Coketown - 1972 Words

HARD TIMES ASSIGNMENT DISCUSS: Dickens’ Coketown is not a city, rather a stage for the workings out of Gradgrind’s philosophy. Considering the above sentence examine the construction of the city in Hard Times. Coketown is quite literally the ‘town of coke’, the raw material used to convert iron to steel and indirectly the foundation of the ‘steel/industrial revolution’. It is critical to analyze the name of the city for Dickens’ Hard Times is a satirical caricature on the condition of England in the 19th century. Dickens uses language as a powerful tool to put across his points or rather his ‘facts’. The inhabitants of Coketown have only one function, namely to work. Coketown is a city that feeds no needs besides what is useful there†¦show more content†¦At the beginning of the chapter the city is compared to Mrs. Gradgrind: [The city] had no greater fancy in it than Mrs. Gradgrind herself. While this imparts to the town the qualities of a living being, therefore turning it into something even more threatening, on the other hand it seems to highlight that Mrs. Gradgrind just like her husband degrades herself to something ugly and loath some because of the lack of imagination. Further Coketown is likened to savages, which shows that Coketown is alien to but contrariwise also part of the system: It was a town of unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage. Coketown can be seen as a colony - a place that is exploited for the needs of the colonizers. The factories are the places where the labour of Coketown is subjugated. There tedious work is carried out; the machines are compared to elephants: the piston of theShow MoreRelated Comparing Brontes Wuthering Heights and Dickens Coketown1228 Words   |  5 PagesComparing Brontes Wuthering Heights and Dickens Coketown      Ã‚   Throughout British Literature, compositions created by honored literary artists reflect current dominant lifestyles. The differences in prevailing environments are visible when comparing Emily Brontes Withering Heights and Charles Dickens Coketown. Bronte reveals the wild unbinding freedom available though country living predominate in the late 17th and early 18th century, whereas Dickens explains the disheartening effects of industrializationRead More The Plot - Coketown is a grimy, smelly industrial town in northern1272 Words   |  6 PagesThe Plot - Coketown is a grimy, smelly industrial town in northern England, its houses and skies blackened by smoke from factory chimneys. One of its leading citizens is Thomas Gradgrind, future member of Parliament and governor of the local school. The Plot Coketown is a grimy, smelly industrial town in northern England, its houses and skies blackened by smoke from factory chimneys. One of its leading citizens is Thomas Gradgrind, future member of Parliament and governor of the localRead MoreThe Role of the Circus Folk in Hard Times by Charles Dickens1617 Words   |  7 PagesThe Role of the Circus Folk in Hard Times by Charles Dickens The role of the circus is both complex and simple it is in itself a contradiction; it has been placed within the novel to add another dimension to the story of Coketown but also to show how fragile human nature can be. The circus folks role are complicated in their simplicity, they are of course there to carry out the role that they are paid to perform as actors or performers as well as being there for theRead MoreThe Effects Of Industrialization On English Towns Essay1730 Words   |  7 PagesHard Times symbolizes the negative effects of industrialization on English towns (Coketown in the story) including education. Charles Dickens was born in 1812, and was a contemporary of the Industrial Revolution. Industries were growing by leaps and bounds; bringing with it pollution, social imbalance and individual confusion. Dickens was rather poor and had no proper education. At the age of 12 he worked in Warren’s Blacking Factory attaching labels to bottles. He labored hard to educate himselfRead MoreThe Importance Of Landscape Throughout Hard Times By Charles Dickens Essay1575 Words   |  7 Pagescity of Coketown is a town introduced as an uncompromising, brutal, and fearful place defined by its work and industrialization. The description that we are given of Coketown makes it clear that it is not a place of enjoyment, pleasure, or nature. It is heavily characterized by i ts repetitive and endless labor. Coketown is therefore essential as a setting displaying the negative aspects of industrialization. However, there is additional significance in the negative portrayal of Coketown. The ideaRead MoreCharles Dickens Hard Times Essay1746 Words   |  7 Pagesbook of Hard Times. In Book One: Sowing, the first distinctions of class discrepancy are evident in the relationship between schoolmasters and students. Education and educators were deemed higher up in society than most people. The school masters of Coketown, Mr. and Mrs. Chokeumchild, and Mr. Gradgrind. The children who were the stories center focus were Louis, Tom, Sissy, and Bitzer. The relationship between the students and schoolmasters is predominantly focuses on the parents social status as wellRead MoreCharles Dickens Hard Times Essay1717 Words   |  7 PagesHard Times. In book one: Sowing, the first distinctions of class discrepancy are evident in the relationship between the schoolmaste rs and students. Education and educators were deemed higher up in society than most people. The school masters of Coketown, being Mr. and Mrs. Chokeumchild, and Mr. Gradgrind. The children who were the focus were Louis, Tom, Sissy, and Bitzer. The relationship between the students and schoolmasters is predominantly based on the parents social status as well as wealthRead MoreAnalysis of the Credibility of Characters in Charles Dickens Hard Times1512 Words   |  7 PagesDickens examines the utilitarian philosophy of the time and exposes some of the hypocrisy of those in positions of power. The novel is set in the fictional city of Coketown. The city may be based on Dickens own experiences of Preston where the industries and factories are similar to those of Coketown. A town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it. In the very first paragraph of the first chapter we are introducedRead MoreThe Sandwich Factory Essay1312 Words   |  6 Pagesbeings and this becomes the last straw for the narrator. He is lucky to escape and avoid ending up like Dot and Madman. The chosen theme from my interpretation above can be put into perspective with Charles Dickens’ novel Hard Times where he exposes Coketown to stand for the negative aspects of industrialism and the mechanization of human beings. In the description we see the monotonous work with the same work, pavements, hours etc. which results in mechanization of the workers and sometimes madnessRead MoreCharles Dickens Hard Times For These Times1074 Words   |  5 Pageswhat you are!† (16). This depriving childhood is not a childhood. Like a piece taken out of a train track, Gradgrind takes a vital piece out of his son and daughters’ lives, blinding them. However, all things fancy cannot be erased from the lives in Coketown. â₠¬Å"It is known, to the force of a single pound weight, what the engine will do, but not all the calculators of the National debt can tell me the capacity for good or evil, for love or hatred, for patriotism or discontent† (71). Dicken’s narration

The Kruskal Wallis Test And The Mean Betas Finance Essay - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 4 Words: 1209 Downloads: 4 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Narrative essay Did you like this example? The descriptive statistics results of different markets are shown in Table 1, Table 2 and Table 3. The daily yield averages of BRIC countries, Nordic countries and North American countries are 0.077572581, 0.019607 and -0.02738 respectively. The yield average of BRIC region is quite higher than other regions. This explains why international idle money constantly has flowed into emerging economies in recent years. The yield average of North American region is negative because of the failure of US top banks. Similarly, we can clearly see that large fluctuation existed in every market and the result showed high skewness. The kurtosis value of almost every stock exceeded 3 in every markets, which specified the yield distribution of three markets were non-normal and comparing with each other, Nordic countries and BRIC countries had more understandable and larger skewness and higher kurtosis so the likelihood that the yield of Nordic market and BRIC market kept away fro m the average was higher and higher risk existed in Nordic countries and BRIC countries and the markets were not stable. Although the yield average of BRIC region was obviously higher than other market, it was not mature like them, and large fluctuation existed in it. Table 4, Table 5 and Table 6 describe the descriptive statistics of beta and R-Square.R-square tells us that whether the movements of a portfolio are explained by movements in the market index or not. In other words, it measures how dependable the stocks beta is in evaluating its market sensitivity. Most of the R2 values as found in our observations are significant and specifies that the beta measurement is relevant to its actual performance. Figure 1, Figure 2 and Figure 3 describe the normality plot of beta for different market. It appears that betas of all markets are not normally distributed.However; Nordic region shows slight normality in the betas distribution particularly in the crisis period. Table 4 r eports about the one sample statistics of Beta for all regions and all periods. Simply speaking, beta (?) is a measure of risk or volatility related with a portfolio of investment as compared to the total market as a whole. A beta equals 1 means that an