The Life and Work of the Ancient Greek Poet, Homer

Homer was the most important and earliest of the Greek and Roman writers. Greeks and Romans didnt count themselves educated unless they knew his poems. His influence was felt not only on literature but on ethics and morality via lessons from his masterpieces. He is the first source to look for information on Greek myth and religion. Yet, despite his prominence, we have no firm evidence that he ever lived. Homer and Hesiod have ascribed to the gods all things that are a shame and a disgrace among mortals, stealing and adulteries and deceiving on one another.—Xenophanes (a Pre-Socratic philosopher) The Life of the Blind Bard Because Homer performed and sang he is called a bard. He is thought to have been blind, and so is known as the blind bard, just as Shakespeare, calling on the same tradition, is known as the bard of Avon. The name Homer, which is an unusual one for the time, is thought to mean either blind or captive. If blind, it may have to do more with the portrayal of the Odyssean blind bard called Phemios than the poems composer. Homers Birthplaces and Date There are multiple cities in the ancient Greek world that lay the prestigious claim of being the birthplace of Homer. Smyrna is one of the most popular, but Chios, Cyme, Ios, Argos, and Athens are all in the running. The Aeolian cities of Asia Minor are most popular; outliers include Ithaca and Salamis. Plutarch provides a choice of Salamis, Cyme, Ios, Colophon, Thessaly, Smyrna, Thebes, Chios, Argos, and Athens, according to a table showing ancient authors who provided biographical information on Homer, in Lives of Homer (Continued), by T. W. Allen; The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 33, (1913), pp. 19-26. Homers death is less controversial, Ios being the overwhelming favorite. Since its not even clear that Homer lived, and since we dont have a fix on the location, it should come as no surprise that we dont know when he was born. He is generally considered to have come before Hesiod. Some thought him a contemporary of Midas (Certamen). Homer is said to have had two daughters (generally, the symbolic ones of the Iliad and the Odyssey), and no sons, according to West [citation below], so the Homeridai, who are referred to as Homers followers and rhapsodes themselves, cant really claim to be descendants, although the idea has been entertained. The Trojan War Homers name will always be linked with the Trojan War because Homer wrote about the conflict between Greeks and Trojans, known as the Trojan War, and the return voyages of the Greek leaders. He is credited with telling the whole story of the Trojan War, but that is false. There were plenty of other writers of what is called the epic cycle who contributed details not found in Homer. Homer and the Epic Homer is the first and greatest writer of the Greek literary form known as epic and so its in his work that people look for information about the poetic form. Epic was more than a monumental story, although it was that. Since bards sang stories from memory, they needed and used many helpfully mnemonic, rhythmic, poetic techniques that we find in Homer. Epic poetry was composed using a rigorous format.   Major Works Credited to Homer - Some in Error Even if the name isnt his, a figure we think of as Homer is considered by many to be the writer of the Iliad, and possibly the Odyssey, although there are stylistic reasons, like inconsistencies, to debate whether one person wrote both. An inconsistency that resonates for me is that Odysseus uses a spear in The Iliad, but is an extraordinary archer in the Odyssey. He even describes his bow prowess demonstrated at Troy [source: Notes on the Trojan War, by Thomas D. Seymour, TAPhA 1900, p. 88.]. Homer is sometimes credited, although less credibly, with the Homeric Hymns. Currently, scholars think these must have been written more recently than the Early Archaic period (aka the Greek Renaissance), which is the era in which the greatest Greek epic poet is thought to have lived. IliadOdysseyHomeric Hymns Homers Major Characters In Homers Iliad, the lead character is the quintessential Greek hero, Achilles. The epic states that it is the story of the wrath of Achilles. Other important characters of the Iliad are the leaders of the Greek and Trojan sides in the Trojan War, and the highly partisan, human-seeming gods and goddesses—the deathless ones. In The Odyssey, the lead character is the title character, the wily Odysseus. Other major characters include the family of the hero and the goddess Athena. Perspective Although Homer is thought to have lived in the early Archaic Age, the subject matter of his epics is the earlier, Bronze Age, Mycenaean era. Between then and when Homer may have lived there was a dark age. Therefore Homer is writing about a period about which there is not a substantial written record. His epics give us a glimpse of this earlier life and social hierarchy, although it is important to realize that Homer is a product of his own times, when the polis (city-state) was beginning, as well as the mouthpiece for stories handed down the generations, and so details may not be true to the era of the Trojan War. The Voice of the World In his poem, The Voice of the World, the 2nd-century Greek poet Antipater of Sidon, best known for writing about the Seven Wonders (of the ancient world), praises Homer to the skies, as can be seen in this public domain translation from the Greek Anthology: The herald of the prowess of heroes and the interpreter of the immortals, a second sun on the life of Greece, Homer, the light of the Muses, the ageless mouth of all the world, lies hid, O stranger, under the sea-washed sand.   Sources Reading Homer through Oral Tradition, by John Miles Foley;  College Literature, Vol. 34, No. 2, Reading Homer in the 21st Century (Spring, 2007).The Invention of Homer, by M. L. West;  The Classical Quarterly, New Series, Vol. 49, No. 2 (1999), pp. 364-382.

A Reflection On The Educator - 1084 Words

1. It is important to have frequent interactions with children as this enables them to know us and vice versa. When we get to know them it is easier for us to know about their likes and dislikes, their interests, preferences and this helps us to organise activities for them. It is important to have caring and respectful interactions as when the children feel that the educator care for them they will feel safe and will be able to trust the educator. The trust will bring confidence in the child. When the educator respects the children the children will respect the educator in return. A way that the educator can promote these interactions is when talking to the child, be at their level, talking using a friendly tone. To show that we care we†¦show more content†¦Use gesture while talking to them so they understand better and learn easier. If we can talk the language from their background we try to. 3. It is important to communicate sensitively and positively with children as communication is a vital part of developing and maintaining positive relationships in children so if we do not communicate sensitively and positively that’s affect the children and on his turn he will not communicate correctly. Also we educators with the parents are the people who communicate more often with the children so it is important to communicate sensitively as this will build trust. Also we are model for children so if we do not communicate sensitively and positively, they won’t either. According to the EYLF communication is crucial to belonging, being and becoming, communication will help the child to develop his sense of identity, his sense of purpose that why it is important to communicate sensitively and positively. When communicating with children we should show that we are listening to them, we should show our feelings, make them feel that we care. 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Practical Demonkeeping Chapter 26 Free Essays

26 TRAVIS’S STORY Augustus Brine sat in one of the big leather chairs in front of his fireplace, drinking red wine from a balloon goblet and puffing away on his meerschaum. He had promised himself that he would have only one glass of wine, just to take the edge off the adrenaline and caffeine jangle he had worked himself into during the kidnapping. Now he was on his third glass and the wine had infused him with a warm, oozy feeling; he let his mind drift in a dreamy vertigo before attacking the task at hand: interrogating the demonkeeper. We will write a custom essay sample on Practical Demonkeeping Chapter 26 or any similar topic only for you Order Now The fellow looked harmless enough, propped up and tied to the other wing chair. But if Gian Hen Gian was to be believed, this dark young man was the most dangerous human on Earth. Brine considered washing up before waking the demonkeeper. He had caught a glimpse of himself in the bathroom mirror – his beard and clothing covered with flour and soot, his skin caked with sweat-streaked goo – and decided that he would make a more intimidating impression in his current condition. He had found the smelling salts in the medicine cabinet and sent Gian Hen Gian to the bathroom to bathe while he rested. Actually he wanted the Djinn out of the room while he questioned the demonkeeper. The Djinn’s curses and ravings would only complicate an already difficult task. Brine set his wineglass and his pipe on the end table and picked up a cotton-wrapped smelling-salt capsule. He leaned over to the demonkeeper and snapped the capsule under his nose. For a moment nothing happened, and Brine feared that he had hit him too hard, then the demonkeeper started coughing, looked at Brine, and screamed. â€Å"Calm down – you’re all right,† Brine said. â€Å"Catch, help me!† The demonkeeper struggled against his bonds. Brine picked up his pipe and lit it, affecting a bored nonchalance. After a moment the demonkeeper settled down. Brine blew a thin stream of smoke into the air between them. â€Å"Catch isn’t here. You’re on your own.† Travis seemed to forget that he had been beaten, kidnapped, and tied up. His concentration was focused on Brine’s last statement. â€Å"What do you mean, Catch isn’t here? You know about Catch?† Brine considered giving him the I’m-asking-the-questions-here line that he had heard so many times in detective movies, but upon reflection, it seemed silly. He wasn’t a hardass; why play the role? â€Å"Yes, I know about the demon. I know that he eats people, and I know you are his master.† â€Å"How do you know all that?† â€Å"It doesn’t matter,† Brine said. â€Å"I also know that you’ve lost control of Catch.† â€Å"I have?† Travis seemed genuinely shaken by this. â€Å"Look, I don’t know who you are, but you can’t keep me here. If Catch is out of control again, I’m the only one that can stop him. I’m really close to ending all this; you can’t stop me now.† â€Å"Why should you care?