Their eyes were watching God has been called an awakening Essay

Their eyes were watching God has been called an awakening novel.Discuss the meaning of this term and relate it to janie - Essay Example Janie returns her hometown draggled and tired out. Everyone is astonished to see her in this condition. She becomes the subject of criticism for porch sitters who gossip outside her friend Pheoby and her husband Sam Watson’s home. However, Pheoby defends her and tries to comfort her by asking her what has happened during the last few months. She takes Janie to her house and offers her food and comfort and empathically listens to her story. A theme of judgment thus develops in the story. Porch sitters judged Janie in a wrong way by using harsh words and criticizing her past actions and current looks, whereas Pheoby, being a nice human and a good friend, chose to comfort her. Obviously Pheoby’s choice and actions were a lot better than those of the porch sitters. Janie begins telling her story from her early childhood when she used to live with her grandmother Nanny. One day she was in the backyard of her home when a boy named Johnny Taylor meets her and kisses her. After watching this grandma decides that Janie should get married to a capable man who can look after her and protect her. So she decides to marry her to Logan Killicks who is a much older man and can offer Janie protection and a potato farm. The author Hurston compares Janie’s life with a tree stating, "Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done, and undone." (Chapter 2, Paragraph 1, Page 8) thus emphasizing the fact that Janie experienced sexual awakening in her grandma’s backyard as she is amazed at the blooming pear tree. Hurston uses metaphors for Janie to express her beauty by stating, "She had glossy leaves and bursting buds and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her." (Chapter 2, Paragraph 15, Page 11). In The Awakening, Edna is already married but she falls in love with another man, Robert. â€Å"There was Robert’s reproach making itself felt by a quicker, fiercer, more overpowerin g love, which had awakened within her toward him† (Chopin, 1899, pg219). After her marriage with Logan, Janie didn’t find the true love she was looking for. She visits her home seeking grandma’s advice saying, "Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think" (Chapter 3, Paragraph 26, Page 23). But grandma just gives her a wait-and-see advice. This first marriage has only brought unhappiness and loneliness for Janie. At this point her dream of love and felicity dies and she begins to understand that "marriage did not make love." (Chapter 3, Paragraph 31, Page 25) Logan disregarded all of Janie’s feelings and desire for love and wanted her just to work on his farm like his first wife. Their relationship soon starts to get worse. Janie once told Logan, "If you can stand not to chop wood and tote wood Ah reckon you can stand not to git no dinner." (Page 45). Janie then meets Joe, a stylish and sophisticated man. After havin g been talking for many days they finally decide to run away and get married to each other. They arrive in town and get married. Soon Joe is elected as the mayor of the town and he gets himself busy in building and developing his new town, paying little or no attention to his wife’

Marketing Case Study Levi

Marketing Case Study Levi Levi Strauss Company is one of the worlds leading brand-name apparel marketers with sales across the world. There is no other company with a equivalent worldwide presence in the jeans and casual pants market. Their market-leading apparel merchandise are sold under the Levis, Dockers, and Levis Strauss Signature brands. Today, the Levis trademark is one of the most globally recognized, and is registered in almost over 160 countries. Now, more than ever, constant and meaningful innovation is vital to their commercial success. The global business environment is intensely competitive. Worldwide trade, instantaneous communications and the effortlessness of market entry are among the forces putting greater pressure on merchandise and brand differentiation. To be successful, it is imperative that Levi Strauss continuously change, competing in new and different ways that are relevant to the changing times. What position in the market does Levi occupy (using the strategy clock to characterise its position) A strategy clock is based upon the work of Cliff Bowman. It is another suitable way to examine a companys competitive position by comparing the offerings of competitors The strategy clock allows one to consider competitive advantage in relation to cost advantage or differentiation advantage. (C. Bowman and D. Faulkner Competitive and Corporate Strategy Irwin 1996).There a six core strategic options, one of them are where Levi is positioned and this will be shown below. According to Bowmans Strategy Clock Levis displays