The Middle Passage: Hell on Earth

The Middle Passage: Hell on earth Olaudah Equiano’s The Middle Passage is a chilling look into the infamous Middle Passage, a harrowing journey across the Atlantic made by captured African slaves. The Middle Passage is told from Equiano’s own perspective of being captured, allowing the reader to more fully grasp the torturous emotions and tribulations involved in being ripped from your home and shipped a world away.Through the Middle Passage, historians are able to view one of the most gruesome aspects of the journey to slavery from a first person perspective, examining the interactions between many cultures and the impressions each had of one another. The Middle Passage begins with Equiano’s sight and subsequent boarding of the ship that will take him across the Atlantic. It is obvious from the very beginning of his description that this is either his first or one of his first experiences with white people, describing them as â€Å"bad spirits† and believ ing â€Å"they were going to kill me. Fear is the first emotion Olaudah feels, and rightly so: The journey of 1-6 months had a 15% mortality rate, higher for africans during the process of capture and containment. (Wiki) In the subsequent paragraphs, fear turns into hopelessness, as Equiano begins to assess his situation and realizing he was â€Å"deprived of all chance of returning to my native country† As his journey progresses, the true horrors of the trip unfold.The disease and stench of the proximity with which the slaves are held make up arguably the worst of the trauma; many throw up, no doubt adding to the disgust. Historians here get interesting insight into the psyche of the crew: instead of leaving the slaves to die down below, they show vested interest in their cargo, allowing the sickest or most at danger of dying to be brought to the deck of the ship in order to survive. No doubt this seeming empathy was targeted at ensuring survival and thus profit margin rath er than compassion.Multiple captured slaves commit suicide, preferring death over their grotesque conditions, a sickening allusion to how terrible the ship must have been. Upon reaching land the slaves are rounded up and finally given an explanation by other slaves that they will not be eaten, a fear that evidently persisted throughout the journey. They are then rounded up as cattle to be bought by land owners and merchants, a process similar to the reports of slave selling in 19th century America.Equiano’s journey finally over, he remarks on the fact he will most likely never see anyone from that journey again, as he is now alone in a foreign world where he neither speaks the language nor has knowledge of any culture of customs. The Middle Passage tells a tale of suffering, calamity and filth. The insight historians glean from the tale no doubt confirms what is already known of the slave trade: that it is a torturous, inhumane institution who’s end could not have came soon enough.

Familiar Writing Style

Speech without circumlocution sometimes can hurt others' heart. – tact: n. The ability to do or say things without offending or upsetting other people Ex) SAT evaluates students' tact to understand a college level education. 6. Appeal to authority: citation of information from people recognized for their special knowledge of a subject for the purpose of strengthening a speaker or writers arguments.Causal relationship: of, involving, or constituting a cause in a relationship; cause and effect relationships Declamation: a rhetorical exercise or set speech. Capricious: given to sudden and unaccountable changes of mood or behavior. Conciliatory: intended or likely to placate or pacify. Contemplative: expressing or involving prolonged thought. Glib: (of words or the person speaking them) fluent and voluble but insincere and shallow. Linguistic: the scientific study of language and its structure, including the duty of morphology, syntax, phonetics, and semantics.Pretentious: attempt ing to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc. , than is actually possessed. Strident: loud and harsh; grating. 7. L. The author put an anecdote about general misconceptions of familiar writing style on line 1-3. By criticizing the ideas which are opposite to his statement, his thesis can gain more power. This skill is the reduction to absurdity. II. The author used an antithesis on line 7-10. The author emphasized his idea through contrasting his idea with wrong conception.

Retronics Case Study

Case Study: Human Performance: Retronics Alderfer. C. P. 1969, An empirical test of a new theory of human needs, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 4, 142-175. Amason, A. C, Hochwater, W. A. , Thompson, K. R & Harrison, A. W. 1995, ‘Conflict: an important dimension in successful management teams’, Organisational Dynamics, vol. 24, no 2, pp. 20 – 35. Bandura A. 1997, Self-efficacy: the exercise of control, Freeman, New York. Bandura, A. 1977, ‘Self-efficacy: towards a unifying theory of behavioural change', Psychological Review, no. 84, pp. 191 – 215. Bandura, A. 986, ‘Social foundations of thought and action', Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Beyer, J. M. , Chattopadhyay, P. , George, E. , Glick, W. H. & Pugliese, D. 1997, The selective perception of managers revisited, Academy of Management Journal, vol. 40, no. 3, pp. 716-37. Bowen, D. E & Lawler, Edward E. III. 1992, ‘The Empowerment of Service Workers: What, Why, How, a nd When. ‘ Sloan Management Review, 33 Spring: 31- 39. Cattell, R. B. 1963, ‘Theory of fluid and crystallised intelligence: a critical experiment', Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. 54, pp. 1-22. Deci, E. L. 996, Why we do what we do, Penguin, New York. Dunphy, D. 1996, Organizational change by choice, McGraw-Hill, Sydney. French, J & Raven, B. H. 1959, ‘The bases of social power', Studies of social power, ed. D. Cartwright, Institute for Social Research, Ann Arbor, M1, pp. 150-67. Fryer, B. 2004, ‘The Micromanager’, Harvard Business Review, pp. 31-40. Goleman, D. 1998, ‘What makes a Leader? ‘, Harvard Business Review, vol. 76, no. 6, pp. 92-102. Goleman, D. , Boyatzis, R. & McKee, A. 2001, ‘Primal Leadership: the hidden driver of great performance', Harvard Business Review, vol. 79, no. 11, p. 42. Golsing, J. Mintzberg, H. 2003, ‘The five minds of a manager', Harvard Business Review, vol. 81, no. 11, pp. 54-63. Hackman, J . R. 1987, ‘The design of work teams', Handbook of organizational behaviour', in J. W. Lorsch, (ed. ), Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, pp. 315-42. Hambrick, D. C. 1994, ‘Top management groups: a conceptual integration and reconsideration of the team label', Research in Organizational Behaviour, vol. 16, pp. 171-213. Hamel, G, The why, what, and how of management innovation. Harvard Business Review, Vol. 84, No. 2, 2006, pp. 72-84, 163. Hamm, J â€Å"The Five Messages Leaders must manage† – Havard Business Review online May 2006 (Accessed 17 April 2009) Heilman, M. E. , Rivero, J. C. , & Brett, J. F. 1991. ‘Skirting the competence issue: Effects of sex-based preferential selection on task choices of women and men’. Journal of Applied Psychology, 76, pp 99-105. Hesketh, B. 1997, ‘Dilemmas in training for transfer and retention’, Applied Psychology: An International Review, vol. 46, pp. 317- 39. Hitt, M. A. & Ireland, R. D. 2002, ‘The essence of strategic leadership: managing human and social capital', Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, vol. 9, no. , pp. 3-14. Hofstede, G. 1980, Culture's consequence Sage Publications, Newbury Park, CA. Hofstede, G. 1993, Culture and organizations: software of the mind, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York. Katzenbach, J. R. & Smith, D. K. 1993, The wisdom of teams:creating the high-performance organization, McGraw-Hill, London. Kotter, J. P. & Heskett, J. L. 1992, Corporate Culture and Perform ance. New York: The Free Press. Legnick-Hall, M. L & Legnick-Hall, C. A. 2003, ‘HR's role in building relationship networks', Academy of Management Review, vol 17, no. 4, pp. 53-63. Locke, E. A. 996, ‘The contradiction of epiphenomenalism', British Journal of Psychology, vol. 57, pp. 203-4. Makins, M. C. 2004, ‘Stop Wasting Valuable Time’, Harvard Business Review, pp. 58-68. Managing People & Organisation (MPO), 2009, Unit 1 – 9, AGSM MBA (Executive) Program. Moorhead G & Griffin, R. W. 1998, Organizational behaviour: managing people and organizations, Houghton Mifflin, Boston. Moorhead, G. , Ference, R. & Neck, C. P. 1991, ‘Group decision fiascoes continue: space shuttle Challenger and a revised groupthink framework', Human Relations, vol. 44, pp. 539-50. Newman, Kara IPO Best Practices http://www. homsonfinancial. com/docs/IPObestpractices. pdf Thompson Financial September 2006 (Accessed 17 April 2009). Pfeffer, J 1998 â€Å"Seven practices o f successful organisations’, California Management Review, Winter, vol 40, no. 2, pp. 96 – 124. Rowe, W. G. 2001, ‘Creating wealth in organizations: The role of strategic leadership’, The Academy of Management Executive, vol. 15, no. 1, February, pp. 81 -94. Russo, J. E. & Schoemaker, P. J. H. 1990, Decision traps: ten barriers to brilliant decision-making and how to avoid them, Simon & Schuster, New York. Sarros, J. C & Butchatsky, O. 996, Leadership, Harper Business, Sydney. Schein, V. E. 1985, ‘Organizational realities: the politics of change', Training and Development Journal, February, pp. 37-41. Thompson, J. D. 1967, Organizations in action, McGraw-Hill, New York. Welch, J and Byrne, J. A 2001, Jack: What I've learned leading a great company and great people, Headline. Tushman, M. L & Romanelli, E. 1985, ‘Organizational evolution: a metamorphosis model of convergence and reorientation’, Research in Organizational Behaviour, vol. 7, pp. 171-222. Yukl, G. A. 1998, Leadership in organiztions, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

Hip Hop Event Review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Hip Hop Event Review - Essay Example This is the house where he launched his first album in 1963. In this program, Otis Sallid’s direction basically allows the different choreographers use their innovation and do their job. They might end up producing something extraordinary using effectively the remarkably multitalented dancers of Philadanco. The choreography of Mr. Sallid is like a â€Å"harmless fun†(Seibert, 2010). Amid those a couple of Soul Train Dance parties linking the vernacular steps which was invented as well as mixed and matched by Brown. According to the review of Seibert (2013), in this performance Sallid’s performance was straight-up simulation, where as Derick K. Grant does an inspiring replication of the departed celebrity of the show. Mr. Grant’s performance mainly his footwork reveals a source of Brown’s swiveling style. Another interesting part associated with this program is the solo of Akash Odedra. His program was more of a whirling blend of Kathak and contempor ary. Thang Dao’s part is a â€Å"tone-deaf display of balletic technique, clunky with references to Brown’s domestic abuse† (Seibert, 2013) Here Abdel Salaam’s role is more natural, and it expressed Brown’s racial political undertones quite bluntly yet incoherently. Review of Funk Box: The Funk Box drum machine is a new age fantastically developed a retro style drum machine which is loaded with most well known drum machine sounds from 70’s and 80s. ... FunkBox faithfully replicates a number of classic drum machine sounds, and can send the audience on a journey of past eras. Working with all these sounds not only brings back the old day’s memories but also help us to apply these old sounds in the modern age of digitization. Funk box helped to mix and merge the sounds of different instruments, and form new variation of classical sounds. It’s a darn good drum machine that allows us to make great drum loops with fantastic samples and make the modern times songs more eventful and enjoyable. Review of Toca Tuesdays: Among the new age hip hop music and dance Toca Tuesday is one of the most famous and much shouted for event. With the rocking background scores and use of high end music this is nothing but involving people for full enjoyment after long hard week of work. At the event there were spinning hip-hop, funk, reggae, house and many more to make it an eventful occasion. The synchronization among the participants is bein g excellent. The rhythm, the beats, sounds, environment all were simply co related to one another. After the origin of the hip hop culture in the late 70s, the music has gone through a number of changes as well as evolution. Toca Tuesday can be considered as one of the most latest of them all, which represent the culture and essence of hip hop music in collaboration of musical advancement with the presence of several different kinds of instruments as well as technology. But, despite all the development in the technology it is very clear that the hip hop culture is still remaining in the root where the essence is intact like the initial days. Experience of Hip Hop

