The Not-So-Honest Man in The Fifty-Dollar Bill :: Fifty-Dollar Bill Essays

The Not-So-Honest Man in The Fifty-Dollar Bill  Ã‚        Ã‚   The main character in Donald Hall’s "The Fifty-Dollar Bill" has spent most of his life trying to live up to his honest reputation. When he is accused of trying to bribe a person at the Judge Advocate General’s office, he tries to convince himself and everyone else that it was just an "unfortunate coincidence" (Hall 958). However, the evidence shows that it was more than just a coincidence and that his actions were intentional. The narrator goes out of his way to prove to us that he is a honest man. He contrasts himself with other lawyers who "live on intimate terms with dishonesty" (Hall 957). While he prides himself on being honest, the narrator has a deep obsession with his honesty; it seems he will do anything to live up to his reputation. In the first paragraph, he says "I call myself an honest man," not I am an honest man. By his choice of words he demonstrates a lack of confidence in his honesty. You don’t have to be truly honest, in order to call yourself honest. The narrator begins defending his actions long before we know that he did anything wrong. In the second paragraph, he claims "I had no intention of avoiding service to my country and I expected . . . to go into the office of the judge advocate general in June, 1942" (Hall 957). By telling us this early on he gets us on his side. We now are more likely to believe that he would never try to bribe his way out of being drafted. He also makes sure that we know he was in a hurry when he mailed the letter, which makes a mix-up seem more possible. By setting up his defense so early he shows that he has a real need to be defended. Once we know what he did wrong, his defense begins to look like Swiss cheese; it has a lot of holes in it. He and his wife used the $500.00, that they received as a wedding present, during the summer of 1941. They stopped using the money "When school started in the fall," probably close to the beginning of September (Hall 958). It’s hard to believe that in four months a man who had been in college and law school for six years, would actually forget about an envelope that he had used at least nine times over the previous summer—much less an envelope that had money in it.

Persepolis Essay

Persepolis was a very insightful movie about the lives of Iranian people at a very important time in the country’s history. Two topics that stuck out to me the most were the effects of the war on the everyday lives of the citizens of Iran and secondly the not-so-patriarchal lifestyle of people at the household level. Once the revolution to bring down the Shah began, which was followed by the Iran-Iraq war, the lives of Iranians were never the same again. Before these events, Iran appeared to be what we can easily call ‘a modern society’. Women were treated equally, men and women openly socialized together without any restrictions and westernization was apparent with the dressing styles of women, parties and the children indulging in pop culture. All of this drastically changed after the elections and once the war began. Under the new repressive government, religious extremists in power imposed several laws that undermined the freedom of all citizens of Iran. Everybody was told how to dress whereby women were required to veil in public, parties and consumption of alcohol became illegal, children were taught in school that the new government was very good, young boys were influenced into joining the army and fighting in the war. In addition to all these social impacts there were economic downturns as well. The stores are shown to have empty shelves, the country’s infrastructure destroyed, healthcare deteriorated, the excessive restrictions on almost everything pushed for the need for black-markets and illegal operations. Even with all the restrictions from the people in power and the policing of everybody, there were still a large number of people who were very modern, even men. One example would be Marjane’s father telling her and Reza to be more careful about meeting in public. Another example would be when Marjane’s uncle Anoush is released from prison and visits them, everybody ate dinner at the same table, both men and women. One of the topics that relate to our class readings is war and bereavement. The war that lasted so long did not occur without expensing lives of millions of innocent people. During the war period, countless lives were lost and most of these were men. Men fought in wars and died and the women were left to deal with the loss. When a missile lands in Marjane’s neighborhood, the fear of losing her family takes over her and she is still a little girl at the time. The same incident cost the lives of her friends in the neighborhood. Of all the characters in the movie, to me, Marjane’s grandmother was the most compelling character. She was a wise old woman who was inspirational, understanding and very realistic. She was a symbol of independence and a great role model for Marjane. Most importantly, she practiced what she preached. She placed a great emphasis on protecting the innocent as this was an issue close to her since her husband and family members had been victims. When Marjane tells her that in order to save herself from the police, she lied and got an innocent man in trouble, Grandmother reacts in a way that I didn’t expect. She believed in being true to your own self and certainly did not tolerate any unfaithfulness, even from her beloved Marjane. The character that had the most impact on Marjane would have to be her uncle Anoush. He came into Marjane’s life when she was still very young and definitely made an enormous impression on her. As if his life story wasn’t enough, uncle Anoush’s death left an even bigger impact on Marjane’s life. She wouldn’t tolerate people talking about war and death lightly after his death. Several times in her life when she was feeling confused, the words of her uncle Anoush helped her get through.