Differentiation with price premium. This means that the company has value to its product and the customers to justify high costs. Differentiation is about charging a premium price that more than covers the additional production costs, and about giving customers clear reasons to prefer the product over other, less differentiated products. (Johnson, G Scholes, K 1997) The first indication of Levi been this position is that Levis states that they wanted to avoid price-based competition due to their history of brand recognition and brand loyalty to their customers. Therefore Levi created value to the customers by providing them with customised jeans and accustomed the price according to the Levis brand which carries enough clout to justify a reasonable price premium. Over the years though it seemed that the brand name lost some importance and it was critical for Levi to create valued features to the customers in order to differentiate them from their competitors. The cost structure showed that Levi sold their products through wholesale channels which were then distributed by the retailers. Levi also maintained a chain of Original Levi Stores. These two choices allowed Levis to be closer to the customers and help them satisfy their needs in the search for the perfect fitted jean. The next factor that indicates the position is that Levi emerged with mass production with the use of emerging communication and computer technologies. The concept allowed Levi to find a niche market and help them create a competitive advantage over the competitors by providing customized made jeans. Previously it was thought that highly-customized products were expensive to produce, however with information technology Levi was able to meet the customer needs for flexibility and it created a chance for Levi in becoming more economical. Levi found a way to make a mass production and have services delivered due to the technology. Levi was facing a lot of competitors that provided the low-cost and high volume producers, therefore they had an advantage over the company. The Personal Pair Proposal project allowed a discovery of a niche market and this allowed Levi to create differentiation from its competitors and by adding price premium. Levi wanted to avoid competing against the low-cost volume producers therefore Levi did market research and revealed that only a quarter of women were truly happy with how their jeans fitted them. This project was a jean customisation program that made it possible to approach the customers with having lower distribution costs and unsold inventory. The mass customised program allowed the costs to be lower as well as provide the differentiation advantage due to the reengineering process of new technologies. Therefore the position of differentiation is providing customers with value, medium prices and high perceived value is created for Levi jeans. The fact that there is value added with the service. The proposal of a $15 premium and with focused groups suggested that women would consider the price fair due to them finding a superior fit, which competitors have not done yet. Suggestions have been made that a realistically price would be between $5 and $10. The fact that there is a brand name involved it would not be considered for the premium to be $15 as customers know the quality of the jean that they will be receiving and the knowledge that the jeans are hand sewn. Manufacturing and raw materials will not be affected with the proposal both therefore eliminating unnecessary costs and allowing prices to be reasonable for the customers, which creates more value for differentiation. How confident are you that the Personal Pair project will change the differentiation and low cost trade-off? Levis has a legacy of being very durable and high quality jeans that last at a low cost. Levi is very high quality with a low cost but they somehow are losing favour with their customers. To compete in the always changing market Levis might have to enter into a new market which would be high quality with a high price. Therefore with evidence below I am confident to say that the Personal Pair will change the Low cost trade off. It is almost a must that Levi must change the differentiation and low cost trade-off. This would change Levis motto of high quality for a reasonable price, unless they start a new line to compete in the new market. Levi will move to incorporate a focus differentiation strategy where focus is on the higher end of the jeans market, yielding stronger profit margins due to price premium. The fact that customers expect prices to be higher due to quality the company cannot just reduce the prices even though with mass customisation will be cheaper. The idea of the perceive price has been set in the customers minds and therefore they are willing to pay a higher price for perceived added value to a particular segment, justify a price premium. Therefore