Business Computing Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Business Computing - Term Paper Example In addition to this other concerned areas related to profitability like the capacity utilisation of the apartments and the marketing efforts to increase the demand of the services offered through the renting of the apartments would also be analysed in this report. This analysis along with other related secondary research would be used to help Shana in suggesting ways through which she can run the business in a more effective way and add to the profits of the business concern. Findings and Analysis â€Å"Seaview Apartments† is located at the peninsular region of Mornington, Australia and is at a walking distance from the nearby beach present there. Local tourists which include the residents of Melbourne are mainly found to visit the Mornington Peninsula. Various types of beaches and other different types of natural attractions are present in the area. Thus people visiting the place have a nice time visiting all the tourist places present there (Visitmorningtonpeninsula, 2012a). Hence â€Å"Seaview Apartments† is present in an advantageous location for the tourists visiting the area. Four types of apartments are offered on rent by â€Å"Seaview Apartments†, namely one bed room apartment, one bedroom deluxe apartment, two bed room apartment and the deluxe studio apartment. Thus it can accommodate customers of different types according to their varied requirements and preferences. Each of the apartment types is fully self-contained and hence all necessary facilities are available for the customers required to stay and spend their time at any of these apartment types. All these factors suggests that â€Å"Seaview Apartments† is well equipped with... Business Computing Term Paper All these apartments are self-contained with all the necessary accommodation features required to stay there are available for the tourists. Discounts are also available for the customers who rents for seven or more days in any of the apartments mentioned above. The business is being successfully run by Shana but she is sceptical about the level of profits being earned from the business. She has raised concerns regarding the capacity utilisation of the apartments and the profitability associated with the business. The main purpose of this report is to analyse all the relevant facts related to the profitability and capacity utilisation of â€Å"Seaview Apartments†. Based on the findings and analysis of the information available regarding the apartments, some recommendations have also been suggested in this report which would help Shana to make effective utilization of the available capacity in her apartments and increase the profitability of the business. Previously all the inf ormation related to bookings of the apartments was recorded by Shana manually in the order they were received. The processing of data and analysis of the information contained in those manual records posed difficulty for Shana to take any kind of decisions to facilitate effective running of the business. The analysis of the findings from the information presents in the spreadsheet model developed by Shana and different other sources suggest that â€Å"Seaview Apartments† have ample opportunities to increase its popularity and enhance its profitability by a significant amount.

The Purpose of Dantes Inferno Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Purpose of Dantes Inferno - Essay Example For instance, Dante tried to describe for the reader the overview and the fantastic terrors of hell and with it, he was outlining seven sins wherein: the first circle was limbo); second circle was lust, third circle was gluttony; fourth circle was avarice and prodigality; fifth circle was wrath and sullenness; sixth circle was heresy; seventh circle was violence; eight circle was fraud; and, the ninth circle, treachery). Each description of the circles of hell represented how a specific sin consumes man. The case of the second circle (lust) is a case in point. Those souls being punished in this area were being blown about by the ferocious winds – back and forth, symbolizing the overpowering influence of lust in men who, like the wind are blown aimlessly and needlessly. The only person allowed to speak here was Francesca (an allegory for Eve), who first testified the sheer pain of the punishment when she said: â€Å"There is no greater woe than to remember days of happiness amid affliction† (48). Then, there was Dante himself who represented man as he was being presented with choices – either to sin or to reject it. He was first seen in Canto I lost in the woods and unable to find the right way (diritta via). He had a realization of his predicament and accepted the help of a guide, the poet Virgil even when it meant going another way, leaving a wasteful life behind, and passing through an eternal place with fantastic peril. Here Dante was like all men who must choose his way to salvation or damnation. In this area, another symbolism emerged to depict man’s faculty in his journey through sin, the poet Virgil. Virgil led Dante on a tour through Hell and this represented not just what the character immediately represented as poet, but as a guide, which immediately brings the reader to the element of the human reason. Dante,

Truth in painting - The kinds of meaning Assignment

Truth in painting - The kinds of meaning - Assignment Example The purpose of the paper "Truth in painting - The kinds of meaning" is to determine the kinds of meaning made possible by perspective in paintings. The perspectival systems which developed during the following period of Renaissance brought about a contrasting portrayal of space along with the â€Å"illusionistic presentation of objects†. The modern concept of perspective is considered to be a formal and defined branch of mathematics, emerging from Cartesian and Euclidean geometry. It is stated to be â€Å"meaningless† since this perspective refers to equations, and geometric functions such as lines, angles and points. The second perspective has great meaning, encompassing subjectivity, eternity and other concepts, as evidenced in various academic domains. This perspective which Elkins terms as â€Å"metaphorical perspective† is not in a complicated graphic or related to equations. It is the common type of perspective with which people view the world, and understa nd themselves as viewing subjects. The most common manifestation is the linear perspective. In this type, â€Å"all parallel lines or surface edges converge on one, two or three vanishing points located with reference to the eye-level of the viewer†. Linear perspective clearly defines a physical point of view, showing the â€Å"location, vantage and orientation of the viewer†. Linear perspective is one of the significant innovations of European art, with a great impact on the visual arts in the west from the 15th to the 19th centuries. Perspective provides perception.

England's Seven Years War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

England's Seven Years War - Essay Example For some historians, the Seven Years’ War is seen as an extension of the War of Austrian Succession. Frederick II of Prussia had forced Austria into the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa signed only to buy time to rebuild Austria’s military and extend its alliances. Austria successfully created bonds with France and Russia, while Prussia’s sole but powerful ally was England. England and Prussia formed a strong alliance, due to the military dominance of the former on the sea and the latter on land.2 According Schultz, while the causes of the Seven Years’ War were European in nature3, across the globe, France and England competed for commercial and colonial supremacy. In America especially, the attempts of the British colonies to expand westward were thwarted by French presence in the Mississippi Valley. The French built a series of forts there to stop British movement, which became a focal point for armed conflict.4 In Europe, bolstered by the support of England, Frederick II attacked Saxony and Prague. The Russians attacked and bested a force in East Prussia at the Battle of Gross-Jagersdorf. Austria and France worked to crush the Prussian army in 1757, but Frederick II was able to victor at the Battles of Rossbach and Leuthen, restoring the Prussian advantage.5 The French enjoyed early successes in the war. Sloan notes that French troops were vigorous in asserting their presence in New York, while the English did very little.6 The French general Montcalm easily took Fort Oswego there and began to assert a real and threatening presence in North America.7 The French also had victory at Fort William Henry, which they surrounded and attacked for five days, killing 300 British who were also suffering from a small pox epidemic. Although Montcalm had promised the British they could

Perception of quality of care Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Perception of quality of care - Research Paper Example Therefore, incentive payments or penalties to inpatient hospital care will be based partly on these results of these satisfaction surveys. The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) is a national survey that is standardized and publicly reported on patient’s perception of hospital care. HCAHPS is used as an instrument to collect data in an organized manner (HCAHPS, 2012). The HCAHPS survey is administered to a random sample of hospitalized patients between 2 days and 1 Â ½ months after discharge. The purpose of this study is to evaluate if nurses perceive the HCAHPS scores to be an accurate instrument in capturing the quality of patient care. Also, the researcher will review what variables affect patient satisfaction in the hospital setting as well as look at the nurse’s point of view on quality of care. The participants in the proposed study will include nurses that work on the telemetry, medical surgical, progressive cardiac unit, clinical transition unit, PACU and surgical recovery unit. Years of experience will range from novice to expert nurse, which includes one month to 25 or more years of nursing experience. Male and female nurse will both be given opportunity to complete the survey. A diversity of nurses work for the current hospital and so the demographic details will be obtained during the survey. Clinical Nurses at this facility education level range from diploma to MSN prepared nurses. Many of the associated prepared nurses are currently in school studying for their BSN. The research anticipates at least 50 nurses to participate in the study with 30 participants being randomly picked. Inclusion criteria will be any nurse with a least one month of experience that has discharged a patient to home. Exclusion will be nurse that don’t work in a clinical setting, have less than one month of experience or have never discharged a patient to home. The researcher has an eight year work

Factors Effecting Students Selecting Private Colleges In Saudi Arabia Essay

Factors Effecting Students Selecting Private Colleges In Saudi Arabia - Essay Example The research strategy proposed to be used in this study is survey questionnaires. There may be some problems associated with the qualitative interview method, involving a detailed structured or semi structured interview in the case of this particular study. For example, this method is likely to be time consuming when considered against the results sought to be achieved. The thrust of this study is to discover overall patterns within a large group of students/faculty within a limited time frame. A comprehensive literature review is to be taken up to provide the background material and the secondary data for this study. The primary data is collected from the questionnaire/survey, which is a favoured tool used in research because it can provide a cheap and effective method of collecting data in a structured and manageable way. The participants in this study would be about 250 students as well as faculty members, both from private as well as public colleges. This report makes a conclusion that the economies of the Middle East play a very important role in the world economy because they are large scale producers of oil and this is especially true in the case of Saudi Arabia. In view of the initiatives that have been actively implemented by the Government to promote education in the nation, the problem of why students are opting for private colleges becomes important. This study may help to shed a considerable amount of light on why students are making such choices and pave the way for future research into this issue.

