Character and plot Essay Example for Free

Character and plot Essay Discuss the ways in which Arthur Miller uses the characters of Alfieri to highlight cultural differences and to develop the audiences understanding of theme, character and plot. Arthur Millers A View from The Bridge uses a character called Alfieri to introduce characters, the plot and theme of the story. Alfieri is an Italian American meaning he was born in Italy and immigrated to American to work. . He is a man of his 50s and in this story, not only does he play the role of a character, but also a narrator. He makes us aware of the cultural differences between American and Italian culture through his opinions. He works as a lawyer; from this we can immediately tell he is educated and very wise. The immigration law changed in 1921-1924. This law only allowed people from Britain, Ireland and Scandinavia to migrate to America. This resulted to illegal immigration. A view from the Bridge is about the movement of immigrants migrating from Italy to America. They moved because of the American Dreams which was people from other countries going to America to start a new life and earn a good living full of opportunities. The Italian migration happened mainly between 1820-1920. More than 4 million Italian people moved to America. Brooklyn Bridge and its surrounding areas are used as the setting of the play. The word Gullet is used by Alfieri to describe the place where they live. The word is a metaphor and it creates an atmosphere that is not very pleasant to live in. Alfieris first speech introduces the background information of Italians. Italians would hardly ask a lawyer for help because in Italian culture lawyers are not good news, they are considered to be connections to disasters. The honest and trustworthy Italians can be quite revengeful. They solve their own situations by taking matters into their own hands. Although Italians are settling into America their two cultures remain diverse. Repetition of the words Distrust, Law and Justice by Alfieri signifies them and the even suggests that the plot is based on these words. Alfieri understands both Italian and American culture and can conclude in his last speech how he feels about Eddie and what he has done. From the start Alfieri hinted that the ending of the play wasnt going to be a happy one. He says and sat there as powerless as I, and watched it run its bloody course. From that, we can sense doom and that is why this play is a Greek tragedy. Eddie, Catherine, Marco use a lot of slang type sentences where as Alfieri uses long, well punctuated and sophisticated sentences. This linguistic technique makes the audience understand what is happened if they do not follow what Catherine, Eddie, Beatrice, Marco and Rodolpho are saying. The use of short, simple sentences spoken by the other characters makes the situation more realistic, makes the audience awake because it is very fast and the characters speak more often. Arthur Miller also uses a lot of exclamation marks so that the sentences are more interesting and so that the actors know when to shout or act exaggerated, this is a very good technique. With the use of exclamation mark the sentence gets energy. There is more attention than if there were long sentences. In the play there are four main characters. Eddie (a protagonist), Catherine, Beatrice and Alfieri. Eddie, a protagonist, meaning that he commits an offence without knowing it; he then learns his fault and usually results in death or suffering. He gains Alfieris sympathy towards the end of the play. Eddie loves Catherine not only as a niece but also as a daughter and a friend and Alfieri knows this. Eddie was over protective and loved Catherine too much which proved to be fatal. Alfieri knows that Eddie does not want to any one to take her away from him, but on the other hand, she does not belong to him. He says And yet, it is better to settle for half, it must be! Marco kills Eddie in Act 2. We do not know if he intended to or if it was for self-protection but in a way, this is revenge. When he was talking to Alfieri, he says In my country he would be dead by no. He would not live this long. Alfieri understands how he feels but tells him not to kill. He is in America right now and such a deed can result to a life sentence. He says To promise not to kill is not dishonourable. Italians are not as civilised as Americans but this is one of the cultural differences between the two diverse cultures. Arthur Miller includes many stage directions leaving the director making up more of their own directions. Alfieri plays the part of a character and a narrator making him A view from the bridge because he is looking and dealing with the situation and also telling the story as if it happened yesterday, this helps him to tell the story and give opinions making the audience aware, have a better understanding of the play, the characters and the plot. The moral of this story suggested by Alfieri is we should be satisfied with half if not the whole amount.

Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire Essay examples -- essays research pa

The Romans were on one of the greatest people of all. They had power, wealth, and even a half of the world. They built one of the strongest and vast empire that world has ever seen. They came from nothing to something awesome. It started of as a city and ended up being one of the greatest empire of all. This essay is going to focus on the Roman Empire from the rise to the fall and the government, architecture, mythology, Family Structure, and Food of the Romans. As the story goes, Rome was founding in 753 B.C. by two brothers Remus and Romulus who were raised by wolves. The two brothers started fighting over the leadership of the land. Eventually Romulus killed Remus and took control own his own. The city was only a small settlement at that time. As the civilization grew, the Etruscans took over. The Romans drove out the Etruscans in 509 B.C. By this time Rome had become a city. As the empire came to its peak it included lands throughout the Mediterranean world. Rome had first expanded into other parts of Italy and neighboring places during the Roman Republic, but made wider conquests and made a strong political power for these lands. In 44 BC Gaius Julius Caesar, the Roman leader who ruled the Roman Republic as a dictator was assassinated. Rome descended into more than ten years of civil war. After years of civil war, Caesar's heir Gaius Octavius (also known as Octavian) defeated his last rivals. In 27 B.C. the Senate gave him the name Aug ustus, meaning the exalted or holy one. In this way Augustus established the monarchy that became known as the Roman Empire. The Roman Republic, which lasted nearly 500 years, did not exist anymore. The emperor Augustus reigned from 27 BC to AD 14 and ruled with great power. He had reestabl... ...eat. Every decision that Rome made had a great affect on the city itself and the rest of the world. Many foolish emperors weakened the city and eventually cause the many aspects of life to crumble. The social issues were that no one took interest into Public affairs. The Political issues were that because no one took any public interest in government jobs, because there were not looked at as something that was good. The Economic issues were that they had poor harvest. Food was scarce people needed food so they went after it. The Germanic tribes started taking over the western half of the empire. The Roman Empire was a great and big empire that lasted hundreds of years. It had a great impact on a lot of civilizations. The Romans went from a small civilization to one of the greatest empire of all. But then, was ripped apart into pieces until there was nothing left.

