Fahrenheit 451 Ignorance

Rational ignorance is very similar to apathy, and by reading, we can rid ourselves of the urge to Just not care. Ray Bradburys Fahrenheit 451 attempts to warn readers of the price that comes with rational ignorance by creating an example society much like our own. This society has given up all intellectual thought and sharing of ideas. By â€Å"paying the price† characters like Mildred give up the human experience and become void due to lack of independent thoughts. Characters like Clarisse pay a much higher toll: life and dignity.Characters like Guy Montag and Granger pay the price by being surrounded with nothings but Mildreds. In F451 , society believes that limiting education and sharing of ideas actually enhances life by excluding bad thoughts. In Ray Bradburys dystopian future, every character pays the price for ignorance. Most characters, though, willingly and unknowingly do so. In the novel, life is not valued the way it should be; living is not meaningful anymore. In the very beginning of the book, Mildred tries to kill herself for, what seems like, no reason. This happens so often that technicians are sent to speedily fix he problem rather than doctors.After the technicians do their duty to Mildred, her parlor â€Å"uncle† states mvyell, after all, this is the age of disposable tissue. Blow your nose on a person, wad them, flush them away, reach for another, blow, wad, flush† (17). Even after the ordeal, Mildred is not upset that she failed in taking her own life, as if indifferent to the subject. For her, life is no different than death. Mildred's â€Å"uncle† is correct in comparing a modern day person to a tissue. People have worth based on their thoughts, actions, and relations with people. If one has no houghts, real actions, or connections, their life cannot be worth very much.Mildred has as many independent thoughts as a tissue and values her life precisely for how much it is worth. In the same sense, one cannot value another's life if they cannot value their own. When Guy confronts Mildred about where Clarisse McClellan has been, Mildred nonchalantly says she died, as if it did not matter. Mildred shows that Clarisse's death means nothing to her when her reasoning for net telling Montag sooner was I forgot all about it† (47). Mildred says that she wants to forget sad things, but it does ot seem like this event makes her very sad at all. Mildred's fickle mind cannot assess a tragedy.It was not a surprise that Mildred did not pay heed to her death, but that she died with nothing to show for her life. The multitude of suicides, mentioned earlier, are no tragedies considering the quality of the life being taken. Clarisse's death was unfortunate because she lived. To Clarisse, there was a large difference between life and death because she, unlike her peers, experienced life. Comparable to Clarrise's death, the death of the random citizen (who seems to enjoy life too; he as on a stroll at nigh t) killed in place of Montag (149) suffered a similar fate of no dignity after death.Intellectuals like Montag, Granger, and all ot the travellers who memorize books pay by being surrounded by an endless amount of Mildreds. After introducing himself and showing Montag the end of the manhunt, Granger explains, When we were separate individuals, all we had was rage. I struck a fireman when he came to burn my library years ago. IVe been running ever since† (150). Granger bridges his own experiences to Montags to illustrate Montags future. Granger is far too wise to be bitter about his situation.When intellectuals have no choice but to either suffer amongst the ignorant or outcast themselves, they are the ones who pay the most. Ignorance is most certainly not a satisfying path, but neither is a life of suffering. Not one character in Bradburys controversial novel escapes the price of ignorance. However, the payment methods differ from character to character. â€Å"Ignorance is vo id† should become a popular saying for in the midst of ignorance, one either becomes empty or outcast. Either way, no one wins. Ridding the world of complex, â€Å"painful† thoughts does not lessen pain, it lessens emotion and human experience.

Research the Impact of Prejudice and Discrimination Essay

2.1- Explain ways in which children and young people can experience prejudice and discrimination. There are many ways in which children can experience prejudice and discrimination in school. There are so many pressures on children nowadays to â€Å"fit in† and to conform with expected behaviours that they may then be discriminated against or bullied if they don’t do this. This can all start at a surprisingly young age and all staff within school needs to be aware and vigilant to ensure that children respect and embrace diversity. Children can experience prejudice and discrimination in the same way as us adults can due to their race, religion, age, sex, culture or ethnicity. Its important to look out for a few things within school: – Comments made about how a child looks or the clothes they are wearing. – Children not playing with others who may be seen as ‘different’ – Children being excluded because they are either boys or girls. – Children only playing with other children that are the same race or ethnicity There are two main ways in which children and young people can experience prejudice and discrimination; this is through direct and indirect discrimination. Direct discrimination can be name calling because of a child’s size, race, religion, disabilities for example if children are playing netball and a smaller child wants to join in but the other children may not let them because they are short. Indirect discrimination can be for example when a child is from a different culture will not be excluded but may not want to join in because of their personal beliefs or their situation. By promoting inclusion it can be helpful to children’s well being and can benefit the children in the long run. 2.2 Analyse the impact of prejudice and discrimination on children and young people. Prejudice and discrimination can only have negative effects on children and young people. As well as affecting academic progress of children, discrimination can negatively impact their overall health and well-being. When children or young people feel they are being discriminated against they may experience: ââ€"  loss of self-esteem ââ€"  disempowerment ââ€"  confusion ââ€"  anger ââ€"  lack of motivation ââ€"  depression. †¢ Low confidence. †¢ Low self worth. †¢ Low self value/Confused identity. †¢ Fear of rejection. †¢ Isolated. †¢ Withdrawn. †¢ Feel stressed and unable to cope. Prejudice creates social and emotional tension and can lead to fear and anxiety and occasionally hostility and violence. Prejudice and discrimination can undermine the self-esteem and self-confidence of those being ridiculed and make them feel terrible, unaccepted and unworthy. When that happens, their school performance often suffers, they may become depressed and socially withdrawn and childhood can become a much less happy time.

Gender Bias Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Gender Bias - Essay Example To start with, the author of the text is definitely a man. This is easy to tell since the work has been written from the third person perspective. This simply means that he is sharing experiences that are foreign to him. The author uses simple sentences and a limited description of objects, people and events. This is common among men who are unable to express their feeling accurately using words. His reference to the imagery of the â€Å"American wife† clearly shows the author is a man as all other men do in the American society (Hemingway 695). The description of how she went out to look for the cat shows the caring and compassionate nature of women while her husband accompanies her although he is unwilling. This shows that the author is a man since he clearly captures her husband’s reaction. The author explains how the woman is attracted to the hotel keeper who is described as being serious, mature and cold. The author captures the manly features that attract the woman to the hotel keeper. He states that the woman is interested in fine things, romantic dining, long hair and a cat (Hemingway 695). He describes these things as being foreign to him and could have described them better if he were a woman. The author vividly points out her husband’s interests and this could only mean that he is a man as well. This text clearly shows the plight of an African-American woman who works hard by cleaning laundry for the white people. From the beginning of the text, it can be seen that the author is a woman from the way that she describes Delia as being a hard worker and provides for her husband Sykes. On the other hand, her husband is depicted as being lazy and does not treat her well too (Hurston 697). He once played a trick on her by placing the bullwhip in her laundry. He was well aware of the fact that Delia was scare of snakes. This shows that he is

Employment Trends in Canada Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Employment Trends in Canada - Essay Example In between the years 1994 to 1998 about 1 million jobs were created and in 1999 alone more than 391,000 new jobs were created. (Economy Overview, 2001) This rise in the employment rate of the country reflects a profound economic boom in the country. The instrumental factor behind this economic and employment boom was the resurgence of the manufacturing sector and to a more extent, globalization. Globalization lead to the infusion of specialized trade, technological sectors into the country, hence leading to the creation of a serviced based economy. This resulted in the generation of a whole new species of workers, the "knowledge workers". The knowledge workers were people having a college or an university degree and in time proved to be indispensible to the country that was seeking new horizons to modernize itself and expand its economy. Overall till the end of the year 1999 Canada's unemployment rate was down to a low of 7.6% on the average. . (Economy Overview, 2001) What these current trends of employment in Canada brings into the forefront is the rate of growth of employment in the country is a direct effect of globalization with knowledge-based industries and services based economy as the key generators of employment.

Propaganda Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Propaganda - Essay Example Propaganda is simply the information spread deliberately in order to harm an individual, an institution, a group of people, or even a government. The cultural dictionary defines propaganda as legal and official communications of the government to the public in order to influence them politically. The images associated to propaganda found in this course highlight some of the instances of practice of propaganda. This images include, the image displayed in the third lesson about the young imitating Hitler’s steps and actions, what the Chinese postage stamp implicated in relation to propaganda and finally, the jobs. Looking at how best the practice of propaganda has taken root in the areas of jobs, studied in lesson six and the Chinese postage stamp, studied in lesson five. The post agency of china released stamps with six different designs during the National Tourism Day. The designs showed the picture of the islands of Vietnam’s Hoang Sa, which Chinese occupied illegally (Chong, 2002). The post agency also released postcards and envelops with the same pictures. This is propaganda and the china post agency accepted that was a mistake and thus Vietnam has legal claims for the act. It also follows that in the Postal Service Department, china Postal Agency has trivialized the law. Therefore, Vietnam protested against china and demanded for removal of the images of the island. Vietnam claimed that china used propaganda to prosper their tourism industry by posting the images of the islands of Hoang Sa.... It is absurd to think that the people who quit their jobs in this sector got promotions. Therefore, the government continues propaganda in this sector to restore its self-image. Both in china and the United States, the issue about the stamp and the quitting of jobs by the employees in the two countries respectively, are forms of propaganda. These are similar in that both are deceptive. In china, the China Postal Agency deceives the tourists about the ownership of beautiful sites such as the Vietnam Hoang Sa islands published as a design of stamp and posted on envelops and post cards. On the other hand, the government of the United States gives a false statement on the employment sector. The reporters got instructions that instead of reporting that the economy of America is unhealthy, they report the opposite, the economy of America is very healthy (George, 2008). In real sense, the quitting of jobs of citizens is due to the low payments on high wage jobs. These two countries want to achieve good self-images for their governments, illegally. The extent of the propaganda practiced in the two countries differs in the intensity. In China, the postage stamps affected the country in general. The Vietnam had legal allegations towards China Postal Agency; it did not cause many adverse effects to the citizens and the economy of China. On the other hand, the propaganda practiced in the United States causes adverse effects to both the economy of the country and the citizens (Chong, 2002). Citizens quit the jobs because of low payments with high wage jobs, low living standards thus tempering with the economy, they cannot afford school fees, and basic needs of their families and this in turn affects greatly the economy of the country. Another difference

Supply Chain Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words - 2

Supply Chain Management - Essay Example n that health care units are normally used by upper class people of high income groups (HIG) who are health conscious and wish to remain fit and trim. It could be used by children, adolescents, men and women and also elderly people. In the case of prospective location, Newcastle in UK, it is seen that percentage population above age of 60 years is 18.7%. Again, children within 18 years constitute 18.3% of the population. (Newcastle upon tyne central 2007). It is seen that in the context of current competitors’ charges, in most cases the prices are more or less equal for fitness services rendered, through use of machines or physical training, swimming pools, etc. Coming now to the second part of the question, it could be said that the main duty of a Geographical Information System (GIS) is to store, analyze, manage and present data which is connected with location. â€Å"Geography plays a role in nearly every decision we make. Choosing sites, targeting market segments, planning distribution networks, responding to emergencies, or redrawing country boundaries—all of these problems involve questions of geography.† (What is GIS). It is necessary that information needs to be associated with locations. Thus the latter plays a very determinant part in business strategy for bonding with customers or setting new plants. Again it is seen that Choosing a site, targeting a market segment, planning a distribution network, zoning a neighbourhood, allocating resources, and responding to emergencies—all these problems involve questions of geography. (Geography matters 2008). It is believed that retail business of the kind carried out by Tesco could greatly benefit by GIS. â€Å"Businesses maintain information about sales, customers, inventory, demographic profiles, and mailing lists, all of which have geographic locations. Therefore, business managers, marketing strategists, financial analysts, and professional planners increasingly rely on GIS to organize, analyze,

As Time Goes By Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

As Time Goes By - Movie Review Example In a scene at Rick's Cafà © Amà ©ricain, Ilsa asks Sam to play the song ‘As Time Goes By’ on the piano and Sam replies that he is a little rusty on the air but when Ilsa insists, and she hums the song for him, Sam plays the song. Ilsa then further insists that Sam sing the song, and he does. As Sam plays the tune, Ilsa is in a moony state as if the song brings up some memories (Langkjà ¦r). Shortly Rick walks into the Cafà © and scolds Sam for playing the song, but when he sees Ilsa the two look at each other for a while as the song continues to play in the background. It then becomes quite clear to the viewer, that this song is not just another soundtrack, but a tune that emphasized the love affair between Rick and Ilsa. From this moment on the song ‘As Time Goes By’, becomes part of the functional soundtrack music of the movie. The song on its own told the story of love when it played out again in the flashback sequence in Paris when Rick is in blue me mories, and every time Ilsa and Rick were together. The song ‘As Time Goes By’ became a natural hummable tune that left a lasting memory on the viewer(s) and reminded them of the striking romance between the two lovers in the movie Casablanca. In the movie, we see the theme of valor when Lazlo seeks to obtain the letters of transit from Rick even when he is aware that Major Strasser came to Casablanca to ensure that he does not succeed. On the other hand, we see the theme of sacrifice when Rick lets go of Ilsa, the love of his life and urges her to go with her husband Victor.

Strategic marketing management (examination) Term Paper

Strategic marketing management (examination) - Term Paper Example The culture of an organization may prove so hard to change when change facilitators think of a unitary culture for an organization. In real world, no company operates as a uniform whole, but various units of a company may display different culture, which make subcultures of an entire organization. Changing organizational culture demands a deep understanding of the existing culture and clear knowledge about what culture the management intends to inculcate in the company to replace the old culture. Therefore, planning should always be done based on existing corporate culture because employees are already familiar with what is expected of them and know what values the company embrace. For example, Google gives its employees the freedom to explore new ideas and staff members have easy access to co-founders as well as executives. If the company wanted to implement a culture that takes away the autonomy of employees in the way they work and create a barrier to founders and executive access , it is most likely that employees will rebel against the proposed change. Penetration pricing: under this pricing strategy the company decides to set artificially low prices for its products in order to attract more customers and establish loyalty among existing customers, thus expanding market share. For example, Apple can decide to set prices for it Smartphone lower than its competitors such as Samsung in order to regain its market share. The approach was utilized by France Telecom as well as Sky TV to widen their market share. Skimming pricing: Using this strategy, a company can set high initial price for its product and then gradually lowers the price of the product to gain more market share. For example, Apple Company may have set high price for its Smartphone then later reduced the price amidst competition so that it can make it available to low market end and increase the company’s market share. Franchising is a business

Viruses & Cells Comparison Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Viruses & Cells Comparison - Essay Example They are classified differently because of the inherent structural and functional differences. Unlike living cells which can reproduce on their own, viruses have to rely on other cells for them to reproduce. Viruses lack other cells parts like the plasma membrane, ribosomes, and the cytoplasm. They, therefore, infest a living host and use its cells to reproduce. Secondly, living cells are self-sustaining while the viruses are not. Living cells are able to survive on their own because they have all the required structures and proteins which allow them to carry out life-sustaining processes and functions. Viruses, on the other hand, have to rely on a host cell or organism. The third difference is that living cells can synthesize proteins while viruses cannot. Cells have ribosomes and can easily synthesize proteins on their own. Viruses lack these ribosomes and have to rely on the host cells to be able to translate its messenger RNA into the viral proteins. According to Grifo and Tahara , viruses do not have the ability to generate and store energy in form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) as in the case with living cells. They derive their energy and all other metabolic functions from the host living cells. They do this by using basic building materials like Amino acids, lipids, and nucleotides from the host organism. Finally, viruses cannot respond to stimuli as it is the case of the living cells. Viruses are inert chemicals which cannot perform critical life functions or even responding to stimuli.