it is vital the company prices the jeans correctly because the particulare market segments is not necessarily price sensitive and is willing to pay a higher amount for a jean that they know is going to fit them perfectly and is made of good quality fabrics. The personal pair proposal approach helps the customers who find a array of choices in the market place overwhelming, and to narrow down their specific needs. The Personal Pair Project adds extra value and therefore customers perceive the premium price to be high. These customers are approached and are helped to understand what their needs are, and with the offerings of a customized fitting jean it allowed customers to know that Levi is catering for their need which creates customer loyalty and a strong brand name. The actual manufacture products in a just-in-time fashion respond to specific customer request. What are Levis unique resources and core competence? Resource is any physical or virtual entity of limited availability that needs to be consumed to obtain a benefit from it. (Alexander Osterwalder, 2004) In most cases, commercial or even ethic factors require resource allocation through resource management. (Alexander Osterwalder, 2004) Unique resources are resources that are not easy to copy, incomparable to competitors and create value for the company. A core competency is a specific factor that a business sees as being central to the way it, or its employees, works. (Prahalad, C.K. and Hamel, G. (1990). It provides consumer benefits, it is not easy for competitors to imitate and it can be leveraged widely too many products and markets. (Prahald, C.K. et al (1990). Core competencies are particulare strengths relative to other organizations in the industry which provide the fundamental basis for the provision of added value. Core competencies are the collective learning in organizations, and involve how to coordinate diverse production skills and integrate multiple streams of technologies. (Prahalad, C.K. and Hamel, G. (1990) The core competence of the corporation, Harvard Business Review (v.68, no.3) pp. 79-91). Levis core competencies were found in manufacturing, merchandising and marketing. With regards to manufacturing, Levi has decided to do mass customization for the customers. The mass customization results in them satisfying a number of customers needs and savings cost at the same time by producing in bulk. From a strategic point, the concept is based on finding a niche market. Mass customization uses emerging communication and computer technologies to bypass the limitations of traditional mass production methods. Therefore Levi had a core competency in meeting the customers needs by been more flexible and has greater choice in the market place with the help of manufacturing with the use of technology. In addition, a mass customisation model lowers the costs as well as it provides the differentiation advantage over the competitors, since the re-engineering process is often more efficient once the new technology is applied. Therefore Levi will have this competency of customers loyalty and brand recognition due to their needs been satisfied. The next core competency is merchandising, Merchandising is the methods, practices, and operations used to promote and sustain certain categories of commercial activity. (Kunz, Grace (2005). In the broadest sense, merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of products to a retail consumer. Levi is doing this by offering the customers a chance to find the perfect fitting jean. Levi operation equips the store with networked PCs and personal pair kiosks. Customers will be measured and with this technology operation and practice it results in one of 4ÂÂ  224 possible size combinations. The computer generates a code for the number of correspondents. This practice gives Levi a competitive advantage as they would be the first company to offer these unique resources to the customers. Lastly you can see the core competency of Levi in their marketing. Levi is such a well known brand, and is given terms such as authentic, genuine and original. This indicates that they are widely known and considers having customer recognition. Therefore Levi is able to market to their customers that are willing to pay for the quality products. The marketing strategy allowed differentiation to be possible and to offer the customers a new product development of a perfect fitted jean. Levis aspects of the VRIO framework: Valuable: Has a history of Brand Loyalty and Recognition and remains number one internationally in its markets. Rare: Has a strong branding image. Levis is marketed as authentic and genuine and enjoys customer support. Inimitable: Jeans are US made unlike competitors. Levis provides generous packages to employees retention of HR. Organised: Manufacturing is key core competency and is managed to have maximum value for resources (J.F