My Antonia Essays (1081 words) - My Ntonia, , Term Papers

My Antonia At the age of ten, Jim Burden travels by cross-country train to live with his grandparents on the Nebraska frontier. He has just recently lost both his parents, and he is accompanied by a farmhand named Jake. On the same train is a Bohemian family that barely speaks English and that is going to the same place. When Jim arrives at the station, he is greeted by Otto Fuchs, an Austrian desperado cowboy. Jim's grandparents are kindly people with simple religious beliefs and very generous natures. Jim enjoys the wide expanses of the frontier, with all its insects, prairie dogs, and vegetation. At this point in the year it is still summer. Soon the Burdens go to meet their Bohemian neighbors, the Shimerdas, who were forced to pay too much for their farm by the only other Bohemian man in the country, Peter Krajiek. Jim meets Mr. Shimerda, an educated musician who is very kindly; Mrs. Shimerda, a shrewish woman who is complaining and demanding; the oldest son Ambrosch, who is a stubborn, stingy brute; Marek, a mentally challenged boy; and Yulka, a young and pretty girl. The oldest daughter ?ntonia also comes running up to him, grabs his hand, and they go sprinting into the fields. ?ntonia and Jim instantly become friends, and they spend a lot of time together outdoors, with Jim teaching her English. The Shimerdas are not doing very well in their new country, but they do become friends with two Russian men, Peter and Pavel. The Burdens try to help out as much as they can. One day during the end of summer, Jim kills a huge snake and impresses ?ntonia, who had been treating him with condescension. Soon, winter comes. Jim gets very sick, and Pavel dies, after unburdening his heart with a horrible story from his past. Mr. Shimerda becomes depressed after Peter moves away. The Burdens celebrate Christmas at home and make presents for each other since they cannot get into town to purchase some. Mr. Shimerda comes to thank the Burdens for his family's gifts and ends up spending the day with them. In the middle of the biggest snowstorm in ten years, Mr. Shimerda shoots himself after arranging himself neatly in the barn. Jake suspects that Krajiek killed Mr. Shimerda, but nothing is ever proven. The day afterwards, Jim is left in the house by himself, and he senses Mr. Shimerda's spirit resting on his way back to his homeland. The Shimerdas insist that Mr. Shimerda be buried at the corner of their property, where eventually a crossroads will be. The funeral ceremony is very moving though somewhat disorganized. Afterwards, the Burdens and other neighbors make a concerted effort to help the Shimerdas. ?ntonia begins farming in the fields like a man and gives up going to school. Jim is resentful that ?ntonia no longer spends as much time with him, and the Burdens and the Shimerdas get into a little feud because of Ambrosch's bad behavior. The Shimerdas do not act very grateful for the help that they receive from their friends. Eventually, however, everyone is reconciled. After three years in the country, Jim's grandparents move to the town of Black Hawk so that Jim can go to school. ?ntonia also comes into town to work for the Harlings in their home. Other immigrant country girls also start working in the town, and they become known as the hired girls. Jim spends a lot of time with ?ntonia and the Harling children, who form a happy household. Dancing becomes the craze in Black Hawk, and ?ntonia starts going all the time. When the Harlings ask her to stop going because she is getting a bad reputation, ?ntonia quits and starts working for Wick Cutter, a notorious philanderer. During this time Jim is antisocial and only spends time with ?ntonia and the other hired girls. He studies a lot in preparation for college and wants to leave Black Hawk as soon as possible. At college in Lincoln, Jim becomes very close to his Latin instructor and mentor Gaston Cleric. They spend a lot of time talking intimately, although Jim realizes that he is not an academic as Gaston is. One

Poor Little Rich Boy essays

Poor Little Rich Boy essays Everyone has heard the saying, from rags to riches. What if you were in a situation where that saying was reversed? Would it change you forever? This is exactly what happened to Alex, the protagonist in the novel The Wild Children by Felicia Holman. This drastically changes Alexs life and he must find different ways to live. He is affected mentally and physically by this, and throughout the novel, Alexs personality changes in many ways. Alex grows up in a very comfortable house, with his parents, little sister, and grandmother. He is used to feeling secure, and safe. His parents have raised him with high standards and morals, and he definitely knows right from wrong. All that changes though, when one day he wakes up, only to find that his family has been taken away by the government. That feeling of security is immediately destroyed, as he tries to comprehend what has happened to him. When his teacher, Katriana Sergyeva gives him a push, he slowly tries to start his life anew. Alex meets Peter in a crowded Moscow marketplace after he tries to find his uncle; it was an event that completely changed his life. Now living with Peter and the Bakers Band, Alex quickly learns that the things he took for granted before could now save his life. He was always a picky eater, He thought of the time-could it be only a few days ago? -when he might have pushed his oatmeal away if it tasted a bit scorched... (pg. 41) Being in the band teaches him to value even the small things in life. Also before he joined Peters band, he was very innocent, intelligent, polite, and educated. Many of the boys in the band can not even read, and that makes him feel a little important. His innocence shows through, in how he reacts to some of the boys actions. When Ivan and Kostia trip an old woman to try and rob her, his first instincts are to help her, but he listens to a different part of him, which tell ...

