Abigails Party Essay Example for Free

Abigails Party Essay This is shown when Beverly suggests â€Å"[getting] pissed† after having an argument with Laurence. The use of the word â€Å"pissed† as a colloquialism for drunk could be seen as being symbolic of Beverly’s true social class seeping through the performance she continuously puts on throughout the night. This is humorous for the audience as Beverly spends a great deal of time and effort in the first part of Act 1 making sure that she is able to impress guests like Angela and Tony and try to feel in the same social class as Susan. She does this by adding a copy of â€Å"[placing] a copy of Cosmopolitan magazine in the magazine rack† and â€Å"[putting] on a record (Donna Summer: Love to Love you† among other things yet after one small spat shall we say with her husband represses back to having the personality the audience believes she’s trying to hide. Some might also say that Leigh’s use of fools near the end of Act 1 is to create after a very tense moment. An example of this would be after Laurence makes quite a long speech which gives us an idea of his views about people as he says that people often â€Å"just drift through life, without any real aims†. He also describes these people as being â€Å"weak†. Both these points are extremely serious and also quite angry. This means that when Angela tells a story about the time â€Å"[she] went to a party† right after these serious points, the audience feels sorry for Laurence as no one seems to be listening to him, but they also can’t help but laugh at Angela’s complete vacancy of points Laurence was making. This makes Angela a clear example of a natural fool as she has no real knowledge about when she is making an irrelevant point. It could also be said that the comic convention of foolishness is used when Angela and Beverly doesn’t know when she is saying something inappropriate or hurtful. An example of this would be when they try to reassure Susan about her daughter Abigail’s party but end up doing the exact opposite by Beverly saying that â€Å"teenagers get over-excited† to which Angela add that â€Å"it all starts with one kiss†. This is humorous as while trying to do one thing, Beverly and Angela end up doing the exact opposite without realising it which is a classic example of a natural fool. This part of the play could also be seen as cringe comedy because of the sympathy the audience feels for innocent Susan who has been kicked out of her house by her daughter only to e made to feel even more uncomfortable in Beverly’s house with her continuous points about teenagers and their rumoured carelessness which, including the gin and tonics Beverly gives Susan, causes her to be physically sick at the very end of the act. Hypocrisy could be considered to be another comic convention that is shown at the end of Act 1. This is particularly something that Beverly shows more than anyone else as when she is describing teenagers as having â€Å"a drink in one hand, a cigarette in the other [and] they’re having a bit of a dance†. The hypocrisy of this is that Beverly throughout the act is continuously refilling people’s drinks, offering cigarettes to everyone and is described on page 42 as â€Å"[proceeding] to have a dance solo in front of the others†. This is humorous as it makes it plainly obvious that Beverly is a natural fool because she is, in many ways just as childish as the teenagers that were in Susan’s house. This is another case of the audience feeling superior to the characters on stage as they when seeing the play would mostly be middle class and therefore they would also probably not be as childish as Beverly or Angela. Leigh’s uses of comic conventions are, in my opinion, used to establish a social ladder change between when the characters are first introduced and when the act finishes which is shown with Susan coming to the house with a bottle of red wine and ending up being sick in the toilet. Leigh’s clear use of comic conventions such as hypocrisy is also to breakdown the difference between sophistication and childishness. Mostly though, Leigh uses comic conventions to get the audience to question where they stand on the social ladder and if it really matters in this world.