investments volatility or price movements are similar to the markets price movements. It can be supposed that an investment is less volatile than the market if ? lt; 1 but is more volatile than the market if ? gt;1.It is evident from the table that the value of beta for North America is slightly higher than 1 but significantly greater than other regions for the 10 year period. There is minor difference between the beta of BRIC and Nordic for the overall duration. All the markets have higher beta in the crisis period. North American banking sector showed more volatility than the market in the crisis period while other two became less volatile than the market. During the pre-crisis period all the markets have beta less than 1 but North American market has the highest beta among the three yet again. As a whole, it is cleared that North American market statistically doesnt seem significantly risky but it is riskier than other markets. Chart 1 represents the mean beta comparison and illustrates that the North American market is riskier than other two markets.Particluarly in the crisis period, the North American banking sector proved to be very risky. Table 5 reports the results of our analysis concerning mean systematic-risk differences significance test. The negative mean differences in Panel A evidently suggest us to reject the null hypothesis but the significance values are not in favour of alternative hypothesis at 5% level of significance. The risk of BRIC banking stock is greater than Nordic ones. However, during the crisis period Nordic banking stock turned out to be more risky than the BRIC ones. Panel C says that the North American banking stocks are more risky than the Nordic banking stocks in all the periods. Interestingly, the mean differences between Nordic and North America are greater in pre-crisis period than in during crisis period. The results are not significant statistically at 5% level except for the pre crisis period. Panel B rejects the null hypothesis based on the positive mean differences value indicating that North American banking stocks are riskier than BRIC ones. Yet, looking at the F-value and 5% significance level, we cannot reject our null hypothesis for all the panels A, B and C. This indicates that the risk between two regions is not significantly different. Overall, the mean systematic-risk differences significance t test supports us to conclude that the North American banking stocks are the riskiest among the three. The cause behind the increased risk in the North American banking stocks may be the unstable economic conditions in the last 10 years. Similarly, the BRIC banking stocks being less risky than Nordic in crisis period implies that the exis ting financial crisis has less impact in BRIC regions. Table 6 represents the Mann Whitney Non Parametric test. The table clearly shows that Nordic and BRICs banking stocks are significantly less risky than that of North America for the whole period, pre-crisis period and crisis period. Panel A statistics says that the Nordic banking sector is less risky than that of BRIC banking sector for the whole period of observations and sub-period of pre-crisis. But the result is opposite for the crisis period and supports previous t-test. Nordic banking stocks are riskier than BRIC stocks in this period. However, these all facts are not significant in statistical terms. Panel B says that the North American banking sector is more risky than BRICs.This result is for all the periods and supported by z-statistics value of -2.19,-2.06 and -1.92.These findings are statistically significant at 5% level of significance. Once again North American banking stocks are proved to be riskier. Panel C wh ich also supports the result from t-test indicates that they are riskier than Nordic for all the period. But the risk level was higher in pre crisis period and statistically significant at 5% level of significance. These findings illustrate the fact that mean betas are not equal to each other and are independent sample. Table 7 gives the result of our Friedman test. It gives the x2 statistic value of 4.8 (p=0.0907), 9.10 (p=0.0106) and 3.70 (p=0.1572) for overall period, pre-crisis period and crisis period respectively. The overall period and crisis period are not statistically significant at 5% significance level leaving no evidence to reject the null hypothesis. But the pre-crisis period is statistically significant at 5% significance level and there is evidence to support the alternative hypothesis. Table 8 is also a non parametric inferential statistic sign test. According to this table, we cannot reject the null hypothesis except in the pre-crisis period for Nordic and No rth America because the mean betas were not significantly different from each other in most cases. I further performed the Kruskal Wallis test in order to test whether the three mean betas of independent sample are not equal. For this, Table 9 summarizes the result. The results suggest that there is not a statistically significant difference at 5% significance level between Nordic, BRIC and North America except for the pre-crisis period. These results are similar to the Friedman tests results. The North American banking stocks were found significantly higher than that of BRIC and Nordic. Also the chi square statistics undoubtedly indicate that there is no mean difference between the three samples. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Kruskal Wallis Test And The Mean Betas Finance Essay" essay for you Create order

Gothic Elements And Gothic Elements In Bram Stokers Dracula

Gothic Elements in Dracula A Gothic novel is one which incorporates all the modes of literature such as horror, the setting, suspense, superstition, atmosphere, horror etc. In the story Dracula the author shows these traits in various sections of the story that makes it a lot more interesting and it is one of the main characteristics beside the various other features that makes this story great. Dracula is a story by Mr. Bram Stoker during the Victorian era where Count Dracula is the antagonist and Van Helsing with the help of other people such as Jonathan Harker, Mina with several others play the protagonist trying to put an end wwwto the Count and the miserable sufferings he has given to his victims. Surely there are many other novels†¦show more content†¦This quote tells us how the author displays horror and tries to show these traits so as to engage the audience in the story, they make the story more interesting and fun to read. Passos Jona in her well credited article P ostmodern Gothic: Teen Vampires states â€Å"In Gothic Studies, Dracula, 1 has become a classic model of horror stories, granting its main character, Count Dracula, a life of his own outside the scope of the novel as a sort of popular myth or archetype of vampire characters† (Passos 1). This article by Passos explains why Dracula is one of the best Gothic horror novels and how horror is being portrayed in the novel. She talks about how Count Dracula shows horror and different sexual meanings hidden in the story. The Gothic trait, setting defines the surroundings and the place where the story takes place which enhances the beauty of the literary text and lets the reader imagine where the scene is taking place. The setting of Dracula is in Transylvania during the Victorian era, the setting in the story helps to build up a plot in the story and explain it in an exclusive way. In Mr.Bram Stoker’s book Dracula, Jonathan Harker in his diary states that â€Å"The castle is on the very edge of a terrible precipice. A stone falling from the window would fall a thousand feet without touching anything! As far as the eye can reach is a sea of green tree tops, with occasionally a deepShow MoreRelatedExploring The Depth Of Romance And How Coppola s Dracula1042 Words   |  5 PagesBITE Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 hit, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, reimagines the timeless Dracula tale and creates a twisted love story that allows contemporary audiences an insight into a surprisingly relatable fable, as Taylor Ellison explores†¦ Bram Stoker’s Dracula Love is not black and white and Francis Ford Coppola’s ageless classic Bram Stoker’s Dracula epitomises the many layers that come with romance. The dark love story highlights the romance of the gothic horror and still manages to convey theRead MoreThe Use Of Gothic Elements In Dracula By Bram Stoker1698 Words   |  7 Pagesnovel, Dracula, is set and written in the nineteenth century during the Victorian era. The Victorian people had certain beliefs about Christianity and the roles of men and women in society. Women were allowed only to do certain things and were expected to do specific things in regards to men. The Victorian people also had their own interpretation of superstitions. Stoker introduced the Victorian people to gothic elements in his literary works. In literature, gothic novels often use gothic elementsRead More Coppolas Interpretation of Dracula as a Love Story Essay1434 Words   |  6 PagesCoppolas Interpretation of Dracula as a Love Story      Ã‚  Ã‚   The protagonist and story of Bram Stokers novel Dracula have been widely interpreted and adapted in films throughout many years. Despite almost a century of time since the initial publication, Dracula has maintained its ability to frighten and mesmerize readers. Francis Ford Coppolas Bram Stokers Dracula; however, utilizes the erotic romance of the original novel in order to depict a tragic love story. The film accurately followsRead MoreGothic Realism And The Vampire Sub Cultures1512 Words   |  7 PagesSince the 18th century, Vampires have ultimately transcended narrative boundaries and genre divides and the Vampire sub-cultures flourish in neo-gothic aesthetic from science fiction and fantasy, romantic and young