Delaney Mossbacher Characterization Essay

Delaney Mossbacher resides in the hills of Topanga Canyon, away from the rest of Los Angeles and its ethnic problems; he tells himself it is to feel at peace with nature. He disagrees with the idea of living in the seclusion of the white American neighborhood of Arroyo Blanco to escape ethnic disputes the city holds; he lives in Topanga Canyon to satisfy his environmentalist title. After letting Delaney’s character develop more to give further insight on who Delaney truly is, there is no need to address how one action of his gives him a specific trait. Delaney strongly stands by his liberal views when other characters criticize Mexican immigrants, but when he is faced with a situation possibly involving a Mexican immigrant his liberal views dissipate. Delaney can give off a sense of awkwardness when found in an uncomfortable situation, but he can’t be classified as being completely socially awkward. He does, however, possess an introverted personality. He will not be the type of person to take charge or one to freely initiate a conversation. At this point of his life Delaney is being bombarded with a number of incidents that cause him to formulate a dislike and anger toward Mexican immigrants. Delaney allows what occurs around him to dictate how he reacts to situations. This starts to promote contrast in his liberal views, making him a product of the society and cultural views that surround him. At first attempt to characterize Delaney it took a number of possible traits, and it summed up to: Delaney struggles to be a normal person due to his social awkwardness and lack of common sense, but that was only with part one of The Tortilla Curtain. After seeing further development of Delaney’s character, it is observed he does communicate well with others unless he’s uncomfortable, his marriage is normal and has its rough patches like most other relationships, and that Delaney isn’t completely irrational in the way he reacts in stressful situations. Delaney reacts on impulse and jumps to conclusions like most people do. â€Å"Delaney would be on his own. But Delaney didn’t want to be on his own (225). † In part one, solitude seems to enlighten Delaney, though he clearly states he doesn’t like being alone in part two. Yet he is alone for the majority of each day, Delaney enjoys the company of others and expresses how he eagerly waits for the Kyra to return at the end of each day. So Delaney keeps himself productive and finds things to do while Kyra is at work. So why did Delaney marry Kyra if she is a workaholic? Delaney finds happiness in his life by catering to Kyra, he feels she compliments him by completing everything he isn’t. Delaney is a proud liberal humanist, proud that he stands for the right for anyone to have to the right to pursue the American dream and pursue a better life. He is all for everyone having their rights when it best suits him, but where do these liberal views go when he assumes Mexican immigrants are camping in the canyon leaving their trash in attempt to make it a garbage dump, a little Tijuana (Boyle 11)? When he concludes Mexican immigrants stole his car? When he absolutely knows what Jose Navidad is doing in his neighborhood demanding the Mexican man to explain himself. Ever since he hit Candido, Delaney has sheltered inner conflict within him and doesn’t become apparent to what he is becoming until the incident in his cul de sac, â€Å"so devastated he couldn’t speak, what was happening to him, what was he becoming (229)? † Delaney is back and forth between two different people, he is not a liberal humanist he is a hypocrite. The Delaney that’s shows concern for the immigrants, like after the news that the corner of Shoup and Ventura had been cleaned up along with the labor exchange, his thoughts are, â€Å"Where were these people supposed to go (193)? † The Delaney that still has glimpses of his liberal views is contrast with the new Delaney. The Delaney becoming a product of the society that surrounds him is starting to shape his thoughts, thus the first impulses and conclusions he has are racist. Delaney is from New York. The east coast has a large diversity of ethnic cultures due to the many European immigrants that had immigrated generations before. Delaney’s liberal views could have been shaped by the culture he grew up in because of the large diversity of race after so long. There was not a large amount of racism on the east coast, and or he received the same kind of racial tension for being Irish-American. Now that he resides in California and he is now part of the white superior group, the people around him like to conservatively think they are better than anyone else. Whatever the underlying cause of his sudden change of feelings towards Mexican immigrants, it is do the influences that had started to take affect around him. Delaney channels his anger through his writing; he uses his articles Pilgrim at Topanga Creek to describe the coyote but the coyote is symbolic of much more than itself. It symbolizes the life of the Mexican immigrants. He uses the coyotes as metaphor to stand for Mexican immigrants, because like the coyote, the immigrants also coincide among the white American population, struggling to survive. There is a fence between the coyotes and the Mossbacher’s dogs but the coyotes still breach it. Just like there is a U. S. and Mexican border the Mexican immigrants find their way across in search of better lives. At first reading the second article on the coyotes just seemed as if Delaney was venting his frustration because another coyote had struck again. Then something stood out, â€Å"The coyotes keep coming, breeding up to fill in the gaps, moving in where the living is easy. They are cunning, versatile, hungry and unstoppable (215). † Delaney’s implicit thoughts could very well stand for his true feelings of the Mexican immigrants and all along his liberal views were all talk, never truly made to be put to action. He passes by the perfect opportunity to put his liberal views to action when Todd Sweet asks Delaney to intervene in opposition with the wall (227). So was Delaney Mossbacher ever a true liberal humanist at all? His racism had been dormant and it took the fire of hitting Candido, Jack’s influence, and the incidents that kept including Mexican immigrants, to somehow spark the same racism he could have possibly felt growing up as a child. The wall represents more than what Delaney and the citizens of Arroyo Blanco see it as. More than a distance between humans and nature and more than keeping the unwelcome out. The wall is a symbol of the strong separation between the prospering white Americans and the struggling Mexican immigrants. The Mexican immigrants that are working hard to achieve the American Dream, while the wealthy Americans feed them nonsense but know the immigrants will never amount to anything. Delaney describes the wall as not only â€Å"keeping them out, but look what it keeps in (224). † This refers to the racism Jack’s son displayed, concluding that walling in all the poisonous racism it would affect Jordan, just like it had already affected Delaney living in the seclusion of Arroyo Blanco. Delaney has become a developing product of his racist community and society. He fears the worst for Jordan to grow up around racial tension, but has not yet seen how much it already has affected him. Delaney is gradually losing his liberal views, while also losing control of his temper and his over morale he once held. It is only a matter of time until Delaney himself becomes a â€Å"Jack Jardine†

