Even A Clown Can Do It: Cirque du Soleil Recreates Live Entertainment Essay

Cirque du Soleil is a Canadian entertainment company which was created in 1984 by a group of young street performers. Daniel Gauthier and Guy LaLiberte are the founding Co-Presidents of Cirque du Soleil who self-described the company as a mix of circus arts and street entertainment and reinvent the circus industry from then on. 1. What are the key factors kept by Le Cirque? Which ones are downplayed and which ones were played up? Since Le Cirque is a circus company, it kept existing traditions of the circus such as the circus arts, featuring jugglers, trampolinists, trapeze artists, teeterboard virtuosos and, of course, clowns. Soleil combined elements of dance, circus and opera to keep its artistry, but the proportion of fun and humor in the whole show was decreased. Further, due to the increase of thematic line and the lack of a ringmaster announcing the acts, the individual performers are downplayed. Each of them now acts one of the roles to develop the overall thematic element an d their names are not showed in the cast list. In other words, big name acts have no place in Cirque du Soleil. Soleil keeps tents and concessions. As a traditionally large source of circus revenues which around 20% at the Ringling Brothers& Co. shows, Soleil only gains less than 10% of revenues from it. Compare with earning some of money from selling food and toys during the performance or inside the tent, Soleil preferred the performance-centered ethic of the troupe since the performances and themes are utterly unique. Sponsorships are an important source of revenue for Soleil. Soleil can mention the sponsors in the playbill, advertising and banners around the tent. The last key factor kept by Le Cirque is retaining the show on tour. Soleil plays it up by permanently perform three shows in Las Vegas and Disney World. 2. Which factors were totally eliminated by Le Cirque and what are the operational and financial implications? Soleil changed the multiple show arenas which is known as the three-ring venues for the following reasons. In order to overcome the visual distance from the audience, the clowns paint face garishly and we ar oversized shoes which probably frightening to the small children in a closer distance. Also, this format required more performers for each venue which definitely increase the cost. The aisle concession  sales were totally eliminated for the reason I mentioned above. The most striking differences of the Cirque du Soleil from the traditional circuses are the complete absence of star performers and animal shows. The animal acts are known as the most expensive cost for a show since the animals for circuses are frequently owned by their trainers and only leased to the show. Further, there are the fee for the services of the animals and its trainer, transportation as well as training. 3. Which factors were newly created by Le Cirque, and where do you think the inspiration came from? First of all, combination of traditional circus and street entertainment are the core created by the company. Second, a thematic line and storyline are manifested throughout the show in all kinds of ways. The creative teams at Cirque du Soleil would choose a theme first and then build a show to suit. It is more like an opera in this way and provides a high quality, seamless and fulfilling entertainment experience for audience. Third, by choosing distinctive themes, the com pany can create multiple productions which can enhance the reflux rate of the audience. For example, Cirque du Soleil has the shows named Mystere, La Nouba, Dralion, ‘O’ and Quidam. Four, an artistic original music and dance with ‘magic’ lighting and timing effects bring the audience visually feelings. The inspiration comes from mixing elements from circus, opera, music, dance and theatre as well as quit some aspects from traditional circuses, Laliberte actually reconstructed elements and the form of circus to a sophisticated entertainment. By doing so, Soleil is able to sell the tickets at a higher price to all aged audience instead of discounted tickets to children. It has raising the circus to a new scale and expanded target audience. As the circus historian Fred Pfening asks, â€Å"But is it circus?†(Williamson, 2000) Laliberte, probably, want to do something utterly unique and irrelevant or rather he just hope to help young people to express the ir dreams. 4. How does Cirque du Soleil create superior profits? How does it improve industry growth and generate revenues? How does it raise profitability and reduce its cost structure? Cirque du Soleil create superior profits by reinventing the circus industry and creating an uncontested market space. More professionally, it move from red ocean strategy to blue ocean strategy. Same as the traditional circus, the great majority of revenues for Soleil are form ticket sales. However, it redefied circus industry and target audience as I mentioned above to sell  tickets higher with full face value. It actually make the competition irrelevant. By creating diversified themes and high quality performances, Soleil remains the highest seat occupancy with approximately 85%-95% in the industry. Further, from Exhibit 2 we can see the amount of attendance jumped rapidly to almost 6 million from 1990 to 2000. The themes were also increased from one to six. Soleil creates and captures the new demand of the audience. Sponsorships play a low-key but important role in Soleil’s profits. A main sponsor guarantees a gate to the circus and is able to sell the tickets independently. Besides, three permanent shows hold frequently in the places with large potential customers, such as Las Vegas. Or lando and Disney World. The way of choosing the locations are changed. Obviously, the combination of these tourist cities and the fantastic shows is a creative idea to attract plenty of audience. Therefore, we can see the form Exhibit 1 that the major circus revenues increased rapidly to catch up with Feld Entertainment from 1993 to 2000. The most importantly, Soleil follows the different strategic logic called value innovation. It is the cornerstone of the blue ocean strategy since it break the value-cost trade-off. The definition for it is the simultaneous pursuit of differentiation and low cost, creating a leap in value for both buyers and the company (Blue Ocean Strategy, 2013). In this case, Soleil pursue the differentiation and lift buyer value by reinvent the industry and create many new factors as I mentioned in question 3. In addition, it eliminated animal acts and star performers to reduce the cost. Unlike the Irving Feld who expends a lot to add trill and danger, Soleil r educed these to save money for company. In conclusion, Cirque de Soleil realized if it wants to be succeed, it must stop compete with each other and to create a new market. According to the four action framework, the company find out the specific changes it should take. By breaking the market boundaries of circus and theater and reconstruct all the elements, Soleil achieved both differentiation and low cost or rather value innovation. It breaks the value-cost trade-off and create new best-practice rules under the blue ocean strategy. In general, it is not circus. It is Soleil. Reference Blue Ocean Strategy (2013). Value innovation. http://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/concepts/bos-tools/value-innovation/ Williamson,M. (2000) Even a Clown Can Do It: Cirque du Soleil Recreates Live Entertainment.