† â€Å"What do you mean, why should I care? You might know about Catch, but you can’t imagine what he’s like when he’s out of control.† â€Å"What I mean,† Brine said, â€Å"is why should you care about the damage he causes? You called him up, didn’t you? You send him out to kill, don’t you?† Travis shook his head violently. â€Å"You don’t understand. I’m not what you think. I never wanted this, and now I have a chance to stop it. Let me go. I can end it.† â€Å"Why should I trust you? You’re a murderer.† â€Å"No. Catch is.† â€Å"What’s the difference? If I do let you go, it will be because you will have told me what I want to know, and how I can use that information. Now I’ll listen and you’ll talk.† â€Å"I can’t tell you anything. And you don’t want to know anyway, I promise you.† â€Å"I want to know where the Seal of Solomon is. And I want to know the incantation that sends Catch back. Until I know, you’re not going anywhere.† â€Å"Seal of Solomon? I don’t know what you’re talking about.† â€Å"Look – what is your name, anyway?† â€Å"Travis.† â€Å"Look, Travis,† Brine said, â€Å"my associate wants to use torture. I don’t like the idea, but if you jerk me around, torture might be the only way to go.† â€Å"Don’t you have to have two guys to play good cop, bad cop?† â€Å"My associate is taking a bath. I wanted to see if I could reason with you before I let him near you. I really don’t know what he’s capable of†¦ I’m not even sure what he is. So if we could get on with this, it would be better for the both of us.† â€Å"Where’s Jenny?† Travis asked. â€Å"She’s fine. She’s at work.† â€Å"You won’t hurt her?† â€Å"I’m not some kind of terrorist, Travis. I didn’t ask to be involved in this, but I am. I don’t want to hurt you, and I would never hurt Jenny. She’s a friend of mine.† â€Å"So if I tell you what I know, you’ll let me go?† â€Å"That’s the deal. But I’ll have to make sure that what you tell me is true.† Brine relaxed. This young man didn’t seem to have any of the qualities of a mass murderer. If anything, he seemed a little naive. â€Å"Okay, I’ll tell you everything I know about Catch and the incantations, but I swear to you, I don’t know anything about any Seal of Solomon. It’s a pretty strange story.† â€Å"I guessed that,† Brine said. â€Å"Shoot.† He poured himself a glass of wine, relit his pipe, and sat back, propping his feet up on the hearth. â€Å"Like I said, it’s a pretty strange story.† â€Å"Strange is my middle name,† Brine said. â€Å"That must have been difficult for you as a child,† Travis said. â€Å"Would you get on with it.† â€Å"You asked for it.† Travis took a deep breath. â€Å"I was born in Clarion, Pennsylvania, in the year nineteen hundred.† â€Å"Bullshit,† Brine interrupted. â€Å"You’re not a day over twenty-five.† â€Å"This is going to take a lot more time if I have to keep stopping. Just listen – it’ll all fall into place.† Brine grumbled and nodded for Travis to continue. â€Å"I was born on a farm. My parents were Irish immigrants, black Irish. I was the oldest of six children, two boys and four girls. My parents were staunch Catholics. My mother wanted me to be a priest. She pushed me to study so I could get into seminary. She was working on the local diocese to recommend me while I was still in the womb. When World War I broke out, she begged the bishop to get me into seminary early. Everybody knew it was just a matter of time before America entered the war. My mother wanted me in seminary before the Army could draft me. Boys from secular colleges were already in Europe, driving ambulances, and some of them had been killed. My mother wasn’t going to lose her chance to have a son become a priest to something as insignificant as a world war. You see, my little brother was a bit slow – mentally, I mean. I was my mother’s only chance.† â€Å"So you went to seminary,† Brine interjected. He was becoming impatient with the progress of the story. â€Å"I went in at sixteen, which made me at least four years younger than the other boys. My mother packed me some sandwiches, and I packed myself into a threadbare black suit that was three sizes too small for me and I was on the train to Illinois. â€Å"You have to understand, I didn’t want any part of this stuff with the demon; I really wanted to be a priest. Of all the people I had known as a child, the priest seemed like the only one who had any control over things. The crops could fail, banks could close, people could get sick and die, but the priest and the church were always there, calm and steadfast. And all that mysticism was pretty nifty, too.† â€Å"What about women?† Brine asked. He had resolved himself to hearing an epic, and it seemed as if Travis needed to tell it. Brine found he liked the strange young man, in spite of himself. â€Å"You don’t miss what you’ve never known. I mean I had these urges, but they were sinful, right? I just had to say, ‘Get thee behind me Satan’, and get on with it.† â€Å"That’s the most incredible thing you’ve told me so far,† Brine said. â€Å"When I was sixteen, sex seemed like the only reason to go on living.† â€Å"That’s what they thought at seminary, too. Because I was younger than the others, the prefect of discipline, Father Jasper, took me on as his special project. To keep me from impure thoughts, he made me work constantly. In the evenings, when the others were given time for prayer and meditation, I was sent to the chapel to polish the silver. While the others ate, I worked in the kitchen, serving and washing dishes. For two years the only rest I had from dawn until midnight was during classes and mass. When I fell behind in my studies, Father Jasper rode me even harder. â€Å"The Vatican had given the seminary a set of silver candlesticks for the altar. Supposedly they had been commissioned by one of the early popes and were over six hundred years old. The candlesticks were the most prized possession of the seminary and it was my job to polish them. Father Jasper stood over me, evening after evening, chiding me and berating me for being impure in thought. I polished the silver until my hands were black from the compound, and still Father Jasper found fault with me. If I had impure thoughts it was because he kept reminding me to have them. â€Å"I had no friends in seminary. Father Jasper had put his mark on me, and the other students shunned me for fear of invoking the prefect of discipline’s wrath. I wrote home when I had a chance, but for some reason my letters were never answered. I began to suspect that Father Jasper was keeping my letters from getting to me. â€Å"One evening, while I was polishing the silver on the altar, Father Jasper came to the chapel and started to lecture me on my evil nature. â€Å"‘You are impure in thought and deed, yet you do not confess,’ he said. ‘You are evil, Travis, and it is my duty to drive that evil out!’ â€Å"I couldn’t take it any longer. ‘Where are my letters?’ I blurted out. ‘You are keeping me from my family.’ â€Å"Father Jasper was furious. ‘Yes, I keep your letters. You are spawned from a womb of evil. How else could you have come here so young. I waited for eight years to come to Saint Anthony’s – waited in the cold of the world while others were taken into the warm bosom of Christ.’ â€Å"At last I knew why I had been singled out for punishment. It had nothing to do with my spiritual impurity. It was jealousy. I said, ‘And you, Father Jasper, have you confessed your jealousy and your pride? Have you confessed your cruelty?’ â€Å"‘Cruel, am I?’ he said. He laughed at me, and for the first time I was really afraid of him. ‘There is no cruelty in the bosom of Christ, only tests of faith. Your faith is wanting, Travis. I will show you.’ â€Å"He told me to lie with arms outstretched on the steps before the altar and pray for strength. He left the chapel for a moment, and when he returned I could hear something whistling through the air. I looked up and saw that he was carrying a thin whip cut from a willow branch. â€Å"‘Have you no humility, Travis? Bow your head before our Lord.’ â€Å"I could hear him moving behind me, but I could not see him. Why I didn’t leave right then I don’t know. Perhaps I believed that Father Jasper was actually testing my faith, that he was the cross I had to bear. â€Å"He tore my robe up the back, exposing my bare back and legs. ‘You will not cry out, Travis. After each blow a Hail Mary. Now,’ he said. Then I felt the whip across my back and I thought I would scream, but instead I said a Hail Mary. He threw a rosary in front of me and told me to take it. I held it behind my head, feeling the pain come with every bead. â€Å"‘You are a coward, Travis. You don’t deserve to serve our Lord. You are here to avoid the war, aren’t you, Travis?’ â€Å"I didn’t answer him and the whip fell again. â€Å"After a while I heard him laughing with each stroke of the whip. I did not look back for fear he might strike me across the eyes. Before I had finished the rosary, I heard him gasp and drop to the floor behind me. I thought – no, I hoped – he had had a heart attack. But when I looked back he was kneeling behind me, gasping for air, exhausted, but smiling. â€Å"‘Face down, sinner!’ he screamed. He drew back the whip as if he were going to strike me in the face and I covered my head. â€Å"‘You will tell no one of this,’ he said. His voice was low and calm. For some reason that scared me more than his anger. ‘You are to stay the night here, polish the silver, and pray for forgiveness. I will return in the morning with a new robe for you. If you speak of this to anyone, I will see that you are expelled from Saint Anthony’s and, if I can manage it, excommunicated.’ â€Å"I hadn’t ever heard excommunication used as a threat. It was something we studied in class. The popes had used it as an instrument of political control, but the reality of being excluded from salvation by someone else had never really occurred to me. I didn’t believe that Father Jasper could really excommunicate me, but I wasn’t going to test it. â€Å"While Father Jasper watched, I began to polish the candlesticks, rubbing furiously to take my mind off the pain in my back and legs, and to try to forget that he was watching. Finally, he left the chapel. When I heard the door close, I threw the candlestick I was holding at the door. â€Å"Father Jasper had tested my faith, and I had failed. I cursed the Trinity, the Virgin, and all the saints I could remember. Eventually my anger subsided and I feared Father Jasper would return and see what I had done. â€Å"I retrieved the candlestick and inspected it to see if I had done any damage. Father Jasper would check them in the morning as he always did, and I would be lost. â€Å"There was a deep scratch across the axis of the candlestick. I rubbed at it, harder and harder, but it only seemed to get worse. Soon I realized that it wasn’t a scratch at all but a seam that had been concealed by the silversmith. The priceless artifact from the Vatican was a sham. It was supposed to be solid silver, but here was evidence that it was hollow. I grabbed both ends of the candlestick and twisted. As I suspected, it unscrewed. There was a sort of triumph in it. I wanted to be holding the two pieces when Father Jasper returned. I wanted to wave them in his face. ‘Here’, I would say, ‘these are as hollow and false as you are. I would expose him, ruin him, and if I was expelled and damned, I didn’t care. But I never got the chance to confront him. â€Å"When I pulled the two pieces apart, a tightly rolled piece of parchment fell out.