Saving Private Ryan Film Essay Example for Free

Saving Private Ryan Film Essay War movies often rely on the visual to communicate the events and emotion of each scene. This works up to a point, but viewers cannot fully relive battle in this way. Background music and limited sound effects make war movies generic, predictable, and sometimes historically inaccurate. In contrast, Gary Rydstrom uses sound to communicate emotion and portray realistic battle scenes in a way that makes the viewers feel as though they are actually part of Saving Private Ryan. One unique aspect of this movie, as opposed to other war movies, is that there is no background music in the battle scenes. Music in movies tends to make viewers realize they are watching the movie, but without it, the experience is so much more authentic. The battle scenes are shot with a handheld camera, giving them a shaky and chaotic feel. Because of this, the viewer does not really get the chance to experience the full breadth of the battle through the shot. Humans experience sound at all angles, as opposed to the one angle at which we experience sight. The dynamic sound effects of the battle scenes can completely engulf the viewer, helping them to have the full experience of trauma. Rydstrom paid particularly close attention to certain sound effects in these battle scenes to help them be as historically correct as possible. A variety of gunshot noises appear in each battle scene, each one corresponding to a different weapon. Also, a variety of distinct shot- impact noises illustrate the scene. The sound of the bullet hitting the soldier’s helmet in the beginning of the first battle scene is the beginning of many more shot-impact sounds to come, each representing a probably fatal wound. These shot- impact sounds enhance the viewer’s emotional response to a scene. They are so crisp that every time someone is shot, the viewer cringes and feels overwhelmed just like the characters onscreen. The shellshock noise that Tom Hanks’ character experiences happens once in the first battle scene on the beach and once in the final battle scene at the bridge right before he dies. This internal sound allows the audience to experience the battles through the eyes of Captain Miler (Hanks) and shows that his character struggles emotionally and physically in handling the situation, a side of himself that he tries to hide from the soldiers under his command. This allows the viewer to sympathize with Miller and creates a more emotional atmosphere. When the Americans learn that the Germans outnumber them and have multiple tanks in the last battle scene, this feeling of suspense becomes heightened. What really makes this feeling so ominous is the sound of the tanks approaching and how they echo off of the buildings in the quiet final seconds before the fighting begins. This external sound against the lack of much ambient sound causes the audience to experience the same anticipation as the characters onscreen because neither knows when the fighting will ensue. Ambient noise plays a large role in the realness of Saving Private Ryan. In the scene where the rescue team is resting for the night, the audience hears thunder-like explosion noises behind the conversation, which represent the continuity of the war. In addition to all of this, Rydstrom uses sound to creatively transition from one scene to the next. In one scene where the group is walking, it starts to rain. The camera pans in on the raindrops falling, and gradually, the sound of a raindrop hitting a leaf transitions into the sound of firing guns, which catches the viewer off-guard.

Child Development Council Inc. Essay Example for Free

Child Development Council Inc. Essay Work ethics, professionalism, and teamwork, I believe, are among the essential factors that contribute to the success and productivity of an organization. It is important that all three are present within the members of a group, because one without the others may not be sufficient in the fulfillment of the organization’s desired goal. In the following parts of this essay, you will know how three known companies in the country practice the above-mentioned organizational cultures. IDM Equipment Co. Striving to maintain a high-quality performance for its clients and customers, IDM Equipment Co. offers a warm and friendly environment for its employees. Although most of its employees are expected to provide physical work, they never forget professionalism and respect. Once clients called up for an inquiry or a service, they would immediately answer to their query. For comfort and ease, employees are allowed to come to work in smart casual or semi-formal attire. Using the English language, they often talk to one another in industrial and other technical terms. MCI Telecommunications Joining forces with Verizon, MCI Telecommunications is committed to high ethical standards. Its employees work under a Code of Conduct that promotes integrity and respect to their customers and business partners. Living by the rule that customers are always right, MCI employees respect not only their customers and clients, but their co-workers, as well. At MCI, employees are required to dress up in office attire and are expected to use conversational English, especially when speaking with customers. William Smith Sr. (WSS) Tri-County Child Development Council Inc. Known to provide high-quality child education and development program, WSS Tri-County Headstart is composed of competent, efficient, and professional teaching staff that offers warm, friendly, lively, and fun environment for the children. Employees at WSS are never late for work, never impatient with the children and the parents, and never to be found frowning! To teach children proper hygiene and great appearance early on, employees are required to dress up in semi-formal attire. Language used at the institution, on the other hand, is conversational English for children. SOURCES: http://www.mci.com/mcihome.jsp

Issues in Angioplasty and Bypass Surgery

Issues in Angioplasty and Bypass Surgery Bypassing Angioplasty When it comes to heart disease, surgical intervention is expensive, invasive, and largely ineffective. Studies show that traditional surgical interventions, such as angioplasty with stent placement and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) do not benefit stable patients. These treatments target stable plaques that is not in danger of rupturing to form a clot and ignore the dangerous, unstable plaque that doesnt show up in tests. For years, doctors thought that the main cause of heart attacks was the buildup of fatty plaque. They believe that over time the vessel would become so narrow that flow would be compromised, and eventually the vessels would close up or be clogged. Now we know that the facts are much different. Most of the large clots that create heart attacks occur in parts of the heart where the arteries are not severely narrowed. Instead, they occur in areas where the plaque is soft and has a thinner cap, sitting on an unstable, cholesterol-laden base. The propensity of plaque to rupture and create a complication or infarct depends on two other important criteria: the tensile stress (destabilizing pressure) on the fibrous cap, and the amount of inflammatory white blood cells that have infiltrated the lipid segment. The older, more stable plaques are larger and more likely to obstruct blood flow, leading to angina. Those are the plaques typically treated with angioplasty and stenting, yet they are not vulnerable plaques and not likely to initiate a clot that can cause an infarction. Now we know that a certain type of plaque and a certain type of biochemical event most often trigger a heart attack. These plaques are often not visible to conventional cardiac testing, such as stress tests and angiograms, because they do not obstruct blood flow, or impinge on the vessel lumen sufficiently to be visualized by such tests. Plaque can become stable with dietary excellence, and it can become unstable relatively quickly with dangerous eating. It is the more recently deposited, and more recently modified, plaque, resulting from eating dangerously, that can create vulnerable plaque and make semi-vulnerable plaque more vulnerable, precipitating a cardiac event. Angioplasty and bypass surgery do not address or fix the vulnerable plaque in a persons coronary circulation. These procedures address the least dangerous (old) plaque and therefore have no effect on reducing the risk of future cardiac events. However, eating carefully can immediately make plaque less vulnerable by reducing inflammatory cells, reducing soft plaque, and reducing tensile stress. Superior nutrition stabilizes both the base of the plaque, to keep it from rupturing, and the cap of the plaque, to keep it from cracking. Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), commonly known as heart-bypass surgery, is the most common heart surgery in the United States. A healthy artery or vein is connected to the obstructed coronary artery creating a new path for the blood to flow to the heart muscle. The blood bypasses the obstructed vessel, with a resulting relief in angina. The serious risks of CABG include an increased risk of stroke and overall death rate compared with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) (or angioplasty with stent placement), loss of mental function in the elderly, atrial fibrillation, and other more unusual events, such as failure of the sternum to close properly after surgery. Percutaneous coronary intervention is a nonsurgical procedure during which the physician feeds a thin flexible tube, or catheter, from the groin or arm into the heart. The catheter has a deflated balloon on the end, and when the tube reaches the blockage, it is forced though. The balloon is then inflated to open the artery, allowing blood to flow better. Then a stent, or short metal wire tube, is placed to prevent the stretched vessel from closing up again quickly. The most serious risks of PCI include death, heart attack, stroke, ventricular fibrillation and aortic dissection. Ons study showed that 1.2 patients out of every 100 died in the hospital undergoing PCI. The tactic of using surgical intervention as a substitute for a healthy diet is doomed to fail. Whenever CAD is present and surgical intervention occurs, the vast bulk of plaque is still left untreated. Atherosclerosis is a dietary-induced disease that spreads throughout the heart, not only in those areas visualized by angiograms. The vast majority of patients who undergo these interventions do not have fewer new heart attacks or live longer. The procedures themselves expose patients to more risk of new heart attack, strokes, infection, encephalopathy (disease in the brain), and death. Angioplasty, with or without stenting, also damages the treated blood vessel. It increases inflammation in the treated vessel and raises levels of C-reactive protein, which creates restenosis and increases the risk of recurrent coronary events. Restenosis is more resistant to regression with nutritional approaches than native atherosclerosis. Once an individual has a stent placed that foreign body in the vessel wall increases inflammation at the edge of the stent. This can enhance the potential for the treated area to generate a clot, leading to a future heart attack. These medical interventions do not address the cause of the disease; they treat only the symptoms-an approach that lessens pain for a limited period. Getting tested and treated for coronary obstructive disease wont help. Individuals without major blockages of their great vessels are just as likely to have a fatal cardiac event as those with more significant blockages. Nd yet, stress tests and angiography dont even show these individuals as having heart disease. Stress tests identify only those blockages that obstruct more than 85 percent of the vessel lumen. 70-80 percent of all myocardial infarctions are caused by plaques that is not obstructive or visible on angiography or stress tests. If you just have high blood pressure and high cholesterol and are overweight or diabetic, we recommend aggressive nutritional intervention and an exercise program customized to your fitness level and tolerance. If you have symptoms suggestive of angina with exertion, then we recommend you also use aggressive nutritional intervention to reduce the plaque burden and stabilize the plaque so that it doesnt form a clot. You should monitor your blood pressure and undergo blood tests. We also recommend that you get a noninvasive test to monitor heart output and wall motion, such as a cardiac ultrasound along with a carotid ultrasound, with can include measurements of the intima-media thickness, as well as an accurate determination of body fat to monitor the lowering direction of plaque burden and body fat stores. Even if someone has chest pain with light exertion, with documented left main disease (disease in the left main coronary artery) with a reduction in ejection fraction, we still recommend nutrition as the primary treatment in a stable patient. This is because my experience has shown that in two or three months, ejection fraction can improve dramatically and angina can already be significantly improved. I do not recommend angiography and stenting or bypass unless acute coronary syndrome is present, worsening ejection fraction on repeat ultrasounds is demonstrated, or ventricular arrhythmias are severe or worsening. There is an emergency diet approach in chapter 8 that starts patients with serious disease on an aggressive dietary intervention for maximizing results. All the symptoms of heart disease, as well as blockages, can melt away with superior nutrition without any cardiac intervention. The risks and complications of cardiac interventions and bypass surgeries are simply not necessary when people adopt an effective nutritional strategy. Instead of prescribing drugs and recommending expensive and invasive medical procedures, doctors need to educate themselves and then educate and motivate patients to take charge of their own health.

