English Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

English - Article Example The author is strongly against the state and other forces censoring the entertainment industry. He cites The Ed Sullivan Show as having been one of the greatest shows to suffer under the US suppressive policies in the 1960s. The author concludes by stating that the US democratic policies are always conflicting with freedom of artistic expression citing the barring of music composers and performers from performing as an example. Although Dylan made himself a name by his song ‘Talking’, he never realized his ambition of airing it in The Ed Sullivan Show. Though plans were underway for the particular single, Dylan never received an invitation. Thereafter, the organizers urged him to change his remove the song from the playlist, stating that it had some defamatory elements. Dylan blatantly objected to this kind of censorship, a decision that cost him all the concerts. Despite the fact that several radio and TV stations banned a popular single by the Rolling Stones, it finally gained unprecedented popularity in 1967. The Rolling Stones decides to work beyond the barrier of Censorship to launch their single "Lets Spend the Night Together" on The Ed Sullivan Show. This relentless attitude enhanced their status as artistic icons. Owing to the fact that in 1967, few groups had singles like the Doors, the Doors were undoubtedly more famous than any other group at the time. Their first hiccup started when their maiden performance at Monterey backfired followed by a series of concert cancellation by either the police or the promoters. The concerned parties cited gross misconduct and ‘indecent’ content as responsible for massive censorship of their music. Although the three examples were not the only reported cases on censorship on the US entertainment industry, the TV broadcast they received made them more pronounced. Particularly justifies is the Rock and Roll Style that most conservatives considered offensive and against the acceptable norms.