† â€Å"The invocation,† Brine interrupted. â€Å"Yes, but I didn’t know what it was. I unrolled it and started to read. There was a passage at the top in Latin, which I didn’t have much trouble translating. It said something about calling down help from God to deal with enemies of the Church. It was signed by His Holiness, Pope Leo the Third. â€Å"The second part was written in Greek. As I said, I had fallen behind in my studies, so the Greek was difficult. I started reading it aloud, working on each word as I went. By the time I was through the first passage, it had started to get cold in the chapel. I wasn’t sure what I was reading. Some of the words were mysteries to me. I just read over them, trying to glean what I could from the context. Then something seemed to take over my mind. â€Å"I started reading the Greek as if it were my native language, pronouncing the words perfectly, without having the slightest idea of what they meant. â€Å"A wind whipped up inside the chapel, blowing out all the candles. Except for a little moonlight coming through the windows, it was completely dark, but the words on the parchment began to glow and I kept reading. I was locked into the parchment as if I had grabbed an electric wire and couldn’t let go. â€Å"When I read the last line, I found I was screaming the words. Lightning flashed down from the roof and struck the candlestick, which was lying on the floor in front of me. The wind stopped and smoke filled the chapel. â€Å"Nothing prepares you for something like that. You can spend your life preparing to be the instrument of God. You can read accounts of possession and exorcism and try to imagine yourself in the situation, but when it actually happens, you just shut down. I did, anyway. I sat there trying to figure out what I had done, but my mind wouldn’t work. â€Å"The smoke floated up into the rafters of the chapel and I could make out a huge figure standing at the altar. It was Catch, in his eating form.† â€Å"What’s his eating form?† Brine asked. â€Å"I assume from the deal with the flour that you know Catch is visible to others only when he is in his eating form. Most of the time I see him as a three-foot imp covered with scales. When he feeds or goes out of control, he’s a giant. I’ve seen him cut a man in half with one swipe of his claws. I don’t know why it works that way. I just know that when I saw him for the first time, I had never been so frightened. â€Å"He looked around the chapel, then at me, then at the chapel. I was praying under my breath, begging God for protection. â€Å"‘Stop it!’ he said. ‘I’ll take care of everything.’ Then he went down the aisle and through the chapel doors, knocking them off their hinges. He turned and looked back at me. He said: ‘You have to open these things, right? I forgot – it’s been a while.’ â€Å"As soon as he was gone I picked up the candlesticks and ran. I got as far as the front gates before I realized that I was still wearing the torn robe. â€Å"I wanted to get away, hide, forget what I had seen, but I had to go back and get my clothes. I ran back to my quarters. Since I was in my third year at seminary, I been given a small private room, so, thankfully, I didn’t have to go through the dormitory ward rooms where the newer students slept. The only clothes I had were the suit I had worn when I came and a pair of overalls I wore when I worked in the seminary fields. I tried to put on the suit, but the pants were just too tight, so I put the overalls on and wore the suit jacket over them to cover my shoulders. I wrapped the candlesticks in a blanket and headed for the gate. â€Å"When I was just outside the gate, I heard a horrible scream from the rectory. There was no mistaking; it was Father Jasper. â€Å"I ran the six miles into town without stopping. The sun was coming up as I reached the train station and a train was pulling away from the platform. I didn’t know where it was going, but I ran after it and managed to swing myself on board before I collapsed. â€Å"I’d like to tell you I had some kind of plan, but I didn’t. My only thought was to get as far away from St. Anthony’s as I could. I don’t know why I took the candlesticks. I wasn’t interested in their value. I guess I didn’t want to leave any evidence of what I’d done. Or maybe it was the influence of the supernatural. â€Å"Anyway, I caught my breath and went into the passenger car to find a seat. The train was nearly full, soldiers and a few civilians here and there. I staggered down the aisle and fell into the first empty seat I could find. It was next to a young woman who was reading a book. â€Å"‘This seat is taken,’ she said. â€Å"‘Please, just let me rest here for a minute,’ I begged. ‘I’ll get up when your companion returns.’ â€Å"She looked up from her book and I found myself staring into the biggest, bluest eyes I’d ever seen. I will never forget them. She was young, about my age, and wore her dark hair pinned up under a hat, which was the style in those days. She looked genuinely frightened of me. I guess I was wearing my own fright on my face. â€Å"‘Are you all right? Shall I call the conductor?’ she asked. â€Å"I thanked her but told her that I just needed to rest a moment. She was looking at the strange way I was dressed, trying to be polite, but obviously perplexed. I looked up and noticed that everyone in the car was staring at me. Could they know about what I’d done? I wondered. Then I realized why they were staring. There was a war on and I was obviously the right age for the Army, yet I was dressed in civilian clothes. ‘I’m a seminary student,’ I blurted out to them, causing a breeze of incredulous whispers. The girl blushed. â€Å"‘I’m sorry,’ I said to her. ‘I’ll move on.’ I started to rise, but she put her hand on my shoulder to push me back into my seat and I winced when she touched my injured shoulder. â€Å"‘No,’ she said, ‘I’m traveling alone. I’ve just been saving this seat to ward off the soldiers. You know how they can be sometimes, Father.’ â€Å"‘I’m not a priest yet,’ I said. â€Å"‘I don’t know what to call you, then,’ she said. â€Å"‘Call me Travis,’ I said. â€Å"‘I’m Amanda,’ she said. She smiled, and for a moment I completely forgot why I was running. She was an attractive girl, but when she smiled, she was absolutely stunning. It was my turn to blush. â€Å"‘I’m going to New York to stay with my fianc’s family. He’s in Europe,’ she said. â€Å"‘So this train is going east?’ I asked. â€Å"She was surprised. ‘You don’t even know where the train is going?’ she asked. â€Å"‘I’ve had a bad night,’ I said. Then I started to laugh – I don’t know why. It seemed so unreal. The idea of trying to explain it to her seemed silly. â€Å"She looked away and started digging in her purse. ‘I’m sorry,’ I said, ‘I didn’t mean to offend you.’ ‘You didn’t offend me. I need to have my ticket ready for the conductor.’ â€Å"I’d completely forgotten about not having a ticket. I looked up and saw the conductor coming down the aisle. I jumped up and a wave of fatigue hit me. I almost fell into her lap. â€Å"‘Is something wrong?’ she asked. â€Å"‘Amanda,’ I said, ‘you have been very kind, but I should find another seat and let you travel in peace.’ â€Å"‘You don’t have a ticket, do you?’ she said. â€Å"I shook my head. ‘I’ve been in seminary. I’d forgotten. We don’t have any need for money there and†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ â€Å"‘I have some traveling money,’ she said. â€Å"‘I couldn’t ask you to do that,’ I said. Then I remembered the candlesticks. ‘Look, you can have these. They’re worth a lot of money. Hold them and I’ll send you the money for the ticket when I get home,’ I said. â€Å"I unrolled the blanket and dropped the candlesticks in her lap. â€Å"‘That’s not necessary,’ she said. â€Å"I’ll loan you the money.’ â€Å"‘No, I insist you take them,’ I said, trying to be gallant. I must have looked ridiculous standing there in my overalls and tattered suit jacket. â€Å"‘If you insist,’ she said. ‘I understand. My fianc is a proud man, too.’ â€Å"She gave me the money I needed and I bought a ticket all the way to Clarion, which was only about ten miles from my parent’s farm. â€Å"The train broke down somewhere in Indiana and we were forced to wait in the station while they changed engines. It was midsummer and terribly hot. Without thinking, I took off my jacket and Amanda gasped when she saw my back. She insisted that I see a doctor, but I refused, knowing that I would only have to borrow more money from her to pay for it. We sat on a bench in the station while she cleaned my back with damp napkins from the dining car. â€Å"In those days the sight of a woman bathing a half-naked man in a train station would have been scandalous, but most of the passengers were soldiers and were much more concerned with being AWOL or with their ultimate destination, Europe, so we were ignored for the most part. â€Å"Amanda disappeared for a while and returned just before our train was ready to leave. ‘I’ve reserved a berth in the sleeping car for us,’ she said. â€Å"I was shocked. I started to protest, but she stopped me. She said, ‘You are going to sleep and I am going to watch over you. You are a priest and I’m engaged, so there is nothing wrong with it. Besides, you are in no shape to spend the night sitting up in a train.’ â€Å"I think it was then that I realized that I was in love with her. Not that it mattered. It was just that after living so long with Father Jasper’s abuse I wasn’t prepared for the kindness she was showing me. It never occurred to me that I might be putting her in danger. â€Å"As we pulled away from the station, I looked out on the platform, and for the first time I saw Catch in his smaller form. Why it happened then and not before I don’t know. Maybe I didn’t have any strength left, but when I saw him there on the platform, flashing a big razor-toothed grin, I fainted. â€Å"When I came to, I felt like my back was on fire. I was lying in the sleeping berth and Amanda was bathing my back with alcohol. â€Å"‘I told them you’d been wounded in France,’ she said. â€Å"The porter helped me get you in here. I think it’s about time you told me who did this to you.’ â€Å"I told her what Father Jasper had done, leaving out the parts about the demon. I was in tears when I finished, and she was holding me, rocking me back and forth. â€Å"I’m not sure how it happened – the passion of the moment and all that, I guess – but the next thing I knew, we were kissing, and I was undressing her. Just as we were about to make love she stopped me. â€Å"‘I have to take this off,’ she said. She was wearing a wooden bracelet with the initials E + A burnt into it. ‘We don’t have to do this,’ I said. â€Å"Have you, Mr. Brine, ever said something that you know you will always regret? I have. It was: ‘We don’t have to do this.’ â€Å"She said: ‘Oh, then let’s not.’ â€Å"She fell asleep holding me while I lay awake, thinking about sex and damnation, which really wasn’t any different from what I’d thought about each night in the seminary – a little more immediate, I guess. â€Å"I was just dozing off when I heard a commotion coming from the opposite end of our sleeping car. I peeked through the curtains of the berth to see what was happening. Catch was coming down the aisle, looking into berths as he went. I didn’t know at the time that Catch was invisible to other people, and I couldn’t understand why they weren’t screaming at the sight of him. People were shouting and looking out of their berths, but all they were seeing was empty air. â€Å"I grabbed my overalls and jumped into the aisle, leaving my jacket and the candlesticks in the berth with Amanda. I didn’t even thank her. I ran down the aisle toward the back of the car, away from Catch. As I ran, I could hear him yelling, ‘Why are you running? Don’t you know the rules?’ â€Å"I went through the door between the cars and slid it shut behind me. By now people were screaming, not out of fear of Catch, but because a naked man was running through the sleeping car. â€Å"I looked into the next car and saw the conductor coming down the aisle toward me. Catch was almost to the door behind me. Without thinking, or even looking, I opened the door to the outside and leapt off the train, naked, my overalls still in hand. â€Å"The train was on a trestle at the time and it was a long drop to the ground, fifty or sixty feet. By all rights I should have been killed. When I hit, the wind was knocked out of me and I remember thinking that my back was broken, but in seconds I was up and running through a wooden valley. I didn’t realize until later that I had been protected by my pact with the demon, even through he was not under my control at the time. I don’t really know the extent of his protection, but I’ve been in a hundred accidents since then that should have killed me and come out without a scratch. â€Å"I ran through the woods until I came to a dirt road. I had no idea where I was. I just walked until I couldn’t walk anymore and then sat down at the side of the road. Just after sunup a rickety wagon pulled up beside me and the farmer asked me if I was all right. In those days it wasn’t uncommon to see a barefoot kid in overalls by the side of the road. â€Å"The farmer informed me that I was only about twenty miles from home. I told him that I was a student on holiday, trying to hitchhike home, and he offered to drive me. I fell asleep in the wagon. When the farmer woke me, we were stopped at the gate of my parents’ farm. I thanked him and walked up the road toward the house. â€Å"I guess I should have known right away that something was wrong. At that time of the morning everyone should have been out working, but the barnyard was deserted except for a few chickens. I could hear the two dairy cows mooing in the barn when they should have already been milked and put out to pasture. â€Å"I had no idea what I would tell my parents. I hadn’t thought about what I would do when I got home, only that I wanted to get there. â€Å"I ran in the back door expecting to find my mother in the kitchen, but she wasn’t there. My family rarely left the farm, and they certainly wouldn’t have gone anywhere without taking care of the animals first. My first thought was that there had been an accident. Perhaps my father had fallen from the tractor and they had taken him to the hospital in Clarion. I ran to the front of the house. My father’s wagon was tied up out front. â€Å"I bolted through the house, shouting into every room, but there was no one home. I found myself standing on the front porch, wondering what to do next, when I heard his voice from behind me. â€Å"‘You can’t run from me,’ Catch said. â€Å"I turned. He was sitting on the porch swing, dangling his feet in the air. I was afraid, but I was also angry. â€Å"‘Where is my family?!’ I screamed. â€Å"He patted his stomach. ‘Gone,’ he said. â€Å"‘What have you done with them?’ I said. â€Å"‘They’re gone forever,’ he said. ‘I ate them.’ â€Å"I was enraged. I grabbed the porch swing and pushed it with everything I had. The swing banged against the porch rail and Catch went over the edge into the dirt. â€Å"My father kept a chopping block and an ax in front of the house for splitting kindling. I jumped off the porch and snatched up the ax. Catch was just picking himself up when I him in the forehead with it. Sparks flew and the ax blade bounced off his head as if it had hit cast iron. Before I knew it I was on my back and Catch was sitting on my chest grinning like the demon in that Fuselli painting, The Nightmare. He didn’t seem at all angry. I flailed under him but could not get up. â€Å"‘Look,’ he said, ‘this is silly. You called me up to do a job and I did it, so what’s all the commotion about? By the way, you would have loved it. I clipped the priest’s hamstrings and watched him crawl around begging for a while. I really like eating priests, they’re always convinced that the Creator is testing them.’ â€Å"‘You killed my family!’ I said. I was still trying to free myself. â€Å"‘Well, that sort of thing happens when you run away. It’s all your fault; if you didn’t want the responsibility, you shouldn’t have called me up. You knew what you were getting into when you renounced the Creator.’ â€Å"‘But I didn’t,’ I protested. Then I remembered my curses in the chapel. I had renounced God. ‘I didn’t know,’ I said. â€Å"‘Well, if you’re going to be a weenie about it, I’ll fill you in on the rules,’ he said. ‘First, you can’t run away from me. You called me up and I am more or less your servant forever. When I say forever, I mean forever. You are not going to age, and you are not going to be sick. The second thing you need to know is that I am immortal. You whack me with axes all you want and all you’ll get is a dull ax and a sore back, so just save your energy. Third, I am Catch. They call me the destroyer, and that’s what I do. With my help you can rule the world and other really swell stuff. In the past my masters haven’t used me to the best advantage, but you might be the exception, although I doubt it. Fourth, when I’m in this form, you are the only one who can see me. When I take on my destroyer form, I am visible to everyone. It’s stupid, and why it’s that way is a long story, but that’s the way it is. In the past they decided to keep me a secret, but there’s no rule about it.’ â€Å"He paused and climbed off my chest. I got to my feet and dusted myself off. My head was spinning with what Catch had told me. I had no way of knowing whether he was telling the truth, but I had nothing else to go on. When you encounter the supernatural, your mind searches for an explanation. I’d had the explanation laid in my lap, but I didn’t want to believe it. â€Å"I said, ‘So you’re from hell?’ I know it was a stupid question, but even a seminary education doesn’t prepare you for a conversation with a demon. â€Å"‘No,’ he said, ‘I’m from Paradise.’ â€Å"‘You’re lying,’ I said. It was the beginning of a string of lies and misdirections that have gone on for seventy years. â€Å"He said, ‘No, really, I’m from Paradise. It’s a little town about thirty miles outside of Newark.’ Then he started laughing and rolling around in the dirt holding his sides. â€Å"‘How can I get rid of you?’ I asked. â€Å"‘Sorry,’ he said, ‘I’ve told you everything that I have to.’ â€Å"At the time I didn’t know how dangerous Catch was. Somehow I realized that I was in no immediate danger, so I tried to come up with some sort of plan to get rid of him. I didn’t want to stay there at the farm, and I didn’t have anywhere I could go. â€Å"My first instinct was to turn to the Church. If I could get to a priest, perhaps I could have the demon exorcised. â€Å"I led Catch into town, where I asked the local priest to perform an exorcism. Before I could convince him of Catch’s existence, the demon became visible and ate the priest, piece by piece, before my eyes. I realized then that Catch’s power was beyond the comprehension of any normal priest, perhaps the entire Church. â€Å"Christians are supposed to believe in evil as an active force. If you deny evil, you deny good and therefore God. But belief in evil is as much an act of faith as belief in God, and here I was faced with evil as a reality, not an abstraction. My faith was gone. It was no longer required. There was indeed evil in the world and that evil was me. It was my responsibility, I reasoned, to not let that evil become manifest to other people and thereby steal their faith. I had to keep Catch’s existence a secret. I might not be able to stop him from taking lives, but I could keep him from taking souls. â€Å"I decided to remove him to a safe place where there were no people for him to feed on. We hopped a freight and rode it to Colorado, where I led Catch high into the mountains. There I found a remote cabin where I thought he would be without victims. Weeks passed and I found that I had some control over the demon. I could make him fetch water and wood sometimes, but other times he defied me. I’ve never understood the inconsistency of his obedience. â€Å"Once I had accepted the fact that I couldn’t run away from Catch, I questioned him constantly, looking for some clue that might send him back to hell. He was vague, to say the least, giving me little to go on except that he had been on Earth before and that someone had sent him back. â€Å"After we had been in the mountains for two months, a search party came to the cabin. It seemed that hunters in the area of the cabin, as well as people in villages as far as twenty miles away, had been disappearing. When I was asleep at night, Catch had been ranging for victims. It was obvious that isolation wasn’t going to keep the demon from killing. I sent the search party away and set myself on coming up with some kind of plan. I knew we would have to move or people would discover that Catch existed. â€Å"I knew there had to be some sort of logic to his presence on Earth. Then, while we were hiking out of the mountains, it occurred to me that the key to sending Catch back must have been concealed in another candlestick. And I had left them on the train with the girl. Jumping off the train to escape Catch may have cost me the only chance I had to get rid of him. I searched my memory for anything that could lead me to the girl. I had never asked where she was going or what her last name was. In trying to recall details of my time with her I kept coming