Immigration Law Opposite Sex in Relationships

A Farewell to Arms1 :: Essays Papers

A Farewell to Arms1 Love is difficult to clarify or completely comprehend; it is enfable and war is simply a result of debates between oblivious privileged people. A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway, is a novel about adoration and war. The storyteller, Fredrick Henry is a war-time rescue vehicle driver, and Catherine Barkley is an English medical attendant, who wind up in a relationship which must move itself around the limitations of World War I. The tale starts in Gorizia, Italy the focal point of tasks for Fredrick’s troop, World War I. Fredrick is an American volunteer and in the Ambulance Corps for the Italian Army. He meets an English medical attendant Catherine named Barkley and doesn't genuinely go gaga for her until he gets gravely injured and is placed in an emergency clinic. They start to have alove illicit relationship and Catherine becomes impregnated. With an infant in transit Fredrick feels a genuine awareness of other's expectations towards Catherine. At the point when he finaly recuperates from his protracted remain in the clinic he comes back to front. At the point when the two section it is stormy, overcast, and miserable. Hemingway utilizes climate in quest for verisimilitude. There is so much viciousness and demise in the war Fredrick no longer needs to be a separated of it and deserts the military to come back to Catherine. At the point when they rejoin the downpour stops and there is light. They a t that point departure to Switzerland by vessel and start to live cheerfully. At the point when Catherine starts giving birth there is entanglements. The infant kicks the bucket and later Catherine bites the dust from discharging. What is love? Love is hard to clarify be that as it may, it includes a profound warmth for someone or something. Toward the start of the novel, lieutenant Frederick Henry does not have a feeling of significant worth and request in his life. He decides to inebriate himself and make visits to whores much of the time. During this season of extraordinary pressure and weight this way of life is basic among his kindred confidants. It furnishes them with a break from an antagonistic and unfortunate truth of war. Lieutenant Rinaldi, Fredricks eager specialist companion before long acquaints him with an English medical caretaker, Catherine Barkley. Their relationship brings some request and incentive into his life. This new type of request which Fredrick finds is love. He can no longer stay separated of something that is so jumbled and subsequently deserts the Italian armed force out of affection: â€Å"When you love you wish to get things done for.

Essay About Yourself - Tips For Writing Your Own

Essay About Yourself - Tips For Writing Your OwnWhen you are writing an essay about yourself, you should have a great feeling when you do it. Although there is nothing wrong in being honest when you are writing this kind of essay, making sure that you have very little or no clues to your identity can be difficult.Writing an essay about yourself can be tricky because there are some parts of the paper that you want to be factual and some parts that you want to embellish. You may need to avoid going into detail about your career as an affiliate marketer because this might make you appear desperate. Instead, you can focus on things that are interesting to you, such as how you feel about yourself.One thing you need to keep in mind when you are writing your essay about yourself is that you will want to avoid getting too personal. Try to find a common thread with other students that are reading the paper. You may want to mention the class that you belong to and how the rest of the students are making you look. This can help you draw a connection between you and other people.By keeping this idea in mind, you will be able to create an essay that relates to other people rather than just having you telling them who you are. A lot of students actually write essays about themselves while they are in college. They are trying to find ways to tell other people what they think about themselves.One thing that can make this essay about yourself even more difficult is to write a personal essay. By this, you mean that you will be writing about your innermost thoughts and feelings. When you are in college, you don't have a lot of time to think about yourself so you will need to rely on other people to tell you who you are and what you like. If you find that you have very little information on yourself, then you will want to look at other things that can help you.Another thing that you can use to help you with this essay is to think about the connections between the different things that you think about when you are alone. Look for pictures that can link things together. Do you have a favorite color? What do you like best about yourself?If you can find these wonderful ideas in other places or if you can pull them out of your own head, then you will be able to include them in your essay about yourself. This is one of the greatest things about writing essays on your own.Don't hesitate to go beyond what other people may have told you. If you have an idea, go ahead and put it into your essay. Your essay about yourself can help you learn a lot about yourself and what you like about yourself.

John Steinbeck s Of Mice And Men - 1286 Words

The realistic fiction novella Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck explains the journey of two migrant farm workers. Lennie and George are forced to overcome the Dust Bowl and The Great Depression around 1938. This makes jobs even harder to come by because everyone wanted one. Lennie and George were kicked out of Weed and they now work at a ranch in Soledad. At the new farm the friendship between Lennie and George becomes harder to maintain. The people on the farm are all different shapes, sizes, and are from different backgrounds, yet they all are very familiar with one concept: loneliness. The character most familiar with this concept is Crooks. In Of mice and men, John Steinbeck creates the isolated characterization of Crooks by describing how he looks, what he says, and his actions to emphasize the theme of loneliness and how it can make people harsh and sad that occurs throughout the book. Steinbeck describes Crooks as black and harsh. In this time period, being a different color than everyone else was not a benefit. The color of skin is a simple aspect enough. However, it separates him in ways beyond imaginable, making Crooks very lonely. Steinbeck made it seem so important that he was a different color, which sets the scene of the prejudice in the time of the dust bowl. The author first characterizes Crooks as black , by saying; Crooks, the Negro stable buck, had his bunk in the harness room; a little shed that leaned off the wall of the barn (33). The color of hisShow MoreRelatedJohn Steinbeck s Of Mice And Men1248 Words   |  5 PagesIn Steinbeck s novel Of Mice and Men, He uses imagery many times to create a realistic setting and plot. Steinbeck’s depiction of migrant workers and their daily complications during the depression are objectively precise due to his use of imagery with idioms, dreams, nature, loneliness and animal imagery. The main theme of th e book transpires to be loneliness and fate. While George and Lennie, the main characters have a synergetic relationship, fate steps in and does away with their dreams, whichRead MoreJohn Steinbeck s Of Mice And Men897 Words   |  4 Pagesthat we possess. Many people feel certain emotions based on events that have taken place in their lifetime or how they were raised throughout their childhood. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, he portrays the feelings of isolation and loneliness in three different characters. George’s isolation is illustrated in Steinbeck’s, Of Mice and Men. George expresses many hard feelings towards Lennie at the opening of this story. â€Å"‘...you’re a lot of trouble,’ said George. ‘I could get along so easy and soRead MoreJohn Steinbeck s Of Mice And Men1243 Words   |  5 Pagesis what John Steinbeck achieves by portraying this through the characters in his novella Of Mice and Men. The main characters are affected by loneliness in their own different way throughout the novella. rf The loneliness is maintained by the challenges that the characters have to face, and they sustain those challenges of being inhumane towards each other. Crook, a figure in the story who experiences discrimination encounters the challenge of race, due to the book’s setting in the 1930’s duringRead MoreJohn Steinbeck s Of Mice And Men1080 Words   |  5 Pagesâ€Å"I want you to stay with me Lennie. Jesus Christ, somebody’d shoot you for a coyote if you was by yourself.† The novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck shows the relationship between two migrant workers in the 1930s, George and Lennie, along with the other members on the new ranch that they began working on. Georgie and Lennie dreamed of following the American Dream and owning their own patch of land and the novel revolves around the dream and the obstacles that stand in their way. Lennie, a strongRead MoreJohn Steinbeck s Of Mice And Men2167 Words   |  9 Pagesjobs. In John Steinbeck’ s Of Mice and Men, George Milton and Lennie Small wander through California in search of a new job that would help them make enough money to live their American dream on â€Å"the fatta the lan’†(Steinbeck 14). George and Lennie’s hard work and determination is not enough for them to live their dream. Lennie has a mental disability that slows the two friends down from living their dream; they have to run from job to job because of Lennie’s unintentional actions. Steinbeck incorporatesRead MoreJohn Steinbeck s Of Mice And Men1360 Words   |  6 Pagesfeeling, thinking and acting in everyday life. In the story Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, a duo of farmers, George and Lennie, search for work wherever they can. Their dream of having a farm of their own is coming into reach, while George has to wield Lennie away from the temptation of Curley’s wife and the reality of what Lennie can do. John Steinbeck uses characterization to illustrate the nature of human existence. Steinbeck portrays George as a man who tries to help, and helps others soRead MoreJohn Steinbeck s Of Mice And Men1448 Words   |  6 Pages In the novella, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck discusses the idea of loneliness and how people who work at the ranch have no family and no future in lives. He indicates that all people at the ranch are lonely, but he specifically uses a few characters to highlight their state of being lonely and more miserable than the others. He emphasizes the loneliness of ranch life during the Great Depression, and shows how people are willing to try and find friendship in order to escape from the state ofRead MoreJohn Steinbeck s Of Mice And Men1205 Words   |  5 Pagesand the time period of John Steinbeck s novella, Of Mice and Men, exemplifies the idea that people from minorities are held back from achieving their version of the ‘American Dream’. This goes to prove not everyone will overcome the overbearing tidal waves of their hardship s, which makes the American Dream nothing more than a dream to them. Crooks, the black stable hand, faces discrimination due to his skin color as this unfortunately was common in the 1930’s. John Steinbeck uses Crooks’ situationRead MoreJohn Steinbeck s Of Mice And Men968 Words   |  4 PagesSolidifying the theme of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the protagonist George expresses his significant loneliness despite a strong kinship with his friend Lennie, â€Å"’I ain’t got no people†¦ I seen the guys that go around the ranches alone. That ain’t no good’† (41). Published in 1937, amidst the horrific turmoil of the Great Depression, Steinbeck’s novella struck a sensitive chord with readers. Set in the heart of California’s Central Valley, this story follows two men, George and Lennie, as theyRead MoreJohn Steinbeck s Of Mice And Men1387 Words   |  6 Pageslanguage. Soledad is also town in which Of Mice Men takes place. The entire novel displays the idea of solitude. Alon g with the presence of loneliness in this story, John Steinbeck also ties in the idea of companionship through the everyday lives of individuals. The correlation of loneliness and companionship in the lives of these characters, along with the diversion of lifestyles consistently shows. Of all the many themes of the book, Of Mice and Men, the most important theme is the theme of loneliness

The Petticoat Affair Manners, Mutiny, and Sex in Andrew...