Hamlet Act Two Essay Example for Free

Hamlet Act Two Essay Hamlet Act ll An important character in the play Hamlet is Polonius. Polonius is often thought to be foolish, and thoughtless. However, Polonius is anything but foolish, and thoughtless. Polonius is a man who is very intellectual, and he provides guidance to those who need it. For example, his advice to Reynaldo on how to  monitor Laertess wild behavior is magnificent and brilliant. His advice to Ophelia  about Hamlet, love, and affection is very accurate. Polonius is considered a fool to some people, because Hamlet is making it seem that way, he wants to put Polonius down, and make Polonius seem like a fool. Hamlet is rude to Polonius, and constantly making fun of him. At one point Hamlet calls Polonius a â€Å"fishmonger†. Hamlet then makes his insult worse by wishing that Polonius were as honest as a fishmonger, which is to say that Polonius is lower than the lowest. Although, Polonius is nothing of the sort, another example of Polonius providing guidance to those who need it is when Laertes is waiting for his ship to depart, Polonius has a couple of minutes to tell  him how to live well. His brief advice is insightful and parental. He tells Laertes to think before  he acts, listen more than talk,  keep good friends close but dont worry  about drinking buddies. Dont get in fights, watch your money, and take care of your appearance, things like that. Polonius is the kind to seek to discover the truth on his own. He studies Hamlet to link his madness to love and betrayal. He then seeks to trial his theories by testing Hamlets sanity through a slew of inquiring questions. A foolish man does not do this. Perhaps, Polonius was just putting on an act, to make people think that he was foolish and stupid. Regardless of his motives, Polonius cannot be described as a simple character. Polonius has gotten a bad reputation, but further depth into his character reveals that Polonius is indeed a complex character with a great deal of wisdom.

Cafe Expresso And Sustained Competitive Advantage

Cafe Expresso And Sustained Competitive Advantage The purpose of this report was to critically analyse the Human Resource and Performance management systems of Cafe Expresso as a source of sustained competitive advantage. Specific objectives were to discuss the Human Resource, as a source of sustained competitive advantage (under RBV) in a company. In addition, the implications of RBV (Resource Based View) on SHRM (Strategic Human Resource Management) of an organization were discussed and how performance management systems are put in place to multiply its efficiency. The role of managers in this regard was also analysed to certain extent. In the end, threat posed to Cafà © Expresso was identified and recommendations were offered. One of the challenges faced by the company was the sustainability of its competitive advantage. The report recommends an extensive use of innovation and creativity at all levels of management in the company and futuristic approach in all its strategies and decision-making process. Table of Contents Introduction The case study on which this report is based, deals with one of the renowned players of the coffee house industry, called the Cafà © Expresso. After reining the coffee industry for almost 15 years, they lost their market share at the hand of rival competitors. As their key staff was poached and business model imitated. The new leadership in the form of charismatic chief executive, Ben Thomson, identified the problem in companys human resource and appointed, Kam Patel as a new global HR director to sort it out. Kam Patel worked on the new HR strategy to achieve Bens vision of becoming the number one coffee house across the globe. She revolutionised the role of HR and introduced functions of Partner Resources, where all employees were termed as partners in the business. Other key areas on which she focused were, resourcing and retention, learning and development, talent management, employee involvement and communication, and compensation and benefits. Her efforts reaped results and Cafà © Expresso moved to number two in the industry. The service had improved considerably and there was an increased level of staff and customer retention. However, they were now concerned about sustaining and developing this competitive advantage, which they achieved through superior strategy and innovative HR practices (Harzing and pinnington, 2011). Objectives of the report The main objectives of the report are to discuss the Human Resource Management strategy of cafà © expresso in light of Resource Based Theory presented by Barney (1991). Followed by key recommendations, as to how it can further develop or maintain its competitive advantage, based on this perspective. Purpose of the report The purpose of this report is to put forward an inductive theoretical discussion, where by, the human resource in an organization can be viewed as a source of sustained competitive advantage. In order to accomplish our mission, we will focus on the need to introduce the Strategic Human resource Management and the summary of Resource Based View of an organization, as well as, cursory touching upon the old and new conflicting theories in the process. We will then identify the circumstances, under which the human resource is actually valuable, rear, inimitable and non-substantial (VRIO framework). We will draw an end to literature review by discussing the implications of RBV on basic SHRM and example case study. Finally, we will discuss the inferences and put forward recommendations, as to how human resources can provide sustained competitive advantage and analyzing the role of HR practices in creating this advantage. Limitations Due to word limit, this report only discusses the theoretical research carried in the field of SHRM development and not the empirical research. Literature Review Strategic Human Resource Management and Transformation Armstrong (2008:5) defines Human Resource Management as a strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organisations most valued assets- the people working there, who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of its objectives. Therefore, strategic HRM can be termed as those HR policies and practices, which will help an organisation in achieving its long-term goals and objectives through its people. Purcell (1999) defines strategic HRM as those actions, which differentiate an organsiation from its competitors in the market. HR policies and practices are no longer being formulated in isolation, as in the past. In the last half a century, HR functions have transformed from personnel in 1970s to employee welfare (unions) in 1990s to a strategic business partners in 21st century (Holbeche, 2009; Ulrich and Brockbank, 2005). The current period of HR transformation has been greatly influenced by Dave Ulrichs thinking (Holbeche, 2009). Strategic Management Framework Strategic management has seen remarkable advancement in the past half a century. Ever since the realisation of strategy into management, both academic researchers and practitioners have shown great interest in this field (Wright, et al, 1994). The business strategy encompasses the organisations strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats-SWOT (Chanda, 2009). The strategists have relied extensively on this single framework (SWOT) to structure their work (Barney, 1991). Other contribution in this framework is Porters- 5 Force Model in Fig.1.1, which emphasizes on the external environmental factors affecting firms performance. Porters model did receive a wide range of acceptability by the practitioners, but it does not cater for the determinants, on which a companys manager has influence (Wright, et al, 1994). Keeping in view the above mentioned strategic management theories, based on external factors determining the competitive advantage of an organization, let us now narrow down to strategic human resource management. In this regard, the most relative one is the Outside-in (Michigan HRM Model) theory, first published by Tichy, et al., 1982) According to them, People are recruited in to the organisations to do the jobs defined, by the division of labour. Performance must be monitored and rewards must be given to keep individuals productive (Devanna, et, al, 1984). In their model, Fig.2.2 Strategic management and environmental pressures they present the basic elements as interrelated systems, that are surrounded in the work related environment. C:UsersShahrukhDesktopR0801E_A.gif Fig.2.1 The five competitive forces that shape strategy Source: Harvard Business review, 2008 However, critics suggest that this model has harder, less humanistic approach to HRM, holding the employees as a resource, in the same manner as any other business resource. People can be obtained as cheap as possible, used sparingly, developed and exploited to organizations benefit (Price, 2011). Another limitation to this model is that, it cannot fit into dynamic and globalized economic conditions, where innovation and learning is the key to sustained competitive advantage. One of the upcoming and current theoretical discussions on strategic management is the Resource Based View of an organization (Barney, 1991; Wright, 1993). This theory of strategic management is different from environmentally-focused and externally motivated theories (e.g., Poter, 1980; Tichy, et al, 1982; Devanna, et al, 1984). It mainly focuses on the inside out view of the organization (Barney, 1991), its strategy and its performance (Hill and Jones, 2007). Furthermore, the Resource Based model of competitive advantage is mainly organisation- focused as compared to strategic management analysis by Porter and Devanna, which are industry environment- focused (Mc Williams and Smart cited in Wright, 1994). Resource Based View of an organisation Resource based view of a company as described above, emphasizes upon the internal resources of the company as a major factor in competitive success and sustainability (Wright, et al, 1994). It is therefore, imperative to briefly focus on the definitions of resources, competitive advantage and sustained competitive advantage. Resources within Resource Based Theory According to Barney(1991:101) the resources in a firm are all assets, capabilities, organizational processes, firm attributes, information, knowledge, etc. controlled by a firm that enable a firm to conceive of and implement strategies that improve its efficiency and effectiveness. Barney also classifies these resources in to three categories, such as, physical capital resources, human capital resources and organizational capital resources (Wright, et al, 1994). Since our focus is on human capital resources, therefore, according to Barney, it includes such things as experience, intelligence of both managers and workers in an organisation. Competitive and sustained competitive advantage When discussing the RBV of a firm, the above mentioned resources are in fact the source of competitive advantage. Barney (1991:102) believes competitive advantage is being achieved when a firm is implementing a value creating strategy, not simultaneously being implemented by any current or potential competitors. In contrast, in the environmentally motivated strategic models (e.g. Porters 1980; Devanna1984), the resources are considered to be mobile and that companies can create or purchase, resources held by the other firms (Wright, et al, 2001). The second definition is the sustained competitive advantage. Some authors have suggested that a sustained competitive advantage is simply a competitive advantage that lasts long period of calendar time (e.g. Jacobson 1988; Porter1985) (Barney, 1991). Whereas, the new theory is that sustained competitive advantage occurs only when the competitors are unable to copy the benefits of a competitor advantage at the first place (Wright, et al, 1994). Therefore, the criteria chalked down by Barney (1991) for sustained competitive advantage in his resource based theory is VRIO: Value should be created through resource There should be an element of uniqueness or rarity in the resource as compared to its competitors in the market The resource should not be imitable The resource of an organisation should not be substitutable with resources from other competitors Human Resource under VRIO Framework We have established that human resource is one of the components of sustained competitive advantage. Let us now further discuss it under the resource based (VRIO) framework (Barney Wright: 1997). Human Resource as Valuable As mentioned above, in order for human resource to become the source of sustained competitive advantage, it needs to add value to the firm (Elliot, 2003). According to Barney (1991), resources must possess additional characteristics, in order for them to add value to the organization. Other researchers believe that because of the variable level of skills and abilities of employees, there is a variance in individual contribution to the firm, consequently adding to the ability of human capital to provide value. (Wright, et al, 1994). In addition, value can also be created within the organisation for its human resource through regular training and development activities (Ulrich and Brockbank, 2005). Human Resource as Rare In contrast to the idea of rarity of human resources, it can be argued that labor pool is in fact homogenous due to existence of fairly high levels of unemployment, leading to an excess of supply of labor (Elliot, 2003). However, it is widely believed amongst the HR strategists that rarity in a human resource is derived from their variable levels of competencies and skills. For example, cognitive is an ability which is rarely found in all levels of human resource (Wright, et al, 1994). Since these rare competencies are distributed uniformly amongst the talent pool, therefore, quality human resource is rare (Lado and Wilson 1994). Human Resource as inimitable According to Wright et al (1994), If the competitive advantage gained through having a high quality skilled worker is easily imitable, then it not possible for human resource to constitute as a source of sustained competitive advantage. According to the RBV of competitive advantage, SHRM researches argue that the high quality workers can be imperfectly imitable, if they possess pre-requisites such as, unique historical background, casual ambiguity and social intricacy (Elliot, 2003). Furthermore, to sustain a competitive advantage, the human resource must also be imperfectly mobile i.e. that cannot be traded as regularly as possible (Amit Shoemaker; Grant; Peteraf, cited in Elliot 2003). However, William (1992) argues that nothing lasts forever and no matter what the organisation does, its competitive advantage will eventually be copied by its competitors. Therefore, he purposes the idea of First mover advantage- how fast an organization can maneuver across a range of competitive co nditions. Human Resource as non-substitutable Not able to be substituted mean that there must be no strategically equivalent valuable resources that are themselves either not rare or imitable (Barney 1991:111). Alternatively, if the resources are not rare and imitable, the other firms will be able to easily create and implement same business model and strategies, thus, invalidating the benefits of competitive advantage (Barney, 1991). However, it is widely argued that the biggest advantage to human resource is the fact that every person is genetically unique in a way that no two people are exactly identical, thus they are heterogeneous resource (Barney Wright, 1997; Wright et al, 1994; Pfeffer, 1995). In addition, human resources is the only source in an organisation, which has the potential to not to grow obsolete and can be easily introduced to new technologies, products and markets (Wright, et a, 1994). Furthermore, the time human resource spends in an oragnisation, adds to the experience which in turn adds to the total valu e of the organisation (Barney Wright, 1997). Applying RBV to SHRM and sustained competitive advantage As it is mentioned in para.2.1 that SHRM is a set of those HR policies and practices, which are designed to achieve long-term organizational goals. Though field of SHRM has not directly born of the RBV, it has clearly been instrumental to its development (Wright; Dunford; Snell: 2001). It was largely due to the fact that RBV shifted the view from external (environmental) factors to internal firm resources as a source of competitive advantage (Hoskisson: 1999). Therefore, amalgamation of RBV into SHRM should come as no surprise to the practitioners around the world. HR practices and sustained competitive advantage The potential of HR practices to establish a source of sustained competitive advantage has been argued greatly amongst academic researchers (Wright, et al: 2001). Two arguments came in quick succession in 1994. Wright et al (1994) suggested that HR practices (tools used to manage human pool), when studied under the RBV, VRIO framework (Barney and Wright: 1997), does not form the basis of sustained competitive advantage. As, individual HR practices can easily be imitated by competitors. Alternatively, they proposed that only the human resource capital (highly skilled and highly motivated workforce) has the potential to become the source of sustained competitive advantage for a firm (Elliot: 2003).In contrast, Lado and Wilson (1994) argued that HR practices are in fact the source of sustained competitive advantage for firm because HR systems (opposite to individual practices) can be unique, informally ambiguous and synergetic in way they develop firm competencies. Thus, HR practices wi th all its complementariness and interdependencies would be impossible to be copied by another competitor. This argument seems valid in the current SHRM paradigm (Wright, et al: 2001). Development and performance management The constant development in the field of SHRM has rendered RBV to achieve some consensus on the role of human resource in achieving sustained competitive advantage (Wright et al: 2001). These factors are illustrated in Fig.2.5. Fig.2.5: A model of basic strategic HRM components C:UsersShahrukhDesktop1-s2.0-S0149206301001209-gr1.gif Source: Journal of Management (2001) The components depicted in Fig.2.5 are only the levers by which a pool of human capital can be developed (Wright et al, 1994). The role of managers in a firm is inherently limited, when it comes to defining the sources of sustained competitive advantage under VRIO framework (wright et al 2001). However, Wright et al (1994) argues that the managers can play a vital role in developing a pool human capital (highly skilled and motivated workers) by superior HR practices such as: Extensive selection and recruitment process Systems to attract, identify and retain high quality employees Training programs aimed at increasing and developing individual skills and competencies Attractive wages and compensation packages Based on Wright et als(1994) model, Elliot(2003) suggests that the next aim of an HR manager is to affect the individual behavior of employees by introducing Performance Management Systems supportive of firms competitive strategy. For example, Reward systems, Appraisal systems, communication systems and socialization systems and encourage employees to improve their individual performance, where by, they can deliver and act in the best interest of the organization (Wright et al, 1994). Link between theory practice- Cafà © Expresso Here, we will link theory to practice, by practically, adding the example from the case-study on Cafà © Expresso. After Ben Thomson (CEO) decided to re-launch Cafà © Expressos business strategy, the main emphasis of his program was the refurbishment of HR department. As, this discussion focuses on modern HRM theories and practices in light of RBV, it is evident that the new HR director, Kam patel, applied almost the same strategy. For example: To start with, they set aside the external (outside-in) environment (Michigan model by Devanna et al (1984) and Porters forces model (1985)) and focused on the firms internal (Inside-out) HRM strategy and practices (RBV of the firm by Barney (1991) and Wright et al (1994)). Due to high turn-over of employees in the industry and weak retention, they identified the key human capital of the company, as a source of competitive advantage (based on Wright et al, 1994). Kam Patel, with her futuristic and modern approach, transformed the HR function as Partner Resources (based on Holbeche, 2009; Ulrich and Brockbank, 2005). She introduced performance management systems, for example, objective and development needs, in relation to knowledge, technical skills and behavioral skills. Performance appraisal was conducted bi-annually and feedback from customers and peers were included in the process. (Based on Wright et al, 1994; Elliot, 2003). Under the VRIO framework (Barney, 1991), Cafà © Expresso did manage to create Value, Rarity, Inimitability and non-substitutability through their superior HR practices. Value and Rarity by introducing learning and development feature in their HR practice, for example, new recruits were encouraged to spend time on the floor. They spent a day in Cafà © Expresso development Centre, learning the company history and coffee industry. They were made Cafà © expresso ambassador by taking part in the coffee master program. They were groomed through mentor system, where both baristas and managers were provided with a buddy, who would support and provide assistance in their job. In addition, the new resourcing technique (window advertsing and word of mouth) meant that most of their selected partners were actually loyal customers in the past, which is a rare human resource pool in a firm (Harzing Pinnington, 2011). In-imitability and non-substitutability is measured by the fact that cafà © expresso possessed a unique team of partners (mostly former customers) with the same love and passion for coffee house experience amongst them. Furthermore, the retention strategy offered was of high quality and included wide range of benefits, for example, share option scheme and discount of 30% was offered to partners on all cafà © expresso stores. In addition, they empowered their partners to provide suggestions and ideas. Partner Voice a company magazine was introduced, by which all employees were kept aware of all the activities of the company (Harzing Pinnington, 2011). Conclusion One of the objectives, set in the introduction part of this paper was to analyse the HRM strategy of Cafà © Expresso in light of Barneys (1991) Resource Based Theory. It is proven from the discussion that Cafà © Expresso did work on its HR policies and practices based on the reigning Resource Based Theory by Barney and Wright. The link between Cafà © Expressos HR practices and companys performance has been established through the above mentioned theory. For example, when Ben Thomson did not find any solution in the external (industrial) environment, he turned his focus inside the company and immediately discovered problems in the internal resources; out of which the most important one was the HR function. With RBV of the firm he added value to the firm by employing an experienced HR director Kam Patel. She in turn added more value and rarity to the firm by introducing empirical HR strategies and unparalleled performance management systems. The result was that Cafà © Expresso star ted to grow and moved to second place in the industry (Harzing Pinnington, 2011). It has been established that human resource can become a source of competitive advantage in the industry, as well as, a possible source of sustained competitive advantage when scrutinized under VRIO framework (Wright et al, 1994). Furthermore, Cafà © Expresso did achieve the competitive advantage they hoped for, but the true test of the robustness of their strategy is in fact sustainability and development of the same. Finally, is it enough for Cafà © Expresso to not to worry any more about their current competitive advantage, as, they have fulfilled all the prerequisites of the Resource Based Theory of competitive advantage laid down in the paper? The answer will be discussed in the Recommendations part. Recommendations Despite the debate amongst strategists and scholars continue, regarding the effectiveness of RBV, there is no denying the fact that sustainability is the function of companys key resources and their immobility (Brahma Chakraborty, 2011). Undoubtedly, the question is what makes these resources absolutely, valuable? Petraf and Barney (2003:312) state that, Resource Based Theory (RBT) is not the only or a best substitute for industrial level analytical tools, such as five-force analysis (Porter, 1980) or for group analysis or analysis of macro environment. It is relatively an additional tool to complement all these tools, where by, one can search for possible causes of sustained competitive advantage. In view of the above, I have come up with following recommendations for cafà © expresso and their issue of sustained competitive advantage: Aphorism: Innovate or Die is a famous saying these days, which warns companies to innovate or face the consequences of being driven out of the market for good (Barney, Ketchen Wright, 2011). Rapid advancement in the field of Information sharing technologies, Globalisation and dynamic economic environment are some of the factors, which pose an existent threat to any companys competitive advantage in the market. Companies, such as Cafà © Expresso, should not only rely on one successful strategy for long but should constantly revise and develop new ideas to develop and maintain their competitive advantage. How time affects strategy? The common denominator is time; this approach helps managers become proactive in creating change- in policies, in practices and in processes. Williams (1992) suggested this theory for sustained competitive advantage, which I believe holds much valid in todays fierce business environment. The success in this theory is embedded in the managers ability to change the rules of the game so entirely that the competitors are left behind in the chase. The management of cafà © expresso should keep their options open and avoid fixation. Futuristic leadership at all levels in the organisation is one of the key factors to sustained competitive advantage. A visionary team of managers will push the organization towards innovation and creativity, avoiding stagnation in the process. Ben Thomson (current CEO) should constantly monitor market for new avenues and trends in the coffee house industry. He should also develop and train his key managers to become visionary and creative. Capacity for change is an all-time important element of a sustained competitive advantage. Due to highly fluid business environment, where new technologies and features enter the market every day, a company should possess a capacity to change its internal business ethos accordingly. Human resource in an organization has a great capacity to change and being exposed to new environments. Being Customer focused is last but not the least of worries for a company such as, cafà © expresso. The kind of industry in which it operates is directly involved in customer service and satisfaction. Much study has been done on customer service and retention in the past two decades or so, because the focuses of almost all the businesses have now shifted in the direction of its customers. The future of entire coffee house business is embedded in this single aspect.