Intuition and Decision-Making Essay Example for Free

Intuition and Decision-Making Essay This paper basically talks about intuition and leadership and takes into account the intuitive decision making that the leaders take into account while making decisions where adequate knowledge is not available or where there are time constraints. There are a lot of arguments regarding this intuitive decision making by leaders where some people argue that it should not be like that as they may turn out to be wrong and others hold to the fact that at times intuitions lead to the right decision as leaders have this ability to analyze all the available information and make the decision on it along with using their past experience and expertise. The paper will first start by defining what actually intuition is and what makes leaders to promote or prevent decision making using intuitions. Then the paper will take a leaders point of view regarding decision making and how they bring in account all the available information to come up with a decision. In the end, the report will compare decisions made on intuitions with the decisions made upon logical reasoning in order to give a better knowledge to the readers regarding the two concepts and terminologies. Defining Intuition Starting with the report, we all know what decision making is, however, it will be helpful for us to know what exactly intuitions are on which leaders tend to make their decisions on. Intuitions are basically the ability of a person to actually judge or perceive an appropriate outcome without using reasoning and adequate information for that. The word is actually derived from a Latin word that means to â€Å"look inside† and that is exactly what we are talking about in this report. While using intuitions, leaders are able to look into the matters, problems or situations without even making an effort to gather or probe into the matter or its complexities (Aqor, 1986). With intuition, leaders actually tend to break into the thickness of the surface reality through their gutt-feeling, a feeling from inside that may be based on their past experience, a fear based interpretation or the actual leadership quality in their personality. What promotes or prevent leaders from using intuitions Moving on, as we have realized that intuitions are feelings, emotions or responses that are based on your own abilities, thus, it is not always true that they are right, they can also be wrong. A leader may be good in doing so in a lot number of instances but still, he is not sure whether his next intuitive decision will actually lead to the same positive results. Every important matter has its own requirements to mitigate risks and probing into complexities, thus for that purpose leaders do need appropriate information in order to come up with their decisions. However, many leaders fear this because of the fact that there personal bias in shape of their previous good or bad experience to a similar problem can actually influence their decision to a great extent. This personal bias or personal judgment that we are talking about is basically based on personal abilities or past experiences and has very less to do with analyzing the current information that is available (Williams, 2001). Thus, leaders do fear with their intuitive decision making that it can actually make them make a wrong decision. On the other hand, there are instances, where leaders have to take charge of the matter and make decisions on just a small amount of information or at times no information. These are situations where there time and resource constraints and decisions have to be taken. There, the best thing a leader can do to save time and resources in gathering all the relevant information and risk factors is to use intuitive decision making approach. A leader is a qualified team member who is chosen because of his ability to look at things with a broader and a next level thought process, thus team members also tend to conform with their this ability and promote them to take such decision. An example of such decisions can be taken as sales predictions after a natural calamity or a sudden fall in the stock market. Although, the demand would fall due to these circumstances, but it might be the other way round for a leader who is looking at the matter with a different approach using his intuitive decision making ability. Role of decision-making to a leader’s position Moreover, a leader is the person who is actually held responsible for all the actions of his team. His team basically conforms to his decisions and relies on his orders and directions because they also accept him as more capable in decision making and his abilities to solve problems and handle situations. Thus, with all this responsibility, a leader has to make sure that his decisions are correct and the best interest of the project and the team he is looking after. Any false decision can cost him and his team a failure of project. When we talk in management terms, we see that one thing that is always argued is the fact that decisions made upon inadequate information are mostly wrong. However, when we look into the practical world of leaders, can we say that leaders always have the right amount of information at the right time and at the right place? Obviously not is the answer to this question because of the fact that if all information would have been made available to the team, then there was no need of a leader to make decisions. In that case just a checker or manager would have done the job of a leader (Aqor, 1986). But, when we look at the decision making role of a leader, he has to make a large number of decisions everyday for which he might not have all the information and which won’t allow him much time to think upon them otherwise he will have to compromise all other important things that he and his team has to complete. A leader, as we have already discussed is chosen because of his special abilities, and this intuitive decision making skills is a part of them. Although on the surface we might say that while intuitively making decisions, a leader does not takes into account all the information, but he is actually thinking with a different angle and approach using his abilities that other team members cannot(Bealer,1998). Difference between decisions made with logical reasoning and decisions made with intuition In the last part of this report we will now discuss the difference between logical decision making and intuitive decision making. Logical decision making involves a high level of reasoning and data that is analyzed in order to come up with a decision. this approach is mostly advocated by most of the critics because of the fact that through this type of decision making, a leader tends to take into account and mitigate a large number of threats and risks which he might not through intuitive decision making. However, this type of a decision making approach may require more time and resources to come up with the decision (Williams, 2001). Also these decisions are mostly based on the theoretical knowledge and proven facts. For example, as we have seen in a number of stock markets that when people with logical reasoning were un-holding their stocks with losses, there were some others as well who were actually earning by using their intuitive knowledge. On the other hand, as we have discussed above that while making intuitive decisions, a leader might not take much time to make those decisions as they are usually made in circumstances where there are time constraints. Moreover, a leader uses his abilities to reconcile his past experiences and trends to come up with the decision rather than core number, figures and theoretical knowledge only.  Another major difference between the two is that both the types of decisions can actually go in the opposite directions as well as we have already discussed above in the stock market example(Giannini Rhodes,1978). Conclusion Thus, the report will conclude the discussion with an argument that no one can actually say whether intuitive decision making is good or bad. It all depends on the situation. Yes, it is true that when there is adequate time and resources, the leader should also take into account the other approaches as well but in constraints of time, a leader may take these decisions depending on his abilities. Also we cannot also say which one of the two types of decision making is good or bad for the project because it again depends on the situation that the organization is in. however, as we know that intuitive decision making involves personal bias of leaders as well and may also reflect their personality traits such as risk taker or risk averse, it is recommended that whenever possible, a leader should take into account the logical reasoning approach and compare it with his intuitive perspective before taking any decision as it might make him realize a number of risks that he may have ignored in the first thought.