Lady Macbeth is the real villain of the play do you agree? Essay

In ‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’, Shakespeare portrays many negative themes through the acts of Lady Macbeth which show the audience that she is a real villain of this play. She holds a malicious agenda and many evil tendencies which separate her from the average individual, but this was only after interpreting the witched prophase. Thus, not only making her the only guilty villain in the play. Lady Macbeth is no more than an incarnation of evil. All of the acts she committed in the play were nothing else but for her selfish wants to gain power of the country and become queen. Her declaration that she would have ‘dash’d the brains out’ of her own baby if she were to become queen proves of her egotistical nature and heartless conscience. When she finds out the prophecies given to Macbeth to become king, she immediately acts to create a plan to murder the innocent and respected King Duncan of Scotland. ‘Unsex me here’: Lady Macbeth is referring to her Feminine nature and she is trying to say â€Å"Take away my feminine nature and take away my feelings so I feel no regret to helping kill King Duncan!†; There can be no sympathy for Lady Macbeth, she meant all that she did and put herself in front of all people around her. The key elements which make Lady Macbeth a villainous human being is her inhumane conscience and lack of compassion for her victims, her deceptiveness and her manipulation. The question of whether a person’s real state of mind is accurately reflected from there outside appearance (False appearances) is a key theme in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth is the primary culprit. She, as well as Macbeth show deceptive traits, pretending to be good whilst planning heinous crimes; ‘Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t’: She is telling Macbeth to look innocent, but under his fake appearance he is going to murder King Duncan. This false appearance of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth is shown during the dinner feast when Macbeth is shocked to realise that Fleance had escaped and is still alive. Though this false impression exposed by Lady Macbeth had kept her innocence, her effort of burying her guilt is what had driven her mad and ultimately leading to her death; the cost of deception. Macbeth is most responsible for the evil done in the play owing to the fact that his killing of Duncan provokes the other murders and evil in the play. Although Lady Macbeth is a part of the murders that occur in Macbeth, she is not responsible for the evil done in the play. Lady Macbeth is a very cunning, manipulative character. When she hears about the witches’ prophecy of Macbeth becoming the future king of Scotland, she immediately demands Macbeth to murder Duncan so Macbeth could become king. Lady Macbeth successfully persuades him to kill Duncan by questioning his masculinity. Lady Macbeth puts the idea in Macbeth’s mind that he will be a coward if he does not commit the murder. After persuading him, Macbeth finally commits the murder. Thus proving that Macbeth was to weak and fragile to say no. All characters played a convincing and augmenting role which could reline the focus upon them as to who really is to blame. Macbeth was ambition and power greedy driving him to cause dyer tragedies with his wife by his side. The Witches caused nothing but trouble for Macbeth, his belief in them was so high it led to him becoming insecure. These are all the reasons and things that caused the tragic events in the story of Macbeth.