COP 3530, Discrete Data Structures and Algorithms, Summer 1999, Homework 2 :: UFL Florida Computer Programming Homework

Class Notes: Data Structures and Algorithms Summer-C Semester 1999 - M WRF 2nd Period CSE/E119, Section 7344 Homework #2 -- Due Fri 28 May 1999 : 09.30am * Question 1. Assume that an n-element array (vector) a contains distinct integers arranged in no particular order. Write an algorithm to find the value and location of (a) the mean of a and (b) the value v in a closest to the mean. Note: If v equals the mean, then v is the value closest to the mean. Example. If a = (1,2,3,5,4,6,7,9), then the mean equals 37/8 = 4.625. The value 5, which is in the fourth location (i = 4), happens to be the value closest to the mean. Answer: FindMean(a : array [1..n] of int): { sum = 0; posmean = -1, posclose = -1 for i = 1 to n do: sum = sum + a[i] endfor mean = float(sum) / n mdif = 9E13 for i = 1 to n do: dif = abs(a[i] - mean) if (dif if (dif = 0) then

Significants Of Soviet Unions First Atomic Bomb :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1949, the Soviet Union exploded their first atomic bomb. This event was so significant because it began the great arms race. The arms race in effect was the beginning of the Cold War. The events that led up to and followed the soviets first atomic bomb changed the United States of America forever. Everything from the fear of Russia launching a nuclear attach to paranoia of espionage.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Julius and Ethel Rosenburg fired up the C.I.A.’s paranoia of espionage. They were both married and joined the Communist party in 1939. They later dropped out so they would be able to help their party in 1942. They did this so they could get jobs at U.S. Army Signal Corps. This is were they got their information that they gave to the Soviet Union. They apparently passed on classified info on the construction of the atomic bomb. Info that would have taken the Soviet Union many more years to learn on their own.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The explosion of the first atomic bomb by Russia started an arms race between the Soviets and the United States. This was a time when the Soviets and Americans where trying to out due each other in the production of defensive or offensive weapons. Each one tried to come out with bigger bader weapons than what the other had. Most people blame the race on the U.S. but the threat of a Soviet attach was very real. Therefore the U.S. is intitled to outdo them any way they can.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The cold war was then brought about. The cold war reached its peak in the 1960’s, when an American U-2 spy plane got photos of Soviet missle sites in Cuba. When this was discovered. The fear of an nuclear war became feared. America was hanging by a sting on wheather or not they should act or not.

The Oregon Trails :: Education, Culture

Race, gender, sex, death; these are some topics that are frequent occurrences in literature, history, and present day life. Regardless of the frequency of these subjects instructors are often hesitant to embark upon discussing them during instruction. Despite apprehensions to discuss these controversial topics they shape events and society, and should be incorporated in a student’s education. In fact by not examining these topics students are being done a grave disservice. Exploring these troublesome topics and even questioning why they may not be spoken about or how they influence society cause students to gain vital knowledge and become less ignorant. The Oregon Trails may be considered by some to be a tool to aide students in becoming more knowledgeable on diverse topics. It has been called a â€Å"multiethnic† interactive computer game that allows students to travel along the trail and gain insight on the life of a person traveling to the Oregon Territory (Bigelow, 2009, p. 317). This game has been put on a pedestal by critics and has been awarded five stars by the Pride’s Guide to Educational Software for being â€Å"a wholesome, absorbing historical simulation† (Bigelow, 2009, p. 317). The outstanding critiques of this software creates an appealing route for many teachers to take in order to incorporate an engaging activity that abides by state and school curriculum standards. However what the critics do not inform teachers is this educational game is in reality spoon feeding students a dishonest account of history. The game takes on the white males view and neglects to account for gender and cultural bias es that occur during this time period (Bigelow, 2009, p.319). By not pointing out the societal issues that occurred during this time period, students are really being done a disservice. There is no reason why instructors have to keep the fact that racism against minority groups and gender groups occurred, and still do. As Bigelow (2009) stated, â€Å"Just as we would not invite a stranger into our classrooms and then leave the room, teachers need to become aware of the political perspectives of CD-ROMs and need to equip students to â€Å"read† them critically†(p. 318). Instructors should point out the data deceptions within The Oregon Trails to aide students in gaining a stronger sociological eye to examine historical accounts and society as a whole. Teachers should have students approach the game and question why social groups are missing from the game, why they are perceived the way they, are and how these social groups may influence society or change the game. The Oregon Trails :: Education, Culture Race, gender, sex, death; these are some topics that are frequent occurrences in literature, history, and present day life. Regardless of the frequency of these subjects instructors are often hesitant to embark upon discussing them during instruction. Despite apprehensions to discuss these controversial topics they shape events and society, and should be incorporated in a student’s education. In fact by not examining these topics students are being done a grave disservice. Exploring these troublesome topics and even questioning why they may not be spoken about or how they influence society cause students to gain vital knowledge and become less ignorant. The Oregon Trails may be considered by some to be a tool to aide students in becoming more knowledgeable on diverse topics. It has been called a â€Å"multiethnic† interactive computer game that allows students to travel along the trail and gain insight on the life of a person traveling to the Oregon Territory (Bigelow, 2009, p. 317). This game has been put on a pedestal by critics and has been awarded five stars by the Pride’s Guide to Educational Software for being â€Å"a wholesome, absorbing historical simulation† (Bigelow, 2009, p. 317). The outstanding critiques of this software creates an appealing route for many teachers to take in order to incorporate an engaging activity that abides by state and school curriculum standards. However what the critics do not inform teachers is this educational game is in reality spoon feeding students a dishonest account of history. The game takes on the white males view and neglects to account for gender and cultural bias es that occur during this time period (Bigelow, 2009, p.319). By not pointing out the societal issues that occurred during this time period, students are really being done a disservice. There is no reason why instructors have to keep the fact that racism against minority groups and gender groups occurred, and still do. As Bigelow (2009) stated, â€Å"Just as we would not invite a stranger into our classrooms and then leave the room, teachers need to become aware of the political perspectives of CD-ROMs and need to equip students to â€Å"read† them critically†(p. 318). Instructors should point out the data deceptions within The Oregon Trails to aide students in gaining a stronger sociological eye to examine historical accounts and society as a whole. Teachers should have students approach the game and question why social groups are missing from the game, why they are perceived the way they, are and how these social groups may influence society or change the game.