Case Study About Ebola Essay

Throughout this world over the course of centuries, there were many deadly diseases and plagues that killed people or killed an entire population. From the black plague to chickenpox, disease have a huge impact on the population and countries as a whole. Just recently, the virus, Ebola, has made its way through countries across the world and have killed many people. Some people do not know what exactly Ebola is or how it kills people, but people need to discover the importance of the disease and how we as people are preventing it. Ebola is a hemorrhagic virus, part of the virus family called Filoviridae, that consists of 5 other Ebola diseases. Ebola started in the Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo with an infectious person. The infected person then spread the virus to thousands of people which lead to between 1,552 to 1,716 cases of Ebola. What causes this virus among many people are blood on a human as well as bodily fluids of infected or sick animals. Once these fluid s are in or affect the human body, the virus Ebola will infect the whole body of an individual. The symptoms of the virus Ebola are active two to three weeks after contracting the virus. Some common symptoms of Ebola are a very high fever, sore throat, muscle pain, as well as a headache. The high fever weakens the body to perform at an all time low and it is hard for the patient to move around or communicate. After the basic symptoms occur, more complex and harsher conditions come on to the patient. The patient would soon feel very sick and begin to vomit, develop a harsh rash, and develop a lot of very painful diarrhea. One scientist on the virus Ebola describes the virus: â€Å"Ebola then turns the insides of its host into jelly: you begin to vomit black junk which is basically your dissolved liver and internal organs.†. Though we live in a modern technological and medical world, there is no treatment to be found to fully cure an infected human being. Some people in the world have not fully treated the disease by tried abnormal treatments. People infected my go on oral rehydration therapy (salty/sweet water diet) or drink intravenous fluids. The virus is so deadly, that its kills nearly 50 to 90 percent of its patients infected with the virus. Because there is no treatment, there are only way to prevent the disease from starting or spreading. The way the disease can not spread or develop is by checking animals (origin of disease) for infections or making sure not fluids make contact with human skin. Along with checking animals,  humans need to wear protective gear to check, kill, and correctly dispose of the animal or people with Ebola. Many believe a quarantine has done a good job to separate the virus from virus-free people. Some people in the Congo believe that just washing the hands may prevent the virus from attacking a human. Although countries have come a long way in preventing the disease, the disease had made it was closer to other countries and has found a way into the United States. There have been a handful of United States citizens who have been affected but have been â€Å"cured†. One case has been found in Texas when a man has not realized he was infected until three weeks later. Because Ebola is a harsh, developing disease across the country and is growing concern, the United States and other coun ty’s organizations have come to fight the disease. Before the virus, Ebola, has spread into the United States and friendly countries, the United States stepped up to fight the deadly disease. The current president, Barack Obama, has taken a huge to step to help fight the disease while other foreign problems, like Isis or Syria, has started over the last couple of months. Some ways the United States has been involved in fighting the disease is by sending in thousands of soldiers. By sending in soldiers, the virus Ebola can be obtained more easily and create less of the spread. Also, the United States has also planned and announced the 22 million dollar project to create hospitals to station and help patients fight Ebola. This hospital will contain 100 beds and 500 health care providers per week. What other countries, international aid organizations, and the UN have done to fight the disease is provide health care systems. Although the health care systems are to help the patients, the systems failed miserably and collapsed under the strain of the virus, Ebola. Also, other countries like Britain, have send more than 40 troops and humanitarian staff members to help cure and c onstruct hospitals to fight the disease. At last, how do we develop health care infrastructures? One main position of creating health care infrastructures will focus on the people in poverty and helping them become distant from the disease. If we can eliminate the poverty community from Ebola, we can decrease the spread of it. At last, what we as people need to do is to donate or help out the system in which would put a huge dent and impact into cures and preventions for viruses such as Ebola. Although the disease is deadly, two principles can be applied to the deadly disease called Ebola.  Two principles that apply to the virus Ebola are human dignity and common good. Human dignity is something that can be taken away. One thing that can be taken away from Ebola patients is assisted or mandatory death. Common Good is for the benefit and interest of all. One action that benefits and interests all is to find a cure for the disease. In conclusion about Ebola, the rise of Ebola has started in our country and we need a way to find to cure Ebola around the world.

IBM Corporation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

IBM Corporation - Essay Example Strengths of IBM Corporation include knowledge, relationships, selling and history. The challenges of the company are based on high quality of products and services. Direct sales force maintains a relationship. Among the weaknesses are high competition and rapidly changing technology market (IBM boosts sales productivity, n.d.). The innovative PC technology is not cheap and that is why not all the potential customers can afford it today. IMB, in contrast to Dell Corporation, tries to maintain high standards of service proposing and selling (the most important) to its customers high quality products. In this case IMB takes into account both internal and external stakeholders (Crawford, Benedetto, 2003). Opportunities of IBM Corporation are local area networks, the Internet and training of the staff. The increasing opportunities of the Internet offer another area of strength in comparison to the box-on-the-shelf major chain stores (McDonald, Christopher, 2003). Customers want more help with the Internet, and IBM Corporation is in a better position to give it to. IBM will strengthen its long-standing commitment to 64-bit computing. For more than three decades, the power of microprocessors has doubled every 18 to 24 months, and most observers expect that to continue for another 10 years. The same progress is being made in other functions in silicon, such as graphics processing. Some portables will have the full power of desktop machines (Clarke, 2001). The challenges of the company are to follow the technological trends of computer industry and develop new products for professional users. For instance, notebook processors will double in power every two years, "to 12 GHz in five years, predict industry observers. Disks will shrink and may be replaced by solid-state memory. Displays will grow clearer, brighter and more energy-efficient and may even unfold to desktop size. The efficiency of batteries will improve, but perhaps not enough to keep up with power-hungry applications such as multimedia and wireless communications" (Anthes, Brewin, 2002). For this reasons, IBM strategies should integrate technology refresh provisions early in the design process of major systems and components to allow upgrades during development, production and system operation. Cost leadership (Porter, 1985), however, is a sustainable source of competitive advantage only if barriers exist that prevent competitors from achieving the same low costs. In an era of increasing technological improvements in manufacturing, manufacturers constantly leapfrog over one another in pursuit of lower costs. At one time, for example, IBM enjoyed the low-cost advantage in the production (Winograd, 1997). Then the Japanese took the same technology and, after reducing production costs and improving product reliability, gained the low-cost advantage. IBM fought back with a highly automated printer plant in North Carolina, where the number of component parts was slashed by more than 50 percent and robots were used to snap many components into place. Despite these changes, IBM ultimately chose to exit the business; the plant was sold (Prahalad, Hamel, 1994). Competitive advantage (Porter, 1985) of IBM Corporation is driven more by sales and performance management than by manufacturing and product innovations. The direct sales model (or other near-direct models) has been successful in the U.S., and the industry is moving more in that