American Film and Movies from the 1950’s to Present Essay -- Movie Fil

American Film and Movies from the 1950’s to Present Today, American film is among the most internationally supported commodities. Financially, its contributions are enormous: the industry is responsible for the circulation of billions of dollars each year. Since its explosion into the new media markets during the mid-twentieth century, film has produced consistently growing numbers of viewers and critics alike. Sparking debate over the nature of its viewing, film is now being questioned in social, political, and moral arenas for its potential impact on an audience. Critics claim that watching films is a passive activity in which the viewer becomes subconsciously absorbed, and creates a reliance or "addiction" to the medium, and thus can be influenced by any perpetual concepts or images. Advocates, however, argue that viewing such programs is an active process in which audience members are able to choose to what they are exposed, and interpret messages based on their individual needs and background. Perhaps both views are too extreme. Film from the 1950s to present, as will be explored in this essay, is an extremely useful medium, often underestimated within the label of "entertainment"; unfortunately, it may be partially responsible for current socio-cultural problems, too. The critical question, then, is whether film has fostered the progress of a more open-minded America, or rather hindered its development through the perpetuation of antiquated concepts of stereotypes, densensitized violence and breeding of normalcy. Whether or not a naà ¯ve approach to film as an inclusive medium holds true to fact, however, is questionable. Since its popular arrival in American culture during the 1930s, film has sparked controversy over ... ...es, Francis, ed. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996. Jowett, Garth. "A Significant Medium", in Movie Censorship and American Culture. Couvares, Francis, ed. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996. Lyons, Charles, "The Paradox of Protest", in Movie Censorship and American Culture. Couvares, Francis, ed. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996. Ross, Steven T., ed. Movies and American Society. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2002. Wasser, Frederick. "Is Hollywood America?", in Movies and American Society. Ross, Steven T., ed. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2002. Slocum, J. David, ed. Violence and American Cinema. New York: Routledge, 2001. Rotham, William. "Violence and Film", in Violence and American Cinema. Slocum, J. David, ed. Routledge, 2001. Turner, Graeme. Film As Social Practice. New York: Routledge, 1999.

Bleak House Commentary Essay

The following is an analysis of a passage from Charles Dickens’ novel, Bleak House, in which a bleak and dreary atmosphere is conveyed. The first thing that is mentioned by the narrator in the first paragraph of the passage is mud, and this plays a significant part in the depiction of a filthy, dirty environment. The beginning line, ‘As much mud in the streets†¦and it would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty feet long or so, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill’ uses hyperbole to suggest that the streets are so muddy that it’s almost like the beginning of the world, and it wouldn’t be strange to see a dinosaur roaming around because of that. Also, the line ‘Dogs, undistinguishable in mire. Horses, scarcely better; splashed to their very blinkers’ is an exaggeration of how the streets are so dirty that one cannot tell the different between the mud and the dogs, and even horses are up to their eyes in it. This shows us just how much mud and grime there is, and how dirty everything is. Another aspect in this passage is the dreariness and the bleak environment. This is expressed in the line ‘Foot-passengers, jostling one another’s umbrellas, in a general infection of ill temper, and losing their foot-hold at street-corners, where tens of thousands of other foot passengers have been slipping and sliding since the day broke (if this day ever broke), adding new deposits to the crust upon crust of mud†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ Firstly, the line ‘jostling one another’s umbrellas’ suggests that the place is so overcrowded and uncomfortable that people are all bumping into each other, and that their ‘ill temper’ is spread like a disease every time they come into contact, and it stirs in us a sense of claustrophobia because the people are all packed together. This adds to the implication that it’s a miserable and unpleasant place to be. Also, the fact that the foot-passengers are using umbrellas suggests that it is or has been raining, strengthening the general feeling of gloominess. Furthermore, the fact that the part of the line ‘†¦slipping and sliding since the day broke (if this day ever broke)’ is written in parenthesis suggests the sarcastic voice of the narrator, that he is mocking the foot-passenger’s ill temper and derisively commenting on the cold and depressing atmosphere, and this in turn reinforces that very fact. The use of sibilance in ‘slipping and sliding’ further increases the effect of the dismal environment. The following line, ‘Smoke lowering down from chimney-pots, making a soft black drizzle with flakes of soot in it as big as full-grown snowflakes – gone into mourning, one might imagine, for the death of the sun’ is very effective in expressing how unpleasant the place is. The fact that the smoke is ‘lowering’ down, instead of drifting upwards as it normally does, implies that the atmosphere is so oppressive that even smoke can’t escape and is being pushed down. In addition, there is a personification of the soot and snow, as they have ‘gone into mourning’ for the ‘death of the sun’. This could be an implication that the place is so gloomy and polluted that you can no longer see the sun, and that is why it has ‘died’, and is also why everything is black. This effectively intensifies the feeling of despair and dreariness that is hanging over the city, and the bleakness of the environment. The second paragraph of this passage concentrates mainly on fog and how it has been personified into a shadowy demon from which there is no escape. The first line of the second paragraph begins with ‘Fog everywhere’, and this alone is a very abrupt, aggressive statement that makes us feel, once again, slightly claustrophobic, as though there is fog pressing in all around us and that there is no escape from it. Subsequently, the lines ‘Fog in the eyes and throats of ancient Greenwich pensioners, wheezing by the firesides,’ and ‘Fog cruelly pinching the toes and fingers of his shivering little ‘prentice boy on deck’ are examples of how the fog is personified, and made to seem sinister, omnipresent, like an oppressor that takes pleasure in attacking weak, vulnerable people like ‘ancient Greenwich pensioners’ and the ‘shivering little ‘prentice boy’. Another very effectual line is ‘Chance people on the bridges peeping over the parapets into a nether sky of fog, with fog all round them, as if they were up in a balloon, and hanging in the misty clouds’. The use of the verb ‘peeping’ is very interesting because it means the people are looking quickly or secretly over the bridges, and it creates a sense of nervousness and apprehension, as though the people are frightened of the fog, thus making the fog seem all the more threatening. In addition to this, the use of ‘parapets’ may not be just a reference to the sides of the bridge, as it also makes us think of castles, and so people peeping over parapets makes it seem as though they are under siege or under attack from an army of fog, which goes back to the allusion that the fog attacks weak or vulnerable people. Furthermore, the last part of the line, ‘as if they were up in a balloon, and hanging in the misty clouds’ conveys a sense of helplessness, because when you’re in a balloon you have very limited control, and this has been used as a metaphor to suggest how the people have no control over the fog and that they are trapped by it. Once again, this creates the feeling of claustrophobia and makes it seem overwhelming as there is so much fog and there’s no way out. The structure of these this passage is very interesting to note. The first paragraph is almost conversational, as though the narrator is describing to us the many events of the day, while the second paragraph suddenly switches to more somber, grave narrative of the fog, and this affects us and makes us feel uneasy of the fog. This is also partly because the passage is written in the present, and so it involves us, makes us feel as if we are there in the dreary environment. Additionally, the elongated syntax of the sentences mirrors the long, miserable day and the never-ending fog, and this intensifies the gloomy feeling we get from it. In conclusion, this passage from Bleak House uses many different techniques such as personification, hyperbole and tone of voice to effectively express the dirty and gloomy environment and the general feeling of misery and despair.