Religious Backgrounds

My Religious Background I am catholic. I was raised by catholic parents who were raised by catholic parents. Even all of my great grandparents except for one couple were catholic, and beyond that I have no idea. My Grandpa was the only one who was not raised catholic, but converted soon after he married my Grandmother and is buried in a catholic cemetery. I have always agreed with everything that The Catholic Church has taught me, but I feel like that may be because I have never known any other belief.I have been in Catholic school since kindergarten and rarely learned about other religions other than how they differed from my own faith. The only two things I can think of that I may disagree with The Catholic Church on are really more political matters than they are matters of God. For instance, it is taught that a marriage is not complete without the act of sex. For a marriage to be valid under God, the couple must have sex. When I heard this, I immediately thought about men who hav e been paralyzed from the waist down who would not have this opportunity.When I asked my teacher about that situation she said that the marriage was invalid due to the situation, but that there may be drugs out there that could help the situation. That was something I couldn’t believe. It made me feel like we were ousting them from the church because they were paralyzed. It seems to me that these men have been through enough trouble in their lives and shouldn’t need anyone’s permission to marry a woman who they are to fall in love with. The other concept I disagreed with was the idea of same-sex marriage.Maybe it is just that I have issues with marriage in general, but I feel like two people who love each other should be able to marry legally. Now, that being said, I do agree with the church that it is not necessarily what God had in mind, and I do not really feel comfortable saying that I think God is â€Å"in favor† of same-sex marriage, but I would lik e to see the church say that legally same sex couples should be able to marry. I imagine the reason I feel this way could be because my aunt is a homosexual and is legally married to her life-partner and they are very happy.I believe they were married in Illinois, but do not quote me on that. It just bothered me that they had to travel all that way to get legally bonded and it is not even valid in the state they live in. In other words, I agree with the church on the concept that they shouldn’t be married under God, but I see no reason that two people who really do truly love each other cannot be bonded together and share the same benefits that couples of the opposite sex share in marriage.