Three Personality Traits of Sagittarius Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Three Personality Traits of Sagittarius - Essay Example These characteristics are often highlighted as the personality traits of an individual. The date that I was born on was the 22nd of November. This date of birth falls into the zodiac sign Sagittarius (November 22 -December 21). The zodiac sign Sagittarius has symbolized an archer. After having gone through the properties associated with my astrological sign, I found that some traits matched those that I believe that I have them. For instance: being optimistic, possessing good communication skills and ambitious nature were just a few of them. The similarities between my personality traits and the properties of my zodiac sign are helpful, in my point of view, because they help me to know myself better and to set my future goals and my job targets accordingly. I find myself to be highly optimistic about matters relevant to every field of life. Whether it is a matter of serious concern or is an everyday matter, my friends tell me that I happen to remain optimistic throughout thick and thin. It was just a few days back that two of my neighbors were fighting over a trivial misunderstanding. When I tried to mediate the situation and get both of them at even terms each one of them started accusing me instead. I was able to keep my mind sane and even though they had turned their guns towards me I tried my best not to think negatively of them. It eventually was this optimistic approach towards the matter only that helped me get out of the unwanted argument in an unhurt manner. The fact that this trait of my personality was similar to the traits portrayed under my zodiac sign Sagittarius became known to me only after I read about it prior to this assignment. It was interesting to get to know that the planet that governs the sign Sagittarius is Ju piter. This planet is thought to have enlightening and optimistic properties combined with honesty.

The new education style Scholarship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The new education style - Scholarship Essay Example b. The relationship between reflection and critical thinking is important. In fact critical thinking cannot take place without reflection. One must understand self and that around self in order to apply knowledge to critical thinking. a. Previewing is an important exercise in learning. Instructors know that getting the student to read their textbook and preview essential materials will prepare them to be able to critically think and discuss during classroom, allowing for a better learning atmosphere. When you preview, you give your mind a general framework of main ideas and structure, you will be better able to comprehend when doing a thorough job of reading. d. Reflection is how we retain the information that we have learned. By asking the student to do a reflective journal or write a reflective paper at the end of the course, helps them to be able to think about how the information that they have learned should be or could be used. This allows the student a better chance of retention of the information that has been learned. Patricia Bizzell (2005), believes that first year students are entering, in a sense, a different world. There are many things that are different but suddenly the learning needs of this individual change rapidly. The student must learn, "the stances of fairness, objectivity, and formal courtesy that smooth the surface of academic disputation."(Bizzell, 2005). It is not known when they arrive, how they think, write, or what their ability with words is. It is not known whether they can articulate in such a way as needed to write an essay for example. This paper will review that thought According to Patricia Bizzell, Mina Shaughnessy once said, "The rituals and ways of winning arguments in academia are sometimes difficult to learn" yet we have always expected that students must win their arguments in order to learn. Ms Bizzell believes that this clash in discourse, coupled with the clash that new students have with the forms necessary for their education process and the methods that they use when they arrive cause many of first year issues. Clashing in ways of thinking becomes very important for the student must be able to critically think in order to work through many of the course needs in a University. Critical thinking is founded on reflection and most of these students, at least traditional students, have not had to critically think problems before. This immediately becomes a problem for them as they must move quicker through the curriculum than they are used to. In conclusion, first year students are stressed for many reasons but some of those reasons are the changes in culture that cause a clash with previous experience. Helping the student learn to handle those issues will make a much more successful student. Section D: Reading Comprehension and Critique Question 8 b. The author of this work believes that education in the past has been a situation of benign neglect and that philosophy is changing. The government has stepped up to influence that change. The author indicates to us that in the past adult education in the UK has been developed and taught as a literacy

English Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 6

English - Essay Example Only the copied text thus commands the soul of him who is occupied with it, whereas the mere reader never discovers the new aspects of his inner self that are opened by the text, that road cut through the interior jungle forever closing behind it: because the reader follows the movement of his mind in the free flight of daydreaming, whereas the copier submits it to command. The Chinese practice of copying books was thus an incomparable guarantee of literary culture, and the transcript a key to China's enigmas† (Benjamin 50). THESIS STATEMENT Walter Benjamin, a German philosophist, social critic and a renowned literary critic had been a center of conversation during the early and mid 20th century, owing to his revolutionary works on information literacy. Among his various contributions to modern German and French literature, his literary work in â€Å"One-Way Street†, translated by Edmund Jephcott and Kingsley Shorter, had marked the roots of an apparent insurgency in the imminent literatures focusing on the unification of philosophical modernity with reality experiences of life. The above selected excerpt presents a clear illustration to the idealistic fineness and individuality in the literary works of Walter Benjamin. This thesis will thus emphasize contextualizing the excerpt and correspondingly, interpret the philosophical meaning of the passage. CONTEXTUALIZING THE EXCERPT When assessing the individuality features imbibed in the literary works of Walter Benjamin, Osborne and Matthew suitably connote that â€Å"This [the narrations in â€Å"One-Way Street†] entails what Adorno describes as a â€Å"philosophy directed against philosophy†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦or what Howard Caygill calls a â€Å"philosophizing beyond philosophy† (Osborne and Matthew, â€Å"Walter Benjamin†). Precisely, the text in â€Å"One-Way Street† can be regarded as a masterpiece in modern informative literature art. In the selected excerpt too, the read er shall find inferences drawn on the basis of real life experiences of a person, illustrating the disputable contexts of capitalism persisting in the modern society of humankind. In a benevolent, but equally strong and unambiguous manner, Benjamin addresses the issues faced by a common man at one end of the polarized capitalistic society in comparison with the elite enjoyed by another man with obvious greater purchasing power at the other end. Taking direct reference from the text, it can be argued that the man who possesses the power to afford an airplane is likely to have petite understanding regarding the hardships that a common man face, who actually works in the background to nurture and cultivate the benefits reaped by the capitalists. The common man is thus represented as a man who needs to travel the road on-foot and certainly faces greater difficulties in reaching his destination. Expanding the thought process of the excerpt, Walter Benjamin depicts a similar polarization tact followed in the field of informative literary writings where it is often witnessed that secondary writers attempt to copy from the work actually conducted by the primary writer. In this excerpt, Benjamin regards the primary writer or the true investigator as the common man who needs to walk down the road and experience all the pain in his way; while the copier, presents the rich possessing affordability to