History 217: U.S. History to 1865 Dr. Fuller November 30, 2003 Cynthia Mihay The Petticoat Affair: Manners, Mutiny, and Sex in Andrew Jacksons White House. By John F. Marszalek. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1997. viii, 296 pp.) John F. Marszalek, author of The Petticoat Affair argues in his book that the Margaret Eaton affair, which plagued the first Jackson administration, was a social situation that had political ramifications. The thesis is that the Jacksonian Presidency brought a change to the office. Bringing much more democracy than most would have thought and at the same time a woman who did not fit the mold of the normal submissive political wife in Washington or in Tennessee came to the forefront†¦show more content†¦Her overt personality coupled with two almost elopements, fueled her reputation which came into question when her husband died on ship and she married John Henry Eaton. This was done even before the required mourning period had ended. Another inattention to polite society. He had been a boarder at her fathers house and became Jacksons Secretary of War. She was the daughter of a Scot Irish boarding house owner she having never been admitted to society, as John Calhoun stated but when marriage to Mr. Eaton occurred she wanted entrance to Washington Society. Both her husband and herself wanted admittance to Washington society but were denied it as social rules had been bent or broken and the societys matrons had to protect their system from the change threatened by Mrs. Eaton. President Jacksons beloved Rachael was scandalized and when rumors were circulated about Margaret to keep her out of society and to publicly justify that exclusion Jackson supported Margaret with much passion. President Jackson saw conspiracy everywhere as he tried to help the innkeepers daughter. Mrs. Eaton was backed in her attempts to become socially accepted by the President, his friend s, the Globe Newspaper and of course her husband. President Jacksons obsession with Mrs. Eaton and his ideas that it was a political conspiracy by Calhoun or Clay put this scandal in a position to almost stopShow MoreRelatedThe Petticoat Affair: Manners, Mutiny, And Sex In Andrew Jacksons White House1237 Words   |  5 PagesHistory 217: U.S. History to 1865 The Petticoat Affair: Manners, Mutiny, and Sex in Andrew Jacksons White House. By John F. Marszalek. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1997. viii, 296 pp.) John F. Marszalek, author of The Petticoat Affair argues in his book that the Margaret Eaton affair, which plagued the first Jackson administration, was a social situation that had political ramifications. The thesis is that the Jacksonian Presidency brought a change to the office. Bringing

Relationship Between Emotional Productivity- myassignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about theRelationship Between Emotional Labor and Productivity. Answer: Emotional labor is defined as the manipulation of outward behavior or inner feelings of an individual to display the emotions in relation to the occupational norms or display rules. The emotion of an individual involves the experiences or expressions in addition to the surface level emotion. Emotional labor is required in all the sectors of the economy. These types of laborers get engaged in an interactive process and thus it improves the performance of the employees. It is also important for the organizations to understand the emotions of the employees and thus provide them necessary support. An important element of emotional laborers is that they expect that people will work in teams and also show positive behaviors. The organization can measure the importance of emotional labor by analyzing the emotional effort and commitment of the workers (Schutte Loi, 2014). The employees in an organization may develop positive or negative feelings towards their job role and this gives rise to the conflict in his or her inner feelings. The supervisors play an important role in judging and analyzing the performance of the employees. This is essential to help the employees in coping with stress. Emotional labor tries to maintain proper co-ordination with their co-workers and mangers so that they can help the organizations to grow exponentially (Platis, Reklitis Zimeras, 2015). There are two important strategies of an emotional labor i.e. deep level and surface level strategies. In the surface level strategies, the employees put mask or show false emotions rather than developing a feeling for them. However, in deep level strategies, the organizations try to judge the employees emotions. Emotional labor creates stress in the workplace and it involves physical and mental costs (Oswald, Proto Sgroi, 2015). This job stress causes more amount of absenteeism in the workplace and thus decreases the productivity of the workers. The employees can manage the emotions by using various kinds of strategies which will not hamper their productivity. The employees must understand the value of their work and thus it will give them accomplishments and a sense of pride for their job. It will motivate them to perform better and thus reduce their stress (Conway et al., 2106). It is also important for the employees to focus on that particular job which they prefer and are willing to work for it. This will help in lifting their mood and it will also give mental satisfaction to the employees. Emotional labor must perform small tasks and thus it will reduce their stress. Emotional labor tries to improve the relationship in the workplace and they are also concerned in building a healthy working environment (Lu Guy, 2014). It is also important to handle the negative emotions constructively. The employees must know how to highlight the problems to the higher authority and thus co-operate with the team members. Emotional labor must talk directly to the team members and the higher authority rather than gossiping. The planning, effort and control of the emotional labor is essential to express their emotions in the interpersonal transactions (Wagner, Barnes Scott, 2014). The emotions are partially expressed in the social environment. Emotional exhaustion and job d issatisfaction affects the productivity of the laborers. It is also important for an individual to suppress or inhibit the feelings. It is important to regulate the emotions although the work environment is chronic. The workers who are emotionally exhausted cannot manifest the turnover of the companies (Durkheim, 2014). The relationship between emotional intelligence and effectiveness of workforce suggests that those organizations which provide guide, help and support to the employees gets more commitment and productivity from them. The employees also do not feel stressed and they can share their emotions and feelings with the management. The management must help the employees in such situation so that they in turn get the same benefit when there is any problem in the organization. For example, it can be said that if an employee is sad or angry towards any co-workers, it will affect his/her performance and also the performance of the co-worker. These will directly affect the organiz ation because the productivity of the employees decreases (Delmas Pekovic, 2013). It is also seen that an emotional labor may have problems with the managers. There are certain tasks which are not suitable for the employees and thus there arises tensions and stress which affects their performance directly. The organizations sometimes force the employees to do multi tasking jobs and these create tension among the employees. The employees also have to bear their family tensions and it is important to balance between their family life and work life. These kinds of domestic issues also affect the productivity of the employees (Gonzalez Iffland, 2014). The organizations also put unhealthy pressure on the employees and thus this can lead to sufferings and stress. Long hours of work, excessive workload and heavy pressure to perform better negatively affect the employees. The productivity of the employees is influenced by the drives and stamina of the employees (Raval Dourish, 2016). The stamina reflects the ability of the employees for sustaining prolonged physical wor k. An employee can only produce more if his mindset is free from stress and tensions. This can be possible if the employees are emotionally stable. The positive emotions of the employees i.e. satisfaction, happiness enhances their productivity. On the other hand, the negative emotions lower the productivity. Anxiety also affects the performance of the employees. They play an important role in the attitudes and behaviors of the individuals (McCarthy, Trougakos Cheng, 2016). Several research studies have indicated that there is a negative relationship between the performance of the employees and anxiety level. It can be said that every kind of jobs requires emotional labor. For example, a doctor must be empathic towards the patients, businessmen must try to control his temperament and anger when he arranges particular meeting. There are different kinds of degrees to manage the emotion of these laborers. These emotions can be controlled by institutional approach and certain kinds of expressions which are considered appropriate. Some approaches may also be considered as impulsive and thus it affects the performance of the employees. In such a situation, the employees cannot disclose their feelings and emotions and they cannot concentrate in their job. These indirectly affect the organizations as well as the employees (Zhang Fung, 2014). Emotional outburst of the employees damages their credibility. If an individual always remains upset in his work, he/she cannot concentrate on the job. Moreover, it also affects the reputation and image of the employees. Thus, it is important for an emotional leader to control his feelings. It is important to stay focused on the task and thus make improvements and progress in that particular field. It is also seen that an emotional employees always remain tensed and stressed with small issues and thus it affects their performance. The emotions, moods and overall dispositions of the employees lay an important impact on teamwork, turnover, creativity, leadership and negotiations. Emotion can be described either as an interpersonal or individualized response to the stimulus. It is important to control the emotions as well as shape the emotional attitude of other individuals. Emotional labor is thus taken as serious behavior and attitude of the groups, individuals and organizations. It a ffects loyalty, customer satisfaction and financial performance in the organizations. Thus, it can be said that emotional labor involves the process of regulation of the expressions and feelings for the fulfillment of the organizational goals. It is important to manage the emotions for the maximization of well being of an individual. It is tough to stay focused on the job and make progress keeping aside the emotions of the employees. Staying focused on the work is important and the employees deserve to do and thus help the organization to grow. This will not only benefit the employees but also the organization. Therefore, it is important to concentrate on the work and remain focused rather than taking unnecessary tensions. It can be said that emotional labor has low productivity and thus it leads to employees burnout. Reference List Conway, E., Fu, N., Monks, K., Alfes, K., Bailey, C. (2016). Demands or resources? The relationship between HR practices, employee engagement, and emotional exhaustion within a hybrid model of employment relations.Human Resource Management,55(5), 901-917. Delmas, M. A., Pekovic, S. (2013). Environmental standards and labor productivity: Understanding the mechanisms that sustain sustainability.Journal of Organizational Behavior,34(2), 230-252. Durkheim, E. (2014).The division of labor in society. Simon and Schuster. Gonzalez, A. M., Iffland, C. (2014). Introduction. InCare Professions and Globalization(pp. 1-29). Palgrave Macmillan US. Lu, X., Guy, M. E. (2014). How emotional labor and ethical leadership affect job engagement for Chinese public servants.Public Personnel Management,43(1), 3-24. McCarthy, J. M., Trougakos, J. P., Cheng, B. H. (2016). Are anxious workers less productive workers? It depends on the quality of social exchange.Journal of Applied Psychology,101(2), 279. Oswald, A. J., Proto, E., Sgroi, D. (2015). Happiness and productivity.Journal of Labor Economics,33(4), 789-822. Platis, C., Reklitis, P., Zimeras, S. (2015). Relation between job satisfaction and job performance in healthcare services.Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences,175, 480-487. Raval, N., Dourish, P. (2016, February). Standing out from the crowd: Emotional labor, body labor, and temporal labor in ridesharing. InProceedings of the 19th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work Social Computing(pp. 97-107). ACM. Schutte, N. S., Loi, N. M. (2014). Connections between emotional intelligence and workplace flourishing.Personality and Individual Differences,66, 134-139. Wagner, D. T., Barnes, C. M., Scott, B. A. (2014). Driving it home: How workplace emotional labor harms employee home life.Personnel Psychology,67(2), 487-516. Zhang, L., Fung, A. Y. (2014). Working as playing? Consumer labor, guild and the secondary industry of online gaming in China.new media society,16(1), 38-54.

