In “The Stone Angel,” Margaret Laurence writes a gripping story seen though the eyes of an old woman nearing the end of her life

At ninety, Hagar Shipley speaks touchingly of the dangers of growing old and reflects with bitterness, humor, and a sorrowful perception of her own frailties on the life She has led. In this story circumstances and character traits are most influential in shaping the lives of the characters, especially Hagar Shipley. An example of a character trait that is most influential in shaping the live of a character is at the beginning of this novel. From her childhood as a daughter of a Scottish merchant to her marriage, Hagar has fought a long and wrong battle for freedom and respect. Her life has been ruled by her concern of external appearances and behavior. Although She felt love and happiness, She refused to show it fearing others may view it as a weakness. Hagar has divided feelings about her husband, her passionate fondness to one son, Marvin, and her negligence of another, John. She is sometimes regretful but rarely sorry. The main internal characteristic responsible for this was her pride. This is supported by the comment she made: â€Å"Pride was my wilderness and the demon that led me there was fear. † She has been afraid of being unrespectable, afraid of needing too much and giving too much and her pride is both unsettling and inspirational. Hagar inherited this strong pride from her father, Jason Currie, along with other poor qualities. However, Hagar tries to escape from her own poor qualities to which She is imprisoned; attempting to stuff the emptiness within her. Throughout her life, Hagar is desperately trying to escape. Even though Hagar has pride of herself, She becomes progressively more powerless to care for herself and therefore becomes an unbearable tension on her son, Marvin and his wife, Doris. This tension makes them decide to put her in a nursing home because they can no longer take care of her. She is full of anger, but is childlike and illogical. She needs support with almost everything, yet She irritably refuses aid. Despite her knowing that She is a worry, she denies it herself. Despite character traits being most significant, circumstances within this story too are also as influential as the character traits. An illustration of this is the use of Lilacs by the author, Margaret Laurence, to indicate many bad events in The Stone Angel. This color is portrayed through a silk dress that Hagar wears many times in this novel. The Lilac dress is introduced on the day that Hagar purchases the dress. She refers to the past on the day She bought the dress with Doris, her daughter in law. I wear my lilac silk because the day seems Sunday†¦ How annoyed She was with me when I bought this dress. † She mentions that her feet are aching and is very tired. Doris on the other hand does not think this silk is worth buying. Though she does not like this dress Doris thinks she will buy it anyways and this started all the bad happenings that are related to this lilac silk dress. One such bad happening in the novel is when She wears the lilac silk dress at the dinner t able with Marvin and Doris. She then notices that something is wrong. â€Å"What is it? I want to shout the question impatiently at the face. Instead I fold my hands, as I am meant to do over my silk lilac belly, and wait. † She later finds out that She lives in with her husband and her family for many years. Doris keeps on pushing Marvin to tell Hagar that She should let go of the house and move on with her life. Hagar feels that her life is joyful and does not think that She needs a change. As a conclusion, circumstances and character traits have both been most influential in shaping the lives of the characters in The Stone Angel.

Character and Stories

Out of the many stories that we have to compare, the best would have to be The Candide and Dante’s Inferno. There are many different ways that you can compare these two similar stories. The most obvious comparison from the beginning would have to be religion. Both of these stories begin with a man that has some type of issue or tries to decide how to deal and question religion. Another way to compare these stories is how both stories were controversial at the time because of their religious meanings.Dante’s inferno was extremely controversial because of the fact that it described hell in such a detailed way and painted a vivid picture for such a negative place. Candied was controversial because of the way it concluded. Since both of these stories had to do with religion it makes sense that it would have controversy. Most stories that have to do with religion in one way or another have some sort of controversy with them.There are too many people that have many different beliefs and ideas of what religion is for it not to be one of the more controversial storylines. Another way to compare both of these stories is by noticing the fact that both Dante and Candide both end up having mentors or people that help them guide them through the story. This is another connection that religion brings together Virgil as a guide to help him travel through hell. In Candide, Pangloss helps Candide travel through his journey as well.This is a common theme in stories that have to do with religion because a lot of religious stories deal with a person either not believing or having trouble finding religion and using a guide or a mentor having their own connection to religion. For example, Pangloss was a philospher that had many strong theories about religion. On Dante’s inferno Virgil was an pagon so he was deeply connected in the religion to help the main character to understand and help himcome to a conclusion about what his conflict is and how to solve it. Bo th stories also had very elaborate sexual scenes.In Candide, Pangloss contracted syphilis from a chambermaid named Panquete. In Dante’s Inferno the second circle was designed for people who committed lust crimes while on earth. I believe that different sexual partners were not accepted and were also frowned upon making these acts known in both stories helped signify what people believed was right or wrong. I believe some of the issues that they had would be replaced that we find wrong in our society or magnified so that religion can help separate what is accepted and what is not. For example, I believe if it as this day and age that people’s sexual orientation would play a much bigger role in Dante’s inferno. Also, in both stories there are multiple people that meet throughout the story that all have different outlooks on life, religion, and philosophy. I believe this helps to make the story more enjoyable so the main character does not only have one idea to bel ieve in. it also makes the story more realistic by making the main character choose between different people to trust or different people to help him guide him through the story.