The business and financial performance of J Sainsbury plc over the Essay

The business and financial performance of J Sainsbury plc over the last three year period - Essay Example fulness, this paper carried out an empirical study where it compared the firm’s stock prices with those of its rivals as well as its own financial position over a span of three years and actually found that such ground of concern of the financial managers is not baseless and that the firm’s position indeed has been deteriorating over the years. J Sainsbury Plc had historically been one of the leading grocery retail chains in the UK. It was founded by John James and Mary Ann Sainsbury in 1869 at Drury Lane, one of the poorest localities in London with just one shop in the beginning, which soon became popular amongst the locals because of the high-quality product they sold at affordable prices. Their popularity among the people helped them gather the funds needed to expand their business and eventually led them to build a chain of about 800 stores throughout the economy that today includes a chain of more than 500 super-markets and about 300 convenience stores built under the brand name Sainsbury. Although their journey started with just a retail store in a small part of London, very soon they started producing their own brand of products – the first among them was bacon which they started producing in their own smoking ovens in 1882. Gradually, Sainsbury, what was a mere firm, started producing and supplying a variety of other types of commodities that today amounts to more than 30,000 products comprising of both food and non-food items; and introduced a variety of services like self-help at the counters meant to avoid the rush and thus ease the efforts of their customers. The company also showed benevolence towards its employees when they began publishing regular store magazines for the counselling of their employees. The versatility of the firm soon became prominent when it showed its concern to the society during the world wars when it adopted some innovative measures for its betterment, which proved its consciousness over the issue. During the world

Marketing Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Marketing Plan - Essay Example At the moment, it can be seen that the economic outlook of the US is dim with the FED Chairman announcing that the nation will be experiencing a recession due to the extended problems of trade and budget deficit coupled with the overvalued currency (Bernanke Warns of Possible US Recession 2008). Noting the capital intensive nature of the aircraft production and airline operation, technical expertise together with the ability to accurately price long term contracts become the key primary concerns. This makes large business organizations capitalize on economies of scale in design, manufacturing, and purchasing. On the other hand, smaller companies concentrate on the manufacture of smaller parts and focusing on small market niches. In order to differentiate themselves from the rapidly proliferating no-frills airlines, they are capitalizing in adding value-added services in order to attract and retain customers (Hoovers Database 2008). Airbus is a European aircraft manufacturer headquartered at Toulouse, France and has long been recognized as Boeing's toughest rival. The company is established in 1970 and currently employs 57,000 people in four European Union countries.

Taxation System of UK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Taxation System of UK - Essay Example Finally the system of collecting taxes must be efficient. For example if the government spends more in order to collect a given amount of tax money it is useless having a system of taxation. In the UK the current system of taxation has a number of shortcomings such as collective bias in favor of those who are able to pay and structural deficiencies at the deduction level. The British system of taxation is basically determined by a desire to act in conformance with the age old principles of taxation as enunciated by Adam Smith. In the first instance taxes must be fair or equitable; secondly they must be convenient; thirdly they must be neutral; fourthly they must be efficient; fifthly they must be simple; and sixthly they must be adequate (Jones & Catanach, 2008). Yet how far these principles have been adhered to in the current situation in Britain is to be decided by each individual because there is much more to be desired in the British tax system with reference to the equity principle and the government's efforts to redistribute income on a nation-wide basis. According to the first maxim of Adam Smith as noted above every person should pay in proportion to that which is based on their respective revenue earnings and to the extent to which they enjoy protection of the government. Simply it is the "ability to pay" principle. Further he shows that tax should be levied on economic rent because the rent and the revenue were considered as synonyms in Smith's days. However according to the tax system revenue includes only income from an investment and it excludes wages and salaries. Thus in the18th century Britain most of the income was earned from landed properties. In the 21st century Britain where services have come to occupy a very important place, the old approaches to taxation might not be feasible though the fundamental principles remain intact. Secondly, tax payers must be certain about the current and future periods of time. Moreover, it must be predictable and should not be arbitrary. Each person should be aware about the exact amount that he/she has to pay according to their earnings. They should know reasons, exceptions/biases, and abatements when they are paying taxes. Government revenue budgets are either one year in duration or less (Ricardo, 2006). This affects businesses because they have to plan for corporate taxation a number of months, if not years, in advance. According to the third maxim, tax payment should be convenient to the tax payer. In fact the government should be flexible in the application of the tax rules. For example in demanding due payments, collecting payments and so on, tax authorities ought to identify more convenient ways so that the taxpayer isn't inconvenienced by way of haphazard schedules and rules as in the case of VAT financial penalty on late payers in Britain.Finally, tax system shoul d be efficient with reference to its determination cost and collection cost. Thus it ought to be as lower as possible. It is imperative that the cost of employing the tax officials should be less than the taxpayers' personal cost. However the British government has to spend a considerable amount of money on such things as maintaining records and form filling to collect taxes from people.