Survey Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 4

Survey - Essay Example A recommendation is therefore given that strategies should immediately employed to price match products in the online market. The internet market has grown considerably in the past couple of years. Statistics show that the number of online shoppers reached an all time high of about 178.5 million people in 2011. Recently, there have been proposals to the company to reconsider its online trading policies to boost its sales volume. Presently, the company does prices match its products online and neither does it offer their competitor’s online prices. Therefore, a research was carried out to determine whether the proposed strategy of price matching online products would be profitable to the company. The method of research used was questionnaire that was conducted online for a period of about a quarter of the fiscal year. Online shoppers from the United States (14 years and older) that visited the company’s websites were randomly selected to participate in the questionnaire. First, a pilot study was conducted on the online shoppers. This involved open-ended questions that placed no limit on the customer’s response. Questions in this study were general in nature like, what is their overall attitude to Wal-Mart customer relations policy. Later, a close-ended questionnaire was used to provide a better reflection of the public view. A maximum choice of five answers to each question was given. The questions were generally categorized into 4 sections each covering a unique field. The survey was voluntary and anonymous and no personal data was collected. There was an approximate response rate of 88% to the questionnaire from both prospective buyers and those who actually made online purchases. A complete breakdown of the responses is shows that the majority of respondents were in favor of the company providing price matching information. About 80% of the respondents indicated that they would buy more products if

Researched Literary Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Researched Literary Analysis - Essay Example The traditional prim pram conventions like pristine landscapes, innocent boys, loving parents, perfect mentors, and the security provided by an impeccable moral order had degenerated to the plight of some cheap and outdated joke. In contrast, the Bank’s narrative is set in a comparatively macabre ambience where the teenagers play with guns and marijuana, little girls are exposed to sexual abuse and pornography, death and violence always lurk in the background and everything ultimately seems to come down to sex and money. ‘Rule of the Bone’ appears to be a bloody spoof on the traditional notion of American Dream where the world order is defined by a burgeoning middle class whose popular idea of success hovers around cars, dish washers and the Sunday mass. Chappie, the protagonist in ‘Rule of the Bone’, if one could call him a protagonist in the true sense of the word fits nowhere in this cozy world order. Infact the only way he manages to infiltrate this sophisticated world is by breaking into a rich family’s summer house, along with his friend Russ. However, the accompanying filth and grime that seems to be his fate soon come to settle around him even in such polished quarters. Banks nowhere in his novel makes a conscious or deliberate attempt to make his characters likeable or tries to coax out the unguarded sympathy of his readers for his characters (Kakutani 2). The escapades of a teenager, who has problems with drugs, who puts in with violent bikers who love to b ludgeon homosexuals, who breaks trigger happy during fits of rage and frustration will certainly not make a good bed time story. Yet, the irony is that Banks never intends his book to be just another bed time story. On the contrary, ‘Rule of the Bone’ is a work of art that jolts the consciousness of its readers out of their cherished notions of what is acceptable

I wandered Lonely as a cloud by William Wordsworth Assignment

I wandered Lonely as a cloud by William Wordsworth - Assignment Example As an educationist and poet, he helped to introduce and forge a different genre from the mainstream usual definition and knowledge of poetry thereby introducing romance in his literature (www.cummingsstudyguides.net). It is was one of the inaugural poems in the romantic age thus qualifying it to be a romantic poem. The speaker records that he was walking around in an area where there were valleys and hills and he was lonely or alone. Equivocally, he strides up and climbs on the hill and sees a lake and noticed of the fact that there yellow daffodils moving or waving in the breeze. It is recorded by the poet that the flowers were dancing a sight which is incredible. If a reader or an observer was to compare, then one would safely assert and infer that the lake was out danced by the flowers or the daffodil, a spectacular scene to see. Tentatively, the dancing daffodils occasioned an enormity of wealth in terms of the scene would bring to him in subsequent time (www.100.best-poems.net). Intuitively, the poet drifts from being lonely or empty and started to be joyous at the amazing scene or the dancing daffodils. From that time or moment, each time he feels low or pensive he recollects the memory of joy in him or his heart. Consequently, it that the dancing daffodils brings cheers him up whenever he is in solitude or feeling empty. As a literary device, the poem employs personification in an accurate and aesthetic manner. For instance, there is characterization and personification when the poem mentions that â€Å"the daffodils danced.† In the liberal arts such as poetry this technique and style is known as characterization. When the poem mentions that the daffodils show the inward eye, it is an attempt to role play and characterize the poem or art. A reader easily notices the conciliatory tone from the poem where the poet tries to merge the human experiences with nature without much hustle. However, the mood smacks off nostalgia because it

How recent films ask us to think about the relation of the image to Essay

How recent films ask us to think about the relation of the image to memory - Essay Example Director, Alian Resnais adopted a stylistic approach to impart a history lesson of critical significance by portraying concentration camps in Nazi Germany. Perhaps, this documentary is most difficult to watch due to the appalling and gruesome footage (Barsam). The movie is unlike the usual films based on Holocaust, which accentuated the sheer size of one the greatest inhumanity or personalized the story by depicting affected individuals. It concedes how futile it is to assess the scale of the tragedy and does not count on sentiments. Rather, it presents complex queries about memory and responsibility in relation to denial, and eventually how current and prospective recurrences are linked with denial. The prime focus is analysis instead of statistics and facts. HISTORY An exhibition in 1954 by the Institut Pedagogigue National inspired the conception of Night and Fog. It was unanimously decided by the chief of the Comite and Antaole Dauman to document a film for the preservation of ch ronicles of Holocaust. Renais was approached to direct the project. However, he initially declined as he feared that the realism and genuineness of the film might not be up to the mark. On Dauman’s insistence, Renais agreed on the condition that Jean Cayrol who had spent time at the concentration camps should serve as the scriptwriter. ... Micel Bouquet narrated the lucid and seductively calm script in such a detached and unflustered way, that viewers were able to assimilate the tragic circumstances. Renais and Cayrol recognized that excessive shock ensues in amnesia and denial; and therefore aimed at creating a collective memory. The images stood out due to their disturbing nature. It is quite impressive how Renais covers the background and creation of concentration camps, deliberate genocide, freedom of survivors and deserted camps within a span of only thirty-one minutes. The documentary depicts how leading German companies bid for the contracts, presented design and profited enormously from the construction of internment camps. In addition, it highlights how gas chambers and crematoriums served to exterminate prisoners. The ingenuity behind making practical use of the dead bodies for: parchment, soap, wigs, fertilizers etc. Similarly, proof of investigational operations, castration, and phosphorus burns are shown. Possessions of the prisoner are piled in warehouses. Then, an appalling scene hits the screen as heaps of heads and decomposed bodies are dumped in a pit by bulldozers. Withered and shrunken survivors are filled with consternation as allied forces arrive. The pieces of German, British, and French footage were juxtaposed with the novel footage of 1955 (Van der Knaap). The bland colours and lengthy, smooth tracking shots stand out against the black and white images of the war period. Now the land is covered with grass, fences are free from current and crematorium have reduced to rubble, this portrays the fading of memories as time passes by into history. This brilliantly presented contrast overpowers the viewers. SUBJECT MATTER The purpose of the documentary was not