If I Do Not Possess Integrity, I Am No One Essays -- Educational Caree

Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. I have taken in stride these qualities throughout the years of my life. I have been taught integrity by my parents and by many teachers in my educational and personal life. Without integrity there is no trust or respect for people in the world. Amy Rees Anderson as an entrepreneur turned into a counselor and angel investor, shares her opinions on integrity in business and life experiences. Also Brett and Kate McKay take a look at the things that challenge your integrity and the consequence of your choices. In the article â€Å"Success Will Come and Go, But Integrity is Forever† by Amy Rees Anderson, Amy gives her definition of integrity and includes experiences she has witnessed as an entrepreneur and counselor. Amy’s definition of integrity is â€Å"doing the right thing at all times and in all circumstances, whether or not anyone is watching.† This is the best way to explain integrity; just as I have experienced recently in my Business Law class. During a test, there was no supervision and a lot of students put aside their integrity and put themselves and others in a difficult situation. The author goes on to say that â€Å"It takes having the courage to do the right thing, no matter what the consequences will be.† The majority of the students who did cheated confessed to their faults. It takes a long time to build integrity, especially in educational setting like college. Most classes last around 5 months each semester and according to Amy, integrity ta kes years to build. Within one class, the class integrity was lost and I’m sure there is no real trust between the professor and student. If someone cheats once, it’s very possible that they will cheat again. Even ... ...restaurant. The person then thinks oh â€Å"What the hell?† only this once, I’ll start the diet again tomorrow. The same thing can occur in other aspects of integrity. You compromise cheating for the moment and before you know it, you’re cheating all the time. All in all, once you compromise your integrity it’s hard to gain it back. There are many reasons why people compromise their integrity in education, careers, and in personal life. It is up to them to make the right decisions that will develop them into better, well respected people in the world. Works Cited Anderson, Amy Rees. "Success Will Come and Go, But Integrity Is Forever." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 28 Nov. 2012. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. McKay, Brett & Kate. "What Strengthens and Weakens Our Integrity – Part I: Why Small Choices Count." The Art of Manliness RSS. N.p., 5 Aug. 2013. Web. 26 Nov. 2013.