Web Du Bois Essays - Reconstruction Era, , Term Papers

Web Du Bois The Life of William Edward Burghardt Du Bois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. A descendant of African American, French, and Dutch ancestors, he demonstrated his intellectual gifts at an early age. He graduated from high school at age 16, the valedictorian and only black in his graduating class of 12. He was orphaned shortly after his graduation and was forced to fund his own college education. He won a scholarship to Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he excelled and saw for the first time the plight of Southern blacks. Du Bois had grown up with more privileges and advantages than most blacks living in the United States at that time, and, unlike most blacks living in the South, he had suffered neither severe economic hardship nor repeated encounters with blatant racism. As violence against blacks increased in the South throughout the 1880s, Du Bois's scholarly education was matched by the hard lessons he learned about race relations. He followed reports about the increasing number of lynchings, calling each racially motivated killing a scar upon his soul. Through these and other encounters with racial hatred, as well as through his experience teaching in poor black communities in rural Tennessee during the summers, Du Bois began to develop his racial consciousness and the desire to help improve conditions for all blacks. Du Bois received his bachelor's degree from Fisk in 1888, and won a scholarship to attend Harvard University. Harvard considered his high school education and Fisk degree inadequate preparation for a master's program, and he had to register as an undergraduate. Du Bois received his second bachelor's degree in 1890 and then enrolled in Harvard's graduate school. He earned his master's degree and then his doctoral degree in 1895, becoming the first black to receive that degree from Harvard. By that time, Du Bois had begun his research into the historical and sociological conditions of black Americans that would make him the most influential black intellectual of his time. His doctoral dissertation, The Suppression of the African Slavetrade to the United States of America, 1638-1870, was published in 1896 as the initial volume in the Harvard Historical Studies Series. After teaching for several years at Wilberforce University in Ohio, Du Bois conducted an exhaustive study of the social and economic conditions of urban blacks in Philadelphia in 1896 and 1897. The results were published in The Philadelphia Negro (1899), the first sociological text on a black community published in the United States. After he became a professor of economics and history at Atlanta University in 1897, he initiated a series of studies as head of the school's Negro Problem program. These works had a profound impact on the study of the history and sociology of blacks living in the United States. In 1897 Du Bois made a famous statement on the ambiguity of the black identity: One feels his two-nessan American, a Negro, two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings, two warring ideals in one dark body. He advanced these views even further in The Souls of Black Folk (1903), a powerful collection of essays in which he described some of the key themes of the black experience, especially the efforts of black Americans to reconcile their African heritage with their pride in being U.S. citizens. With The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois had begun to challenge the leadership of Booker T. Washington, a fellow educator who was then the most influential and admired black in the United States. Du Bois objected to Washington's strategy of accommodation and compromise with whites in both politics and education. Du Bois perceived this strategy as accepting the denial of black citizenship rights. He also criticized Washington's emphasis on the importance of industrial education for blacks, which Du Bois felt came at the expense of higher education in the arts and humanities. Du Bois also challenged Washington's leadership through the Niagara Movement, which Du Bois helped to convene in 1905. The movement grew out of a meeting of 29 black leaders who gathered to discuss segregation and black political rights. They met in Canada after being denied hotel accommodations on the U.S. side of Niagara Falls and drafted a list of demands. These included