Implementing a Business Continuity Essay Example for Free

Implementing a Business Continuity Essay In this lab, you implemented a portion of your organization’s BCP. On the basis of the BIA, the organization determined that the internal Active Directory database and the corporate Web site must be recoverable in the event of system failure or natural disaster. To accomplish this, you configured local backups of Active Directory on the existing virtual server using Windows Server Backup. You also configured the organization’s Web servers to host content from a single NFS share, and to back up that NFS share daily using Windows. Lab Assessment Questions Answers 1. What is the purpose of the business impact analysis (BIA)? 2. What is the difference between a disaster recovery plan (DRP) and a business continuity plan (BCP)? 3. What are the commands used in Windows 2012 to mount the NFS share on the Linux server. 4. Is creating redundancy for systems such as Active Directory or Web servers a part of the DRP or the BCP? 5. Why use the mklink command? 2 | Lab #6: Implementing a Business Continuity Plan 6. What role/service is Windows 2012 Server Backup part of? a. Windows Group Policy b. Windows Collaboration Server c. Windows Server Essentials Experience 7. Which Linux file makes a local share available to NFS clients? a. transports b. imports c. fstab d. exports

Impact Of Motivational Rewards on Employees Essay Example for Free

Impact Of Motivational Rewards on Employees Essay MOTIVATION: Internal and external factors that stimulate desire and energy in people to be continually interested and committed to a job, role or subject, or to make an effort to attain a goal. Motivation results from the interaction of both conscious and unconscious factors such as the (1) intensity of desire or need, (2) incentive or reward value of the goal, and (3) expectations of the individual and of his or her peers. These factors are the reasons one has for behaving a certain way. An example is a student that spends extra time studying for a test because he or she wants a better grade in the class. MOTIVATION IN BUSINESS: Companies can motivate employees to do a better job than they otherwise would. Incentives that can be offered to staff include increased pay or improved working conditions. Motivational theories suggest ways to encourage employees to work harder. A motivated workforce results in: Increased output caused by extra effort from workers. Improved quality as staff take a greater pride in their work. A higher level of staff retention. Workers are keen to stay with the firm and also reluctant to take unnecessary days off work. Managers can influence employee motivation in a variety of ways: Monetary factors: some staff work harder if offered higher pay. Non monetary factors: other staff respond to incentives that have nothing to do with pay, eg improved working conditions or the chance to win promotion. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY Reward Systems is a vital aspect of any organization. They can actively engage and renew the overall sense of community and mission of an organization Reward systems according to Sziligyi [1981], are outcomes or events in the organization that satisfy work related needs. Rewards systems are much more than just bonus plans and stock options but while they often include intrinsic incentives, they also include extrinsic. A well-organized reward system will motivate and energize employees because it recognizes the achievements of employees . Reward system implemented by organization will  influence employees’ behavior and attitude towards their job if the rewards satisfy their needs and help them to reach their personal goals. When employees desire to get the rewards, they will change their behavior in order to achieve the minimum level of performance required by organization. Organizations often design and implement the reward system without linking it with the ultimate improvement of organization’s performance .Therefore, the reward system is unable to contribute significantly to the performance of an organization Motivation is such a factor that exerts a driving force on our actions and work. According to Baron (1983) motivation is an accumulation of different processes which influence and direct our behavior to achieve some specific goal. Motivation depends on certain intrinsic, as well as, extrinsic factors which in collaboration results in fully committed employees. Incentives, rewards and recognitions are the prime factors that impact on employee motivation. The factors like incentives and rewards are the most preferred factors for employee motivation programs Rewards is one of the important elements to motivate employees for contributing their best effort to generate innovation ideas that lead to better business functionality and further improvise company performance both financial and non-financially. Today an organizations result is highly dependent on the employees work motivation. It is therefore important for a company to find out what motivates its employees so that it can plan a suitable reward system and gain better results. The right combination of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards can boost up the employees work motivation and enhance their commitment to the company. COMPANY PROFILES: KASBIT: KASBIT Private Limited is the parent body of KASBIT that was established in September 1999, through Registration with Securities Exchange Commission of Pakistan, Government of Pakistan. It is the first Private Sector Institute of Higher Education that was registered as a Corporate body. Since its inception, KASBIT has achieved many a mile-stones that advocate its high standard, excellence and quality recognition. KASBIT is Chartered by the Government of Sindh and recognized by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, which has also awarded the highest category W(4) rating to KASBIT in recognition of the high educational standards that it maintains KASBIT is  recognized by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan and has been awarded the highest ranking of W(A) under whom the standards of educational institutions are scrutinized and evaluated in Pakistan. KASBIT became a member of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), which is based in the US to ensure the quality and continuous improvements in collegiate management education. KASBIT was certified by ISO in January 2002 in recognition of the high quality control system that it has in place. By this virtue, KASBIT became the first ISO-9001 Certified Degree Awarding Institute in the Private Sector of Pakistan. BAHARIA UNIVERSITY: Pakistan Navy established Bahria Institute at Islamabad and Karachi in the late eighties. These Institutes were aimed at providing quality and uninterrupted education up to Intermediate level, to the children of naval personnel on their transfer from one station to another and in turn to contribute to the cause of promotion of education at the national level. Over the years these Institutes grew in size and facilities, leading to the starting of BBA and B.Sc(CS) classes in 1995. These programs have since been upgraded to BBA (Hons), BCS (Hons) and MBA, MCS Program which were introduced in Fall 1997 as evening programs run under the management of two independent Institutes one each at Karachi and Islamabad respectively. The institutes are known as Bahria Institute of Management and Computer Science short title BIMCS suffixed with the location i.e. Karachi or Islamabad. Objectives: Bahria University, though very young, has the will and determination to develop and attain the objectives set forth below: Ensure academic excellence through quality education in disciplined and peaceful learning environments. Establish Campuses, Research Institutes, Schools and Colleges across the length and breadth of Pakistan to turn population explosion into knowledge based force. Prepare the younger generation to become future leaders and managers for a prosperous and educated Pakistan, through development of their mental, moral and professional strengths. Ensure academic excellence through quality education in disciplined and peaceful learning environments. Constantly monitor and upgrade facilities and update  the curricula to keep pace with the emerging trends and technologies. Coordinate and provide facilities for exchange of knowledge and applied research in the newly emerging fields in collaboration with national and international Universities and research institutes. RES EARCH AREA: Human resource (HR) OBJECTIVE: Find out to what extend does employees performance influenced by motivation PROBLEM STATEMENT: Decreasing Employees performance satisfaction due to lack of motivational factors that drives employee’s productivity level at its best in educational sector. KEY RESEARCH QUESTIONS: 1. What Is the Relationship between Employees Performance and motivation? 2. How many types of motivation that drives employee’s productivity? 3. What Is the Effect of Intrinsic motivation On Employee’s Performance? 4. What is the Effect of Extrinsic motivation On Employee’s Performance? 5. What measures can be taken to increase employee’s motivation level? 6. What are the factors behind the low productivity of employee? 7. What should be the behavior of employer towards the employee’s job satisfaction? INDEPENDENT VARIABLES: Intrinsic Motivation 1. Recognition 2. Learning opportunity 3. Career advancement Extrinsic Motivation 1. Basic Pay 2. Performance Bonus DEPENDENT VARIABLES: EMPLOYEES PERFORMANCE LIMITATION: Insufficient Funds Small sample size Time barrier Hardly possibility that organization will provide authentic information regarding their employees Research can take place only within the city Being a student’s it’s hard to get perfect information regarding their whole scenario of problem DE-LIMITATIONS: Respondents will not provide appropriate response Employees will feel insecure while sharing their organizations’ point of view. Time conscious City situations SCOPE OF THE STUDY: This study will provide a better understanding to employers who have been facing employees low productivity level they can get a better understanding of how motivational factors can influence an employee’s performance level that ultimately helps in growth of organization. This study will helps organization to increase employees performance through a perfect combination of intrinsic or extrinsic motivational factors. And it can be use in different dimension of business where employers are facing low productivity of employees. HYPOTHESIS: H1: Recognition has an impact on Employees Performance. Ho: Recognition has not impact on Employees Performance. H1: learning opportunity has an impact on Employees Performance. Ho: learning opportunity has not impact on Employees Performance. H1: Career advancements have an impact on Employees Performance. Ho: Career advancements have not impact on Employees Performance. H1: Basic Pay has an impact on Employees Performance. Ho: Basic pay has not impact on Employees Performance. H1: Performance bonus has an impact on Employees Performance. Ho: Performance bonus has not impact on Employees Performance.

