Social AND Environmental Accounting Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Social AND Environmental Accounting - Assignment Example Each group has its own interests; these interests are directly or indirectly affected by the activities of the companies. These stakeholders are; local communities, environmental groups such as Friends of Earth and Greenpeace, media, political and other pressure groups. Additionally, the impacts of companies’ activities have considerably increased. In the recent history, the mismanagement of oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico by British Petroleum (BP) has unmasked the dirty and unethical corporate practices exist; and their existence can seriously undermine the life of stakeholders. For example, BP is heavily fined over its mismanagement of oil spill. Is that fine going to bring back the same kind of environment that existed before the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? Is the damage to the environment ever being repaired to its pre-oil spill level? Can we fully understand the total impacts of the oil spill over the sea life? In this single environmental disaster at the hands of BP , the entire sea life may face a threat of extinction since it is not possible at this point of time to fully comprehend the short term and long term impacts left by this environmental disaster. ... While ensuring the corporate objectives, many companies do not give much consideration to the current and potential negative effects of their activities. Due to the recent pressures from the governments, local communities and from the environmental groups, many companies produce the reports on corporate social responsibility and sustainability reporting. In which, companies mention their positive and negative impacts of their activities on social and environmental stakeholders: They try to be transparent and accountable for their activities. In their sustainability and environmental reporting, the companies also describe their current policies towards social and environmental issues. In order to show off that they care for the social and environmental stakeholders, they mention in their sustainability reporting about their current and future investments with an aim of reducing their negative impacts over society and environment. However, many critics such as Friedman (1970), find no reason to believe on their genuine and realistic resolve towards mitigating their impacts as the companies are only established to serve the objectives of their shareholders which is to increase profits for them. Their only social responsibility is to increase the wealth of their shareholders Friedman (1970); at the end of the day, they are accountable to them not to society. In the subsequent parts of this essay, first environmental accounting, and its different types are included and critical analysis is included subsequently. Environmental accounting Environmental accounting has considerably evolved and received significant attention in the field of accounting after the work of the Gray in the year of 1990(Elkington,1993). Many

Accounting Essay Example for Free

Accounting Essay Accounting is often referred to as the language of business, and rightly so, since it is the means by which information about an entity is communicated (Meigs, 2000). Contrary to popular belief, accounting is more than just doing taxes, or keeping books. Doing taxes is just one of the many tasks an accountant performs. Bookkeeping, the recording of transactions and day to day activities, is just the clerical aspect of accounting. Accounting is more concerned with the interpretation and use of the accounting information. As the new accountant of Claire’s Antiques, the fields of exposure would be in financial and managerial accounting. Financial accounting is a field of accounting which provides information about the financial resources, obligations, and activities of an enterprise that is intended for use primarily by external decision makers (Meigs, 2000). Such external users are those who have a financial interest in the entity, but are not involved in its day-to-day operations. These external users include the following: investors, creditors, labor unions, governmental agencies, suppliers, customers, trade associations and the general public (Meigs, 2000). See more:Â  Perseverance essay Financial accounting provides information about the company’s liquidity and solvency, which is of particular importance to creditors and suppliers as they need to know the entity’s capability to pay off its obligations. Investors would find financial information regarding the company’s viability useful, since they need to know whether it would be a wise investment. Since providing information to fit the different needs of the various stakeholders is difficult, financial reporting of such information is usually geared towards the needs of creditors and investors, the two primary groups. Another field of accounting is managerial accounting, which involves the development and interpretation of accounting information intended specifically to aid management in running the business (Meigs, 2000). Information produced helps managers in carrying out their responsibilities, which include planning, directing and motivating, and controlling (Garrison, 2000); it helps provide data necessary for developing strategies and managing the company’s operations. Managerial accounting makes use of means such as cost-volume-profit analysis, financial statement analysis and capital budgeting, to name a few, to produce such information. Managerial accounting will provide the information needed by the management of Claire’s Antiques to decide what is the optimum antique production mix and whether to implement the Just In Time inventory management system; it will also help the company to reach its goal to grow the business to other regions, increase its profit margin and expand its product distribution centers. Included within managerial accounting is performance measurement. Performance measurement is the quantification of a companys or segments efficiency or effectiveness in conducting business operations for the accounting period (Answers. com, 2008). This involves establishing budgets and/or goals of a company, and comparing the actual turnout with that established by the management. The budget established must always be realigned with the company’s goals, in order for the information to be truly useful. Performance measurement would prove useful to Claire’s Antiques in deciding their strategy on how the company can achieve its above mentioned goals. Performance measurement draws the management’s attention to areas in which the company has performed poorly, giving them a chance to find a solution to such inefficiency; it also indicates which areas the company has been doing well in. These pieces of information, taken collectively, will help the company in deciding which actions it will take to bring itself closer to its goals. As the new accountant of Claire’s Antiques, one would be engaged in both managerial and financial accounting, which means that one would be providing and interpreting financial information for both internal and external users, respectively. As an accountant in private practice, one can be a financial forecaster, a cost accountant or an internal auditor. These roles fall under the above mentioned fields. However, accountants in general are not limited to these fields. They may have career opportunities in public accounting, government accounting and accounting education as well.