Supply Chain Management Metrics

Selecting the key metrics to measure performance a long the supply chain can be crucial, as clear connections have to be made between the metrics and the business goals in order for the business to achieve the results they are looking for and also to achieve growth within the market place. Management should identify the key performance indicators they need to focus on, measuring these indicators can help them in reaching the company's goals. We have identified Total Throughput Time, Right First Time and On-Time Shipment Delivery as key supply chain metrics to measure across the supply chain. Total Throughput Time The total throughput time of an organisation captures the time the customer sales order is received to the time the product is ready to ship. This time is an accumulative of all the time spent from procuring the raw material to manufacturing and releasing the finished product to ship. This KPI is key to analysing the direct impact each internal and external process has on the customer receiving the order on time. It provides management with an overall view of the critical steps and the relationship each step has on getting the finished product to the customer. This time is usually measured in minutes or in working days. Management can work with the relevant department managers to set the target needed for each of the critical processes that have a direct impact on the customer order. Each department can then manage internally their individual KPI and work to the pre-determined target. Management can then monitor the KPI's weekly or monthly. This will provide management with a clear view on how each process is performing and can highlight any issues that could have a direct impact on the customer not receiving the order on time. Monitoring the KPI's will quicken response times to resolving issues if and when they arise. The customer will also be informed of this time so they can build this into their own forecast, the customer can then use this measure as the time it will take to receive their order on time from the supplier. The customer then knowing the capacity constraints of the supplier can eliminate the risk of over ordering and not receiving the product on time. Right First Time Measuring right first time internally on the product manufactured is an important factor for the organisation, it can identify the quality of the supply chain from start to finish, and how many deviations are occurring on the product right through the supply chain process. Right first time is usually measured in percentage, this percentage is based on the number of good product manufactured against the customer demand or manufacturing plan, any deviations along the supply chain process would have a negative effect on this percentage. Management will set out a target percentage for the organisation to achieve, and this has to be met by the organisation if the customer is to receive the order on time. This can then be monitored weekly or monthly by management. Right first time can be viewed either positively or negatively by the customer. If the supplier has a high right first time percentage, this can be viewed as a positive by the customer that the suppliers supply chain is strong with little deviations to the process. If on the other hand the supplier had a low right first time percentage, the customer could be worried that the suppliers supply chain is weak, which could have negative implications on the demand in the future, or that there is an issue with the quality of the product, this could lead to product re-calls and jeopardise the suppliers long term future with the customer. On-time shipment delivery The key performance metric I have chosen to discuss is On-time shipment delivery. This is the measurement within McAfee from the time the product ships from one of our fulfilment sites to successful delivery at a customer's site. The incoterm we use is FOB Origin which means the customer is invoiced for the product upon shipment and is responsible for the products in transit. We offer a pre pay and add solution that requires Mfe to manage the delivery to agreed service levels throughout the EMEA region. Each countries service level is unique depending on the physical location in EMEA , our broad rule is we will deliver within 2 – 4 business days to all EU major cities, our contracted forwarder (TNT) are responsible to achieve these targets and report daily on exceptions, weekly on performance & quarterly on the previous 12 weeks performance during our strategic business review. This service level agreement & reported performance is more importantly the Mfe logistics promise to our customer. We manage this KPI on a weekly performance report to Mfe corporate in North America, exceptions are clearly identified & clear corrective actions implemented when non performance trends are visible. This allows Mfe to clearly identify inherent weaknesses in a partner's delivery chain & assign important resources to provide resolution. This simple key performance indicator allows me to identify where issues rest in our regional supply chain, when we include additional regions & consolidate this report it allows clear visibility in a simple to read format of where we need to assign technical expertise. This simple KPI provides enormous value to our global supply chain and is an integral part of our relationship with McAfee customers & McAfee contracted suppliers. Conclusion When an organisation sets out to select metrics to measure their supply chain the critical goal that is common across all industries is that the metrics have to be aligned with the overall business strategy, doing this will help the organisation to become profitable and competitive, if this is not the case such heights will be harder to achieve as the focus will be on the wrong areas. Achieving the pre-determined metrics across the supply chain will have an end result of satisfying the customer.