Quality and Quantitative Approach in Engineering

The objective of this paper is to propose a study and discussion on the use of quantitative and qualitative approaches in engineering research methods and design. In this introduction it is to provide a thorough presentation on the aspects of qualitative and quantitative approaches for engineering research. As such, the scope of this paper covers a broad range of topics and it is important that the engineer to perform successful experiments, and it is equally important that to understand and be able to estimate the accuracy of the engineering investigations through these approaches. In the past research approaches in engineering have accumulated to a point at which the engineers and investigators have many selections. For those designing an engineering research proposal, it is recommended that a general framework be maintained to accommodate advice about all facets of the study, from assessing the general theoretical ideas behind the investigation to the detailed data collection and test procedures. Using an extant framework also allows engineering researchers to lodge their plans in design ideas well grounded in the literature and recognized by audiences that read and support the proposals for engineering research. The focuses in this paper are on the use of quantitative and qualitative approach and the comparisons and contrasts in the characteristics as well as the significances of these approaches within the field of engineering design research. 2. Background This section suggests the background and the framework of quantitative as well as the qualitative approaches for engineering research. The theoretical assumptions about what constitute the knowledge claims; the general procedures of research are the strategies of investigation; and detailed procedures of data collection analysis are called methods. . 1 Outline of Quantitative Approach to Engineering Research A quantitative approach in engineering is defined as one in which the engineer mainly employ postpositivist claims for developing knowledge. The knowledge are called cause and effect thinking, reduction to specific variables and hypothesis and questions, use of measurement and observation, and the test of theories. Quantitative appro ach employs strategies of analysis such as experiments and opinions, and collects information on predetermined instruments that yield statistical information. In this scenario the engineer tests a theory by specifying narrow hypotheses and the collection of experiment data to support or refute the hypotheses. An experiential engineering design is applied in which attitudes are assessed both and after an experimental treatment. The data are collected on an instrument that measures attitudes, and the information collected is analyzed using statistical execution and hypothesis testing. 2. 2 Outline of Qualitative Approach to Engineering Research. A qualitative approach in engineering research is one in which the engineer makes knowledge claims based primarily on constructivist perspectives and that is, the multiple meanings of individual experiences, meanings evidently and historically constructed, with intent of developing a theory or pattern, and that is issue-oriented or collaborative. It also uses strategies of investigation such as narratives, phenomenologies, ethnographies, grounded theory studies, and case studies. The engineer collects open-ended, emerging data with the primary intent of developing ideas and design from the data. In this situation the engineers seek to establish the meaning of a phenomenon from the opinions of participants. This means identifying a culture-sharing group and studying how it developed shared patterns of behavior over time (i. e ethnography). One of the key elements of collecting data is to observe participants’ behaviours by participating in their activities. For this research approach, the engineer seeks to examine an issue related to oppression of individuals. To study this, the approach is taken of collecting stories of individual oppression using a narrative approach. Individuals are interviewed at some length to determine how they have personally experienced feedback. 3. Comments and discussion Different form of investigations must be performed on all experimental data. The examination may be a simple verbal appraisal of test results or a complex theoretical analysis of errors involved in the experiment and matching of the data with fundamental principles. The discussion considers the analysis of data to determine errors, precision, and general validity of experimental measurements. The experimentalist should always know the validity of data. In order to specify the performance of an amplifier, an electrical engineer must know the accuracy with which the appropriate measurements of voltage and distortion have been conducted. A nuclear engineer must know the accuracy and precision of many instruments to make radioactivity measurement with confidence. In the quantitative approach like experiential analysis, design engineers have drawn on their own experience of designing to give explanation of aspects of design. Design researchers are also concerned about the lack of acceptance of their ideas by practicing engineering designers. By involving in the engineering research, it is more likely that the outcome of the research will be taken up because of the shared ownership of the knowledge produced by quantitative approach. On the other hand, in the qualitative approach, historical analysis is the discovery from past records a description of explanation for invention in the past. Scientists divide data into primary and secondary sources. Primary source include eyewitness and contemporary records such as instruction manuals and the personal notes. Secondary sources are summaries and reports of invention by other scientist or engineers. The role of historical analysis in qualitative approach is to provide theoretical base for the current research. Development in design due to the introduction of new technology can be compared to the development in the past. During the last decade, the strategies of investigation affiliated with quantitative approach were those that invoked the post-positivist perspectives. These include true experiments and less rigorous experiments. More recently, quantitative strategies involved experiments with many variables and treatments such as factorial and measure designs. They also included elaborate structural equation models that incorporated paths and the identification of the collective strength of multiple variables. The two critical strategies of investigation in the quantitative approach are test experiments and surveys. Experiments include authenticated test experiments, with random assignment of subjects to treatment conditions, as well as quasi-experiments that use non-randomized design. Survey includes using questionnaires and structured interviews for data collection to gather the feedback from the past records. In the qualitative approach, the experiment results those are usually rich and detailed, offering many ideas and concepts to inform consumers your new invention. Qualitative approach can display how the product user feel and think, but cannot tell how many of the audience feel and think that way. Qualitative approaches in research results are considered thought of as themes; they should not be reported as percentages, subjected to statistical analysis or projected to a wider population. The main reason is because the participants do not make up a randomly selected representative sample and not all participants are asked exactly the same. This approach offers flexibility as far as timing is concerned and exhibits an important challenge for engineering design. 4. Conclusion The following points can be considered and taking note when using the quantitative and qualitative approaches for engineering research: 1. Examine the data for consistency. No matter how hard an engineer tries, there will always be some data points that appear to be grossly in error. For instance, if adding heat to a container of water, the temperature must rise, and so if a particular data point indicates a drop in temperature for a heat input , that point might be eliminated. The data should follow common sense consistency. If many data points in the experiment fall in the zone of â€Å"inconsistent†. The entire experimental procedure should be investigated for gross mistakes and miscalculation. 2. Perform a statistical analysis of data. A statistical analysis is only necessary when measurements are tested several times. If this is the case, make estimates of such parameters as stand deviation or etc. 3. Estimate the uncertainties in the test results. The engineering researcher should bear in mind the influence of different variables by the time the final results are collected. 4. Anticipate the test results based on theory. Prior to obtaining correlations of the experimental data, the researcher should review the theory affiliated with the subject and glean relevant information that will indicate the trends the results may take. Critical dimensionless groups, pertinent functional relations, and other information may lead to a fruitful interpretation of data. 5. Correlate the data. The investigator should make sense of the data in terms of physical theories and on the basis of previous experimental work in the engineering field. The test results should be analyzed to display how conform to or differ from previous investigations or standard that may be employed for same measurements. In quantitative approach, the experiments are number-based whereas the qualitative approaches are text-based. Statistical test are used for investigation in quantitative method and more in-depth information on case study of a qualitative method for research in engineering. The main aim in the use of quantitative approach provides observed effects that are interpreted by engineers of a test program on a problem or condition whereas the main function of qualitative approach is more subjective and that is, solving a problem or condition from the point of view of the past experience. In conclusion, both quantitative and qualitative approaches are valid and reliable. However, the use of quantitative approach accounted largely for the measurement device and engineering instrument employed. This offers heavier time expenditure on the planning and lighter on the analysis phase. The use of qualitative approach depended largely on the skill and rigor of an engineer, and that allows the engineer a lighter time expenditure on planning end but a heavier during the investigation stage.