adult literature and in celluloid. Vampire graphic narratives are finding increased popularity and have since developed into an â€Å"Iconic popular culture phenomenon drawing an obsession and fascination globally†. (Jacqueline, Ng, 2014) So what inspired this new genre of graphic narrativeRead MoreGraphic In Comic Books And Graphic Novelsbram1158 Words   |  5 Pages Page:of 10 Graphic BleedVampires in comic books and graphic novelsBram Stoker’s Dracula #1 (1992). Panel art by Mike Mingola.Since the 18th century, Vampires have ultimatelytranscended narrativeboundaries and genre divides. The Vampiresub- ­Ã¢â‚¬ culturehasflourishes in neo gothic aesthetics in science fiction and fantasy,in romantic and young adultliteratureand incelluloid. VampiregraphicRead MoreHow Dracula Is The Most Famous Literary Vampire1658 Words   |  7 Pages An Immortal Soul: Why Dracula is the Most Famous Literary Vampire The title character and antagonist of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula is an easily recognizable character in the Western canon. Without ever reading the book or watching any of the countless movie adaptations, people will craft vampire characters with feelings and behaviors nearly identical to those of Dracula. However, Dracula’s success is not because it was the first novel of its kind. Vampiric literature had been around forRead MoreDracula: The Picture Perfect Ideal of Gothic Literature Essay1128 Words   |  5 PagesDracula: The Picture Perfect Ideal of Gothic Literature. Gothicism has been a very popular genre of book, through past and present, and Bram Stoker’s, Dracula, is no exception. One of the most widely read novels of all time, Dracula possesses all the features of a classic gothic novel. The various dark and dreary features throughout the entire novel paints a perfect gothic picture for the reader and contribute to the mixture of feelings One gets while reading Dracula. The first feature of GothicismRead MoreHow Bram Stoker Uses Gothic Conventions to Create an Atmosphere of Suspense and Fear for the Reader1340 Words   |  6 PagesHow Bram Stoker Uses Gothic Conventions to Create an Atmosphere of Suspense and Fear for the Reader Dracula is one of the most well-know novels, it was written by Abraham Stoker. At the time Dracula was released in 1897, people regarded it as being a romantic horror, with some elements of fantasy and also it was especially famous for its gothic conventions. In modern times the term gothic can be regarded as being barbarous, offensive and uncouth. Although many peopleRead MoreDifferent Perception of Women: Dracula by Bram Stoker1850 Words   |  8 PagesIn the late 19th century, when Dracula by Bram Stoker is written, women were only perceived as conservative housewives, only tending to their family’s needs and being solely dependent of their husbands to provide for them. This novel portrays that completely in accordance to Mina Harker, but Lucy Westenra is the complete opposite. Lucy parades around in just her demeanor as a promiscuous and sexual person. While Mina only cares about learning new things in order to assist her soon-to-be husband JonathanRead MoreWeaknesses Of Dracula1674 Words   |  7 Pagesteenager who sparkles? Dracula was written in 1897 and is the first piece of literature that includes vampires and sets up the characteristics of future vampires. Dozen of works of literature has been created based off of the creature in Dracula for example the novel Twilight and as time go es on literature has tweaked some of the vampire’s traits, powers and weaknesses. Dracula is a gothic novel with gothic elements such as a decaying setting and supernatural beings or monsters. Bram Stoker is an author

Concentration of Ownership and Decreasing Diversity in...

Concentration of Ownership and Decreasing Diversity in Print Media For all who love to read books, imagine walking into bookstore after bookstore seeing the same type of books over and over. No variety, no choice, only repetition. Although America prides itself on freedom and democracy more than any nation in the world, this hypothetical situation is becoming increasingly closer to becoming a reality than some may think. Consolidation and concentration of ownership in print media companies may cause for the inability of some people to voice their opinions. What does this mean? This means that the basis of our country, including freedom from the first amendment, maybe be pulled out from under our feet. Causes of this†¦show more content†¦It has become increasingly difficult for new ideas to come out in print for this reason. Rifka Rosenwein reinforces these ideas by stating, â€Å"Having a few huge corporations control our outlets of expressions could lead to less aggressive news coverage and a more muted marketplaces of ideas.†2[2 ] And that is exactly what is happening, not only in news coverage and the marketplace, but in print media as well. When large companies dominate the print media of the United States, we are allowing information to be screened, weeded out, and chosen by these companies, and these companies alone. In order to further emphasize the amount of power that truly lies within these nine dominating companies I would like to bring into light the most profitable, AOL Time Warner. â€Å"Time Warner makes 20 percent of its money from the music business, another 20 percent from the news division (magazine and book publishing and cable television news), 10 percent from its US cable systems and the rest from its film, video and television holdings.†3[3] This is an incredible amount. Not only does AOL Time Warner make twenty percent profit from the news division of media, but they also have a vertical integration throughout our nation. There should be warning lights going off in every American. If one single company can have this much control over so many aspects of our life, thereShow MoreRelatedRelationship Of Concentrated Ownership And The Canadian Newspaper Industry1823 Words   |  8 Pages COMM 1F90: Intro to Communication and Media Studies The Relationship of Concentrated Ownership and the Canadian Newspaper Industry Joy Orande Becky Kribs Seminar 10 March 29, 2016 Brock University â€Æ' Newspapers are rooted together with the public sphere, globalization, and mass media. The newspaper and the public sphere give citizens an opportunity to examine public concern and global matters. Does this mean that those involved with the Canadian ownership and newspaper industry ultimately wieldRead MoreThe Concentration Of Media Ownership And The Government And Democracy3153 Words   |  13 PagesA significant number of theories have been suggested to clarify the concentration of media ownership and the effects it’s had on the government and democracy. Convergence is the process, which changes the relations between audiences, technologies, markets and industries. This process has transformed the traditional extents of newspapers and publishing: â€Å"which has now subordinated towards the needs of corporations.† (Jenkins 2004) (Buckley 2008) Whilst previous literature has covered an extensiveRead MoreAtT Company Analysis7895 Words   |  32 Pageslittle more than three years ago, Cingular Wireless, in which ATT owned a majority stake, acquired ATT Wireless. That acquisition enabled Cingular Wireless to obtain nationwide coverage. ATT in turn acquired BellSouth, which gave them complete ownership of Cingular Wireless. ATT now operates the nations largest wireless digital voice and data network, with a customer base of more than 70 million subscribers. They have provided the industrys largest improvement in customer loyalty and have becomeRead MoreFamily Tree19118 Words   |  77 Pagescauses of a given problem and provide guidelines for practical interventions. Diagnoses of problems translate into strategies, that is, specific courses of action for programmatic interventions that use a variety of techniques. Since the 1950s, a diversity of theoretical and empirical traditions has converged in the field of development communication. Such convergence produced a rich analytical vocabulary but also conceptual confusion. The field has not experie nced a unilinear evolution in which newRead MoreNetflix Strategy27689 Words   |  111 Pagesniche market consumers), and they desire a rich viewing experience. This means they want to sit in comfort, watch on a television screen (the bigger the better) with full surround-sound audio, which currently makes them more likely to consume hardcopy media. They are willing to wait a few days to acquire their title, as long as it meets their expectations. These consumers also have a low propensity to substitute, because they are committed to video entertainment, and possibly a higher propensity to purchaseRead MoreSience23554 Words   |  95 Pagessedimentation of carbon, ultimately causing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations to increase. Also, by clearing forests to support agriculture, we are transferring carbon from living biomass into the atmosphere (dry wood is about 50 percent carbon). The result is that humans are adding ever-increasing amounts of extra carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Because of this, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations are higher today than they have been over the last half-million years orRead MoreSustainable Solutions Paper wk 7 draft16370 Words   |  66 Pageswhich are of great interest to companies such as Dell offer great opportunity and great risk depending upon how they are implemented or ignored and at what point. Technology-based trends currently include cloud computing and the social web/social media. Cloud computing is a subject of some confusion or uncertainty in terms of defining it. According to Infoworld.com (2010), Some analysts and vendors define cloud computing narrowly as an updated version of utility computing: basically virtual serversRead MoreAnalysis of the Music Industry30024 Words   |  121 Pagesand its performers. 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In some markets these differences are relatively minor, and a single marketing mix can satisfyRead MoreAmazon Strategy15987 Words   |  64 Pagestechnologies for internet access Increased frequency of use and sources (e.g. mobile devices, TV etc) for internet access by online shoppers Rapid development of ‘high-speed’ network services (e.g. broadband) increases usability of media-rich applications Media-rich contents are easily made available to online shoppers Environmental Global Warming/ Pollution Awareness Less car journeys, more shopping online. (Matthews et al, 2001) Changing business methods and environment to become