International Accounting Issues The WritePass Journal

International Accounting Issues 1. Executive Summary: International Accounting Issues 1. Executive Summary:2. Earning Management:2.1 Definitions of Earning Management:2.2 Motivations for Earning Management: To Show Growth Trends:Directors Bonuses:Manipulating Share Price:Financial Problems:Insider Trading: 3. Abuses of Earning Management and International Accounting Standards:3.1 Revenue Recognition (IAS 18):3.2 Unusual Assets ( IAS 16/38 )3.2 Profit Smoothing ( IAS 37 )3.3 Change in accounting Policy (IAS 8):3.5 Off Balance Sheet Financing (IAS 1):Conclusion and Recommendations:References:Related 1. Executive Summary: Due to the global business expansion, management opportunities have grown and enhanced each day and issues and abuses have occurred. Therefore, I will try to explore how Earning Management works within finance and, will relate it with the principles of accounting. According to the IASB, there are many ways escape and create opportunities. Throughout my study I will present how a total impact is made, by explaining the different accounting standards and by relating them to Earning Management. 2. Earning Management: Earning Management is the practice of producing financial accounts that suit a particular purpose without really showing the true and fair views. Sometimes the accountant might want to show profits which are favorable e.g. to get a bonus, and sometimes losses e.g. to pay less tax. At other times the accountant may wish to show a healthy balance sheet e.g. to get a bank loan, whereas at other times an unhealthy balance sheet e.g. before a management buy-out to get a bargain. Various types of definitions have been produced to explain Earning Management as a special form of ‘’design’’ rather than ‘’principled accounting’’. 2.1 Definitions of Earning Management: Earning management is also referred to as income smoothing, earnings management, earnings smoothing, financial engineering and cosmetic accounting. Definitions of earning management vary, and include the following: ‘Is any action on the part of management which affects reported income and which provides no true economic advantage to the organization and may in fact, in the long-term, be detrimental’. (Merchant and Rockness, 1994) ‘Involves the repetitive selection of accounting measurement or reporting rules in a particular pattern, the effect of which is to report a stream of income with a smaller variation from trend than would otherwise have appeared’.(Copeland, 1968) 2.2 Motivations for Earning Management: Why earning management comes into being? How can earning management come into being? In this part motivations of the appearance of creative accounting will be worked over. To Show Growth Trends: Generally companies prefer reporting steady trends of growth in profit rather than showing volatile profit with series of dramatic rises and falls. Making unnecessarily high provisions for liabilities and against asset values in good years is achieved so that the provisions can be reduced thereby improving reported profits in bad years. Directors Bonuses: In most cases, bonuses of the management of the company are based on profits, so the higher the profit the higher the bonus or, if a certain level of profit is achieved only then the bonus is payable. Directors and employees have an incentive to use earning management practices in an effort to maximize the bonuses received when such bonus schemes are tied to reported earnings. Manipulating Share Price: Creative accounting may help maintain or boost share price, both by reducing apparent levels of borrowing, making the company appear subjected to less risk, and by creating the appearance of a good profit trend. By doing so the company is able to raise capital from new share issues, offer their own shares in takeover bids and, resist takeover by other companies. Financial Problems:    The business needs additional financing; that is, it requires a loan or aspires one at a favorable rate. Normally, less risk perceived by the lender leads to lower interest rate charged. High reported earnings, high assets, low liabilities and high shareholder equity amounts accompanied by high earnings, convey the impression of improved credit quality as well as, high debt rating to a lender, or bond investor. As a result, creative accounting practices used to improve reported financial measures can lead to lower corporate borrowing costs. Insider Trading: If directors engage in insider dealing in the shares of company , they can then use earning management to delay the release of information for the market enhancing opportunities to benefit from inside knowledge. 3. Abuses of Earning Management and International Accounting Standards: In most cases where earning management is done, accounting policy choice and application simply fall within the range of flexibility inherent in international accounting standards, and GAAP. Whilst it can be argued that the manner in which the accounting policies is employed are largely a function of management judgment , in most cases this judgment results in the biasing of reported financial results and position in one direction or another. It presses the envelope of what is permitted under IAS and GAAP, although it remains within boundaries, and it is not fraudulent financial reporting. At some point, a line is crossed and accounting practices being employed move beyond boundaries of IAS and GAAP. Financial statements that result are not considered to provide a fair presentation of a subject company’s financial results and position once the line is crossed, and adjustments become necessary. Here are some common abuses and the particular international accounting standard. 3.1 Revenue Recognition (IAS 18): Faced with the slow growth, a company may overstate operating revenues by recognizing them too early .For example if item issued to distributers on a ‘’sale or return’’ basis are recorded as sales (even though they may be returned) this will inflate sales and profits. Since the sales have not yet been paid for, this will also increase the receivable figure in balance sheet. The increased receivable figures (longer debt collection period) is one way that analysts may be able to spot this kind of manipulation. The receivable figure tends to increase over time until the manipulation is discovered. Other examples include holding the books open and continuing to record shipments that clearly belong in subsequent periods and recording sales without the shipment of goods.If reported profit is significantly higher than the operating cash flow for the period, this may be another indicator that profits are being overstated. Sybase’s shares dropped an additional 20% when the company reported improper practices at the Japanese subsidiary, which Sybase said included booking revenue for purported sales that were accompanied by side letters allowing customers to return software later without penalty. The accounting standards dealing with this (principally IAS 18) has prescribed the criteria to decide when revenue should be recognized: In   case of goods,   that ownership has genuinely been transferred; that the economic benefits and risks of ownership lie with the buyer. The revenue that seller gains must be measurable. The costs of supplying the goods or services can be measured. It is probable that the revenue will be received. The completion stage of partially completed contract of services can be determined. According to IAS 18, the notes to the accounts should explain the revenue recognition policy. Although new rules and regulations imposed by IASB and other accounting bodies have improved the situation, revenues remain one of the most easily manipulated numbers in the accounts. 3.2 Unusual Assets ( IAS 16/38 ) Capitalizing expenditure involves posting transactions to the fixed assets in the Balance Sheet rather than the expenditure section in the Profit Loss or by amortizing capitalized amounts over extended periods. If the true and fair view would be to post it to the expenses then to post it to fixed assets (i.e. to capitalize it) could be classed as earning management  .Result of this would be that both the profits and asset values will be inflated. In the case of WorldCom, a large us telecommunication business, it was alleged that operating profits had been overstated by treating certain operating expenses, such as basic network maintenance, as capital expenditure during 2001 and 2002.To correct this overstatement ,net profit had to be reduced by $ 3.8 billion. Under IAS 16,costs such as servicing should be treated as an expense and should be recognized in the income statement. Subsequent expenditure should be capitalized only if it results in an enhancement of economic benefit beyond those previously recognized. A common charge seen at the time of the combination of technology firms is a charge for purchased in-process research and development. As the name suggests, purchased in process RD is an unfinished RD effort that is acquired from another firm. It might be an unfinished clinical study on the efficacy of a new drug or an unfinished prototype of a new electronics product. According to IAS 38, if the acquired RD has an alternative future use beyond a current research and development project, the expended amount should be capitalized. Capitalization also would be appropriate for purchased in process software development, a form of RD, if the software project has reached technological feasibility. 3.2 Profit Smoothing ( IAS 37 ) Income smoothing refers more specifically to the preference of reporting steadily rising profits. A form of earnings management designed to remove peaks and valleys from a normal earnings series, including steps to reduce and â€Å"store† profits during good years for use during slower years. For example, deliberately not disclosing a contingent liability, or significant going concern problems, in the notes to the financial statements means that the disclosures required (under IAS 37 and IAS 1 respectively) have intentionally not been made. From the preceding examples, it can be seen readily why earnings management is also known as income or profit smoothing. It is because the practice of earnings management often is designed to produce a smoother earnings stream, one that suggests a lower level of earnings uncertainty and risk. Earnings at General Electric Co. (GE) have grown steadily for decades. It is tough to expect such a smooth and growing earnings stream. Certainly the diverse nature of the company’s product and service mix provides a diversification effect that yields a more stable earnings stream. Beyond its product and service diversification, however, the company has in the past demonstrated a willingness to take steps that appear to manage its earnings to a smoother series. Analysts, noted that GE is â€Å"certainly a relatively aggressive practitioner of earnings management.† Sometimes   in a bad year a company may decide to write-down assets in a wholesale fashion. Earnings expectations have not been met. The implicit view is that there will be no additional penalties for making the year even worse. By writing down assets now, taking a â€Å"big bath,† as it is called- the balance sheet can be cleaned up and made particularly conservative. As such, there will be fewer expenses to serve as a drag on earnings in future years. 3.3 Change in accounting Policy (IAS 8): Another way of earning management is through a firm’s selection of the accounting policies it employs in the preparation of its financial statements or in the manner in which those accounting policies are applied. The companies involved are simply using available flexibility in accounting principles. It does not mean that the applicable financial reporting framework has not been followed. It may be that the manipulation of published figures is the result of selecting an accounting policy which is allowed under the financial reporting framework, but which does not reflect economic reality. For example, changing the estimated life of a non-current asset is allowed under financial reporting standards, but if it is done purely to manipulate the depreciation charge (and therefore earnings), then it becomes an example of earnings management. IASB in international accounting standard 8 has prescribed the criteria for selecting and changing accounting policies together with the disclosure and accounting treatment of changes in a reporting entity’s accounting policies, accounting estimates and corrections of errors. An enterprise may voluntarily change the accounting policy only if believes that the change will improve the presentation of the financial statements. An enterprise discloses any change in accounting policy that has a material effect in the current period or is reasonably expected to have a material effect in later periods. It should also disclose, to the extent ascertainable, the amount by which any item in the financial statements is affected by a change that has a material effect in the current period. Where the enterprise is unable to ascertain the amount with reasonable efforts, the fact should be disclosed. Entities must adopt consistent accounting policies for similar transactions unless an IFRS/IAS requires a more specific policy to be adopted. Entities are only allowed to change an accounting policy if it is required by an IFRS or IAS; or, it results in financial statements providing more reliable and relevant information about the effects of transactions on the entity’s financial position, performance or cash flows. 3.5 Off Balance Sheet Financing (IAS 1): â€Å"Off balance sheet financing† is when debt financing is not shown on the face of the balance sheet. This allows a company to borrow without calculations being affected of measures of indebtedness such as gearing.   Motives for this may be to mislead investors and remain within the terms of debt covenants. It may also sometimes be a side effect of the method for raising capital chosen therefore, it is probably best to be suspicious of the motives for raising debt in a manner that is not visible to investors. As standards have caught up with loopholes that allowed off balance sheet financing. The scope for off balance sheet financing has reduced over the years which in the past have included leasing and borrowing through special purpose vehicles. Conclusion and Recommendations: It is a difficult task for the regulators to cope with earning management. They need to update the rules to control earning management on one hand, allow flexibility and promote the culture of voluntary disclosure on the other hand. The danger of over regulation is that companies will assume it is the regulators’ responsibilities to ensure transparency rather than their own. By a mixture of regulations aimed at special abuses and more fundamental accounting and auditing standards that require the application of the spirit of the law rather than merely the letter, regulators have been successful in eradicating many of these practice. It is to be stated that the impact of creative and fraudulent accounting can be reduced by streamlining the accounting and auditing system and more effective corporate governance. Earning management can be reduced by: 1. Introduction of forensic accounting for white collar fraud detection and fraud prevention; 2. Minimizing the alternative choices of accounting treatment in accounting standards; 3. Enhancing the quality of corporate governance; 4. Amending Companies Act; 5. Enforcing strong regulation, and 6. Increasing the effectiveness of audit. References:

20 Classic Novels You Can Read in One Sitting

20 Classic Novels You Can Read in One Sitting 20 Classic Novels You Can Read in One Sitting 20 Classic Novels You Can Read in One Sitting By Mark Nichol You know that in order to become a better writer, you need to become a better reader and so polishing off some classic novels is in your future. But who has the time? You do. Nobody’s admonishing you to get your book report in within two weeks. But if you still feel pinched between the hour hand and the minute hand, ease into great English literature with these short novels (most have fewer than 200 pages): 1. A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens Spectral visitors take miserly businessman Ebenezer Scrooge on a tour of the past, present, and future to prompt his reevaluation of the wisdom of his skinflint ways in this Victorian fantasy that helped usher in the nostalgia-drenched Christmas tradition. To this day, innumerable stage adaptations knock elbows with ballet productions of The Nutracker Suite and singing of Handel’s Messiah. Dickens’s Hard Times is another relatively quick read. 2. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain The intrepid young hero, a half-feral but good-hearted boy, flees the deadly embrace of civilization, takes up with a freed slave and a couple of con men, and, with the assistance of one Samuel Langhorne Clemens, makes a library’s worth of observations about the human condition in one thin volume a triumphant survivor of censorship and political correctness. (The n-word pervades it quick, hide the children’s eyes and make reality go away!) See also The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which this book is a sequel to, and Pudd’nhead Wilson. 3. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll A young girl wanders into the woods and falls down a rabbit hole into a disconcertingly absurd hidden world in Oxford mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson’s satirical romp, laced with contemporary caricatures and poking at problems of mathematical logic. Like many great works of art, it was a critical failure but a popular success and, in the long term, the critics have come around. See also the sequel Through the Looking-Glass. 4. Animal Farm, by George Orwell A modern fable by the author of Nineteen Eighty-Four relates what happens when communism comes to Manor Farm: â€Å"All animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others.† Orwell (birth name Eric Blair), a proponent of democratic socialism by definition, the antithesis of Stalinism wrote the story in response to his disillusioning experiences during the Spanish Civil War, when totalitarianism cast a shadow over socialist ideals. British publishers concerned about the manuscript’s frank condemnation of the United Kingdom’s World War II ally the Soviet Union rejected it, but you can’t suppress the truth down for long. 5. Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne Fastidious Victorian gentleman Phileas Fogg makes a foolhardy wager at his club: He will circumnavigate the planet in eighty days. With resourceful French valet Passepartout by his side and a Scotland Yard detective who mistakes him for a fugitive from justice on his heels, he sets out with his fortune, his freedom, and, most importantly, his honor on the line. These and other novels by Verne have, from the beginning, fired the imaginations of readers from all over the world, though poor early English translations led to them being long mischaracterized as juvenile pulp fiction. 6. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley After an introduction to a horrifyingly regimented future â€Å"utopia,† readers meet John, a young man who has grown up in an isolated, unenlightened community before being brought back to civilization, which, shall we say, does not match his expectations. Huxley’s novel, one of the most celebrated in twentieth-century literature and also impressively high on the lists of books targeted for censorship depicts a future in which hedonism, not repression, is the greatest threat to humanity. 7. Candide, by Voltaire Everybody’s favorite scathingly funny French philosopher introduces a young man raised in indoctrinated, isolated innocence who is repeatedly blindsided by reality when he becomes a citizen of the world. Anticipating the antipathy with which secular and religious authorities would condemn his work, Voltaire published it under a pseudonym, but everybody knew who had done the deed. Candide was widely banned, even in the United States into the twentieth century high praise, indeed. 8. Cannery Row, by John Steinbeck A run-down street in seaside Monterey, California, is as colorful a character as any of the people who populate it in this sweet Depression-era story about a community of the world’s cast-offs. This semiautobiographical novel, a warm wash of nostalgia, also serves as a requiem for a lost world the author could never find again. Steinbeck often kept it short and bittersweet: Look also for The Moon Is Down, Of Mice and Men, The Pearl, The Red Pony, and Tortilla Flat. 9. The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger Reading this mid-20th-century anthem of adolescent angst remains a rite of passage for high school literature students, who get a thrill out of reading one of the most frequently banned books of all time. The narrator’s sour sensibilities and his frank assessment of the world’s crapitude captivate many young readers, although the author (who exacerbated the allure of the book through his notorious reclusiveness) intended the book for an adult audience. Salinger’s other works include novellas and short stories, including Franny and Zooey, Nine Stories, and the twofer Raise High the Roofbeam Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction. 10. Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton This flashback novel immerses the reader in the tragedy of a romantic triangle, as the title character agonizes over his affection for his sickly wife’s cousin, who has come to live with them and help around the house. Warning: Things don’t end well. The critical reception to Wharton’s work was mixed, but those who praised it recognized it as a compelling morality tale (though based on a real incident and thought to allude to the author’s own unhappy marriage). 11. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury In a dystopian future where firefighters ignite inflammatory books (that is, all of them) rather than suppress conflagrations, one member of the book-burning brigade, increasingly alienated in his decadent society, is lured to the light side. Bradbury initially denied that the theme of the story is censorship, fingering the boob tube for libracide instead, but he later graciously realized he could have it both ways. 12. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley A scientist conceives the idea of creating a man constructed from body parts and bringing him to life but is disgusted by his creation, which, devastated by the scientist’s and others’ rejection as it struggles to learn what it means to be human, exacts vengeance. The novel, written by the daughter of philosophers who began working on it when she was still in her teens, initially received mixed reviews, but its stature has steadily grown, aided by its wealth of classical allusions and Enlightenment inspirations, not to mention its profound psychological resonance. 13. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald A young man gets caught up in the world of wealth during the Roaring Twenties, especially that revolving around the enigmatic millionaire Jay Gatsby, but he discovers how superficial and hollow the American dream is after observing the petty passions of the rich. Fitzgerald’s novel was well received but did not fare as well as his earlier works, and when he died in relative obscurity years later, he believed himself a failure. During and after World War II, however, The Great Gatsby experienced a resurgence, and it is now accounted one of the great American novels. 14. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad A riverboat captain in the Belgian Congo, looking forward to meeting Kurtz, the manager of an isolated upriver colonial station, is devastated when the man he meets turns out to be quite different from the imagined ideal. Conrad’s story, overshadowed by Francis Ford Coppola’s loose film adaptation, the antiwar epic Apocalypse Now, should be read on its own merits. Though much praised for its psychological insight, is also considered one of the most potent criticisms of colonialism in literature. 15. Night, by Elie Wiesel The author’s harrowing account of his early adolescence spent in Nazi concentration camps during which his father, with whom he was incarcerated, gradually becomes helpless, and young Elie rejects God and humanity is full of raw, stark power. Its critical reception was complicated by various factors: It is a memoir that contains a great deal of fiction, and it was published in quite different forms in Yiddish, then a pared-down French translation, from which a further abridged English version was derived. But that form at least is widely acknowledged as great art. 16. The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde A beautiful young hedonist sells his soul for the price of agelessness, while a portrait of him painted by an admirer marks his physical dissipation. Wilde’s first novel was attacked for its homoeroticism and the scandalously frank depiction of debauchery but was received more favorably when the author toned down the former. Rich with allusions to, among other works, Faust, The Picture of Dorian Gray stands on its own as a tragic morality tale. 17. The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane A young Civil War soldier overcomes his initial cowardice, but, despite the fact that he acts heroically in a later battle, his humanity is diminished. Crane, who finished the novel when he was only twenty-four (he would die just five years later after a series of debilitating lung hemorrhages), was celebrated for its authentic detail about the conduct of war, though he had never experienced it himself. It was also hailed as a triumph of both naturalism and impressionism, as it realistically portrays the ordeal of battle while achieving allegorical stature. 18. The Sorrows of Young Werther, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Written primarily in the form of a series of letters, this semiautobiographical story relates the tragedy of a young man who falls in love with a woman already betrothed to another. Although it made Goethe’s reputation at a young age, it also precipitated â€Å"Werther Fever,† prompting a fad of overwrought young people lamenting the vicissitudes of unrequited love, and Goethe later disavowed it and decried the Romantic literary movement it epitomized. 19. The Stranger, by Albert Camus This existentialist classic chronicles the nihilistic life of an apathetic man who aimlessly commits murder and, once incarcerated, renounces humanity, which he has passively estranged himself from. Camus’s portrait of a man without a soul was a manifesto of his belief that life is bereft of meaning, and that the efforts of humans to find meaning are futile. 20. Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte This complex melodrama about the compounded consequences of acting on selfish and vengeful motives has been overshadowed by Hollywood’s treatment of the thwarted love between a young woman named Catherine and her untamed foster brother, Heathcliff. But the story boasts an unflinching honesty about its deeply flawed protagonists, and though critical response to its publication was mixed, it has lived on as an expression of star-crossed ill fortune. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Fiction Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:30 Synonyms for â€Å"Meeting†5 Lessons for Mixing Past and Present TensePersonification vs. Anthropomorphism