Cutting Class Essay -- American Society

In his essay â€Å"Race Over† Orlando Patterson spoke of a shift in the underclass that will include more whites or â€Å"European Americans† if one wants to use the politically correct vernacular. He wrote of the middle class exodus to gated communities or rebuilt inner cities and an intermingling of the races (Patterson). I believe this to be true not only in the northeast but all over the country due to shrinkage of the middle class. The decimation of the once prosperous backbone of American society cannot be blamed on any one element. I do believe that the contributing factors are: corporate America’s practice of union busting, a poorly educated younger generation and ensuing inadequately skilled workforce, and the real estate housing bubble and subsequent foreclosure scam that followed. Ever have those Stella D’oro cookies or biscotti at your grandma’s house? Not bad for a store-bought cookie or pastry. That’s because since 1930 they were made by a family owned business that paid people a living wage. The workers at Stella were union members. They had benefits, paid vacations, sick days, all the great things you don’t have if you work at Wal-Mart or Sears, Kmart, most restaurants. These people knew other very well since some of them worked together for thirty years. Most of them were immigrant women from Latin America, with some from Italy, Greece, and Africa. â€Æ' The family that owned the business sold the company to the Nabisco/Kraft corporation (yes Tom Brady’s boss) for 100 million who then sold it to Brynwood Corp. fourteen years later for 17.5 million. Brynwood is known for buying companies, gutting them to make them look profitable, and then reselling them for a markup. When it came time to renegotiate the workers’ union contr... ...Arnold, Chris. â€Å"Freddie Mac Bets Against American Homeowners.† http://www.propublica.org/article/freddy-mac-mortgage-eisinger-arnold 30th Jan. 2012. 7th April 2012. Dwyer, Liz. â€Å"Detroit High Schools Teach How To Work at Walmart.† www.good.is. http://www.good.is/post/detroit-high-schools-teach-how-to-work-at-walmart/ 12th Feb. 2010. 7th April 2012. Fulton, Edithe A. â€Å"The Wal-Martization of Education.† www.blackcommentator.com http://www.blackcommentator.com/75/75_walmart_njea.html 29th Jan.2004. 7th April 2012. â€Æ' NYC Educator. â€Å"The Wal-Martization of Education.† nyceducator.com http://nyceducator.com/2007/12/walmartization-of-education.html 3rd Dec. 2007. 7th April 2012. Toppo, Greg. â€Å"How Bush education law has changed our schools.† www.usatoday.com http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-01-07-no-child_x.htm 8th Jan. 2007. 7th April 2012.

Leadership Esentials :: Leader Leading Management

Although some people treat the term's "manager ship" and "leadership" as synonyms, the two should be distinguished. As a matter of fact, there can be leaders of completely unorganized groups, but there can be managers, as conceived here, only where organized structures create roles. (Main, 1987) Separating leadership from manager ship has important analytical advantages. It permits leadership to be singled out for study without the encumbrance of qualifications relating to the more general issue of manager ship. Leadership is an important aspect of managing. (Kotler, 1990) As this paper will show the ability to lead effectively is one of the keys to being an effective manager, also, undertaking the other essentials of managing-doing the entire managerial job-has an important bearing on ensuring that a manager will be an effective leader. Managers must exercise all the function of their role in order to combine human and material resources to achieve objectives. The key to doing this is the existence of a clear role and a degree of discretion or authority to support manager's actions. The essence of leadership is follower ship. (Haller & Til, 1982) In other words, it is the willingness of people to follow that makes a person a leader. Moreover, people tend to follow those whom they see as providing a means of achieving their own desires, wants, and needs. Leadership and motivation are closely interconnected. By understanding motivation, one can appreciate better what people want and why they act as they do. Also, as noted in the previous chapter, leaders may not only respond to subordinates, motivations but also arouse or dampen them by means of the organizational climate they develop. Both these factors are as important to leadership as they are to manager ship. Defining Leadership: Leadership has different meaning to various authors. (Bass, 1981) Leadership is defined as influence, that is, the art or process of influencing people so that they will strive willingly and enthusiastically toward the achievement of group goals ideally, people should be encouraged to develop not only willingness to work but also willingness to work with zeal and confidence. Zeal is ardor, earnestness, and intensity in the execution of work; confidence reflects experience and technical ability. Leaders act to help a group attain objectives through the maximum application of its capabilities. They do not stand behind a group to push and prod, they place themselves before the group as they facilitate progress and inspire the group to accomplish organizational goals.

Three Days To See By Helen Kellar Essay -- essays research papers

â€Å"Three Days to See† Helen Kellar (1880-1968) Helen Kellar has proved to be one of the greatest role models of not just disabled people, but also people striving towards a goal. Helen Keller (1880-1968) was born in Alabama, USA. When she grew to be 19 months old, her body was taken from sight and hearing. Through this rough time in her life, she still had hope thanks to the gracious teacher, Anne Sullivan. Through Anne Sullivan’s dedication to help someone in need, Helen Kellar learned how to read and speak, just by the mere form of touch. Later on in life, she began schooling, and graduated from university at the phenomenal age of 24. Due to her outstanding energy, enthusiasm, and will, she became an inspiration and strength, which furthered the cause of the worlds deaf and blind. The development of the essay, â€Å"Three Days to See,† helps reveal the true feelings of the extraordinary Helen Kellar, and also exposes an important message to the audience. Helen Kellar has specially laid out a plan of what she would observe if she only had three days to see. She has organized the three days so she could see all the different driving forces of the world. In the first day, she would like to see her loved ones, which include friends and family. She would like to imprint these pictures in her mind of the people who have supported and motivated her for the years of hardship. Helen would like to see God’s grace, which is represented in the natural world. What we all take for grant...

