Saturday, January 25, 2020

Symbolism in Plays: Comparison of Dorfman and DÏ‹rrenmatt

Symbolism in Plays: Comparison of Dorfman and DÏ‹rrenmatt The usage of allegorical references and symbolism is essential when delivering the playwrights intended messages to the audience. The author of Death and the Maiden, Ariel Dorfman, and the author of The Visit, Friedrich DÏ‹rrenmatt, both convey messages which regard human society through the use of symbols. By creating characters that represent social issues such as anti-religion, patriarchal values, and loss of ethics, both writers utilize the outcomes of characters to deliver their opinions. Furthermore, both plays emphasize social issues, elicit causes, and imply solutions to the issues addressed by utilizing allegorical references. In Death and the Maiden, Dorfman addresses the situation of his home country, Chile, while in The Visit, DÏ‹rrenmatt uses biblical allusions. Both plays, The Visit and Death and the Maiden make use of allegories to convey a message. DÏ‹rrenmatt uses symbols to construct a biblical allusion in The Visit and deliver his message; that greed holds the ability to decay moral values and that money has the power to assume personalities. The allusion is made up of Ill, the Christ figure, who must sacrifice himself for the betterment of Guellen, which is â€Å"rotting to death† (DÏ‹rrenmatt 12). The desperate nature of the town is obvious through the excitement caused by the arrival of Claire Zachanassian. Since her wealth is well-known, it immediately sheds hope upon Guellen that she will come to save the town from its poverty. Ironically, she does the exact opposite. Claire, the satanic figure, introduces temptation, which slowly diminishes the moral values the town is so much known to uphold. By offering the million dollars in return for Ills death, the power of greed is executed through the transformation of Guelle ns citizens. At first, the mayor states that he â€Å"reject[s] [Claires] offer† in â€Å"the name of humanity† and that he would rather live through poverty than have â€Å"blood on [his] hands† (39). The mayors tone is extremely certain, emphasizing to what extent his transformation really is. By the end of the play, the mayor has already fooled himself into thinking that by killing Ill it would be better for humanity. For the sacrifice of one, it would â€Å"save† the town. Temptation has led Guellen to believe that their decision to kill Ill was not derived through the money, but through the â€Å"matter of justice† (91). This moral decline portrays through the use of the biblical allusion, which DÏ‹rrenmatt creates for one specific purpose; to deliver a caveat towards greed. The paradox of greed, in this case, derives from Claire. In one aspect, she saves Guellen from poverty, hunger, and imminent destruction. Yet, she introduces greed and murder, which subsequently leads to the loss of ethics and gain of antireligious values. Indeed, she saves the town in one way, but destroys the town in another. In the play Death and the Maiden, Ariel Dorfman creates an allegory portraying the cruel government of Chile and the struggles to transition away from it into a new leadership. The characters of the play are symbols to portray these struggles to heal. Additionally, the personalities of these characters portray the necessities of people after such an event; such as justice, revenge, and acceptance. Although the old regime is out of order, the effects of the crimes against human rights are not so easily forgotten. After being brutally tortured and raped, Paulina Salas struggles in her life. She finds it easy to suppress her memories, but never finds a way to accept the past. Hence, Paulina is a symbol of revenge, which Dorfman creates to emphasize the struggle to heal. When Doctor Miranda, her alleged rapist, arrives to her house, she recognizes his voice, which â€Å"during all these years not an hour has passed that [she hasnt] heard it† (Dorfman 22), proving her inability to accept the past, and describing her personality as vengeful. Her ability to recall the Doctors voice from years in the past portrays the extent to which the memories of her past still affect her present. When the Doctor wakes up after spending the night, he sees Paulina, who is holding a gun and â€Å"[pointing] it playfully in his direction† (20). Knowing her thoughts, her intentions are made clear. She wants him to feel sorry and repent, yet claims it is not â€Å"vengeance† (34) which drives her. Through Paulina, Dorfman uses her inability to forget as an example of social issues which pertain to Chile. By portraying her as a woman who has been affected by events directly linked to a cruel government, he represents all women in Chiles reality, who have suffered through the old regime. Moreover, by making her personality vengeful, he directly implies that many women in Chile are also seeking closure through revenge. When Dorfman ends his play with mirrors dropping do wn, he implies that the plot directs towards the audience, and is suppose to catalyze self exploration amongst them. Dorfman also creates Gerardo Escobar as a lawyer who has been appointed to a commission that will examine human rights abuses during the past dictatorship. This career is ironic because of his wife; who has had her rights abused, but seeks justice not through her husband, but through revenge. Both of Escobars occupations, as a lawyer and a member of the commission, serve as support for the idea that he is a symbol of justice. Dorfman creates this dichotomy of roles to show the different way people deal with the struggle. The way Paulina does; through revenge, which is seeking justice with an evil intention, or the way Escobar does; through justice and acceptance. Escobar constantly states that these crimes were held â€Å"fifteen years ago† (36), and to â€Å"put him on trial† (34) instead of seek revenge the way Paulina does, proving that Escobar has accepted what has happened and holds no grudge. Although Paulina retorts that crimes had not been directly done towards him, indeed, they had. Escobar is directly affected because though he had not been abused, his wife had, giving him a link. Dorfman uses Escobar as a symbol to portray the way people should handle violations of human rights, with acceptance. To prove this method correct, Dorfman then uses Paulina as a symbol for revenge to show that if people cannot come to terms with the past, they will constantly seek revenge, never find peace, and consequently struggle to heal. Both authors, DÏ‹rrenmatt and Dorfman, utilize symbolism and allegories to deliver their own messages about their views on society. DÏ‹rrenmatt believes that if humanity succumbs to temptation, moral decline is unavoidable. He demonstrates the serious nature of this warning by implementing the idea into a biblical allusion. This allusion portrays that death and anti-religion follows greed. Dorfman similarly conveys a message through an allusion of his home country Chile. By portraying a womens struggle to overcome her cruel past and making her symbolize revenge, Dorfman demonstrates the flaws of such an approach. He shows that if revenge is what you seek, a person can never find closure, and that the only way one can obtain peace is through acceptance and mercy. Work Cited Dorfman, Ariel. Death and the Maiden. New York: Penguin Books, 1991. Durrenmatt, Friedrich. The Visit. Tans. Patrick Bowles. New York: Grove Press, 1956.