Octane Service Station Essay

On March 15, Julio Trevino signed a lease agreement to operate a gasoline service station that was owned by the Octane Oil Company (here after, simply â€Å"Octane†). Trevino had contacted the regional sales manager of Octane in response to an advertisement that solicited applicants â€Å"with $25,000 to invest† to lease and operate a newly erected Octane gasoline service station. Trevino had been able to accumulate approximately $32,000 for investment purposes as a result of a $25,000 inheritance and savings on the salary of $865 per week he earned as manager of a service station operated as a separate department of a J.C. Penney store. Most of this $32,000 was held in government bonds. The regional sales manager for Octane was impressed with Trevino’s personal and financial qualifications, and after several interviews, a lease agreement was signed. During one of these meetings the sales manager informed Trevino that the new station would be ready for occupancy on May 1st at a total investment cost of $300,000. Of this amount, $100,000 had already been paid for land, and a total of $200,000 would be spent for a building that would be â€Å"good for about 40 years†. In discussing profit potential, the sales manager pointed out that Octane’s national advertising program and the consumer appeal generated by the attractive station â€Å"will be worth at least $30,000 a year to you in consumer goodwill.† The lease agreement stipulated that Trevino pay a rental of $1,250 per month for the station plus $0.04 for each gallon of gasoline delivered t the station by Octane1. A separate agreement was also signed whereby Octane agreed to sell and Trevino agreed to buy a certain minimum quantities of gasoline and other automotive products for the service station operation. As both evidence of good faith and as a prepayment on certain obligations that he would shortly incur to Octane, Trevino was required to deposit $20,000 with Octane at the time the lease was signed. Trevino raised the cash for this deposit by liquidating government bonds. Octane used most of this money to defray certain obligations incurred by Trevino to  the oil company prior to the opening of the new station. The deductions from the $20,000 deposits were applied as follow: 1 The lease, which covered a period of one year beginning May 1, was automatically renewable unless notice of cancellation was given by either party at lease 30 days prior to an anniversary date. The regional sales manager of the Octane Oil Company estimated that approximately 150,000 gallons of gasoline would be delivered to Trevino’s Service Station during the first 12 months of operations. Subsequently, Trevino’s records revealed that 27,000 gallons (including the initial inventory) were actually delivered during the first two months of operation. The equipment, including floor and hydraulic jacks, a battery charger, tune-up sets, and oil and grease guns, became Trevino’s property. A representative of the oil company stated that this equipment would last about five years. The unpaid, non-interest bearing balance of $10,300 Trevino owed Octane for equipment was to be paid in five semi-annual installments of $2,060 each. The first such payment was due November 1. The $2,755 remaining from the $20,000 originally deposited with Octane was returned to Trevino on April 30. He deposited this money in a special checking account he had set up for his service station venture. Just before opening for business on May 1, Trevino converted some additional government bonds into $7,000 cash which he also placed in the service station account. Prior to May 1, he wrote the following checks: $1,650 for office furniture that had an expected life of 10 years, and $900 for a fire and casualty insurance policy providing coverage for a one year period beginning May 1. On April 30, Trevino transferred $200 from the service station checking account to the cash drawer at the service station. It was Trevino’s intention to deposit in the bank all but $200 of the cash on hand at the close of each business day. The balance in the service station checking account at the start of business was, therefore, $7,005. In addition, Trevino had $2,700 in a savings account. On May 1, the service station was opened for business. In his effort to build up clientele, Trevino worked approximately 60 hours per week compared with 40 in his previous job. In addition, three other people were employed on either a full or part-time basis. Trevino was reasonably satisfied with the patronage he was able to build up during the first two months the station was open. At the end of June, however, he felt it would be desirable to take a more careful look at how he was making out in his new business venture. Trevino felt that he should record his