What Makes Citizens Trust Political Institutions Politics Essay

What Makes Citizens Trust Political Institutions Politics Essay Issues of distrust in political institutions are very common in post-communist states in Europe. Even though trust is one of the key components for a successful democracy, the communist regime has left a trail of political distrust which will last for generations. When trust is low, the government cannot operate efficiently, and that creates further distrust, and a vicious circle is created (Mishler Rose, 1997: 419). This scepticism in post-communist Europe creates a paradox, because the states want to become more democratic, and see the senior EU members as an example of democracy and a direction they should be heading to, however the distrust in political institutions slows down the growth of the democracy and declines citizen participation in politics. It is reasonable to argue that no government should have an absolute trust as it might create instability. The trust in political institutions has been declining steadily since 1991 even in Western democracies, for example in Brita in the percentage of citizens who trust politicians decreased from 33 to 16 per cent.  [1]  In order to improve democracy in Eastern and Central Europe, political parties face a challenge of dealing with cynicism and distrust when communicating with the society. It is understandable, because many people, especially from the older generation, have lived a large portion of their life under the communist regime, and that changed their views on politics dramatically. Communist parties created various institutions such as party and trade unions, however the citizens felt it was all initiated by the state and did not intend to strengthen the civil society, but instead it was a tool to which was used to reduce the liberty of the society and create political conditions favoured by the leaders of the communist party. Instead of participating voluntarily, the citizens were forced into political participation or compliance by the communist party, and that resulted in further distrust of po litical institutions and destroyed free social life. This essay contains two main parts in the first part theory of institutional trust will be examined. The second part will be an analysis of Mishler and Rose article, which intended to explain issues of political trust in post-communist societies in Europe.  [2]  In the last bit of this essay both theory and the published article will be looked upon together, and a final conclusion will be made. Theory It is critical to understand the theory of political trust before we can proceed with the further research. Political trust is different compared to the personal trust. In order for an individual to trust someone, he needs to know that person quite well. However, political institution is not an individual and it is difficult to develop that kind of trust. The citizens trust institutions in a different way on a presumption that they will complete their duties as a governing body. Even though it is known that trust in political institutions has been declining steadily over the past two decades, there has been limited amount of research made purely on Eastern and Central Europe. Two main types of theories are identified which explain trust in political institutions in a different way cultural and institutional theories. Cultural theories explain political trust by the values and attitudes towards politics. Inglehart (1997) argued, that we form these values while we are growing up, and by the time we are eligible to vote we already have our own opinions towards politics, and it is extremely uncommon for an adult to change his political attitude completely. The trust in politics emerges from a non-political sphere, an overall life experience. In that sense, political trust is an addition to persons interpersonal trust, which develops while we are growing up and while we interact with others. Interpersonal trust can be affected by outside sources, for example the media, which is a big part in todays society; it can shape an individuals opinion towards something even if the individual does not have a good understanding on that subject. Many other factors can contribute towards an individuals attitude towards political institutions education, parents social status or the overall experience with institut ions while growing up. If a child is born in a family with high social status they are more likely to have better education. There has been evidence of correlation between familys social status and the childs trust in political institutions (Tong, 2007). Cultural theories argue that because cultural values are rooted to people when they are growing up, at least a few generations should pass in post-communist states in Europe before we can notify a significant increase in trust of political institutions. However, the trust of political institutions cannot be assigned only to the way people are brought up. Economic conditions of the state and overall well-being of the citizens might re-shape the values of the society. Because of that, the citizens can be categorised into two groups materialists and post-materialists (Inglehart, 1998). Materialist values for a successful democracy depend more or less solely on economic performance of the state if citizens are happy with the economic situation in the country, they are likely to trust the political institutions. Post-materialists, on the other hand, focus towards personal freedom and individuality, and therefore they might have issues of trusting political authority. Social background of the citizens is also important in cultural theory. Many post-communist states in Europe have a diverse population, and there might not be a lot of unity towards the political trust. For example, about one quarter of the Estonian population is Russian.  [3]  A question emerges whether the Russian population in Estonia would trust political institutions, because after the Independence was restored in 1991, the Estonian government shifted to a completely new direction and Estonia became a right-winged state. And indeed, there is a lot of tension in Estonia, as the Russians demanded that their language should be adopted as the second national language in Estonia. Despite these demands, the Estonian government did not give in, and even got tougher on Russian speaking citizens they might lose their jobs if they do not speak Estonian. This results in a clash of interests and Russian distrust in political institutions. However, cultural theories do not state that everyone goes through the same process, and everyone has a different experience of trust in life. Therefore, we should not assume that every citizen in a social group (based on age, race, ethnicity etc.) has the same attitude towards political institutions or interpersonal trust. Cultural theories have been criticized by Fukuyama, as he stated that it is in the human nature to develop a trust for groups and individuals who often interact directly. However, the degree of interpersonal trust varies significantly among democracies, and therefore we cannot make an assumption that high trust in political institutions is necessary for a successful democracy (Fukuyama, 1999). Institutional theories focus on the model of rule and the performance of the political institutions. If they perform well, that creates a sense of trust among citizens and benefits the democracy in the state. Institutional theories do not see the governments performance in the past or cultural aspects of individuals life as decisive factors on individuals political trust, although they can influence an individual to a certain degree (Mishler Rose, 2001:36). Unlike in cultural theories, short-time effects are stressed as highly important. Institutional theories make an assumption that citizens make rational choices by evaluating the political and economic performance of the political institutions. In that respect, citizens need to have a previous experience of interaction with an institution, or at least to have some knowledge about it. Institutional theories do not agree which factors are the most important when measuring the performance of the government. In Western democracies, th ey usually focus on economic conditions and policy performance, when in post-communist societies different measurements can be used. For example, the reduction of corrupt political officials or the liberalization of trade can be extremely important in post-communist states, because Eastern and Central Europeans have been oppressed for decades. By making these policy changes the governments are more than likely to receive positive feedback from the citizens, and that results in strengthening the trust of the institutions. However, institutional theories do recognize the importance of individuals values and political affiliations. If a citizen was in favour of communism, his trust of political institutions might be decreasing, despite the good performance of the new democratic government. It is important to understand, that not everyone sees economic factors as the key