Family and Young Boy Charley Essay Example

Family and Young Boy Charley Essay Book Report â€Å"For One More Day†, By Mitch Albom Made by: Kitti Kristanti, Sec 1d For One More Day â€Å"This is a story about a family, and as there is a ghost involved, you might call it a ghost story. But every family is a ghost story  . The dead sit at our tables long after they have gone. † This is a beautiful, haunting novel about the family we love and the chances we miss. It explores the question, â€Å"What would you do if you could spend one more day with the ones you love? †Ã‚   The story  covers a conversation  Charley Benetto has with a sports writer. Throughout the conversation he goes back and forth between  the one last day he had with his mother and the important  events in his life, sharing his feelings– both past and present– about them. I particularly enjoyed the   way he shared throughout the book little vignettes of the times his mother stood up for him and the times he didn’t stand up for her. As a mother myself, I couldn’t help wondering if someday my own children would be able to look back and see with clarity the sacrifices I have made for them. Throughout the book I ‘heard’ some of the same things from the young boy Charley that I hear from my own children. It was rewarding and brought hope to see him come to a realization of how his interpretation of the events had been inaccurate and skewed by emotions in the moment. Perhaps my children will also understand someday As a young boy Charley Benetto makes the choice to be a daddy’s boy and does everything his father asks him to. Then his father disappears, leaving a broken family and an embarrassing situation for the young Charley to endure. We will write a custom essay sample on Family and Young Boy Charley specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Family and Young Boy Charley specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Family and Young Boy Charley specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Being raised by a single mother has it’s challenges and plenty of embarrassment, many that Charley takes out on his mother. â€Å"So he chooses his father, and he worships him- right up to the day the man disappears. An eleven-year-old Charley must then turn to his mother, who bravely raises him on her own, despite Charley’s emabarrassment and yearning for a complete family. †   Ã¢â‚¬ Decade later, Charley is a broken man. His life has been crumbled by alcohol and regret. He loses his job. He leaves his family. He hits bottom after discovering his only daughter has shut him out of her wedding. And he decides to take his own life. † â€Å"He makes a midnight ride to his small home-town, with plans to do himself in. But upon failing to do that, he staggers back to his old house, only to make an astonishing discovery. His mother- who died eight years earlier- is still living there, and welcomes him home as if nothing had ever happened. † â€Å"What follows is the one ‘ordinary’ day so many of us yearn for, a chance to make good with a lost parent, to explain family secrets, and to seek forgiveness. Somewhere between this life and the next, Charley learns the things he never knew about his mother and her sacrifices. And he tries, with her tender guidance, to put the crumbled pieces of his life back together. † I related to this story on many levels. As a single mother myself I could relate to many of the experiences described and gained insight into what my children may be experiencing as a result of events they have no control over. As a daughter  who has at times experienced a  strained relationship with my own mother,   I gained  valuable insights into my own childhood memories and interpretations and was  reminded, again, that there is much more to the story that I do not completely understand. And as always– the betrayal revealed in the end made the recent and  painful betrayal of my own life seem small and insignificant in comparison. This clever story, told in Mitch’s masterful storytelling style, has left me with a new appreciation and understanding for those I love and has motivated me to be more intentional in valuing and cherishing the relationships I enjoy with those I love so that I will not be left with regrets for the experiences and the love lost. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever been a part of a family, who has ever lived with regrets, and who has ever questionned the value of their very existence.

Nation States & Globalization essays

Nation States & Globalization essays Are multinational companies really taking power away from nation states in some sweeping processes of globalisation? The implications for the ability of nation states to exercise political and economic control over this trans-national economy are clear, they would be at the mercy of automated and uncontrollable, because global, market forces. www.workerspower.com It is a widespread belief, illustrated by the above quotation, that the process of globalisation is eroding the power and autonomy of nation states. According to this viewpoint multi-national companies, as trans-national organisations, are becoming more powerful than nation states, and as such are able, not only to defy them, but actually take at least some of their power away from them. Any investigation of this area must first start with a proper definition of globalisation, and ask the question whether globalisation is, as is often claimed, a new phenomenon. It must be born in mind that, in the words of Bradley, the significance of economic, social and cultural intercourse across and beyond the boundaries of individual states has long been recognised. (Bradley, 2000, p13). Economic activity has been conducted on an international basis for centuries. Profits from the Atlantic slave trade were crucial to the way in which capitalism developed in Western Europe. The American tobacco growing industry was crucial to Britains economy in the eighteenth century. Many of the old sandstone buildings in the West End of Glasgow were built with money made by capitalists operating in the American tobacco trade. Many commercial enterprises in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries operated out-with national boundaries. In fact the notion of a modern world system of economic activity on an international basis is as old as the fifteenth century. (Bradley, 2000, p14). So what is new or special about globalisati...