Smith, 06/22/2009). Should Levi go ahead with the joint venture? What would you recommend and why? Yes, Levis should go ahead with the joint venture with Custom Clothing Technology Corporation (CCTC). Levi stands to lose this opportunity to competitors if it decides to not move forward. Market research has shown that more than ÂÂ ¾ of women are not fully satisfied with fit of their jean, this is almost guaranteeing a market segment that will be willing to buy the perfect fit. Low-cost and high value competition makes it necessary to create value features that would differentiate it in the eyes of the consumer. Therefore by joining CCTC, Levi will be able to get the technology expertise on how to create and capture different possible size jeans for different shaped people. Offering this to the customers will allow them to feel that they are been catered for and therefore willing to pay the price in order to feel good. This creates customer loyalty at the end of the day due to customer intimacy, Levi should ensure that the intimacy is marketed and to show the benefits. Levi should at first enter into the proposal cautiously by choosing to enter a test phase before proceeding in joining the full scale project. The result of doing this will ensure that Levi will be making a good decision and know more about what they are getting involved with. Levi will benefit this joint venture in many ways. Firstly with mass customisation and offering the customers a perfect fit can result in Levi to better adapt to the individual needs and wishes. This means that it will result in the customers to less likely switch brands. Levi should also consider the fact that by going into a joint Venture with CCTC and offering mass customisation it will help Levi learn directly from the customers and it will help them identify the new trends and the taste that improves the New Product Development. This is because Levi will be dealing with a variety of customers of different shapes and sizes and needs to understand that they require and look for different styles. Therefore Levi will get a hand full of people to represent the possible sizes and this creates the customer value. This venture can allow more customers needs responded to and therefore by allowing the customers to participate in the New Product Development allows the product to be accepted by the market much faster. Levi will be catering for them and they will respond due to Levi identifying that there is a need for a perfectly fitted jean. Levi must understand that by doing this venture they are responding to the individual needs of the customers. The response of one person will lead to them telling their friends, the word of mouth is a very powerful and very cheap form of communication. Levis Strauss can only benefit from joining the CCTCs approach. At the end of the day it will add value to Levis value chain due to them catering for their customers needs and wants. The fundamental idea in this approach is to gain customers satisfaction and if Levi does not take this opportunity another company will. Creating this system which is driven by the customers demands and specific to the exact needs of their customers CCTC can help Levi ultimately make their business be more aware and learn more about their customers and how to fully achieve customer satisfaction. Without a joint venture with CCTC and outside value chain analysis, Levi might not be able to grasp the actual scope of the opportunities that they were missing out on. This joint venture will help the company adapt to the fast growing industry and competition, it can also help the company differentiation. Due to the fact that the competition is offering lower prices it is vital that Levi offers something unique to the customers. Levi wants to avoid price based competition because they had a history of brand recognition and brand loyalty. Therefore it would be wiser to join this venture with CCTC and create customer value and customer satisfaction. Personal pair was a jeans customisation program which will make the joint venture with Custom Clothing Technology Corporation. Together these companies can enter the mass customisation with the help of technology. CONCLUSION: A valuable lesson that can be taken from this case is how necessary it is to keep up with your brand image and customer loyalty. Being content with one niche in a market such as clothing is never acceptable and is therefore necessary that Levi makes the joint venture successful. Styles, times, and preferences are changing so rapidly, that a clothing line must be able to meet the needs and wants of their customers. While Levis still had a market in the older generations, they were missing out on a huge market that likes to shop and that are looking for the perfectly fitted jean no matter what their size was. The second implication that can be applied to other companies would be their option for strategic alliance. Levis really needs some help in the area of brand image and by collaborating with Customer Clothing Technology Corporation, they will have a whole new consumer market. Levis has learned that they cannot be comfortable in one market for too long because that alienates another market such as the younger generations. Collaborating with CCTC, the company can obtain certain advantages that can only help Levi with the competitive environment. Therefore Levi can improve its customer value chain and achieve maximum customers satisfaction with mass customization. Harvard References: Alexander Osterwalder, 2004 Barney, J.B. and Hesterly, W.S. (2008). Strategic management and Competitive Advantage: Concepts and Cases. 