progress and present position in a form that would be useful not only at the present time but also for comparative purposes in the future, perhaps a six months intervals ending on June 30 and December 31. Trevino maintained a simple record keeping system in which cash receipts and cash payments were itemized daily in a loose-leaf notebook. Separate pages were reserved for specific items in this notebook. During the months of May and June, the following cash receipts and payments had been recorded: The $500 listed in cash receipts as rental from parking area had been receive from an adjacent business establishment that used one portion of the service station site as a parking space for certain of its employees. The rental received covered a period extending from May 15 to July 15. In addition to the record of cash receipts and payments, a detailed listing was kept of the amounts of money that were due from, or owed to, other individuals or companies. An analysis of these records revealed that $143 was due the business for gas, oil, and car servicing from a wealthy  widow friend of the Trevino family who preferred to deal on a credit basis. Also, on the evening of June 30, one of the employees completed waxing a car for a regular customer who was out of town and would be unable to call for his car until July 3. Trevino had quoted a price of $56 for this job. Trevino recalled that when he once worked at an automobile agency, he had heard that setting up a reserve for bad debts equal to two percent of all outstanding accounts was a good idea. Trevino had also jotted down the fact that he and his family had used gas and oil from the service station worth $101 at retail prices, for which no payment had been made. Approximately $79 had been paid to Octane Oil Company for this merchandise. A further summary of his records revealed the following unpaid bills resulting from operations in June: The service station’s employees had last been paid on Saturday, June 28, for services rendered through Saturday evening. Wages earned on June 29 and 30 would amount to $232 in the following Saturday’s payroll. Trevino took a physical inventory on the evening of June 20, and he found gasoline, motor oil, grease, tires, batteries, and accessories on hand that had cost $10,018. While Trevino was figuring his inventory position, he compared his recorded gallonage sales of gasoline on hand at the end of  the period against the volume of gasoline at the beginning inventory plus deliveries. In this manner, Trevino ascertained that shrinkage due to evaporation, temperature changes, waste and other causes amounted to 302 gallons of gasoline that he estimated had cost $360. Late in June, Trevino’s married son realized that he would be unable, because of prolonged illness to make payment of $192 for interest expense and $800 for principal repayment on a $2,400 bank loan. Trevino, who had acted as co-signer on the note, would be obligated to meet this payment on July 1.

Industry Analysis Essay Example

Industry Analysis Essay Example Industry Analysis Essay Industry Analysis Essay Smaller firms are unable to diversify products in this way, as they do not have the required technology or capital to produce a large range. Furthermore, the Big Three also faced a trade-off with regards to which cereals would be allowed the limited shelf-space they were allocated at supermarkets. 2) The Industry significant segment markets are aimed at different types of consumers or those with different lifestyles. For example Kellogg makes Front Loops, which Is aimed at children rather than adults and Special K, aimed at the more health conscious consumers. This s evident in the RET cereal industry; the Big Three had restrained competition among themselves by achieving effective unwritten agreements to limit in-pack premiums (Harvard Business School, 1995. UP). 5) Prior to 1994 the key to success lay in the concentration of the cereal industry and having few challenger firms. The Big Three also invested heavily in advertising; the advertising/sales ratio was 10. 2% by 1993 (Harvard Business School, 1995 . UP). They did not initially need to resort to pricing strategies however, as buyers had low- switching costs, the threat of private labels increased. Private labels had the advantage of consistently lower prices than major incumbent firms. As the RET industry was characterizes by regular rounds of price increases, the major firms resorted to using coupons as a promotions strategy. However, this only swayed the most price-sensitive buyers, proved costly to the issuers and diminished brand loyalty. Private labels managed to benefit from this situation. The high prices and ubiquitous coupons of branded cereals were blamed by many for the market share of private labels. (Harvard Business School, 1995.