The Different Functions of Strategic Human Resource Management Free Essay Example, 1250 words

Moreover, strategic HRM benefits the organization as it contributes to the accomplishment of goal, supports and allows implementing of business strategies, creates and maintains a competitive advantage and improves innovation potential of the organization. In addition, SHRM enhances the number of real strategic options within the organization. The Society for Human Resource Management (20008) recognizes SHRM in its the impact on the strategic direction of the organization and that it improves cooperation between numerous line managers and the HRM department (HR’s Evolving Role in Organizations and Its Impact on Business Strategy, 2008). The main functions of HR, the recruitment, training and development of employees, support the organization’s business strategy through human capital and ensure the organization in building, developing and maintaining its workforce. Addressing critical business issues through Strategic Human Resource Management The most critical human resource issues are connected with the decision making (Walsh, Sturman & Longstreet, 2010). There are a number of such challenges that make HR strategic implementation difficult. They are connected with the specific characteristics that differ HR from other resources in the organization. This is the human performance, which is difficult to predict, therefore it is up to the HRM to lead specific improvement in order to make the positive impact on organizational ending results (Millmore, 2007). We will write a custom essay sample on The Different Functions of Strategic Human Resource Management or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now According to Millmore (2007), strategic HRM is concerned with an organizations human capital, which is its experience, skills and abilities. In addition, only HR policies and practices serve the development of human capital within certain organization. However, here the main challenge is in ability to select the appropriate cost-efficient approach that would assist employees in their ability to perform better. The challenge is also in the ability of HR decision makers to transform human capital into such capabilities that would be the most valuable, unique and difficult to imitate by others, which will represent the competitive advantage of the particular organization (Salaman, Storey & Billsberry, 2006). The issue with HR policies and practices is usually a concern of how to select the appropriate set of rules and approaches for better accomplishment of organizational goals. These resources are also shaped by such conditions as intellectual and ski ll-based prowess of workforce that is utilized by the organization, creating a competitive advantage for it through exemplary set of employees’ attributes (Salaman, Storey & Billsberry, 2006).