Mnemonics

Mnemonics are Necessary: A Review of Memory and Learning Aids Torrey Price American Military University 26 June 2009 Mnemonics are Necessary: A Review of Memory and Learning Aids We learn many different things during childhood and even before then. Our brain has the capacity for learning to the degree we do not know which means that our learning capabilities are endless and we can only limit ourselves with the amounts of information there is to know in a lifetime. However, how do we get to the point that we can learn so much? What means or ways are there that we can learn to expand the capacity of our minds? What good would it be to know all of this information if we cannot access it at any point that we want? One way to improve the way you learn and remember is a system called mnemonics. It is an aid or in some cases, are strategies that can increase recalling 10-fold (Patten, 1990). We may already use this system and not be aware. Can you recall learning the words to your favorite song as a teen? Maybe you interpreted what the artist was saying and you might have put in your own words, then someone comes along and tells you the real lyrics. You may learn the new lyrics but that song may be forever associated with the lyrics you came up with. Or when learning the colors of the spectrum, you may have been taught to remember them by giving them the mnemonic Roy G. Biv: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet (Coon, 2006). Mnemonic techniques are ways to remember what you need to know by a way of association, giving them meaning or even visualizing making it as vivid or ridiculous as possible. Mnemonic techniques are also ways to avoid rote learning, the more common, habitual and fixed way of learning by simple repetition (Coon, 2006). The word mnemonic is derived from the Ancient Greek word mnemonikos and is related to Mnemosyne, the name of the goddess of memory in Greek mythology. Both of these words refer back to mnema or remembrance. Now you may not remember her name or what set mythology she is from but allow me to put it this way. Mnemosyne had a love affair with the highest of the gods in Greek mythology. The affair lasted nine days and nine nights and as a result of that affair Mnemosyne gave birth to nine children- the nine muses (Svantesson, 2004). A myth is said to be knowledge in disguise because a story is more easily remembered than raw facts. Mnemonics in ancient times can be considered the basis of what is today known as the art of Memory. Try to imagine a time before the widespread use of paper and pens, where the only means for a society to pass on lessons and teaching were by memory. The Romans and Greeks were a society like this and mnemonics were one of the most important subjects taught in school (Patten, 1990). Mnemonics are not a neat trick to show off to your friends at a party but a skill that is designed to enhance the way you remember a subject. Paying attention is of the up most importance when practicing your techniques and that attention cannot be divided (Turkington, 2003). It is important to know that even though it may seem like you are paying attention, the brain does take an amount of resource to adhere to your surroundings, for instance, you are in an auditorium listening to President talk about carrots and suddenly somebody behind you rips one or somebody is talking on the phone. Although paying attention is only a part of it, actually knowing the techniques will help you to learning the information you need. There are many techniques you can use to learn a myriad of things such as numbers, speeches and even languages. Association was one of the ways mentioned before, and by associate certain words with others we create cues to help us remember those words (Patten, 1990). The use of Acronyms to remember a phrase or group of words is very easy and very common, for example, the acronym NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization or to remember the Great Lakes we use the Acronym HOMES (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior). Acrostics are a way of using first letter cueing to remember a certain phrase, whereby we take the first word of each bit of information we want to learn and turn it into the first word of a sentence (Turkington, 2003). For example, to remember the six New England states in descending order (Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut) we could make the sentence: Martha Never Had Many Red Cars. Popular sayings can also help you to remember such as righty tighty, lefty loosey can help you to remember which way the common screw or nut and bolt turns and spring forward, fall back can remind you how to set our clock during daylight savings time. Visualization is also a great way to memorize information; it helps a lot with language learning. A good imagination will greatly enhance the chance of you being able to remember. An example of this can be â€Å"carte† which is the Spanish word for letter. If you can imagine a shopping cart full of mail, that can cue you to that words meaning. In conclusion, Mnemonics has shown to be a very useful tool when it comes to learning what it is we need to be learned. The more we practice these techniques the better we become at learning. Mnemonic techniques are based on association and should be exaggerated in size, number, and color, absurd, moving, sexual, sensual, ridiculous, unusual and unexpected. We tend to remember things that are out of the ordinary or that are utterly ridiculous. These tools are a great learning multiplier and should be taught in every classroom. I believe this system will replace the current phonics system that is widely used today, which is a way of getting back to basics, seeing as though this system has been in place for centuries. So the next time you have the opportunity to teach a child to say their alphabets, tie their shoes or even learn another language, remember this system and you can’t go wrong. References Coon, D. (2006). Psychology: A Modular Approach to Mind and Behavior, Tenth Edition. Belmont, CA: Thomson Higher Education. Patten, B. (1990). The History of Memory Arts. Neurology, 40, 346-352 Svantesson, I. (2004). Learning Maps and Memory Skills, Revised Second Edition. London: Kogan Page Limited. Turkington, C. (2003). Memory: A Self-teaching Guide. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Layoff and Strategic Downsizing Decisions Essay

INTRUDUCTION Downsizing is a permanent reduction of workforce through layoffs and other means. Organizations usually downsize to save payroll costs and prevent bankruptcy during tight economic conditions. Downsizing, when done right, makes the organization more efficient, lean, and mean .On the other side, a faulty approach to downsizing can cause the organization to run the risk of losing key talent and intellectual capital, and becoming dysfunctional by breakdown of hierarchies and systems. The criteria adopted for who stays and who goes largely determines the success of the downsizing intervention Many organizations, especially traditional ones, in a bid to ensure impartiality and objectivity adopt the LIFO or â€Å"Last in First Out† principle whereby those who joined the organization last become the first to leave. The rationale of making seniority the basis of downsizing is that newer employees have spent less time in the organization and are less committed or acquainted with the fin er nuances of its running. Also, the organization would have invested lesser time and resources training such employees compared to older employees. other organizations make the combination of competence and performance, or the ability to do required tasks well, the basis of retaining an employee during downsizing. A fresh performance appraisal should precede downsizing, or the last appraisal can be the basis for determining who goes and who stays. Those at the bottom of the appraisal list usually get the layoff notice first. While making performance the primary selection criteria for downsizing and restructure is apparently a just and equitable method, two major concerns remain The soundness and objectivity of the performance appraisal method adopted. A poorly designed performance appraisal method that does not assess the true indicators of performance might churn up a wrong list, causing the danger of the organization dispensing with true performers and retaining people who cleverly mask or cover up their in efficiencies. Whether the performance or competence ofthe employee remains relevant for the organization. The expendability of the person to the organization is another sound basis for determining the selection criteria for downsizing and restructure. This approach primarily considers the value added by the employee to the organization more than any other factor. Regardless of the performance of an  employee, an employee might remain critical for the functioning of the organization, or conversely not needed. For instance, with technology taking roots, most companies do not require specialist stenographers or typists, no matter how skilled or efficient they may be in their work. Similarly, closing down the marketing arm of the business and outsourcing the marketing effort might lead to the lay-off of all marketing executives, no matter how skilled or successful they may be. Organizations would, however, do well to identify people with good generic skills, and the right attitude and commitment, and retain them in other jobs even if the jobs they remain competent in become irrelevant to the organization. The commercial interests of the organization notwithstanding, legal considerations play an important role in determining who goes and who stays during downsizing. The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) requires employers to give employees, state and local officials a 60 days’ notice to mass layoffs when reducing their workforce by 33 percent or more, or laying off 500 employees within a 30-day period. WARN further requires employers of unionized employees to give the union 60 days’ notice before lay-off of their members, and provide individual notice to non-unionized employees. DEFINITION OF DOWNSIZING Downsizing occurs when a company permanently reduces its workforce. Corporate downsizing is often the result of poor economic conditions and/or the company’s need to cut jobs in order to lower costs or maintain profitability. Downsizing may occur when one company merges with another, a product or service is cut, or the economy falters. Downsizing also occurs when employers want to â€Å"streamline† a company – this refers to corporate restructuring in order to increase profit and maximize efficiency. Downsizing results in layoffs that are often followed by other restructuring changes, such as branch closings, departmental consolidation, and other forms of cutting pay expenses. In some cases, employers are not fired, but instead become part-time or temporary workers (to trim costs). ACTIVITIES OF DOWNSIZING It undertaken to improve organizational efficiency, productivity and competitiveness that affect the size of the firm’s workforce the costs and  the work processes. DOWNSIZING STRATEGIES: There are 3 types of strategies. These are below: 1.workforce reduction: 2.work redesign 3.systematic change 1. Workforce reduction: Typically a short term strategy aimed at cutting the number of employees through such programs as attrition, early retirement or voluntary severance packages and layoffs or terminations. Whils a number of these approaches allow for a relatively quick reduction of the workforce, the problem is that their impact is often short term and in many organizations. 2. Work redesign: Often a medium-term strategy in which organizations focus on work processes and assess whether specific functions, products and services should be changed or eliminated. this strategy which is frequently combined with workforce reduction, includes such things as elimination of functions, groups or divisions. 3. Systematic change: Long term strategy characterized by changing the organizations culture and the attitudes and values of employees with the ongoing goal of deducting costs and enhancing quality. By its very nature this strategy takes considerable time to implement. RESTRUCTURING HOW COMMON IS WORKFORCE REDUCTION AND?: The issue that comes up regularly involves how common workforce reduction in Canada. In a national study of major Canadian organization conducted in 1992 and in 1998, it was found that 56% of respondents permanently reduce the workforce over two year period ending in 1992, while 50% cut the number of employee during two year period prior to 1997-1998 about 31% of employee reduced in both 1992 and 1998 5% precent of organization did not engage in workforce. Three recent studies found 45% of participants reported that their organization permanently reduced workforce in two years. Among  organizations reducing the workforce average reduction was around 15% of the workforce. Similarly, when investing how the workforce reductions were carried out; combining the result from the studies revealed that about 355 of reductions were by attrition, 45% by voluntary severance or early retirement; and 40% by layoffs. Compared 1990s, these results suggest that organization s are relying less on layouts and more voluntary services. WHY DO ORGANIZATIONS DOWNSIZE? There are several reasons why organizational decide to downsize the workforce. Some of the factors most commonly mentioned include the following: Declining profits Business downturn or increased pressure from competitors Merging with another organization, resulting in duplication of effort Introduction of new technology The need to reduce operating costs The desire to decrease levels of management Getting rid of employee â€Å"deadwood† Simply put, many organizations engage in downsizing because managers believe that cutting people will result in reduced cost (with cost being more predictable than future and improved financial performance. In addition, labour cost is often seen as easier to adjust relative to other expenditures. Although executives often perceive that reducing the number of people in the organization will lead to lower overhead cost, reduced bureaucracy ,better communication, improved decision making, increased innovative activity and higher productivity, there is considerable evidence that workforce reduction programs often fail to meet their objectives, as has been observe by Cascio: Study after study shows that following a downsizing, surviving employees become narrow-minded, self-absorbed, and risk averse. Morale sink, producing drops, and survivors distrust management. Some organizations drastically reduce the workforce and employ a severe reduction strategy despite increasing demand and a favourable competitive enviroment.This development, which has been mentioned by HR managers in personal interview, may be due to a variety of reasons, including a decision to follow the lead of other firms engage in cutback management and increase awareness of the need of operate in a lean and mean  fashion. THE DOWNSIZING DECISION: For many organizations, going through a downsizing is a very painful and difficult experience. A 1994 article Business week profiled Robert Thrasher, executive vice-president at Nynex and the individual responsible for cutting labelled the â€Å"corporate assassin†. In speaking about downsizing Thrasher commented. This is tough, ugly work. The stress is palpable .I’m vilified throughout the company .that’s tough thing to carry around. â€Å"More recently, Robert Burtlon of Moore Corporation, when discussing his role in a cost cutting plan at a previous company, stated.† I don’t get frustrated any more. I just fire people.† Too often, organization embarks on a downsizing program without careful consideration of whether there are feasible alternatives to downsizing. Studies after study reveals that many downsizing are not well planned frequently ignore the linkage between downsizing and the strategic direction of organization, and underestimate the impact of downsizing on the organization and its human resource. ALTERNATIVES TO DOWNSIZING: Downsizing can be a costly strategy for organization to pursue and as a result, it is desirable to investigate whether alternatives to downsizing exis.In a number of instance, organizations discover that pursuing different alternatives to downsizing may eliminate the need to reduce the workforce or allow for a less severe downsizing strategy. Some of the alternatives include: 1. Cutting no personnel costs (e.g, through energy conservation, planned capital expenditures, leasing of capital equipment, reductions in travel or club memberships) 2. Cutting personnel costs (e.g, through a hiring freeze, job sharing, a reduction in work hours, reduced benefits, and wage concessions) 3.Providing incentives for voluntary resignation or early retirement Although this list is not complete, it emphasizes the need to consider other ways to manage costs within an organization One organization, road communications inc, asked each member of its staff to take one week of unpaid leave during the summer months. According to senior partner mia wedgbury , it let us keep our core team together while reducing cost. And  it went over well with the staff because it precluded layoffs. another organization acxion corporation cut the pay of each employee earning more than 25000 dollar by 5% but also gave the employee the option to by company stock that would be matched one-foe one by the firm INPLACEORMENT AND OUTPLACEMENT ISSUES: Outplacement Issues .Inplacement Refers To A Career Management Approach Inappropriately Placed Workers Into a Restructured organization ,while outplacement focuses on the provision of a program In Examining The Downsizing Decision, It Is Necessary To Consider Both Inplacement And of counseling and job-search assistance for workers who have been terminated. In making career management decisions, organizational decision makers may opt for an inplacement program or termination with outplacement In a survey of Canadian manufacturing firms completed in 2000, organizations that had gone through downsizing were asked to report on the benefits they provide to displace workers. These results are provided in figure11.2 .The most common benefits were severance pay, continuation of employee benefits, outplacement retraining assistance or family counseling PLANNING FOR DOWNSIZING: If downsizing is essential, the key issues that need to be considered: Determining how many people will lose their job and who will be let go (ie. based on seniority or performance) Determining how reduction will be carried out. For example, to what extent will the organization use attrition, early retirement or voluntary severance programs and layoff or termination. Its possible to consider the approach to workforce reduction from the perspective of employee? As indicated in figure 11.3,the approaches to workforce reduction vary in the degree of protection to employees and the cost to employee Determining the legal consequences. For example organizations often ignore or are unaware of legal requirements when downsizing the workforce .some areas of law to be aware of include the law of wrongful dismissal,employment  standards legislation, trade union law ,existing collective agreement provisions, and human right legislation. for instance, there may be a very narrow line between voluntary and involuntary termination, and with the termination of older workers, there exists a possibility of an age discrimination claim Designing current and future work plans .this issue represents a key challenge for the organization and is frequently neglected Implementing the decision. Implementation includes such elements as severance payments, outplacement counseling, the communication of the termination decision, timing if the decision, issues, and communications with remaining employees Performing follow-up evaluations and assessment of downsizing effort Figure 11.3 Approaches To Workforce Reduction Workforce Degree of Reduction protection to Implementation Approach Example Employee Time Attrition Hiring Freeze High Show Voluntary Early Retirement Redeployment Voluntary buyout Work sharing Involuntary Transfer Redeployment Demotion Imposed job sharing Layoff with Retraining Assistance job counseling Advance notice Layoff without Termination Low First Assistance No advance notice No Severance PROCESS OF DOWNSIZING: There are 6 processes. These are below: 1. Develop an RIF team to plot initial strategy. 2. Plan the goals and timing of the RIF. 3. Perform an overall workforce analysis. 4. Review employment policies, individual contracts of employment. 5. Ensure compliance with the Worker. 6. Special considerations for unionized employers. 1. Develop an RIF team to plot initial strategy: Nobody likes the prospect of a downsizing – especially employees who may feel particularly vulnerable to being laid off – and the mere mention of the word can trigger widespread hysteria and morale problems. At the early stages of the initial strategy phase, a company should limit discussion of downsizing to a trusted core of high-level management personnel and consultants. For large companies considering large-scale layoffs, the RIF team ideally should include the chief financial officer, the chief executive officer, the chief operating officer, a senior-level human resources or employee relations executive, an upper-level payroll specialist, an employment law attorney, and a public relations consultant. 2. Plan the goals and timing of the RIF: The first task is to determine the magnitude of savings that need to be realized from a layoff. This task is part of an overall cost-cutting plan, which could implicate other costs and expenses in addition to those related to personnel. Second, the RIF team should consider ways to realize the desired savings, such as subcontracting; consolidation of divisions, operating units or functions; the sale of the company or a work unit; and shutdowns. 3. Perform an overall workforce analysis and an analysis of each proposed termination: The most complicated and difficult aspect of the RIF process is determining which employees will be laid off. The most common legal challenges to layoffs are administrative charges and lawsuits premised on discrimination based on age or other legally protected characteristics. Accordingly, it is crucial for an employer to be able to give legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons for every termination decision. Those reasons need to be easy to articulate and logically consistent. 4. Review employment policies, individual contracts of employment, separation benefits and stock-option agreements under which affected employees may claim rights or benefits: The RIF team should perform a due-diligence review of potential liabilities and verify whether, by policy or contract, the company has limited its ability to lay off employees. Likewise, where a collective bargaining agreement or policy dictates a priority for reductions in force, or â€Å"bumping rights,† such procedures should be examined. The company should also review policies and agreements to determine eligibility for severance benefits and accrued benefits such as paid time off, vacation or sick leave. 5. Ensure compliance with the Worker Adjustment Retraining and Notification (WARN) Act: Generally, employers with 100 or more employees are subject to the WARN Act. Covered employers are required to give 60 days’ advance written notice of a â€Å"plant closing† or â€Å"mass layoff.† A â€Å"plant closing† is defined as the permanent or temporary shutdown of at least one facility or operating unit that results in an employment loss of 50 or more employees at a single site of employment. A â€Å"mass layoff† is a loss of employment at a single site of employment that affects at least 50 employees and one-third of the covered employer’s work force. a loss of employment of 500 or more workers at a single site of employment. Special considerations for unionized employers: The National Labor Relations Board maintains that, with certain exceptions, employers must bargain with employee representatives over the effects of  layoffs stemming from entrepreneurial decisions such as closing a plant or transferring bargaining-unit work. In the case of layoffs that do not constitute a business closing or a transfer of bargaining-unit work, employers generally must bargain over the effects of such decisions and, depending on contract language, the very decision to lay off employees. ADJUSTING TO JOB LOSS: Workers who have lost their jobs frequently experience tremendous pain. As well, job loss can be very difficult for family members. Furthermore, many downsized employees are very bitter and angry with their former employer. A U.S. study of downsized workers revealed that 67% would never work for their former company again, 54% would not recommend that others purchase the organization’s products or services, and 11% considered going to the media and talking about their layoff experiences. One can start adjusting to job loss by using a little psychology. There have been a lot of studies done on how to deal with loss. Psychologists have found that people often have an easier time dealing with loss if they know what feelings they might experience during the â€Å"grieving process.† Grief doesn’t usually overwhelm us all at once; it usually is experienced in stages. The stages of loss or grief may include: Shock — you may not be fully aware of what has happened . Denial usually comes next — you cannot believe that the loss is true. Relief then enters the picture for some, and you feel a burden has lifted and opportunity awaits. Anger often follows — you blame (often without reason) those you think might be responsible, including yourself. Depression may set in some time later, when you realize the reality of the loss. Acceptance is the final stage of the process — you come to terms with the loss and get the energy and desire to move beyond it. The â€Å"acceptance† stage is the best place to be when starting a job search, but you might not have the luxury of waiting until this point to begin your search. While some people may see a job loss as a challenge which opens up new opportunities, most associate job loss with strong negative emotions. It is important to know that it is natural to have some negative feelings (especially at first) after a job loss, and that most people experience  them. Here are some feelings and experiences that you may have after losing your job: Loss of professional identity: Professionals identify strongly with their careers. Unemployment can often lead to a loss of self-esteem. Being employed brings respect in the community and in the family. When a job is lost, part of your sense of self may be lost as well. Loss of a network: The loss may be worse when your social life has been strongly linked to the job. Many ongoing â€Å"work friendships† are suddenly halted. Old friends and colleagues often don’t call because they feel awkward or don’t know what to say. Many don’t want to be reminded of what could happen to them. Also, when work and social activities mix, such as with company picnics and dinner parties, the job loss can be hard for all family members who participated in such activities. Emotional unpreparedness: Those who have never been unemployed may not be emotionally prepared for job loss and may be devastated when it happens. It is natural and appropriate to feel this way. You might notice that some people you know don’t take their job loss as hard as you have taken it. They might be more prepared for this time of uncertainty. Studies show that those who change jobs frequently, or who are in occupations prone to cyclic unemployment, suffer far less emotional impact after job loss than those who have been steadily employed and who are unprepared for cutbacks. A number of organizational interventions and practices have been identified as helping previously employed workers adjust to job loss and secure new employment. They include the following: Advance notification of layoffs, which gives employees time to dent with the reality of job loss and to seek future employment. Severances pay and extended benefits, which provide an economic safety net. Education and retraining programs, which give individuals time to acquire marketable skills. Outplacement assistance to inform employees of new job opportunities and to improve their ability to â€Å"market† themselves. Clear, direct and empathetic announcement of layoff decisions. Consideration of HR planning practices that represent alternatives to large scale layoffs. There are some benefits of losing a job: Time to reflect Grow new ideas, direction and career plan Get out of a job that was substandard Spend more time with family and hobbies