Hillingdon Electricals Ltd (a case study) Coursework

Hillingdon Electricals Ltd (a case study) - Coursework Example This has eventually helped the company in building an appreciative reputation for itself in the market. However, in the recent years, the company has failed to deliver its services as per expectations, which resulted in its declining market share further affecting its competitive advantage. Contextually, the top level management of the company has decided that each of its stores situated all over the UK market needs to have a particular sales target for its various categories of goods. The scenarios highlighted and discussed below therefore deals with certain situations that the company is dealing with, post its approach of enhancing its performance. Scenario A (Tony and Ursula) In this scenario, it has been noted that due to a manual error, price of certain products of the company were advertised in websites and newspaper at a much lesser price in comparison to the present market price for the same. Subsequently, a customer named Tony bought the same product from the company website in a usual procedure as per the advertised price. However, in the following day, the customer received a mail from the company stating that the website was in total error which depicted a false price of the product and hence, the product can only be sold at its original market price. However, the company offered certain discount as an effort to maintain goodwill with the customer. In this regard, Tony denied to pay the present market price and demanded the product at the committed price in website advertisement. Correspondingly in another case, Ursula went on to buy a product from a retail shop of the company in accordance to the price advertised in the newspaper. However, similar to the condition of Tony, the store manager her that the actual price of the product was more than the price disclosed in the advertisement in the newspaper. Ursula too refused to pay the extra amount and demanded the product in the advertised price. It is apparent from the above scenario that human error is mainly responsible for the false advertisement of the company, which can be assumed to be unintended on the grounds of good faith. Despite of such considerations, the case can be considered as breach of the UK tort law. A tort is a crime that involves the use of unfair means in conducting activities that harms or results in loss of others. The harm or injury, as per law is not limited to physical injuries; rather, it covers emotional and reputational injurious as well (Findlaw, 2012). Correspondingly, the approach of the company, despite of the fact that it was owing to human error can be considered as a tort against the customers and competitors. It can therefore be classified as a clear case of negligence of the company in its advertising, which is illegal under and punishable under the tort law (Lawskool, n.d.). Conceptually, the tort law in the UK is applicable for several activities, which primarily includes activities related to negligence and duty of care. In simple terms , negligence can be regarded as carelessness of people in their work, which results in unfavourable impacts on others. According to the tort law, individuals or a body of individuals (companies or organisations or associations) should not depict negligence attitude

Airline Planning and Management CW Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Airline Planning and Management CW - Essay Example There are 3 major types of tickets: Booking one month ahead for the cheapest ticket, booking one week ahead and lastly booking the flexible ticket 2 days ahead. The prices in table 3 are given for the flexible tickets and for a day return trip on a weekday. These prices are used in order to simplify the calculations for the fares. Also holidays could not be excluded by presenting other ticket types, whereas the fares are significantly higher. Prices include taxes and charges for a roundtrip. Worth mentioning is that all fares are from London and it is assumed that the price is similar on the other direction. However, the denomination of pricing is different due to Euro/Pound rate differences between Porto and London, respectively. The airport of choice in London for the new airline is London City. Therefore, the new airline will serve the route London City (LCY) in London, UK to Francisco SÃ ¡ Carneiro Airport Porto (OPO) in Portugal. to date there is only one direct flight in each direction at the weekdays from London to OPO with several non-direct flights in addition. In table 3 (b), the airlines have been limited to only non-direct flights that do not fly longer than 5 hours. This means that non-direct flights flying longer than 5 hours are excluded. Following figure 1 demonstrates the short distance between LCY and OPO and the resulting benefits of establishing direct flights: Travellers will appreciate the short length of travel and direct flight option to and from OPO There is a number of factors that make the choice of LCY-OPO highly suitable. Main reason is the total number of carriers plying the route. Because of the availability of multiple airline carriers, there is much competition at the major airports, making travellers prefer LCY because of its size, reduced crowd numbers, fast check-in processes and reduces waiting times. Passengers are also guaranteed