New Product Development (NPD) Process Theory

New Product Development (NPD) Process Theory According to the linear view, new product development (NPD) process begins with ideas, proceed with idea screening, concept development and testing, marketing strategy development, business analysis, product development and test marketing, ends when the product actually commercialization and creates wealth (Kotler and Armstrong, 2011). To bridge the theory into practice, we worked as a team to develop a new, branded product, and formulate the marketing strategy to find and meet the niche market requirement in the UK. As an important consumer sector of FMCGs, personal care products constitute a large part of the British market, but meanwhile the competition in this field is fierce, firms have to keep supplying new products to meet the rapidly changing needs of their customers (Trott, 2008). This report described both the NPD process theory and our practice of the theory from idea generation through to launch and roll out, and then analyzed the benefits and disadvantage of the process. New Product Development Process Idea Generation and Screening The purpose of the idea generation process and idea screening process are systematic search new ideas and then reduce the number of ideas to spot the good ones (Kotler and Armstrong, 2011). Ideas may come from many different sources, it contains internal sources such as traditional research and development department and employees, and external sources such as distributors and suppliers, competitors, and customers themselves (Ritter and Gemunden, 2003). After a large number of ideas were created via different sources, managers need to evaluate these ideas and look closely at the prospects in the marketplace. Although the difference of decision criteria may affect the screening of new ideas greatly (Carbomell et al., 2004; Hart et al., 2003), scholars propose a unified R-W-W framework to effectively identify potential problems and control risks. The R-W-W framework asks three fundamental questions about new ideas: Is the market and product real?, Can the product and our company win?, and Is the product worth doing? (Day, 2007), and the company should be able to answer all of them before further development the idea. Based on the idea generation and screening theory, at first our team analysis the feasibility of our new ideas and decide to choose the idea of Freshies deodorant wipe within existing company Unilever. Firstly, regular users of deodorant are a huge potential consumer group all over the world, and the deodorant market in the UK has a good momentum of growth. Secondly, existing deodorant wipes brands do not have a good balance between the price and quality of their production, and the main competitors of Unilever do not give more attention to this field, which means the competition of deodorant products are less than mainstream personal care products. Finally, Unilever is an established and reliable brand in personal care market and has great experience about relative products, thus Unilever would not face the challenge of convincing consumers that they are better than a traditional deodorant, which means the cost and risk of entering the market is lower. Concept Development and Testing After screening ideas, marketers need to embody the detail of ideas to state in meaningful consumer terms, develop the idea into alternative product concepts and determine the most attractive concept to customers (Kotler and Armstrong, 2011). The selected concept also needs to be tested with some target consumers before further development. This may include some preliminary market research to find the market need, niche, and attractiveness (Page, 1993). Through the preliminary market research, it would also reveal the most promising features of the new products and assess the purchase intent of customers (Trott, 2005). Because the brand identifies of Unilever was developed around  the concept of adding vitality to life, we have created a concept shortlist for building a brand which is cost effective, relevant for all markets, convenient or healthy. At first we share the concept with our paired group to get primary advices of our product, by this we determined that our concept is to build a new, biodegradable, portable deodorant wipe. Then we conducted a survey of some in-store deodorant brands and evaluate their sale status. Finally, we did a market research for deodorant sales at online platform such as Amazon and eBay. The result of our investigation shows that although deodorant belonging to an industry that is highly saturated, wipes can open up a whole new market that has not been penetrated to its full potential.  Therefore, our product may have strong consumer appeal if implemented properly. Marketing Strategy Development Consumer purchase behaviors are influenced strongly by cultural, social, personal, and psychological characteristics (Kotler and Armstrong, 2011). Thus marketers need to research the internal and external marketing environments before designing the initial marketing strategy for a new product. Moreover, marketers need to recognize that they cannot attract all buyers in the marketplace, thus they must divide the market into smaller segments and offer different strategies to the separate market. After that, marketers need to evaluate and select some suitable segments to build their market targeting. The final two pivotal stages concern about how to offer superior values for the target customers and make a differentiation with competitors. According to the level of customer demand, there are four levels of new product: the core product, the expected product, the augmented product and the potential product (Levitt, 1986). Based on the different demand level, an appropriate product positi oning strategy can make the difference between success and failure (Trott, 2005). Product positioning requires marketers to arrange a clear, distinctive and desirable positioning in the minds of target consumers (Kotler and Armstrong, 2011). Specifically, Wind (1982) offers six bases that related to how target customers make choices in position product fields: product feature, benefits, use occasion, user category, against another product or by dissociation from all the other products. To determine the best concept for our Freshies deodorant wipes, we at first use PESTLE analysis, Porters Five Forces analysis and SWOT analysis to evaluate the marketing environment. The result shows that Freshies can be mass produced as an innovative product. It has high potential for the industry and suits for the image of building a conscious