up with the image of those striking blue eyes. They seemed etched into my memory while everything else faded. Could I go around the eastern United States asking anyone if they had seen a young girl with beautiful blue eyes? â€Å"Something nagged at me. There was something that could lead me to the girl; I just had to remember it. Then it hit me – the wooden bracelet she wore. The initials carved inside the heart were E + A. How hard could it be to search service records for a soldier with the first initial E? His service records would have his next of kin, and she was staying with his family. I had a plan. â€Å"I took Catch back East and began checking local draft boards. I told them I had been in Europe and a man whose first name began with E had saved my life and I wanted to find him. They always asked about divisions and stations and where the battle had taken place. I told them I had taken a shell fragment in the head and could remember nothing but the man’s first initial. No one believed me, of course, but they gave me what I asked for – out of pity, I think. â€Å"Meanwhile, Catch kept taking his victims. I tried to point him toward thieves and grifters when I could, reasoning that if he must kill, at least I could protect the innocent. â€Å"I haunted libraries, looking for the oldest books on magic and demonology I could find. Perhaps somewhere I could find an incantation to send the demon back. I performed hundreds of rituals – drawing pentagrams, collecting bizarre talismans, and putting myself through all sorts of physical rigors and diets that were supposed to purify the sorcerer so the magic would work. After repeated failures, I realized that the volumes of magic were nothing more than the work of medieval snake-oil salesmen. They always added the purity of the sorcerer as a condition so they would have an excuse for their customers when the magic did not work. â€Å"During this same time I was still looking for a priest who would perform an exorcism. In Baltimore I finally found one who believed my story. He agreed to perform an exorcism. For his protection, we arranged to have him stand on a balcony while Catch and I remained in the street below. Catch laughed himself silly through the entire ritual, and when it was over, he broke into the building and ate the priest. I knew then that finding the girl was my only hope. â€Å"Catch and I kept moving, never staying in one place longer than two or three days. Fortunately there were no computers in those days that might have tracked the disappearances of Catch’s victims. In each town I collected a list of veterans, then ran leads to the ground by knocking on doors and questioning the families. I’ve been doing that for over seventy years. Yesterday I think I found the man I was looking for. As it turned out, E was his middle initial. His name is J. Effrom Elliot. I thought my luck had finally turned. I mean the fact that the man is still alive is pretty lucky in itself. I thought that I might have to trace the candlesticks through surviving relatives, hoping that someone remembered them, perhaps had kept them as an heirloom. â€Å"I thought it was all over, but now Catch is out of control and you are keeping me from stopping him forever.† How to cite Practical Demonkeeping Chapter 26, Essay examples

Operation Management Of McDonald’s Samples †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Operation Management Of McDonalds. Answer: Introduction: Operation management is a significant dimension of an organization which plays a crucial role in the production of goods and services for customers. The impact of operations management is also perceived in context of other departments of the organization. The following report aims to identify the current scenario for McDonalds and the key operational issues experienced by the enterprise. The analysis of the different issues is helpful for drawing feasible references into the realization of prolific recommendations that can address the operational issues of McDonalds alongside emphasizing on concerns for refraining from creation of new issues (Bianchi hlstrm, 2014). The report delves into secondary research in order to ensure that the analysis is able to provide recommendations that could be able to address the problems with theoperations management of McDonalds. Current scenario: The reputation of McDonalds is profoundly observed in the fast food industry and has become one of the leading examples of business expansion through franchising. The organization has experienced substantial threats from the market environment which indicated potential risks for the brands identity and the role of the company in the marketplace. The success of McDonalds could be observed explicitly in the organizations presence across 6 continents in over 100 countries. As per Bromiley Rau, the performance of McDonalds could be attributed to the efficiency of operationsmanagement framework adopted by the company which is reflective of comprehensive access to information pertaining to daily operations thereby facilitating product delivery to customers (Bromiley Rau, 2016). Therefore the brand identity of McDonalds can be classified as a service oriented business which relies largely on the efficiency of its operations management approach. The existing operationsmanagement framework follows a strategic approach which is utilized for management of expenses, creation of consistent brand and retention of customer loyalty. The delivery system of the organization is improved over the course of years which provides McDonalds with an additional competitive advantage that is also reflective of the features of adaptability to changing conditions. For example, the change in menu of McDonalds does not impinge any formidable impact on the delivery system of the company which in turn is influenced by the supply chain of the organization (Brown, Bessant Lamming, 2013). However, the organization also faced substantial issues in its operations management owing to its business framework which favours the design of new products as well as the business model which relies on supply chain management and the interaction with local franchisees. The current situation for McDonalds is characterized by profound issues pertaining to its operations that include references to the sustainability of new initiatives introduced by the organization. According to Carnes, Hitt Xu, the revision of menus to address needs of local cuisine alongside the introduction of new menus and customized products could lead to delay in delivery of products at customers tables. The lack of technical flexibility in the app of McDonalds as compared to that of competitors such as Dominos Pizza can be accounted as another profound indicator of the current situation for the company (Carnes, Hitt Xu, 2016). Furthermore, the long term approach for refranchising of almost 4000 restaurants by the end of 2018 could also be accounted as another profound indicator of the current situation of the company. Furthermore, it is essential to focus on global strategic objectives which are associated closely with the vision statement of the company which are observed in the form of menu expansion, providing master franchises to implement their information pertaining to local cuisines and market conditions as well as targeting growth while warding off competitive rivalry in the market. Therefore, it is essential to focus on the significance of operations management for accomplishing optimal business performance (Foropon McLachlin, 2013). The existing situation of McDonalds in the fast food industry is characterized by a major market share which could be affected by the competition in marketplace. Hence the company needs to improvise in terms of innovation in its operations management framework that can provide sustainability of market share. Key operational problems in McDonalds: The operational problems experienced by McDonalds could be observed in the aspects of competitor analysis, supply chain management, quality management and product innovation. It is essential to consider competitor analysis as a valid representation of the operational problems encountered by McDonalds. The comparison of McDonalds strategy with that of competitors is considered as a feasible resource to identify the operational aspects in which the organization is lacking behind competitors. One of the profound elements that are observed in the fast food industry is the frequent variation in consumer preferences alongside profound competition as compared to other industries (Galindo Batta, 2013). Despite a formidable hold over the fast food market, McDonalds is more likely to experience potential hit in revenues due to the strategies adopted by customers. One of the examples of operational problems affecting McDonalds is in the expansion of menu which resulted in depreciation of quality of the products while competitors such as Burger King reduced the size of their menu alongside improving the quality of the products. Therefore a clear perception of the elements such as customer requirements, efficiency and cost are noted as major priorities for improvement of the process strategy implemented by an organization. As per Guide Ketokivi, the process strategy of McDonalds is considered as a notable aspect of its operations management that reflect on the transparent nature of the manufacturing process. The customer could be able to observe the process of fast food production and could also verify the compliance of the food of McDonalds with hygienic standards (Guide Ketokivi, 2015). The privileges of customers also extend to the observation of ingredients used in the products. These factors are responsible for inducing competitive differentiation in the modern business environment which makes it a challenge for the operation management of McDonalds. The dynamic nature of customer preferences enables rivals to limit the existing gap in terms of market share and the necessity of incremental innovation which is lacking in case of McDonalds (Harvey, Heineke Lewis, 2016). A critical reflection on the practical examples such as the depreciation of the sales of international as well as domestic units of McDonalds in 2012 indicate the challenges encountered by McDonalds in terms of operation management. The moderate growth of refranchised restaurants and the lack of customer confidence could be assumed as profound outcomes of operational issues pertaining to McDonalds. The primary operational issues emerged in this case due to the lack of responsiveness of the top management to implement aggressive tactics in the international units (Heizer, 2016). The implications of competition also impacts the operations management of McDonalds since the external environment for the organization depicts modest consumer demands, declining customer sentiments and escalation of competitive activity. The shifting of customer loyalty is