African American History Essay

Introduction The America that was there after the conclusion of the civil war is nothing like the America we recognize presently. Significant events have occurred since 1865 that have shaped our understanding of what America is today. Major industrialization and urbanization, equal rights for all citizens and the two major world wars that have shaped our understanding of what America is today. While, there are numerous events that have shaped America, there are few events that have served as markers of change for the entire society, particularly for the African Americans. From 1619 to 1865, a significant number of African American immigrated to the United States as slaves. Ever since the arrival of the first African Americans in Point Comfort, currently known as Fort Monroe in Hampton, the African American community has made significant strides in the community. However, the major event that occasioned this strikes transpired in 1865: the abolishment of slavery. This marked as a single major event that catapulted the African American society to where it is today. This article will examine the history of African American from 1865 to today. In 1865, the civil war between the north and south, or civil war as it is known came to an end. This was a time of great upheaval in the American society. The entire American society was attempting to integrate, and become part of the union. The south had agreed to integrate and become part f the union (Feagin, 2014). The South had consented to join the union. In the same year, President Lincoln was assassinated. The conclusion of the Civil War occasioned the beginning of the period of reconstruction. This period was characterized by upheaval, and the AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY SINCE 1865 3 country attempted to reintegrate itself, and also integrate the southern. This was a period of new beginning for the entire nation (Gates, 2012). The Constitution 13th amendment was ratified, abolishing slavery in the United States of America. This phase is edged in history as one of the most imperative event in the African Americans history (Feagin, 2014). During the era of reconstruction, which lasted from 1865 to 1876, significant events occurred that shaped the lives of African Americans. The African Americans begun the process of reintegration, and they found themselves with a system that they were not used to. This period was not just a period of reintegration for the white people, but rather for the entire nation (Feagin, 2014). During this time, it was particularly challenging to the African Americans because they were attempting to integrate to a society that was heavily biased against them. During the reconstruction period, there was little political and social agreement, especially over the issues of who should be permitted to vote (Gates, 2012). There were disagreements as to whether confederates, ex-slaves or those slaves that fought during the war should be allowed to vote. The death of President Lincoln and the establishment of new administration under President Andrew Johnson made the process of reintegration more complex for African Americans (Feagin, 2014). In 1866, legislation known as the ‘Black Codes’ was overwhelmingly passed by every white legislator of the former confederate States. The black codes greatly hampered the ability of African Americans to be reintegrated into the society (Gates, 2012). During that same year, the Congress passed the Civil rights act, which conferred citizenship rights to all African Americans, and giving those equal rights and liberties as to those of the white-American people (Feagin, 2014). The 14th amendment was ratified, in 1868, which defined citizenship for the African Americans, and also which overturned the Dred Scot decision (Gates, 2012). The 14th amendment strengthened the civil and legal rights of the African Americans, elucidating among other things, AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY SINCE 1865 4 that no state in the union shall deprive any African Americans their due process in law and the equal protections provided in the law (Feagin, 2014). The 14th amendment ensured, to some extent that the African Americans civil rights were protected. The 14th Amendment reversed the United States Supreme Court ruling in Dred Scott v. Sanford, which ruled that African Americans were not truly United States citizens (Feagin, 2014). The 14th amendment had several profound impacts on the lives of African Americans. First off, the amendment integrated African Americans into the society, by overruling the previous ruling that African Americans were not truly American citizens (Gates, 2012). Secondly, the 14th amendment prohibited the national and state governments from depriving any person, including African Americans, liberty, life and property without due regard and process as established in law. By guarding the civil liberties and rights of African Americans, the law inflicted a penalty, which entailed the loss of electoral votes and the loss of congressional seats, on states that dispossessed African Americans of their voting rights. Thirdly, the 14th amendment guaranteed all Americans, regardless of their racial affiliations protection under the law (Feagin, 2014). This clause serves an essential foundation for the decision to repeal the ruling in Brown v. Board of Education that overturned segregation. The 15th amendment was ratified in 1870, which gave African Americans voting rights. As the third and final amendment to be ratified in the reconstruction period, the 15th amendment forbids the national and state governments from refusing a citizen the voting rights based on that citizen’s color, race or servitude (Feagin, 2014). The adoption of the 15th amendments was greeted with extensive celebrations in African American communities and other abolitionist societies. The sense among African Americans is that their rights had been offered protected and secured. The adoption of the 15th Amendment completed a series of civil change, and it was one of the most significant events African American historical events. The 15th amendment meant AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY SINCE 1865 5 that the African American communities did not require the protection they were being offered by the government (Feagin, 2014). Towards the end of the reconstruction era, the south recognized that it would no longer be conceivable to hold on the perspective of recreating itself out of the North. In spite of this, there was still lingering tensions between the North and South (Feagin, 2014). Although equal rights were granted to African Americans, they did not fully enjoy them. While African Americans enjoyed expanded freedoms, it would not be till nearly a hundred years later, during the Civil rights movement that the entire fruits of reconstruction would be seen. The period of reconstruction ended in 1877, during which, a deal was struck with Democratic leaders from the south, to make Rutherford B. Hayes the U. S president, in exchange for the withdrawal of federal troops from the south, and which stops the efforts to protect the Civil liberties of African Americans. In the period after the reconstruction era, rapid industrialization followed. During this period, African Americans on the south started escaping to the North to run away from oppression (Gates, 2012). In 1879, thousands of African Americans moved to the north. In the industrialization period, rapid industrialization and development ensued in big cities in the United States. Construction of railroads spread across the country. Railroads encouraged the growth and expansion of cities (Gates, 2012). Many Africa Americans migrated to the cities to work in the processing and production companies. In 1881, Tennessee ratified the first of the ‘Jim Crow’ segregation rules, which segregated stated railroads. Over the next 15 years, similar laws were passed throughout the southern States. The segregation laws caused African Americans to migrate to the northern States (Gates, 2012). The Jim Crow segregation laws conferred a separate but equal status to all African Americans. In practice, the separation led to circumstances for African Americans that were second-rate to those offered to white Americans. AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY SINCE 1865 6 systematizing several of economic, educational and socials disadvantages. The southern states had De jure while de facto applied in the northern states (Feagin, 2014). The Jim Crow segregation laws inflicted segregation in housing, which was imposed by covenants, job discrimination, and loan lending discrimination in banks, and also African Americans were also discriminated in labor unions (Gates, 2012). During the industrialization era, companies came up across various cities. African Americans were increasingly becoming urbanized, and left their farms and homesteads, and moved to big cities to get jobs. In 1887, the ‘standing Lincoln’ statue was unveiled at Augustus Saint gardens in Chicago (Feagin, 2014). The Plessey v. Ferguson case was a milestone ruling in the United States. The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that ‘Jim Crow’s separate but equal segregation policies to be legal, and begin being implemented. These laws barred African Americans from equal access in all public facilities. The 1900s marked the rise of civil rights movement across the United States. In 1954, the court in Brown v. Board of education case, ruled that segregation in education facilities to be unconstitutional and this measure strike down segregation in education facilities (Feagin, 2014). In 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat to a white man. Her defiance offered the start of a momentum to the civil rights movement that spread across the United States. She was not the first black person to refuse to wake up for a white person, but by the time of her action, there was growing resentment and anger in the African American society for being treated as second-class citizens. Word went around about Montgomery mistreatment and arrest (Feagin, 2014). The Women’s Political Council resolved to protest Rosa Park’s ill-treatment by arranging a bus boycott to start on the day of Parks’ trial, December 5th. Martin Luther King Jr. and the African American community established an association, the MIA (Montgomery Improvement Association) to carry on boycotting until the AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY SINCE 1865 7 Jim Crow segregation laws were altered (Feagin, 2014). The key objective was to stop segregation in the public transport system and other sections of the society, and also to employ African-American drivers in Montgomery. The public unrest ensured for 382 days, costing the Montgomery bus company he sums of money, however the city declined to give in (Feagin, 2014). The Montgomery protest leaders filed a national lawsuit in opposition to the city’s segregation rules, claiming that Montgomery desecrated the 14th Amendment. In 1956, a national court stated that the Montgomery segregation rules were unlawful, but lawyers for Montgomery County appealed. On November 3rd, 1956 the Supreme Court ruled that the segregation laws in Montgomery were illegal. During the protest, the Montgomery authorities made many arrests (Feagin, 2014). At one time, the police detained a group of African Americans waiting for carpool pick-ups. A court jury acknowledged the boycott unlawful, and 115 protest leaders were detained. In 1957, Martin Luther King, Jr. established the Southern Christian Leadership conference, which served as the forefront engine of the civil rights movement. The conference served as the main council for organizing civil rights protests across United States. The civil right movements were against discrimination of any kind and the fair treatment of all people, regardless of their color across United States. The civil right movement characterized main campaigns and protests of civil resistance (Feagin, 2014). The civil rights movements lasted between 1955 and 1968. The civil rights movements were characterized by civil disobedience and non-violent protests. In 1964, the civil rights act was ratified, and it prohibited all acts of discrimination. In 1965, The Voting Rights Act was ratified, and it outlaws the carried out in the South to disenfranchise black voters. In 1967, the first African American senator, Edward W. Brooke, was elected, and he served for two terms (Feagin, 2014). Martin Luther. King, Jr. was assassinated in Tennessee, which was one of the sad moments in African American AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY SINCE 1865 8 history. The election of Barack Obama served as a significant milestone for United States, particularly the African American community. President Barack Obama was elected the first African-American president, in 2008. President’s Barack Obama’s election served as one of the most significant milestone for the African Americans community (Feagin, 2014). A racial divide that was there between the African Americans and white Americans was erased, and it was erased for all eternity. President Barack Obama was elected for a second term in office, which signaled the apparent rise of the African American community to the top (Feagin, 2014). In his second term in office, President Barack Obama has shown that there are things that seem more possible for the African Americans, than they were in his first term. He has made African Americans realize that they can achieve anything if they want to, and made their expectations realistic. Conclusion From the shackles of slavery in the 1800s, the African American community has risen to take full advantage of their civil liberties and freedoms. For over 300 years, African Americans fought for their civil rights and freedom. The African Americans struggles have been a major issue in each juncture of United States history. In 1776, when slave-holders were revolting in opposition to the menace of British abolitionism, the African Americans formed part of the American Revolution. During the civil war, the African Americans were also part of the struggles. African Americans have endured as much as any other community and have fought for the rights and liberties of all people in the community. From the attainment of freedom, and the struggle to get equal rights and civil liberties, the election of Barack Obama as the first African- American President, the African American community can gladly say that the racial divide between the Blacks and white Americans has been completely erased. AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY SINCE 1865 9 References Feagin, J. R. (2014). Racist America: Roots, current realities, and future reparations. London: Routledge. Gates, H. L. (2012). The Oxford Handbook of African American Citizenship, 1865-present. London, UK: Oxford University Press.