Critically Discuss the Contribution of the Work of Frederick W. Taylor

Grey offers a number of opinions on management thought in his book â€Å"A Very Short Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Studying Organisations† (2009). He outlines his opinions through a number of themes within the book such as looking at bureaucracy and scientific management together, his views on human relations theory (HRT) and its links with people management, the theme of organization culture and post-bureaucracy and how it is effecting change management.The final theme I will discuss in my essay is fast capitalism and how it is ending management. While looking at the themes I will also be evaluating Grey’s arguments within them and try to relate them where applicable to Wren and Bedeian’s book â€Å"The Evolution of Management Thought† (2009). Grey views on bureaucracy are that he sees it as a highly efficient way of management in this book bureaucracy is not seen as red tape but a management type as put forward by Weber whereby rule s and regulation are used to become as efficient as possible. Relevant materials: Scientific Management Theory in NursingGrey tells us how Weber saw an emergence of an ideal called â€Å"rational legal authority† (Grey, 2009). Grey tells us how rationality links with bureaucracy using a number of examples such as formal or instrumental rationality the idea of this is to adopt a means to meet and end using the most efficient way possible. Grey uses an excellent example to illustrate this being the Nazi Holocaust it is as Grey (2009) says the extreme application of bureaucratic logic. It operated under a set of rules which were applied impersonally.This allowed it to be unbelievably efficient. Grey’s ideas on bureaucracy are linked to the ideas explored in Wren and Bedeian’s â€Å"The Evolution of Management Thought† (2009) both books emphasise how Weber did not mean red tape when he said bureaucracy, they also share similar views of the disadvantages of bureaucracy such as how workers will work to the rules and theref ore know exactly what they must do to stay in the job or to achieve something Grey’s view on scientific management as put forward by Taylor is that his ideas still define management today.The real leap for scientific management as explained by Grey (2009) was the use of it by Henry Ford the man who made Ford cars. He employed scientific management within his factory to increase efficiency and it did so hugely. Grey also recognises the problems caused by Taylor’s ideas. Such as the many strikes by workers as it left the workers with less power and the managers with all the power, one of the main problems with it as explained by Grey (2009) is it eroded working onditions, reduced autonomy and threatened unemployment. I feel that Grey’s view here focuses too much on the problems caused by scientific management he does give a few advantages of it but he doesn’t emphasise enough how scientific management really revolutionised the way in which factories and com panies operated such as how using Taylor’s ideas on scientific management thought companies such as General Motors and Du Pont have become two of the biggest corporations in the world thanks to it.Wren and Bedeian share similar views to Grey on scientific management however I feel they show more admiration for it when they say how scientific management paved the way forward for subsequent management development (Wren and Bedeian 2009). Grey (2009) expresses his view many people see scientific management as the bad guy and human relations theory (HRT) as the good guy. I agree with this and Grey uses the Hawthorne experiment example which I feel expresses this view correctly and helped me understand the inefficiency’s caused by HRT.He tells us of an experiment in a bank wiring room where workers were producing electrical components and rather than produce at maximum output which would earn them a bonus they choose to produce at a lower level. This was due to informal nor ms set around the workplace such as peer pressure and an unofficial gang leader. This shows us that the informal side of an organisation to some is more important than the formal side. This shows how HRT can be seen as inefficient as and not always better than scientific management.This can be linked to Wren and Bedeian’s (2009) conclusions drawn from the Hawthorne Studies, they conclude that these experiments showed us that workers were not driven only by money but also by social factors which can lead to increased and decreased productivity. People management and HRT are very similar in my opinion as HRT is the way in which we manage people. It is important for people to see a manager as someone who helps people and not just a person who exploits someone to get the best work out of them.Grey (2009) gives an example of how HRT has changed the way we view managers by using a son and father conversation. The child asks his dad what he does and he replies how he exploits people and dehumanises them by making them work as hard as possible. Under HRT thought he replies how he helps people and makes unhappy people see that he cares about them. This example by Grey is exceptional in my opinion and to me it personifies what HRT and people management is; it is type of thought whereby the manager’s aim is to care for and motivate his workers.The view of the manager is undeniably hugely important to motivating workers as if they are seen as caring and helpful it acts as an incentive to workers to work harder this view is also shared in Wren and Bedeian (2009) where they say the significance of effective supervision in maintaining employee’s productivity and job satisfaction is huge. Grey’s (2009) view on organisation culture is that its aim is to intervene and regulate being so that there is no distance between individual’s purpose and those of the organisation for which they work.I agree with what Grey is saying here organisation cult ure to me is simply making an organisation a place where the worker feels completely comfortable and for the worker to feel proud to work for the company. An example of this I can relate to is the bank RBS having done work experience with them I now understand how they create organisation culture. On all their leaflets, cards and employee videos they try to show their core values and company slogans to create a good organisation culture. Grey argues that managers who try to change organisation culture are completely unrealistic.I agree with what Grey says here as the example he uses shows us how it is not possible. He cites an experiment carried out by Ogbonna and Wilkinson (1988) where a supermarket told all its employees to make customer service their prime focus by smiling all the time and to make them feel valued. The study results showed they obeyed superficially because they knew they were being watched but they didn’t mean their shows of friendliness. This may seem lik e they are carrying out the organisation culture but actually they have failed as they don’t actually believe in it.In relation to Wren and Bedeian’s view on organisation culture differs to that of Grey they see it as more innocent and with less scepticism than Grey does. They (Wren and Bedeian 2009) believe technology, economics and political facets provide the framework for organisation culture. Wren and Bedeian don’t go into the areas that Grey goes into when discussing organisation culture such as how management tries to change organisation as I have discussed already. Grey (2009) argues that post-bureaucracy can and should be mocked.He gives examples of studies which have been carried out to show that it is a flimsy thought. He cites a study by Paul Thompson who used aggregate statistical evidence and individual cases to prove that job structures and work experience are mostly unchanged by the post-bureaucratic revolution. This study was similar to that of Delbridge (1998) who studied two factories one which had all the paraphernalia of a post-bureaucratic workplace and one which did not. He concluded that both still shared very similar forms of working.I agree with what Grey is saying here as if you walk into a workplace today such as a factory the methods of management are still evident of the bureaucracy model and yes there is some evidence of post-bureaucracy but not enough to claim it’s a new era of post-bureaucracy. On the theme of change management Grey (2009) argues that is almost always fails. He supports his claim using the example of total quality management (TQM) which is implemented for the first time in a certain industry. One organisation may adopt it and then others will see it and decide to adopt it to.Now no one has a competitive advantage and there is a conveyer effect where by the companies now want a new method and therefore change. This claim by Grey in my opinion is correct change management doesn’ t work as for it to work something has to be applicable from one industry to another but change management fails at this. Grey (2009) however does admit that post-bureaucracy and change management cannot be ignored and that it is a huge part of society today as they have a huge hold over the managerial role in today’s world. Grey (2009) tells us how the post-bureaucracy and change management attract huge attention in the media today.He gives us the example of policies past by the British Government in which all are based on post-bureaucracy. Grey (2009) says how it is now assumed that for an economy to do well it must be purged of bureaucracy and open to change. I agree with what he has said here all we here about in today’s news is the need to change everything and for rules and regulations to be got rid of. However all we have to look at is the current economic climate to show us what happened when there was less bureaucracy and lots of change. People took advantage of it and we are now stuck in a recession for a number of years because of it.To show what fast capitalism is Grey (2009) uses the United Kingdom as an example and many of the companies within it such as Jaguar, P&O and Body Shop what all these companies have in common is they once used to be British owned now however they are owned by international companies or consortia. This shows us how Britain has taken on the idea of fast capitalism this however can lead to problems whereby the international companies who buy these smaller firms most of the time only see the financial value of them and not what the company may offer to a community with generations of families who have worked in the same business.This can lead to employees not feeling the need to work as hard as now they are working for an international company and therefore in my opinion inefficiency will begin to take place. The argument that fast capitalism is failing and problematic is put forward by Grey (2009) using the e xample of the bank Northern Rock who began by simply taking in deposits from savers and lending to borrowers for house purchases. In 1997 they choose a new more risky route whereby they raised money by through short term borrowing on financial markets.They also began to give loans to those who had poor credit history and they didn’t take in their account to pay them back. This was all well and good until 2007 when poor credit risks and the inability to get short term funds caused the bank to nearly collapse with customers going to the banks to take out all their money. The bank was then nationalised in 2008. This story shows me how fast capitalism failed as those who ran Northern Rock tried to adopt a new style of management and thought within the business to keep up with fast moving capitalism and in the long run their ideas failed leaving the customers and shareholders to suffer greatly.Grey (2009) puts forward the argument that management is ending. He explores this idea u sing a number of examples. The example which explores it best is the one about the study he carried out with a number of colleagues on a set of managers. They interviewed them and none of them described themselves as managers. When ask why they didn’t they all said it was an overused word which didn’t denote any real seniority in today’s workforce and secondly they felt the word had a meaning of someone who was inflexible and bureaucratic. This was not to say the end of management just it has become a somewhat meaningless word.The final thought Grey (2009) has on this is that managers might be coming to an end but management itself is not and it is constantly evolving and I whole heartedly agree with this point that it is simply changing constantly. Overall I feel that the themes in Grey’s book â€Å"A Very Short Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Studying Organisations† (2009) which range from looking at bureaucracy and scientific management together to his views on human relations theory (HRT) and its links with people management and the theme of organization culture and post-bureaucracy and how it is effecting change management.To the final one which I have explored; fast capitalism and end management have provided me with an insight into Grey’s thoughts on management and the arguments he has put forward about it. I also feeling my reading of this book has allowed me to relate it where applicable to Wren and Bedeian’s â€Å"The Evolution of Management Thought† (2009) and allowed me to compare some of the older views on management within this book to the more modern ones explored by Grey. However I do believe that Grey’s book is far more concise than Wren and Bedeian’s which I feel is too long winded and less interesting than Grey’s.Bibliography: Grey, C. (2009). A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Studying Organizations. London, Sage. De lbridge, R. (1998) â€Å"Life on the Line in Contemporary Manufacturing† Oxford: Oxford University Press, Ogbonna, E. and Wilkinson, B. (1988) â€Å"Corporate Strategy and Corporate Culture: The View from the Checkout† Personnel Review, Vol. 19 Iss: 4, pp. 9 – 15 Wren, Daniel A . Bedeian Arthur G. December 2008,  ©2009. â€Å"The Evolution of Management Thought. 6th Edition†. USA: John Wiley & Sons Inc.

