be no different if they did not put all of their effort into figuring out, and then executing, the best way to turn Nissan around. By repeating the story CG paved the way for a major organizational and cultural change that otherwise would have been hard to push through. If people do not see why change is necessary, then motivation for change will be nonexistent.Moving a huge organization simply by brute force is an impossible task, but CG’s strike of luck created a powerful momentum that diminished potential resistance to change. Without this, CG and his CFTs would probably have faced a much more daunting task if the turnaround had taken place few years earlier. But it was not all luck. CG a used the bankruptcy strategic in the meaning of unfreezing the organization in Lewins words or as Cotter expresses it â€Å"creating a burning platform†. By telling the story over and over again he made the organization and every employee ready for change.When everyone was ready CG created a vision that was tangible, concise, and easy to relate to for the employees. It is not enough to create a great vision. It also has to be communicated effectively to the organization. CG was aware of this as the quote below shows â€Å"He was the first manager to actually walk around the entir e company and meet every employee in person, shaking hands and introducing himself†. CG was prepared to â€Å"walk the talk† himself and did so by taking the lead and thereby showing the employees the way. 3. 0 Conclusion: All in all I think CG did an incredible job turning Nissan around in a very short period of time.Inspired by the voting we have done in the class, I would give him a 12, the highest mark. As a non-Japanese COO he managed to overcome Japanese cultural obstacles, as well as effectively transforming a bureaucratic organizational culture and turning a large continuing deficit into a profit within 12 month. One could question though whether his successor will be able to continue what CG started or if he needs to find his own way. Either way, CG has a justifiable concern for the future of Nissan. They might be on the right path, but they are still far from reaching their goals.

Netflix Analysis

The following analysis is about Netflix and Blockbuster. Two successful companies with similar target market but at the same time with very different strategies which can make the difference of success in the future or contrary go down. First of all we need to clarify what is the specific situation of each one. Blockbuster is a rental home video company that has been leading the market during many years, since the VHS cassette till the appearance of the DVD and the expansion of the internet. They have had a well-designed strategy which let them growth significantly being the leaders in the market, having in 2006 more than 5000 locations within the US. They basically offered a huge number of in-store movie rental. As it is said in the text their financial success is based on the maximization of the days that a movie is rented. Also it is important to mention that a big part of their revenues came from the ‘’late fees’’ (10% of the total revenues in 2004). But as the times were changing, the customer’s needs were changing too and Blockbuster was in the need to adapt his business to the market. Netflix, being so visionary ten years ago, was launched as a personalized DVD movie rental using USPS to deliver DVDs to its subscribers and using a pricing model similar to the one used by video stores. The following analysis focuses on how those two companies that cover the same needs, they have totally different strategies and by analyzing both strategies we will see how a good strategy and a good knowledge of the market can make the difference and take a company to the success. Basing on the data and information in the case, Blockbuster would be ‘’short’’ and Netflix would be ‘’long’’. Blockbuster has an old-fashioned strategy, they focused all their efforts in differentiate from Netflix by integrating online and traditional in-shop services and by copying Netflix’s strategy of no late fees. Despite their attempts they had significant operation losses and they just grew 5% (they expected a bigger growth by suppressing late fees). Contrary, Netflix would be ‘’long’’ because from the beginning they were visionary, and they were offering what customers needed while the times were changing. Because of that their net income has been growing significantly. As inferred in Exhibit 1 in the case, net income multiplied in just two years (in 2004 was 21595$ and in 2006 the net income was 49082$). It is important to take into account what jobs did Netflix and Blockbuster for consumers. Blockbuster was the leader in the market by offering consumers in shop movie rent. They perfectly covered the need of watching the latest movies at home. They were very successful and so they expanded by opening new locations with the objective that at least 70% of the population have a Blockbuster very close. Netflix though, offered movies but unlike Blockbuster, they deliver the rented movies to the customer’s houses. They changed the concept of traditional movie renter. Netflix was created as a new concept, but covering the same need that Blockbuster was covering. Over time, Netflix grew more and more thanks to this competitive advantage that made the difference from Blockbuster. About their profit models, Netflix reached profitability by investing capital in opening more distribution centers producing more subscriptions thanks to the improved delivery service. As showed on Exhibit 2 in the case, the increase on the number of subscribers was very significant with 107 in 1999 to 6316 subscribers in 2006. Netflix based its strategy in the concepts of convenience and selection and they showed it by introducing the prepaid subscription based model where customers had to pay a monthly fee instead of the old per rental charge model. With this strategy they were be able to have better customer retention. On the other hand, Blockbuster was primarily focused on making the company profitable by expanding geographically, opening new locations so that they can increase the market share. Blockbuster focused the strategy on the concept of ‘’movie night’’, it means that their market is a specific niche in which customers make an impulsive decision and rent a movie when they get in the shop. That’s why they only have high-demand movies (unlike Netflix that apart from high demand movies, they also have old or independent movies). The Netflix success is due to a series of different steps that the company has had to face from the beginning till nowadays. The changes in the customers’ needs and in the society led Netflix to a constantly changing strategies. They launched the platform in 1997 like an alternative way to the traditional movie renters, to provide home movies services better satisfying customer’s needs. They took advantage of the latest hit in the new technologies, the DVD. And they acted like early-adopters of the DVD focusing their efforts in attracting owners of this new device. They were being successful, but they started losing customers so they were in the need to make some changes. And they did. Netflix totally changed the pricing strategy from the traditional pay-per-rent to the subscription model which allowed customers unlimited movies a month. They came up with the recommendation system as they needed to differentiate from the traditional video rental stores offering something that they didn’t offer. To increase the quality and number of offered movies, they created business relationships with the major studios so that they reach customer’s needs. As a consequence of this growth, they increase the distribution channel with USPS. But apart from that, Netflix was having a huge problem. They were constantly losing customers. To solve these problems they thought different: attract the old customers that have canceled their subscriptions. To reach this goal, they changed the unsubscribing policy and instead of trying to retain them, they made the cancellation process as easy as the subscription one. Probably many of the customers that left before will come back to Netflix when the platform will earn more awareness or when just decided that they want to reopen their accounts. So if all those processes were easy for them, the impression of the brand on the customer’s mind will be positive. At this point Netflix was doing well, the numbers of subscription were increasing and their net income was increasing too. What would be next? The new technologies market is a constantly growing and changing market. Something that is being a hit now, in one year could be completely forgotten. With the expansion of the internet many in-shop services will be affected. Services that can be offered via internet will replace the traditional commerce. And this will be the case in the video rental. The traditional video rental services whether in-shop or delivery will tend to disappear because of the following reasons or assumptions: -Internet is growing more and more. Many improvements are being made to improve the quality. -The number of people who have internet at home is also increasing. -Customers are adapting to the new era and they are adapting to new technologies and regulations. So basing on that, as Netflix already did years ago, they should be innovative again and take the risk to change in order to keep profitability for the company. They can’t avoid the new trends, if they don’t follow the changes and they don’t adapt to them, they will disappear because customers will change to those brands that cover their actual needs. Netflix was offering what customer’s needed, but this is changing with the appearance of VOD, and so by covering the same need, they should adapt to the times by changing their strategy.