2nd edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall C. Bowman and D. Faulkner Competitive and Corporate Strategy Irwin 1996). Dr Brian Squire, Supply Chain Management Research Group, Manchester Business School, Executive Briefing 2006-04 J.F Smith, 06/22/2009 Johnson, G., Scholes, K, 1997). Phil Dourado, Bart de Boever, Dirk De Vos the annual, organised by ICBI and held in Paris. Prahalad, C.K. and Hamel, G. (1990) The core competence of the corporation, Harvard Business Review (v. 68, no. 3) pp. 79-91. )

islam in the united states Essay -- essays research papers

The biased and discrimination in United States have always been done with the minority. Muslims have always been a minority in this country throughout time. They have faced discrimination in society and especially from the government and media. I believe that people running this country are Anti Islamic due to there view on things. Also this is a Zionist country, which is another reason that makes the media discriminate against the Muslim’s, due to the conflict with Palestine and other Muslim countries. The media has always portrayed Islam in a negative way. The reason the media is biased when it comes to Islam because they hate the Islamic structure and the beliefs. The majority of media conglomerate ownership is of people who consider themselves as Zionists. They are the big owners and of course will want to get their views across in any way possible, even if that means to discriminate a certain group of people. One of the biggest reason this country is against Islam, is because of the Islam’s Social System. It is very different then how this country wants you to live your life. Another reason which this conflict occurs is because due to the fact that you cant find further truth the n the Quran compared to Bible or Torah or any other books. All three of them are books of GOD, and his message. Torah is known as the old testament, then cam e the Bible, new testament, and Quran is the final testament and has the final message which is a lot easier to follow, making Islam the fastest growing religion of United States and also the world. That is why Islam is hated by the western world and is always portrayed as a killer disease. Promoting Islam is all for violence and kill people and how the term â€Å"JIHAD† is so misused in today’s western society. Without knowing or having two bits of knowledge of Islam, that this religious revolves around PEACE. The social system in Islam is geared towards the preservation of the human race. It is uniquely built around the concepts of responsibility. Unlike the capitalistic concept of 50% shared activity, Islam defines the specific duties of each person and holds him or her equally important in the progress of society. Social disease such as crime and violence, drugs and alcoholism, rape and sexual harassment, teenage pregnancy and homosexuality are the norms of the Western life. Islam provides a strong foundation for a high... ...e help of United States. Saddam Hussein was helped put in power by United States. Mohammad Karzi the president of Afghanistan was put in power by United States. These people who are putting leaders in Islamic countires are against Islam and it’s belief that is why the media portrays Islam in the most negative way possible, because the government pretty much runs the Media. 1. Nizam al-Din al-Naysaburi, Ghara'ib al-Qur'an wa Ragha'ib al-Furqan, Cairo, 1962; Ibn Abi Dawud, Kitab al-Masaahif, p.12, in Arthur Jeffery, Materials for the History of the Text of the Qur'an, Leiden: Brill, 1937; and Badr al-Din al-Zarkashi, Al-Burhan fi Ulum al-Qur'an, Cairo, 1957, Vol.1, p.240 respectively 2. ISLAMIC SOCIAL SYSTEM. 20 August 1997. IBN MUHAMMAD. 30 Nov. 2004 3. Nonviolent Action and Third Party Role in Islamic World. 20 October 2000. Sezai Ozcelik. George Mason University/Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution.. 30 Nov. 2004. http://www.geocities.com/tatarkirim/islam5.html 4. Material on the Authenticity of the Qur'an. 1998, 1999, 2000 Muslim Answers. Abdur-Raheem Green. 30 Nov 2004. http://www.muslim-answers.org/proofs10.htm 5. The Holy Book of Quran. The citations are given.