Do You Have a Well-Designed Organization? Essay

Do You Have a Well-Designed Organization? What are the main ideas of the article that you find important (insightful, relevant, practical) in managing people in organizations, and why? When I saw the topic of this article, I was attracted by it. Because when I worked in Sung-Yi Motor Corporation, a dealer company selling Mitsubishi motors in Taiwan, I sometimes feel my company is not a well-designed organization. Because I do not have the standards or right criteria to evaluate my corporation I can not definite that my corporation is a not well-designed organization. I am so exciting that I have the method and standards to evaluate it. The first sentence of this article â€Å"for most companies, organization design is neither a science nor an art; it’s an oxymoron. † I like this sentence very much. Because when I proposed the restructure project, I bumped into this kind of challenge. When my company set the branches in mainland China, we needed to support and control these branched. The first way we adopted is just add the responsibilities on my group, the result was that we can not support and control them effectively. We faced the difficulty and we need to adjust our structure to improve the situation. This article provides nine tests to evaluate the structure of organization. The nine tests can be categorized to two kinds of standards; four of them called fit tests are used to evaluate an existing structure, and the others called good design tests are used to create a new one. These tests help a company inspects its outside and inside situations. By the result of these texts, an organization can change its original not proper structure to a better one. Next paragraph I will use these tests to evaluate my previous company.