The Moon and Sixpence Summary

THE MOON AND SIXPENCE Topic: The theme revealed in the novel â€Å"The  moon and sixpence† Outline: I. Summary about  writer  and the  novel â€Å"  The moon and  sixpence† II. Two  themes  revealed  in  the  novel  Ã¢â‚¬Å"The  moon  and  sixpence† 1. The revolt of an individual against the well- established conventions of  Ã‚  bourgeois society 2. No rooms  for trivial and  ordinary  pleasures of  life  in  Great Art III. Conclusion Summary about the writer and the novel â€Å"  The moon and sixpence† 1. William  Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) W. S.Maugham is famous English writer, well-known as a novelist, playwright and shortstory writer. In his writings he kept to the principles of Realism, but his method of writing was also influenced by Naturalism, Neo-romanticism and Modernism. W. S. Maugham was born in Paris where his father worked as solicitor for the English Embassy. At the age of 10, Maugham was orpha ned and sent to England to live with his uncle, thevicar of Whitstable. Before becoming a writer he was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and Heidelberg University, Maugham then studied six years medicine in  London.William worked in a hospital of Saint Thomas, which placed in a poor block of London the experience  found its  reflection in  the 1st novel. During World War, Maugham volunteered for the Red Cross, and was stationed in France for a period. There he met Gerald Haxton (1892-1944), an American, who became his companion. Disguising himself as a reporter, Maugham served as an espionage agent for British Secret Intelligence Service in Russia in 1916-17, but his stuttering and  poor health hindered his career in this field. In 1917 he married Syrie Barnardo, an interior  decorator; they were ivorced in 1927-8. On his  return from Russia, he spent a  year in a sanatoriumin Scotland. Maugham then set off with Haxton on a series of travels to eastern Asia, th e Pacific Islands, and Mexico. In many novels the surroundings also are international. Maugham's most famous story such as â€Å"Ashenden: or the British agent ’’Maugham died in Nice, a small French town from pneumonia on December 16, 1965. During the war, Maugham's best-known novel, Of Human Bondage(1915) was published. This wasfollowed by another successful book,The Moon and Sixpence(1919).Maugham also developed areputation as a fine short-story writer, one story,Rain, which appeared in The Trembling of a  Leaf  (1921), was also turned into a successful feature film. Popular plays written by Maugham include The Circle(1921),East of Sue(1922), The Constant Wife1926) and the anti-war play,For Services Rendered   (1932). In his later years  Maugham wrote his autobiography,Summing Up (1938) and works of fiction  such as The Razor's Edge (1945),Catalina (1948) and Quartet   (1949). After the 1930s Maugham's reputation abroad was greater than in England.Maugha m once said,†Most people cannot see anything, but I can se what is in front of my nose with extreme clearness;the greatest writers can see through a brick wall. My vision is not so penetrating. † His literaryexperiences Maugham collected in The Summing Up, which has been used as a guidebook for  creative writing. William Somerset Maugham died in 1965 in a small French town from  pneumonia. â€Å"I have never pretended to be anything but a story teller. It has amused me to tell stories and I  have told a great many.It is a misfortune for me that the telling of a story just for the sake of the  story is not an activity that is in favor with theintelligentsia. In  endeavor  to  bear  my  misfortunes  with  fortitude. † (from  Creatures  of  Circumstance, 1947) The novel â€Å"The  moon and sixpence† Charles Strickland, a good, dull, holiest,  plain man who is  a conventional stockbroker. He is  probably a worthy member of so ciety, a good husband and father, an honest broker, but he abandoned his wife and two nice looking and healthy children, a boy and a girl. A supposition is putforth: Charles walks out upon his wife to  run after some woman.A friend of Strickland is sent to Paris to find out who the woman is and if possible to  persuade him to come back to his wife. After a long talk with Strickland, the man understands that the real reason that inspires him to run away is not woman. He decided to be a painter. Living in Paris,  Strickland  comes into  contact with  a  Dutch  painter, Dirk  Strove . Strove  is presented  as an antipode to Strickland. Strove is a kind hearted man but a bad painter. He is the first to discover the real talent of Strickland. When Strickland falls seriously ill, it is Strove who comes to help.Strove  persuades his wife to let him bring the  artist home to look after him. To  his surprise, his wife falls inlove with Strickland who she holds in disgust. Later his wife, a housemaid rescued by Strove, kills herself by drinking acid after Strickland leaves her. What Strickland wants from Blanche is not sexual relation but the nude picture of her beautiful figure. Leaving France for Tahiti, Strickland is in search of a world of his own. In Tahiti, he marries a native girl Ata and he  has about three years of happiness. He has two children. Strickland contracts leprosy and later becomes blind.He wants to leave the family but Ata doesn’t let him do it. His eyesight gets worse but he continues painting. Ata couldn’t go to the town and buy canvases; he uses the walls of his house. Strickland gets rid of some strong irresistible obsession imprisoning his soul with the help of those paintings. He has achieved what he longs for  on this land. He has painted his masterpiece. Knowing that he is going to die, he makes his wife  promise to burn down his masterpiece after his death in fear that it will be contaminated by the commercial world of money.Two themes  revealed in the  novel â€Å"The moon and sixpence† 1. The revolt of an  individual against the well- established conventions of bourgeois society In many of his stories, Maugham reveals to us the unhappy life and the revolt against the set social order. The  Moon and Sixpence was  written  in this  line. It  is a  story of the  conflict between the artist and the conventional society based on the life of a painter. The revolt of an individual against the well-established conventions of bourgeois society was shown in the following two aspects: 1. 1. Money worship societyThe bourgeois society with its vices such as: snobbishness money worship, pretense, self-interest†¦made their profit of the frailties of mankind. To them, money was a useful tool to dominate both economics and politics. Money also helped the bourgeois maintain their regal life and it connected the members in family, on the other hand, husban d had obligated to support his wife and children for whole his life. Therefore, the last generations of the bourgeois forced the young generation to continue their domination. It was mentioned in the conversation betweenStrickland and his friend. I rather wanted to be a  painter when I was a boy, but  my father made me go into  business because he said there was no money in art†. In this society, art was non-profitable. Therefore, it must be looked down upon. In their  Ã‚  point of view, art was nothing more than just a job to earn money. They did not see the beautiful things that art brings. When Strickland decided to follow in his father's footsteps, his dream and aspiration were hidden on the bottom of his heart. After working hard for ages, he became a  prosperous stockbroker. He is probably a worthy member of society.However, there is in streets of the poor  quarters a thronging vitality which excites the blood and prepares the soul for  the unexpected. It w as actually happened in Paris, because Strickland gave up the luxury life and got acquainted with hard life just only wanted to fulfill a long-cherished dream. He had to give up his dream to follow his father’s wishes. â€Å"I want to paint. †Ã¢â‚¬Å"I’ve got to paint. † The brief answer expressed his willingness to get out of ideology ties which were imposed  by his father. And his hand and mind would express his big dream by painting masterpieces. I couldn’t get what I wanted in  London. Perhaps I can here. †Ã¢â‚¬Å"I tell you I’ve got to paint. † The author said that â€Å"I seemed to feel in him some vehement power that was struggling  within him, it  gave me the sensation of  something very strong, overmastering, that held  him† And Strickland cannot have a comfortable life any more. â€Å"I haven’t any money. I’ve got  about a  hundred pounds. † We could probably see it  through St rickland’s appearance when he came to Paris. â€Å"Sitting there in his old Norfolk jacket and his unnourished bowler, his trousers were baggy, ishands were not clean; and his face, with the red stubble of the unshaved chin, the little eyes, and  the large, aggressive nose, was  uncouth and coarse. † 1. 2 Family and social responsibilities Painting is not only a ‘dreamy moon’ of Strickland but also of many progressive people in  bourgeois society. According to bourgeois concepts, all the men have to be responsible for hisfamily and children. He’s forced to have a strong connection with what is considered to belong tohim. Strickland’s life is tied tightly down to family’s contract. However, all that sort of thingsmeans nothing at all to  him.He doesn’t let those reasons impact on  his way chasing his passion any longer. It can be obviously proved through the conversation between two men, Strickland and the author, in ch apter II of the  novel. ‘Hang it all, one can’t leave a  woman without a bob. ’  Ã¢â‚¬ËœWhy not? ’  Ã¢â‚¬ËœHow is she going to live? ’  Ã¢â‚¬ËœI’ve supported her for seventeen years. Why shouldn’t she support herself for  a change? ’  Ã¢â‚¬ËœLet her try. ’  Ã¢â‚¬ËœDon’t you care for  her anymore? ’  Ã¢â‚¬ËœNot a bit’   When Strickland talks about his children, his attitude is revealed to be heartlessly scornful. ‘They’ve had a good many years of comfort. It’s much more than the majority of children have. Dirk Stroeve was one of those unlucky persons whose most sincere emotions are ridiculous. † On the nature of art â€Å"Why should you think that beauty, which is the most precious thing in the world, lies like a stone on the beach for the careless passer-by to pick up idly? Beauty is something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions out of the ch aos of the world in the torment of his soul. And when he has made it, it is not given to all to know it. To recognize it you must repeat the adventure of the artist. It is a melody he sings to you, and to hear it again in your own heart you want knowledge and sensitiveness and imagination. Besides, somebody will look after them. When it comes to the point, the Mac Andrews will pay for  their schooling. ’  Ã¢â‚¬ËœI like them all right when they were kids, but now they’ve growing up I haven’t got any particular  Ã‚  feeling for them. ’     He totally gives up on his own family, children and thinks  that they could live by themselves without his care. Even if they can’t make arrangement for their life, his relatives might come to help. Strickland also doesn’t mind what  people loathe and despise him. ‘Everyone will think you a  perfect swine. ’  Ã¢â‚¬ËœLet them. ’  Ã¢â‚¬ËœWon’t it mean anything to you that people loathe and despise you?   Ã¢â‚¬ËœNo’  Ã¢â‚¬ËœYou don’t care if  people think you an utter  black-guard? ’  Ã¢â‚¬ËœNot a damn. ’  Ã‚  He really doesn’t care any longer. ‘You won’t go back to your wife? ’  Ã¢â‚¬ËœNever’  Ã¢â‚¬ËœYou don’t care if she and your children have to beg their bread? ’  Ã¢â‚¬ËœNot a damn. ’     He does everything: abandoned wife and children; left his successful career behind just  because he totally hates that gloomy  society and its old  customs. Only by a short conversation between two men, the author already describes the strongly reactive mind of Strickland, a man who dares to stand up and fight over the old customs of that  boring society and bourgeois.Regarding to Strickland’s point of view, his escape is the only decision; it’s also the solution to release his imprisoning mind. He doesn’t regret or be ash amed of  what he’s done. He accepts the eyes of society because he doesn’t care. Actually, it’s never ever  meant anything to him. The only thing that he really cares is  his mind right now freely to follow anddo everything he ever dreams of in his own ‘dreamy moon’. 2. No rooms for trivial  and ordinary pleasures of life in  Great Art 2. 1  Sacrifice everything to be an artist. At the beginning, the stockbroker Strickland had a stable life with happy family.However,when he started to chase his path as an artist, he had to experience a poor situation. Moreover, he was  willing  to  get  rid  of  everything  to  be  an  artist. Great art  don’t depend  on age  as long  as you have real passion. Even though at the age of fortyâ€Å"the chances are a million to one†, Stricklandstill wants to be a  painter. â€Å"I can learn quicker than I could when I was eighteen†, said he. He wanted to be a painter when he was a boy but his father didn’t allow him. His father  consumed that there was money in art. Therefore, he had to give up his passion for such a long time. However,  his fire for art wasn’t  stamped  out.And this  was  the perfect  time  for him to implement his dream again. On  his way chasing that dream, he had to  sacrifice everything. He  passed by the material and the sensual to fulfill spiritual needs. He got rid of a happy family with acomfortable life to go to Paris  and lived in destitute life there Although he knew that his family needed him and they had to suffer difficulties in life without him, he didn’t intend to change his mind and he accepted to be considered as a selfish man. He understood that his action weren’t highly appreciated; however, he still wanted to pursue art in his own way.Strickland accepted to live in a bad condition, without money, job, food and at last he found a Shelter at a hot el. Afterward, despite the fact that he got a serious disease and became  blinded; he still  tried to  fulfill  his masterpiece  on the  walls of his  house. During the  first daysstaying in Paris, he only found a cheap hotel to live. He appeared with such a miserable, untidy image. â€Å"He sat there in his old Norfolk jacket and his unnourished bowler, his trousers werebaggy, his hands were not clean; and his face, with the red stubble of the unshaved chin, the littleeyes, and the large, aggressive nose, was uncouth and coarse.His mouth was large; his lips wereheavy and sensual. †He desired to paint. He repeated his speech many times when answering his friend. â€Å"I want to paint. †Ã¢â‚¬Å"I’ve got to paint†Ã¢â‚¬Å"I tell you I  have to paint†. 2. 