society in the UK. Based on the behavioral and demographic factors, we defined that our market segmentation as 18-34 age group and users of mass deodorant. Our target market is on-the-go young adults who live busy lifestyles. Our differentiation is portable than other roll-on deodorant, thus customers can use it when they do not want to take their handbag, such as participate in sports or go to a party after work. Our market position is to offer freshness anytime and anywhere. Initial Business Analysis: Year 1 Projections According to the theory of Kotler and Armstrong, business analysis involves the sales, costs and profit projections for a new product. It can help marketers estimate the expected costs and profits within each stage and analyse whether the new product has financial attractiveness and satisfy the objective of the company. Marketers need to make a marketing strategy statement outlines the planned price, distribution, and marketing budget for the first year (2011). Based on the theory of Kotler and Armstrong, we designed a one year projection for our Freshies deodorant. According to the data of Office for National Statistics (2012), the population of 18-34 age people in UK was approximately 14 million. We set the product price as  £2.00 for 10-pack, and assume that the forecast market penetration rate would be 5%. Afterwards the purchase frequency would be 12 times per annum. Therefore, the net sales would reach to  £16.8 million in year 1, and the brand profitability would be about  £ 0.87 million in year 1. For more details, see our sales forecast from in the appendix. Product Development When the new product finishes the business test, it moves into product development. Booz, Allen and Hamilton (1982) identify the commonly accepted categories of NPDs: new-to-the-world products; new product lines; additions to existing lines; improvements and revisions to existing products and repositioning products. The purpose of product development is to develop the product concept into a physical product to insure that new concepts can be transformed into a workable market offering (Kotler and Armstrong, 2011). The product development process requires much greater integration of different departments (Trott, 2005). For instance, the RD department provides ideas, the engineering department will then take the ideas and develops possible prototypes; the manufacturing department will seek possible ways to produce a feasible product capable of mass manufacture; the marketing department will then be brought in to plan and conduct the launch. In light of Unilever already had the product line of deodorants and wipes, we pay more attention to developing the product strategy for our marketing plan. At first we determined that our product must follow the unique selling proposition of on-the-go, convenient and wipes on freshness, and then we designed our packing strategy to boxed, individually wrapped and pack of 5, 10 and 25 to fit the proposition. Finally, we invited our paired team to simulate our actual customers to collect the preliminary feedbacks of our product. Commercialisation The final step of NPD process is commercialisation the product into the market. Commercialization refers to the development of the product concept, its successful launch, and interaction with potential buyers (Jolly, 1997; Pellikka and Virtanen 2009). Successful commercialisation is associated with growth market share and improved performance in new markets (Cooper and Kleinschmidt, 2007). It requires marketer to accurately grasp the entry timing and scale (Trott, 2005). In addition, commercialising a new product contains a number of new activities, such as build price, place and promotion strategy (Aarikka-Stenroos and Sandberg, 2012) Our place strategy will start from selective large cities in the UK. We plan to make Freshies available to purchase in large retail stores such as Boots, Superdrug, Waitrose, Topshop and River Island in most major cities in the UK. The set price is  £2 for 10-pack. The promotion methods we plan to use include a mix of public relations such as consumer led press and celeb endorsements, advertising such as 30 second ads on television channels or outdoor and press- Cosmo/GQ, social media marketing such as on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and sales promotions such as discounts and coupons. Three Year Business Plan The importance of a successful marketing objectives not only knowing their customers, but also ensure the effective implementation of their marketing efforts (Hamm, 2007). The three year marketing strategy statement describes the planned long-run sales, profit goals and market shares. These are brief summarizing of our goals: Build net sales to 12 million by Year 3 Build consumer penetration to 7% by Year 3 Build frequency of purchase to 16x per year by Year 3 Build market share to 5% by Year 3 To achieve this, brand profitability need to be improved, thus although the costs of marketing research will be reduced after the first year, total marketing spend will be raised in the second and third years. In order to increase profits, we planned to maintain the product price but increase the average purchase frequency of customers from 12 times in year 1 to 16 times in the year 3. For more details, see our sales forecast from in the appendix. Critiques The simple linear model of NPD is ingrained in the minds of many people. The model shows the formation and development of an idea prior to its taking any physical form. In most industries it is from this point onwards that costs will rise significantly (Trott, 2005). The subsequent stages involve adding to the concept as those involved with the development (manufacturing engineers, product designers and marketers) begin to make decisions regarding how best to manufacture the product, what materials to use, possible designs and the potential markets evaluations. The NPD process model can reduce the risk associated with new product introduction and to increase the possibility of commercial success through implementation of a step-wise procedure (Crawford, 1997). It comprehensively analysis the key activities involved in the process, from idea to commercialization of the product. Firstly, ideas and prototypes are tested to ensure that the new product will meet target market needs and wa nts. Secondly, there is a test launch during the test marketing stage. It not only saves time and resources of the full market launch, but also helps managers decide to stop or go before large investing. Finally, the commercialization stage involves careful planning to avoid the uncontrolled