Ethical aspects of Social Media Marketing

This essay will focus on the topic ‘Critically evaluating the ethical aspects of social media marketing in the United States’ and the principal question assessed throughout this writing will be ‘Have social media marketing acted ethical or not? ’ According to Nielson Report (2013, p. 3), ‘Social media marketing typically refers to two practices involving social media- the use free tools and paid media’.According to Gaski (1999 cited Smith 2000, p8), marketing ethics is defined as â€Å"standards of conduct and moral judgements applied to marketing†. In relation to social media, these ethics guide the operations of marketing on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter or Youtube (Eagle, 2009). With the rapid growth and adoption of social media, the ethical concerns on social media has also significantly increased. (Mutula, 2012).The author further examines the following categories: 1. 1Social Media Research According to Smith, (200 1), -â€Å"be truthful, protect privacy, don't model inappropriate behaviour, don't be offensive, be fair and balanced, avoid stereotyping and protect children’’ are the seven basic ethical standards for marketing, which are applicable to the present social media marketing. However, all businesses has a legal responsibility to comply with the legislation of their country.In the United States it is the Federal Trade Commission which regulates advertising and marketing laws in the country. (Smith, 2001: Federal Trade Commission, 2013) Social media research is the initial stage of marketing; a technique or an approach used by the marketers to conduct market research on social media platforms. The foremost issue that has commenced is the ethical aspect of using social media for market research purposes; the gathering of data and conducting research on consumers and competitors. (Patino et. al).In addition, it is the fundamental responsibility of marketers to protect consu mer personal data by ensuring that the data is only used for research purposes and makes sure that they adhere to the social network guidelines and regulations of the company. (Mareck M, 2011) However, companies violate these rules and steal customer information without their consent for research and marketing activities, which is unethical and against the FTC Act.Evidently, it was reported by the FTC, in May 2011, 32 legal actions were taken against  organisations that have failed to maintain protection for consumer sensitive data thus breached consumers’ privacy rights. For example, in February 2013, a social networking app generated by Path. Inc. , acquired consumer personal information without their consent and settled FTC charges for infringing Consumer Privacy Act also in the meantime the same company was charged for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, from approximately 3000 children personal information was collected without getting parent s’ consent which was claimed to be highly unethical.  (Federal Trade Commission 2013).Moreover, social media has assisted companies to monitor their employees on social networks. Many reports and cases have been lodged against those companies for unethical practices, by involuntarily retrieving personal information of employees. Such cases involve companies use specialised softwares or access employees’ user name and password of Facebook and Twitter accounts, to trace tweets and posts of what employees post on social networks.As a result, in regard to the newly imposed social media privacy legislation, companies were seized to make settlements on the charges of violating Employee Privacy Protection Act. (Eaglesham, J. and Rothfeld, M. , 2013) Furthermore, social media marketing has become a major threat to the competitors since the birth of social media, and with the aid of market research it has become a trend for brands to practice unethical and unlawful activities such as creating fake accounts, fake endorsements, fake blogs, fake community groups and tarnishing competitors’ brand reputation on social platforms.  (Ray, 2011)1. 2 Viral Marketing and Advertising Viral marketing is the spreading of information between users on social media and it has become the defining marketing trend; techniques used to promote company product/ service and brand name on social media. For example, viral campaigns are marketing techniques widely used to spread the Word-Of-Mouth (WOM) and it can be in the form of viral videos via Youtube, Facebook statuses/posts, or blogs on social media.Thus, viral campaigns build awareness and promotes the company product and image on social media. (Fergusan. R, 2008) For example, ASDA has effectively used this strategy for their promotional campaigns, like the Christmas doesn’t just happen by magic Video 2012 which went viral on Youtube. However, viral marketing can be an adverse impact to the company and unet hical too.For example, Celeb Boutique thought of implementing the viral marketing technique of trending hash tag on Twitter, instead of a positive brand recognition it caused a negative impact to the company brand image and was humiliated virally. (Smeets, 2013) In terms of ethics, such cases include: companies that attack other companies indirectly, being dis honest unprofessional and dis respectful on their campaigns.For example: As reported by The Economic