Iago as the Perfect Villain of Shakespeares Othello Essay

Iago as the Perfect Villain of Othello Iago, the villain in Shakespeare’s Othello, is a round character of great depth and many dimensions. Iago works towards an aim that is constantly changing and becomes progressively more tragic. Yet, at times, honest Iago does actually seem honest. This essay will explore the complex character of honest Iago. One of the most interesting questions that crops up is concerning Iago’s motives. What are his reasons to kill every major Venetian in Cyprus? Shakespeare seemingly sets the stage for Iago’s actions, giving him two distinct reasons to avenge Othello. The first is the fact that Othello promotes Cassio, an arithmetician to the rank of lieutenant and passes over Iago who is but a†¦show more content†¦Shakespeare portrays Othello as the general without faults, perfect. Yet, he slowly reveals the weaknesses of Othello’s love for Desdemona. For this love he will forsake anything. Iago is quick to pick on this and starts working towards destroying Othello through his only shortcoming. Iago uses a gamut of devious methods to achieve his means. His use of Roderigo is a masterly move. From being a Venetian gentleman, Roderigo becomes Iago’s gull. In the very first scene he gets him to confront a sleepy Brabantio and give him the news of his daughters escapades with the Moor. At the end of the court scene in the first act, Iago and Roderigo are left alone with the poor doting lover in great despair. Roderigo takes a decision to drown himself. Iago easily convinces him out of it by pointing out Othello’s shortcomings. Says he, She must change for youth: when she is sated with his body, she will find the errors of his choice. This satisfies Roderigo and Iago’s hate starts taking definite shape: I hate the moor, And it is thought abroad, that ‘twixt my sheets He’s done my office. This is of course, unlikely and serves only as a justification for his evil. In Cyprus, Iago designs a brawl with Cassio and Roderigo by having the latter insult the former while they are drunk. This, of course, results in Cassio’s dismissal by Othello but it far from satisfies Iago. He then in turn advises Cassio on how to regain hisShow MoreRelated Honest Iago of Shakespeares Othello Essay798 Words   |  4 PagesHonest Iago of Othello   Ã‚  Ã‚   To most of the world William Shakespeare is recognized as the greatest dramatist in history.   His plays have been performed for centuries through various interpretations.   Shakespeares vast knowledge, and writing style made his works interesting for both the intellectual, and the illiterate.   One of these styles is the use of motifs, which is seen extensively in Othello.   An important example that runs throughout Othello, is Iagos honesty.   This motif gaveRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s Othello And The Existence Of Power1110 Words   |  5 PagesShakespeare displays the presence of power in his work of Othello wielded by his mastermind of a character, Iago. Throughout Shakespeare’s play, the existence of power results in a tragedy for the characters of Othello. The play involves themes of jealousy, racism, hate and judgment that all relate to one having power over others. Knowing that Cassio had been promoted to the rank of lieutenant over Iago himself, he seeks to exact revenge on Othello for overlooking his capabilities to be promoted andRead MoreOthello, By William Shakespeare941 Words   |  4 PagesWilliams Shakespeare’s play Othello which depicts the tragedy of Othello, a Morris Captain. What is different about Shakespeare play is that the tragic hero is the black Othello and the villain a white Iago. Therefore, Shakespeare depiction of Othello as a tragic character and Iago as a villain, challenges Elizabethan’s stereotypes regarding individuals of African descent. Shakespeare challenges the stereotypical â€Å"type –casting of the black man† in Elizabethan society by depicting Othello as a respectedRead MoreAnalysis of Othellos Iago, The Perfect Villain774 Words   |  4 Pagesthe perfect villain for a story? What qualities are needed in such a character? A good place to start when constructing a villain is to look at William Shakespeare’s villain in Othello, a man called Iago. Iago is wonderfully devious. Throughout the play, he not only poisons Othello’s vision of Desdemona, he does this with no one, excepting Roderigo, the wiser. There are several reasons that make Iago such a terrifying villain. Shakespeare gave certain qualities to his creation that made Iago moreRead More Comparison of an Evil mastermind in Shakespeare’s Othello and MacDonald’s Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)1433 Words   |  6 PagesIago is one of the most renowned villains of pre-modern literature, as first introdu ced in Shakespeare’s Othello. His deceiving personality and complex nature is painted such that readers are amazed by his ingenious schemes. At the beginning of Shakespeare’s Othello, Iago is represented as trustworthy and honest, but readers soon realize that he is the opposite of what he seems. Even though Iago’s personality and thoughts are revealed less in MacDonald’s Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)Read MoreNature of Evil in Othello1704 Words   |  7 PagesThe Nature Of Evil In Othello The Nature of Evil in Othello William Shakespeare’s Othello uses different and unique techniques in his language to express the nature of evil throughout the play. Verbal twists and the characters most importantly stress the act of evil. Iago, most of all is portrayed as the â€Å"villain† or â€Å"protagonist in the play. Shakespeare uses this character to set the basis of evil. Each plot point is spiraled further into tragedy due to the nature of Iago and his manipulative languageRead MoreHis Moorships Ancient: Iago as the Protagonist of Othello1658 Words   |  7 Pagesunfavorable and evil attributes serve Shakespeares main characters by presenting them as realistically written men, and there always seems a degree, however small, of sympathy associated with their respective downfalls and tragedies. Othello, however, is an anomaly. While he is flawed by his paranoia and pride, Othello is only unstable and destructive after intricate deception. Indeed, he seems maddeningly perfect to his adversaries. Even Othellos greatest enemy, Iago, confesses in act I, scene i, WereRead MoreOthello : William Shakespeare s Othello Essay935 Words   |  4 PagesAlexius Sparkman Dr. Ernest Williamson III English 101 30 November 2016 Iago In William Shakespeare’s Othello, Iago’s character is possibly the most heinous villain. Oxford’s Dictionary defines villain as an, â€Å"a wicked person; chief wicked character in a play or a story† (Oxford 740). Iago plays the ancient of Othello, who is the general of the Venetian forces. As an ancient, Iago is to be a loyal servant to Othello. However, Iago has grown bitter and contemptuous and uses his supposed loyalty as aRead MoreEssay on William Shakespeares Othello1294 Words   |  6 PagesIn Shakespeare’s play Othello, tragedy unfolds on the account of one man’s actions, Iago. He is a twenty eight year old military veteran from Venice. His personality consists of being obsessive, manipulative, relentless, and bold. From the beginning he expressed his hatred towards the Moor, or North African named Othello. Othello is a highly respected general and is also married to the pure Desdemona. The marriage between Othello and Desdemona is destroyed due to Iago’s actions and lies. His actionsRead MoreOthello, By William Shakespeare1599 Words   |  7 Pages William Shakespeare’s 16th century play Othello is a duplicitous and fraudulent tale set alternatingly between Venice in act 1, and the island of Cyprus thereafter. The play follows the scandalous marriage between protagonist Othello, a Christian moore and the general of the army of Venice, and Desdemona, a respected and intelligent woman who also happens to be the daughter of the Venetian Senator Brabantio. Shakespeare undoubtedly positions the marriage to be viewed as heroic and noble, despite

Wagner Case free essay sample