Analyzing the Dynamic Role of Women in Steinbecks Grapes of Wrath

Analyzing the Dynamic Role of Women in Steinbecks Grapes of Wrath Living in a time period characterized by male dominance, Ma Joad defies the domestic role of a housewife as she takes command of her family in the face of unsurmountable odds. Although Steinbeck originally describes the Joads as a patriarchal family, he shifts the power into Ma's hands as she assumes the ultimate responsibility of making decisions. While Pa "breaks" (Steinbeck 6) under the deplorable living conditions, Ma remains strong for the sake of her family. In fact, she sacrifices her mental well-being by sleeping next to Granma's corpse, simply to ensure the family can cross the Californian border. Marvelled by her strength, the family receives courage to continue their journey despite the setbacks.Presenting a progressive change in Ma's demeanor, Steinbeck portrays Ma as increasingly bold and authoritative. When Tom suggests the family continue driving, while he and Casy repair the car, Ma releases her frustration. Taking a jack handle in hand, she scolds, "You done this 'th out thinkin' much.English: Own Work. 2007. National Steinbeck Centre...What we got lef 'in the world'? Nothin' but us. Nothin' but the folks" (230). With this act of forceful leadership, Ma Joad becomes "the power" (231). Additionally, Ma demonstrates her authority when she makes a decision without consulting the family. Hearing news of a job in northern California, she responds,"'We're a-goin...I don' care what the pay is. We're a-goin'" (479). Pa appears apprehensive of this takeover when he complains,"'Seems like times is changed. Time was when a man said what we'd do. Seems like women is tellin' now'" (Steinbeck 481).While the entire novel discusses the elevating role of women in society, the final paragraph serves as its basis. Both Ma and Rose of Sharon experience the loss of a child, which explains their maternal love toward mankind. By beastfeeding the starving man in the barn,

ESP essays

ESP essays ESP. . . Does it really exist? This has been a matter for debate for a long time. Personally, I believe that it is basically just luck. In other words, someone provides an explanation or prediction that is vague enough for someone to read additional facts into it and make it appear like it was an accurate telling of what happened or what was going to happen or they provide so many explanations or predictions that one of them sort of ends up correct. Meyers and, of course its corresponding website, follows along the same thought. A psychic in a staged demonstration is able to control what the audience is seeing and hearing and by doing so appears to have psychic powers. However, taking the same psychic and placing him or her in a environment where what they see or hear is controlled, they are not successful and it has been determined that the stage show was a hoax. If a true psychic existed, it would seem to me that they would have come forward to try to claim the $1 million dollars that is being offered by Magician James Randi in conjunction with others. (Myers, pg. 236) To date, no one has been found to be a true psychic. I know that I have, in the past, wished so hard for something to happen that I actually dreamed about it. If it came true, was it a premonition? I dont think so. Most times, I have worked very hard to achieve it. I believe in the power of positive thinking because negative thinking is not going to get you anywhere but seriously unhappy and depressed. At least being positive about life and what it deals you allows you to have a better outlook on life. This is one of the reasons that many low-income people use psychics. Many are looking for the get rich quick scheme; others are looking for a way up the social ladder and believe that this is their last chance. It is actually a very sad situation when it comes down to this. Under ProQuest, I found an interesting article regarding ...