Differences Between E Commerce And E Business Information Technology Essay

Differences Between E Commerce And E Business Information Technology Essay Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce or eCommerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily with widespread Internet usage. The use of commerce is conducted in this way, spurring and drawing on innovations in electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at some point in the transactions lifecycle, although it can encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail as well. A large percentage of electronic commerce is conducted entirely electronically for virtual items such as access to premium content on a website, but most electronic commerce involves the transportation of physical items in some way. Online retailers are sometimes known as e-tailers and online retail is sometimes known as e-tail. Almost all big retailers have electronic commerce presence on the World Wide Web. Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses is referred to as business-to-business or B2B. B2B can be open to all interested parties (e.g. commodity exchange) or limited to specific, pre-qualified participants (private electronic market). Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses and consumers, on the other hand, is referred to as business-to-consumer or B2C. This is the type of electronic commerce conducted by companies such as Amazon.com. Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce where the buyer is directly online to the sellers computer usually via the internet. There is no intermediary service. The sale and purchase transaction is completed electronically and interactively in real-time such as Amazon.com for new books. If an intermediary is present, then the sale and purchase transaction is called electronic commerce such as eBay.com. Electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e-business. It also consists of the exchange of data to facilitate the financing and payment aspects of the business transactions. TechEncyclopedia Electronic-commerce means selling products online via the Web. Also called e-business, e-tailing and I-commerce. Although in most cases e-commerce and e-business are synonymous, e-commerce implies that goods can be purchased online, whereas e-business might be used as an umbrella term for a total presence on the Web, which would include the e-commerce shopping component. E-commerce may also refer to electronic data interchange (EDI), in which one companys computer queries the inventory and transmits purchase orders to another companys computer. Investopedia Financial Dictionary Electronic Commerce à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ ecommerce is a type of business model, or segment of a larger business model, that enables a firm or individual  to conduct business over an electronic network, typically the internet. Electronic commerce operates in all four of the major market segments: business to business, business to consumer, consumer to consumer and consumer to business. Also sometimes written as e-commerce or eCommerce. Columbia Encyclopedia E-commerce conducted over the Internet, most often via the World Wide Web. E-commerce can apply to purchases made through the Web or to business-to-business activities such as inventory transfers. A customer can order items from a vendors Web site, paying with a credit card (the customer enters account information via the computer) or with a previously established cybercash account. The transaction information is transmitted (usually by modem) to a financial institution for payment clearance and to the vendor for order fulfillment. Personal and account information is kept confidential through the use of secured transactions that use encryption technology Impact of e-commerce Studies in the developed economies have shown that e-commerce will eventually have a far-reaching effect on the world economy because it will revolutionize the way businesses and consumers conduct their business transactions. Some have argued that e-commerce will deepen disintermediation process as producers can sell direct to consumers. For example, Christensen and Tedlow published in Harvard Business Review (January-February 2000) suggest that e-commerce will change the structure of retailing in the US in favour of fewer number of traditional intermediaries. The wide-spread impact of e-commerce is due to lower transaction costs. Using the transaction costs theory, studies have shown that e-commerce will reduce transaction costs of firms and hence final product prices. According to the transaction costs theory, price of a product has three elements: production costs, coordination costs, and profit margin. As firms find better ways to coordinate their activities through electronic channels, their transaction costs will fall. As the industry better manages real time information based on e-commerce, firms can also improve their inventory management and thus reduce inventory costs. Reduced transaction costs benefit both consumer and producer. While consumers will gain access to a broad-based selection of lower priced goods, producers are likely to see higher demand for their products. Furthermore, in the Internet age, people and firms will be connected with highly capable interactive capacity. Through the information highway, consumers will have free market choices, and firms will have almost unrestricted market access. This offers opportunities as well as poses threats to businesses. The impact of e-commerce can be traced at the industry and consumer levels. It can also be traced at the macroeconomy level. It is however important to note that the full impact of e-commerce on an economy depends on several factors such as the rate at which the economy (i.e. firms and the population) adopts e-commerce. This in turn is determined by other factors such as the cost of computers and software, computer and telephone penetration rates, security, manpower, and telecommunication infrastructure. At the industry level, e-commerce will result in some rationalization of activities. Firms will need to undertake investment in an appropriate computer system to implement e-commerce. They will undertake new activities which are knowledge-intensive. Through the adoption of e-commerce, firms will demand for a new kind of workforce, particularly those with a higher level of computer literacy. This new demand will have an immediate and far-reaching implication on the provision of training in the country. Firms will be pre-occupied with technology selection and investment. This task is quite demanding, particularly when the telecommunications and computer technologies are changing at a rapid pace. To keep up with modern technologies, firms cannot ignore continuous investment in human resource. E-commerce will further shorten product cycles of the industry. Through e-commerce, firms will have fast knowledge of what customers want. Firms can use this knowledge to guide the development of their product lines and to identify new growth areas at their earlier stages. With customer information in hand, firms can promote both up-selling and cross-selling. It is expected that e-commerce will also help small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMIs) to gain greater market reach for their products and services. In fact, e-commerce can be an efficient and economical way for many SMIs to enter an export market. E-commerce offers consumers a wide range of new opportunities to do direct shopping and banking using the convenience of a home computer