Polar Bears

The different adaptations of the Polar Bears and Brown Bears Polar Bears: Polar bears mainly eat seals Paw pads with rough surfaces help stop the Polar Bears from slipping on the ice Polar Bears don't swim The polar bear's fat layer, which is three to four inches thick, not only protects it from the cold A polar bear is so well insulated that it experiences no heat loss. The bear's blubber layer can measure 4. 5 inches thick. Polar bears have excellent underwater vision. They can spot food up to 15 feet away.They have sharp claws and teeth to eat prey Their ears have small surface area compared to body, reduces heat loss Thick white fur for camouflage and insulation Long legs for running to catch prey Brown Bears: They have thick insulating coats and tend to be large which helps them to keep their body heat They hibernate during winter. They have sharp claws and teeth which help them attack their prey. Adult brown bears are powerful; much of their diet consists of nuts, berries, frui t, leaves and oots.Bears also eat other animals. Brown bears can be recognized by their most distinctive feature, their shoulder hump. The shoulder muscle helps the bears to dig up roots and tear apart logs to find food. These muscles are located in the ‘hump' of the brown bear. Brown bears can move rocks and logs and dig through hard soil and rocky ground using their long sharp claws when making their dens. They eat grass, fruit, insects, roots and bulbs of plants.

Report about my industrial placement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Report about my industrial placement - Essay Example Starbucks coffee is popular in all customer types, irrespective of what age group customers belong to. Customers love to spend not only leisure time but important business decisions are taken while sipping Starbucks coffee. Market for retail coffee is highly competitive but the only competitor from revenue earning perspective has been Nestle S.A. Competition in the coffee industry is determined by the price and quality of products against the product range. Thus, from earning potential angle, Starbucks is second only to Nestle S.A. The table below shows that the product line breadth of Starbucks is high relative to its competitors like Dunkin Donuts and McDonalds showing moderate breadth while other competitors including Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Kraft Foods, Inc. And Nestle S.A. are low in product line breadth (Brown and Nwabueze, 2011). Table1: Direct Competitors to Starbucks Firm Product line Breadth Revenues (2010) in Millions % of Total Group Revenues Starbucks High 10,707 27% Dunkin Donuts Moderate 5,500 14% McDonald's Moderate 2,400 6% Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Low 803 2% Kraft Foods, Inc. Low 3,100 8% Nestle S.A. Low 17,700 44% Source: Harold Brown 2011 Competition in the coffee retail segment is going to be severe with all the leading players bent on capturing new global markets. Starbucks is very well positioned with networked marketing, technology usage, Starbucks rechargeable payment cards and mobile apps for quick and easy order placing and payment (Brown and Nwabueze, 2011). Starbucks has successfully adhered to its policy on corporate social responsibility by identifying coffee farmers as critical partners in the growth history of the company. Starbucks has evolved and strengthened its relationships with all stakeholders and partners, including customers, employees, suppliers and communities over the years (Harnrungchalotorn and Phayonlerd, 2010). The organisational chart of Starbucks has gained significant growth by 1991 with the incr ease in profitability. It prompted Schultz to initiate a new employee programme for the long-lasting success of the Company – a stock option plan for all employees. The purpose was to create a link between their positive role and the rising market value of the Company. Stock options were awarded on the proportionate basis to base pay. Yet another programme, the Bean Stock, was offered for employees benefit. Even part-time employees could also benefit from this programme of the Company. It helped the Company to recruit motivated people with above-average capabilities and good work habits not only due to its fringe benefit programme but also its pay scale. Starbucks has experienced low turnover rates relatively to other companies because of its initiatives for creating a good work environment. The competitive retailers had high turnover rates for store employees in the range of 150 to 400% a year while the turnover rates for Starbucks’ baristas were near to 65%. For the position of store managers, the Company turnover rate was near to 25% relative to approximate 50% for other chain retailers. Schultz’ management of Starbucks through the values and principles has increased the brand performance in the desired way. Employees feel high on morality. There is respect for all, irrespective of the designation one holds. One can see the impact of increased level of