Times, in April 2012, Nokia launched an aggressive viral campaign against Samsung, comparing it’s Lumia smart phone with Samsung’s intentionally emphasizing that Nokia phones are invincible and can blow away other smart phones, this campaign was highly unethical and against the FTC Advertising and Marketing Act of being dishonest and deceptive to stakeholders such as competitors (Mukherjee, W, 2012) According to FTC (2013), â€Å"All businesses have a legal responsibility to ensure that advertising is truthful an d not deceptive’’.Advertising shouldn’t target on vulnerable audiences such as children and should comply with the FTC standards regarding children privacy issues.For example: Kelloggs company made false claims on social networks that it’s Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal benefits children and improves their immunity, this was done by giving false evidence that the attentiveness of children can be improved by 20percent clinically, this advertisement was unethical as it infringed the standards of FTC† (Federal Trade Commission, 2013) Furthermore, it was alleged that companies pay celebrities millions of dollars to advertise and promote their brand on Social networks.Recently, Snickers was suspected in promoting their brand on Twitter in the form of tweets through prominent celebrities such as Rio Ferdinand and Katie Price in 2012. As a result, the Fair Trade officers advised celebrities that advertisements that doesn’t reveal as a promotion or an en dorsement is a ‘deceptive advertising’ and warned Snickers, it is against the FTC standards. However, the complaints accusing Snickers for deceptive advertising were forwarded to the Advertising Standards Authority to take further investigations on this unethical behavior.  (Barnett, 2012: Federal Trade Commission, 2013)1. 3 Engagement Process Social media enables companies to interact with customers more directly than any other forms. Engagement process is one of the major ethical challenge for companies as it involves the process of directly engaging with customers on social networks and has become a common practice for companies. Social media is used by employees on behalf of the company and it can endanger the company reputation via social media by using it unethically.Even though, engagement process is an important component for marketing and public relations it can still be treacherous if used unethically. (Institute of Business Ethics, 2011) In a survey carried out by the Ethics Resource Centre, 45percent of U. S employees witnessed misconduct at work in which 65percent from those reported to be immoral behaviour, in consequence was alleged for violating the workplace ethics law. The study reveals that social media appears to be a major contributor to this issue.  (Ethics Resource Centre, 2011)In March 2010, Nestle Facebook fan page was hovered with negative remarks from its fans after the palm oil campaign, in response, the employee who controls the fan page posted offensive comments which violated the company policies hence, led to bad publicity and boycott activities from the public. (The Guardian, 2011) In 2012, many big brands faced serious catastrophes on social networks. Such circumstances follows; when McDonald tried to promote its brand via Twitter using hashtags, unfortunately the customers on Twitter posted unfavourable comments of consuming McDonald’s food.Other examples such as the American Apparel and The Gap faced a colossal destructive responses from its customers for posting disapproving ads at the time of Hurricane Sandy. (Anon, 2012) 1. 4 Ethical Social Media Marketing Vs. Unethical Social Media Marketing Conversely, a survey carried out by the IBE reveals, businesses that operate ethically on social media is significantly greater than the proportion of businesses that operate unethically.The above pie chart illustrates that 48 percent of the respondents say that businesses operate very/fairly ethically. (Institute of Business Ethics, 2012) Nevertheless, IBE survey found that it was a decline from 58 percent to 48 percent of views that assumes businesses operate very/fairly ethical on social media. Therefore, the change in the percentage from 2011 to 2012 ascertains that the negative impressions on ethical business behavior have increased radically. (Institute of Business Ethics, 2012) ConclusionSocial media marketing has positive and negative effects: the importance for social media has increased tremendously due to the immense benefits such as the increase in awareness, promotion, engagement and research; if social media is used unethically, may lead to lead to bad publicity and tarnish the company reputation. The varied arguments evidences of statistics and cases from different organisations strongly condemns that social media marketing is unethical; the unethical use of social media practiced by businesses outweighs the ethical use of social media marketing.All in all, the author finds social media marketing unethical hence, may create a huge impact on the company and brand image negatively. However, if social media is properly used, it will result positive outcomes for the brand; if misused, the consequence will be a social abuse. Therefore, the author suggests to use social media vigilantly and consider the business ethics standards of their country before taking further steps