Assignment 6 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 4

Assignment 6 - Essay Example ond World War, and he declared his war against the â€Å"racial caste system† employed by contractors against soldiers in the United States during that time (653). Truman’s EO 8991 in 1948, or the executive order that created the Civil Rights Commission, paved the way for the â€Å"weaving together† of America in the 1950s. It is this particular executive order that offered equal treatment to Blacks and the cutting off of the sale of products that perpetuate the latter’s vices (653). Although Truman’s EO 8991 has not accomplished as much as Kennedy’s and Johnson’s policies, it paved the way for the â€Å"unraveling† of America in the 1960s, where the races and genders have more or less equaled. Fifteen years after Truman’s EO 8991, in 1963, certain changes in terms of social engineering activities have been implemented regarding racial and gender equality, particularly during the governance of Lyndon Johnson. One of which was the decision of the Department of Defense to prohibit soldiers from using segregated bus or rail facilities, thus whites and blacks could use transportation together (654). The greatest proof of â€Å"unraveling† of the United States in the 60s was the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, and this â€Å"prohibited racial discrimination in employment, institutions like hospitals and schools†¦restaurants, hotels, and theaters† ( 922). Moreover, in 1965, under the banner of â€Å"affirmative action† used by the Kennedy administration, Johnson reiterated his vision of racial equality (Levin 656). He defended Blacks in his speech and considered them equal to whites, and through EO 11246, he required all federal contract ors to treat any employee without any regard to his â€Å"race, creed, color or national origin† (656). So far, Johnson’s greatest achievement in 1965 was the passage of the Voting Rights Act, which granted suffrage to the black southerners ( 926). In 1967, Johnson included gender equality by adding â€Å"sex† to the