priority, and that people have very different values in life, and one model does not apply to everyone. Institutional theories have a significantly different approach towards the future of the political trust in post-communist countries. Unlike in the cultural theories, institutionalist scholars believe that trust for newly formed democratic institutions can be generated in a much shorter period of time (Mishler Rose, 2001: 33). If the newly formed government performs well economically and the citizens are happy with the new democratic system it should not take generations to develop the trust for political institutions. Micro and macro theories Both cultural and institutional theories can be sub-categorised into two dimensions micro and macro. It is important to distinguish the differences between them, because political trust is a very complex issue and these dimensions will play a crucial part in analysing Mishler Rose publication in section 5. Micro dimension is linked with an individual, while macro dimension is focused on the society as a whole. Both micro theories state that political trust is different among individuals, due to different background, experiences or individual perceptions. On the other hand, both macro theories see trust as a value, which is shared by all members of the society (Mishler Rose, 2001: 33). Macro-cultural theory has very limited interest in trust of individuals, because they focus on national traditions and sees society as one body, which either trusts political institutions or not. Micro-cultural theories, on the other hand, emphasise the importance of the individual within the society . Personal experiences are the main subject of focus, and the opinions on political institutions are formed by every member of the society individually. The differences between micro-institutional and macro-institutional approaches are even more significant. Macro-institutional theories are shifted towards the performance of political institutions while micro-institutional theories leave the evaluation of political performance to the individual. Both micro-institutional and macro-institutional theories have three implications. Firstly, with the accurate sampling, decent research techniques and sensibly asked questions the responses about trust of political institutions will be quite accurate on how well the system is actually performing. Secondly, if the political institutions do not have a high public trust, this can be fixed in two ways by either lowering the public expectations for the institutions or by improving the efficiency of the institutions. And thirdly, these theories r ecognize an indirect relationship between trust in political institutions and social trust. This relationship is expected to be strong on the aggregate level of societies, but not on the individual level (Newton Norris, 2000). This is because the trust of the political institutions is the direct outcome of the performance of the government, just like people trust others by knowing how they acted in the past. Measurement of trust Measurement of trust is a tricky concept. Most surveys, such as Eurobarometer or European Social Survey, ask only one question in order to find data on causes of political trust. That is why new approaches of theory are useful; however their implementation in current study seems to be a very difficult task. To current day different scholars use different methods and variables to measure political trust. Many different sources of literature have been used for this essay, which enabled me to see a pattern in scholars research on measuring political trust. However, I will be using Putnams model (Putnam, 2000) which, to my understanding, provided the broadest explanation and measurement of trust. This model consists of five key concepts, which need to be examined thoroughly in order to develop an understanding and measurement of trust. The reader must bear in mind that the questions asked about these five concepts were made up by me, as I found them to be the most relevant. However, in t he next paragraph of this essay the authors of the examined article used different methods and different questions in their research. The five concept approach was selected because I argue that it provides the best measurement of trust the literature could offer, despite being just a recommendation. The first concept is civic engagement, which, according to Putnam, has four dimensions (Putnam, 2000). Political activity is the first dimension, however it is impossible to justify an individuals political involvement by asking just one question (with the exception of question Do you engage in any kind of political activity? and the answer being no). A series of questions need to be asked in order to determine ones involvement in political activity, such as Have you voted in your local election?, Have you recently contacted any elected official about a certain issue?, Do you participate in local council meetings?. The second dimension of civic engagement is volunteering activity, and the respondents should be asked whether they volunteer for political, cultural, religious or charity organizations. The third dimension is leisure activity, and we should ask whether the respondent is attending any group meetings, for example, a book club or football practice. Leisure activities are im portant, because they are the key attributes of interpersonal trust. The last dimension is the engagement with the media, and the respondents should be asked how often do they watch the news on the television or the radio and how often do they read the newspaper. The possible answers to all the questions should be based on frequency, as Putnam argued that voluntary participation in civic engagement increases the trust among the citizens. The second concept is trust. Again, this is a tricky question and it needs to be approached with caution. The respondent should answer three questions whether he trusts the majority of the society, whether he trusts local political institutions and whether he trusts federal or international institutions. The third concept is social demographics, because according to cultural theory on the micro level, personal experiences are important and should have significant results in institutional trust (Mishler Rose, 2001: 34). The questions for this concept should reveal the age, social status, gender, education, occupation and marital status of the respondent. All this information is commonly used in analysis of political trust (Job, 2005: 8). The fourth concept is the government performance and, according to micro-institutional theory, a decent performance by the government allows the citizens to trust the institutions, as long as the needs of the society are being met. The questions for the respondents should ask do they feel any corruption in their institutions and whether they would support the decision to provide the government with more power for implementation of law and security. If the citizens are in favour of giving the government more power, it means that political institutions are generally trusted. However, this puts the citizens in a difficult position, because more power to the government leads to stricter control and therefore less democracy. The fifth concept is the world views and general well-being. The well-being most commonly determines whether the citizens will blame the government for being incompetent or not. If the majority of the population feels happy with their lives, that means political institutions are doing good work, and that increases the trust in society. The world views might have major consequences on political trust as well. We should ask the respondents their willingness to co-operate with the government and comply with the law. There should also be a question on whether the respondents feel overall happy or not and whether they feel secure under the current government or not. A negative response would indicate distrust in the current government. The analysis of the publication This section of the essay analyses Mishler and Rose article What are the origins of Political Trust?: Testing Institutional and Cultural Theories in Post-communist societies. The authors used two datasets, which were both compiled in 1998. The first dataset comes from the fifth New Democracies Barometer (NDB), and it contains data from nine post-communist countries Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and Romania. Each country had around 1000 respondents in a face-to-face interviews. The second dataset comes from the seventh New Russia Barometer (NRB), and it contains 1904 face-to-face interviews. Both datasets used probability samples, in order to increase validity of the research. The authors used the following question for determining the trust in political institutions: There are many different institutions in this country, for example, the government, courts, police, civil servants. Please show me on this 7-point scale, where 1 represents great distrust and 7 represents great trust, how much do you personally trust in each of the following institutions (Mishler Rose, 2001: 40).