influencing factors. However, NPD process has changed significantly over the past 30 years (Griffin, 1997). All those actually involved with the development of new products dismiss such simple linear models as not being a true representation of reality. For example, more recent research suggests that the process needs to be viewed as a simultaneous and concurrent process with cross-functional interaction (Hart, 1993), and Olson et al. (1995) demonstrated that cross-functional teams helped shorten the development of times of truly innovative products. Another disadvantage is that the model just focuses on certain key activities, but overlook the activities such as negotiate with retailers, set up customer service department. Many new brands fail not because the quality of their products, but the reason is the parties cannot negotiate well with each other (Davies, 1990) or poor customer service (Chablo, 2000). Reference Aarikka-Stenroos, L., and Sandberg, B. (2012). From new-product development to commercialization through networks.  Journal of Business Research,  65(2), pp. 198-206. Booz, Allen and Hamilton (1982) New Product Management for the 1980s, New York: Booz, Allen and Hamilton. Brierley, S. (2002).  The advertising handbook. London: Routledge. Carbomell, P., Escudero, A.I.R. and Aleman, J.L.M. (2004), Technology newness and impact of go/no-go criteria on new product success, Marketing Letters, 15(1), pp. 81-97. Chablo, E. (2000). The importance of marketing data intelligence in delivering successful CRM.  DM Review,  3(1), pp. 25-31. Cooper, R.G. and Kleinschmidt, E.J. (2007) Winning business in product development: the critical success factors. Research and Technology Management, 50(3), pp. 52-66. Crawford, M.C. (1977). Marketing Research and the New Product Failure Rate, Journal of Marketing, 41(2). pp. 51-61. Day, G. S. (2007). Is it real? Can we win? Is it worth doing? Managing risk and reward in an innovation portfolio.  Harvard business review,  85(12), pp. 110-120. Davies, G. (1990). Marketing to retailers: a battle for distribution?.  Long Range Planning,  23(6), pp. 101-108. Griffin, A. (1997). PDMA research on new product development practices: updating trends and benchmarking best practices.  Journal of product innovation management,  14(6), pp. 429-458. Hamm, S. (2007). Children of the Web; How the Second-Generation Internet Is Spawning a Global Youth Culture and What Business Can Do to Cash In. Business Week,  2(1), pp. 50-57 Hart, S. (1993). Dimensions of success in new product development: an exploratory investigation. Journal of Marketing Management, 9(9), pp. 23-41. Hart, S., Hultink, E.J., Tzokas, N. and Commnadeur, H.R. (2003), Industrial companiesevaluation criteria in new product development gates, Journal of Product Innovation Management, 20(1), pp. 22-36. Jolly VK. (1997). Commercializing new technologies: Getting form mind to market. Boston: Harvard Business Press Kotler and Armstrong, G. (2011). Principles of marketing, 14th edition, New Jersey: Pearson Education. Levitt, T. (1986) The Marketing Imagination, New York: The Free Press. Mu, J. and Di Benedetto, C. (2011). Strategic orientations and new product commercialization: mediator, moderator, and interplay,  RD Management, 41(4), pp. 337-359 Pellikka, J. and Virtanen, M. (2009). Problems of commercialization in small technology-based à ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ rms. International Journal Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management 9(1), pp. 267-84. Page, A. L. (1993). Assessing new product development practices and performance: establishing crucial norms.  Journal of Product Innovation Management,  10(4), pp. 273-290. Population. (2012) Office for National Statistics, [Online] Available at: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/taxonomy/index.html?nscl=Population [Accessed 20 January 2013] Ritter, T. and Gemà ¼nden, HG. (2003). Network competence: its impact on innovation success and its antecedents. Journal of Business Research 56(1), pp.745-755. Trott, P. (2008).  Innovation management and new product development. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Wind, Y. (1982) Product Policy, Reading: Addison-Wesley.

The Borderlands: 1880 - 1940 :: American America History

The Borderlands: 1880 - 1940 The time of change in the region called the "borderlands" occurred during the period between 1880 and 1940. The region became urbanized and ended its years of isolation from the rest of the world. In the past the region's economy was based on ranching and farming. As the region became more urbanized the economy changed. The economy did not change equally between the United States and Mexico, the United States' side of the border boomed while Mexico's side did not. The cities that did prosper in region were based on the actions of the United States. Actions that affected the cities in Mexico were Prohibition and the Great depression. Events in the United States were not the only economic factor to effect the region. The Mexican Revolution had great social and economic influence to the region. On November 10 1910, the Mexican Revolution began and did not end until President Diaz was overthrown. The United States and its border towns were heavily involved in the conflict. The fighting was mainly in the north and they need supplies. The majority of the weapons and supplies for the Revolution was brought in the United States. The border cities in the United States became the chief suppliers of guns to the Revolution. This form trade was illegal and mainly done on the Black Market. The legal trade that existed before the Revolution disappeared with the outbreak of war. Mexico had closed the border during the conflict to prevent the supply of arms. The United States had also tried to stop the flow of arms but not successful. Eventually the United States had sent troops to the region when the fighting spilled over the border. The troops stayed in the region after the Mexican Revolution and were an economic boom to the region. The United States at the turn of the century was under going a major social movement. The United States was trying to change its society to a more moral country. The groups involved in the movement consisted of many groups from around the United States. Some of the most notable groups involved in the social reform movement were the churches in the country. They targeted many aspects of life of the normal Americans. The social reforms targeted social ills such as adultery, crime, and lastly, drinking. These groups had large number of followers, and had considerable height in government.