A Framework Model for an Online Examination Timetable using Constraint Dissertation

A Framework Model for an Online Examination Timetable using Constraint Programming, PHP and MySQL - Dissertation Example The challenge and complexity of the problem lies in the fact that institutions may need to satisfy a set of constraints that might be too diverse or even contradictory. There are a few constraints that cannot be violated at all (hard constraints), few constraints are non universal (soft constraints) and may or may not be followed by an institute and lastly, there may be constraints unique to a specific institute (Burke et al. 1995). Problem Statement Academic institutions all over the world are required to go through the tedious and time consuming task of producing examination timetables periodically. Therefore, a universal solution for the examination timetabling problem would have a substantial impact factor. Owing to the fact that different institutes require a solution satisfying different constraints, the problem of finding a generalized solution that caters all these differences could be rather challenging. Devising a universal model for examination timetable problem would requ ire flexibility in terms of the specified constraints and commercial software cannot provide that. Aims and Objectives The aim of this project would be to suggest a universal framework model for the examination timetabling problem. A solution that ensures provision of flexibility in terms of constraint specifications shall be proposed. ... Literature includes timetabling systems presented by Hansen and Vidal (1995), Colijn and Layfield (1995), Lim et al (2000) and Dimopoulou and Miliotis (2001). Various approaches have been suggested by researchers and universities to solve the examination timetabling problem. Some survey papers have been published over time listing the techniques that have been utilized in addressing the exam timetabling problems. These include the survey by Carter and Laporte (1996), Burke and Petrovic (2002), Schaerf (1999), Petrovic and Burke (2004) and Burke et al. (1997). Amongst the approaches include methods based on evolutionary algorithms (Cote 2005), clustering, graph based sequential methods, case based reasoning (Gaspero & Schaerf 2001), hyper heuristics (Burke et al. 2007), harmony search algorithms (Burke et. al 2004), tabu search (Gendreau & Potvin 2005), particle swarm algorithms (Gaspero & Shuref 2001), and simulated annealing (Chiarandini 2006) have been proposed for the examination timetabling problem. It has been observed that hybrid methods in general give better solutions that pure algorithms. However, efficient integration is required rather than sequentially integrating the different approaches (Que et al. 2006). For building timetabling systems, researchers have used some general constraint programming packages e.g. ECLiPse (Ajili & Wallace 2003). A few efforts have been seen in literature for standardizing the modelling language and data format (Kingston 2001; Ozcan 2003; Reis & Oliveira 2001) once the need for it was recognized (Burke et al. 1998). Methodology The project has both research and development phases, so time shall be divided accordingly. The framework model would have the server-client architecture and would comprise of

Siemens Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5500 words

Siemens - Research Paper Example country specific trends industry trends Social cultural change expectations demographics family change Technological latest technological trends and advancements technology incentives automation Environmental cost implications public opinion sites and locations Legislative European legislation Special government directives Similar to PESTEL's internal external factors SWOT analysis also covers both these aspects classifying them as opportunitites and threats. SWOT SWOT Analysis, is one of the most commonly used strategic tools in business analysis. It evaluates the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of an organization. Strengths - attributes of the organization that are helpful to its objective. Major plus points. Weaknesses - attributes of the organization that are harmful to its objective. Major negatives. Opportunities - Possible conditions that can help/profit the organization. Threats - Possible conditions that can be harmful for the organization. SWOT analysis identifies both internal and external factors affecting an organization, so the four major categories can be further grouped into two major ones: Internal factors - Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors (depending on their impact on the organization's objectives) External factors - Opportunities and threats are posed by external environment (these factors are more closely related with PESTEL analysis) Porters Five Forces Model The five forces model presented by Michael Porter is one of the most widely used models for understanding the nature of competition in any industry. The five forces according to Porter are: The threat of entry of new competitors (new entrants) The threat of substitutes The bargaining power of buyers The bargaining power of...The first part will give a description of and analyze the primary internal and external influences which affect the organization (Siemens). The second part has to do with current changing competitive environment which the organization has to face. Since organizations do not operate in vacuum and the productivity of an organization is always linked to certain factors which in this case are called influences, it is important for an organization to know what those influences are. Influences can be both internal and external and this report will try to analyze both types since both are equally important. Apart from an analysis of the primary influences on an organization we will also analyze the effect these influences have on Siemens. This technique is an updated form of PEST analysis it stands for Political, Economic, Social, Technical, Environment and Legislative. It analyses the external influences on a business. PESTEL can help understand market growth or decline, business position, and future potential and direction for operations. (Barkema and Vermeulen, 2005) One of the major costs of doing a business is of obtaining raw materials. Suppliers are those entities that supply an organization with that vital component.