20 Classic Novels You Can Read in One Sitting

20 Classic Novels You Can Read in One Sitting 20 Classic Novels You Can Read in One Sitting 20 Classic Novels You Can Read in One Sitting By Mark Nichol You know that in order to become a better writer, you need to become a better reader and so polishing off some classic novels is in your future. But who has the time? You do. Nobody’s admonishing you to get your book report in within two weeks. But if you still feel pinched between the hour hand and the minute hand, ease into great English literature with these short novels (most have fewer than 200 pages): 1. A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens Spectral visitors take miserly businessman Ebenezer Scrooge on a tour of the past, present, and future to prompt his reevaluation of the wisdom of his skinflint ways in this Victorian fantasy that helped usher in the nostalgia-drenched Christmas tradition. To this day, innumerable stage adaptations knock elbows with ballet productions of The Nutracker Suite and singing of Handel’s Messiah. Dickens’s Hard Times is another relatively quick read. 2. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain The intrepid young hero, a half-feral but good-hearted boy, flees the deadly embrace of civilization, takes up with a freed slave and a couple of con men, and, with the assistance of one Samuel Langhorne Clemens, makes a library’s worth of observations about the human condition in one thin volume a triumphant survivor of censorship and political correctness. (The n-word pervades it quick, hide the children’s eyes and make reality go away!) See also The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which this book is a sequel to, and Pudd’nhead Wilson. 3. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll A young girl wanders into the woods and falls down a rabbit hole into a disconcertingly absurd hidden world in Oxford mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson’s satirical romp, laced with contemporary caricatures and poking at problems of mathematical logic. Like many great works of art, it was a critical failure but a popular success and, in the long term, the critics have come around. See also the sequel Through the Looking-Glass. 4. Animal Farm, by George Orwell A modern fable by the author of Nineteen Eighty-Four relates what happens when communism comes to Manor Farm: â€Å"All animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others.† Orwell (birth name Eric Blair), a proponent of democratic socialism by definition, the antithesis of Stalinism wrote the story in response to his disillusioning experiences during the Spanish Civil War, when totalitarianism cast a shadow over socialist ideals. British publishers concerned about the manuscript’s frank condemnation of the United Kingdom’s World War II ally the Soviet Union rejected it, but you can’t suppress the truth down for long. 5. Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne Fastidious Victorian gentleman Phileas Fogg makes a foolhardy wager at his club: He will circumnavigate the planet in eighty days. With resourceful French valet Passepartout by his side and a Scotland Yard detective who mistakes him for a fugitive from justice on his heels, he sets out with his fortune, his freedom, and, most importantly, his honor on the line. These and other novels by Verne have, from the beginning, fired the imaginations of readers from all over the world, though poor early English translations led to them being long mischaracterized as juvenile pulp fiction. 6. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley After an introduction to a horrifyingly regimented future â€Å"utopia,† readers meet John, a young man who has grown up in an isolated, unenlightened community before being brought back to civilization, which, shall we say, does not match his expectations. Huxley’s novel, one of the most celebrated in twentieth-century literature and also impressively high on the lists of books targeted for censorship depicts a future in which hedonism, not repression, is the greatest threat to humanity. 7. Candide, by Voltaire Everybody’s favorite scathingly funny French philosopher introduces a young man raised in indoctrinated, isolated innocence who is repeatedly blindsided by reality when he becomes a citizen of the world. Anticipating the antipathy with which secular and religious authorities would condemn his work, Voltaire published it under a pseudonym, but everybody knew who had done the deed. Candide was widely banned, even in the United States into the twentieth century high praise, indeed. 8. Cannery Row, by John Steinbeck A run-down street in seaside Monterey, California, is as colorful a character as any of the people who populate it in this sweet Depression-era story about a community of the world’s cast-offs. This semiautobiographical novel, a warm wash of nostalgia, also serves as a requiem for a lost world the author could never find again. Steinbeck often kept it short and bittersweet: Look also for The Moon Is Down, Of Mice and Men, The Pearl, The Red Pony, and Tortilla Flat. 9. The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger Reading this mid-20th-century anthem of adolescent angst remains a rite of passage for high school literature students, who get a thrill out of reading one of the most frequently banned books of all time. The narrator’s sour sensibilities and his frank assessment of the world’s crapitude captivate many young readers, although the author (who exacerbated the allure of the book through his notorious reclusiveness) intended the book for an adult audience. Salinger’s other works include novellas and short stories, including Franny and Zooey, Nine Stories, and the twofer Raise High the Roofbeam Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction. 10. Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton This flashback novel immerses the reader in the tragedy of a romantic triangle, as the title character agonizes over his affection for his sickly wife’s cousin, who has come to live with them and help around the house. Warning: Things don’t end well. The critical reception to Wharton’s work was mixed, but those who praised it recognized it as a compelling morality tale (though based on a real incident and thought to allude to the author’s own unhappy marriage). 11. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury In a dystopian future where firefighters ignite inflammatory books (that is, all of them) rather than suppress conflagrations, one member of the book-burning brigade, increasingly alienated in his decadent society, is lured to the light side. Bradbury initially denied that the theme of the story is censorship, fingering the boob tube for libracide instead, but he later graciously realized he could have it both ways. 12. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley A scientist conceives the idea of creating a man constructed from body parts and bringing him to life but is disgusted by his creation, which, devastated by the scientist’s and others’ rejection as it struggles to learn what it means to be human, exacts vengeance. The novel, written by the daughter of philosophers who began working on it when she was still in her teens, initially received mixed reviews, but its stature has steadily grown, aided by its wealth of classical allusions and Enlightenment inspirations, not to mention its profound psychological resonance. 13. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald A young man gets caught up in the world of wealth during the Roaring Twenties, especially that revolving around the enigmatic millionaire Jay Gatsby, but he discovers how superficial and hollow the American dream is after observing the petty passions of the rich. Fitzgerald’s novel was well received but did not fare as well as his earlier works, and when he died in relative obscurity years later, he believed himself a failure. During and after World War II, however, The Great Gatsby experienced a resurgence, and it is now accounted one of the great American novels. 14. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad A riverboat captain in the Belgian Congo, looking forward to meeting Kurtz, the manager of an isolated upriver colonial station, is devastated when the man he meets turns out to be quite different from the imagined ideal. Conrad’s story, overshadowed by Francis Ford Coppola’s loose film adaptation, the antiwar epic Apocalypse Now, should be read on its own merits. Though much praised for its psychological insight, is also considered one of the most potent criticisms of colonialism in literature. 15. Night, by Elie Wiesel The author’s harrowing account of his early adolescence spent in Nazi concentration camps during which his father, with whom he was incarcerated, gradually becomes helpless, and young Elie rejects God and humanity is full of raw, stark power. Its critical reception was complicated by various factors: It is a memoir that contains a great deal of fiction, and it was published in quite different forms in Yiddish, then a pared-down French translation, from which a further abridged English version was derived. But that form at least is widely acknowledged as great art. 16. The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde A beautiful young hedonist sells his soul for the price of agelessness, while a portrait of him painted by an admirer marks his physical dissipation. Wilde’s first novel was attacked for its homoeroticism and the scandalously frank depiction of debauchery but was received more favorably when the author toned down the former. Rich with allusions to, among other works, Faust, The Picture of Dorian Gray stands on its own as a tragic morality tale. 17. The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane A young Civil War soldier overcomes his initial cowardice, but, despite the fact that he acts heroically in a later battle, his humanity is diminished. Crane, who finished the novel when he was only twenty-four (he would die just five years later after a series of debilitating lung hemorrhages), was celebrated for its authentic detail about the conduct of war, though he had never experienced it himself. It was also hailed as a triumph of both naturalism and impressionism, as it realistically portrays the ordeal of battle while achieving allegorical stature. 18. The Sorrows of Young Werther, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Written primarily in the form of a series of letters, this semiautobiographical story relates the tragedy of a young man who falls in love with a woman already betrothed to another. Although it made Goethe’s reputation at a young age, it also precipitated â€Å"Werther Fever,† prompting a fad of overwrought young people lamenting the vicissitudes of unrequited love, and Goethe later disavowed it and decried the Romantic literary movement it epitomized. 19. The Stranger, by Albert Camus This existentialist classic chronicles the nihilistic life of an apathetic man who aimlessly commits murder and, once incarcerated, renounces humanity, which he has passively estranged himself from. Camus’s portrait of a man without a soul was a manifesto of his belief that life is bereft of meaning, and that the efforts of humans to find meaning are futile. 20. Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte This complex melodrama about the compounded consequences of acting on selfish and vengeful motives has been overshadowed by Hollywood’s treatment of the thwarted love between a young woman named Catherine and her untamed foster brother, Heathcliff. But the story boasts an unflinching honesty about its deeply flawed protagonists, and though critical response to its publication was mixed, it has lived on as an expression of star-crossed ill fortune. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Fiction Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:30 Synonyms for â€Å"Meeting†5 Lessons for Mixing Past and Present TensePersonification vs. Anthropomorphism