Female characters: Coursework Essay

For this coursework I am going to be explaining how writers in my chosen stories have presented their female characters. I will be investigating whether or not the females fit their typical stereotype in the nineteenth Century of being very submissive and gullible. I will also look at what sort of way they fit that stereotype within everyday life or on a long term basis. To have a range in this investigation I will concentrate on the contradicting stereotype of being independent and confident as a women not fitting in with how a typical nineteenth century woman would expect to act. Certain consequences of not acting as the stereotype are proven to not necessarily make that particular woman worse off as we see in the short stories I am looking at. Through stories I have read containing characters based on the nineteenth century women one of the ideas that was most obvious to me was that of the characters being typical nineteenth century woman at the start of the short story and then turning out to be a lot stronger then we first perceived. The first character I am going to mention which fits into this idea is Dorothea from the short story ‘The Unexpected’ by Kate Chopin. Chopin shows Dorothea to be a loving, doting wife, impatient towards her husband arriving home. She is shown to be a perfect fit for her stereotype. She is dependant on her husband and excited and desperate for his arrival home. Chopin describes it as ‘torture’ for Dorothea as she waits for her husband. This is very extreme language for the author to use to demonstrate just how Dorothea is feeling. Dorothea is commented to having ‘reached the limit of her endurance’; this suggests why the reader feels she is very reliant on her beloved as it seems she cannot cope without him. All of the above qualities I have seen in Dorothea fit into being typical of the nineteenth century. Although this is how we first see this of her she turns out to be the opposite of this stereotype upon arrival of her husband. Dorothea is perceived as being independent, powerful and confident as she realises her husband is not what he used to be before he became ill. Now, Dorothea has to make the decision of whether she still wants to be with her beloved. She chooses to leave him unexpectedly and turns out to not be at all like her stereotype describes her. At the very end of the short story Dorothea says; ‘Never! Not for all his thousands! Never, never! Not for millions!’ This shows she wants more in her life then being at her husband’s bedside while he wastes away. Dorothea wants someone she can truly love and have feelings for. It shows she is going to be independent rather then like her stereotype. She is not shallow and staying with him just for his money. Chopin’s use of repetition in the above quote shows that she wants the reader to see how needy Dorothea is for a fulfilled life and not staying with her beloved when he is as frail as he is and only for his possessions. Another short story which fits into the idea of fitting the stereotype then contradicting it is ‘Tony Kytes the Arch-Deceiver’ by Thomas Hardy. There are two characters, in my opinion that fit this idea from this short story; Unity Sallet and Hannah Jolliver. Firstly I think Hannah Jolliver fits into this idea I have came up with of fitting the stereotype then contradicting it because of her role in the short story ‘Tony Kytes the Arch-Deceiver’. Hannah is very flirtatious with Tony even though she knows that she is out of bounds as he is engaged to another woman. She is disloyal to her own sex. She toys with his emotions and is very forward about their relationship and is presented as being very independent but shows her stereotype when she is very easily pleased as Tony says; ‘I haven’t quite promised her, and I think I can get out of it, and ask you that question you speak of.’ With regards to the wedding proposal to Milly. All this is being said when all three women Tony is playing against each to her are in the wagon with each other but unaware of it. She is shown to be very gullible at the start of the story when being told of how pretty she is by Tony, this is a feature of the stereotype which we see in all the characters mentioned in this section of my coursework. Hannah is almost won over completely by Tony’s charm but then something goes wrong. The wagon crashes due to Hannah being left by herself at the reins. Tony’s secret is out, all three women find each other to be hidden in the carriage and Hannah hurts herself when she falls out. Hannah is put across to be the complete opposite to her stereotype for now at the end of the short story. Her father arrives on the scene of the accident just as Tony says; ‘I’ve asked Hannah to be mine, and she is willing, and we are going to put up the banns next-‘ But was interrupted by Hannah’s father as Hannah was hurt; ‘My daughter is not willing, sir!’ And so Tony tries to save his and Hannah’s future, failing miserably. This is where Hannah feels the need to intervene, ‘I have spirit, and I do refuse him!’ Hannah is shown to be very much the opposite of her stereotype as we saw Dorothea do when things turned out to be different towards the end of her short story. Hannah is confident and strong in her decision of rejecting Tony’s proposal. We see that Hannah is a little bit more of her stereotype then we perceive her to be following what has just happened in the story. We are made to think that this decision was only reached because of the fact that her father was there as Hannah looks back once she is leaving with her father did she really mean it? I think that she would possibly say yes was Tony to ask her again at a later date and show she isn’t as different as she is put across to be at the end of the short story. Lastly I feel Unity fits into this idea as when we first meet her Hardy represents to us as being very desperate for attention from Tony through questions about her appearance; ‘And – can you say I’m not pretty Tony? Now look at me!’ Hardy backs up this quote with a statement from Unity which shows that she is quite weak because she has to ask the question and answer it to show Tony the answer she is looking for. ‘Prettier than she?’ This further proves how needy Unity is for Tony’s wise words and how gullible she is towards them. In my opinion Tony should not be saying such things to someone when he is supposed to be engaged to Milly Richards. This makes me thinks that he is able to realise that whoever he promises things will believe him because that is what women were expected to be like in the nineteenth century. As this question is put past Tony, Milly is in fact seen ahead while Unity is in Tony’s carriage. To prove how much more of the typical stereotype Unity is Tony asks her to ‘lie down in the back part of the wagon’ to hide from his future wife and Unity agrees. This is further proof that she is very much like her stereotype. Now is where the second part of my idea comes with regards to Unity. Towards the end of this short story Unity starts to stand up for herself. Tony asks for her hand in marriage AFTER he has already asked for Hannah’s. ‘Take her leavings? Not I! I’d scorn it!’ And she walks away. This is the opposite of what Unity’s stereotype is. She is shown to be strong and confident in the decision. Hardy shows Unity to stand up for her sex and not shame herself as being second choice, which in turn, leaves it down to Milly as the final choice for Tony†¦ A second idea worth of exploration from reading the range of short stories I was given is that of the characters totally fitting their stereotype of a nineteenth century women. The main character I feel fits into this idea is Sophy out of the story ‘The Son’s Veto’ by Thomas Hardy. Like the stereotype Sophy is weak and is described as a ‘poor thing’ within the opening of this short story. We also see just how weak Sophy is through her relationship with her son, Randolph. Her son is her biggest critic. We see this where he corrects Sophy’s grammar; ‘Has, dear mother – not have!’ This is showing that Randolph is using his education to take advantage of his mother disadvantages. Randolph is always correcting his mother and is ashamed of her as she is not as well educated as she should be; this is however, due to her background. Randolph is very impolite to Sophy even though she is his mother; ‘Surely you know that by this time.’ He is the child in this relationship but seemed to dominate Sophy showing how much more like her stereotype she is, especially when she does nothing about it. She realises her role in Randolph’s life and all men; she is considered to be beneath them and not worth their company. Randolph will not associate with those who are of a lower class then him, this includes Sophy. Hardy perceives Sophy as a fragile character by not letting her stand up for herself. When Sophy tells Mr Twycott she will not be working for him anymore so she can marry Sam, her reply to Mr Twycott when he asks if she wants to marry Sam is; ‘Not much but it would be a home for me.’ This shows she does not really care who she ends up with as long as she has a roof over her head. Another useful way that Hardy presents Sophy as being her typical stereotype is when she takes drastic action by marrying Mr Twycott instead of her beloved Sam after a fight with Sam. She marries Mr Twycott more for respect then love which ‘almost amounted to veneration’. Mr Twycott knows he is marrying beneath him and will lose all the respect he has gained as said in the narrative part of the story; ‘Mr Twycott knew perfectly well that he had committed social suicide by this step’. He moves to London because of the fact he feels Sophy is beneath him. Sophy could have refuses Mr Twycott’s marriage proposal but has no power or confidence in herself to do this as she is scared of the consequences if she does not do as she is told by the males in her life. Hardy puts Sophy across as being the perfect stereotype for typical nineteenth century through this action; domination by males. The second character that I feel fits into this stereotype for being totally stereotype is Milly Richards again from the short story ‘Tony Kytes the Arch-Deceiver’ by Thomas Hardy. Milly is seen to be the perfect stereotype for the nineteenth century woman. She has the husband ready for her and is very devoted to him and is presented as being very dominated by him and his needs. She is submissive to Tony and gullible to what he says. Her behaviour around him is very much like what women in the nineteenth century were expected to be like and did what was expected of them. As the short story develops we see that Milly is of a very naà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ve nature as she is asked to hide from one of the other women in the story for the sake of ‘keeping the peace’ between that particular woman and Tony. Fitting the stereotype Milly agrees to do as she has been told by Tony, ‘I don’t mind, to oblige you, Tony’ Milly does not seem to mind, in my opinion, that Tony seems ashamed to be seen with her. Milly didn’t ‘care much about doing it’ and crouches down in the wagon unaware that Unity is also hidden amongst the wagon at the other end. Further into the story Milly realises that Unity is in the wagon and creeps up closer to her. And even though Tony was in the wrong of having three women aboard his wagon Milly is very defensive of him; ‘Mind what you are saying!’ This proves she is even more like her stereotype due to her protecting the male and not thinking he could do anything to harm her and thinking he is perfect. She is extremely protective of Tony and does not think that he would do such things to her resulting in her being disloyal to her own sex for not believing what Unity is saying to her. Toward the end of the story Milly is found amongst the wagon by the other two women. Tony chooses the other two women over Milly and so chooses Milly last to wed him. This is because he knows she is the typical stereotypical woman for the nineteenth century otherwise he would not have wasted his breath. Milly being the perfect stereotype says; ‘If you like, Tony. You didn’t really mean what you said to them?’ And with a quick ‘No’ from Tony things were settled and Milly believed what he had told her. Tony is actually indeed disappointed he is left with his final choice as it is not seen as a challenge to win over Milly because she is the typical stereotype. For my third and final idea in this piece of coursework I will comment on contradicting stereotypes. The stereotypes that I have chosen that are perfect for this category are out of the short stories ‘Births. Mrs Meek, of a son’ and ‘The Woman’s Rose’. Firstly I will mention the character of ‘The girl’ in the story ‘The Woman’s Rose’. The basis of the story is a rose that ‘the girl’ has and is very important to her. This rose is not mentioned very much at all in the opening of the short story but closer to the end it is clear that it is important. At the start of this story ‘the girl’ is the only woman in the village and so has her choice of men, then ‘the narrator’ comes along. I feel that ‘the girl’ is contradicting of her stereotype for the typical nineteenth century woman due to the impact she has on men in the story. Instead of being reliant on men and thinking about men all the time she is more interested in the only other woman in this story and she has much more influence on the men in this short story then they will ever have on her. The men in this