The Threshold Issues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Threshold Issues - Essay Example Jurisdiction determines which court should properly adjudicate a case. AS such, it is the power and authority of a court to hear, try and decide a case. It is conferred by the Constitution, by federal and state statutes. It is important that a court must have jurisdiction over the parties or the property involved in the controversy. A Federal court in order to exercise its jurisdiction must meet certain requisites. First, there must be an actual controversy calling for the exercise of judicial power. Second, the parties in the actual controversy must have legal standing to sue and be sued. Third, the case must present the dispute and issue must be ripe for adjudication and it likewise a case that the court has the power to remedy, and finally, the case cannot be moot. It can be inferred from the foregoing discussion on jurisdiction that the instant case was not able to comply with the requisites so as to vest the Federal court the jurisdiction to hear and determine the case. With regards the requisite of actual controversy, the instant case was bereft of an actual controversy. ... In the instant case, it should be noted that there is no law to speak of, since what was passed by Congress was still a bill and therefore, a bill not duly enacted cannot be considered as a law and correspondingly, it vests no rights. On the issue of legal standing, herein plaintiff has no legal standing. Plaintiff has not been aggrieved or legally harmed by the defendant Border Patrol, there being only the plaintiff's fear of or detention. Additionally, the constitution limits the role of the judiciary that Federal courts may only exercise its power in the last resort and as a necessity. Aside from the foregoing, the instant case likewise fell short of the constitutional requirements for legal standing on the actual, imminent, distinct and palpable injury which must not be abstract. There is also no causal connection between the injury and the conduct complained of and finally, it must not be speculative so as for the court to favorably redress the injury. On the issue of ripeness, it can be inferred in the instant case that it is not ripe for adjudication, since the plaintiff's claim is based on a future event which may or may not happen. A claim is not ripe for adjudication if it rests upon contingent future events that may or may not occur. The Ripeness doctrine prohibits the federal courts from exercising jurisdiction over a case until an actual controversy is presented which involves a threat which is real and immediate. A matter is moot if it is deprived of practical significance. The instant case, being deprived of practical significance should be dismissed for being moot. A political question is one under which the US constitution has committed decision-making on the subject matter to another branch of the federal government or there are inadequate