2. Strickland protects Beauty and Art. Art is very  pure. It can not be  measured by the value of money or sexual relation. Stricklandstruggled to abandon his appetence for art. â₠¬Å"Let me tell you. I imagine that for months the matter never comes into your head, and you’re ableto persuade yourself that you’ve finished with it for good and all.You rejoice in your freedom, and  Ã‚  you feel that at last you can call your soul your own. You seem to walk with your head among the  stars. And then, all of a sudden you can’t stand it any more, and you notice that all the time your  Ã‚  feet have been walking in the mud. And you want to roll yourself in it. And you find some woman,coarse and low and vulgar, some beastly creature in whom all the horror of sex is blatant, and you  fall upon her like a wild  animal. You drink till you’re blind with rage. † He assumed that as an artist he shouldn’t have trivial fun such as desire of  women.For Strickland, woman is like an invisible rope tightening his life. It is very hard to escape from  them. Therefore,  he  tried  to  avoid  it. He  was  willing  to  give  her  up  as  well  as  his unsatisfactory painting. He did everything to be a true artist even though it made him become acruel man. Finally, he achieved what he wanted. He created a masterpiece. It was worth what he’d spent. He devoted all his life to pursue art. As an artist, he didn’t care about fame or wealth. He  painted pictures only to satisfy his love to art. He never sold his pictures to get money.He did not toaccept his masterpiece to be contaminated by the commercial world of money. His dream was very  beautiful III. Conclusion Based on the life of Paul Gauguin, â€Å"The Moon and Sixpence†is W. Somerset Maugham'sode to the powerful forces behind creative genius. Charles Strickland is a staid banker, a man of  wealth and privilege. He is also a man possessed of an unquenchable desire to create art. As Strickland pursues his artistic vision, he leaves London for Paris and Tahiti, and in his quest makes sacrifices that lea ve the lives of those closest to him in  tatters.Through Maugham's sympathetic eye Strickland's tortured and cruel soul becomes a  symbol of the blessing and  the curse of transcendent artistic genius, and the cost in human’s lives it sometimes demands. Topic 2: Impression of  characteristic THE ANALYSIS  OF STRICKLAND CHARACTER 1. Strickland as an ordinary man 1. 1 Strickland is irresponsible inconsiderate toward his wife Strickland used be a good husband to his wife. Actually, he owns a happy family and goodeconomic condition. For many people, Strickland is good businessman and has good status insociety.However, he suddenly abandoned his wife and  went another place. Strickland leaved his wife and children behind without a word. His leaving makes her very miserable and she had asuspicion that he run  away with other women. His wife- Army is a pleasant hospital woman. Strickland can’t find any reasons which belong to Arm to leave her. When Army sends him many letters to persuade him to come back, Strickland doesn’t read any letters from her. It  meansthat he doesn’t concern anything related to his wife. When making conservation with friend sent to persuade him, Strickland expresses a coollyattitude to his wife. I can not describe the extraordinary callousness with which he made this reply†Although Strickland acknowledged his action, he still  does like that. Has she deserved that you should treat her like that? NoThen, isn’t it monstrous to leave her in  this fashion after seventeen years of married life withouta fault to find with her  Monstrous†Abandoning wonderful wife is faulty. However, letting a woman without a bob is more pitiless. He also knows before that his wife and children will have to suffer difficulties in life withouthim. But he still leaves them to  pursue his aim. Hang it all, one can’t leave a woman without a  bobWhy not? Don’t you care for her any more? N ot a bit†Strickland does not try thinking whether a weak woman can live without support from man;especially she has to nurse two children. They don’t know what they should do in order to support their life and what will wait for them in the future. He supposed that he no longer haveany responsibility to his family and all things that he  did before be enough. 1. 2 Strickland is irresponsible selfish father Strickland does not want to take any responsibility to his children. His children are very youngand innocent.They have never done any harm to  Strickland. â€Å"Damn it all. There are your children to think of. They’ve never done you any harm. They didnot ask to be bought in to the world. If you chuck everything like this, they’ll be thrown on thestreet. They have had a good many years of comfort. It’s much more than the majority of childrenhave. Besides, somebody will look after them. When it comes to the point, the Mac Andrewswill pay for t heir schooling†. How can children live without support from their father? He did not care about his children anymore, even though they could be thrown out in the street. Read also:  Moon By Chaim PotokFor many people, rearing children isvery holly duty and happiness. For children, father is the material and spiritual favor. It is very  poor for children when he entrusts them to the care of  Mac Andrews. Especially, Strickland thought that he did not have any special feeling to  his children. For many men, children are always very special and take really important part in their emotional life. Strickland only had special feeling to his children when they were small. When they grow  up, heno longer loves them. It seems that the nature of a father in Strickland has disappeared. He  became an unemotional father. 1. Strickland is ungrateful to his friend Dirk Strove is a very kind- hearted person. Dirk Strove is the person who recognizes the talentof Strickland and helps him everything in bad days. When Strickland falls seriously ill, it isStrove who comes to help. Strove persuades his wife to let him bring the artist home to look  after. St rickland must have gratitude all the things that Strove had done for him. On the other  hand, Strickland has an adulterous affair with his best friend’s wife. Moreover, Strickland justwants to take use of her body for  the nude picture and causes the death of Strove. 2. Strickland  as an  artist . 1 Strickland is a  really passionate painter .He compares his passion to paint is like the desire to breath. He abandoned his wife andchildren to pursuit his dream of painting. He gives up a happy life to go strange place to learn painting. He gets divorced with his wife without any reasons and lets his children alone to devotefor art. â€Å"I have got to paint† is repeated four times in conservation with the friend. It means thatthe desire to paint is full  of in his head all the  time. When family’s friend is sent to persuade Strickland, he used all the tactics and arguments tochange Strickland’s decision.However, Strickland still expresses a con sistent attitude to allarguments. Strickland believes that his wife could take care of herself and also is ready to  provide all necessary background for her to divorce. His children can grow without his support. Strickland reckons that it is the high time for him to realize his dream. For Strickland, painting is the air of life, an interest. The painting is all. He does not concernabout all the worst things people can think about him. â€Å"Everyone will think you are perfect swineLet themWon’t it mean anything to you to  know that people loath and despise you?No†Short answers contain a terrible determination. It seems that the art  is the only meaningful thingto him now. The passion of painting is covering all his body and  will. Behind the dull appearance, Strickland has the true passion to art. Strickland- a man with old  Norfolk jacket, unnourished bowler, his trouser was bagging, his hand were not clean, his facewith red stubble of the  unsaved chin, little eye, the large aggressive nose, his mount large and hislip were heavy and sensual. On the surface, he was not born for art. The rude and sensualappearance is completely contrary to deep passion on art and artist soul.The narrator feels  powerful desire to paint in his voice and vehement power. There is strong struggle between willand passion inside this man. Strickland decides to leave all his family and material values, loveand lust behind to scarify for art. Strickland accepts a poor life to devote for art and passion. From a prosperous stockbroker,Strickland became a poor man for only reason of being a painter. He  can live in cheap hotel withabout hundred pounds to learn painting. When coming Tahiti, Strickland marries with a nativegirl and lives in forest far away from town. They live in misery. When there was no food to behad, he seemed capable†. It seems that he â€Å"lived a life wholly of the spirit† . All the materialvalues do not have any meaning t o him. He wants to spend the rest of the life painting. He couldsuffer the poorest conditions to draw. Strickland decides to paint at the age of 40. â€Å"Do you think it is likely that a man will do any good when he starts at your age? Most people  begin painting when they were eighteen. I can learn quicker than I could when I  was eighteen†. The age is one of the most important barriers for Strickland to overcome. People mainly paintwhen they were eighteen.In spite of acknowledging this, Strickland still decides to paint by allmeans. In fact, there is no limitation of age in art. However, Strickland must have had the trulystrong desire to art because it is very difficult and unusual for people to start learning painting atthis age. Strickland had dream of painting when he was very small. At his time, the values of  man are measured in terms of money. His father said that there was no money in art and obligedhim to do business. Obeying his father’s speech, Stric kland became a prosperous stockbroker. He owns a happy family and good social status.Strickland does not satisfy with the current life. He feels the life is so boring and not meaningful. After 40 years, the dream of childhood stillobsesses him and wins other things. It seems that the man is cut for painting. At the age of 40,after many years of empty soul, he realizes clearly what he wants, what is important to his life. Panting is the job which he really wishes to do and  succeed. 2. 2 Strickland understands the rotten society and he is very brave man who sacrifices for the real art   When Strickland abandons his wife and spends all the rest of life for painting, many peoplewould think he is not usual.His action is different from the normal people in society. In the  bourgeois society, money is highly appreciated and most of people live for money. They supposethat there is no money in art and artists are not highly evaluated in social order. In contrary,Strickland can give up everything to pursue art. Strickland wishes to paint because of true  passion, but not for money. He never sold a single picture and he was never satisfied with whathe had done. In the end, Strickland obliged his wife to burn all his picture and house so that allhis products are not survived for commercial purpose.He has the great art concept and is acourageous man who devotes everything to art. With the endowed talent and passion, Strickland creates the wonderful pictures which containthe great content and perfect beauty. Strickland can go anywhere to find inspiration for his  picture. He decides to move from London to Paris, after that he came to Tahiti and live in aforest. Strickland is in search of a world of his own. When he contracts leprosy, he still draws. As he becomes blind, he continues painting until he died. Strickland is worth to  be great and realartist. 3. Conclusion For Strickland’s family, he is a bad father and husband.In term of the normal concepts in the society, Strickland is considered to be a selfish person who can abandon all important things to  pursue his own passion. Strickland is a real artist  and brave man in bourgeois society. He abandons all the normal thingsincluding family, money, social status, moral values to sacrifice for the real art. With deep enthusiasms, Strickland creates the great product and paints until his the last breaths. Hesupposes that the true art should not be contaminated by the commercial world of money. He isthe typical artist who can scarify for the  real art in the bourgeois society. Some comments:This is a fictionalized account of the life of artist Paul Gaugin. It's the best fictionalized biography I've ever read. From the moment I learned he's left his wife and children to the death of his mistress, I've been captivated by this intense personality. I'm reminded of Steve Jobs, a heartless man obsessed by work, by a vision. But the most interesting thing so far is the art itself. Th e narrator, a writer, admits that the first time he sees â€Å"Charles Strickland's† paintings, he's disappointed. The oranges are swollen and lopsided. He doesn't have the craftsmanship of the old masters. (And no wonder. He's only been painting for five years. Yet he says to himself, it's because it's a new style. This is key. Would anything ever make it in art if it weren't new? It goes through a couple of stages. Total rejection, then wild acclaim. The narrator is disappointed in himself for not recognizing genius. Only later, after he's seen these works in museums, acclaimed by others, is he able to recognize the hand of a master. It brings to mind Tom Wolfe's â€Å"The Painted Word. † Nothing is art until a story makes it so. And yet†¦ A major character in â€Å"The Moon and Sixpence† is a hackneyed artist who has great technical skill yet paints for the vulgar masses, making a comfortable living.He sees the genius of Gaugin (or in this case â€Å"Ch arles Strickland†) as no one does. He tries to get dealers to take the works though Strickland is uninterested in selling them. This character is the polar opposite of Strickland. He thinks only of others. If it weren't for him, Strickland would have died. Yet he gets no respect. He's other-directed in a world where the inner-directed rule. Yet he's a great judge of art. I can't help concluding that nearly every new style offers something, however turned off we may be initially. But I still prefer representational work to most modern art. The Right TimeThere are some books that walk into your life at an opportune time. I'm talking about the books that send a pleasant shiver down your spine laden with â€Å"Man, this is meant to be! † as you flip through its pages cursorily. Or those that upon completion, demand an exclamation from every book-reading fibre of your body to the effect of â€Å"There couldn't have been a better time for