Censorship of Books in the United States and Susan Glaspells Trifles Essay

Censorship of Books in the United States and Susan Glaspells Trifles Overview of the History of Censorship in the United States - Essay Example The banning of the books in the United States of America unofficially began in 1749 with John Cleland’s Fanny Hill was condemned for its â€Å"frank sexual descriptions† (â€Å"The Online Books Page†). At that time, there was no clear law yet that banned books and other forms of written materials. However, in 1873, the 1873 Comstock Act was made into law by the federal and state governments. It called for the banning of all literature considered â€Å"sexually arousing† as well as those about contraception (â€Å"Book Censorship†). The author of the act, Anthony Comstock, was appointed leader of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice and helped in the banning of foreign literature during his time, such as Chaucher’s The Canterbury Tales, Defoe’s Moll Flanders, Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, several editions of The Arabian Nights, and Boccaccio’s Decameron (â€Å"The Online Books Page†). After the 1873 Comstock Act, the law was modified into many other various laws that banned literature. This led to the banning of Margaret Sanger’s Family Limitation in 1915, James Joyce’s Ulysses in 1918, anti-war pamphlets in 1919, Rousseau’s Confessions in 1929, Voltaire’s Candide in 1930, Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience in 1950, John T. Scopes’ Civic Biology, Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind in 1978, the Grimm’s Fairy Tales in 1989, and even the Christian Bible in 1996 (â€Å"The Online Books Page†). Books were banned in schools and the banning was supported by teachers, parents, churches and even civic groups, all with various agenda. Among the works banned in America during the early 20th century were those of Susan Glaspell. Biography of Susan Glaspell Susan Glaspell is considered as â€Å"the mother of modern American drama† (Real i). Moreover, according to Rohe, Glaspell is known as â€Å"the spirit and he mind and the soul of the r eal America of to-day, expressed in literature† (qtd. in Real i). Glaspell was born in Davenport, Iowa in 1876 and grew up there until she graduated from college in Des Moines and eventually landed a job in the Des Moines paper, where she was assigned the task of writing about the murder trial of a certain John Hossack in 1900. This murder trial became the basis of her 1916 one-act play Trifles. Overall, Glaspell authored 14 plays, 9 novels and 3 short story collections (Gainor & Dickey 35). Susan Glaspell was born and became a playwright, journalist, poet and novelist during the era of literature known as modernism, a movement where irony and satire were used to express governmental or social criticism. Glaspell’s hometown, Davenport, was extremely instrumental in making her one of the most controversial and critical writers of her time. In fact, Davenport is described as â€Å"a community more conducive than many other Midwestern locales to fostering creativity and p rogressive thought† (35). This is something which is characteristic of modernism. A huge part of modernism was the vindication of women’s rights, which was still an issue during Glaspell’s time. In fact, her first profession was journalism as it was, according to Glaspell herself, â€Å"comparatively receptive to women† (35). By 1915, Glaspell and her husband George Cram Cook – a classics professor, itinerant farmer and poet/novelist – left Davenport because of its increasing conservativeness and conventionality, and headed for the more radical environs of Greenwich Village. This occurred at exactly the same time that artists, intellectuals, bohemians and political activists also began seeking their own place as they all began embracing modernism (35-36). Glaspell and her