Semi-structured interviews | Analysis

Semi-structured interviews | Analysis An exploratory use of semi-structured interviews Introduction This essay reports my understandings of interview as a qualitative research method and the experience of an exploratory use of it. Considering the broad research area of my PhD study, learning and assessment, the key knowledge I am going to reveal will be learners own perceptions of their learning. Some data could probably be excavated from the products of their learning, such as learning logs, workbooks, or teachers feedbacks, that indicate their experiences and evaluations of their learn. If the data are insufficient, however, I have to carried out interviews to gather the data needed. As a result, I chose semi-structured interview as the method I would try out for this assignment. The usability of semi-structured interviews There are many types of interviews which are differentiated by how much the interviews are structured and how many participants are involved in one interview (Fontana Frey, 2000; Punch, 2005)à ¢Ã‚ Ã‚  . Although interviews are basically asking questions and receiving answers using the media of language, different types of interview are based on different assumptions (Punch, 2005, p. 169)à ¢Ã‚ Ã‚  . Mason (2002, pp. 63-66)à ¢Ã‚ Ã‚   points out that the choice of semi-structured interviews is probably an indicator to the following beliefs and reasons: Peoples understandings, feelings, perceptions and other inner thoughts as well as the interactions with other people are parts of the social reality. This reality could be revealed by representations and interpretations through language. What has been revealed is situational knowledge which will be more likely to be reconstructed under its due context. In appropriate design, the desired context could be brought into the interview conversations. Qualitative interviews do not aim to standardise but to achieve more in terms of depth, nuance, complexity, and roundedness of what is to be understood. Interviewing is a process of data generation and the interviewer plays an active and reflexive role in it. Interviewees should have more controls and freedoms throughout the interview interactions. Taking Masons view, if a research shares part or all of the above descriptions, it would find appropriate to employ semi-structured interviews as a data generation method. The exploratory inquiry I have carried out is exactly one of these cases. Conducting the interview After listening to me talking about my teaching experiences in and viewpoint on Taiwanese schools, a British fellow student, George (name changed) said he believes that there should be different types of schools. This response kindled my curiosity because he was the third British people who concluded our conversation in such idea that quickly transcends the dichotomy of good or bad. This rarely happened while I was involving in similar conversations in Taiwan. I wonder how his belief on education was formed. So I invited him to participant my interview, and he agreed. The themes and the participants I chose this theme and this participants to interview based on a pragmatic consideration. There are limited people conveniently available to be interviewed by me and there are also a few themes related to my research, but it will be a meaningful inquiry only if any of these people has something to say about any of those themes. When they are matched, the interview is more likely to be made enjoyable to the participant and, thus, will be more ethical, too (Mason, 2002)à ¢Ã‚ Ã‚  . My invitations of interview had been refused twice until I luckily identified the current participant matched with the current theme. Questions for the interview I then made a plan of interviewing consisting with three parts. At the beginning, I would remind George of our previous conversation by recapitulating it. After confirming that he remembered it, too, I would raise my initial question: what did you mean exactly by I believe there should be different kinds of schools in our previous conversation? I expected this question to bring back the context of our previous talk, and clarify his own interpretation of that expression. Secondly, I would explain that the key question of this interview is how do you think this belief was form? And I would ask further questions according to Georges responses explore more deeply until the answer satisfies me or noting a scent of Georges having nothing or not willing to go further on this topic. Finally, I would invite him to comment on one the Summerhill School, as well as to estimate how many British share similar beliefs with him by his own perception. I expected his commenting on one of the most extreme cases of schooling in England and self-positioning among others could help me revealing more of his stance of educational philosophy. Recording I have also considered the technique used to record the interview. The choice of recording method was subject to both the availability of equipment and the purpose which the interview would be analysed for. Considering that the interviewee would be reflecting on his comment on my previous talk from the aspects affected by my questions, the content of the interview conversation would probably not exist yet and I would be involved in the process of its generation. The value I hold prior to the interview would constrain my aspect to perceive the conversation and. Therefore, I need the spoken words and their sequences in the conversation to be recorded independently from my judgement. I thought a voice recorder would do the job well. Voice recording, like other recording method, could only partially record the interview (Mason, 2002; Silverman, 2001)à ¢Ã‚ Ã‚  , nevertheless, the voice record could be replayed as many times as I need and it also keeps the original sequences of conversation which set each single sentence into the context (Silverman, 2001)à ¢Ã‚ Ã‚  . That would enable me to analyse the conversation with perspectives that I was hardly to have while interviewing. Interviewing The interview was taken place in the ground floor at 35 Berkeley Squire with coffee and snacks during lunch time and lasted about 30 minutes. After some small talk, a common start of interviewing (Bogdan Biklen, 2003)à ¢Ã‚ Ã‚  , I turned on the voice recorder, shifted the topic to the conversation we had had and asked him to explain more about what he meant by I believe there should be different types of schools? His answers are firstly that no child is the same some child[ren] will do better in one sort of schools and secondly that if you got lots of schools, you got lots of experimentsassuming you can compare them then you can get some interesting findings. In the UK we have lots of different schools within our education, and that difference will not be necessarily a bad thing, that could be a good thing. Then, when I asked about how his belief was formed? He give me a general, rational description of the advantages of having various types of school. This though provided a deeper explain of his thought but still not sufficed what I was seeking for, so I asked him in another way that in what age you began to see education in this way? Instead of answering my question, George wondered whether I wanted to put his thoughts in the very personal context. After my affirmation, he then continued to tell me that he has followed his own way since quite early age. He chose to teach, which most graduate and also his family wont considered as a good job, in the UK and soon went to teach in a developing country. How early do you mean by quite early age? I asked. Probably sort of I went to secondary school, he said, its your education environment encourages sorts of ways of thinking. Are there any one else told you about this sort of ideas? I followed. I was in a boarding school and we had what we call house master I have quite lot of contact with this person, he [told us] not to accept what the state or other people said [without questions][this has ] the impact on me and other people] he answered. Since he mentioned the boarding school, I then jump and ask him about his opinions on Summerhill school which was in the third part of my original plan. Though he made it clear that I am not saying that Summerhill should be closed or any thing like that and I have not been to the Summerhill school so I cant comment on it, he maintained that I think children need to be systematically taught [if] children just be left too do what they want to do for children who have certain personality that could be generally quite good thing, for other children it could be absolutely disaster there is sort of children need quite lot of structure. I have sensed that George was making the judgement based on some tacit value which was slightly different from the articulated beliefs. This added more tense into our conversation and made it more meaningful to me. So I pointed this difference out and shared my experience of similar discussions in Taiwan. Responding to my comment, George raised a new topic. Despite many developing countries, probably including Taiwan, blindly copy the western education into theirs, there must be some good in theirs that worth the western educations to learn. We talked about this topic for a while ( that was very interesting, too) then I ask him the final question about his estimation of how many British share similar views with him. Experience of this interview My question has been answered satisfactorily by this interview in most extent, and there are several things I can learn from it. My experiences might be organised into the following two aspects. Preparations Carefully preparations in advance are helpful and essential. I found that to acquaint my self with the theme, including the plan of asking questions, the relevant cases such as the Summerhill school and my experiences in Taiwan, have indeed facilitated the management of the conversation to involve the participants as much as possible but still keep it focused. Voice recorder also need to be tested in advance. I found my voice recorder set in a wrong mode which ruined the first ten minutes of my recording and I had to interrupt to conversation and corrected it. Interviewing as a conversation Semi-structured interviews are not just data collection tools but data generation events. I assumed that my experiences in Taiwan and perhaps my attitude toward these experiences triggered our discussion on copying education from other countries. If I did not share these experiences, I would probably get different interview data. Apart from the interviewer, the interviewee has his own intention in the interview conversation. George wanted to know what these questions for (thus he confirmed my research context before answering) and he also has assumptions about how I might interpret his words (thus he maintained his scepticism over the uncritical appreciation of western education). In this point, I would agree what Bogdan and Biklen (2003)à ¢Ã‚ Ã‚   suggest on an effective and comfortable approach to do interviewing: explain to the interviewee all necessary information about myself and my inquiry like we might do to an expert. This will facilitate the understanding to the others of both participants, which is the centre part of interviews. and give the interviewee more control over how his view was understood, which could be seen clearly in my case. Conclusions From the exploratory interview and several interview related chapters (Bogdan Biklen, 2003; Fontana Frey, 2000; Mason, 2002; Punch, 2005; Silverman, 2001)à ¢Ã‚ Ã‚   , I found semi-structured interviews as a qualitative research method is good at a) revealing peoples knowledge, views, understandings, interpretations, [and] experiences (Mason, 2002, p. 63)à ¢Ã‚ Ã‚   , especially their situational aspects; b) giving interviewees opportunities to actively participate in and have some control over the interviews. However, when involving interviews, it is worth being cautious that a) the power (or other kinds of) relationship(s) between interviewer and interviewee have to be counted as part of the context which the interviews has been set in, otherwise, it might turn up with unexpected or even distorted result; b) one to one interviewing has some but limited ability to create a desirable context, particularly, in researches looking at peoples interactions or how people respond in social context, where group interviewing might be a more powerful approach. c) interviewees might just say what they want to let us know rather than what we intent to know; d) the represent-ability of any reality might be constrain by the capability of language of both interviewers and interviewees and, when looking at those past things, affected by the accuracy of interviewees memory. The complexity of the connection between language and reality is itself also an issue needs further inspections. e) method of interview has little validity over peoples behaviour which might more appropriately be gathered by observations or document analyses. REFERENCES: Bogdan, R. C., Biklen, S. K. (2003). Qualitative research for education: An introduction to theories and methods. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Inc. Fontana, A., Frey, J. H. (2000). The interview: From structured questions to negotiated text. In N. K. Denzin Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp. 645-672). Mason, J. (2002). Qualitative researching. London: Sage. Punch, K. (2005). Introduction to social research: Quantitative and qualitative approaches. London: Sage. Silverman, D. (2001). Interpreting qualitative data: methods for analysing talk, text and interaction. London: Sage.