Property Management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Property Management - Assignment Example Having them is an advantage to the company. The company also uses the most effective way s to attract customers and to retain the ones that already exist. Several sales are registered anytime a marketing campaign is rolled out. Competition also exists in the industry. The major competitors are two big foreign companies. They are Glitz Housing Company and Sarajevo Group. The company owns approximately 37% of the market share and the two companies share the remaining percentage. The financial projections of the company are expected to be more promising as compared to the past years. Last year, the company registered a 13.64% increase in profits. This was an improvement of 4.23% on the previous year. The company expects a steady climb in income because the demand for houses is increasing daily. This puts the company at a perfect position to stabilize itself. Introduction Property management exists in the current world than never before. This is because people get busier with the increas e in engagement. This is attributed to the fact that people do diverse jobs, and very few are dependent on a single job. Property management involves several activities with different implications to the company. All these should are carried out with synchrony with the other tasks. This ensures that there is no confusion in the management of the property. Property management for residential homes includes a lot of activities. People tend to give property management firms responsibilities to handle their property because of various reasons. Some people tend to be very busy to appoint that they reassign the management of their properties to companies. Home management is not an easy thing to do as entails a lot. It involves the maintenance of the properties so that they do not get worn out very fast. Residential homes tend to be a harder task to crack because they are occupied on almost fulltime basis. The occupancy can be by the real owners or the people who are left to guard the prem ises. Property management for residential homes gives the company a chance to have a personal touch with the tenants. The tenants play a big role because it is their money that drives the whole industry. The property managers do gain a lot from their jobs. They do get a percentage of the total income in a specific period. This depends on the terms and conditions that exist between the two parties. Property management in homes has some good returns. This is because at some point in time, someone will have to own a house or at least rent one. The property management company does a lot of things to ensure that clients stick to their homes. They also lay down rules on how best they can attract customers to their housing units. The property managers play several other key roles. They draft the budget that they work with for a given period. This includes the expenses and the incomes registered as well. The property managers also ensure that the tenants pay the rent in time. This ensures t hat there are no defaulters. As a result, the company’s income does not reduce in any way. Rent collection is a very crucial part in the management of properties. This is solely because it is the most important source of income. Property management for residential homes revolves around the rent collection of rent. In case there are defaulters, the property managers also ensure that the debt is paid in due time. The property managers ensure that tenants adhere to the set rules and regulation regarding housing. The rules and regulat

E-commerce (online shopping) in Saudi Arabia and the UK Coursework

E-commerce (online shopping) in Saudi Arabia and the UK - Coursework Example The need to promote the sales for many organizations has promoted the rise of E-commerce1. However, E-commerce was initially a preserve of large companies, until the perception for its structures and models changed. Recently, many organizations, both big and small are venturing into E-commerce, which is a promising prospect for enhanced growth. Therefore, to reap the benefits arising from E-commerce, many governments have been promoting technology use for the governmental and the private sector organizations2. In advancing technology use for business growth, Saudi Arabia and the UK alike have been involved in E-commerce. Structure of E-commerce in Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia has adopted E-commerce as a channel for sales and distribution, to enhance the internationalization of the country’s brands and sales, while also reaching the target market 1. The country has a large retail market, consisting of domestic consumers of both genders, whose purchasing power is high. The rate of growth of the Saudi Arabian Middle Class has been on the rise, making it possible for a large population to earn good incomes, which increase their purchasing power 2. However, E-commerce has not been fully adopted in the retail sector, due to lack of effective knowhow, lack of necessary infrastructure and lack of requisite full government support