20 Classic Novels You Can Read in One Sitting

20 Classic Novels You Can Read in One Sitting 20 Classic Novels You Can Read in One Sitting 20 Classic Novels You Can Read in One Sitting By Mark Nichol You know that in order to become a better writer, you need to become a better reader and so polishing off some classic novels is in your future. But who has the time? You do. Nobody’s admonishing you to get your book report in within two weeks. But if you still feel pinched between the hour hand and the minute hand, ease into great English literature with these short novels (most have fewer than 200 pages): 1. A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens Spectral visitors take miserly businessman Ebenezer Scrooge on a tour of the past, present, and future to prompt his reevaluation of the wisdom of his skinflint ways in this Victorian fantasy that helped usher in the nostalgia-drenched Christmas tradition. To this day, innumerable stage adaptations knock elbows with ballet productions of The Nutracker Suite and singing of Handel’s Messiah. Dickens’s Hard Times is another relatively quick read. 2. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain The intrepid young hero, a half-feral but good-hearted boy, flees the deadly embrace of civilization, takes up with a freed slave and a couple of con men, and, with the assistance of one Samuel Langhorne Clemens, makes a library’s worth of observations about the human condition in one thin volume a triumphant survivor of censorship and political correctness. (The n-word pervades it quick, hide the children’s eyes and make reality go away!) See also The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which this book is a sequel to, and Pudd’nhead Wilson. 3. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll A young girl wanders into the woods and falls down a rabbit hole into a disconcertingly absurd hidden world in Oxford mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson’s satirical romp, laced with contemporary caricatures and poking at problems of mathematical logic. Like many great works of art, it was a critical failure but a popular success and, in the long term, the critics have come around. See also the sequel Through the Looking-Glass. 4. Animal Farm, by George Orwell A modern fable by the author of Nineteen Eighty-Four relates what happens when communism comes to Manor Farm: â€Å"All animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others.† Orwell (birth name Eric Blair), a proponent of democratic socialism by definition, the antithesis of Stalinism wrote the story in response to his disillusioning experiences during the Spanish Civil War, when totalitarianism cast a shadow over socialist ideals. British publishers concerned about the manuscript’s frank condemnation of the United Kingdom’s World War II ally the Soviet Union rejected it, but you can’t suppress the truth down for long. 5. Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne Fastidious Victorian gentleman Phileas Fogg makes a foolhardy wager at his club: He will circumnavigate the planet in eighty days. With resourceful French valet Passepartout by his side and a Scotland Yard detective who mistakes him for a fugitive from justice on his heels, he sets out with his fortune, his freedom, and, most importantly, his honor on the line. These and other novels by Verne have, from the beginning, fired the imaginations of readers from all over the world, though poor early English translations led to them being long mischaracterized as juvenile pulp fiction. 6. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley After an introduction to a horrifyingly regimented future â€Å"utopia,† readers meet John, a young man who has grown up in an isolated, unenlightened community before being brought back to civilization, which, shall we say, does not match his expectations. Huxley’s novel, one of the most celebrated in twentieth-century literature and also impressively high on the lists of books targeted for censorship depicts a future in which hedonism, not repression, is the greatest threat to humanity. 7. Candide, by Voltaire Everybody’s favorite scathingly funny French philosopher introduces a young man raised in indoctrinated, isolated innocence who is repeatedly blindsided by reality when he becomes a citizen of the world. Anticipating the antipathy with which secular and religious authorities would condemn his work, Voltaire published it under a pseudonym, but everybody knew who had done the deed. Candide was widely banned, even in the United States into the twentieth century high praise, indeed. 8. Cannery Row, by John Steinbeck A run-down street in seaside Monterey, California, is as colorful a character as any of the people who populate it in this sweet Depression-era story about a community of the world’s cast-offs. This semiautobiographical novel, a warm wash of nostalgia, also serves as a requiem for a lost world the author could never find again. Steinbeck often kept it short and bittersweet: Look also for The Moon Is Down, Of Mice and Men, The Pearl, The Red Pony, and Tortilla Flat. 9. The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger Reading this mid-20th-century anthem of adolescent angst remains a rite of passage for high school literature students, who get a thrill out of reading one of the most frequently banned books of all time. The narrator’s sour sensibilities and his frank assessment of the world’s crapitude captivate many young readers, although the author (who exacerbated the allure of the book through his notorious reclusiveness) intended the book for an adult audience. Salinger’s other works include novellas and short stories, including Franny and Zooey, Nine Stories, and the twofer Raise High the Roofbeam Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction. 10. Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton This flashback novel immerses the reader in the tragedy of a romantic triangle, as the title character agonizes over his affection for his sickly wife’s cousin, who has come to live with them and help around the house. Warning: Things don’t end well. The critical reception to Wharton’s work was mixed, but those who praised it recognized it as a compelling morality tale (though based on a real incident and thought to allude to the author’s own unhappy marriage). 11. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury In a dystopian future where firefighters ignite inflammatory books (that is, all of them) rather than suppress conflagrations, one member of the book-burning brigade, increasingly alienated in his decadent society, is lured to the light side. Bradbury initially denied that the theme of the story is censorship, fingering the boob tube for libracide instead, but he later graciously realized he could have it both ways. 12. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley A scientist conceives the idea of creating a man constructed from body parts and bringing him to life but is disgusted by his creation, which, devastated by the scientist’s and others’ rejection as it struggles to learn what it means to be human, exacts vengeance. The novel, written by the daughter of philosophers who began working on it when she was still in her teens, initially received mixed reviews, but its stature has steadily grown, aided by its wealth of classical allusions and Enlightenment inspirations, not to mention its profound psychological resonance. 13. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald A young man gets caught up in the world of wealth during the Roaring Twenties, especially that revolving around the enigmatic millionaire Jay Gatsby, but he discovers how superficial and hollow the American dream is after observing the petty passions of the rich. Fitzgerald’s novel was well received but did not fare as well as his earlier works, and when he died in relative obscurity years later, he believed himself a failure. During and after World War II, however, The Great Gatsby experienced a resurgence, and it is now accounted one of the great American novels. 14. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad A riverboat captain in the Belgian Congo, looking forward to meeting Kurtz, the manager of an isolated upriver colonial station, is devastated when the man he meets turns out to be quite different from the imagined ideal. Conrad’s story, overshadowed by Francis Ford Coppola’s loose film adaptation, the antiwar epic Apocalypse Now, should be read on its own merits. Though much praised for its psychological insight, is also considered one of the most potent criticisms of colonialism in literature. 15. Night, by Elie Wiesel The author’s harrowing account of his early adolescence spent in Nazi concentration camps during which his father, with whom he was incarcerated, gradually becomes helpless, and young Elie rejects God and humanity is full of raw, stark power. Its critical reception was complicated by various factors: It is a memoir that contains a great deal of fiction, and it was published in quite different forms in Yiddish, then a pared-down French translation, from which a further abridged English version was derived. But that form at least is widely acknowledged as great art. 16. The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde A beautiful young hedonist sells his soul for the price of agelessness, while a portrait of him painted by an admirer marks his physical dissipation. Wilde’s first novel was attacked for its homoeroticism and the scandalously frank depiction of debauchery but was received more favorably when the author toned down the former. Rich with allusions to, among other works, Faust, The Picture of Dorian Gray stands on its own as a tragic morality tale. 17. The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane A young Civil War soldier overcomes his initial cowardice, but, despite the fact that he acts heroically in a later battle, his humanity is diminished. Crane, who finished the novel when he was only twenty-four (he would die just five years later after a series of debilitating lung hemorrhages), was celebrated for its authentic detail about the conduct of war, though he had never experienced it himself. It was also hailed as a triumph of both naturalism and impressionism, as it realistically portrays the ordeal of battle while achieving allegorical stature. 18. The Sorrows of Young Werther, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Written primarily in the form of a series of letters, this semiautobiographical story relates the tragedy of a young man who falls in love with a woman already betrothed to another. Although it made Goethe’s reputation at a young age, it also precipitated â€Å"Werther Fever,† prompting a fad of overwrought young people lamenting the vicissitudes of unrequited love, and Goethe later disavowed it and decried the Romantic literary movement it epitomized. 19. The Stranger, by Albert Camus This existentialist classic chronicles the nihilistic life of an apathetic man who aimlessly commits murder and, once incarcerated, renounces humanity, which he has passively estranged himself from. Camus’s portrait of a man without a soul was a manifesto of his belief that life is bereft of meaning, and that the efforts of humans to find meaning are futile. 20. Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte This complex melodrama about the compounded consequences of acting on selfish and vengeful motives has been overshadowed by Hollywood’s treatment of the thwarted love between a young woman named Catherine and her untamed foster brother, Heathcliff. But the story boasts an unflinching honesty about its deeply flawed protagonists, and though critical response to its publication was mixed, it has lived on as an expression of star-crossed ill fortune. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Fiction Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:30 Synonyms for â€Å"Meeting†5 Lessons for Mixing Past and Present TensePersonification vs. Anthropomorphism

Ergonomics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Ergonomics - Essay Example Standards† written by O’Neill (2011) detailed the specifications for seating conformance to include elements such as the chair to the used, the chair seat height, the seat width, seat pan depth, seat pan tilt, the seat pan-backrest angle, and lumbar support. The detailed specifications, based on O’Neill’s (2011) discourse are as follows: (1) chair shall support the user’s back and thighs and must have a backrest that reclines; (2) the chair seat height shall be adjustable according to the user’s need to as much as â€Å"a range of 4.5 inches between 15 and 22 inches† (ONeill, 2011, p. 3); (3) the seat width shall meet the specified width of at least 17.7 inches; and (4) there shall be a support for the lumbar, as needed. The visual or eye standards should incorporate distance between the user and the monitor display. According to the Department of Energy (DOE) (2008), in the article entitled â€Å"Creating a Healthy Workstation Environment: Workstation Ergonomics Made Easy†, the optimum distance between the user’s eyes and the visual display by operators in seating position is 600 mm (Department of Energy (DOE), 2008, p. 7). Likewise, it was noted that special computer glasses that would assist in preventing eye fatigue and vision problems for long hours of monitoring visual displays shall be considered. It has been emphasized that the effectiveness of performance on undertaking monitoring of visual displays is affected by lighting. In this situation, it was stipulated that the operator does the monitoring in a dark room. According to ergonomic standards, light requirements actually vary depending on the performance of tasks. Since the operator focuses on monitoring visual displays from the computer, which already self-illuminating, less light is actually needed; but, it would help to provide focused task lighting (â€Å"a separate lamp†) (Department of Energy (DOE), 2008, p. 21) to assist in other tasks and prevent creating a totally dark

Global security structure Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Global security structure - Essay Example This even triggered the fuel crisis of ‘73–74 and raised a spectrum of collaborative actions as a means of boosting security through economic action. In such a manner, relatively low â€Å"power† countries that were rich in oil, had a means of control over the way in which the remainder of the world integrated with them, by utilizing oil as a weapon of economic power. Changes in the global structure first began to appear in the way in which President Jimmy Carter sought to engage stakeholders. Rather than trying to leverage absolute hard power in each and every available instance, Carter instead attempted to co-opt other nations and convince them of the benefits of engagement as compared to the benefits of non-engagement. This shift was idealistic but ultimately allowed for a renewed relationship with the United States that for many states within the system had fallen by the wayside, victim to an overemphasis on power politics. Similarly, George HW Bush implemente d a policy of increased engagement with what he saw as a multi-polar world. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, George HW Bush, determined that the best approach would be for the United States to strike a balance between being the uni-polar superpower and the multi-polar stakeholder and peace-broker throughout the world. Clinton continued this approach, furthering the role of the United Nations, NATO, WHO, WTO, and the World Bank as a means of developing a more multi-polar power base throughout the world. The policies of George W. Bush were quite different. Mostly because of the attacks of September 11th, George W. Bush sought out a strictly unilateral approach through which the United States would decide upon a course of action and dictate it to the remainder of states within the system. Not surprisingly, this was hated by a litany of states within the system and saw the United States lose a great deal of prestige due, in part, to the backlash of the Iraq War and other factors. President Obama has taken something of a middle path, utilizing elements of his three predecessors in formulating a strategy and international relations. Essay: Topics Not Covered in the Lectures but Included in the Course Readings for Chapter 9: Although an analysis of state actors, nongovernmental organizations, and international organizations was referenced within the lectures, a full and complete discussion of the interaction between each of these three was not affected. It is the understanding of this particular student that even though these three groups are related separately and can effectively be understood to operate somewhat independently of one another, the fact of the matter is that they are intimately tied together and ultimately behave in many situations as a singular entity, e.g., almost all of the international organizations that have been discussed, inclusive of the nongovernmental organizations that have been represented, or primarily Western European and/or Amer ican in origin. As such, the needs and wants of a specific geographic and ethnic minority of

The Writing Style and Beliefs of Kate Chopin Essay -- Biography Biogra

The Writing Style and Beliefs of Kate Chopin  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚   Kate Chopin was an extraordinary writer of the nineteenth century. Despite failure to receive positive critical response, she became one of the most powerful and controversial writers of her time. She dared to write her thoughts on topics considered radical: the institution of marriage and women's desire for social, economic, and political equality. With a focus on the reality of relationships between men and women, she draws stunning and intelligent characters in a rich and bold writing style that was not accepted because it was so far ahead of its time. She risked her reputation by creating female heroines as independent women who wish to receive sexual and emotional fulfillment, an idea unheard of in the 1800s. In the late nineteenth century, the central belief of the vast majority was that the woman's job was to support and nurture her husband and children. Women were given no individual identity and were seen only in relation to a family. Women of this time could not vote and therefore had no say in any political matter. Women who wished to comment politically did so with some form of art, including music, painting, and writing (Magill, American 387). According to Frank Magill, when a woman considers herself only as a part of a relationship with someone, then that relationship becomes the central issue of her life (American 386). As a woman whose husband died young, leaving her six children to raise alone, Chopin understands that kind of dependency upon relationships (Magill, American 384). Almost as working out of her own role, she explores in her writing the complexity between men and women. Readers realize that Chopin's writing in the 1890s was far ahead of ... ...'The Storm'." The Markham Review 2.2 (1970): 1-4. Baker, Christopher. "Chopin's 'The Storm.'" Explicator 52.4 (1994): 225-226. Chopin, Kate. "The Storm." Literature Across Cultures. 2nd ed. Sheena Gillespie, Terezinha Fonseca, Carol A. Sanger. Boston, Allyn: 1998. 345-348. ---. "A Respectable Woman." Gillepsie, Fonseca, and Sanger. 342-344. ---. "At the 'Cadian Ball." The Awakening and selected stories by Kate Chopin. Ed. Sandra M. Gilbert. New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1983.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  179-188. ---. "Athà ©naà ¯se." Gilbert. 229-261. Dyer, Joyce. "Gouvernail, Kate Chopin's Sensitive Bachelor." The Southern Literary Journal 14.1 (1981): 46-55. Magill, Frank N., ed. Critical Survey of Short Fiction. New Jersey: Salem Press, 1981. 1132-1136. ---. Magill's Survey of American Literature New York: Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 1991. 386-391.