Organisation Behaviour Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Organisation Behaviour - Essay Example Teams and groups are significant aspects of organizational life. That is because when employees work as a team or a group, they quickly achieve a firm’s goals. However, it has been recorded that working as a team or a group is a complex task thus there must be a good group dynamic. Group dynamics have been defined by Films for the Humanities & Sciences (2001), as the interactions among the employees or the members of a group. It is, therefore, apparent that a work group of a firm is the most significant foundation for the social identity of the workers. The reason is that the relationship within and outside the organization and the performance of work are significantly affected by the nature of a group and the group’s behaviors.  Teams and groups are significant aspects of organizational life. That is because when employees work as a team or a group, they quickly achieve a firm’s goals. However, it has been recorded that working as a team or a group is a comple x task thus there must be a good group dynamic. Group dynamics have been defined by Films for the Humanities & Sciences (2001), as the interactions among the employees or the members of a group. It is, therefore, apparent that a work group of a firm is the most significant foundation for the social identity of the workers. The reason is that the relationship within and outside the organization and the performance of work are significantly affected by the nature of a group and the group’s behaviors.

The history, current status, and adoption implications of a Financial Coursework

The history, current status, and adoption implications of a Financial Accounting Standards Board ongoing project - Coursework Example Some of the key provisions of the ongoing FASB project include a requirement for entities to prepare their financial statements using liquidation basis of accounting when a liquidation plan has been approved with relevant authorities as well as when a liquidation plan has been imposed by other forces and there is less likelihood that the entity will successfully return from liquidation (North and Wagenen, 2013). On the other hand, the ongoing project seeks to change the financial statement form for entities using the liquidation basis of accounting into a statement of changes in the liquidation net assets. Lastly, the project also require full disclosure of an entity’s liquidation plan, assumptions used in measuring the assets and liabilities, the intended methods, amount of income and costs accrued as well as the expected duration of the liquidation process. This paper describes the FASB’s liquidation basis of accounting project, its history as well as the current stat us of the project. History and background of the Project The history of the current liquidation basis of accounting project began in 1984 when the Financial Accounting Standards Board released Financial Report Survey by AICPA and illustration of Accounting for Enterprises in Unusual Circumstances and Reporting. In fact, this involved a survey conducted on enterprises, which were reorganized or liquidating. The survey focused on offering a brief review of literatures concerning liquidating and reorganized enterprises. Later in 2007, a there was establishment of a project to this agenda by FASB, aimed at dealing with issues regarding liquidation basis of accounting (AIRA, 2012). Additionally, the project was becoming immediate due to the ongoing concern and the effort by FASB to incorporate AICPA’s Codification of Statements on Auditing Standards AU Section 341. In 2008, FASB offers a draft to establish considerations going concern, and later in 2009, adoption of Accounting Sta ndards Codification contributed through authoritative guidance on ways to deal with constitutes liquidation basis accounting (AIRA, 2012). In July 2012, FASB issued a draft of their proposed accounting standards update titled the Liquidation Basis of Accounting to the Accounting Standards Codification (ASC). Prior to the adoption of the project, ASC, the GAAP used to provide very little guidance regarding what is constituting liquidation basis of accounting as well as how the basis of accounting should be applied to any given entity. The added project to FASB agenda was primarily designed to address both the liquidation basis accounting and going concern issues. Current Status Currently, FASB is making preparations in the project to establish ways of communicating effectively to stakeholders on issues regarding standards-setting activities. They are also making necessary project plans by listing the agendas of the project, thereby making estimates of publication dates by the end of 2013 (North and Wagenen, 2013). FASB is making deterring comments to be made of anticipated period of closure in the next four quarters. They are also holding roundtable meeting and making plans to hold other public forums. Moreover, they are setting standards based on establishment of due process on the procedures, which entail extensive consultation. The project plan is focused on facilitating change due to consultation or other reasons.