THE LEADERSHIP MOMENT : Nine True Stories of Triumph and Disaster and Their Lessons for us All MICHAEL USEEM Chapter 2 : Wagner Dodge Retreats in Mann Gulch What the hell is the boss doing, lighting another fire in front of us? W AGNER DODGE WAS facing the moment, the decision of a lifetime. A fast-moving forestand-grass fire was about to overrun him and the fifteen firefighters under his command. Less than two hours earlier they had sky-jumped into a fiery gulch in Montana. Now an enormous wall of flame was racing at them up the tinder-dry ravine. They knew they were running for their lives, and Dodge knew their time was running out. Dodges mind, still remarkably in control, was also concluding that he and his men had almost reached a point of no exit. He estimated that in a mere ninety seconds the conflagration would overtake him and the crew. If he could still discover a way out or invent some way to survive within, it would make the difference between miraculous escape or catastrophic failure, between saving himself and his fifteen men or losing all. A Fire in Mann Gulch LOCATED IN A rugged area of central Montana, Mann Gulch runs into the Missouri River in a region named Gates of the Mountains in 1805 by the famed northwest explorer Meriwether Lewis. In such inaccessible areas, fire is always a worry, but on August 5, 1949, the danger was greater than usual. By late summer, central Montana was so bone dry that the U. S. Forest Service put the fire potential at 74 on a scale of zoo. Twenty-five miles to the south, Helena was reaching a record temperature for the day of 97 degrees Fahrenheit. A small thundershower moving through the area offered momentary respite. But the storm also meant lightning, and lightning often means fire. Page 1 of 9 By 2. 30 PM, a crew had loaded onto a C-47 at the smoke-jumper base in Missoula. Thirty-three-year-old R. Wagner Dodge was the crew chief. A man of few words, he had fought many fires during his nine years in the business, and he was deservedly the team boss for the technical expertise he brought to the attack. The fifteen men who checked their parachutes and climbed on board with him were young, eager, conditioned. They had been fighting fires all summer and were ready for this one. Some were college students who had volunteered for the summer; others were career firefighters. Several were World War II veterans. Among those who took their seats for the twenty-minute trip to Mann Gulch were Robert Sallee, underage for the work at seventeen, and Walter Rumsey. The outfit also included David Navon, a former first lieutenant in the 101st Airborne Division who had parachuted into Bastogne, Belgium, during the 1944 German counteroffensive, and William J. Hellman, who only a month earlier had parachuted onto the Ellipse between the White House and the Washington Monument. The men under Dodges command hailed from Massachusetts and Montana, New York and North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. Robert Sallee and Walter Rumsey As the aircraft circled twice around Mann Gulch, Dodge and spotter Earl Cooley scouted a safe landing zone. The men were. belted down, but the plane was bouncing about in the turbulence, an early hint of what was to come. Many of them felt half sick, and one, too nauseous to jump, opted to return to Missoula. On Dodges signal, the others leapt out the open door, targeting a landing zone high on the upper left side of the ravine, marked as point I in Figure 2 . 1 . Dodge and his crew hit the ground at 4:10 P . M . and by 5. 00 had gathered their chutes, loaded their packs, and shouldered their shovels. Dodge suggested that his men take some food and drink before moving out. In fire jumpers parlance, it was a ten oclock fire on the other side of the gulch-one they would fight all night and expect to have under control by 10 A . M . the next day. August fires often begin late in the afternoon as lightning rumbles through, and most of them are small enough to be contained by the following morning. The men knew that a brief rest now would probably be their last until the job was done. This day, though, they were moving without several requisite items, including a map and radio. The map was falsely believed to be in the hands of a firefighter already in the area, and the radio had been destroyed when an equipment parachute failed to deploy. Still, on Dodges orders they moved down the gulch single file, confidently prepared to confront the blaze. Page 2 of 9 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Landing zone Dodge leaves crew Dodge’s reconnaissance Path to river blocked by fire Crew discards equipment Dodge’s escape fire Sallee Rumsey’s rockslide Fire overtakes others Figure 2. 1 – Wagner Dodge in Mann Gulch, Aug 5th 1949. The firefighter already in the area linked up with Dodge and his crew, but the full complement of sixteen men was a team only in the loosest sense. The men had all undergone a three week training program earlier in the summer, and they had been disciplined to work together, react quickly, and follow their commanders lead. But Dodge had to exercise his command without the authority of military drill. Even more difficult, he was an unknown quantity to many of the men under him. Several had worked with him before; all knew of him: But they had never worked together as a single group, under Dodge or anyone else, and Dodge himself was not even sure of all their names. Under U. S. Forest Service policy, it is the amount of rest, not the amount of camaraderie, that determines how men are assembled for a days jump group. Those with the longest respite since their last fire are the first to go. A hardened set of individuals this group was; a hardened combat platoon it was not. Three Terrible Discoveries AS DODGE APPROACHED the fire line, he told his men to wait in the center of the gulch (point 2) while he moved ahead to scout within a hundred feet of the front. It was during that time, at point 3, that he made the first of three terrible discoveries of the day. Here he found that the blaze was far more dangerous than he had guessed from aerial reconnaissance. A ground wind was coming across the river and over the ridge, at twenty to forty miles an hour, whipping the flames up and blowing them down his path. A vigorous wind is an oxygen supply, natures giant bellows. Alarmed, he retreated to the rest spot and instructed his men to head for the mouth of the gorge. He himself retreated further back to the landing zone to retrieve some food he had forgotten, leaving his men to move down the gulch without him. Dodges instructions were logical. The fire was more threatening than expected, but safety would be assured if he could place his crew between the fire and the river. Should the fire force them into the river, so be it: they would swim out some yards, stay low to avoid smoke, and, once the fire swept by, climb back onshore. The Missouri River was Dodges insurance. As the men moved down the gulch without Dodge in the lead, the firefighters became divided in two. As much as five hundred feet separated the two subgroups, neither of which was quite sure where the other was. Twenty minutes later, at about 5:40, Dodge finally regrouped his men and resumed the lead, moving them further toward the mouth of the gulch. Here he made a second, more terrible discovery (point 4): the winds were swirling around the flaming ridge, sweeping burning branches and glowing embers into the air and across the front of the gulch. In the few minutes since their arrival in the gulch, fiery eddies had closed the escape route. Dodges alarm bells- all of them-were sounding. At 5:45, Dodge reversed course, saying nothing to his men, but they surely knew why, since they too had seen the wind whipped smoke across the gulchs mouth in front of them. The crew kicked into a run up the left-hand side of the gulch. Within minutes, Dodge passed word down the line that all equipment-packs, saws, axes, shovels were to be discarded and that they must move as fast Page 3 of 9 as they possibly could (point 5). He knew, and they must have known, that what had been a routine jump into a ten oclock fire was now becoming a dash for their lives. It is hard to imagine what could be worse than what Dodge and his men had already encountered in their short time in Mann Gulch. Less than an hour had passed since they had stashed their parachutes and confidently set out to do their job. But Dodge, at the head of the line, ade his third and most terrifying discovery, of the day just a few minutes later. A forest fire rarely moves at more than four or five miles an hour, an advance that smoke jumpers can always outrun.. But Mann Gulch was part of a transitional zone an area where mountains yield to plains and, forest timber to prairie grass and as the men fled from the fire, the forest gave way to shoulder-high g rass, dense, dry, and ready to explode. The Plains Indians feared a prairie grass fire almost as much as anything. They knew that the worst could not be outrun, and now Dodge knew it too. His mind still in steely control, Dodge estimated that as fast as he and his men could move up what was now becoming a grassy slope, the towering wall of fire would move faster. Within a minute or two, Dodge estimated, perhaps sooner, he and his men would be overtaken by flames. The roar was deafening. Sap in scattered trees was superheating and exploding. Smoke, embers, and ashes swirled in all directions. The apparent options offered Dodge no escape: stand and be fatally burned; turn and be fatally burned; run and be fatally burned. The Solution AT 5:55, DODGE abruptly stopped, lit a match from a matchbook he carried, and threw it into the prairie grass in front of him (point 6). His fire, almost instantly a widening circle of flame, burned fast. By the normal measures of fire fighting, what Dodge lit appeared to be a backfire- one intended to burn off enough fuel in a limited strip to prevent the real fire from advancing. And indeed he would be asked, at a subsequent government investigation into the events of August 5, why he had chosen this moment of extreme urgency to light such a backfire. In response, Dodge would assert that this was not and could not have been a backfire: with less than a minute remaining until he was engulfed by flames, a backfire would not have cleared enough grass to stop anything. Why, then, had he paused to light the fire? The answer seemed both impossible and simple: he had lit the fire in order to take refuge inside it. As the ring of his new fire spread, it cleared a small area of all flammable substances. It was not much of a safety zone, but it would have to do. He jumped over the blazing ring, moved to its smoldering center, wrapped a wet cloth around his face, pressed