Juno film Essay

Juno The film I have chosen for this paper is the drama-comedy Juno directed by Jason Reirman. It is a domestic comedy with anarchic elements. In the film, you get to follow Juno MacGuff, a 16-years-old girl, as her life changes when she finds out that she is pregnant. It’s a realistic film told from Juno’s point of view. The film touches several controversial, populist themes, but manages to do so without being clichà ©. The most obvious being the teen pregnancy, but other topics such as the curiosity of sex among teenagers, the constant questioning of whether abortion is okay or not comes along with it. A big part of the film takes place in Juno’s home, which is typical for a domestic comedy. The main plot of the movie touches themes common to family life. There is the â€Å"modern family† core with stepmothers and half-siblings, the complicity in being a teenager as well as raising one. The more or less ordinary family life is displayed with a lot of humor. The questioning of stereotypes and prejudices play a big role in this film, as do contrasts. Instead of the cheerleader getting pregnant with the quarterback, as many would expect, it is the tomboy and the geeky runner who end up in that situation. As most teens portrayed in films, Juno has a close girlfriend. The odd thing in this case is that it is not a girl considered stranger than Juno herself in terms of norms, it is the cheerleader. In many other of these teen films, usually the cheerleader bugs the â€Å"odd girl†, as for example in â€Å"Mean Girls†. The most prominent contrast in the film is the home of the MacGuffs VS. the home of the adoptive parents Mark and Vanessa Loring. The two homes are set like two different worlds. In the MacGuff house, it s eems like it is impossible to have too many lamps, ornamental dogs or photo frames. The color scale goes in earthy brown tones. Meanwhile, the Loring house does not seem to ever be perfect enough. As Vanessa and Mark are introduced to the story, Vanessa is putting the photo frames in order and arranging the flowers until they are perfect. The dominant colors in the Loring house are clean bright colors as beige and white. The houses become symbols for how different the two families are. The easygoing, messy MacGuffs, and the uptight, stiff Lorings. For the opening scene of the film, there is a long shot of Juno standing in front of an armchair. The armchair is going to be a symbol throughout the movie. The camera cuts to a close up of Junos face and her empty eyes staring at the chair, delivering a message of frustration and hopelessness. She has a monolog where she tells the viewer about the chair, that it was in a chair everything started, where she got pregnant. A â€Å"film inside the film† of Junos memories from that moment is shown for the viewer. A dog barks and the camera makes a quick cut back to reality, Juno and the chair. She leaves the chair behind and the camera follows her as she goes to the local corner shop to get a pregnancy test, the third for the day. She is dressed in a red hood and blue jeans, the red symbolizes her strong, colorful personality. Red is also a symbol for life and vitality, a color symbolism very suitable for the scene. She takes the pregnancy test in the store’s narrow restroom, which has a dim low-key lightning. The setting reinforces the feeling of Juno being â€Å"painted into a corner†. As she takes the test, the camera cuts between close-ups of Junos legs as she sits down, the pregnancy test and her face. These close-ups make the relationship between Juno and the viewer intimate and one gets to feel sympathy for her. It is important to anchor the sympathy for Juno in the beginning of the film since the viewer will get to follow her during her journey. Juno leaves the store and walks home, the camera follows her from behind. Darkness has fallen and Juno has put the hood over her head as a way to alienate herself from the surrounding world. As she walks, a group of guys from her school comes running towards her. They are out of focus and run by her on both sides, creating like a tunnel for Juno to walk through. To me the runners are a metaphor for the thoughts running through Juno’s head and the difficult repressed situation in which she has ended up. Juno is portrayed as a stubborn, cocky girl who takes her own way in life. She has dark hair that she wears in a ponytail and her clothes are far from what typically are considered â€Å"girl clothes†. She wears loose fitted jeans, t-shirts, pullovers and hoods. Her best friend, Leah, on the other hand is a cheerleader with long blond hair who dresses in skirts and is much of a â€Å"girly-girl†. As the Leah is introduced to the audience, the contrasting personalities between the two friends are shown trough the mise-en-scene. When Juno calls Leah to tell her about the pregnancy, the camera cuts between the two girls and their bedrooms. Junos room has a shoebox feeling to it. There are photos of her friends, posters and dif ferent paintings all over the walls as well as the ceiling. She has plectrums laying all over her desk and a miniature electric guitar that  gives away her interest for music. The dominating colors are earthy tones of brown, red and orange. Leah’s room on the other hand is dominated by light colors such as pink, white, yellow and dim blue. She has stuffed animals on a shelf and big windows with thin, light curtains. Juno decides that the way to tell the baby’s father, Bleeker, about the pregnancy is to set up a living room setting in his yard where she can break the news. When darkness falls, Leah is helping to move everything that is needed. They help each other to lift a heavy armchair into the trunk of Junos car. In this scene, the armchair is a symbol for the pregnancy, something that only the girls know of so far. It is still a complex, heavy secret kept in the dark, just like the chair. Reirman uses color values in a broad way through the film, especially when it comes to the characters clothes. In the loading of the armchair scene, Juno wears a red hood while Leah wears a blue. This highlights the different personalities of the two young girls even more. As the pregnancy progresses the color of Juno s clothes changes from the bright red hood to earthier, duller colors in green and brown shades. This color change reinforces Junos situation and the effect the pregnancy has on her life. Another example of color value being used is when Vanessa gets to see her son for the first time. She is then wearing a yellow sweater, symbolizing the joy she feels after finally becoming a mother. A task she feels she has been born to. During a visit to the prospective adoptive parents Juno finds out that Mark is going to divorce Vanessa, sad and frustrated she heads back home. The camera is shooting from the backseat as Juno is driving; she is placed to the left of the frame and the long, empty road ahead of her to the right. This creates a movement from left to right, giving the viewer a feeling of optimism and that everything will work out for the best. The camera cuts to a panning shot as Juno parks the car by the side of the road. A cut to a low angle is made, showing a close up of Juno as she cries. The gray seat, ceiling and the steering wheel creates a tight frame around Juno. There is a claustrophobic feeling through the setting, which emphasizes the fragile state Juno finds herself in. Juno decides that if Vanessa is still willing to be a mom, Juno is willing to give her the baby. The majority of the film is shot in high key lightning, typical for comedy movies. This goes for the scene at the hospital when the baby is born as well. However, in the next scene this will change. The camera shows a  close up of Mr. MacGuff as he pats the head of his daughter who just gave birth. The lightning has gotten softer, giving the yellow color of the walls a warm soothing glow. There is calm and a balance over the scene, giving the feeling that everything is going to be okay from now on. The camera then cuts to a shot from Junos point of view showing Bleeker standing in the door opening. The walls behind Bleeker are blue and contrasting to the goldish colors in Junos hospital room. The colors and the separating walls become a metaphor for the â€Å"cold† reality Bleeker is just coming from, and the warm future that he is about to step into with Juno. A reality more suitable for two 16-year-old kids, where they do not have to be parents. Juno is a realistic film anchored in reality, there are several references to modern culture to underline this. Films and â€Å"hobbits† are mentioned, but the main thing is the music. Music is a big part of Junos life and her personality. It also becomes a key element when Juno and Mark are bounding. They burn CD’s to each other and discuss music by Sonic Youth, Iggy Pop and Patti Smith among others. To convey that the film is told from Junos point of view, Reirman uses her voice over as rapid cuts are made of what she is talking about. This technique is used when Juno introduces her family. As she talks about her mother, who is living in Arizona, the camera cuts to long shot of a desert house in the middle of a beige field. The tone of Juno’s voice says that the mother’s absence does not bother her that much, as to the dullness of the colors in the shot. The camera then cuts to extreme close-ups of the smiles of her mother’s new family, the husband and their three â€Å"replacement kids†. To show the viewer that the mother has been out of the picture for a long time the camera cuts to a close up of numerous cactuses in a window. Juno’s voice over is explaining that her mother sends her one cactus every valentine’s day. In Juno, the mise-en-scene is frequently used to strengthen the message of the film. By using color values, lightning keys and symbolism Reirman captures the contrasts of the story. I do not know if I would call Juno my favorite film, but it is definitely one of my favorite â€Å"feel-good† films. No matter what mood I am in, I always feel much happier and more positive after watching this film. I love the sarcasm in the film and I can see much of myself when I was 16 in Juno. I like how the film takes up such a controversial and taboo topic with as much humor as it does. To me it mak es the film appealing instead of  feeling as a â€Å"moral message to teenagers†.