Ohio Sentate Bill Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Ohio Sentate Bill - Essay Example Having said this, it is not as though the nation has no responsibilities to play in ensuring that the citizen is well protected and provided for to give back to the nation. It is for this reason that bills and laws that are made in the nation must take a human face and consider the welfare of the citizen as the most important conditions. To this effect, it is absolutely necessary, right and appropriate that citizens are airing their views on the Senate Bill 5 and how it might affect them. The debates and discussion are therefore highly encouraged and no side of the argument can immediately be judged as invalid, out of place or unnecessary. Especially as voting is yet to be done, it is important that debates continue to clarify issues so that the voting public would have better reasons why they should make a particular choice on the day of voting. The Issues No body can deny the fact that the mere mention or thought of the fact that a person’s earning would be reduced directly or indirectly is unpleasant news to hear. In fact, monies are earned through labor and labor is a difficult phenomenon. It is for this reason that everyone would want his or her earning secured. But what about cases where the deductions would bring about an eventual and long term benefit. Like in the payment of life insurances and fixed deposits, so would the long term benefit of the Senate Bill 5 be. Vardon and Siegel (2011) note that â€Å"Senate Bill 5 also would save $191 million at the state level by eliminating employee longevity and step pay increases.† In the wake of times when America is trumpeting for rapid economic take after the recession, such an amount pumped into the economy would in no small way raise the economic fortunes of the nation. Having made this point, it is important to reiterate the need to ensure accountability at the hands of higher governmental officials so that the professed economic benefits would be achieved. There is also an urgent need for c ritics’ cry on the implementation process to be considered. This is because there seem to be a kind of disparity that creates the impression that someone is robbing Peter to pay Paul. This point is strongly supported by Kasich who decries how there exists â€Å"imbalance between the costs of health insurance for the private and public sectors† such that one group wound eventually be making losses for another person’s gains. There is the much talked deprivation of employees to air their views and bargain on their entitlements. Some say that the Senate Bill 5 will be â€Å"taking away the power to negotiate deductibles and co-pays that contribute to the overall cost of health insurance† (Vardon and Siegel, 2011). However, that is not all what the Senate Bill 5 presents as far as employee bargaining power is concerned. As a matter of fact, public service workers such as teachers, firefighters and law enforcers â€Å"will be able to negotiate with local and state officials for important contract provisions including wages and some working conditions, including those related to safety† (The Intelligencer, 2011). The fears continue to rage on but citizens are encouraged to consider the full impulse of the bill deeply. If for nothing at all, it is known that the little restrictions on bargaining power would go a long way to restrict excessive spending to help Ohio maintain a balanced budget. It should however be noted with caution that this does not become an avenue for killing the

Paternal Influences on Ethical Decision Making of Senior Leaders in Assignment

Paternal Influences on Ethical Decision Making of Senior Leaders in the Health Care Industry - Assignment Example m, International Olympic Committee, Enron, Tyco, Qwest Communications International, Duke Energy, Bristol-Myers Squibb, etc, as well as the sex scandal in the Catholic church, have resulted in a loss of confidence in the management and leadership of these large corporations and institutions. As a consequence, investors have become unnerved and the jolts have shaken international markets. No wonder that a CBS poll taken in the fall of 2002 finds that 79% of respondents believe questionable business practices are widespread and only fewer than one third thinks that CEOs are honest (Wallington, 2003). These companies have all come to the time light for the wrong reasons. As a result, the role of the CEO in ethical dilemmas has come under increased scrutiny. While ethical lapses occur at all the levels of organizations, senior executives who fail to set high ethical standards and live by them are senior leaders in organizations assume the responsibility to display high ethical and moral values in their conduct both within the organization and outside. However, many instances have come to where they discard this significant aspect subjected to scrutiny and held accountable for the consequences of unethical practices, damaging the interests of employees, shareholders and the society at large. CEOs and other senior leaders such as members of Boards of Directors are expected to provide role models and help develop and entrench the ethical belief system for all members of the organization. However, when these leaders fail in their commitment to stand up to the ethical responsibilities, the negative impact of their ethical transgressions will remain long after the leader has been punished. Instances of unethical conduct by senior leaders, which entail serious repercussions, have prompted the need to identify background factors, socialization practices, or early childhood experiences that may account for such behavior in adulthood. Thus, an interest has developed in