himself close to the ground, and waited. As he had anticipated, the surging fire wall rounded both sides of his small circle, leapt over the top, but found nothing to ignite where he lay motionless. Within moments the front passed, racing up the ridge and leaving him unscathed in his tiny asylum. He stood, brushed off the ash, and found he was no worse for wear. He had literally burned a hole in the raging fire. But he had not forgotten his crew. Just before his lighting of the escape fire, Robert Sallee and Walter Rumsey had been second and third in a line of sprinting men that stretched behind Dodge many dozen yards down the hill. Like the other firefighters, Sallee and Rumsey had left the aircraft when Dodge said Jump, they had moved toward the mouth of the gulch when he said Go, and they had dashed uphill when he said Run. Now, as Sallee and Rumsey stumbled on a stopped Dodge, they saw their boss motioning them to come inside an expanding ring of fire. This way! he shouted. Though Sallee and Rumsey could not hear Dodge in the deafening inferno, they could see what he wanted from his frantic waving. They also saw an enormous fire wall at their back, and it was about to overwhelm both them and Dodges circle. The Fatal End S A L L E E AND RUMSEY glanced at Dodge but kept going rounding his fire circle, mounting the ridge to their left, and moving down the other side into what is ironically called Rescue Gulch. Fires do no t stop at the ridge tops; they only slow momentarily. The Mann Gulch fire swept into Rescue Gulch as well, but Sallee and Rumsey chanced upon their own oasis, a strip of stone without vegetation, a rockslide some seventy-five feet wide that had denied purchase to grass and trees alike (point 7). They too squeezed toward the middle, the fire raced down both sides, and a few minutes later, suffering from neither burns nor smoke, they worked their way back toward Mann Gulch. Page 4 of 9 The remaining thirteen men also rushed by Dodge and his widening circle of flame. Dodge heard one man say, as he glanced at the escape scheme, To hell with that, Im getting out of here! Sallee, who paused higher up after speeding by Dodge, looked back and later estimated that most of the men had passed within twenty to fifty feet of Dodge, just outside the burning ring. After that, however, their stars were not propitious: the thirteen chanced upon no bare spots. As Dodge had anticipated, they were quickly overtaken by the prairie grass fire they could not outrun (point 8). Unscathed, Dodge, Sallee, and Rumsey gathered and went in search of the others. Several of the men survived a few hours, but all were fatally burned, most not far from where they had started less than an hour before. They had left their landing zone at about 5. 00 that afternoon. The hands on the watch of James O. Harrison were melted into the dial at 5:56. It was the worst fire-fighting disaster in Forest Service history and would remain so for forty-five years, until fourteen men and women were killed on July 6, 1994, on Storm King Mountain near Glenwood Springs, Colorado, combating a vicious winddriven grass fire that also suddenly engulfed them. L E A D E R S H I P I S A product of both todays actions and yesterdays groundwork. The fatal combination that emerged in Mann Gulch was partly what Dodge did or did not do on August 5, but also partly what he did or did not do well before the smoke jumpers ever climbed aboard the aircraft. We will first review his decisions in the air and on the ground, in the gulch and later turn to what he might have done earlier in the summer to prepare for that fateful August afternoon. First is the question of why Sallee, Rumsey,. and the other thirteen smoke jumpers refused to join Dodge inside his circle of fire. It was, after all, an immediate solution, a lifesaving solution, a communicated solution. Sallee later reported, I saw him bend over and light a fire with a match. I thought, with the fire almost on our back, what the hell is the boss doing, lighting another fire in front of us? Sallee was close to Rumsey, and he expressed a conclusion reached by both: We thought he must have gone nuts. Yet they had, it must be recalled, dutifully followed all of Dodges earlier instructions. When he had said to plunge out the open door of the airplane, they had done so; when he had moved them toward the mouth of the gulch, they had gone; when he had said to drop their equipment and run for their lives, they had obeyed. Why had his authority suddenly failed him? One explanation-that the trailing crew members did not see or understand Dodges frantic waving-may apply to some. But the two survivors said that they could see Dodge and what he intended, and Dodge himself reported that he had seen most of the firefighters come near enough to his circle of fire to see his signals. A more plausible explanation is that by this point Dodge had simply lost much of his credibility. A leaders credibility can be defined as the authority to make binding decisions based on a record of having made them well before. Dodge was crew chief by virtue of the latter. But in less than an hour, his credibility had been shattered. His decision on where to land had placed the men behind a dangerous fire. They had marched toward it, then moved around it, and finally raced from it. The accumulation of erroneous decisions finally made his latest action the lifesaving one too dubious to accept. Dodges credibility had collapsed; worse, he had not yet realized it. By implication: If you have made several problematic decisions in a row, be prepared to have your leadership questioned. It may be a moment of personal trial, a point when the cooperation of others is most needed but least forthcoming. A C r e d i b i l i t y Spiral Missteps and Few Words EXACERBATING DODGES DOWNWARD credibility spiral were two small missteps, too minor to draw much notice at the time but arguably big enough to accelerate the downspin. First; when Dodge returned to the drop site at the upper end of Mann Gulch to retrieve his food, he sent his crew on without him for a few minutes, relinquishing his leadership. Thus he momentarily commanded the battle from behind the lines, not the front. In pondering why the generals in World War I so often displayed incompetence in command, Peter Drucker turned to the explanation offered by his own high school history teacher, a wounded veteran of the Great War: Because not enough generals were killed; they stayed way behind the lines and let others do the fighting and dying. † Page 5 of 9 Second, when Dodge told his men to drop their shovels and axes, he was asking them to give up a large part of what defined them as a crew under his command; he was, in other words,, ordering his soldiers to shed their uniforms. In both instances, Dodges actions made sound logistical sense. The first permitted a more rapid movement toward the safety of the Missouri River; the second allowed a more rapid movement away from the accelerating blaze. Yet both chipped away at Dodges credibility when he most needed it later. A solution lay not necessarily in avoiding such action, for in this instance it is hard to imagine not ordering the equipment disposal, but in a persuasive communication of why he acted thus. But probably most damaging to Dodges credibility was a management style that fostered little twoway communication. Wagner Dodge was a boss of few words, a person who neither expected much information from his people nor gave much in return. As the men flew over Mann Gulch, sixteen pairs of eyes and ears were gathering information on the conditions below, and some might have guessed that the swirling smoke and air turbulence signaled dangerous ground conditions. Yet Dodge relied on only a single pair of eyes, his own. Similarly, in moving toward the fire, then around it, and finally away from it, others reached their own assessment of the best way out. Yet in no case did Dodge ask for their appraisal. He had a diverse human information system at his disposal but chose to avail himself of none of it. Imagine, by way of analogy, a chief executive who never asks his salespeople what they are hearing from their customers or a hospital president who fails to ask his nurses what they are learning from their patients. At the same time, Dodge also gave little information. He did not share his appraisals, barely explained his actions, scarcely even communicated his growing alarm. Dodge has a characteristic in him, Rumsey would later tell the Board of Review. It is hard to tell what he is thinking. When Dodge sent his crew members toward the mouth of the gulch after the brief reconnaissance of the fire, he instructed them to move out of the thick reproduction because it was a death trap, Sallee later reported. But otherwise he dispensed little information, and Rumsey and Sallee observed that he did not even look particularly worried. When he suddenly reversed course near the mouth of the gu lch and, the crew was moving uphill, Navon, the former paratrooper, was still taking snapshots. Dodge testified at the hearing that he had not communicated directly with his men from the time he retreated. or his food until he ordered them to drop all their equipment. Near the end, as the crew was overtaken by crisis and panic, circumstances permitted little discussion. But up until that time, communication had been feasible. Without revealing his thinking when it could be shared, Dodge denied his crew members, especially those not familiar with him, an opportunity to appreciate the quality of his mind. They had no other way of knowing, except by reputation, whether his decisions were rational or impulsive, calculated or impetuous. Later, when the quality of his mind did display itself in a brilliant invention-the escape fire his thinking was still too much of a cipher to those whose trust