me to have read this book! † N ow, I come from deferred-gratification stock. So books like these, you don't read immediately,. You let them sit there on your table for a while. You bask in the warm expectant glow of a life-altering read.You glance at the book as you make your way to office, take pleasure in the fact that it'll be right there on your table when you open the front-door wearily, waiting to be opened, caressed, reveled in. And when that moment of reckoning arrives, you don't stop, you plunge yourself straight into the book, white-hot passionate. The Moon and Sixpence was just that kind of a book for me. I had just completed (and thoroughly enjoyed) a course on Modern Art in college and could rattle off the names of Impressionist painters faster than I could the Indian cricket team.I was particularly intrigued by Paul Gauguin, a French Post-Impressionist painter, after reading one of his disturbingly direct quotes. â€Å"Civilization is what makes me sick†, he proclaimed, and huddled off to Tah iti to escape Europe and â€Å"all that is artificial and conventional†, leaving behind a wife and five children to fend for themselves, never to make contact with them again. This struck me as the ultimate expression of individuality, a resounding slap to the judgmental face of conservative society, an escapist act of repugnant selfishness that could only be justified by immeasurable artistic talent, genius, some may call it.My imagination was tickled beyond measure and when I discovered there was a novel by W. Somerset Maugham (the author of The Razor's Edge no less! ) based on Gauguin, my joy knew no bounds. I was in the correct frame of mind to read about the life of a stockbroker who gave up on the trivial pleasures of bourgeois life for the penury and hard life of an aspiring painter without considering him ridiculous or vain. Supplied with the appropriate proportions of awe that is due to a genius protagonist, I began reading the book. I have to admit I expected a whol e lot from it.I had a voyeuristic curiosity to delve into the head of a certified genius. I was even more curious to see how Maugham had executed it. At the same time, I was hoping that the book would raise and answer important questions concerning the nature of art and about what drives an artist to madness and greatness. The Book The book's title is taken from a review of Of Human Bondage in which the novel's protagonist, Philip Carey, is described as  Ã¢â‚¬Å"so busy yearning for the moon that he never saw the sixpence at his feet. † I admired Maugham's narrative voice.In his inimitable style, he flits in and out of the characters' life as the stolid, immovable writer who is a mere observer, and nothing more. His narrator defies Heisenberg's uncertainty principle as in observing his characters, he doesn't change their lives or nature one bit. He has a mild disdain for the ordinary life of a householder and relishes his independence. â€Å"I pictured their lives, troubled by no untoward adventure, honest, decent, and, by reason of these two upstanding, pleasant children, so obviously destined to carry on the normal traditions of their race and station, not without significance.They would grow old insensibly; they would see their son and daughter come to years of reason, marry in due course – the one a peretty girl, future mother of healthy children; the other a handsome, manly fellow, obviously a soldier; and at last, prosperous in their dignified retirement, beloved by their descendants, after a happy, not unuseful life, in the fullness of their age they would sink into the grave. That must be the story of innumerable couples, and the patter of life it offers has a homely grace.It reminds you of a placid rivulet, meandering smoothly through green pastures and shaded by pleasant trees, till at last it falls into the vasty sea; but the sea is so calm, so silent, so indifferent, that you are troubled suddenly by a vague uneasiness. Perhaps it is only a kink in my nature, strong in me even in those days, that I felt in such an existence, the share of the great majority, something amiss. I recognized its social value. I saw its ordered happiness, but a fever in my blood asked for a wilder course. There seemed to me something alarming in such easy delights.In my heart was a desire to live more dangerously. I was not unprepared for jagged rocks and treacherous shoals if I could only have change – change and the excitement of the unforeseen. † In Maugham's hands, Gauguin becomes Charles Strickland, an unassuming British stockbroker, with a secret unquenchable lust for beauty that he is willing to take to the end of the world, first to Paris and then to remote Tahiti. He is cold, selfish and uncompromising in this quest for beauty. â€Å"The passion that held Strickland was a passion to create beauty. It gave him no peace. It urged him hither and thither.He was eternally a pilgrim, haunted by a divine nostalgia, an d the demon within him was ruthless. There are men whose desire for truth is so great that to attain it they will shatter the very foundation of their world. Of such was Strickland, only beauty with him took the place of truth. I could only feel for him a profound compassion. † However words such as these serve to romanticize Strickland's actions which at first glance, remain despicable. (view spoiler)Maugham paints him as a rogue loner, an unfathomable apparition, compelled to inhuman acts by the divine tyranny of art. He lived more poorly than an artisan. He worked harder. He cared nothing for those things which with most people make life gracious and beautiful. He was indifferent to money. He cared nothing about fame. You cannot praise him because he resisted the temptation to make any of those compromises with the world which most of us yield to. He had no such temptation. It never entered his head that compromise was possible. He lived in Paris more lonely than an anchori te in the deserts of Thebes. He asked nothing from his fellows except that they should leave him alone.He was single-hearted in his aim, and to pursue it he was willing to sacrifice not only himself – many can do that – but others. He had a vision. Strickland was an odious man, but I still think he was a great one. † In these beautiful words he describes Strickland's strange homelessness and suggests a reason for his subsequent escape to Tahiti. â€Å"I have an idea that some men are born out of their due place. Accident has cast them amid strange surroundings, but they have always a nostalgia for a home they know not.They are strangers in their birthplace, and the leafy lanes they have known from childhood or the populous streets in which they have played, remain but a place of passage. They may spend their whole lives aliens among their kindred and remain aloof among the only scenes they have ever known. Perhaps it is this sense of strangeness that sends men f ar and wide in the search for something permanent, to which they may attach themselves. Perhaps some deep-rooted atavism urges the wanderer back to lands which his ancestors left in the dim beginnings of history. Sometimes a man hits upon a place to which he mysteriously feels he belongs.Here is the home he sought, and he will settle amid scnes that he has never seen before, among men he has never known, as though they were familiar to him from his birth. Here at last he finds rest. † By the end of the book, Maugham's narrator somewhat loses his grip over the reader and I could picture him in my mind floundering around the island of Tahiti, interviewing the people who came in contact with Strickland, trying to piece together a story. He finds himself in the â€Å"position of the biologist, who has to figure out from a bone, not only a creature's body, but also its habits. The reader is promised the ineffable, a study of genius and is only delivered an admission of its elusive nature. Also the tone of the novel tends to get slightly misogynistic in places. But I suppose that is more a failing of the protagonist rather than the author. As compensation, Maugham offers delicious crisp cookies of wisdom throughout. In simple lyrical language, he penetrates to the core of the human condition and offers invaluable advice to the aspiring writer, the hopeful lover and the wannabe genius.For its unpretentious, sympathetic and humane portrayal of a deeply flawed protagonist, its quotable quotes and its ironic humour, this book shall rank as my one of my favourite books on the life and development of an artist in search of the unknowable. My Master Maugham I strongly believe that the adjectives one throws around are a barometer of one's sensitivity or at the minimum, one's desire to be accurate. Both of these qualities are indispensable to the aspiring writer because honestly, what is there to writing exceptfresh verbs, evocative adjectives, searing honesty and an unbounded imagination.Also, that it's easier said than done. In this context, there are moments when I feel utterly stupid and unimaginative. My inner monologues resemble the chatter of teenage girls in their lack of content and use of worn-out adjectives. I mean, awesome and amazing, like seriously? Bleeuurghh!! During such exasperating times, my inner world aches to devour a mouthful of good-looking words in the Queen's English. I head to my dusty book-closet and roughly displace its contents until I find a book either by one of the barons of British literature, a W. Somerset Maugham/PG Wodehouse or a laid-back satire along the lines of Yes Minister.The book usually serves its purpose admirably. It manages to extract me from my predicament by either making me split my sides laughing or by drowning me in a stream of sentences so beautifully constructed that I completely forget my insecurities and start shaking my head ponderously at the writer's virtuosity instead. Coming to the to pic of the writer himself, W. Somerset Maugham is one of my favourite writers in the English language. Being an aspiring writer who's yet to find his voice myself, his novels never fail to stab me with a hopeful optimism. My premature belief, that I can write well, is reinforced when I read Maugham.He never intimidates me or bores me, commonplace sins many writers will have to go to confession for. While reading his prose, he possesses the singular ability of making the difficult art of writing seem pretty doable. This, I've realized with the passing of time, is due to one simple reason. It is because W. Somerset Maugham never shows off! Never! Never does he ramble pointlessly. Never does he merely graze the point instead of hitting it fair and square because he was too busy fooling around with the language. Never! He hits bulls eye with eloquence and a kind of frugal, flowing lyricism.There is always a single-minded purpose behind his writings. It is to spin a mighty good yarn by g etting the point across without making his readers consult a dictionary. He even propounds profundity in a manner that typically makes me re-read the paragraph(and underline it) to admire the economy and ease with which the thought was expressed in words. I find the writing styles of Hemingway and Maugham similar in form, but while Hemingway's writing is austere to the point of being skeletal, Maugham clothes his words until they can be considered passably pretty.For his remarkable abilities, Maugham's opinions about his own writing were always modest. He believed he stood  Ã¢â‚¬Å"in the very first row of the second-raters. †Ã‚  Asked about his method of writing, he simplified it to a matter of keen observation and honest reproduction. â€Å"†Most people cannot see anything,†Ã‚  he once said,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"but I can see what is in front of my nose with extreme clearness; the greatest writers can see through a brick wall. My vision is not so penetrating. † My f avourite excerpts Advice to aspiring writers I forget who it was that recommended men for their soul's good to do each day two things they disliked: it was a wise man, and it is a precept that I have followed scrupulously; for every day I have got up and I have gone to bed. But there is in my nature a strain of asceticism, and I have subjected my flesh each week to a more severe mortification. I have never failed to read the Literary Supplement of The Times. It is a salutary discipline to consider the vast number of books that are written, the fair hopes with which their authors see them published, and the fate which awaits them.What chance is there that any book will make its way among that multitude? And the successful books are but the successes of a season. Heaven knows what pains the author has been at, what bitter experiences he has endured and what heartache suffered, to give some chance reader a few hours relaxation or to while away the tedium of a journey. And if I may judg e from the reviews, many of these book are well and carefully written; much thought has gone to their composition; to some even has been given the anxious labour of a lifetime.The moral I draw is that the writer should seek his reward in the pleasure of his work and in release from the burden of his thoughts; and indifferent to aught else, care nothing for praise or censure, failure or success. † â€Å"Until long habit has blunted the sensibility, there is something disconcerting to the writer in the instinct which causes him to take an interest in the singularities of human nature so absorbing that his moral sense is powerless against it.He recognizes in himself an artistic satisfaction in the contemplation of evil which a little startles him but sincerity forces him to confess that the disapproval he feels for certain actions is not nearly so strong as his curiosity in their reasons. The writer is more concerned to know than to judge. † On the ironic humour of life â €Å"Dirk Stroeve was one of those unlucky persons whose most sincere emotions are ridiculous. † On the nature of art â€Å"Why should you think that beauty, which is the most precious thing in the world, lies like a stone on the beach for the careless passer-by to pick up idly?Beauty is something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions out of the chaos of the world in the torment of his soul. And when he has made it, it is not given to all to know it. To recognize it you must repeat the adventure of the artist. It is a melody he sings to you, and to hear it again in your own heart you want knowledge and sensitiveness and imagination. † B? kh? n kh? ? nha c? a chu c? a minh va ? tru? ng, chang trai Maugham b? t d? u phat tri? n m? t cai tai kheo dua ra nh? ng nh? n xet gay t? n thuong cho nh? ng ngu? i ma c? u khong ua. Cai tai nay doi khi du? c ph? n anh trong cac nhan v? t van h? c c? a Maugham