Friday, January 17, 2020

Classic Airlines Marketing Concepts

Classic Airlines Classic Airlines is facing many monumental challenges. The key word is monumental as immediate future decisions will determine the fate of Classic Airlines in terms of surviving in the airline industry, filing for bankruptcy, or bought out by the competition. Classic Airlines is at a fork in the road. As the airline industry shares the pain with rising costs, particularly in fuel and labor, Classic Airlines is struggling internally. They are bleeding in regard to customer retention, which is decreasing by approximately 20%.Classic has one of the highest labor costs per seat-mile as they pay top salaries to pilots and other employees, even while competitors are cutting in those professions. To counter any further financial crisis, the board of directors recently mandated a 15% across-the-board cost reduction over the next 18 months. The deepest wound to keep from hemorrhaging is the internal strife between Senior Management. The entire management group needs to work c ohesively and fast before the company flat lines.How will Classic Airlines find a way to survive these pressures? First and foremost, Senior Management at Classic Airlines needs to embrace the marketing concept. According to Kotler and Keller (2006), the marketing function needs to be seen as one of several equally important functions in a check-and-balance relationship (p. 16). As seen with Amanda Miller, CEO of Classic Airlines is described as, â€Å"Her pragmatic approach to operational excellence often leaves her little patience for â€Å"soft† business disciplines such as marketing. This does not sound good and to make matters worse, Catherine Simpson, who is CFO is described as, â€Å"Catherine is â€Å"driven by numbers,† and her practical philosophies about business are frequently in line with Amanda’s. † This says potential disaster in flashing lights. Luckily, Classic Airlines is showing some glimmers of hope with other department heads. Kevin Boyle, who is Chief Marketing Officer, believes that marketing is critical to the company’s ability to move forward profitably.Renee Epson, who is Senior Vice President of Customer Service, is described as, â€Å"As the top management’s view of customer service becomes more operations-based, Renee has frequently found herself battling for the customer. † John Hartman, Senior Vice President of Human Resources, believes frontline employees represent the organization’s face to the customer and are critical to customer service and marketing effectiveness. These three individuals sound like the bright, shiny stars of the company. The second strategy that would be helpful to Classic Airlines to boost additional revenue is a marketing concept called strategic alliance.Strategic alliance allows a company to form an alliance with domestic or multinational companies that complement or leverage their capabilities and resources to obtain greater sales impact at less cost (Kotler and Keller, p. 57,   2006). In the case of Classic Airlines, it would be in their best interest to form an alliance with the top Latin American airline as Kevin and Josef are trying to negotiate. It looks like Classic Airlines is already engaging in this strategy with their frequent flier program as a member can earn miles and take advantage of hotel stays or car rentals with partnering companies.With the Classic Airlines scenario, Kevin Boyle has notes from customer conversations. This is an example of collecting marketing research. According to Kotler and Keller (2007), marketing research is defined as the systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of data and findings relevant to a specific marketing situation facing the company (p. 42). In the case of Classic Airlines, the leaders of the company need to discover why the customers are unhappy and shopping elsewhere. Conclusion The vitality of Classic Airlines resides with the decisions and attitudes of Senior Management.Classic Airlines has talented, intelligent, decision makers that can pull the airline through the tough times. Profit maximization and shareholder wealth will come from executing sound marketing practices as discussed. If those goals can be achieved, Classic Airlines could rise to be an industry leader. References Kotler, P. , & Keller, K. (2007). A Framework for marketing management (3rd ed. ). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database. Kotler, P. , & Keller, K. (2006). Marketing management (12th ed. ). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database.