he urgently required. By implication: If you want trust and compliance when the need for them cannot be fully explained, explain yourself early. If you need information on which you must soon act, ask for it soon. Being a person of few words may be fine in a technical position, but it is a prescription for disaster in a position of leadership. Other Escape Fires W A G N E R D O D G E C O U L D never have anticipated the specific events in Mann Gulch. Yet it is instructive to ask what he might have done in June and July to prepare for them, not knowing precisely what lay ahead but anticipating the possibility that flawless action and effective leadership were likely to be essential for whatever came along. Dodge masterminded a winning idea that could have saved the entire enterprise: The Board of Review concluded that all of his men would have survived if they had heeded Dodges efforts to get them to go into the escape fire area. But when the innovation was ready for use, nobody believed it could. succeed. And Dodges escape fire was a genuine innovation. Native Americans on the Great Plains had invented the concept a century earlier, and since the Mann Gulch disaster it has become a standard lifesaving measure in the official survival repertoire. But before 1949, the Forest Service did not train its smoke jumpers in setting escape fires, and on August 5, 1949, nobody in Mann Gulch had ever heard of the tactic. Page 6 of 9 Why was it that Dodge was the only member of his sixteen man force to invent the escape fire? All found themselves in the same tightening vise, all saw that their time was almost up, all desperately sought a way out. Yet only Dodge seemingly had the capacity to discover the lifesaving solution. When asked how he had come on the idea of the escape fire, he replied, It just seemed the logical thing to do. Two explanations for the failure of simultaneous invention come to mind, both pointing to what Dodge might have done earlier in the summer. First, he was an autocrat, an instruction giver, and once in the gulch there might have been no other way to lead. But with earlier opportunities to meld a team and mold a culture, he might have encouraged each member to learn how to reach his own judgments and make his own decisions. This is not to say that fostering individual discretion is the same as allowing discretionary direction. The challenge for Dodge was to instill individual judgment while aligning it around common purpose. Empowering team members to reach their own decisions that will simultaneously pull the team in the same direction is no easy task. It is a learned capacity Dodge would have had to have cultivated well before August 5. A second explanation again refers to Dodges style as a man of few words. He had fought fires for nine years and had been a crew foreman since 1945. Some on his crew had combated fires for less than three months. Sallee and Rumsey were making their first smoke jump. Dodges mind held memories of hundreds of fire, soil, forest, and wind conditions he had seen, dozens o f strategies he knew to have worked, and some he had seen fail. It was this repository of practical experience that had led to his promotion to crew chief-and-it was this storehouse he had at the ready when he realized that he and his crew had but a moment to rescue themselves. Unfortunately, though, it was his database alone. Dodge might have shared his wisdom earlier, telling and retelling the amazing, sometimes curious, occasionally disastrous stories of his fires of the past. Secondhand accounts can never fully substitute for the personal seasoning of years on the front line, but they can furnish a diverse set of prior conditions against which to test the present. In being tight with words, Dodge denied his men the benefit of his nine years of experience. The value of downward communication is amply confirmed in any number of studies. Research on flight crew performance during cockpit simulations, for instance, has revealed that leaders of higherperformance cockpit crews share more plans; offer more predictions, describe more options, sound more warnings, and provide more explanations. 3 By implication: If you expect those who work for you to exercise their own judgment, provide them with the decision making experience now. If you count on them to understand the conditions a s best they can, share your past experience with them now. If your leadership depends on theirs, devolving responsibility and sharing stories is a foundation upon which it will reside. Thinking strategically when confronted with a crisis or challenge is a learned skill that requires sustained seasoning. The Leaders Ally AS A THOUGHT experiment, a what if analysis, ask yourself what would have happened if Sallee or Rumsey had followed Dodges blandishments. Or suppose Dodge had cultivated a loyal ally or second in command whose faith was virtually unshakable. If Sallee, the next in line as the crew raced up the gulch, had been that ally and had entered the circle of fire, others almost certainly would have followed as well. The premise is simple: Everybody is crazy from time to time, but it is rare that two people are at the same moment. This was one of the discoveries of the famous experiment by Solomon Asch; If everybody around you says that line A is longer than line B when the objective fact is obviously the opposite, you will cave in. But if you have just one other doubter, just one naysayer who breaks the mold, you are emboldened to break it too. If Sallee, as the loyal ally, had joined Dodge, others would have been more likely to be lured into the escape circle, and we might well have never heard of a fire in Mann Gulch. By implication: If you have difficult decisions to make and insufficient time to explain them, a key to implementation may be loyal allies who are sure to execute them through thick or thin. Establishing those allies now is the only way to ensure that their support will be at the ready when needed, and it will sometimes be needed when it is far too late to be created. Page 7 of 9 Pa nic and Performance SOME OF DODGES crew members might have rushed by him and his lifesaving fire less from a rational calculus and more out of sheer panic. Sallee and Rumsey thought Dodge must be crazy to be starting a new fire. But others, by the time they neared Dodges fire, were surely being driven by terror, and in such a state rational judgment is an early casualty. Psychologists tell us that panic sets in when the mind succumbs to stress and fails to take in new information about a threatening event, or fails for similar reasons to take advantage of prior experience germane to the threat. Either way, it is hard to imagine that the thirteen men behind Sallee and Rumsey, those whose backs were even closer to the raging flames, were not overwhelmed with fear. As panic short-circuits the mind, our mental processors grind to a halt. Then, unable to reach an informed judgment on what to do next, we reach into our memories for what worked well before. A psychologists label for this is reversion to last learned behavior. If we manufacture mainframe computers but the market is sinking and our creditors and investors are demanding more, lets do again what has been key to our success in the past: making mainframes. Similarly, if we have a wall of flame behind us, running from it, a successful strategy in. he past, would seem to make good sense now. Anybody near a raging bonfire knows to back off; anybody caught in a building fire knows to rush out. Yet in this instance what made perfect sense in the past would prove disastrous in the present. Panic overwhelms smart decision making, but it is also true that modest levels of stress can improve it. This is the curvilinear relationship between stress and performance, as shown in Figure 2. 2. To the left of the panic point, the adrenaline feed concentrates the mind, mobilizes energies, and eliminates distractions. To the right of the panic point, however, we no longer think so clearly, too overwhelmed by stress to reason or calcuIate. 4 This can explain the firefighters flight past Dodge, but how is that Dodge was able to keep such a cool head when others could not? An explanation comes from a study of urban firefighters, those who ride trucks rather than jump aircraft to reach a blaze. Focused on department captains and lieutenants, the study revealed that the performance of experienced officers improves under high uncertainty and stress, while the performance of inexperienced officers declines. This helps us understand why Dodges experienced intellect invented the escape fire while others were focused only on flight, It is also a reminder again that experience is a critical foundation of leadership. A warning is contained therein as well: Modestly stressful periods can enhance productivity-we all know of managers who are forever fostering minor crises to get things done But highly stressful periods worsen the performance of inexperienced people if they are pressed beyond their panic point. By implication: In periods of anxiety and stress, it is your least experienced associates who will reach the panic zone first. Providing newcomers with as much early training and mentoring as possible i s one way of moving their panic point well to the right when the heat is on. Page 8 of 9 Cul ture a nd Cohesion U N D E R F O R E S T S E R V I C E policy, Dodge took command of a just-assembled crew as he climbed o n board the aircraft. While this might appear odd to those who work in an age of dedicated teamwork, the just-in-time assemblage ensured each person maximal rest time between events. It also ensured administrative flexibility, since crew dispatches varied with the scope of each fire and could range from two men to several planeloads. Managerial careers are filled with comparable events. Like