Biotechnology Essay

Biotechnology is a subfield of biological science linked to research areas such as recombinant DNA technology and genetic engineering. As a result biotechnology is applied in a wide range of industries (Chen & Marchioni, 2008). According to the Biotechnology Industry Organization, one fourth of the Biotechnology industry’s financing comes from venture capital and it is not just in terms of money but also managerial guidance to the biotechnology firms. This is attributable to the fact that biotechnology is a knowledge intensive industry and a large amount of capital is needed for research and development (Chen & Marchioni, 2008). Venture capital financing is favored by the majority of business startups including the biotechnology companies. Venture capital is an equity investment until the company matures. Venture capitalists are involved in the development of a biotechnology firm by becoming board members. The venture capitalists also advice the biotechnology firms on potential strategic partnerships (Munroe & Gary & Hutton, 2002). This gives the venture capital backed firms an added advantage over the non-venture capital backed firms. Literature Review Although venture capital accounts for a small fraction of the entire funding in the United States, it plays a major role in the financing of biotechnology companies. The biotechnology companies that are funded through capital venture outperform their counterparts in job creation and revenue growth. In the first quarter of 2009, the biotechnology sector received the biggest amount of funding in comparison to the other Life Science companies. This was however, a 16% decrease from the fourth quarter of 2008, constituting a downward tread in the funding of Biotechnology, Medical Devices and Pharmaceuticals (VentureDeal, 2009). Due to the prevailing economic crisis, the funding in biotechnology has reversed from an upward tread as the amount of funding has decreased as well as the numbers of companies funded. Sangart Company which researches and commercializes technologies related to oxygen transport agents received $50 million in the sixth round, the largest venture funding during the first quarter. BioVex Company on the other hand received $40 million from a large syndicate of venture capital firms in the sixth round of funding (VentureDeal, 2009). There are success stories in biotechnology venture capital. One example is the case of Thomas Tedder. Tedder collaborated with a venture capitalist, Intersouth and the company provided seed money that helped Tedder’s company called Cellective Therapeutics to develop a business plan and to finalize the licensing agreement. This helped Tedder to focus on the technology development. In due course, Cellective Therapeutics proved a success and the company was sold off at the one year anniversary to MedImmune (Gwynne, 2009). From the venture capitalists point of view, there are issues that are unique to a biotechnology perspective. The venture capitalists look for unique technologies which are critical to the biotechnology field as they are also looking for a market. This means that the venture capitalists are keen on areas such as disease areas which have a large market. The attractive types of research are those that have a widespread target such as cancer, diabetes and infection areas (Rosenman, 2001). Some of the major venture capital firms in the United States are Alta Partners, BA Venture partners, Forward Ventures, Genentech, Latterell venture partners, MedImmune Ventures, Soffinnova ventures and Intersouth (Gwynne, 2009). The geographic clustering of venture capital financed biotechnology firms is similar to the geographic pattern of the biotechnology industry. The biotechnology businesses are clustered together in a region for several benefits. Through the clustering, the companies achieve scale economy; have knowledge and technology spill over in addition to labor pooling and a decrease in transaction costs. The clustering of firms in similar locations makes it easy for workers to change jobs without the need for traveling long distances for interviews and they may not need to relocate homes after a transfer. Labor mobility hence facilitates the exchange of technology, information and knowledge among the biotech firms. Through geographic proximity, the transaction costs are decreased in addition to personal contact being maintained (Antonelli, 2000). This allows in-depth and fast feedback among the economic agents involved and helps build trust, and incentives in economic relationships thus reducing transaction costs. This enhances socialization within the professional network and stimulates co-operation, competition and innovation (Storper & Venables, 2004). These are important factors for life science knowledge. The clustering of biotechnology industries relies on venture capital availability, life science knowledge, large pharmaceutical firms and urban diversity. Before the first biotechnology firm, Genetech, was established in 1977, practitioners of genetic engineering were located around universities and research institutes. These universities and institutions also provide quality labor force. Consequently, the areas that are in close proximity to the science research institutions have better access to trained graduate and post graduate students. In the biotechnology industry, much of the venture capital is concentrated in California and Massachusetts, including San Francisco, San Diego and Boston (Gompers & Lerner, 2006). Methodology This research employs several methods to investigate the importance of venture funding to the biotechnology firms. Examination on the literature review on the subject of venture funding in biotechnology firms supports the conclusions on the industry. However when conducting research, a researcher is always faced with the task of identifying the methodology to use. This is due to the fact that the researcher has to consider the research question (Morgan & Smircich 1980, pp. 491-500). A researcher can lay more adopt either a positivist or post-positivist approach depending on whether the research focuses more on social sciences or natural sciences. The literature review in a research plays an important role in the research as the researcher needs to consider the different perspectives and possibilities before making any conclusions (Armitage & Keeble-Ramsay 2009, pp. 1-36). The review of various information sources helps the researcher in understanding the implications of the research process. According to Knalf & Breitmayer (1991), the authenticity as well as reliability of the literature review is key in any research. The researcher first has to consider the research options in addition considering the data collection methods. This said, the accessibility and availability of numerous sources of information has necessitated the need for a systematic methodology that can be used in decision making. In this research on venture capital in the biotechnology industry, the emphasis is on the existing firms, the firm’s location and funding. This is mainly achieved through analysis of documented sources and case study reviews. The case studies have inherent strengths that allow tailoring of data collection processes to the research question. Nowadays it has become common for researchers to combine both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods so as to increase the validity of the data collected (Denzin & Lincoln 1994). Data Analysis Data analysis helps the researcher interpret the findings of the research hence it is crucial in any research. According to the research, the majority of biotechnology firms depend on venture capital funding to a greater extent. This study investigated the funding of biotechnology firms in relation to venture funding. All proposed hypotheses are supported using analysis, indicating that biotechnology firms favor venture funding. It also shows that the biotechnology firms are clustered in the same areas where there are life science research base, large pharmaceutical firms, many capital venture providers and a large pool of scientists. There is no surprise that biotechnology firms use venture capital as opposed to other forms of lending. The finding that the biotechnology firms are also located in urban areas with talent and a favorable environment for new ideas and breakthroughs is also in line. On the other hand, venture capital is not only important in terms of financial support but also in providing insights, managerial skills and entrepreneurial spirit to the newly established biotechnology firms. Results Biotechnology funding however still has many huddles one of them being lower IPO valuations which has quashed early venture capital funding. The majority of the venture investment has avoided the innovative early stage research and opted for the specialty established companies (Robbins, 2005). Conclusion This study examines venture capital funding in the biotechnology industry. The research examined the sequence of events that take place during the funding and subsequent setting up of the biotechnology firms. The research objectives require the involvement of both the biotechnology firms and the venture capital firms in order to fully understand the relationship as well as the key factors in their relations. The researcher designed and put to use several research instruments to facilitate in the research. The main aim of the research was to bring to the fore the issues involved in the funding process.