Power of One

Chapter One Summary On his Granpa's farm in the province of Natal in South Africa, an unnamed blonde infant is suckled by his black Zulu nanny. She sings to him of warriors and women washing at the baboons' water hole. At five, the little boy's mother has a nervous breakdown and he is sent to an Afrikaans boarding school. He is the youngest student by two years, and is hated because he is the only English-speaker in the school, which makes him a â€Å"rooinek† (Afrikaans for â€Å"redneck,† a derogatory term for the British, inherited from the Boer War).Two eleven-year-olds put the little boy to trial – he is made to kneel naked in the shower, where he says a prayer to his Zulu nanny instead of to God. The Judge, along with his â€Å"council of war†, pee on the boy. The little boy has never seen a shower before – his nanny always washed him in a tin tub. The matron of the hostel, simply called â€Å"Mevrou† (â€Å"Missus† in Afrikaans) , smells the pee on the boy and drags him to the showers. She switches on the cold faucet, but the boy thinks that she too must be peeing on him. The Judge asks the boy why he wets his bed. The boy cannot answer.The Judge pulls down the boy's pants, and the kids all look and laugh at his â€Å"hatless snake† – his circumcised penis. They all chant â€Å"pisskop† (â€Å"pisshead†), which becomes his nickname. The Judge now displays his own large, uncircumcised penis. The little boy manages to whittle the tortures down to one hour a day. His bedwetting still lingers, however, causing him shame and misery. Mevrou examines his bed every morning and sends him to wash the rubber sheet until his hands reek of the carbolic soap. The boy learns that he needs to adopt a camouflage in order to cope. As part of this camouflage, he resolves never to cry.This decision infuriates the Judge. The boy gains some respect from the other kids for holding the school record for the largest number of beatings, yet they continue to ostracize and torment him verbally and physically. At the end of the first term, the boy's district doctor and the flyhalf for the Northern Transvaal rugby team, Dr. Henny Boshoff, picks him up to drive him home to his Granpa, and nanny on the farm. The Judge, impressed by this grand exit from the school, promises the boy better treatment after the holidays. Dr. Henny tells the boy that his mother is recovering from her reakdown, but is not ready to return home yet. It is late summer, and on the farm, the black women spend their days singing as they gather cotton. Nanny prays for Inkosi-Inkosikazi, the great black medicine man, to visit them to solve the little boy's bedwetting problem. Inkosi-Inkosikazi eventually arrives in a black Buick. The women gather gifts of food for him, among them being some â€Å"kaffir chickens,† not quite dead. One of the chickens reminds the boy of his Granpa. The only difference rests in the eyes: the cock has beady eyes whereas the boy's Granpa has eyes â€Å"intended for gazing over soft English landscapes. The boy's Granpa despises Shangaan people (one of the black tribes of South Africa), but he respects the Zulu medicine man, Inkosi-Inkosikazi, who once cured his gallstones. Inkosi-Inkosikazi is considered the last of the sons of the famous Zulu king, Dingaan, who fought off both British and Boers (Afrikaners). The boy's Granpa welcomes him to the farm. Inkosi-Inkosikazi orders the black women to let the chickens loose and catch them a second time. Then he uses â€Å"low-grade magic† to put them to sleep. He beckons the boy to sit with him on the â€Å"indaba† (meeting) mat – a great honor, since only chiefs are allowed to sit on these mats.Inkosi-Inkosikazi now summons Nanny to tell the boy's bedwetting story in Shangaan. Nanny brings the women to tears with her impressive elocutionary skills. Dee and Dum, the twin kitchen maids, are dazzled by Nanny's story. But Inkosi-Inkosikazi simply scratches his backside and orders â€Å"kaffir beer. † That night Nanny hugs Peekay, telling him he has brought honor on her by allowing her to show that a Zulu woman can rival Shangaans in tale-telling. The following day Inkosi-Inkosikazi's magic Ox shinbones tell him to visit the boy in his dreams. In his dreams, the boy must leap over three waterfalls and cross ten stones of a river.Inkosi-Inkosikazi puts the boy to sleep and speaks him through the dream landscape, calling him the â€Å"little warrior of the king. † Then he wakes the boy and tells him that he can always find him in the â€Å"night country. † Inkosi-Inkosikazi now teaches the boy his magic chicken trick and gives him one of the chickens – the one that looks like his Granpa – on which to practice. The boy names the chicken Granpa Chook. Analysis The novel opens with the startling image of a blonde boy being suckled by a black wet nur se. We are immediately confronted with the issue of race, and more specifically of idiosyncratic racial relationships.The voice narrating-that of the protagonist Peekay-is critical of any racial intolerance it encounters. A reflection on Afrikaners' hatred for the English, spawned during the time of the Boer War, ushers in the description of five-year-old Peekay's arrival at boarding school. As the narrator explains, the Boer War (1899–1902) was fought between the Boers (the Afrikaans-speakers of South Africa) and the British (the English- speakers of South Africa) for full possession of the country. Both Boers and British believed themselves to be the rightful inheritors of South Africa.It witnessed the first concentration camps in the world—the British confined the Boers to these concentration camps, where twenty-six thousand men, women, and children died. The derogatory Afrikaans term â€Å"rooinek† (redneck)-used to describe the British-was coined at the tim e of the war since the necks of the British burnt crimson under the hot African sun. By introducing the historical conflict between the two â€Å"white tribes† of South Africa, Peekay reminds readers that racial tension goes beyond difference in skin color-in his words, it enters the â€Å"bloodstream,† and extends to all kinds of cultural and ideological differences.He subtly critiques this inherited â€Å"hatred,† which the descriptions of his torture at the hands of the boarding school boys serve to illustrate. Peekay's adult voice uses hyperbole, or exaggeration, to describe the torture sessions the Judge and his â€Å"council of war† forced upon his five-year-old self. The military and legal metaphors that Peekay uses seem apt when one considers the extreme violence exercised upon the boy-he is urinated on, caned, and severely beaten. Moreover, many of the terms-such as â€Å"standing trial† and â€Å"passing sentence†-are the boys' own invention.We are required to compare the cruel imagination of the boarding school boys with the imagination Peekay discovers at the end of the novel through Inkosi-Inkosikazi. While the narrator keeps an ironic distance between himself and the younger self he is narrating (demonstrated by the narrator's sophisticated vocabulary such as â€Å"stentorian† and â€Å"carbolic†), he often portrays events through five-year-old eyes. He introduces the theme of the difficulty of defining death by providing us with young Peekay's thoughts on the topic: â€Å"I wasn't quite sure what death was.I knew it was something that happened on the farm in the slaughterhouse to pigs†¦ The squeal from the pigs was so awful that I knew it wasn't much of an experience, even for pigs. † The latter quotation also reveals the narrator's sense of humor-throughout the novel, the narrator finely balances tragedy and comedy, suggesting that laughing is sometimes the only way of coping w ith adversity. Chapter Two Summary The holidays end. The little boy's bedwetting problem is solved, but he remains concerned about his â€Å"hatless snake,† even though he recalls that Inkosi-Inkosikazi assured him they shared that anatomical trait.Nanny packs the boy's bags, and includes a red sweater that his mother sent from â€Å"the nervous breakdown place. † They drive in Granpa's Model A Ford truck with Mrs. Vorster, the neighboring widow. The boy, his nanny, and Granpa Chook travel in the back. Nanny is going to town in order to send money to her family in Zululand since there has been a drought. They arrive at the boarding school early, so the boy and Granpa Chook perch in the boy's secret mango tree. Later, the boy leaves Granpa Chook in a clearing in a citrus orchard while he visits Mevrou—he reports that he no longer has a bedwetting problem.Mevrou answers that her â€Å"sjambok† (caning stick) will be lonely. On returning to the clearing, the boy watches Granpa Chook fight a grass snake. The chicken wins, biting off and eating the snake's head. The boy hangs this second â€Å"hatless snake† from a branch near his dormitory window. That night the other kids return. The Judge and his â€Å"jury† beat the boy up for comparing the Judge's new arm tattoo to a â€Å"kaffir† woman's face tattoos. The Judge boasts that his tattoo is a swastika, the symbol of Adolf Hitler. He tells the boy that Adolf Hitler is going to help the Afrikaners exterminate the English.All the boys swear death to all Englishmen in South Africa. Afterwards, the little boys try to figure out who Hitler is. Danie Coetzee, the little boys' spokesman, guesses that it is the new headmaster. That night the little boy experiences â€Å"the loneliest moment that had ever been. â€Å"The next morning, Granpa Chook wakes everyone up with his cock-a-doodle-doing on the boy's windowsill. When Mevrou enters, she notices the â€Å"chicken shit † on the boy's bed and canes him. She wants to butcher Granpa Chook, but when the chicken kills two cockroaches in her defense, she gives him the position of â€Å"cleaner of creepy-crawlies† in the kitchen.Months pass. The boy–still only known to us as â€Å"Pisskop†Ã¢â‚¬â€œbecomes the Judge's servant. In class, Pisskop quickly learns to read Afrikaans and becomes the best in his class in all subjects, even though he is the other boys' junior by two years. In addition to English and Afrikaans, he also speaks the African languages of Zulu and Shangaan fluently. However, aware that his intelligence may be detrimental to his safety, he pretends not to be as clever as he actually is. World War II arrives. A new headmaster comes.The old headmaster, who has a drinking problem, leaves, but only after announcing the â€Å"good news† that Hitler will save the Afrikaners and destroy the English. The Judge warns Pisskop that he will be the first of their pris oners of war. In class, Pisskop's ear gets mauled when the new teacher, Miss du Plessis, hits him for pretending not to know the twelve times table. Then she faints. Another teacher, Mr. Stoffel throws Pisskop against a wall and blames him for killing the teacher. When Pisskop wakes up, he is relieved to find that Dr. Henny is looking after him.Mevrou makes Pisskop lie to Dr. Henny and say that he fell out of a tree. Miss du Plessis has a nervous breakdown and a new teacher, Mrs. Gerber, arrives. Pisskop believes that he has caused both his mother's and Miss du Plessis' breakdowns. Analysis Chapter Two explains the title of the book and introduces us to the novel's main theme: the importance of independence. The five-year-old Pisskop has already learned the necessity of developing an independent spirit within himself. His experiences show him that he cannot rely on anyone at the boarding school; he must nourish this power on his own.Adaptation, or survival through camouflage, is as important as independence for survival. The boy, whose constant consideration of how to cope with his difficult life makes the novel's style approach a kind of stream-of-consciousness, believes that he must camouflage his brilliant mind. He asks himself questions such as â€Å"How could you go wrong with a friend like [Granpa Chook] at your side? † He also occasionally uses the imperative voice, as though counseling himself: â€Å"†¦adapt, blend, become part of the landscape, develop a camouflage,†¦try in every way to be an Afrikaner. In some senses, the author keeps the boy camouflaged from us as well. For example, we are implicated in referring to him as â€Å"Pisskop† or â€Å"rooinek† since we have no other name for him. The notion of naming-as- identifying becomes a vital issue in this novel, where white people do not distinguish between black peoples, but instead clump them all together under the derogatory term â€Å"kaffirs. † Naming so meone else is a powerful tool for establishing identity–as a bedwetter, an English-speaker, or a black person.With the continuation from Chapter 1 of the little boy's education, the novel begins to suggest that its genre is that of the â€Å"bildungsroman†-a novel which follows a protagonist from early childhood to maturity. The fact that the novel is narrated by the protagonist-as-adult from some safe point in the future confirms this genre. The narrator tells the events as he perceived them through his five-year-old eyes, but at the same time gives glimpses of his mature perspective on the events. For example, there is wry irony in the description of how the little boys agree that the new headmaster must be Adolf Hitler.The narrator does not contradict the boys' view, but allows the reader to chuckle at the misunderstandings of young minds. The protagonist already begins to stand out, however; in spite of his naivete, his observations are often uncannily accurate. We are by no means to mock the boy, but rather to marvel at his resilience in this tough world. The narrator confronts the reader with the nastiness of the situation through vivid, immediate story-telling through an abundance of dialogue. The language is often shocking or crude-at one point the five-year-old Pisskop exclaims to himself, â€Å"What a shit of a day already! At other times, however, Pisskop does not possess enough vocabulary to describe the experiences with which he is confronted-for example, he refers to the mental institution simply as â€Å"the nervous breakdown place. † Chapter Three Summary The Judge and his jury interrogate the boy about why his names are â€Å"Pisskop† and â€Å"rooinek. † The Judge pulls down the boy's pajama pants and tells him he is an English â€Å"rooinek† because his â€Å"snake has no hat. † Boers, in contrast, have hats on their snakes. The boy's punishment is to march around the playground every day, co unting backwards from five thousand.However, he actually spends this time doing the Judge's homework in his head. The boy helps the Judge with his homework, reasoning that if the Judge passes the school exams, the boy will no longer have to deal with him. He manages to convince the Judge to allow him to become his full-time homework helper. He realizes, however, that the teacher Mr. Stoffel will smell foul play if the Judge's mental ability drastically improves. The Judge compliments the boy for being a â€Å"slimmertjie† (a little clever one). In return for the help, the Judge annuls the marching after school, and promises not to tell Hitler about the boy.Everything seems to be proceeding more smoothly for the boy and Granpa Chook. The boys hear that Newcastle disease has erupted on a chicken farm nearby. The boy worries about his Granpa, his mother, and himself. He ardently wishes to live with his nanny in Zululand, hidden from Hitler. The Judge reports news of the war, sin ce Mr. Stoffel allows him to listen to his radio. Hitler has taken Poland, which the boy thinks must be in South Africa, owned by the â€Å"Po† tribe. No one explains to him that South Africa is on England's side. The Judge holds â€Å"war councils† behind the school toilets.The senior hostel boys are called â€Å"storm troopers. † The boy and Granpa Chook are the â€Å"prisoners of war† and are tortured and interrogated. The boy must submit to â€Å"Chinese torture†-that is, holding an iron bar with his arms stretched out in front of him-and â€Å"shooting practice,† where he holds tin cans into which the storm troopers catapult stones. In the interrogation, the boy is forced to call his mother a â€Å"whore† who sleeps with â€Å"kaffirs. † They burn him and put biting ants in his pants, but nothing they do can make him cry. The boy's stoicism infuriates them.The boy admits to us those he only cries inwardly-in the â€Å"nig ht country. â€Å"The school term draws to a close. Mr. Stoffel holds up the Judge as an example of academic improvement. The Judge shows no gratitude to the boy for his help. Instead, during a final torture session, he tries to make the boy eat human feces. The boy refuses, keeping his mouth tightly shut. The Judge thus rubs the feces into the boy's teeth, lips, face, and hair. As the Judge cries â€Å"Hail Hitler! † to the skies, Granpa Chook defecates into the Judge's open mouth. In retaliation, the Judge catapults a stone into the â€Å"kaffir chicken rooinek,† breaking his ribcage.The boy begs them not to kill Granpa Chook, but they pelt the chicken to death. The boy cries for the first time-thus ending the drought in Zululand. He gives Granpa Chook a fine burial, and covers his battered body with stones. The â€Å"loneliness bird† settles inside the boy. At dinner that night, the boy is told he must visit Mevrou in the dispensary after the meal. Analysis Chapter Three adds the notion of an inner and an outer self to the theme of the power of one. Pisskop learns how to lead a double life–how to be â€Å"in two places at once†Ã¢â‚¬â€œso that he can appear to have a tough exterior, while hiding his vulnerable interior.In fact, everything that the boy has learnt in Chapter One and Two becomes complicated in Chapter Three. Suddenly the Judge shows glimpses of humanity by treating the boy â€Å"not entirely without sympathy. † Although the litotes-or double negative of â€Å"not entirely without sympathy† indicates that the Judge has only microscopically improved his behavior, it nevertheless shows that the boy has learnt that this is not a clear-cut fight between good and evil, Afrikaners and English, black and white.Bathos, or anti- climax, also serves to highlight that the boy's torturers are human beings, not nameless demons: at the end of Chapter Three we finally learn that the Judge has a name–Jaap ie Botha. While the boy realizes that his imagination is his one way out of the horror of his life, at the same time he has to recognize that â€Å"imagination is always the best torturer. â€Å"As the first person narrator, the boy describes not only the events of his early life, but all his emotions and philosophies. He shares with us universally valid musings that he has extracted from his experience: â€Å"One thing is certain in life.Just when things are going well, soon afterward they are certain to go wrong. It's just the way things are meant to be. † The reader's compassion, or sense of pathos, for the protagonist increases because the descriptions of his neglect by his mother are subtle. Instead of blaming other people, Pisskop becomes everyone's scapegoat. We learn that no one has recognized his birthday when he remarks, in a non-accusatory tone: â€Å"I had turned six but nobody had told me, so in my head, I was still five. † Chapter Four Summary After din ner in the boarding house, the boy visits Mevrou.She hands him a train ticket to Barberton, a small town in the Eastern Transvaal province. The journey will take two days and two nights. The boy's Granpa had to sell his farm to their neighbor, Mrs. Vorster, because Newcastle disease killed off his chickens. The following day from his secret mango tree, the boy watches the other kids leave. Then Mevrou marches him off to buy â€Å"tackies† (sneakers) at the Jew Harry Crown's shop. The boy has never owned shoes before–on the farm, the kids simply wore khaki shorts, shirts, and a sweater if it was cold. When they arrive at Harry Crown's shop, it is closed.Mevrou sends the boy to wash his feet at a garage, and the boy notices a sign above a workshop entrance that reads â€Å"BLACKS ONLY. † He wonders why whites are forbidden there. Harry Crown, jaunty and jocular, arrives. He brews up some coffee for Mevrou and gives the boy a raspberry sucker. He expresses shock wh en, on asking the boy his name, he replies â€Å"Pisskop. † With the money the boy's Granpa has sent, Mevrou buys him some tackies which are two times too big for his feet-she stuffs them with balls of newspaper so they will fit. Pisskop feels grand in them, even though he can barely walk.Harry Crown packs four more suckers into the shoe box while Mevrou is not looking. He also invents a new, more sanitary name for the boy-Peekay. The boy likes the name and decides to adopt it for himself. That evening Mevrou takes Peekay to the train station. She puts his