largely based on the customers perception of the lack of fresh and better products that can be classified as an operational issue. The large scale layoffs implemented by the human resources management of the organization could also be accounted as the measures for improving operational efficiency while reducing the involvement of competent employees (Hendricks, Hora Singhal, 2014). This factor could be classified as a strategic operational issue for the organization in terms of staffing decisions. The staffing decisions of McDonalds are perceived to be the major determinant of quality aspects of the organizations products and services alongside providing the competitive edge to the organization in terms of outcomes such as smooth and efficient operations. The operational issue is anticipated in the self-defeating mechanism which is reflective of the loss of trained workforce to competitors. The different operations of the international units of McDonalds as franchises, the uniform pricing strategies and the high franchise fees are also indicative of the resistance that can be generated from unsatisfied groups. The prospects of increasing costs in the international market have led to withdrawal of majority of franchise owners. Furthermore, the international operations of McDonalds are also associated with higher costs since the international markets are more likely to depict potential influence of confectioneries and other competitors in the fast food sector with local appeal. Furthermore, the management of international franchise system could be associated with major defects since the individual units are more likely to operate their manufacturing process accordingly (Hitt, Carnes Xu, 2016). Therefore, the operations of the enterprise are subject to ambiguities in context of conformity with the precedents of service delivery established by McDonalds for its restaurants. According to Hitt, Xu Carnes, the operational issues that could be identified in the case of McDonalds also include references to the quality of the food provided by the organization and its criticism by health practitioners. The quality of the products and nutritional value associated with the products could also be considered as profound indicators of reasons for deriving concerns among legal circles for the organization (Hitt, Xu Carnes, 2016). It is imperative to understand that the process aspect of the organization is that the manufacturing line of McDonalds indicates issues such as time taken for preparation of different products is not same. The lack of automation in the manufacturing process is also responsible for the impact of inefficiency of team members on the flow of work. These factors are responsible for creating bottlenecks in customer service delivery. Another notable operational issue pertaining to delivery in context of McDonalds could be identified in the form of the lack of technical assistance for drivers (Katsikopoulos Gigerenzer, 2013). The only respite in this case is observed in the pre-existing information among drivers regarding the topography of the international jurisdictions of the franchise operations. However, this factor alone contributes to a reduction in efficiency of on-time deliveries. Other significant operational issues can be observed in the dimensions of store and production layout. As per Khanna, the dimensions of the store construction are aligned to increase efficiency through providing optimum utilization of floor space. On the other hand, the store layout also indicates the safety hazards for employees working in close proximities with the cooking equipment such as burns which are noticed in the peak hours of service (Khanna, 2015). The capacity of the equipment installed in the stores has also indicated profound operational issues in terms of inability to address customer demands. Examples of equipment malfunctions during peak periods could be observed as the outcomes of refraining from the anticipation of customer demand and the frequency of demand. The international operations of McDonalds are also subject to the concerns of conflict among managers regarding the approach for decision making which leads to major operational issues (Krajewski, Ritzman Malhotra, 2013). The role of operations manager in determining the decisions in the different units of McDonalds vary among the three categories of strategic decision making, tactical decision making and operational decision making. The strategic decision making in organizations is realized on the grounds of the prospects for long term decisions which could establish directions for the organization. The tactical decision making is preferred in cases of addressing short term development needs while operational decision making are related to scheduling, replacement and maintenance. Quality management issues that could be apprehended in the operations of McDonalds could be observed in the decisions of McDonalds to diversify into other restaurant markets with new chains (Langabeer II Helton, 2015). The change in menu items also involves major concerns of training of the staff for preparation of new food products which emerges as a profound operational issue for McDonalds. The lack of prolific interaction with the local supply chain in order to address the cross cultural presence of McDonalds in international market could also be accounted as a major pitfall in the operations of the organization. The interaction with local supply chain would ensure flexible access to the ingredients required for preparation of products in line with the local cuisine. However, the organization also places considerable emphasis on the loss of brand identity with the emphasis on local supply chains instead of relying on global supply chain. It is imperative to observe that the opera tions of McDonalds would be subject to profound operational issues due to the lack of information on the local customer preferences and delay in customer service delivery (Mahadevan, 2015). Depending on a global supply chain would be liable for creating setbacks such as delay in delivery of ingredients, concerns regarding freshness of products and the factors of overstocking and lack of stock. Therefore, the operational issues identified in the case of McDonalds should be reviewed from a theoretical perspective in order to derive viable recommendations for improving the situation of operations management in McDonalds (Marshall, Metters Pagell, 2016). Analysis and Recommendation: The review of the operations management aspect from the theoretical perspective of performance objectives associated with the operations management could provide viable insights into the recommendations for resolution of operational issues. The five performance objectives that are intended for determining efficiency of an operations management strategy could be observed as speed, cost, quality, flexibility and dependability. In general context, the organizational structure is responsible to a certain extent for determining the framework of operations management which indicates a formidable impact on the promotion of effective performance alongside promoting the organization to address the objectives (Slack, Brandon-Jones Johnston, 2013). The instances of effective measures adopted by McDonalds to ensure effective operations management include references to the facilities of ensuring adequate stock, packaging of food and ingredients and anticipation of customer needs to address them effectively. The aspect of speed in operations of McDonalds could be observed in the delivery time for customers or the wait time and the objective for McDonalds is to deliver the order in 90 seconds. McDonalds could obtain a recommendation for ensuring accuracy of the measurement of speed in delivery of service which could be useful for improving the satisfaction of customers (Smith, Maull CL Ng, 2014). The recommendation for improving the competitive advantage of McDonalds in order to resolve the operational issue of competitive differentiation could be observed in policy reforms and effective system management to improve the operational issues in delivery of services. The expectations of excellent performance could also be implemented in the case of McDonalds to include sequencing regulations which could improve the speed of service delivery (Spring, et al., 2017). The concerns of cost in terms of operations management could also be observed as major determinant of performance and the primary objective of every organization is to obtain higher returns at minimal investments. The competition experienced by McDonalds in terms of pricing could ascertain the role of cost as an influence on the operational issues. The production of low cost products could be a major contributor to the resolution of operational issues observed in case of quality management in the store design and layout. The reduction of product prices would also ensure that the franchises would have to invest less in equipment and machinery (Walker, et al., 2015). The aspects of cost differentiation should however be implemented in moderation in the case of McDonalds in order to ensure that the organization does not lose its financial advantage. The plausible recommendations for apprehending the cost related implications of operations management would also include references to inventory management which involves reduction of expenditures in inventory alongside supporting restaurant activities (White, McCutcheon Meredith, 2013). The effect of local intermediaries and distributors that provide the ingredients to franchise restaurants could also be considered as an influence on the cost aspect of operations management. The exclusion of intermediaries could be assumed as a viable recommendation to ensure that the task of inventory management for restaurant managers is streamlined. Quality aspect of McDonalds should also be accounted as a major theoretical insight into the efficiency of operations management. Quality management is a widely accepted theory in context of business which is largely reliant on determining the specific dimensions that influence the effectiveness of an organization. Quality management is considered as the resource for organizations to depict potential improvement in design, development and delivery of products and services. The fast food industry is subject to profound implications of changes in trends which lead to the identification of quality of the operations. The recommendation for a quality management could be considered effective since it would be helpful for McDonalds to retain its brand reputation and image in the environment where it is criticized on legal grounds for health and safety risks in its products. The products provided by McDonalds are generally stereotyped as junk food which creates major concerns for the organization to revise its quality management implications (Zurich, 2017). McDonalds has to implement a