Dodge, you have probably found yourself more than once assigned to oversee a group of people with whom you are little familiar and within which acquaintanceship is equally scarce. You have just been promoted, rotated, relocated, or otherwise reassigned, and those who now report to you may predate you by no more than days. You are a church minister who has taken over a congregation with an ever-changing membership, a fastfood manager who has taken over a franchise with an everchurning workforce, or maybe a soccer coach who has taken over a team whose players are as unfamiliar to one another as they are to you. Seen through todays lens, Dodge would have surely preferred it otherwise. Building a self-contained, mutually reliant team is one of the proven ways of delivering optimal performance under duress. But it requires months, even years to develop the culture and cohesion that are the engines of such work-team performance. Given the seasonal nature of his business, the best Dodge might have done, had policy allowed it, was to form a dedicated team in June within which he could have built some unity by August. Building a team with its own culture and cohesion brings another key advantage. For wellformed, highly committed groups, the panic point is shifted far to the right. As stress intensifies, their performance curve continues to rise well after others have plummeted. They can endure extraordinary threats with an equanimity that individuals and poorly developed groups could never bear. French Resistance cells challenging the German occupiers during World War II were a case in point, as were the Allied fighting units that landed on the beaches of German-held Normandy. Or consider one of the most famous military attacks of all, George E. Picketts charge at Gettysburg. After the Union army had stalemated the Confederate forces during two days o f pitched battle in July 1863, Robert E. Lee readied his rebel forces for one final, decisive blow against the Union center. It was to be a daunting task. Twelve thousand troops under Picketts command were to march across an open mile of farmland. They would have artillery support, but they would also be assaulting a well-fortified Union line behind a stone wall on an extended ridge. General James Longstreet, ordered by Lee to execute the attack, was convinced of impending failure. The thousands of combat veterans of Virginia and North Carolina who were assembling to mount the attack could see it might well be their last. Yet in full view of Union cannons and infantry, the Confederate troops marched the terrible mile. Picketts charge ended in bitter defeat, with all but one of his thirty-two regimental and field officers killed or wounded and half his troops down or gone. But the men of the Army of Northern Virginia, loyal to their regimental commanders and comrades, went unflinchingly into the devastating fire. Collectively, they did what neither individuals nor less well-formed teams could ever do. By implication: If your organization is facing a period of uncertainty, change, or stress, now is the time to build a strong culture with good lines of interior communication, mutual understanding, and shared obligation. A clear sense of common purpose and a well-formed camaraderie are essential ingredients to ensure that your team, your organization, or your company will perform to its utmost when it is most needed. Our actions today may make the difference between success or failure tomorrow. The challenge is to anticipate what problems lie ahead and what preparatory steps are required now to meet them later. Enabling all to make informed decisions, informing all to understand your decisions, and organizing all to discipline their decisions are among the enduring legacies of Wagner Dodges fifty-six-minute struggle for survival in Mann Gulch. Page 9 of 9

Class Room Observation Essay Research Paper Josh free essay sample

Class Room Observation Essay, Research Paper Josh Van Coppenolle EDU 301 Social Studies Methods Mary Iandoli Classroom Observation Date: 9-30-96 Kindergarten instructor: Mrs. Debolt First grade instructor: Mrs. Casteluzo Location: Penn Yan Elementary Carrie and I were traveling to detect a kindergarten schoolroom societal surveies category that combined their lesson with a first class category. We were scheduled to get at 2 PM. When I arrived at 1:50 PM, Carrie was waiting outside the school and informed me that she had already gone in and was told that there was traveling to be a fire drill in merely a few proceedingss. We waited for the fire drill to complete and so went into the category. The clip was approximately 2:10 at this point, so the instructors were running a small buttocks. When we entered the room it was empty, we had evidently beat the pupils back from the fire drill. This gave us clip to look around. The kindergarten room was brilliantly decorated with tonss of postings and pupil? s art work. The childs were working on colourss because there was a strip on top of the chalkboard that had the colourss and things we might see in that colour. The pupil? s desks were arranged in two rows, pushed together and confronting each other. There were about 12 seats in each group, so there were approximately 24 pupils in the category. Apparently, the category had merely been returning from a trip to the school library when the fire bore went off, so when they came in they were still transporting their library books. The pupils were asked to take their seats and they did so softly. Everyone? s eyes were on Carrie and me. Mrs. Debolt asked us to present ourselves, which we did. She told the category that we were larning to be instructors and that we wanted to sit in on their societal surveies category. Each pupil sat at a small desk with their name laminated on the top. The pupils had laminated cards with their names on them tied around their cervix with a long piece of narration. I think that these were their library cards. Mrs. Debolt asked me to roll up these, which I did. The pupils were reasonably quiet while this was traveling on and followed waies good. Mrs. Debolt told the category that we were traveling to hold a joint lesson with Mrs. Castiluzo? s 1st grade category. She asked everyone to come up to the forepart of the room and sit softly on their undersides, custodies in their laps. The two schoolrooms are connected by a door and shortly Mrs. Castiluzo, her adjutant, and the 1st graders came in. It was a tight squeezing but everyone got a small topographic point on the floor. You could state the childs who like their personal infinite because they were uncomfortable in the tight infinite and tried to jiggle and dart. Mrs. Debolt introduced Carrie and me and so started her lesson. She started with a narrative about a green bear who lived in the wood. He would ch ange the colour of his house as the seasons changed. Before she read she buttocks for anterior cognition. After she finished the book she led the group by oppugning them about houses and households and wellness. Then we talked about healthy organic structures and how we make healthy organic structures by eating right. The instructor would inquire a inquiry and so name on person who raised their manus. When there was a merriment undertaking to make, the instructor would name on a pupil that was making something right, like sitting up directly. I noticed that the same pupils were ever raising their custodies. The instructor should hold tried to affect all of the pupils. After the treatment of green and healthy, Mrs. Castiluza read a verse form, but the kids had already been sitting for 15-20 proceedingss and were non interested in the long verse form at all. Then, Mrs. Castiluza brought out a bag of fresh veggies that she grew in her garden. This got the childs interested once more and we discussed how the leafy vegetables of the veggies were different. Then Carrie and I got 2 assistants and cut up boodle, Piper nigrums, and Cucumis sativuss to do a salad. We all ate salad and talked about the different textures and crunchiness of the veggies. The lesson was evaluated as the pupils ate their salad, the instructors informally walked around the room and radius with the kids, but non all of them. The childs finished, threw their paper plates off and returned to their seats. I stopped back at the library briefly on another twenty-four hours and found there to be rather a large choice of trade books on historical events and lifes. There was a large choice on common people narratives. I found a subdivision with dramas that are made particularly for categories with tonss of parts. There were a batch of multicultural books on show. I think that they looked reasonably new. There were computing machines available every bit good but I didn? T spell and expression at the soft ware I think that the lesson was interesting plenty, although possibly a small excessively long. The instructors tried to utilize literature and poems to state the lesson. I think that the instructor should hold a manner to affect all the pupils in the treatment. Besides, I think that all the pupils should hold been involved in doing the salad. I think the thought of the salad was good, custodies on and a wages at the terminal. The pupils were really good behaved and the teacher handled misconducting matter-of-factly without a batch of attending drawn to the title. I don? t think that the stuff was peculiarly ambitious, but so once more we are covering with kindergarten. The subject of the unit was? myself and my household? . I think I see the manner they were traveling with the green bear in his place and a healthy diet to maintain you good. Did I mention that I want to learn 5th class? Seriously though, I think these small 1s are endearing but everytime I spend clip in kindergarten, I realize that I will make much better with older scholars.