St. Gregory Of Tours :: essays research papers

Saint Gregory of Tours was born around the year 538 at Arverni, which is now Clermont-Ferrand. He belonged to the Gallo-Roman family, which was a very prestigious family. He was also related to the houses of Gaul. Gregory’s original name was Georgius Florentius. He took the name Gregory to honor his late grandfather who was named Gregory. His Grandfather was the Bishop of Langres. When Gregory was young, his father died and he went to live with his Uncle. His uncle, Gallus, was the Bishop of Clermont. Gallus educated him until his death in 554. Gregory’s mother left to live with friends in Burgandy and left her son to Avitus who became Bishop of Clermont after Gallus. Avitus taught Gregory all about the Scriptures. Gregory was not too impressed with the scriptures. Gregory got seriously ill and wasn’t supposed to recover. He did recover though and this made him more mindful of God and the scriptures. Gregory then became a friend with the Bishop of Tours whose nam e was Euphronius. Euphronius died in 573 and Gregory succeeded him as Bishop of Tours.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  During this time in Tours, there was great political and social chaos. The relationships with the Bishops and the Kings and Masters was not good. The Kings abused their powers and this caused civil wars. Gregory wrote that these conflicts were more hurtful to the church than the persecution from Diocletian. Eventually the unrest and Tours stopped and peace was at hand. The Masters of Tours were constantly changing until Guntram who was the King of Burgandy took over the rule of Tours. Guntram and Gregory were friends and the role of bishop was given more authority and respect. Guntram signed the Treaty of Andelot in the year 587. This treaty gave the rule of Tours to Childebert II. Childebert honored Gregory and let him go on many missions. During this time, Gregory played an important role in the building of new churches and restoring the cathedral in Tours.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Gregory was also known for being a great historian. He wrote about the miracles of St. Martin (St. Martin’s tomb is in Tours) and the history of the Frankish Empire. The history of the Frank was entitled Historia Francorum, It had ten books and started with creation and ended in the year 591.

Discontent in Great Expectations :: Free Great Expectations Essays

Discontent in Great Expectations Many people strive for things that are out of their reach. In the novel Great Expectations, Charles Dickens shows the themes of personal ambition and discontent with present conditions. The main character, Pip, shows early on in the story that he is unhappy with his current situation. Throughout the story he strives for the things that are beyond his reach, and is apathetic to the things that he can obtain. Pip demonstrates this by striving for Estella when he could have Biddy, and yearning to be a gentleman when he could be a blacksmith. The first way that Pip demonstrates these themes is by reaching for things that are unattainable to him. For example, Pip is in love with Estella, but he can't have her because she doesn't like him. Also Miss Havisham's man-hating ways have brushed off on her, and she wants nothing to do with Pip. Another thing that Pip strives for is to become a gentleman. He cannot become a gentleman, however, because he is just a commoner. He is very smitten, for example, with "the beautiful young lady at Miss Havisham's and she is more beautiful than anybody ever was and I admire her dreadfully and I want to be a gentleman on her account" (780). Thus, Pip wants to become a gentleman only for Estella. Another way that Pip shows his discontent with his present life is by not wanting to be a blacksmith when it would be very practical for him. Pip's brother-in-law is a blacksmith which would make it easy for him to learn the trade. Also, Miss Havisham agreed to pay for his apprenticeship, yet Pip insists that he is better than that and is upset by that fact that he is just a commoner. He states his dissatisfaction" with my home, my trade and with everything" (773). Pip also turns away Biddy when she is something that is obtainable to him. Biddy is somebody in the story that really loves Pip, yet he turns her away and uses her to get what he wants. Pip also gives the impression that he is better than Biddy when he is no less a commoner than she is.