quality assurance and quality control monitoring framework which would serve as a significant influence on the limitation of operational issues pertaining to quality management in the organization. The organization has to ensure that its supply chain is capable of providing the franchises with flexible opportunities to source their ingredients effectively from local supply chain, stock them in local commissaries and then ensure their distribution to the stores and franchises at periodic intervals (White, McCutcheon Meredith, 2013). The implications of quality management could be improved on the grounds of implementing supplier approval procedure which could be helpful for determining that the organization is in agreement with all the suppliers. The approval procedures are liable for establishing precedents for packaging and product specification which ensures that the operational issues pertaining to quality of products and lack of resources could be limited. Another plausible recommendation that can be presented for McDonalds to deal with its operational issues is to ensure the assessment of all of its food products for risk. The risk assessment procedure has to be implemented by authorized personnel that must be documented in a database. The database could act as a prolific indicator of the information related to supplier performance which enables the organization to access quality ingredients. The continuous assessment of suppliers could be estimated as a reasonable contributor to the resolution of operational issues in supply chain management (Slack, Brandon-Jones Johnston, 2013). As per Katsikopoulos Gigerenzer, the distinct methods that could be implemented by McDonalds to ensure comprehensive assessment of its suppliers include references to quality checks which are executed at the time of delivery, sample analysis and customer feedback. The existing reputation of McDonalds as a market leader in the fast food industry could be subject to detrimental consequences due to insufficiencies in the operations management. Therefore, McDonalds could resolve its performance issues in operations management through addressing the dimensions of service speed, quality and cost (Katsikopoulos Gigerenzer, 2013). Conclusion: The report illustrated the existing scenario of McDonalds in context of its operations and issues faced by the organization. The primary objective of the report was directed towards identification of the key issues in operation of McDonalds which have been identified in context of supply chain management and quality management. The next section of the report highlighted feasible analysis on the issues faced by McDonalds in its operations alongside recommendations to resolve the same. References Bianchi, M., hlstrm, P. (2014, May). Additive manufacturing: towards a new operations management paradigm. In20th International EurOMA Conference. Bromiley, P., Rau, D. (2016). Operations management and the resource based view: Another view.Journal of Operations Management,41, 95-106. Brown, S., Bessant, J. R., Lamming, R. (2013).Strategic operations management. Routledge. Carnes, C. M., Hitt, M. A., Xu, K. (2016). Resource based theory in operations management research. Foropon, C., McLachlin, R. (2013). Metaphors in operations management theory building.International Journal of Operations Production Management,33(2), 181-196. Galindo, G., Batta, R. (2013). Review of recent developments in OR/MS research in disaster operations management.European Journal of Operational Research,230(2), 201-211. Guide, V. D. R., Ketokivi, M. (2015). Notes from the editors: Restructuring the journal of operations management.Journal of Operations Management, (38), v-x. Harvey, J., Heineke, J., Lewis, M. (2016). Editorial for Journal of Operations Management special issue on" Professional Service Operations Management (PSOM)".Journal of Operations Management,42, 4-8. Heizer, J. (2016).Operations Management, 11/e. Pearson Education India. Hendricks, K. B., Hora, M., Singhal, V. R. (2014). An empirical investigation on the appointments of supply chain and operations management executives.Management Science,61(7), 1562-1583. Hitt, M. A., Carnes, C. M., Xu, K. (2016). A current view of resource based theory in operations management: A response to Bromiley and Rau.Journal of Operations Management,41(10), 107-109. Hitt, M. A., Xu, K., Carnes, C. M. (2016). Resource based theory in operations management research.Journal of Operations Management,41, 77-94. Katsikopoulos, K. V., Gigerenzer, G. (2013). Behavioral operations management: A blind spot and a research program.Journal of Supply Chain Management,49(1), 3-7. Khanna, R. B. (2015).Production and operations management. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.. Krajewski, L. J., Ritzman, L. P., Malhotra, M. K. (2013).Operations management: processes and supply chains(Vol. 1). New York, NY: Pearson. Langabeer II, J. R., Helton, J. (2015).Health care operations management. Jones Bartlett Publishers. Mahadevan, B. (2015).Operations management: Theory and practice. Pearson Education India. Marshall, D., Metters, R., Pagell, M. (2016). Changing a Leopard's Spots: A New Research Direction for Organizational Culture in the Operations Management Field.Production and Operations Management,25(9), 1506-1512. Slack, N., Brandon-Jones, A., Johnston, R. (2013).Operations management. Pearson. Smith, L., Maull, R., CL Ng, I. (2014). Servitization and operations management: a service dominant-logic approach.International Journal of Operations Production Management,34(2), 242-269. Spring, M., Hughes, A., Mason, K., McCaffrey, P. (2017). Creating the competitive edge: A new relationship between operations management and industrial policy.Journal of Operations Management,49, 6-19. Walker, H., Chicksand, D., Radnor, Z., Watson, G. (2015). Theoretical perspectives in operations management: an analysis of the literature.International Journal of Operations Production Management,35(8), 1182-1206. White, D., McCutcheon, D. M., Meredith, J. R. (2013). Conducting case study research in operations management.Journal of Operations Management,11(3), 40. Zurich, L. B. (2017). Service Operations and Management.

Reload free essay sample

The long-awaited sequel to Metallicas sixth full-length album, Load, has finally hit the shelves and in my opinion, is much better than its predecessor. Reload is not a completely new album, nor is it a bunch of remixes or cover songs. The songs on Load and Reload were to be released as a double CD set, but when the first half of the songs were complete (Load), the band was asked to go on tour with the popular Lolapalooza music festival, so the rest of the songs had to wait. The band makes it clear that these thirteen songs are not leftovers and I agree completely. The CD is packed to the brim with 76 minutes of everything from hard-core metal to slow rock,(which surprises me since a CD can only physically hold 74 minutes of digitally recorded music). The first track, Fuel, arguably one of the best, opens with the line Give me fuel, give me fire, give me that which I desire, a surprising use of proper English. We will write a custom essay sample on Reload or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page At this point, the instruments all come in with a bang, going straight into fast-paced, hard-core metal. The song will surely be a hit, and will be released as a single. The next track, the first single off the album, is called The Memory Remains. This is somewhat slower and softer, but equally as good. This is a unique Metallica song in that it contains a guest vocalist, Marianne Faithful, performing two solos. Personally, I would have preferred a guitar solo in place of the vocals, but on a positive note, the solos add a new twist to Metallicas ever-changing style. The fourth track, like on most Metallica CDs is my personal favorite. I dont know why, but on almost every CD, they save the fourth track for the best, perhaps so you have to listen to the first three to get to it. Called The Unforgiven II, it is a sequel to The Unforgiven from the bands self-titled release. In my opinion, it lives up to, if not surpasses, its predecessor. It starts off with the same long guitar note, but then goes into a heavy solo. It contains some similar lyrics, although it is completely different. Toward the end, you can hear the main guitar riff from the original in the background, and if you listen carefully, you can hear I dub thee Unforgiven. At first, I thought making a sequel would ruin it, but was proven wrong. The rest of the CD is quite good, but the first four tracks are simply outstanding, of the quality to be listened to over and over again. This CD is another step in the evolution of Metallica, which started out as a small, cult band, scarcely followed and rarely taken seriously. Their music went from pure, hard-core heavy metal (the first of its kind) through a metamorphosis into musically creative art. You can see how the band has matured musically and will probably continue to do so, taking the music industry with it. .

Abortion Problem Solving Project essays

Abortion Problem Solving Project essays Every year, throughout the world, there are an estimated 36 to 53 million abortions performed. Of these, only about 26 to 31 million are legal (King 158). Further, in the U.S. alone, nearly one-third of all pregnancies end in abortion. Abortion, to say the least, is a controversial topic in todays society and has been for the last two decades. Two opposing sides emerge from this problem: Those opposed to abortion, Pro-life, have concerns about protecting human life. On the other hand, those in favor of abortion, Pro-choice, feel it is the right of the individual to make the decision for themselves. A 1996 Gallup poll showed that 83% of Americans were in favor of a womans right to choose. However, in 1998, a similar poll showed that while the majority of Americans were still pro-choice, they felt that an abortion should be harder to get. In the last 2 decades, abortion has become a growing target for criticism as well as acceptance in todays changing society. There has been much controversy as to what abortion should be considered as- life or death. Should it be a choice, or should it be the equivalent of murder? In the context of defining abortion, there has been many stipulations as to what constitutes abortion- when does life inside the whom actually begin? When dealing with such a sensitive topic as abortion, in which there are in fact two extremely diverse viewpoints, it is difficult to present a sensible answer to the way it should be. In the best of all possible worlds women should be able to live their lives in the way that suits them best. Society places heavy opinions on women who have had or are planning to have abortions; this in turn has an impact on the well being of the woman. Secondly, women are placed in a very dif ...