or other communication devices. Consumers will also benefit in terms of lower final prices due to lower transaction costs as described above. Looking ahead, e-commerce will lead to some fundamental changes in the way firms relate to consumers and the way firms compete with each other. This is because, through e-commerce consumers will have a wider and direct access to producers of goods and services without intermediaries. With a wider choice of products and services offered to them, they can cast their preferences by describing what they want. In this environment, e-commerce will hasten the shift of market power of consumers, from a product taker to a product maker. As a result, this process will lead to greater competition among firms to protect their market share. For the economy as a whole, e-commerce will result in higher investment by the Government, firms and consumers. Coupled with higher investment in IT, e-commerce will result in higher efficiency and productivity of the economy. In this light, e-commerce will contribute to higher total factor productivity of the Malaysian economy which is needed to sustain economic growth in the long term. E-commerce will create new activities and a variety of new industries which utilize IT. This will lead to the creation of new job opportunities. The increased investment mentioned above and the emergence of new IT-based industries will lead to a higher level of economic activity to support economic expansion and growth. Following the reduction in the transaction costs, e-commerce will also improve the level of efficiency and productivity in the economy. Industries will re-organize their activities to conform with the emergence of a new industrial structure of the country. Definitions and differences of e-commerce and e-business E-commerce describes the process of buying, selling, transferring or exchanging products, services or information via computer networks, including the Internet. E-business is somewhat broader concept. In addition to the buying and selling of goods and services, e-business also refers to servicing customers, collaborating with business partners and performing electronic transactions within an organization. In my opinion, the differences between two of them are not obvious. E-commerce refers to all transactions of business that being made through Internet. It involved money transaction between organizations and customers in a buying and selling process using the Internet. Meanwhile, e-business refers to all of type of businesses entity such as company, enterprise and others which are doing business using the Internet. Business entity use the Internet and other electronic network in all of their operations and daily processes involved. E-business becoming e-commerce when a transaction happens between two organizations. There is no e-commerce without e-business and e-business need e-commerce to survive. Issues, problems and threats in e-commerce and e-business In e-commerce, it is difficult to apply law that usually done in physical world. Many cyber crimes made cannot be justified in court because of lacking the law itself, geographical factors that separate different countries with different laws, and others. People are free to do whatever they like in the Internet including pornography and drugs selling without even caught or sued just because the physical law cannot be applied in Internet. Besides that, there are many frauds that we can find in e-commerce. Sometimes the company is not even exist but still it offer something to sell and people realized after a transaction was made, the product is still do not reach to them. Some business offer product that cost you price that unacceptable high compare to others even if the quality and features are same. Frauds can happen in many ways especially when it involving cyber product. In Internet, there is too much information that hard for us to filter and absorb. An information overload is one of the problems that e-commerce face nowadays. People find it difficult when it has too many websites that offer same product even they have right to choose but it also take time to filter all the related websites. In addition, certain areas do not have Internet coverage so e-commerce cannot reach the people in there. This happen due to certain geographical factors like people live in the mountains, desert, rural areas and others. They must go to nearest city to get Internet coverage and this is difficult to done if it will cost them effort, time and money to do that. Threats in e-commerce must be tackled seriously because in Internet, people can do anything without having fear to be caught or sued. Such threats like human trafficking, drugs selling firearms smuggle, child pornography and others are serious crime in physical world. Yet there are happening and still growing due to Internet usage in e-commerce and this is why we cannot let it done freely without observation and law practice on the threats. Opportunities, advantages and benefits in e-commerce and e-business The importance of both is to catch up with globalization that require IT as medium to doing business as the world has no border anymore with the Internet application. People nowadays are connecting with each other around the world easier than decades ago with Internet and other electronic networks. The world has no boundaries anymore and it offer very much opportunities to businesses around the world to develop. The benefits that we can get is we can have as many customer as we can if we are the organization that doing business using Internet. People all around the world are using Internet as their new medium of shopping and searching for something new. Companies took advantages on it and try hard to sell their products and services although there are companies that fail to achieve their target on e-commerce. Besides that, consumers now have bigger power to choose products. They can easily online and choose their favourite products from different companies which usually undone in physical world. We usually find it difficult to choose from one product to another or from one company to another, but Internet make it simpler and easier for customers so they donà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢t even go to shop by shop to buy what they like. They just click. The advantage of e-commerce and e-business to organization is we can make the transactions easier between customers and our organization by simply clicking the computer and do it online. We can also buy certain product that is difficult to find in certain area such as Kashmir fabrics in East Asia or a product that doesnà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢t offered in physical world such as e-book. In addition, the transactions done become faster and require no attendance to the outlet itself by customers. People who using Internet to shop realize that it become useful to them as the Internet is free, and you can shop at anytime, anywhere and at any situation, The opportunity of both is we can spread our business and market worldwide to increase profit and maximum the knowledge of customers about our company/ organization/ business. Many ordinary people or small business makes huge profit in e-commerce such as the founder of Amazon.com. New medium of marketing is created and organizations all around the world are taking advantages in e-commerce and e-business. Whether they set up a new business or upgrading the existing one, they are all realize that this is the time to grab big opportunity to gain high profit including customer satisfaction.