Communicating Through Numbers in Toni Morrisons Beloved Essay

Communicating Through Numbers in Beloved      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Humanity uses numbers as a way to communicate beyond words, evoking ideas more readily than words alone are able to. All religions and cultures have significant numbers that communicate an essence or idea more quickly and completely than words can. It is in this manner that Toni Morrison uses numbers in Beloved. Significant numbers occur starting with the first symbols of the text and the words on the pages before the body of the text starts.    124. The first thing to appear, and we already have a significant number. Sethe has four children. The third one is dead. Numbers 1, 2, and 4 remain. Another number that stands alone in its significance is twenty-eight. Twenty-eight is the length of the menstrual cycle, the lunar month, and the duration of Sethe's happiness: "Sethe had had twenty-eight days - the travel of one whole moon - of unslaved life. From the pure clear stream of spit that the little girl dribbled into her face to her oily blood was twenty-eight days" (95). Sethe has lived twenty years of sorrow, for twenty-eight days of pleasure, and spends another eighteen suffering before Paul D and Beloved brighten her life again. "Those twenty-eight happy days were followed by eighteen years of disapproval and a solitary life....Was that the pattern? she wondered. Every eighteen or twenty years her unbelievable life would be interrupted by a short-lived glory?" (173). This symbol is significant, and twenty-eight appears o nly within this context.    Many numbers occur that are significant even though they are not recurring themes throughout the book. Howard and Buglar "[ran] away by the time they were thirteen years old" (3), the traditional age of manhood ... ...tion" (695). This seems precisely what is happening when Sixo dies.    As we see, numbers play an enormous role in Beloved. They communicate concepts in a sort of psychic shorthand, adding a deeper subtext to many events. The way in which the numbers are used is universal, using symbols common to all of humanity. It is universal comprehension like that which gives Beloved the power it has, its genius, and its beauty.    Works Cited Gaskell, G. A. Dictionary of All Scriptures and Myths. (New York: The Julian Press, 1960) p. 695 Herder Dictionary of Symbols. Trans. Boris Matthews. (Wilmette, Illinois: Chiron Publications, 1993) Mackey, Cameron. Interviews with. Haverford College, December 1995. Morrison, Toni. Beloved. (New York: Plume, 1988) Schimmel, Annemarie. The Mystery of Numbers. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993)  Ã‚