Granpa's change-a shilling-into a pocket on his clothes. When the train arrives, the stationmaster introduces Peekay and Mevrou to the train guard, Hoppie Groenewald, who he says is â€Å"champion of the railways. † Peekay trips up the train steps because of his tackies getting in the way but Hoppie kindly gathers him up in his arms.Hoppie keeps Peekay company in the train compartment, and allows him to take of the t ackies. Peekay asks Hoppies about the sepia photographs hung on the walls- they show Cape Town and Table Mountain. This sets Hoppie off talking about how he almost competed in the National railways boxing championships in Cape Town. He begins giving Peekay a boxing lesson, slipping some leather boxing gloves onto Peekay's hands. Although the gloves are far too big, they feel comfortable to Peekay. Peekay secretly delights that Hoppie may be able to each him how to defend himself against the likes of the Judge. Hoppie tells Peekay that when he grows up he will be the welterweight champion of South Africa. He urges Peekay to start boxing lessons as soon as he arrives in Barberton. When the train refuels at Tzaneen, Hoppie treats Peekay to a mixed grill at the Railway Cafe where the bar ladies interrogate Hoppie about his next boxing fight. Peekay notices that Hoppie likes the younger woman, who has very red lips. Peekay falls asleep and the last image he remembers is Hoppie tucking hi m into bed. AnalysisThe novel's main plot, involving boxing, begins in Chapter Four as Peekay meets Hoppie Groenewald. Peekay compares Hoppie's role in his life to that of a sudden and temporary â€Å"meteorite† and calls him a â€Å"mentor. † The boxing plot initiates a new theme in the novel: the role of mentors in education. Education is not defined merely in formal terms, but as relating to the development of the person in his entirety. In such a way, the novel begins to tackle possible prejudices against sport, and particularly boxing, which is often assumed to give leeway only to violence and aggression.The boxing plot also incorporates the theme of the power of one, since Peekay's ambition to become the welterweight champion of South Africa, and then of the world, is purely his own ambition. The people Peekay encounters later in the novel support him in his endeavor, but often do not understand it. Chapter Four also introduces the main milieu–or backdropà ¢â‚¬â€œof the novel: apartheid. ‘Apartheid' is an Afrikaans term meaning simply ‘apartness,' and was coined by the Nationalist president of South Africa, Daniel Malan, in 1948.Chapter Four occurs before 1948, however, when white supremacist behavior was already in operation, but not yet systematized. Peekay's first consciousness of apartheid comes in this chapter, when he notices the â€Å"BLACKS ONLY† sign. In keeping with his childlike perspective, however, the author does not explain apartheid but pushes it to the background. Peekay's lack of understanding of apartheid established dramatic irony, as the reader understands the social institutions which define and affect Peekay from a more informed point of view.Peekay's confusion is not intended to be analyzed as a childlike confusion, however–the questions Peekay asks are terrifyingly legitimate and precise. For instance, when he wonders why white people cannot enter the workshop, he unwittingly touches at the irrationality of racism and apartheid. The novel is clearly founded in its South African context, with the author extremely conscious of the fact that he is writing for an international audience. He italicizes South Africanisms such as â€Å"stoep† (verandah) and â€Å"doek† (headcloth), and explains concepts that non-South Africans could not be expected to understand.For example, Peekay explains that years after his meeting with Hoppie he â€Å"discovered that the Cape Doctor was a wind that blew in early spring†¦Ã¢â‚¬  At the same time, Peekay's meteorite simile reveals a yearning for something much larger. The author is clearly aiming to make a universal statement about the pointlessness of discrimination against any group of people. The introduction of a Jewish character, Harry Crown, discloses that discrimination works on all levels-racial, cultural, and religious.The fact that Harry Crown coins Peekay's name for him is of vital importance-the author offers the lesson that people can make a difference in one another's lives regardless of how short their period of contact. Chapter Five Summary Peekay wakes early and surveys the savannah outside the train window. He expresses amazement at the washbasin which Hoppie shows him, neatly stashed away beneath the compartment table. Hoppie tosses away Peekay's soggy packed food from Mevrou and insists on buying him a proper â€Å"first class fighter† breakfast.As Hoppie lifts Peekay out of bed, Peekay covers his penis and apologizes to Hoppie for being a â€Å"verdomde rooinek† (a damned redneck). He expects â€Å"retribution. † Nothing happens, however, and Peekay begins to lose his fear of being an Englishman. Hoppie takes Peekay to the dining car where the waiter walks past and asks Hoppie the â€Å"odds† on his fight. Peekay wonders what â€Å"odds† are. He asks Hoppie whether he is frightened for the fight, eliciting another inspiring lecture from Hoppie, who is a â€Å"southpaw† (left-handed boxer). Lunch arrives with free steaks for Hoppie and Peekay.All of the passengers chat enthusiastically about Hoppie's imminent boxing bout. The waiter takes money for bets, and Hoppie has to explain what â€Å"betting† is to Peekay. Hoppie encourages Peekay to bet ten to one with his Granpa's shilling. Peekay is a little worried since Mevrou told him only to use the shilling in emergencies. Hoppie tells Peekay this could be considered an emergency. In Gravelotte, Hoppie takes Peekay to his home on the railway mess. Then they go to buy new tackies for Peekay at â€Å"Patel and Son,† which is owned by an Indian man, Mr.Patel. Hoppie treats Mr. Patel and his daughter–whom Peekay notices as being very beautiful–with disdain and tries to swap Peekay's large tackies for new ones. When Mr. Patel recognizes Hoppie as the famous boxer â€Å"Kid Louis† (Hoppie's boxing name, taken from a black non-Afric an boxer), he wants to return Hoppie's nine pence. Hoppie tells him to give the money to Peekay instead. Mr. Patel hands Peekay a shilling. Peekay is relieved his Granpa's money has strangely been restored. Mr. Patel says that he has bet ten pounds on Hoppie's victory.On the way back to the railways, Hoppie tells Peekay not to address â€Å"coolies† (derogatory term for Indian or â€Å"colored† people) as â€Å"Mister. † They head for the billiard room, where Hoppie's opponent, Jackhammer Smit, comes swaggering towards them. He laughs at Hoppie's small stature and calls him a â€Å"midget. † Hoppie tosses back a witty comment before exiting. Peekay meets Hoppie's friends Nels and Bokkie. At his home, Hoppie educates Peekay in pre-match rituals: a shower, a lie-down, and glasses of water every ten minutes (since it is deathly hot). At dinner, Hoppie introduces Peekay to people as â€Å"the next welterweight contender. Peekay remembers all that Hoppie tell s him, and Hoppie marvels at Peekay's perfect recall. Hoppie's army forms arrive in the mail–he tells Peekay that he has been summoned to war. He explains that Hitler is a very bad man–the enemy, not the ally. Analysis The racism of whites towards non-whites in South Africa becomes clearer in Chapter Five. Peekay's description of Mr. Patel's daughter as wearing â€Å"diaphanous cloth† and having â€Å"dark and very beautiful† eyes contrasts with Hoppie's racist description of Indians as â€Å"coolies. † Thus, the theme of people contradicting themselves in their behavior emerges further here.While showing extreme generosity and compassion to Peekay, Hoppie shows only arrogant racism towards the Patels, and tells Peekay not to call Mr. Patel â€Å"Mister. † Peekay thus becomes more than simply the protagonist-he becomes a moral yardstick by which we are to judge the other characters. Peekay shows respect and courtesy to everyone he meets. Alt hough Peekay's insight into the world remains limited and somewhat humorous, he is fast being forced to grow up. The bildungsroman structure usually involves a series of shifts from one setting to another, with very few visits to past settings.With Peekay surrounded by fresh faces on a train bound for Barberton, a new town, this novel certainly continues to fulfill the bildungsroman criteria. Moreover, most readers are in the same position as Peekay-unclear of the exact details of apartheid, and without an intimate knowledge of the boxing world. When Peekay confides that he does not understand Hoppie's â€Å"boxing parlance,† we share his newcomer's perspective. Chapter Five offers a couple of examples of the author's method of characterization–a simple, conventional method whereby a character's name is subsequently furnished with a short physical sketch.Peekay illustrates Mr. Patel's daughter, for instance, through the following description: â€Å"She was a mid brown color, her straight black hair was parted in the middle†¦Ã¢â‚¬  While the author pursues a conventional characterization method, the reader can understand his preoccupation with appearance, and particularly with skin tone. By Peekay almost taking inventory in noticing the woman's â€Å"mid brown color,† the author highlights the impossibility of categorizing people, especially according to something as nuanced as skin color. People should not be quantified and pigeonholed, he suggests.Yet some of the character descriptions fall into stereotypes or caricatures, contradicting this notion. Mr. Patel, for instance, speaks in a caricatured Indian dialect, using expressions such as â€Å"very-very† and â€Å"by golly. † Such stereotypes suggest that the book belongs to the genre of â€Å"popular adventure. † The characters and events, as will be seen in the rest of the novel, lack authenticity but replace it with the kind of exaggerated magic found in ch ildren's fairy tales. Chapter Six Summary Jackhammer Smit, a miner, has all his fellow miners on his side.The miners have constructed a makeshift boxing ring on Gravelotte's rugby field. All the townspeople gather on the stands (bleachers), with the black denizens having to squat underneath and peer through the whites' legs. Bokkie and Nels, Hoppie's seconds, lead Hoppie and Peekay to the warm-up tent where Hoppie points out the referee–a dwarf–to Peekay. Jackhammer Smit is already decked out in full boxing gear-Hoppie whispers to Peeky that he is â€Å"one big sonofabitch. † Hoppies opts to â€Å"glove up† in the boxing ring to provide more amusement for the crowd.Bokkie, following boxing etiquette, carries the gloves to Jackhammer Smit's seconds so that they may choose. Jackhammer and Hoppie taunt each other verbally, and Hoppie instructs Peekay: â€Å"Never forget, Peekay, sometimes, very occasionally, you do your best boxing with your mouth. † Nels escorts Peekay away from the tent and up the stands to Big Hettie, a large woman who chugs brandy throughout the fight and forgets to conceal her Irish accent when drunk. Hoppie and Jackhammer Smit enter the ring. Big Hettie hurls a curse at Jackhammer and the crowd roars with laughter.Big Hettie calls the dwarf referee â€Å"Sparrow Fart. † The dwarf invokes Biblical imagery, introducing the match as one between David and Goliath. In the first round, Hoppie lands a dozen punches to Jackhammer's left eye. The second round proceeds similarly, except that Jackhammer connects with Hoppie's head three times. Rounds three to five witness Hoppie attempting to wait out Jackhammer by taunting him around the ring. At the end of the sixth round, Jackhammer's left eye is almost shut, and Hoppie's ribs are red from the blows.In the seventh round, the heat begins to take its toll on Jackhammer-his left eye has closed. He manages to punch Hoppie right under the heart, however, and Hop pie crumples to the ground. Jackhammer refuses to move to the corner of the ring, thereby unwittingly giving Hoppie thirty seconds to recover. Hoppie manages to rise on the count of eight. Big Hettie nourishes Peekay with creamy coffee and chocolate cake during the fight. In the eleventh round, Jackhammer purposely knocks the referee backwards so that he cannot witness him headbutting Hoppie to the ground.The railwaymen, supporting Hoppie, cry â€Å"Foul! † After much confusion, and outbreaks of fighting amongst the crowd, the referee decides to award Hoppie the fight on a foul. Hoppie, however, is not satisfied and calls for the fight to resume. In the fourteenth round, Jackhammer knocks Hoppie down-suddenly Hoppie rises with a punch to Jackhammer's jaw, knowcking him out. A â€Å"braaivleis† (barbecue) and â€Å"tiekiedraai† (dance) follow the fight. Hoppie puts Peekay to sleep, next to Big Hettie. Analysis As the narrator matures, his voice gives the story a lyrical tone.The adult Peekay describes the gum trees near the boxing ring with â€Å"their palomino trunks shredded with strips of gray bark,† and the moths and insects which â€Å"danced about the lights, tiny planets orbiting erratically around two brilliant artificial suns. † He uses the same lyricism to describe, almost blow by blow, the boxing match between Hoppie and Jackhammer Smit-indeed, most of Chapter Six is taken up with the fight itself. This foreshadows many similar lengthy fight descriptions in the following chapters: the novel becomes in part a sports novel, with Peekay taking the role of commentator.Yet The Power of One differs from other sports novels in that it raises sport to the level of an art form. Peekay uses music metaphors and similes, subtly comparing boxing to music. For example, he notes how the referee â€Å"orchestrated† the audience to silence, and how Jackhammer Smit bangs his right fist into his left palm â€Å"like a metronom e. † The incongruity of music and a thug such as Jackhammer Smit works like an intellectual conceit-that is, an outrageous comparison that makes sense only after a couple of moments of thought.In such a way, the author compels us to accept boxing as an art form. The rich boxing vocabulary-including terms such as â€Å"straight left†, â€Å"feinting†, and â€Å"clinch†-heightens Peekay's storytelling power. This contrasts with Big Hettie's crude, yet hilarious commentary-she calls the dwarf referee â€Å"Sparrow Fart† and does not listen to a word Peekay says. The fact that the referee is a dwarf, and Big Hettie is partly Irish, adds to the already colorful human landscape of the novel-once again, the author forces us to recall the many types of differences between human beings.Hoppie's victory over Jackhammer is an important plot moment for the young protagonist Peekay since it gives him the faith that â€Å"small† can prevail over â€Å"lar ge. † He admits to the reader that â€Å"Big, it seemed to me, always finished on top †¦Ã¢â‚¬  The battle between small and large takes on a new dimension in Chapter Six: Hoppie teaches Peekay the necessity of strategy, of tactics. His main advice to Peekay is â€Å"First with the head, then with the heart,† an aphorism which Peekay never forgets. Peekay must change his own theme from the battle between small and large to the struggle between brains and brawn.Chapter Seven Summary Peekay awakens on the train to see â€Å"koppies† (little hills) and â€Å"lowveld† (bushland) flashing by outside. He finds a letter and a ten-shilling note attached to the front of his shirt-it is from Hoppie. Hoppie tells Peekay that the ten-shilling note is the money Peekay won from his bet, and in the note he reminds Peekay that â€Å"Small can beat big† and â€Å"first with the head and then with the heart. † Peekay is upset that Hoppie has disappeared from his life, but realizes that Hoppie has given him something to take away-the power of one.Peekay defines this as â€Å"one idea, one heart, one mind, one plan, one determination. † Soon Peekay notices a stench in the train compartment. He looks down from his bunk to see Big Hettie, fully dressed, sprawled on the bed below â€Å"like a beached sperm whale. † She reeks of brandy. When Peekay returns from the toilets, he finds that Big Hettie has half-collapsed onto the floor, with her dress over her ears. Peekay restores her to a normal position by shifting her legs onto the ground. Big Hettie belches in reply and Peekay exclaims â€Å"Boy, did she stink! The conductor, Pik Botha, arrives and gives a melodramatic lament when he realizes that Big Hettie is on his train. He gets even angrier when he discovers that Peekay's ticket is not clipped, and he blames it on Hoppie. Peekay pleads for Hoppie and succeeds. Pik Botha takes Peekay to breakfast, where the boy meets Hennie Venter, a waiter. When they return to the compartment, Botha—a born-again Christian—tells Peekay that Hettie is a â€Å"good example of God's terrible vengeance. † Hettie, however, wakes up to defend herself, calling Botha a â€Å"self- righteous little shit. She sends Peekay to fetch water for her. Peekay returns, and looks after Hettie by cooling her chest with a damp cloth. Hettie orders Botha to engineer a way to get her out of the compartment since she cannot get up. As Botha attempts to climb over Hettie to get a grasp on her, Hettie belches and Botha falls on top of her. Hettie begins to laugh and Peekay realizes that they are â€Å"in a real pickle. † They try a different tactic, with both Botha and Peekay pulling. Peekay loses his grip, however, and falls into Botha's crotch, causing him enormous pain in his waterworks. † They give up for the moment, and Hettie orders a lavish breakfast for herself and Peekay from Hennie. Peekay, no t hungry, gives his helping to Hettie, who scoffs everything. While Hettie eats, she tells Peekay that Hoppie could have been a famous boxer if it were not for the fact that he does not know how to hate. Peekay decides that he needs to learn how to hate. Hettie also tells Peekay about her love affair with a flyweight, who used to beat her up because he could not beat up his opponents. He died of a brain hemorrhage, during a match.Peekay watches Hettie binge herself on food all day, and intuitively realizes that he is witnessing â€Å"a sickness or a sadness or even both. † Hettie cries for herself, and Peekay comforts her. That afternoon the train arrives at the Kaapmuiden station. The railwaymen have to employ monkey wrenches to try to get Hettie out of the compartment. After telling Peekay she has faith in his becoming a great boxer, she dies quietly. Analysis In Chapter Seven, Peekay takes a detour, describing the tragicomic events that occur on his train ride between the towns of Gravelotte and Kaapmuiden.Big Hettie is representative of the â€Å"passing characters† pattern in the novel-some characters remain, while others coexist only briefly with Peekay. As with Hoppie, Peekay takes something away from Big Hettie. He learns about pride and courage. Peekay is learning how to absorb the essence of other people, how to remember what they say. Thus, â€Å"the power of one† does not refer to an individualistic sentiment, but rather to an all-encompassing notion, which acknowledges that the individual is shaped by all those people who pass through his life, whether for a brief or lengthy time.Peekay describes the events of the novel with humor and compassion; events are often both funny and sad. Big Hettie becomes one of the novel's caricatured, burlesque characters, and this chapter could almost be called a tribute to her. Chapter Seven thus deviates from the overarching plot. Hoppie's letter to Peekay, included at the beginning of the ch apter, also works to disrupt the neat, narrative flow and-as Peekay's first letter (and wager won)-it acts as a kind of mark of initiation into a more adult world.The â€Å"toilet humor† apparent in this chapter (Big Hettie's belches, for example) not only works as part of the burlesque, but constructs an invisible hierarchy amongst the characters- proximity to bodily Chapter Eight Summary The train arrives at Barberton station late at night. Hennie Venter says farewell to Peekay and promises to tell Hoppie that Peekay â€Å"behaved like a proper Boer, a real white man. † Peekay does not recognize anyone on the platform and so he sits silently crying, longing for his nanny to arrive and sweep him up. Then he notices a lady approaching.She calls him her â€Å"darling† and holds her against her bony body. Peekay realizes that it is his mother. When Peekay asks her where his nanny is, she simply says that he is too old for a nanny and hurries him out to a car where a certain Pastor Mulvery is waiting to take them home to Granpa. Peekay's mother and Pastor Mulvery spend the