story worshipped ‘the girl’ like a queen as there was no other women to worship and all the men are trying to win her over and stand out so she will ‘choose them’. ‘The girl’ had power; she was the centre of attention and stood out, what women in the nineteenth century were not expected to do. Schreiner presents ‘the girl’ as being very much what women would loved to have been like and had the power to choose their choice of men rather then having to do the running themselves. At the end of the short story ‘the girl’ goes up to ‘the narrator’ in a bid to become her friend although she has received mixed messages of whether or not to speak to her or not. ‘The girl’ gave her one of the things that was most precious to her; the rose. ‘The girl’ is not the stereotype of what a typical nineteenth century woman should be. She concentrated more on her relationship with ‘the narrator’ then she did worrying about what typical women did back in those days; getting a husband and producing children for the male in their life. ‘The girl’ wanted more for herself then that and did not depend on males but influenced them. In this short story it was more of a role reversal. I am also going to mention the only other woman that is in the short story ‘The Woman’s Rose’. She is known as ‘The narrator’. The rose in this short story is straight away put across to be very important to ‘the narrator’ in the opening paragraph which ends; ‘but no one has my rose.’ To show its importance to her. The story then goes on to explain why it is of such treasure to ‘the narrator’. When ‘the narrator’ came into the small village of which ‘the girl’ used to be the only one attention was made of ‘the narrator’ took this away from her. She started t be the centre of attention towards men and they worshipped her instead. She influenced men. This was not necessarily because she was prettier then ‘the girl’ but because she was something new for the men in the village to concentrate on. This is something that she is not aware of but has the fear that it is because she is new and not because they are truly interested in her. She is fresh meat. This made her feelings towards men feelings of hatred and regret for going to the village. ‘The narrator’ liked the power she received from coming to the village but did not have a clue what to do with it and thinks she is hated by the one thing she does not want to be hated by in the story; ‘the girl’. She wants a friendship with ‘the girl’ but does not know how to go about it as she thinks she is hated and has plenty men to keep her occupied if not distracted from thinking about it. ‘The narrator’ never looked at the girl and never had any association with ‘the girl’ as she believed this was the better way to be if she was hated. Schreiner makes ‘the narrator’ defend ‘the girl’ if she is being spoke of amongst the village to show that she does care about what is said and does want to be her friend. For doing this it pays off towards the end of the short story when the white rose is obtained as an act of friendship by ‘the girl’. ‘The narrator’ is shown to be the complete opposite of her stereotype in this short story and not at all like she is expected to be. She is shown to have other worries than that of the typical worries for women in that time normally. For the other two characters I will comment on in this idea I turn my attention towards a short story named ‘Births. Mrs Meek, of a son’. The two characters that I am going to mention are Mrs Progit and Mrs Bigby. Firstly I will talk about how I think Mrs Bigby is contradicting towards her stereotype. Near the beginning of the story Mrs Bigby is said to be able to ‘storm a town, single-handed’ and that she could ‘terrify the stoutest heart’. Mrs Bigby is almost definitely not at all like her stereotype. She is a ‘remarkable woman’. Her son-in-law is scared of her as she is a scary woman. Other women in her time were not forward enough to be scary as such and did not have the confidence to scare males in their lives. This is the complete opposite of what we saw in ‘The Son’s Veto’ and the character of Sophy. She was not so much scared of her son but the roles were in the correct places for the nineteenth century. The opposite is what we see in the relationship between Mrs Bigby and her son-in-law. Most women in the nineteenth century don’t have much of an education and Mrs Bigby boasts of this knowledge. She is the total opposite of what is expected of women in her time. She is the dominate one in the relationship between her and Mr Meek. She won’t let him see his own son and as a result of this Mr Meek is angry and frustrated; he feels shoved aside. The male in this story feels left out in the cold. With emotions running wild Mr Meek thinks his son is being killed. Mr Meek shows the qualities of a nineteenth century woman instead of Mrs Meek as is expected as she is the woman in this short story. She is possibly the best example of the contradicting stereotype along with the next character I am going to talk about; Mrs Progit. Mrs Progit is a character of copious figure which gets in the way a lot and an obstruction to other people. She completely contradicts her stereotype by being very confident in her behaviour and brings desolation and devastation into other people lives in the short story. She has taken over the house. Mrs Progit won’t let Mr Meek see his son as well as Mrs Bigby. She wants to keep the child to herself and raised a storm about the subject. She has power and alienates Maria Jane’s affections towards Mr Meek with the power she has. She pushes Mr Meek about which is not what her stereotype would do. She is supposed to be quiet and dominated by males but instead there has been a role reversal regarding Mrs Progit. She is completely confident in her own nature and does not let herself get pushed around by the male but instead gives them a taste of their own medicine. This is what women in the nineteenth century did not have the power and confidence to do because they were afraid of the consequences. In conclusion of this piece of coursework I feel I have successfully explored how different writers have presented female characters in their short stories to show different ways in which women could act in the nineteenth century and the results how they act towards other characters in the stories. I read a range of different stories that I felt would get all the different views across and only included those stories that I thought had solid evidence of different ways in which women felt they had to be like or what they wanted to be like. I think I have investigated how the writers create their characters and form the reader’s opinions of those particular characters using structure and clever writing techniques.