Cadbury Market Research

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Internatinal Marketing Strategy Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Internatinal Marketing Strategy - Assignment Example Mulberry was established in 1971 specifically to provide fashionable items that would create a formula for its success in the market (Reuters, 2012). Mulberry is a fashionable and luxury brand that people aspire to own. Mulberry is recognized for its wide variety of women leather bags which includes shoulder bags, satchels, totes, clutches, briefcases etc. Due to its classic design and wide variety, it is seen on world’s famous celebrities and models’ arm such as Daisy Lowe, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Claudia Schiffer. The company not only provides readymade handbags but also gives its customers a chance to design their own handbags according to their requirements making the English luxury easily accessible. The brand is just not limited for women but also provides handbags and other accessories for men. The collection for men is also eye-catching due to which it is purchased frequently by men. The men’s accessories include wallets, cufflinks, bags, gloves, sc arves and belts (Mulberry, 2012). The company core values remains indistinguishable even after 4 decades which is the main reason for the company’s success. ... Despite the recessionary period the company remains focused on the long-term success and growth (Wood, 2010a). Even after the economic situation the performance of the company was extra-ordinary in 2010 as more than ?40m worth Mulberry’s brand were sold in Britain alone (Wood, 2010b). Global expansion was company’s key success and provided the company with positive news. The international revenues boosted to 61 percent providing high growth opportunities for the company. With the economy in disastrous situation it was important for the company to look for internationalization rather to face economic downturn due to which the sales were expected to fall. The major reason for Mulberry’s internationalization was based on the sharp decline in 2008 for the first time after 2003 which affected the domestic demand for handbags in US and Europe (PRWeb, 2012). The rising demand for international high quality leather handbags in other regions of the world was another reaso n for expanding the business into other geographic regions (Business Wire, 2010). Due to such conditions the best way to hedge against risk was to set foot in such market that was growing influx of foreign brand. One such country includes India where the handbag market is estimated at Rs. 20 billion and projected to grow at an increasing rate of 15 percent annually (Technopak Advisors, 2011). The market for luxury product all over the globe is increasing at a surprising rate and Asia is being targeted as the main market for such products after Europe; due to which India would be the best country to cater (Image 1 and 2). Another advantage to expand in this Asian country will be its low cost in terms of labour and raw material. Figure 1: Worldwide Luxury Goods Market

Water Provision in the Developing World Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

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Death of Marat Essay Example for Free

Death of Marat Essay I love the story of a conversation that took place at an English country house during a dinner party, where the host had just started up the discussion of death and asked the various guests what will happen to them after they die. Some thought about reincarnation and others though about different plains of being, and others thought that they were going to be annihilated. All of the guests had answered the question except for sir Roderick, who was a military type, a very devout man to the church of England where he was also the church warden, chief of the vestry, in the local county of Parish. The lady said â€Å"sir Roderick you haven’t said a word, what do you think is going to happen to you when you die? † oh he said â€Å"I am certain that I will go to heaven and enjoy everlasting bliss, but I wish you wouldn’t indulge I such a depressing conversation†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬  The polarity of death; It is talked about with such anguish and fright yet portrayed through art as something that represents relief or enlightenment that all together are emotionally wrenching idea’s that have been both subject for artists and served as an incentive for artistic production throughout history, perhaps as much as, perhaps more than, any other subject since artists have dealt with death, dying, the threat of death, escape from death, thoughts of death, and preparation for death through the centuries. For me, death in neo-classicism was the obvious choice because it so strongly reflects the change that was going through Europe at the time, where plagues, revolution and war scattered the common wasteland. Through the age of enlightenment death began to play a different role amongst artists and scientists where the interest in mortality and old age, the decayed body and the anatomical structure layered in lifelessness took new forms. With death came the peeling back of layers, skin, muscles, organs – embalming and mummification, posing the question on whether there is an immaterial soul or whether the body is only a complicated organ capable of immense things. This is something I felt is strongly expressed in the painting that I have chosen. The Death of Marat, painted by Jacques-Louis David in 1793 is a story that relates to the French Revolution, in which a radical journalist, Marat, is murdered in his bath by Charlotte Corday, who believed that his death would end the violence throughout the country. It has been described by T. J. Clark as the first modernist painting, for the way it took the stuff of politics as its material, and did not transmute it(1). However I believe that the painting also allows a portrayal of a philosophical confrontation on the subject of death. Through this essay I will argue how the painting demonstrates the struggle between the polarizations of death through a neo-classicistic point of view. Analysis The painting Death of Marat depicts the death of a murdered radical journalist during the French revolution. Charlotte Corday, the murderer, was a Girondin(2) from a minor aristocratic family and a political enemy of Marat who blamed him for the September Massacre. She gained entrance to Marats rooms with a note promising details of a counter-revolutionary ring in Caen. Marat suffered from a skin condition that caused him to work from his bath. Corday stabbed Marat, who died. She did not attempt to flee, and was later trailed and executed. While the painting is done in a realistic style, it has elements of being idealized, so that Marats death is almost graceful. His head is resting peacefully on the edge of the tub, and despite being stabbed in the chest he is still holding a quill in his right hand with which he was writing a letter, which he still holds in his left hand. This along with the dramatic lighting and overall calmness of the scene betrays the actually brutality of the stabbing. In fact, its a very peaceful painting. You could almost be forgiven for not thinking him dead. The Death of Marat is designed to commemorate a personable hero. David intended to record more than just the horror of martyrdom. In this sense, for realistic as it is in its details, the painting, as a whole, from its start, is a methodical construction focusing on the victim, a striking set up regarded today by several critics as an awful beautiful lie. (3)† To fully understand this artwork there are essentially two aspects to consider: first the style used by David, i. e. Neo-classicism, and secondly the artist’s purpose, i. e. turning Marat into a hero of high moral virtues according to the classical tradition. Neoclassicism as the name says was essentially a rediscovery of classical art from the Greek and Roman time. This style prescribed rigorous contours, sculptured forms, and polished surfaces and was based on ideals of harmony and austerity. By applying such technique, death is glorified and allows further depth for the beholder, which makes the message of the decisive clash of life and death stronger. Marat is dying: his eyelids droop, his head weighs heavily on his shoulder, his right arm slides to the ground. His body, as painted by David, is that of a healthy man, still young. The scene inevitably calls to mind a rendering of the Descent from the Cross. (4) The face is marked by suffering, but is also gentle and suffused by a growing peacefulness as the fangs of death loosen their grip. The significance of this is the inference that Marat sacrificed himself for the good of the people, just as Christ is said to have done. Other religious elements are also prominent, the halo like turban around Marat’s head, and the heavenly light shining upon Marat’s angelic face. The portrayal of Marat in this way contrasts with other accounts describing him. Marat up until the moments before his death was a violent man who totally supported the executions of all those who opposed the government. Marat was once known to have said, â€Å"In order to ensure public tranquility 200,000 heads must be cut off. †(5) It was David’s aim to â€Å"construct images of a secular saint. † David believed that Art must have a social mission (appeal to the beholders moral sense instead of merely giving him pleasure). Art must contribute forcefully to the education of the public. However in a time when violence was so prevalent â€Å"actuality† was replaced by inaccurate images resulting in historical misrepresentations. This was partly due to the fear people experienced, due to sympathies people held. David supported the Jacobins and so this representation is biased, giving only the Jacobins perspective, not at all representing the views of Corday or the Girondins who particularly hated Marat. All reflections in history are biased documents, but that’s another discussion. My interest with the Death of Marat lies within two philosophical notions, dualism and physicalism, Most religious views have a belief in the afterlife and the continuation of living in some other form after life has been completed. For Christians death leads to heaven, or hell to nonbelievers. For Buddhists death restarts the life cycle in reincarnation, the person becoming another living entity in another shape. Death in this piece of art has the power to confront the viewer with their own mortality, their own livingness, in ways that surpass normal emotions. In most modern countries, death is something that is hidden away from people, separated into cemeteries and funerals. Most would agree that death is an inherently bad thing, that living surpasses death in possible everyway. Death in culture has such wide ranging importance between nations and societies that one simple analysis does little justify the range of connotations. Conclusion The theme of death in art has been around for centuries. Death and the last living hours are present in the passion of the Christ, a subject matter that has been present strongly through art’s history. The dramatic use of neo-classicistic art techniques allowed David to capture not just a painting but also a symbolic gesture that death represents. By taking the fundamental pillars of neoclassicism and romanticizing them he was able to gain entrance to a certain presence. If theres ever a picture that would make you want to die for a cause, it is Death of Marat. But thats to separate it from the appalling moment of its creation, the French Revolution. For David, Marat wasn’t a monster, he was a saint. This was martyrdom, and part of David’s manifesto of the revolutionary virtue. When analyzing representations from the past we must recognize motivating factors behind representations. Subsequently we must question representations of the past, such as Davids â€Å"The Death of Marat† and the validity of opposing views. However death is far from being a radically new idea, it contains a wide range of philosophical concepts, depending and varying on cultural differences. The belief that human beings survive death in some form has profoundly influenced the thoughts, emotions, arts, scripts and actions of mankind. The belief occurs in all religions, past and present, and decisively condition the evaluations of man and his place in the universe.