car ride home praising the Lord's precious name. Peekay's mother intimates that he must become a born-again Christian at the Apostolic Faith Mission, and Pastor Mulvery says they are on their way to meeting the Lord.Peekay asks if they can meet the Lord the following day–he is too exhausted that night. They both laugh. Peekay longs for the continuation of his past life on the farm. He discovers, fortunately, that the new house has exactly the same furniture as the farmhouse. He surveys the scene: the grandfather clock, the stuffed Kudu head, the painting of the Rourke's Drift massacre, the zebra skin. Peekay's Granpa enters the room and Peekay notices that he remains unchanged too. Only the kettle in the kitchen looks â€Å"new and temporary. † Peekay resolves to question his Granpa about nanny's whereabouts the following day.In the dawn he explores the back g arden, which he finds full of rosebushes–he observes that â€Å"the garden looked like the sort of tunnel Alice might well have found in Wonderland. † Beyond the fences surrounding the garden, Peekay notices plants of a wilder nature-quince, guava, orange, lemon, avocado, poinsettia, and aloe. He decides to explore and, before he realizes, he has climbed high up the hill. Compared to the African bush, the rose garden looks â€Å"tizzy and sentimental as a painting on a chocolate box. † He surveys the town of Barberton from above, and then joins his Granpa in the rose garden.When he asks where his nanny is, his Granpa slowly puffs on his pipe and tells Peekay a cryptic story about his grandmother, for whom he says Africa was too severe. Then he tells Peekay to ask his mother about nanny. Returning to the house, Peekay is reunited with the twin kitchen maids Dum and Dee, who tell him that Nanny is still alive. They also explain to Peekay that his mother has become a seamstress. When Peekay finally confronts his mother about Nanny, his mother tells him that she returned to Zululand because she refused to remove her â€Å"heathen charms and amulets. Peekay shouts that the Lord is a â€Å"shithead† and runs through the â€Å"Alice in Wonderland tunnels† until he reaches the hill. The eggs of the loneliness birds are crushed into powder inside him and, in a moment, he grows up. Analysis Chapter Eight contrasts the preceding two chapters (which cover Peekay's temporary adventures on the train home) by introducing Peekay and the reader to his new permanent place, Barberton. He has to deal with the prospect of a life with his returned mother and her religious fanaticism. He desperately searches for continuity and finds that his Granpa, Dum, and Dee are his only constants.While Peekay's experiences keep shifting from one backdrop to another, his method of narration is not disrupted, but is conventional and linear. Occasionally, he rem inisces about past events, but generally he moves forward chronologically. You may ask how a six-year-old could think like this. I can only answer that one did. The reader finds continuity in the story itself through the recurring motif of the loneliness birds, whose eggs transform to dust at the conclusion of Chapter Eight. This shift is significant, and Peekay observes that, suddenly, he has grown up.He ends the chapter by addressing the reader directly. He specifically addresses the reader's skepticism. It may seem ironic that at the same moment that Peekay announces his burst into the adult world, he confronts the reader's adult rationality. However, as the novel unfolds, it will become apparent that Peekay possesses a special manner of combining adult logic and rationality with a childlike appreciation for the magic and mystery of the world. The literary allusions to Lewis Carroll's novel Alice in Wonderland highlight this belief in magic.It is no accident that the names of the kitchen maids are â€Å"Dum† and â€Å"Dee,† reminiscent of the Carroll's characters Tweedledum and Tweedledee (Peekay presumably provided these nicknames for them in his youth). Not only does Peekay profess to grow up in this chapter, but for the first time he truly begins to grapple with the concept of â€Å"Africa† and his place in it. With his simile comparing his Granpa's rose garden to a chocolate box picture, Peekay consigns the garden to symbolic status-he sees the cultivated garden as a symbol of Englishness.The epithets he uses to describe the garden- â€Å"tizzy† and â€Å"sentimental†-suggest that he wishes to repudiate this part of his identity and allow himself to be captivated by the wild, untamed African land. Chapter Nine Summary While Peekay sits on a rock on the hillside, surveying Barberton, a very tall and thin man with a camera introduces himself as Professor von Vollensteen. He tells Peekay that he could not resist taking a photograph of him as he sat on the rock. He asks for Peekay's permission to call it â€Å"Boy on a Rock. † Peekay notices that the professor is carrying a cactus in his canvas backsack.He asks why the cactus is not pricking the professor, and the old man promises to reveal the secret. He takes the cactus from his bag and introduces it to Peekay as â€Å"Euphorbia grandicornis†¦ a very shy cactus. † He shows Peekay that his backsack is made of leather, protecting his back from the cactus' prickles. Peekay says that he could have worked that out for himself, and the professor calls him a â€Å"schmarty pants. † He asks Peekay whether he knows what a professor is, and Peekay has to admit that he does not know. Suddenly the professor notices a rare aloe under the sock on which Peekay is sitting, and yelps â€Å"Wunderbar! Peekay reminds him that he has not yet explained the word â€Å"professor. † The man replies, â€Å"‘A professor is a person w ho drinks too much whisky and once plays goot Beethoven. ‘† Then he tells Peekay that he can call him â€Å"Doc† instead of â€Å"Professor. † Doc and Peekay part ways and Peekay returns home, to a dismal Dum and Dee. Cowering, they tell him that his mother wants to see him. Peekay does not feel scared-his mother does not realize that he is a â€Å"veteran of interrogation and punishment. † Peekay's mother makes him apologize to her, then breaks down into tears of self-pity.At this, Peekay feels relieved because he is more accustomed to this side of his mother. He tells her to lie down, and brings her some tea and an Aspro. Two days later, Peekay sits watching army trucks filled with soldiers passing by the house when Doc arrives. Doc greets Peekay warmly and says that he wishes to speak to his mother-he has brought an aloe and the photograph of Peekay as presents for her. Doc discovers, to his horror, that Doc is a German. Doc tells Peekay's mother that he believes her son is a genius and he wishes to give him music lessons. At first she resists, since she does not accept charity from anyone.Doc eventually convinces her by saying that in return for the lessons he requires Peekay to work for him, collecting cacti. Peekay's mother now agrees- having a son trained in classical music will be a status symbol for her, a â€Å"social equalizer. â€Å"The summer months pass and Peekay spends the majority of his time with Doc, roaming the Barberton â€Å"kloofs† (cliffs) collecting cacti. Doc teaches Peekay â€Å"the priceless lesson of identification. † He teaches Peekay how to observe, how to listen to himself, and how to use his brain for both original thought and as a â€Å"reference library† for storing information.Doc supplements Peekay's outdoors education with morning piano lessons, and frequent trips to the Barberton library, run by Mrs. Boxall. Peekay soon realizes that he is competent but not a gifted musician. His mother, however, is delighted when Peekay stuns all the Barberton citizens at the bi-annual cultural concert by playing Chopin. The Afrikaners leave the concert when all the English people begin singing â€Å"White Cliffs of Dover. † Peekay explains the close relationship between the Boers and the Germans, who gave the Boers assistance during the Boer War. AnalysisDoc, or Professor von Vollensteen, helps Peekay to counter generalizations about Germans. Peekay is at first shocked since he associates all Germans with Hitler's Nazi party. Chapter Nine shows some stylistic deviations from previous chapters by Peekay's deviations into historical descriptions. At the conclusion of the chapter, he provides the reader with a lengthy description of the close relationship that developed between the Germans and the Boers during the Boer War. In such a way, he undertakes to educate the reader-he does not make allusions to historical events; he explains them.This results in the novel being self-contained—one does not have to undertake much external research in order to understand its context. Perhaps the author is suggesting that the very notion of history and historical recording is at stake in this time period. History cannot be taken for granted, and history text books cannot be trusted. By taking Peekay under his tutelage, Doc becomes the next of Peekay's string of mentors. Doc's character introduces a couple of new vocabulary sets into the novel-that of Latin cacti names, and that of his quirky half-German half- invented dialect.He uses nonsense terms such as â€Å"absoloodle,† and German exclamations such as â€Å"wunderbar. † Doc is a caricatured character (he occupies the space of a kind of fairy godfather), who becomes a foil to Peekay's Granpa-the latter confines himself to the preened, meted world of his rose garden, while the former exposes himself to the dangerous, exciting life of cacti and aloes. Although Peekay now has his mother and Granpa with him, there exists a glaring absence of anyone playing a truly parental role in his life.Doc fills this role. Instead of caring for her son, Peekay's mother neglects him in favor of the Lord, and Peekay in fact plays the role of parent to her. Peekay subtly underscores his mother's hypocrisy-while subscribing to the Lord as the only avatar of morality and modesty, she enjoys the status that Peekay's skill at classical piano affords her. Chapter Nine demonstrates a distinct method in Peekay's narrative style: he begins to provide the reader with recaps, or summaries, of events that have already happened.For example, he recapitulates the events of Chapter Eight and the beginning of Chapter Nine as follows: â€Å"The loneliness birds had flown away and I had grown up and made a new friend called Doc and had learned several new things. † The abundance of the coordinating conjunction â€Å"and† stresses Peekay's eagerness to tally these occasio ns-the effect is one of insistence and continuity. The reader can almost hear the tremble in Peekay's voice. The older narrator-Peekay reminds the reader that the younger Peekay has to hold on to the constants in his life-even the loneliness birds have become a constant.The reader senses Peekay's need to impart his life story-it is not a self- aggrandizing process, but a way in which he can circumscribe the uncertainties of his past. Indeed, the chapter concludes with the adult Peekay foreshadowing the loss of Doc from his life. Chapter Ten Summary Peekay skips two classes at the local school. Doc has convinced him that he should drop his camouflage and reveal his intelligence. Doc is Peekay's true teacher. When around Doc, Peekay says that his brain is constantly â€Å"hungry. † As in the summer months, Peekay arrives shortly after dawn each day for his music lesson with Doc.Doc's eyes are often bloodshot and he tells Peekay that the â€Å"wolves were howling† in his head the previous night-his euphemism for being drunk. Doc's Johnny Walker whisky bottles border the path in Doc's cactus garden. One Saturday afternoon in January 1941, Doc and Peekay are working in the garden when Peekay notices a military police van draw up. An officer and a sergeant emerge and, smoking cigarettes, they wait for Doc and Peekay to approach. Then the sergeant arrests Doc under the Aliens Act of 1939. Doc does not resist but instead sadly tells Peekay that he now must care for the cactus garden.Then Doc asks permission to shave and make a change of clothing before leaving for Barberton prison. Peekay brings jugs of water for Doc to wash. Peekay helps Doc to pack, and slips a half-bottle of Johnny Walker into Doc's bag. The sergeant finds the whisky in the bag and wants to share it with Doc, but Doc refuses to drink. The sergeant drinks part of the whisky then pours the rest onto Doc's beloved Steinway piano. Doc smacks the sergeant's wrist with his walking stick, an d the sergeant calls him a â€Å"fucking Nazi bastard† and a â€Å"child fucker. † Doc, however, is already walking towards the military van.The sergeant runs after him and handcuffs him, then kicks Doc's legs so that he collapses onto his knees. Peekay runs after Doc, screaming, and tries to throw his arms around Doc's legs. As he leaps, the sergeant's kick intended for Doc's ribcage connects with Peekay's face and knocks him unconscious. Peekay regains consciousness in Barberton hospital, terribly worried about Doc. The boy's jaw has been broken, making it impossible for him to speak. A fifteen- year-old nurse with acne, Marie, looks after Peekay and calls him her â€Å"skattebol† (fluffball).She tells Peekay that he has become a town hero for trying to restrain a â€Å"German spy. † Peekay's mother and Pastor Mulvery visit him often, and continue their attempts to proselytize him. Peekay remembers Doc's version of God-a force too busy training bees to fuss with silly humans. Peekay's mother calls Doc an â€Å"evil man† who attempted to kill him. Peekay fumes with frustration-he is the only one who knows the truth but he is unable to speak up to defend Doc. He writes to Mrs. Boxall asking her to visit him as soon as possible. Marie eventually agrees to convey the letter on Peekay's behalf. While waiting for Mrs.Boxall, Peekay writes a long letter explaining the details of Doc's arrest. Mrs. Boxall expresses delight at Peekay's testimony and exclaims that it has arrived just in time-the military court is about to put Doc on trial. She shows Peekay the front page of their local newspaper, The Goldfields News. The picture Doc took of Peekay on the rock is headlined with the words â€Å"THE BOY HE TRIED TO KILL! â€Å"Peekay receives a letter from Mrs. Boxall–she has shown his testimony to Mr. Andrews, the lawyer, but he has said that the piece is so sophisticated that no one will believe that a seven-year-old wrote it .Marie, the only person who can understand Peekay's garble through his broken jaw, is thus commissioned to be his interpreter. Peekay, Marie, Mrs. Boxall, and Mr. Andrews arrive at the magistrate Colonel de Villiers' office. Marie takes a while to find her voice, but Peekay manages to prove that he wrote the statement by writing down the names of various Latin succulents. They win the case, but Doc has to remain in prison since he did not register as a foreign alien when he arrived in South Africa fifteen years previously. Peekay visits Doc in prison and meets Klipkop (Johannes Oudendaal) and Lieutenant Smit.Klipkop tells Peekay that he is a boxer, and Peekay begs him to give him lessons. He tells Klipkop he has to become the welterweight champion of the world. Klipkop says that he is too young-the youngest trainee in their boxing prison squad is ten years old. Peekay watches as Klipkop brutally beats one of the black prison servants, accusing him of stealing some biscuits. Smit wat ches quietly, then tells Klipkop afterwards that he was the one who ate the biscuits. The men take Peekay to meet Kommandant van Zyl, who tells Peekay to inform Mrs.Boxall of a surprise he has for the townspeople the following Monday, in the town square. Peekay asks the kommandant if he can box with their squad. Smit is furious with Peekay afterwards. However, Peekay has realized that Jackhammer Smit is Lieutenant Smit's brother. When he refers to the Gravelotte fight, Smit's eyes begin to shine and he accepts Peekay into the squad. Peekay is forbidden from boxing for two years–he may only do technique training. Eventually Peekay gets to see Doc. Doc tells Peekay the â€Å"surprise† on Monday is a very stupid thing.He tells Peekay to meet him in his cactus garden at noon that day, and to find Beethoven's Symphony Number Five in his piano stool, as well as what is above the sheet music (his whisky). Mrs. Boxall becomes very excited when Peekay relays this news to herâ⠂¬â€œshe says Doc is to give a concert. On Monday Smit and Klipkop fetch the Steinway from Doc's house. They introduce Peekay to another warder, Gert Marais. Gert, an Afrikaner who does not speak English, cannot understand Doc and Peekay's conversation. Doc tells Peekay that he does not want to give the concert-he has not performed for sixteen years.However, the prison warders will not allow Peekay to visit him if he refuses. Doc tells Peekay of his musical history-he describes the disastrous concert of 1925 in Berlin where, playing Beethoven's Symphony Number Five, he froze up. As the mayor is introducing Doc in the Barberton town square, a fight breaks out between the English and the Afrikaners. Doc, trembling, takes a swig of whisky and begins to play. The crowd immediately quiets and is captivated by the music. Doc plays beautifully and Peekay has never seen him so happy. AnalysisChapter Ten is one of the novel's longest chapters, taking up almost a tenth of the novel. It carrie s through on Peekay's foreshadowing at the end of Chapter Nine-the loss of Doc and, in a sense, the loss of his childhood. For the first time in his life, at a mere seven years of age, Peekay must confront military and legal institutions-not as a peripheral visitor, but as an eye- witness of Doc's arrest and thus as an insider. Peekay reserves his own critical judgment of the cruel events he experiences (Doc's arrest, Klipkop's brutal treatment of the black prison servant) in order to allow the reader to draw her own conclusions.Peekay takes on the role of objective reporter or observer in these situations. However, he hints that his reserved behavior does not stem from disinterestedness–he realizes that survival in these settings depends on being diplomatic. Neither does the adult narrator withhold critique of the immorality of the prison world-his tone, often earnest, becomes ironic in his descriptions of the prison staff. After describing the office of the kommandant, with its stuffed gemsbok, eland, steenbok, and springbok heads, the narrator illustrates the kommandant himself, who claims to love wild animals.The narrator's precise descriptions–including, for example, the names of all the different kinds of buck on the kommandant's walls–stress the effect Doc has had on Peekay. Doc has taught Peekay how to observe, analyze, record. These skills will be vital to Peekay's success and survival throughout the novel. There are other reasons why it is sensible for the narrator to unleash his criticism of the harsh, racist behavior in South Africa in a subtle, rather than direct manner. Firstly, The Power of One was written at a time when apartheid was still alive in South Africa.The author himself has to take a diplomatic tone. Secondly, the author does not wish readers to see the South African struggle as one between good and evil forces – he paints the prison staff as humans, not monsters. They have redeeming qualities. Klipkop, Lie utenant Smit, and Kommandant van Zyl are all extremely kind to Peekay. The officers who arrest Doc take a moment to have a cigarette. It is a human moment before their violent treatment of Doc. Moreover, Doc's ability to halt the brawling in the town square, with his beautiful rendition of Beethoven, suggests the triumph of our shared humanity.The chapter ends on an optimistic note when it intimates that a universal spirit holds us all together in spite of our myriad differences. This tone of optimism emerges as the novel's distinguishing tone. In spite of Peekay's portrayal of crude or violent behavior, his faith in the notion of â€Å"the power of one† lingers. Chapter Eleven Summary Dee and Dum wake Peekay every morning with coffee and a rusk (a hard biscuit) and he heads to the prison for boxing lessons and then his piano lesson with Doc. The prison staff allows these lessons to proceed since they enjoy the social status afforded by having two classical musicians in their midst.Doc does not understand Peekay's need to box, but he assists Peekay with â€Å"musical analogies. † He says that in music, as in boxing, exercises make up one's foundation. Peekay's visits are so constant that he becomes part of the prison â€Å"shadow world. â€Å"Peekay becomes friends with Gert Marais, the Afrikaans warder. Gert fixes the boxing speedball so that it is low enough for Peekay