Slavery as a Cruel Institution essays

Slavery as a Cruel Institution essays Cruelty can be defined as an inhumane action done to an individual or group of people that causes either physical or mental harm. Slavery, at its very core, was a cruel and inhumane institution. From the idea behind it to the way that it was enforced, it degraded the lives of human beings and forbade the basic liberties that every man deserves under the Constitution of the United States. Three major areas where cruelty was especially prevalent were in the slaves working conditions, living conditions, and loss of fundamental freedoms. Working conditions for slaves were about as bad as can possibly be imagined. Slaves worked from dawn till dusk and sometimes even longer. Solomon Northrup describes his experience as a slave on his Louisiana plantation: The hands are required to be in the cotton field as soon as it is light in the morning and with the exception of ten or fifteen minutes, which is given them at noon to swallow their allowance of cold bacon, they are not permitted a moment idle until it is too dark to see, and when the moon is full, they often times labor till the middle of the night (Northrup 15). The slaves lived in constant fear of punishment while at work, and it was that fear that drove them to obey. Northrup continues to say that, No matter how fatigued and weary he may bea slave never approaches the gin-house with his basket of cotton but with fear. If it falls short in weightif he has not performed the full task appointed him, he knows he must suffer (10). He goes on to explain that after weighing, follow the whippings (10). This was not the end of the workday for a common slave though. Each slave had his or her own respective chores to do. One feeds the mules, another the swineanother cuts the wood, and so forth (Northrop 11). Then there were jobs to do in the slaves quarters, jobs that were necessary for their basic needs and surviva...

Alls Quiet on the Western Fro essays

All's Quiet on the Western Fro essays Alls Quiet on the Western Front Lewis Milestones Alls Quiet on the Western Front, based on Erich Remarques novel, is an incredibly disturbing and effective anti-war film. The grainy black and white film is still not outdated and carries a breathtaking initial impact. The prologue that introduces the film gives its anti-war intentions immediately and beautifully. This story is neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war... Alls Quiet on the Western Front includes a series of vignettes and scenes that portray the senselessness and futility of war from the point of view of young German soldiers in the trenches in the Great War who found no glory on the battlefield, meeting only death and disillusionment. The film brilliantly portrays the war with no enemys, just people and relationships. It is the story of friends, Paul Baumer (Lew Ayres) and his friends joining the war through propaganda, and leaving through death. The most unforgettable scene is the final moments of the film, just before the "all quiet on the western front" armistice and with all of his comrades gone, soldiers are bailing water out of a dilapidated trench. The faint sound of a harmonica can be heard. Paul is sitting alone, daydreaming inside the trench on a seemingly peaceful, bright day. He is exhausted by terror and boredom. Through the gunhole of his trench, he sees a beautiful lone butterfly that has landed just beyond his reach next to a discarded tin can outside the parapet. He begins to carefully reach out over the protection of his bunker with his hand to grasp it, momentarily forgetting the danger that is ever-present. As he stretches hi ...