A Leap Further By Being Stiff Essay

The concept of being inflexible or being stiff in making decisions has been conceivably one of the finest characteristic which has served the protagonists in the famous stories made in Asian literature.   Pak Hun in The Descendants of Cain, the student in Ya Dafu’s Sinking and Junshi in Creation, portray a character which in one point or another gives light to what appears to be sturdy sense of personality in the arena of decision making and in the context of survival and collaboration with the other characters in the story.   Perhaps that certain point of personality is nevertheless one of the viable factors why the aforementioned roles portrayed has been greatly regarded by the viewing audience, and in a larger concept, patronized as distinctive and distinguishing for that instance (Anderson). Pak Hun in Hwang Sun-won’s Descendants of Cain   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The main character of the story is Pak Hun, which is characterized as a passive person with eternally hesitant and ineffectual finesse.   Even though he is placed in a pedestal of social and political turmoil over the issue of survival and the perception of â€Å"not acting is not surviving,† the author gave him a powerful disposition in the love story that he has shared with the married lover, Ojaknyo.   His nostalgic yet inexorable presupposition on how to help the people in his village without compromising his fists just to save the love he has painstakingly pampered has caused him well in leading on to his venture in life and manhood. Unlike the other heroes in most stories, Pak Hun is deprived to act in his own will, driven by the horrors of reality and of what seemed to be his inherited fate in social class and on his manner in taking on the course of life.   Apparently, this so-called stated cowardice has served him the best of his effort, his compassion for others has saved him from the infamous destiny that he has forsaken.   Being sympathetic and sensitive has been a source of syntax towards emotion and a stronger drive for the Hamlet-like character to lead more than what he might further get in return of the â€Å"inflexibility† not to move mountains but to live a life worth living (Choe). The Student in Ya Dafu’s Sinking   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The connotation of â€Å"national allegory† in Yu Dafu’s Sinking offers an articulate and interwoven portrayal as represented by the student in the story (Denton).   Consequently, several critics portrayed the character as that which depicts the political situation of China as well as with the state of â€Å"powerlessness† that it is experiencing—gradually that of a modern mind, alienated from the faà §ade of the society, turned in on itself, ultimately divided and desolate for liberalism—psychologically apart from the social milieu. Sexual liberalism was rarely stated in the story, hence, in the general context in deciphering the meaning of the whole gist of the story, it would be seen that the student is after the â€Å"affection† of love and sexual activity—which on the more complex comprehension determines the fatal state of crisis of China in that certain point of time.   The protagonist’s patience and admiration to the flow of what seemed to be â€Å"natural way of life† has saved him from being off the scene of explicit exposure to the red light society which he later finds out to be a beneficial thing within the grasp of the May Fourth dilemma. Those who were behind the bars of desperation have been emotionally convicted in living in agony’s sagacity and apparently making them a part of the unidentified sinking icons in their community.   All of which lead to a single idea that the protagonist himself his leading a social transformation through the light of traditionalism.   Nevertheless, it showed that the point of â€Å"sinking† was happening in a nationalistic schema which in the vortex of the south and traditional China’s scenario, it may be taken to assumption that a moral community has longed for a distant sense of transformation which is clouded by a strike of fantasy and illusion. Junshi in Mao Dun’s Creation   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Creaation, published in the year 1928 commences the story with Junshi, an intellectual man experiencing a crisis in life and a flashback of emphasis on failed projects which on the brighter side has made the protagonist gain much by choosing to stick on the result of what has been defined as lacking of revolutionary consciousness.   The ostensibly optimist portrayal with regard to women’s emancipation has been symbolized through Junshi’s stubborn yet sanguine personality which fueled his drive to overcome pessimism (Anderson).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The inflexible and confining ideals that has bewildered Junshi was basically a manifestation on his dream and hope, perceivably, to transform his wife, Xianxian through the advent of providing her with the amenities and educational entities which are aimed to mold her into a fashionable and politically and culturally inclined woman. Junshi then later finds out that his so-called creation of his wife has not given him the ample point of expectation that he wished to have, rather making him the person who is to catch up rather than one to have molded his wife in return.   The very fact that it has weakened his wife’s dependence on him and made her stronger in an astonishing effect—unlike the other characters in the aforementioned stories, inflexibility in Junshi’s case has been unsuccessful and has even made him see himself as a pitiful and apathetic person rather than that which ruled their marriage. Works Cited Anderson, Marston. â€Å"Beyond Realism: The Eruption of the Crowd.† Mao Dun, Zhang Tianyi, and the Social Impediments to Realism: The Regents of the University of California, 1990. Choe, Wolhee. â€Å"The Descendants of Cain.† Pacific Affairs 73.2 (2000): 2. Denton, Kirk A. â€Å"The Distant Shore: Nationalism in Yu Dafu’s â€Å"Sinking†.† Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR) 14 (1992): 107-23.