What causes structural unemployment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

What causes structural unemployment - Essay Example In most cases, unemployment occurs when the economy in the recession. Globally, more than 200 million people are unemployed which is equivalent to 6% of the global workforce. There are different types of unemployment. These include classical unemployment, cyclical unemployment, structural unemployment, frictional unemployment and hidden unemployment. This paper seeks to discuss about the causes of structural unemployment as well as the ways of dealing with this kind of unemployment. Structural unemployment is defined as a type of unemployment whereby at a given wage level, the labour demanded is lower that the labor supplied. This happens when there is a mismatch between the number of jobs available in the economy and the number of people who are willing to work (Romer, 2011). The mismatch may occur if the unemployed individuals lack the necessary skills as needed by the organizations or they may be residing in different parts of the country far from where the job opportunities are available. Being one of the permanent types of unemployment, most economists argue that improvement on causes of structural unemployment can only take place in the long run. Based on the changing level of technology and obsolescence of certain technology, some experts and systems become of less importance (Ford, 2009). For example, with the emergence of modern forms of printing by use of computers, the use typesetters became insignificance. Another scenario of structural unemployment can be indicated when the economy experience an increase in the level efficiency. In most cases, when any of the economy sectors has high level of efficiency, the number of workers required goes down. For example, by mechanizing the work in the agricultural sector, few employees are needed to carry out the duties in the sector. This implies that some individuals who have qualification in agricultural related