The Cathedral

â€Å"Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace†, (Dalai Lama XIV). This quote relates to the narrator in Raymond Carver’s short story, â€Å"The Cathedral†. In this story Bub’s ignorance is shown in various parts throughout the story. Towards the end of the story, Bub has an epiphany. This makes him realize how ignorant he’s been towards his wife as well as Robert, her childhood sweetheart and present day best friend. He enters from a world of insecurities to a world of peace. The narrator’s jealousy and ignorance, is seen in many parts throughout the story. An example of Bub’s jealousy is when he says, â€Å"I waited in vain to hear my name on my wife’s sweet lips†¦ but I heard nothing of the sort. More talk of Robert†, (Carver, Pg. 98). Not only does he show jealousy, Bub also shows ignorance when he stereotypes against Robert. As if stereotyping against Robert wasn’t enough, Bub goes on to stereotype against Robert’s late wife Beulah, as he sarcastically said, â€Å"Beulah! That’s a name for colored woman†, (Carver, Pg. 5). Beulah passed away in her lost battle to gland cancer. He also showed his ignorance when he quoted, â€Å"I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me†, (Carver, Pg. 94). Overall, the way he expressed himself about Robert, â€Å"the blind man†, in the story simply said a lot about him. Bub comes out from a world of insecurities to a world of peace, the moment he lets himself be guided by Robert. They drew a cathedral; a symbol of faith, conversion, creativity, and strength. It was like nothing else in my life up to now†, (Carver, Pg. 103). The narrator faced his insecurities with Robert as well as his ability to interact with others. At first Bub could find no significance to it and found it hard to explain to Robert. It wasn’t until Robert told him to close his eyes and continue drawing, that made a light bulb in his head go on, â€Å"It’s really something†, (Carver, Pg. 103). Bub was blinded before he realized how ignorant he was in regards to his marriage as well as with Robert. In conclusion we face ignorance on an everyday basis. It shows our lack of knowledge and sometimes reaches extreme measures. Ignorance occurs when people believe they know everything and act upon it, when this isn’t reality. This is a quality that the narrator possessed. Without knowing, his inability to see the positive in people almost caused him his marriage. He was so caught up with his insecurities that he almost oversaw his wife’s attempted suicide. It’s important to admit and overcome ignorance in order to find the inner peace within oneself.