Annotated Bibliography Classroom Management

1. Pellegrino, A. (2010). Pre-service teachers and classroom authority. American Secondary Education, 38(3), 62-78. Retrieved from http://search. proquest. com. wwwproxy0. library. unsw. edu. au/docview/722356586? accountid=12763 In this article Pellegrino examines the classroom practices of 5 preservice secondary school teachers, identifying the challenges faced in establishing their authority to create an effective learning environment.As a framework for his study, Pellegrino gives 3 basic origins of authority: Traditional, Legal/Rational and Charismatic authority. Of the three, he recommends student teachers aim to develop legal/rational authority as it is based on values, rules and procedures and is most conducive to modern views of learning. Pellegrino suggests classroom management is of paramount concern to most student teachers and the effective application of concepts, methodologies and strategies learned during their studies is often a struggle for them.With placement soon a pproaching, classroom management is undeniably one of my greatest concerns, hence the reason I chose to include this article. In gaining insight into the common errors made by student teachers during placement, I hope to avoid repeating these mistakes during my tenure. The findings from this article demonstrated that although participants did utilize the knowledge and skills learned from their studies they all returned to traditional and/or charismatic authority styled forms of classroom management.This was seen in the creation of teacher-oriented classrooms as well as many attempting to take on the role of the â€Å"cool† teacher, unfortunately to no avail. As a prospective high-school teacher, I am aware of the relatively small age-gap that is likely to exist between myself and my students. Pellegrino’s warning about the ease of which student teachers often establish charismatic authority, is something I will definitely keep in mind. Although easy to establish, this type of authority is based on irrational means and as observed in the study, is often fleeting.For the participants in this study, perhaps the most significant errors made were trying to emulate the management styles of their mentors and/or being inadequately prepared. From this I learned the importance of not only developing a well-structured and well thought-out management plan but one that I adhere to, can reflect upon and alter accordingly. 2. Gillies, R. & Boyle, M. (2010). Teachers’ reflections on cooperative learning: Issues of implementation. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26(4),

Does True Altruism Exist? Essay

The concept of altruism has been around for a long time and the debate on its existence has been for almost as long in both philosophical and psychological circles. Altruism has been defined by Batson et al., (1981); the motivation that arises within in an individual to help another in distress, from the desire to reduce the other’s distress. Some have argued that true altruism does not exist. Those believe that every act of kindness us humans commit has an underlying ulterior motive; we help others to help ourselves. This is known as egoism, and current theories regarding the existence of altruism tend to be egoistic; that is, everything we do is directed towards one end-state goal, and that is benefiting ourselves. And benefiting ourselves does not necessarily entail gaining something in return for performing the act, but merely reducing our own personal distress by seeing another’s distress, can be defined as egoistic. Our distress (guilt, shock, fear) was as a result of seeing another in distress and by helping the other person by reducing their distress is not an act of altruism, but egoism, as reducing their distress reduced our own distress. A study was done by Cialdini et al., (1987) which provided a hypothesis supporting the egoistic theory. They performed two experiments in which they came to conclude that helping another in distress was as a result of relieving the personal sadness within the observer that arose from the heightened empathy the observer felt for the sufferer, rather than the selfless act to relieve the sufferer of their distress. In the first experiment conducted, it was found that high-empathy-set subjects did show elevated helping scores, but that they were no longer helpful when they received a sadness-canceling reward. Therefore, it is as a result of personal sadness that led to the motivation to help the sufferer, rather than empathic concern. In the second experiment conducted, Cialdini posed the Negative State Relief model. It was under this model that it was  believed that people help others as a response to their own egoistic behaviours. Regardless of the high levels of empathy, the subjects helped less when they were made to see their personal sadness as fixed. Thus, they concluded that it seemed to be personal sadness that led to the subjects helping, despite the high levels of empathy. However, there have been other theories in support of the existence of altruism. The Empathy-Altruism hypothesis predicts that empathy leads to altruism. And in a study conducted by Batson et al., (1981), when a young woman received electric shocks and then giving the subjects a chance to help her by taking her place, the researchers predicted that if empathy led to altruistic acts that the subjects would help the victim regardless if the chance to escape without helping is easy or difficult. And the results following both experiments supported the hypothesis that empathy leads to altruistic acts rather than egoistic. However, in the second experiment, when the conditions for escaping were difficult without helping, a low empathic response led to helping. This concludes that when subjects are being forced to help a sufferer, they will help, but only to escape the situation, and this is egoistically motivated behavior. By taking both of these articles and experiments into account, and regarding the theories posed by each, I have favoured the argument that true altruism cannot exist in the normal parameters of human psychology because by nature we are designed to ensure our own continued existence and will therefore perform acts and behaviours that will promote our survival, and avoid performing certain behaviours if we feel that it might cause us harm. For true altruism to exist, you would need to be able to place everyone else’s wellbeing before your own and receive nothing from it. Certain forms of these can be seen in actions we perform for our loved ones. But it is even in these deeds that we receive praise, reward and even heightened sensations of self-motivation, which then causes the actions to be egoistically motivated. Therefore it’s not completely selfless, the pleasure rewarded from the action can be seen as a suitable motivation to be selfless.