Thursday, January 9, 2020

Plastic Architecture - Building The Biodome

By definition a biodome is a large controlled internal environment in which plants and animals from much warmer or colder regions than the region of the biodome can be kept in the natural conditions of their own sustainable eco-systems. One example of a biodome would be the Eden Project in the United Kingdom which includes the largest biodome greenhouse in the world. There are three biodomes at the Eden Project: one with a tropical climate, one with a mediterranean, and one that is a local temperate biodome. Large biodomes are architectural wonders, while the designs have much in common and take from the geodesic domes patented by Buckminister Fuller in 1954, there have been more recent innovations in building materials that have made the enormous light-friendly roofs in biodomes and other architectural projects possible. The Eden Projects biodomes are constructed with tubular steel frames with hexagonal external cladding panels made from the thermoplastic ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) replacing the use of glass, too heavy a material to use. According to Interface Magazine,ETFE foil is essentially a plastic polymer related to Teflon and is created by taking the polymer resin and extruding it into a thin film. It is largely used as a replacement for glazing due to its high light transmission properties. Transparent windows are created either by inflating two or more layers of foil to form cushions or tensioning into a single skin membrane. Plastic Architecture Lehnert, an avid yachtsman and three-time winner of the Admirals Cup, was researching ETFE for use as a possible material for sails. For that purpose, ETFE was not successful, however Lehnert continued to research the material and developed ETFE-based building materials suitable for roof and cladding solutions. These cladding systems, based on plastic cushions filled with air, have since pushed the boundaries of architecture and allowed the creation of highly innovative structures such as the Eden Project or the Beijing National Aquatics Center in China. Vector Foiltec According to Vector Foiltecs history, Chemically, ETFE is constructed by substituting a fluorine atom in PTFE (Teflon) with an ethylene monomer. This retains some of PTFEs qualities such as its non-stick self cleaning properties, as in non-stick pans, whilst increasing its strength, and in particular, its resistance to tearing. Vector Foiltec invented drop bar welding, and used ETFE to construct a small cable structure, originally made from FEP, which had failed due to the low tear resistance of the material. ETFE provided the perfect substitute, and the Texlon ® cladding system was born. Vector Foiltecs first project was for a zoo. The zoo looked into the possibility to implement a new concept whereby visitors would pass through the zoos in small confined pathways while the animals would be, according to Stefan Lehnert, almost living in broad areasâ€Å"†¦almost in freedom.† The zoo, the Burger ´s Zoo in Arnheim, hence also looked for transparent roofs, which were to cover a large area and at the same time would allow the passage of UV rays. The Burger ´s zoo project eventually became the very first project of the firm in 1982. Stefan Lehnert has been nominated for a 2012 European Inventor Award for his work with ETFE. He has also been called the inventor of the biodome.

Wednesday, January 1, 2020

The Effect of Advertisement on Consumer Behaviour

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY Advertisement plays a vital role in the marketing of products as it provides a buying power for various product operations by affecting the behavior of consumers. Different media have been used for advertising products such as news papers, magazines and radio. Television however occupies an important place of products due to its extensive spread worldwide. In addition, television plays an important role on changing the consumer behavior and also provides new patterns for consumption. The present context of business organization is situated in increasingly complex, uncertain, and dynamic business environments with multiple realities based on†¦show more content†¦For many organizations, sales estimate is the starting point in budgeting or profit planning. It is so because it must be determined, in most cases, before production units could be arrived at while production units will in turn affect material purchases. However, taking decision on sales is the most difficult tasks facing many business executives. This is because it is difficult to predict, estimate or determine with accuracy, potential customers’ demands as they are uncontrollable factors external to an organization. Considering, therefore, the importance of sales on business survival and the connection between customers and sales, it is expedient for organizations to engage in programmes that can influence consumers’ decision to purchase its products. This is where advertisi ng is relevant. Advertising is a subset of promotion mix which is one of the 4ps in the marketing mix i.e. product, price, place and promotion. As a promotional strategy, advertising serve as a major tool in creating product awareness and condition the mind of a potential consumer to take eventual purchase decision. 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